'Oorloghsvloeck en Vredens Zegen'. Madrid, Brussel en de Zuid-Nederlandse Staten over oorlog en vrede met de Republiek, 1621-1648

Abstract

'The curse of war and the blessing of peace'. Madrid, Brussels and the states of the Southern Low Countries on war and peace with the Republic between 1621- 1648The key issue that will be discussed in this paper is the relationship in the first half of the seventeenth century between the king and, on the one hand, his councillors in the core state of Castile and, on the other, the governmental elite (local and Spanish) in the Southern Low Countries. The Southern Low Countries were at this time a dependent territory in the composite Spanish-Habsburg monarchy. The paper analyses and explains the line of conduct of the highest representatives of the crown in Brussels, as well as the attitude of the local elite towards the politics of confrontation, decided in Madrid, with the Republic and France.