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He was only a Dutch tailor's apprentice, but for nearly two years Jan van Leyden led a radical sect of persecuted Anabaptists to repeated triumphs over their powerful enemies, the combined powers of church and state. Revered by his followers as a new King David, the charismatic young leader pronounced the north German city of Munster a new Zion. Lutherans and Roman Catholics were expelled as "godless," while Jan's 10,000 true believers waited behind their double walls and moats for the apocalyptic final attack by the hired armies of the Prince Bishop, supported by all the rulers of Europe. Jan's makeshift army of tradesmen and artisans, inspired by his courage and his untutored military genius, repulsed repeated assaults by the Prince Bishop with humiliating ease. But at the height of his power Jan went too far. He had himself crowned King. He expropriated all private property. He took sixteen wives, supposedly emulating the B |
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eBooks > Titles > Authors > History > World > Anthony Arthur > The Tailor-King
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