Britain and the Netherlands Volume V Some Political Mythologies
AS Dr. Coen Tamse points out in the introductory essay specially written for this volume, what we call myths are all too often the errors and misconceptions of others. Time being short and human un derstanding imperfect, it is wise to suppose that poster
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BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS
Volume V
SOME POLITICAL MYTHOLOGIES
PAPERS DELIVERED TO THE FIFTH ANGLO-DUTCH HISTORICAL CONFERENCE
EDITED BY J. S. BROMLEY AND E. H. KOSSMANN
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MARTINUS NIJHOFF/THE HAGUE/1975
© 1975 by Martinus NijhojJ, The Hague, Netherlands Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1975
A II rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1363-5 e-lSBN-13: 978-94-010-1361-1 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-1361-1
Text set in 11/12 pt. Photon Times,
Contents
PREFACE The Political Myth by C. A. Tamse, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen 2 Dutch Privileges, Real and Imaginary by J. J. Woltjer, Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden 3 The Black Legend during the Eighty Years War by K. W. Swart, University College, London 4 Queen and State: the Emergence of an Elizabethan Myth by J. Hurstfield, University College, London 5 The Batavian Myth during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by I. Schoifer, Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden 6 'No Popery' in the Reign of Charles II by K. H. D. Haley, The University, Sheffield 7 The Myth of 'Patriotism' in Eighteenth-Century English Politics by J. D. Jarrett, Goldsmith's College, London 8 Oliver Cromwell's Popular Image in Nineteenth-Century England by J. P. D. Dunbabin, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford 9 The Rise and Progress of Tory Democracy by E. J. Feuchtwanger, The University, Southampton 10 Mythical Aspects of Dutch Anti-Catholicism in the Nineteenth Century by J. A. Bornewasser, Katholieke H ogeschool, Tilburg Index
vii
19
36 58 78
102 120
141 164
184 207
PREFACE
AS Dr. Coen Tamse points out in the introductory essay specially written for this volume, what we call myths are all too often the errors and misconceptions of others. Time being short and human understanding imperfect, it is wise to suppose that posterity will convict us all of thinking and acting in some sort within mythological universes; only a dead myth is by common consent recognized as a false reading of reality. And yet, in our troubled century, we have witnessed the deliberate fabrication of mythologies, apart from the inheritance of earlier growths like those which still feed nationalism and antiSemitism. It almost looks as if mass democracies positively require neatly packaged and emotionally charged explanations of the social and political environment as a substitute for religion. At all events, the modern science of public relations has advanced far enough for certain regimes, or for those who seek to overthrow them, to make a calculated appeal to the vanities, anxieties and frustrations of ordinary people by offering highly simplified explanations of a baffling world, often in easily grasped pictorial or dramatic forms, whether the object is to condition obedience or incite to 'struggle'. The advent of the mass media is generally, if unfairly, taken to have opened limitless new opportunities for the manipulation of our thought-processes, even below the threshold of consciousness. Meanwhile, trends in philosophy, psychology a
