Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/363

 REIGNING SOVEREIGN AND FAMILY. 327

acquired great influence in the Republic of the Netherlands, and, under the name of ' stadtholders,' or governors, become the sovereign rulers of the State. The dignity was formally declared to be heredi- tary in 1747, in Willem IV. ; but his successor, Willem V., had to fly to England, in 1795, at the invasion of the French republican army, The family did not return till November 1813, when the Jate of the republic, released from French supremacy, was under discussion at the Congress of Vienna. After various diplomatic negotiations, the Belgian provinces, subject before the French revo- lution to the House of Austria, were ordered by the Congress to be annexed to the territory of the republic, and the whole to be erected into a kingdom with the son of the last Stadtholder, Willem V., as hereditary sovereign. In consequence, the latter was proclaimed King of the Netherlands at the Hague on the 16th of March, 1815, and recognised as sovereign by all the powers of Europe. The established union between the northern and southern provinces of the Netherlands was dissolved by the Belgian revolution of 1830, and their political relations were not readjusted until the signing of the Treaty of London, April 19, 1839, which constituted Belgium an independent kingdom. King Willem I. abdicated in 1840, making over the crown to his son Willem II., who, after a reign of nine years, left it to his heir, the present sovereign of the JNether- lands.

King Willem n. had a civil list of 1,000,000 guilders, or 83,333/.; but the amount was reduced to 600,000 guilders, or 50,000/., at the commencement of the reign of the present king. There is in addi- tion an allowance of 150,000 guilders, or 12,500/., for the members of the royal family and the maintenance of the Court. The latter sum is divided at present in the manner that the heir-apparent has 100,000 guilders, or 8,333/. ; and the remaining 50,000 guilders, or 4,166/., are given as a subsidy for the maintenance of the royal palaces. The family of Orange are, besides, in the possession of a very large private fortune, acquired, in greater part by King Willem L, in the prosecution of vast enterprises, tending to raise the com- merce of the Netherlands.

The House of Orange has given the following Sovereigns to the Netherlands, since its reconstruction as a kingdom by the Congress of Vienna : —

Willem 1 1815

Willem II 1840

Willem III 1849

The average reign of the three Sovereigns, inclusive of that of the present king, amounted to 18 years.