Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands

The Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands was the short-lived Dutch state proclaimed in 1813, the direct precursor of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the legal ancestor of the modern Dutch state. After Prussian and Russian troops freed the Netherlands from France, a provisional government under a triumvirate of noblemen, Frans Adam van der Duyn van Maasdam, Leopold of Limburg Stirum and Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, took the liberated country on 20 November and declared the principality the next day. That the new state would be headed by William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder William V, was a foregone conclusion, though many argued over the form it should take, and the returning prince was first offered the sovereignty before he accepted the crown. The principality lasted barely a year and never held the south: in 1815 it was reunited with the Southern Netherlands under the Congress of Vienna settlement, and William took the royal title as William I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.