King Willem (William) I of The Netherlands

24 August 1772 marks the birth of William (Willem Frederik), Prince of 
Orange-Nassau.

Family

King William I's parents were the last stadtholder William V, Prince of
Orange of the Dutch Republic, and his wife Wilhelmina of Prussia.

 

Until 1806, William was formally known as William VI,
Prince of Orange-Nassau,
and between 1806 and 1813 also as Prince of Orange. 

Love and marriage

In Berlin on 1 October 1791, William married his maternal first cousin
(Frederica Louisa) Wilhelmina of Prussia, born in Potsdam.
She was the daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia.

This royal couple would have 6 children together:

* Willem Frederik George Lodewijk
(b. The Hague, 6 December 1792 – d. Tilburg, 17 March 1849) later
King William II of the Netherlands from 1840. He married Russian
Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna.

* Stillborn son
(Hampton Court, Palace, Middlesex, 18 August 1795).

* Willem Frederik Karel
(b. Berlin, 28 February 1797 – d. Wassenaar, 8 September 1881),
he married on 21 May 1825 his first cousin Louise, daughter of
Frederick William III of Prussia.

* Wilhelmina Frederika Louise Pauline Charlotte
(b. Berlin, 1 March 1800 – d. Freienwalde, 22 December 1806).

* Stillborn son (Berlin, 30 August 1806).

* Wilhelmina Frederika Louise Charlotte Marianne
(b. Berlin, 9 May 1810 – d. Schloss Reinhartshausen bei
Erbach, 29 May 1883), married on 14 September 1830 with
Prince Albert of Prussia. They divorced in 1849.

After Wilhelmina died in 1837, William married Countess Henriette
d'Oultremont de Wégimont (28 February 1792, in Maastricht –
26 October 1864, in Schloss Rahe),created
Countess of Nassau, on 17 February 1841, also in Berlin.

Childhood and youth

William subsequently studied briefly at the University of Leiden.
In 1790 he was appointed a general of infantry in the States
Army of which his father was Captain general, and he
was made a member of the Council of State of the Netherlands. 

After the National Convention of the French First Republic had declared
war on the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in February 1793, William was
appointed commander-in-chief of the veldleger (mobile army) of the States
Army (his father remained the nominal head of the armed forces).

As such he commanded the troops that took part in the Flanders Campaign
of 1793–95. He took part in the battles of Veurne, Menin, and Wervik
(where his brother was wounded) in 1793, the siege of Landrecies (1794),
whose fortress surrendered to him, and the Battle of Fleurus (1794), to name
the most important. In May 1794 he had replaced general Kaunitz as
commander of the combined Austro-Dutch forces on the instigation
of Emperor Francis II who apparently had a high opinion of him.  

But the French armies proved too strong, and the allied leadership too inept,
and the allies were defeated. The French first entered Dutch Brabant which
they dominated after the Battle of Boxtel. When in the winter of 1794–95
the rivers in the Rhine delta froze over, the French breached the southern
Hollandic Water Line and the situation became militarily untenable. In many
places Dutch revolutionaries took over the local government.

After the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam on 18 January 1795 the
stadtholder decided to flee to Britain, and his sons accompanied him.
(On this last day in Holland his father relieved William honorably
of his commands). The next day the Batavian Republic was proclaimed.

Under the Batavian Republic

Soon after the departure to Britain the Hereditary Prince went back to the
Continent, where his brother was assembling former members of the
States Army in Osnabrück for a planned invasion into the Batavian Republic
in the Summer of 1795. However, the neutral Prussian government forbade
this.

In 1799, William landed in the current North Holland as part of an
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. The Hereditary Prince was instrumental
in fomenting a mutiny on the Batavian naval squadron in the Vlieter,
resulting in the surrender of the ships without a fight to the Royal Navy,
which accepted the surrender in the name of the stadtholder.
Not all the local Dutch population, however, was pleased with the arrival
of the prince. One local Orangist was even executed.

The hoped-for popular uprising failed to materialise. After several
minor battles the Hereditary Prince was forced to leave the country
again after the Convention of Alkmaar. The mutineers of the Batavian
fleet, with their ships, and a large number of deserters from the
Batavian army accompanied the retreating British troops to Britain.
There William formed the King's Dutch Brigade with these troops,
a military unit in British service, that swore oaths
of allegiance to the British King, but also to the States General, defunct
since 1795, "whenever those would be reconstituted."

Under Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte

When peace was concluded between Great Britain and the French Republic
under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte the Orange exiles were at their nadir.
The Dutch Brigade was dissolved on 12 July 1802. Many members of the
brigade went home to the Batavian Republic, thanks to an amnesty.
The surrendered ships of the Batavian navy were not returned, due to an
agreement between the stadtholder and the British government of
11 March 1800.

The stadtholder, feeling betrayed by the British, left for Germany. The
Hereditary Prince, having a more flexible mind, went to visit Napoleon
at St. Cloud in 1802.

He apparently charmed the First Consul, and was charmed by him.
Napoleon raised hopes for William that he might have an important
role in a reformed Batavian Republic. 

Meanwhile, William's brother-in-law Frederick William III of Prussia,
neutral at the time, promoted a Franco-Prussian convention of
23 May 1802, in addition to the Treaty of Amiens, that gave the
House of Orange a few abbatial domains in Germany, that were
combined to the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda by way
of indemnification for its losses in the Batavian Republic.
The stadtholder gave this principality immediately to his son. 

When Napoleon invaded Germany in 1806 and war broke out
between the French Empire and Prussia, William supported his
Prussian relatives, though he was nominally a French vassal.
He received command of a Prussian division which took part
in the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. The Prussians lost that battle and
William was forced to surrender his troops rather ignominiously
at Erfurt the day after the battle. He was made a prisoner of war,
but was paroled soon. Napoleon punished him for his betrayal,
however, by taking away his principality. As a parolee, William
was not allowed to take part in the hostilities anymore.
After the Peace of Tilsit William received a pension from
France in compensation.

In the same year, 1806, his father, the Prince of Orange died,
and William not only inherited the title, but also his father's claims
on the inheritance embodied in the Nassau lands. This would become
important a few years later, when developments in Germany
coincided to make William the Fürst (Prince) of a diverse
assembly of Nassau lands that had belonged to other branches
of the House of Nassau.

But before this came about, in 1809 tensions between Austria and
France became intense. William did not hesitate to join the Austrian
army as a Feldmarschalleutnant (major-general) in May 1809.

As a member of the staff of the Austrian supreme commander,
Archduke Charles he took part in the Battle of Wagram, where
he was wounded in the leg.

Meeting with Tsar Alexander I of Russia 

Tsar Alexander I of Russia played a central role in the restoration
of the Netherlands. Prince William VI (as he was now known), who
had been living in exile in Prussia, met with Alexander I in March 1813. 

Tsar Alexander I of Russia

Alexander promised to support William and help restore an independent
Netherlands with William as king. Russian troops in the Netherlands
participated with their Prussian allies in restoring the dynasty. 

Dynastic considerations of marriage between the royal houses of
Great Britain and the Netherlands, assured British approval.

Back to the Netherlands

After Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig (October 1813), the French troops
retreated to France from all over Europe. The Netherlands had
been annexed to the French Empire by Napoleon in 1810. 

But now city after city was evacuated by the French occupation troops.
In the ensuing power vacuum a number of former Orangist politicians
and former Patriots formed a provisional government in November 1813. 

Although a large number of the members of the provisional government had
helped drive out William V 18 years earlier, it was taken for granted that his
son would have to head any new government. They also agreed it would be
better in the long term for the Dutch to restore him themselves, rather than
have the Great Powers impose him on the country. The Dutch population
were pleased with the departure of the French, who had ruined the Dutch
economy, and this time welcomed the prince.

After having been invited by the Triumvirate of 1813, on 30 November 1813
William disembarked from HMS Warrior and landed at Scheveningen beach,
only a few yards from the place where he had left the country with his father
18 years before, and on 6 December the provisional government offered him
the title of King. William refused, instead proclaiming himself
"Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands".

The constitution offered William extensive (almost absolute) powers.
Ministers were only responsible to him, while a unicameral
parliament (the States General) exercised only limited power.
He was inaugurated as sovereign prince in the New Church in
Amsterdam on 30 March 1814. 

In August 1814, he was appointed Governor-General of the former
Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (more or
less modern-day Belgium) by the Allied Powers who occupied
that country, ruling them on behalf of Prussia.
He was also made Grand Duke of Luxembourg, having received that
territory in return for trading his hereditary German lands to Prussia and the
Duke of Nassau. 

The Great Powers had already agreed via the secret Eight Articles
of London to unite the Low Countries into a single kingdom.
It was believed that a united country on the North Sea would
help keep France in check. With the de facto addition of the
Austrian Netherlands and Luxembourg to his realm, William
had fulfilled his family's three-century dream of uniting the
Low Countries.

Rule

Feeling threatened by Napoleon, who had escaped from Elba, William
proclaimed the Netherlands a kingdom on 16 March 1815 at the urging
of the powers gathered at the Congress of Vienna. His son, the future
king William II, fought as a commander at the Battle of Waterloo. 

After Napoleon had been sent into exile, William adopted a new
constitution which included many features of the old constitution,
such as extensive royal powers. He was formally confirmed
as hereditary ruler of what was known as the United Kingdom
of the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna.

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

The constitution was accepted in the North, but not in the South. The
under-representation of the South was one of the causes of the
Belgian Revolution.

 
Referendum turnout was low, in the Southern provinces, but
William interpreted all abstentions to be yes votes. He prepared a
lavish inauguration for himself in Brussels, where he gave the
people copper coins (leading to his first nickname, the
Copper King).

The spearhead of King William's policies was economic progress.
As he founded many trade institutions, his second nickname
was the King-Merchant. 

In 1822, he founded the Algemene Nederlandsche Maatschappij
ter Begunstiging van de Volksvlijt, which would become one of
the most important institutions of Belgium after its independence. 

Industry flourished, especially in the South. 

The Northern provinces, meanwhile, were the centre of trade.
This, in combination with the colonies (Dutch East Indies,
Suriname, Curaçao and Dependencies, and the
Dutch Gold Coast) created great wealth for the Kingdom. 

However, the money flowed into the hands of Dutch directors.
Only a few Belgians managed to profit from the economic growth.
Feelings of economic inequity were another cause of the Belgian
uprising.

William was also determined to create a unified people, even
though the north and the south had drifted far apart culturally
and economically since the south was reconquered by Spain
after the Act of Abjuration of 1581.

The North was commercial, Protestant and entirely Dutch-speaking;
the south was industrial, Roman Catholic and divided between
Dutch and French-speakers.

Officially, a separation of church and state existed in the kingdom.
However, William himself was a strong supporter of the
Reformed Church. This led to resentment among the people in
the mostly Catholic south. William had also devised controversial
language and school policies. Dutch was imposed as the
official language in (the Dutch-speaking region of) Flanders;
this angered French-speaking aristocrats and industrial workers. 

Schools throughout the Kingdom were required to instruct students
in the Reformed faith and the Dutch language. Many in the South
feared that the King sought to extinguish Catholicism and
the French language.

Revolution

In August 1830 Daniel Auber's opera La muette de Portici, about
the repression of Neapolitans, was staged in
La Monnaie in Brussels. 

Performances of this show seemed to crystallize a sense of
nationalism and "Hollandophobia" in Brussels, and spread to the rest
of the South. Rioting ensued, chiefly aimed at the kingdom's
unpopular justice minister, Cornelis Felix van Maanen, who
lived in Brussels.

 
An infuriated William responded by sending troops to repress
the riots. However, the riots had spread to other Southern cities. The
riots quickly became popular uprisings. 

More about La Monnaie in Brussels on this link. 

An independent state of Belgium emerged out of the 1830 Revolution.

Revolutionary war

The next year, William sent his sons William, the Prince of Orange,
and Prince Frederick to invade the new state. Although initially
victorious in this Ten Days' Campaign, the Dutch army was
forced to retreat after the threat of French intervention.

Some support for the Orange dynasty (chiefly among Flemings)
persisted for years but the Dutch never regained control over Belgium. 

In Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium a statue was built to honour
King Willem I  of the United Netherlands. More on this link. 

William nevertheless continued the war for eight years. His economic
successes became overshadowed by a perceived mismanagement
of the war effort. High costs of the war came to burden the Dutch
economy, fueling public resentment. 

In 1839, William was forced to end the war. The United Kingdom
of the Netherlands was dissolved by the Treaty of London (1839)
and the northern part continued as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

It was not renamed, however, as the "United"-prefix had never
been part of its official name, but rather was retrospectively
added by historians for descriptive purposes (cf. Weimar Republic)

Abdication & death

Constitutional changes were initiated in 1840 because the terms which
involved the United Kingdom of the Netherlands had to be removed.
These constitutional changes also included the introduction of judicial
ministerial responsibility. Although the policies remained uncontrolled by
parliament, the prerogative was controllable now. The very conservative
William could not live with these constitutional changes. This, the
disappointment about the loss of Belgium, and his intention to marry
Henrietta d'Oultremont (paradoxically both "Belgian" and Roman
Catholic) made him wish to abdicate. He fulfilled this intent on
7 October 1840 and his eldest son acceded to the throne as king William II. 

William I died in 1843 in Berlin at the age of 71.

A special painting 

In the Town Hall of Sint-Niklaas there always was a large painting
about the taking the oath of King William I of the United Kingdom
of The Netherlands in Brussels. Due to construction works, this
painting was taken away, however I hope it will come back 
because it has large historical vallue.

Source pictures: Wikipedia

Source picture: La Monnaie, own picture

Source picture: painting in Sint-Niklaas, own picture

Source picture: statue in Gent, own picture