Kingdom of Holland

Koningrijk Holland
Royaume de Hollande
Kingdom of Holland

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1806–1810

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Client state of the First French Empire (1806)

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Capital

The Hague

Government

Constitunioanl monarchy

Monarch

- 1806-1810

Louis Bonaparte

History

- June 5, 1806

Established

- July 7, 1810

Dissolved

Currency

Dutch guilder

French Netherlands

First Empire

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The Kingdom of Holland was a client state of the First French Empire.

Background

The Kingdom of Holland (Dutch: Koningrijk Holland (contemporary), Koninkrijk Holland (modern); French: Royaume de Hollande) was set up by Napoléon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country. In 1807, East Frisia and Jever were added to the kingdom.

In 1809, after the Walcheren Campaign, Holland had to surrender all territories south of the river Rhine to France. Also in 1809, Dutch forces fighting on the French side participated in defeating the anti-Bonapartist German rebellion led by Ferdinand von Schill, at the battle of Stralsund.

King Louis did not perform to Napoleon's expectations—he tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's—and the kingdom was dissolved in 1810, after which the Netherlands were annexed by France until 1813. Holland covered the area of the present-day Netherlands, with the exception of Limburg, and parts of Zeeland, which were French territory, and with the addition of East Frisia. It was the first formal monarchy in the Netherlands since 1581.

The long range result of the country having been a monarchy was to facilitate the ability of the House of Orange to assume, after Napoleon's fall, the status of full-fledged Monarchs - ending their centuries-long ambiguous status as Stadholders which had been the source of unending instability and conflict throughout the history of the Dutch Republic.^[1]