Bestandstwisten

This paper discusses the intended argument and conceptual backgrounds of two satirical engravings published during the Truce Conflicts in the Dutch Republic (ca. 1611-1621), with a special focus on the use of fish imagery and its political implications.

This article focuses on the close relationship between the university of Leiden (founded in 1575) and the government of the province of Holland, especially in the first few decades years after the university’s foundation.  Over and above these very close connections (which are well known), this paper argues that in its very early years the university of Leiden might in some aspects be seen as a kind of court near the seat of the government, especially with respect to ‘cultural’, ‘networking’ and ‘patronage’ functions fulfilled by royal courts elsewhere, at a time when these were less available at the seat of Holland’s de facto government itself.

This article discusses the role of the imitation of Tacitus in Grotius' Annales et
Historiae de rebus Belgics (AH) and its implications, in order to understand the use of
the Tacitist style to construct the political purport of the work. After a discussion of
Grotius' vision of himself as a Tacitist statesman-historian, after the example of De
Thou, and an analysis of the roles of Tacitism and of Reason of State in the AH, an
hypothesis is formulated on the reasons why the AH was not published by the States
of Holland when the work was first completed in 1612.

This article analyses the political content of the drama Baeto by P.C. Hooft in the context of Hooft's time. Thus far, most of the secondary literature has interpreted Baeto as an expression of either more monarchical or more ‘aristocratic’ political sympathies. This article examines both these sides of Baeto and concludes that both political theories are crucial to the play. Therefore, we suggest that Hooft meant to propose a ‘middle road’ as a solution for the political problems of the Twelve Years Truce. This investigation also necessitates a closer look at the relationship between Baeto and the moral and political ideas of Justus Lipsius and, most importantly, a re-examination of the relationship between Baeto and Grotius' De Antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae.

This article discusses the role of the imitation of Tacitus in Grotius' Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgics (AH) and its implications, in order to understand the use of the Tacitist style to construct the political purport of the work. After a discussion of Grotius' vision of himself as a Tacitist statesman-historian, after the example of De Thou, and an analysis of the roles of Tacitism and of Reason of State in the AH, an hypothesis is formulated on the reasons why the AH was not published by the States of Holland when the work was first completed in 1612.
Dit artikel bespreekt de rol van de navolging van Tacitus in Hugo de Groots Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgics en de implicaties daarvan, om het gebruik van de Taciteïsche stijl voor de opbouw van de politieke strekking van het werk te
begrijpen. Na een bespreking van De Groots ideaal van zichzelf als een Taciteïsche staatsman-historicus naar het voorbeeld van De Thou, en een analyse van de rollen van Tacitisme en raison d'état in het werk, wordt een hypothese geformuleerd over de redenen waarom de Staten van Holland het werk niet publiceerden toen het voor de eerste maal werd voltooid in 1612.

In 1721 voltooide Abraham van der Eyck een variant van de zogenaamde weegschaal, een bekende prent uit de periode van de Bestandstwisten (1609-1621). Aan de hand van het schilderij van Van der Eyck zoomt dit artikel in op de omgang met en de herinnering aan de Bestandstwisten, in het bijzonder de terechtstelling van Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, een eeuw na dato.

The early life and work of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) provides an excellent demonstration of the close relations that existed—at least in the province of Holland—at the beginning of the seventeenth century between power and governance on the one hand and education, scholarship and science on the other. After introducing the period of the Truce controversies, Leiden University as a centre of knowledge near the government, and Hugo Grotius himself, this article looks at Grotius’s scholarly involvement in government and politics, with a special focus on the way he operates as the learned spokesman for the States of Holland in his "Annales et historiae de rebus Belgicis' (Grotius' history of the Dutch Revolt up to 1609). Here Grotius appears as a statesman and scholar (historian) combined, and thus gives an unusual and intriguing response to the acute questions of his time with respect to the ways and means to keep the state together, and the preservation of state power.