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HOLLAND. History. xii
to Spain. His proceedings against Holland, however, were checked
for a time by the triple alliance between England, Holland, and Swe-
den, concluded in 1668 by the advice of the Grand Pensionary de
Witt. In 1672, after the dissolution of the alliance, Lonis 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 possession of the provinces of Guelders,
Over-Yssel, and Utrecht almost without a blow, while that of Hol-
land, with its capital Amsterdam, succeeded in averting the same
fate only 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. 329),
and which resulted in the revival of the office of stadtholder.
William 11. (1672-1702), the last, and after its founder great-
A accordingly elected, and the office of
x Under his auspices, with the aid
or of Brandenburg and the Spanish troops, the French
were defeated, and the war was at length terminated by the Peace
en in 16
5
William Ill., who had thus been instrumental in asserting the
liberties of Eurc against the usurping encroachments of the
‘Grand Monarque’, married Mary, daughter of the Duke of York,
afterwards King James II. 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 near La Hogue in 1692, and by
the Peace of Ryswyk in 1697 Louis was compelled to restore a con-
siderable part of his conquests.
On the death of William in 1702, the five most important pro-
vinces declared the office of Stadtholder abolished. Their foreign
policy, however, underwent no alteration on this account. Prince
John William Friso of the House of Nassau - Diez, in which the
office of stadtholder of Friesland had been hereditary since the be-
ginning of the 17th cent., succeeded to the command of the army
of the Republic in the war of the Spanish succession, and took a
distinguished part in the bloody victory of Malplaqnet (p. 216). In
1713 the Peace Congress assembled at Utrecht, on Dutch soil. As
the heir of William III., John William Friso, who died in 4714
(comp. p. 207) is the founder of the younger Orange line, to which
the present royal family belongs.
The events of the 18th cent. scarcely require special mention.
In the continuing alliance with England the preponderating power |
