What was the background for the Dutch Revolt?

Flem-ish

Conflict between Dutch AND Flemish protestants and their Catholic Spanish rulers.Actually it all started with the so-called Iconoclast Riots which began in what is now "North-France", the then Flemish speaking area of Hondschoote, Steenvoorde and raged through the Netherlands from South to North.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War Later, many leaders had to flee from Flanders to Holland and indirectlt launched the "Dutch Golden Century". Sep 17 08, 9:56 AM

author

Yes, and here is some more on the Iconoclast Riots. Quote: During the religious riots of 1566, radical Protestants destroyed statues in Catholic churches and monasteries. It began on 10 August in Steenvoorde in West Flanders. Following a sermon by a Calvinist minister, part of the congregation forced its way into the nearby St Lawrence monastery and smashed all the statues. It was the beginning of a wave of destruction which quickly spread across the rest of the country. This was the culmination of a series of events. The repression of church reform had raised tensions to breaking point. Moreover, unemployment and poverty were rife in this period of economic crisis: the seedbed of social unrest. Defacing the churches was justified by the Calvinist belief that statues in a house of God were idolatrous images which must be destroyed. http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_encyclopedia/00047699?lang=en Sep 17 08, 10:08 AM