The Guelders Wars

The origin of the Guelders wars lay in a loan of 300,000 gold guilders that Arnold, duke of Guelders, borrowed from Charles the Bold of Burgundy in 1471, and for which he pledged the title to his duchy as security. Arnold failed to repay the loan and so, when he died in 1473, Charles the Bold foreclosed and assumed the title and rights to the duchy. First Arnold' son Adolf, and then his grandson Charles of Guelders (1467–1538) took up the cause of recovering the duchy by military means from Charles the Bold' Burgundian-Habsburg heirs, Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) and his son Philip (1478–1506), called Philip the Fair.

On 25 September 1506 Philip the Fair, uncrowned king of Spain, who among his many other titles was count of Holland, died unexpectedly. He was twentyeight years old, and he left as his heir a six-year-old boy, the future emperor Charles V of Habsburg. Emperor Maximilian, in a secret letter, informed the Council of Holland of his son' death, and within a few days further letters were sent from the Council at The Hague to members of the government throughout the Habsburg Low Countries informing them too of the “dolorous report.” A seaman or ship' captain (skipper) who arrived at Zierikzee about that time, perhaps incredulous of the rumors he heard, told listeners he had seen the king in Spain only shortly before.