Blood advice

The Spanish Duke of Alba as Chairman of the Blood Council

The so-called Council of Unrest ( Raad van beroerte , Conseil des troubles ) is usually referred to as the Blood Council , which had numerous people executed in the Netherlands under the Spanish Duke of Alba from 1567 to 1573 . Information on the number of victims ranges from 1,073 to "several thousand".

In 1567, the Spanish King Philip II (1527–1598) sent the Duke of Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo , as governor with Spanish troops to a punitive expedition to the Netherlands in order to disempower the insubordinate nobility and to realize his own political and religious ideas . Alba's tasks were clearly outlined: 1. Punishing the rebels, 2. Strengthening the royal power, 3. Reforming the tax system in favor of the sovereign.

Just a week after his arrival, the Duke of Alba set up the Council of Unrest , which could summon and condemn any person, regardless of rank, status or privileges. In addition to the Duke of Alba himself, the council was headed by the Spaniard Juan de Vargas . The Count of Aremberg , Philipp von Noircarmes and Charles de Berlaymont were appointed as assessors without ever taking part in the Council of Unrest. Besides these, it was Hadrian Nicolai , Chancellor of Geldern ; Jacob Mertens and Peter Asset , Presidents of Artois and Flanders ; Jacob Hesselts and Johann de la Porte , Councilors of Ghent ; Ludwig del Rio , Catholic doctor of theology and born Spaniard; Johann du Bois , the king's chief solicitor, and Jacques de la Torre , clerk of the court.

This “Council of Unrest”, which the people soon called the Blood Council because of the many executions , de facto replaced the previous jurisdiction; the deliberations were only of a formal character. Because of the religious one-sidedness, the nobles soon left the council again, so that it was continued under the Duke of Alba without further consultation. There was no review of the processes and no appeal by the Council of Twelve. His judgments were irrevocable and not bound by any other authority.

The best-known victims of the Blood Council, later immortalized in literature by Goethe , were Count Egmont and Philippe van Hoorn , who were executed in Brussels on June 5, 1568 . Other Dutch nobles who died were the brothers Dirk and Gijsbert van Bronkhorst , Jan van Casembroot , Anthony van Straelen and Floris van Montmorency . Some others, such as the later water geyser guide Lenaert Jansz de Graeff , managed to escape to Bruges . The brutal repression by the Spanish reign of terror under Duke Alba triggered a wave of refugees of unprecedented proportions, which resulted in the Eighty Years' War and the breakup of the Netherlands from Spain. It was not until 1573 that Alba was replaced by the new Spanish governor Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens , who immediately repealed the blood council.

literature

Louis Prosper Gachard : Notice sur le Conseil des Troubles, institué par le duc d'Albe . In: Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux arts de Belgique . Tome XVI - Deuxieme Partie, 1849, p. 50-78 (French).
Alphonse LE Verheyden: Le conseil des troubles (= Histoire du protestantisme en Belgique et au Congo Belge . T. 11). Ed. Le Phare [etc.], Flavion-Florennes 1981 (French, 356 pages).
Julie Versele: Vargas, Juan de . In: Nouvelle Biographie Nationale . tape 7 . Brussels 2003, p. 375-377 (French).
De Tachtigjarige Oorlog . Leiden University, Leiden 2010 (Dutch).

Web links

Commons : Council of Troubles - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Julie Versele: Vargas, Juan de. Spaans jurist en politicus. In: De Bello Belgico. Leiden University, February 16, 2012, archived from the original on October 6, 2015 ; Retrieved January 6, 2018 (Dutch).

Individual evidence

↑ Gustaaf Janssens: L'abolition du Conseil des Troubles du duc d'Albe, un conseil “communément haï” aux Pays-Bas (1573–1576) . In: Éric Bousmar, Philippe Desmette, Nicolas Simon (eds.): Légeférer, gouverner et juger. Mélanges d'histoire du droit et des institutions (IXe – XXIe siècle) offerts à Jean-Marie Cauchies à l'occasion des ses 65 ans . Presses de l'Universite Saint-Louis, Brussels 2016, ISBN 978-2-8028-0223-5 , pp. 252 .

[1] Gustaaf Janssens: L'abolition du Conseil des Troubles du duc d'Albe, un conseil “communément haï” aux Pays-Bas (1573–1576) . In: Éric Bousmar, Philippe Desmette, Nicolas Simon (eds.): Légeférer, gouverner et juger. Mélanges d'histoire du droit et des institutions (IXe – XXIe siècle) offerts à Jean-Marie Cauchies à l'occasion des ses 65 ans . Presses de l'Universite Saint-Louis, Brussels 2016, ISBN 978-2-8028-0223-5 , pp. 252 .