The Dutch Republic: A History from the First to the Second World War is a comprehensive and captivating history of the Netherlands during the Middle Ages, covering the period from the end of the fifteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. It is praised for its colorful and entertaining writing style, as well as its detailed and informative content. The book explores the decline of knightly ideals, the awakening of individualism, the struggle for dominance in northern Europe, bloody military campaigns, and the cultural history of the Low Countries.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 624 pages
Publication date: 13 October 2022
Publisher: Head of Zeus

A Masterful History of the Great Dynasty of the Netherlands: The Middle Ages

A sumptuous feast of a book

The Times

Books of the Year

Thrillingly colourful and entertaining

Sunday Times

A thrilling narrative of the brutal, dazzlingly rich, wildly ambitious duchy

Simon Sebag Montefiore

5 stars!

Daily Telegraph

A masterpiece

De Morgen

A history book that reads like a thriller

Le Soir

At the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundy was extinguished as an independent state. It had been a fabulously wealthy, turbulent region situated between France and Germany, with close links to the English kingdom. Torn apart by the dynastic struggles of early modern Europe, this extraordinary realm vanished from the map. But it became the cradle of what we now know as the Low Countries, modern Belgium and the Netherlands. This is the story of a thousand years, a compulsively readable narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury and madness. It is about the decline of knightly ideals and the awakening of individualism and of cities, the struggle for dominance in the heart of northern Europe, bloody military campaigns and fatally bad marriages. It is also a remarkable cultural history, of great art and architecture and music emerging despite the violence and the chaos of the tension between rival dynasties.

Weight: 480g
Dimension: 130 x 197 x 43 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781789543445