Spanish Control
Relieved from fighting the Ottomans in the Mediterranean and with his treasury's coffers replenished with the help of increased inflow of silver from the Americas, King Philip II of Spain sent Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma in 1579 to head the Spanish army in Flanders to regain Spanish control over the Low Countries (Flanders, Brabant and the United Provinces). King Philip II assured himself that once the rebellion in the Low Countries was quelled, France would soon yield and Protestant England would then stand alone to bear the full might of the Catholic Habsburg Empire. When the siege of Antwerp began (1585) most of Flanders and Brabant, including Brussels, had already been recaptured in the preceding year. The Spanish army in Flanders had been reinforced in the previous years both in quantity and quality, and in 1585 it had 61,000 men under arms.
Read more about this topic: Fall Of Antwerp
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