The Habsburg Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire. Historiographical debates across centuries.

This paper explores the political and historiographical relationship between the Habsburg Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire. Integrated into the Burgundian Circle after the reforms of 1512 and 1548, the Low Countries held an ambiguous constitutional position, both part of the Empire and a dynastic possession of the Habsburg monarchy. The study traces how legal debates and later national historiographies interpreted this status differently: German scholars stressed imperial cohesion, while Belgian and Dutch traditions emphasized autonomy. Recent approaches using borderlands and imperial governance perspectives reinterpret the region as a flexible imperial space, contributing to broader discussions on sovereignty, identity, and the nature of early modern composite states.