The Nobility of Holland: From Knights to Regents, 1500-1650

by H. F. K. Nierop, Maarten Ultee

Overview

This is the first full-scale analysis of the social and political transformation of the nobility of Holland during the revolt against Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the age of Rembrandt, nobles seemed to have been obliterated by the rising bourgeois merchants. However, in this study of the impact of the Dutch revolt, the author finds that Dutch nobles were extremely successful in maintaining their positions within the supposedly bourgeois Republic, forming the elite in administrative, political and economic systems. This is a revised edition of van Nierop's widely acclaimed Dutch publication.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521392600
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/25/1993
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Virtue and descent; 3. The weight of numbers: demographic trends and forces; 4. Endogamy and misalliances; 5. Incomes and expenditures; 6. Manors and honours; 7. Beggars and loyalists; 8. Integration and apartheid; 9. Conclusion: knights and regents; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...essential to any study of the European nobilty in this period." Douglas Clark Baxter, The Historian

"...Van Nierop offers a new and clear history of the nobility of Holland in a turbulent period. He also surprises us with a lot of fascinating petite histoires on abductions, mesalliances, and bankruptcies." Richard F. J. Paping, Journal of Economic History

"This is a welcome addition to the literature in English on Dutch history for this period, and it is also an important contribution to the history of the nobility in early modern Europe." J.L. Price, American Historical Review

"Van Nierop's important study of the nobility in the province of Holland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, first published in Dutch in 1984, is now available in an eloquent English translation....This book can rightfully be called a classic in its field. Despite significant new research since its initial publication, its conclusions remain sound. The impressive archival work and masterful writing allow a convincing picture of the nobility to emerge from a background of limited evidence and, sometimes confusing, contrasts....This is a first-rate work by one of the leading Dutch historians of our time, and it is well served by Ultee's translation." Andrew C. Fix, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher