February 13 – Anniversary of William and Mary's Co-Reign

nPostednon February 13, 2016

This is called the “dual cipher” of King William III
and Queen Mary II of England.

nInjust wrote about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England. Well, today I’m going to talk about another, much earlier pair of royalnrulers of England.

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nButnhere’s the unusual thing about William and Mary, King and Queen ofnEngland: they were co-rulers.

nGenerally,nEngland was ruled by a king – such as King Henry VIII or KingnEdward III. If the king was married (and he almost always was,nsometimes many times – I’m looking at you, Henry VIII!), his wifenwas called the Queen of England but was not politically powerful.nSometimes, however, the nation was ruled by a queen. Of course, Queen Elizabeth I is an example of a queen who ruled the nation. If the queen was married (Elizabeth I was not), her husband was not called the king; instead,nhe was called “Prince” or “Prince Consort.”

Butnin the case of William and Mary, this husband-and-wife team werenconsidered co-regents. William III was king; Mary II was queen; theynruled together.

nParliamentnoffered William and Mary the throne on this date in 1689. That seemsnso nice and peaceful – but in actual fact, this followed decades ofntension between the monarchy (the royal rulers) and Parliament (thenelected representatives of the people) and the people themselves –nand it also followed years of tension between Protestants andnCatholics in England.

nYounsee, William III was the Dutch Prince of Orange, but his mother wasnthe daughter of King Charles I of England. (Did you know that many ofnthe monarchs of Europe married off their children to one another?)nWilliam married his first cousin, Mary, the daughter of James, thenDuke of York.

nInn1685, James (the Duke of York) became King James II of England. SonWilliam was grandson of a former King of England, married to thendaughter of the current King of England, and a Dutch prince. Royalnthrough-and-through, and a bit English, as well, despite his birth innwhat is now the Netherlands!

When cousins marry cousins, family trees become a bit…
complicated!

nIt turned out, King James was not popular with the people of England,nespecially not with the political and religious leaders. He wasnCatholic, and he seemed to be a bit too pro-France for Britishntastes. Some people seemed to fear that he was going to rulen“absolutely” rather than work with Parliament. The majority ofnEnglish people were Protestant, and apparently many of them werenworried that James was going to bring Catholic power back to England.nTheir one comfort was that Mary was next in line for the throne –nand apparently she was Protestant like her husband (rather thannCatholic like her father?). When King James had a baby boy who –nbecause he was a MALE – would inherit the throne instead of Mary,nthe powerful Protestants took action!

nTheynurged William to invade England. With a large Dutch fleet and army,nWilliam landed at Torbay. There were only two minor clashes ofnarmies, and then James lost his power – because, remember, manynpowerful people within his own nation were behind William – andnJames and his wife fled the country and went to France.

nThisnrevolution is sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution, becausenthere was so little fighting. It is more often called the GloriousnRevolution.

WhennWilliam and Mary assumed the throne, they also signed a Bill ofnRights, which became one of the most important documents in Britain’snpolitical history. Some historians say that James’s overthrow and thensigning of the Bill of Rights began the modern parliamentaryndemocracy that Britain has had ever since.