P. de Zeeuw (1890–1968)

A hagiography of William the Silent (of Nassau), and nationalistic retelling of the events that led to the independence of The Netherlands from the Spanish.
This book is written for children, perhaps to age 16. However, it was written (in Dutch) in the 1950s or so, so the style is rather out of date. And the placement of commas is often puzzling.
Furthermore, with the younger people in mind, the less pleasant parts of the life of William are not mentioned - for example, the illegitimate show more children, the unfaithfulness of wife number 2; for more of this, consult Wikipedia. It could be argued that this is not central to the main story, and it isn't. So 'unpleasantness' does abound in the telling of the atrocities of the French, especially committed by the Duke of Alva. I wonder if the Roman Catholic Church and/or the Spanish (and French) have ever admitted the wrong they committed against those who wanted to read a Bible, against those who chose for the Reformation, in fact even against those who wanted freedom of religion.
For me, it was an exercise in reading Dutch, and it's also my first time I've learnt about this part of history. It's interesting that all the books of the Reformation that I have read, mainly from an English or European perspective, have not or barely mentioned the events in The Netherlands. Mind you, this book stays close the subject too, that of the liberation of 'ons land' (our land). show less

We read this in early second grade and loved it although I've since found it marked as an older reading selection such as 5th grade and up. A fluently reading child could easily read this although we enjoyed it as a read-aloud.