Acceso usuarios
W.A. Sinninghe Damsté, M. Van de Vrugt
From 1815 to 1830 the northern and southern Netherlands formed a single kingdom under Guillaume I. In this kingdom the nobility was the only social order to enjoy special political rights. The political influence the nobility could exercise as an order was primarily at the provincial level. The Corps Equestres had a role as a sort of electoral college for the Provincial Estates of the separate provinces. In 1815, after the States General had been divided into two chambers, the influence of the provinces made itself felt particularly through the elections for the Second Chamber, the members of the First Chamber, the Senate, being appointed by the king. Despite the fact that over ninety percent of them belonged to the nobility, the nobility as an order never became a political group exercising power at the national level.
