HAHN
109
HAHN-HAHN
revolt of the Netherlands from Spain. The town
suffered grievous pillage at the hands of the Spanish
troops in the course of the Dutch War of Indepen-
dence. But with the conclusion of peace commerce
and industry rapidly recovered. In 1593 The Hague
was the seat of "the Dutch States-General, but,
owing to the jealousy of the cities which had votes,
it was deprived of representation in the States, and
became "the largest village" in Europe, having, in
1622, as many as 17,430 inhabitants. With the rise
of Holland to the position of the first maritime and
colonial power of Europe, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. The Hague became the most
important centre of European diplomacy. Many
international treaties were concluded there: in 1666,
the alliance between Denmark and Holland against
England; in 1668, the Triple Alliance of England,
Sweden, and Holland, which compelled Louis XIV
to conclude the Peace of Aachen; in 1707, the great
illiance of the maritime powers and the Emperor
Leopold against France; in 1710, the "Concert of The
Hague", consisting of the German emperor, England,
and Holland, to maintain the neutrality of Northern
Germany in the war of the Northern powers with
Sweden; in 1718, the Quadruple Alliance between
England, France, the emperor, and Holland, to en-
force the contlitions of the Treaty of Utrecht, and
thereby check the aggressive policy of Spain.
During the bitter partisan strife within the Re- public, The Hague was the scene of many memorable historical episodes. In the course of the religious feuds between the Arminians and the Gomarists, Prince Maurice of Orange caused the arrest of Jan van Olden -Barneveld, the septuagenarian grand pensionary, an Arminian, together with his learned companions Hugo Grotius and Hogerbeets, in the Binnenhof (1619). The grand pensionary, in spite of a lirilliant defence, was condemned and executed (13 May, 1619). The death of the two brothers de Witt, in 1672, was even more tragic. Jan de Witt, as grand pensionary, had directed the policy of Holland for nearly two decades and, while at the height of his power, had, by the Perpetual Edict, debarred William III of Orange from enjoying the hereditary office of stadtholder. When, in spite of this, William was elected Stadtholder of Holland and Captain-General of the Netherlands, in 1672, Jan's l^rother, C'ornelius de Witt, was falsely accused of an attempt to murder the prince, and was thrown into prison. A frenzied rabble of partisans of the Prince of Orange broke into the prison, into which Jan de Witt, also, had been inveigled by a pretended summons from his brother, seized both the de Witts, and tore them to pieces.
During the French Revolution, The Hague was the capital of the Batavian Republic. When Napoleon turned this republic into a kingdom for his brother Louis, The Hague obtained a city charter, but the seat of government was transferred to Amsterdam, until the Restoration (1815), when The Hague re- gained its political importance. It was the meeting- place of the International Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, and is the permanent seat of the Interna- tional Court of Arbitration.
Van Stockum, 's Gravenhage in den loop der lijden (2 vols.. The Hague, 1SS9); Ome Pius Almanak (.AmsteTdam. 1909).
Joseph Lins.
Hahn, Johann Michael. See Michelians.
Hahn-Hahn, Ida, Countess, convert and author- ess, born 22 June, 1805; died 12 January, 1880. She was descended from a family that formerly was one of the wealthiest and most illustrious of the Mecklenburg nobility. Her father, the tragic and famous " Thea- tergraf" (theatrical count), squandered such huge sums on his one hobby, the drama, that he reduced the family to great straits and finally had to be placed
under the supervision of a guardian. Fortunately he
did not have much influence on Ida's education. On
the other hand, the pious disposition of her mother
also seems to have been antipathetic to her. Conse-
quently the bringing up of the sixteen-year old girl,
who ought to have been preparing for confirmation,
seems to have been particularly superficial in all mat-
ters of religion, according to her own admission. Her
mind was just as deficiently cultivated in other lines
of study, so that the countess later in life had to fill out
many a gap in her education by reading. When she
was twenty-one years old she married her cousin,
Count Friedrich von Hahn, Erbmarschall (hereditary
marshal) of Basedow: hence her double name Hahn-
Hahn. It was a marriage of convenience, contracted
without any affection on either side, and culminating
in a divorce at the end of three years. Her only child,
being mentally and bodily deformed, was for .years the
source of acute grief to the mother. She withdrew from
society and lived
for a long while in
retirement with her
m o t h er in the
Greifswald. But
after a time she
visited Switzer-
land, Austria,
Italy, Spain, and
France. Later on
she made a tour
of the North and
after that of the
East.
The countess en- joyed absolute in- dependence during this period (1829- 1849), and led the life of an emanci- pated woman of the world. Much talk was caused Ida, Countess Hahn-H.min
by her association with Baron von Bistram, who used to accompany her on her travels, as also by her brief acquaintance with the famous lawyer, Henry Simond. One day, in 1849, opening the Bible at random, she chanced on Isaias, Lx, 1 : " Arise, be enlightened, O Jeru- salem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. " She accepted the sign and, after wrestling with her soul for several months, wrote to Prince-Bishop Diepenbrock, asking to be admitted into the Catholic Church. The prelate subjected her to a severe test to make sure that her resolution was earnest, but she withstood this ordeal, and on 26 March, 1850, made profession of the Catholic Faith before Bishop von Ketteler in the Hedwigs- kirche in Berlin. She tlien went into retirement at Mainz with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, for whom she had foimded a convent there, mostly out of her own means. The last thirty years of her life were devoted entirely to works of piety and to serious writing with a definite and lofty purpose: she con- demned her own earlier compositions before the whole literary world. She was afflicted with much bodily suffering during her last few years on earth, but she bore it with consummate heroism.
Poems. — The small volumes, "Gedichte" (1835), "Neuere Gedichte" (1836), " Venezianische Nachte" (1836), "Lieder und Gedichte" (1837), and "Astra- lion" (1839), show depth of sentiment and a high standard of form and contents; but at the same time they betray the youthfulness of the author and the almost overwhelming influence of her favourite
Coet, Lord Byron. Two small volumes written after er conversion are: " Unsere Liebe Frau" (1851) and "Das Jahr der Kirche" (1854), their titles being significant of their contents.
