Editing William III of England (section)

== Later years ==
[[File:Willem III, prins van Oranje, koning van Engeland en stadhouder Rijksmuseum SK-A-367.jpeg|thumb|alt=A dark portrait of William holding a candle|Portrait by [[Godfried Schalcken]], 1690s]]
Mary II died of smallpox on 28 December 1694, aged 32, leaving William III to rule alone.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 179–180</ref> William deeply mourned his wife's death.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 180–184</ref> Despite his conversion to [[Anglicanism]], William's popularity in England plummeted during his reign as a sole monarch.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 186–192; Troost, pp. 226–237</ref>

===Rumours of homosexuality===
During the 1690s, rumours grew of William's alleged homosexual inclinations and led to the publication of many satirical pamphlets by his Jacobite detractors.<ref>{{Citation |title=Culture and Society in Britain |date=1997 |page=97 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=J |place=Manchester}}.</ref> He did have several close male associates, including two Dutch courtiers to whom he granted English titles: Hans Willem Bentinck became [[Earl of Portland]], and [[Arnold Joost van Keppel]] was created [[Earl of Albemarle]]. These relationships with male friends, and his apparent lack of mistresses, led William's enemies to suggest that he might prefer homosexual relationships. William's modern biographers disagree on the veracity of these allegations. Some believe there may have been truth to the rumours,<ref>Troost, pp. 25–26; Van der Zee, pp. 421–423</ref> while others affirm that they were no more than figments of his enemies' imaginations, as it was common for someone childless like William to adopt, or evince paternal affections for, a younger man.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 204–205; Baxter, p. 352; {{Citation |last=Falkner |first=James |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004 |contribution=Keppel, Arnold Joost van, first earl of Albemarle (1669/70–1718) |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

Whatever the case, Bentinck's closeness to William did arouse jealousies at the royal court. William's young protégé, Keppel, aroused more gossip and suspicion, being 20 years William's junior, strikingly handsome, and having risen from the post of a royal page to an earldom with some ease.<ref>Van der Kiste, p. 201</ref> Portland wrote to William in 1697 that "the kindness which your Majesty has for a young man, and the way in which you seem to authorise his liberties&nbsp;... make the world say things I am ashamed to hear."<ref name="vdk202">Van der Kiste, pp. 202–203</ref> This, he said, was "tarnishing a reputation which has never before been subject to such accusations". William tersely dismissed these suggestions, however, saying, "It seems to me very extraordinary that it should be impossible to have esteem and regard for a young man without it being criminal."<ref name=vdk202/>

===Peace with France===
[[File:Lord Justices of England.jpg|alt=Black-and-white depiction of six small portraits arrayed in a circle around a larger portrait|thumb|upright|left| Engraving from 1695 showing the [[Regency Acts|Lord Justices]] who administered the kingdom while William was on campaign]]
In 1696, the Dutch territory of [[Drenthe]] made William its Stadtholder. In the same year, [[1696 Jacobite assassination plot|Jacobites plotted]] to assassinate William in an attempt to restore James to the English throne. The plan failed and support for William surged.<ref>Van der Zee, pp. 402–403</ref> Parliament passed a [[bill of attainder]] against the ringleader, [[Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet|John Fenwick]], and he was beheaded in 1697.<ref>Van der Zee, p. 414</ref> In accordance with the [[Treaty of Rijswijk]] (20 September 1697), which ended the Nine Years' War, King Louis XIV recognised William III as King of England, and undertook to give no further assistance to James II.<ref>Troost, p. 251</ref> Thus deprived of French dynastic backing after 1697, Jacobites posed no further serious threats during William's reign.

As his life drew towards its conclusion, William, like many other contemporary European rulers, felt concern over the question of succession to the throne of Spain, which brought with it vast territories in Italy, the [[Low Countries]] and the [[Spanish Empire|New World]]. [[Charles II of Spain]] was an invalid with no prospect of having children; some of his closest relatives included Louis XIV of France and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. William sought to prevent the Spanish inheritance from going to either monarch, for he feared that such a calamity would upset the [[balance of power in international relations|balance of power]]. William and Louis agreed to the [[First Partition Treaty]] (1698), which provided for the division of the Spanish Empire: [[Joseph Ferdinand, Electoral Prince of Bavaria]], would obtain Spain, while France and the Holy Roman Emperor would divide the remaining territories between them.<ref>Troost, pp. 253–255</ref> Charles II accepted the nomination of Joseph Ferdinand as his heir, and war appeared to be averted.<ref>Troost, p. 255</ref>

[[File:Louis XIV of France.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Portrait of Louis XIV, standing, wearing an ermine robe faced with fleur-de-lis|Louis XIV of France, William's lifelong enemy]]

When, however, Joseph Ferdinand died of smallpox in February 1699, the issue re-opened. In 1700, William and Louis agreed to the [[Second Partition Treaty]] (also called the Treaty of London), under which the territories in Italy would pass to a son of the King of France, and the other Spanish territories would be inherited by a son of the Holy Roman Emperor.<ref name="troost256">Troost, pp. 256–257</ref> This arrangement infuriated both the Spanish, who still sought to prevent the dissolution of their empire, and the Holy Roman Emperor, who regarded the Italian territories as much more useful than the other lands.<ref name=troost256/> Unexpectedly, Charles II of Spain interfered as he lay dying in late 1700.<ref name="troost258">Troost, pp. 258–260</ref> Unilaterally, he willed all Spanish territories to [[Philip, Duke of Anjou]], a grandson of Louis XIV. The French conveniently ignored the Second Partition Treaty and claimed the entire Spanish inheritance.<ref name=troost258/> Furthermore, Louis alienated William III by recognising James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of the former King James II (who died in September 1701), as ''de jure'' King of England.<ref>Troost, p. 260</ref> The subsequent conflict, known as the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], broke out in July 1701 and continued until 1713/1714.

===English royal succession===
Another royal inheritance, apart from that of Spain, also concerned William. His marriage with Mary had not produced any children, and he did not seem likely to remarry. Mary's sister, Anne, had borne numerous children, all of whom died during childhood. The death of her last surviving child ([[Prince William, Duke of Gloucester]]) in 1700 left her as the only individual in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights.<ref>Troost, p. 234</ref> As the complete exhaustion of the defined line of succession would have encouraged a restoration of James II's line, the English Parliament passed the [[Act of Settlement 1701]], which provided that if Anne died without surviving issue and William failed to have surviving issue by any subsequent marriage, the Crown would pass to a distant relative, [[Sophia, Electress of Hanover]] (a granddaughter of [[James VI and I|James I]]), and to her Protestant heirs.<ref name="troost235">Troost, p. 235</ref> The Act debarred Roman Catholics from the throne, thereby excluding the [[Jacobite line of succession to the English and Scottish thrones in 1714|candidacy of several dozen people more closely related to Mary and Anne]] than Sophia. The Act extended to England and Ireland, but not to Scotland, whose Estates had not been consulted before the selection of Sophia.<ref name=troost235/>