1667 - William III Prince of Orange
The tomb of William II was the cradle of William III (b. 1650 - d. 1702), who was born 14 November 1650, a few days after the death of his father. This infant, who was destined to wear a foreign crown, saw himself threatened by a revolution, with the loss of the very dignity which his ancestors had, in some degree, rendered hereditary in his family. The preceding stadtholders had shown their ambitious designs too clearly for the republic not to view their office with jealousy.
He was born at a time when the fortunes of his family were at a very low state. His mother's family had been deprived of the British throne, and her father had been executed; and but two months before William's birth, his uncle, Charles II, had been defeated by Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar, which defeat was followed, on the anniversary of that of Dunbar, by the yet more fatal battle of Worcester. The death of William II at the age of 24 had put a stop to his projects for the establishment of a despotism over Holland, and thrown power into the hands of the aristocratical or Lonvestein party.
The house of Orange had long sought to obtain supreme power in that country which its greatest member had freed from the Spanish yoke, and never were its designs nearer to success than in 1650, when the death of the stadtholder changed every thing. There was no malo member of that house left of sufficient popularity and influence to take up the projects of William II, or to be elevated to the post of stadtholder to the prejudice of the new-born prince.
Foreign influence concurred with patriotic zeal towards the abolition of the stadtholdership. Cromwell, through hatred against the house of Orange, which was allied to that of Stuart, had caused a secret article to be inserted in the peace of Westminster, AD 1654, by which the states of Holland and West Friesland engaged never to elect the young prince, the son of William II and an English princess. He had before proposed the union of the two republics in one state, of which the two principal parts should preserve their respective forms of government; and some conferences had been held at the Hague on the subject: but the promptness with which the protector’s proposal was rejected betrayed the real spirit prevalent in the United Provinces with regard to England.
The statesgeneral called a general assembly at tho Hague, and it was determined that the choice of magistrates and officers should thereafter lie with the cities, and that soldiers, including the guards of tho late stadtholder, should swear fidelity to the states of Holland. This was done in face of all the opposition that could bo made to the change by the infant prince's relatives. When peace was made between the Dutch and the English, April 5, 1654, "the states of Holland and West Friesland were compelled to make a decree, whereby they declared that they would never elect the prince of Orange, or any of his family, to be stadtholder, admiral, or captain-general of the forces of the United Provinces." The other provinces did not approve of this, but were obliged to submit.
The momentous year 1660 was almost as critical for Holland as for any state of Europe. Charles, in England, having re-enacted the Navigation Act, war again broke out in 1665, and the duke of York took the command of the English fleet. At the beginning of June he met the Dutch admiral Opdam, and, after a close-fought battle off Lowestoft, the English were completely victorious.
But so bad was the condition of the home Government in England that in the following year the Dutch had by far the stronger fleet at sea, and for a time held their own in the Channel. The four-days' battle (June 1-4) between Prince Rupert and Monk on the one side and Buyter on the other ended in an uncertain victory for the Dutch; but on July 25th they were decidedly defeated off the North Foreland, and driven back to their own shores with immense loss.
The English were now masters of the sea; but both parties needed peace; and negotiations began at Breda. In the course of these Ruyter suddenly sailed up the Thames nearly to Gravesend, and struck terror into the very heart of London, which thus became all the more eager for a settlement.
The opportunity which the minority of William III afforded was seized for suspending the exercise of it; and soon after the province of Holland not only abolished the stadtholdership, but even engaged to exert itself to the utmost to bring the other provinces to a similar resolution, or at any rate, to determine that the offices of captain and admiral-general should never be vested in the person of the stadtholder of one or more provinces. The administration, therefore, became wholly republican; and the better to assure the continuance of this state of things, it was resolved that the election of magistrates, and the appointment to offices, should for ever remain vested in the towns. The act by which this revolution was brought about is called the perpetual edict, and was passed in 1667. Its principal author was John de Witt, grand pensionary of Holland.
Under the 1667 perpetual edict, against the office of stadtholder and captain-general being vested in the same person, William III was elected "first noble" by the states of Zealand, which gave him the right to enter the states-general as one of the deputies of that province, and as the representative of its nobility.
In July 1667 a treaty between England and Holland was signed at Breda; and in the following year Sir William Temple accomplished the triple alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden, against the aggressive views of Louis XIV, a hollow affair, and pernicious in its results to those who made it. It made Louis XIV determine to take vengeance on the United Provinces and on the De Witts; it led at once to the humiliation of England by the treaty of Dover (1670), to the overthrow of the Amsterdam party, and to the miserable end of the De Witts; and it eventually raised the prince of Orange to supreme authority in the United Provinces.
William III visited England at the close of 1670, remaining there 3 months. The attack made on Holland by France and England in 1672, brought about a complete change of parties and of political policy in that country. The prince of Orange was immediately and unanimously appointed captain and admiralgeneral of tho United Provinces, 24 February 1672.
A long and severe contest ensued. At first the allies were everywhere successful, but the ability of William so far restored the condition of the Dutch that the kings of France and England offered to make him the despotic ruler of his country. He however remained faithful to that country, and by his skill in the field, and his yet greater skill as a diplomatist, was enabled to baffle the allies, and to obtain assistance from other countries.
England abandoned the French alliance, and finally became the ally of Holland. In the course of this war tho prince of Orange fought a drawn battle with the prince of Oonde, at Senef, 11 August 1674. He was defeated at the battle of Cassel in 1677; and on 14 August 1678, he attacked the French at the abbey of St. Denis, near Mons, fighting a bloody but indecisive action. The war had been closed 4 days earlier by the peace of Nimeguen, and William is accused of having attacked the French after he had become possessed of knowledge of that fact.
