Jubilees of the Revolt of the Netherlands. Seventeenth-century centenaries and their political contextHistorians generally consider centenaries in the nineteenth century as ‘invented traditions’ and in terms of scale and political motivation emphasise discontinuity with jubilees celebrated in the early modern period. This article, however, contends that centennial jubilees were organised and celebrated widely before the nineteenth century. Focusing on seventeenth-century commemorations of the Revolt of the Netherlands ‐ both in the Dutch Republic and the Habsburg Netherlands ‐ the authors shed new light on why people celebrated centenaries and what was at stake in doing so. People did not simply celebrate the passage of time, but jubilees also served clear secondary purposes. Foreign invasions threatening the unity of the Republic and the ongoing threat of Protestantism to South Nederlandish Catholicism motivated people to organise centenaries, much in the same way that nationalism stimulated the celebration of jubilees in the nineteenth century. A common feature of early modern centenaries was that commemoration of the past often masked disunity and political uncertainty.
The emperor and the eagle. Material culture from Napoleon’s reign in Dordrecht, 1810-1813During Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign as king and emperor of the Netherlands (1810-1813) the Napoleonic eagle had a prominent place in Dutch society. Coats of arms were changed and civic symbols were altered to fit the new regime. But what happened to these symbols when Napoleon’s occupation was over? Were they destroyed, as in France, or was there a different way of looking at Napoleonic symbolism? On a national level the Netherlands attempted to forget the period 1810-1813. As this article argues, events were remembered very differently at a local level. As the case study of Dordrecht proves, objects related to the visit of Napoleon to the city in 1811, and to his reign in general, remained in circulation there. Private stories connected to 1811 secured a place for a seemingly negative episode in the history of Dordrecht. Moreover, the visit created feelings of civic and military pride in the same way that independence did in 1813.
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