biography
| name: |
Groen van Prinsterer, Guillaume
|
pronunciation:
[khroon van prinsterer]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1801–76)
|
| biography:
| Dutch politician and historian, born in Voorburg, W Netherlands. He studied law and classics at Leiden University. In 1827 he was employed in the King's cabinet, and as secretary from 1829, but resigned in 1833 because of increasing doubts about government policy. In 1828 while in Brussels he had been persuaded to join the Protestant revival movement ‘Réveil’. He entered parliament in 1840 and created the anti-revolutionary Christian Historical party (CHU). Particularly after 1848 (the year of revolutions) he promoted the idea of the Christian state - Christian meaning Protestant and against Rome, the antichrist. He also wrote history. In 1847 he published Ongeloof en Revolutie, expressing his disapproval of the ideas of the French Revolution, resulting in him being regarded as the founder of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP). In parliament (1849–57) he fiercely opposed Thorbecke's liberalism, resigning on the issue of the School Funding Controversy (Schoolstrijd), but served again from 1862–6. His anti-Catholic views determined his attitude in the Schoolstrijd and also the tenor of his historiography. |
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