The Netherlands

Abstract

As the German Count of Nassau, William of Orange (1533–84) inherited vast possessions in the Netherlands and the Princedom of Orange in France. He was the initiator of the struggle for independence from Spain. The Revolt of the Netherlands began in 1568, and by the Union of Utrecht the more easily defensible seven provinces of the North—Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel, Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland—declared themselves independent. At the end of the Thirty Years War, by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), Spain recognized the Republic of the United Netherlands. Members of the Orange-Nassau family became in succession the ‘first servant of the Republic’ with the title of ‘Stadhouder’ (governor). In 1689 Willem III acceded to the throne of England, becoming joint sovereign with his wife Mary. Willem III died in 1702 without issue, and there was no stadhouder until a member of the Frisian branch of Orange-Nassau was nominated hereditary stadhouder in 1747. However, his successor, Willem V, had to take refuge in England in 1795 when the French Army invaded. The country was freed from French domination in Nov. 1813.