Review Summaries

• Readers value the book for its clear structure and its vivid portrait of the central figure. Some note that it reflects older scholarship, but many still praise its narrative drive and the way it clarifies the larger political drama.

Reviews

• kenntnisreiche Biographie eines zu Unrecht wenig bekannten Giganten der europäischen Politik der frühen Neuzeit. sehr günstiger Preis.

• C. V. Wedgwood, William of Nassau — Prince of Orange, 1533-1584 (1944, ebook Reprint (2017) under imprint of Papamoa Press, „Borodino Books“) Ms. Wedgwood shares a grand strategic vision of a rare statesman, William the Silent, who attempted to unite Benelux into The Netherlands, against the cruel dictatorship of Philip II — who had overwhelming naval and military forces. William persevered with unity of purpose — to unite very diverse classes and religions and economic strands into one fabric of a single Nation. Ms. Wedgwood pits the cruel Inquisition — practicing refined torture upon suspected heretics or the ambitious, but supported by the militarily strong monarchy of Philip II — against the valiant William who united the most improbable and stubborn of loose allies to fight exhausting wars at enormous human sacrifice. Ms. Wedgwood paints a compelling picture of the rescue of Leiden from Spanish oppressors who invaded with crushing force. William worked democratically with a hopelessly tangled web of bureaucratic local powers to form unity of purpose for a historically heroic sacrifice. The merchants and tradesmen of Leiden desperately agreed, under William‘s leadership, to do the unthinkable. For Freedom, these heroic peoples, under this historic Statesman, committed themselves to ultimate sacrifice. Burst the dykes; flood the plains (with untold losses); enable William to achieve decisive naval advantage over the oppressive foe. Indeed, William, in Ms. Wedgwood‘s narrative, is the Father of the great Navy of The Netherlands, having converted an improbable gaggle of pirates into a naval fleet. Ms. Wedgwood makes the reader see clearly the great odds stacked against William at every stage of his hard fought career as a statesman. William sought allies from indifferent German provincials, self-seeking Princes of Anjou, the noncommittal English, and ultimately even constructing an improbable Navy from undisciplined pirates. The foe was united under a religious and cruel zealot in Philip II, whose considerable naval and military might, thankfully, was weakened by long supply lines (for the distance to the Spanish throne was immense) and military officers who were distracted by their zeal. The peoples that William sought to unite were valiant, industrious and highly skilled. The Protestant North (Utrecht, Zeeland, Holland, Friesland ...) and the Catholic South (Brabant, Flanders, Wallonia ...) were initially moderate in religion and joyful in life, but increasingly each of the two came under religious and political influences that worked hopelessly as countervailing forces to William‘s valiant attempts to unite these peoples into one Nation. William was an extremely insightful statesman who earned long-term love and loyalty of the most improbably diverse and opposing peoples, and who against all odds patched together alliances that could have united into one United Netherlands, maybe, oh maybe, after thirty years of struggle, but for a second assassination attempt on his life that cut his life short in 1584 at the age of 52, when against all odds our Statesman was still vigorous and youthful. William had a humane and generous heart, and always tempered justice with mercy. William was that unusual and great Statesman who tried to effect the good of his own people, even if he had to take it out of his own hide. William worked with the most stubborn of local bureaucrats to obtain consent of his subjects for all decisions. William urged the cause of his peoples to the noble courts of natural allies among the Protestants in Germany, France and the great Elizabeth, but the just cause of his diverse Lowlands peoples were remote to these indifferent sympathizers. So, William ended up improbably holding off an overwhelming and crushing foe for decades by dint of local resources and exhaustive leadership. Our author is C.V. Wedgwood (Cicely Veronica — she went by „Veronica“), who used her initials to gain currency for her great historical works among a patriarchal (if not misogynistic) guild of English historians of the 1930s and beyond. Ms. Wedgwood earned her doctorate at Oxford under distinguished scholars, specializing in Wars of the Reformation of the 16th and 17th Centuries. No less a scholar than A.L. Rowse promoted Ms. Wedgwood’s works. Historical scholars quibble that Ms. Wedgwood’s work is, well, too readable, I guess. But in the 1970s and later, there emerged English professional historians whose passion for their field had been awakened at the tender age of, say, 16, by reading Wedgwood’s works on the British Civil Wars (pitting King Charles I and Parliament against each other), a three volume work, for which Ms. Wedgwood not only consulted the trove of primary sources, but who personally went to each battlefield site in the United Kingdom to reconstruct point by point on the site how the battle had unfolded. Ms Wedgwood is a compelling historian.

• An excellent, easy to read, entertaining history of the start of the Revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule in the 16th Century and its leader, William the Silent. Of general interest in that it goes some way to explaining why Catholic Spain, ie Philip II, (and, to a lesser extent then, but of much graver importance later, France, ie Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte), were "The Enemy" for around three hundred years and had to be beaten.

• Mooi tijdsbeeld en goede karakterschets. Misschien iets te positief maar al met al goed leesbaar. De stijl van de schrijfster is levendig en hoewel het boek 75 jaar oud is doet het niet verouderd aan.

• Enjoyed that sophisticated telling of the life of a great man who believed in his destiny and realized it through his followers decades after his death. Highly recommended for history buffs who are ready to expand their vocabluary.

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