After the dynastic union of Spain and…
February 1596 CE
After the dynastic union of Spain and Portugal, Archduke Albert of Austria, the fifth son of Holy Roman Empero Maximilian II and the Infanta Maria of Spain, daughter of the late Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, had become the first viceroy of the kingdom and its overseas empire in 1583.
He had likewise been appointed Papal Legate and Grand Inquisitor for Portugal.
As viceroy of Portugal, he had taken part in the organization of the Great Armada of 1588 and beaten off an English counter-attack on Lisbon in 1589.
Philip II had recalled him in 1593 to Madrid, where he had assumed a leading role in the government of the Spanish Monarchy.
After the death of Archduke Ernst in 1595, Albert had been sent to Brussels to succeed his elder brother as Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands, making his entry in Brussels on February 11, 1596.
His first priority is restoring Spain's military position in the Low Countries.
She is facing the combined forces of the Dutch Republic, England and France .and has known nothing but defeats since 1590.