As Napoleon moved inexorably towards defeat, the exiled Prince of Orange arrived in London in April 1813 to be assured that Holland was of importance to Britain which, given its proximity to the large naval base at Antwerp, was true. When the French garrison left Amsterdam on 15 November, there followed a small uprising in the Hague which called for independence. The Prince, accompanied by the British ambassador, arrived on 30 November.

See Rory Muir, Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807-1815 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 306-7.