William II Italian Guglielmo known as William the Good (b.
1154—d. Nov. 18, 1189, Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily) Last Norman king of Sicily (1166-89). His mother served as regent until 1171, after which he ruled alone, winning a reputation for clemency and justice. His friend¬ ship with Manuel I Comnenus ended when the Byzantine emperor thwarted William’s proposed marriage to his daughter. Turning against the Byzan¬ tines, William allied with Frederick I Barbarossa. He agreed to his aunt’s marriage to Frederick’s son Henry (later Henry VI), giving Henry a claim to Sicily. He attacked the Byzantines (1185) with early success but was defeated within sight of Constantinople.
William II Dutch Willem (b. May 27, 1626, The Hague, United Prov¬ inces of the Netherlands—d. Nov. 6, 1650, The Hague) Prince of Orange, count of Nassau, and stadtholder of the Netherlands (1647-50). The son of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, he married Mary Stuart, eldest daughter of Charles I of England, in 1641 and later succeeded to his father’s offices (1647), which included the stadtholdership of all the prov¬ inces of the Netherlands except Friesland. Despite the treaty with Spain in 1648 that recognized the independence of the United Provinces, he planned to conquer part of the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium). He imprisoned members of the assembly of Holland who opposed his war policy but died of smallpox before his influence could be tested.
William II Dutch Willem Frederik George Lodewijk (b. Dec. 6, 1792, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands—d. March 17, 1849, Tilburg, Neth.) King of The Netherlands and grand duke of Lux¬
embourg ( 1840—49). Son of William I, he lived in exile with his family in England from 1795. He commanded Dutch troops in the Battle of Water¬ loo (1815). Sent by his father to Belgium in 1830 to appease the rebels, he failed to stop the independence movement. In 1840 he became king of The Netherlands on his father’s abdication. As king, he helped stabi¬ lize the economy. In 1848 he oversaw passage of a new liberal constitu¬ tion that expanded the authority of the ministers and assembly, established direct elections, and secured basic civil liberties.
William III Dutch Willem Hendrik (b. Nov. 14, 1650, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands—d. March 19, 1702, London, Eng.) Stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1672-1702) and king of England (1689-1702). Son of William II, prince of Orange, and Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I of England, he was born in The Hague soon after his father’s death. The Act of Seclusion (1654) that barred the house of Orange from power in the United Provinces was rescinded in 1660, and William was appointed captain general and named stadtholder by popular acclaim in 1672. He successfully defended his country against Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France. In 1677 he married Mary (later Queen Mary II), daughter of the English duke of York (later James II). In 1688 William was invited by James’s opponents to intervene against the Catholic ruler, and he landed with a Dutch army in Devon, Eng. He and Mary were proclaimed joint rulers of England in 1689; he ruled alone after Mary’s death in 1694. He directed the European opposition to Louis XIV, which eventually led to the War of the Grand Alliance after Will¬ iam’s death. In Britain he secured religious toleration and strengthened Parliament, granting independence to the judiciary in the Act of Settle¬ ment.
William III Dutch Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk
(b. Feb. 19, 1817, Brussels, Belg.—d. Nov. 23, 1890, Apeldoom, Neth.) King of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1849-90). Son of William II, he succeeded to the throne on his father’s death in 1849. Opposed to the liberal constitution of 1848, he adopted an anti-Catholic posture and from 1862 to 1868 was able to rule through the cabinet. He tried to sell his sovereignty over Luxembourg to France (1867) but yielded to Prussia’s demand that the area be independent. Following this crisis, his influence over parliament declined. On his death, he was succeeded by his daughter, Wilhelmina.
William IV (b. Aug. 21, 1765, London, Eng.—d. June 20, 1837, Wind¬ sor Castle, near London) King of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover (1830-37). The son of George III, he entered the royal navy at age 13, fought in the American Revolution, and served in the West Indies, leav¬ ing the navy as a rear admiral in 1790 (he was later called “the Sailor King”). He angered his father by his numerous love affairs and fathered 10 illegitimate children by the actress Dorothea Jordan (1761-1816). In 1830 he succeeded his brother George IV as king. Opposed to parliamen¬ tary reform, William delayed consideration of the Reform Bill of 1832, but his prime minister, Earl Grey, persuaded him to promise to create enough peers in the House of Lords to carry it, forcing its passage. On William’s death, the British crown passed to his niece, Victoria, and the Hanoverian crown to his brother Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland
(1771-1851).
William and Mary, College of State-supported college in Will¬ iamsburg, Va. The second-oldest institution of higher education in the U.S. (after Harvard University), it was chartered in 1693 by King William III and Queen Mary II. Its alumni include Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Monroe, John Tyler, and Gen. Winfield Scon. George Washington was the college’s first American chancellor, from 1788 to 1799. The honour soci¬ ety Phi Beta Kappa was organized as a social fraternity there in 1776.
William of Auvergne \6-'vern y , o-'v3rn\ French Guillaume d'Auvergne (b. after 1180, Aurillac, France—d. 1249, Paris) French philosopher and theologian. Named bishop of Paris in 1228, William was a reformer who defended the rising mendicant orders against attacks by the secular clergy. After the church condemned the works of Aristotle, he became one of the first Western scholars to attempt to incorporate into Christianity whatever in Aristotle’s thought was compatible with it. He was influenced by Avicenna and by the Neoplatonism of St. Augustine. His principal work, written in 1223^40, is Magisterium divinale (“The Divine Teaching”).
William of Auxerre \o-'ser\ French Guillaume d'Auxerre (b. c.
1150, Auxerre, bishopric of Auxerre—d. Nov. 3, 1231, Rome) French phi¬ losopher and theologian. After a long career at the University of Paris, he
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William of Ockham ► Williams I 2061
was appointed in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX to a council to censor the works of Aristotle (which in 1210 had been deemed corruptive of Christianity) included in the university’s curriculum. Seeing no reason to avoid the ratio¬ nal analysis of Christian revelation, he was on the verge of reorganizing the curriculum when he died. In his principal work, usually called the Summa aurea (written 1215-20), he treated such matters as God’s triune nature, the problem of human choice, and the nature of virtue.
William of Ockham See William of Ockham William Rufus See William II (England)
William Tell See William Tell