William III of the Netherlands
William III ruled the Netherlands from 1849 to 1890 and spent forty years resenting the constitution he had inherited. Born in Brussels in 1817, he was the son of William II and a Russian grand duchess, and served in the army. He learned of the 1848 constitutional reform while abroad and was appalled by it, reportedly considering renouncing his rights; he acceded the following year and never accepted that ministers rather than the king governed. He was quarrelsome, temperamental and frequently obstructive, dismissing ministries that had parliamentary support and attempting to conduct foreign policy personally. He was called King Gorilla in a scurrilous pamphlet of 1887. His most serious intervention nearly caused a war. In 1867, needing money, he agreed to sell Luxembourg — which he held personally as grand duke — to Napoleon III. Prussia objected furiously, and the Luxembourg Crisis was resolved only by an international conference that guaranteed the duchy's neutrality and removed the Prussian garrison. Under him the Netherlands nonetheless modernised: the death penalty was abolished in 1870, railways and the North Sea Canal were built, and the first steps in social legislation were taken with a law on child labour in 1874. The Aceh War in Sumatra began in 1873 and continued for decades at great cost. His three sons all died before him, which left the succession to Wilhelmina, the daughter of his second marriage to Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont, born when he was sixty-two. Because Luxembourg followed Salic law, the personal union ended at his death in 1890.
- Lived: 1817 CE – 1890 CE
- Nationality: Dutch
- Roles: king, head_of_state
