K. W. Swart, William of Orange and the Revolt of the Netherlands,
1572-84, ed. R. P. Fagel, M. E. H. N. Mout and H. F. K. van Nierop,
trans. J. C. Grayson, St Andrews Studies in Reformation History
(Aldershot and Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2003), 280 pp., ISBN 0 7546
3224 5
The bulk of this collection consists of an account of William the Silent’s final
years, left behind in a state of near-completion when K. W. Swart died in
1992. This should have formed part of a full biography, but the early life
remained a fragment. Partly as a tribute, but mainly for its intrinsic merits,
pupils and colleagues decided to prepare the manuscript for posthumous
publication. The bulk of the (meticulous) editorial work fell to R. P. Fagel and
J. C. Grayson provided a good English translation.
Swart obtained the Chair of Dutch History at University College,
London, in 1967 without a notable track record in the field (Jonathan I. Israel,
‘His Career as a Historian’, p. 2)! Thereafter, however, he distinguished
himself through critical examinations of early modern myths, e.g. with regard
to the Spanish ‘Black Legend’ or the protagonists of the ‘Dutch Golden Age’.
Rather than glorifying the first hereditary stadholder of the United Provinces, as
many sources and scholarly works tended to do, Swart set out to assess
William’s achievements in a more balanced fashion. Born in Nassau and raised
at Charles V’s court in the Netherlands, Orange became alienated by the
ruthless religious persecution and marginalization of ‘local’ interests under
Spanish rule (Alastair Duke, ‘Koenraad Swart’s Interpretation of William of
Orange, 1533-72’, pp. 8-25). Following periods of loyal service and peaceful
resistance, William finally took arms in 1568, after Philip II had seized his
possessions. Partly through skilful manipulation of popular opinion
(pamphlets), Orange became the chief champion of the rebels’ cause.
At this point, Swart’s own account takes over. The changing fortunes
of the early Dutch revolt are traced in a detailed chronology, but without a
conclusion. William appears as an indispensable figurehead and a steadfast
campaigner for religious freedom and greater powers for the States-General.
Strikingly for a high nobleman, he emphasized the need for broad decisionmaking and consent. ‘What mattered above all in politics, he argued [in 1577],
was to satisfy the people’ (p. 123). His religious convictions remain ambiguous
and are perhaps best described as ‘ecumenical rather than Calvinist’ (p. 40).
Swart is critical, too, e.g. when he censures the prince for fostering antiCatholic sentiment (through confiscations of ecclesiastical property), modest
military skills and occasional opportunism, not least with regard to
representative assemblies, whose particularism William resented.
Swart’s opus magnum is billed as ‘the most fundamental revisionist
[account] on William the Silent to have appeared for over a century’ (p. 7).
This may well be true, but it is also a highly conventional political biography.
There is little evidence here of an alleged ‘opposition to the
compartmentalization of historical studies’ (p. 6), as the wider economic and
cultural background is largely absent. The author appears as an omniscient
commentator, who classifies protagonists into zealots, defeatists or
inspirational characters. William of Orange will be an important resource for
specialists in the field, but cannot hide the fact that it was conceived and
written some decades ago.
Dr Beat Kümin, University of Warwick