Sir John van Olden Barnavelt

The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt was a Jacobean play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1619, and produced in the same year by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. Based on controversial contemporaneous political events, the play was itself controversial and had to survive an attempt at suppression by religious authorities.

The historical Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (spellings vary), "Lord of Berkel, Rodenrys, etc.," was a prominent Dutch politician and statesman who was executed in The Hague on 13 May 1619. He was beheaded at the age of 71, after a conviction on a charge of high treason for allegedly conspiring with the Spanish enemies of the Netherlands — though he maintained his innocence to the end of his life. Since Holland was an English ally and English troops had long been involved in their conflict with Spain, the case of Oldenbarnevelt was of immense interest in England.

Fletcher and Massinger composed a drama on the subject that was ready for the stage in a scant three months, by August 1619. The play they wrote has been described as "an ideologically charged work with distinct republican and anti-authoritarian connotations." It was actable on the Jacobean stage only because it conformed to the official line on Oldenbarnevelt's life and death. King James I was an opponent of the Dutch statesman, and especially of his Arminianism. The Prince of Orange, Oldenbarnevelt's rival and the main engine of his downfall, was a close ally of James. In the play, Barnavelt is plainly guilty of treason and attempts to seduce English soldiers to join with him — unsuccessfully, of course.

The play even touches on contemporary anti-feminism. It includes an Englishwoman who disputes with Dutch Arminian women about the proper role of women in society. The Englishwoman is traditional in outlook, while her Dutch counterparts think that women should rule. Some readers, like Algernon Charles Swinburne, stated that this was anti-feminist satire.

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