William III’s 1691 Visit to The Hague is presented as a homecoming in which public celebration makes visible the bond between a ruler and the country he had left. The visit, recalled by Ben while he looks at portraits of William and Mary, contrasts William’s political triumph abroad with the Dutch welcome that greets him as a beloved national figure.

The visit recalled

The episode enters the story through a domestic scene in the home of Mynheer van Gend. Above a carved piano hang life-sized portraits of William of Orange and his English queen. Ben, seeing them, thinks of accounts he has read of William’s visit to The Hague in the winter of 1691. The portraits bring England and Holland together in his thoughts; a bonfire in a neighboring square helps the past celebration seem close to the present.

The narrative then expands beyond Ben’s recollection into an account of the visit itself. William had been monarch of a foreign land for two years. His attention had been faithfully given to England, but his heart, the account says, yearned for Holland. When he returned to Dutch shores, the whole nation welcomed him, and multitudes converged on The Hague to meet him.

A welcome on the ice

The gathering included thousands who traveled by skating or sliding over frozen canals from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Haarlem, and Delft. The frozen waterways function as more than a route into the capital: they make the welcome a collective journey, bringing people from across the country to the same city. The visit’s public scale is measured not only in crowds but in the many places from which they came.

Festivities continued throughout the day. The streets were dressed with banners, evergreen arches, trophies, welcoming mottoes, and emblems of industry. Images of William’s ancestors and episodes from his earlier life appeared on banners and tapestries, joining national memory to the occasion. At night, fireworks played across the ice. The frozen surface reflected the display, while fountains and cascades of light, including crimson and green sparks, transformed it into a brilliant setting for the celebration.

The people called for William’s blessing and long life as king. He heard their acclaim with a beating heart. His English courtiers praised the reception, but he answered that the shouting would have meant still more had Mary been with him. The remark gives the public spectacle a personal dimension: the king’s response to the welcome is bound up with his wish to share it with his wife.

Triumph and belonging

The account sets William’s stature against the simplicity of his visit. By this point he had become ruler of three kingdoms and had known success in council and war; nevertheless, he came to Holland as a guest. The contrast between his far-reaching power and his reception in The Hague shifts the emphasis from rank to affection. His political achievements matter, but the scene’s measure of his standing is the enthusiasm of the people who came to greet him.

Ben’s response also places the event within the book’s travel narrative. In a room filled with paintings, statuary, engravings, and objects from China and Japan, the portraits draw his attention from the collection to a shared history connecting England and Holland. The historical pageant is thus encountered through the eyes of a visiting boy: the book turns a remembered royal visit into part of its account of Dutch places, customs, and national character.

Place in the narrative

The visit is a recollected historical episode rather than an event unfolding in the boys’ own travels. Its placement amid their stay with the Van Gends lets local sight-seeing open onto a broader history of Holland. Later, their three-day visit ends with a quiet day of rest; the bells and church-going of that Sunday provide a marked contrast to the earlier picture of crowded streets, skating multitudes, and fireworks on the ice.

Together, the scenes present The Hague as both a lived city and a stage for national memory. The 1691 welcome gathers people from distant towns, turns frozen canals into roads of public allegiance, and shows William’s return as an occasion of shared pride. Its decisive significance lies in the contrast the narrative draws: a ruler may govern kingdoms abroad, yet the country whose welcome he longs for is the one that makes him feel most fully at home.