Dish engraved with the names of rebels

Six men, a single goal: to drive the Spanish from the Netherlands. The names of six friends are engraved on this dish. Among them are four of the noblemen who in 1566 had pleaded in vain for a less despotic regime. They were mockingly dubbed gueux, the French word for ‘beggars’. The Dutch corruption of gueux – ‘Geus’ – became the rebels’ name of honour.