On 23 April 1625, upon the death of his older half-brother Maurice, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (1584-1647), became Captain General of the States Army of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (henceforth: Dutch Republic). Later that year, the new Prince was inaugurated stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland (1 June), Overijssel (6 July), Utrecht (9 July) and Gelderland (November) (Poelhekke, 1978, pp. 78-80, 97-100). Until then, he had kept a low profile in matters of domestic politics, which were severely complicated by religious disputes (Israel, 1990, p. 77). However, as Frederick Henry's military and political power increased, he was all the more pressed to take sides.

All the cities that participated in the Dutch Revolt had converted to Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism that featured the doctrine of predestination, but during the early seventeenth century two incompatible interpretations of Calvin's theology had taken root. The Calvinist orthodox followed the doctrine to the letter, but the Remonstrants had presented a remonstrance to the States of Holland and Friesland in 1610, formulating five points of disagreement with Calvinism. While the orthodox preachers had a large following among the people and the military, especially after stadtholder Maurice sided with them in 1617, the Remonstrants were supported by the higher middle class of merchants and regents, headed by landsadvocaat Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. In 1618, Maurice had Oldenbarnevelt arrested, and during his process the Synod of Dordrecht saw chance to reject the remonstrance (den Tex, 1966, pp. 675-717; van Deursen, 2005, p. 272). Three days after the Synod had ended, on 12 May 1619, Oldenbarnevelt was publicly executed in The Hague, heralding a period of oppression and persecution for the Dutch Remonstrants.

When stadtholder Maurice died, the Remonstrants anticipated legal redress. They attempted to gain Frederick Henry's support, for instance by sending out literary spokesmen to praise him with odes and hymns. Joost van den Vondel was one of them; between 1626 and 1632 he dedicated six long panegyrics to Frederick Henry.1 The first in this series was the Salutation to the Most Illustrious and Noble Prince Frederick Henry (1626), a 260-lines long poem honouring ‘the Inauguration of his Stadtholdership and Governance of Gelderland, Holland, Zeeland, Overyssel, Utrecht etc.’.