page_title: Dutch Revolt
section_title: William of Orange
hierarchical_section_title: Dutch Revolt / Initial stages (1555–1572) / William of Orange
context_page_description: The Dutch Revolt was the revolt in the Low Countries against the rule of the Habsburg King Philip II of Spain, hereditary ruler of the provinces. The northern provinces eventually separated from the southern provinces, which continued under Habsburg Spain until 1714. The northern provinces adopted Calvinism and Republicanism whereas the southern provinces became wholly Catholic again due to the expulsion of Protestants and the efforts of the Counter-Reformation and remained under absolutist rule. The Dutch Revolt has been viewed as the seedbed of the great democratic revolutions from England, to America to France.
  The religious "clash of cultures" built up gradually but inexorably into outbursts of violence against the perceived repression of the Habsburg Crown. These tensions led to the formation of the independent Dutch Republic, whose first leader was William the Silent, followed by several of his descendants and relations. This revolt was one of the first successful secessions in Europe, and led to one of the first European republics of the modern era, the United Provinces.
context_section_description: William I of Orange was stadtholder of the provinces Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, and Burgrave of Antwerp, and he was the most influential noble in the States General who had signed the petition. After the arrival of Alba, to avoid arrest as had happened to Egmont and Horne, he fled to the lands ruled by his father-in-law — the elector of Saxony. All his lands and titles in the Netherlands were forfeited to the Spanish king.
  In 1568, William returned to try to drive the highly unpopular Duke of Alba from Brussels. William's nominal purpose was to remove misguided ministers like Alba, end rebellion, and thus restore the proper authority of King Phillip. This view is reflected in today's Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, in which the last lines of the first stanza read: den koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd (I have always honoured the King of Spain). In pamphlets and in his letters to allies in the Netherlands William also called attention to the right of subjects to renounce their oaths of obedience if the sovereign would not respect their privileges. William's forces moved into the Netherlands from four directions. Armies led by his brothers invaded from Germany while French Huguenots invaded from the south. The Spanish had won the Battle of Rheindalen near Roermond on 23 April, but the Battle of Heiligerlee, fought on 23 May, is commonly regarded as the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, and it was a victory for the rebel army. But the campaign ended in failure as William ran out of money and his own army disintegrated, while those of his allies were destroyed by the Duke of Alba. William remained at large and, as the only grandee still able to offer resistance, was from then on seen as the leader of the rebellion.
  When the revolt broke out once more in 1572, William moved his court back to the Netherlands, to Delft in Holland, as the ancestral lands of Orange in Breda remained occupied by the Spanish. Delft remained William's base of operations until his assassination by Balthasar Gérard in 1584.
caption: Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba "The Iron Duke" Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (1567–1573).
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