William V, Prince of Orange

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William V Batavus, Prince of Orange (March 8, 1748 – April 9, 1806) was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He was the leader of the conservative faction.

[edit] Biography

William V was born at The Hague, the son of William IV, Prince of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal.

He was only 3 years old when his father died in 1751, and a long regency began. His regents were:

• Anne, his mother, from 1751 to her death in 1759
• Marie Louise, his grandmother, from 1759 to her death in 1765
• Ludwig Ernst von Brunswick-Lüneburg-Bevern, from 1759 to 1766, and kept on as a privy counsellor
• Carolina, his sister (who at the time was an adult aged 22, while he was still a minor at 17), from 1765 to William's majority in 1766

William V finally assumed the position of stadtholder (chief executive and military commander) in 1766. In October 1767 Prince William married Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia.

The position of the Dutch during the American Revolution was one of neutrality. William V, leading the pro-English faction within the government, blocked attempts by pro-revolutionary, and later pro-French, elements to drag the government to war. However, things came to a head with the Dutch attempt to join the Russian-led League of Armed Neutrality, leading to the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780. The United Provinces only recognized the United States in 1782, after much political debate and pressure from American and French diplomats.

After four years, the Dutch were defeated, and an impoverished nation grew restless under William's rule. A band of young revolutionaries, called Patriots, was challenging his authority. William removed his court to Guelders, a province remote from the political centre, but took no further action. This was against the wishes of his energetic wife Wilhelmina who tried to travel to the Hague. At Goejanverwellesluis, she was stopped by opponents and made to return to Guelders.

To Wilhelmina and her brother, this was an insult. Frederick sent in an army to attack the dissidents. The patriots fled to France in time to see the overthrow of King Louis XVI of France and the rise of "people power."

The year 1795 was a disastrous one for the monarchy of the Netherlands. Supported by the French Army, the revolutionaries returned from Paris to fight in the Netherlands, and in 1795 William V fled to the safety of his former enemy, England. The last of the Dutch stadtholders, he died in exile at Brunswick, now in Germany. His body was moved to the Dutch Royal Family crypt in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on April 29, 1958.

In 1813, his son, King William I returned to the Netherlands and became the first Dutch monarch from the House of Orange. The first king of Holland (1806-1810) was Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846).

[edit] Ancestors

[edit] Children

William V and Wilhelmina of Prussia were parents to five children:

• An unnamed son (23 March - 24 March 1769).
• Frederica Louise Wilhelmina, Princess of Orange-Nassau (28 November 1770 - 15 October 1819). Married Karl Georg August, Prince of Brunswick-Luneburg, a son of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales.
• An unnamed son (born and deceased on 6 August 1771).
• William I, King of the Netherlands (25 August 1772 - December 12, 1843).
• William George Frederick, Prince of Orange-Nassau (15 February 1774 - 6 January 1799).

[edit] See also

• House of Orange-Nassau