William IV of Orange
1711 – 1751 · Generation XXX · Stadtholder of the Netherlands
William IV of Orange (1711–1751). Stadtholder of the Netherlands. Married Anne Princess Royal in 1734. Born at Leeuwarden six weeks after the death of his father, John William Friso, he inherited the stadtholdership of Friesland and, under his mother’s regency, that of Groningen; Guelders elected him in 1722. The four remaining provinces had gone without a stadtholder since William III died in 1702. His marriage at St James’s Palace produced three children, among them the future William V. When French troops overran the Austrian Netherlands in 1747, the divided Dutch turned to the House of Orange, and the States General named him stadtholder of all seven provinces, and for the first time the office became hereditary. At first popular, he abolished the indirect tax-collection system that had enriched private contractors, but as a director of the Dutch East India Company he grew closer to the business class. He died of a stroke at The Hague in 1751; Orange County, Virginia, is named after him.
Place in the family
- William IV of Orange married Anne Princess Royal, a great-great-aunt of Queen Victoria.
Partners
- Married Anne Princess Royal (1709 – 1759) in 1734
Life
- 1711 — Born
- 1734 — Married Anne Princess Royal
- 1751 — Died