The history of the Lowlands
Part 5
Holland 1697 - 1890
After the brutally murder of Johan and Cornelis de Witt in 1672 the power
of the United Netherlands began to weaken and another revolution took place.
The great prosperity of the Golden Age came to an end in "The Year of Disaster"
1672 when several Countries declared war to the United Netherlands
Stadtholder William II as well as his son William III married English princesses.
In 1689 William III was even crowned as King
of England after he defeated the Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. This event
is still celebrated today with the yearly Orange marches in Northern Ireland.
William III was called to fill the office of Orange of dignity and authority
which had been held by his ancestors of the house of Orange, and the Stadtholdership
was declared to be hereditary in his family. But William died without issue
and a Stadtholderless period, during which the province of Holland was supreme
in the union, followed till 1737.
This change was effected smoothly, for though William III had many differences
with Amsterdam and Dordrecht, he had in Anthony Heinsius (van der Heim), who
was Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1690 to his death in 1720, a statesman
whom he thoroughly trusted, who worked with him in the furtherance of his policy
during life and who continued to carry out that policy after his death in 1702.
The period between 1702 and 1795 was dominated by incompatible Stadtholders
and local disasters in the Lowlands (Floods, Storms, Plaques). The Netherlands
slowly lost their military and trade-power.
Struggles with the house of Orange continued
On the death (1702) of William III the Stadtholderate was again suspended
and the States-General resumed control of the government during the period of
Simon van Slingerlandt of
Dordrecht became Grand Pensionary from 1721-1736 and was also a Republican as
his predecessors van Oldenbarneveldt and de Witt were.
In 1737 there was once more a reversion to the Stadtholdership in the person
of William IV, whose powers were strengthened
and declared hereditary both in. the male and female line in 1747.
In 1747 the Republican party lost power again, and William IV of Orange became
hereditary Stadtholder. In the 18th century. the relative commercial, military,
and cultural positions of the United Provinces in Europe declined as those of
England and France ascended. The Netherlands sided against England in the American
Revolution and as a result lost several colonies in the west at the Treaty of
Paris of 1783.
A patriotic and Republican movement by J. D. van der Capellen (1741-1784)
began to popularize the ideas of the Enlightenment; when in the French Revolutionary
Wars the French overran (1794-1795) the Lowlands, there was much popular approval
and William V fled abroad, and the Batavian
Republic was set up (1795) under French protection. In 1806, Napoleon I established
the Kingdom of Holland and made his brother Louis Bonaparte its first king.
Bonaparte was deposed in 1810, and the kingdom was annexed by France, whereby
French legal, financial, and educational reforms pervaded the Netherlands.
But until the final destruction of the federal republic by the French armies,
the perennial struggle went on between the Holland or federal party (Staatsgesinden)
centered at Amsterdam of which grew the patriot party under William V and the
Orange or unionist party (Oranjegesinden), which was strong in the smaller provinces
and had much popular support among the lower classes.
The full title of the states of Holland in the 17th and 18th centuries was:
de Edele Groot Mogende Heeren Staten van Holland en Westfriesland.
After 1608 this assembly Consisted of nineteen members, one representing
the tuition nobility (ridderschap), and eighteen, the towns. The member for
the nobles had precedence and voted first. The interests of the Country districts
(het platte land) Holland. were the peculiar charges of the member for the nobles.
The nobles also retained the right of appointing representatives to sit in the
College of Deputed Councillors, in certain colleges of the admiralty, and upon
the board of directors of the East India Company, and to various public offices.
The following eighteen towns sent representatives:
South Quarter (I) Dordrecht, (2) Haarlem, (3) Deift, (4) Leiden, (5) Amsterdam,
(6) Gouda, (7) Rotterdam, (8) Gorinchem, (9) Schiedam, (10) Schoonhoven (II)
Brill (Den Briel)
North Quarter:(12) Alkmaar, (13) Hoorn, (14) Enkhuizen, (15) Edam, (16) Monnikendam,
(17) Medemblik, (18) Purmerend.
Each town (as did also the nobles) sent as many representatives as they pleased,
but the nineteen members had only one vote each. Each towns deputation was headed
by its pensionary, who was the spokesman on behalf of the representatives. Certain
questions such as peace and war, voting of subsidies, imposition of taxation,
changes in the mode of government, required unanimity of votes. The Grand Pensionary
(Raad-Pensionaris) was at once the president and chief administrative The Grand
officer of the states. He presided over all meetings, conducted the business,
kept the minutes, and was charged with the maintenance of the rights of the
states, with the execution of their resolutions and with the entire correspondence.
Nor were his functions only provincial. He was the head and the spokesman of
the deputation of the states to the StatesGeneral of the union; and in the Stadtholderless
period the influence of such grand pensionaries of Holland as John de Witt and
Anthony Heinsius enabled the complicated and intricate machinery of government
in a confederacy of many sovereign and semi-sovereign authorities without any
recognized head of the state, to work with comparative smoothness and a remarkable
unity of policy.
This was secured by the indisputable predominance in the union of the province
of Holland. The policy of the states of Holland swayed the policy of the generality,
and historical circumstances decreed that the policy of the states of Holland
during long and critical periods should be controlled by a succession of remarkable
men filling the office of Grand Pensionary. The states of Holland sat at the
Hague in the months of March, July, September and November. During the periods
of prorogation the continuous oversight of the business and interests of the
province was, however, never neglected. This duty was confided to a body called
the College of Deputed Councillors (het Koliegie der Gekommitteerde Deputed
Raden), which was itself divided into two sections, one for the south quarter,
another for the north quarter.
The more important that for the south quarter consisted of ten members :
(1) The senior member of the nobility, who sat for life.
2) Representatives (for periods of three years) of the eight towns: Dordrecht,
Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam, Gouda, Rotterdam and Gorinchem, with a tenth
member (usually elected biennially) for the. towns of Schiedam, Schoonhoven
and Brill (Den Briel) conjointly.
The Grand Pensionary presided over the meetings of the college, which had
the genera charge of the whole provincial administration, especially of finance,
the carrying out of the resolutions of the states, the maintenance of defenses,
and the upholding of the privileges and liberties of the land. With particular
regard to this last named duty the college deputed two of its members to attend
all meetings of the states-general, to watch the proceedings and report at once
any proposals which they held to be contrary to the interests or to infringe
upon the rights of the province of Holland. The institution of the College of
Deputed Councillors might thus be described as a vigilance committee of the
states in perpetual session. The existence of the college, with its many weighty
and important functions, must never be lost sight of by students who desire
to have a clear understanding of the remarkable part played by the province
of Holland in the history of the United Provinces.
The province of Holland was by far the largest and most important province
in the 17th and 18th century. This is why the whole Country is still often referred
to as Holland. Holland and Zeeland were the Provinces with the most powerful
cities.
The Seven United provinces consisted of : Holland (North and South), Drenthe,
Groningen, Friesland (Frisia), Gelderland (Gelre), Zeeland and Utrecht. These
7 former Counties became officially a free Republic in 1648:
During the eighty years war the Northern Lowlands occupied the Duchy's Brabant
and Limburg in 1616, these Duchy's should later (1813), together with Belgium
and Luxemburg be added to the new state called "The Republic of The Netherlands".
All these Provinces (together with the provinces Drenthe, Overijssel, Brabant
and Limburg in The Northern Lowlands and Flanders (modern Belgium) and Luxembourg
in The Southern Lowlands should became later on, in 1815, 'The Kingdom of the
Netherlands'.
Limburg still has a Governor though, like a colony. Limburg and Brabant are
still Roman Catholic areas. To say to someone from Limburg or Friesland that
he or she is from Holland, is really an insult, because they are not. They are
from The Netherlands. People from Utrecht, Gelderland (Gelre) or any of the
other Provinces (except North and South Holland of course) will perhaps not
consider it a real insult, but still they are not from Holland either. People
in Limburg and Friesland (Frisia) speak a language that is hard to understand
for people of the other Provinces. In fact on Dutch TV there are subtitles when
people speak Limburgs or Fries. People in Friesland are on average 10 to 15
centimeters taller than people in Limburg. People from Friesland are often blond,
people in Limburg often are not.
Zeeland gave its name to New Zealand. Holland to Australia (former New Holland).
Table of the Stadtholders 1581-1795, The House of Orange-Nassau, Republicans
and Nassau-Dietz.
Revolution in France
The French revolution (1789) marked also the end of the Republic of the Seven
United Provinces. In 1795 the Republic was occupied by the French, who created
a satellite-state called: "The Batavian Republic". In 1806 Napoleon appointed
his brother Louis-Napoleon to King of the Republic, which now got the name of
"Kingdom of Holland". In 1810 Holland was annexed by France after Louis-Napoleon
had struggles with his brother Napoleon Bonaparte about the way to rule the
Dutch people and the way they have to be managed.
The French conquest swept away the old condition of things never to reappear;
but allegiance to the Orange dynasty survived, and in 1813 became the rallying
point of a united Dutch people. At the same time the leading part played by
the province of Holland in the history of the republic has not been unrecognized,
for the Country ruled over by the sovereigns of the house of Orange is always
popularly, and often officially, known as Holland.
After the collapse of the French Empire in 1813, the Netherlands became definitely
independent. The power-vacuum caused a struggle between "Royalists" and "Republicans".
The Royalists won this fight and in 1815 the "Kingdom of the Netherlands" was
a fact.
Kingdom of The Netherlands 1815 - 1890
Willem I 1772–1843, King 1815-1840
First king of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815-1840), son
of Prince William V of Nassau-Dietz, last Stadtholder of the United Provinces.
He commanded (1793-1795) the Dutch army in the French Revolutionary Wars, and
after the French occupation of the Netherlands he entered the Prussian and later
the Austrian service. He returned to the Netherlands in 1813, and the Congress
of Vienna gave him (1815) the title king of the Netherlands.
The territory included the present Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg
*, Indonesia, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles.
Willem I alienated his Belgian subjects by attempting to make Dutch the official
language, by granting disproportionate influence to the Northern Provinces,
and by encroaching on the freedom of the Roman Catholic Church.
* He was awarded the grand duchy of Luxembourg in compensation
for his family holdings in Germany, which he ceded to Prussia.
Political unrest in the Southern Netherlands (Belgium) led to the revolution
of 1830, which he stubbornly sought to suppress despite the intervention of
England and France (see
London Conference).
Belgium won its independence, but final recognition by William came only in
1839. When his Dutch subjects forced him to liberalize the constitution in 1840
*, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son
William II. Through his rule as an enlightened despot, William fostered the
development of Dutch agriculture, commerce, and industry.
* The constitution of 1840 provided that the King was
"governing" and the secretaries of State were "responsible" for ALL the Kings
deeds. At the overhauling of this constitution, the King could do no wrong.
From that moment on the Secretary of State was always "responsible" to the elected
representatives of the people. The new constitution shaped the basis of the
present "Constitutional Monarchy" with a parliamentary system and two chambers,
the English system, with a first and a second "Chamber". The first chamber consisting
of 75 seat representatives, elected by the Provinces states (indirect Democracy),
and 150 seats as the representatives of the people, directly elected by the
people (direct Democracy). Referendums were not implemented in this Constitution
(like Switzerland).
With the separation of Belgium the territory of the Netherlands got its shape
until 1890.
Willem II 1792-1849, King 1840-1849
>King of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1840-1849), son and
successor of Willem I. He served with Wellington in the Peninsular War, was
wounded at Waterloo, and led the Dutch army in the Belgian revolution (1830),
after his father had failed to approve his efforts at conciliation. Called to
the throne upon the abdication of his father (1840), William II was immediately
confronted with a grave financial problem, which was solved by raising a “voluntary
loan” among the people. Demand mounted for constitutional revision, but the
king resisted the liberal movement, led by Jan
Thorbecke,
until the revolutionary spirit of 1848 induced him to grant the desired reforms.
He was succeeded by his son, William III.
Willem III 1817-1890, King 1849-1890
King of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1849-1890), son and
successor of Willem II. Willem III ruled as a constitutional monarch, and his
long reign was unmarred by friction with the States-General. He granted a parliamentary
constitution to his Luxembourg subjects and maintained Luxembourg's neutrality
in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). The leading Dutch statesman during his
reign was Jan Thorbecke, who obtained full emancipation of the Dutch Catholics
and also promoted economic growth and political reform. With William's death
the male Dutch line of the house of Orange-Nassau became extinct. The Netherlands
crown passed to his daughter,
Wilhelmina,
but Luxembourg went to Duke Adolph of Nassau, from a collateral line of the
family
Under William III the Netherlands enjoyed a period of commercial expansion
and internal development. The Industrial Revolution progressed rapidly after
1860. Trade unionism grew in the late 19th cent., and considerable national
social-welfare legislation was passed. At the same time the country's cultural
life flourished, led by the painter Vincent van Gogh, the writer Louis Couperus,
and others.
Sources :
Mr. drs. Dirk van Duijvenbode in Dutch,
Count
Floris V in Dutch,
The Royal Genealogy
site in English,
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
in English,
Genealogy of Holland
in English, Women in Leadership in English,
Historische sprokkelingen in Dutch,
Wikipedia the free
encyclopedia in English, The
Worldwide web encyclopedia in English,
The Info please
encyclopedia in English,
The
history of The Hague in Dutch, English and German,
Het volk van Nederland
in Dutch,
The
1911 edition encyclopedia in English,
The House of Orange and
Dutch history in Dutch,
The
Dutch Republic in English,
Geschiedenis in
hoofdlijnen in Dutch,
Links worth a visit
A website with a lot of
Paintings
from Aelber Cuyp in English
More information about The Hague, and much more, you
can find at the homepages of Chris Schram at
haagse historie.
