Willem van Oranje (William of Orange)

[playmofire]

Superb, Erwin!   

And a later William of Orange ruled Great Britain as William 111 with his wife Queen Ann.

[PlaymoMan]

Wow, those colours look great together!! Wonderful custom!!

[DrDalek6]

Looks like a very ncie custom 

[Hadoque]

 

Wasn't too much work though; just switching the orange arms with brown hands for a pair with caucasian skincoloured hands, and the same with the head...

THe died at 31? So young!

Ooops! Typo; his birthyear was 1533 AD, not 1553!
Just noticed I made the same mistake over on KW   

He was an important figure in the uprise and fight of the then Northern (Protestant) Netherlands against (Catholic) King Philip II and the Spanish troops. He did die violently though; he was shot at close range by ... a traitor of french origin 

[cheng]

thanks for the bit of history Hadoque!
(pardon my ignorance of western history )
very attractive custom! I thought he might have been a colourful samurai
....can someone kindly show me the original torso? nothing is self-printed?

[Ismene]

He looks great! Nice use of the orange klicky.

[Lynx]

thanks for the bit of history Hadoque!
(pardon my ignorance of western history )
very attractive custom! I thought he might have been a colourful samurai
....can someone kindly show me the original torso? nothing is self-printed?

The original torso is from the Benelux exclusive 5040 set (Zwarte Pieten). There´s a co-op for those who are interested at Report and Review

[Lynx]

BTW, excellent custom, Hadoque!

Willem van Oranje brought the fragmented little countries and cities together to get the Spanish out. He lost almost everything in those wars, his fortune, his brother, his good name, his life.  The war is known as ´de 80 jarige oorlog´ 80 years lasting war.. his son Prince Maurits and Frederik Hendrik.. cousin or grandson, I forgot, finally succeeded and the Republic of the Netherlands was born... Holland and Belgium nowadays.
You´ll understand that´s why Willem van Oranje is the most important person in Dutch history
Because the British and the French were too busy fighting eachother, the young republic could grow to a force of big importance.. a big fleet with lot of colonies all over the world, the VOC, the first stock exchange, insurance companies, scientific discoveries etc.

Later, it became a kingdom, a descendent of Willem van Oranje became king. In 19th century, the southern Netherlands were dissatisfied because of the way they were treated by the northern Netherlands followed by a short war... again, the northern countries underestimated the south and the northern army was crashed by the south. They split up, the southern netherlands became Belgium and the northern remained The Netherlands. Holland is a region in west Netherlands, people always say Holland when they mean The Netherlands, also the Dutch... I think the same as people say England when they mean Great Britain.

Well, I hope this history class will answer all your questions and I hope I didn´t make too many mistakes
My English is not flawless...

Lynx

[Hadoque]

I'm not sure the Dutch will like it, but on Klickywelt a few people keep insisting ''Willem van Oranje'' (aka ''Willem van Dillenburg-Nassau'') is not dutch but rather a German, because he was born from a family across the border 
A border with Germany which did not really exist in the 15th/16th century, as - except for France - almost everything on continental western Europe was then part of Emperor Carl V's "Holy Roman* Empire''. Even Spain and Portugal were added to the empire in a later stage.
And Carl V was born in Ghent, Flanders... sofar I've never heard one claim the Emperor was de facto a Belgian

*: ''Roman'' here means ''catholic'' or ''Roomsch''; litterally translatable as ''like in Rome where the pope sits'' and has nothing to do with the ancient Roman Empire

In 19th century, the southern Netherlands were dissatisfied because of the way they were treated by the northern Netherlands followed by a short war... again, the northern countries underestimated the south and the northern army was crashed by the south. They split up, the southern netherlands became Belgium and the northern remained The Netherlands.

I'd like to add, we had been separated from each other before, and had been reunited only for a short while:

After a defeat of the (mostly nothern) rebel troops in the 16th century (especially the fall of the city Antwerp into the hands of Spanish troops in 1585), the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium) were cut off from the Nothern Netherlands.
The North remained independent and indeed grew rapidly into a very developped nation. Many important people fled from the South to the North those days.
The Southern Netherlands remained under occupation and became a lot poorer region. Several occupations succeeded each other, from countries like Spain, France, Austria, France again, etc.  for more then 200 years, until the (short) reunification with the North.

I think cultural and religious differences grown during the long separation (Protestant independent North versus Catholic occupied South) contributed to the uprising of the South after the reunification, and finally the creation of Belgium in 1830. Politics were of course an issue too, and when I'm not mistaking even Great-Britain (or was it England?  ) played a role in the ''artificial creation'' of Belgium, which would act as a bumper between archrivals Germany and France, as was later on experienced during WW I and WW II 

Holland is a region in west Netherlands, people always say Holland

Yes, especially we ''Southeners'' like to do so 

the northern army was crashed by the south.

Sounds much like ... Netherlands v Belgium soccer-games