Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/619

WILLIAM IV. 527 WILLIAM II. tated for the kinply ofTice, but government by the Ministry was now well clcvelopwl, so lliat liis ec- centricities could do no mischief, ^o far as Wil- liam had jwlitical sentiments, he i>robably sym- pathized with the ell'orts of his Ministers to bring about the reform of Parliament. Although he at first refused to create a new batch of peers to overcome the majority opposed to the Reform Bill (see 1!ki-orm Hili.s) he finally consented to apjily this extreme remedy in case of necessity. Overawed by the threat, the Lords passed the bill on -lune 4. 18.32, and three days afterwards it received the royal assent. This was the great event of his reign. The first reformed Parlia- ment met on January 29, ISS.?. The abolition of colonial slavery, and the reform of the poor laws and of the Irish Church, were the immediate re- sults of the great constitutional change. King William died after a short illness on .June 20, 1837, and was succeeded by his niece, Victoria. Consult: Fitzgerald, Life and Times of William JV. (2 vols., London, 1SS4) ; Walpole, Histori/ of Eiifiland from the ('oiicliiS'ion of the Great War in Jsio )■) vols,, London, 1878-Sli), WILLIAM I, (Ger. Wilhelm) (1797-1888). King of Prussia and German Emperor. He was the second son of Frederick William III. of Prussia and Queen Luise, and was born March 22, 1797. He took part in the campaigns of 1814 and 1815 against Napoleon. On the acces- sion of his elder brother, Frederick William IV. (q.v.), to the Prussian tlirone in 1840, William received the title of Prince of Prussia and became Governor of Pomerania, His Absolutist attitude provoked such popular enmity that on the out- break of the revolution of 1848 he had to flee to England. He returned some months later, and was elected to the Prussian National Assembly, where in a brief address he placed himself on record as favoring a constitution, but took no further part in the discussion. In 1849 he com- manded the Prussian forces sent to put down the revolutionists in the Palatinate and Baden. In October. 1857, the King having become mentally incapacitated, William assumed charge of the government temporarily, and in October, 1858, became Regent, He was a soldier by talent and inclination, and while Regent contended steadily, against the opposition of the Diet, for the reor- ganization of the Prussian Army. On the death of his brother. January 2, ISGl, William became King of Prussia, and at his coronation, at Kd- nigsberg, October ISth, he declared that he "ruled by the favor of God, and of no one else." The result of the elections to the Prussian Diet being in favor of the Liberal Party. William de- clared in his address at the opening of the cham- bers that he "never could permit the progressive development of our inner, political life to ques- tion or to endanger the rights of the Crown and the power of Prussia." This principle he main- tained and the contest over the army continued. At last, in 1862, he found Bismarck a ilinister who was able to govern without a Parliamentary majority. The struggle between the King and the Liberal majority in the chambers was thrown into the background at the close of 186.3, by the strategy of Bismarck, who made Prussia champion the cause of Schleswig-Holstein against Denmark — an intervention in which Austria was forced to participate — and, contriving to make the Schles- wig-Holstein question one of 'German' interest, silenced, for the time l)eing, the Liberal opposi- tion in Prussia, In 1806 came the war between Prussia and Austria, in which the King took the field as commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces. Williain became the head of the North German Confederation in 1867. At Ems, in July, 1870. took place the memorable interviews between William and the French ambassador, Benedefti, which precipitated the outbreak of the war of 1870-71. illiam was at the head of the united German army, and commanded personally at the decisive battles of Gravelotte and of Sedan. On January 18, 1871. lie was proclaimed German Emperor in the palace of the French kings at Versailles. On March 21st he opened in Berlin the first Reichstag of the new German Empire. ( For the events of his reign as German Em- peror, see Germa.ny, Bism.rc'K, Kulturkampf, SociALi.sM, and Political Parties, section on Oerman;i.) In 1878 two attempts were made on the life of the Emperor. The second time he was seriously wounded. These attempts were at- tributed, directly or indirectly, to socialist in- fluence. He died in Berlin' March 9, 1888. William married, .Tune 11. 1S29. the Princess Au- gusta of Saxe-Weimar, by whom he had two chil- dren. The son. Frederick William, succeeded his father as Frederick 111. ((j.v. I. Consult: Marcks, Kaiser Wilhelm I. (Leipzig, 1899) , the best biog- raphy; Oncken, Das Zeitalter des Kaisers Wil- helm (2 vols., Berlin, 1890-92); Lavisse, Trois empcrevrs d'Allemaffne: Guillaume I., Frederic III., Quilluume //.'(Paris, 1888): Forbes, Life of Emperor William^ (London, 1889), WILLIAM II. (1859—). German Emperor and King of Prussia, son of Emperor Frederick III, and Victoria, Princess Royal of Great Brit- ain. He was born January 27. 1859. Following the tradition of liis house, he received a thorough military training, which began in his early youth. He was made a second lieutenant in 1869 and en- tered the gynnnasium at Cassel in 1874. In 1877 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and entered the University of Bonn, where he studied especially law and political science until 1879, when he entered the military service. He was raised to the rank of major-general by his grand- father. On the death of his father he succeeded to the throne of Prussia and to that of the Ger- man Empire, June 15, 1888. He showed himself at once to be a man of aggressive temperament and disposed to take an exalted view of the duties and responsibilities of his office. His insistence in his earlier utterances upon bis grandfather's favorite idea of divine right gave rise to a feel- ing that a reactionary course might be looked for from him. He speedily came into collision with Prince Bismarck, The great Minister was forced to resign and went into .a discontented retirement (JIarch 20, 1890), 'while General von Caprivi (q.v.) took the Chancellorship, to be succeeded by Hnhenlnbe (1894), who in turn gave way to Von Biilow (1900), The Emperor followed the policy of Bismarck in maintaining the Triple Alliance and in some other respects. He deviated widely from it by taking an interest in the affairs of the Orient, cultivating relations with the Ottoman Government, and pushing Ger- man activity in Asia Minor. In the Farther East he was similarly active. Aside from the emphasis