A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mary II., Queen of England
MARY II., QUEEN OF ENGLAND.
And wife of William the Third, with whom she reigned jointly, was born at St. James' Palace, Westminster, on the 30th. of April, 1662. She was the daughter of James the Second, by Anne Hyde, his first wife. She married, November 4th., 1677, at the age of fifteen, William, Prince of Orange, and sailed two weeks after for the Hague. Here she lived, fulfilling her duties as a wife and princess, to the admiration of all who knew her, till February 12th., 1689; when, accepting a solemn invitation from the states of England, she followed her husband, who had arrived the preceding November, to London.
The throne was declared vacant by the flight of James the Second, and William and Mary were crowned as next heirs, April 11th., 1689.
Though Mary was declared joint possessor of the English throne with her husband, King William, yet the administration of the government was left entirely to him. This arrangement cost Mary no sacrifice; indeed she desired it should he made, that all rule and authority should be vested in him, remarking—"There is but one command which I wish him to obey, and that is, 'Husbands love your wives.' For myself, I shall follow the injunction, 'Wives be obedient to your husbands in all things.'" She kept the promise thus voluntarily made; and all her efforts were directed to promote her husband's happiness, and make him beloved by the English people. He had great confidence in her abilities; and when, during his absence in Ireland and on the continent, she was left regent of the kingdom, she managed parties at home with much prudence, and governed with a discretion not inferior to his own.
Mary was strongly attached to the Protestant religion and the Church of England, and was evidently led to consider its preservation a paramount duty, even when opposed to the claims of filial obedience. The unfriendly terms on which she lived with her sister, afterwards Queen Anne, have been alluded to as a blemish in the character of Mary; but political jealousies, and the foolish attachment of Anne to overbearing favourites, may sufficiently account for this coolness. Mary was, in truth, an amiable and excellent queen, and by her example made industry and domestic virtue fashionable. Her letter to Lady Russell, in which she deplores the bustle and pomp of royalty, because it separated her so much from her husband, is a beautiful proof how the best feelings of the woman were always prominent in her heart.
Mary died of the small-pox, at Kensington, in the year 1675, being in her thirty-third year. The people were sincere mourners; but to her husband the blow was almost overwhelming. For several weeks he was incapable of attending to business. To Archbishop Tennison, who was striving to console him, William said—"I cannot do otherwise than grieve, since I have lost a wife who, during the seventeen years that I have lived with her, never committed an indiscretion."