In 1585, Philip’s nephew the duke of Parma (in Italy) captured Antwerp, and with a decency uncharacteristic of the times allowed the city’s Protestants to leave peaceably. Nearly simultaneously, his uncle embargoed the United Provinces and seized its vessels in Spanish and Portuguese ports. Each of these three actions was a colossal mistake. At a stroke Philip had created a network of the hardest-working, most commercially savvy traders in the world—Antwerp’s now exiled Protestants, who were now dedicated to bypassing Iberian ports.3
