William III King of England 1650-1702

Alternate title: Proclamation de Sa Majesté de Grand Bretagne pour l'arrest de quelques personnes pour crime de haute trahison. Publication date from text. Woodcut head and tail-pieces; factotum initial.

Copy of a letter from William III, King of England to the Lord General of the United Netherlands. Generic correspondence upon the ascension of William III to the English throne to the Netherlands. Translated from Dutch to German; Whitehall, February 23, 1689. Proclamation by Parliament blessing the ascent of William III & Mary to the throne of England and wishing them many happy years of reigning. Signed by John Brown, Parliament clerk, sent February 22, received March 2, 1689. Letter to the Lord Deputies of England; regarding Princess Anna of Denmark’s visit to Whitehall. Signed by Nicolaes Whitson (statesman and mayor of Amsterdam), W. of Nassau (Dutch soldier and diplomat under William III of England, 1st Earl of Rochford), Everhard van Weede. London, Feb. 22, 1689. William III's letter to the States General gives an account of the proclamation in Parliament of William and Mary as King and Queen of England. Includes letters (22 and 23 February) from Dutch envoys in London, N. Witsen, W. de Nassau, and E. de Weede, to the States General. Also a list of the horse and foot regiments which had accompanied William III to England and which will now be sent back to the Netherlands.

[Declaration of His Royal Majesty by the Grace of God William Henry, Prince of Orange.] The Declaration of His Highness William Henry, by the Grace of God, Prince of Orange, etc., of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms in the Kingdom of England, and for preserving the Protestant religion, and for restoring the laws and liberties of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Translated from Dutch, printed in the year 1688. Reasons given are that James II had undermined the rule of laws in England, that the counsellors of James II were corrupt and providing him with bad advice and had encouraged him to overturn religious laws and subject the citizens of England to arbitrary governing. William's chief complaints were that James had agreed to uphold religious toleration of Protestants and the Church of England, but James was a Catholic and replaced many Protestant civil servants with Catholics who had not been required to take the oath mandated by the Test Act.

Letter 1: Dated December 8, 1688. Declaration by William III of Orange, later King William II of England, Scotland and Ireland, justifying an invasion of England to preserve the Protestant religion. Letter 2: Dated December 10, 1688. Proclamation by King James II of England; calls for the quick establishment of a Parliament.