William III
Willem III
King of England · King of Scotland · King of Ireland · Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland · Prince of Orange
1650 – 1702
Biography
Dutch stadtholder, grandson of Charles I, and the man Parliament invited to invade England in 1688. His landing at Torbay and James II's collapse without a fight produced the bloodless revolution that fixed parliamentary supremacy as the English constitution. After Mary's death he ruled alone; his real preoccupation was always the great Continental coalition against Louis XIV of France, which the English crown gave him resources to sustain. He died of complications from a fall from his horse, leaving the throne to his sister-in-law.
Events
An invitation from seven English peers brought William of Orange and a Dutch army ashore at Torbay on 5 November 1688. James II, lacking confidence in his own troops and forces, fled to France within weeks. Parliament declared the throne vacant by James's flight and offered it jointly to his daughter Mary and her husband William, on conditions later codified in the Bill of Rights. The settlement fixed parliamentary supremacy as the operating constitution of England.
Also there: James II and VII, Mary of Modena, Mary II
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