King William III - Character Study, First Notes



Guy Clemens as King William III - younger version

 The Dutch TV-series “De Troon” (“the Throne”) tries really hard to give King William III some traits of humanity and empathy. The result is them completely ignoring certain, fairly important, stories, like the story about the “Comtesse d’Ambroise”, an opera singer the King had fallen in love with. Without even notifying his ministers he made her a “Comtesse” (Countess) and planned to marry her. This happened about one month after Sophie’s death. This King was more dramatic than the drama actually makes you believe. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Rumour had it he planned to travel to Paris to marry the Comtesse on the 25th of August, Alexander’s birthday. It’s easy to imagine Alexander’s reaction. As a matter of fact, I was offended in Alexander’s name. The fact it happened only two/three months after Sophie’s death (3 June 1877) makes it only worse. No empathy, no humanity. He really deserved his title of King Gorilla.

Then there were the rumours of the King being a drunk. Minister Weitzel remarks he never noticed the King drinking too much; Weitzel paid extra attention to the King’s drinking habits at events. I could not see how that was positive. It only told me the King was from nature an unpleasant, yes even evil person. Alcohol was not necessary for the King to misbehave sometimes hilariously, but most of the time dreadfully.

Marcel Musters as King William III - older version

What I certainly don’t understand is how the King completely retreated willfully from the upbringing of one of his sons. I think it was even fair to say he was glad to leave Alexander’s upbringing to Sophie. From start to end the King belittled and humiliated Alexander. When Alexander’s body was put in the family grave tomb, the King didn’t even go down into the tomb for the last goodbye, which would have been normal procedure. He left the church early so the rest of his day wasn’t ruined.

I do want to hear something positive. I do search for something positive. But even his performance during a flood, he apparently saved some people, wasn’t entirely genuine. He did it for a great part to become the hero he always wanted to be. Nothing in his actions shows humanity or empathy. There isn’t anything, or not much, good he’s done. His biographer even has trouble naming something of good he’d done. Eventually this biographer decided we should be thankful of this King for failing to renounce the constitution. Couldn’t say that got me excited about King William III.

Character Study of William III Postponed

Today I planned to post my character study of King William III of the Netherlands. I did start writing the post, but quickly realized I couldn’t really write the piece. I didn’t know what he was like as a child. Nor do I have “insider” experience at my hands. I have some “insider” information in the form of letters, diary entries and other accounts, but nothing substantial. In other words, if I have to write a character study now, it’s even more guessing than with his wife and sons. I feel he at least deserves a fair study, no matter how badly behaved he was.


In the report of “Brandpunt” it was mentioned his biography is being written as we speak. I’m not sure I’m going to arrive at a very different opinion on this King, even his biographer has trouble lifting out the positive sides to this King. I hope the biographer will search for the reasons why this King was so badly behaved. I’m sure it’s not just his character. In Queen Sophie’s biography the King’s aunt, princess Marianne, claims he’s got a good heart. Though she also admits he’s not easy, but neither was the Queen.

An interesting question remains: How come the King became much more behaved and even peaceful after marrying Emma and having Wilhelmina? It might have been age, it might have been Emma’s positive influence on the King. I hope the biographer will pay attention to this question.

I won’t park my analysis about the influence both King William III and Queen Sophie had on their sons. That’s for tomorrow, probably. That analysis might change over time, after I’ve read King William III’s biography. We’ll see.

the Last William - King Gorilla

In my research for everything about Alexander I found several websites dedicated to the Dutch royals. Several of those sites have individual entries on the many members. Usually the texts are very general and have small errors. Nothing to worry about, though it irritates me sometimes. One of those sites is http://koningshuis.wordpress.com. On every entry you can comment. I usually don’t accept when I find there are big mistakes or when other people have asked questions, which happened on this particular site. I think I fill most of the comments area.

Original design for a King Gorilla statue
Source: original

The person asking the questions has posted a link to a report from a Dutch news show called “Brandpunt”. The report was called “De laatste Willem” (the last William) It was quite interesting, if I hadn’t known as much as I do. The reason I’m blogging about it is the blunt way they talked about Alexander. Let me see if I can find the exact words said about Alexander:

“…getormenteerde ziekelijke homoseksueel die niet wilde deugen..”

Translation: “…a tormented, sickly, homosexual, who didn’t want to be ok…”

And:

“…mismaakt, intelligent…”

Translation: “…deformed, intelligent, …”

The one blatant mistake “deformed” I have to adress. He was not deformed; he wore a corset in his teens to make sure he wouldn’t become so. What annoys me, but what I can’t help, is the minimal painting of the person he was. I’m sure he was much more than that, but he didn’t do anything to prove that.

Maybe it’s just very easy to offend me by saying anything about Alexander. Of course, I had no problem with "intelligent".
Other than that, I really enjoyed that report. I loved the little anecdotes about the king. Something you can now laugh about, because it’s been more than 100 years ago. And the fact they couldn’t find a statue of King William III. In the end they found one, but they never even bothered to put some bronze on it. It was covered in an unflattering plastic cover.

Well, so far for King Gorilla.

The report: De Laatste Willem

Oh, and this is Willem Nicolaas Alexander Frederik Karel Hendrik (Wiwil)....and the rest of the family

Below a picture of Alexander's older brother Wiwil:

And his older brother Maurits who died age six, one year before Alexander's birth.

Oh, what the hell. Here are Alexander's mum and dad too. 

Sophie van Württemberg and King Willem III