Rampjaar
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The rampjaar ("disaster year") was the year 1672 in Dutch history. In that year, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was attacked by England, France, Münster and Cologne. The invading armies very quickly defeated the Dutch army and conquered a large part of the Republic.
As a result the cities of the remaining coastal provinces of Holland, Zealand and Frisia panicked and the city governments were taken over by Orangists, opposed to the republican regime of the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt.
A famous Dutch saying describes the condition of the Dutch population at that moment as redeloos (beyond reason), its government radeloos (out of its wits) and the country itself reddeloos (beyond salvation).
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[edit] Situation in the Republic
Already during the Eighty Years' War there had been tensions in the provinces between adherers of a government ruled by the (civilian) aristocracy, called regents and those who favoured a government led by the prince of Orange. These tensions had escalated in 1650 when Willem II had tried to conquer Amsterdam the main bastion of the Regents. After negotiations he succeeded removing a number of his adversaries from their offices.
When he died from small pox, a short time later, the republican party came back in power. They declared that they would not appoint his son William III of Orange, or anybody else to the office of Stadholder stating that a supreme head of government would be harmful to the 'True freedom'. Jan(Johan) de Witt was elected Grand Pensionary and led the States of Holland, the most important State within the Union.
The takeover by the regents did not go without protest from the Orangists but while the economy and foreign affairs went well they had very little chance of removing the government. Because of this and of their own business interests the Dutch Regents tried to keep the peace within Europe.
[edit] Foreign affairs
When the Republic had been fighting for in independence against Spain, it had allied with France (and England). In 1648 as part of the Peace of Westphalia the Republic had made peace with Austria and Spain while France had only made peace with Austria had continued fighting Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. A condition of that peace was that Louis XIV would marry Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresia would renounce her share of the inheritance in trade of a large amount of money as dowry. The dowry was never paid by the Spanish.
During the 1650's and 1660's the existing tensions between Dutch trade interests and English trade interests grew more serious. A war was fought between the republics in which England had the better. In a secret passage of the peace, Holland declared that it abolished the office of Stadholder and would never elect a member of the Orange dynasty to the office of Captain-General. Cromwell who was head of State in England at that time insisted on the conditions because Willem II had helped Charles I, who was his father in law, during the English Civil War. While the Dutch Regent partisans would favour dimishing the influence of the Orange Dynasty, by agreeing with the English conditions they mingled internal and foreign affaires and infuriated Dutch partisans of the Oranges.
When Charles II was reinstated as king of England in 1660 the clause mentionned above was removed from the peace agreement, but to the dismay of Holland, Charles affirmed the clauses of the peace which were very harmful for the Dutch trade (See Act of Navigation).
The disagreements between the countries on the position of trade and colonies led again to war. After the last war Jan de Witt had supervised the expansion and improvement of the Dutch navy at the cost of neglecting the Dutch army. With this fleet and the help of France with whom they had allied again the Dutch defeated the English at sea and put pressure on English ally Munster. Munster and England were forced to make peace. While France had helped to put pressure on England and Munster they had not committed a major part of their army or fleet. The reason for this became soon clear. After the dead of Philips IV, Louis XIV claimed part of the inheritance for his wife. According to local law in parts of the Spanish Netherlands daughters of an earlier marriage took precedence before the sons of a later mariage. The way Louis XIV explained this Maria Theresia, daughter of the first marriage of Philiph IV, should inherit the Spanish Netherlands because Philips' son, Charles II was from Philis second mariage. This went against the interest of the Dutch Republic who preferred having a weak state as their neighbour.
Because of this Jan de Witt allied with the defeated English, and Sweden who had an army near. In secret clauses of the treaty they agreed to use force if Louis XIV would not come to terms with Spain.
[edit] Renvercement des Alliances
France made peace with Spain but because the secret clauses of the Triple Alliance (1668) became public very soon, Louis XIV felt insulted by the Dutch, who according to him had broken the alliance. Immediately after the peace agreement France made steps to isolate the Dutch. Sweden and Munster were quickly bribed but the English public distrusted Louis XIV. The king on the other had saw war with the Dutch as beeing in his best interests. A defeat of the Republic probably would led to the fall of the republican government so Charles's nephew, William III of Orange could take over. And a war would be a good opportunity to crush the Dutch competition in trade and colonies. Besides Louis promised Charles a notable sum of money so he could rule without having to consult the English parliament.
In 1670 after mediation of Charles' sister Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans, wife of the brother of Louis, France and England signed the Treaty of Dover.
[edit] To war
The Dutch were aware that negotiation between England and France were going on but specific details were not known. Jan de Witt counted on the unpopularity to the English public of a war with a fellow protestant nation and tried to improve relations with the French. On most topics the Dutch and the French could get along fine except for the issue of the Spanish Netherlands. France saw the Rhine as their natural border and between France and the Rhine lay the Spanish Netherlands and a part of Holland. This made the Dutch feel. According to the French ambassador the Dutch preferred: "Gallicus amicus, non vicinus". Gaul (France) as vriend, not as neighbour. The Dutch strengtened their fleet again but made few preparation with their army. Reasons for this were shortage of money and distrust of the army, who had often been an instrument of the Orange party, by the regents. More and more a shadow of war was felt and pressure increased on the Dutch government to appoint William III who had come of age to the office of Stadholder and Captain-General. At last Jan de Witt agreed to appoint William to Captain-general for the duration of one war campaign.
[edit] War
In January 1672 the English navy attacked the Dutch trade convoy followed by the declaration of war in February. France and the Bishoprics of Munster and Cologne declared war soon after. By moving through the possessions of Munster and Cologne and a few other French allies, the army of Louis XIV was able to pass by the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch defence in the south and invade the Dutch from the east.
At the IJssel it came to a short battle that was easily won by the French. Now the whole of the republic lay open for the French. In the cities of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht the populace completely panicked. Lower and middle clas people stood up against the government, demanded appointment of the prince and punishment of those responsible for the war and the state of the army. The government of the regents fell, Jan de Witt and others resigned and partisans of Williams III took over. One of the first acts of William III was to strike out the word 'honourably' in the resignation of Jan de Witt.
[edit] Lynching of the de Witt brothers
The anger of the populace was not satisfied with this and their fright of the hopeless military situation sought a target. In august Cornelis de Witt the less gifted and more unpopular brother of Jan de Witt was put in prison in the Hague on accusation of treachery. When Jan de Witt went there to visit his brother the small military present was sent away the stop a group of plundering farmers. The farmers were not found. Round the prison a crowd had gathered, demanding the punishment of the brothers. At some time the prison was stormed, the brothers were taken out, murder and mutilated. The names of a few of the murderers became known but they were protected and in some cases rewarded by prince William. According to some sources Cornelis Tromp, an enemy of Jan de Witt and partisan of William was present at the murders. Nowadays most historian suspect a complot to the murders and think that William III at least knew of it.
[edit] The Waterline
The French had advanced from the IJssel of the Netherlands to Utrecht. There negotiations started. Louis XIV and Charles II of England had intended that William became stadtholder as head of a rump state, a joint protectorate (with the British occupying key Hollandic cities and the isle of Walcheren) and Louis halted his army to allow the Orangists to take over Holland and come to an arrangement with him. He offered the Dutch peace in exchange for either the southern fortresses, religious freedom for Catholics and six million guilders or his keeping his present conquests and sixteen million guilders. These demands, especially the financial part of them, led to an outrage however and the Dutch mood abruptly changed from defeatism to a dogged determination to resist the French.
While the negotiations took place, the French had failed to prevent the Dutch from starting to inundate the Dutch Water Line and for Williams III's small army to withdraw behind it. Before they came to understand the nature and importance of this defence system their further advance was blocked by an impassable water and mud barrier. This small success for the Dutch was followed by others. The Dutch fleet under admiral Michiel de Ruyter defeated the English - French flee at the battle of Solebay and on 28 august of 1672 the German Bishop of Munster, Bernard von Galen withdrew from the siege of Groningen. This event is still celebrated every year in Groningen at the 28 of august.
On the diplomatic front the German Empire and Spain took the side of the Netherlands. In 1673 Bonn fell to a combined German - Dutch army. This made the French retreat from Holland. England, Munster and Cologne made peace in 1674, the French fought on until 1678. For the rest of the war see Franco-Dutch War
[edit] Impacts
The experience of the Rampjaar had a considerable influence in the direction of the Dutch Foreign policy. William III saw it as his life work to defend the Republic and Europe against the French hegemony. In all the wars of Louis XIV the Dutch would support his adversaries. In 1688 when faced with an English king who again seemed to side with the French the Dutch mobilised their full resources in order to invade Britain and overthrow the Catholic Stuart Dynasty (The Glorious Revolution) - a decision which involved a major gamble whose magnitude is not fully appreciated since it paid off. It was considered worthwhile since after the Rampjaar the possibility of a Catholic- and French-dominated Britain was regarded as a mortal threat to the Netherlands. In England the public opinion was already turning against the French but the war of 1672 accelerated this. While Charles II and his successor James II of England still had French sympathies they had to take into account the distrust of the English public of France.
[edit] Reference
- Bowen, Marjorie. The William and Mary Trilogy, Vol. 1: I Will Maintain. Alberta: Inheritance Publications, 1993. pp. 353–359, 382.
- Kenneth Harold Dobson Haley. An English diplomat in the Low Countries : Sir William Temple and John de Witt, 1665-1672 (Oxford 1986)
- Herbert H. Rowen. John de Witt, Statesman of the "True Freedom" (Cambridge, 1986)
