The last warrior monarch

When William of Orange landed in Devon in 1688, he brought with him a force of some 40,000 men, carried by a huge fleet of 463 ships – three times the size of the Spanish Armada. The Dutch-born prince arrived with the intention of usurping a legitimate monarch – James II of England – but he did so at the behest of a powerful group of nobles. As a result, his invasion of England passed off so peacefully it became known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’. William’s claim to the throne was based on the fact that he was the grandson of Charles I, and the husband of Mary, James II’s daughter. Perhaps most importantly, he was also a staunch defender of Protestantism at a time when the c