The Rest Is History
680. The Netherlands: The Revolt that Made The Modern World (Part 4)
17 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: How is the Dutch national anthem connected to the Dutch Revolt?
A sense of structure that exists outside the structures of the organized state. So to quote Jonathan Israel, who's written the definitive book on the history of the Dutch Republic, those dismayed by the profusion of reformations around them found the antidote for which they thirsted in Calvin. And so the character of the revolt as it emerges will be largely Calvinist.
You made the point about the fragmentation, the 700 different legal codes, different languages and so on. But there are definitely commonalities across fellow countries, aren't there? I mean, more frankly, you see them today when you visit and architecturally or culturally or whatever. And that's the case even back in the 16th century, that there's more.
Well, not more, but there are a lot of things that unite the people of these what become Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
And there are often kind of continuities with the Low Countries to this day. So they're famous for their beer, whether it's Amstel in the Netherlands or all those Trappist beers in Belgium.
Love a Belgian beer.
And the average daily consumption back then was seen as being enormous, even by English visitors. So they were stunned that adults were drinking three pints of beer a day. And I don't think this was just the weak beer. I mean, this was kind of proper, proper alcoholic beer. And again, a bit like today, the women... were famous for their kind of cleanliness.
This is a theme that runs throughout the Dutch Republic and into the present day. The Dutch are famously obsessed with cleanliness. But also they were notorious for wearing mini skirts. And in the 16th century, this meant skirts that came down to the ankles. So very shocking. Yeah, unbelievable. So simultaneously cleanly, but with a little hint of licentiousness.
The men are seen as being astoundingly tall. So many are over six foot. And again, you know, visitors find this astonishing. And it's just, you know, we said this is a very urbanized society. visitors cannot believe how densely populated it is. So it's kind of 90 people per square mile.
And effectively, the population of the Low Countries isn't that much smaller than England, which has a much, much kind of larger surface area.
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Chapter 3: What historical events influenced the creation of the Wilhelmus?
It's enclosed within France, but it owes loyalty only to William. So he is now William of Orange. Also huge chunks of the Low Countries, including about a quarter of Brabant, which includes Antwerp. So incredibly wealthy area to have. And this becomes the effective heart of William's inheritance. And additionally, and I'll just read out the list of other properties that William has inherited.
He has a claim to the vanished kingdom of Arles, again in France. He has a dukedom in Apulia. He has three Italian principalities. So he's a prince four times over, in other words. 16 countships, two margravates, two vicountencies, 50 baronies, and some 300 smaller estates.
He's done well. He really has. But the price for this is... is that he has to give up his immortal soul. Is that right? He has to give up his Lutheranism.
He wrestles with it for about three seconds. And then he says, fine, whatever. I'll very happily become a Catholic. He took that seriously. And I think all his family kind of swing behind him and say, yeah, this is the right decision. Right. I mean, it's kind of like getting a massive scholarship to Hogwarts or something. Suddenly you are being transplanted to a completely different world.
order of society in which opportunities are open to up to you that you had never even imagined because William goes off to the court of Charles the fifth in Brussels. So the place where Charles the fifth is based when he's in the low countries and Charles the fifth thinks this young boy is tremendous and grooms him to become one of the big players at the Habsburg court.
And by 1555, when William is 22, he has become the most glamorous figure in Charles's train. So he's charming, he's extravagant, he's been given experience in war, he's experienced in politics. I mean, he's the complete article. And that October of 1555, Charles V famously starts abdicating his very powers.
And he's in Brussels to abdicate his lordship of the Low Countries in favour of his son Philip, who is going to go on to become Philip II of Spain, the man who sends the Spanish Armada.
against england but at this point the elderly charles v he's very lame by this point he's got a stick but with his other arm he he he is leaning on the prince of orange as he goes up to the altar to offer his formal abdication and the symbolism of this presumably is that uh he is their man he is their man on the spot their local collaborator um because they've basically been training him as the hapsburg representative i guess in the low countries haven't they
He's going to serve kind of as their deputy in the Low Countries. And the reason why that is important is that Charles V's son Philip is becoming the new Lord of the Netherlands in this ceremony. But shortly afterwards, he is going to go to Spain and become Philip II of Spain. And Spain is a much larger, much more powerful conglomeration of territories than the Low Countries.
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Chapter 4: Why is the Dutch Revolt considered a pivotal moment in European history?
Things are good for him.
Well, and he's very loyal to the Habsburgs. Charles V has been, you know, very good to him. Of course, it would never cross his mind. It would go against all his codes, all his loyalties. But there are, I think, kind of two niggling problems which will, over the course of the years, become worse and worse. And the first of these is that there is a personality clash between Philip and William.
Because Philip is very, I think, is an introvert. He's tongue-tied. He's very intellectual. He's very studious. He's very devout, very devout Catholic. And William is a massive extrovert. He's a lad. Everyone loves him. He loves the dance. He loves the frolic, all of that. So they're very, very different.
I think there are also growing political tensions because as the years go by and Philip, who is, you know, he is the lord of the Low Countries, but he's never there. And it becomes clear that fundamentally he is a Spanish king. And so people in the Low Countries start to feel that they are subordinate to him in the manner of a colonial people subject to a distant master or overlord.
And resentment of the Spanish presence in the Low Country starts to grow and grow. So Philip has appointed Spanish ministers to the Council of State, which is supposed to administer these provinces. He's installed Spanish garrisons in the key cities. And he has licensed the Spanish Inquisition to start sniffing out heresy.
And although William, of course, has become a Catholic as a requirement for becoming the Prince of Orange, he's not a doctrinaire Catholic. He doesn't have the zeal of a convert. No, he doesn't. And he is worried about what the actions of the Inquisition might mean for kind of civic harmony in the low countries.
And his concerns are clarified for him by one episode in particular, which happens in the summer of 1559. And William has been sent as a temporary hostage to the court of France. There's kind of treaty negotiations going on. And so for a few months, William has to stay there as the guest of Henry II, the King of France. And he's looked after very well. He is, as we've said, a massive extrovert.
People really like him. They think he's great fun. And so he becomes great mates with Henry II. And Henry takes him out hunting in the woods of Chantilly. And while they're at hunting, Henry lets slip a shocking secret to William on the assumption, evidently, that William already knows about it.
And Henry reveals to William that he, the King of France, and Philip II, the King of Spain, have become so terrified by the growth of Protestantism in Christendom that they have agreed a full-scale policy of extermination against the Protestants, the heretics, as Henry and Philip see them.
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Chapter 5: How did the Dutch Revolt impact modern political structures?
I was in Boston. Really? I mean, that's an aspect of the story that's very rarely reported on your presence. I know. So you know what this reminds me of, Tom? It reminds me that the future is always uncertain. You never know what's coming, but the facts need not be uncertain.
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Chapter 6: How did the Dutch Revolt influence future revolutions?
Unbelievable drama. So we're hoping to see as many people as possible. You can get the tickets again by going to therestishistory.com. Tickets go on sale at 10 o'clock this morning, Tuesday the 16th of June. And here's the really thrilling news. Included in your ticket is a copy of our super-sore-away new book, A History of the World in 51 Heroes and Villains.
So you'll get the book, you'll get to see us. It will genuinely be the best thing you've ever done in your entire life. And don't forget, tickets are on sale now! A shield and my reliance, O God, thou ever wert, I'll trust until thy guidance, O leave me not ungirt, that I may stay a pious servant of thine for aye, and drive the plagues that try us and tyranny away.
So that is the sixth verse, the sixth of, what was it, 324 verses? Yeah. 15 in total. The sixth verse of the Wilhelmus, the Dutch national anthem, and that is from the Royal House of the Netherlands' own website, the English translation. So 15 verses. The first letters of these 15 verses form an acrostic, don't they?
And they spell the name Willem van Nassau, William of Nassau, William of Orange, William the Silent. And interestingly, when they're singing the anthem before matches, the Dutch team, they sing the first verse and the sixth verse. So it's mad that they actually sing that verse where they pledge allegiance to the king of Spain.
What happens in 2010 at the World Cup final when they played Spain and disgraced themselves? Well, the Spanish don't have any words at all. No, they don't. They must find it nice for people to sing about them. I mean, the 2010 World Cup final when the Dutch played the Spanish and the Dutch actually disgraced themselves in that final.
But it must have been nice for the Spanish to have a little mention there in the anthem singing. Yeah, of their king. Yeah, exactly. So why do they pair those two?
So strange. That sixth verse is full of biblical resonance, Dominic. So it's a kind of reminder that William had faced utter ruin, but had lived to tell the tale because God is his shield and his reliance. And I think specifically, and this is made clear a couple of verses on from the sixth verse.
He's been compared to King David, who's the biblical hero who'd become the favorite of Saul, who was Israel's first king, by killing Goliath with his sling as a shepherd boy. And David grows up and then Saul becomes very jealous of David, hunts David and tries to kill him. But David had survived and ultimately prevailed.
So I think William is being cast as David and Philip II is being cast as kind of Saul, his former royal master who's turned against him. Because of course, Philip had appointed William as Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, had assumed that he could be relied on as a loyal servant of the Habsburg house.
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Chapter 7: What role did William of Nassau play in the Dutch Revolt?
But the rebels in Holland and Zealand have a kind of way around this. And their wheeze is to say that, yes, William is the loyal servant of the King of Spain. And he's proving his loyalty to the King of Spain by attacking the Spanish. And that may sound a slight stretch to people. So how can this make sense? It's because...
The pretense is that Philip doesn't know what his generals and his soldiers and his administrators are doing in his name and would be appalled if he did. So it's the classic, you know, the king doesn't know what his servants are doing.
I was about to say, this is a classic medieval or early modern device, rhetorical device. The king is great. We love the king. It's just these corrupt and evil advisors. Yeah.
And so this is how William is able simultaneously to fight the Spanish and yet claim to be loyal to the King of Spain. And as you say, I think it reflects just how incredibly respectful of authority people in the 16th century are. And even William, who's been in open conflict with Philip and the Spanish for four years, still can't quite bring himself to acknowledge that he is a rebel.
Because to be a rebel against an anointed king is the worst thing that you could possibly do. That's a big difference between the age of the American Revolution or the French Revolution. I think in the 16th century, it's kind of almost in the border zones of inconceivable that you could do what William is effectively doing.
And this is what makes him a kind of perfect figurehead for this revolt, which likewise isn't. I mean, it is a revolt. But it's kind of, it's not a showy revolt. So Simon Sharma in his brilliant book on this, The Embarrassment of Riches, if the Dutch finally espoused independence, they did so with the lowest possible profile.
So there is no equivalent of the Declaration of Independence that you get in the American Revolution. It's done in a slightly kind of crapped, well, I suppose, taciturn way.
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Chapter 8: What are the lyrics of the Wilhelmus and their significance?
I mean, that's why William the Silent is a kind of perfect leader for it.
Yeah, you can see how there's a spectrum that comes from this to the English Civil War of the 1640s, where you have people moving from basically saying, well, I'm still very much a monarchist. I just happen to be fighting on the side of Parliament. And then they move towards Charles as the man of blood. And then the other extreme is,
you have the American Revolution where they're ideologically leaning into the idea of rebellion and casting off kings.
And then you have the French Revolution where they chop the king's head off. So, yeah, you can absolutely see the line of descent. But at the beginning, in the 16th century, with the Dutch Revolt, there's a reticence about it, almost a sense of embarrassment. And it's that, I think, which makes the Wilhelmus the perfect anthem for this revolt.
Because, of course, as we've said, it's a rebel song which proclaims loyalty in its opening verse. to the very king whom the rebels are fighting.
So that's why you have William in that verse saying, oh, I'm very loyal to the king of Spain. If we go to the website of the Dutch royal family, which obviously one of your favourites, Tom, love it. The website of the Dutch royal family says this song originated during the siege of the French city of Chartres in 1568.
That's quite odd because that's further back and it's also in the wrong country. So how does this anthem written about a siege in France before the high point of the Dutch Revolt come to be the sort of the musical emblem of the Dutch Revolt?
And what makes it even weirder is that it's about a Catholic garrison beating off a Protestant attack. So the song is originally anti-Protestant. And of course, the rebels who composed the Wilhelmus are Protestant, are Calvinist. And I think there are two possible answers to this that perhaps are only seemingly contradictory.
So the first is it's something that we've been talking about a lot in this series, that it's a gesture of appropriation. So it's a bit like the sea beggars sailing into Brill and appropriating all the Catholic churches and making them Calvinist, or the way in which the Hanoverians in 1745 appropriate the Jacobite melody that becomes God Save the King.
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