How is it possible? Your father defeats Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, but he cannot control his own politicians in 1848. And the Constitution that he allows to be pushed down his throat does not bother him himself, because he dies a year later. There you are as Willem III, the Orange who succeeds Willem II as King of the Netherlands in 1849: in terms of temperament ideally suited to rule as absolute monarch, but constricted by all kinds of dull rules. To get very excited.
The Constitution was written by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, who became Prime Minister in the year of William’s coronation. The two did not get along well, because Willem refused to accept that not he but the ministers were now responsible for policy.
Obstinacy
In 1851 things went wrong. Protestants then opposed the arrival of Catholic bishops in the Netherlands and Willem supported this protest. However, the Constitution provided for freedom of religion, so Thorbecke wanted the king to withdraw his objections, or at least keep his mouth shut. Willem refused, after which the Thorbecke I cabinet fell.
This regal stubbornness was characteristic of the first decades of William’s reign. There were even rumors that he was considering a coup. His frank and generous nature initially made the king popular with the Dutch people. Because of his help to the victims of floods in 1855 and 1861, he was nicknamed ‘Waterhero van het Loo’ – a nod to ‘the hero of Waterloo’, as his father was called.
This was not the nickname that stuck. Because of Willem’s violent mood swings, rudeness and outbursts of anger, that became ‘King Gorilla’, after the pamphlet of the same name by anarchist Domela Nieuwenhuis.
Ministers had sleepless nights when they had to have an audience with him and a mayor who expressed his displeasure wanted him to be shot
The anecdotes about the king’s lack of social skills are legion. Infamous is the story of Willem who had a lackey light a match to light his cigar. The monarch deliberately waited until the flame reached the servant’s fingers. He burned his fingertips and had to blow out the match, after which the king flew into a rage because of the poor service. The lackey had to give up two weeks’ wages.
In the same way, the king railed against administrators. Ministers had sleepless nights when they had to have an audience with him and he wanted a mayor who expressed his displeasure to be shot. Frustrated about his impotence, the king withdrew from public life in the 1980s.
William III fathered three sons by his first wife – his cousin Sophie van Württemberg who hated him – and probably several bastards as well. His sons died before the father, without having children of their own. Therefore, at the age of 61, he married the 20-year-old German princess Emma zu Waldeck und Pyrmont. She did her duty and gave birth to Wilhelmina in 1880. Willem died ten years later, mentally no longer responsible.