William II of the Netherlands

William II (Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, anglicized as William Frederick George Louis; 6 December 1792 – 17 March 1849) was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg.

Not to be confused with William II of Scotland or William II, Prince of Orange.
For other people named William II, see William II (disambiguation). For other people named William of Orange, see William of Orange (disambiguation).
William II
Portrait by Nicolaas Pieneman
Reign7 October 1840 – 17 March 1849
Inauguration28 November 1840
PredecessorWilliam I
SuccessorWilliam III
Born(1792-12-06)6 December 1792
Noordeinde Palace, The Hague, Dutch Republic
Died17 March 1849(1849-03-17) (aged 56)
Tilburg, Netherlands
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1816)​
Issue
HouseOrange-Nassau
FatherWilliam I of the Netherlands
MotherWilhelmine of Prussia
ReligionDutch Reformed Church

William II was the son of William I and Wilhelmine of Prussia. When his father, who up to that time ruled as sovereign prince, proclaimed himself king in 1815, he became Prince of Orange as heir apparent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With the abdication of his father on 7 October 1840, William II became king. During his reign, the Netherlands became a parliamentary democracy with the new constitution of 1848.

William II was married to Anna Pavlovna of Russia. They had four sons and one daughter. William II died on 17 March 1849 and was succeeded by his son William III.

Early life and education

Willem Frederik George Lodewijk was born on 6 December 1792 in The Hague. He was the eldest son of King William I of the Netherlands and Wilhelmine of Prussia. His maternal grandparents were King Frederick William II of Prussia and his second wife Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

When William was two, he and his family fled to England after allied British-Hanoverian troops left the Republic and entering French troops defeated the army of the United Provinces, claiming liberation by joining the anti-Orangist Patriots. William spent his youth in Berlin at the Prussian court, where he followed a military education and served in the Prussian Army. After this, he studied civil law at Christ Church, University of Oxford.[1][2][3] William II had a string of relationships with both men and women which led him to be blackmailed.[4][5][6][7] The homosexual relationships that William II had as crown prince and as king were reported by journalist Eillert Meeter.[8] The king surrounded himself with male servants whom he could not dismiss because of his 'abominable motive' for hiring them in the first place.[9]

Military service
William II, by Nicaise de Keyser, 1846.

He entered the British Army, and in 1811, as a 19 year old aide-de-camp in the headquarters of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was allowed to observe several of Wellington's campaigns of the Peninsular War. Though not yet 20, the young prince, according to the customs of the time, was made lieutenant colonel on 11 June 1811[10] and colonel on 21 October that year.[11] On 8 September 1812 he was made an aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent[12] and on 14 December 1813 promoted to major-general.[13] His courage and good nature made him very popular with the British, who nicknamed him "Slender Billy". He returned to the Netherlands in 1813 when his father became sovereign prince, and in May 1814 succeeded Sir Thomas Graham as the highest-ranking officer of the British forces stationed there.[14]

On 8 July 1814, he was promoted to lieutenant-general in the British Army,[15] and on 25 July to general.[16] As such, he was senior officer of the Allied army in the Low Countries when Napoleon I of France escaped from Elba in 1815. He relinquished command on the arrival of the Duke of Wellington, and, though this was his first real battle, served as commander of the I Allied Corps, first at the Battle of Quatre Bras (16 June 1815) and then at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), where he was wounded.[17] He was aged 22. As a sign of gratitude for what the Dutch throne styled "his" victory at Waterloo, William was offered Soestdijk Palace by the Dutch people.[18][19]

Military historian William Siborne blamed many casualties suffered by Coalition forces during the Waterloo Campaign to William's inexperience.[20] In response, Siborne was accused by Lieutenant-General Willem Jan Knoop of misrepresenting William's actions at Waterloo.[21] An inspection into of the archives of Siborne by Dutch officer Francois de Bas in 1897 claimed to discover the "selective use of sources" and "numerous miscounts and untruths".[22]

Marriage
Portrait of William II and Anna Pavlovna (1816) by Jan Willem Pieneman

In 1814, William was briefly engaged to Princess Charlotte of Wales, only child of the Prince Regent (later George IV of the United Kingdom) and his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick. The engagement was arranged by the Prince Regent, but it was broken off because Charlotte's mother was against the marriage and because Charlotte did not want to move to the Netherlands. On 21 February 1816 at the Chapel of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, William married Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia, youngest sister to Czar Alexander I of Russia, who arranged the marriage to seal the good relations between Imperial Russia and the Netherlands. On 17 February 1817 in Brussels, his first son, Willem Alexander, the future King William III, was born.

Already in 1819, he was blackmailed over what Minister of Justice Van Maanen termed in a letter his "shameful and unnatural lusts": presumably bisexuality. Also his signing the constitutional reform of 1848, enabling a parliamentary democracy, may have been partly influenced by blackmail.[23] He may also have had a relationship with a dandy by the name of Pereira.[24]

Belgian Revolution
The Prince of Orange pressed by the crowd during the 1830 Revolution

William II enjoyed considerable popularity in what is now Belgium (then the Southern Netherlands), as well as in parts of the rest of the Netherlands for his affability and moderation, and in 1830, on the outbreak of the Belgian revolution, he did his utmost in Brussels as a peace broker, to bring about a settlement based on administrative autonomy for the southern provinces, under the House of Orange-Nassau. His father then rejected the terms of accommodation that the son had proposed without further consultation; afterwards, relations with his father were once again tense.

In April 1831, William II was sent by his father to be the military leader of the failed Ten Days' Campaign in order to recover what would become Belgium. They were driven back due to French intervention on the side of the rebels. European mediation established Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on the throne of a new monarchy. Peace was finally established in 1839 when Belgium was recognized by the Netherlands.

Reign
The inauguration of William II on 28 November 1840, by Nicolaas Pieneman

On 7 October 1840, on his father's abdication, he acceded to the throne as William II. Although he shared his father's conservative inclinations, he did not intervene in governmental affairs nearly as much as his father had. There was increased agitation for broad constitutional reform and a wider electoral franchise. Although William was certainly no democrat, he acted with sense and moderation.

The Revolutions of 1848 broke out all over Europe. In Paris the Bourbon-Orléans monarchy that had stolen "his" southern provinces fell. Warned that the revolution might spread to the Netherlands next, William decided to institute a more liberal regime, believing it was better to grant reforms instead of having them imposed on him on less favourable terms later. As he later put it, "I changed from conservative to liberal in one night". He chose a committee headed by the prominent liberal Johan Rudolf Thorbecke to create a new constitution.

The new document provided that the Eerste Kamer (Senate), previously appointed by the King, would be elected indirectly by the Provincial States. The Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives), previously elected by the Provincial States, would be elected directly via census suffrage in electoral districts, with the franchise limited to those who paid a certain amount in taxes. Ministers were now fully responsible to the Tweede Kamer. For all intents and purposes, the real power passed to the Tweede Kamer, and the king was now a servant of government rather than its master. That constitution of 1848, amended numerous times (most notably by the replacement of census suffrage by universal manhood suffrage and districts with nationwide party-list proportional representation, both in 1917) is still in effect today.

He swore in his first and only cabinet under the terms of the new constitution a few months before his sudden death in Tilburg, North Brabant (1849).

In fiction

He is a recurring character in the historical novels of Georgette Heyer, most notably in An Infamous Army.

William appears as a character in the historical fiction novel Sharpe's Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell, and its television adaptation, in which he is portrayed by Paul Bettany.

Titles, styles and honours
Monogram of William II

Titles and styles
  • 1792–1806: His Highness Prince William Frederick of Orange-Nassau[25]
  • 1806–1815: His Highness The Hereditary Prince of Orange[26]
  • 1815–1840: His Royal Highness The Prince of Orange
  • 1840–1849: His Majesty The King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Limburg

Honours

Issue
King William II and his family (1832) by Jan Baptist van der Hulst

William II and queen Anna Pavlovna had five children:

Ancestry
See also: Family tree of Dutch monarchs

See also

References
  1. DBNL. "Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 1 · dbnl". DBNL (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  2. "Z.M. (koning Willem II) koning Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, koning der Nederlanden, groothertog van Luxemburg, hertog van Limburg, prins van Oranje-Nassau". www.parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  3. "Willem Frederik George Lodewijk (1792-1849)". www.scheveningen1813-2013.nl. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  4. News, Gay. "Intense Male Friendships Made King Willem II Liable to Blackmail". www.gay-news.com. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  5. Jeroen van, Zanten (2013). Koning Willem II : 1792-1849. dl. 2. Amsterdam: Boom. ISBN 978-9461051851. OCLC 864666575.
  6. "Willem II: intelligent, chantabel en in de knel". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  7. "BOEKEN: Jeroen van Zanten, Koning Willem II (1792-1849)". Historisch Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  8. Meeter, E. (1857). Holland: its institutions, its press, kings and prisons.
  9. Meeter, E. (1857). Holland: its institutions, its press, kings and prisons. pp. 320.
  10. "No. 16494". The London Gazette. 11 June 1811. p. 1068.
  11. "No. 16533". The London Gazette. 22 October 1811. p. 2033.
  12. "No. 16642". The London Gazette. 8 September 1812. p. 1812.
  13. "No. 16824". The London Gazette. 14 December 1813. p. 2528.
  14. Andrew Bamford (2014). "The British Army in the Low Countries, 1813-1814" (PDF). The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  15. "No. 16915". The London Gazette. 9 July 1814. p. 1393.
  16. "No. 16924". The London Gazette. 9 August 1814. p. 1609.
  17. Hofschröer, Peter, 1815, The Waterloo Campaign, The German Victory p. 137, p. 200.
  18. "Willem II, Koning (1792-1849)". Het Koninklijk Huis (in Dutch). Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  19. "Geschiedenis van het Paleis Soestdijk". Paleis Soestdijk (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  20. Siborne, William. "History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815", 1844
  21. Knoop, Willem Jan. "Beschouwingen over Siborne’s Geschiedenis van den Oorlog van 1815", 1846
  22. Historisch Nieuwsblad, June 2015: "Willem II en de Slag bij Waterloo - 1815"
  23. "Koning Willem II gechanteerd wegens homoseksualiteit".
  24. Hermans, Dorine and Hooghiemstra, Daniela: Voor de troon wordt men niet ongestrafd geboren, ooggetuigen van de koningen van Nederland 1830–1890, ISBN 978-90-351-3114-9, 2007.
  25. "9 December 1813 Het verheugd Rotterdam ontvangt Koning Willem I". Engelfriet.net. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  26. "De Grondwet van 1814". Republikanisme.nl. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  27. "Militaire Willems-Orde: Oranje-Nassau, Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, Prins van" [Military William Order: Orange-Nassau, William Frederick George Louis, Prince of]. Ministerie van Defensie (in Dutch). 8 July 1815. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  28. Mémorial A n° 1 du 03.01.1842, Arrêté royal grand-ducal du 29 décembre 1841, Litt. A, portant institution, pour le Grand-Duché du Luxembourg d'un Ordre de la Couronne de Chêne. (Foundation of the Order)
  29. Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1845), "Großherzogliche Orden" pp. 32, 48
  30. Hof- und Staatshandbuch für das Königreich Hannover: 1846. Berenberg. 1846. p. 36.
  31. Liste der Ritter des Königlich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler (1851), "Von Seiner Majestät dem Könige Friedrich Wilhelm III. ernannte Ritter" p. 16
  32. Almanach de la cour: pour l'année ... 1817. l'Académie Imp. des Sciences. 1817. pp. 63, 78, 91.
  33. "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Österreichischen Kaiserthumes, 1847, p. 11, retrieved 28 July 2020
  34. Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1843), "Großherzogliche Hausorden" p. 8
  35. "Caballeros Existentes en la Insignie Orden del Toison de Oro", Calendario Manual y Guía de Forasteros en Madrid (in Spanish): 42, 1819, retrieved 17 March 2020
  36. Staatshandbuch für Württemberg. 1833. p. 35.
William II of the Netherlands
Born: 6 December 1792 Died: 17 March 1849
Regnal titles
Preceded by
William I		 King of the Netherlands
Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Duke of Limburg
1840–1849		 Succeeded by
William III
Dutch royalty
Preceded by
William (I)		 Prince of Orange
1815–1840		 Succeeded by
William (III)

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