View source for Southern Netherlands

{{short description|Historical region in Belgium}}
{{History of Belgium}}

{{Confused|South Netherlands}}

The '''Southern Netherlands''',{{NoteTag|name=foreign-names}} also called the '''Catholic Netherlands''', were the parts of the [[Low Countries]] belonging to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] which were at first largely controlled by [[Habsburg Spain]] ([[Spanish Netherlands]], 1556–1714) and later by the [[Austria]]n Habsburgs ([[Austrian Netherlands]], 1714–1794) until occupied and annexed by [[French Revolution|Revolutionary France]] (1794–1815).

The region also included a number of smaller states that were never ruled by Spain or Austria: the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]], the [[Imperial Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy]], the [[County of Bouillon]], the [[County of Horne]] and the [[Thorn Abbey|Princely Abbey of Thorn]]. 
{{Multiple image|
|image1=Espagnols.PNG|caption1=The (Habsburgs') Low Countries (c.{{nbsp}}1515 –1715; including [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège|Liège]], [[Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy|Stavelot-Malmedy]] and [[County of Bouillon|Bouillon]]), the border between the Northern Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands is marked in red.<br /> (Note that Upper Guelders (south of the main area of Guelders in Netherlands, and east of the Duchy of Brabant, in light yellow) was mistakenly left white on this map)
|image2=Belgium Catholicum seu Decem Provinciae Germaniae Inferioris 02.jpg|caption2="Catholic Belgium" ([[Tobias Mayer]], 1747); including United Provinces–controlled [[Generality Lands]] and territories which fell to the [[Kingdom of France]] in 1659–1678 while excluding the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]].
}}
The Southern Netherlands comprised most of modern-day [[Belgium]] and [[Luxembourg]], small parts of the modern [[Netherlands]] and [[Germany]] (the [[Upper Guelders]] region, as well as the [[Bitburg]] area in Germany, then part of Luxembourg), in addition to (until 1678) most of the present [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]] region, and [[Longwy]] area in northern [[France]]. The (southern) Upper Guelders region consisted of what is now divided between Germany and the modern Dutch [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Province of Limburg]] (in 1713 largely ceded to [[Prussia]]).

== Place in the broader Netherlands ==
[[File:Habsburg Map 1547.jpg|thumb|A map of the dominion of the [[Habsburg]]s following the [[Battle of Mühlberg]] (1547) as depicted in ''The Cambridge Modern History Atlas'' (1912); Habsburg lands are shaded green. From 1556 the dynasty's lands in the [[Low Countries]], the east of France, Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily were retained by the Spanish Habsburgs.]]
[[File:Karel II AR Florin 82001326.jpg|thumb|Silver florin of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]] with the coat of arms of the House of Burgundy (Low Countries, etc.) c. 1553.]]

As they were very wealthy, the Netherlands in general were an important territory of the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburg]] crown which also ruled Spain and Austria among other places. But unlike the other Habsburg dominions, they were led by a merchant class. It was the merchant economy which made them wealthy, and the Habsburg attempts at increasing taxation to finance their wars{{NoteTag|name=fn_1}} was a major factor in the population’s (merchants') efforts to defend their privileges. This, added to resistance to penal laws enforced by the [[Habsburg monarchy]] that made [[heresy]] a [[Capital punishment|capital crime]], led to a general rebellion of the Netherlands against Habsburg rule towards 1570 (protests and hostilities started the [[Eighty Years' War]] {{Circa|1566}}–1568). Although the northern seven provinces, led by [[Holland]] and [[Zeeland]], established their independence as the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] after 1581, the ten southern Netherlands were reconquered by the Spanish general [[Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma]]. Liège, Stavelot-Malmédy and Bouillon maintained their independence.

The Habsburg Netherlands passed to the Austrian Habsburgs after the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] in 1714. Under Austrian rule, the ten provinces' defence of their privileges proved as troublesome to the reforming Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor]] as it had to his ancestor [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]] two centuries earlier, leading to a major rebellion in 1789–1790. The Austrian Netherlands were ultimately lost to the [[French Revolutionary Wars|French Revolutionary armies]], and annexed to France in 1794. Following the war, Austria's loss of the territories was confirmed, and they were joined with the northern Netherlands as a single kingdom under the [[House of Orange]] at the 1815 [[Congress of Vienna]]. The southeastern third of Luxembourg Province was made into the autonomous Grand Duchy of [[Luxembourg]], because it was claimed by both the Netherlands and Prussia.

In 1830 the predominantly Roman Catholic southern half became independent as the [[Kingdom of Belgium]] (the northern half being predominantly [[Calvinist]]){{cn|date=October 2018}}. In 1839 the final border between the [[kingdom of the Netherlands]] and Belgium was determined and the eastern part of Limburg went to the Netherlands as the [[Limburg (Netherlands)|province of Limburg]]. The autonomy of Luxembourg was recognised in 1839, but an instrument to that effect was not signed until 1867. The King of the Netherlands was Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 1890, when [[William III of the Netherlands|William III]] was succeeded by his daughter, [[Wilhelmina of the Netherlands]] – but Luxembourg still followed the [[Salic law]] at the time, which forbade a woman to rule in her own right; so the union of the Dutch and Luxembourgish crowns then ended. The northwestern two-thirds of the original Luxembourg remains a province of Belgium.

== Spanish Netherlands==
{{Main|Spanish Netherlands}}

[[File:Low Countries 1700.png|thumb|Spanish Low Countries c. 1700 (blue/green)]]
[[File:Diego Velázquez - Retrato del Cardinal-Infante Fernando de Austria.jpg|thumb|Velázquez portrait of the [[Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria|Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand]], son of Philip III of Spain, Governor General of the Low Countries at age 25, in 1634, until his death in 1641.]]

The '''[[Spanish Netherlands]]''' (Dutch: ''Spaanse Nederlanden'', Spanish: ''Países Bajos españoles'') was a portion of the [[Low Countries]] controlled by [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] from 1556 to 1714, inherited from the [[Dukes of Burgundy]]. Although the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy itself remained in the hands of France, the Habsburgs remained in control of the title of Duke of Burgundy and the other parts of the Burgundian inheritance, notably the Low Countries and the Free [[County of Burgundy]] in the Holy Roman Empire. They often used the term Burgundy to refer to it (e.g. in the name of the Imperial Circle it was grouped into), until 1794, when the Austrian Netherlands were lost to the French Republic.

When part of the Netherlands separated from Spanish rule and became the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] in 1581 the remainder of the area became known as the Spanish Netherlands and remained under Spanish control. This region comprised modern Belgium, Luxembourg as well as part of northern France.

The Spanish Netherlands originally consisted of:
*[[County of Flanders]], including [[Walloon Flanders]]
*[[County of Artois]]
*City of [[Tournai]]
*[[Cambrai]] (roughly the département [[Nord (département)|Nord]] and the northern half of [[Pas-de-Calais]] in modern France)
*[[Duchy of Luxembourg]]
*[[Duchy of Limburg]]
*[[County of Hainaut]]
*[[County of Namur]]
*[[Lordship of Mechelen]]{{NoteTag|name=fn_2}} (officially a county since 1490)
*[[Duchy of Brabant]], including the [[Margraviate of Antwerp]]
*the [[Upper Guelders|Upper Quarter]] (''Bovenkwartier'') of the duchy of [[Guelders]] (around [[Venlo]] and [[Roermond]], in the present province of Dutch [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Limburg]], and the town of [[Geldern]] in the present German district [[Kleve (district)|Kleve]])

The capital, [[Brussels]], was in Brabant. In the early 17th century, there was a flourishing court at Brussels, which was under the government of King [[Philip III of Spain|Philip III's]] half-sister [[Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain|Archduchess Isabella]] and her husband, [[Archduke Albert of Austria (1559-1621)|Archduke Albert of Austria]]. Among the artists who emerged from the court of the "Archdukes", as they were known, was [[Peter Paul Rubens]]. Under the Archdukes, the Spanish Netherlands actually had formal independence from Spain, but always remained unofficially within the Spanish sphere of influence, and with Albert's death in 1621 they returned to formal Spanish control, although the childless Isabella remained on as Governor until her death in 1633.

The failing wars intended to regain the 'heretical' northern Netherlands meant significant loss of (still mainly Catholic) territories in the north, which was consolidated in 1648 in the [[Peace of Westphalia]], and given the peculiar, inferior status of ''[[Generality Lands]]'' (jointly ruled by the United Republic, not admitted as member provinces): [[Zeelandic Flanders]] (south of the river [[Scheldt]]), the present Dutch province of [[North Brabant]] and [[Maastricht]] (in the present Dutch province of Limburg).

As Spanish power waned in the latter decades of the 17th century, the territory of the Spanish Netherlands was repeatedly invaded by the French and an increasing portion of the territory came under French control in successive wars. By the [[Treaty of the Pyrenees]] of 1659 the French annexed [[Artois]] while [[Dunkirk, France|Dunkirk]] was ceded to the English. By the Treaties of [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668)|Aix-la-Chapelle]] (ending the [[War of Devolution]] in 1668) and [[Treaty of Nijmegen|Nijmegen]] (ending the [[Franco-Dutch War]] in 1678), further territory up to the current Franco-Belgian border was ceded, including  [[Cambrai]], [[Walloon Flanders]] (the area around [[Lille]], [[Douai]] and [[Orchies]]), as well as [[French Hainaut|half of the county of Hainaut]] (including [[Valenciennes]]). Later, in the [[War of the Reunions]] and the [[Nine Years' War]], France temporarily annexed other parts of the region that were returned in the 1697 [[Peace of Ryswick]].

== Austrian Netherlands ==
{{Main|Austrian Netherlands}}

[[File:Map_of_Austrian_Netherlands_1789.svg|thumb|The Austrian Netherlands were bisected by the fragmented Principality of Liège: historic Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut and Namur to the West, and Luxemburg to the east.]]
[[File:Lybaert 3.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of a patriot from Antwerp'', commemorating the uprising against Joseph II]]

Under the [[Treaty of Rastatt]] (1714), following the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], what was left of the [[Spanish Netherlands]] was ceded to Austria and thus became known as the '''Austrian Netherlands''' or ''Belgium Austriacum''. However, the Austrians themselves generally had little interest in the region (aside from a short-lived attempt by Emperor [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]] to compete with British and Dutch trade through the [[Ostend Company]]), and the fortresses along the border (the [[Barrier Treaty|Barrier Fortresses]]) were, by treaty, garrisoned with Dutch troops. The area had, in fact, been given to Austria largely at British and Dutch insistence, as these powers feared potential French domination of the region.

Throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century, the principal foreign policy goal of the [[Habsburg-Lothringen|Habsburg]] rulers was to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for [[Bavaria]], which would round out Habsburg possessions in southern Germany. In the 1757 [[Treaty of Versailles (1757)|Treaty of Versailles]], Austria agreed to the creation of an independent state in the Southern Netherlands ruled by [[Philip, Duke of Parma]] and garrisoned by French troops in exchange for French help in recovering [[Silesia]]. However the agreement was unimplemented and revoked by the [[Third Treaty of Versailles]] (1785) and Austrian rule continued.

In 1784, its ruler, [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Joseph II]], took up the long-standing grudge of [[Antwerp]], whose once-flourishing trade was destroyed by the permanent closing of the [[Scheldt]], and he demanded for the [[Dutch Republic]] to open the river to navigation. However, his stance was far from militant, and he called off hostilities after the so-called [[Kettle War]], so called because its only "casualty" was a kettle. Though Joseph secured in the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785)|1785 Treaty of Fontainebleau]] that the territory's rulers would be compensated by the Dutch Republic for the continued closing the [[Scheldt]], this failed to gain him much popularity.

The people of the Austrian Netherlands rebelled against Austria in 1788 as a result of Joseph II's centralizing policies. The different provinces established the [[United States of Belgium]] (January 1790). However, waylaying Joseph's intended concessions to the Belgians to restore the height of their autonomy and privileges, Austrian imperial power had been restored by Joseph's brother and successor, [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold II]], by the end of 1790.

==French annexation==
{{History of the Low Countries}}

In the course of the [[French Revolution]], the entire region (including territories that were never under Habsburg rule, like the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]]) was overrun by [[First French Republic|French]] armies after they won the [[Battle of Sprimont]] in 1794. The territory was then annexed to the Republic (October 1, 1795).

Only a minority of the population – mostly the local [[Jacobin]]s and other members of "Societies of Friends of Liberty and Equality" in urban areas – supported the annexation. The majority were hostile to the French regime, above all because of the imposition of the [[assignat]], wholesale conscription, and the ferocious antireligious policies of the French revolutionaries. The opposition was first led by the Catholic clergy, which became an irreducible enemy of the French Republic after it dissolved convents and monasteries and confiscated ecclesiastical properties, ordered the separation of Church and State, shut down the [[Old University of Leuven|University of Louvain]] and other Catholic educational institutions, regulated church attendance and introduced divorce. In 1797, nearly 8000 priests refused to swear the newly introduced Oath of Hatred of Kings ("serment de haine à la royauté"), and went into hiding to escape arrest and deportation. The situation, particularly in the religious field, eased with the rise to power of Bonaparte in 1799, but soon, the intensification of conscription, the police state and the [[Continental System]], which brought ruin to [[Ostend]] and Antwerp, reignited opposition to French rule.{{sfn|Bitsch|1992|p=73-75}} During that period Belgium was divided into nine [[département]]s: [[Deux-Nèthes]], [[Dyle (department)|Dyle]], [[Escaut (department)|Escaut]], [[Forêts]], [[Jemmape (department)|Jemmape]], [[Lys (department)|Lys]], [[Meuse-Inférieure]], [[Ourthe (department)|Ourthe]] and [[Sambre-et-Meuse]].

[[Empire of Austria|Austria]] confirmed the loss of its territories by the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]], in 1797.

In anticipation of Napoleon's defeat in 1814, it was hotly debated inside Austrian ruling circles whether Austria should get the Southern Netherlands back or, in view of the experience gained after the War of the Spanish Succession about the difficulty of defending non contiguous possessions, whether she should not instead obtain contiguous territorial compensations in Northern Italy.{{sfn|Kann|1974|pp=229–230}} This latter viewpoint won and the Congress of Vienna allotted the Southern Netherlands to the new [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]]. After the [[Belgian Revolution]] of 1830, the region separated to become the independent Kingdom of [[Belgium]].

== See also ==
* [[Catholic Church in the Netherlands]], [[Catholic Church in Belgium|in Belgium]] and [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Luxembourg|in Luxembourg]]
* [[Habsburg monarchy]]
*[[History of Belgium]]
* [[List of governors of the Habsburg Netherlands]]
* [[List of plenipotentiaries of Austrian Netherlands]]
* [[Seventeen Provinces]]
* [[Spanish Armada]]
* [[Union of Atrecht]] (Including map, 1579)

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot
|notes =
{{NoteTag|{{langx|nl|Zuidelijke Nederlanden}}; {{langx|es|Países Bajos del Sur}}; {{langx|fr|Pays-Bas méridionaux}}.|name=foreign-names}}
{{NoteTag|The example of these expensive wars which is best known to English-speaking people is that of the [[Spanish Armada]]. However, that came in 1588, a little after the Dutch had become exasperated to the extent of signing the [[Union of Utrecht]] in 1579.|name=fn_1}}
{{NoteTag|A [[seignory]] comes closest to the concept of a ''[[heerlijkheid]]''; there is no equivalent in English for the Dutch-language term. In its earliest history, Mechelen was a ''heerlijkheid'' of the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège|Bishopric (later Prince-Bishopric) of Liège]] that exercised its rights through the [[Chapter (religion)|Chapter]] of [[St. Rumbold's Cathedral<!--best NOT the saint himself: the chapter of also the abbey, chapel, and collegiate church, are explained in cathedral's history-->|Saint Rumbold]] though at the same time the Lords of Berthout and later the [[Dukes of Brabant]] also exercised or claimed separate feudal rights.|name=fn_2}}
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}
=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last=Bitsch |first=Marie-Thérèse |year=1992 |title = Histoire de la Belgique |publisher=Hatier |pages = 73–75 |language = fr }}
* {{Citation |last=Kann |first=Robert A. |year=1974 |title = A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918 |publisher = University of California Press |pages = 229–230 }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* Blom, J. C. H. and E. Lamberts, eds.  ''History of the Low Countries'' (2006) 504pp [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1845452720 excerpt and text search]; also [https://www.questia.com/read/1379132?title=History%20of%20the%20Low%20Countries complete edition online]
*  Cammaerts, Émile. ''A History of Belgium from the Roman Invasion to the Present Day'' (1921) 357 pages; [https://books.google.com/books?id=VpeLyP6HWG0C&q=intitle:history+intitle:belgium complete text online]
* Cook, Bernard A. ''Belgium: a history'', 3rd ed. New York, 2004 {{ISBN|0-8204-5824-4}}
* Kossmann, E. H. ''The Low Countries 1780–1940'' (1978) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198221088 excerpt and text search]

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}

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{{Belgium topics}}
{{Luxembourg topics}}
{{Netherlands topics}}

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[[Category:Southern Netherlands| ]]
[[Category:Early modern history of Luxembourg]]