European Kingdoms

Kingdom of Holland (Bonaparte) (Netherlands) (Low Countries)
AD 1806 - 1813

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After reconfiguring the 'Batavian Republic' within the northern Low Countries, the French-controlled 'Kingdom of Holland' was created by Napoleon Bonaparte as he extended his new model of controlling his captured territories. He placed one of his brothers on the throne.

(Information by Peter Kessler, Drs Dirk van Duijvenbode, and William Willems, with additional information from Foreign Policy and the French Revolution: Charles-François Dumouriez, Pierre LeBrun, and the Belgian Plan, 1789-1793, Patricia Howe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), and from External Links: A Short History of Holland, Belgium & Luxembourg (available for download as a PDF from Stanford University), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Belgium from Revolution to the War of the Sixth Coalition 1789-1814, Dale Pappas (The Napoleon Series Archive).)

1806 - 1810

Brother of Napoleon.

1810

Napoleon throws his brother out of office and draws Holland directly into the French empire so that it occupies a position which is modelled on that of the French Netherlands, directly controlled from Paris since 1795.

1810 - 1813

Emperor of France.

1813

Napoleon is forced out of Germany and greatly weakened in Holland. William I raises Dutch forces as part of the British-led Allied Army.

Under imperial France, troops from Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands were forced to serve in the French ranks right up until 1814, so when they stood in the allied lines at Waterloo in 1815 their reliability was doubted by some, although many of their units did indeed stand firm and suffered heavy casualties

The 'United Kingdom of the Netherlands' is formed (and ratified in1815).