The audience on stage. Shaping executions from below during the Dutch Revolt, 1560-1590

The executions of the counts of Egmond and Horne are among the most memorable events of the Dutch Revolt. Under protestants and Catholics alike, the beheadings caused great public outrage. In historiography, these executions are mostly regarded as a self-evident part of the violent conflict. Indeed, in the sixteenth century executions were nothing special: they formed an intrinsic part of the juridical system. The outrage caused by the executions of political dissidents and heretics is, therefore, noteworthy. Apparently, for the sixteenth-century Dutch, these executions were not self-evident at all. In this research, executions during the Dutch Revolt are regarded as political communication forms. The aim is to analyze how and why executions were exploited on multiple sides of the conflict: by Protestants as well as Catholics, and in the provinces under Habsburgs rule as well as in the rebellious regions.