WILLIAM III.—MARY II.—1688 to 1702.
How there were troubles in Scotland and in Ireland; how William the
Third won the battle of the Boyne; how he fought against the French,
till they were glad to make peace; how Queen Mary was regretted at
her death; how the East India Company was established; and how King
William did many good things for England.
The beginning of King William and Queen Mary’s reign was very full of
trouble.
It was some time before the parliament could put right many of the
things that had been so wrong while James the Second was king; and
before everybody would agree how much money to give the king to spend
upon the soldiers and sailors he might want in war, as well as upon
judges and other persons whose duty it was to help the king to govern
in peace as well as war.
Besides this, a great many people in Scotland liked James well
enough to wish him to be their king still, because his grandfather
came from Scotland; and there were great disputes about allowing
William to be king there. Lord Dundee, that Claverhouse who behaved
so cruelly to the people in the time of Charles the Second, began a
civil war against the new king; but he was killed at the battle of
Killicrankie, in the Highlands of Scotland; and, after a great deal
of difficulty, William ruled as King of Scotland.
But William had more trouble with Ireland, as you shall read. When
King James ran away from England he went to France, where his queen
and little son were already. Louis, King of France, who hated King
William because he had always defended the countries and the people
that Louis wanted to oppress, gave King James a good deal of money,
and many soldiers, and ships to carry them to Ireland where he landed
with them, and where most of the Irish under Lord Tyrconnel joined
him, as well as many of the old English settlers, who were all Roman
Catholics, and who did not wish for a Protestant king.
As soon as King William had settled the government in England he went
to Ireland, where he found all the country distressed with civil
war. King James with his army, made up of French, Irish, and English
was on one side of a river called the Boyne; and there King William
attacked his army, and beat it; James stayed on the field watching
the battle and giving advice until he saw the battle was lost; and
then, taking the advice of his general, Lauzun, he fled away with the
French guards, and went back to France.
After this King James had no hope of gaining anything by fighting in
Ireland; but Ireland itself was much worse for a long while, for long
years of quarrel began there at that time.
To the Protestants, who wished to have King William for their king,
was given all the power in the country. They called themselves
Orangemen because William was Prince of Orange; and made many cruel
laws against the Roman Catholics. For many years after this they
tried very hard to get the rest of the Irish to turn Protestants; and
even now the Irish have not done disputing; but I hope by the time
my little friend, Arthur, is grown up, that all the Irish will be
friends, and live in peace. It is dreadful to think that, though it
is nearly two hundred years since the battle of the Boyne, Ireland
has been unhappy all that time. Sometimes one side, sometimes the
other, has been cruel and revengeful; and unhappily, till the present
century, it was hardly possible to make things better, because there
were two separate parliaments, one in Ireland, the other in England;
so what one did the other undid, and the quarrels were made worse.
But now there is one parliament for both countries, the people in
England begin to understand Ireland, and to love the Irish people
for many good qualities, and to be sorry for the wrong things that
have been done there. The Irish now enjoy the same freedom as the
English, and we must hope in future they will listen to reason and
wise advice, and obey the laws as the English do.
While King William was busy in Ireland, Queen Mary governed in
England, and, by her gentle and kind behaviour to everybody, gained
the love of the people; so that they were glad to have her to
govern, whenever William was obliged to go to Holland, to carry
on the war which had been begun by several countries, as well as
England, against that proud and ambitious king, Louis the Fourteenth
of France. Louis was one of those strange men who fancy that they
are born better than others, and that people have nothing to do but
obey them, and that every man and every country must be wicked that
does not do exactly as they choose in everything, even in the way of
worshipping God.
Now King William knew that kings are only to be better loved and
obeyed than other men when they obey God themselves, and love
mercy, and do right and justice to their subjects; and that men and
countries have a right to be free, and to worship God as they please:
and it was because King William knew this that the English chose him
to be king when they sent away James the Second, because he wished to
be like Louis the Fourteenth in most things.
The war the French king had begun went on for a good many years.
Twice people made a plot to murder King William, but they were found
out and punished, and the people in England were so angry at such
wicked plans, that they gave William more money to pay soldiers and
sailors for the war than they had ever given to any king before.
Our king used to go every spring, as long as the war lasted, to fight
the French on the borders of France, and he came home in the autumn
to see what had been done in England while he was away.
The bravest admiral in these times was Admiral Russell, who beat
the French ships whenever he could find them, and who fought a very
famous battle against the French Admiral Tourville, about which the
English sailors sing some fine songs even now.
King William himself was so brave and skilful in war that he baffled
the best French generals, and kept King Louis’s large armies from
getting any decisive advantage for many years, till at last Louis was
tired of war, and was glad to make peace. So he sent his ambassadors
to a place called Ryswick, in Holland, where King William had a
country-house and promised to give back all the places he had taken
from his neighbours during the war, provided he might have peace.
But in the midst of the war, when everything seemed to be going on
well, a great misfortune happened to both the king and people of
England. Good Queen Mary died of the small-pox when she had been
queen only six years. She was a very good and clever woman. She was
not only a good wife to the king, but his best friend; and he trusted
her, and took her advice in everything. She was a true Protestant,
and very religious, which made her particularly fit to be Queen of
England. She was a cheerful, good-tempered woman, which made the
people love her; and the ladies who lived at her court were good
wives and mothers, and spent part of their time in useful work and
reading, like the queen, instead of being always at plays, or gaming,
or dressing, as they used to be in the time of Charles and James.
King William lived seven years after the queen died. He was killed by
a fall from his horse near Hampton Court.
He was not near so pleasant and cheerful as Queen Mary. But he was
the very best king for England that we could have found at that time.
He was a very religious man, and he knew his duty, and loved to do
it, both in England, where the people chose him for their king, and
in Holland, his own country.
I must write down a few of the things that he did for England:
perhaps you will not quite understand how right they were till you
are older, but it is proper that you should remember them.
A law was made that no man or woman should ever be king or queen of
England but a Protestant.
It was settled that there should be a new parliament very often, and
that no year should pass without the meeting of a parliament.
The old money that had been used in England was so worn out, and
there was so much bad among it, that the king ordered it to be
coined, or made over again, of a proper size and weight, so that
people might buy and sell with it conveniently.
A number of merchants agreed to call themselves the East India
Company, and to pay a tax to the king and parliament, if the king
would protect them, and not allow any nation with which England was
at war to hurt or destroy the towns in India where they had their
trade, or their ships when they were carrying goods from place to
place. There was a small company of this kind in Queen Elizabeth’s
reign, but the new one in William’s time, was of more use to the
country as well as to the merchants.
We call the East India trade, not only the trade in things from India
itself, such as pepper, cotton, muslin, diamonds, and other things
that come from that country, but the trade in tea, and silk, and
nankeen, and ivory, from China; and in spice of many kinds from the
Spice Islands; and cinnamon, and gold, and precious stones, and many
kinds of medicine from Ceylon. And all this trade came to be very
great in King William’s reign.
The reign of King William will always be thought of gratefully
by good Englishmen; because then the best things were done for
the government, the religion, the laws, and the trade of our dear
England.