biography
| name: |
de Witt, Johan
|
| |
also Jan
|
pronunciation:
[duh wit]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1625–72)
|
| biography:
| Grand Pensionary of Dordrecht from 1650, and of Holland from 1653, born in Dordrecht, W Netherlands. He was a believer in the ‘true freedom’, ie of the rule of the regents and against the stadtholders. His object was always peace in the furtherance of trade. He tried to play France and England off against each other, but was only able to end the First Anglo-Dutch War by the Act of Seclusion, a secret agreement with Cromwell that no prince of Orange should be stadtholder or captain-general. In 1659 he organized the Concert of The Hague (England, France, and the Republic) to prevent a Baltic war between Sweden and Denmark. Relations with England deteriorated after the restoration of the Stuarts, so he made an alliance with France, but his later attempts to negotiate over the future of the Southern Netherlands broke down. There were meanwhile increasing popular demonstrations supporting the Prince of Orange. After the Second Anglo-Dutch war ended with the Treaty of Breda, de Witt arranged the Triple Alliance of England, Sweden, and the Republic to contain Louis XIV, resulting in the Treaty of Aachen (1668). However, two years later Charles II signed the secret Treaty of Dover with Louis, for joint action against The Netherlands. Further popular pressure made the appointment of William of Orange as Stadtholder inevitable, though de Witt opposed it as long as possible, not realizing that both England and France would welome the prince's removal from the scene. When William was finally appointed stadtholder in 1672 de Witt resigned and William had the word ‘honorable’ erased from the resolution of the States on his resignation, though it was de Witt's policy of creating a strong navy and building up the country's finance that had made William's success in the war possible. Shortly afterwards de Witt and his brother Cornelis were lynched in The Hague. William, though officially not involved, protected and rewarded the leaders of the mob. |
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