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TheTreaty of Venlo of 7 September 1543 concluded theGuelders Wars (1502–1543), and the definitive acquisition of theDuchy of Guelders and the adjoiningCounty of Zutphen by theHouse of Habsburg, adding them to theHabsburg Netherlands.William V, Duke of theUnited Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg had to relinquish his claims to Guelders and Zutphen in favour of the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain,Charles V of Habsburg.
The Guelders Wars broke out in 1502 over an old, unsettled dispute. At the end of theSecond War of the Guelderian Succession (1423–1448),Gerhard VII, Duke of Jülich-Berg sold his claims to the Duchy of Guelders toPhilip the Good, Duke ofBurgundy. In subsequent years, a long-lastig succession dispute broke out within the Guelders-rulingHouse of Egmont betweenArnold, Duke of Guelders (died 1473) and his sonAdolf, Duke of Guelders, which Philip's sonCharles the Bold exploited to seize Guelders in 1473. After he died in 1477, theWar of the Burgundian Succession broke out, during which his daughterMary marriedMaximilian of Austria; thus all Burgundian possessions were acquired by the Habsburgs. However, States of Guelders exploited the confusion to declare independence and proclaimCharles II, son of Adolf, as the new Guelderian duke, with his auntCatherine as regent. ThisGuelderian War of Independence (1477–1499) ended in a Habsburg defeat, and Charles II firmly established his reign with the support ofKingdom of France.
In 1502, Maximilian's sonPhilip the Handsome renewed the war with Charles II in order to recover Guelders, but Charles boldly waged war to defend and expand Guelderian power across the eastern and northern Netherlands during the next 36 years. Intermittently seizing control ofOversticht (modernOverijssel andDrenthe) and Nedersticht (modernUtrecht province) of thePrince-Bishopric of Utrecht, thecity of Groningen and itsOmmelanden and most ofFrisia (modernFriesland), and carrying out raids acrossHolland andBrabant, Charles II came close to establishing an independent kingdom. When Philip's sonCharles V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, this decidedly shifted the balance of power in Habsburg's favour; he only had to properly manage his personnel, troops, and resources, but that proved to be difficult as he had to manage all of Europe and the Spanish colonies. In 1538, Charles II died without an heir, and the States of Guelders electedWilliam, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg to succeed him. William V eventually had to sue for peace in 1543, when all of Guelders, Zutphen and Jülich were occupied by Habsburg troops and France failed to come to his aid. The Treaty of Venlo forced him to relinquish Guelders and Zutphen to Charles V, and he had to commit himself to suppressing the rise ofProtestantism in his remaining lands of Jülich, Cleves, Berg, Mark and Ravenstein, keeping his population Catholic.