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Bonjour, and welcome to Inside Versailles. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
Pretty gripping episode. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:10 | |
We're seeing Louis coming face-to-face | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
with his deadly rival, William of Orange. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
And so we're joined by Professor Guy Rowlands. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
Why bother with Holland? | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
Holland is the Pocket Hercules of the international system | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
in the 17th century. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
So Holland has banking, it has insurance, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
it has tremendous trade links, | 0:00:29 | 0:00:30 | |
not only inside Europe, but outside Europe. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
What is the Netherlands, in terms of its political structure? | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
You could almost call it a monster. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
I mean, it is seven provinces joined together, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
plus other territories on the fringes | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
that the seven provinces also control. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
It is a republic, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
but one which accords special status to the House of Orange. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
-So, they don't have kings... -They don't have kings. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:52 | |
..but they do have princes who have a sort of long-established power. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
-Yes. -And we see in the drama | 0:00:56 | 0:00:57 | |
William is trying to get back into power, | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
but there are people in the way - the de Witt brothers. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
Jan de Witt - he is what's called the Grand Pensionary of Holland. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
He is effectively the Prime Minister of the province of Holland, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
and he is determined to not only keep the House of Orange down, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
but to kick it while it's down as much as he can, | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
until it gets to the mid-1660s, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
when he knows that, ultimately, one day, William is going to rise, | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
so it's better to control William than to continue to kick him. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
-Which then brings us to the way that William comes to power. -Mm. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
-The de Witts are brutally murdered. -Yes. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
-Has William got anything to do with that? -It's all very shady. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
What we certainly know is that William was genuinely disgusted | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
by the butchering of the de Witts, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
but it's fairly certain that members of William's entourage | 0:01:42 | 0:01:46 | |
were using their links with the mob of The Hague | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
in order to basically exact vengeance | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
against the de Witts, to pay them back, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
when they - the de Witts - are at their most vulnerable. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
So, Louis, we see him say that William is his great enemy. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
-Mm-hm. -Is that true? | 0:02:03 | 0:02:04 | |
They were certainly great political enemies from about 1670. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:09 | |
-Then, slowly, it becomes personal... -GREG CHUCKLES | 0:02:09 | 0:02:14 | |
..not least because Louis would actually like to put William in | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
as a king in the inner core of the Dutch Republic | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
and then strip it of the rest of its territories. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
So Louis really sees him, potentially, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
as a puppet at this point. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:26 | |
And the Netherlands, being a small geographical landmass, | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
how do they cope with a big army coming at them? | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
They have a ring of fortresses. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
They have a tremendous navy that they can put to sea | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
pretty much at the drop of a hat. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
So when the French come at them, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
well, everybody thinks they'll be able to cope with it | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
but, in fact, very quickly, they collapse. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:45 | |
-Yeah, it's called the disaster year, isn't it, in Dutch history? -It is. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
1672. Which suggests that it hasn't gone well for them. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
When Louis effectively kicks the front door in of the Dutch Republic, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
the whole house is then at risk of falling down. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
And the Dutch haven't even got enough men | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
inside their fortifications to defend those. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
So they do rush enough troops in to the right fortifications | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
in the inner defensive ring | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
but, even so, the French get very, very close to Amsterdam | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
and in order to stop them, then you do actually have to flood | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
this sort of lowland area of the Netherlands. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
-Which we see in the drama and it's a fairly dramatic moment. -Yes. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
And the flooding stops just, what, cavalry, infantry? | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
They can't cross it? What does it do? | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
-Well, initially, at first, it's merely just soggy ground... -OK. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
..but then the waters start to rise and it gets to the point | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
where you'll simply be unable to put artillery through. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
You might be able to get marching men through. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
You might even be able to get horses through certain parts of it. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
The real risk, though, is, of course, | 0:03:39 | 0:03:40 | |
when you get to the winter of 1672-73 | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
when the polders freeze, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
the French then could actually drive forward, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
finally ending in Amsterdam, by coming over the ice. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
Fortunately, just in the nick of time, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
the ice melts before the French can get their troops | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
sufficiently concentrated to move on Amsterdam. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
So it's called the disaster year, but, actually, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
it's more of a sort of lucky break year. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
-The Dutch kind of get away with it. -Yes, they do, but at the same time, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
the French are also overextended | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
and they have to start withdrawing out of the Dutch Republic, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
having achieved very, very little, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
except to show to the world that they do have such tremendous power | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
that the rest of the world really ought to stand up against them. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
We've got William, great enemy of Louis, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
but we would know him in Britain much better as King William III - | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
William II of Scotland - who ruled with Mary as joint monarchs. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
And one of the reasons why William III | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
decides to become King of Great Britain and Ireland | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
is so that he can bring the British Isles into the war effort. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
And once he's got Britain into that war effort, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
he realises he has to remodel | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
the British political and financial system | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
by promoting the establishment of the Bank of England | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
and the Bank of Scotland. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
So, the Bank of England is born from war? | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
The Bank of England is exactly born from war | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
as a way of propping up the British government's finances. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
-So he can go and fight his old enemy... -Louis XIV. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
..who, of course, likes to spend | 0:05:00 | 0:05:01 | |
-an awful lot of money on war, as well. -Indeed. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
-Thank you so much. -Thank you. -And thank you for joining us at home. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
I hope you'll join us next week for more interesting insights | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
into Louis XIV's court. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
-Until then, bonsoir. -Bonsoir! | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 |