This book describes the crucial period in the monumental eighty-year Dutch struggle against the Spanish Empire, through which a small nation gained its independence from one of the mightiest European powers. Dr. Ridley shows how even though the Dutch Revolt was at its lowest point, Maurits of Nassau and the Dutch fought on and the Revolt survived. It was a turbulent time, with complex diplomacy and shifting alliances, assassination plots, France torn by civil war, Spain spearheading the Counter-Reformation, England facing invasion and Europe eventually convulsed with the Thirty Years' War. In...