Willem van Oranje (King William III), 1650-1702
In this website, I will try to describe some of the following:
- the political aspects of William's life (i.e. in the Dutch Republic, in Great Britain and Ireland, and in Europe as a whole);
- the way his Dutch background affected attitudes to him in Great Britain and Ireland;
- the way his upbringing and early political experience in the Dutch Republic contributed to his success as the constitutional monarch of England & Wales, Scotland and Ireland and his success in thwarting Louis XIV's plans to dominate Europe.
- the Dutch perspective of his role as a prince of the royal house of Oranje-Nassau and stadhouder (governor) of most of the provinces in the Dutch Republic and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Dutch Republic; his successful attempts before 1688 to win back for his family the power and influence that his father had lost;
- the British perspective of his reign as joint monarch with his wife (in other words, their reign as King William III and Queen Mary);
and the European perspective of his life-long attempts to keep Louis XIV of France from dominating Europe.
I find it interesting that William had considerable political skills despite having a very considerable lack of "social skills".
On the other hand, there are some aspects of his life that are negative or very negative, e.g.:
- the amount of his involvement (if any) in the murder of Johan de Witt
- the massacre of Glencoe
- the fact that he never visited Scotland once during his reign
- the way he renegued on the promises he made in the Treaty of Limerick
King William III (Prins Willem van Oranje, 1650-1702)