Gueux

Gueux (" Beggars"), the name adopted by the league of nobles formed in 1565 to resist the introduction of the Inquisition into the Netherlands by Philip II. of Spain. The name was originally applied to them in contempt. Their efforts were unsuccessful; but the naval war instituted by a branch of the confederacy who called themselves the "Beggars of the Sea" ultimately resulted in the independence of the Netherlands (1648).