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LANDEN, near Liège (July 29, 1693); but on both occasions he quickly recovered from the blow.

Queen Mary died from the smallpox (Dec. 28, 1694), greatly lamented by her husband, who for some time seemed quite incapable of exertion. In the following year, however, he captured Namur; and Louis, finding difficulty in continuing the contest from deficiency of funds, agreed to a peace, which was signed at Ryswick (Sept. 11, 1697).

In 1698 and 1700, William, who feared that the French would gain possession of Spain on the decease of its childless monarch, Charles II, concluded treaties with Louis for the partition of the Spanish territories; but on the death of Charles, Louis allowed his own grandson, Philip of Anjou, to whom the Spanish king had left the whole of his dominions, to take possession of them. William, on that ground, as well as because the French king had recognised the Old Pretender as king of England, formed a grand alliance against Louis (1701), which produced important results in the ensuing reign.

Several conspiracies were organized against William's life. For complicity in one of them Sir John Fenwick was executed (1697). A bill was passed for triennial parliaments, and another for regulating trials in cases of treason, which made it necessary that there should be two witnesses to insure the conviction of the prisoner. The land-tax and the national debt were begun in 1692, and the Bank of England was founded in 1694. The formation of a regular cabinet of ministers dates from this reign.

Some of the established clergy, including a few of the bishops, refused to take the oath of supremacy to William and Mary, and were, therefore, after a time deprived of their benefices. They received the name of Nonjurors, and some of them were actively engaged in plots for the restoration of the old line.

In 1701, as neither William nor the Princess Anne had any children, the Act of Settlement was passed, which limited the inheritance of the crown, after the death of William and Anne (and their heirs, should any be born), to the Princess Sophia of

Brunswick, and her heirs, being Protestants. This act provided-1, that the sovereign should join in communion with the Established Church; 2, that England should not be involved in any foreign wars without the consent of parliament; 3, that the sovereign should not leave the country without consent of parliament; 4, that all public business properly cognizable in the privy council should be transacted there; 5, that no foreigner should hold a public office; 6, that, after the accession of the Hanoverian family, no person holding an office of profit under the king or receiving a pension should sit in the House of Commons; 7, that judges should continue in their offices during good behaviour; and 8, that no one impeached by the Commons could plead a pardon granted by the crown.

Death.-William, while riding from Kensington towards Hampton Court, was thrown from his horse and broke his collar-bone. After a few days illness he expired at Kensington, March 8, 1702,

ANNE.

Reigned from 1702 to 1714.

Birth-Anne was born at St. James's, Feb. 6, 1665.
Descent. She was the daughter of James II.

Marriage. She married Prince George of Denmark, brother of Christian V.

Children. They had several children, all of whom died young.

Important Events.-War was declared against France and Spain (May 4, 1702); and the Earl of Marlborough was placed at the head of the allied forces. In the first campaign he captured Liège and other towns; and Admiral Sir George Rooke seized a part of the Spanish plate fleet in the bay of Vigo (Oct., 1702).

In 1703, Bonn and other places were taken by Marlborough, who for his distinguished services had been raised to a dukedom; and in 1704 he suddenly advanced into Bavaria (the elector of which was in alliance with France) and gained the battle of

BLENHEIM, in which the Gallo-Bavarian army lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners more than 40,000 men. Marshal Tallard, the French commander-in-chief, fell into the hands of the victors (Aug. 13). A few days earlier Rooke captured Gibraltar, which up to that time had been deemed impregnable (July 23). Lord Peterborough, an able and eccentric nobleman, who resembled a knight-errant more than a modern warrior, took Barcelona (Sept., 1705), and gained other successes in Spain; and in 1706 Marlborough defeated the French under Marshal Villeroy, at RAMILLIES, in Brabant (May 23). This victory secured to the allies most of the Spanish Netherlands, while Prince Eugene, who now took the command against the French in Italy, gained the battle of TURIN (Sept. 7), and drove them to the borders of France.

In 1707 the English, Dutch, and Portuguese were vanquished at ALMANZA, in Spain, by the Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II, and a warrior of signal skill and heroism; and in the same year the parliamentary union of England and Scotland was effected after a good deal of resistance in the latter country.

Marlborough and Eugene defeated Marshal Vendôme, at OUDENARDE, in East Flanders (July 11, 1708); and General Stanhope took Minorca later in the same year. The French, at the beginning of 1709, sought to make peace, but the English government distrusted Louis, and the negotiations were broken off. Marlborough and his fellow-commander gained a victory over Villars, at the sanguinary battle of Malplaquet, near Mons (Sept. 11, 1709); and in Spain the allies vanquished their opponents at ALMENARA (July 27, 1710), and at SARAGOSSA (Aug. 20); but the Duke of Vendôme being sent to that country as head commander, he compelled a body of English troops to capitulate at Brihuega (Dec. 9), and on the following day virtually defeated the other part of the allied force at VILLA VICIOSA.

The Duchess of Marlborough, who for some years had been the

especial favourite of the queen, was, about this time, completely supplanted by Mrs. Masham, who used her influence in behalf of the Tory party. The destiny of Europe was changed by the insolence of one lady-in-waiting and the craftiness of another, for the Tories determined to put an end to the war as soon as possible. They removed Marlborough from his command in 1711, and appointed the Duke of Ormond as his successor, with instructions to take no active part in the contest. The French, were therefore able to make head against the rest of the allies. and Eugene was defeated at DENAIN, in France (July 24, 1712) Previous to this battle negotiations were opened, and the English exhibited as much solicitude for peace as if their campaigns, instead of having been a series of triumphs, had been continually disastrous. The discussions were protracted; but at length the treaty of Utrecht was signed by all the allies except the Emperor of Germany (April 11, 1713). Philip, the grandson of Louis, was to retain Spain; the emperor was to have Milan, Naples, Sardinia, and the Netherlands; and the Duke of Savoy, Sicily. England was to keep Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and Nova Scotia; and the Protestant succession was to be acknowledged by Louis.

The parliament tried to pass an Occasional Conformity Bill, which was levelled against dissenters, in 1702; and near the close of the reign they carried the Schism Act, which, however, never came into force through the queen's death. Anne restored to the Established Church the first-fruits and tenths, which had been taken away at the Reformation, and this fund, devoted to the augmentation of poor livings, received the name of Queen Anne's Bounty. Dr. Sacheverel was impeached for preaching sermons contravening the principles upon which the Revolution was established, and his sermons were condemned to be burned; but the popular enthusiasm was greatly in his favour, and in the disturbances which ensued, several dissenting chapels were burned (1710). St. Paul's Cathedral was completed in 1710: thirty-five years were spent in its erection.

To gain a government majority in the House of Lords, Anne created on one occasion twelve new peers. Marlborough was charged in 1711 with peculation in his office as commander-inchief, and Robert Walpole with receiving bribes. The latter was expelled from the House of Commons, ostensibly on this ground, but really because he was an active member of the Whig party. In those days corruption was common among public men, and few of them had the fear of God before their eyes.

[Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg, 1704. Battle of Pultowa, 1709.]

Death.-Anne died at Kensington, August 1, 1741.

Notes on the Stuart Period.

The eight largest towns in England at the close of this period, were London, Bristol, Norwich, York, Exeter, Worcester, Nottingham, and Shrewsbury. The population of the capital in 1685 was about half a million, that of Bristol and Norwich about twenty-nine thousand, that of the other towns under ten thousand. The total population of England was nearly five millions and a half.

The principal manufactures in 1714 were those of cloth, hardware, and silk; and the cotton manufacture was beginning to establish itself in Manchester and the neighbourhood. The mineral wealth of the country then consisted of its tin and copper. The smelting of iron languished, as the parliament had interfered to prohibit the manufacturers from burning timber, and it was not then customary to employ coal for the purpose. Coal was used as fuel in the districts where it was found, and also in the metropolis.

Agriculture did not greatly advance during this period. The quantity of land under cultivation in England and Wales was not much more in the reign of Anne than in that of James I. "The alternate system of husbandry-the growth of turnips or clover after a corn crop--was recommended in the middle of the

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