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Part I: A Sickly and Doomed Usurper

(From The Foundation of an Empire: A History of the Oldenburg Dynasty by Lord Fredrick Blackfoot and Dr. Jacob Newton, Hampton University Press, Hampton, England 2012)

Chapter I: Fidei Defensor

It was the birth of Prince William the Duke of Gloucester that insured the succession of the childless King William III and Mary II. Furthermore it guaranteed that the Catholic heirs of the deposed James II would never again sit upon the throne of England. Up to this point the heirs had been Princess Anne’s daughters Mary and Anne Sophia both sickly children. Prince William would be the last of Princess’s Anne children to survive past a few days. All in all Princess Anne had 18 pregnancies that resulted in 3 children and an outstanding 14 miscarriages.

The young Duke of Gloucester was from birth declared to be the defender of the Anglican Church and given the greatest education a Prince of Denmark and heir of England was entitled to. The problem that lingered over the Defender of the Anglican Church was his health, a problem that afflicted his sisters. A Jacobite supporter once quipped that Prince William was a “sickly and doomed usurper”.

The 11 year old Prince William nearly succumbed to an unknown illness while dancing at the celebration marking the marriage of Anne Sophia to John William Friso [2]. The marriage was a clever ploy by King William III to insure the prolonging of the Anglo-Dutch Alliance. It was amidst all the revelry and dancing that the young Prince overheated but by nightfall was suffering from chills and fevers. By July 30th the young Prince’s fever had broken and he began to recover [3].

King William III began to assert more and more control over his heir’s household reviving an old feud he had with his sister-in-law Princess Anne. The resulting compromise was that William would select the young princes Household but that John Churchill would head the household until the Prince came of age [4].

Prince William favored the advice of Duke Churchill over his teacher Bishop Burnett of Salisbury as John Churchill had military knowledge. The young Prince used this knowledge to improve his ‘House Guard’ a group of kids the Prince had organized as 180 man miniature army. Duke Churchill would remain the young Princes favorite throughout his reign and wherever the King’s army went the odds of John Churchill leading it were high. The young Prince also maintained a close relationship with his Uncle King William III, who mentored him in the art of politics. It was in 1701 that King William invested the young prince with the title Prince of Wales.

In 1702 during a morning ride King William III’s horse stepped into a mole hole the resulting fall broke the King’s collarbone and the King quickly took ill. Jacobite supporters around the nation toasted “the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat”. The King eventually died of pneumonia and ushered in England’s first regency in decades. At first many accused William’s old enemy Louis 14TH of poisoning his long time enemy [5]. With King William III’s death the House of Stuart ended and was replaced by King William IV of the House of Oldenburg

[1] Prince William’s sisters Mary (1685) and Anne Sophia (1686) survive the Smallpox epidemic that killed them OTL

[2] Princess Mary Stuart was married to Charles Talbot 1st Duke of Shrewsbury and one of the 7 Lords that invited William and Mary to replace King James II

[3] OTL this was the date that Prince William succumbed to his illiness

[4] This is a rehashing of a fight between King William III and Anne that happened in 1698

[5] Modern Science has recently disproved this rumor but it gained considerable support during the early reign of William IV
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