The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library is hosting a virtual talk on “The Art of Renaissance Warfare” on September 17th. “This public conversation explores how the development of gunpowder, stirrups, and new techniques for polishing armor…
The Dutch Revolt ravaged the Low Countries: pitched battles were fought in the countryside, dozens of towns were besieged, and murderous pillaging plundered the countryside. Use this map to orient yourself to the locations of significant battles, cities, and towns.
Also includes an inset map detailing post-Reformation religion in the northern provinces.
When the government of Emperor Charles V called for all the provinces of the Low Countries to record and publish their regional laws, the newly-formed province of Overijssel was unready to do so. That's when a local lawyer named Melchior Winhoff stepped up.
Thought it would come to be well known as a republic, the statesmen and soldiers that fought to establish an independent Dutch state certainly imagined - at first -that their new country would have a sovereign Prince at its head.
That part of Northwestern Europe forming the deltas and hinterlands of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers has been known by many names. And for many Americans, the term “Low Countries” itself is not well known or understood. This multiplication…
Though the ongoing conflict of the Dutch Revolt disrupted lives and ravaged both the urban center and rural countryside, the lively spirits of Renaissance creativity and Humanist scholarship remained present across the Low Countries.
The Dutch Revolt was not nearly as much an invasion by the Habsburgs as it was at first a civil war between Royalists and a small set of independently-minded provinces and cities. Among those Royalists were the “Malcontents” - former rebels whose Catholic faith brought them back to the king when the Calvinist faction rose in power in cities under rebel control.
The Dutch rebels were able to keep up the fight against the Habsburgs and Royalists in large part due to international support from other Protestant (and moderate Catholic) powers, including the towering historical presence of Elizabeth I of England.
“Do not be troubled, my Lady! These are just a bunch of… beggars.”
The epithet of geuzen (Dutch for “beggar”) was first hurled at noblemen protesting the policies of Philip II, but it quickly became a patriotic, highly political point of pride for the rebels who would fight to form the early Dutch Republic.
