Holland as a Body Politic, I: The Habsburg Era, to 1567

Abstract

Abstract Was Holland a mere collection of towns? Or was it a body politic? Clearly it was both. Towns were divided not just by local rivalries but by repeated clashes over the inland waterway: while cities tied to decaying industries (Leiden, Gouda) clung to the traditional route, those profiting from the growth of maritime trade (Amsterdam, Rotterdam) incessantly cut new channels. Yet outside forces pushed the towns to make common cause. Holland's vital Baltic trade was threatened by the Hanseatic League (Lübeck), supported by the populous county of Flanders. Attacks from the duchy of Guelders, a French ally, gave all of Holland a common foe. Finally, the government's anti‐heresy campaign, setting aside cherished legal privileges, roused universal opposition, as if all the provinces made up a single country. As iconoclast rioters moved from town to town and province to province (1566), the government faced its worst crisis.