20 Aug. in the murder of the brothers De Witt. The coldness of William's response when requested by De Witt to justify him to the people has been absurdly blamed as arguing ingratitude (Pontalis, ii. 442); it remains uncertain whether his presence at the Hague would have restrained the fury of the populace. According to Burnet, William always spoke of the murder ‘with the greatest horror possible’ (i. 597); but he confessed to Gourville that, though he gave no order for the deed, the news of it relieved him (Mémoires, p. 481; cf. Pomponne, Mémoires, p. 494). Tichelaar, who had falsely accused Cornelius de Witt of hiring him for the assassination of William, was awarded a pension (Van Kampen, ii. 247). De Witt was succeeded as grand pensionary by Caspar Fagel, who henceforth became a firm and enthusiastic supporter of the stadholder. The stability of his government was further insured by extensive changes in the magistracy of Holland, and by a general amnesty (8 Nov.) which put an end to the civil troubles (ib. p. 250).
Meanwhile the campaign of 1672 had run its course. William, while rejecting the preposterous French proposals of peace, and refusing to yield to the pressure put upon him by the English envoys, Buckingham and Arlington, had concluded an alliance with Brandenburg (May), and a defensive league with the emperor; and in the new field-marshal, George Frederick, count of Waldeck, had found a capable military guide, afterwards equally trusted as a diplomatic adviser (Müller, i. 32, 56). With the withdrawal of Louis XIV it became clear that the campaign would not prove decisive; and finally, though Luxemburg relieved Woerden, the siege of which had formed William's first considerable action, the progress of the French was stopped by a sudden thaw. Thus the year ended with a recovery of confidence; but 1673 began less favourably with the defection of the great elector, and in the spring three French armies were again in the field. Though Maestricht was lost (July), William's capture of Naarden (September) completely covered Amsterdam. He now concluded definitive treaties of alliance with the empire and Spain (October); and resolving, in the words of Temple (Memoirs, 1672–9, p. 382), ‘like another young Scipio, to save his country by abandoning it,’ opened the way into the Low Countries to the imperialists by uniting with them in the siege and capture of Bonn (November). Of all their conquests in the Netherlands, the French now retained only Grave and Maestricht. Early in 1674 England concluded a separate peace with the United Provinces (February), and soon Temple reappeared at the Hague to aid William in negotiating a general peace. Brandenburg having returned to the alliance, France was left without any support but that of Sweden. The success of the prince in arresting the aggression of France was rewarded by his election to the stadholderates of the three liberated provinces; in Gueldres he was offered but refused the sovereignty as duke (Van Kampen, ii. 261; cf. Gourville, p. 482—William told the writer that he had at first inclined to accept the offer). But already in January of this year, through Fagel's influence, the first step had been taken towards making the stadholderate hereditary to the prince's male descendants; and the proposal having been adopted by the states of Holland in February, those of the remaining provinces in which he was stadholder followed suit (for the decree of the states of Holland see Trevor, vol. i. App. p. i.) With the aid of constitutional amendments in several of these provinces, he had now secured a firm control over their affairs; in Friesland and Groningen, where his cousin, Henry Casimir of Nassau-Diez, was hereditary stadholder, the most complete deference was paid to his wishes.
In 1674 the war, now entirely delocalised, proved in the main favourable to the French; but in the bloody battle of Senef in Hainault (11 Aug.) between William and the veteran Condé, both sides claimed the victory. The French carried away the greater number of prisoners, but William maintained his position. He failed immediately afterwards in the siege of Oudenarde, but in October recovered Grave (as to the battle of Senef, see Duc d'Aumale, Les Princes de Condé, vii. 568, where a strong attempt is made to show that William ought not to have claimed the victory; cf., however, Temple, u.s. p. 389, and Gourville's Mémoires, p. 462). Unwilling, notwithstanding this unsatisfactory campaign, to conclude either an unfavourable or a separate peace, William greatly resented Arlington's lectures to the contrary (Temple, p. 397). Arlington seems also to have suggested to William a journey to England, should peace be concluded; but in March 1675 Temple was brusquely ordered to stop any such project (ib. p. 400). The prince was indignant at this blundering attempt to bribe him into subserviency. Charles, whose ways were never more crooked than at this period, tried to work on William by envoys more pliable than Temple, such as Sir Gabriel Sylvius, and to persuade him to
