‘In the second half of the eighteenth century, decisions were made in the stadtholder’s audience chamber.’
The stadtholder’s court in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands has long been underestimated. Real courts and the associated court culture were to be found elsewhere in Europe. PhD candidate Quinten Somsen is trying to reverse this image. ‘The stadtholder’s court was actually very lively.’
In the eighteenth century, the Republic was a confederation of different provinces, without a ruling monarch or king. Although the stadtholdership was declared hereditary, officially the stadtholder, as a high-ranking official, was subordinate to the Provincial States, which made the decisions on paper. But why then did thousands of visitors come to the stadtholder for an audience every year, and why did the Grand Pensionary hang around in the antechamber at court almost every day?
Royal associations
'We often associate royal courts with kings,’ says Somsen. 'In a kingdom, the court has a central place in the political system. That is where power resides. Such a royal court is less appropriate in a republic.’ Nevertheless, stadtholder William V did indeed have a court. ‘I wanted to know what role it played in everyday politics,’ says Somsen.
In his thesis, he compares the stadtholder's court with that of William's cousin, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who presided over a court of comparable size in this German principality. ‘This contrast makes you notice things that you might otherwise have taken for granted,’ says Somsen. 'For example, audiences were held at all courts, but it only becomes apparent how exceptionally many there were in The Hague when you compare them to the number of audiences at another court.’
Lively and informal
The stadtholder held more than 6,000 audiences per year, making his court considerably livelier than that of his cousin in Kassel. 'That means an average of 20 audiences with 23 people every day, almost all of whom were regents,' says Somsen. 'These political office-holders gathered in the antechambers at the Binnenhof to speak with the stadtholder, but also with each other.' The Grand Pensionary, the highest civil servant in Holland, was also often to be found here. Somsen: 'They were all invited to dinners and balls at court, which created a very intense and hectic court life around the stadtholder's family.'
Those informal conversations in back rooms and at dinner tables at court were sorely needed. Whereas the Landgrave of Hassen-Kessel could make decisions himself, the political system in the Republic was made up of various bodies. Somsen: ‘There were a large number of representative bodies. Not only the seven provincial states, but also the local cities and knighthoods had a say. The stadtholder was dependent on them.’
A large proportion of those voting regents were appointed directly or indirectly by the stadtholder. ‘Those appointment rights are very complex,’ says Somsen. 'He needed all those personal contacts and conversations at court to keep the system running and to secure political support. At the same time, that hospitality was incredibly expensive. As a result, the stadtholder accumulated large debts and was virtually bankrupt at the end of his term of office.'
Grander than expected
Criticism of the stadtholder's court life regularly flared up in society, culminating in a patriotic uprising, which even forced the stadtholder's court to temporarily relocate to Nijmegen. Somsen: ‘The patriots felt that the stadtholder behaved too much like a monarch and that the regents treated him too much as such. Ultimately, Prussian military intervention was necessary to restore the stadtholder's power.’ After that, the number of audiences immediately increased again and the court regained its traditional central role.
Somsen: ‘When I started this research, I thought that the stadtholder’s court might be a bit small to compare with the court of the landgrave. Now I think: actually, that German court seems a bit provincial in comparison.’