, spouse =
, issue = Pauline, Princess of Wied
Prince Ulrich , house =

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, father =

Prince Frederick of Württemberg , image = Prinz Friedrich von Württemberg (1808-1870).jpg , caption = , reign = , coronation = , predecessor = , successor = , succession = , spouse = , issue = William II of Württemberg , house ...

, mother = Princess Catherine of Württemberg , birth_date = , birth_place =

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which exist ...

, death_date = , death_place = Bebenhausen,

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

, religion =

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

William II (german: Wilhelm Karl Paul Heinrich Friedrich; 25 February 1848 – 2 October 1921) was the last

King of Württemberg King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

. He ruled from 6 October 1891 until the dissolution of the kingdom on 30 November 1918. He was the last German ruler to abdicate in the wake of the

November Revolution of 1918 November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, the fourth and last of four months to have a length of 30 days and the fifth and last of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. Nov ...

Early years

William was born the son of

(1808–1870) by his wife Princess

Catherine Frederica of Württemberg Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Chris ...

(1821–1898), herself the daughter of King

William I of Württemberg William I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm Karl; 27 September 178125 June 1864) was King of Württemberg from 30 October 1816 until his death. Upon William's accession, Württemberg was suffering crop failures and famine in the "Year Without a Summer", ...

(1781–1864). His parents were first cousins, being the children of two brothers, and William was their only child. William's growing years coincided with a progressive diminution of Württemberg's sovereignty and international presence, concomitant with the process of

German unification The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

. In 1870, Württemberg took the side of

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 em ...

in the Franco-German War. In 1871,

became a state of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, a significant limitation on its sovereignty.

King of Württemberg

William's father died in 1870, but his mother lived to see him seated on the throne of

. In 1891, William succeeded his childless maternal uncle, King Charles I (1823–1891) and became King of Württemberg. This was not, as it may seem, a departure from the

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Du ...

which governed succession in the German states; his claim to the throne came because he was the nearest

agnatic Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

heir of his maternal uncle, as the senior male-line descendant of

Frederick I of Württemberg , image = Seele-Friedrich I..jpg , caption = Portrait by Johann Baptist Seele , birth_date = , birth_place = Treptow an der Rega, Prussia (now Trzebiatów, Poland) , death_date = , death_place = Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württe ...

through ''his'' younger son Prince Paul. King William became a

Generalfeldmarschall ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (from Old High German ''marahscalc'', "marshal, stable master, groom"; en, general field marshal, field marshal general, or field marshal; ; often abbreviated to ''Feldmarschall'') was a rank in the armies of several ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1918, he was deposed from the throne along with the other German rulers. King William finally abdicated on 30 November 1918, ending over 800 years of Württemberg rule. He died in 1921 at Bebenhausen.

Personality and interests

Considered to be a popular monarch, William had the habit of walking his two dogs in public parks in Stuttgart without being attended by bodyguards or the like. During these excursions, he would often be greeted by his subjects with a simple ''Herr König'' ("Mister King"). Despite living in a landlocked kingdom, William II was a

yachting Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, t ...

enthusiast. The king was instrumental in the establishment of the

Württembergischer Yacht Club The Württembergischer Yacht-Club (WYC) is a yacht club in Friedrichshafen. It is located on the shores of Lake Constance, Germany. This club was established in January 1911 as the "Königlich Württembergischer Yacht-Club" (Royal Yacht Club of W ...

(formerly "Königlich Württembergischer Yacht-Club" or ''Royal Yacht Club of Württemberg'') in 1911 on

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...

Marriages and children

On 15 February 1877 at

Arolsen Bad Arolsen (, until 1997 Arolsen, ''Bad'' being the German name for ''Spa'') is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany, in Waldeck-Frankenberg district. From 1655 until 1918 it served as the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont and ...

he married

Princess Marie of Waldeck and Pyrmont Princess Georgine Henriette Marie of Waldeck and Pyrmont (23 May 1857 – 30 April 1882) was the third daughter of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and his wife, Princess Helena of Nassau, younger half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Du ...

(1857–1882). They had three children: *

Princess Pauline of Württemberg Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

(19 December 18777 May 1965); married in 1898

William Frederick, Prince of Wied , house = Wied-Neuwied , father = William, Prince of Wied , mother = Princess Marie of the Netherlands , birth_date = , birth_place =Neuwied, Kingdom of Prussia , death_date = , death_place =Neuwied, Allied-occupied Germany ...

(1872–1945), and had issue. *Prince Ulrich of Württemberg (28 July 188028 December 1880), died in infancy *A stillborn daughter (24 April 1882) Marie died on 30 April 1882 in

, from complications resulting from the birth of their third child. William, already depressed by the death of his only son, is said never to have recovered from this blow. Nevertheless, he was King and it was his duty to secure the succession. On 8 April 1886, at

Bückeburg Bückeburg (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bückeborg'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It is located in the district of Schaumburg close to the northern slopes of the Weserbergland ridge. Population: 21,0 ...

, he married Princess Charlotte of Schaumburg-Lippe (1864–1946). They had no children.

Succession

On William II's death in 1921 without male issue, the royal branch of the

House of Württemberg The House of Württemberg is a German dynasty and former royal family from Württemberg. History County The House probably originated in the vicinity of the Salian dynasty. Around 1080 the ancestors of modern Württemberg, which was then called ...

became extinct, and the headship of the house devolved to

Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg Albrecht, Duke and Crown Prince of Württemberg (Albrecht Maria Alexander Philipp Joseph; 23 December 1865 – 31 October 1939) was the last Württemberger crown prince, a German military commander of the First World War, and the head of the House ...

, head of the Roman Catholic

cadet branch In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, title ...

of the

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

, based at Altshausen. Albrecht was a descendant of Alexander of Württemberg, the 7th son of

Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg Friedrich Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (21 January 1732 – 23 December 1797) was the fourth son of Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, and Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis (11 August 1706 – 1 February 1756). He was born in Stuttg ...

(1732–1797).

Honours

;German awards ;Foreign awards *

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

: ** Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, ''1886'' ** Military Merit Cross, 1st Class * : Knight of the Annunciation, ''25 September 1893'' * : Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Chrysanthemum is Japan's highest order. The Grand Cordon of the Order was established in 1876 by Emperor Meiji of Japan; the Collar of the Order was added on 4 January 1888. Unlike its European counterparts, the order may be conferred posthumously. Apart f ...

, ''23 May 1896'' * : Grand Cross of the Netherlands Lion * : ** Knight of St. Andrew ** Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky ** Knight of the White Eagle ** Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class ** Knight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class ** Knight of St. George, 4th Class * :

Knight of the Golden Fleece This article contains a list of knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Knights of the Burgundian Golden Fleece 15th Century !Year of Induction!!Name!!Born!!Died!!Notes , - , rowspan=25, 1430, , Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, , 1396, , ...

, ''3 May 1892'' * : Knight of the Seraphim, ''9 July 1913'' * : Stranger Knight of the Garter, ''23 February 1904''Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) ''The Knights of England'', I, London
p. 72
/ref>

Arms

Ancestry

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:William 02 Of Wurttemberg 1848 births 1921 deaths 19th-century kings of Württemberg 20th-century kings of Württemberg Nobility from Stuttgart Field marshals of the German Empire Kings of Württemberg Protestant monarchs German landowners Members of the Württembergian Chamber of Lords Monarchs who abdicated Burials at Alter Friedhof, Ludwigsburg Generals of Cavalry of Württemberg German Army generals of World War I Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) Extra Knights Companion of the Garter Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain Grand Crosses of the Military Order of Max Joseph Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Recipients of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree Recipients of the Iron Cross, 2nd class