Table Of ContentSEMINAR STUDIES IN HISTORY
Peter Limm
The Dutch Revolt
1559-1648
129232
ST. MARY’S SCHOOL
CALNE
l~A
Given by :■— hri-c*' J
°l<f-
Date;_
St Mary's School, Caine
0 0 1 2 9 2 3 2
* -"'
i 9 (SE^r^VR STUDIES IN HISTORY
i W UW tlnl
General Editor: Roger Lockyer
Longman Group UK Limited,
Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow,
Essex CM20 2JE, England
and Associated Companies throughout the world.
Published in the United States of America
by Longman Inc., New York.
© Longman Group UK Limited 1989
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without either the prior
written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd., 90 Tottenham Court Road,
London, W1P9HE.
First published 1989
Third impression 1994
Set in 10/11 point Baskerville (Linotron)
Printed in Malaysia by GPS
ISBN 0 582 35594 X
To Katie and Andrew
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Limm, Peter
The Dutch revolt 1559—1648. — (Seminar
studies in history).
1. Netherlands. War with Spain, 1568—1648
I. Title II. Series
949.203
ISBN 0-582-35594-X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Limm, Peter.
The Dutch revolt, 1559-1648/Peter Limm.
p. cm. — (Seminar studies in history)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-582-35594-X
1. Netherlands — History — Wars of Independence, 1556-1648.
I. Title. II. Series.
DH186.L56 1989
949.2'02 — dc 19 88-38542
CIP
Contents
123232
LIST OF MAPS v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES vi
Part One: The Background
1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1
The Habsburgs and the Burgundian inheritance 3
The extension of Habsburg power 5
The structure of government 6
Other divisive influences 8
A new ruler: continuity and change 13
Part Two: Descriptive Analysis
2 PRELUDE TO REVOLT, 1559-1566 15
Growing opposition: garrisons, Spanish councillors
and bishoprics 16
The heresy factor — a turning point? 19
3 THE FIRST REVOLT, 1566-1568 22
The ‘Compromise of the Nobility’ 22
The crisis of 1566—67: iconoclasm 24
The crisis of 1566-67: the Spanish debate and the
defeat of the rebels 27
Alva and the invasion of William of Orange 30
4 ALVA’S REGIME AND THE SECOND REVOLT, 1568-1576 33
1572: the Sea Beggars and William of Orange 35
Holland and Zealand 40
Spanish mutiny and bankruptcy 42
The Pacification of Ghent and the widening of
resistance 44
5 FROM FRAGILE UNITY TO DEEPENING CRISIS: THE
BREAK-UP OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1576-1584 46
The Unions of Arras and Utrecht 49
Anjou and the Act of Abjuration 53
Contents
6 THE BIRTH OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC TO THE TWELVE
YEARS’ TRUCE, 1584-1609 56
Elizabeth I and the Armada: another turning point? 56
Leicester’s brief Governorship 60
Political and constitutional arrangements 62
The Spanish Netherlands 63
7 THE TWELVE YEARS’ TRUCE, 1609-1621 68
The renewal of war 72
8 WAR WITH SPAIN, 1621-1648 79
The drive for peace, 1641-48 87
Part Three: Assessment
9 THE ECONOMICS OF REVOLT 92
The Dutch Republic 92
The southern provinces 94
Spain 96
10 MILITARY ASPECTS OF THE REVOLT 99
The terrain 100
The armies 102
Fortress warfare 104
11 POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES: WAS THE
DUTCH REVOLT A REVOLUTION? 108
Did the States-General of the Netherlands become
revolutionary in the sixteenth century? 109
The campaign to dismiss Granvelle 111
1566 113
Alva and 1572 113
The peace talks at Breda (1575) and the revolt of
1576 114
The Union of Utrecht (1579) 116
Part Four: Documents 119
GLOSSARY 135
BIBLIOGRAPHY 138
INDEX 145
IV
List of maps
The Low Countries, 1566-1648 2
The Spanish lines of communication 73
A note on currency
The Dutch coinage mentioned in the text has been converted to
florins of 20 pattards (the principal money of account in the Neth¬
erlands). There were about 10 florins to the pound sterling in the
later sixteenth century; 2 florins to the ducat and 2 florins to the escudo.
In Castile in the sixteenth century accounts were kept in ducats.
One ducat was worth 375 maravedis (an older basic unit of account).
In the seventeenth century 34 maravedis made up a real (standard
silver coin of circulation). The escudo was another Spanish gold coin
of circulation worth 10 reales.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copy¬
right material:
Maps redrawn from: Europe and the Decline of Spain by R. A. Strad-
ling, published by George Allen & Unwin 1981 and The Dutch
Republic and the Hispanic World by J. I. Israel, published by Oxford
University Press 1982 © J- I. Israel 1982.
Cover: Statue of Alva in the citadel of Antwerp. He is trampling
upon Dutch rebels. From Baudart: Les Guerres de Nassau, 1616.
v
Seminar Studies in History
Founding Editor: Patrick Richardson
Introduction
The Seminar Studies series was conceived by Patrick Richardson,
whose experience of teaching history persuaded him of the need
for something more substantial than a textbook chapter but less
formidable than the specialised full-length academic work. He was
also convinced that such studies, although limited in length, should
provide an up-to-date authoritative introduction to the topic under
discussion as well as a selection of relevant documents and a
comprehensive bibliography.
Patrick Richardson died in 1979, but by that time the Seminar
Studies series was firmly established, and it continues to fulfil the
role he intended for it. This book, like others in the series, is there¬
fore a living tribute to a gifted and original teacher.
Note on the System of References:
A bold number in round brackets (5) in the text refers the reader
to the corresponding entry in the Bibliography section at the end
of the book. A bold number in square brackets, preceded by ‘doc.’
[doc. 6] refers the reader to the corresponding item in the section
of Documents, which follows the main text.
Words with an asterisk beside them are defined in the Glossary
on page 135.
ROGER LOCKYER
General Editor
vi
Part One: The Background
1 Historical Background
In 1627 the Spanish councillor of state Fernando Giron considered
the struggle between the Spanish crown and its rebels in the Low
Countries to be ‘the biggest, bloodiest and most implacable of all
the wars which have been waged since the beginning of the world’
(28, p. 58). By that date the war had already lasted sixty years and
still had another twenty to run. There was continuous fighting
from April 1572 to April 1607 (apart from a cease-fire of six
months’ duration in 1577) and from April 1621 to June 1647. Yet
as one historian has written recently: ‘There can no longer be
any doubt that the Spanish crown had come to accept the prin¬
ciple of Dutch political and religious independence by 1606, and
that there was never subsequently any Spanish ambition or
plan for reconquering the break-away northern Netherlands’
(54, p. xiv). Why, then, did the war continue for as long as it
did?
Jonathan Israel thinks the answer is that ‘there were strong
contradictory pressures towards war and peace in both the
Republic and Spain and these contradictory tendencies derived
from political and economic circumstances intimately linked to the
major problems of the Republic and Spain’ (54, p. xv). A modern
account of the Spanish-Dutch conflict thus has to identify the
major issues and problems facing Spain and the Netherlands in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and then to set those issues
and problems in their proper context.
Many accounts of the revolt have adopted an unduly narrow
nationalistic or religious stance. Only recently has the revolt been
set more appropriately in an international context. Geoffrey Parker
has shown how the revolt became the focal point for other Euro¬
pean struggles and developments, so that especially after 1572 the
conflict came to influence the policies of England, France, the
German princes and even the Ottoman Sultan. He has suggested
that after 1598 revolt developed further into a global conflict: ‘The
Dutch Revolt, which began among a few thousand refugees in
north-western Europe . . . spread until it affected the lives of
The Background
The Low Countries, 1566-1648
o, EAST
cc? FRIESLAND
\^-PEmden
J50km
lA FRIESLAND
§i 'V~”^j^Enkhuizi r - Lingen
3
(Hoorn
4#> ^
rf (J^Amsterda/ ^*°^enzaal
iventerp
Leide^CmRECHT gelderland'IP
The Hague^ w£nhem° }
_ „ /’ • />wSchenkenschans
Nijmegen* / ^ e^~rtcc=
fdre<^t^T^p^jiaenne*-p Wesel
/W^J '’s Hertogenbo$ch . Rheinberg
Middelbura\CDOtTs(8reda» Eindhoven »Orsoy
^^^~TBergen-op-2oom Vr
^ A— Zandviiet Dusseldorf
.f irmond
Ostenda (Saiasfcfctfi
Dunkirk n. »Julich
LIMBURG
WALLOON
cFLANDEF
} Ulie
ARTOIS
LUXEMBOURG
Spanish Netherlands
Independent Bishopric of Liege
Territories conquered or reconquered
by the Dutch 1626-48
2
