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William III of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Monarchs of Great Britain

   King William III
   William III
   Stadtholder of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht and Overijssel, King
   of England, Scotland and Ireland
   Reign 12 February 1689 - 8 March 1702
   (with Mary II until 28 December 1694)
   Born 14 November 1650
   The Hague
   Died March 8, 1702 (aged 51)
   Buried Westminster Abbey
   Predecessor James II
   Successor Anne
   Consort Mary II (joint monarch)
   Royal House Stuart
   Father William II, Prince of Orange
   Mother Mary Stuart

   William III of England (The Hague, 14 November 1650 – Hampton Court, 8
   March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William III of
   Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and a Protestant Prince of Orange from
   his birth, Stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic from
   28 June 1672, King of England and King of Ireland from 13 February
   1689, and King of Scotland from 11 April 1689, in each case until his
   death.

   Born a member of the House of Orange-Nassau, William III won the
   English, Scottish and Irish Crowns following the Glorious Revolution,
   during which his uncle and father-in-law, James II, was deposed. In
   England, Scotland and Ireland, William ruled jointly with his wife,
   Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. He reigned as 'William
   II' in Scotland, but 'William III' in all his other realms. Among
   Unionists in Northern Ireland, he is today informally known as King
   Billy.

   William III was appointed to the Dutch post of Stadtholder on 28 June
   1672, and remained in office until he died. In that context, he is
   sometimes referred to as 'William Henry, Prince of Orange', as a
   translation of his Dutch title, Willem Hendrik, Prins van Oranje. A
   Protestant, William participated in many wars against the powerful
   Catholic King Louis XIV of France. Many Protestants heralded him as a
   champion of their faith; it was partly due to such a reputation that he
   was able to take the crown of England, many of whose people were
   intensely fearful of Catholicism and the papacy, although other reasons
   for his success might be his army and a fleet four times larger than
   the famed Spanish Armada. His reign marked the beginning of the
   transition from the personal control of government of the Stuarts to
   the Parliamentary type rule of the House of Hanover.

Early life

   William of Orange, the son of William II, Prince of Orange and Mary,
   Princess Royal of England, was born in The Hague, The Netherlands.
   Eight days before he was born, his father died from smallpox; thus,
   William became the Sovereign Prince of Orange at the moment of his
   birth.

   On 23 December 1660, when William was just ten years old, his mother
   died of smallpox at Whitehall Palace, London while visiting her brother
   King Charles II. In her will, Mary designated Charles as William's
   legal guardian. Charles delegated this responsibility to William's
   paternal grandmother, the Princess Dowager Amalia, with the
   understanding that Charles's advice would be sought whenever it was
   needed. This arrangement did not prevent Charles from corresponding
   with his nephew.

   From 1659 to 1661, Protestant scholar Samuel Chappuzeau was employed as
   his tutor. In 1666, when William was sixteen, the States General of the
   United Provinces officially made him a ward of the government, or as
   William himself called it, a "Child of State". This was supposedly done
   in order to prepare William for a role in the nation's government,
   although what this role would be left unspecified. When his time as the
   government's ward ended three years later, William returned to private
   life.
   Silver crown coin of William III, dated 1695. The Latin inscription is
   (obverse) GVLIELMVS III DIE GRAB[tia] (reverse) MAG[nae] BR[itanniae],
   FRA[nciae], ET HIB[erniae] REX 1695. English: "William III, By the
   grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 1695." The
   reverse shows the arms, clockwise from top, of England, Scotland,
   France, and Ireland, centered on William's personal arms of the House
   of Orange-Nassau.
   Silver crown coin of William III, dated 1695. The Latin inscription is
   (obverse) GVLIELMVS III DIE GRAB[tia] (reverse) MAG[nae] BR[itanniae],
   FRA[nciae], ET HIB[erniae] REX 1695. English: "William III, By the
   grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 1695." The
   reverse shows the arms, clockwise from top, of England, Scotland,
   France, and Ireland, centered on William's personal arms of the House
   of Orange-Nassau.

Early office

   William II held the office of Stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht,
   Guelders and Overijssel. All five provinces, however, suspended the
   office of Stadtholder upon William II's death. During the "First
   Stadtholderless Era," power was de facto held by Grand Pensionary Johan
   de Witt. In about 1667, as William III approached the age of eighteen,
   the pro-Orange party attempted to restore the Prince to power by
   securing for him the offices of Stadtholder and Captain-General. So as
   to prevent the restoration of the influence of the House of Orange, de
   Witt procured the issuance of the Eternal Edict, which declared that
   the Captain-General or Admiral-General of the Netherlands could not
   serve as Stadtholder in any province. (Furthermore, the province of
   Holland abolished the very office of Stadtholder and the four other
   provinces soon followed suit.)

   The year 1672 proved calamitous for the Netherlands, becoming known as
   the "disaster year." The Netherlands was invaded by France, under Louis
   XIV, who had the aid of England, ( Third Anglo-Dutch War), Münster, and
   Cologne. The French army quickly overran most of the Netherlands,
   though Holland managed to remain safe behind the Dutch water line. De
   Witt failed to secure peace with France, and was overthrown.
   Afterwards, he and his brother, Cornelis de Witt, were brutally
   murdered by an angry mob in the Hague. Today, many historians believe
   that William may have been complicit in the murder. The victory for the
   Orange party was complete; the Eternal Edict was declared void, and
   William was elected Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. He was
   also appointed Captain-General and Admiral-General of the Netherlands.
   Gelderland and Overijssel, which already had a relative of William's
   for Stadtholder, did not elect William to the post until 1675.

   William III continued to fight against the invaders from England and
   France, afterwards allying himself with Spain. After Admiral Michiel de
   Ruyter had defeated the Royal Navy, William made peace with the nation
   he would later come to rule, England, in 1674. To strengthen his
   position, he endeavoured to marry his first cousin Mary, the daughter
   of James, Duke of York (the future James II of England). The marriage
   occurred on 4 November 1677; after a difficult start the marriage was a
   success although fruitless. Finding a war with both England and the
   Netherlands disadvantageous, the King of France, Louis XIV, made peace
   in 1678. Louis, however, continued his aggression, leading William III
   to join the League of Augsburg (an anti-French coalition which also
   included the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Spain and several German
   states) in 1686.

   In 1685, William's father-in-law (and uncle) came to the English Throne
   as James II, a Roman Catholic who was unpopular in his Protestant
   realms. William attempted to conciliate James, whom he hoped would join
   the League of Augsburg, whilst at the same time trying not to offend
   the Protestant party in England. But by 1687, it became clear that
   James would not join the League. To gain the favour of English
   Protestants, William expressed his disapproval of James's religious
   policies in November 1687. Seeing him as a friend, many English
   politicians began to negotiate an armed invasion of England.

Glorious Revolution

   William at first opposed the prospect of invasion, but in April 1688,
   when England concluded a naval agreement with France, began to assemble
   an expeditionary force. Still, he was hesitant about such an operation,
   believing that the English people would not react well to a foreign
   invader. He therefore in April demanded in a letter to Rear-Admiral
   Arthur Herbert that the most eminent English Protestants first invite
   him to invade. In June, James II's second wife, Mary of Modena, bore a
   son ( James Francis Edward), who displaced William's wife to become
   first in the line of succession. Public anger also increased due to the
   trial of seven bishops who had publicly opposed James II's religious
   policies and had petitioned him to reform them. The acquittal of the
   bishops signalled a major defeat for the Government of James II, and
   encouraged further resistance to its activities.

   On 30 June 1688 — the same day the bishops were acquitted — a group of
   political figures known as the " Immortal Seven" complied to William's
   earlier request, sending him a formal invitation. William's intentions
   to invade were public knowledge by September 1688. With a Dutch army,
   William landed at Brixham in southwest England on 5 November 1688. He
   came ashore from the ship Den Briel (" Brill") carried aloft by a local
   fisherman Peter Varwell to proclaim "the liberties of England and the
   Protestant religion I will maintain". William had come ashore with
   15,500 foot soldiers and up to 4000 horse. Gilbert Burnet, the Bishop
   of Salisbury, was more precise and claimed the figure to be 14,352. On
   his way to London William stayed at Forde House in Newton Abbot and is
   alleged to have held his first parliament nearby (Parliament Cottages,
   as they are now known, can still be seen today). James's support began
   to dissolve almost immediately upon his arrival; Protestant officers
   defected from the English army (the most notable of whom was Baron
   Churchill, James's most able commander), and influential noblemen
   across the country declared their support for the invader. Though the
   invasion and subsequent overthrow of James II is commonly known as the
   "Glorious Revolution", it was more nearly a coup d'état, with one
   faction ultimately successful in deposing James II and installing
   William of Orange in power.

   James at first attempted to resist William, but saw that his efforts
   would prove futile. He sent representatives to negotiate with William,
   but secretly attempted to flee on 11 December. A group of fishermen
   caught him and brought him back to London. He successfully escaped in a
   second attempt on 23 December. William actually permitted James to
   leave the country, not wanting to make him a martyr for the Roman
   Catholic cause.

   In 1689, a Convention Parliament summoned by the Prince of Orange
   assembled, and much discussion relating to the appropriate course of
   action ensued. William III felt insecure about his position; though
   only his wife was formally eligible to assume the throne, he wished to
   reign as King in his own right, rather than as a mere consort. The only
   precedent for a joint monarchy in England dated from the sixteenth
   century: when Queen Mary I married the Spanish Prince Philip, it was
   agreed that the latter would take the title of King. But Philip II
   remained King only during his wife's lifetime, and restrictions were
   placed on his power. William, on the other hand, demanded that he
   remain as King even after his wife's death. Although the majority of
   Tory Lords proposed to acclaim her as sole ruler, Mary, remaining loyal
   to her husband, refused.

   On 13 February 1689, Parliament passed the Declaration of Right, in
   which it deemed that James, by attempting to flee on 11 December 1688,
   had abdicated the government of the realm, thereby leaving the Throne
   vacant. The Crown was not offered to James's eldest son, James Francis
   Edward (who would have been the heir-apparent under normal
   circumstances), but to William and Mary as joint Sovereigns. It was,
   however, provided that "the sole and full exercise of the regal power
   be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of
   the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives".

   William and Mary were crowned together at Westminster Abbey on 11 April
   1689 by the Bishop of London, Henry Compton. Normally, the coronation
   is performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the Archbishop at the
   time, William Sancroft, refused to recognise James II's removal. On the
   day of the coronation, the Convention of the Estates of Scotland—which
   was much more divided than the English Parliament—finally declared that
   James was no longer King of Scotland. William and Mary were offered the
   Scottish Crown; they accepted on 11 May. William was officially
   "William II" of Scotland, for there was only one previous Scottish King
   named William (see William I).

Revolution Settlement

   William III of England encouraged the passage of the Act of Toleration
   1689, which guaranteed religious toleration to certain Protestant
   nonconformists. It did not, however, extend toleration to Roman
   Catholics or those of non-Christian faiths. Thus the Act was not as
   wide-ranging as James II's Declaration of Indulgence, which attempted
   to grant freedom of conscience to people of all faiths.

   In December 1689, one of the most important constitutional documents in
   English history, the Bill of Rights, was passed. The Act—which restated
   and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of
   Right—established restrictions on the royal prerogative; it was
   provided, amongst other things, that the Sovereign could not suspend
   laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent,
   infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime
   without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to
   Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections,
   punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during
   debates, require excessive bail or inflict cruel and unusual
   punishments. William was opposed to the imposition of such constraints,
   but he wisely chose not to engage in a conflict with Parliament and
   agreed to abide by the statute.

   The Bill of Rights also settled the question of succession to the
   Crown. After the death of either William or Mary, the other would
   continue to reign. Next in the line of succession was Mary II's sister,
   the Princess Anne, and her issue. Finally, any children William might
   have had by a subsequent marriage were included in the line of
   succession. Non-Protestants, as well as those who married Roman
   Catholics, were excluded from the succession.

Rule with Mary II

   William continued to be absent from the realm for extended periods
   during his war with France. England joined the League of Augsburg,
   which then became known as the "Grand Alliance." Whilst William was
   away fighting, his wife, Mary II, governed the realm, but acted on his
   advice. Each time he returned to England, Mary gave up her power to him
   ungrudgingly. Such an arrangement lasted for the rest of Mary's life.

   Although most in England accepted William as Sovereign, he faced
   considerable opposition in Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish
   Jacobites— those who believed that James II was the legitimate monarch
   — won a stunning victory on 27 July 1689 at the Battle of
   Killiecrankie, but were nevertheless subdued within a month. William's
   reputation suffered following the Massacre of Glencoe (1692), in which
   seventy-eight Highland Scots were murdered or died of exposure for not
   properly pledging their allegiance to the new King and Queen. Bowing to
   public opinion, William dismissed those responsible for the massacre,
   though they still remained in his favour; in the words of the historian
   John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, "one became a colonel, another a
   knight, a third a peer, and a fourth an earl."

   In Ireland, where the French aided the rebels, fighting continued for
   much longer, although James II had perforce to flee the island after
   the Battle of the Boyne (1690). The victory in Ireland is commemorated
   annually by the The Twelfth. After the Anglo-Dutch fleet defeated a
   French fleet at La Hogue in 1692, the allies for a short period
   controlled the seas, and Ireland was conquered shortly thereafter. At
   the same time, the Grand Alliance fared poorly on land. William lost
   Namur in the Spanish Netherlands in 1692, and was disastrously beaten
   at the Battle of Landen in 1693.

   Mary II died of smallpox in 1694, leaving William III to rule alone.
   Although he had previously mistreated his wife and kept mistresses (the
   best-known of which was Elizabeth Villiers), William deeply mourned his
   wife's death. Although he was brought up as a Calvinist, he converted
   to Anglicanism. His popularity, however, plummeted during his reign as
   a sole Sovereign.

   During the 1690s rumors of William's homosexual inclinations grew and
   lead to the publication of many satirical pamphlets. He had several
   male favourites, including a Rotterdam bailiff Van Zuylen van Nijveld,
   and two Dutch courtiers to whom he granted English dignities: Hans
   Willem Bentinck became Earl of Portland, and Arnold Joost van Keppel
   was created Earl of Albemarle. William was especially close to his
   fellow Dutch countrymen and made little headway into his new dominions
   as a monarch, always something of an outsider to his British subjects.
   He himself expressed it this way: "I clearly perceive that this people
   was not made for me, nor was I made for this people".

Later years

   A Statue of King William III marking the centre of Petersfield,
   Hampshire
   A Statue of King William III marking the centre of Petersfield,
   Hampshire

   In 1696, the Dutch province of Drenthe made William its Stadtholder. In
   the same year, Jacobites made an attempt to restore James to the
   English throne by assassinating William III, but the plot failed.
   Considering the failure, Louis XIV offered to have James elected King
   of Poland in the same year. James feared that acceptance of the Polish
   Crown might (in the minds of the English people) render him ineligible
   as King of England. In rejecting this offer, James made what would
   prove a fateful decision: less than a year later, France ceased to
   sponsor him. In accordance with the Treaty of Ryswick ( 20 September
   1697), which ended the War of the Grand Alliance, Louis recognised
   William III as King of England, and undertook to give no further
   assistance to James II. Thus deprived of French dynastic backing after
   1697, Jacobites did not pose any further serious threats during
   William's reign.

   As his life drew towards its conclusion, William, like many other
   European rulers, felt concern over the question of succession to the
   throne of Spain, which brought with it vast territories in Italy, the
   Low Countries and the New World. The King of Spain, Charles II, was an
   invalid with no prospect of having children; amongst his closest
   relatives were Louis XIV (the King of France) and Leopold I, Holy Roman
   Emperor. William sought to prevent the Spanish inheritance from going
   to either monarch, for he feared that such a calamity would upset the
   balance of power. William and Louis XIV agreed to the First Partition
   Treaty, which provided for the division of the Spanish Empire: Duke
   Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (whom William himself chose) would obtain
   Spain, while France and the Holy Roman Emperor would divide the
   remaining territories between them. The Spaniards, however, expressed
   shock at William's boldness; they had not been previously consulted on
   the dismemberment of their own empire, and strove to keep the Spanish
   territories united.

   At first, William and Louis ignored the wishes of the Spanish court.
   When, however, Joseph Ferdinand died of smallpox, the issue re-opened.
   In 1700, the two rulers agreed to the Second Partition Treaty (also
   called the Treaty of London), under which the territories in Italy
   would pass to a son of the King of France, and the other Spanish
   territories would be inherited by a son of the Holy Roman Emperor. This
   arrangement infuriated both the Spanish — who still sought to prevent
   the dissolution of their empire — and the Holy Roman Emperor — to whom
   the Italian territories were much more useful than the other lands.
   Unexpectedly, the invalid King of Spain, Charles II, interfered as he
   lay dying in late 1700. Unilaterally, he willed all Spanish territories
   to Philip, a grandson of Louis XIV. The French conveniently ignored the
   Second Partition Treaty and claimed the entire Spanish inheritance.
   Furthermore, Louis XIV alienated William III by recognising James
   Francis Edward Stuart — the son of the former King James II, who had
   died in 1701 — as King of England. The subsequent conflict, known as
   the War of the Spanish Succession, continued until 1713.

   The Spanish inheritance, however, was not the only one which concerned
   William. His marriage with Mary II had not yielded any children, and he
   did not seem likely to remarry. Mary's sister, the Princess Anne, had
   borne numerous children, all of whom died during childhood. The death
   of William, Duke of Gloucester in 1700 left the Princess Anne as the
   only individual left in the line of succession established by the Bill
   of Rights. As the complete exhaustion of the line of succession would
   have encouraged a restoration of James II's line, Parliament saw fit to
   pass the Act of Settlement 1701, in which it was provided that the
   Crown would be inherited by a distant relative, Sophia, Electress of
   Hanover and her Protestant heirs if Princess Anne died without
   surviving issue, and if William III failed to have surviving issue by
   any subsequent marriage. (Several Catholics with genealogically senior
   claims to Sophia were omitted.) The Act extended to England and
   Ireland, but not to Scotland, whose Estates had not been consulted
   before the selection of Sophia.

   Like the Bill of Rights before it, the Act of Settlement not only
   addressed succession to the Throne, but also limited the power of the
   Crown. Future sovereigns were forbidden to use English resources to
   defend any of their other realms, unless parliamentary consent was
   first obtained. To ensure the independence of the judiciary, it was
   enacted that judges would serve during good behaviour, rather than at
   the pleasure of the Sovereign. It was also enacted that a pardon issued
   by the Sovereign could not impede an impeachment.

Death

   In 1702, William died of pneumonia, a complication from a broken
   collarbone, resulting from a fall off his horse. It was believed by
   some that his horse had stumbled into a mole's burrow, and as a result
   many Jacobites toasted "the little gentleman in the black velvet
   waistcoat." Years later, Sir Winston Churchill, in his epic the History
   of the English Speaking Peoples, put it more poetically when he said
   that the fall "opened the trapdoor to a host of lurking foes".

   William was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside his wife. The reign
   of William's successor, Anne, was marked by attempts to extend the
   provisions of the Act of Settlement to Scotland. Angered by the English
   Parliament's failure to consult with them before choosing Sophia of
   Hanover, the Estates of Scotland enacted the Act of Security, forcing
   Anne to grant the Royal Assent by threatening to withdraw troops from
   the army fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Act
   provided that, if Anne died without a child, the Estates could elect
   the next monarch from amongst the Protestant descendants of previous
   Scottish Kings, but could not choose the English successor unless
   various religious, political and economic conditions were met. In turn,
   the English Parliament attempted to force the Scots to capitulate by
   restricting trade, thereby crippling the Scottish economy. The Scottish
   Estates were forced to agree to the Act of Union 1707, which united
   England and Scotland into a single realm called Great Britain;
   succession was to be under the terms established by the Act of
   Settlement.

   William's death also brought an end to the Dutch House of
   Orange-Nassau, which had governed the Netherlands since the time of
   William the Silent (William I). The five provinces over which William
   III ruled — Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel — all
   suspended the office of Stadtholder after William III's death. The
   remaining two provinces — Friesland and Groningen — were never governed
   by William III, and continued to retain a separate Stadtholder, Johan
   Willem Friso. Under William III's will, Friso stood to inherit the
   Principality of Orange as well as several lordships in the Netherlands.
   He was an agnatic relative of the princes of Orange-Nassau, as well as
   a descendant of William the Silent through a female. However, the
   Prussian King Frederick I also claimed the Principality as the senior
   cognatic heir, stadtholder Frederick Henry having being his maternal
   grandfather and William III his first cousin.

   Johan Willem Friso died in 1711, leaving his claim to his son, William.
   Under the Treaty of Utrecht, which was agreed to in 1713, Frederick I
   of Prussia (who kept the title as part of his titulary) allowed the
   King of France, Louis XIV, to take the lands of Orange; William Friso,
   or William IV, who had no resources to fight for lands located in
   southern France, was left with the title of "Prince of Orange" which
   had accumulated high prestige in the Netherlands as well as in the
   entire Protestant world. William IV was also restored to the office of
   Stadtholder in 1747. (From 1747 onwards, there was one Stadtholder for
   the entire Republic, rather than a separate Stadtholder for each
   province.)

Legacy

   Statue of an idealised William III by John Michael Rysbrack erected in
   Queen Square, Bristol in 1736
   Statue of an idealised William III by John Michael Rysbrack erected in
   Queen Square, Bristol in 1736

   William's primary achievement was to hem in France when it was in a
   position to impose its will across much of Europe. His life was largely
   opposed to the will of the French King Louis XIV. This effort continued
   after his death during the War of the Spanish Succession.

   Another important consequence of William's reign in England involved
   the ending of a bitter conflict between Crown and Parliament that had
   lasted since the accession of the first English monarch of the House of
   Stuart, James I, in 1603. The conflict over royal and parliamentary
   power had led to the English Civil War during the 1640s and the
   Glorious Revolution of 1688. During William's reign, however, the
   conflict was settled in Parliament's favour by the Bill of Rights 1689,
   the Triennial Act 1694 and the Act of Settlement 1701.

   William endowed the College of William and Mary (in present day
   Williamsburg, Virginia) in 1693.

   Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, is named after him.

   The modern day Orange Institution is named after William III, and makes
   a point of celebrating his victory at the Boyne. Orange marches in
   Ulster, England, Wales, United States, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana,
   Togo, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Continental Europe on " the
   Twelfth" of July (the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne) often
   carry a picture of him with them. Hence "orange" is often thought of as
   a "Protestant" colour in Ireland. The flag of the Republic of Ireland
   includes the colour orange, as well as white and green, and signifies
   the aspiration to peace between Protestants and Roman Catholics in
   Ireland.

   New York was briefly renamed New Orange for him. His name was applied
   to the fort and administrative centre for the city on two separate
   occasions reflecting his different sovereign status -- first as Fort
   Willem Hendrick in 1673 when the Dutch renamed New York to New Orange
   and then as Fort William in 1691 when the English evicted Colonists who
   had seized the fort and city.. Orange, Connecticut and The Oranges in
   northern New Jersey, are named for him.

   Russian Tsar Peter the Great greatly admired William, and his Great
   Embassy visited the England of his time. There the two met a few times
   and Peter's portrait was painted by William's court artist, Sir Godfrey
   Kneller.

   The Style and arms The joint style of William III and Mary II was
   "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England,
   France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc." when they ascended
   the Throne. (The claim to France was only nominal, and had been
   asserted by every English King since Edward III, regardless of the
   amount of French territory actually controlled, see English claims to
   the French throne) From 11 April 1689—when the Estates of Scotland
   recognised them as Sovereigns—the style "William and Mary, by the Grace
   of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland,
   Defenders of the Faith, etc." was used. After Mary's death, William
   continued to use the same style, omitting the reference to Mary,
   mutatis mutandis'.

   The arms used by the King and Queen were: Quarterly, I and IV
   Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules
   three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion
   rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III
   Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon
   Azure billetty and a lion rampant Or.

Ancestors

   CAPTION: William III's ancestors in three generations

   William III Father:
   William II, Prince of Orange Paternal Grandfather:
   Frederik Hendrik of Orange Paternal Great-grandfather:
   William the Silent
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Louise de Coligny
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Amalia of Solms-Braunfels Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Johan Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein
   Mother:
   Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange Maternal Grandfather:
   Charles I of England Maternal Great-grandfather:
   James I of England
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Anne of Denmark
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Henrietta Maria of France Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Henry IV of France
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Maria de Medici

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