Dutch Declaration of Independence (1581)
Context
The Dutch Declaration of Independence was signed in the midst of a complex set of events that would radically alter the balance of power in Western Europe. In the fifteenth century, the successive dukes of Burgundy held control of what were called the Seventeen Provinces, a collection of counties and fiefdoms roughly corresponding to the Dutch Republic and also including small portions of modern-day France and Germany. Accordingly, the region was often called the Burgundian Netherlands. The Burgundian Netherlands were inherited by Charles, the duke of Burgundy, in 1506. Charles was a descendant of the House of Habsburg, a branch of the Austrian royal succession that ruled a large portion of central Europe, and as such he became King Charles I of Spain in 1516; he was also the grandson of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, famous for backing Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World in 1492. Charles was Spanish, but he was born in Ghent (in...
