William III: Biography & Legacy

King William III, also known as William of Orange, was born on November 14, 1650 in The Hague, Netherlands. He was the son of William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, the oldest daughter of King Charles I of England. He married his English first cousin Mary Stuart, Protestant daughter of Roman Catholic King James II, in 1677.

William and Mary were invited to England by seven leaders of the English political parties, the Tory and Whig, who were concerned about James' absolutist royal leanings, his inability to cooperate with Parliament and Catholic succession to the throne following the birth of a son to James in 1688.

William landed in Torbay at Devonshire with army of some 15,000 men on November 5, 1688. James' forces deserted him, whereupon he abdicated the throne and, in December, was allowed by William to flee to France with his wife and son. The new monarchs were crowned King William III and Queen Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland during a coronation in Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689. William and Mary's ascension to the throne became known as the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution. It prevented the Catholic succession of the monarchy. In Virginia, it helped secure the General Assembly's legitimacy as a permanent branch of government.

William reigned during an almost unprecedented period in the transition to a parliamentary form of English government that marked the end of royal prerogative. The significant enhancement of the rights and powers of Parliament and the diminishment of those of the crown characterized this transition. William's signing of the Declaration of Rights (later called the Bill of Rights) in 1689 effectively specified the conditions upon which the throne was offered to the sovereigns. The Bill of Rights was a major victory for Parliament as it greatly limited royal powers such as the authority to suspend or dispense with laws, stipulated a Protestant line of royal succession, and reserved to Parliament control of taxation, finances and the army.

The Act of Settlement in 1701 specified royal succession required the monarch to be a member of the Church of England and placed the first parliamentary limits on the royal control of foreign policy and war-making authority.

The Triennial Act in 1694 required a new Parliament every three years. Other significant political developments during William's reign included:

1) Establishment of a national debt policy in 1692 and the Bank of England in 1694 that were directly related to England's more active role in international affairs

2) Enhancement of freedom of the press through the expiration of the License Act in 1695

3) Elimination of some of the legal disqualifications imposed upon Protestant nonconformists through the Toleration Act of 1689.

William's reign also transpired during the early years of the Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason), an intellectual movement that originated in England in the seventeenth century, but then had widespread global influence. The Age, which is considered a significant demarcation in the emergence of the modern world, was a period of extensive scientific discovery and political and social thought that fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and the confidence in human reason.

Rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political and economic matters encouraged a secular perception of the world, a general sense of progress and a belief that the state was its logical instrument. Among the most noteworthy of the English intellectuals who were emerging during William's rule were: Sir Isaac Newton, a mathematician and natural philosopher (physicist); John Locke, a philosopher and political theorist; Jonathan Swift, an author and satirist; and Sir Richard Steele, an essayist and playwright.

William was an adept soldier and astute diplomat. He spent much of his adult life in The Netherlands and England opposing through military means and political alliances among European countries French King Louis XIV's efforts to annex the Spanish Empire. His European alliances formed the opposition to Louis during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697), or King William's War as it was known on the American continent and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) following his death. In Scotland, his victory over the Louis-supported Jacobites at Killicrankie in 1689 secured Scottish Presbyterianism. The Jacobites were supporters of the exiled royal House of Stuart that sought restoration of James II to the throne.

William defeated French and Jacobite Irish forces under James II on July 1, 1690 at the Battle of Boyne, near Dublin, Ireland. William's victory, James's flight to France and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 ended the former monarch's counterrevolutionary attempt to reclaim the throne and resulted in harsher Penal Laws designed to keep Roman Catholics powerless. The Protestants of Ulster, Ireland, supported William and are still represented by the colour orange.