Full text |
xxxiv History. HOLLAND.
estranged from his native country, but shortly before his death,
without issue, in1702, he brought about the ‘Great Alliance’ which
disputed the right of the French monarch to succeed to the crown
of Spain. é
Following the example of the States General (p. xxxi), the five
most important provinces now declared the office of Stadtholder
abolished. Their foreign policy, however, underwent no alteration
on this account. Prince John William Friso (d. 1714, see p. 175),
stadtholder of Frie
the command of the army of the Republic, which took part in the
war of the Spanish succession. Under his presidency the power of
the States General manifested itself anew. The flower of the Dutch
army fell at the bloody victory of Malplaquet (p. 180), and in 1714
the Peace Congress assembled at Utrecht, on Dutch soil.
The events of the 18th cent. scarcely require special mention.
The Republic had lost its prestige, and in the continuing alliance
with England the preponderating power of the latter became more
and more marked. When the French entered the territory of the
Republic during the Austrian war of succession, the people com-
pelled the States to appoint William IV., Prince of Orange, the
son and successor of John William Friso, General Stadtholder over
all the seven provinces; and in 47
48 this dignity was once more
declared hereditary. A revolution which broke out towards the close
of the century ended in the expulsion of the Stadtholder William V. ;
but he was reinstated in his office by the Prussian army, which
had advanced almost unopposed to the gates of Amsterdam itself.
The importance of the Republic had now dwindled to a mere
shadow. In 1795 the French Republicans, led by Dutch exil
took possession of the country, founded the ‘Batavian Republ
and at the same time caused heavy taxes to be levied. Schimmel-
pennink, an able statesman , was created president of the new Re-
public, under the old title of Grand Pensionary, but in 1805 was
compelled to yield up his authority to Lowis Bonaparte, who had
been created King of Holland by his brother Napoleon I. This
semblance of independent existence came to an end in 4810,
when Napoleon annexed Holland to France, declaring it to have
been formed by the alluvial deposits of French rivers. —
At length in November, 1813, the French were expelled from
Holland by the Dutch, aided by the Russians and Prussians ; and
the Prince of Orange, son of William Y., the last stadtholder, who
5
died in exile in 1806, ascended the throne of Holland as an in-
dependent sovereign.
By the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the southern, or Belgian
provinces of the Netherlands, were united with the northern into a
single Kingdom, and the Prince of Orange was created King of the
Netherlands, under the title of William I. This bond of union
between two races differing materially in language, religion, and |