The Act of Seclusion was an Act of the States of Holland, required by a secret annex in the Treaty of Westminster (1654) between the United Provinces and the Commonwealth of England in which William III, Prince of Orange, was excluded from the office of Stadtholder. [1]
Seclusion is defined as the state of being private and away from other people. The First Stadtholderless Period had been heralded in January 1651 by States Party Regenten , among whom the republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff and their cousins Andries and Cornelis Bicker, during the Grote Vergadering (Great Assembly) in The Hague, a meeting of representatives of the States of each of the United Provinces. [2] This meeting was convened after the death of stadtholder William II on November 6, 1650, when the States of Holland decided to leave the office of Stadtholder vacant in their province.
The First Anglo-Dutch war had been a disaster for the Dutch. [3] The subsequent Treaty of Westminster which ended the war meant that the Dutch were forced to give a number of concessions to England. In addition, Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, and Oliver Cromwell ensured that the Orangist regent faction would be much weakened. This strengthend De Witt's party, while English Republicans no longer needed to fear that William III (four years of age at the time) could become a strong Dutch leader who could bring the Stuarts to whom he was closely related through his mother Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, back on the English throne[ citation needed ].
As the other provinces would have refused to sign the treaty if they had known of the secret clause, De Witt arranged that this clause would bind only the States of Holland. The States-General of the Netherlands were completely left in the dark, as was the Frisian plenipotentiary at the negotiations, Allart Pieter van Jongestall. Only the two Holland representatives (Hieronymus van Beverningh and Willem Nieupoort) were in on the secret. Consequently, the States-General ratified the treaty on April 22, 1654, without the secret annex.
The prime movers behind the Act of Seclusion, in which William III, Prince of Orange was excluded from the office of Stadtholder, were De Witt and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff. Then, the States of Holland debated the Act and passed it on May 4, 1654, over the opposition of the Holland ridderschap (delegates of the nobility, who had one vote in the States) and six of the cities (with one vote each). Only then did Oliver Cromwell, the English signatory to the treaty, ratify the treaty (including the secret clause), as had been agreed beforehand. [4] : 722–723
De Witt, managed to have the act ratified only with the greatest effort. The Gedeputeerde Staten (Delegated States) of Friesland (executive of the States of Friesland) even demanded that the conduct of the Dutch plenipotentiaries be investigated. [4] : 725
When the Act of Seclusion shortly afterward was leaked by De Witt's clerk Van Messem, it was commonly assumed that De Witt masterminded it himself. In the 19th century, investigation of his secret correspondence appeared to show otherwise. [5] Nowadays, different positions are taken in this matter stemming from the suspicion that De Witt may have manipulated the writings out of fear that they might fall into the wrong hands. [6]
When the English Restoration brought Charles II to the throne of England, the States of Holland declared that the Act of Seclusion had thereby lost its validity since the Act had been concluded with the Commonwealth, which had ceased to exist.
In 1667, De Witt and his partisans permanently barred the House of Orange from influence by the Perpetual Edict. However, in 1672, the States of Holland revoked the Edict and made William of Orange Stadtholder.
Ironically, William III would later drive out the Stuart King James II during the Glorious Revolution and thereby end moves in England towards absolutism.
William II was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 14 March 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
The Treaty of Westminster, concluded between the Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell, and the States General of the United Netherlands, was signed on 5/15 April 1654. The treaty ended the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654). The treaty is otherwise notable because it is one of the first treaties implementing international arbitration as a method of conflict resolution in early modern times. A secret clause, obliging the States of Holland to enact the Act of Seclusion, played an important part in Dutch internal politics during the First Stadtholderless Period.
Johan de Witt, lord of Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp en IJsselvere, was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, the First Stadtholderless Period, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of global colonisation made the republic a leading European trading and seafaring power – now commonly referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. De Witt was elected Grand pensionary of Holland, and together with his uncle Cornelis de Graeff, he controlled the Dutch political system from around 1650 until the Rampjaar of 1672. This progressive cooperation between the two statesmen, and the consequent support of Amsterdam under the rule of De Graeff, was an important political axis that organized the political system within the republic.
In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the Rampjaar. In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded and nearly overran the Dutch Republic. At the same time, it faced the threat of an English naval blockade in support of the French endeavor, though that attempt was abandoned following the Battle of Solebay. A Dutch saying coined that year describes the Dutch people as redeloos ("irrational"), its government as radeloos ("distraught"), and the country as reddeloos. The cities of the coastal provinces of Holland, Zealand and Frisia underwent a political transition: the city governments were taken over by Orangists, opposed to the republican regime of the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, ending the First Stadtholderless Period.
Cornelis de Graeff, often named Polsbroek or de heer van (lord) Polsbroek during his lifetime was an influential regent and burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam, statesman and diplomat of Holland and the Republic of the United Netherlands at the height of the Dutch Golden Age.
Andries Bicker, lord of Engelenburg was a powerful Amsterdam burgomaster and Dutch politician and diplomat during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a prominent member of the Bicker family of Amsterdam regents who, together with the related De Graeff family, governed the city of Amsterdam and with it the province of Holland for about half a century and, at that time, effectively the Republic of the Netherlands when it was at the height of its power.
Jacob de Witt, heer van Manezee, Melissant and Comstryen was a burgomaster of Dordrecht and the son of a timber merchant. De Witt was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, and was in opposition to the House of Orange. He was also a younger brother of Andries de Witt and the father of Johan and Cornelis de Witt.
The First Stadtholderless Period or Era is the period in the history of the Dutch Republic in which the office of Stadtholder was vacant in five of the seven Dutch provinces. It coincided with the zenith of the Golden Age of the Republic.
The Perpetual Edict was a resolution of the States of Holland passed on 5 August 1667 which abolished the office of Stadtholder in the province of Holland. At approximately the same time, a majority of provinces in the States General of the Netherlands agreed to declare the office of stadtholder incompatible with the office of Captain general of the Dutch Republic.
Hieronymus van Beverningh was a prominent Dutch regent, diplomat, amateur botanist, and patron of the arts, who lived during the Dutch Golden Age.
William Frederick, Count of Nassau-Dietz, Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe.
Andries de Graeff was a regent and burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam and leading Dutch statesman during the Golden Age.
In the history of the Dutch Republic, Orangism or prinsgezindheid was a political force opposing the Staatsgezinde (pro-Republic) party. Orangists supported the Princes of Orange as Stadtholders and military commanders of the Republic, as a check on the power of the regenten. The Orangist party drew its adherents largely from traditionalists – mostly farmers, soldiers, noblemen and orthodox Protestant preachers, though its support fluctuated heavily over the course of the Republic's history and there were never clear-cut socioeconomic divisions.
Bicker is a very old Dutch patrician family. The family has played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They led the Dutch States Party and were at the centre of Amsterdam oligarchy from the beginning of the 17th century until the early 1650s, influencing the government of Holland and the Republic of the United Netherlands. Their wealth was based on commercial transactions, and in their political commitment they mostly opposed the House of Orange.
The Dutch Republic existed from 1579 to 1795 and was a confederation of seven provinces, which had their own governments and were very independent, and a number of so-called Generality Lands. These latter were governed directly by the States-General, the federal government. The States-General were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives of each of the seven provinces.
The Dutch States Party was a political faction of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. This republican faction is usually (negatively) defined as the opponents of the Orangist, or Prinsgezinde faction, who supported the monarchical aspirations of the stadtholders, who were usually members of the House of Orange-Nassau. The two factions existed during the entire history of the Republic since the Twelve Years' Truce, be it that the role of "usual opposition party" of the States party was taken over by the Patriots after the Orangist revolution of 1747. The States party was in the ascendancy during the First Stadtholderless Period and the Second Stadtholderless Period.
Allart Pieter van Jongestall, also spelled Allard Pieter van Jongestal was a Dutch jurist and diplomat. He was president of the Hof van Friesland and represented the States-General of the Dutch Republic in the negotiations of the Treaty of Westminster (1654) and the Treaty of Breda (1667) which ended the first two Anglo-Dutch Wars.
Willem Nieupoort was a Dutch States Party politician, ambassador to the Commonwealth of England for the Dutch Republic and commissioner in the Dutch delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Westminster (1654) after the First Anglo-Dutch War.
Cornelis Bicker van Swieten, heer (lord) van Swieten, was an Amsterdam regent of the Dutch Republic during the Golden Age and a governor of the Dutch West India Company. He was also a sugar merchant, hoogheemraad of the Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland and a counsellor of the States of Holland and West Friesland for Amsterdam at The Hague. He belonged to the Dutch States Party and was in opposition to the House of Orange.
The Attack on Amsterdam in July 1650 was part of a planned coup d'état by stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange to break the power of the regenten in the Dutch Republic, especially the County of Holland. The coup failed, because the army of the Frisian stadtholder William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz got lost on the way to Amsterdam in the rainy night of 29 to 30 July. It was discovered, and once the city had been warned, it had enough time to prepare for an attack. The attempted coup made the House of Orange extremely unpopular for a lengthy period of time, and was one of the main reasons for the origins of the First Stadtholderless Period (1650–1672).