For half the sixteenth century, Antwerp was the place for breaking rules. But when Antwerp rebelled against the Spanish and lost, all that glory was buried and its true history lost. Michael Pye sets out to rediscover Antwerp's past using novels, paintings, songs, schoolbooks, letters and the archives of Venice, London and the Medici. He builds a picture of a city haunted by fire, plague and violence, but learning how to be a power in its own right in the world after feudalism. This is the Antwerp which was the proud 'exception' to all of Europe.