by Carol H. Morgan

Created on: May 11, 2010   Last Updated: May 17, 2010

The meaning of "Orangemen's Day" can be confusing in modern times because the term "Orangemen"  now has many references, including Irish trade guilds and even the mascot of Syracuse University.  But the story of the first Orangemen's day tells the tale of the intervention of William III (who hailed from the Dutch House of Orange), which preserved the United Kingdom from enemies in 1690.  William commanded allied forces in the Battle of the Boyne that summer and much like the USA's war of 1812,  his victory is seen as an important test of the kingdom's independence from its enemies once it had been established by earlier wars.  William and his assistance in battle preserved the UK against the return of Catholic James II and the absolute monarchy of the House of Stuart, both of which the people had hard fought to be rid of.

WILLIAM III AND THE HOUSE OF ORANGE

Originally giving its name to Orangeman's day is its hero, William III from the House of Orange.  The House of Orange is a tiny kingdom in the Netharlands that for about two perilous centuries of religious and political struggles during the reformation period played a large role in the security of the emerging English Protestant republic.  Beset on all sides by Catholic enemies and plagued by assassination, Orange was alternately Britain' s only Protestant ally on the continent and her opponent in the Anglo-Dutch wars.  But largely because of growing religious affinity between the two protestant kingdoms and William III's marriage to Mary Stuart, William III finally secured his chances of becoming joint-heir with his wife Mary to the English throne with his help in defending the Isles from Catholic monarchist invaders.

William III had been both the son of a Mary Stuart, who was sister to Charles II, and a husband, with another Mary Stuart as his cousin (as daughter to James II) and wife.  The marriage was a token of friendship to the protestant kingdom that Charles II had been forced, out of threat of penury by parliament's tight purse strings, to go to war against.  In a secret treaty King Charles promised to assist France's Louis XIV in his constant persecutions of the neighboring Dutchmen.  So whatever his true feelings and natural alliances, Charles lent his support to the anti-Dutch campaigns for King Louis' money. 

When the famous pair (William

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