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33. Sir William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 2nd edn, (London, 1673).
The Netherlands was a commercial and military superpower in the seventeenth century, and was in frequent conflict with Britain and France. When this book appeared, Britain was in the midst of its third war in two decades against the Dutch. The first conflict (1652–4) is commonly described as a ‘draw’, but the Dutch decisively won the second (1665–7) and third (1672–4) wars.
In 1688 a successful Dutch invasion of England led to the dethroning of King James II, the coronation of the Dutch prince Willem as King William III, and several years of vicious sectarian warfare in Ireland.
The popularity of this book, and the widespread interest across these islands in The Netherlands, is evident from the fact that the Library also holds copies of the English edition of 1693 and a French edition of 1685. This copy was purchased for Marsh's Library in February 1926 to replace a copy missing before 1767.
Citation:
33. Sir William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 2nd edn, (London, 1673).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed April 29, 2025,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/435
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