Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Based on one of the richest surviving diaries of the Dutch Golden Age, Princely Power in the Dutch Republic recaptures the social world of William Frederick of Nassau (1613-1664). As a Stadholder and relative of the Prince of Orange, William Frederick was among the key players in a fragmented republican state system. This study offers a vivid analysis of his political strategies and reveals how unwritten codes of patronage guided his daily contacts and shaped his mental world.
As a patron at his court and as a client of the Prince of Orange, William Frederick developed distinctive patronage roles, appropriate to different social spheres. By assessing these different roles, Janssen provides a unique insight into the ways in which a seventeenth-century nobleman negotiated and articulated clientage, friendship and corruption in his life.
This study offers an in-depth analysis of political practices in the Dutch Republic and reconsiders the way in which patronage shaped early modern politics, affected religious divisions and framed social identities.
Preface
List of illustrations
Glossary
Abbreviations
Note on references and manuscript sources
Introduction
PART I: PATRON IN FRIESLAND 1640–50
1. Loyalty on trial
2. The stadholder becomes a patron
3. The count as a patron
PART II: CLIENT AT THE ORANGE COURT 1640–50
4. Under the authority of the master
5. The fall of the Boss
PART III: WITHOUT A PATRON 1650–64
6. New relationships
7. The limits of power
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index