My first thanks must go to the Electors to Ford's Lectureship in English History in the University of Oxford, who honoured me with the invitation to discharge that formidable responsibility in 1969, generously interpreting the statute so as to allow me to deal with a subject which contained nearly as much Netherlands as it did English history. To Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, and his fellow Electors, I am grateful for much encouragement, guidance and hospitality. The colleagues and pupils upon whom I have from time to time inflicted...