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HOLLAND. History. xxxiii
Witt, De Ruyter, and other naval heroes, whose memory is still
justly cherished by the Dutch. Within the brief period of sixteen
months (1652-54) no fewer than twelve great naval battles were
fought, in most of which the arms of the Republic were crowned
with suc By the peace concluded in 1654, however, the States
1 to recognise the authority of the navigation ac In
4665 a war with England again broke out, during which, in 1667,
De Ruyter even entered the estuary of the Thames with his fleet,
endangeri fety of London itself, to the at consternation
of the Notwithstanding this success, the peace concluded
shortly afterwards was again productive of little benefit to
id.
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rhile Louis XIV. of France had disclosed his designs
t the Netherlands , and had taken possession of the part be-
to Spain. His proceedings against Holland, however, were
for a time by the triple alliance between England, Holland,
Sweden, concluded by the advice of the Grand Pensionary de
Witt. In 1672, after the dissolution of the alliance, Louis renewed
his attacks on the now almost defenceless Union, whose army
had been entirely neglected since the death of Prince William.
Condé and Turenne took pos ion of the provinces of Guelders,
Over-Yssel, and Utrecht almost without a blow, while that of Hol-
land, with its capital Amsterdam, only succeeded in averting the
same fate by means of an artificially caused inundation. The people,
believing that they had been betrayed by their government, now
broke out into a rebellion to which De Witt fell a victim (p. 270),
and which resulted in the revival of the office of stadtholder.
William II. (1672-1702), the last, and after its founder great-
est, scion of his house, was accordingly elected, and the office
stadtholder declared hereditary. Under his auspices, with the aid
of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Spanish troops, the French
were defeated, and the war was at length terminated by the Peace
of Nymegen in 1678.
William III., who had thus been instrumental in asserting the
liberties of Europe against the usurping encroachments of the
‘Grand Monarque’, married the daughter of the Duke of York,
afterwards King James I. of England. In 1688 he undertook that
bold expedition across the Channel which resulted in the deliverance
of England from the arbitrary government of the Stuarts and the
final establishment of constitutional liberty and Protestantism in
Great Britain. The following year he was elected King by parlia-
ment, retaining at the same time the office of stadtholder of the
Netherlands. In his new position he continued strenuously to oppose
the increasing power of France. The united fleets of England and
Holland gained a decisive victory over the French near La Hogue
in 1692, and by the Peace of Ryswyk in 1697 Louis was compelled
to restore a considerable part of his conquests. William was now
BAEDEKER’s Belgium and Holland. 40th Edit. c
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