The Awful End of Prince William the Silent - (Making History) by Lisa Jardine (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of "The Curious Life of Robert Hooke" comes the gripping account of the assassination, in 1584, of Prince William of Orange--the first assassination of a head of state with a handgun.

From the Back Cover

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 Quotes

"Brief, pithy and fascinating... Jardine does justice to an intriguing topic, and the book reads as scholarly without being pedantic." - Omaha World-Herald
"A lively account of an important historical turning point . . . Thorough and well written." - Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
"A fascinating, amusing, scholarly little book... I was absolutely charmed by this book." - Washington Post
"Jardine writes with fluid precision and offers many dashes of historical color." - Wall Street Journal
"[A] marvelous study of a single event and its numerous echoes." - Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating account... Deftly and efficiently places this event in the political, religious, social, and cultural context of its times." - Library Journal
"Nobody can explain factual history more clearly than Jardine, but the best part of this book concerns more abstract implications of that event in 1584. Its resonances will certainly make its readers sit up and think . . . An ominous line of descent links the firing of that pistol in 1584 with 9/11 and the consequent threats to our lives and liberties." - Jan Morris, The Times (London)
"Nobody can explain factual history more clearly than Jardine, but the best part of this book concerns more abstract implications." - Jan Morris, The Times (London)
"Brisk and splendidly told . . . Jardine's book is popular narrative at its best--quick, sure, detailed and broadly entertaining." - Newsday