Images of Queen Mary II, 1689-95*

Abstract

At the time of the Revolution of 1688-89 in England, for the first time since the accession of Queen Elizabeth I one hundred and thirty years earlier, a woman had a claim to the crown of England in her own right—Princess Mary of Orange, wife of Prince William of Orange of the Netherlands and the elder daughter of James II, the Catholic king of England, by his first and Protestant wife. That claim was one possible solution to the question of who should head the new government, but it was finally decided to create a dual monarchy, a constitutional arrangement unique in the nation's history. Under it the prince and princess of Orange became King William III and Queen Mary II of England, with administrative power vested in William alone. Although regarded as a regnant queen, one of only six regnant queens in the nation's history, Mary, in fact, received no substantive regal power.