The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united. In the southernmost provinces Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed, while farther north dwelt peoples of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and Dutch. Each province likewise kept its own government and customs. The prosperity which had marked the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages [27] extended in the sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discoveries and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and America. The rise of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed to destructive inundations of both sea and rivers, is a striking instance of what can be accomplished by a frugal, industrious population.
PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected by the Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition. Many heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But there is no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled, rather than lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands. As a Jesuit historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the Meuse from France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one the contagion of Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported into these provinces."
POLICY OF PHILIP II
In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V, both Flemish and Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born and reared among them and always considered their country as his own. But Philip II, a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign master. The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited the Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were levied, cities and nobles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and the activity of the Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise in the Netherlands the same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain.
ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D.
The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce the turbulent provinces into submission.
OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT
Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands, perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circumstances Roman Catholics and Protestants, nobles and townsfolk, united against their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell.