William III
King
From 1689 until his death in 1702, this former Prince and Stadtholder of Orange ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as King William III. A devout Protestant, he devoted much of his reign to military conflicts with France's Catholic monarch, Louis XIV.
He studied at the University of Leiden for seven years.
In 1693, he supplied the funds for the establishment of the College of William and Mary (located in Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.A.), which, along with Harvard University, is one of America's two oldest colleges.
The son of William II, Prince of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal, he was born in The Hague, Dutch Republic (present-day Netherlands). His marriage to his first cousin, Queen Mary II, resulted in no offspring.
He succeeded James II as King of England.