William II and Mary II (1689–1694): The Dual Monarchy and the Birth of Constitutional Monarchy
The reign of William II (William III of England) and Mary II from 1689 to 1694 was one of the most transformative and consequential periods in British and Scottish history. Their joint accession to the throne was the result of the Glorious Revolution—a political and constitutional upheaval that ended the reign of James VII of Scotland (and James II of England) and redefined the nature of monarchy in Britain. William and Mary were invited to take the throne not simply as monarchs by hereditary right, but as rulers who owed their authority to the consent of Parliament. Their reign marked the emergence of a new constitutional order in which the powers of the crown were limited by law, and parliamentary sovereignty was firmly established. The passage of the Bill of Rights in 1689 set the foundation for modern parliamentary monarchy, while William’s military victories over the Jacobites and the French secured the Protestant succession and reinforced Britain’s geopolitical position in Europe. Their reign was brief—lasting only five years—but its impact was profound and long-lasting. As historian John Miller observes, “William and Mary’s accession to the throne was not the restoration of monarchy as it had been known before—it was the creation of a new constitutional order in which the crown’s authority was limited by law and the supremacy of Parliament was assured” (Miller, 1978).
William of Orange and Mary Stuart were an unlikely pair of monarchs. William was born on 4 November 1650 in The Hague, the posthumous son of William II, Prince of Orange and Mary Stuart, the daughter of Charles I of England and Scotland. William was raised in the Protestant Dutch Republic, where he was shaped by the religious and political tensions of the Thirty Years’ War and the ongoing conflict between the Protestant Dutch states and Catholic France under Louis XIV. William’s upbringing in the highly militarized and politically sophisticated Dutch Republic made him a skilled diplomat and military strategist, but he was also known for his cold and reserved personality. His early life was marked by the political instability of the Dutch Republic, where rival factions of republican and monarchical supporters vied for power. William’s political rise was shaped by his opposition to French expansionism and his commitment to defending Protestantism in Europe. His military victories against the French during the Franco-Dutch War established his reputation as a capable commander and a champion of Protestant Europe.
Mary Stuart, in contrast, was born on 30 April 1662 at St. James’s Palace in London, the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York (later James VII and II) and Anne Hyde. Raised in an Anglican household, Mary was known for her deep personal piety and her devotion to the Church of England. Her marriage to William in 1677 was arranged as part of a broader diplomatic strategy to strengthen the Anglo-Dutch alliance against France. The marriage was initially unpopular at the English court, where William’s Dutch background and his political ambitions were viewed with suspicion. Despite this, Mary adapted to life in the Dutch Republic and developed a strong personal and political partnership with William. Her marriage to William placed her in the complex position of being both the Protestant heir to the English and Scottish thrones and the consort of a foreign prince with his own political and military agenda.
The political crisis that led to William and Mary’s accession began in 1685 with the coronation of Mary’s father, James VII and II. James’s open Catholicism and his attempts to impose religious tolerance for Catholics alarmed the Protestant political elite and created deep political and religious divisions in Britain. James’s decision to appoint Catholics to senior military and political positions and his close political alignment with Louis XIV of France raised fears that James intended to establish a Catholic absolutist state modeled on the French monarchy. The birth of James’s Catholic son and heir, James Francis Edward Stuart, on 10 June 1688 created the final political crisis. Until this point, the Protestant elite had tolerated James’s Catholicism in the belief that his Protestant daughter Mary, married to William of Orange, would eventually succeed him. The birth of a Catholic male heir, however, raised the prospect of a permanent Catholic dynasty and prompted the Protestant establishment to take action.
In June 1688, a group of leading Protestant nobles—the so-called Immortal Seven—invited William of Orange to intervene militarily to protect Protestantism and parliamentary authority. William, who had been preparing for a conflict with France, saw the invitation as an opportunity to strengthen the Protestant cause in Britain and expand Dutch influence in European politics. On 5 November 1688, William landed at Torbay on the southwest coast of England with an army of 15,000 Dutch and mercenary troops. James’s political and military support collapsed almost immediately. His key military commanders, including John Churchill (later Duke of Marlborough), defected to William’s side. Even James’s younger daughter Anne abandoned him. On 11 December 1688, James fled from London and attempted to escape to France. He was briefly captured but was allowed to leave for France, where he was received by Louis XIV at the French court.
In February 1689, Parliament formally declared that James’s flight constituted an abdication of the throne. The political settlement that followed was revolutionary. William and Mary were invited to take the throne jointly as co-monarchs—an arrangement without precedent in British history. On 13 February 1689, William and Mary accepted the crown of England, and on 11 April 1689, they were crowned as William II and Mary II of Scotland at Westminster Abbey. The accession of William and Mary was not merely a dynastic shift—it represented the establishment of a new constitutional order in which the authority of the crown was defined and limited by parliamentary law. Michael Lynch writes that “the invitation to William and Mary to assume the throne was not merely a change of dynasty—it was a redefinition of monarchy itself, establishing the principle that the crown’s authority was derived from the consent of Parliament” (Lynch, 1991).
The foundation of William and Mary’s reign was the Bill of Rights of 1689, which established the constitutional framework that would define the modern British state. The Bill of Rights declared that the monarchy could not suspend or dispense with laws without parliamentary consent, prohibited the crown from maintaining a standing army without parliamentary approval, and guaranteed the right to free parliamentary elections and the regular meeting of Parliament. It also barred Catholics from ascending the throne and reaffirmed the Protestant succession. The Bill of Rights fundamentally altered the balance of power between the crown and Parliament, creating a constitutional monarchy in which the crown ruled with the consent of the governed. John Miller argues that “the Bill of Rights was not simply a political document—it was the foundation of the constitutional order that would define British governance for the next three centuries” (Miller, 1978).
The most immediate threat to William and Mary’s authority came from the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. In 1689, John Graham of Claverhouse (Viscount Dundee) raised a Jacobite army to restore James VII to the throne. Dundee’s forces defeated a government army at the Battle of Killiecrankie on 27 July 1689, but Dundee was killed in the battle. Without Dundee’s leadership, the Jacobite cause in Scotland quickly lost momentum. William’s forces defeated the remaining Jacobite army at the Battle of Dunkeld in August 1689, securing William and Mary’s authority in Scotland.
William’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was the decisive military event of his reign. James landed in Ireland with French support, hoping to rally Catholic forces and reclaim the throne. William personally led his army against James’s forces and defeated them at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690. The victory secured William’s authority in Ireland and reinforced the Protestant Ascendancy.
Mary II died of smallpox on 28 December 1694 at the age of 32, leaving William to rule alone. Despite his military and political success, William never fully recovered from the loss of his wife, and his popularity declined in the later years of his reign. Nonetheless, William and Mary’s reign laid the foundation for modern constitutional monarchy, secured the Protestant succession, and established Britain as a rising military and political power in Europe.
References
- Miller, John. (1978). The Glorious Revolution. Yale University Press.
- Lynch, Michael. (1991). Scotland: A New History. Pimlico.
- Hutton, Ronald. (1993). The Restoration. Clarendon Press.