American Executor: William III & Mary II

No single claim compels them to the throne,

No ancient right unquestioned at their side;

They come by will not wholly of their own,

But called where fear and caution now reside.

The crown is offered, not by blood alone,

But by a realm that seeks a steadier stand—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

No silent bond assumed as heaven’s decree,

But terms declared for all to understand,

A compact struck between the crown and free—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

The memory of what would not give way

Still shapes the limits set upon their reign;

No king unbound may rule as in past day,

Nor queen ignore what law must now contain.

The balance struck is neither loss nor gain

Alone, but something newly, firmly planned—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

The rights affirmed, the powers more defined,

A structure set no will may countermand,

Where rule must answer to the governed mind—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

Together crowned, yet not in simple merge,

Each bears a role within the shared command;

A union formed where differences converge,

Yet neither wholly yields the other’s hand.

The precedent is one none can disband,

A doubling not of chaos, but of frame—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

And in that pairing lies a quiet shift,

From solitary rule to tempered claim,

Where power is both granted and a gift—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

No longer may the throne stand far apart

From those whose lives are shaped by its decree;

The law now binds the crown as counterpart

To those who grant its full authority.

The realm itself becomes a guaranty

That rule remains within its stated band—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

And though the forms of kingship still endure,

They rest on ground more carefully surveyed,

Where strength is found in limits held secure—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

So stands the change no blade alone could make,

A turning wrought by memory and design;

The crown retained, yet altered in its wake,

No longer set beyond the human line.

The future flows from this reworked design,

Where rulers act within a bounded span—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

And what was once an absolute command

Becomes a charge both ruler and subject share,

A trust upheld by more than single stand—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.

Envoi:

O joined in rule where none alone could stand,

You took the crown as part of greater plan;

And proved that power best endures when spanned

Between the law and those it seeks to command—

They hold the crown by law and mutual hand.