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William II

Dutch Royalty House of Orange-Nassau William I Children    William II    Prince Frederick    Princess Paulina    Marianne, Princess Albert of Prussia Grandchildren    Louise, Queen of Sweden and Norway    Prince William    Prince Frederick    Marie, Princess of Wied William II Children    William III    Prince Alexander    Prince Henry    Prince Ernest Casimir    Sophie, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach William III Children    William, Prince of Orange    Prince Maurice    Alexander, Prince of Orange    Wilhelmina Wilhelmina Children    Juliana Juliana Children    Beatrix    Princess Irene    Princess Margriet    Princess Christina Beatrix Children    Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange    Prince Friso    Prince Constantijn Grandchildren    Princess Catharina-Amalia    Princess Alexia    Princess Ariane    Countess Luana    Countess Zaria    Countess Eloise    Count Claus-Casimir    Countess Leonore

William II (William Frederick George Louis) (December 6, 1792 – March 17, 1849) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from October 7, 1840, until his death.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Military service 3 Marriage 4 Belgian revolution activities 5 King of the Netherlands 6 Ancestry 7 Children 8 On Screen 9 See also

He was born in The Hague, the son of King William I of the Netherlands and Queen Wilhelmina, princess of Prussia. His maternal grandparents were Frederick William II of Prussia and his second wife Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

When William was three he and his family fled to England after allied British-Hanoverian mercenaries left the Republic and entering French troops joined the anti-orangist Patriots. William spent his youth in Berlin at the Prussian court. There he followed a military education and served in the Prussian army. Afterwards he studied at the University of Oxford.

He entered the British Army, and in 1811, as aide-de-camp to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, took part in several campaigns of the Peninsular War. He returned to the Netherlands in 1813 when his father became sovereign prince.

In 1815, William became crown prince and he took service in the army when Napoleon I of France escaped from Elba. He fought as commander of the Dutch-Belgian forces at the Battle of Quatre Bras (16 June 1815) and the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), where he was wounded. He showed personal courage and energy, but frequently displayed atrocious military judgement, leading to many heavy casualties. The Duke of Wellington attributed this to his lack of command experience, however, rather than to him being a bad leader.

In 1814, William became briefly engaged with Princess Charlotte of Wales, only daughter 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 because Charlotte did not want to marry William. 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 was born, the future King William III. Because he lived in Brussels, he became affiliated with the Southern industrials.

In 1819, he was blackmailed over what the then Minister of Justice Van Maanen termed in a letter as his "shameful and unnatural lusts": presumably bisexuality. He may also have had a relationship with a dandy by the name of Pereira.^[1]

William II enjoyed considerable popularity in Belgium, as well as in 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 afterwards rejected the terms of accommodation that he had proposed; since, relations with his father remained tense.

In April 1831, William II was leader of the ten day campaign in Belgium which was driven back to the North by French intervention. European intervention established Leopold of Saxe-Gotha on the new throne of Belgium. Peace was finally established between Belgium and the Netherlands in 1839.

On October 7, 1840, on his father's abdication, he acceded the throne as William II. Like his father he was conservative and less likely to initiate changes. He intervened less in policies than his father did. There was increased agitation for broad constitutional reform and a wider electoral franchise. And though he was personally conservative and no democrat, he acted with sense and moderation.

The Revolutions of 1848 broke out all over Europe. In Paris the Bourbon-Orléans monarchy fell. William became afraid of revolution in Amsterdam. One morning he woke up and said: "I changed from conservative to liberal in one night". He gave orders to Johan Rudolf Thorbecke to create a new constitution which included that the Eerste Kamer (Senate) would be elected indirectly by the Provincial States and that the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) would be elected directly. Electoral system changed into census suffrage in electoral districts (in 1917 census suffrage was replaced by common suffrage for all men, and districts were replaced by party lists of different political parties), whereby royal power decreased sharply. The constitution is still in effect today.

He swore in the first parliamentary cabinet a few months before his sudden death in Tilburg, North Brabant (1849).

16. John William Friso, Prince of Orange

8. William IV, Prince of Orange

17. Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel

4. William V, Prince of Orange

18. George II of Great Britain

9. Anne, Princess Royal

19. Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach

2. William I of the Netherlands

20. Frederick William I of Prussia

10. Prince Augustus William of Prussia

21. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

5. Wilhelmina of Prussia

22. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

11. Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg

23. Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

1. William II of the Netherlands

24. Frederick William I of Prussia (= 20)

12. Prince Augustus William of Prussia (= 10)

25. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (= 21)

6. Frederick William II of Prussia

26. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (= 22)

13. Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (= 11)

27. Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (= 23)

3. Wilhelmine of Prussia

28. Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt

14. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt

29. Charlotte Christine of Hanau-Lichtenberg

7. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt

30. Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken

15. Caroline of Zweibrücken

31. Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken

Monarchical Styles of King William II

Reference style His Majesty Spoken style Your Majesty Alternative style Sir

William II and queen Anna Pavlovna had five children:

• William III Alexander Paul Frederick Louis (1817-1890) King of the Netherlands from 1849-1890.
• William Alexander Frederick Constantine Nicolas Michael (1818-1848). Nicknamed Sascha.
• William Frederick Henry "the Navigator" (1820-1879). Married firstly Princess Amalia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and secondly Princess Marie of Prussia, but had no issue.
• William Alexander Frederick Ernst Casimir (1822).
• Wilhelmina Marie Sophie Louise (1824-1897). Married Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

William II (as the Prince of Orange) was portrayed on television by Paul Bettany in Sharpe's Waterloo. In the episode (itself adapted from a novel by Bernard Cornwell), William suffers his wound after being shot by the fictitious hero, Richard Sharpe (played by Sean Bean). Whilst under William's command Sharpe becomes enraged after the crown prince's incompetence costs the lives of many Allied soldiers, including two of Sharpe's closest friends. Taken under the cover of battle, Sharpe's actions are not noticed by anyone who cares for the intransigent William and thus go unpunished.

• Place Guillaume II, a square in Luxembourg City named after him and containing a statue of his likeness.

William II of the Netherlands House of Orange-Nassau Born: 6 December 1792 Died: 17 March 1849
Preceded by William I	Prince of Orange 1815-1840	Succeeded by William III
	King of the Netherlands 1840-1849
	Grand Duke of Luxembourg 1840-1849

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House of Bonaparte	Louis I  · Louis II
House of Orange-Nassau	William I  · William II · William III · Wilhelmina  · Juliana  · Beatrix