Flemish revolts against Maximilian of Austria

In the period 1482–1492, the cities of Flanders revolted twice against their Habsburg overlord, Archduke Maximilian of Austria. The revolts were rooted in the cities' desire to maintain the autonomy that they had wrested from his late wife, Mary the Rich of Burgundy, which Maximilian threatened to curtail. Both revolts were ultimately unsuccessful.

At the end of the 15th century, Flanders was under Burgundian rule. When the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold died in battle in 1477, his territories passed to his daughter, Mary the Rich. The Netherlandish towns and their States General compelled Mary to sign a treaty, the Great Privilege, that reversed some of the centralization of power undertaken by her father and her grandfather, Duke Philip the Good, and turned the Burgundian state in the Netherlands into a confederation of provinces. The Members (representatives) of Flanders obtained an additional Flemish Privilege, which required their consent in any constitutional change.

Meanwhile, the area west of the Scheldt (Royal Flanders), as well as other provinces of the Burgundian state, were claimed as reverted fiefs by France. Fearing French invasion, the provinces of the Low Countries levied an army of 100,000 men to replace the former ducal army; more than one-third of its troops were supplied by Flanders. Mary, seeking peace with her powerful neighbor, was involved in negotiations with Louis XI concerning a possible marriage to the Dauphin Charles (then only eight years old), but her embassy met harsh demands for territorial concessions to the French crown.

On the evening of 16 August 1477, Mary instead married Maximilian of Habsburg, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, at Ghent. He would rule the Burgundian lands jointly with Mary, vowing to uphold the privileges granted to its towns and cities. The following years, a war with France was fought by Flemish armies under Maximilian, culminating in the 1479 Battle of Guinegate, a Habsburg victory. The German and other foreign troops was not well received in Flanders: the citizens of Ghent rioted against their presence in 1478.

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