firmness. He was not anxious for his own exaltation, but for the interest of the people: the freedom, therefore, which he established did not perish with him, and his name has acquired a permanent place in the history of Europe. He was four times married. His son Maurice, who succeeded him in the office of stadtholder, was one of the greatest captains of his age. His other son, Frederic Henry, succeeded Maurice, and died in 1647. William III, king of England, was grandson of Frederic. There are three lives of William, in Dutch, by anonymous authors. See, also, Meursii Guglielmus Auriacus, etc. (Amsterdam, 1638, fol.), and Kluit's History of the Dutch Government.

WILLIAM I, elector of Hesse, was born in Cassel, in 1743, during the reign of his grandfather. His father, Frederic II, ascended the throne in 1760. Having become a Roman Catholic in 1754, the education of the children was left, according to agreement, entirely with his wife, who also received the government of the county of Hanau as the guardian of the children. Prince William studied at the university of Göttingen. During the seven years' war (q. v.), he lived at the court of Christian VII, whose second sister he married in 1764. When of age, he took the government of the county of Hanau out of the hands of his mother. The young. prince was active, economical, just and popular. In 1776, he concluded, as did several other German princes, a treaty with England, to furnish troops to be enployed against her colonies in North America, then at war with the mother country. Two years later, he was made a major-general by Frederic the Great of Prussia, and took part in the war of the Bavarian succession. In 1785, he became sovereign of all the Hessian territories, after the death of his father. He now showed himself severe, active and just; but his disposition for saving often degenerated into avarice, whilst his mania for soldiers became a curse to his country. He ruled independently, and closely watched the officers of his government, often protecting the peasants, whom he considered as his property, against them. He improved the schools and churches, the police, and the administration of justice. In 1787, he concluded another treaty with England, agreeing to furnish 12,000 men, in consideration of receiving for their service, 675,000 crown-dollars annually. He also marched troops against France when the revolution broke out. The peace of Basle, concluded August

28, 1795, between Prussia and France, put an end to his exertions in this war. By the peace of Luneville, William received the dignity of elector, and an indemnification for the territory that he had lost, taken chiefly from the possessions of the elector of Mayence. He took the greatest care of the increase of his private treasure. His known disposition towards France, his relations with Prussia (he being a field-marshal in her service, and his eldest son having married, in 1797, the sister of Frederic William III of Prussia), and his continual military preparations, drew upon him the misfortunes which befell him after the battles of Jena (q. v.) and Auerstädt. (q. v.) In consequence of the threats of Napoleon, and the advance of French troops under Mortier and the king of Holland, he fled to the neutral states of the king of Denmark, saving only his family and his treasures. By the peace of Tilsit (q. v.), and the foundation of the kingdom of Westphalia, William I was deprived of all his dominions, and lived, from July, 1808, in Prague. In 1809, when Austria took arms against France, the exiled elector issued a proclamation to his former subjects, and began to collect an army near Eger, in Bohemia, with which he thought to reconquer his electorate; but the issue of the war put an end to his undertaking. The victory of the allied powers at Leipsic (q. v.), in 1813, improved his condition. In November, 1813, he entered his former capital, the city of Cassel. Though seventy years old, he resumed the labors of government with great activity, but not to the benefit of his people. His ideas of monarchical power were entirely at variance with the spirit of the times. Every thing was to be put on the old footing: 20,000 men (with queues, like the soldiers of former times) soon marched to join the allies, but were allowed to return even before the peace of Paris, on condition that they should be kept ready for immediate service. The elector, however, did not comply with this condition, from motives of economy, and became thereby involved in difficulties with the allies, who marched troops into his country. By the mediation of Prussia, this difficulty was adjusted. In 1815, the elector sent 15,000 men to act against France; they fought at Sedan, Charlesville, Mezières, &c. His wish to see the German empire restored by the congress of Vienna was as fruitless as his plan to have himself acknowledged king of the Catti (q. v.), so that he retained his for

mer title of elector; and, having received several additions to his territory, he called himself also grand duke of Fulda and prince of Isenburg. He would not acknowledge the validity of the sale of the crown domains, which had been made under Jerome, and took them away from the buyers. This fact, the crying injustice of which was admitted by Prussia and Austria, is mentioned in the article Domain.-The assemblies of the estates, to which he had added the estate of peasants, gave him much trouble, as the ground assumed by them did not agree with his antiquated notions of the rights of the crown. Towards his officers he was avaricious and severe. His soldiers received little pay and much drilling and flogging. He refused to separate the public treasury from his enormous private accumulations. His conduct towards individuals who had been in office under the Westphalian government was unprincipled. On the other hand, he must be admitted to have been careful to prevent his officers from abusing their authority. He was accessible to his subjects, and protected justice when it did not clash with his interests, or unless he had formed wrong notions of what was right. He died in 1820, and was succeeded by his only son, the elector William II.

WILLIAM I (William Frederic of Orange), king of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxemburg, was born Aug. 24, 1772. His father, William V, prince of Orange and Nassau, hereditary stadtholder, who died in 1806, at Brunswick, was descended from John, the youngest brother of the great William I of Orange (q. v.); his mother was a princess of Prussia. In 1788, he made a tour in Germany, and remained for some time in Berlin, at the court of his uncle, king Frederic William II. In 1790, he entered the university of Leyden. In 1791, he married the Prussian princess Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina, sister of the present king of Prussia. He then undertook many improvements in the army, but suffered much opposition from the patriots, who had been put down, in 1787, by Prussian troops. Part of them had fled to France; and the national convention declared war against the stadtholder, Feb. 1, 1793. Dumouriez conquered Dutch Brabant; but the prince, the subject of this article, delivered it, by the aid of the troops of the allies, after the victory at Neerwinden (q. v.), March 18, gained by prince Coburg, in the Austrian service, over Dumouriez. The crown-prince

now prevented the French from entering Western Flanders. But, September 13, he was attacked in his position between Menin and Werwick, with such superior force that he was obliged to retreat behind the Scheldt, after a long resistance, in which his brother, prince Frederic, was wounded. The next year, he took Landrecies. He then forced the enemy to retire behind the Sambre; but, in the great battle on June 26, in which he had been successful at the head of the right wing, he was obliged to retreat, after the French had taken Charleroi by assault, and beaten the left wing at Fleurus. The Austrian forces having retreated, before Pichegru and Jourdan, behind the Meuse, the prince, with his enfeebled army, could only protect the frontiers of the republic, in unison with the duke of York. But the fortresses were reduced, and the ice enabled the enemy to pass the Waal, so that Pichegru entered Utrecht, Jan. 17, 1795. The party of the patriots favored the enemy, and the stadtholder soon found himself incapable of saving the republic, forsaken by her allies. His sons, therefore, gave up their commands, Jan. 16, and William V embarked, on the 18th and 19th, with his family, at Scheveningen, in nineteen poor fishing vessels, for England. Hampton court was assigned as a residence to the exiled family; but the two sons soon returned to the continent, in order to arm a body of Dutch emigrants at the expense of England, which body, however, after the peace of Basle, was again dissolved. Prince Frederic entered the Austrian service, and died at Padua, in 1799. The subject of this article went with his family to Berlin, where he expected a favorable change from the influence of Prussia, then on friendly terms with France. He occupied himself with the education of his children, the cultivation of science, and the improvement of some estates which he had bought in Poland, and on which he immediately abolished bondage. His father had ceded to him the places which the diet had assigned him in Germany by way of indemnification, namely, Fulda, Corvey, Dortmund, &c., August 29, 1802, and he took possession of them in the same year. He lived at Fulda, but spent part of the winter in Berlin. Living himself in the most economical manner, he established in his new possessions an economical administration, and reformed numerous abuses. His impartial treatment of all his subjects, of whatever religion, gained him the hearts of all.

After the death of his father, he took possession of the lands of Nassau belonging to his family. But, having refused to become a member of the confederacy (q. v.) of the Rhine, he lost the sovereignty over the lands of Orange, which were divided between his relations of NassauUsingen and Nassau-Weilburg, and Murat, grand-duke of Berg. He was also threatened with the loss of Fulda if he should continue to decline joining the confederation; but in case he should join, he was to be rewarded by the grant of Würzburg. But he declared that he would not dishonor the name of Orange by bending his neck to a foreign master. In August, 1806, he went to Berlin, where, as commander of a Prussian regiment and lieutenant-general, he subsequently received the command of a part of the right wing of the Prussian army between Magdeburg and Erfurt. After the battle of Jena, he was obliged to follow field-marshal Möllendorf to Erfurt, and became a prisoner when Möllendorf capitulated. He was, however, permitted to live with his wife in Prussia. But Napoleon declared him, the elector of Hessia, and the duke of Brunswick, to have forfeited their dominions; and Fulda took the oath of allegiance to the emperor, Oct. 27. Corvey, Dortmund, and the county of Spiegelberg, were given, in 1807, to the kingdom of Westphalia and the grand-duchy of Berg. His domains, even those reserved to him by the act of confederation, were taken by Berg and Würtemberg; but Bavaria did not follow their example, and the other princes promised to pay him the surplus revenue of the lands. He had gone, in the mean time, to Dantzic, whence he proceeded to Pillau. In the peace of Tilsit, he was not mentioned. He retained only his possessions in the duchy of Warsaw, and again lived privately in Berlin, where his eldest son was educated in the military academy. (See the following article.) When Austria was engaged in war with France, in 1809, the unfortunate prince joined the army of the archduke Charles, and fought at the battle of Wagram. He then returned to Berlin. In the mean time, particularly, however, after the battle of Leipsic, influential men in the Netherlands were laboring to prepare the way for the restoration of the house of Orange. William Frederic was then in England, in order to concert, with the British government, measures to support the Dutch. After the battle of Leipsic, the victorious armies approached the

frontiers of Holland; the people rose in Amsterdam, Nov. 15 and 16; and even the Hague, in the midst of French troops, declared itself, on the 17th, for the prince. When the prince received the news of these movements, he embarked, and landed, Nov. 29, at Scheveningen. The people received him with demonstrations of joy. In Amsterdam, the commissioners of the provisionary government issued, Dec. 1, the proclamation, "The Netherlands are free!" and "William I is the sovereign prince of this free country," without being authorized to do so by the nation. The prince yielded reluctantly, and declared that a constitution should be established to secure the liberties of the people. Twenty-three fortified places were yet in the hands of the enemy, who were encamped near Utrecht. But the allies soon drove them from the country. William Frederic hastened the arming of the people, and charged a committee to draw up a constitution, which was adopted, March 29, 1814, by the representatives of the people, and then sworn to by the monarch. He had also again taken possession of his German hereditary possessions, towards the end of 1813. After this, the congress of Vienna united Belgium and Liege with the Netherlands, to form a kingdom; and the prince was proclaimed king of the Netherlands, prince of Liege and duke of Luxemburg, under the name of William I, on March 16, 1815, at the Hague. He and his Dutch subjects were both dissatisfied with this arrangement, apprehending that the Dutch commerce would suffer by this union with the manufacturing state of Belgium: the difference of language and religion also presented great obstacles: but England wished to retain possession of several of the former Dutch colonies, and Belgium was given in exchange for them. The king was also obliged to cede to Prussia his hereditary possessions in Germany in exchange for Luxemburg, Since that time, William I has ruled with great integrity and firmness, as even his enemies have admitted, except in the fiercest heat of party struggles.* The king has conscientiously and

*M. Surlet de Chokier, the regent of Belgieral, and generally in opposition to the court, um, who was, for fifteen years, in the states-gencalled the king, in 1818, "one of those philosophic princes who reign for the happiness of humanity;" and March 8, 1830, four months before the Belgic revolution, he thus expressed himself: I towards his august person. "No one is more penetrated with gratitude than I can say, without flattery or compliment, a king like ours, a man of

often scrupulously adhered to the constitution. Justice was always a predominant trait in his character. A committee was charged, in 1815, with the drawing up of a general code for the Netherlands. It ended its labors in 1819. June 21, 1816, William became a member of the holy alliance. (q. v.) In 1814, he founded the William order of military merit, and, in 1815, the order of the Belgic lion for civil merit. He resided, before the late revolution, alternately at the Hague and in Brussels; lives simply, is very industrious, and accessible to all; and, though the majority of the Dutch were anti-Orange, and, therefore, anti-monarchical, he is popular with them, particularly since 1830.-The article Belgium, in the Appendix to this volume, treats of the causes of the Belgic revolution, which is not to be ascribed to him.-It was, perhaps, impracticable to unite under one government two nations so different in language, religion, and ordinary occupations, to say nothing of the powerful influences from without which hastened the disruption. His endeavors to disseminate knowledge in Belgium were considered, by the Catholics, as acts of hostility towards their religion.

WILLIAM, Frederic George Louis of Nassau, prince of Orange, crown-prince of the kingdom of the Netherlands, born Dec. 6, 1792, was educated in Berlin and at Oxford. He made his first campaign in the English army, and, in 1811, entered the Spanish service as lieutenantcolonel. His courage and activity gained him the esteem of the duke of Wellington, whose aid-de-camp he was. At the siege of Ciudad-Rodrigo, he was one of the first in the assault. In the battle of Badajoz, he entered the city at the head of an English column, which he had stopped in its flight, and led back into the action. He displayed equal bravery at Salamanca, and every other affair in the campaign. He was then made aid-decamp to his Britannic majesty, and received a medal, inscribed Ciudad-Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca. His courage and conduct were conspicuous at QuatreBras (q. y.), on June 16, and at Waterloo, on June 18, 1815, where he charged the enemy at the head of his troops, and was wounded in the shoulder. After his recovery, he joined the allies in Paris, when it was proposed that he should marry the talent and constitutional principles, faithful to his oaths, who listens to all his subjects, and even to foreigners, who boast over Europe of the reception with which they are honored, &c."

princess Charlotte, daughter of the princeregent (see Charlotte); but he declined, considering it unbecoming the heir of a throne to be the first subject of a queen of England, and being unwilling to make the Netherlands a dependency of a foreign state. In 1816, he married Paulowna, sister to the emperor Alexander. It is not yet time to judge impartially of his conduct in the Belgic revolution of 1830. He was thought by some to have wished to become sovereign of Belgium, perhaps with the view of ruling over both kingdoms, though separated, on the demise of his father. He had the courage to enter Brussels when in a state of revolt, and when a plot to murder him is said to have existed. In July, 1831, he was made, by his father, generalissimo of all the forces of the Netherlands. Aug. 2, the army of the Netherlands entered Belgium. The Belgians retreated, and were entirely routed on several occasions, particularly at Hasselt; their conduct in the field forming a ludicrous contrast with their extravagant boasting before the war began. Within less than two weeks, the "Belgic armies" were routed; and the prince of Orange was marching upon Brussels, from which he was but a few miles distant, when he received orders from the king, his father, to desist from further hostilities, in consequence of a French army having come to support the Belgians. Many attempts were made upon the life of the prince of Orange. At Tirlemont, when he was riding out of the city with marshal Gerard (commanding the French army), a ball was fired at him, but only hit the coach. When he arrived at the gate of the city, a Belgian attacked him with a sword, but was cut down by the French. This war, it must be understood, was not undertaken to reconquer Belgium, from which the Dutch always wished to be separated, but to force the Belgians to fulfil the conditions of the London conferences. The prince showed much skill in the plan of the campaign.

WILLIAMS, Roger, was born of reputable parents in Wales, in 1598. He was educated at the university of Oxford, was regularly admitted to orders in the church of England, and preached for some time as a minister of that church: but, on embracing the doctrines of the Puritans, he rendered himself obnoxious to the laws against non-conformists, and with his wife, in February, 1631. In April embarked for America, where he arrived, following, he was called, by the church of Salem, as teaching elder, under their then

pastor, Mr. Skelton. This proceeding gave offence to the governor and assistants of the Massachusetts bay, and, in a short time, he removed to Plymouth, and was engaged as assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith, the pastor of the church at that place. Here he remained until he found that his views of religious toleration and strict non-conformity gave offence to some of his hearers, when he returned again to Salem, and was settled there after Mr. Skelton's death, in 1634. While here, and while at Plymouth, he maintained the character he had acquired in Englandthat of " a godly man and zealous preacher." He appears, however, to have been viewed by the government of that colony with jealousy, from his first entrance into it. He publicly preached against the patent from the king, under which they held their lands, on the ground that the king could not dispose of the lands of the natives without their consent. He reprobated the "calling of natural men to the exercise of those holy ordinances of prayers, oaths, &c."; but what rendered him most obnoxious, undoubtedly, was his insisting that the magistrate had no right to punish for breaches of the first table, or, in other words, "to deal in matters of conscience and religion." These causes, conspiring with others of less importance, finally occasioned a decree of banishment against him, in the autumn of 1635, and he was ordered to depart the jurisdiction in six weeks, but was subsequently permitted to remain until spring, on condition that he did not attempt to draw any other to his opinions; but "the people being much taken with the apprehension of his godliness," in January following, the governor and assistants sent an officer to apprehend him, and carry him on board a vessel then lying at Nantasket, bound to England; but before the officer arrived, he had removed, and gone to Rehoboth. Being informed by governor Winslow, of Plymouth, that he was then within the bounds of the Plymouth patent, in the spring he crossed the river, and commenced the settlement of Providence. He afterwards embraced some of the leading opinions of the Baptists, and, in March, 1639, was baptized by immersion, at Providence, by Ezekiel Holliman, whom he afterwards baptized. He formed a society of this order, and continued preaching to them for several months, and then separated from them, doubting, it is said, the validity of all bap tism, because a direct succession could not be traced from the apostles to the offici

ating ministers. In 1643, Williams went to England, as agent for the colonies at Providence, Rhode Island, and Warwick, to solicit a charter of incorporation, which he finally procured, and returned in September, 1644. In 1651, serious difficulties having been raised in the colony, by Coddington's procuring a charter, which gave him almost unlimited authority over the islands of Narragansett bay, Williams and Clarke were despatched agents of the colony to procure a revocation of it. This they effected in October, 1652. Williams returned in 1654; but Clarke remained in England, and procured a second charter in 1663. He was several times, both before and after this period, elected to the office of president or governor of this colony. He died in April, 1683, at Providence. Very few incidents in his life are to be collected from his writings; and the prejudices of contemporary, and even later historians, who have mentioned him, render it difficult to form a true estimate of his character. He appears to have been a man of unblemished moral character, and of ardent piety, unyielding in opinions which he conceived to be right, and not to be diverted from what he believed to be duty, either by threats or flattery. After he was banished, though he conceived himself to be an injured man, he gave his persecutors information of the Indian plot, which would have destroyed their whole settlement, and concluded treaties for them, which insured their peace. He is accused, and not unjustly, of frequent changes in his religious sentiments; but these changes should be ascribed to conviction, for they militated against his worldly interest. He was at all times the undaunted champion of religious freedom; and, strange as it may seem, this was probably the first thing that excited the prejudices of the Massachusetts and Plymouth rulers against him. He was accused of carrying this favorite doctrine so far as to exempt from punishment any criminal who pleaded conscience; but this he expressly denied. Of the publications of Williams that have reached us, the first, in order of time, is his Key into the Language of America, republished in 1827. This, it would seem, was composed during his voyage to England, in 1643, and was printed at London soon after his arrival. It preceded Eliot's works on the same subject. Very few copies of the original edition are now extant. The one belonging to the Massachusetts historical society is the only one known to be in this country. His next