page_title: Spanish Fury
section_title: Background: A decade of upheaval
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish Fury / Background: A decade of upheaval
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Krijgsbewegingen in de Tachtigjarige Oorlog: 1572 vanaf september. Nederlandse versie Engels: Warprogression in het Eighty Years' War: 1572 starting in september. Dutch version
context_page_description: A Spanish Fury was one of a number of violent sackings of cities in the Low Countries mostly by Spanish Habsburg armies, that occurred 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 famous Spanish Fury was the Sack of Antwerp in 1576. In English this, or the mutinous campaign of 1576 in general, tend to be what is meant by "Spanish Fury". In Dutch the term can include a wider range of sackings, in particular the city punishments of 1572. Myths and exaggerations about the sacks form a significant part of the Spanish Black Legend, and the historicity of the accounts are questioned by scholars.
context_section_description: Several requests for relaxation of religious coercion in the Low Countries, including a petition by a covenant of noblemen in the winter of 1565–66, had been rejected. The summer then 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.
  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 manoeuvred 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 being called the 'Council of Blood'.
  The Sea Beggars, having been driven out of English harbours by Elizabeth I, captured Brielle on 1 April 1572. This foothold triggered anti-royalist rebellion in the Counties of Zeeland and of Holland. Other cities in the Low Countries that showed signs of rebellion against increased taxation and prosecution of Protestants, or did not allow troops of either side in,
  became vigorously forced into Catholicism and total political obedience to the Spanish Crown.
caption: Don Fadrique's deployment of the Army of Flanders, 1572
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