The obstinacy of Philip II caused the loss of the northern part of the Netherlands, which Farnese would probably have conquered. Alexander Farnese died in 1592 and at his death the Spanish King lost the best governor he had ever had in Belgium. The last years of the sixteenth century were unhappy years for the country. The long and bloody struggle had utterly ruined the land. The population had been reduced by at least 50 per cent; churches and civic buildings had been burned or severely damaged; trade and industry were in large part gone; Antwerp had lost its commerce, and thousands of people engaged in trade had fled to England, Germany, or Holland. Artistic and literary activity had come to a complete standstill; and the scientific center of Belgium, the University of Louvain, barely escaped complete ruin. But Belgium remained Catholic and subject to the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs, while the United Provinces (of Holland), overwhelmingly Protestant, had in fact become an independent country. Henceforth Belgium and Holland went each its own way, and their history no longer records common interests, at least until the period of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814). CHAPTER VIII THE REIGN OF THE ARCHDUKE ALBERT AND ISABELLA (1598-1633) Finally, convinced after a long and painful experience that peace was to be restored to Belgium only by new means and other methods than those heretofore employed, and that by waging war he would not be able to win back the northern provinces, Philip II tried another plan. He thought that by giving national sovereigns to the Catholic provinces he might induce the Protestants of Holland to return to their former allegiance and thus restore the lost unity of the Netherlands. In 1598 he decided, shortly before his death, that the Netherlands should be erected into an independent state, whose crown he gave to his daughter Isabella, after she had married Archduke Albert of Austria. If she and her consort should have no children, the Belgian provinces were to return to Spain. This was an important decision, although nobody in Europe believed in the real independence of Belgium. The country was practically under Spanish influence. But autonomy, at least, existed. Strange to say, the satisfaction felt by the Belgians was at first mingled with some disappointment. As Albert and Isabella were obliged, as sovereigns of “the Netherlands,” to continue the war against the northern provinces in order to unite them with those in the south already under their power, the Belgians feared that they would be charged with the heavy burden of war, and this time without the aid of the Spanish finances and of the Spanish army. But Philip II had foreseen the difficulty. He sent the famous general Spinola to their assistance, with an army of excellent Spanish troops.