War and Peace, 1689–1702

Abstract

William III immediately took Britain into the Nine Years’ War against the French. This chapter examines how William purged the army of James VII and II’s supporters in order to fight the war. However, William was never certain of his new army’s political loyalties. Nor could he trust its British senior officers, some of whom, such as John Churchill, the future duke of Marlborough, had joined William in 1688 but had become alienated from him. William’s relations with parliament were equally troubled, and never more so than during the biggest political crisis after the end of the war, the standing army debates over the peacetime army.