To what extent was the revolt in the Netherlands caused by the actions and attitudes of Philip II?

By 1576, Phillips religious intolerance and financial mismanagement can be seen as a major cause of the outbreak of three revolts within the Netherlands. In 1566, 1572 and 1576 the Netherlanders decided that it was time to bear arms agaised their ever absent monarch, Phillip II. The increasing spanish centralisation and subsequent decline of particularism turned the people against spanish control. However we must asses weather the decline of the traditional aristocracy, caused by a rising mercantile class was a factor that led to the rebellion. The growing dissatisfaction of the grandees certainly helped to provide leadership, however the social and economic deprivation of the lower classes, caused by Phillip II's stubborn religious policies, gave the peasants due cause to rise up.

Throughout he's reign Phillip constantly made poor appointments in the Netherlands. When he made Margaret of Parma, his half sister, regent he refused to give her any actual power in the area. This made her a completely useless figure head. After her resignation Philip replaced her with the Duke of Alva. Philip said "I remit all power to you", this would therefore allow Alva to have an impact on the netherlands, however this proved to be a very negative impact. Alva introduces the 10th and 100th penny taxation which proved extremely unpopular and alienated the nation against Alva and therefore philip and Spain. He also set up the council of troubles as part of his "reign of terror" in 1567, which executed over 1,000 people including the grandees Hornes and Egmont. Alva was an awful appointment, and all his actions reflected on Philip to the people of the Netherlands. In November 1573, Alva was replaced by Don Luis de Requesens. He had been ordered to reverse the policy of repression. He issued a general pardon to all those involved in rebellion and he officially withdrew the “Tenth Penny”. But he had nothing to offer on religion as Philip refused to compromise: “I would rather lose the Low Countries than reign over them if they ceased to be Catholic.” Don Luis de Requesens proved to be pretty much useless and did little that reunited the netherlands with Spain.

Throughout his reign Philip declare bankruptcy 4 times, this often meant that the Spanish army in the Netherlands was not getting paid and they sometimes reacted violently. The Sack of Antwerp, often known as the "spanish fury" at Antwerp was key in tuning the people against Phillip. On November 4 at 11:00, the Spanish attacked. The civilian defenses were useless against the battle-hardened Spaniards, who swarmed into the city. This shocking event stiffened many in the Netherlands, even many Catholics, against the Spanish Habsburg. monarchy; and further tarnished Philip's declining reputation. The States General, influenced by the sack, signed the pacification of Ghent only 4 days later, unifying the rebellious provinces with the loyal provinces with the goal of removing all Spanish soldiers from the Netherlands, as well as stopping the persecution of heretics.

Moreover Phillips religious policies proved to be disastrous. His absolute no tolerance policy on the matter of reform meant that there was no middle ground with the ever present and vocal protestants who were becoming increasingly frustrated by this hard line attitude and negotiations were constantly failing. If Phillip had agreed to some form of religious toleration early on he could have prevented the people from having any reason for a revolt and therefore could have controlled the reforms and managed the changes. However we can see this was never going to be an option for Philip in his letter where he says "i would rather lose all my lands and a hundred lives than be the ruler over heretics".

However, there were other factors, out of Philips control that enabled the growth of the revolution. Such as the impeccable leadership of William of orange and financial position of the north as opposed to the south, and the distraction of Henry of Navarre in France. Philip was also simultaneously planning a huge armada to invade England, this took up a lot of time, money, resources and troops. Unfortunately for Philip, just as it looked like parma was going to win in the Netherlands Phillip needed him to aid the armada. This gave the revolution some breathing space and and allowed them to re-establish themselves in the Netherlands.

Overall it is widely accurate to say that the policies of Phillip II were responsible for the revolts agonised the Spanish in the Netherlands. Mistakes such as poor appointments alienated the Netherlanders against him and his hard line polices on religion would be certain to cause conflict in a country with a growing protestant population. However we must not forget the external matters that he was having to simultaneously deal with, but he was probably wrong to prioritise them over internal events. Phillip certainly made several mistakes but I think that the