Introduction to William
William, the name of various European rulers.
England and Great Britain
William ICalled the Conqueror (1027?–1087), ruled 1066–87. He was also duke of Normandy, a region in France. William led the Norman Conquest of England, which began a new era for the country. It introduced a Norman aristocracy into England. The newcomers brought their own feudal system and customs, but retained English law for the people they conquered. The Norman French language became the speech of the government and the courts.
William was the illegitimate son of Robert the Devil, duke of Normandy; his mother was a tanner's daughter. The duke recognized William as his heir. Robert died in 1035 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As a boy William was hidden by relatives to save his life from hostile nobles. He soon proved himself a master both in warfare and statecraft and extended his domain considerably. In 1047 he put down a revolt to end the last serious threat to his rule in Normandy.
England was then ruled by William's cousin, Edward the Confessor, who had no heirs. In 1051 William visited Edward, and later claimed that Edward promised him the throne. In 1054 William married Matilda of Flanders, who was descended from Alfred the Great.
According to Norman sources (but unconfirmed by Anglo-Saxon records), Harold, earl of Wessex, an English contender for the throne, was shipwrecked on the French coast about 1064 and fell into William's hands. Harold supposedly promised to support William as successor. But after Edward died in 1066, Harold was crowned king. William then invaded England and on October 14, 1066, won the decisive Battle of Hastings. Harold was killed in battle. William was crowned on Christmas Day.
William I as shown on the Bayeaux TapestryAt first William was lenient with his new subjects. But as soon as he returned to Normandy revolts broke out. The king had to campaign almost constantly for several years before he was master of the country. In 1070 he ravaged the country between York and Durham, causing the death of perhaps 100,000 people. In 1072 William invaded Scotland and compelled King Malcolm to pay him homage. The last serious revolt was in 1075. William punished the English nobles by confiscating their land, which he distributed among his Norman followers.
William was the ablest ruler of his time. He was generally statesmanlike in his rule but was merciless in crushing opposition. In his personal life he was temperate and pious. Before and after his conquest of England, William spent much of his time fighting against his overlord, Philip I of France. During one of his French campaigns, William was fatally injured by a fall from his horse. His body was buried in Caen, Normandy. William left Normandy to Robert, his oldest son; England went to his second surviving son, who became William II.
William II(1056?–1100) ruled 1087–1100. He was called Rufus because of his red face. William was an energetic and able leader, but an oppressive ruler. In 1088 he suppressed a revolt of nobles allied with his older brother, Robert, duke of Normandy. Twice, in 1090 and 1094, William invaded Normandy. He achieved some success, but could not win a complete victory. However, Robert was weary of fighting his brother and set out on a crusade to Palestine. He financed this venture by mortgaging Normandy to William.
William brutally oppressed the church. In 1093 he appointed Anselm, an Italian-English monk, archbishop of Canterbury, but he quarreled with him and interfered with church affairs. William drove Anselm and many other clergymen into exile and seized the church's revenues. While hunting, William was killed by an arrow. Many historians suspect he was murdered by Walter Tirel, a nobleman, at the instigation of Henry (later Henry I), William's younger brother.
William III(1650–1702) ruled 1689–1702. He ruled jointly with his wife (and first cousin), Mary II, daughter of James II. William was born in The Hague. He was the son of William II, stadholder, or governor, of the Netherlands. His mother, Mary, was the daughter of Charles I of England. As Prince of Orange, William was stadholder of the Netherlands (1672–1702). He led the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 that drove James II from the English throne.
As stadholder of the Netherlands, William waged several wars against Louis XIV of France. At the age of 22 he became commander of the Dutch army. He forced the French to retreat by opening the dikes and flooding the country.
After two years of negotiation, in 1688 some English leaders invited William to come to England to take the throne from James II, who was objectionable to them because of his arbitrary rule and his Roman Catholicism. After the Prince of Orange landed with his army the English deserted James, who fled to France. William and Mary were crowned in 1689; he retained his Netherlands governorship as well.
William had to wage several campaigns against the Jacobites (supporters of James II) in Ireland and Scotland before the throne was secure. In 1689, England joined the League of Augsburg (an alliance of several European nations against France), which later became the Grand Alliance. William commanded its forces in the War of the Grand Alliance to halt French expansion under Louis XIV, the king of France. The American phase of the war is called King William's War. The war ended with the Peace of Ryswick in 1697.
William was an able soldier and statesman but was unpopular because he was a foreigner and had a cold personality. His position became worse after Mary died in 1694. As people grew tired of the war, they began to feel that William had unnecessarily dragged England into a continental dispute. To get Parliament to continue funding the war, William found it necessary to choose his ministers from the party in control of Parliament. This was the beginning of party government in England. William was succeeded by Anne, his wife's sister and the last of the Stuarts.
William IV(1765–1837), king of Great Britain and Ireland (1830–37) and king of Hanover. The third son of George III, he succeeded his brother George IV. William spent many years in the navy, which earned him the nickname "the sailor king." He was also called "Silly Billy" because of his eccentric behavior. He strongly believed in a constitutional monarchy and actively supported his ministers, even though he was skeptical about the parliamentary reforms they advocated. During his reign, Parliament passed the Reform Act to extend representation in the House of Commons and acts that abolished slavery in the colonies, liberalized the poor laws, and reformed local government. William was succeeded by his niece Victoria.
Germany
William I(full German name: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig) (1797–1888), king of Prussia (1861–88) and kaiser (emperor) of Germany (1871–88). He was the first ruler of the German Empire. William was the second son of Frederick William III of Prussia. He was in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. A believer in absolute monarchy, he helped put down the revolution of 1848. William was made regent in 1858 when his brother Frederick William IV became insane, and succeeded to the throne in 1861.
William I and II of GermanyFollowing a serious conflict with Prussian liberals, William after 1862 left the government in the hands of his chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, supporting him even when he disagreed with Bismarck's policy. In 1867 the Prussian king became head of the North German Confederation after defeating Austria in the Seven Weeks' War. Then, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, all the German states united to defeat France. The German Empire was created, and William was proclaimed emperor at Versailles in 1871, during the siege of Paris. William was succeeded by his son Frederick, who reigned only three months.
William II(full German name: Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert) (1859–1941), the last ruler of the Hohenzollern dynasty, which had been in power since 1701. He was kaiser (emperor) of Germany, 1888–1918, and also king of Prussia. William ruled during World War I but abdicated after Germany's defeat. In the years before the war, his often bellicose and nationalistic statements asserting German might and preeminence made him popular with his subjects but caused concern in neighboring countries.
William believed that he ruled by divine right. Although intelligent, he was immature and impulsive. He was also brash and boastful, characteristics that many historians attribute to attempts to compensate for his physical handicap of a withered left arm.
William was the son of Kaiser Frederick III and Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. King George V of Great Britain and Czar Nicholas II of Russia, also grandsons of Victoria, were his first cousins. William studied law and political science at the University of Bonn, and then entered the army. He came to the throne in 1888, upon the death of his father. William took over the main direction of German policy and soon clashed with the powerful chancellor (chief minister), Prince Otto von Bismarck. In 1890 he forced Bismarck to resign.
William considered the national legislature a nuisance but did not openly oppose it. He was alarmed at the growth of the Social Democratic (Socialist) and Center (Catholic) parties. He made unsuccessful attempts to halt the growing strength of the Socialist movement.
Under William Germany grew into one of the leading industrial nations. The German army developed into the world's greatest military machine. William promoted naval construction in an effort to challenge British maritime superiority. Germany acquired colonies in Africa and the South Pacific and gained a foothold in China.
William devoted much of his attention to foreign relations. He maintained the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, but allowed an alliance with Russia to lapse. Alarmed by his belligerent and expansionist foreign policies, France, Russia, and Great Britain formed the Triple Entente. In 1905–06 and 1911, William opposed French colonial expansion in Morocco because he considered it to be a challenge to German interests in the region. Both times his stances caused war scares in Europe.
In the summer of 1914, the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian revolutionary caused a crisis between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. William assured Austria of unconditional German support. The Austrians mistakenly thought William's pledge of support would deter Russia from intervening on behalf of Serbia, its ally. These events led to the outbreak of World War I.
During the war, the German General Staff gradually assumed power over the civilian government, and William was reduced to little more than a figurehead. When the German army collapsed in 1918, the country was on the verge of revolution. On November 10, 1918, William fled to the Netherlands, a neutral country. He abdicated on November 28, and spent the rest of his life at Doorn Castle near Utrecht.
Dutch Republic
William I(Dutch: Willem), called the Silent (1533–1584), Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau. He was the founder of the Dutch Republic and its first stadholder (governor), 1579–84. William has been called "the Dutch Washington," although he died long before the Netherlands won its independence from Spain. He sacrificed his great wealth in the cause of Dutch liberty and was an advocate of religious toleration at a time when men of all religions persecuted persons of other faiths.
William was born of Lutheran parents but was reared as a Catholic. He was a page at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was king of Spain and also ruler of the Netherlands. In 1555 William was made commander of an imperial army and in 1559 he became stadholder of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. For a time he served Philip II, who succeeded Charles as king of Spain in 1556. Philip soon aroused great opposition in the Low Countries by his arbitrary rule and his persecution of Protestants. In 1567 he sent the Duke of Alva (Alba) into the Low Countries to crush opposition. The next year William began the long war for independence, 1568–1648. In 1573 he joined the Reformed (Calvinist) church.
In 1576 William organized the Pacification of Ghent, a union of Protestant and Catholic Dutch provinces against the Spanish. The war for independence continued, but by 1579 religious extremists had succeeded in destroying the union. The Catholics in the southern provinces (modern Belgium) joined the Spanish. In the same year, the northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht and proclaimed William their stadholder. In 1581 they declared Philip deposed. Philip then offered a reward for the death of William. In 1584, he was killed by a Catholic fanatic.
The Netherlands
William I(full Dutch name: Willem Frederik) (1772–1843) reigned 1815–40. He was the son of William V, hereditary stadholder (governor) of the United Netherlands. In 1795 the stadholder and his family had to flee when the French Republic conquered the Netherlands. William fought against Napoleon, serving first in the Prussian army and then with Austria. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, the Belgians and Dutch were united in a new state, which became the Kingdom of The Netherlands, under William as ruler. Religious and language differences led to much strife between the Dutch and Belgians. In 1830 the Belgians revolted and formed their own kingdom. William abdicated in favor of his son in 1840, partly because he disliked the liberal reforms his people were demanding.
William II(full Dutch name: Willem Frederik George Lodewijk) (1792–1849) reigned 1840–49. He was the son of William I. He was in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars, and commanded the Dutch and Belgian forces at Waterloo in 1815. He became king after his father abdicated. William had to face agitation for democratic reforms, and finally gave his support to the popular demands. The 1848 constitution gave the states-general, or legislature, complete control over public finance and made the government's ministers responsible to the states-general.
William III(full Dutch name: Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk) (1817–1890) reigned 1849–90. He came to the throne on the death of his father, William II. His reign of nearly 42 years was a time of peace and prosperity for the Netherlands. William did not care for democracy but carried out the reforms of the 1848 constitution and worked with the successive ministries. His two sons by his first wife died before him, and he was succeeded by his daughter Wilhelmina.
Scotland
William I, called the Lion (1143–1214), reigned 1165–1214. He was the grandson of David I and became king on the death of his brother Malcolm IV. In 1168 he concluded an alliance with Louis VII of France. War broke out between Scotland and England when Henry II of England broke a promise to transfer certain border territories to Scotland. William was captured at Alnwick, England, in 1174. To gain his freedom, William consented to the Treaty of Falaise, making the Scottish king a vassal of the English king. In 1189 he ended English overlordship of Scotland by making a large payment to Richard I, Henry's successor. In 1188 William secured a papal bull (decree) declaring the Scottish church independent of the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury.