The Ambassador, the Spy, and the Chocolatier

The prominence of the Dutch in global trade, combined with the industry of their press, made the 18th-century Dutch Republic an unrivalled news hub. Ambassadors and unofficial agents acting for foreign governments or for themselves descended on the Netherlands to buy influence and silence opponents. In the process, they turned the streets of Amsterdam and The Hague into frontlines in a European war of words.

One such incident in this struggle began on 15 September 1711, when James Dayrolle, an English envoy in The Hague, wrote to Whitehall complaining about an incendiary pamphlet that had appeared in a bookshop several days earlier. The offensive work was a Jacobite pamphlet, Formulair de Serment d’Abjuration (‘Form of the Oath of Abjuration’), which criticised Queen Anne, whom the Jacobites regarded as an unlawful usurper. Dayrolle promptly complained to the Dutch authorities about the pamphlet. Eager to ensure that their press did not give offence to a close ally, the Court of Holland saw to it that Formulair’s printer, Mattias Rogguet, was arrested and taken in for questioning.