William, Prince of Orange, the third King of England of that name, born
November 14, 1650, was the posthumous son of William II., Prince of
Orange, and Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I. of England. The fortunes
of his childhood did not promise that greatness which he attained. His
father had been thought to entertain designs hostile to the liberties of
the United Provinces, and the suspicions of the father produced distrust
of the son. When Cromwell dictated terms of peace to the Dutch in 1654,
one of the articles insisted on the perpetual exclusion of the Prince of
Orange from all the great offices formerly held by his family; and this
sentence of exclusion was confirmed, so far as Holland was concerned,
thirteen years after, by the enactment of the Perpetual Edict, by which
the office of Stadtholder of Holland was for ever abolished. The
Restoration of the Stuarts, however, was so far favourable to the
interests of the House of Orange, as to induce the princess-royal to
petition, on her son’s behalf, that he might be invested in the offices
and dignities possessed by his ancestors. The provinces of Zealand,
Friesland, and Guelderland warmly espoused her cause: even the States of
Holland engaged to watch over his education, “that he might be rendered
capable of filling the posts held by his forefathers.” They formally
adopted him as “a child of the state,” and surrounded him with such
persons as were thought likely to educate him in a manner suited to his
station in a free government.
A storm broke upon Holland just as William was ripening into manhood;
and discord at home threatened to aggravate the misfortunes of the
country. The House of Orange had again become popular; and a loud cry
was raised for the instant abolition of the Perpetual Edict, and for
installing the young prince in all the offices enjoyed by his ancestors.
The Republican party, headed by the De Witts, prevented this; but they
were forced to yield to his being chosen Captain-General and
High-Admiral. Many persons hoped that William’s military rank and
prospects would incline his uncle Charles II. to make common cause with
the friends of liberty and independence; but the English monarch was the
pensioner of the French king, and France and England jointly declared
war against the States, April 7, 1672. The Dutch made large
preparations; but new troops could not suddenly acquire discipline and
experience. The enemy meditated, and had nearly effected, the entire
conquest of the country: the populace became desperate; a total change
of government was demanded; the De Witts were brutally massacred; and
William was invested with the full powers of Stadtholder. His fitness
for this high office was soon demonstrated by the vigour and the wisdom
of his measures. Maestricht was strongly garrisoned; the Prince of
Orange, with a large army, advanced to the banks of the Issel; the Dutch
fleet cruised off the mouth of the Thames, to prevent the naval forces
of England and France from joining. The following year, 1673, Louis XIV.
took Maestricht; while the Prince of Orange, not having forces
sufficient to oppose the French army, employed himself in retaking other
towns from the enemy. New alliances were formed; and the prince’s
masterly conduct not only stopped the progress of the French, but forced
them to evacuate the province of Utrecht. In 1674 the English Parliament
compelled Charles II. to make peace with Holland. The Dutch signed
separate treaties with the Bishop of Munster and the Elector of Cologne.
The gallantry of the prince had so endeared him to the States of
Holland, that the offices of Stadtholder and Captain-General were
declared hereditary in his male descendants. Meanwhile he continued to
display both courage and conduct in various military operations against
the French. The battle of Seneffe was desperately fought. After sunset,
the conflict was continued by the light of the moon; and darkness,
rather than the exhaustion of the combatants, put an end to the contest,
and left the victory undecided. The veteran Prince of Condé gave a
candid and generous testimonial to the merit of his young antagonist:
“The Prince of Orange,” said he, “has in every point acted like an old
captain, except in venturing his life too much like a young soldier.”
In 1675 the sovereignty of Guelderland and of the county of Zutphen was
offered to William, with the title of Duke, which was asserted to have
been formerly vested in his family. Those who entertained a bad opinion
of him, and attributed whatever looked like greatness in his character
to ambition rather than patriotism, insinuated that he was himself the
main spring of this manifest intrigue. He had at least prudence enough
to deliberate on the offer, and to submit it to the judgment of the
States of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. They viewed with jealousy the
aristocratic dignity, and he wisely refused it. This forbearance was
rewarded by the province of Utrecht, which adopted the precedent of
Holland, in voting the Stadtholdership hereditary in the heirs-male of
his body.
The campaign of 1675 passed without any memorable event in the Low
Countries. In the following year hopes of peace were held out from the
meeting of a congress at Nimeguen; but the articles of peace were to be
determined rather by the events of the campaign than by the
deliberations of the negotiators. The French took Condé, and several
other places; the Prince of Orange, bent on retaliation, sat down before
Maestricht, the siege of which he urged impetuously; but the masterly
movements of the enemy, and a scarcity of forage, frustrated his plans.
Aire had already been taken; the Duke of Orleans had made himself master
of Bouchain; Marshal Schomberg, to whom Louis had entrusted his army on
retiring to Versailles, was on the advance; and it was found expedient
to raise the siege of Maestricht. It was now predicted that the war in
Flanders would be unfortunate in its issue; but the Prince of Orange,
influenced by the mixed motives of honour, ambition, and animosity, kept
the Dutch Republic steady to the cause of its allies, and refused to
negotiate a separate peace with France. In October, 1677, he came to
England, and was graciously received by the king his uncle. His marriage
with Mary, eldest daughter of the Duke of York, was the object of his
visit. That event gave general satisfaction at the time; the
consequences which arose from it were unsuspected by the most
far-sighted. At first the king was disinclined to the match; then
neutral; and at last favourable, in the hope of engaging William to fall
in with his designs, and listen to the separate proposals of the French
monarch. The Prince, on his part, was pleased with the prospect, because
he expected that the king of England would, at length, find himself
obliged to declare against Louis, and because he imagined that the
English nation would be more strongly engaged in his interest, and would
adopt his views with respect to the war. In this he was disappointed,
though the Parliament was determined on forcing the king to renounce his
alliance with Louis. But the States had gained no advantage commensurate
with the expense and danger of the contest in which they were engaged,
and were inclined to conclude a separate treaty. Mutual discontent among
the allies led to the dissolution of the confederacy, and a peace
advantageous to France was concluded at Nimeguen in 1678; but causes of
animosity still subsisted. The Prince of Orange, independent of
political enmity, had now personal grounds of complaint against Louis;
who deeply resented the zeal with which William had espoused the
liberties of Europe and resisted his aggressions. He could neither bend
so haughty a spirit to concessions, nor warp his integrity even by the
suggestions of his dominant passion, ambition. But it was in the power
of the French monarch to punish this obstinacy, and by oppressing the
inhabitants of the Principality of Orange, to take a mean revenge on an
innocent people for the imputed offences of their sovereign. In addition
to other injuries, when the Duchy of Luxembourg was invaded by the
French troops, the commanding officer had orders to expose to sale all
the lands, furniture, and effects of the Prince of Orange, although they
had been conferred on him by a formal decree of the States of the
country. Whether to preserve the appearance of justice, or merely as an
insult, Louis summoned the Prince to appear before his Privy Council in
1682, by the title of _Messire Guillaume Comte de Nassau_, living at the
Hague in Holland. In the emergency occasioned by the probability of the
Dutch frontier being attacked in 1683, the Prince of Orange exerted all
his influence to procure an augmentation of the troops of the Republic;
but he had the mortification to experience an obstinate resistance in
several of the States, especially in that of Holland, headed by the city
of Amsterdam. His coolness and steadiness, qualities invaluable in a
statesman, at length prevailed, and he was enabled to carry his measures
with a high hand.
The accession of James II. to the throne of Great Britain, in 1685, was
hailed as an opportunity for drawing closer both the personal friendship
and the political alliance between the Stadtholder of the one country
and the King of the other; but a totally different result took place.
The headstrong violence of James brought about a coalition of parties to
resist him; and many of the English nobility and gentry concurred in an
application to the Prince of Orange for assistance. At this crisis
William acted with such circumspection as befitted his calculating
character. The nation was looking forward to the Prince and Princess, as
its only resource against tyranny, civil and ecclesiastical. Were the
presumptive heir to concur in the offensive measures, he must partake
with the King of the popular hatred. Even the continental alliances,
which William was setting his whole soul to establish and improve, would
become objects of suspicion to the English, and Parliament might refuse
to furnish the necessary funds. Thus by one course he might risk the
loss of a succession which was awaiting him; by an opposite conduct, he
might profit by the King’s indiscretion, and even forestall the time
when the throne was to be his in the course of nature. The birth of a
son and heir, in June, 1688, seemed to turn the scale in favour of
James; but the affections of his people were not to be recovered: it was
even asserted that the child was supposititious. This event, therefore,
confirmed William’s previous choice of the side which he was to take;
and his measures were well and promptly concerted. A declaration was
dispersed throughout Great Britain, setting forth the grievances of the
kingdom, and announcing the immediate introduction of an armed force
from abroad, for the purpose of procuring the convocation of a free
parliament. In a short time, full four hundred transports were hired;
the army rapidly fell down the rivers and canals from Nimeguen; the
artillery, arms, stores, and horses were embarked; and, on the 21st of
October, 1668, the Prince set sail from Helvoetsluys, with a fleet of
near five hundred vessels, and an army of more than fourteen thousand
men. He was compelled to put back by a storm; but, on a second attempt,
he had a prosperous voyage, while the King’s fleet was windbound. He
arrived at Torbay on the 4th of November, and disembarked on the 5th,
the anniversary of the Gunpowder Treason. The remembrance of Monmouth’s
ill-fated rebellion prevented the western people from joining him; but
at length several persons of consideration took up the cause, and an
association was formed for its support. At this last hour James
expressed his readiness to make concessions; but it was too late; they
were looked on only as tokens of fear: the confidence of the people in
the King’s sincerity was gone for ever. But, how much soever his conduct
deserved censure, his distresses entitled him to pity. One daughter was
the wife of his opponent; the other threw herself into the hands of the
insurgents. In the agony of his heart the father exclaimed, “God help
me! my own children have forsaken me.” He sent the Queen and infant
Prince to France. Public affairs were in the utmost confusion, and
seemed likely to remain so while he stayed in the island. After many of
those perplexing adventures and narrow escapes which generally befall
dethroned royalty, he at length succeeded in embarking for the
continent.
The Prince issued circular letters for the election of members to a
Convention, which met January 22, 1689. It appeared at once, that the
House of Commons, agreeably to the prevailing sentiments both of the
nation and of those in present authority, was chiefly chosen from among
the Whig party. The throne was declared vacant by the following
vote:—“That King James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the
constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between
king and people; and having, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked
persons, violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the
kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby
vacant.” By the national consent, the vacancy was supplied by his
daughter Mary and her husband William conjointly. Anne was nominated the
next in succession, to the exclusion of the infant prince. The Bill of
Rights was passed at the same time, settling disputed points between
king and people, circumscribing and defining the royal prerogative, and
affirming the rights of the nation. That “original contract between king
and people,” referred to by the vote of Parliament, seemed hitherto to
have existed rather as a theory than as a practical and binding
engagement; but at this crisis the contract was put into legal form, and
duly executed; the general principles of free government were distinctly
promulgated; and a precedent was established which fixed the succession
to the British monarchy on Protestantism, and on the choice of the
nation through its parliamentary organ.
William was thus chosen for the sovereign of a powerful kingdom; but he
had little personal knowledge of his new subjects, and party feuds ran
high, so that it was more difficult to steer between the opposing
factions of the British court than it had been between those of the
United Provinces. His reign accordingly was pregnant with events, both
domestic and foreign, of the highest historical interest; though we
shall mention none but those in which he was immediately and personally
concerned.
The Prince of Orange lost no time in apprising the States-General of his
accession to the British throne. He assured them of his persevering
endeavours to promote the well-being of his native country, which he was
so far from abandoning, that he intended to retain his high offices in
it. War with France was renewed early in 1689 by the States, supported
by the house of Austria and some of the German princes; nor was it
difficult for William to procure the concurrence of the English
Parliament, when the object was the humiliation of France and her
arbitrary sovereign. But the Commission for reforming church discipline
threw him into difficulties with his new subjects. The high church party
branded the King as an enemy to the hierarchy, because he was inclined
to relieve the Dissenters from the oppressions of which they complained.
The two Universities declared against all alterations. Dr. Jane, the
most violent partisan in the convocation, was chosen prolocutor, and in
a speech to the Bishop of London, as president, asserted that the
English Liturgy needed no reform, and concluded with the declaration of
the barons, “Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari.” The Bishop’s exhortation to
charity and indulgence towards the Dissenters was so ill received, that
it was necessary to prorogue the convocation, on the plea that the royal
commission was invalid from not having been sealed. In the spring of
1689, James landed in Ireland with a French force, and was received by
the Catholics with marks of strong attachment. Marshal Schomberg was
sent to oppose him, but was able to effect little during the campaign of
that year. William, in the mean time, had been successful in suppressing
a Jacobite insurrection in Scotland, and embarked for Ireland with a
reinforcement in the summer of 1690. He immediately marched against
James, who was strongly posted on the river Boyne. Schomberg passed the
river in person, and put himself at the head of a corps of French
Protestants. Pointing to the enemy, he said, “Gentlemen, behold your
persecutors!” With these words he advanced to the attack, but was killed
by a random shot from the French regiments. The death of this general
was near proving fatal to the English army; but William retrieved the
fortune of the day, and totally dispersed the opposite force. In this
engagement the Irish lost 1500 men, and the English about one-third of
that number.
Disturbances again took place among the Jacobites in the Scotch
Highlands. A simultaneous insurrection was planned in both kingdoms,
while a descent from the French coast was to have divided the attention
of the friends of government; but the defeat of the French fleet near
Cape La Hogue, in 1692, frustrated this combined attempt, and relieved
the nation from the dread of civil war. In 1691 the King had placed
himself at the head of the Grand Alliance against France, of which he
had been the prime mover; he was therefore absent on the continent
during the dangers to which his new kingdom was exposed. His repeated
losses in the first two campaigns rather impaired than enhanced his
military renown. He resolved to seize the first opportunity of
retrieving his honour by a spirited attempt to surprise Marshal
Luxembourg, at Steenkirk, but was again defeated, after having fought
with courage and perseverance against unequal numbers. In 1693 he was
defeated at Landen by Luxembourg, notwithstanding his brave efforts to
retrieve the fortune of the day. The victory was held by the allies to
have been gained solely by superior numbers; and though the allies
suffered severely, the enemy lost a greater number both of officers and
men, and gained no solid advantage by the battle. William charged
wherever the danger was greatest: his dress was penetrated by three
musket balls. But in this, as in other battles, his arrangements were
severely censured. When Luxembourg saw the nature of his position,
immediately before the engagement, he is said to have exclaimed, “Now I
believe Waldeck is really dead:” in allusion to that general’s
acknowledged skill in choosing ground for an encampment. The campaign of
1694 was opened by William with superior forces; but the genius and
skilful tactics of Luxembourg prevented the allies from availing
themselves, in any considerable degree, of their advantages. The death
of Queen Mary, which took place early in 1695, proved a severe calamity,
both to the king and the nation. She had been a vigilant guardian of her
husband’s interests, which were constantly exposed to hazard by the
conflicts of party, and by the disadvantages under which he laboured as
a foreigner. In 1696 a congress was opened at Ryswick, to negotiate a
general peace; and William was so far cured of ambition as not to
interpose any obstacles. In the following year the treaty was concluded.
The leading object of the English Parliament, when the war no longer
pressed on its resources, was the reduction of the military
establishment. In this all parties concurred: the friends of liberty,
from jealousy of a standing army, as dangerous to the constitution; the
friends of the excluded family, from personal dislike of its supplanter,
and a desire to thwart him in his favourite pursuit. The King of Spain’s
death was the last event of great importance in William’s reign. The
powers of Europe had arranged plans to prevent the accumulation of the
Spanish possessions in the houses of Bourbon and Austria; but the French
King violated all his solemn pledges, by accepting the deceased
monarch’s will in favour of his own grandson, the Duke of Anjou. In
consequence of this breach of faith, preparations were made by England
and Holland for a renewal of war with France; but a fall from his horse
prevented William from further pursuing his military career, and the
glory of reducing Louis XIV. within the bounds of his own kingdom was
left to be earned by the generals of his successor. The King was nearly
recovered from the lameness consequent on his fall, when fever
supervened. While he lay sick, the Earl of Albemarle arrived from
Holland, to confer with him privately on the state of continental
affairs; but his information was coldly received, and the King said that
he was approaching his end. In the evening he thanked his principal
physician for his attention, and said, “I know that you and the other
learned physicians have done all that your art can do for my relief; but
all means are ineffectual, and I submit.” He died on the 8th of March,
1701–2, in the fifty-second year of his age and thirteenth of his reign.
The character of King William has been drawn with all the exaggeration
of panegyric and obloquy by the opposing partisans in a cause, which is
still the subject of controversy on general principles, although the
personal interest of contending individuals and families has long been
extinguished. William therefore can scarcely, even now, be viewed with
the cool impartiality of mere history. His personal character was
neither amiable nor interesting: but his native country owes him a
lasting debt of gratitude, as the second founder of its liberty and
independence; and his adopted country is bound to uphold his memory, as
its champion and deliverer from civil and religious thraldom. In short,
the attachment of the English nation to constitutional rights and
liberal government may be measured by its adherence to the principles
established at the Revolution of 1688, and its just estimate of that
Sovereign and those statesmen who placed the liberties of Great Britain
on a solid and lasting foundation.
[Histoire des Provinces Unies, Voltaire, Burnet, Hume, Smollett.]
[Illustration:
[From West’s Picture of the Battle of the Boyne.]
]
[Illustration]