William of Orange, King of the Netherlands and England
322 years ago, on March 8, 1702, in the English capital, London, William of Orange expired, having held the title of king consort of England and Scotland (1689-1694) and absolute king since his death of his wife, Queen Maria II, until his end (1694-1702). William, who would be known as William III, came into the world in 1650 in The Hague (independent Netherlands) and was the son and successor of William II of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch United Provinces, and Maria Enriqueta Stuart, sister of King Charles II of England.
The Dutch Stadhouder was the highest political and military leader of the country, and from the time this figure was established (independence of the United Provinces, 1584) until it was changed to the position of monarch (1815), it was transmitted hereditary. Thus, William, between 1694 and 1702, simultaneously held the positions of Stadhouder of the Netherlands (as his father’s heir) and King of England and Scotland (as his wife’s heir). However, this coincidence did not lead to any kind of political union between these territories.
Guillem d’Orange, the mediator of European politics
During the 1790s, William of Orange became the main intermediary in European politics, a fact that shows the emerging power of England. At that time, the Spanish king, Charles II, could not have children and his succession was the constant topic of European diplomacy. On the one hand, Louis XIV of France (who at that time was already the most powerful king in the world) had suggested his grandson Philip of Anjou (who would end up being Philip V of Spain). And, on the other hand, Leopold I of Austria and the Holy Empire had suggested his youngest son, Charles of Habsburg.
Long before London diplomacy supported Charles of Habsburg, William proposed a consensus candidate: the young Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria. But the premature death of the Bavarian candidate led him to propose a second proposal: to distribute the Spanish monarchy. Philip of Anjou would be king of the Castilian-Ollean Crown and of some Hispanic colonies in America (he would cede part of this heritage to England and the Netherlands), and Charles of Habsburg would be king of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown (Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Sardinia, Naples and Sicily).
Archduke Leopold of Austria’s pact that his son Charles would never be named heir to the throne of Vienna and therefore that an Austro-Hispanic dynastic union would not occur that would alter the European map (even if he would eventually reign, at least after the death of his older brother Josep, 1711) and the sudden death of Guillem (he died at the age of 52 due to pneumonia) cooled this proposal, which, initially, had the support of almost all European diplomacy ( even those of Paris and Vienna took it into account) and of the elites of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown.
