The century after William of Orange’s landing at Torbay and the Glorious Revolution in England was one dominated by conflict with France. This sequence of global wars consisted of the Nine Years War (1689–97), the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13), the War of the Austrian Succession (1739–48), the Seven Years War (1756–63) and the American War of Independence (1775–83) in which the French intervened in 1778.
The Glorious Revolution banished the Catholic James II and invited onto the English throne the Dutch William of Orange as guarantor that the English monarchy would remain Protestant. (See the Bill of Rights, 1689 and the Act of Settlement, 1701). Protestant England then became engaged in two parallel struggles – the prevention of a French hegemony in Europe; and
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Citation: Seager, Nicholas. "War of the Spanish Succession". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1178, accessed 23 November 2024.]
