Burgundian Circle

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Burgundian Circle
Burgundischer Kreis
1512–1797
Seven United Provinces
1648
• Disestablished
1797
Today part of

The Burgundian Circle (

Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire created in 1512 and significantly enlarged in 1548. In addition to the Free County of Burgundy (the former administrative region of Franche-Comté), the Burgundian Circle roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., the areas now known as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg and adjacent parts in the French administrative region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. For most of its history, its lands were coterminous with the holdings of the Spanish Habsburgs in the Empire (Franche-Comté and the Habsburg Netherlands
).

The circle's territorial scope was reduced considerably in the 17th century with the secession of the

Treaty of Westphalia) and the annexation of the Free County of Burgundy by France in 1678. Consequently, in the 18th century the circle was known as Austrian Netherlands as the Austrian Habsburgs had obtained the territory from Spain earlier in that century. The occupation and subsequent annexation of Imperial territory to the west of the Rhine river by Revolutionary France
in the 1790s effectively brought an end to the circle's existence.

Composition

History of the Low Countries
Frisii Belgae
Cana–
nefates 		Chamavi,
Tubantes 		Gallia Belgica (55 BC–c. 5th AD)
Germania Inferior (83–c. 5th)
Salian Franks Batavi
unpopulated
(4th–c. 5th) 		Saxons Salian Franks
(4th–c. 5th)
Frisian Kingdom
(c. 6th–734)
Frankish Kingdom (481–843)—Carolingian Empire
(800–843)
Austrasia (511–687)
Middle Francia (843–855) West
Francia
(843–)
Duchy of Lower Lorraine
(959–)
Frisia


Frisian
Freedom
(11–16th
century)
County of
Holland
(880–1432)
Bishopric of
Utrecht
(695–1456)
Duchy of
Guelders

(1046–1543)
County of
Flanders
(862–1384)
County of
Hainaut
(1071–1432)

County of
Namur
(981–1421)
P.-Bish.
of Liège

(980–1794)
Duchy of
Luxem-
bourg
(1059–1443)
 
Burgundian Netherlands (1384–1482)

Habsburg Netherlands (1482–1795)
(Seventeen Provinces after 1543) 		 

Dutch Republic
(1581–1795)
Spanish Netherlands
(1556–1714) 		 
 
Austrian Netherlands
(1714–1795)
 
United States of Belgium

(1790)
R. Liège
(1789–'91)
     

Batavian Republic (1795–1806)
Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810)
associated with French First Republic (1795–1804)
part of First French Empire (1804–1815)
   

Princip. of the Netherlands (1813–1815) 		 
Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830)
Gr D. L.
(1815–)

Kingdom of the Netherlands (1839–)
Kingdom of Belgium (1830–)

Gr D. of
Luxem-
bourg
(1890–)

After the 1548 Diet of Augsburg, the circle was made up of the following territories:

Seventeen Provinces

  1. the Margraviate of Antwerp.
  2. the County of Artois, ceded by France in 1493, annexed by France in 1659.
  3. the Duchy of Brabant.
  4. the County of Flanders.
  5. the
    Lordship of Frisia
    , which seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  6. the
    City of Groningen
    , which joined the United Provinces in 1594.
  7. the Duchy of Guelders, which, with the exception of Upper Guelders, seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  8. the County of Hainaut.
  9. the County of Holland, which seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  10. the Duchy of Limburg, held by the Dukes of Brabant.
  11. the Duchy of Luxembourg.
  12. the Lordship of Mechelen, a personal lordship of the Duke of Burgundy.
  13. the County of Namur.
  14. the Lordship of Overijssel, including the County of Drenthe, which seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  15. the Prince-Bishopric, later Lordship of Utrecht, which seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  16. the County of Zeeland, held by the Counts of Holland; seceded to form part of the United Provinces from 1579.
  17. the County of Zutphen, held by the Dukes of Guelders; seceded merging with the States of the Guelders from 1579.

County of Burgundy

  1. the Free County of Burgundy and
  2. the
    Imperial City of Besançon

both annexed by France according to the 1678 Treaty of Nijmegen. The

Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle
until its dissolution in 1795.

History

The Imperial

Lower Lorraine, except for Flanders and Artois. In 1482, they fell to the House of Habsburg
.

Coat of arms of the Duke

In 1363, the French King

Elisabeth of Görlitz
in 1443.

Emperor Maximilian I and the coat of arms of the Burgundian provinces, wall fresco at the Vöcklabruck City Tower, 1502.
Coat of arms of the Staten General

The

Louis XI of France, his daughter Mary nevertheless married Maximilian in the same year. The Archduke defeated the French troops at the 1479 Battle of Guinegate and by the 1493 Treaty of Senlis annexed the Seventeen Provinces – including the French fiefs of Flanders and Artois – for the House of Habsburg. The sovereignty finally passed to the Empire in the Treaty of Cambrai
in 1529. The Duchy of Burgundy proper was seized as a reverted fief by the French crown.

Flag of the Netherlands

Maximilian's grandson and successor, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor eventually won the Guelders Wars and united all seventeen provinces under his rule, the last one being the Duchy of Guelders in 1543. The Burgundian treaty of 1548 shifted the seventeen provinces from the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle to the Burgundian circle, resulting in a significant territorial gain for the latter and increased tax obligation. The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 determined that the Provinces should remain united in the future and inherited by the same monarch. After Charles V's abdication in 1556, his realms became divided between his son, King Philip II of Spain, and his brother, Emperor Ferdinand I. The Seventeen Provinces went to his son Philip. Meanwhile, a common political representation was established through the States General of the Netherlands.

Conflicts between Philip II and his Dutch subjects led to the Eighty Years' War, which started in 1568. The seven northern provinces gained their independence as a republic called the Seven United Provinces. They were:

  1. the Lordship of Groningen and of the Ommelanden
  2. the Lordship of Friesland
  3. the Lordship of Overijssel
  4. the Duchy of Guelders (except its upper quarter) and the county of Zutphen
  5. the lordship of Utrecht
  6. the county of Holland
  7. the county of Zeeland

The southern provinces – Flanders, Brabant, Namur, Hainaut, Luxembourg and so forth – were restored to Spanish rule thanks to the military and political talent of the

siege of Antwerp (1584-1585). Hence, these Provinces became known as the Spanish Netherlands
.

The northern Seven United Provinces kept parts of Limburg, Brabant and Flanders during and after the

Treaty of Westphalia
in 1648.

Artois, and parts of Flanders and Hainaut were ceded to France in the treaties of the Pyrenees and Nijmegen in the course of the 17th century.

See also

References

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burgundian_Circle&oldid=1200440278"