Mary II

Mary II, 1662–94, queen of England

Mary II, 1662–94, queen of England, wife of William III. The daughter of James II by his first wife, Anne Hyde, she was brought up a Protestant despite her father's adoption of Roman Catholicism. In 1677 she married her cousin William of Orange and went with him to Holland. She returned to England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and was proclaimed joint sovereign with her husband in 1689, though she actually ruled only during his absences. Although she was relatively popular with the Dutch and English peoples, she led an unhappy life because of the political conflicts between her husband, her father, and her sister Anne. She sided faithfully with her husband.

Bibliography

See biographies by H. W. Chapman (1953, repr. 1972) and E. Hamilton (1972); R. P. MacCubbin and M. Hamilton-Phillips, ed., The Age of William III and Mary II (1988).

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Mary II

(born April 30, 1662, London, Eng.—died Dec. 28, 1694, London) Queen of England (1689–94). The daughter of King James II, a Catholic convert, she was reared as a Protestant and in 1677 married to her cousin, William of Orange. They lived in Holland until English nobles opposed to James's pro-Catholic policies invited William and Mary to assume the English throne. After William landed with a Dutch force (1688), James fled, and Mary and William (as King William III) became corulers of England (1689). Mary enjoyed great popularity, and her Dutch tastes had an influence on English pottery, landscape gardening, and interior design. She died of smallpox at age 32.