Today's Wall Street Journal has a review of Lisa
Jardine's soon to be published Going Dutch. The reviewer is the
distinguished Andrew Roberts author of one of my favorites A History of
the English Speaking People since 1900.
I have a double interest in this review.
First Jardine argues in her book that the Dutch under William of Orange conquered England in 1688 and he installed himself, his wife and his whole government in London. The Dutch conquest of England is in fact the origin of modern England, the English Enlightenment and the subsequent American Revolution. I have argued this in many blogs over several years. My views grew out of the extraordinary work of Jonathan Israel the greatest historian of Holland and the Dutch Republic.
I
have talked to many wise and knowledgeable Englishmen and have never
met one who knew and understood this key, vital part of their
history.....none. They were invaded and lost their monarchy. Jardine makes this
historic fact obvious to her readers.
Roberts is a great historian and puts English speaking history in perspective, the same perspective that Churchill developed in his writings. What is important in this regard is that the greatest president, because he fully understands the history that Roberts writes about, is George W. Bush. Both Bush and Roberts appreciate each other and have said so.
Roberts as a reviewer of Jardine's book gets the material wrong. I didn't read Roberts' history after the period in the book since 1960 because no historian can see clearly that close in time. That period in history is relevant here. In the review Roberts argues that the invitation to William of Orange to invade England came from the elite Protestant class, which makes it an invasion by invitation rather than a conquest. Nonsense as we can see in the world today.
The elites of many countries, today, want America to invade their country and change the regime. Start with Tibet, Cuba, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Mexico, Venezuela and Pakistan. That was irrelevant to William of Orange and hardly got him to build 500 ships (largest armada until 1944) and recruit 30,000 soldiers. The British army knew their leader, James, was incompetent and as a consequence they ran away, just like Saddam Hussein's Army did twice.
Roberts is wrong, England was conquered by the freedom loving Dutch Republic. We Americans are the greatest beneficiaries of William and Mary's triumph and so are freedom lovers the world over.