1.
First Anglo-Dutch War
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Dates in this article are given in the Gregorian calendar, then ten days ahead of the Julian calendar in use in England. The First Anglo-Dutch War was a conflict fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, caused by disputes over trade, the war began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but expanded to vast fleet actions. Ultimately, it resulted in the English Navy gaining control of the seas around England and it was the first of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. In the 16th century, England and the Netherlands had been allies against the ambitions of the Habsburgs. They cooperated in fighting the Spanish Armada, England supported the Dutch in the Eighty Years War by sending money and troops. There was a permanent English representative in the Dutch government to ensure coordination of the joint war effort, the separate peace in 1604 between England and Spain strained this relationship. The ensuing rush for empire brought the former allies into conflict, furthermore, they had conquered most of Portugals territories and trading posts in the East Indies and Brazil, giving them control over the enormously profitable trade in spices. They were even gaining significant influence over Englands trade with her as yet small North American colonies, thus Dutch products would be less expensive and more competitive on the world market than English products. Dutch ships, on the hand, would leave American ports with barely 1000 bags of wool cloth unsold. Because of this disparity, English trade with her traditional markets in the Baltic, Germany, the end of the war meant a lifting of the Spanish embargoes of the Dutch coast and Dutch shipping. This translated into cheaper prices for Dutch products due to a steep and sustained drop in Dutch freight charges, furthermore, with normalized relations between Spain and the Dutch United Provinces, trade between the two countries resumed almost immediately. Meanwhile, English trade with Spain was still limited, by 1651, England was in an economic slump. The third cause of the Dutch trading advantage was the English Civil War, in 1649, Parliament overthrew the monarchy and beheaded King Charles I, and until 1651, the English Parliament remained at war with royalists both at home and in some of their colonies. From 1649 to 1651, Parliament in London set about expanding and improving the English Navy to pursue the war at sea. At the same time, the war raised havoc with English trading and shipping, to broadly study their commercial condition, the first Commission of Trade to be established by an Act of Parliament was erected on 1 August 1650. The English accused the Dutch of profiting from the turmoil of the English Civil War, the Dutch navy had five autonomous admiralties. After 1648 these colleges sold off many of their ships, one of the ships sold was Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromps own flagship, the Aemilia, of 600 tons and fitted with 57 guns. Admiral Tromp was forced to take up the 600-ton Brederode with its 54 guns as his flagship, by the onset of this first Anglo-Dutch War in 1652, the Dutch navy had only 79 ships at its disposal
2.
National Maritime Museum
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The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings form part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, the museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other publicly funded museums in the United Kingdom, the National Maritime Museum does not levy an admission charge. The Museum was created by the National Maritime Act of 1934 Chapter 43, under a Board of Trustees and it is based on the generous donations of Sir James Caird. King George VI formally opened the Museum on 27 April 1937 when his daughter Princess Elizabeth, the first Director was Sir Geoffrey Callender. Since earliest times Greenwich has had associations with the sea and navigation and it was a landing place for the Romans, Henry VIII lived here, the navy has roots on the waterfront, and Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in 1675 for finding the longitude of places. An active loans programme ensures that items from the collection are seen in the UK, through its displays, exhibitions and outreach programmes the Museum also explores our current relationship with the sea and the future of the sea as an environmental force and resource. The museum plays host to exhibitions, including Ships Clocks & Stars in 2014, Samuel Pepys, Plague, Fire, Revolution in 2015 and Emma Hamilton, Seduction. The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes items taken from the German Naval Academy Mürwik after World War II, including several ship models, the museum has been criticized for possessing what has been described as Looted art. The Museum regards these cultural objects as war trophies, removed under the provisions of the Potsdam Conference, the Museum awards the Caird Medal annually in honour of its major donor, Sir James Caird. The Caird Library is a comprehensive specialist reference library and a research resource for all. The reading room is open Monday to Friday,10. 00–16.45, the Archive and Library holds a fantastic range of resources for finding out more about maritime history. Material includes manuscripts, books, charts and maps dating back to the 15th century, the collection can be used to research maritime history and exploration, the history of the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy and much more, including astronomy and timekeeping. Many of the resources they hold are useful for family historians, including collections of Master’s Certificates dating back to 1845. For news and interesting items from the collection, see Caird Library blog To request items to view in the Library, search Archive catalogue and Library catalogue. The Library has produced a range of guides to help people carry out their own research on a wide range of topics. The guides provide information about the Museums collections and other sources for research into maritime history, find out more about the research guides at Research Guides. The museum was established in 1934 within the 200 acres of Greenwich Royal Park in the buildings formerly occupied by the Royal Hospital School
3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
4.
Scheveningen
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Scheveningen, is one of the eight districts of The Hague, as well as a subdistrict of that city. Scheveningen is a seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier. The beach is popular for sports such as windsurfing and kiteboarding. The harbour is used for fishing and tourism. Some local politicians are trying to re-brand Scheveningen to The Hague Beach and this has created problems with the local population that is proud of the name Scheveningen. Initiatives have been launched to teach people all over the world how to pronounce the name properly and it has its own dialect, which is different from The Hague dialect. The earliest reference to the name Sceveninghe goes back to around 1280, the first inhabitants may have been Anglo-Saxons. Other historians favour a Scandinavian origin, fishing was the main source of food and income. The Battle of Scheveningen was fought between English and Dutch fleets off the coast of the village on 10 August 1653, thousands of people gathered on the shore to watch. A road to neighbouring The Hague was constructed in 1663, in 1470, a heavy storm destroyed the church and half the houses. The village was hit by storms in 1570,1775,1825,1860,1881. After this last storm, the decided to build a harbour. Until then, the boats had had a flat bottom. By around 1870, over 150 of these boats were in use, once the harbour had been constructed in 1904, more modern ships replaced the bomschuiten. In 1818, Jacob Pronk constructed a building on a dune near the sea. It marked the start of Scheveningen as a bathing resort, since then, Scheveningen has attracted numerous tourists from all over Europe, notably from Germany. The hotel and restaurant Kurhaus was opened in 1886, the village attracted a number of Dutch artists over the centuries, who painted the bomschuiten drawn up on the beach, or fishermen at work in the North Sea. The International Skating Union was founded in Scheveningen in 1892, nevertheless, Scheveningen always had a strong identity of its own
5.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
6.
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle
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George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG was an English soldier, politician and a key figure in effecting the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660. Having assaulted the Under Sheriff of the county in revenge for a wrong done to his father, becoming a soldier, he served as a volunteer in the 1626 expedition to Cadiz, and the next year fought well at the siege of the Île de Ré. In 1629 Monck went to the Netherlands, then a theatre of warfare and he fought bravely at the 1637 Siege of Breda, always first in the breach of his men. In 1638 he surrendered his commission in consequence of a quarrel with the authorities of Dordrecht. He was appointed to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Earl of Newports regiment, during the operations on the Scottish border in the Bishops Wars he showed his skill and coolness in the dispositions by which he saved the English artillery at the Battle of Newburn. At the outbreak of the Irish rebellion Monck was appointed as colonel of Sidneys Regiment under the command of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. All the qualities for which he was noted through life — his talent for making himself indispensable, his imperturbable temper, the governorship of Dublin stood vacant, and Lord Leicester recommended Monck. Charles I overruled the appointment in favour of Lord Cavan, the Duke of Ormonde viewed him with suspicion as one of two officers who refused to take the oath to support the Royalist cause in England and sent him under guard to Bristol. Taken prisoner by the Parliamentary Northern Association Army under Lord Fairfax at the Battle of Nantwich in January 1644, during his imprisonment he wrote Observations on Military and Political Affairs. Moncks experience in Ireland led to his release and he was made major general in the army sent by Parliament against Irish rebels. Making a distinction between fighting the Irish and taking arms against the king, he accepted the offer and swore loyalty to the Parliamentary cause. He made little headway against the Irish led by Owen Roe ONeill, the convention was a military expedient to deal with a military necessity. Most of Moncks army went over to the Royalist cause, placing themselves under the command of Hugh Montgomery, although Parliament disavowed the terms of the truce, no blame was attached to Moncks recognition of military necessity. He next fought at Oliver Cromwells side in Scotland at the 1650 Battle of Dunbar, made commander-in-chief in Scotland by Cromwell, Monck completed the subjugation of the country. During this subjugation he lost control of his men with the resulting manslaughter, the streets of the town were reputed to run red with blood for days and Monck eventually was sickened by the barbarity when he saw the corpse of a suckling mother with her baby still feeding. In February 1652 Monck left Scotland to recover his health at Bath. On his return to shore Monck married Anne Radford, in 1653 he was nominated one of the representatives for Devon in Barebones Parliament. He returned to Scotland, methodically beating down a Royalist insurrection in the Highlands, at Cromwells request, Monck remained in Scotland as governor
7.
Naval warfare
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Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years, even in the interior of large landmasses, transportation before the advent of extensive railroads was largely dependent upon rivers, canals, and other navigable waterways. Prior to 1750, materials largely moved by barge or sea vessels. Thus armies, with their exorbitant needs for food, ammunition, the oceanic influences throughout pre-recorded history, and classical works such as The Odyssey underscore the past influences. The Persian Empire – united and strong – could not prevail against the might of the Athenian fleet combined with that of city states in several attempts to conquer the Greek city states. Phoenicias and Egypts power, Carthages and even Romes largely depended upon control of the seas, so too did the Venetian Republic dominate Italys city states, thwart the Ottoman Empire, and dominate commerce on the Silk Road and the Mediterranean in general for centuries. For three centuries, the Northmen raided and pillaged and went where they willed, far into central Russia and the Ukraine, many sea battles through history also provide a reliable source of shipwrecks for underwater archaeology. A major example is the exploration of the wrecks of various warships in the Pacific Ocean, the first dateable recorded sea battle occurred about 1210 BC, Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, defeated a fleet from Cyprus, and burned their ships at sea. In the Battle of the Delta, the Ancient Egyptians defeated the Sea Peoples in a sea battle circa 1175 BC, no written mention of strategy or tactics seems to have survived. Josephus Flavius reports a battle between Tyre and the king of Assyria who was aided by the other cities in Phoenicia. The battle took place off the shores of Tyre, although the Tyrian fleet was much smaller in size, the Tyrians defeated their enemies. The Greeks of Homer just used their ships as transport for land armies and it seems unlikely that all this was the product of a single mind or even of a generation, most likely the period of evolution and experimentation was simply not recorded by history. After some initial battles while subjugating the Greeks of the Ionian coast, the Persians determined to invade Greece proper. The first Persian campaign, in 492 BC, was aborted because the fleet was lost in a storm, attacks by the Greek armies repulsed these. The third Persian campaign in 480 BC, under Xerxes I of Persia, but the defeat on land at Thermopylae forced a Greek withdrawal, and Athens evacuated its population to nearby Salamis Island. The ensuing Battle of Salamis was one of the engagements of history. Themistocles trapped the Persians in a too narrow for them to bring their greater numbers to bear. Aeschylus wrote a play about the defeat, The Persians, which was performed in a Greek theatre competition a few years after the battle and it is the oldest known surviving play
8.
Texel
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Texel is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,641 in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, the island is situated north of Den Helder, northeast of Noorderhaaks, also known as Razende Bol and southwest of Vlieland. The name Texel is Frisian, but because of historical sound-changes in Dutch, where all -x- sounds have been replaced with -s- sounds, the name is typically pronounced Tessel in Dutch. In the early Middle Ages and before, Texel and Wieringen may have much bigger and met each other as opposite banks of the Marsdiep. In the 13th century Ada, Countess of Holland was held prisoner on Texel by her uncle William, Texel received city rights in 1415. Texel was involved in the Battle of Scheveningen during the First Anglo-Dutch War, Texel is also famous in military history as the only place where a navy was defeated on horseback. In 1797, Texel was involved in the Battle of Camperdown during the French Revolutionary Wars, during the American Revolution, Texel was used as a haven port for the USS Bonhomme Richard before it sank off the coast of Flamborough Head in Britain in September 1779. In that final action, John Paul Jones defeated and captured the British ship HMS Serapis and this event further complicated Anglo-Dutch relations. During the First World War in 1914, the Battle off Texel took place off the coast of Texel, at the end of Second World War in 1945, the Georgian Uprising of Texel took place on the island. The municipality is located at 53°3′N 4°48′E north of the mainland of the province of North Holland and west of the mainland of the province of Friesland. The island of Texel is situated north of the city of Den Helder, northeast of the island of Noorderhaaks, which is part of the municipality. The island of Texel was originally made up of two islands, Texel proper to the south and Eierland to the northeast, which were connected by shoals, in the seventeenth century, the islands were poldered together. Today, Texel forms the largest natural barrier between the North Sea and the Wadden Sea, the dune landscape on Texel is a unique habitat for wildlife. Notable areas include De Slufter, where the tide comes in and meets the dunes, Texel is known for its wildlife, particularly in winter, when birds of prey and geese take up residence. About one third of Texel is a nature reserve. A wetland called Utopia has been designed for birds to nest in, the tourism industry forms a substantial part of the economy in Texel. Approximately 70% of activities on Texel are in some way related to tourism, popular forms of tourism on Texel include cycling, walking, swimming and horse riding. Texel has a cycle path network
9.
Willem van de Velde the Elder
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Willem van de Velde the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age seascape painter. Willem van de Velde, known as the Elder, a draughtsman and painter, was born in Leiden. Van de Velde, and is said to have been bred to the sea. In 1706 Bainbrigg Buckeridge noted that he “understood navigation very well” and he married Judith Adriaensdochter van Leeuwen in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1631. His three known children were named Magdalena, born 1632, Willem, known as the Younger, also a marine painter, born 1633, and Adriaen. His marriage was stormy, at least in its later years, David Cordingly relates that Willem the Elder fathered two children out of wedlock in 1653, one “by his maidservant, and the other by her friend. Nine years later the Elder and his wife went through a separation, ‘on account of legal disputes. The immediate cause of the dispute was his affair with a married woman. ”Michael S. Robinson noted that “on 17/27 July 1662, he and his wife agreed to part. A condition of the separation was that the Elder could recover from his son Adriaen ‘two royal gifts’, presumably gifts from Charles II for work done in England. ”Cordingly’s account further relates that the dispute was still continuing after another ten years, since “in the autumn of 1672 Judith complained to the woman’s husband. His son, Adriaen, had died in Amsterdam in 1672, and Willem the Elder was also fetching his grandson, similarly named Adriaen and he died in London, and was buried in St James’s Church, at the south end of the street. He was the official artist of the Dutch fleet for a period, being present at the Four Days Battle, 1–4 June 1666, and the St Jamess Day Battle,25 July 1666, to make sketches. He wasnt the only artist to paint the scenes of battle, his son, Ludolf Bakhuysen. This act later was the reason that van Velde gained his commission in London. The date,1672, commonly given for his entry into the service of Charles II of England, was at a time when the Dutch Republic was at war with England, piles, R. de & Buckeridge, B. The Art of Painting, & An Essay towards an English School, 3rd ed,1754 Robinson, Van de Velde Drawings,2 vols,1958 and 1973 Robinson, M. S. The Paintings of the Willem van de Veldes,2 vols,1990 Cordingly, David The Art of the van de Veldes, introductory chapter,1982 Van de Velde, Willem. National Maritime Museum biography National Maritime Museum portal for their van de Velde drawings on line one of the largest collections,1500 items of which 837 are illustrated, artCyclopedia list of his paintings on line National Portrait Gallery, Bainbrigg Buckeridge
10.
Johan de Witt
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As a republican he opposed the House of Orange. He was also strongly liberal, preferring lesser power to the central government, however, his negligence of the Dutch land army proved disastrous when the Dutch Republic suffered numerous early defeats in the Rampjaar. The rioters were never prosecuted, and historians have argued that William of Orange may have incited them, Johan de Witt was a member of the old Dutch patrician family De Witt. Johan and Cornelis both attended the Latin school in Dordrecht, which imbued both brothers with the values of the Roman Republic, after having attended the Latin school in Dordrecht, he studied at the University of Leiden, where he excelled at mathematics and law. He received his doctorate from the University of Angers in 1645 and he practiced law as an attorney in The Hague as an associate with the firm of Frans van Schooten. In 1650 he was appointed leader of the deputation of Dordrecht to the States of Holland, in December 1650, De Witt became the pensionary of Dordrecht. Once during the year 1652 in the city of Flushing, Johan De Witt found himself faced with a mob of angry demonstrators of sailors, however, even at the young age of 27 years, it was Johans coolheadedness that calmed the situation. Many people older than Johan began to see greatness in Johan dating from that experience, Johan de Witt married on 16 February 1655 Wendela Bicker, the daughter of Jan Bicker, an influential patrician from Amsterdam, and Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek. Jan Bicker served as mayor of Amsterdam in 1653, De Witt became a relative to the strong republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and to Andries Bicker. Heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard and IJsselveere, married to Wilhelmina de Witt and he was secretary of the city of Dordrecht After De Witts death, his brother in law Pieter de Graeff became a guardian over his children. In 1653, the States of Holland elected De Witt councilor pensionary, the raadpensionaris of Holland was often referred to as the Grand Pensionary by foreigners as he represented the preponderant province in the Union of the Dutch Republic. He was a servant who lead the States of province by his experience, tenure, familiarity with the issues and he was in no manner equivalent to a modern Prime Minister. · Representing the province of Holland, Johan De Witt tended to identify with the interests of the shipping and trading interests in the United Provinces. These interests were largely concentrated in the province of Holland, not surprisingly, Johan de Witt also held views of toleration of religious beliefs. De Witts power base was the merchant class into which he was born. This class broadly coincided politically with the States faction, stressing Protestant religious moderation, William II of Orange was a prime example of this tendency among the leaders of the House of Orange to support Calvinism. William II was elected Stadholder in 1647 and continued to serve until his death in November,1650, eight days after his death, William IIs wife delivered a male heir--William III of Orange. Many citizens of the United Provinces urged the election of the infant William III as stadholder under a regency until he came of age, however, the Provinces, under the dominance of the province of Holland did not fill the office of Stadholder
11.
Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Cromwell was born into the gentry, albeit to a family descended from the sister of King Henry VIIIs minister Thomas Cromwell. Little is known of the first 40 years of his life as only four of his letters survive alongside a summary of a speech he delivered in 1628. He became an Independent Puritan after undergoing a conversion in the 1630s. He was a religious man, a self-styled Puritan Moses. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short and he entered the English Civil War on the side of the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles Is death warrant in 1649 and he was selected to take command of the English campaign in Ireland in 1649–1650. Cromwells forces defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country, during this period, a series of Penal Laws were passed against Roman Catholics, and a substantial amount of their land was confiscated. Cromwell also led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651, as a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He died from natural causes in 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Royalists returned to power in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell, sponsored by military historian Richard Holmes was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time. However, his measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal, Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales, Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he use Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell. They had ten children, but Oliver, the child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and great uncle of Henry VIII, Cromwells paternal grandfather Sir Henry Williams was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwells father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class, as a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes, Cromwell himself in 1654 said, I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. He was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St Johns Church and he went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos
12.
William III of England
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It is a coincidence that his regnal number was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II and he is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as King Billy. William inherited the principality of Orange from his father, William II and his mother Mary, Princess Royal, was the daughter of King Charles I of England. In 1677, he married his fifteen-year-old first cousin, Mary, a Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith, in 1685, his Catholic father-in-law, James, Duke of York, became king of England, Ireland and Scotland. Jamess reign was unpopular with the Protestant majority in Britain, William, supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. On 5 November 1688, he landed at the southern English port of Brixham, James was deposed and William and Mary became joint sovereigns in his place. They reigned together until her death on 28 December 1694, after which William ruled as sole monarch, Williams reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. Williams victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order and his reign in Britain marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover. William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650, baptised William Henry, he was the only child of stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal. Mary was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, eight days before William was born, his father died of smallpox, thus William was the Sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth. Immediately, a conflict ensued between his mother the Princess Royal and William IIs mother, 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 or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder. William II had appointed his wife as his sons guardian in his will, however, Williams mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society. Williams education was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, some of English descent, including Walburg Howard, 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 dOrange, 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. From early 1659, William spent seven years at the University of Leiden for a formal education, under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius. While residing in the Prinsenhof at Delft, William had a personal retinue including Hans Willem Bentinck, and a new governor, Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein
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