January 30, 1648

Peace of Münster

Spanish and Dutch plenipotentiaries sign the Peace of Münster

Four signed originals were made — two Dutch, two French — with the Dutch and Spanish archives each keeping one of each.

30 January 1648, at Münster

On 30 January 1648 authorized Spanish and Dutch plenipotentiaries — not Philip IV in person — signed and sealed the agreed peace treaty. Gaspar de Bracamonte y Guzmán, Count of Peñaranda, and Antoine Brun signed for the Spanish Crown; Adriaan Pauw was among the Dutch negotiators.

Substantive Dutch-Spanish talks at Münster had run since 13 May 1646.

Article 1

Article 1 recorded Philip IV's recognition that the States General, the constituent United Provinces, and their associated territories were free and sovereign, and renounced present and future Spanish claims over them. The treaty ran to 79 articles.

What it recognized was an independence the Dutch had already exercised in fact for decades; it did not conjure a Dutch state into being that morning.

Signing is not ratifying

The agreement ended the war subject to ratification and to the later exchange and swearing of ratifications. Philip IV ratified on 1 March and the States General on 18 April.

The envoys publicly swore the peace and exchanged ratifications at Münster on 15 May, and proclamation across the Netherlands followed on 5 June.

At that May ceremony the Spanish envoys swore with their hands on a silver cross laid inside an open Bible, while the Dutch raised two fingers and spoke their oath.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date is secure, but terminology causes confusion: 30 January was the signing of the treaty text; 15 May was the public oath and exchange of ratifications; 5 June was the general proclamation.
This Dutch-Spanish Peace of Münster should be distinguished from the Emperor-France Treaty of Münster signed on 24 October 1648.
The broader Westphalian congress grew from a 1641 preliminary agreement, but substantive Dutch-Spanish negotiations in Münster began in 1646.