Holland, kranten, kerkers en koningen by Eillert Meeter

In 1610, lawyer Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) wrote On the Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, which attempted to show the States of Holland had always been sovereign (even since the Batavians), and could appoint or depose a prince whenever they so desired. Struggles between the House of Orange, that gradually built up a dynasty with monarchical aspirations, and the Dutch States Party, a loose coalition of factions that favoured a republican, in most cases more or less oligarchical form of government, continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. As the war progressed however, the House of Orange-Nassau played an increasingly important role, finally accumulating all stadtholderates and military leadership positions within the Dutch Republic by 1590.

An independent Calvinist-dominated republic in the Northern Netherlands, opposed to the continuously Spanish Catholic-dominated royalist Southern Netherlands, was the unintended, improvised result. Rather, the inability of the Habsburg regime to adequately address religious, social and political unrest (that was originally most pressing in Flanders and Brabant), led to an irreconcilable situation. However, the war initially had neither the achievement of political independence nor the establishment of a republic as its ultimate goal, nor were the Southern Netherlands excluded from it on purpose. After futile attempts to find a hereditary head of state, the Dutch Republic was proclaimed in 1588. The Netherlands emerged as a state during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), declaring their independence from the Spanish Empire in 1581. It would eventually lead to the foundation of the Dutch Republic in 1588. First page of the Act of Abjuration, the Dutch declaration of independence from the Spanish monarchy.

Holland, kranten, kerkers en koningen by Eillert Meeter