Duke, Alastair (2019) Religious Pragmatism and the Ideology of Patriotism. : the contributions of William of Orange to the Revolt of the Netherlands 1568-1576.
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Abstract
An earlier version of this paper was given to the Winchester Historical Association in December 2018. Abstract: When William of Orange became the leader of the Revolt against the regime of Alba in 1568, he faced an uphill struggle. Internationally he was isolated as a political pariah, while he singularly lacked the financial and military resources to resist Philip II’s government in the Low Countries. In a bid to rally both Catholics and Protestants to his cause, he promoted, as best he could, the principle of freedom of conscience. Though contemporary sectarian hatreds often rendered this difficult to realise in practice, his continual efforts to uphold this principle contributed in the long term to the development of the relatively tolerant nature of the United Provinces. For the same reason, Orange and his propagandists tirelessly sought to legitimise their armed struggle as a patriotic war against the Spanish ‘tyrant’. To do so, they forged the concept of the seventeen provinces as a ‘common fatherland’, a notion that had previously evoked little resonance. As a result, Orange has perhaps a better claim than many national leaders to the honorific title of the ‘father of the fatherland’.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Religious Pragmatism, Revolt, Netherlands, Low countries, William of Orange |
| Volume: | 0 |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | University of Groningen |
| Status: | Published |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Religious Pragmatism, Revolt, Netherlands, Low countries, William of Orange |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Jun 2020 10:44 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Jun 2020 10:44 |
| URI: | https://ebooks.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/147 |
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