Little Arthur's history of England

The beginning of King William and Queen Mary’s reign was very full of trouble.

It was some time before the parliament could put right many of the things that had been so wrong while James the Second was king; and before everybody would agree how much money to give the king to spend upon the soldiers and sailors he might want in war, as well as upon judges and other persons whose duty it was to help the king to govern in peace as well as war.

Besides this, a great many people in Scotland liked James well enough to wish him to be their king still, because his grandfather came from Scotland; and there were great disputes about allowing William to be king there. Lord Dundee, that Claverhouse who behaved so cruelly to the people in the time of Charles the Second, began a civil war against the new king; but he was killed at the battle of Killicrankie, in the Highlands of Scotland; and, after a great deal of difficulty, William ruled as King of Scotland.

But William had more trouble with Ireland, as you shall read. When King James ran away from England he went to France, where his queen and little son were already. Louis, King of France, who hated King William because he had always defended the countries and the people that Louis wanted to oppress, gave King James a good deal of money, and many soldiers, and ships to carry them to Ireland where he landed with them, and where most of the Irish under Lord Tyrconnel joined him, as well as many of the old English settlers, who were all Roman Catholics, and who did not wish for a Protestant king.

As soon as King William had settled the government in England he went to Ireland, where he found all the country distressed with civil war. King James with his army, made up of French, Irish, and English was on one side of a river called the Boyne; and there King William attacked his army, and beat it; James stayed on the field watching the battle and giving advice until he saw the battle was lost; and then, taking the advice of his general, Lauzun, he fled away with the French guards, and went back to France.

After this King James had no hope of gaining anything by fighting in Ireland; but Ireland itself was much worse for a long while, for long years of quarrel began there at that time.

To the Protestants, who wished to have King William for their king, was given all the power in the country. They called themselves Orangemen because William was Prince of Orange; and made many cruel laws against the Roman Catholics. For many years after this they tried very hard to get the rest of the Irish to turn Protestants; and even now the Irish have not done disputing; but I hope by the time my little friend, Arthur, is grown up, that all the Irish will be friends, and live in peace. It is dreadful to think that, though it is nearly two hundred years since the battle of the Boyne, Ireland has been unhappy all that time. Sometimes one side, sometimes the other, has been cruel and revengeful; and unhappily, till the present century, it was hardly possible to make things better, because there were two separate parliaments, one in Ireland, the other in England; so what one did the other undid, and the quarrels were made worse. But now there is one parliament for both countries, the people in England begin to understand Ireland, and to love the Irish people for many good qualities, and to be sorry for the wrong things that have been done there. The Irish now enjoy the same freedom as the English, and we must hope in future they will listen to reason and wise advice, and obey the laws as the English do.

While King William was busy in Ireland, Queen Mary governed in England, and, by her gentle and kind behaviour to everybody, gained the love of the people; so that they were glad to have her to govern, whenever William was obliged to go to Holland, to carry on the war which had been begun by several countries, as well as England, against that proud and ambitious king, Louis the Fourteenth of France. Louis was one of those strange men who fancy that they are born better than others, and that people have nothing to do but obey them, and that every man and every country must be wicked that does not do exactly as they choose in everything, even in the way of worshipping God.

Now King William knew that kings are only to be better loved and obeyed than other men when they obey God themselves, and love mercy, and do right and justice to their subjects; and that men and countries have a right to be free, and to worship God as they please: and it was because King William knew this that the English chose him to be king when they sent away James the Second, because he wished to be like Louis the Fourteenth in most things.

The war the French king had begun went on for a good many years. Twice people made a plot to murder King William, but they were found out and punished, and the people in England were so angry at such wicked plans, that they gave William more money to pay soldiers and sailors for the war than they had ever given to any king before.

Our king used to go every spring, as long as the war lasted, to fight the French on the borders of France, and he came home in the autumn to see what had been done in England while he was away.

The bravest admiral in these times was Admiral Russell, who beat the French ships whenever he could find them, and who fought a very famous battle against the French Admiral Tourville, about which the English sailors sing some fine songs even now.

King William himself was so brave and skilful in war that he baffled the best French generals, and kept King Louis’s large armies from getting any decisive advantage for many years, till at last Louis was tired of war, and was glad to make peace. So he sent his ambassadors to a place called Ryswick, in Holland, where King William had a country-house and promised to give back all the places he had taken from his neighbours during the war, provided he might have peace.

But in the midst of the war, when everything seemed to be going on well, a great misfortune happened to both the king and people of England. Good Queen Mary died of the small-pox when she had been queen only six years. She was a very good and clever woman. She was not only a good wife to the king, but his best friend; and he trusted her, and took her advice in everything. She was a true Protestant, and very religious, which made her particularly fit to be Queen of England. She was a cheerful, good-tempered woman, which made the people love her; and the ladies who lived at her court were good wives and mothers, and spent part of their time in useful work and reading, like the queen, instead of being always at plays, or gaming, or dressing, as they used to be in the time of Charles and James.

King William lived seven years after the queen died. He was killed by a fall from his horse near Hampton Court.

He was not near so pleasant and cheerful as Queen Mary. But he was the very best king for England that we could have found at that time.

He was a very religious man, and he knew his duty, and loved to do it, both in England, where the people chose him for their king, and in Holland, his own country.

I must write down a few of the things that he did for England: perhaps you will not quite understand how right they were till you are older, but it is proper that you should remember them.

A law was made that no man or woman should ever be king or queen of England but a Protestant.

It was settled that there should be a new parliament very often, and that no year should pass without the meeting of a parliament.

The old money that had been used in England was so worn out, and there was so much bad among it, that the king ordered it to be coined, or made over again, of a proper size and weight, so that people might buy and sell with it conveniently.

A number of merchants agreed to call themselves the East India Company, and to pay a tax to the king and parliament, if the king would protect them, and not allow any nation with which England was at war to hurt or destroy the towns in India where they had their trade, or their ships when they were carrying goods from place to place. There was a small company of this kind in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but the new one in William’s time, was of more use to the country as well as to the merchants.

We call the East India trade, not only the trade in things from India itself, such as pepper, cotton, muslin, diamonds, and other things that come from that country, but the trade in tea, and silk, and nankeen, and ivory, from China; and in spice of many kinds from the Spice Islands; and cinnamon, and gold, and precious stones, and many kinds of medicine from Ceylon. And all this trade came to be very great in King William’s reign.

The reign of King William will always be thought of gratefully by good Englishmen; because then the best things were done for the government, the religion, the laws, and the trade of our dear England.