The Rhetoric of William the Silent’s Apologie a Dialectical Perspective

Abstract

Inspired by Toulmin’s views on the ‘formal turn’ in post-Renaissance appreciation of reasonableness, we react in this paper against the strict separation between dialectical and rhetorical approaches to argumentation. For a sound analysis of argumentative discourse we believe that these two approaches must be systematically combined. We shall illustrate our integrated method of analysis by a partial reconstruction of William of Orange’s famous Apologie (1581), which justifies his actions as leader of the Dutch Revolt against King Philip II, the Spanish ruler of the Low Countries. Let us begin by offering some historical background information.