WILLIAM I. (OF ORANGE.) 



59 



In every quarter, the duke of Clarence was cen- 

 sured for expenditures made without waiting for 

 parliamentary appropriations, and had found it ad- 

 visable to resign his office during the Wellington 

 administration (1828.) On his accession to the 

 throne, he retained the ministers who were in office 

 at the decease of his predecessor (the Wellington 

 cabinet), with assurances of his confidence in their 

 zeal and ability. Opposition, disappointed in their 

 expectations of a change of ministry, founded on the 

 whig family connexions formed by several of the 

 Fitzclarences (natural children of the duke of Clar- 

 ence by Mrs Jordan), and partly on the character 

 and previous political course of the king, now re- 

 newed their attacks on the ministry with additional 

 vigour. In the new parliament, which met in 

 November, the ministry being left in a minority on 

 a motion of Sir H. Parnell for referring the civil 

 list to a select committee (15), immediately sent in 

 their resignation ; and a whig administration was 

 formed on the twenty-second, with earl Grey at its 

 head. The great event which will render the reign 

 of William IV. memorable, is the passage of the 

 reform act. William IV. died on the 20th June, 

 1837, and was succeeded by his niece, Victoria. 

 He was affable in his manners, cordial in his de- 

 portment, with somewhat of the rude heartiness of 

 the deck, on which he had passed some of his early 

 years. In the navy he had, of course, been under 

 the command of plebeians, and the messmate and 

 companion of simple commoners. This had given 

 him more knowledge of the common classes than 

 his brother and predecessor had had an opportunity 

 of acquiring, and, although he had never distin- 

 guished himself in the navy, something of popular 

 manners, and a command of sea-phr;ises. William 

 IV. married in July, 1818, Adelaide, sister of the 

 duke of Saxe-Meiningen, by whom he had no surviv- 

 ing children. He had, however, a large family by 

 Mrs Jordan, the celebrated actress, who was for many 

 years his mistress, while duke of Clarence. This 

 lady he seems to have unaccountably abandoned at 

 the last, for she died in obscurity, in France, in 

 1816. As a miserable set-off to his conduct in this 

 matter, on his accession, he ordered Chantrey to 

 prepare a statue, to be placed over her remains, in 

 the cemetery of St Cloud. The eldest son of the 

 king, by Mrs Jordan, George F-itzclarence, was 

 created earl of Munster in 1831 ; a second, lord 

 Adolphus Fitzclarence, is captain in the royal navy ; 

 a third, lord Frederic Fitzclarence, colonel in the 

 army ; and a fourth, queen's chaplain. The earl of 

 Munster is author of an Account of the British 

 Campaign of 1809, in Spain and Portugal (London, 

 1831, 2d vol., of Memoirs of the Late War). The 

 five daughters of Mrs Jordan are married to the 

 earl of Errol, the honourable J. E. Kennedy (son 

 of earl Cassilis), Mr Sidney, colonel Fox (son of 

 lord Holland), and lord Falkland. 



WILLIAM I. THE YOUNGER, count of Nas- 

 sau, prince of Orange, the founder of Dutch free- 

 dom, was the eldest son of William the Elder, 

 count of Nassau, and Juliana, countess of Stolberg, 

 and was born April 16, 1533, at the castle of Dil- 

 lenburg, in the county of Nassau. He was edu- 

 cated in the Roman Catholic faith, by Maria, queen 

 of Hungary, sister of Charles V. and spent nine 

 years in attendance on the person of the emperor, 

 who had so high an esteem for the spirit, the pru- 

 dence and intelligence of the prince, that he asked 

 his opinion respecting the most important matters-, 

 and, when he was but twenty-two years old, in- 



trusted him with the chief command of the army 

 in the Netherlands, in the absence of Philibert, 

 duke of Savoy. He also recommended him to his 

 successor, Philip II., who, however, deceived by 

 the calumnies of the Spaniards, regarded him as the 

 cause of the resistance of the Netherlands., and, 

 therefore, would not confer on him the office of 

 stadtbolder. As cardinal Granvella had now the 

 entire confidence of the king, and Margaret of Par- 

 ma, who was charged with the government of the 

 Netherlands, was obliged to do whatever this proud 

 and ambitious prelate suggested, especially with 

 respect to the introduction of the detested Spanish 

 inquisition, and the erection of new bishoprics, the 

 count of Egmont, the prince of Orange, and the 

 count of Horn, therefore, represented to the king, in 

 writing, that unless the cardinal was speedily re- 

 called, his violence would drive the country to re- 

 bellion. Philip looked on this step as treason ; but 

 he concealed his anger, and recalled the cardinal, 

 but, on the other hand, sent the duke of Alva, 

 with Spanish and Italian soldiers, to the Nether- 

 lands. After the remonstrance, offered, in 1566, 

 by three hundred noblemen, with count Louis of 

 Nassau, the brother of William, at their head, 

 against the introduction of the inquisition and the 

 establishment of new bishoprics, had been rejected 

 with contempt (the petitioners were styled beggars 

 Gueux}, William had a meeting with Egmont, 

 Horn, his brother Louis, and others, at Dender- 

 mond, to deliberate on the means of averting the 

 threatening danger. The majority advised an 

 armed resistance. Count Egmont alone, governor 

 of Flanders and Artois, was of opinion that they 

 should trust to the grace and clemency of the king. 

 " This grace," replied the sagacious Orange, " will 

 be our destruction, and Egmont the bridge by 

 which the Spaniards will pass into the Nether- 

 lands, and which they will then destroy." When 

 they separated, Egmont and Orange, in presenti- 

 ment of the future, embraced, and took leave of 

 each other with tears. The prince, with his wife 

 and his children, excepting the eldest, who was 

 studying at Louvain, repaired to Breda, whence, 

 however, he returned to his castle at Dillenburg. 

 Meanwhile, Alva advanced into the Netherlands. 

 Many men of consequence, including Egmont and 

 Horn, were immediately arrested, and executed at 

 Brussels, June 5, 1568. When cardinal Granvella 

 was apprized of this at Rome, he inquired whether 

 Alva had taken Secrecy (so he termed the prince of 

 Orange.) " If this fish is not caught, the duke's fish- 

 ing is good for nothing." Al va caused the prince, the 

 counts of Hoogstraten, of Kuilenburg, and others, 

 who had retired from the country, to be summoned 

 before the council of twelve. The prince did not 

 appear, but sent in an appeal to the states of Brab- 

 ant, as his natural judges, and to the king in per- 

 son, because, as a knight of the Golden Fleece, he 

 could be judged only by the king in person, and by 

 the knights of t^e order. He applied for protec- 

 tion to the emperor Maximilian II. and the German 

 princes. The emperor promised it to him, and con- 

 demned the proceedings of Alva, who had declared 

 the prince outlawed for not appearing in person on 

 the appointed day, had confiscated his property, 

 stationed troops in his city of Breda, and removed 

 his son Philip William, then thirteen years of age, 

 from the university of Louvain, and sent him as a 

 hostage to Spain.* The prince of Orange now 



* Ho \vas eventually released, and died in 1618. 



