Description
Francisco Verdugo (1537 – 1595) was a Spanish military commander and one of the most tenacious defenders of Habsburg authority during the Eighty Years’ War. Rising through the ranks from musketeer to senior commander, he served King Philip II of Spain across multiple theatres, earning successive appointments as Governor of Breda, Thionville, and the Citadel of Namur before his most significant posting. In 1581 he was appointed Stadhouder — the last such representative of the Spanish Crown — over the northern Dutch provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland.
His tenure was marked by fierce but ultimately futile resistance. In 1581 he won the Battle of Noordhorn, and in 1586 he successfully commanded Spanish forces at the Battle of Zutphen. Yet the tide was turning inexorably against him. He lost more and more territory to Prince Maurits (Maurice of Nassau, son of the assasinated William of Orange, the father of the Dutch Revolt). In 1594, Verdugo mounted a thirty-one-week siege of Coevorden, but when Maurice arrived with an Anglo-Dutch relief force, the Spanish were compelled to retreat. By 1595, only the city of Groningen and the region of Twente remained under his control. He died that same year, having tenaciously defended a position that had long become indefensible.
Francisco Verdugo was married to Dorothea von Mansfeld, one of the daughters of Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld, who was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1592 to 1594.
Jean Le Clerc (1657–1736), Geschiedenissen der Vereenigde Nederlanden (History of the United Provinces of the Netherlands), published in Amsterdam in 1730 by Zacharias Chatelain. A landmark account of the Dutch Republic by the Swiss-born theologian, philosopher, and prolific man of letters Jean Le Clerc. Writing in the tradition of Enlightenment humanism, Le Clerc traces the history of the United Provinces from the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt against Spain in 1566 (the Iconoclastic Fury) through the consolidation of the Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces, bringing both scholarly rigour and narrative clarity to one of the defining struggles of early modern Europe.
The work is richly illustrated throughout. The engraved portrait series presents the principal figures of the age — among them William of Orange, Philip II of Spain, the Duke of Alva, and Francisco Verdugo — while the double-page plates depict pivotal episodes of the Dutch Revolt: the Sieges of Alkmaar, Leiden, and Antwerp, the assassination of William I, and his funerary monument in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.
- Title on print: “Franciscus Verdugo, Gouverneur van Gelderlandt, Vrieslandt en Groeningen, Wegens de Koning van Spanje” (FV, Governor of Gelderland, Friesland and Groening, on behalf of the King of Spain). Top left numbering: “Tom. I. No. 29.” “Tom.” is an abbreviation for the Latin word “Tomus”, which translates to “volume” or “tome”.
- From: Jean Le Clerc (1657–1736), Geschiedenissen der Vereenigde Nederlanden (History of the United Provinces of the Netherlands), published in Amsterdam in 1730 by Zacharias Chatelain.
- Verso: empty.
- Age and type: c.1730, engraving.
- Size: image 26×17,5cm, sheet 37x24cm.
- Condition: excellent; suitable for framing; wide margins.
- Click here for same print in collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
