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Nobles and notables. The integration of elites in post-restauration The Hague, 1813-1820
| This paper investigates how in the first years after the French Occupation, the Dutch residential city The Hague witnessed a strikingly coordinated process – or rather project – of elite formation: politically, socially, economically, culturally. With The Netherlands becoming a kingdom, the first Dutch king William I constructed a brand new nobility to strengthen his new regime, incorporating not only the medieval nobility and many aristocrats with foreign titles, but also a great number of leading families of the former urban patriciate. In addition, The Hague’s ‘new’ elite also adopted a substantial number of homines novi, who had risen to political power during the Batavian-French period, as well as a number of brand new nouveau riches. Using both qualitative and quantitative sources, the paper will show how – next to the formal politics of ennoblement and marriage strategies - this process of elite formation was stimulated, structured and to a certain extent also hampered by strategies of social in- and exclusion in a number of key sites of polite winter recreation: the city’s gentlemen’s clubs and Masonic lodges, the main literary, scientific and musical societies, and the concert and opera performances. Comparing these outcomes with data from 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1880, the paper will show how also in a long term perspective these developments in the post-restoration years 1813-1820 were crucial for the formation of The Hague’s elite in general.
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