A Second Queen Mary: William III dies in 1690

Okay, reading Unmaking the West, one ofthe scenarios that's proposed is the death of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne. One author sugest that without William, absolutist Stuarts prevent England's industrial revolution.

To which another author replies, what about William's wife Mary, who was Queen in her own right and still ruled England and Scotland?

So, let's suppose William dies in 1690. Mary, however, is solidly on the English throne, if less securely on the Scottish; and Ireland falls over the course of 1690, as not even the death of William defeats his professional army on the island.

What does the future hold for England's queen?
 
Death in four years, after which she will be replaced by Anne a few years earlier.

I don't see a big effect on English politics: William III had basically signed over all real power to parliament in exchange for the alliance against France.
 

Thande

Donor
Nothing important; I don't think the Dutch union lasting another four years or not had any serious consequences. No real effect on English politics, except through butterflies.
 
Dutch Union collapses immediately upon Williams death, as the Arminian party in Dutch politics takes control again. Nothing appreciable in england.
 
Mary II

She could have heirs provided she remarries. I think that she was still of child bearing age when William died. Her failure to have children by him may have had something to do with their relationship: they were first cousins. I don't see much hope for a reconciliation with her sister Anne. The two sisters greatly detested each other and Mary also hated Anne's favorite, Sarah, Duchess of Marlyborough.
 
She could have heirs provided she remarries. I think that she was still of child bearing age when William died. Her failure to have children by him may have had something to do with their relationship: they were first cousins. I don't see much hope for a reconciliation with her sister Anne. The two sisters greatly detested each other and Mary also hated Anne's favorite, Sarah, Duchess of Marlyborough.

Who could she have married though. Maybe we could delay Anne's marriage and have Mary re-marry to Prince George of Denmark who IOTL married Anne
 
Mary might still have been of childbearing age, but IIRC she was unableto have children after 1680 (syphilis? a bad miscarriage?). She was apparently pregnant in 1678, twice in '79, and again in '80, and after that no source (ENglish or Dutch) mentions her as being even possibly with child again.

If one takes into account her sister's obstetric record - sixteen children (six live births, of which only three children, the princesses Anne Sophie and Mary, and the duke of Gloucester lived longer than a day) - it asks the question of whether there wasnt some odd genetic disorder inherited from their parents (I say their parents, since if it was to do with childbirth, it wouldn't have affected James III, and La Consolatrice didn't marry so we don't know if it was on James' side, or Anne Hyde's).

And also, after Prince George died, a remarriage was proposed for Anne as well, in the unlikely hope (she was forty-four already) that she would produce a child.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
Mary might still have been of childbearing age, but IIRC she was unableto have children after 1680 (syphilis? a bad miscarriage?). She was apparently pregnant in 1678, twice in '79, and again in '80, and after that no source (ENglish or Dutch) mentions her as being even possibly with child again.

If one takes into account her sister's obstetric record - sixteen children (six live births, of which only three children, the princesses Anne Sophie and Mary, and the duke of Gloucester lived longer than a day) - it asks the question of whether there wasnt some odd genetic disorder inherited from their parents (I say their parents, since if it was to do with childbirth, it wouldn't have affected James III, and La Consolatrice didn't marry so we don't know if it was on James' side, or Anne Hyde's).

And also, after Prince George died, a remarriage was proposed for Anne as well, in the unlikely hope (she was forty-four already) that she would produce a child.

Resurrecting old threads is pretty much frowned upon on this forum. If you want to discuss this issue I suggest you start a new thread.
 
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