Mary II
Born 1662; Ruled 1688-1694
Opelika High School
AP & Honors English 12
18th Century History Notes
Dr. Hannah
 Married to William in 1677; had little sympathy for her father because he was Catholic
 Named as co-monarch of England in 1688, although she was subservient to William when he was in England. Theirs
was the first co-monarchy since Mary I (Tudor) and Phillip II of Spain.
 William spent most of his time out of the country—defeated a Jacobite rebellion led by James II in Ireland and then
fought against the French in the Netherlands.
 Mary was loved by the English people, and she was a capable ruler when William was out of the country.
 She died of smallpox in 1694. William was heart-broken.
William III
Born 1650; Ruled 1688-1702
 When he dealt with Parliament during the Glorious Revolution, William demanded to be named King of England
rather than consort of Mary Stuart who had the rightful claim to the throne. He also demanded to retain the title of
King if Mary died before he died.
 William crushed the Jacobites in Ireland in 1690. He was also a zealous enemy of France.
 William was a supporter of the Whigs, and he chartered The Bank of England.
 William endowed The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, a city named in his honor.
 William died after being injured when his horse stepped in a mole-hole and stumbled. Jacobites toasted “the little
gentleman in black velvet” responsible for the accident.
 After his death, the throne went to Mary’s younger sister Anne since William and Mary had no surviving children.
Anne
Born 1665; Ruled 1702-1714
 Second surviving daughter of James II; she was raised a strict Protestant.
 Married to Prince George of Denmark.
 By 1700, she had been pregnant 18 times; 13 times she miscarried or the child was stillborn. Four children died
before the age of two. One son survived to the age of 11. Curiously, the bodies of the children were buried in the
tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey.
 1701—Since Anne would obviously have no heir, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement naming the Hanover line
in Germany as the successors to the English throne, preventing a Catholic Jacobite ruler from taking the throne. The
Hanovers were descendents of James I.
 The most important legislation passed during her reign was The Act of Union in1707. This act combined the
governments of Scotland and England into one government called Great Britain. Scottish lords had seats in the
House of Lords, and the Scots elected members to the House of Commons. Parliament was afraid that, left alone,
Scotland would choose a Jacobite ruler. In 1998, Parliament allowed Scotland to reconvene its own Scottish
Parliament in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
 Anne was the last English monarch to veto an act in Parliament.
 Anne was the last Protestant Stuart. Her health was terrible by the time of her death. She had gained so much weight
that she had to be moved around my mechanical means. Her coffin was almost square.