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xlii History. HOLLAND.

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 compelled the States to appoint William LY.,
Prince of Orange, the son of John William Friso, General Stadt-
holder over all the seven provinces; and in 1748 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. (b.1748, stadtholder since 1766), but he was reinstated
in his office in 1787 by the Prussian army, which had advanced to
the gates of Amsterdam.

The importance of the Republic had now dwindled to a mere
shadow. In 1795 the French Republicans took possession of the
country, founded the ‘Batavian Republic’, and at the same time
caused heavy taxes to be levied. Rutger Jan Schimmelpennirck,
an able statesman, was in 1805 created president of the new Re-
public, under the old title of Grand Pensionary, but in 1806
was compelled to yield up his authority to Louis Bonaparte, who
had been created King of Holland by his brother Napoleon I. This
semblance of independent existence came to an end in 1810,
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
died in exile in 1806, landed at Scheveningen, and ascended the
throne of Holland as an independent 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 (comp. p. xxv), 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 character was severed by the Belgian
Revolution of 1830 (comp. p. xxy). Ten years later William I.
abdicated in favour of his son William II., who died in 1849 and
was succeeded by William III. Atthe death of the last (Noy. 23rd,
1890) the male line of the house of Nassau-Orange became extinct.
He was succeeded by his daughter Wilhelmina (b. 1880), during
whose minority the queen-mother exercised the functions of regent.
In 1898 Wilhelmina assumed the reigns of government and in Feb.,
1904, she married Henry, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1876),
who was created Prince of the Netherlands. The present heir to
the throne is Princess Juliana, born on April 30th, 1909.

AREA and Popunation. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, including
the Province of Limburg, is 12,650 sq. M. in area, and has (1908) a popu-
lation of 5,825,198 of whom 60% are Protestants, 359/) Roman Catholics
and 2%/) Jews. Amsterdam is the capital of the kingdom, and The Hague

is the residence of the queen. The Netherlands are divided into eleven
provinces: NW. Brabant (capital, °S Hertogenbosch), Drenthe (Assen), Firies-