A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

THE revolt of the Netherlands and the establishment of the Dutch Republic, the most remarkable fruits of that spirit of civil and religious liberty which the Reformation had engendered, form an episode of exceeding interest. Fortitude the most enduring, courage the most heroic, struggling for rational freedom against the narrowest and most obstinate bigotry enforced by bloody and ferocious tyrants, and at length emerging victorious from the strife — such are the materials from which History draws her brightest and most cheering as well as her most instructive pages. But before entering on the narrative of these momentous events, we must briefly recapitulate the situation of the Netherlands.

As many of the seventeen provinces comprehended under that name as belonged to the House of Austria in 1512, were then formed by the Emperor Maximilian I into a Circle of the Empire, called the Circle of Burgundy, which, as we have related above, was reconstituted and enlarged by Charles V in 1548. Of these provinces, those which adjoined the French border, viz., Luxembourg, Namur, Hainault, Cambray, and Artois, were called Welsh or Walloon, because in them a Romance or Latin dialect was spoken. In all the other provinces, with the exception of a small Walloon strip of Flanders and Brabant, and a small High-Dutch strip of Luxembourg and Limburg, some variety or other of the Low-Dutch language was universal; that of the midland ones being Flemish, that of the northern Dutch. They differed still more in their laws and customs than in language. Each province was a separate state, having its own constitution, which secured more liberty to those who lived under it than was then commonly enjoyed in most other parts of Europe. Brabant, in particular, possessed singular political rights, so that it was not uncommon for women to come from other provinces to lie in there, in order to secure these privileges to their offspring; and on the accession of a new Duke, at what was called his Blyde Inkomst, or Joyeuse Entrée, when the States took an oath of allegiance, they stipulated for the right of withdrawing it, in case the Duke should violate their laws and customs. The main practical links of union among the different Netherland provinces were the States-General, or assembly of deputies sent from each, and the Supreme Tribunal established at Mechlin, having an appellate jurisdiction over them all. The States General, however, had no legislative authority; they were rarely convened, and chiefly for the purpose of voting supplies. Their members were not representatives chosen by the people, but deputies, or ambassadors from the provinces. The different provinces had also their own States, which were variously composed. Hence it will appear that Charles V himself, with all his power as Lord of the Netherlands, was virtually only the head of a republican confederation. He had, however, made some innovations. He named and paid the judges composing the Mechlin Chamber; he sometimes nominated the provincial judges; he interfered in the election of magistrates. But the circumstance of his having been born in Flanders, the predilection which he always manifested for his native land, and the favors which he heaped on Netherlanders at the expense of his Spanish subjects, had rendered him popular in the Low Countries in spite of his encroachments and oppressions.

In the middle of the sixteenth century the Netherlands enjoyed a greater share of prosperity than any other European land. At that time the seventeen provinces contained more than 350 cities and 6,300 towns, besides innumerable villages. Commerce, agriculture, and manufactures flourished; and though the trade of some towns had fallen off after the discovery of the maritime route to the Indies, the deficiency had been more than made good by the rise of Antwerp, whose share, through Spain and Portugal, in Indian commerce rendered it the richest city in Christendom, whilst Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other towns were by the same means also rapidly increasing in wealth. Hence the Netherlands formed the chief treasury both of Charles V and Philip II. Charles drew from them in a few years twenty-four million ducats; yet through the ill policy of Philip, they soon became unable to supply his necessities. Nor were the people of the Netherlands thriving only in a material sense. They were also well educated, and it was rare to find even a peasant who could not read and write.

Among such a people the doctrines of the Reformation found easy entrance, and were soon extensively adopted. The Lutheran tenets were naturally the first to find acceptance, and they continued to predominate in the provinces bordering upon Germany, while Holland and Zealand abounded with Anabaptists. But Calvinism rapidly penetrated into the Walloon provinces, and its disciples soon outnumbered both the other sects put together. The state of religion in the Netherlands had early attracted the notice of Charles V, and between the years 1520 and 1550 he published no fewer than eleven “Placards”, or edicts, for the suppression of heresy. The last, which appeared in 1550, and has been already described, formed the groundwork of Philip II’s subsequent proceedings. Charles V had early attempted to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into the Low Countries, and obtained a bull from his old preceptor. Pope Adrian VI, appointing an Inquisitor-General; but the people rose and compelled the new and unwelcome functionary to fly for his life. The scheme was then altered. By another bull four Inquisitors were appointed, belonging to the secular clergy, whose powers, which, however, during twenty years were ill defined, were in some degree placed under control of the law; and in 1546 it was decreed that no sentence pronounced by an Inquisitor should be carried into execution, except with the sanction of a member of the Provincial Council. Hence the Netherland tribunal was far less terrible than the Spanish. Nevertheless many thousand persons are said to have perished in the Netherlands during the reign of Charles for their religious opinions; in spite of which that Emperor, in the last year of his reign, confessed that heresy went on increasing.

Such briefly was the condition of the Netherlands when they passed under the dominion of Philip II of Spain, as Duke, or Count, or Lord of the various provinces, in the manner already related. The predilections of that King soon called him back to his Spanish realms. By birth, language, and manners he was entirely a Spaniard, and was always regarded as a foreigner by the Flemings; nor did his stay among them remove the unfavorable impression produced at his first visit. His cold and haughty manners ill accorded with the temper of the Netherlanders, and instead of meeting the joyous greetings of the people, he shut himself up in his carriage and seemed anxious to avoid their gaze.

A scene that occurred before Philip’s departure already gave token of future troubles. In an assembly of the States-General at Ghent loud complaints were uttered of religious persecution and the presence of Spanish troops. Philip’s first care after his accession had been directed to religion. He confirmed Charles’s “Placard” of 1550; making, however, by the advice of the Bishop of Arras, no alteration in the original edict, in order to shelter himself under the popularity attaching to his father's name. He had also matured a scheme for a great increase in the Netherland episcopal sees, which was put in execution a year or two later. At present popular indignation was chiefly directed against the Spanish troops, who, though not more than 3,000 or 4,000 in number, had committed the most scandalous excesses. A paper signed by William Prince of Orange, Lamoral Count Egmont, and many other leading nobles, complaining of the pillage, insults, and other disorders daily perpetrated by the Spanish soldiery, was presented to the King before the adjournment of the States-General in the name of that body : Philip was furious at hearing remonstrances to which he was so totally unaccustomed. He abruptly quitted the hall, and turning round at the door, inquired “whether he also, as a Spaniard, was expected to leave the country?”. His suspicions had already been excited against Orange and Egmont by a letter of the Prince's which had fallen into his hands. William, when a hostage at the court of France for the execution of the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, had accidentally learnt more than was convenient of Philip’s future policy. Henry II, who took him for a staunch Catholic, communicated to him the secret determination of himself and the Catholic King to extirpate heresy; but, although the Prince at that time belonged to the Roman communion, nobody could be further removed from bigotry, or entertain a more sincere dislike of all religious persecution.

Notwithstanding his suspicions, Philip found it impossible to neglect men of so much power and influence as Orange and Egmont, and he was obliged to leave them in possession of their governments, those of William being Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and West Friesland, while Egmont had Flanders and Artois. The King also found it politic to concede on the subject of the Spanish troops; but he would not yield a jot with regard to religion, declaring that he would rather not reign at all than rule over heretics. When on the point of embarking at Flushing for Spain (August 20th, 1559), he could not help again manifesting his anger at the constraint which had been put upon him; and turning abruptly to the Prince of Orange, he accused him of having organized the opposition. William, in reply, having attributed it to the States, Philip seized his wrist, and shaking it violently, exclaimed in Spanish, “No, no! not the States, but you, you, you!”. An ominous separation! Orange took care not to trust himself on board the Spanish fleet.

Margaret appointed regent

Before his departure Philip II had appointed his sister Margaret to be Governess of the Netherlands, — an illegitimate daughter of Charles V, by a Flemish lady, and wife of Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma. Thus the Low Countries were administered almost consecutively by three Princesses of the House of Austria, and by all with distinguished ability. Margaret was now thirty-seven years of age. From her masculine understanding Strada characterizes her as a man in petticoats; yet she was not destitute of the gentler qualities of her sex. Philip had received her with great state on her arrival at Brussels in June, 1559, and early in August presented her to the States-General as the future Regent. She was assisted in the government by the ancient councils, — the Council of Finance, the Privy Council for Justice and Home Affairs, and the Council of State for Foreign Affairs. The Prince of Orange and Count Egmont were included in the last, together with Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, and some members of the other councils. Besides these, Margaret had also a smaller council or cabinet, called the Consulta, consisting of only three members : these were, Count Berlaimont, President of the Council of Finance; Viglius, President of the Privy Council; and Granvelle. Berlaimont was a Hainault noble of the first class, of great integrity and loyalty. Viglius was an eminent Frisian jurist, a good writer, and sagacious statesman, of dogged tenacity and not over-scrupulous honesty. Granvelle we have already had occasion to describe as the minister of Charles V. His qualities were congenial with those of Philip; his manners were polished, he was a good courtier, and the Flemings detested him equally with his sovereign. His post of prime minister was an additional cause of hatred with the Flemish nobles, who thought that it should have been filled by one of their own body.

Philip had engaged that the Spanish troops should quit the Netherlands in four months, yet they still remained; which, as there was no foreign war to require their presence, could only be ascribed to a design to enforce the King’s arbitrary acts; and Orange and Egmont resigned their employments, alleging that they dare not hold them because the government was become so unpopular. Granvelle saw the danger, and pressed Philip to withdraw the troops for fear of an insurrection. The King demurred on the plea that he could not pay their arrears; an allegation hardly to be credited considering their small number, although the royal exchequer was undoubtedly low. At length some members of the Council became security for the arrears, and the troops sailed in January, 1561, nearly a twelvemonth after the stipulated time.

In the same year the discontent was increased by the introduction into the Council of a plan for the erection of several new bishoprics. Hitherto the Netherlands had contained only four bishoprics, namely, those of Utrecht, Arras, Tournay, and Cambrai; the first of which acknowledged the Archbishop of Cologne as its metropolitan, while the last three were in the metropolitan province of Rheims. The extent of these four dioceses was enormous and inconvenient, Utrecht alone comprising 300 towns and 1,100 churches. Charles V had contemplated erecting six new Netherland bishoprics, but effected nothing. Philip II, however, soon after his accession, obtained the sanction of Pope Paul IV for the erection of three metropolitan sees, namely, Utrecht, Mechlin, and Cambray, in which were to be comprehended the following bishoprics : in Utrecht the sees of Haarlem, Middleburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen, and Deventer; in Mechlin those of Antwerp, Hertogenbosch, Roermonde, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres; in Cambray those of Tournay, Arras, St. Omer, and Namur. The bull authorizing the establishment of these sees had arrived just when Philip was on the point of quitting the Netherlands; but it had not been thought expedient to prosecute the scheme till the period just mentioned.

So vast an increase in the Netherland hierarchy excited the suspicion and discontent of Catholics as well as Protestants. The latter were naturally hostile to a scheme which threw so much fresh ecclesiastical power into the hands of the Pope and the King; for the new bishops were to be named by Philip, but subject to the approbation of the Roman See; and as the King's persecutions in Spain were well known, the whole scheme was regarded only as a prelude to the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition. The Catholics also were alarmed at the thoughts of that formidable tribunal, and the nobles of that confession had additional reasons for discontent with the scheme. The nomination of so many bishops by the King would diminish the power of their order; while, as various ancient abbeys were either to be suppressed or to be deprived of great part of their revenues in order to furnish out the incomes of the new prelates, the nobility would thus lose a source of provision for their younger sons. The whole odium of the measure fell on Granvelle, who was to be Archbishop of Mechlin and Primate of the Netherlands, and who had early in this year, through the intercession of the Regent Margaret, received from Paul IV a Cardinal’s hat.

The clouds were gradually gathering, yet it was some time before the storm burst. The measures of the King and his minister were firmly but quietly opposed. Philip having called upon the Netherlands to assist the Catholic party in France with troops, the Prince of Orange invited the Knights of the Golden Fleece to assemble at his palace (May, 1562), when the majority agreed that the minister must be resisted. Only a pecuniary aid was sent to France. Soon after we find Orange and Egmont complaining to the King that they had no share in the government, although they were held responsible for its measures by the people. The great nobles began to absent themselves entirely from the Council, and indeed from all public business, and to treat the minister and his measures with sarcasm and ridicule. Granvelle grew alarmed, and talked of resigning. In March, 1563, the nobles formed themselves into a league, in which they were supported by the people. Great part of the Walloon population, inflamed by the French Huguenot preachers, sympathized with their brethren in France; for churches on the model of that of Geneva had been established in the southern Netherlands in 1561, and a formal confession of the Calvinist tenets subscribed. The union of the Protestants with the local authorities had given them a political standing. Large assemblies met and chanted the psalms of Marot, and at Valenciennes two Calvinist ministers condemned to be burnt were rescued by the people. Philip, who did not understand the genius of the Netherlanders, and wished to render them as submissive as his subjects in Spain and Italy, urged his ministers to use the most vigorous measures; without reflecting that the Netherlanders were protected by laws which the Regent and her cabinet naturally demurred to violate.

In the opposition organized against the government three men stood out pre-eminent: William, Prince of Orange, Count Egmont, and Count Horn; and as they played a leading part in the troubles which ensued it will here be proper to give some account of them.

Family of Nassau

The family of Nassau, from which William, Prince of Orange, was descended, had its origin from the old Counts of Laurenburg, who in the twelfth century built the Castle of Nassau on the Lahn, and henceforth were called Counts of Nassau. In the thirteenth century the family became divided into two branches, the elder of which, in 1292, gave an Emperor, Adolf of Nassau, to Germany. The younger, but more distinguished branch, besides the petty sovereignty of Nassau Dillenburg, also acquired large private possessions in the Netherlands. Count Engelbert II, who had distinguished himself in the time of the Emperor Maximilian I and Charles the Bold of Burgundy, having died without issue, the family possessions were ultimately divided between his two nephews, Henry and William. The German possessions fell to the share of William, who turned Protestant; while Henry, the elder brother, inherited the family domains in Luxembourg, Brabant, Flanders, and Holland, and became the confidential friend of the Emperor Charles V. In 1515, Henry married Claude de Châlons, sister of Prince Philibert of Orange; to which principality his son, René of Nassau, succeeded. René died of wounds received at the siege of St. Dizier in 1544, and, having no legitimate children, left his titles and estates to his cousin, William of Nassau. William, who thus acquired the principality of Orange, besides large possessions in the Netherlands, was born at his father's castle at Dillenburg, April 25th, 1533. Both his parents were Lutherans, but he himself was bred up at Brussels in the Catholic faith, in the family of the Regent Queen Mary of Hungary, and under the tuition of a brother of Granvelle. Charles V, in whose household he became a page at the age of fifteen, soon discerned his abilities, and at the siege of Marienburg gave him the command of the Imperial army over the heads of veteran captains. Charles afterwards employed the Prince with great success in several diplomatic missions, and manifested the confidence which he reposed in him by making him, as already related, his envoy, when he abdicated the Imperial Crown.

While the light hair and complexion of Philip II gave him the appearance of a Fleming, the Prince of Orange, on the contrary, looked like a Spaniard. His complexion, hair, and beard were dark; his brown eyes were full and expressive; his head was small, the forehead capacious, and as he advanced in life furrowed with the lines of care and thought; the other features were well chiseled. He was above the middle height, and well-proportioned though somewhat spare. In temper he was cheerful and convivial. The surname which he acquired of “the Silent”, was not derived from a morose taciturnity, but from his knowing how to conceal what it was not prudent to tell. He was said to be an assiduous reader of Machiavelli. William married in early life a daughter of Count Buren, who soon died, leaving him a son Philip and a daughter Mary, afterwards married to Count Hohenlohe. He next addressed himself to Anne, daughter of the Elector Maurice of Saxony, — a match highly disagreeable to the Court of Brussels, by which it was warmly opposed. Long negotiations ensued, in which the Prince is said not always to have observed a perfect candor; but at length all obstacles were overcome, and the marriage was celebrated at Leipzig in August, 1561. Anne, however, was not remarkable for chastity, and after thirteen years’ cohabitation, the Prince was obliged to dismiss her.

Count Egmont and Count Horn

Lamoral, Count Egmont was descended from the Dukes of Gelderland. In right of his mother he also inherited the principality of Gaveren, or Waveren, near Ghent, but he always preferred the title of Egmont. Of handsome person and attractive manners, of generous impulses but no great ability, Egmont was the beau idéal of a dashing cavalry officer; and his victories at Gravelines and St. Quentin were the result rather of brilliant valor than of military genius.

Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn, belonged to a branch of the French family of that name which had established itself in the Low Countries. He had been Governor of Gelderland and Zutphen, and Admiral of the Netherlands, but, like Egmont, he was not distinguished by ability. These two nobles are but the fortis Gyas fortisque Cloanthus of the Prince of Orange.

In March, 1563, Orange, Egmont, and Horn addressed a letter to Philip, in the name of the Coalition, in which they represented to him that, in consequence of the odium incurred by Granvelle, his affairs in the Netherlands could never be successfully conducted by that minister; and they prayed for his dismissal. After considerable delay, the Spanish King answered this application on the 6th of June. He observed that the nobles had not alleged any specific grievance against Granvelle, and that he was not accustomed to dismiss his ministers on mere vague and general charges; he hoped soon to visit the Netherlands in person, meanwhile he should like to see one of the nobles in Spain, and discuss the matter with him. To this communication Orange and his confederates replied (July 29th) in a firm and dignified tone, to which the ears of Philip were but little accustomed. They observed that it was not their intention to turn accusers; the state of the country, the discontent and disorders which prevailed, were sufficient evidence of the minister's incapacity; that they did not solicit his condemnation, but simply his removal; nor did they esteem him so highly as to undertake a journey to Spain on his account. And they begged the King, since he reposed so little confidence in their opinions, that he would be pleased to dispense with their further attendance in the Council, where under these circumstances they could not be present without a loss of dignity. The Regent Margaret, who was much alarmed at the state of affairs, seconded the application for the Cardinal’s dismissal. Philip, whose favorite maxim was “that he and time were a match for any two others”, resorted to his usual artifice of procrastination. The Duke of Alva, whom he consulted, advised him on no account to dismiss Granvelle, but to divide the nobles, by gaining over some of them till he could punish the others. The Cardinal, meanwhile, displayed surprising fortitude, and clung to office amid a perfect storm of disapprobation. At length, after the lapse of more than half a year, the Coalition received an answer, in February, 1564, intimating that the King would deliberate further on the matter. Moved, however, by another and still more pressing application on the part of Margaret, Philip had already written a short letter of dismissal to the Cardinal, to be used in case of need; and such was the dissatisfaction manifested by the nobles at the King’s answer, that Granvelle found it prudent to make a virtual resignation under the pretext of paying a visit to his aged mother in Franche-Comté. In March, 1564, he retired to his estate near Besançon, where he amused himself with art and literature, of which he was a liberal patron; but he still kept up an active correspondence with the King, and it was not long before he re-entered Philip’s service.

The news of the Cardinal’s departure was received with joy and exultation, which found a vent in lampoons and caricatures. The aristocracy discarded their splendid liveries, and adopted universally a plain, dark grey, while the aiguillette on the shoulder was replaced by a head and fool’s cap; the head bore a striking resemblance to the Cardinal’s, and the cap was red. When Margaret at length persuaded them to lay aside this badge they substituted for it a sheaf of arrows, the origin of the device afterwards assumed by the Seven United Provinces. In times of public disturbance trifles like these are not to be despised; they serve as the rallying ensigns of faction, display its strength, and promote its organization.

Egmont in Spain

After the removal of Granvelle, the Netherland government was divided. The Regent Margaret inclined towards the nobles, and her correspondence at this period testifies great disgust at the Cardinal. On the other hand, the policy of the ex-minister was still pursued by Berlaimont and Viglius, the two remaining members of the Consulta. Hence the measures of the government became feeble. Calvinism spread; Huguenot preachers and refugees came in great numbers from France and made many proselytes; the proceedings of the Inquisition occasioned serious riots at Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels; while the disordered state of the finances and the increase of the public debt aggravated the popular discontent. It was in such a state of things that Philip wrote to Margaret instructing her to proclaim and enforce the decrees of the Council of Trent (August, 1564). He was constantly urging the Regent to measures of severity; and so well was he served by his spies that he would sometimes denounce particular individuals by describing their personal habits and appearance with an accuracy that would have done credit to a minister of police. As the pressure was becoming unendurable, it was determined to adopt a former suggestion of the King’s, and to dispatch Count Egmont to Madrid to state the grievances of the nation and to urge Philip to visit the Netherlands in person. The mission was regarded as one of no small danger. Egmont’s friends had secret forebodings of Spanish dungeons and assassins; and they signed with their blood an agreement that if any harm should come to him they would take ample vengeance on the authors of it. Their fears, however, were on this occasion groundless. Philip adopted the more politic method of conciliation; treated Egmont with the most flattering attention; made him a present of 100,000 crowns, and bestowed upon him several offices in the Netherlands. The Count’s head was completely turned. On his way home he wrote to the King from Valladolid that “he was the best satisfied man in all the world”; and he brought back to his countrymen a most favorable account of the disposition of the Spanish Court. Yet he had scarcely returned when letters from the King arrived, in which, although Egmont’s behavior at Madrid was noticed in the most flattering terms, Philip declared that if he had a hundred thousand lives he would rather lose them all than permit any change in religion; and he recommended a commission to be formed of three bishops and a number of jurists to “instruct” the people in their spiritual concerns, advising at the same time some other method of execution in the case of heretics. These recommendations were faithfully carried out. Condemned heretics were executed in their dungeons. The spy system was worked with redoubled activity. Even looks and gestures were noted. The striking contrast between Egmont’s report and the actual state of things could not escape observation. The people accused the Count of having sold himself; the Prince of Orange reproached him to his face with forgetting the views of his confederates and the best interests of the country, though he had remembered himself and accepted the King’s bounty. William, however, saw that Egmont was only a dupe; the people held him to be a traitor. Either imputation was sufficiently mortifying to a man of Egmont's temper. He now saw through Philip’s artifices, declared that they were intended to ruin him with his countrymen, and announced his intention of throwing up all his offices.

In October, 1565, Philip indited, at his country retreat in the wood of Segovia, the letter which may be said to have decided the fate of the Netherlands. It was his will that the Inquisitors should proceed as heretofore, and as they were entitled to do both by divine and human law; the edicts must all be enforced, both his father's and his own. This letter filled the government with the most gloomy apprehensions. Viglius was for concealing it till the King could be again consulted, but the Prince of Orange, supported by Egmont and Horn, prevailed on the Regent to publish it immediately. It was the wish of Orange to hasten on the catastrophe. “Now”, he exclaimed, “we shall see the beginning of a remarkable tragedy!”. All hope of toleration vanished with the publication of the royal dispatches, which were regarded as a declaration of war. The press teemed with pamphlets and lampoons; secret meetings were held; resistance was hinted at; Orange and Egmont were called on to stand forth and defend their country.

The time was not yet come for the Prince of Orange to take the lead of an organized resistance; but he was preparing himself for such an event, and he foresaw and favored its inevitable approach. His motives have often been the subject of discussion. His panegyrists have held him up as the model of a disinterested patriot, while his enemies have charged him with being actuated by selfishness, hypocrisy, and ambition. William, as a Netherland noble, would naturally resent the neglect displayed towards his order, while as the firm and consistent friend of civil and religious liberty he viewed with abhorrence the bigoted and tyrannical conduct of the Spanish King. To these grievances, which he shared in common with his countrymen, were added others of a more personal kind. Having enjoyed so much of the confidence of the Emperor Charles V, Orange might naturally have expected a large share in the counsels of his son; instead of which Philip entrusted the direction of affairs to the Archbishop of Mechlin, a foreigner, and the Prince’s enemy. On Philip’s departure for Spain, Orange wished the regency of the Netherlands to be given to Christina, the widowed Duchess of Lorraine, a niece of Charles VV, whose daughter he hoped to marry, and thus to obtain an influence in the government; but Granvelle and the Duke of Alva, who thought that Margaret was a much better Spaniard than Christina, not only defeated the Prince’s object, but also procured that he should be disappointed of his intended bride. Thus his patriotism felt the additional stimulus of private wrongs; but it would never have obtained a field for its exercise, had not the conduct of the Spanish government been revolting to the whole mass of the Netherland population.

The “Compromise” arranged

Towards the close of the year 1565, the symptoms of popular disaffection became so alarming, that Margaret begged the King would allow her to resign the government; but Philip answered the application only with a cool expression of regret that his dispatch from Segovia should have occasioned so much offence. It was universally believed in the Netherlands that at the meeting between Alva and Catharine de' Medici at Bayonne, in June, an arrangement had been made with France for crushing their liberties. Numbers of the Netherlanders emigrated; 30,000 of them established themselves in England, whither they brought their capital and their skill. Egmont had escorted from Spain Margaret's son, the young Prince Alexander Farnese, whose marriage with Doña Maria of Portugal was celebrated at Brussels, November 11th, 1565. On that day, Francis Junius, a young Calvinistic divine, a native of Bourges in France, and pastor of the Huguenot congregation which assembled in secret at Antwerp, preached a sermon at Cuilenburg House at Brussels, before a small party of Netherland nobles. After the sermon was concluded, they entered into an agreement to resist the oppressions of the government, by forming a league, in which Philip de Marnix, Lord of Ste. Aldegonde, played a prominent part. Ste. Aldegonde, the intimate friend of the Prince of Orange, was a man of the most varied accomplishments. He was at once a scholar and a poet, a brave soldier and an able diplomatist, and had devoted so much study to theology, that it was said he could argue victoriously with a bench of bishops. Other leaders were Henry, Count Brederode, remarkable chiefly for his ancient descent, which he traced through five centuries from the Counts of Holland, otherwise a dissolute, vapouring character; and Count Louis of Nassau, a younger brother of the Prince of Orange. In a meeting held at Breda, in January, 1566, the league promulgated their views in a paper called the Compromise, attributed to the hand of Ste. Aldegonde. The document contained a severe denunciation of the Inquisition as an illegal, pernicious, and iniquitous tribunal; the subscribers swore to defend one another against any attack that might be made upon them; and declared, at the same time, that they did not mean to throw off their allegiance to their Sovereign, but, on the contrary, to maintain peace, and to prevent, as far as it lay in their power, all sedition, tumult, and rebellion.

In the course of two months, the Compromise was signed by about 2,000 persons, including many Catholics : but only a few of the great nobles could be prevailed on to subscribe it. The original document bore only the signatures of Brederode, Charles of Mansfeld, and Louis of Nassau. The league had been formed without the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, who expressed his disapprobation when he heard of it, and recommended that no violent measures should be adopted. Nevertheless he, as well as most of the members of the Council of State, sympathized with the objects of the movement. William, as Governor of Holland and Zealand, in a remarkable letter which he addressed from Breda to the Regent, January 24th, 1566, refused to enforce the obnoxious laws; and several other Governors declared that they would not see their countrymen burnt by thousands.

Margaret did not hear of the league till the spring of 1566, when she took some vigorous steps to resist it, by strengthening the garrisons of fortresses, calling out the compagnies d'ordonnance, &c. She had, however, formed a correct idea of the importance of the movement; she perceived that no middle course would answer, that it must either be put down at once with a high hand, or the malcontents appeased by ample concessions; and in her dispatches to her brother she clearly indicated her preference for conciliation.

The Prince of Orange at first kept aloof from the league, and at this period Egmont, who was of a more impulsive temper, seemed to act the leading part : but the nation relied solely upon William. The latter gave at least a tacit sanction to the league in the spring of 1566, by joining the members of it in a petition to the Regent which he had himself revised. It had been resolved that the petition, or "Request", should be presented by a numerous deputation; and on the evening of the 3rd April, two hundred members of the league, armed and mounted, and headed by William’s brother, Count Louis of Nassau, and by Brederode, entered Brussels. On the following day, Brederode read to them a letter which he had just received from Spain announcing the burning by the Inquisition of Morone, a well-known Netherland nobleman. This news caused great exasperation. On the 5th of April the confederates went in solemn procession from Cuilenburg House to the Palace to present their petition, which was couched in respectful terms. Margaret received them graciously; and when on the following day they came in still greater force to receive her answer, she referred them to the decision of Philip, assuring them at the same time that she would use her influence in favor of their prayer.

At a banquet which took place a little afterwards, at which three hundred of the confederates were present, Brederode related to the guests what took place after the presentation of the “Request”. The Regent, he said, appeared at first a little disconcerted, till Berlaimont, in order to reassure her, after they were gone, told her that the petitioners were nothing but a parcel of Gueux (beggars). “My friends”, continued Brederode, “have no objection to the name; they are ready to become beggars in the service of their country”. This sally was applauded with loud cries of “Vivent les Gueux!'” amidst which Brederode left the apartment. He soon returned with a wallet and a wooden bowl, such as were used by mendicants; both were sent round the table, and each guest pledged his confederates with redoubled shouts of “Vivent les Gueux!”

Orange, Egmont, and Horn, who were passing at the time, attracted by the noise, entered the hall, and are said to have joined in the cheers : an incident afterwards employed against Egmont and Horn at their trial. The term Gueux remained ever after the appellation of the Netherland malcontents. A medal was struck in gold and silver, called the “Gueux penny”, having on the obverse the King’s head, with the legend, Fidèles au Roy, and on the reverse two hands grasping a beggar’s wallet, with the further inscription, “jusques à la besace”. The confederates quietly left Brussels, April 10th, firing a grand salute with their pistols outside the gate. The greater part of them proceeded to Antwerp, where they were enthusiastically received. The result of the petition was that the government caused a document to be drawn up which they called a “Moderatie” or “Moderation”, because it professed to be a mitigation of the existing law respecting heresy; although all the alleviation consisted in substituting the halter for the faggot. The people, by a pun which holds good in Flemish, called it the “Murderation”.

Progress of the Missionaries

It was about this time that the missionaries, or field-preachers, began to appear in the Netherlands. These men preached at first in the woods and forests at night; but, gaining courage after a while, they began gradually to appear in the open plains, in the villages, and even in the suburbs of towns. A platform was erected for the preacher, round which gathered the women and children; the men stood outside, generally armed; the outer ground was kept by patrols on horseback, while barricades of wagons were thrown across the roads to prevent the approach of the military. Besides religious topics, the missionaries frequently touched with pathos and eloquence on the misfortunes of the country, mingled occasionally with violent abuse of the Inquisition, the Pope, and the clergy; and the meeting was usually concluded by the singing of psalms, either in French or Flemish. At Antwerp these assemblies sometimes consisted of 20,000 or 30,000 persons, among whom were some of the wealthiest citizens; and they excited so much alarm that the Prince of Orange, at the request both of the Regent and of the magistrates of Antwerp, proceeded to that city, and used his best endeavors to allay the tumults. Even at Brussels, the seat of government, the singing of psalms and shouts of “Vivent les Gueux!” might be heard at night, and many of the leading citizens wore the insignia of the league. The Regent offered 700 crowns for every preacher that was brought in, whether dead or alive; notwithstanding which, and the daily executions, the preachings still proceeded.

As the year 1566 wore on, affairs assumed a still more alarming aspect. Louis of Nassau, with the connivance of his brother William, had begun to subsidize a considerable German force. The leaders of the movement were loud in their demands that the States- General should be convened; and Margaret, whose situation was become embarrassing, urged her brother Philip either to consent to this measure or to come in person into the Netherlands. In such a juncture, Charles V would have hastened to the scene of action; Philip II preferred to write his decision from the wood of Segovia (July). He consented to the abolition of the Inquisition in the Netherlands; but its place was to be supplied by investing the bishops with inquisitorial powers. He left it to Margaret to devise some scheme for the modification of the edicts; which, however, when thus amended, were to be submitted for his approval. He conferred on the Regent power to pardon all persons except those already condemned; but he absolutely forbade the assembling of the States-General; and at the same time he remitted money to Margaret for the purpose of levying German mercenaries. Yet he was not sincere even in the trifling concessions which he deemed it prudent to make. At the very moment of writing them he protested before a notary, in the presence of the Duke of Alva and two other persons, that they had been wrung from him by force, and that consequently he did not feel himself bound to ratify any pardon granted by the Regent. The Catholic zeal of Philip had received a fresh impulse from the accession of Pius V, to which Pontiff he was singularly devoted. Pius wrote both to Philip and Margaret, exhorting them not to give way, and offering men and money to assist them in washing out heresy in the blood of the heretics.

Meanwhile the anti-Catholic movement was spreading in the Netherlands. The churches in and about St. Omer, Tournay, Ghent, Ypres, and other places were broken into, and the images, altars, and glazing shattered to pieces. Like scenes of havoc took place in the cathedral of Antwerp, where the image of the Virgin was seized and rolled in the dust. The disturbances spread into Holland, Utrecht, Friesland, everywhere in short except a few places in the southern provinces; in less than a fortnight 400 churches were sacked in Flanders alone. The authority of the Regent preserved order in Brussels; yet such was her alarm that she thought of flying to Mons, a thoroughly Catholic town. The Council remonstrated against such a step; Egmont threatened; the magistrates of Brussels shut the gates. Being thus a sort of prisoner, Margaret was forced to make concessions. On the 23rd of August she signed an instrument by which she engaged that no members of the league should be molested on account of their past conduct, and consented that the Reformers, provided they were unarmed and did not molest the Catholics, should hold their religious assemblies, until the King and the States-General should determine otherwise : while the confederates on their part took an oath that they would assist her in suppressing all disturbances. Margaret, however, was highly mortified by this proceeding, and she wrote to her brother urging him to come in person and subdue the country.

Until these disturbances, the Regent had acted with the Margaret party of the Prince of Orange; but she now returned to the conservative party in the Council, which she had abandoned two years before, and took as her chief counselors Viglius, Berlaimont, Aerschot, and Count Mansfeld. The Orange party bore the estrangement of the Regent with great coolness, with the exception of Egmont, a staunch Catholic and conservative, although his generous temper led him to sympathize with his oppressed fellow-countrymen. The Prince of Orange, Count Horn, and Count Hoogstraaten proceeded into their respective governments and made arrangements by which the malcontents were to retain some of the churches which they had seized, and to give up others; while Egmont on the other hand proceeded with severity against the rioters in his provinces of Flanders and Artois. Order seemed for awhile to be restored, and the league fell into abeyance.

Commencement of the civil war

These divisions among the leaders of the opposition necessarily strengthened the Regent's hands. In fact the confederacy was composed not only of Lutherans and Calvinists, hostile to one another, but also of Catholics hostile to both. Before the close of 1566 the Prince of Orange, whose religion always sat easily upon him, seems to have returned to the Lutheran faith, in which as a child he had been bred up, but which at the early age of eleven, through his education at the Imperial Court, he had changed for Catholicism. Margaret began to restrict the concessions which she had made. She told the Governors of provinces that the license which she had granted for preaching must be construed literally, and that she would not suffer under it the exercise of other Protestant rites, as baptism, the burial service, &c. Thus interpreted, the license was nothing but a mockery. The Regent was also raising German and Walloon levies. From these proceedings, as well as from the secret advices which he received from Madrid, the Prince of Orange foresaw that religion and liberty must soon be asserted by the sword; for William’s spies are said to have peered into the very letters which Philip II had locked in his desk at night; nay, even into the memoranda which he put into his pocket on going to bed. Among his agents was Van den Esse, the King’s secretary. He knew that Philip’s anger was chiefly directed against the great nobles. Montigny, brother of Count Horn, who had been deputed to Madrid and detained by Philip, also supplied intelligence, and informed his brother that he must be prepared either to fight or fly. Open war was evidently at hand. Margaret's troops had laid siege to Valenciennes, a town noted for heresy. On the other hand Count Louis of Nassau and Brederode were busy in organizing resistance. The royalists under Count Meghem made an attempt on Bois le Duc, which failed, but they succeeded in taking Utrecht. In March, 1567, a bloody battle was fought near Antwerp, between the insurgents, led by Marnix, lord of Thoulouse, and the royalists under Lannoy, in which 1,500 of the Gueux fell, and 300 more were afterwards massacred in cold blood. During this fight, the Prince of Orange, who was at Antwerp, having caused the gates to be shut in order to prevent the citizens from joining Tholouse, a great riot ensued. William was received with shouts of execration and epithets of the Pope's servant, antichrist, &c. A clothier levelled at him an arquebus, which was fortunately pushed aside by another hand; yet the Prince continued calmly to address the mob, and such was the influence of his character that he at length persuaded them to cry with him, Vive le Roi! Valenciennes surrendered soon after (April 2nd); Maestricht, Ghent, Ypres, Oudenarde, and many other towns consented to admit garrisons; Meghem and Aremberg restored the royal authority in Gelderland, Groningen, and Friesland; and in the course of a few weeks, except at Antwerp and some places in Holland, all resistance was subdued.

Margaret now proposed to the chief nobles an oath of implicit obedience to the King. Most of them complied; but Brederode, Horn, and Hoogstraaten declined it, and resigned their governments and commands. Orange, also, in spite of the wheedling of the Regent, most positively refused to swear, alleging that such an oath would imply a foregone breach of it; but he saw his danger, and determined to leave the country, although Margaret employed every effort to detain him. A last attempt was made through Count Egmont, who had taken the oath, and who had an interview with William at Willebroek. Each strove, but without success, to win over the other to his views, and they now parted for ever, though with mutual esteem and kindness; William ominously predicting that the Spaniards would use the Count as a bridge to pass into the Netherlands. It should, however, be remembered that the situation of the two men was different. Egmont' s possessions lay entirely in the Low Countries, and his whole hope was consequently bound up with that country, while the Prince had lands in High Germany. To one of these, Dillenburg, the place of his birth, William now retired, carrying with him his younger son, Maurice; his heir, Count Buren, was studying at Louvain. Many other nobles followed the Prince’s example, and fled into Germany; among them his brother Louis, Count Hoogstraaten, and others. William in his retirement applied himself to the study of the Lutheran religion, for which purpose he procured the services of an eminent divine.

Emigration

Philip’s authority seemed to be now completely re-established in the Netherlands. Antwerp submitted and received a large garrison; Margaret entered that city in great state, and attended a Te Deum in the cathedral, as if a victory had been achieved over some foreign enemy. The meeting-houses of the Reformers were pulled down and their schools closed; and four of the ringleaders in the late riots were put to death. The Regent published, May 24th, a severe and bloody edict, ordaining that all Protestants who had preached in public, as well as all who had aided and abetted them, and all printers of heretical tracts should be punished with death and confiscation of their property; while lighter penalties were imposed for minor offences, so that hardly a single Protestant could escape some of its provisions. Yet Philip II ordered Margaret to recall this edict, as too lenient; — it did not proscribe private worship! Holland was the only province which still remained refractory. Brederode, from his head-quarters at Viana, endeavored to stir up the citizens of Amsterdam to revolt, but, finding his party subdued, escaped into Westphalia, where in the summer of 1568 he died of a fever, brought on, it is said, by disappointment and hard drinking. After Brederode’s departure, Amsterdam submitted to the Regent; but numbers of the citizens availed themselves of the permission to leave the city, and their example was imitated by the inhabitants of many other towns in the Netherlands. France, Germany, and especially England, afforded a refuge to these fugitives. The stream of emigration had already set in towards the last-named country. It was computed in 1566 that there were 30,000 Netherlanders settled in Sandwich, Norwich, and other places assigned to them by Queen Elizabeth; and from a return of the population of London in the following year, it appeared that the Netherlanders domiciled there equaled all the other foreigners put together. Thus England was enriched, through the impolitic conduct of Philip II, with foreign capital and skill; each Netherland manufacturer was compelled to employ at least one English apprentice; the produce of the loom became an article of export instead of import; and the Protestant cause flourished in its strongest hold through the very means adopted abroad for its repression. A chief motive for the flight of the reformers was the rumored approach of the Duke of Alva with his Spaniards. Those who remained were exposed to dragonnades, and wherever they assembled in numbers were ridden down by the military. Crowds of wandering exiles filled the roads, along the sides of which gibbets were erected in terrorem.

It may admit of a question whether the disturbances would have revived in the Netherlands but for the entry of the Duke of Alva and his troops. Margaret had succeeded in quelling them; she was tolerably popular, at least among the Catholic part of the population; and she naturally felt indignant that when she had done the work, another should come to enjoy the profit and reputation. Philip talked of going in person into the Low Countries; he even directed Margaret to prepare some vessels to convey him to Zealand; and when he sent Alva instead, it was only, he said, to prepare the way for himself. But Philip had an aversion to long journeys, and probably never contemplated keeping his word. It was Pope Pius V who advised the hesitating Philip to take up arms. “He who negotiates without arms”, Pius observed, “must submit to receive laws; with arms he can dictate them”.

Alva took leave of his Sovereign in April, 1667, and proceeded to Carthagena, where a fleet under Andrea Doria was awaiting him and his army. His commission of Captain-General was here delivered, the instructions in which were so minute that Alva complained of them as betraying a want of confidence. Charles V had never so hampered him; but such was Philip’s character. The commission, however, which was dated March 1st, invested Alva with the civil as well as military command in the Netherlands, and was, therefore, in fact, a virtual dismissal of Margaret.

1667. Alva in the Netherlands

Landing at Savona, Alva began his march with a picked body of Spanish veterans, 10,000 in number, all superbly equipped; and he was also accompanied by many noble volunteers. His forces marched in three divisions, each a day behind the other, so that the quarters vacated by one division were occupied on the following night by another. Philip, as related in the preceding chapter, had obtained permission for his army to pass through part of France, and he had caused a map to be made of the proposed route through Savoy. Alva led the van over Mont Cenis. In order to facilitate his march, he took with him no artillery; but to each company were attached men who carried huge muskets to be fired from rests, such as had hitherto been used only for the defence of fortresses. As Alva's route lay near Geneva, Pope Pius V exhorted him to clean out that nest of devils and apostates, and the Genevese put themselves into a posture of defence; but Alva did not attempt the enterprise, alleging that it lay not within his commission. Passing through Burgundy and Lorraine, he was met at Diedenhofen by Egmont and several of the Netherland nobles. The Spaniards entered Brussels August 22nd, amid the silence of the people; and at the threshold of the palace an altercation took place between Alva's guard and that of the Regent. His reception by Margaret was most chilling.

Alva was now sixty years of age, and with increasing years was grown only more stern and inflexible — a fitting instrument of Philip's intolerance. One of his first acts was to replace the Walloons in the garrisons of the principal towns by Spaniards, who were indulged in reckless license. He also caused new fortresses to be constructed. In accordance with his maxim, that the surest method of suppressing all revolutions is to get rid of the leaders, he determined on seizing Counts Egmont and Horn. Egmont thought that he had nothing to fear; the more wary Horn was induced to come to Brussels by protestations of friendship on the part of Alva and his son Frederick de Toledo. On the 9th of September the two nobles were invited to a banquet at the Grand-Prior’s; and before it was over they received a message from Alva that he would be pleased to see them after dinner at Jassy House, his residence, in order to consider some plans for the fortification of Antwerp. During the repast, the Grand-Prior earnestly whispered to Egmont to fly the place on his swiftest horse; but Noircarmes and others dissuaded him from a flight which would have the appearance of guilt. Accompanied by Horn, he therefore repaired to Jassy House, where the Council was assembled. When it broke up, Alva strolled with Egmont through some of the adjoining apartments, till at length they entered a small room filled with soldiers, when Davila, captain of the Duke’s guard, approached Egmont, demanded his sword, and told him that he was a prisoner. The Count, as he yielded his sword with dignity, only remarked, in allusion to Gravelines and St. Quentin, that it had more than once done the King good service. Horn was entrapped in a similar manner in another part of the house by Alva’s son Frederick. It will be remembered that Alva had employed much the same artifice in order to seize the Landgrave Philip at Halle. The prisoners were carried to Ghent, the command of which place had been given to Ulloa, one of Alva’s most trusty captains.

The arrest of Egmont and Horn does not appear to have been ordered by Philip II, who, when the Regent complained of it, denied that it had been done by his command, although, by furnishing Alva with blank warrants, Philip had given him an absolute discretion. In the letter in which Alva announced what he had done, he also counseled the Spanish Court to arrest Horn's brother, Montigny, who was still at Madrid. The seizure of Egmont and Horn occasioned no attempt at resistance or insurrection; but it was the signal for increased emigration; which, however, a few weeks later, was prohibited on pain of death and confiscation.

Alva next proceeded to organize that terrible tribunal which, instead of its official title of the “Council of Tumults”, obtained from the people the name of the “Council of Blood”. It consisted of twelve judges, among whom were Berlaimont and Noircarmes; but the soul of it were two Spanish lawyers, Del Rio and especially Juan de Vargas, a man of infamous character; and to these men was assigned the prosecution of Egmont and Horn. This court, though established by Alva’s sole and verbal appointment, possessed a power as arbitrary as that of the Inquisition; it sat in Alva’s own house, who at first presided over it in person; its jurisdiction within the limits assigned to it, was supreme, and its award final. Its proceedings were so contrary to all law and justice, that Berlaimont, Noircarmes, and some of the more respectable members soon withdrew, and the whole business fell into the hands of the two Spaniards, with Blasere and Hessels, two Netherlanders, who equaled them in atrocity. The manner of its proceedings may be learnt from a single anecdote. On one occasion it was found that a man summoned for trial had been executed before he was arraigned; and it further appeared from his papers that he was entirely innocent. “Never mind”, cried Vargas; “so much the better for him when he is arraigned in the next world!”. Hessels would often fall asleep during the trials, and when awakened to pronounce judgment would rub his eyes and exclaim, Ad patibulum! ad patibulum! (to the gallows! to the gallows!).

1567. Margaret resigns

The Prince of Orange and the nobles with him were summoned by the Council to appear at Brussels and answer the charges brought against them within six weeks, under pain of confiscation and perpetual banishment; and a long list of accusations against them was proclaimed by the public crier at Brussels and Breda. William answered by denying the authority of the tribunal. By the advice of Cardinal Granvelle, who was now employed at Rome in the service of Philip, William’s son, Count Buren, was seized at Louvain, and sent to Madrid, where, by the blandishments of the Court, he was entirely alienated from the Protestant cause; and being detained twenty-nine years in Spain, became almost a Spaniard in his habits and disposition. The plans of finance, or rather the schemes for extorting money, devised by Alva and his master, were on a par with their administration of justice. The great instruments were confiscation and terror. Alva wrote to Philip he would have every man feel that his house might fall about his ears. Margaret, finding that she had become a mere cipher in the presence of Alva, obtained the King’s permission to retire from the government before the end of the year; and Alva was now made Regent and Governor-General, with all the powers she had formerly possessed. Philip would not allow his sister to assemble the States-General in order to take a formal farewell; and she therefore took her leave in letters addressed to the principal cities. She retired first to Parma and afterwards to Naples. Her resignation caused general regret, and several of the provinces voted her large donations.

Margaret’s government, though far from spotless, came out in strong relief when contrasted with that of Alva. After her departure began a complete reign of terror. On the 16th of February, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death! excepting only from the universal doom a few persons especially named. A royal proclamation, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree, and ordered it to be carried into immediate execution, without distinction of age, sex, or condition. Such a sentence, in its literal sense, was, of course, only an impotent though atrocious absurdity; yet it was by no means entirely a dead letter. On Ash Wednesday alone 500 citizens were dragged from their beds, all of whom received sentence of death. Alva, in a letter to Philip, coolly estimates at 800 heads the executions to take place after Passion-week. The higher criminals were beheaded, the lower ones hanged; obstinate heretics were burnt. There were also sentences of banishment and confiscation by wholesale; in one alone were comprehended thirty-five citizens of Amsterdam. These penalties were merely a temporary source of revenue; for trade decayed, and the towns became depopulated; at Ghent half the houses were abandoned. The people in the interior, who could not escape so easily as those in the border provinces, banding together in large bodies, took refuge in the forests, where they committed all sorts of excesses, and became nothing more nor less than banditti; whence they obtained the name of Gueux Sauvages, or Wild Beggars. The mild and enlightened Emperor Maximilian II addressed to Philip an autograph letter (March 2nd, 1568), in his own name and that of the German Electors, in behalf of the oppressed Netherlanders, interceding also for Egmont and Horn; and he even reminded the Spanish King that the Netherlands formed part of the Empire, and were entitled to be protected by the humane laws of the Imperial constitution. Philip replied by vaunting his regard for justice, which had prevented him from putting an end to the disturbances in a single day. He asserted that all the world would at last approve his conduct, and declared that he would not act differently, though he should risk the loss of the provinces, and though the sky should fall upon his head!

Meanwhile the Prince of Orange was making every exertion to raise an army to repress these tyrannies. He applied for assistance to the English government, the German princes, the French Huguenots; he raised money by contributions from the Netherlands, from the nobles attached to him, and by pawning his own plate and jewels; and by the end of April he had collected a considerable force, which would have been still larger but for the bigotry of the zealous German Lutherans, whose divines openly preached that the Huguenots and Calvinists of France and the Netherlands were rebels and sacramentaries, and that it would be doing God good service to abolish and ruin them.

Orange had planned a campaign to consist of an attack in three divisions. A French adventurer named Cocqueville was to lead a body of Huguenots into Artois; Count Hoogstraaten, accompanied by other nobles, was to penetrate into Brabant; the Prince's brothers, Louis and Adolf, were to attack Groningen; while William himself, fixing his head-quarters with a reserve force near Cleves, was to join any division that might stand in need of support. When on the point of thus openly taking up arms against his Sovereign, Orange, in reply to the sentence of condemnation which had been passed upon him, published in the summer of 1568 a paper or manifesto, which he called his “justification”. The chief purport of it was to repudiate the jurisdiction of the infamous Council of Blood; and it was concluded with an eloquent burst of indignation against Philip, who had forgotten the Prince's services and those of his ancestors, and had robbed him of his honor and his son, both dearer to him than life, while at the same time the King had degraded himself by breaking all his royal oaths and obligations. William also announced in this paper his change of religion.

1568. Battle of Heyligerlee

Two of the attacks projected by Orange completely failed. Hoogstraaten’s division was beaten by Davila about the end of April, and the remnant of it joined the reserve at Cleves; Cocqueville’s force of about 2,500 men was cut to pieces at St. Valeri, July 18th, by Marshal de Cosse, Governor of Picardy, scarce 300 men escaping. Louis of Nassau was more successful in Groningen against the Count of Aremberg and a body of Spanish veterans. Louis had taken up a strong position near Winschoten. His rear was covered by the abbey of Heyligerlee and a thick wood; in front the ground sloped down to an extensive morass; his left was protected by a hill, and on his right he had planted his cavalry, under his brother Adolf. Aremberg was loth to attack so strong a position, till, nettled by the taunts of the Spaniards, who accused him of cowardice and treachery, he gave the order to advance. The Spaniards had soon occasion to repent their rashness. Their vanguard immediately became entangled in the morass, where it was at the mercy of the enemy's musketeers and pikemen, while Louis's cavalry charged their rearguard in flank, and put them completely to the rout. Aremberg himself fell, and 1,600 of his men; besides which the royalists lost nine guns, their military stores, and a considerable sum of money. On the other side. Count Adolf was slain. Such was the Battle of Heyligerlee, fought May 23rd, 1568.

The victory of Heyligerlee proved the death-warrant of Counts Egmont and Horn. Although those noblemen had been imprisoned nearly nine months, their trial was not yet finished, and Alva now determined to bring it to a close. In his correspondence with Philip, Alva observed that this disaster to the royal arms had thrown the people into a ferment; it was necessary, therefore, to show that he did not fear them, and to crush all hope that the prisoners could be liberated by a fresh insurrection; and he adverted to the error of Charles V, who, by retaining the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse in custody, instead of putting them to death, gave occasion to a new conspiracy, by which he was ignominiously driven from Germany, and almost deprived of the Imperial Crown.

As a prelude to the proceedings against Egmont and Horn, nineteen members of the Union, chiefly men of rank, and including both Catholics and Protestants, were condemned to death, and were executed June 1st, in the great square before the Hotel de Ville at Brussels. The Catholics were beheaded, the Protestants burnt. Other executions followed during the next two days.

Egmont and Horn, who had been treated with great rigor in the Castle of Ghent, and hardly allowed the necessaries of life, were now told that the time allowed for their defence had expired, and that no further evidence could be heard. Both prisoners being Knights of the Golden Fleece, claimed to be tried by the statutes of the order; while Egmont, as a Bra- banter, further appealed to the protection of the Joyeuse Entrée, and Horn, as a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, demanded to be judged by his peers, the Electors and Princes of Germany. But precedents and constitutional forms were of no account in the eyes either of Alva or of his master. Alva declared that he represented Philip not as head of the order, but as sovereign of the land, and refused to receive any more petitions; while the King of Spain violated without scruple the oath which he had sworn both to the Fleece and to the Joyeuse Entrée. The wives of both prisoners made great exertions in their favor, but in vain, although Egmont’s consort was sister to the Rhenish Palgrave, Frederick III.

Egmont’s indictment consisted of ninety-nine articles, of which the principal were, plotting to expel the King of Spain from the Netherlands; conspiring against the life and character of Cardinal Granvelle; demanding the removal of that minister and inventing the foolscap livery; requiring that the three Councils should be fused into one; demanding the assembly of the States-General; declaring that the edicts were too rigorous, and that he would not assist in burning 40,000 or 50,000 men; making arrangements with the Prince of Orange and others for the levying of troops; permitting at his table the cry of Vivent les Gueux!, and many other charges of a similar description.

The accusations against Count Horn were of much the same kind. Casembrot, Lord of Beckerzel, Egmont’s secretary, who had been condemned to death for signing the “Compromise”, was tortured in the most barbarous manner to make him accuse his master, and finally killed. On the 2nd of June, the Council of Tumults pronounced Egmont and Horn guilty, and they were sentenced to death by that illegal and arbitrary tribunal. On the same day a body of 3,000 soldiers was dispatched to Ghent to escort the prisoners to Brussels, which city they entered on the 4th, and were conducted to the Broodhuis in the market-place.

At the news of his unexpected fate Egmont was at first struck with astonishment and dismay; but soon recovering himself, prepared, with the assistance of the Bishop of Ypres, to meet his death with calmness and resignation. He then addressed a letter to his wife, and another to Philip, in which he protested that he had done nothing against the King, and besought him to have pity on his wife and children. He was beheaded in the great square on the morning of the 5th of June, and met his death with constancy. Horn's execution followed on the same scaffold about noon. He also died with fortitude, though he displayed more indignation than Egmont at his unmerited fate. He was outshone by Egmont, who, though far from being a great man, was a showy personage, brave, popular, but weak and vacillating. Horn, who was of more quiet, retiring manners, passed for morose; yet he also was but a commonplace character, and has been rendered conspicuous only by his tragic fate. More than two years after, Horn's brother, Baron Montigny, who, though a prisoner in Spain, had been tried and condemned by the Council of Tumults at Brussels, was privily put to death by order of Philip II in the fortress of Simancas. He and the Marquis of Bergen had been dispatched, in 1566, to Madrid, to lay before Philip the critical state of the Netherlands, and to demand an alteration of policy. They never returned. Bergen appears to have died a natural death, hastened on by fear and anxiety : Montigny was executed by the garotte, October 16th, 1570. It was given out that he also had died from natural causes; but the true story has at length come out from Philip's own letters preserved in the archives of Simancas.

Defeat of Louis of Nassau

Since his victory at Heyligerlee, Count Louis of Nassau had been forced to remain inactive, for want of funds to pay his troops; and Alva, after the execution of Egmont and Horn, resolved to march against him in person. Louis, having thus opposed to him the most consummate captain of the age, at the head of 15,000 veterans, while his own army, though superior in number, was composed of raw recruits, deemed it prudent to evacuate Groningen and East Friesland; and he took up a fortified position at Jemgum, between Emden and Leer. It would have been difficult to select a worse position. He had shut himself up, as in a cul-de-sac, in a small peninsula, formed by the river Ems and the Dollart, so that in case of a reverse, retreat was impossible. Here he was attacked by Alva on the 20th and 21st July; his whole army was dispersed or killed, and he himself escaped with difficulty by stripping and swimming across the Ems. His men had basely fled before the action began, and Louis was obliged to fire with his own hand the guns which defended the road leading to the position. After this victory, Alva marched against Orange, who had at length appeared on the banks of the Meuse and the Schelde with so considerable a German force that Alva did not venture to attack him; but knowing that he had no money wherewith to pay his troops, resolved to wear him out by delay. The plan succeeded : the Prince’s army could not be kept together, and he and his brother Louis retired into Germany, whence they afterwards proceeded, with about 1,200 horse, to assist the Huguenots in France. The campaign being thus concluded, Alva made his triumphant entry into Brussels; and he soon after gave a signal proof of his vanity and arrogance by causing a bronze statue of himself to be erected at Antwerp, which represented him trampling upon a monster bearing emblems typifying the Petition, the Compromise, and the ensuing insurrection. An inscription on the pedestal described him as having extinguished heresy and rebellion, and restored the Netherlands to peace and justice. He also caused several medals to be struck, equally offensive by their vanity and presumption.

The next year or two was passed in comparative tranquility, although Alva still continued his cruelties and oppressions. Having dried up by his impolitic government the usual sources of revenue, he naturally found himself in want of money, and he was forced to have recourse to an assembly of the States-General in order to obtain supplies; but he experienced nothing but unwillingness and opposition. His extortionate system of taxation, as it reached everybody, procured for the Spanish government more universal hatred even than the religious persecutions, and alienated Catholics as well as Protestants. Regardless of the essential difference between the two countries, Alva applied the Spanish system of finance to the Netherlands, and in March, 1569, issued decrees for a tax of the one-hundredth penny, or one per cent., on all property real and personal; of the twentieth penny, or five per cent., on every transfer of real estate; and of the tenth penny, or ten per cent., on every article sold. This last tax, which was similar to that called the Alcavala, in Spain, naturally occasioned the utmost anger and consternation in a commercial country like the Netherlands. It was Alva’s ill-success as a financier that first led Philip to withdraw from him his confidence; and the increasing disorders in the Netherlands at length determined the Spanish King to supersede him.

In the civil disorganization produced by bad government had risen up, besides the Gueux Sauvages already mentioned, a host of formidable pirates, called Gueux de la Mer, or Beggars of the Sea. These rovers, to whom the Prince of Orange had granted letters of marque, were accustomed, without any very scrupulous regard to international law, to seize all the prizes they could lay their hands on, which they sold in English ports. These practices had occasioned disputes between the Spanish government in the Netherlands and that of Queen Elizabeth, between which there already existed a bad feeling, occasioned by Elizabeth having temporarily laid an embargo on some vessels having money on board for the Netherland government; an act which Alva had retaliated (January 1569) by not only seizing all English property in the Low Countries, but also by arresting every Englishman he could lay hands on. Alva, however, advised Philip not openly to resent the injuries of Elizabeth till he had subdued his revolted subjects in the Netherlands; and for the next three or four years it was difficult to say whether Spain and England were at peace or war. Elizabeth helped the patriots in the Netherlands with money, while Philip fomented sedition and conspiracy in England. The aggressions of the water Gueux, however, became at length so daring, and the remonstrances of the Spanish government so loud, that, in March, 1572, Elizabeth found herself obliged to issue an order forbidding her subjects to supply the Dutch pirates with provisions. This event may be said incidentally to have occasioned the foundation of the Dutch Republic. La Marck, one of the chief leaders of the water Gueux, finding himself obliged to leave England, sailed with twenty-four vessels to Voorne, the northernmost island of Zealand, and succeeded in seizing Brille, its chief town, which, with its fortified harbour, now became the stronghold of these pirates. Hence the revolt gradually spread to other northern towns and provinces. The isle of Walcheren, and then Enkhuisen, the key of the Zuider Zee, threw off the Spanish yoke; and their example was soon followed by Oudewater, Dort, Haarlem, Leyden, Gorcum, Gouda, Medemblik, Alkmaar, and other places, as well as by many towns in Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel. The towns of Friesland next received patriotic garrisons. The Prince of Orange summoned deputies from the nobles and twelve principal towns of the county of Holland, to meet at Dort, July 15th, 1572. Amsterdam and Rotterdam, being still in possession of the Spaniards, could not comply with this requisition; but deputies from eight towns appeared, and declared that they recognized William as Philip’s lawful Stadholder in Holland, Zealand, Friesland and Utrecht, and that they would use their influence with the other provinces to procure his appointment as Protector of all the Netherlands during the King's absence. The revolt was assisted by the talents of Ste. Aldegonde, whose ode of Wilhelmus van Nassouwe, the Dutch Marseillaise, has remained the national air. At the same time he published his Byenkorf (Beehive), a satire on the Romish Church, in the manner of Ulrich von Hutten.

Alva and Orange opposed

In these alarming circumstances, Philip thought it prudent to try a change of policy. The bow, drawn too tightly, had snapped in his hands, and he was therefore disposed for a while to relax his coercive policy. He was further embarrassed at this period by an empty exchequer, and by the attitude assumed by the French Court, which, as we have related in the preceding chapter, seemed heartily to have embraced the cause of the Netherland Calvinists. The mere sojourn of Coligni at Paris, and the expectations which resulted from it, gave an immense moral force to the patriotic party in the Low Countries. Louis of Nassau, with the aid of a body of French Huguenots headed by La Noue, had succeeded in seizing Valenciennes and Mons (May, 1572); a diversion which had disabled Alva from immediately attending to the revolt in Holland. While Alva was employed in besieging Louis in Mons, the Prince of Orange appeared on the Meuse with an army levied in Germany, captured Roermonde and Louvain, obtained possession of Mechlin through the mediation of the Lord of Dorp, and advanced to the relief of Mons by Dendermonde and Oudenarde, which he took. Abandoned by his master, oppressed by the difficulties which surrounded him, Alva had completely lost his head and taken to consulting the necromancers. The capture of Genlis, and a body of Huguenots with whom he was marching to the relief of Mons (July 19th), who, as we have already related, were betrayed by the French Court, somewhat improved the prospects of Alva. It was September ere Orange arrived before Mons, and his hopes of assistance from France had now been completely frustrated by the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the change of policy on the part of the French Court. While he lay encamped at Hermigny, William was nearly seized in his tent on the night of September 11th by a camisade of the Spaniards. His guards had fallen asleep; but he was alarmed by a little spaniel which always passed the night on his bed. He had barely time to escape. His master of the horse, his two secretaries, and some of his servants were cut down, his tents burnt, and 600 of his men killed, while the Spaniards suffered a loss of only sixty. As William was ill-provided with funds for the payment of his troops, who had already begun to murmur, his only resource was an immediate action, which, however, Alva carefully avoided; and the Prince was at length compelled to retreat by Nivelles, Mechlin and Orsoy. On crossing the Rhine he disbanded his troops, who had begun to mutiny. After his departure, his brother Louis obtained an honorable capitulation from Alva (September 20th), who had begun to despair of reducing Mons, and agreed that all the soldiers and volunteers who had borne arms during the siege should be dismissed with the honors of war. La Noue and his band of Huguenots retired into France. La Noue was received with distinction by Charles IX, and afterwards employed by him in negotiating with the Huguenots in La Rochelle; but the soldiers who came with him appear to have been put to death.

Perfidy of Charles IX

With a horrible perfidy, Charles IX, after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, had instructed Mondoucet, his envoy in the Netherlands, to urge upon Alva the necessity of putting to the sword, as rebels to the Crown of France, all the French prisoners whom he had made, or might capture in Mons, although they had been dispatched into the Netherlands with Charles’s sanction. “If he tells you”, said Charles, “that this is tacitly requiring him to put to death all the French prisoners now in hand (Genlis and his companions), as well as to cut to pieces every man in Mons, you will say to him that this is exactly what ought to be done, and that he will be guilty of a great wrong to Christianity if he does otherwise”. Yet at the same time he instructed Mondoucet to maintain the closest but most secret intelligence with the Prince of Orange. To the slaughter of the French, Philip of course cordially agreed, and in a letter to Alva added this postscript with his own hand : “I desire that if you have not already rid the world of them, you will do so immediately, and inform me thereof, for I see no reason why it should be deferred”.

Genlis and his companions accordingly fell victims. The opinion that Alva faithfully observed the capitulation of Mons, seems to be erroneous. Many of the volunteers who had lingered behind were put to death; a Commission of Tumults, like that at Brussels, was erected by Noircarmes, and for nearly a year executions went on. The fall of Mons involved that of the other towns of Brabant and Flanders, and put an end to the temporary revolution of the southern provinces. Alva determined to make an example of Mechlin, where neither man, woman nor child was spared.

Orange ultimately retired into Holland, where the revolt had been completely successful. We have already adverted to some symptoms of a milder policy on the part of Philip. He contemplated superseding Alva by the Duke of Medina Celi, which nobleman had been dispatched with a fleet to reduce the Beggars of the Sea on the Netherland coasts. But the Duke's fleet, consisting of fifty large ships was useless in those shallow waters; the rebels, who had three times the number of small vessels, completely worsted him, and he was glad to save a remnant of his fleet in Sluys. He saw how difficult would be the government of the Netherlands, and he declined to relieve Alva from responsibilities which he had himself created, though he assisted that commander with his presence at Mons.

During William’s absence the revolt in Holland was conducted by his deputy Stadholder, Sonoy; while in Gelderland, Friesland, and Utrecht, it was organized by Count van den Bergh, who had married a sister of the Prince's. When Orange appeared in Holland he was formally recognized as Stadholder, and a council of State was assigned him to conduct the government. He soon afterwards obtained possession of Gertruidenberg.

After the capture of Mons, Alva returned to Brussels and left the conduct of the war to his son, Frederick de Toledo. Zutphen and Naarden successively yielded to Frederick’s arms, and became the scenes of the most detestable violence. Alva ordered his son not to leave a single man alive in Zutphen, and to burn down all the houses, — commands which were most literally obeyed. The treatment of Naarden was still more revolting. The town had capitulated, and Don Julian Romero, an officer of Don Frederick's, had pledged his word that the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected. Romero then entered the town with some 500 musketeers, for whom the citizens provided a sumptuous feast; and he summoned the inhabitants to assemble in the Gast Huis Church, then used as a town hall. More than 500 of them had entered the church when a priest suddenly rushing in, bade them prepare for death. Scarcely had the announcement been made when a band of Spanish soldiers entered, and, after discharging a volley into the defenseless crowd, attacked them sword in hand. The church was then fired, and the dead and dying consumed together. But these cruelties only steeled the Netherlanders to a more obstinate resistance; nor must it be concealed that in these plusquam civilia bella, where civil hatred was still further embittered by sectarian malignancy, the Dutch sometimes displayed as much cruelty and brutality as their adversaries.

Siege of Haarlem

The war was continued during the winter (1572-73). In December the Spaniards marched to attack a fleet frozen up near Amsterdam. It was defended by a body of Dutch musketeers on skates, who, by the superior skill of their evolutions, drove the enemy back and killed great numbers of them. In consequence of this extraordinary combat, Alva ordered 7,000 pairs of skates, and directed his soldiers to be instructed in their use. Siege was then laid to Haarlem, which town, warned by the fate of Zutphen and Naarden, made a defence that astonished all Europe. A corps of 300 respectable women, armed with musket, sword, and dagger, and led by Kenau Hasselaer, a widow of distinguished family, about forty-seven years of age, enrolled themselves among its defenders, and partook in some of the most fiercely contested actions. Battles took place upon Haarlem lake, on which the Prince of Orange had more than 100 sail of various kinds; till at length Bossu, whose vessels were larger, though less numerous, entirely defeated the Hollanders, and swept the lake in triumph (May 28th). The siege had lasted seven months, and Frederick de Toledo, who had lost a great part of his army by hunger, cold and pestilence, was inclined to abandon the enterprise; but he was kept to it by the threats of his father, and on the 12th of July Haarlem surrendered. Don Frederick had written a letter solemnly assuring the besieged that no punishment should be inflicted except on those who deserved it in the opinion of the citizens themselves; yet he was in possession of strict orders from his father to put to death the whole garrison, except the Germans, and also to execute a large number of the inhabitants. Between 2,000 and 3,000 were slaughtered; 300 were drowned in the lake tied by twos, back to back.

Siege of Alkmaar

The resistance of Haarlem and other places determined Alva to try what might be done by an affectation of clemency; and on the 26th of July he issued a proclamation in which Philip was compared to a hen gathering its chickens under the parental wing. But in the same breath his subjects were admonished not to excite his rage, cruelty, and fury; and were threatened that if his gracious offers of mercy were neglected, his Majesty would strip bare and utterly depopulate the land, and cause it to be inhabited by strangers. So ludicrous a specimen of paternal love was not calculated to inspire the Hollanders with much confidence; and Alkmaar, the next town to which Don Frederick laid siege, though defended only by 800 soldiers and 1,300 citizens against 16,000 veterans, also resolved to hold out to the last extremity. Enraged at this contempt of what he called his clemency at Haarlem, Alva resolved to make Alkmaar an example of his cruelty, and he wrote to Philip that every one in it should be put to the sword. But the inhabitants made an heroic defence and repulsed the besiegers in many a bloody assault; till at length the superstitious Spaniards, believing that the place was defended by the devil, whom they thought the Protestants worshipped, refused to mount to the attack, suffering themselves rather to be run through the body by their officers; and Don Frederick, finding from an intercepted letter that the Prince of Orange contemplated cutting the dykes and flooding the country, raised the siege (October 8th).

About this time, William published an Epistle in the form of supplication to his Royal Majesty of Spain, from the Prince of Orange and States of Holland and Zealand, which produced a profound impression. It demanded that the privileges of the country should be restored, and insisted on the recall of the Duke of Alva, whose atrocities were vigorously denounced. Orange, as Stadholder, had always acted as the King’s representative in Holland, and gave all his orders in Philip’s name. He had recently turned Calvinist, and in October publicly joined the Church at Dort. It was reserved for the two greatest Princes of the age to alleviate by their apostasy the evils inflicted on society by a consistent but bloodthirsty bigotry : an apostasy, however, which approached more nearly than the orthodoxy of their adversaries the spirit of true Christianity.

The siege of Alkmaar was one of the last acts under Alva’s auspices in the Netherlands, and formed a fitting termination to his career. He had himself solicited to be recalled, and in . December, 1573, he was superseded by Don Luis de Requesens, Grand Commander of St. Iago. In fact, Philip had found this war of extermination too expensive for his exhausted treasury. Alva boasted on his journey back that he had caused 18,600 Netherlanders to be executed. He was well received by Philip, but soon after his return was imprisoned, along with his son, Don Frederick. Alva was, however, subsequently released to undertake the conquest of Portugal.

Requesens, the new Governor, had been vice-admiral to Don John of Austria, had distinguished himself at the battle of Lepanto, and had subsequently governed the Milanese with reputation. He was mild and just, and more liberal than the generality of Spaniards, though inferior to Alva in military talent. He attempted immediately after his arrival in the Netherlands to bring about a peace through the mediation of Ste. Aldegonde; but Orange was too suspicious to enter into it. Requesens put down robbery and murder; but he was neither able to abrogate the Council of Tumults nor to lighten the oppressive taxes. Philip had selected him as Governor of the Netherlands as a pledge of the more conciliatory policy which he had thought it prudent to adopt; yet Requesens’ hands were tied up with such injunctions as rendered all conciliation hopeless; and he was instructed to bring forward no measures which had not for their basis the maintenance of the King's absolute authority and the prohibition of all worship except the Roman Catholic.

The Gueux of the sea were at this time most troublesome to the Spaniards, as their small vessels enabled them to penetrate up the rivers and canals. A naval action had been fought (October 11th, 1573) on the Zuider Zee between Count Bossu, who had collected a considerable fleet at Amsterdam, and the patriot Admiral Dirkzoon, in which Bossu was completely defeated, and taken prisoner. One of the first acts of Requesens was to send a fleet under Sancho Davila, Julian Romero, and Admiral Glimes to the relief of Middelburg, which had been besieged by the patriots upwards of eighteen months, and was now reduced to the last extremity. Orange visited the Zealand fleet under the command of Louis Boisot (January 20th, 1574), and an action ensued a few days after, in which the Spaniards were completely beaten. Requesens himself beheld the battle from the lofty dyke of Schakerloo, where he stood all day in a drenching rain; and Romero, who had escaped by jumping out of a porthole, swam ashore and landed at the very feet of the Grand Commander. The Hollanders and Zealanders were now masters of the coast; but the Spaniards still held their ground in the interior of Holland. After raising the siege of Alkmaar, they had invested Leyden, and cut off all communication between the Dutch cities.

1574. Battle of Mook Heath

The efforts of the patriots were less fortunate on land, where they were no match for the Spanish generals and their veteran troops. It had been arranged that Louis of Nassau should march out of Germany with an army of newly-levied recruits and form a junction with his brother William, who was at Bommel on the Waal. Towards the end of February, 1574, Louis encamped within four miles of Maestricht, with the design of taking that town; but finding that he could not accomplish this object, and having suffered some losses, he marched down the right bank of the Meuse to join his brother. When, however, he arrived at Mook, a village on the Meuse, a few miles south of Nymegen, he found himself intercepted by the Spaniards under Davila, who, having outmatched him on the opposite bank, had crossed the river at a lower point on a bridge of boats, and placed themselves directly in his path. There was now no alternative but to fight, and battle was delivered on the following day on the heath of Mook, when fortune declared against the patriots. The gallant Louis, seeing that the day was lost, put himself at the head of a little band of troopers, and, accompanied by his brother Henry, and Duke Christopher, son of the Elector Palatine Frederick III, made a desperate charge, in which they all perished and were never heard of more. The only effect of Louis’s invasion was to cause the Spaniards to raise the siege of Leyden, which, however, they resumed May 26th.

The defence of Leyden formed a worthy parallel to that of siege of Haarlem and Alkmaar, and acquired for the garrison and the inhabitants the respect and admiration of all Europe. A modern historian has aptly observed that this was the heroic age of Protestantism. Leyden was defended by John van der Does, Lord of Nordwyck, a gentleman of distinguished family, but still more distinguished by his learning and genius, and his Latin poetry published under the name of Joannes Douza. The garrison of Leyden was small, and it relied for its defence chiefly on the exertions of the inhabitants. The revictualling of the city had been neglected after the raising of the first siege, and at the end of June it became necessary to put the inhabitants on short allowance; yet they held out more than three months longer. Orange, whose head-quarters were at Delft and Rotterdam, had no means of relieving Leyden, except by breaking down the dykes on the Meuse and the Yssel, and thus flooding the country; a step which would involve the destruction of the growing crops, besides other extraordinary expenses; yet he succeeded in obtaining the consent of the States of Holland to this desperate measure. On the 3rd of August he super-intended in person the rupture of the dykes on the Yssel; at the same time the sluices of Rotterdam and Schiedam were opened; the flood began to pour over the land, while the citizens of Leyden watched with anxious eyes from the so-called Tower of Hengest the rising of the waters. A flotilla of 200 flat-bottomed vessels had been provided, stored with provisions for the relief of the town, and manned by 2,500 veterans under the command of Boisot. But unexpected obstacles arose. Dykes still appeared above the water, and had to be cut through amid the resistance of the Spaniards. Twice the waters receded under the influence of the east wind, and left the fleet aground; twice it was floated again by violent gales from the north and west, which accumulated on the coast the waters of the ocean. Meanwhile the besieged were suffering all the extremities of famine; while a pestilence carried off thousands. In this extremity a number of the citizens surrounded the burgomaster, Adrian van der Werf, demanding, with loud threats and clamors, that he should either provide them food or surrender the city to the enemy. To these menaces Adrian calmly replied, “I have taken an oath that I will never put myself or my fellow-citizens in the power of the cruel and perfidious Spaniards, and I will rather die than violate it”. Then, drawing his sword, he offered it to the surrounding crowd, and bade them plunge it in his bosom, and devour his flesh, if such an action could relieve them from their direful necessity. This extraordinary address filled the people with admiration, and inspired them with a new courage. Their constancy was soon rewarded with deliverance. On the night of the 1st October a fresh gale set in from the north-west; the ocean rushed furiously through the rained dykes; the fleet had soon two feet of water, and pursued its onward course amid storm and darkness. It had still to contend with the vessels of the enemy, and a naval battle was fought amid the boughs of orchards and the chimney-stacks of houses. But this was the last attempt at resistance on the part of the Spaniards. Appalled both by the constancy of their adversaries and by the rising flood, which was gradually driving them into a narrower circle, the Spaniards abandoned the two remaining forts of Zoetermonde and Lammen, which still stood between the fleet and the city. From the latter they fled in alarm at the noise of the falling of a large portion of the town walls which had been thrown down by the waters, and which in the darkness they luckily mistook for some operation of their adversaries; otherwise they might easily have entered and captured Leyden. The fleet of Boisot approached the city on the morning of October 3rd. On the 4th of October another providential gale from the north-east assisted in clearing off the water from the land. In commemoration of this remarkable defence, and as a reward for the heroism of the citizens, was founded the University of Leyden, as well as a ten days' annual fair, free from all tolls and taxes. During this siege the Gueux had been again successful at sea. On the 30th of May, Boisot defeated between Lilloo and Kalloo a Spanish fleet, took the admiral and three ships, and chased the rest into Antwerp.

Marriage of William of Orange

The bankrupt state of Philip II’s exchequer, and the reverses which his arms had sustained, induced him to accept, in the following year, the proffered mediation of the Emperor Maximilian, which he had before so arrogantly rejected, and a congress was held at Breda from March till June, 1575. But the insurgents were suspicious, and Philip was inflexible; he could not be induced to dismiss his Spanish troops, to allow the meeting of the States-General, or to admit the slightest toleration in matters of religion; and the contest was therefore renewed with more fury than ever. The situation of the patriots became very critical when the enemy, by occupying the islands of Duiveland and Schouwen, cut off the communication between Holland and Zealand; especially as all hope of succor from England had expired. Towards the close of the year envoys were dispatched to solicit the aid of Elizabeth, and to offer her, under certain conditions, the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand. Requesens sent Champagny to counteract these negotiations, which ended in nothing. The English Queen was afraid of provoking the power of Spain, and could not even be induced to grant the Hollanders a loan. The attitude assumed at that time by the Duke of Alençon, in France, also prevented them from entering into any negotiations with that Prince.

In these trying circumstances Orange displayed the greatest firmness and courage. It was now that he is said to have contemplated abandoning the Netherlands and seeking with its inhabitants a home in the New World, having first restored the country to its ancient state of a waste of waters; a thought, however, which he probably never seriously entertained, though he may have given utterance to it in a moment of despondency. On June 12th, 1575, William had married Charlotte of Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Montpensier. The Prince's second wife, Anne of Saxony, had turned out a drunken, violent character, and at length an intrigue which she formed with John Rubens, an exiled magistrate of Antwerp, and father of the celebrated painter, justified William in divorcing her. She subsequently became insane. Charlotte of Bourbon had been brought up a Calvinist, but her father having joined the party of the persecutors, Charlotte took refuge with the Elector Palatine; and it was under these circumstances that she received the addresses of the Prince of Orange.

1576. Death of Requesens

The unexpected death of Requesens, who expired of a fever, March 5th, 1576, after a few days' illness, threw the government into confusion. Philip II had given Requesens a carte blanche to name his successor, but the nature of his illness had prevented him from filling it up. The government therefore devolved to the Council of State, the members of which were at variance with one another; but Philip found himself obliged to in entrust it ad interim with the administration, till a successor to Requesens could be appointed. Count Mansfeld was made commander-in-chief, but was totally unable to restrain the soldiery. The Spaniards, whose pay was in arrear, had now lost all discipline. After the raising of the siege of Leyden they had beset Utrecht and pillaged and maltreated the inhabitants, till Valdez contrived to furnish their pay. No sooner was Requesens dead than they broke into open mutiny, and acted as if they were entire masters of the country. After wandering about some time and threatening Brussels, they seized and plundered Alost, where they established themselves; and they were soon afterwards joined by the Walloon and German troops. To repress their violence, the Council of State was fain to restore to the Netherlands the arms of which they had been deprived, and called upon them by a proclamation to repress force by force; but these citizen-soldiers were dispersed with great slaughter by the disciplined troops in various encounters. Ghent, Utrecht, Valenciennes, Maestricht were taken and plundered by the mutineers; and at last the storm fell upon Antwerp, which the Spaniards entered early in November, and sacked during three days. More than 1,000 houses were burnt, 8,000 citizens are said to have been slain, and enormous sums in ready money were plundered. The whole damage was estimated at 24,000,000 florins. The horrible excesses committed in this sack procured for it the name of the “Spanish Fury”.

The government at Brussels was at this period conducted in the name of the States of Brabant. On the 5th of September, De Heze, a young Brabant gentleman, who was in secret intelligence with the Prince of Orange, had, at the head of 500 soldiers, entered the palace where the State Council was assembled, and seized and imprisoned the members. William, taking advantage of the alarm created at Brussels by the sack of Antwerp, had persuaded the State Council to call a general Netherland congress. To this assembly, which met at Ghent on the 14th September, all the provinces, except Luxembourg, sent deputies. The deputies of the southern provinces, although many of them viewed the Prince of Orange with suspicion, feeling that there was no security for them so long as the Spanish troops remained in the citadel of Ghent, sought his assistance in expelling them, which William consented to grant only on condition that an alliance should be effected between Holland and Zealand on the one part and the other provinces of the Netherlands on the other part. This proposal was agreed to, and towards the end of September, Orange sent several thousand men from Zealand to Ghent, at whose approach the Spaniards surrendered, and evacuated the citadel. The proposed alliance was now converted into a formal union by the treaty called the Pacification of Ghent, signed November 8th, 1576; by which the Congress agreed, without waiting for the sanction of Philip, whose authority, however, was nominally recognized, to renew the edict of banishment against the Spanish troops, to suspend all placards against heresy, to summon the States-General of the northern and southern provinces, according to the model of the assembly which had received the abdication of Charles V, and to forbid anything to be done by Holland and Zealand against the Roman Catholic religion outside their own territory. About the same time, all Zealand, except the island of Tholen, was recovered from the Spaniards.

Affairs of the Emperor Maximilian II

At this point we shall direct our attention to the reign of the Emperor Maximilian II, who expired this year (1576). Under his pacific sway the history of Germany presents little of European importance. His wars in Hungary and with the Turks, the only occurrences not of a domestic nature, have been already related. The grand feature of Maximilian's reign is his wise moderation in religious matters. To him belongs the honor of being the first European Sovereign to adopt toleration, not from policy, but principle. The Diet assembled at Augsburg in 1566 would have excluded the Calvinists from the religious peace, and recognized only Papists and Lutherans; but when the Elector Palatine, Frederick III, surnamed the Pious, the only Calvinist Prince in Germany, protested, Maximilian procured for him a tacit toleration. As King of Bohemia, Maximilian annulled the Compactata in the first Diet which he held at Prague; and in consequence, the middle and lower classes of the Bohemians, who were mostly Calixtines, and had hitherto enjoyed their religion only by sufferance, openly professed Lutheranism, whilst other sects also publicly displayed their dissent from the Romish Church. This is, perhaps, the first example of unlimited toleration given by any monarch. In the following year he relaxed the religious despotism in Austria; but he was arrested by political considerations from carrying out these concessions so far as he might otherwise have done, though he did not withdraw those already granted. His wife, Mary of Castile, a daughter of Charles V, was led by the Jesuits, against whose arts Maximilian himself was proof. The marriage of his eldest daughter Anne to Philip II of Spain, in November, 1570, strengthened the Roman Catholic party in Austria. Maximilian’s eldest son, Rodolph, through the influence of his mother, Mary, and her brother, Philip II, was educated in Spain in the strictest principles of the Roman Catholic faith.

The early part of Maximilian's reign was disturbed by a foolish and abortive conspiracy on the part of John Frederick II of Saxe-Gotha, who ruled, along with his brother, John William, the dominions of the Ernestine Saxon line. The Duke, who was weak and credulous, was haunted with the idea of recovering his father's Electorate; and William of Grumbach, a Franconian knight, who had taken refuge at his Court, after procuring the assassination of the Bishop of Wurzburg, by working on this fancy made him the tool of his plots. A necromancer was employed, who, after many magical rites and incantations, by means of an optical illusion, exhibited to John Frederick his own figure, clothed in the Electoral cap and robes. Infatuated with this delusion, he was persuaded to consent to the assassination of his cousin the Elector Augustus; after which the knights and nobility were to rise, and not only to recover the Electorate, but even place John Frederick on the Imperial throne. These projects being discovered, and the Duke having refused to dismiss Grumbach, both were included in the Imperial ban published by the Diet of Augsburg, 1566. The execution of the sentence was entrusted to the Elector Augustus, who laid siege to Gotha. After a blockade of three or four months, the garrison revolted for want of pay, seized Grumbach and the leaders of his party, and delivered them and the town to Augustus by capitulation (April, 1567). The Elector, on entering Gotha, caused his cousin to be apprehended and sent to Vienna, where he spent the remainder of his life, a prisoner in the Castle of the Neustadt. Grumbach and his principal adherents were put to death.

Maximilian, after his treaty with the Porte in 1567, continued the war in Hungary; till at length, John Sigismund, weary of the Turkish insolence, concluded a secret treaty with the Emperor in 1570, by which he agreed to resign the title of King elect of Hungary. It was also arranged that he should marry Maximilian's niece, Anne, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria; but the Bavarian princess was persuaded by the Jesuits to withhold her consent, because John Sigismund was a Socinian. That Prince, however, died in the following year (March, 1571), when all his possessions reverted by the treaty to the Emperor, except Transylvania, which, on the death of John Sigismund without issue, was to be considered as an elective principality dependent on Hungary. The Transylvanian Diet elected Stephen Bathory for their voyvode; and their choice was confirmed by Maximilian and the Turks.

In the last year of his life (January, 1576), Maximilian confirmed the title of Francesco, son of Cosmo de' Medici, as Grand Duke of Tuscany, in consideration of Francesco paying a large sum of money, and marrying the Emperor's sister Jane. This affair had excited a violent contest between the Emperor and Rome. Maximilian had annulled the act of Pius V in erecting the Grand Duchy, and in 1572 had recalled his ambassador from Rome, because Gregory XIII refused also to annul the bull of Pius for that purpose. After the deposition of the Duke of Anjou (Henry III) in Poland, Maximilian became a competitor for the Crown of that Kingdom, and obtained the suffrages of the Polish Senate; but Stephen Bathory, by consenting to marry Anne Jagellon, sister of the late King, Sigismund I, then fifty years of age, was elected by the Palatine and nobles. Maximilian was preparing to contest the Crown with Stephen, when he was surprised by death, October 12th, 1576, aged forty-nine. One of his last acts was the confirmation of the Turkish truce with Amurath III, the son and successor of Selim II.

Maximilian was one of the most amiable and enlightened princes that ever occupied the Imperial throne. Both Philip II and Charles IX had entered into secret negotiations with the German Princes in 1573, with a view to obtain the Imperial Crown after the death of Maximilian; and the Empire, although Philip had made it the business of his life to extirpate heresy, yet he pledged himself, in case of his being elected, to withdraw the Spaniards from the Netherlands, to recognize the union of those provinces with Germany, and, consequently, their claim to the benefits conferred upon Protestants by the treaty of Passau, and to restore the Prince of Orange and his “accomplices” to their dignities. But Maximilian was succeeded by his son Rodolph II, who had been elected King of the Romans in October, 1575, and had previously received the Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE RISE OF THE LEAGUE IN FRANCE

THE DIVINE HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

CHAPTER XXIV

THE RISE OF THE LEAGUE IN FRANCE