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Historical person

William II of the Netherlands

1792–1849

William II of the Netherlands was a prince of Orange, soldier of the Napoleonic Wars and king of the Netherlands from 1840 to 1849. Born at The Hague in 1792, he spent part of his youth in exile after the French occupation of the Dutch Republic and later served with the British army under Wellington in the Peninsular War. In 1815 he commanded Allied troops at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, where he was wounded, giving him a lasting military reputation despite later controversy over some of his battlefield decisions.

As crown prince William also commanded Dutch forces during the Belgian Revolution and the Ten Days’ Campaign of 1831, but the separation of Belgium ultimately became permanent. He succeeded his father William I in 1840. The revolutionary upheavals of 1848 transformed his reign: abruptly accepting the need for reform, he authorised Johan Rudolf Thorbecke and other liberals to draft a new constitution that sharply strengthened parliamentary government and ministerial responsibility at the expense of direct royal power. William died unexpectedly at Tilburg in March 1849 and was succeeded by his son William III.

Allan Mallinson’s A Close Run Thing places the young Prince of Orange in the Waterloo campaign as the allied commander on whose staff Matthew Hervey serves, bringing Hervey close to the controversial orders and battlefield confusion around Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Waterloo likewise has Sharpe serving on the prince’s staff before abandoning it to protect his old regiment. Mallinson’s Words of Command returns to William fifteen years later as king of the Netherlands, when the Brussels uprising of 1830 forces Hervey’s regiment to protect British interests without becoming a belligerent in the revolution that creates Belgium.

Periods

Periods linked to William II of the Netherlands

Peninsular War1807–1814 CE Waterloo Campaign1815-06

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring William II of the Netherlands (2 series)

Sharpe in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 26 books 4.3(358,248)

The Sharpe series follows Richard Sharpe from service as a private soldier in India to command in the British Army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The novels place him at the Siege of Seringapatam, Battle of Assaye, Siege of Gawilghur, Battle of Trafalgar, British attack on Copenhagen,…

All books in this series

Matthew Hervey in Order

by Allan Mallinson 14 books 4.2(11,911)

The Matthew Hervey novels follow an English cavalry officer from the final campaign against Napoleon into the unsettled decades after Waterloo. Beginning as a young cornet in the 6th Light Dragoons, Hervey advances through command while trying to reconcile professional duty, personal honour, family obligations and the often…

All books in this series