WILLIAM I. ( king of the Netherlands, born at The Hague on Aug. 24, 1772, was the son of William V., prince of Orange and hereditary stadtholder of the United Netherlands by Sophia Wilhelmina, princess of Prussia. In 1791 he married Frederica Wilhelmina, daughter of Frederick William II., king of Prussia, thus cementing very closely the relations between the houses of Orange-Nassau and Hohenzollern. After the outbreak of war with the French republic in 1793, he distinguished himself in the struggle against the revolutionary army under Dumouriez by the capture of Landrecies and the relief of Charleroi. By the victories of Pichegru the stadtholder and all his family were, however, compelled to leave Holland and seek refuge in England, where the palace of Hampton Court was set apart for their use. He afterwards made Berlin his residence, and took an active part in the unfortunate campaign under the duke of York for the reconquest of the Netherlands. After the peace of Amiens he had an interview with Napoleon at Paris, and received some ter ritory adjoining the hereditiry domains of the house of Nassau in Westphalia as a compensation for the abandonment of the stadt holderate and the domains of his house. William refused, how ever, in 1806, in which year by the death of his father he became prince of Orange, to separate his interests from those of his Prussian relatives, and fought bravely at Jena. He was therefore despoiled by Napoleon of all his possessions. In 1809 he accepted a command in the Austrian army under the archduke Charles and was wounded at the battle of Wagram. When Holland rose in revolt against French domination in 1813, after eighteen years of exile he landed at Scheveningen (on Nov. 19) and was on Dec. 3, proclaimed prince sovereign of the Netherlands. His assump tion in 1814 of the title of king of the Netherlands was recognized by the Powers, and by the Treaty of Paris his sovereignty was extended over the southern as well as the northern Netherlands, Belgium being added to Holland "as an increase of territory." After the battle of Waterloo, in which Dutch and Belgian troops fought side by side under his command, the congress of Vienna further aggrandized him by making him sovereign of the territory of Luxembourg with the title of grand duke.
William failed to realise that religious, racial and other dif ferences made the union of the Netherlands and Belgium difficult. He drew up a constitution, which was accepted unanimously by the Dutch, but was rejected by the Belgians, because it contained provisions for liberty of worship. The king, however, by a subter fuge declared that the fundamental law had been approved. The new constitution, therefore, started badly, and it was soon evi dent that William intended to make his will prevail, and to carry out his projects for what he conceived the social, industrial and educational welfare of the kingdom regardless of the opposition of Belgian public opinion. For the discontent which culminated
in the revolt of 183o see BELGIUM : History. The Dutch were almost without striking a blow expelled from the country, the strongly fortified seaport of Antwerp alone remaining in their hands. Had the king consented at once to the administrative autonomy of Belgium, and appointed the prince of Orange gov ernor of the southern Netherlands, the revolt might perhaps have been appeased. William, however, was too proud and too obsti nate to lend himself to such a course. He appealed to the Powers, who had, in 1815, created and guaranteed the independence of the kingdom of the Netherlands. By the treaty of the eighteen articles, however, concluded at London on June 29, 1831, the kingdom of Belgium was recognized, and Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was elected king. William refused his assent, and in August suddenly invaded Belgium. The Belgian forces were dispersed, and the Dutch would have entered Brussels in triumph but for the intervention of the French. Still, however, William declined to recognize the new throne, and he had behind him the unani mous support of Dutch public opinion. For nine years he main tained this attitude, and resolutely refused to append his signature to the treaty of 1831. His subjects at length grew weary of the heavy expense of maintaining a large military force on the Belgian frontier and in 1839 the king gave way. He did so, however, on favourable terms and was able to insist on the Belgians yielding up their possession of portions of Limburg and Luxembourg which they had occupied since 183o.
A cry now arose in Holland for a revision of the fundamental law and for more liberal institutions; ministerial responsibility was introduced, and the royal control over finance diminished.
William, however, disliked these changes, and finding further that his proposed marriage with the countess d'Oultremont, a Belgian and a Roman Catholic, was very unpopular, he suddenly abdicated on Oct. 7, 184o. After his abdication he married the countess and spent the rest of his life in quiet retirement upon his private estate in Silesia. He died in See L. Jottsand, Guillaume d'Orange avant son avenement au trone des Pays-Bas; E. C. de Gerlache, Histoire du royaume des Pays Bas depuis 1814 jusqu'en 5830 (3 vols., Brussels, 1842) ; W. H. de Beaufort, De eerste regeeringsjaren van Koning Willem I. (Amsterdam, 1886) ; H. C. Colenbrander, De Belgische Omwenteling (The Hague, 1905) ; T. Juste, Le Soulevement de la Hollande en 1813 et la fondation du royaume des Pays-Bas (Brussels, 1870) ; P. Blok, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Volk, vols. vii. and viii. (Leiden, 1907-08) ; H. T. Colen brander, Gedenksbukken d. algem. gesch. v. Netherland, d8—ro, Regeering v. William I. (1915-20) .