Ultimately, in spite of some ostentatious preparations in France, peaceful counsels prevailed, and Thiers found it advisable to retire in favour of Guizot.
In Holland, William I.( then sixty-seven) abdicated in favour of his son, the Prince of Orange (William II.).

The need of a younger and firmer ruler was the reason officially stated in the Royal Proclamation.

The real reasons were probably the King's attachment to the Roman Catholic Countess d'Oultremont, whom he now privately married, and the humiliation he felt at the unfavourable termination of the Belgian dispute..