Chapter 2: Historicizing and Pluralizing Wertsch’s Narrative Templates: Freedom and Tolerance in Dutch History Textbooks

“On the whole, so finished a picture of a perfect and absolute tyranny has rarely been presented to mankind by history, as in Alva’s administration of the Netherlands” (Motley, 1856, p. 503). This is John Lothrop Motley’s disastrous conclusion about the Duke of Alva as described in his famous Rise of the Dutch Republic (Motley, 1856). In this bestseller, the U.S. American historian and diplomat writes about the Habsburg Low Countries and their revolt against the Spanish empire and Philip II (1568–1648). Motley framed the Dutch Revolt as a heroic battle for freedom against tyranny and despotism, for justice against injustice, as a fight that paved the way to progress and freedom. Moreover, he linked his interpretation of Dutch history to England in the 17th century and North America in the 18th century. The Dutch Revolt “forms but a single chapter in the great volume of human fate; for the so-called revolutions of Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain” (Motley, 1858, preface).