William III of England

William III of England

William III was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange, who died a week before his birth. His mother was the daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1677, he married his cousin Mary, the fifteen-year-old daughter of his maternal uncle James, Duke of York. A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic King Louis XIV of France, in coalition with both Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. His victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is commemorated by unionists, who display orange colours in his honour.

About William III of England in brief

Summary William III of EnglandWilliam III was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange, who died a week before his birth. His mother was the daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1677, he married his cousin Mary, the fifteen-year-old daughter of his maternal uncle James, Duke of York. A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic King Louis XIV of France, in coalition with both Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. His victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is commemorated by unionists, who display orange colours in his honour. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is sometimes informally known as \”King Billy\” in Ireland and Scotland. William’s lack of children and the death in 1700 of his nephew Prince William, Duke. of Gloucester, the son of his sister-in-law Anne, threatened the Protestant succession. The danger was averted by placing distant relatives, the Protestant Hanoverians, in line to the throne with the Act of Settlement 1701. Upon his death in 1702, the king was succeeded in Britain by Anne and as titular Prince of. Orange by his cousin, John William Friso. William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650. He was baptised William Henry, but his mother wanted to name him Charles after her brother. On 13 August 1651, the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland ruled that guardianship would be shared between his mother, his paternal grandmother and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, whose wife, Louise Henriette, was William II’s eldest sister.

William II had appointed his wife as their son’s guardian in his will; however, the document remained unsigned at William II’s death and was void. From April 1656, the first prince received daily instruction in the Reformed religion from Cornelis Trisigland, a follower of the Contra-Remonian theologian. In these lessons, the prince was taught that he was predestined to become an instrument of Divine Providence, fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange. The ideal education for Prince William was perhaps one of one of his tutors, Constantijn Huygens, perhaps by one of the Dutch governesses, Lady Anna Mackenzie, Lady of the hands of the first lady of the counts of Holland. He died in 1701 and was succeeded by his son, William III, who was later made stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in theDutch Republic from the 1670s. William was the father of Mary, Princess Royal, and the sister of King James II and King Charles II and VII. William invaded England in 1688, he landed at the south-western English port of Brixham. His reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him and his wife to take power. During the early years of his reign, William was occupied abroad with the Nine Years’ War, leaving Mary to govern the kingdom alone.