Window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax , some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces (which can be (re)glazed later). In England and Wales it was introduced in 1696 and in Scotland from 1748. It was repealed in both cases in 1851. In France it was established in 1798 and was repealed in 1926.
127-528: The tax was introduced in England and Wales in 1696 under King William III and was designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer, but without the controversy that then surrounded the idea of income tax . At that time, many people in Britain opposed income tax, on principle, because the disclosure of personal income represented an unacceptable governmental intrusion into private matters, and
254-503: A Whig majority, quickly resolved that the throne was vacant, and that it was safer if the ruler were Protestant. There were more Tories in the House of Lords , which would not initially agree, but after William refused to be a regent or to agree to remain king only in his wife's lifetime, there were negotiations between the two houses and the Lords agreed by a narrow majority that the throne
381-646: A Convention of the Estates of Scotland , which met on 14 March 1689. He sent it a conciliatory letter, while James sent haughty uncompromising orders, swaying a majority in favour of William. On 11 April, the day of the English coronation, the Convention finally declared that James was no longer King of Scotland. William and Mary were offered the Scottish Crown; they accepted on 11 May. William encouraged
508-545: A Dutch rump state . In addition to differing political outlooks, William found that his lifestyle differed from his uncles Charles and James, who were more concerned with drinking, gambling, and cavorting with mistresses. The following year, the Republic's security deteriorated quickly as an Anglo-French attack became imminent. In view of the threat, the States of Gelderland wanted William to be appointed Captain-General of
635-703: A Dutch army, William landed at Brixham in southwest England on 5 November 1688. He came ashore from the ship Den Briel , proclaiming "the liberties of England and the Protestant religion I will maintain". William's fleet was vastly larger than the Spanish Armada 100 years earlier: approximately consisting of 463 ships with 40,000 men on board, including 9,500 sailors, 11,000 foot soldiers, 4,000 cavalry and 5,000 English and Huguenot volunteers. James's support began to dissolve almost immediately upon William's arrival; Protestant officers defected from
762-567: A cadet branch of the ruling house of the county of Burgundy, the Anscarids or House of Ivrea . They married the heiress of Baux-Orange. Rene inherited the principality of Orange from his uncle Philbert on the condition that he bear the name and arms of the house of Chalon-Orange. Therefore, he is usually counted as one of the Chalon-Orange and history knows him as Rene of Chalon, rather than "of Nassau". William of Nassau inherited
889-539: A champion of their faith. In 1685, his Catholic uncle and father-in-law, James, became king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. James's reign was unpopular with Protestants in the British Isles , who opposed Catholic Emancipation . Supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, William invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution . In 1688, he landed at
1016-692: A claim on the principality through the claims of the Orléans-Longueville via Alix of Chalon (see above). After his death in 1727 the principality was deemed merged in the Crown by 1731. After the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ceded Orange to France, the following claimants came forward in official protests against the terms of the treaty: However, as the treaty considered Orange to now be conquered by and annexed to France, their protests were ignored. Because William III died without legitimate children,
1143-407: A claim, albeit distant, to the principality itself due to John William Friso's descent from Louise de Coligny , who was a descendant of the original Princes of Orange. (Louise's great grandmother, Anne Pot, Countess of Saint-Pol, was a descendant of Tiburge d'Orange , who married into the des Baux family) They could also claim descent from the del Balzo, an Italian branch of the des Baux family, via
1270-618: A colonel, another a knight, a third a peer, and a fourth an earl ." William's reputation in Scotland suffered further damage when he refused English assistance to the Darien scheme , a Scottish colony (1698–1700) that failed disastrously. Although the Whigs were William's strongest supporters, he initially favoured a policy of balance between the Whigs and Tories . The Marquess of Halifax ,
1397-524: A few intimates, were allowed to disturb him. The next year only Grave and Maastricht remained in French hands. Fagel now proposed to treat the liberated provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel as conquered territory ( Generality Lands ), as punishment for their quick surrender to the enemy. William refused but obtained a special mandate from the States General to appoint all delegates in
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#17327718784281524-602: A friend, and often having maintained secret contacts with him for years, many English politicians began to urge an armed invasion of England. William at first opposed the prospect of invasion, but most historians now agree that he began to assemble an expeditionary force in April 1688, as it became increasingly clear that France would remain occupied by campaigns in Germany and Italy, and thus unable to mount an attack while William's troops would be occupied in Britain. Believing that
1651-595: A further illness later in 1678, she never conceived again. Throughout William and Mary's marriage, William had only one reputed mistress, Elizabeth Villiers , in contrast to the many mistresses his uncles openly kept. By 1678, Louis XIV sought peace with the Dutch Republic. Even so, tensions remained: William remained suspicious of Louis, thinking that the French king desired " universal kingship " over Europe; Louis described William as "my mortal enemy" and saw him as an obnoxious warmonger. France's annexations in
1778-558: A greater sense of urgency in November 1677 when William married his cousin Mary , Charles II of England's niece. An Anglo-Dutch defensive alliance followed in March 1678, although English troops did not arrive in significant numbers until late May. Louis seized this opportunity to improve his negotiating position and captured Ypres and Ghent in early March, before signing a peace treaty with
1905-508: A joint monarchy in England dated from the 16th century, when Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain . Philip remained king only during his wife's lifetime, and restrictions were placed on his power. William, on the other hand, demanded that he remain as king even after his wife's death. When the majority of Tory Lords proposed to acclaim her as sole ruler, William threatened to leave the country immediately. Furthermore, she, remaining loyal to her husband, refused. The House of Commons , with
2032-663: A letter from Charles, in which the English king stated that he had made war because of the aggression of the De Witt faction. The people thus incited, De Witt and his brother, Cornelis , were brutally murdered by an Orangist civil militia in The Hague on 20 August. Subsequently, William replaced many of the Dutch regents with his followers. Though William's complicity in the lynching has never been proved (and some 19th-century Dutch historians have made an effort to disprove that he
2159-475: A major offensive, however, at the end of 1676. Intended to capture Valenciennes , Cambrai and Saint-Omer in the Spanish Netherlands. Louis believed this would deprive the Dutch regents of the courage to continue the war any longer. In this, however, he was mistaken. The impending French offensive actually led to an intensification of Dutch-Spanish cooperation. Still, the French offensive of 1677
2286-601: A man known for his ability to chart a moderate political course, gained William's confidence early in his reign. The Whigs, a majority in Parliament, had expected to dominate the government, and were disappointed that William denied them this chance. This "balanced" approach to governance did not last beyond 1690, as the conflicting factions made it impossible for the government to pursue effective policy, and William called for new elections early that year. Prince of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if
2413-606: A more republican Netherlands. The Dutch authorities did their best at first to ignore these intrigues, but in the Second Anglo-Dutch War , one of Charles's peace conditions was the improvement of the position of his nephew. As a countermeasure in 1666, when William was sixteen, the States officially made him a ward of the government, or a "Child of State". All pro-English courtiers, including Zuylenstein, were removed from William's company. William begged De Witt to allow Zuylenstein to stay, but he refused. De Witt,
2540-543: A part of the 2,797,859 guilder debt the House of Stuart owed the House of Orange. Charles was unable to pay, but William agreed to reduce the amount owed to 1,800,000 guilders. Charles found his nephew to be a dedicated Calvinist and patriotic Dutchman and reconsidered his desire to show him the Secret Treaty of Dover with France, directed at destroying the Dutch Republic and installing William as "sovereign" of
2667-467: A permanent appointment on his 22nd birthday. Meanwhile, William had written a secret letter to Charles in January 1672 asking his uncle to exploit the situation by exerting pressure on the States to appoint William stadtholder. In return, William would ally the Republic with England and serve Charles's interests as much as his "honour and the loyalty due to this state" allowed. Charles took no action on
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#17327718784282794-599: A potential threat to personal liberty. The first permanent British income tax was not introduced until 1842, and the tax remained controversial into the 20th century. When the window tax was introduced, it consisted of two parts: a flat-rate house tax of two shillings per house (equivalent to £17.53 in 2023), and a variable tax for the number of windows above ten in the house. Properties with between ten and twenty windows paid an extra four shillings (equivalent to £35.05 in 2023), and those above twenty windows paid an extra eight shillings (equivalent to £70.11 in 2023). In 1709, with
2921-421: A short treatise, perhaps by one of William's tutors, Constantijn Huygens . In these lessons, the prince was taught that he was predestined to become an instrument of Divine Providence , fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange-Nassau . William was seen, despite his youth, as the leader of the "Orangist" party, heir to the stadholderships of several provinces and the office of Captain-General of
3048-415: A significant minority refused to acknowledge their claim to the throne, instead believing in the divine right of kings , which held that the monarch's authority derived directly from God rather than being delegated to the monarch by Parliament. Over the next 57 years Jacobites pressed for restoration of James and his heirs. Nonjurors in England and Scotland, including over 400 clergy and several bishops of
3175-540: A strong candidate for the English throne should his father-in-law (and uncle) James be excluded because of his Catholicism. During the crisis concerning the Exclusion Bill in 1680, Charles at first invited William to come to England to bolster the king's position against the exclusionists, then withdrew his invitation—after which Lord Sunderland also tried unsuccessfully to bring William over, but now to put pressure on Charles. Nevertheless, William secretly induced
3302-425: A tax of 1/9d per window on the windows of the rooms occupied by staff of the infirmary in 1841—a total of £1 9/9d. Certain rooms, particularly dairies, cheese rooms and milkhouses, were exempt providing they were clearly labelled, and it is not uncommon to find the name of such rooms carved on the lintel. The bigger the house, the more windows it was likely to have, and the more tax the occupants would pay. Nevertheless,
3429-485: Is styled His/Her Royal Highness the Prince(ss) of Orange (Dutch: Zijne/Hare Koninklijke Hoogheid de Prins(es) van Oranje ). During the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries, the Prince(ss) of Orange was styled His/Her Highness the Prince(ss) of Orange (Dutch: Zijne/Hare Hoogheid de Prins(es) van Oranje ), except for William III, who rated the "Royal/Koninklijke". The princes of Orange in the 16th and 17th century used
3556-601: Is commemorated annually by the Protestant Orange Order . William's mother, Mary , was the daughter of King Charles I of England and therefore a princess of England as well as Princess of Orange by marriage. William III and Mary II had no legitimate children. After William's death in 1702, his heir in the Netherlands was John William Friso of Nassau-Diez , who assumed the title, King William having bequeathed it to him by testament. The other contender
3683-591: Is most likely untrue, as blind windows were used for aesthetic purposes since at least the medieval period, such as on the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Kerch , Crimea , built in 757 AD. Windows were also bricked up in Europe from the 1600s to avoid taxes. William III of England William III (William Henry; Dutch : Willem Hendrik ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange ,
3810-440: Is the last person to successfully invade England by force of arms. William summoned a Convention Parliament in England, which met on 22 January 1689, to discuss the appropriate course of action following James's flight. William felt insecure about his position; though his wife preceded him in the line of succession to the throne, he wished to reign as king in his own right, rather than as a mere consort . The only precedent for
3937-790: The Act of Seclusion , which forbade the province of Holland from appointing a member of the House of Orange as stadtholder. After the English Restoration , the Act of Seclusion, which had not remained a secret for long, was declared void as the English Commonwealth (with which the treaty had been concluded) no longer existed. In 1660, William's mother Mary and grandmother Amalia tried to persuade several provincial States to designate William as their future stadtholder, but they all initially refused. In 1667, as William III approached
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4064-693: The Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690, after which James fled back to France. Upon William's return to England, his close friend Dutch General Godert de Ginkell , who had accompanied William to Ireland and had commanded a body of Dutch cavalry at the Battle of the Boyne, was named Commander in Chief of William's forces in Ireland and entrusted with further conduct of the war there. Ginkell took command in Ireland in
4191-644: The Dillenburg branch of the House of Nassau , which since then is known as the House of Orange-Nassau . The Principality originated as the County of Orange , a fief in the Holy Roman Empire , in the Empire's constituent Kingdom of Burgundy . It was awarded to William of Gellone (born 755), a grandson of Charles Martel and therefore a cousin of Charlemagne , around the year 800 for his services in
4318-695: The Dutch Republic Lion with the billets of the Nassau arms and added a royal crown to form the Coat of arms of the Netherlands . In the 19th century, the Dutch Crown prince, who holds the title "Prince of Orange" ("Prins van Oranje"), and his son, who holds the title "Hereditary Prince of Orange" ("Erfprins van Oranje") had their own pre-defined arms. The House of Orange, now the Royal House of
4445-542: The Dutch States Army as soon as possible, despite his youth and inexperience. On 15 December 1671, the States of Utrecht made this their official policy. On 19 January 1672, the States of Holland made a counterproposal: to appoint William for just a single campaign. The prince refused this and on 25 February a compromise was reached: an appointment by the States General for one summer, followed by
4572-471: The Dutch monarch . Although originally only borne by men, since 1983 the title descends via absolute primogeniture , which means that the holder can be either Prince or Princess of Orange. The current Dutch royal dynasty, the House of Orange-Nassau , is not the only family to claim the dynastical title . Rival claims to the title have been made by German emperors and kings of the House of Hohenzollern and by
4699-569: The Papacy . The title and land passed to the French noble houses of Baux , in 1173, and of Chalons , in 1393, before arriving with René of Nassau in 1530. The principality then passed to René's cousin, the German-born nobleman from then Spanish Netherlands , William (known as "the Silent"), in 1544. Subsequently, William led a successful Dutch revolt against Spain, however with independence
4826-566: The Thames on his way. He was discovered and brought back to London by a group of fishermen. He was allowed to leave for France in a second escape attempt on 23 December. William permitted James to leave the country, not wanting to make him a martyr for the Roman Catholic cause; it was in his interests for James to be perceived as having left the country of his own accord, rather than having been forced or frightened into fleeing. William
4953-517: The University of Leiden for a formal education, under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius (though never officially enrolling as a student). While residing in the Prinsenhof at Delft , William had a small personal retinue including Hans Willem Bentinck , and a new governor, Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein , who (as an illegitimate son of stadtholder Frederick Henry of Orange )
5080-431: The right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail or inflict cruel and unusual punishments . William was opposed to the imposition of such constraints, but he chose not to engage in a conflict with Parliament and agreed to abide by the statute. The Bill of Rights also settled
5207-674: The 12th century represented a pun on William of Gellone 's name in French, from the character his deeds inspired in the chanson de geste , the Chanson de Guillaume : "Guillaume au Court-nez" (William the Short-Nosed) or its homophone "Guillaume au Cornet" (William the Horn). The chanson appears to incorporate material relating to William of Gellone's battle at the Orbieu or Orbiel river near Carcassonne in 793 as well as to his seizure of
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5334-712: The 1st house. William the Silent (Willem I) was the first stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and the most significant representative of the House of Orange in the Netherlands. He was count of a portion of the German territory of Nassau and heir to some of his father's fiefs in Holland. William obtained more extensive lands in the Netherlands (the lordship of Breda and several other dependencies) as an inheritance from his cousin René of Châlon , Prince of Orange, when William
5461-625: The Captain-General or Admiral-General of the Netherlands could not serve as stadtholder in any province. Even so, William's supporters sought ways to enhance his prestige and, on 19 September 1668, the States of Zeeland appointed him as First Noble . To receive this honour, William had to escape the attention of his state tutors and travel secretly to Middelburg . A month later, Amalia allowed William to manage his own household and declared him to be of majority age. The province of Holland,
5588-740: The Church of England and Scottish Episcopal Church as well as numerous laymen, refused to take oaths of allegiance to William. Ireland was controlled by Roman Catholics loyal to James, and Franco-Irish Jacobites arrived from France with French forces in March 1689 to join the war in Ireland and contest Protestant resistance at the Siege of Derry . William sent his navy to the city in July, and his army landed in August . After progress stalled, William personally intervened to lead his armies to victory over James at
5715-521: The Duke of York, later King James II of England (James VII of Scotland). Mary was eleven years his junior and he anticipated resistance to a Stuart match from the Amsterdam merchants who had disliked his mother (another Mary Stuart), but William believed that marrying Mary would increase his chances of succeeding to Charles's kingdoms, and would draw England's monarch away from his pro-French policies. James
5842-597: The Dutch States Army as one of the most disciplined and best-trained European armed forces. This had not been enough to keep France from making conquests in the Spanish Netherlands, which William and the regents blamed mainly on the Spaniards; the Dutch expected the once powerful Spanish Empire to have more military strength. During the war with France, William tried to improve his position by marrying, in 1677, his first cousin Mary , elder surviving daughter of
5969-528: The Dutch blamed the Imperial commander, de Souches , and after a failed attempt to capture Oudenaarde , largely due to obstructionism from de Souches, he was relieved of command. Frustrated, William joined the army under Rabenhaupt with 10,000 troops instead of campaigning further in the Spanish Netherlands. He assumed command of operations at Grave , which had been besieged since 28 June. Grave surrendered on 27 October. The Dutch were split by internal disputes;
6096-468: The Dutch on 10 August. The Battle of Saint-Denis was fought three days later on 13 August, when a combined Dutch-Spanish force under William attacked the French army under Luxembourg . Luxembourg withdrew and William thus ensured Mons would remain in Spanish hands. On 19 August, Spain and France agreed an armistice, followed by a formal peace treaty on 17 September. The war had seen the rebirth of
6223-471: The English army (the most notable of whom was Lord Churchill of Eyemouth , James's most able commander), and influential noblemen across the country declared their support for the invader. James at first attempted to resist William, but saw that his efforts would prove futile. He sent representatives to negotiate with William, but secretly attempted to flee on 11 December, throwing the Great Seal into
6350-477: The English people would not react well to a foreign invader, he demanded in a letter to Rear-Admiral Arthur Herbert that the most eminent English Protestants first invite him to invade. In June, Mary of Modena, after a string of miscarriages, gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward Stuart , who displaced William's Protestant wife to become first in the line of succession and raised the prospect of an ongoing Catholic monarchy. Public anger also increased because of
6477-467: The French army quickly overran the provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht. On 14 June, William withdrew with the remnants of his field army into Holland, where the States had ordered the flooding of the Dutch Waterline on 8 June. Louis XIV of France, believing the war was over, began negotiations to extract as large a sum of money from the Dutch as possible. The presence of a large French army in
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#17327718784286604-483: The French supply lines. In September 1673, the Dutch situation further improved. The resolute defence by John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen and Hans Willem van Aylva in the north of the Dutch Republic finally forced the troops of Münster and Cologne to withdraw, while William crossed the Dutch Waterline and recaptured Naarden . In November, a 30,000-strong Dutch-Spanish army, under William's command, marched into
6731-555: The King of Prussia to erect part of the duchy of Gelderland (the cities of Geldern, Straelen, and Wachtendonk with their bailiwicks, Krickenbeck, Viersen, the land of Kessel, and the lordships of Afferden, Arcen-Velden-Lomm, Walbeck-Twisteden, Raay and Klein-Kevelaer, Well, Bergen, and Middelaar) into a new Principality of Orange . The kings of Prussia and the German emperors styled themselves Princes of Orange till 1918. An agnatic relative of William III, John William Friso of Nassau , who
6858-452: The Netherlands in 1795, but on their return, the Prince of Orange became the first sovereign of the Netherlands in 1813. After the establishment of the current Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, the title was partly reconstitutionalized by legislation and granted to the eldest son of King William I of the Netherlands, Prince William, who later became William II of the Netherlands. Since 1983,
6985-401: The Netherlands, and their descendants the House of Orange-Nassau, kept this title for their family. Wilhelmina further decreed that in perpetuity her descendants should be styled "princes and princesses of Orange-Nassau" and that the name of the house would be "Orange-Nassau" (in Dutch "Oranje-Nassau"). Since then, individual members of the House of Orange-Nassau are also given their own arms by
7112-502: The Silent wrote in his marriage proposal to the uncle of his second wife, the Elector August of Saxony , he held Orange as "my own free property", not as a fief of any suzerain ; neither the Pope, nor the Kings of Spain or France. That historical position of honor and reputation would later drive William the Silent forward, as much as it also fueled the opposition of his great grandson William III to Louis XIV , when that king invaded and occupied Orange. The last direct descendant of
7239-479: The Southern Netherlands and Germany (the Réunion policy) and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, caused a surge of Huguenot refugees to the Republic. This led William III to join various anti-French alliances, such as the Association League, and ultimately the League of Augsburg (an anti-French coalition that also included the Holy Roman Empire , Sweden , Spain and several German states) in 1686. After his marriage in November 1677, William became
7366-459: The States General to send Charles the "Insinuation", a plea beseeching the king to prevent any Catholics from succeeding him, without explicitly naming James. After receiving indignant reactions from Charles and James, William denied any involvement. In 1685, when James II succeeded Charles, William at first attempted a conciliatory approach, at the same time trying not to offend the Protestants in England. William, ever looking for ways to diminish
7493-406: The States of Holland end their interference. To appease Charles, they complied on 30 September 1661. That year, Zuylenstein began to work for Charles and induced William to write letters to his uncle asking him to help William become stadtholder someday. After his mother's death, William's education and guardianship became a point of contention between his dynasty's supporters and the advocates of
7620-513: The States of these provinces anew. William's followers in the States of Utrecht on 26 April 1674 appointed him hereditary stadtholder. On 30 January 1675, the States of Gelderland offered him the titles of Duke of Guelders and Count of Zutphen . The negative reactions to this from Zeeland and the city of Amsterdam made William ultimately decide to decline these honours; he was instead appointed stadtholder of Gelderland and Overijssel. Baruch Spinoza 's warning in his Political Treatise of 1677 of
7747-428: The Union (see Politics and government of the Dutch Republic ). He was viewed as the leader of the nation in its independence movement and its protector from foreign threats. This was in the tradition of the princes of Orange before him: his great-grandfather William the Silent , his grand-uncle Maurice , his grandfather Frederick Henry , and his father William II . From early 1659, William spent seven years at
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#17327718784287874-494: The age of 18, the Orangist party again attempted to bring him to power by securing for him the offices of stadtholder and Captain-General . To prevent the restoration of the influence of the House of Orange, De Witt, the leader of the States Party , allowed the pensionary of Haarlem , Gaspar Fagel , to induce the States of Holland to issue the Perpetual Edict . The Edict, supported by the important Amsterdam politicians Andries de Graeff and Gillis Valckenier , declared that
8001-414: The basis that Orange was an independent state whose sovereign had the right to assign his succession according to his will. France never recognized any of this, nor allowed the Orange-Nassaus or the Hohenzollerns to obtain anything of the principality itself. The Oranje-Nassaus nevertheless assumed the title and also erected several of their lordships into a new principality of Orange. From that derivation of
8128-439: The centre of anti-Orangism, abolished the office of stadtholder, and four other provinces followed suit in March 1670, establishing the so-called "Harmony". De Witt demanded an oath from each Holland regent (city council member) to uphold the Edict; all but one complied. William saw all this as a defeat, but the arrangement was a compromise: De Witt would have preferred to ignore the prince completely, but now his eventual rise to
8255-399: The claimants of Orange until their extinction in male line in 1694 (see Famille d'Orléans-Longueville ). When William the Silent of Nassau succeeded as prince of Orange, the Orléans-Longueville protested and obtained court decisions in their favor in France. However, as Orange was a sovereign state and not part of France, the courts' decisions were not enforceable and left the principality in
8382-545: The daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland . His father died a week before his birth, making William III the prince of Orange from birth. In 1677, he married his first cousin Mary, the elder daughter of his maternal uncle James, Duke of York , the younger brother and later successor of King Charles II . A Protestant , William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic French ruler Louis XIV in coalition with both Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded William as
8509-513: The document remained unsigned at William II's death and was therefore void. On 13 August 1651, the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland (Supreme Court) ruled that guardianship would be shared between his mother, his grandmother and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg , husband of his paternal aunt Louise Henriette . William's mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society. William's education
8636-462: The end of the Republic's existence. William answered famously: "There is one way to avoid this: to die defending it in the last ditch." On 7 July, the inundations were complete and the further advance of the French army was effectively blocked. On 16 July, Zeeland offered the stadtholdership to William. Johan de Witt had been unable to function as Grand Pensionary after being wounded by an attempt on his life on 21 June. On 15 August, William published
8763-435: The flat rate charge was increased to 3s. The number of windows that incurred tax was changed to seven in 1766 and eight in 1825. The flat-rate tax was changed to a variable rate, dependent on the property value, in 1778. People who were exempt from paying church or poor rates, for reasons of poverty, were exempt from the window tax. Window tax was relatively unintrusive and easy to assess. Manchester Royal Infirmary had to pay
8890-474: The following sets of arms. On becoming Prince of Orange, William placed the Châlon-Arlay arms in the center ("as an inescutcheon") of his father's arms. He used these arms until 1582 when he purchased the marquisate of Veere and Vlissingen. He then used the arms attributed to Frederick Henry, etc. with the arms of the marquisate in the top center, and the arms of the county of Buren in the bottom center. Their growing complexity shows how arms are used to reflect
9017-454: The formal thanks of the House of Commons and was awarded the title of Earl of Athlone by the king. A series of Jacobite risings also took place in Scotland, where Viscount Dundee raised Highland forces and won a victory on 27 July 1689 at the Battle of Killiecrankie , but he died in the fight and a month later Scottish Cameronian forces subdued the rising at the Battle of Dunkeld . William offered Scottish clans that had taken part in
9144-472: The growing political position and royal aspirations of the house of Orange-Nassau . When William VI of Orange returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, he quartered the former Arms of the Dutch Republic (1st and 4th quarter) with the "Châlon-Orange" arms (2nd and 3rd quarter), which had come to symbolize Orange. As an in escutcheon he placed his ancestral arms of Nassau. When he became King in 1815, he combined
9271-502: The hands of the Nassau-Orange family. In 1673, Louis XIV of France annexed all territory of the principality to France and to the royal domain, as part of the war actions against the stadtholder William III of Orange — who later became King William III of Great Britain . Orange ceased to exist as a sovereign realm, de facto . Louis then bestowed the titular princedom on Louis Charles de Mailly , marquis de Nesle, whose wife
9398-554: The head of the French noble family of Mailly. The current users of the title are Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands (Orange-Nassau), Georg Friedrich (of Hohenzollern), and Guy (of Mailly-Nesle). The title referred to Orange in the Vaucluse department in the Rhône valley of southern France , which was a property of the House of Orange , then of the House of Baux and the House of Chalon-Arlay before passing in 1544 to
9525-635: The heart of the Republic caused a general panic, and the people turned against De Witt and his allies. On 4 July, the States of Holland appointed William stadtholder, and he took the oath five days later. The next day, a special envoy from Charles II, Lord Arlington , met William in Nieuwerbrug and presented a proposal from Charles. In return for William's capitulation to England and France, Charles would make William Sovereign Prince of Holland, instead of stadtholder (a mere civil servant). When William refused, Arlington threatened that William would witness
9652-457: The heir to the Dutch throne, whether male or female, bears the title Prince or Princess of Orange. The first-born child of the heir to the Dutch throne bears the title Hereditary Prince(ss) of Orange. When her father Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Queen Beatrix , Princess Catharina-Amalia became the Princess of Orange. The Prince(ss) of Orange
9779-505: The holder is female) is a title associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange , in what is now southern France and subsequently held by the stadtholders of, and then the heirs apparent of, the Netherlands . The title "Prince of Orange" was created in 1163 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa , by elevating the county of Orange to a principality , in order to bolster his support in that area in his conflict with
9906-510: The lands of the Bishops of Münster and Cologne. The Dutch troops took revenge and carried out many atrocities. Together with 35,000 Imperial troops, they then captured Bonn , an important magazine in the long logistical lines between France and the Dutch Republic. The French position in the Netherlands became untenable and Louis was forced to evacuate French troops. This deeply shocked Louis and he retreated to Saint Germain where no one, except
10033-487: The leading politician of the Republic, took William's education into his own hands, instructing him weekly in state matters and joining him for regular games of real tennis . After the death of William's father, most provinces had left the office of stadtholder vacant. At the demand of Oliver Cromwell , the Treaty of Westminster , which ended the First Anglo-Dutch War , had a secret annexe that required
10160-460: The location of staircases, fireplaces or for purposes of maintaining the symmetry of a building facade. In Ireland, the tax was introduced in 1799 and was not repealed until 1851. Similarly, a glass tax was introduced in 1825 and remained in place until 1845. A similar tax also existed in France from 1798 to 1926. There was a strong agitation in England in favour of the abolition of the tax during
10287-430: The marriage of Princess Anne to William IV, Prince of Orange . Anne was the eldest daughter of George II of Great Britain , who was a descendant of Elizabeth Woodville , wife of Edward IV of England . Elizabeth Woodville's grandmother was Margherita del Balzo , another descendant of Tiburge d'Orange. They also claimed on the basis of the testaments of Philip William, Maurice, and William III. Finally, they claimed on
10414-567: The need to organize the state so that the citizens maintain control over the sovereign was an influential expression of this unease with the concentration of power in one person. Meanwhile, the front of the war against France had shifted to the Spanish Netherlands . In 1674, Allied forces in the Netherlands were numerically superior to the French army under Condé , which was based along the Piéton river near Charleroi . William took
10541-484: The new country became a decentralized republic rather than a unitary monarchy. In 1702, after William the Silent's great-grandson William III of England died without children, a dispute arose between his cousins, Johan Willem Friso and Frederick I of Prussia . In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht Frederick William I of Prussia ceded the Principality of Orange to King Louis XIV of France (while retaining
10668-509: The offensive and sought to bring on a battle by outflanking the French positions but the broken ground forced him to divide his army into three separate columns. At Seneffe , Condé led a cavalry attack against the Allied vanguard and by midday on 11 August had halted their advance. Against the advice of his subordinates, he then ordered a series of frontal assaults which led to very heavy casualties on both sides with no concrete result. William and
10795-588: The office of supreme army commander was implicit. De Witt further conceded that William would be admitted as a member of the Raad van State , the Council of State, then the generality organ administering the defence budget. William was introduced to the council on 31 May 1670 with full voting rights, despite De Witt's attempts to limit his role to that of an advisor. In November 1670, William obtained permission to travel to England to urge Charles to pay back at least
10922-459: The original princes, René of Chalon , exercised his sovereign right and left the principality to his cousin William the Silent , who was not a descendant of the original Orange family but the heir to the principality of Orange by testament. This was, however, against the inheritance pattern enacted by the last will of Mary of Baux-Orange , the Princess of Orange from the House of Baux who brought
11049-552: The park of the country house in Soestdijk. In 1674 Wilhelm bought the estate from Jacob de Graeff, which was later converted into Soestdijk Palace . This first involvement of the authorities did not last long. On 23 December 1660, when William was ten years old, his mother died of smallpox at Whitehall Palace , London, while visiting her brother, the recently restored King Charles II. In her will, Mary requested that Charles look after William's interests, and Charles now demanded that
11176-515: The passage of the Toleration Act 1689 , which guaranteed religious toleration to Protestant nonconformists . It did not, however, extend toleration as far as he wished, still restricting the religious liberty of Roman Catholics, non-trinitarians , and those of non-Christian faiths. In December 1689, one of the most important constitutional documents in English history, the Bill of Rights,
11303-553: The power of France, hoped that James would join the League of Augsburg, but by 1687 it became clear that James would not join the anti-French alliance. Relations worsened between William and James thereafter. In November, James's second wife, Mary of Modena , was announced to be pregnant. That month, to gain the favour of English Protestants, William wrote an open letter to the English people in which he disapproved of James's pro-Roman Catholic policy of religious toleration. Seeing him as
11430-516: The powerful Amsterdam mercantile body was anxious to end an expensive war once their commercial interests were secured, while William saw France as a long-term threat that had to be defeated. This conflict increased once ending the war became a distinct possibility when Grave was captured in October 1674, leaving only Maastricht. On both sides, the last years of the war saw minimal return for their investment of men and money. The French were preparing
11557-617: The principality into the Chalons family and through to whom Prince René derived his own inheritance right (see Genealogy of the House of Orange-Chalon ). In this way, Rene transmitted his property to his nearest relative, rather than go back several generations to transmit it to now distant cousins. Those now distant cousins were the descendants of Alix de Chalon. Marie des Baux-Orange had stipulated in her will that if her son Louis did not inherit Orange, her daughter Alix and her descendants should. Guillaume de Vienne, seigneur de Saint-Georges,
11684-577: The principality of Orange from his cousin René. Although William descended from no previous Prince of Orange, as René had no children or siblings, he exercised his right as sovereign prince to will Orange to his first cousin on his father's side, who actually had no Orange blood. This began the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau . The 2nd house of Orange-Nassau (see House of Orange-Nassau family tree ) were cousins on their father and mother's side of
11811-434: The principality was regarded as having been inherited by his closest cognate relative on the basis of the testament of Frederic-Henry, Frederick I of Prussia , who ceded the principality — at least the lands, but not the formal title — to France in 1713. France supported his claim. In this way, the territory of the principality lost its feudal and secular privileges and became a part of France. The Treaty of Utrecht allowed
11938-708: The proposal, and continued his war plans with his French ally. For the Dutch Republic, 1672 proved calamitous. It became known as the Rampjaar ("disaster year") because in the Franco-Dutch War and the Third Anglo-Dutch War , the Netherlands was invaded by France and its allies: England, Münster , and Cologne . Although the Anglo-French fleet was disabled by the Battle of Solebay , in June
12065-410: The question of succession to the Crown. After the death of either William or Mary, the other would continue to reign. Next in the line of succession was Mary II's sister, Anne , and her issue, followed by any children William might have had by a subsequent marriage. Roman Catholics, as well as those who married Catholics, were excluded. Although most in Britain accepted William and Mary as sovereigns,
12192-622: The regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives". William and Mary were crowned together at Westminster Abbey on 11 April 1689 by the Bishop of London , Henry Compton. Normally, the coronation is performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury , but the Archbishop at the time, William Sancroft , refused to recognise James's removal. William also summoned
12319-594: The reigning monarch, similar to the United Kingdom. This is usually the royal arms, quartered with the arms of the principality of Orange, and an in escutcheon of their paternal arms. As a former territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the princes of Orange used an independent prince's crown. Sometimes, only the coronet part was used ( see , here and here ). After the establishment of the Kingdom of
12446-486: The rising a pardon provided that they signed allegiance by a deadline, and his government in Scotland punished a delay with the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe , which became infamous in Jacobite propaganda as William had countersigned the orders. Bowing to public opinion, William dismissed those responsible for the massacre, though they still remained in his favour; in the words of the historian John Dalberg-Acton , "one became
12573-575: The south-western English port of Brixham ; James was deposed shortly afterward. William's reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him and his wife to take power. During the early years of his reign, William was occupied abroad with the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), leaving Mary to govern Britain alone. She died in 1694. In 1696 the Jacobites , a faction loyal to the deposed James, plotted unsuccessfully to assassinate William and restore James to
12700-464: The spring of 1691, and following the Battle of Aughrim , succeeded in capturing both Galway and Limerick , thereby effectively suppressing the Jacobite forces in Ireland within a few more months. After difficult negotiations a capitulation was signed on 3 October 1691—the Treaty of Limerick . Thus concluded the Williamite pacification of Ireland, and for his services, the Dutch general received
12827-399: The tax on the grounds of its inequality, since it was thought to have a disproportionate impact on the poor. Smith himself observed that the tax's effect was to lower rent . In Scotland, a window tax was imposed after 1748. A house had to have at least seven windows or a rent of at least £5 to be taxed. Windows that have been filled with masonry may have no connection to taxation, but reflect
12954-446: The tax was unpopular, because it was seen by some as a tax on "light and air". In The Wealth of Nations , Adam Smith briefly discussed the window tax as one case among various forms of taxation. Smith observed that the tax was relatively inoffensive because its assessment did not require the assessor to enter the residence—a building's windows could be counted from the outside. On the other hand, Smith reported that others objected to
13081-582: The throne. In Scotland, William's role in ordering the Massacre of Glencoe remains notorious. William's lack of children and the death in 1700 of his nephew the Duke of Gloucester , the son of his sister-in-law Anne , threatened the Protestant succession. The danger was averted by placing William and Mary's cousins, the Protestant Hanoverians , in line to the throne after Anne with the Act of Settlement 1701 . Upon his death in 1702, William
13208-581: The title as part of his dynastic titulature). In 1732, under the Treaty of Partition, Friso's son, William IV agreed to share use of the title "Prince of Orange" (which had accumulated prestige in the Netherlands and throughout the Protestant world) with Frederick William. With the 19th century emergence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , the title has been traditionally borne by the heir apparent of
13335-416: The title comes the tradition of the House of Orange-Nassau (originally Nassau-Dietz), the later stadtholders of the Netherlands, and the present-day royal family of the Netherlands, of holding this title. They maintain the tradition of William the Silent and the House of Orange-Nassau. There are two other claimants to this title: Until 1340, it was customary for all sons of the prince of Orange to inherit
13462-400: The title. Only the direct line of descent to Raimond V is shown here. The house of Baux succeeded to the principality of Orange when Bertrand of Baux married the heiress of the last native count of Orange, Tiburge , daughter of William of Orange , Omelaz, and Montpellier. Their son was William I of Baux -Orange. Bertrand was the son of Raymond of Baux and Stephanie of Gevaudan. Stephanie
13589-681: The town of Orange . As the kingdom of Burgundy fragmented in the early Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa elevated the lordship of Orange to a principality in 1163 to shore up his supporters in Burgundy against the Pope and the King of France. As the Empire's boundaries retreated from those of the principality, the prince acceded to the sovereign rights that the Emperor formerly exercised. As William
13716-524: The trial of seven bishops who had publicly opposed James's Declaration of Indulgence granting religious liberty to his subjects, a policy which appeared to threaten the establishment of the Anglican Church . On 30 June 1688—the same day the bishops were acquitted—a group of political figures, known afterward as the " Immortal Seven ", sent William a formal invitation . William's intentions to invade were public knowledge by September 1688. With
13843-430: The union of England and Scotland, taxes were harmonised and a new top rate of 20s total was introduced for houses with 30 or more windows. In 1747 the 2s flat rate was detached from the window tax as a tax in its own right and the way the window tax was calculated was altered. 6d was charged for each window in a house with 10–14, 9d for each window in a house with 15–19, 1s for every window in a house with 20 or more. In 1758
13970-515: The wars against the Moors and in the reconquest of southern France and the Spanish March . His Occitan name is Guilhem ; however, as a Frankish lord, he probably knew himself by the old Germanic version of Wilhelm . William also ruled as count of Toulouse , duke of Aquitaine, and marquis of Septimania . The horn that came to symbolize Orange when heraldry came in vogue much later in
14097-434: The winter of 1850–51, and it was accordingly repealed on 24 July 1851, and a tax on inhabited houses substituted. The Scottish and Irish window taxes were abolished at the same time. The saying "daylight robbery" is popularly believed to originate with the window tax, but there appears to be no scholarly support for this. Another associated idea is that the tax inspired Europeans to begin using bricked-up windows, although this
14224-527: Was a direct descendant, and heiress-general by primogeniture, of the original princes of Orange, After the marquise (who died in 1713), the next holder was Louis of Mailly-Nesle [ fr ] , marquis de Nesle (1689–1764). Although no longer descended from Louis-Charles, a branch of the Mailly family still claim the title today. In 1714 Louis XIV bestowed the usufruct of the principality on his kinsman, Louis Armand of Bourbon, Prince de Conti, who had
14351-480: Was a success. The Spaniards found it difficult to raise enough troops due to financial constraints and the Allies were defeated in the Battle of Cassel . This meant that they could not prevent the cities from falling into French hands. The French then took a defensive posture, afraid that more success would force England to intervene on the side of the Allies. The peace talks that began at Nijmegen in 1676 were given
14478-458: Was also cognatically descended from William the Silent , was designated the heir to the Princes of Orange in the Netherlands by the last will of William III. Several of his descendants became stadtholders. They claim the principality of Orange on the basis of agnatic inheritance, similar to that of William the Silent, who had inherited Orange from his cousin René of Chalon. They did however have
14605-498: Was an accessory), he thwarted attempts to prosecute the ringleaders, and even rewarded some, like Hendrik Verhoeff , with money, and others, like Johan van Banchem and Johan Kievit , with high offices. This damaged his reputation in the same fashion as his later actions at Glencoe . William continued to fight against the invaders from England and France, allying himself with Spain , Brandenburg , and Emperor Leopold I . In November 1672, he took his army to Maastricht to threaten
14732-536: Was born, his father died of smallpox ; thus, William was the sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth. Immediately, a conflict arose between his mother and his paternal grandmother, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels , over the name to be given to the infant. Mary wanted to name him Charles after her brother, but her mother-in-law insisted on giving him the name William ( Willem ) to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder . William II had intended to appoint his wife as their son's guardian in his will; however,
14859-774: Was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, some of English descent, including Walburg Howard and the Scottish noblewoman Lady Anna Mackenzie . From April 1656, the prince received daily instruction in the Reformed religion from the Calvinist preacher Cornelis Trigland, a follower of the Contra-Remonstrant theologian Gisbertus Voetius . The ideal education for William was described in Discours sur la nourriture de S. H. Monseigneur le Prince d'Orange ,
14986-403: Was his paternal uncle. Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff pushed the States of Holland to take charge of William's education and ensure that he would acquire the skills to serve in a future—though undetermined—state function; the States acted on 25 September 1660. Around this time, the young prince played with De Graeff's sons Pieter and Jacob de Graeff in
15113-400: Was not inclined to consent, but Charles II pressured his brother to agree. Charles wanted to use the possibility of marriage to gain leverage in negotiations relating to the war, but William insisted that the two issues be decided separately. Charles relented, and Bishop Henry Compton married the couple on 4 November 1677. Mary became pregnant soon after the marriage, but miscarried . After
15240-508: Was only 11 years old. After William's assassination in 1584, the title passed to his son Philip William (who had been held hostage in Spain until 1596), and after his death in 1618, to his second son Maurice , and finally to his youngest son, Frederick Henry . The title of Prince of Orange became associated with the stadtholder of the Netherlands. William III (Willem III) was also King of England , Scotland and Ireland , and his legacy
15367-467: Was passed. The Act, which restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right , established restrictions on the royal prerogative . It provided, amongst other things, that the Sovereign could not suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition , raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny
15494-629: Was succeeded in Britain by Anne and as titular Prince of Orange by his cousin John William Friso . William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650. Baptised William Henry ( Dutch : Willem Hendrik ), he was the only child of Mary, Princess Royal , and stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange . Mary was the elder daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and sister of kings Charles II and James II and VII . Eight days before William
15621-549: Was the King in Prussia , who based his claim to the title on the will of Frederick Henry, William III's grandfather. Eventually, a compromise was reached by which both families were entitled to bear the title of Prince of Orange. By then, it was no more than a title because the principality had been annexed by Louis XIV of France . Friso's line held it as their principal title during the 18th century. The French army expelled them from
15748-417: Was the husband of Alix. They had a daughter Marguerite, who married in 1449 Rudolf of Baden-Hochberg , lord of Neuchâtel and Rothelin (1427–87). Their son was Philip (d. 1503). His only child who reached maturity was Johanna (d. 1543). She married in 1504 Louis I of Orléans , duc de Longueville (1450–1516). Through this marriage, the Orléans-Longueville, an illegitimate branch of the house of Valois, were
15875-472: Was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland , Zeeland , Utrecht , Guelders , and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s, and King of England , Ireland , and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. He ruled Great Britain and Ireland with his wife, Queen Mary II , and their joint reign is known as that of William and Mary . William was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange , and Mary, Princess Royal ,
16002-418: Was the younger daughter of Gerberga , the heiress of the counts of Provence. For a genealogical table, see the reference cited: Bertrand I used as Prince of Orange the coat of arms of the House of Baux : a 16-pointed white star placed on a field of gules . Later on, the Princes of Orange quartered the legendary bugle-horn as a heraldic figure into their coat of arms. The lords of Chalons and Arlay were
16129-487: Was vacant. On 13 February 1689, Parliament passed the Bill of Rights 1689 , in which it deemed that James, by attempting to flee, had abdicated the government of the realm, thereby leaving the throne vacant. The Crown was not offered to James's infant son, who would have been the heir apparent under normal circumstances, but to William and Mary as joint sovereigns. It was, however, provided that "the sole and full exercise of
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