The arbitrary proceedings of King James, with his advances towards the subversion of the Protestant religion, occasioned much anxiety to the Prince of Orange, who was married to the presumptive heiress to the throne; at the same time, the King was jealous of the attachment of the nation to his son-in-law, and in 1687 his Majesty demanded the return of the British regiments in the Dutch service. The States-General, in concert with the Prince, resolved not to part with these favourite corps, for whose services they expected soon to have urgent occasion; at the same time they laid no constraint upon the officers, but allowed them either to remain in Holland or to return to England, at their own free choice. Out of two hundred and forty officers,[8] only sixty[9] embraced the latter alternative; the rest bound themselves "to stand by and defend the Prince of Orange against all persons whatsoever." [Sidenote: 1688] [Sidenote: 1689] The colonelcy of the regiment having become vacant by the death of Colonel Monk, it was conferred by the Prince of Orange on Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Tollemache,[10] formerly of the Coldstream Guards. The violent proceedings of the British Court at length occasioned many of the nobility to solicit the Prince of Orange to come with an armed force to their aid; and as the fate of all the other Protestant States in Europe appeared to depend on the preservation of Great Britain from Papal domination, the Prince and the States-General acquiesced. Thus the six British regiments had the honourable and glorious privilege of engaging in an enterprise for the deliverance of their native land from the attempts to establish Popish ascendancy, and the consequent chances of civil war. On receiving positive advice of the preparations in Holland, "the King was speechless, and, as it were, thunderstruck. The airy castle of a dispensing arbitrary power raised by the magic spells of jesuitical councils vanished away in a moment, and the deluded monarch, freed from his inchantment by the approach of the Prince of Orange, found himself on the brink of a precipice, whilst all his flatterers stood amazed and confounded."[11] The King at length assembled an army of about 30,000 men, and sent Lord Dartmouth to sea with the fleet. [Illustration: FIFTH REGIMENT OF FOOT (NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS) 1688.]