History of Holland > Dutch history > William the Silent Prince of Orange

William the Silent Prince of Orange

The figure which looms largest in the history of the conflict is that of William the Silent, and the paramount development of the period is the creation of the independent Dutch republic under the leadership of William's family, the house of Orange. With the career of this family the fortunes of Holland have been inextricably intertwined for three and a half centuries, and it is one of its descendants who sits upon the country's throne today.

William was a German prince, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, and he first appears in Lowland history as the representative, or " stadholder," of the King of Spain in the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. The family of Nassau was one of the oldest ruling houses of Germany.

The title and principality of Orange were brought into the family's possession in 1544 by Henry of Nassau, who was prominent among the courtiers and councilors of Charles V. The principality of Orange was situated in France in the province of Dauphiné, a short distance north of the city of Avignon. It had,been a dependency of Burgundy, and later of France, and in 1702, at the death of William Henry I of NassauOrange - better known as William III of England - it was declared an extinct fief and was absorbed by the French kingdom. From 1544 to the present day, however, the princes of the Nassau-Dillenburg dynasty have borne the title of Orange.

William the Silent - whose by-name posterity conferred without reason - was the ninth bearer of his name in the Nassau pedigree and the first in that of Orange, In character he was everything that Philip of Spain Was not. His statesmanship and organizing ability, together with his tact and patience in adversity, made him the man around whom the entire revolutionary movement developed.

As a general he was but mediocre, and at no time did he have official connection with more than three of the seventeen provinces. But no one recognized better than Philip the power which William possessed as the personification of the ideas that impelled the common opposition to Spain.

For the assassination of William money and honors were offered by the king in 1579; and in 1584 the deed was done. It was one of the many acts of the kind in history mistakenly calculated to ruin a cause by the removal of its leader; for the effect, as commonly happens, was quite the opposite of that intended. The assassination became the signal for the open alliance of England with the Dutch. This contributed to Philip's decision to undertake the invasion of England; and, so far as Spanish prospects in the Netherlands and Spanish ascendency in Europe were concerned, the Armada marked the beginning of the end.

In the southern provinces the rebellion was suppressed and Spanish domination was maintained. In the north it was otherwise. Protestantism there supplied an insuperable obstacle to reconciliation. Petty jealousies long operated to prevent the most efficient cooperation, but at last the situation became so precarious that seven provinces were brought to the point of burying their animosities and forming, in 1579, a solid defensive alliance. This Union of Utrecht laid the foundation for the future republic of the United Netherlands and for the Dutch kingdom of today. Two years later the seven provinces burned their bridges behind them and formally declared their independence of Spain.

The establishment of a new governmental system gave rise to much difference of opinion, No monarch could be found whose rule would have been generally acceptable; hence the confederation became and remained a republic. Each of the seven provinces kept its local "states," and its stadholder, or governor; while the central government was made to consist of the States General, an assembly in which each province had as many delegates as it wished, although with but a single vote, and the stadholder, named by the States General, and nominally only its executive officer, but actually possessed of power which made him an uncrowned king.

For fifty years after the assassination of William the war dragged on. Throughout almost the whole of the period William's eldest son Maurice, stadholder of six of the seven Dutch provinces, and ablest among the generals of his day, was practically the dictator of the republic; and the Spaniards were driven entirely from the Dutch territory.

After the renewal of the struggle, following the twelve-year truce of 1609, the troops of Philip III won some notable victories, but the ultimate outcome was never really in doubt. The treaty of Westphalia, which marked the termination of the Thirty Years' War (1648), contained a section wherein the independence of the United Netherlands was expressly recognized by Spain and the other signatory nations. But the state of things thus proclaimed had already long existed.

The house of Orange retained its hold upon the country, although at times its tenure was precarious. The stadholderate was accepted as a life office, but it never became legally hereditary. The descendants of William managed, however, to keep it almost continually in their hands.

In 1650, when the heir of the house was an infant, the republican spirit reasserted itself, and the stadholder's office was allowed to lapse. Indeed, it was abolished by an edict of John de Witt, who was elected to administer the country's affairs. But as the Orange heir - who happened to be the later William III of England grew up, a reaction set in, and in 1672, when De Witt lost his power, the prince was ready to step into his place.

There was another break in 1702, at the death of William III, last member of the direct Orange succession, and for more than a generation the stadholderate was suspended. But in 1747 the office was regained by a member of a collateral Orange line in Frisia.

The Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century

Holland occupied by Napoleon from France

Famous Dutch people