The 1850s and 60's showed that wooden ships could easily be destroyed by Paixhans guns, which fired explosive shells.

In effect, ships like the French Gloire and the English Warrior were almost immune to any artillery of traditional size.

The proof that the government and representative bodies understood these developments is in the dramatic (temporary) increase of the Dutch naval budget in the late 1860s.

The quick defeat of the Danes in the Second Schleswig War made a big impression on the Dutch public.

Therefore, the Dutch government appointed a commission to review the coastal defense (Commissie tot het herzien der kustverdediging) on 3 June 1864.

It stated that experiments in France had shown that in order to penetrate an armored ship, a projectile of 80 kg was needed.

Furthermore, that experiments in England had shown that the smooth-bore 68-pounder and the rifled Armstrong 110-pounder (50 kg), could not inflict significant damage to an armored ship.

The report was made during the ministry of Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke, that lasted from 14 March 1861 until 6 February 1866.

[4] An obvious explanation for keeping the report 'secret' for over a year was that in late September 1864 the secretary for the navy had been granted the first term for: 'a floating battery, also usable as ram, necessary for coast and river defense'.

The resulting Prins Hendrik went 60% over the budget of 1,000,000 guilders, had little to do with coastal defense, and would soon be sent to the Dutch East Indies.

He survived the debate, but had to promise not to build any more ships like the Prins Hendrik without explicit consent.

In September 1866 he launched a program to acquire the ships proposed by the commission for coastal defense.

[7] The acceptance of such a sudden and dramatic increase in expenditure can only be explained by the rising international tensions of the Luxembourg Crisis.

By late 1866 the Dutch were still busy developing their ability to manufacture armored ships, but were not yet able to do this independently.

The positive reactions to the Prins Hendrik probably made that the Dutch government asked Laird Brothers to make a design based upon the specifications of the committee.

The final design had a larger draft of 3m, in all probability as a result of trying to make the ship meet the requirements for arms and armor.

The contemporary Colossus class battleships had the first English breech loader, the 12 inch naval gun Mk I, and with a length of 25 calibers this was not much longer.