page_title: Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands
section_title: Proclamation
hierarchical_section_title: Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands / Proclamation
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of William I (1772–1743) as King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Standing, at full-length, in the gala uniform of a general. Over his right shoulder the sash of the Military William Order. Over his uniform wearing a red robe lined with ermine. To the right the royal throne, to the left a table with on it the map of parts of Java (Bantam, Jacatra and Cheribon) in modern-day Indonesia, and also a pillow with crown and sceptre and a hat with ostriche feathers.
context_page_description: The Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands was a short-lived sovereign principality and the precursor of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, in which it was reunited with the Southern Netherlands in 1815. The principality was proclaimed in 1813 when the victors of the Napoleonic Wars established a political reorganisation of Europe, which would eventually be defined by the Congress of Vienna.
context_section_description: After the liberation of the Netherlands from France by Prussian and Russian troops in 1813, a provisional government took over the country. It was headed by a triumvirate (Driemanschap) of three Dutch noblemen, Frans Adam van der Duyn van Maasdam, Leopold of Limburg Stirum and Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp. This Driemanschap formally took control over the liberated country on 20 November and declared the Principality of the United Netherlands a day thereafter.
  It was a foregone conclusion that any new government would have to be headed by William Frederick, the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, William V. Although many members of the provisional government had helped drive out William V eighteen years earlier, most of its leading members agreed that it would be better for the Dutch to invite William Frederick themselves rather than have him imposed by the Allies. After receiving an invitation from the Driemanschap, William Frederick returned from his exile in England. He disembarked from HMS Warrior and landed at Scheveningen beach on 30 November 1813. While the Driemanschap offered to make him king, William Frederick turned it down, instead proclaiming himself proclaiming himself "Sovereign Prince" of the United Netherlands on 2 December. He also insisted on "a wise constitution" for the liberated country.
caption: William Frederick, Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands
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