List of wars in the southern Low Countries (1560–1829)

This is a list of wars that occurred in the southern Low Countries between 1560 and 1829.

Overview of major territories in the southern Low Countries 1715–1789

Unlike the 'Northern Netherlands', where a set of united provinces and cities proclaimed its independence in 1581 and would become the Dutch Republic in 1588, the southern Low Countries would remain dependent territories throughout this time. These non-sovereign territories included the Habsburg-owned Southern Netherlands (Spanish Netherlands until 1715, Austrian Netherlands until 1795), the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (until 1795), the Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy (until 1794), the Prince-Bishopric of Cambrésis and the Imperial City of Cambray (until 1678), the Principality of Sedan (until 1651), the Duchy of Bouillon (until 1795), and some western parts of the Duchy of Jülich (until 1795). Aside from these, there were various other small political entities such as the County of Enghien (until 1569), the Imperial Lordship of Kessenich (until 1784), the Duchy of Aarschot, the Duchy of Hoogstraten, the County of Horne, the Double Lordship of Maastricht, the Redemptiedorpen, the County of the Vroenhof (all until 1795), and so on. During the Brabant and Liège Revolutions (1789–1791), the United Belgian States and Liège Republic briefly achieved de facto independence, but remained unrecognised before the Habsburgs restored their power, and French Revolutionary armies soon conquered all the southern Low Countries and annexed them into the French First Republic in 1795. Most of the Low Countries were unified in 1815 as the newly created United Kingdom of the Netherlands under the House of Orange-Nassau, in personal union with the newly created Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, until the Belgian Revolution broke out in 1830.

Start Finish Name of conflict Belligents Outcome
Combatant 1 Combatant 2
1566 1648 Eighty Years' War
(also called the Dutch Revolt)
(mixed with the Thirty Years' War)
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Portuguese Empire (1580–1640)
Austrian Habsburgs (1598–1621)
Dutch States Party (incl. Flanders, Brabant,
Mechelen, Artois, Hainaut, Namur etc. c. 15761585)

Kingdom of England (1585–1604, 1625–30)
Kingdom of France (1596–8, 1635–48)

Peace of Münster
  • Dutch Republic attains independence
  • Southern Netherlands remain Spanish
1593 1595 Luxemburg campaigns
(part of the Eighty Years' War)
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Prince-Bishopric of Liège (1595)[a]
Dutch Republic
Duchy of Bouillon
Spanish victory
  • Dutch and Bouillonese troops withdraw
1635 1659 Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)
(emerged from the Thirty Years' War)
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
 Holy Roman Empire (1635–48)
Modena and Reggio (1635–46)
English Royalists (1657–59)[b]
Kingdom of France
Dutch Republic (1635–48)
 Commonwealth of England (1654–59)
 Duchy of Savoy
Modena and Reggio (1647–49, 1655–59)
 Duchy of Parma (1635–37)
Principality of Catalonia (1640–41)
Catalan Republic (1641)
Co-belligerent

Kingdom of Portugal (1640–59)[c]

French victory
1667 1668 War of Devolution Spain Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Triple Alliance:
Kingdom of France Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668)
1672 1678 Franco-Dutch War
(mixed with the Third Anglo-Dutch War)
(mixed with the Scanian War)
Dutch Republic
Brandenburg-Prussia
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Duchy of Lorraine (from 1673)
Holy Roman Empire (from 1673):

Denmark–Norway (from 1675)

Kingdom of France
Kingdom of England (1672–74)
Prince-Bishopric of Münster (1672–74)
Electorate of Cologne (1672–74)
Kingdom of Sweden (from 1674)
Indecisive
1683 1684 War of the Reunions  Holy Roman Empire
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
 Republic of Genoa
Kingdom of France French victory
1688 1697 Nine Years' War Dutch Republic
Kingdom of England
Holy Roman Empire:

Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Kingdom of Portugal
Kingdom of Sweden
Duchy of Savoy


Stavelot-Malmedy[d]

Kingdom of France Peace of Ryswick
1701 1714 War of the Spanish Succession Austria
Great Britain
Dutch Republic
Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Portugal
Crown of Aragon
Duchy of Savoy
Kingdom of France
Spanish Empire (incl. Spanish Netherlands)
Electorate of Bavaria
Hungarian rebels
Peace of Utrecht (1713–5)
Treaty of Rastatt (1714)
1718 1720 War of the Quadruple Alliance Austria (incl. Austrian Netherlands)
Kingdom of France
Great Britain
Duchy of Savoy
Dutch Republic
Spanish Empire Allied victory
1740 1748 War of the Austrian Succession Austria (incl. Austrian Netherlands)
Great Britain
Electorate of Hanover
Dutch Republic
Saxony (1743–45)
Kingdom of Sardinia (1742–48)
Russian Empire (1741–43, 1748)
Kingdom of France
Kingdom of Prussia (1740–42, 1744–45)
Spanish Empire
Kingdom of Naples
Electorate of Bavaria (1741–45)
Electoral Palatinate (1741–46)
Electorate of Saxony (1741–42)
Kingdom of Sweden (1741–43)
Republic of Genoa (1745–48)
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
  • Maria Theresia recognised as Empress of Austria
  • Spain acquires the Parma and Piacenza from Austria
  • Austria recognises Prussian conquest of Silesia
  • France withdraws from Low Countries, Dutch Republic retrieves Barrier forts
  • France exchanges Madras against Ile-Royale with England
1784 1784 Kettle War Dutch Republic Austria (incl. Austrian Netherlands) Dutch victory:
1789 1791 Liège Revolution Liège Republic
United Belgian States (1790)
Kingdom of Prussia (1790)
Prince-Bishopric of Liège
Austria
Austrian–episcopal victory
  • Restoration of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège
1789 1790 Brabant Revolution Statists & Vonckists

Liège Republic
Kingdom of Prussia (1790)

Austria Austrian victory
  • Temporary overthrow of Austrian rule by an émigré army, followed by local uprisings
  • Establishment of the United Belgian States
  • Growing friction between political factions
  • Exile of the liberal faction
  • First Austrian Restoration
1792 1797 War of the First Coalition
(mostly the Low Countries theatre)
First Coalition:
Dutch Republic
Holy Roman Empire

Great Britain
Spanish Empire (1793–95)

Kingdom of the French (1792)
French First Republic (from 1792)

Spanish Empire (1796–97)

French victory
1798 1798 Peasants' War (1798) Brigands French First Republic French victory
  • Revolt suppressed
1798 1802 War of the Second Coalition
Second Coalition:

Spanish Empire

French victory
1803 1806 War of the Third Coalition
(part of the Napoleonic Wars)
Third Coalition:
French victory
1813 1814 War of the Sixth Coalition Sixth Coalition:

After Pläswitz (June–August 1813)

After Leipzig (October 1813)

After January 1814

 France

Until January 1814

Coalition victory
  • Napoleon abdicates and is captured
  • Future of southern Low Countries determined at Congress of Vienna (1814–15)
1815 1815 Hundred Days
(also called War of the Seventh Coalition)
(part of the Napoleonic Wars)
First French Empire Coalition victory
Hundred DaysPeasants' War (1798)Peasants' War (1798)Kettle WarNine Years' WarFranco-Spanish War (1635–1659)War of the Sixth CoalitionFlanders campaignWar of the First CoalitionWar of the Austrian SuccessionWar of the ReunionsThirty Years' WarWar of the Third CoalitionBrabant RevolutionWar of the Quadruple AllianceFranco-Dutch WarLuxemburg campaignsWar of the Second CoalitionLiège RevolutionWar of the Spanish SuccessionWar of DevolutionEighty Years' War


Notes edit

  1. ^ Liège was neutral during the Eighty Years' War, but its neutrality was violated by the Dutch occupation of Huy in 1595. The prince-bishop of Liège appealed to the Spanish governor in Brussels for aid in driving the Dutch out, which was granted, after which the city was restored to Liégeois control.
  2. ^ Lord Wentworth's Regiment was integrated into the Spanish army.
  3. ^ Portugal declared its independence from Spain in 1640, triggering the Portuguese Restoration War. Although the Portuguese were already engaged in the Dutch–Portuguese War since 1602, they agreed to a 10-year truce with the Dutch Republic in Europe (1640–1650) while both were fighting for independence from Spain; nevertheless, the colonial war between the Portuguese and the Dutch West India Company (WIC) in the Americas (especially Dutch Brazil) continued.
  4. ^ Stavelot-Malmedy was neutral during most wars, but in 1689 severely attacked by France.
  5. ^ Holy Roman Emperor Francis II of Habsburg proclaimed the Austrian Empire on 11 August 1804, elevating the Habsburg monarchy to imperial status by himself. The indirect causes of this move are the French conquest of the Rhineland and further expansion into Germany and the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, which curbed the meaning and power of the Holy Roman Empire/Emperor. The direct cause of Francis' proclamation was the adoption of the new French Constitution of 18 May 1804, which appointed Napoleon as Emperor of the French (followed by his coronation on 2 December 1804). Instead of an increasingly meaningless and non-hereditary title that was dependent on the cooperation of the Electors and was limited to only the northwestern parts of his Hausmacht, Francis now made all Austrian Habsburg possessions into a unified hereditary empire.
  6. ^ Duchy of Warsaw as a state was in effect fully occupied by Russian and Prussian forces by May 1813, although most Poles remained loyal to Napoleon.
  7. ^ Many member states of the Confederation of the Rhine defected after Battle of Leipzig.

References edit

  1. ^ Tony Kellen (1897). Malmedy und die preussische Wallonie (in German). Fredebeul & Koenen. p. 18.