Conclusion: Willem the English Hero

The arbitrary reign of James II ended in 1688 when influential English figures entreated the Dutch stadholder to replace him. The political head of the Dutch Republic, Willem II, responded to a call to restore justice that echoed the entreaties made a hundred years earlier, when the English came to the assistance of the Dutch. When a Dutchman with English kin preserved England’s trade, religion, and liberty, the cycle of Dutch influence on Englishness reached its culmination.