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Mary II

Mary II of England (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 13 February 1689 to 28 December 1694, reigning jointly with William III of England.

Biography[]

Mary II of England

Princess Mary in 1677

Mary Stuart was born in Westminster, England in 1662, the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York and his first wife Anne Hyde, the niece of King Charles II of England, and the sister of Princess Anne, James, Prince of Wales, Louisa Maria, Princess Royal, Henrietta Butler, Viscountess Galmoye, James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, Henry FitzJames, and Catherine Sheffield, Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby. She was baptized an Anglican and named for Mary, Queen of Scots, and all of her legitimate siblings except Anne died very young; her father produced several illegitimate children. Mary remained a Protestant even after her father converted to Catholicism in 1668, and she married her cousin William of Orange in 1677. James' attempts at rule by decree and the birth of a Catholic heir, James Francis Edward Stuart, led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights. William and Mary became king and queen regnant, but Mary mostly deferred to her husband when he was in England. She acted alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad during the War of the Grand Alliance against King Louis XIV of France, and she died of smallpox in 1694 at the age of 32. On William's death in 1702, Mary's sister Anne became queen.

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