Burgundian and Spanish Rule

In the 14th and 15th centuries the duchy of Burgundy, in eastern France, by marriage and conquest gained control of a great part of the Netherlands. In 1463 the duke of Burgundy established a parliament for the Netherlands called the States-General. It was the first time the area had been treated as a single country. The Burgundian lands passed by marriage to the Spanish Hapsburgs and in 1506 were inherited by the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He brought what are now Belgium and Luxembourg under his control and made the Netherlands part of the Hapsburg inheritance, which passed to his son, Philip II of Spain, in 1556.

During the reign of Charles V, the Netherlands had been swept by the Protestant Reformation. The northern provinces had become largely Protestant—Lutheran, Anabaptist, and Calvinist Philip II, a devout Roman Catholic, attempted to stamp out Protestantism in the Netherlands, as well as to exact absolute obedience from the independent-minded Dutch and Flemish. Revolts broke out in 1566, and the next year the Duke of Alva arrived with an army from Spain and put down the rebellion.