Royalist Propaganda and Dutch Poets on the Execution of Charles I

Abstract

In addition to royalist tractates on the continent against the English regicides and Parliament after the execution of Charles I, there is also a remarkable body of unexplored poetry in Dutch on the ‘parricide’ in England. Composed by some of the leading poets of the United Provinces, it represents a special propaganda effort by the Prince of Orange and his Stuart in-laws to consolidate Calvinist support. Since most of the material was written by heterodox or Catholic poets in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, it opens questions about the loyalty of the Dutch regent class to the Stuart cause, the role of printers and publishers, developments during the First Dutch War and subsequent peace, and the fragmented way in which literary history treats such verse.