Dutch Declaration of Independence

Audience

The audience for the Dutch Declaration of Independence was threefold. First was the Spanish king, Philip II. The declaration represented the northern provinces’ formal renunciation of the authority of the king to rule in the Netherlands. A second audience, of course, consisted of the citizens of the northern provinces, including everyone from minor nobility through the merchant class to peasants. A final audience was international. The Dutch rebels needed aid, in the forms of manpower, finances, and supplies for the ongoing Dutch Revolt as well as political or royal leadership; the need for the latter would become even more pressing upon the assassination of William of Orange three years later. Although they eventually became a republic, their initial instinct was to have the country ruled by a monarch. For these reasons, France’s duke of Anjou, England’s Queen Elizabeth I, the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and other international figures and states were a significant part of the audience.