Driemanschap (Triumvirate)

   After Napoleon was defeated by the Coalition, a triumvirate temporarily ruled the occupied Netherlands during the power vacuum that the retreat of the French authorities had created; they were the counts Adam F. J. A. van der Duyn van Maasdam (1771–1848), Gijsbert van Hogendorp, and Leopold van Limburg Stirum (1758–1840). On 17 November 1813, they issued a proclamation stating “Holland is free” and announced the return of the House of Orange.

   In July 1940, after the German occupation in May, a triumvirate consisting of Johannes Linthorst Homan (1903–1986), Louis Einthoven (1896–1979), and Jan de Quay founded a new political movement, the Nederlandsche Unie (NU, Netherlands Union), which aimed at creating a new economicand social order through na tional cooperation.