Johannes Diderik van Leeuwen

Silhouettes of members of the National Assembly. India ink on paper, 1796. Early in 1795 Stadholder William V fled to England. In the Republic a new regime was installed. A year later, the country held its first general election. Every Dutch man over the age of twenty and not on poor relief was entitled to vote for a candidate to the National Assembly, the parliament of the Batavian Republic, as the country was known between 1795 and 1806. The 126 representatives who sat in the assembly were drawn from the educated, progressive elite of Dutch society.