Irish actress and socialite professionally known as "Peg Woffington." Woffington became famous for her masculine roles, such as that of Sir Harry Wildair in George Farquhar's The Constant Couple (1699).

An English poet, pamphleteer, satirist, and hymnist, also referred to as Withers or Wyther. His Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613) earned him a jail term (not to be his last). Other works include A Satyre: Dedicated to His Most Excellent Majestie (1614); The Shepheard's Hunting; Fidelia (1617); a song, "Shall I, wasting in despair" (1615), reprinted in Percy's Reliques (1765); Motto (1621); Faire-Virtue, the Mistresse of Phil'Arete (1622); and, over the next four and a half decades, a large body of religious, topical, and political verse as well as numerous political pamphlets.

Bishop of Sodor and Man before Mark Hildesley, Wilson began a translation of the bible into the local dialect that Hildesley later completed.

A London Regency courtesan and author of the scandalous Memoirs of Harriette Wilson, written by herself (1825), as well as two novels, Paris Lions and London Tigers (1825) and Clara Gazul (1830).

See Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of.

Character in Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1).

English poet, novelist, translator, salonnière, radical social critic, and proponent of such causes as the French Revolution and abolitionism. A first-hand witness to much of the French Revolution, Williams published her account of events in a series of letters beginning with Letters Written in France in the Summer of 1790 (1790), followed by four more volumes of Letters from France (1792-1796).

Character in Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1754).

Known as William of Orange, this Protestant Dutch prince deposed his father-in-law James II and ascended to the British throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His marriage to James's protestant daughter Mary helped legitimate his rule.

Known as "William the Conqueror," William I was the first Norman monarch of England, serving as Duke of Normandy before rising to the throne of England in 1066. Due to his illegitimacy as the son of a concubine, William faced massive challenge to his power. William came to rule England through the Battle of Hastings in 1066, in which his army of Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxon forces. As King of England, William struggled to secure and maintain his power in England and the continent.