Independence – a term synonymous with freedom – isn’t something one normally ponders on during the Thanksgiving season. America’s liberation from the tyrannies of Great Britain during the Revolutionary War is more of a Fourth of July festivity. However, the U.S. wasn’t the only nation who fought a long and weary battle for freedom, and a well-known hymn, often sung during the Thanksgiving Holiday, was born out of a fight for independence.
In the 15th and 16th Centuries, there was a pact of 17 provinces located in the “Low Countries” of Europe which covered modern day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, part of the North of France, and a small part of Western Germany. The 17 provinces were ruled by the House of Habsburg, a Spanish empire, with Philip II, appointed by his father King Charles V, as King. While Catholicism ruled the land, protestant movements such as Calvanism, Lutherans under Martin Luther, and the Anabapstists, began to rise during the early to mid-1500’s. King Charles V and Phillip II, who were very anti protestant, resisted the rise, and by 1566, the Dutch peoples began to revolt, marking the beginning of the Dutch War of Independence that lasted 80 years.
It was during this time that Adrianus Valerius was born in the tiny town of Middleburg Holland in 1575, the same year that the town was liberated from the Spanish. His father, an organist, bought a small church organ for 24 guilders ($13.00 U.S.) when a church was destroyed during the war. Young Adrianus grew up surrounded by war, and, although he held a high positioned job as a tax collector and City Councilman as an adult, his heart was with peasant life and those in the middle class. While alive, he wrote prolifically, penning many poems, hymns, and melodies, mostly surrounding the Dutch War for Independence. His writings were published in 1631, 6 years after his death. Valerius was a Christian, strong in his Protestant view with a solid sense of Dutch nationality and love for his Dutch heritage. His work became hugely popular long after his death as the type of writing that his countrymen flocked to in times of trouble.
Midway through the Dutch War of Independence, the Battle of Turnhout, also known as the Battle of Tielenheide, occurred in 1597. Turnhout and the neighboring village of Tielen were located in present day Belgium. The Spanish forces, under the direction of their commander County Varax were sorely defeated by the Dutch Calvary under the direction of Prince Maurice, and Spain saw 2000 killed and wounded with nearly 700 captured. Although the Dutch didn’t see full independence until nearly 40 years later, the Battle of Turnhout had a decisive impact on Adrianus Valerius. Valerius had firsthand knowledge of religious tyranny and oppression – the strong hand of the government in attempting to stifle religious freedoms and reforms. During this particular time, the Dutch Protestants were forbidden to gather for worship. Valerius also saw God’s hand in what eventually would result in true Dutch freedom – the freedom to openly worship the Lord their God. It’s from this that Adrianus Valerius penned the following:
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