This work is a part of several volumes on the history of the United Netherlands, presenting a precise outline of the Eighty Years' War and the formation of the modern Netherlands after the foreign political conspiracy. History of the United Netherlands, 1588a is a well-researched work by American author, diplomat, and well-known historian, John Lothrop Motley. He believed it was necessary to unfold, as minutely as possible, the secret details of conspiracy of king and priest against the public and to show how it was perplexed at last by the self-helping solid forces of two free nations combined. In this work, Mortley talks about important events in the history of the Netherlands, such as Prophecies as to the Year 1588; Willoughby reluctantly takes Command; Spanish Duplicity and Procrastination, and many more. Mortley is best known for his works on the Netherlands, like the three-volume work The Rise of the Dutch Republic and the four-volume History of the United Netherlands. It was mainly the period of the United Provinces in 1846 when Motley had begun to plan a history of the Netherlands. This work was prepared on a huge scale and embodied the results of a more considerable amount of original research. Motley planned to carry his history down to 1648, but unfortunately, he died before finishing this work. By then, he had published, in four volumes, The History of the United Netherlands, 1584–1609 (1860–67).