King William III
1650 – 1702 · Generation XXVIII · King of England, Scotland and Ireland (r. 1689–1702)
William III of Orange (1650–1702). King of England, Scotland and Ireland (r. 1689–1702). Married Mary II Stuart in 1677. Invited over in 1688; king and nephew and son-in-law of the king he replaced. Prince of Orange from birth — his father died before he was born — he rose to power in 1672 when Louis XIV attacked the Dutch Republic, and made resisting French hegemony his life’s work, rebuilding the Dutch army after the disasters of the Rampjaar into one of Europe’s most professional forces. To many Protestants he stood as the great defender of their religion, and he landed with a Dutch force at Brixham to claim the crown; the Glorious Revolution that followed produced the English Bill of Rights. The Nine Years’ War kept him campaigning abroad while Mary governed; a Jacobite plot to assassinate him failed in 1696, and in Scotland his part in ordering the killings at Glencoe left a lasting stain on his name. Childless, he saw the Act of Settlement steer the succession toward the House of Hanover.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → King Charles I → Mary Princess Royal → King William III.
Parents
- William II of Orange (1626 – 1650)
- Mary Princess Royal (1631 – 1660)
Partners
- Married Queen Mary II (1662 – 1694) in 1677
Life
- 1650 — Born
- 1677 — Married Mary II Stuart
- 1689 — William and Mary become joint King and Queen.
- 1690 — William defeats James and French troops at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. Scottish Jacobites defeated at Haughs of Cromdale
- 1691 — William offers the Scottish Highlanders a pardon for the Jacobite uprising if they sign allegiance him
- 1694 — Bank of England founded by William Paterson
- 1694 — Death of Mary. William now rules alone.
- 1701 — William forms grand alliance between England, Holland, and Austria to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns.
- 1702 — Died
- 1702 — William dies after a riding accident. Stuarts in exile toast 'the gentleman in black velvet' in the belief that his horse stumbled on a mole hill.