Famous English Monarchs

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 March 1934, Page 11

Famous English Monarchs

(Written for “The Star” by T.C.)

William III.: Assassination Plot: Darien Expedition

Tf N the course of the history of the nations, 1 many famous rulers and national leaders have met their fate at the hands of the

day preceding that fixed for the execution of the plot, received such explicit warnings from such a source that they could no longer be ignored, and the king was informed. William even then was inclined to make light of the information, but at tlie Duke’s earnest request promised that he would not. leave his palace on the following day. The plans of the conspirators were thus frustrated and soon some of them were in custody. The chief plotter, Barclay, however, succeeded in making his escape. Several of the conspirators were tried and executed and the result of the plot was that William once more became popular amongst liis people, an association being formed for the protection of his life. The French monarch had been making preparations for an invasion of England, but with the failure of the plot against William’s life that danger also passed away.

assassin. Prominent among those who fell victims to the evil passions of tlieir assailants were Julius Caesar, who was the victim of Brutus and his associates; Philip of Macedon; William the Silent, the hero of the Dutch War of Independence; Henry of Navarre, king of France and one of the Huguenot heroes of the civil wars in the days of the Catholic League; President Abraham Lincoln and William M. Kinlav of the great Republic of the West; the Czars Alexander 11. and Nicholas of Russia, the former assassinated by the Nihilists and the latter in 1918 by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg; King Alexander of Serbia and President Carnot of France. Such a list could be added to indefinitely, but these names serve to illustrate the fact that many famous rulers have met violent ends, by assassination.

During this reign an interesting visitor came to England in the person of no less a ruler than Peter the Great, the Emperor of all the Russians. It is true that Russia was not so great a nation as she is to-day, nor were her dominions so extensive, although even then the Empire over which Peter ruled was probably in extent at least the greatest in the world. What had brought the Russian monarch to England? Nothing less than his desire to make Russia a great maritime nation. It did not seem possible that this ideal could ever be accomplished as the Baltic provinces were then in the possession of Sweden and the outlet to the Mediterranean was closed by the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. In order to learn all that he could about shipbuilding Peter the Great visited Holland and England, then, as now, two of the greatest maritime countries of the world and became in each country a workman in the shipbuilding yards. This interesting monarch remained for some months in England.

That even in these enlightened days rulers still run the same risk is shown in the assination of the Prime Minister of Rumania, M. Duca, and the fear of the power of the Iron Guard that possesses King Carol and other prominent members of the Government of that country. The causes of assassinations have been many and varied. Sometimes the anarchist seems to be animated by a hatred of all rulers and if any ruler can be despatched by bullet, bomb or knife the anarchist is satisfied, whatever the consequence may be to himself and however enlightened and humane the assassinated ruler mav have been.

For centuries, however, no occupant of the English throne has met with such a fate, though there have been attempts. A noted writer has pointed out that in England a plot for the assassination of the monarch has always had little chance of success owing to the innate hatred by the Englishman of the assassin’s task. Wherever a number of Englishmen have been leagued together for such a purpose there have always been one or more of the conspirators who have loathed the work assigned to them and who have informed the authorities of the plot and thus have brought about its frustration. Thus it has happened in connection with many famous plots against, the throne of England. Thus may the conspiracies of malcontents ever be brought to naught. Thus, also, it happened in the reign of William 111. During his reign several Jacobite plots were formed against the king’s life. Without a doubt many, if not all, of these were made with the direct sanction of the ex-King James. One fact, for some years at least, that made useless any attacks upon the king’s life, was the great popularity of Queen Mary. William’s wife and. daughter of the ex-king himself. However, in 1694 Queen Mai’y died, lamented by all her subjects. Her death greatly altered affairs for William. He had become increasingly unpopular. He was always move of a Dutchman than an Englishman, which was to be expected from the years that he had lived in Holland and William unwisely made no secret of his preference for Holland and Dutchmen over England and Englishmen. The king, too, had given great rewards to some of his valiant commanders, giving them famous earldoms, together with great estates. Bentinek, he had made Earl of Portland, Ginkcll had become Earl of Galway and Ruvigny, a Huguenot refugee had been created Earl of Athlone. Later the English Parliament had revoked many of Ihe.se grants and had compelled William to dismiss his famous Dutch Guards.

On the Czar’s return to Russia lie took with him ship designers, engineers, surgeons and many others who would be of much assistance in teaching the Russians a knowledge of their handicrafts. That the Czar was something more than a tradesman, is shown in his subsequent history when he raised Russia to a position of power and glory amongst the nations of Europe. On the field of Pultowa he defeated, in one of the world’s decisive battles, the celebrated Charles XII. of Sweden, then recognised as one of Europe’s greatest military leaders.

During the reign of William an attempt was made by two expeditions of Scotsmen to found at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama a British settlement. The prime mover in the formation of this settlement was the William Paterson Avho had had a great deal to do with the foundation of the Bank of England. The expedition for the settlement at Darien was to be as great a failure as the founding of the Bank of England had been a success.

Of the Darien proposal Lord Macaulay has written: “Of the kingdoms of Europe, Scotland was as yet the poorest and least considered. If she would but occupy Darien, if she would but become one free port, one great warehouse for the wealth which the soil of Darien might produce, and for the still greater wealth that would be poured into Darien from Canton and Siam, from Ceylon and the Moluccas, from the mouths of the Ganges and the Gulf of Cambay, she would at once take her place in the first rank among the nations.” Such were the reasonings that Macaulay ascribes to Paterson.

In 1698 the first expedition, consisting of 1200 seamen and colonists, sailed for this “Land' of Promise,” which was to change the fortunes of Scotland. In 1699 another expedition of 1300 followed. Now the Scotsmen had forgotten at least two important facts, the one that Darien was a portion of the Spanish dominions in America, the other that the climate of the country was most unsuitable for colonists of British stock. The very Spaniards themselves had deserted the .territory owing to its unhealthy climate. That, however, did not prevent the Spaniards from claiming sovereignty over the whole region. William refused to be drawn into a war with Spain on behalf of the colonists. The Spanish ambassador protested to the English authorities against the intrusion of the Scots into Spanish territories and expeditions were fitted out against the colonists.

With the evidences of "William’s unpopularity in the country made so manifest the Jacobites felt that a most favourable opportunity had at length arrived to attempt the assassination of the king. It was thought the hour had struck for the removal of the Dutch usurper and for the restoration of the banished Stuarts. A great plot was at once formed against William, the chief conspirator being Sir George Barclay. Forty Jacobites banded themselves together, doubtless at King James’ instigation, for many of the conspirators had been with James in the Court of France and had stolen over to England to accomplish their fell purpose.

While on the surface it might appear a remarkable thing that the great French monarch Louis XTY. should have been so active in the cause of the exiled Stuarts, the. seeming strangeness disappears when consideration is given to the subserviency of the Stuarts after the Restoration, especially to the cause of France. Had a Stuart king been upon the throne of Britain all the days of Louis XIV. there is a great probability that, the dazzling schemes of world power that possessed the mind and occupied Ihe energies of that monarch, would have been realised. Could the English king have been removed then the great obstacle to the aggrandisement of Louis and France would have gone. Thus were the schemes of Louis and of James in some degree the same in that both found in William an obstacle to their ambitions.

When the second Scottish expedition arrived at Darien it found nothing hut the ruins of New Edinburgh. The new arrivals attempted to make a new settlement, but this, like the first, ended in dismal failure. These failures and the fact that England had not. supported the Scottish scheme roused great resentment throughout the whole of. Scotland. William’s reign closed in a great wave of popularity. On the deatli of James 11. Louis of France had recognised Hu; ex-king’s son as James 111. of England and the English nation was thoroughly roused. William had formed a “Grand Alliance” against Louis and was preparing to lead the armies of the Alliance against France when his death, following an accidental fall from his horse, took place. William of Orange had a most difficult, task to govern England, but the testimony of those competent to judge is that, in spite of some misInkes, he ruled well and deserves to be revered and honoured by all lovers of English freedom.

The plot against William failed as it had deserved to fail. Warnings which were at first taken little notice of were given, but at length the Duke of Portland, on Ihe very night of the