The Ratification of the Peace of Münster, 1648
Dutch and Spanish delegates swear the oath ratifying the Peace of Münster on 15 May 1648, painted by an eyewitness, Gerard ter Borch.
This small panel — just 45 by 58 centimeters — packs in accurate portraits of the Dutch and Spanish delegations who gathered in Münster's town hall to swear the oath ending the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. Ter Borch was present at the negotiations himself and is even thought to have painted his own likeness into the crowd. The Münster treaty formed one part of the wider Peace of Westphalia, which also ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire and established the principle of state sovereignty that still underpins international law. Read more in our article on the Peace of Westphalia.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
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