When the Emperor Napoleon proposed that his younger brother Louis Napoleon Bonaparte should become the king of a new kingdom, a state that would replace and succeed the age-old Dutch republic, at that time called the "Batavian Republic", he chose the name "Holland", the name of the most important province, as "Hollande" was much used in France as a name for the Netherlands or "Pays-Bas".
The statute described the royal arms and mentioned a royal crown. On the 20th of May 1807 a precise drawing of the royal coat of arms was approved by the king. The crown was topped with an orb with a cross.
In practice crowns without a cross became part of the crosses of Louis' Order of Knighthood, the Order of the Union, and the new coins. The second coat of arms, approved on the 6th of February 1806, showed no cross.
As the country was ruined by the Napoleonic wars and the resulting lack of trade there was no opportunity for a coronation. The crown existed on paper alone until the French annexed the country in 1810. In 1813 the Dutch "chose" a new sovereign ruler, later king, William I who had a new crown, the crown of the Netherlands designed and wrought in gilded silver.
Famous quotes containing the words coat of, coat, arms, kingdom and/or holland:
“Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 6:29.
“A tree the span of two arms starts from a tiny seedling.”
—Chinese proverb.
Lao-tzu.
“Was I not born in this Realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country?... Is not my Kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other’s harm? What turmoil have I made to this Commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard of the same?”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“Naggers always know what they are doing. They weigh up the risks, then they go on and on and on until they get what they want or until they get punched.”
—Jools Holland (b. 1958)