Dutch Revolt Totally Explained

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The Dutch Revolt, Eighty Years' War or The Revolt of the Netherlands (1568–1648), was the revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Low Countries against the Spanish (Habsburg) Empire.
   Spain was initially successful in suppressing the rebellion. In 1572, however, the rebels captured Brielle and the rebellion resurged. The northern provinces became independent, first de facto, and in 1648 de jure. During the revolt, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, better known as the Dutch Republic, rapidly grew to become a world power through its merchant shipping and experienced a period of economic, scientific, and cultural growth.
   The Southern Netherlands (situated in modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France—see also: Spanish Netherlands and French Netherlands) remained under Spanish rule. The continuous repression by the Spanish in the south caused many of its financial, intellectual, and cultural elite to flee north, contributing to the success of the Dutch Republic. Additionally, by the end of the war in 1648 large areas of the Southern Netherlands had been lost to France which had, under the guidance of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, allied itself with the Dutch Republic in the 1630s against the Hapsburg dynasty.
   The first phase of the conflict can be considered to be the Dutch War of Independence. The focus of the latter phase was to gain official recognition of the already de facto independence of the United Provinces. This phase coincided with the rise of the Dutch Republic as a major power and the founding of the Dutch colonial empire.

Background

In a series of marriages and conquests, a succession of dukes of Burgundy expanded their original territory by adding to it a series of fiefdoms, including the Seventeen Provinces. Although Burgundy itself had been lost to France in 1477, the Burgundian Netherlands were still intact when Charles V was born in Ghent. He was raised in the Netherlands and spoke fluent Dutch, French, Spanish, and some German. In 1506 he became lord of the Burgundian states, among which were the Netherlands. Subsequently, in 1516, he inherited several titles, including the combined kingdoms of Aragon, and Castile and León which had become a worldwide empire with the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In 1519 he became ruler of the Habsburg empire, and he gained the title Holy Roman Emperor in 1530.

Taxation

Flanders had long been a very wealthy region, and had been coveted by the French kings for a long time. The other Netherlands had also grown into wealthy and entrepreneurial regions within the Habsburg empire. Under Charles V the Habsburg empire became a worldwide empire with large American and European territories. The latter were, however, distributed throughout Europe. Control and defence of these were hampered by the disparateness of the territories and huge length of the empire's borders. This large realm was almost continuously at war with its neighbours in its European heartlands, most notably against France in the Italian Wars and against the Turks in the Mediterranean Sea. Further wars were fought against Protestant princes in Germany. The Netherlands paid heavy taxes to fund these wars, but perceived them as unnecessary and sometimes downright harmful, because they were directed against their most important trading partners.

Protestantism

During the 16th century, Protestantism rapidly gained ground in northern Europe. Dutch Protestants, after initial repression, were tolerated by local authorities. By the 1560s, the Protestant community had become a significant influence in the Netherlands, although it clearly formed a minority then. In a society dependent on trade, freedom and tolerance were considered essential. Nevertheless, Charles V, and later Philip II, felt it was their duty to fight Protestantism, which was considered a heresy by the Catholic Church. The harsh measures led to increasing grievances in the Netherlands, where the local governments had embarked on a course of peaceful coexistence. In the second half of the century, the situation escalated. Philip sent troops to crush the rebellion and make the Netherlands once more a Catholic region.
The Dutch Protestants compared their humble values favorably against the supposedly luxurious habits of the ecclesiastical nobility.

Centralisation

Part of the shifting balance of power in the late Middle Ages meant that besides the local nobility, many of the Dutch administrators by now were not traditional aristocrats, but instead stemmed from non-noble families that had risen in status over the last centuries. Against this the collection of the scattered aristocratic principalities in personal unions under, the Burgundian dukes, allocated more than ever to the high nobility and their governors. By the fifteenth century, Brussels had thus become the de facto capital of the Seventeen Provinces.
Dating back to the Middle Ages the districts of the Netherlands, represented by its nobility and the wealthy city-dwelling merchants still had a large measure of autonomy in appointing its administrators. Charles V and Philip II set out to improve the management of the empire by increasing the authority of the central government in matters like law and taxes, a policy which caused suspicion both among the nobility and the merchant class. An example of this is the takeover of power in the city of Utrecht in 1528 when Charles V supplanted the council of guild masters governing the city by his own stadtholder, who took over worldly powers in the whole province of Utrecht from the archbishop of Utrecht. Charles ordered the construction of the heavily fortified castle of Vredenburg, for defence against the Duchy of Gelre and to control the citizens of Utrecht. Under the governorship of Mary of Hungary (1531-1555), traditional power had for a large part been taken away both from the stadtholders of the provinces and from the high noblemen, who had been replaced by professional jurists in the Council of State.

Initial stages (1555-1572)

Prelude to the rebellion (1555-1568)

In 1556 Charles passed on his throne to his son Philip II of Spain. Charles, despite his harsh actions, had been seen as a ruler empathetic to the needs of the Netherlands. Philip, on the other hand, was raised in Spain and spoke neither Dutch nor French. During Philip's reign, tensions flared in the Netherlands over heavy taxation, suppression of Protestantism, and centralisation efforts. The growing conflict would reach a boiling point and would lead ultimately to the war of independence.

Nobility in opposition

In an effort to build a stable and trustworthy government of the Netherlands, Philip appointed several members of the high nobility of the Netherlands to the States General, the governing body of the seventeen Netherlands. He put his confidante Granvelle as head of the States General. Furthermore, he appointed Margaret of Parma as governor of the Netherlands. This relatively small incident spread North and led to a massive iconoclastic movement by Calvinists, who stormed churches and other religious buildings to desecrate and destroy statues and images of Catholic saints all over the Netherlands. According to the Calvinists, these statues represented worship of idols. and the exact backgrounds of the movement are debated, but in general, local authorities didn't step in to rein in the vandalism. The actions of the iconoclasts drove the nobility into two camps, with Orange and other grandees opposing the movement and others, notably Henry of Brederode, supporting it. Even before he answered the petition by the nobles, Philip had lost control in the troublesome Netherlands. He saw no other option than to send an army to suppress the rebellion. On 22 August, 1567, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, marched into Brussels at the head of 10,000 troops.
Alba took harsh measures and rapidly established a special court (Raad van Beroerten or council of upheavals) to judge anyone who opposed the king. No one, not even high nobility who had been pleading for less harsh measures, was safe. Alba considered himself the direct representative of Philip in the Netherlands and frequently bypassed Margaret of Parma and made use of her to lure back some of the fugitive nobles, notably the counts of Egmont and Horne, causing her to resign office in September 1567. Egmont and Horne were arrested for high treason, condemned, and a year later decapitated on the Grand Place in Brussels. Egmont and Horne had been Catholic nobles who were loyal to the King of Spain until their death. The reason for their execution was that Alba considered they'd been treasonous to the king in their tolerance to Protestantism. Their death, ordered by a Spanish noble, rather than a local court, provoked outrage throughout the Netherlands. Over one thousand people were executed in the following months. An attempt was made to encroach on the Netherlands from four different directions, with armies led by his brothers invading from Germany and with French Huguenots invading from the south. Although the Battle of Rheindalen near Roermond occurred already on 23 April 1568 and was won by the Spanish, the Battle of Heiligerlee, fought on 23 May 1568, is commonly regarded as the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, and it resulted in a victory for the rebel army. But the campaign ended in failure as William ran out of money and his own army disintegrated, while those of his allies were destroyed by Alba.
William of Orange stayed at large and, being the only one of the grandees still able to offer resistance, was from then on seen as the leader of the rebellion. When the revolt broke out once more in 1572 he moved his court back to the Netherlands, to Delft in Holland, as the ancestral lands of Orange in Breda remained occupied by the Spanish. Delft remained William's base of operations until his assassination by Balthasar Gérard in 1584.

Resurgence (1572–1585)

Spain was hampered by the fact that it had to wage war on different fronts simultaneously. Its struggle against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Sea put serious limits on the military power it could deploy against the rebels in the Netherlands. Even so, by 1570 the Spanish had more or less suppressed the rebellion throughout the Netherlands. However, in March 1569, in an effort to finance his troops, Alba had proposed to the States that new taxes be introduced, among them the "Tenth Penny", a 10 per cent levy on all sales other than landed property. This proposal was rejected by the States, and a compromise was subsequently agreed upon. Then, in 1571, Alba decided to press forward with the collection of the Tenth Penny regardless of the States' opposition. This aroused strong protest from both Catholics and Protestants, and support for the rebels grew once more and was fanned by a large group of refugees who had fled the country during Alba's rule. On March 1, 1572, the English Queen Elizabeth I ousted the Gueux, known as Sea Beggars, from the English harbours in an attempt to appease the Spanish king. The Gueux under their leader Lumey then unexpectedly captured the almost undefended town of Brill on April 1. In securing Brill, the rebels had gained a foothold, and more importantly a token victory in the north. This was a sign for Protestants all over the Low Countries to rebel once more. With the influence of the rebels rapidly growing in the northern provinces, the war entered a second and more decisive phase.
However, this also led to an increased discord amongst the Dutch. On one side there was a militant Calvinist minority that wanted to continue fighting the Catholic Philip II and convert all Dutch citizens to Calvinism. On the other end was a mostly Catholic minority that wanted to remain loyal to the governor and his administration in Brussels. In between was the large majority of (Catholic) Dutch that had no particular allegiance, but mostly wanted to restore Dutch privileges and the expulsion of the Spanish mercenary armies. William of Orange was the central figure who had to rally these groups to a common goal. In the end he was forced to move more and more towards the radical Calvinist side, because the Calvinists were most fanatic in fighting the Spanish. He went over to Calvinism himself in 1573.

Pacification of Ghent

Being unable to deal with the rebellion, Alba was replaced in 1573 by Luis de Requesens and a new policy of moderation was attempted. Spain, however, had to declare bankruptcy in 1575. Requesens hadn't managed to broker a policy acceptable to both the Spanish king and the Netherlands when he died in early 1576. The inability to pay the Spanish mercenary armies endured, leading to numerous mutinies and in November 1576 troops sacked Antwerp at the cost of some 8,000 lives. This so-called "Spanish Fury" strengthened the resolve of the rebels in the 17 provinces to take fate into their own hands.
   The Netherlands negotiated an internal treaty, the Pacification of Ghent in the same year 1576, in which the provinces agreed to religious tolerance and pledged to fight together against the mutinous Spanish forces. For the mostly Catholic provinces, the destruction by mutinous foreign troops was the principal reason to join in an open revolt, but formally the provinces still remained loyal to the sovereign Philip II. However, some religious hostilities continued and Spain, aided by shipments of bullion from the New World, was able to send a new army under Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza.
   William of Orange, who had been declared an outlaw by Philip II in March 1580, was assassinated by a supporter of the king on July 10, 1584. He would be succeeded as leader of the rebellion by his son Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange.
   The Netherlands were split into an independent northern part, while the southern part remained under Spanish control. Due to the almost uninterrupted rule of the Calvinist-dominated separatists, most of the population of the northern provinces became converted to Protestantism over the next decades. The south, under Spanish rule, remained a Catholic stronghold; most of its Protestants fled to the north. Spain retained a large military presence in the south, where it could also be used against France.

De facto independence of the north (1585–1609)

With the war going against them, the United Provinces had sought help from the kingdoms of France and England. The Dutch had even offered each monarch the crown of the Netherlands, but both had declined.
   While England had unofficially been supporting the Dutch for years, Elizabeth now decided to intervene directly. In 1585, under the Treaty of Nonsuch, Elizabeth I sent the Earl of Leicester to take the rule as lord-regent, with 5,000 to 6,000 troops, including 1,000 cavalry. The Earl of Leicester proved to be a poor commander, and also didn't understand the sensitive trade arrangements between the Dutch regents and the Spanish. Moreover, Leicester sided with the radical Calvinists, earning him the distrust of the Catholics and moderates. Leicester also collided with many Dutch patricians when he tried to strengthen his own power at the cost of the Provincial States. Within a year of his arrival, he'd lost his public support. Leicester returned to England, after which the States-General, being unable to find any other suitable regent, appointed Maurice of Orange (William's son), at the age of 20, to the position of Captain General of the Dutch army in 1587. The borders of the present-day Netherlands were largely defined by the campaigns of Maurice of Orange. The Dutch successes owed not only to his tactical skill but also to the financial burden Spain incurred replacing ships lost in the disastrous campaign of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the need to refit its navy to recover control of the sea after the subsequent English counter attack. In 1595, when Henry IV of France declared war against Spain, the Spanish government declared bankruptcy again. However, by regaining control of the sea, Spain was able to greatly increase its supply of gold and silver from the Americas, which allowed it to increase military pressure on England and France.
   Under financial and military pressure, in 1598, Philip ceded the Netherlands to his favorite daughter Isabella and to her husband, Philip's nephew Archduke Albert of Austria, following the conclusion of the Treaty of Vervins with France. By that time Maurice was engaged in conquering important cities in the Netherlands. Starting with the important fortification of Bergen op Zoom (1588), Maurice conquered Breda (1590), Zutphen, Deventer, Delfzijl and Nijmegen (1591), Steenwijk, Coevorden (1592) Geertruidenberg (1593) Groningen (1594) Grol, Enschede, Ootmarsum, Oldenzaal (1597) and Grave (1602). As this campaign was restricted to the border areas of the current Netherlands, the heartland of Holland remained at peace, during which time it moved into its Golden age.
   By now, it had become clear that Spanish control of the Southern Netherlands was strong. However, control over Zeeland meant that the Northern Netherlands could control and close the estuary of the Scheldt, the entry to the sea for the important port of Antwerp. The port of Amsterdam benefited greatly from the blockade of the port of Antwerp, to the extent that merchants in the North began to question the desirability of reconquering the South. A campaign to control the Southern provinces' coast region was launched against Maurice's advice in 1600. Although portrayed as a liberation of the Southern Netherlands, the campaign was chiefly aimed at eliminating the threat to Dutch trade posed by the Spanish-supported Dunkirkers. The Spaniards strengthened their positions along the coast, leading to the Battle of Nieuwpoort.
   Although the States-General army won great acclaim for itself and its commander by inflicting a then-surprising defeat of a Spanish army in open battle, Maurice halted the march on Dunkirk and returned to the Northern Provinces. Maurice never forgave the regents, led by van Oldenbarneveld, for being sent on this mission. By now the division of the Netherlands into separate states had become almost inevitable. With the failure to eliminate the Dunkirk threat to trade, the states decided to build up their navy to protect sea trade, which had greatly increased through the creation of the Dutch East Indies Company in 1602. The strengthened Dutch fleets would prove to be a formidable force, hampering Spain's naval ambitions thereafter.

Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621)

1609 saw the start of a ceasefire, afterwards called the Twelve Years' Truce, between the United Provinces and the Spanish controlled southern states, mediated by France and England at The Hague. It was during this ceasefire the Dutch made great efforts to build their navy, which was later to have a crucial bearing on the course of the war.
During the Truce, two factions emerged in the Dutch camp, along political and religious lines. On one side were the Arminians, whose prominent supporters included Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Hugo Grotius. They tended to be well-to-do merchants who accepted a less strict interpretation of the Bible than did classical Calvinists. They were opposed by the more radical Gomarists, who had openly proclaimed their allegiance to Prince Maurice in 1610. In 1617 the conflict escalated when republicans pushed the "Sharp Resolution", allowing the cities to take measures against the Gomarists. Prince Maurice accused van Oldenbarnevelt of treason, had him arrested, and in 1619, executed. Hugo Grotius fled the country after escaping from imprisonment in Castle Loevestein. In the East the activities led to the conquest of many profitable trading colonies, a major factor in bringing about the Dutch Golden Age.

From war to peace

In 1639, Spain sent an armada bound for Flanders, carrying 20,000 troops to assist in a last large scale attempt to defeat the northern "rebels". The armada was decisively defeated by Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp in the Battle of the Downs. This victory had historic consequences far beyond the Eighty Years' War as it marked the end of Spain as the dominant sea power.
An alliance with France changed the balance of power. The Republic could now hope to reconquer the Southern Netherlands. However, this wouldn't mean that they'd become a part of the Netherlands, but that they'd be divided among the victors, resulting in a powerful French state bordering on the Republic. Furthermore it would mean that the port of Antwerp would most likely no longer be blockaded and might become serious competition for Amsterdam. With the Thirty Years' War decided, there was also no longer any need to fight on in order to support fellow Protestant nations. As a result, the decision was made to end the war.

Peace

On January 30 1648, the war ended with the Treaty of Münster between Spain and the Netherlands. In Münster on May 15 1648, the parties exchanged ratified copies of the treaty. This treaty was part of the European scale Peace of Westphalia that also ended the Thirty Years' War. In the treaty, the power balance in Western Europe was readjusted to the actual geopolitical reality. This meant that de jure the Dutch Republic was recognised as an independent state and retained control over the territories that were conquered in the later stages of the war. The new republic consisted of seven provinces: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel, Friesland, and Groningen. Each province was governed by its local Provincial States and by a stadtholder. In theory, each stadtholder was elected and subordinate to the States-General. However, the princes of Orange-Nassau, beginning with William I of Orange, became de facto hereditary stadtholders in Holland and Zeeland. In practice they usually became stadtholder of the other provinces as well. A constant power struggle, which already had shown its precursor during the Twelve year's Truce, emerged between the Orangists, who supported the stadtholders, and the Regent's supporters.
The border states, parts of Flanders, Brabant and Limburg that were conquered by the Dutch in the final stages of the war, were to be federally governed by the States-General. The so called Generality Lands (Generaliteitslanden), which consisted of Staats-Brabant (present North Brabant), Staats-Vlaanderen (present Zeeuws-Vlaanderen) and Staats-Limburg (around Maastricht).
The peace wouldn't be long-lived as the newly emerged world powers, the Republic of the Netherlands and the Commonwealth of England, would start their first war in 1652, only four years after the peace was signed.

Aftermath

Nature of the war

The Eighty Years' War began with a series of battles mostly fought by mercenaries, as was typical of the time. While successes for both parties were limited, costs were high. As the revolt and its suppression centered largely around issues of religious freedom and taxation, the conflict necessarily involved not only soldiers, but also civilians at all levels of society. This may be one reason for the resolve and subsequent successes of the Dutch rebels in defending cities. Another factor was the fact that a few cities were sacked after having surrendered. Given the involvement of all sectors of Dutch society in the conflict, a more-or-less organized, irregular army emerged alongside the regular forces. Among these were the geuzen (from the French word "gueux" meaning "beggars"), who waged a guerrilla war against Spanish interests. Especially at sea, the 'watergeuzen' were effective agents of the Dutch cause.
There were very few pitched battles where armies met in the field. Most military operations were sieges, as was typical of the era, resulting in protracted and expensive use of the military forces available. The Dutch had fortified most of their cities and even many smaller towns in accordance with the most modern views of the time. Sometimes these sieges were broken off when the enemy threatened to attack the besieging army.
In the later stages, Maurice raised a professional standing army that was even paid when no hostilities were taking place, a radical innovation in that time and part of the Military Revolution. This ensured him of loyal soldiers, who were trained in cooperating among each other and were intimately familiar with the doctrines of their commanders and were capable of carrying out complicated manoeuvres.

Effect on the Low Countries

In the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, Charles V established the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands as an entity separate from France, Burgundy, or the Holy Roman Empire. The Netherlands at this point were among the wealthiest regions in Europe, and an important center of trade, finance, and art. The Eighty Years' War introduced a sharp breach in the region, with the Dutch Republic (the present-day Netherlands) growing into a world power (see Dutch Golden Age), and the Southern Netherlands (more or less present-day Belgium) losing much of its economic and cultural significance for centuries to come. The naval blockade during much of the Eighty Years' War of Antwerp, once the largest commercial centre of Europe, greatly contributed to the rise of Amsterdam as the new centre of European and world trade.
Politically, a unique situation had emerged in the Netherlands where a republican body (the States General) ruled, but where a (increasingly hereditary) noble function of Stadtholder was occupied by the house of Orange-Nassau. This division of power prevented large scale fighting between nobility and civilians as happened in the English Civil War. The frictions between the civil and noble fractions, that already started in the twelve years' truce, were numerous and would finally lead to an outburst with the French supported Batavian Republic, where Dutch bourgeoisie hoped to get rid of the increasing self-esteem in the nobility once and for all. However, in a dramatic resurgence of nobility after the Napoleonic era the republic would be abandoned in favor of the foundation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Thus, one of the oldest republics of Europe was turned into a monarchy, which it still is today.

Effect on the Spanish Empire

The conquest of various American territories made Spain the leading European power of the 16th century. This brought them into continuous conflict with France and the emerging power that was England. In addition, the deeply religious monarchs Charles V and Philip II saw a role for themselves as protectors of the Catholic faith against Islam in the Mediterranean and against Protestantism in northern Europe. This meant the Spanish Empire was almost continuously at war. Of all these conflicts, the Eighty Years' War was the most prolonged and had a major effect on the Spanish finances and the morale of the Spanish people, who saw taxes increase and soldiers not returning, with little successes to balance the scales. The Spanish government had to declare several bankruptcies. The Spanish population increasingly questioned the necessity of the war in the Netherlands and even the necessity of the Empire in general. The loss of Portugal in 1640 and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, ending the war were the first signs that the role of the Spanish Empire in Europe was declining.

Political implications in Europe

The Dutch revolt against their lawful king, most obviously illustrated in the oath of abjuration (1581), implied that a king could be deposed by the population if there was agreement that he didn't fulfill his God given responsibility. This act by the Dutch challenged the concept of a divine right of kings, and eventually led to the Dutch Republic. The acceptance of a non--monarchic country by the other European powers in 1648 spread across Europe, fueling resistance against the divine power of Kings. Thus the Dutch rebellion can be seen as a precursor of the English Civil War (1642-1651) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), where monarchs with power based on their divine right were disposed of. As such, the Dutch revolt is the predecessor of liberalism in modern governments.

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