The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 04: 1555-59
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 04: 1555-59
1555 marked the beginning of the end for the Spanish Netherlands. When Philip II inherited the richest empire in the world, he brought with him a foreigner's suspicion and a tyrant's inflexibility, and the Netherlands would never be the same. This fourth volume of Motley's indispensable history traces the crucial years when the seeds of the Dutch Revolt were planted, examining Philip's fateful marriage to Mary Tudor, his growing reliance on the ruthless Duke of Alva, and the fatal fractures within his own court between rivals Ruy Gomez and Alva. We witness the moment when religious tolerance collapsed, when Dutch nobles like Count Egmont found themselves trapped between conscience and crown, and when a prosperous civilization began its slow slide toward war. Motley's 19th-century prose crackles with drama, he was writing history as literature, and it shows. For readers who believe the past is prologue, this is essential: the story of how one man's bad decisions created a nation.
