land, while granting an allowance, had assumed a nominal supervision. The chief associates of William's early days were Philip Stanhope (afterwards first Earl of Chesterfield) [q. v.], son of his mother's intimate friend Lady Stanhope [see Kirkhoven, Catherine] (Zouch, Life of Walton, p. 20 and note), and William van Odyk, the son of her chosen counsellor, the sieur de Beverwaert. In October 1659 his mother accompanied William to the university of Leyden. On her death the interference of Charles II caused an undignified dispute as to the guardianship of the prince. Meanwhile De Witt substituted as his tutor in the place of his natural uncle (the sieur de Zuylesteen, who was married to an English wife), one Johan van Ghent, a political supporter of his own (Pontalis, i. 476), and rather later took a personal part in his political instruction (ib. ii. 15–18). William's main efforts as a student were devoted to the mastery of languages, in which he attained to an unusual proficiency, speaking Dutch, French, English, and German with equal ease, besides understanding Spanish, Italian, and Latin (Burnet, iv. 562). In 1665 the critical Charles de St. Evremond [q. v.] declared that no person of the prince's age and quality was ever master of so good a turn of wit (Trevor, i. 20); but other observers were more impressed by his indifference to all amusements except hunting, his frugal and temperate habits, and his grave self-control and impenetrable reserve (Temple ap. Traill, p. 7; in 1668 de Gourville reported him to De Witt as a master of dissimulation).
With a military plot formed in 1666 for restoring to William his father's functions he can have had little or no concern; but when, in 1667, the English war had ended, De Witt deemed it expedient to assent to his admission into the council of state, while at the same time inducing the provinces to assent by the act of harmony to the perpetual edict. By this the stadholderate was abolished in Holland, and separated for ever from the captain-generalship in that province, and, so far as its vote was concerned, in the union at large (Groen van Prinsterer, pp. 316–17; Van Kampen, ii. 216). The bargain was too unequal to be likely to last, more especially after, in 1668, the prince had taken his seat in his quality of margrave of Flushing and Vere, as the solitary noble among the states of Zealand, and had, on completing his eighteenth year, been declared of age (ib. p. 217). Temple had not been prevented by his co-operation with De Witt in the conclusion of the triple alliance (1668) from judiciously promoting the interests of the prince; but it was with the object of embroiling the relations between England and the provinces that Charles II was anxious to attach William more closely to his own house. Accordingly, in 1670, the prince visited England, where Charles, on 30 Oct., received him at Whitehall (Harris, i. 15), and warned him not to allow himself in religious matters to be led by such factious protestants as his Dutch blockheads (Burnet, i. 502). William, who made a favourable impression in England by his assiduous performance of his religious duties, gained no other advantage from his visit except an honorary degree at each of the universities.
When the imminent danger of a French invasion at last found credit in the Netherlands, a widespread demand arose for the appointment of William as captain- and admiral-general, partly in hopes of still conciliating Charles, partly for the sake of an Orange leadership should war prove inevitable. De Witt reluctantly assented to William's appointment as captain-general for the coming campaign (25 Feb. 1672), on condition that his permanent appointment to that office and the admiralty should be deferred till the completion of his twenty-second year in November (Van Kampen, p. 227). On 12 June the French army, fivefold the Dutch defensive forces in strength, and with vast reserves in its rear, crossed the Rhine. William thereupon abandoned the line of the Yssel, and within a few weeks the provinces of Guelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssel were occupied by the invaders. He has been censured for dividing his forces, and the credit for the measures of defence adopted in Holland has been ascribed to De Witt, to whom the previous disbandment of half the army was entirely due (Pontalis, ii. 285, 329). William, although not indisposed to negotiation, maintained a firm discipline among his troops, and carried out the preparations for resistance in an unfaltering spirit. Soon the popular exasperation against De Witt knew no bounds, and the establishment of the Prince of Orange as the chief of the republic became inevitable. At Vere in Zealand, and at Dort in his own presence on 29 June 1672, the perpetual edict was declared abolished, and the prince proclaimed stadholder, captain- and admiral-general; his formal election by the Zealand and Holland states, and by the States-General, followed early in July (see the medal, implying that ‘William III’ succeeded by hereditary right, in Histoire Numismatique, ii. 276). The disorders which followed culminated on
