The Netherlands was 'born' around 1580 through three important documents confirming its independence from Spain. Historians Coos Huijsen and Geerten Waling show why the Union of Utrecht, the Apology of William of Orange and the Placard of Abandonment were so important.
When US President Barack Obama visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2014, Prime Minister Mark Rutte showed him a special historical document. It was the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, a detailed text from 1581 in which the States General of the Netherlands declared that they renounced the Spanish king Philip II, who ruled that area at that time. But it would take until 1648 before the 'Republic of the Seven United Netherlands' was actually recognized by Spain.
Historian Rutte explained the Placard of Abandonment to Obama as the Dutch Declaration of independence. It was the first time that an area distanced itself from a monarch via this 'official' route. The American declaration of independence in 1776 was to be based on the special arguments in the text about why the Spanish king no longer had the right to be sovereign monarch over the Netherlands. The idea that subjects are not there for the monarch, but the monarch is there for his subjects, was revolutionary at the time. It was the beginning of what we now know as the essence of popular sovereignty.
'Birth papers'
The Plakkaat is one of three documents that historians Geerten Waling and Coos Huijsen call the 'birth certificates of the Netherlands'. The other two are the Union of Utrecht from 1579 and the Apology of William of Orange from 1581. These three documents, which arose in quick succession, marked an important turning point in the long struggle for independence against Spain.
William of Orange, a young count from Nassau who had inherited the county of Orange in southern France at the age of eleven, had quickly emerged as the leader of the revolt and the great opponent of the new Spanish king Philip II. Although he appointed Willem in 1559 as stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, the relationship between the two lords soon developed cracks. First mainly because of Willem's principled resistance to Philip's bloody persecution of Protestants in the Netherlands, later because he took the lead in the struggle for general freedom and tolerance.
The Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus,, also dates from the early days of the revolt, which began to take on an increasingly military character around 1572. the oldest national anthem in the world. This hero song is a song about William of Orange, who had sacrificed 'body and good' for the Revolt. But around that time, Orange was still struggling with his loyalty. The poet (presumably Marnix van Sint-Aldegonde, one of Orange's early confidants) has him say:'Following the fatherland, I will remain until death'. Followed by 'I have always honored the king of Hispanje.' Orange – and with him a large part of the Dutch – were loyal to their Dutch homeland as well as to the Spanish king.
United 'as if they were just one province'
The start of the uprising is somewhat arbitrary but traditionally takes place in 1568, at the battle of Heiligerlee (if only because the period until the recognition of the Republic in 1648 is exactly eighty years). That eighty-year struggle for independence had therefore been going on for some years when the three 'birth certificates' of the Netherlands were created around 1580. But around 1580 they do form an important turn in that battle.
At the end of the 1570s, the Southern Dutch provinces became dissatisfied with the Revolt, and especially with William of Orange's religious policy. They decided in January 1579 to unite in the Union of Arras (Arras), to reconcile with Philip II and to accept Catholicism as the only permitted religion again. In response, the seven northern provinces organized themselves into the Union of Utrecht, determined to continue the struggle under the leadership of the smart and charismatic Orange.
In the Union of Utrecht, the first and most important birth certificate of the Netherlands, the seven regions were united 'as if they were only one province'. Above the original document was the title "Treatise of the Union, Everlasting Covenant and Concord." The document envisioned far-reaching financial and political implications for the signatories. From then on, the center of administrative power lay with the States General, which could only take decisions unanimously. This gave the Netherlands the loosely organized parliamentary rule that it would keep until the end of the Republic in 1795.
Apology
In the summer of 1580, Philip II declared William of Orange outlawed:all his political rights were taken from him. He wrote a lengthy apology for why he had no choice but to continue the fight and fall away from his king. The Apology is a personal and emotional defense, but it is just as much a propaganda text. With the text, Orange wanted to justify the uprising and change it from a civil war into a legitimate resistance against a foreign oppressor.
Orange argued that the Dutch had submitted in good faith to the ancestors of Philip II. But by acting tyrannically Philip had violated that oath, which also released William of Orange of his obligations to him. And that applied in a broad sense to all Dutch people. Orange lists in his Apology a whole series of tyrannical abuses of which Philip was guilty. It was a justification for Orange's own struggle against Spain, but also that of the entire Dutch people. And a legitimacy for the States General to leave the king and appoint a new sovereign.
That happened less than six months later with the Plakkaat van Verlating, the Dutch declaration of independence. The Placard was also a clever combination of political theory and propaganda. The decision of the States General to leave the Spanish king should not resemble a mutiny against a legitimate monarch, otherwise the rebellious Netherlands could forget all foreign aid.
Prince and people
The mere fact that a hefty explanation was needed to justify the Rebellion shows that the decision was not self-evident and represented a bold political move. The text of the Placard was revolutionary. In later centuries it would become a blueprint for how to justify an insurrection, and how an oppressed people could reclaim their sovereignty. Concerning the relationship between prince and his subjects, the edict says:"his subjects were not created by God for his need," "The prince, on the other hand, is there for the sake of his subjects — for without them he is no prince."
This idea of a kind of mutual agreement between monarch and people – a social contract – will later be promoted by Enlightenment thinkers such as the Englishman John Locke. It peaks during the American and French Revolutions. But the roots of this modern thinking lie largely in the Netherlands. The papers can be admired in the National Archives in The Hague, where the Placard, the Union of Utrecht and the Apology are kept.