How Spanish Were the Spanish Netherlands?

Abstract

It is a firmly held belief that, from 1555 until 1700, the successive Habsburg sovereigns of the so-called Spanish Netherlands usurped the authority of the territory and maintained their power only by means of an army of occupation. Although recent research has thoroughly revised this antiquated analysis, it continues to live on until the present day. This article illustrates how stereotypes of Spanish usurpation were established at the beginning of the nineteenth century, both in the scholarly and popular literature, and demonstrates that, in the Spanish Netherlands, there was no ‘absolutism’ or ‘occupation’ on the part of the Habsburg authorities. On the contrary, after the separation from the rebellious provinces and the creation of the Dutch Republic, the Southern Netherlands were able to benefit from relative autonomy, at least when it came to domestic issues.