The private life of Albert and Isabelle was modest and simple. Their court at Brussels was an example of morality and seriousness, although they were not given over to bigotry. Isabella was a cheerful princess; she liked to mingle sometimes with the people and to take part in their rejoicings and their sports. Both sovereigns were very popular. Sorrow filled the souls of the Belgians when the Archduke died in 1621, without issue. According to the testament of Philip II, Belgium was held obliged to return to Spanish rule. Indeed, Spain immediately took possession of the country and, although Isabella remained at Brussels, she was no longer a sovereign, but a simple regent in the name of the King. When she died in 1633, the universal mourning in town and country proved how well she had succeeded in winning the sympathy of the Belgians.[16] CHAPTER IX THE LAST YEARS OF THE SPANISH RULE (1633-1715) The last eighty years of the seventeenth century were an unhappy period for Belgium. France, under Richelieu and Louis XIV, continually attacked the declining Spanish monarchy, and sought to wrest from it the Belgian provinces piece by piece. From 1622 to 1648 France was assisted in this policy of conquest by the United Provinces of Holland. Each treaty of this period marks a territorial diminution of Belgium and sometimes likewise a decisive blow at the elements of its material prosperity. The Treaty of Munster, concluded in 1648 between Spain and the United Provinces, remorselessly sacrificed the commercial interests of Belgium. According to this treaty it was agreed that the Dutch should have the right to control and to close the Scheldt, the very source of Antwerp’s wealth. It was also agreed that henceforth the United Provinces should definitely retain their independence, won by William the Silent and his sons, should even remain in possession of Northern Brabant and Northern Flanders, and should divide with Belgium the sovereignty over Maestricht. The act which established the final separation between Belgium and Holland constituted also the first act of hostility of the latter. As a consequence of the Treaty of Munster, Limburg was divided between both countries in 1661. The Dutch obtained the larger part of the country of Fauquemont and Daelhem and a portion of Rolduc. Other territorial losses were forced upon Belgium some years later. In 1659, France acquired nearly all the country of Artois, by the Treaty of the Pyrennees; in 1668, French Flanders and Tournaisis, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; in 1678, Franche-Comté, Cambrai and Cambrésis, and the rest of Artois, by the Treaty of Nimègue. On the whole, the defeats suffered by the Spanish monarchy at the period of its decline cost Belgium, hopelessly attached to the dying body, the north of Flanders, and the south of Flanders, of Hainaut, and of Luxemburg.