The Military Order of William was instituted in 1815. The order holds 4 degrees: Knight Grand Cross, Commander and Knight 3rd and 4th grade. The order was awarded for Courage (Moed), Valour (Beleid) and Faith (Trouw).

Orders of the fourth class have been produced in different versions since first issue. The older versions have a diameter of 32mm, the latter 42mm.

Most medals were awarded during the Dutch-Belgium ten-days war in 1830 and in the Dutch Indies.

The medal on the left is the most recent version as changed to its orginal design of 1815 and issued since 2002 (diam 42mm). It was issued in 2002 to all the living Knights Military Order of William. It is estmated that then not more than 20 were still alive. This makes it a very rare version of the MWO. The medal depicted comes out of the legacy of the last person who recieved this order: Mr. Ulrici (1921-2005; MWO4).

29 May 2009 capt Marco Kroon was the first person after 54 years to recieve the highest order of the Netherlands: more