Deleted member 67076
With a POD of 1500, can the Spanish empire keep its possessions of the Low Countries until at least 1700 or so? Bonus points if you can keep it until modern day.
I'd wager it could be done, namely by recognizing the sovereignty of the local aristocracy and the relative autonomy of the several provinces. Charles V's attempts to centralize power without asking for the consent of the aristocracy caused many of them to become protesdtant in the first place. It eventually caused Dutch resistance against Spanish rule.
Having more respect for age-old local sovereignty would remove all the grievances of the Dutch leaders, likely leading to the majority staying catholic & loyal. The Dutch leader William of Orange, raised at the court of Charles V, would almost certainly stay loyal.
Janprimus;9253122That being said this doesn't mean he didn't have flaws. Apparently he was 'control freak' would wasn't good at delegating said:That was part of the problem.
I recall a letter to the Times, by someone who had once been an instructor at Sandhurst. According to him, they divided the cadets four ways, firstly into the intelligent and the stupid, and each of these into the industrious and the lazy.
The intelligent and industrious were trained to be staff officers, to see to all the minutiae that the CinC would never find time for.
The intelligent and lazy were groomed for the highest command. Their intelligence would enable them to see the big picture while their laziness would stop them getting bogged down in details which should properly be left to staff officers.
The stupid and lazy could of course never attain the top, but were ok for most subordinate roles, so long as they had a martinet over them to keep them up to the mark.
Finally, when this was done, they could deal with the stupid and industrious, who had to be weeded out before they could do irreparable harm. Philip II strikes me as being in this category - a man who worked hard at getting it wrong.