This article seeks to examine seventeenth-century public diplomacy through the combined lens of print and pageantry. Both are rarely discussed alongside each other in contributions on early modern... Show moreThis article seeks to examine seventeenth-century public diplomacy through the combined lens of print and pageantry. Both are rarely discussed alongside each other in contributions on early modern diplomacy, news media, and correspondence networks. It will be shown that ceremonial rituals and theatrical entertainments were nonetheless oft-discussed subjects in French-language pamphlets of the seventeenth century on diplomatic events, policies, and debates. This study argues that such events could constitute the focus of a pamphlet or surface as an important theme or reference point on the basis of which authors could build arguments, introduce or defend diplomatic agendas, or propose new solutions to a political conflict or dilemma. Pamphlets on the Habsburg-Bourbon marriages of 1614–1615, held at Marsh’s Library in Dublin within the collection of the English theologian and scholar Edward Stillingfleet (1635–1699), and the tour of Marie de Médicis (1575–1642), the exiled Queen Mother of France, across the Low Countries in 1638, kept in the Bibliotheca Thysiana of the Leiden University Library, will be discussed as tools for the public diplomacy of a wide range of transnational stakeholders. Show less
Alphen, Marc van; Hoffenaar, Jan; Lemmers, Alan; Spek, Christiaan van der 2021
In 1667 the Dutch Republic was at the height of its military and mercantile might. A century and a half later, little of that glory remained as Napoleon wiped the country off the political map.... Show moreIn 1667 the Dutch Republic was at the height of its military and mercantile might. A century and a half later, little of that glory remained as Napoleon wiped the country off the political map. Military Power and the Dutch Republic explores the often overlooked role of the military in the Republic’s remarkable economic rise in the seventeenth century and its subsequent fall. It examines the ways in which the Dutch army and navy were organised and financed, the strategies and tactics that were used, and the operations of military leaders on land and sea. It also investigates methods of recruitment, where and how the army and navy found their troops, how those troops were housed and fed, and how they behaved in battle. And it looks at the various kinds of interaction between the many thousands of ordinary soldiers and sailors and the civilian society whose taxes supported them. Show less
In the historiography of the period of Dutch rule in the Cape of Good Hope, from 1652 until 1795, Cape burghers are represented as the perpetual underdogs bristling against the rule of a... Show moreIn the historiography of the period of Dutch rule in the Cape of Good Hope, from 1652 until 1795, Cape burghers are represented as the perpetual underdogs bristling against the rule of a restrictive Dutch East India Company (VOC). But was this relationship really so antagonistic? The author places Cape colonial society in the wider context of the Dutch Republic and, in doing so, compares the political structures, institutions and dynamics of the Republic and its overseas settlement. He shows that Cape residents in the middle and upper layers of society took their cues from the Dutch political world and that connections between Company administrators and burghers were fashioned in much the same way as regent families in the Dutch Republic formed political factions. Cape burghers were, in fact, able to influence policies in their favour by using the means open to them within the Dutch tradition of politics. The author offers new evidence, new interpretations and a new narrative about well-known events in Cape history, based on an exploration of where the burghers came from, what their position was, and how the Cape political world operated. The picture that emerges is not a conflict between burghers and government per se but rather a fight for power between factions, consisting of both VOC officials and burghers, within the ruling elite. Show less
This dissertation focused on the prolific early European trade and consumption of three Asian manufactured goods: Chinese silk and porcelain, and Japanese lacquer in the sixteenth and early... Show moreThis dissertation focused on the prolific early European trade and consumption of three Asian manufactured goods: Chinese silk and porcelain, and Japanese lacquer in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and has shown how the material cultures of late Ming China and Momoyama/early Edo Japan became inextricably linked with the West. Multiple sources provided new and unexpected documentary and material evidence of this trade by the Iberian Kingdoms of Portugal and Spain, and the trading companies formed in the Northern Netherlands/Dutch Republic and England. They also informed us about the commercial networks through which these Asian goods circulated, and the way in which they were acquired, used and appreciated in the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English societies in Western Europe, and in the multi-ethnic societies of the colonies in the New World. Some new finds relate to the use of porcelain in Western Europe in the sixteenth century, the terminology employed in northwestern Europe to refer to Kraak porcelain, and the Japanese lacquer objects made in European shapes for the Dutch and English trading companies earlier than in Chinese porcelain. This study provides a better understanding of the intercultural exchanges that occurred between the East and West at the time. Show less
Deze dissertatie brengt de werkwijze in kaart van de Delftse bestuurscolleges, eind zeventiende eeuw. Dat waren er drie: - De vier burgemeesters vormden het dagelijks bestuur: zij beslisten over... Show moreDeze dissertatie brengt de werkwijze in kaart van de Delftse bestuurscolleges, eind zeventiende eeuw. Dat waren er drie: - De vier burgemeesters vormden het dagelijks bestuur: zij beslisten over alle uitgaven van de stad, deden veel benoemingen en onderhielden contacten met bijvoorbeeld andere steden en het landsbestuur. - Het college van schout, burgemeesters en schepenen, oftewel de heren van de wet, stelde de wetten en regels vast in Delft, en besloot ook over de toepassing ervan. Grofweg de helft van de onderwerpen die bij de heren van de wet ter tafel kwamen, waren aangedragen door de stadsbewoners in de vorm verzoekschriften. - De veertigraad bemoeide zich vooral met het bestuur van heel Holland; de stad had daarin ook daadwerkelijk een stem. Daarnaast had de raad een belangrijke rol bij de jaarlijkse verkiezing van de heren van de wet, evenals van andere bestuurders. Vaak deden de Delftse stadsbestuurders onderzoek voordat zij een besluit namen. Zij informeerden bij betrokkenen, onderzochten hoe hun voorgangers in vergelijkbare gevallen hadden besloten of welke regels andere steden op hetzelfde punt hadden ingesteld. Als het onderwerp ingewikkeld was, benoemden zij een commissie om het onderzoek uit te voeren. seventeenth century, Dutch Republic, City government, magistracy, burgomasters, city council, council of forty, petition, committee, policy Show less
‘Eendracht maakt macht’, was het devies van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden. Die eendracht, onmisbaar in de geldverslindende strijd tegen Spanje, was niet altijd vanzelfsprekend. Dat... Show more‘Eendracht maakt macht’, was het devies van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden. Die eendracht, onmisbaar in de geldverslindende strijd tegen Spanje, was niet altijd vanzelfsprekend. Dat blijkt uit de rol die Friesland in de eerste decennia van de zeventiende eeuw in het bondgenootschap speelde. Met de Opstand was de Friese Vrijheid herwonnen, vonden de Friezen, en daarom stelden zij hun eigen belangen boven die van de Republiek als geheel. Naast onwil was ook sprake van onmacht, want in geen enkel gewest was de macht zo versnipperd als in Friesland en waren de regenten zo besluiteloos, zeker op het terrein van belastingheffing. Gevolg was dat de bedragen die Friesland schuldig was aan de oorlogskas van de Republiek onaanvaardbaar groot werden. In een ultieme poging het weerspannige gewest tot de orde te roepen stuurden de Staten-Generaal in 1635 de Raad van State naar Leeuwarden. Anderhalf jaar lang heeft de Raad met fluwelen handschoen met daarin een ijzeren vuist geprobeerd de Friezen tot betaling te dwingen. Bestuurlijke hervormingen moesten de losgeslagen politieke cultuur beteugelen om ook in de toekomst werkbare verhoudingen tussen Friesland en zijn bondgenoten te scheppen. Show less
Following the execution of Charles I (1649), the Dutch Republic witnessed an unprecedented output of publications in support of the Stuart monarchy in Britain. Throughout the 1650s, the Stuart... Show moreFollowing the execution of Charles I (1649), the Dutch Republic witnessed an unprecedented output of publications in support of the Stuart monarchy in Britain. Throughout the 1650s, the Stuart cause retained a central position in Dutch political debate. Dutch opinion makers from various ideological backgrounds conspired to create a heterogeneous corpus of texts lamenting the martyred king and extolling his son. Publications questioning this enthusiasm for the English monarchy were extremely rare. Judged by printed publications, the Dutch Republic was a royalist republic in the 1650s. Dutch royalism had various problematic political and religious implications. Why was the royalist cause treated with so much sympathy in a Protestant Republic that was very much akin to the English Republic? Were the Dutch still under the spell of a monarchic culture? Was royalism the result of propaganda campaigns? Answering these and related questions, this study transforms our understanding of early modern British and Dutch political culture by arguing that British and Dutch political discourses were very much intertwined. Show less
This study discusses church interiors painted in the Dutch Republic. With a focus on the social and religious backgrounds of the city of Delft, it argues that these works of art have functioned as... Show moreThis study discusses church interiors painted in the Dutch Republic. With a focus on the social and religious backgrounds of the city of Delft, it argues that these works of art have functioned as arguments within the confessional discourse. By developing innovative ways of depicting, or by maintaining these schemes, the painters visualized alternative concepts of ‘ecclesia’ Show less
This case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic... Show moreThis case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic in the second half of the eighteenth century. It focuses on the questions why and how the tea trade was taken out of the hands of the High Government in Batavia in 1757 and put under the supervision of the newly established China Committee in Amsterdam, and explains in detail what factors contributed to the phenomenal rise of this trade and its sudden decline in the 1780s. Show less
