William III of England

:For other men named William of Orange, see William of Orange (disambiguation)

Death

In 1702, William — who did not remarry — died of complications (pneumonia) from injuries (a broken shoulder) resulting from a fall off his horse. It was believed by some that his horse had stumbled into a mole's burrow, and as a result many Jacobites toasted "the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat."

Related Topics:
1702 - Pneumonia - Horse - Mole

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

William was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside his wife. The reign of William's successor, Anne, was marked by attempts to extend the provisions of the Act of Settlement to Scotland. Angered by the English Parliament's failure to consult with them before choosing Sophia of Hanover, the Estates of Scotland enacted the Act of Security, forcing Anne to grant the Royal Assent by threatening to withdraw troops from the army fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Act provided that, if Anne died without a child, the Estates could elect the next monarch from amongst the Protestant descendants of previous Scottish Kings, but could not choose the English successor unless various religious, political and economic conditions were met. In turn, the English Parliament attempted to force the Scots to capitulate by restricting trade, thereby crippling the Scottish economy. The Scottish Estates were forced to agree to the Act of Union 1707, which united England and Scotland into a single realm called Great Britain; succession was to be under the terms established by the Act of Settlement.

Related Topics:
Westminster Abbey - Act of Security - Royal Assent - Act of Union 1707

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

William's death also brought an end to the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau, which had governed the Netherlands since the time of William the Silent (William I). The five provinces over which William III ruled — Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel — all suspended the office of Stadtholder after William III's death. The remaining two provinces — Friesland and Groningen — were never governed by William III, and continued to retain a separate Stadtholder, Johan Willem Friso. Under William III's will, Friso stood to inherit the Principality of Orange as well as several lordships in the Netherlands. He was an agnatic relative of princes Orange-Nassau, as well as one descendant of William the Silent through a female. However, the Prussian King Frederick I also claimed the Principality as the senior cognatic heir, stadtholder Frederick Henry having being his maternal grandfather and William III his first cousin.

Related Topics:
House of Orange-Nassau - William the Silent - Friesland - Groningen - Johan Willem Friso - Frederick I

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Johan Willem Friso died in 1711, leaving his claim to his son, William. Under the Treaty of Utrecht, which was agreed to in 1713, Frederick I of Prussia (who kept the title as part of his titulary) allowed the King of France, Louis XIV, to take the lands of Orange; William Friso, or William IV, who had no resources to fight for lands located in southern France, was left with the title of "Prince of Orange" which had accumulated high prestige in the Netherlands as well as in entire Protestant world. William IV was also restored to the office of Stadtholder in 1747. (From 1747 onwards, there was one Stadtholder for the entire Republic, rather than a separate Stadtholder for each province.)

Related Topics:
1711 - William - Treaty of Utrecht - 1713 - 1747

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~