Alexander, Prince of Orange (Willem Alexander Karel Hendrik Frederik; 25 August 1851 – 21 June 1884), was heir apparent to his father King William III of the Netherlands from 11 June 1879 until his death.
| Alexander | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince of Orange | |||||
 | |||||
| Born | 25 August 1851 Noordeinde Palace, The Hague, Netherlands | ||||
| Died | 21 June 1884 (aged 32) The Hague, Netherlands | ||||
| Burial | 17 July 1884 | ||||
| |||||
| House | Orange-Nassau | ||||
| Father | William III of the Netherlands | ||||
| Mother | Sophie of Württemberg | ||||
For a span of 116 years, from the birth of Alexander (1851) until the birth of the present king Willem-Alexander (1967), no male heirs were born into the Dutch Royal House.
Life
editPrince Alexander of the Netherlands was born in The Hague on 25 August 1851.[1] He was the third child of King William III and Queen Sophie. His second brother, Prince Maurice had died the previous year.[2] Unlike his brother William, the heir-apparent, he was disciplined, intellectual and well-read. His mother, Queen Sophie died in 1877. After Prince William's death two years later on 11 June 1879, he became heir apparent to the Dutch throne and as such the Prince of Orange.
Alexander held the position of heir apparent until his own death, at age 32, on 21 June 1884 in The Hague from typhus.[1] Although he never married, negotiations were held for him to marry, firstly Princess Thyra of Denmark, and supposedly secondly the Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal. He was buried in the new royal burial vault in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on 17 July 1884.[3] After his death, his half-sister, the future Queen Wilhelmina, became heir presumptive to the Dutch throne.[4] Alexander's death meant that on the death of William III the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg came into the hands of Duke Adolphus from the Walram line of the House of Nassau, as under the terms of the house-treaty a princess could not succeed to that title.
Prince Alexander was Grand Master of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands.
Honours
edit
Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, 1861
Luxembourg: Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown, 1861
Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown, 1869[5]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the Order of the White Falcon, 1873[6]
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 4 July 1874[7]
Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, 1874[8]
Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, 4 December 1874[9]
Kingdom of Hawaii: Grand Cross of the Order of Kamehameha I, 1881[10]
Ancestry
edit| Ancestors of Alexander, Prince of Orange |
|---|
References
edit- ^ a b (in Dutch) Prins Alexander (1851 -1884) Archived 2008-09-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ^ (in Dutch) Stamboom Koninklijk Huis Archived 2008-07-26 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ^ The royal burial vaults Archived 2012-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ^ "Genealogy of the Royal Family of the Netherlands". Archived from the original on 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
- ^ Württemberg (1869). Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreichs Württemberg: 1869. p. 32.
- ^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1880), "Großherzogliche Hausorden" p. 14
- ^ Jørgen Pedersen (2009). Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009 (in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 467. ISBN 978-87-7674-434-2.
- ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Schwarzer Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1877, p. 14
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "The King's Tour Round the World: Additional Particulars of the Royal Visit to Spain and Portugal". Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. October 15, 1881. Retrieved December 16, 2016 – via Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
External links
edit