1674-8] William's relations with England. His marriage 163

upon as his paternal heritage, than his ambition began to busy itself with the possibilities which the future might have in store for him as the son of the Princess Royal of England. After his uncles, Charles II and James Duke of York, only James' two daughters stood between him and the throne. He was, unless the Duke of York should have a son by his second marriage, actually the next male of the blood-royal. The fact that the Duke of York had become a zealous convert to Roman Catholicism had aroused a strong feeling of aversion from his succession on the part of the large majority of the English nation, who naturally turned their eyes to the young Dutch Stadholder, the representative of a race which had done so much in defence of the Protestant cause. But the relations which William established with a number of leading English statesmen, and the part, moreover, that he took in Court intrigues and parliamentary struggles during these years will be more appropriately treated elsewhere in this volume. He played a difficult and a subtle game, and he succeeded in gaining his end, chiefly because he knew his own mind and was not deterred either by failures or by risks from going forward along the path he had marked out for himself. For his sister's son King Charles had perhaps as much affection as was to be expected from a man of his heartless temperament; but William's influence was not sufficient to make Charles give up the French connexion, and form, as his nephew urged and as the majority of the English people wished, an alliance with the Dutch Republic against Louis. Thus things remained for some years, but at last in 1676 there came a change. The difficulties with his Parliament, and his knowledge of the influence his nephew possessed with the Opposition, led Charles to see the advantage of drawing closer his relations with him. Already in 1674 there had been proposals for a marriage between him and his cousin Mary, the eldest daughter of the Duke of York. But, apart from other reasons, the youth of the Princess (born 1662) led to a postponement of the plan. The project, which had never been dropped, once more revived in 1677. His defeat at Montcassel had made the Prince feel more strongly than ever the necessity of securing the support of England in the war, and in the summer of this year he sent over his friend and trusted confidant Bentinck on a mission to London. The result was an invitation to William to pay a personal visit to the English Court, with a view to the conclusion of the marriage with Mary, and to the establishment of more friendly political relations. On October 19 the Prince arrived in London, and shortly afterwards the marriage was concluded which was to have such far-reaching consequences for the history of England and of Europe. But even at such a moment in his life William's thoughts were dominated by politics; and, when in the beginning of December he and Mary took ship for Holland, he had won over King Charles to promise his support to the conditions of peace offered by the allies to France, and his adhesion to the coalition in case of their rejection. On January 10, 1678, the

164

Peace negotiations

[1678

treaty between England and the United Provinces giving effect to these undertakings was signed and sealed. The results, however, did not fulfil William's expectations. The dynastic connexion had been viewed with distrust both by the English Parliament and by the powerful peace party in Holland, headed by Amsterdam. Indeed, in the Netherlands the Stadholder found himself confronted by an almost general opposition to the further prosecution of the war. Not merely were Valckenier and Hooft, the two most influential leaders in Amsterdam, against him; but in the ranks of the Opposition were to be found Fagel, van Beverningh and van Beuningen, and even William's young cousin, Henry Casimir, the Stadholder of Friesland. French diplomacy, meanwhile, was kept well informed of all that was occurring, and took full advantage of its knowledge in order to bring about that separate peace which Louis XIV desired.

In the meantime, a vigorous campaign was conducted by the French armies in the southern Netherlands. Ghent and Ypres fell, and the war again drew very close to the Dutch frontiers. The dread of another invasion strengthened the efforts of the peace party. Seizing their advantage, the French plenipotentiaries at Nymegen addressed themselves directly to the States General with the offer of favourable conditions; and on June 1 an armistice of six weeks was concluded. The French offered to restore Maestricht and the district known as Overmaas to the States, to conclude an advantageous treaty of commerce, and to leave the Spanish Netherlands covered by a line of fortresses. They claimed, however, as the fruits of the war the incorporation of Franche Comté and suzerainty over Lorraine. These conditions the States General, in spite of the opposition of the Stadholder, agreed to accept, and they persuaded Spain to acquiesce. The Emperor, Brandenburg, and Denmark, however, refused the terms offered them, and were bitterly incensed at being deserted. The French plenipotentiaries now suddenly announced that they would not restore the conquered towns until full restitution for her losses had been made to Sweden by Denmark and Brandenburg. This sudden change of attitude led England to declare that, unless before August 11 the French consented to the immediate restoration of the towns, she would make common cause with the Republic in reopening the war (July 26). The aim of the French in delaying the conclusion of the treaty had been to gain time for Luxembourg to reduce Mons, which he was blockading, by famine, for Spain had not been included in the armistice, and so to obtain by the possession of so important a place a more favourable position for negotiating with that Power. The Prince, who had advanced to relieve the town, waited anxiously in his camp for the day when the truce should end. The only fear was that Mons might not be able to hold out. But at the very last moment, just before midnight on August 10, the French plenipotentiaries signified to van Beverningh their intention to sign the treaty

1678-85] Peace of Nymegen.

Opposition to William 165

with the States on the conditions previously agreed upon; though difficulties on certain points were raised to delay the signing of the treaty with Spain. On August 13 news reached William of the signature of the Treaty on the 10th by van Beverningh, but not an official intimation. On the morning of the 14th official information from d'Estrées was brought to Luxembourg, who was on the point of communicating the fact to William, when the Prince's advancing army compelled the Marshal to join battle at St Denys. The issue was undecided; but it achieved its purpose of preventing the surrender of Mons. A month later (September 17) peace with Spain was concluded, at the cost to that Power of Franche Comté and twelve fortresses, and the French armies evacuated the Spanish Netherlands.

The Peace of Nymegen brought a welcome respite to the Netherlands; but, though it endured for ten years, it was felt to be an armed truce rather than a permanent settlement of differences. It left Louis XIV the dictator of Europe. Meanwhile his sleepless adversary in Holland strove against almost insuperable difficulties to arouse his countrymen to a sense of the dangers which threatened them, and to revive the coalition which the conclusion of a separate peace by the United Provinces at Nymegen had broken in pieces. But the old antiStadholder party had again lifted up its head and offered strenuous opposition to all schemes and proposals which might lead to a renewal of war with its heavy imposts and interference with commerce. Of this opposition Amsterdam was the head and centre, and it had the support of Henry Casimir, who was jealous of the supremacy of his cousin in the Republic, the two Provinces of which he was Stadholder, Friesland and Groningen, following his lead. The death, in 1680, of Gillis Valckenier, who had for a decade been the most influential man in Amsterdam and had induced his fellow-citizens to offer a bitter and stubborn resistance to William's policy, somewhat relieved the strained situation. The Amsterdamers, however, continued to be an obstacle in the Prince's path, though their leaders, Nicolaes Witsen and Johan Hudde, were not men of the same calibre as Valckenier. William had also to contend with the secret intrigues of the experienced French ambassador, Count d'Avaux, who did his utmost, by threats, promises, and bribery, to undermine the influence of the Stadholder, and, by fomenting the divisions and party spirit in the United Provinces, to render them powerless in the councils of Europe. In the southern Netherlands, Luxemburg and Alsace, Louis was able to pursue his policy of plunder and aggression unchecked. William's repeated efforts to form an armed alliance which should compel the French King to adhere to the terms of the Peace of Nymegen were fruitless. His countrymen were determined to hold aloof from foreign entanglements, so long as no one interfered with their thriving trade and rapidly reviving prosperity.

The events of 1685 were to give a shock to their self-complacency

166 Accession of James II.

Attitude of William [1681-6

and be a lever in the hands of William of which he was not slow to avail himself. These were the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the accession to the English throne of James II. Already, from 1681 onwards, the persecutions of the Protestants in France had led a constant stream of refugees to seek shelter in the free Netherlands. But with the Revocation of the Edict their number was swelled by tens of thousands; and among the refugees were many of the most industrious and skilled workmen of France, who were received with open arms by their fellow-Protestants in Holland, the towns vying with one another in offering them freedom of settlement and municipal privileges. Great was the impression produced by the tales that were brought by these unhappy Huguenots of the character of the French King and of his government; and even in Amsterdam a strong feeling of enmity to Louis and abhorrence of his methods of rule gained possession of the people. D'Avaux had to confess that his influence grew less and less, while that of the Stadholder increased. In August, 1686, William's skilful and patient diplomacy was able to bring about an alliance between the Republic, the Emperor, Brandenburg, Spain, and Sweden, for the maintenance of the treaties of Münster and Nymegen, and for common defence. The coalition was, however, incomplete, for it did not include England. In that country the accession of James had been followed by a deliberate attempt on the part of the new King to set up absolute rule and to establish Roman Catholicism as the religion of the State. This necessitated the severance of all connexion with the Protestant Powers, and a return once more to the policy by which the King of England depended for support upon the subsidies of a foreign Power in order to dispense with the necessity of applying to his own Parlia ment for money grants. As the feelings of the nation became more and more outraged by the arbitrary acts of James, those who were deeply attached to the cause of civil and religious liberty turned their eyes to the Prince of Orange, who had never ceased to keep himself in close touch with a number of leading English statesmen. At the same time public opinion in the States, with its growing enmity to France, could not remain unmoved by the spectacle of a Romish King in England in league with Louis for the oppression of his Protestant subjects. The spectre of 1672 began to loom large in the imagination of the Netherlanders the uneasy feeling that the Republic might find itself at any moment face to face with a combined attack from France and England.

William took full advantage of the change of sentiment to press forward by negotiations public and private to the realisation of his unalterable and dominating life-purpose - the welding together of a coalition against French overlordship in Europe. A man of inflexible temper and one overmastering idea does not as a rule ingratiate himself with others. This was eminently the case with William III. Haughty, Jomineering, somewhat harsh in his manner, he was not a man to

1677-89]

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167

win popular applause, or an attractive personality. Except to Waldeck and Bentinck and a few confidants, he never unbosomed himself; he was to the outside world a riddle, misunderstood and misjudged, as can be seen by the portrait drawn of him in the memoirs of Constantine Huyghens, who was for many years his secretary. No one suffered more from the unamiable qualities of William than his wife. Gentle, unassuming, sympathetic, deeply and sincerely religious, and filled with a profound sense of duty, she was rightly regarded by the people amongst whom by a marriage of state her lot had been cast, as a model of what a woman, a.wife and a princess should be. No Princess of Orange ever succeeded in winning her way so completely to the hearts and affections of the Dutch of all classes. And yet for years her husband treated her with a frigid indifference and neglect, which it is impossible to excuse. The estrangement between them did not tend to increase William's popularity, and it caused pain and wonder to many, among these to Bishop Burnet on his visit to the Hague in 1686. He spoke to the Prince on the matter, and learnt to his astonishment that the aversion, for it amounted to this, arose chiefly from the fact that the proud, masterful nature of the man could not endure the thought that one day his wife would be a queen in her own right and that he would be her subject. No sooner was Mary informed by the Bishop of the Prince's grievance than she at once sought an interview with her husband, and told him that she would never consent to accept the Crown unless Parliament would grant to William the right not merely to the regal title but to the administration of the Government. "In return,"

she said, "I only ask this, that, as I shall observe the precept which enjoins wives to obey their husbands, you will observe that which enjoins husbands to love their wives." William was deeply touched, and from that time there was reconciliation between them. Neither of them can have suspected that within two years Mary would be called upon to choose between the cause of her husband and her religion and the ties of filial love. She did not hesitate to follow what she conceived to be the path of duty. Side by side in Westminster Abbey on February 21, 1689, William III and Mary II were crowned King and Queen of England, but it was William who sat upon St Edward's Chair.