alternatehistory.com

Hi everybody,

the independence of the United Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire
was acknowledged by the Peace of Westfalia in 1648, certainly not least
because of Swedish pressure.

But since when did the Netherlands actually seek independence?

The obvious answer, 'with the Declaration of Independence of 1581', seems to
be wrong to me, because it declares freedom from the Spanish king as lord of
the land, but not their removal from out of the Empire
(which constituted a relationship on a higher level).

It may be noted that during the 30 Years War, the Roman Emperor Ferdinand II.
stayed neutral on purpose for roughly a decade as regards the Spanish-Dutch conflict,
all family pressure notwithstanding.

So when did the independece become the strategy of choice in the Netherlands:

i) Still with the declaration, as there was no support to expect from being part of the HRE,
ii) When they had accomodated Friedrich V. of Palatine, relative of Willem of Oranje, outlawed in the Empire, in 1620:
Then breaking up was inevitable,
iii) When the Emperor broke his neutrality and attacked the Netherlands in the late 1620s?


To put my question more directly:
What do you think was the lastest point in time when the United Netherlands would still
have embraced the status as an independant state of the Empire,
once the Emperor had negated his Spanish relatives' claim?
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