Two hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces.

Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns from the House of Habsburg. Their rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. Habsburg rule began with the accession of Philip the Handsome in 1482, when he succeeded his mother Mary of Burgundy of the House of Valois-Burgundy, who was the ruler of the Low Countries. Philip's son and heir Charles, future King of Spain (1516), and the Holy Roman Emperor (1519), was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.

Henry (Hendrik), Lord of Bréderode, also styled Count of Brederode, was a member of the Dutch noble family Van Brederode. He was the leader of the allied Dutch nobles, the so-called Compromise of Nobles of 1566 and the Geuzen at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War. Van Brederode was named the "Grote Geus" or the "Big Beggar".

Margaret was Duchess of Parma from 1547 to 1586 as the wife of Duke Ottavio Farnese and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1559 to 1567 and from 1578 to 1582. She was the illegitimate daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Johanna Maria van der Gheynst. She had briefly been Duchess of Florence from 1536 to 1537 by her first marriage to Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence.

The Compromise of Nobles was a covenant of members of the nobility in the Habsburg Netherlands who came together to submit a petition to the Regent Margaret of Parma on 5 April 1566, with the objective of obtaining a moderation of the placards against heresy in the Netherlands. This petition played a crucial role in the events leading up to the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War.