The founding of the Dutch Republic : war, finance, and politics in Holland, 1572-1588
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Bibliographic Information
The founding of the Dutch Republic : war, finance, and politics in Holland, 1572-1588
Oxford University Press, 2008
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-331) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In 1572, towns in the province of Holland, led by William of Orange, rebelled against the government of the Habsburg Netherlands. The story of the Dutch Revolt is usually told in terms of fractious provinces that frustrated Orange's efforts to formulate a coherent programme. In this book James D. Tracy argues that there was a coherent strategy for the war, but that it was set by the towns of Holland. Although the States of Holland were in theory subject to
the States General, Holland provided over 60 per cent of the taxes and an even larger share of war loans. Accordingly, funds were directed to securing Holland's borders, and subsequently to extending this protected frontier to neighbouring provinces.
Shielded from the war by its cordon sanitaire, Holland experienced an extraordinary economic boom, allowing taxes and loans to keep flowing. The goal - in sight if not achieved by 1588 - was a United Provinces of the north, free and separate from provinces in the southern Netherlands that remained under Spanish rule. With Europe increasingly under the sway of strong hereditary princes, the new Dutch Republic was a beacon of promise for those who still believed that citizens ought to
rule themselves.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- PART I: THE HABSBURG NETHERLANDS, 1549 - 1567
- Prologue to Part I: Prince Philip's Tour of the Low Countries, 1549
- 1. The Habsburg-Valois School of War
- 2. War Finance and Fiscal Devolution
- 3. Holland as a Body Politic, I: The Habsburg Era, to 1567
- PART II: WAR IN HOLLAND, OCTOBER 1572 - JULY 1576
- Prologue to Part II: Repression, Rebellion, and Revolt, 1567 - 1572
- 4. Toward a Workable Strategy for Defensive Warfare
- 5. The New Fiscal Regime
- 6. Holland's Rulers: the Urban Oligarchies
- PART III: HOLLAND AND THE 'CLOSER UNION,' TO 1582
- Prologue to Part III: The States General at War with Spain
- 7. Holland's Garden
- 8. Paying for an Ever More Expensive War
- 9. Holland as a Body Politic, II: Seeds of Discord
- PART IV: A NEW REPUBLIC, 1583 - 1588
- Prologue to Part IV: Parma's Offensive, 1583 - 1588
- 10. The Securing of Holland's Forward Frontier, 1583 - 1588
- 11. Holland's Pyramid of Credit
- 12. Partisan Strife, 1583 - 1588: Holland and its Critics
- Epilogue: The Dutch Republic in the European Republican Tradition
- Abbreviations and Bibliography
by "Nielsen BookData"
