‘Het hart des Offraers’—The Dutch Gift as an Act of Self-Representation

Abstract

In the course of the seventeenth century the States General and other institutions of the Dutch Republic made three notable gifts to the English royal family. In 1610 two Dutch marine pictures were given to Henry Prince of Wales. In 1636 Charles I and his queen were presented with horses and a carriage, linen and other luxury items and four Dutch religious paintings. And in 1660 Charles II received furniture, a substantial collection of Italian and Dutch pictures and antique sculpture, and a yacht. The first part of this double article discusses the significance of the items chosen mainly from the Dutch point of view. They represented the manufacturing and trading interests of the young Republic and reflected the changing balance of power within the state. At the same time the gifts were intended to appeal to the taste and influence the policy of the Stuart court. The second part of the article considers the Gift of 1660 in the context of contemporary party conflict in the Dutch Republic Despite official propaganda that the Gift was a gesture of admiration and gratitude from ‘the heart of the givers’, it was in fact a hastily improvised attempt to appease Charles II and promote Anglo-Dutch friendship and to contain popular Orangism at home. Public opinion, however, did not approve of the Gift. Orangist pamphleteers condemned such gift-making as corrupt, and even republicans like Pieter de la Court thought it mistaken since a king would always pursue his own interests.