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| Louis XIV in 1685 Public domain |
The European background
When he invaded England in November 1688, William was taking an extraordinary gamble. The reasons for it lie in the European situation, and in particular his worries about the expansionist politics of Louis XIV as the French state expanded territorially. In what were known as réunions, border towns were incorporated into France and forced to accept Catholicism. In 1680-1, the French attacked Orange in southern France, where William's family had its hereditary estates. In August 1681 they occupied the town and pulled down its walls, and let the dragonnades loose. This was a final insult to William as a sovereign Prince. For a while, though, he was helpless, as the Dutch States General would not allow him to increase the number of armed forces. In September 1681 the Protestant city of Strasbourg was taken from the Empire, giving the French control of much of the lower Rhine. The barrier town of Luxembourg was then besieged (it fell in June 1684).
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| The capitulation of Strasbourg, 1681 |
William’s answer was to build up an anti-French alliance. It was not easy as the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I was distracted by the Turkish invasion; in 1683 the Ottomans were at the gates of Vienna. However in the following years, as Louis seemed to be over-reaching himself, France’s enemies began to unite against her.
The Revocation of Edict of Nantes led to much ill-feeling in the United Provinces (the Netherlands), where Dutch citizens resident in France found themselves forbidden to leave French territory. In addition France put up trade barriers against the Netherlands, much to the fury of Amsterdam. This enabled William to gain the backing of the States-General (the Dutch parliament) for war against France and to build up the Dutch navy,which had been run down after the war with England.
Innocent XI was unlikely ally. Far from approving the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the pope saw it as yet another sign of French overweening ambition.
In 1686 the anti-French princes formed the League of Augsburg to protect Germany from further encroachments. The involvement of the Empire was possible because, with the lifting of the siege of Vienna, it was beginning to gain the initiative in the war with the Ottomans; Buda was captured in 1686. It was now possible to put an imperial army on the Rhine.
The decision to invade
In 1687 William sent two emissaries to England, Everard van Weede van Dijkvelt (in the spring) and Willem Zuylestein (in August). They established firm relations between William and the major political figures in England. There is no serious evidence that he was considering armed intervention at this time, but in April 1688 he told Admiral Edward Russell, then visiting Het Loo that he was considering an English invasion.What had changed? William had come to believe that James’s actions were threatening the monarchy. He believed that an English republic would be a disaster for the Netherlands; another Cromwell, bent on colonial expansion and commercial enterprise, would have ruined his whole European strategy. This fear was exacerbated by the very real fear that Mary Beatrice's child would be a son.
In May, William's cousin and heir, Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, agreed to secure the frontiers of the Dutch Republic along the Rhine to protect the Netherlands against a possible French invasion. In June, William sent Zuylestein on a second mission to England on the pretext of a congratulatory message on the birth of the prince. The real purpose was to procure the letter of invitation from ‘the immortal seven’. But the invitation was vaguely worded and there is no evidence that the signatories were inviting William to seize the throne.
In July 1688 William began to assemble a huge expeditionary force, about four times the size of the Spanish Armada, that ultimately comprised 463 ships, 5,000 horses, and some 14,000 men, though neither France nor England knew of his intentions. The odds against a successful invasion were great. Could William really succeed where Philip II had failed?
1. England now had a standing army of about 20,000 officers and men, which James was busy expanding.
2. William risked exposing the United Provinces to a French attack in his absence.
3. The practical problems with launching an invasion across the Channel were enormous, especially as this was to be done in the early winter. William’s invasion fleet was very large but it consisted mainly of unarmed transport ships, with an escort of some sixty warships – about as many as in James’s fleet.
4. William’s reception in England was far from certain. In particular, the Church of England was committed to non-resistance. His gamble depended on promises from English Protestant serving officers that they would defect.
The French invade the Palatinate
Fortunately for William, though the French were aware of the build-up of the Dutch expeditionary force, their attention was elsewhere. In September 1688 a French army crossed the Rhine and invaded the Palatinate in pursuit of a dynastic claim, thus precipitating the Nine Years' War. They laid siege to Philippsburg, where they would be pinned down for the next two months. The atrocities committed in the Rhenish Palatinate, which transformed it into a wasteland, galvanized German opinion against France. |
| Heidelberg Castle, partially destroyed by the French in 1688 |
From William’s point of view this was excellent news, as the French army was now tied down in Germany. Had they turned their attention to Maastricht or invaded the Spanish Netherlands, William would have had to cancel his plans.
On 28 September William told the States-General of his plan to invade England. His biographer, Stephen B. Baxter, believes that it was his intention all along to seize the throne - and as a king in his own right rather than simply as his wife's consort. However, he could hardly make public this intention so the pretext was that he wanted to force James to summon a parliament.
On 30 September William issued a Declaration of reasons for appearing in arms in the kingdom of England. In this he made no mention of any intention to depose James – he called for a free parliament and demanded an investigation of the legitimacy of James’s son. About 60,000 copies were printed secretly in England.
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