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Seventeen Provinces | |||||||||||
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| 1549–1581 | |||||||||||
 Map of theNetherlands in 1555, with the Seventeen Provinces highlighted in color. States which may be geographically considered part of the Netherlands, but which were not part of theHabsburg Netherlands shown in light grey. | |||||||||||
| Status | Personal union ofImperialfiefs | ||||||||||
| Capital | Brussels | ||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||
| Religion |
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| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern period | ||||||||||
| 1549 | |||||||||||
• DutchAct of Abjuration | 1581 | ||||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | NL | ||||||||||
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TheSeventeen Provinces (Dutch:Zeventien Provinciën,French:Dix-Sept Provinces,Spanish:Diecisiete Provincias) was a term used to describe theSpanish Netherlands before theDutch Revolt, when they were at their largest extent. They covered most of theLow Countries, i.e., what is now theNetherlands,Belgium,Luxembourg, and most of theFrenchdepartments ofNord (French Flanders andFrench Hainaut) andPas-de-Calais (Artois).
The Seventeen Provinces arose from theBurgundian Netherlands, a number of fiefs held by theHouse of Valois-Burgundy and inherited by theHouse of Habsburg in 1482, and held byHabsburg Spain from 1556. Starting in 1512, the Provinces formed the major part of theBurgundian Circle. In 1581,many of these provincesseceded to form what would eventually become theDutch Republic.
As the term "province" did not denote a specific administrative unit, but rather was a term of convenience, different authors chose and still choose to make sense of the intricate patchwork of fiefdoms acrossEarly Modern Europe in different ways, meaning that not only is there no agreed upon definition of which provinces were among the seventeen, some even disagree on the number seventeen itself.
ThePragmatic Sanction of 1549, which established the Netherlands as a cohesive administrative entity, lists the following provinces:
Duchy of Brabant
Duchy of Guelders and the
County of Zutphen
Duchy of Limburg (listed as "Limburg,Valkenburg,County of Dalhelm [nl] andLands of Overmaas", the latter terms covering lands which werecondominia ofBrabant and thePrince-Bishopric of Liège)
Duchy of Luxembourg
County of Artois
County of Flanders
County of Hainaut
County of Holland
County of Namur
County of Zeeland.svg)
Lordship of Frisia
Lordship of Malines
Lordships ofOveryssel and
Groningen
Lordship of Utrecht.svg)
Castellany of Lille [nl] and the_Nord-France.svg)
Bailick of Douai and Orchies [nl] (part of theCounty of Flanders)This totals fifteen provinces, but by counting Zutphen and Groningen separately, the number increases to seventeen; this is thought to be the origin of the number, though others attribute it Christian significance.[1] In any case, it is a rather arbitrary one and even contemporary sources disagree on the composition and number of provinces. TheMargraviate of Antwerp in particular was often counted as a fully-fledged province, while other lists omit it, counting it as part of Brabant.[2][3][4][5] Some lists count theTournaisis as a province, while others lump it together with Lillie, Douai and Orchies as "Walloon Flanders", despite there being no record of such a name having been used in the 16th century. Some modern lists may retroactively include theTerritory of Drenthe [nl], which was considered a province within theDutch Republic, as one of the Seventeen Provinces.
The Seventeen Provinces originated from theBurgundian Netherlands. Thedukes of Burgundy systematically became the lords of different provinces.Mary I of Valois, Duchess of Burgundy was the last of theHouse of Burgundy.
Mary married ArchdukeMaximilian in 1477, and the provinces were acquired by theHouse of Habsburg on her death in 1482, with the exception of theDuchy of Burgundy itself, which, with an appeal toSalic law, had been reabsorbed intoFrance upon the death of Mary's father,Charles the Bold. Maximilian and Mary's grandson,Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, eventually united all 17 provinces under his rule, the last one being theDuchy of Guelders, in 1543.
Most of these provinces were fiefs of theHoly Roman Empire. Two provinces, the County of Flanders and the County of Artois, were originally French fiefs, but sovereignty was ceded to the Empire in theTreaty of Cambrai in 1529.
On 15 October, 1506, in the palace of Mechelen, the future Charles V was recognized asHeer der Nederlanden ("Lord of the Netherlands"). Only he and his son ever used this title. ThePragmatic Sanction of 1549 determined that the Provinces should remain united in the future and inherited by the same monarch.
After Charles V's abdication in 1555, his realms were divided between his son,Philip II of Spain, and his brother,Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Seventeen Provinces went to his son, the king of Spain.
Conflicts between Philip II and his Dutch subjects led to theEighty Years' War, which started in 1568. The seven northern provinces gained their independence as a republic called theSeven United Provinces. They were:
The southern provinces, Flanders, Brabant, Namur, Hainaut, Luxembourg and the others, were restored to Spanish rule due to the military and political talent of theDuke of Parma, especially at theSiege of Antwerp (1584–1585). Hence, these provinces became known as theSpanish Netherlands.
The County of Drenthe, surrounded by the other northern provinces, becamede facto part of the Seven United Provinces, but had no voting rights in theUnion of Utrecht and was therefore not considered a province.
The northern Seven United Provinces kept parts of Limburg, Brabant, and Flanders during theEighty Years' War (seeGenerality Lands), which ended with theTreaty of Westphalia in 1648.
Artois and parts of Flanders and Hainaut (French Flanders andFrench Hainaut) were ceded to France in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the mid-16th century, theMargraviate of Antwerp (Duchy of Brabant) had become the economic, political, and cultural centre of the Netherlands after its capital had shifted from the nearby Lordship of Mechelen to the city ofBrussels.
Bruges (County of Flanders) had already lost its prominent position as the economic powerhouse of northern Europe, while Holland was gradually gaining importance in the 15th and 16th centuries.
However, after therevolt of the sevennorthern provinces (1568), theSack of Antwerp (1576), theFall of Antwerp (1584–1585), and the resulting closure of theScheldt river to navigation, a large number of people from the southern provinces emigrated north to the new republic. The centre of prosperity moved from cities in the south such as Bruges,Antwerp,Ghent, and Brussels to cities in the north, mostly in Holland, includingAmsterdam,The Hague, andRotterdam.
To distinguish between the older and larger Low Countries of the Netherlands from the current country of the Netherlands, Dutch speakers usually drop the plural for the latter. They speak ofNederland in the singular for the current country and ofde Nederlanden in the plural for the integral domains of Charles V.
In other languages, this has not been adopted, though the larger area is sometimes known as theLow Countries in English.
The fact that the termNetherlands has such different historical meanings can sometimes lead to difficulties in expressing oneself correctly. For example,composers from the 16th century are often said to belong to theDutch School (Nederlandse School). Although they themselves would not have objected to that term at that time, nowadays it may wrongly create the impression that they were from the current Netherlands. In fact, they were almost exclusively from current Belgium.
The same confusion exists around the wordFlanders. Historically, it applied to theCounty of Flanders, corresponding roughly with the present-day provinces ofWest Flanders,East Flanders andFrench Flanders. However, when the Dutch-speaking population of Belgium sought more rights in the 19th century, the wordFlanders was reused, this time to refer to the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, which is larger and contains only part of the old county of Flanders (seeFlemish Movement). Therefore, the territory of the County of Flanders and that of present-day Flanders do not fully match:
This explains, for instance, why the province ofEast Flanders is not situated in the east of present-day Flanders.
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1until 1648; 2until 1659; 3until 1678.Circles est. 1500:Bavarian,Swabian,Upper Rhenish,Lower Rhenish–Westphalian,Franconian,(Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512:Austrian,Burgundian,Upper Saxon,Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories | ||||||
