Eighty Years' War

Eighty Years' War Dutch Revolt
Part of the European wars of religion
Date c. 1566/1568 – 30 January 1648 Location European theatre (c. 1566/1568): The Low Countries (present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and part of western Germany and northern France) European waters: North Sea, English Channel, coast of the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean Sea Overseas (from the 1590s): Atlantic Ocean: Canary Islands and Azores Americas: Caribbean Sea, the Guianas, Northeast Brazil and southwest South America Africa: West Africa and Southern Africa Asia: Indian Ocean, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia Result Peace of Münster Territorial changes Dutch Republic recognized by Spain
Belligerents
Dutch Republic (from 1588) States-General (1576–1588) Dutch rebels (c. 1566/68–1576) European allies: Kingdom of England (1585–1604, 1625–1630) Kingdom of France (1589–1598, from 1635) Anjou (1578–1583) Kingdom of Portugal (from 1641) Huguenots Various German States Nassau	Spanish Empire European co-belligerent: Holy Roman Empire (1629, 1632, 1635)
Commanders and leaders
William the Silent X Maurice of Orange Frederick Henry Johan van Oldenbarnevelt Executed William Louis Maarten Tromp Elizabeth I James VI and I Charles I Robert Dudley Francis Vere Henry IV Duke of Bouillon Louis XIII Cardinal Richelieu	Philip II # Philip III Philip IV Margaret of Parma Duke of Alba Álvarez de Toledo John of Austria Alexander Farnese Archduke Albert Isabella Eugenia Ambrogio Spinola Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Fadrique de Toledo Antonio de Oquendo
Strength
1629: 70,000 regular soldiers 50,000 militia 8,500 sailors with 100+ warships	60,000 (average strength in the Army of Flanders) 88,000 (peak strength in the Army of Flanders)

The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (c. 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.

After the initial stages, Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Netherlands, deployed his armies and regained control over most of the rebel-held territories. However, widespread mutinies in the Spanish army caused a general uprising. Under the leadership of the exiled William the Silent, the Catholic and Protestant-dominated provinces sought to establish religious peace while jointly opposing the king's regime with the Pacification of Ghent, but the general rebellion failed to sustain itself.

Despite steady military and diplomatic successes by the Governor of Spanish Netherlands and General for Spain, the Duke of Parma, the Union of Utrecht continued their resistance, proclaiming their independence through the 1581 Act of Abjuration and establishing the Calvinist-dominated Dutch Republic in 1588. In the Ten Years thereafter, the Republic (whose heartland was no longer threatened) made conquests in the north and east and received diplomatic recognition from France and England in 1596. The Dutch colonial empire emerged, which began with Dutch attacks on Portugal's overseas territories.

Facing a stalemate, the two sides agreed to a Twelve Years' Truce in 1609; when it expired in 1621, fighting resumed as part of the broader Thirty Years' War. An end was reached in 1648 with the Peace of Münster when Spain retained the Southern Netherlands and recognised the Dutch Republic as an independent country.

War

Ten Years (1588–1598)

section excerpt Ten Years (Eighty Years' War).[edit]

The Ten Years (Dutch: Tien jaren) were a period in the Eighty Years' War spanning the years 1588 to 1598. During this period, the forces of the Dutch Republic under stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, his cousin William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, the stadtholder of Friesland, and the English general Francis Vere won a series of campaigns against the Spanish Empire. These campaigns brought much of the north and east of the Habsburg Netherlands under Republican control.

Beginning with the relief of Bergen op Zoom in 1588, Maurice and William Louis subsequently captured Breda in 1590; Zutphen, Deventer, Delfzijl, and Nijmegen in 1591; Steenwijk and Coevorden in 1592; Geertruidenberg in 1593; Groningen in 1594; and Grol, Enschede, Ootmarsum, and Oldenzaal in 1597. Many of these territories had been previously lost to the Spanish in the 1580s.

Historians have also associated Maurice's campaigns during this period with reforms in siege warfare and military organisation, and with the consolidation of the Republic's position in the northern Netherlands.

Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621)

Main articles: Twelve Years' Truce; Trial of Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets; and Synod of Dort

The military upkeep and decreased trade had put both Spain and the Dutch Republic under financial strain. To alleviate conditions, a ceasefire was signed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609, marking the end of the Dutch Revolt and the beginning of the Twelve Years' Truce. The conclusion of this Truce was a major diplomatic coup for Holland's advocate Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, as Spain by concluding the Treaty, formally recognised the independence of the Republic. In Spain the truce was seen as a major humiliation – she had suffered a political, military and ideological defeat, and the affront to its prestige was immense. The closure of the river Scheldt to traffic in and out of Antwerp, and the acceptance of Dutch commercial operations in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial maritime lanes were just a few points that the Spanish found objectionable.

Although there was peace on an international level, political unrest took hold of Dutch domestic affairs. What had started as a theological quarrel resulted in riots between Remonstrants (Arminians) and Counter-Remonstrants (Gomarists). In general, regents would support the former and civilians the latter. Even the government got involved, with Oldenbarnevelt taking the side of the Remonstrants and stadtholder Maurice of Nassau their opponents. In the end, the Synod of Dort condemned the Remonstrants for heresy and excommunicated them from the national Public Church. Van Oldenbarnevelt was sentenced to death, together with his ally Gilles van Ledenberg, while two other Remonstrant allies, Rombout Hogerbeets and Hugo Grotius received life imprisonment.

Final phase of the war (1621–1648)

section excerpt Eighty Years' War, 1621–1648.[edit]

The years 1621–1648 constituted the final phase of the Eighty Years' War (c. 1568–1648) between the Spanish Empire and the emerging Dutch Republic. It began when the Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621) expired, and concluded with the Peace of Münster in 1648.

Although the Dutch and Spanish were both involved in opposite sides of the War of the Jülich Succession (June 1609 – October 1610; May–October 1614) in Jülich-Cleves-Berg, they carefully avoided each other, and thus the hostilities never spread back into the Habsburg Netherlands, and the truce held firm. Nevertheless, attempts to negotiate a definitive peace also failed, and the war resumed as anticipated in 1621. Essentially, it became a side theatre of the wider Thirty Years' War that had already broken out with the Bohemian Revolt in 1618 in eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire (Bohemia and Austria), pitting Central Europe's Protestant Union against the Catholic League, although the two conflicts never fully merged. With several back and forths – notably, the Spanish conquered Breda in 1625, but the Dutch took it back in 1637 – the Dutch Republic was able to conquer the eastern border forts of Oldenzaal (1626) and Groenlo (1627), the major Brabantian city of 's-Hertogenbosch (1629), the fortified cities of Venlo, Roermond and Maastricht along the Meuse (1632), and Sas van Gent (1644) and Hulst (1645) in Zeelandic Flanders.

Nevertheless, peace talks in 1629–1630 came to nothing. More ambitious plans to conquer Brussels in 1632–1633 with the help of anti-Spanish nobility in the Southern Netherlands never came to fruition. Several attempted Northern republican surprises and sieges of Antwerp were parried by the Spanish Army of Flanders.

Nor did the Franco-Dutch alliance bring significant changes to the situation on the ground. It began with a disastrous Franco-Dutch invasion of the southern Netherlands in 1635. This in fact made matters worse for the Dutch when French and Dutch troops sacked the city of Tienen, which cost them the sympathies of the southern Netherlands population.

However, French intervention and internal discontent at the costs of the war in the Low Countries led to a change in Spain's 'Netherlands First' policy. Instead Spain focused on suppressing the French-backed Reapers' War in Catalonia. The resulting stalemate and financial troubles, plus Spanish military exhaustion and Dutch desire for formal political recognition, eventually convinced both sides in the mid-1640s to hold peace talks.

The outcome was the 1648 Peace of Münster, which confirmed most agreements already reached with the Truce of 1609.

Peace of Münster

Main article: Peace of Münster

The negotiations between Spain and the Republic formally started in January 1646 as part of the more general peace negotiations between the warring parties in the Thirty Years' War. The States General sent eight delegates from several of the provinces as none trusted the others to represent them adequately. They were Willem van Ripperda (Overijssel), Frans van Donia (Friesland), Adriaen Clant tot Stedum (Groningen), Adriaan Pauw and Jan van Mathenesse (Holland), Barthold van Gent (Gelderland), Johan de Knuyt (Zeeland) and Godert van Reede (Utrecht). The Spanish delegation was led by Gaspar de Bracamonte, 3rd Count of Peñaranda. The negotiations were held in what is now the Haus der Niederlande in Münster.

The Dutch and Spanish delegations soon reached an agreement, based on the text of the Twelve Years' Truce. It therefore confirmed Spain's recognition of Dutch independence. The Dutch demands (closure of the Scheldt, cession of the Meierij, formal cession of Dutch conquests in the Indies and Americas, and lifting of the Spanish embargoes) were generally met. However, the general negotiations between the main parties dragged on, because France kept formulating new demands. Eventually it was decided therefore to split off the peace between the Republic and Spain from the general peace negotiations. This enabled the two parties to conclude what technically was a separate peace (to the annoyance of France, which maintained that this contravened the alliance treaty of 1635 with the Republic).

The text of the Treaty (in 79 articles) was fixed on 30 January 1648. It was then sent to the principals (King Philip IV of Spain and the States General) for ratification. Five provinces voted to ratify (against the advice of stadtholder William) on 4 April (Zeeland and Utrecht being opposed). Utrecht finally yielded to pressure by the other provinces, but Zeeland held out and refused to sign. It was eventually decided to ratify the peace without Zeeland's consent. The delegates to the peace conference affirmed the peace on oath on 15 May 1648 (though the delegate of Zeeland refused to attend, and the delegate of Utrecht suffered a possibly diplomatic illness).

In the broader context of the treaties between France and the Holy Roman Empire, and Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire of 14 and 24 October 1648, which comprise the Peace of Westphalia, but which were not signed by the Republic, the Republic now also gained formal "independence" from the Holy Roman Empire, just like the Swiss Cantons. In both cases, this was just a formalisation of a situation that had long existed. France and Spain did not conclude a treaty and so remained at war until the peace of the Pyrenees of 1659. The peace was celebrated in the Republic with sumptuous festivities. It was solemnly promulgated on the 80th anniversary of the execution of the Counts of Egmont and Horne on 5 June 1648.

Historiography

section excerpt Historiography of the Eighty Years' War.[edit]

The Eighty Years' War has given rise to more historical controversies than any other topic from the history of the Nederlanden [Low Countries] whatsoever.

— Encarta Encyclopedie Winkler Prins (2002)

The historiography of the Eighty Years' War examines how the Eighty Years' War has been viewed or interpreted throughout the centuries. Some of the main issues of contention between scholars include the name of the war (most notably "Eighty Years' War" versus "Dutch Revolt"), the periodisation of the war (particularly when it started, which events to include or exclude, and whether the effective length of the war justifies counting "eighty years" or not), the origins or causes of the war (the Protestant Reformation or the violation of the rights and privileges of the nobility and autonomous cities) and thus its nature (a religious war, a civil war or a war of independence), the meaning of its historical documents such as the Act of Abjuration, and the role of its central characters such as Philip II of Spain, William "the Silent" of Orange, Margaret of Parma, the Duke of Alba, the Duke of Parma, Maurice of Orange, and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. It has been theorised that Protestant Reformation propaganda has given rise to the Spanish Black Legend in order to portray the actions of the Spanish Empire, the Army of Flanders and the Catholic Church in an exaggerated extremely negative light, while other scholars maintain that the atrocities committed by the Spanish military in order to preserve the Habsburg Netherlands for the Empire have historically been portrayed fairly accurately. Controversy also rages about the importance of the war for the emergence of the Dutch Republic as the predecessor of the current Kingdom of the Netherlands and the role of the House of Orange's stadtholders in it, as well as the development of Dutch and Belgian national identities as a result of the split of the Northern and Southern Netherlands.

See also

• Act of Abjuration
• Bourgeois revolution
• European wars of religion
• List of battles of the Eighty Years' War
• Martyrs of Gorkum
• "Merck toch hoe sterck"—Dutch patriotic song
• Second conquest of Franche-Comté
• Siege of Lure
• Spanish Road
• Union of Delft
• Wars of national liberation

Bibliography

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• Koenigsberger, Helmut G. (2007). Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments: The Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521044370. [2001] paperback
• Marek y Villarino de Brugge, André (2020b). Alessandro Farnese: Prince of Parma: Governor-General of the Netherlands (1545–1592): v. II. Los Angeles: MJV Enterprises, ltd., inc. ISBN 979-8687563130.
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Further reading

• Duke, Alastair (1992). "Select documents for the Reformation and the Revolt of the Low Countries, 1555-1609". Universiteit Leiden. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
• Geyl, Pieter (1932). The revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609. Williams & Norgate. LCCN 79053235. OL 16200585M.
• Geyl, Pieter (1936). The Netherlands Divided (1609-1648). Williams & Norgate. LCCN 37013853. OCLC 3546232.
• Mellink, Albert Fredrik; Kossmann, Ernst Heinrich (1974). Texts concerning the revolt of the Netherlands. Cambridge studies in the history and theory of politics. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-20014-1.
• Marnef, Guido (January 2009). "Belgian and Dutch Post-war Historiography on the Protestant and Catholic Reformation in the Netherlands". Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. 100 (1): 271–292. doi:10.14315/arg-2009-100-1-271. ISSN 2198-0489.
• Parker, Geoffrey (1977). The Dutch Revolt. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-1136-6.
• Rodríguez Pérez, Yolanda (2008). The Dutch revolt through Spanish eyes: self and other in historical and literary texts of Golden Age Spain, c. 1548-1673. Hispanic studies. Oxford: P. Lang. ISBN 978-3-03911-136-7.

External links

• De Bello Belgico (in Dutch) – about the Revolt in the Netherlands, website of Leiden University
• Correspondence of William of Orange (in Dutch)
• La Guerra de Flandes, desde la muerte del emperador Carlos V hasta la Tregua de los Doce Años (in Spanish)
• Sabbe, M. (1933) "De Veldtocht van 1635–1636 – Inneming en Verlies van de Schencke-Schans – Het 'Raffelspel' om de Schans," in: Brabant in't verweer. Bijdrage tot de studie der Zuid-Nederlandsche strijdliteratuur in de eerste helft der 17e eeuw (in Dutch)
• (in Dutch) Poelhekke, J.J. (1978) Frederik Hendrik Prins van Oranje. Een biografisch drieluik