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37-732: The Oranienstein Letters are a series of letters sent by William V, Prince of Orange in December 1801 from Schloss Oranienstein near Diez, Germany . William addressed them to 15 Orangist ex- regenten of the old Dutch Republic and advised them to end their staying out of government. That meant that some of his instructions given in the Kew Letters , which urged resistance against the French–Batavian invasion , were no longer in effect. He and his son, William Frederick , also recognised

74-594: A ghastly fashion they were quite right. His great-great-granddaughter Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was less kind. She simply called him a sufferd (dummy). Barrier Treaty From 1672 to 1697, a series of wars with France demonstrated the Dutch Republic's vulnerability to invasion via the Spanish Netherlands , which led to debate on how to design fortifications effective in

111-703: A hostile power to control ports in Northern Flanders like Ostend. Britain's agreement to act as guarantor of the treaty and to provide the Dutch with military support against any aggressor ultimately proved to be far more effective than the Barrier itself. After Austria allied with France in 1756 , the French threat to the Austrian Netherlands vanished and the Barrier became irrelevant. In 1781

148-828: The Staatsbewind of the Batavian Republic to grant this additional indemnity, but Napoleon put a stop to it, when he got wind of the affair. The last of the Dutch stadtholders, William V died in exile at his daughter's palace in Brunswick , now in Germany. His body was moved to the Dutch Royal Family crypt in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on 29 April 1958. In 1813, his son, William VI returned to

185-531: The Batavian Republic as legitimate and renounced their hereditary stadtholderate . Those were preconditions set by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of the French Republic for compensation for the loss of their possessions in the Netherlands, which had been confiscated by the Batavian Republic. William V decreed those letters only after much hesitations, and he would later refuse to accept

222-571: The Brest Affair undermined belief in the Dutch navy. The stadtholderian regime and the Duke of Brunswick were suspected of treason in the matter of the loss of the Barrier fortresses. The deterioration of the prestige of the regime made minds ripe for agitation for political reform, like the pamphlet Aan het Volk van Nederland , published in 1781 by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol . After

259-588: The Principality of Orange-Nassau until his death in 1806. In that capacity, he was succeeded by his son William . William Batavus was born in The Hague on 8 March 1748, the only son of William IV , who had the year before been restored as stadtholder of the United Provinces. He was only three years old when his father died in 1751, and a long regency began. His regents were: William was made

296-777: The Treaty of Amiens and later with the Convention of London signed in 1814. In 1799 the Hereditary Prince took an active part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland , engineering the capture of a Batavian naval squadron in the Vlieter Incident . The surrender of the ships (that had been paid for by the Batavian Republic) was formally accepted in the name of William V as stadtholder, who

333-549: The mediatised Fulda monastery and the Imperial Abbey of Corvey as compensation, but he agreed that William Frederick had done so and thus became Prince of Nassau-Orange-Fulda . William V, Prince of Orange William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was Prince of Orange and the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic . He went into exile to London in 1795. He was furthermore ruler of

370-688: The 568th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1752. William V assumed the position of stadtholder and Captain-General of the Dutch States Army on his majority in 1766. However, he allowed the Duke of Brunswick to retain a large influence on the government with the secret Acte van Consulentschap . On 4 October 1767 in Berlin, Prince William married Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia , the daughter of Augustus William of Prussia , niece of Frederick

407-492: The Batavian Republic, an additional Franco-Prussian Convention of 23 May 1802 declared that the House of Orange would be ceded in perpetuity the domains of Dortmund , Weingarten , Fulda and Corvey in lieu of its Dutch estates and revenues (this became the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda ). As far as Napoleon was concerned, this cession was conditional on the liquidation of the stadtholderate and other hereditary offices of

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444-528: The Great and a cousin of George III . (He himself was George III's first cousin). He became an art collector and in 1774 his Galerij Prins Willem V was opened to the public. The position of the Dutch during the American War of Independence was one of neutrality . William V, leading the pro-British faction within the government, blocked attempts by pro-American, and later pro-French, elements to drag

481-496: The Netherlands and proclaimed himself king, thus becoming the first Dutch monarch from the House of Orange. William V and Wilhelmina of Prussia were parents to five children: During his life and afterward, William V was a controversial person, in himself, and because he was the unwilling center of a political firestorm that others had caused. Many historians and contemporaries have written short appreciations of him that were often acerbic. Phillip Charles, Count of Alvensleben , who

518-719: The Netherlands. Supported by the French Army, the revolutionaries returned from Paris to fight in the Netherlands, and in 1795 William V went into exile in England. A few days later the Batavian Revolution occurred, and the Dutch Republic was replaced with the Batavian Republic . Directly after his arrival in England, the Prince wrote a number of letters (known as the Kew Letters ) from his new residence in Kew to

555-408: The Prince. William V, however, had no interest in towns, territories and abbeys confiscated from other rulers, including alternatives as Würzburg and Bamberg , but wanted what was his due: his arrears in salaries and other financial perquisites since 1795, or a lump sum of 4 million guilders. The foreign minister of the Batavian Republic, Maarten van der Goes , was willing to secretly try to persuade

592-467: The Scheldt, rather than blocking potential invasion routes. The 1710 British general election replaced the existing Whig government with a Tory administration that derived much of its support from the powerful City of London , a merchants' guild. There were demands for the greater protection of British commercial access and the removal of Ostend and Dendermonde from the list. A revised version

629-489: The War of Austrian Succession and that the purpose of the barrier was to give the Dutch enough time to mobilize and fortify their own borders. According to them, nobody in the Dutch Republic was under the illusion that the barrier would itself stop French armies. However, the forts themselves were only part of the Dutch defence system; political and diplomatic treaties were more important, particularly since Britain could not allow

666-557: The cities' Patriot vroedschap , despite the defense by Patriot Free Corps , organised by Herman Willem Daendels . This provoked the Patriot-dominated States of Holland to deprive him of his office of Captain-General of the Army. (His function was given to Rhinegrave Salm .) In June 1787 his energetic wife Wilhelmina tried to travel to The Hague to foment an Orangist rising in that city. Outside Schoonhoven , she

703-455: The costs and Austria the other 60% and an additional lump sum to maintain the Barrier and its garrisons, which were reduced to seven, with a mixed garrison at Dendermond. The treaty also renewed the 1648 Peace of Münster over the Scheldt but promised 'equal treatment" for Dutch and British commerce. The treaty was signed on 15 November 1715 and further detailed by two Austrian-Dutch agreements of 30 and 31 January 1716. The Dutch Republic ended

740-504: The flat terrain of the Netherlands and where to locate them. That resulted in the concept of forward defence or so-called Barrier Fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands to provide strategic depth . It was accepted that no fortified place could hold out indefinitely. The Republic was nearly overrun in 1673 by the speed that the French captured major fortresses like Maastricht , and it was saved only by flooding. The Barrier

777-427: The functions of stadtholder into the holding of tedious audiences of five, six, seven hours in length, swamping practical problems in useless verbiage, though putting forward wide-ranging proposals, often marked by sound reasoning, sometimes even by genius. Finally, the cardinal defect of settling nothing, of bringing nothing to a point, of replying to nothing, of signing nothing, of concluding nothing; but always of being

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814-649: The government to war in support of the Franco-American alliance. However, things came to a head with the Dutch attempt to join the Russian-led League of Armed Neutrality , leading to the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780. In spite of the fact that Britain was engaged in fighting on several fronts, the war went badly for the poorly prepared Dutch, leading to the loss of Sint Eustatius and Nagapattinam . Scandals like

851-457: The governors of the Dutch colonies, instructing them to hand over their colonies to the British as long as France continued to occupy the "mother country". Only a number complied, while those that demurred from doing so became confused and demoralised. Almost all Dutch colonies were eventually captured by the British, who in the end returned most, but not all ( South Africa and Ceylon ), first at

888-541: The protection the Barrier offered proved illusory. The Austrians were reluctant to pay for fortresses they did not control, and the fortresses were conquered by France during the War of the Austrian Succession . However, not all modern historians consider the barrier ineffective. Historians like Wijn and Van Nimwegen emphasise that it took 3 years of campaigning for the French to conquer all barrier fortresses during

925-541: The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783) , there was growing restlessness in the United Provinces with William's rule. A coalition of old Dutch States Party regenten and democrats, called Patriots , was challenging his authority more and more. Mid September 1785 William left The Hague and removed his court to Het Loo Palace in Gelderland , a province remote from the political center. In September 1786 he sent States-Army troops to Hattem and Elburg to overthrow

962-481: The stadtholder in theory and never in practice. When he sets to work he does not know how to distinguish the functions of the head of the chancery from those of a mere secretary. In place of taking decisions on a hundred cases, he wastes his time in copying out some memorandum that has been presented to him. Nothing will ever change him, his bent is fixed, and when the Patriots declared that he fulfilled his functions in

999-498: The treaty was declared void by Emperor Joseph II . During the French Revolutionary Wars , French forces invaded and overran the Dutch Republic and established the Batavian Republic . The Netherlands remained directly or indirectly under French control for nearly two decades. After Napoleon I 's defeat in 1815, the Netherlands united with the former Austrian Netherlands and Prince-Bishopric of Liège to become

1036-568: The war in 1713 effectively bankrupt, but the Dutch goal had been achieved. The Barrier was to provide a basis for peace in Europe by perpetuating the balance of power, and was to forge a foundation for the alliance between Austria, Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. Its central role enabled the Dutch Republic to participate in European power politics after 1713. Although judged favourably by contemporaries, it has later been argued by historians that

1073-415: The war, Britain agreed to the Barrier, which effectively gave the Dutch permanent control of the Spanish Netherlands. It included Nieuwpoort , Ypres , Menen , Lille , Tournai , Valenciennes , Maubeuge , Charleroi , and Namur . The terms were seen as overly generous by British commercial interests since they included ports in Northern Flanders like Dendermonde and Ghent , which controlled trade along

1110-612: Was a valuable commercial asset and allowed the merchants of Amsterdam to undermine the trade of the commercial rival, Antwerp , severely. The first Treaty was signed on 29 October 1709 between Great Britain and the States-General and was primarily driven by the need to keep the Dutch in the War of the Spanish Succession. In return for Dutch support of the Protestant succession and a commitment to continuing

1147-464: Was intended to slow down an attacking army to allow the Dutch time to reinforce their defences without the expense of a large standing army. After the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick , the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Maximilian of Bavaria , permitted the Dutch to garrison eight cities, including Namur and Mons . But in February 1701, the French quickly occupied them. Re-establishing the Barrier

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1184-517: Was later allowed to sell them to the Royal Navy (for an appreciable amount). But that was his only success, as the troops suffered from choleric diseases, and civilians at that time were unwilling to re-instate the old regime. The arrogance of the tone in his proclamation, demanding the restoration of the stadtholderate, may not have been helpful, according to Simon Schama . After the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, in which Great Britain recognised

1221-508: Was signed on 29 January 1713, which reduced the number of Barrier fortresses to 15; Britain agreed to ensure compliance from the future ruler of the Spanish Netherlands . The third and final treaty confirmed terms contained in the 1714 Treaty of Rastatt between Austria and France by establishing a permanent Austro-Dutch military force of 30,000 to 35,000 men stationed in the Austrian Netherlands . The Dutch would pay 40% of

1258-615: Was spoken. Until his overthrow they were supported by King Louis XVI of France . William V joined the First Coalition against Republican France in 1793 with the coming of the French Revolution . His troops fought in the Flanders Campaign , but in 1794 the military situation deteriorated and the Dutch Republic was threatened by invading armies. The year 1795 was a disastrous one for the ancien régime of

1295-689: Was stopped by the Gouda Free Corps, taken to a farm near Goejanverwellesluis and after a short detention made to return to Nijmegen . To Wilhelmina and her brother, Frederick William II of Prussia , this was both an insult and an excuse to intervene militarily. Frederick launched the Prussian invasion of Holland in September 1787 to suppress the Patriots. Many Patriots fled to the North of France, around Saint-Omer , in an area where Dutch

1332-464: Was the Prussian envoy to the Hague from 1787 (so not someone who must be suspected to be prejudiced against William) may be taken as an example. He wrote: His education has all been theory. Duke Louis of Brunswick kept him away from practical affairs and did all the work himself, while the stadtholder merely signed documents. Hence this habit, this compulsion, of talking about public affairs, and turning

1369-634: Was the primary Dutch objective during the War of the Spanish Succession and was specified in Article 5 of the Treaty of The Hague (1701) , which reformed the Grand Alliance . The Barrier also had an economic element, since the 1648 Peace of Münster gave the Dutch a monopoly over the Scheldt and made its extent a matter of debate, particularly with Britain. The Scheldt estuary was a key transportation point for European import and export. Its control

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