actual resistance when the Prussians arrived. In Amsterdam several houses of patriot regents were plundered by mobs. The stadholder returned to The Hague, and Amsterdam, the last city to hold out, surrendered on October 10. The Patriots continued urging citizens to resist the government by distributing pamphlets, creating "Patriot Clubs" and holding public demonstrations. The government responded by pillaging the towns where the opposition was concentrated. Most Patriots went into exile in France, while Orangists strengthened their grip on Dutch government chiefly through the Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel. Proclamation of the Republic The restoration was temporary, however. Only two years later, the French Revolution began, which embraced many of the political ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt. The Patriots enthusiastically supported the Revolution, and when the French revolutionary armies started spreading it, the Patriots joined in, hoping to liberate their own country from its authoritarian yoke. The Stadtholder joined the ill-fated First Coalition of countries in their attempt to subdue the suddenly anti-Austrian French First Republic. This War of the First Coalition also proceeded disastrously for the Stadtholder's forces, and in the severe winter of 1794/95 a French army under general Charles Pichegru, with a Dutch contingent under general Herman Willem Daendels, crossed the great frozen rivers that traditionally protected the Netherlands from invasion. Aided by the fact that a substantial proportion of the Dutch population looked favourably upon the French incursion, and often considered it a liberation, the French were quickly able to break the resistance of the forces of the Stadtholder, and his Austrian and British allies. However, in many cities revolution broke out even before the French arrived and Revolutionary Committees took over the city governments, and (provisionally) the national government also. The States of Holland and West Friesland, for instance, were abolished and replaced with the Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland Aftermath The Batavian Revolution ended with the proclamation of the Batavian Republic in 1795. William was forced to flee to England, where he issued the Kew Letters proclaiming that all Dutch colonies were to fall under British rule, as they had declared war on the Batavian Republic. Several coups followed in 1798, 1801 and 1805 which brought different groups of Patriots to power. Though the French presented themselves as liberators, many disagreed. The Batavian Republic saw its end in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was