Surviving Willem II of Orange

As indicated by label. What would the results of Willem II, prince of Orange, surviving be. He doesn't have to survive all that long - simply until his son has reached his majority (thus butterflying the factionalism that split the Orangist party when his mother and his wife started arguing).

Thoughts?
 
Well, first off you've most likely butterflied the Fronde of Princes as we know it, as Conde will be most likely removed from court to Dutch front instead of going to Bastille (Willem negotiated joint campaign with France before he died).

Dutch internal politics is also going to be a lot more different. More absolutist tendencies, more attention to Army, no shuffling of Navy commanders. Maybe a different result of First Anglo-Dutch war?
 
Well, first off you've most likely butterflied the Fronde of Princes as we know it, as Conde will be most likely removed from court to Dutch front instead of going to Bastille (Willem negotiated joint campaign with France before he died).

Dutch internal politics is also going to be a lot more different. More absolutist tendencies, more attention to Army, no shuffling of Navy commanders. Maybe a different result of First Anglo-Dutch war?

So, I take it that if events still go further as OTL (unlikely) William III is not going to be viewed as the savior of English liberty against an absolutist James II?
 
As indicated by label. What would the results of Willem II, prince of Orange, surviving be. He doesn't have to survive all that long - simply until his son has reached his majority (thus butterflying the factionalism that split the Orangist party when his mother and his wife started arguing).

Thoughts?

First, that's a knock-on, not a butterfly effect. Utterly predictable.

Second, William's longer life has drastic effects on Dutch internal politics. 1650 was the height of William's quarrel with the States, which was approaching civil war. With his death, the States became supreme and the Netherlands a de facto republic.

If he live, that eliminates the First Stadtholderless Period. Either he makes the stadtholdership hereditary with quasi-royal powers, or the States cut him down. There could be fighting - William tried to seize Amsterdam by force.

Suppose he succeeds. That in turn changes Dutch foreign policy in those decades. The Dutch may still fight England in the 1650s; William is strongly sympathetic to the Royalist cause, being married to Charles I's daughter.

But it is unlikely that the Dutch will fight England after the Restoration.
 
The assault on Amsterdam failed, how ever William II accomplished the removal of some major Patricians from the coinsils of Amsterdam and Holland who opposed Orange power. Most notably among them was Andries Bicker. They were detained in the Castle 'Muiderslot'. In OTL this group of men sized power after his death.
In essence William II secured his power, in a way as his unlce Maurits had done several decade ago, he replace ruling patricians who oposed him with more leaniant ones. It can not be absolute as it evovled at that time in France, due to the strong desire of the Provinces and States to be quasy independendt and the lack of histrical prove to elevate him and his dinasty to some sort of king.
But all this is not nessasery to have a very intersting decade. In France the Fronde was goiing on. William was maried with the daughter of the beheaded king of England. He was un satisfied with the reuslt of the peace of West Phalia, and determined to conquer more land at the expense of Spain and even German Principalities.
 
Willem II had eight siblings - seven sisters and a brother. The brother and three sisters died in infancy or childhood, but the remaining four sisters all lived to be at least 39.

Sorry, I mistyped, I meant William III has more siblings, but the 3e 'i' didn't take.

I find it unlikely that the Anglo-Dutch Wars don't happen. English and Dutch colonial interests often DID clash, so maybe there are fewer wars, but IDK about none. Willem II had a bellicose nature, so he might countenance defensive wars against his in-laws across the channel. William III (spared his childhood trauma of family in fighting) might be married to Mary of York as part of the peace treaty ending such a war.
 
This is kind of a divergence from the original idea, but was there any reason that Willem III was Willem II's only child? Will. II and the Princess Royal had been married since 1640 (when she was 9), so considering that most princesses get turned into breeding machines at 16/17 is there anything to preclude Willem III perhaps having older siblings?
 
This is kind of a divergence from the original idea, but was there any reason that Willem III was Willem II's only child? Will. II and the Princess Royal had been married since 1640 (when she was 9), so considering that most princesses get turned into breeding machines at 16/17 is there anything to preclude Willem III perhaps having older siblings?

Well, if the marriage was consummated at 16/17 and Mary had William III at 19, then there may have been some issues with conceiving. Remember that her parents Charles I and Henrietta Maria were married for four years before their first child was born, so it could have been the same for the Princess Royal.
 
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