COUNCIL OF TROUBLES (RAAD VAN BEROERTEN)

   After the Protestant uprisings and the Iconoclastic Fury in 1566–1567, the military governor of the Netherlands, the Duke of Alba, created a special court to try the suspects: the so-called Council of Troubles (1567–1576). It was nicknamed the Bloody Council because people accused the judges of ruthlessly condemning many persons to death. Modern scholarship has estimated the number of convictions be tween 1568 and 1573 to be some 7,000.