From British web log Lenin’s Tomb, a long article on sixteenth-seventeenth century Low Countries history:
Arguably, the Dutch revolt was the first modern national liberation war.Iconoclast Protestant propaganda: here.It was also, quite possibly, the first time the word ‘quagmire‘ came to be used to describe a floundering military invasion, as when (during the second wave of revolt in the 1570s), an English commentator described Holland as “The great Bog of Europe … an universall Quag-mire
… Indeed it is the buttock of the World, full of veines and bloud, but no bones in’t.” (Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, Penguin, 1990: 156). …
I suppose it helps to know where to start, because historians don’t agree on this.
It could be anything from 1566 and that year’s “iconoclastic furies” to 1581 and the abjuration of [King] Philip [II of Spain].
See also The Dutch Revolt: a social analysis, by Pepijn Brandon: here.
Hi Kitty, I was hoping that you’d notice this article. I haven’t had time to read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
Comment by Jon Nelson — May 25, 2007 @ 7:56 pm
Hi Jon, interesting about the Dutch revolt is the work by Erich Kuttner,’Das Hungerjahr 1566′.
Comment by Administrator — May 25, 2007 @ 8:01 pm