Historical Figure
William the Silent
1533–1584
Dutch statesman and revolt leader (1533–1584)
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Biography
William the Silent or William the Taciturn, more commonly known in the Netherlands as William of Orange, was the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. Born into the House of Nassau, he became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the Orange-Nassau branch and the ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, he is also known as Father of the Fatherland.
Timeline
The story of William the Silent, told in moments.
Born at Dillenburg Castle in Nassau, in the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheran by birth. Inherited the title Prince of Orange at age 11 from a cousin, on the condition that he be raised Catholic at the Habsburg court in Brussels.
Launched the Dutch Revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule. The trigger: Philip II's Inquisition was executing Protestants by the thousands in the Low Countries. William mortgaged his estates to raise an army. The first campaigns failed.
Converted to Calvinism. Publicly embraced the Protestant cause he'd been leading for five years. His nickname "the Silent" didn't mean he was quiet. It came from his ability to keep diplomatic secrets.
Philip II of Spain declared him an outlaw and put a bounty of 25,000 crowns on his head. William responded with the Apology, a public defense that argued a ruler who tyrannizes his people forfeits his right to rule. It became a founding document of Dutch independence.
Shot by Balthasar Gerard in Delft. Gerard was a Catholic Frenchman who'd spent two years stalking him. William was the first head of state assassinated by handgun. The Netherlands still calls him Father of the Fatherland.
In Their Own Words (20)
One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere.
As quoted in O Canada: An American's Notes on Canadian Culture (1963) by Edmund Wilson, 1963
My God, my God, have mercy on me, and on my poor people!
Last words, as quoted in De Vader des Vaderlands (1941) by W. Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, p. 29, 1941
They stormed Oudewater, and delivered it over to all imaginable cruelties, sparing neither sex nor age.
On the actions of the Spanish at Oudewater, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 87, 1897
This mercy will be your ruin; you will be at the bridge across which the Spaniards will enter this land.
Statement to his friend, the Count of Egmont, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison p. 76, 1897
You are staking your own head by trusting the King. Never will I so stake mine, for he has deceived me too often. His favourite maxim is, haereticis non est servanda fides. I am now bald and Calvinist and in that faith will I die.
William to a supporter of the King, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 92, 1897
Artifacts (1)
Interior of the New Church in Delft with the Tomb of William the Silent
Jan Hendrik Verheyen
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