The Nuttall Encyclopædia / Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge

by P. Austin Nuttall

[William I.], emperor of Germany, born at Berlin, second son of Frederick William III. of Prussia, and brother of Frederick William IV., his predecessor on the Prussian throne; was bred from boyhood to military life, having received his first commission at the age of 10; took part in the war of liberation that preceded the fall of Napoleon, and received his baptism of fire on 14th February 1814; visited England in 1844, and again in 1848, and returned prepossessed in favour of constitutional government, which he found the king had already conceded in his absence; in 1858 he was appointed regent owing to his brother's incapacity, and on 2nd February 1861 he succeeded to the throne, having previously made the acquaintance of Moltke in 1818 and of Bismarck in 1834; on his accession, while professing all due respect to the representatives of the people, he announced his intention to maintain to the uttermost all his rights as king, and this gave rise to a threat of insurrection, but a war with Denmark, which issued in the recovery of the German duchies of Sleswick-Holstein, led to an outburst of loyalty, and this was deepened by the publication of the project of Bismarck to unite all Germany under the crown of Prussia; this provoked a war with Austria, which lasted only seven weeks, and ended with the consent of the latter to the projected unification of the other States, and the establishment of a confederation of these under the headship of the Prussian king, a unification which was consolidated into an Imperial one at the close of the Franco-German War, when, on the 18th January 1871, the Prussian king was proclaimed emperor of Germany in the palace of Versailles; the reign which followed was a peaceful one, and the pledge of peace to the rest of Europe; the emperor was a man of robust frame, of imposing figure, of temperate habits, of firm purpose, conspicuous courage, and devoted with his whole heart to the welfare of his people (1797-1888).

[William II.], emperor of Germany, born at Berlin, grandson of the preceding, and son of Frederick III., whom he succeeded as emperor in 1888; was trained from early boyhood for kinghood, and on his accession to the throne gave evidence of the excellent schooling he had received to equip him for the high post he was called to fill; he showed that the old Hohenzollern blood still flowed in his veins, and that he was minded to be every inch a king; one of the first acts of his reign was to compel the resignation of Bismarck, as it was his intention to reign alone; that he has proved himself equal to his task events since have fully justified, and it is hoped it will be seen that his influence on public affairs will lead to the advantage of the German people and the peace of the world; he is by his mother the grandson of Queen Victoria, and the relationship is full of promise for the union throughout the world of the Teutonic peoples, who have already achieved so much for the good of the race; b. 1859.

[William the Lion], king of Scotland, grandson of David I., and brother of Malcolm IV., whom he succeeded in 1165, and whose surname is supposed to have been derived from his substitution of the lion for the dragon on the arms of Scotland; was taken captive when invading England at Alnwick Castle in 1174; sent prisoner to Falaise, in Normandy, but liberated on acknowledgment of vassalage to the English king, a claim which Richard I. surrendered on payment by the Scots of 10,000 marks to aid him in the Crusade; was the first king of Scotland to form an alliance with France; died at Stirling after a reign of 49 years (1143-1214).

[William the Silent], Prince of Orange, a cadet of the noble house of Nassau, the first Stadtholder of the Netherlands, a Protestant by birth; he was brought up a Catholic, but being at heart more a patriot than a Catholic, he took up arms in the cause of his country's freedom, and did not rest till he had virtually freed it from the Spanish yoke, which was then the dominant Catholic power; his enemies procured his assassination in the end, and he was murdered by Belthazar Gerard, at Delft; he was brought up at the court of Charles V., where "his circumspect demeanour procured him the surname of Silent, but under the cold exterior he concealed a busy, far-sighted intellect, and a generous, upright, daring heart" (1533-1584).

[Williams, Isaac], Tractarian, born in Wales; educated at Oxford; got acquainted with Keble; wrote religious poetry and Tract LXXX. on "Reserve in Religious Teaching" (1802-1865).

[Williams, John], missionary and martyr, born near London; brought up an ironmonger; offered his services to the London Missionary Society; was sent out in 1816 to the Society Islands; laboured with conspicuous success among the natives; came home in 1834, and after four years returned, but was murdered at Erromango in the New Hebrides, and his body eaten by the cannibals (1796-1839).

[Williams, Sir Monier Monier-], Sanskrit scholar, born at Bombay; appointed Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, 1860; author of a Sanskrit Grammar and Lexicon, and projected the founding of the Indian Institute; b. 1819.

[Williams, Roger], founder of the State of Rhode Island, U.S., born in Wales; being a Puritan, fled the country to escape persecution, and settled in New England, where he hoped to enjoy the religious freedom he was denied at home, but was received with disfavour by the earlier settlers as, from his extreme views, a "troubler of Israel," and obliged to separate himself and establish a colony of his own, which he did at Providence by favour of an Indian tribe he had made friends of, and under a charter from the Long Parliament of England, obtained through Sir Henry Vane, where he extended to others the toleration he desired for himself; he was characterised by Milton, who knew him, as "that noble champion of religious liberty" (1600-1683).

[Williams, Rowland], English clergyman, born in Flintshire; was a prominent member of the Broad Church party; was condemned, though the judgment was reversed, by the Court of Arches, for a paper contributed to the famous "Essays and Reviews"; wrote "Rational Godliness," "Christianity and Hinduism," &c. (1817-1870).