Stadhouder Willem van Oranje (King William III of England)
I took no interest in William at all until 2014 or so. Then, when I started reading a lot about him, it intrigued me that the same man can be viewed in so many ways, and in ways which are often completely different from each other. For example, when William set off from the Dutch Republic in 1688 with a huge fleet carrying thousands of Dutch soldiers and eventually took the throne in England with his wife Mary, many people (including historians) view this is as an invasion by a hostile foreign prince and many other people (including historians) view it as "The Glorious Revolution". Another example is that the views of Republicans in Northern Ireland on William generally lie somewhere on the spectrum that starts at "disliking" and ends at "loathing", and the views of Loyalists in Northern Ireland generally lie somewhere on the spectrum between "liking" and "idolizing".
The fact that William was Dutch adds particular interest for me to this period of history because I lived in the Netherlands for more than three years and therefore I have at least a very basic knowledge of Dutch history, culture and attitudes. No matter how unbiased and objective we try to be, our personal backgrounds (e.g. my experiences in the Netherlands) influence our decisions about what information to select, and how to interpret it.
My very subjective summary of the large amount of detailed information
that I have collected on Willem van Oranje
can be accessed by clicking HERE