GUGLIELMO I, prince of ORANGE, count of NASSAU, known as the SILENT. — Born at Dillenburg (Nassau) on 24 April 1533, killed at Delft on 10 July 1584. The firstborn of Guglielmo of Nassau-Dillenburg and Giuliana of Stolberg, both Lutherans, he became, at the age of eleven, the richest lord in the Netherlands through the inheritance of his cousin Renato of Nassau; hence Carlo V wished him to be raised as a Catholic in Brussels. More sensitive to political than to strictly religious questions, he first came into conflict with Filippo II over the withdrawal of the Spanish troops from the provinces for which he had been appointed stadholder by the King (Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht), and over the recall of Cardinal Granvelle (1564).
Rather tolerant toward non-Catholics, partly as a result of the influence of his second wife, the daughter of Maurice of Saxony—an excessive tolerance that drew a rebuke from Pope Pius IV (1565)—the whole activity of G. was above all the political-national activity of a lord who wished to guarantee his territories autonomy, possibly even independence, within and, if that was not possible, outside the framework of the Habsburg dominions, rather than that of a religious leader. Circumstances led him also to assume the role of religious leader, because the struggle for the independence of the United Provinces came to be identified with a struggle for the freedom of Calvinists and Protestants. The conflict with Filippo II, latent since 1564, became open from 1568 onward, in the presence of the policy of force pursued first by the Duke of Alba and then by Alessandro Farnese. Only in 1573 did he definitively embrace Calvinism, while the war had already been raging for five years, amid alternating successes and defeats, since G. was not always a general equal to his opponents. Nevertheless, his entry into Brussels (September 1577) was a resounding success, which earned him election as head of the United Provinces; this did not prevent the States, after declaring Filippo II deposed, from turning toward Francesco, Duke of Anjou. But G.’s skillful policy, operating behind the scenes, deprived the French prince of his power, and when he died (1584) the value of French aid was already taken for granted in the eyes of the insurgents. Shortly afterward, however, Orange too fell victim to a fanatic allegedly suborned by Farnese.
GUGLIELMO II, prince of ORANGE, count of NASSAU, stadholder of the United Provinces of the NETHERLANDS. — Son of Federico Enrico, born at The Hague on 27 May 1626, died on 6 November 1650. In 1647 G. succeeded his father, at a moment when the conflicts that had arisen between the States General and the executive power were making the internal situation more difficult than ever. Although the Peace of Westphalia assured the country the greatest political and economic prosperity, these internal struggles disturbed the young prince’s stadholderate. He therefore soon found himself involved in the dispute with the strengthened pacifist party, whose representatives demanded the immediate dismissal of the mercenary troops recruited for the war previously waged.
The conflict reached its dramatic phase when G. II no longer hesitated to use force to bring the States to obedience. Confident of the support of the popular masses, in July 1650 he ordered the arrest of six deputies from Dutch cities, among them Giacomo de Witt, burgomaster of Dordrecht and advocate of the sovereignty of the province of Holland, under whose leadership the opposition had held its ground; at the same time he sent an armed force against Amsterdam, where resistance was most intense. These energetic measures succeeded, and G. managed to suppress every remaining trace of rebellion; shortly afterward, however, further incidents broke out. In fact, in the agreement concluded with Cardinal Mazarino, who was then fighting against the Fronde, the Stadholder had stipulated that, among any conquests achieved by the Dutch from the Spanish, Antwerp and the Duchy of Brabant should personally be assigned to him (29 October 1650). A new revolution seemed to be threatening the country when G. died suddenly.
GUGLIELMO III, prince of ORANGE, count of NASSAU, stadholder of the United Provinces of the NETHERLANDS, king of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND. — Born at The Hague on 14 November 1650, died at Hampton Court on 19 March 1702. The posthumous son of Guglielmo II of Orange and Maria Stuart, daughter of Carlo I of England, he had a troubled childhood; with the stadholderate suspended in the United Provinces, where the star of the Grand Pensionary De Witt was rising, he saw the ancestral principality of Orange also occupied by Luigi XIV (1660); but the restoration of the Stuarts in England also revived the fortunes of the Orange family in Holland. In the face of the French invasion, G. was first appointed captain general (1672) and shortly afterward, amid the patriotic enthusiasm of the defense against the invader and resentment toward De Witt’s plutocratic party, stadholder. G., until then almost unknown and in poor health, soon demonstrated his qualities as a general and diplomat; without much originality, he nevertheless succeeded in neutralizing the effects of the French victories, organizing the union of the Protestant and non-Protestant states of Europe, which were concerned about French hegemony, and detaching England from its alliance with France (1674).
The Peace of Nijmegen (1678), initially concluded by G. with little regard for the interests of his allies, crowned his policy, which he then continued through other agreements and leagues to protect himself against an offensive return by Luigi XIV, especially after the latter’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685); this led, with G. as its sponsor, to the formation of the so-called League of Augsburg (1686), a purely political league comprising both Catholic and Protestant powers. The league secured his rear while he was developing his plan concerning England, where parliamentary and popular opposition to Giacomo II had quickly begun to look to G. and his wife Maria, the firstborn of Giacomo II, as successors. Despite the hesitations of the Dutch, who saw their foremost citizen (though not king) become king in a neighboring nation, with the danger that he might later return with English forces to impose his rule on Holland as well, G. then prepared the military expedition that landed in England in November 1688 and secured the English throne for himself and his wife. King in England and stadholder in Holland, G. divided his residence between the two countries, seeking to reconcile their not always harmonious interests, especially in the maritime, commercial, and colonial spheres. The keystone of his common Anglo-Dutch policy was distrust of Luigi XIV’s policies, particularly as the major issue of the Spanish succession drew nearer. But the War of the League of Augsburg (1689–97), which he conducted with limited success, failed to achieve the aim of significantly weakening France, and his death prevented him from witnessing more than the very beginning of that duel.
GUGLIELMO IV d'Orange-Nassau, statolder delle Province Unite dei PAESI BASSI. - N. a Leeuwarden il 1 sett. 1711, figlio postumo di Giovanni Guglielmo Friso, principe di Nassau.
Gli avvenimenti della Guerra di successione austriaca e il pericolo che attraversò il paese nel 1747, quando le forze francesi ne violarono i confini, costituirono l'occasione propizia per l'elevazione di G., che fu acclamato entusiasticamente statolder di tutte le province (maggio 1747). G., per ovviare ai disastri della guerra, attese a riorganizzare l'esercito; ma non riuscì a fermare l'avanzata nemica: a Lawfeld le forze olandesi, quantunque sostenute dall'esercito inglese del duca di Cumberland, furono battute (luglio 1747). Nel sett. Berg-op-Zoom cadde nelle mani dei Francesi. La Pace di Aquisgrana salvò la situazione esterna; ma all'interno si rinfocolarono le agitazioni sorte a causa delle imposizioni fiscali, mentre perdurava più aspro il contrasto tra la classe della minuta borghesia, che nella elevazione di G. aveva sperato una politica democratica, e l'aristocrazia degli Stati. G. morì nel 1751. Troppo rispettoso delle antiche consuetudini e restò ad ammettere al governo la borghesia, egli, pur essendo riuscito ad abolire l'odioso appalto delle imposte e a migliorare il governo delle Indie, fu in generale mediocre uomo di Stato e di armi.
Leida 1908. Studi: L. F. De Beaufort, Leven van Willem IV, Amsterdam 1752; J. Haverkamp, Leven van Willem IV, ivi 1788; L. von Ranke, Briefwechsel Friedrichs des Grosen mit Wilhelm IV. von Oranien und dessen Gemahlin Anna, Berlino 1868; P. J. Blok, Geschiedenis van het nederlandsche volk, 3ª ed., 4 voll., Leida 1923-26, V. indice. Carlo De Frede
GUGLIELMO V d'Orange-Nassau, ultimo statolder delle Province Unite dei PAESI BASSI. - N. da Guglielmo IV, a l'Aja, l'8 marzo 1748. Alla morte del padre (1751) gli Stati Generali lo dichiararono erede e successore, mentre era in età di tre soli anni, e istituirono una reggenza in persona della madre Carolina di Hannover e di Luigi Ernesto di Brunswick, cui fu dato il comando supremo dell'esercito. Nel 1766 G. fu dichiarato maggiore.
In quel tempo il paese rifioriva alquanto. Sposo di Federica Sofia Guglielmina, nipote di Federico II di Prussia, il nuovo statolder rinforzò i vincoli con i protestanti tedeschi, e sembrava propenso a svolgere una politica di pace; ma la Francia, sfruttando l'entusiasmo che la rivoluzione americana aveva suscitato nel paese e l'attività svolta dal partito democratico del Van der Cappellen, lo spinse contro l'Inghilterra. Il conflitto fu disastroso per l'Olanda, che non era più fornita della potente flotta d'un tempo, e le costò la perdita di numerose colonie in America e in India. Negli anni successivi continuò il fermento antiorangista; G. cercò di reprimerlo; ma reagirono fieramente contro di lui gli Stati d'Olanda. Invano fu chiesto aiuto agli Inglesi; soltanto per l'intraprendenza della consorte lo statolder salvò il potere. Infatti quella sollecitò il soccorso della Prussia, e un esercito prussiano nel sett. 1787 entrò in Olanda costringendo i più fieri agitatori a riparare in Francia. Nel 1792 scoppiò la guerra con la Francia rivoluzionaria, che si chiuse con l'occupazione nemica ad opera dell'esercito del Pichegru. G., il 18 genn. 1795, s'imbarcò a Scheveningen e fuggì in Inghilterra, dove emanò un proclama per mettere sotto l'autorità inglese le colonie dell'India. La Repubblica batava lo dichiarò decaduto il 23 febbr. Dopo alcuni anni di soggiorno nel Nassau, G., ultimo statolder d'Olanda, si spense il 9 apr. 1806.