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Mary II of England

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Mary II
1690 painting of Mary. An orb is on the table to her right, as is the crown, which is placed on a cushion.
Portrait by Godfrey Kneller, 1690
Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Reign1689[a] – 28 December 1694
Coronation11 April 1689
PredecessorJames II
SuccessorWilliam III
Co-monarchWilliam III
Born30 April 1662
(N.S.: 10 May 1662)
St James's Palace, London, England
Died28 December 1694 (aged 32)
(N.S.: 7 January 1695)
Kensington Palace, London, England
Burial5 March 1695
Spouse
(m. 1677)
HouseStuart
FatherJames II & VII
MotherAnne Hyde
ReligionAnglican
SignatureMary II's signature

Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694.

Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife Anne Hyde. Mary and her sister Anne were raised as Anglicans at the behest of their uncle, King Charles II, although their parents both converted to Roman Catholicism. Charles lacked legitimate children, making Mary second in the line of succession. She married her first cousin, William of Orange, a Protestant, in 1677. Charles died in 1685 and James took the throne, making Mary heir presumptive. James's attempts at rule by decree and the birth of his son from a second marriage, James Francis Edward (later known as "the Old Pretender"), led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights.

William and Mary became king and queen regnant. Mary mostly deferred to her husband – a renowned military leader and principal opponent of Louis XIV – when he was in England. She did, however, act alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad, proving herself to be a powerful, firm, and effective ruler. Mary's death from smallpox at the age of 32 left William as sole ruler until his death in 1702, when he was succeeded by Mary's sister, Anne.

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List of English monarchs

List of English monarchs

This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex.

List of Scottish monarchs

List of Scottish monarchs

The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth I MacAlpin, who founded the state in 843. Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland is thought to have grown out of an earlier "Kingdom of the Picts" though in reality the distinction is a product of later medieval myth and confusion from a change in nomenclature i.e. Rex Pictorum becomes Rí Alban under Donald II when annals switched from Latin to vernacular around the end of the 9th century, by which time the word Alba in Scottish Gaelic had come to refer to the Kingdom of the Picts rather than Britain.

Monarchy of Ireland

Monarchy of Ireland

Monarchical systems of government have existed in Ireland from ancient times. In the south this continued until the early twentieth century, when it transitioned to the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, remains under a monarchical system of government.

Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who after her death became King James II and VII.

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1714.

Charles II of England

Charles II of England

Charles II was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

List of converts to Catholicism

List of converts to Catholicism

The following is an incomplete list of notable individuals who converted to Catholicism from a different religion or no religion.

Cousin marriage

Cousin marriage

A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins. The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies today, though in some jurisdictions such marriages are prohibited. Worldwide, more than 10% of marriages are between first or second cousins. Cousin marriage is an important topic in anthropology and alliance theory.

Protestantism

Protestantism

Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against errors, abuses, and discrepancies.

Heir presumptive

Heir presumptive

An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to heirs apparent, whose claim on the position cannot be displaced in this manner.

Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution is the term first used in 1689 to summarise events leading to the deposition of James II and VII of England, Ireland and Scotland in November 1688, and his replacement by his daughter Mary II and her husband and James's nephew William III of Orange, de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic. Known as the Glorieuze Overtocht or Glorious Crossing in the Netherlands, it has been described both as the last successful invasion of England as well as an internal coup.

Louis XIV

Louis XIV

Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign in history whose date is verifiable. Although Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the Age of Absolutism in Europe, the King surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Bossuet, Colbert, Le Brun, Le Nôtre, Lully, Mazarin, Molière, Racine, Turenne, and Vauban.

Early life

Mary, born at St James's Palace in London on 30 April 1662, was the eldest daughter of the Duke of York (the future King James II & VII), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Mary's uncle was Charles II, who ruled the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland; her maternal grandfather, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, served for a lengthy period as Charles's chief advisor. She was baptised into the Anglican faith in the Chapel Royal at St James's, and was named after her ancestor, Mary, Queen of Scots. Her godparents included her father's cousin, Prince Rupert of the Rhine.[1] Although her mother bore eight children, all except Mary and her younger sister Anne died very young, and Charles II had no legitimate children. Consequently, for most of her childhood, Mary was second in line to the throne after her father.[2]

Portrait by Caspar Netscher, 1676, the year before her marriage
Portrait by Caspar Netscher, 1676, the year before her marriage

The Duke of York converted to Roman Catholicism in 1668 or 1669 and the Duchess about eight years earlier, but Mary and Anne were brought up as Anglicans, pursuant to the command of Charles II.[3] They were moved to their own establishment at Richmond Palace, where they were raised by their governess Lady Frances Villiers, with only occasional visits to see their parents at St James's or their grandfather Lord Clarendon at Twickenham.[4] Mary's education, from private tutors, was largely restricted to music, dance, drawing, French, and religious instruction.[5] Her mother died in 1671, and her father remarried in 1673, taking as his second wife Mary of Modena, a Catholic who was only four years older than Mary.[6]

From about the age of nine until her marriage, Mary wrote passionate letters to an older girl, Frances Apsley, the daughter of courtier Sir Allen Apsley. Mary signed herself 'Mary Clorine'; Apsley was 'Aurelia'. In time, Frances became uncomfortable with the correspondence,[7] and replied more formally. At the age of fifteen, Mary became betrothed to her cousin, the Protestant Stadtholder of Holland, William III of Orange. William was the son of the King's late sister, Mary, Princess Royal, and thus fourth in the line of succession after James, Mary, and Anne.[8] At first, Charles II opposed the alliance with the Dutch ruler—he preferred that Mary wed the heir to the French throne, the Dauphin Louis, thus allying his realms with Catholic France and strengthening the odds of an eventual Catholic successor in Britain—but later, under pressure from Parliament and with a coalition with the Catholic French no longer politically favourable, he approved the proposed union.[9] The Duke of York agreed to the marriage, after pressure from chief minister Lord Danby and the King, who incorrectly assumed that it would improve James's popularity among Protestants.[10] When James told Mary that she was to marry her cousin, "she wept all that afternoon and all the following day".[11]

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Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who after her death became King James II and VII.

Charles II of England

Charles II of England

Charles II was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

Kingdom of England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England existed on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it unified from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Kingdom of Scotland

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a land border to the south with England. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert the Bruce it fought a successful War of Independence and remained an independent state throughout the late Middle Ages. Following the annexation of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles from Norway in 1266 and 1472 respectively, and the final capture of the Royal Burgh of Berwick by England in 1482, the territory of the Kingdom of Scotland corresponded to that of modern-day Scotland, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. In 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union.

Kingdom of Ireland

Kingdom of Ireland

The Kingdom of Ireland was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from 1542 until 1801. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then of Great Britain, and administered from Dublin Castle by a viceroy appointed by the English king: the Lord Deputy of Ireland. It had a parliament, composed of Anglo-Irish and native nobles. From 1661 until 1801, the administration controlled an army. A Protestant state church, the Church of Ireland, was established. Although styled a kingdom, for most of its history it was, de facto, an English dependency. This status was enshrined in Poynings' Law and in the Declaratory Act of 1719.

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from 1660 to 1667.

Anglicanism

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1714.

Caspar Netscher

Caspar Netscher

Caspar Netscher was a Dutch portrait and genre painter. He was a master in depicting oriental rugs, silk and brocade and introduced an international style to the Northern Netherlands.

Edward Villiers (1620–1689)

Edward Villiers (1620–1689)

Sir Edward Villiers was an English Royalist soldier and courtier. Part of the powerful Villiers family, he was a friend of Edward Hyde, chief advisor to Charles I and Charles II from 1641 to 1668.

Mary of Modena

Mary of Modena

Mary of Modena was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the younger brother and heir presumptive of Charles II. She was uninterested in politics and devoted to James and their children, two of whom survived to adulthood: the Jacobite claimant to the thrones, James Francis Edward, and Louisa Maria Teresa.

Marriage

Portrait by Peter Lely, 1677
Portrait by Peter Lely, 1677

William and a tearful Mary were married in St James's Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on 4 November 1677.[12] The bedding ceremony to publicly establish the consummation of the marriage was attended by the royal family, with her uncle the King himself drawing the bedcurtains.[13] Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather.[14] Rotterdam was inaccessible because of ice, and they were forced to land at the small village of Ter Heijde, and walk through the frosty countryside until met by coaches to take them to Huis Honselaarsdijk.[15] On 14 December, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession.[16]

Mary's animated and personable nature made her popular with the Dutch people, and her marriage to a Protestant prince was popular in Britain.[17] She was devoted to her husband, but he was often away on campaigns, which led to Mary's family supposing him to be cold and neglectful.[18] Within months of the marriage Mary was pregnant; however, on a visit to her husband at the fortified city of Breda, she suffered a miscarriage, which may have permanently impaired her ability to have children.[19] Further bouts of illness, that may have been miscarriages, occurred in mid-1678, early 1679, and early 1680.[20] Her childlessness would be the greatest source of unhappiness in her life.[21]

From May 1684, Charles II's illegitimate son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lived in the Netherlands, where he was fêted by William and Mary. Monmouth was viewed as a rival to the Duke of York, and as a potential Protestant heir who could supplant the Duke in the line of succession. William, however, did not consider him a viable alternative and correctly assumed that Monmouth had insufficient support.[22]

While the pair started out somewhat distant, they became quite close and trusting of each other over the course of their marriage. Their mutual fervour for Protestantism additionally helped bind them together.[23]

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Peter Lely

Peter Lely

Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. He became a naturalised British subject and was knighted in 1679.

Henry Compton (bishop)

Henry Compton (bishop)

Henry Compton was the Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713.

Bedding ceremony

Bedding ceremony

The bedding ceremony refers to the wedding custom of putting the newlywed couple together in the marital bed in front of numerous witnesses, usually family, friends, and neighbors, thereby completing the marriage.

Bed hangings

Bed hangings

Bed hangings or bed curtains are fabric panels that surround a bed; they were used from medieval times through to the 19th century. Bed hangings provided privacy when the master or great bed was in a public room, such as the parlor. They also kept warmth in, and were a way of showing one's wealth. When bedrooms became more common in the mid-1700s, the use of bed hangings diminished.

Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country located in northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium in the North Sea. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the "New Meuse" inland shipping channel, dug to connect to the Meuse first, but now to the Rhine instead.

Ter Heijde

Ter Heijde

Ter Heijde is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 6 km west of The Hague.

Huis Honselaarsdijk

Huis Honselaarsdijk

Huis Honselaarsdijk is a former palace and country residence of the Dutch Stadtholders and princes of Orange which lies about 2.6 km southwest of the border of The Hague, the Netherlands. It was one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in The Netherlands. Today, only part of the outbuildings remain and are known locally as De Nederhof.

The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and it's seat of government, and while the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, The Hague has been described as the country's de facto capital. The Hague is also the capital of the province of South Holland, and the city hosts both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

Breda

Breda

Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has 185,072 inhabitants on 13 September 2022 and is part of the Brabantse Stedenrij; it is the ninth largest city/municipality in the country, and the third largest in North Brabant after Eindhoven and Tilburg. It is equidistant between Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Miscarriage

Miscarriage

Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical loss. Once ultrasound or histological evidence shows that a pregnancy has existed, the used term is clinical miscarriage, which can be early before 12 weeks and late between 12-21 weeks. Fetal death after 20 weeks of gestation is also known as a stillbirth. The most common symptom of a miscarriage is vaginal bleeding with or without pain. Sadness, anxiety, and guilt may occur afterwards. Tissue and clot-like material may leave the uterus and pass through and out of the vagina. Recurrent miscarriage may also be considered a form of infertility.

James's reign

Mary's father, James II and VII, was the last Catholic monarch in Britain. Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c 1686.
Mary's father, James II and VII, was the last Catholic monarch in Britain. Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c 1686.

Upon the death of Charles II without legitimate issue in February 1685, the Duke of York became king as James II in England and Ireland and James VII in Scotland. Mary was playing cards when her husband informed her of her father's accession, with the knowledge that she was heir presumptive.[24]

When Charles's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth assembled an invasion force at Amsterdam, and sailed for Britain, William informed James of the Duke's departure, and ordered English regiments in the Low Countries to return to Britain.[25] To William's relief, Monmouth was defeated, captured and executed, but both he and Mary were dismayed by James's subsequent actions.[26]

James had a controversial religious policy; his attempt to grant freedom of religion to non-Anglicans by suspending acts of Parliament by royal decree was not well received.[27] Mary considered such action illegal, and her chaplain expressed this view in a letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, on her behalf.[28] She was further dismayed when James refused to help when the Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, invaded Orange and persecuted Huguenot refugees there. In an attempt to damage William, James encouraged his daughter's staff to inform her that William was having an affair with Elizabeth Villiers, the daughter of her childhood governess Frances Villiers. Acting on the information, Mary waited outside Villiers's room and caught her husband leaving it late at night. William denied adultery, and Mary apparently believed and forgave him.[29] Possibly, Villiers and William were not meeting as lovers but to exchange diplomatic intelligence.[30] Mary's staff was dismissed and sent back to Britain.[31]

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Nicolas de Largillière

Nicolas de Largillière

Nicolas de Largillière was a French portrait painter, born in Paris.

Heir presumptive

Heir presumptive

An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to heirs apparent, whose claim on the position cannot be displaced in this manner.

Monmouth Rebellion

Monmouth Rebellion

The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. A group of dissident Protestants led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, opposed James largely due to his Catholicism.

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom to change one's religion or beliefs, "the right not to profess any religion or belief", or "not to practise a religion".

Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the established Christian church in England. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. Its adherents are called Anglicans.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.

William Sancroft

William Sancroft

William Sancroft was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulgence. Deprived of his office in 1690 for refusing to swear allegiance to William and Mary, he later enabled and supported the consecration of new nonjuring bishops leading to the nonjuring schism.

Louis XIV

Louis XIV

Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign in history whose date is verifiable. Although Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the Age of Absolutism in Europe, the King surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Bossuet, Colbert, Le Brun, Le Nôtre, Lully, Mazarin, Molière, Racine, Turenne, and Vauban.

Principality of Orange

Principality of Orange

The Principality of Orange was, from 1163 to 1713, a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the east bank of the river Rhone, north of the city of Avignon, and surrounded by the independent papal state of Comtat Venaissin.

Glorious Revolution

Mary by Jan Verkolje, 1685
Mary by Jan Verkolje, 1685

Disgruntled Protestant politicians and noblemen were in contact with Mary's husband as early as 1686.[32] After James took the step of forcing Anglican clergymen to read the Declaration of Indulgence—the proclamation granting religious liberty to Catholics and dissenters—from their churches in May 1688, his popularity plunged further.[27] Alarm amongst Protestants increased when his wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son—James Francis Edward—in June 1688, for the son would, unlike Mary and Anne, be raised a Roman Catholic. Some charged that the boy was "supposititious", having been secretly smuggled into the Queen's room in a bed-warming pan as a substitute for her stillborn baby.[33] Others thought the father was someone other than James, who was rumoured to be impotent.[b] Seeking information, Mary sent a pointed list of questions to her sister, Anne, regarding the circumstances of the birth. Anne's reply, and continued gossip, seemed to confirm Mary's suspicions that the child was not her natural brother, and that her father was conspiring to secure a Catholic succession.[35]

On 30 June, seven notable English nobles, later called "the Immortal Seven" secretly requested William—then in the Dutch Republic with Mary—to come to England with an army to depose James.[36] William may have been jealous of his wife's position as the heiress to the English Crown, but according to Gilbert Burnet, Mary convinced her husband that she did not care for political power, and told him "she would be no more but his wife, and that she would do all that lay in her power to make him king for life".[37] She would, she assured him, always obey her husband as she had promised to do in her marriage vows.[38]

William agreed to invade and issued a declaration which referred to James's newborn son as the "pretended Prince of Wales". He also gave a list of grievances of the English people and stated that his proposed expedition was for the sole purpose of having "a free and lawful Parliament assembled".[39] Having been turned back by storms in October, William and the Dutch army finally landed in England on 5 November 1688, without Mary, who stayed behind in the Netherlands.[40] The disaffected English Army and Navy went over to William,[41] and on 11 December the defeated King James attempted to flee, but was intercepted. A second attempt at flight, on 23 December, was successful; William deliberately allowed James to escape to France, where he lived in exile until his death.[42]

Mary was upset by the circumstances surrounding the deposition of her father, and was torn between concern for him and duty to her husband, but was convinced that her husband's actions, however unpleasant, were necessary to "save the Church and State".[43] When Mary travelled to England after the New Year, she wrote of her "secret joy" at returning to her homeland, "but that was soon checked with the consideration of my father's misfortunes".[44] William ordered her to appear cheerful on their triumphant arrival in London. As a result, she was criticised by Sarah Churchill among others, for appearing cold to her father's plight.[45]

Mary's husband, William of Orange, by Godfrey Kneller
Mary's husband, William of Orange, by Godfrey Kneller

In January 1689, a Convention Parliament of England summoned by the Prince of Orange assembled, and much discussion relating to the appropriate course of action ensued.[46] A party led by Lord Danby held that Mary should be sole monarch, as the rightful hereditary heir, while William and his supporters were adamant that a husband could not be subject to his wife.[47] William wished to reign as a king, rather than function as a mere consort of a queen.[48] For her part, Mary did not wish to be queen regnant, believing that women should defer to their husbands, and "knowing my heart is not made for a kingdom and my inclination leads me to a retired quiet life".[49]

On 13 February 1689, the English 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, and that the Throne had thereby become vacant.[50][51] Parliament offered the Crown not to James's son, who would have been the heir apparent under normal circumstances, but to William and Mary as joint sovereigns. The only precedent for a joint monarchy dated from the sixteenth century: when Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain, it was agreed that the latter would take the title of king, but only during his wife's lifetime, and restrictions were placed on his power. William, however, would be king even after his wife's death, and "the sole and full exercise of the regal power [would be] executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives."[50] The declaration was later extended to exclude not only James and his heirs (other than Anne) from the throne, but all Catholics, since "it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince".[51]

The bishop of London, Henry Compton (one of the "Immortal Seven"), crowned William and Mary together at Westminster Abbey on 11 April 1689. Normally, the archbishop of Canterbury performs coronations, but the incumbent archbishop, William Sancroft, although an Anglican, refused to recognise the validity of James II's removal.[52] Neither William nor Mary enjoyed the ceremony; she thought it "all vanity" and William called it "Popish".[53]

On the same day, 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, that "no Papist can be King or Queen of this Realm", that William and Mary would be joint sovereigns, and that William would exercise sole and full power. The following day, they were proclaimed king and queen in Edinburgh. They took the Scottish coronation oath in London on 11 May.[50] Even after the declaration, there was still substantial support for James from the Nonjuring schism in all three kingdoms, particularly in parts of Scotland. Viscount Dundee raised an army in the Scottish Highlands and won a convincing victory at Killiecrankie on 27 July. The huge losses suffered by Dundee's troops, however, coupled with his fatal wounding, served to remove the only effective resistance to William and the uprising was quickly crushed, suffering a resounding defeat by Scottish Covenanters the next month at the Battle of Dunkeld.[54][55]

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Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution is the term first used in 1689 to summarise events leading to the deposition of James II and VII of England, Ireland and Scotland in November 1688, and his replacement by his daughter Mary II and her husband and James's nephew William III of Orange, de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic. Known as the Glorieuze Overtocht or Glorious Crossing in the Netherlands, it has been described both as the last successful invasion of England as well as an internal coup.

Declaration of Indulgence (1687)

Declaration of Indulgence (1687)

The Declaration of Indulgence, also called Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, was a pair of proclamations made by James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland in 1687. The Indulgence was first issued for Scotland on 12 February and then for England on 4 April 1687. An early step towards establishing freedom of religion in the British Isles, it was cut short by the Glorious Revolution.

Dissenter

Dissenter

A dissenter is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc.

Invitation to William

Invitation to William

The Invitation to William was a letter sent by seven notable English nobles, later called "the Immortal Seven", to stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange, received by him on 30 June 1688. In England, the heir apparent to the throne, James Francis Edward Stuart, had just been born to the unpopular King James II of England, and baptised a Catholic. The letter asked William, who was a nephew and son-in-law of James II, to use military intervention to force the king to make his eldest daughter, Mary, William's Protestant wife, his heir. The letter alleged that the newborn prince was an impostor.

Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The United Provinces of the Netherlands, officially the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, and commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands. The republic was established after seven Dutch provinces in the Spanish Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule, forming a mutual alliance against Spain in 1579 and declaring their independence in 1581. It comprised Groningen, Frisia, Overijssel, Guelders, Utrecht, Holland and Zeeland.

Gilbert Burnet

Gilbert Burnet

Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, a writer and a historian. He was always closely associated with the Whig party, and was one of the few close friends in whom King William III confided.

Godfrey Kneller

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet, was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to English and British monarchs from Charles II to George I. His major works include The Chinese Convert ; a series of four portraits of Isaac Newton painted at various junctures of the latter's life; a series of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France; over 40 "kit-cat portraits" of members of the Kit-Cat Club; and ten "beauties" of the court of William III, to match a similar series of ten of Charles II's mistresses painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Sir Peter Lely.

Convention Parliament (1689)

Convention Parliament (1689)

The English Convention was an assembly of the Parliament of England which met between 22 January and 12 February 1689 and transferred the crowns of England and Ireland from James II to William III and Mary II.

Declaration of Right, 1689

Declaration of Right, 1689

The Declaration of Right, or Declaration of Rights, is a document produced by the English Parliament, following the 1688 Glorious Revolution. It sets out the wrongs committed by the exiled James II, the rights of English citizens, and the obligation of their monarch.

Heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the birth of a more eligible heir is known as heir presumptive.

Bishop of London

Bishop of London

The bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723.

Henry Compton (bishop)

Henry Compton (bishop)

Henry Compton was the Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713.

Reign

William and Mary on a five guinea coin of 1692
William and Mary on a five guinea coin of 1692

In December 1689, Parliament passed the Bill of Rights. This measure—which restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right—established restrictions on the royal prerogative; it declared, among 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 or unusual punishments. The Bill of Rights also confirmed the succession to the throne. Following the death of either William III or Mary II, the other was to continue to reign. Next in the line of succession would be any children of the couple, to be followed by Mary's sister Anne and her children. Last in the line of succession stood any children William III might have had from any subsequent marriage.[56]

From 1690 onwards, William was often absent from England on campaign, each year generally from the spring until the autumn. In 1690, he fought Jacobites (who supported James) in Ireland. William had crushed the Irish Jacobites by 1692, but he continued with campaigns abroad to wage war against France in the Netherlands. Whilst her husband was away, Mary administered the government of the realm with the advice of a nine-member Cabinet Council.[57][58] She was not keen to assume power and felt "deprived of all that was dear to me in the person of my husband, left among those that were perfect strangers to me: my sister of a humour so reserved that I could have little comfort from her."[59] Anne had quarrelled with William and Mary over money, and the relationship between the two sisters had soured.[60]

When her husband was away, Mary acted on her own if his advice was not available; whilst he was in England, Mary completely refrained from interfering in political matters, as had been agreed in the Declaration and Bill of Rights,[50][56] and as she preferred.[61] However, she proved a firm ruler, ordering the arrest of her own uncle, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, for plotting to restore James II to the throne.[62] In January 1692, the influential John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough, was dismissed on similar charges; the dismissal somewhat diminished her popularity[37] and further harmed her relationship with her sister Anne (who was strongly influenced by Churchill's wife, Sarah).[63] Anne appeared at court with Sarah, obviously supporting the disgraced Churchill, which led to Mary angrily demanding that Anne dismiss Sarah and vacate her lodgings.[64]

Mary fell ill with a fever in April 1692, and missed Sunday church service for the first time in 12 years.[65] She also failed to visit Anne, who was suffering a difficult labour. After Mary's recovery and the death of Anne's baby soon after it was born, Mary did visit her sister, but chose the opportunity to berate Anne for her friendship with Sarah.[66] The sisters never saw each other again.[67] Marlborough was arrested and imprisoned, but then released after his accuser was revealed to be an impostor.[68] Mary recorded in her journal that the breach between the sisters was a punishment from God for the "irregularity" of the Revolution.[69] She was extremely devout, and attended prayers at least twice a day.[70]

Many of Mary's proclamations focus on combating licentiousness, insobriety and vice.[71] She often participated in the affairs of the Church—all matters of ecclesiastical patronage passed through her hands.[72] On the death of Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson in December 1694, Mary was keen to appoint Bishop of Worcester Edward Stillingfleet to the vacancy, but William overruled her and the post went to Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Tenison.[73]

Death

Mary was tall (5 foot 11 inches; 180 cm) and apparently fit; she regularly walked between her palaces at Whitehall and Kensington, and it appeared likely she would outlive her husband and sister, both of whom suffered from ill-health.[74] In late 1694, however, she contracted smallpox. She sent away anyone who had not previously had the disease, to prevent the spread of infection.[75] Anne, who was once again pregnant, sent Mary a letter saying she would run any risk to see her sister again, but the offer was declined by Mary's groom of the stool, the Countess of Derby.[76] Several days into the course of her illness, the smallpox lesions reportedly disappeared, leaving her skin smooth and unmarked, and Mary said that she felt improved. Her attendants initially hoped she had been ill with measles rather than smallpox, and that she was recovering. But the rash had "turned inward", a sign that Mary was suffering from a usually fatal form of smallpox, and her condition quickly deteriorated.[77] Mary died at Kensington Palace shortly after midnight on the morning of 28 December, at the young age of 32.[78]

William, who had grown increasingly to rely on Mary, was devastated by her death, and told Burnet that "from being the happiest" he was "now going to be the miserablest creature on earth".[75] While the Jacobites considered her death divine retribution for breaking the fifth commandment ("honour thy father"), she was widely mourned in Britain.[79] During a cold winter, in which the Thames froze, her embalmed body lay in state in Banqueting House, Whitehall. On 5 March, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Her funeral service was the first of any royal attended by all the members of both Houses of Parliament.[80] For the ceremony, composer Henry Purcell wrote Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.[81][82]

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Five guineas (British coin)

Five guineas (British coin)

The Five Guinea was a machine-struck gold coin produced from 1668–1753. Measuring 37 millimetres in diameter and weighing between 41 and 42 grams, it was the largest regularly produced gold coin in Britain. Although the coin is commonly known as the "Five guinea" piece, during the 17th and 18th centuries it was also known as a Five-pound piece, as the guinea was originally worth twenty shillings – until its value was fixed at twenty-one shillings by a Royal Proclamation in 1717 the value fluctuated rather in the way that bullion coins do today.

Bill of Rights 1689

Bill of Rights 1689

The Bill of Rights 1689 is an Act of the Parliament of England that set out certain basic civil rights and clarified who would be next to inherit the Crown. It remains a crucial statute in English constitutional law.

Jacobitism

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was a political movement that supported the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne. The name derives from the first name of James II and VII, which in Latin translates as Jacobus. When James went into exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England argued that he had abandoned the English throne, which they offered to his Protestant daughter Mary II, and her husband William III. In April, the Scottish Convention held that he "forfeited" the throne of Scotland by his actions, listed in the Articles of Grievances.

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, PC was an English aristocrat and politician. He held high office at the beginning of the reign of his brother-in-law, King James II.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs. From a gentry family, he served first as a page at the court of the House of Stuart under James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s, earning military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill.

Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the established Christian church in England. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. Its adherents are called Anglicans.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.

John Tillotson

John Tillotson

John Tillotson was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.

Bishop of Worcester

Bishop of Worcester

The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England.

Edward Stillingfleet

Edward Stillingfleet

Edward Stillingfleet was a British Christian theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his time".

Bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.

Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around 2.9 miles (4.6 km) west of Central London.

Legacy

William and Mary depicted on the ceiling of the Painted Hall, Greenwich, by James Thornhill
William and Mary depicted on the ceiling of the Painted Hall, Greenwich, by James Thornhill

Mary endowed the College of William and Mary (in the present day Williamsburg, Virginia) in 1693, supported Thomas Bray, who founded the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich, after the Anglo-Dutch victory at the Battle of La Hogue.[83] She is credited with influencing garden design at Het Loo and Hampton Court Palaces, and with popularising blue and white porcelain and the keeping of goldfish as pets.[84]

Mary was depicted by Jacobites as an unfaithful daughter who destroyed her father for her own and her husband's gain.[85] In the early years of their reign, she was often seen as completely under the spell of her husband, but after she had temporarily governed alone during his absences abroad, she was portrayed as capable and confident. Nahum Tate's A Present for the Ladies (1692) compared her to Queen Elizabeth I.[86] Her modesty and diffidence were praised in works such as A Dialogue Concerning Women (1691) by William Walsh, which compared her to Cincinnatus, the Roman general who took on a great task when called to do so, but then willingly abandoned power.[87]

A week before her death, Mary went through her papers, weeding out some, which were burnt, but her journal survives, as do her letters to William and to Frances Apsley.[88] The Jacobites lambasted her, but the assessment of her character that came down to posterity was largely the vision of Mary as a dutiful, submissive wife, who assumed power reluctantly, exercised it with considerable ability when necessary, and willingly deferred it to her husband.[89]

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James Thornhill

James Thornhill

Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects working in the Italian baroque tradition. He was responsible for some large-scale schemes of murals, including the "Painted Hall" at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, the paintings on the inside of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, and works at Chatsworth House and Wimpole Hall.

College of William & Mary

College of William & Mary

The College of William & Mary is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the ninth-oldest in the English-speaking world. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity". In his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, Richard Moll included William & Mary as one of the original eight "Public Ivies".

Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.

Thomas Bray

Thomas Bray

Thomas Bray was an English clergyman and abolitionist who helped formally establish the Church of England in Maryland, as well as the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and worldwide.

Greenwich Hospital, London

Greenwich Hospital, London

Greenwich Hospital was a permanent home for retired sailors of the Royal Navy, which operated from 1692 to 1869. Its buildings, in Greenwich, London, were later used by the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and the University of Greenwich, and are now known as the Old Royal Naval College. The word "hospital" was used in its original sense of a place providing hospitality for those in need of it, and did not refer to medical care, although the buildings included an infirmary which, after Greenwich Hospital closed, operated as Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital until 1986.

Het Loo Palace

Het Loo Palace

Het Loo Palace is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, built by the House of Orange-Nassau.

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief minister of Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to check his disgrace. The palace went on to become one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring the property, he arranged for it to be enlarged so that it might more easily accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers. The palace is currently in the possession of King Charles III and the Crown.

Goldfish

Goldfish

The Goldfish is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have become an invasive pest in parts of North America.

Nahum Tate

Nahum Tate

Nahum Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for The History of King Lear, his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, and for his libretto for Henry Purcell's opera, Dido and Aeneas.

William Walsh (poet)

William Walsh (poet)

William Walsh of Abberley Hall, Worcestershire was an English poet and critic and a Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 to 1708.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic.

Title, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

  • 30 April 1662 – 4 November 1677: Her Highness The Lady Mary[90]
  • 4 November 1677 – 13 February 1689: Her Highness The Princess of Orange[50]
  • 13 February 1689 – 28 December 1694: Her Majesty The Queen

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 English throne. From 11 April 1689—when the Estates of Scotland recognised them as sovereigns—the royal couple used the style "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc.".[91]

Arms

The coat of arms used by William and Mary 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 double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon Azure billetty a lion rampant Or (for the House of Orange-Nassau).

Coat of arms of William and Mary as Prince and Princess of Orange.svg
Coat of Arms of England (c. 1690).svg
Royal arms of Scotland 1691 - 1702.PNG
Coat of arms on expeditionary banner of William and Mary, 1688, showing their arms impaled
Coat of arms of William and Mary as joint sovereigns of England
Coat of arms of William and Mary used in Scotland from 1691

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Kingdom of Ireland

Kingdom of Ireland

The Kingdom of Ireland was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from 1542 until 1801. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then of Great Britain, and administered from Dublin Castle by a viceroy appointed by the English king: the Lord Deputy of Ireland. It had a parliament, composed of Anglo-Irish and native nobles. From 1661 until 1801, the administration controlled an army. A Protestant state church, the Church of Ireland, was established. Although styled a kingdom, for most of its history it was, de facto, an English dependency. This status was enshrined in Poynings' Law and in the Declaratory Act of 1719.

Quartering (heraldry)

Quartering (heraldry)

Quartering is a method of joining several different coats of arms together in one shield by dividing the shield into equal parts and placing different coats of arms in each division.

Azure (heraldry)

Azure (heraldry)

In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else is marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation. The term azure shares origin with the Spanish word "azul", which refers to the same color, deriving from hispanic Arabic lazawárd the name of the deep blue stone now called lapis lazuli. The word was adopted into Old French by the 12th century, after which the word passed into use in the blazon of coats of arms.

Or (heraldry)

Or (heraldry)

In heraldry, or is the tincture of gold and, together with argent (silver), belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals", or light colours. In engravings and line drawings, it is hatched using a field of evenly spaced dots. It is very frequently depicted as yellow, though gold leaf was used in many illuminated manuscripts and more extravagant rolls of arms.

Gules

Gules

In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple).

Pale (heraldry)

Pale (heraldry)

A pale is a term used in heraldic blazon and vexillology to describe a charge on a coat of arms, that takes the form of a band running vertically down the centre of the shield. Writers broadly agree that the width of the pale ranges from about one-fifth to about one-third of the width of the shield, but this width is not fixed. A narrow pale is more likely if it is uncharged, that is, if it does not have other objects placed on it. If charged, the pale is typically wider to allow room for the objects drawn there.

Argent

Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to be tinctured argent are either left blank, or indicated with the abbreviation ar.

Coat of arms of Ireland

Coat of arms of Ireland

The coat of arms of Ireland is blazoned as Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent. These arms have long been Ireland's heraldic emblem. References to them as being the arms of the king of Ireland can be found as early as the 13th century. These arms were adopted by Henry VIII of England when he ended the period of Lordship of Ireland and declared Ireland to be a kingdom again in 1541. When the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in 1603, they were integrated into the unified royal coat of arms of kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The harp was adopted as the emblem of the Irish Free State when it separated from the United Kingdom in 1922. They were registered as the arms of Ireland with the Chief Herald of Ireland on 9 November 1945.

Escutcheon (heraldry)

Escutcheon (heraldry)

In heraldry, an escutcheon is a shield that forms the main or focal element in an achievement of arms. The word can be used in two related senses. In the first sense, an escutcheon is the shield upon which a coat of arms is displayed. In the second sense, an escutcheon can itself be a charge within a coat of arms.

Genealogical table

Discover more about Genealogical table related topics

Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She was mother of his sons Charles II and James II and VII. Contemporaneously, by a decree of her husband, she was known in England as 'Queen Mary', but she did not like this name and signed her letters "Henriette R" or "Henriette Marie R"

Charles I of England

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation. Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France.

Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia

Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia

Elizabeth Stuart was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Winter Queen.

Frederick V of the Palatinate

Frederick V of the Palatinate

Frederick V was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet "the Winter King".

Charles II of England

Charles II of England

Charles II was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who after her death became King James II and VII.

James II of England

James II of England

James II was King of England and King of Ireland, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religious tolerance, but it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and the divine right of kings. His deposition ended a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.

Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover

Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was Prince of Calenberg from 1679 until his death, and father of George I of Great Britain. He was appointed as the ninth prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692.

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Anne was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1714.

James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics such as James from the English and British thrones.

George I of Great Britain

George I of Great Britain

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover as the most senior Protestant descendant of his great-grandfather James VI and I.

Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1766 as Charles III. During his lifetime, he was also known as "the Young Pretender" and "the Young Chevalier"; in popular memory, he is known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Source: "Mary II of England", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 17th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_II_of_England.

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Notes
  1. ^ Mary II was declared queen by the Parliament of England on 13 February 1689 and by the Parliament of Scotland on 11 April 1689.
  2. ^ Genetic testing of James Francis Edward's descendants has since shown he was indeed a Stuart.[34]
References

Citations

  1. ^ Waller, p. 249
  2. ^ Waller, p. 252
  3. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 32
  4. ^ Waller, p. 251
  5. ^ Waller, pp. 251–253
  6. ^ Waller, p. 255
  7. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 34
  8. ^ Waller, p. 256
  9. ^ Pollock, John. The Policy of Charles II and James II. (1667–1687).
  10. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 44–45
  11. ^ Mary's chaplain, Dr Edward Lake, quoted in Waller, p. 257
  12. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 47–48; Waller, p. 258
  13. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 48
  14. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 50–51; Waller, p. 259
  15. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 51; Waller, pp. 258–259
  16. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 52
  17. ^ Waller, pp. 257–259
  18. ^ Waller, pp. 259–262
  19. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 55–58; Waller, p. 261
  20. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 57, 58, 62
  21. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 162; Waller, p. 262
  22. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 72–73
  23. ^ Keates, p. 34
  24. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 76
  25. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 78
  26. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 79
  27. ^ a b Van der Kiste, p. 91
  28. ^ Waller, p. 265
  29. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 81; Waller, p. 264
  30. ^ Van der Kiste p. 64; Waller, p. 264
  31. ^ Keates pp. 26–28; Van der Kiste, p. 82; Waller, p. 264
  32. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 86
  33. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 92
  34. ^ Keates p. 32
  35. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 90, 94–95; Waller, pp. 268–269
  36. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 93–94
  37. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mary II., Queen" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 816.
  38. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 85; Waller, p. 266
  39. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 98
  40. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 100–102
  41. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 104
  42. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 105–107
  43. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 95; Waller, pp. 269–271
  44. ^ Mary, quoted by Van der Kiste, p. 113 and Waller, p. 271
  45. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 113; Waller, pp. 272–273
  46. ^ Waller, p. 274
  47. ^ Waller, pp. 274–275
  48. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 108; Waller, p. 273
  49. ^ Mary, quoted in Van der Kiste, p. 114 and Waller, p. 273
  50. ^ a b c d e "King James' Parliament: The succession of William and Mary". The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons. Vol. 2. British History Online. 1742. pp. 255–277. Retrieved 19 September 2006.
  51. ^ a b "William III and Mary II". The Royal Household. Retrieved 18 September 2006.
  52. ^ "William Sancroft". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2006. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
  53. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 118
  54. ^ "John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st viscount of Dundee". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2006. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
  55. ^ "The Contemplator's Short History of "Bonnie Dundee" John Graham, Earl of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee". Retrieved 20 September 2006.
  56. ^ a b "Bill of Rights". 1689. Retrieved 19 September 2006.
  57. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 138
  58. ^ See also the Absence of King William Act 1689.
  59. ^ Memoirs of Mary, Queen of England edited by R. Doebner (1886), quoted in Van der Kiste, p. 138
  60. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 130–131
  61. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 144; Waller, pp. 280, 284
  62. ^ Waller, p. 281
  63. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 159–160
  64. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 160
  65. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 155
  66. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 161
  67. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 162
  68. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 161–162
  69. ^ Quoted in Waller, p. 279
  70. ^ Waller, pp. 277, 282
  71. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 164; Waller, pp. 281, 286
  72. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 163–164
  73. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 176
  74. ^ Waller, p.285
  75. ^ a b Van der Kiste, p. 177
  76. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 179
  77. ^ Waller, pp. 286-287
  78. ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 179–180
  79. ^ Waller, p. 288
  80. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 186; Waller, p. 289
  81. ^ "Music for Queen Mary". The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Retrieved 18 September 2006.
  82. ^ Van der Kiste, p. 187
  83. ^ Waller, p. 283
  84. ^ Waller, pp. 260, 285–286
  85. ^ Waller, pp. 277–279
  86. ^ Waller, pp. 283–284
  87. ^ Waller, p. 284
  88. ^ Waller, p. 287
  89. ^ Waller, p. 290
  90. ^ "No. 1249". The London Gazette. 5 November 1677. p. 1.
  91. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898). Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company. p. 891.
  92. ^ Gregg, pp. x–xi; Somerset, pp. viii–ix

Sources

External links
Mary II
Born: 30 April 1662 Died: 28 December 1694
Regnal titles
Vacant
Title last held by
James II & VII
Queen of England,
Scotland and Ireland

1689–1694
with William III & II
Succeeded byas sole monarch
Categories

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