William and Mary

This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on William and Mary is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:

William III
Mary II

The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdom of England, as well as the Kingdom of Scotland, of King William III and his wife Queen Mary II, a daughter of James II. Their joint reign began in February, 1689, when they were called to the throne by Parliament, replacing James II, who was "deemed to have fled" the country in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After Mary died in 1694, William of Orange ruled alone until his death in 1702. Their rule was the only period in British history in which "joint sovereigns" with equal powers were allowed to reign; usually, the spouse of the monarch has no power and is simply a consort.

Historic impact

To end the Glorious Revolution, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights, and a new co-operation between the Parliament and the monarchs, leading to a greater measure of personal liberty and democracy in Britain. This action both signaled the end of several centuries of tension and conflict between crown and parliament, and the end of the idea that England would be restored to Roman Catholicism, King William being a Protestant leader.

The English Bill of Rights also inspired the colonists in the Americas to revolt in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland.citation needed

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was chartered in 1693, endowed and named in their honour.

See also

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 24 November 2008, at 16:10.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "William and Mary".

The URL for this specific entry is:

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.