|
WILLIAM I- UNION OF SOUTHERN & NORTHERN STATES OF
THE NETHERLANDS
MICHAUT, Auguste Francois: Netherlands, 1815, Bronze, 72 mm
Obv: Bust of William I WILH: NASS: BELG: REX: LUXEMB: M: DUX:
Rev: Belgium and the Netherlands shaking hands PARIBUS SE LEGIBUS AMBAE
INVICTAE GENTES AETERNA IN FOEDERA MITTUNT (Both Victorious Peoples
Committed Themselves by Equal Laws in Everlasting Federation).
Exergue: POSTRID. ID. MART. CI]I]CCCXV.
Signed: MICHAUT
Ref: Dirks 38; Van Heeckeren II-1; Schulman 990; Weiss
BW175
William I Frederick
(William of Nassau) (1772-1843),
born Willem Frederik Prins van
Oranje-Nassau, was
a
Prince of Orange,
a Grand
Duke of Luxembourg
and the
first king of the Netherlands.
The son of William V, he was a descendant
of the House of Orange, the Royal dynasty of the Netherlands. Before
he was proclaimed king, William I was known as Prince
William VI of Orange.
Orange was a
principality in southern France, which was inherited by William I (The
Silent) in 1544. He and his son, Maurice of Nassau, led the successful
Revolt of the Netherlands against Spain in the late 16th century. (It
may be noted that another of the family,
William
III (of Orange), became king of England in 1689 and that the son of
William I Frederick (the future William II) fought as Dutch
commander at the
Battle of
Waterloo.)
In 1791, the then William VI or Orange married (Frederica Louisa)
Wilhelmina. She was the daughter of King Frederick
William II of Prussia. When Wilhelmina died in 1837, William was remarried
to Countess Henriette d'Oultremont de Wegimont and died two years
later.
William was hereditary stadtholder (similar to a crown prince) when the Republic of the Seven United Provinces
was invaded by the French Revolutionary armies. He fled with his father to
England. Unlike his father, William was a strong personality and he tried
to regain the Republic. In 1799 he landed in the current North Holland.
After some battles he was forced to leave the country. Napoleon gave him some small German principalities as
indemnities for the lost territories. These principalities were
confiscated when Napoleon invaded Germany (1806).
After Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig in 1813,
French troops retreated to France. A provisional government was formed
under the lead of some former patriots and called
William to the liberated country. Later that year William landed at Scheveningen
beach and the provisional
government offered him the title of King. William initially refused and declared that he only wanted the
throne if he was sovereign prince (a title somewhere between King and stadtholder) and that the rights of the people were guaranteed by "a
wise constitution". The constitution offered William extensive
(almost absolute) powers. Ministers were only responsible to him and to
nobody else. He was inaugurated as sovereign prince in the New Church in
Amsterdam. In 1814 he gained sovereignty over the whole of the Low
Countries.
In 1815 William of Nassau, as part of the Treaty of
Vienna, proclaimed himself King William I of
the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, thereby also becoming king of the
Low Countries and Belgium, and Grand Duke of Luxemburg. This united the
Southern and Northern states of the Netherlands, the event commemorated by
this medal.
LINK to
William I of the Netherlands
(From Wikipedia)
Portrait of William I
byJoseph Paelinck
HOME
PAGE
|