Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/431

LEFT WILLIAM IV. 371 WILLIAM I. Orange, and Mary, daughter of Charles I. He married the Princess Mary, daughter of James II., then Duke of York, and became stadtholder of Holland in 1672. He was also nominated general of the troops of Holland against Louis XIV., and made a vigorous resistance to WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND the French armies under Luxembourg, whom he defeated in 1674; but was re- pulsed in his turn by the Prince de Conde. In 1688 the arbitrary measures, both against the established religion and the constitution, of James II., induced many nobles and others to invite the Prince of Orange to take possession of the English crown. He embraced the occasion, and landed without opposition t Torbay, the same year. James, find- ing himself unsupported, withdrew to France, and William took possession of his throne, in conjunction with his wife, the daughter of that unfortunate mon- arch. His coronation as King of England took place in 1689. The year following William went to Ireland, where he de- feated James at the battle of the Boyne. In 1691 he headed the confederate army in the Netherlands, took Namur in 1692. and in 1697 was acknowledged King of England by the treaty of Ryswick. On the death of Mary in 1694, the Parlia- ment confirmed to him the royal title. His death was owing to a fall from his horse, by which he broke his collar bone, March 8, 1702. WILLIAM IV., King of England; born in London, Aug. 21, 1765; the third son of George III. In his 15th year he entered the royal navy, and in 1780 was with Admiral Rodney when the latter de- feated a Spanish squadron off Cadiz, and afterward proceeded to the relief of Gibraltar. Prince William subsequently held the command of a vessel of war in various parts of the world, but retired from active service in 1790. On the death of his brother, George IV., in 1830, he became King of England, and ruled till 1837. At his death, the Princess Victoria, daughter of his brother, the Duke of Kent, became Queen of England. He died in Windsor, June 20, 1837. WILLIAM I., Emperor of Germany, and King of Prussia, son of Frederick William III., by Princess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and brother of Frederick William IV.; bom in Berlin, March 22, 1797, received a military education, and took part in the cam- paigns of 1813 and 1815 against France. In 1840 he was appointed governor of Pomerania, which post he held till the revolution of 1848, when ho sought refuge in England. He was elected a member of the Constituent As- sembly in May of the same year, when he returned to Berlin. In 1849, as Com- mander-in-Chief of the Prussian army, he acted against the revolutionary Badeners; and in 1858, on the lunacy of his brother, the king, becoming mani- fested. Prince William was appointed regent. This position he occupied till Frederick William's death, in 1861, when he succeeded to the throne, crowning him- self with his own hands, at Konigsberg, on which occasion he emphatically as- serted the doctrine of the "divine right WILLIAM I. OF GERMANY of kings." Actuated by this spirit, and selecting as his ministers men of well- known reactionary principles, of whom the chief was Count Bismarck, William speedily embroiled himself and govern- ment with the liberal parliamentary