In the history of the
Dutch Republic, Orangism or ''prinsgezindheid'' ("pro-prince stance") was a political force opposing the
''Staatsgezinde'' (pro-Republic) party. Orangists supported the
Princes of Orange as
Stadtholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
s (a position held by members of the
House of Orange) and military commanders of the Republic, as a check on the power of the ''
regenten''. The Orangist party drew its adherents largely from
traditionalists – mostly farmers, soldiers,
noblemen and orthodox Protestant preachers, though its support fluctuated heavily over the course of the Republic's history and there were never clear-cut socioeconomic divisions.
History
The coup of stadtholder Maurice against Oldenbarnevelt
Orangism can be seen as a continuation of the political opposition between the
remonstrant
The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...
s and
counter-remonstrants during the
Twelve Years' Truce (1609-1621). The Remonstrants were tolerant and republican, with a liberal view on biblical interpretation, no belief in
predestination and were led by men like
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright.
A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
.
Stadtholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange relied on the counter-remonstrants to oppose van Oldenbarnevelt and support his own policies, and things got so bad that civil war threatened. Oldenbarnevelt was executed after a sham trial in 1619 and Grotius sentenced to life in prison, and for a number of years the Orangists were in charge under Maurice and later his brother
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.
First Stadtholderless Period and Orange Restoration of 1672
Orangists such as the
Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen backed the appointment of
William III William III or William the Third may refer to:
Kings
* William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198)
* William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702)
* William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
,
Prince of Orange, the posthumously-born son of
William II, Prince of Orange, to the office of stadtholder of the Holland and Zeeland. The office had been vacant since the death of William II in 1650. The pro-Republic
Dutch States Party was marked by caution (especially in all matters that could harm trade), led by
Grand pensionary Johan de Witt and had supporters among the ruling class, the ''
regenten'' which included his relative from Amsterdam,
Cornelis de Graeff. It was de Witt who, in the
1654 peace with England and its leader
Oliver Cromwell, agreed to include the secret
Act of Seclusion barring the infant William III from the stadtholderate. De Witt then put pressure on all seven of the Republic's provinces to uphold this ban. The Orangist party was eventually led by the young Prince of Orange himself and by men such as
Cornelis Tromp. It played an important part in the expulsion of the de Witt brothers (
Cornelis de Witt and Johan de Witt), which culminated during the
Rampjaar with William III's appointment as stadtholder on 28 June 1672 followed by an organised
lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
of the brothers at the
Gevangenpoort
The Gevangenpoort (''Prisoner's Gate'') is a former gate and medieval prison on the Buitenhof in The Hague, Netherlands. It is situated next to the 18th-century art gallery founded by William V, Prince of Orange in 1774 known as the ''Prince Will ...
in the Hague on 20 August.
Second Stadtholderless Period and Orange Restoration of 1747
After the death of William III in 1702 his Dutch ministers decided again to keep the office of stadtholder vacant, mainly because there was no clear successor available (the claim of
John William Friso, Prince of Orange, a minor at this time, to the title of Prince of Orange was disputed by his cousin
Frederick I of Prussia), though Friso was recognised by the
States of Friesland as their stadtholder. Friso died in 1711, and his son
William IV, Prince of Orange also was born posthumously. William IV was appointed stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen, and Gelderland at his majority in 1731, but the other provinces kept the office vacant, until in 1747 a popular revolt by Orangists forced the States of the other four provinces to follow suit and appoint him their stadtholder also. This was the first time that all stadtholder's offices in the Dutch Republic were in the same hand. William IV received almost dictatorial powers under the so-called Government Regulations of 1748. Hopes of democratic political reform were, however, dashed. After his early death, at age 40, in 1751, the stadtholderate (that had been declared hereditary) passed to his infant son
William V, Prince of Orange, but actual power was exercised by
Regents, like his mother
Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange until his majority in 1766.
Patriottentijd
In the second half of the 18th century the anti-Orangist party became known as the
Patriots. These Patriots strongly opposed both the Prince of Orange, and the British connection. Many of their numbers were drawn from those with commercial and maritime interests who saw Britain as a natural rival of the Dutch, and generally supported the French. At various times the Princes of Orange tried to counter this by moving closer or further away from the British alliance. Events came to a head in the period 1785–1787, when most of the dictatorial powers of the stadtholder were taken away by the Patriots. However, Anglo-Prussian military intervention in the
Prussian invasion of Holland of 1787 gave the upper hand to the Orangists, who drove their Patriot opponents into exile. The powers of the stadtholder were now enshrined in the so-called
Act of Guarantee
The Act of Guarantee (Dutch: ''Akte van Garantie'') of the hereditary stadtholderate was a document from 1788, in which the seven provinces of the States General and the representative of Drenthe declared, amongst other things, that the admiralty ...
of 1788, and guaranteed by Britain and Prussia "in perpetuity." Perpetuity in this case lasted seven years.
Batavian Republic and Exile
Following the French invasion of the
Dutch Republic and the
Batavian Revolution
The Batavian Revolution ( nl, De Bataafse Revolutie) was a time of political, social and cultural turmoil at the end of the 18th century that marked the end of the Dutch Republic and saw the proclamation of the Batavian Republic. The period of ...
in 1795, resulting in the founding of the
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...
,
William V, Prince of Orange fled to Britain. At the request of the British he wrote the so-called
Kew Letters, intended to hand the Dutch colonies to the British without a fight. At the
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland
The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and ...
in 1799 the young ''Erfprins''
Willem Frederik made an not-unsuccessful attempt to get the
Batavian Navy to defect to the British in the
Vlieter Incident. But the invasion itself was unsuccessful, because the hoped-for Orangist insurrection failed to materialize. At the
Peace of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...
of 1802 William V gave up his claims to the stadtholderate in exchange for the
Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda
Nassau-Orange-Fulda (sometimes also named ''Fulda and Corvey'') was a short-lived principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806. It was created for William Frederick, the son and heir of William V, Prince of Orange, the ousted stadthol ...
. This so discouraged his followers in the Batavian Republic that many made their peace with the new regime, and some, like
Carel Hendrik Ver Huell, went over to the French emperor
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
completely, becoming staunch supporters of his autocratic regime, during the period 1810-1813 during which the Netherlands was annexed to the
First French Empire.
Founding of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
In 1813, when the French retreated from the Netherlands, old Orangist partisans, led by
Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, managed to put the son of William V on a newly-invented throne, first of a principality, and soon of the newly-founded
Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Political theory
The stadtholderate was never a well-defined concept in the
constitution of the Dutch Republic, instead being a patchwork of responsibilities. Likewise, Orangism never became a consistent political theory.
In particular, the Orangists never formulated a desire for absolute sovereignty in the hands of the princes, even though they "lean
dheavily on the concept of
monarchy", since this would have been problematic in the Republic that wrested its independence from the kings of Spain under
William of Orange.
Instead, they stated their views in terms of
republican liberty, sharing the idiom of their States Party opponents.
Attempts to introduce elements of
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
's
natural law and
Montesquieu's
separation of powers (by
Elie Luzac) failed when these same theories were taken over by the opposing
Patriot faction in the 1780s.
See also
*
Politics and government of the Netherlands (1581–1795)
The Dutch Republic existed from 1579 to 1795 and was a confederation of seven provinces, which had their own governments and were very independent, and a number of so-called Generality Lands. These latter were governed directly by the States ...
References
Sources
* Davies, Norman; "Europe: a history." Pimlico, 1997.
* (1995), ''The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806'',
Oxford University Press, hardback, {{ISBN, 0-19-820734-4 paperback
House of Orange-Nassau
Political history of the Dutch Republic
Political theories