Dutch Revolt (1598–1609) - events

25 April 1568	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	A German force in the pay of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and led by Jean de Montigny, lord of Villers, is destroyed by the Spanish Habsburg forces at Dalheim in Limburg, the Netherlands, in a major setback to William's plans for a concerted Protestant attack on the Spanish authorities. Calvinist terrorists in Flanders (called the ‘Bosgeuzen’, or ‘ Wood Beggers’) have been rounded up in February.
1–22 April 1572	Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	The Watergeuzen (‘Sea Beggars’), Protestant rebel privateers led by Count Lumey van der Mark, capture the small ports of Brill in Holland and, on 22 April, Vlissingen in Zeeland, with the aid of an insurgent populace; these become the first permanent bases for the Dutch Revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule.
June–September 1572	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	Dozens of towns in Guelders, then in Holland, Overijssel, and Limburg and, by early September, from Friesland to Brabant, revolt, declaring for William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and religious tolerance, and opposing the Spanish Habsburg governor of the Netherlands, Ferdinand, Duke of Alva (or Alba), and his rule of terror and excessive taxation.
1 October–2 December 1572	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	The Spanish Habsburg army under Ferdinand, Duke of Alva (or Alba), successively takes the towns of Mechelen, Zutphen (14 November), and Naarden in the Netherlands from the Dutch rebels. In a reign of terror, the troops sack them with great brutality. The other rebel towns in Brabant surrender easily after Mechelen, a process repeated in the northeast after Zutphen; the utter destruction and massacre of the entire population of Naarden, however, merely strengthens resistance in Holland and Zeeland.
14 April 1574	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	Count Louis of Nassau, brother of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and his invading army are annihilated on the heath at Mook by the Spanish forces of Luis de Requesens, the Habsburg governor of the Netherlands.
November 1574	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	Spanish Habsburg forces abandon the province of Holland in the Spanish Netherlands to the stadtholder (provincial executive officer) William the Silent, Prince of Orange, to the Dutch estates, and to Calvinism after their failure in the siege of Leiden.
4 November 1576	Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	The renegade Spanish Habsburg army in Brabant storms and sacks Antwerp in the brutal massacre known as ‘the Spanish Fury’. Some 8,000 people die; the unity of the Netherlands in opposition to the Spanish Habsburgs is assured.
12 February 1577	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	Don John of Austria, the new Habsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands, issues the Perpetual Edict to settle the civil war – without consulting the Dutch stadtholder (provincial executive officer) William the Silent, Prince of Orange, or the rebel provinces of Holland and Zeeland; all Spanish troops are to leave, the states are to pay the wage arrears of the loyal Netherlandish and German troops, and the liberties and prerogatives of the Dutch communities are to be restored.
22 October 1577	Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands	The Habsburg archduke Matthias, brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, arrives in Brabant, the Netherlands, secretly invited to be governor by the Council of State legitimist faction of Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, is appointed Ruwaard (governor) by the States-General in Brussels by popular pressure. He restores the liberties of the city of Ghent, abolished in 1540.
25 January 1579	United Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	Deputies from the northern Dutch provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland, Oomelanden around Groningen, and Zutphen in Overijssel sign a perpetual alliance in Utrecht. The signatories are to act as a single province in war and foreign policy, but retain provincial rights and liberties in religion and other matters. The Union of Utrecht thus forms the foundation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
22 July 1581	United Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	The United Netherlands depose King Philip II of Spain as sovereign of the Netherlands in the Act of Abjuration (published 26 July).
July–October 1583	United Netherlands, Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	The Spanish forces of the Habsburg governor of the Netherlands Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, now numbering some 60,000, retake the Flemish coast south of Ostend and on the Scheldt estuary, capturing the towns of Dunkirk, Ostend, Hulst, and Axel from the United Netherlands forces.
5 August 1587	United Netherlands, Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	The Habsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, captures the town of Sluys in the United Netherlands, completing his conquest of the south bank of the River Scheldt, while his adversaries the stadtholder (provincial executive officer) Count Maurice of Nassau and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, English lieutenant general in the Netherlands, quarrel and Leicester plans an assault on the estates of Holland.
March–August 1597	United Netherlands, Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire	Count Maurice of Nassau, stadtholder (provincial executive officer) of the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, with a small and highly mobile army, takes many towns on the eastern frontiers of the United Provinces from the Spanish Habsburgs, including Rheinfelden and Moers on the River Rhine and Lingen on the River Ems.
22–30 June 1600	Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, United Netherlands	Count Maurice of Nassau leads an army to the United Netherlands enclave of Ostend (Oostende) in Flanders, for an offensive against Dunkirk (Dunkerque) and Nieupoort in the Spanish Netherlands; Archduke Albert's Army of Flanders defeats him before he attacks Nieupoort (30 June). When the Flemish fail to rise in support, Maurice retreats to Holland.