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The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Hand-Gun by: Lisa Jardine List Price: £6.99 City Travel Guides Price: £5.49 You Save: £1.50 (21%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780007192588 ISBN: 0007192584 Label: HarperPerennial Manufacturer: HarperPerennial Number Of Pages: 144 Publication Date: June 19, 2006 Publisher: HarperPerennial Studio: HarperPerennial Sales Rank: 444113 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Sunday Times: 'Jardine cleverly illuminates a much longer history of violence and the vulnerability of the powerful to the assassin's bullet.' The Spectator: 'there is much that is good in it' The Times: 'Nobody can explain factual history more clearly than Jardine' Sunday Times: 'masterly... [Jardine] draws on archives, literature, science and art to paint images as richly evocative as a Rembrandt' The Observer: 'an enthralling train ride of a book, light, swift and perfectly prepared…an engrossing spirtely read' Scotland on Sunday: 'Lisa Jardine has written with her typical flair, the prehistory of our haunted obsession with the handgun' Financial Times: 'recounts the events leading up to (Prince William's) death with concision and clarity' The Guardian: 'this study makes of him the essential artist' Book Description: A brilliantly detailed and gripping account of the assassination in 1584 of Prince William of Orange, and the shockwaves it sent through an age. Synopsis: This is a brilliantly detailed and gripping account of the assassination in 1584 of Prince William of Orange, and the shockwaves it sent through an age. The illustrious "Making History Series", edited by Lisa Jardine and Amanda Foreman, explores an eclectic mix of history's tipping points. In "The Awful End of Prince William the Silent", series editor Lisa Jardine explores the historical ramifications of just such a instance, the first assassination of a head of state with a hand-held 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 Hapsburg empire. But, as Jardine brilliantly illustrates, its implications for those in positions of power were even more far-reaching, as the assassination heralded the arrival of a lethal new threat to the security of nations - a pistol 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 thrown into panic; in the aftermath of William's death, 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 including those of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 and is all too relevant today. Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - William the Silent - now 'the Silenced'A small, but eloquently written study, dealing with the assassination of William, Prince of Orange. Many of you may expect to read about the birth and evolution of the wheel-lock pistol, others - extremely detailed information about the day of the "red herrings", as Albert Finney (in his role as Hercule Puarot) calls the day of murder. Don't want to spoil it for you, but on the evolution of the "dag" the information is not very detailed. There are a few paragraphs speaking about the pistoleers and the change of tactics, but its mostly about the diplomatic background and the diplomatic gains and losses of the "potentati" of the period. A large part of the book deals with the impact of the Prince's violent death on the English society and diplomacy, ... Read More: Rating:  - Interesting approach,Though the approach of this book, focussing on the assassination and its effects, is interesting, it is worked out in a way that suits those that have no knowledge of the subject before starting to read this. Those that are familiar with William of Orange's life, the rebellion and the Dutch Republic, this book is mainly a missed opportunity. The chapters on William's life can be skipped, because we buy this book to read about his death. The chapter about handguns is interesting but doesn't add that much. The most interesting is the part about the earlier failed attempt at his life, and this is rather brief. This part does motivate to go and look for more books on that specific topic, if these exist. Basically, I would have preferred to see this topic ... Read More: |
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