to suppress Dutch Calvinism and political freedoms.
Mounting discontent led wealthy Dutch burghers and no-
blemen to draft the Compromise of BREDA(1566), which
they presented to the regent, MARGARET OF PARMA, as a pe-
tition. The scornful rejection of the petitioners as “ces
gueux” (these beggars) was followed by attacks on
Catholic clergy and churches.
In 1567 PHILIP IIof Spain sent the duke of ALBAwith
20,000 troops to crush the rebel Dutch, and a reign of ter-
ror was instituted by the Council of Troubles, nicknamed
the TRIBUNAL OF BLOOD. Led by WILLIAM(I) THE SILENT
from 1568, the Dutch suffered setbacks, but Spanish re-
pression only stiffened their resistance.
After the SEA-BEGGARSseized Brill (1572) and took
towns in Holland and Zeeland, Alba was recalled to Spain
in disgrace (1573). The struggle continued inconclusively
under the governor-generalship (1573–76) of Luis de
Requesens and then under Don JOHN OF AUSTRIAuntil the
conciliatory policies of Alessandro FARNESE, Duke of
Parma (governor 1578–92), won the southern Catholic
provinces back to Spain. It was too late to win back the
north, where the seven provinces had organized them-
selves into the Union of Utrecht (1579) and in 1581 pro-
claimed their independence as the Republic of the United
Netherlands, with William the Silent as their hereditary
stadtholder.
After William’s assassination (1584), MAURICE OF NAS-
SAUled the Dutch and drove the Spanish out of the seven
northern provinces by 1594. The struggle continued until
Spain came close to recognizing Dutch independence in
the truce of 1609. By the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) the
European powers formally recognized Dutch indepen-
dence.
Further reading: Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Nether-
lands 1555–1609 (London: Williams & Norgate, 1932;
new ed. Cassell History, 1988); Edward Grierson, The
Fatal Inheritance: Philip II and the Netherlands (London:
Gollancz, 1969).new star (Latin stella nova) The supernova (a star that
temporarily becomes up to one hundred million times
brighter than the sun) observed in 1572 in the constella-33440 0 nneeww ssttaarrRevolt of the NetherlandsThe sack of Antwerp during the “Spanish fury” of 1576, in which Spanish troops destroyed about a
third of the city and massacred some 7000 citizens; an engraving from Michael von Eytzinger’s De leone Belgicoof 1583.
By permission of the British Library (155.a.4)