page_title: Eighty Years' War (1566–1609)
section_title: Secession and reconquest (1579–1588)
hierarchical_section_title: Eighty Years' War (1566–1609) / Secession and reconquest (1579–1588)
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Slag in de buurt van Steenbergen en Halteren, bij Bergen op Zoom, 17 juni 1583. Middenonder een cartouche met de titel en de legenda A-S in het Spaans.
context_page_description: In Dutch and English historiography the Dutch struggle for independence from the Spanish Crown in the 16th and 17th century was long known as the Eighty Years' War. More recently, the initial part of this period has become known as the Dutch Revolt. This concept covers the period between the initial insurrection of Netherlandish Calvinists against the regime of the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, in 1566, and the conclusion of the so-called Twelve Years' Truce in 1609 between the Spanish Crown and the Dutch Republic. The historiography of this period covers both political and diplomatic developments, and events in military history. But the period of the Truce, and the military events that followed after the Truce had ended and the war was resumed, until the conclusion of the Peace of Münster in 1648, still form one continuous whole with the Dutch Revolt, and this continuous narrative, spanning the period 1566–1648, is still known as the Eighty Years' War.
context_section_description: Ironically, the conservative Walloon provinces had signed their own defensive Union of Arras on 6 January 1579. The treaty was initially signed by Hainault, Artois and Walloon Flanders and reconfirmed the Pacification and the Perpetual Edict, in addition to neutrality with Spain. In return, Spain was to refrain basing its troops in the provinces.
  Once Parma accepted these conditions the grievances of the conservative Catholics against Spain were satisfied and they could make a separate peace in the form of the Treaty of Arras in May, in which they renewed their allegiance to Philip.
  Meanwhile, Orange and the States-General in Antwerp were less than enthusiastic about the Union of Utrecht. They would far prefer a broader based union, still based on the Pacification and the "religious peace", which both the unions of Utrecht and Arras implicitly rejected. However, rapid developments in divergent directions in both north and south made the attempts at maintaining unity moot. In the north the adherents of the Union of Utrecht managed to consolidate their position in the provinces of Friesland and Gelderland by May, though not without a struggle with the conservatives. However, Overijssel remained divided and in Groningen the city and the stadtholder for the States-General, Count Rennenberg, kept their distance. By the time of the Treaty of Arras it was clear that the split had hardened, and Orange therefore finally conceded defeat and sasigned the Union of Utrecht on 3 May, while encouraging the Flemish and Brabant cities in Protestant hands to also join the Union.
  At this time, on the initiative of Emperor Rudolph II a final attempt was made to attain a general peace between Philip and the States-General in the German city of Cologne. As both sides insisted on mutually exclusive demands these peace talks only served to make the irreconcilability of both parties obvious; there appeared to be no more room for the people who favoured the middle ground, like Count Rennenberg. Rennenberg, a Catholic, now made up his mind to go over to Spain. In March 1580 he called for the provinces in his remit to rise against the "tyranny" of Holland and the Protestants. However, this only served to unleash an anti-Catholic backlash in Friesland and Overijssel. The States of Overijssel were finally convinced to adhere to the Union of Utrecht. Nevertheless, Rennenberg's "treason" posed a severe strategic threat for the Union, especially after Parma sent him reinforcements in June. He managed to capture most of Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel in the next months.
  The territory under nominal States-General control was steadily shrinking in other parts also. Parma made steady progress. After taking Maastricht in June 1579, he seized Kortrijk in February 1580, after a four-month siege. The States-General replied by recapturing Mechelen in April after which the victorious English mercenaries sacked the town in what has become known as the English Fury. Orange by now was convinced that the only way to avert total defeat was to regain support of the moderates, alienated by Calvinist radicalism; reassure the still-loyal Catholics in the South; and retain the trust of the German Lutheran princes and the king of France. To attain these objectives he now persuaded the States-General to offer sovereignty over the Netherlands to the younger brother of king Henri of France, François, Duke of Anjou, who in 1578 had already intervened on behalf of the States-General. Anjou was an orthodox Catholic, but also a Politique, who in 1576 had brought about the Edict of Beaulieu, which for a while ensured religious peace in France. As such he was acceptable to moderates in both camps. He also would bring the military and financial support of his brother. Brabant and Flanders (but not Holland and Zeeland) supported this scheme and the States-General concluded the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours in September with Anjou. The latter arrived in Antwerp in January 1581, where he took an oath to in effect govern as a "constitutional monarch", and was acclaimed by the States-Gen
caption: The battle of Steenbergen in 1583
exif: {}