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 G32 WILLIAM I. (GERMANY) parliament. When war with Spain was threat- ened, the duke of Clarence was appointed to the command of the Valiant of 74 guns, and later was made rear admiral of the blue. In 1801 he reached the rank of admiral of the fleet. In the house of peers he seldom spoke except upon naval affairs; but he opposed the abolition of the slave trade, supported the peace of Amiens, and also the renewal of war with France in 1803, and in 1811 protested against the regency bill. At the close of 1813 he commanded on the Dutch coast, supporting Sir Thomas Graham against the French, and was slightly wounded. In 1818 he married the princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. On the trial of Queen Caroline he supported the king, and was severely handled by the queen's counsel. The death of the duke of York in 1827 made the duke of Clarence heir pre- sumptive, and the Canning ministry revived for him the office of lord high admiral, which he held till September, 1828, although without a seat in the cabinet. Ho was foremost among the supporters of Catholic emancipation. On June 26, 1830, he became king, a month before the French revolution. In England the tories were overthrown, and the whigs under Lord Grey came into power, pledged to parliamen- tary reform. After a severe struggle the re- form bill received the royal assent, June 7, 1832, and soon after the West India slaves were emancipated. The Grey ministry came to an end in 1834, when Lord Melbourne, also a whig, became premier ; but the latter was dismissed the same year, the king having be- come alarmed by the political aspect, and being also strengthened by a conservative reaction. The new ministry, under Sir Robert Peel, was unable to maintain itself, and after a few months the Melbourne administration was re- stored. Reforms were made in the Irish church, the English municipal reform bill was passed, and relief was granted to the dissenters. William was about to change ministers again when he died. Having no legitimate issue, he was succeeded by his brother the duke of Cum- berland in Hanover, and by his niece Victoria in Great Britain. By his mistress Mrs. Jordan he had five sons and five daughters, who were known by the name of Fitz-Clarence. The eldest was created earl of Munster, and was a major general in the army ; the other sons held high positions, and the daughters all married among the aristocracy. WILLIAM I. (WiuiELM FBIEDRICH LUDWIO), king of Prussia and emperor of Germany, born March 22, 1797. Ho is a son of Frederick Wil- liam III. and of the celebrated qneen Louisa, and in early life accompanied the armies which overthrew Napoleon I. After the accession of his childless brother, Frederick William IV., in 1840, ho became known as heir apparent and prince of Prussia; he was invested with high office and sat in the first united diet in 1847. Chiefly on account of his fondness for the army, he was regarded as an absolutist in March, 1848, and withdrew to England till June, when, the excitement in Berlin having subsided, he took a seat as a deputy in the national assembly. On June 12, 1849, an un- successful attempt was made upon his life at Nieder-Ingelheim, while he was on the way to Baden to take command of the Prussian forces. He put down the republican insurrection in a few weeks. Subsequently he was stationed at Coblentz as military governor on the Rhine and in Westphalia, and also became governor of the federal fortress of Mentz and grand master of the freemasons. On important oc- casions he was called to Berlin to confer on state affairs, and his loyal nature was soon generally recognized. His "brother being dis- abled by illness in 1857, he acted in his stead, and in October, 1858, was formally installed as regent; and he succeeded him as king on Jan. 2, 1861. In July another abortive but graver attempt upon his life was made at Baden-Baden by the student Oskar Becker, who charged him with incapacity to effect the union of Germany, the accomplishment of which, however, became the salient feature of his reign. With the assistance of Von Roon he paved the way for victory by the reorgan- ization of the army, and in 1862 he placed Bismarck at the head of the cabinet as minis- ter of foreign affairs. After procuring in 1864 the cooperation of Austria in the Schleswig- Holstein war, he achieved a great victory for Prussia, and the convention of Gastein (Aug. 14, 1865) assigned Schleswig temporarily to him, and Lauenburg permanently. His saga- city in selecting able ministers and generals was equalled only by his firmness in sustain- ing them against all opposition ; and his con- fidence in Bismarck as well as in Von Roon and Moltke was fully confirmed by the rapid and brilliant success of the war of I860 in con- junction with Italy against Austria, in which he personally took an active part, and which extinguished Austria as a German power, and placed him at the head of the new North Ger- man confederation, with Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort added to his Prussian dominions. On Feb. 24, 1867, ho opened the constituent Reichstag, and on July 1 ho made Bismarck chancellor. In the preceding month he and his nephew, the emperor Alexander II. of Russia, had visit- ed Napoleon III. on occasion of the Paris ex- position. The friendly relations between Prus- sia and Russia were subsequently strengthened, the two chancellors, Bismarck and Gortchakoff, being as much in accord as the two monarchs; and this pood understanding was of the great- est moment in the ultimate victory over France and the attainment of German unity. The king also took every opportunity to vindicate the historic position of his dynasty as pro- tector of the Protestant faith. The candida- ture of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne, and the king's objections against further interviews with the French