Author

Publication

2005 - HarperCollins, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

43,750 words, Guess

Page Count

175 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • OCLC Control Number61247416
  • Better World Books9780060838355

Classifications

  • DDC364.152/4/09492031
  • LCCDH188.W7 J37 2005
  • LCCDH188.W7J37 2005

Description

"In The Awful End of Prince William the Silent, Lisa Jardine explores the historical ramifications of the first assassination of a head of state with a hand-gun. The shooting of Prince William of Orange in the hallway of his Delft residence in July 1584 by a French Catholic - the second attempt on his life - had immediate political consequences: it was a serious setback for the Protestant cause in the Netherlands, as its forces fought for independence from the Catholic rule of the Habsburg empire. But, as Jardine illustrates, its implications for those in positions of power were even more far-reaching, as the assassination brutally and irrevocably heralded the arrival of a lethal new threat to the security of nations: a weapon that could be concealed and used to deadly effect at point-blank range." "Queen Elizabeth I, William's close Protestant ally, was devastated by his death and, being the subject of assassination plots herself, thrown into panic; in the aftermath of William's murder, legislation was enacted in the English Parliament making it an offence to bring a pistol anywhere near a royal palace. Elizabeth's terror was not misplaced - as Jardine observes, this assassination was the first in a long and bloody line that would take in those of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, and is all too relevant even today."--BOOK JACKET.

First Sentence

THE PROTESTANT PRINCE who fell victim to a Catholic assassin's three bullets in July 1584 had not been destined from birth to lead a nation.

Subjects

Genres

  • Biography

Other Editions

  • The awful end of Prince William the Silent: the first assassination of a head of state with a handgunHarperCollins2005-01-01
Show 1 more editions

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