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William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau) was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
He was the ruler of the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda from 1803 until 1806 and of the Principality of Orange-Nassau in the year 1806 and from 1813 until 1815. In 1813 he proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands. He proclaimed himself King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg on 16 March 1815. In the same year on 9 June William I became also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and after 1839 he was furthermore the Duke of Limburg. After his abdication in 1840 he styled himself King William Frederick, Count of Nassau.
In 1806, with the Netherlands under Imperial French domination, Emperor Napoleon I appointed his brother Louis Bonaparte to the Dutch throne, which led to the 1808 appointment of Marshal Herman Willem Daendels as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. In 1811 Daendels was replaced by Governor-General Jan Willem Janssens, but shortly after his arrival British forces occupied several Dutch East Indies ports including Java, and Thomas Stamford Raffles became Lieutenant Governor. Following Napoleon's defeat at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna, independent Dutch control was restored in 1816. It was officially announced by a Proclamation by the Dutch Government at Batavia on 19 August 1816 by three Cocmissioners General: C.T. Elout, Baron van der Capellen and Rear Admiral A.A. Buyskes. | 
