CHAPTER XIV.

HISTORICAL MINUTES OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES, FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM II.  TILL THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS.

1680-1815.

In some of the preceding pages, the principal events in the history of the Seven United Provinces, till the death of William II, in 1680, have been briefly mentioned:  in the present chapter, we shall insert a summary account of the revolutions of their government, till the present time.

XIV. 1.

William III.

1650-1702.

William III. was born after the death of William II. his father.  Immediately after that event, his mother claimed for him the stadtholderate, and all the other dignities, pre-eminences, and rights, which his father and grandfather had enjoyed; but, so great, at that time, was the public jealousy of the ambitious views of the house of Orange, that the States General would not even take her claims into deliberation.  A general assembly of the States was held in 1661.  They confirmed the Treaty of Union, of 1579; attributed to themselves, the appointment of all civil and military offices; placed the army under the authority of the provinces and municipalities, and invested the council of state with the general direction of the military concerns of the nation.  A war with England, which was then governed by Cromwell, soon followed; it was the commencement of the naval glory of the United States.  But the government was distracted by the contests and dissensions between the republican and the Orange factions.  The former were headed by John de Witt.  He possessed transcendent abilities, was a true lover of his country, and, on every occasion, advised the wisest measures.  Some of the military operations of the States proving unsuccessful, the Orange faction endeavoured to persuade the people, that this reverse of fortune was owing to the want of a Stadtholder; and exhorted them to confer this dignity on the young prince, to be exercised, during his minority, by one of the family.  This proposition was successfully resisted by De Witt.  Peace between England and the United Provinces being concluded, Cromwell endeavoured to unite them to England by a federative alliance; but they rejected the proposition.  At the suggestion of De Witt, the States of Holland passed an Act, by which they bound themselves never to appoint the Prince of Orange, or any of his descendants, to the office of Stadtholder, or Captain General; and to prevent, to their utmost power, the other States from making such an appointment.  This measure displeased the other States.  In 1665, the office of Commander in Chief becoming vacant, the opposite party endeavoured to procure it for one of the Orange family; this attempt also proved abortive.  In 1661 a war broke out between England,—­which was then governed by Charles II., and the United States; these displayed in it, chiefly under the command of De Ruyter, prodigies of valour and naval skill; the year 1667 was famous in their annals, by their fleet’s sailing up the river Thames, and burning the English fleet at Chatham.  The peace of Breda immediately followed.