The death of William the Silent, before he had been invested with the sovereign power of all seven provinces, again left that sovereignty in abeyance.

Was the supreme power of the Union, created at Utrecht in 1579, vested in the States-General?
They were beginning theoretically to claim it, but Barneveld denied the existence of any such power either in law or fact.

It was a league of sovereignties, he maintained; a confederacy of seven independent states, united for certain purposes by a treaty made some thirty years before.
Nothing could be more imbecile, judging by the light of subsequent events and the experience of centuries, than such an organization.

The independent and sovereign republic of Zealand or of Groningen, for example, would have made a poor figure campaigning, or negotiating, or exhibiting itself on its own account before the world.

Yet it was difficult to show any charter, precedent, or prescription for the sovereignty of the States-General.