Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau

Willem George Frederik of Orange-Nassau, commonly styled Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau, was born at The Hague, the youngest son of William V, Prince of Orange, and Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia. He received a predominantly military education and, in the early 1790s, entered Dutch service in senior cavalry and artillery appointments.

In 1793, during the War of the First Coalition, he took part in the defense of the Dutch Republic against French operations in the Low Countries. He directed defensive efforts in the north-west of Staats-Brabant and later served under his elder brother in Flanders, leading Dutch troops in the sector around Veurne and Menin. On 13 September 1793, in fighting near Wervik (Werwick), he sustained a serious shoulder wound that was never fully resolved. In 1794 he was promoted to generaal der ruiterij (general of cavalry) and returned to field duty; he served in the spring operations that included the siege of Landrecies and the subsequent June fighting around Charleroi and Fleurus (including the combat at Lambusart).

Following the collapse of the stadholderian regime and the establishment of the Batavian Republic in January 1795, he left the Netherlands with his family for Great Britain. In the summer of 1795 he travelled to Hanover to assemble émigré and loyalist troops for a projected descent on the Batavian Republic (the “rassemblement of Osnabrück”), but the enterprise was abandoned amid shifting coalition politics. After a period in Britain and a visit to Vienna, he entered Habsburg service in 1796.

Commissioned Generalmajor in April 1796, he joined the Austrian Army on the Rhine and served under Feldzeugmeister Count Wartensleben as a brigade commander. In the 1796 campaign he operated in the Palatinate and southern Germany against the armies of Jourdan and Moreau and was present in the autumn fighting that included Emmendingen and Schliengen. During the siege operations against Kehl, he conducted repeated attacks and counter-attacks in the advanced works, and on 5 January 1797 he led the storming of the Schwabian redoubt; this action was followed shortly thereafter by the capitulation of the fortress. On 20 January 1797 he received the Knight’s Cross of the Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden.

In 1797 he transferred to the Italian theatre with Archduke Charles, moving south at the head of a detachment of grenadiers, and took part in the spring operations before the armistice preliminaries leading to Campo Formio. Continuing disability from his earlier wound required treatment and, at times, curtailed his activity. Later that year he was promoted Feldmarschallleutnant and appointed Inhaber (proprietor) of Austrian Infantry Regiment No. 15.

In November 1798 he was promoted Feldzeugmeister and given the command of the Austrian army in Italy. Based at Padua while preparing the forthcoming campaign against French forces, he fell ill with a severe fever and died on 6 January 1799. He was initially buried in Padua, where a memorial by Antonio Canova was commissioned in 1807; his remains were ultimately transferred to the dynastic burial vault in the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft in 1896, and the Canova memorial was reinstalled there. He never married and left no issue.

Sources

• DBNL: Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (1911) – Frederik, Willem George Frederik
• Wikisource (German): BLKÖ – Oranien-Nassau, Wilhelm Georg Friedrich Prinz von
• Oude en Nieuwe Kerk Delft: Willem George Frederik
• Napoleon Series: Austrian Generals 1792–1815 – Oranien-Nassau (Wilhelm Georg) Friedrich Prinz von
• Wikipedia (English): Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau