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Why did Daniel Defoe support William III after William of Orange arrived in England?

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Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe, engraving by M. Van der Gucht, after a portrait by J. Taverner, first half of the 18th century.

Daniel Defoe’s support for William III was rooted in his identity as a staunch Dissenter who opposed the Roman Catholic rule of James II. Having previously participated in the failed rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth against James II, Defoe welcomed the arrival of William of Orange in 1688 as a transformative political shift.1

Defoe viewed William III—whom he famously described as "William, the Glorious, Great, and Good, and Kind"—as a champion of Protestantism and parliamentary interests. Throughout William’s reign, Defoe remained a loyal supporter and served as his leading pamphleteer. His dedication was notably expressed in his popular poem The True-Born Englishman (1701), which he wrote to defend the king against xenophobic attacks regarding his "foreign" origins.21