The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain and later by the Austrian Habsburgs until occupied and annexed by Revolutionary France (1794–1815).
Silver florin of Emperor Charles V with the coat of arms of the House of Burgundy (Low Countries, etc.) c. 1553.
Velázquez portrait of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, son of Philip III of Spain, Governor General of the Low Countries at age 25, in 1634, until his death in 1641.
Portrait of a patriot from Antwerp, commemorating the uprising against Joseph II
The European region known as the Low Countries, historically also known as the Netherlands or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Benelux" countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – which English and French give the same name as the traditional regional name. Geographically and historically, the area also includes parts of France and Germany such as French Flanders and the German regions of East Frisia and Cleves. During the Middle Ages, the Low Countries were divided into numerous semi-independent principalities.
The Low Countries as seen from space
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, National Gallery, London
Sack of Maastricht by the Tercios de Flandes (Flemish Regiments) in 1579
Siege and capture of Tournai (1581)
