Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England

William III

Although James II. had fled from England, he had no intention of giving up his throne without a struggle. Louis XIV. treated his as if he were still King of England and supplied him with soldiers, arms, and money. James's chief attempt was made in Ireland, where the great majority of the people were Catholics, and favored his cause.

When James arrived in Ireland he laid siege to the Protestant town of Londonderry. The siege lasted for more than a hundred days. The inhabitants of the town suffered terribly; more than half of them perished, and the survivors were forced to eat the flesh of horses, cats, and dogs. James's officers carried on the siege with savage cruelty; but still the cry was, "No surrender." When at last food was all gone, except a little tallow and some salted hides, a fleet sent by William broke through the "boom" which closed the harbor, and the town was saved.

The next summer (1690) William himself took a large force to Ireland, and won a great victory in the battle of the river Boyne. The Irish cavalry fought bravely, but their foot soldiers were untrained, and fled from the field. James was one of the first of the fugitives to reach the city of Dublin, and there he bitterly told an Irish lady that her countrymen had "run away."

"If they have, Sire," she replied, "your Majesty seems to have won the race."

James now returned to France, leaving his Irish supporters to their fate. It was many months before the last stronghold surrendered to William's generals; and when that happened, more than 10,000 of the Irish soldiers were allowed to go to France, where they formed a famous "Irish brigade" in Louis XIV.'s army.

In Scotland, also, William had to fight for the crown. A nobleman, named Dundee, gathered together the Highland clans, and met William's general, as he and his men came toiling up through the pass of Killiekrankie, in central Scotland. William's troops had been supplied with bayonets, a new French invention; but these fitted into the muzzles of the guns, instead of fastening to the outsides, and the guns could not be fired with the bayonets in position. After firing a few volleys, the Highlanders drew their broadswords, and rushed like a whirlwind upon their English and Lowland enemies. They were upon William's troops before the latter could fix their bayonets. Within a few minutes the battle was won. But the brave Dundee there lost his life, and James II. had no one to take his place.

William succeeded, without much difficulty, in recovering from this defeat, and by the end of 1691 most of the Highland clans had submitted. The MacDonalds of Glencoe, however, put off the hateful duty to the last moment; and, through a mistake, they allowed the time set by William for receiving submissions to pass without giving in their names. They were misrepresented to William by their enemies as murderers and brigands. So William gave orders to "extirpate that nest of thieves," as an example to others. This cruel order was carried out with yet greater cruelty. The soldiers who were sent to Glencoe pretended to come as friends, and ate at the tables of the MacDonalds, and joked and played cards with them. Then, when night came, they treacherously fell upon their hosts, and put them to death. When this "massacre of Glencoe" became known to the Scottish Parliament, it caused a great outcry, and William was obliged to dismiss from his employ the persons responsible for it.

The help which Louis XIV. gave to James II. led to war between England and France.

For eight years, William was at the head of a great league—composed of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and Germany—which fought the French wherever they found them. On the Continent, it was chiefly a war of sieges, and of pitched battles between an army carrying on the siege and one trying to relieve the besieged town. Soon after the beginning of the war, France won a naval victory which for two years gave it command of the sea. Many leading Englishmen, in William's service, grew so faint-hearted that they secretly wrote to James II., telling him that they were favorable to his cause; and William was obliged to let their treason pass unnoticed.

But the burning of a village on the coast of England, by a French fleet, aroused England's spirit. James also issued a foolish proclamation, in which he threatened, if he was successful, to punish all persons who had in any way served under William; and this made men hesitate to replace him on the throne.

Then, in 1692, the English won a great naval battle off La Hogue, which again gave them the command of the sea, and freed them from all danger and invasion. Russell, the English commander, was one of those who had secretly informed James that he would help him.

"But do not think," he told James's messenger, "that I will let the French triumph over us in our own sea. Understand this, that, if I meet them, I fight them, even though his Majesty himself should be on board."

Russell's hatred of the French was greater than his love for James II., and he kept his word about fighting them, in spite of his promise to James.

At last, in 1697, a peace was made, by which Louis agreed to give up his conquests, and to acknowledge William III. as King of England. William was thus successful in his struggle with the "Grand Monarch" of France. He had shown England, moreover, that its greatest enemy now was not Spain, but France, and that if the English wanted to develop their trade and colonies it was chiefly with France that they must struggle. So he started England on a new "hundred years' war" with France, which was to be fought all over the world, wherever French and English met, and which did not end until England had won from France practically all her colonial possessions, and established the British Empire.