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NETHERLANDS.

(KONINGRYK DER NEDERLANDEN.

Reigning Sovereign and Family.

Willem III., King of the Netherlands, born February 19, 1817,

the eldest son of King Willem II., and of Princess Anna Paulowna,

daughter of Czar Paul I. of Eussia ; educated by private tutors, and

at the University of Leyden ; succeeded to the throne, at the death of

■his father, March 17, 1819. Married, June 18, 1889, to

Sophie, Queen of the Netherlands, born June 17, 1818, the second daughter of King Wilhelm I. of Wiirtemberg. Offspring of the union are two sons: — 1. Willem, Prince of Orange, heir-apparent, born September 4, 1840 ; admiral-lieutenant in the Dutch navy. 2. Prince Alexander, born August 25, 1851 ; lieutenant in the army.

Brother and Sister of the King. — 1. Prince llenc/rik, born June 13, 1820; Governor of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg; married, May 19, 1853, to Princess Amalia, daughter of the late Duke Bernhard of Saxe- Weimar. 2. Princess Sophie, born April 8, 1824 ; married, October 8, 1842, to Grand Duke Karl Alexander of Saxe- Weimar.

Uncle and Aunt of the King. — 1. Prince Frederih, born February 28, 1797, second son of King Willem I. of the Netherlands; field- marshal of the Dutch army ; married, May 21, 1825, to Princess Louise, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia; widower, Dec. 6, 1870. Issue of the union are two daughters, Louise, born August 5, 1828, and married to the King of Sweden and Norway ; and Marie, born July 5, 1841. 2. Princess Marianne, born May 9, 1810, sister of the preceding; married, September 14, 1830, to Prince Albert of Prussia ; divorced March 28, 1849.

The royal family of the Netherlands, known as the House of Orange, descend from a German Count Walram, who lived in the eleventh century. Through the marriage of Count Engelbrecht, of the branch of Otto of Walram, with Joan of Polanen, in 1404, the family acquired the barony of Breda, and thereby became settled in the Netherlands. The alliance with another heiress, only sister of the childless Prince of Orange and Count of Chalon, brought to the house a rich province in the south of France ; and a third matrimonial union, that of Prince Willem III. of Orange with a daughter of King James II., transferred the crown of Great Britain for a time to the family. Previous to this period, the members had