Dutch monarch and military commander King William of Orange was BOTD in 1650. The only son of the Dutch Protestant King William II of Orange and Mary, the daughter of King Charles I of England, his father died a week before he was born, making him Prince of Orange from birth. In 1677 he married his cousin Mary, the nephew of King Charles II, strengthening their joint connection to the English throne. A staunch Protestant, he led many religious wars against European Catholic countries, and was heralded as a champion of the Protestant faith. In 1688, he invaded England (the so-called Glorious Revolution), deposing the Catholic King James II. William and Mary were crowned jointly as King and Queen of England, though his involvement in the Nine Years War left Mary to govern alone. After Mary’s death in 1694, his popularity decreased, though he managed to suppress Jacobite rebellions to depose him. William’s childlessness, lack of mistresses and fondness for pretty young men (including his favourite Arnold van Keppel, whom he made the 1st Earl of Albemarle) provoked speculation that he was homosexual, a rumour spread in his lifetime by his Catholic enemies. In 1701, he sponsored the Act of Succession, establishing his Protestant sister-in-law Anne as his successor, barring Catholics from the British throne. He died in 1702, aged 51. His victory at the Battle of the Boyne is still celebrated, controversially, by Protestants in Northern Ireland.