True historians know that there was more than just one invasion of England besides King William I the Conquerer's invasion from Normandy and the subsequent Battle of Hastings in 1066 - The Norman Conquest. Most folks don't know about the others however....
On this day in 1688, the Dutch Stadholder Prince William of Orange-Nassau invaded England.
Landing at Torbay, the English were shocked by the massive size of Williams fleet and the thousands of troops streaming up to the shores in countless boats there. William had assembled a fleet of 463 ships and an Army of 40,000 men (most of whom were hardened Dutch, Danish and German veteran professionals who had learned their trade fighting the French). This force was over double the size of the Spanish Armada and Parma's Army that attempted invading a century before.
The Dutch met a token English resistance force initially but found their way mostly unhindered on their march to London. Several small bloody battles and skirmishes did occur against King James' troops throughout the rest of the month and into December. Even after London was occupied and most of its inhabitants had fled - including the King and court, two more small battles occurred on the 5th and 9th of December, before peace was achieved.
With James now successfully deposed and many of the English nobles (against Catholic James from the beginning) endorsing the invading Protestant Dutchman's bid for kingship. Dutch King William III whose mother was King Charles I's eldest daughter, was crowned King of England with Mary Stuart (the daughter of King James) as his Queen.
James did mount a resistance and raised an Army of primarily Irish peasants, to attempt to take back his throne. James and the Stuart (Jacobite) cause were finally utterly crushed by the primarily professional Dutch and Danish troops near Drogheada, Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne
This historic event has often been called “The Glorious Revolution” of 1688. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution Many English historians labeled it “The Bloodless Revolution”, but that is obviously a known myth that has survived because of the event's original preceding and subsequent propaganda.
Some would even say this is one of the first true historical examples of the skillful manipulation of public opinion and psy-ops. Indeed, some powerful English lords did approach William with the idea of invasion as early as February, but the Stadholder had no ambitions to be the King of England. His reason for invading England and accepting Kingship was to simply bring Britain into the strong alliance he had formed against his powerful enemy the “Sun King” Louis XIV and the French.
Interestingly James was warned numerous times of the Dutch preparations to invade by both Papal spies and French envoys as early as September, but payed them no mind and simply thought they were exaggerating. Some amazing political maneuvering was at work on the continent and Louis the XIV was busy helping the Emperor in his fight against the Turks on Germany's eastern frontier. In fact the Emperor had just retaken Belgrade in a bloody battle and siege. Meanwhile King Louis plotted to invade the weak west German states at the same time while the Emperor was occupied in the east.
William in a brilliant stroke of strategic statecraft and diplomacy signed treaties with many of the German Elector Princes and brought their combined armies into Holland to guard both their own and the Dutch borders against the French while he used the vast majority of his troops to invade England.
William and his advisors were clearly worried by possible English resistance and knew if the country was so inclined it could quickly raise a formidable force that outnumbered the Dutch. Because of this a large amount of polemics and flyers were written in English and distributed before the invasion praising William as being the Champion of the Protestant cause bravely opposing the warmongering French king and power hungry Papacy. Even after the country had been subdued these polemics continued to be circulated to pacify the population that deposing a bad Catholic English King in favor a a righteous Protestant Dutch one was the best way forward for the country. William himself completed the ruse by quartering his own personal standards and the Dutch Army's colors with the English flag in the upper right corner.
The reign and Era of William and Mary had began and didn't end until 1694 when Queen Mary died. King William ruled on until his death in 1702. His reign had some particularly interesting consequences for England. Many have attributed Charles II and the “Restoration” with finally bringing Britain into Empire and while that's true in many ways, England was extremely disorganized and fiscally a disaster. Britain suffered economically year after year largely because of out of control and unregulated free capitalist policies. William brought with him fiscal organization and Dutch economists.
Taxation and revenues, the stock market, venture capital, and the insurance industry saw their rise and began thriving under William's administration with smart centralized managed fiscal policy and regulation while still allowing a free market system.
In addition, the subsequent Declaration and Bill of Rights allowed for numerous additional freedoms for the English people and forever abolished the church from dominating their future.
William had achieved what he had set out to and the French were put in check. However with a future where the destinies of Holland and England were closely tied in alliance - and England's prosperity and growth the result – the Dutch Republic's decline was imminent from there after.
William also marked another precedence in that to this day, England's royals (with the exception of Queen Anne) have always been foreigners. In another small propaganda trick, the current house of Windsor is in reality the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from the House of Wettin. The name was changed in WWI by King George V due to anti-German sentiment. But that is another story....
For further reading on this subject I highly recommend "The Glorious Revolution: 1688 - Britain's Fight for Liberty" by Edward Vallance. ISBN 976-1-60598-034-8
It's available at Amazon.com. It's an excellent read and cuts through the Anglo-centric haze of propaganda that has minimized this historic event for 300 years.
I know I have not published in a while because of what I perceive to be a population of mostly “kiddie gamers” at PA! that really don't give a squat about history, but I couldn't let this particular event go by without a narrative and I did it for those few that might appreciate it and are willing to learn new things.
William's Invasion force landing at Torbay:
Subsequent Battle of Beachy Head 1690 between the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet and the French:
MK
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