232 Ch. 6 • England and the Dltcii Republic:
Poland) that defied the pattern of absolute and increasingly centralized rule
that characterized seventeenth-century Europe. Spain ruled the Nether
lands from 1516, when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who had inherited
the territories of the dukes of Burgundy, became king of Spain. After a long,
intermittent war that had begun in 1566 against Spanish rule (Chapter 5),
the Dutch Republic officially became independent in 1648 (see Map 6.2
and pp. 98-202). The United Provinces, a confederation of republics, had
been federalist in structure since the Union of Utrecht in 1579, when the
provinces and cities of the Dutch Netherlands came together to form a
defensive alliance against the advancing Spanish army. The Dutch Repub
lic, from which William of Orange had launched his successful invasion of
England in 1688, resisted the aspirations of the House of Orange for a cen
tralized government dominated by a hereditary monarchy. Like their En
glish counterparts, most people in the Netherlands did not want absolute
rule, which they identified with the arbitrary acts of the Catholic Spanish
monarchy.
The Structure of the Dutch StateThe States General served as a federal legislative body of delegations from
each of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic. Each of the provinces
held to traditions of autonomy, provincial sovereignty, and, since the Refor
mation, religious pluralism. Nobles received automatic representation in the
States General. But their economic and political role in the Republic was
relatively w'eak, except in the overwhelmingly agricultural eastern provinces.
The Dutch Republic was in some wavs less a republic than an oligarchy of
wealthy families who monopolized political power. No republican ideology
existed until at least the second half of the seventeenth century. But Dutch
citizens enjoyed some basic rights unavailable in most other states at the
time. Provincial courts protected the Dutch against occasional arbitrary acts
of both the central government and town governments. Solid fiscal institu
tions generated international confidence, permitting the Republic to raise
sizable loans as needed.
The princes of the House of Orange served as stadholder of the Republic.
A stadholder w>as at first appointed, and served as a political broker. He had
influence, but not authority. He was not a ruler, and could not declare war,
legislate, or even participate in the important decisions of the Republic.
Many of the Orangist stadholders chafed under the restrictions on their
authority, although they dominated some high federal appointments and
named the sons of nobles to important positions in the army and navy. The
Orangist stadholders dreamed of establishing a powerful hereditary monar
chy. In 1650, William 11 (1626-1650), stadholder of five of the seven
provinces, arrested six leaders of Holland and sent an army to besiege Ams
terdam. A compromise reinforced the stadholders’ power. But with William’s
sudden death several months later, the balance of power sw ung back to the