| Les Gueux (Dutch: Geuzen), or The Beggars, a name assumed by the confederacy of nobles and other malcontents, who in 1566 opposed Spanish tyranny in the Netherlands. The most successful group of them operated at sea, they were called Gueux de mer or Sea Beggars (Dutch: Watergeuzen). In the Eighty Years' War, the capture of Brielle by the Gueux de mer in 1572 was the first foothold on land for the rebels, which would conquer the northern Netherlands and become independent as the Dutch Republic |