Capital of the Netherlands capital city somewhat, as Emperor Napoleon declared the city to be the third city of the Empire (after Paris and Rome) and an imperial residence. In December 1813, after the fall of Napoleon and the accession of Prince William VI of Orange as Sovereign of the Netherlands, The Hague was restored as the seat of government. Although the proper legal status of Amsterdam as capital of the Netherlands is of recent date, the city has been uniformly recognised as capital ever since 1814. This is partly because it is a "Royal City", used not only for the inauguration of kings,
Capital punishment in the Netherlands Capital punishment in the Netherlands Capital punishment in the Netherlands (Dutch: "doodstraf in Nederland") was abolished in 1870 in criminal law after the States General recognized it was "cruel and rude". The bill was introduced by liberal-catholic Minister of Justice Franciscus van Lilaar and debated in both the Senate and House of Representatives for seven days before approval. Following the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment was made an official punishment in 1878. A few years after gaining independence in 1815, the Kingdom of the Netherlands determined that the death penalty could be carried out through beheading. Between 1945