Republicanism in the Netherlands is a movement that strives to abolish the Dutch monarchy and replace it with a republic. Currently, the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with the King as the head of state and the Prime Minister as the head of government.
The popularity of the organised republican movement that seeks to abolish the monarchy in its entirety has been suggested to be a minority among the people of the Netherlands, according to opinion polls (according to one 2023 poll, 37%).
Terminology
In discussions on forms of government, it is common to refer to certain 'models', based on how other countries are constituted: Spanish model: a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch at least nominally has limited political power. Swedish model: a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch has an entirely ceremonial role in law as well as in fact. German model: a parliamentary republic in which Parliament elects the President who serves as head of state and who has little to no power. American model: a presidential republic in which the President is elected by the people and serves as head of state and head of government. French model: a semi-presidential republic in which the President is directly elected by the population and shares power with a Prime Minister.Van den Bergh (2002), p. 42.
Historical development
1581–1795: Dutch Republic
Establishment of the Republic The Netherlands emerged as a state during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), when the vast majority of deputies of the States General of the Netherlands concluded the Union of Utrecht in 1579, and declared their independence from Philip II's Spanish Empire with the Act of Abjuration in 1581. After futile attempts to find a suitable alternative hereditary head of state – duke Francis of Anjou (1580–1583), William the Silent (1583–1584), and earl Robert of Leicester (1585–1588) – the States of Holland and West Friesland resolved to proclaim their sovereignty in mid-1587., (Deductie of) Corte vertooninge van het recht by den ridderschap, edelen ende steden van Holland ende West-Vrieslandt van allen ouden tyden in den voorschreven lande gebruyckt, tot behoudenisse vande vryheden, gerechtigheden, privilegien ende loffelicke gebruycken van den selven lande, 16 October 1587 (1587) ("A Deduction or Short Exposition of the Rights Exercised by the Knights, Nobles, and Towns of Holland and West Friesland from Time Immemorial for the Maintenance of the Freedoms, Rights, Privileges and Laudable Customs of the Country"). After a fallout with Leicester, who resigned in early April 1588, the States General issued the instruction of 12 April 1588, formally establishing the Dutch Republic. However, the war initially had neither the achievement of political independence nor the establishment of a republic as its ultimate goal, nor were the Southern Netherlands excluded from it on purpose. Rather, the inability of the Habsburg regime to adequately address religious, social and political unrest (that was originally most pressing in Flanders and Brabant), led to an irreconcilable situation. An independent Calvinist-dominated republic in the Northern Netherlands, opposed to the continuously Spanish Catholic-dominated royalist Southern Netherlands, was the unintended, improvised result., De Lage Landen 1780–1980. Twee eeuwen Nederland en België. Deel I: 1780–1914 (2005) 17–20. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Olympus (part of Atlas Contact). As the war progressed however, the House of Orange-Nassau played an increasingly important role, finally accumulating all stadtholderates and military leadership positions within the Dutch Republic by 1590. Struggles between the House of Orange, which gradually built up a dynasty with monarchical aspirations, and the Dutch States Party, a loose coalition of factions that favoured a republican, in most cases more or less oligarchical form of government, continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
Loevesteiners and Enlightenment In 1610, lawyer Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) wrote On the Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, which attempted to show the States of Holland had always been sovereign (even since the Batavians), and could appoint or depose a prince whenever they so desired. The work's main purpose was to justify the Revolt against the Spanish Empire, and the independent existence of the emergent Dutch Republic.
Modern historians agree that ever since the stadtholderate of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (1625–1647), the Princes of Orange had sought to turn the Dutch Republic into a monarchy under their rule. The 1650 imprisonment of several pro-States regenten and a failed coup d'état by Frederick Henry's son and successor, stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, led to the rise of the Loevestein faction under leadership of Johan de Witt, which sought to establish a republic without Orange. Indeed, after William II's failed power grab and unexpected death, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel decided not to appoint a new stadtholder at all, beginning the First Stadtholderless Period (1650–1672/5) in five of the seven United Provinces. Moreover, after the Dutch Republic was defeated by the Commonwealth of England in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654), the States of Holland led by Johan de Witt were forced to sign the Act of Seclusion, meaning William's son William III of Orange was excluded from holding the office of stadtholder of Holland. The legitimacy of necessity of the strange office of stadtholder was increasingly questioned and undermined, especially when it seemed evident that the House of Orange sought to make the office hereditary and had shown the willingness to use military violence in order to increase the stadtholderate's power.
The best known and most outspoken author representing the Loevesteiners was Pieter de la Court (1618–1685), who rejected monarchism in favour of a republican government in several of his writings. In the preface to the Interest of Holland (1662) he wrote: "No greater evil could befall the residents of Holland, than to be ruled by a Monarch, Lord or Chief: and (...) on the contrary, the Lord God cannot bestow a greater blessing upon a country, built on such foundations, than by constituting a free Republican or State-wise Government." In Aanwysing der heilsame politike Gronden en Maximen van de Republike van Holland en West-Vriesland (1669), he attacked the monarchy even more viciously. Philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), who regularly cited De la Court's works, described in his unfinished Tractatus Politicus (1677) how the ideal state, a democratic republic, should function. According to Spinoza, kings have a natural tendency to pursue their own personal interests, and entrust large portions of power to confidants (who lack any official mandate, but often de facto run the country if the king is a weakling). These confidants are often noblemen, making it an aristocracy instead of a monarchy in practice. The best monarchy is a quasi-monarchy, a crowned republic in which princes have as little power as possible. Spinoza proposes a council of state, elected by citizens, to take the most important decisions, and replace the murderous and pillaging royal mercenary armies by an unpaid draft army of citizens that defends its own country for self-preservation. If this council of state is large and representative enough, there will never be a majority in favour of war, because of all the suffering, destruction and high taxes it will cause. Pastor and philosopher Frederik van Leenhof (1647–1715), who secretly admired the ideas of the very controversial Spinoza, held a thinly veiled plea for a kind of meritocratic republic in De Prediker van den wijzen en magtigen Konink Salomon (1700), whilst rejecting monarchy ("without doubt the most imperfect [rule]") and aristocracy. Hereditary succession is worthless; only reason provides legitimacy, and true sovereignty is the common good of the community. Royal standing armies of mercenaries are to be abolished, lest they be used to oppress the king's subjects; instead, the state should train its citizens and form a militia to be able to defend the common good.Israel, 408–10.
Patriots
From the 1770s onwards, the Patriots emerged as a third faction besides the Orangists and Loevesteiners. The Patriots were themselves divided: the aristocratic oudpatriotten or "Old Patriots" (the Loevesteiners' successors) either sought to enter the existing power factions, or to reduce or eliminate Orange's power, but had no desire for democratisation that could threaten their own privileges. The democratic Patriots wanted to found a democratic republic, sought complete equality and the eventual abolishment of the aristocracy as well. As the latter group grew in size and radicalised, this led some Old Patriots to reverse their allegiance back to Orange.Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "patriotten". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
Discontented with the hereditary system of allocating posts, the decline of the Dutch East India Company's Asian trade, unemployment in the textile industry and the desire of democratisation, the middle and upper classes looked towards the American Revolution and its Declaration of Independence and the Dutch Act of Abjuration and began to reclaim their rights (first written down in the 1579 Union of Utrecht). The lower classes largely remained supportive of the existing Orange stadtholderian regime, which supported the British Empire against the American rebels. 1780 is generally regarded as the outbreak of the major conflict between Patriots and Orangists, when their opposing policies on the American War of Independence stirred up domestic conflict. When the Republic threatened to join the First League of Armed Neutrality to defend its right to trade with the American colonies in revolt, Britain declared war: the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784). The Patriots seized the occasion to try to rid themselves from Orange altogether, and allied themselves with the American republican revolutionaries., 46. This was most clearly expressed in the 1781 pamphlet Aan het Volk van Nederland ("To the People of the Netherlands"), anonymously distributed by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol. Partly thanks to his influence in the States General, the Netherlands became the second country to officially recognise the young American Republic in 1782. Between 1782 and 1787, democratic Patriotism managed to establish itself in parts of the Republic., 48. From 1783 onwards, the Patriots formed militia or paramilitary groups called exercitiegenootschappen or vrijcorpsen., 49. They tried to persuade the prince and city governments to allow non-Calvinists into the vroedschap. In 1784, they held their first national meeting. The total number of Patriot volunteer militiamen is estimated to have been around 28,000.
The provinces of Holland and Utrecht became strongholds of democratic Patriots in 1785, and William V fled from The Hague to Nijmegen that year. In 1787, he was finally able to restore his power with the Prussian invasion of Holland. Many Patriots fled the country to Northern France. French revolutionaries supported by the Batavian Legion (consisting of fled Patriots) conquered the Dutch Republic in 1795, founding the vassal Batavian Republic.
1795–1806: Batavian Republic