Mary II (Queen of England)

Origin and early years

"The Family of James, Duke of York." Duke James and Duchess Anna were written by Peter Lely between 1668 and 1670, Princess Maria and Anna were added by not earlier than 1680

Mary was born on April 30, 1662 in the St. James's Palace in the family of James, Duke of York , and his first wife, Anna Hyde . The birth of Mary was the result of the second pregnancy of the Duchess; all in all, eight children were born in the family, of which only Maria and her younger sister Anna survived to adulthood ^[1] . On the father's side, the princess was the granddaughter of the king of England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles I and the French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon , on her mother's side - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , and his second wife, Francis Aylesbury. Maria was born in the reign of her uncle, King Charles II , whose main adviser for a long time served as Princess Maternal grandfather - Edward Hyde. The crowned uncle of Mary had no legitimate children, so the princess took second place in the line of succession after her father ^[2] .

Mary was baptized in the Anglican faith at the Royal Chapel of St James's Palace and was named after her great-great-grandmother on her father, Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart ; among the princess’s recipients was her father’s cousin Rupert of Pfalz ^[3] . In 1668 or 1669, the princess’s father, under the influence of his wife (she changed her faith eight years earlier), converted to Catholicism , however, both Mary and her younger sister Anna ^{[k 4] were} raised in Anglicanism ^[5] at the request of their uncle king ^{[6 ]} . By order of his uncle, in order to save the girls from the influence of Catholic parents, Mary and Anna were transferred to their own chambers of the , where they were brought up by the governess Lady Frances Villiers, wife of the English political and military figure ; princesses grew up almost in isolation and only occasionally could visit their parents in St. James and grandfather, Earl of Clarendon, in Twickenham ^[7] . Private teachers taught Mary, and her education was limited to music, dancing, drawing, French, and religious education ^[8] .

The princess’s mother died in 1671, and two years later her father married for the second time: the pious Catholic Maria Modenskaya , who was only four years older than Princess Mary, became the wife of the Duke of York ^[9] . Soon after the arrival of Maria Modenskaya in England, James introduced her daughters to her with the words “I brought you new partners for the games” ^[10] . The young duchess quickly managed to get close to Princess Mary, which could not be said about the relationship of the stepmother with Princess Anne ^[11] . Even more, the two Marys became close in the period when the duchess experienced the death of her little daughter in 1675 and several miscarriages and the appearance of non-viable offspring in the next few years ^{[k 5] [13]} . Later in 1678, when the princess was already married and residing in the Netherlands, the Duchess of York, along with Princess Anna, incognito visited Mary in The Hague ^{[14] [15]} .

Starting from the age of nine, Maria corresponded with , daughter of the court sir , who served as maid of honor for Mary and her sister Anna and was about nine years older than the princess. Letters to Francis, written by Maria as a teenager, indicate that the princess idolized Epsley ^[16] , which is why some researchers suggested that the future queen was in love with her maid of honor ^[17] . Maria’s passionate letters began to give Francis discomfort ^[18] , and she began to answer them more formally and coldly. However, despite this, the correspondence between the women was preserved even when Epsley married and left the yard ^[19] .

Marriage

At the age of fifteen, Mary was engaged to her Protestant cousin Wilhelm of Orange , a staffing officer in the Netherlands . William was the son of the late sister of King Charles II , Mary Stuart , and took fourth place in the line for the Anglo-Scottish throne after Mary's father, herself and her younger sister ^[20] . Initially, Charles II was against an alliance with the Dutch ruler - he preferred that Mary marry the heir to the French throne, Dauphin Louis , thus uniting his kingdoms with Catholic France and increasing the chances of a peaceful reign of a possible Catholic successor in England and Scotland. Later, however, under pressure from parliament and because the alliance with the French Catholics was no longer politically favorable, he approved the proposed marriage to a Dutch nephew. The Duke of York agreed to marriage only under pressure from the Chief Minister Lord Dunby and the King, who incorrectly suggested that this could increase the popularity of his Catholic brother among the Protestants ^[21] . When her father informed Maria that she should marry her cousin, “she cried all evening and the next day” ^[22] .

November 4, 1677 in St. James William and the tearful Mary was crowned Henry Henry Compton ^{[23] [24]} . In the same month, after a two-week delay caused by bad weather, Maria, accompanied by her husband, left for the Netherlands ^{[25] [26]} . Rotterdam was icebound, and the newlyweds were forced to go ashore in the small village of and go through the frosty countryside until they met a carriage that took them to the palace, located two miles south West from the border of The Hague ^{[27] [28]} . On December 14, they made an official, solemn entry into The Hague ^[29] .

The lively and representative nature of Mary made her very popular with the Dutch, and her marriage to a Protestant was enthusiastically received in Britain ^[30] . The princess was betrayed by her husband, but he was often absent due to campaigns; this led to the fact that the family of Mary believed that William was cold to his wife and neglected her ^[31] . Within a few months after the wedding, Maria became pregnant, but during a visit to William in the fortified city of Breda , the princess suffered a miscarriage, which, possibly, forever deprived her of the ability to have children ^{[32] [33]} . However, in the future, Mary three times — in the middle of 1678, at the beginning of 1679 and 1680 — there were severe attacks of a certain illness, which could well turn out to be another miscarriage ^[34] . Failure to have a baby upset Mary and made her miserable her whole life ^{[35] [36]} .

Since May 1684, the illegitimate son of King Charles II, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , lived in exile in the Netherlands, where he was received by Mary and her husband. Monmouth was considered the enemy of the Duke of York and a potential Protestant heir who could oust Mary's father from the line of succession. The presence of Monmouth at the Dutch court bothered Mary, but Wilhelm did not consider the duke a viable alternative to father-in-law and correctly assumed that Monmouth did not have enough influence and support ^[37] .

Father's Board

In February 1685, the uncle of Mary, King Charles II , who did not leave legal offspring, died, and the princess’s father ascended the throne under the name of Jacob II . Maria played cards when Wilhelm informed her of what had happened and that she herself was now the alleged heir to the Anglo-Scottish throne ^[38] . However, this situation did not suit everyone: shortly after the death of his father, James Scott, the 1st Duke of Monmouth , inspired by the support of Bill's supporters, gathered the forces of the invasion in Amsterdam and went to Britain to overthrow the Catholic king and take the throne. Maria’s spouse informed Jacob of the departure of Monmouth and ordered the English troops stationed in the Netherlands to return to their homeland to prevent the overthrow of the father-in-law and the seizure of power by the bastard of the late king ^[39] . Wilhelm probably acted in his own interests, since in the event of victory of Monmouth, both he and Mary would most likely be excluded from the line of succession. To William's relief, the rebellion of Monmouth failed: despite his numerical superiority, the duke lost the battle of Sedgmoor , was captured and executed. However, William and Mary were alarmed by the subsequent actions of James II ^[40] .

The reign of Mary’s father was marked by a controversial religious policy: he prepared a royal decree according to which all acts depriving non- Anglicans of religion were suspended, but the actions of the king were not approved by parliament ^[41] . Maria considered her father’s actions illegal, and her chaplain expressed this view in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, on behalf of the Princess. ^[42] Maria was even more worried by the fact that Jacob refused to help when the French Catholic King Louis XIV invaded Orange to persecute Huguenot refugees. At the same time, Jacob began to intrigue against his son-in-law: in an attempt to bring discord into the relations between Mary and William, the king called on the English court daughters to inform her that William had an affair with . Mary, learning about her husband’s infidelity, decided to make sure of this: one night she began to wait for William near the Villiers room and found the prince leaving Elizabeth’s rooms late at night. William denied adultery, and Mary seemed to believe and forgive him ^{[43] [44]} . It is likely that there was no romance, and Wilhelm met with Willers to receive diplomatic information through her ^{[45] [44]} . Maria’s courtiers, who came with her from England and probably obeyed her father, were sent back after this incident ^{[46] [44]} .

Glorious Revolution

Beginning in 1686, Mary’s spouse kept in touch with the discontented reign of Jacob II , Protestant nobles in England and Scotland ^[46] . After Jacob attempted to get Anglican clergymen to read a , a proclamation that granted religious freedom to Catholics and dissenting Protestants , in their churches in May 1688, his popularity fell even further ^[41] . The alarm among the Protestants intensified when the king’s wife, Maria Modenskaya , gave birth in June 1688 to the son of James Francis Edward , who, unlike Mary and Anna , the royal couple was going to raise in Catholicism. Some Protestants were convinced that the boy was “fake”: he was secretly carried into the Queen’s chambers in order to replace the dead baby born by her ^{[47] [48]} . In search of information, Maria sent a list of questions, consisting of eighteen items relating to the circumstances of the birth of the child, to her sister Anna ^[49] , who had previously suspected her stepmother of pretending to be pregnant ^[50] . Princess Anna was being treated in Bath during the birth of her half-brother and could not reliably know what was happening at that time in the Queen’s chambers, but in response to Maria’s letter she wrote: “I will never know for sure whether this child is true or false. He may be our brother, but only God knows [this] ... no matter what changes happen, you will always find me firm in your faith and faithful to you. ” Anna’s response was largely unreliable and biased, but he, as well as the ongoing rumors ^{[k 6],} confirmed Mary that her brother was a changeling and her father was a religious deserter ^[49] , who was striving to ensure Catholic continuity on the throne ^{[52] ] [53]} .

On June 30, the “ ” secretly asked William, who was with his wife in the Republic of the United Provinces , to assemble an army and invade England to remove Jacob II from the throne. ^[54] Wilhelm had previously stated that military intervention, for which he was gathering strength, would depend on this kind of invitation, but hesitated; perhaps he was jealous of the position of his wife as the heiress of the English crown and was afraid that she would become more powerful than himself. Nevertheless, according to historian , Maria convinced her husband that she did not want power and “would be nothing more than his wife and would do everything in her power to make him king for life” ^{[55 ]} . Mary assured William that she would always obey her husband, as she had promised in her marriage vows ^{[56] [57]} .

William agreed to invade England and published a declaration in which the newborn son of James II was referred to as the “imaginary prince of Wales”; he also compiled a list of complaints from the English people and stated that his alleged expedition would be carried out for the sole purpose of convening a “free and legal parliament” ^[58] . Wilhelm and the Dutch army, in the absence of Mary, who remained in the Netherlands, landed in England on November 5, 1688, after a sea voyage complicated by storms in October ^[59] . Dissatisfied with the British army and navy immediately went over to William ^[60] , and already on December 11, the defeated King Jacob tried to escape, but was captured. On December 23, the overthrown king again tried to escape - this time successfully; Wilhelm probably did not intend to kill his father-in-law if he left the country, and therefore allowed Jacob to flee to France, where he ended his days ^[61] .

Maria was upset by the circumstances surrounding the deposition of her father, and was torn between caring for him and her duty to her husband, but she was convinced that William’s actions, no matter how unpleasant they were, were necessary for “saving the Church and the state” ^{[62] [63]} . When Mary arrived in England after the New Year, she wrote about her “secret joy” - returning to her homeland, but this event was overshadowed by the misfortunes that befell her father ^{[64] [65]} . William ordered his wife to show joy when they triumphantly enter London, as a result of which Mary was criticized by John Evelyn and Sarah Churchill for such an attitude to the plight of her father ^{[64] [66]} . Jacob wrote a diatribe against his daughter, in which he criticized her disloyalty; Father’s actions deeply influenced the pious Mary ^[67] .

In January 1689, Maria’s spouse convened a to develop a plan to counter the Jacobites and finally resolve the issue of inheritance ^[68] . Some politicians, led by Lord Danby, believed that Mary, being the rightful heiress in a straight line, should be the sole monarch, while William and his supporters were adamant that the husband could not obey his wife ^[69] . William wanted to rule as king, and not be content with the role of spouse under the queen ^{[70] [71]} . On the other hand, Maria herself did not want to be the ruling queen, believing that women should obey their husbands, and “knowing that my heart was not created for the kingdom, and my inclination leads me to a secluded quiet life” ^{[72] [71]} .

On February 13, 1689, Parliament adopted the , in which it determined that Jacob II, having fled the country on December 11, 1688, abdicated, and that the throne was thus now free. Parliament proposed the crown not to Jacob's eldest son, James Francis Edward (who would be the heir under ordinary circumstances), but to William and Mary as co-rulers. The only precedent for a joint monarchy dates back to the sixteenth century: when Queen Maria I Tudor married Philip of Spain , it was decided that the latter would take the title of king, but only for the time of his wife’s reign, and he would have practically no real power. Wilhelm remained king after his wife’s death, and during her life “the only and full exercise of royal power [will] be carried out by the mentioned Prince of Orange on behalf of the said prince and princess during their life together” ^[73] . Subsequently, removal from the succession to the throne was extended not only to Jacob and his heirs (except Anna ), but to all Catholics, since “experience shows that the administration of the papal prince is contrary to the safety and prosperity of this Protestant kingdom” ^[74] .

The joint coronation of William III and Mary II took place at Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689 under the leadership of Bishop of London Henry Compton . The coronation was usually carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury , but William Sancroft , who held this post, although professed Anglicanism, refused to recognize the overthrow of James II. Neither Wilhelm nor Mary enjoyed the ceremony: Mary considered “all this to be vanity”, and Wilhelm - “a relic of the papist past” ^[75] . On the same day, the council of possessions of Scotland, which was much more divided than the English Parliament , finally announced that James II was no longer the king of Scotland, that “no papist can be the king or queen of this kingdom”, that William and Mary will become co-rulers of each other and that Wilhelm will exercise a single and complete power. The next day in Edinburgh, Mary and her husband were proclaimed Queen and King of Scotland. They took the coronation oath of Scotland in London on May 11 ^[73] .

Despite the recognition of the spouses as the country's new monarchs, supporters of James II remained in Scotland. gathered an army in the Scottish Highlands and won a landslide victory at the on July 27th. The huge losses suffered by Dundee’s troops, however, combined with his mortal wound at the start of the battle, served to eliminate Wilhelm’s only effective resistance, and the rebellion was quickly crushed when Dundee’s supporters were defeated the following month at the ^{[ 76]} .

Reign

During the joint rule of William and Mary, the Bill of Rights of 1689 was adopted and the legal system of Britain was improved.

During her husband’s absence in England (he fought with the Jacobites in Ireland or with Louis XIV on the continent, and from time to time he visited his native Netherlands, where he remained the ruler), Maria assumed leadership of the government and made some important decisions herself. So, she ordered the arrest of her own uncle, Lord Clarendon, who plotted in favor of Jacob II. In 1692, the queen sentenced John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , a well-known commander and statesman, to prison for some misconduct (apparently also for connection with the Jacobites). In addition, she was actively involved in replacing church posts.

Maria died at the age of 33 from smallpox . Wilhelm became her sole successor.

Title

• April 30, 1662 - November 4, 1677: Her Highness Lady Mary ^[77]
• November 4, 1677 - February 13, 1689: Her Highness Princess of Orange ^[73]
• February 13, 1689 - December 28, 1694: Her Majesty the Queen

The joint naming of William III and Mary II from February 13 to April 11, 1689 looked like this: "William and Mary, the mercy of God, the king and queen of England, France and Ireland, defenders of the faith , and so on." On April 11, the Scottish Parliament recognized them as their monarchs and the royal couple became known as: “William and Mary, the mercy of God, the king and queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defenders of the faith, and so on” ^[78] .

Coat of Arms

Genealogy

Family Tree

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