Treason in the Northern Quarter : war, terror, and the rule of law in the Dutch revolt / Henk van Nierop ; translated by J.C. Grayson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nierop, Henk F. K. van.

Standardized Title:

Verraad van het Noorderkwartier. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church history--16th century.

Church history.

Netherlands--History--Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648.

Netherlands.

Netherlands--Church history--17th century.

Fryslân (Netherlands)--History.

Fryslân (Netherlands).

Catholic Church--Netherlands--History--16th century.

Catholic Church.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 pages)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the spring of 1575, Holland's Northern Quarter--the waterlogged peninsula stretching from Amsterdam to the North Sea--was threatened with imminent invasion by the Spanish army. Since the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt a few years earlier, the Spanish had repeatedly failed to expel the rebels under William of Orange from this remote region, and now there were rumors that the war-weary population harbored traitors conspiring to help the Spanish invade. In response, rebel leaders arrested a number of vagrants and peasants, put them on the rack, and brutally tortured them until they confessed and named their principals--a witch-hunt that eventually led to a young Catholic lawyer named Jan Jeroenszoon. Treason in the Northern Quarter tells how Jan Jeroenszoon, through great personal courage and faith in the rule of law, managed to survive gruesome torture and vindicate himself by successfully arguing at trial that the authorities remained subject to the law even in times of war. Henk van Nierop uses Jan Jeroenszoon's exceptional story to give the first account of the Dutch Revolt from the point of view of its ordinary victims--town burghers, fugitive Catholic clergy, peasants, and vagabonds. For them the Dutch Revolt was not a heroic struggle for national liberation but an ordinary dirty war, something to be survived, not won. An enthralling account of an unsuspected story with surprising modern resonance, Treason in the Northern Quarter presents a new image of the Dutch Revolt, one that will fascinate anyone interested in the nature of revolution and civil war or the fate of law during wartime.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Chapter One. Introduction

Chapter Two. The Northland

Chapter Three. E Believers

Chapter Four. Revolt

Chapter Five. War

Chapter Six.Treason

Chapter Seven. Vagabonds

Chapter Eight. Peasants

Chapter Nine. Citizens

Chapter Ten. Law against Terror

Chapter Eleven. Jan Jeroenszoon Again

Chapter Twelve. Historiography and Propaganda

Chapter Thirteen. Conclusion

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index of Persons

Index of Places

Notes:

Translated from the Dutch.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612458613

9781282458611

1282458612

9781400832002

1400832004

OCLC:

609855946