ouis XIV. was, in 1672,
elected Stadtholder, and by his valour and wisdom brought the war to an
end in 1678; married his cousin Mary, daughter of James II.; being
invited to England, landed with a large army at Torbay, and on the flight
of James to France, he and Mary were proclaimed king and queen of Great
Britain and Ireland in 1689; the Scotch and the Irish offered resistance
in the interest of the exiled monarch, but the former were defeated at
Killiecrankie in 1689, and the latter at the battle of the Boyne in 1690;
he was an able man and ruler, but his reign was troubled by an
interminable feud with France, and by intrigues on behalf of James both
at home and abroad; he died by a fall from his horse at Kensington just
as a great war with France was impending; he was through life the
adversary of the covetous schemes of Louis, and before his death he had
prepared the materials of that coalition which, under Marlborough and
Prince Eugene, brought Louis to the brink of ruin; his reign forms one of
the great epochs in the history of England, and is known as the
Revolution (1650-1702).

WILLIAM IV., king of England, known as the "sailor king," born in
Buckingham Palace, the third son of George III.; entered the navy in
1779; saw service under Rodney and Nelson, but practically retired in
1789, as from insubordination he had to do, though he was afterwards
promoted to be Admiral of the Fleet, and even Lord High Admiral, and
continued to take great interest in naval affairs; after living, as Duke
of Clarence, from 1792 to 1816 with Mrs. Jordan, the actress, by whom he
had 10 children, he married in 1810 Adelaide, eldest daughter of the Duke
of Saxe-Meiningen; on the death of the Duke of York in 1827 became
heir-presumptive, and on the death of George IV. in 1830 succeeded to the
throne; his reign was distinguished by the passing of the first Reform
Bill in 1832, the abolition of slavery in the colonies in 1833, the
reform of the poor-laws in 1834, and the Municipal Reform Act in 1835;
died at Windsor, and was succeeded by his niece. Queen Victoria
(1765-1837).

WILLIAM I., emperor of Germany, born at Berlin, second son of
Frederick William III. of Prussia, and brother of Frederick William IV.,
his predecessor on the Prussian throne; was bred from boyhood to military
life, having received his first commission at the age of 10; took part in
the war of liberation that preceded the fall of Napoleon, and received
his ba