Return to: AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History

Note to: King William of England Addresses Parliament on the French Question, 31 December 1701

King William of Holland and his wife Mary, daughter of King James II of England, mounted the English throne at the invitation of Parliament after James II fled to France in 1688.

William III was a firm opponent of French expansion in Europe, either by the acquisition of territory or the development of overpowering political coalitions. He viewed with alarm a move by Louis XIV to install a Catholic pretender to the English throne; moreover, William saw the maneuver of Louis to gain control of the Spanish throne as a giant step toward French domination of Europe and America and thus the world - which was, in fact, the objective of the French sovereign.

to the text of: King William of England Addresses Parliament on the French Question, 31 December 1701


Scanned and Converted to HTML by Dylan van Rijsbergen
for The American Revolution - an .HTML project
if you want to contribute, contact welling@let.rug.nl


Return to: WWW-VL: United States History Index