George van Rennenberg was stadtholder of Friesland in the service of Phillip II from 1576 to 1581. A stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder meaning place holder, a Germanic parallel to Latin locum tenens or French lieutenant), means an official who is appointed by the legal ruling Monarch to represent him in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his name, in the latter case roughly... Capital Leeuwarden Queens Commissioner drs. ... Philip II of Spain (Spanish: Felipe II) - (May 21, 1527 – September 13, 1598), the first King of Spain understood as the whole peninsula of Hispania (r. ... Events May 5 - Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc dAnjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it). ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ...