On the 15th of November 1688, William III of Orange landed in Brixham in southwest England. According to legend the prince was carried on land by a fisherman. Along the wharf of Brixham, a small fishing town along the coast of Devon, is a somewhat indistinct pedestal. This is supposedly where William stepped on land. And a few yards toward downtown Bixham, along the quay, you can find a somewhat bulky statue. It is not the best sculpture of William, I think. But the intention why it was revealed in 1889 is momentous: the statue marked the 200th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution. 

Every now and then, a seagull lands on William's head. Tourists and day trippers consume their fish & chips underneath his huge boots. Every once in a while an individual or group of interested historians, time travelers or photographers, gather around. When I was there last, somebody had put flowers at the base to commemorate the Orange prince. 

The front of the pedestal reads: ‘William Prince of Orange afterwards William III King of Great Britain and Ireland landed near this spot 5th of november 1688 and issued his famous declaration ‘The Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion I will maintain.’  

On the left side, written in the Dutch language: ‘Engelands vrijheid, door Oranje hersteld’ meaning: ‘The Liberty of England, restored by Orange.’  This rethoric may well be controversial. In England and certainly in Ireland, king Billy still begs the debate and he is not popular in comparison with, for example, the kings Henry VIII or Charles II, William’s uncle. But whether one is an admirer or a critic of this Orange-Stuart prince, it is certain that William changed the Balance of Power in late 17th century Europe. 

In the end, both admirers and critics agree that William may well have been the hardest working monarch England has ever known. But, he was more than that. He was a European avant-la-lettre, a republican king.