Habsburg Netherlands are those parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. The rule began with the death in 1482 of Mary of Burgundy of the House of Valois-Burgundy who was the ruler of the Low Countries and the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Austria. Their grandson, Emperor Charles V, was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.
Habsburg Netherlands | |||||||||||||||
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| 1482–1797 | |||||||||||||||
 Cross of Burgundy  Coat of arms (Philip IV) | |||||||||||||||
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| Status | Personal union of Imperial fiefs within Empire | ||||||||||||||
| Capital | De facto: Mechelen until 1530, afterwards Brussels | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages |
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| Religion |
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| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern period | ||||||||||||||
• Inherited by House of Habsburg | 1482 | ||||||||||||||
• Incorporated into Burgundian Circle | 1512 | ||||||||||||||
• Pragmatic Sanction | 1549 | ||||||||||||||
• Inherited by Habsburg Spain | 1556 | ||||||||||||||
| 30 January 1648 | |||||||||||||||
• Treaty of Rastatt | 7 March 1714 | ||||||||||||||
• Battle of Sprimont | 18 September 1794 | ||||||||||||||
• Treaty of Campo Formio | 17 October 1797 | ||||||||||||||
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Becoming known as the Seventeen Provinces in 1549, they were held by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556, known as the Spanish Netherlands from that time on. In 1581, in the midst of the Dutch Revolt, the Seven United Provinces seceded from the rest of this territory to form the Dutch Republic. The remaining Spanish Southern Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands in 1714, after Austrian acquisition under the Treaty of Rastatt. De facto Habsburg rule ended with the annexation by the revolutionary French First Republic in 1795. Austria, however, did not relinquish its claim over the country until 1797 in the Treaty of Campo Formio.
Geography
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries (i.e. the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and most of the modern French départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais) from 1482 to 1581. The northern Low Countries began growing from 1200 AD, with the drainage and flood control of land, which could then be cultivated. The population rose and the region of Holland became important. Before that, the development of large cities was in the south, with Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels, and Leuven, all of which were larger than any settlement in the north. Rivers in the Low Countries run east–west and were a political and strategic barrier to influence southern influence on the north, forming two separate political areas.
Already under the Holy Roman Empire rule of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good (1419–1467), the provinces of the Netherlands began to grow together, whereas previously they were split with being either the tributary of the French Kingdom or of Burgundy under the Holy Roman Empire banner. The collected fiefdoms were Flanders, Artois and Mechelen, Namur, Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut, Brabant, Limburg, and Luxembourg. These realms were ruled in personal union by the Valois-Burgundy monarchs and represented in the States-General assembly. The centre of the Burgundian possessions was the Duchy of Brabant, where the Burgundian dukes held court in Brussels.
Philip's son Duke Charles the Bold (1467–1477) also acquired Guelders and Zutphen, and even hoped to gain the title of "King" from Habsburg emperor Frederick III by marrying his daughter Mary to Frederick's son Maximilian. Disappointed in this, he engaged in the disastrous Burgundian Wars and was killed in the Battle of Nancy.
| History of the Low Countries | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frisii | Belgae | |||||||
| Cana– nefates | Chamavi, Tubantes | Gallia Belgica (55 BC–c. 5th AD) Germania Inferior (83–c. 5th) | ||||||
| Salian Franks | Batavi | |||||||
| unpopulated (4th–c. 5th) | Saxons | Salian Franks (4th–c. 5th) | ||||||
| Frisian Kingdom (c. 6th–734) | Frankish Kingdom (481–843)—Carolingian Empire (800–843) | |||||||
| Austrasia (511–687) | ||||||||
| Middle Francia (843–855) | West Francia (843–) | |||||||
| Kingdom of Lotharingia (855– 959) Duchy of Lower Lorraine (959–) | ||||||||
| Frisia | ||||||||
 Frisian Freedom (11–16th century) |  County of Holland (880–1432) |  Bishopric of Utrecht (695–1456) |  Duchy of Brabant (1183–1430)  Duchy of Guelders (1046–1543) |  County of Flanders (862–1384) |  County of Hainaut (1071–1432)  County of Namur (981–1421) |  P.-Bish. of Liège (980–1794) |  Duchy of Luxem- bourg (1059–1443) | |
 Burgundian Netherlands (1384–1482) | ||||||||
Habsburg Netherlands (1482–1795) (Seventeen Provinces after 1543) | ||||||||
 Dutch Republic (1581–1795) | Spanish Netherlands (1556–1714) | |||||||
 Austrian Netherlands (1714–1795) | ||||||||
 United States of Belgium (1790) |  R. Liège (1789–'91) | |||||||
 Batavian Republic (1795–1806) Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810) |  associated with French First Republic (1795–1804) part of First French Empire (1804–1815) | |||||||
 Princip. of the Netherlands (1813–1815) | ||||||||
| Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830) |  Gr D. L. (1815–) | |||||||
Kingdom of the Netherlands (1839–) |  Kingdom of Belgium (1830–) | |||||||
Gr D. of Luxem- bourg (1890–) | ||||||||
History
Upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482, her substantial possessions including the Burgundian Netherlands passed to her son, Philip the Handsome, who married Joanna of Castile, daughter of Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Through his father Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Philip was a Habsburg scion, and so the period of the Habsburg Netherlands began. The period 1481–1492 saw the Flemish cities revolt and Utrecht embroiled in civil war, but by the turn of the century both areas had been pacified by the Habsburg rulers.
Philip's son Charles, born in Ghent, succeeded his father as Duke in 1506, when he was six years old. His paternal grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I, incorporated the Burgundian heritage into the Burgundian Circle, whereafter the territories in the far west of the Empire developed a certain grade of autonomy. Through his mother Joanna, who had a mental breakdown following the death of her husband, he was heir to the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and Spain's overseas empire in the New World. Attaining full age in 1515, Charles went on to rule his Burgundian heritage as a native Netherlander. He acquired the lands of Overijssel and the Bishopric of Utrecht (see Guelders Wars), purchased Friesland from Duke George of Saxony and regained Groningen and Gelderland. His Seventeen Provinces were re-organised in the Burgundian treaty of 1548, whereby the Imperial estates represented in the Imperial Diet at Augsburg acknowledged a certain autonomy of the Netherlands. It was followed by the Emperor's Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, which established the Seventeen Provinces as an entity held by a single prince.
Following a series of abdications between 1555 and 1556, Charles V divided the House of Habsburg into an Austrian-German and a Spanish branch. His brother Ferdinand I became suo jure monarch in Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, as well as the new Holy Roman Emperor. Philip II of Spain, Charles' son, inherited the Seventeen Provinces and incorporated them into the Spanish Crown (which included also south Italy and the American possessions). King Philip II of Spain became infamous for his despotism, and Catholic persecutions sparked the Dutch Revolt and the subsequent Eighty Years' War. The Spanish hold on the northern provinces was more and more tenuous. In 1579 the northern provinces established the Protestant Union of Utrecht, in which they declared themselves independent as the Seven United Provinces by the 1581 Act of Abjuration.
After the secession of 1581, the southern provinces, called "'t Hof van Brabant" (of Flandria, Artois, the Tournaisis, Cambrai, Luxembourg, Limburg, Hainaut, Namur, Mechelen, Brabant, and Upper Guelders) remained with the House of Habsburg until the French Revolutionary Wars. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg line in 1700 with the death of the childless Charles II and the War of the Spanish Succession (1700–14), the southern provinces were also known as the Austrian Netherlands from 1715 onwards.
Rulers
- 1482–1506 Philip I of Castile as Duke of Burgundy, Maximilian I, his father, as regent (1482–1493), Margaret of York, his stepgrandmother, governess (1489–1493)
- 1506–1556 Charles V as Duke of Burgundy, as Holy Roman Emperor from 1519.
- 1556–1581 Philip II as King of Spain
The provinces were ruled on their behalf by a governor (stadtholder or landvoogd):
- 1489–1493 Margaret of York, dowager Duchess of Burgundy
- 1506–1507 William de Croÿ, Marquis d'Aerschot
- 1507–1530 Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy
- 1531–1555 Mary of Hungary
- 1555–1559 Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy
- 1559–1567 Margaret of Parma
- 1567–1573 Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba
- 1573–1576 Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga
- 1576–1578 John of Austria
- 1578–1592 Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. In 1578, the Dutch insurgents appointed Archduke Matthias of Austria governor, though he could not prevail and resigned before the 1581 Act of Abjuration.
- 1685–1692 Francisco Antonio de Agurto Salcedo Medrano Zúñiga
Flag
During the Spanish period it is assumed that the flag was the Cross of Burgundy. After a period of turmoil with the Eighty Years' War, by 1713 the Southern Netherlands were separated from Spain and attached to Austria, assuming a flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the colours of red, white and gold. A small cross of Burgundy was present, which in 1781 was covered by a black double-headed eagle.
See also
- Spanish Netherlands
Notes
References
- Erik Aerts, M. Baelde, Herman Coppens, H. De Schepper, Hugo Soly, Alfons K.L. Thijs, K. Van Honacker, De centrale overheidsinstellingen van de Habsburgse Nederlanden (1482-1795), Algemeen Rijksarchief, 1994
- Sicking, L. H. J. (2004-01-01). Neptune and the Netherlands: State, Economy, and War at Sea in the Renaissance. BRILL. p. 13. ISBN 9004138501.
- "How Brussels became the capital of Europe 500 years ago". The Brussels Times. 2017-04-21. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- Jenkins, Everett Jr. (2015-05-07). The Muslim Diaspora (Volume 2, 1500-1799): A Comprehensive Chronology of the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. McFarland. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4766-0889-1.
- Kamen, Henry (2014-03-26). Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict. Routledge. ISBN 9781317755005.
- Israel, Jonathan. The Dutch Republic, pp. 11-12
Habsburg Netherlands are those parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire s House of Habsburg This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797 The rule began with the death in 1482 of Mary of Burgundy of the House of Valois Burgundy who was the ruler of the Low Countries and the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Austria Their grandson Emperor Charles V was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals Habsburg NetherlandsHabsburgse Nederlanden Dutch Pays Bas des Habsbourg French 1482 1797Cross of Burgundy Coat of arms Philip IV The Low Countries in 1560 Habsburg Netherlands Prince Bishopric of Liege Principality of Stavelot Malmedy Prince Bishopric of CambresisStatusPersonal union of Imperial fiefs within EmpireCapitalDe facto Mechelen until 1530 afterwards BrusselsCommon languagesDutchLow SaxonWest FrisianWalloonLuxembourgishFrenchReligionRoman Catholicism state religion Protestantism popular GovernmentMonarchyHistorical eraEarly modern period Inherited by House of Habsburg1482 Incorporated into Burgundian Circle1512 Pragmatic Sanction1549 Inherited by Habsburg Spain1556 Peace of Munster30 January 1648 Treaty of Rastatt7 March 1714 Battle of Sprimont18 September 1794 Treaty of Campo Formio17 October 1797Preceded by Succeeded byBurgundian NetherlandsPrince Bishopric of Utrecht Spanish NetherlandsDutch RepublicFrench First Republic Becoming known as the Seventeen Provinces in 1549 they were held by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 known as the Spanish Netherlands from that time on In 1581 in the midst of the Dutch Revolt the Seven United Provinces seceded from the rest of this territory to form the Dutch Republic The remaining Spanish Southern Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands in 1714 after Austrian acquisition under the Treaty of Rastatt De facto Habsburg rule ended with the annexation by the revolutionary French First Republic in 1795 Austria however did not relinquish its claim over the country until 1797 in the Treaty of Campo Formio GeographyThe Habsburg Netherlands was a geo political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries i e the present day Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg and most of the modern French departements of Nord and Pas de Calais from 1482 to 1581 The northern Low Countries began growing from 1200 AD with the drainage and flood control of land which could then be cultivated The population rose and the region of Holland became important Before that the development of large cities was in the south with Ghent Bruges Antwerp Brussels and Leuven all of which were larger than any settlement in the north Rivers in the Low Countries run east west and were a political and strategic barrier to influence southern influence on the north forming two separate political areas Burgundian Netherlands orange upon the death of Charles the Bold Already under the Holy Roman Empire rule of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good 1419 1467 the provinces of the Netherlands began to grow together whereas previously they were split with being either the tributary of the French Kingdom or of Burgundy under the Holy Roman Empire banner The collected fiefdoms were Flanders Artois and Mechelen Namur Holland Zeeland and Hainaut Brabant Limburg and Luxembourg These realms were ruled in personal union by the Valois Burgundy monarchs and represented in the States General assembly The centre of the Burgundian possessions was the Duchy of Brabant where the Burgundian dukes held court in Brussels Philip s son Duke Charles the Bold 1467 1477 also acquired Guelders and Zutphen and even hoped to gain the title of King from Habsburg emperor Frederick III by marrying his daughter Mary to Frederick s son Maximilian Disappointed in this he engaged in the disastrous Burgundian Wars and was killed in the Battle of Nancy History of the Low CountriesFrisii BelgaeCana nefates Chamavi Tubantes Gallia Belgica 55 BC c 5th AD Germania Inferior 83 c 5th Salian Franks Bataviunpopulated 4th c 5th Saxons Salian Franks 4th c 5th Frisian Kingdom c 6th 734 Frankish Kingdom 481 843 Carolingian Empire 800 843 Austrasia 511 687 Middle Francia 843 855 West Francia 843 Kingdom of Lotharingia 855 959 Duchy of Lower Lorraine 959 FrisiaFrisian Freedom 11 16th century County of Holland 880 1432 Bishopric of Utrecht 695 1456 Duchy of Brabant 1183 1430 Duchy of Guelders 1046 1543 County of Flanders 862 1384 County of Hainaut 1071 1432 County of Namur 981 1421 P Bish of Liege 980 1794 Duchy of Luxem bourg 1059 1443 Burgundian Netherlands 1384 1482 Habsburg Netherlands 1482 1795 Seventeen Provinces after 1543 Dutch Republic 1581 1795 Spanish Netherlands 1556 1714 Austrian Netherlands 1714 1795 United States of Belgium 1790 R Liege 1789 91 Batavian Republic 1795 1806 Kingdom of Holland 1806 1810 associated with French First Republic 1795 1804 part of First French Empire 1804 1815 Princip of the Netherlands 1813 1815 Kingdom of the Netherlands 1815 1830 Gr D L 1815 Kingdom of the Netherlands 1839 Kingdom of Belgium 1830 Gr D of Luxem bourg 1890 HistoryMap of the Seventeen Provinces by Gabriel Bodenehr Upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482 her substantial possessions including the Burgundian Netherlands passed to her son Philip the Handsome who married Joanna of Castile daughter of Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon Through his father Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor Philip was a Habsburg scion and so the period of the Habsburg Netherlands began The period 1481 1492 saw the Flemish cities revolt and Utrecht embroiled in civil war but by the turn of the century both areas had been pacified by the Habsburg rulers Philip s son Charles born in Ghent succeeded his father as Duke in 1506 when he was six years old His paternal grandfather Emperor Maximilian I incorporated the Burgundian heritage into the Burgundian Circle whereafter the territories in the far west of the Empire developed a certain grade of autonomy Through his mother Joanna who had a mental breakdown following the death of her husband he was heir to the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and Spain s overseas empire in the New World Attaining full age in 1515 Charles went on to rule his Burgundian heritage as a native Netherlander He acquired the lands of Overijssel and the Bishopric of Utrecht see Guelders Wars purchased Friesland from Duke George of Saxony and regained Groningen and Gelderland His Seventeen Provinces were re organised in the Burgundian treaty of 1548 whereby the Imperial estates represented in the Imperial Diet at Augsburg acknowledged a certain autonomy of the Netherlands It was followed by the Emperor s Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 which established the Seventeen Provinces as an entity held by a single prince Following a series of abdications between 1555 and 1556 Charles V divided the House of Habsburg into an Austrian German and a Spanish branch His brother Ferdinand I became suo jure monarch in Austria Bohemia and Hungary as well as the new Holy Roman Emperor Philip II of Spain Charles son inherited the Seventeen Provinces and incorporated them into the Spanish Crown which included also south Italy and the American possessions King Philip II of Spain became infamous for his despotism and Catholic persecutions sparked the Dutch Revolt and the subsequent Eighty Years War The Spanish hold on the northern provinces was more and more tenuous In 1579 the northern provinces established the Protestant Union of Utrecht in which they declared themselves independent as the Seven United Provinces by the 1581 Act of Abjuration After the secession of 1581 the southern provinces called t Hof van Brabant of Flandria Artois the Tournaisis Cambrai Luxembourg Limburg Hainaut Namur Mechelen Brabant and Upper Guelders remained with the House of Habsburg until the French Revolutionary Wars After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg line in 1700 with the death of the childless Charles II and the War of the Spanish Succession 1700 14 the southern provinces were also known as the Austrian Netherlands from 1715 onwards Rulers1482 1506 Philip I of Castile as Duke of Burgundy Maximilian I his father as regent 1482 1493 Margaret of York his stepgrandmother governess 1489 1493 1506 1556 Charles V as Duke of Burgundy as Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 1556 1581 Philip II as King of Spain The provinces were ruled on their behalf by a governor stadtholder or landvoogd 1489 1493 Margaret of York dowager Duchess of Burgundy 1506 1507 William de Croy Marquis d Aerschot 1507 1530 Margaret of Austria Duchess of Savoy 1531 1555 Mary of Hungary 1555 1559 Emmanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy 1559 1567 Margaret of Parma 1567 1573 Fernando Alvarez de Toledo 3rd Duke of Alba 1573 1576 Luis de Requesens y Zuniga 1576 1578 John of Austria 1578 1592 Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma In 1578 the Dutch insurgents appointed Archduke Matthias of Austria governor though he could not prevail and resigned before the 1581 Act of Abjuration 1685 1692 Francisco Antonio de Agurto Salcedo Medrano ZunigaFlagThe flags of the Habsburg NetherlandsFlag of Spanish Netherlands 1556 1714 Flag used by the Austrian Netherlands 1714 1797 During the Spanish period it is assumed that the flag was the Cross of Burgundy After a period of turmoil with the Eighty Years War by 1713 the Southern Netherlands were separated from Spain and attached to Austria assuming a flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the colours of red white and gold A small cross of Burgundy was present which in 1781 was covered by a black double headed eagle See alsoSpanish NetherlandsNotesDutch Habsburgse Nederlanden French Pays Bas des Habsbourg in Latin referred to as BelgicaReferencesErik Aerts M Baelde Herman Coppens H De Schepper Hugo Soly Alfons K L Thijs K Van Honacker De centrale overheidsinstellingen van de Habsburgse Nederlanden 1482 1795 Algemeen Rijksarchief 1994 Sicking L H J 2004 01 01 Neptune and the Netherlands State Economy and War at Sea in the Renaissance BRILL p 13 ISBN 9004138501 How Brussels became the capital of Europe 500 years ago The Brussels Times 2017 04 21 Retrieved 2020 03 01 Jenkins Everett Jr 2015 05 07 The Muslim Diaspora Volume 2 1500 1799 A Comprehensive Chronology of the Spread of Islam in Asia Africa Europe and the Americas McFarland p 36 ISBN 978 1 4766 0889 1 Kamen Henry 2014 03 26 Spain 1469 1714 A Society of Conflict Routledge ISBN 9781317755005 Israel Jonathan The Dutch Republic pp 11 12
