Today, I am thankful for the impending colors of the autumn season.
With the first day of October among us, we enter into the wonderful season known for the gathering of a bountiful harvest, the shortening of sunlight, and a welcomed respite from the summer heat. As we exchange our shorts and flip flops for long-sleeved shirts and sweaters, we welcome the majesty of the changing foliage in our neighborhoods, as deciduous trees prepare for the eventual molting of their leaves. Yet, before the oaks, maples, and elms effectively shed their leaves, they often put on a vibrant display for our entertainment. The green of the trees and forest is somewhat magically replaced with the colors of the rainbow, including red, orange, yellow, brown, and purple. As folks ceremoniously flock to the northern reaches of our nation to get a peek of this exalted transformation, the colors of autumn, and in particular orange, take center stage. Although the harvest season is traditionally reserved for red apple picking, the wietbier of Octoberfest celebrations and the pumpkins of the Halloween holiday pay fitting tribute to the only color of the rainbow worthy to have a fruit named after it.
Orange!
The color orange is traditionally affiliated with joy, enthusiasm, and balance. As a blend of red and yellow, orange also reminds us of the importance of freedom, expression, and intellectual stimulation. To this end, I wanted to share the tale of a couple of cousins who set the stage for a change in England with a glorious revolution without any bloodshed and the birth of modern education.
William III of Orange was the sovereign prince of the Principality of Orange, a feudal state in the Provence region of France. A week before his birth in 1650, his father (William II) died, leaving the younger William under the care of his mother Mary, the daughter of King Charles I of England. A Protestant by birth, William III quickly found himself, at a relatively young age, engaged in conflict with the then-ruling Catholic Sun King’, Louis XIV. His valiant skill on the battlefield would quickly garner him the reign of numerous other Protestant regions in the Northern Dutch Republic, in areas of modern-day Holland, Luxembourg, and Western Germany, where his popularity as a tolerant monarch gained him respect. At the age of 27, he married his then 15-year old cousin, Mary II, the daughter of James I, who incidentally was the brother of the then-ruling king of England (Charles II). James I was a devout Catholic, and when he assumed the English throne in 1685 following his brother’s demise, his popularity quickly plummeted with the large Protestant majority in Britain. James’ goodwill gesture to grant religious liberty to the Catholics was met with strong opposition by the Anglican bishops, who were subsequently arrested for their refusal to grant this religious tolerance.
Fearing the rebirth of Catholicism in England, these British bishops had enough with James I, despite being exonerated of the charges. His recent birth of an heir also compounded their concern. In the summer of 1688, the bishops took a somewhat unorthodox step. They petitioned to William of Orange (William III) and his wife Mary II, the rulers of the House of Orange-Nassau, to invade England and free them from the rule of James I. Now, James was the father-in-law and father of William and Mary, respectively. Recognizing the predicament this would cause if they invaded England, William asked for a formal invitation from the British bishops. On this day (Oct 1) in 1688, William accepted the invitation and prepared for invasion. A month later, William would commandeer his Dutch army to land in southwest England, in the town of Brixham. Recognizing resistance would be futile, James I secretly negotiated with his son-in-law to allow for his escape, which he graciously granted (in an effort to avoid Catholic martyrdom). So, the bloodless Glorious Revolution ended with an invasion, the last of which would ever befall upon Britain’s shores (putting aside, of course, the Beatles invasion of the 20th Century).
As reconciliation for this unusual takeover, William and Mary encouraged the passage of the Tolerance Act, which guaranteed toleration to all Protestant sects. He also encouraged religious freedom for other non-Protestant faiths, even if this was not fully granted. To ensure his ruling lineage, William also ensured the passage of the 1689 Bill of Rights, which placed restrictions on monarchial rule. The bill strengthened the power of Parliament to pass laws and control the finances, gave citizens the right to bear arms, and limited the ruling monarch’s ability to levy taxes, impose excessive bail on English constituents, or raise a standing army without parliamentary consent. Together with the provisions of the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights of 1689 would ultimately also serve as the basis of the eventual Bill of Rights in the United States.
Meanwhile, as William fought the Nine Year’s War, Mary governed the land, ultimately promoting liberties and education of the British people. In fact, in 1693, she commissioned a land grant of a school of higher learning in the United States, in the then capital of Virginia - in the town of Williamsburg. The institution, The College William and Mary, still stands to this day as the oldest public university in the US. Ironically, the ‘Tribe’ of the College of William and Mary do not have orange as one of their team colors. However, one university in the US adopted the orange in tribute to William and Mary. When the first building at the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University) was built, they named the edifice, Nassau Hall, in tribute to the former house of the English monarch, William III. In due time, Princeton would adopt orange as their color and the orange and black striped ‘tiger’ as its mascot.
Well, this reminds me of one last wonderful emblem of autumn – football. Although I root for a college football team adorned in orange, it is not the lowly Tigers of Princeton University. Rather, my adoration is reserved for the Gators of the University of Florida, who wear the color orange in tribute to the fruit that has made the Sunshine State so famous.
Happy October to all!
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