Act of Abjuration
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The Act of Abjuration is the declaration of independence by many of the provinces of the Netherlands from their allegiance to Philip II of Spain, during the Dutch Revolt.
Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, pagina 1
Plakkaat van Verlatinghe
19th-century depiction of the signing of the Act of Abjuration
Joannes van Deutecum Leo Belgicus 1650 published by Claes Jansz Visscher Amsterdam
William the Silent
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William the Silent or William the Taciturn, more commonly known in the Netherlands as William of Orange and in the Dutch national anthem as William of Nassau, was the leader of the Dutch revolt agains
Act of Abjuration
…1568 several of these provinces rose in rebellion against Philip. Given the monarchical ethos of the time, the revolt had to be justified partly – as William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch Revolt, put it – as an attempt whereby "the Republic’s ancient privileges and liberty should be restored"; partly as directed…
Portrait by Adriaen Thomasz. Key, c. 1570–1584
Philip II of Spain berating William the Silent by Cornelis Kruseman
The triumphal entry of the Prince of Orange in Brussels. Print from The Wars of Nassau by Frans Hogenberg.
William the Silent by Willem Jacobsz Delff (1623)