The Dutch Republic & Eighty Years War (1566-1648)                    

CALVINISM versus CATHOLICISM:
Netherlands: 17 autonomous provinces: Holland, Zeeland, Flanders
    States General: representatives from all 17 provinces must agree on taxation  
    Traditionally ruler Duke of Burgundy (Hapsburgs had become Dukes by marriage to house of Burgundy)
      Charles V Hapsburg: born in Flanders, rules 1506-56, respects local autonomy
      Phillip II of Spain: outsider, absolute monarch, hostile to States General
        uses Inquisition to impose Catholic orthodoxy and to suppress Calvinism

1566  revolt of Netherlands against Spain begins as
      ICONOCLASTIC RIOT: smashing statues as anti-Catholic protest
      1567 rising brutally suppressed by Spanish troops under Duke of Alva
           (SLIDES: Brueghel painting of Alva’s invasion)
           Spain maintains standing army of 65,000 men in Netherlands 

1567-1584 William of Orange: Dutch Prince, “William the Silent”
          chosen stadtholder (military leader & chief executive officer)
     1572 “Sea Beggars” (Calvinists rebel ships) take Zeeland & Holland
     1581 States General of northern provinces declares independence from Spain
     1588 SPANISH ARMADA: Philip II of Spain sends fleet against England; goal is to wipe
             out Dutch Calvinist resistance as well as reconvert England; fails

UNITED PROVINCES or DUTCH REPUBLIC = seven northern provinces

1609 partition of the Netherlands: 
          north = Calvinist Republic (tolerationist):
            Amsterdam as commercial center
             Prince Maurice of Nassau (son of William the Silent)
          south = Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium)

Religious issues: 
1619 Snyod of Dort:  Dutch Calvinists reassert Calvinist predestination
      condemn Arminianism (or latitudinarianism) as “free will” heresy
      statement issued to define Calvinist orthodoxy: 
      TULIP as acronym = mnemonic device (aid to memory) for
        Total depravity of human nature (original sin)
        Unconditional election of the saved (no works, no merit, no effort)
        Limited atonement (Christ died only for the elect)
        Irresistibility of grace (grace as overpowering, can’t be rejected)
        Perseverance of the elect (once you’re saved, you don’t slip back)

1621 Dutch West Indies Company:
         formed to challenge Spanish colonial domination
1648 Peace of Westphalia includes peace treaty between Spain & Netherlands
                         officially ends 80 Years War

1650-1672 Regents in power (patrician merchants)-- leader
Jan de Witt (d. 1672)   support alliance with France; killed by mob due to     
1672 invasion of United Provinces by French King Louis XIV;  turn to
              OrangISTS supporters of House of Orange

William III of Orange (great grandson of William the Silent) leads
         resistance  to French; opens dikes to flood low-lying northern provinces
     rules within republican, federal framework of Dutch tradition

1688 assumes English throne in Glorious Revolution (married to Mary, Protestant
     daughter of James II (deposed in 1688 because of conversion to Catholicism)