To support his family despite not having found an established musical job, Pieter free-lanced, seeking gigs in The Hague and Leiden. In The Hague, the capital of the Dutch Republic, he performed regularly in the noble court of the Governor, or "Stadtholder", sometime translated as Lieutenant, an office which eventually became the Monarch. There he played for Prince William IV, and especially for the Prince's English wife, Anne of Hanover, whose enthusiasm made her known as "the musical princess". Perhaps Anne put in his mind to better his finances by moving to England where much of society was similarly enthusiastic about music, and thus there were for better prospects for a better money as a musician.