William (III) of Orange (1650–1702)

King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1688, the son of William II of Orange and Mary, daughter of Charles I. He was offered the English crown by the parliamentary opposition to James II. He invaded England in 1688 and in 1689 became joint sovereign with his wife, Mary II, daughter of the deposed James II. He spent much of his reign campaigning, first in Ireland, where he defeated James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and later against the French in Flanders. He died childless and was succeeded by Mary's sister, Anne.

Born in The Hague, in the Netherlands, William was appointed stadtholder (chief magistrate) and captain‐general of the Dutch forces in 1672 to resist the French invasion. He forced Louis XIV to make peace in 1678 and then concentrated on building up a European alliance against France. In 1677 he married his cousin Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, the future James II. When invited by both Whig and Tory leaders to take the crown from James, he landed with a small force at Torbay, Devon, on 5 November 1688. James fled to France, and his Scottish and Irish supporters were defeated, respectively, at the battles of Dunkeld in 1689 and the Boyne the following year.

Returning to Holland in 1693 William commanded the Dutch army in the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV during the War of the League of Augsburg. The Peace of Rijswijk (1697), which marked the end of this conflict, ranks as William's greatest diplomatic achievement. As King of England, William was generally unpopular, though widely respected for his military and political adeptness. His reserve, his apparent neglect of his wife, his Dutch favourites, and his use of English resources to save Holland from French domination alienated his new English subjects. He was hated by Irish Catholics for spearheading the English reconquest of Ireland, but is still revered by Northern Irish Protestants for his key victory at the Boyne.

The Protestant Orange Order, founded in 1795, takes its name from William's title. William of Orange is a hero to Protestant unionists of Northern Ireland, and each year marches are held across the province celebrating his victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. William of Orange appears on a white horse on many of the wall paintings in loyalist areas of Northern Ireland, alongside the date of his victory. The Lambeg drums used by the forces of William of Orange in 1690 are still used today in the parades of the Orange Order.