The Awful End of Prince William the Silent : The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun
Author(s): Lisa Jardine
The assassination of Prince William of Orange by a French Catholic in 1584 had immediate political consequences and a profound effect on the course of history. It was a serious setback for Protestants in the Netherlands, who were struggling for independence from the Catholic rule of the Hapsburg Empire. But the crime's ramifications were even more earth-shattering, for it heralded the arrival of a new threat to the safety of world leaders and the security of nations: a pistol that could easily be concealed on one's person and employed to lethal effect at point-blank range.
In this provocative, fascinating, and enormously engaging work, noted author and historian Lisa Jardine brilliantly recounts the brazen act of religious terrorism that changed everything—and explores its long and bloody legacy, from the murder of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to the slaying of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, to the plague of terror and violent zealotry that infects our world today.
Review(s):
“Brisk and splendidly told . . . Jardine’s book is popular narrative at its best--quick, sure, detailed and broadly entertaining.”
“[A] marvelous study of a single event and its numerous echoes.”
“Brief, pithy and fascinating... Jardine does justice to an intriguing topic, and the book reads as scholarly without being pedantic.”
“A lively account of an important historical turning point . . . Thorough and well written.”
“A fascinating, amusing, scholarly little book... I was absolutely charmed by this book.”
“Jardine writes with fluid precision and offers many dashes of historical color.”
“Nobody can explain factual history more clearly than Jardine, but the best part of this book concerns more abstract implications.”
“A fascinating account... Deftly and efficiently places this event in the political, religious, social, and cultural context of its times.”
ISBN: 9780060838362