William the Silent
Awards & Honours
0
Awards Won
5
Honours
1
Records
William's record is not one of medals but of institutions that outlasted him. He founded the Orange-Nassau branch that has supplied the Dutch head of state since the sixteenth century, and his leadership carried the revolt from a local rising in 1568 to the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and the Act of Abjuration in 1581. The honorific Pater Patriae has attached to him for four centuries. He is named in the Wilhelmus, the national anthem, and his tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft is among the country's most visited monuments. The first-firearm-assassination distinction is grim rather than glorious, but it is his alone among heads of state.
Honours & Distinctions
Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland)
Honorific applied to William as leader of the Dutch Revolt and founder of the Dutch nation.
Prince of Orange
Sovereign title of the principality of Orange, which he held from 1544 until his death.
Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht
Appointed stadtholder in 1572 and held the office until his death in 1584.
Burial in the Nieuwe Kerk, Delft
Interred in the traditional burial church of the House of Orange, where his tomb remains.
Named in the Wilhelmus
The anthem names him as William of Nassau and frames the revolt as a defence of honour and conscience.
Records & Feats
First head of state assassinated with a firearm
William was shot at close range in Delft in 1584, the earliest documented killing of a head of state by a handgun.