Upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482, her substantial Burgundian possessions passed to her son, Philip the Handsome. These included the Burgundian Netherlands. Through his father, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Philip was of the house of Habsburg, and so the period of the Habsburg Netherlands began.
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794. After 1581, it was also known as the Spanish Netherlands or the Austrian Netherlands.
It was held by the Duke of Burgundy (1506–1555), the King of Spain (1555–1706) and the Archduke of Austria (1716–1794), all from the house of Habsburg. It was ruled on their behalf by a governor.
It briefly revolted against the Habsburgs from January to December 1790 to join the United States of Belgium, at the end of which it reverted back to the Habsburg Netherlands. It finally ceased to exist in 1794 when it was annexed by the First French Republic.
Famous quotes containing the word netherlands:
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)