Kingdom of Holland

Kingdom of the Netherlands, 1806–1810. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Kingdom of Holland was the short-lived successor state of the Batavian Republic. It was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in March 1806 in order to strengthen control over the Netherlands by replacing the republican government with a monarchy. Napoleon placed his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, on the throne of the puppet kingdom. The kingdom was dissolved in 1810, after which the Netherlands were annexed by France until 1813.

Seat of power: The Hague

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• King Louis made a sincere effort to learn the Dutch language, adopted the Dutch spelling of his name, Lodewijk, and declared himself Dutch rather than French.
• In 1809 the king introduced a revised Penal Code and Civil Code which was based on the French criminal code, but which respected the Dutch customs and law.
• The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Museum (precursor of Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) were founded during his reign.

Picture

Napoleon I placed Louis on the throne of the Kingdom of Holland on 5 June 1806.

Image: Charles Howard Hodges, Public domain, file

Sources

• Kingdom of Holland (Wikipedia)
• Kingdom of Holland (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.