WILLIAM III

born Feb. 19, 1817, Brussels died Nov. 23, 1890, Apeldoorn, Neth. Dutch in full Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk conservative king of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (184990) who was influential in forming Dutch ministries until 1868 but was unable to prevent Liberal control of the government. The eldest son of King William II, William married his cousin Sophia, daughter of King William I of Wrttemberg, in 1839 and succeeded to the throne in 1849. He opposed the constitution of 1848, which created a parliamentary form of government, but was nevertheless forced to allow Johan Thorbecke, major proponent of the constitution, to head the new government. Thorbecke resigned in 1853 when William adopted, against the government's wishes, an anti-Catholic posture in the dispute over the proposed reestablishment of a Roman Catholic archbishop at Utrecht. Between 1862 and 1868 he was able to rule through the Cabinet. In 1867 William tried to sell his sovereignty over Luxembourg to France but yielded to Prussia's demand that the area be independent. At the same time he incorporated part of Limburg into The Netherlands. Following the Luxembourg crisis, his influence in Parliament declined markedly. After his first wife died in 1877, he married Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont (1879), who served as regent in 1890 during the king's illness. Wilhelmina, his daughter by Emma, succeeded to the throne of The Netherlands on his death. born Nov. 14 [Nov. 4, Old Style], 1650, The Hague, Neth. died March 19 , 1702, London, Eng. William III, painting after W. Wissing; in the National Portrait Gallery, London byname William Of Orange, also called William Henry, Prince Of Orange, Dutch Willem Hendrik, Prins Van Oranje stadholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands as William III (16721702) and king of Great Britain (16891702), reigning jointly with Queen Mary II (until her death in 1694). He directed the European opposition to Louis XIV of France and, in Great Britain, secured the triumph of Protestantism and of Parliament. Additional reading William's life between 1672 and 1702 is so closely interwoven with the history of Europe that most historians of the period dealt with some of its aspects. The more recent biographies in English are Nesca A. Robb, William of Orange: A Personal Portrait, 2 vol. (196366); and Stephen B. Baxter, William III (1966), which together give a fairly rounded picture. The bibliography of the latter work has been published separately. N. Japikse, Prins Willem III, de Stadhouder-Koning, 2 vol. (193035), is the standard life in Dutch. In English no full-scale life of William has appeared since A.H. Trevor, Life and Times of William III, 2 vol. (183536), a very inaccurate work. Brief lives exist by H.D. Traill, William the Third (1888); G.J. Renier, William of Orange (1932); and David Ogg, William III (1956). N. Japikse (ed.), Correspondentie van Willem III en van Hans Willem Bentinck, 5 vol. (192737), is invaluable for the period.