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Birth of William III of Orange

When
1651
Where
Dutch Republic
Episodes
1

William III was born in The Hague on November 4, 1650, eight days after his father William II died of smallpox. As the only child of William II and Mary, Princess Royal, he became the sovereign Prince of Orange immediately upon birth, succeeding his father without a minority period.

Episodes

  1. 13 August 1651 · Dutch RepublicGuardianship Arrangement

    In 1651, a court ruling established shared guardianship for the infant Prince among his mother, grandmother, and a relative.

Background and detail

Immediate Succession. William II died of smallpox eight days before his son's birth. Because William III was born on November 4, 1650, he inherited the title of Prince of Orange at the moment of his birth, bypassing any period of minority.

Early Guardianship. Following his birth, William III was placed under shared guardianship. In August 1651, the Supreme Court ruled that his mother, grandmother, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, would jointly oversee his upbringing and interests.

People involved

Sources

  1. William III of England Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20
  2. House of Orange-Nassau Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-02

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.