Dutch States Party

The Dutch States Party (Staatsgezinde partij) was a political faction of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. This republican faction is usually (negatively) defined as the opponents of the Orangist, or Prinsgezinde faction, who supported the monarchical aspirations of the stadtholders, who were usually (in this context) members of the House of Orange-Nassau. The two factions existed during the entire history of the Republic since the Twelve Years' Truce, be it that the role of "usual opposition party" of the States Party was taken over by the Patriots after the Orangist revolution of 1747. The States Party was in the ascendancy during the First Stadtholderless Period and the Second Stadtholderless Period.

Ideological characteristics


Unlike modern political parties, the States Party and the Orangists were not necessarily distinguished by ideology. At the provincial level, choice of sides was driven by the contest for power between members of the Regenten class. Local groups often simply adopted the opposite position taken by their factional opponents, a reality made more complex by the rivalry between individual provinces. There was little explicit ideological coherence, and what there was often changed over time.

However, since the days of the conflict between Maurice, Prince of Orange and Land's Advocate of Holland Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the States Party stood for provincial sovereignty, vested in the provincial States like the States of Holland, whereas the Orangists emphasised "supra-provincial" sovereignty, residing in the States-General of the Netherlands.

The supremacy of the provincial States was first defended by François Vranck in his debate with Thomas Wilkes in 1587 during the rule of the Earl of Leicester as governor-general under the English protectorate, and later taken up by Hugo Grotius in his De antiquitate reipublicae Batavicae (On the Antiquity of the Batavian Republic). The theme was taken up again during the conflict between stadtholder William II and the States of Holland in 1650, in which first the Prince prevailed, and after his death the States, ushering in the "True Freedom" of the First Stadtholderless Period.

The doctrine of the "True Freedom" was expounded by political philosophers like the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt in his "Deduction" and Pieter de la Court in his the Interest van Holland (Interest of Holland) and De stadthouderlijcke regeeringe in Hollandt ende West-Vrieslandt (History of the stadholders of Holland and West-Friesland). In these works the doctrine was extended into a distinctly anti-monarchical and pro-republican direction as a justification for the de facto abolition of the office of stadtholder in most provinces as "superfluous" and "positively harmful to the general welfare.."

Notable representatives
Some of the most important representatives of the States Party in the history of the Republic were:

Loevesteiners
1650
 * Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
 * Hugo Grotius
 * Gilles van Ledenberg
 * Jacob de Witt

First Stadtholderless Period
1650–1672
 * Johan de Witt
 * Cornelis de Witt
 * Jacob Dircksz de Graeff
 * Cornelis de Graeff
 * Andries de Graeff
 * Andries Bicker
 * Cornelis Bicker
 * Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen

Second Stadtholderless Period
1702–1747
 * Anthonie Heinsius
 * Isaac van Hoornbeek
 * Simon van Slingelandt
 * Anthonie van der Heim
 * Willem Buys
 * Jacob Gilles