Beeldenstorm in the Netherlands

August 20, 1566

Calvinist mobs burst into Catholic churches across the Low Countries, smashing statues, altars, stained glass, and relics in a coordinated fury known as the iconoclastic fury. Antwerp's cathedral was stripped in a single night. Philip II, watching from Madrid, decided the Dutch must be disciplined by force. The coordinated iconoclasm suggested planning rather than spontaneity, though the degree of Calvinist organization remains historically debated.