The Arenberg family came from the small principality of Arenberg in the Holy Roman Empire. Yet before 1547, there was no family called Arenberg; they had still belonged to the de Ligne family. When Margarita, a countess of the de Lamarck family, married the Baron de Ligne with her dowry, both abandoned their original surnames, and from then on their descendants bore the name Arenberg.
The marriage of Margarita's son Charles to Anne de Croÿ brought the family vast lands in the Netherlands, making them great lords within the Spanish aristocracy. Through continual cultivation and marriage alliances with major Romance-speaking families, they became one of the foremost noble houses in the Netherlands. At the same time, the lords of Arenberg were steadfast supporters of the Habsburg emperors and their agents in the Netherlands. Thus, the Arenberg family became the first dukes of Habsburg Netherlands, received the Order of the Golden Fleece, and in 1549 became high officials of North Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and Overijssel.
Soon afterward, the eighty-year Dutch War of Independence broke out. Because his mother was Spanish, the first Baron of Arenberg remained loyal to Philip II of Spain and kept his distance from his friend William I of Orange. He could not stop Protestantism from spreading in the north, but he kept the people loyal to the crown and prevented bloodshed. After returning south, he joined the army of the Duke of Alva, though he opposed the arrests of Egmont and Horn.
Not long after joining the Duke of Alva's army, he was killed while resisting the invasion of Groningen by Louis of Nassau and William I of Orange's brother. He was buried in St. Catherine's Church in Zevenbergen.
In 1605, the second Duke of Arenberg purchased the lands in Enghien belonging to Henry IV of France