The Dutch revolt against Spanish rule in the sixteenth century was a formative event in European history. The Origins and Development of the Dutch Revolt brings together in one volume the latest scholarship from leading experts in the field, to illuminate why the Dutch revolted, the way events unfolded and how they gained independence. In exploring the desire of the Dutch to control their own affairs, it also questions whether Dutch identity came about by accident. The book makes the most recent research available in English for the first time, focusing on: * the role of the aristocracy * religion * the towns and provinces * the Spanish perspective * finance and ideology.

The Dutch Revolt 1559-1648 begins by illustrating the historical background and causes of the revolt. This is followed by chronological sections devoted to each phase of the revolt and an assesment section that takes a more thematic approach, looking at the military, economic, political and constitutional issues.

This book offers a comprehensive yet compact history of this surprisingly little-known but fascinating country, from pre-history to the present.

This book explores the reception of foreign news during the Dutch Revolt and the French Wars of Religion, shedding new light on the connections between these conflicts and demonstrating the emergence of critical news audiences.

England's response to the Revolt of the Netherlands (1568–1648) has been studied hitherto mainly in terms of government policy, yet the Dutch struggle with Habsburg Spain affected a much wider community than just the English political elite. It attracted attention across Britain and drew not just statesmen and diplomats but also soldiers, merchants, religious refugees, journalists, travellers and students into the conflict. Hugh Dunthorne draws on pamphlet literature to reveal how British contemporaries viewed the progress of their near neighbours' rebellion, and assesses the lasting impact which the Revolt and the rise of the Dutch Republic had on Britain's domestic history. The book explores affinities between the Dutch Revolt and the British civil wars of the seventeenth century - the first major challenges to royal authority in modern times - showing how much Britain's changing commercial, religious and political culture owed to the country's involvement with events across the North Sea.

The first scholarly biography of William the Silent published in English for fifty years, William of Orange and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1572-1584 is invaluable for providing an up-to-date assessment of William and the revolt of the Netherlands. Despite the European significance of his struggle, there has not been a major English language study of William since C.V. Wedgwood's biography published in 1944. As such scholars will welcome this publication of Koen Swart's distinguished and authoritative biography of the first of the hereditary stadholders of the United Provinces. Originally available only in Dutch, this edition provides an English speaking audience for the first time with a detailed account of William's role in the Dutch Revolt reflecting the vast amount of scholarship undertaken in the field of European political and religious history over the last few decades.

Dagomar Degroot offers the first detailed analysis of how a society thrived amid the Little Ice Age, a period of climatic cooling that reached its chilliest point between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The precocious economy, unusual environment, and dynamic intellectual culture of the Dutch Republic in its seventeenth-century Golden Age allowed it to thrive as neighboring societies unraveled in the face of extremes in temperature and precipitation. By tracing the occasionally counterintuitive manifestations of climate change from global to local scales, Degroot finds that the Little Ice Age presented not only challenges for Dutch citizens but also opportunities that they aggressively exploited in conducting commerce, waging war, and creating culture. The overall success of their Republic in coping with climate change offers lessons that we would be wise to heed today, as we confront the growing crisis of global warming.