Resumen de Loyalty counts: Spanish Netherlandish Jetons from the Eighty Years’ War
This article analyzes Spanish Netherlandish jeton imagery produced during the first part of the Eighty Years’ War, from its inception in 1568 until the death of King Philip II of Spain in 1598. The Northern Netherlands has traditionally been upheld as the purveyor of varied and inventive imagery for jetons. This article finds evidence that the South, too, tracked the course of the war with intelligent and complex designs crafted to present the inevitability of God’s protection and the desire to maintain the status quo. To galvanize their base, the Spanish Netherlands struck jetons with representations of Philip II as defender of Catholicism and divine leader, employed religion, ancient history, and satire to aggrandize military victories, and portrayed the horrors of war to engender sympathy and fortitude.
