A Spanish Fury (or the Spanish Terror) was a number of violent
sackings of cities in the
Low Countries or Benelux, mostly by Spanish
Habsburg armies, that happened in the years 1572–1579 during the
Dutch Revolt. In some cases, the sack did not follow the taking of a city. In others, the sack was ordered, or at least not restrained, by Spanish commanders after the fall of a city.
The most notorious Spanish Fury was the
sack of Antwerp in November 1576. In English, this, and the mutinous
campaign of 1576 in general, tends to be what is meant by "Spanish Fury". In Dutch, the term includes a wider range of sackings, in particular the city punishments of 1572.[1][2][3] The events of the Spanish Fury contributed to the creation of anti-Spanish sentiment in many parts of Europe.
Several requests were made for relaxation of religious coercion in the
Low Countries, including a rejected petition by a
covenant of noblemen in the winter of 1565–66. The summer brought renewed violent outbursts of
iconoclasm, in which '
Beeldenstorm' Calvinists destroyed religious images in
Catholic monasteries and churches. The
Battle of Oosterweel in March 1567 was the first Spanish military response to the many riots and a prelude to or the start of the
Eighty Years' War.[Note 1]
The
Spanish King's captain-general
Alba, the Iron Duke, with 10,000 men made the first military use of the
Spanish Road. He was granted powers exceeding those of the king's half-sister
Margaret of Parma, who had maneuvered both
Granvelle and
William the Silent of Orange to the background while trying to reconcile local priorities with Spanish orders. Upon their meeting, judging the duke's inflexibility on extreme positions, the duchess resigned. He replaced her as governor-general of the
Seventeen Provinces and unlawfully instituted the
Council of Troubles in September of that same year. This court-martial style tribunal often sentenced political opponents and religious
Reformists to death; the more than 1,000 executions caused it to be called the 'Council of Blood'.
Don Fadrique's deployment of the Army of Flanders, 1572Massacre of Naarden, 1 December 1572, Spanish soldiers slaughtering local civilians (17th century etching by
J. Luyken)
British Museum, LondonThe pillaging of Maastricht in 1576
The
Sea Beggars, having been driven out of English harbours by Elizabeth I,
captured Brielle on April 1, 1572. This foothold triggered an anti-royalist rebellion in the Counties of
Zeeland and of
Holland. Other cities in the Low Countries that showed signs of rebellion against the increased taxation and prosecution of
Protestants, or did not allow troops of either side in,[4]
became vigorously forced into Catholicism and total political obedience to the Spanish Crown.[5]
Spanish Furies
By underpaid military under the regular command
Looting a conquered town was not uncommon, and Governor Alba took it a step further by intentionally setting horrifying examples against sympathy for the rebels.[6][7]
The
Spanish Fury at Mechelen was the earliest event known by this term. After Orange's lieutenant
Bernard of Merode had taken and controlled the city of
Mechelen for a month, he and his men left because a much stronger Spanish force was coming. Despite welcoming the latter by singing
psalms of
penitence in a gesture of surrender, from 2 October 1572, under command of Governor Alva's[Note 2] son
Fadrique, during three days the city was sacked by his slaughtering, raping and pillaging troops. Alva reported to King
Philip II (who later imprisoned him) that "no nail was left in the wall".[8][9][10]
The
Army of Flanders that sacked Mechelen reconquered
Diest and
Roermond, marched on to
Guelders, and in November easily regained
Zutphen, which had been taken for Orange in June. Don Fadrique ordered his men to kill the garrison and allowed them to murder and plunder the city. After the
Spanish Fury at Zutphen, the counties on its north capitulated.[11]
By December at
Naarden, Holland, the inhabitants negotiated their surrender but the city was sacked and burnt down, and only 60 people survived the
Massacre of Naarden.[11]
By December 1573, high, yet ineffective, financial expenditures, and complaints about the sheer cruelty of the governor's expeditions, led Philip II to
Requesens, where he replaced Alba, who returned to Spain. The notorious 'Council of Blood' ordered no more executions, and was officially abolished in June 1574 by Requesens, but remained in session until summer of 1576.
In October 1576, during the city of
Maastricht's rebellion against its fortress because of continued heavy payments, German soldiers of the Spanish garrison followed city council's orders and stood aside. While some Spanish troops held out at one of the gates, others fled with the garrison's commander
Francisco de Montesdoca to captain
Martín de Ayala's minor fortification at
Wyck just across the
River Maas bridge. Though Montesdoca was offered safety during negotiations, he was arrested in the heat of this dispute. He was liberated while soldiery arriving from
Dalem and those of Wyck captured the city. As few Spanish lives had been lost, the Germans were excused but had to make camp in neighbouring villages.
The Spanish Fury of October 1576 refers to the subsequent punishment of the city with a pillaging bloodbath.[3][13][14][15]
By abandoned military on looting expedition
Upon Requesens' death in March 1576, the Spanish king appointed his own half-brother
Don Juan as Governor-General of the Netherlands but hesitated several months before notifying him. Even then, Don Juan did not hurry to proceed to the Netherlands. The abandoned officers and ordinary soldiers were not being paid and started a mutinous looting campaign.
The Spanish Fury at
Aalst, a city that had always been loyal, showed that the military insurgencies that had occurred more than occasionally since 1573, had totally run out of hand by July 1576.[16][17] Rampant soldiers sacked about 170 places in
Brabant.[3]
The Spanish Fury at Antwerp, the most famous event by this name, also known as the
Sack of Antwerp, occurred when the forces coming from Aalst and those from Maastricht met in November 1576. A thousand buildings were torched and as many as 17,000 men, women, and children were killed.[18]
Aftermath
The
Pacification of Ghent by which both Calvinists and Catholics decided to expel all Spanish troops, and for which negotiations had been going on since the sack of Aalst, was signed a few days after Antwerp's fate.[17]
It was acceded to on 12 February 1577 by governor-general Don Juan when he signed the
Perpetual Edict. A few months later, despite the agreed terms, Don Juan began planning a new campaign against the Dutch rebels, who found an ally in England's
Elizabeth I.[Note 3]
Though never recognized by Philip, an arrangement by Catholics put his nephew
Matthias of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, in the position of governor of the Netherlands until 1581.[Note 4][10][19]
By uncontrolled victorious military
Alexander Farnese, son of Margaret of Parma, reconquered a large part of the Netherlands by methods found honourable by friend and foe. Thereupon the
Union of Arras was signed and only weeks later, on January 23, 1579, the
Union of Utrecht, at which the separation between southern and northern Netherlands became a fact. But the War was not finished.
Between 12 March and 1 July 1579, both sides suffered hard in the
siege of Maastricht.[Note 5]
The victorious attackers then held a second Spanish Fury at Maastricht which killed all but 400 people out of a population of 30,000.[18]
^The 80 Years' War can be seen to have started on 13 March 1567 with the defeat of the rebels at
Oosterweel, or eleven days later, when
besieged Valenciennes surrendered. The rebels' first victory, in May 1568 at
Heiligerlee, is by the
Dutch often regarded as the start of the War.
^
Queen
Mary I of England had married King Philip II of Spain to ensure continued reimposing of Catholicism on England: an heir would have prevented her Protestant half-sister Elisabeth's succession to the throne. The latter had been imprisoned by Mary in the aftermath of
Wyatt's rebellion. On 29 July 1554 Philip wrote to a correspondent in
Brussels, "the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries." (
Porter, Linda (2007). Mary Tudor: The First Queen. pp. 464. Piatkus Books Ltd, London, UK, 2009.
ISBN978-0-7499-0982-6. p. 320) In 1558, 'Bloody Mary' had died without such heir, de facto having kept the throne of a country in crisis warm for Elizabeth.
^
Philip II would much later appoint another son of his sister
Maria and
Emperor Maximilian II, Matthias' brother
Ernest as governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands.
^Caffin, Charles H (February 1912). "V. The Scientific-Artistic Organization of Holland in the Seventeenth Century".
Art for Life's Sake – An Application of the Principles of Art to the Ideals and Conduct of Individual and Collective Life. The Prang Company, New York–Chicago–Boston–Atlanta–Dallas, USA (ex. University of Toronto Library N7445C25c.1ROBA online by Scribd.com). p. 38.
ISBN978-1-120-15859-8. (paperback pub. by Kessinger Publishing). Archived from
the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2011. Philip replied by dispatching Alva and ten thousand troops, who inaugurated the 'Spanish Fury,' in which eighteen thousand six hundred persons were put to death, beside those who were killed in armed resistance.
^Krüger: "Die 'Spaanse Furie' wütete über mehrere Jahre: Mecheln, Zutphen und Naarden wurden geplündert, ebenso Haarlem, Oudewater und Bommende. Am Schlimmsten aber traf es Antwerpen"
^Burg (2003, eLibrary 2005) p. 168–169: "in Madrid,
Alba was accused of following his own whims rather than
Philip's
. According to
Henry Kamen,
Medinaceli reported to the king that 'Excessive rigour, the misconduct of some officers and soldiers, and the
Tenth Penny, are the cause of all the ills, and not heresy or rebellion.' ... One of the governor’s officers reported that in the Netherlands 'the name of the house of Alba' was held in abhorrence."
^
Arnade (2008)
p. 226–229 For the sack of Mechelen, Arnade also refers to: Marnef, Guido Het Calvinistisch bewind te Mechelen, 1580–85. Kortrijk-Heule, 1987.
^Russel, William (1789).
"Part I. From the Rise of the Modern Kingdoms to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648". The History of Modern Europe: With an Account of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and a View of the Progress of Society from the Rise of the Modern Kingdoms to the Peace of Paris in 1763. Vol. 3. G.G.J. – J. Robinson – A. Hamilton. pp. 9–11. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
Tracy, James D (2008). The Founding of the Dutch Republic – War, Finance, and Politics in Holland, 1572–1588. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p. 343.
ISBN978-0199209118.
Burg, David F. (2003). A World History of Tax Rebellions – An Encyclopedia of Tax Rebels, Revolts, and Riots from Antiquity to the Present. Routledge, New York & London, 2004 (Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005). pp. 168–170: 1567 Revolt of the Netherlands.
ISBN0415924987. (alk. paper). (Master e-book). (Adobe eReader format). Or, if and while it is (again) available, the most relevant chapter only:
"William the Silent".
Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon Vol. VIII Parts I, II & III(PDF). Dutch Burgher Community, Colombo, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). 1915. pp. 11–28. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2011. – A (northern) Dutch recount of the 16th century retated to the Seventeen Provinces
Groen van Prinsterer, Guillaume. Archives ou correspondance inédite de la maison d'Orange-Nassau (première série) (in Old French and Dutch). Leiden, 1847 (Online by
dbnl, 2009).
German translation: Groen van Prinsterer, Guillaume (1837). "Nº 1, 2, 3: Archives ou correspondance inédite de la maison d'Orange-Nassau".
Heidelberger Jahrbücher der Literatur, 30-er Jg. (1837) (in German). Translated by Schlosser. Heidelberg University J.C.B. Mohr. pp. 1–87. Retrieved 6 August 2011.