Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt was politically inclined toward Prussia, yet his "initiative" stated that if the Southern Netherlands insisted on breaking away from Austrian rule, they must elect a King to govern the Southern Netherlands. Otherwise, the States-General of the Netherlands should not be recognized by any monarch.
The initiative had already received responses from ten countries including Spain, France, Bavaria, and Mainz.
What surprised the Marquess of Wellesley most was that Austria was also among the signatories of the initiative.
However, he quickly understood the implications: the Austrians signed "the States-General of the Netherlands should not be recognized by any monarch," convinced that the Southern Netherlands would not accept electing a king—after all, the States-General was now controlled by Vandernoot and the party of Liberals, and asking them to elect their own king would be harder than getting them to mount the scaffold.
