WI Elizabeth I Accepted the Dutch Crown in 1583?

During the Dutch Revolt, in 1583, Elizabeth I was offered the Dutch crown. What if she had accepted? Could a personal union between England and the Netherlands have withstood opposition from other European powers? And how long could such a personal union have lasted?
 
It would definitely face opposition, Anglo Dutch union means dominaton of essentially the entire North Atlantic.
 
It would definitely face opposition, Anglo Dutch union means dominaton of essentially the entire North Atlantic.
In 1583? No, it would not. This was at the time the netherlands was losing its war of independence against Spain and even long before England was the strongest nation on sea (that would be Spain and behind them either Portugal or France).

Anyway, OTL the help the English gave to the Dutch OTL was pretty...well....terrible. So in this timeline Elasabeth must do better then sending that incompetent Dudley. Or send reliable English troops. Basicly the only good thing the English support did was giving the Spanish another target. Oh and resistence against the English caused unity among the Dutch.

So I am not so sure if this would help the Dutch cause. Maybe it would if the English realy put their minds to it. It would help if William of Orange lives. He was a strong proponent of the deal with England and he might be able to get support from all the provinces.
 
This statement comes from knowing very little about the period, so take it with a grain of salt. That being said, I don't think the other European powers would have allowed an Anglo-Dutch Union to survive. I see a major war occuring, with an English loss, bad terms for the English surrender, and a possible return of the Netherlands to Spain.
 
The problem is that Elizabeth would have to bankrupt England just to even come close to turning the tide of the war. Also, the other thing is that it was totally out of her character to do so.
 
T That being said, I don't think the other European powers would have allowed an Anglo-Dutch Union to survive.

Why not? The netherlands was not important* in those days and England barely. I think most people, certainly France and the German princes, would love to see the Habsburgs lose the Netherlands and England would be a good choice.


*I would like to repeat this, the Netherlands was not important in 1583. It was not a major colonial nation. It had not a large, important fleet, its armies were rather weak and fighting a losing war against the worlds (or at least Eaurope's)'major superpower.
 
The entire Netherlands or just the area that ended up being the Dutch Republic?
All of it. Well, she would only have influence of the parts that weren't occupied by Spain, of course, but in theory all of the Netherlands.

Mind you in the 16th century there was no difference between the parts that became the Dutch republic and the parts that later became Belgium. Part of what became the Dutch republic (parts of Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Drenthe, Zeeland and Brabant) was still occupied by Spain at the time.


One thing people should realise is that you can't compare 16th century Netherlands with 17th century Netherlands (and certainly not with 20th century Netherlands/Belgium).
 
This would go down like a lead balloon in England and in Parliament. While some harline Protestants would be delighted to have bound England into the Catholic-Protestant religious conflict that Europe was "enjoying" most people in England were much keener on staying peace, trading and keeping taxes low.
 
It was also entirely out of character for Elizabeth - whilst many of her hardline more puritan councillors encouraged her to aid protestant rebels (in both France and the Low Countries) her overriding view of them was as inviduals in open rebellion against their lawful sovereign.
It took a lot to get her to do the little she did in OTL.
 
Shed only accept if the Netherlands were winning, paid alot of money, didnt ask England for anymore help and were guaranteed not to be attacked by France/the HRE later on....which is bordering ASB
 
Shed only accept if the Netherlands were winning, paid alot of money, didnt ask England for anymore help and were guaranteed not to be attacked by France/the HRE later on....which is bordering ASB

She wouldn't even accept it then. One of the key reasons she did so little to help the Dutch was that she viewed herself as a Kingmaker or Deal-breaker between France and Spain - she kept her allegiances deliberately vague so that at any time she could threaten to lurch to one side and ruin the plans of the continental powers, thus keeping them permanently locked in a state of low-level aggression, unwilling to make bold moves in case England upset the apple cart - or this is how she saw her politics, anyway. She knew that taking the Dutch throne would irrevocably paint her as a Spanish enemy and force the Spaniards into war with England, which would destroy her little game of shadow politics, so she was utterly unwilling to commit.
 
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