MARY II. (1662-1694), queen of England, wife of king William III., elder daughter of James, duke of York, afterwards King James II., by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon, was born in London on April 30, 1662. She was educated as a Protestant, and as it was probable that she would succeed to the English throne after the deaths of her uncle, Charles II., and her father, the choice of a husband for her was an important political event. About 1672 the name of William, prince of Orange, was mentioned in this connection; and after some hesitation on both sides caused by the condition of Euro pean politics, the betrothal of William and Mary took place in October 1677, and was quickly followed by their marriage in London on Nov. 4. Mary's married life in Holland does not appear to have been a happy one. She soon became very popular among the Dutch, but she remained childless. 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. Mary shared heartily in the events which immediately preceded William's expedition to England in 1688. After the success of the undertaking she arrived in London in February 1689; and by her faithful adherence to her promise made a satisfactory settlement of the English crown possible.
William and Mary were together proclaimed king and queen of England, and afterwards of Scotland, and were crowned on April II, 1689. During the king's absence from England the queen, assisted by a committee of the privy council, was entrusted with the duties of government, duties which she performed faithfully, but which she gladly laid down on William's return. In these
times of danger, however, she acted when necessary with courage and promptitude, as when in 1690 she directed the arrest of her uncle Henry Hyde, 2nd earl of Clarendon; but she was constantly anxious for William's safety, and unable to trust many of her advisers. She was distressed by a quarrel with her sister Anne in 1692 following the dismissal of Marlborough, and this event some what diminished her popularity, which had hitherto been one of the mainstays of the throne. Weak in body and troubled in mind, the queen died at Kensington Palace from small-pox on Dec. 28, 1694, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Mary was a woman of a remarkably modest and retiring dis position, whose outstanding virtue was perhaps her unswerving loyalty to William. Burnet has passed a remarkable panegyric upon her character. She was extremely pious and charitable ; her blameless private life was in marked contrast with her surround ings, both in England and Holland ; without bigotry she was greatly attached to the Protestant faith and to the Church of England. Greenwich Hospital for Seamen was founded in her honour.