the French, but for various reasons the conquest of the
country was delayed until 1795. In the closing months
of 1794 Pichegru, at the head of a large and victorious army,
invaded the Provinces. The very severe frost of that winter gave
his troops an easy passage over all the rivers and low-lying
lands; town after town fell before him; he occupied
Amsterdam, and crossing the ice with his cavalry
took the Dutch fleet, as it lay frost-bound at the
Texel. The stadholder and his family fled to England,
Overthrow of the Stadholderate.
Flight of William V.
The Batavian Republic.
Changes of Government.
and the disorganized remnants of the allied forces under
the duke of York retreated into Germany. The “patriots,” as
the anti-Orange republicans still styled themselves,
received the French with open arms and public rejoicings,
and the government was reorganized so as
to bring it into close harmony with that of Paris. The stadholderate,
the offices of captain and admiral-general, and all the
ancient organization of the United Netherlands were abolished,
and were transformed into the Batavian Republic, in close
alliance with France. But the Dutch had soon cause
to regret their revolutionary ardour. French alliance
meant French domination, and participation in the
wars of the Revolution. Its consequences were the
total ruin of Dutch commerce, and the seizure of all the Dutch
colonies by the English. Internally one change of government
succeeded another; after the States-General came a
national convention; then in 1798 a constituent
assembly with an executive directory; then chambers
of representatives; then a return to the earlier systems
under the names of the eight provincial and one central Commissions
(1801). These changes were the outcome of a gradual
reaction in a conservative direction.
The peace of Amiens gave the country a little rest, and the
Dutch got back the Cape of Good Hope and their West Indian
colonies; it was, however, but the brief and deceptive
interlude between two storms; when war began
again England once more took possession of all she
Constitution of 1805.
had restored. In 1805 the autocratic will of Napoleon
Bonaparte imposed upon them a new constitution, and Rutger
Jan Schimmelpenninck (1765–1825) was made, under the
ancient title of grand pensionary, head of the government.
In the next year the French emperor added Holland,
as the United Provinces were now named, to the ring of
dependent sovereignties, by means of which he sought to
build up a universal empire, and he forced his brother Louis
Louis Bonaparte King of Holland.
The Sovereign Prince.
Creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Hundred Days.
to be the unwilling king of an unwilling people. The new
king was a man of excellent intentions and did his
best to promote the interest of his subjects, but finding
himself unable to protect them from the despotic
overlordship of his brother, after a four years’ reign,
Louis abdicated. In 1810 the Northern Netherlands by decree
of Napoleon were incorporated in the French empire, and had
to bear the burdens of conscription and of a crushing weight of
taxation. The defeat of Leipzig in 1813 was the signal for a
general revolt in the Netherlands; the prince of Orange (son
of William V.) was recalled, and amidst general
rejoicing accepted at Amsterdam the offer of the
sovereignty under a free constitution (Dec. 1, 1813),
with the title of sovereign prince. On the downfall
of Napoleon the great powers determined to create in the Low
Countries a powerful state, and by the treaty of London (June
14, 1814) the Belgians were united with the Dutch
provinces to form the kingdom of the Netherlands,
which was also to include the bishopric of Liège and
the duchy of Bouillon, and the prince of Orange was
placed upon the throne on the 15th of March 1815 as
William I., king of the Netherlands (see William I., king of the Netherlands). The ancestral possessions of the
House of Nassau were exchanged for Luxemburg, of which
territory King William in his personal capacity
became grand duke. The carrying out of the treaty
was delayed by the Hundred Days’ campaign,
which for a short time threatened its very existence. The
daring invasion of Napoleon, however, afforded the Dutch and
Belgian contingents of the allied army the opportunity to fight
side by side under the command of William, prince of Orange,
eldest son of the new king, who highly distinguished himself by
his gallantry at Quatre Bras, and afterwards at Waterloo where
he was wounded (see William II., king of the Netherlands).
The Congress of Vienna confirmed the
William I. crowned at Brussels.
Constitution of the Netherlands.
arrangements made by the treaty of London, and
William I. was crowned king of the Netherlands at
Brussels on the 27th of September 1815. Under the constitution
the king, as hereditary sovereign, possessed full executive
powers, and the initiative in proposing laws. He had
the power of appointing his own council of state.
The legislative body bore the time-honoured title of
States-General, and was divided into an Upper
Chamber nominated by the king, and a Lower Chamber
elected by the people. Freedom of worship, freedom of the
press, and political equality were principles of the constitution,
guaranteed to all.
The union of the Dutch and Belgian provinces, like so many
of the territorial arrangements of the Congress of Vienna, was
an attempt to create a strong state out of diverse
and jarring elements. It was an artificial union,
Difference between the Dutch and Belgic provinces.
which nothing but consummate tact and statesmanship
could have rendered permanent and solid. North
and south were divided from one another by religious
belief, by laws and usages, by material interests, and
by two centuries and a half of widely severed national
life. The Belgians were strict Catholics, the Dutch Calvinistic
Protestants. The Dutch were chiefly a commercial and seafaring
people, with interests in distant lands and colonial
possessions; the Belgians were agriculturists, except where
their abundance of minerals made them manufacturers. The
national traits of the Dutch were a blend of German and English,
the national leaning of the Belgians was towards France and
French ideals. Nevertheless the materials were there out of
which a really broad-minded and conciliatory handling of religion
and racial difficulties might have gradually built up a Netherland
nation able to hold from its population and resources
a considerable place among European powers. For it must not
be forgotten that some two-thirds of the Belgian people are by
origin and language of the same race as the Dutch. But when
difficulties and differences arose between North and South, as
they were sure to arise, they were not dealt with wisely. The
king had good intentions, but his mind was warped by Dutch
prejudices, and he was ill-advised and acted unadvisedly. The
The Belgian Revolution.
Reign of William II.
Accession of William III.
The Constitution of 1848.
consequences were the Belgian Revolution of 1830,
which ended in the intervention of the great powers,
and the setting up, in 1831, of Belgium as an independent
kingdom. The final settlement of outstanding
questions between the two countries was not reached till 1839
(for an account of the Belgian Revolution, see Belgium). King
William I. in the following year, having become unpopular
through his resistance to reform, resigned his crown to
his son William II., who reigned in peace till his
death in 1849, when he was succeeded by his eldest
son William III. (see William III., king of the Netherlands).
His accession marked the beginning of constitutional government
in the Netherlands. William I. had been to
a large extent a personal ruler, but William II.,
though for a time following in his father’s steps, had
been moved by the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848
to concede a revision of the constitution. The fundamental
law of 1848 enacted that the first chamber of the States-General
should be elected by the Provincial Estates
instead of being appointed by the king, and that the
second chamber should be elected directly by all
persons paying a certain amount in taxation. Ministers
were declared responsible to the States-General, and a liberal
measure of self-government was also granted. During the long
reign of William III. (1849–1890) the chief struggles of parties
in the Netherlands centred round religious education. On
