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
Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Dutch: "Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden"; in Papiamentu: "Statuut pa e Reino di Hulanda") describes the political relationship between the four countries that constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and the Netherlands (for the most part) in Europe. It is the leading legal document of the Kingdom. The Constitution of the Netherlands and the Basic Laws of the three other countries are legally subordinate to the Charter. The first version of the Charter, which described