Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands
The Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands (Dutch, old spelling: Souverein Vorstendom der Vereenigde Nederlanden)[2] was a short-lived sovereign principality and the precursor of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, in which it was reunited with the Southern Netherlands in 1815. The principality was proclaimed in 1813 when the victors of the Napoleonic Wars established a political reorganisation of Europe, which would eventually be defined by the Congress of Vienna.
Sovereign Principality of the United NetherlandsSoeverein Vorstendom der Vereenigde Nederlanden
Absolute monarchy (until 1814)
Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy (from 1814)
20 November 1813
29 March 1814
21 June 1814
13 August 1814
16 March 1815
2,233,000[1]
Reunification[edit]
In the former Austrian Netherlands, conquered by France in 1794 and annexed in 1795, the Allies made quick progress also. This presented the problem of what to do with this country. The thirty most prominent families of Brussels expressed the wish to restore the old Governorate-general of the Austrians and this was provisionally instituted by the Allies in February 1814 as their military government. However, Austria itself expressed little interest in resuming its rule. Therefore, the Allies provisionally apportioned the country to the new Dutch state in the secret annexes to the Treaty of Chaumont. This was further formalised in the Treaty of Paris of 30 May 1814, in which Belgium on the left bank of the river Meuse was apportioned to the (future) Netherlands, whereas the fate of the right bank was to be determined later.[10]
How this was to be structured was however still to be decided, while certain expectations had been raised by the representatives of the Belgian people at Chaumont in February that also needed to be honoured in some way. These "loose ends" were taken care of in the protocol that came to be known as the "Eight Articles of London". Under this treaty signed on 21 June 1814, William Frederick was awarded with the former Austrian Netherlands. He became Governor-General of Belgium on 1 August, leading to personal union between Northern and Southern Netherlands. For all intents and purposes, William Frederick had completed the House of Orange's three-century quest to unite the Low Countries.
William Frederick subsequently tried to get the assent of the (carefully selected) representatives of the Belgian people to the Dutch constitution, but encountered opposition from those who were suspicious of designs to undermine the position of the Catholic Church in those provinces. Nonetheless, the reunification was finalised on 16 March 1815 when William Frederick was crowned King William I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in Brussels.[11][12]