The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 07: 1561-62

Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2

Word count: 103K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 07: 1561-62 by John Lothrop MotleyAuthor: Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877,Language: English, Class: DH: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

Volume 7 continues from the previous volume, covering 1561–1562, as religious and political tensions in the Netherlands continued to accumulate. Motley here continues his chronicle narrative, unfolding layer by layer the interactions among the local nobility, Calvinist forces, and the Spanish rulers, setting the background for the outbreak of later conflict. The reading value of this volume lies in its high density of detail, which helps readers understand how the crisis was gradually generated by concrete personal and institutional friction rather than arriving suddenly. The author's nineteenth-century eloquent style makes the narrative readable but also carries clear moral tendencies and period limitations. As one volume of a multi-volume work, it is better suited to continuous reading than to isolated browsing. Readers are advised to use a timeline as the skeleton, together with maps and a list of figures, tracking separately the three threads of religious policy, local privileges, and royal finance, and then observing where they intersect.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers reading Motley's multi-volume history of the Netherlands continuously
Readers interested in the interaction of religion and politics in the Netherlands in the 1560s
Advanced readers capable of reading English historical works in the original
History students who need original narrative sources for papers

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking an overview of Dutch Republic history
Readers who prefer concise modern narrative and have little patience for long sentences and archaic prose
Complete beginners unfamiliar with the sixteenth-century European background

Reading tips

Read in comparison with the previous Volume 6, noting the continuity of threads from 1560 to 1562.
Create figure cards recording changes in relations among nobles, clergy, and royal representatives.
Take notes in separate columns for the three threads of religious policy, local privileges, and finance.
After finishing, write a one-page summary of the causes of the crisis in your own words to test your understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How does this volume connect with Volume 6?

This volume covers 1561–1562 and immediately follows Volume 6's 1560–1561. Together the two volumes lay out the accumulation of the Netherlandish crisis, with figures and events continuing from one to the other. If you read this volume first, some disputes may seem to arise abruptly; reading in volume order is recommended.

Does the book contain the author's personal evaluations?

Yes. Motley was a nineteenth-century historian whose narrative often carries clear moral judgments and stance tendencies, with much praise and blame for religious and political figures. Readers may regard this as an expression of the historiographical style of his time while checking modern research to avoid treating the book's evaluations as the only conclusion.

Is the electronic edition convenient for searching and note-taking?

According to the information provided, this is an eBook released by Project Gutenberg, usually available in formats such as plain text, convenient for keyword searching and copying excerpts. The specific format depends on the version actually downloaded. When taking notes, you can build your own index of figures and events to compensate for the fragmentary feel of reading separate volumes.

Is it suitable for history students to cite in papers?

It can serve as a reference for nineteenth-century historiographical narrative and the organization of sources, but it should not be the sole basis. When citing, note the author's period stance and narrative tendencies and check against modern scholarship. For discussing historiography or classic narrative, this volume has reference value.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877 Author

John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877) was an American historian and diplomat, known for his historical works on Dutch independence and the Dutch Revolt. His major work, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, narrates in detail how the Dutch provinces threw off Spanish rule and established a republican government, combining rigorous scholarship with a strong narrative drive. His History of the United Netherlands continues the account of political and military developments from the death of William the Silent to the end of the sixteenth century. The collection here contains 103 of his works, mostly different volumes and editions of these general histories. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted; his works show a respect for primary sources and a talent for portraying major historical turning points, and they have had a lasting influence on the study of Dutch history in the English-speaking world.