The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun

#104
Title: The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun
Author: Lisa Jardine
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2005
Genre: history
176 pages

In some ways this is less about the actual assassination of William the Silent than about the context of his death, including the means (the relatively new wheel-lock pistol), the political climate, and the religious conflicts of 16th-century Europe. The assassination itself occupies a very small portion of this volume.

Those who did not take a survey course on European or British history or the Rennaisance, or those who had trouble understanding the political machinations that preceded those fictionalized in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, will find the first chapter useful; it provides a not-too-dry overview of the Protestant/Catholic conflicts, particularly in relation to the Low Countries. Chapter 2 treats the murder itself. After that, the order of the book is puzzling. It backtracks to discuss a previous attempt on William's life, then a discourse on the history and characteristics of the wheel-lock pistol, then two chapters with non-linear chronologies on Elizabeth I, followed by primary sources in the appendices (most notably, the fatwa against William issued by Phillip II).

The chapters that actually narrate daily events are more interesting than the chapters that present a broader historical portrait; the latter suffer as all surveys do from being a blur of names and policies. That the text is not chronological adds some confusion and difficulty orienting oneself. The author's comparisons of the events to contemporary political conflicts, while interesting, might better have been served up as a final chapter that emphasized both the historical import of the assassination and its contemporary relevance. Still and all, this was an enjoyable book, and I'll watch for more from Lisa Jardine in the future.