6.4: Spain and the Netherlands

During the era of religious wars, the Bourbons' greatest rivals were the Habsburg royal line, who possessed the Austrian Empire, were the nominal heads of the Holy Roman Empire, and had control of Spain and its enormous colonial empire.

The Spanish King Philip II (r. 1556 – 1598) was the son of the former Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Philip regarded his place in Europe as being the most staunch defender of Catholicism possible. As a result, there was harsh, even tyrannical, suspicion and persecution of non-Catholics and those Catholics suspected of harboring secret non-Catholic beliefs. He viciously persecuted the Moriscos, the converted descendants of Spanish Muslims, and forced their children to turned over to Catholic schools for education. He also held the Conversos, converted descendants of Spanish Jews, as suspect of secretly continuing to practice Judaism. Thus, the Spanish Inquisition would frequently try Conversos on suspicion of heresy.

Although Philip was able to exercise a great deal of control over Spanish society, he had much more trouble imposing religious unity in his foreign possessions, especially in the Netherlands. The Netherlands was an amalgam of seventeen provinces with a diverse society and religious denominations, all held in a delicate balance. Its rich significant overseas and European commercial interests were held by a dynamic merchant class. In 1566, Spanish interference in Dutch affairs led to Calvinist attacks on Catholic churches. In turn, Philip sent troops and the Inquisition to impose harsher control. The Spanish Duke of Alba, who sat at the head of a military court called the Council of Troubles, executed individuals suspected of being Protestants, which accomplished little more than rallying Dutch resistance.

A Dutch Prince, William the Silent (1533 – 1584), led counter-attacks against Spanish forces, and Alba was recalled to Spain in 1573. Meanwhile, Spanish troops, who were no longer getting paid regularly by the crown, revolted, sacking several Dutch cities that had been loyal to Spain, including Brussels, Ghent, and especially Antwerp. This “Spanish fury” permanently undermined the economy of the sacked cities, and lent enormous fuel to the Dutch Revolt.

Figure 9.3.1: The Spanish Fury.

In 1581, the northern provinces declared independence from Spain. Then, in 1588, they organized as a republic led by wealthy merchants and nobles. Flooded with Calvinist refugees from the south, the Dutch Republic became staunchly Protestant and a strong ally of Anglican England. In turn, Spain maintained an ongoing and enormously costly military campaign against the Republic until 1648. The supply train for Spanish armies, known as the Spanish Road, stretched all the way from Spain across west-central Europe, crossing over both Habsburg territories and those controlled by other princes. Despite the enormous ongoing shipments of bullion from the New World, the Spanish monarchy was wracked by debts, largely due to the Dutch conflict.