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Act of Abjuration
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Act of Abjuration
The Act of Abjuration (Dutch: Plakkaat van Verlatinghe; Spanish: Acta de Abjuración, lit. 'placard of abjuration') is the declaration of independence by many of the provinces of the Netherlands from their allegiance to Philip II of Spain, during the Dutch Revolt.
Signed on 26 July 1581, in The Hague, the Act formally confirmed a decision made by the States General of the Netherlands in Antwerp four days earlier. It declared that all magistrates in the provinces making up the Union of Utrecht were freed from their oaths of allegiance to their lord, Philip, who was also King of Spain. The grounds given were that Philip had failed in his obligations to his subjects, by oppressing them and violating their ancient rights. Philip was therefore considered to have forfeited his thrones as ruler of each of the provinces which signed the Act.
The Act of Abjuration allowed the newly independent territories to govern themselves, although they first offered their thrones to alternative candidates. When this failed, the States of Holland proclaimed their sovereignty by virtue of the Deduction of François Vranck in 1587. Finally, the United Provinces became the Dutch Republic with the instruction of 12 April 1588.
During that period the largest parts of Flanders and Brabant and a small part of Guelders were recaptured by Spain. The partial recapture of these areas from Spain led to the creation of Staats-Vlaanderen, Staats-Brabant, Staats-Overmaas and Staats-Gelre.
The Act of Abjuration is considered a foundational document of modern democracy because it established the radical concept that a sovereign's legitimacy depends on the welfare of their subjects.
The Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands were united in a personal union by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V with the incorporation of the duchy of Guelders in his Burgundian territories in 1544. It was constituted as a separate entity with his Pragmatic Sanction of 1549.
His son, King Philip II of Spain, inherited these provinces on Charles' abdication in 1555. But this actually meant that he assumed the feudal title of each individual province, as Duke of Brabant, Count of Holland etc. There never was a single, unified state of the Netherlands, though the provinces were all represented in the States General of the Netherlands, since the Great Charter or Privilege of Mary of Burgundy, of 10 February 1477.[citation needed]
In the Dutch Revolt, from 1568 several of these provinces rose in rebellion against Philip. Given the monarchical ethos of the time, the revolt had to be justified partly – as William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch Revolt, put it – as an attempt whereby "the Republic’s ancient privileges and liberty should be restored"; partly as directed against the royal councillors, not the king: thus the legal fiction was maintained of just having revolted against his viceroys, successively the Duke of Alba, Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, John of Austria, and the Duke of Parma, while the stadtholders appointed by the provincial estates continued to claim they represented Philip.[citation needed]
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Act of Abjuration
The Act of Abjuration (Dutch: Plakkaat van Verlatinghe; Spanish: Acta de Abjuración, lit. 'placard of abjuration') is the declaration of independence by many of the provinces of the Netherlands from their allegiance to Philip II of Spain, during the Dutch Revolt.
Signed on 26 July 1581, in The Hague, the Act formally confirmed a decision made by the States General of the Netherlands in Antwerp four days earlier. It declared that all magistrates in the provinces making up the Union of Utrecht were freed from their oaths of allegiance to their lord, Philip, who was also King of Spain. The grounds given were that Philip had failed in his obligations to his subjects, by oppressing them and violating their ancient rights. Philip was therefore considered to have forfeited his thrones as ruler of each of the provinces which signed the Act.
The Act of Abjuration allowed the newly independent territories to govern themselves, although they first offered their thrones to alternative candidates. When this failed, the States of Holland proclaimed their sovereignty by virtue of the Deduction of François Vranck in 1587. Finally, the United Provinces became the Dutch Republic with the instruction of 12 April 1588.
During that period the largest parts of Flanders and Brabant and a small part of Guelders were recaptured by Spain. The partial recapture of these areas from Spain led to the creation of Staats-Vlaanderen, Staats-Brabant, Staats-Overmaas and Staats-Gelre.
The Act of Abjuration is considered a foundational document of modern democracy because it established the radical concept that a sovereign's legitimacy depends on the welfare of their subjects.
The Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands were united in a personal union by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V with the incorporation of the duchy of Guelders in his Burgundian territories in 1544. It was constituted as a separate entity with his Pragmatic Sanction of 1549.
His son, King Philip II of Spain, inherited these provinces on Charles' abdication in 1555. But this actually meant that he assumed the feudal title of each individual province, as Duke of Brabant, Count of Holland etc. There never was a single, unified state of the Netherlands, though the provinces were all represented in the States General of the Netherlands, since the Great Charter or Privilege of Mary of Burgundy, of 10 February 1477.[citation needed]
In the Dutch Revolt, from 1568 several of these provinces rose in rebellion against Philip. Given the monarchical ethos of the time, the revolt had to be justified partly – as William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch Revolt, put it – as an attempt whereby "the Republic’s ancient privileges and liberty should be restored"; partly as directed against the royal councillors, not the king: thus the legal fiction was maintained of just having revolted against his viceroys, successively the Duke of Alba, Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, John of Austria, and the Duke of Parma, while the stadtholders appointed by the provincial estates continued to claim they represented Philip.[citation needed]
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