One of
the things they had to decide was what should be done with the
Austrian Netherlands, and the plan they arranged seemed a very good
one.
Austria did not want Belgium, and the plan was to make that country,
the Principality of Liege, and Holland, into one state, and call it
the "Kingdom of the Netherlands." It was to be ruled over by one of
the Orange family, a descendant of William the Silent.
And there was something more. The William of Orange who was to be King
of the Netherlands had a son, and the English arranged that this son
should marry our Princess Charlotte, who was heir to the throne of
England; and so all the coasts of the Netherlands opposite England,
with Antwerp and the Scheldt, were to be in the hands of a friendly
nation allied by marriage to the English Royal Family. The proposed
marriage was publicly announced in March, 1814, but it never took
place. The Princess Charlotte married a German, called Prince Leopold
of Saxe-Coburg, and the young Prince of Orange married a Russian Grand
Duchess.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands, however, was set up; and at the Battle
of Waterloo, which was fought in June, 1815, after Napoleon escaped
from Elba, a force of Netherlanders, some of them Dutch and some of
them Belgians, fought under the Duke of Wellington, when he gained the
great victory which brought peace to Europe.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98