Spanish Netherlands
Historical region of the Low Countries (1556–1714) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande) (historically in Spanish: Flandes, the name "Flanders" was used as a pars pro toto[2]) was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries held in personal union by the Spanish Crown (also called Habsburg Spain). This region comprised most of the modern states of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, the southern Netherlands, and western Germany with the capital being Brussels. The Army of Flanders was given the task of defending the territory.
Spanish Netherlands | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1556–1714 | |||||||||||
Flag
 Coat of arms of Archduke Albert VII of Austria
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| Motto: Plus Ultra "Further Beyond" | |||||||||||
 Spanish Netherlands (grey) in 1700 | |||||||||||
| Status | Province of the Spanish Empire States of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
| Capital | Brussels | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Dutch, French, German, Latin, Spanish, Low Saxon, West Frisian, Walloon, Luxembourgish | ||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (State religion) Protestantism | ||||||||||
| Government | Governorate | ||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||
• 1581–1592 | Alexander Farnese (first) | ||||||||||
• 1692–1706 | Maximilian Emanuel (last) | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern | ||||||||||
| 1556 | |||||||||||
| 1568–1648 | |||||||||||
| 30 January 1648 | |||||||||||
| 1683–1684 | |||||||||||
| 15 August 1684 | |||||||||||
| 1688–1697 | |||||||||||
| 1701–1714 | |||||||||||
| 7 March 1714 | |||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1700 | 1,794,000[1] | ||||||||||
| Currency | Gulden | ||||||||||
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The Imperial fiefs of the former Burgundian Netherlands had been inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg from the extinct House of Valois-Burgundy upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. The Seventeen Provinces formed the core of the Habsburg Netherlands which passed to the Spanish Habsburgs upon the abdication of Emperor Charles V in 1556. When part of the Netherlands separated to form the autonomous Dutch Republic in 1581, the remainder of the area stayed under Spanish rule until the War of the Spanish Succession.