ABSTRACT
On the 5th of November 1688, William III of Orange landed in Brixham, not far from Exeter, with the intention of becoming the first Dutch king of England. He brought only a small following. His expressed desire was, once again, to join with England to fight for the Protestant cause. A recent discovery has shed unexpected light on Marvell’s connections with the Orange family and possible involvement in laying the groundwork for the Glorious Revolution. A copy of Mr Smirke with annotations in Marvell’s own hand has been found in the Wellcome Library, bound together in the United Provinces with other works, which had been in the likely possession of a certain William Freeman. Freeman was in turn associated with the spy network of Pierre du Moulin. The latter promoted Orangist sympathies in England during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
