Information
KEY TEXTS OF DUTCH REVOLT & HOUSE OF ORANGE, WITH NEW APPENDIX
WILLIAM THE SILENT (WILLEM DE ZWEIGER). Apologie, ofte Verantwoordinge des Doorluchtigen ende Hoogh-geboren Vorsts ende Heers, Wilhelm, van Gods genade Prince van Orangien, ...
Leiden, Cornelis Banheyningh, 1652. 12mo. The first Prince of Orange's key 1581 defence against King Philip of Spain's 1580 ban against him (included as an appendix in Dutch translation, along with the States of Holland's order to grant William the title Count of Holland). With 6 decorated woodcut initials and decorations built-up from cast fleurons. Contemporary sheep-skin parchment.
| Orders and Information | € 1500 |
A spirited defence by William the Silent, first Prince of Orange, against the accusations in the King of Spain's ban pronounced against him on 15 March 1580, with appendices giving a Dutch translation of the ban itself and (new to the present edition) the annotated text of the States of Holland's order to grant William the title Count of Holland, a plan thwarted by his murder on 10 July 1584, a few days before it was to be formalized. The preliminaries provide the texts of William's 1580 letters to King Philip and to the Dutch States General assembly and the latter's reply.
William first presented his defence to the States General in December 1580 and published it in 1581. This signalled the definitive break between Spain and the Dutch Republic and became a rallying point for the Dutch Revolt. Though reprinted several times up to the Twelve Years' Truce (1609), the present edition appears to be the first since 1609, and the first to include the appendix on William's intended creation as Count of Holland (the Dutch had renounced King Philip's claim to that title in the year William published his defence). This appendix is based on Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's 1642 Neederlandsche Histoorien. William's son Willem II died on 6 November 1650, and his son William III was born eight days later, giving supporters of the House of Orange new hope for the future. In this context, two years after the Peace of Münster ended the Eighty Years' War and secured the Dutch Republic's independence, the seventy-year-old defence penned by the father of the country was a topical political document, and the book clearly aimed to promote William's stature as a Dutch folk hero.
In very good condition and including the blank leaf following the title-page, usually cancelled. Key documents in the history of the Netherlands and the House of Orange.
