William the Silent: Father of the Netherlands

Introduction William of Orange is to the citizens of the Netherlands what George Washington is to Americans. If anyone at all can claim to be the father of that country, it is William. And yet he is more than father; he is also the savior, under God, of Calvinism in the Lowlands. He occupies a crucial place in Dutch history, and he is honored in the Dutch national anthem: "Wilhelmus van Nassau; ben ik van Duitschen bloed…" (William of Nassau; I am of German blood). That he could be both...