Editing Wilhelmus (section)

== Structure and interpretation ==
{{see also|Theodiscus|Terminology of the Low Countries}}

The complete text comprises fifteen [[stanza]]s. The anthem is an [[acrostic]]: the first letters of the fifteen stanzas formed the name "Willem van Nassov" (''Nassov'' was a contemporary [[Dutch orthography|orthographic]] variant of ''Nassau''). In the current Dutch spelling the first words of the 12th and 13th stanzas begin with Z instead of S.

Like many of the songs of the period, it has a complex structure, composed around a thematic [[chiasmus]]: the text is symmetrical, in that verses one and 15 resemble one another in meaning, as do verses two and 14, three and 13, etc., until they converge in the 8th verse, the heart of the song: "Oh [[David]], thou soughtest shelter from King [[Saul]]'s tyranny. Even so I fled this welter", where the comparison is made not only between the biblical David and William of Orange as a merciful and just leader of the [[Dutch Revolt]], but also between the tyrant King Saul and the Spanish crown, and between the promised land of [[Israel]] granted by God to David, and a kingdom granted by God to William.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqPvAwAAQBAJ|title=The Reformed David(s) and the Question of Resistance to Tyranny: Reading the Bible in the 16th and 17th Centuries|last=DeLapp|first=Nevada Levi|date=2014-08-28|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9780567655493|pages=88–90|language=en}}</ref>

In the first person, as if quoting himself, William speaks about how his disagreement with his king troubles him; he tries to be faithful to his king,<ref name="uva.nl"/> but he is above all faithful to his conscience: to serve God and the Dutch people. Therefore, the last two lines of the first stanza indicate that the leader of the Dutch civil war against the [[Spanish Empire]], of which they were part, had no specific quarrel with king [[Philip II of Spain]], but rather with his emissaries in the [[Low Countries]], such as [[Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba]]. This may have been because at the time (late 16th century) it was uncommon to doubt publicly the [[divine right of kings]], who were accountable to God alone.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqPvAwAAQBAJ|title=The Reformed David(s) and the Question of Resistance to Tyranny: Reading the Bible in the 16th and 17th Centuries|last=DeLapp|first=Nevada Levi|date=2014-08-28|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9780567655493|pages=155}}</ref> In 1581 the Netherlands nevertheless rejected the legitimacy of the king of Spain's rule over it in the [[Act of Abjuration]].

The word ''Duytschen'' in the first stanza, generally translated into English as 'Dutch', 'native' or 'Germanic', is a reference to William's roots; its modern Dutch equivalent, ''Duits'', exclusively means 'German', and while it may refer to William's ancestral house ([[Nassau, Germany]]) or to the lands of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] it is most probably a reference to an older meaning of the word, which can loosely be translated as 'Germanic', and seeks to position William as a person with a personal connection with the Low Countries as opposed to the king of Spain, Philip II, who was commonly portrayed as foreign, disconnected and out of touch. In doing so, William is also implicitly comparing himself with the well liked [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] (Philip's father) who, unlike his son, was born in the Low Countries, spoke Dutch and visited the Low Countries more often than any other part of his realm.<ref>Emperor, a new life of Charles V, by Geoffrey Parker, p. 8.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Emerging Mother-Tongue Awareness: The special case of Dutch and German in the Middle Ages and the early Modern Period, in: Standardisation: studies from the Germanic languages|last=DeGrauwe|first=Luc|year=2002|pages=99–116}}</ref><ref>Maria A. Schenkeveld, ''Dutch literature in the age of Rembrandt: themes and ideas'' (1991), 6</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Nationaal denken in Europa: een cultuurhistorische schets|last=Leerssen|first=J.|year=1999|pages=29}}</ref>