Mezzotint of William III as king. Three quarters length with wig, lace cravat, mantle and with Garter collar with George. Seated with left hand extended towards crown and sceptre on table to right, with view of landscape in background right. With Latin inscription below. Second state with lettering, for an earlier state see RCIN 603038.

When James II's second wife, the Catholic Mary of Modena gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward Stuart, British nobles laid plans to remove James II from the throne, the crown was offered instead to his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William III, Prince of Orange, the future William III and Mary II. In 1688 William III travelled to England to claim the British crown. As his fleet sailed up the Thames, James II fled the county and was deemed to have abdicated the throne. The Glorious Revolution secured Protestant rule in Britain and the couple ruled as joint monarchs, William III and Mary II (r. 1688–1702 and 1688–94).

This mezzotint of William III, alongside the companion print of Mary II (see RCIN 603248), was engraved by Verkolje after his own paintings of 1685. The original portraits were painted in the year of James II's accession to the throne; by the time Verkolje completed his engravings, William III and Mary II had overthrown James II and succeeded to the British throne.