support, together with significant overtures from Sunderland. Early in September William was recalled from Minden by the tidings that the states of Holland had with more or less grace resolved to support his enterprise. D'Avaux's efforts to create a belief at the Hague in an Anglo-French alliance had contributed to this result; as a matter of fact, James was as far as ever from falling in with the designs of Louis. Accordingly the latter turned to his plans against the empire, and declared war against it by his manifesto of 24 Sept. William's hands were now free; and on the 30th he issued his declaration, which, drawn up by Fagel, was abridged and translated into English by Burnet (iii. 300; and cf. Kennet, iii. 492; and Harris, ii. 68, for a full summary of text and addition).
James, who had declined a last offer of alliance made by Louis, on 4 Oct. made a conciliatory communication to the States-General through d'Albeville (Mazure, iii. 202); but the time for words had passed. The expedition on which William was about to start was directed against a government which had rejected his advice, not against a hostile power; and the expectation of Louis that he had at least made sure a conflict between England and the united provinces was to prove a miscalculation (see the whole argument of bk. xi. in Klopp, vol. iv.; and cf. the views of Louvois, adverse to those of d'Avaux, ap. Rousset, ii. 104). The expedition had the ‘sympathy of the Vatican and the Waldenses, of Brandenburg and of Spain; it was in the interest of the English nation, and of all the world save Louis XIV’ (Müller, ii. 22).
William's armada consisted of fifty men-of-war, with more than five hundred transports, carrying an army of fourteen thousand men. Old Marshal Schomberg was second in command; Bentinck was by William's side; among the Englishmen surrounding him were several eldest sons of great noblemen, together with divers notable agitators and adventurers (cf. Macaulay, ch. ix.); the most influential Scotsmen were Sir James Dalrymple (Stair Annals, i. 75) and William Carstares, whose shrewd advice was henceforth never wanting to William in Scottish matters; Burnet attended the prince as his chaplain (Own Times, iii. 301). On 16 Oct. (O.S.) William bade farewell to the states of Holland, and in the evening went on board at Helvoetsluys. On the 19th the fleet, under Herbert's command, set sail, but in mid-Channel was scattered by a storm, and had gradually to find its way back to Helvoetsluys. On 1 Nov. it again put to sea, and on the morning of 5 Nov. a safe landing was effected at Brixham, south of Torbay (Burnet, who gives a striking description of the prince's conduct during the voyage and on landing; Rapin, who was a soldier in William's army; Macaulay; cf. McCormick, Life of Carstares, p. 34, as to the service held at the head of the army before it encamped); the progress of events up to the second flight of James (23 Dec.) has been sketched under James II.
On 18 Dec. William arrived at St. James's, whither ‘all the world hastened to see him’ (Evelyn, who was present, thought him ‘very stately, serious, and reserved’). The twofold flight of James II had completely altered the situation, for his dethronement had formed no part of William's design. (In their circular to foreign powers, October, the States-General had declared their grant of means for the expedition to have been conditional upon its not being directed to this end, Klopp, iv. 302). The suggestion that he should assume the throne as by right of conquest was at once put aside. By the advice of the lords and members of the parliaments of Charles II, whom William had called together after James had left for Rochester, a convention parliament was summoned for 7 Jan., and in Scotland for 14 March. Meanwhile he assumed the executive, and early in January had the satisfaction of receiving the congratulations of the burgomaster of Amsterdam, who had arrived with Dykvelt.
During the earlier debates in the convention parliament concerning the state of the nation, William maintained a close reserve, and was charged with exhibiting a morosity of temper which heightened the prevailing dissatisfaction (Evelyn, Diary, 29 Jan.). When, on the rejection by the lords of the plan of a regency, the question as to the vacancy of the throne awaited decision, he recognised that it involved that of his personal position, and, at a meeting of the two groups at the Earl of Devonshire's house, caused a hint to be given that he was not prepared to become his wife's gentleman-usher. Halifax's proposal to place William alone on the throne, though it may have commended itself to him (Burnet, iii. 391),
