First Stadtholderless Period
The First Stadtholderless Period or Era is the period in the history of the Dutch Republic in which the office of Stadtholder was vacant in five of the seven Dutch provinces. It coincided with the zenith of the Golden Age of the Republic.
Portrait of Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland (by Jan Asselijn ca. 1652)
Willem II, prince of Orange, and his wife Maria Stuart (by Gerard van Honthorst, 1652)
Great Assembly of 1651 by Dirck van Delen
Portrait of Cornelis de Graeff, Regent of Amsterdam (by Nicolaes Eliaszoon Pickenoy 1636)
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, officially the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, and commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands, and the first independent Dutch state. The republic was established after seven Dutch provinces in the Spanish Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule, forming a mutual alliance against Spain in 1579 and declaring their independence in 1581. It comprised Groningen, Frisia, Overijssel, Guelders, Utrecht, Holland, and Zeeland.
William of Orange, by Adriaen Thomasz Key.
Anonymous portrait of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. He was of Portuguese-Jewish origin.
The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, by Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde
Dam Square in the late 17th century: painting by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde