Kings and Queens

William and Mary

WILLIAM III 
Born in 1650 
Ascended in 1689 
Died in 1702, aged 52 
Reigned for 13 years

MARY II
Born in 1662 
Ascended in 1689 
Died in 1694, aged 32 
Reigned for 5 years

James II was an unpopular monarch with Protestant England. After he had failed to imprison various church leaders for not obeying his orders it is said that seven lords of England secretly sent word to William of Orange, Prince of Denmark, to come and lay siege on London. The idea was to oust the unpopular King and, if William succeeded, the English would support him and instate his wife, Mary, as Queen. 

William landed on the 5th of November 1688 with many troops. As most of the army had deserted the old king, James II, he fled in exile to France after only six weeks. William of Orange would not be Prince Regent so, for the first time, England had two monarchs - Queen Mary II and King William III. This was accepted by parliament only with a passing of a new Bill of Rights, which gave parliament control over taxation, new laws and war. 

William and Mary had problems from both Ireland and Scotland: the Jacobites still supported James II in Scotland. They had to go to war with James on Irish soil. Later, in 1701, war was also declared against France after it was announced that James's son was to be king of England - James III. England feared that France was trying to take control of Europe when the death of the childless Charles II of Spain (1700AD) left a possibility that France and Spain would combine under one monarchy; this was The War of Spanish Succession. 

William had to deal with this last event on his own - as his much loved wife had died in 1694 of smallpox leaving him devastated. Eventually an uneasy pact was signed. William died in 1702 after falling off his horse and injuring himself; the horse had apparently stumbled on a molehill giving Jacobite opponents reason to toast the mole as the little gentleman in the velvet coat.