William, Duke of Brunswick, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWilliam, Duke of Brunswick
Duke of Brunswick
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Germany
About William, Duke of Brunswick
- William, Duke of Brunswick (German: Wilhelm August Ludwig Maximilian Friedrich; 25 April 1806 – 18 October 1884), was ruling duke of the Duchy of Brunswick from 1830 until his death. William was the second son of Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and after the death of his father in 1815, was under the guardianship of King George IV of the United Kingdom.
- He became a Prussian major in 1823.
- When his brother, Charles, was deposed as ruling duke by a rebellion in 1830, William took over the government provisionally.
- In 1831, a family law of the House of Guelph made William the ruling duke permanently.
- William left most government business to his ministers, and he spent most of his time outside of his state at his possessions in Oels. While William joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation in 1866, his relationship to Prussia was strained, since Prussia refused to recognize Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, his nearest male-line relative, as his heir, because of the Duke of Cumberland's claim to the throne of Hanover.
- William died in 1884; he passed on his private possessions to the Duke of Cumberland.
- His death caused a constitutional crisis for Brunswick that lasted until the accession of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, the son of the Crown Prince of Hanover, in 1913. William died unmarried, but had a number of illegitimate children.
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