In 1568, the Eighty Years War began
bringing together the Seventeen
Provinces of the Low Countries with
a single goal; to be free of Spanish
Habsburg control. Two years later and
the Seventeen Provinces were officially
renamed under their new designation of
‘The Netherlands’ (neder meaning ‘lower’
and landt meaning ‘country’). As said in
the old idiom ‘the enemy of my enemy is
my friend’, Queen Elizabeth I of England
provided Royal Naval and military forces
to the young Dutch nation in aid of their
revolution against a mutual enemy, Spain.
It is believed that during this period of
involvement, the men of the Royal Navy
were first introduced to a spirit made of
juniper known as ‘jenever’ (also spelt
‘genever’). More notable however was
the way in which it was used by the
Dutch sailors and soldiers. Prior to any
major engagement, Dutch fighting men
are recorded as having imbibed a large
mug of jenever to steel themselves for
battle. From this practice we gained the
popular English phrase ‘Dutch Courage’
to describe any alcohol fuelled confidence
boost. As supported in the translation of
an Old Dutch saying;
“A sailors best working
compass is a glass completely
full of genever”.
England’s first impression of the juniper
spirit must have been a good one as
records show that by 1572, England
had begun producing and selling
juniper spirits of their own from what
were called ‘Strong Water Shops’ (the
first commercial liquor retailers). The
earliest shop on record belongs to
the aptly named Aqua Vitae House
(‘water of life’) located between two
popular taverns; the Ram’s Head and
Mother Mampudding’s near the Tower
of London. These new shops helped
transform social drinking in England
away from low alcohol beverages such
as wine and ale and into high alcohol
distillates, all generically referred to as
brandy (from the Dutch term for ‘burnt
wine’ – brandewijn) regardless of whether
grape, juniper or barley. Up to this point,
Londoners had only imbibed distillates
in the form of rudimentary tonics and
tinctures produced by groups such as
the Worshipful Company of Barbers. A
company as familiar with distilling and
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