William III & II (4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702) was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange (Dutch: Willem III van Oranje) over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland. By coincidence, his regnal number (III) was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. In what became known as the "Glorious Revolution", on 5 November 1688 William invaded England in an action that ultimately deposed King James II & VII and won him the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II of England, until her death on 28 December 1694. The period of their joint reign is often referred to as "William and Mary".
William himself reigned until 1702, when he died of pneumonia, a complication for a broken collarbone he received after falling from his horse.
The ascension William III and Mary II in 1688 was the last time a British government fell to a coup until 1941, when a military coup forcibly removed the increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Sir Horace Wilson.[1]
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