Stadholder Willem V (1748-1806), Princess Wilhelmina (1751-1820) and Family

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Willem V Batavus, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, Prince of Orange, Stadholder of the Netherlands (The Hague 8 Mar 1748-Braunschweig 9 Apr 1806); m.Berlin 4 Oct 1767 Wilhelmine Princess of Prussia (Berlin 7 Aug 1751-Het Loo 9 Jun 1820)

Parents Willem V: Stadholder Willem IV of the United Provinces and Princess Anna of Great-Britain, Ireland and Hannover, Princess Royal

Parents Wilhelmina: Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia and Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Luneburg

Children Willem V and Wilhelmina: Duchess Louise of Brunswick, King Willem I of The Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Prince Frederik of Orange-Nassau

Siblings Willem V: Princess Karolina of Nassau-Weilburg, Princess Anna of Orange-Nassau

Siblings Wilhelmina: King Friedrich-Wilhelm II, Prince Friedrich Heinrich Karl and Prince Georg Carl Emil of Prussia

 

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William V Batavus, stadtholder of The Netherlands (March 8, 1748 – April 9, 1806), also known as William V of Orange, was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He was the leader of the conservative faction.

William V was born at The Hague, the son of William IV of Orange-Nassau and Anne, Princess Royal.
He was only 3 years old when his father died in 1751. William V assumed the position of stadtholder (chief executive and military commander) in 1766 after a long regency. His regents were:

• Anne, his mother, from 1751 to her death in 1759
• Marie Louise, his grandmother, from 1759 to her death in 1765
• Carolina, his sister (who at the time was an adult 22, while he was still a minor at 17), from 1765 to William's majority in 1766

In October 1767 Prince William married Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia.
The position of the Dutch during the American Revolution was one of neutrality. William V, leading the pro-English faction within the government, blocked attempts by pro-revolutionary, and later pro-French, elements to drag the government to war. However, things came to a head with the Dutch attempt to join the Russian-led League of Armed Neutrality, leading to the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780. The United Provinces only recognized the United States in 1782, after much political debate and pressure from American and French diplomats.

Read the entire wikipedia article here.

 

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Wilhelmina of Prussia, born Frederika Sophia Wilhelmina, (7 August 1751 – 9 June 1820) was the daughter of Augustus William, Prince of Prussia and Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

On 4 October 1767, Wilhelmina was married to William V of Orange, the last Dutch Stadtholder. She was a proud woman and very politically ambitious. When revolution broke out in the Netherlands and William moved his court to Guelders, she attempted to travel back to the capital at the Hague. On June, 28th she was stopped, waiting at Goejanverwellesluis for a decision and at the end of the day sent back to William in Nijmegen.
She and her royal brother, King Frederick William II of Prussia, only for a year in power, perceived this as an insult, and Frederick attacked the Dutch Republic on 13 september 1787.

Read the entire wikipedia article here.

 

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Frederica Louise Wilhelmina, Princess of Orange-Nassau (28 November 1770 - 15 October 1819). Married Karl Georg August, Prince of Brunswick-Luneburg, a son of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales.

 

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William I of the Netherlands (25 August 1772 - December 12, 1843). He has a thread of his own, which can be found here.

 

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Willem George Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau (15 February 1774 - 6 January 1799).

 

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At Goejanverwellesluis Princess Wilhelmina was arrested by the anti-Orangist Patriot party, She was kept in a house for a while and than ordered not to go to The Hague but return to Nijmegen. After this she appealed to her brother for help and the Prussian armies came to repress the revolution and the family could return to The Hague. The Prussian armies couldn´t protect them form Napoleon and the family had to flee to London in a fishermans boat.

A drawing of the arrst of Princess Wilhelmina, made around that time and a schoolplate from the late fifties of the same arrest:

 

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Another one of Goejanverwellesluis. The arrest was a major shock in The Netherlands:

 

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Willem V had a zoo at Palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. After the French troops occupied th Netherlands they took the animals to Paris, including the favourite elephant of the Prince who quickly died there. Here a drwa5ng 6f the arrival of the animals in Paris:

 

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An enormous portrait of Princess Wilhelmina:

 

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Wilhelmina on a horse. She was always a forcefull woman, trying to get her weak husband to act.

 

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Willem V and his son, the future King Willem I:

Princess Wilhelmina and her son Frederik:

 

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Willem V Batavus as a child:

 

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More of Willem V:

 

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The couples daughter Princess Louise:

 

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Another painting of Louise, already Duchess of Brunswick:

 

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Louise never warmed up to her husbands family and court. After her husband died she left Brunswick to live with her mother, princess Wilhelmina. After the Oranje-Nassau´s were restaured to power in The Netherlands the two of them settled at Pavillion Welgelegen in Haarlem.

Here another image of Louise and one of her husband, Duke Karl I of Brunswick:

 

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A painting of Prince Frederik of Oranje-Nassau. He was about to get engaged with Pricness Sofia of Great-Britain, daughter of King George III when he died.

 

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Some paintings of the siblings together:

 

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And a painting of the entire family:

 

[Helena]

Is it true that Queen Wilhelmina refused to go to the reburial of Willem V because she thought he was weak? Very curious for a woman who had to flee to England herself, somewhat simular to Willem V´s flight.

 

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Stadholder Willem V on the beach of Scheveningen while he prepares to leave for London:

 

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From this wikipedia page:

The Goejanverwellesluis is a lock in Hekendorp, Netherlands. The 'Goejannen' - the men from the surrounding polders who went to sea - said their last farewells by this channel.
According to the tradition, Wilhelmina of Prussia, wife of stadholder William V was captured here on 28 June 1787 by the Patriots from Gouda. In reality, her entourage were arrested at Bonrepas on the river Vlist, on the way to Schoonhoven near Haastrecht. Wilhelmina was at a farm overhanging the Goejanverwellesluis, where Cornelis Johan de Lange, commander of the free corps of Gouda, had been billeted. Informed of her plans by the gentleman Martinus van Toulon, old-baljuw of Gouda, the Commission of Defense stopped her from driving on to Gouda that night. The princess left the very same evening after 10pm in the direction of Schoonhoven and turned back to her spouse stadholder William V at Nijmegen. This event formed the main reason for the Prussians' raid into Holland, with Frederick William II of Prussia coming his sister Wilhelmina's aid and so making possible William's return to the Hague. This raid led to an exodus of the Patriots from the United Republic of the Seven Netherlands in 1787.
By Goejanverwellesluis lay a foot ferry that in 1992 was replaced by a bridge, the Wilhelmina van Pruisen Bridge.

And an image:

 

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And from www.hetgeheugenvannederland.nl, caricature about the patriots who arrested princess Wilhelmina. The patriots were dressed in farmers clothing and had the faces of frogs:

The two frogs on the left are shooting at a portrait of the stadholder.

 

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Today the first edition of the book: 'Willem V & Wilhelmina van Pruisen. De laatste stadhouders van Amsterdam’ was presented to the press. The book ahs been written by Edwin van Meerkerk, who works for the Radboud University in Nijmegen.

The articles in the press refer to the late Queen Wilhelmina, who called her ancestor a 'sufferd' and who refused to attend his reburial in Delft in 1958 for that reason.

 

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A painting of Prince Frederik of Oranje-Nassau. He was about to get engaged with Pricness Sofia of Great-Britain, daughter of King George III when he died.

I believe it was Princess Mary Frederik wanted to marry, but the King wouldn't authorize their marriage because her elder sisters were still unwed (or so he said)

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Willem V: Prussian Invasion
Prussian Invasion of the Netherlands, 1787

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Engraving of Princess Wilhelmina of Orange
http://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/9/collection/611776

 

[Blog Real]

Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet, Portrait of Willem V, Prince of Orange, 1765, engraving.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Willem_V_dli_0613700218.jpg