Editing Batavian Republic (section)

==Background==
[[File:William V, Prince of Orange - Bone 1801.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[William V, Prince of Orange|William V of Orange-Nassau]]]]

Due to the disastrous [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War]],<ref name="De Vries & Van der Woude, p. 126">De Vries & Van der Woude, p. 126.</ref> the [[Patriottentijd|Patriot party]] revolted against the authoritarian regime of [[Stadtholder]] [[William V, Prince of Orange|William V]]<ref>Schama, pp. 77, 131.</ref> but were quickly struck down through the [[Prussian invasion of Holland|intervention]] of William's brother-in-law [[Frederick William II of Prussia]] in September 1787. Most Patriots went into exile in [[Kingdom of France|France]], while the Netherlands' own "[[ancien régime]]" strengthened its grip on Dutch government chiefly through the [[Orangism (Netherlands)|Orangist]] [[Grand Pensionary]] [[Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel]]. This ''de facto'' status of Anglo-Prussian [[protectorate]] was internationally formalized in 1788 by the [[Act of Guarantee]] (for which [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] and [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] acted as guarantors) and the [[Triple Alliance (1788)|Triple Alliance]] between the Dutch Republic, Prussia, and Great Britain. The Netherlands was little more than a pawn for the major powers.<ref>Kennedy, James C. ''A Concise History of The Netherlands''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2017, p. 261</ref>

The [[French Revolution]] embraced many of the political ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt.<ref>Schama, ch. 3, 4.</ref> The Patriots enthusiastically supported the Revolution, and when the French revolutionary armies started to spread the revolution, the Patriots joined in, hoping to liberate their own country from its authoritarian yoke. The Stadtholder joined the ill-fated [[First Coalition]] of countries in their attempt to subdue the suddenly anti-Austrian [[French First Republic]]. The Patriots sought French revolutionary aid in their struggle against the stadtholder, but did not want to be considered territory conquered by France, but rather a "sister republic". There was open warfare, with the Patriots' cause dependent on its success on the battlefield. With the defeat of allies of the stadtholder at [[Battle of Fleurus (1794)|Battle of Fleurus]], Austria abandoned its interest in the southern Netherlands. French revolutionary forces were able to take advantage of the freezing of rivers in December 1794 and forced the stadtholder into exile.<ref>Kennedy, ''A Concise History of The Netherlands'', pp. 261–262</ref>