Netherlands

During the Renaissance the Netherlands consisted of two distinct regions separated by the Waal and Meuse Rivers. The region to the south, which included the provinces of Flanders and Brabant, had ties to France and the duchy* of Burgundy. The region north of the rivers, which contained the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, leaned toward Germany and the Baltic States. The two regions used different languages and operated within separate political and economic spheres.

Burgundian Rule. The beginning of the Netherlands, also known as the Low Countries* or the Seventeen Provinces, dates from the time of the dukes of Burgundy. In 1384 Philip the Bold of Burgundy acquired Flanders through his wife, Margaret, the daughter of the count of Flanders. By 1428 the dukes of Burgundy had extended their territory to include the northern provinces of Holland and Zeeland.

In the 1400s, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy attempted to unify his holdings in the Netherlands by creating new legislative bodies. These included the States General, an assembly, and the Chamber of Accounts. However, these bodies could not resolve the divisions among the provinces. With a greater concentration of population and wealth, the southern provinces remained the center of politics and court life. Many public officials came from the southern provinces, and northerners viewed them as foreigners. The towns and provinces in both regions remained stubbornly attached to traditional privileges and resisted giving up their own interests for the benefit of the Burgundian state.

In the 1460s and 1470s, Duke Charles the Bold tried to centralize government. However, his death in 1477 brought a reaction in favor of local autonomy*, forcing his daughter Mary to grant a set of privileges to the States General and the separate provinces. Each province also sought to exclude foreigners. Holland and Zeeland banned outsiders from government positions and called for the use of Dutch as the official language, rather than the French used in the southern provinces.

Habsburg Rule. In 1477 the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilian (later MAXIMILIAN I) of HABSBURG linked the Low Countries to the Holy Roman Empire* ruled by the Habsburgs. The towns of the Netherlands continued to guard their privileges jealously, frustrating Habsburg efforts to centralize the government. Guilds* held considerable power in the towns of the Netherlands. Their functions ranged from monitoring the quality of goods to protecting consumers and controlling trade. Guilds could exert pressure on town councils. But those who held civic* offices, mainly individuals from great merchant and noble families, were often tied to the interests of the Burgundian and Habsburg dynasties. Habsburg rulers sometimes took advantage of civic unrest to strip the guilds of their political role.

By the time Maximilian I became Holy Roman Emperor in 1493, his son, Archduke Philip the Handsome, had been accepted as prince in each of the provinces of the Low Countries. Philip's young son Charles succeeded him in 1506. But Charles's aunt, Margaret of Austria, served as regent* until 1515 and again from 1517 to 1530, while Charles took up the duties of king of Spain and later of Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles V).

In 1555 Charles abdicated* the throne of the Netherlands in favor of his son, Philip II of Spain. After spending four years in the Low Countries, Philip returned to Spain and appointed his half-sister, Margaret of Parma, to serve as regent. She faced a growing rivalry between two great lords, William of Orange and the count of Egmont, and some faithful followers of the Habsburgs. Plans for reorganizing church administrative districts also caused problems for Margaret. In particular, resistance grew to the enforcement of Habsburg laws against heresy*.

Religious Conflict and Revolt. Travel and other contacts with Italy brought humanism* to the Netherlands at the end of the 1400s. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam gained fame throughout Europe for his humanist writings and teaching. However, the new learning contributed to the growing division in matters of faith in the 1500s. The north became a haven for Protestants and religious dissent*, though churches devoted to the teachings of John Calvin also emerged in the south.

Religious dissenters of all kinds in the Netherlands were targeted by the campaign against heresy begun by Charles V and continued by Philip II. As part of this campaign, the Inquisition was introduced in the Netherlands with special courts to investigate charges of heresy. These courts tried and executed about 1,300 people between 1523 and 1566.

By 1565 the religious situation in the Netherlands had reached the boiling point. Fearful of growing unrest, government leaders asked Philip II to suspend the harsh measures against heresy. His refusal led to widespread protest, which included demands to end the Inquisition. The protest turned into a full-scale uprising known as the Great Revolt.

Philip II sent the Spanish army under the command of the duke of Alba to put down the revolt in the Netherlands. However, by the time Spanish troops arrived in 1567, the central government in Brussels had already begun to reestablish itself. Many nobles and Protestants who supported the revolt had fled the country. Alba's Council of Troubles investigated and sentenced almost 9,000 individuals for their part in the uprising.

The prospects of the revolt seemed poor, but in 1568 the prominent Dutch nobleman William of Orange declared his support for the rebellion. Despite his leadership, the efforts of the rebels to seize and hold fortified towns failed. However, the seizure of the port city of Brill in 1572 marked a turning point. Town by town, much of Holland and Zeeland fell to the rebels.

One more effort was made to unite the north and the south against Spain. In 1576 Spanish soldiers in the Netherlands mutinied and attacked Antwerp, the greatest commercial and financial center of Europe. Northern and southern provinces reacted to this assault by signing an agreement to unite to drive out the Spanish. Their unity was short lived, however. It collapsed because of the unwillingness of Calvinists to tolerate Catholics in the southern cities they controlled and then because of Spanish military successes.

William of Orange proclaimed a religious peace, allowing freedom of worship to Catholics and Protestants. But his attempt to promote unity failed. In 1579 rebel provinces in the north established the Union of Utrecht and declared their independence from Spain as the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic) two years later. The rival Union of Arras that formed in the south was Catholic and loyal to Spain. It later became the Spanish Netherlands. Hostilities between the Spanish Netherlands and the emerging Dutch Republic continued for the next 30 years. The Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621) recognized the split between the two countries, which became permanent with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).

(See alsoAmsterdam; Art in the Netherlands; Holy Roman Empire. )

* duchy

territory ruled by a duke or duchess

* Low Countries

region bordering on the North Sea, made up of present-day Netherlands and Belgium

* autonomy

independent self-government

* Holy Roman Empire

political body in central Europe composed of several states; existed until 1806

* guild

association of craft and trade owners and workers that set standards for and represented the interests of its members

* civic

related to a city, a community, or citizens

* regent

person who acts on behalf of a monarch who is too young or unable to rule

* abdicate

to give up the throne voluntarily or under pressure

* heresy

belief that is contrary to the doctrine of an established church

* humanism

Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living

* dissent

to oppose or disagree with established belief

"Shooting Guilds"

Many towns in the Netherlands had "shooting guilds," which were groups of armed citizens. These local militias often played a key role in determining the allegiance of a town to the Holy Roman Emperor or the States General, the legislative body of the Netherlands. A choice also had to be made between loyalty to the Catholic Church or support for one of the emerging Protestant faiths. The "shooting guilds" had so much influence because town councils needed their support to enforce the law.