Acte van Consulentschap

[Note 1] The Duke remained in this position during the subsequent regencies of Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau.

The class of ruling Regenten therefore felt anxious about his taking the reins of power unchecked, and the pensionary of Delft, Pieter van Bleiswijk, a leading member of the States of Holland and the States General of the Netherlands for Holland, together with other grandees, like the Grand Pensionary Pieter Steyn took the initiative of making an arrangement in which "for the time being" the influence of the Duke would be informally continued.

Both signed it, and the Duke swore to it, according to the witness, the Princes' secretary, F.J. de Larrey[Note 2] The Act consisted of our articles.

[5] As will be clear from the above account of the contents of the Act, it did not give the Duke formal powers over the stadtholder, but it helped him exploit the natural ascendancy he had enjoyed over William from an early age.

The conduct of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was seen as one of his main failures, and in other military respects, like the encroachments of the new emperor of Austria, Joseph II, in the Austrian Netherlands.

The fact that it was a private contract that never gave due deference to the position of the true sovereign of the country, the States General, drew 't Hoen's stentorian criticism.