Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

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.