On March 16, 1815, William I was proclaimed King of the United Netherlands, a new state created by the Congress of Vienna that united the former Dutch Republic with the Austrian Netherlands (roughly modern-day Belgium). The proclamation took place in Brussels, the capital of the southern provinces, and marked the formal establishment of a unified kingdom under the House of Orange-Nassau. William's reign would be characterized by efforts to centralize power and promote economic development, but the union proved fragile, leading to the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

The creation of the United Netherlands and the figure of William I became subjects of Dutch and Belgian nationalist poetry in the decades that followed. Poets in both the north and south used verse to articulate competing visions of national identity, with some celebrating the union and others lamenting the suppression of regional distinctiveness. The political tensions of the period would later inspire historical novels and poems that explored the complexities of nation-building in the post-Napoleonic era.