During the period of the Republic in the 17th and 18th centuries, political allegiance was roughly divided between those in favor of an aristocratic republican government and the adherents of the stadtholders of the House of Orange who preferred a more cen tralized monarchical form of constitution. After the creation in the 1830s of an independent state of Belgium, part of the Flemish mi nority remained loyal to the Dutch monarchy, the House of Orange.
Historical Dictionary of the Netherlands. EdwART. 2012.