Union of Brussels

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Union of Brussels

There were two Unions of Brussels, both formed in the end of the 1570s, in the opening stages of the Eighty Years' War, the war of secession from Spanish control, which lasted from 1568 to 1648. Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
was at that time the capital of the Spanish Netherlands

Seventeen Provinces

The Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 15th century and 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France , and a small part of the West of Germany....
.

rt of the Netherlands, the counties of Holland

Holland

Holland is a name in common usage given to two regions in the western part of Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often mistakenly used to refer to the whole of The Netherlands....
and Zeeland

Zeeland

Zeeland , also called Zealand in English language and Zeelandic, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium....
rebelled in 1572, when Calvinists took over control of most of the cities.

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Encyclopedia

Brussels

Seventeen Provinces

First Union of Brussels

A part of the Netherlands, the counties of Holland

Holland

Zeeland

Siege of Leiden

The Siege of Leiden occurred during the Eighty Years' War in 1573 and 1574, when the Spanish attempted to capture the rebellious city but ultimately failed....
in 1574. The Spanish treasury was empty and the Spanish soldiers mutinied, pillaging the countryside of Brabant

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. It consisted of not only the three modern-day Belgium provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp as well as the Brussels-Capital Region, but also the present-day Netherlands province of North Brabant....
and Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Over the course of history, the geographical territory that was called "Flanders" has varied....
and the city of Antwerp

Antwerp

||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions....
, where 10,000 inhabitants in a city with 100,000 people were killed by the Spanish soldiers, who tried to kill all the local Protestants.

This event discredited the Spanish army enormously. The Estates-General of the Netherlands, sitting in Brussels, wanted to make an end to the warfare in 1577. A problem was that some of the fervently Roman Catholic provincial Estates didn't want to invite the Calvinists of Holland and Zeeland to join. The Estates-General, without Holland and Zeeland, founded the first Union of Brussels. King Phillip II of Spain agreed with this.

Second Union of Brussels

The leader of the resistance, Prince William of Orange

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was born in the House of Nassau as a count of Nassau ....
, went to Brussels in 1577 to try to convince the General Estates to accept the Calvinist provincial Estates of Holland and Zeeland. The population of Brussels celebrated him as a hero, and the General Estates accepted Holland and Zeeland. Lots of turmoil broke out in the Netherlands when the news spread throughout the realm. Calvinists took over the cities in Flanders and in other provinces of the Netherlands. The Estates of the eastern provinces didn't accept this. The French speaking provinces in the south started the Union of Arras in 1579, when the French-speaking Protestants were driven out. The Stadtholder

Stadtholder

A Stadtholder in the Low Countries was a medieval function which during the 18th century developed into a rare type of de facto hereditary head of state of the thus "crowned" Dutch Republic....
of Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the Germany state of Lower Saxony , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea....
and Drenthe

Drenthe

Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east....
supported the king, and the city of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
as well. The Calvinists had taken over most of the Netherlands and they created the calvinist Union of Utrecht

Union of Utrecht

The Union of Utrecht is a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht , the Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Spain....
the same year. The Union of Brussels came to an end. Most of Brabant including the city of Brussels were neutral. The General Estates, which were dominated by Calvinists fled from the Spanish army to Antwerp.