Cold Open

It’s before dawn on March 13th, 1567, in the village of Oosterweel in the Netherlands.

In the warmth of one of the village’s few houses, Jan van Marnix unrolls a map of the surrounding area.

Jan is a nobleman and the leader of a rebel force of Dutch Protestants camped in the village. They are determined to rid their homeland of the Spanish Catholics who have ruled over them for the last 12 years. But as Jan examines his map, he's struggling to decide where to attack his powerful enemy. 

Then, suddenly, the quiet is broken by a volley of gunfire. Jan rushes to the window. The flashes of thundering missiles light up the night.

Jan grabs his musket and sword and charges out into the street.

It’s chaos. Men who were deeply asleep just moments ago are rushing blindly through the darkness, some trying to ready their weapons and return fire, others diving for cover from the bullets that seem to be coming from every direction.

Raising his sword, Jan yells out orders, trying to rally his troops. But panic is taking over. A stream of men races past him, trying to escape the huge group of Spanish soldiers advancing through the village, shooting or hacking down anyone who gets in their way.

Jan stares in horror as the bodies of his troops begin to pile up in the streets. Undeterred, he raises his musket and fires at the advancing enemy. If this is to be the day he dies, he is determined to take out some of them with him. 

Hundreds of Dutch Protestants will be killed in this surprise attack. Among the dead will be their leader, Jan van Marnix. But the Spanish victory won’t mark the end of the Dutch revolt—it will just be the start of a fight for religious freedom and national sovereignty that will last almost a century.

Many more battles will be fought over the future of the Netherlands, and thousands will die. But the repercussions will be felt far beyond northwest Europe. The global balance of power will forever be altered by the long struggle for freedom that began at the Battle of Oosterweel in the early hours of March 13th, 1567.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is March 13th, 1567: The Start of the Eighty Years’ War.

Act One: Diplomacy

It’s December 1565 in the grand hall of the castle in the Spanish Netherlands, 15 months before the Battle of Oosterweel.

47-year-old Jan van Marnix leans forward in his chair and hammers his fist on an oak table, calling for silence.

More than a dozen Dutch noblemen turn to look at him. They’ve gathered in this castle to discuss their many grievances about the way their country is run and what can be done about it. The men are unhappy about high taxes and the limited control they have over their provinces. But it’s religion that is their main complaint. The nobles are all Protestant, but their faith has been outlawed by the ruler of the Netherlands, the fervently Catholic King Philip of Spain.

The Netherlands wasn’t always a single entity. It was only 22 years ago that King Philip’s father, the Habsburg Emperor Charles V, united the Netherlands' 17 provinces under one rule. At the time, the new union was largely welcomed by both the general population and the nobility as it brought greater stability, security and improved trade in northwest Europe.

But that all changed in 1555. The ailing Charles V began splitting up his vast empire. He granted his territories in the Netherlands to his staunchly Catholic son Philip, who also became King of Spain and inherited its colonies in the New World. And while Charles had been a generally tolerant ruler, allowing the people of the Netherlands to practice their own religions and customs, it was clear from the start that Philip would rule differently.

Philip believes that preserving Catholicism is his highest duty. But in the Netherlands, the Protestants are rapidly winning converts. To fight this spread, Philip has sought to replicate the punishing success of the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands.

This religious persecution has angered many, and now, a group of Dutch noblemen are meeting to discuss how to respond. But despite the efforts of Jan van Marnix, agreeing on a course of action isn’t easy. The nobles each have their own interests and priorities, and they are often at odds. Only after months of negotiations and infighting do the nobles settle on a plan. On April 5th, 1566, 300 of them march to Brussels to meet with Philip’s representative in the Netherlands, his half-sister Margaret of Parma. The nobles have all signed a document calling for Spain to grant their provinces more self-governance and to end the laws of religious persecution that have seen Protestants put to death for merely observing their faith.

Jan van Marnix believes there is a bond of kinship and understanding among noblemen, whatever their creed or nationality. So, he hopes this limited and respectful appeal will be looked upon kindly by Margaret of Parma and King Philip. But their petition is flatly rejected.

Angered, the ordinary people of the Netherlands then take matters into their own hands. In late summer 1566, riots spring up across the country as Protestant mobs take to the streets, attacking and destroying Catholic art and iconography. This outbreak becomes known as the Beeldenstorm and lasts for months. Hoping to end this violence, Margaret of Parma caves and promises to grant the noblemen’s petition for religious tolerance in exchange for their help in ending the riots.

The Dutch noblemen keep their side of the deal, and the unrest is stopped. But Margaret of Parma’s half-brother, King Philip, has no intention of allowing Protestants to worship freely. Their concessions to the noblemen don’t materialize: Taxes remain high, restrictions on religion are tightened even further, and King Philip demands rioters be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

This crackdown shatters Jan van Marnix’s faith in diplomacy. If the Spanish King and his occupying forces will not grant them religious freedom, then the Dutch will have to seize it for themselves.

So, with a furious population urging them on, Jan and the other nobles have no difficulty raising an army, and, on March 1st, 1567, they go to war. Jan leads an attempt to seize the strategic port of Vlissingen. But the Spanish troops defending the city are well-trained, and it soon becomes apparent to Jan that his inexperienced army is hopelessly outmatched. If they are to live to fight another day, they have little choice but to retreat. So, Jan and his men withdraw 50 miles south to a camp at Oosterweel.

Oosterweel is an insignificant village, barely a dot on the map, but the presence of Jan’s troops there will make it a pivotal point in the history of Europe, a place where hundreds will die and the first shots are fired in a war that will last eight decades.

Act Two: Revenge

It’s early on March 13th, 1567, just outside the village of Oosterweel, hours after the Dutch nobleman Jan van Marnix and his troops were attacked by Spanish forces.

A blood-red sun is creeping above the horizon as Jan and a small group of his fellow rebels flee through the fields away from the burning village. Many of them are wounded, and all of them are exhausted. But they know they have to keep running if they want to keep their lives.

Behind them, they can hear the roar of flames and the screams of their fellow rebels. During the battle, hundreds of them sought safety in barns and farm buildings in the village. But rather than capture them for later punishment or ransom, the Spanish enemy simply locked them in the buildings and is now burning them alive.

For Jan, it’s just another sign that their Catholic opponents are ruthless, amoral killers. The men who launched the nighttime assault are mercenaries, hired by the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands for only one purpose—to eradicate the rebels by whatever means necessary. The surprise attack on the village broke all accepted rules of combat as Jan understood them. There had been no meeting of generals beforehand; no terms of surrender were offered. The mercenaries approached Oosterweel silently, under cover of darkness, without flags to identify themselves. In Jan’s eyes, the attack was cowardly and improper.

But his morals didn’t help him defend the village earlier, and they don’t help him now, either. Pursued by hundreds of enemy mercenaries, Jan and his dwindling band of rebels desperately look for an escape, but it quickly becomes clear that all the roads away from Oosterweel are blocked, and they have nowhere left to run.

All they can do now is fight. Vastly outnumbered, rebels turn and face the enemy. The battle that follows is brutal—and brief. As his men fall around him, Jan van Marnix knows he's facing his final moments. He says a prayer and rallies himself for one last, suicidal charge. Swinging his sword, he dashes at the enemy, managing to take a few with him before he too is cut down and hacked to pieces.

With their leader now dead, the few remaining Dutch rebels surrender, but the orders from the mercenaries’ Spanish masters are clear—no quarter is to be given, no one is to be spared, and the sounds of gunshot and slaughter soon drift across the fields to the nearby city of Antwerp. Its large Protestant population has awoken this morning to see black smoke billowing into the air over the village of Oosterweel. They know it can mean only one thing—their fellow Protestants are under attack. So, they pour out of their homes and gather in the streets of the city in hope of bringing aid to Jan van Marnix and their other comrades fighting outside.

But when the surging crowd reaches the city walls, they find the gates barred and unmoving soldiers blocking their way. Antwerp has been sealed off on the orders of its lord, William the Silent. He has no love for the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands and supports the rebels’ calls for religious tolerance—but he knows that, today at least, the battle is already lost. Anyone going outside the city now only risks being captured and executed by the Spanish as a rebel. It's better to lie low, to live to fight another day. Most in Antwerp heed William’s warning and disperse sadly to their homes, mourning the deaths of their fellow Protestants. But some in the city are still determined to venture beyond the walls and help any survivors if they can. Reluctantly, after one last attempt to dissuade them, William the Silent allows them through the gates.

This rescue party will find the road to Oosterweel littered with the dead with even more gruesome horrors to be found in the village itself. History will call what happened there a battle. But to the Protestants of Antwerp, it will be immediately clear that it was a massacre. Amid the blood and ash of Oosterweel, a new seed of rebellion will be planted, and a conflict will soon begin that will span generations, weaken one empire, and help build another.

Act Three: Fallout

It’s March 14th, 1567, in the village of Oosterweel, a day after Spanish mercenaries brutally put down an uprising there.

A young woman from Antwerp walks among the bodies of her fellow Protestants. Yesterday morning, she had been so eager to help, but now what she sees here gives her pause. Hundreds are dead, and the acrid smell of blood and smoke stings her nostrils. The village has been practically destroyed, and there’s no sign of the Protestant rebel leader Jan van Marnix anywhere.

Dazed and horrified by what she’s seen, she goes home to tell her family that she found no survivors to help. But upon her return, she discovers the city of Antwerp is in uproar. Fearing that the massacre is just the start and that far worse is to come, many Protestant citizens are packing up and fleeing for their lives.

And within weeks of the Battle of Oosterweel, open Protestantism displays all but disappear in the Spanish Netherlands. For its ruler King Philip, the massacre has served its purpose—the rebellion has been put down and his subjects in the Netherlands are now finally obeying his rule.

But Philip has overplayed his hand. While the brutality of his attack has horrified Dutch Protestants, it has also ignited a fire in them. Spain’s refusal to find a political solution and the massacre at Oosterweel unite the Dutch nobility against the King and sets the stage for a far more prolonged rebellion.

Just over a year after the disaster at Oosterweel, Dutch forces inflict their first military defeat on the Spanish. But total victory does not come quickly for the rebels. The revolt continues for another eight decades. Tens of thousands die, and territory changes hands time and time again. But one thing remains constant—the Dutch Protestants refuse to ever submit to Catholic Spain.

Their stubborn resistance is a thorn in the side of the mighty Spanish Empire, and a distraction it could do without. While this revolt goes on, the Spanish are also caught up in conflict with England, France, the Ottoman Empire, and neighbors Portugal. And with many of their overseas territories also rebelling, the Spanish steadily find it harder and harder to raise enough men and money to continue the fight in the Netherlands. So, in 1648, they sign a treaty that ends the long war and formally recognizes a free, Protestant, Dutch Republic.

But it comes too late for Spain. 80 years of war in the Netherlands and beyond have drained its strength, and it will never regain its former power. By contrast, having thrown off the Spanish, the Dutch will enter a Golden Age over the next two centuries, becoming one of the great trading nations of the world and building a wealthy empire of their own.

The rise and fall of great European powers has consequences across the globe, but the fire of rebellion that burned the Spanish Empire and forged the Dutch began in the tiniest of villages, in the middle of the night, on March 13th, 1567.

Outro

Next on History Daily. March 14th, 1964. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby is found guilty of the murder of John F Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, in the first courtroom verdict to be televised in the United States.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Supervising Sound Designer is Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Rob Cromwell.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.