Eighty Years' War

The causes

The Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, wealthy from trade and textiles, came under Habsburg rule with Charles V, born in Ghent. His son Philip II wanted to strengthen royal authority and impose Catholicism in the face of Protestantism. Taxes, repression and the Inquisition provoked discontent among the nobility and the cities, where Calvinism was spreading. In 1566, the "Iconoclastic Fury" destroyed Catholic churches; Philip II then sent the Duke of Alba in 1567, with an army, to restore order.

As early as 1550, an imperial edict of Charles V, the "Blood Placard", made heresy punishable by death, and the courts applied these rules strictly. In 1559, Philip II left the Netherlands and entrusted the government to his half-sister Margaret of Parma, assisted by Cardinal Granvelle. The reorganization of the Church, with the creation of new bishoprics, provoked the hostility of a nobility that felt pushed aside from power. In 1566, the Compromise of the Nobles brought together great lords who demanded moderation of the edicts, which alarmed Madrid. The Protestants, numerous in the towns, then organized open-air preaching, then public assemblies.

The course of the war

In 1568, William of Orange, a prince of the House of Nassau, launched a first military campaign against the Duke of Alba, which failed. Fighting continued in the north. In April 1572, rebel privateers, the "Sea Beggars", seized Brielle, in Holland, and this capture revived the revolt in the north. In 1579, the Union of Utrecht brought together several northern provinces, including Holland and Zeeland, which formed the basis of the future republic.

In 1581, the Act of Abjuration declared Philip II deposed from his authority over the rebel provinces. William of Orange was assassinated in 1584 by a Catholic, Balthasar Gérard. His son Maurice of Nassau then led the army, with a reorganization of the troops and a strategy based on sieges. In 1609, a Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces, which were in effect recognized. Fighting resumed in 1621, until the Treaty of Münster, in 1648, which confirmed the independence of the United Provinces.

As early as 1572, the Sea Beggars held Vlissingen (Flushing), and the revolt spread to Zeeland. Haarlem, which resisted the Spanish troops, was besieged from December 1572 to July 1573; after its surrender, many of its defenders were executed. Leiden, besieged from 1573 to 1574, was relieved in October 1574: to bring in supplies, the Dutch breached the dikes, and the water allowed the supply fleet to approach the city. Founded in 1575, the University of Leiden was granted by William of Orange as a reward for the town's resistance.

In 1576, Spanish soldiers left without pay mutinied and sacked Antwerp in November, in an episode known as the "Spanish Fury". The Pacification of Ghent, signed the same year, briefly united the provinces against the Spanish troops. But in 1579, the southern provinces, mostly Catholic, signed the Union of Arras with the King of Spain, while the northern provinces united at Utrecht. In 1585, the Spanish governor Alexander Farnese retook Antwerp after a long siege, which consolidated Spanish control over the South.

Maurice of Nassau, who became stadtholder, turned the army into a disciplined force, trained in maneuvers and siege techniques. His hard-won victory at Nieuport, in 1600, against Archduke Albert, was not enough to drive the Spanish from the coast. The town of Ostend resisted from 1601 to 1604 before surrendering after a siege very costly to both sides. In 1625, Spinola captured Breda, an episode immortalized by Velázquez. At sea, the republic developed a war navy, complementary to a very large merchant fleet.

The consequences

The United Provinces became a mercantile republic, which enjoyed a golden age in the 17th century: maritime trade, the Dutch East India Company founded in 1602, and a brilliant artistic life with Rembrandt and Vermeer. The southern provinces, which remained Catholic and under Spanish control, passed to Austria in the 18th century and would later form Belgium.

The United Provinces, a mercantile republic where the Reformed Church was dominant, practiced de facto tolerance: Catholics and Jews lived there without public worship. The conflict later became a central element of Dutch identity, whose memory has been maintained around the figure of William of Orange. Historians have long debated the respective weight of religion, taxes and politics in the revolt. The southern provinces, which remained under Spanish and then Austrian rule, stayed Catholic: the gap between North and South widened, until the creation of Belgium in 1830.

Timeline

1. 1568Start of the revolt led by William of Orange
2. 1579Union of Utrecht: the northern provinces unite
3. 1581Act of Abjuration: the provinces depose Philip II
4. 1609Twelve Years' Truce between Spain and the United Provinces
5. 1648Treaty of Münster: Spain recognizes the independence of the United Provinces

Key figures

• Philip II, king of Spain who wants to impose his authority over the Netherlands
• William of Orange, leader of the revolt, known as the Silent
• Maurice of Nassau, son of William, reformer of the Dutch army
• Duke of Alba, Spanish governor who crushes the revolt