C. V. Wedgwood on "William the Silent"

Some lessons for entrepreneurs that I found in “William the Silent” by C. V. Wedgewood, a leader who relied on persuasion and perseverance.

C. V. Wedgwood on “William the Silent”

“History is lived forward but it is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning and we can never recapture what it was to know the beginning only.”
C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

A similar insight to Soren Kierkegaard’s lament is that “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Wedgwood’s observation offers helpful guidance for learning from history: don’t work backward from what we know the result to be, but comprehend the range of possibilities. It reminded me of two quotes by a Mignon McLaughlin (from her “Neurotic’s Notebook,” which, despite its title, is chock full of aphorisms):

“Try as we will, we cannot honestly recall our youth, for we have lost its main ingredient: suspense.
“Even cowards can endure hardship, only the brave can endure suspense.”

It’s hard to tell a story without foreshadowing or throwing in a “little did they know” style of remarks. But I read this quote and determined to learn more about the author and the work it was part of since it promised many more insights. Reading her “William the Silent” was enlightening. I knew very little of the history of the Netherlands. I studied European history in high school but remembered very little of the period in question, which was fundamentally different from today in many ways.

Nevertheless, I think some valuable lessons can be extracted, so I will attempt to do so.

Netherlands in the 1500’s was a collection of small states

“Such then were the Netherlands, the most politically chaotic, the most culturally and industrially advanced, the most highly populated district in all Europe: a land with a vast and active proletariat, weavers, dockhands, miners, laborers — we know their gargoyle faces and uncouth bodies from the paintings of Bruegel — with an energetic and flourishing middle-class, merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers; with a proud and ancient aristocracy. A land drawn outwards by a hundred activities, by the international connections of its nobles as by the financial ventures of its traders and the cosmopolitan interests of its seamen and shipowners. Finally, a land with no semblance of unity, in which the nobility had been quarreling with the merchants, the burghers with the artisans, the cities with the countryside, and the trades with each other for as long as anyone could remember. A bundle of arrows with the inscription ‘L’union fait la force’ was a very favorite device of the Netherlands — as pretty a piece of wishful thinking as one could wish to see. Yet it was not, in time of crisis, untrue. For this disunited country was paradoxically united in its love for its own disunity. That was the element of union, the common respect of all for the time- honored particularities of their neighbors.”
C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

Martin Luther had posted his “95 Theses” in 1517 and the conflict between Protestants and Catholics was roiling Europe during the late 1500’s (and beyond for that matter). The Dutch had a reputation for a natural disputatiousness that is evident throughout the events in the book, and William the Silent finds himself taking up the challenge of trying to unite them into a larger and more effective union as Spain and France attempt to carve them up.

One reason I found the history so fascinating is that William the Silent has little at his command beyond an inheritance and his powers of persuasion. In much the same way that entrepreneurs must learn to marshal resources beyond their direct control ((h/t Howard Stevenson’s “entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunities beyond resources controlled”), he had to knit together a loose collection of actors into an organized resistance.

By 1569 William the Silent had deployed all of his resources and lost everything

Yet Alva had stopped neither his penetration into the country nor his junction with the French reinforcement, which met him three days later. It was Alva’s turn to be anxious, for he had not reckoned on this persistent refusal to accept defeat. Incapable of carrying a spectacular and sudden victory, like Louis, William was nevertheless undismayed by disaster. In spite of the riots among his own men, in spite of the slaughter in the darkness on the night of October 19th, he had penetrated far into Brabant and made the junction with the French which both he and Alva thought would give him decisive superiority.

Both William and Alva proved wrong. The French reinforcement consisted of a handful of ill-armed volunteers, too few to make up for the losses in the passage of the Jaulche, and encumbered by a crowd of women and children. By this time, money and provisions had both given out — the country could supply none of the first and too little of the second–and winter was at hand. To turn and fight would mean almost certain defeat, for William dared not pit his discontented troops against Alva’s well-controlled force. He had paid out now all that remained in the treasury, one month’s wages for more than two months’ service. The men fell back to the French border, mutinous and taking such movables as they could steal by the way. […] He struggled back at length in the New Year of 1569 to an inhospitable Strasbourg. He was so ill by this time that he could no longer ride, and his haggard and desperate condition provoked pity in all who met him, except his mercenary captains who stormed his lodging at Strasbourg threatening to make an end of him if he would not meet their wages. Abandoning all hope of retaining his troops, he sold what remained of the artillery to pay the men, left his plate, tapestries and household stuffs in pawn to the merchants of Strasbourg and escaped one dark night down the Rhine, traveling in a covered barge, almost alone.

The disaster was total. He had thrown in all the resources he had, his entire fortune, the gifts and loans of a trusting and faithful people, and he had lost everything, money, men, credit, and reputation. ‘We may regard the Prince of Orange as a dead man’, wrote Alva with satisfaction.1 But he was wrong, for William, out of the trough of disaster, had written to his brother John, assessing the damage, counting his starveling hopes. ‘With God’s help’, he wrote, ‘I shall go on’. Strength lay in that lonely ‘I.’

C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

With his ” persistent refusal to accept defeat” William the Silent remained “undismayed by disaster.” He did what he could to pay his debts and retreat ed to a safe haven. This is not the same as trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. Buy he was working toward goals larger than his personal glory or ambition and I think this allowed him to be flexible in approach.

“I have come to make my grave in this land.”

The German princes, gathered at Dillenburg, although impressed by the revolt in the Netherlands, were still unwilling to make a rash decision. Their hesitation was cut short when Arend van Dorp arrived at Dillenburg, bringing with him a loan of ten thousand florins raised in Holland for the war expenses of the Prince of Orange. The assembled princes stared, for could it be supposed that the Dutch were investing in an unsound speculation? Without more ado they granted William leave to recruit his troops in their lands. The army sprang into being.

[…]

On July 8th, 1572, three years and ten months after his disastrous retreat, he crossed the Rhine at Duisburg, entered the province of Gelderland, and turned his face towards Brussels. This time he would either retrieve his former failure or die in the Netherlands: ‘I have come,’ he wrote, ‘to make my grave in this land.’ Nor, in fact, once across that frontier, did he retrace his steps.

C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

It’s funny how an outside investment from a group with a reputation for shrewd pragmatism altered the perspective of the German princes. Attracting the right backers can cause a cascade.

William the Silent crossing the Rhine was a “burn your boats” move. I am not normally a fan of “going all in” but sometimes you have no choice.

Pick terrain you understand better than your competitors

“And at last on October 1st a steady wind from the north-west coincided with a high tide. The miracle had happened. Steadily the waters rose, twelve inches, two feet, three feet. The barges stirred, lifted, were afloat.

Even so, Boisot thought they would have a struggle yet. The water was not so deep but that a man might wade and fight in it. The Dutch knew the power and the limitations of the element they had themselves called in, but the Spaniards did not; the whole thing was mad to them, laughable when the water was beyond the barriers and the grotesque barges foundering in the shallows, but horrible, incomprehensible, and frightening when the barriers broke, and the water crept up and slowly up, and the fantastic fleet came menacingly on, shoved through the shallows by swimming and wading devils, men who seemed like some unknown amphibian race, a nightmare from a traveler tale, while behind them whistled the cold and rainy wind, whipping the waters into a flurry of greedy waves. Valdes had reasoned sanely that the fields would barely be navigable to Leyden gates and his men could fight knee-deep as well as the Dutch, but his men did not think so; panic spread like a storm among them. At daybreak on October 3rd the Dutch found that the Spaniards had gone, marching knee-deep, waist- deep, fleeing before the encroaching element, their belongings on their shoulders, their cannon abandoned in the swirl of waters, their wagons all awash.

[..]

It was a moment for joy-bells, for speeches and congratulations, and the striking of commemorative medals. The relief of Leyden was something which must be remembered through all the ages, and by what monument could this be achieved? In his choice William revealed the constructive greatness of his mind. The erection of a column, or the striking of a coin, means little enough ten years later. He sought instead a living monument which would grow with the reborn nation, and enlarge and refresh its national life. To commemorate the liberation of Leyden he founded her great University, offering thus in the midst of war and destruction, of change and violence, a salute to the things which are true and enduring, the freedom of mind and the intellectual liberty for which he was fighting.”

C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

It’s an arresting image: the water is rising, and the Dutch feel at home in hip-deep water in a canal. The Spanish, while formidable on land, don’t know what to make of it and panic.

It reminds me of a question that Edith Harbaugh posted on Twitter: “Who wins in a fight between an alligator and a bear?” My answer was it depends on where the fight takes place. The key to winning is picking favorable terrain (or the right niche). Always worth bearing in mind: you never want a fair fight; you want to pick a situation and a moment that maximizes whatever advantages you have and minimizes–or better yet neutralizes–any advantages a competitor has. You get to pick the niche you start in. If it’s small enough and consists of customers your more established competitors view as undesirable, they are much less likely to fight you for them.

Leiden University was the first university established in the northern Netherlands. William the Silent was looking beyond a successful end to the war.

Fight a war in defense of government by consent
without sacrificing the principle or losing the war

“William had to solve the problem of fighting a war in defense of government by consent without sacrificing the principle or losing the war. At no time in history has this been an easy task.[..]

The confidence felt by the ordinary people was fairly reflected in the conduct of the Estates whose growing trust in him would have been a temptation to a more ambitious man, but although more than once in his career he might have used his personal popularity to concentrate in his hands something like dictatorial power, no crisis, however serious, did in fact tempt him to overstep the bounds of that authority which the Estates had conferred on him, nor when they voted the increase of his power did he exploit his position or forget the ultimate source of his greatness. By this means he was able in the midst of war to create a state organically sound.”
C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

The Dutch model of leadership was based on stewardship, each state selected a Stadtholder, who acted as a temporary leader. But multiple states could select and same steward and William the Silent became effectively the head of state when he was selected as Stadtholder for most of the Dutch states.

None more tenacious or tolerant

“There have been politicians more successful, or more subtle; there have been none more tenacious or more tolerant. ‘The wisest, gentlest and bravest man who ever led a nation,’ he is one of that small band of statesmen whose service to humanity is greater than their service to their time or their people. In spite of the differences of speech or political theory, the conventions and complexities which make one age incomprehensible to another, some men have a quality of greatness which gives their lives universal significance. Such men, in whatever walk of life, in whatever chapter of fame, mystic or saint, scientist or doctor, poet or philosopher, and even–but how rarely–soldier or statesman, exist to shame the cynic, and to renew the faith of humanity in itself.

Of this number was William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, call the Silent.”

C. V. Wedgwood in “William the Silent: William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584” [Archive]

The Spanish put a price on his head and William the Silent became the first leader to be killed by a handgun. He was ahead of his time in his religious tolerance, his commitment to local self-determination, and his support for education. The Dutch view him in much the same way Americans view George Washington.

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C. V. Wedgwood on “William the Silent”