The prince bade farewell to the States-General on October 26, and four days later he set sail from Helvoetsluis, but was driven back by a heavy storm, which severely damaged the fleet.  A fresh start was made on November 11.  Admiral Herbert was in command of the naval force, which convoyed safely through the Channel without opposition the long lines of transports.  Over the prince’s vessel floated his flag with the words Pro Religione et Libertate inscribed above the motto of the House of Orange, Je maintiendray.  Without mishap a landing was effected at Torbay, November 14 (5 o.s.), which was William’s birthday, and a rapid march was made to Exeter.  He met with no armed resistance.  James’ troops, his courtiers, his younger daughter the Princess Anne, all deserted him; and finally, after sending away his wife and infant son to France, the king himself left his palace at Whitehall by night and fled down the river to Sheerness.  Here he was recognised and brought back to London.  It was thought, however, best to connive at his escape, and he landed on the coast of France at Christmas.  The expedition had achieved its object and William, greeted as a deliverer, entered the capital at the head of his army.

On February 13,1689, a convention, specially summoned for the purpose, declared that James by his flight had vacated the throne; and the crown was offered to William and Mary jointly, the executive power being placed in the hands of the prince.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIX

THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702

The accession of William III to the throne of England was an event fraught with important consequences to European politics and to the United Provinces.  The king was enabled at last to realise the formation of that Grand Alliance for which he had so long been working.  The treaty of Vienna, signed on May 12, 1689, encircled France with a ring of enemies, and saw the Emperor and Spain united with the Protestant powers, England, the States and many of the German princes in a bond of alliance for the maintenance of the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees.  It was not without some difficulty that William succeeded in inducing the States to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with England.  A special embassy consisting of Witsen, Odijk, Dijkveld and others was sent to London early in 1689 to endeavour to bring about some mutually advantageous arrangement of the various conflicting maritime and commercial interests of the two countries.  But they could effect nothing.  The English government refused either to repeal or modify the Navigation Act or to reduce the toll for fishing privileges; and it required all the personal influence of William to secure the signing of a treaty (September 3), which many leading Hollanders considered to be a subordinating of Dutch to English interests.  And they were right; from this time began that decline of Dutch commercial supremacy which was to become more and more marked as the 18th century progressed.  The policy of William III, as Frederick the Great remarked most justly, placed Holland in the position of a sloop towed behind the English ship-of-the-line.