ABSTRACT
In the second half of the seventeenth century the court of the House of Orange-Nassau was an integral part of the social and – consequently – the political life of the Dutch Republic. 1 That was the case not only during the stadholderate of William III between 1672 and 1688–89, before he had left the Netherlands for England, it also applied to the Stadholderless Period between 1650 and 1672 and for the era after 1689, when William stayed in the Republic only sporadically. In order to verify this general statement, the following chapter will be divided into five theses. Firstly, during the First Stadholderless Period (1650–72) the House of Orange maintained a courtly infrastructure. This substantially helped William to take over the office of Stadholder in 1672. Secondly, after 1672 the Orange court was the centre of a ‘system’ of communication, which incorporated the entire Republic. This significantly improved the Stadholder’s ability to influence the politics of the Republic, informally and beyond his official constitutional role. Thirdly, the court as stadholderly household ensured the social linkage between the Oranges and the republican elites. The ‘netherlandisation’ of court society under William III indicated the strengthening of that linkage. Lastly, the supra-provincial recruiting pattern of this court society formed an alternative to the local and provincial organisation of the States’ elites. This opened up an independent scope of action for William’s politics, both before and after 1688–89.
