Willem I, King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg

by Emily McMahon  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Willem I, King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg; Credit – Wikipedia

King Willem I of the Netherlands was the fourth of the five children and the eldest surviving son of Willem V, Prince of Orange, the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and Wilhelmina of Prussia.   He was born August 24, 1772, at Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, Dutch Republic (now The Netherlands).

Willem had four siblings, but only two survived infancy:

  • Unnamed son (born and died 1769), lived only one day
  • Louise of Orange-Nassau (1770 – 1819), married Karl, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, no issue
  • Unnamed son (born and died August 6, 1771)
  • Frederick of Orange-Nassau (1774 – 1799), unmarried, no issue

Willem’s parents with their three children (left to right) Frederick, Willem, and Louise by Pieter le Sage, 1779; Credit – Wikipedia

Willem was descended from the British Hanoverian kings through his mother and father. He received an education with a strong military focus, which would aid him when it was necessary to fight to win control of the Netherlands.

Wilhelmine in the 1790s; Credit – Wikipedia

Willem married his first cousin Wilhelmine of Prussia, daughter of  King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt on October 1, 1791, in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, now in the German state of Brandenburg. Although it was a political match intended to strengthen Dutch ties to Prussia, the marriage was also a very happy one.

The couple had three surviving children and two stillbirths:

The Napoleonic Wars disrupted Wilhelmine and Willem’s family life.  The French invaded the Dutch Republic in 1795 and the family went into exile first in England and then in 1796 in Prussia where they lived until 1813. In 1806, Willem’s father died and he inherited the title Prince of Orange. In 1813, after Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig, the French retreated all over Europe including the Dutch Republic.

On November 13, 1813, Willem returned to his homeland, landing only a few yards from the place where he had left with his father 18 years before. The provisional government offered Willem the title of King, which he refused, instead proclaiming himself Sovereign Prince. He was also made Grand Duke of Luxembourg, receiving that territory in return for trading his hereditary German lands to Prussia and the Duke of Nassau. When Napoleon escaped from Elba, his place of exile, Willem felt threatened. Urged on by the powers who met at the Congress of Vienna, Willem proclaimed the Netherlands a monarchy on March 16, 1815. After Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and his second exile, the Congress of Vienna formally confirmed Willem as the hereditary ruler of what was known as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Inauguration of Willem I of the Netherlands, Credit – Wikipedia

Willem worked toward furthering economic progress in the Netherlands, concentrating on the industry in present-day Belgium. He also increased educational opportunities, founding the University of Leuven, the University of Ghent, and the University of Liege. The increase in industry and knowledge along with flourishing trade in the north and from the colonies resulted in great wealth for the new kingdom – and resentment in the south (Belgium), which saw the fewest benefits from the economic growth. This eventually led to a revolution in the south and the creation of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1831.

King Willem I abdicated in 1840 due to constitutional changes he disagreed with, anger over the loss of Belgium, and his desire to make a morganatic second marriage with Henriëtte d’Oultremont after the death of Wilhelmine in 1837.  His eldest son succeeded him as Willem II.  After his abdication, Willem was styled King Willem Frederick, Count of Nassau.

Henriette d’Oultremont, Credit – Wikipedia

In 1841, Willem morganatically married Henriette, who received the title Countess of Nassau and the couple lived in exile in Berlin, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany.  Willem died in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany, died on December 12, 1843, at the age of 71, and was buried in the crypt Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, the Netherlands.

The access to the royal crypt in the foreground; Credit – By Sander van der Wel from the Netherlands – Royal grave tomb and the grave of Willem van Oranje, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28146859

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