Rampjaar (1672): The Dutch Republic's Disaster Year

The Rampjaar, or “disaster year”, is the name the Dutch give to 1672, when the Dutch Republic was invaded by France and two German prince-bishoprics and attacked at sea by England. Within weeks much of the country was occupied, the stock market and art trade collapsed, and the government of Johan de Witt fell. The crisis ended with the lynching of the De Witt brothers in The Hague and the rise of William III of Orange, but the Republic itself survived behind a barrier of flooded land.

Background: the True Freedom

Since 1650, when Stadtholder William II died, the Dutch Republic had been governed without a stadtholder, the semi-monarchical office traditionally held by the princes of Orange. The leading figure was Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1653, who led the merchant regents of Holland in a system they called the “True Freedom”.

De Witt’s party distrusted the House of Orange. The Perpetual Edict of 1667 abolished the stadtholderate in the province of Holland and tried to separate it from command of the army. Many ordinary Dutch people, Calvinist preachers and parts of the army, however, remained loyal to the young William III, born in 1650, son of the late stadtholder.

De Witt’s diplomacy had enjoyed great success, including the Raid on the Medway in 1667 and the Triple Alliance of 1668. But the Dutch had spent heavily on their navy and neglected their army, and by 1672 Louis XIV had built a coalition against them.

Attack from every side

The storm broke in spring 1672. France declared war on 6 April and England the next day, as agreed in the secret Treaty of Dover of 1670. From the east, the forces of Bishop Bernhard von Galen of Münster and the Elector of Cologne invaded the provinces of Overijssel, Gelderland and Groningen.

The main French army crossed the Rhine near Lobith on 12 June 1672, and the Dutch field army fell back. Within weeks the French held Utrecht and much of Gelderland, while Overijssel surrendered to Münster. The broader course of the fighting is described in the article on the Franco-Dutch War.

To protect Holland, the Dutch opened sluices and dykes to flood the Hollandic Water Line from late June. The water halted the French army a short march from Amsterdam.

Panic and collapse

The speed of the invasion caused panic. Wealthy citizens moved valuables to Amsterdam or abroad, the price of shares and bonds fell sharply, and the market for paintings, so important to the Golden Age, collapsed. Painters such as Johannes Vermeer suffered severe financial hardship in the years that followed.

Towns that surrendered without a fight were accused of cowardice or treason, and in many places crowds rose against the regents. A well-known saying later summed up the mood: the people were “redeloos” (irrational), the government “radeloos” (desperate) and the country “reddeloos” (beyond saving).

Public anger turned on the De Witt regime and calls for William of Orange grew louder. William had already been appointed captain-general for one campaign in February 1672. In early July 1672 the States of Zeeland and Holland made him stadtholder, and the Perpetual Edict was cancelled.

The fall of the De Witts

On 21 June 1672 Johan de Witt was attacked and wounded by young men in The Hague. On 4 August, still recovering, he resigned as Grand Pensionary. His brother Cornelis, burgomaster of Dordrecht and a hero of the Medway raid, was arrested in July on a charge, made by a barber-surgeon named Willem Tichelaar, of plotting to murder William III. Cornelis was tortured but did not confess; on 20 August he was sentenced to banishment.

That same day Johan went to the Gevangenpoort prison in The Hague to collect his brother. A large crowd gathered, and members of the civic militia took part. The two brothers were dragged out and killed, and their bodies were mutilated in public. The murder shocked Europe and became one of the most notorious events in Dutch history.

Historians have long debated William’s role. There is no evidence that he ordered the killings, but he made no effort to prevent them, and some of those involved were later protected or rewarded.

The Republic fights back

Under William’s leadership the Republic recovered. Town councils across Holland were purged in the late summer of 1672, a process called the “wetsverzetting”, replacing De Witt supporters with Orangists. At sea, Michiel de Ruyter had already fought the Anglo-French fleet to a standstill at Solebay on 7 June, preventing an invasion from the sea.

In the north, the city of Groningen held out against the Bishop of Münster’s army, which gave up the siege on 28 August 1672. This “Gronings Ontzet” (relief of Groningen) is still celebrated every year. At the end of 1672 Dutch forces under Carl von Rabenhaupt recaptured the fortress of Coevorden.

By 1673 the Emperor, Spain and other German states had joined the Dutch, and the French began to withdraw. England left the war in 1674.

Memory and legacy

The Rampjaar left deep marks on Dutch political culture. For more than a century the Republic was divided between Orangists, who saw William’s rise as the nation’s rescue, and the heirs of the States party, who regarded the De Witts as martyrs of republican liberty. Nineteenth-century liberal historians in particular admired Johan de Witt as a model statesman, and in 1918 a statue of him was unveiled on the Plaats in The Hague, close to the spot where he died.

The Gevangenpoort, where Cornelis was held, is now a museum, and the murders remain a familiar scene in Dutch art and literature. Alexandre Dumas opened his novel The Black Tulip (1850) with the killing of the brothers, bringing the story to readers far beyond the Netherlands.

The year also changed the Republic’s priorities. After 1672 the Dutch invested far more in their army and in alliances on land, and much of their energy for the next four decades went into resisting France. Some historians see this burden as one reason why Dutch economic leadership in Europe slowly faded in the eighteenth century.

Key people

• Johan de Witt (1625–1672): Grand Pensionary of Holland, a brilliant mathematician and statesman whose regime was blamed for the disaster.
• Cornelis de Witt (1623–1672): Johan’s brother, a regent of Dordrecht and naval commissioner, murdered with him.
• William III of Orange (1650–1702): Made stadtholder in July 1672, he led the Dutch resistance and later became King of England.
• Louis XIV: King of France, whose invasion caused the crisis.
• Bernhard von Galen: Prince-Bishop of Münster, whose troops invaded the eastern provinces.

Timeline

• 1672, February: William III appointed captain-general.
• 1672, 6–7 April: France and England declare war on the Republic.
• 1672, 7 June: Battle of Solebay.
• 1672, 12 June: French troops cross the Rhine at Lobith.
• 1672, 21 June: Johan de Witt wounded in an attack in The Hague.
• 1672, early July: William III becomes stadtholder of Zeeland and Holland.
• 1672, 4 August: Johan de Witt resigns as Grand Pensionary.
• 1672, 20 August: Johan and Cornelis de Witt are murdered in The Hague.
• 1672, 28 August: Münster’s army abandons the siege of Groningen.

Why it matters

The Rampjaar is one of the defining moments of Dutch history. It ended the stadtholderless era, brought William III to power and made him the leading opponent of Louis XIV, a path that led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It is often seen as the moment when the Dutch Golden Age began to lose its shine.