Among the numerous statues are those of William I. (two in number), William II., Spinoza, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, and the monument which commemorates the deliverance from the French. Close to the town is the beautiful pleasure-park called “The Wood” (Bosch), in which stands a royal residence with the magnificent so-called “Orange Hall.”
PALACE IN THE WOOD,
or Dutch “White House,” is situated in a fine old plantation of beeches and oaks, round ornamental lakes and islands, is a plain building with a grand interior; and has Jordaen’s masterpiece, the Apotheosis of Prince Fred. Henry.
The great Peace Conference was held here in 1899; The Hague is the seat of the resulting arbitration courts, for which Mr. Carnegie provided permanent buildings of great architectural beauty. Industries are iron-founding, copper and lead smelting, cannon-founding, printing, furniture and carriage making, and the manufacture of gold and silver lace.
NATIONAL MONUMENT IN THE WILLEMS-PARK, THE HAGUE
History.—The ancient inhabitants of the country, the Batavians and the Frisians, became subjects or allies of the Romans in the first century A. D., and so remained till in the fourth century their territories were overrun by the Saxons and Salian Franks.
At the end of the eighth century the Low Countries submitted to Charlemagne, and various feudal dukedoms, counties, and lordships were gradually established (the countship of Holland in the eleventh century). In 1384 the earldom of Flanders passed to the Dukes of Burgundy, and Philip the Good (c. 1450) made the Low Countries as prosperous as any part of his Burgundian state.
The Emperor Charles V. inherited the Burgundian dominions; and under his son, Philip II. of Spain, broke out the bitter quarrel between Holland and Spain, between Dutch Protestantism and persistence and Spanish tyranny and persecution, which ended in 1581 in the establishment of the Dutch Republic as an independent state under William the Silent (of Orange), though the war continued with intervals till 1648, and the Belgian provinces abode by their allegiance to the kings of Spain.