The New Cambridge Modern History

The Low Countries did not remain unperturbed by the political unrest which affected Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Both halves of them were involved in the 1780's in reform movements. At the very beginning, the 'Patriot' movement was split into two wings: a conservative one whose sole aim was to revest the plenitude of authority in the patrician oligarchy, and a democratic one which intended a limited progressive reform of power. In Austrian Netherlands, Joseph II, took advantage of the prosperity brought about by the hostilities between Britain, France and the Dutch, carried on with a flow of reforms. Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, a moderate Patriot in the 1780's, became head of the state in April 1805 with the revived title of Grand Pensionary and practically dictatorial powers. These gave him the opportunity to bring in administrative and financial reforms, which was to change Holland into a modern state.