Conflicting Words

The Peace Treaty of Münster (1648) and the Political Culture of the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Monarchy

Häftad, Engelska, 2011

AvLaura Manzano Baena,Laura Manzano Baena

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The Peace of Münster, signed between the Catholic Monarchy and the United Provinces in 1648, went against the political culture of both polities. The fact that the Spanish Monarchy definitively accepted the independence of its former subjects clearly negated the policy put forward by the Monarchy during the ‘eighty' years that the war lasted and to the Monarchy's declared main goals. For the United Provinces, signing a peace with the archenemy without having brought liberty and religious freedom to ten of the seventeen provinces that formed part of the ancient Burgundian circle was also considered by important groups in the ‘rebel' provinces as a defection. Portraying the political culture of both the Catholic Monarchy and the United Provinces, this work analyses the views held in both territories concerning the points which were discussed in pamphlets and treatises published during the peace negotiations. It also traces the origin of the arguments presented, showing how they were transformed during the period under study, and discusses their influence, or presence, in the diplomatic negotiations among the ambassadors of the United Provinces and the Catholic Monarchy in the German town of Münster. These discussions are inserted in the wider framework of a Christian realm that had to reassess its own values as a consequence of the confessionalisation process and the Thirty Years' War, which affected not only the Empire but, in one way or another, all Central and Western Europe. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2011-05-12
Mått170 x 244 x undefined mm
Vikt907 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieAvisos de Flandes
Antal sidor286
FörlagLeuven University Press
ISBN9789058678676

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Socialhistoria och kulturhistoria inom Historia och arkeologi

AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. RebelsConfronting rebellionReligion and revolt: The United ProvincesThe Spanish attitude towards rebellion. 'No reason to revolt': Privileges and rebellion. Sacrilege and rebellion. Negotiating with rebels in an international setting:From Cologne to MünsterChapter 2. TyrantsTyranny's two faces and the problem of tyrannicideFighting usurpers: Defining the tyrant in the Spanish Monarchy. The usurper's unjust rule. Distinguishing between impious tyrants and misguided rulersDefying tyrannical rule in the Low Countries and Catalonia. The tyrant's intolerable behaviour. Trusting the tyrant's word: The Dutch road to MünsterChapter 3. AuthoritySources, extension and limits to kingly power in the Spanish Monarchy. The power of kings. The morals of powerRefashioning authority in the United Provinces. Defining political authority. The peace negotiations with the Spanish Monarchy as a catalyst for internal strifeChapter 4. Negotiating sovereigntyHispanic attempts at a protectorate over the United Provinces (1628-1632)Relinquishing sovereignty: The Treaty of Munster (1648). The incomplete Republic. A patrimonial concept of sovereigntyTransferring the rights over the Low Countries. Negotiating spiritual sovereigntyMonarchia in EcclesiaThe Dutch Republic and the problem of spiritual sovereignty 192Chapter 5. Negotiating religious coexistence and tolerationThe politics of confessionalization. The Spanish Monarchy and its confessional reason of state. From the 'Arminian troubles' to William ii's stadholderate: Religious allegiances and politics in the United ProvincesReligious tolerance and confessional coexistence. Tolerance as (the lesser) evil. Dutch tolerance and its limitsThe Dutch Republic and its Catholic subjects: negotiating coexistence in Den BoschChapter 6. An invalid conclusion or a peace not meant to last (but which did)BibliographyIndex

'Conflicting Words' is and is not a work of political history, intellectual history, or cultural history. It also is and is not a comparative history. Most of the text covers the ideological disputes between the Spanish and the Dutch, but the culminating event—namely, the peace treaty—envelops the entire enterprise in a larger European context. The analysis in this book reveals that the Dutch stadholder Frederick Henry saw himself as both a Dutch statesman and a European noble, that the French served as both examples and counterexamples for both sides of the table, that the specter of past revolts in Portugal and Catalonia haunted the Spanish monarchy, that the Dutch were cognizant of the fate of coreligionists in the Holy Roman empire, and more. Both the history and historiography presented in 'Conflicting Words' show an aspiration not simply to cross borders but ultimatelyto create a pan-European history and historical tradition.Laura Cruz, Western Carolina University, Journal of Modern History, September 2013, vol. 85, no. 3