Capital of the Netherlands to 1795 there remained a strong animosity between the Orange faction and the republican faction in Dutch politics. The former supported the idea of hereditary political leadership vested in the princes of Orange as Stadtholders, and had its powerbase in The Hague and the rural areas. The latter supported civic independence and found its support mainly in the cities and towns of Holland, with Amsterdam as its progenitor and most outspoken representative. When in 1814 the new kingdom was formed, the appointment of Amsterdam, still the most prominent city in the kingdom, as capital city was also very much a
Bicentennial of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Bicentennial of the Kingdom of the Netherlands From 2013 to 2015, the Kingdom of the Netherlands celebrated its bicentennial. A National Committee, appointed by the Council of Ministers in 2011, supervises the bicentennial celebrations. The Committee is chaired by politicians Ank Bijleveld and Jozias van Aartsen. The celebrations started with a reenactment on 30 November 2013 of Prince William Frederick's landing at Scheveningen, exactly two hundred years earlier, with Huub Stapel playing the role of William Frederick, the later king William I. The reenactment (which is performed every 25 years) drew a crowd of several thousand. Five more "national events"