Beschrijving
Paris, Barrois l'Aine, 1791, xxii,222pp. contemporary speckled paper softcover binding, some wear and tear to binding and edges of the block. Concerns the short revolution in the Netherlands in 1787. Letters by principal players are quoted in this interesting book. The Patriottentijd ('Time of the Patriots') was a period of political instability in the Dutch Republic between approximately 1780 and 1787. Its name derives from the Patriots (Patriotten) faction who opposed the rule of the stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange, and his supporters who were known as Orangists (Orangisten). In 1781 one of the leaders of the Patriots, Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol, influenced by the reformer Richard Price and the dissenter Joseph Priestley, anonymously published a pamphlet, entitled Aan het Volk van Nederland (‘To the People of the Netherlands’), in which he advocated, like Andrew Fletcher, the formation of civic militias on the Scottish, Swiss and American model to help restore the republican constitution. A low-key civil war ensued that resulted in a military stalemate, until in September-October 1787 the Patriots were defeated by a Prussian army and many were forced into exile.Scarce.
