THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702
The accession of William III to the throne of England was an event
fraught with important consequences to European politics and to the
United Provinces. The king was enabled at last to realise the formation
of that Grand Alliance for which he had so long been working. The treaty
of Vienna, signed on May 12, 1689, encircled France with a ring of
enemies, and saw the Emperor and Spain united with the Protestant
powers, England, the States and many of the German princes in a bond of
alliance for the maintenance of the treaties of Westphalia and the
Pyrenees. It was not without some difficulty that William succeeded in
inducing the States to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance
with England. A special embassy consisting of Witsen, Odijk, Dijkveld
and others was sent to London early in 1689 to endeavour to bring about
some mutually advantageous arrangement of the various conflicting
maritime and commercial interests of the two countries. But they could
effect nothing. The English government refused either to repeal or
modify the Navigation Act or to reduce the toll for fishing privileges;
and it required all the personal influence of William to secure the
signing of a treaty (September 3), which many leading Hollanders
considered to be a subordinating of Dutch to English interests. And
they were right; from this time began that decline of Dutch commercial
supremacy which was to become more and more marked as the 18th century
progressed. The policy of William III, as Frederick the Great remarked
most justly, placed Holland in the position of a sloop towed behind the
English ship-of-the-line.
The carrying trade of the world was still, however, in the reign of
William III practically in the hands of the Dutch, despite the losses
that had been sustained during the English wars and the French invasion.
The only competitor was England under the shelter of the Navigation Act.
The English had, under favourable conditions, their staple at Dordrecht,
the Scots their staple at Veere; and the volume of trade under the
new conditions of close alliance was very considerable. But the imports
largely exceeded the exports; and both exports and imports had to be
carried in English bottoms. The Baltic (or Eastern) trade remained a
Dutch monopoly, as did the trade with Russia through Archangel. Almost
all the ships that passed through the Sound were Dutch; and they
frequented all the Baltic ports, whether Russian, Scandinavian or
German, bringing the commodities of the South and returning laden with
hemp, tallow, wood, copper, iron, corn, wax, hides and other raw
products for distribution in other lands. The English had a small number
of vessels in the Mediterranean and the Levant, and frequented the
Spanish and Portuguese harbours, but as yet they hardly interfered with
the Dutch carrying-trade in those waters. The whole trade of Spain with
her vast American dominions was by law restricted to the one port of
Cadiz; but no sooner did the galleons bringing the rich products of
Mexico and Peru reach Cadiz than the bulk of their merchandise was
quickly transhipped into Dutch vessels, which here, as elsewhere, were
the medium through which the exchange of commodities between one country
and another was effected. It was a profitable business, and the
merchants of Amsterdam and of the other Dutch commercial centres grew
rich and prospered.
The position of the Dutch in the East Indies at the close of the 17th
century is one of the marvels of history. The East India Company, with
its flourishing capital at Batavia, outdistanced all competitors. It was
supreme in the Indian archipelago and along all the shores washed by the
Indian Ocean. The governor-general was invested with great powers and,
owing to his distance from the home authority, was able to make
unfettered use of them during his term of office. He made treaties and
conducted wars and was looked upon by the princes and petty rulers of
the Orient as a mighty potentate. The conquest of Macassar in 1669, the
occupation of Japara and Cheribon in 1680, of Bantam in 1682, of
Pondicherry in 1693, together with the possession of Malacca and of the
entire coast of Ceylon, of the Moluccas, and of the Cape of Good Hope,
gave to the Dutch the control of all the chief avenues of trade
throughout those regions. By treaties of alliance and commerce with the
Great Mogul and other smaller sovereigns and chieftains factories were
established at Hooghly on the Ganges, at Coelim, Surat, Bender Abbas,
Palembang and many other places. In the Moluccas they had the entire
spice trade in their hands. Thus a very large part of the products of
the Orient found its way to Europe by way of Amsterdam, which had become
increasingly the commercial emporium and centre of exchange for the
world.
The West India Company, on the other hand, had been ruined by the loss
of its Brazilian dominion followed by the English wars. Its charter came
to an end in 1674, but it was replaced by a new Company on a more
moderate scale. Its colonies on the Guiana coast, Surinam, Berbice and
Essequibo were at the end of the 17th century in an impoverished
condition, but already beginning to develop the sugar plantations which
were shortly to become a lucrative industry; and the island of Curaçoa
had the unenviable distinction of being for some years one of the chief
centres of the negro slave trade.
In the United Provinces themselves one of the features of this period
was the growth of many new industries and manufactures, largely due to
the influx of Huguenot refugees, many of whom were skilled artisans. Not
only did the manufacturers of cloth and silk employ a large number of
hands, but also those of hats, gloves, ribbons, trimmings, laces, clocks
and other articles, which had hitherto been chiefly produced in France.
One of the consequences of the rapid increase of wealth was a change in
the simple habits, manners and dress, which hitherto travellers had
noted as one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Hollanders.
Greater luxury began to be displayed, French fashions and ways of life
to be imitated, and the French language to be used as the medium of
intercourse among the well-to-do classes. Another sign of the times was
the spread of the spirit of speculation and of gambling in stocks and
shares, showing that men were no longer content to amass wealth by the
slow process of ordinary trade and commerce. This state of prosperity,
which was largely due to the security which the close alliance with
England brought to the Republic, explains in no small measure the
acquiescence of the Dutch in a state of things which made the smaller
country almost a dependency of the larger. They were proud that their
stadholder should reign as king in Britain; and his prolonged absences
did not diminish their strong attachment to him or lessen his authority
among them. So much greater indeed was the power exercised by William in
the Republic than that which, as a strictly constitutional sovereign, he
possessed in the kingdom, that it was wittily said that the Prince of
Orange was stadholder in England and king in Holland.
It must not be supposed, however, that William in his capacity as
stadholder was free from worries and trials. He had many; and, as usual,
Amsterdam was the chief centre of unrest. After the expedition set sail
for Torbay, William was continuously absent for no less than two and a
half years. It is no wonder therefore that during so long a period, when
the attention of the king was absorbed by other pressing matters,
difficulties should have arisen in his administration of the affairs of
the Republic. It was very unfortunate that his most able and trusted
friend and adviser, the Council-Pensionary Fagel, should have died, in
December, 1688, just when William's enterprise in England had reached
its most critical stage. Fagel was succeeded, after a brief interval, in
his most important and influential office by Antony Heinsius. Heinsius,
who had been for some years Pensionary of Delft, was a modest, quiet
man, already forty-five years of age, capable, experienced and
business-like. His tact and statesmanlike qualities were of the greatest
service to William and scarcely less to his country, at a time when
urgent duties in England made it so difficult for the stadholder to give
personal attention to the internal affairs of the Republic. No other
Prince of Orange had ever so favourable an opportunity as William III
for effecting such changes in the system of government and
administration in the Dutch Republic as would simplify and co-ordinate
its many rival and conflicting authorities, and weld its seven
sovereign provinces into a coherent State with himself (under whatever
title) as its "eminent head." At the height of his power his will could
have over-ridden local or partisan opposition, for he had behind him the
prestige of his name and deeds and the overwhelming support of popular
opinion. But William had little or no interest in these constitutional
questions. Being childless, he had no dynastic ambitions. The nearest
male representative of his house was Henry Casimir, the stadholder of
Friesland, with whom his relations had been far from friendly. In his
mind, everything else was subordinate to the one and overruling purpose
of his life, the overthrow of the power of Louis XIV and of French
ascendancy in Europe.
The great coalition which had been formed in 1689 by the treaty of
Vienna was, in the first years of the war which then broke out,
attended with but mediocre success. The French armies laid waste the
Palatinate with great barbarity, and then turned their attentions to the
southern Netherlands. The attempted invasion was, however, checked by an
allied force (August 25) in a sharp encounter near Charleroi. The next
year, 1690, was particularly unfortunate for the allies. William was
still absent, having been obliged to conduct an expedition to Ireland.
He had placed the aged Marshal Waldeck in command of the Coalition
forces. Waldeck had the redoubtable Luxemburg opposed to him and on July
1 the two armies met at Fleurus, when, after a hard-fought contest, the
allies suffered a bloody defeat. An even greater set-back was the
victory gained by Admiral Tourville over the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet
off Beachy Head (July 10). The Dutch squadron under Cornelis Evertsen
bore the brunt of the fight and suffered heavily. They received little
help from the English contingent; and the English Admiral Torrington was
accused of having wilfully sacrificed his allies. The effect was
serious, for the French enjoyed for a while the rare satisfaction of
holding the command of the Channel. The complete triumph of King William
at the battle of the Boyne (July 12) relieved somewhat the consternation
felt at this naval disaster, and set him free to devote his whole
attention to the Continental war. His return to the Hague early in 1691
caused general rejoicing, and he was there able to concert with his
allies the placing of a large force in the field for the ensuing
campaign. The operations were, however, barren of any satisfactory
results. Luxemburg advanced before the allies were ready, and burnt and
plundered a large tract of country. William, acting on the defensive,
contented himself with covering the capital and the rest of Flanders and
Brabant from attack; and no pitched battle took place.
Great preparations were made by Louis XIV in the spring of 1692 for the
invasion of England. Troops were collected on the coast, and the
squadron under D'Estrées at Toulon was ordered to join the main fleet of
Tourville at Brest. Contrary winds delayed the junction; and Tourville
rashly sailed out and engaged off La Hogue a greatly superior allied
fleet on May 29. The conflict this time chiefly fell upon the English,
and after a fierce fight the French were defeated and fled for refuge
into the shoal waters. Here they were followed by the lighter vessels
and fire-ships of the allies; and the greater part of the French
fleet was either burnt or driven upon the rocks (June 1). The maritime
power of France was for the time being destroyed, and all fears of
invasion dissipated. On land ill-success continued to dog the footsteps
of the allies. The strong fortress of Namur was taken by the French;
and, after a hotly contested battle at Steinkirk, William was compelled
by his old adversary Luxemburg to retreat. William, though he was rarely
victorious on the field of battle, had great qualities as a leader. His
courage and coolness won the confidence of his troops, and he was never
greater than in the conduct of a retreat. This was shown conspicuously
in the following year (1693), when, after a disastrous defeat at
Neerwinden (July 29), again at the hands of Luxemburg, he succeeded at
imminent personal risk in withdrawing his army in good order in face of
the superior forces of the victorious enemy.
In 1694 the allies confined themselves to defensive operations. Both
sides were growing weary of war; and there were strong parties in favour
of negotiating for peace both in the Netherlands and in England. Some of
the burgher-regents of Amsterdam, Dordrecht and other towns even went so
far as to make secret overtures to the French government, and they had
the support of the Frisian Stadholder; but William was resolutely
opposed to accepting such conditions as France was willing to offer,
and his strong will prevailed.
The position of the king in England was made more difficult by the
lamented death of Queen Mary on January 2,1695. William had become
deeply attached to his wife during these last years, and for a time he
was prostrated by grief. But a strong sense of public duty roused him
from his depression; and the campaign of 1695 was signalised by the most
brilliant military exploit of his life, the recapture of Namur. That
town, strong by its natural position, had been fortified by Vauban with
all the resources of engineering skill, and was defended by a powerful
garrison commanded by Marshal Boufflers. But William had with him the
famous Coehoorn, in scientific siege-warfare the equal of Vauban
himself. At the end of a month the town of Namur was taken, but
Boufflers withdrew to the citadel. Villeroy, at the head of an army of
90,000 men, did his utmost to compel the king to raise the siege by
threatening Brussels; but a strong allied force watched his movements
and successfully barred his approach to Namur. At last, on September 5,
Boufflers capitulated after a gallant defence on the condition that
he and his troops should march out with all the honours of war.
The campaign of 1696 was marked by no event of importance; indeed both
sides were thoroughly tired out by the protracted and inconclusive
contest. Moreover the failing health of Charles II of Spain threatened
to open out at any moment the vital question of the succession to the
Spanish throne. Louis XIV, William III and the emperor were all keenly
alive to the importance of the issue, and wished to have their hands
free in order to prepare for a settlement, either by diplomatic means or
by a fresh appeal to arms. But peace was the immediate need, and
overtures were privately made by the French king to each of the allied
powers in 1696. At last it was agreed that plenipotentiaries from all
the belligerents should meet in congress at Ryswyck near the Hague with
the Swedish Count Lilienrot as mediator. The congress was opened on May
9, 1697, but many weeks elapsed before the representatives of the
various powers settled down to business. Heinsius and Dijkveld were the
two chief Dutch negotiators. The emperor, when the other powers had
come to terms, refused to accede; and finally England, Spain and the
United Provinces determined to conclude a separate peace. It was signed
on September 20 and was based upon the treaties of Nijmwegen and
Münster. France, having ulterior motives, had been conciliatory.
Strasburg was retained, but most of the French conquests were given up.
William was recognised as King of England, and the Principality of
Orange was restored to him. With the Dutch a commercial treaty was
concluded for twenty-five years on favourable terms.
It was well understood, however, by all the parties that the peace of
Ryswyck was a truce during which the struggle concerning the Spanish
Succession would be transferred from the field of battle to the field of
diplomacy, in the hope that some solution might be found. The question
was clearly of supreme importance to the States, for it involved the
destiny of the Spanish Netherlands. England, too, had great interests at
stake, and was determined to prevent the annexation of the Belgic
provinces by France. With Charles II the male line of the Spanish
Habsburgs became extinct; and there were three principal claimants in
the female line of succession. The claim of the Dauphin was much the
strongest, for he was the grandson of Anne of Austria, Philip III's
eldest daughter, and the son of Maria Theresa of Austria, Charles
II's eldest sister. But both these queens of France had on their
marriage solemnly renounced their rights of succession. Louis XIV,
however, asserted that his wife's renunciation was invalid, since the
dowry, the payment of which was guaranteed by the marriage contract, had
never been received. The younger sister of Maria Theresa had been
married to the emperor; and two sons and a daughter had been the fruit
of the union. This daughter in her turn had wedded the Elector of
Bavaria, and had issue one boy of ten years. The Elector himself,
Maximilian Emmanuel, had been for five years Governor of the Spanish
Netherlands, where his rule had been exceedingly popular. William knew
that one of the chief objects of the French king in concluding peace was
to break up the Grand Alliance and so prepare the way for a masterful
assertion of his rights as soon as the Spanish throne was vacant; and
with patient diplomatic skill he set to work at once to arrange for such
a partition of the Spanish monarchy among the claimants as should
prevent the Belgic provinces from falling into the hands of a
first-class power and preserve Spain itself with its overseas
possessions from the rule of a Bourbon prince. He had no difficulty in
persuading the States to increase their fleet and army in case diplomacy
should fail, for the Dutch were only too well aware of the seriousness
of the French menace to their independence. In England, where jealousy
of a standing army had always been strong, he was less successful, and
Parliament insisted on the disbanding of many thousands of seasoned
troops. The object at which William aimed was a partition treaty; and a
partition was actually arranged (October 11, 1698). This arrangement,
according to the ideas of the time, paid no respect whatever to the
wishes of the peoples, who were treated as mere pawns by these
unscrupulous diplomatists. The Spanish people, as might be expected,
were vehemently opposed to any partition of the empire of Charles V and
Philip II; and, in consequence of the influences that were brought to
bear upon him, Charles II left by will the young electoral prince,
Joseph Ferdinand, heir to his whole inheritance. By the secret terms of
the partition treaty the crown of Spain together with the Netherlands
and the American colonies had been assigned to the Bavarian claimant,
but the Spanish dominions in Italy were divided between the two other
claimants, the second son of the Dauphin, Philip, Duke of Anjou,
receiving Naples and Sicily; the second son of the emperor, the Archduke
Charles, the Milanese. Unfortunately, Joseph Ferdinand fell sick of the
small-pox and died (March, 1699). With William and Heinsius the main
point now was to prevent the French prince from occupying the Spanish
throne; and in all secrecy negotiations were again opened at the Hague
for a second partition treaty. They found Louis XIV still willing to
conclude a bargain. To the Duke of Anjou was now assigned, in addition
to Naples and Sicily, the duchy of Lorraine (whose duke was to receive
the Milanese in exchange); the rest of the Spanish possessions were to
fall to the Archduke Charles (March, 1700). The terms of this
arrangement between the French king and the maritime powers did not long
remain a secret; and when they were known they displeased the emperor,
who did not wish to see French influence predominant in Italy and his
own excluded, and still more the Spanish people, who objected to any
partition and to the Austrian ruler. The palace of Charles II became a
very hot-bed of intrigues, and finally the dying king was persuaded to
make a fresh will and nominate Anjou as his universal heir. Accordingly
on Charles' death (November 1, 1700) Philip V was proclaimed king.
For a brief time Louis was doubtful as to what course of action
would be most advantageous to French interests, but not for long.
On November 11 he publicly announced to his court at Versailles
that his grandson had accepted the Spanish crown. This step was
followed by the placing of French garrisons in some of the frontier
fortresses of the Belgic Netherlands by consent of the governor,
the Elector of Bavaria. The following months were spent in the vain
efforts of diplomacy to obtain such guarantees from the French
king as would give security to the States and satisfaction to England
and the emperor, and so avoid the outbreak of war. In the States
Heinsius, who was working heart and soul with the stadholder in this
crisis, had no difficulty in obtaining the full support of all parties,
even in Holland, to the necessity of making every effort to be ready
for hostilities. William had a more difficult task in England, but he
had the support of the Whig majority in Parliament and of the
commercial classes; and he laboured hard, despite constant and
increasing ill-health, to bring once more into existence the Grand
Alliance of 1689. In July negotiations were opened between the
maritime powers and the emperor at the Hague, which after lengthy
discussions were brought to a conclusion in September, in no small
degree through the tact and persuasiveness of Lord Marlborough,
the English envoy, who had now begun that career which was shortly
to make his name so famous. The chief provisions of the treaty of
alliance, signed on September 7, 1701, were that Austria was to have
the Italian possessions of Spain; the Belgic provinces were to
remain as a barrier and protection for Holland against French
aggression; and England and the States were to retain any conquests
they might make in the Spanish West Indies. Nothing was said
about the crown of Spain, a silence which implied a kind of
recognition of Philip V. To this league were joined Prussia, Hanover,
Lüneburg, Hesse-Cassel, while France, to whom Spain was now
allied, could count upon the help of Bavaria. War was not yet
declared, but at this very moment Louis XIV took a step which was
wantonly provocative. James II died at St Germain on September 6;
and his son was at once acknowledged by Louis as King of England,
by the title of James III. This action aroused a storm of indignation
among the English people, and William found himself supported
by public opinion in raising troops and obtaining supplies for war.
The preparations were on a vast scale. The emperor undertook to
place 90,000 men in the field; England, 40,000; the German states,
54,000; and the Republic no less than 100,000. William had
succeeded at last in the object of his life; a mighty confederation
had been called into being to maintain the balance of power in
Europe, and overthrow the threatened French domination. This
confederation in arms, of which he was the soul and the acknowledged
head, was destined to accomplish the object for which it was formed,
but not under his leadership. The king had spent the autumn in
Holland in close consultation with Heinsius, visiting the camps, the
arsenals and the dockyards, and giving instructions to the admirals
and generals to have everything in readiness for the campaign of
the following spring. Then in November he went to England to
hurry on the preparations, which were in a more backward condition
than in the States. But he had overtaxed his strength. Always
frail and ailing, William had for years by sheer force of will-power
conquered his bodily weakness and endured the fatigue of campaigns
in which he was content to share all hardships with his
soldiers. In his double capacity, too, of king and stadholder, the
cares of government and the conduct of foreign affairs had left him
no rest. Especially had this been the case in England during the
years which had followed Queen Mary's death, when he found
himself opposed and thwarted and humiliated by party intrigues
and cabals, to such an extent that he more than once thought of
abdicating. He was feeling very ill and tired when he returned, and
he grew weaker, for the winter in England always tried him. His
medical advisers warned him that his case was one for which
medicine was of no avail, and that he was not fit to bear the strain
of the work he was doing. But the indomitable spirit of the man
would not give way, and he still hoped with the spring to be able
to put himself at the head of his army. It was not to be; an accident
was the immediate cause by which the end came quickly. He was
riding in Bushey Park when his horse stumbled over a mole-hill
and the king was thrown, breaking his collar-bone (March 14,1702).
The shock proved fatal in his enfeebled state; and, after lingering
for four days, during which, in full possession of his mental faculties,
he continued to discuss affairs of state, he calmly took leave of his
special friends, Bentinck, Earl of Portland and Keppel, Earl of
Albemarle, and of the English statesmen who stood round his death-bed,
and, after thanking them for their services, passed away.
For four generations the House of Orange had produced great
leaders of men, but it may be said without disparagement to his
famous predecessors that the last heir-male of that House was the
greatest of them all. He saved the Dutch Republic from destruction;
and during the thirty years of what has well been called his reign
he gave to it a weighty place in the Councils of Europe and raised
it to a height of great material prosperity. But even such services
as these were dwarfed by the part that he played in laying the
foundation of constitutional monarchy in England, and of the
balance of power in Europe. It is difficult to say whether Holland,
England or Europe owed the deepest debt to the life-work of
William III.
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