Renaissance in The Low Countries - Geo-political Situation and Background

Geo-political Situation and Background

Two factors have determined the fate of the region in the 16th century. The first was the union with the kingdom of Spain through the 1496 marriage of Philip the Handsome of Burgundy and Juana of Castile. Their son, Charles V, born in Ghent, would inherit the largest empire in the world, and the Netherlands, although a prominent part of the empire, became dependent on a large foreign power.

A second factor included religious developments. The Middle Ages gave way to new modes of religious thinking. Devotio Moderna practices, for example, were particularly strong in the region, while the 16th century criticisms of the Catholic Church that spread throughout Europe also reached the Low Countries. Humanists such as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam were critical but remained loyal to the church. However, the spread of the Protestant Reformation, started by Martin Luther in 1517, eventually led to outright war. The Reformation, particularly the ideas of John Calvin, gained significant support in the Low Countries, and following the 1566 iconoclastic outbreaks Spain attempted to quell the tide and maintain the authority of the post-Tridentine Church through force by installing Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba. The repression that followed led to the Dutch Revolt, the beginning of the Eighty Years War, and the establishment of the Dutch Republic in the northern provinces. Subsequently, the Southern Netherlands became a bastion for the Counter Reformation, while Calvinism was the main religion of those in power in the Dutch Republic.