The Ideological Origins of the Batavian Revolution

The "age of the democratic revolution" 1 in the Dutch Republic cul­ minated in two revolutions : the aborted Patriot Revolution of 1787 and the more successful Batavian Revolution of 1795. For the United Provinces that age had begun after a series of crises in 1747 and resulted in the un­ precedented establishment of a single individual in the office of chief executive in all of the component provinces. The new form which emerged from the foreign and domestic threats of midcentury was that of a hereditary Stadhouder in the House of Orange. That family had served the Dutch state in varying capacities and with disparate consequences from its inception in the Revolt of the sixteenth century, through the triumphs of the Golden Era, to the less glorious days of the Periwig Period. The accession of William IV in 1747, his early death followed by a lengthy regency from 1752, and the accession of his son, William V, as "eminent head" of each province and chief officer of the Generality in 1766, all brought forth renewed scrutiny of the family and the offices of the Princes of Orange in the political life of the Republic. Those who were most critical of the new powers of the Stadhouderate and most desirous of reducing the dangers they saw threatening the state from the aggrandizement of that office, came to usurp the nearly exclusive use of the hoary title of Patriot.

I. The constitutional argument.- A. The Eighty Years War.- B. The Era of "True Liberty" (Ware Vrijheid).- C. The Oligarchy and Slingelandt.- II. The revolution of 1747 and the Stadhouderate.- A. Invasion and Revolution.- B. Reaction after 1754.- 1. Elie Luzac and the Stadhoudersgezinden.- 2. Jan Wagenaar and the Loevesteiners.- 3. The Shade of Johan de Witt.- III. The development of patriot and orangist ideology.- A. New Ideas and Old History: Socrates and the Beggars.- B. New Organizations: Economic Patriotism.- C. Pieter Paulus on the Stadhouder and the Constitution.- D. Simon Stijl and the New Enlightened History.- E. J.D. van der Capellen, "Born Regent" and Patriot.- IV. The patriots prepare "the democratic revolution".- A. The Patriot Call to Arms.- B. Hollan's Wealth: A Summary of the Orangist Position.- C. The Call for Constitutional Restoration.- 1. Political Organization and Patriot Activity.- 2. Political Theory in a Patriot Program.- D. The Response in Theory and Practice.- 1. Sovereignty Defended by A. Kluit.- 2. Patriots and Organists Ready for Battle.- 3. The Failure of the Democratic Patriot Revolution.- V. The end of the constitutional argument220 A. "Civil Liberty" and "Equality" under Orange Restoration.- B. Politics, Philosophy and History in 1793.- 1. S.I. Wiselius: Political Enlightenment.- 2. A. Kluit: The Rights of Man.- C. The End of the Republic, Long Live the Republic.- 1. French Invasion and National Assembly.- 2. The Batavian Republic: Constitution and Coup.- 3. The Old Republic in Retrospect.- Conclusion.