Act of Seclusion

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The Act of Seclusion is a secret annex in the Treaty of Westminster (1654) between the United Provinces and the Commonwealth of England in which William III, Prince of Orange, was excluded from the office of Stadtholder. The First Stadtholderless Period was heralded in January 1651 by the regents during the so-called Grote Vergadering which was a meeting in The Hague of representatives of the ruling classes of each of the United Provinces. This was caused by the death of stadtholder William II on 6 November 1650.

Through the Treaty of Westminster Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, not only ended the First Anglo–Dutch War, but also ensured that the orangist faction would no longer hinder the regents, so that republican English no longer needed to fear that William III could become a strong Dutch leader who could bring the throne back to the Stuarts to whom he was closely related. Ironically, William III would later drive out the last Stuart King, James II and thereby end moves in England towards monarchical absolutism.

According to Grand Pensionary De Witt, it was Oliver Cromwell who demanded the secret annex and he managed to have it ratified by the Estates-General only with the greatest effort. When the Act of Seclusion became known later, it was commonly assumed that De Witt masterminded it himself. In the nineteenth century, investigation of his secret correspondence appeared to acquit him of this. Nowadays, different positions are taken in this matter stemming from the insight that De Witt may have manipulated these writings out of fear that they may fall into the wrong hands. He was seldomly spontaneous when writing or speaking.

When the English Restoration brought Charles II to the throne of England, the Estates-General declared that the Act of Seclusion had thereby lost its validity, since the Act was signed by the commonwealth which had now ceased to exist.