The Resolutions

Goetgevonden provides open access to the resolutions of the States General. Resolutions are political decisions. During the era of the Republic, the States General were in a sense both government and parliament. The decisions they took can be thought of as laws. The decisions could concern private issues of individual citizens, but also matters of national importance.

The decisions were recorded in resolution books. Initially, this was done by hand. Later, the resolution books were also printed. In the resolution books, we find the resolutions in the order in which they were taken, arranged per session day. Because the States General dealt with issues of various kinds, resolutions that were taken during the same session are usually unrelated. 

The States General distinguished between ordinary (“ordinaris”) and secret (“secrete”) resolutions. These two types of resolutions were recorded in different registers. In addition, there were also separate series of special resolutions that were taken during particular occasions, such as peace negotiations.

The meetings of the States General were closed. Both the ordinary and the secret resolutions were confidential, the secret resolutions being more confidential than the ordinary ones. The States General also took decisions that the population had to be informed about. Such decisions were then distributed as ordinances and announced and posted everywhere.

Only the ordinary resolutions were printed from the eighteenth century onwards, and that in limited editions. The secret and special resolutions were always handwritten throughout the existence of the States General. In Goetgevonden, we have chosen to offer the ordinary resolutions in printed form from 1703 onwards, because from that year on a complete series of printed resolutions are present in the archives. We offer the handwritten fair copies of all other resolutions.