historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 5. Times of trouble. Taking a stand
of Orange as elected chief general and governor. 86 To structure their efforts
more firmly they set up a permanent executive council, the Council of State.
Its main tasks were to make an estimate of the Republic’s annual expenses, to
provide payment to the army and to see to it that all members of the Union
abide to its laws. Only in cases of emergency, when speed was of the utmost
importance, could it take decisions without consulting the States General. 87
Finally, when it seemed that the Republic would endure, it was decided to
install a permanent and higher council, the States General, ‘so that not only
the strength, but also the appearence of the majesty of this Republic would
seem to want to be increased and represented in a certain more respectable
name and general consent’. 88
The States General is a ‘body of seven members that are united’. 89 It consists
of the deputies of the individual provinces. Together they represent
the majesty of the Union. The supreme council of the States General has the
supreme power to command (supremum imperium) in all matters that tend to
the Union. 90 These matters concern military affairs, the making and maintaining
of alliances, the receiving of foreign ambassadors, the treatment of
requests from members of the Union, and the making of decisions upon those
matters that the Union allows it members to make. 91 The Union of Utrecht not
only defined the States General’s authority, it also limited it. All matters that
it did not stipulate remained under ‘the supreme right of the States of each
united province’. 92
86 Ibidem, II.1, p. 21. According to Fruin, the first gatherings of the States General were temporary
meetings. From 1588 onwards they rarely broke up and from June 24, 1593, they were permanent. Fruin,
Geschiedenis der staatsinstellingen, p. 179. The States General had been de facto ruling the Low Countries
ever since effective central government had ceased to exist after 1576. After the southern provinces had
broken away from the States General to reconcile themselves with the crown, the States General stood
on its own. In the summer of 1580, it merged with the assembly of the Union of Utrecht (that had been
permanently in session from its beginnings) because there was so much overlap in functions. Koenigsberger,
Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments, pp. 262-94.
87 Ibidem, II.1-4, pp. 21-23. A Council of State had existed under the House of Habsburg where
it was mainly an advisory body. On April 12, 1588, it was authorised to conduct the Union’s policy. It
was responsible for the maintaining of internal relationships; it had the supreme command in military
affairs; it managed the Union’s finances; and it exercised the Union’s juridical power. Fruin, Geschiedenis
der staatsinstellingen, p. 193.
88 Ibidem, II.7, p. 25. ‘At verò invidendis succesibus crescente jam Republica, et aliis atque aliis
ideo majoribus negotiis continuò se offerentibus, et quod in augustiori quodam nomine ac consensu
augenda et repraesentanda non vis tantum, sed species etiam Majestatis hujus Reipublicae videretur.’
89 In the Commentariolus Boxhorn uses the allegory of the lion with the seven arrows in his claw.
90 The Dutch version reads ‘opperste ghebiedt’. Boxhorn, Politijck hant-boecxken, van de Staet van ’t
Nederlandt, II.11, p. 25.
91 Boxhorn, Commentariolus, II.11, p. 28. ‘… summa pollet Imperii potestate.’
92 Ibidem, II.12, p. 29. ‘Ita ut quaecunque permissa illis nominatim non inveniuntur, in iis summum
maneat jus penes Ordines singularum Foederatarum ditionum.’
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