WILLIAM I. [FRIEDRICH KARL] king of Wurt temberg, son of Frederick, afterwards King Frederick I. of Wurt temberg, was born at Liiben, Silesia, on Sept. 27, 1781. In early years he took no part in public life owing to a quarrel with his father whose deference to Napoleon displeased him ; but in 1814 15 commanded an army corps in the Wars of Liberation with dis tinction. On his accession in 1816 he realized the expectations formed of him as a liberal-minded ruler by promulgating a con stitution (1819), under which serfdom and obsolete class privileges were swept away, and by issuing ordinances which greatly assisted the financial and industrial development and the educational prog ress of his country. In 1848 he issued further liberal decrees; but his relations with the legislature having become hopelessly strained over questions of Germanic policy, William repudiated the enact ments of 1848-49 and summoned a packed parliament (1851), which re-enforced the code of 1819.
William encountered similar difficulties as a champion of Ger manic union and of the rights of the Middle Germanic States against encroachments by Austria and Prussia. In 182o-23 he protested against Metternich's treatment of the minor German States and in 1848-49 opposed the proposals for a Germanic union made by the Frankfort Diet, for fear of granting Prussia ex cessive preponderance. Thus he gradually became the ally of Austria against Prussia. Nevertheless his devotion to the cause of Germanic union is proved by the eagerness with which he helped the formation of the Zollverein (1828-183o), and in spite of his conflicts with his chambers he achieved unusual popularity with his subjects. He died on June 25, 1864.
See Nick, Wilhelm I., Konig von Wurttemberg, and seine Regierung (Stuttgart, 1864) .