a figurehead. The Patriots dominated the provinces of Holland and Utrecht, the most prosperous of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic. The stadtholder was forced to leave The Hague and lived most of the time in Nijmegen, in Gelderland. Prussia invaded the Dutch Republic in 1787 to restore the power of the stadtholder. The Patriots were prosecuted, some of them were able to leave the Republic and went to France. Van Hogendorp, who played an important role in the restoration of the ancien régime, was elected pensionaris – main legal advisor and advocate – of Rotterdam from 1788 to 1795, only to be dismissed after the French occupation and the establishment of the Batavian Republic. Van Hogendorp refused to collaborate with the new regime and stayed out of politics for the next 18 years. He did not change his mind when some of his old colleagues from the Orangist party went to serve Louis Napoleon when he ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Holland in 1806. In 1810 Holland became a province of the French Empire of Napoleon I. Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp's older brother, Dirk van Hogendorp, who admired the French Emperor, joined the Imperial Army with the rank of General. Napoleon later bestowed him with the title of Comte de l'Empire (Count of the Empire). Gijsbert Karel did not hold the Emperor in high esteem. In his eyes the Emperor was nothing more than a Dictator and a brute. During the French occupation Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp and his wife, Hester Clifford, lived at Adrichem manor house for a while. In 1809 he moved to The Hague where he remained till the end of his life. In 1812 Van Hogendorp became convinced that the French Empire would collapse in a few years and drafted a paper, a precursor of the Constitution of 1814. He played a decisive role during the revolt of October and November 1813 that restored the Dutch independence. Career He was part of the Triumvirate of 1813 that invited William Frederick, the eldest son of William V (who died in exile) to become Prince of the new independent Netherlands in late 1813. He served as Foreign Minister from 7 December 1813 to 6 April 1814, and headed the commission that wrote the Constitution of the Netherlands of 1814. On 6 April 1814 he was named the first Vice-President of the Council of State,