| Info | Mary II (30 April 1662�28 December 1694) was Queen of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689 until her death, and Queen of Scotland from 11 April 1689 until her death. Mary, a Protestant, came to the Throne following the Glorious Revolution, during which her Roman Catholic father, James II, was deposed. Mary reigned jointly with her husband and first cousin, William III, who became the sole ruler upon her death. The joint reign is usually known as that of "William and Mary." Mary, although a Sovereign in her own right, did not wield actual power during most of her reign. She did, however, govern the realm when her husband was abroad fighting wars.
In December 1689, one of the most important constitutional documents in English history, the Bill of Rights, was passed. The Bill of Rights�which restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right�established restrictions on the royal prerogative; it declared, amongst other things, that the Sovereign could not suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail or inflict cruel or unusual punishments. The Bill of Rights also addressed the question of succession to the Throne. Following the death of either William III or Mary II, the other was to continue to reign. Next in the line of succession would be any children of the couple, to be followed by Mary's sister Anne and her children. Last in the line of succession were any children William III might have had from any subsequent marriage.
From 1690 onwards, William was often absent from England, at first fighting Jacobites in Englad. Whilst her husband was away, Mary administered the government of the realm. She was a firm ruler, ordering the arrest of her own uncle, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, for plotting to restore James II to the Throne. In 1692, she dismissed and imprisoned the influential John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough on similar charges; the dismissal somewhat diminished her popularity and harmed her relationship with her sister Anne.
The Irish Jacobites were crushed in about 1692, but William continued to be absent from England in order to wage war with the King of France, Louis XIV. In general, William was away from the spring until the autumn of each year. When her husband was away, Mary acted in her own name but on his advice; whilst he was in England, Mary completely refrained from interfering in political matters. She did, however, participate with the affairs of the Church; she found herself especially concerned with ecclesiastical appointments. She died of smallpox in 1694.
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