1670-1689 Ottoman Siege of Vienna, Two Williams

This twenty year period covers the reign of Charles II who died in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother James II who was deposed in 1688 and replaced in 1689 by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch Orange husband William III in what was known as the 'glorious revolution'. In this period there was constant warfare in the world, and Europe risked becoming Muslim when the Ottoman Turks lay siege to Vienna in 1683.

There was the Polish-Turkish War in 1671–1676, followed by the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, the 1672–1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War, the 1672–1679 War between Brandenburg and Sweden, the 1675–1677 King Philip's War, the 1676–1681 Russo-Turkish War, the 1682–1699 War of the Holy League, the 1683 Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks, Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685, the 1685-1689 Sino-Russian War, the 1686–1700 Russo-Turkish War, the 1687–1689 Crimean campaigns, the 1689–1697 King William's War in North America (part of the War of the Grand Alliance), the 1689–1691 Williamite war in Ireland and the 1689–1691 Jacobite Rising in Scotland.

The Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks in 1683 was of particular concern because if the Holy League had not joined together to fight the Turks it is likely that the whole of Europe would have become Islamic.

The deposing of the Catholic James II by the Protestant William of Orange in 1688 and a sad event in our history. It started the Jacobite movement in Scotland and Europe and James II never abandoned hopes for a Stuart restoration. His son, Charles Edward Stuart, born in Rome in 1720, carried on the struggle as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Because of constant warfare there were no great inventions or discoveries during this twenty year period, but William Penn did stand out for presenting a vision of harmony in the new world. He was granted the Charter of Pennsylvania in 1681 and founded Philadelphia in 1682 with migrants he had previously attracted during his travels through war-ravaged Europe.