These Factions and Schisms: Countering Absolutist Thought in Church and State

After the Dutch Republic signed a truce with Spain, political and religious tensions nearly destroyed the emerging nation. At its heart, the conflict concerned the proper relationship between the authority of individual provinces and the nation. This crisis reached its highest point when the stadholder, Maurits of Nassau, toppled the Advocaat of Holland, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, enabling the National Synod of Dort to convene. Within three months of Oldenbarnevelt’s execution, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger brought a politically-charged tragedy to the stage. The play uses this Dutch crisis to comment on similar issues in England. Even after suffering two rounds of censorship, Barnavelt demands that English audiences recognize their own challenges in the civil war that had recently been averted in the Dutch Republic.