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Austrian Netherlands | |||||||||||
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| 1714–1797 | |||||||||||
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 The Austrian Netherlands in 1789
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| Status | Personal union ofImperialfiefs withinEmpire | ||||||||||
| Capital | Brussels | ||||||||||
| Common languages |
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| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||||
| Government | Governorate | ||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||
• 1716–1724 (first) | Eugene Francis | ||||||||||
• 1793–1794 (last) | Charles Louis | ||||||||||
| Plenipotentiary | |||||||||||
• 1714–1716 (first) | Lothar Dominik | ||||||||||
• 1793–1794 (last) | Franz Karl | ||||||||||
| Habsburg | |||||||||||
| Bourbon | |||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern | ||||||||||
| 7 March 1714 | |||||||||||
| 8 November 1785 | |||||||||||
| 1789–1790 | |||||||||||
| 18 September 1794 | |||||||||||
| 17 October 1797 | |||||||||||
| Currency | Kronenthaler | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||||
TheAustrian Netherlands[a] was the territory of theBurgundian Circle of theHoly Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the AustrianHabsburg monarchy of the formerSpanish Netherlands under theTreaty of Rastatt in 1714. It lasted untilRevolutionary Franceannexed the territory after theBattle of Sprimont in 1794 and thePeace of Basel in 1795. Austria relinquished its claim on the province in 1797 through theTreaty of Campo Formio.
The Netherlands, previously theBurgundian Netherlands, inherited by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, having revolted against the absolutism and centralism ofPhilip II of Spain, their common sovereign, launched a war which led in fact, in 1568, to the formation in the north of theRepublic of the United Provinces, a new state whose independence would finally be recognized by theKing of Spain in 1648 during theTreaty of Münster, and in the south of a group of around ten provinces which Philip II and then his successors managed to preserve under the name ofSpanish Netherlands.
In 1700,King Charles II of Spain designated the French PrincePhilip of Anjou, grandson ofLouis XIV, as his successor. He preferred him to a member of the cousin branch of the Austrian Habsburgs. Louis XIV accepted this choice on behalf of his wife, whose dowry had never been paid. A coalition was formed between the Austrian Habsburgs,England, and the United Provinces against Louis XIV's France and Philip V's Spain.
This marked the beginning of theWar of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), during which theSpanish Netherlands were occupied by France on behalf of Louis XIV's grandson.
At the end of this war (Treaties of Utrecht in 1713 andRastatt in 1714), the Kingdom of Spain remained in the hands of Philip V. However, he had to relinquish the Spanish Netherlands, which were transferred to theHouse of Austria, constituting a sort ofbuffer state between the United Provinces and France. TheTreaty of the Barrier (1715) granted the United Provinces the right to garrison certain strongholds in the Austrian Netherlands. These were again occupied by France during theWar of the Austrian Succession (1744–1748). TheTreaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returned them to Maria Theresa in 1748.
TheEighty Years' War (1568–1648) later led to a division of the Low Countries between the Dutch Republic in the north and the Southern Netherlands, which later became Belgium and Luxembourg. The area had been held by the Habsburgs, but was briefly under Bourbon control in theWar of the Spanish Succession. Under theTreaty of Rastatt (1714) which ended that war, the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria. Administratively, the country was divided into four traditionalduchies, threecounties and variouslordships.
The provinces of the Netherlands, which at the end of the reign ofCharles V (1555), numbered seventeen (theSeventeen Provinces), were gathered by thedukes of Burgundy from 1384 to 1477. The main ones were theDuchy of Brabant, theCounty of Artois, theCounty of Flanders, theCounty of Hainaut, theDuchy of Luxembourg, theCounty of Namur, theCounty of Holland, and theCounty of Zeeland. Most of them are part of theHoly Empire, except Artois and Flanders, fiefs of the Kingdom of France.
The death ofCharles the Bold led to a conflict with France, theWar of the Burgundian Succession, at the end of which Charles's successor,Philip the Handsome, son ofMary of Burgundy (1457–1482) and the HabsburgMaximilian I (Holy Roman Emperor) but retained the remaining Burgundian possessions (County of Burgundy and the Burgundian Netherlands).
His successor,Charles of Habsburg (1500–1558), who became ruler of the Netherlands in 1516, becameking of Castile andking of Aragon the same year, and in 1519, upon the death of Maximilian, he became head of the House of Habsburg and was elected emperor under the now common name ofCharles V (Charles V). To the Dutch provinces he already held, he addedTournai (1521), the Principality of Utrecht (1528) and theDuchy of Guelders (1543), and obtained from the King of France the end of French suzerainty over Artois and Flanders (Treaty of Madrid of 1526), which were integrated into the Empire.
As early 1512, Maximilian I grouped the possessions of theHouse of Burgundy into an imperial circle, theBurgundian Circle (the other nine being Austria, Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Upper and Lower Saxony, Westphalia, the Upper Rhine, and the Lower Rhine).
By an ordinance of 26 June 1548, theTransaction of Augsburg, Charles V gave the Circle of Burgundy a special status within the Empire, ensuring it almost-independence.[b]
When Charles V abdicated sovereignty of the Netherlands in October 1555, he passed it on to his eldest sonPhilip, who also became King of Spain in January 1556, while the Habsburg possessions in Austria went toFerdinand (1503–1564), Charles's brother. This established a special bond between theBurgundian Netherlands and the Spanish crown. The unity of the Netherlands was reinforced in 1561 by the reorganization of the dioceses: creation of theprimatial seat of Malines, of two other archbishoprics (Cambrai andUtrecht) and of fifteen dioceses.
The relations between Philip II (King of Spain) and his Dutch subjects quickly turned sour. In 1566, theEighty Years' War began, which escalated into a war in 1568 under the leadership ofPrince William The Silent. In 1581, the insurgent provinces and cities of theUnion of Utrecht proclaimed Philip II's deposition (Act of Abjuration). The war continued, allowing Philip's troops to reconquer Ghent, Brussels, and the Siege of Antwerp (1585), but the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland were lost for good. This loss was made official in 1648, when the King of Spain recognized the independence of theRepublic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands.
By the end of the 16th century, the Circle of Burgundy was thus reduced to the southern provinces: theDuchy of Brabant, with the Marquisate of Antwerp, theDuchy of Limburg and the three territories of Outre-Meuse (the lands of Fauquemont, Daelem, and Rolduc), theDuchy of Luxembourg and theCounty of Chiny, theDuchy of Guelders, theCounty of Flanders, theCounty of Hainaut, theCounty of Namur, theLordship of Mechelen, and the Bailiwick of Tournai and Tournaisis. The territory of the Spanish Netherlands was discontinuous: indeed, even though it was under the protectorate of the King of Spain, the vast EpiscopalPrincipality of Liège remained in the hands of its prince,[c] theBishop of Liège, a vassal of the Emperor. South of Liège, the less importantPrincipality of Stavelot-Malmedy found itself in a similar situation.
These are the provinces which fell to the Habsburgs of Austria in 1714, the principalities of Liège and Stavelot-Malmedy continuing to be separate.
In the 1780s, opposition emerged to the liberal reforms of EmperorJoseph II, which were perceived as an attack on the Catholic Church and the traditional institutions of the Austrian Netherlands. Resistance grew, focused in the autonomous and wealthyDuchy of Brabant andCounty of Flanders. In the aftermath of rioting and disruption in 1787 known as the Small Revolution, many opponents took refuge in the neighboringDutch Republic where they formed a rebel army. Soon after the outbreak of theFrench andLiège revolutions, theémigré army crossed into the Austrian Netherlands and decisively defeated the Austrians at theBattle of Turnhout on 27 October 1789. The rebels, supported by uprisings across the territory, soon took control over much of the territory and proclaimed independence. Despite the tacit support ofPrussia, the independentUnited Belgian States, established in January 1790, received no foreign recognition and soon became divided along ideological lines. TheVonckists led byJan Frans Vonck advocated progressive and liberal government, whereas theStatists, led byHendrik Van der Noot, were staunchly conservative and supported by the Church. The Statists, who had a wider base of support, drove the Vonckists into exile throughterror.[1]
By mid-1790, Habsburg Austria endedits war with the Ottoman Empire and prepared to suppress the rebels. The newHoly Roman Emperor,Leopold II, was also a liberal and proposed an amnesty for the rebels. After defeating a Statist army at theBattle of Falmagne (22 September 1790), the territory was soon overrun and the revolution was defeated by December. The Austrian reestablishment was short-lived and the territory was overrun by theFrench in 1794 (during theWar of the First Coalition) after theBattle of Fleurus.
The Council of State acted as government, and formed the council by imperial consent:[2]
1794 was the third year of theWar of the First Coalition. The Austrians gave up on contesting the Low Countries after theBattle of Fleurus (26 June), and left them to the French. After three months of military occupation, on 15 October a Central High Administration of Belgium was installed. On 1 October 1795 the departments were activated and the definitive annexation started, liquidating the Belgian Governing Council, which ceased on 22 November. France annexed the Austrian Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire and integrated them into theFrench Republic. The commissioner of theDirectory,Louis Ghislain de Bouteville du Metz [fr], finished his work on January 20, 1797, after which no common Belgian authority remained.
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