oa ‘Toen ’t volk als uit één’ mond, lang leve Oranje! riep’

‘When the people unanimously shouted long live Orange!’ Orangism in the year of the Peace of Aachen, 1748

This article investigates the way popular Orangism took shape around 1748 in the Dutch Republic. It concentrates on three anthologies commemorating the Peace Treaty of Münster (1648) and celebrating the signing of the Peace Treaty of Aachen. In these volumes, filled with occasional poetry, the recently appointed stadtholder William IV is celebrated abundantly, as is the history of the nation. The anthologies can be used to explore how an invention of tradition was created from an Orangist point of view. It was shaped around three recurring themes: revolt and liberation, divine providence, and the return of a golden age. Authors argued that these features were inextricably linked to the presence of stadtholders, in the past and in the present. This canonical view of the nation’s history was not seriously challenged during these years, as anti-Orangist voices constituted a minority in the public representation of the history of the nation.