A Triplet of Rogues

In 1690, the feud between William III and the city of Amsterdam resulted in an almost unprecedented flood of libels. A great many of these were directed against Romeyn, whilst a sizeable number came to his defence. The exchange became so vicious that historians have labelled it the ‘pamphlet war’

Early in March, a curious broadsheet appeared entitled Bekendmaakinge aan deliefhebbers [‘Notification to the Aficionados’]. It purported to announce the recent publication of several pamphlets and the forthcoming issue of another pamphlet by the bookseller Meyndert Uytwerf of The Hague. One of these was a reprint of a key Orangist pamphlet, supposedly published in Utrecht two months earlier, entitled Spiegel der waerheyd [‘Mirror of Truth’]. A certain Ericus Walten had corrected the edition, ‘assuring aficionados that it will contain few misprints or none at all’. Other pamphlets in print were to elucidate certain ‘Political Conferences on Mount Parnassus’, authored by Govert Bidloo, a ‘Quack from The Hague’. The second edition of another work by Bidloo, entitled ‘Description of Several Portraits Exhibited on Mount Parnassus’, was also for sale at Uytwerf's bookshop; this work was ‘ingeniously’ illustrated by ‘Archicornutus ab Alto from Haarlem, also known as Romeyn de Hooghe’. Finally, another forthcoming publication from Uytwerf’s press was to be entitled ‘The Triple Pasquinade, or Triplet of Rogues: Being a Succinct Description of the Life and Deeds of Romeyn de Hooghe, Govert Bidloo, and Ericus Walten.’

It was not difficult for readers to conclude that the ‘Notification’ was a fraud. Obviously, its author was not the bookseller and publisher Meyndert Uytwerf, advertising the latest products from his press. Instead, he was some obscure hack attempting to expose Uytwerf as the anonymous publisher of a batch of Orangist pamphlets that had been circulating recently. The author attributed the authorship of these libels to a ‘Triplet of Rogues’ (trits van schurken) consisting of Govert Bidloo, Ericus Walten, and Romeyn de Hooghe.

Around the same time, another broadsheet, similar in form and under the identical title Bekendt-maekinge, was circulating. Like the previous one, it carried the (fake) imprint of Meyndert Uytwerf.