In 1549 Charles issued an edict (Pragmatic Sanction) which coalesced the 17 provinces into an "indivisible territory" but with each retaining its "existing customs, laws, and forms of government."
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| Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor |
Religious Issues
Charles V's preference was for a realm united under a single religion: Catholicism. The corruption in the church and doctrinal issues created a schism between reformers and doctrinal Catholics. Charles opposed this threat to his vision and, from 1521 onwards, published placards forbidding the new Protestant ideas. The first instance of state violence against the Reformation in the Low Countries was the case of a Lutheran Protestant being burnt at the stake in The Hague in 1525.
From 1550 onwards, Calvinism (the branch of Protestantism following the "theological traditions and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians") took hold in the Low Countries, first with a foothold in the south in the Walloon province and then spreading north.
Unlike the mostly agrarian societies in Europe at this time, the Low Countries were wealthy, urbanized, educated and tolerant. The wealth of the region was derived from trade and industry (the weaver in Flanders transforming wool from England into cloth which could be shipped out and sold in distant markets). Information about the Reformation was broadly available and consumed within this tolerant population.
As Protestantism spread through the Provinces, the Habsburgs responded with burnings at the stake, beheadings, and drownings. Fear of persecution caused many Protestants to flee to England and Germany where they established refugee churches. These churches began to adopt the structural approaches of Calvinism and then fed them back into the Netherlands Protestant ecosystem.
Charles V ruled until abdicating in 1556 and dividing his empire between his younger brother Ferdinand (the Habsburg monarchy) and his son Philip (Spain and the Low Countries). Over time, the citizens of the Low Countries grew to dislike the new rulership arrangement. Charles was born in Ghent and was very attached to the Low Countries; he spent much of his time in Brussels. Philip, on the other hand, was not Burgundian, did not speak Flemish, was viewed as being cold and arrogant, and never returned to the Low Countries after 1559. His sister Margaret of Parma ruled the Low Countries as Governor on his behalf.
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| Philip II |
Philip continued his father's efforts to restrict religious freedom; he felt that it was his duty to defend the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In 1563 he promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent (19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church ... "highly important for its sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants") for all his realm and attempted to establish the Inquisition in Flanders.
In 1566 the nobility of the the Burgundian Circle presented a formal complaint to Margaret de Palma demanding the abolition of the Inquisition and respect for religious freedom.
Politics
In the Charles period, the provinces had a fair amount of autonomy. In the Philip reign, this autonomy was diminished by the appointment of Governors for each of the provinces and, invariably, the Governor was foreign to the province. The privileges to which these territories had become accustomed were infringed upon. The nobles felt that the government should be administered jointly by the king, the nobility, and the States-General; the king's interpretation differed.
But the issues were not only directed upwards; the Burgundian Circle was also bedeviled by a strong north-south divide:
- The south was apathetic to a united Netherlands
- The south did not want to see its taxes paying for activities in the north
- The north resented the large number of southerners who were given prominent leadership positions in the provinces
- The provincial governor was generally fro the south.
The Iconoclastic Riots
Increased productivity in the Low Countries had resulted in excess labor among artisans and day laborers. These unemployed individuals were at wits end and susceptible to the message of the Calvinists.
During the 16th century, the Low Countries had become dependent on Polish grain which was normally shipped through the Baltic. A war between Sweden and Denmark interrupted supplies and led to famine conditions in urbanized areas of the Low Countries..
In the late summer of 1566 Calvinists ministers drew large numbers of common folks to outdoor prayer meetings. In August, Calvinist mobs took over churches (seen as the bastion of the rich) and destroyed Catholic statues, stained glass windows, and paintings. This destruction of Catholic Church icons spread throughout the Low Countries and became a fundamental problem for the King and the Pope.
First Embers of Rebellion
Seeking to capitalize on the disarray brought about by the riots, Count Brederode, at that time the leader of the Calvinists, raised an army in March of 1567 and advanced on Zeeland. Margaret of Parma (The Governor of the Low Countries) called all of the nobles together to swear an oath of loyalty to the King. With the exception of William of Orange, they all signed. Brederode's force was defeated on the outskirts of Zeeland and he fled to Germany. Fearing retribution from Brederode's action, William of Orange and a number of lesser nobles also fled to Germany.
The Duke of Alva was appointed Governor of Netherlands and dispatched thereto to re-assert the prerogatives of the Crown and the Church.
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