II) The Forty Years War
(1568-1609)
Prelude to Rebellion
In the first years of Habsburg dominion, the Netherlanders barely noticed Spanish Overlordship. In fact Charles V was born in Ghent, and spoke fluent Dutch, French, Castillian and some German. In 1506, he gained lordship of the Burgundian states, among which included all the Dutch provinces. Subsequently in 1516, he inherited several titles, including the King of Aragon, King of Castile and Leon, which soon faced full political union as the Kingdom of Spain. In 1530, he reached the pinnacle of power when he was elected the Holy Roman Emperor. However, it was not to last. A combination of events, including funding the Habsburg’s world-wide empire, and religious turmoil in Germany would soon lead to revolution.
The Protestant Reformation
By the 1560s, the Protestant community grew in influence across Northern Europe. Dutch Protestants, after initial backlash, were generally tolerated by local authorities. Their wealth made them influential, and in a society based on trade and commerce, both freedom and tolerance were essential. Local lords were far more interested in wealth than conforming to Spanish law. They were a vital minority, but a minority nonetheless. In 1560, the majority of Netherlanders still follow to path laid down by the Holy Church.
With little to no regard for Dutch customs, Charles V believed it his duty to battle Protestantism, which under Spanish and Church law was considered heresy. His son, Philip II, struck out at the heretics far harsher than Charles V. By Phillip’s reign, the situation escalated to the point where Spanish soldiers were sent in to crush what Phillip viewed as Rebellion, and restore the authority of the Church to the Netherlands. The harsh measures led to increasing grievances, where local government had embarked on a course of coexistence. With the arrival of the Inquisition, Spain proved it was not interested in coexistence or tolerance, nor would it tolerate any challenge to its authority.
The Dutch Protestants compared their humble values favorably against the luxurious habits of the ecclesiastical nobility. The Protestant movement initially emphasized such virtues of modesty, cleanliness, frugality and hard work. The so-called Protestant work ethic helped drive the Netherlands, even the Catholic citizens, into the world-striding Dutch Commonwealth of Nations of later centuries. Biblical stories of fishermen, ship builders and other humble occupations resonated among the seafaring Dutch. The moral elements of the Reformation represented a challenge to the Spanish Empire.
Taxation
The provinces of the Netherlands have grown into wealthy and entrepreneurial regions within the Habsburg’s private empire by the middle of the Sixteenth Century. Neighboring states often turned coveting eyes towards the provinces, Flanders in particular caught the attention of French kings for decades. Its wealth would make it a welcome addition to the French state. During the reign of Charles V, Spain blossomed into a world-wide empire, with territories not only across Europe, but engulfing most of the New World.
Control and defense of these lands were hampered by the very size of the Spanish Empire. Spain also had to face rivals who were more than eager to take a piece of its empire for themselves. Both Spain and France were locked into near continuous conflict in the Italian Wars, and Spain also must contest the Turks across the Mediterranean. For wars also raged across Germany in the name of holy spirit across the heretical states in Germany. These wars impacted Spain’s treasury severely, and the Netherlands were forced to pay dearly to support them.
The provinces viewed these wars as unnecessary, or flat out harmful, as they were waged against important trading partners. No consideration was given to the markets built up in Amsterdam, Flanders or Antwerp when it came to Spain’s ‘divine’ right to spread the faith. By 1571, Spain imposed a ten percent sales tax on all land within the Netherlands. Harsher measures would soon follow. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Netherlands were not the provinces they had been beneath Burgundy rule, but rather viewed not much differently than its colonies.
Centralization
By the later Middle Ages, most of the administrators in the Netherlands were not the tradition aristocracy, but rather stemmed from merchant families that worked their way into power over the previous century. Under the rule of Burgundy, the provinces enjoyed a degree of autonomy in appointing its own governors and councils. Thus the Netherlands represented a loose confederation of high independent-minded citizenry.
Spanish rule changed much of this. The Kings of Spain set out to improve their empire by increasing the authority of the central government in matters concerning taxation and laws. It was a policy which caused great suspicion among the Netherlands’ nobility and merchant classes. An example of Spain’s takeover of power occurred in 1528, when Charles V supplanted the council of guildmasters in Utrecht and replaced it with a regent answerable only to him. Under the regency of Mary of Hungary, tradition power had for a large part been stripped from the governors of the provinces and from the Dutch nobility, whose members were being replaced by Spanish jurists in the Council of State.
Phillip II went even further in appointing members to the Dutch Staaten-General, placing his confidante, Granvelle, as head of the assembly, and furthermore he appointed Margaret of Parma as Governor of all the Netherlands. By 1558, the situation grew worse, and the provinces began to openly contradict the Spanish King’s wishes. Many of the Staaten-General withdrew, including the Count of Egmont, Count of Horne and William of Orange, until Granville was recalled. Phillip II’s responded with even sterner oppression.
During the same time, religious protests increased in spite of the oppression and inquisition. In 1566, four hundred members of the high nobility petitioned the governor to suspend persecution. Count Berlaymont called the petition and act of gueux , a name taken up as an honor by the petitioners, soon called Geuzen. Margaret accepted the petition, and sent in to Spain, for the King’s final verdict.
Uprising
The atmosphere in the Netherlands grew tense following the bad harvest of 1565, and economic difficulties caused by wars in Northern Europe. Hunger, hardship and the rebellious preaching of Calvinist leaders brought tensions to a boiling point. In August of 1566, a Calvinist mob stormed the church of Hondschoote in Flanders. This one incident sparked a massive iconoclast movement, where Calvinists raided churches and other religious centers, destroying all statues and imaged of Catholic Saints they could lay their hands upon.
The number of vandals was likely small, and their exact background is debated, but local authorities did little to rein in the enthusiastic iconoclasts. Their action drove the Dutch nobility into two camps. One camp, lead by William of Orange, opposed the destruction. Others, most notably Henry of Brederode, openly supported the movement, a dangerous statement in a world were a word from the Spanish Governor could cost you your head.
Before the petition of the Guezen could even be read, Phillip II knew he lost control in the troublesome provinces. He had little option but to send an army to suppress the rebellion. On August 22, 1567, Fernando Alvarez of Toledo, the 3rd Duke of Alba, marched into the city of Brussels at the head of an army numbering ten thousand strong. The ‘Iron Duke’ entered the Netherlands with unlimited power and replaced Margaret as governor. Alba took harsh measures and quickly established a series of special courts to judge all in opposition to the king.
The Blood Council
Alba established a tribunal which was soon known by the locals as the ‘Blood Council’ or ‘Blood Court’. During his six years of governorship, thousands of people were brought forth to these courts, convicted and executed. The exact number of the condemned is not known, the Dutch claim eighteen thousand, while the Spanish history only recorded a few hundred. No matter the cost, the Duke of Alba failed in his quest. Instead of quelling the rebellion, his measures helped fuel the unrest. He unwittingly became the instrument of future independence of the Seventeen Provinces.
His ruthless ‘justice’ extended beyond the Protestant trouble makers. He had both Lamoral, Count of Egmont, and Philip of Montmorency, Count of Hoorn imprisoned. Both were very popular leaders of the dissatisfied nobility, and both were Catholic. Nonetheless, Alba condemned both as traitors to the crown without benefit of a trial, and sentenced them to death. On June 1, 1568, six days before the deaths of Egmont and Hoorn, twenty-two noblemen of Brussels were simultaneously beheaded. Deaths ordered by an overlord, rather than judged in court, sparked a wave of outrage across the Netherlands, both Protestant and Catholic alike.
The Duke of Alba entered the Netherlands with the explicit goal of crushing the rebellion. Instead, he managed to unite what should have been a very volatile sectarian conflict. Instead of gathering the support of the majority of the Netherlands, he managed to drive even the most loyal of Spain’s supporters into the rebels camp. The Staaten-General met at Dordrecht, minus the Spanish appointees, and openly declared against Alba’s government, and marshaled beneath the banners of the Prince of Orange.
William of Orange
Willem van Oranje, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Friesland, was born into the House of Orange on April 24, 1533. In his day, he was widely known as William the Silent, so much so that William Shakespear wrote a play by the same name though William the Silent dealt mostly with the exploits of Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, and his campaign against the Spanish in the Netherlands. In Tudor England, a writer could not live long unless he was on the Queen’s good side.
The Prince of Orange came from the castle of Dillenburg in Nassau, in present day Germany. He was the eldest son of the Count of Nassau and Juliana of Stolberg-Werningerode. Unlike many across the mostly Catholic low countries, William was razed a Lutheran. By principle, this made him a target in the eyes of the Holy Inquisition. William’s rise to power started in 1544, when his cousin, the former Prince of Orange died without an heir. William inherited his cousin’s title and vast estates throughout the Netherlands. Because of his young age, Charles V (both King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) served as regent until his was fit to rule.
In order for the Lutheran to gain his rightful lands from his regent, he had no choice but to study beneath Mary of Hungary in Brussels. Charles V insisted that William receive a Catholic education. In Brussels, he was taught foreign languages, such as Spanish, and received military and diplomatic education. On July 6, 1551, William married his first wife, Anna of Egmont, a wealthy heiress of her father’s lands and title.
In the same year of his marriage, William was appointed captain in the cavalry. Despite the taint of Lutheranism that would haunt him during Phillip II’s reign, William rapidly grew into Charles V’s favor, and became commander of one of the Emperor’s armies by the age of twenty-two. Both marital education and experience in the Holy Roman Empire would serve William well in his future struggle for Dutch Independence. When Charles abdicated, it was on William’s shoulder the former Emperor leaned as he stepped down in favor for his son, Phillip. When standing there, watching his father abdicate, did Phillip know then man by his side would one day become Spain’s second greatest enemy of the Sixteenth Century ?
Phillip II’s relations with William remained positive in William’s early years. It was Phillip who appointed William as Stadtholder of Holland, and thus greatly increased his political power. The year before, tragedy struck his life. His first wife died on March 24, 1558. Though a personal tragedy, the death of Anna permitted William to take another wife, and sire more children, one of which would be the founder of a dynasty.
William, brought up a Lutheran and given a Catholic education was a strong proponent of religious freedom. Like those to follow, he believed that one’s religion was a private matter. In deed, he was very dissatisfied by the growing persecution of Protestants throughout his provinces. Ironically, the persecution angered the Catholic population more so than the intended targets. Those who were assumed to be loyal to Spain grew in opposition to foreign rule.
On August 25, 1561, William married for a second time, this time to an ill-tempered woman known as Anna of Saxony. It is generally believed that William married Anna to increase his power and gain influence over the German states of Saxony and Hesse. William did gain more power, but more importantly, the Netherlands gained one of their greatest leaders when Anna gave birth to their first son, Maurice.
During the Blood Council, William was one of the thousands summoned to stand in judgement before the Iron Duke. He failed to show, and was subsequently declared an outlaw, his lands seized immediately afterward. As a popular leader in the Staaten-General, William emerged as leader to the armed rebellion against Spain. In pamphlets and letters spread across the Netherlands, William called attention to the right of subjects to renounce their oath of obedience if their sovereign refused to respect their rights.
William razed an army to battle the Duke of Alba, containing of mostly German mercenaries. Contingents of his army, lead by his brothers Louis and Adolf, engaged and defeated a Spanish army of three thousand at Heiligerlle in Groningen. The Battle of Heiligerlle marks the start of the Forty Years War. The victory turned into a hollow one. Instead of pressing the campaign onward, William ran short of funds and his army disintegrated. Armies razed by his allies were handily defeated and destroyed by the Duke of Alba.
William went into hiding as soon as the initial fires of rebellion died out. He was only one of the grandees still able to offer resistance. With his ancestral lands of Orange, in Breda, remained under Spanish occupation, William moved his court to Delft, in Holland. Delft would remain William’s base of operation until his death, in 1584.
Brielle
On March 1, 1572, Queen Elizabeth of England ousted thousands of Dutch exiles within her own nation. She walked a fine line in regards to Spain, and could not afford to provoke Phillip II. Though Spain was distracted by wars against the Turks, they were still more than a match for England’s small army. To appease Phillip, she had little option but to kick out the Gueux. The ejection forces the beggars to return home.
Under the command of Lumey, the Gueux captured the unguarded town of Brielle. By grabbing a toe hold in the northern Netherlands, the rebels let the Protestants populace know the time to rebel had returned. As far as morale was concerned, Brielle turned out to be an important victory. In reality, it was little more than a token defeat of a nonexistent occupying force. Cities across Zeeland and Holland quickly renewed their support for the rebels. The most conspicuous absence in support came from Amsterdam itself.
With rebellion back in swing, William of Orange came out of hiding to take command. In July of 1572, the Staaten-General assembled in Dordrecht, and agreed to recognize William as Governor-General of the Netherlands. It was agreed upon that William would share his new found power with the Provinces. Sharing of power eventually metamorphosed into the separation of powers soon to be the cornerstone of the United Provinces.
However, by declaring for the Protestants, the Gueux handed William an assortment of problems. The minority Calvinists were bent on converting all of the Netherlands to their way of thinking. Meanwhile, the Catholic Dutch maintained no permanent allegiance, instead wanting to simply eject the Duke of Alba and his army of Spaniards and mercenaries. A majority of the Dutch were reluctant to rebel at all. Though they were no fans of Spain, they still wished to live their lives in peace and earn a decent income. By making an enemy of Spain, merchants had difficulty in trading abroad. William was the key figure in directing the various factions to a common goal.
It is doubtful that William would have been successful if not for an outside enemy to unite all the Dutch. Tension between Calvinists and Catholics threatened to tear apart the rebellion. No matter how hard William tried to convince the masses he was fighting for nationalism, the fanatical Calvinists would quickly open their collective mouths and insert their collective feet. William had little choice but to work with the Calvinists, since they were fighting the Spanish harder than any other Netherlander. As with much during the Forty Years War, it was not what the Dutch leaders said, but what the Spanish did that strengthened the unity between Provinces.
The Spanish Fury
Being unable to squash the rebellion, the Duke of Alba was replaced in 1573, by Luis of Requesnes. Requesnes came to the Netherlands with what he considered a policy of moderation. He would punish rebels, but cease harassment of those who would swear loyalty to the King. His policy was poorly managed, and by the time of his death in 1576, moderation was swept from the table.
What struck William’s army years before, now struck the Spanish. In 1575, because of wars abroad and at home, Spain declared bankruptcy. The inability to pay their army, particularly their mercenaries, would have dire consequences for Spanish rule in the Netherlands. Mutinies followed lack of pay, and on November 4, 1576, troops from the Spanish Tercois entered the wealthy port of Antwerp.
Tired of fighting numerically superior rebels without their salary, the mercenaries decided to ‘pay themselves’ by looting Antwerp. The out-of-control army indulged in a wave of violence that claimed some eight thousand lives and untold quantities of lost property. For three days, the mercenaries pillaged, plundered and looted anything not nailed down. For locals, the Sack of Antwerp became a reference point in their lives. Antwerpers soon began to refer to events in their lives as ‘before the sacking’ or after it.
Instead of crushing the rebellion, the mutinous army managed to turn even the harshest critics of the rebellion into its most adherent followers. The most reluctant of Dutch took up arms and pledged to fight together against the Spanish. Those provinces and cities still loyal to Spain were quickly alienated by the carnage seen at Antwerp and joined the rest of the Netherlands in open rebellion. In one single act of greed and brutality, the modern Dutch state was born.
The Pacification of Ghent
Following the Spanish Fury, the Provinces of the Netherlands negotiated an internal treaty, in which all Dutch put aside their religious difference to combat the foreigners who so ravished their lands. William of Orange was instrumental in forming the alliance, and more importantly, of finally pushing the religious question out of public domain. The declaration was also the first major expression of Dutch national self-consciousness. Spain attempted to counter this move by forming its own coalition in the southern, Catholic provinces. Had they made this move before sacking Antwerp, some success might have arisen. As it were, the southern Dutch were far more interested in ridding themselves of foreign domination.
To make this work, William allied himself with the most powerful of southern nobles, the Duke of Aerschott. Aerschott himself was no fan of William, and was opposed to the rebellion up until the Sacking of Antwerp. What he wanted more than to see William’s downfall, was the restoration of the old privileges and his rights, both revoked by Phillip of Spain. In order to achieve his goals, he teamed up with William. William’s ultimate ambition, a United Netherlands strong enough to resist Spanish domain, was nearing a reality.
The Pacification of Ghent, aside from making religious tolerance law, also called for the expulsion of all Spanish armed forces and restoration of local and provincial prerogatives. If Phillip II did not take a simple petition well, such a bold declaration infuriated him. Who were these Dutch upstarts, to make demands of their anointed king? Answering the only way he knew how, with a heavy hand, he sent Alessandro Farnes, the Duke of Parma, to crush these traitors. The Duke of Parma was appointed Governor-General, the same title held by the Prince of Orange. Clearly the Netherlands were not large enough for the both of them. Aided by a shipment of bullion just arrived from the New World, the Duke of Parma formed his army and set out to destroy the Dutch rebellion
Oath of Abjuration
In Sixteenth Century Europe, it was not conceivable that a country could be governed by anyone other than high nobility, if not a king, so the Staaten-General sought out a suitable replacement for their current ‘king’ Phillip of Spain. By taking this oath of abjuration, the Dutch set themselves on a future where whoever their ruler may be, he was answerable to those he ruled. Or, at the every least, to the Staaten-General. The Estates were interested in preserving their own rights, as were the Dutch people. No longer would they tolerate arbitrary rule by any would-be prince of Europe.
They first courted Elizabeth of England, but in 1581, she was in no position to displace Phillip II. Spain still eyed England, and would jump at the slightest provocation to invade the island nation and destroy it Protestant institutions. Her own relationship with her Catholic sister and her cousin made many of the Catholic lords of the low countries suspicious of Elizabeth. True, she would fight against Spanish dominion, but what would she do afterwards? The issue turned out to be a non-issue as Elizabeth rejected the offer of protectorship.
With one rejection on its list, the Staaten-General turned to Elizabeth’s one-time suitor, the Duke of Anjou. The younger brother to the French King accepted the offer, under one condition; the Netherlands must denounce any loyalty to Phillip II. In 1581, the Oath of Abjuration was issued, in which the Netherlands proclaimed the King of Spain did not uphold his responsibilities to the Dutch population and thus no longer accepted as their rightful ruler. In other words, on July 22, 1581, the Provinces declared independence.
Anjou did not stay long in the Netherlands. He was, naturally for a French noble, deeply disturbed by the limited influence and power the Staaten-General was willing to grant him. The French were accustomed to rule by edict, and in a sense were little different from Spanish. Both believed strongly that their right to rule was divine, and that God anointed them ruler over all their subjects and their lives. After some attempt to increase his power via a coup, the Duke of Anjou was rapidly ridden out of the Netherlands, losing any chance of ever being King.
A third, and obvious choice presented itself. Many of his followers and allies suggest that William himself take up the crown of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. William considered the offer, but put it on hold for the time being. The alliance between provinces was shaky at best, and William’s opponents might use it as a chance to move against him. He could ill afford to have the rebellion turn in on itself.
After Spain was defeated? William was unsure even then. If he became King, how many of the Provinces would follow him? Catholic nobles were suspicious since he was born a Lutheran. Protestant nobles were suspicious because he obtained a Catholic education. Lastly, the Calvinists were suspicious because he himself was not one of them. Though he was not King, he was still seen as head of the rebellion. As such, the King of Spain placed a bounty on his head, one that many were intent on collecting.
Fall of Antwerp
By 1584, the King of Spain was through playing games with the rebels. He called upon the Duke of Parma to restore ‘peace and orthodoxy’ to his Netherlands. Parma met various Dutch militia in battle after battle, defeating the untrained men with ease. In the first half of the 1580s, Parma tried to force William into a decisive battle, where he could tear out the heart of the rebellion. In July of 1584, Parma led his army to encircle the focal point of resistance, Antwerp.
Less than a decade earlier, Antwerp faced the wrath of mutinous Spaniards. Thousands of Dutch were slaughtered in the ensuing sacking, and hundreds of houses put to the torch. At the time, Antwerp was not only the largest Dutch city, but also the financial, cultural and economic center of Sixteenth Century Netherlands. Its trade even eclipsed Amsterdam, granary of the north.
Parma’s first act was the construction of a bridge across the Scheldt River, to isolate Antwerp from the growing Dutch Navy. After the Spanish Fury, rebels flocked to Antwerp, transforming it into the capital of the Dutch rebellion. By taking the city, Parma hoped to break the will of the rebels and force them back into the Spanish fold. After a year long siege, the city surrendered.
After the siege, Parma kept the bridge across Scheldt in place, blocking all traffic and trade to the port. Protestants were forced to leave town before the fall, to keep ahead of the Inquisition. They were not the only ones to leave. Tens of thousands fled northward, reducing Antwerp’s population from nearly one hundred thousand down to forty thousands. What was the golden century of Antwerp came to an end on August 17, 1585.
Assassination
William continued his struggle, now with a twenty-five thousand crown reward on him. In what was to be his last year, William married for a fourth and final time, this time to Louise of Coligny, a Huguenot. She bore him one child, Frederick Henry, future king. William, himself, given up the idea of becoming king. He had enough trouble already. The Duke of Parma’s campaign threatened to break his alliance. Many Catholic communities, seeing Spain back on the rise, wavered in their loyalty. Wavered, but did not break. Too many times the Spanish broke the Dutch Catholic’s hearts, and they were not about to trust them again.
William’s demise came from the hand of Balthasar Gerard. When William was declared an outlaw, back in 1581, Gerard decided to travel to the Netherlands and collect on the bounty. He served in the army of Luxembourg for two years, hoping to get close enough to take a shot at William. Alas, the two armies never joined, and in 1584, Gerard left the army. He presented the Duke of Parma his plans, but the Duke was hardly impressed, but permitted the would-be assassin to go ahead.
In May of 1584, Gerard presented himself to William as a French Nobleman, and presented him with the seal of the Count of Mansfelt. This seal would permit forgeries of messages of Mansfelt. William sent Gerard back to France, to pass the seal to his French allies. Gerard returned in July, having bought pistols on his return voyage. On July 10, he made an appointment to meet William in his residence, in Delft.
What happened next altered the course of Dutch history, and is, in fact the first recorded assassination of a head of state by a fire arm. It would not be the last. Gerard shot William in the chest at close range and fled. According to official reports, Williams last words were said to be “My God, have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people”. The assassin failed to flee Delft before his apprehension and imprisoned. His fate was the same as to befall anyone who committed regicide.
Earl of Leicester
By 1585, the Staaten-General signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with England. As per the treaty, Elizabeth I sent an army numbering six thousand to do battle with the Spanish. She found appeasing Phillip II now impossible, and decided it best to beat him over there than in her own backyard. Leading the English Army was Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Long since a favorite of the Queen, and rumored to be her lover at one point, Leicester remains a controversial character in Dutch history. It was not the first time Leicester was the center of controversy; years earlier, his wife was found dead at the bottom of a stair case. Though the death was ruled accidental, his closeness to the Queen, and the vacant Kingship, made her death more than a little convenient. He spent the following years laying low and out of sight.
Leicester was offered the Governor-Generalship, though he could not rule with a free hand. His Queen forbade him from making any agreements with Spain without her consent. Further more, he did not share the secular values laid down by the Pacification of Ghent. He immediately sided with the Calvinists, drawing distrust from everyone else. He also butted heads with Stadtholders and nobles across the Netherlands when he tried to strengthen his own power by robbing the Provinces of theirs. He was not the first to make this error, but he would be the last.
Leicester proved to be a poor commander, hardly worthy of a staring role in William the Silent. The play is still considered to be one of Shakespeare’s finest, though modern Dutch critics view it as more of an attempt to appease the Tudor queen by shining a positive light upon a royal favorite. Nor did he understand the delicate balance between trade and war. The Dutch, by 1586, were fully committed to independence, however this was by no means an abandonment of commerce. Within a year of his arrival, the Earl of Leicester lost the support of the Staaten-General and population at large. He returned to England, after which the Staaten-General was unable to find any other suitable regent. This was not the way either government envisioned an Anglo-Dutch Alliance to begin.
The Spanish Armada
The turning point in the Forty Years War came in August of 1588. Under the command of the notorious privateer, Sir Francis Drake, a fleet of English and Dutch ships defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines. Finally tired of the resistance offered by the Protestant Queen of England, Phillip II assembled a vast armada, consuming most of Spain’s treasury, for an invasion of the island nation.
At the command of twenty-two warships and one hundred eight converted transports, the King appointed the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. He was to sail to the Netherlands and ferry the Duke of Parma’s army across the sea. Twenty thousand Spanish and mercenary soldiers awaited the Armada at Dunkirk. In May, Medina-Sidonia set sail from Lisbon on what he expected to be an easy conquest. After all, the English Army was pathetic in comparison to Spain’s.
Following a running fight, and a night attack by fireships in July, Medina-Sidonia was forced to take the Armada into port. He chose Gravelines in Flanders as a base to reform his scattered fleet. Its proximity to the English coast made it as good a spot as any to embark Parma’s army. Parma was taken by surprise by the Armada’s choice of ports, and required six days to bring his troops up for embarkation.
Those six days gave England enough room to maneuver. In that time, Drake learned more of the Armada’s strengths and weaknesses through a series of skirmished in the Channel. What they learned gave Drake the edge. Spanish guns were very unwieldy and their crews poorly trained, a far cry from the Royal Navy. Spain preferred to board enemy ships and fight them hand-to-hand. In this way, Spain held the upper hand.
Drake was not about to allow the Spanish to close in for boarding. His own strengths lay in cannon fire. On August 8, Drake lead the fleet of English and Dutch vessels into battle. With its superior maneuverability, the English provoked the Spanish into firing while they stayed out of range. Once the Armada expended their heavy shot, Drake moved in for the kill, firing repeated broadsides into the enemy ships. Though only eleven of the Spanish ships were sunk or crippled, Drake cancelled the Armada’s plans to embark Parma’s army. Medina-Sidonia left port and set sail towards home. Both English and Dutch ships hounded the Armada across the North Sea, but in the end, rough seas and not rough marines destroyed the Armada. Upon returning to Spain, it is reported the Phillip II responded by saying ‘I sent my ships to fight against the English, not against the Elements.’
Maurice of Orange
In looking for a new commander for the rebellion, by 1587, the Staaten-General turned to twenty year old Maurice of Orange. Born on November 14, 1567, to William’s second wife, Maurice inherited his father’s leadership abilities, though not his serial monogamy. Maurice never married, though he did father two illegitimate children. At the age of sixteen, when his father was gunned down, Maurice inherited his titles and lands (though the latter were still occupied).
The borders of the United Provinces are largely defined by the campaigns of Maurice. Was it his genius that lead the Dutch nation to independence or fiscal burdens placed on Spain by the loss of its naval investments? What can be said is, that it was Maurice who organized the rebellion against Spain into a coherent and successful revolution. In the early 1590s, Maurice lead the rebel army to victory in sieges against Breda, Steenwijk and Geertruidenberg.
Following campaigns chased the demoralized Spanish army across much of the Netherlands, driving them from Groningen, Holland, Zeeland and Friesland by 1595. Spain experienced setbacks before in the Dutch revolt, and figured this would be no different. Sooner or later, the Provinces would bicker and divide themselves, where the Spanish could move in and reassert itself. This grand illusion was forever shattered in 1600, at a town called Nieuwpoort.
The Battle of Nieuwpoort
On July 2, 1600, Maurice of Orange met the Spanish Army, commanded by the Archduke of Austria, near the city of Nieuwpoort. By mid-June, Maurice managed to raise an army of over ten thousand men. Again the Spanish army faced mutiny, one that made it impossible for a relief army to be razed by the Archduke. The only way to keep the army together was the promise of free plunder. The workings of a second Spanish Fury were on the drawing board.
The desire of freedom outweighed greed, and in the end, Maurice managed to drive the Spanish from the field of battle, a rare feat in the Sixteenth Century, but soon to become all too common during the Seventeenth. Dutch lines of communication were stretched to vulnerable limits, forcing Maurice to withdraw as well. Spanish strength along the Dutch coast was sapped by the battle, paving the way for a future campaign against Dunkirker pirates.
Following the battle, the Dutch were finally able to dismantle the bridge Spain built fifteen years earlier to block Antwerp trade. Nieuwpoort offered another turning point in the war. Never again could Spain threaten the northern Provinces. Further more, Spain’s stranglehold on the south was now in danger. Maurice portrayed the next nine years as a campaign to liberate all the Netherlands from Spanish hands. In truth, the northern Provinces view eliminating threats to trade as a notch above freeing their own brethren, and nearly forced Maurice to halt his campaign, five years later.
The Dunkirkers
Pirate nests plagued Dutch trade all through the Forty Years War. Instead of destroying the pirates, as was the Spanish King’s responsibility to the Netherlands, he encouraged it. Such actions were understandable after the Oath of Abjuration, but not before. Since the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Dutch navy grew from a gaggle of converted merchant ships into a force that rivaled any on the sea. Even England’s Royal Navy was second to that of the Netherlands. Pirates on the open seas were little threat to the Dutch Navy, were they would meet untimely ends very quickly.
In order to root out the pirates, the army must march on Dunkirk and its surrounding regions to burn out the nests. In 1606, that was precisely what Maurice set out to do. With an army of eleven thousand men, Maurice attempted to force the pirates into battle on the field. Instead, most fled from the sight of a large army descending upon them. Maurice sent detachments to hunt down the pirates, and set into motion of literally smoking them out. Each pirate den his army stumbled upon was put to the torch, and each pirate found mercilessly cut down. By October of 1606, the Dunkirker threat was destroyed, and the southern Netherlands free for commerce to once again thrive.
Liege
Out of all the Provinces, only Liege maintained loyalty to Spain. Despite the Spanish Fury, the Bishopric could not bring itself to turn on who they saw as Defender of the Faith. Its location right smack in the middle of the southern Provinces, Liege could not be bypassed or ignored. Luxembourg and Limburg were completely cut off from the rest of the Netherlands by Liege. Most of the Dutch would have been content to exist without the theocratic state. However, Maurice, as well as other high-ranking commanders, viewed the bishopric as an anti-Dutch enclave, one that sat in the middle of the future United Provinces. It offered too good of a base for Spain, and other enemies, to set up shop and strike into the heart of the Netherlands.
In 1608, Maurice already had the bulk of the remaining Spanish army bottled up under siege in the city of Brussels, former capital of the Spanish Netherlands. The Staaten-General was not content with having a huge hole in its new nation. While the Siege of Brussels was nearing its final days, the Staaten-General ordered Maurice to deal with Liege. Against his better judgement, Maurice divided his forces, and lead seven thousand infantry and cavalry into the Bishopric of Liege.
He did not fear Papal retribution. The fact that the Netherlands was already home to many Protestants made them suspect. His only real concern was that the Spanish commander in Brussels might rally his forces and break out. If they did, and linked up with the Spanish army assembling near Mons, they could threaten all the southern Provinces. By now, the King of Spain knew keeping all the Netherlands under his thumb was all but impossible. Instead, he was forced to focus on the Catholic region, hoping it would stay true to the faith. This goes to show how little Spain understood the revolution. Religion was never the top concern (with the possible exception of the Calvinists), but the right of the people to decide their own fate.
The Bishop of Liege failed to muster any army worthy of the name. When Maurice arrived in Liege, the Bishop commanded barely one thousand men, most of them mercenaries. He feared the sell-swords would not fight to defend the church. When the battle turned against them, they might very well run. Though Liege stayed loyal to Spain after ‘the fury’, they lost any trust for mercenaries. The Bishop knew any battle would end in defeat, and loss of power.
Instead of fighting, the Bishop decided to cut a deal with Maurice and the Staaten-General. Under the white flag of truce, the two met between the lines of armies. It was here, that the Bishop saw just how puny his own force was in comparison. The Bishop agreed to join the United Provinces under one condition; he would stay in power. Maurice could not agree to this, for the Staaten-General was a forum where faith did not belong. His father dedicated his life to the very concept of freedom of religion.
The Bishop could not stomach being part of such a ‘godless’ state, but he could not fight either. Martyrdom did not appeal much to him, the Bishop thought he would be more use to God alive, and leading his flock. In the end, with much convincing to the Staaten-General, Maurice managed to strike a compromise. Liege would become part of the United Provinces, and the Bishop would stay in power, but only as spiritual leader. For the interim, Maurice would select a regent to rule as secular ruler . It was not until the end of the Forty Years War would Liege’s government be settled.
Surrender at Mons
Much to Maurice’s fears, some of the defenders of Brussels managed to escape the siege and link up with remaining forces massing at Mons. By the end of 1608, Brussels had little choice but to surrender. Some of the Spanish soldiers cast off their uniforms, deserted and simply merged with the crowds. There was no love for Spain in Brussels, and many deserters were turned in by locals. In response to their actions, Dutch authorities tired them as spies, and hung more than one.
With Brussels secure and Liege now conforming to Staaten-General, Maurice of Orange had only the enemy ahead. The last bastion of Spanish authority within the Netherlands lay in the city of Mons. Ironically, the last battle of the Forty Years War was fought upon what is now French territory. At the time, it lay within the reaches of the low countries, and would eventually be ceded to the French in the Eighteenth Century.
The Duke of Parma assembled his army outside of Mons. He considered holing up in the city, but unlike Brussels, he knew no reinforcements were waiting. To the Duke there was great honor in dying in the field of battle, but none to be gain by starving to death. His six thousand soldiers faced Maurice and some ten thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry. Parma was badly outnumbered, but he still would fight the battle on his terms. He would utilize what cavalry and artillery remained in hopes of punching a hole in Maurice’s lines.
The Prince of Orange outgunned Parma as well as outnumbered. He would not give Parma the opportunity to turn his few remaining guns upon Dutch forces. Shortly after seizing a modest hill near the battlefield, Maurice ordered all his guns to open fire on the enemy, who had yet to organize into lines. The hour long bombardment disrupted the Spanish forces, driving some of the less reliable men and units to desert the field. Parma quickly ordered his own men to cut down any who retreated without his command.
Parma still hoped to rally his army into one glorious charge, but Maurice would not have it. He was not about to lose, not this close to victory. Shortly after the guns fell silent, Dutch heavy cavalry charged forward, catching the disorganized Spanish forces and scattering them. Behind the horsemen, thousand of soldiers marched forward, mopping up any and all Spanish pockets of resistance remaining. The excellent execution of this early combined-arms assault rolled up the last Spanish presence in less than an hour.
Mortally wounded during the fighting, the Duke of Parma had little choice but to parley. He sent his emissaries under the flag of truce to meet with Maurice. Over two thousand Spaniards died that day, but the survivors were surprised by Maurice’s leniency. Like all Dutch, he wanted the Spanish gone more than anything else. The enemy were disarmed and escorted to Dunkirk. Here they were herded on board ships and sent home. Their arrival in Seville was a message to the Spanish King, a message declaring it was time to negotiate. For all intent purpose, the war at home was over.
Victory Abroad
In the middle of the Sixteenth Century, Phillip inherited the throne of Portugal. Both nations were soon brought into personal union, and the King wasted no time in using Portuguese resources. Their army left something to desire, but their navy, and their trade routes to the east, added to Spain’s power . By a technicality in the Treaty of Tordelles, Portugal laid claim to a large stretch of eastern South America, Brazil. It was a land, that by 1600, the Dutch decided to take for themselves.
By the Seventeen Century, sugar was all the rage in Europe. The Portuguese turned vast swaths of Brazil into sugarcane fields, bringing them nearly as much wealth as the gold sent to Spain. A variety of food and luxury crops were grown in the wide expanses of Brazil, a colony many times larger than the United Provinces. The Dutch population grew over the past century, forcing them to rely upon importation of food to prevent famine. Brazil offered more than enough land for the Dutch to farm, plus it would remove any dependancy on importation of grain from foreign states.
Ernst van Bohr
Born in 1561, little is known about one of the Netherlands’ most famous admirals. Bohr found himself a sailor by the age of sixteen. In 1588, he commanded one of the Dutch ships during the engagement with the Spanish Armada. During the battle, Bohr earned the reputation as a reckless leader, willing to throw himself into the line of fire to obtain victory. Unlike many Dutch, Bohr had little interest in business. He lacked the patience to gradually earn wealth, and preferred the glories of conquest over the subtleties of trade.
By 1602, Bohr rose to the rank of Admiral, commanding 18 ships, led a raid on Aviliz, on the Spanish mainland. For twelve days, his sailors and marines occupied the Spanish port. Bohr resupplied his fleet courtesy of the Spanish, and looted both silver and gold before abandoning the city. The Netherlands were interested in freedom, not overthrowing the Habsburgs. Whomever headed the United Provinces would have their hands full trying to govern the Provinces, much less occupied territories that have no desire to be ruled by the Dutch.
Bohr’s biggest acclaim to fame was as Conqueror of Brazil. In 1604, he landed eighteen hundred men in the Brazilian port of Salvador. No resistance to speak of was offered, and the only combat within the town came from a lone colonist mistaking patrolling Dutch for game. After assembling his force in Salvador, Bohr threw off his admiral’s hat and took up the mantle of general. He lead his small army towards Recife, to battle the Portuguese garrison stationed there.
The Battle of Recife, future capital of Brazil, occurred on May 8, 1604. Bohr now lead only one thousand men. Five hundred were left to hold Salvador, while nearly three hundred already succumbed to tropical disease. Portugal mustered only a few hundred colonial militia to combat a vastly larger invasion fort. Bohr’s five cannon helped decide the outcome before the battle even began. Militia charged into a volley of fire, falling before they could come into range of sword and spear. Bohr wasted no time in fortifying his new conquests. Months passed before word of the fall of Recife reached the Iberian Peninsula. Spain could spare little in combating the Dutch in distant Brazil. However, they were deeply concerned that the Dutch would not be satisfied with Brazil. They might very well make a grab at Mexico or Peru, both rich in gold and silver. Fear of losing their bullion supply was the primary motivating factor in the King’s decisions to engage the Dutch across the Atlantic. A small armada of thirty-one ships and three thousand men were assembled in Seville, with the explicit goal of eliminating Ernst van Bohr. In early 1605, the Spanish and Portuguese set sail for Brazil, meeting the Dutch fleet off the coast of Natal.
Unlike the much larger battle with the Spanish Armada, the Battle of Natal ended far more decisively. Twenty-seven Dutch ships encountered thirty-one ships early in the morning of March 15, 1605. After a two day battle, the Dutch all but destroyed the combined fleet. Bohr proved once again a master admiral, while the Spanish and Portuguese failed to achieve any cohesion. Using one of the oldest strategies in the book, Bohr managed to divide the enemy fleet, and destroy it a few ships at a time. In the end, the only reason any Spanish ships escaped was due to exhaustion of ammunition and powder on the Dutch side. For his actions, the Staaten-General awarded Bohr land in Brazil, and the title Count of Natal.
Battle of Cape Verde
When the Dutch began their rebellion, their could scarcely hope to gain their freedom from the masters of Europe. By 1608, not only was that goal inevitable, but the Dutch were on their way to empire. The biggest losers of the Forty Years War were not the Spanish, but rather Portugal. September 15, 1608, sounded the death nail of the Portuguese Empire. What remained of the Portuguese Navy, twiddled down by attrition by the Dutch across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, were ambushed twelve kilometers southwest of Cape Verde.
The Count of Natal, Grand Admiral of the Netherlands, led his battle hardened fleet in an attack against the Portuguese remnants. Natal divided his fleet into three sections, each crossing the ‘T’ at the appropriate time. After the first cross, Portugal’s ships scattered, and became easy pickings for the Dutch. Had the Portuguese Navy held formation, it would likely have fought its way through the battle and managed to reach home. As it happened, the ships were sunk to the last, guaranteeing Portugal’s colonies would sit on the negotiating table.
The Treaty of Calais
In mid 1609, the belligerent parties of Spain, the Netherlands and England, along with observers for Portugal, met in the town of Calais. After surrendering at Mons, two months earlier, a general armistice was agreed upon. Spain lost too much in retaining such a small piece of territory. Portugal lost far more, and they were not even the real enemy of the Dutch. Spain had the option of continuing the war, but after Mons, there was no real hope at victory. The Dutch Navy was too powerful, and any attempt to land would be disastrous. Overland routes were off the table, for France was at war with Spain as well.
The first order of business was decided by the end of the first day; Spain would recognize Dutch Independence. That much was never in doubt. What came into doubt was the future of colonial possessions. The Dutch had no interest in Spain’s holding, but demanded Portugal surrender all of its remaining colonies and trading posts to the United Provinces. Fleets in the Indian Ocean either captured or destroyed posts along the African coast, conquered Ceylon and virtually drove the Portuguese out of India.
Brazil was already home to hundreds of Dutch colonists looking for new opportunities, along with the new Count of Natal. Portugal resisted the idea, but Spain gave them no say in the decision. If they did not cede their colonial possessions, the Dutch would continue the war and leave Portugal in ruins. Some in Portugal dreamed about putting a native king back on the throne, and losing their empire would only strengthen Spain’s position.
Spain was already looking forward to political unification of Iberia, and surmised it could take back Brazil at a later date. For now, it must rest and recuperate. In return for Portugal’s colonies, the Dutch agreed not to interfere with Spanish shipping, and would allow what would now days be called ‘favored trade status’ with Spain, by lowering tariffs on Spanish goods. Considering the amount of wealth that would flow out of the East Indies and Brazil, the United Provinces could afford to wave a few import fees.
Spain was forced to give up one of its possessions, however, to England. In 1604, the English managed to capture Manilla and its harbor. Once entrenched in the Philippines, England decided they would not give it up. Manilla offered an excellent harbor from which to center English trade in the Far East. England gobbled up many Portuguese trading posts in West Africa, along with their slave trade. Portugal’s final indignity came with the dismantling of its colonial companies, and end of its commercial enterprise. As far as Portugal was concerned, whether the war continued or ended, they were lost.
The Treaty was finalized by November, and signed by all parties. The Staaten-General ratified to treaty only after an hour’s worth of debate, when all sides prazed the treaty. On November 17, 1609, the United Provinces of the Netherlands were officially born. With the war against Spain over, the real challenge began; governing diverse provinces, and just what to do with all the colonial spoils of war
Prelude to Rebellion
In the first years of Habsburg dominion, the Netherlanders barely noticed Spanish Overlordship. In fact Charles V was born in Ghent, and spoke fluent Dutch, French, Castillian and some German. In 1506, he gained lordship of the Burgundian states, among which included all the Dutch provinces. Subsequently in 1516, he inherited several titles, including the King of Aragon, King of Castile and Leon, which soon faced full political union as the Kingdom of Spain. In 1530, he reached the pinnacle of power when he was elected the Holy Roman Emperor. However, it was not to last. A combination of events, including funding the Habsburg’s world-wide empire, and religious turmoil in Germany would soon lead to revolution.
The Protestant Reformation
By the 1560s, the Protestant community grew in influence across Northern Europe. Dutch Protestants, after initial backlash, were generally tolerated by local authorities. Their wealth made them influential, and in a society based on trade and commerce, both freedom and tolerance were essential. Local lords were far more interested in wealth than conforming to Spanish law. They were a vital minority, but a minority nonetheless. In 1560, the majority of Netherlanders still follow to path laid down by the Holy Church.
With little to no regard for Dutch customs, Charles V believed it his duty to battle Protestantism, which under Spanish and Church law was considered heresy. His son, Philip II, struck out at the heretics far harsher than Charles V. By Phillip’s reign, the situation escalated to the point where Spanish soldiers were sent in to crush what Phillip viewed as Rebellion, and restore the authority of the Church to the Netherlands. The harsh measures led to increasing grievances, where local government had embarked on a course of coexistence. With the arrival of the Inquisition, Spain proved it was not interested in coexistence or tolerance, nor would it tolerate any challenge to its authority.
The Dutch Protestants compared their humble values favorably against the luxurious habits of the ecclesiastical nobility. The Protestant movement initially emphasized such virtues of modesty, cleanliness, frugality and hard work. The so-called Protestant work ethic helped drive the Netherlands, even the Catholic citizens, into the world-striding Dutch Commonwealth of Nations of later centuries. Biblical stories of fishermen, ship builders and other humble occupations resonated among the seafaring Dutch. The moral elements of the Reformation represented a challenge to the Spanish Empire.
Taxation
The provinces of the Netherlands have grown into wealthy and entrepreneurial regions within the Habsburg’s private empire by the middle of the Sixteenth Century. Neighboring states often turned coveting eyes towards the provinces, Flanders in particular caught the attention of French kings for decades. Its wealth would make it a welcome addition to the French state. During the reign of Charles V, Spain blossomed into a world-wide empire, with territories not only across Europe, but engulfing most of the New World.
Control and defense of these lands were hampered by the very size of the Spanish Empire. Spain also had to face rivals who were more than eager to take a piece of its empire for themselves. Both Spain and France were locked into near continuous conflict in the Italian Wars, and Spain also must contest the Turks across the Mediterranean. For wars also raged across Germany in the name of holy spirit across the heretical states in Germany. These wars impacted Spain’s treasury severely, and the Netherlands were forced to pay dearly to support them.
The provinces viewed these wars as unnecessary, or flat out harmful, as they were waged against important trading partners. No consideration was given to the markets built up in Amsterdam, Flanders or Antwerp when it came to Spain’s ‘divine’ right to spread the faith. By 1571, Spain imposed a ten percent sales tax on all land within the Netherlands. Harsher measures would soon follow. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Netherlands were not the provinces they had been beneath Burgundy rule, but rather viewed not much differently than its colonies.
Centralization
By the later Middle Ages, most of the administrators in the Netherlands were not the tradition aristocracy, but rather stemmed from merchant families that worked their way into power over the previous century. Under the rule of Burgundy, the provinces enjoyed a degree of autonomy in appointing its own governors and councils. Thus the Netherlands represented a loose confederation of high independent-minded citizenry.
Spanish rule changed much of this. The Kings of Spain set out to improve their empire by increasing the authority of the central government in matters concerning taxation and laws. It was a policy which caused great suspicion among the Netherlands’ nobility and merchant classes. An example of Spain’s takeover of power occurred in 1528, when Charles V supplanted the council of guildmasters in Utrecht and replaced it with a regent answerable only to him. Under the regency of Mary of Hungary, tradition power had for a large part been stripped from the governors of the provinces and from the Dutch nobility, whose members were being replaced by Spanish jurists in the Council of State.
Phillip II went even further in appointing members to the Dutch Staaten-General, placing his confidante, Granvelle, as head of the assembly, and furthermore he appointed Margaret of Parma as Governor of all the Netherlands. By 1558, the situation grew worse, and the provinces began to openly contradict the Spanish King’s wishes. Many of the Staaten-General withdrew, including the Count of Egmont, Count of Horne and William of Orange, until Granville was recalled. Phillip II’s responded with even sterner oppression.
During the same time, religious protests increased in spite of the oppression and inquisition. In 1566, four hundred members of the high nobility petitioned the governor to suspend persecution. Count Berlaymont called the petition and act of gueux , a name taken up as an honor by the petitioners, soon called Geuzen. Margaret accepted the petition, and sent in to Spain, for the King’s final verdict.
Uprising
The atmosphere in the Netherlands grew tense following the bad harvest of 1565, and economic difficulties caused by wars in Northern Europe. Hunger, hardship and the rebellious preaching of Calvinist leaders brought tensions to a boiling point. In August of 1566, a Calvinist mob stormed the church of Hondschoote in Flanders. This one incident sparked a massive iconoclast movement, where Calvinists raided churches and other religious centers, destroying all statues and imaged of Catholic Saints they could lay their hands upon.
The number of vandals was likely small, and their exact background is debated, but local authorities did little to rein in the enthusiastic iconoclasts. Their action drove the Dutch nobility into two camps. One camp, lead by William of Orange, opposed the destruction. Others, most notably Henry of Brederode, openly supported the movement, a dangerous statement in a world were a word from the Spanish Governor could cost you your head.
Before the petition of the Guezen could even be read, Phillip II knew he lost control in the troublesome provinces. He had little option but to send an army to suppress the rebellion. On August 22, 1567, Fernando Alvarez of Toledo, the 3rd Duke of Alba, marched into the city of Brussels at the head of an army numbering ten thousand strong. The ‘Iron Duke’ entered the Netherlands with unlimited power and replaced Margaret as governor. Alba took harsh measures and quickly established a series of special courts to judge all in opposition to the king.
The Blood Council
Alba established a tribunal which was soon known by the locals as the ‘Blood Council’ or ‘Blood Court’. During his six years of governorship, thousands of people were brought forth to these courts, convicted and executed. The exact number of the condemned is not known, the Dutch claim eighteen thousand, while the Spanish history only recorded a few hundred. No matter the cost, the Duke of Alba failed in his quest. Instead of quelling the rebellion, his measures helped fuel the unrest. He unwittingly became the instrument of future independence of the Seventeen Provinces.
His ruthless ‘justice’ extended beyond the Protestant trouble makers. He had both Lamoral, Count of Egmont, and Philip of Montmorency, Count of Hoorn imprisoned. Both were very popular leaders of the dissatisfied nobility, and both were Catholic. Nonetheless, Alba condemned both as traitors to the crown without benefit of a trial, and sentenced them to death. On June 1, 1568, six days before the deaths of Egmont and Hoorn, twenty-two noblemen of Brussels were simultaneously beheaded. Deaths ordered by an overlord, rather than judged in court, sparked a wave of outrage across the Netherlands, both Protestant and Catholic alike.
The Duke of Alba entered the Netherlands with the explicit goal of crushing the rebellion. Instead, he managed to unite what should have been a very volatile sectarian conflict. Instead of gathering the support of the majority of the Netherlands, he managed to drive even the most loyal of Spain’s supporters into the rebels camp. The Staaten-General met at Dordrecht, minus the Spanish appointees, and openly declared against Alba’s government, and marshaled beneath the banners of the Prince of Orange.
William of Orange
Willem van Oranje, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Friesland, was born into the House of Orange on April 24, 1533. In his day, he was widely known as William the Silent, so much so that William Shakespear wrote a play by the same name though William the Silent dealt mostly with the exploits of Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, and his campaign against the Spanish in the Netherlands. In Tudor England, a writer could not live long unless he was on the Queen’s good side.
The Prince of Orange came from the castle of Dillenburg in Nassau, in present day Germany. He was the eldest son of the Count of Nassau and Juliana of Stolberg-Werningerode. Unlike many across the mostly Catholic low countries, William was razed a Lutheran. By principle, this made him a target in the eyes of the Holy Inquisition. William’s rise to power started in 1544, when his cousin, the former Prince of Orange died without an heir. William inherited his cousin’s title and vast estates throughout the Netherlands. Because of his young age, Charles V (both King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) served as regent until his was fit to rule.
In order for the Lutheran to gain his rightful lands from his regent, he had no choice but to study beneath Mary of Hungary in Brussels. Charles V insisted that William receive a Catholic education. In Brussels, he was taught foreign languages, such as Spanish, and received military and diplomatic education. On July 6, 1551, William married his first wife, Anna of Egmont, a wealthy heiress of her father’s lands and title.
In the same year of his marriage, William was appointed captain in the cavalry. Despite the taint of Lutheranism that would haunt him during Phillip II’s reign, William rapidly grew into Charles V’s favor, and became commander of one of the Emperor’s armies by the age of twenty-two. Both marital education and experience in the Holy Roman Empire would serve William well in his future struggle for Dutch Independence. When Charles abdicated, it was on William’s shoulder the former Emperor leaned as he stepped down in favor for his son, Phillip. When standing there, watching his father abdicate, did Phillip know then man by his side would one day become Spain’s second greatest enemy of the Sixteenth Century ?
Phillip II’s relations with William remained positive in William’s early years. It was Phillip who appointed William as Stadtholder of Holland, and thus greatly increased his political power. The year before, tragedy struck his life. His first wife died on March 24, 1558. Though a personal tragedy, the death of Anna permitted William to take another wife, and sire more children, one of which would be the founder of a dynasty.
William, brought up a Lutheran and given a Catholic education was a strong proponent of religious freedom. Like those to follow, he believed that one’s religion was a private matter. In deed, he was very dissatisfied by the growing persecution of Protestants throughout his provinces. Ironically, the persecution angered the Catholic population more so than the intended targets. Those who were assumed to be loyal to Spain grew in opposition to foreign rule.
On August 25, 1561, William married for a second time, this time to an ill-tempered woman known as Anna of Saxony. It is generally believed that William married Anna to increase his power and gain influence over the German states of Saxony and Hesse. William did gain more power, but more importantly, the Netherlands gained one of their greatest leaders when Anna gave birth to their first son, Maurice.
During the Blood Council, William was one of the thousands summoned to stand in judgement before the Iron Duke. He failed to show, and was subsequently declared an outlaw, his lands seized immediately afterward. As a popular leader in the Staaten-General, William emerged as leader to the armed rebellion against Spain. In pamphlets and letters spread across the Netherlands, William called attention to the right of subjects to renounce their oath of obedience if their sovereign refused to respect their rights.
William razed an army to battle the Duke of Alba, containing of mostly German mercenaries. Contingents of his army, lead by his brothers Louis and Adolf, engaged and defeated a Spanish army of three thousand at Heiligerlle in Groningen. The Battle of Heiligerlle marks the start of the Forty Years War. The victory turned into a hollow one. Instead of pressing the campaign onward, William ran short of funds and his army disintegrated. Armies razed by his allies were handily defeated and destroyed by the Duke of Alba.
William went into hiding as soon as the initial fires of rebellion died out. He was only one of the grandees still able to offer resistance. With his ancestral lands of Orange, in Breda, remained under Spanish occupation, William moved his court to Delft, in Holland. Delft would remain William’s base of operation until his death, in 1584.
Brielle
On March 1, 1572, Queen Elizabeth of England ousted thousands of Dutch exiles within her own nation. She walked a fine line in regards to Spain, and could not afford to provoke Phillip II. Though Spain was distracted by wars against the Turks, they were still more than a match for England’s small army. To appease Phillip, she had little option but to kick out the Gueux. The ejection forces the beggars to return home.
Under the command of Lumey, the Gueux captured the unguarded town of Brielle. By grabbing a toe hold in the northern Netherlands, the rebels let the Protestants populace know the time to rebel had returned. As far as morale was concerned, Brielle turned out to be an important victory. In reality, it was little more than a token defeat of a nonexistent occupying force. Cities across Zeeland and Holland quickly renewed their support for the rebels. The most conspicuous absence in support came from Amsterdam itself.
With rebellion back in swing, William of Orange came out of hiding to take command. In July of 1572, the Staaten-General assembled in Dordrecht, and agreed to recognize William as Governor-General of the Netherlands. It was agreed upon that William would share his new found power with the Provinces. Sharing of power eventually metamorphosed into the separation of powers soon to be the cornerstone of the United Provinces.
However, by declaring for the Protestants, the Gueux handed William an assortment of problems. The minority Calvinists were bent on converting all of the Netherlands to their way of thinking. Meanwhile, the Catholic Dutch maintained no permanent allegiance, instead wanting to simply eject the Duke of Alba and his army of Spaniards and mercenaries. A majority of the Dutch were reluctant to rebel at all. Though they were no fans of Spain, they still wished to live their lives in peace and earn a decent income. By making an enemy of Spain, merchants had difficulty in trading abroad. William was the key figure in directing the various factions to a common goal.
It is doubtful that William would have been successful if not for an outside enemy to unite all the Dutch. Tension between Calvinists and Catholics threatened to tear apart the rebellion. No matter how hard William tried to convince the masses he was fighting for nationalism, the fanatical Calvinists would quickly open their collective mouths and insert their collective feet. William had little choice but to work with the Calvinists, since they were fighting the Spanish harder than any other Netherlander. As with much during the Forty Years War, it was not what the Dutch leaders said, but what the Spanish did that strengthened the unity between Provinces.
The Spanish Fury
Being unable to squash the rebellion, the Duke of Alba was replaced in 1573, by Luis of Requesnes. Requesnes came to the Netherlands with what he considered a policy of moderation. He would punish rebels, but cease harassment of those who would swear loyalty to the King. His policy was poorly managed, and by the time of his death in 1576, moderation was swept from the table.
What struck William’s army years before, now struck the Spanish. In 1575, because of wars abroad and at home, Spain declared bankruptcy. The inability to pay their army, particularly their mercenaries, would have dire consequences for Spanish rule in the Netherlands. Mutinies followed lack of pay, and on November 4, 1576, troops from the Spanish Tercois entered the wealthy port of Antwerp.
Tired of fighting numerically superior rebels without their salary, the mercenaries decided to ‘pay themselves’ by looting Antwerp. The out-of-control army indulged in a wave of violence that claimed some eight thousand lives and untold quantities of lost property. For three days, the mercenaries pillaged, plundered and looted anything not nailed down. For locals, the Sack of Antwerp became a reference point in their lives. Antwerpers soon began to refer to events in their lives as ‘before the sacking’ or after it.
Instead of crushing the rebellion, the mutinous army managed to turn even the harshest critics of the rebellion into its most adherent followers. The most reluctant of Dutch took up arms and pledged to fight together against the Spanish. Those provinces and cities still loyal to Spain were quickly alienated by the carnage seen at Antwerp and joined the rest of the Netherlands in open rebellion. In one single act of greed and brutality, the modern Dutch state was born.
The Pacification of Ghent
Following the Spanish Fury, the Provinces of the Netherlands negotiated an internal treaty, in which all Dutch put aside their religious difference to combat the foreigners who so ravished their lands. William of Orange was instrumental in forming the alliance, and more importantly, of finally pushing the religious question out of public domain. The declaration was also the first major expression of Dutch national self-consciousness. Spain attempted to counter this move by forming its own coalition in the southern, Catholic provinces. Had they made this move before sacking Antwerp, some success might have arisen. As it were, the southern Dutch were far more interested in ridding themselves of foreign domination.
To make this work, William allied himself with the most powerful of southern nobles, the Duke of Aerschott. Aerschott himself was no fan of William, and was opposed to the rebellion up until the Sacking of Antwerp. What he wanted more than to see William’s downfall, was the restoration of the old privileges and his rights, both revoked by Phillip of Spain. In order to achieve his goals, he teamed up with William. William’s ultimate ambition, a United Netherlands strong enough to resist Spanish domain, was nearing a reality.
The Pacification of Ghent, aside from making religious tolerance law, also called for the expulsion of all Spanish armed forces and restoration of local and provincial prerogatives. If Phillip II did not take a simple petition well, such a bold declaration infuriated him. Who were these Dutch upstarts, to make demands of their anointed king? Answering the only way he knew how, with a heavy hand, he sent Alessandro Farnes, the Duke of Parma, to crush these traitors. The Duke of Parma was appointed Governor-General, the same title held by the Prince of Orange. Clearly the Netherlands were not large enough for the both of them. Aided by a shipment of bullion just arrived from the New World, the Duke of Parma formed his army and set out to destroy the Dutch rebellion
Oath of Abjuration
In Sixteenth Century Europe, it was not conceivable that a country could be governed by anyone other than high nobility, if not a king, so the Staaten-General sought out a suitable replacement for their current ‘king’ Phillip of Spain. By taking this oath of abjuration, the Dutch set themselves on a future where whoever their ruler may be, he was answerable to those he ruled. Or, at the every least, to the Staaten-General. The Estates were interested in preserving their own rights, as were the Dutch people. No longer would they tolerate arbitrary rule by any would-be prince of Europe.
They first courted Elizabeth of England, but in 1581, she was in no position to displace Phillip II. Spain still eyed England, and would jump at the slightest provocation to invade the island nation and destroy it Protestant institutions. Her own relationship with her Catholic sister and her cousin made many of the Catholic lords of the low countries suspicious of Elizabeth. True, she would fight against Spanish dominion, but what would she do afterwards? The issue turned out to be a non-issue as Elizabeth rejected the offer of protectorship.
With one rejection on its list, the Staaten-General turned to Elizabeth’s one-time suitor, the Duke of Anjou. The younger brother to the French King accepted the offer, under one condition; the Netherlands must denounce any loyalty to Phillip II. In 1581, the Oath of Abjuration was issued, in which the Netherlands proclaimed the King of Spain did not uphold his responsibilities to the Dutch population and thus no longer accepted as their rightful ruler. In other words, on July 22, 1581, the Provinces declared independence.
Anjou did not stay long in the Netherlands. He was, naturally for a French noble, deeply disturbed by the limited influence and power the Staaten-General was willing to grant him. The French were accustomed to rule by edict, and in a sense were little different from Spanish. Both believed strongly that their right to rule was divine, and that God anointed them ruler over all their subjects and their lives. After some attempt to increase his power via a coup, the Duke of Anjou was rapidly ridden out of the Netherlands, losing any chance of ever being King.
A third, and obvious choice presented itself. Many of his followers and allies suggest that William himself take up the crown of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. William considered the offer, but put it on hold for the time being. The alliance between provinces was shaky at best, and William’s opponents might use it as a chance to move against him. He could ill afford to have the rebellion turn in on itself.
After Spain was defeated? William was unsure even then. If he became King, how many of the Provinces would follow him? Catholic nobles were suspicious since he was born a Lutheran. Protestant nobles were suspicious because he obtained a Catholic education. Lastly, the Calvinists were suspicious because he himself was not one of them. Though he was not King, he was still seen as head of the rebellion. As such, the King of Spain placed a bounty on his head, one that many were intent on collecting.
Fall of Antwerp
By 1584, the King of Spain was through playing games with the rebels. He called upon the Duke of Parma to restore ‘peace and orthodoxy’ to his Netherlands. Parma met various Dutch militia in battle after battle, defeating the untrained men with ease. In the first half of the 1580s, Parma tried to force William into a decisive battle, where he could tear out the heart of the rebellion. In July of 1584, Parma led his army to encircle the focal point of resistance, Antwerp.
Less than a decade earlier, Antwerp faced the wrath of mutinous Spaniards. Thousands of Dutch were slaughtered in the ensuing sacking, and hundreds of houses put to the torch. At the time, Antwerp was not only the largest Dutch city, but also the financial, cultural and economic center of Sixteenth Century Netherlands. Its trade even eclipsed Amsterdam, granary of the north.
Parma’s first act was the construction of a bridge across the Scheldt River, to isolate Antwerp from the growing Dutch Navy. After the Spanish Fury, rebels flocked to Antwerp, transforming it into the capital of the Dutch rebellion. By taking the city, Parma hoped to break the will of the rebels and force them back into the Spanish fold. After a year long siege, the city surrendered.
After the siege, Parma kept the bridge across Scheldt in place, blocking all traffic and trade to the port. Protestants were forced to leave town before the fall, to keep ahead of the Inquisition. They were not the only ones to leave. Tens of thousands fled northward, reducing Antwerp’s population from nearly one hundred thousand down to forty thousands. What was the golden century of Antwerp came to an end on August 17, 1585.
Assassination
William continued his struggle, now with a twenty-five thousand crown reward on him. In what was to be his last year, William married for a fourth and final time, this time to Louise of Coligny, a Huguenot. She bore him one child, Frederick Henry, future king. William, himself, given up the idea of becoming king. He had enough trouble already. The Duke of Parma’s campaign threatened to break his alliance. Many Catholic communities, seeing Spain back on the rise, wavered in their loyalty. Wavered, but did not break. Too many times the Spanish broke the Dutch Catholic’s hearts, and they were not about to trust them again.
William’s demise came from the hand of Balthasar Gerard. When William was declared an outlaw, back in 1581, Gerard decided to travel to the Netherlands and collect on the bounty. He served in the army of Luxembourg for two years, hoping to get close enough to take a shot at William. Alas, the two armies never joined, and in 1584, Gerard left the army. He presented the Duke of Parma his plans, but the Duke was hardly impressed, but permitted the would-be assassin to go ahead.
In May of 1584, Gerard presented himself to William as a French Nobleman, and presented him with the seal of the Count of Mansfelt. This seal would permit forgeries of messages of Mansfelt. William sent Gerard back to France, to pass the seal to his French allies. Gerard returned in July, having bought pistols on his return voyage. On July 10, he made an appointment to meet William in his residence, in Delft.
What happened next altered the course of Dutch history, and is, in fact the first recorded assassination of a head of state by a fire arm. It would not be the last. Gerard shot William in the chest at close range and fled. According to official reports, Williams last words were said to be “My God, have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people”. The assassin failed to flee Delft before his apprehension and imprisoned. His fate was the same as to befall anyone who committed regicide.
Earl of Leicester
By 1585, the Staaten-General signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with England. As per the treaty, Elizabeth I sent an army numbering six thousand to do battle with the Spanish. She found appeasing Phillip II now impossible, and decided it best to beat him over there than in her own backyard. Leading the English Army was Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Long since a favorite of the Queen, and rumored to be her lover at one point, Leicester remains a controversial character in Dutch history. It was not the first time Leicester was the center of controversy; years earlier, his wife was found dead at the bottom of a stair case. Though the death was ruled accidental, his closeness to the Queen, and the vacant Kingship, made her death more than a little convenient. He spent the following years laying low and out of sight.
Leicester was offered the Governor-Generalship, though he could not rule with a free hand. His Queen forbade him from making any agreements with Spain without her consent. Further more, he did not share the secular values laid down by the Pacification of Ghent. He immediately sided with the Calvinists, drawing distrust from everyone else. He also butted heads with Stadtholders and nobles across the Netherlands when he tried to strengthen his own power by robbing the Provinces of theirs. He was not the first to make this error, but he would be the last.
Leicester proved to be a poor commander, hardly worthy of a staring role in William the Silent. The play is still considered to be one of Shakespeare’s finest, though modern Dutch critics view it as more of an attempt to appease the Tudor queen by shining a positive light upon a royal favorite. Nor did he understand the delicate balance between trade and war. The Dutch, by 1586, were fully committed to independence, however this was by no means an abandonment of commerce. Within a year of his arrival, the Earl of Leicester lost the support of the Staaten-General and population at large. He returned to England, after which the Staaten-General was unable to find any other suitable regent. This was not the way either government envisioned an Anglo-Dutch Alliance to begin.
The Spanish Armada
The turning point in the Forty Years War came in August of 1588. Under the command of the notorious privateer, Sir Francis Drake, a fleet of English and Dutch ships defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines. Finally tired of the resistance offered by the Protestant Queen of England, Phillip II assembled a vast armada, consuming most of Spain’s treasury, for an invasion of the island nation.
At the command of twenty-two warships and one hundred eight converted transports, the King appointed the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. He was to sail to the Netherlands and ferry the Duke of Parma’s army across the sea. Twenty thousand Spanish and mercenary soldiers awaited the Armada at Dunkirk. In May, Medina-Sidonia set sail from Lisbon on what he expected to be an easy conquest. After all, the English Army was pathetic in comparison to Spain’s.
Following a running fight, and a night attack by fireships in July, Medina-Sidonia was forced to take the Armada into port. He chose Gravelines in Flanders as a base to reform his scattered fleet. Its proximity to the English coast made it as good a spot as any to embark Parma’s army. Parma was taken by surprise by the Armada’s choice of ports, and required six days to bring his troops up for embarkation.
Those six days gave England enough room to maneuver. In that time, Drake learned more of the Armada’s strengths and weaknesses through a series of skirmished in the Channel. What they learned gave Drake the edge. Spanish guns were very unwieldy and their crews poorly trained, a far cry from the Royal Navy. Spain preferred to board enemy ships and fight them hand-to-hand. In this way, Spain held the upper hand.
Drake was not about to allow the Spanish to close in for boarding. His own strengths lay in cannon fire. On August 8, Drake lead the fleet of English and Dutch vessels into battle. With its superior maneuverability, the English provoked the Spanish into firing while they stayed out of range. Once the Armada expended their heavy shot, Drake moved in for the kill, firing repeated broadsides into the enemy ships. Though only eleven of the Spanish ships were sunk or crippled, Drake cancelled the Armada’s plans to embark Parma’s army. Medina-Sidonia left port and set sail towards home. Both English and Dutch ships hounded the Armada across the North Sea, but in the end, rough seas and not rough marines destroyed the Armada. Upon returning to Spain, it is reported the Phillip II responded by saying ‘I sent my ships to fight against the English, not against the Elements.’
Maurice of Orange
In looking for a new commander for the rebellion, by 1587, the Staaten-General turned to twenty year old Maurice of Orange. Born on November 14, 1567, to William’s second wife, Maurice inherited his father’s leadership abilities, though not his serial monogamy. Maurice never married, though he did father two illegitimate children. At the age of sixteen, when his father was gunned down, Maurice inherited his titles and lands (though the latter were still occupied).
The borders of the United Provinces are largely defined by the campaigns of Maurice. Was it his genius that lead the Dutch nation to independence or fiscal burdens placed on Spain by the loss of its naval investments? What can be said is, that it was Maurice who organized the rebellion against Spain into a coherent and successful revolution. In the early 1590s, Maurice lead the rebel army to victory in sieges against Breda, Steenwijk and Geertruidenberg.
Following campaigns chased the demoralized Spanish army across much of the Netherlands, driving them from Groningen, Holland, Zeeland and Friesland by 1595. Spain experienced setbacks before in the Dutch revolt, and figured this would be no different. Sooner or later, the Provinces would bicker and divide themselves, where the Spanish could move in and reassert itself. This grand illusion was forever shattered in 1600, at a town called Nieuwpoort.
The Battle of Nieuwpoort
On July 2, 1600, Maurice of Orange met the Spanish Army, commanded by the Archduke of Austria, near the city of Nieuwpoort. By mid-June, Maurice managed to raise an army of over ten thousand men. Again the Spanish army faced mutiny, one that made it impossible for a relief army to be razed by the Archduke. The only way to keep the army together was the promise of free plunder. The workings of a second Spanish Fury were on the drawing board.
The desire of freedom outweighed greed, and in the end, Maurice managed to drive the Spanish from the field of battle, a rare feat in the Sixteenth Century, but soon to become all too common during the Seventeenth. Dutch lines of communication were stretched to vulnerable limits, forcing Maurice to withdraw as well. Spanish strength along the Dutch coast was sapped by the battle, paving the way for a future campaign against Dunkirker pirates.
Following the battle, the Dutch were finally able to dismantle the bridge Spain built fifteen years earlier to block Antwerp trade. Nieuwpoort offered another turning point in the war. Never again could Spain threaten the northern Provinces. Further more, Spain’s stranglehold on the south was now in danger. Maurice portrayed the next nine years as a campaign to liberate all the Netherlands from Spanish hands. In truth, the northern Provinces view eliminating threats to trade as a notch above freeing their own brethren, and nearly forced Maurice to halt his campaign, five years later.
The Dunkirkers
Pirate nests plagued Dutch trade all through the Forty Years War. Instead of destroying the pirates, as was the Spanish King’s responsibility to the Netherlands, he encouraged it. Such actions were understandable after the Oath of Abjuration, but not before. Since the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Dutch navy grew from a gaggle of converted merchant ships into a force that rivaled any on the sea. Even England’s Royal Navy was second to that of the Netherlands. Pirates on the open seas were little threat to the Dutch Navy, were they would meet untimely ends very quickly.
In order to root out the pirates, the army must march on Dunkirk and its surrounding regions to burn out the nests. In 1606, that was precisely what Maurice set out to do. With an army of eleven thousand men, Maurice attempted to force the pirates into battle on the field. Instead, most fled from the sight of a large army descending upon them. Maurice sent detachments to hunt down the pirates, and set into motion of literally smoking them out. Each pirate den his army stumbled upon was put to the torch, and each pirate found mercilessly cut down. By October of 1606, the Dunkirker threat was destroyed, and the southern Netherlands free for commerce to once again thrive.
Liege
Out of all the Provinces, only Liege maintained loyalty to Spain. Despite the Spanish Fury, the Bishopric could not bring itself to turn on who they saw as Defender of the Faith. Its location right smack in the middle of the southern Provinces, Liege could not be bypassed or ignored. Luxembourg and Limburg were completely cut off from the rest of the Netherlands by Liege. Most of the Dutch would have been content to exist without the theocratic state. However, Maurice, as well as other high-ranking commanders, viewed the bishopric as an anti-Dutch enclave, one that sat in the middle of the future United Provinces. It offered too good of a base for Spain, and other enemies, to set up shop and strike into the heart of the Netherlands.
In 1608, Maurice already had the bulk of the remaining Spanish army bottled up under siege in the city of Brussels, former capital of the Spanish Netherlands. The Staaten-General was not content with having a huge hole in its new nation. While the Siege of Brussels was nearing its final days, the Staaten-General ordered Maurice to deal with Liege. Against his better judgement, Maurice divided his forces, and lead seven thousand infantry and cavalry into the Bishopric of Liege.
He did not fear Papal retribution. The fact that the Netherlands was already home to many Protestants made them suspect. His only real concern was that the Spanish commander in Brussels might rally his forces and break out. If they did, and linked up with the Spanish army assembling near Mons, they could threaten all the southern Provinces. By now, the King of Spain knew keeping all the Netherlands under his thumb was all but impossible. Instead, he was forced to focus on the Catholic region, hoping it would stay true to the faith. This goes to show how little Spain understood the revolution. Religion was never the top concern (with the possible exception of the Calvinists), but the right of the people to decide their own fate.
The Bishop of Liege failed to muster any army worthy of the name. When Maurice arrived in Liege, the Bishop commanded barely one thousand men, most of them mercenaries. He feared the sell-swords would not fight to defend the church. When the battle turned against them, they might very well run. Though Liege stayed loyal to Spain after ‘the fury’, they lost any trust for mercenaries. The Bishop knew any battle would end in defeat, and loss of power.
Instead of fighting, the Bishop decided to cut a deal with Maurice and the Staaten-General. Under the white flag of truce, the two met between the lines of armies. It was here, that the Bishop saw just how puny his own force was in comparison. The Bishop agreed to join the United Provinces under one condition; he would stay in power. Maurice could not agree to this, for the Staaten-General was a forum where faith did not belong. His father dedicated his life to the very concept of freedom of religion.
The Bishop could not stomach being part of such a ‘godless’ state, but he could not fight either. Martyrdom did not appeal much to him, the Bishop thought he would be more use to God alive, and leading his flock. In the end, with much convincing to the Staaten-General, Maurice managed to strike a compromise. Liege would become part of the United Provinces, and the Bishop would stay in power, but only as spiritual leader. For the interim, Maurice would select a regent to rule as secular ruler . It was not until the end of the Forty Years War would Liege’s government be settled.
Surrender at Mons
Much to Maurice’s fears, some of the defenders of Brussels managed to escape the siege and link up with remaining forces massing at Mons. By the end of 1608, Brussels had little choice but to surrender. Some of the Spanish soldiers cast off their uniforms, deserted and simply merged with the crowds. There was no love for Spain in Brussels, and many deserters were turned in by locals. In response to their actions, Dutch authorities tired them as spies, and hung more than one.
With Brussels secure and Liege now conforming to Staaten-General, Maurice of Orange had only the enemy ahead. The last bastion of Spanish authority within the Netherlands lay in the city of Mons. Ironically, the last battle of the Forty Years War was fought upon what is now French territory. At the time, it lay within the reaches of the low countries, and would eventually be ceded to the French in the Eighteenth Century.
The Duke of Parma assembled his army outside of Mons. He considered holing up in the city, but unlike Brussels, he knew no reinforcements were waiting. To the Duke there was great honor in dying in the field of battle, but none to be gain by starving to death. His six thousand soldiers faced Maurice and some ten thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry. Parma was badly outnumbered, but he still would fight the battle on his terms. He would utilize what cavalry and artillery remained in hopes of punching a hole in Maurice’s lines.
The Prince of Orange outgunned Parma as well as outnumbered. He would not give Parma the opportunity to turn his few remaining guns upon Dutch forces. Shortly after seizing a modest hill near the battlefield, Maurice ordered all his guns to open fire on the enemy, who had yet to organize into lines. The hour long bombardment disrupted the Spanish forces, driving some of the less reliable men and units to desert the field. Parma quickly ordered his own men to cut down any who retreated without his command.
Parma still hoped to rally his army into one glorious charge, but Maurice would not have it. He was not about to lose, not this close to victory. Shortly after the guns fell silent, Dutch heavy cavalry charged forward, catching the disorganized Spanish forces and scattering them. Behind the horsemen, thousand of soldiers marched forward, mopping up any and all Spanish pockets of resistance remaining. The excellent execution of this early combined-arms assault rolled up the last Spanish presence in less than an hour.
Mortally wounded during the fighting, the Duke of Parma had little choice but to parley. He sent his emissaries under the flag of truce to meet with Maurice. Over two thousand Spaniards died that day, but the survivors were surprised by Maurice’s leniency. Like all Dutch, he wanted the Spanish gone more than anything else. The enemy were disarmed and escorted to Dunkirk. Here they were herded on board ships and sent home. Their arrival in Seville was a message to the Spanish King, a message declaring it was time to negotiate. For all intent purpose, the war at home was over.
Victory Abroad
In the middle of the Sixteenth Century, Phillip inherited the throne of Portugal. Both nations were soon brought into personal union, and the King wasted no time in using Portuguese resources. Their army left something to desire, but their navy, and their trade routes to the east, added to Spain’s power . By a technicality in the Treaty of Tordelles, Portugal laid claim to a large stretch of eastern South America, Brazil. It was a land, that by 1600, the Dutch decided to take for themselves.
By the Seventeen Century, sugar was all the rage in Europe. The Portuguese turned vast swaths of Brazil into sugarcane fields, bringing them nearly as much wealth as the gold sent to Spain. A variety of food and luxury crops were grown in the wide expanses of Brazil, a colony many times larger than the United Provinces. The Dutch population grew over the past century, forcing them to rely upon importation of food to prevent famine. Brazil offered more than enough land for the Dutch to farm, plus it would remove any dependancy on importation of grain from foreign states.
Ernst van Bohr
Born in 1561, little is known about one of the Netherlands’ most famous admirals. Bohr found himself a sailor by the age of sixteen. In 1588, he commanded one of the Dutch ships during the engagement with the Spanish Armada. During the battle, Bohr earned the reputation as a reckless leader, willing to throw himself into the line of fire to obtain victory. Unlike many Dutch, Bohr had little interest in business. He lacked the patience to gradually earn wealth, and preferred the glories of conquest over the subtleties of trade.
By 1602, Bohr rose to the rank of Admiral, commanding 18 ships, led a raid on Aviliz, on the Spanish mainland. For twelve days, his sailors and marines occupied the Spanish port. Bohr resupplied his fleet courtesy of the Spanish, and looted both silver and gold before abandoning the city. The Netherlands were interested in freedom, not overthrowing the Habsburgs. Whomever headed the United Provinces would have their hands full trying to govern the Provinces, much less occupied territories that have no desire to be ruled by the Dutch.
Bohr’s biggest acclaim to fame was as Conqueror of Brazil. In 1604, he landed eighteen hundred men in the Brazilian port of Salvador. No resistance to speak of was offered, and the only combat within the town came from a lone colonist mistaking patrolling Dutch for game. After assembling his force in Salvador, Bohr threw off his admiral’s hat and took up the mantle of general. He lead his small army towards Recife, to battle the Portuguese garrison stationed there.
The Battle of Recife, future capital of Brazil, occurred on May 8, 1604. Bohr now lead only one thousand men. Five hundred were left to hold Salvador, while nearly three hundred already succumbed to tropical disease. Portugal mustered only a few hundred colonial militia to combat a vastly larger invasion fort. Bohr’s five cannon helped decide the outcome before the battle even began. Militia charged into a volley of fire, falling before they could come into range of sword and spear. Bohr wasted no time in fortifying his new conquests. Months passed before word of the fall of Recife reached the Iberian Peninsula. Spain could spare little in combating the Dutch in distant Brazil. However, they were deeply concerned that the Dutch would not be satisfied with Brazil. They might very well make a grab at Mexico or Peru, both rich in gold and silver. Fear of losing their bullion supply was the primary motivating factor in the King’s decisions to engage the Dutch across the Atlantic. A small armada of thirty-one ships and three thousand men were assembled in Seville, with the explicit goal of eliminating Ernst van Bohr. In early 1605, the Spanish and Portuguese set sail for Brazil, meeting the Dutch fleet off the coast of Natal.
Unlike the much larger battle with the Spanish Armada, the Battle of Natal ended far more decisively. Twenty-seven Dutch ships encountered thirty-one ships early in the morning of March 15, 1605. After a two day battle, the Dutch all but destroyed the combined fleet. Bohr proved once again a master admiral, while the Spanish and Portuguese failed to achieve any cohesion. Using one of the oldest strategies in the book, Bohr managed to divide the enemy fleet, and destroy it a few ships at a time. In the end, the only reason any Spanish ships escaped was due to exhaustion of ammunition and powder on the Dutch side. For his actions, the Staaten-General awarded Bohr land in Brazil, and the title Count of Natal.
Battle of Cape Verde
When the Dutch began their rebellion, their could scarcely hope to gain their freedom from the masters of Europe. By 1608, not only was that goal inevitable, but the Dutch were on their way to empire. The biggest losers of the Forty Years War were not the Spanish, but rather Portugal. September 15, 1608, sounded the death nail of the Portuguese Empire. What remained of the Portuguese Navy, twiddled down by attrition by the Dutch across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, were ambushed twelve kilometers southwest of Cape Verde.
The Count of Natal, Grand Admiral of the Netherlands, led his battle hardened fleet in an attack against the Portuguese remnants. Natal divided his fleet into three sections, each crossing the ‘T’ at the appropriate time. After the first cross, Portugal’s ships scattered, and became easy pickings for the Dutch. Had the Portuguese Navy held formation, it would likely have fought its way through the battle and managed to reach home. As it happened, the ships were sunk to the last, guaranteeing Portugal’s colonies would sit on the negotiating table.
The Treaty of Calais
In mid 1609, the belligerent parties of Spain, the Netherlands and England, along with observers for Portugal, met in the town of Calais. After surrendering at Mons, two months earlier, a general armistice was agreed upon. Spain lost too much in retaining such a small piece of territory. Portugal lost far more, and they were not even the real enemy of the Dutch. Spain had the option of continuing the war, but after Mons, there was no real hope at victory. The Dutch Navy was too powerful, and any attempt to land would be disastrous. Overland routes were off the table, for France was at war with Spain as well.
The first order of business was decided by the end of the first day; Spain would recognize Dutch Independence. That much was never in doubt. What came into doubt was the future of colonial possessions. The Dutch had no interest in Spain’s holding, but demanded Portugal surrender all of its remaining colonies and trading posts to the United Provinces. Fleets in the Indian Ocean either captured or destroyed posts along the African coast, conquered Ceylon and virtually drove the Portuguese out of India.
Brazil was already home to hundreds of Dutch colonists looking for new opportunities, along with the new Count of Natal. Portugal resisted the idea, but Spain gave them no say in the decision. If they did not cede their colonial possessions, the Dutch would continue the war and leave Portugal in ruins. Some in Portugal dreamed about putting a native king back on the throne, and losing their empire would only strengthen Spain’s position.
Spain was already looking forward to political unification of Iberia, and surmised it could take back Brazil at a later date. For now, it must rest and recuperate. In return for Portugal’s colonies, the Dutch agreed not to interfere with Spanish shipping, and would allow what would now days be called ‘favored trade status’ with Spain, by lowering tariffs on Spanish goods. Considering the amount of wealth that would flow out of the East Indies and Brazil, the United Provinces could afford to wave a few import fees.
Spain was forced to give up one of its possessions, however, to England. In 1604, the English managed to capture Manilla and its harbor. Once entrenched in the Philippines, England decided they would not give it up. Manilla offered an excellent harbor from which to center English trade in the Far East. England gobbled up many Portuguese trading posts in West Africa, along with their slave trade. Portugal’s final indignity came with the dismantling of its colonial companies, and end of its commercial enterprise. As far as Portugal was concerned, whether the war continued or ended, they were lost.
The Treaty was finalized by November, and signed by all parties. The Staaten-General ratified to treaty only after an hour’s worth of debate, when all sides prazed the treaty. On November 17, 1609, the United Provinces of the Netherlands were officially born. With the war against Spain over, the real challenge began; governing diverse provinces, and just what to do with all the colonial spoils of war