Dirk van Delen Assembly of the Dutch States

Dirk van Delen, ‘Assembly of the Dutch States General’ (1651) Republics Mark Knights

Outline • What was a republic? • Analyse the variety of republics: Holy Roman Empire, Swiss cantons, Venice, Britain 16491660, United Provinces • Think about the cultural values of republics • Links: popular politics next week; political thought in week 9; and absolute monarchs in week 10

What was a republic? • Respublica = res (things) publica (public) • How to translate? • Public weal; commonwealth; republic; free state; city state • Self-governing; its own ‘state’ (NB rise of latter term – Skinner); the public good. • Oligarchical or popular? • Common usage of term hardens over period to carry more anti-monarchical connotations

• Athens and Greek city states (polis) • Plato, Republic, Aristotle, Politics; Cicero, De Officiis; Titus Livy, Ab Urbe condita, Tacitus, Histories and Annals; Sallust, Catalinarian Conspiracy and Jugurthine War • Classical republicanism

Republics in political theory • Machiavelli, The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, written 1517, published in 1531 • C 17 th transmission: James Harrington, Oceana (1656) and De la Court brothers, Johan and Pieter, 1660 De la Court published the Consideratien van Staet (Considerations of State), followed in 1662 by the Politike Discoursen • Enlightenment Rousseau: ‘general will’, separation of powers

Monarchical republics • Patrick Collinson: ‘monarchical republic’ – Sir Thomas Smith, De Republica Anglorum (written in 1560 s, published 1583) described England as a mixed government and commonwealth • Goldie - C 17 th England an ‘unacknowledged republic’ due to citizenship ideals fostered in humanist education and in the governance of towns and cities 1609 edition

• Late Middle Ages: German Imperial Free Cities (Freie Reichstadt) within an empire – autonomous but subject to the Holy Roman Emperor: could wage war, conclude peace and trade; <200, only 65 in 1555. Oligarchical, patrician elite ruling citizens or burghers and, below them (50%) residents The tradition of free cities

Imperial Free City of Nuremberg (Nuremberg Chronicle, 1494) Constitutional and religious symbols

Hanseatic League (C 13 th- C 17 th)

The Early Modern Swiss Confederation (de facto indep. 1499, nominally HRE until 1648) seen as a single state, the Swiss Republic cantons, condominiums (under canton administration, associates (close allies) Zwinglian cities Catholic / rural Forest Cantons

Cantonal Level: Government by Assembly and Council Disputation at Zurich 1523 From a copy of Bullinger’s History of the Reformation, c. 1600

Federal Level: Co-ordination at the Diet 18 th. C Drawing

• Italian Wars (14941559) = disastrous for Italian city states. • By 1559, only independent selfgoverning republics left in Italy are Venice and San Marino • Machiavelli, The Prince: Florence ‘overrun by Charles, sacked by Louis, outraged by Ferdinand disgraced by the Swiss’ before falls under Medici oligarchy, 1512 Venice

The structure of Venetian government

Britain: a (short-lived) new republic • 1649 declaration of a ‘Free State and Commonwealth’ after the execution of Charles I

United Provinces: a longer-lived new republic

United Provinces: revolt • Habsburg Netherlands – problem of multiple kingdoms • Dutch Revolt against Spain triggered by actions of Philip II - imposition of autocratic governance and Catholic inquisition – provoked Calvinist religious riots, 1566. • The first revolt, 1565 -8; The second revolt (1569 -76); The third revolt (1576 -81); The formation of the United Provinces (1581) – Act of Abjuration • But war not ended as Spain still sought military solution. 1589 -92 Parma Halted. 1592 -8 Maurice’s Offensive. 1599 -1609 Stalemate • Longer-term struggle: 1621 -48 • Displaced Dutch aristocrats under William of Orange linked themselves to rebels to take on leadership of the interregnum. • Successful revolt seen as one of the principal triumphs of international Protestantism William the Silent

• Confederation of seven autonomous provinces sending representatives to States-General in The Hague • United in matters of common security/commercial policy/ foreign affairs. World’s leading commercial and naval power c. 1600 -1700 • Develop common civic institutions e. g. schuetterij - prestigious civic militias shaped by precedents of Republic Rome. • But tensions over religion (how wide should the toleration be? ); and role of Orange stadtholders (Johan de Witt as Grand Pensionary (1650 -1672)

Republican values, symbolism and civic virtues • De la Court, The Interest of Holland (1662) I find my self obliged more fully to consider and promote the welfare of the subjects in Holland above that of the rulers; because in this free commonwealth government, it is evident that the durable and certain prosperity of the rulers does generally depend on the welfare of the subjects … It is [also] convenient to premise that Holland … consisted of many republicks; which in process of time chose a head or governor over them by the name of Earl or Stadtholder; … [H]e had of old no armed men or soldiery of his own as dukes had, but was to be content with his own revenues, and to rule the land, or rather administer justice to each country according to their particular customs, and laws. . . And tho’ in process of time they were jointly brought to a sovereign republic, yet is it also true that the members of this Dutch republic are of different natures and manners.

Influence on France • Republican ideals inform Huguenot revolt against French monarchy 1560 -1579: • -François Hotman supports power of parlements against ‘ferocious license of kings’; Languet– the people = ‘true proprietors’ of a commonwealth, possess ‘supreme dominion’ and have ‘to take up arms and fight against tyranny’, ‘not merely for the sake of our religion, but also in the name of our health and homes’. • - Blend of classical republicanism with Calvinist monarchomach ideas i. e. right of godly people to resist.

The cultural benefits of republics Joseph Werner, ‘Allegory of the Republic of Bern’ (1682) The (classical) armed figure of freedom between personifications of abundance, faith, fortitude, service overcoming fear

Oath-swearing at a communal assembly St Peter’s chapel in the Swiss City of Lucerne (from Diebold Schilling’s illustrated chronicle of 1513)

Historiography • Intellectual tradition stretching from Antiquity via Renaissance to Atlantic Revolutions (JGA Pocock) • Constitutional affinities between communal self-government and democracy (Peter Blickle) • There was a ‘Real Political’ boost for republican self-consciousness after Peace of Westphalia (1648), triggered by need to claim / display sovereignty in European state system (Thomas Maissen)

Conclusion • Republics have a long tradition • Viable alternative model(s) to monarchy • Relatively diverse, tolerant and participatory societies • Indirect precedents for modern democracy