On 7 October 1840, only a month after his birth, his great-grandfather, the reigning King William I of the Netherlands, abdicated the throne due to disappointment over the recent Treaty of London, which recognized the independence of Belgium (previously provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands), and the intention of marrying a Roman Catholic and Belgian noblewoman, Henrietta d'Oultremont.

She finally married in 1881 Baron Reginald van Tuyll (1845–1903, who may have inspired the eponymous character in P. G. Wodehouse's book Indiscretions of Archie, 1921).

[2] Heavily disillusioned with his situation in the Netherlands, Prince William then went into exile in Paris, where he threw himself into a life of sex, drinking and gambling.

Prince William died at the age of 39 in his apartment in the Rue Auber, near the Paris Opera from a combination of typhus, liver complaints and total exhaustion.

On his coffin there was a wreath from French Empress Eugénie de Montijo and one from the future King Edward VII, who had been his fellow debauchee.