THE KING OF SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS. Philip II inherited from his father Charles seventeen duchies, counties, and other districts north of France in what is now Belgium and Holland. Charles had known how to manage these people, because he was brought up among them. The task of managing them was not easy. Each district or city had its own special rights and its people demanded that these should be respected by the ruling prince. Charles had remembered this, but Philip wished to rule the Netherlanders, as these people were called, just as he ruled the people of Spain. [Illustration: THE DIKES ALONG THE YSSEL IN THE NETHERLANDS] PROTESTANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS. The trouble was made worse because many of the Netherlanders became followers of Luther or Calvin, and brought their books into the country. Now Philip, like his father Charles, was faithful to the teachings of the Church, and thought it was his duty to punish such persons. The result was that Philip soon had two kinds of enemies in his Netherland provinces, those who did not like the way he ruled and those who refused to believe as the Church taught, and the two united against him. After a while most of the Lutherans were driven away, but the Calvinists kept coming in over the border from France. THE NETHERLANDS. The Netherlands, or Low Countries, are well named, especially the northern part where the Dutch live, because much of the land is below the level of the sea at high tide, and some of it at low tide. For several hundred years the Dutch built dikes to keep back the sea, or pumped it out where it flowed in and covered the lower lands. Occasionally great storms broke through the dikes and caused the Dutch months or years of labor. A people so brave and industrious were not likely to submit to the will of Philip II. The chances that they would rebel were increased by the spread of the new religious views, which the Dutch accepted more readily than their neighbors, the southern Netherlanders. The southern Netherlanders who became Calvinists generally emigrated to the northern cities, like Amsterdam, where they were safer. [Illustration: Map Of The Netherlands]