Willem Bentinck van Rhoon

In 1719 Willem and his younger brother Charles were sent to the Netherlands to complete their education under the guardianship of Johan Hendrik, Count of Wassenaar.

This led to a series of lawsuits between the former spouses which brought eventual success to Willem, but meanwhile were a heavy burden on his finances.

There was a general demand for the appointment of the Prince to the stadtholdership in all provinces of the Dutch Republic and to make that office hereditary in the male and female line, not just by the Orangist faction, but also by democratic agitators like Daniel Raap and Jean Rousset de Missy.

He acted as agent of the Prince in the coup in September 1748, in which the city government of Amsterdam was overturned and put in dependably Orangist hands.

[3] Bentinck was more successful in his diplomatic career, which started with a mission in 1747 to coordinate military efforts against France with Great Britain.

He openly denounced the Acte van Consulentschap which gave the duke the factual power to continue his "regency" over William V, after the latter had come of age in 1766.