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“The Libertines in Utrecht, mainly from the upper classes… were also interested in that broad outcome from a public order point of view, because they were aware how in many countries, including Germany and France, religious conflicts very easily evolved into outright civil war. To some extent the Dutch Revolt, too, was a civil war. They had had enough of that, and they didn’t want any more. But what the book demonstrates is that in this conflict the Calvinists win the battle, but the Libertines win the war, because the settlement that grows out of it is one in which there is a certain amount of toleration in the sense that the state is reluctant to persecute people.” Read more...
The best books on The Dutch Golden Age
Maarten Prak, Historian
