[2] During the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam on 18 January 1795, he fled to England, and issued the Kew Letters in February 1795, ordering all officials in the Dutch colonies outside Europe to treat the British as their new overlords.

[2] After this failure, his son convinced him to issue the Oranienstein Letters in December 1801, recognising the Batavian Republic, in order to receive compensation from Napoleon for the possessions he lost in 1795.

[2] On 23 May 1802, the French First Republic and the Kingdom of Prussia concluded a treaty in which Fulda and some other areas were promised to the Prince of Orange as compensation for the loss of his domains in the Low Countries.

[citation needed] Willem V refused at first, but later accepted the offer in favour for his son William Frederick to become the ruler of the new formed principality, plus five million gulden, in exchange for the renunciation of their hereditary stadtholderate in the abolished Dutch Republic.

[citation needed] With the defeat of the French in 1813, the Prince of Orange regained his possessions in the Low Countries but lost his claims to the principality Nassau-Orange-Fulda.