William III and Mary II

“ He saw also over the carved upright piano, life-sized portraits of William of Orange and his English queen, a sight that, for a time, brought England and Holland side by side in his heart. William and Mary have left a halo round the English throne to this day, he the truest patriot that ever served an adopted country, she the noblest wife that ever sat upon a British throne, up to the time of Victoria and Albert the Good. As Ben looked at the pictures he remembered accounts he had read of King William's visit to The Hague in the winter of 1691. ”

“ He had no longer his popular and beloved Mary to leave behind him in England as his representative when he set out for the wars, and there were few in England whom he trusted fully, or who trusted him. To die at the beginning of a great European struggle, leaving the dull people whom he disliked to take his place in England, and the soldier whom he had crushed and subdued and sternly held in the shade as long as he was able, to assume his baton, and win the victories it had never been William’s fortune to gain, must have been bitter indeed. ”

“ Moreover, if she had seen, and to some extent felt, the bitterness, cruelty, and relentless brutality of Mary's rule, not less had she also seen the selfish hypocrisy and unscrupulous greed of Edward's Protestant counsellors; and was in no danger of falling under the delusion that in the controversy of the times all the good was on one side and all the evil on the other.
Equally by nature and education Elizabeth was a woman of broad mind and clear understanding, but, like other people, her conduct was not always dictated by her understanding alone. ”

“ Mary's determination to marry Philip was—at least in the first instance—simply a means to an end, and the end in question was the restoration of England to the unity of the Catholic faith. She was probably quite sincere in her reiterated statement that she was content as she was, and had no wish to marry at all; but this she conceived to be the appointed task of her life, and as soon as she had come to the conclusion that the true means to accomplish it was by a marriage with Philip, to marry Philip became part of her duty as Queen. ”

“ How could Mary—a professed foe, a claimant of her crown, a woman fairer, and of brighter parts even than her own—a mother, while she was but a barren stake—how could Mary, with so many causes to awaken her deathless hostility, hope for generosity or for mercy from a queen who could even sacrifice without a pang her inclinations to her interest; whose favors but marshalled those on whom they fell to the scaffold and the block; whose dearest favorites, whose most faithful servants had fallen, one by one, beneath the headsman’s axe ”

“ It is unnecessary here to enter into the mere facts of the political history; how Northumberland's ill-arranged and almost childish scheme fell to pieces and collapsed, and how, within a few days of Edward's death, Mary found herself undisputed Queen of England, and those who opposed her had not only gained nothing, but had put themselves entirety at her mercy. Mary was herself, perhaps, as unfit to rule as any sovereign who ever arrived at a throne in mature age. ”

“ With the deepest regret did Mary witness the destruction of so many noble spirits, and with yet deeper fury did Elizabeth behold star after star of her boasted galaxy of nobles shoot madly from their spheres in pursuit of a meteor. Bitter were her feelings, and deadly was her vengeance. The bloody reign of Mary might almost have been deemed to have returned, as day by day the death-bells tolled, as the traitor’s gate admitted another and another occupant to that above, whence the only egress was by the axe and scaffold. ”

“ I have no objection to Louis XIX, but I think I must draw the line at Mary III.”
It was under this name that the Bavarian Princess whom the Legitimist Guild honoured with their homage, figured in their recently published calendar of true and lawful Sovereigns. It must not be supposed that in so styling her the Legitimists were inconsistent enough to acknowledge the title of the wife of William of Orange to a place in the list of British monarchs. The Mary II recognized by them was the ill-starred rival of Queen Elizabeth. ”

“ Several Englishmen of note signed an invitation to the prince to land in England with an armed force in defence of the religion and liberties of the country; and it was brought to him by Admiral Russell, one of the signatories. After some hesitation William, with the consent and approval of the princess, decided to accept it. No man ever had a more loyal and devoted wife than William III of Orange, and he did not deserve it. For some years after his marriage he treated Mary with coldness and neglect. ”

“ But Mary—heir next after James to the throne—had married William of Orange, who was a fighting Dutch general; keen, cool, selfish, brave, calculating, with an excellent head for business; cruel at times, unscrupulous, too, but a good Protestant. He was great-grandson to that famous William the Silent, whose story everyone has read, or should read, in the pages of Motley.
But how came he, a Dutchman, and speaking English brokenly, to share the British throne with Mary? There were two very excellent reasons: First, he was own cousin to Mary, his mother having been a daughter of Charles I. ”

“ William was very short and Mary was quite tall. It would not do to have Mary taller than her husband, so a stool was brought for William to stand on. Now they are the same height as they are crowned King William III and Queen Mary II of England. When William and Mary ruled England the country was happy and prosperous because love reigned in the royal household. ”

“ Her subjects, apparently, moved by that curious sympathy so constantly shown to monarchs, rejoiced to see her emerge from the clouds of undeserved misfortune which had surrounded her early life, and, themselves smarting under the selfish government of Edward's Council, indulged freely in all those vague and groundless hopes which so often usher in the beginning of a new regime. In those few years all was changed, and the rejoicings which proclaimed the accession of Elizabeth were more than half due to the relief felt at having escaped from Mary's tyranny. ”

“ Mary’s married life in Holland does not appear to have been a happy one. Although she soon became popular among the Dutch, she remained childless, while William treated her with neglect and even with insult; and her troubles were not diminished after her father became king of England in 1685. James had treated his daughter very shabbily in money matters; and it was increasingly difficult for her to remain loyal to both father and husband when they were so divergent in character and policy. Although Mary never entirely lost her affection for her father the wife prevailed over the daughter ”

“ His succession, or rather his wife's succession, was safe enough if Mary of Modena bore no male issue to James. But she might and did bear such issue, in a child whose claims could only be set aside by a revolution; and even had no heir apparent been born to the throne, the position of William accepting the English crown conjointly with his wife in his capacity as liberator of the English people would be something very different from that of a king-consort, which was all he could otherwise have hoped to be. ”

“ Even Evelyn, who was shocked as a Tory and legitimate king's-man by the levity of Mary's behaviour (for which, however, an explanation has been suggested) on her arrival at Whitehall after James's flight, affirms of her that "she was such an admirable woman, abating for taking the crown without a due apology, as does, if possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth." The comparison, extravagant as it may appear at first sight, is not without some justification in the spirited behaviour of Mary on the great national crisis which occurred during her husband's absence in the Irish campaign. ”

“ Theoretically, no doubt, the power of the Crown was as great under James and Charles as under Elizabeth, but the Parliament in the one case was far less submissive, and in the other claimed and succeeded in establishing (for the moment) a power far greater than that of the Crown. And, again, the circumstances under which Elizabeth came to the throne were unusually favourable to a new departure. Mary's legislation had reduced the law and the constitution of England to a condition which practically gave her successor a liberty of action in ecclesiastical matters unexampled before or since. ”

“ The Scotch Lords also agreed that Elizabeth should be recognized as the queen of England, but Mary, the Scotch queen, would not be bound by this agreement. Shortly after this her husband, Francis II. of France, died, and she returned to rule over her own kingdom. She was warmly welcomed by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, and her youth, beauty, and winning ways made her a general favourite. Her most powerful subjects and her Parliament were the followers of John Calvin of Geneva, a great Protestant teacher, and Mary did not attempt to force her own religious opinions on her people. ”

“ Having established himself in Mary’s favour by furthering her marriage, he entered into league with de Noailles, and with all the Queen’s enemies, and his position at the Council board, especially after Gardiner’s death, gave him almost unlimited power. The Lords Arundel, Pembroke, Cobham, and Sir William Petre were all swayed by him. He was the moving spirit of them all, and little business was transacted without him. Mary told the Cardinal that she had no longer perfect confidence in any member of her Council, Pole himself being in the King’s absence her only support. ”

“ Queen Mary died childless in 1694, and Anne became the acknowledged heiress to the throne. William was obliged to recall her to court, and with her returned the Marlboroughs, who were reluctantly received into favour once more. William hated the earl’s baseness and treachery, but he was obliged to recognize his splendid gifts, and to declare that he, of all men, was the fittest to carry on the great work of checking the ambition of Lewis. ”

“ It was to meet this danger that Charles resolved to offer William the hand of the Duke's daughter, Mary. Such a marriage secured James against the one formidable rival to his claims, while it opened to William a far safer chance of mounting the throne at his father-in-law's death in right of his wife. The prospect too of such a Protestant succession might well allay much of the panic which was spreading through the country as men looked forward to the accession of a Catholic king. ”

“ For Mary had not been long in England before the Duke of Norfolk wished to marry her and put her on the throne. This plot was found out in time and Norfolk was warned and sent to the Tower. Then a rebellion broke out in the north, which was put down at the cost of many lives. Then the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth and. released her subjects from their allegiance to her. Parliament answered this by making strict laws against the Roman Catholics; and then another plot was formed to murder Elizabeth, to marry Mary to Norfolk, and through the aid of Spain to make Mary queen. ”

“ James was soon obliged to leave Ireland, and his friends there were severely punished. In the meantime, William was fighting the French in Holland—as he had done nearly all his life—while Mary governed the kingdom at home. She was a handsome, stately lady, and was much respected; and there was great grief when she died of the small-pox, never having had any children. It was settled upon this that William should go on reigning as long as he lived, and then that Princess Anne should be queen ”

“ Hers, in its turn, was mainly undone by her sister and successor; yet is there no sovereign who ever sat on the English throne, unless it be Henry VIII. himself, who has produced a greater or more permanent effect upon the subsequent history of the country. The loathing which Mary's persecution produced in the minds of Englishmen did more to establish the Reformation in England than any other single cause. 'You have lost the hearts of twenty thousand that were rank Papists within this twelvemonth,' wrote a lady to Bonner. ”

“ For many a fair one he seems t’ have enthrall’d.
James second, brother of Charles second succeeded,
But after a reign of four years, he seceded;
When quitting his throne, and his country he flies
Over the channel to France, where he dies.
Next the Prince of Orange, (from Holland he came,)
For the crown of old England, asserted his claim
Through right of his wife, Princess Mary by name.
And William the third with Mary his wife
Are crowned King and Queen of England for life.
This princess was lovely in person and mind,
As a wife most devoted, a friend ever kind. ”

“ Then a feathery fire of crimson and green shook millions of rubies and emeralds, into the ruddy depths of the ice—and all this time the people were shouting—God bless William of Orange—long live the King! They were half mad with joy and enthusiasm. William their own prince, their stadtholder, had become the ruler of three kingdoms; he had been victorious in council and in war, and now in his hour of greatest triumph, had come as a simple guest to visit them. The king heard their shouts with a beating heart. It is a great thing to be beloved by one's country. ”