England [see Paterson, William, (1658–1719); and Montagu, Charles, Earl of Halifax]. When, on 25 April 1694, the bill establishing the Bank of England having received the royal assent, parliament was prorogued, the ministry was already being transformed into a whig administration. The Duke of Shrewsbury [see Talbot, Charles] had at last accepted a secretaryship of state, and Montagu was soon afterwards appointed chancellor of the exchequer. Yet the campaign, which William opened at the head of nearly ninety thousand men (May), led to no result, the French contriving to avoid a battle with his superior numbers, while the treason of Marlborough frustrated an attack on Brest (June). But William's activity was nowhere relaxed, and in October Heinsius could address the congress of allies at the Hague in terms as confident as those in which on 12 Nov. the king appealed to his own parliament for continued support (Kennet, vi. 672). He was, however, clearly already disposed to listen to overtures of peace, and the joint negotiations conducted by Dykvelt on his behalf suggest the beginnings of hesitations in his policy which were afterwards to lead to the partition treaties (Klopp, vi. 358).
In the new session William, warned by the recent breakdown of the ‘Lancashire plot’ prosecutions, determined to avoid further opposition to a measure supported by the moderate men of both parties, and signified the royal assent to the triennial bill (22 Dec.). At this very time he was on the eve of a loss which seemed likely to endanger seriously the stability of his rule. On 28 Dec. Queen Mary [q. v.] died of the small-pox. William, who had not always been kind or faithful to his wife, had of late years had unprecedented opportunities for recognising the completeness of her self-sacrificing devotion, and sincerely mourned her loss (see Burnet, iv. 249, as to his anxiety and faintings during her last illness, and his complete seclusion for some weeks after her death; cf. Shrewsbury Correspondence, p. 218). His replies to the condolences of the houses bear the impress of genuine grief, and, in deference to her wish, he consented to a personal reconciliation with the Princess Anne (January 1695). He afterwards showed a consistent kindness to her son, William, duke of Gloucester, till his death in 1700. The rumours of his own remarriage, which were rife in 1696, gradually died out.
In accordance with the provision made in the bill of rights, no formal break ensued either in the reign or in the existing parliament. But the Jacobites were much encouraged by the queen's death, which became the signal for the revival of plots against the life of the king. Moreover, the growing distaste for his war policy and the removal of a moderating influence by the death of Halifax (February) stimulated tory factiousness. Godolphin was the only tory among the seven lords justices named by William on departing for Holland (12 May). On whatever basis he might ultimately conclude peace, success in his campaign was of the utmost importance to William; but though he took Namur (1 Sept.), he was unable to follow up its capture by a victory in the field. (As to the rumour of the annihilation of himself and his army which reached London shortly before, see Carstares Papers, p. 259). On 6 Nov. he quietly ratified the renewal of the ‘grand alliance,’ without any reference to the secret article (Klopp, vii. 118).
The Triennial Act made it impossible to postpone a general election beyond 1696, and William resolved forthwith to employ every means for securing the return of a homogeneous whig House of Commons. Besides making manifest his goodwill to the heir-presumptive and her heir-apparent (Luttrell, iii. 537–8), he showed himself and the court in various parts of the country—at Newmarket, at Althorp, at Stamford—and held something like a progress in the west. Evelyn mentions his hasty departure from Oxford, where he had been very coldly received. The whole ended with a pyrotechnic display arranged by Romney (Henry Sidney) in St. James's Square for the royal birthday (Luttrell, iii. 538–46; Lexington Papers, p. 138). His exertions were rewarded by the return of a decided whig majority.
William's speech on the opening of the new parliament (Kennet, iii. 703) showed his determination to utilise it for a vigorous prosecution of the war, so as to make possible a substantially satisfactory peace. He obtained a supply sufficient to provide for an army nearly as large as that commanded by him in his last campaign, although a heavy expenditure was necessitated about this time by Montagu's act for remedying the depreciation of the silver coinage (January 1696). In return the king magnanimously—for the air was full of plots—assented to a bill abating the rigour of the proceedings in trials for high treason; and, in answer to an address from the commons, promised to revoke grants of land in Wales made to Portland (January). On 14 Feb. a plot which had been formed in the previous year, but postponed in its execution owing to William's departure for
