‘Practiicke van den Spaenschen raet’ is a Dutch pamphlet written in 1618, part of the huge pamphlet collection in the Fagel library. The early volumes contain hundreds of tracts documenting the first major crisis of the Dutch Republic in the 1610’s. These pamphlets played an important role in the agitated public debate, culminating in the public execution of many leading figures.
In the 1610s, during the Twelve Years’ Truce with Spain, a religious conflict erupted which pitted supporters of the truce against those who sought renewed war against Spain. This anonymous tract, probably written by the Contra-Remonstrant minister Rippertus Sixti (1583-1651), warned that the Dutch state was slipping back into the clutches of Spanish tyranny. This, he argued, was due to a fifth column at home: the Arminians (or Remonstrants) who sought to renew the truce in order to lead the Dutch back under Spanish sovereignty. It went so far as to accuse Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, prime statesman of the Republic, of selling the country into Spanish hands.
The pamphlet was first printed anonymously by the Leiden printer Jan Claesz van Dorp, who was subsequently prosecuted by the city council, at that time made up predominantly of Remonstrants. But like many Contra-Remonstrant tracts published during this conflict, this was a bestseller. It also became a real collector’s item. The Fagel Collection contains ten copies of this pamphlet, divided between seven editions printed throughout the whole country.
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