Project Waterloo: Netherlands Command

 

At left is Wilhelm (William), Prince of Orange and Nassau, accompanied by his ADC. The single figure is General Chasse, who commanded the 3rd Netherlands Division. His nickname was "General Bayonet", and had fought in the French Army in Spain and then in France in 1814. These are Perry Miniatures once again.

Prince William had to flee the Netherlands with his Father, when he was only 2 years old. He grew up thereafter in Berlin (Frederick Wilhelm II,. King of Prussia, was his maternal Grandfather). He received a military education, and joined the Prussian army. 

He later joined the British army, and, at age 19, became an Aide de Camp to Wellington in the Peninsula. In November 1813, with the liberation of the Netherlands from French control, he returned there, and in December was made a Major General in the British army; by the end of May 1814, he was a full General in the British army - at age 21!  His courage and good nature made him well liked by the British, who nicknamed him "Slender Billy"!

In 1815, he was the senior Allied commander in the Netherlands when Napoleon returned to France. He commanded the 1st Allied Corps at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. British accounts depict him as brave but tactically unskilled, although there may be more than a little bias in those accounts.  He was blackmailed at least once over alleged bisexuality. He became King of the Netherlands upon his father's abdication in 1840, and died suddenly in 1849.