William II, Prince of Orange

Breda, after being under Spanish control for a dozen years, is on October 10 recaptured after a ten-month siege by the Prince of Orange.

Despite repeated attempts, the Cardinal-Infante is unable to recapture this critical fortress, strengthening not only the Dutch but also his enemies at the Spanish court in Madrid.

Ferdinand also loses La Capelle, Landrecies, and Damvillers to the French, and is not only unable to capture Maubeuge but also loses significant ground to the French in the process.

Maurice of Nassau, sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618 and stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands from earliest 1585 until his death in 1625, had asserted (with the assent of the other provinces) a federal sovereignty that superseded the provincial one.

He had also purged the Holland regents that supported the provincial-sovereignty pretensions of Landsadvocaat Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and so had managed to acquire a political dominance in the government of the Republic that assumed almost monarchical proportions.

His brother, and successor as stadtholder, Frederick Henry, had held on to this ascendancy, due to a deft policy of divide-and conquer, playing off the regent factions against each other.

On the death, in March 1647, of Frederick Henry, sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel, his son William II had been appointed stadtholder in Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland (the office will not become hereditary until 1747).

William II does not have the stature of his father, also because Frederick Henry had not thought highly of his capabilities and had refused to allow him to lead troops in the field during the war against Spain that was then in its last stages.

William is opposed to the peace with Spain, but he is largely ignored by the politicians in the States General, especially the representatives of the city of Amsterdam.

The Peace of Münster is duly concluded on May 15, 1648, in spite of the opposition of William II of Orange and the province of Zeeland, the former deliberately absenting himself from the discussions to masque his impotence.

With the peace, the Dutch Republic of the United Netherlands is recognized as an independent country governed by the House of Orange-Nassau and the Estates General.

A number of conflicts have erupted between the stadtholder and especially the States of Holland about policy in the years directly following the peace.

Prince William II (though a lax Calvinist himself, like his father) keenly supports the Calvinist radicals in their attempts to force the Protestant religion on the Catholic inhabitants of the recently acquired Generality Lands (though his father had been far more tolerant of Catholic freedom of conscience).

William has managed to gain much popularity by this hard-line policy among the more orthodox lower classes in the Republic-proper, but the Holland regents, aware of the needless resentment it causes, have thwarted the policy.

This is, however, mere political posturing on the part of William, who is cynically exploiting certain prejudices in an attempt to gain ascendancy over the regents.

More important as a matter of principle is the conflict over the reduction of the standing army that arose during 1649 and 1650.

After the Peace of Münster was signed, Bicker had been of the opinion that it was no longer necessary to maintain an expensive standing army, bringing him into vehement conflict with William who has opened his own secret negotiations with France with the goal of extending his own territory under a centralized government.

In addition, he works for the restoration of his brother-in-law, Charles II, to the throne of England.

William II becomes involved in 1650 in a bitter quarrel with the province of Holland and the powerful regents of Amsterdam, like Bicker and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff.

William opposes the reduction in the size of the army, which will diminish his power base.

This results in William imprisoning six leading members of the provincial assembly in the castle of Loevestein.

In addition, he sends his cousin Willem Frederik of Nassau-Dietz with an army of ten thousand troops with the aim of taking Amsterdam by force.

On the march towards Dordrecht and Amsterdam with an army, Willem Frederik’s troops become lost in a dense fog and are discovered by the postal courier to Hamburg, who also warns Bicker’s son Gerard, the high bailiff of Muiden, to leave without delay for Amsterdam.

The mayors of Amsterdam have the civic guard called out, the bridges raised, the gates closed and the artillery dragged into position.

Although this coup de main fails and Amsterdam manages to keep the troops outside the gates, the city is sufficiently intimidated to give in to William's demands to purge his opponents from the Amsterdam city council.

The States of Holland capitulate and rescind the order to disband the troops, disavowing also the theory of provincial supremacy.

Bicker is purged from the vroedschap, as is his brother Cornelis, as one of the conditions of the treaty that follows, led by Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen.

Henceforth, it is the equally republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and their followers, who are to dominate Amsterdam.

The Dutch stadtholder Frederick Henry had given major financial support during the English Civil War to Charles I, to whom he had close family ties, and had often been on the brink of intervening with his powerful army.

When Charles was beheaded, the Dutch were outraged by the regicide.

Oliver Cromwell therefore considers the Dutch Republic as an enemy.

Nevertheless the Commonwealth and The Republic have many things in common: they are both republican and Protestant.

When after the death of Frederick Henry in 1647 his son, stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, had tried to fulfill the monarchical aspirations his late father had always fostered by establishing a military dictatorship, the States of Holland had made overtures to Cromwell, seeking his support against William, suggesting vaguely that the province of Holland might join the Commonwealth.

William suddenly dies of smallpox in 1650, however, so there is no longer any need for Cromwell's support against him.

Eight days later, William Henry of Orange, born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on November 14, 1650, is the only child of stadtholder William II, and Mary, Princess Royal.

Mary is the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, and sister of King Charles II and King James II.

Thus, William is the Sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth.

Immediately a conflict ensues between the Princess Royal and William II's mother, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, over the name to be given to the infant.

Mary wants to name him Charles after her brother, but her mother-in-law insists on giving him the name William or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder.

William II had appointed his wife as his son's guardian in his will; however the document remained unsigned at William II's death and is void.

At William's father's death, the provinces had suspended the office of stadtholder; thus, the United Provinces now become a true republic.

However, rivalry between the two main factions in Dutch society, the Staatsgezinden (Republicans) and the Prinsgezinden (Royalists or Orangists) will sap the strength and unity of the country in the the long term.

Agitation among the Dutch merchants had further increased by George Ayscue's capture in early 1652 of twenty-seven Dutch ships trading with the royalist colony of Barbados in contravention of an embargo imposed by the Commonwealth.

British privateers between October 1651 and July 1652 capture over a hundred other Dutch ships.

Moreover, the death of Dutch stadtholder William II, who had favored an expansion of the army at the expense of the navy, has led to a change in the defense policy of the United Provinces towards protecting the great trading concerns of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Accordingly, the States-General had decided on March 3, 1652 to expand the fleet by hiring and equipping one hundred and fifty merchant ships as ships of war to allow effective convoying against British hostile actions.

The news of this decision had reached London on March 12, 1652 and the Commonwealth too began to prepare for war, but as both nations were unready, war might have been delayed if not for an unfortunate encounter on May 29, 1652 between the fleets of Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp and General at Sea Robert Blake in the English Channel near Dover.

An ordinance of Cromwell requires all foreign fleets in the North Sea or the Channel to dip their flag in salute, reviving an ancient right the English had long insisted on, but when Tromp was tardy to comply, Blake had opened fire, starting the brief Battle of Goodwin Sands, in which Tromp lost two ships but escorted his convoy to safety.

The States of Holland had sent their highest official, the Grand Pensionary Adriaan Pauw, to London in a last desperate attempt to prevent war, but in vain: English demands have become so extreme that no self-respecting state can meet them.

War is declared on July 10, 1652, by the English Parliament.

The Dutch diplomats realize what is at stake: one of the departing ambassadors says, "The English are about to attack a mountain of gold; we are about to attack a mountain of iron."

The Dutch Orangists are jubilant however; they expect that either victory or defeat will bring them to power.