When the crown of England was offered to Prince William of Orange, with his subsequent agreement to the Declaration of Rights and his joint coronation with Mary, it set in motion a new beginning - a watershed to a period that had covered some 150 years of religious turbulence dating from the challenge to Papal supremacy thrown down by Henry VIII in seeking his first divorce and in making himself Fidei Defensor - head of the church in England. The Reformation seeded the Anglican Church. William of Orange was a Calvinist. Both systems rejected the Old Religion championed by the French and Spanish monarchies and denied the control of Rome. William of Orange was born in 1650. The de Julien brothers, Jacques (born in 1660) and Jean (born in 1665) were placed at Court as pages to the Prince who eventually became commander of the Dutch military forces and was regarded as one of the most powerful politicians of the Netherlands - a country recognised throughout Europe for its religious tolerance. Not only that, Prince William was also universally perceived as being a supreme defender of the Protestant faith. When - in October 1685 - King Louis XIV of France issued the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which cut away all vestige of religious tolerance in France, Jean de Julien would have just turned twenty years old - with his brother, Jacques, being some five years older than that. Both Jacques and Jean de Julien became absorbed by the Dutch military under the Prince and rose to be men of rank within the service; certainly, by the time William of Orange was ready to sail for England late in 1688, the de Julien brothers would have been noted military men and close to the Prince himself. Historical Background The executed (1649) King Charles 1 was Prince William's maternal grandfather. He had taken a French Catholic wife and then began practicing her religion. This marriage to Henrietta Maria of France produced nine children, three of whom - Charles (later Charles II), Mary (later Mary II, Queen of Great Britain), and James (later James II who married (secondly) Mary of Modena) - would each struggle for the English throne following the death of their father. During the eleven years of the Protectorate, Charles and James were with their mother in France and assumed her Catholicism while their sister, Mary, fled to Holland to marry William of Orange - father of William III, the later King of England - embracing his Protestant faith. The Restoration saw Charles II regain the throne and and reign for twenty five years until his death in 1685, at which point, his younger brother, James, (James II) became king. Almost immediately James signed a treaty with Louis X1V to Catholicise England's army and government. When James fathered a son in 1688, England's prominent Protestants, fearing the establishment of a Cathloic dynasty, invited the Protestant Prince William of Orange to take the throne of England. William had already married James II's daughter, Mary, and was thus both a nephew (his mother was Mary, sister of James II) and a son-in-law to James II. The letter of invitation to Prince William was carried to the Netherlands by Adm. Arthur Herbert, Earl of Torrington. Identifying themselves by a secret code, the signatories made it clear to William that he could count on their certain support upon his landing. The letter was signed by William Cavendish, Charles Talbot, Thomas Osborne, Bishop of London Henry Compton, Edward Russell, Henry Sidney and Richard Lumley. Given that the de Julien brothers were already established in the service of Prince William, they would both have participated in this sequence of events.
By 1685, events in
France had so conspired as to place a stranglehold on the
Huguenot minority. After Salisbury - where minor resistance from a larger but demoralised army was soon overcome - the de Juliens arrived in London with Prince William. King James II fled to France, later putting up resistance in Ireland with French and Irish Catholic forces which culminated in his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. He died in France in 1701. Once in London, William met with a Protestant Parliament which denounced James II by offering the throne jointly to him and to his wife, Mary. Thus, on the Ash Wednesday, William and Mary accepted the crown in ceremonies at the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall Palace. They were immediately proclaimed King William III and Queen Mary II after assenting to the Declaration of Rights. William thereupon ascended the throne and immediately destroyed his father-in-law's treaty by declaring war on France. His ambition was to make all of North America, including Newfoundland with its valuable fishery, exclusively English. Since both William and his wife Mary II were grandchildren of Charles I, they shared the throne as equals. Mary spent more time in England while William was more occupied in his battles against Louis XIV in Europe and with the war in America, in which the English colonists and the Iroquois fought against the French and their Indian allies from Canada. Most hostilities on both continents were resolved in 1697 with the Treaty of Ryswick, in which France recognised William III as king of England. How this war on France
would have been perceived by the de Julien brothers may
only be conjectured. What became of Jean de Julien during these years, is currently unknown. It is known, however, that he returned at some point to the Principality of Orange and that he died there in 1734 - presumably holding the titles, rights and assets of his family. As for William of Orange - King William III - he met with an early death as the result of a riding accident and Anne, second daughter of James II, (mother, Anne Hyde) became Queen, in 1702. Her husband was Prince George of Denmark. There were no surviving children of the marriage. It is interesting to note that the Smyth family of Dundrum in Ireland was also associated with the Court of William III in England. The Rt. Reverend Edward Smyth (1662-1720) later Bishop of Down - who had sagaciously removed himself from the troubles in Ireland to become Chaplain at Constantinople and Smyrna (1689) - became Chaplain to King William III in 1693. Les de Julien - pages to Prince William of Orange It would have been customary for a page to arrive at Court at a young age - in his teens rather than in his twenties. It may be supposed, therefore, that Gédéon de Julien (who married Françoise de Caritat de Condorcet) would have seen both his sons placed at the Dutch court some years before 1685. Thus, it is quite possible that, by 1685, Jean de Julien had made an early marriage in Holland or fathered a son there, (John (i) Jullion) by then; probably earlier than 1685 since, if family records run true, this son himself fathered a son - "John (ii) Jullion" - born in England in 1701. The liklihood is that Jean de Julien, the young military blade - a noble youth highly placed at Court - was willingly seduced by the scent of orange blossom and planted his own seeds in an unknown orchard sometime after 1680 - but before 1685. This liaison produced a son, brought up in a Protestant Holland or in Protestant England with his Protestant mother who became a grandmother in 1701. In the meantime, grandfather - Jean de Julien - was back in the Principality of Orange either because his brother, Jacques, in going over to Louis XIV, had ruined his credibility and military career or because he himself chose to emulate his brother and change alliegances as well. The Protestant son in Holland/England was quite aware of the noble French lineage and chose to pass on the information and thus it was transmitted through the generations - but he and his family remained in England as Protestants and chose to change the family name to Jullion. By 1734, the grandfather was dead - having been married to Elisabeth Aimée de Bernardy - a childless marriage, the records say - and the Dukedom was destined to settle elsewhere. This is speculation but it may give the truth a close run for its money. For lineage details, click on the adjacent coronet.
Research finds - "À l'extinction de la famille de Thollon (seigneurs de Saint-Jalle), les commissaires du Roi vendirent Arpavon à François de Pingré, originaire de Picardie, receveur des tailles à Montélimar, pour 6300 livres. L'acte est daté du 24 septembre 1638, et le 27 mars 1648 la plus-value lui était adjugée au prix de 1000 livres (source : Inventaire de la Chambre des comptes, au mot Arpavon). Le fief appartenait, au XVIIIe siècle, à Mademoiselle de Cheisolme de Crombis, héritière de Philippe-François de Pingré, et à Charles-Augustin-Joseph de Simiane, baron de la Baume-Transit, seigneur de Mollans, Treschenu, etc. Ce dernier, le 23 novembre 1765, vendit sa part 9500 livres à illustre seigneur François de Julien, seigneur de Montaulieu, Rocheblave et la Bâtie (Côte-Chaude) (source : Archives de la Drôme, cote E 2292). En 1789, Mademoiselle de Cheisolme et François de Jullien possédaient la seigneurie (source : Almanach du Dauphiné) et avaient un juge à tour de rôle pour administrer la justice." Source : André Lacroix (Société d'archéologie et de statistique), Histoire, archéologie, topographie et statistique de l'arrondissement de Nyons, tome 1, pages 10-11, réédition Chantemerle, Nyons, 1973. |
The 
Many fled to
Holland. In September 1688, Louis XIV invaded the
Rhineland and so began what has become termed as the
"Nine Years War". Two months later
(after a storm had driven them back at the end of
October) the de Julien brothers set sail with the armies
of Prince William of Orange. The five hundred vessels of
the fleet passed Dover on (depending on which calendar is
consulted!) 13th November and entered the Channel. The
army landed on November 15th at Brixham (Torbay) in Devon
with five thousand horses and forty thousand men -
contingents of all the Protestant armies of Europe:
Swedes with pikes (and a bear), Swiss infantry, Dutch
artillery, Danes and Huguenots. The army marched to
Exeter and thence to Salisbury by which time many
principal English allies had joined up with William. The
promises he held out - to defend the liberties of England
and the Protestant religion - were popular and attractive
in the face of the Catholic policies of James II and the
rumbling of religious wars in France. 
They were, after all, Frenchmen. They are known
to have served in England and in Ireland. Jacques is also
known to have impressed King William III to such an
extent that he entrusted de Julien
with command of a regiment in support of the Duke of
Savoy in alliance with the Vaudois (Protestant) cause in
France. There, as a young Lieutenant-colonel, his bravery
and decisive command were favourably noted; but in 1690,
after a dispute with his commanders - possibly over a
promotion issue - Jacques was enticed to change sides,
foreswore his Protestantism and rose to prominence in the
army of the French King, Louis XIV. 
