The Spanish Netherlands, 1598–1700

Abstract

The Dutch Revolt split the Habsburg possessions in the Low Countries into two new and very different polities. The northern provinces broke away to form the Dutch Republic. South of the great rivers, Alexander Farnese succeeded in restoring Habsburg rule with a blend of compromise and conquest. The entity that was thus called into being corresponded more or less to present-day Belgium (without, however, the prince-bishopric of Liège, but still with those parts that would eventually be annexed by France) and has been variously described as the Spanish, Southern, Catholic, Royal or Habsburg Netherlands. In contrast with its northern neighbor, its regime was based on the twin pillars of a monarchy tempered by traditional liberties and the religious monopoly of Roman Catholicism. Initially a composite state of eleven principalities, it witnessed a period of limited independence under the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598–1621) before its reintegration in the Spanish monarchy. Over the course of the 17th century, the Spanish Netherlands suffered severely from their geopolitical position. In the hands of a declining monarchy and surrounded by three of the major powers, they became one of the habitual battlegrounds of early modern Europe. As a consequence, the Spanish Netherlands have often been depicted as languishing in the shadows of the Dutch Golden Age. Their fate was anchored in the popular imagination as the Ongelukseeuw (the Century of Misfortunes). Without necessarily belittling the setbacks and the suffering, historians have come to question the almost uniformly dark hues in which the period was customarily represented. Their exercise in revision has revealed a country with an agrarian sector that was experimenting with new forms of crop rotation, had one of the highest levels of urbanization in Europe, and was known throughout the continent for the arts and luxuries it produced. Reconstituted into a bulwark of the Catholic Reformation, the Spanish Netherlands played a pivotal role in propagating the teachings of the Council of Trent. Their sense of mission found its artistic expression in the Flemish baroque. With a strange twist of fate, they also became the birthplace of the Jansenist controversy.