Englishmen are apt to forget the debt of gratitude owing to men of the
past; had it not been for Hans William Bentinck this favoured land might
still have been under the Stuart tyranny, and the scions of the House of
Brunswick might never have occupied the Throne of Great Britain.
James the Second had made an indifferent display of qualities as a
ruler, and the nation was tired of a superstitious monarch who was
fostering a condition of affairs which was turning England into a
hot-bed of religious and political plots and counter-plots. James's
daughter, Mary, had married William, Prince of Orange, who was invited
to come and take his father-in-law's place as King of England. That
invitation was extended in no uncertain way, and James having withdrawn
to the continent left the vacancy for his son-in-law and daughter to
fill.
When William of Orange came over at the request of many of the nobility
and influential commoners in this country there was in his train, Hans
William Bentinck, who had previously been to England on a political
mission for the Prince.
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