Description

This is an official secretarial transcription of the letter with instructions by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II to the Austrian ambassador in Spain, Hans von Khevenhüller-Frankenburg, regarding Belgium.

The letter was written in 1572, four years after a breakout of the Eighty Years’ War or Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), a revolt of what are today the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, at the time joined in the Seventeen Provinces, against the political and religious hegemony of Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands.

Hans von Khevenhüller-Frankenburg (1538 – 1606) was an Austrian nobleman. He entered the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II in 1558 and was sent two years later, in 1560 to Spain as a diplomat. In 1572, Khevenhüller-Frankenburg became an ambassador to the Emperor in Madrid, a position he kept until his death in 1606.