William Ii

WILLIAM II. king of the Netherlands, son of William I., was born at The Hague on Dec. 6, 1792. When he was three years old his family was driven out of Holland by the French republican armies, and lived in exile until 1813. He was educated at the military school at Berlin and afterwards at the University of Oxford. He entered the English army, and in 181i, as aide-de-camp to the duke of Wellington, took part in several campaigns of the Peninsular War. In 1815 he commanded the Dutch and Belgian contingents, and won high commendations for his courage and conduct at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, at the latter of which he was wounded. The prince of Orange married in 1816 the grand duchess Anna Pavlovna, sister of the tsar Alexander I. In 183o, on the outbreak of the Belgian revolution, he went to Brussels, and tried to bring about a peaceable settlement on the basis of the administrative auton omy of the southern provinces under the house of Orange. His father had given him powers to treat, but afterwards threw him over and rejected the terms of accommodation that he had pro posed. He withdrew on this to England and resided there for several months. In April 1831 William took the command of a Dutch for the invasion of Belgium, and in a ten-days' campaign defeated and dispersed the Belgian forces under Leo pold I. after a sharp fight near Louvain. His victorious advance was stayed by the intervention of the French. In 184o, on the abdication of his father, he ascended the throne as William II. The peace of 1839 had settled all differences between Holland and Belgium, and the new king found himself confronted with the task of the reorganization of the finances, and the necessity of meeting the popular demand for a revision of the fundamental law, and the establishment of the electoral franchise on a wider basis. He acted with good sense and moderation, and, although by no means a believer in democratic ideas, he saw the necessity of satisfying public opinion and frankly gave his support to larger measures of reform. The fundamental law was altered in 1848

and the Dutch monarchy, from being autocratic, became hence forth constitutional. The king's attitude secured for him the good will and affection of a people, loyal by tradition to the house of Orange, and the revolutionary disturbances of 1848 found no echo in Holland. William died suddenly on March 17, See J. J. Abbink, Leven van Koning Willem II. (Amsterdam, J. Bosscha, Het Leven van Willem den Tweede, Koning der Neder landen, 1793-1849 (Amsterdam, 1852) ; P. Blok, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Volk (Leyden, 1908).

WILLIAM III.

(1817-189o), king of the Netherlands, son of William II., was born at Brussels on Feb. 19, 1817. He married in 1839 Sophia, daughter of William I., king of WUrttemberg. The marriage was an unhappy one, and ended in complete estrangement. William had no sympathy with political liberal ism, but throughout his long reign of forty-two years, with a con stant interchange of ministries and many ministerial crises, he never had a serious conflict with the states-general. He was eco nomical, and gave up a third of his civil list in order to help for ward the task of establishing an equilibrium in the annual budget, and he used his large private fortune to forward schemes of social and industrial progress.

William's two sons by his marriage with Sophia of Wiirttem berg, William (1841-1879) and Alexander (1843-1884), died un married. By his second marriage in 1879, with the princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont, he had a daughter, Wilhelmina (q.v.), who succeeded him. William died at the Loo, on Nov. 23, 189o.

See J. A. Bruijne, Geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd. (5 vols., Schiedam, 1889-1906) ; P. Blok, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Volk (Leiden, 1908) , vol. viii. ; and G. L. Keppers, De regeering van Koning Willem III. (Groningen, 1887).