NETHERLANDS 



4129 



NETTLE 



In 1672 the aggressive Louis XIV of France 

 invaded the Netherlands, and took several 

 towns in rapid succession, for De Witt and his 

 party had disbanded most of the army. But 

 again the House of Orange rescued the nation. 

 Prince William, twenty-one years old, persuaded 

 the people not to heed De Witt's advice of sur- 

 render, but to open the dikes and flood the land 

 over which the French must advance. The 

 prince later became King William III of Eng- 

 land, and during his reign carried on almost 

 constant war with France. 



In the succeeding years Dutch prominence 

 in international affairs declined, and the nation 

 lost some of its colonies and much of its trade. 

 At times the princes of Orange were in power, 

 at other times the burghers. In 1794 came the 

 end of the United Netherlands, for the army 

 of the French revolutionists, advancing when 

 the country was frozen over, took Amsterdam. 

 The Batavian Republic was organized, which 

 in 1805 gave way to Napoleon's rule. During 

 this period, because of their connection with the 

 French, the Dutch lost some of their colonies, 

 including the Cape of Good Hope, to the Eng- 

 lish, and witnessed the ruin of their trade. 



When the present kingdom of the Nether- 

 lands was formed at Napoleon's downfall, a 

 prince of Orange became King William I. The 

 Congress of Vienna, in fixing the new bounda- 

 ries, included the Austrian Netherlands within 

 them and gave Luxemburg to the same ruler; 

 but in 1830 the former territory revolted and 

 became the kingdom of Belgium, while the lat- 

 vas taken from the House of Orange when 

 Queen Wilhelmina came to the throne in 1890, 

 because its law did not then permit a female 

 ruler. 



In the great War of the Nations, which began 

 in Kin. the position of the Netherlands was ex- 

 ceedingly embarrassing. It was a small, com- 

 parHtiv.lv \\rak nation, with sympathies natu- 

 rally leaning towards Germany, with whom its 

 trade relations were important. In the first 

 month of the war Belgium was overrun by Ger- 

 man armies, and this act served as a hint to 

 Holland th.it the same fate might await her. 

 .strictest neutrality was enforced, and Hol- 

 : sought valiantly to protect ita self-respect 

 and meet such demands upon it as were pos- 

 sible without inrurriMK tin- minify of other war- 

 powers. The blockades instituted by the 

 as anVrtrd the people severely, and sev- 

 brought thm> to the point of actual 

 the necessities of life. For details, see 

 W\K of THE NATIONS. O.E i 



259 



Consult Jungman's Holland; Meldrum's Home 

 Life in Holland; Van Loon's Rise of the Dutch 

 Kingdom. 



Related Subject*. The following articles in 

 these volumes will be found helpful by the reader 

 interested in the Netherlands: 



CITIES 



Amsterdam Hague, The 



Arnhem Leyden 



Delft Rotterdam 



Groningen Utrecht 



Haarlem 



HISTORY 



Belgium, subhead 



History 

 Bonaparte, subhead 



Louis Bonaparte 

 Charles V 

 Philip II 



Ruyter, Michael A. de 

 Stadtholder 

 Tromp, Martin H. 

 Wilhelmina 

 William I, Prince of 

 Orange 



ISLANDS 



See list, with article ISLAND. 



Cheese 



Dairying 



Hyacinth 



Meuse 

 Rhine 

 Scheldt 



LEADING PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 



Pottery 



Tulip 



WATERS 



Y. The 

 Zuider Zee 



NETH'ERSOLE, OLGA (1870- ), an Eng- 

 lish actress who won fame through her imper- 

 sonations in emotional roles. She was born in 

 London and made her debut in that city in 

 1888. Later she toured Australia, and after- 

 wards made her first appearance in the United 

 States in 1894. In such plays as Sapho, Car- 

 men, Camille and The Second Mrs. Tanqueray 

 she aroused enthusiasm, and in some of the 

 roles undertaken she was without a rival. In 

 1906, under her own management, she presented 

 a repertory of her most successful plays at the 

 Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris, and after her 

 n turn to the United States in 1910 appeared 

 in Maeterlinck's Mary Magdalene, in Sister 

 Beatrice and in The Awakening of Helena 

 Ritchie. 



NETTLE, nrt"l, a genus of plants contain- 

 ing about thirty species, most of which are 

 herbs covered with fine, needle-shaped hairs. 

 The hairs contain a bitter, watery juice, whu-h 

 produces a painful wound if it enters the *km. 

 Careless handling of a mettle plant is therefore 

 a foolhardy procedure. Several species are use- 

 ful to man through the fiber furnished by thnr 

 stems; this fiber is employed in making cord- 

 age, paper, thread and grass cloth. Nettle beer 

 is a beverage made from leaves, and nettle tope 

 or young shoots are sometimes eaten as a vege- 

 table. The species are distributed through the 



