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Chapter 1247 Prince of Orange 4
This kind of thing would be absolutely impossible to achieve in the East. Even if William himself was determined, the King of Spain would oppose it and even use force or simply tamper with the will.

But it is the norm in Europe. If the King of Spain wants to pass on power and wealth from generation to generation, he must abide by this rule. Not only abide by it, but also try his best to maintain it and not allow anyone to destroy it.

So is this succession system good or bad? Hong Tao believes that different answers will be given from different perspectives. As the person in power, he certainly hopes to have a system that can ensure the orderly succession of power.

As the ruled, they should not want this system to exist, because it would be more difficult for them to cross the class and gain power, and they would be exploited by the nobles forever.

But think about it the other way around, if this system didn't exist, wouldn't the transfer of power be bloody? In the thousands of years of Chinese civilization, most dynasties were violent successions where the Zhang family destroyed the Li family, and the Wang family destroyed the Zhang family again. Most of the fights were particularly brutal, and the population was often halved.

And which group suffered the most deaths in these battles? Definitely not the nobles and those in power, but 100% the common people.

In addition to death, many products and wealth of civilization were destroyed by war. From this perspective, it seems that there is a feasible system of power inheritance, which is a good thing for the lower class.

Okay, let's stop talking nonsense and get to the point. After Maurice inherited the title of Prince of Orange, he legitimately became the governor of the Dutch Republic, which should have been a good thing.

With his military talents, after a few years of recuperation and gathering enough strength, he would definitely be able to drive the Spaniards out of the Lowlands and completely realize the wishes of his father and many Dutch people, making the Lowlands a complete country and no longer a vassal of any force.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in reality. If you like football, you should know why. That’s right, internal fighting!

The Dutch seem to have been cursed by the gods. Whenever their lives are no longer threatened and they can fill their stomachs, the first thing they think of is definitely internal fighting, rather than uniting, giving up some of their ideas, and striving to make their foundation bigger and stronger.

The Spanish invasion had not yet been completely resolved, and there was only a short-lived ceasefire agreement, and the Dutch's talent for infighting broke out again.

Maurice set up a standing army, and with this army he defeated the arrogant Spanish army, won the war in stages, and also started the internal strife.

According to European tradition, the king cannot directly control the army, but must hand it over to the nobles for control. Because once the king has the military power in his hands, the nobles will have no say and their interests will definitely be infringed.

As soon as the armistice agreement was signed, some people in the Dutch Parliament asked Maurice to disband the standing army. The loudest voice came from the Grand Speaker, Johann van Oldenbarneveldt and his supporters.

Oldenbarneveldt entered politics during the reign of William I. He was very skilled in diplomatic mediation, and it was he who advocated an alliance with Britain and France to fight against Spain.

After the death of William I, he stood firmly on the side of Maurice and assisted the young prince to ascend to the position of consul of the Republic step by step. According to Chinese custom, he was a minister entrusted with the care of an orphan.

But even the closest interpersonal relationships can turn into enmity when faced with power. The first disagreement between Oldenbarneveldt and Maurice was whether to sign an armistice. According to Maurice, the armistice proposed by Governor Albrecht VII of the Netherlands was a delaying tactic. Not only should they not be fooled, but they should also seize the opportunity to pursue the victory, at least to completely drive the Spanish invaders out of the entire Netherlands before considering peace talks.

Oldenbarneveldt believed that the United Provinces of the Netherlands had consumed too much energy in years of war and should first sign an armistice agreement and recuperate for a period of time.

In the end, the two men could not reach an agreement, so the seven provincial representatives in the parliament had to vote. The result was self-evident, Maurice failed and had to sign an armistice agreement with the Governor of the Netherlands.

On the surface, the two men had a disagreement because of their different judgments on the direction of the war, but in fact the reason was deeper and it was a struggle over the distribution of power.

Maurice was unwilling to stop the war because he wanted to seize power. As long as the war continued, he could bypass Parliament and have the final say on many matters. Oldenbarnefeld was unwilling to watch the power of the aristocracy being taken away by the king bit by bit, so he had to launch a counterattack.

Once the power struggle between classes begins, it often does not end well. From then on, the Dutch high-level officials were divided into conservatives who supported the Prince of Orange and republicans who represented the interests of merchants. The two factions fought each other evenly and quarreled over almost everything.

Who will win and who will lose in the end? At this point, we must borrow a famous saying: political power comes from the barrel of a gun!
In order to completely defeat his opponent, Morris had to use his ultimate move, which was also his best method: the army.

He first declared the Arminian sect supported by Oldenbarneveldt as heretics on the grounds of religious dispute, and then launched a large-scale manhunt, arresting and executing more than 200 people at once, including former regents and comrades-in-arms.

Isn’t it funny? The Dutch people took up arms to resist Spain’s discrimination and exploitation of Protestants. As a result, the dragon-slayer became the dragon and began to persecute political opponents in the name of religion.

The same is actually true of the Thirty Years' War of Religion in Europe. Don't be fooled by the name; this war was not religious at all. The conflict of faith was just an excuse for the kings to start a war and prove their own justice. At the core, what they were fighting for was still power and interests. There was nothing new about it.

Maurice died at the age of 58 and never married. The title was passed to his half-brother, Frederick Hendrick.

Compared with Maurice, Hendrick, who received formal training in his brother's army when he was young, was no less talented in military talent.

After taking office, he immediately reorganized the army, and as soon as the armistice agreement expired, he immediately led his troops westward to attack the Netherlands. He quickly captured Groenlo, 's-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht and Breda, and defeated the Spanish army.

Not only was Henrik good at fighting on land, he also did not neglect naval construction. Since he took over, the Dutch have been building ships as hard as they can, and even asked Governor Coen to place an order with the Ming Empire for 22 three-masted merchant ships at one time, all with a displacement of more than 500 tons.

At present, the Dutch claim that their ship tonnage, number and routes are second in the world, and no one, including the Ming Empire, dares to claim first place. According to rough statistics from the navy, the number of Dutch merchant ships over 3 tons is close to , and their routes cover most of the known ports in the world.

(End of this chapter)