He appealed to the powers, who had, in 1815, created and guaranteed the independence of the kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Dutch had the right to make this levy under treaties going back to the treaty of Munster in 1648, and they clung to it still more tenaciously after Belgium separated herself in 1830-1831 from the united kingdom of the Netherlands - the London conference in 1839 fixing the toll payable to Holland at I.
After the fall of Napoleon and the conclusion of the first peace of Paris (30th of May 1814) Belgium was indeed for some months placed under the administration of an Austrian governor-general, but it u f was shortly afterwards united with Holland to form the kingdom of the Netherlands.
The idea that Holland was the predominant partner in the kingdom of the Netherlands was firmly rooted in the north and naturally provoked in the south the feeling that Belgium was being exploited for the benefit of the Dutch.
William was grand duke of Luxemburg by a personal title, and his death severed the dynastic relation between the kingdom of the Netherlands and the grand duchy.
