The Royalist Republic: Literature, Politics, and Religion in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1639–1660 by Helmer J. Helmers

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Royalist Republic: Literature, Politics, and Religion in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1639–1660 by Helmer J. Helmers Jeroen Dewulf Helmers, Helmer J. The Royalist Republic: Literature, Politics, and Religion in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1639–1660. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015. Pp. 342 illus. CDN$128.95 hardcover, CDN$39.95 paperback, US$28.00 ebook. A review of this book requires, first and foremost, a recognition of the groundbreaking work of the late Professor Paul Sellin, a pioneer in the study of Anglo-Dutch relations in the early modern age. His article “Royalist Propaganda and the Dutch Poets on the Execution of Charles I,” published in 2000 in the journal Dutch Crossing, demonstrated how a large number of pro-Stuart poems circulated in the Dutch Republic. Sellin argued that these sources formed a distinct corpus of interrelated Anglo-Dutch materials that were not only of interest to the political and literary-bibliographical history of the Netherlands, but also to the history of English printing and literature. His findings were surprising since it seemed natural–at least to nonspecialists in seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch relations–to assume that Dutch sympathies in the struggle between King Charles I and Parliamentarian forces would have been overwhelmingly on the side of those who ultimately were to establish the (Republican) Commonwealth of England. Sellin made clear, however, that the view of the Dutch Republic as a nation solely defined by republican values needed correction, even in the field of literary studies. Sellin’s appeal for further study of this fascinating material was taken up by Helmer Helmers, an expert in early-modern Dutch diplomatic history whose systematic analysis of mid-seventeenth-century Dutch literature enabled him to identify many works dedicated directly or indirectly to the 1642 Civil War and its aftermath. His long list confirms that Dutch writers–and, we can assume, Dutch public opinion–passionately followed the events in England and that their sympathies were predominantly with Charles I. Helmers’s methodological and theoretical approach to this complex matter can be classified as a text-oriented form of cultural history, influenced by New Historicism and Cultural Materialism, yet with an international, multilingual (Dutch-English) approach that places the English Civil War in a broader European context. This approach was well chosen, since English royalism could only survive after Charles I’s defeat at Naseby thanks to continental support. This also accounts for the efforts of both parties to influence public opinion in the Netherlands and the creation of what Helmers aptly calls a “hybrid sphere,” where British politicians and migrants flooded the Dutch market with political pamphlets, to which Dutch authors reacted with their own interpretations. As Helmers explains, the way people on the European continent perceived the English power struggle is of vital importance in understanding the survival of English royalism and its eventual resumption of power in 1660. However, he also points to the importance of the Dutch national self-image and [End Page 618] to parallels between the Dutch uprising against Spain and the English Revolution. Through their reflections on English affairs, mid seventeenth-century Dutch authors often also made statements about the Dutch nation, its history, its present state, and in particular, its future. Anti-Cromwellian pamphlets, for instance, could implicitly also target the Dutch statesman Johan de Witt. In the subsequent chapters of his book with the provocative title The Royalist Republic, Helmers explains in detail why so many Dutch authors felt attracted to the royalist cause in England and why Stuart defenders in the Netherlands included people from a wide variety of religious, social, and geographical backgrounds. Among them were, obviously, many Catholics, such as the influential Joost van den Vondel, who sympathized with Charles I in consequence of his marriage to Henrietta Maria of France. Unsurprisingly, we also find many Orangists among the Stuart sympathizers. Yet, as Helmers argues, the latter’s ambitions to establish a joint Anglo-Dutch royalist faction should be understood with reference not only to personal ties between the Princes of Orange and the Stuarts and to the diplomatic efforts undertaken by Charles II during his Dutch exile, but also to concerns over political dominance...