English Protestant Literary Networks in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1592–1620: The Household of God

English Protestant Literary Networks in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1592–1620: The Household of God explores how literature shaped political and religious debate in England and the Low Countries between 1592 and 1620. It argues that plays, poems, pamphlets, and correspondence were used by militant Protestant networks as a form of persuasive “soft power” to influence public opinion, promote international alliances, and advance competing political agendas. Bringing together literary analysis with political and cultural history, the book reconstructs a dynamic Anglo-Dutch public sphere in which writers, soldiers, translators, and exiles collaborated across borders. Case studies ranging from the garrison town of Brill to the London stage reveal how ideas circulated through everyday encounters as well as print and performance. By placing England within a wider European context, the study offers a new account of early modern literary culture as deeply transnational, showing how religious identity, migration, and media combined to shape political thought in a period of crisis and transformation.