History of The Low Countries:1548 - 1567

My most recent post on the history of the Low Countries ended with Charles V's acquisition of the Duchy of Guelders in 1543, bringing the number of provinces under his control to 17. According to the Burgundian Treaty of 1548, these provinces which, with the exception of Flanders and Artois, had been individual fiefdoms in the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, were moved into the Burgundian Circle (Imperial Circles were administrative groupings within the Holy Roman Empire with responsibility for taxation and the common defense of their component elements.). This change increased the territorial scope of the Burgundian Circle but also increased its tax obligations.

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."

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.

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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House of Habsburg: Construction of the 17 Low-Countries Provinces

Mary of Burgundy inherited the possessions (shown in the map below) of Charles the Bold upon his death at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. She married Maximilian of the House of Habsburg shortly thereafter and they ruled those possessions jointly.

Territories inherited by Mary of Burgundy upon
the death of Charles the Bold
(wikipedia, Marco Zanoli)

The House of Habsburg would continue to rule the Low Countries until their split into two zones in the late 16th century and then to rule the Spanish Netherlands thereafter. The scope of this post is the period of Habsburg rule prior to the breakup of the Low Countries.

The House of Habsburg
Louis XI, King of France, was a cousin of Charles the Bold and contested Mary's right to the Burgundian territories. He sought to enforce his claim militarily but was defeated by Maximilian in 1479 at the Battle of Guinegate.

Maximilian I

Mary died an untimely death in 1482 when she was thrown off a horse, which subsequently fell on her, causing massive internal and external injuries. The marriage agreement prevented either of the partners from inheriting the other's holdings upon death, so Mary's lands fell to her minor son Philip.

Maximilian I
In order to preserve his son's holdings, Maximilian entered into the Treaty of Arras with Louis XI. Under the terms of the treaty, Maximilian promised his daughter's hand in marriage to the future Charles VIII and, as a  dowry, ceded Burgundy, the County of Artois, and some minor lordships to the French.

Maximilian became Regent but his authority was not uncontested. As shown in the map below, many of the principalities took direct action in resistance to his authority.

Ghent and Bruges were among the most recalcitrant of the areas with Ghent (i) refusing to hand over his son who "was held as a hostage to secure" its citizens "against any infringement of their liberties" and (ii) entering into negotiations with Louis XI. Maximilian launched a campaign against the Flemings in 1985 and defeated them soundly, gaining possession of his son in the process.

Bruges and Ghent rebelled once again in 1988 and captured and inprisioned Maximilian while he was laying siege to Bruges. He was released as his father was approaching with a large army to rescue him. Under the terms of the release he was to:

• Surrender his powers as regent to a council of Flemings
• Withdraw all foreign troops from the Netherlands
• Provide good-faith hostages.

Maximilian returned to Germany and left the pacification of the Netherlands in the hands of Duke Albert of Saxe-Meissen who he designated as both Chief of Forces and Governor. By the summer of 1492, Duke Albert had pacified all of the rebellious territories, with the exception of Gelderland. Maximilian signed the Treaty of Senlis with France in 1493, effecting the changes shown in the map below.

Re-apportionment of territories after 1493 Treaty
of Senlis between Maximilian I of Germany
and Louis XI of France (underlying map wikipedia.
Marco Zanali)

Maximilian returned to his ancestral lands in 1494 (after being crowned Holy Roman Emperor) and turned the reins of governing the Netherlands over to his son Philip. The revolts of the cities between the years 1477 - 1492 had failed but it was a harbinger of things to come.

Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy
Source: wikipedia

The Seventeen Provinces
As stated previously, Duke Albert had been unable to subdue Gelderland prior to Philip's accession to the position of Duke of Burgundy. That situation was corrected, and then some, in a series of battles (The Guelders Wars) beginning in 1502 and ending in 1543.

Guelderland had allied itself with a number of its neighbors and was not only resisting Habsburg efforts at submission, it was itself mounting raids into Holland. One of its allies was Frisia and, in 1522, Habsburg forces under the command of Georg Schenck van Tautenburg pushed Guelder forces out of Frisia. By December of 1524 Frisia was firmly in the hands of the Habsburg forces and was renamed the Lordship of Frisia and governed by a Stadtholder.

The Prince-Bishop of Utrecht found himself in conflict with his citizens who escalated matters by inviting in the Guelders army. The Prince-Bishop was forced to turn to Charles V for assistance. Overijissel was also host to some of the Guelders forces but was ready to rid itself of these now unwelcome "guests" and also sought the assistance of Charles V in this regards. Charles said he was willing to assist under the condition that he be proclaimed lord of those lands if successful. They agreed and van Tautenburg easily defeated the Guelders army. The Bishop handed over power to Charles in October 1528 and he divided the Bishopric of Utrecht into the Lordship of Overijist and the Lordship of Utrecht, each ruled by a Stadtholder.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Source: wikipedia

Schenck van Tautenburg continued the territorial expansion by defeating a Guelders-and-allied army to gain the territories of Gronigen and Dranthe. These were subsequently renamed the Lordship of Gronigen and the County of Dranthe, each of which would be governed by a Stadtholder.

Charles of Guelders had battled valiantly against the Habsburgs for many years and did not want to see his territory fall into the hands of Charles V on his death (he having no natural-born heirs). He appointed William, Duke of Jülech-Cleves-Berg as his successor. William allied himself with France and attacked Low Countries territory in a war between that area and France. Mary of Hungary, then Governor of the Netherlands, responded by sending and army towards Guelder and Jülich, conquering them both in 1543. In a treaty ending the war, William ceded the Duchy of Guelder and the County of Zutphen to Charles V.

This last territorial acquisition brought the number of Low Countries Provinces to 17 (see map below) a number that would hold until the separation into the northern and southern provinces 25 years or so later.

The 17 Low Countries Provinces as of 1543
(Source: wikipedia)

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This, then, was the zenith in the expansion of the Hapsburg Low Countries Provinces. In my next post I will cover the forces driving in the opposite direction (deconstruction) and the resulting architecture.

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Historical context for Early Netherlandish paintings: Burgundian rule

The art of the Low Countries is having a moment right now: this is the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt and his life and heritage are being celebrated with exhibitions throughout Holland; the Art Institute of Chicago is exhibiting Rembrandt Portraits through June 9; the Metropolitan Museum in New York is showing an exhibition titled In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met through the end of the year; and The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco is exhibiting Early Rubens through September 8th.

In that I will probably be seeing one or more of these exhibitions, I wanted to get ahead of the background material so, in the next few posts, I will summarize the general environment and the painting styles associated with this region and period. The figure below shows the time scale, political conditions, and painting styles that I will be covering.

The Low Countries (modern-day Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg) evolved from components in the Roman Belgica and Germania Inferior Provinces in the 1st century BCE to independent secular and spiritual provinces (see below) in the 10th century.

These principalities were not, at this time, united but "displayed common characteristics in their economics, social structure, and culture." All of the principalities had a feudal relationship with the German king except for Flanders which primarily owed fealty to the French king (the eastern part of the county was vassaled to the German king).

The Dukes of Burgundy -- a cadet line of the Valois kings of France -- began making inroads into the Netherlands beginning with the marriage, in 1369, of Philip the Bold to Margaret, daughter of Louis de Mâle, Count of Flanders. Philip came into possession of all of Louis' territories upon his death in 1384. Upon Philip's death, all of those territories passed on to his firstborn, John, and, eventually, to Philip III the Good, who also secured Brabant (from his Uncle's branch of the family), Hainut-Holland, Namur, and Luxembourg.

The Burgundian Dukes sought to exert centralized control over the Low Country territories but it was a slow go. The chart below shows some of the mechanisms Philip implemented. He elected governors for each region but some of the states were resistant to having foreigners running the administration in their territories. They claimed to be concerned because these administrators were French-speaking while the general populace spoke Dutch. In 1473 Charles the Bold sought to establish a kingdom in the region with him as the Regent but was unsuccessful.

The death of Charles the Bold at the Battle of Nancy provided the states with the opportunity retrieve some of the autonomy they had lost at the hands of the Burgundian dukes.

Charles the Bold

First, with his death, all of the territories were inherited by his daughter Mary. The States-General compelled Mary to sign the first constitution (Great Privilege of Ghent) for all the principalities of the Low Countries. It recognized extensive rights for the States-General, prescribed the legal language to be used in courts, and "restored all local and communal rights to the towns and provinces of Flanders, Brabant, Hainat, and Holland which had been abolished by the decree of the Dukes of Burgundy."

Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries at the death of
Charles the Bold. (By Watisfictie - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34051429)

Mary married Archduke Maximilian of Austria of the House of Habsburg in 1477 and bore him a son (Philip) and a daughter (Margaret). She died in a riding accident in 1482 and her minor son succeeded her as Duke of Burgundy under the guardianship of his father.

Mary of Burgundy

The Flemish port city of Bruges was the main northern European center for international banking and trade (Bruges had also been a favorite court location for the dukes of Burgundy.). The population density of the Low Countries, and the relative affluence of its trading and finance industry populace, made it an important market for imports. The Low Countries produced and exported woolen goods and high-quality objects such as fashionable clothing, art, and jewelry.

The Dukes of Burgundy were important patrons of the arts during their reign while newly wealthy private citizens also commissioned art but, in their cases, as part of a growing interest in private meditation and prayer. Portraits were also commissioned in increasing numbers.

The inhabitants of the Low Countries had entered this era as increasingly independent principalities and had withstood the efforts of centralization by the Dukes to exit the era with their independence intact but also with strong cross-state institutional structures that would serve them in good stead in the future.

I will cover the Habsburg rule in my next post.

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