Spain was a Catholic country and England a Protestant country — meaning that the two rulers had conflicting spiritual outlooks. Marriage rejection. When Mary died he offered to marry Elizabeth but she rejected him. English sailors like Hawkins and Drake attacked and stole treasure from Spanish ships in the New World. King Philip was furious but Elizabeth encouraged and rewarded adventurers.
The civil war in France. At the start of the battle, William of Orange emerged as the leader of the revolt. This military battle was later continued by the Dutch States Army under the leadership of his sons Maurice and Frederick Henry. The battle for religious freedom is inseparable from the revolt. Duke of Alba, Fernando Alvarez de Toledo — Johan van Oldenbarnevelt — William I — king of England and duke of Normandy. See all related overviews in Oxford Reference ». The struggle by the Netherlands for independence from Spain.
The Low Countries formed part of the Spanish empire but the tactlessness of the Council of Regency for Philip II alienated the local nobles, who were excluded from government. High taxation, unemployment, and Calvinist fears of Catholic persecution aroused dangerous opposition which the Duke of Alba came to crush with a reign of terror and punitive taxation.
Open revolt led by William I the Silent followed. A catholic university was established at Douai, Jesuits were encouraged to go to the Low Countries and the instructions of the Council of Trent were to be put into operation. That Philip acted as an absolute monarch was to be expected and he did not ask the magnates for their thoughts on these issues. In , the Council of State asked Philip to reconsider his policies.
Count Egmont was sent to Spain where he was warmly received by Philip. But the king would not change his policies towards the Netherlands. William of Orange, Egmont and Admiral Horn, the Admiral of the Netherlands, all withdrew from the Council of State in protest but both Egmont and Horn were known to be loyal to the crown so they were not expected to do anything too extreme. William of Orange was less loyal to Philip but he was not an extremist. He was in a difficult position as the lesser nobles were embracing religious radicalism and becoming more extreme in their talk.
These men had lost a lot of money as a result of price rises — money which they could not recover. William could not be seen to be openly supportive of men who were becoming radical and potentially de-stabilising. These men turned to Louis of Nassau — the brother of William of Orange. In they formed the Compromise.
It had two main aims:. The support from the magnates had been patchy. William offered his brother support but Egmont and Horn did not. Afraid of these beggars? Antwerp was a city in turmoil as there was high unemployment and religious radicalism was common. Such a combination could be volatile.
In response to this threat, Margaret suspended all religious decrees. In , Calvinists were holding open-air meetings guarded by armed sympathisers. In July , the radical section of the Compromise agreed to co-operate with the Calvinists. They both had the same objective — to pressurise Philip II into relaxing his oppressive rule. They were curious bed-fellows as the Compromise were lesser nobility who wanted to recover their social and economic status while the Calvinists wanted religious toleration to be followed by the establishment of Calvinism throughout the Netherlands.
How did William view the Compromise? He did not welcome social disorder or the cause of it. He did not want the Netherlands to be broken up into camps. He viewed many of the lesser nobles and the Calvinists as dangerous hot-heads who could destroy any chance of increased political liberty. He tried to settle the discontent that was rife in Antwerp.
He went to Mass to re-assure the Catholics and he introduced public works schemes to give employment. By doing this he tried to satisfy both sides. But there were problems elsewhere. Prices greatly increased. The urban workers were hit the hardest. War in the Baltic severely affected sea trade and in August the Iconoclastic Riots took place. Churches — seen as the bastion of the rich — were wrecked, as were churches and monasteries. The riots spread quickly and much religious property was damaged.
The magnates and the lesser nobility feared that property in general would be attacked and they were appalled at the fury of the mob. In August , Margaret came to an agreement with the leaders of the Compromise which lead to the Accord. The Compromise had to lay down its weapons and not interfere with catholic worship while Protestant preachers were allowed to continue work where they had already established a foothold. The violence quickly ended as grain prices fell but many property owners reacted to it in that they would not be drawn into religious or political movements or anything that hinted at dissent.
Margaret exploited this weakness. She asked Philip II for troops and tried to hire mercenaries from Germany. She believed that the Accord had been forced on her and she was not willing to keep it. Why did not William ally himself with Calvinism? First, he was a catholic and he was also very aware that the Calvinism did not have sufficient money, arms or supplies for a successful rebellion.
The princes in northern Germany were Lutheran and were not willing to help the Calvinism. Also by joining the Calvinism, William would have lost the support of the catholic majority in the Netherlands and his relatives in Germany. The leadership of the Calvinism went to Brederode. In March , he gathered an army and marched into Zeeland. Margaret immediately called on the magnates to swear an oath of loyalty to Philip II.
They all did except William of Orange. However, he would not commit himself to the Calvinism. Brederode fled to Germany.
So did William and many lesser nobility as they expected severe repression. Up to , there had been four separate levels of resistance:. These four separate groups had four separate aims and there was no obvious link between them all. Not all of them wanted independence from Spain. The magnates had demonstrated their loyalty with their oath of allegiance while the lesser nobles were now less openly rebellious after the shock of the Iconoclastic Riots.
The Calvinism had no love of the catholic church while the poor urban workers had no love of the church or Spain. Each group had reasons to distrust the others so the chances of independence in looked very remote — even if the groups were calling for it which most were not. With William of Orange in Germany, the rebels looked weak. They arrived in August Alva had four secret orders:. Alva started a reign of terror. Most were released after signing a form of submission.
All leaders or potential leaders of resistance were arrested. Town leaders were shown no mercy. In January , 80 leading citizens were executed in Brussels. Philip wrote to Alva that:. A further blow for the resistance movement came in February , when Brederode died. William of Orange was now the obvious leader. Louis made some progress in Groningen but the two other prongs failed. It was left for Louis to feel the full force of Alva and the force of Louis fell back into Germany.
0コメント