History of the Netherlands

23/01/2024

New episode! In the 1440s a goldsmith from Mainz called Johannes Gutenberg developed a movable type printing press which catalysed the European printing revolution. It heralded a technological leap in communication tools which had far reaching consequences for the societies of the Low Countries, particularly in urban centres where print shops were established. A large market for books already existed in the Low Countries, in no small part because of the existence of Common Life schools and subsequent high rates of general literacy. With the copying and widespread distribution of texts becoming so much quicker and easier, other fields of work began to shift and develop, as different skills and networks were needed to smoothly bring content to the public. In this episode we are going to first take a look at what a 15th century printing workshop might have been like, before meeting some of the pioneers who would pull the printing presses and perfect the processes pertaining to the profitable publication of pamphlets, prayer books and other pre-16th century paper imprinted particularities.

In the 1440s a goldsmith from Mainz called Johannes Gutenberg developed a movable type printing press which catalysed the European printing revolution. It heralded a technological leap in communication tools which had far reaching consequences for the societies of the Low Countries, particularly in

27/12/2023

New episode! For the final episode of The Low Countries Radio for 2023 we went to Brussels to meet Simon Gronowski, who jumped off a train taking him to Auschwitz in 1943. His remarkable message is one of forgiveness and love in the face of immense tragedy.

We meet Simon Gronowski, a 92 year old jazz pianist, lawyer and Holocaust survivor. At the age of eleven, Simon was locked in a cattle wagon with his mother and around 50 other people after a month’s imprisonment at the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen for the crime of being Jewish. The train they had ...

18/09/2023

New episode! Julian was lucky enough to get to join Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins on The Final Word cricket podcast to explain a remarkable story about cricket being played by prisoners of war in the Netherlands during World War 1.

Long time listeners will be aware that, alongside being passionate about the history of our boggy swamp, we also carry a deep love for the game of cricket. The venn-diagram intersection between those two things can often leave a lot to be desired. However, somehow Julian Smith, our intrepid co-creat

04/09/2023

New episode! We blithely set off in a new direction and attempt to lay foundations to explain how a new zeitgeist of education and learning that had originated in the Italian peninsula in the 14th century, took hold in the Low Countries in the 15th.

At the end of episode 49, we said that we were going to move away from the political part of the story of the History of the Netherlands for a while to instead focus on some of the other important societal developments that were happening concurrently at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th

21/02/2023

New episode! Living in the water-logged Low Countries means being under the constant threat of devastating and deadly floods. In this bonus episode, we process the traumatic relationship the people of the Low Countries have with the water in their lands.

There are few landscapes as immediately identifiable as those of the Low Countries. Calling it a “land” scape is problematic, however, as it could just as easily be called a “water” scape. The meandering rivers, the green blocks of soggy land separated by canals and ditches and a row of dune...

06/02/2023

New episode! We track the tempestuous journeys before the weddings which united Spain and the Low Countries, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, as well as a series of untimely deaths which saw the Spanish succession shuffle down the line.

The double marriage between the Habsburg and Spanish dynasties organised in the creation of the Holy League in 1495 was part of a larger plan driven by the Spanish monarchs to create a general European-wide alliance against the French. To further these aims, Ferdinand and Isabella also arranged for

23/01/2023

New episode! We go off on a huge tangent to show how a French of invasion of Italy in 1494 helped set up the marriages between the Habsburgs and Trastamaras which would eventually lead to a Spanish monarch ruling the Low Countries. Divertiti!

When French king Charles VIII laid claims to the Kingdom of Naples and invaded Italy in September, 1494, an anti-French coalition called the League of Venice was formed, with the aim of kicking France out of the Italian peninsula. “Hang on a second, what does this have to do with the Netherlands?....

09/01/2023

New episode! We look at how Charles of Egmont's relationship with Maximilian was irretrievably broken and how Philip the Handsome and his councillors distanced themselves from Maximilian's grand ambitions to pursue the local desire for peace and stability.

When Philip the Handsome came of age and took over direct rule of the previously Burgundian, now Habsburg, territories of the Low Countries in September, 1494, his accession marked the first time since the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 that a native and natural born male prince had filled that p

21/11/2022

New episode! We take a look at five trailblazing women from the Netherlands and Belgium who helped pave the way for future generations of women and girls to be able to equally participate in society.

Throughout the history of the Low Countries, people from this part of the world have been pioneers in almost every sense of the word. Whether by seeking out and charting far away lands during the European Age of Exploration, or in advancements made in science, technology and engineering, or through

24/10/2022

New episode! As Maximilian's war against France ended with the Treaty of Senlis, Charles of Egmont's return to Guelders set that duchy up to become the bastion of anti-Habsburg sentiment in the Low Countries for the first decades of the 16th century.

In March 1492, the town burghers and knights of Guelders hailed Charles of Egmont as their duke, beginning a four decade period of bitter, contested conflict with the Habsburg Burgundian state. That’s right, just as the revolts in Flanders came to an end with the surrender of Sluis, the football o...

24/09/2022

24/09/1625 A Dutch force led by Boudewijn Hendricksz arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Spanish governor Juan de Haro and his army retreated to Castillo San Felipe, where they were besieged for 28 days before sorties successfully forced the Dutch out.

23/09/2022

23/09/1830 A Dutch army of 12000 men under the command of Prince Frederik entered Brussels to try and put down a nationalist, revolutionary uprising attempting to separate from the Northern provinces. Three days later they would be forced out as Belgium broke free.

22/09/2022

22/09/1586 The Battle near Warnsveld was fought between the Army of Flanders (Spain) and a States army, consisting of many English mercenaries. English poet, diplomat and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney, was fatally wounded in the battle, dying of gangrene 26 days later.

His epitaph in St Paul's Cathedral (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666) read:

"His bodie hath England, for she it bred,
Netherlands his Blood in her defence shed,
The Heavens have his Soule, the Arts have his Fame,
All Souldiers the grief, the World his good name."

Painting 1: Sir Philip Sidney, by unknown artist, given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1925
Painting 2: The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney, by Benjamin West (painted 1806), in the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia.

19/09/2022

New episode! Comics are some of the most widely known and loved cultural exports from the Low Countries. In this episode of The Low Countries Radio we take a look at how comics developed in this region, from an angry lord 600 years ago to the Smurfs!

We flip through the pages of comic history in the Low Countries; from the use of illustrated prints from as early as the 15th century to the position of comic studios in Belgium and the Netherlands during the Second World War. You’ll hear about some titles that you may never have heard of, as well...

06/06/2022

New episode! We round out the final chaotic years of Philip of Cleves' rebellion (1491-92). There's a dynastic dance in Brittany, including a consummation by naked knee touch, yet another revolt in Ghent and the siege and surrender of Sluis.

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-45-the-surrender-of-sluis

The final years of Philip of Cleves’ rebellion in Flanders saw the most famously fractious of Flemish cities, Ghent, flare into open revolt against Habsburg rule once again and rejoin the fight alongside him. Although Philip’s war against the ducal regime would ultimately come to an end in Octob...

02/05/2022

New episode! With the North Sea blockaded by Philip of Cleves from Sluis, the poor and hungry citizens of Bruges and angry farmers and workers of Holland channel their energy into an erratic o**y of violence against the authoritarian ducal government.

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-44-hunger-bread-and-cheese

The weariness that comes from decades of instability, war, economic turmoil and hardship really began to exact its toll on the Low Countries in the early 1490s. The last of the Hook uprisings had been quashed in Holland, but there was no stability anywhere, especially as the last flames of the wider

18/04/2022

New episode! Albert of Saxony attempts to restore order in Flanders, whilst Philip of Cleves turns Sluis into a pirate den. The Hook and Cod Wars also finally come to an end in Holland. https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-43-the-pirate-den-of-sluis

When the treaty of Montils-lez-Tours was signed on October 30, 1489, “peace” was formally arranged between the French, the Habsburg ducal government under Albert of Saxony in the Low Countries and the rebelling cities of Flanders. Despite this, Philip of Cleves and Albert of Saxony seem to have ...

15/04/2022

Episode 43 of History of the Netherlands is now available for signatories of the Great Privilege of Patreon. Join the ranks for early access or wait til 7am CEST Monday like the rest of the commoners.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/history-of-e43-65145916

Join Republic of Amsterdam Radio on Patreon to get access to this post and more benefits.

05/04/2022

New episode!

We take a look at the growth and development of spirituality and religion in the Low Countries. From pagan tribalism to the rise and dominance of Catholicism, the arrival and growth of Judaism and Islam and their long term impacts in the Low Countries, the whirlwind of the reformation, and the institution of a Calvinist doctrine in the north and a continued Catholic tradition in the south. We will finish by looking at the state of religiosity and spiritualism in the Low Countries today. So say your prayers, folks, because if we are going to successfully tackle a topic as huge and potentially filled with controversy as this in without offending, well, everybody, it’s going to take an indomitably non-denominational miracle.

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/bonus-the-gods-must-be-crazy-spiritualism-and-religion-in-the-low-countries

We take a look at the growth and development of spirituality and religion in the Low Countries. From pagan tribalism to the rise and dominance of Catholicism, the arrival and growth of Judaism and Islam and their long term impacts in the Low Countries, the whirlwind of the reformation, and the insti

06/12/2021

New episode!

In this episode of The Low Countries Radio, we are going to delve into some of the sports that have developed in, or been adopted by and grown in, Belgium and the Netherlands.

We will hear about people who listen intently to birds in little boxes while they keep track of their calls on a big long stick, others who jump over canals using a big long stick, as well as a bunch of people skating the famous Elfstedentocht and smashing a very hard ball across a field using their hands.

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/bonus-ready-set-go-sports-from-the-low-countries

In this episode of The Low Countries Radio, we are going to delve into some of the sports that have developed in, or been adopted by and grown in, Belgium and the Netherlands. We will hear about people who listen intently to birds in little boxes while they keep track of their calls on a big long

06/12/2021

Check out this article we wrote for ACCESS-NL magazine! ACCESS-Netherlands

https://issuu.com/access-nl/docs/access_magazine_winter_2021_issuu/8

In this issue | Dutch history | The royals | The hidden Hague | Finding mental health help | Being an entrepreneur | Cocktails for winter |

25/10/2021

New episode! After Maximilian of Habsburg was crowned King of the Romans in 1486, he decided to go to war with France again, raised taxes across Flanders and found himself an involuntary guest of Bruges for 3 months in 1488. https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-41-in-bruges

By the summer of 1485, Maximilian of Habsburg had quashed the first major revolt against his rule and regained control over Flanders, in the name of his young son Philip. He then set off for Germany to become King of the Romans, leaving the administration of his realms in the hands of an interim gov

18/08/2021

New episode! Why do the Japanese love a dog from Flanders? Why do Americans admire a Dutch boy who stuck his finger in a d**e? Why are there so many swans in Bruges? In this episode we tackle some of the myths and legends of the Low Countries!

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/bonus-myths-and-legends-of-the-low-countries

The Low Countries have long held mystery and intrigue for people around the world. Over thousands of years, innumerable myths and legends have sprung out of this small corner of Europe, while many more have been created by bemused foreigners looking in from the outside. Why do the Japanese love a d

19/07/2021

New episode! After being forced to sign the Treaty of Arras in late 1482, Maximilian of Habsburg found his authority in Flanders challenged by a group of powerful nobles and patrician merchants from Ghent, Bruges and Ypres who formed an opposition government in the form of regency council. Yes, it's time for another Flemish revolt!

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-40-the-rhyme-and-unreason-of-treason

After being forced to sign the Treaty of Arras in late 1482, Maximilian of Habsburg found his authority in Flanders challenged by a group of powerful nobles and patrician merchants from the big cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres. Using their social, economic and political clout, as well as the physic

20/05/2021

New episode! We decided to take a lighthearted approach to this one and look at some of the most influential discoveries and inventions to come out of the Low Countries in the categories of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Heart.

https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/bonus-inventions-and-discoveries-through-the-medium-of-captain-planet

The Low Countries have long been a metaphorical petri dish of social and technological advancements in Europe. As such, the list of Dutch and Flemish inventions, innovations and discoveries is long and broad-reaching indeed. In this episode, we intend on doing an exploration of our own into the hist