HISTORICAL MINUTES OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES, FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM II. TILL THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS.

1680-1815.

In some of the preceding pages, the principal events in the history of the Seven United Provinces, till the death of William II, in 1680, have been briefly mentioned: in the present chapter, we shall insert a summary account of the revolutions of their government, till the present time.

XIV 1.

William III.

1650-1702.

William III. was born after the death of William II. his father. Immediately after that event, his mother claimed for him the stadtholderate, and all the other dignities, pre-eminences, and rights, which his father and grandfather had enjoyed; but, so great, at that time, was the public jealousy of the ambitious views of the house of Orange, that the States General would not even take her claims into deliberation. A general assembly of the States was held in 1661. They confirmed the Treaty of Union, of 1579; attributed to themselves, the appointment of all civil and military offices; placed the army under the authority of the provinces and municipalities, and invested the council of state with the general direction of the military concerns of the nation. A war with England, which was then governed by Cromwell, soon followed; it was the commencement of the naval glory of the United States. But the government was distracted by the contests and dissensions between the republican and the Orange factions. The former were headed by John de Witt. He possessed transcendent abilities, was a true lover of his country, and, on every occasion, advised the wisest measures. Some of the military operations of the States proving unsuccessful, the Orange faction endeavoured to persuade the people, that this reverse of fortune was owing to the want of a Stadtholder; and exhorted them to confer this dignity on the young prince, to be exercised, during his minority, by one of the family. This proposition was successfully resisted by De Witt. Peace between England and the United Provinces being concluded, Cromwell endeavoured to unite them to England by a federative alliance; but they rejected the proposition. At the suggestion of De Witt, the States of Holland passed an Act, by which they bound themselves never to appoint the Prince of Orange, or any of his descendants, to the office of Stadtholder, or Captain General; and to prevent, to their utmost power, the other States from making such an appointment. This measure displeased the other States. In 1665, the office of Commander in Chief becoming vacant, the opposite party endeavoured to procure it for one of the Orange family; this attempt also proved abortive. In 1661 a war broke out between England, which was then governed by Charles II., and the United States; these displayed in it, chiefly under the command of De Ruyter, prodigies of valour and naval skill; the year 1667 was famous in their annals, by their fleet’s sailing up the river Thames, and burning the English fleet at Chatham. The peace of Breda immediately followed.

Still, the civil discord continued. The States of Holland renewed the Edict of Exclusion, with the addition of a clause, that, whenever a person should be invested, with the office of Captain, or Admiral General, he should swear never to aspire to the office of Stadtholder, and to refuse it, if it should be offered to him.

The year 1671 is remarkable for the league entered into by Louis XIV. and Charles II. against the United States, and by their vigourous resistance to it. The circumstances into which it drove the United States, compelled them to appoint the Prince of Orange Captain General and Admiral: he took the oath prescribed by the Perpetual Edict, not to aspire to the stadtholderate, and to reject it, if offered. He was at this time in his twenty-second year: he owed his elevation to the critical situation in which the United States were then placed; but it was also owing to the great prudence with which he had conducted himself when fortune was opposed to him; and to the talents and application to business which he then discovered.

At sea, the navy of the United States was generally successful. At land, the arms of Lewis XIV. triumphed; he conquered Gueldres, Overyssell, and the city and province of Utretcht. This maddened the populace. They massacred John De Witt, and Cornelius De Witt, his brother, after having subjected them to the cruellest tortures and the most brutal indignities. To the indelible reproach of William III. he did not interfere to prevent or stop these horrors. His measures for obtaining the stadtholderate succeeded.

On the 4th of July 1672, it was re-established in the person of William III.; and all the dignities and rights enjoyed by his predecessors were conferred upon him. These, in 1674, were made hereditary in his family. His subsequent conduct is entitled, on many accounts, to the warmest praise. The success of the United States at sea compelled Charles II. to make peace with them, so that Lewis XIV. was their only enemy. The war with him was terminated by the peace of Nimeguen in 1678. Ten years after it, the Stadtholder, on the abdication of James II. became King of England. In 1690, England, Spain, Austria, and the United Provinces, entered into the Grand Alliance against France. The Duke of Savoy and several Princes of Germany afterwards joined it. In general, the proceedings of the confederacy were unsuccessful; the war was terminated in 1697 by the peace of Ryswick. In 1700, the disputes on the succession to the Spanish monarchy, in consequence of the death of Charles II. of Spain, without issue, called the world again to arms. William III. died in 1702.

XIV 2.

John William Count of Nassau Dietz, 1702-1711; William IV 1711-1751.

The government of William III. was generally displeasing to the United States: they accused him of sacrificing them to the interests of his English monarchy, and to the hatred which he always bore to the French. He was also suspected, and not without reason, of a design to acquire the independent sovereignty of the provinces. At first, his influence within them was so great, that he was said to be King in the United States, and Stadtholder in England; but it declined gradually; and an attempt by him to obtain the succession to the stadtholderate for John Friso, Prince of Nassau and Hereditary Stadtholder of Frizeland, absolutely failed. He made, by his will, that prince his testamentary heir.

Upon the decease of William III. a general wish to discontinue the stadtholderate was expressed in most of the provinces; those of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gueldres, and Overyssell, came to a formal resolution to this effect They recognised the supreme power of the States General, and conferred the direction of their political concerns on Heinsius, the actual Grand Pensionary, a person of great learning, uncommon talents for business, and acknowledged integrity.

As testamentary heir of William III., John-William assumed the title of Prince of Orange: he died in 1711, without having exercised the power of the stadtholderate, except in the province of Frizeland.

The war of the succession terminated in 1713, by the peace of Utretcht: it was succeeded in 1715 by the Barrier Treaty, and in 1719 by the Quadruple Alliance, ever memorable for the triumphant campaigns of Marlborough, by which it was followed. The pensionary Heinsius died in 1720. In his life-time, several weak attempts had been made, in different provinces, to restore in them the stadtholderate. They succeeded only at Gueldres; and even there, it was restored with great limitations.

Upon the decease of Prince William-John, his rights and pretensions descended to Prince William, his son. In 1733, he married Mary, the daughter of George II. of England. This strengthened his cause; but the general spirit of the United Provinces was so averse to the Stadtholderate, that it was not till the invasion of Holland, by the French, in 1747, that the prince’s party judged it advisable to bring forward his claim. At first they met with resistance, but finally prevailed, and Prince William of Orange became the sole Stadtholder of every province: until his time each of the provinces of Frizeland and Groningen had its particular Stadtholder. The dignities of Captain General and Admiral were also conferred on him; and, in addition to these, some rights and privileges which no former Stadtholder had enjoyed.

The reverses of the United Provinces continued, and the aggrandisement of the Stadtholderate increased proportionally. As yet William IV. had no male issue. In 1748, the Orange faction proposed that the Stadtholderate should be declared hereditary; and that, in default of males, females should be admitted into the succession. After some opposition the measure was carried in all the provinces, except Frizeland and Groningen. From this time the United Provinces ceased to be a republic, and became a monarchy, limited by the antient usages and institutions. William IV. died in 1749.

XIV 3.

From the Death of William IV. till the Erection of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

1749-1815.

At the death of William IV. William, his son, and afterwards his successor in the Stadtholderate, was an infant, in very tender years. His mother was named by the states Governess of the United Provinces. She appointed the Duke of Brunswick to the command of their armies; thus, after all their exertions and sacrifices for liberty, the United Provinces became subject to the government of an English princess and a German prince; and an English party became predominant in their politics; William V. married a princess of Prussia, and thus the Orange party was strengthened by Prussian influence.

These opposite, and conflicting interests, filled every province, with dissension; and, on some occasions, armed one body of citizens against another. The English party, sided with the Orange faction; the French, with the republicans. At first the latter prevailed; they led the states into measures, which forced England to declare war against them. In 1782, they acknowledged the independence of the United States of America. Still, the dissensions continued. After a long conflict, the republican party acquired the ascendant; they suspended the Prince of Orange from his functions, and filled all the principal places of trust with their own adherents. But the Orange party soon rallied; the Duke of Brunswick entered Holland at the head of a victorious army, and, in 1787, re-established the Stadtholderate.

His victorious career, was soon terminated. In 1799, the revolutionary army of France made themselves masters of the whole territory of the United States; and established The Batavian Republic. It was successively governed, but always under the overpowering controul of France, by a Convention, a Directory, and a Consul, with the appellation of Grand Pensionary. In 1806, even these forms of her antient government were abolished; Napoleon sending Louis, one of his brothers, to reign over the United Provinces, with the title and powers of royalty; but with an intimation, that France was entitled to his first attentions and a priority of duty. The demands of Napoleon for attentions and duties were so exorbitant, that rather than be instrumental in the infliction of the miseries which a compliance with them must occasion, Louis resigned his throne. Napoleon then incorporated the United Provinces into his empire, “as an alluvion,” for such he termed them, “to the Rivers of France.” Scenes of the most grinding oppression followed: the Batavians were relieved from it by the fall and abdication of Napoleon.

Before this event, William V. died, leaving a son, called from his pretensions to the stadtholderate, William VI. We have seen that, on the death of the Emperor Charles V. all the seventeen provinces, composing the Netherlands, devolved to Philip II. his son; the successful defection of the Seven United Provinces has been mentioned; the ten remaining provinces were afterwards transferred to the House of Austria, and were inherited by the Emperor Joseph II. The French made an easy conquest of them in an early stage of the Revolution.

We now reach the ultimate fate of both the divisions of the Netherlands. The congress of Vienna, by an act of the 9th June 1815, created and conferred upon this prince, THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS, consisting of the seventeen provinces, and a portion of Luxemburgh. It is confessedly the first among the kingdoms of the second order.

It was our wish to present our readers with a sketch of the literary history of the Netherlands, during the period treated of in this chapter; but after most diligent and extensive searches, both in the British and foreign markets, we have not been able to discover materials for it; persons of acknowledged learning, both in Germany and the Netherlands, have assured us that no such history exists.