 Still , by that time the Batavians had already had a bad press in Dutch history writing . This may be explained by the fact that the ages @-@ old ideological struggle between the monarchically oriented Orangist party and its successive opponents of a more " republican " bent ( going back to at least the conflict between Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Prince Maurice ) , of which the Patriots were only the latest incarnation , was being refought in the standard works of 19th @-@ century Dutch historians like Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer , who saw plenty to despise in the " popular @-@ sovereignty " philosophy of the Patriot radicals . In his turn Groen was very influential on the way John Lothrop Motley depicted the old Dutch Republic for an American audience . Motley did not get to deal explicitly with the Batavian Republic , but the way his collaborator William Elliot Griffis dismissed the Patriots speaks for itself : " ... whether under the name of the ' Batavian Republic ' , the Kingdom of Holland , or the provinces of the French empire , the French occupation was virtually a French conquest that had little permanent influence on Dutch history or character . " 
