The ‘Glorious Revolution’, or de Glorieuze Overtocht in Dutch, is often called the Bloodless Revolution as there was very little bloodshed in England itself, although in Ireland it was a particularly bloody affair. Most ordinary people weren’t directly affected by the invasion as they had been during the Civil Wars (1642-52). In his book The King Over the Water, Desmond Steward said of it: “The events of 1688 were not so much a revolution as an aristocratic coup d’etat that ended in a one party state …” The events of 1688 were probably more significant politically for England than the Civil Wars as there were very few real changes to the system after the latter. Although William was invited to take the throne by some notable English figures, his arrival on British shores is still viewed by many as an invasion of England by the Dutch to remove a potential ally of Louis XIV of France.…
Category: Wars and revolts
King William’s War
The name King William’s War was given to the American theatre of operations in the Nine Years’ War. It was probably named so because the war broke out when William III ascended to the throne of England and because of the financial interests he held in the Hudson Bay Company. It was fought on a much smaller scale than in Europe. One area of contention was the fur trade in the colonies, another was Caribbean trade. England and Spain, who were traditionally enemies in the Caribbean, were now allied against France, but although the Allies had for the most part the naval advantage in this region, it proved impossible to keep the French from supplying their colonial forces.
Nine Years’ War
The Nine Years’ War, which took place from 1688-1697, was also known as the war of the Grand Alliance, or King William’s War in the Americas. The Grand Alliance was formed by England, the Dutch Republic, and the Grand Duchy of Austria, later to be joined by others, including Spain and Savoy, to oppose Louis XIV’s expansionism on the Rhine and in northern Italy. Louis XIV’s anti-protestant policies, in particular the persecution of the French Huguenots, also made him unpopular with protestant rulers in Europe. This war also sometimes mistakenly referred to as the War of the League of Augsburg after the coalition formed in 1686 by Emperor Leopold I, the kings of Sweden and Spain, and the electors of Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate against the increasing French threat. Louis XIV also made himself unpopular in England by lending his support to the Jacobite cause of the deposed James II of England, attempting to instigate a Catholic crusade to restore James to the throne.…
The 1715 Jacobite Uprising
The Jacobite cause came into being after The Glorious Revolution of 1688. The reigning monarch, James II of England and VII of Scotland, was extremely unpopular due to a combination of being Catholic and harbouring absolutist ambitions. Fear of Catholicism, which was the religion of the traditional enemies France and Spain, and James II’s tendency towards absolutism pushed several Protestant nobles to invite Mary, the eldest daughter of James II, and her husband, James’s nephew William of Orange, to take the crown. When William invaded England mass defections and little resistance to William’s cause forced James II and his wife to flee to France, where they became guests of his cousin Louis XIV. In March 1689, James attempted to reclaim his throne by landing in Ireland with 6000 troops, but was soundly defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in July of that year, forcing him to flee back to France where he died in 1701.…
The Great Northern War (1700-21)
Prelude to war
At the time the war broke out, Sweden was one of the most powerful countries in Europe. The French writer Voltaire (1694-1778) called it the ‘Famous War of the North.’ From 1560 and 1700, the Swedes had built up a Baltic Empire under great leaders such as Gustavus Adolphus with their small but professional army, including occupying the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia in the east and Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, and Verden, as well as parts of Denmark and Norway in the west. By the end of 17th century Sweden had an empire which nearly circled the entire Baltic Sea. Charles XII took over throne of Sweden as absolute monarch at the age of fifteen and his neighbours saw weakness and their chance to reclaim some of the lost land. The west-looking Peter I of Russia wanted a port in the Baltic, previously taken over by the Swedes in Treaty of Stolbovo (1617).…