their resistance to foreign oppression. At this moment he touched the zenith of his career. It was, however, but a short-lived position of eminence. After the entry into Brussels followed the period of tangled intrigue during which the archduke Matthias, the duke of Anjou, the palatine count John Casimir and Don John of Austria were all striving to secure for themselves a position of supremacy in the land. William had to steer a difficult course amidst shoals and quicksands, and never did his brilliant talents as diplomatist and statesman shine more brightly. But after the sudden death of Don John he found himself face to face with an opponent of abilities equal to his own in the person of Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, appointed governor general by Philip. Farnese skilfully fomented the jealousy of the Catholic nobles of the south—the Malcontents—against the prince of Orange, and the Pacification of Ghent was henceforth doomed. The Walloon provinces bound themselves together in a defensive league, known as the league of Arras (5th of January 1579) and by the exertions of John of Nassau (at that time governor of Gelderland) Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Zutphen replied by signing (29th of January) the compact known as the Union of Utrecht. William still struggled to keep the larger federation together, but in vain. The die was now cast, and the Northern and Southern Netherlands from this time forward had separate histories.
On the 25th of March 1581 a ban was promulgated by King Philip against the prince of Orange, in which William was denounced as a traitor and enemy of the human race, and a reward of 25,000 crowns in gold or land with a patent of nobility was offered to any one who should deliver the world of this pest. William replied in a lengthy document, the Apology, in which he defended himself from the accusations brought against him, and on his part charged the Spanish king with a series of misdeeds and crimes. The Apology is valuable for the biographical details which it contains. William now felt that his struggle with Philip was a war à outrance, and knowing that the United Provinces were too weak to resist the Spanish armies unaided, he endeavoured to secure the powerful aid of France, by making the duke of Anjou sovereign of the Netherlands. Holland and Zeeland were averse to this project, and to conciliate their prejudices Orange, provisionally, and after some demur, accepted from those provinces the offer of the countship (24th of July 1581). Two days later the representatives of Brabant, Flanders, Utrecht, Gelderland, Holland and Zeeland assembled at The Hague, solemnly abjured the sovereignty of Philip, and agreed to accept the French duke as their sovereign in his place. Anjou was solemnly inaugurated by the prince in person at Antwerp, as duke of Brabant, on the 19th of February 1582. While at Antwerp an attempt was made upon William’s life (March 18th) by a Biscayan youth, named Juan Jaureguy. Professing to offer a petition he fired a pistol at the prince’s head, the ball passing in at the right ear and out by the left jaw. After hanging for some time between life and death, William ultimately recovered and was able to attend a thanksgiving service on the 2nd of May. The shock and anxiety proved, however, fatal to his wife, Charlotte de Bourbon. She expired on the 5th of May after a very short illness.
The French sovereign soon made himself impossible to his new subjects, and the hopes that William had based upon Anjou were sorely disappointed. The duke was dissatisfied with his position, aimed at being an absolute ruler, and tried to carry his ambitious ideas into effect by the treacherous attack on Antwerp, which bears the name of the “French Fury.” Its failure rendered Anjou at once ridiculous and detested, and his shameless misconduct brought no small share of opprobrium on William himself. The trusty Hollanders and Zeelanders remained, however, staunchly loyal to him, and Orange now fixed his residence permanently in their midst. On the 7th of April 1583 he married in fourth wedlock Louise de Coligny, daughter of the famous Huguenot leader, and widow of the Seigneur de Téligny. With her, “Father William,” as he was affectionately styled, settled at the Prinsenhof at Delft, and lived like a plain, homely Dutch burgher, quietly and unostentatiously, as became a man who had spent his all in his country’s cause, and whose resources were now of the most modest description.
Ever since the promulgation of the ban and the offer of a reward upon his life, religion and political fanaticism had been continually compassing his assassination, and the free access which the prince gave to his person offered facilities for such a purpose, despite the careful watch and ward kept over him by the burghers of Delft and his own household. He was shot dead by a Burgundian, Balthazar Gérard, on the 9th of July 1584, as he was leaving his dining hall. Gérard was moved by devoted loyalty to his faith and king, and endured the torments of a barbarous death with supreme courage and resignation. William was buried with great pomp at the public charges in the Neuwe Kerk at Delft amidst the tears of a mourning people.
William the Silent was tall and well formed, of a dark complexion, with brown hair and eyes. He was the foremost statesman of his time, capable of forming wise and far-reaching plans and of modifying them to suit the changing circumstances in which it was necessary to put them in execution. In moments of difficulty he displayed splendid resource and courage, and he had a will of iron, which misfortunes were never able to bend or break. To rescue the Netherlands from the tyrannical power of Spain, he sacrificed a great position, vast wealth and eventually his life. He had the satisfaction, however, of knowing before he died that the cause for which he had endured so much and striven so hard had survived many dangers, and had acquired strength to offer successful resistance to the overwhelming power of King Philip. He was the real founder of the independence and greatness of the Dutch republic.
He left a large number of children. By Anne of Egmont he had a son Philip William, who was kidnapped from Louvain (1567) and educated at Madrid, and a daughter. By Anne of Saxony, a son Maurice (see Maurice of Nassau, prince of Orange) and two daughters. By Charlotte de Bourbon, six daughters. By Louise de Coligny, one son, Frederick Henry (see Frederick Henry, prince of Orange).
See Genhard, Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne; Groen von Prinsterer, Archives ou correspondence inédite de la maison d’Orange-Nassau; Commelin, Wilhelm en Maurits van Nassau, prinsen van Orangien, haer leven en bedrijf; Meursius, Gulielmus Auriacus; Putnam, William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the Moderate Man of the Sixteenth Century; Harrison, William the Silent; Vorsterman van Oven, Het Vorstenhuis Orange-Nassau; Delaborde, Charlotte de Bourbon, princesse d’Orange; Delaborde, Louise de Coligny, princesse d’Orange; Blok, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk, vol. ii.; R. Fruin, Het voorspel van den tachtigjarigen oorlog; Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, Cambridge Modern History, vol. iii. cc. vi., vii. (G. E.)
WILLIAM II. (1626–1650), prince of Orange, born at The
Hague on the 27th of May 1626, was the son of Frederick Henry,
prince of Orange, and his wife Amalia von Solms, and grandson
of William the Silent. By the act of survivance passed in 1631
the offices and dignities held by Frederick Henry were made
hereditary in his family. On the 12th of May 1641 William
married, in the royal chapel at Whitehall, Mary, princess royal
of England, eldest daughter of King Charles I. At the time of
the wedding the bridegroom was not yet fifteen years old, the
bride was five years younger. William from his early youth
accompanied his father in his campaigns, and already in 1643
highly distinguished himself in a brilliant cavalry fight at
Burgerhout (September 5). On the death of Frederick Henry
William succeeded him, not only in the family honours and
possessions, but in accordance with the terms of the act of
survivance in all his official posts, as stadtholder of Holland,
Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel and Groningen and
captain-general and admiral-general of the Union. At the
moment of his accession to power the negotiations for a separate
treaty of peace with Spain were almost concluded, and peace was
actually signed at Münster on the 30th of January 1648. By
this treaty Spain recognized the independence of the United
Netherlands and made large concessions to the Dutch. William,
who had always been bitterly opposed to the policy of abandoning
the French alliance in order to gain better terms from Spain, did
his utmost to prevent the ratification, but matters were too far
