THE FIRST REVOLT (1566 –1568): THE SLIGHTED NOBILITY AND RELIGIOUS TENSIONSĬharles V's son Philip II of Spain (ruled 1556 –1598) continued his father's policies, in particular suppressing heresy, but whereas the Ghent-born Charles V was a fairly popular figure, the Netherlanders always viewed the Spanish-born Philip as a foreigner. It is not clear, however, if this meant that their liberties would be compromised. The Pragmatic Sanction outlined the way the succession would be regulated and provided that the seventeen provinces must always have the same ruler. Probably the most important move toward centralization prior to the revolt was taken by Emperor Charles V (ruled 1519 –1556) when he succeeded in having his "seventeen provinces" of the Netherlands united as a single entity by agreement of the States-General (parliament) to his Pragmatic Sanction in 1549. Whereas the Burgundian dukes did not move too quickly in the direction of expansion and centralization, their Habsburg successors certainly did. In many respects this disunity of the provinces of the Low Countries ensured that particularist agendas would stand in the way of attempts by the rulers to create a centralized administration and unified country. These territories each retained their customary laws and traditions, their so-called ancient liberties. They were slowly and loosely brought under the control of the dukes of Burgundy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries but were never more than a collection of counties and duchies. The various provinces of the Low Countries (Netherlands) were never really united into a distinct country prior to the late sixteenth century. PRELUDE TO REVOLT: THE DISUNITY OF THE NETHERLANDS The eventual outcome of the revolt was decided for the most part by 1609, when the combatants agreed to the Twelve Years' Truce, but the war between the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic) and the Kingdom of Spain did not officially come to an end until both parties agreed to the Peace of M ünster, which was part of the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. The revolt itself is best viewed as a series of related uprisings and wars that, taken together, constitute the Dutch Revolt. The tensions that led to open revolt, however, had much earlier origins. The revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule, also known as the Eighty Years' War, is traditionally said to have begun in June 1568, when the Spanish executed Counts Egmont and Horne in Brussels.
0 kommentar(er)
