'' , house = House of Brunswick-Bevern , father =

Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (german: Friedrich Wilhelm; 9 October 1771 – 16 June 1815), was a German prince and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Oels. Nicknamed "The Black Duke", he was a military officer who led th ...

, mother = Princess Marie of Baden , birth_date = , birth_place = Brunswick, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , death_date = , death_place = Sibyllenort,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spl ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was '' de facto'' dissolved by an ...

, burial_place = William, Duke of Brunswick (german: Wilhelm August Ludwig Maximilian Friedrich; 25 April 1806 – 18 October 1884), was ruling duke of the

Duchy of Brunswick The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick (). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna ...

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 George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. He became a

n 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 The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meus ...

made William the ruling duke permanently. William left most government business to his ministers, spending most of his time at Oleśnica Castle in what is now southwestern Poland. While William joined the Prussian-led

North German Confederation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...

in 1866, his relationship to Prussia was strained, since Prussia refused to recognize

Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover en, Ernest Augustus William Adolphus George Frederick , house = Hanover , father = George V of Hanover , mother = Marie of Saxe-Altenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover , death_date = , death_place = Gmunden ...

, his nearest male-line relative, as his heir, because of the Duke of Cumberland's claim to the throne of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. William died in 1884; he passed on his private possessions to the Duke of Cumberland. His death caused a

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...

for Brunswick that lasted until the accession of

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick '' , house = Hanover , father = Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover , mother = Princess Thyra of Denmark , birth_date = , birth_place = Penzing, Vienna, Austria-Hungary , death_date = , death_place = Marienburg Castle, Hanover, Lo ...

, the son of the Crown Prince of Hanover, in 1913. William died unmarried, but had a number of illegitimate children.

Honours

References

Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1889
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:William, Duke of Brunswick 1806 births 1884 deaths Dukes of Brunswick House of Brunswick-Bevern Members of the Prussian House of Lords Nobility from Braunschweig Protestant monarchs German Lutherans Prussian Army personnel Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Extra Knights Companion of the Garter