WILLIAM III., King of England, was the posthumous son of William II. of Orange, and Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I. of England. He was born in 1650. The alli ance of his family with the Stuarts excited the jealousy of Oliver Cromwell, and by his influence the young prince and his descendants were declared to be excluded from the stadtholdership of the United Provinces. William "found himself," says Macau lay, " when first his mind began to open, the chief of a great but depressed and dis heartened party, and the heir to vast and indefinite pretensions, which excited the dread and aversion of the oligarchy, then supreme in the United Provinces." The restoration of the Stuarts, however, in kngland greatly improved his prospects; and on the murder •of De Witt, William, then in his 22d year, was chosen stadtholder. The republic was at this time carrying on an apparently hopeless war with its powerful neighbor, Louis XV. of France; bat by the wisdom and determination of the young stadtholder, the contest, which lasted for nearly seven years, was in 1678 terminated by the treaty of Nimeguen, in a manner highly advantageous and honorable for the United Provinces. A few years before, their ruin had seemed inevitable; and the fame of William be came great over Europe. Shortly before this event, lie had married his cousin. the Mary, eldest daughter of the duke of York, afterward James H. of England, This marriage, entered into solely from political considerations, did not at first prove a happy one. William seems to have been jealous of his wife's position, and too re served to give utterance to his feelings. According to Macaulay, a complete explanation and reconciliation were ultimately brought about by the agency of bishop Burnet.
In 1686 William became the head of a league formed among the Protestant princes-of Germany, the kings of Spain, Sweden, and others, having for its object to curb the power of Louis XIV. The treaty by which the alliance was constituted was signed nt Augsburg in July, 1686. In England the tyranny of .Tames II. was now be ginning to estrange from hint the affections of every class of his subjects. The eyes of all were turning toward the stadtholder as their only hope. Having formed his resolu tion, William conducted his operations with great secrecy and skill. On Nov. 5, 1088, he landed at-Torbay, with an army of 15,000, composed of English and Dutch. His success was rapid and bloodless. of influence of all parties gave him their I and support; and on Dec. 18 following, he entered London triumphantly as t
national deliverer. The adherents of James held out for some time in Scotland and Ireland; bitt the death of Dundee ended their resistance in the former country; while in the latter it was ended in 1691, after a vigorous contest of two years, in which the Stuart party had, in most eases, the advantage. The object of 'William in accept ing the crown of England was probably not so much to free the English nation from the tyranny of James, as to enlist its power on his side against that of France. In spite of his sterling qualities, and of the debt which they owed to him, the English nation never really liked William III. The death of his wife, on whom the crown had been conferred jointly with himself, in 1693, materially injured his position. His schemes were thwarted by parliament; continual plots for his assassination were hatched by the adln - •ts of James; and in his warfare with France, victory was almost always on the side < f 1-mis, William being iu person repeatedly defeated by Luxembourg (q.vt); and it was not without a struggle and a pang that he agreed to the terms of the peace, eminently popular, however, which was concluded at Ryswick on Sept. 10, 1697. The death of Charles II. of Spain in 1700, and the succession of Philip of Anjou, was another blow to his policy. He carried it on, however, with unflagging vigor till his death, which was occasioned by a fall from his horse, on Mar. 8, 1702. The massacre of the Mzedonalds of Glencoe (q.v,), and his conduct to the promoters of the Darien scheme (q.v.), are two blots on William's reputation which Iris most thoroughgoing apologists have been unable to efface. However, he was undoubtedly a practical genius of the highest order, and the services which he rendered both to England and to his native country can hardly be overrated. During his reign the bank of England had been founded, the modern system of finance introduced, ministerial responsibility recognized, the liberty of the press secured, and the British constitution established on a firm basis.. In his domestic life lie committed the error of a too stern repression of all manifestation of kindly or genial feeling. His manner was wholly Dutch, and even his countrymen thought him blunt. " In his intercourse with the world in general." says lord Macaulay, " he appeared ignorant or negligent of those arts which double the value of a favor, take away the sting of a refusal."—See Macaulay's History of England.