Spanish Fury

He was granted powers exceeding those of the king's half-sister Margaret of Parma, who had maneuvered both Granvelle and William the Silent of Orange to the background while trying to reconcile local priorities with Spanish orders.

Other cities in the Low Countries that showed signs of rebellion against the increased taxation and prosecution of Protestants, or did not allow troops of either side in,[4] became vigorously forced into Catholicism and total political obedience to the Spanish Crown.

[6][7] By December 1573, high, yet ineffective, financial expenditures, and complaints about the sheer cruelty of the governor's expeditions, led Philip II to Requesens, where he replaced Alba, who returned to Spain.

Upon Requesens' death in March 1576, the Spanish king appointed his own half-brother Don Juan as Governor-General of the Netherlands but hesitated several months before notifying him.

The Pacification of Ghent by which both Calvinists and Catholics decided to expel all Spanish troops, and for which negotiations had been going on since the sack of Aalst, was signed a few days after Antwerp's fate.

[Note 3] Though never recognized by Philip, an arrangement by Catholics put his nephew Matthias of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, in the position of governor of the Netherlands until 1581.

[Note 4][10][19] Alexander Farnese, son of Margaret of Parma, reconquered a large part of the Netherlands by methods found honourable by friend and foe.