William III

Rumours about the sexual proclivities of King William III began to spread as soon as he took the English throne. What went on behind the closed doors of the royal court had implications for the nation.

In the era of the early modern ‘secret state’, two notorious brothers set up an elaborate intelligence network, managing a vast array of spies and informers watchful for Jacobite plots against Britain.

William III was one of the most successful, yet least popular, of British monarchs, writes J.P. Kenyon, whose reign marked a steady advance in the ascent of his adopted country. You can find the first part of this article here.

J.P. Kenyon profiles William III, of whom Hallam said: “It must ever be an honour to the English Crown that it has been worn by so great a man.”

John Carswell analyses some of the foremost political actors in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

The future king of England was born in his family's court at The Hague on November 4th, 1650.

Simon Thurley sniffs the air in William III's Privy Garden at Hampton Court.

Without the economic muscle of the Netherlands' largest city, William III would never have been able to stage Britain's 'Glorious Revolution' or urge European war against Louis XIV. But his relationship with Amsterdam's burghers was far from smooth, as Elizabeth Edwards outlines here.

Bill Speck considers the three-cornered manoeuvrings between Anglicanism, Dissent and Catholicism that culminated in the events of 1688-89.

Frouke Wieringa considers the life of a great prince in the sixteenth century and the fluctuations in his fortunes during the Dutch Revolt