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Water Line - 1787

The campaign of the Prussians, in 1787, under the Duke of Brunswick, against the Dutch, ended in the defeat of the Dutch, whose lines were then carried by a force very little superior to the defenders, and with trifling loss. But the reason of that is to be found in the dissensions among the defenders from political animosities, and a want of unity in the command. Nothing, however, is more certain than that the success of the campaign, that is, the advance through the last line of inundation up to the walls of Amsterdam, depended on a point of such extreme nicety that it is impossible to draw any general deduction from this case. The point alluded to was the leaving unguarded the Sea of Haarlem. By means of this, the Duke of Brunswick turned the inundation line, and got in rear of the post of Amselvoen. If the Dutch had had a couple of armed vessels on this lake the Duke would never have got to Amsterdam, for he was at the end of his resources. What influence that might have had on the conclusion of peace is another matter, but it is certain that any further question of carrying the last line of inundation would have been put an end to completely.

Frederick II expired August 17th 1786, after a reign of forty-six years. If the title of Great may be justly bestowed on the monarch who, by his abilities and conduct, adds largely to his possessions, without inquiring very strictly into the means by which these acquisitions were made, Frederick is undoubtedly entitled to this appellation. Frederick II. was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II.

The new monarch seemed disposed to take more interest than his uncle in the affairs of Holland ; and he had, immediately after his accession, sent Baron Gortz to the Court of the Stadtholder. The negociation of that minister led, however, to no result. The views of the two parties were too opposite for conciliation ; but an event which occurred towards the end of June 1787 brought matters to a crisis. The consort of William V, a princess of a high spirit, resolved to visit the Hague, although her husband could not go thither. At Schoonhoven she was stopped by the troops belonging to the States of Holland, treated almost like a prisoner, and turned back. For this affront the Princess of Orange demanded vengeance at the hands of her brother, the King of Prussia; but although the States of several provinces disapproved of what had been done, the States-General, relying on the aid of France, refused to give befitting satisfaction. The foreign policy of France, in those last years of the unfortunate Louis XVI., was in one of the fits of indecision and nervousness which alternate strangely in the nation's history with acts of passionate and dangerous temerity.

Frederick William II seized the occasion to reestablish the Stadtholder in his prerogatives. Brunswick certainly on this occasion showed no want of any personal activity, or of promptitude to master the needful details. On receiving from Berlin the first private instruction of his coming appointment, he left his hereditary dominions at once for the future scene of action, and a few days later, on August ;th, was found at Nimeguen, attending the birthday reception of the Princess of Orange, nominally of course to offer his compliments to his cousin, but in reality to gather information for his enterprise. Many of the chief adherents of the Stadtholder from the various provinces had made a point of paying their respects to his wife on this occasion; and hence Brunswick was enabled to ascertain without difficulty what aid might be hoped for from each. And doubtless also, one so conversant with public affairs knew enough of the world (though this we are not told) as to discount rather largely the sanguine views of the partisans with whom he was mingling.

In September 1787, a Prussian army of 30,000 men, under the Duke of Brunswick, entered Holland.

The dryness of the summer prevented the Hollanders from having recourse to inundation. Utrecht surrendered without a blow, and other places followed the example. The patriots, disunited among themselves, found the free companies, which they had raised in imitation of the middle ages, and which they had placed under the command of the incapable Rhinegrave, Von Salms, totally unable to oppose an army of disciplined troops; while the nobles, who dreaded a popular government, favored the Prussian invasion. The Prince of Orange entered the Hague, September 20th, after an absence of two years, amid the acclamations of the populace; Amsterdam surrendered, after a short resistance, October 10th, and the free companies were disarmed.

The same country which was overrun with comparative ease by a single Prussian corps in 1787, had resisted the whole efforts of Spain and of France in preceding centuries. The art of war had been altogether changed since the era when Alva led his fanatic legions against the Protestant rebels of the Netherlands ; or to come lower down in history, when the horsemen of Louis XIV., the maison du rot at their head, swam the Rhine at Tollhuys to commence their campaign against the same obstinate foes. The progress in wealth and civilization, which, while it makes countries seemingly more powerful as well as prosperous, in reality puts them more than ever (as the world is discovering rather late) at the mercy of a stronger and not less civilized invader, had operated in Holland as much as elsewhere. The rude energy of the measures of defence by wide inundations which baffled the Grand Monarquc in 1672 were hardly likely to be fully repeated in the more crowded Netherlands of a century later; and if they had been adopted, it may be doubted whether even this means of defence would have proved as effectual against the improved facilities for the attack which the Prussians could have brought to bear. Nevertheless, the prestige of former heroic resistance no doubt magnified the apparent difficulties of the invader.

The war, was, in fact, not a national struggle, but an act of armed intervention; and the Prussians were therefore to be aided in what should have been the most difficult part of their task, not merely by the moral support of the Stadtholder and his party, but by the material possession through the hands of his supporters of some of the most important strategic points that had to be gained for their purpose.