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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XXIV. THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Decline of the Papacy   * Heresies and Heretics   * Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation in Germany, 1517-1522 A.D.   * Charles V and the Spread of the German Reformation, 1519-1556 A.D.   * The Reformation in Switzerland: Zwingli and Calvin   * The English Reformation, 1533-1558 A.D.   * The Protestant Sects   * The Catholic Counter Reformation   * Spain under Philip II, 1556-1598 A.D.   * Revolt of the Netherlands   * England under Elizabeth, 1558-1603 A.D.   * The Huguenot Wars in France   * The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 A.D.

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ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D.

The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce the turbulent provinces into submission.

OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT

Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands, perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circumstances Roman Catholics and Protestants, nobles and townsfolk, united against their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy