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Abstract
In 1806 more than two centuries of the republican form of government in the Northern Netherlands came to an end. For a long time, historiography had it that the Dutch were indifferent to the end of the Republic and the establishment of the Kingdom of Holland. The transformation was, however, a much more dynamic process than has been portrayed. King Louis Bonaparte had the difficult task of acquainting a republican people with monarchy. Even though republicanism had lost much of its appeal by 1806, and the usefulness of democratic institutions was put into question, many Batavians nourished anti-monarchism. The Dutch state was one of many European client states that began to experience tensions between the gains of the revolution and the Napoleonic Realpolitik that was geared towards limiting popular sovereignty and expanding the French Empire. Louis Bonaparte, and later the Restoration monarchs, tried to reconcile popular sovereignty and monarchic authority by propagating the constitutional monarchy as the ideal juste milieu (middle way) between extremes.
Notes
1. The first version of this paper was presented at the conference Juste Milieu – The Search for a Middle Way between Revolution and Tradition at Utrecht University. The author wishes to thank the two anonymous referees for their useful suggestions and comments. He is also grateful to Annie Jourdan and Matthijs Lok for their continuous feedback on his work in the past few years.
3. Wyger Velema, an expert on the history of republican thought, recently stated that the definitive end of Dutch republicanism and the introduction of monarchy ‘still remain an underexposed part in the historiography on the origins of the modern Netherlands’. Velema, “Lodewijk Napoleon,” 147.
4. Notably the series Gedenkstukken der algemeene geschiedenis van Nederland van 1795 tot 1840, 22 volumes (Colenbrander, 1905–1922) and many monographs on the Batavian Republic and the Napoleonic Era. For a critical evalution of Colenbrander's work see CitationVan Deursen, Historie en leven.
5. CitationTollebeek, “De legitimatie van een ongeschreven werk,” 6–8.
6. CitationTulard, Le Grand Empire 1804–1815, 115. Another good example is CitationConnelly, Napoleon's Satellite Kingdoms.
7. CitationSchama, Patriots and Liberators, 487.
8. Van Sas, “De metamorfose van Nederland”; CitationVan Sas, “L'impératif patriotique,” 37–41.
9. CitationVelema, Republicans, 202.
10. CitationJoor, De Adelaar en het Lam; CitationPfeil, ‘Tot redding van het vaderland’.
11. An English translation of this work was published in 2004 as Kloek, Mijnhardt and Koolhaas, Citation 1800 : Blueprints for a National Community.
12. The first of these was a special issue of De Negentiende Eeuw, devoted to state formation and nation building, and second the Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 2006–2007, focusing on the arts. In 2009 a selection of articles from these volumes was translated into French and edited by Annie Jourdan and published by Editions Nouveau Monde as Citation Louis Bonaparte: roi de Hollande . Third, a volume on legal history came out, Nederland in Franse schaduw (Hallebeek and Sirks, Citation2006), which explored the juridical inheritance of the Kingdom of Holland.
13. Notably CitationBroers, Europe under Napoleon, 1799–1815; CitationBroers, “Napoleon, Charlemagne and Lotharingia”; CitationJourdan, L'empire de Napoléon; CitationRowe, From Reich to State; CitationWoolf, Napoleon's Integration of Europe.
14. Jourdan, “La République batave et le 18 brumaire”.
15. CitationKlein, “De sprong naar '95,” 39–46.
16. CitationPoell, “The Democratic Paradox,” 78; CitationVelema, “Revolutie, Republiek en Constitutie,” 29–32.
17. CitationVan Sas, “Scenario's voor een onvoltooide revolutie”; for a recent analysis of the tensions between democratization and centralization see Poell, “The Democratic Paradox”.
18. CitationJourdan, La Révolution batave, 176–9.
19. Schama, Patriots and Liberators, 279–80.
20. CitationJourdan, La Révolution, 234–40. A comparative study of the Dutch and Swiss constitution is CitationBauer, “Der französische Einfluss.”
21. Jourdan, La Révolution, 268.
22. Moreover, the French and Dutch generals Joubert and Daendels, who facilitated the coup, never received the promised monthly compensation of thousand guilders. CitationJourdan, “Le rôle des agents français”.
23. CitationJourdan, “La République batave et le 18 brumaire”.
24. CitationVelema, Republicans, 203–4.
25. CitationVan der Burg and Lok, “The Netherlands under Napoleonic Rule”.
26. Jourdan, La Révolution, 237.
27. CitationMigliorini, “L'Italie dans le système napoléonien,” 313–14.
28. CitationLentz, “Napoléon et Charlemagne,” 16–17.
29. CitationKlein, Patriots republikanisme, 193, 221–222.
30. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, XIX.
31. CitationDe Bruin, “De opbouw van een nieuwe staat,” 149; CitationColenbrander, Schimmelpenninck en Koning Lodewijk, 30–7.
32. Archives Nationales, Paris (henceforth ANP). AF IV 1820, p. 5; CitationBonaparte, Documens historiques, 68–9.
33. CitationReecht, “Louis Bonaparte,” 66.
34. Schama, Patriots and Liberators, 478.
35. This reference could also legitimise Napoleon's conflict with the pope and the annexation of the Papal States in 1809. Lentz, “Napoléon et Charlemagne,” 18–19, 28–9.
36. Reecht, “Louis Bonaparte,” 75–76.
37. CitationRocquain, Napoléon Ier et le roi Louis, 300; Citation Correspondance de Napoléon Ier , 8 and 31 March 1806.
38. Colenbrander, Schimmelpenninck en Koning Lodewijk, 67.
39. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, XXIV–XXVI, 442, 445.
40. As cited by Poell, “The Democratic Paradox,” 145.
41. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, 528–31.
42. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, 535–6.
43. Emphasis added. ANP. AF IV 1820, p. 5; Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 67–8.
44. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, 456.
45. Significantly, Louis Bonaparte's propaganda machine would take pains over discrediting the former Polish monarchy in early 1807. A ‘roi héréditaire’ would have been far better for the Polish; ‘le systême monarchique mixte’, wrote the editor of Louis's propaganda magazine Citation Le Vrai Hollandais , ‘était le seul que [Montesquieu et Rousseau] croiaient propre aux peuples Européens’. Le Vrai Hollandais, no. 13.
46. ANP. 400 AP 25, p. 4, 13, 16.
47. Rocquain, Napoléon Ier et le roi Louis, 23–4; 221.
48. Lentz, “Napoléon et Charlemagne,” 18–19, 23–4.
49. CitationKemper, Brieven over de tegenwoordig in omloop zijnde geruchten, 13.
50. CitationRoelofswaert, Aan mijne landgenooten; CitationConstans, Brief van een gemelijk Nederlander.
51. CitationPrak, “Burghers into Citizens,” 415.
52. Joor, De Adelaar en het Lam, 490.
53. CitationHulshoff, Oproeping van het Bataafsche volk, 5.
54. In 1809 with help from republican comrades she fled to London and later New York, and became an icon for radical republicans. CitationGabriëls, “Hulshoff, Maria.”
55. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 76.
56. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 75–6.
57. Dutch republicans had always been preoccupied with the Ware Vrijheid: the True Freedom. See CitationHaitsma Mulier and Velema, Vrijheid. Een geschiedenis van de vijftiende tot de twintigste eeuw.
58. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 85.
59. CitationVan Sas, “De metamorfose van Nederland,” 35–6.
60. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 141–2.
61. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 78.
62. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 82.
63. CitationDe Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, XXXII.
64. De Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, XXXIII.
65. Louis Bonaparte did, however, provide the opportunity to appoint someone else to take his place in his absence, which was quite often. CitationColenbrander, Gedenkstukken, part V, no. 192; CitationDe Gou, De Staatsregeling van 1805, 309.
66. CitationVan der Burg, “Nederland onder Franse invloed,” 60–2.
67. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, 89.
68. Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken, part V, no. 342.
69. Bonaparte, Documens historiques, tome I, 91.
70. ANP, AF IV 1831, p. 127.
71. CitationDubosq, Louis Bonaparte en Hollande, no. 276.
72. Years earlier, during the deliberations on the Batavian constitution, Van de Kasteele had already shown himself to be an advocate of Montesquieu's separation-of-powers theory. CitationDe Gou, Het Ontwerp van Constitutie van 1797, 411–19.
73. CitationJourdan, “Staats- en natievorming,” 137.
74. ANP. AF IV 1813, p. 22.
75. ANP. AF IV 1813, p. 22.
76. Note that Van de Kasteele uses the phrase ‘representatives of the inhabitants’ instead of ‘popular representatives’ or ‘citizens’, which have a much more revolutionary ring.
77. Draft by Van de Kasteele, art. 48–53.
78. Draft by Van de Kasteele, art. 54, 58–59.
79. As cited by Jourdan, La Révolution batave, 440–1.
80. CitationRowe, “Debate,” 510.
81. CitationJourdan, “Le Premier Empire,” 52–4; CitationWoloch, “From Consulate to Empire,” 45–6.
82. CitationKelley, “What Pleases the Prince”.
83. CitationLeerssen, National Thought in Europe, 82–8.
84. Jourdan, L'empire de Napoléon, 152–3.
85. CitationBroers, Europe after Napoleon, 17.
86. CitationBroers, Europe under Napoleon, 253–4.
87. CitationLok, “‘Op een gelijksoortige klip schipbreuk leiden’,” 101–2.
88. CitationVan Sas, “Het politiek bestel onder Willem I.”
89. CitationIdo de Haan and Jeroen van Zanten, who in their article “Louis as trailblazer for William?” have examined the impact of Louis Bonaparte on the rule of William I, acknowledge this established precedent as well. They also stress that William was influenced by the enlightened absolutism of Emperor Joseph II and William's great-uncle Frederick the Great. De Haan and Van Zanten, “Lodewijk als wegbereider van Willem?,” 291.
90. See CitationLok, “‘De Schaduwkoning’,” also published in French in the volume Louis Bonaparte, edited by Annie Jourdan. For a comparative study of the establishment of the Restoration monarchies in France and the Netherlands see , Windvanen and idem, “L'extrême centre.”
91. CitationVelema, “Lodewijk Napoleon,” 154.