#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<n>William of Orange<aka>William I, or William the Silent<b>1533 Apr 25<ac>1559<d>1584 Jul 10<c>Netherlands<info>William was born in Germany, at the ancestral castle of Dillenburg, the eldest son of Count William the Rich of Nassau. In 1544 he inherited the vast possessions of his cousin, Réné of Chalon, in the Low Countries and the principality of Orange. The Orange dynasty originated in the medieval principality of Orange, in southern France. The house of Orange has since been the royal family of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. William thereafter lived in the Netherlands and became favoured by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Charles abdicated in 1555 and Philip II, his successor in the Low Countries and Spain, named William stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht in that same year. William became the leader of the high nobility's resistance to Philip's efforts to introduce monarchical absolutism and to repress Protestantism. It was at this time that Cardinal Granvelle, William's principal opponent, called him "the Silent" because, although he spoke eloquently, he did not reveal his inner thoughts. An armed revolt broke out in the Netherlands in 1566. William did not join the rebels, but he withdrew to Germany when the duque de Alba entered the Netherlands with a powerful Spanish army the next year. William unsuccessfully attempted counteroffensives from Germany in 1568 and 1572. After a rebel naval force, the Sea Beggars, captured the little Dutch port of Brielle on April 1, 1572, however, a "free" States of Holland confirmed William as stadholder, and he went to Holland to continue the resistance. Between 1576 and 1579 he was able to hold together a broad union of all the Low Countries in resistance to Spain, based on the principle of religious peace and tolerance. Raised first as a Lutheran and from 1544 as a Catholic, William become a Calvinist in 1573 but did not abandoned his commitment to tolerance among creeds. His all-Netherlands policy collapsed in 1579 with the establishment of a separate union of the southern provinces, which favored reconciliation with Philip. Meanwhile the rebellion continued in the northern provinces. In 1580, William was outlawed by Philip and a price was put on his head. The States-General renounced allegiance to Philip in 1581. The prince was assassinated at Delft in 1584, but the rebellion continued under the leadership of his son, Maurice of Nassau, and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who consolidated the independence of the Dutch Republic.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>general<o>stadholder<n>Maurice of Nassau<b>1567 Nov 13<ac>1584<d>1625 Apr 23<fa>William of Orange<c>Netherlands<info>Maurice was the second son of William I , prince of Orange. He was count of Nassau and did not officially become prince of Orange until the death in 1618 of his elder brother, Philip William. Maurice was named stadholder in Holland and Zeeland after his father's assassination in 1584. Under the political guidance of the Land's Advocate of Holland Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, he became stadholder in 1589 in all the other provinces except Friesland. He won a series of victories from 1590 to 1604 over the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands that consolidated the territory of the seven United Provinces. During negotiations leading to the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain in 1609, he turned against Oldenbarnevelt, chief author of the truce. Maurice later had Oldenbarnevelt executed in 1619. After renewal of the war with Spain in 1621, Maurice's campaigns met with little success. His brother Frederick Henry succeeded him.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<n>Frederick Henry<b>1584 Jan 29<ac>1625 Apr 23<d>1647 Mar 14<fa>William of Orange<c>Netherlands<info>Frederick, the youngest son of William I, was the prince of Orange and count of Nassau. He followed his half-brother Maurice as stadholder of the five principal provinces in 1625 and also of Groningen in 1640. As captain- and admiral-general, Frederick Henry halted the renewed Spanish offensives against the republic and captured numerous cities from Spain between 1627 and 1645.<ref>Grolier
// 17th century
#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<n>William II of Orange<sur>William II<b>1626 May 27<ac>1647<d>1650 Nov 6<fa>Frederick Henry<c>Netherlands<info>William II was the only son of Frederick Henry. He married the daughter of the English King Charles I in 1641, and succeeded his father in 1647. Failing to prevent a separate Dutch peace with Spain in 1648, William tried to crush the peace party in Holland in 1650. He took advantage of the other Dutch provinces' jealousy of Holland by arresting its leaders and by a siege of Amsterdam, which was unsuccessful. A compromise was reached, but before William could effect his foreign schemes, he died of smallpox. He was succeeded by his posthumous son, who later became William III of England, Scotland, and Ireland. There was no stadholder between 1650 and 1672.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<o>king<n>William III<b>1650 Nov 4<ac>1689<d>1702 Mar 8<fa>William II of Orange<mo>Princess Mary<c>Netherlands<mov>1688<c>London<info>William was a prince of the house of Orange, in the hereditary line of Dutch stadholders, and later king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was the posthumous son of William II, prince of Orange. His mother, Princess Mary, was the sister of England's Charles II and James II. Dutch republicans, who had been angered by William II's efforts to extend his authority, sought to exclude the Orange dynasty from political power after his death. In 1672, when French and British troops invaded the Netherlands, however, William III was summoned to direct the defense of the country. Appointed captain general and stadholder for life, William formed alliances with Austria and Spain, and made peace with England in 1674. In order to cement an English alliance, in 1677 he married his English cousin Mary, daughter of the future James II. He compelled the French to accept the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. In 1688, William, a Protestant, was invited to invade England by the political enemies of his father-in-law James II, a Catholic convert. James fled England, and on February 13, 1689, William and his wife were jointly offered the English throne. They (she as Mary II) were crowned on April 11, 1689, and thus was concluded the bloodless Glorious Revolution. In May, William induced the English Parliament to join the alliance against France. After crushing James's invasion of Ireland in 1690 he spent the next seven years campaigning in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1697 he concluded a favorable peace at Ryswick, which also secured French recognition of his kingship. William later negotiated two partition treaties, in 1698 and 1700, with Louis XIV to prevent the French monarch from claiming the entire Spanish empire for his son or grandson when the childless king of Spain died. Louis, however, repudiated the treaty, and William's last diplomatic action was the negotiation of another Grand Alliance against the French. The ensuing War of the Spanish Succession began shortly before William's death. In England, William was never popular, and his position became temporarily precarious after Mary's death in 1694. Parliament refused to support his costly anti-French designs after Ryswick until Louis's ambitions became clearer. William approved the Toleration Act in 1689 for nonconformists, and in 1694 his Whig ministers established the funded national debt and the Bank of England. He was also compelled to accept a Bill of Rights in 1689 and the Triennial Act in 1694 requiring that a new Parliament should meet at least once every three years. The Act of Settlement in 1701 further restricted royal prerogatives. William was succeeded on the British throne by Mary's sister, Queen Anne.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>leader<n>Johan de Witt<b>1625 Sep 25<el>1653<ret>1672 Aug 10(10)<d>1672 Aug 20<c>Netherlands<info>The political leader of the Dutch Republic from 1653 to 1672, de Witt stood for pure republican principles and the domination of Holland's merchant class. An opponent of the house of Orange, he was elected in 1653 as grand pensionary of Holland three years after the death of William II. De Witt stubbornly upheld government without stadholders despite strong popular feeling for the young prince of Orange, William III (later King William III of England). In 1654 he took the United Provinces out of the disastrous first Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54). He defeated the British decisively during the second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-67), but he faced a combined French-English assault in 1672. After the French invaded the country in June of that year, de Witt was wounded in an assassination attempt and resigned in August, a month after William had been named stadholder. Johan and his brother Cornelis were murdered by a pro-Orange mob.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<n>William IV<b>1690(10)<ac>1711<d>1751<c>Netherlands<info>William, stadholder of Friesland and a descendant of a daughter of Frederick Henry, was elected stadholder in the other provinces as William IV. Although the principality of Orange had been ceded to France by the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, he and his son and successor, Stadholder William V, continued to carry the title of prince of Orange. Their branch of the family is known formally as the house of Orange-Nassau, and their descendants are the present royal family.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>stadholder<n>William V<b>1748 Mar 8<el>1766<ret>1795<d>1806 Apr 9<fa>William IV<c>Netherlands<info>William V was forced into exile by the French conquest in 1795. His son, however, was created king of the Netherlands, as William I.
// 19th century
#p <nat>Dutch<o>king<n>William I<b>1772 Aug 24<ac>1815<ab>1840 Oct 7<d>1843 Dec 12<fa>William V<c>Netherlands<info>William I was prince of Orange-Nassau and became the first king of the Netherlands. William was commander of the Dutch army during the French Revolutionary Wars. He went into exile after the downfall of the Dutch Republic in 1795. After briefly coming to terms with Napoleon I in 1802, he was captured in Germany in 1806 while leading Prussian troops against the French emperor. He was paroled and joined the Austrian service in 1809. He returned to the Netherlands as sovereign prince in 1813, accepting a mildly liberal constitution the following year. With the assent of the Congress of Vienna, became king in 1815 of a United Netherlands, including Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He governed with a strong hand, encouraging economic growth by attempting to spur the expansion of industry and trade. His policies in the provinces, offending both the Roman Catholic church and liberals, led to the Belgian Revolution of 1830. When revision of the constitution became necessary after the recognition of Belgian independence in 1839, he had to accept biennial budgets and ministerial responsibility. He abdicated in 1840 in favour of his son William II.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>king<n>William II<b>1792 Dec 6<ac>1840 Oct 7<d>1849 Mar 17<fa>William I<c>Netherlands<info>William II was exiled to England in 1795 with his father, who later became King William I. He served in the duke of Wellington's army and commanded Dutch troops at Waterloo in 1815. In 1831 he again commanded an army which defeated the separatist Belgians. In 1840 he succeeded to the throne on the abdication of his father. Hoping to keep his country free from the revolutionary ferment of 1848, William took the initiative in the enactment of a new constitution, written by the liberal statesman Johan Thorbecke, which firmly established the supremacy of the States-General. He was succeeded by his son William III.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>king<n>William III<b>1817 Feb 19<d>1890 Nov 23<fa>William II<c>Netherlands<info>William III was unhappy with the advanced liberal constitution sponsored by his father and predecessor, William II, and adopted in 1848. But he accepted it when he ascended to the throne in 1849. He opposed the liberal statesman Johan Thorbecke and played a crucial role in Thorbecke's resignation as head of the government in 1853. An anti-Catholic, William was able to retain political influence through the cabinet, giving special attention to religious matters. His attempt in 1867 to sell France the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg met Prussian hostility and had to be abandoned. As a result, his political stature at home suffered irreparably. But it was under his reign that parliamentary government was consolidated in the Netherlands. William's personal life was troubled, first by separation from his wife, Sophia of Wurttemberg, and then by plans to divorce her and marry his mistress, a French actress. In 1879, after Sophia's death, he married Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont. He was succeeded by his daughter Wilhelmina.<ref>Grolier
// In 1890, when Queen Wilhelmina succeeded in the Netherlands, Luxembourg passed to a collateral line of the family.
#p <nat>Dutch<o>queen<n>Wilhelmina<b>1880 Aug 31<ac>1890<ab>1948 Sep 4<d>1962 Nov 28<fa>William III<c>Netherlands<mov>1940 May<c>London<mov>1945 Mar 13<c>Netherlands<info>Wilhelmina reigned over the Netherlands for more than half a century. In 1890 she succeeded her father, William III, to the throne under the regency of her mother, Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont. She assumed personal rule on September 6, 1898, and married Duke Henry (1876-1934) of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1901. Although committed to observation of the constitution, she considered herself a ruler by divine right and frequently intervened in political affairs. After the German invasion on May 10, 1940, Wilhelmina fled to England, leading a government in exile from London and becoming very popular as a rallying point for Dutch freedom. She returned to the liberated Netherlands on March 13, 1945. In declining health, she abdicated in favor of her daughter Juliana, after celebrating the 50th anniversary of her reign.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>battle<n>Germans invade Holland<d>1940 May 10<c>Netherlands
// 20th century
#p <nat>Dutch<o>queen<n>Juliana<b>1909 Apr 30<ac>1948 Sep 6<ab>1980 Apr 30<mo>Wilhelmina<info>Juliana succeeded to the throne of the Netherlands following the abdication of her mother, Queen Wilhelmina. In 1937 she married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. They had four daughters. The eldest, Beatrice, became queen when Juliana abdicated on her 71st birthday.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>Dutch<o>queen<n>Beatrice<b>1938 Jan 31<ac>1980 Apr 30<mo>Juliana<info>Beatrice succeeded to the throne of the Netherlands on the abdication of her mother, Queen Juliana. In 1961 she earned a doctorate in law at the University of Leiden. In 1966 she married Prince Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat. The eldest of their three sons, Prince Willem Alexander, is heir presumptive to the throne.<ref>Grolier
