Editing Low Countries (section)

===Division===
{{see also|Dutch Republic|Spanish Netherlands|Southern Netherlands}}
The Pragmatic Sanction is said to be one example of the Habsburg contest with [[political particularism|particularism]] that contributed to the [[Dutch Revolt]]. Each of the provinces had its own laws, customs and political practices. The new policy, imposed from the outside, angered many inhabitants, who viewed their provinces as distinct entities. It and other monarchical acts, such as the creation of bishoprics and promulgation of laws against [[heresy]], stoked resentments, which fired the eruption of the [[Dutch Revolt]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=State |first1=Paul F. |title=A Brief History of the Netherlands |date=2008 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438108322 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5CTlTZlWU0IC&q=pragmatic+sanction&pg=PA46 |access-date=20 October 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

After the northern [[Seven United Provinces]] of the seventeen declared their independence from [[Habsburg Spain]] in 1581, the ten provinces of the [[Southern Netherlands]] remained occupied by the [[Army of Flanders]] under Spanish service and are therefore sometimes called the [[Spanish Netherlands]]. In 1713, under the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] following the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], what was left of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to [[Austria]] and thus became known as the [[Austrian Netherlands]].

Some states like the [[Duchy of Bouillon|Bouillon]], [[Cambrésis]], [[County of East Frisia|East Frisia]], [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège|Liège]] and [[Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy|Stavelot-Malmedy]] did not become part of the wider policies and remained at least nominally independent. Liège was excluded from the [[Burgundian Circle]] instead incorporated into the [[Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle]] and later become regularly part of [[personal union]]s with bishoprics like the [[Electorate of Cologne]] under the [[Wittelsbach]] dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goorts |first1=Roeland |title=War, State, and Society in Liège |date=2019 |publisher=Leuven University Press |isbn=9789462701311 |pages=218–219 |url=https://books.google.de/books?id=l2-MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 |access-date=28 April 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

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File:Kenau_Hasselaar_op_de_wallen_van_Haarlem.gif|[[Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer]] defending the walls during the [[Siege of Haarlem]] (1572–1573)
File:De stadt Maastricht, door den prins van Parma (Alexander Farnese) met storm verovert, den 29 july des jaars 1579 (Jan Luyken, 1679).jpg|Sack of [[Maastricht]] by the ''Tercios de Flandes'' (Flemish Regiments) in 1579
File:Famien Strada Histoire-Capture of Tournai 1581-ppn087811480 MG 8936T3p287.tif|Siege and capture of [[Tournai]] (1581)
File:Oostende.1601.JPG|Map of [[Ostend]] during the [[Siege of Ostend|siege in 1601]]
</gallery>