Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries

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A superb collection of exemplary essays - Rated
This is as near as you are going to get to an ideal study of the Reformation in the Low Countries, either in English or in Dutch. For many years Alastair Duke has been the most authoritative writer on the Dutch Reformation, and it is pleasing to see the fruits of his labours collected together here in one volume which gained him a doctorate at the university of Leiden.

He ranges through the early evangelical beginnings of Lutheranism in the 1520s, to dissidents at Gouda, Calvinists in the 'Backwoods' of Utrecht and south Holland, and the formation of political resistance to Spanish rule at the start of the revolt in 1566. There is predominance of concentration on Holland, particularly in two collaborative efforts on the iconclasm of 1566 and the planting of Calvinism in the 1570s.

All the essays are cogently written and impeccably researched, putting forward a coherent interpretation of the role of religion in the Dutch Revolt. It forms a valuable counterpart to the classic account of the Dutch Revolt by another English historian Geoffrey Parker, and is backed up by Andrew Pettegree's study of Emden and the Dutch Revolt.

For specialists in the history of the 16th century this is an esential study, and for the general reader the essays are never condescending nor cloaked in incomprehensible technical language. Duke is an engaging writer, and at this cost, well within the compass even of most School libraries.