more tragic, following, as it did, so swiftly upon the coup d’etat of the previous summer, and because of the youth and high promise of the deceased prince.  William II was undoubtedly endowed with high and brilliant qualities of leadership, and he had proved his capacity for action with unusual decision and energy.  Had his life not been cut short, the course of European politics might have been profoundly changed.

As was to be expected, the burgher-regents of Holland, when once the first shock was over, lost no time in taking advantage of the disappearance of the man who had so recently shown that he possessed the power of the sword and meant to be their master.  The States-General at once met and requested the Provincial Estates to take steps to deal with the situation.  The Estates of Holland proposed that an extraordinary assembly should be summoned.  This was agreed to by the States-General; and “the Great Assembly” met on January 11, 1651.  In the meantime the Holland regents had been acting.  The Estates of that province were resolved to abolish the stadholderates and to press the States-General to suspend the offices of Captain-and Admiral-General of the Union.  Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel and Zeeland were induced to follow their example.  Groningen, however, elected William Frederick of Friesland to be stadholder in the place of his cousin.

The “States party” in Holland had for their leaders the aged Adrian Pauw, who had for so many years been the moving spirit of the opposition in powerful Amsterdam to Frederick Henry’s authority, and Jacob de Witt, the imprisoned ex-burgomaster of Dordrecht.  The “Orange party” was for the moment practically impotent.  Stunned by the death of their youthful chief, they were hopelessly weakened and disorganised by the dissensions and rivalries which surrounded the cradle of the infant Prince of Orange.  The princess royal quarrelled with her mother-in-law, Amalia von Solms, over the guardianship of the child.  Mary asserted her right to be sole guardian; the dowager-princess wished to have her son-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg, associated with her as co-guardian.  After much bickering the question was at last referred to the Council of State, who appointed the princess royal, the dowager-princess and the elector jointly to the office.  This decision however was far from effecting a reconciliation between the mother and the grandmother.  Mary did not spare the Princess Amalia the humiliation of knowing that she regarded her as inferior in rank and social standing to the eldest daughter of a King of England.  There was rivalry also between the male relatives William Frederick, Stadholder of Friesland, and Joan Maurice, the “Brazilian,” both of them being ambitious of filling the post of captain-general, either in succession to the dead prince, or as lieutenant in the name of his son.  In these circumstances a large number of the more moderate Orangists were ready to assist the “States party” in preventing any breach of the peace and securing that the government of the republic should be carried on, if not in the manner they would have wished, at least on stable and sound lines, so far as possible in accordance with precedent.