Gaspar Fagel (25 January 1634 – 15 December 1688) was a Dutch politician, jurist, and diplomat who authored correspondence from and on behalf of William III, Prince of Orange, during the English Revolution of 1688.

Early life

Fagel was born into a distinguished patrician family. Little is known of his early life, but in 1663 he was elected

Pensionary A pensionary was a name given to the leading functionary and legal adviser of the principal town corporations in the Low Countries because they received a salary or pension. History The office originated in Flanders. Initially, the role was refe ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

and as such was also a member representative of the

States of Holland The States of Holland and West Frisia ( nl, Staten van Holland en West-Friesland) were the representation of the two Estates (''standen'') to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a c ...

Political career

In 1667, Fagel,

Johan de Witt Johan de Witt (; 24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672), ''lord of Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp en IJsselvere'', was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, the Fi ...

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, and

Andries de Graeff Andries de Graeff (19 February 1611 – 30 November 1678) was a powerful member of the Amsterdam branch of the De Graeff - family during the Dutch Golden Age. He became a mayor of Amsterdam and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the death of his ...

signed the Perpetual Edict, a resolution to abolish the office of

Stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

in the

County of Holland The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part ...

. At approximately the same time, a majority of provinces in the States-General agreed to declare the office of stadtholder incompatible with the office of captain general of the Dutch Republic. In 1670, Fagel was made Secretary of the

Staten-Generaal The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The State ...

. After the resignation and subsequent murder of Johan and

Cornelis de Witt Cornelis de Witt (; 15 June 1623 – 20 August 1672) was a Dutch politician and naval commendant of the Golden Age. During the First Stadtholderless Period De Witt was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, and was in opposition to th ...

in 1672, Fagel was elevated to the position of Grand Pensionary. He was distinguished for his integrity and the firmness with which he repelled the attempts of

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

against his country, and for his zeal in supporting the claims of William III, Prince of Orange to the English throne.

Correspondence

William used letters from Fagel to reassure English Nonconformists or dissenters that they would be allowed to practice their religion. Some of these were written as Pensionary of Holland, including an open letter written in 1687, deploring James' religious policy; others purported to be written at William's request. In 1687, James Stewart, a Scottish Presbyterian lawyer who supported repeal of the

Test Acts The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in ...

, had been in contact with a number of Dutch acquaintances. It was passed onto Fagel, who prepared a response.''A letter, writ by Mijn Heer Fagel (Pensioner of Holland) to Mr. James Stewart (Advocate); giving an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test, and the penal laws'', Gaspar Fagel (1688) In early 1688, this letter was widely circulated in England; it confirmed tolerance for dissenters but did not require them to support repeal. Many dissenters viewed the act as essential for guaranteeing the primacy of the Protestant faith and Fagle confirmed the Dutch would support the softening of some laws only if: "... those Laws remain still in their full vigour by which the Roman Catholics are shut out of both Houses of Parliament, and out of all public employment; Ecclesiastical, Civil and Military: as likewise all those others, which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the Roman Catholic." The effect of this letter, and others, was to assure the Parliament that William III would not stand in the way of the Parliament's legislative agenda which manifested itself in the form of the Bill of Rights of 1689.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagel, Gaspar 17th-century Dutch politicians 1634 births 1688 deaths Grand Pensionaries Writers from The Hague