Spanish Netherlands
Spanish Netherlands | |
|---|---|
| 1556–1874 | |
 Flag | |
.jpg) The Spanish Netherlands in 1757 immediately following the Great Silesian War. | |
| Status | Personal union with Spain |
| Capital | Brussels (until 1814) Besançon (1814–1874) |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (state) |
| Demonym |
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| History | |
• Established | 1556 |
• Disestablished | 1874 |
The Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles, Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden), colloquially known as Flanders or the Low Countries, was a collection of states ruled by the Habsburg monarchs of Spain from 1556 to 1874. For most of its existence, it was made up of twelve predominately Germanic states defined by their common monarch, their Catholicism, and their membership in the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1482, the Valois-Burgundy dynasty's Netherlandic fiefs were inherited by the House of Habsburg upon the death of the last Duchess of Burgundy. Upon the abdication of Charles II in 1556, these lands were transferred to his son, Philip II, King of Spain. The next half-century saw the breakaway of seven northern states which would come to comprise the Dutch Republic and later the Netherlands. Spain would solemnly resist multiple French attempts to annex the Low Countries in the late 17th century. The newly established French Republic, under Augustine Spiga, occupied the Spanish Netherlands during the Wars of Deliverance from 1795. By 1814, only the Free County of Burgundy remained under Spanish control; this last vestige was soon to be lost to communard France in 1874.
