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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 130, William and Mary:
September 29, 2005:
Now we can take a look at this famous William of Orange (1650 - 1702). This guy was the son of William II, the Prince of Orange, who was a stadholder of six provinces in the Netherlands. For the record, stadeholder is just the Dutch word for governor. Being on top of six of the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands made this guy one powerful dude. In fact, he acted more like a monarch than a governor. Of course, with that much power he made more than a few enemies. Upon his death some of those enemies in the province of Holland passed an act of seclusion which debarred the young prince from holding office in that state. Later, when Charles II took the English throne that act was repealed. So it goes in power politics. Some things never change.
In 1671 William's fortunes changed significantly. His Uncle Charles II was openly plotting with Louis XIV of France to attack the United Provinces. It was clear that a good man was needed and William was appointed to the position of Captain General. Sure enough, the declaration of war came and the French invaded and overran three of the provinces. Meanwhile, the Dutch navy was holding it's own against the English fleet, which helped. However, the Dutch army was practically nonexistent and the Dutch decided to flood the low areas to keep the French out. William was then left to defend the water line.
As the only reliable guy around, William was proclaimed stadeholder by the States General. States General is the name the Dutch used to identify the representative assembly of the United Provinces, a legislative body. At that time, Louis and Charles were offering terms of peace, but the conditions were such that accepting them would have been a disaster. William rejected them out of hand. After some internal turmoil, the Dutch settled down for the long haul. For a year, it was tough, but William finally managed to get the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I on his side. Later, in 1673 Spain came on board and things were looking better.
William had rebuilt his army and went on the offensive. He recaptured some territory and moved into Cologne to join up with Leopold's troops where they moved on to Bonn, capturing it in November of 1673. The French saw disaster looming and pulled out of the United Provinces. However, Louis was not finished and the war continued. A peace finally came through a set of treaties in 1678 and 1679. In the end, all Louis managed to do was make enemies of half of the countries on the continent while William came out smelling like a rose.
Meanwhile, William had married his cousin Mary who was the daughter of James. With that kind of inbreeding there can be little wonder where all of the royal stupidity comes from. It's got to be regressive genes. This James was James the Duke of York who became James II, king of England. The treaties did not really end the problems between William and France. Louis just kept on misbehaving and William had to spend much of his time trying to deal with that. His efforts were compromised by a pro-French group in Holland. This is rather hard to imagine. I would be something like America having a pro-German party in 1946. Strange!
In all of this time, things were going downhill in England. The problems peaked when a son was born to the English king, raising the specter of a Roman Catholic king. God preserve us! The invitation to William went out and on November 5 or 15 (take your pick) William invaded at Brixham whereupon he proceeded on to London unopposed. James, as we know, ran for it and ended up under the protection of good old Louis of France. With the throne vacant the Convention Parliament offered it to William and he was crowned in April of 1869. A few days late he accepted the crown of Scotland.
It was not all wine and roses for William. Some of the folks in Ireland and Scotland were opposed to the new order. There was armed resistance to William in both places. Although it was put down in Scotland, the people there were never happy with the situation. The embers continued to smolder. It came to a head again in 1692 when a clan leader, Alexander MacDonald of Glen Coe, and some of his clansmen were murdered because they were a bit late in taking an oath of allegiance to William. William did not do much about that and anger against him prevailed.
For sure, James saw an opportunity in all the troubles. In 1689 he landed in Ireland with French troops and a war commenced. There were several battles and the insurgence was finally put down. Unfortunately , when William tried for a compromise with the Irish to mitigate the French influence, his Parliament said no. In a vindictive mood they imposed the full weight of the penal code on the Irish Catholics. Do you wonder why that war is still going on? The squabbles with parliament and the squabbles between the Whigs and Tories were just more frustrations for William to deal with.
The Scotch and Irish problems were not enough. Louis XIV was still messing around. For that William built an alliance of England Brandenburg, Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, Savoy, and Spain to deal with Louis. William had a plan for Europe which was to rebuild his alliance for dealing with Louis and bringing France to heel. His problem was in getting the English people interested. In the end, Louis managed what William could not. when James II kicked off in 1701, Louis stupidly proclaimed his own son king of England. That got the attention of the Englishmen as William could not. They were ready for war.
William died in 1702 before the war came off, bu it did come off. It ended with the Treaties of Utrecht in 1713 where William's grand plan was realized. France concluded treaties of peace at Utrecht with Britain, the Dutch republic, Prussia, Portugal, and Savoy. By the treaty with Britain (April 11), France recognized Queen Anne as the British sovereign and undertook to cease supporting James Edward, the son of the deposed king James II. France ceded Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Hudson Bay territory, and the island of St. Kitts to Britain and promised to demolish the fortifications at Dunkirk, which had been used as a base for attacks on English and Dutch shipping.
In the treaty with the Dutch, France agreed that the United
Provinces should annex part of Gelderland and should retain certain
barrier fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. In the treaty with
Prussia, France acknowledged Frederick I's royal title (claimed
in 1701) and recognized his claim to Neuchâtel (in present
Switzerland) and southeast Gelderland. In return France received
the principality of Orange from Prussia. In the treaty with Savoy,
France recognized Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, as king of
Sicily and that he should rule Sicily and Nice. The treaty with
Portugal recognized its sovereignty on both banks of the Amazon
River. France's Guiana colony in South America was restricted
in size. So temporarily William got what he had wanted all along.
There was a balance of power wherein no nation could easily dominate
another nation. Of course, that all came apart quite soon.
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