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There was a year of discussion about the position of the dog, the prince's posture and clothing and whether he should wear a calotte. The design of the statue of William of Orange gave rise to much discussion. But by the end of 1842 the time had come; sculptor Louis Royer received the final commission. The members of the national commission and the initiator King William II were quick to agree on the choice of this artist. There was only one sculptor in the Netherlands who could successfully complete such a commission: the Flemish Louis Royer.

This court sculptor and director of the sculpture department of the Amsterdam Rijksakademie made his name with a number of large statues in Amsterdam. At the end of 1841 he was asked to make a sketch design for a statue of William of Orange. The statue could not be unveiled until 1848. The work was apparently postponed, although it remains unclear why.

He stands in the middle of the square, Royer's indisputable Father of the Netherlands. This representation of William of Orange (1533-1584, nickname: William the Silent) was preferred by many to the equestrian statue (1845) of the prince opposite the Noordeinde Palace. The statue did more justice to who William of Orange had really been. Here stands a statesman, the right hand raised in warning, the left on the sealed documents of the Union of Utrecht (1579), the alliance of the seven Northern Netherlands provinces against their Spanish rulers and the basis of our country's political unity. William of Orange led the Revolt against the Spanish. This cost him dearly. In 1580, the Spanish king Philip II declared him outlawed and put a high price on his head. In 1584, he was murdered by the Frenchman Balthazar Gerards in Delft.