Triple Alliance (1596)

There had been attempts to convince magnates from the Holy Roman Empire to join the alliance, but they did not want to enter the war against Spain.

For Philip II of Spain this was reason enough to enter the struggle in France on the side of the Catholic faction.

His plan was to put his daughter, Isabella of Spain, on the French throne in order to secure the survival and supremacy of Catholicism in France.

Parma, who had been very successful in leading the Army of Flanders against the Dutch Republic, managed to end the siege of Paris.

Henry IV eventually achieved victory in 1593, partially by converting to the Catholic faith (reportedly saying "Paris vaut bien une messe", 'Paris is worth a Mass') and then on February 27, 1593, was finally crowned King of France.

The Spanish troops remained active in France, however, with the goal of putting Philip's daughter on the French throne.

Henry was thus forced to enter the war against Philip II, even though he considered negotiating peace with Spain several times.

The Eighty Years' War had been raging in and around the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands since the 1568, though in that time it was still called a revolt.

Since the beginning of the revolt, religious freedom had been, after the tax (the so-called tenth penny of Alba, an early form of VAT), one of the main reasons used to justify the rebellion against the King of Spain, Philip II.

Maurice and William Louis carried out their military operations in close collaboration with the States-General of the Netherlands, which provided the funds for the army.

Already in 1585, England aided the Republic by sending 6000 soldiers under the command of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.

The presence of the Earl of Leicester was not a success and the Republic perceived him mainly as a burden, since England had to be paid for the English forces that had been sent.

In the subsequent decades, Maurice of Orange and William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg obtained a number of victories over the Spanish, expanding the territory over which the States-General had control considerably.

Seeing himself as the most powerful monarch in Europe, and a staunch catholic, Philip saw it as his job to lead the Counter Reformation against the emerging Protestantism.

Because his territorial domains also included Portugal, Sicily, Sardinia and Naples, he was able to exert a powerful influence over much of Europe.

The Republic took the opposite view that Elizabeth should be invited immediately, because otherwise the possibility of English support would be very small.

Reasons for this were that the support of England was thought to be insecure, which created the possibility of the domination of the alliance by France.

Elizabeth wanted the exclave back, but failing that, she preferred the city under French control against that of Spain.

After a brief siege he captured the city, which gave Spain a port close to England that could easily be expanded to a naval base.

Henry IV deliberated on accepting a peace offer from Spain, but decided to leave the choice to Elizabeth I.

Then the German Electorates were again approached to join the alliance, first by France in the spring of 1597, followed by the Republic in August of the same year.

Maurice of Orange captured Rheinberg from the Spanish as a favour to the German princes, but they decided not to join the alliance.

She wanted, for example, to only support France in a defensive war against Spain, contrary to the Republic, which had been on the offensive for a number of years.

[4] Despite losing the battle, the Dutch Republic had shown through its assistance to the English that it was a naval power to be reckoned with.

Because of Albert's concentration on France, the Spanish forces guarding the border with the Dutch republic were left on their own, enabling Maurice of Orange to capture several cities in his celebrated campaign of 1597.

France also received troops sent by England and the Republic, so in the end all three states participating in the alliance benefited from it.

By the signing of the alliance, France and England became the first states to officially recognise the Dutch Republic as a sovereign territory.

France had already started working on a peace treaty with Spain right after signing the alliance, without the Republic and England being aware of this.

Finally, Spain also tried to arrange for a peace or a ceasefire with the Dutch Republic, especially after the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, but it would take until 1609 for both states to agree to the Twelve Years' Truce.