Eighty Years' War, 1621–1648
Final phase of the Eighty Years' War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The years 1621–1648 constituted the final phase of the Eighty Years' War (c. 1568–1648) between the Spanish Empire and the emerging Dutch Republic. It began when the Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621) expired, and concluded with the Peace of Münster in 1648.
Although the Dutch and Spanish were both involved in opposite sides of the War of the Jülich Succession (June 1609 – October 1610; May–October 1614) in Jülich-Cleves-Berg, they carefully avoided each other, and thus the hostilities never spread back into the Habsburg Netherlands, and the truce held firm.[1] Nevertheless, attempts to negotiate a definitive peace also failed, and the war resumed as anticipated in 1621.[2] Essentially, it became a side theatre of the wider Thirty Years' War that had already broken out with the Bohemian Revolt in 1618 in eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire (Bohemia and Austria), pitting Central Europe's Protestant Union against the Catholic League, although the two conflicts never fully merged.[3] With several back and forths – notably, the Spanish conquered Breda in 1625, but the Dutch took it back in 1637[3] – the Dutch Republic was able to conquer the eastern border forts of Oldenzaal (1626) and Groenlo (1627), the major Brabantian city of 's-Hertogenbosch (1629), the fortified cities of Venlo, Roermond and Maastricht along the Meuse (1632), and Sas van Gent (1644) and Hulst (1645) in Zeelandic Flanders.[3]
Nevertheless, peace talks in 1629–1630 came to nothing. More ambitious plans to conquer Brussels in 1632–1633 with the help of anti-Spanish nobility in the Southern Netherlands never came to fruition. Several attempted Northern republican surprises and sieges of Antwerp were parried by the Spanish royal Army of Flanders.[4]
Nor did the Franco-Dutch alliance bring significant changes to the situation on the ground. It began with a disastrous Franco-Dutch invasion of the southern Netherlands in 1635. This in fact made matters worse for the Dutch when French and Dutch troops sacked the city of Tienen, which cost them the sympathies of the southern Netherlands population.[5]
However, French intervention and internal discontent at the costs of the war in the Low Countries led to a change in Spain's 'Netherlands First' policy. Instead Spain focused on suppressing the French-backed Reapers' War in Catalonia.[6] The resulting stalemate and financial troubles, plus Spanish military exhaustion and Dutch desire for formal political recognition, eventually convinced both sides in the mid-1640s to hold peace talks.[4]
The outcome was the 1648 Peace of Münster, which confirmed most agreements already reached with the Truce of 1609.[7]