Comments by "Lynott Parris" (@DenUitvreter) on "William C. Fox"
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In addition. Stadtholder was a public office William was appointed in, not a heridatery title. His title as prince of Orange, a small principality in Southern-France, isn't very relevant, nor the fact that most states/provinces had a preference for appointing Oranges as stadtholder. So William was not only the product of a republic and used to sharing power, his enemy was catholic absolutism. The catholic absolute ruler Louis XIV was the main threat to the Dutch Republic, there were these German bishops in the East and with a catholic absolute monarch in England it would be the 1672, the disaster year, all over again soon.
So he had England somewhat modelled after the Dutch Republic using existing structures and it's very unlikely parliament's demands surprised him. He sought political and popular support to avoid civil war and a chance for an absolute catholic in England again. He advertised himself carefully with is troops on strict orders to behave well, spending in the local economy well and speaking well, and of course he didn't bring a printing press with is invasion for nothing. He was on a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the English.
What he did in England wasn't very different from what his great grandfather William of Orange (the Silent) did a century before what resulted in the Dutch Republic: Unite the people and the nobility behind the idea that a king can't be a tyrant but has to serve the people, that the people have freedom of conscience (i.e. religious tolerance) and can keep their ancient rights like the Great Privilege and the Charter of Kortenberg, which gave especially common people more rights than the Magna Charta. So basically he exported the Dutch anti-absolute values in which protestantism (and trade, science and arts) could flourish to keep the Dutch Republic safe and succeeded because he played the English well.
In the process he also set up England to take over from the Dutch Republic as the supreme power and the wealthiest nation. But it saved the Dutch Republic from beeing taken over by the joined English and French absolute catholic rulers James II and Louis XIV, and therefore no one has to expect the Spanish Inquisition anymore. Quite an achievement.
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The video goes wrong with the, common, misconception that William was invited by the English nobles. That's only true to the extend that William initiated the contact and asked the nobles to invite him to give him more legitimacy, while already preparing the invasion. The other British and anglophonic misconception is that the Prince of Orange ruled the Netherlands, that's only true to the extend that this was his name and title, but he invaded England in the capacity of Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, a non-heridetary position he was elected in.
The British were a bit behind on the Dutch in those days, about a hundred years at least. William didn't want to become absolute monarch, he didn't want to conquer England in the old fashioned way, he wanted to create a stable protestant ally. John Locke, who was living in the Netherlands at that time, was part of the conspiracy to get support from English parliamentarians and was the one who actually accompanied William's wife to London after William had it occupied. So it really can't be a surprised that after William successfully invaded a government was created that was quite similar to that of the Dutch Republic allthoug a monarchy and was in line with Locke's philosophy on government.
After an 80-years war for independence with Spain, the Dutch were ahead on the importance of popular support and propaganda too. So William's request to invite him was part of the spin and propaganda, and not his last masterpiece in this invastion. His soldiers would be punished for using the word invasion or conquest, had to treat the locals with respect and buy stuff from them, he rode a white horse in shiny armour and had picked a very symbolic date for his entrance, he held speeches speaking of liberation and religious tolerance and he brought a printing press to further spread his message that they weren't really beeing invaded.
Appearently his propaganda has worked until today, fact is that William got what he wanted and didn't have to concede anything. This is not the story of the origin of the American constitution and the bill of rights, but the story of how the late mediavel concepts of natural law and freedom of conscience led to revolt, a Republic, were transferred to England and from there ended up in the USA, allthough it's declaration of independence is materially still very similar to that of Dutch from 1881
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