The events of 1585 and the years that followed would confirm an irrevocable split between the northern Protestant provinces that became the Dutch Republic and the southern Catholic provinces that eventually became Belgium. ✦ AI generated
Dominic Sandbrook · The Rest Is History · 2026-08-10 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 12:14
“This is a split that gives us two modern-day countries, doesn't it? So, talk us through the the split and what that means for the map of Europe.”
The events that we're going to be describing today will confirm that an irrevocable split has opened up between the northern provinces and the southern provinces of what had been the United Low Countries ruled by the Hapsburg kings. This is a split that gives us two modern-day countries... The northern provinces will succeed in holding the Spanish at bay. And in due course this will become what is known as the Dutch Republic, a great Protestant powerhouse in the 17th century... The south meanwhile is going to end up reconciled to Spanish rule... it will become Belgium.
verbatim transcript · starts at 12:14
12:14conflict between England and Spain, but also just to kind of widen the camera angle a little bit. The events of 1585 and the years that follow are going to have consequences for the low countries that are with us still today because the 17 provinces that constituted the the Spanish Netherlands had formed a kind of single donastic unit for most of the 16th century. and both sides in in in the Dutch
12:41revolt. So, the Spanish and the rebels, they're fighting to maintain that unity. The events that we're going to be describing today will confirm that an irrevocable split has opened up between the northern provinces and the southern provinces of what had been the United Low Countries ruled by the Hapsburg kings. This is a split that gives us two modern-day countries, doesn't it? So, talk us through the the split and what
13:07that means for the map of Europe. >> Yes. So if you imagine the low countries which today are um the Netherlands and Belgium, they're kind of separated by these great rivers, these four great rivers which form a kind of natural barrier. This is effectively the boundary between the northern provinces and the southern provinces in the um in the low countries. And the northern provinces will succeed um in holding the
13:32Spanish at bay. And in due course this will become what is known as the Dutch Republic, a great Protestant powerhouse in the 17th century, madly rich, effectively the inventor of modern capitalism. Um the civilization that will give us Rembrandt and Vermeier and so on. >> Yeah. The south meanwhile is going to end up reconciled to Spanish rule. It will continue to be ruled by the Hapsburgs ultimately right the way up
13:58until the age of the French Revolution. It will rembrace Catholicism and it will become in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. So two and a half centuries after the period that we're talking about now, it will become Belgium. So it's Rembrandt versus Reuben's I guess is one way of thinking about it or Amsterdam versus Antworp. >> Yeah. So it's a pivotal moment not just in the you know the theme of this series
14:21the cold war between England and Spain but for the future geopolitics of Europe and there is a sense of this in the 1580s I think um a sense that the stakes are massively cosmically high. You know that God himself is gazing down at this tremendous conflict. And it is this conflict as we will see that is a huge part of what ends up making Philip Sydney very very famous