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SEMINAR 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~”^jÊnkhuizi r - Lingen 3 (Hoorn 4#> ^ rf (JÂmsterda/ ^*°ênzaal 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