Lille and the Dutch Revolt
Urban Stability in an Era of Revolution, 1500–1582

This comprehensive study explains why Lille was renowned for adhering to the existing order.

Robert S. DuPlessis (Author)

9780521894173, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 May 2002

392 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

"DuPlessis' study makes exemplary use of historiography to establish the issues, of social theory to frame the questions and pursue their answers, and of comparative history to enhance the applicability of the results....his book is a major addition to the study of the Dutch Revolt and to the historical study of collective action." Jan de Vries, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

In the literature on the Dutch revolt - indeed, in the scholarship on revolution as a whole - the experience of the leading textile and trading centre of Lille stands out as singular. Although affected by powerful economic, political, and religious currents that provoked rebellion in many other cities, it was renowned for adhering to the existing order. In this comprehensive study, Robert S. DuPlessis draws on a wide range of primary sources to illuminate the processes of selective adaptation that by the 1560s had endowed Lille with a structural tendency to stability.

List of tables
List of figures
Abbreviations
Notes
Acknowledgements
Introduction: cities and the Dutch revolt
Part I. Forces of Revolt and Stabilising Structures: 1. Magistrat, city and central state
2. 'Substantial merchants conducting important trade'
3. 'Cloth of every type and price'
4. Impoverishment and intervention
5. Piety and the parameters of reform
Epilogue: stress and stability
Part II. Revolution and Stability: 6. A city's 'fine duty'
7. 'Tramping and oppression': Lille under Alba and Requesens, 1566–7
8. From 'common cause' to 'special league': Lille between estates-general and reconciliation, 1576–82
Conclusion: stability in revolution.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]