SERVANT OF STATE
Bernhard and Bea,
The End of Orange
When the French duke and the English queen refused to become sovereign of the Northern Netherlands, Maurice got his big chance. The States appointed him captain-general, commander-in-chief of all the States troops, and in addition to Holland and Zeeland, he also received the stadtholdership of Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel.
Servant of the State The States-General also decided not to look for a new sovereign prince. This is how the Republic of the United Netherlands came into being, not the first republic in the world (in the past, Greece and Rome and at that time Venice, Genoa and Switzerland were also republics), but the first country in Europe where sovereignty did not rest with a hereditary prince, but with the citizens, the notables and regents who formed the States-General.
The stadtholder was no longer in the service of a sovereign king, he became the servant of a few provinces. They paid Maurice's income and financed his campaigns. They were clearly the boss: on every campaign they sent someone along who had to check whether the stadtholder was not spending too much. With every victory they gave him a 'bonus' which made him increasingly powerful and richer. He was able to pay off his father's debts, and almost automatically Maurice received the high English Order of the Garter, which gave him princely allure.
The States, his employers, were not happy with the award. They had not renounced Philip in order to get a new boss in his place. They wanted peace and the restoration of trade. The service was difficult for Maurice and that led to a power struggle. The States of Zeeland still had some understanding for his princely display and his tendency to compare himself with the Roman general and emperor Julius Caesar, but the Dutch regents felt that Maurice should not be pretentious, they wanted to make it clear that he was in their service. He owed his appointment to them.
Maurits found it hard to accept that Holland increasingly objected to his money-guzzling campaigns and had no interest in expanding the territory of the Republic - Maurits' fervent wish. Maurits had opposed a ceasefire, but in 1609 he had to give in and conclude a (Twelve Year) Truce. His half-brother and successor Frederik Hendrik still did not want peace with Spain, even after almost eighty years. So Frederik Hendrik also had serious friction with the States of Holland. Frederik Hendrik, the Cities' compulsive, knew how to play his masters magnificently.
He succeeded in completely controlling a core group of the States-General, the 'Secreet Besogne'. He appointed the members of this 'secret task' himself and held the meetings at his home at the Oude Hof, the present-day Noordeinde Palace. He arranged early on that his son, the later stadtholder Willem II, would inherit all his political and military functions.
He placed loyal followers in important positions throughout the cities and provinces. The French ambassador in The Hague addressed the stadholder, on the orders of the great French statesman Richelieu, as 'Son Altesse'. The states could not lag behind and with gnashing pride gave their servant the title 'His Highness'. Only when Frederik Hendrik became ill and began to show signs of dementia did the states dare to criticize his way of life and to say that they were the boss. He eventually died a year before the Peace of Munster was signed in 1648.
And on his deathbed, Prince Frederik Hendrik, who had striven for royal dignity like no other, said: 'I am the Lord's States' servant'. In the end, he knew exactly what his position was: executor of the will of the States General. Much like the constitutional monarch of today.
Amsterdam attacked
With his son, the States of Holland also had a hard time. Stadtholder Willem II, 21 years old when he succeeded his father, was a hot-headed person. He too had wanted to fight on and conquer the Southern Netherlands including Antwerp from which his grandfather had had to flee at the time. The Oranges had an interest in wars, they gloried on the battlefield, they were not very peace-loving. When his father-in-law, the English king Charles I was beheaded, he immediately wanted to sail to England with a fleet.
The States of Holland refused to finance the adventure and Willem bit the dust. He would teach Holland a lesson. He saw his chance when the States of Holland announced major cutbacks in the army. The Eighty Years' War was over, peace had been signed and the debt burdens were astronomically high. Holland, which had paid the lion's share of the war costs, wanted to get rid of half of the expensive mercenary army. Willem was furious and together with his second cousin Willem Frederik van Nassau, the stadtholder of Friesland and Groningen, these two provinces appointed their own stadtholder, planned an attack on Amsterdam.
The two cousins managed to convince the States General that Holland was playing a dangerous game. That Holland wanted a free sea for trade with its fleet, but that the six other provinces also had to fear an enemy from the land. The Amsterdam regents, wrote Willem Frederik in his diary, took all power to themselves and put the unity of the Republic at stake. The two stadtholders, they believed, had no other choice: they had to occupy Amsterdam. Willem counted on support from the people and began to distribute seditious pamphlets.
The Frisian cousin made a plan to place soldiers of Willem at the city gates of Amsterdam among the workers who were waiting there early in the morning for them to open, who would be able to maintain order and peace in the city. In order to retain the support of the States-General, William proposed once more to send a committee of good offices, headed by himself, to the Dutch cities to change their minds. The Dutch regents would not be swayed, some cities even refused to receive the stadholder. Amsterdam was willing to speak to the stadholder, but it should not be more than a courtesy visit. William kept his honour to himself, refused to come and was even more convinced that he had to act quickly.
The Heath near Hilversum
The attack on Amsterdam was to take place on 30 July and the night before, soldiers from Gelderland would come to Amsterdam. Somewhere near Abcoude, Willem Frederik would meet them. Willem II himself remained in The Hague, where he had representatives of the States of Holland arrested and imprisoned in the state prison Fort Loevestein.
In the Disaster Year 1672, the Bishop of Munster conquered large parts of Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. Coevorden fell into the hands of the bishop, but was recaptured by Groningers under the leadership of General Rabenhaupt.
The area between Hilversum and Amsterdam was heathland. It was fairly wild, there were no good paths, there was a cart track here and there, but otherwise there were no points of contact for those who did not know the way. Nowadays, there is no heathland to be seen near Abcoude, but houses; Amsterdam with its buildings and towers is getting closer and closer, there are flats everywhere, the AMC is nearby and the sound and tinkling of cars betrays a motorway nearby.
The soldiers arrived in Hilversum in the evening. It was dark and a guide would take them to Abcoude. Then it started to rain and thunder uncontrollably and the men completely lost their way. Cart tracks were erased and after wandering for a long time the leaders finally found their way to Abcoude. But when they arrived in Abcoude, they appeared to have lost ten of the fourteen companies. The lost troops continued to wander across the Hilversum heath and eventually fell asleep.
Early in the morning the postman from Hamburg came by on horseback, on his way to Amsterdam. The two Willems had not thought to block the road to the east. The postman saw the soldiers and immediately warned the Amsterdam city council. They locked the city gates, called up the militia, made the cannons on the ramparts ready to fire and flooded parts of the land. One bullet was fired and it hit a cow in the buttock. Nothing else happened.
Willem Frederik retreated to his headquarters on the Amstel. He dared not go any further, he understood that the plan had failed. He sent a messenger to William in The Hague who became so furious that he threw his hat on the floor 'stamping his feet with regret'.
Eventually negotiations were held and these were conducted very well and successfully by William: the Amsterdam mayors Andries and Cornelis Bicker, against whom William's anger was specifically directed, disappeared from their posts. Amsterdam had relented, it could not continue the fight against the prince and the other provinces forever.
Three months after the failed journey to Amsterdam, William fell ill after a day of hunting in the 'Onzalige Bossen' near Dieren. He died on 6 November 1650 of smallpox and sudden pneumonia - but the rumour was that he had been poisoned by the Spanish, who were afraid that the war would resume. Stadtholder King William III during a hunting party on the heath near Wolfheze. Painting from 1691 by A.C.Beeldemaker.
Stadtholder William II lived to be 24 years old, too young to grow into a great stadtholder, old enough to know that this Orange too was not satisfied with the limits and restrictions that were set to the office of stadtholder. Amsterdam was not sad about his death, and with a donation in the collection bag on the Sunday after the prince's death there was a note: 'The prince is dead, my gift great, none happier but, in eighty years'.
Disastrous
A week after the death of William II, his son was born. But the stadtholdership was not hereditary and the States of Holland did not want a new stadtholder. Now that there was no need for a general, and there was also no adult 'heir to the throne' available, they saw their chance and in 1667 they even decided that the Oranges would never again be stadtholder and commander in chief. The other provinces followed Holland's example.
In 1651, the States General decided in the Knight's Hall to abolish the stadholdership and thus sideline Orange. Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe kept their own stadholder from the House of Nassau-Dietz. Painting by Dirck van Deelen. The banners on the ceiling were captured from the Spanish in the Eighty Years' War.
But the Oranges continued to appeal to the imagination and in 1672 the First Stadtholderless Period that had begun in 1650 ended. Then the son of William II was appointed stadtholder and commander in chief, the people called for Orange. He had to save the Republic from the attacks of France, England, Cologne and Munster.
William III was 21 years old when he became stadtholder. It was exactly one hundred years ago that the States of Holland and Zeeland, strengthened by the capture of Den Briel, had elected William of Orange as stadtholder in rebellion against Spain.
In London, in the strictly geometric ornamental garden of Hampton Court Castle, there is a classic hedge maze. Stadtholder William III, who also became king of England in 1689, had this outdoor area and this maze constructed as a philosophical reflection on the complexities of life. Perhaps the Disaster Year 1672 was a model for this, perhaps this stadtholder-king, who had more power than any Orange before him and after him, regarded his entire life as a complicated maze.
He had a difficult childhood behind him, a power struggle between his mother Maria Stuart and grandmother Amalia van Holms was fought over his child's head. He knew that the States General were against his appointment as stadtholder until they could no longer do otherwise in 1672. He was a stubborn man, who cleverly used the people around him to get his way to persevere and drop them when he no longer needed them. He did not make himself very popular with it.
But as a stadtholder he was excellent. He was, like the Father of the Fatherland, William the Silent, a man with vision. Both were extremely capable diplomats who never showed the back of their tongue and worked very pragmatically, sometimes opportunistically. The former American politician Henry Kissinger considers William III to be one of the first true 'Realpolitiker'.
William of Orange and William III were both paragons of tolerance, but that tolerance also had practical reasons. They found it pointless to impose a religion or political opinion on someone. Tolerance meant that dissidents were not prosecuted as long as they behaved calmly. It is something different from freedom of religion. William III loved war, he believed that God led him through the terrible chaos in the dangerous world.
He had already driven out the enemy troops that had invaded the Republic in 1672 in 1673. Quite an achievement for a twenty-two-year-old boy who had hardly had any military training. But he was not afraid and he went rather recklessly - a family trait, Count Adolf and his father were also at the forefront of the troops on the battlefield. He had an unshakeable faith in the vitality and sustainability of the Republic.
William's life was in the service of the Republic, which did not mean that he felt himself - like his grandfather Frederik Hendrik - "the Lord's State's servant". On the contrary, he detested the States and would have preferred to be the sovereign prince of the Netherlands. But he understood that self-interest was best served by looking after the interests of the Republic. He guarded the strong position of the Republic and defeated its enemies, and became a European prince who had to be reckoned with.
Wall paintings in William's palaces in England show this, the portraits and busts of William and his wife Mary Stuart in London, and especially the enormous ceiling painting in the Royal Naval College in Greenwich on which William III and Mary Stuart are depicted with a defeated Louis XIV with a broken sword under William's feet. This is not just any stadtholder from the Republic, this is a prince with grandeur and allure, one of the most important players on the European stage.
Frisian stadtholders
Prince William of Orange was the first, stadtholder-king William III was the last of the great stadtholders. He was also the most powerful and could have passed that power on to his son, if he had had one. But William III had no children and his death in 1702 put an end to the direct descendants of William of Orange in the male line.
This made it easy for the States not to look for a new stadtholder. Moreover, there was no war. The Second Stadtholderless Period (1702-1747) lasted 45 years. In 1747, the Republic was attacked from all sides, just like in the Disaster Year of 1672, and the people again demanded an Orange to save the country. There were no direct descendants (in the male line) of William of Orange and the States appealed to Willem Carel Hendrik Friso van Nassau, a great-great-nephew of William III who belonged to the Frisian branch of the Nassaus. The title Prince of Orange had passed to this Nassaus in Leeuwarden after the death of William III.
On paper, this first Frisian stadtholder in the Republic was even more powerful than all his predecessors. For the first time in history, he was appointed stadtholder of all seven provinces. Furthermore, the stadtholdership was declared hereditary in both the female and male line. The stadtholder also automatically became commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The people - and thanks to the people this Orange had also come back to power - expected that the new stadholder William IV would put an end to the corruption of regents and administrators. He could have seized his chance, he had all the sympathy, but he was sickly and a vacillator, and too powerless to take sides against the established order, against the regents who were passing jobs off to each other. He lost the sympathy of the people and few mourned when he died in 1751.
Little remained of the power of the Republic, fifty years after the death of William 111, and nothing at all of the grandeur of the king-stadholder. Unfortunately, the stadholdership and the supreme command of the armed forces had become hereditary in the meantime. The new stadholder and supreme commander, William's young son, was only 3 years old.
His mother, Anna of Hanover, the daughter of the English king, became regent, and after her early death, 'the fat duke' of Henry, under the name of Brunswick, who had once been appointed by William IV as field marshal in the army, took charge of the education of the young prince.
Wads of State Papers
In 1766, Willem v turned 18 and solemnly accepted the office of stadtholder. But the second Frisian Orange was also completely unsuitable for the stadtholdership. He was a lover of art, music and literature, and led a glorious court life; he built up a beautiful stone collection, collected paintings and had a zoo with exotic animals at Het Loo.
But he was not interested in affairs of state, he crumpled up the pieces he was given to read in boredom and threw them carelessly in a corner of the room. He himself knew very well that he was not suited for the job. 'I wish I were dead, that my father had never become stadtholder... I feel that I am not competent enough to be at the head of so many things', he once said about it himself.
The American colonists declared independence in 1776, there was ferment in France and in the Netherlands too a movement of citizens emerged, especially intellectuals who wanted more influence in government affairs. They called themselves 'patriots' and strongly opposed the stadtholder and the Prince's supporters who sided with Orange. The contrast between these two groups became sharper, there was fierce discussion about what would later be called democracy and popular sovereignty. The Enlightenment had penetrated the Low Countries.
On July 10, 1584, Balthasar Gerards shoots William of Orange dead. This happens in the Prinsenhof in Delft, where William of Orange has his court. William of Orange is then 51 years old. His murderer Balthasar Gerards can be caught and is sentenced to a horrible death.
In this explosive climate a pamphlet caused great commotion. Aan het Volk van Nederland, inspired by the American 'Declaration of Independance' was published anonymously in 1781. Much later it became known that it was written by an Overijssel nobleman, Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol, who in this exceptionally eloquent pamphlet wiped the floor with the Oranges through the centuries and took up arms against the regents of this Ancien Régime. To the People of the Netherlands became the guideline for the patriots who wanted to drive out the decadent House of Orange.
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