QUEEN WILHELMIXA AND THE PRINCE CONSORT
MOTLEY'S DUTCH NATION
BEING THE
RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
(1555-1584)
BY
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
D.C.L., LL.D., ETC.
CONDENSED, WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND A
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DUTCH PEOPLE TO 1908
BY
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS
D.D., L.H.D.
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
AND OF THE NETHERLANDISH SOCIETIES OF
LEYDEN, MIDDLEBURG, AND LKEUWARDEN
NEW EDITION
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMVIII
Ml
NOV 1 5 1965
1022-169
Copyright, 1898, 1908, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
All rights reserved.
Published March, 1908.
PEEFACE
THE present work consists of two parts — an abridg-
ment of the late Mr. John Lothrop Motley's three vol-
umes, entitled The Rise of the Dutch Republic, and an
independent sketch of Dutch history, from A.D. 1584 to
1897. With the brief introduction, a few notes, illus-
trations, and references have been added. The original
divisions and numbering of Mr. Motley's chapters have
been retained, though their headings are new. Correc-
tions of clerical mistakes, misprints, and errors in gram
mar and ecclesiastical detail have been made. This has
been done, however, with but little alteration of the
brilliant historian's rhetoric, style, and spelling.
In Part VII., which rapidly outlines Dutch history,
from the death of William the Silent to Queen Wilhel-
mina, the author has given his own interpretation of
facts, events, and tendencies. He has taken advantage
of the fruits of research made by Dutch scholars since
Mr. Motley's decease, besides showing the many points
of contact between Netherlandish and British and be-
tween Dutch and American history.
Besides many Dutch friends beyond sea who have aided
my studies and answered my inquiries, I have especially
to thank three scholarly gentlemen — Mr. Adrian van Hel-
IV PREFACE
den, of Philadelphia, whose collection of Barneveldia is
unique in America; the Rev. Maurice G. Hansen, D.D.,
of East Orange, N. J., author of a History of the Re-
formed Church in the Netherlands ; and William Nelson
Noble, Esq., of Ithaca, whose criticisms and suggestions
have been of great value.
W. E. G.
ITHACA, December 10, 1897.
PEEFACE TO NEW EDITION
SINCE the first issue of this edition of Motley's Rise of
the Dutch Republic, condensed, with the narrative con-
tinued to our times, Holland's first Queen, Wilhelmina, has
nearly completed a decade of her wise and gracious reign.
Again in history, in the twentieth as in the sixteenth
century, the importance in the world of little states among
the great empires has been signally demonstrated. It
seems wholly proper that, in the Netherlands, once the
strenuous withstander in freedom's name of the arbitrary
claims of giant Spain, the South - American Eepublics
that won their independence from the same Power, should,
in the Second Peace Conference at The Hague, receive
the recognition of the civilized world. This second edition
surveys and interprets the course of the Netherlands his-
tory since 1898, and sums up the work of the latest Parlia-
ment of Man. The change of name seems appropriate,
both in justice to the historian of Barnevelt and Maurice,
the personators, respectively, of State Eight and National
Supremacy, and in view of the notable revival of the spirit
of Dutch nationalism. W. E. G.
ITHACA, NEW YORK, January 6, 1908.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Historical Introduction. From Caesar to Charles V xi
Biographical Notes xix
PART I
CHAPTER PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS (1555-1659)
I. The Abdication of the Emperor 3
II. Egmont at St. Quentin and Gravelines .16
III. The Spanish King Leaves the Netherlands 43
PART II
ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUCHESS MARGARET (1559-1567)
I. The Sister of Philip 61
II. King, Regent, Cardinal, Elector, and Patriot .... 85
III. Church Discipline — The Inquisition 103
IV. Cardinal Granvelle Retired 123
V. A Nation Condemned to Death 140
VI. The Nobles' Compromise and " The Beggars " . . . 159
VII. The Image-Storm 187
VIII. Field-preaching and the King's Wrath 199
IX. Orange, Brederode, Horn, and Egmont 213
X. Valenciennes Falls— The Great Exodus . , 238
PART III
ALVA (1567-1573)
I. The Council of Blood 251
II. The Execution of Egmont and Horn 272
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
III. The War of Independence Begun 294
IV. Orange Takes the Field 301
V. Alva's Experiments in Finance 314
VI. The Beggars of the Sea Capture Brill 330
VII. Count Louis, the Huguenots, and St. Bartholomew . . 847
VIII. The Massacres at Zutphen, Naarden, and Haarlem . . 359
IX. Alkmaar and Dutch Victories on the Zuyder Zee . . . 380
PART IV
ADMINISTRATION OP THE GRAND COMMANDER (1673-1676)
I. The Doleful Defeat at Mookerheyde 397
II. Siege and Relief of Leyden 413
III. The First Union of the Dutch States 431
IV. Orange's Toleration — Spanish Mutiny 449
.V. The Pacification .of Ghent . 461
PART V
DON JOHN OP AUSTRIA (1576-1678)
I. The Hero of Lepanto 481
II. Three Parties— The Anabaptists Protected 496
III. Don John Foiled by Orange 507
IV. The Ruward of Brabant in Brussels 524
V. Inactive Armies— Patriotic Amsterdam . , 549
PART VI
ALEXANDER OP PARMA (1578-1584)
I. The Reconciled Provinces — The Union of Utrecht . . 571
II. Massacre at Maastricht — Turbulence at Ghent .... 591
III. Treason and Intrigues 603
IV. The Dutch Declaration of Independence 612
V. The Duke of Anjou— Orange Offered the Sovereignty . 633
VI. The French Fury— Death of Anjou 653
VII. The Father of his Country Assassinated 676
CONTENTS
PART VII
HISTORY OP THE DUTCH NATION (1684-1907)
CHAPTER pAGK
I. The Orphan Republic 693
II. The English Allies 705
III. The Model Army 719
IV. Nieuport and Ostend 740
V. Looking to the Great Truce 755
VI. Calvinist and Arminian 764
VII. Maurice and Barneveldt 777
VIII. State Right and National Sovereignty 796
IX. The Bloom of the Republic 812
X. Naval Wars with England 832
XI. Movements of Thought 848
XII. The Shadow of a Republic 867
XIII. Stadholder and Patriots 878
XIV. The French Occupation 899
XV. The Kingdom of the Netherlands 907
XVI. The Reign of Queen Wilhelmina 928
INDEX . 945
ILLUSTRATIONS
QUEEN WILHELMINA AND THE PRINCE CONSORT .... Fnntitpittt
MARGARET OP PARMA Fating p. 62
WILLIAM THE SILENT, PRINCE OP ORANGE " 68
CARDINAL GRANVELLE " 72
EGMONT " 92
PHILIP II. OF SPAIN " 134
SAINTE-ALDEGONDE " 160
HORN "206
DUKE OP ALVA " 252
SEA-BEGGARS CAPTURING BRILL, 1572 " 340
MODELS OF SHIPS IN GROOTE KERK, HAARLEM .... " 374
DE REQUESENS " 398
UNIVERSITY OP LEYDEN " 428
ATTACK ON A FORTRESS " 456
DON JOHN OP AUSTRIA " 482
THE ARCHDUKE MATTHIAS " 534
THE SPANISH GOVERNORS AND CATHOLIC PRIESTS BAN-
ISHED FROM AMSTERDAM, 1578 " 554
ALEXANDER FARNESE, DUKE OF PARMA " 574
PRISON GATE, THE HAGUE . " 608
MAURICE OP NASSAU " 694
DEVENTER BETRAYED TO THE SPANIARDS, 1587 .... " 712
ERASMUS " 768
BARNEVELDT " 780
THE EXECUTION OP EARNEVELDT " 802
GROTIUS " 806
TROMP . " 824
xii ILLUSTRATIONS
DE RUYTER Fatinyp . 836
JOHN DE WITT " 838
THE MURDER OF THE DE WITTS . . . .' " 844
WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND " 862
VIEW OF THE VYVERBERG AT THE HAGUE " 886
FIRST SESSION OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE, AT THE HAGUE,
JUNE, 1907 " 940
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
THE early ages, from a hundred years before Christ to
the tenth century of the Christian era, form the pre-his-
toric era of the Dutch people. These are the days of
Frisians, Batavians, Komans, Saxons, and Franks. The
Eoman dominion falls and vanishes in the fifth century.
Then paganism passes away, and Christianity enters the
lowlands of northwestern Europe. The new Caesar,
Charles the Great, re-establishes civilization and solidarity.
His weak son cannot wield the sceptre. The three grand-
sons of Charlemagne divide western Europe between
themselves, by the compact of Verdun, August 8, A.D.
843. Thenceforward there are Germans, Frenchmen, and
Italians.
The Netherlands are not assigned to Louis the German
to be identified with the German Empire, but become
part of Lotharingia, or the domain of Lothair. For sev-
eral centuries after the Verdun compact, the fortunes of
the Low Countries, and especially of the Belgic portion,
are closely connected with the shifting political struct-
ures lying southward, rather than with either the great
Gallic domain on the west or the Teutonic realm on the
east.
For centuries the Ehine's delta lands and the interior
regions reached by the three rivers flowing from France
and Germany, the Scheldt, the Maas, and the Ehine, are
harried and devastated by the Norsemen. This outward
pressure of enemies, together with equally potent causes
from within, compels the development of feudalism.
Under this system there is no unity of government, but
xiv HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
only a great variety and complexity of functions and
methods of administration. Society is roughly divided
into two classes — the owners of land, who are few, and
those who own no land, who are many. The age of the
dukes and counts begins, lasting from the tenth to the
sixteenth century. The townships and dukedoms be-
come " Staatjes," as the Dutch say — little states which,
jealous and aspiring, begin those petty civil wars that
seem to be the necessary phenomena of feudalism in every
country of the world.
The great movement, called the Crusades, saves society
from stagnation, moves hosts of ignorant men towards
the old seats of light and culture, causes commerce to
spring up, helps, powerfully, first to mitigate and after-
wards to abolish slavery, promotes the rise of cities, and
develops a merchant and middle class that steadily wins
from the lords of the soil privileges, rights, and charters.
Along with the wealth and refinement of feudal courts,
and of noble families destined to become historic, there
proceeds also the growth of a common public sentiment.
This reveals itself in new phases of politics, which, how-
ever grotesque when viewed in the abounding light of our
age, show a struggle for the rights of humanity. Though
full of travail, these movements mean life and progress.
So must we interpret the uproar, riot, and bloodshed
between the rival and hostile parties, the Hooks and the
Cods, with their curious head-gear and their strange ban-
ners. States, in the political development of which
others besides the armed leaders and shorn priests are
interested, are being shaped and their features become
clear. We see in Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland, Bra-
bant, and Flanders communities of people who have ever-
increasing unity in common hopes and fears, in language
and traits of character, which are ever molded and inten-
sified by physical environment.
Through marriage and diplomacy it comes to pass that
the House of Burgundy rises to be paramount over most
of the Netherlands ; and, again, through marriage, Maxi-
milian of Austria makes himself master of many cities
and ends the strife of the Hooks and Cods. A brilliant
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION XV
period of prosperity is ushered in. Agriculture, com-
merce, art, and literature are cultivated, and the seven-
teen provinces of the Netherlands, from the mouth of
the Ems to the fountains of the Maas, form one of the
richest and most populous portions in Europe. The lan-
guages spoken — Frisian, Dutch or Flemish, and Freudi-
an now well established, and find enthusiastic cultiva-
tors who mold their speech into forms of strength and
beauty. The Eenaissance stimulates art, makes the can-
vas bloom, uprears cathedrals and town-halls, and covers
the land with churches that, imposing to the outward
view, are within made glorious with statuary, jewels, and
the spoils of the sea. Within these brick and stone tem-
ples it seems as though forest and grotto and fabled pal-
ace under the sea were transfigured and brought to the
service of religion. The wealth, the spices, the rare and
curious products of the East pour into the lap of the
Netherlands, and strange seeds and oriental fruits fall
upon her soil. Grander than the golden-fleece of fable
are the flocks of sheep and the fields of flax, making these
delta lands richer than those reached by the Argonauts.
With the needle and the pillow, the printing-press and
the loom, there arise in this home of industry wonderful
schools of lace-makers, printers and illustrators of books,
and weavers whose webs astonish the world. The build-
ers and decorators of lordly faqades and daring spires,
and of arches and columns and ceilings, seem to vie with
the nimble weavers, makers of lace, and beautifiers of
books. To the glory of God stone becomes tracery or
blooms with the flowers of the chisel, and oaken ceilings
blossom in color like parterres. In ordinary life, costume
of the richest kind adorns the person. The nobles vie
with each other in brilliancy of colors, rich stuffs, jewels,
and decorations for man, woman, and horse. Even the
burghers or citizens become oriental in the splendor of
their apparel.
So it was that this land, lying between the slopes and
the sea-coast of western Europe, was the fairest and most
promising part of Europe, even as its people were the
richest, when, in 1500, the new history of the Netherlands
xvi HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
began, and Charles the Fifth, born a Netherlander, entered
upon his career. It was he who gave possibilities of union
to the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands. Whether
his motive was noble or base, his aim from the first was
to annul, as far as possible, the disintegrating and divi-
sive influences which would prevent those provinces from
the attainment of solidarity. Even in his terrible mis-
takes and in the crudest of those acts most condemned
by modern historians, Charles the Fifth had but one idea
and purpose — the unity of the Netherlands. With this end
in view he became an intelligent and personally active
ruler. He was as fierce an advocate of uniformity in
belief and ritual as was Queen Elizabeth. Like all princes
of that age, he maintained the doctrine that the people
must be of the same religion with their ruler. Even his
advocacy of the inquisition was inspired by the same
motive. With all his faults, he was popular among the
people of the Netherlands.
Philip the Second, the son of Charles, while inheriting
his father's idea of keeping the Netherlands intact, was
controlled by a desire to make the Low Countries a mere
annex of Spain. In those days such a project was cen-
turies too late, and it is doubtful whether this could have
been accomplished even in the Middle Ages before na-
tionality had been wrought out. Being not merely an
advocate, but, indeed, the very embodiment of that kind of
religion which is based on brute force, Philip the Second
was aided in his plans, first by Cardinal Granvelle, and then
by the Duke of Alva. He sent this soldier, who quailed
at nothing, backed by the finest army in Europe, to melt
these "men of butter," as he supposed them to be, into
obedience to his will. He imagined that he could shape
the Netherlanders into submissive Spanish subjects, with
consciences moulded from Eome. A new era of history
began in the year 1568, with a war lasting for eighty years,
during which the events at Heiligerlee, Brill, Alkmaar,
Haarlem, and Leyden show that, in the northern provinces
at least, butter was not the chief ingredient in the com-
position of the Netherlander.
Confronting and surmounting the figures of Philip,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION xvii
Granvelle, Alva, and his successors was the German-born
William of Orange. With him were three brothers, not,
indeed, equalling the Silent One in ability, but ready to
pour out their generous blood and their gold in freedom's
cause. Adolph found a grave at Heiligerlee, Louis on
the heath at Mook, while John, the constructive statesman,
lived to see wrought out that Union of Utrecht which
made the Dutch Eepublic.
William of Orange became the true Father of the Dutch
Fatherland, and with true paternal love gave his all to
save it. He appealed first to the nobles. The nobles
were selfish, suspicious, turbulent, and failed both him
and their country. Then William appealed to the burgh-
ers ; but the burghers were jealous, narrow-minded, ab-
sorbed in local and petty interests, and unable to rise to
the needs of the hour and of true nationality, and, except
a few who were faithful, they too failed him, and by them
the salvation of the country was not wrought. Then Will-
iam the Silent appealed to the common people, and they,
with an instinct truer than that of noble or burgher, re-
sponded. They perceived what the hard-drinking, spoils-
seeking, luxury-loving seigniors could not see ; what town
magistrate, rich merchant, local politician, and slave of
legal precedent could not discern — that a nation had been
born. The common people proved to be the prophets.
They beheld union, and they resolved that it should be
preserved. They hailed William as the Father of their
country. "In Netherland story, the people is ever the
true hero," wrote Mr. Motley, and this is as true at the
end of the nineteenth as it was in the sixteenth century.
Mr. Motley begins his story of "The Eise of the Dutch
Republic " with the abdication of Charles the Fifth. A
survey of the previous rulers of the Dutch nation shows
that these belonged to six dynasties, or " Stamhuizen/' as
the Dutch call them, as follows :
1. The Holland dynasty (Het Hollandsche Huis), which
was founded in the year 923 by Count Dirk I., to whom
Charles the Simple granted some lands in fee, situated
in Holland. Of this dynasty, sixteen counts and one
countess ruled for 376 years, and with the death, in 1299,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
of Jan (John) I., who left no issue, it became extinct, and
the land was inherited by —
2. The dynasty of Hainanlt (Het Huis van Henegouwen).
Three counts and one countess of this dynasty were rulers
during half a century only ; Margaretha, wife of Louis of
Bavaria, having abdicated in favor of her son, William V.
of Bavaria, in the year 1349.
3. The dynasty of Bavaria (Het Huis van Beijeren)
ruled for 79 years by three counts and one countess,
Jacoba (the unfortunate Jacqueline). The latter trans-
ferred her rights to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy,
in 1428.
4. The dynasty of Burgundy (Het Huis van Bourgon-
die) ruled for 50 years. From this dynasty two counts
and one countess issued. The latter was Maria, wife of
Maximilian, Emperor of Austria, and after her death, in
1482, the dynasty of Burgundy passed over by inheritance
to—
5. The dynasty of Austria (Het Oostenrijlcsclie Huis).
From this dynasty, for a period of 86 years, ruled Philip
the Fair, King of Castile, who died in 1529 ; Charles V.,
Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, who abdicated
in 1555, and his son, Philip II., King of Spain, against
whom the Low Countries revolted, and commenced their
war of independence in 1568.
6. The dynasty of Orange - Nassau (Het Huis van
Or anje- Nassau], of which, as far as regards the Nether-
lands, William of Orange, surnamed The Silent, is the
founder, and who, in 1568, took up arms against Philip II.,
Count of Holland, and became the head and leader of the
revolt.
Mr. Motley closes his own historical introduction of
ninety-two pages with this graphic summary :
" Within the little circle which encloses the seventeen
provinces are 208 walled cities, many of them among the
most stately in Christendom ; 150 chartered towns, 6300
villages, with their watch-towers and steeples, besides
numerous other more insignificant hamlets ; the whole
guarded by a belt of sixty fortresses of surpassing
strength.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION xix
" In this rapid sketch of the course and development
of the Netherland nation during sixteen centuries, we
have seen it ever marked by one prevailing characteristic,
one master-passion — the love of liberty, the instinct of
self-government. Largely compounded of the bravest
Teutonic elements, Batavian and Frisian, the race ever
battles to the death with tyranny, organizes extensive
revolts in the age of Vespasian, maintains a partial inde-
pendence even against the sagacious dominion of Char-
lemagne, refuses in Friesland to accept the papal yoke or
feudal chain, and, throughout the dark ages, struggles
resolutely towards the light, wresting from a series of
petty sovereigns a gradual and practical recognition of
the claims of humanity. With the advent of the Burgun-
dian family, the power of the commons has reached so
. high a point that it is able to measure itself, undaunted,
with the spirit of arbitrary rule, of which that engrossing
and tyrannical house is the embodiment. For more than
a century the struggle for freedom, for civic life, goes on ;
Philip the Good, Charles the Bold, Mary's husband, Max-
imilian, Charles V., in turn assailing or undermining the
bulwarks raised, age after age, against the despotic princi-
ple. The combat is ever renewed. Liberty, often crushed,
rises again and again from her native earth with redoubled
energy. At last, in the sixteenth century, a new and
more powerful spirit, the genius of religious freedom,
comes to participate in the great conflict. Arbitrary
power, incarnated in the second Charlemagne, assails the
new combination with unscrupulous, unforgiving fierce-
ness. Venerable civic magistrates, haltered, grovel in
sackcloth and ashes ; innocent religious reformers burn
in holocausts. By the middle of the century the battle
rages more fiercely than ever. In the little Netherland
territory, Humanity, bleeding but not killed, still stands
at bay al^d defies the hunters. The two great powers
have been gathering strength for centuries. They are
soon to be matched in a longer and more determined com-
bat than the world had ever seen. The emperor is about
to leave the stage. The provinces, so passionate for na-
tionality, for municipal freedom, for religious reforma-
XX HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
tion, are to become the property of an utter stranger ; a
prince foreign to their blood, their tongue, their religion,
their whole habits of life and thought.
' ' Such was the political, religious, and social condition
of a nation who were now to witness a new and momen-
tous spectacle."
BIOGKAPHICAL NOTES
SIDNEY SMITH'S sneering question, "Who reads an
American book ?" was very quickly answered in 1855,
when Mr. John Lothrop Motley published his three octavo
volumes on The Rise of the Dutch Republic. Trans-
lated into Dutch, French, and German, this old story,
told in new style and with surprising freshness, was read
all over Europe and in the Dutch and English colonies
throughout the world. After this auspicious beginning,
though with intervals of some years, Mr. Motley followed
with four volumes on The History of the United Nether-
lands and two volumes on The Life and Death of John of
Barneveld. These nine volumes told in brilliant detail and
with masterly insight the story of the heroic period of
Netherlandish history, from 1555 to 1619.
At the beginning of his work, Mr. Motley was compara-
tively unknown. Before his death he was a leading Ameri-
can man of letters, an acknowledged master of histori-
ography, and an honored plenipotentiary of the United
States of America at the capitals of the Austro-Hungarian
and British empires.
The story of his life has been told by his friend, Dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes,* and in his own letters, edited by
reorge William Curtis, f Descended from Irish and Non-
3ouformist English ancestry, John Lothrop Motley, named
* John Lothrop Motley: A Memoir, by Oliver Wendell Holmes. New
York, 1891, Harper & Brothers.
f The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley, with portrait. New York,
1889, Harper & Brothers.
XX11
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
after his maternal grandfather, was born in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, now a part of Boston, on the 15th of April,
1814. Of delicate organization he was fond of few out-
door sports. He delighted in reading Scott and Cooper.
The novelists and the poets were his favorite authors.
Among his playmates were Thomas Gold Appleton and
"Wendell Phillips. Among his teachers was George Ban-
croft, the historian. Young Motley " had a remarkable facili-
ty for acquiring languages, excelled as a reader and as a
writer, and was the object of general admiration for his
many gifts." At eleven he began a novel, writing, at least,
two chapters. At thirteen he entered Harvard College.
After graduation, he spent a year of reading and travel in
Europe. Returning to America he studied law, married,
on the 2d of March, 1837, Miss Mary Benjamin, daughter
of Mr. Park Benjamin. In 1839 he published his first novel,
Morton's Hope, which is now a rare literary curiosity.
Appointed Secretary to the Legation of the United States
of America in St. Petersburg, he spent a few months in
Russia during 1841 and 1842. Three years later, in the
North American Review for October, 1844, he published
his first serious effort in historical composition. In this
essay on "Peter the Great and Russia/' "he showed in
epitome his qualities as a historian and biographer/' A
critical essay on "Balzac "and another on the "Polity of
the Puritans " followed in the same periodical. He wrote :
" We enjoy an inestimable advantage in America. One
can be a Republican, a Democrat, without being a radical.
A radical, one who would uproot, is a man whose trade is
dangerous to society. Here is but little to uproot. The
trade cannot flourish. All classes are conservative by ne-
cessity, for none can wish to change the structure of our
polity."
Mr. Motley served one term in the Massachusetts House
of Representatives, and then wrote his second novel, Merry
Mount, a Romance of the Massachusetts Colony. This,
though not lacking appreciative literary notices at the
time of its appearance, is a rarity even in Boston libraries.
" The half historical ground he had chosen had already
led him to the entrance into the broader domain of his-
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES xxiii.
tory." While engaged in collecting materials for his
history, the future author of The Rise of the Dutch Republic
learned that Mr. W. H. Prescott contemplated writing A
History of Philip the Second. The young aspirant called
upon the veteran scholar and frankly stated his own desire
and purpose. With hearty personal encouragement, and
later with a complimentary notice of Motley's forthcoming
work in the Preface of his own, Prescott showed a rare
example of disinterested kindness.
After several years of preparatory reading and research,
Mr. Motley went to Europe and spent five years in investi-
gating the archives of Berlin, Dresden^ the Hague, and
Brussels, finding everywhere courtesy and kindness from
librarians and archivists. When his mass of manuscript
was ready, he could find no publisher willing to risk
capital on its publication ; so the author issued it at his
own risk and charges. Its reception was most gratifying.
He spent a year in America and then returned to England.
Titles and honors began to pour upon him, and his wel-
come into English society was warm and sincere.
The first two volumes of his History of the United Nether-
lands appeared in 1860. When the slave-holder's rebellion
precipitated civil war in America, he became one of the
first defenders of union and the flag by writing a remarka-
ble letter to the London Times, which cleared the situation
to the British mind and was powerfully effective in setting
forth the real cause of the war and the mighty issues at
stake. He paid a visit to America in 1861, and visited the
camps on the Potomac. He was appointed by President
Lincoln Minister to Vienna. After serving six years, he
sent his resignation to President Johnson. By this time
his two concluding volumes of the History of the United
Netherlands were ready for the press. They appeared in
1868, and, like his former writings, won high encomiums
from Dutch scholars. Eeturning once more to America,
and living at 2 Park Street, Boston, he took an active in-
terest in the election of General Grant to the Presidency, and
delivered an address on the Historic Progress of. American
Democracy before the New York Historical Society. He
was appointed Minister to Great Britain and charged with
xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
the especial business of settling the Alabama claims, but
was recalled by President Grant ; becoming, it is now gen-
erally believed, the innocent victim of the personal hostil-
ity between the chief executive and the chairman of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Motley then
went to live in the Hague, occupying the house of which
the great Pensionary, John de Witt, had been the former
tenant. Here he wrote his last work, which he had origin-
ally intended to be " the natural sequel to the first works —
viz, The Thirty Years' War." In pursuit of his purpose
he was able to carry out only a portion of his programme,
and to issue two volumes entitled John of Barneveld, which
brought the narrative of events only to 1619, instead of
1648. The death of his wife on the last day of 1874 was
a crushing blow to the historian, and one from which he
never recovered. After another visit to his native land,
he returned to Europe, dying near Dorchester, England,
May 29, 1877. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery,
just outside of London. His tomb is inscribed, at his own
request, with his name, with dates and place of birth and
death, and the Scripture, "In God is light and in Him is
no darkness at all."
Beside the honors most appropriate and gratifying to
an author — wide public recognition of his labors, as shown
in the reading of his books by whole nations, and their
translation into tongues other than his own — Mr. Motley
was honored with direct recognition and praise from emi-
nent scholars and critics on both sides of the Atlantic, and
election into the membership of many learned historical
societies in Europe and America. Honorary degrees were
awarded him by the leading universities of England,
Netherlands, and the United States. The highest degree
as Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Moral and
Political Sciences was also conferred upon him, only one
other American having received it.
In person Mr. Motley was strikingly handsome, having
inherited much of his mother's almost regal beauty. His
portraits and the marble bust in the Boston Public Library
show this. The qualities of his mind — an inheritance of
Celtic fire and wit blended with Teutonic calm and
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES XXV
thoroughness — are apparent in his works. His industry
was prodigious, astonishing even the Dutchmen. To have
read Bor, Brandt, Hooft, Van Meteren, Orlers, Strada,
Gachard, Kluit, and Van Prinsterer, besides immense
masses of Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, and English
correspondence — all in the involved and stilted idiom of
former days and often in the most hideous and repulsive
handwriting — required an iron will, heroic perseverance,
and giant industry. Of the very worst script — that of
Olden-Barneveldt, copies were indeed made, but those fa-
miliar with the Netherlandish archives — admirably as they
are kept, are divided in their admiration, not knowing
which to admire the more, Motley's genius or his patience.
Busken Huet, the leading modern critic, praises the Amer-
ican for succeeding where Schiller failed — in making the
Netherland's story interesting. Dr. T. Blom Coster, the
family physician of Queen Sophia and of Mr. Motley, told
me that the author of De Opkomst van de NederlandscJie
RepuUieTc had read through Wagenaar's VaderlandscJie
Historie nine times. My copy of Wagenaar contains
seventy-eight closely-printed volumes. Motley's favorite
Dutch author was Hooft, whose love of truth and superb
style fascinated his American admirer, who knew much of
the text of his single octavo by heart. In the fine por-
trait which Queen Sophia had painted of her friend, Mr.
Motley, and which now hangs in the House in the Woods,
near the Hague, the American historian of the Dutch Ke-
public holds a copy of Hooft in his hand.
Apart from his great merits and influence as a writer
and as a historian, Motley's example has been powerful in
other directions and provocative to research everywhere.
His methods were directly the reverse of not a few of the
older historians ; for example, of Alison, who began writ-
ing the History of Europe, without making any special
preparation. On the contrary, Motley made long and
laborious researches and manifold preparations before
writing a line of his Rise of The Dutch Republic. In mod-
ern historiography he led the van of the great company,
in which are the names of Freeman, Froude, and Gardner,
in England, and Van Prinsterer, Fruin, and Blok, in the
XXvi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Netherlands. Without question, Motley gave a tremen-
dous impetus to historical research in the Netherlands,
and no writers are more generous in their acknowledg-
ment of stimulus and benefit received from the American
than Dutch and Belgian authors.
Of the limitations which belong to all human personal-
ity and labor, this is not the place to speak. Mr. Motley
was essentially a painter and a dramatist. From early
childhood he loved color, costume, and the brilliant and
moving representation of character and action. In the
Netherlands, the home of art in Northern Europe, he
studied, and was stimulated for his own work before the
triumphs of the pencil and brush almost as much as by
his delving among manuscripts of the archives. It would
be strange, indeed,, if Motley had been unique among men
in rising above all subjective influences and eliminating
all danger of personal opinions ; yet, after all deductions
and criticisms, his work on The Rise of the Dutch Repub-
lic bids fair to remain a classic.
Ipart 1F
PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS
1555-1559
CHAPTER I
THE ABDICATION OF THE EMPEROR
ON the twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, the estates
of the Netherlands were assembled in the great hall of
the palace at Brussels. They had been summoned to be
the witnesses and the guarantees of the abdication which
Charles the Fifth had long before resolved upon, and which
he was that day to execute. The Emperor, like many po-
tentates before and since, was fond of great political spec-
tacles. He knew their influence upon the masses of man-
kind. Although plain, even to shabbiness, in his own
costume, and usually attired in black, no one ever under-
stood better than he how to arrange such exhibitions in
a striking and artistic style. The closing scene of his
long and energetic reign he had now arranged with pro-
found study, and with an accurate knowledge of the man-
ner in which the requisite effects were to be produced.
The termination of his own career, the opening of his be-
loved Philip's, were to be dramatized in a manner worthy
the august character of the actors, and the importance of
the great stage where they played their parts. The eyes
of the whole world were directed upon that day towards
Brussels; for an imperial abdication was an event which
had not, in the sixteenth century, been staled by custom.
The gay capital of Brabant — of that province which re-
joiced in the liberal constitution known by the cheerful
title of the " joyful entrance," was worthy to be the scene
of the imposing show. Brussels had been a city for more
than five centuries, and, at that day, numbered about
one hundred thousand inhabitants. Its walls, six miles in
circumference, were already two hundred years old. Un-
4 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1665
like most Netherland cities, lying usually upon extensive
plains, it was built along the sides of an abrupt promon-
tory. A wide expanse of living verdure, cultivated gar-
dens, shady groves, fertile corn-fields, flowed round it like
a sea. The foot of the town was washed by the little
river Senne, while the irregular but picturesque streets
rose up the steep sides of the hill like the semicircles
and stairways of an amphitheatre. Nearly in the heart of
the place rose the audacious and exquisitely embroidered
tower of the town-house, three hundred and sixty-six feet
in height, a miracle of needle -work in stone, rivalling
in its intricate carving the cobweb tracery of that lace
which has for centuries been synonymous with the city,
and rearing itself above a faqade of profusely decorated
and brocaded architecture. The crest of the elevation
was crowned by the towers of the old ducal palace of
Brabant, with its extensive and thickly wooded park on
the left, and by the stately mansions of Orange, Eg-
mont, Aremberg, Culemburg, and other Flemish grandees,
on the right. The great forest of Soignies, dotted with
monasteries and convents, swarming with every variety of
game, whither the citizens made their summer pilgrim-
ages, and where the nobles chased the wild-boar and the
stag, extended to within a quarter of a mile of the city
walls. The population, as thrifty, as intelligent, as pros-
perous as that of any city in Europe, was divided into
fifty-two guilds of artisans, among which the most impor-
tant were the armorers, whose suits of mail would turn a
musket-ball ; the gardeners, upon whose gentler creations
incredible sums were annually lavished ; and the tap-
estry-workers, whose gorgeous fabrics were the wonder
of the world. Seven principal churches, of which the
most striking was that of St. Gudule, with its twin tow-
ers, its charming fagade, and its magnificently painted
windows, adorned the upper part of the city. The num-
ber seven was a magic number in Brussels, and was sup-
posed at that epoch, during which astronomy was in its
infancy and astrology in its prime, to denote the seven
planets which governed all things terrestrial by their
aspects and influences. Seven noble families, springing
1555] THE PALACE 5
from seven ancient castles, supplied the stock from which
the seven senators were selected who composed the upper
council of the city. There were seven great squares,
seven city gates, and upon the occasion of the present
ceremony, it was observed by the lovers of wonderful co-
incidences, that seven crowned heads would be congre-
gated under a single roof in the liberty-loving city.
The palace where the states - general were upon this
occasion convened had been the residence of the Dukes
of Brabant since the days of John the Second, who had
built it about the year 1300. It was a spacious and con-
venient building, but not distinguished for the beauty of
its architecture. In front was a large open square, en-
closed by an iron railing ; in the rear an extensive and
beautiful park, filled with forest trees, and containing
gardens and labyrinths, fish-ponds and game preserves,
fountains and promenades, race - courses and archery
grounds. The main entrance to this edifice opened upon
a spacious hall, connected with a beautiful and symmetri-
cal chapel. The hall was celebrated for its size, harmoni-
ous proportions, and the richness of its decorations. It
was the place where the chapters of the famous order of
the Golden Fleece were held. Its walls were hung with a
magnificent tapestry of Arras, representing the life and
achievements of Gideon the Midianite, and giving partic-
ular prominence to the miracle of the " fleece of wool,"
vouchsafed to that renowned champion, the great patron
of the Knights of the Fleece. On the present occasion
there were various additional embellishments of flowers
and votive garlands. At the western end a spacious plat-
form or stage, with six or seven steps, had been construct-
ed, below which was a range of benches for the deputies
of the seventeen provinces. Upon the stage itself there
were rows of seats, covered with tapestry, upon the right
hand and upon the left. These were respectively to ac-
commodate the knights of the order and the guests of
high distinction. In the rear of these were other benches,
for the members of the three great councils. In the cen-
tre of the stage was a splendid canopy, decorated with the
arms of Burgundy, beneath which were placed three gild-
6 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
ed arm-chairs. All the seats upon the platform were va-
cant, but the benches below, assigned to the deputies of
the provinces, were already filled. Numerous representa-
tives from all the states but two — Gelderland and Over-
yssel — had already taken their places. Grave magistrates,
in chain and gown, and executive officers in the splendid
civic uniforms for which the Netherlands were celebrated,
already filled every seat within the space allotted. The
remainder of the hall was crowded with the more favored
portion of the multitude which had been fortunate enough
to procure admission to the exhibition. The archers and
hallebardiers of the body - guard kept watch at all the
doors. The theatre was filled — the audience was eager
with expectation — the actors were yet to arrive. As the
clock struck three, the hero of the scene appeared. Cae-
sar, as he was always designated in the classic language
of the day, entered, leaning on the shoulder of William of
Orange. They came from the chapel, and were imme-
diately followed by Philip the Second and Queen Mary of
Hungary. The Archduke Maximilian, the Duke of Savoy,
and other great personages came afterwards, accompanied
by a glittering throng of warriors, councillors, governors,
and Knights of the Fleece.
Many individuals of existing or future historic celebrity
in the Netherlands, whose names are so familiar to the
student of the epoch, seemed to have been grouped, as
if by premeditated design, upon this imposing platform,
where the curtain was to fall forever upon the mightiest
emperor since Charlemagne, and where the opening scene
of the long and tremendous tragedy of Philip's reign was
to be simultaneously enacted. There was the Bishop of
Arras, soon to be known throughout Christendom by the
more celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle, the serene
and smiling priest whose subtle influence over the desti-
nies of so many individuals then present, and over the fort-
unes of the whole land, was to be so extensive and so
deadly. There was that flower of Flemish chivalry, the
lineal descendant of ancient Frisian kings, already distin-
guished for his bravery in many fields, but not having yet
won those two remarkable victories which were soon to
1555] CONSPICUOUS PERSONAGES 7
make the name of Egmont like the sound of a trumpet
throughout the whole country. Tall, magnificent in cos-
tume, with dark flowing hair, soft brown eye, smooth
cheek, a slight mustache, and features of almost femi-
nine delicacy ; such was the gallant and ill-fated Lamoral
Egmont. The Count of Horn, too, with bold, sullen face
and fan - shaped beard — a brave, honest, discontented,
quarrelsome, unpopular man ; those other twins in doom
—the Marquis Berghen and the Lord of Montigny ; the
Baron Berlaymont, brave, intensely loyal, insatiably
greedy for office and wages, but who, at least, never served
but one party ; the Duke of Aerschot, who was to serve all,
essay to rule all, and to betray all — a splendid seignor,
magnificent in cramoisy velvet, but a poor creature, who
traced his pedigree from Adam, according to the family
monumental inscriptions at Louvain, but who was better
known as grand-nephew of the Emperor's famous tutor,
Chievres ; the bold, debauched Brederode, with handsome,
reckless face and turbulent demeanor ; the infamous
Noircarmes, whose name was to be covered with eternal
execration, for aping towards his own compatriots and
kindred as much of Alva's atrocities and avarice as he
was permitted to exercise ; the distinguished soldiers
Meghen and Aremberg — these, with many others whose
deeds of arms were to become celebrated throughout
Europe, were all conspicuous in the brilliant crowd.
There, too, was that learned Frisian, President Viglius,
crafty, plausible, adroit, eloquent — a small, brisk man,
with long yellow hair, glittering green eyes, round, tumid,
rosy cheeks, and flowing beard. Foremost among the
Spanish grandees, and close to Philip, stood the famous
favorite, Ruy Gomez, or, as he was familiarly called, "Re
i Gomez" (King and Gomez), a man of meridional as-
pect, with coal-black hair and beard, gleaming eyes, a face
pallid with intense application, and slender but hand-
some figure, while in immediate attendance upon the Em-
peror was the immortal Prince of Orange.
Such were a few only of the most prominent in that gay
throng, whose fortunes, in part, it will be our humble
duty to narrate ; how many of them passing through all
8 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1665
this glitter to a dark and mysterious doom ! — some to per-
ish on public scaffolds, some by midnight assassination ;
others, more fortunate, to fall on the battle-field — nearly
all, sooner or later, to be laid in bloody graves !
All the company present had risen to their feet as the
Emperor entered. By his command, all immediately af-
terwards resumed their places. The benches at either
end of the platform were accordingly filled with the royal
and princely personages invited, with the Fleece Knights,
wearing the insignia of their order, with the members of
the three great councils, and with the governors. The
Emperor, the King, and the Queen of Hungary, were left
conspicuous in the centre of the scene. As the whole ob-
ject of the ceremony was to present an impressive exhibi-
tion, it is worth our while to examine minutely the ap-
pearance of the two principal characters.
Charles the Fifth was then fifty -five years and eight
months old; but he was already decrepit with premature
old age. He was of about the middle height, and had
been athletic and well proportioned. Broad in the shoul-
ders, deep in the chest, thin in the flank, very muscular
in the arms and legs, he had been able to match himself
with all competitors in the tourney and the ring, and to
vanquish the bull with his own hand in the favorite
national amusement of Spain. He had been able in the
field to do the duty of captain and soldier, to endure fa-
tigue and exposure, and every privation except fasting.
These personal advantages were now departed. Crippled
in hands, knees, and legs, he supported himself with diffi-
culty upon a crutch, with the aid of an attendant's shoul-
der. In face he had always been extremely ugly, and
time had certainly not improved his physiognomy. His
hair, once of a light color, was now white with age, close-
clipped and bristling ; his beard was gray, coarse, and
shaggy. His forehead was spacious and commanding ;
the eye was dark-blue, with an expression both majestic
and benignant. His nose was aquiline, but crooked.
The lower part of his face was famous for its deformity.
The under lip, a Burgundian inheritance, as faithfully
transmitted as the duchy and county, was heavy and
1555] CHARLES AND PHILIP 9
hanging ; the lower jaw protruding so far beyond the up-
per that it was impossible for him to bring together the
few fragments of teeth which still remained, or to speak a
whole sentence in an intelligible voice. Eating and talk-
ing, occupations to which he was always much addict-
ed, were becoming daily more arduous, in consequence
of this original defect, which now seemed hardly human,
but rather an original deformity.
So much for the father. The son, Philip the Second,
was a small, meagre man, much below the middle height,
with thin legs, a narrow chest, and the shrinking, timid
air of an habitual invalid. He seemed so little, upon his
first visit to his aunts, the Queens Eleanor and Mary,
accustomed to look upon proper men in Flanders and
Germany, that he was fain to win their favor by making
certain attempts in the tournament, in which his success
was sufficiently problematical. " His body," says his pro-
fessed panegyrist, "was but a human cage, in which,
however brief and narrow, dwelt a soul to whose flight
the immeasurable expanse of heaven was too contracted."
The same wholesale admirer adds that "his aspect was
so reverend that rustics who met him alone in a wood,
without knowing him, bowed down with instinctive ven-
eration." In face, he was the living image of his father,
having the same broad forehead and blue eye, with the
same aquiline, but better proportioned, nose. In the
lower part of the countenance, the remarkable Burgun-
dian deformity was likewise reproduced. He had the
same heavy, hanging lip, with a vast mouth, and mon-
strously protruding lower jaw. His complexion was fair,
his hair light and thin, his beard yellow, short, and
pointed. He had the aspect of a Fleming, but the lofti-
ness of a Spaniard. His demeanor in public was still,
silent, almost sepulchral. He looked habitually on the
ground when he conversed, was chary of speech, embar-
rassed, and even suffering in manner. This was ascribed
partly to a natural haughtiness which he had occasional-
ly endeavored to overcome, and partly to habitual pains
in the stomach, occasioned by his inordinate fondness for
pastry.
10 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1556
Such was the personal appearance of the man who was
about to receive into his single hand the destinies of half
the world ; whose single will was, for the future, to shape
the fortunes of every individual then present, of many
millions more in Europe, America, and at the ends of the
earth, and of countless millions yet unborn.
The three royal personages being seated upon chairs
placed triangularly under the canopy, such of the audience
as had seats provided for them, now took their places, and
the proceedings commenced. Philibert de Brnxelles, a
member of the privy council of the Netherlands, arose at
the Emperor's command, and made a long oration, which
has been fully reported by several historians who were
present at the ceremony. He then proceeded to read the
deed of cession, by which Philip, already sovereign of Sic-
ily, Naples, Milan, and titular King of England, France,
and Jerusalem, now received all the duchies, marquis-
ates, earldoms, baronies, cities, towns, and castles of the
Burgundian property, including, of course, the seventeen
Netherlands.
As De Bruxelles finished, there was a buzz of admira-
tion throughout the assembly, mingled with murmurs of
regret that, in the present great danger upon the frontiers
from the belligerent King of France and his warlike and
restless nation, the provinces should be left without their
ancient and puissant defender. The Emperor then rose
to his feet. Leaning on his crutch, he beckoned from
his seat the personage upon whose arm he had leaned as
he entered the hall. A tall, handsome youth of twenty-
two came forward — a man whose name from that time
forward, and as long as history shall endure, has been,
and will be, more familiar than any other in the mouths
of Netherlanders. At that day he had rather a southern
than a German or Flemish appearance. He had a Spanish
cast of features, dark, well chiselled, and symmetrical.
His head was small and well placed upon his shoulders.
His hair was dark-brown, as were also his mustache and
peaked beard. His forehead was lofty, spacious, and
already prematurely engraved with the anxious lines of
thought. His eyes were fall, brown, well opened, and
1BBB] A PATHETIC SCENE 11
expressive of profound reflection. He was dressed in the
magnificent apparel for which the Netherlander were
celebrated above all other nations, and which the cere-
mony rendered necessary. His presence being considered
indispensable at this great ceremony, he had been sum-
moned but recently from the camp on the frontier, where,
notwithstanding his youth, the Emperor had appointed
him to command his army in chief against such antago-
nists as Admiral Coligny and the Due de Nevers.
Thus supported upon his crutch and upon the shoulder
of William of Orange, the Emperor proceeded to address
the states, by the aid of a closely written brief which he
held in his hand, reviewing rapidly the progress of events
from his seventeenth year up to that day. In conclusion,
he entreated the estates, and through them the nation, to
render obedience to their new Prince, to maintain concord,
and to preserve inviolate the Catholic faith ; begging them,
at the same time, to pardon him all errors or offences
which he might have committed towards them during his
reign, and assuring them that he should unceasingly re-
member their obedience and affection in his every prayer
to that Being to whom the remainder of his life was to be
dedicated.
Such brave words as these, so many vigorous assever-
ations of attempted performance of duty, such fervent
hopes expressed of a benign administration in behalf of
the son, could not but affect the sensibilities of the audi-
ence, already excited and softened by the impressive char-
acter of the whole display. Sobs were heard through-
out every portion of the hall, and tears poured profusely
from every eye. The Fleece Knights on the platform and
the burghers in the background were all melted with the
same emotion. As for the Emperor himself, he sank al-
most fainting upon his chair as he concluded his ad-
dress. An ashy paleness overspread his countenance, and
he wept like a child. Even the icy Philip was almost
softened, as he rose to perform his part in the ceremony.
Dropping upon his knees before his father's feet, he rev-
erently kissed his hand. Charles placed his hand solemn-
ly upon his son's head, made the sign of the cross, and
12 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
blessed him in the name of the Holy Trinity. Then raising
him in his arms, he tenderly embraced him, saying, as he
did so, to the great potentates around him, that he felt
a sincere compassion for the son on whose shoulders so
heavy a weight had just devolved, and which only a life-
long labor would enable him to support. Philip now
uttered a few words expressive of his duty to his father
and his affection for his people. Turning to the orders,
he signified his regret that he was unable to address them
either in the French or Flemish language, and was there-
fore obliged to ask their attention to the Bishop of Arras,
who would act as his interpreter. Antony Perrenot ac-
cordingly arose, and, in smooth, fluent, and well-turned
commonplaces, expressed at great length the gratitude of
Philip towards his father, with his firm determination to
walk in the path of duty, and to obey his father's counsels
and example in the future administration of the provinces.
This long address of the prelate was responded to at equal
length by Jacob Maas, member of the Council of Brabant,
a man of great learning, eloquence, and prolixity, who had
been selected to reply on behalf of the states-general, and
who now, in the name of these bodies, accepted the abdi-
cation in an elegant and complimentary harangue. Queen
Mary of Hungary, the " Christian widow " of Erasmus,
and Regent of the Netherlands during the past twenty-
five years, then rose to resign her office, making a brief
address expressive of her affection for the people, her re-
grets at leaving them, and her hopes that all errors which
she might have committed during her long administration
would be forgiven her. Again the redundant Maas re-
sponded, asserting in terms of fresh compliment and ele-
gance the uniform satisfaction of the provinces with her
conduct during her whole career.
The orations and replies having now been brought to a
close, the ceremony was terminated. The Emperor, lean-
ing on the shoulders of the Prince of Orange and of the
Count de Buren, slowly left the hall, followed by Philip,
the Queen of Hungary, and the whole court ; all in the
same order in which they had entered, and by the same
passage into the chapel.
1655] CAUSES OF THE ABDICATION 13
It is obvious that the drama had been completely suc-
cessful.
The transfer of the other crowns and dignitaries to
Philip was accomplished a month afterwards in a quiet
manner. Spain, Sicily, the Balearic Islands, America,
and other portions of the globe, were made over without
more display than an ordinary donatio inter vivos. The
empire occasioned some difficulty. Delay ensued on
account of war and the deaths of electors. Though
chosen Emperor in February, 1553, Ferdinand was first
recognized as such by Pope Pius IV.
It had been already signified to Ferdinand that his
brother was to resign the imperial crown in his favor,
and the symbols of sovereignty were accordingly trans-
mitted to him by the hands of William of Orange. Charles
occupied a private house in Brussels, near the gate of
Louvain, until August of the year 1556, and on the 17th
of September he set sail from Zeeland for Spain.
Had the Emperor continued to reign, he would have
found himself engaged in mortal combat with the great
religious movement in the Netherlands, which he would
not have been able many years longer to suppress, and
which he left as a legacy of blood and fire to his succes-
sor. Born in the same year with his century, Charles
was a decrepit, exhausted man at fifty -five, while that
glorious age in which humanity was to burst forever the
cerements in which it had so long been buried was but
awakening to a consciousness of its strength.
Disappointed in his schemes, broken in his fortunes,
with income anticipated, estates mortgaged, all his affairs
in confusion, failing in mental powers, and with a con-
stitution hopelessly shattered, it was time for him to re-
tire. He showed his keenness in recognizing the fact
that neither his power nor his glory would be increased
should he lag superfluous on the stage, where mortifica-
tion instead of applause was likely to be his portion. His
frame was indeed but a wreck. Forty years of unex-
ampled gluttony had done their work. He was a victim
to gout, asthma, dyspepsia, gravel. He was crippled in
the neck, arms, knees, and hands. He was troubled with
14 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
chronic cutaneous eruptions. His appetite remained, while
his stomach, unable longer to perform the task still imposed
upon it, occasioned him constant suffering. Physiologists,
who know how important a part this organ plays in the
affairs of life, will perhaps see in this physical condition
of the Emperor a sufficient explanation, if explanation were
required, of his descent from the throne.
The romantic picture of his philosophical retirement at
Juste, painted originally by Sandoval and Siguenza, repro-
duced by the fascinating pencil of Strada, and imitated in
frequent succession by authors of every age and country,
is unfortunately but a sketch of fancy. The investigations
of modern writers have entirely thrown down the scaffold-
ing on which the airy fabric, so delightful to poets and
moralists, reposed. The departing Emperor stands no
longer in a transparency robed in shining garments. His
transfiguration is at an end. Every action, almost every
moment, of his retirement, accurately chronicled by those
who shared his solitude, have been placed before our eyes,
in the most felicitous manner, by able and brilliant writers.
The Emperor, shorn of the philosophical robe in which he
had been conventionally arrayed for three centuries, shiv-
ers now in the cold air of reality.
So far from his having immersed himself in profound
and pious contemplation, below the current of the world's
events, his thoughts, on the contrary, were never for a
moment diverted from the political surface of the times.
Bitter regrets that he should have kept his word to Luther,
as if he had not broken faith enough to reflect upon in
his retirement ; stern self-reproach for omitting to put to
death, while he had him in his power, the man who had
caused all the mischief of the age ; fierce instructions
thundered from his retreat to the inquisitors to hasten
the execution of all heretics — including particularly his
ancient friends, preachers, and almoners, Cazalla and Con-
stantine de Fuente ; furious exhortations to Philip — as if
Philip needed a prompter in such a work — that he should
set himself to " cutting out the root of heresy with rigor
and rude chastisement"; such explosions of savage big-
otry as these, alternating with exhibitions of revolting
1555] A REVOLTING SPECTACLE 15
gluttony, with surfeits of sardine omelettes, Estramadura
sausages, eel - pies, pickled partridges, fat capons, quince
syrups, iced beer, and flagons of Khenish, relieved by
copious draughts of senna and rhubarb, to which his
horror-stricken doctor doomed him as he ate — compose a
spectacle less attractive to the imagination than the an-
cient portrait of the cloistered Charles. Unfortunately it
is the one which was painted from life.
CHAPTER II
EGMONT AT ST. QUENTIN AND GRAVELINES
PHILIP THE SECOND had received the investiture of Milan
and the crown of Naples previously to his marriage with
Mary Tudor. The imperial crown he had been obliged,
much against his will, to forego. The archduchy of
Austria, with the hereditary German dependencies of his
father's family, had been transferred by the Emperor to
his brother Ferdinand, on the occasion of the marriage
of that Prince with Anna, only sister of King Louis of
Hungary. Ten years afterwards, Ferdinand (King of
Hungary and Bohemia since the death of Louis, slain in
1526 at the battle of Mohacz) was elected King of the
Romans, and steadily refused all the entreaties afterwards
made to him in behalf of Philip, to resign his crown
and his succession to the empire in favor of his nephew.
With these diminutions, Philip had now received all the
dominions of his father. He was King of all the Spanish
kingdoms and of both the Sicilies. He was titular King
of England, France, and Jerusalem. He was "Absolute
Dominator " in Asia, Africa, and America ; he was Duke
of Milan and of both Burgundies, and Hereditary Sover-
eign of the seventeen Netherlands.
Thus the provinces had received a new master. A man
of foreign birth and breeding, not speaking a word of
their language, nor of any language which the mass of the
inhabitants understood, was now placed in supreme au-
thority over them, because he represented, through the
females, the " good " Philip of Burgundy, who a century
before had possessed himself by inheritance, purchase,
force, or fraud, of the sovereignty in most of those prov-
1655] PHILIP'S YOUTH 17
inces. It is necessary to say an introductory word or two
concerning the previous history of the man to whose hands
the destiny of so many millions was now intrusted.
He was born in May, 1527, and was now therefore twenty-
eight years of age. At the age of sixteen he had been
united to his cousin, Maria of Portugal, daughter of John
the Third, and of the Emperor's sister, Donna Catalina.
In the following year (1544) he became father of the cele-
brated and ill-starred Don Carlos, and a widower. The
Princess owed her death, it was said, to her own impru-
dence and to the negligence or bigotry of her attendants.
The Duchess of Alva, and other ladies who had charge
of her during her confinement, deserted her chamber in
order to obtain absolution by witnessing an auto-da-fe of
heretics. During their absence, the Princess partook vora-
ciously of a melon, and forfeited her life in consequence.
In 1548 Don Philip had made his first appearance in the
Netherlands. He came thither to receive homage in the
various provinces as their future sovereign, and to ex-
change oaths of mutual fidelity with them all. Andrew
Doria, with a fleet of fifty ships, had brought him to
Genoa, whence he had passed to Milan, where he was re-
ceived with great rejoicing. At Trent he was met by
Duke Maurice of Saxony, who warmly begged his inter-
cession with the Emperor in behalf of the imprisoned
Landgrave of Hesse. This boon Philip was graciously
pleased to promise, and to keep the pledge as sacredly as
most of the vows plighted by him during this memorable
year. The Duke of Aerschot met him in Germany with a
regiment of cavalry and escorted him to Brussels. A sum-
mer was spent in great festivities, the cities of the Nether-
lands vying with each other in magnificent celebrations
of the ceremonies by which Philip successively swore al-
legiance to the various constitutions and charters of the
provinces, and received their oaths of future fealty in re-
turn. His oath to support all the constitutions and privi-
leges was without reservation, while his father and grand-
father had only sworn to maintain the charters granted or
confirmed by Philip and Charles of Burgundy. Suspicion
was disarmed by these indiscriminate concessions, which
2
18 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
had been resolved upon by the unscrupulous Charles to
conciliate the good - will of the people. In view of the
pretensions which might be preferred by the Brederode
family in Holland, and by other descendants of ancient
sovereign races in other provinces, the Emperor, wishing
to insure the succession to his sisters in case of the deaths
of himself, Philip, and Don Carlos without issue, was un-
sparing in those promises which he knew to be binding
only upon the weak. Although the house of Burgundy
had usurped many of the provinces on the express pretext
that females could not inherit, the rule had been already
violated, and he determined to spare no pains to concili-
ate the estates, in order that they might be content with a
new violation, should the contingency occur. Philip's
oaths were therefore without reserve, and the light-heart-
ed Flemings, Brabantines, and Walloons received him with
open arms. In Valenciennes the festivities which attend-
ed his entrance were on a most gorgeous scale, but the
" joyous entrance " arranged for him at Antwerp was of
unparalleled magnificence. A cavalcade of the magistrates
and notable burghers, "all attired in cramoisy velvet,"
attended by lackeys in splendid liveries and followed by
four thousand citizen soldiers in full uniform, went forth
from the gates to receive him. Twenty-eight triumphal
arches, which alone, according to the thrifty chronicler,
had cost 26,800 Carolus guldens, were erected in the dif-
ferent streets and squares, and every possible demonstra-
tion of affectionate welcome was lavished upon the Prince
and the Emperor. The rich and prosperous city, uncon-
scious of the doom which awaited it in the future, seemed
to have covered itself with garlands to honor the approach
of its master. Yet icy was the deportment with which
Philip received these demonstrations of affection, and
haughty the glance with which he looked down upon these
exhibitions of civic hilarity, as from the height of a grim
and inaccessible tower. The impression made upon the
Netherlander was anything but favorable, and when he
had fully experienced the futility of the projects on the
empire which it was so difficult both for his father and
himself to resign, he returned to the more congenial soil
1556] PHILIP IN ENGLAND 19
of Spain. In 1554 he had again issued from the peninsula
to marry the Queen of England, a privilege which his fa-
ther had graciously resigned to him. He was united to
Mary Tudor at Winchester, on the 25th of July of that year,
and if congeniality of tastes could have made a marriage
happy, that union should have been thrice blessed. To
maintain the supremacy of the Church seemed to both the
main object of existence, to execute unbelievers the most
sacred duty imposed by the Deity upon anointed princes,
to convert their kingdoms into a hell the surest means of
winning heaven for themselves.
When her chronic maladies had assumed the memora-
ble form which caused Philip and Mary to unite in a let-
ter to Cardinal Pole, announcing not the expected but the
actual birth of a prince, but judiciously leaving the date
in blank, the momentary satisfaction and delusion of the
Queen were unbounded. The false intelligence was trans-
mitted everywhere. Great were the joy and the festivi-
ties in the Netherlands, where people were so easily made
to rejoice and keep holiday for anything. When the futil-
ity of the royal hopes could no longer be concealed, Philip
left the country, never to return till his war with France
made him require troops, subsidies, and a declaration of
hostilities from England.
Philip's mental capacity, in general, was not very highly
esteemed. His talents were, in truth, very much below
mediocrity. His mind was incredibly small. A petty
passion for contemptible details characterized him from
his youth, and as long as he lived he could neither learn
to generalize, nor understand that one man, however dili-
gent, could not be minutely acquainted with all the public
and private affairs of fifty millions of other men. He was
a glutton for work. He was born to write despatches, and
to scrawl comments upon those which he received. He
often remained at the council-board four or five hours at
a time, and he lived in his cabinet. He gave audiences to
ambassadors and deputies very willingly, listening atten-
tively to all that was said to him, and answering in mono-
syllables. He spoke no tongue but Spanish, and was suf-
ficiently sparing of that, but he was indefatigable with his
20 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
pen. He hated to converse, but he could write a letter
eighteen pages long when his correspondent was in the
next room and when the subject was, perhaps, one which
a man of talent could have settled with six words of his
tongue. The world, in his opinion, was to move upon
protocols and apostils. Events had no right to be born
throughout his dominions without a preparatory course
of his obstetrical pedantry. He could never learn that
the earth would not rest on its axis while he wrote a pro-
gramme of the way it was to turn. He was slow in decid-
ing, slower in communicating his decisions. He was prolix
with his pen, not from affluence, but from paucity of
ideas. He took refuge in a cloud of words, sometimes to
conceal his meaning, oftener to conceal the absence of
any meaning, thus mystifying not only others but himself.
To one great purpose, formed early, he adhered inflexibly.
This, however, was rather an instinct than an opinion ;
born with him, not created by him. The idea seemed to
express itself through him, and to master him, rather than
to form one of a stock of sentiments which a free agent
might be expected to possess. Although at certain times
even this master - feeling could yield to the pressure of
a predominant self-interest — thus showing that even in
Philip bigotry was not absolute — yet he appeared on the
whole the embodiment of Spanish chivalry and Spanish
religious enthusiasm, in its late and corrupted form. He
was entirely a Spaniard. The Burgundian and Austrian
elements of his blood seemed to have evaporated, and his
veins were filled alone with the ancient ardor, which in
heroic centuries had animated the Gothic champions of
Spain. The fierce enthusiasm for the Cross, which in the
long internal warfare against the Crescent had been the
romantic and distinguishing feature of the national char-
acter, had degenerated into bigotry. That which had
been a nation's glory now made the monarch's shame.
The Christian heretic was to be regarded with a more in-
tense hatred than even Moor or Jew had excited in the
most Christian ages, and Philip was to be the latest and
most perfect incarnation of all this traditional enthusiasm,
this perpetual hate. Thus he was likely to be single-
1555] SOME CHARACTERISTICS 21
hearted in his life. It was believed that his ambition
would be less to extend his dominions than to vindicate
his title of the Most Catholic King. There could be little
doubt entertained that he would be, at least, dutiful to
his father in this respect, and that the edicts would be en-
forced to the letter.
He was by birth, education, and character a Spaniard,
and that so exclusively that the circumstance would alone
have made him unfit to govern a country so totally differ-
ent in habits and national sentiments from his native land.
He was more a foreigner in Brussels, even, than in Eng-
land. The gay, babbling, energetic, noisy life of Flanders
and Brabant was detestable to him. The loquacity of the
Netherlander was a continual reproach upon his taciturn-
ity. His education had imbued him, too, with the anti-
quated international hatred of Spaniard and Fleming,
which had been strengthening in the metropolis, while the
more rapid current of life had rather tended to obliterate
the sentiment in the provinces.
The flippancy and profligacy of Philip the Handsome,
the extortion and insolence of his Flemish courtiers, had
not been forgotten in Spain, nor had Philip the Second
forgiven his grandfather for having been a foreigner. And
now his mad old grandmother, Joanna, who had for years
been chasing cats in the lonely tower where she had been
so long imprisoned, had just died ; and her funeral, cele-
brated with great pomp by both her sons, by Charles at
Brussels and Ferdinand at Augsburg, seemed to revive a
history which had begun to fade, and to recall the image
of Castilian sovereignty which had been so long obscured
in the blaze of imperial grandeur.
His education had been but meagre. In an age when
all kings and noblemen possessed many languages, he
spoke not a word of any tongue but Spanish, although he
had a slender knowledge of French and Italian, which he
afterwards learned to read with comparative facility. He
had studied a little history and geography, and he had a
taste for sculpture, painting, and architecture. Certainly
if he had not possessed a feeling for art, he would have
been a monster. To have been born in the earlier part of
22 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
the sixteenth century, to have been a king, to have had
Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands as a birthright, and not
to have been inspired with a spark of that fire which glow-
ed so intensely in those favored lands and in that golden
age, had indeed been difficult.
The King's personal habits were regular. His delicate
health made it necessary for him to attend to his diet,
although he was apt to exceed in sweetmeats and pastry.
He slept much, and took little exercise habitually, but he
had recently been urged by the physicians to try the effect
of the chase as a corrective to his sedentary habits. He
was most strict in religious observances, as regular at
mass, sermons, and vespers as a monk ; much more, it
was thought by many good Catholics, than was becoming
to his rank and age. Besides several friars who preached
regularly for his instruction, he had daily discussions
with others on abstruse theological points. He consulted
his confessor most minutely as to all the actions of life,
inquiring anxiously whether this proceeding or that were
likely to burden his conscience. He was grossly licen-
tious. It was his chief amusement to issue forth at night
disguised, that he might indulge in vulgar and miscel-
laneous incontinence in the common haunts of vice. This
was his solace at Brussels in the midst of the gravest
affairs of state. He was not illiberal, but, on the contrary,
it was thought that he would have been even generous
had he not been straitened for money at the outset of his
career. During a cold winter he distributed alms to the
poor of Brussels with an open hand. He was fond of
jests in private, and would laugh immoderately, when
with a few intimate associates, at buffooneries which he
checked in public by the icy gravity of his deportment.
He dressed usually in the Spanish fashion, with close
doublet, trunk hose, and short cloak, although at times
he indulged in the more airy fashions of France and
Burgundy, wearing buttons on his coats and feathers
in his hat. He was not thought at that time to be
cruel by nature, but was usually spoken of, in the con-
ventional language appropriated to monarchs, as a
prince "clement, benign, and debonair." Time was
1555] THE COUNCIL 23
to show the justice of his claims to snch honorable ep-
ithets. .
The court was organized during his residence at Brus-
sels on the Burgundian, not the Spanish, model, but of the
one hundred and fifty persons who composed it, nine-
tenths of the whole were Spaniards ; the other fifteen or
sixteen being of various nations — Flemings, Burgundians,
Italians, English, and Germans. Thus it is obvious how
soon he disregarded his father's precept and practice in
this respect, and began to lay the foundation of that re-
newed hatred to Spaniards which was soon to become so
intense, exuberant, and fatal throughout every class of
Netherlander. He esteemed no nation but the Spanish ;
with Spaniards he consorted, with Spaniards he counselled,
through Spaniards he governed.
His council consisted of five or six Spanish grandees,
the famous Ruy Gomez, then Count of Melito, afterwards
Prince of Eboli ; the Duke of Alva, the Count de Feria,
the Duke of Franca Villa, Don Antonio Toledo, and Don
Juan Manrique de Lara. The "two columns," said Suri-
ano, "which sustain this great machine are Euy Gomez
and Alva, and from their councils depends the govern-
ment of half the world." The two were ever bitterly
opposed to each other. Incessant were their bickerings,
intense their mutual hate, desperate and difficult the
situation of any man, whether foreigner or native, who
had to transact business with the government. If he had
secured the favor of Gomez, he had already earned the
enmity of Alva. Was he protected by the Duke, he was
sure to be cast into outer darkness by the favorite. Alva
represented the war party, Ruy Gomez the pacific polity,
more congenial to the heart of Philip.
The Queen of Hungary had resigned the office of Re-
gent of the Netherlands, as has been seen, on the occa-
sion of the Emperor's abdication. She was a woman of
masculine character, a great huntress before the Lord, a
celebrated horsewoman, a worthy descendant of the Lady
Mary of Burgundy. Notwithstanding all the fine phrases
exchanged between herself and the eloquent Maas, at the
great ceremony of the 25th of October, she was, in re-
24 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1555
ality, much detested in the provinces, and she repaid
their aversion with abhorrence.
The new Eegent was to be the Duke of Savoy. This
wandering and adventurous potentate had attached himself
to Philip's fortunes, and had been received by the. King
with as much favor as he had ever enjoyed at the hands
of the Emperor. Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, then about
twenty -six or twenty-seven years of age, was the son of the
late unfortunate Duke, by Donna Beatrice of Portugal,
sister of the Empress. He was the nephew of Charles,
and first cousin to Philip. War was not only his passion,
but his trade. Every one of his campaigns was a specula-
tion, and he had long derived a satisfactory income by
purchasing distinguished prisoners of war at a low price
from the soldiers who had captured them, and were igno-
rant of their rank, and by ransoming them afterwards at
an immense advance. This sort of traffic in men was
frequent in that age, and was considered perfectly hon-
orable. Marshal Strozzi, Count Mansfeld, and other pro-
fessional soldiers derived their main income from the
system. They were naturally inclined, therefore, to look
impatiently upon a state of peace as an unnatural con-
dition of affairs which cut off all the profits of their par-
ticular branch of industry* and condemned them to both
idleness and poverty. He had many accomplishments.
He spoke Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian with equal
fluency, was celebrated for his attachment to the fine arts,
and wrote much and with great elegance. With his new
salary as governor, his pensions, and the remains of his
possessions in Nice and Piedmont, he had now the splen-
did annual income of one hundred thousand crowns, and
was sure to spend it all.
Charles, in order to smooth the commencement of
Philip's path, had made a vigorous effort to undo, as it
were, the whole work of his reign, to suspend the opera-
tion of his whole political system. The Emperor and
conqueror, who had been warring all his lifetime, had
attempted, as the last act of his reign, to improvise a
peace, but the commissioners, who had been assembled at
Vaucelles since the beginning of the year 1556, signed
1566] ULTERIOR PURPOSES 25
a treaty of truce, rather than of peace, npon the 5th of
February. It was to be an armistice of five years, both
by land and sea, for France, Spain, Flanders, and Italy,
throughout all the dominions of the French and Span-
ish monarchs. The Pope was expressly included in the
truce, which was signed on the part of France by Admiral
Coligny and Sebastian FAubespine ; on that of Spain by
Count de Lalain, Philibert de Bruxelles, Simon Renard,
and Jean Baptiste Sciceio, a jurisconsult of Cremona.
During the previous month of December, however, the
Pope had concluded with the French monarch a treaty,
by which this solemn armistice was rendered an egregious
farce.
The secret treaty of the Pope was of course not so secret
but that the hollow intentions of the contracting parties to
the truce of Vaucelles were thoroughly suspected ; inten-
tions which certainly went far to justify the maxims and
the practice of the new Governor-General of the Nether-
lands upon the subject of armistices. Philip, understand-
ing his position, was revolving renewed military projects
while his subjects were ringing merry bells and lighting
bonfires in the Netherlands. These schemes, which were
to be carried out in the immediate future, caused, how-
ever, a temporary delay in the great purpose to which he
was to devote his life.
The Emperor Charles had always desired to regard the
Netherlands as a whole, and he hated the antiquated
charters and obstinate privileges which interfered with
his ideas of symmetry. Two great machines, the court of
Mechlin and the inquisition, would effectually simplify and
assimilate all these irregular and heterogeneous rights.
The civil tribunal was to annihilate all diversities in their
laws by a general cassation of their constitutions, and
the ecclesiastical court was to burn out all differences in
their religious faith. Between two such millstones it
was thought that the Netherlands might be crushed into
uniformity. Philip succeeded to these traditions. The
father had never sufficient leisure to carry out all his
schemes, but it seemed probable that the son would be a
worthy successor, at least in all which concerned the re-
26 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1556
ligious part of his system. One of the earliest measures
of his reign was to re-enact the dread edict of 1550. This
he did by the express advice of the Bishop of Arras, who
represented to him the expediency of making use of the
popularity of his father's name to sustain the horrible
system resolved upon. As Charles was the author of the
edict, it could be always argued that nothing new was in-
troduced ; that burning, hanging, and drowning for re-
ligious differences constituted a part of the national in-
stitutions ; that they had received the sanction of the wise
Emperor, and had been sustained by the sagacity of past
generations. Nothing could have been more subtle, as the
event proved, than this advice. Innumerable were the ap-
peals made in subsequent years, upon this subject, to the
patriotism and the conservative sentiments of the Nether-
landers. Repeatedly they were summoned to maintain the
inquisition, on the ground that it had been submitted to
by their ancestors, and that no change had been made by
Philip, who desired only to maintain Church and Crown
in the authority which they had enjoyed in the days of
his father, "of very laudable memory."
Nevertheless, the King's military plans seemed to inter-
fere for the moment with this cherished object. He seemed
to swerve, at starting, from pursuing the goal which he
was only to abandon with life. The edict of 1550 was
re-enacted and confirmed, and all office-holders were com-
manded faithfully to enforce it upon pain of immediate
dismissal. Nevertheless, it was not vigorously carried
into effect anywhere. It was openly resisted in Holland,
its proclamation was flatly refused in Antwerp and re-
pudiated throughout Brabant. It was strange that such
disobedience should be tolerated, but the King wanted
money. He was willing to refrain for a season from ex-
asperating the provinces by fresh religious persecution at
the moment when he was endeavoring to extort every
penny which it was possible to wring from their purses.
The joy, therefore, with which the pacification had
been hailed by the people was far from an agreeable spec-
tacle to the King. The provinces would expect that the
forces which had been maintained at their expense during
1556] PAUL IV. 27
the war would be disbanded, whereas he had no intention
of disbanding them. As the truce was sure to be tempo-
rary, he had no disposition to diminish his available re-
sources for a war which might be renewed at any moment.
To maintain the existing military establishment in the
Netherlands, a large sum of money was required, for the
pay was very much in arrear. The King had made a state-
ment to the provincial estates upon this subject, but the
matter was kept secret during the negotiations with
France. The way had thus been paved for the "Re-
quest," or " Bede," which he now made to the estates
assembled at Brussels in the spring of 1556. It was to
consist of a tax of one per cent, (the hundredth penny)
upon all real estate, and of two per cent, upon all mer-
chandise ; to be collected in three payments. The re-
quest, in so far as the imposition of the proposed tax was
concerned, was refused by Flanders, Brabant, Holland,
and all the other important provinces; but, as usual, a
moderate, even a generous, commutation in money was
offered by the estates. This was finally accepted by
Philip, after he had become convinced that at this mo-
ment, when he was contemplating a war with France, it
would be extremely impolitic to insist upon the tax. The
publication of the truce in Italy had been long delayed,
and the first infractions which it suffered were committed
in that country. The arts of politicians, the schemes of
individual ambition, united with the short-lived military
ardor of Philip to place the monarchy in an eminently
false position, that of hostility to the Pope. As was un-
avoidable, the secret treaty of December acted as an im-
mediate dissolvent to the truce of February.
Great was the indignation of Paul Caraffa when that
truce was first communicated to him by the Cardinal de
Tournon, on the part of the French government. Not-
withstanding the protestations of France that the secret
league was still binding, the Pontiff complained that he
was likely to be abandoned to his own resources, and to
be left single-handed to contend with the vast power of
Spain.
War was let loose again in Europe — a war of politics
28 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1557
and chicane in which there was hardly a pitched battle,
and scarcely an event of striking interest. The Duke of
Alva conducted the Italian campaign, making peace with
the Pope in a treaty signed the 14th of September, 1557.
France made an inglorious retreat and the Pontiff a
ludicrous capitulation. Cosmo de' Medici, who had duped
Spain, France, and Eome, was the only individual in Italy
who gained territorial advantage from the war, being
granted the sovereignty of Siena.
Simultaneously with the descent of the French troops
upon Italy, hostilities had broken out upon the Flemish
border. Admiral Coligny, who had been appointed Gov-
ernor of Picardy, had received orders to make a foray
upon the frontier of Flanders. According to a cunningly
devised plot, he was to seize, with the help of an ally in-
side the walls, the unsuspecting city of Douai.
The plot was a good one, but the Admiral of France,
on the 6th of January, 1557, was foiled by an old woman.
This person, apparently the only creature awake in the
town, perceived the danger, ran shrieking through the
streets, alarmed the citizens while it was yet time, and
thus prevented the attack. Coligny, disappointed in his
plan, recompensed his soldiers by a sudden onslaught
upon Lens, in Artois, which he sacked and then levelled
to the ground. Such was the wretched condition of
frontier cities, standing, even in time of peace, with the
ground undermined beneath them, and existing every mo-
ment, as it were, upon the brink of explosion.
Hostilities having been thus fairly commenced, the
French government was in some embarrassment. The
Duke of Guise, with the most available forces of the king-
dom, having crossed the Alps, it became necessary forth-
with to collect another army. The place of rendezvous
appointed was Pierrepont, where an army of eighteen
thousand infantry and five thousand horse were assembled
early in the spring. In the mean time Philip, finding the
war fairly afoot, had crossed to England for the purpose
(exactly in contravention of all his marriage stipulations)
of cajoling his wife and browbeating her ministers into a
participation in his war with France. This was easily ac-
1657] DECLARATION OF WAR BY ENGLAND 29
complished. The English people found themselves ac-
cordingly engaged in a contest with which they had no
concern, which, as the event proved, was very much
against their interests, and in which the moving cause
for their entanglement was the devotion of a weak, bad,
ferocious woman for a husband who hated her. A herald
sent from England arrived in France, disguised, and
was presented to King Henry at Eheims. Here, dropping
on one knee, he recited a list of complaints against his
majesty, on behalf of the English Queen, all of them fab-
ricated or exaggerated for the occasion, and none of them
furnishing even a decorous pretext for the war which was
now formally declared in consequence. The French mon-
arch expressed his regret and surprise that the firm and
amicable relations secured by treaty between the two
countries should thus, without sufficient cause, be violated.
In accepting the wager of warfare thus forced upon him,
he bade the herald, Norris, inform his mistress that her
messenger was treated with courtesy only because he
represented a lady, and that, had he come from a king,
the language with which he would have been greeted
would have befitted the perfidy manifested on the occasion.
God would punish this shameless violation of faith, and
this wanton interruption to the friendship of two great
nations. With this the herald was dismissed from the
royal presence, but treated with great distinction, con-
ducted to the hotel of the English ambassador, and pre-
sented on the part of the French sovereign with a chain
of gold.
Philip had despatched Ruy Gomez to Spain for the pur-
pose of providing ways and means, while he was himself
occupied with the same task in England. He stayed there
three months. During this time, he " did more/' says a
Spanish contemporary, " than any one could have believed
possible with that proud and indomitable nation. He
caused them to declare war against France with fire and
sword, by sea and land." Hostilities having been thus
chivalrously and formally established, the Queen sent an
army of eight thousand men — cavalry, infantry, and pio-
neers— who, " all clad in blue uniform," commanded by
30 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [155Y
Lords Pembroke and Clinton, with the three sons of the
Earl of Northumberland, and officered by many other sci-
ons of England's aristocracy, disembarked at Calais, and
shortly afterwards joined the camp before Saint-Quentin.
Philip meantime had left England, and, with more bus-
tle and activity than were usual with him, had given direc-
tions for organizing at once a considerable army. It was
composed mainly of troops belonging to the Netherlands,
with the addition of some German auxiliaries. Thirty-
five thousand foot and twelve thousand horse had, by the
middle of July, advanced through the province of Namur,
and were assembled at Givet under the Duke of Savoy,
who, as Governor -General of the Netherlands, held the
chief command. All the most eminent grandees of the
provinces — Orange, Aerschot, Berlaymont, Meghen, Bre-
derode — were present with the troops, but the life and
soul of the army, upon this memorable occasion, was the
Count of Egmont.
Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavre, was now
in the thirty-sixth year of his age, in the very noon of
that brilliant life which was destined to be so soon and so
fatally overshadowed. Not one of the dark clouds which
were in the future to accumulate around him had yet
rolled above his horizon. Young, noble, wealthy, hand-
some, valiant, he saw no threatening phantom in the fut-
ure, and caught eagerly at the golden opportunity, which
the present placed within his grasp, of winning fresh
laurels on a wider and more fruitful field than any in
which he had hitherto been a reaper. The campaign
about to take place was likely to be an imposing if not an
important one, and could not fail to be attractive to a
noble of so ardent and showy a character as Egmont. If
there were no loftly principles or extensive interests to be
contended for, as there certainly were not, there was yet
much that was stately and exciting to the imagination in
the warfare which had been so deliberately and pompously
arranged. The contending armies, although of moderat
size, were composed of picked troops, and were command-
ed by the flower of Europe's chivalry. Kings, princes,
and the most illustrious paladins of Christendom were
1657] COUNT EGMONT— HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER 31
arming for the great tournament, to which they had been
summoned by herald and trumpet ; and the Batavian hero,
without a crown or even a country, but with as lofty a lin-
eage as many anointed sovereigns could boast, was ambi-
tious to distinguish himself in the proud array.
Upon the northwestern edge of the narrow peninsula
of North Holland, washed by the stormy waters of the
German Ocean, were the ancient castle, town, and lord-
ship whence Egmont derived his family name, and the
title by which he was most familiarly known. He was
supposed to trace his descent, through aline of chivalrous
champions and crusaders, up to the pagan kings of the
most ancient of existing Teutonic races. The eighth cen-
tury names of the Frisian Radbold and Adgild among his
ancestors were thought to denote the antiquity of a house
whose lustre had been increased in later times by the
splendor of its alliances. Personally, he was distinguished
for his bravery, and although he was not yet the idol of
the camp which he was destined to become, nor had yet
commanded in chief on any important occasion, he was
accounted one of the five principal generals in the Span-
ish service. Eager for general admiration, he was at the
same time haughty and presumptuous, attempting to
combine the characters of an arrogant magnate and a
popular chieftain. Terrible and sudden in his wrath, he
was yet of inordinate vanity, and was easily led by those
who understood his weakness. With a limited educa-
tion, and a slender capacity for all affairs except those
relating to the camp, he was destined to be as vacillating
and incompetent as a statesman as he was prompt and
fortunately audacious in the field. A splendid soldier,
his evil stars had destined him to tread, as a politician,
a dark and dangerous path, in which not even genius,
caution, and integrity could insure success, but in which
rashness alternating with hesitation, and credulity with
violence, could not fail to bring ruin. Such was Count
Egmont, as he took his place at the head of the King's
cavalry in the summer of 1557.
The early operations of the Duke of Savoy were at first
intended to deceive the enemy. The army, after advanc-
32 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1667
ing as far into Picardy as the town of Vervins, which they
burned and pillaged, made a demonstration with their
whole force upon the city of Guise. This, however, was
but a feint, by which attention was directed and forces
drawn off from Saint-Quentin, which was to be the real
point of attack. In the mean time, the Constable of
France, Montmorency, arrived upon the 28th of July
(1557), to take command of the French troops. He was
accompanied by Marechal de Saint Andre and by Ad-
miral Coligny. The most illustrious names of France,
whether for station or valor, were in the officers' list of
this select army. Nevers and Montpensier, Enghien and
Conde, Vendome and Rochefoucauld, were already there,
and now the Constable and the Admiral came to add the
strength of their experience and lofty reputation to sus-
tain the courage of the troops. The French were at
Pierrepont, a post between Champagne and Picardy, and
in its neighborhood. The Spanish army was- at Vervins,
and threatening Guise.
It soon became certain, however, that the thriving city
of Saint-Quentin, on the Somme, was the real object of at-
tack by the allied forces. Before Admiral Coligny could
reinforce the garrison commanded by Teligny, his son-in-
law, the English auxiliaries arrived in the camp of the
Duke of Savoy. Coligny, in his haste, entered the city
almost alone. In one of the disastrous sorties, Teligny
received a mortal wound. On the 10th of August the
Constable Montmorency with an army of twenty-one thou-
sand men arrived at the edge of the morass fronting the
city. According to a plan suggested by Coligny, but in
full view of the enemy, he boldly attempted the intro-
duction of men and supplies into the city. The enter-
prise failed, only Andelot, brother of Coligny, with about
five hundred men, securing entrance, while many miser-
ably perished.
Meantime a council of officers was held in Egmont's
tent. Opinions were undecided as to the course to be
pursued under the circumstances. Should an engage-
ment be risked, or should the Constable, who had but in-
differently accomplished his project and had introduced
1557] THE BATTLE RESOLVED UPON 33
but an insignificant number of troops into the city, be
allowed to withdraw with the rest of his army ? The
fiery vehemence of Egmont carried all before it. Here
was an opportunity to measure arms at advantage with
the great captain of the age. To relinquish the prize
which the fortune of war had now placed within reach of
their valor was a. thought not to be entertained. Here
was the great Constable Montmorency, attended by princes
of the royal blood, the proudest of the nobility, the very
crown and flower of the chivalry of France, and followed
by an army of her bravest troops. On a desperate vent-
ure he had placed himself within their grasp. Should he
go thence alive and unmolested ? The moral effect of de-
stroying such an army would be greater than if it were
twice its actual strength. It would be dealing a blow
at the very heart of France, from which she could not
recover. Was the opportunity to be resigned without a
struggle of laying at the feet of Philip, in this his first
campaign since his accession to his father's realms, a prize
worthy of the proudest hour of the Emperor's- jeign ? The
eloquence of the impetuous Batavian was irresistible, and
it was determined to cut off the Constable's retreat.
Three miles from the Faubourg d'Isle, to which that
general had now advanced, was a narrow pass or defile,
between steep and closely hanging hills. While advancing
through this ravine in the morning, the Constable had ob-
served that the enemy might have it in their power to in-
tercept his return at that point. He had therefore left
the Ehinegrave, with his company of mounted carabineers,
to guard tbe passage. Being ready to commence his re-
treat, he now sent forward the Due de Nevers with four
companies of cavalry to strengthen that important po-
sition, which he feared might be inadequately guarded.
The act of caution came too late. This was the fatal
point which the quick glance of Egmont had at once de-
tected. As Nevers reached the spot, two thousand of the
enemy's cavalry rode through and occupied the narrow
passage. Inflamed by mortification and despair, Nevers
would have at once charged those troops, although out-
numbering his own by nearly four to one. His officers re-
3
34 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1557
strained him with difficulty, recalling to his memory the
peremptory orders which he had received from the Con-
stable to guard the passage, but on no account to hazard
an engagement until sustained by the body of the army.
It was a case in which rashness would have been the best
discretion. The headlong charge which the Duke had
been about to make might possibly have cleared the path
and have extricated the army, provided the Constable had
followed up the movement by a rapid advance upon his
part. As it was, the passage was soon blocked up by
freshly advancing bodies of Spanish and Flemish cavalry,
while Nevers slowly and reluctantly fell back upon the
Prince of Conde, who was stationed with the light horse
at the mill where the first skirmish had taken place. They
were soon joined by the Constable, with the main body of
the army. The whole French force now commenced its
retrograde movement. It was, however, but too evident
that they were enveloped. As they approached the fatal
pass through which lay their only road to La Fere, and
which was now in complete possession of the enemy, the
signal of assault was given by Count Egmont. That gen-
eral himself, at the head of two thousand light horse, led
the charge upon the left flank. The other side was as-
saulted by the Dukes Eric and Henry of Brunswick, each
with a thousand heavy dragoons, sustained by Count Horn,
at the head of a regiment of mounted gendarmerie. Mans-
feld, Lalaiu, Hoogstraaten, and Vilain at the same time
made a furious attack upon the front. The French cav-
alry wavered with the shock so vigorously given. The
camp-followers, sutlers, and pedlers, panic-struck, at once
fled helter-skelter, and in their precipitate retreat carried
confusion and dismay throughout all the ranks of the
army. The rout was sudden and total. The onset and
the victory were simultaneous. Nevers, riding through a
hollow with some companies of cavalry, in the hope of
making a detour and presenting a new front to the enemy,
was overwhelmed at once by the retreating French and
their furious pursuers. The day was lost, retreat hardly
possible; yet by a daring and desperate effort the Duke,
accompanied by a handful of followers, cut his way
1567] THE VICTORY 35
through the enemy and effected his escape. The cavalry
had been broken at the first onset and nearly destroyed.
A portion of the infantry still held firm, and attempted to
continue their retreat. Some pieces of artillery, however,
now opened upon them, and before they reached Essigny
the whole army was completely annihilated. The defeat
was absolute. Half the French troops actually engaged in
the enterprise lost their lives upon the field. The re-
mainder of the army was captured or utterly disorganized.
When Nevers reviewed, at Laon, the wreck of the Con-
stable's whole force, he found some thirteen hundred
French and three hundred German cavalry, with four com-
panies of French infantry, remaining out of fifteen, and
four thousand German foot remaining of twelve thousand.
Of tweiityrone or twenty-two thousand remarkably fine
and well-appointed troops, all but six thousand had been
killed or made prisoners within an hour. The Constable
himself, with a wound in the groin, was a captive. The
Duke of Enghien, after behaving with brilliant valor,
and many times rallying the troops, was shot through the
body, and brought into the enemy's camp only to expire.
The Dae do Montpensier, the Marechal de Saint Andre,
the Due de Longueville, Prince Ludovic of Mantua, the
Baron Gorton la Roche du Mayne, the Rhinegrave, the
Counts de Rochefoucauld, d'Aubigne, de Rochefort, all
were taken. The Due de Nevers, the Prince of Conde,
arid a few others, escaped ; although so absolute was the
conviction that such an escape was impossible that it was
not believed by the victorious army. When Nevers sent a
trumpeter, after the battle, to the Duke of Savoy, for the
purpose of negotiating concerning the prisoners, the
trumpeter was pronounced an impostor and the Duke's
letter a forgery ; nor was it till after the whole field had
been diligently searched for his dead body without suc-
cess that Nevers could persuade the conquerors that he
was still in existence.
Of Philip's army but fifty lost their lives. Lewis of
Brederode was smothered in his armor; and the two counts
Spiegelberg and Count Waldeck were also killed ; besides
these, no officer of distinction fell. All the French stand-
36 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1557
ards and all their artillery but two pieces were taken
and placed before the King, who the next day came into
the camp before Saint-Quentin. The prisoners of distinc-
tion were likewise presented to him in long procession.
Rarely had a monarch of Spain enjoyed a more signal
triumph than this which Philip now owed to the gallantry
and promptness of Count Egmont.
Such was the brilliant victory of Saint-Quentin, worthy
to be placed in the same list with the world-renowned
combats of Crecy and Agincourt. Like those battles,
also, it derives its main interest from the personal charac-
ter of the leader, while it seems to have been hallowed by
the tender emotions which sprang from his subsequent
fate. The victory was but a happy move in a winning
game. The players were kings, and the people were
stakes — not parties. It was a chivalrous display in a war
which was waged without honorable purpose, and in which
no single lofty sentiment was involved. The Flemish
frontier was, however, saved for the time from the misery
which was now to be inflicted upon the French border.
This was sufficient to cause the victory to be hailed as
rapturously by the people as by the troops. From that
day forth the name of the brave Hollander was like the
sound of a trumpet to the army. "Egmont and Saiut-
Quentin !" rang through every mouth to the farthest ex-
tremity of Philip's realms. A deadly blow was struck to
the very heart of France. The fruits of all the victories
of Francis and Henry withered. The battle, and oth-
ers which were to follow it won by the same hand, were
soon to compel the signature of the most disastrous treaty
which had ever disgraced the history of France.
The fame and power of the Constable faded — his mis-
fortunes and captivity fell like a blight upon the ancient
glory of the house of Montmorency — his enemies de-
stroyed his influence and his popularity; while the deg-
radation of the kingdom was simultaneous with the down-
fall of his illustrious name. On the other hand, the
exultation of Philip was as keen as his cold and stony
nature would permit. The magnificent palace-convent
of the Escurjal, dedicated to the saint on whose festival
1557] CRUELTY TO THE POPULATION 37
the battle had been fought, and built in the shape of the
gridiron on which that martyr had suffered, was soon
afterwards erected in pious commemoration of the event.
Such was the celebration of the victory. The reward
reserved for the victor was to be recorded on a later page
of history.
Philip, against the advice of his best military advisers,
failed to seize the golden fruits of his triumphs by imme-
diately advancing upon Paris. After mining and cannon-
ade by the besiegers and a valiant defence by the besieged,
Saint-Quentin was taken by assault on the 27th of August.
The carnage was succeeded by sack and conflagration, and
the work of killing, plundering, and burning lasted three
days and nights.
The women, meantime, had been again driven into the
cathedral, where they had housed during the siege, and
where they now crouched together in trembling expecta-
tion of their fate. On the 29th of August, at two o'clock in
the afternoon, Philip issued an order that every woman,
without an exception, should be driven out of the city
into the French territory. Saint-Quentin, which seventy
years before had been a Flemish town, was to be rean-
nexed, and not a single man, woman, or child who could
speak the French language was to remain another hour in
the place. The tongues of the men had been effectually
silenced. The women, to the number of three thousand
five hundred, were now compelled to leave the cathedral
and the city.
The most distinguished captives upon this occasion
were, of course, Coligny and his brother. Andelot was,
however, fortunate enough to make his escape that night
under the edge of the tent in which he was confined.
The Admiral was taken to Antwerp. Here he lay for
many weeks sick with a fever. Upon his recovery, hav-
ing no better pastime, he fell to reading the Scriptures.
The result was his conversion to Calvinism, and the world
shudders yet at the fate in which that conversion involved
him.
Saint-Quentin being thus reduced, Philip was not more
disposed to push his fortune. The time was now wasted
38 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1557-8
in the siege of several comparatively unimportant places,
so that the fruits of Egmont's valor were not yet allowed
to ripen. Early in September Le Catelet was taken. On
the 12th of the same month the citadel of Ham yielded,
after receiving two thousand shots from Philip's artillery,
while Nojon, Chanly, and some other places of less im-
portance, were burned to the ground. After all this smoke
and fire upon the frontier, productive of but slender con-
sequences, Philip disbanded his army and retired to
Brussels. He reached that city on the 12th of October.
The English returned to their own country. The cam-
paign of 1557 was closed without a material result, and
the victory of Saint-Quentin remained for a season barren.
In the mean time the French were not idle. On the 1st
of January, 1558, the Due de Guise appeared before Ca-
lais. After a tremendous cannonade, which lasted a week
and was heard in Antwerp, the city was taken by assault.
Thus the last vestige of English dominion, the last sub-
stantial pretext of the English sovereign to wear the title
and the lilies of France, was lost forever. King Henry
visited Calais, which after two centuries of estrangement
had now become a French town again, appointed Paul de
Thermes governor of the place, and then returned to Paris
to celebrate soon afterwards the marriage of the Dauphin
with the niece of the Guises, Mary, Queen of Scots.
These events secured the ascendency of the Catholic
party in the kingdom. Disastrous eclipse had come over
the houses of Montmorency and Coligny, while the star of
Guise, brilliant with the conquest of Calais, now cul-
minated.
It was at this period that the memorable interview be-
tween the two ecclesiastics, the Bishop of Arras and the
Cardinal de Lorraine, took place at Peronne. From this
central point commenced the weaving of that wide-spread
scheme in which the fate of millions was to be involved.
The Duchess Christina de Lorraine, cousin of Philip, had
accompanied him to Saint-Quentin. Permission had been
obtained by the Due de Guise and his brother, the Car-
dinal, to visit her at Peronne. The Duchess was accom-
panied by the Bishop of Arras, and the consequence was
1558] INTERVIEW AT PERONNE 39
a full and secret negotiation between the two priests. It
may be supposed that Philip's short-lived military ardor
had already exhausted itself. He had mistaken his voca-
tion, and already recognized the false position in which
he was placed. He was contending against the monarch
in whom he might find the surest ally against the arch-
enemy of both kingdoms, and of the world. The French
monarch held heresy in horror, while for himself, Philip
had already decided upon his life's mission.
The crafty Bishop was more than a match for the vain
and ambitious Cardinal. That prelate was assured that
Philip considered the captivity of Coligny and Montmo-
rency a special dispensation of Providence, while the tute-
lar genius of France, notwithstanding the reverses sus-
tained by that kingdom, was still preserved. The Cardinal
and his brother, it was suggested, now held in their hands
the destiny of the kingdom and of Europe. The interests
of both nations, of religion, and of humanity, made it im-
perative upon them to put an end to this unnatural war,
in order that the two monarchs might unite hand and
heart for the extirpation of heresy. That hydra-headed
monster had already extended its coils through France,
while its pestilential breath was now wafted into Flanders
from the German as well as the French border. Philip
placed full reliance upon the wisdom and discretion of the
Cardinal. It was necessary that these negotiations should
for the present remain a profound secret, but in the mean
time a peace ought to be concluded with as little delay as
possible ; a result which, it was affirmed, was as heartily
desired by Philip as it could be by Henry. The Bishop
was soon aware of the impression which his artful sugges-
tions had produced. The Cardinal, inspired by the flat-
tery thus freely administered, as well as by the prompt-
ings of his own ambition, lent a willing ear to the Bishop's
plans. Thus was laid the foundation of a vast scheme,
which time was to complete. A crusade with the whole
strength of the French and Spanish crowns was resolved
upon against their own subjects. The Bishop's task was
accomplished. The Cardinal returned to France, deter-
mined to effect a peace with Spain. He was convinced
40 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1558
that the glory of his house was to be infinitely enhanced,
and its power impregnably established, by a cordial co-
operation with Philip in his dark schemes against religion
and humanity. The negotiations were kept, however,
profoundly secret. A new campaign and fresh humilia-
tions were to precede the acceptance by France of the
peace which was thus proffered.
Meantime Philip, who was at Brussels, had directed the
Duke of Savoy to oppose the Due de Guise with an army
which had been hastily collected and organized at Muu-
beuge, in the province of Namur. He now desired, if
possible, to attack and cut off the forces of De Thermes
before he should extend the hand to Guise, or make good
his retreat to Calais.
Flushed with victory over defenceless peasants, laden
with the spoils of sacked and burning towns, the army of
De Thermes was already on its homeward march. It was
the moment for a sudden and daring blow. Egmont, in
obedience to the King's command, threw himself at once
into the field, taking up his position directly in the path
of the French army. He posted his army at Gravelines, a
small town lying near the sea-shore and about midway
between Calais and Dunkirk.
On the 13th of July Egmont, having characteristically
selected the post of danger in the very front of battle for
himself, dashed upon the enemy. His horse was shot un-
der him at the commencement of the action. Mounting
another, he again cheered his cavalry to the attack. It
was a wild, hand-to-hand conflict — general and soldier,
cavalier and pikeman, lancer and musketeer, mingled to-
gether in one dark, confused, and struggling mass, foot
to foot, breast to breast, horse to horse — a fierce, tumultu-
ous battle on the sands, worthy the fitful pencil of the
national painter Wouvermans. For a long time it was
doubtful on which side victory was to incline, but at last
ten English vessels unexpectedly appeared in the offing,
and, ranging up soon afterwards as close to the shore as
was possible, opened their fire upon the still unbroken lines
of the French. The spirit of the enemy was broken by this
attack upon their seaward side, which they had thought
1558] SPLENDID TRIUMPH 41
impregnable. At the same time, too, a detachment of
German cavalry, which had been directed by Egmont to
make their way under the downs to the southward, now
succeeded in turning their left flank. Egmont, profiting
by their confusion, charged them again with redoubled
vigor. The fate of the day was decided. The rout was
total ; horse and foot, French, Gascon, and German fled
from the field together. Fifteen hundred fell in the ac-
tion, as many more were driven into the sea, while great
numbers were torn to pieces by the exasperated peasants,
who now eagerly washed out their recent injuries in the
blood of the dispersed, wandering, and woimded soldiers.
The army of De Thermes was totally destroyed, and with
it the last hope of France for an honorable and equal
negotiation. She was now at Philip's feet, so that this
brilliant cavalry action, although it has been surpassed in
importance by many others in respect to the number of
the combatants and the principles involved in the contest,
was still, in regard to the extent both of its immediate
and its permanent results, one of the most decisive and
striking which have ever been fought. The French mon-
arch was soon obliged to make the best terms which he
could, and to consent to a treaty which was one of the
most ruinous in the archives of France.
Whatever might have been the faults of De Thermes
or of Guise, there could be little doubt as to the merit
of Egmont. Thus within eleven months of the battle of
Saint-Quentin had the Dutch hero gained another victory
so decisive as to settle the fate of the war, and to elevate
his sovereign to a position from which he might dictate
the terms of a triumphant peace. The opening scenes of
Philip's reign were rendered as brilliant as the proudest
days of the Emperor's career, while the provinces were en-
raptured with the prospect of early peace. To whom,
then, was the sacred debt of national and royal gratitude
due but to Lamoral of Egmont ? His countrymen gladly
recognized the claim. He became the idol of the army ;
the familiar hero of ballad and story ; the mirror of chiv-
alry, and the god of popular worship. Throughout the
Netherlands he was hailed as the right hand of the father-
42 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1558
land, the saviour of Flanders from devastation and out-
rage, the protector of the nation, the pillar of the throne.
The victor gained many friends by his victory, and one
enemy. The bitterness of that foe was likely, in the
future, to outweigh all the plaudits of his friends. The
Duke of Alva had strongly advised against giving battle
to De Thermes. He depreciated the triumph, after it had
been gained, by reflections upon the consequences which
would have flowed had a defeat been suffered instead. He
even held this language to Egmont himself after his re-
turn to Brussels. The conqueror, flushed with his glory,
was not inclined to digest the criticism, nor what he con-
sidered the venomous detraction of the Duke. More vain
and arrogant than ever, he treated his powerful Spanish
rival with insolence, and answered his observations with
angry sarcasm, even in the presence of the King. Alva
was not likely to forget the altercation, nor to forgive the
triumph.
CHAPTER III
THE SPANISH KING LEAVES THE NETHERLANDS
THE battle of Grravelines had decided the question.
The intrigues of the two ecclesiastics at Peronne having
been sustained by Egmont's victory, all parties were ready
for a peace. King Henry was weary of the losing game
which he had so long been playing ; Philip was anxious to
relieve himself from his false position, and to concentrate
his whole mind and the strength of his kingdom upon his
great enemy, the Netherlands heresy; while the Duke of
Savoy felt that the time had at last arrived when an adroit
diplomacy might stand him in stead, and place him in the
enjoyment of those rights which the sword had taken from
him, and which his own sword had done so much towards
winning back. The sovereigns .were inclined to peace,
and as there had never been a national principle or in-
stinct or interest involved in the dispute, it was very cer-
tain that peace would be popular everywhere, upon what-
ever terms it might be concluded.
Montmorency and the Prince of Orange were respec-
tively empoAvered to open secret negotiations. Early in
the autumn all the troops were disbanded, while the com-
missioners of both crowns met in open congress at the
abbey of Cercamp, near Cambray, by the middle of Oc-
tober. The envoys on the part of Philip were the Prince
of Orange, the Duke of Alva, the Bishop of Arras, Ruy
Gomez de Silva, the president Viglius ; on that of the
French monarch, the Constable, the Marechal de Saint
Andre, the Cardinal de Lorraine, the Bishop of Orleans,
and Claude 1'Aubespine. There were also envoys sent
by the Queen of England, but as the dispute concerning
44 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1558-9
Calais was found to hamper the negotiations at Cercamp,
the English question was left to be settled by another
congress, and was kept entirely separate from the arrange-
ments concluded between France and Spain.
The death of Queen Mary, on the 17th of November,
caused a temporary suspension of the proceedings. After
the widower, however, had made a fruitless effort to obtain
the hand of her successor, and had been unequivocally
repulsed, the commissioners again met in February, 1559,
at Gateau - Cambresis. The English difficulty was now
arranged by separate commissioners, and on the 3d of
April a treaty between France and Spain was concluded.
By this important convention both Kings bound them-
selves to maintain the Catholic worship inviolate by all
means in their power, and agreed that an oecumenical
council should at once assemble, to compose the religious
differences and to extinguish the increasing heresy in both
kingdoms. Furthermore, it was arranged that the con-
quests made by each country during the preceding eight
years should be restored. Thus all the gains of Francis
and Henry were annulled by a single word, and the Duke
of Savoy converted, by a dash of the pen, from a land-
less soldier of fortune into a sovereign again. He was to
receive back all his estates, and was, moreover, to marry
Henry's sister Margaret, with a dowry of three hundred
thousand crowns. Philip, on the other hand, now a
second time a widower., was to espouse Henry's daughter
Isabella, already betrothed to the Infant Don Carlos, and
to receive with her a dowry of four hundred thousand
crowns. The restitutions were to be commenced by
Henry, and to be completed within three months. Philip
was to restore his conquests in the course of a month
afterwards.
Most of the powers of Europe were included by both
parties in this treaty — the Pope, the Emperor, all the
Electors, the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Switzerland,
the kingdoms of England, Scotland, Poland, Denmark,
Sweden, the duchies of Ferrara, Savoy, and Parma, be-
sides other inferior principalities. Nearly all Christen-
dom, in short, was. embraced in this most amicable corn-
1559] TREATY OF CATEAU-CAMBRESIS 45
pact, as if Philip were determined that, henceforth and
forever, Calvinists and Mohammedans, Turks and Flem-
ings, should be his only enemies.
The King of France was to select four hostages from
among Philip's subjects, to accompany him to Paris as
pledges for the execution of all the terms of the treaty.
The royal choice fell upon the Prince of Orange, the Duke
of Alva, the Duke of Aerschot, and the Count of Egmont.
Such was the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. Thus was a
termination put to a war between France and Spain
which had been so wantonly undertaken.
Marshal Monluc wrote that a treaty so disgraceful and
disastrous had never before been ratified by a French
monarch. The accumulated plunder of years, which was
now disgorged by France, was equal in value to one-third
of that kingdom. One hundred and ninety-eight forti-
fied towns were surrendered, making, with other places
of greater or less importance, a total estimated by some
writers as high as four hundred.
The well-known tragedy by which the solemnities of
this pacification were abruptly concluded in Paris bore
with it an impressive moral. The monarch who, in viola-
tion of his plighted word and against the interests of his
nation and the world, had entered precipitately into a
causeless war, now lost his life in fictitious combat at the
celebration of peace. On the 10th of July, Henry the
Second died of the wound inflicted by Montgomery in the
tournament held eleven days before. Henry had lived
long enough, however, after the conclusion of the secret
agreement to reveal it to one whose life was to be employed
in thwarting this foul conspiracy of monarchs against
their subjects. William of Orange, then a hostage for
the execution of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, was the
man with whom the King had the unfortunate conception
to confer on the subject of the plot. The Prince, who
had already gained the esteem of Charles the Fifth by his
habitual discretion, knew how to profit by the intelligence
and to bide his time ; but his hostility to the policy of
the French and Spanish courts was perhaps dated from
that hour.
46 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
Pending the peace negotiations, Philip had been called
upon to mourn for his wife and father. He did not
affect grief for the death of Mary Tudor, but he honored
the Emperor's departure with stately obsequies at Brus-
sels. The ceremonies lasted two days (the 29th and 30th
of December, 1558).
The early part of the year 1559 was spent by Philip in
organizing the government of the provinces and in making
the necessary preparations for his departure.
The Duchess Margaret of Parma, natural daughter of
Charles the Fifth, was chosen by her brother, the King,
Regent of the Netherlands. The boards of council or-
ganized to assist the new Regent were three in number — a
state and privy council, and one of finance. They were
not new institutions, having been originally established
by the Emperor, and were now arranged by his successor
upon the same nominal basis upon which they had before
existed. The finance council, which had superintendence
of all matters relating to the royal domains and to the an-
nual budgets of the government, was presided over by
Baron Berlaymont. The privy council, of which Viglius
was president, was composed of ten or twelve learned doc-
tors, and was especially intrusted with the control of mat-
ters relating to law, pardons, and the general administra-
tion of justice. The state council, which was far the most
important of the three boards, was to superintend all high
affairs of government — war, treaties, foreign intercourse,
internal and inter-provincial affairs. The members of this
council were the Bishop of Arras, Viglius, Berlaymont,
the Prince of Orange, Count of Egmont, to which number
were afterwards added the Seigneur de Glayon, the Duke
of Aerschot, and Count Horn. The last-named nobleman,
who was admiral of the provinces, had, for the present,
been appointed to accompany the King to Spain, there to
be specially intrusted with the administration of affairs
relating to the Netherlands. He was destined, however,
to return at the expiration of two years.
With the object, as it was thought, of curbing the power
of the great nobles, it had been arranged that the three
councils should be entirely distinct from one another, that
1559] TFIREE COUNCILS 47
the members of the state council should have no partici-
pation in the affairs of the two other bodies ; but, on the
other hand, that the finance and privy councillors, as well
as the Knights of the Fleece, should have access to the
.deliberations of the state council. In the course of events,
however, it soon became evident that the real power of
the government was exclusively in the hands of the con-
sulta, a committee of three members of the state council,
by whose deliberations the Regent was secretly instructed
to be guided on all important occasions. The three — Vig-
lius, Berlaymont, and Arras — who composed the secret
conclave or cabinet were in reality but one. The Bishop
of Arras was in all three, and the three together consti-
tuted only the Bishop of Arras.
There was no especial governor, or stadholder, appointed
for the province of Brabant, where the Regent was to re-
side and to exercise executive functions in person. The
stadholders for the other provinces were, for Flanders and
Artois, the Count of Egmont ; for Holland, Zealand, and
Utrecht, the Prince of Orange ; for Guelders and Zutfen,
the Count of Meghen ; for Friesland, Groningen, and Over-
yssel, Count Aremberg ; for Hainault, Valenciennes, and
Cambrai, the Marquis of Berghen ; for Tournay and Tour-
naisis, Baron Montigny ; for Namur, Baron Berlaymont ;
for Luxemburg, Count Mansfeld ; for Ryssel, Douai, and
Orchies, the Baron Coureires. All these stadholders were
commanders-in-chief of the military forces in their respec-
tive provinces. With the single exception of the Count of
Egmont, in whose province of Flanders the stadholders
were excluded from the administration of justice, all were
likewise supreme judges in the civil and criminal tribunal.
The military force of the Netherlands in time of peace
was small, for the provinces were jealous of the presence
of soldiery. The only standing army which then legally
existed in the Netherlands were the Bandes d'Ordonnance,
a body of mounted gendarmerie — amounting in all to
three thousand men — which ranked among the most ac-
complished and best disciplined cavalry of Europe. They
were divided into fourteen squadrons, each under the
command of a stadholder, or of a distinguished noble.
48 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
Besides these troops, however, there still remained in the
provinces a foreign force amounting in the aggregate to
four thousand men. These soldiers were the remainder
of those large bodies which year after year had been quar-
tered upon the Netherlands during the constant warfare
to which they had been exposed. Living upon the sub-
stance of the country, paid out of its treasury, and as of-
fensive by their licentious and ribald habits of life as were
the enemies against whom they were enrolled, these troops
had become an intolerable burden to the people. They
were now disposed in different garrisons, nominally to
protect the frontier. As a firm peace, however, had now
been concluded between Spain and France, and as there
was no pretext for compelling the provinces to accept this
protection, the presence of a foreign soldiery strengthened
a suspicion that they were to be used in the onslaught
which was preparing against the religious freedom and the
political privileges of the country. They were to be the
nucleus of a larger army, it was believed, by which the
land was to be reduced to a state of servile subjection to
Spain. A low, constant, but generally unheeded murmur
of dissatisfaction and distrust upon this subject was already
perceptible throughout the Netherlands — a warning pre-
sage of the coming storm.
All the provinces were now convoked for the 7th of
August (1559), at Ghent, there to receive the parting com-
munication and farewell of the King. Previously to this
day, however, Philip appeared in person upon several sol-
emn occasions, to impress upon the country the necessity
of attending to the great subject with which his mind was
exclusively occupied. He came before the great council
of Mechlin, in order to address that body with his own
lips upon the necessity of supporting the edicts to the let-
ter, and of trampling out every vestige of heresy, wherever
it should appear, by the immediate immolation of all
heretics, whoever they might be.
He likewise caused the estates of Flanders to be privately
assembled, that he might harangue them upon the same
great topic. In the latter part of July he proceeded to
Ghent, where a great concourse of nobles, citizens, and
1559] FAREWELL ADDRESS 49
strangers had already assembled. Here, in the last week
of the month, the twenty-third chapter of the Golden
Fleece was held with much pomp, and with festivities
which lasted three days. The fourteen vacancies which
existed were filled with the names of various distinguished
personages. With this last celebration the public history
of Philip the Good's ostentatious and ambitious order of
knighthood was closed. The subsequent nominations were
made ex indultu apostolico, and without the assembling of
a chapter.
The estates having duly assembled upon the day pre-
scribed, Philip, attended by Margaret of Parma, the Duke
of Savoy, and a stately retinue of ambassadors and gran-
dees, made his appearance before them. After the cus-
tomary ceremonies had been performed, the Bishop of
Arras arose and delivered, in the name of his sovereign,
an elaborate address of instructions and farewells. Full
of pious commonplaces and expressions of affectionate so-
licitude for the welfare of his Netherlandish subjects, it
concluded with the announcement that his Majesty had
commanded the Eegent Margaret of Parma, for the sake
of religion and the glory of God, accurately and exactly to
cause to be enforced the edicts and decrees made by his im-
perial Majesty,* and renewed by his present Majesty, for
the extirpation of all sects and heresies. All governors,
* The edict of 1521, issued at Worms, described Martin Luther as "not
a man, but a devil under the form of a man, and clothed in the dress of a
priest the better to bring the human race to hell and damnation ; therefore
all his disciples and converts are to be punished with death and forfeiture
of all their goods." Issued without pretence of sanction of the estates, it
was immediately carried into effect. Though the Anabaptists furnished the
first martyrs to the cause of truth as expressed in the Protestant Reforma-
tion, to Belgium belongs the honor of having given the first martyrs of
evangelical Lutheranism in Henry Voes and John Esch, two Augustinian
monks, who were burned at the stake in Brussels, July 1, 1523, reciting
the Apostles' Creed and singing the " Te Deum." See Dr. Philip Schaff s
Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., page 503. Luther also sang the praises of
these two martyrs in the song found in many of the old Lutheran hymn-
books — "Bin neues Lied wir haben an." One verse in English begins:
" Quiet their ashes will not lie," etc. Gieseler's Church History, Vol. IV.,
page 311.
4
50 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
councillors, and others having authority were also in-
structed to do their utmost to accomplish this great end.
The great object of the discourse was thus announced
in the most impressive manner, and with all that conven-
tional rhetoric of which the Bishop of Arras was considered
a consummate master. Not a word was said on the sub-
ject which was nearest the hearts of the Netherlander —
the withdrawal of the Spanish troops. Not a hint was
held out that a reduction of the taxation under which the
provinces had so long been groaning was likely to take
place ; but, on the contrary, the King had demanded a
new levy of considerable amount. A few well-turned para-
graphs were added on the subject of the administration of
justice — "without which the republic was a dead body
without a soul " — in the Bishop's most approved style, and
the discourse concluded with a fervent exhortation to the
provinces to trample heresy and heretics out of existence,
and with the hope that the Lord God, in such case, would
bestow upon the Netherlands health and happiness.
After the address had been concluded, the deputies,
according to ancient form, requested permission to ad-
journ, that the representatives of each province might
deliberate among themselves on the point of granting or
withholding the Request for the three millions. On the
following day they again assembled in the presence of the
King, for the purpose of returning their separate answers
to the propositions.
The address first read was that of the estates of Artois.
The chairman of the deputies from that province read
a series of resolutions, drawn up, says a contemporary,
" with that elegance which characterized all the public
acts of the Artesians, bearing witness to the vivacity of
their wits." The deputies spoke of the extreme affection
which their province had always borne to his Majesty and
to the Emperor. They had proved it by the constancy
with which they had endured the calamities of war so long,
and they now cheerfully consented to the Request, so far
as their contingent went. They were willing to place at
his Majesty's disposal, not only the remains of their prop-
erty, but even the last drop of their blood.
1659] UNEXPECTED CONDITIONS 51
As the eloquent chairman reached this point in his dis-
course, Philip, who was standing with his arm resting
upon Egmont's shoulder, listening eagerly to the Artesian
address, looked upon the deputies of the province with a
smiling face, expressing by the unwonted benignity of his
countenance the satisfaction which he received from these
loyal expressions of affection and this dutiful compliance
with his Eequest.
The deputy, however, proceeded to an unexpected con-
clusion by earnestly entreating his Majesty, as a compen-
sation for the readiness thus evinced in the royal service,
forthwith to order the departure of all foreign troops then
in the Netherlands. Their presence, it was added, was
now rendered completely superfluous by the ratification
of the treaty of peace so fortunately arranged with all the
world.
At this sudden change in the deputy's language, the
King, no longer smiling, threw himself violently upon his
chair of state, where he remained, brooding with a gloomy
countenance upon the language which had been addressed
to him. It was evident, said an eye-witness, that he was
deeply offended. He changed color frequently, so that all
present " could remark, from the working of his face, how
much his mind was agitated."
The rest of the provinces were even more explicit than
the deputies of Artois. All had voted their contingents
to the Request, but all had made the withdrawal of the
troops an express antecedent condition to the payment of
their respective quotas.
The King did not affect to conceal his rage at these
conditions, exclaiming bitterly to Count Egmont and other
seigniors near the throne that it was very easy to estimate,
by these proceedings, the value of the protestations made
by the provinces of their loyalty and affection.
Besides, however, the answers thus addressed by the
separate states to the royal address, a formal remonstrance
had also been drawn up in the name of the states-general,
and signed by the Prince of Orange, Count Egmont, and
many of the leading patricians of the Netherlands. This
document, which was formally presented to the King be"
52 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
fore the adjournment of the assembly, represented the in-
famous " pillaging, insults, and disorders " daily exercised
by the foreign soldiery ; stating that the burden had be-
come intolerable, and that the inhabitants of Marienburg,
and of many other large towns and villages, had absolutely
abandoned their homes rather than remain any longer ex-
posed to such insolence and oppression.
The King, already enraged, was furious at the presenta-
tion of this petition. He arose from his seat and rushed
impetuously from the assembly, demanding of the mem-
bers as he went whether he, too, as a Spaniard, was ex-
pected immediately to leave the land, and to resign all
authority over it. The Duke of Savoy made use of this
last occasion in which he appeared in public as Regent vio-
lently to rebuke the estates for the indignity thus offered
to their sovereign.
It could not be forgotten, however, by nobles and
burghers, who had not yet been crushed by the long
course of oppression which was in store for them, that
there had been a day when Philip's ancestors had been
more humble in their deportment in the face of the pro-
vincial authorities. His great-grandfather, Maximilian,
kept in durance by the citizens of Bruges; his great-
grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, with streaming eyes
and dishevelled hair, supplicating in the market-place for
the lives of her treacherous ambassadors, were wont to
hold a less imperious language to the delegates of the
states.
This burst of ill -temper on the part of the monarch
was, however, succeeded by a different humor. It was
still thought advisable to dissemble, and to return rath-
er an expostulatory than a peremptory answer to the re-
monstrance of the states-general. Accordingly a paper
of a singular tone was, after the delay of a few days, sent
into the assembly. In this message it was stated that the
King was not desirous of placing strangers in the govern-
ment— a fact which was proved by the appointment of
the Duchess Margaret ; that the Spanish infantry was
necessary to protect the land from invasion ; that the
remnant of foreign troops only amounted to three or four
1559] THE ROYAL RAGE— PHILIP'S LETTER 53
thousand men, who claimed considerable arrears of pay,
but that the amount due would be forwarded to them
immediately after his Majesty's return to Spain. It was
suggested that the troops would serve as an escort for
Don Carlos when he should arrive in the Netherlands,
although the King would have been glad to carry them
to Spain in his fleet, had he known the wishes of the
estates in time. He would, however, pay for their sup-
port himself, although they were to act solely for the
good of the provinces. He observed, moreover, that he
had selected two seigniors of the provinces, the Prince of
Orange and Count Egmont, to take command of these
foreign troops, and he promised faithfully that, in the
course of three or four months at furthest, they should
all be withdrawn.
On the same day in which the estates 'had assembled
at Ghent, Philip had addressed an elaborate letter to the
grand council of Mechlin, the supreme court of the prov-
inces, and to the various provincial councils and tribunals
of the whole country. The object of the communication
was to give his final orders on the subject of the edicts, and
for the execution of all heretics in the most universal and
summary manner. He gave stringent and unequivocal
instructions that these decrees for burning, strangling,
and burying alive should be fulfilled to the letter. He
ordered all judicial officers and magistrates " to be curious
to inquire on all sides as to the execution of the placards,"
stating his intention that "the utmost rigor should be
employed, without any respect of persons," and that not
only "the transgressors should be proceeded against, but
also the judges who should prove remiss in their prosecu-
tion of heretics." He alluded to a false opinion which
had gained currency that the edicts were only intended
against Anabaptists.* Correcting this error, he stated
* The term " anabaptist," or rebaptizer, was little better than an oppro-
brious nickname invented by learned hirelings of political and ecclesias-
tical corporations, and intended to conceal the truth. These " Brethren,"
or " Believers," as they called themselves, were the pioneers in modern
history of what now lies at the basis of the American religious, social, and
political structure. Amid manifold variations of tenet and doctrine, their
54 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
that they were to be " enforced against all sectaries, with-
out any distinction or mercy, who might be spotted merely
with the errors introduced by Luther."
The King, notwithstanding the violent scenes in the
assembly, took leave of the estates at another meeting with
apparent cordiality. His dissatisfaction was sufficiently
manifest, but it expressed itself principally against indi-
viduals. His displeasure at the course pursued by the
leading nobles, particularly by the Prince of Orange, was
already no secret.
Philip, soon after the adjournment of the assembly, had
completed the preparations for his departure. At Middel-
burg he was met by the agreeable intelligence that the
Pope had consented to issue a bull for the creation of the
new bishoprics which he desired for the Netherlands.*
general basis of belief was as follows : They contended for the separation of
Church and State ; the right of private judgment and interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures ; self-governing churches, with the rights and powers of the
congregation as set forth in the New Testament ; no official intermeddling
in matters of conscience or persecution on account of religion ; no damna-
tion of infants, baptized or unbaptized ; the salvation of the pious heathen ;
the priesthood of all believers in Christ ; the validity of ordination by the
congregation of pastors and teachers, who were not necessarily a distinct
class ; honest translations of the Bible, and these to be put into the hands
of the people ; they believed in home and foreign missions, in congrega-
tional singing, in prison reform, and that all the commands of Christ were
equally binding. Furthermore, they taught that the Bible was to be honored,
but not worshipped ; that the Holy Spirit was to be constantly sought for
aid and guidance. These Bible-readers also believed in social and political
reconstruction ; in the abolition of the death penalty, of slavery, and of serf-
dom ; in the education of women, and the equalization of the sexes in re-
ligious life and privilege.
Seeing these things, it is slight wonder that the political churches of
Europe, both Roman and Reformed, and the practical politicians, both lay
and clerical, were bent on the annihilation of those whom they not only put
to death by thousands, but whose records they took diligent care to destroy.
The writings of their enemies, copied into the popular works of reference,
have made public the excesses and errors of a minority of these heralds of
modern order and faith, while hiding the facts and true belief of these
Christians — " the pariahs of history." See " The Anabaptists," in The
New World, Boston, December 1895.
* That is, in the old system three bishops for the Belgic and one for the
northern provinces ; or, in the new expansion based on military force, five
bishops for the southern and one bishop for the northern provinces. Of
1559] FAREWELL EXPLOSION OF WRATH 55
He was escorted thither by the Duchess Regent, the Duke
of Savoy, and by many of the most eminent personages
of the provinces. Among others, William of Orange was
in attendance to witness the final departure of the King,
and to pay him his farewell respects. As Philip was pro-
ceeding on board the ship which was to bear him for-
ever from the Netherlands, his eyes lighted upon the
Prince. His displeasure could no longer be restrained.
With angry face he turned upon him, and bitterly re-
proached him for having thwarted all his plans by means
of his secret intrigues. William replied with humility
that everything which had taken place had been done
through the regular and natural movements of the states.
Upon this the King, boiling with rage, seized the Prince
by the wrist, and shaking it violently, exclaimed in Span-
ish, " No los estados,mas vos,vos, vos !" (Not the estates,
but you, you, you !) repeating thrice the word "vos," which
is as disrespectful and uncourteous in Spanish as " toi "
in French.
After this severe and public insult, the Prince of Orange
did not go on board his Majesty's vessel, but contented
himself with wishing Philip, from the shore, a fortunate
journey. It may be doubted, moreover, whether he would
not have made a sudden and compulsory voyage to Spain
had he ventured his person in the ship, and whether,
under the circumstances, he would have been likely to
effect as speedy a return. His caution served him then
as it was destined to do on many future occasions, and
Philip left the Netherlands with this parting explosion of
hatred against the man who, as he perhaps instinctively
felt, was destined to circumvent his measures and resist
his tyranny to the last.
The fleet, which consisted of ninety vessels, so well
provisioned that, among other matters, fifteen thousand
capons were put on board, according to the Antwerp
chronicler, set sail upon the 26th of August (1559) from
Flushing. The voyage proved tempestuous, so that much
the three million inhabitants in the Netherlands, all except eight hundred
thousand lived south of the Waal and the Scheldt.
;>»; HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
of the rich tapestry and other merchandise which had
been accumulated by Charles and Philip was lost. Some
of the vessels foundered ; to save others, it was necessary
to lighten the cargo, and " to enrobe the roaring waters
with the silks " for which the Netherlands were so famous;
so that it was said that Philip and his father had impov-
erished the earth only to enrich the ocean. The fleet
had been laden with much valuable property, because the
King had determined to fix for the future the wander-
ing capital of his dominions in Spain. Philip landed in
safety, however, at Laredo, on the 8th of September. His
escape from imminent peril confirmed him in the great
purpose to which he had consecrated his existence. He
believed himself to have been reserved from shipwreck
only because a mighty mission had been confided to him,
and lest his enthusiasm against heresy should languish,
his eyes were soon feasted, upon his arrival in his native
country, with the spectacle of an auto-da-fe.
Early in January of this year, the King being persuaded
that it was necessary everywhere to use additional means
to check the alarming spread of Lutheran opinions, had
written to the Pope for authority to increase, if that were
possible, the stringency of the Spanish inquisition. The
Pontiff, nothing loath, had accordingly issued a bull di-
rected to the Inquisitor- General, Valdez, by which he was
instructed to consign to the flames all prisoners whatever,
even those who were not accused of having "relapsed."
Great preparations had been made to strike terror into
the hearts of heretics by a series of horrible exhibitions,
in the course of which the numerous victims, many of
them persons of high rank, distinguished learning, and
exemplary lives, who had long been languishing in the
dungeons of the holy office, were to be consigned to the
flames. The first auto-da-fe had been consummated at
Valladolid on the 21st of May (1559), in the absence of the
King, of course, but in the presence of the royal family
and the principal notabilities, civil, ecclesiastical, and mil-
itary. The Princess Kegent, seated on her throne, close
to the scaffold, had held on high the holy sword. The
Archbishop of Seville, followed by the ministers of the
1569] AUTOS-DA-Fti UPON PHILIP'S RETURN 57
inquisition and by the victims, had arrived in solemn pro-
cession at the "cadahalso," where, after the usual sermon
in praise of the holy office and in denunciation of heresy,
he had administered the oath to the Infante, who had
duly sworn upon the crucifix to maintain forever the sa-
cred inquisition and the apostolic decrees. The Arch-
bishop had then cried aloud, " So may God prosper your
Highnesses and your estates"; after which the men and
women who formed the object of the show had been cast
into the flames. It being afterwards ascertained that the
King himself would soon be enabled to return to Spain,
the next festival was reserved as a fitting celebration for
his arrival. Upon the 8th of October, accordingly, another
auto-da-fe took place at Valladolid. The King, with his
sister and his son, the high officers of state, the foreign
ministers, and all the nobility of the kingdom, were pres-
ent, together with an immense concourse of soldiery,
clergy, and populace. The sermon was preached by the
Bishop of Cuenca. When it was finished, Inquisitor-Gen-
eral Valdez cried, with a loud voice, "0 God, make speed
to help us !" The King then drew his sword. Valdez,
advancing to the platform upon which Philip was seated,
proceeded to read the protestation: "Your Majesty
swears by the cross of the sword, whereon your royal hand
reposes, that you will give all necessary favor to the holy
office of the inquisition against heretics, apostates, and
those who favor them, and will denounce and inform
against all those who, to your royal knowledge, shall act
or speak against the faith." The King answered aloud,
"I swear it," and signed the paper. The oath was read
to the whole assembly by an officer of the inquisition.
Thirteen distinguished victims were then burned before
the monarch's eyes, besides one body which a friendly
death had snatched from the hands of the holy office, and
the effigy of another person who had been condemned,
although not yet tried or even apprehended. Among the
sufferers was Carlos de Sessa, a young noble of distin-
guished character and abilities, who said to the King as
he passed by the throne to the stake, "How can you thus
look on and permit me to be burned ?" Philip then made
58 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [155£
the memorable reply, carefully recorded by his histori-
ographer and panegyrist : " I would carry the wood to
burn my own son withal, were he as wicked as you."
In Seville, immediately afterwards, another auto-da-fe
was held, in which fifty living heretics were burned, be-
sides the bones of Doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente,
once the friend, chaplain, and almoner of Philip's father.
This learned and distinguished ecclesiastic had been re-
leased from a dreadful dungeon by a fortunate fever.
The holy office, however, not content with punishing his
corpse, wreaked also an impotent and ludicrous malice
upon his effigy. A stuffed figure, attired in his robes and
with its arms extended in the attitude which was habitual
with him in prayer, was placed upon the scaffold among
the living victims, and then cast into the flames, that big-
otry might enjoy a fantastic triumph over the grave.
Such were the religious ceremonies with which Philip
celebrated his escape from shipwreck, and his marriage
with Elizabeth of France, immediately afterwards solem-
nized. These human victims, chained and burning at the
stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarch
to his nuptial couch.
part 1111
ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUCHESS MARGARET
1559-1567
CHAPTER I
THE SISTER OF PHILIP
MARGARET OF PARMA, newly appointed Kegent of the
Netherlands, was the natural daughter of Charles the
Fifth, and his eldest born child. Her mother, of a re-
spectable family called Van der Genst, in Oudenarde, had
been adopted and brought up by the distinguished house
of Hoogstraaten. Peculiar circumstances, not necessary
to relate at length, had palliated the fault to which Mar-
garet owed her imperial origin, and gave the child almost
a legitimate claim upon its father's protection. The claim
was honorably acknowledged. Margaret was in her in-
fancy placed by the Emperor in the charge of his paternal
aunt, Margaret of Savoy, then Regent of the provinces.
Upon the death of that princess, the child was intrusted
to the care of the Emperor's sister, Mary, Queen Dowager
of Hungary, who had succeeded to the government, and
who occupied it until the abdication. The huntress-queen
communicated her tastes to her youthful niece, and Mar-
garet soon outrivalled her instructress in the ardor with
which she pursued the stag and in courageous horseman-
ship. She was married at tVelve to the Pope's nephew,
Alexander de Medici, but was left a widow within a year,
through the assassination of her profligate husband by his
kinsman, Lorenzino de Medici. A few years later she was
united to an immature youth of thirteen, Ottavio Farnese,
nephew of Pope Paul the Third. Their union was blessed
with twins, one of whom became the famous Alexander
of Parma.
Various considerations pointed her out to Philip as a
suitable person for the office of Kegent, although there
62 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
seemed some mystery about the appointment which de-
manded explanation. It was thought that her birth would
make her acceptable to the people ; but perhaps the secret
reason with Philip was that she alone of all other candi-
dates would be amenable to the control of the churchman
in whose hand he intended placing the real administration
of the provinces. Moreover, her husband was very desir-
ous that the citadel of Piacenza, still garrisoned by Span-
ish troops, should be surrendered to him. Philip was dis-
posed to conciliate the Duke, but unwilling to give up
the fortress. He felt that Ottavio would be flattered by
the nomination of his wife to so important an office, and
be not too much dissatisfied at finding himself relieved
for a time from her imperious fondness. Her residence
in the Netherlands would guarantee domestic tranquillity
to her husband, and peace in Italy to the King. Margaret
would be a hostage for the fidelity of the Duke, who had,
moreover, given his eldest son to Philip to be educated
in his service.
She was about thirty-seven years of age when she ar-
rived in the Netherlands, with the reputation of possess-
ing high talents, and a proud and energetic character.
She was an enthusiastic Catholic, and had sat at the feet
of Loyola, who had been her confessor and spiritual guide.
She felt a greater horror for heretics than for any other
species of malefactors, and looked up to her father's bloody
edicts as if they had been special revelations from on high.
She was most strenuous in her observance of Eoman rites,
and was accustomed to wash the feet of twelve virgins
every holy week, and to endow them in marriage after-
wards.
Carefully educated in the Machiavelian and Medicean
school of politics, she was versed in that "dissimulation"
to which liberal Anglo-Saxons give a shorter name, but
which formed the main substance of statesmanship at the
court of Charles and Philip. In other respects her accom-
plishments were but meagre, and she had little acquaint-
ance with any language but Italian. Her personal ap-
pearance, which was masculine, but not without a certaii
grand and imperial fascination, harmonized with the opin-
MARGARET OP PARMA
1659] BERLAYMONT AND VIGLIUS 63
ion generally entertained of her character. The famous
mustache upon her upper lip was supposed to indicate
authority and virility of purpose, an impression which was
confirmed by the circumstance that she was liable to se-
vere attacks of gout, a disorder usually considered more
appropriate to the sterner sex.
The members of the state council, as already observed,
were Berlaymont, Viglius, Arras, Orange, and Egmont.
The first was, likewise, chief of the finance department.
Most of the Catholic writers describe him as a noble of
loyal and highly honorable character. Those of the Prot-
estant party, on the contrary, uniformly denounce him
as greedy, avaricious, and extremly sanguinary. That he
was a brave and devoted soldier, a bitter papist, and an in-
flexible adherent to the royal cause, has never been dis-
puted. The Baron himself, with his four courageous and
accomplished sons, were ever in the front ranks to defend
the crown against the nation.
Viglius van Aytta van Zuichem was a learned Frisian,
born, according to some writers, of "boors' degree, but
having no inclination for boorish work." According to
other authorities, which the president himself favored, he
was of noble origin ; but, whatever his race, it is certain
that whether gentle or simple, it derived its first and only
historical illustration from his remarkable talents and ac-
quirements. These in early youth were so great as to ac-
quire the commendation of Erasmus. He had studied in
Louvain, Paris, and Padua, had refused the tutorship o'f
Philip when that prince was still a child, and had after-
wards filled a professorship at Ingolstadt. After rejecting
several offers of promotion from the Emperor, he had at
last accepted in 1542 a seat in the council of Mechlin, of
which body he had become president in 1545. He had been
one of the peace commissioners to France in 1558, and
was now president of the privy council, a member of the
state council, and of the inner and secret committee of
that board, called the Consulta. Much odium was attached
oo his name for his share in the composition of the famous
edict of 1550. The rough draught was usually attributed
to his pen, but he complained bitterly, in letters written
64 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1^59
at this time, of injustice done him in this respect, and
maintained that he had endeavored, without success, to
induce the Emperor to mitigate the severity of the edict.
One does not feel very strongly inclined to accept his ex-
cuses, however, when his general opinions on the subject
of religion are remembered. He was most bigoted in pre-
cept and practice. Religious liberty he regarded as the
most detestable and baleful of doctrines ; heresy he de-
nounced as the most unpardonable of crimes.
The president was naturally anxious that the fold of
Christ should be intrusted to none but regular shepherds,
for he looked forward to taking one of the most lucrative
crooks into his own hand when he should retire from his
secular career.
It is now necessary to say a few introductory words con-
cerning the man who, from this time forth, begins to rise
upon the history of his country with daily increasing gran-
deur and influence. William of Nassau, Prince of Orange,
although still young in years, is already the central per-
sonage about whom the events and the characters of the
epoch most naturally group themselves ; destined as he is
to become more and more with each succeeding year the
vivifying source of light, strength, and national life to a
whole people.
The Nassau family first emerges into distinct existence
in the middle of the eleventh century. It divides itself
almost as soon as known into two great branches. The
elder remained in Germany, ascended the imperial throne
in the thirteenth century in the person of Adolph of X
san, and gave to the country many electors, bishops, and
generals. The younger and more illustrious branch re-
tained the modest property and petty sovereignty of Nas-
sau-Dillenburg, but at the same time transplanted itseli
to the Netherlands, where it attained at an early period tc
great power and large possessions. The ancestors of Will-
iam, as Dukes of Gueldres, had begun to exercise sov-
ereignty in the provinces four centuries before the advent
of the house of Burgundy. That overshadowing family
afterwards numbered the Netherland Nassaus among its
most stanch and powerful adherents. Eugelbert the Sec-
1559] THE NASSAU FAMILY 65
ond was distinguished in the turbulent councils and in the
battle-fields of Charles the Bold, and was afterwards the
unwavering supporter of Maximilian in court and camp.
Dying childless, he was succeeded by his brother John,
whose two sons, Henry and William of Nassau, divided
the great inheritance after their father's death. William
succeeded to the German estates, became a convert to
Protestantism, and introduced the Reformation into his
dominions. Henry, the elder son, received the family
possessions and titles in Luxemburg, Brabant, Flanders,
and Holland, and distinguished himself as much as his
uncle Engelbert in the service of the Burgundo-Austrian
house. The confidential friend of Charles the Fifth, Avhose
governor he had been in that emperor's boyheod, he was
ever his most efficient and reliable adherent. It was he
whose influence placed the imperial crown upon the head
of Charles. In 1515 he espoused Claudia de Chalons, sis-
ter of Prince Philibert of Orange, "in order," as he wrote
to his father, "to be obedient to his imperial Majesty, to
please the King of France, and more particularly for the
sake of his own honor and profit." His son Rene de Nas-
sau-Chalons succeeded Philibert. The little principality
of Orange, so pleasantly situated between Provence and
Dauphiny, but in such dangerous proximity to the seat of
the "Babylonian captivity " of the Popes at Avignon, thus
passed to the family of Nassau. The title was of high an-
tiquity. Already in the reign of Charlemagne, Guillaume
au Court-Nez, or " William with the Short Nose," had de-
fended the little town of Orange against the assaults of the
Saracens. The interest and authority acquired in the de-
mesnes thus preserved by his valor became extensive, and
in process of time hereditary in his race. The principality
became an absolute and free sovereignty, and had already
descended, in defiance of the Salic law, through the three
distinct families of Orange, Baux, and Chalons.
In 1544, Prince Rene died at the Emperors feet in
the trenches of Saint Dizier. Having no legitimate chil-
dren, he left all his titles and estates to his cousin-german,
William of Nassau, son of his father's brother William,
who thus at the age of eleven years became William the
5
66 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
Ninth of Orange. For this child, whom the future was to
summon to such high destinies and such heroic sacrifices,
the past and present seemed to have gathered riches and
power together from many sources. He was the descend-
ant of the Ottos, the Engelberts, and the Henrys, of the
Netherlands ; the representative of the Philiberts and the
Renes of France; the chief of a house, humbler in re-
sources and position in Germany, but still of high rank,
and which had already done good service to humanity by
being among the first to embrace the great principles of
the Reformation.
His father, younger brother of the Emperor's friend
Henry, was called William the Rich. He was, however,
only rich in children. Of these he had five sons and seven
daughters by his wife Juliana of Stolberg. She was a
person of most exemplary character and unaffected piety.
She instilled into the minds of all her children the ele-
ments of that devotional sentiment which was her own
striking characteristic, and it was destined that the seed
sown early should increase to an abundant harvest. Noth-
ing can be more tender or more touching than the letters
which still exist from her hand, written to her illustrious
sons in hours of anxiety or anguish, and to the last rec-
ommending to them with as much earnest simplicity as if
they were still little children at her knee, to rely always,
in the midst of the trials and dangers which were to beset
their paths through life, upon the great hand of God.
Among the mothers of great men Juliana of Stolberg de-
serves a foremost place, and it is no slight eulogy that she
was worthy to have been the mother of William of Orange
and of Louis, Adolphus, Henry, and John of Nassau.
At the age of eleven years, William having thus unex-
pectedly succeeded to such great possessions, was sent from
his father's roof to be educated in Brussels. No destiny
seemed to lie before the young Prince but an education at
the Emperor's court, to be followed by military advent-
ures, embassies, viceroyalties, and a life of luxury and
magnificence. At a very early age he came, accordingly,
as a page into the Emperor's family. Charles recognized,
with his customary quickness, the remarkable character
1559] HIGH FORTUNES OF ORANGE 67
of the boy. At fifteen, "William was the intimate, almost
confidential, friend of the Emperor, who prided himself,
above all other gifts, on his power of reading and of using
men. The youth was so constant an attendant upon his
imperial chief that even when interviews with the highest
personages, and upon the gravest affairs, were taking place,
Charles would never suffer him to be considered superflu-
ous or intrusive. There seemed to be no secrets which
the Emperor held too high for the comprehension or dis-
cretion of his page. His perceptive and reflective facul-
ties, naturally of remarkable keenness and depth, thus ac-
quired a precocious and extraordinary development. He
was brought up behind the curtain of that great stage
where the world's dramas were daily enacted. The ma-
chinery and the masks which produced the grand delu-
sions of history had no deceptions for him. Carefully to
observe men's actions, and silently to ponder upon their
motives, was the favorite occupation of the Prince during
his apprenticeship at court. As he advanced to man's
estate, he was selected by the Emperor for the highest
duties. Charles, whose only merit, so far as the provinces
were concerned, was in having been born in Ghent, and
that by an ignoble accident, was glad to employ this repre-
sentative of so many great Netherland houses in the de-
fence of the land. Before the Prince was twenty-one he
was appointed general-in-chief of the army on the French
frontier, in the absence of the Duke of Savoy. The young
Prince acquitted himself of his high command in a man-
ner which justified his appointment.
It was the Prince's shoulder upon which the Emperor
leaned at the abdication ; the Prince's hand which bore
the imperial insignia of the discrowned monarch to Ferdi-
nand, at Augsburg. With these duties his relations with
Charles were ended and those with Philip begun. He
was with the army during the hostilities which were soon
after resumed in Picardy ; he was the secret negotiator
of the preliminary arrangement with France, soon after-
wards confirmed by the triumphant treaty of April, 1559.
He had conducted these initiatory conferences with the
Constable Montmorency and Marshal de Saint Andre with
68 HISTORY OF TUE NETHERLANDS [1559
great sagacity, although hardly a man in years, and by so
doing he had laid Philip under deep obligations.
With so great impatience for peace on the part of Philip,
it certainly manifested diplomatic abilities of a high char-
acter in the Prince that the treaty negotiated by him
amounted to a capitulation by France. He was one of
the hostages selected by Henry for the due execution of
the treaty, and while in France made that remarkable dis-
covery which was to color his life. While hunting with
the King in the forest of Vincennes, the Prince and Henry
found themselves alone together, and separated from the
rest of the company. The French monarch's mind was
full of the great scheme which had just secretly been
formed by Philip and himself, to extirpate Protestantism
by a general extirpation of Protestants. Philip had been
most anxious to conclude the public treaty with France,
that he might be the sooner able to negotiate that secret
convention by which he and his Most Christian Majesty
were solemnly to bind themselves to massacre all the con-
verts to the new religion in France and the Netherlands.
This conspiracy of the two Kings against their subjects
was the matter nearest the hearts of both. The Duke of
Alva, a fellow hostage with William of Orange, was the
plenipotentiary to conduct this more important arrange-
ment. The French monarch, somewhat imprudently im-
agining that the Prince was also a party to the plot, opened
the whole subject to him without reserve. He proceeded,
with cynical minuteness, to lay before his discreet com-
panion the particulars of the royal plot, and the manner
in which all heretics, whether high or humble, were to be
discovered and massacred at the most convenient season.
For the furtherance of the scheme in the Netherlands, it
was understood that the Spanish regiments would be ex-
ceedingly efficient. The Prince, although horror-struck
and indignant at the royal revelations, held his peace and
kept his countenance. The King was not aware that, in
opening this delicate negotiation to Alva's colleague and
Philip's plenipotentiary, he had given a warning of inesti-
mable value to the man who haft been born to resist the
machinations of Philip and of Alva.
WILLIAM THE SILENT, PRINCE OF ORANGE
1559] THE SILENT PRINCE 69
William of Orange earned the surname of The Silent
from the manner in which he received these communica-
tions of Henry without revealing to the monarch, by word
or look, the enormous blunder which he had committed.
His purpose was fixed from that hour. A few days after-
wards he obtained permission to visit the Netherlands,
where he took measures to excite, with all his influence,
the strongest and most general opposition to the continued
presence of the Spanish troops, of which forces, much
against his will, he had been, in conjunction with Egmont,
appointed chief. He already felt, in his own language,
that " an inquisition for the Netherlands had been resolved
upon more cruel than that of Spain, since it would need but
to look askance at an image to be cast into the flames."
Although having as yet no spark of religious sympathy
for the reformers, he could not, he said, "but feel com-
passion for so many virtuous men and women thus de-
voted to massacre," and he determined to save them if
he could.
At the departure of Philip he had received instructions,
both patent and secret, for his guidance as stadholder of
Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht. He was ordered "most
expressly to correct and extirpate the sects reprobated by
our Holy Mother Church ; to execute the edicts of his
imperial Majesty, renewed by the King, with absolute
rigor. He was to see that the judges carried out the
edicts, without infraction, alteration, or moderation, since
they were there to enforce, not to make or to discuss the
law." In his secret instructions he was informed that the
execution of the edicts was to be with all rigor, and with-
out any respect of persons. He was also reminded that,
whereas some persons had imagined the severity of the
law " to be only intended against Anabaptists, on the con-
trary, the edicts were to be enforced on Lutherans' and
all other sectaries without distinction." Moreover, in one
of his last interviews with Philip, the King had given him
the names of several "excellent persons suspected of the
new religion," and had commanded him to have them put
to death. This, however, he not only omitted to do, but
on the contrary gave them warning, so that they might
70 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
effect their escape, "thinking it more necessary to obey
God than man."
William of Orange, at the departure of the King for
Spain, was in his twenty-seventh year. He was a widower,
his first wife, Anne of Egmont, having died in 1558, after
seven years of wedlock. This lady, to whom he had been
united when they were both eighteen years of age, was
the daughter of the celebrated general, Count de Buren,
and the greatest heiress in the Netherlands. William
had thus been faithful to the family traditions, and had
increased his possessions by a wealthy alliance. He had
two children, Philip and Mary. The marriage had been
more amicable than princely marriages arranged for con-
venience often prove. The letters of the Prince to his
wife indicate tenderness and contentment.
We are not to regard William of Orange, thus on the
threshold of his great career, by the light diffused from a
somewhat later period. In no historical character more
remarkably than in his is the law of constant develop-
ment and progress illustrated. At twenty-six he is not
the "pater patrice," the great man struggling upward and
onward against a host of enemies and obstacles almost be-
yond human strength, and along the dark and dangerous
path leading through conflict, privation, and ceaseless
labor to no repose but death. On the contrary, his foot
was hardly on the first step of that difficult ascent which
was to rise before him all his lifetime. He was still
among the primrose paths. He was rich, powerful, of
sovereign rank. He had only the germs within him of
what was thereafter to expand into moral and intellectual
greatness. He had small sympathy for the religious ref-
ormation, of which he was to be one of the most distin-
guished champions. He was a Catholic, nominally and
in outward observance. With doctrines he troubled him-
self but little. He had given orders to enforce conformity
to the ancient Church, not with bloodshed, yet with com-
parative strictness, in his principality of Orange. Beyond
the compliance with rites and forms, thought indispensable
in those days to a personage of such high degree, he did
not occupy himself with theology. He was a Catholic,
1559] PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT 71
as Egmont and Horn, Berlaymont and Mansf eld, Montigny
and even Brederode, were Catholic. It was only tanners,
dyers, and apostate priests who were Protestants at that
day in the Netherlands. His determination to protect a
multitude of his harmless inferiors from horrible deaths
did not proceed from sympathy with their religious senti-
ments, but merely from a generous and manly detestation
of murder. He carefully averted his mind from sacred
matters. If, indeed, the seed implanted by his pious
parents were really the germ of his future conversion to
Protestantism, it must be confessed that it lay dormant
a long time. But his mind was in other pursuits. He
was disposed for an easy, joyous, luxurious, princely life.
Banquets, masquerades, tournaments, the chase, inter-
spersed with the routine of official duties, civil and mili-
tary, seemed likely to fill out his life. His hospitality,
like his fortune, was almost regal. While the King and
the foreign envoys were still in the Netherlands, his house,
the splendid Nassau palace of Brussels, was ever open.
He entertained for the monarch, who was, or who im-
agined himself to be, too poor to discharge his own duties
in this respect, but he entertained at his own expense.
This splendid household was still continued. Twenty-
four noblemen and eighteen pages of gentle birth officiated
regularly in his family.
Such, then, at the beginning of 1560, was William of
Orange; a generous, stately, magnificent, powerful grandee.
As a military commander he had acquitted himself very
creditably of highly important functions at an early age.
Nevertheless, it was the opinion of many persons that he
was of a timid temperament. There is no doubt that cau-
tion was a predominant characteristic of the Prince. It
was one of the chief sources of his greatness. At that
period — perhaps at any period — he would have been inca-
pable of such brilliant and dashing exploits as had made
the name of Egmont so famous. It had even become a
proverb, "the counsel of Orange, the execution of Eg-
mont"; yet we shall have occasion to see how far this
physical promptness which had been so felicitous upon
the battlefield was likely to avail the hero of Saint-
73 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
Quentin in the great political combat which was ap-
proaching.
As to the talents of the Prince, there was no difference
of opinion. His enemies never contested the subtlety and
breadth of his intellect, his adroitness and capacity in
conducting state affairs, his knowledge of human nature,
and the profoundness of his views. In many respects it
must be confessed that his surname of The Silent, like
many similar appellations, was a misnomer. William of
Orange was neither "silent" nor "taciturn," yet these
are the epithets which will be forever associated with the
name of a man who, in private, was the most affable,
cheerful, and delightful of companions, and who on a
thousand great public occasions was to prove himself,
both by pen and by speech, the most eloquent man of
his age. His mental accomplishments were consider-
able. He had studied history with attention, and he
spoke and wrote with facility Latin, French, German,
Flemish, and Spanish.
The man. however, in whose hands the administration
of the Netherlands was in reality placed was Anthony
Perrenot, then Bishop of Arras, soon to be known by the
more celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle. He was the
chief of the Consulta, or secret council of three, by whose
deliberations the Duchess Regent was to be governed.
His father, Nicholas Perrenot, of an obscure family in
Burgundy, had been long the favorite minister and man
of business to the Emperor Charles. Anthony, the eldest
of thirteen children, was born in 1517. He was early dis-
tinguished for his talents. He studied at Dole, Padua,
Paris, and Louvain. At the age of twenty he spoke seven
languages with perfect facility, while his acquaintance
with civil and ecclesiastical laws was considered prodig-
ious. At the age of twenty-three he became a canon of
Liege Cathedral. The necessary eight quarters of gentil-
ity produced upon that occasion have accordingly been
displayed by his panegyrists in triumphant refutation of
that theory which gave him a blacksmith for his grand-
father. At the same period, although he had not reached
the requisite age, the rich bishopric of Arras had already
CARDINAL GRANVELLE
1559] ANTHONY PERRENOT 73
been prepared for him by his father's care. Three years
afterwards, in 1543, he distinguished himself by a most
learned and brilliant harangue before the Council of Trent,
by which display he so much charmed the Emperor that
he created him councillor of state. A few years after-
wards he rendered the unscrupulous Charles still more val-
uable proofs of devotion and dexterity by the part he
played in the memorable imprisonment of the Landgrave
of Hesse and the Saxon Dukes. He was thereafter con-
stantly employed in embassies and other offices of trust
and profit.
There was no doubt as to his profound and varied learn-
ing, nor as to his natural quickness and dexterity. He
was ready-witted, smooth and fluent of tongue, fertile in
expedients, courageous, resolute. He thoroughly under-
stood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors.
He knew how to govern under the appearance of obeying.
He possessed exquisite tact in appreciating the characters
of those far above him in rank and beneath him in intel-
lect. He could accommodate himself with great readiness
to the idiosyncrasies of sovereigns. He was a chameleon
to the hand which fed him. In his intercourse with the
King, he colored himself, as it were, with the King's char-
acter. He was not himself, but Philip ; not the sullen,
hesitating, confused Philip however, but Philip endowed
with eloquence, readiness, facility. The King ever found
himself anticipated with the most delicate obsequiousness,
beheld his struggling ideas change into "winged words"
without ceasing to be his own. No flattery could be more
adroit. The Bishop accommodated himself to the King's
epistolary habits. The silver-tongued and ready debater
substituted protocols for conversations, in deference to
a monarch who could not speak. He corresponded with
Philip, with Margaret of Parma, with every one. He wrote
folios to the Duchess when they were in the same palace.
He would write letters forty pages long to the King,
and send off another courier on the same day with two
or three additional despatches of identical date. Such
prolixity enchanted the King, whose greediness for busi-
ness epistles was insatiable.
74 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
The aspect of the country and its inhabitants offered
many sharp contrasts, and revealed many sources of future
trouble.
The aristocracy of the Netherlands was excessively
extravagant, dissipated, and already considerably embar-
rassed in circumstances. It had been the policy of the
Emperor and of Philip to confer high offices, civil, mili-
tary, and diplomatic, upon the leading nobles, by which
enormous expenses were entailed upon them without any
corresponding salaries. The case of Orange has been al-
ready alluded to, and there were many other nobles less
able to afford the expense who had been indulged with
these ruinous honors. During the war there had been,
however, many chances of bettering broken fortunes.
Victory brought immense prizes to the leading officers.
The ransoms of so many illustrious prisoners as had
graced the triumphs of Saint-Quentin and Gravelines had
been extremly profitable. These sources of wealth had
now been cut off ; yet, on the departure of the King from
the Netherlands, the luxury increased instead of diminish-
ing. " Instead of one court," said a contemporary, " you
would have said that there were fifty." A rivalry in hos-
pitality and in display began among the highest nobles,
and extended to those less able to maintain themselves in
the contest. During the war there had been the valiant
emulation of the battle-field ; gentlemen had vied with
one another how best to illustrate an ancient name with
deeds of desperate valor, to repair the fortunes of a ruined
house with the spoils of war. Each now sought to sur-
pass the other in splendid extravagance. It was an eager
competition who should build the stateliest palaces, have
the greatest number of noble pages and geritlemen-in-
waiting, the most gorgeous liveries, the most hospitable
tables, the most scientific cooks. There was, also, much
depravity as well as extravagance. The morals of high
society were loose. Gaming was practised to a frightful
extent. Drunkenness was a prevailing characteristic of
the higher classes. Even the Prince of Orange himself,
at this period, although never addicted to habitual excess,
was extremely convivial in his tastes, tolerating scenes and
1559] EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE ARISTOCRACY 75
companions not likely at a later day to find much favor in
his sight. "We kept Saint Martin's joyously," he wrote,
at about this period, to his brother, " and in the most
jovial company. Brederode was one day in such a state
that I thought he would certainly die, but he has now got
over it." Count Brederode, soon afterwards to become
so conspicuous in the early scenes of the revolt, was, in
truth, most notorious for his performances in these ban-
queting scenes. He appeared to have vowed as uncompro-
mising hostility to cold water as to the inquisition, and al-
ways denounced both with the same fierce and ludicrous
vehemence.
Their constant connection with Germany at that period
did not improve the sobriety of the Netherlands nobles.
The aristocracy of that country, as is well known, were
most "potent at potting." "When the German finds
himself sober," said the bitter Badovaro, "he believes
himself to be ill." Gladly, since the peace, they had wel-
comed the opportunities afforded for many a deep carouse
with their Netherlands cousins. The approaching mar-
riage of the Prince of Orange with the Saxon princess —
an episode which will soon engage our attention — gave
rise to tremendous orgies. Count Schwartzburg, the
Prince's brother-in-law, and one of the negotiators of
the marriage, found many occasions to strengthen the
bonds of harmony between the countries by indulgence
of these common tastes. " I have had many princes and
counts at my table," he wrote to Orange, " where a good
deal more was drunk than eaten. The Ehinegrave's broth-
er fell down dead after drinking too much malvoisie ; but
we have had him balsamed and sent home to his family."
If these were the characteristics of the most distin-
guished society, it may be supposed that they were re-
produced with more or less intensity throughout all the
more remote but concentric circles of life, as far as the
seductive splendor of the court could radiate. The lesser
nobles emulated the grandees, and vied with one another
in splendid establishments, banquets, masquerades, and
equipages. The natural consequences of such extrava-
gance followed. Their estates were mortgaged, deeply
76 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
and more deeply ; then, after a few years, sold to the
merchants, or rich advocates and other gentlemen of the
robe, to whom they had been pledged. The more closely
ruin stared the victims in the face, the more heedlessly
did they plunge into excesses. Many of the nobles being
thus embarrassed, and some even desperate, in their con-
dition, it was thought that they were desirous of creating
disturbances in the commonwealth, that the payment of
just debts might be avoided, that their mortgaged lands
might be wrested by main force from the low-born indi-
viduals who had become possessed of them, that, in par-
ticular, the rich abbey lands held by idle priests might be
appropriated to the use of impoverished gentlemen who
could turn them to so much better account. It is quite
probable that interested motives such as these were not
entirely inactive among a comparatively small class of
gentlemen.
These circumstances and sentiments had their influence
among the causes which produced the great revolt now
impending. Care should be taken, however, not to ex-
aggerate that influence. It is a prodigious mistake to
refer this great historical event to sources so insufficient
as the ambition of a few great nobles, and the embar-
rassments of a larger number of needy gentlemen. The
Netherlands revolt was not an aristocratic, but a popular,
although certainly not a democratic movement. It was a
great episode — the longest, the darkest, the bloodiest, the
most important episode in the history of the religious ref-
ormation in Europe. The nobles, so conspicuous upon the
surface at the outbreak, only drifted before a storm which
they neither caused nor controlled.
For the state of the people was very different from the
condition of the aristocracy. The period of martyrdom
had lasted long, and was to last longer ; but there were
symptoms that it might one day be succeeded by a more
active stage of popular disease. The tumults were long
in ripening ; when the final outbreak came it would have
been more philosophical to inquire, not why it had oc-
curred, but how it could have been so long postponed.
In the Netherlands, where the attachment to Rome had
1559] CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 77
never been intense, where in the old times the Bishops
of Utrecht had been rather Grhibelline than Guelph, where
all the earlier sects of dissenters — Waldenses, Lollards,
Hussites — had found numerous converts and thousands of
martyrs, it was inevitable that there should be a response
from the popular heart to the deeper agitation which now
reached to the very core of Christendom. In those prov-
inces, so industrious and energetic, the disgust was likely
to be most easily awakened for a system under which so
many friars battened in luxury upon the toil of others,
contributing nothing to the taxation nor to the military
defence of the country, exercising no productive avoca-
tion, except their trade in indulgences, and squandering
in taverns and brothels the annual sums derived from their
traffic in licenses to commit murder, incest, and every
other crime known to humanity.
The people were numerous, industrious, accustomed for
centuries to a state of comparative civil freedom, and to a
lively foreign trade, by which their minds were saved from
the stagnation of bigotry. It was natural that they should
begin to generalize, and to pass from the concrete images
presented them in the Flemish monasteries to the abstract
character of Eome itself. The Flemish, above all their
other qualities, were a commercial nation. Commerce was
the mother of their freedom, so far as they had acquired
it, in civil matters. It was struggling to give birth to a
larger liberty, to freedom of conscience. The provinces
were situated in the very heart of Europe. The blood of
a world-wide traffic was daily coursing through the thou-
sand arteries of that water-inwoven territory. There was
a mutual exchange between the Netherlands and all the
world, and ideas were as liberally interchanged as goods.
Truth was imported as freely as less precious merchandise.
The psalms of Marot were as current as the drugs of Mo-
lucca or the diamonds of Borneo. The prohibitory meas-
ures of a despotic government could not annihilate this
intellectual trade, nor could bigotry devise an effective
quarantine to exclude the religious pest which lurked in
every bale of merchandise, and was wafted on every breeze
from east and west.
78 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
The edicts of the Emperor had been endured but not
accepted. The horrible persecution under which so many
thousands had sunk had produced its inevitable result.
Fertilized by all this innocent blood, the soil of the Neth-
erlands became as a watered garden, in which liberty, civil
and religious, was to flourish perennially. The scaffold
had its daily victims, but did not make a single convert.
The statistics of these crimes will perhaps never be ac-
curately adjusted, nor will it be ascertained whether the
famous estimate of Grotius was an exaggerated or an in-
adequate calculation.* Those who love horrible details
may find ample material. The chronicles contain the lists
of these obscure martyrs ; but their names, hardly pro-
nounced in their lifetime, sound barbarously in our ears,
and will never ring through the trumpet of fame. Yet
they were men who dared and suffered as much as men
can dare and suffer in this world, and for the noblest
cause which can inspire humanity.
Thus, the people of the Netherlands were already per-
vaded, throughout the whole extent of the country, with
the expanding spirit of religious reformation. It was in-
evitable that sooner or later an explosion was to arrive.
They were placed between two great countries where the
new principles had already taken root. The Lutheranism
of Germany and the Calvinism of France had each its
share in producing the Netherland revolt, but a mistake is
* How many genuine martyrs suffered death in the Netherlands for con-
science sake ? How many were tortured, " not accepting deliverance " ?
The traditional statement of "one hundred thousand," and these "under
one reign," copied in the popular books of reference, is from Grotius. It
must either cover the cases of those slain in war at the massacres and
sieges, or else it must be reduced by critical revision before acceptance by
historical science. Even Gibbon declares that " the number of Protestants
who were executed by the Spaniards in a single province and a single reign
far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries
and of the Roman Empire." — Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, end
of Chapter XVI. The figures of Grotius need the elision of at least one
cipher. Wilde and Blok, going to the opposite extreme, do not find one
thousand genuine martyrs who suffered death simply on account of their
belief! See P. J. Blok, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Volk, Vol. II., page
474.
1559] PROGRESS OF CALVINISM 79
perhaps often made in estimating the relative proportion
of these several influences. The Reformation first entered
the provinces, not through the Augsburg, but the Hugue-
not gate.* The fiery field-preachers from the south of
France first inflamed the excitable hearts of the kindred
population of the southwestern Netherlands. The Wal-
loons were the first to rebel against and the first to recon-
cile themselves with papal Rome, exactly as their Celtic
ancestors, fifteen centuries earlier, had been foremost in
the revolt against imperial Rome, and precipitate in their
submission to her overshadowing power. The Batavians,
slower to be moved, but more steadfast, retained the im-
pulse which they received from the same source which
was already agitating their " Welsh " compatriots. There
were already French preachers at Valenciennes and Tour-
nai, to be followed, as we shall have occasion to see, by
many others. Without undervaluing the influence of the
German Churches, and particularly of the garrison-preach-
ing of the German military chaplains in the Netherlands,
it may be safely asserted that the early Reformers of the
provinces were mainly Huguenots in their belief. The
* Whence and how were the Netherlands first leavened with the truth
which appears to plain men reading the Bible ? Or, who first brought the
doctrines of the Reformation into the Low Countries ? Were they the Ana-
baptists, Lutherans, or Calvinists ? While Motley's statements are care-
fully made and accurate in the main, yet in reality there were three great
streams of influence in the Dutch Reformation, and the first of all was that
of the Anabaptists, so called. These plain readers of the Bible permeated
the lower strata of society and furnished the larger number of martyrs in
the first decade of persecution. The Lutheran movement was confined
chiefly to the more prosperous mercantile classes. The Calvinistic doctrines,
being in subtle harmony with the Dutch character, finally won the heart and
mind of the nation at large, especially in the Dutch republic. The Ana-
baptist*, so called, were more numerous in the northern Netherlands, but
theirs was the pristine Protestantism. The first " Puritan Fathers of the
Dutcli republic " neither called themselves, nor were called, after Luther or
Calvin, but by themselves were known as " Brethren," and by enemies as
"Anabaptists." That "the Reformation first entered the provinces" not
by the Augsburg or by the Geneva gate, but by that looking towards
Switzerland, is demonstrated in Dr. J. G. de Hoop Scheffer's Geschiedenis
der Kerkhervorming in Nederland, van haar onstaan to 1531. Amsterdam,
1873. See also pages 53-54.
80 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
Dutch Church became, accordingly, not Lutheran, but
Calvinistic, and the founder of the commonwealth hardly
ceased to be a nominal Catholic before he became an ad-
herent to the same creed.
In the mean time, it is more natural to regard the great
movement, psychologically speaking, as a whole, whether
it revealed itself in France, Germany, the Netherlands,
England, or Scotland. The policy of governments, na-
tional character, individual interest, and other collateral
circumstances, modified the result ; but the great cause
was the same ; the source of all the movements was ele-
mental, natural, and single. The Eeformation in Ger-
many had been adjourned for half a century by the Augs-
burg religious peace, just concluded. It was held in
suspense in France through the Machiavelian policy which
Catharine de Medici had just adopted, and was for sev-
eral years to prosecute, of balancing one party against
the other, so as to neutralize all power but her own.
The great contest was accordingly transferred to the
Netherlands, to be fought out for the rest of the century,
while the whole of Christendom was to look anxiously
for the result. From the east and from the west the
clouds rolled away, leaving a comparatively bright and
peaceful atmosphere, only that they might concentrate
themselves with portentous blackness over the devoted
soil of the Netherlands. In Germany, the princes, not
the people, had conquered Kome, and to the princes, not
the people, were secured the benefits of the victory — the
spoils of churches and the right to worship according to
conscience. The people had the right to conform to their
ruler's creed or to depart from his laud. Still, as a mat-
ter of fact, many of the princes being Reformers, a large
mass of the population had acquired the privilege for their
own generation and that of their children to practise that
religion which they actually approved. This was a fact,
and a more comfortable one than the necessity of choosing
between what they considered wicked idolatry and the
stake — the only election left to their Netherland brethren.
In France, the accidental splinter from Montgomery's
lance had deferred the Huguenot massacre for a dozen
1559] EDICT OF 1550 81
years. During the period in which the Queen Regent was
resolved to play her fast-and-loose policy, all the persua-
sions of Philip and the arts of Alva were powerless to in-
duce her to carry out the scheme which Henry had re-
vealed to Orange in the forest of Viucennes. When the
crime came at last it was as blundering as it was bloody ;
at once premeditated and accidental ; the isolated execu-
tion of an interregal conspiracy, existing for half a gener-
ation, yet exploding without concert ; a wholesale massa-
cre, but a piecemeal plot.
The aristocracy and the masses being thus, from a va-
riety of causes, in this agitated and dangerous condition,
what were the measures of the government ?
The edict of 1550 had been re - enacted immediately
after Philip's accession to sovereignty.
"No one," said the edict, "shall print, write, copy,
keep, conceal, sell, buy, or give in churches, streets, or
other places, any book or writing made by Martin Luther,
John Ecolampadius, Ulrich Zuinglius, Martin Bucer,
John Calvin, or other heretics reprobated by the Holy
Church ; * * * nor break or otherwise injure the images
of the holy virgin or canonized saints ; * * * nor in his
house hold conventicles or illegal gatherings, or be pres-
ent at any such in which the adherents of the above-
mentioned heretics teach, baptize, and form conspiracies
against the Holy Church and the general welfare. * * *
Moreover, we forbid," continues the edict in name of the
sovereign, "all lay persons to converse or dispute concern-
ing the Holy Scriptures, openly or secretly, especially on
any doubtful or difficult matters, or to read, teach, or ex-
pound the Scriptures, unless they have duly studied the-
ology and been approved by some renowned university ;
* * * or to preach secretly or openly, or to entertain any
of the opinions of the above-mentioned heretics ; * * * on
pain, should any one be found to have contravened any
of the points above-mentioned, as perturbators of our state
and of the general quiet, of being punished.
" That such perturbators of the general quiet are to be
executed, to wit : the men with the sword and the women
to be buried alive, if they do not persist in their errors ;
82 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1559
if they do persist in them, then they are to be executed
with fire ; all their property in both cases being confis-
cated to the crown."
Treachery to one's friends was encouraged by the pro-
vision, " that if any man being present at any secret con-
venticle shall afterwards come forward and betray his
fellow-members of the congregation, he shall receive full
pardon."
In order that neither the good people of the Nether-
lands nor the judges and inquisitors should delude them-
selves with the notion that these fanatic decrees were
only intended to inspire terror, not for practical execution,
the sovereign continued to ordain — " to the end that the
judges and officers may have no reason, under pretext
that the penalties are too great and heavy and only de-
vised to terrify delinquents, to punish them less severely
than they deserve — that the culprits be really punished
by the penalties above declared ; forbidding all judges to
alter or moderate the penalties in any manner — -forbidding
any one, of whatsoever condition, to ask of us, or of any
one having authority, to grant pardon, or to present any
petition in favor of such heretics, exiles, or fugitives, on
penalty of being declared forever incapable of civil and
military office, and of being arbitrarily punished besides."
Such were the leading provisions of this famous edict,
originally promulgated in 1550 as a recapitulation and
condensation of all the previous ordinances of the Emper-
or upon religious subjects. By its style and title it was
a perpetual edict, and, according to one of its clauses,
was to be published forever, once in every six months, in
every city and village of the Netherlands. It had been
promulgated at Augsburg, where the Emperor was hold-
ing a diet, upon the 25th of September.
As an additional security for the supremacy of the
ancient religion, it had been thought desirable that the
number of bishops should be increased. There were but
four sees in the Netherlands, those of Arras, Cambrai,
Tournay, and Utrecht. That of Utrecht was within the
archiepiscopate of Cologne ; the other three were within
that of Rheims. It seemed proper that the prelates of
1550] BULL OF THE BISHOPRICS 83
the Netherlands should owe no extra-provincial allegiance.
It was likewise thought that three millions of souls re-
quired more than four spiritual superintendents. At any
rate, whatever might be the interest of the flocks, it was
certain that those broad and fertile pastures would sus-
tain more than the present number of shepherds.
Doctor Francis Sonnius had been sent on a mission to
the Pope for the purpose of representing the necessity
of an increase in the episcopal force of the Netherlands.
Just as the King was taking his departure the commis-
sioner arrived, bringing with him the Bull of Paul the
Fourth, dated the 18th of May, 1559. This was afterwards
confirmed by that of Pins the Fourth, in January of the
following year. The document stated that " Paul the
Fourth, slave of slaves, wishing to provide for the welfare
of the provinces and the eternal salvation of their in-
habitants, had determined to plant in that fruitful field
several new bishoprics. The enemy of mankind being
abroad," said the Bull, ''in so many forms at that par-
ticular time, and the Netherlands, then under the sway
of that beloved son of his holiness, Philip the Catholic,
being compassed about with heretic and schismatic na-
tions, it was believed that the eternal welfare of the land
was in great danger. At the period of the original es-
tablishment of cathedral churches, the provinces had
been sparsely peopled ; they had now become filled to
overflowing, so that the original ecclesiastical arrange-
ment did not suffice. The harvest was plentiful, but the
laborers werefeiv."
In consideration of these and other reasons, three arch-
bishoprics were accordingly appointed. That of Mechlin
was to be principal, under which were constituted six
bishoprics — those, namely, of Antwerp, Bois-le-Duc, Roer-
mond, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres. That of Cambrai was
second, with the four subordinate dioceses of Tournay,
Arras, Saint-Omer, and Namur. The third archbishopric
was that of Utrecht, with the five sees of Haarlem, Mid-
delbtirg, Leeuwarden, Groningen, and Deveiiter.
The nomination of these important offices was granted
to the King, subject to confirmation by the Pope. More-
84 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1550
over, it was ordained by the Bull that "each bishop should
appoint nine additional prebendaries, who were to assist
him in the matter of the inquisition throughout his bish-
opric, two of ivhom were themselves to be inquisitors."
To sustain these two great measures, through which
Philip hoped once and forever to extinguish the Nether-
land heresy, it was considered desirable that the Spanish
troops still remaining in the provinces should be kept
there indefinitely.
The force was not large, amounting hardly to four thou-
sand men, but they were unscrupulous, and admirably dis-
ciplined. As the entering wedge, by which a military
and ecclesiastical despotism was eventually to be forced
into the very heart of the land, they were invaluable.
The moral effect to be hoped from the regular presence
of a Spanish standing army during a time of peace in the
Netherlands could hardly be exaggerated. Philip was there-
fore determined to employ every argument and subterfuge
to detain the troops.
CHAPTER II
KING, REGENT, CARDINAL, ELECTOR, AND PATRIOT
THE years 1560 and 1561 were mainly occupied with
the agitation and dismay produced by the causes set forth
in the preceding chapter.
Against the arbitrary policy embodied in the edicts, the
new bishoprics, and the foreign soldiery, the Netherlanders
appealed to their ancient constitutions. These charters
were called " handvests" in the vernacular Dutch and
Flemish, because the sovereign made them fast with his
hand. As already stated, Philip had made them faster
than any of the princes of his house had ever done, so far
as oath and signature could accomplish that purpose, both
as hereditary prince in 1549 and as monarch in 1555.
The reasons for the extensive and unconditional manner
in which he swore to support the provincial charters have
been already indicated.
Of these constitutions, that of Brabant, known by the
title of the joyeuse entree, blyde inkomst, or blithe en-
trance, furnished the most decisive barrier against the
present wholesale tyranny. First and foremost, the "joy-
ous entry " provided " that the prince of the land should
not elevate the clerical state higher than of old has been
customary and by former princes settled ; unless by con-
sent of the other two estates — the nobility and the
cities."
Again, "the prince can prosecute no one of his sub-
jects, nor any foreign resident, civilly or criminally, except
in the ordinary and open courts of justice in the province,
where the accused may answer and defend himself with
the help of advocates."
86 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1560
Further, "the prince shall appoint no foreigners to
office in Brabant."
Lastly, " should the prince, by force or otherwise, vio-
late any of these privileges, the inhabitants of Brabant,
after regular protest entered, are discharged of their oaths
of allegiance, and, as free, independent, and unbound peo-
ple, may conduct themselves exactly as seems to them
best."
Such were the leading features, so far as they regarded
the points now at issue, of that famous constitution, which
was so highly esteemed in the Netherlands that mothers
came to the province in order to give birth to their chil-
dren, who might thus enjoy, as a birthright, the privileges
of Brabant. Yet the charters of the other provinces ought
to have been as effective against the arbitrary course of
the government. " No foreigner," said the constitution
of Holland, " is eligible as councillor, financier, magistrate,
or member of a court. Justice can be administered only
by the ordinary tribunals and magistrates. The ancient
laws and customs shall remain inviolable. Should the
prince infringe any of these provisions, no one is bound to
obey him."
On the reception in the provinces of the new and con-
firmatory Bull concerning the bishoprics, issued in Jan-
uary, 1560, the discontent was inevitable and universal.
The ecclesiastical establishment, which was not to be en-
larged or elevated but by consent of the estates, was sud-
denly expanded into three archiepiscopates and fifteen bish-
oprics. The administration of justice, which was only
allowed in free and local courts, distinct for each province,
was to be placed, so far as regarded the most important
of human interests, in the hands of bishops and their
creatures, many of them foreigners and most of them
monks. The lives and property of the whole population
were to be at the mercy of these utterly irresponsible con-
claves. All classes were outraged. The nobles were
offended because ecclesiastics, perhaps foreign ecclesias-
tics, were to be empowered to sit in the provincial estates
and to control their proceedings in place of easy, indolent,
ignorant abbots and friars, who had generally accepted
1560] GRAXVELLE'S COURSE 87
the influence of the great seigniors. The priests were en-
raged because the religious houses were thus taken out of
their control and confiscated to a bench of bishops, usurp-
ing the places of those superiors who had formally been
elected by and among themselves. The people were
alai'med, because the monasteries, although not respected
nor popular, were at least charitable and without ambition
to exercise ecclesiastical cruelty ; while, on the other hand,
by the new episcopal arrangements, a force of thirty new
inquisitors was added to the apparatus for enforcing
orthodoxy already established. The odium of the meas-
ure was placed upon the head of that churchman, already
appointed Archbishop of Mechlin, and soon to be known
as Cardinal Granvelle.
Although the King had not consulted Anthony Perre-
not with regard to the creation of the new bishoprics,
deceiving for once the astute prelate, yet the people per-
sisted in identifying the Bishop with the scheme. They
saw that he was the head of the new institutions ; that
he was to receive the lion's share of the confiscated abbeys,
and that he was foremost in defending and carrying
through the measure, in spite of all opposition. That
opposition waxed daily more bitter, till the Cardinal, not-
withstanding that he characterized the arrangement to
the King as " a holy work," and warmly assured Secretary
Perez that he would contribute his fortune, his blood,
and his life to its success, was yet obliged to exclaim in
the bitterness of his spirit, "Would to God that the erec-
tion of these new sees had never been thought of. Amen !
Amen !"
Foremost in resistance was the Prince of Orange. Al-
though a Catholic, he had no relish for the horrible perse-
cution which had been determined upon. The new bish-
oprics he characterized afterwards as parts "of one grand
scheme for establishing the cruel inquisition of Spain ;
the said bishops to serve as inquisitors, burners of bodies,
and tyrants of conscience : two prebendaries in each see
being actually constituted inquisitors." For this reason
he omitted no remonstrance on the subject to the Duch-
ess, to Granvelle, and by direct letters to the King. His
88 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1560
efforts were seconded by Egmont, Berghen, and other in-
fluential nobles.
Though the Bishop tried to have the word " inquisitor"
kept out of the tent of the new decree, it was difficult,
with all his eloquence and dexterity, to construct an
agreeable inquisition. The people did not like it in any
shape, and there were indications, not to be mistaken,
that one day there would be a storm ^which it would be
beyond human power to assuage. At present the people
directed their indignation only upon a part of the ma-
chinery devised for their oppression. The Spanish troops
were considered as a portion of the apparatus by which
the new bishoprics and the edicts were to be forced into
execution. Moreover, men were weary of the insolence
and the pillage which these mercenaries had so long ex-
ercised in the land. When the King had been first re-
quested to withdraw them, we have seen that he had burst
into a violent passion. He had afterwards dissembled.
Promising, at last, that they should all be sent from the
country within three or four months after his departure,
he had determined to use every artifice to detain them in
the provinces. He had succeeded, by various subter-
fuges, in keeping them there fourteen months ; but it
was at last evident that their presence would no longer be
tolerated. Towards the close of 1560 they were quartered
in Walcheren and Brill. The Zealanders, however, had
become so exasperated by their presence that they reso-
lutely refused to lay a single hand upon the dikes, which,
as usual at that season, required great repairs. Rather
than see their native soil profaned any longer by these
hated foreign mercenaries, they would see it sunk for-
ever in the ocean. They swore to perish — men, women,
and children together — in the waves, rather than endure
longer the outrages which the soldiery daily inflicted.
Such was the temper of the Zealanders that it was not
thought wise to trifle with their irritation. The Bishop
felt that it was no longer practicable to detain the troops,
and that all the pretexts devised by Philip and his govern-
ment had become ineffectual. In a session of the state
council, held on the 25th of October, 1560, he represented
1560] THE INQUISITOR KING 89
in the strongest terms to the Regent the necessity for the
final departure of the troops. Viglius, who knew the
character of his countrymen, strenuously seconded the
proposal. Orange briefly but firmly expressed the same
opinion, declining any longer to serve as commander of
the legion, an office which, in conjunction with Egmont,
he had accepted provisionally, with the best of motives,
and on the pledge of Philip that the soldiers should be
withdrawn. The Duchess urged that the order should at
least be deferred until the arrival of Count Egmont, then
in Spain, but the proposition was unanimously negatived.
Fortunately for the dignity of the government, or for
the repose of the country, a respectable motive was found
for employing the legion elsewhere. The important loss
with which Spain had recently met in the capture of Zerby
made a reinforcement necessary in the army engaged in
the southern service. Thus, the disaster in Barbary at
last relieved the Netherlands of the pest which had afflicted
them so long. For a brief breathing space the country
was cleared of foreign mercenaries.
The growing unpopularity of the royal government, still
typified, however, in the increasing hatred entertained for
the Bishop, was not materially diminished by the depart-
ure of the Spaniards.
The popularity of the churchman, not increased by his
desperate exertions to force an inhuman policy upon an
unfortunate nation, received likewise no addition from
his new elevation in rank. During the latter part of the
year 1560, Margaret of Parma, who still entertained a pro-
found admiration of the prelate, and had not yet begun
to chafe under his smooth but imperious dominion, had
been busy in preparing for him a delightful surprise.
Without either his knowledge or that of the King, she
had corresponded with the Pope, and succeeded in obtain-
ing, as a personal favor to herself, the Cardinal's hat for
Anthony Perrenot. In February, 1561, Cardinal Borro-
meo wrote to announce that the coveted dignity had been
bestowed. The Duchess hastened, with joyous alacrity,
to communicate the intelligence to the Bishop, but was
extremely hurt to find that he steadily refused to assume
90 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
liis new dignity until he had written to the King to an-
nounce the appointment, and to ask his permission to ac-
cept the honor.
The prelate, having thus reached the dignity to which
he had long aspired, did not grow more humble in his de-
portment, or less zealous in the work through which he
had already gained so much wealth and preferment. His
conduct with regard to the edicts and bishoprics had
already brought him into relations which were far from
amicable with his colleagues in the council. More and
more he began to take the control of affairs into his own
hand. The consul ta, or secret committee of the state
council, constituted the real government of the country.
Here the most important affairs were decided upon with-
out the concurrence of the other seigniors, Orange, Eg-
mont, and Glayon, who, at the same time, were held re-
sponsible for the action of government. The Cardinal
was smooth in manner, plausible of speech, generally even-
tempered, but he was overbearing and blandly insolent.
Accustomed to control royal personages, under the garb of
extreme obsequiousness, he began, in his intercourse with
those of less exalted rank, to omit a portion of the subser-
viency while claiming a still more undisguised authority.
To nobles like Egmont and Orange, who looked down
upon the son of Nicolas Perrenot and Nicola Bonvalot as
a person immeasurably beneath themselves in the social
hierarchy, this conduct was sufficiently irritating. The
Cardinal, placed as far above Philip, and even Margaret,
in mental power as he was beneath them in worldly station,
found it comparatively easy to deal with them amicably.
With such a man as Egmont it was impossible for the
churchman to maintain friendly relations. The Count,
who, notwithstanding his romantic appearance, his brilliant
exploits, and his interesting destiny, was but a common-
place character, soon conceived a mortal aversion to Gran-
velle. A rude soldier, entertaining no respect for science
or letters, ignorant and overbearing, he was not the man
to submit to the airs of superiority which pierced daily
more and more decidedly through the conventional exte-
rior of the Cardinal. Grauvelle, on the other hand, enter-
1561] GRANVELLE'S RELATIONS WITH ORANGE 91
tained a gentle contempt for Egmont, which manifested
itself in all his private letters to the King, and was suffi-
ciently obvious in his deportment. There had also been
distinct causes of animosity between them, arising from
disputes concerning the appointments of subordinates in
office. On one occasion Egmont drew his dagger upon
Granvelle in the presence of the Regent herself, "and,"
says a contemporary, " would certainly have sent the Car-
dinal into the next world had he not been forcibly re-
strained by the Prince of Orange and other persons pres-
ent, who warmly represented to him that such griefs were
to be settled by deliberate advice, not by choler." At the
same time, while scenes like these were occurring in the very
bosom of the state council, Granvelle, in his confidential
letters to Secretary Perez, asserted warmly that all re-
ports of a want of harmony, between himself and the
other seigniors and councillors were false, and that the
best relations existed among them all. It was not his
intention, before it should be necessary, to let the King
doubt his ability to govern the council according to
the secret commission with which he had been in-
vested.
His relations with Orange were longer in changing from
friendship to open hostility. In the Prince the Cardinal
met his match. He found himself confronted by an in-
tellect as subtle, an experience as fertile in expedients, a
temper as even, and a disposition sometimes as haughty
as his own. He never affected to undervalue the mind of
Orange. " 'Tis a man of profound genius, vast ambition
— dangerous, acute, politic," he wrote to the King at a
very early period. The relations between himself and the
Prince had been very amicable. There had been great in-
timacy, founded upon various benefits mutually conferred;
for it could hardly be asserted that the debt of friendship
was wholly upon one side.
When Orange arrived in Brussels from a journey, he
would go to the Bishop's before alighting at his own house.
When the churchman visited the Prince, he entered his
bedchamber without ceremony, before he had risen ; for
it was William's custom through life to receive intimate
92 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
acquaintances, and even to attend to important negotia-
tions of state, while still in bed.
The show of this intimacy had lasted longer than its
substance. Granvelle was the most politic of men, and
the Prince had not served his apprenticeship at the court
of Charles the Fifth to lay himself bare prematurely to
the criticism or the animosity of the Cardinal with the
recklessness of Horn and Egmont. An explosion came at
last, however, and very soon after an exceedingly amicable
correspondence between the two upon the subject of an
edict of religious amnesty which Orange was preparing
for his principality, and which Granvelle had recom-
mended him not to make too lenient. A few weeks after
this the Antwerp magistracy was to be renewed. The
Prince, as hereditary burgrave of that city, was entitled
to a large share of the appointing power in these political
arrangements, which at the moment were of great im-
portance. The citizens of Antwerp were in a state of ex-
citement on the subject of the new bishops. They openly,
and, in the event, successfully, resisted the installation of
the new prelate for whom their city had been constituted
a diocese. When the nominations for the new magistracy
came before the Regent, she disposed of the whole matter
in the secret consulta, without the knowledge, and in a
manner opposed to the views, of Orange. He was then
furnished with a list of the new magistrates, and was in-
formed that he had been selected as commissioner along
with Count Aremberg, to see that the appointments were
carried into effect. The indignation of the Prince was
extreme. There was a violent altercation — Orange vehe-
mently resenting his appointment merely to carry out de-
cisions in which he claimed an original voice. His ances-
tors, he said, had often changed the whole of the Antwerp
magistracy by their own authority. Granvelle, on his side,
was also in a rage. Thus began the open state of hostilities
between the great nobles and the Cardinal, which had
been brooding so long.
In truth, Granvelle, with all his keenness, could not see
that Orange, Egmont, Berghen, Montigny, and the rest,
were no longer pages and young captains of cavalry, while
EGMONT
1561] ROYAL WRATH AGAINST HORN 93
he was the politician and the statesman. By six or seven
years the senior of Egmont, and by sixteen years of Or-
ange, he did not divest himself of the superciliousness of
superior wisdom, not unjust nor so irritating when they
had all been boys. In his deportment towards them, and
in the whole tone of his private correspondence with Phil-
ip, there was revealed, almost in spite of himself, an affec-
tation of authority against which Egmont rebelled and
which the Prince was not the man to acknowledge. Philip
answered the letter of the two nobles in his usual procras-
tinating manner. The Count of Horn, who was about
leaving Spain (whither he had accompanied the King) for
the Netherlands, would be intrusted with the resolution
which he should think proper to take upon the subject
suggested. In the mean time he assured them that he
did not doubt their zeal in his service.
As to Count Horn, Granvelle had already prejudiced
the King against him. Horn and the Cardinal had never
been friends. A brother of the prelate had been an aspir-
ant for the hand of the Admiral's sister, and had been
somewhat contemptuously rejected. Horn, a bold, vehe-
ment, and not very good - tempered personage, had long
kept no terms with Granvelle, and did not pretend a
friendship which he had never felt. Granvelle had just
written to instruct the King that Horn was opposed bit-
terly to that measure which was nearest the King's heart
— the new bishoprics. He had been using strong lan-
guage, according to the Cardinal, in opposition to the
scheme, while still in Spain. He therefore advised that
his Majesty, concealing, of course, the source of the infor-
mation, and speaking as it were out of the royal mind it-
self, should expostulate with the Admiral upon the sub-
ject. Thus prompted, Philip was in no gracious humor
when he received Count Horn, then about to leave Madrid
for the Netherlands, and to take with him the King's
promised answer to the communication of Orange and
Egmont. His Majesty had rarely been known to exhibit
so much anger towards any person as he manifested upon
that occasion. After a few words from the Admiral, in
which he expressed his sympathy with the other Nether-
94 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLAXDS [1561
land nobles and his aversion to Granvelle, in general
terms, and in reply to Philip's interrogatories, the King
fiercely interrupted him : " What ! miserable man !" he
vociferated — " Yon all complain of this Cardinal, and al-
ways in vague language. Not one of you, in spite of all
my questions, can give me a single reason for your dis-
satisfaction." With this the royal wrath boiled over in
such unequivocal terms that the Admiral changed color
and was so confused with indignation and astonishment
that he was scarcely able to find his way out of the room.
This was the commencement of Granvelle's long mortal
combat with Egmont, Horn, and Orange. This was the
first answer which the seigniors were to receive to their
remonstrances against the churchman's arrogance. Philip
was enraged that any opposition should be made to his
coercive measures, particularly to the new bishoprics, the
" holy work " which the Cardinal was ready to " conse-
crate his fortune and his blood" to advance. Granvelle
fed his master's anger by constant communications as to
the efforts made by distinguished individuals to delay the
execution of the scheme.
Philip was determined that no remonstrance from great
nobles or from private citizens should interfere with the
thorough execution of the grand scheme on which he was
resolved, and of which the new bishoprics formed an im-
portant part. Opposition irritated him more and more, till
his hatred of the opponents became deadly ; but it at the
same time confirmed him in his purpose. "'Tis no time
to temporize," he wrote to Granvelle ; " we must inflict
chastisement with full rigor and severity. These rascals
can only be made to do right through fear, and not always
even by that means."
At the same time, the royal finances did not admit of
any very active measures to enforce obedience to a policy
which was already so bitterly opposed. A rough estimate,
made in the King's own handwriting, of the resources
and obligations of his exchequer, a kind of balance-sheet
for the years 1560 and 1561, drawn up much in the same
manner as that in which a simple individual would make
a note of his income and expenditure, gave but a dismal
1561] A DISMAL EXCHEQUER 95
picture of his pecuniary condition. It served to show how
intelligent a financier is despotism, and how little availa-
ble are the resources of a mighty empire when regarded
merely as private property, particularly when the owner
chances to have the vanity of attending to all details him-
self. "Twenty millions of ducats/' began the memoran-
dum, " will be required to disengage my revenues. But
of this/' added the King, with whimsical pathos for an
account-book, " we will not speak at present, as the mat-
ter is so entirely impossible." He then proceeded to en-
ter the various items of expense which were to be met
during the two years — such as so many millions due to the
Fuggers (the Kothschilds of the sixteenth century), so
many to merchants in Flanders, Seville, and other places,
so much for Prince Doria's galleys, so much for three
years' pay due to his guards, so much for his household
expenditure, so much for the tuition of Don Carlos and
Don John of Austria, so much for salaries of ambassadors
and councillors — mixing personal and state expenses,
petty items and great loans, in one singular jumble, bnt
arriving at a total demand upon his purse of ten million
nine hundred and ninety thousand ducats.
To meet this expenditure, he painfully enumerated the
funds upon which he could reckon for the two years. His
ordinary rents and taxes being all deeply pledged, he
could only calculate from that source upon two hundred
thousand ducats. The Indian revenue, so called, was
nearly spent ; still it might yield him four hundred and
twenty thousand ducats. The quicksilver mines would
produce something, but so little as hardly to require men-
tioning. As to the other mines, they were equally un-
worthy of notice, being so very uncertain, and not doing
as well as they were wont. The licenses accorded by the
crown to carry slaves to America were put down at fifty
thousand ducats for the two years. The product of the
" crozada " and " cuarta," or money paid to him in small
sums by individuals, with the permission of his holiness,
for the liberty of abstaining from the Church fasts, was
estimated at five hundred thousand ducats. These and a
few more meagre items only sufficed to stretch his income
96 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS 1 1561
to a total of one million three hundred and thirty thousand
for the two years, against an expenditure calculated at
near eleven millions. " Thus there are nine millions, less
three thousand ducats, deficient," he concluded, ruefully
(and making a mistake in his figures in his own favor of
six hundred and sixty-three thousand besides], " which I
may look for in the sky, or try to raise by inventionss
already exhausted."
Thus the man who owned all America and half of Eu-
rope could only raise a million ducats a year from his es-
tates. The possessor of all Peru and Mexico could reckon
on "nothing worth mentioning" from his mines, and de-
rived a precarious income mainly from permissions granted
his subjects to carry on the slave-trade and to eat meat on
Fridays. This was certainly a gloomy condition of affairs
for a monarch on the threshold of a war which was to out-
last his own life and that of his children ; a war in which
the mere army expenses were to be half a million florins
monthly, in which about seventy per cent, of the annual
disbursements was to be regularly embezzled or appropri-
ated by the hands through which it passed, and in which
for every four men on paper, enrolled and paid for, only
one, according to the average, was brought into the field.
It is necessary, before concluding this chapter, which
relates the events of the years 1560 and 1561, to allude to
an important affair which occupied much attention during
the whole of this period. This is the celebrated marriage
of the Prince of Orange with the Princess Anna of Saxony.
By many superficial writers, a moving cause of the great
Netherland revolt was found in the connection of the great
chieftain with this distinguished Lutheran house. One
must have studied the characters and the times to very
little purpose, however, to believe it possible that much
influence could be exerted on the mind of William of
Orange by such natures as those of Anna of Saxony, or of
her uncle the Elector Augustus, surnamed " the Pious."
The Prince had become a widower in 1558, at the age
of twenty-five. After a year of mourning, Granvelle pro-
posed to him an alliance with Kenee, the Princess of Lor-
raine, which would connect him with the royal houses of
1561] PREVIOUS MYSTERIES 97
botli Spain and France. Agreeable as this was to the
Prince of Orange, it was circumvented by the opposition
of Philip, who ordered the young lady's mother, the Duch-
ess of Lorraine, to decline the proposal.
Soon after this William turned his attentions to Ger-
many. Anna of Saxony, daughter of the celebrated Elec-
tor Maurice, lived at the court of her uncle, the Elector
Augustus. A musket-ball, perhaps a traitorous one, in an
obscure action with Albert of Brandenburg, had closed
the adventurous career of her father seven years before.
The young lady, who was thought to have inherited much
of his restless, stormy character, was sixteen years of age.
She was far from handsome, was somewhat deformed, and
limped. Her marriage-portion was deemed, for the times,
an ample one ; she had seventy-thousand rix dollars in
hand, and the reversion of thirty thousand on the death
of John Frederic the Second, who had married her mother
after the death of Maurice. Her rank was accounted far
higher in Germany than that of William of Nassau, and in
this respect, rather than for pecuniary considerations, the
marriage seemed a desirable one for him. The man who
held the great Nassau-Chalons property, together with the
heritage of Count Maximilian de Buren, could hardly have
been tempted b}^ one hundred thousand thalers. His own
provision for the children who might spring from the pro-
posed marriage was to be a settlement of seventy thon-
sand florins annually. The fortune which permitted of
such liberality was not one to be very materially increased
by a dowry which might seem enormous to many of the
pauper princes of Germany. " The bride's portion," says
a contemporary, " after all, scarcely paid for the banquets
and magnificent festivals which celebrated the marriage.
When the wedding was paid for, there was not a thaler
remaining of the whole sum." Nothing, then, could be
more puerile than to accuse the Prince of mercenary mo-
tives in seeking this alliance ; an accusation, however,
which did not fail to be brought.
There were difficulties on both sides to be arranged be-
fore this marriage could take place. The bride was a Lu-
theran, the Prince was a Catholic. After much opposition
98 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
from the Landgrave Philip and from Philip of Spain, with
correspondence between the King and the Cardinal, Will-
iam of Orange made a visit to Dresden in December, 1560,
where he was received by the Elector Augustus with great
cordiality.
The appearance and accomplishments of the distin-
guished suitor made a profound impression upon the lady.
Her heart was carried by storm. Finding, or fancying,
herself very desperately enamored of the proposed bride-
groom, she soon manifested as much eagerness for the
marriage as did her uncle, and expressed herself frequent-
ly with the violence which belonged to her character.
"What God had decreed/' she said, "the devil should
not hinder."
The wedding had been fixed to take place on Sunday,
the 24th of August, 1561. This was St. Bartholomew's, a
nuptial day which was not destined to be a happy one in
the sixteenth century. The Landgrave and his family de-
clined to be present at the wedding, but a large and brill-
iant company were invited. The King of Spain sent a
bill of exchange to the Regent, that she might purchase a
ring worth three thousand crowns, as a present on his part
to the bride. Besides this liberal evidence that his opposi-
tion to the marriage was withdrawn, he authorized his sis-
ter to appoint envoys from among the most distinguished
nobles to represent him on the occasion. The Baron de
Montigny, accordingly, with a brilliant company of gen-
tlemen, was deputed by the Duchess, although she de-
clined sending all the governors of the provinces, accord-
ing to the request of the Prince. The marriage was to
take place at Leipsic.
On Saturday, the day before the wedding, the guests
had all arrived at Leipsic, and the Prince of Orange, with
his friends, at Merseburg. On Sunday, the 24th of August,
the Elector, at the head of his guests and attendants, in
splendid array, rode forth to receive the bridegroom. His
cavalcade numbered four thousand. William of Orange
had arrived, accompanied by one thousand mounted men.
The whole troop now entered the city together, escorting
the Prince to the town-house. Here he dismounted, and
1561] LEIPSIC IN COMMOTION 00
was received on the staircase by the Princess Anna, at-
tended by her ladies. She immediately afterwards with-
drew to her apartments.
It was at this point, between 4 and 5 p. M., that the
Elector and Electress, with the bride and bridegroom, ac-
companied also by the Dame Sophia von Miltitz and the
Councillors Hans von Ponika and Ulrich Woltersdorff
upon one side, and by Count John of Nassau and Heinrich
von Wiltberg upon the other, as witnesses, appeared be-
fore Wolf Seidel, notary, in a corner room of the upper
story of the town-house. One of the councillors, on the
part of the Elector, then addressed the bridegroom. He
observed that his highness would remember, no doubt, the
contents of a memorandum or billet, sent by the Elector on
the 14th of April of that year, by the terms of which the
Prince was to agree that he would, neither by threat nor
persuasion, prevent his future wife from continuing in the
Augsburg Confession ; that he would allow her to go to
places where she might receive the Augsburg sacraments ;
that in case of extreme need she should receive them in
her chamber ; and that the children who might spring from
the marriage should be instructed as to the Augsburg doc-
trines. As, however, continued the councillor, his high-
ness the Prince of Orange has, for various reasons, declined
giving any such agreement in writing, as therefore it had
been arranged that before the marriage ceremony the
Prince should, in the presence of the bride and of the other
witnesses, make a verbal promise on the subject, and as the
parties were now to be immediately united in marriage,
therefore the Elector had no doubt that the Prince would
make no objection in the presence of those witnesses to
give his consent to maintain the agreements comprised in
the memorandum or note. The note was then read. There-
upon the Prince answered verbally. " Gracious Elector :
I remember the writing which you sent me on the 14th of
April. All the points just narrated by the Doctor were
contained in it. I now state to your highness that I will
keep it all as becomes a Prince, and conform to it."
Thereupon he gave the Elector his hand.
After the delay occasioned by these private formalities,
100 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
the bridal procession, headed by the court musicians, fol-
lowed by the court marshals, councillors, great officers of
state, and the electoral family, entered the grand hall of
the town-house. The nuptial ceremony was then per-
formed by " the Superintendent Doctor Pfeffinger. Im-
mediately afterwards, and in the same hall, the bride and
bridegroom were placed publicly upon a splendid, gilded
bed, with gold-embroidered curtains, the Princess being
conducted thither by the Elector and the Electress. Con-
fects and spiced drinks were then served to them and to
the assembled company. After this ceremony they were
conducted to their separate chambers to dress for dinner.
Before they left the hall, however, Margrave Hans of
Brandenburg, on part of the Elector of Saxony, solemnly
recommended the bride to her husband, exhorting him
to cherish her with faith and affection, and "to leave
her undisturbed in the recognized truth of the Holy
Gospel and the right use of the sacraments."
Five round tables were laid in the same hall immediately
afterwards — each accommodating ten guests. As soon as
the first course of twenty-five dishes had been put upon
the chief table, the bride and bridegroom, the Elector and
Electress, the Spanish and Danish envoys and others, were
escorted to it, and the banquet began. During the repast,
the Elector's choir and all the other bands discoursed the
" merriest and most ingenious music." The noble vassals
handed the water, the napkins, and the wine, and every-
thing was conducted decorously and appropriately. As
soon as the dinner was brought to a close, the tables were
cleared away, and the ball began in the same apartment.
Dances, previously arranged, were performed, after which
"confects and drinks" were again distributed, and the
bridal pair were then conducted to the nuptial chamber.
The wedding, according to the Lutheran custom of the
epoch, had thus taken place not in a church, but in a pri-
vate dwelling ; the hall of the town-house, representing,
on this occasion, the Elector's own saloons. On the fol-
lowing morning, however, a procession was formed at seven
o'clock to conduct the newly married couple to the church
of St. Nicholas, there to receive an additional exhortation
1561] TILTING AND MUMMING 101
and benediction. Two separate companies of gentlemen,
attended by a great number of " fifers, drummers, and
trumpeters," escorted the bride and the bridegroom,
"twelve counts, wearing each a scarf of the Princess
Anna's colors, with golden garlands on their heads and
lighted torches in their hands," preceding her to the choir,
where seats had been provided for the more illustrious por-
tion of the company. The church had been magnificently
decked in tapestry, and as the company entered a full or-
chestra performed siveral fine mottettos. After listening
to a long address from Doctor Pfeffinger, and receiving a
blessing before the altar, the Prince and Princess of Or-
ange returned, with their attendant processions, to the
town-house.
Then followed three days of revelry and feasting, with
a tournament every day and mummeries or masquerades
in the evenings. From the moment of her marriage the
Princess lived catholically, exactly as Orange had stated
to the Duchess Margaret, and as the Elector knew would
be the case. The first and the following children born of
the marriage were baptized by Catholic priests, with very
elaborate Catholic ceremonies, and this with the full con-
sent of the Elector, who sent deputies and officiated as
sponsor on one remarkable occasion.
While William of Orange was thus employed in Ger-
many, Granvelle seized the opportunity to make his en-
try into the city of Mechlin as Archbishop, believing
that such a step would be better accomplished in the
absence of the Prince from the country. The Cardinal
found no one in the city to welcome him. None of the
great nobles were there. The people looked upon the
procession with silent hatred. No man cried, ' ' God bless
him ! " He wrote to the King that he should push for-
ward the whole matter of the bishoprics as fast as pos-
sible, adding the ridiculous assertion that the opposi-
tion came entirely from the nobility, and that "if the
seigniors did not talk so much, not a man of the peo-
ple would open his mouth on the subject."
The remonstrance offered by the three estates of Bra-
bant against the scheme had not influenced Philip. He
102 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
had replied in a peremptory tone. He had assured them
that he had no intention of receding, and that the prov-
ince of Brabant ought to feel itself indebted to him for
having given them prelates instead of abbots to take care
of their eternal interests, and for having erected their reli-
gious houses into episcopates. The abbeys made whal
resistance they could, but were soon fain to come to a
compromise with the bishops, who, according to the ar-
rangement thus made, were to receive a certain portion
of the abbey revenues, while the remainder was to be-
long to the institutions, together with a continuance
their right to elect their own chiefs, subordinate, how-
ever, to the approbation of the respective prelates of the
diocese. Thus was the episcopal matter settled in Bra-
bant. In many of the other bishoprics the new digni-
taries were treated with disrespect, as they made their
entrance into their cities, while they experienced end-
less opposition and annoyance on attempting to take pos-
session of the revenue assigned to them.
CHAPTER III
CHURCH DISCIPLINE — THE INQUISITION
THE great cause of the revolt which, within a few years,
was to break forth throughout the Netherlands, was the
inquisition. It is almost puerile to look farther or deep-
er, when such a source of convulsion lies at the very out-
set of any investigation. During the war there had been,
for reasons already indicated, an occasional pause in the
religious persecution. Philip had now returned to Spain,
having arranged, with great precision, a comprehensive
scheme for exterminating that religious belief which was
already accepted by a very large portion of his Nether-
land subjects.
The Spanish inquisition, strictly so called, that is to
say, the modern or later institution established by Pope
Alexander the Sixth and Ferdinand the Catholic, was
doubtless invested with a more complete apparatus for
inflicting human misery, and for appalling human im-
agination, than any of the other less artfully arranged
inquisitions, whether papal or episcopal. It had been
originally devised for Jews or Moors, whom the Chris-
tianity of the age did not regard as human beings, but
who could not be banished without depopulating cer-
tain districts. It was soon, however, extended from pa-
gans to heretics. The Dominican Torquemada was the
first Moloch to be placed upon this pedestal of blood
and fire, and from that day forward the "holy office"
was almost exclusively in the hands of that band of
brothers. In the eighteen years of Torquemada's ad-
ministration, ten thousand two hundred and twenty in-
dividuals were burned alive, and ninety-seven thousand
104 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1561
three hundred and twenty -one punished with infamy,
confiscation of property, or perpetual imprisonment, so
that the total number of families destroyed by this one
friar alone amounted to one hundred and fourteen thou-
sand four hundred and one. In course of time the ju-
risdiction of the office was extended. It taught the sav-
ages of India and America to shudder at the name of
Christianity. The fear of its introduction froze the ear-
lier heretics of Italy, France, and Germany into ortho-
doxy. It was a court owning allegiance to no temporal
authority, superior to all other tribunals. It was a
bench of monks without appeal, having its familiars in
every house, diving into the secrets of every fireside,
judging and executing its horrible decrees without re-
sponsibility. It condemned not deeds, but thoughts.
It affected to descend into individual conscience, and
to punish the crimes which it pretended to discover.
Its process was reduced to a horrible simplicity. It ar-
rested on suspicion, tortured till confession, and then
punished by fire. Two witnesses, and those to separate
facts, were sufficient to consign the victim to a loath-
some dungeon. Here he was sparingly supplied with
food, forbidden to speak, or even to sing — to which
pastime it could hardly be thought he would feel much
inclination — and then left to himself till famine and
misery should break his spirit. When that time was
supposed to have arrived he was examined. Did he con-
fess and forswear his heresy, whether actually inno-
cent or not, he might then assume the sacred shirt,
and escape with confiscation of all his property. Did
he persist in the avowal of his innocence, two wit-
nesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack.
He was informed of the testimony against him, but
never confronted with the witness. That accuser
might be his son, father, or the wife of his bosom,
for all were enjoined, under the death -penalty, to in-
form, the inquisitors of every suspicious word which
might fall from their nearest relatives. The indict-
ment being thus supported, the prisoner was tried by
torture. The rack was the court of justice ; the crim-
1561] INQUISITORIAL ROUTINE 105
inal's only advocate was his fortitude — for the nom-
inal counsellor,, who was permitted no communication
with the prisoner, and was furnished neither with doc-
uments nor with power to procure evidence, was a pup-
pet, aggravating the lawlessness of the proceedings by
the mockery of legal forms. The torture took place at
midnight, in a gloomy dungeon, dimly lighted by torch-
es. The victim — whether man, matron, or tender virgin
— was stripped naked, and stretched upon the wooden
bench. Water, weights, fires, pulleys, screws — all the
apparatus by which the sinews could be strained with-
out cracking, the bones crushed without breaking, and
the body racked exquisitely without giving up its ghost,
was now put into operation. The executioner, envel-
oped in a black robe from head to foot, with his eyes
glaring at his victim through holes cut in the hood
which muffled his face, practised successively all the
forms of torture which the devilish ingenuity of the
monks had invented.
The period during which torture might be inflicted
from day to day was unlimited in duration. It could
only be terminated by confession ; so that the scaffold was
the sole refuge from the rack. Individuals have borne the
torture and the dungeon fifteen years, and have been
burned at the stake at last.
Execution followed confession, but the number of con-
demned prisoners was allowed to accumulate, that a mul-
titude of victims might grace each great gala-day. The
auto-da-fe* was a solemn festival. The monarch, the high
functionaries of the land, the reverend clergy, the popu-
lace, regarded it as an inspiring and delightful recreation.
When the appointed morning arrived, the victim was taken
from his dungeon. He was then attired in a yellow robe
without sleeves, like a herald's coat, embroidered all over
with black figures of devils. A large conical paper mitre
was placed upon his head, upon which was represented a
human being in the midst of flames, surrounded by imps.
His tongue was then painfully gagged, so that he could
neither open nor shut his mouth. After he was thus ac-
coutred, and just as he was leaving his cell, a breakfast.
10(j HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [15(31
consisting of every delicacy, was placed before him, and
he was urged, with ironical politeness, to satisfy his hunger.
He was then led forth into the public square. The pro-
cession was formed with great pomp. It was headed by the
little school children, who were immediately followed by
the band of prisoners, each attired in the horrible yet lu-
dicrous manner described. Then came the magistrates
and nobility, the prelates and other dignitaries of the
Church ; the holy inquisitors, with their officials and fa-
miliars, followed, all on horseback, with the blood-red flag
of the "sacred office7' waving above them, blazoned upon
each side with the portraits of Alexander and of Fer-
dinand, the pair of brothers who had established the in-
stitution. After the procession came the rabble. When
all had reached the neighborhood of the scaffold, and had
been arranged in order, a sermon was preached to the
assembled multitude. It was filled with laudations of the
inquisition, and with blasphemous revilings against the
condemned prisoners. Then the sentences were read to
the individual victims and the clergy chanted the fifty-
first psalm, the whole vast throng uniting in one tremen-
dous miserere. If a priest happened to be among the cul-
prits, he was now stripped of the canonicals which he had
hitherto worn, while his hands, lips, and shaven crown
were scraped with a bit of glass, by which process the oil of
his consecration was supposed to be removed. He was then
thrown into the common herd. Those of the prisoners
who were reconciled, and those whose execution was not
yet appointed, were now separated from the others. The
rest were compelled to mount a scaffold, where the execu-
tioner stood ready to conduct them to the fire. The in-
quisitors then delivered them into his hands, with an iron-
ical request that he would deal with them tenderly, and
without blood-letting or injury. Those who remained
steadfast to the last were then burned at the stake ; they
who in the last extremity renounced their faith were
strangled before being thrown into the flames. It was,
according to the biographer of Philip the Second, a " heav-
enly remedy, a guardian augel of paradise, a lions' den in
which Daniel and other just men could sustain no injury,
1561] PAPAL INQUISITION IN THE PROVINCES 107
but in which perverse sinners were torn to pieces." It
was a tribunal superior to all human law, without appeal,
and certainly owing no allegiance to the powers of earth
or heaven. No rank, high or humble, was safe from its
jurisdiction. The royal family were not sacred, nor the
pauper's hovel. Even death afforded no protection. The
holy office invaded the prince in his palace and the beggar
in his shroud. The corpses of dead heretics were muti-
lated and burned. The inquisitors preyed upon carcasses
and rifled graves.
The news of these tremendous autos-da-fe, in which so
many illustrious victims had been sacrificed before their
sovereign's eyes, had reached the Netherlands almost sim-
ultaneously with the bulls creating the new bishoprics in
the provinces. It was not likely that the measure would
be rendered more palatable by this intelligence of the royal
amusements.
Previously to the accession of Charles the Fifth, it cannot
be said that an inquisition had ever been established in the
provinces. Isolated instances to the contrary, adduced
by the canonists who gave their advice to Margaret of
Parma, rather proved the absence than the existence of
the system.
A special edict had been issued on the 26th of April,
1550, according to which all judicial officers, at the requi-
sition of the inquisitors, were to render them all assistance
in the execution of their office, by arresting and detaining
all persons suspected of heresy, according to the instruc-
tions issued to said inquisitors ; and this notwithstanding
any privileges or charters to the contrary. In short, the
inquisitors were not subject to the civil authority, but the
iivil authority to them. The imperial edict empowered
bhem "to chastise, degrade, denounce, and deliver over
heretics to the secular judges for punishment ; to make
use of jails, and to make arrests, without ordinary war-
rant, but merely with notice given to a single counsellor,
who was obliged to give sentence according to their desire,
without application to the ordinary judge."
These instructions to the inquisitors had been renewed
and confirmed by Philip, in the very first month of his reign
108 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
(28th of November, 1555). As in the case of the edicts,
it had been thought desirable by Grauvelle to make use of
the supposed magic of the Emperor's name to hallow the
whole machinery of persecution. The action of the sys-
tem during the greater part of the imperial period had
been terrible. Suffered for a time to languish during the
French war, it had lately been renewed with additional
vigor. Among all the inquisitors, the name of Peter
Titelmann was now pre-eminent. He executed his infa-
mous functions throughout Flanders, Douai, and Tour-
nay, the most thriving and populous portions of the Neth-
erlands, with a swiftness, precision, and even with a jocu-
larity which hardly seemed human. There was a kind of
grim humor about the man. The woman who, according
to Lear's fool, was wont to thrust her live eels into the hot
paste, "rapping them o' the coxcombs with a stick and
crying reproachfully, Wantons, lie down !" had the spirit
of a true inquisitor. Even so dealt Titelmann with his
heretics writhing on the rack or in the flames. Contempo-
rary chronicles give a picture of him as of some grotesque
yet terrible goblin, careering through the country by night
or day, alone, on horseback, smiting the trembling peas-
ants on the head with a great club, spreading dismay far
and wide, dragging suspected persons from their firesides
or their beds, and thrusting them into dungeons, arrest-
ing, torturing, strangling, burning, with hardly the shad-
ow of warrant, information, or process.
At the epoch which now engages our attention, Titel-
mann felt stimulated by the avowed policy of the govern-
ment to fresh exertions, by which all his previous achieve-
ments should be cast into the shade. In one day he broke
into a house in Ryssel, seized John de Swarte, his wife and
four children, together with two newly married couples
and two other persons, convicted them of reading the
Bible and of praying in their own doors, and had them
all immediately burned.
Are these things related merely to excite superfluous
horror ? Are the sufferings of these obscure Christians
beneath the dignity of history ? Is it not better to deal
with murder and oppression in the abstract, without en-
1562] CAUSE AND EFFECT 109
tering into trivial details ? The answer is, that these
things are the history of the Netherlands at this epoch ;
that these hideous details furnish the causes of that im-
mense movement out of which a great republic was born
and an ancient tyranny destroyed ; and that Cardinal
Granvelle was ridiculous when he asserted that the
people would not open their mouths if the seigniors
did not make such a noise. Because the great lords
"owed their very souls" — because convulsions might
help to pay their debts, and furnish forth their mas-
querades and banquets — because the Prince of Orange
was ambitious, and Egmont jealous of the Cardinal —
therefore superficial writers found it quite natural that
the country should be disturbed, although that "vile
and mischievous animal, the people/' might have no
objection to a continuance of the system which had
been at work so long. On the contrary, it was exact-
ly because the movement was a popular and a religious
movement that it will always retain its place among
the most important events of history.
The nobles, no doubt, were conspicuous, and it was well
for the cause of right that, as in the early hours of
English liberty, the crown and mitre were opposed by the
baron's sword and shield. Had all the seigniors made
common cause with Philip and Granvelle, instead of
setting themselves against the inquisition, the cause of
truth and liberty would have been still more desperate.
Nevertheless they were directed and controlled, un-
der Providence, by humbler, but more powerful, agen-
cies than their own. The nobles were but the gilded
hands on the outside of the dial — the hour to strike
was determined by the obscufe but weighty movements
within.
Nor is it, perhaps, always better to rely upon abstract
phraseology to produce a necessary impression. Upon
some minds declamation concerning liberty of conscience
and religious tyranny makes but a vague impression, while
an effect may be produced upon them, for example, by a
dry, concrete, cynical entry in an account-book, such as
the following, taken at hazard from the register of mu-
HO HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [15G2
nicipal expenses at Tournay during the years with which
we are now occupied :
"To Mr. Jacques Barra, executioner, for having tort-
ured, twice, Jean de Lanuoy, ten sous.
"To the same, for having executed, by fire, said Lan-
noy, sixty sous. For having thrown his cinders into the
river, eight sous."
This was the treatment to which thousands, and tens of
thousands, had been subjected in the provinces. Men,
women, and children were burned, and their " cinders "
thrown away, for idle words against Rome spoken years
before, for praying alone in their closets, for not kneeling
to a wafer when they met it in the streets, for thoughts to
which they had never given utterance, but which, on in-
quiry, they were too honest to deny. Certainly, with this
work going on year after year in every city in the Nether-
lands, and now set into renewed and vigorous action by a
man who wore a crown only that he might the better tort-
ure his fellow-creatures, it was time that the very stones
in the streets should be moved to mutiny.
The system of religious persecution commenced by
Charles was perfected by Philip. The King could not
claim the merit of the invention, which justly belonged to
the Emperor. At the same time, his responsibility for the
unutterable woe caused by the continuance of the scheme
is not a jot diminished. There was a time when the whole
system had fallen into comparative desuetude. It was ut-
terly abhorent to the institutions and the manners of the
Netherlanders. Even a great number of the Catholics
in the provinces were averse to it. Many of the leading
grandees, every one of whom was Catholic, were foremost
in denouncing its continuance. In short, the inquisition
had been partially endured, but never accepted. More-
over, it had never been introduced into Luxemburg or
Groningen. In Gelderland it had been prohibited by the
treaty through which that province had been annexed to
the Emperor's dominions, and it had been uniformly and
successfully resisted in Brabant. Therefore, although
Philip, taking the artful advice of Granvelle, had sheltered
himself under the Emperor's name by re-enacting word for
1562] OBSTINACY OF THE HERETICS HI
word his decrees and reissuing his instructions, he can-
not be allowed any such protection at the bar of history.
Granvelle was most resolute in carrying out the inten-
tions of his master. We have seen how vigorously he had
already set himself to the inauguration of the new bish-
oprics, despite of opposition and obloquy. He was now
encouraging or rebuking the inquisitors in their " pious
office" throughout all the provinces. Notwithstanding
his exertions, however, heresy continued to spread. In
the Walloon provinces the infection was most prevalent,
while judges and executioners were appalled by the muti-
nous demonstrations which each successive sacrifice pro-
voked. The victims were cheered on their way to the
scaffold. The hymns of Marot were sung in the very faces
of the inquisitors.
Two ministers, Faveau and Mallart, were particularly
conspicuous at this moment at Valenciennes. The gover-
nor of the province, Marquis Berghen, was constantly ab-
sent, for he hated with his whole soul the system of per-
secution. For this negligence Granvelle denounced him
secretly and perpetually to Philip. " The Marquis says
openly," said the Cardinal, " that 'tis not right to shed
blood for matters of faith. With such men to aid us,
your Majesty can judge how much progress we can make."
It was, however, important, in Granvelle's opinion, that
these two ministers at Valenciennes should be at once put
to death. The prisoners were condemned in the autumn
of 1561. The magistrates were, however, afraid to carry
the sentence into effect. Granvelle did not cease to cen-
sure them for their pusillanimity, and wrote almost daily
letters, accusing the magistrates of being themselves the
cause of the tumults by which they were appalled. The
popular commotion was, however, not lightly to be braved.
Six or seven months long the culprits remained in con-
finement, while daily and nightly the people crowded the
streets, hurling threats and defiance at the authorities,
or pressed about the prison windows, encouraging their
beloved ministers, and promising to rescue them in case
the attempt should be made to fulfil the sentence. At
last Granvelle sent down a peremptory order to execute the
112 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
culprits by fire. On the 27th of April, 1562, Faveau arid
Mallart were accordingly taken from their jail and carried
to the market-place. In a popular tumult the prisoners
were rescued, and succeeded in making their escape from
the city. The day on which the execution had been thus
prevented was called, thenceforward, the " day of the ill-
burned " (journee des mau-brulez). One of the ministers,
however, Simon Faveau, not discouraged by this near ap-
proach to martyrdom, persisted in his heretical labors, and
was a few years afterwards again apprehended. " He was
then," says the chronicler cheerfully, "burned well and
finally" in the same place whence he had formerly been
rescued.
This desperate resistance to tyranny was for a moment
successful, because, notwithstanding the murmurs and
menaces by which the storm had been preceded, the au-
thorities had not believed the people capable of proceeding
to such lengths. Had not the heretics — in the words of In-
quisitor Titelmann — allowed themselves, year after year, to
be taken and slaughtered like lambs ? The consternation
of the magistrates was soon succeeded by anger. The
government at Brussels was in a frenzy of rage when
informed of the occurrence. A bloody vengeance was
instantly prepared, to vindicate the insult to the inquisi-
tion. On the 29th of April, detachments of Bossu's and
of Berghen's "Bande d'Ordonnance " were sent into Val-
enciennes, together with a company of the Duke of Aer-
schot's regiment. The prisons were instantly filled to
overflowing with men and women arrested for actual or
suspected participation in the tumult. Orders had been
sent down from the capital to make a short process and the
sharp execution of all the criminals. On the 16th of May
the slaughter commenced. Some were burned at the stake,
some were beheaded : the number of victims was frightful.
"Nothing was left undone by the magistrates," says an
eye-witness, with great approbation, "which could serve
for the correction and amendment of the poor people."
It was long before the judges and hangmen rested from
their labors. When at last the havoc was complete, it
might be supposed that a sufficient vengeance had been
1562] RHETORIC AGAINST TYRANNY 113
taken for the "day of the ill-burned," and an adequate
amount of " amendment " provided for the " poor people."
Such scenes as these did not tend to increase the loy-
alty of the nation nor the popularity of the government.
On Granvelle's head was poured a daily increasing torrent
of hatred. He was looked upon in the provinces as the
impersonation of that religious oppression which became
every moment more intolerable. The King and the Re-
gent escaped much of the odium which belonged to them,
because the people chose to bestow all their maledictions
upon the Cardinal. There was, however, no great injustice
in this embodiment. Granvelle was the government. As
the people of that day were extremely reverent to roy-
alty, they vented all their rage upon the minister, while
maintaining still a conventional respect for the sovereign.
The prelate had already become the constant butt of the
" Rhetoric Chambers." These popular clubs for the manu-
facture of homespun poetry and street farces out of the
raw material of public sentiment, occupied the place which
has been more effectively filled in succeeding ages and in free
countries by the daily press. Before the invention of that
most tremendous weapon which liberty has ever wielded
against tyranny, these humble but influential associations
shared with the pulpit the only power which existed of
moving the passions or directing the opinions bf the peo-
ple. They were eminently liberal in their tendencies.
The authors and the actors of their comedies, poems, and
pasquils were mostly artisans or tradesmen, belonging to
the class out of which proceeded the early victims and the
later soldiers of the Reformation. Their bold farces and
truculent satire had already effected much in spreading
among the people a detestation of Church abuses. The
rhetoric comedies were not admirable from an aesthetic
point of view, but they were wrathful and sincere. There-
fore they cost many thousand lives ; but they sowed the
seed of resistance to religious tyranny, to spring up one
day in a hundredfold harvest. It was natural that the
authorities should have long sought to suppress these
perambulating dramas. " There was at that tyme," wrote
honest Richard Clough to Sir Thomas Gresham, "syche
114 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
playes (of Keteryke) played thet hath cost many a 1000
man's lyves, for in these plays was the Word of God first
opened in thys country. Weche playes were and are for-
bidden moche more strictly than any of the bookes of
Martin Luther."
Granvelle was on no better terms with the nobles than
with the people. The great seigniors — Orange, Egmont,
Horn, and others — openly avowed their hostility to him, and
had already given their reasons to the King. Mansfeld
and his son at that time were both with the opposition.
Aerschot and Aremberg kept aloof from the league which
was forming against the prelate, but had small sympathy
for his person. Even Berlaymont began to listen to over-
tures from the leading nobles, who, among other induce-
ments, promised to supply his children with bishoprics.
There were none truly faithful and submissive to the
Cardinal but such men as the Prevot Morillon, who had
received much advancement from him. This distinguished
pluralist was popularly called " double A, B, C," to indi-
cate that he had twice as many benefices as there were
letters in the alphabet. He had, however, no objection to
more, and was faithful to the dispensing power. The
same course was pursued by Secretary Bave, Esquire Bor-
dey, and other expectants and dependants.
Viglius,' always remarkable for his pusillanimity, was at
this period already anxious to retire. The erudite and
opulent Frisian preferred a less tempestuous career. He
urgently solicited the King to release him, and pleaded
his infirmities of body in excuse. Philip, however, would
not listen to his retirement, and made use of the most con-
vincing arguments to induce him to remain. An income
of four hundred and fifty annual florins, secured by good
reclaimed swamps in Friesland, two thousand more in
hand, with a promise of still larger emoluments when the
King should come to the Netherlands, were reasons which
the learned doctor honestly confessed himself unable to
resist. Fortified by these arguments, he remained at his
post, continued the avowed friend and adherent of Gran-
velle, and sustained with magnanimity the invectives of
nobles and people. To do him justice, he did what he
1562] THE QUARREL GROWS HOTTER 115
could to conciliate antagonists and to compromise princi-
ples. If it had ever been possible to find the exact path
between right and wrong, the president would have found
it, and walked in it with respectability and complacency.
In the council, however, the Cardinal continued to car-
ry it with a high hand, turning his back on Orange and
Egmont, and retiring with the Duchess and president to
consiilt after every session. Proud and important person-
ages, like the Prince and the Count, could ill brook such
insolence ; moreover, they suspected the Cardinal of prej-
udicing the mind of their sovereign against them.
Moreover, there is no doubt that frequent threats of per-
sonal violence were made against the Cardinal. Granvelle
informed the King that his life was continually menaced
by the nobles, but that he feared them little, for he be-
lieved them too prudent to attempt anything of the kind.
Bold as he was arrogant, he affected at this time to look
down with a forgiving contempt on their animosity. He
passed much of his time alone, writing his eternal de-
spatches to the King. He had a country-house, called La
Fontaine, surrounded by beautiful gardens, a little way
outside the gates of Brussels, where he generally resided,
and whence, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his
friends, he often returned to town, after sunset, alone,
or with but a few attendants. He avowed that he
feared no attempts at assassination, for, if the seign-
iors took his life, they would destroy the best friend they
ever had. This villa, where most of his plans were ma-
tured and his state papers drawn up, was called by
the people, in derision of his supposed ancestry, "The
Smithy." Here, as they believed, was the anvil upon
which the chains of their slavery were forged ; here,
mostly deserted by those who had been his earlier as-
sociates, he assumed a philosophical demeanor which ex-
asperated, without deceiving, his adversaries.
The Kegent was well aware of the anger excited in the
breasts of the leading nobles by the cool manner in which
they had been thrust out of their share in the administra-
tion of affairs. She defended herself with acrimony in
her letters to the King. She confined herself, as Philip
116 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
had always intended, exclusively to the consulta. It was
not difficult to recognize the hand which wrote the letter
thus signed by Margaret of Parma.
Both nobles and people were at this moment irritated
by another circumstance. The civil war having again
broken out in France, Philip, according to the promise
made by him to Catharine de Medici when he took her
daughter in marriage, was called upon to assist the Cath-
olic party with auxiliaries. He sent three thousand in-
fantry, accordingly, which he had levied in Italy, as many
more collected in Spain, and gave immediate orders that
the Duchess of Parma should despatch at least two thou-
sand cavalry from the Netherlands. Great was the indig-
nation in the council when the commands were produced.
Sore was the dismay of Margaret. It was impossible to
obey the King. Under the advice of Granvelle she had
recourse to a trick. A private and confidential letter of
Philip was read to the council, but with alterations sug-
gested and interpolated by the Cardinal. Philip sent fif-
teen hundred troopers from Spain to his Medicean moth-
er-in-law, drawing upon the Duchess of Parma for the
money to pay their expenses. Thus was the industry of
the Netherlands taxed that the French might be perse-
cuted by their own monarch.
The Eegent had been forbidden by her brother to
convoke the states-general ; a body which the Prince of
Orange, sustained by Berghen, Montigny, and other no-
bles, was desirous of having assembled. It may be easily
understood that Granvelle would take the best care that
the royal prohibition should be enforced. The Duchess,
however, who, as already hinted, was beginning to feel
somewhat uncomfortable under the Cardinal's dominion,
was desirous of consulting some larger council than that
with which she held her daily deliberations. A meeting
of the Knights of the Fleece was accordingly summoned.
They assembled in Brussels in the month of May, 1562.
The learned Viglius addressed them in a long and elo-
quent speech, in which the fundamental topic was thus
conscientiously omitted. The meeting adjourned, after
a few additional words from the Duchess, in which she
1562] THE CAUCUS AT NASSAU HOUSE 117
begged the knights to ponder well the causes of the in-
creasing discontent, and to meet her again, prepared to
announce what, in their opinion, would be the course best
adapted to maintain the honor of the King, the safety of
the provinces, and the glory of God.
Soon after the separation of the assembly, the Prince of
Orange issued invitations to most of the knights, to meet
at his house for the purpose of private deliberation. The
president and Cardinal were not included in these invita-
tions. The meeting was, in fact, what we should call a
caucus, rather than a general gathering. Nevertheless,
there were many of the government party present — men
who differed from the Prince, and were inclined to sup-
port Granvelle. The meeting was a stormy one. Two
subjects were discussed. The first was the proposition
of the Duchess, to investigate the general causes of the
popular dissatisfaction ; the second was an inquiry how
it could be rendered practicable to discuss political mat-
ters in future — a proceeding now impossible, in conse-
quence of the perverseness and arrogance of certain func-
tionaries, and one which, whenever attempted, always led
to the same inevitable result. This direct assault upon
the Cardinal produced a furious debate. His enemies
were delighted with the opportunity of venting their
long-suppressed spleen. They indulged in savage invec-
tives against the man whom they so sincerely hated. His
adherents, on the other hand — Bossu, Berlaymont, Cou-
rieres — were as warm in his defence. They replied by in-
dignant denials of the charge against him, and by bitter
insinuations against the Prince of Orange. They charged
him with nourishing the desire of being appointed gov-
ernor of Brabant, an office considered inseparable from
the general stadholderate of all the provinces. The ad-
journed meeting of the Chevaliers of the Fleece took
place a few days afterwards, but nothing of importance
was accomplished by the assembly, though it was de-
cided that an application should be made to the different
states for a grant of money, and that, furthermore, a
special envoy should be despatched to Spain, and Flor-
ence de Montmorency, Seigneur de Montigny, was se-
118 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
lected by the Regent. This gentleman was brother to
Count Horn, but possessed of higher talents and a more
amiable character than those of the Admiral. He was
a warm friend of Orange and a bitter enemy to Gran-
velle. He was a sincere Catholic, but a determined foe
to the inquisition.
It has been shown that there was an open, avowed
hostility on the part of the grand seigniors and most of
the lesser nobility to the Cardinal and his measures. The
people fully and enthusiastically sustained the Prince of
Orange in his course. There was nothing underhand in
the opposition made to the government. The Nether-
lands did not constitute an absolute monarchy. They did
not even constitute a monarchy. There was no king in
the provinces. Philip was King of Spain, Naples, Jeru-
salem, but he was only Duke of Brabant, Count of Flan-
ders, Lord of Friesland, hereditary chief, in short, under
various titles, of seventeen states, each one of which, al-
though not republican, possessed constitutions as sacred
as, and much more ancient than, the crown. The resist-
ance to the absolutism of Granvelle and Philip was, there-
fore, logical, legal, constitutional. It was no cabal, no
secret league, as the Cardinal had the effrontery to term
it, but a legitimate exercise of powers which belonged of
old to those who wielded them, and which only an un-
righteous innovation could destroy.
Granvelle's course was secret and subtle. During the
whole course of the proceedings which have just been de-
scribed, he was in daily confidential correspondence with
the King, besides being the actual author of the multi-
tudinous despatches which were sent with the signature
of the Duchess. He openly asserted his right to monopo-
lize all the powers of the government ; he did his utmost
to force upon the reluctant and almost rebellious people
the odious measures which the King had resolved upon,
while in his secret letters he uniformly represented the
nobles who opposed him as being influenced, not by an
honest hatred of oppression and attachment to ancient
rights, but by resentment, and jealousy of their own im-
portance.
1562] MASTER AND PUPIL 119
As a matter of course, Granvelle attributed the resist-
ance on the part of the great nobles, every man of whom was
Catholic, to base motives. They were mere demagogues,
who refused to burn their fellow-creatures not from any
natural repugnance to the task, but in order to gain favor
with the populace. " This talk about the inquisition/'
said he, "is all a pretext. 'Tis only to throw dust in the
eyes of the vulgar, and to persuade them into tumultuous
demonstrations, while the real reason is that they choose
that your Majesty should do nothing without their per-
mission and through their hands."
Of Egmont, especially, he often spoke in terms of vague,
but somewhat condescending, commendation. He de-
scribed him, in general, as a man whose principles, in the
main, were good, but who was easily led by his own vanity
and the perverse counsels of others. He represented him
as having been originally a warm supporter of the new
bishoprics, and as having expressed satisfaction that two
of them, those of Bruges and Ypres, should have been
within his own stadholderate. Notwithstanding these
vague expressions of approbation, Granvelle never failed
to transmit to the monarch every fact, every rumor, every
innuendo which might prejudice the royal mind against that
nobleman or against any of the noblemen, whose charac-
ters he at the same time protested he was most unwill-
ing to injure.
Nor did Granville at this period advise the King to
avenge him by any public explosion of wrath. He re-
membered, he piously observed, that vengeance belonged
to God, and that He would repay. Therefore he passed
over insults meekly, because that comported best with his
Majesty's service. Therefore, too, he instructed Philip to
make no demonstration at that time, in order not to dam-
age his own affairs. He advised him to dissemble, and to
pretend not to know what was going on in the provinces.
Knowing that his master looked to him daily for instruc-
tions, always obeyed them with entire docility, and, in
fact, could not move a step in Netherland matters with-
out them, he proceeded to dictate to him the terms in
which he was to write to the nobles, and especially laid
120 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
down rules for his guidance in his coming interviews with
the Seigneur de Moutigny. Philip, whose only talent con-
sisted in the capacity to learn such lessons with laborious
effort, was at this juncture particularly in need of tuition.
The Cardinal instructed him, accordingly, that he was to
disabuse all men of the impression that the Spanish inqui-
sition was to be introduced into the provinces. He was
to write to the seigniors, promising to pay them their ar-
rears of salary ; he was to exhort them to do all in their
power for the advancement of religion and maintenance
of the royal authority ; and he was to suggest to them
that, by his answer to the Antwerp deputation, it was
proved that there was no intention of establishing the in-
quisition of Spain, under pretext of the new bishoprics.
The King was furthermore to signify his desire that all
the nobles should exert themselves to efface this false
impression from the popular mind. He was also to ex-
press himself to the same effect concerning the Spanish
inquisition, the bishoprics, and the religious question, in
the public letters to Madame de Parma, which were to be
read in full council.
At about the same time it was decided by Granvelle and
the Regent, in conjunction with the King, to sow distrust
and jealousy among the nobles, by giving greater "mer-
cedes" to some than to others, although large sums were
really due to all. In particular, the attempt was made in
this paltry manner to humiliate William of Orange. A
considerable sum was paid to Egmont and a trifling one
to the Prince, in consideration of their large claims upon
the treasury. Moreover, the Duke of Aerschot was selected
as envoy to the Frankfort Diet, where the King of the
Romans was to be elected, with the express intention, as
Margaret wrote to Philip, of creating divisions among the
nobles, as he had suggested. The Duchess at the same
time informed her brother that, according to Berlaymont,
the Prince of Orange was revolving some great design
prejudicial to his Majesty's service.
Philip, who already began to suspect that a man who
thought so much must be dangerous, was eager to find
out the scheme over which William the Silent was sup-
1562] MONTIGNY IN SPAIN 121
posed to be brooding, and wrote for fresh intelligence to
the Duchess. Neither Margaret nor the Cardinal, how
ever, could discover anything against the Prince — who,
meantime, although disappointed of the mission to Frank-
fort, had gone to that city in his private capacity — saving
that he had been heard to say, " One day we shall be the
stronger." Granvelle and Madame de Parma both com-
municated this report upon the same day, but this was all
that they were able to discover of the latent plot.
In the autumn of this year (1562) Montigny made his
visit to Spain as confidential envoy from the Kegent.
The King being fully prepared as to the manner in which
he was to deal with him, received the ambassador with
great cordiality.
The amount of satisfaction derived from the mission of
Montigny was next to nothing. There was to be no dim-
inution of the religious persecution, but the people were
assured upon royal authority that the inquisition, by
which they were daily burned and beheaded, could not
be logically denominated the Spanish inquisition. In ad-
dition to the comfort, whatever it might be, which the
nation could derive from this statement, they were also
consoled with the information that Granvelle was not the
inventor of the bishoprics.
Solicited by the King, at their parting interview, to ex-
press his candid opinion as to the causes of the dissatis-
faction in the provinces, Montigny very frankly and most
imprudently gave vent to his private animosity towards
the Cardinal. He spoke of his licentiousness, greediness,
ostentation, despotism, and assured the monarch that near-
ly all the inhabitants of the Netherlands entertained the
same opinion concerning him. He then dilated upon the
general horror inspired by the inquisition and the great
repugnance felt to the establishment of the new epis-
copates. These three evils — Granvelle, the inquisition,
and the bishoprics — he maintained, were the real and suf-
ficient causes of the increasing popular discontent.
Montigny returned late in December. His report con-
cerning the results of his mission was made in the state
council, and was received with great indignation. The
122 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1562
professions of benevolent intentions on the part of the
sovereign made no impression on the mind of Orange,
who was already in the habit of receiving secret informa-
tion from Spain with regard to the intentions of the gov-
ernment. He knew very well that the plot revealed to
him by Henry the Second in the wood of Vincennes was
still the royal programme, so far as the Spanish monarch
was concerned. Moreover, his anger was heightened by
information received from Montigny that the names of
Orange, Egmont, and their adherents, were cited to him,
as he passed through France, as the avowed defenders of
the Huguenots in politics and religion. The Prince, who
was still a sincere Catholic, while he hated the persecu-
tions of the inquisition, was furious at the statement. A
violent scene occurred in the council. Orange openly de-
nounced the report as a new slander of Granvelle's, while
Margaret defended the Cardinal and denied the accusa-
tion, but at the same time endeavored with the utmost
earnestness to reconcile the conflicting parties.
It had now become certain, however, that the govern-
ment could no longer be continued on its present footing.
Either Granvelle or the seigniors must succumb. The
Prince of Orange was resolved that the Cardinal should
fall or that he would himself withdraw from all partici-
pation in the affairs of government. In this decision he
was sustained by Egmont, Horn, Montigny, Berghen, and
the other leading nobles.
CHAPTER IV
CARDINAL GRANVELLE RETIRED
ON the llth of March, 1563, Orange, Horn, and Egmont
united in a remarkable letter to the King. They said
that as their longer "taciturnity" might cause the ruin
of his Majesty's affairs, they were at last compelled to
break silence. They hoped that the King would receive
with benignity a communication which was pure, frank,
and free from all passion. The leading personages of the
province, they continued, having thoroughly examined
the nature and extent of Cardinal Granvelle's authority,
had arrived at the conclusion that everything was in his
hands. The King was therefore implored to consider the
necessity of remedying the evil. The royal affairs, it was
affirmed, would never be successfully conducted so long
as they were intrusted to Granvelle, because he was so
odious to very many people. If the danger were not immi-
nent, they should not feel obliged to write to his Majesty
with so much vehemence. By so doing, his many grand
seigniors, governors, and others, had thought it necessary
to give this notice in order that the King might prevent
the ruin of the country. If, however, his Majesty were
willing, as they hoped, to avoid discontenting all for the
sake of satisfying one, it was possible that affairs might
yet prosper. That they might not be thought influenced
by ambition or by hope of private profit, the writers asked
leave to retire from the state council. Neither their rep-
utation, they said, nor the interests of the royal service
would permit them to act with the Cardinal. They pro-
fessed themselves dutiful subjects and Catholic vassals.
In conclusion, the writers begged his Majesty not to
124 . HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1563
throw the blame upon them if mischance should follow
the neglect of this warning.
This memorable letter was signed by Guillaume de
Nassau, Lamoral d'Egmond, and Philippes de Montmo-
rency (Count Horn). It was despatched under cover to
Charles de Tisnacq, a Belgian, and procurator for the af-
fairs of the Netherlands at Madrid, a man whose relations
with Count Egmont were of a friendly character. It was
impossible, however, to keep the matter a secret from the
person most interested. The Cardinal wrote to the King
the day before the letter was written, and many weeks be-
fore it was sent, to apprise him that it was coming, and
to instruct him as to the answer he was to make.
Nearly all the leading nobles and governors had adhered
to the substance of the letter save the Duke of Aerschot,
Count Aremberg, and Baron Berlaymont. The Duke and
the Count had refused to join the league, violent scenes
having occurred upon the subject between them and the
leaders of the opposition party.
Egmont, in the presence of Madame de Parma, openly
charged Aremberg with having divulged the secret which
had been confided to him. The Count fiercely denied
that he had uttered a syllable on the subject to a human
being, but added that any communication on his part
would have been quite superfluous while Egmont and
his friends were daily boasting of what they were to ac-
complish.
The famous epistle of the llth of March, 1563, although
a most reasonable and manly statement of an incontroverti-
ble fact, was nevertheless a document which it required
much boldness to sign. The minister at that moment
seemed omnipotent, and it was obvious that the King was
determined upon a course of political and religious abso-
lutism. It is, therefore, not surprising that, although
many sustained its principles, few were willing to affix
their names to a paper which might prove a death-warrant
to the signers. Even Montigny and Bergheu, although
they had been active in conducting the whole cabal, if
cabal it could be called, refused subscription to the letter.
Egmont and Horn were men of reckless daring, but they
1563] PHILIP'S IlEPLY TO THE SEIGNIORS 125
were not keen-sighted enough to perceive fully the conse-
quences of their acts. Orange was often accused by his
enemies of timidity, but no man ever doubted his profound
capacity to look quite through the deeds of men. HiK
political foresight enabled him to measure the dangerous
precipice which they were deliberately approaching, while
the abyss might perhaps be shrouded to the vision of his
companions. He was too tranquil of nature to be hurried
by passion into a grave political step which, in cooler mo-
ments, he might regret. He resolutely, therefore, and with
his eyes open, placed himself in open and recorded enmity
with the most powerful and dangerous man in the whole
Spanish realm, and incurred the resentment of a King who
never forgave. It may be safely averred that as much
courage was requisite thus to confront a cold and malig-
nant despotism, and to maintain afterwards without flinch-
ing during a whole lifetime the cause of national rights
and liberty of conscience, as to head the most brilliant
charge of cavalry that ever made hero famous.
Philip answered the letter of the three nobles on the
6th of June following. In this reply, which was brief, he
acknowledged the zeal and affection by which the writers
had been actuated. He suggested, nevertheless, that, as
they had mentioned no particular cause for adopting the
advice contained in their letter, it would be better that
one of them should come to Madrid to confer with him.
Such matters, he said, could be better treated by word of
mouth. He might thus receive sufficient information to
enable him to form a decision, for, said he in conclusion,
it was not his custom to aggrieve any of his ministers
without cause.
At the same time that the King sent his answer to the
nobles, he wrote an explanatory letter to the Eegent. He
informed her that he had received the communication of
the three seigniors, but instructed her that she was to ap-
pear to know nothing of the matter until Egmont should
speak to her upon the subject. He added that, although
he had signified his wish to the three nobles that one of
them, without specifying which, should come to Madrid,
he in reality desired that Egmont, who seemed the most
126 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1563
tractable of the three, should be the one deputed. The
King added that his object was to divide the nobles, and
to gain time. 'He also transmitted to Egmont a private
note, in his own handwriting, expressing his desire that he
should visit Spain in person, that they might confer to-
gether upon the whole subject.
These letters, as might be supposed, produced anything
but a satisfactory effect. The discontent and rage of the
gentlemen who had written or sustained the llth of March
communication were much increased. The answer was,
in truth, no answer at all. "'Tis a cold and bad reply,"
wrote Louis of Nassau, "to send after so long a delay.
'Tis easy to see that the letter came from the Cardinal's
smithy. In summd, it is a vile business, if the gentlemen
are all to be governed by one person. I hope to God his
power will come soon to an end. Nevertheless/' added
Louis, " the gentlemen are all wide awake, for they trust
the red fellow not a bit more than he deserves."
Egmont soon afterwards wrote to Philip, declining to
visit Spain expressly on account of the Cardinal. He
added that he was ready to undertake the journey
should the King command his presence for any other
object. The same decision was formally communicated
to the Eegent by those Chevaliers of the Fleece who had
approved the llth of March letter — Montigny, Berghen,
Meghem, Mansfeld, Ligne, Hoogstraaten, Orange, Eg-
mont, and Horn. The 'Prince of Orange, speaking in the
name of all, informed her that they did not consider it
consistent with their reputation, nor with the interest of
his Majesty, that any one of them should make so long
and troublesome a journey in order to accuse the Cardi-
nal. For any other purpose, they all held themselves
ready to go to Spain at once.
Four days after this interview with the Eegent, Orange,
Egmont, and Horn addressed a second letter to the King.
They disclaimed any intention of making themselves par-
ties to a process against the Cardinal. They had thought
that their simple, brief announcement would suffice to in-
duce his Majesty to employ that personage in other places
where his talents would be more fruitful. As to " aggriev-
1563] THE MISSION OF ARMENTEROS 127
ing the Cardinal without cause/' there was no question
of aggrieving him at all, but of relieving him of an office
which could not remain in his hands without disaster.
On the 4th of August, Count Horn also addressed a pri-
vate letter to the King, written in the same spirit as that
which characterized the joint letter just cited. He as-
sured his Majesty that the Cardinal could render no val-
uable service to the crown, on account of the hatred which
the whole nation bore him, but that, as far as regarded
the maintenance of the ancient religion, all the nobles
were willing to do their duty.
The Eegent now despatched, according to promise, her
private secretary, Thomas de Armenteros, to Spain. He
was a man of low, mercenary, and deceitful character, but
a favorite of the Regent, and already beginning to acquire
that influence over her mind which was soon to become
so predominant; he was no friend of the Cardinal. His in-
structions, which were very elaborate, showed that Gran-
velle was not mistaken when he charged her with being
entirely changed in regard to him, and when he addressed
her a reproachful letter protesting his astonishment that
his conduct had become suspicious, and his inability to
divine the cause of the weariness and dissatisfaction which
she manifested in regard to him.
From the tenor of her instructions, it was sufficiently
obvious that Margaret of Parma was not anxious to retain
the Cardinal, but that, on the contrary, she was beginning
already to feel alarm at the dangerous position in which
she found herself. A few days after the three nobles had
despatched their last letter to the King, they had handed
her a formal remonstrance. In this document they stated
their conviction that the country was on the high road to
ruin both as regarded his Majesty's service and the com-
mon weal. The exchequer was bare, the popular discon-
tent daily increasing, the fortresses on the frontier in a di-
lapidated condition. It was to be apprehended daily that
merchants and other inhabitants of the provinces would
be arrested in foreign countries to satisfy the debts owed
by his Majesty. To provide against all these evils, but
one course, it was suggested, remained to the government
128 HISTORY OF TI1E NETHERLANDS [1563
— to summon the states-general, and to rely upon their
counsel and support. The nobles begged her highness
not to take it amiss if, so long as the King was indisposed
to make other arrangements for the administration of the
provinces, they should abstain from appearing at the state
council. They preferred to cause the shadow at last to
disappear which they had so long personated. In con-
clusion, however, they expressed their determination to
do their duty in their several governments, and to serve
the Eegent to the best of their abilities.
After their remonstrance had been delivered, the Prince
of Orange, Count Horn, and Count Egmont abstained en-
tirely from the sessions of the state council. She was left
alone with the Cardinal, whom she already hated, and with
his two shadows, Viglius and Berlaymont.
Armenteros, after a month spent on his journey, ar-
rived in Spain, and was soon admitted to an audience by
Philip. In his first interview, which lasted four hours,
he read to the King all the statements and documents
with which he had come provided, and humbly requested
a prompt decision. Philip transmitted the letters of the
nobles, together with the other papers, to the Duke of
Alva, and requested his opinion on the subject. Alva re-
plied with the roar of a wild beast.
With regard to persons who had so richly deserved such
chastisement, he recommended "that their heads should
be taken off ; but, until this could be done, that the King
should dissemble with them." He advised Philip not to
reply to their letters, but merely to intimate, through the
Eegent, that their reasons for the course proposed by
them did not seem satisfactory. In the mean time, and
before it should be practicable to proceed " to that vig-
orous chastisement already indicated/' he advised sepa-
rating the nobles as much as possible by administering
flattery and deceitful caresses to Egmont, who might be
entrapped more easily than the others.
While this had been the course pursued by the seign-
iors, the Eegent, and the King, in regard to that all-ab-
sorbing subject of Netherland politics — the struggle
against Granvelle — the Cardinal, in his letters to Philip,
166SJ INSINUATIONS AND EXHORTATIONS 129
had been painting the situation by minute daily touch-
es, in a manner of which his pencil alone possessed the
secret.
Still maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiv-
ing Christian, lie spoke of the nobles in a tone of gentle
sorrow. He represented them as broken spendthrifts,
wishing to create general confusion in order to escape
from personal liabilities ; as conspirators who had placed
themselves within the reach of the attorney-general ; as
ambitious malcontents who were disposed to overthrow
the royal authority and to substitute an aristocratic re-
public upon its ruins. He instructed Philip how to reply
to the letter addressed to him, but begged his Majesty
not to hesitate to sacrifice him if the interests of his
crown should seem to require it.
With regard to religious matters, he repeatedly deplored
that, notwithstanding his own exertions and those of Ma-
dame de Parma, things were not going on as he desired,
but, on the contrary, very badly — " For the love of God
and the service of the holy religion," he cried out fervent-
ly, ' ' put your royal hand valiantly to the work, otherwise
we have only to exclaim, Help, Lord, for we perish I"
Having uttered this pious exhortation in the ear of a man
who needed no stimulant in the path of persecution, he
proceeded to express his regrets that the judges and other
officers were not taking in hand the chastisement of her-
esy with becoming vigor.
Yet, at that very moment Peter Titelmann was raging
through Flanders, tearing whole families out of bed and
burning them to ashes, with such utter disregard to all
laws or forms as to provoke in the very next year a solemn
protest from the four estates of Flanders ; and Titelmann
was but one of a dozen inquisitors.
Granvelle, however, could find little satisfaction in the
exertions of subordinates so long as men in high station
were remiss in their duties. He intimated, moreover,
that pretences of clemency were mere hypocrisy, and that
self-interest was at the bottom of their compassion.
"'Tis very black,'"' said he, "when interest governs; but
these men are all in debt, so deeply that they owe their
9
130 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1663
very souls. They are seeking every means of escaping
from their obligations, and are most desirous of creating
general confusion." As to the Prince of Orange, the
Cardinal asserted that he owed nine hundred thousand
florins, and had hardly twenty-five thousand a year clear
income, while he spent ninety thousand, having counts,
barons, and gentlemen in great numbers, in his house-
hold. At this point he suggested that it might be well
to find employment for some of these grandees in Spain
and other dominions of his Majesty, adding that perhaps
Orange might accept the viceroyalty of Sicily.
He chronicled the sayings and doings of the principal
personages in the Netherlands, for the instruction of the
King, with great regularity, insinuating suspicions when
unable to furnish evidence, and adding charitable apolo-
gies, which he knew would have but small effect upon the
mind of his correspondent.
He omitted nothing in the way of anecdote or innuendo
which could injure the character of the leading nobles,
with the exception, perhaps, of Count Egmont. With
this important personage, whose character he well under-
stood, he seemed determined, if possible, to maintain
friendly relations. "They intend," said he, "to reduce
the state into the form of a republic, in which the King
shall have no power except to do their bidding." He
added that he saw with regret so many German troops
gathering on the borders ; for he believed them to be in
the control of the disaffected nobles of the Nether-
lands. As for the Prince of Orange, he was described as
eternally boasting of his influence in Germany, and the
great things which he could effect by means of his con-
nections there, " so that," added the Cardinal, " we hear
no other song."
The seigniors, in order to gain favor with the people
and with the estates, had allowed them to acquire so
much power that they would respond to any request for
subsidies by a general popular revolt. " This is the sim-
ple truth," said Granvelle, "and, moreover, by the same
process, in a very few days there will likewise be no re-
ligion left in the land." When the deputies of some of
1563] THE MORAL POINTED 131
the states, a few weeks later, had been irregularly con-
vened in Brussels for financial purposes, the Cardinal in-
formed the monarch that the nobles were endeavoring to
conciliate their good-will by offering them a splendid se-
ries of festivities and banquets.
Granvelle's letters were filled, for the greater part, with
pictures of treason, stratagem, and bloody intentions, fab-
ricated mostly out of reports, table-talk, disjointed chat
in the careless freedom of domestic intercourse, while at
the same time a margin was always left to express his
own wounded sense of the injurious suspicions uttered
against him by the various subjects of his letters.
In short, the Cardinal, little by little, during the last
year of his residence in the Netherlands, was enabled to
spread a canvas before his sovereign's eye, in which cer-
tain prominent figures, highly colored by patiently accu-
mulated touches, were represented as driving a whole na-
tion, against its own will, into manifest revolt.
The remedy that he recommended was that his Majes-
ty should come in person to the provinces. The monarch
would cure the whole disorder as soon as he appeared,
said the Cardinal, by merely making the sign of the
cross.
The Cardinal, just before his departure, which was now
imminent, wrote to warn his sovereign of the seditious
character of the men who were then placing their breasts
between the people and their butchers. He assured Philip
that upon the movement of those nobles depended the
whole existence of the country. It was time that they
should be made to open their eyes. They should be so-
licited in every way to abandon their evil courses, since
the liberty which they thought themselves defending was
but abject slavery, but subjection to a thousand base and
contemptible personages, and to that "vile animal called
the people."
It is sufficiently obvious, from the picture which we
have now presented of the respective attitudes of Gran-
velle, of the seigniors, and of the nation during the whole
of the year 1563 and the beginning of the following year,
that a crisis was fast approaching. Grauvelle was, for
132 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1563
the moment, triumphant ; Orange, Egmont, and Horn
had abandoned the state council ; Philip could not yet
make up his mind to yield to the storm ; and Alva
howled defiance at the nobles and the whole people of
the Netherlands. Nevertheless, Margaret of Parma was
utterly weary of the minister, the Cardinal himself was
most anxious to be gone, and the nation — for there was a
nation, however vile the animal might be — was becoming
daily more enraged at the presence of a man in whom,
whether justly or falsely, it beheld the incarnation of the
religious oppression under which it groaned. Meantime,
at the close of the year, a new incident came to add to
the gravity of the situation. Caspar Schetz, Baron of
Grobbendonck, gave a great dinner-party, in the month
of December, 1563. This personage, whose name was
prominent for many years in the public affairs of the
nation, was one of the four brothers who formed a very
opulent and influential mercantile establishment. He
was the King's principal factor and financial agent. He
was one of the great pillars of the Bourse at Antwerp.
At the treasurer-general's memorable banquet to a dis-
tinguished party of noblemen, the conversation during
dinner turned, as was inevitable, upon the Cardinal.
His ostentation, greediness, insolence, were fully can-
vassed. The wine flowed freely, as it always did in those
Flemish festivities — the brains of the proud and reck-
less cavaliers became hot with excitement, while still the
odious ecclesiastic was the topic of their conversation,
the object alternately of fierce invective or of scornful
mirth. It was proposed, by way of showing contempt
for Granvelle, that a livery should be invented, as dif-
ferent as possible from his in general effect, and that all
the gentlemen present should indiscriminately adopt it
for their own menials. Thus would the people whom
the Cardinal wished to dazzle with his finery learn to
estimate such gauds at their true value. It was deter-
mined that something extremely plain and in the Ger-
man fashion should be selected. At the same time the
company, now thoroughly inflamed with wine, and pos-
sessed by the spirit of mockery, determined that a symbol
1563] THE FOOL'S CAP LIVERY 133
should be added to the livery, by which the universal con-
tempt for Granvelle should be expressed. The proposition
was hailed with acclamation — but who should invent the
hieroglyphical costume ? All were reckless and ready
enough, but ingenuity of device was required. At last it
was determined to decide the question by hazard. Amid
shouts of hilarity, the dice were thrown. Those men
were staking their lives, perhaps, upon the issue, but the
reflection gave only a keener zest to the game. Egmont
won. It was the most fatal victory which he had ever
achieved, a more deadly prize even than the trophies of
Saint-Quentin and Gravelines.
In a few days afterwards, the retainers of the house of
Egmont surprised Brussels by making their appearance in
a new livery. Doublet and hose of the coarsest gray, and
long hanging sleeves, without gold or silver lace, and hav-
ing but a single ornament, comprised the whole costume.
An emblem which seemed to resemble a monk's cowl, or a
fool's cap and bells, was embroidered upon each sleeve.
The device pointed at the Cardinal, as did, by contrast,
the affected coarseness of the dress. There was no doubt
as to the meaning of the hood, but they who saw in the
symbol more resemblance to the jester's cap, recalled cer-
tain biting expressions which Granvelle had been ac-
customed to use. He had been wont, in the days of his
greatest insolence, to speak of the most eminent nobles as
zanies, lunatics, and buffoons. The embroidered fool's cap
was supposed to typify the gibe, and to remind the arro-
gant priest that a Brutus, as in the olden time, might be
found lurking in the costume of the fool. However witty
or appropriate the invention, the livery had an immense
success. According to agreement, the nobles who had
dined with the treasurer ordered it for all their servants.
Never did a new dress become so soon the fashion. The
unpopularity of the minister assisted the quaintness of
the device. The fool's-cap livery became the rage. Never
was such a run upon the haberdashers, mercers, and tai-
lors since Brussels had been a city. All the frieze-cloth
in Brabant was exhausted. All the serge in Flanders was
clipped into monastic cowls. The Duchess at first laughed
134 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
with the rest, but the Cardinal took care that the King
should be at once informed upon the subject. The Re-
gent was, perhaps, not extremely sorry to see the man
ridiculed whom she so cordially disliked, and she accept-
ed the careless excuses made on the subject by Egmont
and by Orange without severe criticism. She wrote to
her brother that, although the gentlemen had been in-
fluenced by no evil intention, she had thought it best to
exhort them not to push the jest too far. Already, how-
ever, she found that two thousand pairs of sleeves had
been made, and the most she could obtain was that the
fools' caps, or monks' hoods, should in future be omitted
from the livery. A change was accordingly made in the
costume, at about the time of the Cardinal's departure.
A bundle of arrows, or, in some instances, a wheat-sheaf,
was substituted for the cowls. Various interpretations
were placed upon this new emblem. According to the
nobles themselves, it denoted the union of all their hearts
in the King's service, while their enemies insinuated that
it was obviously a symbol of conspiracy. The costume
thus amended was worn by the gentlemen themselves, as
well as by their servants. Egmont dined at the Regent's
table, after the Cardinal's departure, in a camlet doublet,
with hanging sleeves, and buttons stamped with the bun-
dle of arrows.
For the present, the Cardinal affected to disapprove of
the fashion only from its rebellious tendency. The fools'
caps and cowls, he meekly observed to Philip, were the
least part of the offence, for an injury to himself could be
easily forgiven. The wheat-sheaf and the arrow-bundles,
however, were very vile things, for they betokened and
confirmed the existence of a conspiracy such as never
could be tolerated by a prince who had any regard for his
own authority.
This incident of the livery occupied the public atten-
tion and inflamed the universal hatred during the later
months of the minister's residence in the country. Mean-
time the three seigniors had become very impatient at re-
ceiving no answer to their letter. Philip, on his part, was i
conning Granvelle's despatches, filled with hints of con-
PHILIP II. OF SPAIN
1564] A COMPLICATED FALSEHOOD 135
spiracy, and holding counsel with Alva, who had already
recommended the taking off several heads for treason.
The Prince of Orange, who already had secret agents in
the King's household, and was supplied with copies of
the most private papers in the palace, knew better than
to be deceived by the smooth representations of the Re-
gent. Philip had, however, at last begun secretly to
yield. He asked Alva's advice, whether on the whole it
would not be better to let the Cardinal leave the Neth-
erlands, at least for a time, on pretence of visiting his
mother in Burgundy, and to invite Count Egmont to
Madrid, by way of striking one link from the chain, as
Granvelle had suggested.
The King, who was never so thoroughly happy or at
home as when elaborating the ingredients of a composite
falsehood, now busily employed himself in his cabinet.
He measured off in various letters to the Regent, to the
three nobles, to Egmont alone, and to Granvelle, certain
proportionate parts of his whole plan, which, taken sep-
arately, were intended to deceive, and did deceive, nearly
every person in the world, not only in his own generation,
but for three centuries afterwards, but which, arranged
synthetically, as can now be done, in consequence of mod-
ern revelations, formed one complete and considerable lie.
The courier who was to take Philip's letters to the
three nobles was detained three weeks, in order to allow
Armenteros, who was charged with the more important
and secret despatches for the Duchess and Granvelle, to
reach Brussels first. All the letters, however, were ready
at the same time. Armenteros, who travelled but slowly
on account of the state of his health, arrived in Brussels
towards the end of February. Five or six days after-
wards— namely, on the 1st of March, the courier arrived
bringing the despatches for the seigniors. In his letter
to Orange, Egmont, and Horn, the King expressed his
astonishment at their resolution to abstain from the state
council. " Nevertheless," said he, imperatively, "fail not
to return thither and to show how much more highly you
regard my service and the good of the country than any
other particularity whatever. As to Grauvelle," continued
136 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
Philip, "since you will not make any specifications, my
intention is to think over the matter longer, in order to
arrange it as may seem most fitting."
This letter was dated the 19th of February (15G4), nearly
a month later therefore than the secret letter to Gran-
velle, brought by Armenteros, although all the despatch-
es had been drawn up at the same time and formed
parts of the same plan. "It would be well," wrote the
King, "in order to give time and breathing space to
the hatred and rancor which those persons entertain tow-
ards you, and in order to see what course they will
take in preparing the necessary remedy for the prov-
inces, for you to leave the country for some days, in
order to visit your mother, and this with the knowl-
edge of the Duchess, my sister, and with her permis-
sion, which you will request, and which I have written
to her that she must give, without allowing it to ap-
pear that you have received orders to that effect from
me. You will also beg her to write to me requesting
my approbation of what she is to do. By taking this
course neither my authority nor yours will suffer prej-
udice ; and, according to the turn which things may
take, measures may be taken for your return when ex-
pedient, and for whatever else there may be to arrange."
Thus, while the King refused to give any weight to the
representations of the nobles, and affected to be still de-
liberating whether or not he should recall the Cardinal, he
had in reality already recalled him. All the minute di-
rections according to which permission was to be asked of
the Duchess to take a step which had already been pre-
scribed by the monarch, and Philip's indulgence craved
for obeying his own explicit injunctions, were fulfilled to
the letter.
As soon as the Cardinal received the royal order, he pri-
vately made preparations for his departure. The Regent,
on the other hand, delivered to Count Egmoiit the one
of Philip's two letters in which that gentleman's visit was
declined, the Duchess believing that, in the present posi-
tion of affairs, she should derive more assistance from him
than from the rest of the seigniors. As Granvelle, how-
1564J GENTEEL COMEDY 137
ever, still delayed his departure, even after the arrival of
the second courier, she was again placed in a situation of
much perplexity. There was no help for it ; and on the
13th of March the Cardinal took his departure. A wag
posted a large placard upon the door of Granvelle's palace
in Brussels as soon as the minister's departure was known,
with the inscription, in large letters, " For sale, immedi-
ately." In spite of the royal ingenuity, therefore, many
shrewdly suspected the real state of the case, although
but very few actually knew the truth.
The Cardinal left Brussels with a numerous suite, state-
ly equipages, and much parade.
Philip had sustained his part in the farce with much
ability. Viglius, Berlaymont, Morillon, and all the lesser
cardinalists were entirely deceived by the letters which
were formally despatched to the Duchess in reply to her
own and the Cardinal's notification. The Duchess, as in
duty bound, denied flatly, on all occasions, that Ar-
menteros had brought any letters recommending or or-
dering the minister's retreat. She conscientiously dis-
played the letters of his Majesty, proving the contrary ;
and yet, said Viglius, it was very hard to prevent people
talking as they liked. Granvelle omitted no occasion to
mystify every one of his correspondents on the subject,
referring, of course, to the same royal letters which had
been written for public reading, expressly to corrobrate
these statements.
Granvelle remained month after month in seclusion,
doing his best to philosophize. In a fine strain of elo-
quent commonplace, the fallen minister had already be-
gun to moralize upon the vanity of human wishes. When
he was established at his charming retreat in Burgundy,
he had full leisure to pursue the theme. He remained
in retirement till his beard grew to his waist, having
vowed, according to report, that he would not shave
till recalled to the Netherlands. If the report were true,
said some of the gentlemen in the provinces, it would
be likely to grow to his feet.
The Cardinal was no ascetic. His hermitage contained
other appliances save those for study and devotion. His
138 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
retired life was, in fact, that of a voluptuary. While he
affected to be blind and deaf to politics, he had eyes and
ears for nothing else. Worldly affairs were his element,
and he was shipwrecked upon the charming solitude
which he affected to admire. He was most anxious to
return to the world again, but he had difficult cards to
play. It is probable that he nourished for a long time a
hope that the storm would blow over in the provinces,
and his resumption of power become possible.
William of Orange, although more than half convinced
that no attempt would be made to replace the minister,
felt it necessary to keep strict watch on his movements.
The Prince never committed the error of undervalu-
ing the talents of his great adversary, and he felt the
necessity of being on the alert in the present emergency.
Nevertheless, the chances of that return became daily
fainter. Margaret of Parma hated the Cardinal with
great cordiality. She fell out of her servitude to him
into far more contemptible hands, but for a brief inter-
val she seemed to take a delight in the recovery of her
freedom. According to Viglius, the court, after Gran-
velle's departure, was like a school of boys and girls when
the pedagogue's back is turned. The Duchess soon after-
wards entertained her royal brother with very detailed ac-
counts of various acts of simony, peculation, and embez-
zlement committed by Viglius, which the Cardinal had
aided and abetted, and by which he had profited. At the
same time it was characteristic of the Duchess that while
she was thus painting the portrait of the Cardinal for the
private eye of his sovereign, she should address the ban-
ished minister himself in a secret strain of condolence,
and even of penitence.
As the historical scholar now sees, there was certainly a
discrepancy between the language used simultaneously by
the Duchess to Granvelle and to Philip, but Margaret had
been trained in the school of Machiavelli, and had sat at
the feet of Loyola.
Weary of his retirement, Granvelle at last abandoned all
intention of returning to the Netherlands, and towards
the end of 1565 departed for Rome, where he participated
1564]
DEATH OF GRANVELLE
139
iii the election of Pope Pius the Fifth. Five years after-
wards he was employed by Philip to negotiate the tripar-
tite treaty, Spain, Koine, and Venice against the Turk.
He was afterwards Viceroy of Naples, and in 1575 he re-
moved to Madrid to take an active part in the manage-
ment of public business, "the disorder of which," says
the Abbe Boisot, " could be no longer arrested by men
of mediocre capacity." He died in that city on the 21st
of September, 1586, at the age of seventy, and was buried
at BesanQon
CHAPTER V
A NATION CONDEMNED TO DEATH
THE remainder of the year in the spring of which the
Cardinal had left the Netherlands was one of anarchy,
confusion, and corruption. At first there had been a sen-
sation of relief. Philip had exchanged letters of exceed-
ing amity with Orange, Egmont, and Horn. These three
seigniors had written, immediately upon Granvelle's re-
treat, to assure the King of their willingness to obey the
royal commands, and to resume their duties at the state
council. They had, however, assured the Duchess that
the appearance of the Cardinal in the country would be
the signal for their instantaneous withdrawal. They ap-
peared at the council daily, working with the utmost as-
siduity often till late into the night. Orange had three
great objects in view, by attaining which the country, in
his opinion, might yet be saved and the threatened con-
vulsions averted. These were to convoke the states-gen-
eral, to moderate or abolish the edicts, and to suppress
the council of finance and the privy council, leaving only
the council of state. The two first of these points, if
gained, would, of course, subvert the whole absolute pol-
icy which Philip and Granvelle had enforced ; it was,
therefore, hardly probable that any impression would be
made upon the secret determination of the government
in these respects. As to the council of state, the limited
powers of that body, under the administration of the Car-
dinal, had formed one of the principal complaints against
that minister. The justice and finance councils were
sinks of iniquity. The most barefaced depravity reigned
supreme. A gangrene had spread through the whole gov-
1564J CORRUPTION 141
ernment. The public functionaries were notoriously and
outrageously venal. The administration of justice had
been poisoned at the fountain, and the people were un-
able to slake their daily thirst at the polluted stream.
There was no law but the law of the longest purse. The
highest dignitaries of Philip's appointment had become
the most mercenary hucksters who ever converted the di-
vine temple of justice into a den of thieves. Law was an
article of merchandise, sold by judges to the highest bid-
der. A poor customer could obtain nothing but stripes
and imprisonment, or, if tainted with suspicion of heresy,
the fagot or the sword, but for the rich everything was
attainable. Pardons for the most atrocious crimes, pass-
ports, safe-conducts, offices of trust arid honor were dis-
posed of at auction to the highest bidder. Against all
this sea of corruption did the brave William of Orange set
his breast, undaunted and unflinching. Of all the con-
spicuous men in the land, he was the only one whose
worst enemy had never hinted, through the whole course
his public career, that his hands had known contami-
nation. His honor was ever untarnished by even a breath
)f suspicion. The Cardinal could accuse him of pecun-
iary embarrassment, by which a large proportion of his
revenues were necessarily diverted to the liquidation of
lis debts, but he could not suggest that the Prince had
jver freed himself from difficulties by plunging his hands
into the public treasury, when it might easily have been
opened to him.
It was soon, however, sufficiently obvious that as des-
perate a struggle was to be made with the many -headed
monster of general corruption as with the Cardinal, by
whom it had been so long fed and governed. The Prince
of Orange was already, although but just turned thirty
years of age, vastly changed from the brilliant and careless
grandee as he stood at the hour of the imperial abdication.
He was becoming careworn in face, thin of figure, sleepless
of habit. The wrongs of which he was the daily witness,
the absolutism, the cruelty, the rottenness of the govern-
ment, had marked his face with premature furrows. He
continued assiduous at the council, and he did his best,
143 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
by entertaining nobles and citizens at his hospitable man-
sion, to cultivate good relations with large numbers of his
countrymen. He soon, however, had become disgusted
with the court. Egmont was more lenient to the foul
practices which prevailed there, and took almost a child-
ish pleasure in dining at the table of the Duchess, dressed,
as were many of the younger nobles, in short camlet doub-
let with the wheat-sheaf buttons.
The Prince felt more unwilling to compromise his per-
sonal dignity by countenancing the flagitious proceedings
and the contemptible supremacy of Armenteros. When
his business led him to the palace, he was sometimes
forced to wait in the antechamber for an hour while
the clerk Armenteros was engaged in private consulta-
tion with Margaret upon the most important matters of
administration. The name of this infamous peculator was
popularly converted into Argenteros, in order to symbol-
ize the man who was made of public money. His confi-
dential intimacy with the Duchess procured for him also
the name of "Madam's barber," in allusion to the famous
ornaments of Margaret's upper lip, and to the celebrated
influence enjoyed by the barbers of the Duke of Savoy
and of Louis the Eleventh. This man sold dignities and
places of high responsibility at public auction. The Re-
gent not only connived at these proceedings, which would
have been base enough, but she was full partner in the
disgraceful commerce. Through the agency of the Secre-
tary, she, too, was amassing a large private fortune.
Berlaymoiit was treated by the Duchess with studied
insult. " What is the man talking about ?" she would ask
with languid superciliousness, if he attempted to express
his opinion in the state council. Viglius, whom Berlay-
mont accused of doing his best, without success, to make
his peace with the seigniors, was in even still greater dis-
grace than his fellow-cardinalists. When other council-
lors were summoned to a session at three o'clock, the
president was invited at four. It was quite impossible
for him to have an audience of the Duchess except in the
presence of the inevitable Armenteros. He was not al-
lowed to open his mouth, even when he occasionally
1564] "POOR VIGLIUS" 143
plucked up heart enough to attempt the utterance of his
opinions. His authority was completely dead.
Viglius was anxious to retire, but unwilling to have the
appearance of being disgraced. He felt instinctively, al-
though deceived as to the actual facts, that his great pa-
tron had been defeated and banished. He did not wish to
be placed in the same position. He had, however, with
the sagacity of an old navigator, already thrown out his
inchor into the best holding-ground during the storms
which he foresaw were soon to sweep the state. Before the
3lose of the year which now occupies us, the learned doc-
tor of laws had become a doctor of divinity also ; and had
already secured, by so doing, the wealthy prebend of Saint-
Bavon of Ghent.
Philip lent a greedy ear to the scandalous hints of Mar-
garet concerning Viglius and his friends. It is an instruc-
tive lesson in human history to look through the cloud of
lissimulation in which the actors of this remarkable ep-
>ch were ever enveloped, and to watch them all stabbing
iercely at one another in the dark, with no regard to pre-
rious friendship, or even present professions. It is edify-
ing to see the Cardinal, with all his genius and all his gri-
lace, corresponding on familiar terms with Armenteros,
rho was holding him up to obloquy upon all occasions ;
to see Philip inclining his ear in pleased astonishment to
Margaret's disclosures concerning the Cardinal, whom he
was at the very instant assuring of his uudiminished con-
fidence ; and to see Viglius, the author of the edict of
1550, and the uniform opponent of any mitigation in its
horrors, silently becoming involved, without the least
suspicion of the fact, in the meshes of the inquisitor Titel-
lann.
A remarkable tumult occurred in October of this year
it Antwerp. A Carmelite monk, Christopher Smith, com-
monly called Fabricius, had left a monastery in Bruges,
adopted the principles of the Reformation, and taken to
himself a wife. He had resided for a time in England,
but, invited by his friends, he had afterwards undertaken
the dangerous charge of gospel-teacher in the commercial
metropolis of the Netherlands. He was, however, soon
144 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
betrayed to the authorities by a certain bonnet dealer,
popularly called Long Margaret, who had pretended, for
the sake of securing the informer's fee, to be a convert to
his doctrines. lie was seized, and immediately put to the
torture. When this humble imitator of Christ was led
through the streets of Antwerp to the stake, the popular
emotion was at once visible. The crowd, as they followed
the procession of hangmen, halberdsmen, and magistrates,
sang the hundred and thirtieth psalm in full chorus. As
the victim arrived upon the market-place, he knelt upon
the ground to pray, for the last time. He was, however,
rudely forced to rise by the executioner, who immediately
chained him to the stake, and fastened a leathern strap
around his throat. At this moment the popular indigna-
tion became uncontrollable ; stones were showered upon
the magistrates and soldiers, who, after a slight resist-
ance, fled for their lives. The foremost of the insur-
gents dashed into the enclosed arena to rescue the pris-
oner. It was too late. The executioner, even as he fled,
had crushed the victim's head with a sledge-hammer, and
pierced him through and through with a poniard. Some of
the by-standers maintained afterwards that his fingers and
lips were seen to move, as if in feeble prayer, for a little
time longer, until, as the fire mounted, he fell into the
flames. For the remainder of the day, after the fire had
entirely smouldered to ashes, the charred and half-con-
sumed body of the victim remained on the market-place,
a ghastly spectacle to friend and foe. It was afterwards
bound to a stone and cast into the Scheldt. Such was the
doom of Christopher Fabricius, for having preached Chris-
tianity in Antwerp.
It was precisely at this epoch that the burgomasters,
senators, and council of the city of Bruges (all Catholics)
humbly petitioned the Duchess Regent that Peter Titel-
mann, Inquisitor of the Faith, might be compelled to make
use of preparatory examinations with the co-operation of
the senators of the city, to suffer that witnesses should
make their depositions without being intimidated by men-
ace, and to conduct all his subsequent proceedings accord-
ing to legal forms, which he had uniformly violated, pub-
1564] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT 145
licly declaring that he would conduct himself according
to his own pleasure.
Despite a solemn address of the four estates of Flanders
to the King, and advice from Margaret to Titelmann to
conduct himself in office " with discretion and modesty/'
he continued unchecked in his infamous career until
death, which did not occur till several years afterwards.
Philip, so far from having the least disposition to yield
in the matter of the great religious persecution, was more
determined as to his course than ever. He had already,
as early as August of this year, despatched orders to the
Duchess that the decrees of the Council of Trent should
be published and enforced throughout the Netherlands.
The decrees were to be proclaimed and enforced with-
out delay. They related to three subjects — the doctrines
to be inculcated by the Church, the reformation of eccle-
siastical morals, and the education of the people. Gen-
eral police regulations were issued at the same time, by
which heretics were to be excluded from all share in the
usual conveniences of society, and were, in fact, to be
strictly excommunicated. Inns were to receive no guests,
schools no children, almshouses no paupers, graveyards
no dead bodies, unless guests, children, paupers, and dead
bodies were furnished with most satisfactory proofs of or-
thodoxy. Midwives of unsuspected Romanism were alone
bo exercise their functions, and were bound to give notice
rithiii twenty-four hours of every birth which occurred ;
the parish clerks were as regularly to record every such
Idition to the population, and the authorities to see that
Catholic baptism was administered in each case with the
least possible delay. Births, deaths, and marriages could
only occur with validity under the shadow of the Church.
No human being could consider himself born or defunct
unless provided with a priest's certificate. The heretic
was excluded, so far as ecclesiastical dogma could exclude
him, from the pale of humanity, from consecrated earth,
and from eternal salvation.
The decrees contained many provisions which not only
conflicted with the privileges of the provinces but with
the prerogatives of the sovereign. For this reason many of
10
146 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1564
the lords in council thought that at least the proper ex-
ceptions should be made upon their promulgation. This
was also the opinion of the Duchess, but the King, by his
letters of October and November (1564), expressly pro-
hibited any alteration in the ordinances, and transmitted
a copy of the form according to which the canons had
been published in Spain, together with the expression of
his desire that a similar course should be followed in the
Netherlands. Margaret of Parma was in great embarrass-
ment. It was evident that the publication could no lon-
ger be deferred.
In the dilemma to which the Duchess was reduced, she
again bethought herself of a special mission to Spain.
At the end of the year (1564) it was determined that
Egmont should be the envoy. Montigny excused himself
on account of private affairs ; Marquis Berghen, "because
of his indisposition and corpulence." There was a stormy
debate in council after Egmont had accepted the mission
and immediately before his departure. Viglius had been
ordered to prepare the Count's instructions. Having fin-
ished the rough draught, he laid it before the board. The
paper was conceived in general terms, and might mean
anything or nothing. No criticism upon its language was,
however, offered until it came to the turn of Orange to
vote upon the document. Then, however, William the
Silent opened his lips, and poured forth a long and ve-
hement discourse, such as he rarely pronounced, but such
as few except himself could utter. There was no shuf-
fling, no disguise, no timidity in his language. He took
the ground boldly that the time had arrived for speaking
out. The object of sending an envoy of high rank and
European reputation like the Count of Egmont was to
tell the King the truth. Let Philip know it now. Let
him be unequivocally informed that this whole machinery
of placards and scaffolds, of new bishops and old hang-
men, of decrees, inquisitors, and informers, must once
and forever be abolished. Their day was over. The
Netherlands were free provinces, they were surrounded
by free countries, they were determined to vindicate
their ancient privileges. Moreover, his Majesty was to
1564] SPEECH OF ORANGE 147
be plainly informed of the frightful corruption which
made the whole judicial and administrative system loath-
some. The venality which notoriously existed every-
where — on the bench, in the council - chamber, in all
public offices, where purity was most essential — was de-
nounced by the Prince in scathing terms. He tore the
mask from individual faces, and openly charged the Chan-
cellor of Brabant, Engelbert Maas, with knavery and cor-
ruption. He insisted that the King should be informed
of the necessity of abolishing the two inferior councils,
and of enlarging the council of state by the admission of
ten or twelve new members, selected for their patriotism,
purity, and capacity. Above all, it was necessary plainly
to inform his Majesty that the canons of the Council of
Trent, spurned' even by the Catholic princes of Ger-
many, could never be enforced in the Netherlands, and
that it would be ruinous to make the attempt. He pro-
posed and insisted that the Count of Egmont should be
instructed accordingly. He avowed, in conclusion, that he
was a Catholic himself and intended to remain in the
Faith, but that he could not look on with pleasure when
princes strove to govern the souls of men, and to take
away their liberty in matters of conscience and religion.
Here certainly was no daintiness of phraseology, and
upon these leading points, thus slightly indicated, William
of Orange poured out his eloquence, bearing conviction
upon the tide of his rapid invective. His speech lasted
till seven in the evening, when the Duchess adjourned the
meeting. The council broke up, the Kegent went to sup-
per, but the effect of the discourse upon nearly all the
members was not to be mistaken. Viglius was in a state
of consternation, perplexity, and despair. After a feverish
and uncomfortable night, a stroke of apoplexy stretched
him senseless upon the floor. His servants, when they
soon afterwards entered the apartment, found him rigid,
and to all appearance dead. After a few days, however,
he recovered his physical senses in part, but his reason re-
mained for a longer time shattered, and was never perhaps
fully restored to its original vigor.
The place of Viglius was temporarily supplied by his
148 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
friend and countryman, Joachim Hopper, like himself a
Frisian doctor of ancient blood and extensive acquire-
ments, well versed in philosophy and jurisprudence, a
professor of Louvain and a member of the Mechlin coun-
cil. He was likewise the original founder and projector
of Douai University, an institution which at Philip's de-
sire he had successfully organized in 1556, in order that a
French university might be furnished for Walloon youths,
as a substitute for the seductive and poisonous Paris. For
the rest, Hopper was a mere man of routine. He never
opposed the Duchess, so that his colleagues always called
him Councillor " Yes, Madam/' and he did his best to be
friends with all the world.
In deference to the arguments of Orange, the instruc-
tions for Egmont were accordingly considerably modified
from the original draughts of Viglius. As drawn up by the
new president, they contained at least a few hints to his
Majesty as to the propriety of mitigating the edicts and ex-
tending some mercy to his suffering people. The docu-
ment was, however, not very satisfactory to the Prince,
nor did he perhaps rely very implicitly upon the character
of the envoy.
Egmont set forth upon his journey early in January
(1565). He travelled in great state. He was escorted
as far as Cambrai by several nobles of his acquaintance,
who improved the occasion by a series of tremendous ban-
quets during the Count's sojourn, which was protracted
till the end of January. The most noted of these gentle-
men were Hoogstraaten, Brederode, the younger Mans-
feld, Culemburg, and Noircarmes.
In the revelry at one of these banquets in the citadel of
Cambrai, the Archbishop, who was a cardiualist, and who
had been invited only to be insulted, was the object of
much banter and coarse pleasantry. His episcopal bonnet
was snatched off and passed from hand to hand and head
to head of a line of the bacchanal crew. Hoogstraaten
hurled a gilt laver of water at the Archbishop, wetting
him, but not breaking his head. Mansfeld snapped his
fingers under the prelate's nose. In various other ways
the Bishop was badgered. The next day, by the efforts of
J565] EGMONT IN SPAIN 149
Egmont, a reconciliation was apparently effected. Never-
theless, although the scandalous scene made a great im-
pression throughout the country, little sympathy with
this cardinalist was shown by the people, who detested the
persecuting and murderous prelate.
Egmont departed from Cambrai upon the 30th of Jan-
uary, his friends taking a most affectionate farewell of
him, and Brederode assuring him, with a thousand oaths,
that he would forsake God for his service. His reception
at Madrid was most brilliant. When he made his first ap-
pearance at the palace, Philip rushed from his cabinet
into the grand hall of reception, and fell upon his neck,
embracing him heartily before the Count had time to drop
upon his knee and kiss the royal hand. During the whole
period of his visit he dined frequently at the King's pri-
vate table, an honor rarely accorded by Philip, and was
feasted and flattered by all the great dignitaries of the
court as never a subject of the Spanish crown had been
before.
Thus feasted, flattered, and laden with presents
amounting to one hundred thousand crowns, Egmont
hardly broached the public matters which had brought
him to Madrid. Intoxicated by the incense offered to
him at the Spanish court, he was a different man from
Egmont in the Netherlands, subject to the calm but
piercing glance and the irresistible control of Orange.
He made no effort to obtain any relaxation of those re-
ligious edicts which he had himself declared worthy of
approbation and fit to be maintained. As to the ques-
tion of enlarging the state council, Philip dismissed the
subject with a few vague observations, which Egmont, not
very zealous on the subject at the moment, perhaps mis-
understood. The punishment of heretics by some new
method, so as to secure the pains but to take away the
glories of martyrdom, was also slightly discussed, and here
again Egmont was so unfortunate as to misconceive the
royal meaning, and to interpret an additional refinement
of cruelty into an expression of clemency.
Amicably passed the hours of that mission, the prelimi-
naries for which had called forth so much eloquence from
150 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
the Prince of Orange and so nearly carried off with apo-
plexy the President, Viglius. On his departure Egmont
received a letter of instructions from Philip as to the re-
port which he was to make upon his arrival in Brussels
to the Duchess. After many things personally flattering
to himself, the envoy was directed to represent the King
as overwhelmed with incredible grief at hearing the prog-
ress made by the heretics, but as immutably determined
to permit no change of religion within his dominions,
even were he to die a thousand deaths in consequence.
The King, he was to state, requested the Duchess forth-
with to assemble an extraordinary session of the council,
at which certain bishops, theological doctors, and very
orthodox lawyers, were to assist, in which, under pre-
tence of discussing the Council of Trent matter, it was
to be considered whether there could not be some " new
way devised for executing heretics ; not, indeed, one by
lohich any deduction should be made from their sufferings
(which certainly was not the royal wish, nor likely to be
grateful to God or salutary to religion), but by which all
hopes of glory — that powerful incentive to their impiety
— might be precluded." With regard to any suggested al-
terations in the council of state, or in the other two coun-
cils, the King was to be represented as unwilling to form
any decision until he should hear, at length, from the
Duchess Regent upon the subject.
Egmont reached Brussels at the end of April. Upon
the 5th of May he appeared before the council, and pro-
ceeded to give an account of his interview with the King,
together with a statement of the royal intentions and
opinions. These were already sufficiently well known.
Letters written after the envoy's departure had arrived
before him, in which, while in the main presenting the
same views as those contained in the instructions to Eg-
mont, Philip had expressed his decided prohibition of
the project to enlarge the state council and to suppress
the authority of the other two.
It is hardly necessary to state that so meagre a result
to the mission of Egmont was not likely to inspire the
hearts of Orange and his adherents with much confidence.
1565] CONFUSION 151
No immediate explosion of resentment, however, occurred.
Egmont went to his government immediately after his re-
turn, assembled the states of Artois in the city of Arras,
and delivered the letters sent to that body by the King.
He described Philip as the most liberal and debonair of
princes ; his council in Spain as cruel and sanguinary.
Egmont's language, used before the estates of /irtois,
varied materially from his observation to the Dowager
Duchess of Aerschot, denouncing as enemies the men who
accused him of having requested a moderation of the
edicts. In truth, this most vacillating, confused, and un-
fortunate of men perhaps scarcely comprehended the pur-
port of his recent negotiations in Spain, nor perceived the
drift of his daily remarks at home. He was, however,
somewhat vainglorious immediately after his return, and
excessively attentive to business. "He talks like a king,"
said Morillon, spitefully, "negotiates night and day, and
makes all bow before him." His house was more thronged
with petitioners, courtiers, and men of affairs than even
the palace of the Duchess.
It was but a very short time, however, before a total
change was distinctly perceptible in his demeanor. The
most stringent instructions to keep the whole machinery
of persecution constantly at work were transmitted to the
Duchess, and aroused the indignation of Orange and his
followers. They avowed that they could no longer trust
the royal word, since, so soon after Egmont's departure,
the King had written despatches so much at variance with
his language, as reported by the envoy. There was noth-
ing, they said, clement and debonair in these injunctions
upon gentlemen of their position and sentiments to devote
their time to the encouragement of hangmen and inquisi-
tors. The Duchess was unable to pacify the nobles. Eg-
mont was beside himself with rage. With his usual reck-
lessness and wrath, he expressed himself at more than one
session of the state council in most unmeasured terms.
His anger had been more inflamed by information which
he had received from the second sou of Berlaymont, a
young and indiscreet lad, who had most unfortunately
communicated many secrets which he had learned from
152 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
his father, but which were never intended for Egmont's
ear.
In truth, Egmont had been an easy dupe. He had been
dazzled by royal smiles, intoxicated by court incense, con-
taminated by yet baser bribes. He had been turned from the
path of honor and the companionship of the wise and noble
to do the work of those who were to compass his destruction.
The Prince of Orange reproached him to his face with hav-
ing forgotten, when in Spain, to represent the views of his
associates and the best interests of the country, while he had
well remembered his own private objects, and accepted the
lavish bounty of the King. Egmont, stung to the heart
by the reproof from one whom he honored and who
wished him well, became sad and sombre for a long time,
abstained from the court and from society, and expressed
frequently the intention of retiring to his estates. He
was, however, much governed by his secretary, the Seign-
eur de Bakerzeel, a man of restless, intriguing, and de-
ceitful character, who at this period exercised as great
influence over the Count as Armenteros continued to
maintain over the Duchess, whose unpopularity from that
and other circumstances was daily increasing.
In obedience to the commands of the King, the canons
of the Council of Trent had been published. They were
nominally enforced at Cambrai, but a fierce opposition was
made by the clergy themselves to the innovation in Mech-
lin, Utrecht, and many other places. This matter, together
with other more vitally important questions, came before
the assembly of bishops and doctors, which, according to
Philip's instructions, had been convoked by the Duchess.
The opinion of the learned theologians was, on the whole,
that the views of the Trent Council, with regard to refor-'
mation of ecclesiastical morals and popular education, were
sound. There was some discordancy between the clerical
and lay doctors upon other points. The seigniors, lawyers,
and deputies from the estates were all in favor of repealing
the penalty of death for heretical offences of any kind.
President Viglius, with all the bishops and doctors of
divinity, including the prelates of Saint Omer, Namur,
and Ypres, and four theological professors from Louvaiu,
1565] THE DIE CAST 153
stonily maintained the contrary opinion. After sitting for
the greater part of six days, the bishops and doctors of
divinity reduced their sentiments to writing, and affixed
their signatures to the document.
It was settled beyond perad venture that there was to be
no compromise with heresy.
The uneasiness, the terror, the wrath of the people
seemed rapidly culminating to a crisis. Nothing was
talked of but the edicts and the inquisition. Nothing
else entered into the minds of men. In the streets, in
the shops, in the taverns, in the fields ; at market, at
church, at funerals, at weddings ; in the noble's castle,
at the farmer's fireside, in the mechanic's garret, upon
the merchant's exchange, there was but one perpetual
subject of shuddering conversation. It was better, men
began to whisper to each other, to die at once than to
live in perpetual slavery. It was better to fall with arms
in hand than to be tortured and butchered by the inqui-
sition. Who could expect to contend with such a foe in
the dark ?
They reproached the municipal authorities with lend-
ing themselves as instruments to the institution. On the
other hand, the inquisitors were clamorous in abuse of
the languor and the cowardice of the secular authorities.
They wearied the ear of the Duchess with complaints of
the difficulties which they encountered in the execution
of their functions — of the slight alacrity on the part of
the various officials to assist them in the discharge of
their duties. Thus the Duchess, exposed at once to the
rising wrath of a whole people and to the shrill blasts of
inquisitorial anger, was tossed to and fro, as upon a
stormy sea.
In accordance with Philip's suggestion, orders were now
given that the heretics should be executed at midnight
in their dungeons, by binding their heads between their
knees, and then slowly suffocating them in tubs of wa-
ter. Secret drowning was substituted for public burn-
ing, in order that the heretic's crown of vainglory, which
was thought to console him in his agony, might never be
placed upon his head.
154 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
In the course of the summer, Margaret wrote to her
brother that the popular frenzy was becoming more and
more intense. The people were crying aloud, she said,
that the Spanish inquisition, or a worse than Spanish in-
quisition, had been established among them by means of
bishops and ecclesiastics. She urged Philip to cause the
instructions for the inquisitors to be revised. Egmont,
she said, was vehement in expressing his dissatisfaction
at the discrepancy between Philip's language to him by
word of mouth and that of the royal despatches on the
religious question. The other seigniors were even more
indignant.
The celebrated interview between Catharine de Medici
and her daughter, the Queen of Spain, through which the
massacre of St. Bartholomew was simply postponed for sev-
en years, added to the prevailing discontent in the Neth-
erlands. It occurred in the middle of the month of June,
at Bayonne. The darkest suspicions as to the results to
humanity of the plots to be engendered in this famous
conference between the representatives of France and
Spain were universally entertained.
In the course of November, fresh letters from Philip
arrived in the Netherlands, confirming everything which
he had previously written. He wrote personally to the
inquisitors -general, Tiletanus and De Bay, encouraging
them, commending, promising them his support, and urg-
ing them not to be deterred by any consideration from
thoroughly fulfilling their duties. He wrote Peter Titel-
mann a letter, in which he applauded the pains taken by
that functionary to remedy the ills which religion was suf-
fering, assured him of his gratitude, exhorted him to con-
tinue in his virtuous course, and avowed his determina-
tion to spare neither pains nor expense — not even his own
life — to sustain the Catholic Faith. To the Duchess he
wrote at great length, and in most unequivocal language.
To Egmont, the King wrote with his own hand, ap-
plauding much that was contained in the recent decisions
of the assembly of bishops and doctors of divinity, and
commanding the Count to assist in the execution of the
royal determination. In affairs of religion, Philip ex-
1565] THE INQUISITION SUSTAINED 155
pressed the opinion that dissimulation and weakness were
entirely out of place.
When these decisive letters came before the state coun-
cil the consternation was extreme. The Duchess had
counted, in spite of her inmost convictions, upon less
peremptory instructions. The Prince of Orange, the
Count of Egmont, and the Admiral were loud in their
denunciations of the royal policy. There was a violent
and protracted debate. The excitement spread at once
to the people. Inflammatory hand-bills were circulated.
Placards were posted every night upon the doors of Orange,
Egmont, and Horn, calling upon them to come forth bold-
ly as champions of the people and of liberty in religious
matters. Banquets were held daily at the houses of the
nobility, in which the more ardent and youthful of their
order, with brains excited by wine and anger, indulged
in flaming invectives against the government, and inter-
changed vows to protect one another and the cause of the
oppressed provinces.
Meanwhile the privy council, to which body the Duch-
ess had referred the recent despatches from Madrid, made
a report upon the whole subject to the state council dur-
ing the month of November, sustaining the royal views,
and insisting upon the necessity of carrying them into
effect. The edicts and inquisition having been so vigor-
ously insisted upon by the King, nothing was to be done
but to issue new proclamations throughout the country,
together with orders to bishops, councils, governors, and
judges, that every care should be taken to enforce them
to the full.
This report came before the state council, and was sus-
tained by some of its members. The Prince of Orange ex-
pressed the same uncompromising hostility to the inquisi-
tion which he had always manifested, but observed that
the commands of the King were so precise and absolute
as to leave no possibility of discussing that point. There
was nothing to be done, he said, but to obey, but he washed
his hands of the fatal consequences which he foresaw.
There was no longer any middle course between obedience
and rebellion. This opinion, the soundness of which could
156 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
scarcely be disputed, was also sustained by Egmont and
Horn.
Viglius was disposed to temporize, but his eloquence
was in vain. The Duchess, although terrified at the prob-
able consequences, felt the impossibility of disobeying the
deliberate decree of her brother. A proclamation was
accordingly prepared, by which it was ordered that the
dogmas of the Council of Trent, the edicts, and the inqui-
sition, should be published in every town and village in
the provinces immediately, and once in six months forever
afterwards. The deed was done, and the Prince of Orange,
stooping to the ear of his next neighbor as they sat at the
council-board, whispered that they were now about to wit-
ness the commencement of the most extraordinary tragedy
which had ever been enacted.
The fiat went forth. In the market-place of every town
and village of the Netherlands the inquisition was again
formally proclaimed. Every doubt which had hitherto
existed as to the intention of the government was swept
away. No argument was thenceforward to be permissible
as to the constitutionality of the edicts — as to the com-
patibility of their provisions with the privileges of the
land. The cry of a people in its agony ascended to Heaven.
There was almost a cessation of the ordinary business
of mankind. Commerce was paralyzed. Antwerp shook
as with an earthquake. A chasm seemed to open, in
which her prosperity and her very existence were to be
forever engulfed. The foreign merchants, manufacturers,
and artisans fled from her gates as if the plague was rag-
ing within them. Thriving cities were likely soon to be
depopulated. The metropolitan heart of the whole coun-
try was almost motionless.
Men high in authority sympathized with the general in-
dignation. The Marquis Berghen, the younger Mansfeld,
and the Baron Montigny openly refused to enforce the
edicts within their governments. Men of eminence in-
veighed boldly and bitterly against the tyranny of the
government, and counselled disobedience. The Nether-
landers, it was stoutly maintained, were not such senseless
brutes as to be ignorant of the mutual relation of prince
1565] MARRIAGE FEASTS 157
and people. They knew that the obligation of a king to
his vassals was as sacred as were the duties of the subjects
to the sovereign.
Towards the end of the year (1565), which was closing
in such universal gloom, the contemporary chronicles are
enlivened with a fitful gleam of sunshine. The light en-
livens only the more elevated regions of the Flemish world,
but it is pathetic to catch a glimpse of those nobles, many
of whose lives were to be so heroic and whose destinies
so tragic, as, amid the shadows projected by coming evil,
they still found time for the chivalrous festivals of their
land and epoch. A splendid tournament was held at the
Chateau d'Antoing to celebrate the nuptials of Baron
Montigny with the daughter of Prince d'Espinoy. Orange,
Horn, and Hoogstraaten were the challengers, and piain-
tained themselves against all comers, Egmont and other
distinguished knights being among the number.
Meantime, upon the llth of November, 1565, the mar-
riage of Prince Alexander and Donna Maria was cele-
brated with great solemnity by the Archbishop of Cam-
brai, in the chapel of the court at Brussels. On the
following Sunday the wedding banquet was held in the
great hall, where, ten years previously, the memorable
abdication of the bridegroom's imperial grandfather had
taken place.
The walls were again hung with the magnificent tapes-
try of Gideon, while the Knights of the Fleece, with all
the other grandees of the land, were assembled to grace
the spectacle. The King was represented by his envoy in
England, Don Guzman de Silva, who came to Brussels for
the occasion, and who had been selected for this duty be-
cause, according to Armenteros, "he was endowed, be-
sides his prudence, with so much witty gracefulness with
ladies in matters of pastime and entertainment." Early in
the month of December a famous tournament was held in
the great market-place of Brussels, the Duke of Parma,
the Duke of Aerschot, and Count Egmont being judges
of the jousts. Count Mansfeld was the challenger, as-
sisted by his son Charles, celebrated among the gentry of
the land for his dexterity in such sports. To Count
158 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1565
Charles was awarded upon this occasion the silver cup
from the lady of the lists. Count Bossu received the
prize for breaking best his lances ; the Seigneur de Beau-
voir, for the most splendid entrance ; Count Louis of Nas-
sau, for having borne himself most gallantly in the m$Ue.
On the same evening the nobles, together with the bridal
pair, were entertained at a splendid supper given by the
city of Brussels in the magnificent Hotel de Ville. On
this occasion the prizes gained at the tournament were
distributed, amid the applause and hilarity of all the rev-
ellers.
Thus, with banquet, tourney, and merry marriage bells,
with gayety gilding the surface of society, while a deadly
hatred to the inquisition was eating into the heart of the
nation, and while the fires of civil war were already kind-
ling, of which no living man was destined to witness the
extinction, ended the year 1565.
THE most remarkable occurrence in the earlier part of
the year 1566 was the famous Compromise. This docu-
ment, by which the signers pledged themselves to oppose
the inquisition and to defend one another against all con-
sequences of such a resistance, was probably the work of
Philip de Marnix, Lord of Sainte-Aldegonde. Much ob-
scurity, however, rests upon the origin of this league. Its
foundations had already been laid in the latter part of the
preceding year. The nuptials of Parma with the Portu-
guese princess had been the cause of much festivity, not
only in Brussels, but at Antwerp. On the wedding-day
of Parma, Francis Junius, a dissenting minister then re-
siding at Antwerp, was invited to Brussels to preach a ser-
mon in the house of Count Culemburg, on the horse-mar-
ket (now called Little Sablon), before a small assembly of
some twenty gentlemen.
This Francis Junius, born of a noble family in Bourges,
was the pastor of the secret French congregation of Hu-
guenots at Antwerp. He was very young, having arrived
from Geneva, where he had been educated, to take charge
of the secret church, when but just turned twenty years
of age. He was, however, already celebrated for his learn-
ing, his eloquence, and his courage. Towards the end of
1565 it had already become known that Junius was in se-
cret understanding with Louis of Nassau to prepare an
address to the government on the subject of the inquisi-
tion and edicts. Orders were given for his arrest. He
escaped to Breda, and continued his labors in spite of per-
secution. The man's courage may be estimated from the
160 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
fact that he preached on one occasion a sermon, advocat-
ing with his usual eloquence the doctrines of the Reformed
Church, in a room overlooking the market-place, where,
at the very instant, the execution by fire of several her-
etics was taking place, while the light from the flames in
which the brethren of their Faith were burning was flick-
ering through the glass windows of the conventicle. Such
was the man who preached a sermon in Culemburg Palace
on Parma's wedding-day. The nobles who listened to him
were occupied with grave discourse after the conclusion of
the religious exercises. Junius took no part in their con-
versation, but in his presence it was resolved that a league
against the "barbarous and violent inquisition" should
be formed, and that the confederates should mutually
bind themselves both within and without the Nether-
lands to this great purpose. Junius, in giving this ex-
plicit statement, has not mentioned the names of the no-
bles before whom he preached. It may be inferred that
some df them were the more ardent and the more respect-
able among the somewhat miscellaneous band by whom
the Compromise was afterwards signed.
At about the same epoch, Louis of Nassau, Nicolas de
Hammes, and certain other gentlemen met at the baths of
Spa. At this secret assembly the foundations of the Com-
promise were definitely laid. A document was afterwards
drawn up, which was circulated for signatures in the early
part of 1566. Several copies of the Compromise were
passed secretly from hand to hand, and in the course of
two months some two thousand signatures had been ob-
tained.
Sainte-Aldegonde, the reputed author of this instru-
ment, was one of the most accomplished men of his age.
He was of ancient nobility, as he proved by an abundance
of historical and heraldic evidence. He was one of the
many-sided men who recalled the symmetry of antique
patriots. He was a poet of much vigor and imagination,
a prose writer whose style was surpassed by that of none
of his contemporaries, a diplomatist in whose tact and del-
icacy William of Orange afterwards reposed in the most
difficult and important negotiations, an orator whose dis-
SATNTE AT/DEGONDK
1566] MARN1X 161
courses on many great public occasions attracted the at-
tention of Europe, a soldier whose bravery was to be
attested afterwards on many a well-fought field, a theo-
logian so skilful in the polemics of divinity that, as it
will hereafter appear, he was more than a match for a
bench of bishops upon their own ground, and a scholar
so accomplished that, besides speaking and writing the
classical and several modern languages with facility, he
had also translated for popular use the Psalms of David
into vernacular .verse, and at a very late period of his life
was requested by the states - general of the republic to
translate all the Scriptures — a work the fulfilment of
which was prevented by his death. A passionate foe
to the inquisition and to all the abuses of the ancient
Church, an ardent defender of civil liberty, it must be
admitted that he partook also of the tyrannical spirit of
Calvinism. He never rose to the lofty heights to which
the spirit of the great founder of the commonwealth was
destined to soar, but denounced the great principle of re-
ligious liberty for all consciences as godless. He was now
twenty-eight years of age, having been born in the same
year with his friend Louis of Nassau. His device, "Repos
ailleurs," finely typified the restless, agitated, and labo-
rious life to which he was destined.
The other distinguished leader of the newly formed
league, Count Louis, was a true knight of the olden
time, the very mirror of chivalry. Gentle, generous,
pious, making use in his tent before the battle of the
prayers which his mother sent him from the home of his
childhood, yet fiery in the field as an ancient crusader —
doing the work of general and soldier with desperate valor
and against any numbers — cheerful and steadfast under
all reverses, witty and jocund in social intercourse, ani-
mating with his unceasing spirits the graver and more
foreboding soul of his brother, he was the man to whom
the eyes of the most ardent among the Netherland Reform-
ers were turned at this early epoch, the trusty staff upon
which the great Prince of Orange was to lean till it was
broken. As gay as Brederode, he was unstained by his
vices, and exercised a boundless influence over that reck-
11
162 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
less personage, who often protested that he would "die a
poor soldier at his feet." The career of Louis was destined
to be short, if reckoned by years, but if by events, it was to
attain almost a patriarchal length. At the age of nine-
teen he had taken part in the battle of Saint-Queutin, and
when once the war of freedom opened, his sword was never
to be sheathed. His days were filled with life, and when
he fell into his bloody but unknown grave, he was to leave
a name as distinguished for heroic valor and untiring en-
ergy as for spotless integrity. He was small of stature,
but well formed; athletic in all knightly exercises, with
agreeable features, a dark, laughing eye, close -clipped
brown hair, and a peaked beard.
"Golden Fleece/' as Nicolas de Hammes was univer-
sally denominated, was the illegitimate scion of a noble
house. He was one of the most active of the early adhe-
rents to the league, kept the lists of signers in his posses-
sion, and scoured the country daily to procure new con-
federates. At the public preachings of the Eeforrned
religion, which soon after this epoch broke forth through-
out the Netherlands as by a common impulse, he made
himself conspicuous. He was fierce in his hostility to the
government, and one of those fiery spirits whose prema-
ture zeal was prejudicial to the cause of liberty and dis-
heartening to the cautious patriotism of Orange. He was
for smiting at once the gigantic atrocity of the Spanish
dominion, without waiting for the forging of the weapons
by which the blows were to be dealt. He forgot that men
and money were as necessary as wrath in a contest with
the most tremendous despotism of the world.
As for Charles Mansfeld he soon fell away from the
league, which he had originally embraced with excessive
ardor.
By the influence of the leaders many signatures were
obtained during the first two months of the year. The
language of the document was such that patriotic Catho-
lics could sign it as honestly as Protestants. It inveighed
bitterly against the tyranny of "a heap of strangers,"
who, influenced only by private avarice and ambition, were
making use of an affected zeal for the Catholic religion to
1566] OPINIONS OF ORANGE 163
porsnade the King into a violation of his oaths. It de-
nounced the refusal to mitigate the severity of the edicts.
It declared the inquisition, which it seemed the intention
of government to fix permanently upon them, as ' ' iniqui-
tous, contrary to all laws human and divine, surpassing
the greatest barbarism which was ever practised by tyrants,
and as redounding to the dishonor of God and to the total
desolation of the country." They declared an honest
purpose to "maintain the monarch in his estate, and to
suppress all seditions, tumults, monopolies, and factions.''
They engaged to preserve their confederation, thus formed,
forever inviolable, and to permit none of its members to
be persecuted in any manner, in body or goods, by any
proceeding founded on the inquisition, the edicts, or the
present league.
It will be seen, therefore, that the Compromise was, in its
origin, a covenant of nobles. It was directed against the
foreign influence by which the Netherlands were exclu-
sively governed, and against the inquisition, whether pa-
pal, episcopal, or by edict. There is no doubt that the
country was controlled entirely by Spanish masters, and
that the intention was to reduce the ancient liberty of the
Netherlands into subjection to a junta of foreigners sitting
at Madrid. Nothing more legitimate could be imagined
than a constitutional resistance to such a policy.
The Prince of Orange had not been consulted as to the
formation of the league. It was sufficiently obvious to its
founders that his cautious mind would find much to cen-
sure in the movement. His sentiments with regard to the
inquisition and the edicts and the canons of the Council
of Trent were certainly known to all men. In the conclu-
sion of his letter to Margaret, dated January 24, 15G6,
he had observed that he was at all times desirous to obey
the commands of his Majesty and her Highness, and to
discharge the duties of "a good Christian." The use of
the latter term is remarkable, as marking an epoch in the
history of the Prince's mind. A year before he would
have said a good Catholic, but it was during this year that
his mind began to be thoroughly pervaded by religious
doubt, and that the great question of the Reformation
164 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
forced itself, not only as a political, but as a moral problem
upon him, which he felt that he could not much longer
neglect instead of solving.
Orange, however, could not safely intrust the sacred in-
terests of a commonwealth to such hands as those of Bre-
derode — however deeply that enthusiastic personage might
drink the health of " Younker William," as he affection-
ately denominated the Prince — or to " Golden Fleece," or
to Charles Mansfeld, or to that younger wild boar of Ar-
dennes, Robert de la Marck. In his brother and in Sainte-
Aldegonde he had confidence, but he did not exercise over
them that control which he afterwards acquired. His con-
duct towards the confederacy was imitated in the main by
the other great nobles. The covenanters never expected
to obtain the signatures of such men as Orange, Egmont,
Horn, Meghen, Berghen, or Montigny, nor were those em-
inent personages ever accused of having signed the Com-
promise, although some of them were afterwards charged
with having protected those who did affix their names to
the document. The confederates were originally found
among the lesser nobles. Of these some were sincere
Catholics, who loved the ancient Church, but hated the in-
quisition ; some were fierce Calvinists or determined Lu-
therans ; some were troublous and adventurous spirits, men
of broken fortunes, extravagant habits, and boundless de-
sires, who no doubt thought that the broad lands of the
Church, with their stately abbeys, would furnish much
more fitting homes and revenues for gallant gentlemen
than for lazy monks. All were young, few had any pru-
dence or conduct, and the history of the league more than
justified the disapprobation of Orange. The nobles thus
banded together achieved little by their confederacy.
They disgraced a great cause by their orgies, almost ruined
it by their inefficiency, and when the rope of sand which
they had twisted fell asunder, the people had gained noth-
ing and the gentry had almost lost the confidence of the
nation. These remarks apply to the mass of the confed-
erates and to some of the leaders. Louis of Nassau and
Sainte-Aldegonde were ever honored and trusted as they
deserved.
1566] PRUDENT PHILIP AND SILENT WILLIAM 105
Although the language of the Compromise spoke of the
leaguers as nobles, yet the document was circulated among
burghers and merchants also, many of whom, according
to the satirical remark of a Netherland Catholic, may have
been influenced by the desire of writing their names in such
aristocratic company, and some of whom were destined to
expiate such vainglory upon the scaffold.
With such associates, therefore, the profound and anx-
ious mind of Orange could have little in common. Con-
fidence expanding as the numbers increased, their audac-
ity and turbulence grew with the growth of the league.
The language at their wild banquets was as hot as the wine
which confused their heads ; yet the Prince knew that
there was rarely a festival in which there did not sit some
calm, temperate Spaniard, watching with quiet eye and
cool brain the extravagant demeanor, and listening with
composure to the dangerous avowals or bravadoes of these
revellers, with the purpose of transmitting a record of
their language or demonstrations to the inmost sanctuary
of Philip's cabinet at Madrid. The Prince knew, too, that
the King was very sincere in his determination to maintain
the inquisition, however dilatory his proceedings might
appear. He was well aware that an armed force might be
expected ere long to support the royal edicts. Already
the Prince had organized that system of espionage upon
Philip, by which the champion of his country was so long
able to circumvent its despot. The King left letters care-
fully locked in his desk at night, and unseen hands had
forwarded copies of them to William of Orange before the
morning. He left memoranda in his pockets on retiring
to bed, and exact transcripts of those papers found their
way, likewise, ere he rose, to the same watchman in the
Netherlands. No doubt that an inclination for political
intrigue was a prominent characteristic of the Prince, and
a blemish upon the purity of his moral nature. Yet he
had mastered the dissimulating policy of his age only that
he might accomplish the noblest purposes to which a great
and good man can devote his life — the protection of the
liberty and the religion of a whole people against foreign
tyranny. His intrigue served his country, not a narrow
KJlj HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
personal ambition, and it was only by such arts that he be-
came Philip's master, instead of falling at once, like so
many great personages, a blind and infatuated victim. No
doubt his purveyors of secret information were often des-
tined to atone fearfully for their contraband commerce,
but they who trade in treason must expect to pay the pen-
alty of their traffic.
Although, therefore, the great nobles held themselves
aloof from the confederacy, yet many of them gave une-
quivocal signs of their dissent from the policy adopted by
the government by resignation of their offices or public
expression of their adverse opinion.
The Duchess was almost reduced to desperation. The
condition of the country was frightful. Famine reigned
in the land. Emigration, caused not by over-population,
but by persecution, was fast weakening the country. It
was no wonder that not only foreign merchants should be
scared from the great commercial cities by the approach-
ing disorders, but that every industrious artisan who could
find the means of escape should seek refuge among stran-
gers, wherever an asylum could be found. That asylum
was afforded by Protestant England, who received these
intelligent and unfortunate wanderers with cordiality, and
learned with eagerness the lessons in mechanical skill
which they had to teach. Already thirty thousand emi-
grant Netherlander were established in Sandwich, Nor-
wich, and other places assigned to them by Elizabeth.
It had always, however, been made a condition of the
liberty granted to these foreigners for practising their
handiwork that each house should employ at least one
English apprentice.* The current of trade was already
turned. The cloth-making of England was already gain-
ing preponderance over that of the provinces. Vessels
now went every week from Sandwich to Antwerp laden
with silk, satin, and cloth manufactured in England,
while as many but a few years before had borne the
* The tremendous missionary influence of this immigration upon Eng-
land has been ably shown by such writers as Fuller, J. Thorold Rogers, De
Gibben, and Campbell. See The Puritan in Holland, England, and America.
1566] THE REQUEST 167
Flemish fabrics of the same nature from Antwerp to Eng-
land.
It might be supposed by disinterested judges that per-
secution was at the bottom of this change in commerce.
The Prince of Orange estimated that up to this period
fifty thousand persons in the provinces had been put to
death in obedience to the edicts. He was a moderate
man, and accustomed to weigh his words. As a new im-
pulse had been given to the system of butchery — as it was
now sufficiently plain that "if the father had chastised
his people with a scourge, the son held a whip of scor-
pions"— as the edicts were to be enforced with renewed
vigor — it was natural that commerce and manufactures
should make their escape out of a doomed land as soon
as possible, whatever system of tariffs might be adopted
by neighboring nations.
A new step had been resolved upon early in the month
of March by the confederates. A petition, or " Request,"
was drawn up, which was to be presented to the Duchess
Regent in a formal manner by a large number of gentle-
men belonging to the league. This movement was so
grave, and likely to be followed by such formidable re-
sults, that it seemed absolutely necessary for Orange and
his friends to take some previous cognizance of it before
it was finally arranged.
For this end a meeting, ostensibly for social purposes
and " good cheer," was held, in the middle of March, at
Breda, and afterwards adjourned to Hoogstraaten. To
these conferences Orange invited Egmont, Horn, Hoog-
straaten, Berghen, Meghen, Montigny, and other great
nobles. Brederode, Tholouse, Boxtel, and other mem-
bers of the league, were also present.
The line of policy which he had marked out required the
assent of the magnates of the land, and looked towards
the convocation of the states -general. It was natural
that he should indulge in the hope of being seconded by
the men who were in the same political and social station
with himself. All, although Catholics, hated the inquisi-
tion. The Prince of Orange, however, was not able to
bring his usual associates to his way of thinking. The
168 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
violent purposes of the leaguers excited the wrath of the
more loyal nobles. Their intentions were so dangerous,
even in the estimation of the Prince himself, that he felt
it his duty to lay the whole subject before the Duchess,
although he was not opposed to the presentation of a
modest and moderate Request.*
The meeting separated at Hoogstraaten without any
useful result, but it was now incumbent upon the Prince,
in his own judgment, to watch, and in a measure to
superintend, the proceedings of the confederates. By
his care the contemplated Request was much altered, and
especially made more gentle in its tone. Meghen separated
himself thenceforth entirely from Orange, and ranged
himself exclusively upon the side of government. Eg-
mont vacillated as usual, satisfying neither the Prince
nor the Duchess, to whom both Meghen and Egmont
gave absurd accounts of a very extensive conspiracy
which they asserted was on foot for the invasion of the
country.
The Duchess at once, after reading the Compromise, in-
formed her brother that one of two things must be done
without further delay. The time had arrived for the
government to take up arms, or to make concessions.
In one of the informal meetings of councillors, now held
almost daily, on the subject of the impending Request,
Aremberg, Meghen, and Berlaymont maintained that the
door should be shut in the face of the petitioners without
taking any further notice of the petition. Berlaymont
suggested also that if this course were not found ad-
visable, the next best thing would be to allow the con-
federates to enter the palace with their Request, and then
to cut them to pieces to the very last man, by means of
troops to be immediately ordered from the frontiers.
Such sanguinary projects were indignantly rebuked by
Orange. He maintained that the confederates were en-
titled to be treated with respect. Many of them, he said,
were his friends — some of them his relations — and there
was no reason for refusing to gentlemen of their rank a
right which belonged to the poorest plebeian in the land.
Egmont sustained these views of the Prince as earnestly
1566] BREDERODE 169
as he hud on a previous occasion appeared to countenance
the more violent counsels of Meghen.
Meantime, as it was obvious that the demonstration on
the part of the confederacy was soon about to be made,
the Duchess convened a grand assembly of notables, in
which not only all the state and privy councillors, but all
the governors and Knights of the Fleece were to take part.
On the 28th of March this assembly was held, at which
the whole subject of the Bequest, together with the pro-
posed modifications of the edicts and abolition of the in-
quisition, was discussed.
It had been decided that Count Brederode should pre-
sent the petition to the Duchess at the head of a deputa-
tion of about three hundred gentlemen. The character
of the nobleman thus placed foremost on such an impor-
tant occasion has been sufficiently made manifest. He
was the lineal descendant and representative of the old
Sovereign Counts of Holland. • Five hundred years before
his birth, his ancestor Sikko, younger brother of Dirk the
Third, had died, leaving two sons, one of whom was the
first Baron of Brederode. A descent of five centuries in
unbroken male succession from the original sovereigns of
Holland gave him a better genealogical claim to the prov-
inces than any which Philip of Spain could assert through
the usurping house of Burgundy. In the approaching
tumults he hoped for an opportunity of again asserting
the ancient honors of his name. He was a sworn foe to
Spaniards and to "water of the fountain." Of his courage
there was no question, but he was not destined to the death
either of a warrior or a martyr. Headlong, noisy, de-
bauched, but brave, kind-hearted, and generous, he was a
fitting representative of his ancestors, the hard-fighting,
hard-drinking, crusading, freebooting sovereigns of Hol-
land and Friesland, and would himself have been more
at home and more useful in the eleventh century than
in the sixteenth.
It was about six o'clock in the evening, on the third
day of April (1566), that the long-expected cavalcade at
last entered Brussels. An immense concourse of citizens
of all ranks thronged around the noble confederates as
170 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [156,
soon as they made their appearance. They were about
two hundred in number, all on horseback, with pistols in
their holsters, and Brederode, tall, athletic, and martial
in his bearing, with handsome features and fair curling
locks upon his shoulders, seemed an appropriate chieftain
for that band of Batavian chivalry. The procession was
greeted with frequent demonstrations of applause as it
wheeled slowly through the city till it reached the man-
sion of Orange Nassau. Here Brederode and Count
Louis alighted, while the rest of the company dispersed
to different quarters of the town.
"They thought that I should not come to Brussels/'
said Brederode, as he dismounted. "Very well, here I
am ; and perhaps I shall depart in a different manner."
In the course of the next day, Counts Culemburg and
Van den Berg entered the city with one hundred other
cavaliers.
On the morning of the §th of April the confederates
were assembled at the Culemburg mansion, which stood
on the square called the Sablon, within a few minutes'
walk of the palace. A straight, handsome street led from
the house along the summit of the hill to the splendid
residence of the ancient Dukes of Brabant, then the
abode of Duchess Margaret. At a little before noon the
gentlemen came forth, marching on foot, two by two,
to the number of three hundred. Nearly all were young,
many of them bore the most ancient historical names of
their country, every one was arrayed in magnificent cos-
tume. It was regarded as ominous that the man who led
the procession, Philip de Bailleul, was lame. The line
was closed by Brederode and Count Louis, who came last,
walking arm in arm. An immense crowd was collected
in the square in front of the palace to welcome the men
who were looked upon as the deliverers of the land from
Spanish tyranny, from the cardinalists, and from the in-
quisition. They were received with deafening huzzas
and clappings of hands by the assembled populace. As
they entered the council - chamber, passing through the
great hall, where ten years before the Emperor had given
away his crowns, they found the Emperor's daughter
1566] BEGGARS 171
seated in the chair of state and surrounded by the high-
est personages of the country.
They begged the Duchess Regent to despatch an envoy
on their behalf, who should humbly implore his Majesty
to abolish the edicts. In the mean time they requested her
Highness to order a general surcease of the inquisition,
and of all executions, until the King's further pleasure was
made known, and until new ordinances, made by his Maj-
esty, with advice and consent of the states-general duly as-
sembled, should be established. The petition terminated
as it had commenced, with expressions of extreme respect
and devoted loyalty.
The agitation of Duchess Margaret increased very per-
3eptibly during the reading of the paper. When it was
inished, she remained for a few minutes quite silent, with
3ars rolling down her cheeks. As soon as she could over-
come her excitement she uttered a few words to the effect
that she would advise with her councillors and give the
)etitioners such answer as should be found suitable. The
confederates then passed out from the council-chamber
into the grand hall, each individual, as he took his depart-
ure, advancing towards the Duchess and making what was
called the " caracole," in token of reverence. There was
thus ample time to contemplate the whole company, and
to count the numbers of the deputation.
After this ceremony had been concluded, there was much
earnest debate in the council. The Prince of Orange ad-
dressed a few words to the Duchess, with the view of
calming her irritation. He observed that the confederates
were no seditious rebels, but loyal gentlemen, well born,
well connected, and of honorable character. They had
been influenced, he said, by an honest desire to save their
country from impending danger — not by avarice or ambi-
tion. Egmont shrugged his shoulders, and observed that
it was necessary for him to leave the court for a season, in
order to make a visit to the baths of Aix for an inflamma-
tion which he had in the leg. It was then that Berlay-
mont, according to the account which has been sanctioned
by nearly every contemporary writer, whether Catholic or
Protestant, uttered the gibe which was destined to become
172 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
immortal, and to give a popular name to the confederacy.
" What, Madam," he is reported to have cried in a passion,
" is it possible that your Highness can entertain fears of
these beggars ? (gueux). Is it not obvious what manner
of men they are ? They have not had wisdom enough to
manage their own estates, and are they now to teach the
King and your Highness how to govern the country ? By
the living God, if my advice were taken, their petition
should have a cudgel for a commentary, and we would
make them go down the steps of the palace a great deal
faster than they mounted them !"
On the 6th of April Brederode, attended by a large
number of his companions, again made his appearance
at the palace. He then received the petition, which was
returned to him with an apostille, or commentary, to this
effect : Her Highness would despatch an envoy for the pur-
pose of inducing his Majesty to grant the Bequest. Every-
thing worthy of the King's unaffected (naive) and custom-
ary benignity might be expected as to the result.
Upon the next day but one, Monday, 8th of April, Bre-
derode, attended by a number of the confederates, again
made his appearance at the palace, for the purpose of de-
livering an answer to the apostille.
The Duchess replied by word of month to the second
address thus made to her by the confederates, that she
could not go beyond the apostille which she had put on
record. As for the printing of their petition, she was will-
ing to grant their demand, and would give orders to that
effect.
The gentlemen having received this answer, retired into
the great hall. After a few minutes' consultation, how-
ever, they returned to the council - chamber, where the
Seigneur d'Esquerdes, one of their number, addressed a
few parting words, in the name of his associates, to the
Regent ; concluding with a request that she would declare
the confederates to have done no act, and made no demon-
stration, inconsistent with their duty and with a perfect
respect for his Majesty.
To this demand the Duchess answered, somewhat dryly,
that gfoe pQuJd npt be judge in such a cause, Time, and
1566] THE BANQUET AT OULEMBUKG HOUSE 1?3
their future deeds, she observed, could only bear witness
as to their purposes.
If a civil and religious revolution could have been ef-
fected by a few gentlemen going to court in fine clothes
to present a petition, and by sitting down to a tremendous
banquet afterwards, Brederode and his associates were the
men to accomplish the task. Unfortunately, a sea of
blood and long years of conflict lay between the nation
and the promised land, which for a moment seemed so
nearly within reach.
Meantime the next important step in Brederode's eyes
was a dinner. He accordingly invited the confederates to
a magnificent repast which he had ordered to be prepared
in the Culemburg mansion. Three, hundred guests sat
down, upon the 8th of April, to this luxurious banquet,
which was destined to become historical.
There was an earnest discussion as to an appropriate
name to be given to their confederacy. Should they call
themselves the " Society of Concord/' the restorers of lost
liberty, or by what other attractive title should the league
be baptized ? Brederode was, however, already prepared
to settle the question. He knew the value of a popular
and original name ; he possessed the instinct by which
adroit partisans in every age have been accustomed to
convert the reproachful epithets of their opponents into
watchwords of honor, and he had already made his prep-
arations for a startling theatrical effect. Suddenly, amid
the din of voices, he arose, with all his rhetorical powers
at command. He recounted to the company the observa-
tions which the Seigneur de Berlaymont was reported to
have made to the Duchess upon the presentation of the
Eequest, and the name which he had thought fit to apply
to them collectively. Most of the gentlemen then heard
the memorable sarcasm for the first time. Great was the
indignation of all that the state councillor should have
dared to stigmatize as beggars a band of gentlemen with
the best blood of the land in their veins. Brederode, on
the contrary, smoothing their anger, assured them with
good humor that nothing could be more fortunate. " They
call us beggars I" said he. " Let us accept the name. We
174 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
will contend with the inquisition, but remain loyal to the
King, even till compelled to wear the beggar's sack."
He then beckoned to one of his pages, who brought him
a leathern wallet, such as was worn at that day by profes-
sional mendicants, together with a large wooden bowl,
which also formed part of their regular appurtenances.
Brederode immediately hung the wallet around his neck,
filled the bowl with wine, lifted it with both hands, and
drained it at a draught. " Long live the beggars !" he
cried, as he wiped his beard and set the bowl down.
"Vivent les gueux." Then for the first time, from the
lips of those reckless nobles, rose the famous cry which
was so often to ring over land and sea, amid blazing cities,
on blood-stained decks, through the smoke and carnage
of many a stricken field. The humor of Brederode was
hailed with deafening shouts of applause. The Count
then threw the wallet around the neck of his nearest
neighbor and handed him the wooden bowl. Each guest
in turn donned the mendicant's knapsack. Pushing aside
his golden goblet, each filled the beggars' bowl to the
brim, and drained it to the beggars' health. Roars of
laughter and shouts of " Vivent les gueux!" shook the
walls of the stately mansion as they were doomed never
to shake again. The shibboleth was invented. The con-
juration which they had been anxiously seeking was found.
Their enemies had provided them with a spell, which was
to prove, in after days, potent enough to start a spirit from
palace or hovel, forest or wave, as the deeds of the "wild
beggars," the " wood beggars," and the "beggars of the
sea," taught Philip at last to understand the nation which
he had driven to madness.
When the wallet and bowl had made the circuit of the
table they were suspended to a pillar in the hall. Each
of the company in succession then threw some salt into
his goblet, and, placing himself under those symbols of the
brotherhood, repeated a jingling distich, produced im-
promptu for the occasion :
By this salt, by this bread, by this wallet we swear,
These beggars ne'er will change, though all the world should stare !
1566] "V1VENT LES GUEUX!" 175
This ridiculous ceremony completed the rites by which
the confederacy received its name ; but the banquet was
by no means terminated. The uproar became furious.
The younger and more reckless nobles abandoned them-
selves to revelry which would have shamed heathen Sat-
urnalia. They renewed to one another every moment
their vociferous oaths of fidelity to the common cause,
drained huge beakers to the beggars' health, turned their
caps and doublets inside out, danced upon chairs and
tables. In some cases one addressed the another as Lord
Abbot or Reverend Prior of this or that religious institu-
tion, thus indicating the means by which some of them
hoped to mend their broken fortunes.
While the tumult was at its height, the Prince of Orange,
with Counts Horn and Egmont, entered the apartment.
They had been dining quietly with Mansfeld, who was
confined to his house with an inflamed eye, and they were
on their way to the council-chamber, where the sessions
were now prolonged nightly to a late hour. Knowing
that Hoogstraaten, somewhat against his will, had been
induced to be present at the banquet, they had come round
by the way of Culemburg House to induce him to retire.
They were also disposed, if possible, to abridge the fes-
tivities which their influence would have been powerless
to prevent.
These great nobles, as soon as they made their appear-
ance, were surrounded by a crew of " beggars/' maddened
and dripping with their recent baptism of wine, who com-
pelled them to drink a cup amid shouts of " Vivent le roi
et les gueux!" The meaning of this cry they of course
could not understand, for even those who had heard Ber-
laymont's contemptuous remarks might not remember
the exact term which he had used, and certainly could
not be aware of the importance to which it had just been
elevated. As for Horn, he disliked and had long before
quarrelled with Brederode, had prevented many persons
from signing the Compromise, and, although a guest at
that time of Orange, was in the habit of retiring to bed
before supper to avoid the company of many who fre-
quented the house. Yet his presence for a few moments,
176 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
with the best intentions, at the conclusion of this famous
banquet, was made one of the most deadly charges which
were afterwards drawn up against him by the crown.
The three seigniors refused to be seated, and remained
but for a moment, "the length of a Miserere," taking with
them Hoogstraaten as they retired. They also prevailed
upon the whole party to break up at the same time, so
that their presence had served at least to put a conclusion
to the disgraceful riot. When they arrived at the coun-
cil-chamber they received the thanks of the Duchess for
what they had done.
Such was the first movement made by the members of
the Compromise. Was it strange that Orange should feel
little affinity with such companions ? Had he not reason
to hesitate, if the sacred cause of civil and religious lib-
erty could only be maintained by these defenders and with
such assistance ?
The "beggars" did not content themselves with the
name alone of the time-honored fraternity of mendicants
in which they had enrolled themselves. Immediately af-
ter the Culemburg banquet a costume for the confeder-
acy was decided upon. These young gentlemen, discard-
ing gold lace and velvet, thought it expedient to array
themselves in doublets and hose of ashen gray, with short
cloaks of the same color, all of the coarsest materials.
They appeared in this guise in the streets, with common
felt hats on their heads, and beggars' pouches and bowls
at their sides. They caused also medals of lead and cop-
per to be struck, bearing upon one side the head of Philip;
upon the reverse, two hands clasped within a wallet, with
the motto, "Faithful to the King, even to wearing the
beggar's sack." These badges they wore around their
necks, or as buttons to their hats. As a further distinc-
tion they shaved their beards close, excepting the mous-
tachios, which were left long and pendent in the Turkish
fashion, that custom, as it seemed, being an additional
characteristic of mendicants.
Very soon after these events the nobles of the league
dispersed from the capital to their various homes. Bre-
derode rode out of Brussels at the head of a band of cava-
1566] MODERATION 177
liers, who saluted the concourse of applauding spectators
with a discharge of their pistols. Forty-three gentlemen
accompanied him to Antwerp, where he halted for a night.
The Duchess had already sent notice to the magistrates of
that city of his intended visit, and warned them to have
an eye upon his proceedings. "The great beggar/' as
Hoogstraaten called him, conducted himself, however,
with as much propriety as could be expected. Four or
five thousand of the inhabitants thronged about the hotel
where he had taken up his quarters. He appeared at a
window with his wooden bowl, filled with wine, in his
hands, and his wallet at his side. He assured the multi-
tude that he was ready to die to defend the good people of
Antwerp and of all the Netherlands against the edicts and
the inquisition. Meantime he drank their healths, and
begged all who accepted the pledge to hold up their hands.
The populace, highly amused, held up and clapped their
hands as honest Brederode drained his bowl, and were soon
afterwards persuaded to retire in great good-humor.
These proceedings were all chronicled and transmitted
with additions and embellishment to Madrid.
The privy council, assisted by thirteen Knights of the
Fleece, had been hard at work, and the result of their wis-
dom was at last revealed in a " Moderation " consisting of
fifty-three articles.
What, now, was the substance of those fifty-three articles,
so painfully elaborated by Viglius, so handsomely drawn
ip into shape by Councillor d'Assonleville ? Simply to
substitute the halter for the fagot. After elimination of
all verbiage, this fact was the only residuum. The pre-
tended mercy to the misguided was a mere delusion. The
superintendents, preachers, teachers, ministers, sermon-
makers, deacons, and other officers, were to be executed
with the halter, with confiscation of their whole property.
All persons who harbored or protected ministers and teach-
ers of any sect were to be put to death. All the criminals
thus carefully enumerated were to be executed, whether
repentant or not. If, however, they abjured their errors,
they were to be beheaded instead of being strangled. Thus
it was obvious that almost any heretic might be brought
12
178 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
to the halter at a moment's notice. The draft of the new
edict was ostentatiously called the "Moderatie," or the
"Moderation." It was very natural, therefore, that the
common people, by a quibble, which is the same in Flem-
ish as in English, should call the proposed "Moderation"
the " Murderation." The rough mother-wit of the people
had already characterized and annihilated the project
while dull formalists were carrying it through the prelim-
inary stages.
A vote in favor of the project having been obtained from
the estates of Artois, Hainault, and Flanders, the instruc-
tions for the envoys, Baron Montigny and Marquis Berg-
hen, were made out in conformity to the scheme. The
two nobles who consented to undertake the office were per-
suaded into acceptance sorely against their will. They had
maintained the constitutional rights of the state, and they
had declined to act as executioners for the inquisition, but
they were yet to learn that such demonstrations amounted
to high treason.
Montigny departed, on the 29th of May, from Brussels.
He left the bride to whom he had been wedded amid
scenes of festivity the preceding autumn and the unborn
child who was never to behold its father's face. No hints
had any effect in turning him from his course, and he pro-
ceeded to Madrid, where he arrived on the 17th of June.
It was not until the 1st of July that Berghen was able to
take his departure from Brussels. Both these unfortunate
nobles thus went forth to fulfil that dark and mysterious
destiny from which the veil of three centuries has but re-
cently been removed.
The mission of the envoys was an elaborate farce to in-
troduce a terrible tragedy. They were sent to procure
from Philip the abolition of the inquisition and the mod-
eration of the edicts. At the very moment, however, of
all these legislative and diplomatic arrangements, Marga-
ret of Parma was in possession of secret letters from Philip,
which she was charged to deliver to the Archbishop of
Sorrento, papal nuncio at the imperial court, then on a
special visit to Brussels. This ecclesiastic had come to the
Netherlands ostensibly to confer with the Prince of Orange
1566] CAMP-MEETINGS 179
upon the affairs of his principality, to remonstrate with
Count Culemburg, and to take measures for the reforma-
tion of the clergy. The real object of his mission, how-
ever, was to devise means for strengthening the inquisition
and suppressing heresy in the provinces. Philip, at whose
request he came, had charged him by no means to divulge
the secret, as the King was anxious to have it believed
that the ostensible business was the only one that the pre-
late had to perform in the country. Margaret according-
ly delivered to him the private letters, in which Philip
avowed his determination to maintain the inquisition and
the edicts in all their rigor, but enjoined profound secrecy
upon the subject.
At this very moment, in the early summer of 1566, many
thousands of burghers, merchants, peasants, and gentle-
men were seen mustering and marching through the fields
of every province, armed with arquebus, javelin, pike, and
broadsword. For what purpose were these gatherings ?
Only to hear sermons and to sing hymns in the open air,
as it was unlawful to profane the churches with such
rites. This was the first great popular phase of the Neth-
erland rebellion. Notwithstanding the edicts and the in-
quisition with their daily hecatombs, notwithstanding the
special publication at this time throughout the country by
the Duchess Regent that all the sanguinary statutes con-
cerning religion were in as great vigor as ever, notwithstand-
ing that Margaret offered a reward of seven hundred crowns
to the man who would bring her a preacher dead or alive,
the popular thirst for the exercises of the Reformed relig-
ion could no longer be slaked at the obscure and hidden
fountains where their priests had so long privately minis-
tered.
Partly emboldened by a temporary lull in the persecu-
tion, partly encouraged by the presentation of the Request
and by the events to which it had given rise, the Reform-
ers now came boldly forth from their lurking places and
held their religious meetings in the light of day. The
consciousness of numbers and of right had brought the
conviction of strength. The field-preaching seemed in the
eyes of government to spread with the rapidity of a malig-
180 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
nant pestilence. The miasma flew upon the wings of the
wind. It now broke forth as by one impulse from one end of
the country to the other. In the latter part of June, Her-
mann Strycker, or Modet, a monk who had renounced hia
vows to become one of the most popular preachers in the
Keformed Church, addressed a congregation of seven or
eight thousand persons in the neighborhood of Ghent.
Peter Dathenus, another unfrocked monk, preached at
various places in West Flanders, with great effect. A man
endowed with a violent, stormy eloquence, intemperate as
most zealots, he was then rendering better services to the
cause of the Keformation than he was destined to do at
later periods.
But apostate priests were not the only preachers. To the
ineffable disgust of the conservatives in Church and State,
there were men with little education, utterly devoid of
Hebrew, of lowly station — hatters, curriers, tanners, dyers,
and the like — who began to preach also; remembering,
unseasonably perhaps, that the early disciples selected by
the Founder of Christianity had not all been doctors of
theology, with diplomas from a " renowned university."
But if the nature of such men were subdued to what it
worked in, that charge could not be brought against min-
isters with the learning and accomplishments of Ambrose
Wille, Marnier, Guy de Bray, or Francis Junius, the man
whom Scaliger called the "greatest of all theologians since
the days of the Apostles." An aristocratic sarcasm could
not be levelled against Peregrine de la Grange, of a noble
family in Provence, with the fiery blood of southern France
in his veins, brave as his nation, learned, eloquent, enthu-
siastic, who galloped to his field-preaching on horseback,
and fired a pistol-shot as a signal for his congregation to
give attention.
The preaching spread through the Walloon provinces to
the northern Netherlands. Towards the end of July an
apostate monk, of singular eloquence, Peter Gabriel by
name, was announced to preach at Overveen, near Haarlem.
This was the first field-meeting which had taken place in
Holland. The people were wild with enthusiasm, the
authorities beside themselves with apprehension. People
1566] VAST ASSEMBLAGES 181
from the country flocked into the town by thousands. The
other cities were deserted ; Haarlem was filled to overflow-
ing. The services commenced with the singing of a psalm
by the whole vast assemblage. Clement Marot's verses,
recently translated by Dathenus, were then new and pop-
ular. The strains of the monarch minstrel, chanted thus
in their homely but nervous mother-tongue by a multitude
who had but recently learned that all the poetry and rapt-
ure of devotion were not irrevocably coffined with a buried
language or immured in the precincts of a church, had
never produced a more elevating effect. No anthem from
the world-renowned organ in that ancient city ever awak-
ened more lofty emotions than did those ten thousand
human voices ringing from the grassy meadows in that
fervid midsummer noon.
By the middle of July the custom was established out-
side all the principal cities. Camp-meetings were held in
some places — as, for instance, in the neighborhood of Ant-
werp, where the congregations numbered often fifteen
thousand, and on some occasions were estimated at be-
tween twenty and thirty thousand persons at a time ;
" very many of them/' said an eye-witness, " the best and
wealthiest in the town."
The sect to which most of these worshippers belonged
was that of Calvin. In Antwerp there were Lutherans,
Calvinists, and Anabaptists. The Lutherans were the
richest sect, but the Calvinists the most numerous and
enthusiastic. The Prince of Orange at this moment was
strenuously opposed both to Calvinism and Anabaptism,
but inclining to Lutheranism. Political reasons at this
epoch doubtless influenced his mind in religious matters.
The aid of the Lutheran princes of Germany, who detest-
ed the doctrines of Geneva, could hardly be relied upon
for the Netherlander unless they would adopt the Con-
fession of Augsburg. The Prince knew that the Emperor,
although inclined to the Reformation, was bitterly averse
to Calvinism, and he was, therefore, desirous of healing
the schism which existed in the general Eeformed Church.
To accomplish this, however, would be to gain a greater
victory over the bigotry which was the prevailing charac-
182 ' HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [15C6
teristic of the age than perhaps could be expected. The
Prince, from the first moment of his abandoning the an-
cient doctrines, was disposed to make the attempt.
In the mean time the Duchess, having neither an army
nor money to enroll one, did what she could with "public
prayers, processions, fasts, sermons, exhortations," and
other ecclesiastical machinery, which she ordered the
bishops to put in motion. Her situation was indeed suffi-
ciently alarming.
Meanwhile, also, the sincere Reformers in Antwerp were
made nearly as uncomfortable by the presence of their
avowed friends, Brederode and his roistering crew, as by
that of Meghen and Aremberg, and earnestly desired to
be rid of them all. Long and anxious were the ponder-
ings of the magistrates upon all these subjects. It was
determined at last to send a fresh deputation to Brus-
sels, requesting the Regent to order the departure of
Meghen, Aremberg, and Brederode from Antwerp ; re-
monstrating with her against any plan she might be sup-
posed to entertain of sending mercenary troops into the
city ; pledging the word of the senate to keep the peace,
meanwhile, by their regular force ; and, above all, implor-
ing her once more, in the most urgent terms, to send
thither the burgrave, as the only man who was capable
of saving the city from the calamities into which it was
so likely to fall.
The Prince of Orange being thus urgently besought by
the government of Antwerp, by the inhabitants of that
cit}', and by the Regent herself, at last consented to make
the visit so earnestly demanded. On the 13th of July he
arrived in Antwerp. The whole city was alive with en-
thusiasm. Half its population seemed to have come forth
from the gates to bid him welcome, lining the road for
miles. Wild shouts of welcome rose upon every side as
he rode through the town, mingled with occasional vo-
ciferations of "Long life to the beggars !" These party
cries were instantly and sharply rebuked by Orange, who
expressed, in Brederode's presence, the determination that
he would make men unlearn that mischievous watchword.
He had, moreover, little relish at that time for the tumult-
1 666] ORANGE AT ANTWERP 183
uous demonstrations of attachment to his person, which
were too fervid to be censured but too unseasonable to
be approved. He held at once a long consultation with
the upper branch of the government. Afterwards, day
after day, he honestly, arduously, sagaciously labored to
restore the public tranquillity, which at last, by his ef-
forts, was restored. The broad -council having been as-
sembled, it was decided that the exercise of the Reformed
religion should be excluded from the city, but silently
tolerated in the suburbs, while an armed force was to be
kept constantly in readiness to suppress all attempts at
insurrection.
Thus, during the remainder of July and the early part
of August, was William of Orange strenuously occupied
in doing what should have been the Regent's work. He
was still regarded, both by the Duchess and by the Cal-
vinist party — although having the sympathies of neither
— as the only man in the Netherlands who could control
the rising tide of a national revolt. He took care, said
his enemies, that his conduct at Antwerp should have
every appearance of loyalty, but they insinuated that he
was a traitor from the beginning, who was insidiously
fomenting the troubles which he appeared to rebuke.
A report that the High Sheriff of Brabant was collect-
ing troops by command of government, in order to attack
the Reformers at their field-preachings, went far to undo
the work already accomplished by the Prince. The as-
semblages swelled again from ten or twelve thousand to
twenty-five thousand, the men all providing themselves
more thoroughly with weapons than before.
So long as this great statesman could remain in the
metropolis, his temperate firmness prevented the explo-
sion which had so long been expected. His own govern-
ment of Holland and Zeeland, too, especially demanded his
care. The field-preaching had spread in that region with
prodigious rapidity. Armed assemblages, utterly beyond
the power of the civil authorities, were taking place daily
in the neighborhood of Amsterdam. Yet the Duchess
could not allow him to visit his government in the north.
If he could be spared from Antwerp for a day, it was neces-
184 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1666
sary that he should aid her in a fresh complication with
the confederated nobles. In the very midst, therefore,
of his Antwerp labors, he had been obliged, by Margaret's
orders, to meet a committee at Duffel. For in this same
eventful month of July a great meeting was held by the
members of the Compromise at Saint-Trond, in the bish-
opric of Liege. They came together on the 13th of the
month, and remained assembled till the beginning of Au-
gust. It was a wild, tumultuous convention, numbering
some fifteen hundred cavaliers, each with his esquires and
armed attendants ; a larger and more important gath-
ering than had yet been held. Brederode and Count
Louis were the chieftains of the assembly, which, as may
be supposed from its composition and numbers, was likely
to be neither very orderly in its demonstrations nor whole-
some in its results. It was an ill-timed movement. The
convention was too large for deliberation, too riotous to
inspire confidence. The nobles quartered themselves every-
where in the taverns and the farm-houses of the neigh-
borhood, while large numbers encamped upon the open
fields. There was a constant din of revelry and uproar,
mingled with wordy warfare, and an occasional crossing
of swords. It seemed rather like a congress of ancient,
savage Batavians, assembled in Teutonic fashion to choose
a king amid hoarse shouting, deep drinking, and the clash
of spear and shield, than a meeting for a lofty and ear-
nest purpose by their civilized descendants. A crowd of
spectators, landlopers, mendicants, daily aggregated them-
selves to the aristocratic assembly, joining, with natural
unction, in the incessant shout of " Vivent les gueux!"
It was impossible that so soon after their baptism the self-
styled beggars should repudiate all connection with the
time-honored fraternity in which they had enrolled them-
selves.
The confederates discussed — if an exchange of vocifera-
tions could be called discussion — principally two points :
whether, in case they obtained the original objects of their
petition, they should pause, or move still further onward ;
and whether they should insist upon receiving some pledge
from the government that no vengeance should be taken
1566] DUFFEL CONFERENCE 185
npon them for their previous proceedings. Upon both
questions there was much vehemence of argument and
great difference of opinion. They, moreover, took two
very rash and very grave resolutions — to guarantee the
people against all violence on account of their creeds, and
to engage a force of German soldiery, four thousand horse
and forty companies of infantry, by "wart geld" or retain-
ing wages.
Upon the 18th of July the Prince of Orange, at the
earnest request of the Eegent, met a committee of the
confederated nobles at Duffel. Count Egmont was asso-
ciated with him in this duty. The conference was not
very satisfactory. The deputies from Saint-Trond, con-
sisting of Brederode, Culemburg, and others, exchanged
with the two seigniors the old arguments. Finally, a paper
was drawn up which Brederode carried back to the con-
vention, and which it was proposed to submit to the
Duchess for her approval. At the end of the month,
Louis of Nassau was accordingly sent to Brussels, accom-
panied by twelve associates, who were familiarly called his
twelve apostles. Here he laid before her Highness in
council a statement embodying the views of the confeder-
ates. In this paper they asserted that they were ever
ready to mount and ride against a foreign foe, but that
they would never draw a sword against their innocent
countrymen. If she would convoke the states - general,
then, and then only, were the confederates willing to ex-
ert their energies to preserve peace, to restrain popular
impetuosity, and banish universal despair.
So far Louis of Nassau and his twelve apostles. It
must be confessed that, whatever might be thought
of the justice, there could be but one opinion as to the
boldness of these views. The Duchess was furious. If
the language held in April had been considered audacious,
certainly this new request was, in her own words, "still
more bitter to the taste and more difficult of digestion/'
She therefore answered in a very unsatisfactory, haughty,
and ambiguous manner, reserving decision upon their
propositions till they had been discussed by the state coun-
cil, and intimating that they would also be laid before
186 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
the Knights of the Fleece, who were to hold a meeting
upon the 26th of August. There was some further con-
versation, without any result.
The assembly at Saint-Trend was dissolved, having made
violent demonstrations, which were not followed by bene-
ficial results, and having laid itself open to various sus-
picions, most of which were ill-founded, while some of
them were just.
CHAPTER VII
THE IMAGE-STORM
THE Netherlands possessed an extraordinary number of
churches and monasteries. Their exquisite architecture
and elaborate decoration had been the earliest indication
of intellectual culture displayed in the country. In the
vast number of cities, towns, and villages which were
crowded upon that narrow territory, there had been, from
circumstances operating throughout Christendom, a great
accumulation of ecclesiastical wealth. The same causes
can never exist again which at an early day covered the
soil of Europe with those magnificent creations of Chris-
tian art. It was in these anonymous but entirely original
achievements that Gothic genius, awaking from its long
sleep of the Dark Ages, first expressed itself. The early
poetry of the German races was hewn and chiselled in
stone. Around the steadfast principle of devotion, then so
firmly rooted in the soil, clustered t'ne graceful and vigor-
ous emanations of the newly awakened mind. All that
science could invent, all that art could embody, all that
mechanical ingenuity could dare, all that wealth could
lavish — whatever there was of human energy which was
panting for pacific utterance, wherever there stirred the
vital principle which instinctively strove to create and to
adorn at an epoch when vulgar violence and destructive-
ness were the general tendencies of humanity, all gathered
around these magnificent temples as their aspiring pin-
nacles at last pierced the mist which had so long brooded
over the world.
Among the noblest of these church edifices in the Neth-
erlands was the cathedral at Antwerp. Upon this one, and
188 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
upon hundreds of others, the storm of icouoclasm was to
burst during six or seven summer days of the year 1566.
The atmosphere of the cathedral was no longer holy in the
eyes of increasing multitudes. The inquisition had opened
the eyes and changed the hearts of those who worshipped
God. Better the sanguinary rites of Belgic Druids, better
the yell of slaughtered victims from the " wild wood with-
out mercy " of the pagan forefathers of the nation, than
this fantastic intermingling of divine music, glowing col-
ors, gorgeous ceremonies, with all the burning, beheading,
and strangling work which had characterized the system
of human sacrifice for the past half-century.
The Prince of Orange had been anxiously solicited by
the Regent to attend the conference at Duffel. After re-
turning to Antwerp, he consented, in consequence of the
urgent entreaties of the senate, to delay his departure un-
til the 18th of August should be passed. The meeting of
the Fleece Knights seemed, in Margaret's opinion, impera-
tively to require his presence in Brussels. She insisted
by repeated letters that he should leave Antwerp imme-
diately.
Upon the 18th of August the great and time-honored
ceremony of the Ommegang, or out-door procession bearing
the Virgin's image, occurred. The pageant, solemn but
noisy, was exactly such a show as was most fitted at that
moment to irritate Protestant minds and to lead to mis-
chief. No violent explosion of ill-feeling, however, took
place. A few missiles were thrown occasionally at the
procession as it passed through the city, but no damage
was inflicted. When the image was at last restored to its
place, and the pageant brought to a somewhat hurried
conclusion, there seemed cause for congratulation that no
tumult had occurred.
On the following morning there was a large crowd col-
lected in front of the cathedral. The image was now ig-
nominiously placed behind an iron railing within the choir.
Many vagabonds of dangerous appearance, many idle ap-
prentices and ragged urchins were lounging for a long time
about the imprisoned image. Others thronged around the
balustrade, shouting " Vivent les gueux!" and hoarsely
1566] A VULGAR RIOT 189
commanding the image to join in the beggars' cry. Then,
•leaving the spot, the mob roamed idly about the magnif-
icent church, sneering at the idols, execrating the gorgeous
ornaments, scoffing at crucifix and altar.
Presently one of the rabble, a ragged fellow of mechan-
ical aspect, in a tattered black doublet and an old straw
hat, ascended the pulpit. Opening a sacred volume which
he found there, he began to deliver an extemporaneous
and coarse caricature of a monkish sermon. Some of the
bystanders applauded, some cried " Shame !" some shouted
" Long live the beggars !" some threw sticks and rubbish at
the mountebank, some caught him by the legs and strove
to pull him from the place. He, on the other hand, man-
fully maintained his ground, hurling back every missile,
struggling with his assailants, and continuing the while to
pour forth a malignant and obscene discourse. At last a
young sailor, warm in the Catholic faith, and impulsive
as mariners are prone to be, ascended the pulpit from be-
hind, sprang upon the mechanic, and flung him headlong
down the steps. The preacher grappled with his enemy
as he fell, and both came rolling to the ground. Neither
was much injured, but a tumult ensued. A pistol-shot was
fired, and the sailor was wounded in the arm. Daggers
were drawn, cudgels brandished, the bystanders taking
part generally against the sailor, while those who protected
him were somewhat bruised and belabored before they
could convey him out of the church. Nothing more, how-
ever, transpired that day, and the keepers of the cathedral
were enabled to expel the crowd and to close the doors for
the night.
Information of this tumult was brought to the senate,
then assembled in the Hotel de Ville. That body was
thrown into a state of great perturbation. In losing the
Prince of Orange they seemed to have lost their own
brains, and the first measure which they took was to de-
spatch a messenger to implore his return. Never were
magistrates in greater perplexity. They knew not what
course was likely to prove the safest, and, in their anxiety
to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all. Af-
fcer a long and anxious consultation, the honest burgomas-
190 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
ter and his associates all went home to their beds, hoping
that the threatening flame of civil tumult would die out
of itself, or perhaps that iheir dreams would supply them
with that wisdom which seemed denied to their waking
hours.
In the morning, as it was known that no precaution had
been taken, the audacity of the Reformers was naturally
increased. Within the cathedral a great crowd was at an
early hour collected, whose savage looks and ragged ap-
pearance denoted that the day and night were not likely
to pass away so peacefully as the last. The same taunts
and imprecations were hurled at the image of the Virgin ;
the same howling of the beggars' cry resounded through
the lofty arches. Having first roused to violence an old
woman who sold wax-tapers at the door of the cathedral
and then destroyed her whole stock-in-trade, they pro-
voked others to appear in her defence. The passers-by
thronged to the scene ; the cathedral was soon filled to
overflowing ; a furious tumult was already in progress.
Many persons fled in alarm to the town-house, carrying
information of this outbreak to the magistrates. John
Van Immerzeel, Margrave of Antwerp, was then holding
communication with the senate, which at once proceeded
to the cathedral in a body, with the hope of quelling the
mob by the dignity of their presence. The margrave, who
was the high executive officer of the little commonwealth,
marched down to the cathedral accordingly, attended by
the two burgomasters and all the senators. At first their
authority, solicitations, and personal influence produced
a good effect, but no sooner had the magistrates retired
than the rabble flowed in like an angry sea. The whole of
the cathedral was at the mercy of the rioters, who were
evidently bent on mischief. The wardens and treasurers
of the church, after a vain attempt to secure a few of its
most precious possessions, retired. They carried the news
to the senators, who, accompanied by a few halberdmen,
again ventured to approach the spot. It was but for a
moment, however, for, appalled by the furious sounds
which came from within the church, as if subterranean
and invisible forces were preparing a catastrophe which no
1566] PRETERHUMAN MISCHIEF 191
human power could withstand, the magistrates fled pre-
cipitately from the scene. Fearing that the next attack
would be upon the city -hall, they hastened to concen-
trate at that point their available forces, and left the state-
ly cathedral to its fate.
And now, as the shadows of night were deepening the
perpetual twilight of the church, the work of destruction
commenced. Instead of vesper hymn rose the fierce mu-
sic of a psalm yelled by a thousand angry voices. It
seemed the preconcerted signal for a general attack. A
band of marauders flew upon the image of the Virgin,
dragged it forth from its receptacle, plunged daggers into
its inanimate body, tore off its jewelled and embroidered
garments, broke the whole figure into a thousand pieces,
and scattered the fragments along the floor. A wild shout
succeeded, and then the work, which seemed delegated to
a comparatively small number of the assembled crowd,
went on with incredible celerity. Some were armed with
axes, some with bludgeons, some with sledge-hammers ;
others brought ladders, pulleys, ropes, and levers. Every
statue was hurled from its niche, every picture torn from
the wall, every wonderfully painted window shivered to
atoms, every ancient monument shattered, every sculpt-
ured decoration, however inaccessible in appearance,
hurled to the ground. Indefatigably, audaciously, en-
dowed, as it seemed, with preternatural strength and nim-
bleness, these furious iconoclasts clambered up the dizzy
heights, shrieking and chattering like malignant apes, as
they tore off in triumph the slowly matured fruit of cen-
turies. In a space of time wonderfully brief, they had
accomplished their task.
The statues, images, pictures, ornaments, as they lay
upon the ground, were broken with sledge-hammers, hewn
with axes, trampled, torn, and beaten into shreds. A
troop of harlots, snatching waxen tapers from the altars,
stood around the destroyers and lighted them at their
work. Nothing escaped their omnivorous rage. They
desecrated seventy chapels, forced open all the chests of
treasure, covered their own squalid attire with the gor-
geous robes of the ecclesiastics, broke the sacred bread,
192 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
poured out the sacramental wine into golden chalices, quail' -
ing huge draughts to the beggars' health ; burned all the
splendid missals and manuscripts, and smeared their shoes
with the sacred oil with which kings and prelates had
been anointed. It seemed that each of these malicious
creatures must have been endowed with the strength of a
hundred giants. How else, in the few brief hours of a
midsummer night, could such a monstrous desecration
have been accomplished by a troop which, according to
all accounts, was not more than one hundred in num-
ber ? There was a multitude of spectators, as upon
all such occasions, but the actual spoilers were very
few.
The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was
a wreck, but the fury of the spoilers was excited, not ap-
peased. Each seizing a burning torch, the whole herd
rushed from the cathedral, and swept howling through
the streets. " Long live the beggars !" resounded through
the sultry midnight air as the ravenous pack flew to and
fro, smiting every image of the Virgin, every crucifix,
every sculptured saint, every Catholic symbol which they
met upon their path. All night long they roamed from
one sacred edifice to another, thoroughly destroying as
they went. Before morning they had sacked thirty
churches within the city walls. They entered the mon-
asteries, burned their invaluable libraries, destroyed their
altars, statues, pictures, and, descending into the cellars,
broached every cask which they found there, pouring out
in one great flood all the ancient wine and ale with which
those holy men had been wont to solace their retirement
from generation to generation. They invaded the nun-
neries, whence the occupants, panic-stricken, fled for
refuge to the houses of their friends and kindred. The
streets were filled with monks and nuns, running this way
and that, shrieking and fluttering, to escape the claws of
these fiendish Calvinists. The terror was imaginary, for
not the least remarkable feature in these transactions was
that neither insult nor injury was offered to man or woman,
and that not a farthing's value of the immense amount
of property destroyed was appropriated. The task was
1566] DURATION OF THE HAVOC 193
most thoroughly performed, but it was prompted by a
furious fanaticism, not by baser motives.
Two days and nights longer the havoc raged unchecked
through all the churches of Antwerp and the neighboring
villages. Hardly a statue or picture escaped destruction.
Yet the rage was directed exclusively against stocks and
stones. Not a man was wounded nor a woman outraged.
Prisoners, indeed, who had been languishing hopelessly
in dungeons were liberated. A monk who had been in
the prison of the Monastery of the Barefooters for twelve
years recovered his freedom. Art was trampled in the
dust, but humanity deplored 710 victims.
These leading features characterized the movement
everywhere. The process was simultaneous and almost
universal. It was difficult to say where it began and where
it ended. A few days in the middle of August sufficed for
the whole work. The number of churches desecrated has
never been counted. In the single province of Flanders
four hundred were sacked. In Limburg, Luxembourg,
and Namur there was no image-breaking. In Mechlin,
seventy or eighty persons accomplished the work thorough-
ly in the very teeth of the grand council and of an as-
tonished magistracy.
On the 23d of August the news reached Tournay that
the churches in Antwerp, Ghent, and many other places
had been sacked. There was an instantaneous movement
towards imitating the example on the same evening. Pas-
quier de la Barre, procureur-geueral of the city, succeeded
by much entreaty in tranquillizing the people for the night.
The "guard of terror" was set, and hopes were enter-
tained that the storm might blow over. The expectation
was vain. At daybreak next day the mob swept down upon
the churches and stripped them to the very walls. Pict-
ures, statues, organs, ornaments, chalices of silver and
gold, reliquaries, albs, chasubles, copes, cibories, crosses,
chandeliers, lamps, censers, all of richest material, glit-
tering with pearls, rubies, and other precious stones, were
scattered in heaps of ruin upon the ground.
A large assemblage of rioters, growing in numbers as
they advanced, swept over the province of Tournay, after
13
194: HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
accomplishing the sack of the city churches. Armed with
halberds, hammers, and pitchforks, they carried on the
war day after day against the images. At the convent
of Marchiennes, considered by contemporaries the most
beautiful abbey in all the Netherlands, they halted to sing
the Ten Commandments in Marot's verse. Hardly had the
vast chorus finished the precept against graven images,
when the whole mob seemed seized with sudden madness.
Without waiting to complete the psalm, they fastened
upon the company of marble martyrs as if they had pos-
sessed sensibility to feel the blows inflicted. In an hour
they had laid the whole in ruins.
Having accomplished this deed, they swept on towards
Anchin. Here, however, they were confronted by the
Seigneur de la Tour, who, at the head of a small company
of peasants, attacked the marauders and gained a com-
plete victory. Five or six hundred of them were slain,
others were drowned in the river and adjacent swamps,
the rest were dispersed. It was thus proved that a little
more spirit upon the part of the orderly portion of the
inhabitants might have brought about a different result
than the universal image-breaking.
In Valenciennes, "the tragedy," as an eye-witness calls
it, was performed upon St. Bartholomew's Day. It was,
however, only a tragedy of statues. Hardly as many sense-
less stones were victims as there were to be living Hugue-
nots sacrificed in a single city upon a Bartholomew which
was fast approaching. In the Valenciennes massacre not
a human being was injured.
Such in general outline, and in certain individual details,
was the celebrated iconomachy of the Netherlands. The
movement was a sudden explosion of popular revenge
against the symbols of that Church from which the Re-
formers had been enduring such terrible persecution. It
was also an expression of the general sympathy for the doc-
trines which had taken possession of the national heart.
It was the deprivation of that instinct which had in the
beginning of the summer drawn Calvinists and Lutherans
forth in armed bodies, twenty thousand strong, to worship
God in the open fields. The difference between the two
1566] CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TUMULTS 195
phenomena was, that the field-preaching was a crime com-
mitted by the whole mass of the Reformers — men, women,
and children confronting the penalties of death by a gen-
eral determination — while the image-breaking was the act
of a small portion of the populace. A hundred persons
belonging to the lowest order of society sufficed for the
desecration of the Antwerp churches. It was, said Orange,
"a mere handful of rabble" who did the deed. Sir Rich-
ard Clough saw ten or twelve persons entirely sack church
after church, while ten thousand spectators looked on,
indifferent or horror-struck. The bands of iconoclasts
were of the lowest character, and few in number. Per-
haps the largest assemblage was that which ravaged the
province of Tournay, but this was so weak as to be en-
tirely routed by a small and determined force. The duty
of repression devolved upon both Catholics and Protes-
tants. Neither party stirred. All seemed overcome with
special wonder as the tempest swept over the land.
The ministers of the Reformed religion, and the chiefs
of the liberal party, all denounced the image-breaking.
Francis Junius bitterly regretted such excesses. Am-
brose Wille, pure of all participation in the crime, stood
up before ten thousand Reformers at Tournay — even while
the storm was raging in the neighboring cities, and when
many voices around him were hoarsely commanding simi-
lar depravities — to rebuke the outrages by which a sacred
cause was disgraced. The Prince of Orange, in his pri-
vate letters, deplored the riots and stigmatized the per-
petrators. Even Brederode, while as Suzerain of his city
of Vianen he ordered the images there to be quietly taken
from the churches, characterized this popular insurrec-
tion as insensate and flagitious. Many of the leading
confederates not only were offended with the proceedings,
but, in their eagerness to chastise the iconoclasts and to
escape from a league of which they were weary, began to
take severe measures against the ministers and Reformers,
of whom they had constituted themselves in April the es-
pecial protectors.
The next remarkable characteristic of these tumults was
the almost entire abstinence of the rioters from personal
196 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
outrage and from pillage. The testimony of a very bitter
but honest Catholic at Valenciennes is remarkable upon
this point. " Certain chroniclers," said he, " have greatly
mistaken the character of this image - breaking. It has
been said that the Calvinists killed a hundred priests in
this city, cutting some of them into pieces, and burning
others over a slow fire. / remember very well everything
it'Ji icli happened upon that abominable day, and I can affirm
that not a single priest was injured. The Huguenots took
good care not to injure in any way the living images."
This was the case everywhere. Catholic and Protestant
writers agree that no deeds of violence were committed
against man or woman.
It would be also very easy to accumulate a vast weight
of testimony as to their forbearance from robbery. They
destroyed for destruction's sake, not for purposes of plun-
der. Although belonging to the lowest classes of society,
they left heaps of jewelry, of gold and silver plate, of
costly embroidery, lying unheeded upon the ground. They
felt instinctively that a great passion would be contami-
nated by admixture with paltry motives. In Flanders a
company of rioters hanged one of their own number for
stealing articles to the value of five shillings. In Valen-
ciennes the iconoclasts were offered large sums if they
would refrain from desecrating the churches of that city,
but they rejected the proposal with disdain. The honest
Catholic burgher who recorded the fact observed that he
did so because of the many misrepresentations on the sub-
ject, not because he wished to flatter heresy and rebellion.
Yet the effect of the riots was destined to be most dis-
astrous for a time to the reforming party. It furnished
plausible excuses for many lukewarm friends of their cause
to withdraw from all connection with it. Egmont de-
nounced the proceedings as highly flagitious, and busied
himself with punishing the criminals in Flanders. The
Kegent was beside herself with indignation and terror.
Philip, when he heard the news, fell into a paroxysm of
frenzy. " It shall cost them dear !" he cried, as he tore
his beard for rage — " it shall cost them dear ! I swear it
by the soul of my father !" The Reformation in the Ketli-
1566] FIRST EFFECTS 197
erlands, by the fury of these fanatics, was thns made ap-
parently to abandon the high ground upon which it had
stood in the early summer. The sublime spectacle of the
multitudinous field-preaching was sullied by the excesses
of the image-breaking. The religious war, before immi-
nent, became inevitable.
Nevertheless, the first effect of the tumults was a tem-
porary advantage to the Eeformers. A great concession
was extorted from the fears of the Duchess Eegent, who
was certainly placed in a terrible position. Her conduct
was not heroic, although she might be forgiven for trepi-
dation. Her treachery, however, under these trying cir-
cumstances was less venial. At three o'clock in the morn-
ing of the 22d of August, Orange, Egmont, Horn, Hoog-
straaten, Mansfeld, and others were summoned to the
palace. They found her already equipped for flight, sur-
rounded by her waiting-women, chamberlains, and lack-
eys, while the mules and hackneys stood harnessed in the
court-yard, and her body-guard were prepared to mount
at a moment's notice. She announced her intention of
retreating at jonce to Mons, in which city, owing to Aer-
schot's care, she hoped to find refuge against the fury of
the rebellion then sweeping the country. Her alarm was
almost beyond control. She was certain that the storm
was ready to burst upon Brussels, and that every Catholic
was about to be massacred before her eyes. Aremberg,
Berlaymont, and Noircarmes were with the Duchess when
the other seigniors arrived. After repeated interviews
and precautions, taken to insure the personal safety of the
Duchess, she was persuaded to remain in the city. The
Eegent was spared the ignominy and the disaster of a
retreat before an insurrection which was only directed
against statues, and the ecclesiastical treasures of Brus-
sels were saved from sacrilege.
On the 25th of August came the crowning act of what
the Eeformers considered their most complete triumph,
and the Eegent her deepest degradation. It was found
necessary under the alarming aspect of affairs, that liberty
of worship, in places where it had been already established,
should be accorded to the new religion. Articles of agree-
198 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
ment to this effect were accordingly drawn up and ex-
changed between the government and Louis of Xassau,
attended by fifteen others of the confederacy. A corre-
sponding pledge was signed by them, that, so long as the
Regent was true to her engagement, they would consider
their previously existing league annulled, and would as-
sist cordially in every endeavor to maintain tranquillity
and support the authority of his Majesty. The impor-
tant Accord was then duly signed by the Duchess. It
declared that the inquisition was abolished, that his Majes-
ty would soon issue a new general edict, expressly and
unequivocally protecting the nobles against all evil con-
sequences from past transactions, that they were to be
employed in the royal service, and that public preaching
according to the forms of the new religion was to be prac-
tised in places where it had already taken place. Letters
general were immediately despatched to the senates of all
the cities, proclaiming these articles of agreement and
ordering their execution. Thus for a fleeting moment
there was a thrill of joy throughout the Netherlands.
The inquisition was thought forever abolished, the era
of religious reformation arrived.
CHAPTER VIII
FIELD-PREACHING AND THE KING'S WEATH
EGMONT in Flanders, Orange at Antwerp, Horn at Tour-
nay, Hoogstraaten at Mechlin, were exerting themselves
to suppress insurrection and to avert ruin. What, mean-
while, was the policy of the government ? The secret
course pursued both at Brussels and at Madrid may be
condensed into the usual formula — dissimulation, pro-
crastination, and again dissimulation.
It is at this point necessary to take a rapid survey of
the open and the secret proceedings of the King and his
representatives from the moment at which Berghen and
Montigny arrived in Madrid. Those ill-fated gentlemen
had been received with apparent cordiality, and admitted
to frequent but unmeaning interviews with his Majesty.
The current upon which they were embarked was deep
and treacherous, but it was smooth and very slow. They
assured the King that his letters ordering the rigorous
execution of the inquisition and edicts had engendered
all the evils under which the provinces were laboring.
They told him that Spaniards and tools of Spaniards
had attempted to govern the country, to the exclusion of
native citizens and nobles, but that it would soon be found
that Netherlander were not to be trodden upon like the
abject inhabitants of Milan, Naples, and Sicily. Such
words as these struck with an unaccustomed sound upon
the royal ear, but the envoys, who were both Catholic and
loyal, had no idea in thus expressing their opinions, ac-
cording to their sense of duty and in obedience to the
King's desire, upon the causes of the discontent, that they
were committing an act of high treason.
200 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
When the news of the public preaching reached Spain,
there were almost daily consultations at the grove of Se-
govia. The eminent personages who composed the royal
council were the Duke of Alva, the Count do Feria, Don
Antonio de Toledo, Don Juan Manrique de Lara, Ruy
Gomez, Quixada, Councillor Tisnacq, recently appointed
president of the state council, and Councillor Hopper.
Six Spaniards and two Netherlander, one of whom, too,
a man of dull intellect and thoroughly subservient char-
acter, to deal with the local affairs of the Netherlands in
a time of intense excitement ! The instructions of the
envoys had been to represent the necessity of according
three great points — abolition of the inquisition, modera-
tion of the edicts, according to the draft prepared in Brus-
sels, and an ample pardon for past transactions. There
was much debate upon all these propositions. Philip said
little, but he listened attentively to the long discourses in
council, and he took an incredible quantity of notes. It
was the general opinion that this last demand on the part
of the Netherlander was the fourth link in the chain of
treason. The first had been the cabal by which Granvelle
had been expelled ; the second, the mission of Egmont,
the main object of which had been to procure a modifi-
cation of the state council, in order to bring that body
under the control of a few haughty and rebellious nobles ;
the third had been the presentation of the insolent and
seditious Eequest ; and now, to crown the whole, came a
proposition embodying the three points — abolition of the
inquisition, revocation of the edicts, and a pardon to crim-
inals for whom death was the only sufficient punishment.
With regard to these three points, it was, after much
wrangling, decided to grant them under certain restric-
tions.
It was the last day of July before the King wrote at all,
to communicate his decisions upon the crisis which had
occurred in the first week of April. His masterly dis-
simulation was employed in the direction suggested by
his councillors. He wrote accordingly to say that the
pardon, under certain conditions, might be granted, and
that the papal inquisition might cease — the bishops now
1566] PIOUS FRAUD 201
being present in such numbers, "to take care of their
flocks," and the episcopal inquisition being therefore es-
tablished upon so secure a basis. He added that, if a
moderation of the edicts were still desired, a new project
might be sent to Madrid, as the one brought by Berghen
and Montigny was not satisfactory.
Certainly, here was not much encouragement for patri-
otic hearts in the Netherlands. A pardon so restricted
that none were likely to be forgiven save those Avho had
done no wrong ; an episcopal inquisition stimulated to
renewed exertions, on the ground that the papal func-
tionaries were to be discharged ; and a promise that, al-
though the proposed moderation of the edicts seemed too
mild for the monarch's acceptance, yet at some future
period another project would be matured for settling the
matter to universal satisfaction — such were the proposi-
tions of the crown. Nevertheless, Philip thought he had
gone too far even in administering this meagre amount
of mercy, and that he had been too frank in employing so
slender a deception as in the scheme thus sketched. He,
therefore, summoned a notary, before whom, in presence
of the Duke of Alva, the Licentiate Menchaca, and Dr.
Velasco, he declared that, although he had just authorized
Margaret of Parma, by force of circumstances, to grant
pardon to all those who had been compromised in the late
disturbances of the Netherlands, yet, as he had not done
this spontaneously nor freely, he did not consider himself
bound by the authorization, but that, on the contrary, he
reserved his right to punish all the guilty, and particu-
larly those who had been the authors and encouragers of
the sedition.
So much for the pardon promised in his official cor-
respondence.
With regard to the concessions which he supposed him-
self to have made in the matter of the inquisition and the
edicts, he saved his conscience by another process. Re-
voking with his right hand all which his left had been
doing, he had no sooner despatched his letters to the
Duchess Regent than he sent off another to his envoy at
Rome. In this despatch he instructed Requesens to in-
202 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
form the Pope as to the recent royal decisions upon the
three points, and to state that there had not been time to
consult his Holiness beforehand.
With regard to the proposed moderation of the edicts,
the project sent by the Duchess not having been approved,
orders had been transmitted for a new draft, in which all
the articles providing for the severe punishment of heretics
were to be retained, while alterations, to be agreed upon
by the state and privy councils and the Knights of the
Fleece, were to be adopted — certainly in no sense of clem-
ency. On the contrary, the King assured his Holiness
that, if the severity of chastisement should be mitigated the
least in the world by the new articles, they would in no
case receive the royal approbation. Philip further im-
plored the Pope "not to be scandalized" with regard to
the proposed pardon, as it would be by no means extended
to offenders against religion. All this was to be kept en-
tirely secret. The King added that, rather than permit the
least prejudice to the ancient religion, he would sacrifice
all his states, and lose a hundred lives if he had so many ;
for he would never consent to be the sovereign of heretics.
Here was plain speaking. Here were all the coming
horrors distinctly foreshadowed. Here was the truth told
to the only being with whom Philip ever was sincere.
Yet even on this occasion he permitted himself a false-
hood, by which his Holiness was not deceived. Philip
had no intention of going to the Netherlands in person,
and the Pope knew that he had none.
Notwithstanding the urgent representations of Duch-
ess Margaret to her brother, that nobles and people were
all clamoring about the necessity of convening the states-
general, Philip was true to his instincts on this as on the
other questions. He knew very well that the states-
general of the Netherlands and Spanish despotism were
incompatible ideas, and he recoiled from the idea of the
assembly with infinite aversion. At the same time a
little wholesome deception could do no harm. He wrote
to the Duchess, therefore, that he was determined never
to allow the states - general to be convened. He forbade
her to consent to the step under any circumstances, but
1566] EGMOXT IN FLANDERS 203
ordered her to keep his prohibition a profound secret. He
wished, he said, the people to think that it was only for
the moment that the convocation was forbidden, and that
the Duchess was expecting to receive the necessary per-
mission at another time.
Such, then, was the policy secretly resolved upon by
Philip even before he had heard of the startling events of
field-preaching and image-breaking.
Meanwhile, with infamous calumnies, utterly disproved
by every fact in the case, and unsupported by a tittle of
evidence, save the hearsay reports of a man like Noir-
carmes, did the Duchess of Parma dig the graves of men
who were doing their best to serve her.
The essence of the compact agreed to upon the 23d of
August between the confederates and the Regent was
that the preaching of the Eeformed religion should be
tolerated in places where it had previously to that date
been established. Upon this basis Egmont, Horn, Or-
ange, Hoogstraaten, and others, were directed once more
to attempt the pacification of the different provinces.
Egmont departed for his government, and from that
moment vanished all his pretensions, which at best had been
slender enough, to the character of a national chieftain.
He entered Flanders, not as a chief of rebels, not as
a wise pacificator, but as an unscrupulous partisan of
government, disposed to take summary vengeance on all
suspected persons who should fall in his way. He or-
dered numerous executions of image-breakers and of other
heretics. The whole province was in a state of alarm;
for, although he had not been furnished by the Eegent
with a strong body of troops, yet the name of the con-
queror at Saint-Quentin and G-ravelines was worth many
regiments. His severity was excessive. . His sanguinary
exertions were ably seconded also by his secretary, Bak-
kerzeel, a man who exercised the greatest influence over
his chief, and who was now fiercely atoning for having
signed the Compromise by persecuting those whom that
league had been formed to protect. On one occasion
Bakkerzeel hanged twenty heretics, including a minister,
at a single heat.
204 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
Such achievements as these by the hands or the orders
of the distinguished general who had been most absurdly
held up as a possible protector of the civil and religious
liberties of the country, created a profound sensation.
Flanders and Artois were filled with the wives and chil-
dren of suspected thousands who had fled the country
to escape the wrath of Egmont. The cries and piteous
lamentations of these unfortunate creatures were heard
on every side. In vain did Count Louis intercede for the
persecuted Keformers. Flanders was soon pacified ; nor
was that important province permitted to enjoy the bene-
fits of the agreement which had been extorted from the
Duchess. The preachings were forbidden, and the min-
isters and congregations arrested and chastised, even in
places where the custom had been established previously
to the 23d of August. Certainly such vigorous exertions
upon the part both of master and man did not savor of
treason to Philip, and hardly seemed to indicate the final
doom of Egmont and Bakkerzeel.
The course of Orange at Antwerp was consistent with
his whole career. He honestly came to arrange a pacifi-
cation, but he knew that this end could be gained only
by loyally maintaining the Accord which had been signed
between the confederates and the Regent. He came back
to the city on the 26th of August, and found order par-
tially re-established.
Three image-breakers, who had been taken in the act,
were hanged by order of the magistrates upon the 28th
of August. The presence of Orange gave them courage
to achieve these executions which he could not prevent,
as the fifth article of the Accord enjoined the chastise-
ment of the rioters. The magistrates chose that the
"chastisement" on this occasion should be exemplary,
and it was not in the power of Orange to interfere with
the regular government of the city when acting accord-
ing to its laws. The deed was not his, however, and he
hastened, in order to obviate the necessity of further
violence, to prepare articles of agreement, upon the basis
of Margaret's concessions. Public preaching, according
to the Reformed religion, had already taken place within
1566] TOLERATION 205
the city. Upon the 22d, possession had been taken of
at least three churches. Even the great cathedral, that
had so long echoed dead Latin, resounded with the ver-
nacular of native worshippers in psalm and sermon, as
the Flemish preacher, Herman Modet, preached, prayed,
and sang.
The city of Antwerp, therefore, was clearly within the
seventh clause of the treaty of the 24th of August, for
preaching had taken place in the cathedral previously to
the signing of that Accord.
Upon the 3d of September, therefore, after many pro-
tracted interviews with the heads of the Eeformed re-
ligion, the Prince drew up sixteen articles of mutual agree-
ment by them and the magistrates and the government,
which were duly signed and exchanged. They were con-
ceived in the true spirit of statesmanship, and could the
rulers of the land have elevated themselves to the mental
height of William of Nassau, had Philip been capable of
comprehending such a mind, the Prince, who alone pos-
sessed the power in those distracted times of governing
the wills of all men, would have enabled the monarch to
transmit that beautiful cluster of provinces, without the
loss of a single jewel, to the inheritors of his crown.
If the Prince were playing a game, he played it honor-
ably. To have conceived the thought of religions tolera-
tion in an age of universal dogmatism; to have labored to
produce mutual respect among conflicting opinions, at a
period when many Dissenters were as bigoted as the ortho-
dox, and when most Reformers fiercely proclaimed not
liberty for every Christian doctrine, but only a new creed
in place of all the rest; to have admitted the possibility of
several roads to heaven, when zealots of all creeds would
shut up all pathways but their own ; if such sentiments
and purposes were sins, they would have been ill-exchanged
for the best virtues of the age. Yet, no doubt, this was
his crying offence in the opinion of many contemporaries.
He was now becoming apostate from the ancient Church,
but he had long thought that Emperors, Kings, and Popes
had taken altogether too much care of men's souls in times
past, and had sent too many of them prematurely to their
206 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1666
great account. He was equally indisposed to grant full
powers for the same purpose to Calvinists, Lutherans, or
Anabaptists.
The articles of agreement at Antwerp thus promulgated
assigned three churches to the different sects of Reformers,
stipulated that no attempt should be made by Catholics or
Protestants to disturb the religious worship of each other,
and provided that neither by mutual taunts in their ser-
mons, nor by singing street ballads, together with improp-
er allusions and overt acts of hostility, should the good-
fellowship which ought to reign between brethren and
fellow-citizens, even although entertaining different opin-
ions as to religious rites and doctrines, be for the future
interrupted.
This was the basis upon which the very brief religious
peace, broken almost as soon as established, was concluded
by William of Orange, not only at Antwerp, but at Utrecht,
Amsterdam, and other principal cities within his govern-
ment.
While Egmont had been busy in Flanders, and Orange at
Antwerp, Count Horn had been doing his best at Tournai,
or Doornik in Hainault. The Admiral was not especial-
ly gifted with intellect, nor with the power of managing
men, but he went there with an honest purpose of seeing
the Accord executed, intending, if it should prove practi-
cable, rather to favor the government than the Reformers.
At the same time, for the purpose of giving satisfaction to
the members of " the religion," and of manifesting his sin-
cere desire for a pacification, he accepted lodgings which
had been prepared for him at the house of a Calvinist mer-
chant in the city, rather than take up his quarters with
fierce old Governor Moulbais in the citadel. This gave
much offence to the Catholics, and inspired the Reformers
with the hope of having their preaching inside the town.
To this privilege they were entitled, for the practice had
already been established there previously to the 23d of
August. Nevertheless, at first he was disposed to limit
them, in accordance with the wishes of the Duchess, to
extra-mural exercises.
At a great banquet held on the following Sunday, and,
HOKN
1866] HORN AT TOURNAI 207
strangely enough, in the hall of the "gehenna " or torture-
room, there was an ominous interruption, ending in a
quarrel. Popular tradition and .monkish legend having
declared that a vast treasure was hidden under the vaults
of the cathedral, Count Horn had, as soon as he arrived,
placed a strong guard and ordered extensive excavations.
This caused great offence and finally a quarrel between the
canons and the money-diggers. When the incensed com-
mander of the guards and an angry local official came to-
gether to the banquet to have their dispute settled, the
Count rebuked and threatened the unpopular municipal
officer in a way that delighted the merchants present. Af-
ter long excavation, nothing of importance was found ;
the Admiral, despite good intentions, gaining only local
hatred from the Catholics and misrepresentation to Philip
from Margaret.
Horn had taken his apartments in the city in order to
be at hand to suppress any tumults and to inspire confi-
dence in the people. He had come to a city where five-
sixths of the inhabitants were of the Reformed religion, and
he did not, therefore, think it judicious to attempt vio-
lently the suppression of their worship. Upon his arrival
he had issued a proclamation, ordering that all property
which might have been pillaged from the religious houses
should be instantly restored to the magistracy under pen-
alty that all who disobeyed the command should " be
forthwith strangled at the gibbet." Nothing was brought
back, however, for the simple reason that nothing had
been stolen. There was, therefore, no one to be strangled.
The next step was to publish the Accord of the 23d of
August, and to signify the intention of the Admiral to en-
force its observance. The preachings were as enthusias-
tically attended as ever, while the storm which had been
raging among the images had in the mean time been entire-
ly allayed. Congregations of fifteen thousand were still
going to hear Ambrose Wille in the suburbs, but they were
very tranquil in their demeanor. It was arranged between
the Admiral and the leaders of the Reformed consistories,
that three places, to be selected by Horn, should be as-
signed for their places of worship. At these spots, which
208 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
were outside the walls, permission was given the Reform-
ers to build meeting - houses. To this arrangement the
Duchess formally gave her consent.
Nicholas Taffin, councillor, in the name of the Reform-
ers, made "a brave and elegant harangue" before the
magistrates, representing that as on the most moderate
computation three-quarters of the population were Dissen-
ters, as the Regent had ordered the construction of the
new temples, and as the Catholics retained possession of
all the churches in the city, it was no more than fair that
the community should bear the expense of the new build-
ings. It was indignantly replied, however, that Catholics
could not be expected to pay for the maintenance of her-
esy, particularly when they had just been so much exas-
perated by the image-breaking. Councillor Taffin took
nothing, therefore, by his " brave and elegant harangue/'
saving a small vote of forty livres.
The building was, however, immediately commenced.
Vast heaps of broken images and other ornaments of the
desecrated churches were most unwisely used for this pur-
pose, and the Catholics were exceedingly enraged at be-
holding those male and female saints who had for centu-
ries been placed in such " reverend and elevated positions,"
fallen so low as to be the foundation-stones of temples
whose builders denounced all those holy things as idols.
As the autumn began to wane, the people were clamor-
ous for permission to have their preaching inside the city,
but the Duchess was furious at the proposition, and the
Admiral was thus placed in a most intolerable position.
An honest, commonplace, sullen kind of man, he had
come to a city full of heretics, to enforce concessions just
made by the government to heresy. He soon found him-
self watched, paltered with, suspected by the administra-
tion at Brussels. Governor Moulbais, in the citadel, who
was nominally under his authority, refused obedience to
his orders, was evidently receiving secret instructions from
the Regent, and was determined to cannonade the city
into submission at a very early day. Horn required him
to pledge himself that no fresh troops should enter the
castle. Moulbais swore he would make no such promise
1566] THE ADMIRAL RECALLED 209
to a living soul. Small reinforcements were daily arriv-
ing at the castle ; the soldiers of the garrison had been
heard to boast " that they would soon carve and eat the
townsmen's flesh on their dressers/' and all the good ef-
fect from the Admiral's proclamation on arriving had
completely vanished.
Horn complained bitterly of the situation in which he
was placed, but his remonstrances were of no avail.
In the middle of October he was recalled by the Duch-
ess, whose letters had been uniformly so ambiguous that
he confessed he was quite unable to divine their meaning.
Before he left the city he committed his most unpardon-
able crime. Urged by the leaders of the Reformed con-
gregations to permit their exercises in the Clothiers' Hall
until their temples should be finished, the Count accorded
his consent provisionally, and subject to revocation by the
Eegent, to whom the arrangement was immediately to be
communicated.
Horn departed, and the Reformers took instant posses-
sion of the hall. It was found in a very dirty and disor-
derly condition, encumbered with benches, scaffoldings,
stakes, gibbets, and all the machinery used for public
executions upon the market-place. A vast body of men
went lo work with a will, scrubbing, cleaning, white-
washing, and removing all the foul lumber of the hall,
singing in chorus, as they did so, the hymns of Clement
Marot. By dinner-time the place was ready. The pulpit
and benches for the congregation had taken the place of
the gibbet timber. It is difficult to comprehend that such
work as this was a deadly crime. Nevertheless, Horn,
who was himself a sincere Catholic, had committed the
most mortal of all his offences against Philip and against
God by having countenanced so flagitious a transaction.
The Admiral went to Brussels. Secretary de la Torre,
a very second-rate personage, was despatched to Tournai
to convey the orders of the Regent. Governor Moulbais,
now in charge of affairs both civil and military, was to
prepare all things for the garrison, which was soon to be
despatched under Noircarmes. The Duchess had now
arms in her hands, and her language was bold. La Torre
14
210 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
advised the Reformers to be wise "while the rod was yet
green and growing, lest it should be gathered for their
backs ; for it was unbecoming in subjects to make bar-
gains with their King."
At the close of the year the city of Tournai was com-
pletely subjugated and the Reformed religion suppressed.
Upon the 2d day of January, 1567, the Seigneur de Noir-
carmes arrived before the gates at the head of eleven com-
panies, with orders from Duchess Margaret to strengthen
the garrison and disarm the citizens. He gave the mag-
istrates exactly one hour and a half to decide whether
they would submit without a murmur. He expressed an
intention of maintaining the Accord of the 23d of Au-
gust ; a ridiculous affectation, under the circumstances, as
the event proved. The notables were summoned, sub-
mission agreed upon, and within the prescribed time the
magistrates came before Noircarmes with an uncondi-
tional acceptance of his terms. That truculent person-
age told them in reply that they had done wisely, for if
they had delayed receiving the garrison a minute longer
he would have instantly burned the city to ashes and put
every one of the inhabitants to tlie sword. He had been
fully authorized to do so, and subsequent events were to
show, upon more than one dreadful occasion, how capa-
ble Noircarmes would have been of fulfilling this menace.
The soldiers, who had made a forced march all night,
and who had been firmly persuaded that the city would
refuse the terms demanded, were excessively disappointed
at being obliged to forego the sack and pillage upon which
they had reckoned. Eight or nine hundred rascally peas-
ants, too, who had followed in the skirts of the regiments,
each provided with a great empty bag, which they expected
to fill with booty that they might purchase of the soldiers,
or steal in the midst of the expected carnage and rapine,
shared the discontent of the soldiery, by whom they were
now driven ignominiously out of the town. The citizens
were immediately disarmed. All the fine weapons which
they had been obliged to purchase at their own expense,
when they had been arranged by the magistrates under
eight banners for defence of the city against tumult and
1566] CALUMNIATION 211
invasion, were taken from them ; the most beautiful cut-
lasses, carbines, poniards, and pistols, being divided by
Noircarmes among his officers. Thus Tournai was tran-
quillized.
During the whole of these proceedings in Flanders,
and at Antwerp, Tournai, and Mechlin, the conduct of
the Duchess had been marked with more than her usual
treachery.
When Orange complained that she had been censuring
his proceedings at Antwerp, and holding language un-
favorable to his character, she protested that she thor-
oughly approved his arrangements — excepting only the
two points of the intramural preachings and the permis-
sion to heretics of other exercises than sermons — and that
if she were displeased with him he might be sure that
she would rather tell him so than speak ill of him behind
his back. She also sent Councillor d'Assonleville on a
special mission to the Prince, instructing that smooth
personage to inform her said cousin of Orange that he
was, and always had been, "loved and cherished by his
Majesty, and that for herself she had ever loved him like
a brother or a child."
She wrote to Horn, approving of his conduct in the
main, although in obscure terms, and expressing great
confidence in his zeal, loyalty, and good intentions. She
accorded the same praise to Hoogstraaten, while as to
Egmont she was perpetually reproaching him for the sus-
picions which he seemed obstinately to entertain as to her
disposition and that of Philip in regard to his conduct
and character.
Margaret's pictures were painted in daily darkening col-
ors. She informed the King that the scheme for dividing
the country was already arranged : that Augustus of Sax-
ony was to have Friesland and Overyssel ; Count Brede-
rode, Holland ; the Dukes of Cleves and Lorraine, Guel-
dres ; the King of France, Flanders, Artois, and Hainault,
of which territories Egmont was to be perpetual stad-
holder ; the Prince of Orange, Brabant ; and so on indef-
initely. A general massacre of all the Catholics had been
arranged by Orange, Horn, and Egmont, to commence
£12 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
as soon as the King should put his foot on shipboard to
come to the country. This last remarkable fact Margaret
reported to Philip upon the respectable authority of Noir-
carmes.
The Duchess gave, moreover, repeated warnings to her
brother that the nobles were in the habit of obtaining
possession of all the correspondence between Madrid and
Brussels, and that they spent a vast deal of money in
order to read her own and Philip's most private letters.
She warned him, therefore, to be upon his guard, for she
believed that almost all their despatches were read. Such
being the case, and the tenor of those documents being
what we have seen it to be, her complaints as to the in-
credulity of those seigniors to her affectionate protesta-
tions seem quite wonderful.
CHAPTER IX
ORAKGE, BREDERODE, HORN, AND EGMONT
TOWARDS the end of the year 1566 it was necessary
that the Prince of Orange should make a personal visit
to his government of Holland, where disorders similar to
those in Antwerp had been prevailing, and where men of
all ranks and parties were clamoring for their stadholder.
Notwithstanding all his exertions, however, he was thor-
oughly aware of the position in which he stood towards
the government. The sugared phrases of Margaret, the
deliberate commendation of the "benign and debonair"
Philip, produced no effect upon this statesman, who was
accustomed to look through and through men's actions
to the core of their hearts. In the hearts of Philip and
Margaret he already saw treachery and revenge indelibly
imprinted. He had been especially indignant at the in-
sult which the Duchess Regent had put upon him, by
sending Duke Eric of Brunswick with an armed force
into Holland in order to protect Gouda, Woerden, and
other places within the Prince's own government. He
was thoroughly conversant with the general tone in which
the other seigniors and himself were described to their
sovereign. He was already convinced that the country
was to be conquered by foreign mercenaries, and that his
own life, with those of many other nobles, was to be sac-
rificed. The moment had arrived in which he was justi-
fied in looking about him for means of defence both for
himself and his country, if the King should be so insane
as to carry out the purposes which the Prince suspected.
The time was fast approaching in which a statesman
placed upon such an elevation before the world as that
214 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
which he occupied would be obliged to choose his part
for life. To be the unscrupulous tool of tyranny, a rebel,
or an exile, was his necessary fate. To a man so prone
to read the future the moment for his choice seemed
already arrived. Moreover, he thought it doubtful, and
events were most signally to justify his doubts, whether
he could be accepted as the instrument of despotism, even
were he inclined to prostitute himself to such service.
At this point, therefore, undoubtedly began the treason-
able thoughts of William the Silent, if it be treason to
attempt the protection of ancient and chartered liberties
against a foreign oppressor.
Nothing came of a secret embassy which the Prince
despatched to Egmont, to warn him of impending dan-
gers and to propose resistance to them, for Egmont's
heart and fate were already fixed. Before Orange de-
parted, however, for the north, where his presence in the
Dutch provinces was now imperatively required, a mem-
orable interview took place at Dendermonde between
Orange, Horn, Egmont, Hoogstraaten, and Count Louis.
It was not a long consultation. The gentlemen met at
eleven o'clock, and conversed until dinner was ready,
which was between twelve and one in the afternoon.
They discussed the contents of a letter recently received
by Horn from his brother Montigny at Segovia, giving a
lively picture of Philip's fury at the recent events in the
Netherlands, and expressing the Baron's own astonish-
ment and indignation that it had been impossible for the
seigniors to prevent such outrages as the public preach-
ing, the image-breaking, and the Accord. They had also
some conversation concerning the dissatisfaction mani-
fested by the Duchess at the proceedings of Count Horn
at Tournai.
There was doubtless some talk at Dendermonde as to
the propriety or possibility of forcible resistance to a Span-
ish army, with which it seemed probable that Philip was
about to invade the provinces and take the lives of the
leading nobles. Count Louis was in favor of making pro-
vision in Germany for the accomplishment of this pur-
pose. It is also highly probable that the Prince may have
1566] POSITION OF THE LEADERS 215
encouraged the proposition. In the sense of his former
communication to Egmont, he may have reasoned on the
necessity of making levies to sustain the decisions of the
states-general against violence. There is, however, no
proof of any such fact. Egmont, at any rate, opposed
the scheme, on the ground that "it was wrong to enter-
tain any such ill opinion of so good a king as Philip, that
he had never done anything unjust towards his subjects,
and that if any one was in fear, he had better leave the
country." Egmont, moreover, doubted the authenticity
of the letters from Alva, the Spanish envoy at Paris, in
which the deep and long -settled hostility of Philip to
Orange, Horn, and Egmont was alluded to as a fact well
known to the writer, which had been discussed at the
dinner. Egmont agreed to carry them to Brussels and
to lay them before the Eegent. That lady, when she saw
them, warmly assured the Count that they were inven-
tions.
The conference broke up after it had lasted an hour
and a half. The nobles then went to dinner, at which
other persons appear to have been present, and the cele-
brated Dendermonde meeting was brought to a close.
After the repast was finished, each of the five nobles
mounted his horse and departed on his separate way.
From this time forth the position of these leading
seigniors became more sharply defined. Orange was left
in almost complete isolation. Without the assistance of
Egmont, any effective resistance to the impending inva-
sion from Spain seemed out of the question. The Count,
however, had taken his irrevocable and fatal resolution.
He was sanguine by nature, a Catholic in religion, a roy-
alist from habit and conviction. Henceforth he was de-
termined that his services to the crown should more than
counterbalance any idle speeches or insolent demonstra-
tions of which he might have been previously guilty.
Horn pursued a different course, but one which sepa-
rated him also from the Prince, while it led to the same
fate which Egmont was blindly pursuing. The Admiral
had committed no act of treason. On the contrary, he
had been doing his best, under most difficult circum-
216 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
stances, to avert rebellion and save the interests of a most
ungrateful sovereign. He had served Philip long and
faithfully, but he had never received a stiver of salary
or "merced," notwithstanding all his work as state coun-
cillor, as admiral, as superintendent in Spain, while his
younger brother had long been in receipt of nine or ten
thousand florins yearly. He had spent four hundred
thousand florins in the King's service ; his estates were
mortgaged to their full value ; he had been obliged to sell
his family plate. He had done his best in Tournai to
serve the Duchess, and he had averted a repetition of the
Sicilian Vespers, which had been imminent at his arrival.
He had saved the Catholics from a general massacre, yet
he heard nevertheless from Montigny that all his actions
were distorted in Spain and his motives blackened.
Smarting under a sense of gross injustice, the Admiral
expressed himself in terms which Philip was not likely to
forgive. He had undertaken the pacification of Tournai
because it was Montigny's government, and he had promised
his services whenever they should be requisite. Not an
entirely disinterested man, perhaps, but an honest one, as
the world went, mediocre in mind, but brave, generous,
and direct of purpose, goaded by the shafts of calumny,
hunted down by the whole pack which fawned upon power
as it grew more powerful, he now retreated to his " des-
ert," as he called his ruined home at Weert, where he
stood at bay, growling defiance at the Regent, at Philip,
at all the world.
Thus were the two prominent personages upon whose
co-operation Orange had hitherto endeavored to rely en-
tirely separated from him. The confederacy of nobles,
too, was dissolved, having accomplished little, notwith-
standing all its noisy demonstrations, and having lost all
credit with the people by the formal cassation of the Com-
promise in consequence of the Accord of August.
No doubt there were many individuals in the confed-
eracy for whom it was reserved to render honorable service
in the national cause. The names of Louis of Nassau,
Marnix of Sainte-Aldegonde, Bernard de Merode, were to
be written in golden letters in their country's rolls ; but at
J566] THE WATCHMAN 217
this moment they were impatient, inconsiderate, out of
the control of Orange. Louis was anxious for the King
to come from Spain with his army, and for " the bear
dance to begin/' Brederode, noisy, brawling, and absurd
as ever, was bringing ridicule upon the national cause by
his buffoonery, and endangering the whole people by his
inadequate yet rebellious exertions.
What course was the Prince of Orange to adopt ? He
could find no one to comprehend his views. His first
principle was that Christians of all denominations should
abstain from mutual insults. He mistrusted the King.
He trusted the people. He felt certain at the close of
the year that the purpose of the government was fixed.
He made no secret of his determination never to lend
himself as an instrument for the contemplated subjuga-
tion of the people. He had repeatedly resigned all his
offices. He was now determined that the resignation once
for all should be accepted. If he used dissimulation, it
was because Philip's deception permitted no man to be
frank. If the sovereign constantly disavowed all hostile
purposes against his people, and manifested extreme affec-
tion for the men whom he had already doomed to the
scaffold, how could the Prince openly denounce him ? It
was his duty to save his country and his friends from im-
pending ruin. He preserved, therefore, an attitude of
watchfulness.
Philip, in the depth of his cabinet, was under a con-
stant inspection by the sleepless Prince. The sovereign
assured his sister that her apprehensions about their cor-
respondence were groundless. He always locked up his
papers, and took the key with him. Nevertheless, the
key was taken out of his pocket and the papers read.
Orange was accustomed to observe that men of leisure
might occupy themselves with philosophical pursuits and
with the secrets of nature, but that it was his business to
study the hearts of kings. He knew the man and the
woman with whom he had to deal. We have seen enough
' of the policy secretly pursued by Philip and Margaret to
appreciate the accuracy with which the Prince, groping
as it were in the dark, had judged the whole situation.
218 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
Had his friends taken his warnings, they might have lived
to render services against tyranny. Had he imitated their
example of false loyalty, there would have been one addi-
tional victim more illustrious than all the rest, and a
whole country hopelessly enslaved.
It is by keeping these considerations in view that we
can explain his connection with such a man as Brederode.
The enterprises of that noble of Tholouse, and others,
and the resistance of Valenciennes, could hardly have
been prevented even by the opposition of the Prince.
But why should he take the field against men who, how-
ever rashly or ineffectually, were endeavoring to oppose
tyranny, when he knew himself already proscribed and
doomed by the tyrant ? Such loyalty he left to Egmont.
Till late in the autumn he had still believed in the pos-
sibility of convoking the states-general, and of making
preparations in Germany to enforce their decrees.
The confederates and sectaries had boasted that they
could easily raise an army of sixty thousand men within
the provinces, that twelve hundred thousand florins month-
ly would be furnished by the rich merchants of Antwerp,
and that it was ridiculous to suppose that the German
mercenaries enrolled by the Duchess in Saxony, Hesse,
and other Protestant countries, would ever render serious
assistance against the adherents of the Reformed religion.
Without placing much confidence in such exaggerated
statements, the Prince might well be justified in believ-
ing himself strong enough, if backed by the confederacy,
by Egrnont, and by his own boundless influence, both at
Antwerp and in his own government, to sustain the con-
stituted authorities of the nation even against a Spanish
army, and to interpose with legitimate and irresistible
strength between the insane tyrant and the country which
he was preparing to crush. It was the opinion of the
best informed Catholics that, if Egmont should declare
for the confederacy, he could take the field with sixty
thousand men, and make himself master of the whole
country at a blow. In conjunction with Orange, the
moral and physical force would have been invincible.
It was therefore not Orange alone, but the Catholics
1566] VALENCIENNES 219
and Protestants alike, the whole population of the coun-
try, and the Duchess Regent herself, who desired the con-
vocation of the estates. As the Duchess grew stronger,
however, and as the people, aghast at the fate of Tournai
and Valenciennes, began to lose courage, she saw less reason
for assembling the estates. Orange, on the other hand,
completely deserted by Egmont and Horn, and having
little confidence in the characters of the ex-confederates,
remained comparatively quiescent but watchful. At the
close of the year an important pamphlet from his hand
was circulated, in which his views as to the necessity of
allowing some degree of religious freedom were urged
upon the royal government with his usual sagacity of
thought, moderation of language, and modesty in tone.
The eventful year 1566 was the last year of peace which
the men then living, or their children, were to know.
The government, weak at the commencement, was strong
at the close. The confederacy was broken and scattered.
The Request, the " beggar" banquets, the public preach-
ing, the image-breaking, the Accord of August, had been
followed by reaction. Tournai had accepted its garrison.
Egmont, completely obedient to the crown, was compel-
ling all the cities of Flanders and Artois to receive soldiers
sufficient to maintain implicit obedience, and to extin-
guish all heretical demonstrations, so that the Regent was
at comparative leisure to effect the reduction of Valen-
ciennes.
This ancient city, in the province of Hainault, arid on
the frontier of France, had been founded by the Emperor
Valentinian I., from whom it had derived its name. Origi-
nally established by him as a city of refuge, it had re-
ceived the privilege of affording an asylum to debtors, to
outlaws, and even to murderers. This ancient right had
been continued, under certain modifications, even till the
period with which we are now occupied. Never, however,
according to the government, had the right of asylum,
even in the wildest times, been so abused by the city be-
fore. What were debtors, robbers, murderers, compared
to heretics ? yet these worst enemies of their race swarmed
in the rebellious city, practising even now the foulest rites
220 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1566
of Calvin, and obeying those most pestilential of all preach-
ers, Guido de Bray,* and Peregrine de la Grange. The
place was the hot-bed of heresy and sedition, and it seemed
to be agreed, as by common accord, that the last struggle
for what was called the new religion should take place
beneath its walls.
It was soon very obvious that no arrangement could be
made in Valenciennes. The magistrates could exert no
authority, the preachers were all-powerful, and the citi-
* Guido de Bres (as his name is usually written) is the author of the Bel-
gic Confession, one of the noblest literary monuments of the Reformation.
Its thoughts, phraseology, and form notably influenced the other Reformed
confessions. Of its thirty-seven articles the first is as follows : " We all
believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, that there is one only
simple and spiritual Being, which we call God ; and that he is eternal, in-
comprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just,
good, and the overflowing fountain of all good."
Guido de Bres, born in Mons in 1540, arrived at the knowledge of Gos-
pel truth by his study of the vernacular Scriptures, with which, above all
countries of Europe in the sixteenth century, the Netherlands were flooded.
Driven by persecution to London, he returned to the Walloon provinces as
evangelist and travelling preacher. In Geneva, under Calvin, he became
one of the most determined of realists in religion. He reorganized the Re-
formed churches in Lille, Tournai, and Valenciennes, and made the whole
Walloon region his field of ceaseless labors. In 1561, when but twenty-
one years old, he prepared, with the assistance and revision of others, the
Confession of Faith, basing its propositions upon the Holy Scriptures, with-
out the traditions of the fathers, or of the great ecclesiastical corporation
having its head in Rome. Printed and translated into Dutch, German, and
Latin, it was widely read and adopted by local or national synods of the Re-
formed churches at Antwerp, Wesel, Embden, Dort, Middelburg, and finally,
by the oecumenical Protestant Council which assembled at Dordrecht
April 29, 1619. It has continued to be one of the standards of doctrine
in the Dutch Reformed churches in the Fatherland, South Africa, the East
and West Indies, and the United States. Probably to Guido de Bres, more
than to any other one man, the Dutch Reformed church owed the beginning
of its own sturdy life, and that it did not become a mere limb of either the
French Calvinistic, or the German Reformed body, but grew as a " shield
and blessing to both " with a distinct and rooted life of its own. He met
his death as one going joyfully to the sacrament, believing that his blood
would water richly tiie seed of faith in God which he had planted. The
life of Guido de Bres — a name still fresh and honored in all the Dutch
churches — explains much of the heroic constancy of his fellow-martyrs,
and their tenacity in holding to their convictions.
1567] THE CITY INVESTED 221
zens, said a Catholic inhabitant, " allowed themselves to
be led by their ministers like oxen." Upon the 17th of
December, 1566, a proclamation was accordingly issued
by the Duchess Eegent declaring the city in a state of
siege and all its inhabitants rebels.
The city was now invested by Noircarmes with all the
troops which could be spared. The confederates gave
promises of assistance to the beleaguered citizens ; Orange
privately encouraged them to hold out in their legitimate
refusal ; Brederode and others busied themselves with
hostile demonstrations which were destined to remain
barren ; but in the mean time the inhabitants had nothing
to rely upon save their own stout hearts and arms.
At first the siege was sustained with a light heart.
Frequent sallies were made, smart skirmishes were vent-
ured, in which the Huguenots, on the testimony of a
most bitter Catholic contemporary, conducted themselves
with the bravery of veteran troops, and as if they had
done nothing all their lives but fight ; forays were made
upon the monasteries of the neighborhood for the purpose
of procuring supplies, and the broken statues of the dis-
mantled churches were used to build a bridge across an
arm of the river, which was called in derision the Bridge
of Idols. It was hoped that an imposing array of allies
would soon be assembled, and that the two bands at Lan-
noy and Watrelots making a junction, would then march
to the relief of Valenciennes. It was boasted that in a
very short time thirty thousand men would be in the
field. There was even a fear of some such results felt by
the Catholics.
It was then that the " seven sleepers/' as Noircarmes
and his six officers had been called, showed that they were
awake. Early in January, 1567, that fierce soldier, among
whose vices slothfulness was certainly never reckoned be-
fore or afterwards, fell upon the locksmith's army at Lan-
noy, while the Seigneur de Rassinghem attacked the force
at Watrelots on the same day. Noircarmes destroyed half
his enemies at the very first charge. The ill-assorted rab-
ble fell asunder at once. The preacher fought well, but
his undisciplined force fled at the first sight of the enemy.
222 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
Those who carried arquebuses threw them down without
a single discharge, that they might run the faster. At
least a thousand were soon stretched dead upon the field ;
others were hunted into the river. Twenty-six hundred,
according to the Catholic accounts, were exterminated in
an hour.
Rassinghem, on his part, with five or six hundred regu-
lars, attacked Teriel's force, numbering at least twice as
many. Half of these were soon cut to pieces and put to
flight. Six hundred, however, who had seen some service,
took refuge in the cemetery of Watrelots. Here, from
behind the stone wall of the enclosure, they sustained the
attack of the Catholics with some spirit. The repose of
the dead in the quiet country church-yard was disturbed
by the uproar of a most sanguinary conflict. The tem-
porary fort was soon carried, and the Huguenots retreat-
ed into the church. A rattling arquebusade was poured
in upon them as they struggled in the narrow doorway.
At least four hundred corpses were soon strewn among
the ancient graves. The rest were hunted into the church,
and from the church into the belfry. A fire was then
made in the steeple, and kept up till all were roasted or
suffocated. Not a man escaped.
The siege of Valenciennes was pressed more closely.
Noircarmes took up a commanding position at Saint-Ar-
mand, by which he was enabled to cut off all communi-
cation between the city and the surrounding country.
All the villages in the neighborhood were pillaged ; all
the fields laid waste. All the infamies which an insolent
soldiery can inflict upon helpless peasantry were daily
enacted. At the same time, to the honor of Valenciennes
it must be stated, upon the same incontestable authority,
that not a Catholic in the city was injured or insulted.
The priests who had remained there were not allowed to
say mass, but they never met with an opprobrious word
or look from the people.
The inhabitants of the city called upon the confederates
for assistance. They also issued an address to the Knights
of the Fleece, a paper which narrated the story of their
wrongs in pathetic and startling language, but these stir-
1567] THE CITY'S APPEAL— ORANGE IN HOLLAND 223
ring appeals to an order of which Philip was chief, Viglius
chancellor, Egmont, Mansfeld, Aerschot, Berlaymont,
and others, chevaliers, were not likely to produce much
effect. The city could rely upon no assistance in those
high quarters.
Early in January, Brederode had stationed himself in
his city of Vianen. There, in virtue of his seigniorial rights,
he had removed all statues and other popish emblems from
the churches, performing the operation, however, with
much quietness and decorum. He had also collected
many disorderly men at arms in this city, and had strength-
ened its fortifications, to resist, as he said, the threatened
attacks of Duke Eric of Brunswick and his German mer-
cenaries. A printing-press was established in the place,
whence satirical pamphlets, hymn-books, and other pes-
tiferous productions were constantly issuing to the annoy-
ance of government. Many lawless and uproarious indi-
viduals enjoyed the Count's hospitality. All the dregs
and filth of the provinces, according to Doctor Viglius,
were accumulated at Vianen as in a cesspool. Along the
placid banks of the Lek, on which river the city stands,
the "hydra of rebellion" lay ever coiled and threatening.
Brederode was supposed to be revolving vast schemes,
both political and military, and Margaret of Parma was
kept in continual apprehension by the bravado of this very
noisy conspirator. She called upon William of Orange,
as usual, for assistance. The Prince, however, was very
ill-disposed to come to her relief. An extreme disgust
for the policy of the government already began to char-
acterize his public language. He had hastened to tran-
quillize the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht.
He had made arrangements in the principal cities there
upon the same basis which he had adopted in Antwerp,
and to which Margaret had consented in August. It was
quite out of the question to establish order without per-
mitting the Reformers, who constituted much the larger
portion of the population, to have liberty of religious ex-
ercises at some places, not consecrated, within the cities.
At Amsterdam, for instance, as he informed the Duch-
ess, there were swarms of unlearned, barbarous people,
224 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
mariners and the like, who could by no means perceive the
propriety of doing their preaching in the open country,
seeing that the open country, at that season, was quite
under water. Margaret's gracious suggestion that, per-
haps, something might be done with boats, was also con-
sidered inadmissible. "I know not," said Orange, "who
could have advised your Highness to make such a propo-
sition/' He informed her, likewise, that the barbarous
mariners had a clear right to their preaching, for the
custom had already been established previously to the
August treaty, at a place called the " Lastaadje," among
the wharves. "'In the name of God, then," wrote Mar-
garet, "'let them continue to preach in the Lastaadje."
This being all the barbarians wanted, an Accord, with
the full consent of the Regent, was drawn up at Amster-
dam and the other northern cities. The Catholics kept
churches and cathedrals, but in the winter season the
greater part of the population obtained permission to wor-
ship God upon dry land, in warehouses and dock-yards.
Within a very few weeks, however, the whole arrange-
ment was coolly cancelled by the Duchess, her permission
revoked, and peremptory prohibition of all preaching
within or without the walls proclaimed. The govern-
ment was growing stronger. Had not Noircarmes and
Rassinghem cut to pieces three or four thousand of these
sectaries marching to battle under parsons, locksmiths, and
similar chieftains ? Were not all lovers of good govern-
ment " erecting their heads like dromedaries " ?
A new and important step on the part of the govern-
ment had now placed the Prince in an attitude of almost
avowed rebellion. All functionaries, from governors of
provinces down to subalterns in the army, were required
to take a new oath of allegiance, and solemnly to pledge
himself to obey the orders of government, everywhere,
and against every person, without limitation or restriction.
Count Mansfeld, now "factotum at Brussels," had taken
the oath with great fervor. So had Aerschot, Berlaymont,
Meghem, and, after a little wavering, Egmont. Orange
spurned the proposition. The alternative presented he
willingly embraced. He renounced all his offices, and
1567] A NEW OATH 225
desired no longer to serve a government whose policy he
did not approve, a King by whom he was suspected.
His resignation was not accepted by the Duchess, who
still made efforts to retain the services of a man who was
necessary to her administration. She begged him, not-
withstanding the purely defensive and watchful attitude
which he had now assumed, to take measures that Brede-
rode should abandon his mischievous courses. She also re-
proached the Prince with having furnished that personage
with artillery for his fortifications. Orange answered,
somewhat contemptuously, that he was not Brederode's
keeper, and had no occasion to meddle with his affairs.
He had given him three small field-pieces, promised long
ago; not that he mentioned that circumstance as an
excuse for the donation. " Thank God," said he, ' ' we
have always had the liberty in this country of making to
friends or relatives what presents we liked, and methinks
that things have come to a pretty pass when such trifles
are scrutinized.'7 Certainly, as Suzerain of Vianen, and
threatened with invasion in his seigniorial rights, the
Count might think himself justified in strengthening the
bulwarks of his little stronghold, and the Prince could
hardly be deemed very seriously to endanger the safety of
the crown by the insignificant present which had annoyed
the Kegent.
It is not so agreeable to contemplate the apparent inti-
macy which the Prince accorded to so disreputable a char-
acter ; but Orange was now in hostility to the government,
was convinced by evidence, whose accuracy time was most
signally to establish, that his own head, as well as many
others, were already doomed to the block, while the whole
country was devoted to abject servitude, and he was,
therefore, disposed to look with more indulgence upon
the follies of those who were endeavoring, however weakly
and insanely, to avert the horrors which he foresaw.
The time for reasoning had passed. All that true wisdom
and practical statesmanship could suggest, he had already
placed at the disposal of a woman who stabbed him in
the back even while she leaned upon his arm — of a King
who had already drawn his death-Avarrant, while reproach-
15
£26 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
ing his "cousin of Orange" for want of confidence in
the royal friendship.
Early in February, Brederode, Hoogstraaten, Horn, and
some other gentlemen visited the Prince at Breda. Here
it is supposed the advice of Orange was asked concerning
the new movement contemplated by Brederode. He was
bent upon presenting a new petition to the Duchess with
great solemnity. There is no evidence to show that the
Prince approved the step, which must have seemed to him
superfluous, if not puerile.
By this new Eequest the exercise of the Reformed relig-
ion was claimed as a right, while the Duchess was sum-
moned to disband the forces which she had been collect-
ing, and to maintain in good faith the "August" treaty.
Brederode came to Antwerp and forwarded the document
to Brussels in a letter. His haughty tone was at once
taken down by Margaret of Parma.
"As for you and your accomplices," she wrote to the
Count, "you will do well to go to your homes at once
without meddling with public affairs, for, in case of dis-
obedience, I shall deal with you as I shall deem expedient."
Brederode, not easily abashed, disregarded the advice,
and continued in Antwerp. Here, accepting the answer
of the Regent as a formal declaration of hostilities, he
busied himself in levying troops in and about the city.
Orange had returned to Antwerp early in February.
During his absence, Hoogstraaten had acted as governor
at the instance of the Prince and of the Regent. During
the winter that nobleman, who was very young and very
fiery, had carried matters with a high hand, whenever
there had been the least attempt at sedition. Liberal in
principles, and the devoted friend of Orange, he was dis-
posed, however, to prove that the champions of religious
liberty were not the patrons of sedition. A riot occurring
in the cathedral, where a violent mob were engaged in de-
facing whatever was left to deface in that church, and in
heaping insults on the papists at their worship, the little
Count, who, says a Catholic contemporary, "had the cour-
age of a lion," dashed in among them, sword in hand,
killed three upon the spot, and, aided by his followers,
1567] THE PRINCE IN ANTWERP 227
succeeded in slaying, wounding, or capturing all the rest.
He had also tracked the ringleader of the tumult to his
lodging, where he had caused him to be arrested at mid-
night, and hanged at once in his shirt without any form
of trial. Such rapid proceedings little resembled the
calm and judicious moderation of Orange upon all occa-
sions, but they certainly might have sufficed to convince
Philip that all antagonists of the inquisition were not
heretics and outlaws. Upon the arrival of the Prince in
Antwerp, it was considered advisable that Hoogstraaten
should remain associated with him in the temporary gov-
ernment of the city.
During February there had been much alarm in Brussels,
for Brederode had been enrolling troops in Antwerp, and
several boat-loads of these rebels, after having been refused
landing in Walcheren, had sailed up the Scheldt and land-
ed at the village of Austruweel,* only a mile from Ant-
werp.
The commander of the expedition was Marnix of Tho-
louse, brother to Marnix of Sainte-Aldegonde. This young
nobleman, who had left college to fight for the cause of
religions liberty, was possessed of fine talents and accom-
plishments. Like his illustrious brother, he was already
a sincere convert to the doctrines of the Reformed Church.
He had nothing, however, but courage to recommend him
as a leader in a military expedition. He was a mere boy,
utterly without experience in the field. His troops were
raw levies, vagabonds, and outlaws.
Such as it was, however, his army was soon posted at
Austruweel, in a convenient position and with considerable
judgment. He had the Scheldt and its dikes in his rear,
on his right and left the dikes and the village. In front
he threw up a breastwork and sunk a trench. Here, then,
was set up the standard of rebellion, and hither flocked
daily many malcontents from the country round. Within
a few days three thousand men were in his camp. On the
* Now the site of the great Fort Austruweel. Near this spot, in 1881,
Lieutenant Van Speyk blew up his (Dutch) gun-boat rather than surrender
to the Belgians.
228 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
other hand, Brederode was busy in Holland, and boasted
of taking the field ere long with six thousand soldiers at
the very least. Together they would march to the relief
of Valenciennes and dictate peace in Brussels.
It was obvious that this matter could not be allowed to
go on. The Duchess, with some trepidation, accepted the
offer made by Philip de Lannoy, Seigneur de Beauvoir,
commander of her body-guard in Brussels, to destroy this
nest of rebels without delay. Half the whole number of
these soldiers was placed at his disposition, and Egmont
supplied De Beauvoir with four hundred of his veteran
Walloons.
With a force numbering only eight hundred, but all
picked men, the intrepid officer undertook his enterprise
with great despatch and secrecy. Before daybreak of
March 13th De Beauvoir met his soldiers at the abbey of
Saint Bernard, within a league of Antwerp.
The "young scholar," as De Beauvoir had designated
him, was not only taken by surprise, but had no power to
infuse his own spirit into his rabble rout of followers.
They were already panic -struck by the unexpected ap-
pearance of the enemy. The Catholics came on with the
coolness of veterans, taking as deliberate aim as if it had
been they, not their enemies, who were behind breast-
works. The troops of Tholouse fired wildly, precipi-
tately, quite over the heads of the assailants. Many of
the defenders were slain as fast as they showed themselves
above their bulwarks. The ditch was crossed, the breast-
works carried at a single determined charge. The rebels
made little resistance, but fled as soon as the enemy entered
their fort. It was a hunt, not a battle. Hundreds were
stretched dead in the camp ; hundreds were driven into
the Scheldt ; six or eight hundred took refuge in a farm-
house ; but De Beauvoir's men set fire to the building,
and every rebel who had entered it was burned alive or
shot. No quarter was given. Hardly a man of the three
thousand who had held the fort escaped. The body of
Tholouse was cut into a hundred pieces. The Seigneur
de Beauvoir had reason, in the brief letter which gave an
account of this exploit, to assure her Highness that there
1567] THE ANTWERP TUMULT 229
were " some very valiant fellows in his little troop." Cer-
tainly they had accomplished the enterprise intrusted to
them with promptness, neatness, and entire success. Of
the great rebellious gathering, which every day had seemed
to grow more formidable, not a vestige was left.
This bloody drama had been enacted in full sight of
Antwerp. The fight had lasted from daybreak till ten
o'clock in the forenoon, during the whole of which period
the city ramparts looking towards Austruweel, the roofs
of houses, and the towers of churches had been swarming
with eager spectators. The sound of drum and trumpet,
the rattle of musketry, the shouts of victory, the despair-
ing cries of the vanquished, were heard by thousands who
deeply sympathized with the rebels thus enduring so san-
guinary a chastisement. In Antwerp there were forty
thousand people opposed to the Church of Rome. Of
this number the greater proportion were Calvinists, and
of these Calvinists there were thousands looking down
from the battlements upon the disastrous fight.
The excitement soon became uncontrollable. Before ten
o'clock vast numbers of sectaries came pouring towards
the Eed Gate, which afforded the readiest egress to the
scene of action, the drawbridge of the Austruweel Gate
having been destroyed the night before by command of
Orange. They came from every street and alley of the
city. Some were armed with lance, pike, or arquebus ;
some bore sledge - hammers ; others had the partisans,
battle-axes, and huge two-handed swords of the previous
century. All were determined upon issuing forth to the
rescue of their friends in the fields outside the town. The
wife of Tholouse, not yet aware of her husband's death,
although his defeat was obvious, flew from street to street,
calling upon the Calvinists to save or to avenge their per-
ishing brethren.
A terrible tumult prevailed. Ten thousand men were
already up and in arms. It was then that the Prince of
Orange, who was sometimes described by his enemies as
timid and pusillanimous by nature, showed the mettle he
was made of. His sense of duty no longer bade him de-
fend the crown of Philip — which thenceforth was to be
230 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1667
intrusted to the hirelings of the inquisition — but the vast
population of Antwerp, the women, the children, and the
enormous wealth of the richest city in the world, had
been confided to his care, and he had accepted the respon-
sibility. Mounting his horse, he made his appearance
instantly at the Red Gate before as formidable a mob as
man has ever faced. He came there almost alone, without
guards. Hoogstraaten arrived soon afterwards with the
same intention. The Prince was received with howls of
execration. A thousand hoarse voices called him the
Pope's servant, minister of Antichrist, and lavished upon
him many more epithets of the same nature. His life
was in imminent danger. A furious clothier levelled an
arquebus full at his breast. "Die, treacherous villain!"
he cried ; " thou who art the cause that our brethren have
perished thus miserably in yonder field \" The loaded
weapon was struck away by another hand in the crowd,
while the Prince, neither daunted by the ferocious demon-
strations against his life nor enraged by the virulent abuse
to which he was subjected, continued tranquilly, ear-
nestly, imperatively, to address the crowd. William of
Orange had that in his face and tongue "which men
willingly call master — authority." Many were persuaded
to abandon the design. Five hundred of the most violent,
however, insisted upon leaving the gates, and the govern-
ors, distinctly warning these zealots that their blood must
be upon their own heads, reluctantly permitted that num-
ber to issue from the city. The rest of the mob, not ap-
peased, but uncertain, and disposed to take vengeance
upon the Catholics within the walls for the disaster which
had been occurring without, thronged tumultuously to
the long, wide street, called the Mere, situate in the very
heart of the city.
Meantime the ardor of those who had sallied from the
gate grew sensibly cooler when they found themselves in
the open fields. De Beauvoir, whose men, after the vic-
tory, had scattered in pursuit of the fugitives, now heard
the tumult in the city. Suspecting an attack, be rallied
his compact little army again for a fresh encounter. The
last of the vanquished Tholousians who had been capt-
1567] A RASH SORTIE 231
ured, more fortunate than their predecessors, had been
spared for ransom. There were three hundred of them —
rather a dangerous number of prisoners for a force of eight
hundred, who were just going into another battle. De
Beauvoir commanded his soldiers, therefore, to shoot them
all. This order having been accomplished, the Catholics
marched towards Antwerp, drums beating, colors flying.
The five hundred Calvinists, not liking their appearance,
and being in reality outnumbered, retreated within the
gates as hastily as they had just issued from them. De
Beauvoir advanced close to the city moat, on the margin
of which he planted the banners of the unfortunate Tho-
louse, and sounded a trumpet of defiance. Finding that
the citizens had apparently no • stomach for the fight, he
removed his trophies and took his departure.
On the other hand, the tumult within the walls had
again increased. The Calvinists had been collecting in
great numbers upon the Mere. This was a large and
splendid thoroughfare, rather an oblong market-place
than a street, filled with stately buildings, and commu-
nicating by various cross streets with the Exchange and
with many other public edifices. By an early hour in the
afternoon twelve or fifteen thousand Calvinists, all armed
and fighting men, had assembled upon the place. They
had barricaded the whole precinct with pavements and
upturned wagons. They had already broken into the
arsenal and obtained many field-pieces, which were planted
at the entrance of every street and by-way. They had
stormed the city jail and liberated the prisoners, all of
whom, grateful and ferocious, came to swell the numbers
who defended the stronghold on the Mere. A tremendous
mischief was afoot. Threats of pillaging the churches
and the houses of the Catholics, of sacking the whole
opulent city, were distinctly heard among this powerful
mob, excited by religious enthusiasm, but containing
within one great heterogeneous mass the elements of
every crime which humanity can commit. The alarm
throughout the city was indescribable. The cries of
women and children, as they remained in trembling ex-
pectation of what the next hour might bring forth, were,
232 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
said one who heard them, " enough to soften the hardest
hearts/'
Nevertheless the diligence and courage of the Prince
kept pace with the insurrection. He had caused the
eight companies of guards enrolled in September to be
mustered upon the square in front of the city-hall for the
protection of that building and of the magistracy. He
had summoned the senate of the city, the board of an-
cients, the deans of guilds, the ward - masters, to consult
with him at the council-room. At the peril of his life
he had again gone before the angry mob in the Mere, ad-
vancing against their cannon and their outcries, and com-
pelling them to appoint eight deputies to treat with him
and the magistrates at the town-hall. This done, quickly
but deliberately he had drawn up six articles, to which
those deputies gave their assent, and in which the city
government cordially united. These articles provided
that the keys of the city should remain in the possession
of the Prince and of Hoogstraaten, that the watch should
be held by burghers and soldiers together, that the magis-
trates should permit the entrance of no garrison, and that
the citizens should be entrusted with the care of the
charters, especially with that of the "joyful entry."
These arrangements, when laid before the assembly at
the Mere by their deputies, were not received with favor.
The Calvinists demanded the keys of the city. They did
not choose to be locked up at the mercy of any man.
They had already threatened to blow the city-hall into the
air if the keys were not delivered to them. They claimed
that burghers, without distinction of religion, instead of
mercenary troops, should be allowed to guard the market-
place in front of the town-hall.
It was now nightfall, and no definite arrangement had
been concluded. Nevertheless, a temporary truce was
made, by means of a concession as to the guard. It was
agreed that the burghers, Calvinists and Lutherans as
well as Catholics, should be employed to protect the city.
By subtlety, however, the Calvinists detailed for that
service were posted not in the town-house square, but on
the ramparts and at the gates.
1567] A NEW TREATY OF PEACE 233
A night of dreadful expectation was passed. The army
of fifteen thousand mutineers remained encamped and
barricaded on the Mere, with guns loaded and artillery
pointed. Fierce cries of "Long live the beggars !" "Down
with the papists !" and other significant watchwords, were
heard all night long, but no more serious outbreak oc-
curred.
During the whole of the following day the Calvinists
remained in their encampment, the Catholics and the city
guardsmen at their posts near the city-hall. The Prince
was occupied in the council -chamber from morning till
night with the municipal authorities, the deputies of "the
religion," and the guild officers, in framing a new treaty
of peace. Towards evening fifteen articles were agreed
upon, which were to be proposed forthwith to the insur-
gents, and, in case of non-acceptance, to be enforced. The
arrangement provided that there should be no garrison ;
that the September contracts permitting the Eeformed
worship at certain places within the city should be main-
tained ; that men of different parties should refrain from
mutual insults ; that the two governors, the Prince, and
Hoogstraaten, should keep the keys ; that the city should
be guarded by both soldiers and citizens, without dis-
tinction of religious creed ; that a band of four hundred
cavalry and a small flotilla of vessels of war should be
maintained for the defence of the place, and that the
expenses to be incurred should be levied upon all classes,
clerical and lay, Catholic and Reformed, without any ex-
ception.
It had been intended that the governors, accompanied
by the magistrates, should forthwith proceed to the Mere
for the purpose of laying these terms before the insurgents.
Night had, however, already arrived, and it was understood
that the ill-temper of the Calvinists had rather increased
than diminished, so that it was doubtful whether the ar-
rangement would be accepted. It was, therefore, neces-
sary to await the issue of another day, rather than to
provoke a night battle in the streets.
During the night the Prince labored incessantly to pro-
vide against the dangers of the morrow. The Calvinists
234 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
had fiercely expressed their disinclination to any reasona-
ble arrangement. They had threatened, without further
pause, to plunder the religious houses and the mansions
of all the wealthy Catholics, and to drive every papist out
of town. They had summoned the Lutherans to join
with them in their revolt, and menaced them, in case of
refusal, with the same fate which awaited the Catholics.
The Prince, Avho was himself a Lutheran, not entirely free
from the universal prejudice against the Calvinists, whose
sect he afterwards embraced, was fully aware of the de-
plorable fact that the enmity at that day between Cal-
vinists and Lutherans was as fierce as that between
Reformers and Catholics. He now made use of this feel-
ing, and of his influence with those of the Augsburg Con-
fession, to save the city. During the night he had
interviews with the ministers and notable members of the
Lutheran churches, and induced them to form an alliance
upon this occasion with the Catholics, and with all friends
of order, against an army of outlaws who were threaten-
ing to burn and sack the city. The Lutherans, in the
silence of night, took arms and encamped, to the number
of three or four thousand, upon the river -side, in the
neighborhood of St. Michael's cloister. The Prince also
sent for the deans of all the foreign mercantile associa-
tions— Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Hanseatic —
engaged their assistance also for the protection of the city,
and commanded them to remain in their armor at their
respective factories, ready to act at a moment's warning.
It was agreed that they should be informed at frequent
intervals as to the progress of events.
On the morning of the 15th, the city of Antwerp pre-
sented a fearful sight. Three distinct armies were arrayed
at different points within its walls. The Calvinists, fifteen
thousand strong, lay in their encampment on the Mere ;
the Lutherans, armed, and eager for action, were at St.
Michael's ; the Catholics and the regulars of the city guard
were posted on the square. Between thirty-five and forty
thousand men were up, according to the most moderate
computation. All parties were excited and eager for the
fray. The fires of religious hatred burned fiercely in
1567] THE CRISIS 235
every breast. Many malefactors and outlaws, who had
found refuge in the course of recent events at Antwerp,
were in the ranks of the Calvinists, profaning a sacred
cause, and inspiring a fanatical party with bloody reso-
lutions. Papists, once and forever, were to be hunted
down, even as they had been for years pursuing Re-
formers. Let the men who had fed fat on the spoils of
plundered Christians be dealt with in like fashion. Let
their homes be sacked, their bodies given to the dogs —
such were the cries uttered by thousands of armed men.
On the other hand, the Lutherans, as angry and as rich
as the Catholics, saw in every Calvinist a murderer and
a robber. They thirsted after their blood ; for the spirit
of religious frenzy, the characteristic of the century, can
with difficulty be comprehended in our colder and more
sceptical age. There was every probability that a bloody
battle was to be fought that day in the streets of Antwerp
— a general engagement, in the course of which, whoever
might be the victors, the city was sure to be delivered
over to fire, sack, and outrage. Such would have been
the result, according to the concurrent testimony of eye-
witnesses, and contemporary historians of every country
and creed, but for the courage and wisdom of one man.
William of Orange knew what would be the consequence
of a battle, pent up within the walls of Antwerp. He
foresaw the horrible havoc which was to be expected, the
desolation which would be brought to every hearth in the
city. "Never were men so desperate and so willing to
fight," said Sir Thomas G-resham, who had been expecting
every hour his summons to share in the conflict. If the
Prince were unable that morning to avert the impending
calamity, no other power, under heaven, could save Ant-
werp from destruction.
The articles prepared on the 14th had been already ap-
proved by those who represented the Catholic and Lu-
theran interests. They were read early in the morning to
the troops assembled on the square and at St. Michael's,
and received with hearty cheers. It was now necessary
that the Calvinists should accept them, or that the
quarrel should be fought out at once. At ten o'clock,
236 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
William of Orange, attended by his colleague, Hoog-
straaten, together with a committee of the municipal
authorities, and followed by a hundred troopers, rode to
the Mere. They wore red scarfs over their armor, as sym-
bols by which all those who had united to put down the
insurrection were distinguished. The fifteen thousand
Calvinists, fierce and disorderly as ever, maintained a
threatening aspect. Nevertheless, the Prince was allowed
to ride into the inidst of the square. The articles were
then read aloud by his command, after which, with great
composure, he made a few observations. He pointed out
that the arrangement offered them was founded upon the
September concessions, that the right of worship was con-
ceded, that the foreign garrison was forbidden, and that
nothing further could be justly demanded or honorably
admitted. He told them that a struggle upon their part
would be hopeless, for the Catholics and Lutherans, who
were all agreed as to the justice of the treaty, outnum-
bered them by nearly two to one. He, therefore, most
earnestly and affectionately adjured them to testify their
acceptance to the peace offered by repeating the words
with which he should conclude. Then, with a firm voice,
the Prince exclaimed " God save the King I" It was the
last time that those words were ever heard from the lips
of the man already proscribed by Philip. The crowd of
Calvinists hesitated an instant, and then, unable to resist
the tranquil influence, convinced by his reasonable lan-
guage, they raised one tremendous shout of " Vive le Roi !"
The deed was done, the peace accepted, the dreadful
battle averted, Antwerp saved. The deputies of the Cal-
vinists now formally accepted and signed the articles.
Kind words were exchanged among the various classes of
fellow-citizens who but an hour before had been thirsting
for each other's blood, the artillery and other weapons of
war were restored to the arsenals, Calvinists, Lutherans,
and Catholics, all laid down their arms, and the city, by
three o'clock, was entirely quiet. Fifty thousand armed
men had been up, according to some estimates, yet, after
three days of dreadful expectation, not a single person
had been injured, and the tumult was now appeased.
1567J MARGARET DISSATISFIED 23?
The Prince had, in truth, used the mutual animosity of
Protestant sects to a good purpose ; averting bloodshed
by the very weapons with which the battle was to have
been waged.
As a matter of course, Margaret of Parma denounced
the terms by which Antwerp had been saved as a "novel
and exorbitant capitulation," and had no intention of sig-
nifying her approbation either to Prince or magistrate.
CHAPTER X
VALENCIENNES FALLS — THE GREAT EXODUS
VALENCIENNES, whose fate depended so closely upon
the issue of these various events, was now trembling to
her fall. Noircarmes had" been drawing the lines more
and more closely about the city, and by a refinement of
cruelty had compelled many Calvinists from Tournai to
act as pioneers in the trenches against their own brethren
in Valenciennes. After the defeat of Tholouse, and the
consequent frustration of all Brederode's arrangements to
relieve the siege, the Duchess had sent a fresh summons
to Valenciennes, together with letters acquainting the
citizens with the results of the Austruweel battle. The
intelligence was not believed. Egmont and Aerschot,
however, to whom Margaret had entrusted this last mis-
sion to the beleaguered town, roundly rebuked the dep-
uties who came to treat with them for their insolence
in daring to doubt the word of the Regent. The two
seigniors had established themselves in the Chateau of
Beusnage, at a league's distance from Valenciennes. Here
they received commissioners from the city, half of whom
were Catholics appointed by the magistrates, half Cal-
vinists deputed by the consistories. These envoys were
informed that the Duchess would pardon the city for
Us past offences, provided the gates should now be open-
ed, the garrison received, and a complete suppression of
all religion except that of Some acquiesced in without
a murmur. As nearly the whole population was of the
Calvinist faith, these terms could hardly be thought fa-
vorable. It was, however, added that fourteen days
should be allowed to the Reformers for the purpose
1567] SIEGE OF VALENCIENNES 239
of converting their property and retiring from the coun-
try.
The deputies, after conferring with their constituents
in the city, returned on the following day with counter-
propositions, which were not more likely to find favor with
the government. They offered to accept the garrison,
provided the soldiers should live at their own expense,
without any tax to the citizens for their board, lodging,
or pay. They claimed that all property which had been
seized should be restored, all persons accused of treason
liberated. They demanded the unconditional revocation
of the edict by which the city had been declared rebel-
lious, together with a guarantee from the Knights of the
Fleece and the state council that the terms of the pro-
posed treaty should be strictly observed.
These items, at which the Duke of Aerschot laughed
immoderately for their presumption, while Egmont was
furious and threatening, were peremptorily rejected and
three days given for the acceptance of the government's
proposal. These being in turn rejected, instant measures
were taken to cannonade the city. Egmont, at the hazard
of his life, descended into the fosse to reconnoitre the
works, and to form an opinion as to the most eligible
quarter at which to direct the batteries. Having com-
municated the result of his investigations to Noircarmes,
he returned to report all these proceedings to the Regent
at Brussels. Certainly the Count had now separated him-
self far enough from William of Orange, and was mani-
festing an energy in the cause of tyranny which was suf-
ficiently unscrupulous. Many people who had been de-
ceived by his more generous demonstrations in former
times, tried to persuade themselves that he was acting a
part. Noircarmes, however — and no man was more com-
petent to decide the question — distinctly expressed his
entire confidence in Egmont's loyalty.
Noircarmes, meanwhile, on Palm Sunday, 23d of March,
had unmasked his batteries, and opened his fire exactly
according to Egmont's suggestions.
On the next day the city sent to Noircarmes, offering
an almost unconditional surrender. The only stipulation
240 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
agreed to by Noircarmes was that the city should not
be sacked, and that the lives of the inhabitants should
be spared.
This pledge was, however, only made to be broken.
Noircarmes entered the city and closed the gates. All
the richest citizens, who of course were deemed the most
criminal, were instantly arrested. The soldiers, although
not permitted formally to sack the city, were quartered
upon the inhabitants, whom they robbed and murdered,
according to the testimony of a Catholic citizen, almost
at their pleasure.
Michael Berlin, a very wealthy and distinguished burgh-
er, was arrested upon the first day. The two ministers,
Guido de Bres and Peregrine de la Grange, together with
the son of Herlin, effected their escape by the water-gate,
but were all arrested at Saint Armand, and sent to Noir-
carmes. The two Herlins, father and son, were imme-
diately beheaded. Guido de Bres and Peregrine de la
Grange were loaded with chains and thrown into a filthy
dungeon previously to their being hanged. Here they
were visited by the Countess de Roeulx, who was curious
to see how the Calvinists sustained themselves in their
martyrdom. She asked them how they could sleep, eat,
or drink when covered with such heavy fetters. " The
cause, and my good conscience,'' answered De Bres,
"make me eat, drink, and sleep better than those who
are doing me wrong. These shackles are more honorable
to me than golden rings and chains. They are more use-
ful to me, and as I hear their clank, methinks I hear the
music of sweet voices and the tinkling of lutes."
This exaltation never deserted these courageous enthu-
siasts. They received their condemnation to death "as
if it had been an invitation to a marriage feast." They
encouraged the friends who crowded their path to the
scaffold with exhortations to remain true in the Reformed
faith. La Grange, standing upon the ladder, proclaimed
with a loud voice, that he was slain for having preached
the pure word of God to a Christian people in a Christian
land. De Bres, under the same gibbet, testified stoutly
that he, too, had committed that offence alone. He
1567] CHASTISEMENT
warned his friends to obey the magistrates, and all others
in authority, except in matters of conscience ; to abstain
from sedition, but to obey the will of God. The execu-
tioner threw him from the ladder while he was yet speak-
ing. So ended the lives of two eloquent, learned, and
highly gifted divines.
Many hundreds of victims were sacrificed in the unfort-
unate city. Many Calvinists were burned, others were
hanged. " For two whole years," says another Catholic,
who was a citizen of Valenciennes at the time, " there
was scarcely a week in which several citizens were not exe-
cuted, and often a great number were dispatched at a time.
All this gave so much alarm to the good and innocent
that many quitted the city as fast as they could. If the
good and innocent happened to be rich, they might be
sure that Noircarmes would deem that a crime for which
no goodness and innocence could atone.
Upon the fate of Valenciennes had depended, as if by
common agreement, the whole destiny of the anti-Catho-
lic party. No opposition was offered anywhere. Tour-
nai had been crushed ; Valenciennes, Bois-le-Duc, and all
other important places accepted their garrisons without
a murmur. Even Antwerp had made its last struggle,
and as soon as the back of Orange was turned, knelt down
in the dust to receive its bridle. The Prince had been
able, by his courage and wisdom, to avert a sanguinary
conflict within its walls, but his personal presence alone
could guarantee anything like religious liberty for the
inhabitants, now that the rest of the country was subdued.
On the 26th of April sixteen companies of infantry, under
Count Mansfeld, entered the gates. On the 28th the
Duchess made a visit to the city, where she was received
with respect, but where her eyes were shocked by that
which she termed the "abominable, sad, and hideous
spectacle of the desolated churches."
To the eyes of all who loved their fatherland and their
race, the sight of a desolate country, with its ancient
charters superseded by brute force, its industrious popu-
lation swarming from the land in droves, as if the pesti-
lence were raging, with gibbets and scaffolds erected in
16
242 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
every village, and with a sickening and universal appre-
hension of still darker disasters to follow, was a spectacle
still more sad, hideous, and abominable.
For it was now decided that the Duke of Alva, at the
head of a Spanish army, should forthwith take his depart-
ure for the Netherlands. A land already subjugated was
to be crushed, and every vestige of its ancient liberties
destroyed. The conquered provinces, once the abode of
municipal liberty, of science, art, and literature, and
blessed with an unexampled mercantile and manufactur-
ing prosperity, were to be placed in absolute subjection
to the cabinet council at Madrid. A dull and malignant
bigot, assisted by a few Spanish grandees, and residing at
the other extremity of Europe, was thenceforth to exer-
cise despotic authority over countries which for centuries
had enjoyed a local administration and a system nearly
approaching to complete self-government. Such was the
policy devised by Granvelle and Spinosa, which the Duke
of Alva, upon the 15th of April, had left Madrid to enforce.
Though Margaret of Parma was indignant at being thus
superseded, she gained nothing by her letters and her en-
voy to Madrid except a sound rebuke from Philip. His
purpose was fixed. Absolute submission was now to be
rendered by all, though the affectation of clement inten-
tions was still maintained, together with the empty pre-
tence of a royal visit.
On the other hand, the work of Orange for the time
was finished. He had saved Antwerp, he had done his
best to maintain the liberties of the country, the rights of
conscience, and the royal authority, so far as they were
compatible with one another. The alternative had now
been distinctly forced upon every man either to promise
blind obedience or to accept the position of a rebel. Will-
iam of Orange had thus become a rebel, but he knew his
duty better than the Duchess could understand. He an-
swered a fresh summons by reminding her that he had
uniformly refused the new and extraordinary pledge re-
quired of him. He had been true to his old oaths, and
therefore no fresh pledge was necessary. Moreover, a
pledge without limitation he would never take. The case
1567] THE WILLEBROEK INTERVIEW 243
might happen, he said, that he should be ordered to do
things contrary to his conscience, prejudicial to his Maj-
esty's service, and in violation of his oaths to maintain
the laws of the country. He therefore once more resigned
all his offices, and signified his intention of leaving the
provinces.
Margaret now determined, by the advice of the state
council, to send Secretary Berty, provided with an ample
letter of instructions, upon a special mission to the Prince
at Antwerp. That respectable functionary performed his
task with credit, but the slender stock of platitudes with
which he had come provided was soon exhausted. His
arguments shrivelled at once in the scorn with which the
Prince received them.
Poor Berty, having conjugated his paradigm conscien-
tiously through all its moods and tenses, returned to his
green board in the council-room with his proces-verbal of
the conference. Before he took his leave, however, he
prevailed upon Orange to hold an interview with the Duke
of Aerschot, Count Mansfeld, and Count Egmont.
This memorable meeting took place at Willebroek, a
village midway between Antwerp and Brussels, in the
first week of April. The Duke of Aerschot was prevented
from attending, but Mansfeld and Egmont — accompanied
by the faithful Berty, to make another proces - verbal —
duly made their appearance. The Prince had never felt
much sympathy with Mansfeld, but a tender and honest
friendship had always existed between himself and Eg-
mont, notwithstanding the difference of their characters,
the incessant artifices employed by the Spanish court to
separate them, and the impassable chasm which now ex-
isted between their respective positions towards the gov-
ernment.
The same commonplaces of argument and rhetoric were
now discussed between Orange and the other three per-
sonages, the Prince distinctly stating, in conclusion, that
he considered himself as discharged from all his offices,
and that he was about to leave the Netherlands for Ger-
many. The interview, had it been confined to such formal
conversation, would have but little historic interest. Eg-
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
mont's choice had been made. Nevertheless, the Prince
thought it still possible to withdraw his friend from the
precipice upon which he stood, and to save him from his
impending fate. His love for Egmont had, in his own
noble and pathetic language, " struck its roots too deeply
into his heart" to permit him, in this their parting inter-
view, to neglect a last effort, even if this solemn warning
were destined to be disregarded.
By any reasonable construction of history, Philip was
an unscrupulous usurper, who was attempting to convert
himself from a Duke of Brabant and a Count of Holland
into an absolute king. It was William who was maintain-
ing, Philip who was destroying ; and the monarch who
was thus blasting the happiness of the provinces, and
about to decimate their population, was by the same proc-
ess to undermine his own power forever, and to divest
himself of his richest inheritance. The man on whom
he might have leaned for support, had he been capable
of comprehending his character and of understanding the
age in which he had himself been called upon to reign,
was, through Philip's own insanity, converted into the
instrument by which his most valuable provinces were to
be taken from him, and eventually reorganized into an
independent commonwealth. The Prince of Orange knew
himself already proscribed, and he knew that the secret
condemnation had extended to Egmont also. He was
anxious that his friend should prefer the privations of
exile, with the chance of becoming the champion of a
struggling country, to the wretched fate towards which
his blind confidence was leading him. Even then it
seemed possible that the brave soldier who had been re-
cently defiling his sword in the cause of tyranny might
become mindful of his brighter and earlier fame. Had
Egmont been as true to his native land as, until " the
long divorce of steel fell on him," he was faithful to
Philip, he might yet have earned brighter laurels than
those gained at Saint-Quentin and Grravelines. Was he
doomed to fall, he might find a glorious death upon free-
dom's battle-field, in place of that darker departure then
so near him, which the prophetic language of Orange de-
1567] THE FAREWELL 245
picted but which he was too sanguine to fear. He spoke
with confidence of the royal clemency. "Alas, Egmont,"
answered the Prince, " the King's clemency, of which you
boast, will destroy you. Would that I might be deceived,
but I foresee too clearly that you are to be the bridge
which the Spaniards will destroy so soon as they have
passed over it to invade our country." With these last
solemn words he concluded his appeal to awaken the Count
from his fatal security. Then, as if persuaded that he
was looking upon his friend for the last time, William of
Orange threw his arms around Egmont, and held him for
a moment in a close embrace. Tears fell from the eyes
of both at this parting moment — and then the brief scene
of simple and lofty pathos terminated — Egmont and
Orange separated from each other, never to meet again
on earth.
A few days afterwards Orange addressed a letter to
Philip, once more resigning all his offices, and announc-
ing his intention of departing from the Netherlands for
Germany. Before he departed he took a final leave of
Horn and Egmont, by letters, which, as if aware of the
monumental character they were to assume for poster-
ity, he drew up in Latin. He desired, now that he was
turning his back upon the country, that those two nobles,
who had refused to imitate and had advised against his
course, should remember that he was acting deliberate-
ly, conscientiously, and in pursuance of a long -settled
plan.
The Prince had left Antwerp upon the llth of April,
and had written these letters from Breda upon the 13th
of the same month. Upon the 22d, he took his departure
for Dillenburg, the ancestral seat of his family in Ger-
many, by the way of Grave and Cleves.
He did not move too soon. Not long after his arrival
in Germany, Vandenesse, the King's private secretary,
but Orange's secret agent, wrote him word that he had
read letters from the King to Alva, in which the Duke
was instructed to " arrest the Prince as soon as he could
lay hands upon him, and not to let Ms trial last more than
twenty-four hours."
246 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
Brederode had remained at Vianen,* and afterwards at
Amsterdam, since the ill-starred expedition of Tholouse,
which he had organized, but at which he had not assisted.
The Regent, determined to dislodge him, had sent Sec-
retary La Torre to him in March, with instructions that
if Brederode refused to leave Amsterdam, the magistracy
were to call for assistance upon Count Meghem, who had
a regiment at Utrecht. The Count insulted and impris-
oned the old secretary for a day or two, but this was the
last exploit of Brederode.
He remained at Amsterdam some weeks longer, but the
events which succeeded changed the Hector into a faith-
ful vassal. Before the 12th of April, he wrote to Egmont,
begging his intercession with Margaret of Parma, and of-
fering "carte blanche" as to terms, if he might only be
allowed to make his peace with the government. It was,
however, somewhat late in the day for the "great beggar"
to make his submission. No terms were accorded him, but
he was allowed by the Duchess to enjoy his revenues pro-
visionally, subject to the King's pleasure. Upon the
25th of April, he entertained a select circle of friends at
his hotel in Amsterdam, and then embarked at midnight
for Embden. A numerous procession of his adherents
escorted him to the ship, bearing lighted torches and
singing bacchanalian songs. He died within a year after-
wards, of disappointment and hard drinking, at Castle
Hardenberg, in Germany, after all his fretting and fury,
and notwithstanding his vehement protestations to die a
poor soldier at the feet of Louis of Nassau.
That "good chevalier and good Christian," as his broth-
er affectionately called him, was in Germany, girding him-
self for the manly work which Providence had destined
* Vianen, on the Rhine, in Gelderland, is believed to be the old Forum
Dianae of Ptolemy. The town is now one of the quietest in the Dutch
kingdom, having about five thousand inhabitants. By a bridge of boats
it is connected with Vreeswijk, where is the terminal of the new canal to
Amsterdam. The fine ruins of one of the family castles are to be seen
near Haarlem, but scarcely a trace is left of that at Vianen. The line of
the Brederodes (Brede, broad; rode, rood, or rod) came to an end with the
death of A. K. B. Brederode, September 3, 1832.
1567] THE GREAT BEGGAR'S EXIT 247
him to perform. The life of Brederode, who had engaged
in the early struggle, perhaps from the frivolous expec-
tation of hearing himself called Count of Holland, as his
ancestors had been, had contributed nothing to the cause
of freedom, nor did his death occasion regret. His disorder-
ly band of followers dispersed in every direction upon the
departure of their chief. A vessel in which Batenburg,
Galaina, and other nobles, with their men-at-arms, were
escaping towards a German port, was carried into Harlin-
gen, while those gentlemen, overpowered by sleep and
wassail, were unaware of their danger, and delivered over
to Count Meghem by the treachery of their pilot. The
soldiers were immediately hanged. The noblemen were
reserved to grace the first great scaffold which Alva was to
erect upon the horse-market in Brussels.
The confederacy was entirely broken to pieces. Of the
chieftains to whom the people had been accustomed to
look for support and encouragement, some had rallied to
the government, some were in exile, some were in prison.
Montigny, closely watched in Spain, was virtually a cap-
tive, pining for the young bride to whom he had been
wedded amid such brilliant festivities but a few months
before his departure, and for the child which was never to
look upon its father's face. His colleague, Marquis Berg-
hen, more fortunate, was already dead.
With the departure of Orange, a total eclipse seemed to
come over the Netherlands. The country was absolutely
helpless, the popular heart cold with apprehension. All
persons at all implicated in the late troubles, or suspected
of heresy, fled from their homes. Fugitive soldiers were
hunted into rivers, cut to pieces in the fields, hanged,
burned, or drowned, like dogs, without quarter and with-
out remorse. The most industrious and valuable part of
the population left the land in droves. The tide swept out-
wards with such rapidity that the Netherlands seemed fast
becoming the desolate waste which they had been before
the Christian era. Throughout the country those Re-
formers who were unable to effect their escape betook
themselves to their old lurking-places. The new religion
was banished from all the cities, every conventicle was
248 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
broken up by armed men, the preachers and leading mem-
bers were hanged, their disciples beaten with rods, re-
duced to beggary, or imprisoned, even if they sometimes
escaped the scaffold. An incredible number, however,
were executed for religious causes. The country was as
completely " pacified," to use the conqueror's expression,
as Gaul had been by Cassar.
Upon the 24th of May, the Regent issued a fresh edict,
which, says a contemporary historian, increased the fear of
those professing the new religion to such an extent that
they left the country "in great heaps."* It became
necessary, therefore, to issue a subsequent proclamation,
forbidding all persons, whether foreigners or natives, to
leave the land or to send away their property, and pro-
hibiting all shipmasters, wagoners, and other agents of
travel from assisting in the flight of such fugitives, all
upon pain of death.
Yet will it be credited that this edict actually excited the
wrath of Philip on account of its clemency ? He therefore
commanded his sister instantly to revoke it. One might
almost imagine from reading the King's letter that Philip
was at last appalled at the horrors committed in his name.
Alas, he was only indignant that heretics had been suffered
to hang who ought to have been burned, and that a few
narrow and almost impossible loopholes had been left
through which those who had offended might effect their
escape.
And thus, while the country is paralyzed with present
and expected woe, the swiftly advancing trumpets of the
Spanish army resound from beyond the Alps. The cur-
tain is falling upon the prelude to the great tragedy whicl
the prophetic lips of Orange had foretold.
* Probably a million people left the southern Netherlands during " the
Troubles." Though some of these refugees took their course to Germany,
and a large number, perhaps a majority of the whole, went to Holland,
it is probable that at least one hundred thousand found a home in Great
Britain. Their exodus and the great and varied influence which they
exerted upon the development of England and on British history are set
forth in Campbell's The Puritan in Holland, England, and America^ New
York, 1892.
part 11H
ALVA
1567-1573
CHAPTER I
THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD
THE armed invasion of the Netherlands was the neces-
sary consequence of all which had gone before. That the
inevitable result had been so long deferred lay rather in
the incomprehensible tardiness of Philip's character than
in the circumstances of the case. Never did a monarch
hold so steadfastly to a deadly purpose, or proceed so
languidly and with so much circumvolution to his goal.
The mask of benignity, of possible clemency, was now
thrown off, but the delusion of his intended visit to the
provinces was still maintained. He assured the Eegent
that he should be governed by her advice, and as she had
made all needful preparations to receive him in Zeeland,
that it would be in Zeeland he should arrive.
It was determined at last that the Netherland heresy
should be conquered by force of arms. The invasion re-
sembled both a crusade against the infidel, and a treasure-
hunting foray into the auriferous Indies, achievements by
which Spanish chivalry had so often illustrated itself.
Who so fit to be the Tancred and the Pizarro of this bi-
colored expedition as the Duke of Alva, the man who had
been devoted from his earliest childhood, and from his
father's grave, to hostility against unbelievers, and who
had prophesied that treasure would flow in a stream a
yard deep from the Netherlands as soon as the heretics
began to meet with their deserts. An army of chosen
troops was forthwith collected by taking the four legions,
or terzios, of Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Lombardy, and
filling their places in Italy by fresh levies. About ten
thousand picked and veteran soldiers were thus obtained,
252 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
of which the Duke of Alva was appointed general-in-
chief.
Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Dnke of Alva, was now
in his sixtieth year. He was the most successful and ex-
perienced general of Spain, or 01 Europe. No man had
studied more deeply, or practised more constantly, the
military science. In the most important of all arts at
that epoch, he was the most consummate artist. In the
only honorable profession of the age, he was the most
thorough and the most pedantic professor. Conscious of
holding his armies in his hand, by the power of an un-
rivalled discipline, and the magic of a name illustrated
by a hundred triumphs, he could bear with patience and
benevolence the murmurs of his soldiers when their bat-
tles were denied them.
He was born in 1508, of a family which boasted im-
perial descent. A Palasologus, brother of a Byzantine
emperor, had conquered the city of Toledo, and trans-
mitted its appellation as a family name. The father of
Fernando, Don Garcia, had been slain on the isle of
G-erbes, in battle with the Moors, when his son was but
four years of age. The child was brought up by his
grandfather, Don Frederic, and trained from his tenderest
infancy to arms. Hatred to the infidel, and a determina-
tion to avenge his father's blood, crying to him from a
foreign grave, were the earliest of his instincts.
In 1530 he accompanied the Emperor in his campaign
against the Turk. Charles, instinctively recognizing the
merit of the youth who was destined to be the life-long
companion of his toils and glories, distinguished him with
his favor at the opening of his career. Young, brave,
and enthusiastic, Fernando de Toledo at this period was
as interesting a hero as ever illustrated the pages of
Castilian romance. His mad ride from Hungary to Spain
and back again, accomplished in seventeen days, for the
sake of a brief visit to his newly married wife, is not the
least attractive episode in the history of an existence
which was destined to be so dark and sanguinary. In
1535 he accompanied the Emperor on his memorable
expedition to Tunis. In 1546 and 1547 he was generalis-
DUKK OF ALVA
1567] CHARACTERISTICS OF ALVA 253
simo in the war against the Smalkaldic League. His most
brilliant feat of arms — perhaps the most brilliant exploit
of the Emperor's reign — was the passage of the Elbe and
the battle of Mtihlberg, accomplished in spite of Maximil-
ian's bitter and violent reproaches and the tremendous
possibilities of a defeat. That battle had finished the war.
Having accompanied Philip to England in 1554, on his
matrimonial expedition, he was destined in the following
years, as viceroy and generalissimo of Italy, to be placed
in a series of false positions. A great captain engaged in
a little war, the champion of the cross in arms against the
successor of St. Peter, he had extricated himself at last
with his usual adroitness but with very little glory. To
him had been allotted the mortification, to another the
triumph. While he had been paltering with a dotard,
whom he was forbidden to crush, Egmont had struck
down the chosen troops of France, and conquered her
most illustrious commanders. Here was the unpardona-
ble crime which could only be expiated by the blood of
the victor. Unfortunately for his rival, the time was now
approaching when the long -deferred revenge was to be
satisfied.
On the whole, the Duke of Alva was inferior to no
general of his age. As a disciplinarian he was foremost
in Spain, perhaps in Europe. As a statesman, he had
neither experience nor talent. As a man, his character
was simple. He did not combine a great variety of vices,
but those which he had were colossal, and he possessed no
virtues. He was neither lustful nor intemperate, but his
professed eulogists admitted his enormous avarice, while
the world has agreed that such an amount of stealth and
ferocity, of patient vindictiveness and universal blood-
thirstiness, was never found in a savage beast of the for-
est, and but rarely in a human bosom. Personally he was
stern and overbearing. As difficult of access as Philip
himself, he was even more haughty to those who were
admitted to his presence. He addressed every one with
the deprecating second person plural. Possessing the
right of being covered in the presence of the Spanish
monarch, he had been with difficulty brought to renounce
254 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
it before the German Emperor. He was of an illustrious
family, but his territorial possessions were not extensive.
His duchy was a small one, furnishing him with not more
than fourteen thousand crowns of annual income, and
with four hundred soldiers. He had, however, been a
thrifty financier all his life, never having been without
a handsome sum of ready money at interest. Ten years
before his arrival in the Netherlands he was supposed to
have already increased his income to forty thousand a
year by the proceeds of his investments at Antwerp.
In person the Duke of Alva was tall, thin, erect, with
a small head, a long visage, lean yellow cheeks, dark twink-
ling eyes, adust complexion, black bristling hair, and a
long sable-silvered beard, descending in two waving streams
upon his breast.
Such being the design, the machinery was well selected.
The best man in Europe to lead the invading force was
placed at the head of ten thousand picked veterans. The
privates in this exquisite little army, said the enthusiastic
connoisseur Brant6me, who travelled post into Lorraine
expressly to see them on their march, all wore engraved
or gilded armor, and were in every respect equipped like
captains. They were the first who carried muskets, a
weapon which very much astonished the Flemings when
it first rattled in their ears. The musketeers, he observed,
might have been mistaken for princes, with such agreeable
and graceful arrogance did they present themselves. Each
was attended by his servant or esquire, who carried his
piece for him, except in battle, and all were treated with
extreme deference by the rest of the army, as if they had
been officers. The four regiments of Lombardy, Sardinia,
Sicily, and Naples, composed a total of not quite nine
thousand of the best foot soldiers in Europe. They were
commanded respectively by Don Sancho de Lodrono, Don
Gonzalo de Bracamonte, Julien Eomero, and Alfonso de
Ulloa, all distinguished and experienced generals. The
cavalry, amounting to about twelve hundred, was under
the command of the natural son of the Duke, Don Fer-
nando de Toledo, Prior of the Knights of St. John.
Chiapin Vitelli, Marquis of Cetona, who had served the
1567] THE MARCH 255
King in many a campaign, was appointed marechal de
camp, and Gabriel Cerbelloni was placed in command of
the artillery. On the way the Duke received, as a pres-
ent from the Duke of Savoy, the services of the distin-
guished engineer, Pacheco, or Paciotti.
The Duke embarked upon his momentous enterprise,
on the 10th of May, at Carthagena. Thirty -seven gal-
leys, under command of Prince Andrea Doria, brought
the principal part of the force to Genoa. On the 2d of
June the army was mustered at Alexandria de Palla, and
ordered to rendezvous again at San Ambrosio at the foot
of the Alps. It was then directed to make its way over
Mount Cenis and through Savoy, Burgundy, and Lor-
raine, by a regularly arranged triple movement. The
second division was each night to encamp on the spot
which had been occupied upon the previous night by the
vanguard, and the rear was to place itself on the follow-
ing night in the camp of the corps de bataille.
Twelve days' march carried the army through Burgun-
dy, twelve more through Lorraine. During the whole of
the journey they were closely accompanied by a force of
cavalry and infantry, ordered upon this service by the
King of France, who, for fear of exciting a fresh Hu-
guenot demonstration, had refused the Spaniards a passage
through his dominions. This reconnoitring army kept
pace with them like their shadow, and watched all their
movements. A force of six thousand Swiss, equally
alarmed and uneasy at the progress of the troops, hov-
ered likewise about their flanks, without, however, offer-
ing any impediment to their advance. Before the middle
of August they had reached Thionville, on the Luxem-
burg frontier, having on the last day marched a dis-
tance of two leagues through a forest which seemed
expressly arranged to allow a small defensive force to
embarrass and destroy an invading army. No opposi-
j tion, however, was attempted, and the Spanish soldiers
, encamped at last within the territory of the Netherlands,
i having accomplished their adventurous journey in entire
safety, and under perfect discipline.
The Duchess had in her secret letters to Philip con-
956 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1661
tinned to express her disapprobation of the enterprise
thus committed to Alva. She also wrote personally to
the Duke, imploring, commanding, and threatening, but
with equally ill success. Alva knew too well who was
sovereign of the Netherlands now, his master's sister or
himself. As to the effects of his armed invasion upon
the temper of the provinces, he was supremely indifferent.
He came as a conqueror, not as a mediator. " I have
tamed people of iron in my day," said he, contemptuously;
" shall I not easily crush these men of butter ?"
At Thionville he was, however, officially waited upon
by Berlaymont and Noircarmes, on the part of the Re-
gent. He at this point, moreover, began to receive
deputations from various cities, bidding him a hollow and
trembling welcome, and deprecating his displeasure for
anything in the past which might seem offensive. At-
tended by Egmont, who had met him at Tirlemont on
the 22d of August, Alva rode through the Louvain gate
into Brussels, where they separated for a season. Lodg-
ings had been taken for the Duke at the house of a cer-
tain Madame de Jasse, in the neighborhood of Egmont's
palace. Leaving here the principal portion of his attend-
ants, the Captain - General, without alighting, forthwith
proceeded to the palace to pay his respects to the Duchess
of Parma.
Presenting himself at three o'clock in the afternoon in
the bed-chamber of the Duchess, where it was her habit
to grant confidential audiences, lie met, as might easily be
supposed, with a chilling reception. The Duchess, stand-
ing motionless in the centre of the apartment, attended by
Berlaymont, the Duke of Aerschot, and Count Egmont,
acknowledged his salutations with calm severity. Neither
she nor any one of her attendants advanced a step to meet
him. The Duke took off his hat, but she, calmly recog-
nizing his right as a Spanish grandee, insisted upon his
remaining covered. A stiff and formal conversation of
half an hour's duration then ensued, all parties remaining
upon their feet. The Duke, although respectful, fonnd
it difficult to conceal his indignation and his haughty
sense of approaching triumph. Margaret was cold, stately,
1567] GENERAL DISMAY 257
and forbidding, disguising her rage and her mortification
under a veil of imperial pride.
Circular letters signed by Philip, which Alva had
brought with him, were now despatched to the different
municipal bodies of the country. In these the cities were
severally commanded to accept the garrisons, and to pro-
vide for the armies whose active services the King hoped
would not be required, but which he had sent beforehand
to prepare a peaceful entrance for himself. He enjoined
the most absolute obedience to the Duke of Alva until his
own arrival, which was to be almost immediate. These
letters were dated at Madrid on the 28th of February, and
were now accompanied by a brief official circular, signed
by Margaret of Parma, in which she announced the arrival
of her dear cousin of Alva, and demanded unconditional
submission to his authority.
Having thus complied with these demands of external
and conventional propriety, the indignant Duchess unbos-
omed herself, in her private Italian letters to her brother,
of the rage which had been hitherto partially suppressed.
She had compromised her health, perhaps her life, and now
that she had pacified the country, now that the King was
more absolute, more powerful than ever before, another
was sent to enjoy the fruit of her labors and her sufferings.
The Duchess made no secret of her indignation at being
thus superseded and, as she considered the matter, out-
raged. She openly avowed her displeasure. She was at
times almost beside herself with rage. There was univer-
sal sympathy with her emotions, for all hated the Duke,
and shuddered at the arrival of the Spaniards. The day
of doom for all the crimes which had ever been commit-
ted in the course of ages seemed now to dawn upon the
Netherlands. The sword which had so long been hanging
over them seemed now about to descend. Throughout
the provinces there was but one feeling of cold and hope-
less dismay. Those who still saw a possibility of effect-
ing their escape from the fated land swarmed across the
frontier. All foreign merchants deserted the great marts.
The cities became as still as if the plague-banner had been
unfurled on every house-top.
17
258 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
Meantime the Captain-General proceeded methodically
with his work. He distributed his troops through Brus-
sels, Ghent, Antwerp, and other principal cities. As a
measure of necessity and mark of the last humiliation, he
required the municipalities to transfer their keys to his
keeping. The magistrates of Ghent humbly remonstrated
against the indignity, and Egmont was imprudent enough
to make himself the mouth-piece of their remonstrance,
which, it is needless to add, was unsuccessful. Meantime
his own day of reckoning had arrived.
It had been decided that the gentlemen implicated in
the confederacy, or Compromise, should at once be pro-
ceeded against for high treason, without any regard to
the promise of pardon granted by the Duchess.
It is difficult to comprehend so very sanguine a tempera-
ment as that to which Egmont owed his destruction. It
was not the Prince of Orange alone who had prophesied
his doom. Warnings had come to the Count from every
quarter, and they were now frequently repeated. The
Portuguese gentleman, Robles, Seigneur de Billy, who
had returned early in the summer from Spain, whither he
had been sent upon a confidential mission by Madame de
Parma, is said to have made repeated communications
to Egmont as to the dangerous position in which he
stood. Immediately after his arrival in Brussels he had
visited the Count, then confined to his house by an injury
caused by a fall of his horse. " Take care to get well very
fast," said De Billy, "for there are very bad stories told
about you in Spain." Egmont laughed heartily at the ob-
servation, as if nothing could well be more absurd than
such a warning. His friend — for De Billy is said to have
felt a real attachment for the Count — persisted in his pro-
phecies, telling him that " birds in the field sang much
more sweetly than those in cages," and that he would do
well to abandon the country before the arrival of Alva.
• For a few days, accordingly, after the arrival of the new
Governor-General, all seemed to be going smoothly. The
grand prior and Egmont became exceedingly intimate,
passing their time together in banquets, masquerades, and
play, as joyously as if the merry days which had succeeded
1567] THE PRIOR'S DINNER 250
the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis were returned. The Duke,
too, manifested the most friendly disposition, taking care
to send him large presents of Spanish and Italian fruits,
received frequently by the government couriers.
Lapped in this fatal security, Egmont not only forgot his
fears, but, unfortunately, succeeded in inspiring Count
Horn with a portion of his confidence. That gentleman
had still remained in his solitary mansion at Weert, not-
withstanding the artful means which had been used to
lure him from that " desert."
Alva and his son Don Fernando had soon afterwards
addressed letters from Gerverbiller (dated the 26th and
27th of July) to Count Horn, filled with expressions of
friendship and confidence. The Admiral, who had sent
one of his gentlemen to greet the Duke, now responded
from Weert that he was very sensible of the kindness
manifested towards him, but that for reasons which his
secretary, Alonzo de la Loo, would more fully communi-
cate, he must for the present beg to be excused from a
personal visit to Brussels. The secretary was received by
Alva with extreme courtesy.
Alva's manoeuvring, joined to the urgent representations
of Egmont, at last produced its effect. The Admiral left
his retirement at Weert to fall into the pit which his en-
emies had been so skilfully preparing at Brussels.
On the 9th day of September the grand prior, Don Fer-
nando, gave a magnificent dinner, to which Egmont and
Horn, together with Noircarmes, the Viscount of Ghent,
and many other noblemen were invited. The banquet
was enlivened by the music of Alva's own military band,
which the Duke sent to entertain the company. At three
o'clock he sent a message begging the gentlemen, after
their dinner should be concluded, to favor him with their
company at his house (the maison de Jasse), as he wished
to consult them concerning the plan of the citadel which
he proposed erecting at Antwerp.
At four o'clock, the dinner being finished, Horn and
Egmont, accompanied by the other gentlemen, proceeded
to the Jasse house, to take part in the deliberations pro-
posed. They were received by the Duke with great cour-
260 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
tesy. The engineer, Pietro Urbino, soon appeared and
laid upon the table a large parchment containing the plan
and elevation of the citadel to be erected at Antwerp. A
warm discussion npon the subject soon arose, Egmont,
Horn, Noircarmes, and others, together with the engineers
Urbino and Pacheco, all taking part in the debate. After
a short time the Duke of Alva left the apartment on pre-
text of a sudden indisposition, leaving the company still
warmly engaged in their argument. The council lasted
till near seven in the evening. As it broke up, Don Sancho
d'Avila, captain of the Duke's guard, requested Egmont
to remain for a moment after the rest, as he had a com-
munication to make to him. After an insignificant re-
mark or two, the Spanish officer, as soon as the two were
alone, requested Egmont to surrender his sword. The
Count, agitated and, notwithstanding everything which
had gone before, still taken by surprise, scarcely knew
what reply to make. Don Sancho repeated that he had
been commissioned to arrest him, and again demanded his
sword. At the same moment the doors of the adjacent
apartment were opened, and Egmont saw himself sur-
rounded by a company of Spanish musketeers and hal-
berdmen. Finding himself thus entrapped, he gave up
his sword, saying bitterly as he did so that it had at least
rendered some service to the King in times which were
past. He was then conducted to a chamber in the upper
story of the house, where his temporary prison had been
arranged. The windows were barricaded, the daylight ex-
cluded, the whole apartment hung with black. Here he
remained fourteen days (from the 9th to the 23d of Sep-
tember). During this period he was allowed no communi-
cation with his friends. His room was lighted day and
night with candles, and he was served in strict silence by
Spanish attendants and guarded by Spanish soldiers. The
captain of the watch drew his curtain every midnight,
and aroused him from sleep that he might be identified
by the relieving officer.
Count Horn was arrested upon the same occasion by
Captain Salinas, as he was proceeding through the court-
yard of the house, after the breakiug-up of the council.
1567] THE TRAP SPRUNG 261
He was confined in another chamber of the mansion, and
met with a precisely similar treatment to that experienced
by Egmont. Upon the 23d of September both were re-
moved under a strong guard to the castle of Ghent.
On this same day two other important arrests, included
and arranged in the same programme, had been success-
fully accomplished. Bakkerzeel, private and confidential
secretary of Egmont, and Antony van Straalen, the rich
and influential burgomaster of Antwerp, were taken almost
simultaneously. At the request of Alva, the burgomaster
had been invited by the Duchess of Parma to repair on
business to Brussels. He seemed to fear an ambuscade,
for as he got into his coach to set forth upon the jour-
ney he was so muffled in a superabundance of clothing
that he was scarcely to be recognized. He was no sooner,
however, in the open country and upon a spot remote
from human habitations, than he was suddenly beset by
a band of forty soldiers under command of Don Alberic
Lodron and Don Sancho de Londono. These officers had
been watching his movements for many days. The cap-
ture of Bakkerzeel was accomplished with equal adroit-
ness at about the same hour.
No sooner were these gentlemen in custody than the
secretary, Albornoz, was despatched to the house of Count
Horn and to that of Bakkerzeel, where all papers were
immediately seized, inventoried, and placed in the hands
of the Duke. Thus, if amid the most secret communica-
tions of Egmont and Horn or their correspondents a single
treasonable thought should be lurking, it would go hard
if it could not be twisted into a cord strong enough to
strangle all of them.
The Duke wrote a triumphant letter to his Majesty that
very night. He apologized that these important captures
had been deferred so long, but stated that he had thought
it desirable to secure all these leading personages at a
single stroke. He then narrated the masterly manner in
which the operations had been conducted. Certainly,
when it is remembered that the Duke had only reached
Brussels upon the 23d of August, and that the two Counts
were securely lodged in prison on the 9th of September,
£62 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
it seemed a superfluous modesty upon his part thus to
excuse himself for an apparent delay. At any rate, in
the eyes of the world and of posterity his zeal to carry
out the bloody commands of his master was sufficiently
swift.
The consternation was universal throughout the prov-
inces when the arrests became known. Egmont's great
popularity and distinguished services placed him so high
above the mass of citizens, and his attachment to the
Catholic religion was moreover so well known, that it was
obvious that no man could now be safe when men like
him were in the power of Alva and his myrmidons. The
animosity to the Spaniards increased hourly. The Duchess
affected indignation at the arrest of the two nobles, al-
though it nowhere appears that she attempted a word in
their defence or lifted at any subsequent moment a finger
to save them. She was not anxious to wash her hands of
the blood of two innocent men ; she was only offended
that they had been arrested without her permission. She
seemed to imagine herself the champion of their liberties,
and the Netherlander, for a moment, seemed to partici-
pate in the delusion. Because she was indignant at the
insolence of the Duke of Alva to herself, the honest citi-
zens began to give her credit for a sympathy with their
own wrongs. It is very true that the horrors of the Duke's
administration have been propitious to the fame of Mar-
garet, and perhaps more so to that of Cardinal Granvelle.
The faint and struggling rays of humanity which occa-
sionally illumined the course of their government were
destined to be extinguished in a chaos so profound and
dark that these last beams of light seemed clearer and
more bountiful by the contrast.
The Count of Hoogstraaten, who was on his way to
Brussels, had, by good fortune, injured his hand through
the accidental discharge of a pistol. Detained by this
casualty at Cologne, he was informed before his arrival
at the capital of the arrest of his two distinguished
friends, and accepted the hint to betake himself at once
to a place of safety.
The loyalty of the elder Mansfeld was beyond dispute
1667] ROYAL SATISFACTION 263
even by Alva. His son Charles had, however, been im-
prudent, and, as we have seen, had even affixed his name
to the earliest copies of the Compromise. He had re-
tired, it is true, from all connection with the confeder-
ates, but his father knew well that the young Count's
signature upon that famous document would prove his
death-warrant were he found in the country. He there-
fore had sent him into Germany before the arrival of the
Duke.
The King's satisfaction was unbounded when he learned
this important achievement of Alva, and he wrote imme-
diately to express his approbation in the most extravagant
terms.
The unfortunate envoys, Marquis Berghen and Baron
Montigny, had remained in Spain under close observa-
tion. Their fate, now that Alva had at last been de-
spatched to the Netherlands, seemed to be sealed, and the
Marquis Berghen, accepting the augury in its most evil
sense, immediately afterwards had sickened unto death.
Whether it were the sickness of hope deferred suddenly
changing to despair, or whether it were a still more po-
tent and unequivocal poison which came to the relief of
the unfortunate nobleman, will perhaps never be ascer-
tained with certainty.
Three days after the parting interview of Berghen with
his disinterested friend, the Prince of Eboli, the Marquis
was a corpse. Before his limbs were cold a messenger
was on his way to Brussels, instructing the Regent to
sequestrate Ms property, and to arrest upon suspicion of
heresy his youthful kinsman and his niece, who, by the will
of the Marquis, were to be united in marriage and to share
his estate. The whole drama, beginning with the death
scene, was enacted according to order. Before the arrival
of Alva in the Netherlands the property of the Marquis
was in the hands of the government awaiting confisca-
tion, which was but for a brief season delayed; while, on
the other hand, Baron Montigny, Berghen's companion in
doom, who was not, however, so easily to be carried off
by homesickness, was closely confined in the alcazar of
Segovia, never to leave a Spanish prison alive. There is
264 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
something pathetic in the delusion in which Montigny
and his brother, Count Horn, both indulged, each believ-
ing that the other was out of harm's way, the one by his
absence from the Netherlands, the other by his absence
from Spain, while both, involved in the same meshes,
were rapidly and surely approaching their fate.
In the same despatch of the 9th of September in which
the Duke communicated to Philip the capture of Egmont
and Horn, he announced to him his determination to es-
tablish a new court for the trial of crimes committed dur-
ing the recent period of troubles. This wonderful tri-
bunal was accordingly created with the least possible
delay. It was called the Council of Troubles, but it soon
acquired the terrible name, by which it will be forever
known in history, of the Council of Blood. It superseded
all other institutions. Every court, from those of the
municipal magistracies up to the supreme councils of the
provinces, was forbidden to take cognizance in future of
any cause growing out of the late troubles. The council
of state, although it was not formally disbanded, fell into
complete desuetude, its members being occasionally sum-
moned into Alva's private chambers in an irregular man-
ner, while its principal functions were usurped by the
Council of Blood. Not only citizens of every province, but
the municipal bodies, and even the sovereign provincial
estates themselves, were compelled to plead, like humble
individuals, before this new and extraordinary tribunal.
The constitution or maternal principle of this suddenly
erected court was of a twofold nature. It defined and it
punished the crime of treason. The definitions, couched
in eighteen articles, declared it to be treason to have de-
livered or signed any petition against the new bishops,
the inquisition, or the edicts ; to have tolerated public
preaching under any circumstances ; to have omitted re-
sistance to the image-breaking, to the field-preaching, or
to the presentation of the Eequest by the nobles ; and,
" either through sympathy or surprise," to have asserted
that the King did not possess the right to deprive all the
provinces of their liberties ; or to have maintained that
this present tribunal was bound to respect in any manner
1567] CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF TROUBLES 265
any laws or any charters. The punishment was still more
briefly, simply, and comprehensively stated, for it was in-
stant death in all cases. So well, too, did this new and
terrible engine perform its work that in less than three
months from the time of its erection eighteen hundred
human beings had suffered death by its summary proceed-
ings— some of the highest, the noblest, and the most virt-
uous in the land among the number; nor had it then
manifested the slightest indication of faltering in its dread
career.
Yet, strange to say, this tremendous court, thus estab-
lished upon the ruins of all the ancient institutions of the
country, had not been provided with even a nominal au-
thority from any source whatever. The King had granted
it no letters-patent or charter, nor had even the Duke of
Alva thought it worth while to grant any commissions,
either in his own name or as Captain-General, to any of
the members composing the board. The Council of Blood
was merely an informal club, of which the Duke was per-
petual president, while the other members were all ap-
pointed by himself.
Of these subordinate councillors, two had the right of
voting, subject, however, in all cases, to the Duke's final
decision, while the rest of the number did not vote at all.
It had not, therefore, in any sense the character of a ju-
dicial, legislative, or executive tribunal, but was purely a
board of advice by which the bloody labors of the Duke
were occasionally lightened as to detail, while not a feath-
er's weight of power or of responsibility was removed from
his shoulders. He reserved for himself the final decision
upon all causes which should come before the council, and
stated his motives for so doing with grim simplicity.
" Two reasons," he wrote to the King, " have determined
me thus to limit the power of the tribunal : the first that,
not knowing its members, I might be easily deceived by
them ; the second, that the men of law only condemn for
crimes which are proved; whereas your Majesty knows
that affairs of state are governed by very different rules
from the laws ivhich they have here."
With the assistance of Viglius, the list of blood-council-
266 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
lors was quickly completed. No one who was offered the
office refused it. Noircarmes and Berlaymont accepted
with very great eagerness. Several presidents and coun-
cillors of the different provincial tribunals were appointed ;
but all the Netherlander were men of straw. Two Span-
iards, Del Rio and Vargas, were the only members who
could vote ; while their decisions, as already stated, were
subject to reversal by Alva. Del Rio was a man without
character or talent, a mere tool in the hands of his su-
periors, but Juan de Vargas was a terrible reality.
No better man could have been found in Europe for
the post to which he was thus elevated. To shed human
blood was, in his opinion, the only important business and
the only exhilarating pastime of life. His youth had been
stained with other crimes. He had been obliged to retire
from Spain because of his violation of an orphan child
of whom he was guardian ; and in his manhood he found
no pleasure but in murder. He executed Alva's bloody
work with an energy which was almost superhuman, and
with a merriment which would have shamed a demon.
His execrable jests ring through the blood and smoke and
death-cries of those days of perpetual sacrifice. He was
proud to be the double of the iron -hearted Duke, and
acted so uniformly in accordance with the latter 's views
that the right of revision remained but nominal. There
could be no possibility of collision where the subaltern
was only anxious to surpass an incomparable superior.
Among the ciphers who composed the rest of the board,
the Flemish Councillor Hessels was the one whom the
Duke most respected. He was not without talent or learn-
ing, but the Duke only valued him for his cruelty. Being
allowed to take but little share in the deliberations, Hessels
was accustomed to doze away his afternoon hours at the
council-table, and when awakened from his nap in order
that he might express an opinion on the case then before
the court was wont to rub his eyes and to call out "Ad
patibulum! ad patibulum!" (to the gallows with him ! to
the gallows with him !) with great fervor, but in entire
ignorance of the culprit's name or the merits of the case.
His wife, naturally disturbed that her husband's waking
1567] THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD 267
and sleeping hours were alike absorbed with this hang-
man's work, more than once ominously expressed her
hope to him that he, whose head and heart were thus en-
grossed with the gibbet, might not one day come to hang
upon it himself; a gloomy prophecy which the future
most terribly fulfilled.
The Council of Blood, thus constituted, held its first
session on the 20th of September, at the lodgings of Alva.
Springing completely grown and armed to the teeth from
the head of its inventor, the new tribunal — at the very
outset in possession of all its vigor — forthwith began to
manifest a terrible activity in accomplishing the objects
of its existence. The councillors having been sworn to
"eternal secrecy as to anything which should be trans-
acted at the board, and having likewise made oath to de-
nounce any one of their number who should violate the
pledge," the court was considered as organized. Alva
worked therein seven hours daily. The forms of proceed-
ing were brief and artless. There was a rude organiza-
tion, by which a crowd of commissioners, acting as inferior
officers of the council, were spread over the provinces,
whose business was to collect information concerning all
persons who might be incriminated for participation in the
recent troubles. The greatest crime, however, was to be
rich, and one which could be expiated by no virtues, how-
ever signal. Alva was bent upon proving himself as ac-
complished a financier as he was indisputably a consum-
mate commander, and he had promised his master an
annual income of five hundred thousand ducats from the
confiscations which were to accompany the executions.
It was necessary that the blood torrent should flow at
once through the Netherlands, in order that the promised
golden river — a yard deep, according to his vaunt — should
begin to irrigate the thirsty soil of Spain. It is obvious,
from the fundamental laws which were made to define
treason at the same moment in which they established the
council, that anv man might be at any instant summoned
to the court. Every man, whether innocent or guilty,
whether papist or Protestant, felt his head shaking on his
shoulders. If he were wealthy, there seemed no remedy
268 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
but flight, which was now almost impossible, from the
heavy penalties affixed by the new edict upon all carriers,
ship-masters, and wagoners who should aid in the escape
of heretics.
The councillors were not allowed to slacken in their
terrible industry. The register of every city, village, and
hamlet throughout the Netherlands showed the daily lists
of men, women, and children thus sacrificed at the shrine
of the demon who had obtained the mastery over this un-
happy land. It was not often that an individual was of
sufficient importance to be tried — if trial it could be called
— by himself. It was found more expeditious to send them
in batches to the furnace. Thus, for example, on the 4th
of January, eighty-four inhabitants of Valenciennes were
condemned ; on another day, ninety-five miscellaneous in-
dividuals, from different places in Flanders ; on another,
forty-six inhabitants of Malines ; on another, thirty-five
persons from different localities, and so on.
Death even did not in all cases place a criminal beyond
the reach of the executioner. Egbert Meynartzoon, a man
of high official rank, had been condemned, together with
two colleagues, on an accusation of collecting money in a
Lutheran church. He died in prison of dropsy. The
sheriff was indignant with the physician, because, in spite
of cordials and strengthening prescriptions, the culprit had
slipped through his fingers before he had felt those of the
executioner. He consoled himself by placing the body on
a chair and having the dead man beheaded in company
with his colleagues.
Thus the whole country became a charnel-house ; the
death-bell tolled hourly in every village ; not a family but
was called to mourn for its dearest relatives, while the
survivors stalked listlessly about, the ghosts of their for-
mer selves, among the wrecks of their former homes.
The spirit of the Netherlands, within a few months after
the arrival of Alva, seemed hopelessly broken, and but for
the stringency of the tyranny which had now closed their
gates, the country would have been depopulated. The
grass began to grow in the streets of those cities which
had recently nourished so many artisans. In all those great
1567] MARGARET'S DEPARTURE 269
manufacturing and industrial marts, where the tide of
human life had throbbed so vigorously, there now reigned
the silence and the darkness of midnight.
The Duchess of Parma had been kept in a continued
state of irritation. She had not ceased for many months
to demand her release from the odious position of a cipher
in a land where she had so lately been sovereign, and she
had at last obtained it. Philip transmitted his acceptance
of her resignation by the same courier who brought Alva's
commission to be governor - general in her place. The
letters to the Duchess were full of conventional compli-
ments for her past services, accompanied, however, with a
less barren and more acceptable acknowledgment, in the
shape of a life income of fourteen thousand ducats, instead
of the eight thousand hitherto enjoyed by her Highness.
In addition to this liberal allowance, of which she was
never to be deprived, except upon receiving full payment
of one hundred and forty thousand ducats, she was pre-
sented with twenty-five thousand florins by the estates of
Brabant, and with thirty thousand by those of Flanders.
With these substantial tokens of the success of her nine
years' fatigue and intolerable anxiety, she at last took her
departure from the Netherlands, having communicated
the dissolution of her connection with the provinces by a
farewell letter to the Estates, dated the 9th of December,
1567.
Within a few weeks afterwards, escorted by the Duke
of Alva across the frontier of Brabant, attended by a con-
siderable deputation of Flemish nobility into Germany,
and accompanied to her journey's end at Parma by the
Count and Countess of Mansfeld, she finally closed her
eventful career in the Netherlands.
Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out.
The hollow truce by which the Guise party and the Hugue-
nots had partly pretended to deceive each other was hast-
ened to its end, among other causes, by the march of
Alva to the Netherlands. The Huguenots had taken
alarm, for they recognized the fellowship which united
their foes in all countries against the Reformation, and
Conde and Coligny knew too well that the same influence
270 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1567
which had brought Alva to Brussels would soon create an
exterminating army against their followers. Hostilities
were resumed with more bitterness than ever. The battle
of St. Denis — fierce, fatal, but indecisive — was fought.
The military control of the Catholic party was completely
in the hands of the Guises ; the Chancelier de 1'Hopital
had abandoned the court after a last and futile effort to
reconcile contending factions, which no human power
could unite ; the Huguenots had possessed themselves of
Rochelle and of other strong places, and, under the guid-
ance of adroit statesmen and accomplished generals, were
pressing the Most Christian monarch hard in the very
heart of his kingdom.
As early as the middle of October, while still in Antwerp,
Alva had received several secret agents of the French
monarch, then closely beleaguered in his capital. Cardinal
Lorraine offered to place several strong places of France
in the hands of the Spaniard, and Alva had written to
Philip that he was disposed to accept the offer, and to
render the service. The places thus held would be a
guarantee for his expenses, he said, while in case King
Charles and his brother should die, " their possession would
enable Philip to assert his own claim to the French crown
in right of his wife, the Salic law being merely a pleasantry ."
The Queen Dowager wrote to Alva and requested him
to furnish two thousand Spanish musketeers. The Duke
not only furnished Catherine with advice, but with the
musketeers which she had solicited. Two thousand foot
and fifteen hundred horse, under the Count of Aremberg,
attended by a choice band of the Catholic nobility of the
Netherlands, had joined the royal camp at Paris before
the end of the year, to take their part in the brief hostil-
ities by which the second treacherous peace was to be pre-
ceded.
Meantime Alva was not unmindful of the business which
had served as a pretext in the arrest of the two Counts.
The fortifications of the principal cities were pushed on
with great rapidity. The memorable citadel of Antwerp
in particular had already been commenced in October, under
the superintendence of the celebrated engineers Pacheco
1567] ANTWERP CITADEL 271
and Gabriel de Cerbelloni. In a few months it was com-
pleted, at a cost of one million four hundred thousand
florins, of which sum the citizens, in spite of their remon-
strances, were compelled to contribute more than one
quarter. The sum of four hundred thousand florins was
forced from the burghers by a tax upon all hereditary
property within the municipality. Two thousand work-
men were employed daily in the construction of this im-
portant fortress, which was erected, as its position most
plainly manifested, not to protect, but to control the com-
mercial capital of the provinces. It stood at the edge of
the city, only separated from its walls by an open espla-
nade. It was the most perfect pentagon in Europe, having
one of its sides resting on the Scheldt, two turned tow-
ards the city, and two towards the open country. Five
bastions, with walls of hammered stone, connected by cur-
tains of turf and masonry, surrounded by walls, measuring
a league in circumference, and by an outer moat fed by the
Scheldt, enclosed a spacious enceinte, where a little church,
with many small lodging-houses, shaded by trees and
shrubbery, nestled among the bristling artillery, as if to
mimic the appearance of a peaceful and pastoral village.
Each bastion was honeycombed with casemates and sub-
terranean storehouses, and capable of containing within
its bowels a vast supply of provisions, munitions, and sol-
diers. Such was the celebrated citadel built to tame the
turbulent spirit of Antwerp at the cost of those whom it
was to terrify and to insult.
CHAPTER H
THE EXECUTION OF EGMONT AND HORN
LATE in October the Duke of Alva made his trium-
phant entry into the new fortress. During his absence,
which was to continue during the remainder of the year,
he had ordered the secretary Courteville and the Councillor
Del Eio to superintend the commission which was then
actually engaged in collecting materials for the prosecu-
tions to be instituted against the Prince of Orange and
the other nobles who had abandoned the country. Ac-
cordingly, soon after his return, on the 19th of January,
1568, the Prince, his brother Louis of Nassau, his brother-
in-law, Count Van den Berg, the Count Hoogstraaten,
the Count Culemburg, and the Baron Montigny were
summoned in the name of Alva to appear before the
Council of Blood within thrice fourteen days from the date
of the proclamation, under pain of perpetual banishment
with confiscation of their estates. It is needless to say
that these seigniors did not obey the summons. They
knew full well that their obedience would be rewarded
only by death.
The charges against the Prince of Orange, which were
drawn up in ten articles, stated chiefly and briefly that
he had been, and was, the head and front of the rebellion.
The articles against Hoogstraaten and the other gentle-
men were of similar tenor. It certainly was not a slender
proof of the calm effrontery of the government thus to
see Alva's proclamation charging it as a crime upon Orange
that he had inveigled the lieges into revolt by a false as-
sertion that the inquisition was about to be established,
when letters from the Duke to Philip, and from Gran-
1568] THE PK1NCE OF OUANGE REBELLIOUS 273
velle to Philip, dated upon nearly the same day, advised
the immediate restoration of the inquisition as soon as
an adequate number of executions had paved the way for
the measure. It was also a sufficient indication of a reck-
less despotism that, while the Duchess, who had made the
memorable Accord with the religionists, received a flat-
tering letter of thanks and a farewell pension of fourteen
thousand ducats yearly, those who, by her orders, had
acted upon that treaty as the basis of their negotiations
were summoned to lay down their heads upon the block.
The Prince replied to this summons by a brief and some-
what contemptuous plea to the jurisdiction. As a Knight
of the Fleece, as a member of the Germanic Empire, as a
sovereign prince in France, as a citizen of the Nether-
lands, he rejected the authority of Alva and of his self-
constituted tribunal. His innocence he was willing to
establish before competent courts and righteous judges.
As a Knight of the Fleece, he said, he could be tried only
by his peers, the brethren of the order, and for that pur-
pose he could be summoned only by the King as head
of the chapter, with the sanction of at least six of his
fellow-knights. In conclusion, he offered to appear before
his Imperial Majesty, the Electors, and other members of
the Empire, or before the Knights of the Golden Fleece.
In the latter case, he claimed the right, under the statutes
of that order, to be placed while the trial was pending,
not in a solitary prison, as had been the fate of Egmont
and of Horn, but under the friendly charge and protec-
tion of the brethren themselves. The letter was ad-
dressed' to the procurator -general, and a duplicate was
forwarded to the Duke.
From the general tenor of the document it is obvious
that the Prince was not yet ready to throw down the
gauntlet to his sovereign, or to proclaim his adhesion to
the new religion. Moreover, the period had not yet ar-
rived for him to break publicly with the ancient faith.
Statesman, rather than religionist, at this epoch he was
not disposed to affect a more complete conversion than
the one which he had experienced. He was, in truth, not
for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience. His
18
274 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
mind was already expanding beyond any dogmas of the
age. The man whom his enemies stigmatized as atheist
and renegade was really in favor of toleration, and, there-
fore, the more deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious
parties.
Events, personal to himself, were rapidly to place him
in a position from which he might enter the combat with
honor. His character had already been attacked, his
property threatened with confiscation. His closest ties
of family were now to be severed by the band of the ty-
rant. On the 13th of February, 1568, the Duke sent the
Seigneur de Chassy to Louvain, attended by four officers
and twelve archers, to seize the son of the Prince of
Orange, then a boy of fifteen years, and a student at the
college of Lonvain. He was furnished with a letter to
the Count de Buren, in which that young nobleman was
requested to place implicit confidence in the bearer of the
despatch, and was informed that the desire which his Maj-
esty had to see him educated for his service was the cause
of the communication which the Seigneur de Chassy was
about to make.
The plan was carried out admirably, and in strict ac-
cordance with the programme. It was fortunate, however,
for the kidnappers that the young Prince proved favor-
ably disposed to the plan. He accepted the invitation of
his captors with alacrity. He even wrote to thank the
governor for his friendly offices in his behalf. He re-
ceived with boyish gratification the festivities with which
Lodron enlivened his brief sojourn at Antwerp, and he
set forth without reluctance for that gloomy and terrible
land of Spain whence so rarely a Flemish traveller had
returned. A changeling, as it were, from his cradle, he
seemed completely transformed by his Spanish tuition ; for
he was educated, and not sacrificed, by Philip. When he
returned to the Netherlands, after a twenty years' resi-
dence in Spain, it was difficult to detect in his gloomy
brow, saturnine character, and Jesuitical habits, a trace
of the generous spirit which characterized that race of
heroes, the house of Orange-Nassau.
Petitions now poured into the council from all quarters,
1568J WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS 275
abject recantations from terror-stricken municipalities,
humble intercessions in behalf of doomed and imprisoned
victims. To a deputation of the magistracy of Antwerp,
who came with a prayer for mercy in behalf of some of
their most distinguished fellow-citizens then in prison, the
Duke gave a most passionate and ferocious reply.
Upon the 16th of February, 1568, a sentence of the holy
office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to
death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few
persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclama-
tion of the King, dated ten days later, confirmed this de-
cree of the inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into
instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or condi-
tion. This is probably the most concise death-warrant
that was ever framed. Three millions of people — men,
women, and children — were sentenced to the scaffold in
three lines.
Under this new decree the executions certainly did not
slacken. Men in the highest and the humblest posi-
tions were daily and hourly dragged to the stake. Alva,
in a single letter to Philip, coolly estimated the number
of executions which were to take place immediately after
the expiration of holy week "at eight hundred heads."
Many a citizen, convicted of a hundred thousand florins,
and of no other crime, saw himself suddenly tied to a
horse's tail, with his hands fastened behind him, and so
dragged to the gallows. But although wealth was an un-
pardonable sin, poverty proved rarely a protection. Kea-
sons sufficient could always be found for dooming the
starveling laborer as well as the opulent burgher. To
avoid the disturbances created in the streets by the fre-
quent harangues or exhortations addressed to the by-
standers by the victims on their way to the scaffold, a new
gag was invented. The tongue of each prisoner was
screwed into an iron ring, and then seared with a hot iron.
The swelling and inflammation which were the immediate
result prevented the tongue from slipping through the
ring, and of course effectually precluded all possibility of
speech.
Unfortunately, in the bewilderment and misery of this
£76 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
people, the first development of a forcible and organized
resistance was of a depraved and malignant character.
Extensive bands of marauders and highway robbers sprang
into existence, who called themselves the "wild beggars,"
and who, wearing the mask and the symbols of a revolu-
tionary faction, committed great excesses in many parts
of the country — robbing, plundering, and murdering.
Their principal wrath was exercised against religious
houses and persons. Many monasteries were robbed,
many clerical persons maimed and maltreated. It became
a habit to deprive priests of their noses or ears, and then
to tie them to the tails of horses. This was the work of
ruffian gangs, whose very existence was engendered out
of the social and moral putrescence to which the country
was reduced, and who were willing to profit by the deep
and universal hatred which was felt against Catholics and
monks. An edict thundered forth by Alva, authorizing
and commanding all persons to slay the wild beggars at
sight, without trial or hangman, was of comparatively
slight avail. An armed force of veterans actively scour-
ing the country was more successful, and the freebooters
were, for a time, suppressed.
Meantime the Counts Egmont and Horn had been kept
in rigorous confinement at Ghent. On the 10th of Jan-
uary each was furnished with a copy of the declarations
or accusations filed against him by the procurator-general.
To these documents, drawn up respectively in sixty-three
and in ninety articles, they were required, within five
days' time, without the assistance of an advocate, and
without consultation with any human being, to deliver a
written answer, on pain, as before, of being proceeded
against and condemned by default.
This order was obeyed within nearly the prescribed pe-
riod, and here, it may be said, their own participation in
their trial ceased ; while the rest of the proceedings were
buried in the deep bosom of the Council of Blood. After
their answers had been delivered, and not till then, the
prisoners were, by an additional mockery, permitted to em-
ploy advocates. These advocates, however, were allowed
only occasional interviews with their clients, and always in
1568] ALVA EMPOWERED TO EXECUTE THE NOBLES 277
the presence of certain persons especially deputed for that
purpose by the Duke.
As Knights of the Golden Fleece, both claimed the privi-
lege of that order to be tried by its statutes. As a citizen
and noble of Brabant, Egmont claimed the protection of
the joyeuse entree, a constitution which had been sworn
to by Philip and his ancestors, and by Philip more amply
than by all his ancestors. As a member and Count of the
Holy Roman Empire, the Admiral claimed to be tried by
his peers, the electors and princes of the realm.
It was now boldly declared that the statutes of the Fleece
did not extend to such crimes as those with which the
prisoners were charged. Alva, moreover, received an es-
pecial patent, ante-dated eight or nine months, by which
Philip empowered him to proceed against all persons im-
plicated in the troubles, and particularly against Knights
of the Golden Fleece.
It is superfluous to observe that these were merely the
arbitrary acts of a despot. It is hardly necessary to criti-
cise such proceedings. The execution of the nobles had
been settled before Alva left Spain. As they were inhab-
itants of a constitutional country, it was necessary to stride
over the constitution. As they were Knights of the Fleece,
it was necessary to set aside the statutes of the order. The
Netherland constitutions seemed so entirely annihilated al-
ready that they could hardly be considered obstacles ; but
the Order of the Fleece was an august little republic of
which Philip was the hereditary chief, of which emperors,
kings, and great seigniors were the citizens. Tyranny might
be embarrassed by such subtle and golden filaments as these,
even while it crashed through municipal charters as if they
had been reeds and bulrushes. Nevertheless, the King's
course was taken. Although the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth chapters of the order expressly provided for
the trial and punishment of brethren who had been guilty
of rebellion, heresy, or treason ; and although the eleventh
chapter, perpetual and immutable, of additions to that con-
stitution by the Emperor Charles, conferred on the order ex-
clusive jurisdiction over all crimes whatever committed by
the knights, yet it was coolly proclaimed by Alva that the
278 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
crimes for which the Admiral and Egmont had been ar-
rested were beyond the powers of the tribunal.
In these memorable cases of what was called high-trea-
son there was no real trial. The tribunal was incompe-
tent ; the prisoners were without advocates ; the govern-
ment evidence was concealed ; the testimony for the
defence was excluded ; and the cause was finally decided
before a thousandth part of its merits could have been
placed under the eyes of the judge who gave the sentence.
But it is almost puerile to speak of the matter in terms
usually applicable to state trials. The case had been set-
tled in Madrid long before the arrest of the prisoners in
Brussels. The sentence, signed by Philip in blank, had
been brought in Alva's portfolio from Spain. The pro-
ceedings were a mockery, and, so far as any effect upon
public opinion was concerned, might as well have been
omitted. If the gentlemen had been shot in the court-
yard of the Jasse house, by decree of a drum-head court-
martial, an hour after their arrest, the rights of the prov-
inces and the sentiments of humanity would not have
been outraged more utterly. Every constitutional and
natural right was violated from first to last. This cer-
tainly was not a novelty. Thousands of obscure individ-
uals, whose relations and friends were not upon thrones
and in high places, but in booths and cellars, and whose
fate therefore did not send a shudder of sympathy through-
out Europe, had already been sacrificed by the Blood tri-
bunal. Still this great case presented a colossal emblem
of the condition in which the Netherlands were now gasp-
ing. It was a monumental exhibition of the truth which
thousands had already learned to their cost — that law and
justice were abrogated throughout the land. The coun-
try was simply under martial law — the entire population
under sentence of death. The whole civil power was in
Alva's hands ; the whole responsibility in Alva's breast.
Neither the most ignoble nor the most powerful could lift
their heads in the sublime desolation which was sweeping
the country. This was now proved beyond peradventure.
A miserable cobbler or weaver might be hurried from his
shop to the scaffold, invoking the jus de non evocando till
1568] THE PRINCE OF ORANGE REAPPEARS $79
lie was gagged, but the Emperor would not stoop from his
throne, nor electors palatine and powerful nobles rush to
his rescue ; but in behalf of these prisoners the most au-
gust hands and voices of Christendom had been lifted up
at the foot of Philip's throne ; and their supplications
had proved as idle as the millions of tears and death-cries
which had been shed or uttered in the lowly places of the
land. It was obvious, then, that all intercession must
thereafter be useless. Philip was fanatically impressed
with his mission. His viceroy was possessed by his loyalty
as by a demon. In this way alone that conduct which can
never be palliated may at least be comprehended. It was
Philip's enthusiasm to embody the wrath of God against
heretics. It was Alva's enthusiasm to embody the wra.th
of Philip.
So much for the famous treason of Counts Egmont
and Horn, so far as regards the history of the proceed-
ings and the merits of the case. The last act of the
tragedy was precipitated by occurrences which must be
now narrated.
The Prince of Orange had at last thrown down the
gauntlet. Proscribed, outlawed, with his Netherland
property confiscated and his eldest child kidnapped, he
saw sufficient personal justification for at last stepping
into the lists, the avowed champion of a nation's wrongs.
Whether the revolution was to be successful, or to be dis-
astrously crushed ; whether its result would be to place
him upon a throne or a scaffold, not even he, the deep-
revolving and taciturn politician, could possibly foresee.
The Reformation, in which he took both a political and
a religious interest, might prove a sufficient lever in his
hands for the overthrow of Spanish power in the Nether-
lands. The inquisition might roll back upon his country
and himself, crushing them forever. The chances seemed
with the inquisition.
He replied to the act of condemnation, which had been
pronounced against him in default by a published paper
of moderate length and great eloquence. He had re-
peatedly offered to place himself, he said, upon trial be-
fore a competent court. As a Knight of the Fleece, as a
280 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
member of the Holy Roman Empire, as a sovereign Prince,
he could acknowledge no tribunal save the chapters of the
knights or of the realm. The Emperor's personal inter-
cession with Philip had been employed in vain to obtain
the adjudication of his case by either. It would be
both death and degradation on his part to acknowledge
the jurisdiction of the infamous Council of Blood. He
scorned, he said, to plead his cause " before he knew not
what base knaves, not fit to be the valets of his compan-
ions and himself/'
He appealed therefore to the judgment of the world.
He published not an elaborate argument, but a condensed
and scathing statement of the outrages which had been
practised upon him. He denied that he had been a party
to the Compromise. He denied that he had been con-
cerned in the Request, although he denounced with scorn
the tyranny which could treat a petition to government as
an act of open war against the sovereign. He spoke of
Granvelle with unmeasured wrath. He maintained that
his own continuance in office had been desired by the
Cardinal, in order that his personal popularity might pro-
tect the odious designs of the government. The edicts,
the inquisition, the persecution, the new bishoprics, had
been the causes of the tumults. He concluded with a
burst of indignation against Philip's conduct towards
himself. The monarch had forgotten his services and
those of his valiant ancestors. He had robbed him of
honor, he had robbed him of his son — both dearer to him
than life. By thus doing he had degraded himself more
than he had injured him, for he had broken all his royal
oaths and obligations.
The paper was published early in the summer of 1568.
At about the same time the Count of Hoogstraaten pub-
lished a similar reply to the act of condemnation with
which he had been visited. He defended himself mainly
upon the ground that all the crimes of which he stood
arraigned had been committed in obedience to the literal
instructions of the Duchess of Parma, after her accord
with the confederates.
The Prince now made the greatest possible exertions to
1568] THE PRINCE'S ENERGY AND SACRIFICES 281
raise funds and troops. He had many meetings with in-
fluential individuals in Germany. The Protestant princes,
particularly the Landgrave of Hesse and the Elector of
Saxony, promised him assistance. He brought all his
powers of eloquence and of diplomacy to make friends for
the cause which he had now boldly espoused. He ex-
celled even his royal antagonist in the industrious sub-
tlety with which he began to form a thousand combina-
tions. Swift, secret, incapable of fatigue, this powerful
and patient intellect sped to and fro, disentangling the
perplexed skein where all had seemed so hopelessly con-
fused, and gradually unfolding broad schemes of a sym-
metrical and regenerated polity. He had high corre-
spondents and higher hopes in England. He was already
secretly or openly in league with half the sovereigns of
Germany. The Huguenots of France looked upon him as
their friend, and on Louis of Nassau as their inevitable
chieftain, were Coligny destined to fall. He was in league
with all the exiled and outlawed nobles of the Nether-
lands. By his orders recruits were daily enlisted, without
sound of drum. He granted a commission to his brother
Louis, one of the most skilful and audacious soldiers of
the age, than whom the revolt could not have found a
more determined partisan nor the Prince a more faithful
lieutenant.
This commission, which was dated Dillenburg, the 6th
of April, 1568, was a somewhat startling document. It au-
thorized the Count to levy troops and wage war against
Philip, strictly for Philip's good. The fiction of loyalty
certainly never went further. The Prince of Orange
made known to all "to whom those presents should
come " that through the affection which he bore the gra-
cious King he purposed to expel his Majesty's forces
from the Netherlands. " To show our love for the mon-
arch and his hereditary provinces," so ran the commission,
" to prevent the desolation hanging over the country by
the ferocity of the Spaniards, to maintain the privileges
sworn to by his Majesty and his predecessors, to prevent
the extirpation of all religion by the edicts, and to save
the sons and daughters of the land from abject slavery, we
282 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
have requested onr dearly beloved brother Louis of Nas-
sau to enroll as many troops as he shall think necessary."
Van den Berg, Hoogstraaten, and others, provided with
similar powers, were also actively engaged in levying
troops ; but the right hand of the revolt was Count Louis,
as his illustrious brother was its head and heart. Two
hundred thousand crowns was the sum which the Prince
considered absolutely necessary for organizing the army
with which he contemplated making an entrance into the
Netherlands. Half this amount had been produced by
the cities of Antwerp, Amsterdam, Leyden, Haarlem, Mid-
delburg, Flushing, and other towns, as well as by refugee
merchants in England. The other half was subscribed by
individuals. The Prince himself contributed fifty thou-
sand florins ; Hoogstraaten, thirty thousand ; Louis of
Nassau, ten thousand ; Culemburg, thirty thousand ; Van
den Berg, thirty thousand ; the Dowager-Countess Horn,
ten thousand ; and other persons in less proportion.
Count John of Nassau also pledged his estates to raise a
large sum for the cause. The Prince himself sold all his
jewels, plate, tapestry, and other furniture, which were of
almost regal magnificence. Not an enthusiast, but a de-
liberate, cautious man, he now staked his all upon the
hazard, seemingly so desperate. His luxury, his fortune,
his family, his life, his children, his honor, all were now
ventured, not with the recklessness of a gambler, but with
the calm conviction of a statesman.
A private and most audacious attempt to secure the
person of Alva and the possession of Brussels had failed.
He was soon, however, called upon to employ all his ener-
gies against the open warfare which was now commenced.
According to the plan of the Prince, the provinces were
to be attacked simultaneously in three places by his lieu-
tenants, while he himself was waiting in the neighbor-
hood of Cleves, ready for a fourth assault. An army of
Huguenots and refugees was to enter Artois upon the
frontier of France ; a second, under Hoogstraaten, was to
operate between the Rhine and the Meuse ; while Louis of
Nassau was to raise the standard of revolt in Friesland.
The two first adventures were destined to be signally
1568] THE PATRIOTS TWICE DEFEATED 283
unsuccessful. A force under Seigneur de Cocqueville,
latest of all, took the field towards the end of June. It
entered the bailiwick of Hesdin, in Artois, was immedi-
ately driven across the frontier by the Count de Roeulx,
and cut to pieces at St. Valery by Marechal de Cosse,
governor of Picardy. This action was upon the 18th of
July. Of the twenty-five hundred men who composed
the expedition, scarce three hundred escaped. The few
Netherlanders who were taken prisoners were given to the
Spanish government, and, of course, hanged.
The force under the Seigneur de Villers was earlier
under arms and the sooner defeated. This luckless gen-
tleman, who had replaced the Count of Hoogstraaten,
crossed the frontier of Juliers, in the neighborhood of
Maastricht, by the 20th of April. His force, infantry and
cavalry, amounted to nearly three thousand men. The
object of the enterprise was to raise the country, and, if
possible, to obtain a foothold by securing an important
city. Eoermond was the first point of attack, but the
attempts, both by stratagem and by force, to secure the
town were fruitless. The citizens were not ripe for re-
volt, and refused the army admittance. While the invad-
ers were, therefore, endeavoring to fire the gates, they
were driven off by the approach of a Spanish force.
The Duke, so soon as the invasion was known to him,
had acted with great promptness. Don Sancho de Lon-
dono and Don Sancho de Avila, with five vanderas of
Spanish infantry, three companies of cavalry, and about
three hundred pikemen under Count Eberstein — a force
amounting in all to about sixteen hundred picked troops
— had been at once despatched against Villers. The rebel
chieftain, abandoning his attempt upon Eoermond, ad-
vanced towards Erkelens. Upon the 25th of April, be-
tween Erkelens and Dalem, the Spaniards came up with
him and gave him battle. Villers lost all his cavalry and
two vanderas of his infantry in the encounter. With the
remainder of his force, amounting to thirteen hundred
men, he effected his retreat in good order to Dalem.
Here he rapidly intrenched himself. At four in the af-
ternoon, Sancho de Londono, at the head of six hundred
284 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
infantry, reached the spot. He was unable to restrain
the impetuosity of his men, although the cavalry under
Avila, prevented by the difficult nature of the narrow
path through which the rebels had retreated, had not
yet arrived. The enemy were two to one, and the town
was fortified ; nevertheless, in half an hour the intrench-
ments were carried, and almost every man in the patriot
army put to the sword. Villers himself, with a handful
of soldiers, escaped into the town, but was soon afterwards
taken prisoner with all his followers. He sullied the cause
in which he was engaged by a base confession of the de-
signs formed by the Prince of Orange — a treachery, how-
ever, which did not save him from the scaffold. In the
course of this day's work the Spanish lost twenty men and
the rebels nearly two hundred. This portion of the liber-
ating forces had been thus disastrously defeated on the
eve of the entrance of Count Louis into Friesland.
As early as the 22d of April, Alva had been informed by
the lieutenant-governor of that province that the beggars
were mustering in great force in the neighborhood of
Embden. It was evident that an important enterprise
was about to be attempted. Two days afterwards, Louis
of Nassau entered the provinces, attended by a small body
of troops. His banners blazed with patriotic inscriptions.
" Nunc aut nunquam, Recuperare aut mori," were the
watchwords of his desperate adventure. "Freedom for
fatherland and conscience " was the device which was to
draw thousands to his standard. On the western wolds of
Frisia he surprised the castle of Wedde, a residence of the
absent Aremberg, stadholder of the province. Thence he
advanced to Appingadam, or Dam, on the tide-waters of
the Dollart. Here he was met by his younger brother —
the gallant Adolphus, whose days were so nearly num-
bered— who brought with him a small troop of horse. At
Wedde, at Dam, and at Slochteren, the standard was set
up. At these three points there daily gathered armed
bodies of troops, voluntary adventurers, peasants with any
rustic weapon which they could find to their hand. Lieu-
tenant-Governor Groesbeck wrote urgently to the Duke
that the beggars were- hourly increasing in force ; that the
1568] AREMBERG ATTACKS THE BEGGARS 285
leaders perfectly understood their game ; that they kept
their plans a secret, but were fast seducing the heart of
the country.
On the 4th of May, Louis issued a summons to the mag-
istracy of Groningen, ordering them to send a deputation
to confer with him at Dam. As the result he received a
moderate sum of money, on condition of renouncing for
the moment an attack upon the city. With this tempo-
rary supply he was able to retain a larger number of the
adventurers, who were daily swarming around him.
In the mean time Alva was not idle.
By the 22d of May, Count Aremberg, having collected
his forces, consisting of Braccamonte's legion, his own
four vanderas, and a troop of Germans, came in sight of
the enemy at Dam. Louis of Nassau sent out a body of
arquebusiers, about one thousand strong, from the city.
A sharp skirmish ensued, but the beggars were driven
into their intrenchments, with a loss of twenty or thirty
men, and nightfall terminated the contest.
Meghem reached Coeverden, some fifty miles from Dam,
on the night of the 22d. He had informed Aremberg
that he might expect him with his infantry and his light
horse in the course of the next day. On the following
morning, the 23d, Aremberg wrote his last letter to the
Duke, promising to send a good account of the beggars
within a very few hours.
Louis of Nassau had broken up his camp at Dam about
midnight. Falling back, in a southerly direction, along
the Wold-weg, or forest road, a narrow causeway through
a swampy district, he had taken up a position some three
leagues from his previous encampment. Near the mon-
astery of Heiliger Lee he had chosen his ground. As-
sured that Meghem had not yet effected his junction with
Aremberg, prepared to strike, at last, a telling blow for
freedom and fatherland, Louis awaited the arrival of his
eager foe.
His position was one of commanding strength and fortu-
nate augury. Heiliger Lee was a wooded eminence, arti-
ficially reared by Premonstrant monks. It was the only
rising ground in that vast extent of watery pastures, en-
286 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
closed by the Ems and Lippe — the "fallacious fields" de-
scribed by Tacitus.
Although the swamps of that distant age had been
transformed into fruitful pastures, yet the whole district
was moist, deceitful, and dangerous. The country was
divided into squares, not by hedges, but by impassable
ditches. Agricultural intrenchments had long made the
country almost impregnable, while its defences against the
ocean rendered almost as good service against a more im-
placable human foe.
Aremberg, leading his soldiers along the narrow cause-
way, in hot pursuit of what they considered a rabble rout
of fugitive beggars, soon reached Winschoten. Here he
became aware of the presence of his despicable foe. Louis
and Adolphus of Nassau, while sitting at dinner in the
convent, had been warned by a friendly peasant of the
approach of the Spaniards. The opportune intelligence
had given the patriot general time to make his prepa-
rations. The village was not far distant from the abbey,
and in the neighborhood of the abbey Louis of Nassau
was now posted. Behind him was a wood, on his left a
hill of moderate elevation, before him an extensive and
swampy field. In the front of the field was a causeway
leading to the abbey. This was the road which Aremberg
was to traverse. On the plain which lay between the
wood and the hill the main body of the beggars were
drawn up. They were disposed in two squares or squad-
rons, rather deep than wide, giving the idea of a less
number than they actually contained. The lesser square,
in which were twenty-eight hundred men, was partially
sheltered by the hill. Both were flanked by musketeers.
On the brow of the hill was a large body of light-armed
troops, the enfants perdus of the army. The cavalry,
amounting to not more than three hundred men, was
placed in front, facing the road along which Aremberg
was to arrive.
That road was bordered by a wood extending nearly to
the front of the hill. As Aremberg reached its verge he
brought out his artillery and opened fire upon the body
of light troops. The hill protected a large part of the en-
1668] AREMBERG'S SUCCESSFUL RUSE 287
emy's body from this attack. Finding the rebels so strong
in numbers and position, Aremberg was disposed only to
skirmish. He knew better than did his soldiers the treach-
erous nature of the ground in front of the enemy. He
saw that it was one of those districts where peat had been
taken out in large squares for fuel, and where a fallacious
and verdant scum upon the surface of deep pools simu-
lated the turf that had been removed. He saw that the
battle-ground presented to him by his sagacious enemy
was one great sweep of traps and pitfalls. Before he could
carry the position, many men must necessarily be ingulfed.
He paused for an instant. He was deficient in cavalry,
having only Martinengo's troop, hardly amounting to four
hundred men. He was sure of Meghem's arrival within
twenty-four hours. If, then, he could keep the rebels in
check, without allowing them any opportunity to disperse,
he should be able, on the morrow, to cut them to pieces,
according to the plan agreed upon a fortnight before. But
his soldiers were very hot, his enemy very cool. Disre-
garding the dictates of his own experience and the arrange-
ments of his superior, he yielded to the braggart humor of
his soldiers, which he had not, like Alva, learned to mod-
erate or to despise.
The Spanish artillery, which had disordered the enemy's
light troops, was brought beyond the cover of the wood,
and pointed more fully upon the two main squares of the
enemy. A few shots told. Soon afterwards the enfants
perdus retreated helter-skelter, entirely deserting their
position. This apparent advantage, which was only a
preconcerted stratagem, was too much for the fiery Span-
iards. They rushed merrily forward to attack the station-
ary squares, their general being no longer able to restrain
their impetuosity. In a moment the whole vanguard had
plunged into the morass. In a few minutes more they
were all helplessly and hopelessly struggling in the pools,
while the musketeers of the enemy poured in a deadly
fire upon them without wetting the soles of their feet.
The pikemen, too, who composed the main body of the
larger square, now charged upon all who were extricating
themselves from their entanglement, and drove them back
288 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
again to a muddy death. Simultaneously, the lesser pa-
triot squadron, which had so long been sheltered, emerged
from the cover of the hill, made a detour around its base,
enveloped the rear-guard of the Spaniards before they could
advance to the succor of their perishing comrades, and
broke them to pieces almost instantly. The rout was sud-
den and absolute. The foolhardiness of the Spaniards had
precipitated them into the pit which their enemies had
dug. The day was lost. Nothing was left for Aremberg
but to perish with honor. Placing himself at the head of
his handful of cavalry, he dashed into the melee. The
shock was sustained by young Adolphus of Nassau, at the
head of an equal number of riders. Each leader singled
out the other. They met as " captains of might " should
do, in the very midst of the fray, and both were slain.
The patriot leader, Louis of Nassau, had accomplished,
after all, but a barren victory. He had, to be sure, de-
stroyed a number of Spaniards, amounting, according to
the different estimates, from five hundred to sixteen hun-
dred men. He had also broken up a small but veteran
army. More than all, he had taught the Netherlanders,
by this triumphant termination to a stricken field, that
the choice troops of Spain were not invincible. But the
moral effect of the victory was the only permanent one.
The Count's badly paid troops could with difficulty be
kept together. He had not sufficient artillery to reduce
the city whose possession would have proved so impor-
tant to the cause. Moreover, in common with the Prince
of Orange and all his brethren, he had been called to
mourn for the young and chivalrous Adolphus, whose life-
blood had stained the laurels of this first patriot victory.
Having remained, and thus wasted the normal three days
upon the battle-field, Louis now sat down before Gronin-
gen, fortifying and intrenching himself in a camp within
cannon-shot of the city.
The wrath of the Duke was even greater than his sur-
prise. Like Augustus, he called in vain on the dead com-
mander for his legions, but prepared himself to inflict a
more rapid and more terrible vengeance than the Roman's.
Recognizing the gravity of his situation, he determined to
1568] ALVA'S REVENGEFUL MEASURES 289
take the field in person, and to annihilate this insolent
chieftain who had dared not only to cope with but to con-
quer his veteran regiments. But before he could turn
his back upon Brussels many deeds were to be done. His
measures now followed each other in breathless succession,
fulminating and blasting at every stroke. On the 28th of
May he issued an edict banishing, on pain of death, the
Prince of Orange, Louis of Nassau, Hoogstraaten, Van den
Berg, and others, with confiscation of all their property.
At the same time he razed the Culemburg Palace to the
ground, and erected a pillar upon its ruins, commemorat-
ing the accursed conspiracy which had been engendered
within its walls. On the 1st of June eighteen prisoners
of distinction were executed upon the Horse Market in
Brussels. On the 3d, Counts Egmont and Horn were
brought in a carriage from Ghent to Brussels, guarded by
ten companies of infantry and one of cavalry. They were
then lodged in the " Broodhuis " opposite the Town Hall,
on the great square of Brussels. On the 4th, Alva, having,
as he solemnly declared before God and the world, ex-
amined thoroughly the mass of documents appertaining
to those two great prosecutions which had only been closed
three days before, pronounced sentence against the illus-
trious prisoners. These documents of iniquity, signed and
sealed by the Duke, were sent to the Council of Blood, where
they were read by Secretary Praets. The signature of
Philip was not wanting, for the sentences had been drawn
upon blanks signed by the monarch, of which the viceroy
had brought a whole trunkful from Spain. The sen-
tence against Egmont declared very briefly that the Duke
of Alva, having read all the papers and evidence in the
case, had found the Count guilty of high-treason. It was
proved that Egmont had united with the confederates,
that he had been a party to the accursed conspiracy of the
Prince of Orange, that he had taken the rebel nobles
under his protection, and that he had betrayed the gov-
ernment and the Holy Catholic Church by his conduct in
Flanders. Therefore the Duke condemned him to be ex-
ecuted by the sword on the following day, and decreed
that his head should be placed on high in a public place,
19
290 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
there to remain nntil the Duke should otherwise direct.
The sentence against Count Horn was similar in language
and purport.
On the morning of the 5th of June three thousand
Spanish troops were drawn up in battle-array around a
scaffold which had been erected in the centre of the square.
Upon this scaffold, which was covered with black cloth,
were placed two velvet cushions, two iron spikes, and a
small table. Upon the table was a silver crucifix. The
provost-marshal, Spelle, sat on horseback below, with his
red wand in his hand, little dreaming that for him a darker
doom was reserved than that of which he was now the
minister. The executioner was concealed beneath the dra-
peries of the scaffold.
At eleven o'clock a company of Spanish soldiers, led
by Juliaan Romero and Captain Salinas, arrived at Eg-
mont's chamber. The Count was ready for them. They
were about to bind his hands, but he warmly protested
against the indignity, and, opening the folds of his robe,
showed them that he had himself shorn off his collars and
made preparations for his death. His request was granted.
Egmont, with the Bishop of Ypres at his side, then walked
with a steady step the short distance which separated him
from the place of execution. Juliaan Romero and the
guard followed him. On his way he read aloud the sixty-
first psalm: "Hear my cry, 0 God; attend unto my
prayer." He seemed to have selected this scriptural pass-
age as a proof that, notwithstanding the machinations
of his enemies and the cruel punishment to which they
had led him, loyalty to his sovereign was as deeply rooted
and as religious a sentiment in his bosom as devotion to
his God. " Thou wilt prolong the King's life ; and his
years as many generations. He shall abide before God
forever ! 0 prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve
him." Such was the remarkable prayer of the condemned
traitor on his way to the block.
Having ascended the scaffold, he walked across it twice
or thrice. He was dressed in a tabard or robe of red dam-
ask, over which was thrown a short black mantle em-
broidered in gold. He had a black silk hat with black
1568] THE EXECUTION OF EGMONT 291
and white plumes on his head, and held a handkerchief
in his hand. As he strode to and fro, he expressed a bit-
ter regret that he had not been permitted to die, sword in
hand, fighting for his country and his king. Sanguine to
the last, he passionately asked Romero whether the sentence
was really irrevocable, whether a pardon was not even then
to be granted. The marshal shrugged his shoulders, mur-
muring a negative reply. Upon this Egmont gnashed
his teeth together, rather in rage than despair. Shortly
afterwards, commanding himself again, he threw aside his
robe and mantle, and took the badge of the Golden Fleece
from his neck. Kneeling then upon one of the cushions,
he said the Lord's Prayer aloud, and requested the bishop,
who knelt at his side, to repeat it thrice. After this the
prelate gave him the silver crucifix to kiss, and then pro-
nounced his blessing upon him. This done, the Count
rose again to his feet, laid aside his hat and handkerchief,
knelt again upon the cushion, drew a little cap over his
eyes, and, folding his hands together, cried with a loud
voice, " Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." The
executioner then suddenly appeared, and severed his head
from his shoulders at a single blow.
A moment of shuddering silence succeeded the stroke.
The whole vast assembly seemed to have felt it in their
own hearts. Tears fell from the eyes even of the Spanish
soldiery, for they knew and honored Egmont as a valiant
general. The French ambassador, Mondoucet, looking
upon the scene from a secret place, whispered that he had
now seen the head fall before which France had twice
trembled. Tears were even seen upon the iron cheek of
Alva, as, from a window in a house directly opposite the
scaffold, he looked out upon the scene.
A dark cloth was now quickly thrown over the body
and the blood, and within a few minutes the Admiral was
seen advancing through the crowd. His bald head was
uncovered, his hands were unbound. He calmly saluted
such of his acquaintances as he chanced to recognize upon
his path. Under a black cloak, which he threw off when
he had ascended the scaffold, he wore a plain, dark doub-
let, and he did not, like Egmont, wear the insignia of the
292 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
Fleece. Casting his eyes upon the corpse, which lay cov-
ered with the dark cloth, he asked if it were the body of
Egmont. Being answered in the affirmative, he muttered
a few words in Spanish, which were not distinctly audible.
His attention was next caught by the sight of his own coat
of arms reversed, and he expressed anger at this indignity
to his escutcheon, protesting that he had not deserved the
insult. He then spoke a few words to the crowd below,
wishing them happiness, and begging them to pray for his
soul. He did not kiss the crucifix, but he knelt upon the
scaffold to pray, and was assisted in his devotions by the
Bishop of Ypres. When they were concluded, he rose
again to his feet. Then, drawing a Milan cap completely
over his face, and uttering in Latin the same invocation
which Egmont had used, he submitted his neck to the
stroke.
The heads of both sufferers were now exposed for two
hours upon the iron stakes. Their bodies, placed in cof-
fins, remained during the same interval upon the scaffold.
Meantime, notwithstanding the presence of the troops,
the populace could not be restrained from tears and from
execrations. Many crowded about the scaffold and dipped
their handkerchiefs in the blood, to be preserved after-
wards as memorials of the crime and as ensigns of re-
venge.
The bodies were afterwards delivered to their friends.
A stately procession of the guilds, accompanied by many
of the clergy, conveyed their coffins to the church of Saint
Gudule. Thence the body of Egmont was carried to the
convent of Saint Clara, near the old Brussels gate, where
it was embalmed. His escutcheon and banners were hung
upon the outward wall of his residence by order of the
Countess. By command of Alva they were immediately
torn down. His remains were afterwards conveyed to his
city of Sottegem, in Flanders, where they were interred.
Count Horn was entombed at Kempen. The bodies had
been removed from the scaffold at two o'clock. The heads
remained exposed between burning torches for two hours
longer. They were then taken down, enclosed in boxes,
and, as it was generally supposed, despatched t° Madrid.
1568] THE VICTIMS JUDGED 293
The King was thus enabled to look upon the dead faces
of his victims without the trouble of a journey to the
provinces.'
Thus died Philip Montmorency, Count of Horn, and
Lamoral of Egmont, Prince of Gaveren, a great histori-
cal figure, but certainly not a great man. His execution
remains an enduring monument, not only of Philip's
cruelty and perfidy, but of his dulness. The King had
everything to hope from Egmont and nothing to fear.
Yet this was the man whom Philip chose, through the
executioner's sword, to convert into a popular idol, and
whom Poetry has loved to contemplate as a romantic
champion of freedom.
As for Horn, details enough have likewise been given
of his career to enable the reader thoroughly to under-
stand the man. He was a person of mediocre abilities
and thoroughly commonplace character. His high rank
and his tragic fate are all which make him interesting.
He had little love for court or people. The most inter-
esting features of his character are his generosity tow-
ards his absent brother and the manliness with which, as
Montigny's representative at Tournai, he chose rather to
confront the anger of the government, and to incur the
deadly revenge of Philip, than make himself the execu-
tioner of the harmless Christians in Tournai.
CHAPTER III
THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE BEGUN
Louis OF NASSAU, since his victory, had accomplished
nothing-. For this inactivity there was one sufficient ex-
cuse, the total want of funds. His only revenue was the
amount of blackmail which he was able to levy upon the
inhabitants of the province.
"With this precarious means of support, his army, as
may easily be supposed, was anything but docile. After
the victory of Heiliger Lee there had seemed to his Ger-
man mercenaries a probability of extensive booty, which
grew fainter as the slender fruit of that battle became
daily more apparent.
He had, for a few weeks immediately succeeding the
battle, distributed his troops in three different stations.
On the approach of the Duke, however, he hastity con-
centrated his whole force at his own strongly fortified
camp, within half cannon-shot of Groningen. His army,
such as it was, numbered from ten thousand to twelve
thousand men. Alva reached Groningen early in the
morning of July 15th, and, without pausing a moment,
marched his troops directly through the city. His total
force of choice troops amounted to about fifteen thou-
sand. He immediately occupied an intrenched and forti-
fied house, from which it was easy to inflict damage upon
the camp. This done, the Duke, with a few attendants,
rode forward to reconnoitre the enemy in person. He
found him in a well -fortified position, having the river
on his front, which served as a moat to his camp, and
with a deep trench three hundred yards beyond in addi-
tion. Two wooden bridges led across the river ; each was
1568] THE FIRST SKIRMISHES 295
commanded by a fortified house, in which was a provision
of pine torches ready at a moment's warning to set fire
to the bridges. Having thus satisfied himself, the Duke
rode back to his army, which had received strict orders
not to lift a finger till his return. He then despatched
a small force of five hundred musketeers, under Robles,
to skirmish with the enemy, and, if possible, to draw them
from their trenches.
The troops of Louis, however, showed no greediness to
engage. On the contrary, it soon became evident that their
dispositions were of an opposite tendency. The Count
himself, not at that moment trusting his soldiery, who were
in an extremely mutinous condition, was desirous of fall-
ing back before his formidable antagonist. The Duke,
faithful, however, to his life-long principles, had no in-
tention of precipitating the action in those difficult and
swampy regions. The skirmishing, therefore, continued
for many hours, an additional force of one thousand men
being detailed from the Spanish army. The day was very
sultry, however, the enemy reluctant, and the whole action
languid. At last, towards evening, a large body, tempted
beyond their trenches, engaged warmly with the Span-
iards. The combat lasted but a few minutes, the patriots
were soon routed, and fled precipitately back to their
camp. The panic spread with them, and the whole army
was soon in retreat. On retiring they had, however, set
fire to the bridges, and thus secured an advantage at the
outset of the chase. The Spaniards were no longer to
be held. "Yitelli obtained permission to follow with two
thousand additional troops. The fifteen hundred who
had already been engaged charged furiously upon their
retreating foes. Some dashed across the blazing bridges,
with their garments and their very beards on fire. Others
sprang into the river. Neither fire nor water could check
the fierce pursuit. The cavalry, dismounting, drove their
horses into the stream, and, clinging to their tails, pricked
the horses forward with their lances. Having thus been
dragged across, they joined their comrades in the mad
chase along the narrow dikes and through the swampy
and almost impassable country where the rebels were
296 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
seeking shelter. The approach of night, too soon advanc-
ing, at last put an end to the hunt. The Duke with diffi-
culty recalled his men, and compelled them to restrain
their eagerness until the morrow. Three hundred of the
patriots were left dead upon the field, besides at least an
equal number who perished in the river and canals. The
army of Louis was entirely routed, and the Duke con-
sidered it virtually destroyed. He wrote to the state
council that he should pursue them the next day, but
doubted whether he should find anybody to talk with
him. In this the governor-general soon found himself
delightfully disappointed.
Five days later the Duke arrived at Reyden, on the
Ems. Owing to the unfavorable disposition of the coun-
try people, who were willing to protect the fugitives by
false information to their pursuers, he was still in doubt as
to the position then occupied by the enemy. He had been
fearful that they would be found at this very village of
Reyden. It was a fatal error on the part of Count Louis
that they were not. He had made his stand at Jemmingen,
about four leagues distant from that place, and a little
farther down the river. Alva discovered this important
fact soon after his arrival at Reyden, and could not con-
ceal his delight. Already exulting at the error made by
his adversary, in neglecting the important position which
he now occupied himself, he was doubly delighted at learn-
ing the nature of the place which he had in preference
selected. He saw that Louis had completely entrapped
himself.
Jemmingen was a small town on the left bank of the
Ems. The stream, here very broad and deep, is rather a
tide inlet than a river, being but a very few miles from the
Dollart. This circular bay, or ocean chasm, the result
of the violent inundation of the thirteenth century, sur-
rounds, with the river, a narrow peninsula. In the corner
of this peninsula, as in the bottom of a sack, Louis had
posted his army. His infantry, as usual, was drawn up in
two large squares, and still contained ten thousand men.
The rear rested upon the village, the river was upon his
left, his meagre force of cavalry upon the right. In front
1568] SCIENCE 397
were two very deep trenches. The narrow road, which
formed the only entrance to his camp, was guarded by a
ravelin on each side and by five pieces of artillery.
The Duke having reconnoitred the enemy in person, rode
back, satisfied that no escape was possible. The river was
too deep and too wide for swimming or wading, and there
were but very few boats. Louis was shut up between twelve
thousand Spanish veterans and the river Ems. The rebel
army, although not insufficient in point of numbers, was
in a state of disorganization. They were furious for money
and reluctant to fight. They broke out into open mutiny
upon the very verge of battle.
Meantime a work which had been too long neglected
was then, if possible, to be performed. In that watery
territory the sea was only held in check by artificial
means. In a very short time, by the demolition of a few
dikes and the opening of a few sluices, the whole coun-
try through which the Spaniards had to pass could be laid
under water. Believing it yet possible to enlist the ocean
in his defence, Louis, having partially reduced his soldiers
to obedience, ordered a strong detachment upon this im-
portant service. Seizing a spade, he commenced the work
himself, and then returned to set his army in battle array.
Two or three tide-gates had been opened, two or three
bridges had been demolished, when Alva, riding in ad-
vance of his army, appeared within a mile or two of Jem-
mingen. It was then eight o'clock in the morning of July
21st. The patriots redoubled their efforts. By ten o'clock
the waters were already knee high, and in some places as
deep as to the waist.
At that hour the advanced guard of the Spaniards ar-
rived. Fifteen hundred musketeers were immediately or-
dered forward by the Duke. They were preceded by a
company of mounted carabineers, attended by a small band
of volunteers of distinction. This little band threw them-
selves at once upon the troops engaged in destroying the
dikes. The rebels fled at the first onset, and the Span-
iards closed the gates. Feeling the full importance of the
moment, Count Louis ordered a large force of musketeers
to recover the position and to complete the work of in-
298 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
undation. It was too late. The little band of Spaniards
held the post with consummate tenacity. Charge after
charge, volley after volley from the overwhelming force
brought against them failed to loosen the fierce grip with
which they held this key to the whole situation. Before
they could be driven from the dikes their comrades ar-
rived, when all their antagonists at once made a hurried
retreat to their camp.
Alva having left a strong guard on the bridge at Rey-
den, and thus closed carefully every avenue, now advanced
his fifteen hundred musketeers farther towards the camp.
This small force, powerfully but secretly sustained, was
to feel the enemy, to skirmish with him, and to draw him
as soon as possible out of his trenches. The plan suc-
ceeded. Gradually the engagements between them and
the troops sent out by Count Louis grew more earnest.
By noon the rebels, not being able to see how large a
portion of the Spanish army had arrived, began to think
the affair not so serious. Count Louis sent out a recon-
noitring party upon the river in a few boats. They re-
turned without having been able to discover any large force.
It seemed probable, therefore, that the inundation had
been more successful in stopping their advance than had
been supposed. Louis, always too rash, inflamed his men
with temporary enthusiasm. Determined to cut their
way out by one vigorous movement, the whole army at
last marched forth from their intrenchments, with drums
beating, colors flying ; but already the concealed rein-
forcements of their enemies were on the spot. The pa-
triots met with a warmer reception than they had expected.
Their courage evaporated. Hardly had they advanced
three hundred yards when the whole body wavered and
then retreated precipitately towards the encampment,
having scarcely exchanged a shot with the enemy. Count
Louis, in a frenzy of rage and despair, flew from rank to
rank, in vain endeavoring to rally his terror-stricken
troops. It was hopeless. The battery which guarded
the road was entirely deserted. He rushed to the cannon
himself, and fired them all with his own hand. It was
their first and last discharge. His single arm, however
1568] A TREMENDOUS DEFEAT 299
bold, could not turn the tide of battle, and he was swept
backward with his coward troops. In a moment after-
wards, Don Lope de Figueroa, who led the van of the
Spaniards, dashed upon the battery and secured it, to-
gether with the ravelins. Their own artillery was turned
against the rebels, and the road was soon swept.
The Spaniards in large numbers now rushed through
the trenches in pursuit of the retreating foe. No resist-
ance was offered, no quarter given. An impossible escape
was all which was attempted. It was not a battle, but
a massacre. Many of the beggars in their flight threw
down their arms ; all had forgotten their use. Their an-
tagonists butchered them in droves, while those who es-
caped the sword were hurled into the river. Seven Span-
iards were killed, and seven thousand rebels. The swift
ebb-tide swept the hats of the perishing wretches in such
numbers down the stream that the people at Embden
knew the result of the battle in an incredibly short period
of time. The skirmishing had lasted from ten o'clock till
one, but the butchery continued much longer. It took
time to slaughter even unresisting victims. Large num-
bers obtained refuge for the night upon an island in the
river. At low water next day the Spaniards waded to
them and slew every man. Many found concealment in
hovels, swamps, and thickets, so that the whole of the
following day was occupied in ferreting out and despatch-
ing them. Count Louis himself stripped off his clothes,
and made his escape, when all was over, by swimming
across the Ems. With the paltry remnant of his troops
he again took refuge in Germany.
Thus ended the campaign of Count Louis in Friesland.
Thus signally and terribly had the Duke of Alva vindi-
cated the supremacy of Spanish discipline and of his own
military skill.
On his return to Groningen, the estates were summoned,
and received a severe lecture for their suspicious demeanor
in regard to the rebellion. In order more effectually to
control both province and city, the governor-general or-
dered the construction of a strong fortress, which was
soon begun, but never completed. Having thus furnished
300
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1568
himself with a key to this important and doubtful region,
he returned by way of Amsterdam to Utrecht. There he
was met by his son Frederic with strong reinforcements.
The Duke reviewed his whole army, and found himself at
the head of 30,000 infantry and 7000 cavalry.
CHAPTER IV
ORANGE TAKES THE FIELD
THE Duke having thus crushed the project of Count
Louis and quelled the insurrection in Friesland, returned
in triumph to Brussels. Far from softened by the suc-
cess of his arms, he renewed with fresh energy the butch-
ery which, for a brief season, had been suspended during
his brilliant campaign in the north. The altars again
smoked with victims; the hanging, burning, drowning,
beheading seemed destined to be the perpetual course of
his administration so long as human bodies remained on
which his fanatical vengeance could be wreaked. Four
men of eminence were executed soon after his return to
the capital. They had previously suffered such intense
punishment on the rack that it was necessary to carry
them to the scaffold and bind them upon chairs that
they might be beheaded. These four sufferers were a
Frisian nobleman named Galena, the secretaries of Eg-
mont and Horn — Bakkerzeel and La Loo — and the distin-
guished burgomaster of Antwerp, Antony van Straalen.
Hundreds of obscure martyrs now followed in the same
path to another world, where surely they deserved to find
their recompense, if steadfast adherence to their faith,
and a tranquil trust in God amid tortures and death too
horrible to be related, had ever found favor above. The
" Red-Kod," as the provost of Brabant was popularly des-
ignated, was never idle. He flew from village to village
throughout the province, executing the bloody behests
of his masters with congenial alacrity. Nevertheless his
career was soon destined to close upon the same scaffold
where he had so long officiated. Partly from caprice,
302 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
partly from an uncompromising and fantastic sense of
justice, his master now hanged the executioner whose in-
dustry had been so untiring. The sentence, which was
affixed to his breast as he suffered, stated that he had
been guilty of much malpractice ; that he had executed
many persons without a warrant, and had suffered many
guilty persons, for a bribe, to escape their doom. The
reader can judge which of the two clauses constituted the
more sufficient reason.
During all these triumphs of Alva, the Prince of Orange
had not lost his self-possession. One after another each
of his bold, skilfully conceived and carefully prepared
plans had failed. The friends on whom William of Orange
relied in Germany, never enthusiastic in his cause, al-
though many of them true-hearted and liberal, now grew
cold and anxious. For months long his most faithful
and affectionate allies, such men as the Elector of Hesse
and the Duke of Wurtemberg, as well as the less trust-
worthy Augustus of Saxony, had earnestly expressed their
opinion that, under the circumstances, his best course
was to sit still and watch the course of events.
But the Prince knew how much effect his sitting still
would produce upon the cause of liberty and religion.
He knew that the more impenetrable the darkness now
gathering over that land of doom which he had devoted
his life to defend, the more urgently was he forbidden
to turn his face away from it in its affliction. He knew
that thousands of human souls, nigh to perishing, were
daily turning towards him as their only hope on earth,
and he was resolved, so long as he could dispense a single
ray of light, that his countenance should never be averted.
To liberate the souls and bodies of millions, to maintain
for a generous people, who had wellnigh lost their all, those
free institutions which their ancestors had bequeathed, was
a noble task for any man. But here stood a Prince of an-
cient race, vast possessions, imperial blood, one of the great
ones of the earth, whose pathway along the beaten track
would have been smooth and successful, but who was ready
to pour out his wealth like water, and to coin his heart's
blood, drop by drop, in this virtuous but almost desperate
1568] HIS RELIGION 303
cause. He felt that of a man to whom so much had been
intrusted much was to be asked. God had endowed him
with an incisive and comprehensive genius, unfaltering
fortitude, and with the rank and fortune which enable a
man to employ his faculties to the injury or the happiness
of his fellows, on the widest scale. The Prince felt the
responsibility, and the world was to learn the result.
It was about this time that a deep change came over his
mind. Hitherto, although nominally attached to the com-
munion of the ancient Church, his course of life and hab-
its of mind had not led him to deal very earnestly with
things beyond the world. The severe duties, the grave
character of the cause to which his days were henceforth
to be devoted, had already led him to a closer inspection
of the essential attributes of Christianity. The Prince went
into the Eef ormed worship step by step, and it was not until
the 23d of October, 1573, that he publicly attended com-
munion at a Calvinist meeting, but where is not men-
tioned. He was now enrolled for life as a soldier of the
Eeformation.* The Eeformation was henceforth his fath-
erland, the sphere of his duty and his affection. The re-
ligious Reformers became his brethren, whether in France,
Germany, the Netherlands, or England. Yet his mind
had taken a higher flight than that of the most eminent
Reformers. His goal was not a new doctrine, but religions
liberty. In an age when to think was a crime, and when
bigotry and a persecuting spirit characterized Romanists
and Lutherans, Calvinists and Zwinglians, he had dared
to announce freedom of conscience as the great object for
which noble natures should strive. In an age when tol-
eration was a vice, he had the manhood to cultivate it as a
* None of the Prince's own private letters relating to his step from the
Roman to the Reformed faith have yet come to light, and the judgments of
others on this event are purely subjective. Miss Ruth Putnam, in her Will-
iam the Silent, New York, 1895, Vol. II., pages 39, 40, cites a letter (Groen
Van Prinsterer, Archives, IV., 231) from Bartholdus Wilhelm, a minister in
Dordrecht, to his fellow Christians in London. "Brothers: I must hasten
to inform you that the Prince of Orange, our pious stadholder, has joined
the congregation, broken the Master's bread with the people, and submitted
to discipline." The letter is dated October 23.
304 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
virtue. His parting advice to the Reformers of the Neth-
erlands, when he left them for a season in the spring of
1567, was to sink all lesser differences in religious union.
Those of the Augsburg Confession and those of the Cal-
vinistic Church, in their own opinion as incapable of com-
mingling as oil and water, were, in his judgment, capable
of friendly amalgamation. He appealed eloquently to the
good and influential of all parties to unite in one common
cause against oppression. Even while favoring daily more
and more the cause of the purified Church, and becoming
daily more alive to the corruption of Rome, he was yet
willing to tolerate all forms of worship, and to leave rea-
son to combat error.
Without a particle of cant or fanaticism, he had become
a deeply religious man. Hitherto he had been only a man
of the world and a statesman, but from this time forth he
began calmly to rely upon God's providence in all the
emergencies of his eventful life. His letters, written to
his most confidential friends, to be read only by them-
selves, and which have been gazed upon by no other eyes
until after the lapse of nearly three centuries, abundantly
prove his sincere and simple trust. This sentiment was
not assumed for effect to delude others, but cherished as
a secret support for himself. His religion was not a cloak
to his designs, but a consolation in his disasters. Saevis
tranquillus in undis, he was never more placid than when
the storm was wildest and the night darkest. He drew
his consolations and refreshed his courage at the never-
failing fountains of Divine mercy.
" I go to-morrow," he wrote to the unworthy Anne of
Saxony ; " but when I shall return, or when I shall see
you, I cannot, on my honor, tell you with certainty. I
have resolved to place myself in the hands of the Almighty,
that He may guide me whither it is His good pleasure that
I should go. / see well enough that I am destined to pass
this life in misery and labor, ivith which I am well content,
since it thus pleases the Omnipotent, for I know that I have
merited still greater chastisement. I only implore Him
graciously to send me strength to endure with patience."
In May, 1568, the Emperor Maximilian had formally is-
1568] HIS STATE PAPERS 305
sued a requisition to the Prince of Orange to lay down his
arms, and to desist from all levies and machinations against
the King of Spain and the peace of the realm. This sum-
mons he was commanded to obey on pain of forfeiting all
rights, fiefs, privileges, and endowments bestowed by im-
perial hands on himself or his predecessors, and of incur-
ring the heaviest disgrace, punishment, and penalties of
the empire.
To this document the Prince replied in August, having
paid in the mean time but little heed to its precepts. Now
that the Emperor, who at first was benignant, had begun
to frown on his undertaking, he did not slacken in his own
endeavors to set his army on foot. One by one, those
among the princes of the empire who had been most stanch
in his cause, and were still most friendly to his person,
grew colder as tyranny became stronger ; but the ardor of
the Prince was not more chilled by their despair than by
the overthrow at Jemmingen, which had been its cause.
In August he answered the letter of the Emperor, re-
spectfully but warmly, trusting that after reading the
" Justification " which the Prince had recently published
his Majesty would consider the resistance just, Christian,
and conformable to the public peace. He expressed the
belief that rather than interpose any hinderance his Maj-
esty would thenceforth rather render assistance "to the
poor and desolate Christians/' even as it was his Majesty's
office and authority to be the last refuge of the injured.
The Prince of Orange issued a formal declaration of war
against the Duke of Alva, and also addressed a solemn
and eloquent "warning" or proclamation to all the inhabi-
tants of the Netherlands. Without the Prince and his ef-
forts at this juncture there would probably have never
been a free Netherland commonwealth. It is certain, like-
wise, that without an enthusiastic passion for civil and re-
ligious liberty throughout the masses of the Netherland
people there would have been no successful effort on the
part of the Prince. He knew his countrymen ; while they,
from highest to humblest, recognized in him their saviour.
There was, however, no pretence of a revolutionary move-
ment. The Prince came to maintain, not to overthrow.
20
306 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
The freedom which had been enjoyed in the provinces un-
til the accession of the Burgundian dynasty it was his
purpose to restore. The attitude which he now assumed
was a peculiar one in history. This defender of a people's
cause set up no revolutionary standard. In all his docu-
ments he paid apparent reverence to the authority of the
King. By a fiction, which was not unphilosophical, he
assumed that the monarch was incapable of the crimes
which he charged upon the viceroy. Thus he did not as-
sume the character of a rebel in arms against his Prince,
but in his own capacity of sovereign he levied troops and
waged war against a satrap whom he chose to consider
false to his master's orders. In the interest of Philip, as-
sumed to be identical with the welfare of his people, he
took up arms against the tyrant who was sacrificing both.
This mask of loyalty would never save his head from the
block, as he well knew, but some spirits as lofty as his own
might perhaps be influenced by a noble sophistry, which
sought to strengthen the cause of the people by attribut-
ing virtue to the King.
And thus did the sovereign of an insignificant little
principality stand boldly forth to do battle with the most
powerful monarch in the world. At his own expense, and
by almost superhuman exertions, he had assembled nearly
thirty thousand men. He now boldly proclaimed to the
world, and especially to the inhabitants of the provinces,
his motives, his purposes, and his hopes.
" We, by God's grace Prince of Orange," said his dec-
laration the 31st of August, 1568, " salute all faithful sub-
jects of his Majesty. * * * We summon all loyal subjects
of the Netherlands to come and help us. Let them take
to heart the uttermost need of the country, the danger of
perpetual slavery for themselves and their children, and
of the entire overthrow of the Evangelical religion. Only
when Alva's blood-thirstiness shall have been at last over-
powered can the provinces hope to recover their pure ad-
ministration of justice and a prosperous condition for
their commonwealth.'"
In the " warning " or proclamation to all the inhabi-
tants of the Netherlands, the Prince expressed similar sen-
1568J ORANGE CROSSES THE MEUSE 307
timents. He announced his intention of expelling the
Spaniards forever from the country. To accomplish the
mighty undertaking, money was necessary. He accord-
ingly called on his countrymen to contribute, the rich out
of their abundance, the poor even out of their poverty, to
the furtherance of the cause. He solemnly warned them
"before God, the fatherland, and the world," to do this
while it was yet time. After the title of this paper, the
28th, 29th, and 30th verses of the tenth chapter of Prov-
erbs were cited. The favorite motto of the Prince, "Pro
lege, rege, grege " (for the law, for the king, for the com-
monwealth), was also affixed to the document.
These appeals had, however, but little effect. Of three
hundred thousand crowns, promised on behalf of leading
nobles and merchants of the Netherlands by Marcus Perez,
but ten or twelve thousand came to hand. The appeals
to the gentlemen who had signed the Compromise, and to
many others who had in times past been favorable to the
liberal party, were powerless. A poor Anabaptist preacher
collected a small sum from a refugee congregation on the
outskirts of Holland, and brought it, at the peril of his
life, into the Prince's camp. It came from people, he said,
whose will was better than the gift. They never wished
to be repaid, he said, except by kindness, when the cause
of Keform should be triumphant in the Netherlands. The
Prince signed a receipt for the money, expressing himself
touched by this sympathy from these poor outcasts. In the
course of time other contributions from similar sources,
principally collected by Dissenting preachers, starving
and persecuted church communities, were received. The
poverty-stricken exiles contributed far more, in propor-
tion, for the establishment of civil and religious liberty,
than the wealthy merchants or the haughty nobles.
Late in September the Prince mustered his army in
the province of Treves, near the monastery of Eomers-
dorf. His force amounted to nearly thirty thousand men,
of whom nine thousand were cavalry. The Prince crossed
the Rhine at Saint Feit, a village belonging to himself.
He descended along the banks as far as the neighbor-
hood of Cologne. Then, after hovering in apparent un-
308 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
certainty about the territories of Juliers and Limburg,
he suddenly, on a bright moonlight night, crossed the
Meuse with his whole army, in the neighborhood of Stock-
heim. The operation was brilliantly effected. A compact
body of cavalry, according to the plan which had been
more than once adopted by Julius Caesar, was placed in
the midst of the current, under which shelter the whole
army successfully forded the river. The Meuse was more
shallow than usual, but the water was as high as the
soldiers' necks. This feat was accomplished on the night
and morning of the 4th and 5th of October. It was con-
sidered so bold an achievement that its fame spread far
and wide. The Spaniards began to tremble at the prowess
of a Prince whom they had affected to despise. The very
fact of the passage was flatly contradicted. An unfortu-
nate burgher at Amsterdam was scourged at the whipping-
post because he mentioned it as matter of common re-
port. The Duke of Alva refused to credit the tale when
it was announced to him. " Is the army of the Prince of
Orange a flock of wild geese," he asked, " that it can fly
over rivers like the Meuse ?" Nevertheless it was true.
The outlawed, exiled Prince stood once more on the
borders of Brabant, with an army of disciplined troops
at his back. His banners bore patriotic inscriptions.
" Pro lege, rege, grege " was emblazoned upon some. A
pelican tearing her breast to nourish her young with
her life-blood was the pathetic emblem of others. His
determination being to force or entice the Duke of Alva
into a general engagement, he marched into Brabant, and
took up a position within six thousand paces of Alva's
encampment. His plan was at every hazard to dare or to
decoy his adversary into the chances of a stricken field.
The governor was intrenched at a place called Keiser-
sleger, which Julius Caesar had once occupied. The city
of Maastricht was in his immediate neighborhood, which
was thus completely under his protection while it fur-
nished him with supplies. The Prince sent to the Duke
a herald, who was to propose that all prisoners who might
be taken in the coming campaign should be exchanged in-
stead of being executed. The herald, booted and spurred,
lf>68] THE PRINCE BAFFLED 309
even as he had dismounted from his horse, was instantly
hanged. This was the significant answer to the mission
of mercy. Alva held no parley with rebels before a bat-
tle, nor gave quarter afterwards.
In the mean time the Duke had carefully studied the
whole position of affairs, and had arrived at his conclu-
sion. He was determined not to fight. It was obvious
that the Prince would offer battle eagerly, ostentatiously,
frequently, but the governor was resolved never to accept
the combat. Once taken, his resolution was unalterable,
and his plan, thus deliberately resolved upon, was accom-
plished with faultless accuracy. As a work of art, the
present campaign of Alva against Orange was a more con-
summate masterpiece than the more brilliant and dashing
expedition into Fries! and.
The campaign lasted little more than a month. Twenty-
nine times the Prince changed his encampment, and at
every remove the Duke was still behind him, as close and
seemingly as impalpable as his shadow. Thrice they were
within cannon-shot of each other, twice without a single
trench or rampart between them. The country people
refused the Prince supplies, for they trembled at the ven-
geance of the governor. Alva had caused the irons to
be removed from all the mills, so that not a bushel of
corn could be ground in the whole province. The coun-
try thus afforded but little forage for the thirty thousand
soldiers of the Prince. The troops, already discontented,
were clamorous for pay and plunder. During one mutin-
ous demonstration the Prince's sword was shot from his
side, and it was with difficulty that a general outbreak
was suppressed. The soldiery were maddened and tanta-
lized by the tactics of Alva. They found themselves con-
stantly in the presence of an enemy who seemed to court
a battle at one moment and to vanish like a phantom at
the next. They felt the winter approaching, and became
daily more dissatisfied with the irritating hardships to
which they were exposed. Upon the night of the 5th
and 6th of October the Prince had crossed the Meuse at
Stockheim. Thence he had proceeded to Tongres, fol-
lowed closely by the enemy's force, who encamped in the
310 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
immediate neighborhood. From Tongres he had moved
to St. Trond, still pursued and still baffled in the same
cautious manner. The skirmishing at the outposts was
incessant, but the main body was withdrawn as soon as
there seemed a chance of its becoming involved.
From St. Trond, in the neighborhood of which he
had remained several days, he advanced in a southerly
direction towards Jodoigue. Count de Genlis, with a re-
inforcement of French Huguenots, for which the Prince
had been waiting, had penetrated through the Ardennes,
crossed the Meuse at Charlemout, and was now intend-
ing a junction with him at Waveron. The river Geta
flowed between them. The Prince stationed a consider-
able force upon a hill near the stream to protect the
passage, and then proceeded leisurely to send his army
across the river. Count Hoogstraaten, with the rear-
guard, consisting of about three thousand men, was
alone left upon the hither bank, in order to provoke or
to tempt the enemy, who, as usual, was encamped very
near. Alva refused to attack the main army, but rapidly
detached his son, Don Frederic, with a force of four
thousand foot and three thousand horse, to cut off the
rear -guard. The movement was effected in a masterly
manner; the hill was taken, the three thousand troops
which had not passed the river were cut to pieces, and
Vitelli hastily despatched a gentleman named Barberiiii
to implore the Duke to advance with the main body, cross
the river, and, once for all, exterminate the rebels in a
general combat. Alva, inflamed, not with ardor for an
impending triumph, but with rage that his sagely con-
ceived plans could not be comprehended even by his son
and by his favorite officers, answered the eager messenger
with peremptory violence. Nearly three thousand of the
patriots were slain in this combat, including those burned
or butchered after the battle was over. The Sieur de
Louverwal was taken prisoner and soon afterwards be-
headed in Brussels ; but the greatest misfortune sustained
by the liberal party upon this occasion was the death of
Antony de Lalaing, Count of Hoogstraaten. This action
was fought on the 20th of October.
1568] THE PRINCE FOILED 311
The Prince, frustrated in his hopes of a general battle,
was still more bitterly disappointed by the supineness of
the country. Not a voice was raised to welcome the de-
liverer. Not a single city opened its gates. All were crouch-
ing, silent, abject. The rising, which perhaps would have
been universal had a brilliant victory been obtained, was,
by the masterly tactics of Alva, rendered an almost in-
conceivable idea. The mutinous demonstrations in the
Prince's camp became incessant ; the soldiers were discon-
tented and weary. What the Duke had foretold was com-
ing to pass, for the Prince's army was already dissolving.
Obliged to countermarch towards the Khine, he crossed
the Geta, somewhat to Alva's astonishment, and proceeded
in the direction of the Meuse. The autumn rains, how-
ever, had much swollen that river since his passage at the
beginning of the month, so that it could no longer be
forded. He approached the city of Liege, and summoned
their Bishop, as he had done on his entrance into the
country, to grant a free passage to his troops. The Bish-
op, who stood in awe of Alva and who had accepted his
protection, again refused. The Prince had no time to par-
ley. He was again obliged to countermarch, and took his
way along the high road to France, still watched and
closely pursued by Alva, between whose troops and his
own daily skirmishes took place. At Le Quesnoy the
Prince gained a trifling advantage over the Spaniards ; at
Cateau-Cambresis he also obtained a slight and easy vic-
tory ; but by the 17th of November the Duke of Alva had
entered Cateau-Cambresis, and the Prince had crossed the
frontier of France.
The Marechal de Cosse, who was stationed on the boun-
dary of France and Flanders, now harassed the Prince by
very similar tactics to those of Alva. He was, however,
too weak to inflict any serious damage, although strong
enough to create perpetual annoyance. He also sent a
secretary to the Prince, with a formal prohibition, in the
name of Charles the Ninth, against his entering the French
territory with his troops.
It was in vain that the Prince endeavored to induce
,his army to try the fortunes of the civil war in France.
312 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
They had enlisted for the Netherlands, the campaign was
over, and they insisted upon being led back to Germany.
Forced to yield, the Prince led his army through Cham-
pagne and Lorraine to Strasburg, where they were dis-
banded. All the money which he had been able to collect
was paid them. He pawned all his camp equipage, his
plate, his furniture. What he could not pay in money he
made up in promises, sacredly to be fulfilled when he
should be restored to his possessions. He even solemnly
engaged, should be return from France alive, and be still
unable to pay their arrears of wages, to surrender his per-
son to them as a hostage for his debt.
Thus triumphantly for Alva, thus miserably for Orange,
ended the campaign. Thus hopelessly vanished the army
to which so many proud hopes had attached themselves.
Eight thousand men had been slain in paltry encounters,
thirty thousand were dispersed, not easily to be again col-
lected. All the funds which the Prince could command
had been wasted without producing a result. For the
present, nothing seemed to afford a ground of hope for the
Netherlands, but the war of freedom had been renewed in
France. A band of twelve hundred mounted men-at-arms
were willing to follow the fortunes of the Prince. The
three brothers accordingly, William, Louis, and Henry —
a lad of eighteen, who had abandoned his studies at the
university to obey the chivalrous instincts of his race — set
forth early in the following spring to join the banner of
Conde.
The Duke of Alva, having despatched from Gateau -Cam-
bresis a brief account of the victorious termination of the
campaign, returned in triumph to Brussels, and instituted
a succession of triumphant festivals. The people were
called upon to rejoice and to be exceedingly glad, to strew
flowers in his path, to sing Hosannas in his praise who
came to them covered with the blood of those who had
striven in their defence. The holiday was duly culled
forth ; houses where funeral hatchments for murdered
inmates had been perpetually suspended were decked
with garlands ; the bells, which had hardly once omitted
their daily knell for the victims of an incredible cruelty,
1668] ALVA'S STATUE 313
now rang their merriest peals ; and in the very square
where so lately Egmont and Horn, besides many other
less distinguished martyrs, had suffered an ignominious
death, a gay tournament was held day after day, with all
the insolent pomp which could make the exhibition most
galling.
But even these demonstrations of hilarity were not
sufficient. The conqueror and tamer of the Netherlands
felt that a more personal and palpable deification was
necessary for his pride. The Duke of Alva, on his return
from the battle-fields of Brabant and Friesland, reared a
colossal statue of himself, and upon its pedestal caused
these lines to be engraved : "To Fernando Alvarez de
Toledo, Duke of Alva, Governor of the Netherlands un-
der Philip the Second, for having extinguished sedition,
chastised rebellion, restored religion, secured justice, es-
tablished peace ; to the King's most faithful minister this
monument is erected."
The statue was colossal, and was placed in the citadel
of Antwerp. Its bronze was furnished by the cannon capt-
ured at Jemmingen. It represented the Duke tram-
pling upon a prostrate figure with two heads, four arms,
and one body. The two heads were interpreted by
some to represent Egmont and Horn, by others the two
Nassaus, William and Louis. Others saw in them an
allegorical presentment of the nobles and commons of the
Netherlands, or perhaps an impersonation of the Compro-
mise and the Eequest. Besides the chief inscription on
the pedestal were sculptured various bass-reliefs ; and the
spectator whose admiration for the governor-general was
not satiated with the colossal statue itself was at liberty
to find a fresh personification of the hero either in a
torch -bearing angel or a gentle shepherd. The work,
which had considerable aesthetic merit, was executed by
an artist named Jacob Jongeling. It remained to aston-
ish and disgust the Netherlander until it was thrown
down and demolished by Alva's successor, Requesens.
CHAPTER V
ALVA'S EXPERIMENTS IN FINANCE
IT was very soon after the Duke's return to Brussels
that a quarrel between himself and the Queen of England
took place. It happened thus : Certain vessels, bearing
roving commissions from the Prince of Conde, had chased
into the ports of England some merchantmen coming from
Spain with supplies in specie for the Spanish army in the
Netherlands. The trading-ships remained in harbor, not
daring to leave for their destination, while the privateers
remained in a neighboring port ready to pounce upon them
should they put to sea. The commanders of the mer-
chant fleet complained to the Spanish ambassador in Lon-
don. The envoy laid the case before the Queen. The
Queen promised redress, and, almost as soon as the prom-
ise had been made, seized upon all the specie in the ves-
sels, amounting to about eight hundred thousand dollars,
and appropriated the whole to her own benefit. The
pretext for this proceeding was twofold. In the first
place, she assured the ambassador that she had taken the
money into her possession in order that it might be kept
safe for her royal brother of Spain. In the second place,
she affirmed that the money did not belong to the Spanish
government at all, but that it was the property of certain
Genoese merchants, from whom, as she had a right to do,
she had borrowed it for a short period. Both these po-
sitions could hardly be correct, but either furnished an ex-
cellent reason for appropriating the funds to her own use.
The Duke of Alva being very much in want of money,
was furious when informed of the circumstance. He im-
mediately despatched Councillor d'Assonleville with other
1568] PERSECUTION 315
commissioners on a special embassy to the Queen of Eng-
land. His envoys were refused an audience, and the
Duke was taxed with presumption in venturing, as if he
had been a sovereign, to send a legation to a crowned
head. No satisfaction was given to Alva, but a secret
commissioner was despatched to Spain to discuss the sub-
ject there. The wrath of Alva was not appeased by this
contemptuous treatment. Chagrined at the loss of his
funds, and stung to the quick by a rebuke which his arro-
gance had merited, he resorted to a high-handed measure.
He issued a proclamation commanding the personal arrest
of every Englishman within the territory of the Nether-
lands, and the seizure of every article of property which
could be found belonging to individuals of that nation.
The Queen retaliated by measures of the same severity
against Netherlanders in England. The Duke followed
up his blow by a proclamation (of March 31, 1569), in
which the grievance was detailed and strict non - inter-
course with England enjoined. While the Queen and the
viceroy were thus exchanging blows, the real sufferers
were, of course, the unfortunate Netherlanders. Between
the upper and nether millstones of Elizabeth's rapacity
and Alva's arrogance, the poor remains of Flemish pros-
perity were wellnigh crushed out of existence. Procla-
mations and commissions followed hard upon each other,
but it was not till April, 1573, that the matter was def-
initely arranged. Before that day arrived the commerce
of the Netherlands had suffered, at the lowest computa-
tion, a dead loss of two million florins, not a stiver of
which was ever reimbursed to the sufferers by the Spanish
government.
Meantime, neither in the complacency of his triumph
over William of Orange nor in the torrent of his wrath
against the English Queen did the Duke for a moment
lose sight of the chief end of his existence in the Nether-
lands. The gibbet and the stake were loaded with their
daily victims. The records of the period are foul with
the perpetually renewed barbarities exercised against the
new religion. To the magistrates of the different cities
were issued fresh instructions, by which all municipal of-
316 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1568
ficers were to be guided in the discharge of their great
duty. They were especially enjoined by the Duke*to take
heed that Catholic midwives, and none other, should be
provided for every parish, duly sworn to give notice with-
in twenty-four hours of every birth which occurred, in
order that the curate might instantly proceed to baptism.
They were also ordered to appoint certain spies who should
keep watch at every administration of the sacraments,
whether public or private, whether at the altar or at death-
beds, and who should report for exemplary punishment
(that is to say, death by fire) all persons who made derisive
or irreverential gestures, or who did not pay suitable honor
to the said sacraments. Furthermore, in order that not
even death itself should cheat the tyrant of his prey, the
same spies were to keep watch at the couch of the dying,
and to give immediate notice to government of all persons
who should dare to depart this life without previously re-
ceiving extreme unction and the holy wafer. The estates
of such culprits, it was ordained, should be confiscated,
and their bodies dragged to the public place of execu-
tion.
While the agents of the Duke's government were zeal-
ously enforcing his decrees, a special messenger arrived
from the Pope, bringing as a present to Alva a jewelled
hat and sword. It was a gift rarely conferred by the
Church, and never save upon the highest dignitaries, or
upon those who had merited her most signal rewards by
the most shining exploits in her defence. The Duke was
requested, in the autograph letter from his Holiness which
accompanied the presents, "to remember, when he put
the hat upon his head, that he was guarded with it as
with a helmet of righteousness and with the shield of
God's help, indicating the heavenly crown which was ready
for all princes who support the Holy Church and the
Roman Catholic faith/' The motto on the sword ran as
follows : " Accipe sanctum gladium, munus a Deo, in quo
dejicies adversaries populi met Israel " (Receive this holy
sword, a gift from God, by which thou shalt overthrow
the enemies of My people, Israel).
The man of the jewelled hat and sword was now about
1569] TAXATION 317
to show by an original scheme of his own how easily a
great soldier may become a very paltry financier.
He had already informed his royal master that, after a
very short time, remittances would no longer be necessary
from Spain to support the expenses of the army and gov-
ernment in the Netherlands. He promised, on the con-
trary, that, through his new scheme, at least two millions
yearly should be furnished by the provinces, over and
above the cost of their administration, to enrich the treas-
ury at home.
This scheme was nothing more than the substitution of
an arbitrary system of taxation by the crown for the le-
gal and constitutional right of the provinces to tax them-
selves. In the wreck of their social happiness, in the
utter overthrow of their political freedom, the Nether-
landers had still preserved the shadow, at least, of one
great bulwark against despotism. The King could impose
no tax.
The " joyeuse entree" of Brabant, as well as the con-
stitutions of Flanders, Holland, Utrecht, and all the other
provinces, expressly prescribed the manner in which the
requisite funds for government should be raised. The sov-
ereign or his stadholder was to appear before the estates
in person and make his request for money. It was for
the estates, after consultation with their constituents, to
decide whether or not this petition (Bede) should be
granted, and should a single branch decline compliance,
the monarch was to wait with patience for a more favor-
able moment. Such had been the regular practice in the
Netherlands, nor had the reigning houses often had oc-
casion to accuse the estates of parsimony. It was, how-
ever, not wonderful that the Duke of Alva should be im-
patient at the continued existence of this provincial privi-
lege. A country of condemned criminals, a nation whose
universal neck might at any moment be laid upon the
block without ceremony, seemed hardly fit to hold the
purse-strings, and to dispense alms to its monarch. The
viceroy was impatient at this arrogant vestige of consti-
tutional liberty. Moreover, although he had taken from
the Netherlanders nearly all the attributes of freemen, he
318
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1569
was unwilling that they should enjoy the principal privi-
lege of slaves, that of being fed and guarded at their mas-
ter's expense. He had therefore summoned a general as-
sembly of the provincial estates in Brussels, and on the
20th of March, 1569, had caused the following decrees to
be laid before them :
A tax of the hundredth penny, or one per cent., was laid
upon ail property, real and personal, to be collected in-
stantly. This impost, however, was not perpetual, but
only to be paid once, unless, of course, it should suit the
same arbitrary power by which it was assessed to require
it a second time.
A tax of the twentieth penny, or five per cent., was laid
upon every transfer of real estate. This imposition was
perpetual.
Thirdly, a tax of the tenth penny, or ten per cent., was
assessed upon every article of merchandise or personal
property, to be paid as often as it should be sold. This
tax was likewise to be perpetual.
The consternation in the assembly when these enormous
propositions were heard can be easily imagined. People
may differ about religious dogmas. In the most bigoted
persecutions there will always be many who, from con-
scientious although misguided motives, heartily espouse
the cause of the bigot. Moreover, although resistance to
tyranny in matters of faith is always the most ardent of
struggles, and is supported by the most sublime principle
in our nature, yet all men are not of the sterner stuff of
which martyrs are fashioned. In questions relating to
the world above, many may be seduced from their con-
victions by interest or forced into apostasy by violence.
Human nature is often malleable or fusible where relig-
ious interests are concerned, but in affairs material and
financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous.
It was most unanswerably maintained in the assembly
that this tenth and twentieth penny would utterly destroy
the trade and the manufactures of the country. The
hundredth penny, or the one per cent, assessment on all
property throughout the land, although a severe subsidy,
might be borne with for once. To pay, however, a twen-
1569] ARGUMENTS WASTED 319
tieth part of the full value of a house to the government
as often as the house was sold was a most intolerable
imposition. A house might be sold twenty times in a
year, and in the course of the year, therefore, be confis-
cated in its whole value. It amounted either to a prohi-
bition of all transfers of real estate, or to an eventual sur-
render of its price.
As to the tenth penny upon articles of merchandise, to
be paid by the vender at every sale, the scheme was mon-
strous. All trade and manufactures must of necessity
expire at the very first attempt to put it in execution.
The same article might be sold ten times in a week, and
might, therefore, pay one hundred per cent, weekly. An
article, moreover, was frequently compounded of ten dif-
ferent articles, each of which might pay one hundred per
cent., and therefore the manufactured article, if ten
times transferred, one thousand per cent, weekly. Quick
transfers and unfettered movements being the nerves and
muscles of commerce, it was impossible for it long to sur-
vive the paralysis of such a tax. The impost could never
be collected, and would only produce an entire prostra-
tion of industry. It could by no possibility enrich the
government.
The King could not derive wealth from the ruin of his
subjects ; yet to establish such a system was the stern
and absurd determination of the governor-general. The
infantine simplicity of the effort seemed incredible. The
ignorance was as sublime as the tyranny. The most lucid
arguments and the most earnest remonstrances were all in
vain. Too opaque to be illumined by a flood of light,
too hard to be melted by a nation's tears, the viceroy
held calmly to his purpose. To the keen and vivid repre-
sentations of Viglius, who repeatedly exhibited all that
was oppressive and all that was impossible in the tax, he
answered simply that it was nothing more nor less than
the Spanish alcabala, and that he derived fifty thousand
ducats yearly from its imposition in his own city of Alva.
The report of the deputies to the assembly on their
return to their constituents had created the most intense
excitement and alarm. Petition after petition, report
320 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [l6Ga
after report, poured in upon the government. There was
a cry of despair, and almost of defiance, which had not
been elicited by former agonies. To induce, however, a
more favorable disposition on the part of the Duke, the
hundredth penny, once for all, was conceded by the estates.
The tenth and twentieth occasioned severe and protracted
struggles, until the various assemblies of the patrimonial
provinces, one after another, exhausted, frightened, and
hoping that no serious effort would be made to collect
the tax, consented, under certain restrictions, to its im-
position. The principal conditions were a protest against
the legality of the proceeding, and the provision that the
consent of no province should be valid until that of all
had been obtained. Holland, too, was induced to give in
its adhesion, although the city of Amsterdam long with-
held its consent ; but the city and province of Utrecht
were inexorable. They offered a handsome sum in com-
mutation, increasing the sum first proposed from seventy
thousand to two hundred thousand florins, but they reso-
lutely refused to be saddled with this permanent tax.
Their stout resistance was destined to cost them dear.
In the course of a few months Alva, finding them still
resolute in their refusal, quartered the regiment of Lom-
bardy upon them, and employed other coercive measures
to bring them to reason. Many thousand citizens were
ruined, many millions of property confiscated, and Utrecht
deprived of all its ancient liberties, as a punishment for
having dared to maintain them.
The estates of the province and the magistracy of the
city appealed to his Majesty from the decision of the Duke.
The case did not directly concern the interests of religion,
for although the heretical troubles of 1566 furnished the
nominal motives of the condemnation, the resistance to
the tenth and twentieth penny was the real crime for
which they were suffering. The King, therefore, al-
though far from clement, was not extremely rigorous.
He refused the object of the appeal, but he did not put
the envoys to death by whom it was brought to Madrid.
This would have certainly been the case in matters strictly
religious, or even had the commissioners arrived two years
1569] ALVA'S I'KEMATUllE TRIUMPH 321
before, but even Philip believed, perhaps, that for the mo-
ment almost enough innocent blood had been shed. At
any rate, he suffered the legates from Utrecht to return,
not with their petition granted, but at least with their
heads upon their shoulders. Early in the following year,
the provinces still remaining under martial law, all the
Utrecht charters were taken into the possession of the gov-
ernment and deposited in the castle of Vredenberg. It
was not till after the departure of Alva that they were
restored, according to royal command, by the new gov-
ernor, Requesens.
By the middle of the year 1569 Alva wrote to the King,
with great cheerfulness of tone, announcing that the es-
tates of the provinces had all consented to the tax. He
congratulated his Majesty upon the fact that this income
might thenceforth be enjoyed in perpetuity, and that it
would bring at least two millions yearly into his coffers,
over and above the expenses of government. The hun-
dredth penny, as he calculated, would amount to at least
five millions.
He was, however, very premature in his triumph, for
the estates were not long in withdrawing a concession
which had either been wrung from them by violence or
filched from them by misrepresentation. Taking the
ground that the assent of all had been stipulated be-
fore that of any one should be esteemed valid, every
province now refused to enforce or to permit the col-
lection of the tenth or the twentieth penny within their
limits. Dire were the threatenings and the wrath of
the viceroy, painfully protracted the renewed negotia-
tions with the estates. At last a compromise was ef-
fected and the final struggle postponed. Late in the
summer it was agreed that the provinces should pay two
millions yearly for the two following years, the term to
expire in the month of August, 1571. Till that period,
therefore, there was comparative repose upon the subject.
The question of a general pardon had been agitated for
more than a year, both in Brussels and Madrid. Viglius,
who knew his countrymen better than the viceroy knew
them, had written frequently to his friend Hopper, on the
21
322 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1569
propriety of at once proclaiming an amnesty. The presi-
dent knew full well that the point had been reached be-
yond which the force of tyranny could go no further. All
additional pressure, he felt sure, could only produce re-
action. Moreover, there were symptoms that Alva's favor
was on the wane. The King had not been remarkably
struck with the merits of the new financial measures, and
had expressed much anxiety lest the trade of the country
should suffer. The Duke was known to be desirous of his
recall. His health was broken, he felt that he was bitterly
detested throughout the country, and he was certain that
his enemies at Madrid were fast undermining his credit.
He seemed also to have a dim suspicion that his mission
was accomplished in the Netherlands ; that as much blood
had been shed at present as the land could easily absorb.
He wrote urgently and even piteously to Philip on the
subject of his return. He also assured his Majasty as to
the prosperous condition of financial affairs. His tax was
to work wonders. He had conversed with capitalists who
had offered him four millions yearly for the tenth penny,
but he had refused, because he estimated the product at a
much higher figure. The hundredth penny could not be
rated lower than five millions. It was obvious, therefore,
that instead of remitting funds to the provinces, his Maj-
esty would, for the future, derive from them a steady and
enormous income. Moreover, he assured the King that
there was at present no one to inspire anxiety from within
or without. The only great noble of note in the country
was the Duke of Aerschot, who was devoted to his Majes-
ty, and who, moreover, "amounted to very little," as the
King well knew. As for the Prince of Orange, he would
have business enough in keeping out of the clutches
of his creditors. They had nothing to fear from Ger-
many. England would do nothing as long as Germany
was quiet ; and France was sunk too low to be feared
at all.
Such being the sentiments of the Duke, the King was
already considering the propriety of appointing his suc-
cessor. All this was known to the president, who was
not only growing weary of his own sycophancy, but who
1569] AMNESTY 323
was obliged in his old age to exclaim, with whimsical
petulance, that " the faithful servant is a perpetual ass/'
It was now certain that an act of amnesty was in con-
templation by the King. Viglius had furnished several
plans, which, however, had been so much disfigured by the
numerous exceptions suggested by Alva that the presi-
dent could scarcely recognize his work. Granvelle, too, had
frequently urged the pardon on the attention of Philip.
Four different forms of pardon had been sent from Madrid
towards the close of 1569. From these four the Duke was
to select one and carefully to destroy the other three. It
was not, however, till July of the following year that the
choice was made and the viceroy in readiness to announce
the pardon. On the 14th of that month a great festival
was held at Antwerp for the purpose of solemnly pro-
claiming the long-expected amnesty. In the morning
the Duke, accompanied by a brilliant staff and by a long
procession of clergy in their gorgeous robes, paraded
through the streets of the commercial capital, to offer up
prayers and hear mass in the cathedral. The Bishop of
Arras then began a sermon upon the blessings of mercy,
with a running commentary upon the royal clemency
about to be exhibited. At the very outset, however, of
his discourse he was seized with convulsions, which neces-
sitated his removal from the pulpit — an incident which
was not considered of felicitous augury. In the after-
noon the Duke with his suite appeared upon the square
in front of the Town-house. Here a large scaffolding or
theatre had been erected. The platform, and the steps
which led to it, were covered with scarlet cloth. A throne,
covered with cloth of gold, was arranged in the most ele-
vated position for the Duke. On the steps immediately
below him were placed two of the most beautiful women
in Antwerp, clad in allegorical garments to represent
righteousness and peace. The staircase and platform were
lined with officers, the square was beset with troops and
filled to its utmost verge with an expectant crowd of
citizens. Towards the close of a summer afternoon the
Duke, wearing the famous hat and sword bestowed by
the Pope, took his seat on the throne with all the airs of
324 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1569
royalty. After a few preliminary ceremonies, a civil func-
tionary, standing between two heralds, then recited the
long-expected act of grace. His reading, however, was so
indistinct that few save the soldiers in the immediate vi-
cinity of the platform could hear a word of the document.
This effect was, perhaps, intentional. Certainly but
little enthusiasm could be expected from the crowd had
the text of the amnesty been heard. It consisted of three
parts — a recitation of the wrongs committed, a statement
of the terms of pardon, and a long list of exceptions. All
the sins of omission and commission, the heresy, the pub-
lic preaching, the image-breaking, the Compromise, the
confederacy, the rebellion, were painted in lively colors.
Pardon, however, was offered to all those who had not
rendered themselves liable to positive impeachment, in
case they should make their peace with the Church before
the expiration of two months, and by confession and re-
pentance obtain absolution. The exceptions, however,
occupied the greater part of the document. When the
general act of condemnation by which all Netherlander
were sentenced to death had been fulminated, the ex-
ceptions were very few, and all the individuals were men-
tioned by name. In the act of pardon the exceptions
comprehended so many classes of inhabitants that it was
impossible for any individual to escape a place in some one
of the categories whenever it should please the govern-
ment to take his life. Expressly excluded from the bene-
fit of the act were all ministers, teachers, dogmatizers, and
all who had favored and harbored such dogmatizers and
preachers; all those in the least degree implicated in the
image-breaking ; all who had ever been individually sus-
pected of heresy or schism; all who had ever signed or
favored the Compromise or the Petition to the Regent ; all
those who had taken up arms, contributed money, distrib-
uted tracts ; all those in any manner chargeable with mis-
prision, or who had failed to denounce those guilty of
heresy. All persons, however, who were included in any of
these classes of exceptions might report themselves within
six months, when, upon confession of their crime, they
might hope for a favorable consideration of their case.
1670] MEAGRE EFFECTS 325
Such, in brief, and stripped of its verbiage, was this
amnesty for which the Netherlands had so long been hop-
ing. By its provisions not a man or woman was pardoned
who had ever committed a fault. The innocent alone
were forgiven. The murmur and discontent were univer-
sal, therefore, as soon as the terms of the act became
known. Alva wrote to the King, to be sure, "that the
people were entirely satisfied, save only the demagogues,
who could tolerate no single exception from the amnesty";
but he could neither deceive his sovereign nor himself by
such statements. Certainly, Philip was totally disappointed
in the effect which he had anticipated from the measure.
He had thought " it would stop the mouths of many peo-
ple." On the contrary, every mouth in the Netherlands
became vociferous to denounce the hypocrisy by which a
new act of condemnation had been promulgated under the
name of a pardon. In short, viewed as a measure by which
government, without disarming itself of its terrible powers,
was to pacify the popular mind, the amnesty was a failure.
Viewed as a net by which fresh victims should be enticed
to entangle themselves, who had already made their way
into the distant atmosphere of liberty, it was equally un-
successful. A few very obscure individuals made their
appearance to claim the benefit of the act before the six
months had expired. With these it was thought expedi-
ent to deal gently, but no one was deceived by such clem-
ency. As the common people expressed themselves, the
net was not spread on that occasion for finches.
The wits of the Netherlands, seeking relief from their
wretched condition, named the new measure Pardona,
and then by a still more wretched quibble rebaptized it
Pandora. The conceit was not without meaning. The
amnesty, descending from supernal regions, had been
ushered into the presence of mortals as a messenger laden
with heavenly gifts. The casket, when opened, had dif-
fused curses instead of blessings. There, however, the
classical analogy ended, for it would have puzzled all the
pedants of Louvain to discover Hope lurking under any
disguise within the clauses of the pardon.
Towards the close of the year 1570 a tremendous inun-
326 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1570
elation swept the whole coast from Flanders to Friesland.
Not the memorable deluge of the thirteenth century, out
of which the Zuyder Zee was born ; not that in which the
waters of the Dollart had closed forever over the villages
and churches of Groningen ; not one of those perpetually
recurring floods by which the inhabitants of the Nether-
lands year after year were recalled to an anxious remem-
brance of the watery chaos out of which their fatherland
had been created, and into which it was in daily danger
of resolving itself again, had excited so much terror and
caused so much destruction. A continued and violent
gale from the northwest had long been sweeping the At-
lantic waters into the North Sea, and had now piled them
upon the fragile coasts of the provinces. The dikes, tasked
beyond their strength, burst in every direction. The cities
of Flanders to a considerable distance inland were sud-
denly invaded by the waters of the ocean. The whole nar-
row peninsula of North Holland was in imminent danger of
being swept away forever. Between Amsterdam and Mui-
den the great Diemer dike was broken through in twelve
places. The Honsbosch, a bulwark formed of oaken piles,
fastened with metal clamps, moored with iron anchors, and
secured by gravel and granite, was snapped to pieces like
packthread. The "Sleeper," a dike thus called because it
was usually left in repose by the elements, except in great
emergencies, alone held firm, and prevented the consum-
mation of the catastrophe. Still the ocean poured in upon
the land with terrible fury. Dort, Rotterdam, and many
other cities, were, for a time, almost submerged. Along
the coast, fishing-vessels, and even ships of larger size, were
floated up into the country, where they entangled them-
selves in groves and orchards, or beat to pieces the roofs
and walls of houses. The destruction of life and of prop-
erty was enormous throughout the maritime provinces, but
in Friesland the desolation was complete. There nearly all
the dikes and sluices were dashed to fragments, the coun-
try, far and wide, converted into an angry sea. The steeples
and towers of inland cities became islands of the ocean.
Thousands of human beings were swept out of existence
in a few hours. Whole districts of territory, with all their
1570] THE DELUGE 327
villages, farms, and churches, were rent from their places,
borne along by the force of the waves, sometimes to be
lodged in another part of the country, sometimes to be en-
tirely ingulfed. Multitudes of men, women, children, of
horses, oxen, sheep, and every domestic animal, were strug-
gling in the waves in every direction. Every boat and ev-
ery article which could serve as a boat were eagerly seized
upon. Every house was inundated ; even the graveyards
gave up their dead. The living infant in his cradle and
the long-buried corpse in his coffin floated side by side.
The ancient Flood seemed about to be renewed. Every-
where, upon the tops of trees, upon the steeples of churches,
human beings were clustered, praying to God f6r mercy
and to their fellow-men for assistance. As the storm at
last was subsiding, boats began to ply in every direction,
saving those who were still struggling in the water, pick-
ing fugitives from roofs and tree-tops, and collecting the
bodies of those already drowned. Colonel Eobles, Seign-
eur de Billy, formerly much hated for his Spanish or Portu-
guese blood, made himself very active in this humane work.
By his exertions, and those of the troops belonging to Gron-
ingen, many lives were rescued, and gratitude replaced the
ancient animosity. It was estimated that at least twenty
thousand persons were destroyed in the province of Fries-
land alone. Throughout the Netherlands one hundred
thousand persons perished. The damage alone to prop-
erty and the number of animals ingulfed in the sea were
almost incalculable.
These events took place on the 1st and 2d of Novem-
ber, 1570, the former date being the day of All Saints,
and the Spaniards maintained loudly that the vengeance
of Heaven had descended upon the abode of heretics. The
Netherlanders looked upon the catastrophe as ominous of
still more terrible misfortunes in store for them. They
seemed doomed to destruction by God and man. An
overwhelming tyranny had long been chafing against their
constitutional bulwarks, only to sweep over them at last ;
and now the resistless ocean, impatient of man's feeble
barriers, had at last risen to reclaim his prey. Nature, as
if disposed to put to the blush the feeble cruelty of man,
328 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1570
had thus wrought more havoc in a few hours than big-
otry, however active, could effect in many years.
Nearly at the close of this year (1570) an incident oc-
curred illustrating the ferocious courage so often engen-
dered in civil contests. On the western verge of the Isle
of Bommel stood the castle of Loevenstein, placed in a
slender hook at the junction of the two rivers, and com-
manding the two cities of Gorcum and Dorcum, and the
whole navigation of the waters. One evening towards
the end of December four monks wearing the cowls and
robes of Mendicant Gray Friars demanded hospitality at
the castle gate. They were at once ushered into the pres-
ence of the commandant, a brother of President Tisnacq.
He was standing by the fire conversing with his wife. The
foremost monk approaching him, asked whether the castle
held for the Duke of Alva or the Prince of Orange. The
castellan replied that he recognized no prince save Philip,
King of Spain. Thereupon the monk, who was no other
than Herman de Ruyter, a drover by trade and a warm
partisan of Orange, plucked a pistol from beneath his robe
and shot the commandant through the head. The others
soon made themselves masters of the place, and introduced
into the castle four or five and twenty men, with which
force they diligently set themselves to fortify the place and
secure themselves in its possession. A larger reinforce-
ment which they had reckoned upon was detained by the
floods and frosts, which, for the moment, had made the
roads and rivers alike impracticable.
Don Roderigo de Toledo, governor of Bois-le-Duc, im-
mediately despatched a certain Captain Perea, at the head
of two hundred soldiers, who were joined on the way by a
miscellaneous force of volunteers, to recover the fortress
as soon as possible. The Spaniards, by battering a breach
in the wall with their cannon on the first day, and then
escalading the inner works with remarkable gallantry upon
the second, found themselves masters of the place within
eight and forty hours of their first appearance before its
gates. Most of the defenders were either slain or captured
alive. De Ruyter alone had betaken himself to an inner
hall of the castle, where he stood at bay upon the thresh-
1670] DE RUYTER'S TRAGEDY 329
old. Many Spaniards, one after another, as they attempt-
ed to kill or to secure him, fell before his sword, which he
wielded with the strength of a giant. At last, overpowered
by numbers and weakened by the loss of blood, he re-
treated slowly into the hall, followed by many of his an-
tagonists. Here, by an unexpected movement, he applied
a match to a train of powder which he had previously laid
along the floor of the apartment. The explosion was in-
stantaneous. The tower where the contest was taking
place sprang into the air, and De Euyter with his en-
emies shared a common doom. A part of the mangled re-
mains of this heroic but ferocious patriot was afterwards
dug from the ruins of the tower, and, with impotent malice,
nailed upon the gallows at Bois-le-Duc. Of his surviving
companions, some were beheaded, some were broken on
the wheel, some were hanged and quartered — all were
executed.
CHAPTER VI
THE BEGGARS OF THE SEA CAPTURE BRILL
THE Prince of Orange, although again a wanderer, had
never allowed himself to despair. During this whole pe-
riod, the darkest hour for himself and for his country, he
was ever watchful. After disbanding his troops at Stras-
burg, and after making the best arrangements possible
under the circumstances for the eventual payment of their
wages, he had joined the army which the Duke of Deux
Fonts had been raising in Germany to assist the cause of
the Huguenots in France.
At the battle of Moncontour, Count Peter Mansfeld,
with five thousand troops sent by Alva, fought on the
side of the royalists, and Louis of Nassau on that of the
Huguenots ; atoning, by the steadiness and skill with which
he covered the retreat, for his intemperate courage, which
had precipitated the action, and perhaps been the main
cause of Coligny's overthrow. The Prince of Orange,
who had been peremptorily called to the Netherlands in
the beginning of the autumn, was not present at the
battle. Disguised as a peasant, with but five attendants,
and at great peril, he had crossed the enemy's lines, trav-
ersed France, and arrived in Germany before the winter.
Count Louis remained with the Huguenots. So neces-
sary did he seem to their cause, and so dear had he
become to their armies, that, during the severe illness of
Coligny in the course of the following summer, all eyes
were turned upon him as the inevitable successor of that
great man, the only remaining pillar of freedom in France.
Coligny recovered. The deadly peace between the Hu-
guenots and the court succeeded. The Admiral, despite
1570] BEGGARS OF THE SEA 331
his sagacity and his suspicions, embarked with his whole
party upon that smooth and treacherous current which
led to the horrible catastrophe of St. Bartholomew.
Equally deceived, and more sanguine than ever, Louis of
Nassau was indefatigable in his attempts to gain friends
for his cause. He had repeated audiences of the King of
France, to whose court he had come in disguise. He made
a strong and warm impression upon Elizabeth's envoy at
the French court, Walsingham. It is probable that in
the Count's impetuosity to carry his point he allowed
more plausibility to be given to certain projects for sub-
dividing the Netherlands than his brother would ever
have sanctioned. The Prince was a total stranger to
these inchoate schemes. His work was to set his coun-
try free and to destroy the tyranny which had grown
colossal. That employment was sufficient for a lifetime,
and there is no proof to be found that a paltry and per-
sonal self-interest had even the lowest place among his
motives.
Meantime, in the autumn of 1569, Orange had again
reached Germany. Paul Buys, Pensionary of Leyden,
had kept him constantly informed of the state of affairs
in the provinces. Through his means an extensive cor-
respondence was organized and maintained with leading
persons in every part of the Netherlands. Before his
visit to France Orange had, moreover, issued commis-
sions, in his capacity of sovereign, to various seafaring
persons, who were empowered to cruise against Spanish
commerce.
The "beggars of the sea," as these privateersmen desig-
nated themselves, soon acquired as terrible a name as the
wild beggars or the forest beggars, but the Prince, having
had many conversations with Admiral Coligny on the
important benefits to be derived from the system, had
faithfully set himself to effect a reformation of its abuses
after his return from France. Strict orders were issued
by Orange, forbidding all hostile measures against the
Emperor or any of the Princes of the empire, against
Sweden, Denmark, England, or against any potentates
who were protectors of the true Christian religion. The
332 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1670
Duke of Alva and his adherents were designated as the only
lawful antagonists. The Prince, moreover, gave minute
instructions as to the discipline to be observed in his fleet.
The articles of war were to be strictly enforced. Each
commander was to maintain a minister on board his ship,
who was to preach God's word, and to preserve Christian
piety among the crew. No one was to exercise any com-
mand in the fleet save native Netherlander, unless there-
to expressly commissioned by the Prince of Orange. All
prizes were to be divided and distributed by a prescribed
rule. No persons were to be received on board, either as
sailors or soldiers, save "folk of good name and fame."
No man who had ever been punished of justice was to be
admitted.
The Prince, however, on his return from France, had
never been in so forlorn a condition. "Orange is plainly
perishing," said one of the friends of the cause. Not
only had he no funds to organize new levies, but he was
daily exposed to the most clamorously urged claims, grow-
ing out of the army which he had been recently obliged
to disband. The obscure and the oppressed throughout
the provinces and Germany still freely contributed out of
their weakness and their poverty, and taxed themselves
beyond their means to assist enterprises for the relief of
the Netherlands. The great ones of the earth, however,
those on whom the Prince had relied, those to whom he
had given his heart — dukes, princes, and electors — in this
fatal change of his fortunes " fell away like water."
Still his spirit was unbroken. His letters showed a
perfect appreciation of his situation, and of that to which
his country was reduced; but they never exhibited a trace
of weakness or despair. A modest but lofty courage, a
pious but unaffected resignation breathed through every
document, public or private, which fell from his pen dur-
ing this epoch.
He was now obliged to attend personally to the most
minute matters of domestic economy. The man who had
been the mate of emperors, who was himself a sovereign,
who had lived his life long in pomp and luxury, sur-
rounded by countless nobles, pages, men-at-arms, and
1571] CONFERENCES ON THE TENTH PENNY 333
menials, now calmly accepted the position of an outlaw
and an exile. He cheerfully fulfilled tasks which had for-
merly devolved upon his grooms and valets.
He was always mindful, however, not only of the great
cause to which he had devoted himself, but of the wants ex-
perienced by individuals who had done him service. He
never forgot his friends. In the depth of his own misery
he remembered favors received from humble persons.
The contest between the Duke and the estates, on the
subject of the tenth and twentieth penny, had been for a
season adjusted. The two years' term, however, xluring
which it had been arranged that the tax should be com-
muted was to expire in the autumn of 1571. Early, there-
fore, in this year the disputes were renewed with greater
acrimony than ever. The estates felt satisfied that the
King was less eager than the viceroy. Viglius was satis-
fied that the power of Alva was upon the wane. While the
King was not likely openly to rebuke his recent measures,
it seemed not improbable that the governor's reiterated
requests to be recalled might be granted.
The daily meetings of the board were almost entirely
occupied by this single subject of the tax. Although since
the arrival of Alva the Council of Blood had usurped
nearly all the functions of the state and finance councils,
yet there now seemed a disposition on the part of Alva to
seek the countenance, even while he spurned the author-
ity, of other functionaries. He found, however, neither
sympathy nor obedience. The president stoutly told him
that he was endeavoring to swim against the stream, that
the tax was offensive to the people, and that the voice
of the people was the voice of God. On the last day of
July, however, the Duke issued an edict, by which sum-
mary collection of the tenth and twentieth penny was
ordered. The whole country was immediately in uproar.
The estates of every province, the assemblies of every city,
met and remonstrated. The merchants suspended all busi-
ness, the petty dealers shut up their shops. The people
congregated together in masses, vowing resistance to the
illegal and cruel impost. Not a farthing was collected.
No man saluted the governor as he passed through the
334 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1571
streets. Hardly an attempt was made by the people to
disguise their abhorrence of his person. Alva, on his side,
gave daily exhibitions of ungovernable fury. The firm
attitude of the president increased the irritation of the
viceroy, but shortly afterwards the Duke gave orders
that the tenth penny should be remitted upon four great
articles — corn, meat, wine, and beer. It was also not to
be levied upon raw materials used in manufactures.
Certainly these were very important concessions. Still
the constitutional objections remained. Alva could not
be made to understand why the alcdbala, which was raised
without difficulty in the little town of Alva, should en-
counter such fierce opposition in the Netherlands. The
estates, he informed the King, made a great deal of
trouble. They withheld their consent at command of
their satrap. The motive which influenced the leading
men was not the interest of factories or fisheries, but the
fear that for the future they might not be able to dictate the
law to their sovereign. The people of that country, he ob-
served, had still the same character which had been de-
scribed by Julius Caesar.
The Duke, however, did not find much sympathy at
Madrid. Courtiers and councillors had long derided his
schemes. As for the King, his mind was occupied with
more interesting matters. Philip lived but to enforce
what he chose to consider the will of God. While the
Duke was fighting this battle with the Netherlands con-
stitutionalists, his master had engaged at home in a secret
but most comprehensive scheme. This was a plot to as-
sassinate Queen Elizabeth of England, and to liberate
Mary Queen of Scots, who was to be placed on the throne
in her stead.
One Ridolfi, a Florentine long resident in England, had
been sent to the Netherlands as secret agent of the Duke
of Norfolk. Alva read his character immediately, and
denounced him to Philip as a loose, prating creature,
utterly unfit to be intrusted with affairs of importance.
Philip, however, welcomed the agent of the conspiracy to
Madrid, listened to his disclosures attentively, and, with-
out absolutely committing himself by direct promises,
1671] PHILIP'S PLOT AGAINST ELIZABETH 335
dismissed him with many expressions of encouragement.
Long despatches were then exchanged between the Duke
and the King concerning this iniquitous scheme.
Alva never positively refused to accept his share in the
scheme to murder the Queen of England through assas-
sination at the hands of Koberto Kidolfi. The enterprise
came to naught. Alva's objections from the first were
military, not moral. He took care not to lift his finger
till the catastrophe in England had made all attempts
futile. Philip, on the other hand, never positively with-
drew from the conspiracy, but, after an infinite deal of
writing and intriguing, concluded by leaving the whole
affair in the hands of Alva. The only sufferer for Philip's
participation in the plot was the Spanish envoy at London,
Don Gueran de Espes. This gentleman was formally dis-
missed by Queen Elizabeth for having given treacherous
and hostile advice to the Duke of Alva and to Philip, but
her Majesty at the same time expressed the most profound
consideration for her brother of Spain.
Towards the close of the same year, however (December,
1571), Alva sent two other Italian assassins to England,
bribed by the promise of vast rewards, to attempt the life
of Elizabeth quietly, by poison or otherwise. These ruff-
ians were not destined to success. Eighteen months later
(August, 1573), two Scotchmen, pensioners of Philip, came
from Spain, with secret orders to consult with Alva. They
had accordingly much negotiation with the Duke and his
secretary, Albornoz. They boasted that they could easily
capture Elizabeth, but said that the King's purpose was to
kill her.
On the 25th of September, 1571, a commission of govern-
or-general of the Netherlands was at last issued to John
de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Cosli. Philip, in compliance
with the Duke's repeated requests, and perhaps not en-
tirely satisfied with the recent course of events in the
provinces, had at last, after great hesitation, consented to
Alva's resignation. His successor, however, was not im-
mediately to take his departure, and in the mean time the
Duke was instructed to persevere in his faithful services.
These services had, for the present, reduced themselves
336 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1571
to a perpetual and not very triumphant altercation with
his council, with the estates, and with the people, on the
subject of his abominable tax. He was entirely alone.
They who had stood unflinchingly at his side when the
only business of the administration was to burn heretics,
turned their backs upon him now that he had engaged in
this desperate conflict with the whole money power of the
country. The King was far from cordial in his support,
the councillors much too crafty to retain their hold upon
the wheel to which they had only attached themselves in
its ascent. Vigiius and Berlaymont, Noircarmes and Aer-
schot, opposed and almost defied the man they now thought
sinking, and kept the King constantly informed of the
vast distress which the financial measures of the Duke
were causing.
During the course of this same year the Prince of Or-
ange had been continuing his preparations. He had sent
his agents to every place where a hope was held out to him
of obtaining support. Money was what he was naturally
most anxious to obtain from individuals ; open and war-
like assistance what he demanded from governments. His
funds, little by little, were increasing, owing to the gen-
erosity of many obscure persons, and to the daring ex-
ploits of the beggars of the sea. His mission, however,
to the northern courts had failed. His envoys had been
received in Sweden and Denmark with barren courtesy.
Granvelle had already recommended that the young
Count de Buren should be endowed with certain lands in
Spain, in exchange for his hereditary estates, in order
that the name and fame of the rebel William should be
forever extinguished in the Netherlands. With the same
view, a new sentence against the Prince of Orange was
now proposed by the viceroy. This was to execute him
solemnly in effigy, to drag his escutcheon through the
streets at the tails of horses, and after having broken
it in pieces, and thus cancelled his armorial bearings, to
declare him and his descendants ignoble, infamous, and
incapable of holding property or estates.
Not discouraged, the Prince continued to send his emis-
saries in every direction. Diedrich Sonoy, his most trust-
1572] ALAVA AND ALVA 337
worthy agent, who had been chief of the legation to the
northern courts, was now actively canvassing the govern-
ments and peoples of Germany with the same object.
Several remarkable papers from the hand of Orange were
used upon this service. A letter, drawn up and signed
by his own hand, recited in brief and striking language
the history of his campaign in 1568, and of his subsequent
efforts in the sacred cause. It was now necessary, he said,
that others besides himself should partake of his sacri-
fices. This he stated plainly and eloquently. The docu-
ment was in truth a letter asking arms for liberty.
These urgent appeals did not remain fruitless. The
strength of the Prince was slowly but steadily increasing.
Meantime the abhorrence with which Alva was universally
regarded had nearly reached to frenzy. In the beginning of
the year 1572, Don Francis de Alava, Philip's ambassador
in France, visited Brussels. He had already been enlight-
ened as to the consequences of the Duke's course by the
immense immigration of Netherlands refugees to France,
which he had witnessed with his own eyes.
The ambassador did not wait till he could communicate
with his sovereign by word of mouth. He forwarded to
Spain an ample account of his observations and deductions.
He painted to Philip in lively colors the hatred entertained
by all men for the Duke. The whole nation, he assured
his Majesty, united in one cry, " Let him begone, let him
begone, let him begone I" As for the imposition of the
tenth penny, that, in the opinion of Don Francis, was ut-
terly impossible. He moreover warned his Majesty that
Alva was busy in forming secret alliances with the Catholic
princes of Europe, which would necessarily lead to defen-
sive leagues among the Protestants.
While thus, during the earlier part of the year 1572,
the Prince of Orange, discouraged by no defeats, was in-
defatigable in his exertions to maintain the cause of liber-
ty, and while at the same time the most stanch supporters
of arbitrary power were unanimous in denouncing to Philip
the insane conduct of the viceroy, the letters of Alva him-
self were naturally full of complaints and expostulations.
The deputations appointed by the different provinces to
22
338
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1572
confer personally with the King received a reprimand
upon their arrival for having dared to come to Spain
without permission. Further punishment, however, than
this rebuke was not inflicted. They were assured that the
King was highly displeased with their venturing to bring
remonstrances against the tax, but they were comforted
with the assurance that his Majesty would take the sub-
ject of their petition into consideration. Thus, the ex-
pectations of Alva were disappointed, for the tenth penny
was not formally confirmed, and the hopes of the prov-
inces frustrated, because it was not distinctly disavowed.
Matters had reached another crisis in the provinces.
"Had we money now/' wrote the Prince of Orange, "we
should, with the help of God, hope to effect something.
This is a time when, with even small sums, more can be
effected than at other seasons with ampler funds." The
citizens were in open revolt against the tax. In order that
the tenth penny should not be levied upon every sale of
goods, the natural but desperate remedy was adopted — no
goods were sold at all. Not only the wholesale commerce
of the provinces was suspended, but the minute and in-
dispensable traffic of daily life was entirely at a stand. The
shops were all shut. " The brewers," says a contemporary,
"refused to brew, the bakers to bake, the tapsters to tap."
Multitudes, thrown entirely out of employment, and wholly
dependent upon charity, swarmed in every city. The
soldiery, furious for their pay, which Alva had for many
months neglected to furnish, grew daily more insolent ;
the citizens, maddened by outrage and hardened by de-
spair, became more and more obstinate in their resistance;
while the Duke, rendered inflexible by opposition and in-
sane by wrath, regarded the ruin which he had caused
with a malignant spirit which had long ceased to be
human.
The aspect of the capital was that of a city stricken with
the plague. Articles of the most absolute necessity could
not be obtained. It was impossible to buy bread or meat
or beer. The tyrant, beside himself with rage at being
thus braved in his very lair, privately sent for Master Carl,
the executioner. In order to exhibit an unexpected and
1672J THE REFUGEES EXPELLED FROM ENGLAND 339
salutary example, he had determined to hang eighteen of
the leading tradesmen of the city in the doors of their own
shops, with the least possible delay, and without the slight-
est form of trial. Master Carl was ordered, on the very
night of his interview with the Duke, to prepare eighteen
strong cords, and eighteen ladders, twelve feet in length.
By this simple arrangement Alva was disposed to make
manifest on the morrow, to the burghers of Brussels, that
justice was thenceforth to be carried to every man's door.
He supposed that the spectacle of a dozen and a half of
butchers and bakers suspended in front of the shops which
they had refused to open would give a more effective
stimulus to trade than any to be expected from argument
or proclamation. The hangman was making ready his
cords and ladders ; Don Frederic of Toledo was closeted
with President Viglius, who, somewhat against his will,
was aroused at midnight to draw the warrants for these
impromptu executions ; Alva was waiting with grim im-
patience for the dawn upon which the show was to be ex-
hibited, when an unforeseen event suddenly arrested the
homely tragedy. In the night arrived the intelligence
that the town of Brill had been captured by the beggars
of the sea.
Driven by Elizabeth from the ports of England, twenty-
four vessels of various sizes, commanded by Van der Marck,
Treslong, Adam van Haren, Brand, and other distinguished
seamen, set sail from Dover in the very last days of March.
Being almost in a state of starvation, these adventurers
were naturally anxious to supply themselves with food.
They determined to make a sudden foray upon the coasts
of North Holland, and accordingly steered for Enkhuizen,
both because it was a rich seaport and because it contained
many secret partisans of the Prince. On Palm Sunday
they captured two Spanish merchantmen. Soon after-
wards, however, the wind becoming contrary, they were
unable to double The Helder or Texel, and on Tuesday,
the 1st of April, having abandoned their original inten-
tion, they dropped down towards Zeeland, and entered
the broad mouth of the river Maas. Between the town
of Brill, upon the southern lip of this estuary, and Maas-
340 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
landsluis, about half a league distant, upon the opposite
side, the squadron suddenly appeared at about two o'clock
of an April afternoon, to the great astonishment of the in-
habitants of both places. It seemed too large a fleet to be
a mere collection of trading-vessels, nor did they appear
to be Spanish ships. Peter Koppelstok, a sagacious ferry-
man, informed the passengers whom he happened to be
conveying across the river that the strangers were evident-
ly the water beggars. The stout ferryman, who was se-
cretly favorable to the cause of liberty, rowed boldly out
to inquire the destination and purposes of the fleet.
The vessel which he first hailed was that commanded by
William de Blois, Seigneur of Treslong, who at once recog-
nized Koppelstok, and hastened with him on board the
Admiral's ship, assuring Van der Marck that the ferryman
was exactly the man for their purpose. It was absolutely
necessary that a landing should be effected, for the people
were without the necessaries of life. Treslong, therefore,
who was really the hero of this memorable adventure, per-
suaded Van der Marck to send a message to the city of Brill,
demanding its surrender. This was a bold summons to
be made by a handful of men, three or four hundred at
most, who were, both metaphorically and literally, beggars.
The city of Brill was not populous, but it was well walled
and fortified. It was, moreover, a most commodious port.
Treslong gave his signet ring to the fisherman, Koppel-
stok, and ordered him, thus accredited as an envoy, to
carry their summons to the magistracy.
With some difficulty two deputies were found suffi-
ciently valiant to go forth to negotiate with the beggars.
Two hours were given to the magistrates for decision, at
the end of which the whole rebel force was divided into
two parties, one of which, under Treslong, made an attack
upon the southern gate, while the other, commanded by
the Admiral, advanced upon the northern. Treslong after
a short struggle succeeded in forcing his entrance, and
arrested, in doing so, the governor of the city, just taking
his departure. Van der Marck and his men made a bonfire
at the northern gate, and then battered down the half-
burned portal with the end of an old mast. Thus rudely
1572] THE FOUNDATION-STONE 341
and rapidly did the Netherland patriots conduct their first
successful siege. The two parties, not more perhaps than
two hundred and fifty men in all, met before sunset in
the centre of the city, and the foundation of the Dutch
Republic was laid. The weary spirit of freedom, so long
a fugitive over earth and sea, had at last found a rest-
ing-place, which rude and even ribald hands had pre-
pared.
The panic created by the first appearance of the fleet
had been so extensive that hardly fifty citizens had re-
mained in the town. The rest had all escaped, with as
much property as they could carry away. The Admiral,
in the name of the Prince of Orange, as lawful stad-
holder of Philip, took formal possession of an almost de-
serted city. No indignity was offered to the inhabitants
of either sex, but as soon as the conquerors were fairly
established in the best houses of the place, the inclina-
tion to plunder the churches could no longer be restrained.
The altars and images were all destroyed, the rich furni-
ture and gorgeous vestments appropriated to private use.
Thirteen unfortunate monks and priests, who had been
unable to effect their escape, were arrested and thrown
into prison, whence they were taken a few days later, by
order of the ferocious Admiral, and executed under cir-
cumstances of great barbarity.
The news of this important exploit spread with great
rapidity. Alva, surprised at the very moment of venting
his rage on the butchers and grocers of Brussels, deferred
this savage design in order to deal with the new diffi-
culty. He had certainly not expected such a result from
the ready compliance of Queen Elizabeth with his request.
His rage was excessive; the triumph of the people, by
whom he was cordially detested, proportionably great.
The punsters of Brussels were sure not to let such an op-
portunity escape them, for the name of the captured town
was susceptible of a quibble, and the event had taken
place upon All-Fools' Day.
I
"On April-Fool's Day,
Duke Alva's spectacles were stolen away,"
342 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
became a popular couplet. The word spectacles, in Flem-
ish, as well as the name of the suddenly surprised city,
being Brill, this allusion to the Duke's loss and implied
purblindness was not destitute of ingenuity. A carica-
ture, too, was extensively circulated, representing Van der
Marck stealing the Duke's spectacles from his nose, while
the governor was supposed to be uttering his habitual ex-
pression whenever any intelligence of importance was
brought to Mm — "No es nada,no es nada"('Tis nothing,
'tis nothing).
The Duke, however, lost not an instant in attempting
to repair the disaster. Count Bossu, gathering a force of
some ten companies from the garrison of Utrecht, some of
which very troops had recently, and unluckily for the gov-
ernment, been removed from Brill to that city, the Count
crossed the Sluis to the island of Voorn upon Easter Day,
and sent a summons to the rebel force to surrender Brill.
The patriots being very few in number, were at first afraid
to venture outside the gates to attack the much superior
force of their invaders. A carpenter, however, who be-
longed to the city, but had long been a partisan of Orange,
dashed into the water with his axe in his hand, and, swim-
ming to the Nieuwland sluice, hacked it open with a few
vigorous strokes. The sea poured in at once, making the
approach to the city upon the north side impossible.
Bossu then led his Spaniards along the Nieuwland dike to
the southern gate, where they were received with a warm
discharge of artillery, which completely staggered them.
Meantime Treslong and Roobol had, in the most daring
manner, rowed out to the ships which had brought the
enemy to the island, cut some adrift, and set others on
fire. The Spaniards at the southern gate caught sight
of their blazing vessels, saw the sea rapidly rising over
the dike, became panic -struck at being thus enclosed
between fire and water, and dashed off in precipitate re-
treat along the slippery causeway and through the slimy
and turbid waters, which were fast threatening to over-
whelm them. Many were drowned or smothered in their
flight, but the greater portion of the force effected their
escape in the vessels which still remained within reach.
1572] BRILL PLUNDERED 343
This danger averted, Admiral Van der Marck summoned all
the inhabitants, a large number of whom had returned to
the town after the capture had been fairly established,
and required them, as well as all the population of the
island, to take an oath of allegiance to the Prince of
Orange as stadholder for his Majesty.
The Prince had not been extremely satisfied with the
enterprise of Van der Marck. He thought it premature,
and doubted whether it would be practicable to hold the
place, as he had not yet completed his arrangements in
Germany, nor assembled the force with which he intended
again to take the field. More than all, perhaps, he had
little confidence in the character of his Admiral. Orange
was right in his estimate of Van der Marck. It had not
been that rover's design either to take or to hold the
place ; and after the descent had been made, the ships
victualled, the churches plundered, the booty secured, and
a few monks murdered, he had given orders for the burn-
ing of the town and for the departure of the fleet. The
urgent solicitations of Treslong, however, prevailed, with
some difficulty, over Van der Marck's original intentions.
It is to that bold and intelligent noble, therefore, more
than to any other individual, that the merit of laying this
corner-stone of the Batavian commonwealth belongs. The
enterprise itself was an accident, but the quick eye of
Treslong saw the possibility of a permanent conquest
where his superior dreamed of nothing beyond a piratical
foray.
Meantime Bossu, baffled in his attempt upon Brill, took
his way towards Eotterdam. It was important that he
should at least secure such other cities as the recent suc-
cess of the rebels might cause to waver in their allegiance.
He found the gates of Rotterdam closed. The authori-
ties refused to comply with his demand to admit a garri-
son for the King. Professing perfect loyalty, the inhabi-
tants very naturally refused to admit a band of sangui-
nary Spaniards to enforce their obedience. Compelled to
parley, Bossu resorted to a perfidious stratagem. He re-
quested permission for his troops to pass through the city
without halting. This was granted by the magistrates, on
344 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
condition that only a corporal's command should be ad-
mitted at a time. To these terms the Count affixed his
hand and seal. With the admission, however, of the first
detachment, a violent onset was made upon the gate by the
whole Spanish force. The towns-people, not suspecting
treachery, were not prepared to make effective resistance.
A stout smith, confronting the invaders at the gate
almost singly with his sledge-hammer, was stabbed to
the heart by Bossu with his own hand. The soldiers hav-
ing thus gained admittance, rushed through the streets,
putting every man to death who offered the slightest re-
sistance. Within a few minutes four hundred citizens
were murdered. The fate of the women, abandoned now
to the outrage of a brutal soldiery, was worse than death.
The capture of Botterdam is infamous for the same crimes
which blacken the record of every Spanish triumph in the
Netherlands.
The important town of Flushing, on the isle of Wal-
cheren, was first to vibrate with the patriotic impulse
given by the success at Brill. The Seigneur de Erpt, a
warm partisan of Orange, excited the burghers assembled
in the market-place to drive the small remnant of the
Spanish garrison from the city. A little later upon the
same day a considerable reinforcement arrived before the
walls. The Duke had determined, although too late, to
complete the fortress which had been commenced long
before to control the possession of this important position
at the mouth of the western Scheldt. The troops who
were to resume this too long intermitted work arrived
just in time to witness the expulsion of their comrades.
De Erpt easily persuaded the burghers that the die was
cast, and that their only hope lay in a resolute resistance.
The people warmly acquiesced, while a half-drunken, half-
witted fellow in the crowd valiantly proposed, in consider-
ation of a pot of beer, to ascend the ramparts and to dis-
charge a couple of pieces of artillery at the Spanish ships.
The offer was accepted, and the vagabond, merrily mount-
ing the height, discharged the guns. Strange to relate,
the shot thus fired by a lunatic's hand put the invading
ships to flight. A sudden panic seized the Spaniards, the
1672] FATE OF PACHECO 345
whole fleet stood away at once in the direction of Mid-
delburg, and were soon out of sight.
The patriot party, however, was not so strong in soldiers
as in spirit. No sooner, therefore, had they established
their rebellion to Alva as an incontrovertible fact than they
sent off emissaries to the Prince of Orange and to Admiral
Van der Marck at Brill. Finding that the inhabitants of
Flushing were willing to provide arms and ammunition,
Van der Marck readily consented to send a small number
of men, bold and experienced in partisan warfare, of whom
he had now collected a larger number than he could well
arm or maintain in his present position.
The detachment, two hundred in number, in three small
vessels, set sail accordingly from Brill for Flushing; and
a wild crew they were of reckless adventurers, under com-
mand of the bold Treslong. The expedition seemed a fierce
but whimsical masquerade. Every man in the little fleet
was attired in the gorgeous garments of the plundered
churches — in cassocks of varied hue, glittering vest-
ments, or the more sombre cowls and robes of Capuchin
friars. So sped the early standard - bearers of that fero-
cious liberty which had sprung from the fires in which all
else for which men cherish their fatherland had been con-
sumed. So swept that resolute but fantastic band along
the placid estuaries of Zeeland, waking the stagnant waters
with their wild beggar songs and cries of vengeance.
That vengeance found soon a distinguished object. Pa-
checo, the chief engineer of Alva, who had accompanied
the Duke in his march from Italy, who had since earned a
world-wide reputation as the architect of the Antwerp cit-
adel, had been just despatched in haste to Flushing to
complete the fortress whose construction had been so long
delayed. Too late for his work, too soon for his safety,
the ill-fated engineer had arrived almost at the same mo-
ment with Treslong and his crew. He was seized, impris-
oned, and hanged on the day of his arrival.
So perished miserably a brave soldier, and one of the
most distinguished engineers of his time ; a man whose
character and accomplishments had certainly merited for
him a better fate. But while we stigmatize as it deserves the
346 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
atrocious conduct of a few Netherland partisans, we should
remember who first unchained the demon of international
hatred in this unhappy land, nor should it ever be forgotten
that the great leader of the revolt, by word, proclamation,
example, by entreaties, threats, and condign punishment,
constantly rebuked, and to a certain extent restrained,
the sanguinary spirit by which some of his followers dis-
graced the noble cause which they had espoused.
Treslong did not long remain in command at Flushing.
An officer high in the confidence of the Prince, Jerome
Tseraerts, now arrived at Flushing with a commission to
be lieutenant-governor over the whole isle of Walcheren.
He was attended by a small band of French infantry, while
at nearly the same time the garrison was further strength-
ened by the arrival of a large number of volunteers from
England.
CHAPTER VII
COUNT LOUIS, THE HUGUENOTS, AND ST. BARTHOLOMEW
THE example thus set by Brill and Flushing was rapidly
followed. Instantly afterwards, half the island of Wal-
cheren renounced the yoke of Alva. Next, Enkhuizen, the
key to the Zuyder Zee, the principal arsenal, and one of
the first commercial cities in the Netherlands, rose against
the Spanish Admiral, and hung out the banner of Orange
on its ramparts. Oudewater, Dort, Haarlem, Leyden, Gor-
cum, Loevenstein, Gouda, Medenblik, Horn, Alkmaar,
Edam, Monnikendam, Purmerende, as well as Flushing,
Veer, and Enkhuizen, all ranged themselves under the gov-
ernment of Orange, as lawful stadholder for the King.
Nor was it in Holland and Zeeland alone that the beacon
fires of freedom were lighted. City after city in Gelder-
land, Overyssel, and the See of Utrecht ; all the important
towns of Friesland — some sooner, some later ; some with-
out a struggle, some after a short siege ; some with resist-
ance by the functionaries of government, some by amica-
ble compromise — accepted the garrisons of the Prince, and
formally recognized his authority. Out of the chaos which
a long and preternatural tyranny had produced, the first
struggling elements of a new and a better world began to
appear. It were superfluous to narrate the details which
marked the sudden restoration of liberty in these various
groups of cities. Traits of generosity marked the change
of government in some, circumstances of ferocity disfigured
the revolution in others. The island of Walcheren, equal-
ly divided as it was between the two parties, was the scene
of much truculent and diabolical warfare.
In other parts of the country the revolution was, on the
348
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1572
whole, accomplished with comparative calmness. Even
traits of generosity were not uncommon.
A new board of magistrates had been chosen in all the
redeemed cities by popular election. They were required
to take an oath of fidelity to the King of Spain, and to
the Prince of Orange as his stadholder ; to promise re-
sistance to the Duke of Alva, the tenth penny, and the
inquisition ; "to support every man's freedom and the
welfare of the country ; to protect widows, orphans, and
miserable persons, and to maintain justice and truth."
Diedrich Sonoy arrived on the 2d of June at Enkhuizen.
He was provided by the Prince with a commission ap-
pointing him lieutenant-governor of North Holland, or
Waterland. Thus, to combat the authority of Alva was
set up the authority of the King. The stadholderate
over Holland and Zeeland, to which the Prince had been
appointed in 1559, he now resumed. Upon this fiction
reposed the whole provisional polity of the revolted Neth-
erlands. To recover practical liberty and their histori-
cal rights, and to shake from their shoulders a most
sanguinary government, was the purpose of William and
of the people. No revolutionary standard was displayed.
The written instructions given by the Prince to his
lieutenant, Sonoy, were to "see that the Word of God
was preached, without, however, suffering any hinderance
to the Roman Church in the exercise of its religion ; to re-
store fugitives and the banished for conscience sake, and
to require of all magistrates and officers of guilds and
brotherhoods an oath of fidelity." The Prince likewise
prescribed the form of that oath, repeating therein, to
his eternal honor, the same strict prohibition of intol-
erance. " Likewise/' said the formula, " shall those of
' the religion ' offer no let or hinderance to the Roman
churches."
The Prince was still in Germany, engaged in raising
troops and providing funds. He directed, however, the
affairs of the insurgent provinces in their minutest de-
tails, by virtue of the dictatorship inevitably forced upon
him both by circumstances and by the people. In the
mean time Louis of Nassau, the Bayard of the Nether-
1572]
ALVA'S ASTONISHMENT
349
lands, captured the important city of Mons. This town,
the capital of Hainault, situated in a fertile, undulating,
and beautiful country, protected by lofty walls, a triple
moat, and a strong citadel, was one of the most flourish-
ing and elegant places in the Netherlands. It was, more-
over, from its vicinity to the frontiers of France, a most
important acquisition to the insurgent party. The capt-
ure had been accomplished by a most clever stratagem
after a larger number of adherents within the city had
already been secured. Soon a garrison of five thousand
Huguenots gained entrance into the city.
Thus the Duke of Alva suddenly found himself exposed
to a tempest of revolution. One thunderbolt after another
seemed descending around him in breathless succession.
Nevertheless, he preserved his courage, if not his temper.
Blinded for a brief season by the rapid attacks made upon
him, he had been uncertain whither to direct his ven-
geance. This last blow, in so vital a quarter as Mons,
determined him at once. He forthwith despatched Don
Frederic to undertake the siege of Mons, and earnestly
set about raising large reinforcements to his army. Don
Frederic took possession, without much opposition, of the
Bethlehem cloister in the immediate vicinity of the city,
and with four thousand troops began the investment in
due form.
On the 10th of June the Duke of Medina Coeli, with a
fleet of more than forty sail, arrived off Blankenburg,
intending to enter the Scheldt. Julian Eomero, with two
thousand Spaniards, was also on board the fleet. Noth-
ing, of course, was known to the new-comers of the al-
tered condition of affairs in the Netherlands, nor of the
unwelcome reception which they were likely to meet in
Flushing. A few of the lighter craft having been taken
by the patriot cruisers, the alarm was spread through all
the fleet. Medina Coeli, with a few transports, was enabled
to effect his escape to Sluis, whence he hastened to Brus-
sels in a much less ceremonious manner than he had orig-
inally contemplated. Twelve Biscayan ships stood out to
sea, descried a large Lisbon fleet, by a singular coinci-
dence suddenly heaving in sight, changed their course
350 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
again, and with a favoring breeze bore boldly up the Hond,
passed Flushing in spite of a severe cannonade from the
forts, and eventually made good their entrance into Ram-
mekens, whence the soldiery, about one-half of whom had
thus been saved, were transferred at a very critical mo-
ment to Middelburg.
The great Lisbon fleet followed in the wake of the Bis-
cayans with much inferior success. Totally ignorant of
the revolution which had occurred in the isle of Walcheren,
it obeyed the summons of the rebel fort to come to anchor,
and, with the exception of three or four, the vessels were
all taken. It was the richest booty which the insurgents
had yet acquired by sea or land. The fleet was laden with
spices, money, jewelry, and the richest merchandise.
Five hundred thousand crowns of gold were taken, and it
was calculated that the plunder altogether would suffice
to maintain the war for two years at least. One thousand
Spanish soldiers, and a good amount of ammunition, were
also captured. The unexpected condition of affairs made
a pause natural and almost necessary, before the govern-
ment could be decorously transferred. Medina Cceli, with
Spanish grandiloquence, avowed his willingness to serve
as a soldier, under a general whom he so much venerated,
while Alva ordered that, in all respects, the same outward
marks of respect should be paid to his appointed successor
as to himself. Beneath all this external ceremony, how-
ever, much mutual malice was concealed.
Meantime the Duke, who was literally " without a sin-
gle real," was forced at last to smother his pride in the
matter of the tenth penny. On the 24th of June he sum-
moned the estates of Holland to assemble on the 15th of
the ensuing month. In the missive issued for this pur-
pose he formally agreed to abolish the whole tax, on con-
dition that the, estates-general of the Netherlands would
furnish him with a yearly supply of two millions of florins.
Almost at the same moment the King had dismissed the
deputies of the estates from Madrid with the public as-
surance that the tax was to be suspended, and a private
intimation that it was not abolished in terms only in or-
der to save the dignity of the Duke.
15721 THE CONGRESS AT DORT 351
These healing measures came entirely too late. The es-
tates of Holland met, indeed, on the appointed day of
July, but they assembled not in obedience to Alva, but in
consequence of a summons from William of Orange. They
met, too, not at The Hague, but at Dort, to take formal
measures for renouncing the authority of the Duke. The
first congress of the Netherland commonwealth still pro-
fessed loyalty to the crown, but was determined to accept
the policy of Orange without a question.
The Prince had again assembled an army in Germany,
consisting of fifteen thousand foot and seven thousand
horse, besides a number of Netherlander, mostly Walloons,
amounting to nearly three thousand more. Before taking
the field, however, it was necessary that he should guar-
antee at least three months' pay to his troops. This he
could no longer do, except by giving bonds endorsed by cer-
tain cities of Holland as his securities. He had accordingly
addressed letters in his own name to all the principal cities,
fervently adjuring them to remember, at last, what was
due to him, to the fatherland, and to their own character.
The King's authority was invoked against himself in
the person of the Prince of Orange, to whom, thirteen
years before, a portion of that divine right had been dele-
gated. The estates of Holland met at Dort on the 15th of
July as representatives of the people, but they were sum-
moned by Orange, royally commissioned in 1559 as stad-
holder, and therefore the supreme legislative and execu-
tive officer of certain provinces. This was the theory of
the provisional government. The Prince represented the
royal authority, the nobles represented both themselves
and the people of the open country, while the twelve cities
represented the whole body of burghers. Together they
were supposed to embody all authority, both divine and
human, which a congress could exercise. Thus the whole
movement was directed against Alva and against Count
Bossu, appointed stadholder by Alva in the place of Or-
ange. Philip's name was destined to figure for a long time
at the head of documents by which moneys were raised,
troops levied, and taxes collected, all to be used in deadly
war against himself.
352 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [15^
The estates were convened on the loth of July, when
Paul Buys, Pensionary of Leyden, the tried and confiden-
tial friend of Orange, was elected Advocate of Holland.
The convention was then adjourned till the 18th, when
Saint- Aldegonde made his appearance, with full powers
to act provisionally in behalf of his Highness.
The distinguished plenipotentiary delivered before the
congress a long and very effective harangue. His impas-
sioned eloquence produced a profound impression. The
men who had obstinately refused the demands of Alva
now unanimously resolved to pour forth their gold and
their blood at the call of Orange. It was resolved that
the requisite amount should be at once raised, partly from
the regular imposts and current "requests," partly by
loans from the rich, from the clergy, from the guilds and
brotherhoods, partly from superfluous church ornaments
and other costly luxuries. It was directed that subscrip-
tions should be immediately opened throughout the land,
that gold and silver plate, furniture, jewelry, and other
expensive articles should be received by voluntary con-
tributions, for which inventories and receipts should be
given by the magistrates of each city, and that upon these
money should be raised, either by loan or sale. An en-
thusiastic and liberal spirit prevailed. All seemed de-
termined, rather than pay the tenth to Alva, to pay the
whole to the Prince.
The Prince was, in reality, clothed with dictatorial and
even regal powers. This authority had been forced upon
him by the prayers of the people, but he manifested no
eagerness as he partly accepted the onerous station. He
was provisionally the depositary of the whole sovereignty
of the northern provinces, but he cared much less for
theories of government than for ways and means. So little
was he disposed to strengthen his own individual power
that he voluntarily imposed limits on himself, by an act,
supplemental to the proceedings of the Congress of Dort.
In this important ordinance made by the Prince of Orange
as a provisional form of government, he publicly announced
"that he would do and ordain nothing except by the advice
of the estates, by reason that they were best acquainted
1572] GENLIS ROUTED 353
with the circumstances and the humors of the inhabitants."
He directed the estates to appoint receivers for all public
taxes, and ordained that all military officers should make
oath of fidelity to him, as stadholder, and to the estates of
Holland, to be true and obedient, in order to liberate the
land from the Albanian and Spanish tyranny, for the ser-
vice of his royal Majesty as Count of Holland. The pro-
visional constitution, thus made by a sovereign Prince and
actual dictator, was certainly as disinterested as it was
sagacious.
The war which had opened vigorously in Hainault proved
disastrous to the Huguenots, while Don Frederic held the
city closely beleaguered. Lonis sent word to Genlis, who
was approaching with reinforcements, urging him to effect
first a junction with the Prince of Orange, who had already
crossed the Rhine. Genlis, who wanted all the glory of
relieving the city, disregarded this advice. His rashness
proved his ruin. On the 19th of July, within two degrees
of the city, he was surprised by Don Frederic and his
troops were cut to pieces. Genlis was captured and after-
wards strangled in Antwerp. About one hundred foot
soldiers succeeded in making their entrance into Mons,
and this was all the succor which Count Louis was destined
to receive from France, upon which country he had built
such lofty and such reasonable hopes.
While this unfortunate event was occurring, the Prince
had already put his army in motion. On the 7th of July
he had crossed the Rhine at Duisburg with fourteen thou-
sand foot, seven thousand horse — enlisted in Germany — be-
sides a force of three thousand Walloons. On the 23d of
July he took the city of Roermonde after a sharp cannon-
ade, at which place his troops already began to disgrace
the honorable cause in which they were engaged by imi-
tating the cruelties and barbarities of their antagonists.
The Prince was delayed for a month at Roermonde, be-
cause, as he expressed it, "he had not a single sou," and
because, in consequence, the troops refused to advance
into the Netherlands. Having at last been furnished with
the requisite guarantees from the Holland cities for three
months' pay, on the 27th of August, the day of the publi-
23
354 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
cation of his letter to the Emperor, he crossed the Meuse
and took his circuitous way through Diest, Tirlemont,
Sichem, Louvain, Mechlin, Termonde, Oudenarde, and Ni-
velles. Many cities and villages accepted his authority and
admitted his garrisons. Louvain purchased its neutrality
for the time with sixteen thousand ducats ; Brussels ob-
stinately refused to listen to him, and was too powerful to
be forcibly attacked at that juncture; other important
cities, convinced by the arguments and won by the elo-
quence of the various proclamations which he scattered as
he advanced, ranged themselves spontaneously and even
enthusiastically upon his side. How different would have
been the result of his campaign but for the unexpected
earthquake which at that instant was to appall Christen-
dom and to scatter all his well-matured plans and legiti-
mate hopes. His chief reliance, under Providence and
his own strong heart, had been upon French assistance.
On the llth of August, Coligny had written hopefully
of his movements towards the Netherlands, sanctioned
and aided by his King. A fortnight from that day oc-
curred the "Paris wedding"; and the Admiral, with thou-
sands of his religious confederates, invited to confidence
by superhuman treachery, and lulled into security by the
music of august marriage-bells, was suddenly butchered in
the streets of Paris by royal and noble hands.
The Prince proceeded on his march, during which the
heavy news had been brought to him, but he felt con-
vinced that, with the very arrival of the awful tidings, the
fate of that campaign was sealed, and the fall of Mons in-
evitable. In his own language, he had been struck to the
earth " with the blow of a sledge-hammer," — nor did the
enemy draw a different augury from the great event.
On the llth of September, Don Frederic, with a force
of four thousand picked men, established himself at Saint
Florian, a village near the Havre gate of Mons, while the
Prince had encamped at Hermigny, within half a league
of the same place, whence he attempted to introduce re-
inforcements into the town. On the night of the llth
and 12th, Don Frederic hazarded an. encamisada upon the
enemy's camp, which proved eminently successful, and
1572] AN ENCAMISADA 355
had nearly resulted in the capture of the Prince himself.
A chosen band of six hundred arquebusiers, attired, as was
customary in these nocturnal expeditions, with their shirts
outside their armor, that they might recognize each other
in the darkness, were led by Julian Eomero within the
lines of the enemy. The sentinels were cut down, the
whole army surprised, and, for a moment, powerless, while,
for two hours long, from one o'clock in the morning until
three, the Spaniards butchered their foes, hardly aroused
from their sleep, ignorant by how small a force they had
been thus suddenly surprised, and unable in the confusion
to distinguish between friend and foe. The boldest, led
by Julian in person, made at once for the Prince's tent.
His guards and himself were in profound sleep, but a small
spaniel, which always passed the night upon his bed, was
a more faithful sentinel. The creature sprang forward,
barking furiously at the sound of hostile footsteps and
scratching his master's face with his paws. There was but
just time for the Prince to mount a horse, which was ready
saddled, and to effect his escape through the darkness be-
fore his enemies sprang into the tent. His servants were
cut down, his master of the horse and two of his secreta-
ries, who gained their saddles a moment later, all lost their
lives, and but for the little dog's watchfulness William of
Orange, upon whose shoulders the whole weight of his
country's fortunes depended, would have been led within
a week to an ignominious death. Afterwards to his dying
day the Prince kept a spaniel of the same race in his
bedchamber. The midnight slaughter still continued,
but the Spaniards in their fury set fire to the tents. The
glare of the conflagration showed the Orangists by how
paltry a force they had been surprised. Before they could
rally, however, Eomero led off his arquebusiers, every one
of whom had at least killed his man. Six hundred of the
Prince's troops had been put to the sword, while many
others were burned in their beds, or drowned in the little
rivulet which flowed outside their camp. Only sixty Span-
iards lost their lives.
This disaster did not alter the plans of the Prince, for
those plans had already been frustrated. The whole mar-
356
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1572
row of his enterprise had been destroyed in an instant
by the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. He retreated to
Peronne and Nivelles, an assassin named Heist, a Ger-
man by birth but a French chevalier, following him se-
cretly in his camp, pledged to take his life for a large
reward promised by Alva — an enterprise not destined,
however, to be successful. The soldiers flatly refused to
remain an hour longer in the field, or even to furnish an
escort for Count Louis, if, by chance, he could be brought
out of the town. The Prince was obliged to inform his
brother of the desperate state of his affairs, and to advise
him to capitulate on the best terms which he could make.
With a heavy heart he left the chivalrous Louis besieged
in the city which he had so gallantly captured, and took
his way across the Meuse towards the Rhine. A furious
mutiny broke out among his troops. His life was with
difficulty saved from the brutal soldiery — infuriated at
his inability to pay them, except in the overdue securi-
ties of the Holland cities — by the exertions of the officers,
who still regarded him with veneration and affection.
Crossing the Rhine at Orsoy, he disbanded his army and
betook himself, almost alone, to Holland.
Yet even in this hour of distress and defeat the Prince
seemed more heroic than many a conqueror in his day of
triumph. With all his hopes blasted, with the whole fab-
ric of his country's fortunes shattered by the colossal crime
of his royal ally, he never lost his confidence in himself
nor his unfaltering trust in God. All the cities which, but
a few weeks before, had so eagerly raised his standard, now
fell off at once. He went to Holland, the only province
which remained true, and which still looked up to him as
its saviour, but he went thither expecting and prepared to
perish. " There I will make my sepulchre," was his simple
and sublime expression in a private letter to his brother.
Meanwhile Count Louis lay confined to his couch with
a burning fever. His soldiers refused any longer to hold
the city, now that the altered intentions of Charles the
Ninth were known and the forces of Orange withdrawn.
Alva offered the most honorable conditions, and it was
therefore impossible for the Count to make longer resist-
1572] THE MONS COUNCIL OF BLOOD 357
ance. The city was so important, and time was at that
moment so valuable, that the Duke was willing to forego
his vengeance upon the rebel whom he so cordially de-
tested, and to be satisfied with depriving him of the prize
which he had seized with such audacity. Out of policy,
Count Louis was received with studied courtesy by the
two Dukes. The capitulation was made late at night, on
the 20th of September, without the provision which Charles
the Ninth had hoped for — namely, the massacre of De la
Noue and his companions. The city was evacuated on the
21st of September. Alva entered it upon the 24th. Most
of the volunteers departed with the garrison, but many
who had most unfortunately prolonged their farewells to
their families, trusting to the word of the Spanish Captain
Molinos, were thrown into prison. Noircarmes, the butcher
of Valenciennes, now made his appearance in Mons. As
grand bailiff of Hainault, he came to the place as one in
authority, and his deeds were now to complete the infamy
which must forever surround his name. In brutal viola-
tion of the terms upon which the town had surrendered,
he now set about the work of massacre and pillage. A
Commission of Troubles, in close imitation of the famous
Council of Blood at Brussels, was established, the members
of the tribunal being appointed by Noircarmes, and all be-
ing inhabitants of the town. The council commenced
proceedings by condemning all the volunteers, although
expressly included in the capitulation. The work of hang-
ing, burning, beheading, and confiscation went on day af-
ter day, month after month. Till the 27th of August of
the following year (1573) the executioner never rested,
and when Requesens, successor to Alva, caused the prisons
of Mons to be opened, there were found still seventy-five
individuals condemned to the block and awaiting their
fate.
The Spaniards had thus recovered Mons, by which event
the temporary revolution throughout the whole southern
Netherlands was at an end. The keys of that city un-
locked the gates of every other in Brabant and Flanders.
The towns which had so lately embraced the authority of
Orange now hastened to disavow the Prince and to return
358
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1572
to their ancient, hypocritical, and cowardly allegiance.
The new oaths of fidelity were in general accepted by
Alva, but the beautiful archiepiscopal city of Mechlin was
selected for an example and a sacrifice.
There were heavy arrears due to the Spanish troops. To
indemnify them, and to make good his blasphemous proph-
ecy of Divine chastisement for its past misdeeds, Alva
now abandoned this town to the license of his soldiery.
By his command Don Frederic advanced to the gates and
demanded its surrender. Early next morning there issued
from the gates a solemn procession of priests, with banner
and crozier, followed by a long and suppliant throng of
citizens, who attempted by this demonstration to avert the
wrath of the victor. While the penitential psalms were
resounding the soldiers were busily engaged in heaping
dried branches and rubbish in the moat. Before the re-
ligious exercises were concluded, thousands had forced
the gates or climbed the walls, and entered the city with
a celerity which only the hope of rapine could inspire.
The sack instantly commenced. The property of friend
and foe, of papist and Calvinist, was indiscriminately rifled.
Everything was dismantled and destroyed.
Three days long the city was abandoned to that trinity
of furies which ever wait upon War's footsteps — Murder,
Lust, and Eapine — under whose promptings human beings
become so much more terrible than the most ferocious
beasts. In his letter to his master, the Duke congratu-
lated him upon these foul proceedings as upon a pious
deed well accomplished.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MASSACRES AT ZUTPHEN", KAARDEN", AND HAARLEM
WHILE thus Brabant and Flanders were scourged back
to the chains which they had so recently broken, the af-
fairs of the Prince of Orange were not improving in Zee-
land. Never was a twelvemonth so marked by contradic-
tory fortune ; never were the promises of a spring followed
by such blight and disappointment in autumn than in the
memorable year 1572. On the island of Walcheren, Mid-
delburg and Arnemuyden still held for the King — Camp-
veer and Flushing for the Prince of Orange. On the
island of South Beveland, the city of Goes, or Tergoes,
was still stoutly defended by a small garrison of Spanish
troops. As long as the place held out, the city of Middel-
burg could be maintained. Should that important city
fall, the Spaniards would lose all hold upon Walcheren
and the province of Zeeland.
Jerome Tseraerts, a brave, faithful, but singularly un-
lucky officer, commanded for the Prince in Walcheren.
He had attempted by various hastily planned expeditions
to give employment to his turbulent soldiery, but fortune
had refused to smile upon his efforts. He now assembled
a force of seven thousand men, marched again to Tergoes,
and upon the 26th of August laid siege to the place in
form. Alva ordered D'Avila, who commanded in Ant-
werp, to throw succor into Tergoes without delay. At-
tempts were made, by sea and by land, to this effect, but
were all unsuccessful. The Zeelanders commanded the
waters with their fleet, and were too much at home among
those gulfs and shallows not to be more than a match for
their enemies. Baffled in their attempt to relieve the
360 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
town by water or by land, the Spaniards conceived an
amphibious scheme. Their plan led to one of the most
brilliant feats of arms which distinguishes the history of
this war.
Captain Blomaert, a Fleming of great experience and
bravery, warmly attached to the King's cause, conceived
the plan of sending reinforcements across the Drowned
Land between the island of South Beveland and the main-
land. Accompanied by two peasants of the country well
acquainted with the track, he twice accomplished the
dangerous and difficult passage, which, from dry land to
dry land, was nearly ten English miles in length, through
water which was five feet deep at low tide. Having thus
satisfied himself as to the possibility of the enterprise, he
laid his plan before the Spanish colonel Mondragon.
That courageous veteran eagerly embraced the proposal,
examined the ground, anu, after consultation with Sancho
d'Avila, resolved to lead in person an expedition along
the path suggested by Blomaert. Three thousand picked
men — a thousand from each nation, Spaniards, Walloons,
and Germans, were speedily and secretly assembled at
Bergen -op -Zoom, from the neighborhood of which city,
at a place called Agger, it was necessary that the expedi-
tion should set forth. A quantity of sacks were provided,
in which a supply of biscuit and of powder was placed, one
to be carried by each soldier upon his head. Although it
was already late in the autumn, the weather was propi-
tious ; the troops, not yet informed as to the secret enter-
prise for which they had been selected, were already as-
sembled at the edge of the water, and Mondragon, who,
notwithstanding his age, had resolved upon heading the
hazardous expedition, now briefly, on the evening of the
20th of October, explained to them the nature of the ser-
vice. His statement of the dangers which they were about
to encounter rather inflamed than diminished their ardor.
Their enthusiasm became unbounded as he described the
importance of the city which they were about to save, and
alluded to the glory which would be won by those who
thus courageously came forward to its rescue. The time
of about half ebb - tide having arrived, the veteran, pre-
1572] EXPEDITION TO RELIEVE TERGOES 361
ceded only by the guides and Blomaert, plunged gayly
into the waves, followed by his army, almost in single file.
The water was never lower than the breast, often higher
than the shoulders. The distance to the island, three and
a half leagues at least, was to be accomplished within, at
most, six hours, or the rising tide would overwhelm them
forever. And thus, across the quaking and uncertain
slime, which often refused them a footing, that adventu-
rous band pursued their night march, five hours long,
sometimes swimming for their lives, and always struggling
with the waves, which every instant threatened to ingulf
them.
Before the tide had risen to more than half -flood, before
the day had dawned, the army set foot on dry land again,
at the village of Yerseke. Of the whole three thousand,
only nine unlucky individuals had been drowned ; so much
had courage and discipline availed in that dark and peril-
ous passage through the very bottom of the sea. A panic
broke out among the patriots as the Spanish fell upon a
foe much superior in number to their own force. It was
impossible for Tseraerts to induce his soldiers to offer re-
sistance. They fled precipitately and ignominiously to
their ships, hotly pursued by the Spaniards, who overtook
and destroyed the whole of their rear guard before they
could embark. This done, the gallant little garrison,
which had so successfully held the city, was reinforced
with the courageous veterans who had come to their re-
lief. His audacious project thus brilliantly accomplished,
the " good old Mondragon," as his soldiers called him, re-
turned to the province of Brabant.
After the capture of Mons and the sack of Mechlin,
the Duke of Alva had taken his way to Nimwegen, having
despatched his son, Don Frederic, to reduce the northern
and eastern country, which was only too ready to submit
to the conqueror. Very little resistance was made by any
of the cities which had so recently, and with such enthu-
siasm, embraced the cause of Orange. Zutphen attempted
a feeble opposition to the entrance of the King's troops,
and received a dreadful chastisement in consequence.
Alva sent orders to his son to leave not a single man alive
362 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
in the city, and to burn every house to the ground. The
Duke's command was almost literally obeyed. Don Fred-
eric entered Zutphen, and without a moment's warning
put the whole garrison to the sword. The citizens next
fell a defenceless prey — some being stabbed in the streets,
some hanged on the trees which decorated the city, some
stripped stark naked and turned out into the fields to
freeze to death in the wintry night. As the work of death
became too fatiguing for the butchers, five hundred inno-
cent burghers were tied two and two, back to back, and
drowned like dogs in the river Yssel. A few stragglers
who had contrived to elude pursuit at first, were after-
wards taken from their hiding places and hanged upon
the gallows by the feet, some of which victims suffered four
days and nights of agony before death came to their relief.
It is superfluous to add that the outrages upon women
were no less universal in Zutphen than they had been in
every city captured or occupied by the Spanish troops.
These horrors continued till scarcely chastity or life re-
mained throughout the miserable city.
Count Van den Berg, another brother-in-law of Or-
ange, proving himself signally unworthy of the illustrious
race to which he was allied, basely abandoned the field
where he had endeavored to gather laurels while the sun
of success had been shining. With his flight all the
cities which, under his guidance, had raised the standard
of Orange deserted the cause at once. No rebellion
being left, except in the northwestern extremities of the
Netherlands, Don Frederic was ordered to proceed from
Zutphen to Amsterdam, thence to undertake the conquest
of Holland. The little city of Naarden, on the coast of
the Zuyder Zee, lay in his path, and had not yet formally
submitted.
Early in December, Don Frederic reached Bussem with
his army. The deputation of citizens commissioned to
surrender the city was met on the way by Julian Eomero.
He demanded the keys of the city, and gave the deputa-
tion a solemn pledge that the lives and property of all the
inhabitants should be sacredly respected. To attest this
assurance, Don Julian gave his hand three several times
1572] THE NAARDEN BUTCHERY 363
to Lambert Hortensius. A soldier's word thus plighted,
the commissioners, without exchanging any written docu-
ments, surrendered the keys, and immediately afterwards
accompanied Komero into the city, who was soon followed
by five or six hundred musketeers.
To give these guests a hospitable reception, all the
house-wives of the city at once set about preparations for
a sumptuous feast, to which the Spaniards did ample
justice, while the colonel and his officers were entertained
by Senator Gerrit at his own house. As soon as this con-
viviality had come to an end, Eomero, accompanied by
his host, walked into the square. The great bell had been
meantime ringing, and the citizens had been summoned
to assemble in the Gast Huis Church, then used as a town-
hall. In the course of a few minutes five hundred had
entered the building, and stood quietly awaiting whatever
measures might be offered for their deliberation. Sud-
denly a priest, who had been pacing to and fro before the
church door, entered the building, and bade them all pre-
pare for death ; but the announcement, the preparation,
and the death, were simultaneous. The door was flung
open, and a band of armed Spaniards rushed across the
sacred threshold. They fired a single volley upon the de-
fenceless herd, and then sprang in upon them with sword
and dagger. A yell of despair arose as the miserable vic-
tims saw how hopelessly they were engaged and beheld
the ferocious faces of their butchers. The carnage within
that narrow space was compact and rapid. Within a few
minutes all were despatched, and among them Senator
Gerrit, from whose table the Spanish commander had but
just risen. The church was then set on fire, and the dead
and dying were consumed to ashes together.
Inflamed but not satiated, the Spaniards then rushed
into the streets, thirsty for fresh horrors. The houses
were all rifled of their contents, and men were forced to
carry the booty to the camp, who were then struck dead
as their reward. The town was then fired in every direc-
tion, that the skulking citizens might be forced from their
hiding-places. As fast as they came forth they were put
to death by their impatient foes. Some were pierced with
364 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
rapiers, some were chopped to pieces with axes, some were
surrounded in the blazing streets by troops of laughing
soldiers, intoxicated, not with wine but with blood, who
tossed them to and fro with their lances, and derived a
wild amusement from their dying agonies. Those who
attempted resistance were crimped alive like fishes, and
left to gasp themselves to death in lingering torture. The
soldiers becoming more and more insane as the foul work
went on, opened the veins of some of their victims and
drank their blood as if it were wine. Some of the burghers
were for a time spared that they might witness the vio-
lation of their wives and daughters, and were then butch-
ered in company with these still more unfortunate victims.
Miracles of brutality were accomplished. Neither church
nor hearth was sacred. Men were slain, women outraged
at the altars, in the streets, in their blazing homes.
Nearly all the inhabitants of Naarden, soldiers and citi-
zens, were thus destroyed ; and now Don Frederic issued
peremptory orders that no one, on pain of death, should
give lodging or food to any fugitive. He likewise forbade
to the dead all that could now be forbidden them — a grave.
Three weeks long did these unburied bodies pollute the
streets, nor could the few wretched women who still cow-
ered within such houses as had escaped the flames ever
move from their lurking-places without treading upon the
festering remains of what had been their husbands, their
fathers, or their brethren. Shortly afterwards came an
order to dismantle the fortifications, which had certainly
proved sufficiently feeble in the hour of need, and to raze
what was left of the city from the surface of the earth.
The work was faithfully accomplished, and for a long time
Naarden ceased to exist.
After the army which the Prince had so successfully
led to the relief of Mons had been disbanded, he had
himself repaired to Holland. He had come to Kampen
shortly before its defection from his cause. Thence he had
been escorted across the Zuyder Zee to Enkhuizen. He
came to that province, the only one which through good am
ill report remained entirely faithful to him, not as a con-
queror, but as an unsuccessful, proscribed man. But there
1672] MANCEUVRES ON THE ICE 365
were warm hearts beating within those cold lagoons, and
no conqueror returning from a brilliant series of victories
could have been received with more affectionate respect
than William in that darkest hour of the country's his-
tory. He had but seventy horsemen at his back, all that
remained of the twenty thousand troops which he had a
second time levied in Germany, and he felt that it would
be at that period hopeless for him to attempt the forma-
tion of a third army. He had now come thither to share
the fate of Holland, at least, if he could not accomplish
her liberation. He went from city to city, advising with
the magistracies and with the inhabitants, and arranging
many matters pertaining both to peace and war. At Haar-
lem the States of the Provinces, according to his request,
had been assembled. The assembly begged him to lay
before them, if it were possible, any schemes and means
which he might have devised for further resistance to the
Duke of Alva. Thus solicited, the Prince, in a very se-
cret session, unfolded his plans, and satisfied them as to
the future prospects of the cause.
After the conclusion of the sack and massacre of Naar-
den, Don Frederic had hastened to Amsterdam, where
the Duke was then quartered, that he might receive the
paternal benediction for his well-accomplished work. The
royal approbation was soon afterwards added to the ap-
plause of his parent, and the Duke was warmly congratu-
lated in a letter written by Philip as soon as the murder-
ous deed was known, that Don Frederic had so plainly
shown himself to be his father's son. There was now
more work for father and son.
The King's representative, Bossn, had formally pro-
claimed the extermination of man, woman, and child in
every city which opposed his authority, but the promul-
gation and practice of such a system had an opposite
effect to the one intended. The hearts of the Hollanders
were rather steeled to resistance than awed into submis-
sion by the fate of Naarden. A fortunate event, too, was
accepted as a lucky omen for the coming contest. A little
fleet of armed vessels, belonging to Holland, had been
frozen up in the neighborhood of Amsterdam. Don
366 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
Frederic, on his arrival from Naarden, despatched a body
of picked men over the ice to attack the imprisoned ves-
sels. The crews had, however, fortified themselves by
digging a wide trench around the whole fleet, which thus
became for the moment an almost impregnable fortress.
Out of this frozen citadel a strong band of well-armed and
skilful musketeers sallied forth upon skates as the be-
sieging force advanced. A rapid, brilliant, and slippery
skirmish succeeded, in which the Hollanders, so accus-
tomed to such sports, easily vanquished their antagonists
and drove them off the field, with the loss of several hun-
dred left dead upon the ice. " 'Twas a thing never heard
of before to-day," said Alva, " to see a body of arquebus-
iers thus skirmishing upon a frozen sea." In the course
of the next four-and-twenty hours a flood and a rapid
thaw released the vessels, which all escaped to Enkhuizen,
while a frost, immediately and strangely succeeding, made
pursuit impossible.
The Spaniards were astonished at these novel mano3uvres
upon the ice. It is amusing to read their elaborate de-
scriptions of the wonderful appendages which had ena-
bled the Hollanders to glide so glibly into battle with a
superior force, and so rapidly to glance away after achiev-
ing a signal triumph. Nevertheless, the Spaniards could
never be dismayed, and were always apt scholars, even if
an enemy were the teacher. Alva immediately ordered
seven thousand pairs of skates, and his soldiers soon
learned to perform military evolutions with these new
accoutrements as audaciously, if not as adroitly, as the
Hollanders.
Haarlem, over whose ruins the Spanish tyranny intended
to make its entrance into Holland, lay in the narrowest
part of that narrow isthmus which separates the Zuyder
Zee from the German Ocean. The distance from sea to
sea is hardly five English miles across.
The city was one of the largest and most beautiful in
the Netherlands. It was also one of the weakest. The
walls were of antique construction, turreted, but not
strong. The extent and feebleness of the defences made
a large garrison necessary, but, unfortunately, the garrison
1572] HAARLEM INVESTED 307
was even weaker than the walls. The city's main reliance
was on the stout hearts of the inhabitants. The streets
were, for that day, spacious and regular, the canals
planted with limes and poplars. The ancient church of
St. Bavon, a large, imposing structure of brick, stood
almost in the centre of the place, the most prominent
object not only of the town but of the province, visible
over leagues of sea and of land more level than the sea,
and seeming to gather the whole quiet little city under
its sacred and protective wings. Its tall, open-work, leaden
spire was surmounted by a colossal crown, which an ex-
alted imagination might have regarded as the emblematic
guerdon of martyrdom held aloft over the city, to reward
its heroism and its agony.
It was at once obvious that the watery expanse between
Haarlem and Amsterdam would be the principal theatre
of the operations about to commence. The siege was
soon begun. On the 10th of December, Don Frederic
sent a strong detachment to capture the fort and village
of Spaarndam, as an indispensable preliminary to the
commencement of the siege. A peasant having shown
Zapata, the commander of the expedition, a secret passage
across the flooded and frozen meadows, the Spaniards
stormed the place gallantly, routed the whole garrison,
killed three hundred, and took possession of the works
and village. Next day Don Frederic appeared before the
walls of Haarlem, and proceeded regularly to invest the
place. The misty weather favored his operations, nor did
he cease reinforcing himself until at least thirty thousand
men, including fifteen hundred cavalry, had been en-
camped around the city. The Germans, under Count
Overstein, were stationed in a beautiful and extensive
grove of limes and beeches, which spread between the
southern walls and the shore of Haarlem Lake. Don
Frederic, with his Spaniards, took up a position on the
opposite side, at a place called the House of Kleef, the
ruins of which still remain. The Walloons and other
regiments were distributed in different places, so as com-
pletely to encircle the town. On the edge of the mere
the Prince of Orange had already ordered a cluster of
368 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1572
forts to be erected, by which the command of its frozen
surface was at first secured for Haarlem. In the course
of the siege, however, other forts were erected by Don
Frederic, so that the aspect of things suffered a change.
The garrison numbered about one thousand pioneers
or delvers, three thousand fighting men, and about three
hundred fighting women. The last was a most efficient
corps, all females of respectable character, armed with
sword, musket, and dagger. Their chief, Kenau Has-
selaer,* was a widow of distinguished family and unblem-
ished reputation, about forty-seven years of age, who, at
the head of her amazons, participated in many of the most
fiercely contested actions of the siege, both within and
without the walls. When such a spirit animated the
maids and matrons of the city, it might be expected that
the men would hardly surrender the place without a
struggle. The Prince had assembled a force of three or
four thousand men at Leyden, which he sent before the
middle of December towards the city, under the command
of Van der Marck. These troops were, however, attacked
on the way by a strong detachment under Bossu, Noir-
carmes, and Eomero. After a sharp action in a heavy
snow-storm, Van der Marck was completely routed. One
thousand of his soldiers were cut to pieces, and a large
number carried off as prisoners to the gibbets, which were
already conspicuously erected in the Spanish camp, and
which from the commencement to the close of the siege
were never bare of victims. Among the captives was a
gallant officer, Baptist van Trier, for whom Van der Marck
* Kenau van Hasselaer, who figures so largely in art and song, and whose
statue, with hat, sword, and spear, adorns more than one Dutch city, is a
historic personage. After undue exaggeration of popular enthusiasm, and
the embroidery of the original story at the hands of orators and fiction-
writers, the sceptic and critical historian have laid " the legend " on the
dissecting-table in the antiseptic, " bacteria-vrij " atmosphere appropriate
to the literary surgeon, who is anxious to remove parasitic or morbid
growths. The result of Dutch researches is to place Kenau van Hasselaer
on the solid ground of history. A wood-cut, dated 1673, represents in
picture what the latest historian, Dr. P. J. Blok, says in his text, " met
eeiie vrouwenscheen onder aanvoering van de vurige Kenau Hasselaer aan
de verdeding een werkzaam aandeel nam." Vol. III., page 117.
1572] FIRST CANNONADE OF HAARLEM 369
in vain offered two thousand crowns and nineteen Span-
ish prisoners. The proposition was refused with con-
tempt. Van Trier was hanged upon the gallows by one
leg until he was dead, in return for which barbarity the
nineteen Spaniards were immediately gibbeted by Van der
Marck. With this interchange of cruelties the siege may
be said to have opened.
Don Frederic had stationed himself in a position oppo-
site to the Gate of the Cross, which was not very strong,
but fortified by a ravelin. Intending to make a very short
siege of it, he established his batteries immediately, and
on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of December directed a furi-
ous cannonade against the Cross Gate, the St. John's
Gate, and the curtain between the two. Six hundred and
eighty shots were discharged on the first, and nearly as
many on each of the two succeeding days. The walls
were much shattered, but men, women, and children
worked night and day within the city, repairing the
breaches as fast as made. They brought bags of sand,
blocks of stone, cart-loads of earth from every quarter,
and they stripped the churches of all their statues, which
they threw by heaps into the gaps. After three days'
cannonade the assault was ordered, Don Frederic only
intending a rapid massacre, to crown his achievements
at Zutphen and Naarden. The place, he thought, would
fall in a week, and after another week of sacking, killing,
and ravishing, he might sweep on until Holland was
overwhelmed.
Eomero advanced to the breach, followed by a numer-
ous storming party, but met with a resistance which as-
tonished the Spaniards. The church bells rang the alarm
throughout the city, and the whole population swarmed
to the walls. The besiegers were encountered not only
with sword and musket, but with every implement which
the burghers' hands could find. Heavy stones, boiling
oil, live coals, were hurled upon the heads of the soldiers ;
hoops, smeared with pitch and set on fire, were dexter-
ously thrown upon their necks. Even Spanish courage
and Spanish ferocity were obliged to shrink before the
steady determination of a whole population animated by
24
370 HISTORY OF T1IE NETHERLANDS [1572
a single spirit. Romero lost an eye in the conflict, many
officers were killed and wounded, and three or four hun-
dred soldiers left dead in the breach, while only three or
four of the townsmen lost their lives. The signal of recall
was reluctantly given, and the Spaniards abandoned the
assault. Don Frederic was now aware that Haarlem would
not fall at his feet at the first sound of his trumpet.
Meantime the Prince of Orange, from his headquarters
at Sassenheim, on the southern extremity of the mere,
made a fresh effort to throw succor into the place. Two
thousand men, with seven field-pieces and many wagon-
loads of munitions, were sent forward under Batenburg.
This officer had replaced Van der Marck, whom the Prince
had at last deprived of his commission. The reckless and
unprincipled freebooter was no longer to serve a cause
which was more sullied by his barbarity than it could be
advanced by his desperate valor. Batenburg's expedition
was, however, not more successful than the one made by
his predecessor. The troops, after reaching the vicinity
of the city, lost their way in the thick mists which almost
perpetually enveloped the scene. Cannons were fired,
fog-bells were rung, and beacon-fires were lighted on the
ramparts, but the party was irretrievably lost. The Span-
iards fell upon them before they could find their way to
the city. Many were put to the sword, others made their
escape in different directions ; a very few succeeded in
entering Haarlem. Batenburg brought off a remnant of
the forces, but all the provisions, so much needed, were
lost, and the little army entirely destroyed.
De Koning, the second in command, was among the
prisoners. The Spaniards cut off his head and threw it
over the walls into the city, with this inscription : " This
is the head of Captain de Koning, who is on his way with
reinforcements for the good city of Haarlem." The citi-
zens retorted with a practical jest which was still more
barbarous. They cut off the heads of eleven prisoners and
put them into a barrel, which they threw into the Spanish
camp. A label upon the barrel contained these words :
" Deliver these ten heads to Duke Alva in payment of his
tenpennv tax, with one additional head for interest.3
\
1573] SUBTERRANEAN WARFARE 371
With such ghastly merriment did besieged and besiegers
vary the monotonous horror of that winter's siege. As
the sallies and skirmishes were of daily occurrence,, there
was a constant supply of prisoners upon whom both par-
ties might exercise their ingenuity, so that the gallows in
camp or city was perpetually garnished.
Since the assault of the 21st of December, Don Frederic
had been making his subterranean attack by regular ap-
proaches. As fast, however, as the Spaniards mined, the
citizens countermined. Spaniard and Netherlander met
daily in deadly combat within the bowels of the earth.
Desperate and frequent were the struggles within gang-
ways so narrow that nothing but daggers could be used,
so obscure that the dim lanterns hardly lighted the death-
stroke. They seemed the conflicts not of men but of
evil spirits. Nor were these hand-to-hand battles all. A
shower of heads, limbs, mutilated trunks, the mangled
remains of hundreds of human beings often spouted from
the earth as if from an invisible volcano. The mines were
sprung with unexampled frequency and determination.
Still the Spaniards toiled on with undiminished zeal, and
still the besieged, undismayed, delved below their works
and checked their advance by sword and spear and hor-
rible explosions.
The Prince of Orange, meanwhile, encouraged the citi-
zens to persevere by frequent promises of assistance. His
letters, written on extremely small bits of paper, were
sent into the town by carrier-pigeons. On the 28th of
January he despatched a considerable supply of the two
necessaries, powder and bread, on one hundred and sev-
enty sledges across the Haarlem Lake, together with four
hundred veteran soldiers'. The citizens continued to con-
test the approaches to the ravelin before the Cross Gate,
but it had become obvious that they could not hold it long.
Secretly, steadfastly, and swiftly they had, therefore, dur-
ing the long wintry nights, been constructing a half-
moon of solid masonry on the inside of the same portal.
Old men, feeble women, tender children, united with the
able-bodied to accomplish this work, by which they ho»ed
still to maintain themselves after the ravelin had
372 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
On the 31st of January, after two or three days' can-
nonade against the gates of the Cross and of St. John,
and the intervening curtains, Don Frederic ordered a mid-
night assault. The besieged, as before, defended them-
selves with musket and rapier, with melted pitch, with
firebrands, with clubs and stones. After morning prayers
in the Spanish camp, the trumpet for a general assault
was sounded. A tremendous onset was made upon the
Gate of the Cross, and the ravelin was carried at last. The
Spaniards poured into this fort, so long the object of their
attack, expecting instantly to sweep into the city with
sword and fire. As they mounted its wall they became
for the first time aware of the new and stronger fortifica-
tion which had been secretly constructed on the inner
side. The reason why the ravelin had been at last con-
ceded was revealed. The half-moon, whose existence they
had not suspected, rose before them bristling with cannon.
A sharp fire was instantly opened upon the besiegers, while
at the same instant the ravelin, which the citizens had
undermined, blew up with a severe explosion, carrying
into the air all the soldiers who had just entered it so
triumphantly. This was the turning-point. The retreat
was sounded and the Spaniards fled to their camp, leav-
ing at least three hundred dead beneath the walls.
It was now resolved that Haarlem should be reduced by
famine. Still, as the winter wore on, the immense army
without the walls were as great sufferers by that scourge
as the population within. The soldiers fell in heaps be-
fore the diseases engendered by intense cold and insuf-
ficient food, for, as usual in such sieges, these deaths far
outnumbered those inflicted by the enemy's hand. The
sufferings inside the city necessarily increased day by
day, the whole population being put on a strict allowance
of food. Their supplies were daily diminishing, and with
the approach of the spring and the thawing of the ice on
the lake, there was danger that they would be entirely
cut off. If the possession of the water were lost, they
must yield or starve ; and they doubted whether the Prince
would be able to organize a fleet. The gaunt spectre of
famine already rose before them with a menace which
1573] A BRILLIANT SALLY 373
could not be misunderstood. In their misery they longed
for the assaults of the Spaniards, that they might look in
the face of a less formidable foe. They paraded the ram-
parts daily, with drums beating, colors flying, taunting
the besiegers to renewed attempts. To inflame the relig-
ious animosity of their antagonists, they attired themselves
in the splendid gold-embroidered vestments of the priests,
which they took from the churches, and moved about in
mock procession, bearing aloft images bedizened in ec-
clesiastical finery, relics, and other symbols, sacred in
Catholic eyes, which they afterwards hurled from the
ramparts, or broke, with derisive shouts, into a thousand
fragments.
In one outbreak the Haarlemers, under cover of a thick
fog, marched up to the enemy's chief battery, and at-
tempted to spike the guns before his face. They were all
slain at the cannon's month, whither patriotism, not vain-
glory, had led them, and lay dead around the battery, with
their hammers and spikes in their hands. The same spirit
was daily manifested. As the spring advanced, the kine
went daily out of the gates to their peaceful pasture, not-
withstanding all the turmoil within and around ; nor was it
possible for the Spaniards to capture a single one of these
creatures without paying at least a dozen soldiers as its
price. "These citizens," wrote Don Frederic, "do as
much as the best soldiers in the world could do/'
The combats before the walls were of almost daily oc-
currence. On the 25th of March one thousand of the
besieged made a brilliant sally, drove in all the outposts
of the enemy, burned three hundred tents, and captured
seven cannon, nine standards, and many wagon-loads of
provisions, all which they succeeded in bringing with them
into the city. Having thus reinforced themselves, in a
manner not often practised by the citizens of a belea-
guered town, in the very face of thirty thousand veterans
— having killed eight hundred of the enemy, which was
nearly one for every man engaged, while they lost but
four of their own party — the Haarlemers, on their return,
erected a trophy of funereal but exulting aspect. A mound
of earth was constructed upon the ramparts, in the form
374 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
of a colossal grave, in full view of the enemy's camp, and
upon it were planted the cannon and standards so gal-
lantly won in the skirmish, with the taunting inscription
floating from the centre of the mound — " Haarlem is the
graveyard of the Spaniards."
The Spaniards had been reinforced both by land and
water, but the Prince of Orange had, on the other hand,
provided more than one hundred sail of various descrip-
tions, so that naval skirmishes took place almost daily.
At last, on the 28th of May, a decisive engagement of the
fleets took place. The vessels grappled with each other,
and there was a long, fierce, hand-to-hand combat. Under
Bossu were one hundred vessels ; under Martin Brand,
admiral of the patriot fleet, nearly one hundred and fifty,
but of lesser dimensions. Batenburg commanded the
troops on board the Dutch vessels. After a protracted
conflict, in which several thousands were killed, the vic-
tory was decided in favor of the Spaniards. Twenty-two
of the Prince's vessels being captured, and the rest totally
routed, Bossu swept across the lake in triumph. The
forts belonging to the patriots were immediately taken,
and the Haarlemers, with their friends, entirely excluded
from the lake.
This was the beginning of the end. Despair took pos-
session of the city. The whole population had been long
subsisting upon an allowance of a pound of bread to each
man, and half a pound for each woman ; but the bread
was now exhausted, the famine had already begun, and,
with the loss of the lake, starvation was close at their doors.
They sent urgent entreaties to the Prince to attempt some-
thing in their behalf. Three weeks more they assigned
as the longest term during which they could possibly hold
out. He sent them word by carrier-pigeons to endure yet
a little time, for he was assembling a force, and would
still succeed in furnishing them with supplies. Mean-
time, through the month of June, the sufferings of the in-
habitants increased hourly. Men, women, and children
fell dead by scores in the streets, perishing of pure star-
vation, and the survivors had hardly the heart or the
strength to bury them out of their sight. They who yet
MODKLS OF SHIPS IN GKOOTE KERK, HAARLEM
1573] EXPEDITION TO RELIEVE 375
lived seemed to flit like shadows to and fro, envying those
whose sufferings had already been terminated by death.
Thus wore away the month of June. On the 1st of
July the burghers consented to a parley. Deputies were
sent to confer with the besiegers, but the negotiations
were abruptly terminated, for no terms of compromise
were admitted by Don Frederic. On the 3d a tremendous
cannonade was reopened upon the city. One thousand
and eight balls were discharged — the most which had ever
been thrown in one day since the commencement of the
siege. The walls were severely shattered, but the assault
was not ordered, because the besiegers were assured that
it was physically impossible for the inhabitants to hold
out many days longer. A last letter, written in blood,
was now despatched to the Prince of Orange, stating the
forlorn condition to which they were reduced. At the
same time, with the derision of despair, they flung into
the hostile camp the few loaves of bread which yet re-
mained within the city walls. A day or two later a sec-
ond and a third parley were held, with no more satisfactory
result than had attended the first. A black flag was now
hoisted on the cathedral tower, the signal of despair to
friend and foe, but a pigeon soon afterwards flew into the
town with a letter from the Prince, begging them to
maintain themselves two days longer, because succor was
approaching.
The Prince had, indeed, been doing all which, under the
circumstances, was possible. He assembled the citizens
of Delft in the market-place, and announced his intention
of marching in person to the relief of the city, in the face
of the besieging army, if any troops could be obtained.
Four thousand armed volunteers, with six hundred mounted
troopers under Carlo de Noot, had been assembled, and
the Prince now placed himself at their head. There was,
however, a universal cry of remonstrance from the magis-
tracies and burghers of all the towns, and from the troops
themselves, at this project. They would not consent that
a life so precious, so indispensable to the existence of
Holland, should be needlessly hazarded. It was important
to succor Haarlem, but the Prince was of more value than
376 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
many cities. He at last reluctantly consented, therefore,
to abandon the command of the expedition to Baron Baten-
burg, the less willingly from the want of confidence which
he could not help feeling in the character of the forces.
On the 8th of July, at dusk, the expedition set forth from
Sassenheim. It numbered nearly five thousand men, who
had with them four hundred wagon -loads of provisions
and seven field -pieces. Among the volunteers, Olden-
barneveld, afterwards so illustrious in the history of the
Eepublic, marched in the ranks with his musket on his
shoulder. Such was a sample of the spirit which pervaded
the population of the province.
Unfortunately for the patriots, the whole Spanish army
were under arms awaiting this undisciplined force. They
had learned of its coming from the carrier-pigeons which
they had shot. Batenburg was slain and his whole force
routed. The Spaniards announced the results to the citi-
zens by throwing a few heads over the wall and sending
in a prisoner with his nose and ears cut off.
The citizens were now in despair; but, nevertheless,
Don Frederic felt, after what he had witnessed in the past
seven months, that there was nothing which the Haarlemers
could not do or dare. He feared lest they should set fire
to their city, and consume their houses, themselves, and
their children to ashes together, and he was unwilling that
the fruits of his victory, purchased at such a vast expense,
should be snatched from his hand as he was about to
gather them. A letter was accordingly, by his order, sent
to the magistracy and leading citizens, in the name of
Count Overstein, commander of the German forces in the
besieging army. This despatch invited a surrender at dis-
cretion, but contained the solemn assurance that no pun-
ishment should be inflicted except upon those who, in the
judgment of the citizens themselves, had deserved it, and
promised ample forgiveness if the town should submit
without further delay. At the moment of sending this
letter Don Frederic was in possession of strict orders
from his father not to leave a man alive of the garrison,
excepting only the Germans, and to execute besides a large
number of the burghers. These commands he dared not
1573] BUTCHERY 377
disobey, even if he had felt any inclination to do so. In
consequence of the semi-official letter of Overstein, how-
ever, the city formally surrendered at discretion on the
12th of July.
The great bell was tolled, and orders were issued that
all arms in the possession of the garrison or the inhabi-
tants should be brought to the town-house. The men were
then ordered to assemble in the cloister of Zyl, the women
in the cathedral. On the same day, Don Frederic, accom-
panied by Count Bossn and a numerous staff, rode into the
city. The scene which met his view might have moved a
heart of stone.
The next day Alva came over to the camp. He rode
about the place, examining the condition of the fortifica-
tions from the outside, but returned to Amsterdam with-
out having entered the city. On the following morning
the massacre commenced. The plunder had been com-
muted for two hundred and forty thousand guilders,
which the citizens bound themselves to pay in four instal-
ments ; but murder was an indispensable accompaniment
of victory, and admitted of no compromise. Moreover,
Alva had already expressed the determination to effect a
general massacre upon this occasion. The garrison, dur-
ing the siege, had been reduced from four thousand to
eighteen hundred. Of these the Germans, six hundred
in number, were, by Alva's order, dismissed, on a pledge
to serve no more against the King. All the rest of the
garrison were immediately butchered, with at least as
many citizens. Five executioners, with their attendants,
were kept constantly at work ; and when at last they were
exhausted with fatigue, or perhaps sickened with horror,
three hundred wretches were tied two and two, back to
back, and drowned in the Haarlem Lake.
At last, after twenty -three hundred human creatures
had been murdered in cold blood, within a city where so
many thousands had previously perished by violent or by
lingering deaths, the blasphemous farce of a pardon was
enacted. Fifty-seven of the most prominent burghers of
the place were, however, excepted from the act of amnesty,
and taken into custody as security for the future good con-
378 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
duct of the other citizens. Of these hostages some were
soon executed, some died in prison, and all would have
been eventually sacrificed had not the naval defeat of
Bossu soon afterwards enabled the Prince of Orange to
rescue the remaining prisoners. Ten thousand two hun-
dred and fifty-six shots had been discharged against the
walls during the siege. Twelve thousand of the besieging
army had died of wounds or disease during the seven
months and two days between the investment and the
surrender. In the earlier part of August, after the execu-
tions had been satisfactorily accomplished, Don Frederic
made his triumphal entry, and the first chapter in the in-
vasion of Holland was closed. Such was the memorable
siege of Haarlem, an event in which we are called upon to
wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure
misery.
The Spaniards celebrated a victory, while in Utrecht
they made an effigy of the Prince of Orange, which they
carried about in procession, broke upon the wheel, and
burned. It was, however, obvious that if the reduction
of Haarlem were a triumph, it was one which the conquer-
ors might well exchange for a defeat. At any rate, it was
certain that the Spanish empire was not strong enough to
sustain many more such victories. If it had required
thirty thousand choice troops — among which were three
regiments called by Alva, respectively, the " Inviucibles,"
the "Immortals," and the "None-such" — to conquer the
weakest city of Holland in seven months, and with the
loss of twelve thousand men, how many men, how long a
time, and how many deaths would it require to reduce the
rest of that little province ? For, as the sack of Naarden
had produced the contrary effect from the one intended,
inflaming rather than subduing the spirit of Dutch resist-
ance, so the long and glorious defence of Haarlem, not-
withstanding its tragical termination, had only served to
strain to the highest pitch the hatred and patriotism of the
other cities in the province. Even the treasures of the
New World were inadequate to pay for the conquest of
that little sand-bank. Within five years twenty-five mill-
ions of florins had been sent from Spain for war expenses
1573] A ROYAL FEVER ASSUAGED 379
in the Netherlands. Yet this amount, with the addition
of large sums annually derived from confiscations, of five
millions at which the proceeds of the hundredth penny
was estimated, and the two millions yearly for which the
tenth and twentieth pence had been compounded, was in-
sufficient to save the treasury from beggary and the unpaid
troops from mutiny.
Nevertheless, for the moment, the joy created was in-
tense. Philip was lying dangerously ill at the wood of
Segovia when the happy tidings of the reduction of Haar-
lem, with its accompanying butchery, arrived. The account
of all this misery, minutely detailed to him by Alva, acted
like magic. The blood of twenty -three hundred of his
fellow-creatures — coldly murdered by his orders in a single
city — proved for the sanguinary monarch the elixir of life ;
he drank and was refreshed.
While such was the exultation of the Spaniards, the
Prince of Orange was neither dismayed nor despondent.
As usual, he trusted to a higher power than man. " I
had hoped to send you better news," he wrote Count
Louis; "nevertheless, since it has otherwise pleased the
good God, we must conform ourselves to His divine will.
I take the same God to witness that I have done every-
thing, according to my means, which was possible to suc-
cor the city." A few days later, writing in the same
spirit, he informed his brother that the Zeelanders had
succeeded in capturing the castle of Rammekens, on the
isle of Walcheren.
CHAPTER IX
ALKMAAB AND DUTCH VICTORIES ON THE ZUYDER ZEE
ALVA had for some time felt himself in a false and un-
comfortable position. While he continued to be the object
of a popular hatred as intense as ever glowed, he had
gradually lost his hold upon those who, at the outset of
his career, had been loudest and lowest in their demon-
strations of respect. Even Aerschot, for whom the Duke
had long maintained an intimacy half affectionate, half
contemptuous, now began to treat him with a contumely
which it was difficult for so proud a stomach to digest.
But the main source of discomfort was doubtless the
presence of Medina Crali. This was the perpetual thorn
in his side, which no cunning could extract. A successor
who would not and could not succeed him, yet who attend-
ed him as his shadow and his evil genius — a confidential
colleague who betrayed his confidence, mocked his proj-
ects, derided his authority, and yet complained of ill
treatment — a rival who was neither compeer nor subaltern,
and who affected to be his censor — a functionary of a
purely anomalous character, sheltering himself under his
abnegation of an authority which he had not dared to as-
sume, and criticising measures which he was not compe-
tent to grasp ; such was the Duke of Medina Cceli, in
Alva's estimation.
The bickering between the two Dukes became unceas-
ing and disgraceful. Of course, each complained to the
King, and each, according to his own account, was a
martyr to the other's tyranny, but the meekness manifest-
ed by Alva, in all his relations with the new-comer, was
wonderful, if we are to believe the accounts furnished
1573J A ROYAL ADDRESS 381
by himself and by his confidential secretary. On the
other hand, Medina Coeli wrote to the King, complaining
of Alva in most unmitigated strains, and asserting that he
ivas himself never allowed to see any despatches, nor to have
the slightest information as to the policy of the govern-
ment. He reproached the Duke with shrinking from
personal participation in military operations, and begged
the royal forgiveness if he withdrew from a scene where
lie felt himself to be superfluous.
Accordingly, towards the end of November, he took his
departure, without paying his respects. The governor
complained to the King of this unceremonious proceed-
ing, and assured his Majesty that never were courtesy
and gentleness so ill requited as his had been by this Mi-
grate and cankered Duke.
Immediately after the fall of Haarlem another attempt
was made by Alva to win back the allegiance of the other
cities by proclamations. It had become obvious to the
governor that so determined a resistance on the part of
the first place besieged augured many long campaigns be-
fore the whole province could be subdued. A circular was
accordingly issued upon the 26th of July, from Utrecht,
and published immediately afterwards in all the cities of
the Netherlands. It was a paper of singular character,
commingling an affectation of almost ludicrous clemency
with honest and hearty brutality.
It is almost superfluous to add that this circular re-
mained fruitless. The royal wrath, blasphemously identi-
fying itself with divine vengeance, inspired no terror, the
royal blandishments no affection.
The next point of attack was the city of Alkmaar, situ-
ate quite at the termination of the peninsula, among the
lagoons and redeemed prairies of North Holland. The
Prince of Orange had already provided it with a small
garrison. The city had been summoned to surrender by the
middle of July, and had returned a bold refusal. Mean-
time, the Spaniards had retired from before the walls,
while the surrender and chastisement of Haarlem occupied
them during the next succeeding weeks. The month of
August, moreover, was mainly consumed by Alva in quell-
382 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
ing a dangerous and protracted mutiny, which broke out
among the Spanish soldiers at Haarlem, between three and
four thousand of them having been quartered upon the
ill-fated population of that city.
The Duke went to Amsterdam, accordingly, where by
his exertions, ably seconded by those of the Marquis
Vitelli, and by the payment of thirty crowns to each sol-
dier— fourteen on account of arrearages and sixteen as his
share in the Haarlem compensation money — the rebellion
was appeased and obedience restored.
There was now leisure for the general to devote his
whole energies against the little city of Alkmaar. On
that bank and shoal, the extreme verge of habitable earth,
the spirit of Holland's freedom stood at bay. The gray
towers of Egmont Castle and of Egmont Abbey rose be-
tween the city and the sea, and there the troops sent by
the Prince of Orange were quartered during the very brief
period in which the citizens wavered as to receiving them.
The die was soon cast, however, and the Prince's garrison
admitted. The Spaniards advanced, burned the village of
Egmont to the ground as soon as the patriots had left it,
and on the 21st of August Don Frederic, appearing before
the walls, proceeded formally to invest Alkmaar. In a few
days this had been so thoroughly accomplished that, in
Alva's language, " it was impossible for a sparrow to en-
ter or go out of the city." The odds were somewhat un-
equal. Sixteen thousand veteran troops constituted the
besieging force. Within the city were a garrison of eight
hundred soldiers, together with thirteen hundred burgh-
ers capable of bearing arms. The rest of the population
consisted of a very few refugees, besides the women and
children. Two thousand one hundred able-bodied men,
of whom only about one -third were soldiers, to resist
sixteen thousand regulars ! Nor was there any doubt as
to the fate which was reserved for them, should they suc-
cumb.
Upon Diedrich Sonoy, lieutenant-governor for Orange
in the province of North Holland, devolved the imme-
diate responsibility of defending this part of the country.
As the storm rolled slowly up from the south, even that
1573] ASSAULT UPON ALKMAAR 383
experienced officer became uneasy at the unequal conflict
impending. He despatched a letter to his chief, giving
a gloomy picture of his position. The Prince answered :
" You ask if I have entered into a firm treaty with any
great king or potentate, to which I answer, that before I
ever took up the cause of the oppressed Christians in these
provinces, I had entered into a close alliance with the King
of Icings ; and lam firmly convinced that all who put their
trust in Him shall be saved by His almighty hand. The
God of armies will raise up armies for us to do battle with
our enemies and His own." In conclusion, he stated his
preparations for attacking the enemy by sea as well as by
land, and encouraged his lieutenant and the citizens of
the northern quarter to maintain a bold front before the
advancing foe.
Affairs soon approached a crisis within the beleaguered
city. Daily skirmishes, without decisive result, had taken
place outside the walls. At last, on the 18th of Septem-
ber, after a steady cannonade of nearly twelve hours, Don
Frederic, at three in the afternoon, ordered an assault.
Notwithstanding his seven months' experience at Haarlem,
he still believed it certain that he should carry Alkmaar
by storm. The attack took place at once upon the Frisian
Gate and upon the red tower on the opposite side. Two
choice regiments, recently arrived from Lombardy, led
the onset, rending the air with their shouts, and confi-
dent of an easy victory. They were sustained by what
seemed an overwhelming force of disciplined troops.
Every living man was on the walls. The storming parties
were assailed with cannon, with musketry, with pistols.
The women and children, unscared by the balls flying in
every direction, or by the hand-to-hand conflicts on the
ramparts, passed steadily to and fro from the arsenals to
the fortifications, constantly supplying their fathers, hus-
bands, and brothers with powder and ball. Thus, every
human being in the city that could walk had become a
soldier. At last darkness fell upon the scene. The
trumpet of recall was sounded, and the Spaniards, utter-
ly discomfited, retired from the walls, leaving at least
one thousand dead in the trenches, while only thirteen
384 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
burghers and twenty-four of the garrison lost their lives.
" Plain-looking fishermen" had defeated the veterans of
Alva.
The day following the assault a fresh cannonade was
opened upon the city. Seven hundred shots having been
discharged, the attack was ordered. It was in vain : nei-
ther threats nor entreaties could induce the Spaniards,
hitherto so indomitable, to mount the breach. The place
seemed to their imagination protected by more than mor-
tal powers ; otherwise how was it possible that a few half-
starved fishermen could already have so triumphantly
overthrown the time-honored legions of Spain ? It was
thought, no doubt, that the devil, whom they worshipped,
would continue to protect his children. Neither the
entreaties nor the menaces of Don Frederic were of
any avail. Several soldiers allowed themselves to be run
through the body by their own officers rather than ad-
vance to the walls ; and the assault was accordingly post-
poned to an indefinite period.
Meantime, as Governor Sonoy had opened many of the
dikes, the land in the neighborhood of the camp was be-
coming plashy, although as yet the threatened inunda-
tion had not taken place. The soldiers were already very
uncomfortable and very refractory. Peter Van der Mey,
the carpenter envoy from Alkmaar, had not been idle,
having, upon the 26th of September, arrived at Sonoy's
quarters, bearing letters from the Prince of Orange.
These despatches gave distinct directions to Sonoy to
flood the country at all risks, rather than allow Alkmaav
to fall into the enemy's hands. The harvests were doom-
ed to destruction, and a frightful loss of property ren-
dered inevitable ; but, at any rate, the Spaniards, if this
last measure were taken, must fly or perish to a man.
This decisive blow having been thus ordered and prom-
ised, the carpenter set forth towards the city, but, while
occupied in saving himself, was so unlucky, or, as it
proved, so fortunate, as to lose the stick in which his
despatches were enclosed. His letters were laid before
the general of the besieging army, and made a profound
impression upon Don Frederic's mind. The situation hav-
1573J THE SIEGE RAISED 385
ing been discussed in a council of officers, the result was
reached that sufficient had been already accomplished for
the glory of Spanish arms. Neither honor nor loyalty,
it was thought, required that sixteen thousand soldiers
should be sacrificed in a contest, not with man, but with
the ocean.
On the 8th of October, accordingly, the siege, which
had lasted seven weeks, was raised, and Don Frederic re-
joined his father in Amsterdam.
On the 1st of May, 1573, the articles of convention be-
tween England and Spain, with regard to the Nether-
land difficulty, had been formally published in Brussels.
The Duke, in communicating the termination of these
arrangements, quietly recommended his master thence-
forth to take the English ministry into his pay. In par-
ticular he advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe
upon Lord Burleigh, " who held the kingdom in his
hand ; for it has always been my opinion/' he continued,
"that it was an excellent practice for princes to give
pensions to the ministers of other potentates, and to
keep those at home who took bribes from nobody."
On the other hand, the negotiations of Orange with the
English court were not yet successful, and he still found
it almost impossible to raise the requisite funds for carry-
ing on the war. Certainly, his private letters showed that
neither he nor his brothers were self-seekers in their ne-
gotiations. The restoration of civil and religious liberty,
the establishment of the great principle of toleration in
matters of conscience, constituted the purpose to which
his days and nights were devoted, his princely fortune
sacrificed, his life-blood risked. At the same time, his
enforcement of toleration to both religions excited cah
umny against him among the bigoted adherents of each.
By the Catholics he was accused of having instigated the
excesses which he had done everything in his power to
repress. The enormities of Van der Marck, which had
inspired the Prince's indignation, were even laid at the
door of him who had risked his life to prevent and to
chastise them. Van der Marck had, indeed, by his sub-
sequent cruelties, more than counterbalanced his great
25
386 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [157S
service in the taking of Brill. At the beginning of the
following year (1574) he was at last compelled to leave
the provinces, which he never again troubled with his
presence. Some years afterwards he died of the bite of
a mad dog, an end not inappropriate to a man of so rabid
a disposition.
The main reliance of Orange was upon the secret nego-
tiations which his brother Louis was then renewing with
the French government. The Prince had felt an almost
insurmountable repugnance towards entertaining any re-
lation with that blood-stained court since the Massacre
of Saint Bartholomew. But a new face had recently been
put upon that transaction. Instead of glorying in their
crime, the King and his mother now assumed a tone of
compunction, and averred that the deed had been un-
premeditated ; that it had been the result of a panic or
an ecstasy of fear inspired by the suddenly discovered
designs of the Huguenots ; and that, in the instinct of
self-preservation, the King, with his family and immediate
friends, had plunged into a crime which they now bitterly
lamented. The French envoys at the different courts of
Europe were directed to impress this view upon the minds
of the monarchs to whom they were accredited.
To humble the power of Spain, to obtain the hand of
Queen Elizabeth for the Duke of Alenqon, to establish an
insidious kind of protectorate over the Protestant princes
of Germany, to obtain the throne of Poland for the Duke
of Anjou, and even to obtain the imperial crown for the
house of Valois — all these cherished projects seemed
dashed to the ground by the Paris massacre and the
abhorrence which it had created. Charles and Catharine
were not slow to discover the false position in which they
had placed themselves, while the Spanish jocularity at the
immense error committed by France was visible enough
through the assumed mask of holy horror.
Charles the Ninth, although it was not possible for him
to recall to life the countless victims of the Parisian wed-
ding, was yet ready to explain those murders to the satis-
faction of every unprejudiced mind. This had become
strictly necessary. Although the accession of either his
1573] OUTLINES OF A FRENCH TREATY 387
Most Christian or Most Catholic Majesty to the throne
of the Caesars was a most improbable event, yet the humbler
elective throne actually vacant was indirectly in the gift
of the same powers. It was possible that the crown of
Poland might be secured for the Duke of Anjou. That
key unlocks the complicated policy of this and the suc-
ceeding year.
It was difficult for the Prince to overcome his repug-
nance to the very name of the man whose crime had at
once made France desolate and blighted the fair pros-
pects under which he and his brother had the year before
entered the Netherlands. Nevertheless, he was willing
to listen to the statements by which the King and his
ministers endeavored, not entirely without success, to
remove from their reputations, if not from their souls,
the guilt of deep design. Orange was induced, there-
fore, to accept, however distrustfully, the expression of
a repentance which was to be accompanied with healing
measures. He allowed his brother Louis to resume nego-
tiations with Schomberg in Germany. He drew up and
transmitted to him the outlines of a treaty which he was
willing to make with Charles. The main conditions of
this arrangement illustrated the disinterested character
of the man. He stipulated that the King of France
should immediately make peace with his subjects, declar-
ing expressly that he had been abused by those who,
under pretext of his service, had sought their own profit
at the price of ruin to the crown and people. The King
should make religion free. The edict to that effect
should be confirmed by all the parliaments and estates of
the kingdom, and such confirmations should be distrib-
uted without reserve or deceit among all the princes of
Germany. If his Majesty were not inclined to make war
for the liberation of the Netherlands, he was to furnish
the Prince of Orange with one hundred thousand crowns
at once, and every three months with another hundred
thousand. The Prince was to have liberty to raise one
thousand cavalry and seven thousand infantry in France.
Every city or town in the provinces which should be con-
quered by his arms, except in Holland or Zeeland, should
388 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
be placed under the sceptre and in the hands of the King
of France. The provinces of Holland and Zeeland should
also be placed under his protection, but should be governed
by their own gentlemen and citizens. Perfect religious
liberty and maintenance of the ancient constitutions,
privileges, and charters were to be guaranteed " without
any cavilling whatsoever/' The Prince of Orange, or the
estates of Holland or Zeeland, were to reimburse his
Christian Majesty for the sums which he was to advance.
In this last clause was the only mention which the Prince
made of himself, excepting in the stipulation that he was
to be allowed a levy of troops in France. His only personal
claims were to enlist soldiers to fight the battles of free-
dom, and to pay their expense, if it should not be pro-
vided for by the estates. At nearly the same period he
furnished his secret envoys, Lumbres and Dr. Taijaert,
who were to proceed to Paris, with similar instructions.
Count Louis required peremptorily that the royal re-
pentance should bring forth the fruit of salvation for the
remaining victims. Out of the nettles of these dangerous
intrigues his fearless hand plucked the "flower of safety"
for his down-trodden cause. He demanded not words,
but deeds, or at least pledges. He maintained with the
agents of Charles and with the monarch himself the same
hardy scepticism which was manifested by the Huguenot
deputies in their conferences with Catharine de Medici.
" Is the word of a king," said the dowager to the com-
missioners, who were insisting upon guarantees — "is the
word of a king not sufficient ?" " No, madam," replied
one of them — " by St. Bartholomew, no !"
On the 23d of March, 1573, Schomberg had an inter-
view with Count Louis, which lasted seven or eight hours.
In that interview the enterprises of the Count, "which,"
said Schomberg, "are assuredly grand and beautiful,"
were thoroughly discussed, and a series of conditions,
drawn up partly in the hand of one, partly in that of the
other negotiator, definitely agreed upon. These condi-
tions were on the basis .of a protectorate over Holland and
Zeeland for the King of France, with sovereignty over
the other places to be acquired in the Netherlands. They
1573] THE EPISTLE 389
were in strict accordance with the articles fnrnished by
the Prince of Orange. Liberty of worship for those of
both religions, sacred preservation of municipal charters,
and stipulation of certain annual subsidies on the part of
France — in case his Majesty should not take the field —
were the principal features.
While Louis was thus busily engaged in Germany,
Orange was usually established at Delft. He felt the
want of his brother daily, for the solitude of the Prince,
in the midst of such fiery trials, amounted almost to deso-
lation.
It was not alone the battles and sieges which furnished
him with occupation and filled him with anxiety. Alone
he directed in secret the politics of the country, and,
powerless and outlawed though he seemed, was in daily
correspondence not only with the estates of Holland and
Zeeland, whose deliberations he guided, but with the prin-
cipal governments of Europe. The estates of the Nether-
lands, moreover, had been formally assembled by Alva in
September, at Brussels, to devise ways and means for con-
tinuing the struggle. It seemed to the Prince a good
opportunity to make an appeal to the patriotism of the
whole country. He furnished the province of Holland,
accordingly, with the outlines of an address which was
forthwith despatched, in their own and his name, to the
general assembly of the Netherlands. The estates-general
were earnestly adjured to come forward like brothers in
blood and join hands with Holland, that together they
might rescue the fatherland and restore its ancient pros-
perity and bloom.
At almost the same time the Prince drew up and put in
circulation one of the most vigorous and impassioned pro-
ductions which ever came from his pen. It was entitled
an " Epistle, in form of supplication, to his royal Majesty
of Spain, from the Prince of Orange and the estates of
Holland and Zeeland." The document produced a pro-
found impression throughout Christendom. It was a
royal appeal to the monarch's loyalty — a demand that the
land-privileges should be restored and the Duke of Alva
removed. It contained a startling picture of his atroci-
390 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
ties and the nation's misery, and, with a few energetic
strokes, demolished the pretence that these sorrows had
been caused by the people's guilt.
The brave words in this document were destined to be
bravely fulfilled, as the life and death of the writer and
the records of his country proved, from generation unto
generation. If we seek for the main-spring of the energy
which thus sustained the Prince in the unequal conflict
to which he had devoted his life, we shall find it in the
one pervading principle of his nature — confidence in God.
He was the champion of the political rights of his coun-
try, but before all he was the defender of its religion.
Liberty of conscience for his people was his first object.
Freedom of worship for all denominations, toleration for
all forms of faith, this was the great good in his philoso-
phy. For himself, he had now become a member of the
Calvinist, or Reformed Church, having delayed for a time
his public adhesion to this communion in order not to
give offence to the Lutherans and to the Emperor. He
was never a dogmatist, however, and he sought in Chris-
tianity for that which unites rather than for that which
separates Christians. In the course of October he public-
ly joined the Church at Dort.
The happy termination of the siege of Alkmaar was fol-
lowed, three days afterwards, by another signal success on
the part of the patriots. Count Bossu, who had con-
structed or collected a considerable fleet at Amsterdam,
had, early in October, sailed into the Zuyder Zee, not-
withstanding the sunken wrecks and other obstructions
by which the patriots had endeavored to render the pas-
sage of the Y impracticable. The patriots of North Hol-
land had, however, not been idle, and a fleet of five-and-
twenty vessels, under Admiral Dirkzoon, was soon cruis-
ing in the same waters. A few skirmishes took place, but
Bossu's ships, which were larger, and provided with
heavier cannon, were apparently not inclined for the close
quarters which the patriots sought. The Spanish Admi-
ral, Hollander as he was, knew the mettle of his country-
men in a close encounter at sea, and preferred to trust to
the calibre of his cannon. On the llth of October, how-
1573] NAVAL ENGAGEMENT ON THE ZCYDER ZEE 391
ever, the whole patriot fleet, favored by a strong easterly
breeze, bore down upon the Spanish armada, which, num-
bering now thirty sail of all denominations, was lying off
and on in the neighborhood of Horn and Enkhuizen.
After a short and general engagement, nearly all the
Spanish fleet retired with precipitation, closely pursued
by most of the patriot Dutch vessels. Five of the King's
ships were eventually taken, the rest effected their es-
cape. Only the Admiral remained, who scorned to yield,
although his forces had thus basely deserted him. His
ship, the Inquisition, for such was her insolent appella-
tion, was far the largest and best manned of both the
fleets. Most of the enemy had gone in pursuit of the
fugitives, but four vessels of inferior size had attacked the
Inquisition at the commencement of the action. The
Hollander, as usual, attacked with pitch hoops, boiling
oil, and molten lead. Kepeatedly they effected their en-
trance to the Admiral's ship, and as often they were re-
pulsed and slain in heaps or hurled into the sea. The
battle began at three in the afternoon, and continued
without intermission through the whole night, and was re-
newed the next day. At eleven o'clock the next morning
Admiral Bossn surrendered, and with three hundred pris-
oners was carried into Holland. Bossu was himself impris-
oned at Horn, in which city he was received on his ar-
rival with great demonstrations of popular hatred. The
massacre of Eotterdam, due to his cruelty and treachery,
had not yet been forgotten or forgiven.
This victory, following so hard upon the triumph at
Alkmaar, was as gratifying to the patriots as it was gall-
ing to Alva. As his administration drew to a close, it
was marked by disaster and disgrace on land and sea.
Such of the hostages from Haarlem as had not yet been
executed, now escaped with their lives. Moreover, Sainte-
Aldegonde, the eloquent patriot and confidential friend of
Orange, who was taken prisoner a few weeks later in
an action at Maaslandsluis, was preserved from inevi-
table destruction by the same cause. The Prince hast-
ened to assure the Duke of Alva that the same measure
would be dealt to Bossu as should be meted to Sainte-
392 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
Aldegonde. It was, therefore, impossible for the gov-
ernor-general to execute his prisoner, and he was obliged
to submit to the vexation of seeing a leading rebel and
heretic in his power whom he dared not strike. Both
the distinguished prisoners eventually regained their lib-
erty.
The Duke was, doubtless, lower sunk in the estimation
of all classes than he had ever been before during his
long and generally successful life. The reverses sus-
tained by his army, the belief that his master had grown
cold towards him, the certainty that his career in the
Netherlands was closing without a satisfactory result, the
natural weariness produced upon men's minds by the con-
templation of so monotonous and unmitigated a tyranny
during so many years, all contributed to diminish his
reputation. He felt himself odious alike to princes and
to plebeians. Moreover, he had kept himself, for the
most part, at a distance from the seat of government.
During the military operations in Holland his head-
quarters had been at Amsterdam. Here, as the year
drew to its close, he had become as unpopular as in Brus-
sels.
He had contracted an enormous amount of debt, both
public and private. He accordingly, early in November,
caused a proclamation to be made throughout the city, by
sound of trumpet, that all persons having demands upon
him were to present their claims, in person, upon a speci-
fied day. During the night preceding the day so appoint-
ed the Duke and his train very noiselessly took their de-
parture, without notice or beat of drum. By this masterly
generalship his unhappy creditors were foiled upon the very
eve of their anticipated triumph ; the heavy accounts which
had been contracted on the faith of the King and the gov-
ernor remained for the most part unpaid, and many opu-
lent and respectable families were reduced to beggary.
Such was the consequence of the unlimited confidence
which they had reposed in the honor of their tyrant.
On the 17th of November, Don Luis de Kequesens y
Cnfiiga, Grand Commander of St. Jago, the appointed suc-
cessor of Alva, arrived in Brussels, where lie was received
1573J CLOSE OF THE DUKE'S CAREER 393
with great rejoicings. There was, of course, a profuse in-
terchange of courtesy between the departing and the new-
ly arrived governors. Alva was willing to remain a little
while, to assist his successor with his advice, but preferred
that the Grand Commander should immediately assume
the reins of office. To this Requesens, after much respect-
ful reluctance, at length consented. On the 29th of No-
vember he accordingly took the oaths, at Brussels, as lieu-
tenant-governor and captain -general, in presence of the
Duke of Aerschot, Baron Berlaymont, the President of the
Council, and other functionaries.
On the 18th of December the Duke of Alva departed
from the provinces forever. He was well received by his
royal master, and remained in favor until a new adventure
of Don Frederic brought father and son into disgrace.
Having deceived and abandoned a maid of honor, he sud-
denly espoused his cousin in order to avoid that repara-
tion by marriage which was demanded for his offence. In
consequence, both the Duke and Don Frederic were im-
prisoned and banished, nor was Alva released till a gen-
eral of experience was required for the conquest of Por-
tugal. Thither, as it were with fetters on his legs, he
went. After having accomplished the military enter-
prise entrusted to him he fell into a lingering fever, at
the termination of which he was so much reduced that he
was only kept alive by milk which he drank from a wom-
an's breast. Such was the gentle second childhood of the
man who had almost literally been drinking blood for sev-
enty years. He died on the 12th of December, 1582.*
* A valuable addition to the original material accessible for the study of
the life and times of Philip's great general is the Docwnentos Escogidos
del Archivo de la Casa de Alba, published by the Duchess of Berwick and
Alva at Madrid in 1891. Most of these letters and papers of prominent actors
in European affairs from the 15th to the 18th centuries have never been pub-
lished, and throw new light on many points of history. Among other curi-
osities is a musical panegyric upon Alva as Governor of the Low Countries.
part 1FD
ADMINISTRATION OF THE GRAND COMMANDER
1573-1576
CHAPTER I
THE DOLEFUL DEFEAT AT MOOKERHEYDE
THE horrors of Alva's administration had caused men to
look back with fondness upon the milder and more vacilla-
ting tyranny of the Duchess Margaret. From the same
cause the advent of the Grand Commander was hailed with
pleasure and with a momentary gleam of hope. The new
governor-general was, doubtless, human, and it had been
long since the Netherlander imagined anything in com-
mon between themselves and the late viceroy.
Apart from this hope, however, there was little encour-
agement to be derived from anything positively known of
the new functionary, or the policy which he was to repre-
sent. Don Luis de Eequesens and Cuniga, Grand Com-
mander of Castile and the late governor of Milan, was a man
of mediocre abilities, who possessed a reputation for mod-
eration and sagacity which he hardly deserved. His mili-
tary prowess had been chiefly displayed in the bloody and
barren battle of Lepanto, where his conduct and counsel
were supposed to have contributed, in some measure, to
the victorious result. His administration at Milan had
been characterized as firm and moderate. Nevertheless,
his character was regarded with anything but favorable
eyes in the Netherlands. Men told each other of his brok-
en faith to the Moors in Granada, and of his unpopularity
in Milan, where, notwithstanding his boasted moderation,
he had, in reality, so oppressed the people as to gain their
deadly hatred. They complained, too, that it was an in-
sult to send, as governor-general of the provinces, not a
prince of the blood, as used to be the case, but a simple
" gentleman of cloak and sword."
398 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
To conquer the people of the provinces, except by ex-
termination, seemed difficult — to judge by the seven
years of execution, sieges, and campaigns which had now
passed without a definite result. It was, therefore, thought
expedient to employ concession. The new governor ac-
cordingly, in case the Netherlander would abandon every
object for which they had been so heroically contending,
was empowered to concede a pardon. It was expressly
enjoined upon him, however, that no conciliatory measures
should be adopted in which the King's absolute supremacy
and the total prohibition of every form of worship but the
Roman Catholic were not assumed as a basis. Now, as
the people had been contending at least ten years long for
constitutional rights against prerogative, and at least seven
for liberty of conscience against papistry, it was easy to
foretell how much effect any negotiations thus commenced
were likely to produce.
Yet, no doubt, in the Netherlands there was a most
earnest longing for peace. The Catholic portion of the
population were desirous of a reconciliation with their
brethren of the new religion. The universal vengeance
which had descended upon heresy had not struck the
heretics only. It was difficult to find a fireside, Protestant
or Catholic, which had not been made desolate by execu-
tion, banishment, or confiscation. The common people
and the grand seigniors were alike weary of the war. Not
only Aerschot and Viglius, but Noircarmes and Berlay-
mont were desirous that peace should be at last compass-
ed upon liberal terms, and the Prince of Orange fully and
unconditionally pardoned. Even the Spanish command-
ers had become disgusted with the monotonous butchery
which had stained their swords.
Moreover, the Grand Commander discovered, at his first
glance into the disorderly state of the exchequer, that at
least a short respite was desirable before proceeding with
the interminable measures of hostility against the rebel-
lion. If any man had ever been disposed to give Alva
credit for administrative ability, such delusion must have
vanished at the spectacle of confusion and bankruptcy
which presented itself at the termination of his govern-
DK REQUKSKMS
1573] A BARREN EXCHEQUER 399
ment. He took his departure, accordingly, leaving Reque-
sens in profound ignorance as to his past accounts ; an ig-
norance in which it is probable that the Duke himself
shared to the fullest extent. The rebellion had already
been an expensive matter to the Crown. The army in the
Netherlands numbered more than sixty-two thousand men,
eight thousand being Spaniards, the rest Walloons and
Germans. Forty millions of dollars had already been sunk,
and it seemed probable that it would require nearly the
whole annual produce of the American mines to sustain
the war. The transatlantic gold and silver, disinterred
from the depths where they had been buried for ages,
were employed, not to expand the current of a healthy,
life-giving commerce, but to be melted into blood. The
sweat and the tortures of the King's pagan subjects in the
primeval forests of the New World were made subsidiary
to the extermination of his Netherlands people and the de-
struction of an ancient civilization. To this end had Co-
lumbus discovered a hemisphere for Castile and Aragou,
and the new Indies revealed their hidden treasures ?
Forty millions of ducats had been spent. Six and a
half millions of arrearages were due to the army, while its
current expenses were six hundred thousand a month.
The military expenses alone of the Netherlands were ac-
cordingly more than seven millions of dollars, yearly, and
the mines of the New World produced, during the half
century of Philip's reign, an average of only eleven millions.
Against this constantly increasing deficit there was not a
stiver in the exchequer, nor the means of raising one.
It was, therefore, obvious to Requesens that it would
be useful at the moment to hold out hopes of pardon and
reconciliation. He saw, what he had not at first compre-
hended, and what few bigoted supporters of absolutism in
any age have ever comprehended, that national enthusiasm,
when profound and general, makes a rebellion more expen-
sive to the despot than to the insurgents. The moral
which the new governor drew from his correct diagnosis
of the prevailing disorder was not that this national en-
thusiasm should be respected, but that it should be de-
ceived. He deceived no one but himself, however. He
400 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1573
censured Noircarmes and Eomero for their intermeddling,
but held out hopes of a general pacification. He repudi-
ated the idea of any reconciliation between the King and
the Prince of Orange, but proposed at the same time a
settlement of the revolt. He had not yet learned that the
revolt and William of Orange were one. Although the
Prince himself had repeatedly offered to withdraw for ever
from the country if his absence would expedite a settle-
ment satisfactory to the provinces, there was not a patriot
in the Netherlands who could contemplate his departure
without despair. Moreover, they all knew, better than did
Requesens, the inevitable result of the pacific measures
which had been daily foreshadowed.
In the embarrassed condition of affairs, and while wait-
ing for further supplies, the Commander was secretly dis-
posed to try the effect of a pardon. The object was to
deceive the people and to gain time ; for there was no
intention of conceding liberty of conscience, of withdraw-
ing foreign troops, or of assembling the states-general.
It was, however, not possible to apply these hypocritical
measures of conciliation immediately. The war was in
full career, and could not be arrested even in that wintry
season. The patriots held Mondragon closely besieged
in Middelburg, the last point in the isle of Walcheren
which held for the King. There was a considerable treas-
ure in money and merchandise shut up in that city; and,
moreover, so deserving and distinguished an officer as
Mondragon could not be abandoned to his fate. At the
same time, famine was pressing him sorely, and by the
end of the year garrison and townspeople had nothing
but rats, mice, dogs, cats, and such repulsive substitutes
for food to support life withal. It was necessary to take
immediate measures to relieve the place.
On the other hand, the situation of the patriots was not
very encouraging. Their superiority on the sea was un-
questionable, for the Hollanders and Zeelanders were the
best sailors in the world, and they asked of their country
no payment for their blood but thanks. The land forces,
however, were usually mercenaries, who were apt to mu-
tiny at the commencement of an action if, as was too
1573-4] SPANISH AND PATRIOT FLEETS 401
often the case, their wages could not be paid. Holland
was entirely cut in twain by the loss of Haarlem and the
leaguer of Leyden, no communication between the dis-
severed portions being possible, except with difficulty and
danger. The estates, although they had done much for
the cause and were prepared to do much more, were too
apt to wrangle about economical details. They irritated
the Prince of Orange by huckstering about subsidies to
a degree which his proud and generous nature could
hardly brook. He had strong hopes from France. Louis
of Nassau had held secret interviews with the Duke of
Alengon and the Duke of Anjou, now King of Poland, at
Blamont. Alengon had assured him secretly, affection-
ately, and warmly that he would be as sincere a friend
to the cause as were his two royal brothers. The Count
had even received, one hundred thousand livres in hand
as an earnest of the favorable intentions of France, and
was now busily engaged, at the instance of the Prince,
in levying an army in Germany for the relief of Leyden
and the rest of Holland, while William, on his part, was
omitting nothing, whether by representations to the es-
tates or by secret foreign missions and correspondence, to
further the cause of the suffering country.
The most pressing matter, upon the Grand Command-
er's arrival, was obviously to relieve the city of Middel-
burg. Mondragon, after so stanch a defence, would soon
be obliged to capitulate, unless he should promptly re-
ceive supplies. Eequesens accordingly collected seventy-
five ships at Bergen-op-Zoom, which were placed nomi-
nally under the command of Admiral de Glimes, but in
reality under that of Julian Eomero. Another fleet of
thirty vessels had been assembled at Antwerp under San-
cho d'Avila. Both, amply freighted with provisions, were
destined to make their way to Middelburg by the two
different passages of the Honde and the Eastern Scheldt.
On the other hand, the Prince of Orange had repaired
to Flushing to superintend the operations of Admiral
Boisot, who already, in obedience to his orders, had got
a powerful squadron in readiness at that place. Late in
January, 1574, d'Avila arrived in the neighborhood of
26
402 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
Flushing, where he awaited the arrival of Komero's fleet.
United, the two commanders were to make a determined
attempt to reinforce the starving city of Middelburg.
At the same time, Governor Kequesens made his appear-
ance in person at Bergen-op-Zoom to expedite the depart-
ure of the stronger fleet, but it was not the intention of
the Prince of Orange to allow this expedition to save the
city. The Spanish generals, however valiant, were to
learn that their genius was not amphibious, and that the
Beggars of the Sea were still invincible on their own ele-
ment, even if their brethren of the land had occasionally
quailed.
Admiral Boisot's fleet had already moved up the Scheldt
and taken a position nearly opposite to Bergen-op-Zoom.
On the 20th of January the Prince of Orange, embarking
from Zierikzee, came to make them a visit before the
impending action. They swore that they would shed
every drop of blood in their veins, but they would sustain
the Prince and the country ; and they solemnly vowed
not only to serve, if necessary, without wages, but to sac-
rifice all that they possessed in the world rather than
abandon the cause of their fatherland. Having by his
presence and his language aroused their valor to so high
a pitch of enthusiasm, the Prince departed for Delft, to
make arrangements to drive the Spaniards from the siege
of Leyden.
On the 29th of January the fleet of Komero sailed
from Bergen, disposed in three divisions, each numbering
twenty-five vessels of different sizes. As the Grand Com-
mander stood on the dike of Schakerlo to witness the
departure, a general salute was fired by the fleet in his
honor, but with most unfortunate augury. The dis-
charge, by some accident, set fire to the magazines of
one of the ships, which blew up with a terrible explosion,
every soul on board perishing. The expedition, neverthe-
less, continued its way. Opposite Romerswael, the fleet
of Boisot awaited them, drawn up in battle array.
A single broadside from the Spaniards proved to be the
first and last of the cannonading. As many of Romero's
vessels as could be grappled with in the narrow estuary
1574] EVACUATION OF MIDDELBURG 403
found themselves locked in close embrace with their ene-
mies. A murderous hand-to-hand conflict succeeded.
Battle-axe, boarding-pike, pistol, and dagger were the
weapons. Every man who yielded himself a prisoner was
instantly stabbed and tossed into the sea by the remorse-
less Zeelanders. Fighting only to kill, and not to plun-
der, they did not even stop to take the gold chains which
many Spaniards wore on their necks. It had, however,
been obvious from the beginning that the Spanish fleet
were not likely to achieve that triumph over the patriots
which was necessary before they could relieve Middelburg.
The battle continued a little longer ; but after fifteen
ships had been taken and twelve hundred royalists slain,
the remainder of the enemy's fleet retreated into Bergen.
Sancho d'Avila, hearing of the disaster which had befallen
his countrymen, brought his fleet, with the greatest expe-
dition, back to Antwerp. Thus the gallant Mondragon
was abandoned to his fate.
That fate could no longer be protracted. The city of
Middelburg had reached and passed the starvation point.
Still Mondragon was determined not to yield at discretion,
although very willing to capitulate. The Prince, knowing
that the brave Spaniard was entirely capable of executing
his threats of firing the city and perishing with all in the
flames, granted honorable conditions, which, on the 18th
of February, were drawn up in five articles, and signed,
and the city evacuated.
The Spaniards had thus been successfully driven from
the isle of Walcheren, leaving the Hollanders and Zee-
landers masters of the sea-coast. Since the siege of Alk-
maar had been raised, however, the enemy had remained
within the territory of Holland. Leyden was closely in-
vested, the country in a desperate condition, and all com-
munication between its different cities nearly suspended.
It was comparatively easy for the Prince of Orange to
equip and man his fleets. The genius and habits of the
people made them at home upon the water, and inspired
them with a feeling of superiority to their adversaries.
It was not so upon land. Strong to resist, patient to
suffer, the Hollanders, although terrible in defence, had
404 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
not the necessary discipline or experience to meet the
veteran legions of Spain with confidence in the open
field. To raise the siege of Leyden, the main reliance of
the Prince was upon Count Louis, who was again in
Germany.
Louis had been actively engaged all the earlier part of
the winter in levying troops and raising supplies. He had
been assisted by the French princes with considerable
sums of money, as an earnest of what he was in future
to expect from that source. He had made an unsuccess-
ful attempt to effect the capture of Eequesens on his way
to take the government of the Netherlands. He had then
passed to the frontier of France, where he had held his
important interview with Catharine de Medici and the
Duke of Anjou, then on the point of departure to ascend
the throne of Poland. He had received liberal presents,
and still more liberal promises.
Count John was indefatigable in arranging the finances
of the proposed expedition, and in levying contributions
among his numerous relatives and allies in Germany, while
Louis had profited by the occasion of Anjou's passage into
Poland to acquire for himself two thousand German and
French cavalry, who had served to escort that Prince, and
who, being now thrown out of employment, were glad to
have a job offered them by a general who was thought to
be in funds. Another thousand of cavalry and six thou-
sand foot were soon assembled from those ever-swarming
nurseries of mercenary warriors, the smaller German states.
With these, towards the end of February, Louis crossed
the Ehine in a heavy snow-storm, and bent his course
towards Maastricht. All the three brothers of the Prince
accompanied this little army, besides Duke Christopher,
son of the Elector Palatine. Before the end of the month
the army reached the Meuse, and encamped within four
miles of Maastricht, on the opposite side of the river.
Meantime the Prince of Orange had raised six thousand
infantry, whose rendezvous was the isle of Bommel. He
was disappointed at the paucity of the troops which Louis
had been able to collect, but he sent messengers imme-
diately to him, with a statement of his own condition, and
1574] LOUIS AND AVILA ON THE MEUSE 4Q5
with directions to join him in the isle of Bommel as
soon as Maastricht should be reduced. It was, however,
not in the destiny of Louis to reduce Maastricht. When
he encamped opposite Maastricht he found the river
neither frozen nor open, the ice obstructing the naviga-
tion, but being too weak for the weight of an army.
While he was thus delayed and embarrassed, Mendoza
arrived in the city with reinforcements. It seemed al-
ready necessary for Louis to abandon his hopes of Maas-
tricht. On the 3d of March Avila arrived with a large
body of troops at Maastricht, and on the 18th Mendoza
crossed the river in the night, giving the patriots so se-
vere an encamisada that seven hundred were killed, at
the expense of only seven of his own party. Harassed,
but not dispirited, by these disasters, Louis broke up his
camp on the 21st, and took a position farther down the
river. On the 8th of April, the Spaniards having assem-
bled a large force of veteran troops to oppose him, he
again shifted his encampment, and took his course along
the right bank of the Meuse, between that river and the
Rhine, in the direction of Nimwegen. Avila promptly
decided to follow him, upon the opposite bank of the
Meuse, intending to throw himself between Louis and
the Prince of Orange, and by a rapid march to give the
Count battle before he could join his brother. On the
8th of April, at early dawn, Louis had left the neighbor-
hood of Maastricht, and on the 13th he encamped at the
village of Mook, on the Meuse, near the confines of Cleves.
Sending out his scouts, he learned to his vexation that
the enemy had outmarched him and were now within
cannon-shot. Thrust as he was like a wedge into the
very heart of a hostile country, he was obliged to force
his way through, or to remain in his enemy's power.
Moreover, and worst of all, his troops were in a state of
mutiny for their wages. While he talked to them of
honor they howled to him for money. It was the cus-
tom of these mercenaries to mutiny on the eve of battle —
of the Spaniards, after it had been fought. By the one
course a victory was often lost which might have been
achieved; by the other, when won, it was rendered fruitless.
406 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
The skirmishing began at early dawn of the 14th of April
with an attack upon the trench, and continued some hours,
without bringing on a general engagement. Towards ten
o'clock Count Louis became impatient. All the trumpets
of the patriots now rang out a challenge to their adver-
saries. The Spaniards, just after returning the defiance
and preparing a general onset, received a reinforcement of
one thousand men, and promise of five hundred more next
day. A council of war hastily held decided to go on with
the battle. The skirmishing at the trench which extended
from Mook was renewed with redoubled vigor, an ad-
ditional force being sent against it. After a short and
fierce struggle it was carried, and the Spaniards rushed
into the village, but were soon dislodged by a larger de-
tachment of infantry which Count Louis sent to the rescue.
The battle now became general at this point.
Nearly all the patriot infantry were employed to defend
the post ; nearly all the Spanish infantry were ordered to
assail it. The Spaniards, dropping on their knees accord-
ing to custom, said a Pater-noster and an Ave-Maria, and
then rushed in mass to the attack. After a short but
sharp conflict the trench was again carried, and the pa-
triots completely routed. Upon this, Count Louis charged
with all his cavalry upon the enemy's horse, which had
hitherto remained motionless. With the first shock the
mounted arquebusiers of Schenk, constituting the van-
guard, were broken, and fled in all directions. So great
was their panic, as Louis drove them before him, that
they never stopped till they had swum or been drowned
in the river, the survivors carrying the news to Grave and
to other cities that the royalists had been completely
routed. This was, however, very far from the truth. The
patriot cavalry, mostly carabineers, wheeled after the first
discharge and retired to reload their pieces, but before
they were ready for another attack the Spanish lancers
and the German black troopers, who had all remained
firm, set upon them with great spirit. A fierce, bloody,
and confused action succeeded, in which the patriots were
completely overthrown.
Count Louis, finding that the day was lost and his
1674] CHARACTER OF LOUIS 407
army cut to pieces, rallied around him a little band of
troopers, among whom were his brother — Count Henry —
and Duke Christopher, and together they made a final
and desperate charge. It was the last that was ever seen
of them on earth. They all went down together in the
midst of the fight, and were never heard of more. The
battle terminated, as usual in those conflicts of mutual
hatred, in a horrible butchery, hardly any of the patriot
army being left to tell the tale of their disaster. At least
four thousand were killed, including those who were slain
on the field, those who were suffocated in the marshes or
the river, and those who were burned in the farm-houses
where they had taken refuge. It was uncertain which of
those various modes of death had been the lot of Count
Louis, his brother, and his friend. The mystery was never
solved. They had probably all died on the field ; but,
stripped of their clothing, with their faces trampled upon
by the hoofs of horses, it was not possible to distinguish
them from the less illustrious dead.
Thus perished Louis of Nassau in the flower of his
manhood, in the midst of a career already crowded with
events such as might suffice for a century of ordinary ex-
istence. It is difficult to find in history a more frank and
loyal character. His life was noble ; the elements of the
heroic and the genial so mixed in him that the imagina-
tion contemplates him, after three centuries, with an al-
most affectionate interest. He was not a great man. He
was far from possessing the subtle genius or the expansive
views of his brother ; but, called as he was to play a prom-
inent part in one of the most complicated and imposing
dramas ever enacted by man, he nevertheless always ac-
quitted himself with honor. His direct, fearless, and en-
ergetic nature commanded alike the respect of friend and
foe. As a politician, a soldier, and a diplomatist, he was
busy, bold, and true. He accomplished by sincerity what
many thought could only be compassed by trickery. Deal-
ing often with the most adroit and most treacherous of
princes and statesmen, he frequently carried his point,
and he never stooped to flattery. From the time when,,
attended by his "twelve disciples," he assumed the most
408 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
prominent part in the negotiations with Margaret of
Parma, through all the various scenes of the revolution,
through all the conferences with Spaniards, Italians, Hu-
guenots, Malcontents, Flemish councillors, or German
princes, he was the consistent and unflinching supporter
of religious liberty and constitutional law. The battle of
Heiliger Lee and the capture of Mons were his most signal
triumphs, but the fruits of both were annihilated by sub-
sequent disaster. His headlong courage was his chief
foible. The French accused him of losing the battle of
Moncontour by his impatience to engage ; yet they ac-
knowledged that to his masterly conduct it was owing
that their retreat was effected in so successful, and even
so brilliant, a manner. He was censured for rashness and
precipitancy in this last and fatal enterprise, but the re-
proach seems entirely without foundation. The expedition,
as already stated, had been deliberately arranged, with the
full co-operation of his brother, and had been several
months in preparation. That he was able to set no larger
force on foot than that which he led into Guelders was not
his fault. But for the floating ice, which barred his pas-
sage of the Meuse, he would have surprised Maastricht;
but for the mutiny, which rendered his mercenary soldiers
cowards, he might have defeated Avila at Mookerheyde.
Had he done so he would have joined his brother in the
isle of Bommel in triumph, the Spaniards would prob-
ably have been expelled from Holland, and Leyden saved
the horrors of that memorable siege which she was soon
called upon to endure. These results were not in his
destiny. Providence had decreed that he should perish
in the midst of his usefulness ; that the Prince, in his
death, should lose the right hand which had been so swift
to execute his various plans, and the faithful fraternal
heart which had always responded so readily to every throb
of his own.
In figure he was below the middle height, but martial and
noble in his bearing. The expression of his countenance
was lively ; his manner frank and engaging. All who knew
him personally loved him, and he was the idol of his gal-
lant brethren. His mother always addressed him as her
1574] A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS 409
dearly beloved, her heart's cherished Louis. "You must
come soon to me," she wrote in the last year of his life,
"for I have many matters to ask your advice upon ; and
I thank you beforehand, for you have loved me as your
mother all the days of your life ; for which may God Al-
mighty have you in His holy keeping."
It was the doom of this high-born, true-hearted dame
to be called upon to weep oftener for her children than is
the usual lot of mothers. Count Adolphus had already
perished in his youth, on the field of Heiliger Lee, and now
Louis, and his young brother Henry, who had scarcely at-
tained his twenty -sixth year, and whose short life had
been passed in that faithful service to the cause of free-
dom which was the instinct of his race, had both found a
bloody and an unknown grave.* Count John, who had
already done so much for the cause, was fortunately spared
to do much more. Although of the expedition, and ex-
pecting to participate in the battle, he had, at the urgent
solicitation of all the leaders, left the army for a brief sea-
son, in order to obtain at Cologne a supply of money for
the mutinous troops. He had started upon this mission
two days before the action in which he, too, would other-
wise have been sacrificed.
The victory of the King's army at Mookerheyde had
been rendered comparatively barren by the mutiny which
broke forth the day after the battle. Three years' pay
was due to the Spanish troops, and it was not surprising
that upon this occasion one of those periodic rebellions
should break forth, by which the royal cause was fre-
quently so much weakened and the royal governors so
intolerably perplexed.
On receiving nothing but promises in answer to their
clamorous demands, they mutinied to a man, and crossed
the Meuse to Grave, whence, after accomplising the usual
* Dr. P. J. Blok, successor of Professor Fruin in the chair of modern
history in Leyden University, and author of a History of the Netherlandish
People, has published a biography of Count Louis (" Lodewijk Van Nas-
sau"), Hague, 1889. Largely through Dr. Blok's labors and influence there
has been erected in the Reformed Church at Mook a handsome memorial in
colored marbles to the noble patriots Louis and Henry.
410 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
elections, they took their course to Antwerp. Being in
such strong force, they determined to strike at the capital.
Kumor flew before them. Champagny, brother of Grau-
velie, and royal governor of the city, wrote in haste to ap-
prise Requesens of the approaching danger. The Grand
Commander, attended only by Yitelli, repaired instantly
to Antwerp. Champagny advised throwing up a breastwork
with bales of merchandise upon the esplanade, between
the citadel and the town, for it was at this point, where
the connection between the fortifications of the castle and
those of the city had never been thoroughly completed,
that the invasion might be expected. Requesens hesitat-
ed. He trembled at a conflict with his own soldiery. If
successful, he could only be so by trampling upon the flow-
er of his army. If defeated, Avhat would become of the
King's authority, with rebellious troops triumphant in re-
bellious provinces ? Sorely perplexed, the commander
could think of no expedient. Not knowing what to do,
he did nothing. In the mean time, Champagny, who felt
himself odious to the soldiery, retreated to the Newtown,
and barricaded himself, with a few followers, in the house
of the Baltic merchants.
On the 26th of April the mutinous troops, in perfect
order, marched into the city, effecting their entrance pre-
cisely at the weak point where they had been expected.
Numbering at least three thousand, they encamped on the
esplanade, where Reqnesens appeared before them alone
on horseback, and made them an oration. They listened
with composure, but answered briefly and with one ac-
cord, " Dinero y non palabras " (Money and not words). Re-
quesens promised profusely, but the time was past for
promises. Hard silver dollars would alone content an army
which, after three years of bloodshed and starvation, had
at last taken the law into its own hands. Requesens
withdrew to consult the Broad Council of the city. He
was without money himself, but he demanded four hun-
dred thousand crowns of the city. This was at first re-
fused, but the troops knew the strength of their position,
for these mutinies were never repressed, and rarely pun-
ished. On this occasion the commander was afraid to
1574] ANTWERP SEIZED 411
employ force, and the burghers, after the army had been
quartered upon them for a time, would gladly pay a heavy
ransom to be rid of their odious and expensive guests.
The mutineers, foreseeing that the work might last a few
weeks and determined to proceed leisurely, took posses-
sion of the great square. The Eletto, or leader, with his
staff of councillors, was quartered in the Town-house, while
the soldiers distributed themselves among the houses of
the most opulent citizens, no one escaping a billet who
was rich,enough to receive such company : bishop or burgo-
master, margrave or merchant. The most famous kitch-
ens were naturally the most eagerly sought, and sumptuous
apartments, luxurious dishes, delicate wines, were daily
demanded. The burghers dared not refuse.
The six hundred Walloons, who had been previously
quartered in the city, were expelled, and for many days
the mutiny reigned paramount. The mutineers raised an
altar of chests and bales upon the public square, and cele-
brated mass under the open sky, solemnly swearing to be
true to one another to the last. Scenes of carousing and
merry-making were repeatedly renewed at the expense of
the citizens, who were exposed to nightly alarms from the
boisterous mirth and ceaseless mischief - making of the
soldiers. Before the end of the month, the Broad Coun-
cil, exhausted by the incubus which had afflicted them so
many weeks, acceded to the demand of Requesens, and
furnished four hundred thousand crowns, the Grand Com-
mander accepting them as a loan, and giving in return
bonds duly signed and countersigned, together with a
mortgage upon all the royal domains. The citizens re-
ceived the documents as a matter of form, but they had
handled such securities before, and valued them but
slightly. The mutineers now agreed to settle with the
governor - general, on condition of receiving all their
wages, either in cash or cloth, together with a solemn
promise of pardon for all their acts of insubordination.
This pledge was formally rendered with appropriate re-
ligious ceremonies, by Requesens, in the cathedral. The
payments were made directly afterwards, and a great ban-
quet was held on the same day, by the whole mass of the
412 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
soldiery, to celebrate the event. The feast took place on
the place of the Meer, and was a scene of furious revelry.
The soldiers, more thoughtless than children, had arrayed
themselves in extemporaneous costumes, cut from the
cloth which they had at last received in payment of their
sufferings and their blood. Broadcloths, silks, satins, and
gold-embroidered brocades, worthy of a queen's wardrobe,
were hung in fantastic drapery around the sinewy forms
and bronzed faces of the soldiery, who, the day before,
had been clothed in rags. The mirth was fast and fur-
ious ; and scarce was the banquet finished before every
drum-head became a gaming-table, around which gath-
ered groups eager to sacrifice in a moment their dearly
bought gold.
The fortunate or the prudent had not yet succeeded in
entirely plundering their companions when the distant
booming of cannon was heard from the river. Instantly,
accoutred as they were in their holiday and fantastic cos-
tumes, the soldiers, no longer mutinous, were summoned
from banquet and gaming-table, and were ordered forth
upon the dikes. The patriot Admiral Boisot, who had
so recently defeated the fleet of Bergen, under the eyes of
the Grand Commander, had unexpectedly sailed up the
Scheldt, determined to destroy the fleet of Antwerp, which
upon that occasion had escaped. Between the forts of
Lillo and Calloo he met with twenty-two vessels under
the command of Vice-Admiral Haemstede. After a short
and sharp action he was completely victorious. Four-
teen of the enemy^s ships were burned or sunk, with all
their crews, and Admiral Haemstede was taken prisoner.
The soldiers opened a brisk fire of musketry upon Boisot
from the dike, to which he responded with his cannon.
The distance of the combatants, however, made the action
unimportant, and the patriots retired down the river af-
ter achieving a complete victory. The Grand Commander
was farther than ever from obtaining that foothold on the
sea which, as he had informed his sovereign, was the only
means by which the Netherlands could be reduced.
CHAPTER II
SIEGE AND RELIEF OF LEYDEN
THE invasion of Louis of Nassau had effected the rais-
ing of the first siege of Leyden. That leaguer had lasted
from the 31st of October, 1573, to the 21st of March, 1574,
when the soldiers were summoned away to defend the
frontier. By extraordinary and culpable carelessness, the
citizens, neglecting the advice of the Prince, had not
taken advantage of the breathing-time thus afforded them
to revictual the city and strengthen the garrison. They
seemed to reckon more confidently upon the success of
Count Louis than he had even done himself ; for it was
very probable that, in case of his defeat, the siege would
be instantly resumed. This natural result was not long in
following the battle of Mookerheyde.
On the 26th of May Valdez reappeared before the place,
at the head of eight thousand Walloons and Germans, and
Leyden was now destined to pass through a fiery ordeal.
This city was one of the most beautiful in the Nether-
lands. Placed in the midst of broad and fruitful pastures,
which had been reclaimed by the hand of industry from
the bottom of the sea, it was fringed with smiling villages,
blooming gardens, fruitful orchards. The ancient, and
at last decrepit, Rhine, flowing languidly towards its
sandy death-bed, had been multiplied into innumerable
artificial currents, by which the city was completely in-
terlaced. These watery streets were shaded by lime-trees,
poplars, and willows, and crossed by one hundred and
forty-five bridges, mostly of hammered stone. The houses
were elegant, the squares and streets spacious, airy, and
clean, the churches and public edifices imposing, while
414 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
the whole aspect of the place suggested thrift, industry,
and comfort. Upon an artificial elevation, in the centre
of the city, rose a ruined tower of unknown antiquity.
By some it was considered to be of Roman origin, while
others preferred to regard it as a work of the Anglo-Sax-
on Hengist, raised to commemorate his conquest of Eng-
land.* Surrounded by fruit trees, and overgrown in the
centre with oaks, it afforded from its mouldering battle-
ments a charming prospect over a wide expanse of level
country, with the spires of neighboring cities rising in
every direction. It was from this commanding height,
during the long and terrible summer days which were ap-
proaching, that many an eye was to be strained anxiously
seaward, watching if yet the ocean had begun to roll over
the land.
Valdez lost no time in securing himself in the posses-
sion of Maaslandsluis, Vlaardingen, and The Hague. Five
hundred English, under command of Colonel Edward
Chester, abandoned the fortress of Valkenburg, and fled
towards Leyden. Refused admittance by the citizens,
who now, with reason, distrusted them, they surrendered
to Valdez, and were afterwards sent back to England.
In the course of a few days Leyden was thoroughly in-
vested, no fewer than sixty-two redoubts, some of them
having remained undestroyed from the previous siege,
now girdling the city, while the besiegers already num-
bered nearly eight thousand — a force to be daily increased.
On the other hand, there were no troops in the town, save
a small corps of "freebooters " and five companies of the
burgher guard. John Van der Does, Seigneur of Nord-
wyck, a gentleman of distinguished family, but still more
distinguished for his learning, his poetical genius, and his
valor, had accepted the office of military commandant.
The main reliance of the city, under God, was on the
stout hearts of its inhabitants within the walls, and on
* Excavations have shown that the present mound is the accumulated
result of Keltic, Teutonic, Roman, and Mediaeval fortification, which com-
manded the two branches of the Rhine, the tower, or lookout, giving its
name to Lugdunum, the first syllable of which name is of the same root
with the word " look."
1574] PRELIMINARIES OF THE SIEGE 415
the sleepless energy of William the Silent without. The
Prince, hastening to comfort and encourage the citizens,
although he had been justly irritated by their negligence
in having omitted to provide more sufficiently against the
emergency while there had yet been time, now reminded
them that they were not about to contend for themselves
alone, but that the fate of their country and of unborn
generations would, in all human probability, depend on
the issue about to be tried. Eternal glory would be their
portion if they manifested a courage worthy of their race
and of the sacred cause of religion and liberty. He im-
plored them to hold out at least three months, assuring
them that he would, within that time, devise the means
of their deliverance. The citizens responded courage-
ously and confidently to these missives, and assured the
Prince of their firm confidence in their own fortitude and
his exertions.
And truly they had a right to rely on that calm and un-
flinching soul as on a rock of adamant. All alone, with-
out a being near him to consult, his right arm struck from
him by the death of Louis, with no brother left to him
but the untiring and faithful John, he prepared without
delay for the new task imposed upon him. France, since
the defeat and death of Louis, and the busy intrigues
which had followed the accession of Henry the Third, had
but small sympathy for the Netherlands. The English
government, relieved from the fear of France, was more
cold and haughty than ever. An Englishman employed
by Requesens to assassinate the Prince of Orange had
been arrested in Zeeland, who impudently pretended that
he had undertaken to perform the same office for Count
John, with the full consent and privity of Queen Elizabeth.
The provinces of Holland and Zeeland were stanch and
true, but the inequality of the contest between a few
brave men upon that hand-breadth of territory and the
powerful Spanish Empire seemed to render the issue
hopeless.
Moreover, it was now thought expedient to publish the
amnesty which had been so long in preparation, and this
time the trap was more liberally baited. The pardon,
416 HISTORY OP THE NETHERLANDS [1574
which had passed the seals upon the 8th of March, was
formally issued by the Grand Commander on the 6th of
June.
For a moment the Prince feared lest the pardon might
produce some effect upon men wearied by interminable
suffering, but the event proved him wrong. It was re-
ceived with universal and absolute contempt. The city
of Leyden was equally cold to the messages of mercy
which were especially addressed to its population by
Valdez and his agents.
According to the advice early given by the Prince of
Orange, the citizens had taken an account of their pro-
visions of all kinds, including the live-stock. By the end
of June the city was placed on a strict allowance of food,
all the provisions being purchased by the authorities at
an equitable price. Half a pound of meat and half a
pound of bread were allotted to a full-grown man, and to
the rest a due proportion. The city being strictly in-
vested, no communication, save by carrier-pigeons, and
by a few swift and skilful messengers called jumpers, was
possible. Sorties and fierce combats were, however, of
daily occurrence, and a handsome bounty was offered to
any man who brought into the city gates the head of a
Spaniard. The reward was paid many times, but the
population was becoming so excited and so apt that
the authorities felt it dangerous to permit the contin-
uance of these conflicts. Lest the city, little by little,
should lose its few disciplined defenders, it was now pro-
claimed, by sound of church bell, that in future no man
should leave the gates.
The Prince had his headquarters at Delft and at Rot-
terdam. Between those two cities an important fortress,
called Polderwaert, secured him in the control of the
alluvial quadrangle, watered on two sides by the Yssel
and the Meuse. On the 29th of June the Spaniards, feel-
ing its value, had made an unsuccessful effort to carry
this fort by storm. They had been beaten off, with the
loss of several hundred men, the Prince remaining in
possession of the position, from which alone he could
hope to relieve Leyden. He still held in his hand the
1574] THE PRINCE'S PLAN OF RELIEF 417
keys with which he could unlock the ocean gates and let
the waters in upon the land, and he had long been con-
vinced that nothing could save the city but to break the
dikes. Leyden was not upon the sea, but he could send
the sea to Leyden, although an army fit to encounter the
besieging force under Valdez could not be levied. The
battle of Mookerheyde had, for the present, quite settled
the question of land relief, but it was possible to besiege the
besiegers with the waves of the ocean. The Spaniards oc-
cupied the coast from The Hague to Vlaardingen, but the
dikes along the Meuse and Yssel were in possession of the
Prince. He determined that these should be pierced,
while, at the same time, the great sluices at Rotterdam,
Schiedam, and Delftshaven should be opened. The
damage to the fields, villages, and growing crops would
be enormous, but he felt that no other course could rescue
Leyden, and with it the whole of Holland, from destruc-
tion. His clear expositions and impassioned eloquence at
last overcame all resistance. By the middle of July the
estates fully consented to his plan, and its execution was
immediately undertaken. On the 3d of August the
Prince, accompanied by Paul Buys, chief of the commis-
sion appointed to execute the enterprise, went in person
along the Yssel, as far as Kappelle, and superintended
the rupture of the dikes in sixteen places. The gates at
Schiedam and Rotterdam were opened, and the ocean be-
gan to pour over the land. While waiting for the waters
to rise, provisions were rapidly collected, according to an
edict of the Prince, in all the principal towns of the
neighborhood, and some two hundred vessels of various
sizes had also been got ready at Rotterdam, Delftshaven,
and other ports.
The citizens of Leyden were, however, already becom-
ing impatient, for their bread was gone, and of its sub-
stitute, malt-cake, they had but slender provision. On
the 12th of August they received a letter from the Prince,
encouraging them to resistance and assuring them of a
speedy relief, and on the 21st they addressed a despatch
to him in reply, stating that they had now fulfilled their
original promise, for they had held out two months with
27
418 HISTORY OP THE NETHERLANDS [1574
food and another month without food. If not soon as-
sisted, human strength could do no more ; their malt-cake
would last but four days, and after that was gone there
was nothing left but starvation. Upon the same day,
however, they received a letter, dictated by the Prince,
who now lay in bed at Rotterdam with a violent fever,
assuring them that the dikes were all pierced, and that
the water was rising upon the " Land-scheiding," the
great outer barrier which separated the city from the sea.
He said nothing, however, of his own illness, which would
have cast a deep shadow over the joy which now broke
forth among the burghers.
The letter was read publicly in the market-place, and
to increase the cheerfulness, Burgomaster Van der Werf,
knowing the sensibility of his countrymen to music,
ordered the city musicians to perambulate the streets
playing lively melodies and martial airs. Salvos of cannon
were likewise fired, and the starving city for a brief space
put on the aspect of a holiday, much to the astonish-
ment of the besieging forces, who were not yet aware of
the Prince's efforts. They perceived very soon, however,
as the water everywhere about Leyden had risen to the
depth of ten inches, that they stood in a perilous position.
It was no trifling danger to be thus attacked by the waves
of the ocean, which seemed about to obey with docility
the command of William the Silent. Valdez became
anxious and .uncomfortable at the strange aspect of af-
fairs ; for the besieging army was now in its turn beleag-
ured, and by a stronger power than man's. He consulted
with the most experienced of his officers, with the country
people, with the most distinguished among the Glip-
pers, or Dutch friends of the King, and derived encour-
agement from their views concerning the Prince's plan.
They pronounced it utterly futile and hopeless. The
Glippers knew the country well, and ridiculed the desper-
ate project in unmeasured terms.
The fever of the Prince had, meanwhile, reached its
height. He lay at Rotterdam, utterly prostrate in body,
and with mind agitated nearly to delirium by the per-
petual and almost unassisted schemes which he was con-
1574] WILD ZEELANDERS 419
structing. Relief, not only for Leyden but for the whole
country, now apparently sinking into the abyss, was the
vision which he pursued as he tossed upon his restless
couch. Never was illness more unseasonable.
Towards the end of August a vague report had found
its way into his sick chamber that Leyden had fallen, and
although he refused to credit the tale, yet it served to
harass his mind and to heighten the fever. Cornelius
Mierop, who paid a timely visit, was enabled flatly to con-
tradict the fiction. The Prince began to mend from that
hour. By the end of the first week of September he
wrote a long letter to his brother, assuring him of his
convalescence and expressing, as usual, a calm confidence
in the divine decrees — " God will ordain for me," said he,
"all which is necessary for my good and my salvation.
He will load me with no more afflictions than the fra-
gility of this nature can sustain."
The preparations for the relief of Leyden, which, not-
withstanding his exertions, had grown slack during his
sickness, were now vigorously resumed. On the 1st of
September Admiral Boisot arrived out of Zeeland with a
small number of vessels and with eight hundred veteran
sailors. A wild and ferocious crew were those eight hun-
dred Zeelanders. Scarred, hacked, and even maimed, in
the unceasing conflicts in which their lives had passed ;
wearing crescents in their caps with the inscription,
"Rather Turkish than Popish"; renowned far and wide,
as much for their ferocity as for their nautical skill ; the
appearance of these wildest of the "sea-beggars" was
both eccentric and terrific. They were known never to
give nor to take quarter, for they went to mortal combat
only, and had sworn not to spare noble or simple, king,
kaiser, or pope, should they fall into their power.
More than two hundred vessels had been now assembled,
carrying generally ten pieces of cannon, with from ten to
eighteen oars, and manned with twenty-five hundred vet-
erans, experienced both on land and water. The work
was now undertaken in earnest. The distance from Ley-
den to the outer dike, over whose ruins the ocean had al-
ready been admitted, was nearly fifteen miles. This re-
420 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
claimed territory, however, was not maintained against
the sea by these external barriers alone. The flotilla made
its way with ease to the Land-scheiding, a strong dike
within five miles of Leyden, but here its progress was ar-
rested. The approach to the city was surrounded by
many strong ramparts, one within the other, by which it
was defended against its ancient enemy, the ocean, pre-
cisely like the circumvallations by means of which it
was now assailed by its more recent enemy, the Spaniard.
To enable the fleet, however, to sail over the land, it was
necessary to break through this twofold series of defences.
Between the Land-scheiding and Leyden were several
dikes which kept out the water; upon the level terri-
tory thus encircled were many villages, together with a
chain of sixty-two forts, which completely occupied the
land. All these villages and fortresses were held by the
veteran troops of the King — the besieging force being
about four times as strong as that which was coming to
the rescue.
The Prince had given orders that the Land-scheiding,
which was still one and a half feet above water, should be
taken possession of at every hazard. On the night of the
10th and llth of September this was accomplished by
surprise and in a masterly manner. Then followed nearly
a fortnight of fighting on dike and deck, the forcing of
barriers, the driving of the ships over the water through
the gaps, alternate victory and defeat, the rise and fall
of hopes with the ebb and swell of the borrowed ocean
flood, the burning of villages, and the contraction of the
Spaniards into an ever - narrowing circle of land and
forts.
The rescuing fleet was -delayed at North Aa by barrier,
called the " Kirk- way." The waters, too, spreading once
more over a wider space, and diminishing under an east
wind, which had again arisen, no longer permitted their
progress, so that very soon the whole armada was stranded
anew. The waters fell to the depth of nine inches, while
the vessels required eighteen and twenty. Day after day
the fleet lay motionless upon the shallow sea. Orange,
rising from his sick-bed as soon as he could stand, now
1674] STARVATION 421
came on board the fleet. His presence diffused universal
joy; his words inspired his desponding army with fresh
hope. He rebuked the impatient spirits who, weary of their
'compulsory idleness, had shown symptoms of ill-timed
ferocity, and those eight hundred mad Zeelanders, so
frantic in their hatred to the foreigners, who had so long
profaned their land, were as docile as children to the
Prince. He reconnoitred the whole ground, and issued
orders for the immediate destruction of the Kirk- way, the
last important barrier which separated the fleet from Ley-
den. Then, after a long conference with Admiral Boisot,
he returned to Delft.
Meantime the besieged city was at its last gasp. Bread,
malt-cake, horse-flesh, had entirely disappeared; dogs,
cats, rats, and other vermin, were esteemed luxuries. A
small number of cows, kept as long as possible for their
milk, still remained ; but a few were killed from day to
day and distributed in minute proportions, hardly suf-
ficient to support life among the famishing population.
Starving wretches swarmed daily around the shambles
where these cattle were slaughtered, contending for any
morsel which might fall, and lapping eagerly the blood as
it ran along the pavement ; while the hides, chopped and
boiled, were greedily devoured. Women and children, all
day long, were seen searching gutters and dunghills for
morsels of food, which they disputed fiercely with the fam-
ishing dogs. The green leaves were stripped from the
trees, every living herb was converted into human food,
but these expedients could not avert starvation. The daily
mortality was frightful — infants starved to death on the
maternal breasts, which famine had parched and withered ;
mothers dropped dead in the streets, with their dead chil-
dren in their arms. In many a house the watchmen, in
their rounds, found a whole family of corpses — father,
mother, and children — side by side ; for a disorder called
the plague, naturally engendered of hardship and famine,
now came, as if in kindness, to abridge the agony of the
people. The pestilence stalked at noonday through the
city, and the doomed inhabitants fell like grass beneath
its scythe. From six thousand to eight thousand human
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
beings sank before this scourge alone ; yet the people reso-
lutely held out — women and men mutually encouraging
one another to resist the entrance of their foreign foe — an
evil more horrible than pest or famine.
The missives from Valdez, who saw more vividly than
the besieged could do the uncertainty of his own position,
now poured daily into the city, the enemy becoming more
prodigal of his vows as he felt that the ocean might yet
save the victims from his grasp. The inhabitants, in their
ignorance, had gradually abandoned all hope of relief,
but they spurned the summons to surrender. Leyden was
sublime in its despair. A few murmurs were, however,
occasionally heard at the steadfastness of the magistrates,
and a dead body was placed at the door of the burgomas-
ter, as a silent witness against his inflexibility. A party
of the more faint-hearted even assailed the heroic Adrian
Van der Werf with threats and reproaches as he passed
through the streets. A crowd had gathered around him
as he reached a triangular place in the centre of the town,
into which many of the principal streets emptied them-
selves, and upon one side of which stood the church of
St. Pancras, with its high brick tower surmounted by two
pointed turrets, and with two ancient lime-trees at its en-
trance. There stood the burgomaster, a tall, haggard, im-
posing figure, with dark visage and a tranquil but com-
manding eye. He waved his broad -leafed felt -hat for
silence, and then exclaimed, in language which has been
almost literally preserved, " "What would ye, my friends ?
Why do ye murmur that we do not break our vows and
surrender the city to the Spaniards ? — a fate more horrible
than the agony which she now endures. I tell you I have
made an oath to hold the city, and may God give me
strength to keep my oath ! I can die but once ; whether by
your hands, the enemy's, or by the hand of God. My own
fate is indifferent to me; not so that of the city entrusted
to my care. I know that we shall starve if not soon re-
lieved, but starvation is preferable to the dishonored death
which is the only alternative. Your menaces move me
not ; my life is at your disposal ; here is my sword, plunge
it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take
1574] FORTITUDE— MIDNIGHT BATTLES 423
my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender
so long as I remain alive/'
The words of the stout burgomaster inspired a new cour-
age in the hearts of those who heard him, and a shout of
applause and defiance arose from the famishing but en-
thusiastic crowd. They left the place, after exchanging
new vows of fidelity with their magistrate, and again as-
cended tower and battlement to watch for the coming
fleet. From the ramparts they hurled renewed defiance
at the enemy.
On the 28th of September a dove flew into the city,
bringing a letter from Admiral Boisot. In this despatch
the position of the fleet at North Aa. was described in en- •
couraging terms, and the inhabitants were assured that,
in a very few days at furthest, the long-expected relief
would enter their gates. The letter was read publicly upon
the market-place, and the bells were rung for joy. Nev-
ertheless, on the morrow, the vanes pointed to the east,
the waters, so far from rising, continued to sink, and
Admiral Boisot was almost in despair. He wrote to the
Prince that if the spring tide, now to be expected, should
not, together with a strong and favorable wind, come im-
mediately to their relief, it would be in vain to attempt
anything further, and that the expedition would, of neces-
sity, be abandoned. The tempest came to their relief. A
violent equinoctial gale, on the night between the 1st and
3d of October, came storming from the northwest, shift-
ing after a few hours fully eight points, and then blowing
still more violently from the southwest. The waters of
the North Sea were piled in vast masses upon the south-
ern coast of Holland, and then dashed furiously landward,
the ocean rising over the earth and sweeping with unre-
strained power across the ruined dikes.
In the course of twenty -four hours the fleet at North
Aa, instead of nine inches, had more than two feet of wa-
ter. No time was lost. The Kirk- way, which had been
broken through, according to the Prince's instructions, was
now completely overflowed, and the fleet sailed at mid-
night, in the midst of the storm and darkness. A few
sentinel vessels of the enemy challenged them as they stead-
424 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
ily rowed towards Zoeterwoude. The answer was a flash
from Boisot's cannon, lighting up the black waste of wa-
ters. There was a fierce naval midnight battle : a strange
spectacle among the branches of those qniet orchards, and
with the chimney-stacks of half-submerged farm-houses
rising around the contending vessels. The neighboring
village of Zoeterwoude shook with the discharges of the
Zeelanders' cannon, and the Spaniards assembled in that
fortress knew that the rebel Admiral was at last afloat and
on his course. The enemy's vessels were soon sunk, their
crews hurled into the waves. On went the fleet, sweeping
over the broad waters which lay between Zoeterwoude and
Zwieten. As they approached some shallows, which led
into the great mere, the Zeelanders dashed into the sea,
and with sheer strength shouldered every vessel through.
Two obstacles lay still in their path — the forts of Zoeter-
woude and Lammen, distant from the city five hundred
and two hundred and fifty yards respectively. Strong re-
doubts, both well supplied with troops and artillery, they
were likely to give a rough reception to the light flotilla,
but the panic, which had hitherto driven their foes before
the advancing patriots, had reached Zoeterwoude. Hard-
ly was the fleet in sight when the Spaniards, in the early
morning, poured out from the fortress and fled precipi-
tately to the left, along a road which led in a westerly di-
rection towards The Hague. Their narrow path was rapid-
ly vanishing in the waves, and hundreds sank beneath the
constantly deepening and treacherous flood. The wild
Zeelanders, too, sprang from their vessels upon the crum-
bling dike and drove their retreating foes into the sea.
They hurled their harpoons at them with an accuracy
acquired in many a polar chase ; they plunged into the
waves in keen pursuit, attacking them with boat-hook and
dagger. The numbers who thus fell beneath these cor-
sairs, who neither gave nor took quarter, were never count-
ed, but probably not less than a thousand perished. The
rest effected their escape to The Hague.
The first fortress was thus seized, dismantled, set on
fire, and passed, and a few strokes of the oars brought the
whole fleet close to Lammen. This last obstacle rose for-
1574] BOISOT DESPONDENT 425
midable and frowning directly across their path. Swarm-
ing as it was with soldiers, and bristling with artillery,
it seemed to defy the armada either to carry it by storm
or to pass under its guns into the city. It appeared that
the enterprise was, after all, to founder within sight of
the long expecting and expected haven. Boisot anchored
his fleet within a respectful distance, and spent what re-
mained of the day in carefully reconnoitring the fort, which
seemed only too strong. In conjunction with Leyderdorp,
the headquarters of Valdez, a mile and a half distant on
the right, and within a mile of the city, it seemed so in-
superable an impediment that Boisot wrote in despond-
ent tone to the Prince of Orange. He announced his
intention of carrying the fort, if it were possible, on the
following morning, but if obliged to retreat, he observed,
with something like despair, that there would be nothing
for it but to wait for another gale of wind. If the waters
should rise sufficiently to enable them to make a wide
detour, it might be possible, if, in the mean time, Leyden
did not starve or surrender, to enter its gates from the
opposite side.
Meantime, the citizens had grown wild with expecta-
tion. A dove had been despatched by Boisot informing
them of his precise position, and a number of citizens
accompanied the burgomaster, at nightfall, towards the
tower of Hengist. " Yonder/' cried the magistrate,
stretching out his hand towards Lammen — "yonder, be-
hind that fort, are bread and meat, and brethren in thou-
sands. Shall all this be destroyed by the Spanish guns,
or shall we rush to the rescue of our friends ?" "We will
tear the fortress to fragments with our teeth and nails,"
was the reply, "before the relief, so long expected, shall
be wrested from us." It was resolved that a sortie, in
conjunction with the operations of Boisot, should be made
against Lammen with the earliest dawn. Night descend-
ed upon the scene, a pitch-dark night, full of anxiety to
the Spaniards, to the armada, to Leyden. Strange sights
and sounds occurred at different moments to bewilder
the anxious sentinels. A long procession of lights issuing
from the fort was seen to flit across the black face of the
426 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
waters in the dead of night, and the whole of the city
wall between the Cow Gate and the Tower of Burgun-
dy fell with a loud crash. The horror-struck citizens
thought that the Spaniards were upon them at last ; the
Spaniards imagined the noise to indicate a desperate
sortie of the citizens. Everything was vague and myste-
rious.
Day dawned at length after the feverish night, and
the Admiral prepared for the assault. Within the fortress
reigned a death-like stillness, which inspired a sickening
suspicion. Had the city, indeed, been carried in the night;
had the massacre already commenced ; had all this labor
and audacity been expended in vain ? Suddenly a man
was descried wading breast-high through the water from
Lammen towards the fleet, while at the same time a
solitary boy was seen to wave his cap from the summit of
the fort. After a moment of doubt the happy mystery
was solved. The Spaniards had fled, panic struck, during
the darkness. Their position would still have enabled
them, with firmness, to frustrate the enterprise of the
patriots, but the hand of God, which sent the ocean and
the tempest to the deliverance of Leyden, had struck her
enemies with terror likewise. The lights which had been
seen moving during the night were the lanterns of the re-
treating Spaniards, and the boy, Gisbert Cornellisen, now
waving his cap from the battlements had alone witnessed
the spectacle. So confident was he in the conclusion to
which it led him that he had volunteered at daybreak
to go thither all alone. The magistrates, fearing a trap,
hesitated for a moment to believe the truth, which soon,
however, became quite evident. Valdez, himself flying
from Leyderdorp, had ordered Colonel Borgia to retire
with all his troops from Lammen. Thus, the Spaniards
had retreated at the very moment that an extraordinary
accident had laid bare a whole side of the city for their
entrance. The noise of the wall, as it fell, only inspired
them with fresh alarm ; for they believed that the citizens
had sallied forth in the darkness to aid the advancing
flood in the work of destruction. All obstacles being
now removed, the fleet of Boisot swept by Lammen and
1574] DELIVERANCE 427
entered the city on the morning of the 3d of October.
Leyden was relieved.
The quays were lined with the famishing population
as the fleet rowed through the canals, every human being
who could stand coming forth to greet the preservers of
the city. Bread was thrown from every vessel among the
crowd. The poor creatures who for two months had tasted
no wholesome human food, and who had literally been
living within the jaws of death, snatched eagerly the
blessed gift, at last too liberally bestowed. Many choked
themselves to death in the greediness with which they
devoured their bread ; others became ill with the effects
of plenty thus suddenly succeeding starvation ; but these
were isolated cases, a repetition of which was prevented.
The Admiral, stepping ashore, was welcomed by the mag-
istracy, and a solemn procession was immediately form-
ed. Magistrates and citizens, wild Zeelanders, emaciated
burgher guards, sailors, soldiers, women, children — nearly
every living person within the walls — all repaired without
delay to the great church, stout Admiral Boisot leading
the way. The starving and heroic city, which had been
so firm in its resistance to an earthly king, now bent it-
self in humble gratitude before the King of kings. After
prayers, the whole vast congregation joined in the thanks-
giving hymn. Thousands of voices raised the song, but
few were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the uni-
versal emotion, deepened by the music, became too full
for utterance. The hymn was abruptly suspended, while
the multitude wept like children. This scene of honest
pathos terminated, the necessary measures for distribut-
ing the food and for relieving the sick were taken by the
magistracy. A note despatched to the Prince of Orange
was received by him at two o'clock, as he sat in church at
Delft. It was of a somewhat different purport from that
of the letter which he had received early in the same day
from Boisot — the letter in which the Admiral had in-
formed him that the success of the enterprise depended,
after all, upon the desperate assault upon a nearly impreg-
nable fort. The joy of the Prince may be easily imagined,
and so soon as the sermon was concluded, lie handed the
428 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
letter just received to the minister to be read to the con-
gregation. Thus, all participated in his joy and united
with him in thanksgiving.
The next day, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of
his friends, who were anxious lest his life should be en-
dangered by breathing, in his scarcely convalescent state,
the air of the city where so many thousand had been dy-
ing of the pestilence, the Prince repaired to Leyden. He,
at least, had never doubted his own or his country's forti-
tude.
On the 4th of October, the day following that on which
the relief of the city was effected, the wind shifted to the
northeast, and again blew a tempest. It was as if the
waters, having now done their work, had been rolled back
to the ocean by an omnipotent hand, for in the course of
a few days the land was bare again and the work of recon-
structing the dikes commenced.
After a brief interval of repose, Leyden had regained its
former position. The Prince, with the advice of the es-
tates, had granted the city, as a reward for its sufferings,
a ten days' annual fair, without tolls or taxes, and as a
further manifestation of the gratitude entertained by the
people of Holland and Zeeland for the heroism of the cit-
izens, it was resolved that an academy or university should
be forthwith established within their walls. The Uni-
versity of Leyden, afterwards so illustrious, was thus
founded in the very darkest period of the country's strug-
gle.
The university was endowed with a handsome revenue,
principally derived from the ancient abbey of Egmont,
and was provided with a number of professors, selected
for their genius, learning, and piety among all the most
distinguished scholars of the Netherlands. The docu-
ment by which the institution was founded was certainly
a masterpiece of ponderous irony, for as the fiction of the
King's sovereignty was still maintained,* Philip was
* Under this same fiction of the royal sovereignty, the English Parlia-
ment issued commissions in the name of Charles the First to the soldiers
who fought against the King, and the battle of Lexington was fought and
orders, until July 4, 1776, were issued in the name of George the Third,
UNIVKRSITY OF LKYDKN
1574] FOUNDATION OP THE UNIVERSITY 429
gravely made to establish the university as a reward to
Leyden for rebellion to himself. " Consid^ing," said
this wonderful charter, " that during these present weari-
some wars within our provinces of Holland and Zeeland,
all good instruction of youth in the sciences and liberal
arts is likely to come into oblivion. . . . Considering
the differences of religion — considering that we are in-
clined to gratify our city of Leyden, with its burghers, on
account of the heavy burthens sustained by them during
this war with such faithfulness — we have resolved, after
ripely deliberating with our dear cousin, William, Prince
of Orange, stadholder, to erect a free public school and
university/' etc., etc., etc. So ran the document estab-
lishing this famous academy, all needful regulations for
the government and police of the institution being en-
trusted by Philip to his "above-mentioned dear cousin
of Orange."
The university having been founded, endowed, and sup-
plied with its teachers, it was solemnly consecrated in the
following winter, and it is agreeable to contemplate this
scene of harmless pedantry, interposed, as it was, be-
tween the acts of the longest and dreariest tragedy of
modern time. On the 5th of February, 1575, the city of
Leyden, so lately the victim of famine and pestilence,
crowned itself with flowers. At seven in the morning,
after a solemn religious celebration in the church of St.
Peter, a grand procession was formed. It was preceded
by a military escort, consisting of the burgher militia and
the five companies of infantry stationed in the city. Then
came, drawn by four horses, a splendid triumphal chariot,
on which sat a female figure arrayed in snow-white gar-
ments. This was the Holy Gospel. She was attended by
the Four Evangelists, who walked on foot at each side of
her chariot. Next followed Justice, with sword and scales,
mounted, blindfold, upon a unicorn, while those learned
doctors, Julian, Papinian, Ulpian, and Tribonian, rode
on each side, attended by two lackeys and four men-at-
arms. After these came Medicine, on horseback, holding
in one hand a treatise of the healing art, in the other a
garland of drugs. The curative goddess rode between the
430 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
four eminent physicians, Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides,
and Theophrastus, and was attended by two footmen and
four pike -bearers. Last of the allegorical personages
came Minerva, prancing in complete steel, with lance in
rest, and bearing her Medusa shield. Aristotle and Plato,
Cicero and Virgil, all on horseback, with attendants in
antique armor at their back, surrounded the daughter of
Jupiter, while the city band, discoursing eloquent music
from hautboy and viol, came upon the heels of the alle-
gory. Then followed the mace-bearers and other officials,
escorting the orator of the day, the newly appointed pro-
fessors and doctors, the magistrates and dignitaries, and
the body of the citizens generally completing the proces-
sion.
Marshalled in this order, through triumphal arches
and over a pavement strewed with flowers, the procession
moved slowly up and down the different streets and along
the quiet canals of the city. As it reached the Nuns'
Bridge, a barge of triumph, gorgeously decorated, came
floating slowly down the sluggish Rhine. Upon its deck,
under a canopy enwreathed with laurels and oranges, and
adorned with tapestry, sat Apollo, attended by the Nine
Muses, all in classical costume ; at the helm stood Nep-
tune with his trident. The Muses executed some beauti-
ful concerted pieces ; Apollo twanged his lute. Having
reached the landing-place, this deputation from Parnas-
sus stepped on shore, and stood awaiting the arrival of
the procession. Each professor, as he advanced, was
gravely embraced and kissed by Apollo and all the Nine
Muses in turn, who greeted their arrival, besides, with the
recitation of an elegant Latin poem. This classical cere-
mony terminated, the whole procession marched together
to the cloister of St. Barbara, the place prepared for the
new university, where they listened to an eloquent oration
by the Eev. Caspar Kolhas, after which they partook of a
magnificent banquet. With this memorable feast, in the
place where famine had so lately reigned, the ceremonies
were concluded.
CHAPTER IU
THE FIRST UNION" OF THE DUTCH STATES
THE Council of Troubles, or, as it will be forever de-
nominated in history, the Council of Blood, still existed,
although the Grand Commander, upon his arrival in the
Netherlands, had advised his sovereign to consent to the
immediate abolition of so odious an institution. Philip,
accepting the advice of his governor and his cabinet, had
accordingly authorized him, by a letter of the 10th of
March, 1574, to take that step if he continued to believe
it advisable.
Requesens had made use of this permission to extort
money from the obedient portion of the provinces. An
assembly of deputies was held at Brussels on the 7th of
June, 1574, and there was a tedious interchange of pro-
tocols, reports, and remonstrances. The estates, not sat-
isfied with the extinction of a tribunal which had at last
worn itself out by its own violence, and had become in-
active through lack of victims, insisted on greater con-
cessions. They demanded the departure of the Spanish
troops, the establishment of a council of Netherlander
in Spain for Netherland affairs, the restoration to offices
in the provinces of natives and natives only ; for these
drawers of documents thought it possible at that epoch
to recover by pedantry what their brethren of Holland
and Zeeland were maintaining with the sword. It was
not the moment for historical disquisition, citations from
Solomon, nor chopping of logic ; yet with such lucubra-
tions were reams of paper filled and days and weeks
occupied. The result was what might have been ex-
pected. The Grand Commander obtained but little
432 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
money ; the estates obtained none of their demands ; and
the Council of Blood remained, as it were, suspended in
mid-air. It continued to transact business at intervals
during the administration of Requesens, and at last, after
nine years of existence, was destroyed by the violent im-
prisonment of the Council of State at Brussels. This
event, however, belongs to a subsequent page of this his-
tory.
Noircarmes had argued, from the tenor of Sainte-Alde-
gonde's letters, that the Prince would be ready to accept
his pardon upon almost any terms. Several envoys from
the Grand Commander met the Prince of Orange and dis-
cussed the matter. Breath, time, and paper were wasted,
and nothing was gained. The proceedings on the part
of Sainte-Aldegonde, Champagny, Junius, and Elbertus
Leoninus extended through the whole summer and autumn
of 1574, and were not terminated until January of the
following year.
Changes, fast becoming necessary in the internal govern-
ment of the provinces, were also undertaken during this
year. Hitherto the Prince had exercised his power under
the convenient fiction of the King's authority, systemati-
cally conducting the rebellion in the name of his Majesty,
and as his Majesty's stadholder. By this process an im-
mense power was lodged in his hands ; nothing less, in-
deed, than the supreme executive and legislative func-
tions of the land ; while, since the revolt had become, as
it were, perpetual, ample but anomalous functions had
been additionally thrust upon him by the estates and by
the general voice of the people.
The two provinces, even while deprived of Haarlem and
Amsterdam, now raised two hundred and ten thousand
florins monthly, whereas Alva had never been able to ex-
tract from Holland more than two hundred and seventy-
one thousand florins yearly. They paid all rather than
pay a tenth. In consequence of this liberality the cities
insensibly acquired a greater influence in the government.
The coming contest between the centrifugal aristocratic
principle, represented by these corporations, and the cen-
tral, popular authority of the stadholder was already fore-
1674] DISCUSSIONS 433
shadowed, bnt at first the estates were in perfect harmony
with the Prince. They even urged upon him more power
than he desired, and declined functions which he wished
them to exercise. On the 7th of September, 1573, it had
been formally proposed by the general council to confer a
regular and unlimited dictatorship upon him, but in the
course of a year from that time the cities had began to
feel their increasing importance. Moreover, while grow-
ing more ambitious, they became less liberal.
The Prince, dissatisfied with the conduct of the cities,
brought the whole subject before an assembly of the estates
of Holland on the 20th of October, 1574. He stated the in-
conveniences produced by the anomalous condition of the
government. He complained that the common people
had often fallen into the error that the money raised for
public purposes had been levied for his benefit only, and
that they had, therefore, been less willing to contribute
to the taxes. As the only remedy for these evils, he ten-
dered his resignation of all the powers with which he was
clothed, so that the estates might then take the govern-
ment, which they could exercise without conflict or con-
trol. For himself, he had never desired power, except as
a means of being useful to his country, and he did not
offer his resignation from unwillingness to stand by the
cause, but from a hearty desire to save it from disputes
among its friends. He was ready, now as ever, to shed
the last drop of his blood to maintain the freedom of the
land.
This straightforward language produced an instantane-
ous effect. The estates knew that they were dealing with
a man whose life was governed by lofty principles, and
they felt that they were in danger of losing him through
their own selfishness and low ambition. They were em-
barrassed, for they did not like to relinquish the authority
which they had begun to relish, nor to accept the resigna-
tion of a man who was indispensable. They felt that to
give up William of Orange at that time was to accept the
Spanish yoke forever. At an assembly held at Delft on
the 12th of November, 1574, they accordingly requested
him "to continue in his blessed government, with the
28
434 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1574
council established near him/' and for this end they
formally offered to him, " under the name of Governor or
Kegent," absolute power, authority, and sovereign com-
mand. In particular they conferred on him the entire
control of all the ships of war, hitherto reserved to the
different cities, together with the right to dispose of all
prizes and all moneys raised for the support of fleets. They
gave him also unlimited power over the domains ; they
agreed that all magistracies, militia bands, guilds, and
communities, should make solemn oath to contribute taxes
and to receive garrisons, exactly as the Prince, with his
council, should ordain ; but they made it a condition that
the estates should be convened and consulted upon re*
quests, impositions, and upon all changes in the governing
body. It was also stipulated that the judges of the su-
preme court and of the exchequer, with other high officers,
should be appointed by and with the consent of the estates.
The Prince expressed himself willing to accept the gov-
ernment upon these terms. He, however, demanded an
allowance of forty -five thousand florins monthly for the
army expenses and other current outlays. Here, however,
the estates refused their consent. In a mercantile spirit,
unworthy the occasion and the man with whom they were
dealing, they endeavored to chaffer where they should
have been only too willing to comply, and they attempted
to reduce the reasonable demand of the Prince to thirty
thousand florins. The Prince, who had poured out his
own wealth so lavishly in the cause, who, together
with his brothers — particularly the generous John of
Nassau — had contributed all which they could raise by
mortgage, sales of jewelry and furniture, and by exten-
sive loans, subjecting themselves to constant embarrass-
ment and almost to penury, felt himself outraged by the
paltriness of this conduct. He expressed his indignation
and denounced the niggardliness of the estates in the
strongest language, and declared that he would rather
leave the country forever, with the maintenance of his
own honor, than accept the government upon such dis-
graceful terms. The estates, disturbed by his vehemence,
and struck with its justice, instantly, and without further
1574J ASSEMBLY AT DORT 435
deliberation, consented to his demand. They granted
the forty -five thousand florins monthly, and the Prince
assumed the government, thus remodelled.
During the autumn and early winter of the year 1574
the Emperor Maximilian had been actively exerting himself
to bring about a pacification of the Netherlands. He was
certainly sincere, for an excellent reason. The mediator
was anxious for a settlement because the interests of the
imperial house required it. The King of Spain was desir-
ous of peace, but was unwilling to concede a hair. The
Prince of Orange was equally anxious to terminate the
war, but was determined not to abandon the objects for
which it had been undertaken. A favorable result, there-
fore, seemed hardly possible. A whole people claimed the
liberty to stay at home and practise the Protestant re-
ligion, while their King asserted the right to banish them
forever, or to burn them if they remained. The parties
seemed too far apart to be brought together by the most
elastic compromise. The Prince addressed an earnest ap-
peal to the assembly of Holland, then in session at Dort,
reminding them that although peace was desirable it
might be more dangerous than war, and entreating them,
therefore, to conclude no treaty which should be incon-
sistent with the privileges of the country and their duty
to God.
It was now resolved that all the votes of the assembly
should consist of five : one for the nobles and large cities
of Holland, one for the estates of Zeeland, one for the
small cities of Holland, one for the cities Bommel and
Buren, and the fifth for William of Orange. The Prince
thus effectually held in his hands three votes : his own,
that of the small cities — which through his means only
had been admitted to the assembly — and, thirdly, that of
Buren, the capital of his son's earldom. He thus exer-
cised a controlling influence over the coming deliberations.
The ten commissioners who were appointed by the estates
for the peace negotiations were all his friends. Among
them were Saint -Aldegonde, Paul Buys, Charles Boisot,
and Dr. Junius. The plenipotentiaries of the Spanish
government were Leoninus, the Seigneur de Kassinghem,
436 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
Cornelius Suis, and Arnold Sasbout. The proceedings
were opened at Breda upon the 3d of March, 1575. Lit-
tle, if anything, new was developed during the various
sessions. The same old demands were insisted upon in
substance by the King of Spain. The provincial pleni-
potentiaries took their leave, in a paper dated the 13th of
July, 1575.
The internal government of the insurgent provinces had
remained upon the footing which we have seen established
in the autumn of 1574, but in the course of this summer
(1575), however, the foundation was laid for the union
of Holland and Zeeland, under the authority of Orange.
The selfish principle of municipal aristocracy, which had
tended to keep asunder these various groups of cities,
was now repressed by the energy of the Prince and the
strong determination of the people.
In April, 1575, certain articles of union between Hol-
land and Zeeland were proposed, and six commissioners
appointed to draw up an ordinance for the government of
the two provinces. This ordinance was accepted in gen-
eral assembly of both. It was in twenty articjes. It de-
clared that, during the war, the Prince, as sovereign,
should have absolute power in all matters concerning the
defence of the country. He was to appoint military offi-
cers, high and low, establish and remove garrisons, punish
offenders against the laws of war. He was to regulate
the expenditure of all money voted by the estates. He
was to maintain the law, in the King's name, as Count of
Holland, and to appoint all judicial officers upon nomina-
tions by the estates. He was, at the usual times, to ap-
point and renew the magistracies of the cities, according
to their constitutions. He was to protect the exercise of
the Evangelical Reformed religion, and to suppress the
exercise of the Roman religion, without permitting, how-
ever, that search should be made into the creed of any
person. A deliberative and executive council, by which
the jealousy of the corporations had intended to hamper
his government, did not come into more than nominal
existence.
The articles of union having been agreed upon, the
1575] CHARLOTTE OF BOURBON 437
Prince, desiring an unfettered expression of the national
will, wished the ordinance to be laid before the people in
their primary assemblies. The estates, however, were op-
posed to this democratic proceeding. They represented
that it had been customary to consult, after the city mag-
istracies, only the captains of companies and the deans of
guilds on matters of government. The Prince, yielding
the point, the captains of companies and deans of guilds
accordingly alone united with the aristocratic boards in
ratifying the instrument by which his authority over the
two united provinces was established. On the 4th of
June this first union was solemnized.
Upon the llth of July, the Prince formally accepted
the government. He, however, made an essential change
in a very important clause of the ordinance. In place of
the words the "Koman religion," he insisted that the
words, " religion at variance with the Gospel/' should be
substituted in the article by which he was enjoined to
prohibit the exercise of such religion. This alteration
rebuked the bigotry which had already grown out of the
successful resistance to bigotry, and left the door open
for a general religious toleration.
Early in this year the Prince had despatched Sainte-
Aldegonde on a private mission to the Elector Palatine.
During some of his visits to that potentate he had seen at
Heidelberg the Princess Charlotte of Bourbon. That lady
was daughter of the Due de Montpensier, the most ardent
of the Catholic Princes of France, and the one who at the
conferences of Bayonne had been most indignant at the
Queen Dowager's hesitation to unite heartily with the
schemes of Alva and Philip for the extermination of the
Huguenots. His daughter, a woman of beauty, intelli-
gence, and virtue, forced before the canonical age to take
the religious vows, had been placed in the convent of
Jouarre, of which she had become Abbess. Always secretly
inclined to the Keformed religion, she had fled secretly
from her cloister, in the year of horrors 1572, and had
found refuge at the court of the Elector Palatine, after
which step her father refused to receive her letters, to
contribute a farthing to her support, or even to acknowl-
438 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
edge her claims upon him by a single line or message of
affection.
Under these circumstances the outcast Princess, who
had arrived at years of maturity, might be considered her
own mistress, and she was neither morally nor legally
bound, when her hand was sought in marriage by the
great champion of the Reformation, to ask the consent of
a parent who loathed her religion and denied her existence.
The legality of the divorce from Anne of Saxony had been
settled by a full expression of the ecclesiastical authority
which she most respected ; the facts upon which the di-
vorce had been founded having been proved beyond per-
adventnre.
So far, therefore, as the character of Mademoiselle de
Bourbon and the legitimacy of her future offspring were
concerned, she received ample guarantees. For the rest,
the Prince, in a simple letter, informed her that he was
already past his prime, having reached his forty-second
year, and that his fortune was encumbered not only with
settlements for his children by previous marriages, but
by debts contracted in the cause of his oppressed country.
A convention of doctors and bishops of France, sum-
moned by the Due de Moutpensier, afterwards confirmed
the opinion that the conventual vows of the Princess
Charlotte had been conformable neither to the laws of
France nor to the canons of the Council of Trent. She
was conducted to Brill by Sain te - Aldegonde, where she
was received by her bridegroom, to whom she was united
on the 12th of June. The wedding festival was held at
Dort with much revelry and holiday-making, " but with-
out dancing."
In this connection, no doubt, the Prince consulted his
inclination only. Eminently domestic in his habits, he
required the relief of companionship at home to the ex-
hausting affairs which made up his life abroad. For
years he had never enjoyed social converse, except at long
intervals, with man or woman ; it was natural, therefore,
that he should contract this marriage. It was equally
natural that he should make many enemies by so impoli-
tic a match.
1575] PUNISHMENT OF TRAITORS 439
While important affairs, public and private, had been
occurring in the south of Holland and in Germany, a very
nefarious transaction had disgraced the cause of the pa-
triot party in the northern quarter. Diedrich Sonoy,
governor of that portion of Holland, a man of great brav-
ery but of extreme ferocity of character, had discovered
an extensive conspiracy among certain of the inhabitants
in aid of an approaching Spanish invasion. Bands of
landloupers had been employed, according to the inti-
mation which he had received, or affected to have re-
ceived, to set fire to villages and towns in every direc-
tion, to set up beacons, and to conduct a series of signals
by which the expeditions about to be organized were to
be furthered in their objects. The governor, determined
to show that the Duke of Alva could not be more prompt
nor more terrible than himself, improvised, of his own
authority, a tribunal in imitation of the infamous Council
of Blood. Fortunately for the character of the country,
Sonoy was not a Hollander, nor was the jurisdiction of
this newly established court allowed to extend beyond
very narrow limits. He proceeded to torture, burn, and
flay two men, father and son, in a manner quite like that
of the church discipline of the Spanish Inquisition. The
father died upon the bed of torture. When led to the
stake the son exonerated the persons whom he under stress
of anguish had falsely accused.
Notwithstanding this solemn recantation, the persons
accused were arrested, and in their turn subjected to tor-
ture, but the affair now reached the ears of Orange. His
peremptory orders, with the universal excitement produced
in the neighborhood, at last checked the course of the
outrage, and the accused persons were remanded to
prison, where they remained till liberated by the Pacifica-
tion of Ghent. After their release they commenced legal
proceedings against Sonoy, with a view of establishing
their own innocence, and of bringing the inhuman func-
tionary to justice. The process languished, however, and
was finally abandoned, for the powerful governor had ren-
dered such eminent service in the cause of liberty that it
was thought unwise to push him to extremity. It is no
440 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
impeachment upon the character of the Prince that these
horrible crimes were not prevented. It was impossible
for him to be omnipresent. Neither is it just to con-
sider the tortures and death thus inflicted upon innocent
men an indelible stain upon the cause of liberty. They
were the crimes of an individual who had been useful, but
who, like the Count Van der Marck, had now contaminated
his hand with the blood of the guiltless. The new tribu-
nal never took root, and was abolished as soon as its initia-
tory horrors were known.
On the 19th of July, Oudewater, entirely unprepared
for such an event, was besieged by Hierges, but the garri-
son and the population, although weak, were brave. The
town resisted eighteen days, and on the 7th of August
was carried by assault, after which the usual horrors
were fully practised, and the garrison was put to the
sword, the townspeople faring little better. Men, wom-
en, and children were murdered in cold blood, or obliged
to purchase their lives by heavy ransoms, while matrons
and maids were sold by auction to the soldiers at two or
three dollars each. Almost every house in the city was
burned to the ground, and these horrible but very cus-
tomary scenes having been enacted, the army of Hierges
took its way to Schoonhoven. That city, not defending
itself, secured tolerable terms of capitulation, and sur-
rendered on the 24th of August.
The Grand Commander had not yet given up the hope
of naval assistance from Spain, notwithstanding the abrupt
termination to the last expedition which had been organ-
ized. It was, however, necessary that a foothold should be
recovered upon the seaboard before a descent from with-
out could be met with proper co-operation from the land
forces within, and he was most anxious, therefore, to
effect the reconquest of Schouwen in Zeeland, fronting
directly upon the ocean, fortified by its strong capital
city, Zierik Zee, and containing numerous villages.
After patiently completing his elaborate preparations, in
which he was aided by traitors, Requesens came to Tholen,
at which rendezvous were assembled three thousand in-
fantry— partly Spaniards, partly Germans, partly Walloons.
1575] EXPEDITION TO DUIVELAND AND SCHOUWEN 441
Besides these, a picked corps of two hundred sappers and
miners was to accompany the expedition, in order that
no time might be lost in fortifying themselves as soon as
they had seized possession of Schouwen. Four hundred
mounted troopers were, moreover, stationed in the town
of Tholen, while the little fleet, which had been prepared
at Antwerp, lay near that city, ready to co-operate with
the land forco as soon as they should complete their en-
terprise. The Grand Commander now divided the whole
force into two parts. One half was to remain in the boats,
under the command of Mondragon ; the other half, ac-
companied by the two hundred pioneers, were to wade
through the sea from Philipsland to Duiveland and
Schouwen. Each soldier of this detachment was pro-
vided with a pair of shoes, two pounds of powder, and
rations for three days in a canvas bag suspended at his
neck. The leader of this expedition was Don Osorio
d'Ulloa, an officer distinguished for his experience and
bravery.
On the night selected for the enterprise, that of the
27th of September, the moon was a day old in its fourth
quarter, and rose a little before twelve. It was low water
at between four and five in the morning. The Grand Com-
mander, at the appointed hour of midnight, crossed to
Philipsland, and stood on the shore to watch the setting
forth of the little army. He addressed a short harangue
to them, in which he skilfully struck the chords of Span-
ish chivalry and the national love of glory, and was an-
swered with load and enthusiastic cheers. Don Osorio
d'Ulloa then stripped and plunged into the sea immediate-
ly after the guides. He was followed by the Spaniards,
after whom came the Germans, and then the Walloons. The
two hundred sappers and miners came next, and Don Ga-
briel Peralta, with his Spanish company, brought up the
rear. It was a wild night. Incessant lightning alternately
revealed and obscured the progress of the midnight march
through the black waters as the anxious Commander
watched the expedition from the shore, but the soldiers
were quickly swallowed up in the gloom. As they ad-
vanced cautiously, two by two, the daring adventurers
442 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
found themselves soon nearly up to their necks in the
waves, while so narrow was the submerged bank along
which they were marching, that a misstep to the right or
left was fatal. Luckless individuals repeatedly sank to
rise no more. Meantime, as the 'Sickly light of the waning
moon came forth at intervals through the stormy clouds,
the soldiers could plainly perceive the files of Zeeland
vessels through which they were to march, and which
were anchored as close to the flat as the water would allow.
Some had recklessly stranded themselves, in their eagerness
to interrupt the passage of the troops, and the artillery
played unceasingly from the larger vessels. Discharges
of musketry came continually from all, but the fitful
lightning rendered the aim difficult and the fire compara-
tively harmless, while the Spaniards were, moreover, pro-
tected, as to a large part of their bodies, by the water in
which they were immersed.
At times they halted for breath, or to engage in fierce
skirmishes with their nearest assailants. Standing breast-
high in the waves, and surrounded at intervals by total
darkness, they were yet able to pour an occasional well-
directed volley into the hostile ranks. The Zeelanders, how-
ever, did not assail them with fire-arms alone. They trans-
fixed some with their fatal harpoons ; they dragged others
from the path with boat-hooks ; they beat out the brains
of others with heavy flails.
The night wore on, and the adventurers still fought it
out manfully but very slowly, the main body of Span-
iards, Germans, and Walloons, soon after daylight, reaching
the opposite shore, having sustained considerable losses,
but in perfect order. The pioneers were not so fortunate.
The tide rose over them before they could effect their
passage, and swept nearly every one .away. The rear-
guard, under Peralta, not surprised, like the pioneers, in
the middle of their passage, by the rising tide, but pre-
vented, before it was too late, from advancing far beyond
the shore from which they had departed, were fortunately
enabled to retrace their steps.
Don Osorio, at the head of the successful adventurers,
now effected his landing upon Duiveland. Resting them-
1575] SUCCESSFUL ISSUE 443
selves but for an instant after this unparalleled march
of more than six hours through the water, they took
a slight refreshment, prayed to the Virgin Mary and to
St. James, and then prepared to meet their new enemies
on land. Ten companies of French, Scotch, and English
auxiliaries lay in Duiveland, under the command of Charles
van Boisot. Strange to relate, by an inexplicable accident,
or by treason, that general was slain by his own soldiers
at the moment when the royal troops landed. The panic
created by this event became intense, as the enemy rose
suddenly, as it were, out of the depths of the ocean to at-
tack them. They magnified the numbers of their assail-
ants, and fled terror-stricken in every direction. Some
swam to the Zeeland vessels which lay in the neighbor-
hood, others took refuge in the forts which had been con-
structed on the island ; but these were soon carried by the
Spaniards, and the conquest of Duiveland was effected.
The enterprise was not yet completed, but the remainder
was less difficult and not nearly so hazardous, for the creek
which separated Duiveland from Schouwen was much nar-
rower than the estuary which they had just traversed. It
was less than a league in width, but so encumbered by
rushes and briers that, although difficult to wade, it was
not navigable for vessels of any kind. This part of the
expedition was accomplished with equal resolution, so
that, after a few hours' delay, the soldiers stood upon the
much -coveted island of Schouwen. Five companies of
states troops, placed to oppose their landing, fled in the
most cowardly manner at the first discharge of the Spanish
muskets, and took refuge in the city of Zierik Zee, which
was soon afterwards beleaguered.
The troops had been disembarked upon Duiveland from
the armada, which had made its way to the scene of ac-
tion, after having received, by signal, information that
the expedition through the water had been successful.
Brouwershaven, on the northern side of Schouwen, was
immediately reduced, but Bommenede resisted till the 25th
of October, when it was at last carried by assault and de-
livered over to fire and sword. Of the whole population
and garrison not. twenty were left alive. Siege was then
444 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
laid to Zierik Zee, and Colonel Mondragon was left in
charge of the operations. Requesens himself came to
Schouwen to give directions concerning this important en-
terprise. The cruel and corpulent Chiapin Vitelli also came
thither in the middle of the winter, but was so much in-
jured by a fall from his litter, while making the tour of
the island, that he died on shipboard during his return
to Antwerp.
The siege of Zierik Zee was protracted till the following
June, the city holding out with firmness. "Want of funds
caused the operations to be conducted with languor, but
the same cause prevented the Prince from accomplishing
its relief. Thus the expedition from Philipsland, the
most brilliant military exploit of the whole war, was at-
tended with important results. Communication between
Walcheren and the rest of Zeeland was interrupted, the
province cut in two, and a foothold on the ocean, for
a brief interval at least, acquired by Spain. The Prince
was inexpressibly chagrined by these circumstances, and
felt that the moment had arrived when all honorable
means were to be employed to obtain foreign assistance.
It was necessary, in short, to look directly in the face the
great question of formally renouncing Philip.
Hitherto the fiction of allegiance had been preserved,
and, even by the enemies of the Prince, it was admitted
that it had been retained with no disloyal intent. The
time, however, had come when it was necessary to throw
off allegiance, provided another could be found strong
enough and frank enough to accept the authority which
Philip had forfeited. The question was, naturally, be-
tween France and England, unless the provinces could
effect their readmission into the body of the Germanic
Empire. Already in June the Prince had laid the prop-
osition formally before the states "whether they should
not negotiate with the empire on the subject of their ad-
mission, with maintenance of their own constitutions/'
but it was understood that this plan was not to be carried
out if the protection of the empire could be obtained
under easier conditions.
Nothing came of the proposition at that time. The
1575] POLITICAL SCHEMES OF ORANGE 445
nobles and the deputies of South Holland now voted, in
the beginning of the ensuing month, "that it was their
duty to abandon the King, as a tyrant who sought to op-
press and destroy his subjects ; and that it behoved them
to seek another protector." This was while the Breda
negotiations were still pending, but when their inevitable
result was very visible. There was still a reluctance at
taking the last and decisive step in the rebellion, so that
the semblance of loyalty was still retained ; that ancient
scabbard, in which the sword might yet one day be
sheathed. The proposition was not adopted at the diet.
A committee of nine was merely appointed to deliberate
with the Prince upon the "means of obtaining foreign
assistance, without accepting foreign authority, or sever-
ing their connection with his Majesty." The estates were,
however, summoned a few months later, by the Prince, to
deliberate at Kotterdam on this important matter. On
the 1st of October he formally proposed either to make
terms with the enemy, and that the sooner the better, or
else, once for all, to separate entirely from the King of
Spain, and to change their sovereign, in order, with the
assistance and under the protection of another Christian
potentate, to maintain the provinces against their enemies.
Orange, moreover, expressed the opinion that upon so
important a subject it was decidedly incumbent upon
them all to take the sense of the city governments. The
members for the various municipalities acquiesced in the
propriety of this suggestion, and resolved to consult their
constituents, while the deputies of the nobility also de-
sired to consult with their whole body. After an adjourn-
ment of a few days, the diet again assembled at Delft, and it
was then unanimously resolved by the nobles and the
cities, " that they would forsake the King and seek foreign
assistance, referring the choice to the Prince, who, in
regard to the government, was to take the opinion of the
estates."
Thus the great step was taken by which two little
provinces declared themselves independent of their an-
cient master. That declaration, although taken in the midst
of doubt and darkness, was not destined to be cancelled,
446 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1575
and the germ of a new and powerful commonwealth was
planted. So little, however, did these republican fathers
foresee their coming republic, that the resolution to re-
nounce one king was combined with a proposition to ask
for the authority of another. It was not imagined that
those two slender columns, which were all that had yet
been raised of the future stately peristyle, would be strong
enough to stand alone.
It having been determined to send an embassy to Eng-
land, Advocate Buys and Dr. Francis Maalzon were nom-
inated by the estates, and Sainte-Aldegonde, chief of the
mission, was appointed by the Prince. They arrived in
England at Christmas-tide, and remained until April,
1576, but accomplished nothing. The envoys, on parting,
made a strenuous effort to negotiate a loan, but the frugal
Queen considered the proposition quite inadmissible. She
granted them liberty to purchase arms and ammunition,
and to levy a few soldiers with their own money, and this
was accordingly done to a limited extent. As it was not
difficult to hire soldiers or to buy gunpowder anywhere,
in that warlike age, provided the money was ready, the
states had hardly reason to consider themselves under
deep obligation for this concession. Yet this was the
whole result of the embassy. Plenty of fine words had
been bestowed, which might or might not have meaning,
according to the turns taken by coming events. Besides
these cheap and empty civilities, they received permission
to defend Holland at their own expense, with the priv-
ilege of surrendering its sovereignty, if they liked, to
Queen Elizabeth — and this was all. On the 19th of April
the envoys returned to their country, and laid before the
estates the meagre result of their negotiations.
Meantime, the important siege of Zierik Zee continued,
and it was evident that the city must fall. There was no
money at the disposal of the Prince. Count John, who
was seriously embarrassed by reason of the great obliga-
tions in money which he, with the rest of his family, had
incurred on behalf of the estates, had recently made appli-
cation to the Prince for his influence towards procuring
him relief. He had forwarded an account of the great ad-
1576J A DESPERATE RESOLVE 447
vances made by himself and his brethren in money, plate,
furniture, and indorsements of various kinds, for which a
partial reimbursement was almost indispensable to save
him from serious difficulties. The Prince, however, un-
able to procure him any assistance, had been obliged once
more to entreat him to display the generosity and the self-
denial which the country had never found wanting at his
hands or at those of his kindred. The appeal had not
been in vain ; but the Count was obviously not in a con-
dition to effect anything more at that moment to relieve
the financial distress of the states. The exchequer was
crippled. Holland and Zeeland were cut in twain by the
occupation of Schouwen and the approaching fall of its
capital. Germany, England, France, all refused to stretch
out their hands to save the heroic but exhaustless little
provinces. It was at this moment that a desperate but
sublime resolution took possession of the Prince's mind.
There seemed but one way left to exclude the Spaniards
for ever from Holland and Zeeland, and to rescue the in-
habitants from impending ruin. The Prince had long
brooded over the scheme, and the hour seemed to have
struck for its fulfilment. His project was to collect all
the vessels, of every description, which could be obtained
throughout the Netherlands. The whole population of
the two provinces, men, women, and children, together
with all the movable property of the country, were then
to be embarked on board this numerous fleet, and to seek
a new home beyond the seas. The windmills were then
to be burned, the dikes pierced, the sluices opened in
every direction, and the country restored forever to the
ocean, from which it had sprung.
The unexpected death of Kequesens suddenly dispelled
these schemes. The siege of Zierik Zee had occupied
much of the governor's attention, but he had recently
written to his sovereign that its reduction was now cer-
tain. He had added an urgent request for money, with
a sufficient supply of which he assured Philip that he
should be able to bring the war to an immediate conclu-
sion. While awaiting for these supplies he had, contrary
to all law or reason, made an unsuccessful attempt to con-
448
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1576
quer the post of Embden, in Germany. A mutiny had,
at about the same time, broken out among his troops in
Haarlem, and he had furnished the citizens with arms to de-
fend themselves, giving free permission to use them against
the insurgent troops. By this means the mutiny had been
quelled, but a dangerous precedent established. Anxiety
concerning this rebellion is supposed to have hastened the
Grand Commander's death. A violent fever seized him
on the 1st and terminated his existence on the 5th of
March, in the fifty-first year of his life.
CHAPTER IV
ORANGE'S TOLERATION — SPANISH MUTINY
THE death of Requesens, notwithstanding his four days'
illness, occurred so suddenly that he had not had time to
appoint his successor. Had he exercised this privilege,
which his patent conferred upon him, it was supposed
that he would nominate Count Mansfeld to exercise
the functions of governor-general until the King should
otherwise ordain. In the absence of any definite arrange-
ment, the Council of State, according to a right which
that body claimed from custom, assumed the reins of gov-
ernment. Peter Ernest Mansfeld was entrusted with the
supreme military command, including the government of
Brussels • and the Spanish commanders, although dissatis-
fied that any but a Spaniard should be thus honored, were
for a time quiescent.
Certainly the Prince of Orange did not sleep upon this
or any other great occasion of his life. In his own vigor-
ous language, used to stimulate his friends in various parts
of the country, he seized the swift occasion by the fore-
lock. He opened a fresh correspondence with many
leading gentlemen in Brussels and other places in the
Netherlands ; persons of influence, who now, for the first
time, showed a disposition to side with their country
against its tyrants. Hitherto the land had been divided
into two very unequal portions. Holland and Zeeland
were devoted to the Prince ; their whole population, with
hardly an individual exception, converted to the Eef ormed
religion. The other fifteen provinces were, on the whole,
loyal to the King ; while the old religion had, of late
years, taken root so rapidly again that perhaps a moiety
29 449
450 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [15Y8
of their population might be considered as Catholic. At
the same time, the reign of terror under Alva, the paler
but not less distinct tyranny of Requesens, and the intol-
erable excesses of the foreign soldiery, by which the gov-
ernment of foreigners was supported, had at last mad-
dened all the inhabitants of the seventeen provinces.
Notwithstanding, therefore, the fatal difference of relig-
ious opinion, they were all drawn into closer relations with
one another ; to regain their ancient privileges, and to
expel the detested foreigners from the soil, being objects
common to all. The provinces were united in one great
hatred and one great hope.
The Hollanders and Zeelanders, under their heroic
leader, had wellnigh accomplished both tasks, so far as
those little provinces were concerned. Never had a con-
test, however, seemed more hopeless at its commence-
ment. Cast a glance at the map. Look at Holland —
not the Republic, with its sister provinces beyond the
Zuyder Zee, but Holland only, with the Zeeland archi-
pelago. Look at that narrow tongue of half-submerged
earth. "Who could suppose that upon that slender sand-
bank, one hundred and twenty miles in length and vary-
ing in breadth from four miles to forty, one man, backed
by the population of a handful of cities, could do battle
nine years long with the master of two worlds, the " Domi-
nator of Asia, Africa, and America" — the despot of the
fairest realms of Europe — and conquer him at last. Nor
was William even entirely master of that narrow shoal
where clung the survivors of a great national shipwreck.
North and South Holland were cut in two by the loss of
Haarlem, while the enemy was in possession of the natural
capital of the little country, Amsterdam. The Prince
affirmed that the cause had suffered more from the dis-
loyalty of Amsterdam than from all the efforts of the
enemy.
Moreover, the country was in a most desolate condition.
It was almost literally a sinking ship. The destruction
of the bulwarks against the ocean had been so extensive,
in consequence of the voluntary inundations which have
been described in previous pages, and by reason of the
1576] STATE OF THE COUNTRY 451
general neglect which more vital occupations had necessi-
tated, that an enormous outlay, both of labor and money,
was now indispensable to save the physical existence of
the country. The labor and the money, notwithstanding
the crippled and impoverished condition of the nation,
were, however, freely contributed ; a wonderful example
of energy and patient heroism was again exhibited. The
dikes which had been swept away in every direction were
renewed at a vast expense. Moreover, the country, in
the course of recent events, had become almost swept
bare of its cattle, and it was necessary to pass a law for-
bidding, for a considerable period, the slaughter of any
animals, "oxen, cows, calves, sheep, or poultry." It was,
unfortunately, not possible to provide by law against that
extermination of the human population which had been
decreed by Philip and the Pope.
Such was the physical and moral condition of the prov-
inces of Holland and Zeeland. The political constitution
of both assumed at this epoch a somewhat altered aspect.
The union between the two states, effected in June,
1575, required improvement. The administration of jus-
tice, the conflict of laws, and, more particularly, the levy-
ing of moneys and troops in equitable proportions, had not
been adjusted with perfect smoothness. The estates of
the two provinces, assembled in congress at Delft, con-
cluded therefore a new act of union, which was duly
signed upon the 25th of April, 1576. Those estates, con-
sisting of the knights and nobles of Holland, with the dep-
uties from the cities and countships of Holland and Zee-
land, had been duly summoned by the Prince of Orange.
They as fairly included all the political capacities and
furnished as copious a representation of the national will
as could be expected, for it is apparent upon every page of
his history that the Prince, upon all occasions, chose to
refer his policy to the approval and confirmation of as large
a portion of the people as any man in those days consid-
ered capable or desirous of exercising political functions.
The new union consisted of eighteen articles. It was
established that deputies from all the estates should meet
when summoned by the Prince of Orange or otherwise, on
452 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
penalty of fine, and at the risk of measures binding upon
them being passed by the rest of the congress. Freshly
arising causes of litigation were to be referred to the
Prince. Free intercourse and traffic through the united
provinces were guaranteed. The confederates were mutu-
ally to assist one another in preventing all injustice, wrong,
or violence, even towards an enemy. The authority of
law and the pure administration of justice were mutually
promised by the contracting states. The common ex-
penses were to be apportioned among the different prov-
inces, "as if they were all included in the republic of a
single city." Nine commissioners, appointed by the Prince
on nomination by the estates, were to sit permanently, as
his advisers, and as assessors and collectors of the taxes.
The tenure of the union was from six months to six
months, with six weeks' notice.
The framers of this compact having thus defined the
general outlines of the confederacy, declared that the gov-
ernment thus constituted should be placed under a sin-
gle head. They accordingly conferred supreme authority
on the Prince, defining his powers in eighteen articles.
He was declared chief commander by land and by sea. He
was to appoint all officers, from generals to subalterns, and
to pay them at his discretion. The whole protection of
the land was devolved upon him. He was to send garri-
sons or troops into every city and village at his pleasure,
without advice or consent of the estates, magistrates of
the cities, or any other persons whatsoever. He was, in
behalf of the King, as Count of Holland and Zeeland, to
cause justice to be administered by the supreme court. In
the same capacity he was to provide for vacancies in all
political and judicial offices of importance, choosing, i^ith
the advice of the estates, one officer for each vacant post out
of three candidates nominated to him by that body. He
was to appoint and renew, at the usual times, the magis-
tracies in the cities, according to the ancient constitutions.
He was to make changes in those boards, if necessary, at
unusual times, with consent of the majority of those rep-
resenting the great council and corpus of the said cities.
He was to uphold the authority and pre-eminence of all
1576] THE NEW UNION 453
civil functionaries, and to prevent governors and military
officers from taking any cognizance of political or judicial-
affairs. With regard to religion, he was to maintain the
practice of the Eeformed Evangelical religion, and to
cause to surcease the exercise of all other religions contrary
to the Gospel. He was, however, not to permit that in-
quisition should be made into any man's belief or conscience,
or that any man by cause thereof should suffer trouble, in-
jury, or hinderance.
The league thus concluded was a confederation between
a group of virtually independent little republics. Each
municipality was, as it were, a little sovereign, sending
envoys to a congress to vote and to sign as plenipotenti-
aries. The vote of each city was, therefore, indivisible,
and it mattered little, practically, whether there were one
deputy or several. The nobles represented not only their
own order, but were supposed to act also in behalf of the
rural population. On the whole, there was a tolerably fair
representation of the whole nation. The people were well
and worthily represented in the government of each city,
and, therefore, equally so in the assembly of the estates.
It was not till later that the corporations, by the extinc-
tion of the popular element, and by the usurpation of the
right of self-election, were thoroughly stiffened into ficti-
tious personages who never died, and who were never
thoroughly alive.
At this epoch the provincial liberties, so far as they
could maintain themselves against Spanish despotism,
were practical and substantial. The government was a
representative one, in which all those who had the in-
clination possessed, in one mode or another, a voice.
Although the various members of the confederacy were
locally and practically republics or self - governed little
commonwealths, the general government which they es-
tablished was, in form, monarchical. The powers con-
ferred upon Orange constituted him a sovereign ad interim,
for while the authority of the Spanish monarch remained
suspended, the Prince was invested not only with the
whole executive and appointing power, but even with a
very large share in the legislative functions of the state.
454 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
The whole system was rather practical than theoretical,
without any accurate distribution of political powers. In
living, energetic communities, where the blood of the
body politic circulates swiftly, there is an inevitable ten-
dency of the different organs to sympathize and commingle
more closely than a priori philosophy would allow. It
is usually more desirable than practicable to keep the
executive, legislative, and judicial departments entirely
independent of one another.
Certainly the Prince of Orange did not at that moment
indulge in speculations concerning the nature and origin
of government. He was the father of his country, and its
defender. The people, from highest to lowest, called him
"Father William," and the title was enough for him.
The question with him was not what men should call
him, but how he should best accomplish his task.
So little was he inspired by the sentiment of self-eleva-
tion that he was anxiously seeking for a fitting person —
strong, wise, and willing enough — to exercise the sover-
eignty which was thrust upon himself, but which he de-
sired to exchange for an increased power to be actively
useful to his country. To expel the foreign oppressor ;
to strangle the inquisition ; to maintain the ancient liber-
ties of the nation — here was labor enough for his own
hands. The vulgar thought of carving a throne out of
the misfortunes of his country seems not to have entered
his mind. Upon one point, however, the Prince had
been peremptory. He would have no persecution of the
opposite creed. He was requested to suppress the Catho-
lic religion in terms. As we have seen, he caused the ex-
pression to be exchanged for the words, "religion at vari-
ance with the Gospel/' He resolutely stood out against
all meddling with men's consciences, or inquiring into
their thoughts. While smiting the Spanish inquisition
into the dust, he would have no Calvinist inquisition set
up in its place. Earnestly a convert to the Reformed
religion, but hating and denouncing only what was corrupt
in the ancient Church, he would not force men, with
fire and sword, to travel to heaven upon his own road.
Thought should be toll-free. Neither monk nor minis-
FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS 455
ter should burn, drown, or hang his fellow - creatures
when argument or expostulation failed to redeem them
from error. It was no small virtue, in that age, to rise
to such a height.
The death of Requesens had offered the first opening
through which the watchful Prince could hope to inflict
a wound in the vital part of Spanish authority in the
Netherlands. The languor of Philip and the procrastinat-
ing counsel of the dull Hopper unexpectedly widened the
opening. On the 24th of March letters were written by
his Majesty to the states-general, to the provincial estates,
and to the courts of justice, instructing them that, until
further orders, they were all to obey the council of state.
The King was confident that all would do their utmost
to assist that body in securing the holy Catholic faith
and the implicit obedience of the country to its sovereign.
He would, in the mean time, occupy himself with the
selection of a new governor - general, who should be of
his family and blood. This uncertain and perilous con-
dition of things was watched with painful interest in
neighboring countries.
The fate of all nations was more or less involved in the
development of the great religious contest now being waged
in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, during the spring of
1576 the negotiations of the Prince with England, France,
and Germany bore little fruit. The situation at the end
of May was much the same as at the opening of the year.
The prospect was black in Germany, more encouraging in
France, dubious, or worse, in England. More work, more
anxiety, more desperate struggles than ever, devolved upon
the Prince. Secretary Bruyninck wrote that his illustri-
ous chief was tolerably well in health, but so loaded with
affairs, sorrows, and travails, that, from morning till
night, he had scarcely leisure to breathe. Besides his
multitudinous correspondence with the public bodies,
whose labors he habitually directed ; with the various
estates of the provinces, which he was gradually mould-
ing into an organized and general resistance to the Span-
ish power ; with public envoys and with secret agents to
foreign cabinets, all of whom received their instructions
456 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
from him alone ; with individuals of eminence and influ-
ence, whom he was eloquently urging to abandon their
hostile position to their fatherland, and to assist him in
the great work which he was doing : besides these numer-
ous avocations, he was actively and anxiously engaged,
during the spring of 1576, with the attempt to relieve
the city of Zierik Zee.
That important place, the capital of Schouwen, and the
key to half Zeeland, had remained closely invented since
the memorable expedition to Duiveland. The Prince had
passed much of his time in the neighborhood during the
month of May, in order to attend personally to the con-
templated relief, and to correspond daily with the belea-
guered garrison. At last, on the 25th of May, a vigorous
effort was made to throw in succor by sea. The brave
Admiral Boisot, hero of the memorable relief of Leyden,
had charge of the expedition. Mondragon had surround-
ed the shallow harbor with hulks and chains, and with
a loose, submerged dike of piles and rubbish. Against
this obstacle Boisot drove his ship, the Red Lion, with his
customary audacity, but did not succeed in cutting it
through. His vessel, the largest of the fleet, became en-
tangled ; he was at the same time attacked from a dis-
tance by the besiegers. The tide ebbed and left his ship
aground, while the other vessels had been beaten back by the
enemy. Night approached, and there was no possibility
of accomplishing the enterprise. His ship was hopelessly
stranded. With the morning's sun his captivity was cer-
tain. Rather than fall into the hands of his enemy, he
sprang into the sea, followed by three hundred of his com-
panions, some of whom were fortunate enough to effect
their escape. The gallant Admiral swam a long time, sus-
tained by a broken spar. Night and darkness came on
before assistance could be rendered, and he perished.
Thus died Louis Boisot, one of the most enterprising of
the early champions of Netherland freedom — one of the
bravest precursors of that race of heroes, the commanders
of the Holland navy. The Prince deplored his loss deeply
as that of a " valiant gentleman, and one well affectioned
to the common cause." His brother, Charles Boisot, as
1576] FALL OF ZIERIK ZEE 457
will be remembered, had perished by treachery at the first
landing of the Spanish troops, after their perilous passage
from Duiveland. Thus both the brethren had laid down
their lives for their country, on this its outer barrier, and
in the hour of its utmost need. The fall of the beleaguered
town could no longer be deferred. The Spaniards were
at last to receive the prize of that romantic valor which
had led them across the bottom of the sea to attack the
city. Nearly nine months had however elapsed since
that achievement, and the Grand Commander, by whose
orders it had been undertaken, had been four months in
his grave. He was permitted to see neither the long-
delayed success which crowned the enterprise, nor the
procession of disasters and crimes which was to mark it
as a most fatal success.
On the 21st of June, 1576, Zierik Zee, instructed by the
Prince of Orange to accept honorable terms, if offered,
agreed to surrender. Mondragon, whose soldiers were in
a state of suffering and ready to break out in mutiny,
was but too happy to grant an honorable capitulation.
The garrison were allowed to go out with their arms and
personal baggage. The citizens were permitted to retain
or resume their privileges and charters, on payment of
two hundred thousand guldens. Of sacking and burning
there was, on this occasion, fortunately, no question ; but
the first half of the commutation money was to be paid in
cash. There was but little money in the impoverished
little town, but mint-masters were appointed by the magis-
trates to take their seats at once in the H6tel de Ville.
The citizens brought their spoons and silver dishes, one
after another, which were melted and coined into dollars
and half-dollars, until the payment was satisfactorily ad-
justed. Thus fell Zierik Zee, to the deep regret of the
Prince. et Had we received the least succor in the world
from any side," he wrote, "the poor city should never
have fallen. I could get nothing from France or England,
with all my efforts. Nevertheless, we do not lose courage,
but hope that, although abandoned by all the world, the
Lord God will extend His right hand over us."
The enemies were not destined to go farther. From
458 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
their own hand now came the blow which was to expel
them from the soil which they had so long polluted. No
sooner was Zierik Zee captured than a mutiny broke forth
among several companies of Spaniards and Walloons be-
longing to the army in Schouwen. A large number of the
most influential officers had gone to Brussels, to make ar-
rangements, if possible, for the payment of the troops.
In their absence there was more scope for the arguments
of the leading mutineers — arguments assuredly not en-
tirely destitute of justice or logical precision.
It was in vain that arguments and expostulations were
addressed to soldiers who were suffering from want and
maddened by injustice. They determined to take their
cause into their own hands, as they had often done before.
By the 15th of July the mutiny was general on the isle
of Schouwen. Promises were freely offered, both of pay
and pardon ; appeals were made to their old sense of honor
and loyalty ; but they had had enough of promises, of
honor, and of work. What they wanted now were shoes
and jerkins, bread and meat and money. Money they
would have, and that at once. The King of Spain was
their debtor. The Netherlands belonged to the King of
Spain. They would, therefore, levy on the Netherlands
for payment of their debt.
The rebel regiments entered Brabant. They alighted
upon Alost, using this little city as their perch while they
made ready to swoop upon Brussels. The state council
fulminated edicts against the mutineers. In Antwerp and
the capital the burghers armed and became garrisons.
The King continued to procrastinate. On the last day of
July the Marquis of Havre arrived from Madrid, bearing
conciliatory but unmeaning messages from the King, which
had little effect.
Jerome de Koda had been fortunate enough to make his
escape out of Brussels, and now claimed to be sole gov-
ernor of the Netherlands, as the only remaining repre-
sentative of the state council. His colleagues were in
durance at the capital. Their authority was derided.
Although not yet actually imprisoned, they were in reali-
ty bound hand and foot, and compelled to take their or-
1576] GOVERNOR RODA 459
ders either from the Brabant estates or from the bnrghers
of Brussels. It was not an illogical proceeding, therefore,
that Eoda, nnder the shadow of the Antwerp citadel,
should set up his own person as all that remained of the
outraged majesty of Spain. Till the new governor, Don
John, should arrive, whose appointment the King had al-
ready communicated to the government, and who might
be expected in the Netherlands before the close of the
autumn, the solitary councillor claimed to embody the
whole council. He caused a new seal to be struck — a
proceeding very unreasonably charged as forgery by the
provincials — and forthwith began to thunder forth procla-
mations and counter-proclamations in the King's name and
under the royal seal. It is difficult to see any technical
crime or mistake in such a course. As a Spaniard, and
a representative of his Majesty, he could hardly be ex-
pected to take any other view of his duty. At any rate,
being called upon to choose between rebellious Nether-
landers and mutinous Spaniards, he was not long in making
up his mind.
By the beginning of September the mutiny was general.
All the Spanish army, from general to pioneer, were
united. The most important German troops had taken
side with them. Sancho d'Avila held the citadel of Ant-
werp, vowing vengeance, and holding open communica-
tion with the soldiers at Alost. The council of state re-
monstrated with him for his disloyalty. He replied by
referring to his long years of service, and by reproving
them for affecting an authority which their imprisonment
rendered ridiculous. The Spaniards were securely estab-
lished. The various citadels which had been built by
Charles and Philip to curb the country now effectually
did their work. With the castles of Antwerp, Valen-
ciennes, Ghent, Utrecht, Culemburg, Vianen, and Alost in
the hands of six thousand veteran Spaniards, the country
seemed chained in every limb. The foreigner's foot was
on its neck. Brussels was almost the only considerable
town out of Holland and Zeeland which was even tempo-
rarily safe. The important city of Maastricht was held by
a Spanish garrison, while other capital towns and stations
460
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1576
tvere in the power of the Walloon and German mutineers.
The depredations committed in the villages, the open
country, and the cities were incessant — the Spaniards
treating every Netherlander as their foe. Gentleman and
peasant, Protestant and Catholic, priest and layman, all
were plundered, maltreated, outraged. The indignation
became daily more general and more intense. There
were frequent skirmishes between the soldiery and pro-
miscuous bands of peasants, citizens, and students — con-
flicts in which the Spaniards were invariably victorious.
What could such half-armed and wholly untrained parti-
sans effect against the bravest and most experienced troops
in the whole world ? Such results only increased the gen-
eral exasperation, while they impressed upon the whole
people the necessity of some great and general effort to
throw off the incubus.
CHAPTER V
THE PACIFICATION OF GHENT
MEANTIME the Prince of Orange sat at Middelburg
watching the storm. The position of Holland and Zee-
land with regard to the other fifteen provinces was dis-
tinctly characterized. Upon certain points there was an
absolute sympathy, while upon others there was a grave
and almost fatal difference. It was the task of the Prince
to deepen the sympathy, to extinguish the difference.
In Holland and Zeeland there was a warm and nearly
universal adhesion to the Reformed religion, a passionate
attachment to the ancient political liberties. The Prince,
although an earnest Calvinist himself, did all in his pow-
er to check the growing spirit of intolerance towards the
old religion, and omitted no opportunity of strengthening
the attachment which the people justly felt for their lib-
eral institutions.
On the other hand, in most of the other provinces the
Catholic religion had been regaining its ascendency.
Even in 1574, the estates assembled at Brussels declared
to Requesens " that they would rather die the death than
see any change in their religion." That feeling had rath-
er increased than diminished. Although there was a
strong party attached to the new faith, there was per-
haps a larger, certainly a more influential, body which re-
garded the ancient Church with absolute fidelity. Owing
partly to the persecution which had, in the course of
years, banished so many thousands of families from the
soil ; partly to the coercion, which was more stringent in
the immediate presence of the crown's representative;
partly to the stronger infusion of the Celtic element,
462 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
which from the earliest ages had always been so keenly
alive to the more sensuous and splendid manifestations of
the devotional principle — owing to these and many other
causes, the old religion, despite of all the outrages which
had been committed in its name, still numbered a host of
zealous adherents in the fifteen provinces. Attempts
against its sanctity were regarded with jealous eyes. It
was believed, and with reason, that there was a disposi-
tion on the part of the Reformers to destroy it root and
branch. It was suspected that the same enginery of per-
secution would be employed in its extirpation, should the
opposite party gain the supremacy, which the papists
had so long employed against the converts to the new re-
ligion.
As to political convictions, the fifteen provinces differed
much less from their two sisters. There was a strong at-
tachment to their old constitutions ; a general inclination
to make use of the present crisis to effect their restora-
tion. At the same time it had not come to be the gen-
eral conviction, as in Holland and Zeeland, that the main-
tenance of those liberties was incompatible with the con-
tinuance of Philip's authority. There was, moreover, a
strong aristocratic faction which was by no means disposed
to take a liberal view of government in general, and regard-
ed with apprehension the simultaneous advance of heretical
notions both in Church and State. Still there were, on the
whole, the elements of a controlling constitutional party
throughout the fifteen provinces. The great bond of
sympathy, however, between all the seventeen was their
common hatred to the foreign soldiery. Upon this deep-
ly embedded, immovable fulcrum of an ancient national
hatred, the sudden mutiny of the whole Spanish army
served as a lever of incalculable power. The Prince
seized it as from the hand of God. Thus armed, he pro-
posed to himself the task of upturning the mass of op-
pression under which the old liberties of the country had
so long been crushed. To effect this object, adroitness
was as requisite as courage. Expulsion of the foreign
soldiery ; union of the seventeen provinces ; a representa-
tive constitution, according to the old charters, by the
1576] LETTERS OF ORANGE— NECESSITY OF UNION 463
states-general, under an hereditary chief ; a large religious
toleration ; suppression of all inquisition into men's con-
sciences— these were the great objects to which the Prince
now devoted himself with renewed energy.
To bring about a general organization and a general
union, much delicacy of handling was necessary. The
sentiment of extreme Catholicism and monarchism was
not to be suddenly scared into opposition. The Prince,
therefore, in all his addresses and documents, was careful
to disclaim any intention of disturbing the established re-
ligion, or of making any rash political changes. While,
however, careful to offend no man's religious convictions,
to startle no man's loyalty, he made skilful use of the
general indignation felt at the atrocities of the mutinous
army. This chord he struck boldly, powerfully, passion-
ately, for he felt sure of the depth and strength of its
vibrations.
Day after day, in almost countless addresses to public
bodies and private individuals, he made use of the crisis
to pile fresh fuel upon the flames. At the same time,
while thus fanning the general indignation, he had the
adroitness to point out that the people had already com-
mitted themselves. He represented to them that the
edict by which they had denounced his Majesty's veterans
as outlaws, and had devoted them to the indiscriminate
destruction which such brigands deserved, was likely to
prove an unpardonable crime in the eyes of majesty. In
short, they had entered the torrent. If they would avoid
being dashed over the precipice, they must struggle man-
fully with the mad waves of civil war into which they had
plunged.
Having upon various occasions sought to impress upon
his countrymen the gravity of the position, he led them
to seek the remedy in audacity and in union. He famil-
iarized them with his theory, that the legal, historical gov-
ernment of the provinces belonged to the states-general —
to a congress of nobles, clergy, and commons, appointed
from each of the seventeen provinces. He maintained,
with reason, that the government of the Netherlands was
a representative, constitutional government, under the he-
464 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
reditary authority of the King. To recover this constitu-
tion, to lift up these down-trodden rights, he set before
them most vividly the necessity of union. "'Tis impos-
sible/'he said, "that a chariot should move evenly having
its wheels unequally proportioned ; and so must a con-
federation be broken to pieces if there be not an equal
obligation on all to tend to a common purpose." Union —
close, fraternal, such as became provinces of a common
origin and with similar laws — could alone save them from
their fate. Union against a common tyrant to save a
common fatherland. Union, by which differences of opin-
ion should be tolerated in order that a million of hearts
should beat for a common purpose, a million hands work
out, invincibly, a common salvation. '"Tis hardly neces-
sary," he said, "to use many words in recommendation
of union. Disunion has been the cause of all our woes.
There is no remedy, no hope, save in the bonds of friend-
ship. Let all particular disagreements be left to the de-
cision of the states-general, in order that with one heart
and one will we may seek the disenthralment of the father-
land from the tyranny of strangers."
His eloquence and energy were not without effect. In
the course of the autumn, deputies were appointed from
the greater number of the provinces to confer with the
representatives of Holland and Zeeland in a general con-
gress. The place appointed for the deliberations was the
city of Ghent. Here, by the middle of October, a large
number of delegates were already assembled.
Events were rapidly rolling together from every quarter,
and accumulating to a crisis. A congress — a rebellious
congress, as the King might deem it — was assembling at
Ghent; the Spanish army — proscribed, lawless, and ter-
rible— was strengthening itself daily for some dark and
mysterious achievement ; Don John of Austria, the King's
natural brother, was expected from Spain to assume the
government, which the state council was too timid to
wield and too loyal to resign ; while, meantime, the whole
population of the Netherlands, with hardly an exception,
was disposed to see the great question of the foreign sol-
diery settled before the chaos then existing should be
1576] DISASTROUS ENCOUNTERS 465
superseded by a more definite authority. Everywhere,
men of all ranks and occupations — the artisan in the city,
the peasant in the fields — were deserting their daily oc-
cupations to furbish helmets, handle muskets, and learn
the trade of war. Skirmishes, sometimes severe and bloody,
were of almost daily occurrence. In these the Spaniards
were invariably successful, for whatever may be said of
their cruelty and licentiousness, it cannot be disputed that
their prowess was worthy of their renown. Romantic
valor, unflinching fortitude, consummate skill, character-
ized them always. What could half -armed artisans achieve
in the open plain against such accomplished foes ? At
Tisnacq, between Louvain and Tirlemont, a battle was
attempted by a large miscellaneous mass of students, peas-
antry, and burghers, led by country squires. It soon
changed to a carnage, in which the victims were all on
one side. A small number of veterans, headed by Var-
gas, Mendoza, Tassis, and other chivalrous command-
ers, routed the undisciplined thousands at a single
charge. The rude militia threw away their arms, and fled
panic -struck in all directions at the first sight of their
terrible foe. Two Spaniards lost their lives and two thou-
sand Netherlander. It was natural that these consummate
warriors should despise such easily slaughtered victims.
A single stroke of the iron flail, and the chaff was scat-
tered to the four winds ; a single sweep of the disciplined
scythe, and countless acres were in an instant mown.
Nevertheless, although beaten constantly, the Nether-
landers were not conquered. Holland and Zeeland had
read the foe a lesson which he had not forgotten, and al-
though on the open fields and against the less vigorous
population of the more central provinces his triumphs
had been easier, yet it was obvious that the spirit of re-
sistance to foreign oppression was growing daily stronger
notwithstanding daily defeats.
Meantime, while these desultory but deadly combats
were in daily progress, the council of state was looked
upon with suspicion by the mass of the population. That
body, in which resided provisionally the powers of govern-
ment, was believed to be desirous of establishing relations
30
466 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
with the mutinous army. It was suspected of insidiously
provoking the excesses which it seemed to denounce. The
capital was insufficiently garrisoned, yet troops were not
enrolling for its protection. The state councillors obvi-
ously omitted to provide for defence, and it was supposed
that they were secretly assisting the attack. It was
thought important, therefore, to disarm, or at least to
control, this body, which was impotent for protection and
seemed powerful only for mischief. It was possible to
make it as contemptible as it was believed to be malicious.
An unexpected stroke was, therefore, suddenly levelled
against the council in full session. On the 5th of Sep-
tember the Seigneur de Heze, a young gentleman of a
bold but unstable character, then entertaining close but
secret relations witli the Prince of Orange, appeared be-
fore the doors of the palace. He was attended by about
five hundred troops, under the immediate command of
the Seigneur de Glimes, bailiff of Walloon Brabant. He
demanded admittance, in the name of the Brabant estates,
to the presence of the state council, and was refused.
The doors were closed and bolted. Without further cere-
mony the soldiers produced iron bars, brought with them
for the purpose, forced all the gates from the hinges, en-
tered the hall of session, and, at a word from their com-
mander, laid hands upon the councillors and made every
one prisoner. The Duke of Aerschot, president of the
council, who was then in close alliance with the Prince,
was not present at the meeting, but lay, forewarned, at
home, confined to his couch by a sickness assumed for
the occasion. Viglius, who rarely participated in the de-
liberations of the board, being already afflicted with the
chronic malady under which he was ere long to succumb,
also escaped the fate of his fellow-senators. The others
were carried into confinement. Berlaymont and Mans-
feld were imprisoned in the Broodhuis, where the last
mortal hours of Egmont and Horn had been passed.
Others were kept strictly guarded in their own nouses.
After a few weeks most of them were liberated. Coun-
cillor Del Rio was, however, retained in confinement, and
sent to Holland, where he was subjected to a severe ex-
1576] CONGRESS OF GHENT 467
animation by the Prince of Orange, touching his past
career, particularly concerning the doings of the famous
Council of Blood. The others were set free, and even per-
litted to resume their functions, but their dignity was
jone, their authority annihilated. Thenceforth the states
of Brabant and the community of Brussels were to govern
for an interval, for it was in their name that the daring
blow against the council had been struck.
All individuals and bodies, however, although not dis-
pleased with the result, clamorously disclaimed responsi-
bility for the deed. Men were appalled at the audacity
of the transaction, and dreaded the vengeance of the King.
The Abbot Van Perch, one of the secret instigators of
the act, actually died of anxiety for its possible conse-
quences. There was a mystery concerning the affair.
They in whose name it had been accomplished denied
having given any authority to the perpetrators. Men
asked each other what unseen agency had been at work,
what secret spring had been adroitly touched. There
is but little doubt, however, that the veiled but skil-
ful hand which directed the blow was the same which
had so long been guiding the destiny of the Nether-
lands.
It had been settled that the congress was to hold its
sessions in Ghent, although the citadel commanding that
city was held by the Spaniards. The garrison was not
very strong, and Mondragon, its commander, was absent
in Zeeland, but the wife of the veteran ably supplied his
place, and stimulated the slender body of troops to hold
out with heroism, under the orders of his lieutenant,
Avilos Maldonado. The mutineers, after having accom-
plished their victory at Tisnacq, had been earnestly so-
licited to come to the relief of this citadel. They had
refused, and returned to Alost. Meantime the siege was
warmly pressed by the states, and the deliberations of the
congress were opened under the incessant roar of cannon.
While the attack was thus earnestly maintained upon the
important castle of Ghent, a courageous effort was made
by the citizens of Maastricht to wrest their city from the
hands of the Spaniards. The German garrison having
468 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
been gained by the burghers, the combined force rose
upon the Spanish troops and drove them from the city.
Montesdoca, the commander, was arrested and impris-
oned, but the triumph was only temporary. Don Francis
d'Ayala, Montesdoca's lieutenant, made a stand with a
few companies in Wyk, a village on the opposite side
of the Meuse, and connected with the city by a massive
bridge of stone. From this point he sent information
to other commanders in the neighborhood. Don Ferdi-
nand de Toledo soon arrived with several hundred troops
from Dalem. The Spaniards, eager to wipe out the dis-
grace to their arms, loudly demanded to be led back to
the city. The- head of the bridge, however, over which
they must pass was defended by a strong battery, and
the citizens were seen clustering in great numbers to de-
fend their firesides against a foe whom they had once
expelled. To advance across the bridge seemed certain
destruction to the little force. Even Spanish bravery re-
coiled at so desperate an undertaking, but unscrupulous
ferocity supplied an expedient where courage was at fault.
There were few fighting men present among the popula-
tion of Wieck, but there were many females. Each sol-
dier was commanded to seize a woman, and, placing her
before his own body, to advance across the bridge. The
column thus bucklered, to the shame of Spanish chivalry,
by female bosoms, moved in good order towards the bat-
tery. The soldiers levelled their muskets with steady
aim over the shoulders or under the arms of the women
whom they thus held before them. On the other hand,
the citizens dared not discharge their cannon at their
own townswomen, among whose numbers many recognized
mothers, sisters, or wives. The battery was soon taken,
while at the same time Alonzo Vargas, who had effected
his entrance from the land side by burning down the
Brussels Gate, now entered the city at the head of a baud
of cavalry. Maastricht was recovered, and an indiscrim-
inate slaughter instantly avenged its temporary loss. The
plundering, stabbing, drowning, burning, ravishing were
so dreadful that, in the words of a contemporary historian,
" the burghers who had escaped the fight had reason to
1576] THE STORM GATHERING 469
i think themselves less fortunate than those who had died
with arms in their hands."
This was the lot of Maastricht on the 20th of October.
It was instinctively felt to be the precursor of fresh dis-
asters. Vague, incoherent, but widely disseminated ru-
mors had long pointed to Antwerp and its dangerous
situation. The Spaniards, foiled in their views upon
Brussels, had recently avowed an intention of avenging
themselves in the commercial capital. They had waited
long enough and accumulated strength enough. Such a
trifling city as Alost could no longer content their cu-
pidity, but in Antwerp there was gold enough for the
gathering. There was reason in the fears of the inhab-
itants for the greedy longing of their enemy. Probably
no city in Christendom could at that day vie with Ant-
werp in wealth and splendor. Its merchants lived in regal
pomp and luxury. In its numerous, massive warehouses
were the treasures of every clime. Still serving as the
main entrepot of the world's traffic, the Brabantine capi-
tal was the centre of that commercial system which was
soon to be superseded by a larger international life. In
the midst of the miseries which had so long been raining
upon the Netherlands, the stately and egotistical city
seemed to take stronger root and to flourish more fresh-
ly than ever. It was not wonderful that its palaces and
its magazines, glittering with splendor and bursting with
treasure, should arouse the avidity of a reckless and fam-
ishing soldiery. Had not a handful of warriors of their
own race rifled the golden Indies ? Had not their fath-
ers, few in number but strong in courage, revelled in the
plunder of a new world? Here were the Indies in a single
city. Here were gold and silver, pearls and diamonds,
ready and portable ; the precious fruit dropping, ripened,
from the bough. Was it to be tolerated that base, pacific
burghers should monopolize the treasure by which a band
of heroes might be enriched ?
A sense of coming evil diffused itself through the at-
mosphere. The air seemed lurid with the impending
storm, for the situation was one of peculiar horror.
The wealthiest city in Christendom lay at the mercy of
470 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
the strongest fastness in the world ; a castle which had
been built to curb, not to protect, the town. It was now
inhabited by a band of brigands, outlawed by govern-
ment, strong in discipline, furious from penury, reckless
by habit, desperate in circumstance — a crew which feared
not God nor man nor devil. The palpitating quarry
lay expecting hourly the swoop of its trained and pitiless
enemy. Sancho d'Avila, castellan of the citadel, was re-
cognized as the chief of the whole mutiny, the army and
the mutiny being now one. The band intrenched at Alost
were upon the best possible understanding with their
brethren in the citadel, and accepted without hesitation
the arrangements of their superior. On the side of the
Scheldt, opposite Antwerp, a fortification had been thrown
up by Don Sancho's orders, and held by Julian Romero.
Lier, Breda, as well as Alost, were likewise ready to throw
their reinforcements into the citadel at a moment's warn-
ing. At the signal of their chief, the united bands might
sweep from their impregnable castle with a single impulse.
The story of The Spanish Fury in Antwerp is easily
told. The three chief elements in it are the treachery of
the German mercenaries and the unsteadiness of the
Walloon troops expected to defend the city, and the Con-
summate craft, discipline, valor, and brutality of the
Spaniards. On the 3d of November the Spanish mutineers
arrived from Alost. The united forces of Spaniard and
German carried the barricades erected for defence, and
then for three days the butchery of human bodies con-
tinued. It is believed that eight thousand people were
murdered.
On the morning of the 5th of November Antwerp pre-
sented a ghastly sight. The magnificent marble Town-
house, celebrated as a "world's wonder," even in that
age and country, in which so much splendor was lavished
on municipal palaces, stood a blackened ruin — all but the
walls destroyed, while its archives, accounts, and other
valuable contents had perished. The more splendid
portion of the city had been consumed, at least five
hundred palaces, mostly of marble or hammered stone,
being a smouldering mass of destruction. The dead
1576] THE SPANISH FURY 471
bodies of those fallen in the massacre were on every side,
in greatest profusion around the Place de Meer, among
the Gothic pillars of the Exchange, and in the streets
near the Town-house. The German soldiers lay in their
armor, some with their heads burned from their bodies,
some with legs and arms consumed by the flames through
which they had fought. The Margrave Goswyn Verreyck,
the burgomaster Van der Meere, the magistrates Lancelot
van Urselen, Nicholas van Boekholt, and other leading
citizens, lay among piles of less distinguished slain. They
remained unburied until the overseers of the poor, on
whom the living had then more importunate claims than
the dead, were compelled by Roda to bury them out of
the pauper fund. The murderers were too thrifty to be
at funeral charges for their victims. The ceremony was
not hastily performed, for the number of corpses had not
been completed. Two days longer the havoc lasted in
the city. Of all the crimes which men can commit,
whether from deliberate calculation or in the frenzy of
passion, hardly one was omitted, for riot, gaming, rape,
which had been postponed to the more stringent claims
of robbery and murder, were now rapidly added to the
sum of atrocities. History has recorded the account in-
delibly on her brazen tablets ; it can be adjusted only
at the judgment-seat above.
Of all the deeds of darkness yet compassed in the Neth-
erlands, this was the worst. The city which had been a
world of wealth and splendor was changed to a charnel-
house, and from that hour its commercial prosperity was
blasted. Other causes had silently girdled the yet green
and nourishing tree, but The Spanish Fury was the fire
which consumed it to ashes. Three thousand dead bodies
were discovered in the streets, as many more were esti-
mated to have perished in the Scheldt, and nearly an
equal number were burned or destroyed in other ways.
Eight thousand persons undoubtedly were put to death.
Six millions of property were destroyed by the fire, and
at least as much more was obtained by the Spaniards. In
this enormous robbery no class of people was respected.
Foreign merchants, living under the express sanction and
472 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
protection of the Spanish monarch, were plundered with
as little reserve as Flemings. Ecclesiastics of the Roman
Church were compelled to disgorge their wealth as freely
as Calvinists. The rich were made to contribute all their
abundance, and the poor what could be wrung from their
poverty. Neither paupers nor criminals were safe. Cap-
tain Casper Ortis made a brilliant speculation by taking
possession of the Steen, or city prison, whence he ransomed
all the inmates who could find means to pay for their lib-
erty! Robbers, murderers, even Anabaptists, were thus
again let loose. Rarely has so small a band obtained in
three days' robbery so large an amount of wealth. Four
or five millions divided among five thousand soldiers made
up for long arrearages, and the Spaniards had reason to
congratulate themselves upon having thus taken the duty
of payment into their own hands. It is true that the
wages of iniquity were somewhat unequally distributed,
somewhat foolishly squandered. A private trooper was
known to lose ten thousand crowns in one day in a gam-
bling transaction at the Bourse, for the soldiers, being
thus handsomely in funds, became desirous of aping the
despised and plundered merchants, and resorted daily to
the Exchange, like men accustomed to affairs. The
dearly purchased gold was thus lightly squandered by
many, while others, more prudent, melted their portion
into sword-hilts, into scabbards, even into whole suits of
armor, darkened, by precaution, to appear made entirely
of iron. The brocades, laces, and jewelry of Antwerp
merchants were converted into coats of mail for their de-
stroyers. The goldsmiths, however, thus obtained an op-
portunity to outwit their plunderers, and mingled in the
golden armor which they were forced to furnish much
more alloy than their employers knew. A portion of the
captured booty was thus surreptitiously redeemed.
Marvellously few Spaniards were slain in these eventful
days. Two hundred killed is the largest number stated.
The discrepancy seems monstrous, but it is hardly more
than often existed between the losses inflicted and sus-
tained by the Spaniards in such combats. Their prowess
was equal to their ferocity, and this was enough to make
1576] ORANGE'S APPEAL 473
them seem endowed with preterhuman powers. When it
is remembered, also, that the burghers were insufficiently
armed, that many of their defenders turned against them,
that many thousands fled in the first moments of the en-
counter, and when the effect of a sudden and awful panic
is duly considered, the discrepancy between the number
of killed on the two sides will not seem so astonishing.
A shiver ran through the country as the news of the
horrible crime was spread, but it was a shiver of indig-
nation, not of fear. Already the negotiations at Ghent
between the representatives of the Prince and of Holland
and Zeeland with the deputies of the other provinces were
in a favorable train, and the effect of this event upon
their counsels was rather quickening than appalling.
At about the same time the Prince of Orange addressed
a remarkable letter to the states-general then assembled at
Ghent, urging them to hasten the conclusion of the treaty.
The news of the massacre, which furnished an additional
and most vivid illustration of the truth of his letter, had
not then reached him at Middelburg, but the earnestness
of his views, taken in connection with this last dark deed,
exerted a powerful and indelible effect. The letter was a
masterpiece, because it was necessary, in his position, to
inflame without alarming ; to stimulate the feelings which
were in unison, without shocking those which, if aroused,
might prove discordant. Without, therefore, alluding in
terms to the religious question, he dwelt upon the neces-
sity of union, firmness, and wariness. If so much had
been done by Holland and Zeeland, how much more might
be hoped when all the provinces were united ? He warned
the states of the necessity of showing a strong and united
front ; the King having been ever led to consider the
movement in the Netherlands a mere conspiracy of indi-
viduals. It was, therefore, necessary to show that pre-
lates, abbots, monks, seigneurs, gentlemen, burghers, and
peasants, the whole people, in short, now cried with one
voice, and desired with one will. To such a demonstra-
tion the King would not dare oppose himself. By thus
preserving a firm and united front, sinking all minor dif-
ferences, they would, moreover, inspire their friends and
474 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
foreign princes with confidence. The princes of Ger-
many, the lords and gentlemen of France, the Queen of
England, although sympathizing with the misfortunes of
the Netherlander, had been unable effectually to help them
so long as their disunion prevented them from helping
themselves ; so long as even their appeal to arms seemed
merely "a levy of bucklers, an emotion of the populace,
which, like a wave of the sea, rises and sinks again as
soon as risen."
The massacre at Antwerp and the eloquence of the
Prince produced a most quickening effect upon the con-
gress at Ghent. Their deliberations had proceeded with
decorum and earnestness, in the midst of the cannonading
against the citadel, and the fortress fell on the same day
which saw the conclusion of the treaty.
This important instrument, by which the sacrifices and
exertions of the Prince were, for a brief season at least,
rewarded, contained twenty-five articles. The Prince of
Orange, with the estates of Holland and Zeeland, on the
one side, and the provinces signing or thereafter to sign
the treaty on the other, agreed that there should be a
mutual forgiving and forgetting, as regarded the past.
They vowed a close and faithful friendship for the future.
They plighted a mutual promise to expel the Spaniards
from the Netherlands without delay. As soon as this
great deed should be done there was to be a convocation
of the states-general, on the basis of that assembly before
which the abdication of the Emperor had taken place.
By this congress the affairs of religion in Holland and
Zeeland should be regulated, as well as the surrender of
fortresses and other places belonging to his Majesty.
There was to be full liberty of communication and traffic
between the citizens of the one side and the other. It
should not be legal, however, for those of Holland and
Zeeland to attempt anything outside their own territory
against the Koman Catholic religion, nor for cause thereof
to injure or irritate any one, by deed or word. All the
placards and edicts on the subject of heresy, together with
the criminal ordinances made by the Duke of Alva, were
suspended until the states - general should otherwise or-
1576] THE GHENT PACIFICATION 475
dain. The Prince was to remain lieutenant, admiral, and
general for his Majesty in Holland, Zeeland, and the as-
sociated places, till otherwise provided by the states-gen-
eral, after the departure of the Spaniards. The cities
and places included in the Prince's commission, but not
yet acknowledging his authority, should receive satis-
faction from him, as to the point of religion and other
matters, before subscribing to the union. All prisoners,
and particularly the Comte de Bossu, should be released,
without ransom. All estates and other property not al-
ready alienated should be restored, all confiscations since
1566 being declared null and void. The Countess Pala-
tine, widow of Brederode, and Count de Buren, son of
the Prince of Orange, were expressly named in this pro-
vision. Prelates and ecclesiastical persons having prop-
erty in Holland and Zeeland should be reinstated, if
possible ; but in case of alienation, which was likely to
be generally the case, there should be reasonable compen-
sation. It was to be decided by the states-general whether
the provinces should discharge the debts incurred by the
Prince of Orange in his two campaigns. Provinces and
cities should not have the benefit of this union until they
had signed the treaty, but they should be permitted to
sign it when they chose.
This memorable document was subscribed at Ghent, on
the 8th of November, by Sainte-Aldegonde, with eight
other commissioners appointed by the Prince of Orange
and the estates of Holland on the one side, and by El-
bertus Leoninus and other deputies appointed by Brabant,
Flanders, Artois, Hainault, Valenciennes, Lille, Douai,
Orchies, Namur, Tournai, Utrecht, and Mechlin on the
other side.
The arrangement was a masterpiece of diplomacy on
the part of the Prince, for it was as effectual a provision
for the safety of the Reformed religion as could be ex-
pected under the circumstances. It was much, consider-
ing the change which had been wrought of late years in
the fifteen provinces, that they should consent to any
treaty with, their two heretic sisters. It was much more
that the Pacification should recognize the new religion as
476 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
the established creed of Holland and Zeeland, while at
the same time the infamous edicts of Charles were for-
mally abolished. In the fifteen Catholic provinces there
was to be no prohibition of private Keformed worship,
and it might be naturally expected that with time and
the arrival of the banished religionists, a firmer stand
would be taken in favor of the Reformation. Meantime,
the new religion was formally established in two provinces,
and tolerated, in secret, in the other fifteen ; the inquisi-
tion was forever abolished, and the whole strength of the
nation enlisted to expel the foreign soldiery from the
soil.
This was the work of William the Silent, and the great
Prince thus saw the labor of years crowned with, at least,
a momentary success. His satisfaction was very great
when it was announced to him, many days before the ex-
change of the signatures, that the treaty had been con-
cluded. He was desirous that the Pacification should be
referred for approval, not to the municipal magistrates
only, but to the people themselves. In all great emergen-
cies the man who, in his whole character, least resembled
a demagogue, either of antiquity or of modern times, was
eager for a fresh expression of the popular will. On this
occasion, however, the demand for approbation was super-
fluous. The whole country thought with his thoughts
and spoke with his words, and the Pacification, as soon
as published, was received with a shout of joy. Proclaimed
in the market-place of every city and village, it was rati-
fied, not by votes, but by hymns of thanksgiving, by tri-
umphal music, by thundering of cannon, and by the blaze
of beacons throughout the Netherlands. Another event
added to the satisfaction of the hour. The country so
recently, and by deeds of such remarkable audacity, con-
quered by the Spaniards in the north, was recovered al-
most simultaneously with the conclusion of the Ghent
treaty. It was a natural consequence of the great mutiny.
The troops having entirely deserted Mondragon, it became
necessary for that officer to abandon Zierik Zee, the city
which had been won with so much valor. In the begin-
ning of November, the capital, and with it the whole isl-
1576] A TARDY ARRIVAL AT LUXEMBURG 477
and of Schouwen, together with the rest of Zeeland, ex-
cepting Tholen, was recovered by Count Hohenlo, lieu-
tenant-general of the Prince of Orange, and acting accord-
ing to his instructions.
Thus, on this particular point of time many great events
had been crowded. At the very same moment Zeeland
had been redeemed, Antwerp ruined, and the league of all
the Netherlands against the Spaniards concluded. It now
became known that another and most important event
had occurred at the same instant. On the day before the
Antwerp massacre, four days before the publication of
the Ghent treaty, a foreign cavalier, attended by a Moor-
ish slave and by six men-at-arms, rode into the streets of
Luxemburg. The cavalier was Don Ottavio G-onzaga,
brother of the Prince of Melfi. The Moorish slave was
Don John of Austria, the son of the Emperor, the con-
queror of Granada, the hero of Lepanto. The new gov-
ernor-general had traversed Spain and France in disguise
with great celerity, and in the romantic manner which
belonged to his character. He stood at last on the thresh-
old of the Netherlands, but with all his speed he had ar-
rived a few days too late.
part W
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA
1576-1578
CHAPTER I
THE HERO OF LEPA^TO
JOHN" OF AUSTRIA was now in his thirty-second
year, having been born in Eatisbon on the 24th of Feb-
ruary, 1545. His father was Charles the Fifth, Emperor
of Germany,, King of Spain, Dominator of Asia, Africa,
and America ; his mother was Barbara Blomberg, washer-
woman, of Eatisbon.
The Emperor, who never doubted his responsibility for
the infant's existence, had him conveyed instantly to
Spain, where he was delivered to Louis Quixada, of the
Imperial household, by whom he was brought up in great
retirement at Villa -garcia. During his boyhood he ex-
celled in feats of audacity and skill. When come to man-
hood he was given command of a division of galleys at the
battle of Lepanto, and captured the Turkish admiral and his
ship. Whatever other purpose this famous conflict served,
it spread the fame of Don John throughout the world.
The youthful commander-in-chief obtained more than
his full meed of glory. No doubt he had fought with
brilliant courage, yet in so close and murderous a conflict
the valor of no single individual could decide the day,
and the result was due to the combined determination of
all. Had Don John remained at Naples the issue might
have easily been the same. Barbarigo, who sealed the
victory with his blood ; Colonna, who celebrated a solemn
triumph on his return to Eome ; Parma, Doria, Griustin-
iani, Venieri might each as well have claimed a monopoly
of the glory had not the Pope, at Philip's entreaty, con-
ferred the baton of command upon Don John. The
meagre result of the contest is as notorious as the victory.
31 481
482 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
While Constantinople was quivering with apprehension,
the rival generals were already wrangling with animosity.
Had the Clmstian fleet advanced every soul would have
fled from the capital, but Providence had ordained other-
wise, and Don John sailed westwardly with his ships. He
made a descent on the Barbary coast, captured Tunis,
destroyed Biserta, and brought King Amidas and his two
sons prisoners to Italy. Ordered by Philip to dismantle
the fortifications of Tunis, he replied by repairing them
thoroughly, and by placing a strong garrison within the
citadel. Intoxicated with his glory, the young adventurer
already demanded a croAvn, and the Pope was disposed to
proclaim him King of Tunis, for the Queen of the Lybian
seas was to be the capital of his empire, the new Carthage
which he already dreamed.
Philip thought it time to interfere, for he felt that his
own crown might be insecure with such a restless and am-
bitious spirit indulging in possible and impossible chime-
ras. He removed John de Soto, who had been Don John's
chief councillor and emissary to the Pope, and substi-
tuted in his place the celebrated and ill-starred Escovedo.
The new secretary, however, entered as heartily but se-
cretly into all these romantic schemes. Disappointed of
the empire which he had contemplated on the edge of the
African desert, the champion of the Cross turned to the
cold islands of the northern seas. There sighed, in cap-
tivity, the beauteous Mary of Scotland, victim of the her-
etic Elizabeth. His susceptibility to the charms of beauty
— a characteristic as celebrated as his courage — was ex-
cited, his chivalry aroused. "What holier triumph for the
conqueror of the Saracens than the subjugation of these
northern infidels ? He would dethrone the proud Eliz-
abeth ; he would liberate and espouse the Queen of Scots,
and together they would reign over the two united realms.
All that the Pope could do with bulls and blessings, let-
ters of excommunication, and patents of investiture he
did with his whole heart. Don John was at liberty to be
King of England and Scotland as soon as he liked ; all
that was left to do was to conquer the kingdoms.
Meantime, while these schemes were flitting through
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA
1576] DON" JOHN'S OPPORTUNE APPOINTMENT 483
his brain and were yet kept comparatively secret by the
Pope, Escovedo, and himself, the news reached him in
Italy that he had been appointed Governor -General of
the Netherlands. Nothing could be more opportune. In
the provinces were ten thousand veteran Spaniards ripe
for adventure, hardened by years of warfare, greedy for
gold, audacious almost beyond humanity, the very instru-
ments for his scheme. The times were critical in the
Netherlands, it was true ; yet he would soon pacify those
paltry troubles, and then sweep forward to his prize. Yet
events were rushing forward with such feverish rapidity
that he might be too late for his adventure. Many days
were lost in the necessary journey from Italy into Spain
to receive the final instructions of the King. The news
from the provinces grew more and more threatening.
With the impetuosity and romance of his temperament
he selected his confidential friend Ottavio Gonzaga, six
men-at-arms, and an adroit and well-experienced Swiss
courier, who knew every road of France. It was no light
adventure for the Catholic Governor-General of the Neth-
erlands to traverse the kingdom at that particular junc-
ture. Staining his bright locks and fair face to the com-
plexion of a Moor, he started on his journey, attired as
the servant of Gonzaga. Arriving at Paris, after a rapid
journey, he descended at a hostelry opposite the residence
of the Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Cuniga. After
nightfall he had a secret interview with that functionary,
and learning, among other matters, that there was to be
a great ball that night at the Louvre, he determined to go
thither in disguise. There, notwithstanding his hurry,
he had time to see and to become desperately enamoured
of "that wonder of beauty/' the fair and frail Margaret
of Valois, Queen of Navarre. Her subsequent visit to her
young adorer at Namur, to be recorded in a future page
of this history, was destined to mark the last turning-
point in his picturesque career. On his way to the Neth-
erlands he held a rapid interview with the Duke of Guise
to arrange his schemes for the liberation and espousal of
that noble's kinswoman, the Scottish Queen ; and on the
3d of November he arrived at Luxemburg.
484 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
There stood the young conqueror of Lepanto, his brain
full of schemes, his heart full of hopes, on the threshold
of the Netherlands, at the entrance to what he believed
the most brilliant chapter of his life — schemes, hopes,
and visions doomed speedily to fade before the cold
reality with which he was to be confronted. Throwing
off his disguise after reaching Luxemburg, the youthful
paladin stood confessed. His appearance was as romantic
as his origin and his exploits. Every contemporary chron-
icler— French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Eoman — have
dwelt upon his personal beauty and the singular fascina-
tion of his manner. Symmetrical features, blue eyes of
great vivacity, and a profusion of bright curling hair
were combined with a person not much above middle
height, but perfectly well proportioned. Owing to a
natural peculiarity of his head, the hair fell backward
from the temples, and he had acquired the habit of push-
ing it from his brows. The custom became a fashion
among the host of courtiers, who were but too happy to
glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror. As Charles the
Fifth, on his journey to Italy to assume the iron crown,
had caused his hair to be clipped close as a remedy for
the headaches with which, at that momentous epoch, he
was tormented, bringing thereby close-shaven polls into
extreme fashion, so a mass of hair pushed backward from
the temples, in the style to which the name of John of
Austria was appropriated, became the prevailing mode
wherever the favorite son of the Emperor appeared.
Such was the last crusader whom the annals of chivalry
were to know ; the man who had humbled the crescent as
it had not been humbled since the days of the Tancreds,
the Baldwins, the Plantagenets — yet, after all, what was
this brilliant adventurer when weighed against the tran-
quil Christian champion whom he was to meet face to
face ? The contrast was striking between the real and the
romantic hero. Don John had pursued and achieved glory
through victories with which the world was ringing ;
William was slowly compassing a country's emancipation
through a series of defeats. He moulded a commonwealth
and united hearts with as much contempt for danger as
1576] TWO HEROES 485
Don John had exhibited in scenes of slave-driving and
carnage. Amid fields of blood, and through webs of tort-
uous intrigue, the brave and subtle son of the Emperor
pursued only his own objects. Tawdry schemes of personal
ambition, conquests for his own benefit, impossible crowns
for his own wearing, were the motives which impelled
him and the prizes which he sought. His existence was
feverish, fitful, and passionate. " Tranquil amid the rag-
ing billows," according to his favorite device, the father
of his country waved aside the diadem which for him had
neither charms nor meaning. Their characters were as con-
trasted as their persons. The curled darling of chivalry
seemed a youth at thirty - one. Spare of figure, plain in
apparel, benignant but haggard of countenance, with
temples bared by anxiety as much as by his helmet, ear-
nest, almost devout in manner, in his own words, " Calvus
et Calvinista," William of Orange was an old man at forty-
three.
Perhaps there was as much good faith on the part of
Don John, when he arrived in Luxemburg, as could be
expected of a man coming directly from the cabinet of
Philip. The King had secretly instructed him to concili-
ate the provinces, but to concede nothing, for the gover-
nor was only a new incarnation of the insane paradox that
benignity and the system of Charles the Fifth were one.
He was directed to restore the government to its state dur-
ing the imperial epoch. Seventeen provinces, in two of
which the population were all dissenters, in all of which
the principle of mutual toleration had just been accepted
by Catholics and Protestants, were now to be brought
back to the condition according to which all Protestants
were beheaded, burned, or buried alive. So that the in-
quisition, the absolute authority of the monarch, and the
exclusive worship of the Roman Church were preserved
intact, the King professed himself desirous of "extinguish-
ing the fires of rebellion, and of saving the people from
the last desperation." With these slight exceptions, Philip
was willing to be very benignant.
In all the documents, whether public memorials or pri-
vate letters, which came at this period from the hand of
486 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1576
the Prince, he assumed, as a matter of course, that in any
arrangement with the new governor the Pacification of
Ghent was to be maintained. This, too, was the determina-
tion of almost every man in the country. Don John, soon
after his arrival at Luxemburg, had despatched messengers
to the states-general, informing them of his arrival. It
was not before the close of the month of November that
the negotiations seriously began. Provost Fonck, on the
part of the governor, then informed them of Don John's
intention to enter Namur, attended by fifty mounted
troopers. Permission, however, was resolutely refused,
and the burghers of Namur were forbidden to render oaths
of fidelity until the governor should have complied with
the preliminary demands of the estates. To enunciate
these demands categorically, a deputation of the states-
general came to Luxemburg. These gentlemen were re-
ceived with courtesy by Don John, but their own demeanor
was not conciliatory. A dislike to the Spanish govern-
ment, a disloyalty to the monarch, with whose brother and
representative they were dealing, pierced through all their
language. On the other hand, the ardent temper of Don
John was never slow to take offence. One of the deputies
proposed to the governor, with great coolness, that he
should assume the government in his own name and re-
nounce the authority of Philip. Were he willing to do so,
the patriotic gentleman pledged himself that the provinces
would at once acknowledge him as sovereign, and sustain
his government. Don John, enraged at the insult to his
own loyalty which the proposition implied, drew his dagger
and rushed towards the offender. The deputy would
probably have paid for his audacity with his life had there
not been by-standers enough to prevent the catastrophe.
This scene was an unsatisfactory prelude to the opening
negotiations.
On the 6th of December the deputies presented to the
governor at Luxemburg a paper containing their demands,
drawn up in eight articles, and their concessions in ten.
Nothing decisive came of this first interview. The parties
had taken the measures of their mutual claims, and after
a few days' fencing with apostils, replies, an<3 rejoinders,
1676-77] UNION OF BRUSSELS 487
they separated, their acrimony rather inflamed than ap-
peased.
The departure of the troops and the Ghent treaty were
the vital points in the negotiation. The estates had orig-
inally been content that the troops should go by sea.
Their suspicions were, however, excited by the pertinacity
with which Don John held to this mode of removal. Al-
though they did not suspect the mysterious invasion of
England, a project which was the real reason why the
governor objected to their departure by land, yet they
soon became aware that he had been secretly tampering
with the troops at every point. In the mean time, while
there was still an indefinite pause in the negotiations, a
remarkable measure came to aid the efficacy of the Ghent
Pacification.
Early in January, 1577, the celebrated "Union of Brus-
sels" was formed. This important agreement was origi-
nally signed by eight leading personages — the Abbot of Saint
Gertrude, the Counts Lalain and Bossu, and the Seigneur
de (Jhampagny being among the number. Its tenor was
to engage its signers to compass the immediate expulsion
of the Spaniards and the execution of the Ghent Pacifica-
tion, to maintain the Catholic religion and the King's
authority, and to defend the fatherland and all its consti-
tutions. Its motive was to generalize the position as-
sumed by the Ghent treaty. The new act was to be
signed, not by a few special deputies alone, like a diplo-
matic convention, but by all the leading individuals of all
the provinces, in prder to exhibit to Don John such an
array of united strength that he would find himself forced
to submit to the demands of the estates. In a short time
every province, with the single exception of Luxemburg,
had loaded the document with signatures. This was a
great step in advance. The Ghent Pacification, which
was in the nature of a treaty between the Prince and the
estates of Holland and Zeeland on the one side, and a
certain number of provinces on the other, had only been
signed by the envoys of the contracting parties. Though
received with deserved and universal acclamation, it had
not the authority of a popular document. This, however,
488 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
was the character studiously impressed upon the " Brus-
sels Union." The people, subdivided according to the
various grades of their social hierarchy, had been solemn-
ly summoned to council, and had deliberately recorded
their conviction. No restraint had been put upon their
freedom of action, and there was hardly a difference of
opinion as to the necessity of the measure.
A rapid revolution in Friesland, Groningen, and the de-
pendencies had recently restored that important coun-
try to the national party. The Portuguese De Billy had
been deprived of his authority as King's stadholder, and
Count Hoogstraaten's brother, Baron de Ville, afterwards,
as Count Eenneberg, infamous for his treason to the cause
of liberty, had been appointed by the estates in his room.
In all his district the "Union of Brussels" was eagerly
signed by men of every degree.
The immediate effect of the " Brussels Union " was to
rally all lovers of the fatherland and haters of a foreign
tyranny upon one vital point — the expulsion of the stran-
ger from the land. The foot of the Spanish soldier should
no longer profane their soil. All men were forced to pro-
nounce themselves boldly and unequivocally, in order that
the patriots might stand shoulder to shoulder, and the
traitors be held up to infamy. This measure was in strict
accordance with the advice given more than once by the
Prince of Orange, and was almost in literal fulfilment of
the Compromise, which he had sketched before the ar-
rival of Don John.
The deliberations were soon resumed with the new gov-
ernor, the scene being shifted from Luxemburg to Iluy.
Hither came a fresh deputation from the states-general—
many signers of the "Brussels Union" among them — and
were received by Don John with stately courtesy. They
had, however, come determined to carry matters with a
high and firm hand, being no longer disposed to brook his
imperious demeanor nor to tolerate his dilatory policy.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the courtesy soon
changed to bitterness, and that attack and recrimination
usurped the place of the dignified but empty formalities
which had characterized the interviews at Luxemburg.
1577] THE PERPETUAL EDICT 489
The Pacification of Ghent was virtually admitted. The
deputies waited upon the governor, accordingly, and the
conversation was amicable. They vainly endeavored, how-
ever, to obtain his consent to the departure of the troops
by land — the only point then left in dispute. Don John,
still clinging to his secret scheme, with which the sea- voy-
age of the troops was so closely connected, refused to con-
cede. He reproached the envoys, on the contrary, with
their importunity in making a fresh demand just as he
had conceded the Ghent treaty upon his entire responsi-
bility and without instructions. Mentally resolving that
this point should still be wrung from the governor, but
not suspecting his secret motives for resisting it so stren-
uously, the deputies took an amicable farewell of the gov-
ernor, promising a favorable report upon the proceedings
so soon as they should arrive in Brussels.
Don John, having conceded so much, was soon obliged
to concede the whole. The Emperor. Kudolph had lately
succeeded his father, Maximilian. The deceased poten-
tate, whose sentiments on the great subject of religious
toleration were so much in harmony with those enter-
tained by the Prince of Orange, had, on the whole, not-
withstanding the ties of relationship and considerations of
policy, uniformly befriended the Netherlands, so far as
words and protestations could go, at the court of Philip.
His envoys had assisted at all the recent deliberations be-
tween the estates and Don John, and their vivid remon-
strances removed at this juncture the last objection on
the part of the governor-general. With a secret sigh he
deferred the darling and mysterious hope which had
lighted him to the Netherlands, and consented to the de-
parture of the troops by land.
All obstacles having been thus removed, the memorable
treaty called the Perpetual Edict was signed at Marche-en-
Famene on the 12th, and at Brussels on the 17th, of Feb-
ruary, 1577. This document, issued in the name of the
King, contained nineteen articles. It approved and rati-
fied the Peace of Ghent, in consideration that the prelates
and clergy, with the doctors utriusque juris of Louvain,
had decided that nothing in that treaty conflicted either
490 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
with the supremacy of the Catholic Church or the author-
ity of the King, but, on the contrary, that it advanced the
interests of both. It promised that the soldiery should
depart " freely, frankly, and without delay, by land, never
to return except in case of foreign war" — the Spaniards
to set forth within forty days, the Germans and others so
soon as arrangements had been made by the states-general
for their payment. It settled that all prisoners, on both
sides, should be released, excepting the Count Van Buren,
who was to be set free so soon as the states-general having
been convoked, the Prince of Orange should have fulfilled
the resolutions to be passed by that assembly. It promised
the maintenance of all the privileges, charters, and con-
stitutions of the Netherlands. It required of the states
an oath to maintain the Catholic religion. It recorded
their agreement to disband their troops. It settled that
Don John should be received as governor - general im-
mediately upon the. departure of the Spaniards, Italians,
and Burgundians from the provinces.
These were the main provisions of this famous treaty,
which was confirmed a few weeks afterwards by Philip, in
a letter addressed to the states of Brabant and by an edict
issued at Madrid. It will be seen that everything re-
quired by the envoys of the states at the commencement
of their negotiations had been conceded by Don John.
The governor had thus disconcerted the Prince of
Orange by the amplitude of his concessions. The combi-
nations of William the Silent were for an instant de-
ranged. Had the Prince expected such liberality he
would have placed his demands upon a higher basis, for it
is not probable that he contemplated or desired a pacifica-
tion. The Duke of Aerschot and the Bishop of Liege in
vain essayed to prevail upon his deputies at Marche-en-
Famene to sign the agreement of the 27th of January, upon
which was founded the Perpetual Edict. They refused
to do so without consulting the Prince and the estates.
Meantime the other commissioners forced the affair rapid-
ly forward. The states sent a deputation to the Prince to
ask his opinion, and signed the agreement before it was
possible to receive his reply. This was to treat him with
1577] DISPLEASURE OF ORANGE 491
little courtesy, if not absolutely with bad faith. The
Prince was disappointed and indignant. In truth, as ap-
peared from all his language and letters, he had no confi-
dence in Don John. He believed him a consummate hyp-
ocrite, and as deadly a foe to the Netherlands as the Duke
of Alva, or Philip himself. In short, he believed that the
estates had thrust their heads into the lion's mouth, and
he foresaw the most gloomy consequences from the treaty
which had just been concluded. He believed, to use his
own language, "that the only difference between Don
John and Alva or Requesens was that he was younger and
more foolish than his predecessors, less capable of conceal-
ing his venom, more impatient to dip his hands in blood."
In the Pacification of Ghent the Prince had achieved
the prize of his life-long labors. He had banded a mass of
provinces by the ties of a common history, language, and
customs, into a league against a foreign tyranny. He had
grappled Holland and Zeeland to their sister provinces by
a common love for their ancient liberties, by a common
hatred to a Spanish soldiery. He had exorcised the evil
demon of religious bigotry by which the body politic had
been possessed so many years; for the Ghent treaty,
largely interpreted, opened the door to universal tolera-
tion. In the Perpetual Edict the Prince saw his work
undone. Holland and Zeeland were again cut adrift from
the other fifteen provinces, and war would soon be let
loose upon that devoted little territory. The article
stipulating the maintenace of the Ghent treaty he re-
garded as idle wind, the solemn saws of the state coun-
cil and the quiddities from Louvain being likely to prove
but slender bulwarks against the returning tide of tyranny.
Either it was tacitly intended to tolerate the Reformed
religion or to hunt it down. To argue that the Ghent
treaty, loyally interpreted, strengthened ecclesiastical or
royal despotism was to contend that a maniac was more
dangerous in fetters than when armed with a sword ; it
was to be blind to the difference between a private con-
venticle and a public scaffold. The Perpetual Edict,
while affecting to sustain the treaty, would necessarily
destroy it at a blow, while, during the brief interval of re-
492 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
pose, tyranny would have renewed its youth like the
eagle's. "Was it possible, then, for William of Orange to
sustain the Perpetual Edict, the compromise with Don
John ? Ten thousand ghosts from the Lake of Haarlem,
from the famine and plague - stricken streets of Leyden,
from the smoking ruins of Antwerp, rose to warn him
against such a compromise with a despotism as subtle as
it was remorseless.
It was, therefore, not the policy of William of Orange,
suspecting as he did Don John, abhorring Philip, doubt-
ing the Netherland nobles, confiding only in the mass of
the citizens, to give his support to the Perpetual Edict.
He was not the more satisfied because the states had con-
cluded the arrangement without his sanction and against
his express advice. He refused to publish or recognize
the treaty in Holland and Zeeland. A few weeks before,
he had privately laid before the states of Holland and
Zeeland a series of questions, in order to test their tem-
per, asking them, in particular, whether they were pre-
pared to undertake a new and sanguinary war for the
sake of their religion, even although their other priv-
ileges should be recognized by the new government ; and
a long and earnest debate had ensued, of a satisfactory
nature, although no positive resolution was passed upon
the subject. As soon as the Perpetual Edict had been
signed the states-general had sent to the Prince, request-
ing his opinion and demanding his sanction. Orange, in
the name of Holland and Zeeland, instantly returned an
elaborate answer, taking grave exceptions to the whole
tenor of the edict. He complained that the constitu-
tion of the land was violated, because the ancient privi-
lege of the states-general to assemble at their pleasure
had been invaded, and because the laws of every province
were set at naught by the continued imprisonment of
Count Van Buren, who had committed no crime, and
whose detention proved that no man, whatever might be
promised, could expect security for life or liberty. The
ratification of the Ghent treaty, it was insisted, was in no
wise distinct and categorical, but was made dependent on
a crowd of deceitful subterfuges. He inveighed bitterly
1677] HIS WRITTEN OPINIONS 493
against the stipulation in the edict that the states should
pay the wages of the soldiers, whom they had just pro-
claimed to be knaves and rebels, and at whose hands they
had suffered such monstrous injuries. He denounced
the cowardice which could permit this band of hirelings
to retire with so much jewelry, merchandise, and plate,
the result of their robberies. He expressed, however, in
the name of the two provinces, a willingness to sign the
edict, provided the states-general would agree solemnly
beforehand, in case the departure of the Spaniards did
not take place within the stipulated time, to abstain from
all recognition of, or communication with, Don John, and
themselves to accomplish the removal of the troops by force
of arms.
Such was the first and solemn manifesto made by the
Prince in reply to the Perpetual Edict — the states of
Holland and Zeeland uniting heart and hand in all that
he thought, wrote, and said. His private sentiments were
in strict accordance with the opinions thus publicly re-
corded. "Whatever appearance Don John may assume
to the contrary," wrote the Prince to his brother, "'tis by
no means his intention to maintain the Pacification, and
less still to cause the Spaniards to depart, with whom he
keeps up the most strict correspondence possible."
On the other hand, the governor was most anxious to con-
ciliate the Prince. He was most earnest to win the friend-
ship of the man without whom every attempt to recover
Holland and Zeeland, and to re-establish royal and eccle-
siastical tyranny, he knew to be hopeless. " This is the
pilot," wrote Don John to Philip, " who guides the bark.
He alone can destroy or save it. The greatest obstacles
would be removed if he could be gained." He had pro-
posed and Philip had approved the proposition that the
Count Van Buren should be clothed with his father's
dignities, on condition that the Prince should himself
retire into Germany. It was soon evident, however, that
such a proposition would meet with little favor, the office
of father of his country and protector of her liberties not
being transferable.
While at Louvain, whither he had gone after the publi-
494 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
cation of the Perpetual Edict, Don John had conferred
with the Duke of Aerschot, and they had decided that it
would be well to send Doctor Leoninus on a private mis-
sion to the Prince. Don John was in earnest ; unfortu-
nately he was not aware that the Prince was in earnest
also. The crusader, who had sunk thirty thousand pay-
nims at a blow, and who was dreaming of the Queen of
Scotland and the throne of England, had not room in his
mind to entertain the image of a patriot. Royal favors,
family prosperity, dignities, offices, orders, advantageous
conditions, these were the baits with which the governor
angled for William of Orange. He did not comprehend
that attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised
religion could possibly stand in the way of those advan-
tageous conditions and that brilliant future. He did not
imagine that the rebel, once assured not only of pardon
but of advancement, could hesitate to refuse the royal
hand thus amicably offered. Don John had not accurately
measured his great antagonist. The results of the succes-
sive missions which he despatched to the Prince were des-
tined to enlighten him.
Don John of Austria, meanwhile, came to Louvain.
Until the preliminary conditions of the Perpetual Edict
had been fulfilled and the Spanish troops sent out of the
country he was not to be received as governor-general,
but it seemed unbecoming for him to remain longer upon
the threshold of the provinces. He therefore advanced
into the heart of the country, trusting himself without
troops to the loyalty of the people, and manifesting a show
of chivalrous confidence which he was far from feeling.
He was soon surrounded by courtiers, time-servers, noble
office-seekers. They who had kept themselves invisible,
so long as the issue of a perplexed negotiation seemed
doubtful, now became obsequious and inevitable as his
shadow. One grand seignior wanted a regiment, another
a government, a third a chamberlain's key; all wanted
titles, ribbons, offices, livery, wages. Don John distrib-
uted favors and promises with vast liberality. The object
with which Philip had sent him to the Netherlands, that
he might conciliate the hearts of its inhabitants by the
1577] DEPARTURE OF THE TROOPS 495
personal graces which he had inherited from his imperial
father, seemed in a fair way of accomplishment, for it
was not only the venal applause of titled sycophants that
he strove to merit, but he mingled gayly and familiarly
with all classes of citizens.
While the governor still tarried at Louvain, his secre-
tary, Escovedo, was busily engaged in arranging the de-
parture of the Spaniards, for, notwithstanding his orig-
inal reluctance and the suspicions of Orange, Don John
loyally intended to keep his promise. He even advanced
twenty - seven thousand florins towards the expense of
their removal, but to raise the whole amount required for
transportation and arrears was a difficult matter. The
estates were slow in providing the one hundred and fifty
thousand florins which they had stipulated to furnish.
The King's credit, moreover, was at a very low ebb, but
by dint of great diligence on the part of Escovedo, and
through the confidence reposed in his character, the nec-
essary funds were raised in the course of a few weeks.
The troops readily took up their line of march, and
never paused till they reached Lombardy. They depart-
ed in very ill humor, not having received any recompense
for their long and arduous services. Certainly, if un-
flinching endurance, desperate valor, and congenial cru-
elty could atone in the monarch's eyes for the mutiny
which had at last compelled their withdrawal, then were
these laborers worthy of their hire. Don John had paci-
fied them by assurances that they should receive adequate
rewards on their arrival in Lombardy, and had urged the
full satisfaction of their claims and his promises in the
strongest language.
CHAPTER II
THREE PARTIES — THE ANABAPTISTS PROTECTED
DON JOHN" made his triumphal entrance into Brussels
on the 1st of May. It was long since so festive a May Day
had gladdened the hearts of Brabant. So much holiday
magnificence had not been seen in the Netherlands for
years. A solemn procession of burghers, preceded by six
thousand troops, and garnished by the free companies of
archers and musketeers in their picturesque costumes,
escorted the young prince along the streets of the capital.
Don John was on horseback, wrapped in a long green
cloak, riding between the Bishop of Liege and the papal
nuncio. He passed beneath countless triumphal arches.
Banners waved before him on which the battle of Lepanto
and other striking scenes in his life were emblazoned.
Minstrels sang verses, poets recited odes, rhetoric clubs
enacted fantastic dramas in his honor as he rode along.
Young virgins crowned him with laurels. Fair women in-
numerable were clustered at every window, roof, and
balcony, their bright robes floating like summer clouds
above him. "Softly from those lovely clouds," says a
gallant chronicler, " descended the gentle rain of flowers."
Garlands were strewed before his feet, laurelled victory
sat upon his brow. The same conventional enthusiasm
and decoration which had characterized the holiday
marches of a thousand conventional heroes were success-
fully produced. The proceedings began with the church,
and ended with the banquet ; the day was propitious, the
populace pleased, and, after a brilliant festival, Don John
of Austria saw himself governor-general of the provinces.
Three days afterwards, the customary oaths, to be kept
1577] WATCHFUL WILLIAM 497
with the customary conscientiousness, were rendered at
the Town-house, and for a brief moment all seemed smiling
and serene.
There was a reverse to the picture. In truth, no lan-
guage can describe the hatred which Don John entertained
for the Netherlands and all the inhabitants. He had come
to the country only as a stepping - stone to the English
throne, and he never spoke, in his private letters, of the
provinces or the people but in terms of abhorrence. He
was in a " Babylon of disgust/' in a " hell/' surrounded by
" drunkards/' " wine-skins/' " scoundrels/' and the like.
From the moment of his arrival he had strained every
nerve to retain the Spanish troops, and to send them
away by sea when it should be no longer feasible to keep
them. Escovedo shared in the sentiments and entered
fully into the schemes of his chief. Especially those
which looked to the assassination of Queen Elizabeth and
William of Orange.
Meantime, the man in whose hands really lay the ques-
tion of war and peace sat at Middelburg, watching the
deep current of events as it slowly flowed towards the
precipice. The whole population of Holland and Zeeland
hung on his words. In approaching the realms of William
the Silent, Don John felt that he had entered a charmed
circle, where the talisman of his own illustrious name
lost its power, where his valor was paralyzed, and his
sword rusted irrevocably in its sheath. "The people
here," he wrote, ' ' are bewitched by the Prince of Orange.
They love him, they fear him, and wish to have him for
their master. They inform him of everything, and take
no resolution without consulting him."
While William was thus directing and animating the
whole nation with his spirit, his immediate friends became
more and more anxious concerning the perils to which
he was exposed. His mother, who had already seen her
youngest-born, Henry, her Adolphus, her chivalrous Louis,
laid in their bloody graves for the cause of conscience, was
most solicitous for the welfare of her " heart's - beloved
lord and son," the Prince of Orange. Nevertheless, the
high-spirited old dame was even more alarmed at the pos-
32
498 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
sibility of a peace in which that religious liberty for which
so much dear blood had been poured forth should be in-
adequately secured. "My heart longs for certain tidings
from my lord," she wrote to William, " for methinks the
peace now in prospect will prove but an oppression for
soul and conscience. I trust my heart's dearly beloved
lord and son will be supported by Divine grace to do
nothing against God and his own soul's salvation. "Pis
better to lose the temporal than the eternal." Thus wrote
the mother of William, and we can feel the sympathetic
thrill which such tender and lofty words awoke in his
breast. His son, the ill-starred Philip, now for ten years
long a compulsory sojourner in Spain, was not yet weaned
from his affection for his noble parent, but sent messages
of affection to him whenever occasion offered, while a less
commendable proof of his filial affection he had lately
afforded at the expense of the luckless captain of his
Spanish guard. That officer, having dared in his presence
to speak disrespectfully of his father, was suddenly seized
about the waist by the enraged young Count, hurled out
of the window, and killed stone dead upon the spot. After
this exhibition of his natural feelings, the Spanish govern-
ment thought it necessary to take more subtle means to
tame so turbulent a spirit. Unfortunately they proved
successful.
Count John of Nassau, too, was sorely pressed for
money. Six hundred thousand florins, at least, had been
advanced by himself and brothers to aid the cause of
Netherland freedom. Louis and himself had, unhesitat-
ingly and immediately, turned into that sacred fund the
hundred thousand crowns which the King of France had
presented them for their personal use ; for it was not the
Prince of Orange alone who had consecrated his wealth
and his life to the cause, but the members of his family,
less immediately interested in the country, had thus fur-
nished what may well be called an enormous subsidy, and
one most disproportioned to their means. Not only had
they given all the cash which they could command by
mortgaging their lands and rents, their plate and furniture,
but, in the words of Count John himself, " they bad taken
1577] EFFORTS TO GAIN THE PRINCE 499
the chains and jewels from the necks of their wives, their
children, and their mother, and had hawked them about
as if they had themselves been traders and hucksters/' And
yet, even now, while stooping under this prodigious debt,
Count John asked not for present repayment. He only
wrote to the Prince to signify his extreme embarrassment,
and to request some obligation or recognition from the
cities of Holland and Zeeland, whence hitherto no expres-
sion of gratitude or acknowledgment had proceeded.
The Prince consoled and assured, as best he could, his
mother, son, wife, and brother, even at the same moment
that he comforted his people. He also received at this
time a second and more solemn embassy from Don John.
No sooner had the governor exchanged oaths at Brussels,
and been acknowledged as the representative of his Maj-
esty, than he hastened to make another effort to concili-
ate the Prince. Don John saw before him only a grand
seignior of lofty birth and boundless influence, who had
placed himself towards the crown in a false position, from
which he might even yet be rescued ; for to sacrifice the
whims of a reforming and transitory religious fanaticism,
which had spun itself for a moment about so clear a brain,
would, he thought, prove but a trifling task for so experi-
enced a politician as the Prince. William of Orange, on
the other hand, looked upon his young antagonist as the
most brilliant impersonation which had yet been seen of
the foul spirit of persecution.
Don John meant peace, wise William meant war ; for he
knew that no other issue was possible. Peace, in reality,
was war in its worst shape. Peace would unchain every
priestly tongue, and unsheathe every knightly sword in the
fifteen provinces against little Holland and Zeeland. He
had been able to bind all the provinces together by the
hastily forged chain of the Ghent treaty, and had done
what he could to strengthen that union by the principle
of mutual religious respect. By the arrival of Don John
that work had been deranged. It had, however, been im-
possible for the Prince thoroughly to infuse his own ideas
on the subject of toleration into the hearts of his nearest
associates. He could not hope to inspire his deadly ene-
500 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
mies with a deeper sympathy. Was he not himself the
mark of obloquy among the Reformers because of his
leniency to Catholics ? Nay, more, was not his intimate
councillor, the accomplished Sainte-Aldegonde, in despair
because the Prince refused to exclude the Anabaptists of
Holland from the rights of citizenship ? At the very
moment when William was straining every nerve to unite
warring sects, and to persuade men's hearts into a system
by which their consciences were to be laid open to God
alone — at the moment when it was most necessary for the
very existence of the fatherland that Catholic and Protes-
tant should mingle their social and political relations, it
was indeed a bitter disappointment for him to see wise
statesmen of his own creed unable to rise to the idea of tol-
eration. " The affair of the Anabaptists," * wrote Sainte-
Aldegonde, " has been renewed. The Prince objects to
exclude them from citizenship. He answered me sharply
that their yea was equal to our oath, and that we should
not press this matter unless we were willing to confess that
it was just for the papists to compel us to a divine service
which was against our conscience." It seems hardly cred-
ible that this sentence, containing so sublime a tribute to
the character of the Prince, should have been indited as a
bitter censure, and that, too, by an enlightened and ac-
complished Protestant. "In short," continued Sainte-
Aldegonde, with increasing vexation, " I don't see how we
can accomplish our wish in this matter. The Prince has
uttered reproaches to me that our clergy are striving to
obtain a mastery over consciences. He praised lately the
saying of a monk who was not long ago here, that our pot
had not gone to the fire as often as that of our antagonists,
but that when the time came it would be black enough.
In short, the Prince fears that after a few centuries the
clerical tyranny on both sides will stand in this respect on
the same footing."
Early in the month of May, Doctor Leoninus and Cas-
* In this year, 1577, William of Orange wrote to the magistrates of Mid-
delburg : " We declare to you that you have no right to interfere with the
conscience of any one, so long as he has done nothing that works injury to
another person, or a public scandal."
1577] RESULTS 501
par Schetz, Seignenr de Grobbendonck, had been sent on
a mission from the states-general to the Prince of Orange.
While their negotiations were still pending, four special
envoys from Don John arrived at Middelburg. To this
commission was informally adjoined Leoninus, who had
succeeded to the general position of Viglius, who was dead.
The agents of Don John were the Duke of Aerschot,
the Seigneur de Hierges, Seigneur de Willerval, and Doc-
tor Meetkerken, accompanied by Doctor Andrew Gaill,
one of the imperial commissioners. The two envoys from
the states-general, Leoninus and Schetz, being present at
Gertruydenberg, were added to the deputation. An im-
portant conference took place, the details of which have
been somewhat minutely preserved. The Prince of Orange,
accompanied by Sainte-Aldegonde and four other council-
lors, encountered the seven champions from Brussels in a
long debate, which was more like a passage of arms or a
trial of skill than a friendly colloquy with a pacific result
in prospect ; for it must be remembered that the Prince
of Orange did not mean peace. He had devised the Paci-
fication of Ghent as a union of the other provinces with
Holland and Zeeland against Philip. He did not intend
that it should be converted into a union of the other prov-
inces with Philip against Holland and Zeeland.
The formal interchange of documents soon afterwards
took place. The conversation held between the different
parties shows, however, the exact position of affairs. There
was no change in the intentions of either Keformers or
royalists. Philip and his representatives still contended
for two points, and claimed the praise of moderation that
their demands were so few in number. They were willing
to concede everything save the unlimited authority of the
King and the exclusive maintenance of the Catholic re-
ligion. The Prince of Orange, on his side, claimed two'
i points also — the ancient constitutions of the country and
religious freedom. It was obvious enough that the con-
test was the same, in reality, as it had ever been. No ap-
proximation had been made towards reconciling absolutism
with national liberty, persecution with toleration.
The envoys accordingly, in obedience to their instruc-
502 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
tions, made a formal statement to the Prince of Orange
and the states of Holland and Zeeland, on the part of Don
John. They alluded to the departure of the Spaniards, as
if that alone had fulfilled every duty and authorized every
claim. They therefore demanded the immediate publica-
tion in Holland and Zeeland of the Perpetual Edict. They
insisted on the immediate discontinuance of all hostile
attempts to reduce Amsterdam to the jurisdiction of
Orange ; required the Prince to abandon his pretensions
to Utrecht; and denounced the efforts being made by
him and his partisans to diffuse their heretical doctrines
through the other provinces. They observed, in conclu-
sion, that the general question of religion was not to be
handled, because reserved for the consideration of the
states-general, according to the treaty of Ghent.
The reply, delivered on the following day by the Prince
of Orange and the deputies, maintained that the Perpet-
ual Edict was widely different from the Pacification of
Ghent, which it affected to uphold ; that the promises to
abstain from all violation of the ancient constitutions had
not been kept ; that the German troops had not been dis-
missed ; that the property of the Prince in the Nether-
lands and Burgundy had not been restored ; that his sol
was detained in captivity ; that the government of Utrecht
was withheld from him ; that the charters and constitu-
tion of the country, instead of being extended, had beei
contracted ; and that the governor had claimed the rigl
to convoke the states-general at his pleasure, in violatioi
of the ancient right to assemble at their own. The doci
ment further complained that the adherents of the
formed religion were not allowed to frequent the differei
provinces in freedom, according to the stipulations
Ghent ; that Don John, notwithstanding all these shoi
comings, had been acknowledged as governor - genei
without the consent of the Prince ; that he was surrounc
ed with a train of Spaniards, Italians, and other forei^
ers — Gonzaga, Escovedo, and the like — as well as by ren-
egade Netherlander like Tassis, by whom he was unduly
influenced against the country and the people, and by
whom a " back door was held constantly open" to the
1577] BULLETINS 503
admission of evils innumerable. Finally, it was asserted
that by means of this last act of union a new form of
inquisition had been introduced, and one which was much
more cruel than the old system, inasmuch as the Span-
ish inquisition did not take information against men ex-
cept upon suspicion, whereas by the new process all the
world would be examined as to their conscience and relig-
ion, under pretence of maintaining the union.
Such was the result of this second mission to the Prince
of Orange on the part of the governor -general. Don
John never sent another. The swords were now fairly
measured between the antagonists, and the scabbards
were soon to be thrown away. A few weeks afterwards
the governor wrote to Philip that there was nothing in
the world which William of Orange so much abhorred as
his Majesty, adding, with Castilian exaggeration, that if
the Prince could drink the King's blood he would do so
with great pleasure.
Don John, being thus seated in the saddle, had a mo-
ment's leisure to look around him. It was but a moment,
for he had small confidence in the aspect of affairs, but
one of his first acts after assuming the government afford-
ed a proof of the interpretation which he had adopted
of the Ghent Pacification. An edict was issued, addressed
to all bishops, " heretic-masters," and provincial councils,
commanding the strict enforcement of the canons of the
Council of Trent, and other ecclesiastical decrees. These
authorities were summoned instantly to take increased
heed of the flocks under their charge, "and to protect
them from the ravening wolves which were seeking to
devour them."
The measure bore instant fruit. A wretched tailor of
Mechlin, Peter Panis by name, an honest man, but a
! heretic, was arrested upon the charge of having preached
i or exhorted at a meeting in that city. He confessed that
j he had been present at the meeting, but denied that he
had preached. He was then required to denounce the
I others who had been present and the men who had ac-
tually officiated. He refused, and was condemned to death.
;The Prince of Orange, while the process was pending,
504 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
wrote an earnest letter to the Council of Mechlin, implor-
ing them not now to rekindle the fires of religious per-
secution. His appeal was in vain. The poor tailor was
beheaded at Mechlin on the 15th of June, the conqueror
of Lepanto being present at the execution and adding
dignity to the scene. Thus, at the moment when William
of Orange was protecting the Anabaptists of Middelburg
in the rights of citizenship, even while they refused its
obligations, the son of the Emperor was dipping his hands
in the blood of a poor wretch who had done no harm but
to listen to a prayer without denouncing the preacher.
The most intimate friends of the Prince were offended
with his liberality. The imperial shade of Don John's
father might have risen to approve the son who had so
dutifully revived his bloody edicts and his ruthless policy.
Three parties were now fairly in existence : the nobles
who hated the Spaniards, but who were disposed to hold
themselves aloof from the people ; the adherents of Dor
John, commonly called " Johanists"; and the partisans
of the Prince of Orange — for William the Silent had al-
ways felt the necessity of leaning for support on some
thing more substantial than the court party, a reed shakei
by the wind, and failing always when most relied upoi
His efforts were constant to elevate the middle class, tc
build up a strong third party, which should unite mud
of the substantial wealth and intelligence of the lane
drawing constantly from the people, and deriving strength
from national enthusiasm — a party which should include
nearly all the political capacity of the country; and his
efforts were successful. No doubt the governor and his
secretary were right when they said the people of the
Netherlands were inclined to brook the Turk as easily as
the Spaniard for their master, and that their hearts were
in reality devoted to the Prince of Orange.
As to the grandees, they were mostly of those who
"sought to swim between two waters," according to the
Prince's expression. There were but few unswerving sup-
porters of the Spanish rule, like the Berlaymont and th«
Tassis families. The rest veered daily with the veering
wind. Aerschot, the great chief of the Catholic party
1577] WARNINGS 505
was but a cringing courtier, false and fawning both to
Don John and the Prince. He sought to play a leading
part in a great epoch ; he only distinguished himself by
courting and betraying all parties, and being thrown away
by all. His son and brother were hardly more respect-
able. The Prince knew how little dependence could be
placed on such allies, even although they had signed and
sworn the Ghent Pacification. He was also aware how
little it was the intention of the governor to be bound
by that famous treaty. The Spanish troops had been, in-
deed, disbanded, but there were still between ten and fif-
teen thousand German mercenaries in the service of the
King ; these were stationed in different important places
and held firm possession of the citadels. The great keys
of the country were still in the hands of the Spaniards.
Aerschot, indeed, governed the castle of Antwerp in room
of Sancho d'Avila, but how much more friendly would
Aerschot be than Avila when interest prompted him to
sustain Don John against the Prince ?
Meanwhile the estates, according to their contract, were
straining every nerve to raise the requisite sum for the
payment of the German troops. Equitable offers were
made by which the soldiers were to receive a certain pro-
portion of the arrears due to them in merchandise and
the remainder in cash. The arrangement was rejected,
at the secret instance of Don John. While the governor
affected an ingenuous desire to aid the estates in their
efforts to free themselves from the remaining portion of
this encumbrance, he was secretly tampering with the
leading German officers in order to prevent their accept-
ance of any offered terms. He persuaded these military
chiefs that a conspiracy existed by which they were not
only to be deprived of their wages, but of their lives. He
warned them to heed no promises, to accept no terms.
Convincing them that he, and he only, was their friend,
he arranged secret plans by which they should assist him
in taking the fortresses of the country into still more
secure possession, for he was not more inclined to trust
to the Aerschots and the Havre's than was the Prince
himself.
506 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
The governor lived in considerable danger, and in still
greater dread, of capture, if not of assassination. His
imagination, excited by endless tales of ambush and half-
discovered conspiracies, saw armed soldiers behind every
bush, a pitfall in every street. Nor did Don John need
warnings coming from sources far from obscure. He fled
to Mechlin, where warnings were soon afterwards renewed,
for the solemn sacrifice of Peter Pauis, the poor preaching
tailor of that city, had not been enough to strike terror
to the hearts of all the Netherlanders. One day, towards
the end of June, the Duke of Aerschot, riding out with
Don John, gave him a circumstantial account of plots, old
and new, the existence of which he had discovered or in-
vented, and he showed a copy of a secret letter, written
by the Prince of Orange to the estates, recommending the
forcible seizure of his Highness. It is true that the
Duke was, at that period and for long after, upon terms
of the most "fraternal friendship " with the Prince, and
was in the habit of signing himself " his very affectionate
brother and cordial friend to serve him," yet this did not
prevent him from accomplishing what he deemed his duty,
in secretly denouncing his plans. It is also true that he
at the same time gave the Prince private information
concerning the government, and sent him intercepted
letters from his enemies, thus easing his conscience on
both sides, and trimming his sails to every wind which
might blow.
The governor brooded over what had been said to him
for a few days, and he then broke up his establishment at
Mechlin, selling off his superfluous furniture and even
the wine in his cellars. Thus showing that his absence,
both from Brussels and Mechlin, was to be a prolonged
one, he took advantage of an unforeseen occurrence again
to remove his residence*
CHAPTER III
DON" JOHN FOILED BY ORANGE
THERE were few cities of the Netherlands more pictu-
resque in situation, more trimly built, and more opulent
of aspect than the little city of Namur. Its famous cita-
del, crowning an abrupt precipice five hundred feet above
the river's bed, and placed near the frontier of France,
made the city of vast strategic importance, and this had
now attracted Don John's attention in this hour of his
perplexity. The unexpected visit of a celebrated person-
age furnished him with the pretext which he desired.
The beautiful Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, was
proceeding to the baths of Spa to drink the waters. Her
health was as perfect as her beauty, but she was flying
from a husband whom she hated, to advance the interest
of a brother whom she loved with a more than sisterly
fondness — for the worthless Duke of Alengon was one of
the many competitors for the Netherland government ;
the correspondence between himself and his brother with
Orange and his agents being still continued. The hollow
tnice with the Huguenots in France had, however, been
again succeeded by war. Henry of Valois had already
commenced operations in Gascony against Henry of Na-
varre, whom he hated almost as cordially as Margaret
herself could do, and the Duke of Alencon was besieging
Issoire. Meantime, the beautiful Queen came to mingle
the golden thread of her feminine intrigues with the dark
woof of the Netherland destinies.
The Queen crossed the frontier, and was courteously
received at Cambrai. The bishop — of the loyal house
of Berlaymont — was a stanch supporter of the King, and
508 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
although a Fleming, was Spanish to the core. On him
the cajolery of the beautiful Queen was first essayed, but
was found powerless. The prelate gave her a magnificent
ball, but resisted her blandishments. He retired with
the appearance of the confections, but the governor of
the citadel, the Seigneur d'Inchy, remained, with whom
Margaret was more successful. She found him a cordial
hater of Spain, a favorer of France, and very impatient
under the authority of the bishop. He obtained permis-
sion to accompany the royal visitor a few stages of her
journey, and returned to Cambrai her willing slave, hold-
ing the castle in future neither for king nor bishop, but
for Margaret's brother Alencon alone. At Mons she was
received with great state by the Count Lalain, who was
governor of Hainault, while his Countess governed him.
A week of festivities graced the advent of the Queen, dur-
ing which period the hearts of both Lalain and his wife
were completely subjugated.
The Count, with a retinue of mounted men, then ac-
companied her on her way towards Namur, but turned as
the distant tramp of Don John's cavalcade was heard ap-
proaching, for it was not desirable for Lalain at that mo-
ment to find himself face to face with the governor.
Don John stood a moment awaiting the arrival of the
Queen. He did not dream of her political intrigues, nor
see in the fair form approaching him one mortal enemy
the more. Margaret travelled in a splendid litter with
gilt pillars, lined with scarlet velvet, and entirely enclosed
in glass, which was followed by those of the Princesse de
la Eoche sur Yon and of Madame de Tournon. After
these came ten ladies of honor on horseback, and six char-
iots filled with female domestics. These, with the guards
and other attendants, made up the retinue. On meeting
the Queen's litter, Don John sprang from his horse and
presented his greetings. The Queen returned his saluta-
tion, in the French fashion, by offering her cheek to his
embrace, extending the same favor to the Duke of Aer-
schot and the Marquis of Havre. The cavaliers then
remounted and escorted the Queen to Namur, Don John
riding by the side of the litter and conversing with her
1577] BANQUETS AND BALLS 509
all the way. It was late in the evening when the pro-
cession arrived in the city. The streets had, however,
been brilliantly illuminated, houses and shops, although
it was near midnight, being in a blaze of light. Don
John believing that no attentions could be so acceptable
at that hour as to provide for the repose of his guest,
conducted the Queen at once to the lodgings prepared for
her. Margaret was astonished at the magnificence of the
apartments into which she was ushered.
The next morning a grand mass with military music
was celebrated, followed by a sumptuous banquet in the
grand hall. Don John and the Queen sat at a table three
feet apart from the rest, and Ottavio Gonzaga served
them wine upon his knees. After the banquet came, as
usual, the ball, the festivities continuing till late in the
night, and Don John scarcely quitting his fair guest for a
moment. The next afternoon, a festival had been ar-
ranged upon an island in the river. The company em-
barked upon the Meuse, in a fleet of gayly scarfed and
painted vessels, many of which were filled with musi-
cians. Margaret reclined in her gilded barge, under a
richly embroidered canopy. A fairer and falser queen
than the Egyptian had bewitched the famous youth who
had triumphed, not lost the world, beneath the heights of
Actium. The revellers landed on the island, where the
banquet was already spread within a spacious bower of
ivy and beneath umbrageous elms. The dance upon the
sward was protracted to a late hour, and the summer
stars had been long in the sky when the company returned
to their barges.
Don John, more than ever enthralled by the bride of
St. Bartholomew, knew not that her sole purpose in visit-
ing his dominion had been to corrupt his servants and to
undermine his authority. His own purpose, however,
had been less to pay court to the Queen than to make
use of her presence to cover his own designs. That pur-
pose he proceeded instantly to execute. The Queen next
morning pursued her voyage by the river to Liege, "and
scarcely had she floated out of his sight than he sprang
upon his horse, and, accompanied by a few trusty attend-
510 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
ants, galloped out of the gate and across the bridge which
led to the citadel. He had already despatched the loyal
Berlaymont, with his four equally loyal sous, the Seign-
eurs de Meghen, Floyon, Hierges, and Haultepenne, to
that fortress. These gentlemen had iiiformed the castellan
that the governor was about to ride forth hunting, and
that it would be proper to offer him the hospitalities of
the castle as he passed on his way. A considerable num-
ber of armed men had been concealed in the woods and
thickets of the neighborhood. The Seigneur de Froy-
mont, suspecting nothing, acceded to the propriety of the
suggestion made by the Berlaymonts. Meantime, with a
blast of his horn, Don John appeared at the castle gate.
He entered the fortress with the castellan, while one of
the gentlemen watched outside as the ambushed soldiers
came toiling up the precipice. When all was ready the
gentleman returned to the hall, and made a signal to Don
John as he sat at breakfast with the constable. The
governor sprang from the table and drew his sword ;
Berlaymont and his four sons drew their pistols, while at
the same instant the soldiers entered. Don John, ex-
claiming that this was the first day of his government,
commanded the castellan to surrender. De Froymoiit,
taken by surprise, and hardly understanding this very melo-
dramatic attack upon a citadel by its own lawful governor,
made not much difficulty in complying. He was then
turned out-of-doors, along with his garrison, mostly feeble
old men and invalids. The newly arrived soldiers took
their places, at command of the governor, and the strong-
hold of Namur was his own.
There was little doubt that the representative of Philip
had a perfect right to possess himself of any fortress with-
in his government ; there could be as little doubt that
the sudden stratagem by which he had thus made himself
master of this citadel would prove offensive to the estates,
while it could hardly be agreeable to the King ; and yet it
is not certain that he could have accomplished his pur-
pose in any other way. Moreover, the achievement was
one of a projected series by which he meant to revindi-
cate his dwindling authority. He was weary of playing
15771 "NESTS OF TYRANNY" 511
the hypocrite, and convinced that he and his monarch were
both abhorred by the Netherlander. Peace was impossi-
ble— war was forbidden him. Eeduced almost to a nulli-
ty by the Prince of Orange, it was time for him to make a
stand, and in this impregnable fastness his position at
least was a good one. Many months before, the Prince of
Orange had expressed his anxious desire that this most im-
portant town and citadel should be secured for the estates.
" You know/' he had written to Bossu in December, " the
evil and the dismay which the loss of the city and fortress
of Namur would occasion to us. Let me beseech you that
all possible care be taken to preserve them." Neverthe-
less, their preservation had been entrusted to a feeble-
minded old constable, at the head of a handful of cripples.
"We know how intense had been the solicitude of the
Prince not only to secure but to destroy these citadels,
"nests of tyranny," which had been built by despots to
crush, not protect, the towns at their feet. These pre-
cautions had been neglected, and the consequences were
displaying themselves, for the castle of Namur was not
the only one of which Don John felt himself secure. Al-
though the Duke of Aerschot seemed so very much his
humble servant, the governor did not trust him, and wished
to see the citadel of Antwerp in more unquestionable keep-
ing. He had therefore withdrawn not only the Duke, but
his son, the Prince of Chimay, commander of the cas-
tle in his father's absence, from that important post, and
insisted upon their accompanying him to Namur. So gal-
lant a courtier as Aerschot could hardly refuse to pay
his homage to so illustrious a princess as Margaret of Va-
lois, while during the absence of the Duke and Prince the
keys of Antwerp citadel had been, at the command of Don
John, placed in the keeping of the Seigneur de Treslong,
an unscrupulous and devoted royalist. The celebrated
Colonel Van Ende, whose participation at the head of his
German cavalry in the terrible sack of that city which he
had been ordered to defend has been narrated, was com-
manded to return to Antwerp. He was to present him-
self openly to the city authorities, but he was secretly di-
rected by the governor-general to act in co-operation with
512 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
the Colonels Fugger, Frondsberger, and Polwiller, who com-
manded the forces already stationed in the city. These
distinguished officers had been all summer in secret corre-
spondence with Don John, for they were the instruments
with which he meant by a bold stroke -to recover his al-
most lost authority.
In the mean time, almost exactly at the moment when
Don John was executing his enterprise against Namur,
Escovedo had taken an affectionate farewell of the estates
at Brussels ; for it had been thought necessary, as already
intimated, both for the apparent interests and the secret
projects of Don John, that the secretary should make a
visit to Spain. He made the visit. By the secret order
of the King, Perez being the executive supervisor of the
details, Escovedo was murdered at nightfall of the 31st of
March, 1578, in the streets of Madrid.
Before narrating the issue of the plot against Antwerp
citadel, it is necessary to recur for a moment to the Prince
of Orange. In the deeds and written words of that one
man are comprised nearly all the history of the Reforma-
tion in the Netherlands — nearly the whole progress of the
infant Eepublic. The rest, during this period, is made up
of the plottings and counter-plottings, the mutual wran-
glings and recriminations of Don John and the estates.
In the brief breathing-space now afforded them, the in-
habitants of Holland and Zeeland had been employing
themselves in the extensive repairs of their vast system
of dikes. These barriers, which protected their country
against the ocean, but which their own hands had destroyed
to preserve themselves against tyranny, were now thorough-
ly reconstructed at a great expense, the Prince every where
encouraging the people with his presence, directing them
by his experience, inspiring them with his energy. The
task accomplished was stupendous, and worthy, says a con-
temporary, of eternal memory.
At the popular request, the Prince afterwards made a
tour through the little provinces, honoring every city with
a brief visit. The spontaneous homage which went up to
him from every heart was pathetic and simple. There
were no triumphal arches, no martial music, no banners,
1577] WILLIAM IN HOLLAND 513
no theatrical pageantry — nothing but the choral anthem
from thousands of grateful hearts. "Father William has
come ! Father William has come !" cried men, women,
and children to one another when the news of his arrival in
town or village was announced. He was a patriarch visit-
ing his children, not a conqueror, nor a vulgar potentate
displaying himself to his admirers. Happy were they who
heard his voice, happier they who touched his hands ; for
his words were full of tenderness, his hand was offered to
all. There were none so humble as to be forbidden to ap-
proach him, none so ignorant as not to know his deeds.
All knew that to combat in their cause he had descended
from princely station, from luxurious ease, to the position
of a proscribed and almost beggared outlaw. For them he
had impoverished himself and his family, mortgaged his
estates, stripped himself of jewels, furniture, almost of
food and raiment. Through his exertions the Spaniards
had been banished from their little territory, the inquisi-
tion crushed within their borders, nearly all the sister
provinces but yesterday banded into a common cause.
He found time, notwithstanding congratulating crowds
who thronged his footsteps, to direct the labors of the
states-general, who still looked more than ever to his guid-
ance, as their relations with Don John became more com-
plicated and unsatisfactory. In a letter addressed to them
on the 20th of June, from Haarlem, he warned them most
eloquently to hold to the Ghent Pacification as to their
anchor in the storm. He assured them, if it was torn
from them, that their destruction was inevitable. He re-
minded them that hitherto they had got but the shadow,
not the substance, of the treaty; that they had been
robbed of that which was to be its chief fruit — union
among themselves. He and his brothers, with their
labor, their wealth, and their blood, had laid down the
bridge over which the country had stepped to the Pacifi-
cation of Ghent. It was for the nation to maintain what
had been so painfully won ; yet he proclaimed to them
that the government was not acting in good faith, that
secret preparations were being made to annihilate the au-
thority of the states, to restore the edicts, to put strangers
33
514 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
into high places, and to set up again the scaffold and the
whole machinery of persecution.
In consequence of the seizure of Namur Castle, and the
accusations made by Don John against Orange in order
to justify that act, the Prince had already despatched
Taffin and Sainte-Aldegonde to the states-general with a
commission to declare his sentiments upon the subject.
He addressed, moreover, to the same body, a letter full of
sincere and simple eloquence. " The Seigneur Don John,"
said he, "has accused me of violating the peace, and of
countenancing attempts against his life, and in endeavor-
ing to persuade you into joining him in a declaration of
war against me and against Holland and Zeeland ; but I
pray you, most affectionately, to remember our mutual and
solemn obligations to maintain the treaty of Ghent."
" Trusting," said the Prince, in conclusion, "that you
will accord faith and attention to my envoys, I will only
add an expression of my sincere determination to employ
myself incessantly in your service, and for the welfare of
the whole people, without sparing any means in my pow-
er, nor my life itself."
The vigilant Prince was indeed not slow to take ad-
vantage of the governor's false move. While in reality
intending peace, if it were possible, Don John had thrown
down the gauntlet ; while affecting to deal openly and
manfully, like a warrior and an emperor's son, he had in-
volved himself in petty stratagems and transparent in-
trigues, by all which he had gained nothing but the char-
acter of a plotter, whose word could not be trusted.
Sainte-Aldegonde expressed the hope that the seizure of
Namur Castle would open the eyes of the people, and
certainly the Prince did his best to sharpen their vision.
.While in North Holland, William of Orange received
an urgent invitation from the magistracy and community
of Utrecht to visit that city. His authority, belonging to
him under his ancient commission, had not yet been rec-
ognized over that province, but there was no doubt that
the contemplated convention of "Satisfaction" was soon
to be arranged, for his friends there were numerous and
influential. His princess, Charlotte de Bourbon, who ac-
•
THE PRINCE IN UTRECHT 515
companicd him on his tour, trembled at the danger to
which her husband would expose himself by venturing
thus boldly into a territory which might be full of his
enemies, but the Prince determined to trust the loyalty
of a province which he hoped would be soon his own.
With anxious forebodings the Princess followed her hus-
band to the ancient episcopal city. As they entered its
gates, where an immense concourse was waiting to receive
him, a shot passed through the carriage window and
struck the Prince upon the breast. The affrighted lady
threw her arms about his neck, shrieking that they were
betrayed, but the Prince, perceiving that the supposed
shot was but a wad from one of the cannon, which were
still roaring their welcome to him, soon succeeded in
calming her fears. The carriage passed slowly through
the streets, attended by the vociferous greetings of the
multitude ; for the whole population had come forth to
do him honor. Women and children clustered upon
every roof and balcony, but a painful incident again
marred the tranquillity of the occasion. An apothecary's
child, a little girl of ten years, leaning eagerly from a
lofty balcony, lost her balance and fell to the ground, di-
rectly before the horses of the Prince's carriage. She
was killed stone dead by the fall. The procession stopped;
the Prince alighted, lifted the little corpse in his arms,
and delivered it, with gentle words and looks of consola-
tion, to the unhappy parents. The day seemed marked
with evil omens, which were fortunately destined to prove
fallacious. The citizens of Utrecht became more than
ever inclined to accept the dominion of the Prince, whom
they honored and whom they already regarded as their
natural chief. They entertained him with banquets and
festivities during his brief visit, and it was certain before
he took his departure that the treaty of "Satisfaction"
would not be long delayed. It was drawn up, according-
ly, in the autumn of the same year, upon the basis of
that accepted by Haarlem and Amsterdam — a basis wide
enough to support both religions, with a nominal su-
premacy to the ancient Church.
Meantime/ much fruitless correspondence had taken
516 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
place between Don John and the states. Envoys, de-
spatched by the two parties to each other, had indulged in
bitterness and recrimination. The same grievances were
repeated, the same statements produced and contradicted,
the same demands urged and evaded, and the same men-
aces exchanged as upon former occasions.
Immediately after the departure of the second delegation
Don John learned the result of his project upon Antwerp
citadel. His stratagem failed, through the timely ap-
pearance of a fleet of " the beggars'" ships in the Scheldt,
which caused first a panic and then a retreat of the Ger-
man mercenaries. These fled from Antwerp to Bergen-
op-Zoom and then to Breda, afterwards surrendering to
the estates. Not only was the fortress carried for the
estates, but the city of Antwerp, for the first time in
twelve years, was relieved from a foreign soldiery.
On the 7th of August Don John addressed another long
letter to the estates. This document was accompanied,
as usual, by certain demands, drawn up categorically
in twenty -three articles. The estates considered his
terms hard and strange, for in their opinion it was they,
not the governor, who were masters of the situation.
Nevertheless, he seemed inclined to treat as if he had
gained, not missed, the citadel of Antwerp ; as if the
troops with whom he had tampered were mustered in the •
field, not shut up in distant towns, and already at the
mercy of the states party. The governor demanded that
all the forces of the country should be placed under his
own immediate control ; that Count Bossu, or some other
person nominated by himself, should be appointed to the
government of Friesland ; that the people of Brabant and
Flanders should set themselves instantly to hunting,
catching, and chastising all vagrant heretics and preach-
ers. He required, in particular, that Sainte-Aldegoude
and Theron, those most mischievous rebels, should be
prohibited from setting their foot in any city of the
Netherlands. He insisted that the community of Brus-
sels should lay down their arms and resume their ordi-
nary handicrafts. He demanded that the Prince of Orange
should be made to execute the Ghent treaty ; to suppress
1577] MORE PROTOCOLS 517
the exercise of the Eeformed religion in Haarlem, Schoon-
hoven, and other places ; to withdraw his armed vessels
from their threatening stations, and to restore Nieuwpoort,
unjustly detained by him. Should the Prince persist in
his obstinacy, Don John summoned them to take arms
against him and to support their lawful governor. He
moreover required the immediate restitution of Antwerp
citadel and the release of Treslong from prison.
Although, regarded from the Spanish point of view, such
demands might seem reasonable, it was also natural that
their audacity should astonish the estates. That the man
who had violated so openly the Ghent treaty should rebuke
the Prince for his default ; that the man who had tampered
with the German mercenaries until they were on the point
of making another Antwerp Fury should now claim the
command over them and all other troops ; that the man
who had attempted to gain Antwerp citadel by a base strat-
agem should now coolly demand its restoration, seemed to
them the perfection of insolence. The baffled conspirator
boldly claimed the prize which was to have rewarded a
successful perfidy. At the very moment when the Esco-
vedo letters and the correspondence with the German
colonels had been laid before their eyes, it was a little too
much that the double-dealing bastard of the double-dealing
Emperor should read them a lecture upon sincerity. It
was certain that the perplexed and outwitted warrior had
placed himself at last in a very false position. The Prince
of Orange, with his usual adroitness, made the most of his
adversary's false moves. Don John had only succeeded
in digging a pitfall for himself. His stratagems against
Namur and Antwerp had produced him no fruit, saving
the character, which his antagonist now fully succeeded
in establishing for him, of -an unscrupulous and artful
schemer.
Nothing, however, in the governor's opinion, could sur-
pass the insolence of the Netherlander, save their ingrat-
itude. That was the serpent's tooth which was ever
wounding the clement King and his indignant brother.
It seemed so bitter to meet with tlianklessness, after seven
years of Alva and three of Eequesens ; after the labors of
518 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
the Council of Blood, the massacres of Naarden, Zutphen,
and Haarlem, the siege of Leyden, and the Fury of Ant-
werp. "Little profit there has been," said the governor
to his sister, " or is like to be, from all the good which we
have done to these bad people. In short, they love and
obey in all things the most perverse and heretic tyrant
and rebel in the whole world, which is this damned Prince
of Orange, while, on the contrary, without fear of God or
shame before men, they abhor and dishonor the name and
commandments of their natural sovereign." Therefore,
with a doubting spirit, and almost with a broken heart,
had the warrior shut himself up in Namur citadel, to await
the progress of events, and to escape from the snares of
his enemies. ' ( God knows 7iow much I desire to avoid ex-
tremities" said he, " but I know not what to do with
men who show themselves so obstinately rebellious."
The letter addressed by Don John to the states upon the
7th of August had not yet been answered. Feeling, soon
afterwards, more sensible of his position, and perhaps less
inflamed with indignation, he addressed another commu-
nication to them upon the 13th of the same month. In
this epistle he expressed an extreme desire for peace, and
a hearty desire to be relieved, if possible, from his most
painful situation.
This letter was answered at considerable length, upon
the second day. The states made their customary prot-
estations of attachment to his Majesty, their fidelity to
the Catholic Church, their determination to maintain both
the Ghent treaty and the Perpetual Edict. They denied
all responsibility for the present disastrous condition of
the relations between themselves and government, having
disbanded nearly all their own troops, while the governor
had been strengthening his forces up to the period of his
retreat into Namur. He protested, indeed, friendship and
a sincere desire for peace, but the intercepted letters of
Escovedo and his own had revealed to them the evil coun-
sels to which he had been listening, and the intrigues
which he had been conducting. They left it to his con-
science whether they could reasonably believe, after the
perusal of these documents, that it was his intention to
1577] QUILL-DRIVING 519
maintain the Ghent treaty, or any treaty ; and whether
they were not justified in their resort to the natural right
of self-defence.
It was not difficult for the estates to answer the letters
of the governor. Indeed, there was but little lack of
argument on either side throughout this unhappy con-
troversy. It is dismal to contemplate the interminable
exchange of protocols, declarations, demands, apostils, rep-
lications, and rejoinders which made up the substance
of Don John's administration. Never was chivalrous cru-
sader so out of place. It was not a soldier that was then
required for Philip's exigency, but a scribe. Instead of
the famous sword of Lepanto, the "barbarous pen" of
Hopperus had been much more suitable for the work re-
quired. Scribbling Joachim in a war -galley, yard-arm
and yard-arm with the Turkish capitan pacha, could have
hardly felt less at ease than did the brilliant warrior thus
condemned to scrawl and dissemble. While marching
from concession to concession he found the states con-
ceiving daily more distrust, and making daily deeper en-
croachments. Moreover, his deeds, up to the time when
he seemed desirous to retrace his steps, had certainly
been, at the least, equivocal. Therefore it was natural
for the estates, in reply to the questions in his letter, to
observe that he had indeed dismissed the Spaniards, but
that he had tampered with and retained the Germans ;
that he had indeed placed the citadels in the hands of
natives, but that he had tried his best to wrest them away
again ; had indeed professed anxiety for peace, but that
his intercepted letters proved his preparations for war.
Already there were rumors of Spanish troops returning
in small detachments out of France. Already the gov-
ernor was known to be enrolling fresh mercenaries to
supply the place of those whom he had unsuccessfully
endeavored to gain to his standard. As early as the 26th
of July, in fact, the Marquis d'Ayamonte in Milan, and
Don Juan de Idiaquez in Genoa, had received letters from
Don John of Austria, stating that, as the provinces had
proved false to their engagements, he would no longer
be held by his own, and intimating his desire that the
520 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
veteran troops which had but so recently been dismissed
from Flanders should forthwith return. Soon afterwards
Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, received instruc-
tions from the King to superintend these movements, and
to carry the aid of his own already distinguished mili-
tary genius to his uncle in the Netherlands.
On the other hand, the states felt their strength daily
more sensibly. Guided, as usual, by Orange, they had
already assumed a tone in their correspondence which
must have seemed often disloyal, and sometimes positive-
ly insulting, to the governor. They even answered his
hints of resignation in favor of some other prince of the
blood by expressing their hopes that his successor, if a
member of the royal house at all, would at least be a
legitimate one. This was a severe thrust at the haughty
chieftain, whose imperial airs rarely betrayed any con-
sciousness of Barbara Blomberg, and the bend sinister
on his shield. He was made to understand, through the
medium of Brabantine bluntness, that more importance
was attached to the marriage ceremony in the Nether-
lands than he seemed to imagine. The party of the Prince
was gaining the upper hand.
It was the determination of that great statesman, ac-
cording to that which he considered the legitimate prac-
tice of the government, to restore the administration to
the state council, which executive body ought of right
to be appointed by the states-general. In the states-gen-
eral, as in the states-particular, a constant care was to be
taken towards strengthening the most popular element,
the " community " of each city — the aggregate, that is to
say, of its guild-representatives and its admitted burgh-
ers. This was, in the opinion of the Prince, the true
theory of the government — republican in all but form —
under the hereditary protection, not the despotic author-
ity, of a family whose rights were now nearly forfeited.
It was a great step in advance that these views should
come to be thus formally announced, not in Holland and
Zeeland only, but by the deputies of the states-general,
although such a doctrine to the proud stomach of Don
John seemed sufficiently repulsive. Not less so was the
1577] RAZING 'OF CITADELS 521
cool intimation with which the paper concluded, that if
he should execute his threat of resigning, the country
would bear his loss with fortitude, coupled as was that
statement with a declaration that, until his successor
should be appointed, the state council would consider
itself charged ad interim with the government. In the
mean time the governor was requested not to calumniate
the estates to foreign governments, as he had so recently
done in his intercepted* letter to the Empress-dowager.
Upon receiving this letter, " Don John/' says a faithful
old chronicler, "found that the cranes had invited the
fox to dinner/' In truth, the illustrious soldier was never
very successful in his efforts, for which his enemies gave
him credit, to piece out the skin of the lion with that of
the fox. He now felt himself exposed and outwitted,
while he did not feel conscious of any very dark design.
He answered the letter of the states by a long commu-
nication dated from Namur Castle, 28th of August. In
style he was comparatively temperate, but the justifica-
tion which he attempted of his past conduct was not very
happy. The letter concluded with a hope for an arrange-
ment of difficulties, not yet admitted by the governor
to be insurmountable, and with a request for a formal
conference, accompanied by an exchange of hostages.
While this correspondence was proceeding between Na-
mur and Brussels, an event was occurring in Antwerp
which gave much satisfaction to Orange. The Spanish
Fury, and the recent unsuccessful attempt of Don John
to master the famous citadel, had determined the authori-
ties to take the counsel which the Prince had so often
given in vain, and the fortress of Antwerp was at length
razed to the ground, on the side towards the city. It
would be more correct to say that it was not the authori-
ties but the city itself which rose at last and threw off
the saddle by which it had so long been galled. More
than ten thousand persons were constantly at work, morn-
ing, noon, and night, . until the demolition was accom-
plished. Grave magistrates, great nobles, fair ladies,
citizens and their wives, beggars and their children, all
wrought together pell-mell. All were anxious to have a
522 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
hand in destroying the nest where so many murders had
been hatched, whence so much desolation had come. The
task was not a long one for workmen so much in earnest,
and the fortress was soon laid low in the quarter where
it could be injurious to the inhabitants. As the work
proceeded, the old statue of Alva was discovered in a for-
gotten crypt where it had lain since it had been thrown
down by the order of Requesens. Amid the destruction
of the fortress, the gigantic phantom of its founder seemed
to start suddenly from the gloom, but the apparition added
fresh fuel to the rage of the people. The image of the
execrated governor was fastened upon with as much
fierceness as if the bronze effigy could feel their blows
or comprehend their wrath. It was brought forth from
its dark hiding-place into the daylight. Thousands of
hands were ready to drag it through the streets for uni-
versal inspection and outrage. A thousand sledge-ham-
mers were ready to dash it to pieces, with a slight portion,
at least, of the satisfaction with which those who wielded
them would have dealt the same blows upon the head of
the tyrant himself. It was soon reduced to a shapeless
mass. Small portions were carried away and preserved
for generations in families as heirlooms of hatred. The
bulk was melted again and reconverted, by a most natural
metamorphosis, into the cannon from which it had origi-
nally sprung.
The razing of the Antwerp citadel set an example which
was followed in other places ; the castle of Ghent, in par-
ticular, being immediately levelled, amid demonstrations
of universal enthusiasm. Meantime the correspondence
between Don John and the estates at Brussels dragged
"its slow length along," while at the same time two elab-
orate letters were addressed to the King, on the 24th of
August and the 8th of September, by the estates-general
of the Netherlands. These documents, which were long
and able, gave a vigorous representation of past evils and
of the present complication of disorders under which the
commonwealth was laboring. They asked, as usual, for
a royal remedy ; and expressed their doubts whether there
could be any sincere reconciliation so long as the present
1577] ESTRANGEMENT BETWEEN GOVERNOR AND ESTATES 523
governor, whose duplicity and insolence they represented
in a very strong light, should remain in office. Should
his Majesty, however, prefer to continue Don John in the
government, they signified their willingness, in considera-
tion of his natural good qualities, to make the best of the
matter. Should, however, the estrangement between them-
selves and the governor seem irremediable, they begged
that another and a legitimate prince of the blood might
be appointed in his place.
CHAPTER IV
THE RUWABD OF BRABANT IN BRUSSELS
WHILE these matters were in progress, an important
movement was made by the estates-general. The Prince
of Orange was formally and urgently invited to come to
Brussels to aid them with his counsel and presence. He
had not set foot in the capital for eleven years. Since
that period the representative of royalty had sued the con-
demned traitor for forgiveness. The haughty brother of
Philip had almost gone upon his knees that the Prince
might name his terms and accept the proffered hand of
majesty. The Prince had refused, not from contumely,
but from distrust. He had spurned the supplications, as
he had defied the proscription of the King. There could
be no friendship between the destroyer and the protector
of a people. Had the Prince desired only the reversal of
his death-sentence and the infinite aggrandizement of his
family, we have seen how completely he had held these
issues in his power. Never had it been more easy, plausi-
ble, tempting, for a proscribed patriot to turn his back
upon an almost sinking cause.
And now again the scene was changed. The son of the
Emperor, the King's brother, was virtually beleaguered ;
the proscribed rebel had arrived at victory through a long
series of defeats. The nation everywhere acknowledged
him master, and was in undisguised revolt against the
anointed sovereign. The great nobles who hated Philip
on the one hand, and the Reformed religion on the other,
were obliged, in obedience to the dictates of a people with
whom they had little sympathy, to accept the ascendency
of the Calvinist Prince of whom they were profoundly
.
1577] INVITATION AND REPLY 525
jealous. Even the fleeting and incapable Aerschot was
obliged to simulate adhesion ; even the brave Champagny,
cordial hater of Spaniards, but most devotedly Catholic,
was one of the commissioners to invite the great rebel
to Brussels. The other envoys were the Abbot of Saint
Gertrude, Doctor Leoninus, and the Seigneur de Liesvelt.
These gentlemen, on arriving at Gertruydenberg, presented
a brief but very important memorial to the Prince. In
that document they informed him that the states-general,
knowing how efficacious would be his presence, by reason
of his singular prudence, experience, and love for the wel-
fare and repose of the country, had unanimously united
in a supplication that he would incontinently transport
himself to the city of Brussels, there to advise with them
concerning the necessities of the land ; but as the prin-
cipal calumny employed by their adversaries was that all
the provinces and leading personages intended to change
both sovereign and religion at the instigation of his Ex-
cellency, it was desirable to disprove such fictions. They
therefore very earnestly requested the Prince to make
some contrary demonstration, by which it might be mani-
fest to all that his Excellency, together with the estates
of Holland and Zeeland, intended faithfully to keep what
they had promised. They prayed, therefore, that the
Prince, permitting the exercise of the Eoman Catholic
religion in the places which had recently accepted his
authority, would also allow its exercise in Holland and
Zeeland. They begged, further, that he would promise,
by a new and authentic act, that the provinces of Holland
and Zeeland would not suffer the said exercise to be im-
pugned, or any new worship to be introduced, in the other
provinces of the Netherlands.
This letter might almost be regarded as a trap set by
the Catholic nobles. Certainly the Ghent Pacification
forbade the Reformed religion in form, and as certainly
winked at its exercise in fact. The proof was, that the
new worship was spreading everywhere, that the exiles
for conscience' sake were returning in swarms, and that
the synod of the Reformed churches, lately held at Dort,
had been publicly attended by the ministers and deacons
526 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
of numerous Dissenting churches established in many dif-
ferent places throughout all the provinces. The pressure
of the edicts, the horror of the inquisition being removed,
the down-trodden religion had sprung from the earth more
freshly than ever.
The Prince was not likely to fall into the trap, if a trap
had really been intended. He answered the envoys loy-
ally, but with distinct reservations, and with this answer
the deputies are said to have been well pleased. If they
were so, it must be confessed that they were thankful for
small favors. They had asked to have the Catholic relig-
ion introduced into Holland and Zeeland. The Prince
had simply referred them to the estates of these provinces.
They had asked him to guarantee that the exercise of the
Eef ormed religion should not be " procured " in the rest
of the country. He had merely promised that the Catho-
lic worship should not be prevented. The difference be-
tween the terms of the request and the reply was suffi-
ciently wide.
The consent to his journey was with difficulty accorded
by the estates of Holland and Zeeland, and his wife, with
many tears and anxious forebodings, beheld him depart
for a capital where the heads of his brave and powerful
friends had fallen, and where still lurked so many of his
deadly foes. During his absence prayers were offered
daily for his safety in all the chtfrches of Holland and
Zeeland, by command of the estates.
He arrived at Antwerp on the 17th of September, and
was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. The Prince,
who had gone forth alone, without even a body-guard, had
the whole population of the great city for his buckler.
Here he spent five days, observing, with many a sigh, the
melancholy changes which had taken place in the long in-
terval of his absence. The recent traces of the horrible
Fury, the blackened walls of the Hotel de Ville, the pros-
trate ruins of the marble streets, which he had known as
the most imposing in Europe, could be hardly atoned for
in his eyes even by the more grateful spectacle of the dis-
mantled fortress.
On the 23d of September he was attended by a vast
577] THE PRINCE'S JOURNEY TO BRUSSELS
concourse of citizens to the new canal which led to Brus-
sels, where three barges were in waiting for himself and
suite. In one a banquet was spread ; in the second,
idorned with emblematic devices and draped with the
manners of the seventeen provinces, he was to perform
the brief journey ; while the third had been filled by the
inevitable rhetoric societies, with all the wonders of their
dramatic and plastic ingenuity.
The Prince was met several miles before the gates of
Brussels by a procession of nearly half the inhabitants of
the city, and, thus escorted, he entered the capital in the
afternoon of the 23d of September. It was the proudest
day of his life. The representatives of all the provinces,
supported by the most undeniable fervor of the united
Netherland people, greeted "Father William." Per-
plexed, discordant, hating, fearing, doubting, they could
believe nothing, respect nothing, love nothing, save the
"tranquil" Prince. His presence at that moment in
Brussels was the triumph of the people and of religious
toleration.
William's first act was to put a stop to the negotiations
already on foot with Don John. He intended that they
should lead to war, because peace was impossible, except
a peace for which civil and religious liberty would be bar-
tered ; for it was idle, in his opinion, to expect the mainten-
ance by the Spanish governor of the Ghent Pacification,
whatever promises might be extorted from his fears. A
deputation, in the name of the states, had already been
sent with fresh propositions to Don John, at Namur.
The envoys were Caspar Schetz and the Bishop of Bruges.
They had nearly come to an amicable convention with the
governor, the terms of which had been sent to the states-
general for approval, at the very moment of the Prince's
arrival in Brussels. Orange, with great promptness, pre-
vented the ratification of these terms, which the estates
had in reality already voted to accept. New articles were
added to those which had originally been laid before Don
John. It was now stipulated that the Ghent treaty and
the Perpetual Edict should be maintained. The governor
was required forthwith to abandon Namur Castle and to
528 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
dismiss the German troops. He was to give up the other
citadels and strong places, and to disband all the soldiers
in his service. He was to command the governors of every
province to prohibit the entrance of all foreign levies. He
was forthwith to release captives, restore confiscated prop-
erty, and reinstate officers who had been removed ; leav-
ing the details of such restorations to the council of Mech-
lin and the other provincial tribunals. He was to engage
that the Count Van Buren should be set free within two
months. He was himself, while waiting for the appoint-
ment of his successor, to take up his residence in Luxem-
burg, and while there he was to be governed entirely by
the decision of the state council, expressed by a majority
of its members. Furthermore, and as not the least sting-
ing of these sharp requisitions, the Queen of England —
she who had been the secret ally of Orange, and whose
crown the governor had meant to appropriate — was to be
included in the treaty.
It could hardly excite surprise that Don John, receiving
these insolent propositions at the very moment in which
he heard of the triumphant entrance into Brussels of the
Prince, should be filled with rage and mortification. He
could not but regard the whole proposition as an insolent
declaration of war. He was right. It was a declaration
of war ; as much so as if proclaimed by trump of herald.
How could Don John refuse the wager of battle thus
haughtily proffered ?
Smooth Schetz, Lord of Grobbendonck, and his episco-
pal colleague, in vain attempted to calm the governor's
wrath, which now flamed forth in defiance of all consid-
erations. They endeavored, without success, to palliate
the presence of Orange, and the circumstances of his re-
ception, for it was not probable that their eloquence would
bring the governor to look at the subject with their eyes.
Three days were agreed upon for the suspension of hostili-
ties, and Don John was highly indignant that the estates
would grant no longer a truce. The refusal was, how-
ever, reasonable enough on their part, for they were aware
the veteran Spaniards and Italians were constantly return-
ing to him, and that he was daily strengthening his posi-
1577] THE QUARREL DEFINED 529
tion. The envoys returned to Brussels to give an account
of the governor's rage, which they could not declare to be
unnatural, and to assist in preparations for the war which
was now deemed inevitable. Don John, leaving a strong
garrison in the citadel of Namur, from which place he de-
spatched a final communication to the estates -general,
dated the 2d of October, retired to Luxemburg. In this
letter, without exactly uttering defiance, he unequivocally
accepted the hostilities which had been pressed upon him,
and answered their hollow professions of attachment to
the Catholic religion and his Majesty's authority by de-
nouncing their obvious intentions to trample upon both.
He gave them, in short, to understand that he perceived
their intentions, and meant them to comprehend his own.
Thus the quarrel was brought to an issue, and Don John
saw with grim complacency that the pen was at last to be
superseded by the sword. A remarkable pamphlet was
now published in seven different languages — Latin, French,
Flemish, German, Italian, Spanish, and English — contain-
ing a succinct account of the proceedings between the
governor and the estates, together with copies of the in-
tercepted letters of Don John and Escovedo to the King,
to Perez, to the German colonels, and to the Empress.
This work, composed and published by order of the es-
tates-general, was transmitted with an accompanying ad-
dress to every potentate in Christendom. It was soon af-
terwards followed by a counter-statement, prepared by
order of Don John, and containing his account of the
same matters, with his recriminations against the conduct
of the estates.
Another important movement had, meanwhile, been
made by the third party in this complicated game. The
Catholic nobles, jealous of the growing influence of Orange,
and indignant at the expanding power of the people, had
opened secret negotiations with the Archduke Matthias,
then a mild, easy - tempered youth of twenty, brother of
the reigning Emperor Rudolph. After the matter had
been discussed some time in secret, it was resolved, towards
the end of September, to send a messenger to Vienna,
privately inviting the young Prince to Brussels; but, much
34
530 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
to the surprise of these nobles, it was discovered that some
fifteen or sixteen of the grandees of the land, among
them Aerschot, Havre, Champagny, De Ville, Lalain, Do
Heze, and others, had already taken the initiative in the
matter. On the 2Gth of August the Seigneur de Muul-
steede had set forth, by their appointment, for Vienna.
There is no doubt that this step originated in jealousy
felt towards Orange, but at the same time it is certain
that several of the leaders in the enterprise were still his
friends. Some, like Champagny and De Heze, were
honestly so ; others, like Aerschot, Havre, and De Ville,
always traitors in heart to the national cause, loyal to
nothing but their own advancement, were still appar-
ently upon the best terms with him. Moreover, it is
certain that he had been made aware of the scheme, at
least, before the arrival of the Archduke in the Nether-
lands, for the Marquis Havre, on his way to England as
special envoy from the estates, had a conference with him
at Gertruydenberg. This was in the middle of Septem-
ber, and before his departure for Brussels. Naturally,
the proposition seemed, at first, anything but agreeable ;
but the Marquis represented himself afterwards as having
at last induced the Prince to look upon it with more fa-
vorable eyes. Nevertheless, the step had been taken before
the consultation was held, nor was it the first time that
the advice of Orange had been asked concerning the adop-
tion of a measure after the measure had been adopted.
Whatever may have been his original sentiments upon
the subject, however, he was always less apt to complain
of irrevocable events than quick to reconcile them with
his own combinations, and it was soon to be discovered
that the new stumbling-block which his opponents had
placed in his path could be converted into an additional
stepping-stone towards his goal. Meanwhile, the secret
invitation to the Archduke was regarded by the people
and by foreign spectators as a plot devised by his enemies.
Davison, envoy from Queen Elizabeth, was then in Brus-
sels, and informed his royal mistress, whose sentiments
and sympathies were unequivocally in favor of Orange, of
the intrigues against the Prince. The efforts of England
,
,.„
ARCHDUKE MATTHIAS 531
were naturally to counteract the schemes of all who inter-
fered with his policy, the Queen especially, with her cus-
tomary sagacity, foreseeing the probable inclination of the
Catholic nobles towards the protectorate of Alenc,on.
She did not feel certain as to the precise plans of Orange,
and there was no course better adapted to draw her from
barren coquetry into positive engagements than to arouse
her jealousy of the French influence in the provinces.
At this moment she manifested the warmest friendship
for the Prince.
The Prince was well aware of the plots which were be-
ing woven against him. He had small faith in the great
nobles, whom he trusted "as he would adders fanged,"
and relied only upon the communities, upon the mass of
burghers. They deserved his confidence, and watched
over his safety with jealous care. On one occasion, when
he was engaged at the state council till a late hour, the
citizens conceived so much alarm that a large num-
ber of them spontaneously armed themselves, and re-
paired to the palace. The Prince, informed of the cir-
cumstance, threw open a window and addressed them,
thanking them for their friendship and assuring them of
his safety. They were not satisfied, however, to leave
him alone, but remained under arms below till the session
was terminated, when they escorted him with affection-
ate respect to his own hotel.
The secret envoy arrived in Vienna, and excited the
ambition of the youthful Matthias. It must be confessed
that the offer could hardly be a very tempting one, and it
excites our surprise that the Archduke should have
thought the adventure worth the seeking. A most anom-
alous position in the Netherlands was offered to him by
a slender and irresponsible faction of Netherlander.
There was a triple prospect before him : that of a hopeless
intrigue against the first .politician in Europe, a mortal
combat with the most renowned conqueror of the age, a
deadly feud with the most powerful and revengeful mon-
arch in the world. Into this threefold enterprise he was
about to plunge without any adequate resources ; for the
Archduke possessed no experience, power, or wealth.
532 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
He brought, therefore, no strength to a cause which was
itself feeble. He could hope for no protection, nor in-
spire any confidence. Nevertheless, he had courage, pli-
ability, and a turn for political adventure. Visions of
the discomfited Philip conferring the hand of his daugh-
ter, with the Netherlands as her dowry, upon the enter-
prising youth who, at this juncture, should succeed in
overturning the Spanish authority in that country, were
conjured up by those who originated the plot, and he was
weak enough to consider such absurdities plausible, and
to set forth at once to take possession of this castle in the
air.
On the evening of October 3, 1577, he retired to rest at
eight o'clock, feigning extreme drowsiness. After waiting
till his brother Maximilian, who slept in another bed in
the same chamber, was asleep, he slipped from his couch
and from the room in his night apparel, without even put-
ting on his slippers. He was soon after provided by the
companions of his flight with the disguise of a servant,
arrayed in which, with his face blackened, he made his
escape by midnight from Vienna; but it is doubtful wheth-
er Kudolph were as ignorant as he affected to be of the
scheme. The Archduke arrived at Cologne, attended only
by two gentlemen and a few servants. The governor was
beside himself with fury ; the Queen of England was in-
dignant ; the Prince only, against whom the measure was
mainly directed, preserved his usual tranquillity.
Secretary Walsingham, as soon as the news reached Eng-
land, sent for Meetkerken, colleague of Marquis Havre in
the mission from the estates. He informed that func-
tionary of the great perplexity and excitement which, ac-
cording to information received from the English resident,
Davison, were then prevailing in Brussels, on account of
the approach of the Archduke. At the conclusion of the
conference, Walsingham repeated emphatically that the
only condition upon which the Queen would continue her
succor to the Netherlands was that the Prince should be
forthwith appointed lieutenant-general for the Archduke.
Matthias was received at Antwerp by Orange at the
head of two thousand cavalry, and attended by a vast con-
1577] ADROITNESS OF THE PRINCE 533
course of inhabitants. Had the Prince chosen a contrary
course, the Archduke might have been compelled to return,
somewhat ridiculously, to Vienna ; but, at the same time,
the anger of the Emperor and of all Germany would have
been aroused against Orange and the cause he served.
Had the Prince, on the contrary, abandoned the field him-
self, and returned to Holland, he would have left the game
in the hands of his adversaries. Ever since he had made
what his brother John called that "dangerous gallows-
journey" to Brussels, his influence had been culminating
daily, and the jealousy of the great nobles rising as rapidly.
Had he now allowed himself to be driven from his post he
would have exactly fulfilled their object. By remain-
ing, he counteracted their schemes. By taking Matthias
wholly into his own possession, he obtained one piece the
more in the great game which he was playing against his
antagonist in the Escorial. By making adroit use of
events as they arose, he made the very waves which were
to sink him carry his great cause triumphantly onward.
The first result of the invitation to Matthias was the
election of Orange as Euward of Brabant. This office was
one of great historical dignity, but somewhat anomalous
in its functions. The province of Brabant, having no
special governor, was usually considered under the imme-
diate superintendence of the governor -general. As the
capital of Brabant was the residence of that functionary,
no inconvenience from this course had been felt since the
accession of the House of Burgundy. At present, how-
ever, the condition of affairs was so peculiar — the seat of
government being empty without having been permanently
vacated — that a special opportunity was offered for con-
ferring both honor and power on the Prince. A Ruward
was not exactly dictator, although his authority was uni-
versal. He was not exactly protector, nor governor, nor
stadholder. His functions were unlimited as to time — •
therefore superior to those of an ancient dictator ; they
were commonly conferred on the natural heir to the sov-
ereignty— therefore more lofty than those of ordinary
stadholders. The individuals who had previously held
the office in the Netherlands had .usually reigned after-
534 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
wards in their own right. Duke Albert, of the Bavarian
line, for example, had been Ruward of Hainault and Hol-
land for thirty years, during the insanity of his brother,
and on the death of Duke William had succeeded to his
title. Philip of Burgundy had declared himself Ruward
of Brabant in 1425, and had shortly afterwards deprived
Jacqueline of all her titles and appropriated them to him-
self. In the one case the regent, in the second case the
usurper, had become reigning prince. Thus the move-
ment of the jealous nobles against the Prince had for its
first effect his immediate appointment to an office whose
chief characteristic was that it conducted to sovereignty.
The election was accomplished thus: The "members,"
or estates of Brussels, together with the deans, guilds, and
other of the principal citizens of Antwerp, addressed a
request to the states of Brabant that William of Orange
should be appointed Ruward, and after long deliberation
the measure was carried. The unsolicited honor was then
solemnly offered to him. He refused, and was only, after
repeated and urgent entreaties, induced to accept the
office. The matter was then referred to the states-gen-
eral, who confirmed the dignity, after some demur, and
with the condition that it might be superseded by the ap-
pointment of a governor-general. He was finally confirmed
as Ruward on the 22d of October, to the boundless satis-
faction of the people, who celebrated the event by a sol-
emn holiday in Antwerp, Brussels, and other cities. His
friends, inspired by the intrigues of his enemies, had thus
elevated the Prince to almost unlimited power ;* while a
strong expression in favor of his government had been
* Mr. Motley here takes rather a mild way of describing the popular tu-
mult which raised William to this stepping-stone to sovereignty. It may be
that in this, as in his other stretches of political power, such an act belonged
to the Prince's " theory of politics " rather than in the domain of personal
ambition. Necessity was William's plea for this seizure of power, which
might be useful in checkmating the purposes of the tyrant in Madrid and
the other enemies of his country. It seems most probable that Orange him-
self was the chief instigator of this popular movement. Some moderate
historians, and not a few Belgians, honestly believe that William's craft, or
" theory of politics," was the chief cause of the failure of the union of the
seventeen Netherland provinces.
THE ARCHDUKE MATTHIAS
1577] AERSCHOT GOVERNOR OF FLANDERS 535
elicited from the most important ally of the Netherlands
— England. It soon rested with himself only to assume
the government of Flanders, having been elected stad-
holder, not once only, but many times, by the four estates
of that important province, and having as constantly re-
fused the dignity. With Holland and Zeeland devoted to
him, Brabant and Flanders formally under his government,
the Netherland capital lavishing testimonials of affection
upon him, and the mass of the people almost worshipping
him, it would not have been difficult for the Prince to play
a game as selfish as it had hitherto been close and skilful.
He might have proved to the grand seigniors that their
suspicions were just, by assuming a crown which they had
been intriguing to push from his brow. Certainly the
nobles deserved their defeat.
While these events were occurring at Brussels and Ant-
werp, a scene of a different nature was being enacted at
Ghent. The Duke of Aerschot had recently been ap-
pointed to the government of Flanders by the state coun-
cil, but the choice was exceedingly distasteful to a large
number of the inhabitants.
On the 20th of October, attended by twenty-three com-
panies of infantry and three hundred horse, he came to
Ghent. That famous place was still one of the most pow-
erful and turbulent towns in Europe. The leaders of the
popular party at Ghent believed Aerschot dangerous.
They felt certain that it was the deeply laid design of the
Catholic nobles — foiled as they had been in the objects
with which they had brought Matthias from Vienna, and
enraged as they were that the only result of that move-
ment had been to establish the power of Orange upon a
firmer basis — to set np an opposing influence in Ghent.
Flanders, in the possession of the Catholics, was to weigh
up Brabant, with its recent tendencies to toleration.
'Aerschot was to counteract the schemes of Orange. Mat-
thias was to be withdrawn from the influence of the great
heretic, and be yet compelled to play the part set down
for him by those who had placed him upon the stage.
Of all the chieftains possessing influence with the in-
habitants of Ghent, two young nobles, named Ryhove and
536 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
Imbize, were the most conspicuous. Both were of ancient
descent and broken fortunes, both were passionately at-
tached to the Prince, both were inspired with an intense
hatred for all that was Catholic or Spanish. They had
travelled further on the reforming path than many had
done in that day, and might even be called democratic in
their notions. Their heads were filled with visions of
Greece and Eome ; the praise of republics was ever on
their lips ; and they avowed to their intimate associates
that it was already feasible to compose a commonwealth
like that of the Swiss Cantons out of the seventeen Neth-
erlands. They were regarded as dreamers by some, as
desperadoes by others. Few had confidence in their ca-
pacity or their purity ; but Orange, who knew mankind,
recognized in them useful instruments for any hazardous
enterprise. They delighted in stratagems and sudden feats
of arms. Audacious and cruel by temperament, they were
ever most happy in becoming a portion of the desolation
which popular tumults engender.
There were several excited meetings of the four estates
of Flanders immediately after the arrival of the Duke of
Aerschot in Ghent. His coming had been preceded by
extensive promises, but it soon became obvious that their
fulfilment was to be indefinitely deferred. There was a
stormy session on the 27th of October, many of the clergy
and nobility being present, and comparatively few mem-
bers of the third estate.
Hessels, the old Blood-councillor, was then resident in
Ghent, where he discharged high governmental functions.
A letter from him to Count van Koeulx, late royal gover-
nor of Flanders, was at the present juncture intercepted.
Perhaps it was invented; but, genuine or fictitious, it Av
circulated extensively among the popular leaders, and had
the effect of proving Madame Hessels a true prophet.
It precipitated the revolution in Flanders, and soon after-
wards cost the councillor his life. "We have already
brought many notable magistrates of Flanders over to the
side of his Highness Don John/' wrote Hessels. " We
hope, after the Duke of Aerschot is governor, that we
shall fully carry out the intentions of his Majesty and the
1577] A PRIVATE CONFERENCE 537
plans of his Highness. We shall also know hotv to cir-
cumvent the scandalous heretic with all his adherents and
folloivers."
There was no lack of denunciation. Don John and the
Duke of Aerschot would soon bring the turbulent burgh-
ers to their senses, and there would then be an end to
this renewed clamor about musty parchments. Much in-
dignation was secretly excited in the assembly by such
menaces. Without doors the subterranean flames spread
rapidly, but no tumult occurred that night. Before the
session was over, Ryhove left the city, pretending a visit
to Tournai. No sooner had he left the gates, however,
than he turned his horse's head in the opposite direction,
and rode off post-haste to Antwerp. There he had a con-
ference with William of Orange, and painted in lively
colors the alarming position of affairs. "And what do
you mean to do in the matter ?" asked the Prince, rather
dryly. Eyhove was somewhat disconcerted. He had ex-
pected a violent explosion, well as he knew the tranquil
personage whom he was addressing. " I know no better
counsel/' he replied, at length, " than to take the Duke,
with his bishops, councillors, lords, and the whole nest of
them, by the throat, and thrust them all out together."
" Rather a desperate undertaking, however ?" said the
Prince, carelessly, but interrogatively.
"I know no other remedy," answered Ryhove; "I
would rather make the attempt, relying upon God alone,
and die like a man, if needful, than live in eternal slavery.
Like an ancient Roman," continued the young republican
noble, in somewhat bombastic vein, " I am ready to wager
my life where my fatherland's welfare is at stake."
"Bold words!" said the Prince, looking gravely at
Ryhove ; " but upon what force do you rely for your un-
dertaking ?"
" If I can obtain no assistance from your Excellency,"
was the reply, " I shall throw myself on the mass of the
citizens. I can arouse them in the name of their ancient
liberties, which must be redeemed now or never."
The Prince, believing probably that the scheme, if
scheme there were, was but a wild one, felt little inclina-
538 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
tion to compromise himself with the young conspirator.
He told him he could do nothing at present, and saying
that he must at least sleep upon the matter, dismissed
him for the night. Next morning, at daybreak, Kyhove
was again closeted with him. The Prince asked his san-
guine partisan if he were still determined to carry out
his project, with no more definite support than he had
indicated ? Kyhove assured him, in reply, that he meant
to do so, or to die in the attempt. The Prince shrugged
his shoulders, and soon afterwards seemed to fall into a
reverie. Ryhove continued talking, but it was soon obvi-
ous that his Highness was not listening, and he therefore
took his leave somewhat abruptly. Hardly had he left
the house, however, when the Prince despatched Sainte-
Aldegonde in search of him.
The effect of the conference between Sainte-Aldegonde
and Eyhove was to convince the young partisan that the
Prince would neither openly countenance his project nor
be extremely vexed should it prove successful. In short,
while, as in the case of the arrest of the state council, the
subordinates were left to appear the principals in the
transaction, the persons most intimate with William of
Orange were allowed to form satisfactory opinions as to
his wishes and to serve as instruments to his ends. " Vive
qui vince!" cried Sainte-Aldegonde encouragingly to Ry-
hove, shaking hands with him at parting. The conspira-
tor immediately mounted and rode off towards Ghent
During his absence there had been much turbulence, but
no decided outbreak, in that city. Imbize had accosted
the Duke of Aerschot in the street, and demanded when
and how he intended to proclaim the restoration of the
ancient charters. The haughty Duke had endeavored to
shake off his importunate questioner, while Imbize per-
sisted with increasing audacity, till Aerschot lost his tem-
per at last. " Charters, charters I" he cried, in a rage ;
" you shall learn soon, ye that are thus howling for char-
ters, that we have still the old means of making you dumb,
with a rope on your throats ! I tell you this — were you
ever so much hounded on by the Prince of Orange !"
The violence of the new governor excited the wrath of
•J-
•a-
5
1677] REVOLUTION AT GHENT 539
Imbize. He broke from him abruptly, and rushed to a
rendezvous of his confederates, every man of whom was
ready for a desperate venture. Groups of excited people
were seen vociferating in different places. A drum was
heard to rattle from time to time. Nevertheless, the ris-
ing tumult seemed to subside again after a season, owing
partly to the exertions of the magistrates, partly to the
absence of Ryhove. At four in the afternoon that gentle-
man entered the town, and, riding directly to the head-
quarters of the conspiracy, was incensed to hear that the
work, which had begun so bravely, had been allowed to
cool. "'Tis a time," he cried, "for vigilance. If we
sleep now, we shall be dead in our beds before morning.
Better to fan the fire which has begun to blaze in the peo-
ple's heart. Better to gather the fruit while it is ripe.
Let us go forward, each with his followers, and I pledge
myself to lead the way. Let us scuttle the old ship of
slavery ; let us hunt the Spanish inquisition, once for all,
to the hell whence it came !"
" There spoke the voice of a man !" cried the Flemish
captain Mieghem, one of the chief conspirators. " Lead
on, Ryhove. I swear to follow you as far as our legs will
carry us !" Thus encouraged, Ryhove rushed about the
city, calling upon the people everywhere to rise. They
rose almost to a man. Arming and mustering at different
points, according to previous arrangements, a vast num-
ber assembled by toll of bell, after nightfall, on the public
square, whence, under command of Ryhove, they swept to
the residence of Aerschot at Saint Bavon. The guards,
seeing the fierce mob approaching, brandishing spears and
waving torches, had scarce time to close the gates, as the
people loudly demanded entrance and the delivery to them
of the governor. Both claims were refused. "Let us
burn the birds in their nests !" cried Ryhove, without hesi-
tation. Pitch, light wood, and other combustibles, were
brought at his command, and in a few moments the palace
would have been in flames had not Aerschot, seeing that
the insurgents were in earnest, capitulated. As soon as
the gates were open, the foremost of the mob rushed upon
him and would have torn him limb from limb had not
540 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1577
Eyhovc resolutely interfered and twice protected the life
of the governor at the peril of his own. The Duke was
then made a prisoner, and, under a strong guard, was con-
veyed, still in his night - gown and barefooted, to the
mansion of Eyhove. All the other leading members of
the Catholic party were captured, the arrests proceeding
till a late hour in the night. Eassinghem, Sweveghem,
Visch, de la Porta, and other prominent members of the
Flemish estates or council were secured, but Champagny
was allowed to make his escape. The bishops of Bruges
and Ypres were less fortunate. Blood-councillor Hessels,
whose letter — genuine or counterfeited — had been so in-
strumental in hastening this outbreak, was most carefully
guarded, and to him and to Senator Visch the personal
consequences of that night's work were to be very tragic.
Thus audaciously, successfully, and hitherto without
bloodshed was the anti - Catholic revolution commenced
in Flanders. The event was the first of a long and most
signal series. The deed was done. The provisional gov-
ernment was established, at the head of which was placed
Eyhove, to whom oaths of allegiance were rendered, sub-
ject to the future arrangements of the states-general and
Orange. On the 9th of November the nobles, notables,
and community of Ghent published an address, in which
they elaborately defended the revolution which had been
effected and the arrests which had taken place ; while the
Catholic party, with Aerschot at its head, was declared to
be secretly in league with Don John to bring back the
Spanish troops, to overthrow the Prince of Orange, to de-
prive him of the protectorate of Brabant, to set at naught
the Ghent treaty, and to suppress the Eeformed religion.
The effect of this sudden rising of the popular party
was prodigious throughout the Netherlands. At the same
time, the audacity of such extreme proceedings could
hardly be countenanced by any considerable party in the
states-general. Champagny wrote to the Prince of Orange
that, even if the letter of Hessels were genuine, it proved
nothing against Aerschot, and he urged the necessity of
suppressing such scenes of license immediately, through the
influence of those who could command the passions of the
•
1577] ORANGE VISITS GHENT 541
mob. Otherwise, he affirmed that all legitimate forms of
justice would disappear, and that it would be easy to set
the bloodhounds upon any game whatever. Sainte-Alde-
gonde wrote to the Prince that it would be a great point,
but a very difficult one, to justify the Ghent transaction;
for there was little doubt that the Hessels letter was a
forgery. It was therefore as well, no doubt, that the
Prince had not decidedly committed himself to Ryhove's
plot, and thus deprived himself of the right to interfere
afterwards, according to what seemed the claims of justice
and sound policy.
He now sent Arend Van Dorp to Ghent, to remonstrate
with the leaders of the insurrection upon the violence of
their measures, and to demand the liberation of the pris-
oners— a request which was only complied with in the case
of Aerschot. That nobleman was liberated on the 14th of
November, upon condition that he would solemnly pledge
himself to forget and forgive the treatment which he had
received, but the other prisoners were retained in custody
for a much longer period. A few weeks afterwards the
Prince of Orange visited Ghent, at the earnest request of
the four estates of Flanders, and it was hoped that his
presence would contribute to the restoration of tran-
quillity.
This visit was naturally honored by a brilliant display
of "rhetorical" spectacles and tableaux vivants; for noth-
ing could exceed the passion of the Netherlander of that
century for apologues and charades.
On the 7th of December, 1577, the states-general for-
mally declared that Don John was no longer stadholder,
governor, nor captain - general, but an infractor of the
peace which he had sworn to maintain, and an enemy of
1 the fatherland. All natives of the country who should
show him favor or assistance were declared rebels and
( traitors ; and by a separate edict, issued the same day,
! it was ordained that an inventory of the estates of such
persons should forthwith be taken.
Thus the war, which had for a brief period been sus-
pended during the angry, tortuous, and hopeless nego-
tiations which succeeded the arrival of Don John, was
542 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1677
once more to be let loose. To this point had tended all
the policy of Orange — faithful as ever to the proverb with
which he had broken off the Breda conferences, "that
war was preferable to a doubtful peace." Even, however,
as his policy had pointed to a war as the necessary forerun-
ner of a solid peace with Spain, so had his efforts already
advanced the cause of internal religious concord within
the provinces themselves. On the 10th of December a new
act of union was signed at Brussels, by which those of
the Koman Church and those who had retired from that
communion bound themselves to respect and to protect
one another, with mutual guarantees against all enemies
whatsoever. Here was a step beyond the Ghent Pacifica-
tion and in the same direction. The first treaty tacitlj
introduced toleration by suppressing the right of perse
cution, but the new union placed the Eeformed religioi
on a level with the old. This was the result of tht
Prince's efforts ; and, in truth, there was no lack of eager-
ness among these professors of a faith which had been so
long under ban to take advantage of his presence. Out of
dark alleys, remote thickets, subterranean conventicles
where the Dissenters had so long been trembling for theii
lives, the oppressed now came forth into the light of daj
In truth, the time had arrived for bringing the north-
ern and southern, the Celtic and German, the Protestant
and Catholic hearts together, or else for acquiescing in
their perpetual divorce.
Thus far the Prince's object was accomplished. A
treacherous peace, which would have insured destruction,
was averted, but a new obstacle to the development of his
broad and energetic schemes arose in the intrigue which
brought the Archduke from Vienna. The cabals of
Orange's secret enemies were again thwarted with the
same adroitness to which his avowed antagonists we're
forced to succumb. Matthias was made the exponent
of the new policy, the standard-bearer of the new union
which the Prince now succeeded in establishing ; for his
next step was immediately to impress upon the provinces
which had thus united in casting down the gauntlet to
a common enemy the necessity of uniting in a permanent
of
es,
I
1578] THE NEW UNION OF BRUSSELS 543
league. One province was already lost by the fall of
Namur. The bonds of a permanent union for the other
sixteen could be constructed of but one material — relig-
ious toleration ; and for a moment the genius of Orange,
always so far beyond his age, succeeded in raising the
mass of his countrymen to the elevation upon which he
had so long stood alone.
The "new or nearer Union of Brussels" was signed on
the 10th of December, eleven months after the formation
of the first union. This was the third, and unfortunate-
ly the last, confederation of all the Netherlands.
The Prince had strengthened himself for the coming
struggle by an alliance with England. The thrifty but
politic Queen, fearing the result of the secret practices
of Alenc,on — whom Orange, as she suspected, still kept
in reserve, to be played off, in case of need, against Mat-
thias and Don John — had at last consented to a treaty of
alliance and subsidy. On the 7th of January, 1578, the
Marquis Havre, envoy from the estates, concluded an
arrangement in London by which the Queen was to lend
them her credit — in other words, to endorse their obliga-
tions to the amount of one hundred thousand pounds
sterling. The money was to be raised wherever the states
might be able to negotiate the bills, and her liability was
to cease within a year. She was likewise to be collateral-
ly secured by pledges from certain cities in the Nether-
lands. This amount was certainly not colossal, while the
conditions were sufficiently parsimonious. At the same
time, a beginning was made and the principle of subsidy
was established. The Queen, furthermore, agreed to send
five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry to the
provinces, under the command of an officer of high rank,
who was to have a seat and vote in the Netherland
council of state. These troops were to be paid by the
provinces, but furnished by the Queen. The estates were
to form no treaty without her knowledge, nor under-
take any movement of importance without her consent.
In case she should be herself attacked by any foreign
power, the provinces were to assist her to the same ex-
tent as the amount of aid now afforded to themselves ;
544 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
and in case of a naval war, with a fleet of at least forty
ships.
Within a few days after their signature of this impor-
tant treaty, the Prince had, at length, wholly succeeded in
conquering the conflicting passions in the states-general,
and in reconciling them, to a certain extent, with one
another. The closer union had been accepted, and now
thirty articles, which had been prepared under his super-
intendence, and had already, on the 17th of December,
been accepted by Matthias, were established as the funda-
mental terms according to which the Archduke was to
be received as governor -general. No power whatever
was accorded to the young man who had come so far with
eager and ambitious views. As the Prince had neither
solicited nor desired a visit, which had, on the contrary,
been the result of hostile machinations, the Archduke -
could hardly complain that the power accorded him was
but shadowy, and that his presence was rendered super-
fluous. It was not surprising that the common people
gave him the name of griffier, or registering clerk to the
Prince, for his functions were almost limited to the sign-
ing of acts which were countersigned by Orange. Ac-
cording to the stipulations of the Queen of England, anc
the views of the whole popular party, the Prince remained
Ruward of Brabant, notwithstanding the appointment
a nominal governor - general, by whom his own duties
were to be superseded.
The articles which were laid down as the basis upon
which the Archduke was to be accepted composed an
ample representative constitution, by which all the legis-
lative and many of the executive powers of government
were bestowed upon the states-general, or upon the coun-
cil by them to be elected. To avoid remaining in the
condition of a people thus left without a head, the states
declared themselves willing to accept Matthias as gov-
ernor-general, on condition of the King's subsequent ap-
probation, and upon the general basis of the Ghent treaty.
The Archduke, moreover, was to take an oath of allegiance
to the King and to the states-general at the same time.
He was to govern the land by the advice of a state conn-
1578] A FREE CONSTITUTION 545
cil, the members of which were to be appointed by the
states - general, and were "to be native Netherlander,
true patriots, and neither ambitious nor greedy."
The powers conferred upon Matthias, alone, were abso-
lutely null, while those which he might exercise in con-
junction with the state council were not much more
extensive. The actual force of the government — legisla-
tive, executive, and administrative — was lodged in the
general assembly, while no authority was left to the King
except the nominal right to approve these revolutionary
proceedings, according to the statement in the preamble.
Such a reservation in favor of his Majesty seemed a su-
perfluous sarcasm. It was furthermore resolved that the
Prince of Orange should be appointed lieutenant-general
for Matthias, and be continued in his office of Ruward.
This constitution, drawn up under the superintendence
of the Prince, had been already accepted by Matthias
while still at Antwerp, and upon the 18th of January,
1578, the ceremony of his inauguration took place.
It was the third triumphal procession which Brussels
had witnessed within nine months. It was also the most
brilliant of all ; for the burghers, as if to make amends to
the Archduke for the actual nullity to which he had been
reduced, seemed resolved to raise him to the seventh
heaven of allegory. By the " rhetorical " guilds he was re-
garded as the most brilliant constellation of virtues which
had yet shone above the Flemish horizon.
Meanwhile Don John sat chafing and almost frenzied
with rage at Narnur. Certainly he had reasons enough
for losing his temper. Never since the days of Maximil-
ian had king's brother been so bearded by rebels. The
Cross was humbled in the dust, the royal authority openly
derided, his Majesty's representative locked up in a for-
tress, while "the accursed Prince of Orange" reigned
supreme in Brussels, with an imperial Archduke for his
private secretary.
His wrath exploded in his first interview with Leyton,
the English envoy, whom Queen Elizabeth had despatched
to calm, if possible, his inevitable anger at her recent
treaty with the states. He knew nothing of England,
35
546 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
he said, nor of France, nor of the Emperor. His Catholic
Majesty had commissioned him now to make war upon
these rebellious provinces. He would do it with all his
heart. As for the Emperor, he would unchain the Turks
upon him for his perfidy. As for the burghers of Brussels,
they would soon feel his vengeance.
It was very obvious that these were not idle threats.
War had again broken loose throughout these doomed
provinces. A small but well appointed army was being
rapidly collected under the banner of Don John at Lux-
emburg, Peter Ernst van Mansfeld had brought many well-
trained troops from France, and Prince Alexander of Parma
had arrived with several choice and veteran regiments of
Italy and Spain. The old school -fellow, playmate, and
comrade of Don John was shocked on his arrival to witness
the attenuated frame and careworn features of his uncle.
On the 25th of January Don John issued a proclama-
tion, couched in three languages — French, German, and
Flemish. He declared in this document that he had not
come to enslave the provinces, but to protect them. At
the same time he meant to re-establish his Majesty's au-
thority, and the down-trodden religion of Home. He sum-
moned all citizens and all soldiers throughout the prov-
inces to join his banners, offering them pardon for their
past offences, and protection against heretics and rebels..
This declaration was the natural consequence of the ex-
change of defiances which had already taken place, and it
was evident also that the angry manifesto was soon to be
followed up by vigorous blows. The army of Don John
already numbered more than twenty thousand well -sea-
soned and disciplined veterans. He was himself the most
illustrious chieftain in Europe. He was surrounded by
lieutenants of the most brilliant reputation. Alexander
of Parma, who had fought with distinction at Lepanto,
was already recognized as possessing that signal military
genius which was soon to stamp him as the first soldier of
his age, while Mansfeld, Mondragon, Mendoza, and other
distinguished officers, who had already won so much fame
in the Netherlands, had now returned to the scene of
their former achievements.
1578] THE TWO ARMIES 547
On the other hand, the military affairs of the states
were in confusion. Troops in nearly equal numbers to
those of the royal army had been assembled, but the chief
offices had been bestowed, by a mistaken policy, upon the
great nobles. Already the jealousy of Orange, enter-
tained by their whole order, was painfully apparent.
Notwithstanding the signal popularity which had made
his appointment as lieutenant-general inevitable, it was
not easy for him always to vindicate his authority over
captious and rival magnates.
The two armies had been mustered in the latter days of
January. The Pope had issued a bull for the benefit of
Don John, precisely similar to those formerly employed
in the Crusades against the Saracens. Authority was
given him to levy contributions upon ecclesiastical prop-
erty, while full absolution, at the hour of death, for all
crimes committed during a whole lifetime, was proclaimed
to those who should now join the standard of the Cross.
There was at least no concealment. The Crescent-wear-
ing Zeelanders had been taken at their word, and the
whole nation of Netherlander were formally banned as
unbelievers. The forces of Don John were mustered at
Marche in Luxemburg ; those of the states on a plain
within a few miles of Namur. Both, armies were nearly
equal in number, amounting to nearly twenty thousand
each, including a force of two thousand cavalry on each,
side. It had been the original intention of the patriots to
attack Don John in Namur. Having learned, however,
that he purposed marching forth himself to* offer battle,
they decided to fall back upon Gembloux, which was
nine miles distant from that city. On the last day of
January, they accordingly broke up their camp at Saint
Martius, before dawn, and marched towards Gembloux.
It was a march to ruin.
A sudden proposal of Parma, to attack the patriot army
while it was unsteadily making its way along the edge
of a miry ravine, was successfully executed. Assaulted
in flank and rear at the same moment, and already in tem-
porary confusion, the cavalry of the Netherlanders turned
their backs and fled. The centre of the states' army,
548
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1578
thus left exposed, was now warmly attacked by Parma.
It had, moreover, been already thrown into disorder by the
retreat of its own horsemen, as they charged through the
infantry in rapid and disgraceful panic. The whole army
broke to pieces at once, and so great was the trepidation
that the conquered troops had hardly courage to run
away. They were utterly incapable of combat. Not a
blow was struck by the fugitives. Hardly a man in the
Spanish ranks was wounded; while, in the course of an hour
and a half, the whole force of the enemy was exterminat-
ed. It is impossible to state with accuracy the exact
numbers slain. Some accounts speak of ten thousand
killed or captive, with absolutely no loss on the royal
side. It is, at any rate, certain that the whole states'
army was annihilated. Rarely had a more brilliant exploit
been performed by a handful of cavalry.
Everything belonging to the enemy fell into the hands
of the Spaniards. Thirty -four standards, many field-
pieces, much camp equipage, and ammunition, besides
some seven or eight thousand dead bodies and six hun-
dred living prisoners, were the spoils of that winter day.
Of the captives, some were soon afterwards hurled off the
bridge at Namur and drowned like dogs in the Meuse,
while the rest were all hanged, none escaping with life.
Don John's clemency was not superior to that of his san-
guinary predecessors.
CHAPTER V
INACTIVE ARMIES — PATRIOTIC AMSTERDAM
DON JOHN, having thus vindicated his own military
fame and the amazing superiority of Spanish arms, fol-
lowed up his victory by the rapid reduction of many towns
of second-rate importance. Louvain, Nevele, Tirlemont,
Aerschot, Bouvignes, Sichem, 'Nivelles, Kceulx, Soignies,
Binche, Beaumont, Walcourt, Maubeuge, and Chimay,
either submitted to their conqueror or were taken after
short sieges. The usual atrocities were inflicted upon
tho unfortunate inhabitants of towns where resistance
was attempted. The commandant of Sichem was hanged
out of his own window along with several chief burghers
and officers, while the garrison was put to the sword and
the bodies cast into the Demer. The only crime com-
mitted by these unfortunates was to have ventured a blow
or two in behalf of the firesides which they were employed
to protect.
In Brussels, on the other hand, there was less conster-
nation excited by these events than boundless rage against
the aristocratic party, for the defeat of Gembloux was
attributed, with justice, to the intrigues and the incapac-
ity of the Catholic magnates. It was with difficulty that
Orange, going about by night from house to house, from
street to street, succeeded in calming the indignation of
the people, and in preventing them from sweeping in a
mass to the residence of the leading nobles in order to
inflict summary vengeance on the traitors. All looked to
the Prince as their only saviour, not a thought nor a word
being wasted upon Matthias. Not a voice was raised in
the assembly to vindicate the secret proceedings of the
Catholic party, nor to oppose the measures which the
550 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
Prince might suggest. The terrible disaster had taught
the necessity of union. All parties heartily joined in the
necessary steps to place the capital in a state of complete
defence, and to assemble forthwith new troops to take
the place of the army just annihilated. The victor gained
nothing by his victory in comparison with the profit ac-
quired by the states through their common misfortune.
Nor were all the towns which had recently fallen into the
hands of Don John at all comparable in importance to the
city of Amsterdam, which now, by a most timely arrange-
ment, furnished a rich compensation to the national party
for the disaster of Grembloux.
Since the conclusion of the Ghent Pacification it had
been the most earnest wish of the Prince, and of Holland
and Zeeland, to recover possession of this most important
city. The wish was naturally shared by every true patriot
in the states-general. It had, however, been extremely
difficult to arrange the terms of the " Satisfaction." Every
fresh attempt at an amicable compromise was wrecked
upon the obstinate bigotry of the leading civic authori-
ties. They would make no agreement to accept the au-
thority of Orange except, as Sainte-Aldegonde expressed
himself, upon terms which would enable them " to gov-
ern their governor." The influence of the monks, whc
were resident in large numbers within the city, and ol
the magistrates, who were all stanch Catholics, had beer
hitherto sufficient to outweigh the efforts made by the
large masses of the Reformed religionists composing the
bulk of the population. It was, however, impossible to
allow Amsterdam to remain in this isolated and hostile
attitude to the rest of Holland. The Prince, having
promised to use no coercion, and loyally adhering to hh
pledge, had only with extreme difficulty restrained the
violence of the Hollanders and Zeelanders, who were de-
termined, by fair means or foul, to restore the capital
city to its natural place within his stadholderate. He
had been obliged, on various occasions, particularly on
the 21st of October of the preceding year, to address a
most decided and peremptory letter to the estates of
Holland and Zeeland, forbidding the employment of hos-
1578] THE AMSTERDAM SATISFACTION 551
tile measures against Amsterdam. His commands had
been reluctantly, partially, and only temporarily obeyed.
The states desisted from their scheme of reducing the
city by famine, but they did not the less encourage the
secret and unofficial expeditions which were daily set on
foot to accomplish the annexation by a sudden enterprise.
Late in November a desperate attempt had been made
by Colonel Helling, in conjunction with Governor Sonoy,
to carry the city by surprise. The force which the ad-
venturer collected for the purpose was inadequate, and
his plans were unskilfully arranged. He was himself
slain in the streets, at the very commencement of the
action ; whereupon, in the quaint language of the con-
temporary chronicler, " the hearts of his soldiers sank in
their shoes/' and they evacuated the city with much
greater rapidity than they had entered it. The Prince
was indignant at these violent measures, which retarded
rather than advanced the desired consummation. At the
same time it was an evil of immense magnitude — this
anomalous condition of his capital. Ceaseless schemes
were concerted by the municipal and clerical conspirators
within its walls, and various attempts were known, at dif-
ferent times, to have been contemplated by Don John
to inflict a home-thrust upon the provinces of Holland
and Zeeland at the most vulnerable and vital point. The
"Satisfaction" accepted by Utrecht in the autumn of
1577 had, however, paved the way for the recovery of
Amsterdam ; so that upon the 8th of February, 1578, cer-
tain deputies from Utrecht succeeded at last in arranging
terms which were accepted by the sister city. The basis
of the treaty was, as usual, the nominal supremacy of the
Catholic religion, with toleration for the Reformed wor-
ship. The necessary effect would be, as in Haarlem,
Utrecht, and other places, to establish the new religion
upon an entire equality with the old. It was arranged
that no congregations were to be disturbed in their relig-
ious exercises in the places respectively assigned to them.
Those of the Reformed faith were to celebrate their wor-
ship without the walls. They were, however, to enjoy
the right of burying their dead within these precincts,
552 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
and it is singular how mnch importance was attached at
that day to a custom at which the common sentiment and
the common - sense of modern times revolt. " To bury
our dead within our own cities is a right hardly to be
denied to a dog/' said the Prince of Orange ; and accord-
ingly this right was amply secured by the new "Satisfac-
tion " of Amsterdam. It was, however, stipulated that the
funerals should be modest, and attended by no more than
twenty-four persons at once. The treaty was hailed with
boundless joy in Holland and Zeeland, while countless
benedictions were invoked upon the "blessed peace-
makers" as the Utrecht deputies walked through the
streets of Amsterdam. There is no doubt that the triumph
thus achieved by the national party far counterbalanced
the governor-general's victory at G-embloux.
Meantime the Seigneur de Selles, brother of the
ceased Noircarmes, had arrived from Spain. He was the
special bearer of a letter from the King to the states-gen-
eral, written in reply to their communications of the 24th
of August and 8th of September of the previous year.
The tone of the royal despatch was very affectionate, the
substance such as entirely to justify the whole policy of
Orange. The Prince knew — what no man else appeared
fully to comprehend at that epoch — that the mortal com-
bat between the inquisition and the Reformation was al
ready fully engaged. The great battle between divin
reason and right divine, on which the interests of unborn
generations were hanging, was to be fought out before
the eyes of all Christendom on the plain of the Nether-
lands.
Orange was willing to lay down his arms if he could
receive security for the Reformed worship. He had no
desire to exterminate the ancient religion, but he meant
also to protect the new against extermination. Such
security, he felt, would never be granted, and he had
therefore resolutely refused to hearken to Don John, for
he was sure that peace with him was impossible. The
letters now produced by De Selles confirmed his positions
completely. The King said not a word concerning the
appointment of a new governor-general, but boldly insist-
1578] MILITARY PREPARATIONS 553
ed upon the necessity of maintaining the two cardinal
points — his royal supremacy and the Catholic religion —
upon the basis adopted by his father, the Emperor Charles
the Fifth. This was the whole substance of his commu-
nication— the supremacy of royalty and of papacy as in the
time of Charles the Fifth.
That there might be no mistake about the matter, Don
John, immediately after receiving the letter, issued a
proclamation to enforce the King's command. He men-
tioned it as an acknowledged fact that the states-general
had long ago sworn the maintenance of the two points,
of royal and Catholic supremacy, according to the prac-
tice under the Emperor Charles. The states instantly
published an indignant rejoinder, affirming the indispu-
table truth that they had sworn to the maintenance of the
Ghent Pacification, and proclaiming the assertion of Don
John an infamous falsehood.
Meantime the preparations for active hostilities were
proceeding daily. Troops were rapidly enrolled, and again,
by the same honest but mistaken policy, the chief offices
were conferred upon the great nobles — Aerschot, Cham-
pagny, Bossu, Egmont, Lalain,theViscount of Ghent, Baron
de Ville, and many others, most of whom were to desert
the cause in the hour of its need. On the other hand,
Don John was proceeding with his military preparations
upon an extensive scale. The King had recently furnished
him with one million nine hundred thousand dollars, and
had promised to provide him with two hundred thou-
sand more monthly. With these funds his Majesty esti-
mated that an army of thirty thousand foot, sixteen thou-
sand cavalry, and thirty pieces of artillery could be levied
and kept on foot. If more remittances should prove to
be necessary, it was promised that they should be forth-
coming.
In Amsterdam, William Bardes, son of a former high-
sheriff, a warm partisan of Orange and of the "religion/'
had already determined to overthrow the Catholic magis-
tracy and to expel the friars who infested the city. The
recent information despatched by Sainte-Aldegonde from
Germany confirmed him in his purpose. There had
554 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1518
been much wrangling between the popish functionaries
and those of the Reformed religion concerning the consti-
tution of the burgher guard. The Calvinists could feel
no security for their own lives or the repose of the com-
monwealth of Holland unless they were themselves al-
lowed a full participation in the government of those
important bands. They were, moreover, dissatisfied with
the assignment which had been made of the church-yards
to the members of their communion. These causes of
discord had maintained a general irritation among the
body of the inhabitants, and were now used as pretexts by
Bardes for his design. He knew the city to be ripe for
the overthrow of the magistracy, and he had arranged
with Governor Sonoy to be furnished with a sufficient
number of well-tried soldiers, who were to be concealed
in the houses of the confederates. A large number of
citizens were also ready to appear at his bidding with
arms in their hands.
On the 24th of May he wrote to Sonoy, begging him to
hold himself in readiness, as all was prepared within the
city. At the same time he requested the governor to
send him forthwith a " morion and a buckler of proof,"
for he intended to see the matter fairly through. Sonoy
answered encouragingly, and sent him the armor as di-
rected. On the 28th of May, Bardes, with four confed-
erates, went to the council-room to remonstrate with the
senate concerning the grievances which had been so often
discussed. At about mid-day one of the confederates,
upon leaving the council-room, stepped out for a moment
upon the balcony, which looked towards the public square.
Standing there for a moment, he gravely removed his hat,
and then as gravely replaced it upon his head. This was
a preconcerted signal. At the next instant a sailor was
seen to rush across the square, waving a flag in both hands.
" All ye who love the Prince of Orange take heart and
follow me I" he shouted. In a moment the square was
alive. Soldiers and armed citizens suddenly sprang forth,
as if from the bowels of the earth. Bardes led a strong
force directly into the council-chamber and arrested every
one of the astonished magistrates. At the same time his
1578] SPREAD OF THE NEW RELIGION 555
confederates had scoured the town and taken every friar
in the city into custody, but no harm was done their per-
sons. The Catholic magistrates and friars escaped with
their fright. They were simply turned out of town, put
on board ship, and forbidden, for their lives, ever to come
back again. After the vessel had proceeded a little dis-
tance from the city they were all landed high and dry
upon a dike, and so left unharmed within the open
country.
A new board of magistrates, of which stout William
Bardes was one, was soon appointed ; the train-bands were
reorganized, and the churches thrown open to the Keformed
worship — to the exclusion, at first, of the Catholics.
This was certainly contrary to the Ghent treaty, and to
the recent Satisfaction ; it was also highly repugnant to
the opinions of Orange. After a short time, accordingly,
the Catholics were again allowed access to the churches,
but the tables had now been turned forever in the cap-
ital of Holland, and the Reformation was an established
fact throughout that little province. Similar events oc-
curring upon the following day at Haarlem — accompanied
with some bloodshed, for which, however, the perpetrator
was punished with death — opened the great church of
that city to the Reformed congregations, and closed It for
a time to the Catholics.
Thus the cause of the new religion was triumphant in
Holland and Zeeland, while it was advancing with rapid
strides through the other provinces. Public preaching
was of daily occurrence everywhere. On a single Sun-
day, fifteen different ministers of the Reformed religion
preached in different places in Antwerp. " Do you think
this can be put down ?" said Orange to the remonstrating
burgomaster of that city. " -'Tis for you to repress it,"
said the functionary ; "I grant your Highness full power
to do so." "And do you think," replied the Prince,
"that I can do at this late moment what the Duke of
Alva was unable to accomplish in the very plenitude of
his power ?"
At the same time, the Prince of Orange was more than
ever disposed to rebuke his own Church for practising
556 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
persecution in her turn. Again lie lifted his command-
ing voice in behalf of the Anabaptists of Middelburg.
He reminded the magistrates of that city that these peace-
ful burghers were always perfectly willing to bear their
part in the common burdens, that their word was as good
as their oath, and that as to the matter of military service,
although their principles forbade them to bear arms, they
had ever been ready to provide and pay for substitutes.
" We declare to you, therefore," said he, " that you have
no right to trouble yourselves with any man's conscience,
so long as nothing is done to cause private harm or public
scandal. We, therefore, expressly ordain that you desist
from molesting these Baptists, from offering binderance to
their handicraft and daily trade, by which they can earn
bread for their wives and children, and that you permit
them henceforth to open their shops and to do their
work, according to the custom of former days. Beware,
therefore, of disobedience and of resistance to the ordi-
nance which we now establish."
Meantime, the armies on both sides had been assem-
bled, and had been moving towards each other. Don
John was at the head of nearly thirty thousand troops, in-
cluding a large proportion of Spanish and Italian veter-
ans. The states' army hardly numbered eighteen thou-
sand foot and two thousand cavalry, under the famous
Francois de la Noue, surnamed Bras de Per, who had
been recently appointed marechal de camp, and, under
Count Bossu, commander-in-chief. The muster-place of
the provincial forces was in the plains between Heren-
thals and Lier. At this point they expected to be rein-
forced by Duke Casimir, who had been, since the early
part of the summer, in the country of Zutphen, but who
was still remaining there inglorious and inactive, until he
could be furnished with the requisite advance-money to
his troops.
Don John was determined, if possible, to defeat the
states' army before Duke Casimir, with his twelve thou-
sand Germans, should effect his juncture with Bossu.
The governor, therefore, crossed the Demer, near Aer-
schot, towards the efid. of July, and offered battle, day
1578] JOHN CASIM1R 557
after day, to the enemy. A series of indecisive skirmishes
was the result, in the last of which, near Eijmenant, on.
the first day of August, the royalists were worsted and
obliged to retire after a desultory action of nearly eight
hours, leaving a thousand dead upon the field. Don John,
finding it impossible to accomplish his purpose, and to
achieve another Gembloux victory, fell back again to the
neighborhood of Namur.
The states' forces remained waiting for the long-prom-
ised succor of John Casimir. It was the 26th of August,
however, before the Duke led his twelve thousand men to
the neighborhood of Mechlin, where Bossu was encamped.
This young prince possessed neither the ability nor the
generosity which were requisite for the heroic part which
he was ambitious to perform. He was thrust, head and
shoulders as it were, into the entangled affairs of the
Netherlander, and it was Elizabeth of England, more than
ever alarmed at the schemes of Alenqon, who had pushed
forward this Protestant champion, notwithstanding the
disinclination of Orange.
The Queen was right in her uneasiness respecting the
French prince. The Catholic nobles, relying upon the
strong feeling still rife throughout the Walloon country
against Eeformed religion, and inflamed more than ever
by their repugnance to Orange, whose genius threw them
so completely into the shade, had already drawn closer to
the Duke. The same influences were at work to intro-
duce Alenqon which had formerly been employed to
bring Matthias from Vienna. Now that the Archduke,
who was to have been the rival, had become the depend-
ent of William, they turned their attention to the son of
Catharine de Medici, Orange himself having always kept
the Duke in reserve, as an instrument to overcome the
political coquetry of Elizabeth. With the perverseness
which was the chief blot upon her character, she was
pleased that the Duke should be still a dangler for her
hand, even while she was intriguing against his political
hopes. She listened with undisguised rapture to his pro-
posals of love, while she was secretly thwarting the plans
of his ambition.
558 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
Meanwhile, Alenc.on had arrived at Mons, and we have
already seen the feminine adroitness with which his sister
of Navarre had prepared his entrance. Not in vain had
she cajoled the commandant of Cambrai citadel ; not idly
had she led captive the hearts of Lalain and his Countess,
thus securing the important province of Haiuault for the
Duke. Don John might, indeed, gnash his teeth with
rage, as he marked the result of all the feasting and flat-
tery, the piping and dancing at Namur.
Francis, Duke of Alen9on and — since the accession of
his brother Henry to the French throne — Duke of Anjou,
was, upon the whole, the most despicable personage who
had ever entered the Netherlands. His previous career at
home had been so flagrantly false that he had forfeited the
esteem of every honest man in Europe, Catholic or Lu-
theran, Huguenot or Malcontent. Reeking with the blood
of the Protestants of Issoire, he was now at leisure to re-
new his dalliance with the Queen of Protestant England,
and to resume his correspondence with the great chieftain
of the Reformation in the Netherlands.
It is perhaps an impeachment upon the perspicacity of
Orange that he could tolerate this mischievous and worth-
less " son of France/* even for the grave reasons which in-
fluenced him. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that
he only intended to keep him in reserve, for the purpose
of irritating the jealousy and quickening the friendship of
the English Queen. Those who see anything tortuous in
such politics must beware of judging the intriguing age
of Philip and Catharine de Medici by the higher standard
of later, and possibly more candid, times. It would have
been puerile for a man of "William the Silent's resources
to allow himself to be outwitted by the intrigues of all the
courts and cabinets in Europe. Under these circum-
stances, as the Prince could no longer exclude Alenc,on
from the country, it became necessary to accept his friend-
ship and to hold him in control. The Duke had formally
offered his assistance to the states-general, directly after
the defeat of Gembloux, and early in July had made his
appearance in Mons. Hence he despatched his envoys,
Des Pruneaux and Rochefort, to deal with the states-gen-
1678] DISCONTENT OF ELIZABETH 559
eral and with Orange, while he treated Matthias with con-
tempt, and declared that he had no intention to negotiate
with him.
The French King was naturally supposed to be privy to
his brother's schemes, for it was thought ridiculous to
suggest that Henry's own troops could be led by his own
brother, on this foreign expedition, without Ins conni-
vance. At the same time, private letters, written by him
at this epoch, expressed disapprobation of the schemes of
Alenqon and jealousy of his aggrandizement. It was,
perhaps, difficult to decide as to the precise views of a
monarch who was too weak to form opinions for himself,
and too false to maintain those with which he had been
furnished by others.
The Queen of England was highly incensed by the act-
ual occurrence of the invasion which she had so long
dreaded. She was loud in her denunciations of the dan-
ger and dishonor which would be the result to the prov-
inces of this French alliance. She threatened not only to
withdraw herself from their cause, but even to take arms
against a commonwealth which had dared to accept Alen-
con for its master. She had originally agreed to furnish
one hundred thousand pounds by way of loan, This as-
sistance had been afterwards commuted into a levy of
three thousand foot and two thousand horse, to be added
to the forces of John Casimir, and to be placed under his
command. It had been stipulated also that the Palatine
should have the rank and pay of an English general-in-
chief, and be considered as the Queen's lieutenant. The
money had been furnished and the troops enrolled. So
much had been already bestowed, and could not be re-
called, but it was not probable that, in her present humor,
the Queen would be induced to add to her favors. The
Prince, obliged by the necessity of the case, had prescribed
the terms and the title under which Alencon should be
accepted. Upon the 13th of August the Duke's envoy
concluded a convention in twenty -three articles, which
were afterwards subscribed by the Duke himself, at Mons,
upon the 20th of the same month.
These articles were certainly drawn up with skill. A
560 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
high-sounding but barren title, which gratified the Duke's
vanity and signified nothing, had been conferred upon
him, while at the same time he was forbidden to make
conquests or contracts, and was obliged to submit himself
to the civil government of the country : in short, he was
to obey the Prince of Orange in all things — and so here
was another plot of the Prince's enemies neutralized.
Thus, for the present at least, had the position of Anjou
been defined.
As the month of August, during which it was agreed
that negotiations with the governor-general should remain
open, had already half expired, certain articles, drawn up
by the states-general, were at once laid before Don John.
Lord Cobham and Sir Francis Walsingham were then in
the Netherlands, having been sent by Elizabeth for the
purpose of effecting a pacification of the estates with the
governor, if possible. After a conference, on the 24th of
August, 1578, Walsingham and Cobham addressed a let-
ter to the states-general, deploring the disingenuous and
procrastinating conduct of the governor, and begging that
the failure to effect a pacification might not be imputed to
them. They then returned to England.
The imperial envoy, Count Schwartzburg, at whose ur-
gent solicitation this renewed attempt at a composition
had been made, was most desirous that the governor should
accept the articles. They formed, indeed, the basis of a
liberal, constitutional, representative government, in which
the Spanish monarch was to retain only a strictly limited
sovereignty. The proposed convention required Don John,
with all his troops and adherents, forthwith to leave the
land, after giving up all strongholds and cities in his pos-
session. It provided that the Archduke Matthias should
remain as governor-general, under the conditions accord-
ing to wliicli he had been originally accepted. It left the
question of religions worship to the decision of the states-
general. It provided for the release of all prisoners, the
return of all exiles, the restoration of all confiscated prop-
erty. It stipulated that upon the death or departure of
Matthias, his Majesty was not to appoint a governor-gen-
eral without the consent of the states-general.
1578] POSITION OF DON JOHN 561
When Count Schwartzburg waited npon the governor
with these astonishing propositions — which Walsingham
might well call somewhat hard — he found him less dis-
posed to explode with wrath than he had been in previous
conferences. Already the spirit of the impetuous young
soldier was broken, both by the ill health which was rap-
idly undermining his constitution and by the helpless con-
dition in which he had been left while contending with the
great rebellion.
Being in so desponding a mood, he declined entering
into any controversy with regard to the new propositions,
which, however, he characterized as most iniquitous. He
stated merely that his Majesty had determined to refer the
Netherland matters to the arbitration of the Emperor; that
the Duke de Terra Nova would soon be empowered to treat
upon the subject at the imperial court ; and that, in the
mean time, he was himself most anxiously awaiting his
recall.
A synod of the Keformed churches had been held during
the month of June at Dort. There they had laid down a
platform of their principles of church government in one
hundred and one articles. In the same month the leading
members of the Reformed Church had drawn up an ably
reasoned address to Matthias and the council of state on
the subject of a general peace of religion for the provinces.
William of Orange did his utmost to improve the oppor-
tunity. He sketched a system of provisional toleration,
which he caused to be signed by the Archduke Matthias,
and which, at least for a season, was to establish religious
freedom. The brave, tranquil, solitary man stilt held his
track across the raging waves, shedding as much light as
one clear human soul could dispense ; yet the dim lantern,
so far in advance, was swallowed in the mist ere those
who sailed in his wake could shape their course by his ex-
ample. No man understood him. Not even his nearest
friends comprehended his views, nor saw that he strove
to establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for
conscience. Sainte-Aldegonde complained that the Prince
would not persecute the Anabaptists. Peter Dathenus
denounced him as an atheist, while even Count John, the
36
562 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
only one left of his valiant and generous brothers, opposed
the religious peace — except where the advantage was on
the side of the new religion. Where the Catholics had
been effectually put down, as in Holland and Zeeland,
honest John saw no reason for allowing them to lift them-
selves up again. In the popish provinces, on the other
hand, he was for a religious peace. In this bigoted spirit
he was followed by too many of the Reforming mass, while,
on their part, the "Walloons were already banding them-
selves together in the more southern provinces, under the
name of Malcontents. Stigmatized by the Calvinists as
" Pater-noster Jacks," they were daily drawing closer their
alliance with Alen9on, and weakening the bonds which
united them with their Protestant brethren. Count John
had at length become a permanent functionary in the
Netherlands. Urgently solicited by the leaders and the
great multitude of the Reformers, he had long been un-
willing to abandon his home and to neglect the private
affairs which his devotion to the Netherlaud cause had
thrown into great confusion. Count John had accepted
the office of governor of Gelderland, to which he had been
elected by the estates of that province on the llth of
March. That important bulwark of Holland, Zeelancl,
and Utrecht on the one side, and of Groningen and Fries-
land on the other — the main buttress, in short, of the
nascent republic, was now in hands which would defend
it to the last.
As soon as the discussion came up in the states-general
on the subject of the Dort petitions, Orange requested that
every member who had formed his opinions should express
them fully and frankly. The result was a projected con-
vention, a draft for a religious peace, which, if definitely
established, would have healed many wounds and averted
much calamity. It was not, however, destined to be ac-
cepted at that time by the states of the different provinces
where it was brought up for discussion ; and several
changes were made, both of form and substance, before
the system was adopted at all. Meantime, for the impor-
tant city of Antwerp, where religious broils were again on
the point of breaking out, the Prince preferred a pro-
1578] PROJECT OF RELIGIOUS PEACE 563
visional arrangement, which he forthwith carried into
execution.
This example of religions peace, together with the ac-
tive correspondence thus occasioned with the different
state assemblies, excited the jealousy of the Catholic
leaders and of the Walloon population. Champagny, who,
despite his admirable qualities and brilliant services, was
still unable to place himself on the same platform of tol-
eration with Orange, now undertook a decided movement
against the policy of the Prince. Catholic to the core, he
drew up a petition, remonstrating most vigorously against
the draft for a religious peace then in circulation through
the provinces. This petition to which he procured many
signatures among the more ardent Catholic nobles, was
carried with considerable solemnity by Champagny, at-
tended by many of his confederates, to the Hotel de
Ville, and presented to the magistracy of Brussels.
Unfortunately, the mob outside the City Hall misun-
derstood the purport of the petition. It was easily rep-
resented to the inflamed imaginations of the populace
that a Brussels Saint Bartholomew had been organized,
and that Champagny, who stood there before them, was
its originator and manager. This was the mischievous in-
tention ascribed to a petition which Champagny and his
friends had as much right to oifer — however narrow and
mistaken their opinions might now be considered — as had
the synod of Dort to present their remonstrances. Never
was a more malignant or more stupid perversion of a sim-
ple and not very alarming phrase. No allusion had been
made to the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, but all its
horrors were supposed to be concealed in the sentence
which referred to Paris. The nobles were arrested on the
spot and hurried to prison, with the exception of Cham-
pagny, who made his escape at first, and lay concealed
for several days. He was, however, finally ferreted out of
his hiding-place and carried off to Ghent. There he was
thrown into strict confinement, being treated in all re-
spects as the accomplice of Aerschot and the other nobles
who had been arrested in the time of Ryhove's revolu-
tion. In these vieAvs the people were entirely wrong.
564 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
While these events were taking place in Brussels and
Antwerp, the two armies of the states and of Don John
were indolently watching each other. The sinews of war
had been cut upon both sides. Both parties were cramped
by the most abject poverty. The troops under Bossu and
Casimir, in the camp near Mechlin, were already discon-
tented for want of pay. The one hundred thousand
pounds of Elizabeth had already been spent, and it was
not probable that the offended Queen would soon furnish
another subsidy. The states could with difficulty extort
anything like the assessed quotas from the different prov-
inces. The Duke of Alenqon was still at Mons, from
which place he had issued a violent proclamation of war
against Don John — a manifesto which had, however, not
been followed up by very vigorous demonstrations. Don
John himself was in his fortified camp at Bouge, within a
league of Nanmr, but the hero was consuming with men-
tal and with bodily fever. He was, as it were, besieged.
He was left entirely without funds, while his royal brother
obstinately refused compliance with his earnest demands
to be recalled, and coldly neglected his importunities for
pecuniary assistance.
He wrote to the King, stating that he was confined to
his chamber with a fever, by which he was already as
much reduced as if he had been ill for a month. " I as-
sure your Majesty," said he, "that the work here is
enough to destroy any constitution and any life." He re-
minded Philip how often he had been warned by him as
to the insidious practices of the French. Those prophe-
cies had now become facts. The French had entered the
country while some of the inhabitants were frightened,
others disaffected. He felt deeply pained, he said, at be-
ing disgraced and abandoned by the King, having served
him, both as a brother and a man, with love and faith
and heartiness. The pest was ravaging his little army.
Twelve hundred were now in hospital, besides those
nursed in private houses, and he had no means or money
to remedy the evil.
Since the assassination of Escovedo, a consuming mel-
ancholy had settled upon his spirits, and a burning fever
1678] DEATH OF DON JOHN 565
came in the month of September to destroy his physical
strength. The house where he lay was a hovel, the only
chamber of which had long been used as a pigeon-house.
This wretched garret was cleansed as well as it could be
of its filth and hung with tapestry emblazoned with ar-
morial bearings. In that dove-cot the hero of Lepanto
was destined to expire. During the last few days of his
illness he was delirious. Tossing upon his uneasy couch,
he again arranged in imagination the combinations of
great battles, again shouted his orders to rushing squad-
rons, and listened with brightening eye to the trumpet of
victory. Reason returned, however, before the hour of
death, and permitted him the opportunity to make the
dispositions rendered necessary by his condition. He ap-
pointed his nephew, Alexander of Parma, who had been
watching assiduously over his death-bed, to succeed him,
provisionally, in the command of the army and in his
other dignities, received the last sacraments with com-
posure, and tranquilly breathed his last upon the first day
of October, the month which, since the battle of Lepanto,
he had always considered a festive and fortunate one.
The body, when opened that it might be embalmed, was
supposed to offer evidence of poison. The heart was dry,
the other internal organs were likewise so desiccated as to
crumble when touched, and the general color of the inte-
rior was of a blackish brown, as if it had been singed. Va-
rious persons were mentioned as the probable criminals ;
various motives assigned for the commission of the deed.
Nevertheless, it must be admitted that there were causes,
which were undisputed, for his death, sufficient to render
a search for the more mysterious ones comparatively su-
perfluous. A disorder called the pest was raging in his
camp, and had carried off a thousand of his soldiers within
a few days, while his mental sufferings had been acute
enough to turn his heart to ashes. Disappointed, tor-
mented by friend and foe, suspected, insulted, broken-
spirited, it was not strange that he should prove an easy
victim to a pestilent disorder before which many stronger
men were daily falling.
It had been Don John's dying request to Philip that his
566 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
remains might be buried in the Escorial by the side of his
imperial father, and the prayer being granted, the royal
order in due time arrived for the transportation of the
corpse to Spain. Permission had been asked and given
for the passage of a small number of Spanish troops through
France. The thrifty King had, however, made no allu-
sion to the fact that those soldiers were to bear with them
the mortal remains of Lepanto's hero, for he was disposed
to save the expense which a public transportation of the
body and the exchange of pompous courtesies with the
authorities of every town upon the long journey would
occasion. The corpse was accordingly divided into three
parts, and packed in three separate bags ; and thus — the
different portions, to save weighty being suspended at th
saddle-bows of different troopers — the body of the conquer
or was conveyed to its distant resting-place. Thus irrev-
erently, almost blasphemously, the disjointed relics of
the great warrior were hurried through France — France,
which the romantic Saracen slave had traversed but two
short years before filled with high hopes and pursu-
ing extravagant visions. It has been recorded by classl
historians that the different fragments, after their arriv
in Spain, were reunited, and fastened together with wire
that the body was then stuffed, attired in magnificen
habiliments, placed upon its feet, and supported by a
martial staff, and that thus prepared for a royal interview,
the mortal remains of Don John were presented to his
Most Catholic Majesty. Philip is said to have manifested
emotion at sight of the hideous spectre — for hideous and
spectral, despite of jewels, balsams, and brocades, must
have been that unburied corpse, aping life in attitude and
vestment, but standing there only to assert its privilege of
descending into the tomb. The claim was granted, aud
Don John of Austria at last found repose by the side of his
imperial father.
A sufficient estimate of his character has been apparent
in the course of the narrative. Dying before he had quite
completed his thirty-third year, he excites pity and ad-
miration almost as much as censure. His military career
was a blaze of glory. Commanding in the Moorish wars
LAST OF THE CRUSADERS
567
at twenty-three, and in the Turkish campaigns at twenty-
six, he had achieved a matchless renown before he had
emerged from early youth ; but his sun was destined to go
down at noon. He found neither splendor nor power in
the Netherlands, where he was deserted by his King and
crushed by the superior genius of the Prince of Orange.
Although he vindicated his martial skill at Gembloux,
the victory was fruitless. It was but the solitary spring
of the tiger from his jungle, and after that striking con-
flict his life was ended in darkness and obscurity. Pos-
sessing military genius of a high order, with extraordinary
personal bravery, he was the last of the Paladins and the
Crusaders.
part m
ALEXANDER OF PARMA
1578-1584-
CHAPTER I
THE RECONCILED PROVINCES — THE UNION OF UTRECHT
A FIFTH governor now stood in the place which had
been successively vacated by Margaret of Parma, by Alva,
by the Grand Commander, and by Don John of Austria.
Of all the eminent personages to whom Philip had con-
fided the reins of that most difficult and dangerous admin-
istration, the man who was now to rule was by far the
ablest and the best fitted for his post.
He was now in his thirty-third year — his uncle Don
John, his cousin Don Carlos, and himself, having all been
born within a few months of each other. His father Was
Ottavio Farnese, the faithful lieutenant of Charles the
Fifth, and grandson of Pope Paul the Third ; his mother
was Margaret of Parma, first Eegent of the Netherlands
after the departure of Philip from the provinces. His
education had been completed at Alcala, and at Madrid,
under the immediate supervision of his royal uncle, and
in the companionship of the Infant Carlos and the brill-
iant Don John. At the age of twenty he had been affi-
anced to Maria of Portugal, daughter of Prince Edward,
granddaughter of King Emanu'el, and his nuptials with
that peerless princess were celebrated soon afterwards with
much pomp in Brussels. Sons and daughters were born to
him in due time, during his subsequent residence in Par-
ma. Here, however, the fiery and impatient spirit of the
future illustrious commander was doomed for a tinie to
fret under restraint and to corrode in distasteful repose.
At last the Holy League was formed, the new and last
Crusade proclaimed, his uncle and bosom friend appointed
to the command of the united troops of Rome, Spain, and
572 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
Venice. Alexander Farnese could no longer be restrained.
Disdaining the pleadings of his mother and of his spouse,
he extorted permission from Philip, and flew to the seat
of war in the Levant. Placed in command of several
Genoese galleys at the battle of Lepanto, he performed a
most brilliant exploit of personal daring, capturing Mus-
tapha Bey's treasure-ship. After a few years of peaceful
life, Philip sent him to the Netherlands.
He reached Luxemburg on the 18th of December, 1577,
in time to participate, and in fact to take the lead, in
the signal victory of Gembloux. He was struck with
the fatal change which disappointment and anxiety had
wrought upon the beautiful and haughty features of his
illustrious kinsman. He closed his eyes in the camp, and
erected a marble tablet over his heart in the little church.
He now governed in his stead.
His personal appearance corresponded with his char-
acter. He had the head of a gladiator — round, compact,
combative, with something alert and snake -like in its
movements. The black, closely shorn hair was erect and
bristling. The forehead was lofty and narrow. The
features were handsome, the nose regularly aquiline, the
eyes well opened, dark, piercing, but with something
dangerous and sinister in their expression. There was
an habitual look askance, as of a man seeking to parry
or inflict a mortal blow — the look of a swordsman anc
professional fighter. The lower part of the face \vs
swallowed in a bushy beard, the mouth and chin being
quite invisible. He was of middle stature, well formed
and graceful in person, princely in demeanor, sumptuous
and stately in apparel. His high ruff of point -lace, his
badge of the Golden Fleece, his gold-inlaid Milan armor,
marked him at once as one of high degree. On the field
of battle he possessed the rare gift of inspiring his sol-
diers with his own impetuous and chivalrous courage.
He ever led the way upon the most dangerous and des-
perate ventures, and, like his uncle and his imperial
grandfather, well knew how to reward the devotion of
his readiest followers with a poniard, a feather, a ribbon,
a jewel, taken with his own hands from his own attire.
1578] CHARACTERISTICS OF ALEXANDER OF PARMA 573
His military abilities — now for the first time to be
largely called into employment — were unquestionably su-
perior to those of Don John, whose name had been sur-
rounded with such splendor by the world-renowned battle
of Lepanto. Moreover, he possessed far greater power
for governing men, whether in camp or cabinet. Less
attractive and fascinating, he was more commanding than
his kinsman. He had a single and concentrated kind of
character. He knew precisely the work which Philip re-
quired, and felt himself to be precisely the workman that
had so long been wanted. Cool, incisive, fearless, artful,
he united the unscrupulous audacity of a condottiere with
the wily patience of a Jesuit. He could coil unperceived
through unsuspected paths, could strike suddenly, sting
mortally. He came prepared, not only to smite the
Netherlanders in the open field, but to cope with them
in tortuous policy — to outwatch and outweary them in
the game to which his impatient predecessor had fallen
a baffled victim. He possessed the art and the patience
— as time was to prove — not only to undermine their most
impregnable cities, but to delve below the intrigues of
their most accomplished politicians.
As for religion, Alexander Farnese was, of course,
strictly Catholic, regarding all seceders from Eomanism
as mere heathen dogs. Not that he practically troubled
himself much with sacred matters — for, during the life-
time of his wife, he had cavalierly thrown the whole
burden of his personal salvation upon her saintly shoul-
ders. Romanism was the creed of his caste. It was the
religion of princes and gentlemen of high degree. As for
Lutheranism, Zwinglism, Calvinism, and similar systems,
they were but the fantastic rites of weavers, brewers, and
the like — an ignoble herd, whose presumption in entitling
themselves Christian, while rejecting the Pope, called for
their instant extermination. His personal habits were
extremely temperate. He was accustomed to say that he
ate only to support life ; and he rarely finished a dinner
without having risen three or four times from table to
attend to some public business which, in his opinion,
ought not to be deferred.
574 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
His previous connections in the Netherlands were of use
to him, and he knew how to turn them to immediate ac-
count. The great nobles, who had been uniformly actu-
ated by jealousy of the Prince of Orange, who had been
baffled in their intrigue with Matthias, whose half-blown
designs upon Anjou had already been nipped in the bud,
were now peculiarly in a position to listen to the wily
.tongue of Alexander Farnese. The Montignys, the La
Mottes, the Meluns, the Egmonts, the Aerschots, the
Havre's, foiled and doubly foiled in all their small in-
trigues and their base ambition, were ready to sacrifice
their country to the man they hated, and to the ancient
religion which they thought that they loved. The Mal-
contents ravaging the land of Hainault and threatening
Ghent, the " Pater-noster Jacks" who were only waiting
for a favorable opportunity and a good bargain to make
their peace with Spain, were the very instruments which
Parma most desired to use at this opening stage of his
career. The position of affairs was far more favorable
for him than it had been for Don John when the latter
first succeeded to power. On the whole, there seemed a
bright prospect of success.
It was at Ghent that the opening scenes in Parma's
administration took place. Of the high-born suitors for
the Netherland bride, two were still watching each other
with jealous eyes. Anjou was at Mons, which city he had
secretly, but unsuccessfully attempted to master for his
own purposes. John Casimir was at Ghent, fomenting an
insurrection which he had neither skill to guide nor in-
telligence to comprehend. There was a talk of making
him Count of Flanders, and his paltry ambition was daz-
zled by the glittering prize. Anjou — disgusted with the
temporary favor accorded to Casimir, a rival whom he
affected to despise — disbanded his troops in dudgeon, and
prepared to retire to France. Several thousand of these
mercenaries took service immediately with the Malcon-
tents under Montigny, thus swelling the ranks of the
deadliest foes to that land over which Anjou had assumed
the title of protector. The states' army, meanwhile, had
been rapidly dissolving. There were hardly men enough
ALEXANDER FARNESE, DUKE OF PARMA
1578] GHENT 575
left to make a demonstration in the field or properly to
garrison the more important towns. The unhappy prov-
inces, torn by civil and religious dissensions, were over-
run by hordes of unpaid soldiers of all nations, creeds,
and tongues — Spaniards, Italians, Burgundians, Walloons,
Germans, Scotch, and English ; some who came to attack
and others to protect, but who all achieved nothing, and
agreed in nothing, save to maltreat and to outrage the
defenceless peasantry and denizens of the smaller towns.
The contemporary chronicles are full of harrowing domes-
tic tragedies in which the actors are always the insolent
foreign soldiery and their desperate victims.
Ghent was now the focus of discord, the centre whence
radiated not the light and warmth of reasonable and
intelligent liberty, but the bale-fires of murderous li-
cense and savage anarchy.* The second city of the
Netherlands, one of the wealthiest and most powerful
cities of Christendom, it had been its fate so often to
overstep the bounds of reason and moderation in its de-
votion to freedom, so often to incur ignominious chastise-
ment from power which its own excesses had made more
powerful, that its name was already becoming a byword.
It now, most fatally and forever, was to misunderstand
its true position. The Prince of Orange, the great archi-
tect of his country's fortunes, would have made it the
keystone of the arch which he was laboring to construct.
Had he been allowed to perfect his plan, the structure
might have endured for ages, a perpetual bulwark against
* The ultra-Calvinistic Protestants burned at the stake, after torture,
four Minor Friars and two Augustinian fathers at Ghent, and two Minor
Friars at Bruges, during the violence described further on. In Ghent this
imitation of the acts of the inquisition took place on the very spot in the
Friday Market where the Duke of Alva had held his autos-da-fe, and where
first stood the statue of Charles the Fifth (pulled down by the French repub-
licans in 1794), but which is now occupied by the bronze effigy of the great
people's leader, Jacques Van Artevelde. The turbulence of these Prot-
estant fanatics made a union of all the Netherlands impossible. A
monument in honor of the Pacification of Ghent was unveiled, with an ap-
propriate historical address by Professor Paul Frederick, September 3, 1876,
on the three hundredth anniversary of the signing of that famous instru-
ment.
576 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
tyranny and wrong. The temporary and slender frame
by which the great artist had supported his arch while
still unfinished was plucked away by rude and ribald
hands ; the keystone plunged into the abyss, to be lost
forever, and the great work of Orange remained a frag-
ment from its commencement.
The grass was growing and the cattle were grazing in
the streets of Ghent, where once the tramp of workmen
going to and from their labor was like the movement
of a mighty army. The great majority of the burghers
were of the Reformed religion, and disposed to make
effectual resistance to the Malcontents, led by the dis-
affected nobles. The city, considering itself the natural
head of all the southern country, was indignant that the
AValloon provinces should dare to reassert that supremacy
of Romanism which had been so effectually suppressed, am
to admit the possibility of friendly relations with a sov-
ereign who had been virtually disowned. There were two
parties, however, in Ghent. Both were led by men of
abandoned and dangerous character. Imbize, the worse
of the two demagogues, was inconstant, cruel, cowardly,
and treacherous, but possessed of eloquence and a talent
for intrigue. Ryhove was a bolder ruffian — wrathful,
bitter, and unscrupulous. Imbize was at the time oj
posed to Orange, disliking his moderation, and trembling
at his firmness. Ryhove considered himself the frienc
of the Prince. "We have seen that he had consulted hii
previously to his memorable attack upon Aerschot, in
the autumn of the preceding year, and we know the re-
sult of that conference.
The Prince, with the slight dissimulation which be-
longed less to his character than to his theory of politics,
and which was perhaps not to be avoided in that age of
intrigue by any man who would govern his fellow-men,
whether for good or evil, had winked at a project which
he would not openly approve. He was not thoroughly
acquainted, however, with the desperate character of the
man, for he would have scorned an instrument so thor-
oughly base as Ryhove subsequently proved. The vio-
lence of that personage on the occasion of the arrest of
1678] FATE OF V1SCH AND HESSELS 577
Aerschot and his colleagues was mildness compared with
the deed with which he now disgraced the cause of free-
dom. He had been ordered out from Ghent to oppose
a force of Malcontents which was gathering in the neigh-
borhood of Courtray; but he swore that he would not
leave the gates so long as two of the gentlemen whom he
had arrested on the 28th of the previous October, and who
yet remained in captivity, were still alive. These were ex-
Procurator Visch and Blood-councillor Hessels. On the
fourth day of the same month in 1578, these two aged
prisoners were taken out of the city and forthwith hanged
on a tree without the least pretence of trial, or even sen-
tence.
Such was the end of Hessels, the famous councillor who
had been wont to shout " ad patibulum " in his sleep. It
was cruel that the fair face of civil liberty, showing itself
after years of total eclipse, should be insulted by such
bloody deeds on the part of her votaries. It was sad that
the crimes of men like Imbize and Ryhove should have
cost more to the cause of religious and political free-
dom than the lives of twenty thousand such ruffians were
worth. But for the influence of demagogues like these,
counteracting the lofty efforts and pure life of Orange, the
separation might never have occurred between the two
portions of the Netherlands. The Prince had not power
enough, however, nor the nascent commonwealth sufficient
consistency, to repress the disorganizing tendency of a
fanatical Romanism on the one side and a retaliatory and
cruel ochlocracy on the other.
Such events, with the hatred growing daily more in-
tense between the Walloons arid the Ghenters, made it
highly important that some kind of an accord should be
concluded, if possible. In the country, the Malcontents,
under pretence of protecting the Catholic clergy, were
daily abusing and plundering the people, while in Ghent
the clergy were maltreated, the cloisters pillaged, under
the pretence of maintaining liberty. In this emergency
the eyes of all honest men turned naturally to Orange.
Deputies went to and fro between Antwerp and Ghent.
Three points were laid down by the Prince as indispensa-
37
578 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
ble to any arrangement — first, that the Catholic clergy
should be allowed the free use of their property ; second-
ly, that they should not be disturbed in the exercise of
their religion ; thirdly, that the gentlemen kept in prison
since the memorable 28th of October should be released.
In a considerably modified form these terms were ac-
cepted and a formal act of acceptance signed at Antwerp
on the 3d of November, 1578. The Prince of Orange,
Davison,* the envoy of Queen Elizabeth, and delegates
from the states-general and the city of Brussels also urged,
in various interviews, the faithful execution of the act of
acceptance.
Yet even while they were reasoning, a fresh tumult oc-
curred at Ghent. The people had been inflamed by dema-
gogues, and by the insane howlings of Peter Dathenus,
the unfrocked monk of Poperingen, who had been the ser-
vant and minister both of the Pope and of Orange, and
who now hated each with equal fervor. The populace,
under these influences, rose in its wrath upon the Catho-
lics, smote all their images into fragments, destroyed all
their altar pictures, robbed them of much valuable prop-
erty, and turned all the papists themselves out of the
city. The riot was so furious that it seemed, says a
chronicler, as if all the inhabitants had gone raving mad.
The drums beat the alarm, the magistrates went forth to
expostulate, but no commands were heeded till the work
of destruction had been accomplished, when the tumult
expired at last by its own limitation.
Affairs seemed more threatening than ever. Nothing
more excited the indignation of the Prince of Orange than
such senseless iconomachy. In fact, he had at one time
procured an enactment by the Ghent authorities, making
it a crime punishable with death. Therefore it may be
well supposed that this fresh act of senseless violence, in
the very teeth of his remonstrances, in the very presence
* Davison had lived long in Antwerp and was ail officer in the English
church there, afterwards visiting The Hague, with his page, William Brew-
ster, who led the Pilgrim Fathers to America. The earlier years of Eng-
lish relations with Antwerp, 1558 - 1567, have been ably treated in Dr.
Hajo Brugraan's England en de Nederlanden, Groningen, 1892.
1578] DIFFICULTIES SMOOTHED 579
of his envoys, met with his stern disapprobation. He was
on the point of publishing his defence against the calum-
nies which his toleration had drawn upon him from both
Catholic and Calvinist. He was deeply revolving the
question whether it were not better to turn his back at
once upon a country which seemed so incapable of com-
prehending his high purposes or seconding his virtuous
efforts. From both projects he was dissuaded ; and al-
though bitterly wronged by both friend and foe, although
feeling that even in his own Holland there were whispers
against his purity, since his favorable inclinations towards
Anjou had become the general topic, yet he still preserved
his majestic tranquillity, and smiled at the arrows which
fell harmless at his feet.
The Prince had that year been chosen unanimously by
the four •" members " of Flanders to be governor of that
province, but had again declined the office. The inhabi-
tants, notwithstanding the furious transactions at Ghent,
professed attachment to his person and respect for his
authority. He was implored to go to the city. His pres-
ence, and that alone, would restore the burghers to their
reason, but the task was not a grateful one. It was also
not unattended with danger. Nevertheless, on the 4th
of December, the Prince came to Ghent. He held con-
stant and anxious conferences with the magistrates. He
was closeted daily with John Casimir, whose vanity and ex-
travagance of temper he managed with his usual skill. He
even dined with Imbize, and thus, by smoothing diffi-
culties and reconciling angry passions, he succeeded at
last in obtaining the consent of all to a religious peace,
which was published on the 37th of December, 1578. It
contained the same provisions as those of the project
prepared and proposed during the previous summer
throughout the Netherlands. Exercise of both religions
was established ; mutual insults and irritations — whether
by word, book, picture, song, or gesture — were prohibited,
under severe penalties, while all persons were sworn to
protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life.
The Catholics, by virtue of this accord, re-entered into
possession of their churches and cloisters, but nothing
580 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
could be obtained in favor of the imprisoned gentle-
men.
The Walloons and Malcontents were now summoned to
lay down their arms ; but, as might be supposed, they
expressed dissatisfaction with the religious peace, pro-
claiming it hostile to the Ghent treaty and the Brussels
union. In short, nothing would satisfy them but total
suppression of the Reformed religion, as nothing would
content Imbize and his faction but the absolute extermi-
nation of Romanism. A strong man might well seem
powerless in the midst of such obstinate and worthless
fanatics.
It was some relief to the situation when John Casimir
took himself out of the Netherlands into Germany, whence
he paid a visit to Britain. There he was feasted, flat-
tered, and Gartered by the coquette who occupied Eng-
land's throne. The unpaid mercenaries soon after marched
homeward into Germany. Casimir received the news of
the departure of his ragged soldiery on the very day
which witnessed his investment with the Garter by the
fair hands of Elizabeth herself. A few days afterwards
he left England, accompanied by an escort of lords and
gentlemen, especially appointed for that purpose by the
Queen. He landed in Flushing, where he was received
with distinguished hospitality, by order of the Prince of
Orange, and on the 14th of February, 1579, he passed
through Utrecht.
The Duke of Anjou, meantime, after disbanding his
troops, had lingered for a while near the frontier. Upon
taking his final departure, he sent his resident minister,
Des Pruneaux, with a long communication to the states-
general, complaining that they had not published their
contract with himself, nor fulfilled its conditions. He
excused, as well as he could, the awkward fact that his
disbanded troops had taken refuge with the Walloons,
and he affected to place his own departure upon the
ground of urgent political business in France, to arrange
which his royal brother had required his immediate at-
tendance. He furthermore most hypocritically expressed
a desire for a speedy reconciliation of the provinces with
1578] ADIEUX OF ANJOU 581
their sovereign, and a resolution that — although for their
sake he had made himself a foe to his Catholic Majesty —
he would still interpose no obstacle to so desirable a result.
To such shallow discourse the states answered with in-
finite urbanity,, for it was the determination of Orange
not to make enemies,, at that juncture, of France and
England in the same breath. They had foes enough al-
ready, and it seemed obvious at that moment, to all per-
sons most observant of the course of affairs, that a matri-
monial alliance was soon to unite the two crowns. The
probability of Anjou's marriage with Elizabeth was, in
truth, a leading motive with Orange for his close alliance
with the Duke. The political structure, according to
which he had selected the French Prince as protector of
the Netherlands, was sagaciously planned, but unfortu-
nately its foundation was the shifting sand-bank of female
and royal coquetry.
The estates addressed elaborate apologies and unlimited
professions to the Duke. They thanked him heartily for
his achievements, expressed unbounded regret at his de-
parture, with sincere hopes for his speedy return, and
promised " eternal remembrance of his heroic virtues/'
They assured him, moreover, that should the 1st of the
following March arrive without bringing with it an hon-
orable peace with his Catholic Majesty, they should then
feel themselves compelled to declare that the King had
forfeited his right to the sovereignty of these provinces.
In this case they concluded that, as the inhabitants would
be then absolved from their allegiance to the Spanish
monarch, it would then be in their power to treat with
his Highness of Anjou concerning the sovereignty, ac-
cording to the contract already existing.
These assurances were ample, but the states, knowing
the vanity of the man, off ered ' other inducements, some
of which seemed sufficiently puerile. They promised that
"his statue, in copper, should be placed in the public
squares of Antwerp and Brussels, for the eternal admira-
tion of posterity," and that a "crown of olive -leaves
should be presented to him every year." The Duke —
not inexorable to such courteous solicitations — was willing
582 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1578
to achieve both immortality and power by continuing his
friendly relations with the states, and he answered ac-
cordingly in the most courteous terms.
The personal courage and profound military science of
Parma were invaluable to the royal cause ; but his subtle,
unscrupulous, and subterranean combinations of policy
were even more fruitful at this period. No man ever
understood the art of bribery more thoroughly or prac-
tised it more skilfully. He bought a politician, or a gen-
eral, or a grandee, or a regiment of infantry, usually at
the cheapest price at which those articles could be pur-
chased, and always with the utmost delicacy with which
such traffic could be conducted. Men conveyed them-
selves to government for a definite price — fixed accu-
rately in florins and groats, in places and pensions — while
a decent gossamer of conventional phraseology was ever
allowed to float over the nakedness of unblushing treason.
Men high in station, illustrious by ancestry, brilliant in
valor, huckstered themselves, and swindled a confiding
country for as ignoble motives as ever led counterfeiters
or bravoes to the gallows, but they were dealt with in
public as if actuated only by the loftiest principles. Be-
hind their ancient shields, ostentatiously emblazoned with
fidelity to Church and King, they thrust forth their itch-
ing palms with the mendacity which would be hardly
credible, were it not attested by the monuments, more
perennial than brass, of their own letters and recorded
conversations.
One striking example is seen in the treason by which
the Walloon provinces were won over to Spain. John
Sarrasin, a monk, in Artois, was Parma's tool, and Gos-
son, a Catholic advocate in Arras, was the champion of
law and freedom. The partisans of Parma and of Orange
were active, and many dramatic scenes occurred during the
revolution and counter-revolution called "The Troubles
of Arras." Bribery and treason won the day. Gosson was
beheaded October 25, 1578. Sarrasin became Archbishop
of Cambrai, and some of the nobles received due reward
from Madrid.
This municipal revolution and counter-revolution in
1578] REMONSTRANCES 583
Arras was the last blow struck for freedom in the Walloon
country. The failure of the movement made that scis-
sion of the Netherlands certain, which has endured till
our days, for the influence of the ecclesiastics in the
states of Artois and Hainault, together with the military
power of the Malcontent grandees, whom Parma and John
Sarrasin had purchased, could no longer be resisted. The
liberty of the Celtic provinces was sold, and a few high-
born traitors received the price. The private treaty, by
which the Walloon provinces of Artois, Hainault, Lille,
Douai, and Orchies united themselves in a separate league,
was signed upon the 6th of January, 1579, but the final
arrangements for the reconciliation of the Malcontent
nobles and their soldiers were not completed until the
Gth of April, upon which day a secret paper was signed at
Mount Saint Eloi.
The states-general and the whole national party regard-
ed, with prophetic dismay, the approaching dismember-
ment of their common country. They sent deputation
after deputation to the Walloon states to warn them of
their danger, and to avert, if possible, the fatal measure.
Meantime, as by the already accomplished movement the
"generality" was fast disappearing, and was indeed but
the shadow of its former self, it seemed necessary to make
a vigorous effort to restore something like unity to the
struggling country. The Ghent Pacification had been
their outer wall, ample enough and strong enough to in-
close and to protect all the provinces. Treachery and
religious fanaticism had undermined the bulwark almost
as soon as reared. The whole beleaguered country was
in danger of becoming utterly exposed to a foe who grew
daily more threatening. As in besieged cities a sudden
breastwork is thrown up internally when the outward de-
fences are crumbling, so the energy of Orange had been
silently preparing the Union of Utrecht as a temporary
defence, until the foe should be beaten back and there
should be time to decide on their future course of action.
During the whole month of December an active corre-
spondence had been carried on by the Prince and his
brother John with various agents in Gelderland, Fries-
584 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
land, and Groningen, as well as with influential personages
in the more central provinces and cities. Gelderlaud,
the natural bulwark to Holland and Zeeland, commanding
the four great rivers of the country, had been fortunately
placed under the government of the trusty John of Nas-
sau, that province being warmly in favor of a closer
union with its sister provinces, and particularly with
those more nearly allied to itself in religion and in lan-
guage.
Already, in December (1578), Count John, in behalf
of his brother, had laid before the states of Holland and
Zeeland, assembled at Gorcum, the project of a new union
with " Gelderland, Ghent, Friesland, Utrecht, Overyssel,
and Groningen." The proposition had been favorably
entertained, and commissioners had been appointed to
confer with other commissioners at Utrecht, whenever
they should be summoned by Count John. The Prince,
with the silence and caution which belonged to his whole
policy, chose not to be the ostensible mover in the plan
himself. He did not choose to startle unnecessarily the
Archduke Matthias — the cipher who had been placed by
his side, whose sudden subtraction would occasion more
loss than his presence had conferred benefit. He did not
choose to be cried out upon as infringing the Ghent Pac-
ification, although the whole world knew that treaty to
be hopelessly annulled. For these and many other weighty
motives he proposed that the new Union should be the
apparent work of other hands, and only offered to him
and to the country when nearly completed.
After various preliminary meetings in December and
January, the deputies of Gelderland and Zutphen, with
Count John, stadholder of these provinces, at their head,
met with the deputies of Holland, Zeeland, and the prov-
inces between the Ems and the Lauwer Zee, early in Jan-
uary, 1579, and on the 23d of that month, without wait-
ing longer for the deputies of the other provinces, they
agreed provisionally upon a treaty of union, which was
published afterwards, on the 29th, from the Town-house
of Utrecht.
This memorable document — which is ever regarded as
1679] THE UNION OF UTRECHT 585
the foundation of the Netherland Kepublic — contained
twenty-six articles. *
The preamble stated the object of the union. It was to
strengthen, not to forsake, the Ghent Pacification, already
nearly annihilated by the force of foreign soldiery. For
this purpose, and in order more conveniently to defend
themselves against their foes, the deputies of Gelderland,
Zutphen, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and the Frisian prov-
inces thought it desirable to form a still closer union. The
contracting provinces agreed to remain eternally united,
as if they were but one province. At the same time, it was
understood that each was to retain its particular privi-
leges, liberties, laudable and traditionary customs, and
other laws. The cities, corporations, and inhabitants of
every province were to be guaranteed as to their ancient
constitutions. Disputes concerning these various statutes
and customs were to be decided by the usual tribunals, by
" good men," or by amicable compromise. The provinces,
by virtue of the union, were to defend one another " with
life, goods, and blood " against all force brought against
them in the King's name or behalf. They were also to
defend one another against all foreign or domestic po-
tentates, provinces, or cities, provided such defence were
controlled by the "generality" of the union. For the
expense occasioned by the protection of the provinces, cer-
tain imposts and excises were to be equally assessed and
collected. No truce or peace was to be concluded, no
war commenced, no impost established affecting the "gen-
erality," but by unanimous advice and consent of the
provinces. Upon other matters the majority was to de-
cide, the votes being taken in the manner then custom-
ary in the assembly of states-general. In case of difficulty
in coming to a unanimous vote when required, the matter
* In his John of Barneveld Mr. Motley refers frequently to the Union
of Utrecht, which for over two centuries, until the fall of the Republic in
1795, was the supreme law of the land, and the basis of the Dutch confed-
eracy of states. The native literature of comment, criticism, and explana-
tion is quite large, the chief writers being Paulus and Klint. See also a
paper on " The Union of Utrecht," by Mrs. L. M. Salmon, in the " Annual
Report of the American Historical Association for 1893."
586 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
was to be referred to the stadholders then in office. In
case of their inability to agree, they were to appoint arbi-
trators, by whose decision the parties were to be governed.
None of the united provinces, or of their cities or corpo-
rations, was to make treaties with other potentates or
states without consent of its confederates. If neigh-
boring princes, provinces, or cities wished to enter into
this confederacy, they were to be received by the unani-
mous consent of the united provinces. A common cur-
rency was to be established for the confederacy.
In the matter of divine worship, Holland and Zeeland
were to conduct themselves as they should think proper.
The other provinces of the union, however, were either to
conform to the religious peace already laid down by Arch-
duke Matthias and his council, or to make such other ar-
rangements as each province should for itself consider ap-
propriate for the maintenance of its internal tranquillity —
provided always that every individual should remain free
in his religion, and that no man should be molested or
questioned on the subject of divine worship, as had been
already established by the Ghent Pacification. As a cer-
tain dispute arose concerning the meaning of this impor-
tant clause, an additional paragraph was inserted a few
days afterwards. In this it was stated that there was no
intention of excluding from the confederacy any province
or city which was wholly Catholic, or in which the number
of the Reformed was not sufficiently large to entitle them,
by the religious peace, to public worship. On the con-
trary, the intention was to admit them, provided they
obeyed the articles of union, and conducted themselves as
good patriots ; it being intended that no province or city
should interfere with another in the matter of divine ser-
vice. Disputes between two provinces were to be decided
by the others, or — in case the generality were concerned—
by the provisions of the ninth article.
The confederates were to assemble at Utrecht whenever
summoned by those commissioned for that purpose. A
majority of votes was to decide on matters then brought
before them, even in case of the absence of some mem-
bers of the confederacy, who might, however, send written
1579] THE DOCUMENT SIGNED 587
proxies. Additions or amendments to these articles could
only be made by unanimous consent. The articles were
to be signed by the stadholders, magistrates, and principal
officers of each province and city, and by all the train-
bands, fraternities, and sodalities which might exist in the
cities or villages of the union.
Such were the simple provisions of that instrument
which became the foundation of the powerful Common-
wealth of the United Netherlands. On the day when it
was concluded there were present deputies from five prov-
inces only. Count John of Nassau signed first, as stad-
holder of Gelderland and Zutphen. His signature was
followed by those of four deputies from that double prov-
ince ; and the envoys of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and
the Frisian provinces then signed the document.
The Prince himself, although in reality the principal
director of the movement, delayed appending his signa-
ture until the 3d of May, 1579. Herein he was actuated by
the reasons already stated, and by the hope which he still
entertained that a wider union might be established, with
Matthias for its nominal chief. His enemies, as usual,
attributed this patriotic delay to baser motives. They ac-
cused him of a desire to assume the governor-generalship
himself, to the exclusion of the Archduke — an insinuation
which the states of Holland took occasion formally to de-
nounce as a calumny. For those who have studied the
character and history of the man, a defence against such
slander is superfluous. Matthias was but the shadow,
Orange the substance. The Archduke had been accepted
only to obviate the evil effects of a political intrigue, and
with the express condition that the Prince should be his
lieutenant-general in name, his master in fact. Directly
after his departure in the following year, the Prince's au-
thority, which nominally departed also, was re-established
in his own person, and by express act of the states-general.
The Union of Utrecht was the foundation-stone of the
Netherland Eepublic ; but the framers of the confederacy
did not intend the establishment of a republic, or of an
independent commonwealth of any kind. They had not
forsworn the Spanish monarch. It was not yet their in-
588 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
tention to forswear him. Certainly the act of union con-
tained no allusion to such an important step. On the
contrary, in the brief preamble they expressly stated their
intention to strengthen the Ghent Pacification, and the
Ghent Pacification acknowledged obedience to the King.
They intended no political innovation of any kind. They
expressly accepted matters as they were. All statutes,
charters, and privileges of provinces, cities, or corpora-
tions were to remain untouched. They intended to form
neither an independent state nor an independent federal
system. No doubt the formal renunciation of allegiance,
which was to follow within two years, was contemplated
by many as a future probability, but it could not be fore-
seen with certainty.
The simple act of union was not regarded as the con-
stitution of a commonwealth. Its object was a single one
— defence against a foreign oppressor. The contracting
parties bound themselves together to spend all their treas-
ure and all their blood in expelling the foreign soldiery
from their soil. To accomplish this purpose, they care-
fully abstained from intermeddling with internal politics
and with religion. Every man was to worship God ac-
cording to the dictates of his conscience. Every combi-
nation of citizens, from the provincial states down to the
humblest " rhetoric " club, was to retain its ancient con-
stitution.
The establishment of a Republic, which lasted two cen-
turies, which threw a girdle of rich dependencies entirely
round the globe, and which attained so remarkable a
height of commercial prosperity and political influence,
was the result of the Utrecht Union, but it was not a
premeditated result. A state, single towards the rest of
the world, a unit in its external relations, while permit-
ting internally a variety of sovereignties and institutions
— in many respects the prototype of our own much more
extensive and powerful union — was destined to spring
from the act thus signed by the envoys of five provinces.
Those envoys were acting, however, under the pressure
of extreme necessity, and for what was believed au eva-
nescent purpose.
1579] THE ACT CHARACTERIZED 589
The future confederacy was not to resemble the system
of the German Empire, for it was to acknowledge no single
head. It was to differ from the Achsean League in the
far inferior amount of power which it permitted to its
general assembly, and in the consequently greater pro-
portion of sovereign attributes which were retained by
the individual states. It was, on the other hand, to fur-
nish a closer and more intimate bond than that of the
Swiss Confederacy, which was only a union for defence
and external purposes, of cantons otherwise independent.
It was, finally, to differ from the American federal com-
monwealth in the great feature that it was to be merely
a confederacy of sovereignties, not a representative re-
public. Its foundation was a compact, not a constitution.
The contracting parties were states and corporations, who
considered themselves as representing small nationalities
de jure et de facto, and as succeeding to the supreme
power at the very instant in which allegiance to the Span-
ish monarch was renounced. The general assembly was
a collection of diplomatic envoys, bound by instructions
from independent states. The voting was not by heads,
but by states. The deputies were not representatives
of the people, but of the states ; for the people of the
United States of the Netherlands never assembled — as did
the people of the United States of America two cen-
turies later — to lay down a constitution, by which they
granted a generous amount of power to the Union, while
they reserved enough of sovereign attributes to secure
that local self-government which is the life-blood of lib-
erty.
The Union of Utrecht, narrowed as it was to the nether
portion of that country which, as a whole, might have
formed a commonwealth so much more powerful, was in
origin a proof of this lamentable want of patriotism. Could
the jealousy of great nobles, the rancor of religious dif-
ferences, the Catholic bigotry of the Walloon population
on the one side contending with the democratic insanity
of the Ghent populace on the other, have been restrained
within bounds by the moderate counsels of William of
Orange, it would have been possible to unite seventeen
590
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1579
provinces instead of seven, and to save many long and
blighting years of civil war.
The Utrecht Union was, however, of inestimable value.
It was time for some step to be taken, if anarchy were not
to reign until the inquisition and absolutism were restored.
Already, out of Chaos and Night, the coming Eepublic
was assuming substance and form. The union, if it
created nothing else, at least constructed a league against
a foreign foe whose armed masses were pouring faster and
faster into the territory of the provinces. Farther than
this it did not propose to go. It maintained what it found.
It guaranteed religious liberty, and accepted the civil and
political constitutions already in existence. Meantime,
the defects of those constitutions, although visible and
sensible, had not grown to the large proportions which
they were destined to attain.
Thus, by the Union of ,Utrecht on the one hand and
the fast-approaching reconciliation of the Walloon prov-
inces on the other, the work of decomposition and of
construction went hand in hand.
CHAPTER II
MASSACRE AT MAASTRICHT — TURBULENCE AT GHENT
THE political movements in both directions were to be
hastened by the military operations of the opening season.
On the night of the 3d of March, 1579, the Prince of
Parma made a demonstration against Antwerp. A body
of three thousand Scotch and English, lying at Burger-
hout, was rapidly driven in, and a warm skirmish ensued,
directly under the walls of the city. The Prince of
Orange, with the Archduke Matthias, being in Antwerp
at the time, remained on the fortifications superintend-
ing the action, and Parma was obliged to retire after an
hour or two of sharp fighting, with a loss of four hundred
men. This demonstration was, however, only a feint.
His real design was upon Maastricht, before which im-
portant city he appeared in great force ten days after-
wards when he was least expected.
Well fortified, surrounded by a broad and deep moat,
built upon both sides of the Meuse, upon the right bank
of which river, however, the portion of the town was so
inconsiderable that it was merely called the village of
Wyk, this key to the German gate of the Netherlands
was, unfortunately, in brave but feeble hands. The gar-
rison was hardly one thousand strong ; the trained bands
of burghers amounted to twelve hundred more ; while be-
tween three and four thousand peasants, who had taken
refuge within the city walls, did excellent service as sap-
pers and miners. Parma, on the other hand, had appeared
before the walls with twenty thousand men, to which num-
ber he received constant reinforcements. The Bishop of
Liege, too, had sent him four thousand pioneers — a most
592 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
important service, for mining and countermining was to
decide the fate of Maastricht.
Early in January the royalists had surprised the strong
chateau of Carpen, in the neighborhood of the city, upon
which occasion the garrison were all hanged by moon-
light on the trees in the orchard. The commandant
shared their fate ; and it is a curious fact that he had,
precisely a year previously, hanged the royalist captain,
Blomaert, on the same spot, who, with the rope around hia
neck, had foretold a like doom to his destroyer.
The Prince of Orange, feeling the danger of Maastricht,
lost no time in warning the states to take necessary meas-
ures, imploring them " not to fall asleep in the shade of a
peace negotiation "; while, meantime, Parma threw two
bridges over the Meuse, above and below the city, and
then invested the place so closely that all communication
was absolutely suspended. Letters could pass to and fro
only at extreme peril to the messengers, and all possibility
of reinforcing the city at the moment was cut off.
While this eventful siege was proceeding the negotia-
tions with the Walloons were ripening. The siege and the
conferences went hand in hand. Besides the secret ar-
rangements already described for the separation of the
Walloon provinces, there had been much earnest and elo-
quent remonstrance on the part of the states-general and
of Orange — many solemn embassies and public appeals.
As usual, the Pacification of Ghent was the two-sided
shield which hung between the parties to cover or to jus-
tify the blows which each dealt at the other. There is no
doubt as to the real opinion entertained concerning that
famous treaty by the royal party. " Through the peace
of Ghent," said Saint Vaast, "all our woes have been
brought upon us." La Motte informed Parma that it was
necessary to pretend a respect for the Pacification, how-
ever, on account of its popularity, but that it was well un-
derstood by the leaders of the Walloon movement that
the intention was to restore the system of Charles the
Fifth. Parma signified his consent to make use of that
treaty as a basis, "provided always it were interpreted
healthily, and not dislocated by cavillations and sinister
1579] DEPUTATIONS TO THE WALLOONS 593
interpolations, as had been done by the Prince of Orange."
The Malcontent generals of the Walloon troops were inex-
pressibly anxious lest the cause of religion should be en-
dangered ; but the arguments by which Parma convinced
those military casuists as to the compatibility of the Ghent
peace with sound doctrine have already been exhibited.
The influence of the reconciled nobles was brought to bear
with fatal effect upon the states of Artois, Hainault, and
of a portion of French Flanders. The Gallic element in
their blood, and an intense attachment to the Koman
ceremonial, which distinguished the Walloon population
from their Batavian brethren, were used successfully by
the wily Parma to destroy the unity of the revolted Neth-
erlands. Moreover, the King offered good terms. The
monarch, feeling safe on the religious point, was willing
to make liberal promises upon the political questions. In
truth, the great grievance of which the Walloons com-
plained was the insolence and intolerable outrages of the
foreign soldiers. This, they said, had alone made them
malcontent. It was, therefore, obviously the cue of Par-
ma to promise the immediate departure of the troops.
This could be done the more easily as he had no intention
of keeping the promise.
Meantime the efforts of Orange and of the states-gen-
eral, where his influence was still paramount, were un-
ceasing to counteract the policy of Parma. A deputation
was appointed by the generality to visit the estates of the
Walloon provinces. Another was sent by the authorities
of Brussels. The states-general, too, inspired by William
of Orange, addressed a solemn appeal to their sister prov-
inces thus about to abjure the bonds of relationship for-
ever. It seemed right, once for all, to grapple with the
Ghent Pacification for the last time, and to strike a final
blow in defence of that large, statesmanlike interpretation
which alone could make the treaty live. This was done
eloquently and logically.
In various fervently written appeals by Orange, by the
states-general, and by other bodies, the wavering prov-
inces were warned against seduction. They were remind-
ed that the Prince of Parma was using this minor nego-
38
594 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
tiation "as a second string to his bow"; that nothing
could be more puerile than to suppose the Spaniards capa-
ble, after securing Maastricht, of sending away their troops.
On the other hand, a strong deputation now went forth
from the Walloon provinces, towards the end of April,
to hold a final colloquy with Parma, then already busied
with the investment of Maastricht. They were met upon
the road with great ceremony, and with drum, trumpet,
and flaunting banners escorted into the presence of Far-
nese. He received them with stately affability, in a mag-
nificently decorated pavilion, carelessly inviting them to
a repast, which he called an afternoon lunch, but which
proved a most sumptuous and splendidly appointed enter-
tainment. This " trifling, foolish banquet" finished, the
deputies were escorted, with great military parade, to the
lodgings which had been provided for them in a neigh-
boring village. During the period of their visit all the
chief officers of the army and the household were directed
to entertain the "Walloons with showy festivals, dinners,
suppers, dances, and carousals of all kinds. At one of
the most brilliant of these revels — a magnificent ball, t
which all the matrons and maids of the whole count
round had been bidden — the Prince of Parma himse
unexpectedly made his appearance. He gently rebuke
the entertainers for indulging in such splendid hospitalit;
without at least permitting him to partake of it. Char:
ingly affable to the ladies assembled in the ballroo
courteous, but slightly reserved, towards the Walloon en
voys, he excited the admiration of all by the splendi
decorum of his manners. As he moved through i.
halls, modulating his steps in grave cadence to the
sic, the dignity and grace of his deportment seemed truly
majestic ; but when he actually danced a measure him-
self, the enthusiasm was at its height. They should, in-
deed, be rustics, cried the Walloon envoys in a breath,
not to give the hand of fellowship at once to a Prince so
condescending and amiable. The exclamation seemed to
embody the general wish and to foreshadow a speedy con-
clusion.
Very soon afterwards a preliminary accord was signed
1579] THE DEED DONE 595
between the King's government and the Walloon prov-
inces. The provisions on his Majesty's part were suffi-
ciently liberal. Tho religions question furnishing no
obstacle, it was comparatively easy for Philip to appear
benignant. It was stipulated that the provincial privi-
leges should be respected, that a member of the King's
own family, legitimately born, should always be governor-
general, and that the foreign troops should be imme-
diately withdrawn. The official exchange and ratifi-
cation of this treaty were delayed till the 4th of the
following September, but the news that the reconcilia-
tion had been definitely settled soon spread through the
country. The Catholics were elated, the patriots dis-
mayed. Orange — the " Prince of Darkness/' as the Wal-
loons of the day were fond of calling him — still unwilling
to despair, reluctant to accept this dismemberment, which
he foresaw was to be a perpetual one, of his beloved coun-
try, addressed the most passionate and solemn adjura-
tions to the Walloon provinces and to their military
chieftains. He offered all his children as hostages for
his good faith in keeping sacredly any covenant which
his Catholic countrymen might be willing to close with
him. It was in vain. The step was irretrievably taken ; re-
ligious bigotry, patrician jealousy, and wholesale bribery
had severed the Netherlands in twain forever. The friends
of Eomanism, the enemies of civil and religious liberty,
exulted from one end of Christendom to the other, and
it was recognized that Parma had, indeed, achieved a vic-
tory which, although bloodless, was as important to the
cause of absolutism as any which even his sword was
likely to achieve.
The success attained by the Catholic party in the Wal-
loon negotiations caused a corresponding bitterness in
the hearts of the Reformers throughout the country. As
usual, bitterness begot bitterness ; intolerance engendered
intolerance. On the 28th of May, 1579, as the Catholics
of Antwerp were celebrating the Ommegang — the same
festival which had been the exciting cause of the memora-
ble tumults of the year 1565 — the irritation of the
populace could not be repressed. The mob rose in its
596 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
wrath to put down these demonstrations — which, taken in
connection with recent events, seemed ill-timed and inso-
lent— of a religion whose votaries then formed but a small
minority of the Antwerp citizens. There was a great tu-
mult. Two persons were killed. The Archduke Mat-
thias, who was himself in the Cathedral of Notre Dame
assisting at the ceremony, was in danger of his life. The
well-known cry of " paapen uit" (out with the papists)
resounded through the streets, and the priests and monks
were all hustled out of town amid a tempest of execra-
tions.
Orange did his utmost to quell the mutiny, nor were
his efforts fruitless — for the uproar, although seditious
and disgraceful, was hardly sanguinary. Next day the
Prince summoned the magistracy, the Monday council
the guild officers, with all the chief municipal functioi
aries, and expressed his indignation in decided terms.
He protested that if such tumults, originating in that
very spirit of intolerance which he most deplored, coulc
not be repressed for the future, he was determined to re
sign his offices, and no longer to affect authority in
city where his counsels were derided. The magistrates
alarmed at his threats, and sympathizing with his anger
implored him not to desert them, protesting that if
should resign his offices they would instantly lay do\
their own. An ordinance was then drawn up and imme
diately proclaimed at the Town - house, permitting the
Catholics to re-enter the city and to enjoy the privilege
of religious worship. At the same time it was announce
that a new draft of a religious peace would be forthwit
issued for the adoption of every city.
A similar tumult, arising from the same cause, at
Utrecht, was attended with the like result. On the other
hand, the city of Brussels was astonished by a feeble and
unsuccessful attempt at treason, made by a youth who
bore an illustrious name. Philip, Count of Egmont, el-
dest son of the unfortunate Lamoral, had command of a
regiment in the service of the states. He had, besides, a
small body of cavalry in immediate attendance upon his
person. He had for some time felt inclined — like the
1579] INVESTMENT OF MAASTRICHT 597
Lalains, Meluns, La Mottes, and others — to reconcile him-
self with the crown, and he wisely thought that the terms
accorded to him would be more liberal if he could bring
the capital of Brabant with him as a peace-offering to his
Majesty. His residence was in Brussels. His regiment
was stationed outside the gates, but in the immediate
neighborhood of the city. On the morning of the 4th of
June young Egrnont actually attempted to seize the city,
but, through the promptness of Colonel Van der Tympel
and the citizens, his plans were wholly frustrated. For a
day and a night his hungry soldiers were kept penned up
in the Grande Place. Then, by an inexplicable indul-
gence, he and his troops were allowed to ride out of the
city to Montigny's headquarters. He soon afterwards made
his peace with Spain, and was duly rewarded.
The investment of Maastricht was commenced upon the
12th of March, 1579. In the city, besides the population,
there were two thousand peasants, both men and women,
a garrison of one thousand soldiers, and a trained burgher
guard, numbering about twelve hundred. There were six
gates to the town, each provided with ravelins, and there
was a doubt in what direction the first attack should be
made. Opinions wavered between the gates of Bois-le-
Duc, next the river, and that of Tongres, on the south-
western side, but it was finally decided to attempt the gate
of Tongres.
Over against that point the platforms were accordingly
constructed, and after a heavy cannonade from forty-six
great guns, continued for several days, it was thought, by
the 25th of March, that an impression had been made
upon the city. A portion of the brick curtain had crum-
bled, but through the breach there was seen a massive
terreplein, well moated, which, after six thousand shots
already delivered on the outer wall, still remained unin-
! jured. It was recognized that the gate of Tongres was
i not the most assailable, but rather the strongest, portion
of the defences, and Alexander therefore determined to
shift his batteries to the gate of Bois-le-Duc. At the
; same time the attempt upon that of Tongres was to be
1 varied but not abandoned. Four thousand miners, who
598
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1579
had passed half their lives in burrowing for coal in that
anthracite region, had been furnished by the Bishop of
Liege, and this force was now set to their subterranean
work. A mine having been opened at a distance, the be-
siegers slowly worked their way towards the Tongres Gate,
while at the same time the more ostensible operations
were in the opposite direction. The besieged had their
miners also, for the peasants in the city had been used to
work with mattock and pickaxe. The women, too, en-
rolled themselves into companies, chose their officers — or
"mine -mistresses," as they were called — and did good
service daily in the caverns of the earth. Thus a whole
army of gnomes were noiselessly at work to destroy am
defend the beleaguered city. The mine advanced
ards the gate ; the besieged delved deeper, and intersectc
it with a transverse excavation, and the contending forct
met daily in deadly encounter within these sepulchi
gangways.
The siege continued, with fightings above and below
ground, until the 29th of June, 1579, by which time the
condition of the reduced garrison was most woful.
last, exhausted by incessant fatigue, the citizens in theii
sleep were surprised by assault. The Spaniards rushed h
and began the slaughter. The battle within the wal
soon changed to a massacre. The townspeople rushe
hither and thither, but there was neither escape nc
means of resisting an enemy who now poured into tl
town by thousands upon thousands. Women, old me
and children had all been combatants, and all, therefoi
had incurred the vengeance of the conquerors. A cry
agony arose which was distinctly heard at the distance
a league. Mothers took their infants in their arms and
threw themselves by hundreds into the Mense — and
against women the blood-thirst of the assailants was es-
pecially directed. Females who had fought daily in the
trenches, who had delved in mines and mustered on the
battlements, had unsexed themselves in the opinion of
those whose comrades they had helped to destroy. It was
nothing that they had laid aside the weakness of women
in order to defend all that was holy and dear to them on
1579] CAPTURED AND DEPOPULATED 599
earth. It was sufficient that many a Spanish, Burgundi-
an, or Italian mercenary had died by their hands. Wom-
en were pursued from house to house and hurled from
roof and window. They were hunted into the river, they
were torn limb from limb in the streets. Men and children
fared no better ; but the heart sickens at the oft-repeat-
ed tale. Horrors, alas ! were commonplaces in the Neth-
erlands. Cruelty too monstrous for description, too vast
to be believed by a mind not familiar with the outrages
practised by the soldiers of Spain and Italy upon their
heretic fellow - creatures, were now committed afresh in
the streets of Maastricht.
On the first day four thousand men and women were
slaughtered. The massacre lasted two days longer ; nor
would it be an exaggerated estimate if we assume that
the amount of victims upon the two last days was equal to
half the number sacrificed on the first. It was said that
not four hundred citizens were left alive after the termi-
nation of the siege. These soon wandered away, their
places being supplied by a rabble rout of Walloon sutlers
and vagabonds. Maastricht was depopulated as well as
captured.
The Prince of Orange, as usual, was blamed for the
tragical termination to this long drama. A letter, brought
by an unknown messenger, was laid before the states' as-
sembly, in full session, and sent to the clerk's table to be
read aloud. After the first few sentences that function-
ary faltered in his recital. Several members also peremp-
torily ordered him to stop ; for the letter proved to be a
violent and calumnious libel upon Orange, together with
a strong appeal in favor of the' peace propositions then
under debate at Cologne. The Prince alone, of all the
assembly, preserving his tranquillity, ordered the docu-
ment to be brought to him, and forthwith read it aloud
himself from beginning to end. Afterwards he took oc-
casion to express his mind concerning the ceaseless calum-
nies of which he was the mark. He especially alluded to
the oft-repeated accusation that he was the only obstacle
to peace, and repeated that he was ready at that moment
to leave the land, and to close his lips forever, if by so
600 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
doing he could benefit his country and restore her to
honorable repose. The outcry, with the protestations, of
attachment and confidence which at once broke from the
assembly, convinced him, however, that he was deeply
rooted in the hearts of all patriotic Netherlanders, and
that it was beyond the power of slanderers to loosen his
hold upon their affection.
Meantime his efforts had again and again been de-
manded to restore order in that abode of anarchy, the city
of Ghent. After his visit during the previous winter, and
the consequent departure of John Casimir to the palatinate,
the pacific arrangements made by the Prince had for a
short time held good. Early in March, however, that
master of misrule, John van Imbize, had once more ex-
cited the populace to sedition. Again the property of
Catholics, clerical and lay, was plundered ; again the per
sons of Catholics, of every degree, were maltreated. Th
magistrates, with first senator Imbize at their head, rathe
encouraged than rebuked the disorder ; but Orange,
soon as he received official intelligence of the event, hast-
ened to address them in words of earnest warning an
wisdom.
His exhortations exerted a wholesome effect for a m
ment, but matters soon went from bad to worse. Iinbiz
fearing the influence of the Prince, indulged in open
mouthed abuse of a man whose character he was unabl
even to comprehend. He accused him of intriguing wit
France for his own benefit, of being a papist in disguise
of desiring to establish what he called a "religious peace,
merely to restore Roman idolatry. In all these insane
ravings the demagogue was most ably seconded by the ex-
monk. Incessant and unlicensed were the invectives
hurled by Peter Dathenus from his pulpit upon William
the Silent's head. He denounced him — as he had often
done before — as an atheist in heart ; as a man who changed
his religion as easily as his garments ; as a man who knew
no God but state expediency, which was the idol of his
worship ; a mere politician who would tear his shirt from
his back and throw it in the fire if he thought it were
tainted with religion.
1679] A STATE-STROKE 601
Such witless but vehement denunciation, from a preach-
er who was both popular and comparatively sincere, could
not but affect the imagination of the weaker portion of
his hearers. The faction of Imbize became triumphant.
Ryhove — the ruffian whose hands were stained with the
recent blood of Visch and Hessels — rather did damage
than service to the cause of order. He opposed himself
to the demagogue who was prating daily of Greece, Rome,
and Geneva, while his clerical associate was denouncing
William of Orange ; but he opposed himself in vain. An
attempt to secure the person of Imbize failed, but by the
influence of Ryhove, however, a messenger was despatched
to Antwerp in the name of a considerable portion of the
community of Ghent. The counsel and the presence of
the man to whom all hearts in every part of the Nether-
lands instinctively turned in the hour of need were once
more invoked.
The Prince again addressed them in language which
none but he could employ with such effect. He told
them that his life, passed in service and sacrifice, ought
to witness sufficiently for his fidelity. Nevertheless, he
thought it necessary — in view of the calumnies Avhich
were circulated — to repeat once more his sentiment that
no treaty of peace, war, or alliance ought to be negotiated,
save with the consent of the people.
On the following day Imbize executed a coup d'etat.
Having a body of near two thousand soldiers at his dis-
posal, he suddenly secured the persons of all the magis-
trates and other notable individuals not friendly to his
policy, and then, in violation of all law, set up a new
board of eighteen irresponsible functionaries, according
to a list prepared by himself alone. This was his way of
enforcing the democratic liberty of Greece, Rome, and
Geneva, which was so near to his heart. A proclamation,
in fourteen articles, was forthwith issued, justifying this
arbitrary proceeding. At the same time a pamphlet,
already prepared for the occasion by Dathenus, was ex-
! tensively circulated. In this production the arbitrary
: revolution effected by a demagogue was defended with
' effrontery, while the character of Orange was loaded with
602
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1579
customary abuse. To prevent the traitor from coming to
Ghent and establishing what he called his religious peace,
these irregular measures, it was urged, had been wisely (
taken.
The Prince came again to Ghent, great as had been the
efforts of Imbize and his partisans to prevent his coming.
His presence was like magic. The demagogue and his
whole flock vanished like unclean birds at the first rays i
of the sun. Imbize dared not look the Father of his coun-
try in the face. Orange rebuked the populace in the ;
strong and indignant language that public and private
virtue, energy, and a high purpose enabled such a leader I
of the people to use. He at once set aside the board of
eighteen — the Grecian-Roman-Genevese establishment of
Imbize — and remained in the city until the regular elec-
tion, in conformity with the privileges, had taken place
Imbize and Dathenus were permitted to go free. The]
fled to their friend, John Casimir, who received botl
with open arms, and allowed them each a pension.
Order being thus again restored in Ghent by the exer-
tions of the Prince, when no other human hand could have
dispelled the anarchy which seemed to reign supreme
William the Silent, having accepted the government oi
Flanders, which had again and again been urged upoi
him, now returned to Antwerp.
CHAPTER III
TKEASON AND INTKIGUES
SINCE the beginning of May the Cologne negotiations
had been dragging their slow length along. Few persons
believed that any good was likely to result from these
stately and ponderous conferences, yet men were so weary
of war, so desirous that a termination might be put to the
atrophy under which the country was languishing, that
many an eager glance was turned towards the place where
the august assembly was holding its protracted session.
Certainly, if wisdom were to be found in mitred heads —
if the power to heal angry passions and to settle the con-
flicting claims of prerogative and conscience were to be
looked for among men of lofty station, then the Cologne
conferences ought to have made the rough places smooth
and the crooked paths straight throughout all Christen-
dom. There was the Archbishop of Rossano, afterwards
Pope Urban the Seventh, as plenipotentiary from Borne ;
there was Charles of Aragon, Duke of Terranova, sup-
ported by five councillors, as ambassador from his Catholic
Majesty ; there were the Duke of Aerschot, the Abbot of
Saint Gertrude, the Abbot of Marolles, Doctor Bucho
Aytta, Caspar Schetz, Lord of Grobbendonck, that learned
Frisian, Aggeus van Albada, with seven other wise men,
as envoys from the states-general. There were their Se-
rene Highnesses the Elector and Archbishops of Cologne
and Treves, with the Bishop of Wurtzburg. There was
jalso a numerous embassy from his Imperial Majesty, with
Count Otto de Schwartzenburg at its head.
Here, then, were holiness, serenity, dignity, law, and
i learning in abundance. Here was a Pope in posse, with
604 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
archbishops, princes, dukes, jurisconsults, and doctors of
divinity in esse, sufficient to remodel a world, if worlds
were to be remodelled by such instruments. In truth,
the envoys came from Spain, Rome, and Vienna, provided
with but two ideas. Was it not a diplomatic masterpiece,
that from this frugal store they could contrive to eke out
seven mortal months of negotiation ? Two ideas — the su-
premacy of his Majesty's prerogative, the exclusive exer-
cise of the Roman Catholic religion — these were the be-all
and the end-all of their commission. Upon these two
strings they were to harp, at least till the walls of Maas-
tricht had fallen. The envoys did their duty well ; they
were sent to enact a solemn comedy, and in the most
stately manner did they walk through their several parts.
Not that the King was belligerent ; on the contrary, he
was heartily weary of the war. Prerogative was weary —
Romanism was weary — Conscience was weary — the Spirit
of Freedom was weary — but the Prince of Orange was not
weary. Blood and treasure had been pouring forth so
profusely during twelve flaming years that all but that
one tranquil spirit were beginning to flag.
It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust,
after its three centuries7 repose. A rapid sketch of the
course of the proceedings, with an indication of the spirit
which animated the contending parties, will be all that
is necessary. They came and they separated with pre-
cisely opposite views.
The first step in the proceedings- had been a secret one.
If by any means the Prince of Orange could be detached
from his party — if by bribery, however enormous, he
could be induced to abandon a tottering cause and depart
for the land of his birth — he was distinctly but indirectly
given to understand that he had but to name his terms.
It was all in vain. The indirect applications of the im-
perial commissioners made to his servants and his nearest
relations were entirely unsuccessful. The Prince was
not to be drawn into a negotiation in his own name or
for his own benefit. If the estates were satisfied, he
was satisfied. He wanted no conditions but theirs;
"nor would he, directly or indirectly, "he said, "separate
1579] PROTOCOLS 605
himself from the cause on which hung all his evil or
felicity."
On the 18th of May the states' envoys at Cologne pre-
sented fourteen articles, demanding freedom of religion
and the ancient political charters. Religion, they said,
was to be referred, not to man, but to God. To Him the
King was subject as well as the people. Both King and
people — " and by people was meant every individual in the
land" — were bound to serve God according to their con-
science.
The imperial envoys found such language extremely
reprehensible, and promptly refused, as umpires, to en-
tertain the fourteen articles. Others, drawn up by Ter-
ranova and colleagues, embodying the claims of the royal
and Roman party, were then solemnly presented, and
as promptly rejected. The Netherland envoys likewise
gave the imperial commissioners distinctly to under-
stand that — in case peace were not soon made — "the
states would forthwith declare the King fallen from his
sovereignty"; would forever dispense the people from
their oaths of allegiance to him, and would probably ac-
cept the Duke of Anjou in his place. The states-general,
to which body the imperial propositions had been sent,
also rejected the articles in a logical and historical argu-
ment of unmerciful length.
On the 13th of November, 1579, the states' envoys were
invited into the council chamber of the imperial commis-
sioners to hear the la|t solemn commonplaces of those
departing functionaries. After seven dreary months of
negotiation, after protocols and memoranda in ten thou-
sand folios, the august diplomatists had travelled round to
points from which they had severally started. On the
one side, unlimited prerogative and exclusive Catholicism ;
on the other, constitutional liberty, with freedom of con-
science for Catholic and Protestant alike : these were the
claims which each party announced at the commence-
ment, and to which they held with equal firmness at the
close of the conferences.
The congress had been expensive. Though not much
had been accomplished for the political or religious ad-
606 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
vancement of mankind, there had been much excellent
eating and drinking at Cologne during the seven months.
Those droughty deliberations had needed moistening.
The Bishop of Wurtzburg had consumed "eighty hogs-
heads of Rhenish wine and twenty great casks of beer.**
The expense of the states' envoys was twenty-four thou-
sand guldens. Meantime those southern provinces had
made their separate treaty, and the Netherlands were
permanently dissevered. Maastricht had fallen. Dis-
union and dismay had taken possession of the country.
During the course of the year other severe misfortunes
had happened to the states. Treachery, even among the
men who had done good service to the cause of freedom,
was daily showing her hateful visage. Not only the great
chieftains who had led the Malcontent Walloon party,
with the fickle Aerschot and the wavering Havre besides,
had made their separate reconciliation with Parma, but
the epidemic treason had mastered such bold partisans as
the Seigneur de Bours, the man whose services in rescu-
ing the citadel of Antwerp had been so courageous and
valuable. He was governor of Mechlin ; Count Eenne-
berg was governor of Friesland. Both were trusted im-
plicitly by Orange and by the estates ; both were on the
eve of repaying the confidence reposed in them by the
most venal treason.
Mechlin was also lost to the patriot cause through the
wiles of an eloquent friar, who persuaded the bold but un-
principled commandant De Bours to admit a garrisc
which Parma, after due negotiation, sent. The archie
piscopal city was thus transferred to the royal party,
but the gallant Van der Tympel, governor of Brussels,
took it by surprise within six months of its acquisitic
by Parma, and once more restored it to the jurisdictioi
of the states. Peter Lupus, the Carmelite, armed to tl
teeth and fighting fiercely at the head of the royalist
was slain in the street.
During the weary progress of the Cologne negotiations,
the Prince had not been idle, and should this august and
slow-moving congress be unsuccessful in restoring peace,
the provinces were pledged to an act of abjuration. The}
1579] VIEWS OF THE SOCIAL COMPACT 607
wonld then be entirely without a head. The idea of a
nominal republic was broached by none. The contest
had not been one of theory, but of facts ; for the war had
not been for revolution, but for conservation, so far as
political rights were concerned. In religion the provinces
had advanced from one step to another till they now
claimed the largest liberty — freedom of conscience — for
all. Religion, they held, was God's affair, not man's, in
which neither people nor King had power over each other,
but in which both were subject to God alone. In politics
it was different. Hereditary sovereignty was acknowl-
edged as a fact ; but, at the same time, the spirit of free-
dom was already learning its appropriate language. It
already claimed boldly the natural right of mankind to be
1 governed according to the laws of reason and of divine
! justice. If a prince were a shepherd, it was at least law-
1 ful to deprive him of his crook when he butchered the
flock which he had been appointed to protect. On the
other hand, if hereditary rule were an established fact, so
: also were ancient charters. To maintain, not to over-
throw, the political compact was the purpose of the states.
j " Je maintiendrai " was the motto of Orange's escutcheon.
1 That a compact existed between prince and people, and
that the sovereign held office only on condition of doing
his duty, were startling truths which men were beginning
; not to whisper to each other in secret, but to proclaim in
1 the market-place.
William of Orange always recognized these truths, but
his scheme of government contemplated a permanent chief,
! and as it was becoming obvious that the Spanish sovereign
would soon be abjured, it was necessary to fix upon a sub-
stitute. "As to governing these provinces in the form of
! a republic," said he, speaking for the states-general, "those
1 who know the condition, privileges, and ordinances of the
! country can easily understand that it is hardly possible to
dispense with a head or superintendent." At the same
| time, he plainly intimated that this " head or superintend-
ent" was to be, not a monarch — a one-ruler — but merely
; the hereditary chief magistrate of a free commonwealth.
The negotiations pointed to a speedy abjuration of
608 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1579
Philip ; the republic was contemplated by none ; the
Prince of Orange absolutely refused to stretch forth his
own hand. Who, then, was to receive the sceptre which
was so soon to be bestowed ? There was not much hope
from the Protestant princes of Germany. The day had
passed for generous sympathy with those engaged in the
great struggle which Martin Luther had commenced. The
present generation of German Protestants were more in-
clined to put down the Calvinistic schism at home than
to save it from oppression abroad. Men were more dis-
posed to wrangle over the thrice-gnawed bones of ecclesi-
astical casuistry than to assist their brethren in the field.
In England there was much sympathy for the provinces,
and there — although the form of government was still ar-
bitrary— the instincts for civil and religious freedom,
which have ever characterized the Anglo-Saxon race, were
not to be repressed. Upon many a battle-field for liberty
in the Netherlands " men whose limbs were made in
land " were found contending for the right. The blo(
and treasure of Englishmen flowed freely in the cause
their relatives by religion and race, but these were the ei
forts of individuals. Hitherto but little assistance hs
been rendered by the English Queen, who had, on the coi
trary, almost distracted the provinces by her fast-and-loos
policy, both towards them and towards Anjou. The pc
litical rivalry between that Prince and herself in the
Netherlands had, however, now given place to the memo-
rable love-passage from which important results were ex-
pected, and it was thought certain that Elizabeth would
view with satisfaction any dignity conferred upon her lover.
Orange had a right to form this opinion. At the same
time, it is well known that the chief councillors of Eliza-
beth — while they were all in favor of assisting the prov-
inces— looked with anything but satisfaction upon the
jou marriage. t
The provinces of Holland and Zeeland, notwithstanding
the love they bore to "William of Orange, could never be
persuaded by his arguments into favoring Anjou. Indeed,
it was rather on account of the love they bore the Prince
— whom they were determined to have for their sovereign
PKISON GATK, HAG UK
1579] DISUNION AND DISSENSION 609
— that they refused to listen to any persuasion in favor of
his rival, although coming from his own lips. The states-
general, in a report to the states of Holland, drawn up
under the superintendence of the Prince, brought forward
all the usual arguments for accepting the French duke in
case the abjuration should take place.
Three councils were now established — one to be in at-
tendance upon the Archduke and the Prince of Orange,
the two others to reside respectively in Flanders and in
Utrecht. They were to be appointed by Matthias and
the Prince, upon a double nomination from the estates
of the united provinces. Their decisions were to be made
according to a majority of votes, and there was to be no
secret cabinet behind and above their deliberations. It
was long, however, before these councils were put into
working order. The fatal jealousy of the provincial
authorities, the small ambition of local magistrates, inter-
posed daily obstacles to the vigorous march of the gen-
erality. Never was jealousy more mischievous, never cir-
cumspection more misapplied. It was not a land nor a
crisis in which there was peril of centralization. Local
municipal government was, in truth, the only force left.
There was no possibility of its being merged in a central
authority which did not exist. The country was without
a centre. There was small chance of apoplexy where there
was no head. The danger lay in the mutual repulsive-
ness of these atoms of sovereignty — in the centrifugal ten-
dencies which were fast resolving a nebulous common-
wealth into chaos. Disunion and dissension would soon
bring about a more fatal centralization — that of absorp-
tion in a distant despotism.
At the end of November, 1579, Orange made another
remarkable speech in the states-general at Antwerp. He
handled the usual topics with his customary vigor, and
with that grace and warmth of delivery which always
made his eloquence so persuasive and impressive. He
spoke of the countless calumnies against himself, the
chaffering niggardliness of the provinces, the slender result
produced by his repeated warnings. He told them blunt-
ly the great cause of all their troubles. It was the ab-
89
610 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1580
sence of a broad patriotism ; it was the narrow power
grudged rather than given to the deputies who sat in the
general assembly. They were mere envoys, tied by in-
structions. They were powerless to act, except after
tedious reference to the will of their masters, the provin-
cial boards. The deputies of the union came thither, he
said, as advocates of their provinces or their cities, not
as councillors of a commonwealth, and sought to further
those narrow interests, even at the risk of destruction to
their sister states. The contributions, he complained,
were assessed unequally and expended selfishly. Upoi
this occasion, as upon all occasions, he again challengee
inquiry into the purity of his government, demandec
chastisement, if any act of maladministration on his par
could be found, and repeated his anxious desire either
be relieved from his functions or to be furnished with the
means of discharging them with efficiency.
On the 12th of December, 1579, he again made
powerful speech in the states-general. Upon the 9th ol
January following he made an elaborate address upoi
the state of the country, urging the necessity of raising
instantly a considerable army of good and experience
soldiers. He fixed the indispensable number of such
force at twelve thousand foot, four thousand horse, anc
at least twelve hundred pioneers.
Early in the year 1580 the Prince was doomed to a bit
ter disappointment, and the provinces to a severe loss, ii
the treason of Count Kenneberg, governor of Friesland.
This young noble was of the great Lalain family. He was
a younger brother of Anthony, Count of Hoogstraaten,
the unwavering friend of Orange. The bill of sale, by
which he agreed with a certain Quislain le Bailly to trans-
fer himself to Spain, fixed the terms with the technical
scrupulousness of any other mercantile transaction. Ren-
neberg sold himself as one would sell a yoke of oxen, and
his motives were no whit nobler than the cynical contract
would indicate. He was treacherous from the most sor-
did of motives — jealousy of his friend and love of place
and pelf ; but his subsequent remorse and his early death
have cast a veil over the blackness of his crime. On the
1580] TREACHERY OF RENNEBERG 611
4th of March, 1580, Kenneberg carried out his plot and
seized the capital of Groningen province. The city was
formally united to the royal government, but the count's
measures had been precipitated to such an extent that he
was unable to carry the province with him, as he had
hoped. On the contrary, although he had secured the
city, he had secured nothing else. He was immediately
beleaguered by the states' force in the province, under the
command of Barthold Entes, Hohenlo, and Philip Louis
Nassau, and it was necessary to send for immediate assis-
tance from Parma.
The Prince of Orange, being thus bitterly disappointed
by the treachery of his friend, and foiled in his attempt
to avert the immediate consequences, continued his in-
terrupted journey to Amsterdam. Here he was received
with unbounded enthusiasm.
CHAPTER IV
THE DUTCH DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
THE war continued in a languid and desultory manner
in different parts of the country. At an action near In-
gelmunster the brave and accomplished De la None w
made prisoner. This was a severe loss to the states,
cruel blow to Orange, for he was not only one of thermos
experienced soldiers, but one of the most accomplishe
writers of his age. His pen was as celebrated as his
sword. In exchange for the illustrious Frenchman the
states in vain offered Count Egmont, who had been made
prisoner a few weeks before, and De Selles, who was cap
ured shortly afterwards. Parma answered, contemptu
ously, that he would not give a lion for two sheep. Eve:
Champagny was offered in addition, but without success.
Parma had written to Philip, immediately upon the capt-
ure, that, were it not for Egmont, Selles, and others,
then in the power of Orange, he should order the execu-
tion of De la Noue. Under the circumstances, however, h
had begged to be informed as to his Majesty's pleasure
and in the mean time had placed the prisoner in the cast!
of Limburg, under charge of De Billy. His Majesty,
course, never signified his pleasure, and the illustrious
soldier remained for five years in a loathsome dungeon
more befitting a condemned malefactor than a prisoner of
war. It was in the donjon -keep of the castle, lighted
only by an aperture in the roof, and was therefore ex-
posed to the rain and all inclemencies of the sky, while
rats, toads, and other vermin housed in the miry floor.
At last, in June, 1585, he was exchanged, on extremely
rigorous terms, for Egmont. During his captivity in this
le
i
1580] DEFEAT ON HARDENBERG HEATH 613
vile dungeon he composed not only his famous political
and military discourses, but several other works, among
the rest Annotations upon Plutarch and upon the His-
tories of Guicciardini.
The siege of Groningen proceeded, and Parma ordered
some forces under Martin Schenck to advance to its relief.
On the other hand, the meagre states' forces under Sonoy,
Hohenlo, Entes, and Count John of Nassau's young son,
William Louis, had not yet made much impression upon
the city. There was little military skill to atone for the
feebleness of the assailing army, although there was plenty
of rude valor.
Count Philip Hohenlo, upon whom devolved the entire
responsibility of the Groningen siege and of the Friesland
operations after the death of Barthold Entes, had never
learned the art of war, nor had he the least ambition to
acquire it. Devoted to his pleasures, he depraved those
under his command and injured the cause for which he
was contending.
After a few trifling operations before Groningen, Ho-
henlo was summoned to the neighborhood of Coevorden
by the reported arrival of Martin Schenck, at the head of
a considerable force. On the 15th of June the Count
inarched all night and a part of the following morning in
search of the enemy. He came up with them upon Har-
denberg Heath, in a broiling summer forenoon. His men
' were jaded by the forced march, overcome with the heat,
tormented with thirst, and unable to procure even a drop
of water. The royalists were fresh, so that the result of
; the contest was easily to be foreseen. Hohenlo's army
' was annihilated in an hour's time, the whole population
fled out of Coevorden, the siege of Groningen was raised,
' Renneberg was set free to resume his operations on a
1 larger scale, and the fate of all the northeastern prov-
! inces was once more swinging in the wind. The boors of
Drenthe and Friesland rose again. They had already
mustered in the field, at an earlier season of the year, in
considerable force. Calling themselves "the desperates,"
and bearing on their standard an egg-shell with the yolk
running out — to indicate that, having lost the meat they
614 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1580
were yet ready to fight for the shell — they had swept
through the open country, pillaging and burning. Ho-
henlo had defeated them in two encounters, slain a large
number of their forces, and reduced them for a time to
tranquillity. His late overthrow once more set them
loose. Kenneberg, always apt to be over-elated in prosper-
ity, as he was unduly dejected in adversity, now assumed
all the airs of a conqueror. He had hardly eight thousand
men under his orders, but his strength lay in the weak-
ness of his adversaries. A small war now succeeded, with
small generals, small armies, small campaigns, small sieges.
For the time, the Prince of Orange was even obliged to con-
tent himself with such a general as Hohenlo. As usual,
he was almost alone, and he was this summer doomed to a
still harder deprivation by the final departure of his brother
John from the Netherlands.
The Count had been wearied out by petty miseries. His
stadholderate of Gelderland had overwhelmed him with
annoyance, for throughout the northeastern provinces there
was neither system nor subordination. The magistrates
could exercise no authority over an army which they did not
pay or a people whom they did not protect. There were
endless quarrels between the various boards of municipal
and provincial government — particularly concerning con-
tributions and expenditures. During this wrangling, the
country was exposed to the forces of Parma, to the private
efforts of the Malcontents, to the unpaid soldiery of the
states, to the armed and rebellious peasantry. Little
heed was paid to the admonitions of Count John, who
was of a hotter temper than was the tranquil Prince.
Having already loaded himself with a debt of six hundred
thousand florins, which he had spent in the states' ser-
vice, and having struggled manfully against the petty tort-
ures of his situation, he cannot be severely censured for re-
linquishing his post. The affairs of his own Countship
were in great confusion. His children — boys and girls —
were many, and needed their father's guidance, while the
eldest, William Louis, was already in arms for the Neth-
erlands, following the instincts of his race. Distinguished
for a rash valor, which had already gained the rebuke of
1580] ASSEMBLY AT ANTWERP 615
his father and the applause of his comrades, he had com-
menced his long and glorious career by receiving a severe
wound at Coevorden, which caused him to halt for life.
Leaving so worthy a representative, the Count was more
justified in his departure.
On the 22d of July, 1580, the Archduke Matthias, being
fully aware of the general tendency of affairs, summoned
a meeting of the generality in Antwerp. He did not
make his appearance before the assembly, but requested
that a deputation might wait upon him at his lodgings,
and to this committee he unfolded his griefs. He ex-
pressed his hope that the states were not — in violation of
the laws of God and man — about to throw themselves
into the arms of a foreign prince. He reminded them of
their duty to the holy Catholic religion, and to the illus-
trious house of Austria, while he also pathetically called
their attention to the necessities of his own household,
and hoped that they would, at least, provide for the ar-
rears due to his domestics.
The states-general replied with courtesy as to the per-
sonal claims of the Archduke. For the rest, they took high-
er grounds, and the coming declaration of independence
already pierced through the studied decorum of their lan-
guage. They defended their negotiation with Anjou on
the ground of necessity, averring that the King of Spain
had proved inexorable to all intercession, while, through
the intrigues of their bitterest enemies, they had been en-
tirely forsaken by the empire. .
Soon afterwards a special legation, with Sainte-Alde-
gonde at its head, was despatched to France to consult
with the Duke of Anjou, and settled terms of agreement
with him by the treaty of Plessis les Tours (on the 29th of
September, 1580), afterwards definitely ratified by the
convention of Bordeaux, signed on the 23d of the follow-
ing January.
The states of Holland and Zeeland, however, kept en-
tirely aloof from this transaction, being from the begin-
ning opposed to the choice of Anjou. From the first
, to the last they would have no master but Orange, and
to him, therefore, this year they formally offered the
616 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1580
sovereignty of their provinces ; but they offered it in
vain.
The conquest of Portugal had effected a diversion in the
affairs of the Netherlands. It was but a transitory one.
The provinces found the hopes which they had built upon
the necessity of Spain for large supplies in the peninsula
— to their own consequent relief — soon changed into fears,
for the rapid success of Alva in Portugal gave his master
additional power to oppress the heretics of the north.
When, in 1579, Philip received homage at Lisbon as King
of Portugal, he was more disposed, and more at leisure
than ever, to vent his wrath against the Netherlands, anc
against the man whom he considered the incarnation ol
their revolt.
Cardinal Granvelle had ever whispered in the King's
ear the expediency of taking off the Prince by assassins
tion. It was in accordance with his suggestions that the
famous ban was accordingly drawn up, and dated on the
15th of March, 1580. It was, however, not formally pul
lished in the Netherlands until the month of June of the
same year.
This edict will remain the most lasting monument
the memory of Cardinal Granvelle. It will be read whei
all his other state-papers and epistles — able as they incoi
testably are — shall have passed into oblivion. No pane
gyric of friend, no palliating magnanimity of foe, can rol
away this rock of infamy from his tomb. It was by Cai
dinal Granvelle and by Philip that a price was set upoi
the head of the foremost man of his age, as if he had beer
a savage beast, and that admission into the ranks of Spain's
haughty nobility was made the additional bribe to temj
the assassin.
The ban consisted of a preliminary narrative to justify
the penalty with which it was concluded. It referred to
the favors conferred by Philip and his father upon the
Prince ; to his signal ingratitude and dissimulation. It
accused him of originating the Eequest, the image-break-
ing, and the public preaching. It censured his marriage
with an abbess — even during the lifetime of his wife ; al-
luded to his campaigns against Alva, to his rebellion in
1580] THE BAN 617
Holland, and to the horrible massacres committed by
Spaniards in that province — as the necessary consequences
of his treason. It accused him of introducing liberty of
conscience, of procuring his own appointment as Euward,
of violating the Ghent treaty, of foiling the efforts of Don
John, and of frustrating the counsels of the Cologne com-
missioners by his perpetual distrust. It charged him with
a newly organized conspiracy, in the erection of the
Utrecht Union ; and for these and similar crimes — set
forth with involutions, slow, spiral, and cautious as the
head and front of the indictment was direct and deadly —
it announced the chastisement due to the " wretched hyp-
ocrite " who had committed such offences.
"For these causes," concluded the ban, "we declare
him traitor and miscreant, enemy of ourselves and of the
country. As such we banish him perpetually from all our
realms, forbidding all our subjects, of whatever quality, to
communicate with him openly or privately — to administer
to him victuals, drink, fire, or other necessaries. We al-
low all to injure him in property or life. We expose the
said William Nassau as an enemy of the human race — giv-
ing his property to all who may seize it. And if any one
of our subjects or any stranger should be found sufficient-
ly generous of heart to rid us of this pest, delivering him
to us, alive or dead, or taking his life, we will cause to be
furnished to him, immediately after the deed shall have
been done, the sum of twenty-five thousand crowns in
gold. If he have committed any crime, however heinous,
we promise to pardon him ; and if he be not already noble,
we will ennoble him for his valor."
Such was the celebrated ban against the Prince of
Orange. It was answered before the end of the year by
the memorable "Apology of the Prince of Orange," one of
the most startling documents in history. No defiance was
ever thundered forth in the face of a despot in more ter-
rible tones. It had become sufficiently manifest to the
royal party that the Prince was not to be purchased by
"millions of money," or by unlimited family advancement
— not to be cajoled by flattery or offers of illustrious friend-
ship. It had been decided, therefore, to terrify him into
618 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1580
retreat, or to remove him by murder. The government
had been thoroughly convinced that the only way to finish
the revolt was to " finish Orange," according to the an-
cient advice of Antonio Perez. The mask was thrown off.
It had been decided to forbid the Prince bread, water, fire,
and shelter ; to give his wealth to the fisc, his heart to the
assassin, his soul, as it was hoped, to the Father of Evil.
The rupture being thus complete, it was right that the
" wretched hypocrite " should answer ban with ban, royal
denunciation with sublime scorn. He had ill-deserved,
however, the title of hypocrite, he said. "When the friend
of government, he had warned them that by their com-
plicated and perpetual persecutions they were twisting the
rope of their own ruin. Was that hypocrisy ? Since be-
coming their enemy, there had likewise been little hypoc-
risy found in him — unless it were hypocrisy to make open
war upon government, to take their cities, to expel their
armies from the country.
The proscribed rebel, towering to a moral and even
social superiority over the man who affected to be his mas-
ter by right divine, swept down upon his antagonist with
crushing effect. He repudiated the idea of a king in the
Netherlands. The word might be legitimate in Castile,
or Naples, or the Indies, but the provinces knew no such
title. Philip had inherited in those countries only the
power of Duke or Count — a power closely limited by con-
stitutions more ancient than his birthright. Orange was
no rebel then — Philip no legitimate monarch. Even were
the Prince rebellious, it was no more than Philip's ances-
tor, Albert of Austria, had been towards his anointed
sovereign, Emperor Adolphus of Nassau, ancestor of
William. The ties of allegiance and conventional author-
ity being severed, it had become idle for the King to af-
fect superiority of lineage to the man whose family had
occupied illustrious stations when the Hapsburgs were
obscure squires in Switzerland, and had ruled as sovereign
in the Netherlands before that overshadowing house had
ever been named.
But whatever the hereditary claims of. Philip in the
country, he had forfeited them by the violation of his
1680] THE APOLOGY 619
oaths, by his tyrannical suppression of the charters of the
land ; while by his personal crimes he had lost all preten-
sion to sit in judgment upon his fellow -man. AVas a
people not justified in rising against authority when all
their laws had been trodden under foot, " not once only,
but a million of times ?" — and was William of Orange,
lawful husband of the virtuous Charlotte de Bourbon, to
be denounced for moral delinquency by a lascivious, in-
cestuous, adulterous, and murderous king ? With horri-
ble distinctness he laid before the monarch all the crimes
of which he believed him guilty, and having thus told
Philip to his beard, " thus diddest thou," he had a wither-
ing word for the priest who stood at his back. " Tell
me," he cried, "by whose command Cardinal Granvelle
administered poison to the Emperor Maximilian ? I know
what the Emperor told me, and how much fear he felt
afterwards for the King and for all Spaniards."
He ridiculed the effrontery of men like Philip and Gran-
velle in charging "distrust" upon others when it was
the very atmosphere of their own existence. He pro-
claimed that sentiment to be the only salvation for the
country. He reminded Philip of the words which his
namesake of Macedon — a school-boy in tyranny compared
to himself — had heard from the lips of Demosthenes —
that the strongest fortress of a free people against a ty-
rant was distrust. That sentiment, worthy of eternal
memory, the Prince declared that he had taken from
the " divine philippic," to engrave upon the heart of
the nation, and he prayed God that he might be more
readily believed than the great orator had been by his
people.
He treated with scorn the price set upon his head, ridi-
culing this project to terrify him for its want of novelty,
and asking the monarch if he supposed the rebel ignorant
of the various bargains which had frequently been made
before with cutthroats and poisoners to take away his life.
"I am in the hand of God," said William of Orange;
" my worldly goods and my life have been long since dedi-
cated to His service. He will dispose of them as seems
best for His glory and my salvation."
620 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1580
On the contrary, however, if it could be demonstrated,
or even hoped, that his absence would benefit the cause
of the country, he proclaimed himself ready to go into
exile. "Would to God," said he, in conclusion, "that
my perpetual banishment, or even my death, could bring
you a true deliverance from so many calamities. Oh, how
consoling would be such banishment — how sweet such a
death ! For why have I exposed my property ? Was it
that I might enrich myself ? Why have I lost my brothers ?
Was it that I might find new ones ? Why have I left my
son so long a prisoner ? Can you give me another ? Why
have I put my life so often in danger ? What reward can
I hope after my long services, and the almost total wreck
of my earthly fortunes, if not the prize of having ac-
quired, perhaps at the expense of my life, your liberty ?
If then, my masters, you judge that my absence or my
death can serve you, behold me ready to obey. Command
me — send me to the ends of the earth — I will obey. Here
is my head, over which no prince, no monarch has power
but yourselves. Dispose of it for your good, for the
preservation of your republic, but if you judge that the
moderate amount of experience and industry which is in
me, if you judge that the remainder of my property and
of my life can yet be of service to you, I dedicate them
afresh to you and to the country."
His motto — most appropriate to his life and character —
" Je maintiendrai," was the concluding phrase of the docu-
ment. His arms and signature were also formally ap-
pended, and the Apology, translated into most modern
languages, was sent to nearly every potentate in Chris-
tendom. It had been previously, on the 13th of Decem-
ber, 1580, read before the assembly of the united states,
at Delft, and approved as cordially as the ban was indig-
nantly denounced.
During the remainder of the year 1580, and the half of
the following year, the seat of hostilities was mainly in
the northeast, Parma, while waiting the arrival of fresh
troops, being inactive. The operations, like the armies
and the generals, were petty. Hohenlo was opposed to
Renneberg. After a. few insignificant victories, the latter
1581] THE NATIONAL COUNCIL 621
laid siege to Steenwyk, a city in itself of no great impor-
tance, bnt the key to the province of Drenthe. The gar-
rison consisted of six hundred soldiers, and half as many
trained burghers. Eenneberg, having six thousand foot
and twelve hundred horse, summoned the place to sur-
render, but was answered with defiance. Captain Cornput,
who had escaped from Groningen, after unsuccessfully
warning the citizens of Eenneberg's meditated treason,
commanded in Steenwyk, and his courage and cheerful-
ness sustained the population of the city during a close
winter siege. On the 22d of February, 1581, Sir John
Norris succeeded in victualling the town, and Count
Eenneberg abandoned the siege in despair.
The subsequent career of that unhappy nobleman was
brief. On the 19th of July his troops were signally de-
feated by Sonoy and Norris, the fugitive royalists retreat-
ing into Groningen at the very moment when their gen-
eral, who had been prevented by illness from commanding
them, was receiving the last sacraments. Eemorse, shame,
and disappointment had literally brought Eenneberg to
his grave. His regrets, his early death, and his many
attractive qualities combined to save his character from
universal denunciation, and his name, although indelibly
stained by treason, was ever mentioned with pity rather
than with rancor.
Great changes, destined to be perpetual, were in proc-
ess in the internal condition of the provinces. A pre-
liminary measure of an important character had been
taken early this year by the assembly of the united prov-
inces held in the month of January at Delft. This was
the establishment of a general executive council. The
constitution of the board was arranged on the 13th of the
month, and was embraced in eighteen articles. The num-
ber of councillors was fixed at thirty, all to be native
Ketherlanders, a certain proportion to be appointed from
each province by its estates. The advice and consent of
this body as to treaties with foreign powers were to be
indispensable, but they were not to interfere with the
rights and duties of the states-general, nor to interpose
any obstacle to the arrangements with the Duke of Anjou.
022 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
While this additional machine for the self-government
of the provinces was in the course of creation, the Spanish
monarch, on the other hand, had made another effort to
recover the authority which he felt slipping from his grasp.
Philip was in Portugal, preparing for his coronation in
that new kingdom — an event destined to be nearly con-
temporaneous with his deposition from the Netherland
sovereignty, so solemnly conferred upon him a quarter of
a century before in Brussels ; but although thus distant,
he was confident that he could more wisely govern the
Netherlands than the inhabitants could, and unwilling as
ever to confide in the abilities of those to whom he had
delegated his authority. Provided, as he unquestion-
ably was at that moment, with a more energetic repre-
sentative than any who had before exercised the func-
tions of royal governor in the provinces, he was still
disposed to harass, to doubt, and to interfere. With the
additional cares of the Portuguese conquest upon his
hands, he felt as irresistibly impelled as ever to superin-
tend the minute details of provincial administration. To
do this was impossible. It was, however, not impossible,
by attempting to do it, to produce much mischief. The
King had, moreover, recently committed the profound
error of sending the Duchess Margaret of Parma to the
Netherlands again. The event was what might have been
foreseen. The Netherlander were very moderately ex-
cited by the arrival of their former regent, but the Prince
of Parma was furious. His mother actually arrived at
Namur in the month of August, 1580, to assume the civil
administration of the provinces, and he was himself, ac-
cording to the King's request, to continue in the com-
mand of the army. Margaret of Parma was instantly
informed, however, by Alexander, that a divided authority
like that proposed was entirely out of the question. Both
offered to resign; but Alexander was unflinching in his
determination to retain all the power or none. By the
end of the year 1581 letters arrived confirming the Prince
of Parma in his government, but requesting the Duchess
of Parma to remain privately in the Netherlands. She
accordingly continued to reside there under an assumed
1581] PAPISTS OPPRESSED 623
name until the autumn of 1583, when she was at last per-
mitted to return to Italy.
During the summer of 1581 the same spirit of perse-
cution which had inspired the Catholics to inflict such
infinite misery upon those of the Reformed faith in the
Netherlands began to manifest itself in overt acts against
the papists by those who had at last obtained political
ascendency over them. Edicts were published in Ant-
werp, in Utrecht, and in different cities of Holland, sus-
pending the exercise of the Roman worship. These stat-
utes were certainly a long way removed in horror from
those memorable placards which sentenced the Reformers
by thousands to the axe, the cord, and the stake ; but it
was still melancholy to see the persecuted becoming per-
secutors in their turn. They were excited to these strin-
gent measures by the noisy zeal of certain Dominican
monks in Brussels, whose extravagant discourses were
daily inflaming the passions of the Catholics to a danger-
ous degree. The authorities of the city accordingly
thought it necessary to suspend, by proclamation, the
public exercise of the ancient religion, assigning as their
principal reason for this prohibition the shocking jug-
glery by which simple-minded persons were constantly
deceived. They alluded particularly to the practice of
working miracles by means of relics, pieces of the holy
cross, bones of saints, and the perspiration of statues.
They charged that bits of lath were daily exhibited as
fragments of the cross, that the bones of dogs and mon-
keys were held up for adoration as those of saints, and
that oil was poured habitually into holes drilled in the
heads of statues, that the populace might believe in their
miraculous sweating. For these reasons, and to avoid the
tumult and possible bloodshed to which the disgust ex-
cited by such charlatanry might give rise, the Roman
Catholic worship was suspended until the country should
be restored to greater tranquillity. Similar causes led
to similar proclamations in other cities. The Prince of
Orange lamented the intolerant spirit thus showing itself
among those who had been its martyrs, but it was not pos-
sible at that moment to keep it absolutely under control.
624 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
A most important change was now to take place in his
condition — a most vital measure was to be consummated
by the provinces. The step, which could never be re-
traced, was, after long hesitation, finally taken upon the
26th of July, 1581, upon which day the united provinces,
assembled at The Hague, solemnly declared their inde-
pendence of Philip, and renounced their allegiance for-
ever.*
This act was accomplished with the deliberation due to
its gravity ; at the same time it left the country in a very
divided condition. This was inevitable. The Prince had
done all that one man could do to hold the Netherlands
together and unite them perpetually into one body politic,
and perhaps, if he had been inspired by a keener personal
ambition, this task might have been accomplished. The
seventeen provinces might have accepted his dominion,
but they would agree to that of no other sovereign. Prov-
idence had not decreed that the country, after its long
agony, should give birth to a single and perfect common-
wealth. The Walloon provinces had already fallen off
from the cause, notwithstanding the entreaties of the
Prince. The other Netherlands, after long and tedious
negotiation with Anjou, had at last consented to his su-
premacy, but from this arrangement Holland and Zeeland
held themselves aloof. By a somewhat anomalous pro-
ceeding, they sent deputies along with those of the other
provinces to the conferences with the Duke, but it was
expressly understood that they would never accept him
as sovereign. They were willing to contract with hii
and with their sister provinces — over which he was sooi
to exercise authority — a firm and perpetual league, but
as to their own chief their hearts were fixed. The Prince
of Orange should be their lord and master, and none
other. It lay only in his self-denying character that he
* The full text of the English translation of the Act of Abjuration is
found in Lord Somer's Tracts, and is reprinted in full in the Old South
Historical Leaflets, No. 72. Boston, 1896. It is interesting to compare
the text of this Dutch document with that of the Declaration of Rights or
Act of Abjuration of James II. of Great Britain, and with the American
Declaration of July 4, 1776.
1681] DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE G25
had not been clothed with this dignity long before. He
had, however, persisted in the hope that all the provinces
might be brought to acknowledge the Duke of Anjou as
their sovereign, under conditions which constituted a free
commonwealth with an hereditary chief, and in this hope
he had constantly refused concession to the wishes of the
northern provinces. He in reality exercised sovereign
power over nearly the whole population of the Nether-
lands. Already, in 1580, at the assembly held in April,
the states of Holland had formally requested him to as-
sume the full sovereignty over them, with the title of
Count of Holland and Zeeland, forfeited by Philip. He
had not consented, and the proceedings had been kept
comparatively secret. As the negotiations with Anjou
advanced, and as the corresponding abjuration of Philip
was more decisively indicated, the consent of the Prince
to this request was more warmly urged. As it was evi-
dent that the provinces, thus bent upon placing him at
their head, could by no possibility be induced to accept
the sovereignty of Anjou, as, moreover, the act of renun-
ciation of Philip could no longer be deferred, the Prince
of Orange reluctantly and provisionally accepted the su-
preme power over Holland and Zeeland. This arrange-
ment was finally accomplished upon the 24th of July,
1581, and the Act of Abjuration took place two days after-
wards. The offer of the sovereignty over the other united
provinces had been accepted by Anjou six months before.
Thus the Netherlands were divided into three portions
—the reconciled provinces, the united provinces under
Anjou, and the northern provinces under Orange ; the
last division forming the germ, already nearly developed,
of the coming republic.
On the 29th of March, 1580, a resolution passed the
assembly of Holland and Zeeland never to make peace or
enter into any negotiations with the King of Spain on the
basis of his sovereignty. The same resolution provided
that his name — hitherto used in all public acts — should
be forever discarded, that his seal should be broken, and
that the name and seal of the Prince of Orange should
be substituted in all commissions and public documents.
40
626 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
At almost the same time the states of Utrecht passed a
similar resolution. These offers were, however, riot ac-
cepted, and the affair was preserved profoundly secret. On
the 5th of July, 1581, "the knights, nobles, and cities of Hol-
land and Zeeland " again, in an urgent and solemn manner,
requested the Prince to accept the "entire authority as
sovereign and chief of the land, as long as the war should
continue." This limitation as to time was inserted most
reluctantly by the states, and because it was perfectly well
understood that without it the Prince would not accept
the sovereignty at all. The act by which this dignity
was offered conferred full power to command all forces by
land and sea, to appoint all military officers, and to con-
duct all warlike operations without the control or advice
of any person whatsoever. It authorized him, with con-
sent of the states, to appoint all financial and judicial
officers, created him the supreme executive chief and
fountain of justice and pardon, and directed him "to
maintain the exercise only of the Reformed evangelical re-
ligion, without, however, permitting that inquiries should
be made into any man's belief or conscience, or that any
injury or hinderance should be offered to any man on ac-
count of his religion."
The sovereignty thus pressingly offered, and thus lim-
ited as to time, was finally accepted by William of Orange,
according to a formal act dated at The Hague, 5th of July,
1581, but it will be perceived that no powers were con-
ferred by this new instrument beyond those already exer-
cised by the Prince. It was, as it were, a formal con-
tinuance of the functions which he had exercised since
1576 as the King's stadholder, according to his old com-
mission of 1555, although a vast difference existed in re-
ality. The King's name was now discarded and his sov-
ereignty disowned, while the proscribed rebel stood in his
place, exercising supreme functions, not vicariously, but
in his own name. The limitation as to time was, more-
over, soon afterwards secretly, and without the knowledge
of Orange, cancelled by the states. They were determined
that the Prince should be their sovereign — if they could
make him so — for the term of his life.
1581] STYLE OF THE ABJURATION 627
The offer having thus been made and accepted upon
the 5th of July, oaths of allegiance and fidelity were ex-
changed between the Prince and the estates upon the 24th
of the same month. In these solemnities the states, as
representing the provinces, declared that because the
King of Spain, contrary to his oath as Count of Holland
and Zeeland, had not only not protected these provinces,
but had sought with all his might to reduce them to
eternal slavery, it had been found necessary to forsake
him. They therefore proclaimed every inhabitant ab-
solved from allegiance, while at the same time, in the
name of the people, they swore fidelity to the Prince of
Orange, as representing the supreme authority.
Two days afterwards, upon the 26th of July, 1581, the
memorable declaration of independence was issued by the
deputies of the united provinces, then solemnly assembled
at The Hague. It was called the Act of Abjuration. It
deposed Philip from his sovereignty, but was not the proc-
lamation of a new form of government, for the united
provinces were not ready to dispense with an hereditary
chief. Unluckily, they had already provided themselves
with a very bad one to succeed Philip in the dominion
over most of their territory, while the northern provinces
were fortunate enough and wise enough to take the Fa-
ther of the country for their supreme magistrate.
The document by which the provinces renounced their
allegiance was not the most felicitous of their state papers.
It was too prolix and technical. Its style had more of
the formal phraseology of legal documents than befitted
this great appeal to the whole world and to all time.
Nevertheless, this is but matter of taste. The Netherland-
ers were so eminently a law-abiding people that, like the
American patriots of the eighteenth century, they on most
occasions preferred punctilious precision to florid decla-
mation. They chose to conduct their revolt according to
law. At the same time, while thus decently wrapping
herself in conventional garments, the spirit of Liberty re-
vealed none the less her majestic proportions.
At the very outset of the Abjuration, these fathers of
the republic laid down wholesome truths, which at that
628 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
time seemed startling blasphemies in the ears of Christen-
dom. " All mankind know," said the preamble, " that a
prince is appointed by God to cherish his subjects, even
as a shepherd to guard his sheep. When, therefore, the
prince does not fulfil his duty as protector, when he op-
presses his subjects, destroys their ancient liberties, and
treats them as slaves, he is to be considered, not a prince,
but a tyrant. As such, the estates of the land may law-
fully and reasonably depose him, and elect another in his
room."
Having enunciated these maxims, the estates proceeded
to apply them to their own case, and certainly never was
an ampler justification for renouncing a prince since
princes were first instituted. The states ran through the
history of the past quarter of a century, patiently accu-
mulating a load of charges against the monarch, a tithe of
which would have furnished cause for his dethronement.
Without passion or exaggeration, they told the world
their wrongs. The picture was not highly colored. On
the contrary, it was rather a feeble than a striking por-
trait of the monstrous iniquity which had so long been es-
tablished over them. Nevertheless, they went through
the narrative conscientiously and earnestly. They spoke
of the King's early determination to govern the Nether-
lands, not by natives, but by Spaniards ; to treat them not
as constitutional countries, but as conquered provinces ;
to regard the inhabitants not as liege subjects, but as en-
emies ; above all, to supersede their ancient liberty by the
Spanish Inquisition ; and they alluded to the first great
step in this scheme, the creation of the new bishoprics,
each with its staff of inquisitors.
They noticed the memorable Petition, the mission of
Berghen and Montigny, their imprisonment and taking
off, in violation of all national law, even that which had
ever been held sacred by the most cruel and tyrannical
princes. They sketched the history of Alva's administra-
tion— his entrapping the most eminent nobles by false
promises, and delivering them to the executioner ; his
countless sentences of death, outlawry, and confiscation ;
his erection of citadels to curb, his imposition of the
1581] THEORY AND FACT 629
tenth and twentieth penny to exhaust the land ; his Coun-
cil of Blood and its achievements ; and the immeasurable
woe produced by hanging, burning, banishing, and plun-
dering, during his seven years of residence. They ad-
verted to the Grand Commander as having been sent, not
to improve the condition of the country, but to pursue
the same course of tyranny by more concealed ways.
They spoke of the horrible mutiny which broke forth at
his death ; of the Antwerp Fury ; of the express approba-
tion rendered to that great outrage by the King, who had
not only praised the crime, but promised to recompense
the criminals. They alluded to Don John of Austria and
his duplicity ; to his pretended confirmation of the Ghent
treaty ; to his attempts to divide the country against it-
self ; to the Escovedo policy ; to the intrigues with the
German regiments. They touched upon the Cologne ne-
gotiations, and the fruitless attempt of the patriots upon
that occasion to procure freedom of religion, while the
object of the royalists was only to distract and divide the
nation. Finally, they commented with sorrow and de-
spair upon that last and crowning measure of tyranny,
the ban against the Prince of Orange.
They calmly observed, after this recital, that they were
sufficiently justified in forsaking a sovereign who for more
than twenty years had forsaken them. Obeying the law
of nature, desirous of maintaining the rights, charters,
and liberties of their fatherland, determined to escape
from slavery to Spaniards, and making known their de-
cision to the world, they declared the King of Spain de-
posed from his sovereignty, and proclaimed that they
should recognize thenceforth neither his title nor juris-
diction. Three days afterwards, on the 29th of July, the
assembly adopted a formula by which all persons were to
be required to signify their abjuration.
Such were the forms by which the united provinces
threw off their allegiance to Spain, and ip so facto estab-
lished a republic, which was to flourish for two centuries.
: Acting upon the principle that government should be for
. the benefit of the governed, and in conformity to the dic-
,tates of reason and justice, they examined the facts by
630 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
those divine lights, and discovered cause to discard their
ruler. They did not object to being ruled. They were
satisfied with their historical institutions, and preferred
the mixture of hereditary sovereignty with popular repre-
sentation, to which they were accustomed. They did not
devise an d priori constitution. Philip, having violated the
law of reason and the statutes of the land, was deposed,
and a new chief magistrate was to be elected in his stead.
This was popular sovereignty in fact, but not in words.
The deposition and election could be legally justified only
by the inherent right of the people to depose and to elect;
yet the provinces, in their Declaration of Independence,
spoke of the divine right of kings, even while dethroning,
by popular right, their own King !
The Netherlander dealt with facts. They possessed a
body of laws, monuments of their national progress, b
which as good a share of individual liberty was secured t
the citizen as was then enjoyed in any country of th
world. Their institutions admitted of great improve-
ment, no doubt ; but it was natural that a people so cir
cumstanced should be unwilling to exchange their condi
tion for the vassalage of " Moors or Indians."
At the same time it may be doubted whether the in-
stinct for political freedom only would have sustained
them in the long contest, and whether the bonds which
united them to the Spanish Crown would have been
broken had it not been for the stronger passion for relig-
ious liberty by which so large a portion of the people was
animated. Boldly as the united states of the Netherlands
laid down their political maxims, the quarrel might per-
haps have been healed if the religious question had ad-
mitted of a peaceable solution. Philip's bigotry amount-
ing to frenzy, and the Netherlanders of "the religion"
being willing, in their own words, " to die the death
rather than abandon the Reformed faith, there w;
upon this point no longer room for hope. In the Ac
of Abjuration, however, it was thought necessary to giv
offence to no class of the inhabitants, but to lay do
such principles only as enlightened Catholics would no
oppose. All parties abhorred the inquisition, and hat
1581] ASSUMED REPRESENTATION 631
to that institution is ever prominent among the causes as-
signed for the deposition of the monarch. " Under pre-
tence of maintaining the Roman religion/' said the estates,
"the King has sought by evil means to bring into opera-
tion the whole strength of the placards and of the inquisi-
tion— the first and true cause of all our miseries."
Without making any assault upon the Eoman Catholic
faith, the authors of the great act by which Philip was for-
ever expelled from the Netherlands showed plainly enough
that religious persecution had driven them at last to ex-
tremity. At the same time, they were willing — for the
sake of conciliating all classes of their countrymen — to
bring the political causes of discontent into the foreground,
and to use discreet language upon the religious question.
The hour had not arrived for more profound analysis of
the social compact. Philip was accordingly deposed just-
ly, legally, formally — justly, because it had become neces-
sary to abjure a monarch who was determined not only to
oppress but to exterminate his people ; legally, because he
had habitually violated the constitutions which he had
sworn to support ; formally, because the act was done in
the name of the people, by the body historically represent-
ing the people. All classes of individuals, arranged in
various political or military combinations, gave their ac-
quiescence afterwards, together with their oaths of alle-
giance. The people approved the important steps taken
by their representatives.
Without a direct intention on the part of the people or
its leaders to establish a republic, the republic established
itself. Providence did not permit the whole country, so
full of wealth, intelligence, healthy political action, so
stocked with powerful cities and an energetic population,
to be combined into one free and prosperous common-
wealth. The factious ambition of a few grandees, the cyn-
i ical venality of many nobles, the frenzy of the Ghent de-
mocracy, the spirit of religious intolerance, the consum-
mate military and political genius of Alexander Farnese,
i the exaggerated self-abnegation and the tragic fate of
' Orange, all united to dissever this group of flourishing and
1 kindred provinces.
632
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1581
The want of personal ambition on the part of William
the Silent inflicted perhaps a serious damage upon his
country. He believed a single chief requisite for the
united states ; he might have been, but always refused to
become that chief. The unfortunate negotiations with
Anjou, to which no man was more opposed than Count
John, therefore proceeded. In the meantime the sover-
eignty over the united provinces was provisionally held
by the national council and, at the urgent solicitation
of the states general, by the Prince.
The Archduke Matthias, whose functions were most un-
ceremoniously brought to an end by the transactions whicl
we have been recording, took his leave of the states, anc
departed in the month of October. Brought to the coun-
try a beardless boy, by the intrigues of a faction whc
wished to use him as a tool against William of Orange, ht
had quietly submitted, on the contrary, to serve as the
instrument of that great statesman. His personality dur-
ing his residence was null, and he had to expiate, b]
many a petty mortification, by many a bitter tear, the
boyish ambition which brought him to the Netherlands
He had certainly had ample leisure to repent the hast
with which he had got out of his warm bed in Vienna
take his bootless journey to Brussels. Nevertheless, in
country where so much baseness, cruelty, and treachery
was habitually practised by men of high position as was
the case in the Netherlands, it is something in favor of
Matthias that he had not been base or cruel or treacher-
ous. The states voted him, on his departure, a pension of
fifty thousand guldens annually, which was probably not
paid with exemplary regularity.
CHAPTER V
THE DUKE OF ANJOU — ORANGE OFFERED THE SOVER-
EIGNTY
THUS it was arranged that, for the present at least, the
Prince should exercise sovereignty over Holland and Zee-
land, although he had himself used his utmost exertions
to induce those provinces to join the rest of the United
Netherlands in the proposed election of Anjou. This,
however, they sternly refused to do. There was also a
great disinclination felt by many in the other states to
this hazardous offer of their allegiance, and it was the
personal influence of Orange that eventually carried the
measure through. Looking at the position of affairs and
at the character of Anjou, as they appear to us now, it
seems difficult to account for the Prince's policy. It is so
natural to judge only by the result that we are ready to
censure statesmen for consequences which beforehand
might seem utterly incredible, and for reading falsely
human characters whose entire development only a late
posterity has had full opportunity to appreciate. Still,
one would think that Anjou had been sufficiently known
to inspire distrust.
There was but little, too, in the aspect of the French
court to encourage hopes of valuable assistance from that
quarter. It was urged, not without reason, that the
French were as likely to become as dangerous as the Span-
iards ; that they would prove nearer and more trouble-
some masters ; that France intended the incorporation of
the Netherlands into her own kingdom ; that the prov-
inces would therefore be dispersed forever from the Ger-
man Empire ; and that it was as well to hold to the ty-
634 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
rant under whom they had been born as to give them-
selves voluntarily to another of their own making. In
short, it was maintained, in homely language, that "France
and Spain were both under one coverlet." It might have
been added that only extreme misery could make the
provinces take either bedfellow. Moreover, it was as-
serted, with reason, that Anjou would be a very expensive
master, for his luxurious and extravagant habits were no-
torious— that he was a man in whom no confidence could
be placed,- and one who would grasp at arbitrary power by
any means which might present themselves. Above all, it
was urged that he was not of the true religion, that he
hated the professors of that faith in his heart, and that it
was extremely unwise for men whose dearest interests
were their religious ones, to elect a sovereign of oppo-
site creed to their own. To these plausible views the
Prince of Orange and those who acted with him had,
however, sufficient answers. The Netherlands had waited
long enough for assistance from other quarters. Ger-
many would not lift a finger in the cause ; on the con-
trary, the whole of Germany, whether Protestant or Cath-
olic, was either openly or covertly hostile. It was mad-
ness to wait till assistance came to them from unseen
sources. It was time for them to assist themselves, and to
take the best they could get ; for when men were starving
they could not afford to be dainty. They might be bound
hand and foot, they might be overwhelmed a thousand
times before they would receive succor from Germany, or
from any land but France. Under the circumstances in
which they found themselves, hope delayed was but a cold
and meagre consolation.
"To speak plainly," said Orange, "asking us to wait is
very much as if you should keep a man three days with-
out any food in the expectation of a magnificent banquet,
should persuade him to refuse bread, and at the end of
three days should tell him that the banquet was not ready,
but that a still better one was in preparation. "Would
it not be better, then, that the poor man, to avoid star-
vation, should wait no longer, but accept bread Avherever
he might find it ? Such is our case at present."
1581] POLICY OF THE FRENCH COURT 635
It was in this vein that he ever wrote and spoke. The
Netherlands were to rely upon their own exertions, and to
procure the best alliance together with the most efficient
protection possible. They were not strong enough to cope
single-handed with their powerful tyrant, but they were
strong enough if they used the instruments which Heaven
offered. It is only by listening to these arguments so often
repeated that we can comprehend the policy of Orange at
this period.
There was a feeling entertained by the more sanguine
that the French King would heartily assist the Nether-
lands after his brother should be fairly installed. He
had expressly written to that effect, assuring Anjou that
he would help him with all his strength, and would enter
into close alliance with those Netherlands which should
accept him as prince and sovereign. As for the Queen-
mother, she was fierce in her determination to see fulfilled
in this way the famous prediction of Nostradamus. Three
of her sons had successively worn the crown of France.
That she might be "the mother of four kings," without
laying a third child in the tomb, she was greedy for this
proffered sovereignty to her youngest and favorite son.
This well-known desire of Catharine de' Medici was duly
insisted upon by the advocates of the election ; for her in-
fluence, it was urged, would bring the whole power of
France to support the Netherlands.
At any rate, France could not be worse — could hardly
be so bad — as their present tyranny. "Better the gov-
ernment of the Gaul, though suspect and dangerous,"
said Everard Reyd, " than the truculent dominion of the
Spaniard. Even thus will the partridge fly to the hand of
man to escape the talons of the hawk."
As for the religious objection to Anjou, on which more
stress was laid than upon any other, the answer was equally
ready. Orange professed himself "not theologian enough"
to go into the subtleties brought forward. As it was in-
tended to establish most firmly a religious peace, with en-
tire tolerance for all creeds, he did not think it absolutely
essential to require a prince of the Reformed faith. It
was bigotry to dictate to the sovereign when full liberty
636 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
in religious matters was claimed for the subject. Orange
was known to be a zealous professor of the Reformed wor-
ship himself ; but he did not therefore reject political as-
sistance, even though offered by a not very enthusiastic
member of the ancient Church. " If the priest and the
Levite pass us by when we are fallen among thieves," said
he, with much aptness and some bitterness, "shall we re-
ject the aid proffered by the Samaritan, because he is of a
different faith from the worthy fathers who have left us
to perish ?"
By midsummer the Duke of Anjou made his appearance
in the western part of the Netherlands. The Prince of
Parma had recently come before Cambrai with the inten-
tion of reducing that important city. On the arrival of
Anjou, however, at the head of five thousand cavalry —
nearly all of them gentlemen of high degree, serving as
volunteers — and of twelve thousand infantry, Alexander
raised the siege precipitately, and retired towards Tour-
nai. Anjou victualled the city, strengthened the garrison,
and then, as his cavalry had only enlisted for a summer's
amusement, and could no longer be held together, he dis-
banded his forces. The bulk of the infantry took service
for the states under the Prince of Espinoy, governor of
Tournai. The Duke himself, finding that, notwithstand-
ing the treaty of Plessis les Tours and the present showy
demonstration upon his part, the states were not yet pre-
pared to render him formal allegiance, and being, more-
over, in the heyday of what was universally considered
his prosperous courtship of Queen Elizabeth, soon after-
wards took his departure for England. Parma, being thus
relieved of his interference, soon afterwards advanced
against the important city of Tournai, and began a siege
which lasted two months. Meantime, it became impossi-
ble for Orange and the estates, notwithstanding their ef-
forts, to raise a sufficient force to drive Parma from his
intrenchments. The city was becoming gradually and
surely undermined from without, while at the same time
the insidious art of a Dominican friar, Father Gery by
name, had been as surely sapping the fidelity of the garri-
son from within. An open revolt of the Catholic popula-
1581] INVITATION TO ANJOU 637
tion being on the point of taking place, it became impossi-
ble any longer to hold the city. Those of the Reformed
faith insisted that the place should be surrendered ; and
the Princess of Espinoy, in command, being thus deserted
by all parties, made an honorable capitulation with Parma.
She herself, with all her garrison, was allowed to retire
with personal property, and with all the honors of war,
while the sack of the city was commuted for one hundred
thousand crowns, levied upon the inhabitants. The
Princess, on leaving the gates, was received with such a
shout of applause from the royal army that she seemed less
like a defeated commander than a conqueror. Upon the
30th of November, Parma accordingly entered the place
which he had been besieging since the 1st of October.
By the end of the autumn, the Prince of Orange, more
than ever dissatisfied with the anarchical condition of af-
fairs, and with the obstinate jealousy and parsimony of the
different provinces, again summoned the country in the
most earnest language to provide for the general defence,
and to take measures for the inauguration of Anjou. He
painted in sombre colors the prospect which lay before
them if nothing were done to arrest the progress of the
internal disorders and of the external foe, whose forces
were steadily augmenting.
The states, thus shamed and stimulated, set themselves
in earnest to obey the mandates of the Prince, and sent a
special mission to England to arrange with the Duke of
Anjou for his formal installation as sovereign. Sainte-Al-
degonde and other commissioners were already there. It
was the memorable epoch in the Anjou wooing when the
rings were exchanged between Elizabeth and the Duke,
and when the world thought that the nuptials were on
the point of being celebrated. Sainte-Aldegonde wrote
to the Prince of Orange on the 22d of November that the
marriage had been finally settled upon that day. Through-
out the Netherlands the auspicious tidings were greeted
with bonfires, illuminations, and cannonading, and the
measures for hailing the Prince, thus highly favored by
so great a Queen, as sovereign master of the provinces,
were pushed forward with great energy.
I
638 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
Nevertheless, the marriage ended in smoke. There were
plenty of tourneys, pageants, and banquets ; a profusion
of nuptial festivities, in short, where nothing was omitted
but the nuptials. By the end of January, 1582, the Duke
was no nearer the goal than upon his arrival three months
before. Acceding, therefore, to the wishes of the Neth-
erland envoys, he prepared for a visit to their country,
where the ceremony of his joyful entrance as Duke of
Brabant and sovereign of the other provinces was to take
place. No open rupture with Elizabeth occurred. On
the contrary, the Queen accompanied the Duke, with a
numerous and stately retinue, as far as Canterbury, and
sent a most brilliant train of her greatest nobles and gen-
tlemen to escort him to the Netherlands, communicat-
ing at the same time by special letter her wishes to the
estates-general that he should be treated with as much
honor " as if he were her second self."
On the 10th of February fifteen large vessels cast an-
chor at Flushing. The Duke of Anjon, attended by the
Earl of Leicester, the Lords Hunsdon, Willoughby, Shef-
field, Howard, Sir Philip Sidney, and many other per-
sonages of high rank and reputation, landed from this
fleet. He was greeted on his arrival by the Prince of
Orange who, with the Prince of Espinoy and a large depu-
tation of the states-general, had been for some days wait-
ing to welcome him. The man whom the Netherlands
had chosen for their new master stood on the shores of
Zeeland. Francis Hercules, son of France, Duke of
Alengon and Anjou, was at that time just twenty-eight
years of age ; yet not even his flatterers or his " minions,"
of whom he had as regular a train as his royal brother,
could claim for him the external graces of youth or of
princely dignity. He was below the middle height, puny
and ill-shaped. His hair and eyes were brown, his face
was seamed with the small -pox, his skin covered with
blotches, his nose so swollen and distorted that it seemed
to be double. This prominent feature did not escape the
sarcasms of his countrymen, who, among other gibes,
were wont to observe that the man who always wore two
faces might be expected to have two noses also. It was
1582] PORTRAIT OF ALEN^ON 639
thought that his revolting appearance was the principal
reason for the rupture of the English marriage, and it
was in vain that his supporters maintained that if he
could forgive her age she might, in return, excuse his
ugliness. It seemed that there was a point of hideous-
ness beyond which even royal princesses could not descend
with impunity, and the only wonder seemed that Eliza-
beth, with the handsome Robert Dudley ever at her feet,
could even tolerate the addresses of Francis Valois.
His intellect was by no means contemptible. He was
not without a certain quickness of apprehension and vi-
vacity of expression which passed current among his ad-
mirers for wit and wisdom. Even the experienced Sainte-
Aldegonde was deceived in his character, and described
him, after an hour and a half's interview, as a prince over-
flowing with bounty, intelligence, and sincerity. That
such men as Sainte-Aldegonde and the Prince of Orange
should be at fault in their judgment is evidence not so
much of their want of discernment as of the difference
between the general reputation of the Duke at that period
and that which has been eventually established for him in
history.
No more ignoble yet more dangerous creature had yet
been loosed upon the devoted soil of the Netherlands.
Not one of the personages who had hitherto figured in
the long drama of the revolt had enacted so sorry a part.
Ambitious but trivial, enterprising but cowardly, an in-
triguer and a dupe, without religious convictions or polit-
ical principles save that he was willing to accept any creed
or any system which might advance his own schemes, he
was the most unfit protector for a people who, whether
wrong or right, were at least in earnest, and who were
accustomed to regard truth as one of the virtues. He
was certainly not deficient in self-esteem. With a figure
which was insignificant and a countenance which was re-
pulsive, he had hoped to efface the impression made
upon Elizabeth's imagination by the handsomest man in
Europe. With a commonplace capacity and with a nar-
row political education he intended to circumvent the
most profound statesman of his age. And there, upon the
640 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
pier at Flushing, he stood between them both — between
the magnificent Leicester, whom he had thought to out-
shine, and the silent Prince of Orange, whom he was de-
termined to outwit.
The Duke's arrival was greeted with the roar of artil-
lery, the ringing of bells, and the acclamations of a large
concourse of the inhabitants ; suitable speeches were
made by the magistrates of the town, the deputies of Zee-
land, and other functionaries, and a stately banquet was
provided, so remarkable "for its sugar-work and other
delicacies as to entirely astonish the French and English
lords who partook thereof." The Duke visited Middel-
burg, where he was received with great state, and to the
authorities of which he expressed his gratification at find-
ing two such stately cities situate so close to each other
on one little island.
On the 17th of February he set sail for Antwerp. A
fleet of fifty -four vessels, covered with flags and stream-
ers, conveyed him and his retinue, together with the large
deputation which had welcomed him at Flushing, to the
great commercial metropolis. He stepped on shore at
Kiel within a bowshot of the city — for, like other Dukes
of Brabant, he was not to enter Antwerp until he had
taken the oaths to respect the constitution — and the cere-
mony of inauguration was to take place outside the walls.
A large platform had been erected for this purpose, com-
manding a view of the stately city, with its bristling forti-
fications and shady groves. A throne, covered with vel-
vet and gold, was prepared, and here the Duke took his
seat, surrounded by a brilliant throng, including many of
the most distinguished personages in Europe.
It was a bright winter morning. The gayly bannered
fleet lay conspicuous in the river, while an enormous con-
course of people were thronging from all sides to greet the
new sovereign. Twenty thousand burgher troops, in
bright uniforms, surrounded the platform, upon the tap-
estried floor of which stood the magistrates of Antwerp,
the leading members of the Brabant estates, with the
Prince of Orange at their head, together with many other
great functionaries. The magnificence everywhere dis-
1582] ORATORY 641
played, and especially the splendid costumes of the mili-
tary companies, excited the profound astonishment of the
French, who exclaimed that every soldier seemed a cap-
tain, and who regarded with vexation their own inferior
equipments.
Inside the gate a stupendous allegory was awaiting the
approach of the new sovereign, and the procession ad^-
vanced into the city. The streets were lined with troops
and with citizens ; the balconies were filled with fair
women ; " the very gables," says an enthusiastic contem-
porary, "'seemed to laugh with ladies' eyes." The mar-
ket-place was filled with waxen torches and with blazing
tar-barrels, while in its centre stood the giant Antigonus
— founder of the city thirteen hundred years before the
Christian era — the fabulous personage who was accustomed
to throw the right hands of all smuggling merchants into
the Scheldt. This colossal individual, attired in a "sur-
coat of sky-blue," and holding a banner emblazoned with
the arms of Spain, turned its head as the Duke entered
the square, saluted the new sovereign, and then dropping
the Spanish scutcheon upon the ground, raised aloft an-
other bearing the arms of Anjou.
And thus, amid exuberant outpouring of confidence,
another lord and master had made his triumphal entrance
into the Netherlands. Alas ! how often had this sanguine
people greeted with similar acclamations the advent of
their betrayers and their tyrants ! How soon were they
to discover that the man whom they were thus receiving
with the warmest enthusiasm was the most treacherous
tyrant of all.
It was nightfall before the procession at last reached
1 the palace of Saint Michael, which had been fitted up for
the temporary reception of the Duke. The next day was
: devoted to speech - making ; various deputations waiting
upon the new Duke of Brabant with congratulatory ad-
dresses. There were oaths enough, orations enough, com-
'pliments enough, to make any agreement steadfast, so far
as windy suspirations could furnish a solid foundation for
'the social compact. Bells, trumpets, and the brazen
'throats of men and of cannon made a sufficient din,
41
642 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
torches and tar-barrels made a sufficient glare, to confirm
— so far as uoise and blazing pitch could confirm — the
decorous proceedings of church and Town -house, but
time was soon to show the value of such demonstrations.
The terms of the treaty concluded at Plessis les Tours
and Bordeaux were made public. The Duke had sub-
scribed to twenty-seven articles, which made as stringent
and sensible a constitutional compact as could be desired
by any Netherland patriot. These articles, taken in con-
nection with the ancient charters which they expressly up-
held, left to the new sovereign no vestige of arbitrary pow-
er. He was merely the hereditary president of a repre-
sentative republic. He was to be duke, count, mar-
grave, or seignior of the different provinces on the same
terms which his predecessors had accepted.
It would be superfluous to point out the great differ-
ence between the notions entertained upon international
law in the sixteenth century and in our own. A state of
nominal peace existed between Spain, France, and Eng-
land ; yet here was the brother of the French monarch, at
the head of French troops and attended by the grandees
of England, solemnly accepting the sovereignty over the
revolted provinces of Spain. It is also curious to observe
that the constitutional compact by which the new sover-
eign of the Netherlands was admitted to the government
would have been repudiated as revolutionary and repub-
lican by the monarchs of France or England, if an at-
tempt had been made to apply it to their own realms, for
the ancient charters — which in reality constituted a re
publican form of government — had all been re-established
by the agreement with Anjou.
The first-fruits of the ban now began to display them-
selves. Sunday, 18th of March, 1582, was the birthday
of the Duke of Anjou, and a great festival had been ar-
ranged, accordingly, for the evening, at the palace of
Saint Michael, the Prince of Orange as well as all the
great French lords being of course invited. The Prince
dined, as usual, at his house in the neighborhood of the
citadel, in company with the Counts Hohenlo and Laval,
and the two distinguished French commissioners, Boiini-
1582] ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE ORANGE 643
vet and Des Pruneaux. Young Maurice of Nassau and
two nephews of the Prince, sons of his brother John, were
also present at table. During dinner the conversation
was animated, many stories being related of the cruelties
which had been practised by the Spaniards in the prov-
inces. On rising from the table, Orange led the way from
the dining-room to his own apartments, showing the noble-
men in his company as he passed along a piece of tapes-
try upon which some Spanish soldiers were represented.
At this moment, as he stood upon the threshold of the
antechamber, a youth of small stature, vulgar mien, and
pale, dark complexion appeared from among the servants
and offered him a petition. He took the paper, and as he
did so the stranger suddenly drew a pistol and discharged
it at the head of the Prince. The ball entered the neck
under the right ear, passed through the roof of the mouth,
and came out under the left jaw-bone, carrying with it
two teeth. The pistol had been held so near that the
hair and beard of the Prince were set on fire by the dis-
charge. He remained standing, but blinded, stunned,
and for a moment entirely ignorant of what had occurred.
As he afterwards observed, he thought perhaps that a
part of the house had suddenly fallen. Finding very soon
that his hair and beard were burning, he comprehended
what had occurred, and called out quickly, "Do not kill
him — I forgive him my death !" and turning to the French
noblemen present, he added, "Alas ! what a faithful ser-
vant does his Highness lose in me !"
These were his first words, spoken when, as all believed,
he had been mortally wounded. The message of mercy
came, however, too late ; for two of the gentlemen pres-
ent, by an irresistible impulse, had run the assassin through
with their rapiers. The halberdiers rushed upon him im-
mediately afterwards, so that he fell pierced in thirty-two
vital places. The Prince, supported by his friends, walked
to his chamber, where he was put to bed, while the sur-
geons examined and bandaged the wound. It was most
dangerous in appearance, but a very strange circumstance
gave more hope than could otherwise have been enter-
1 tained. The flame from the pistol had been so close that
G44 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
it had actually cauterized the wound inflicted by the ball.
But for this, it was supposed that the flow of blood from
the veins which had been shot through would have proved
fatal before the wound could be dressed. The Prince, af-
ter the first shock, had recovered full possession of his
senses, and believing himself to be dying, he expressed the
most unaffected sympathy for the condition in which the
Duke of Anjou would be placed by his death. "Alas,
poor Prince!" he cried frequently ; "alas, what troubles
will now beset thee V The surgeons enjoined and im-
plored his silence, as speaking might cause the wound to
prove immediately fatal. He complied, but wrote inces-
santly. As long as his heart could beat it was impossi-
ble for him not to be occupied with his country.
Lion Petit, a trusty captain of the city guard, forced
his way to the chamber, it being absolutely necessary, said
the honest burgher, for him to see with his own eyes that
the Prince was living, and report the fact to the towns-
people : otherwise, so great was the excitement, it was im-
possible to say what might be the result. Captain Petit
was urged by the Prince, in writing, to go forth instantly
with the news that he yet survived, but to implore the
people, in case God should call him to Himself, to hold
him in kind remembrance, to make no tumult, and to
serve the Duke obediently and faithfully.
Meantime, the youthful Maurice of Nassau was giving
proof of that cool determination which already marked
his character. It was natural that a boy of fifteen should
be somewhat agitated at seeing such a father shot through
the head before his eyes. His situation was rendered
doubly grave by the suspicions which were instantly en-
gendered as to the probable origin of the attempt. It was
already whispered in the hall that the gentlemen who had
been so officious in slaying the assassin were his accom-
plices, who — upon the principle that dead men would tell
no tales — were disposed, now that the deed was done, to
preclude inconvenient revelations as to their own share in
the crime. Maurice, notwithstanding these causes for
perturbation, and despite his grief at his father's probable
death, remained steadily by the body of the murderer.
1582] EXCITEMENT AND SUSPICIONS 645
was determined, if possible, to unravel the plot, and he
waited to possess himself of all papers and other articles
which might be found upon the person of the deceased.
A scrupulous search was at once made by the attend-
ants, and everything placed in the young Count's own
hands. This done, Maurice expressed a doubt lest some
of the villain's accomplices might attempt to take the ar-
ticles from him, whereupon a faithful old servant of his
father came forward, who with an emphatic expression of
the importance of securing such important documents,
took his young master under his cloak and led him to a
retired apartment of the house. Here, after a rapid ex-
amination, it was found that the papers were all in Span-
ish, written by Spaniards to Spaniards, so that it was
obvious that the conspiracy, if one there were, was not a
French conspiracy. The servant, therefore, advised Mau-
rice to go to his father, while he would himself instantly de-
scend to the hall with this important intelligence. Count
Hohenlo had, from the instant of the assault, ordered the
doors to be fastened, and had permitted no one to enter or
to leave the apartment without his permission. The in-
formation now brought by the servant as to the character
of the papers caused great relief to the minds of all ; for,
till that moment, suspicion had even lighted upon men
who were the firm friends of the Prince.
Sainte-Aldegonde, who had meantime arrived, now pro-
ceeded, in company of the other gentlemen, to examine
the papers and other articles taken from the assassin.
This done, he hastened to lay the result of this examina-
tion before the Duke of Anjou. Information was likewise
instantly conveyed to the magistrates at the Town-house,
and these measures Avere successful in restoring confidence
throughout the city as to the intentions of the new govern-
ment. Anjou immediately convened the state council,
issued a summons for an early meeting of the states-gen-
eral, and published a proclamation that all persons having
information to give concerning the crime which had just
been committed should come instantly forward, upon
pain of death. The body of the assassin was forthwith ex-
posed upon the public square, and was soon recognized as
646 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
that of one Jnan Jaureguy, a servant in the employ of
Gaspar d' Anastro, a Spanish merchant of Antwerp. The
letters and bills of exchange had also, on nearer examina-
tion at the Town-house, implicated Anastro in the affair.
His house was immediately searched, but the merchant
had taken his departure, upon the previous Tuesday, un-
der pretext of pressing affairs at Calais. His cashier,
Venero, and a Dominican friar, named Antonie Tim mer-
man, both inmates of his family, were, however, arrested
upon suspicion. On the following day the watch stationed
at the gate carried the foreign post-bags, as soon as they
arrived, to the magistracy, when letters were found from
Anastro to Venero which made the affair quite plain.
After they had been thoroughly studied they were shown
to Venero, who, seeing himself thus completely ruined,
asked for pen and ink, and wrote a full confession.
It appeared that the crime was purely a commerci
speculation on the part of Anastro. That merchant, be-
ing on the verge of bankruptcy, had entered with Philip
into a mutual contract, which the King had signed with
his hand and sealed with his seal, and according to which
Anastro, within a certain period, was to take the life of
William of Orange, and for so doing was to receive eighty
thousand ducats and the cross of Santiago. To be a
knight companion of Spain's proudest order of chivalry
was the guerdon, over and above the eighty thousand
pieces of silver, which Spain's monarch promised the mur-
derer, if he should succeed. The merchant and his book-
keeper concerted between them that Juan Jaureguy should
be intrusted with the job. Anastro had intended — as he
said in a letter afterwards intercepted — "to accomplish
the deed with his own hand ; but, as God had probably
reserved him for other things, and particularly to be of
service to his very affectionate friends, he had thought
best to intrust the execution of the design to his servant.'5
The price paid by the master to the man for the work
seems to have been but two thousand eight hundred and
seventy-seven crowns. The cowardly and crafty principal
escaped. He had gone post haste to Dunkirk, pretending
that the sudden death of his agent in Calais required his
1582] CRITICAL CONDITION OF ORANGE 647
immediate presence in that city. Governor Swevezeele, of
Dunkirk, sent an orderly to get a passport for him from
La Motte, commanding at Gravelingen. Two hours after
the traveller's departure the news arrived of the deed, to-
gether with orders to arrest Anastro, but it was too late.
The merchant had found refuge within the lines of Parma.
Meanwhile the Prince lay in a most critical condition.
Believing that his end was fast approaching, he dictated
letters to the states-general entreating them to continue
in their obedience to the Duke, than whom he affirmed
that he knew no better prince for the government of the
provinces. These letters were despatched by Sainte-Alde-
gonde to the assembly, from which body a deputation, in
obedience to the wishes of Orange, was sent to Anjou with
expressions of condolence and fidelity.
On Wednesday a solemn fast was held, according to
proclamation, in Antwerp, all work and all amusements
being prohibited, and special prayers commanded in all
the churches for the recovery of the Prince. " Never,
within men's memory," says an account published at the
moment, in Antwerp, "had such crowds been seen in the
churches, nor so many tears been shed."
The process against Venero and Timmerman was rap-
idly carried through, for both had made a full confession
of their share in the crime. The Prince had enjoined
from his sick bed, however, that the case should be con-
ducted with strict regard to justice, and when the exe-
cution could no longer be deferred, he had sent a written
request by the hands of Sainte-Aldegonde that they should
be put to death in the least painful manner. The request
was complied with, but there can be no doubt that the
criminals, had it not been made, would have expiated
their offence by the most lingering tortures. Owing to
the intercession of the man who was to have been their
victim, they were strangled, before being quartered, upon
a scaffold erected in the market-place, opposite the Town-
house. This execution took place on Wednesday, the
28th of March.
The Prince, meanwhile, was thought to be mending,
and thanksgivings began to be mingled with the prayers
648 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
offered almost every hour in the churches ; but for eigh-
teen days he lay in a most precarious state. His wife hardly
left his bedside, and his sister, Catharine, Countess of
Schwartzburg, was indefatigable in her attentions. The
Duke of Anjou visited him daily and expressed the most
filial anxiety for his recovery, but the hopes which had
been gradually growing stronger were, on the 5th of April,
exchanged for the deepest apprehensions. Upon that
day the cicatrix by which the flow of blood from the neck
had been prevented, almost from the first infliction of the
wound, fell off. The veins poured forth a vast quantity
of blood ; it seemed impossible to check the hemorrhage,
and all hope appeared to vanish. The Prince resigned
himself to his fate, and bade his children "good-night for
ever," saying calmly, "it is now all over with me."
It was difficult, without suffocating the patient, to fasten
a bandage tightly enough to stanch the wound, but Leo
nardo Botalli, of Asti, body physician of Anjou, was nev
ertheless fortunate enough to devise a simple mechanica'
expedient, which proved successful. By his advice a
succession of attendants, relieving each other day and
night, prevented the flow of blood by keeping the orific
of the wound slightly but firmly compressed with the
thumb. After a period of anxious expectation the wound
again closed, and by the end of the month the Prince was
convalescent. On the 2d of May he went to offer thanks-
giving in the Great Cathedral, amid the joyful sobs of
vast and most earnest throng.
The Prince was saved, but, unhappily, the murderer had
yet found an illustrious victim. The Princess of Orange,
Charlotte de Bourbon — the devoted wife who for seven years
had so faithfully shared his joys and sorrows — lay already
on her death-bed. Exhausted by anxiety, long watching,
and the alternations of hope and fear during the first
eighteen days, she had been prostrated by despair at the
renewed hemorrhage. A violent fever seized her, under
which she sank on the 5th of May, three days after the
solemn thanksgiving for her husband's recovery. The
Prince, who loved her tenderly, was in great danger of
relapse upon the sad event, which, although not sudden,
1582] ACCEPTANCE OF SOVEREIGNTY 649
had not been anticipated. She was laid in her grave on
the 9th of May, amid the lamentations of the whole coun-
try, for her virtues were universally known and cherished.
She was a woman of rare intelligence, accomplishment,
and gentleness of disposition, whose only offence had
been to break, by her marriage, the Church vows to which
she had been forced in her childhood, but which had been
pronounced illegal by competent authority, both ecclesias-
tical and lay. For this, and for the contrast which her
virtues afforded to the vices of her predecessor, she was
the mark of calumny and' insult. These attacks, how-
ever, had cast no shadow upon the serenity of her mar-
ried life, and so long as she lived she was the trusted
companion and consoler of her husband.
The Princess left six daughters — Louisa Juliana, Eliza-
beth, Catharina Belgica, Flandrina, Charlotta Brabantica,
and Emilia Secunda.
Parma received the first intelligence of the attempt
from the mouth of Anastro himself, who assured him
that the deed had been entirely successful, and claimed
the promised reward. Alexander, in consequence, ad-
dressed circular letters to the authorities of Antwerp,
Brussels, Bruges, and other cities, calling upon them,
now that they had been relieved of their tyrant and their
betrayer, to return again to the path of their duty and to
the ever open arms of their lawful monarch. These let-
ters were premature. On the other hand, the states of
Holland and Zeeland remained in permanent session,
awaiting with extreme anxiety the result of the Prince's
wound. "With the death of his Excellency, if God
should please to take him to Himself/' said the magis-
tracy of Leyden, " in the death of the Prince we all fore-
see our own death." It was, in truth, an anxious moment,
and the revulsion of feeling consequent on his recovery
was proportionately intense.
In consequence of the excitement produced by this
event, it was no longer possible for the Prince to decline
accepting the countship of Holland and Zeeland, which
i he had refused absolutely two years before, and which he
i had again rejected, except for a limited period, in the year
650 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
1581. It was well understood, as appears by the treaty
with Anjou, and afterwards formally arranged, " that the
Duke was never to claim sovereignty over Holland and
Zeelaud," and the offer of the sovereign countship of Hol-
land was again made to the Prince of Orange in most ur-
gent terms. It will he recollected that he had accepted
the sovereignty on the 5th of July, 1581, only for the term
of the war. In a letter dated Bruges, 14th of August,
1582, he accepted the dignity without limitation. This
offer and acceptance, however, constituted but the prelim-
inaries, for it was further necessary that the letters of
" Renversal" should be drawn up, that they should be
formally delivered, and that a new constitution should be
laid down, and confirmed by mutual oaths. After these
steps had been taken, the ceremonious inauguration or
rendering of homage was to be celebrated.
All these measures were duly arranged, except the last.
The installation of the new Count of Holland was prevent-
ed by his death, and the northern provinces remained a
Kepublic, not only in fact but in name.
In political matters, the basis of the new constitution
was the " Great Privilege " of the Lady Mary, the Magna
Charta of the country. That memorable monument in
the history of the Netherlands and of municipal progress
had been overthrown by Mary's son, with the forced ac-
quiescence of the states, and it was therefore stipulated
by the new article that even such laws and privileges as
had fallen into disuse should be revived. It was further-
more provided that the little state should be a free count-
ship, and should thus silently sever its connection with the
empire.
With regard to the position of the Prince as hereditary
chief of the little commonwealth, his actual power was
rather diminished than increased by his new dignity.
What was his position at the moment ? He was sovereign
during the war, on the general basis of the authority orig-
inally bestowed upon him by the King's commission of
stadholder. In 1581 his Majesty had been abjured and
the stadholder had become sovereign. He held in his
hands the supreme power, legislative, judicial, executive.
1582] A NEW CONSTITUTION 651
The Counts of Holland — and Philip as their successor —
were the great fountains of that triple stream. Conces-
sions and exceptions had become so extensive, no doubt,
that the provincial charters constituted a vast body of
" liberties " by which the whole country was reasonably
well supplied. At the same time, all the power not ex-
pressly granted away remained in the breast of the Count.
If ambition, then, had been William's ruling principle, he
had exchanged substance for shadow, for the new state
now constituted was a free commonwealth — a republic in
all but name.
By the new constitution he ceased to be the source of
governmental life, or to derive his own authority from
above by right divine. The sacred oil which had flowed
from Charles the Simple's beard was dried up. Orange's
sovereignty was from the estates, as legal representatives
of the people, and, instead of exercising all the powers
not otherwise granted away, he was content with those es-
pecially conferred upon him. He could neither declare
war nor conclude peace without the co-operation of the
representative body. The appointing power was scrupu-
lously limited. Judges, magistrates, governors, sheriffs,
provincial and municipal officers, were to be nominated
by the local authorities or by the estates, on the triple
principle. From these triple nominations he had only the
right of selection by advice and consent of his council.
He was expressly enjoined to see that the law was carried
to every man's door, without any distinction of persons, to
submit himself to its behests, to watch against all impedi-
ments to the even flow of justice, to prevent false impris-
onments, and to secure trials for every accused person by
the local tribunals. This was certainly little in accordance
with the arbitrary practice of the past quarter of a century.
With respect to the great principle of taxation, stricter
bonds even were provided than those which already existed.
Not only the right of taxation remained with the states,
but the Count was to see that, except for war purposes,
every impost was levied by a unanimous vote. He was ex-
pressly forbidden to tamper with the currency. As execu-
tive head, save in his capacity as commander-in-chief by
652 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
land or sea, the new sovereign was, in short, strictly lim-
ited by self-imposed laws. It had rested with him to dic-
tate or to accept a constitution. He had in his memorable
letter of August, 1582, from Bruges, laid down generally
the articles prepared at Plessis and Bourdeaux, for Anjou
— together with all applicable provisions of the Joyous
Entry of Brabant — as the outlines of the constitution for
the little commonwealth then forming in the north. To
these provisions he was willing to add any others which,
after ripe deliberation, might be thought beneficial to the
country.
Thus limited were his executive functions. As to his
judicial authority, it had ceased to exist. The Count of
Holland was now the guardian of the laws, but the judges
were to administer them. He held the sword of justice
to protect and to execute, while the scales were left in the
hands which had learned to weigh and to measure.
As to the Count's legislative authority, it had become
co-ordinate with, if not subordinate to, that of the rep-
resentative body. He was strictly prohibited from inter-
fering with the right of the separate or the general states
to assemble as often as they should think proper, and
he was also forbidden to summon them outside their
own territory. This was one immense step in the prog-
ress of representative liberty, and the next was equally
important. It was now formally stipulated that the
estates were to deliberate upon all measures which "con-
cerned justice and polity," and that no change was to be
made — that is to say, no new law was to pass — without
their consent as well as that of the council.
Thus the principle was established of two legislative
chambers, with the right, but not the exclusive right, of
initiation on the part of government, and in the sixteenth
century one would hardly look for broader views of civil
liberty and representative government. The foundation
of a free commonwealth was thus securely laid, which,
had William lived, would have been a representative mon-
archy, but which his death converted into a federal re-
public.
CHAPTER VI
THE FRENCH FURY — DEATH OF ANJOU.
DURING the course of the year 1582 the military oper-
ations on both sides had been languid and desultory, the
Prince of Parma, not having a large force at his com-
mand, being comparatively inactive. In consequence,
however, of the- treaty concluded between the united
states and Anjou, Parma had persuaded the Walloon
provinces that it had now become absolutely necessary
for them to permit the entrance of fresh Italian and Span-
ish troops. This, then, was the end of the famous pro-
vision against foreign soldiery in the Walloon treaty of
reconciliation. The Abbot of Saint Vaast was imme-
diately despatched on a special mission to Spain, and the
troops, by midsummer, had already begun to pour into
the Netherlands.
In the meantime Farnese, while awaiting these rein-
forcements, had not been idle, but had been quietly pick-
ing up several important cities. Early in the spring he
had laid siege to Oudenarde, a place of considerable im-
portance upon the Scheldt, and celebrated as the birth-
place of his grandmother, Margaret van Geest. The
burghers were obstinate ; the defence was protracted ;
the sorties were bold ; the skirmishes frequent and san-
guinary. Alexander commanded personally in the trenches,
encouraging his men by his example, and often working
with the mattock, or handling a spear in the assault, like
a private pioneer or soldier. The city, close pressed by
so determined a commander, accepted terms, which were
more favorable by reason of the respect which Alexander
chose to render to his grandmother's birthplace. The
654 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1582
pillage was commuted for thirty thousand crowns, and on
the 5th of July the place was surrendered to Parma al-
most under the very eyes of Anjou, who was making a
demonstration of relieving the siege.
Ninove, a citadel then belonging to the Egmont family,
was next reduced. Here, too, the defence was more ob-
stinate than could have been expected from the impor-
tance of the place ; and as the autumn advanced Parma's
troops were nearly starved in their trenches from the in-
sufficient supplies furnished them. The famine was long
familiarly known as the " Ninove starvation," but not-
withstanding this obstacle the place was eventually sur-
rendered.
An attempt upon Lochem, an important city in Gelder-
land, was unsuccessful, the place being relieved by the
Duke of Anjou's forces, and Parma's troops forced to
abandon the siege. At Steenwyk the royal arms were more
successful, Colonel Tassis, conducted by a treacherous
Frisian peasant, having surprised the city which had so
long and so manfully sustained itself against Renneberg
during the preceding winter. "With this event the active
operations under Parma closed for the year. By the end
of the autumn, however, he had the satisfaction of number-
ing under his command full sixty thousand well-appointed
and disciplined troops, including the large reinforcements
recently despatched from Spain and Italy. The monthly
expense of this army — half of which was required for gar-
rison duty, leaving only the other moiety for field opera-
tions— was estimated at six hundred and fifty thousand
florins. The forces under Anjou and the united provinces
were also largely increased, so that the marrow of the
land was again in a fair way of being thoroughly exhaust-
ed by its defenders and its foes.
The incidents of Anjou's administration, meantime,
during the year 1582, had been few and of no great im-
portance. After the pompous and elaborate "homage-
making" at Antwerp he had, in the month of July, been
formally accepted, by writing, as Duke of Guelders and
Lord of Friesland. In the same month he had been
ceremoniously inaugurated at Bruges as Count of Flan-
1582] ATTEMPT TO DESTROY ORANGE AND ANJOU 655
ders — an occasion upon which the Prince of Orange had
been present. In the midst of this event an attempt was
made upon the lives both of Orange and Anjou. An Ital-
ian named Basa and a Spaniard called Salseda were de-
tected in a scheme to administer poison to both princes,
and when arrested confessed that they had been hired by
the Prince of Parma to compass this double assassination.
Basa destroyed himself in prison. His body was, how-
ever, gibbeted, with an inscription that he had attempted,
at the instigation of Parma, to take the lives of Orange
and Anjou. Salseda, less fortunate, was sent to Paris,
where he was found guilty, and executed by being torn
to pieces by four horses. Sad to relate, Lamoral Egmont,
younger son and namesake of the great general, was in-
timate with Salseda and implicated in this base design.
The young noble was imprisoned ; his guilt was far from
doubtful ; but the powerful intercessions of Orange him-
self, combined with Egmont's near relationship to the
French Queen, saved his life, and he was permitted, after
a brief captivity, to take his departure for France.
The Duke of Anjou, a month later, was received with
equal pomp in the city of Ghent. Here the ceremonies
were interrupted in another manner. The Prince of
Parma, at the head of a few regiments of Walloons, mak-
ing an attack on a body of troops by which Anjou had
been escorted into Flanders, the troops retreated in good
order, and without much loss, under the walls of Ghent,
where a long and sharp action took place, much to the
disadvantage of Parma. The Prince of Orange and the
Duke of Anjou were on the city walls during the whole
skirmish, giving orders and superintending the move-
ments of their troops, and at nightfall Parma was forced
to retire, leaving a large number of dead behind him.
The 15th day of December in this year was celebrated
— according to the new ordinance of Gregory the Thir-
teenth— as Christmas. It was the occasion of more than
usual merrymaking among the Catholics of Antwerp, who
had procured, during the preceding summer, a renewed
right of public worship from Anjou and the estates.
Many nobles of high rank came from France to pay their
656 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
homage to the new Duke of Brabant. They secretly ex-
pressed their disgust, however, at the close constitutional
bonds in which they found their own future sovereign im-
prisoned by the provinces. They thought it far beneath
the dignity of the "son of France" to play the secondary
part of titular Duke of Brabant, Count of Flanders, Lord
of Friesland, and the like, while the whole power of gov-
ernment was lodged with the states. They whispered that
it was time to take measures for the incorporation of the
Netherlands into France, and they persuaded the false
and fickle Anjou that there would never be any hope of
his royal brother's assistance except upon the understand-
ing that the blood and treasure of Frenchmen were to be
spent to increase the power, not of upstart and indepen-
dent provinces, but of the French crown.
They struck the basest chords of the Duke's base nature
by awakening his jealousy of Orange. His whole soul vi-
brated to the appeal. He already hated the man by whose
superior intellect he was overawed, and by whose pure
character he was shamed. He stoutly but secretly swore
that he would assert his own rights, and that he would no
longer serve as a shadow, a statue, a zero, a Matthias. It
is needless to add that neither in his own judgment nor
in that of his mignons were the constitutional articles
which he had recently sworn to support, or the solemn
treaty which he had signed and sealed at Bordeaux, to
furnish any obstacles to his seizure of unlimited power,
whenever the design could be cleverly accomplished. He
rested not, day nor night, in the elaboration of his plan.
Early in January, 1583, he sent one night for several of
his intimate associates to consult with him after he had
retired to bed. He complained of the insolence of the
states, of the importunity of the council which they had
forced upon him, of the insufficient sums which they fur-
nished both for him and his troops, of the daily insults
offered to the Catholic religion. He protested that he
should consider himself disgraced in the eyes of all Chris-
tendom should he longer consent to occupy his present
ignoble position. But two ways were open to him, he ob-
served : either to retire altogether from the Netherlands,
1583] THE DUKE'S PLOT 657
or to maintain his authority with the strong hand, as be-
came a prince. The first course would cover him with
disgrace. It was therefore necessary for him to adopt the
other. He then unfolded his plan to his confidential
friends — La Fougere, De Fazy, Valette, the sons of Mare-
chal Biron, and others. Upon the same day, if possible,
he was determined to take possession with his own troops
of the principal cities in Flanders. Dunkirk, Dixmuiden,
Dendermonde, Bruges, Ghent, Vilvoorde, Alost, and other
important places were to be simultaneously invaded, un-
der pretext of quieting tumults artfully created and en-
couraged between the burghers and the garrisons, while
Antwerp was reserved for his own especial enterprise.
That important capital he would carry by surprise at the
same moment in which the other cities were to be secured
by his lieutenants.
The plot was pronounced an excellent one by the friends
around his bed — all of them eager for Catholic supremacy,
for the establishment of the right divine on the part of
France to the Netherlands, and for their share in the sack-
ing of so many wealthy cities at once. These worthless
mignons applauded their weak master to the echo ; where-
upon the Duke leaped from his bed, and kneeling on the
floor in his night-gown, raised his eyes and his clasped
hands to heaven and piously invoked the blessing of the
Almighty upon the project which he had thus announced.
He added the solemn assurance that, if favored with suc-
cess in his undertaking, he would abstain in future from
all unchastity, and forego the irregular habits by which
his youth had been stained. Having thus bribed the
Deity and received the encouragement of his flatterers,
the Duke got into bed again. His next care was to re-
move the Seigneur du Plessis, whom he had observed to
be often in colloquy with the Prince of Orange, his sus-
picious and guilty imagination finding nothing but mis-
chief to himself in the conjunction of two such natures.
He therefore dismissed Du Plessis, under pretext of a
special mission to his sister, Margaret of Navarre, but in
reality that he might rid himself of the presence of an in-
telligent and honorable countryman.
42
658 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
On the 15th of January, 1583, the day fixed for the ex-
ecution of the plot, the French commandant of Dunkirk,
Captain Chamois, skilfully took advantage of a slight
quarrel between the citizens and the garrison to secure
that important frontier town. The same means were em-
ployed simultaneously, with similar results, at Ostend,
Dixmuiden, Dendermonde, Alost, and Vilvoorde, but there
was a fatal delay at one important city. La Fougere, who
had been with Chamois at Dunkirk, was arrested on his
way to Bruges by some patriotic citizens who had got
wind of what had just been occurring in the other cities,
so that when Valette, the provost of Anjou, and Colonel
la Eebours, at the head of fifteen hundred French troops,
appeared before the gates, entrance was flatly refused.
De Grijse, burgomaster of Bruges, encouraged his fellow-
townsmen by words and stout action to resist the nefari-
ous project then on foot against religious liberty and free
government, in favor of a new foreign tyranny. He spoke
to men who could sympathize with and second his cou-
rageous resolution, and the delay of twenty -four hours,
during which the burghers had time to take the alarm,
saved the city. The whole population was on the alert,
and the baffled Frenchmen were forced to retire from the
gates, to avoid being torn to pieces by the citizens whom
they had intended to surprise.
At Antwerp, meanwhile, the Duke of Anjou had beei
rapidly maturing his plan, under pretext of a contemplated
enterprise against the city of Eindhoven, having concen-
trated what he esteemed a sufficient number of French
troops at Burgerhout, a village close to the walls of Ant-
werp.
On the 16th of January suspicion was aroused in the
city. A man in a mask entered the main guard-house in
the night, mysteriously gave warning that a great crime
was in contemplation, and vanished before he could be
arrested. His accent proved him to be a Frenchman.
Strange rumors flew about the streets. A vague uneasi-
ness pervaded the whole population as to the intention of
their new master, but nothing was definitely known, for
of course there was entire ignorance of the events which
158SJ THE ATTEMPT UPON ANTWERP 059
were just occurring in other cities. The colonels and cap-
tains of the burgher guard came to consult the Prince of
Orange. He avowed the most entire confidence in the
Duke of Anjou, but, at the same time, recommended that
the chains should be drawn, the lanterns hung out, and
the drawbridge raised an hour earlier than usual, and that
other precautions, customary in the expectation of an at-
tack, should be duly taken. He likewise sent the burgo-
master of the interior, Doctor Alostanus, to the Duke of
Anjou, in order to communicate the suspicions created in
the minds of the city authorities by the recent movements
of 'troops.
Anjou, thus addressed, protested in the most solemn
manner that nothing was further from his thoughts than
any secret enterprise against Antwerp. He was willing,
according to the figure of speech which he had always
ready upon every emergency, " to shed every drop of his
blood in her defence." He swore that he would signally
punish all those who had dared to invent such calumnies
against himself and his faithful Frenchmen, declaring ear-
nestly, at the same time, that the troops had only been
assembled in the regular course of their duty. As the
Duke was so loud and so fervent ; as he, moreover, made
no objections to the precautionary measures which had
been taken ; as the burgomaster thought, moreover, that
the public attention thus aroused would render all evil
designs futile, even if any had been entertained ; it was
thought that the city might sleep in security for that
night at least.
On the following morning, as vague suspicions were still
entertained by many influential persons, a deputation of
magistrates and militia officers waited upon the Duke, the
Prince of Orange — although himself still feeling a confi-
dence which seems now almost inexplicable — consenting
to accompany them. The Duke was more vehement than
ever in his protestations of loyalty to his recent oaths, as
well as of deep affection for the Netherlands — for Brabant
in particular, and for Antwerp most of all — and he made
use of all his vivacity to persuade the Prince, the burgo-
masters, and the colonels, that they had deeply wronged
660
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1583
him by such unjust suspicions. His assertions were ac-
cepted as sincere, and the deputation withdrew, Anjou hav-
ing first solemnly promised — at the suggestion of Orange
— not to leave the city during the whole day, in order that
unnecessary suspicion might be prevented.
This pledge the Duke proceeded to violate almost as
soon as made. Orange returned with confidence to his
own house, which was close to the citadel, and therefore
far removed from the proposed point of attack, but he
had hardly arrived there when he received a visit from the
Duke's private secretary, Quinsay, who invited him to ac-
company his Highness on a visit to the camp. Orange
declined the request, and sent an earnest prayer to the
Duke not to leave the city that morning. The Duke dined,
as usual, at noon. While at dinner he received a letter,
was observed to turn pale on reading it, and to conceal it
hastily in a muff which he wore on his left arm. The re-
past finished, the Duke ordered his horse, and, placing
himself at the head of his body-guard and some troopers,
numbering in all three hundred mounted men, rode out of
the palace-yard and through the Kipdorp Gate towards
Burgerhout, where his troops were stationed. As soon as
Anjou had crossed the first drawbridge he rose in his
stirrups and waved his hand. "There is your city, my
lads," said he to the troopers behind him ; "go and take
possession of it !"
At the same time he set spurs to his horse and galloped
off towards the camp at Burgerhout. Instantly after-
wards, a gentleman of his suite, Count Eochepot, affected
to have broken his leg through the plunging of his horse,
a circumstance by which he had been violently pressed
against the wall as he entered the gate. Kaiser, the com-
manding officer at the guard-house, stepped kindly for-
ward to render him assistance, and his reward was a des-
perate thrust from the Frenchman's rapier. As he wore
a steel cuirass, he fortunately escaped with a slight wound.
The expression, "broken leg," was the watchword, for at
one and the same instant the troopers and guardsmen of An-
jou set upon the burgher watch at the gate and butchered
every man. A sufficient force was left to protect the en«
1583] DEFENCE OF THE CITIZENS (jGl
trance thus easily mastered, while the rest of the French-
men entered the town at full gallop, shrieking " Ville
gaignee, mile gaignee ! vive la messe ! vive le Due d'Anjou !"
They were followed by their comrades from the camp out-
side, who now poured into the town at the preconcerted
signal, at least six hundred cavalry and three thousand
musketeers, all perfectly appointed, entering Antwerp at
once. From the Kipdorp Gate two main arteries — the
streets called the Kipdorp and the Meer — led quite through
the heart of the city, towards the Town-house and the
river beyond. Along these great thoroughfares the French
soldiers advanced at a rapid pace, the cavalry clattering
furiously in the van shouting " Ville gaignee, ville gaignee !
vive la messe, vive la messe ! tue, tue, tue !"
The burghers, coming to door and window to look for
the cause of all this disturbance, were saluted with volleys
of musketry. They were for a moment astonished, but
not appalled, for at first they believed it to be merely an
accidental tumult. Observing, however, that the soldiers,
meeting with but little effective resistance, were dispers-
ing into dwellings and warehouses, particularly into the
shops of the goldsmiths and lapidaries, the citizens remem-
bered the dark suspicions which had been so rife, and
many recalled to mind that distinguished French officers
had during the last few days been carefully examining the
treasures of the jewellers, under pretext of purchasing,
but, as it now appeared, with intent to rob intelligently.
The burghers, taking this rapid view of their position,
flew instantly to arms. Chains and barricades were
stretched across the streets ; the trumpets sounded through
the city ; the municipal guards swarmed to the rescue. An
effective rally was made, as usual, at the Bourse, whither
a large detachment of the invaders had forced their way.
Inhabitants of all classes and conditions, noble and simple,
Catholic and Protestant, gave each other the hand, and
swore to die at each other's side in defence of the city
against the treacherous strangers. The gathering was
rapid and enthusiastic. Gentlemen came with lance and
cuirass, burghers with musket and bandoleer, artisans with
axe, mallet, and other implements of their trade. A bold
662 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
baker, standing by his oven — stark naked, according to
the custom of bakers at that day — rushed to the street as
the sound of the tumult reached his ear. With his heavy
bread-shovel, which he still held in his hand, he dealt a
French cavalry officer, just riding and screaming by, such
a hearty blow that he fell dead from his horse. The baker
seized the officer's sword, sprang all unattired as he was
upon his steed, and careered furiously through the streets,
encouraging his countrymen everywhere to the attack, and
dealing dismay through the ranks of the enemy. His ser-
vices in that eventful hour were so signal that he was
publicly thanked afterwards by the magistrates for his
services, and rewarded with a pension of three hundred
florins for life.
The invaders had been forced from the Bourse, while
another portion of them had penetrated as far as the mar-
ket-place. The resistance which they encountered became
every instant more formidable, and Fervacques, a leading
French officer, who was captured on the occasion, acknowl-
edged that no regular troops could have fought more
bravely than did these stalwart burghers. Women and
children mounted to roof and window, whence they hurled,
not only tiles and chimney-pots, but tables, ponderous
chairs, and other bulky articles upon the heads of the as-
sailants, while such citizens as had used all their bullets
loaded their pieces with the silver buttons from their
doublets, or twisted gold and silver coins with their teeth
into ammunition. With a population so resolute, the four
thousand invaders, however audacious, soon found them-
selves swallowed up. The city had closed over them like
water, and within an hour nearly a third of their whole
number had been slain.
Hardly an hour had elapsed from the time when the
Duke of Anjou first rode out of the Kipdorp gate before
nearly the whole of the force which he had sent to accom-
plish his base design was either dead or captive. Two
hundred and fifty nobles of high rank and illustrious
name were killed — recognized at once as they lay in the
streets by their magnificent costume. A larger number
of the gallant chivalry of France had been sacrificed — as
1583] THE FRENCH ROUTED— CAUSES OF THE DEFEAT 663
Anjou confessed — in this treacherous and most shameful
enterprise than had often fallen upon noble and honora-
ble fields. Nearly two thousand of the rank and file had
perished, and the rest were prisoners. Less than one
hundred burghers lost their lives.
Anjou, as he looked on at a distance, was bitterly re-
proached for his treason by several of the high-minded
gentlemen about his person, to whom he had not dared
to confide his plot. In addition to the punishment of
hearing these reproaches from men of honor, he was the
victim of a rapid and violent fluctuation of feeling. When
it was obvious at last that the result of the enterprise was
an absolute and disgraceful failure, together Avith a com-
plete exposure of his treachery, he hastily mounted his
horse and fled conscience-stricken from the scene.
The attack had been so unexpected, in consequence of
the credence that had been rendered by Orange and the
magistracy to the solemn protestations of the Duke, that
it had been naturally out of any one's power to prevent
the catastrophe. The Prince was lodged in a part of the
town remote from the original scene of action, and it does
not appear that information had reached him that any-
thing unusual was occurring until the affair was ap-
proaching its termination. Then there was little -for
him to do. He hastened, however, to the scene and,
mounting the ramparts, persuaded the citizens to cease
cannonading the discomfited and retiring foe. He felt
the full gravity of the situation, and the necessity of
diminishing the rancor of the inhabitants against their
treacherous allies, if such a result were yet possible. The
burghers had done their duty, and it certainly would have
been neither in his power nor his inclination to protect
the French marauders from expulsion and castigation.
Such was the termination of the French Fury, and it
seems sufficiently strange that it should have been so
much less disastrous to Antwerp than was the Spanish
Fury of 1576, to which men could still scarcely allude
without a shudder. Instead of repressing their greedi-
ness, as the Spaniards had done, until they had overcome
resistance, they dispersed almost immediately into by-
664 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
streets, and entered 'warehouses to search for plunder.
They seemed actuated by a fear that they should not have
time to rifle the city before additional troops should be
sent by Anjou to share in the spoil. They were less used
to the sacking of Netherland cities than were the Span-
iards, whom long practice had made perfect in the art of
methodically butchering a population at first, before at-
tention should be diverted to plundering and supplement-
ary outrages. At any rate, whatever the causes, it is
certain that the panic, which upon such occasions gen-
erally decides the fate of the day, seized upon the invad-
ers and not upon the invaded, almost from the very first.
As soon as the marauders faltered in their purpose and
wished to retreat it was all over with them. Returning
was worse than advancing, and it was the almost inevitable
result that hardly a man escaped death or capture.
The Duke retreated the same day in the direction of
Dendermonde, and on his way met with another misfortune
by which an additional number of his troops lost their
lives. A dike was cut by the Mechlin citizens to impede
his march, and the swollen waters of the Dill, liberated
and flowing across the country which he was to traverse,
produced such an inundation that at least a thousand of
his followers were drowned.
As soon as he had established himself in a camp near
Berchem, he opened a correspondence with the Prince
of Orange and with the authorities of Antwerp. His
language was marked by wonderful effrontery. He found
himself and soldiers suffering for want of food; he re-
membered that he had left much plate and valuable fur-
niture in Antwerp ; and he was therefore desirous that
the citizens, whom he had so basely outraged, should at
once send him supplies and restore his property. He
also reclaimed the prisoners who still remained in the
city, and to obtain all this he applied to the man whom
he had bitterly deceived, and whose life would have been
sacrificed by the Duke had the enterprise succeeded. He
had the further originality to speak of himself as an
aggrieved person, who had rendered great services to
the Netherlands, and who had only met with ingratitude
1583] THE DUKE'S EFFRONTERY 665
in return. His envoys, Messieurs Landmater and Esco-
lieres, despatched on the very day of the French Fury to
the burgomasters and senate of Antwerp, were instructed
to remind those magistrates that the Duke had repeatedly
exposed his life in the cause of the Netherlands. The
affronts, they were to add, which he had received, and the
approaching ruin of the country, which he foresaw, had
so altered his excellent nature as to engender the present
calamity, which he infinitely regretted.
To these appeals neither the Prince nor the authorities
of Antwerp answered immediately in their own names.
A general consultation was, however, immediately held
with the estates - general, and an answer forthwith de-
spatched to the Duke by the hands of his envoys. It was
agreed to liberate the prisoners, to restore the furniture,
and to send a special deputation for the purpose of mak-
ing further arrangements with the Duke by word of mouth,
and for this deputation his highness was requested to
furnish a safe conduct.
Anjon was overjoyed when he received this amicable
communication. Relieved for a time from his fears as to
the result of his crime, he already assumed a higher
ground. He not only spoke to the states in a paternal
tone, which was sufficiently ludicrous, but he had actually
the coolness to assure them of Ms forgiveness. In his first
letters the Duke had not affected to deny his agency in
the outrage — an agency so flagrant that all subterfuge
seemed superfluous. He now, however, ventured a step
further. Presuming upon the indulgence which he had
already experienced, and bravely assuming the tone of
injured innocence, he ascribed the enterprise partly to ac-
cident and partly to the insubordination of his troops.
A tumult had accidentally arisen between his soldiers and
the guard at the gate. Other troops rushing in from
without had joined in the affray, so that, to his great
sorrow, an extensive disorder had arisen. He manifested
the same Christian inclination to forgive, however, which
he had before exhibited.
In his original communications he had been both cring-
ing and threatening — but, at least, he had not denied
666 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
truths which were plain as daylight. His new position
considerably damaged his cause. This forgiving spirit on
the part of the malefactor was a little more than the
states could bear, disposed as they felt, from policy, to be
indulgent, and to smooth over the crime as gently as pos-
sible. The negotiations were interrupted, and the author-
ities of Antwerp published a brief and spirited defence of
their own conduct. They cited the simultaneous at-
tempts at Bruges, Dendermonde, Alost, Dixmuideu, Nieuw-
poort, Ostend, Vilvoorde, and Dunkirk, as a series of dam-
ning proofs of a deliberate design.
Anjou wrote again to the Prince of Orange, invoking
his influence to bring about an arrangement. The Prince,
justly indignant at the recent treachery and the present
insolence of the man whom he had so profoundly trusted,
but feeling certain that the welfare of the country de-
pended at present upon avoiding, if possible, a political
catastrophe, answered in plain, firm, mournful, and ap-
propriate language. This moderate but heartfelt appeal
to the better nature of the Duke, if he had a better na-
ture, met with no immediate response.
While matters were in this condition, a special envoy
arrived out of France, despatched by the King and Queen-
mother on the first reception of the recent intelligence
from Antwerp. M. de Mirambeau, the ambassador, whose
son had been killed in the Fury, brought letters of cre-
dence to the states of the union and to the Prince of
Orange. He delivered also a short confidential note, writ-
ten in her own hand, from Catharine de' Medici to the
Prince, to the following effect :
" MY COUSIN, — The King, my son, and myself send you Mon-
sieur de Mirambeau, to prove to you that we do not believe — for we
esteem you an honorable man — that you would manifest ingratitude
to my son, and to those who have followed him for the welfare of
your country. We feel that you have too much affection for one
who has the support of so powerful a prince as the King of France
as to play him so base a trick. Until I learn the truth I shall not
renounce the good hope which I have always indulged — that you
would never have invited my son to your country without intend-
ing to serve him faithfully. As long as you do this, you may ever
reckon on the support of all who belong to him.
"Your good cousin, CATHARINE.'
1583] THE DILEMMA 667
It would have been very difficult to extract much in-
formation or much comfort from this wily epistle. The
menace was sufficiently plain, the promise disagreeably
vague. Moreover, a letter from the same Catharine de*
Medici had been recently found in a casket at the Duke's
lodgings in Antwerp. In that communication she had
distinctly advised her son to re-establish the Roman Cath-
olic religion, assuring him that by so doing he would be
enabled to marry the Infanta of Spain.
Nevertheless, the Prince, convinced that it was his duty
to bridge over the deep and fatal chasm which had opened
between the French Prince and the provinces, if an hon-
orable reconciliation were possible, did not attach an un-
due importance either to the stimulating or to the up-
braiding portion of the communication from Catharine.
He was most anxious to avert the chaos which he saw re-
turning. He knew that while'the tempers of Rudolph,
of the English Queen, and of the Protestant princes of
Germany, and the internal condition of the Netherlands
remained the same, it were madness to provoke the
government of France, and thus gain an additional ene-
my while losing their only friend. He did not renounce
the hope of forming all the Netherlands — excepting
of course the Walloon provinces, already reconciled
to Philip — into one independent commonwealth, freed
forever from Spanish tyranny. A dynasty from a for-
eign house he was willing to accept, but only on condi-
tion that the new royal line should become naturalized in
the Netherlands, should conform itself to the strict con-
stitutional compact established, and should employ only
natives in the administration of Netherland affairs. Not-
withstanding, therefore, the recent treachery of Anjou, he
was willing to treat with him upon the ancient basis.
The dilemma was a very desperate one, for whatever
might be his course, it was impossible that it should es-
cape censure.
Even at this day, it is difficult to decide what might
have been the result of openly braving the French gov-
ernment and expelling Anjou. The Prince of Parma —
subtle, vigilant, prompt with word and blow — was waiting
668 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [158»
most anxiously to take advantage of every false step of his
adversary. The provinces had been already summoned in
most eloquent language to take warning by the recent
fate of Antwerp, and to learn by the manifestation just
made by Anjou, of his real intentions, that their only sal-
vation lay in a return to the King's arms. Anjon himself,
as devoid of shame as of honor, was secretly holding in-
terviews with Parma's agents, Acosta and Flaminio Car-
nero, at the very moment when he was alternately ex-
pressing to the states his resentment that they dared to
doubt his truth, or magnanimously extending to them his
pardon for their suspicions. He offered to restore Dun-
kirk, Dixmuiden, and the other cities which he had so re-
cently filched from the states, and to enter into a strict
alliance with Philip ; but he claimed that certain Nether-
land cities on the French frontier should be made over to
him in exchange. He required, likewise, ample protec-
tion for his retreat from a country which was likely to be
sufficiently exasperated. Parma and his agents smiled, of
course, at such exorbitant terms. Nevertheless, it was
necessary to deal cautiously with a man who, although but
a poor baffled rogue to-day, might to-morrow be seated on
the throne of France. While they were all secretly hag-
gling over the terms of the bargain, the Prince of Orange
discovered the intrigue. It convinced him of the neces-
sity of closing with a man whose baseness was so profound,
but whose position made his enmity, on the whole, more
dangerous than his friendship. Anjou, backed by so as-
tute and unscrupulous a politician as Parma, was not to
be trifled with. The feeling of doubt and anxiety was
spreading daily through the country ; many men, hitherto
firm, were already wavering, while at the same time the
Prince had no confidence in the power of any of the
states, save those of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, to
maintain a resolute attitude of defiance if not assisted
from without.
He therefore endeavored to repair the breach, if possi-
ble, and thus save the union. Mirambeau, in his confer-
ences with the estates, suggested, on his part, all that
words could effect.
1583] OPINIONS OF THE PRINCE 669
The estates of the union, being in great perplexity as
to their proper course, now applied formally, as they al-
ways did in times of danger and doubt, to the Prince for
a public expression of his views. Somewhat reluctantly,
he complied with their wishes in one of the most admi-
rable of his state papers.
The Prince rapidly reviewed the circumstances which
had led to the election of Anjou, and reminded the es-
tates that they had employed sufficient time to deliberate
concerning that transaction. Of three courses, he said,
one must be taken : they must make their peace with the
King, or consent to a reconciliation with Anjou, or use
all the strength which God had given them to resist, sin-
gle-handed, the enemy.
Concerning these he rejected the first. Reconciliation
with the King of Spain was impossible. For his own
part, he would much prefer the third course. He had al-
ways been in favor of their maintaining independence by
their own means and the assistance of the Almighty. He
was obliged, however, in sadness, to confess that the nar-
row feeling of individual state rights, the general ten-
dency to disunion, and the constant wrangling, had made
this course a hopeless one. There remained, therefore,
only the second, and they must effect an honorable recon-
ciliation with Anjou. Whatever might be their decision,
however, it was meet that it should be a speedy one. Not
an hour was to be lost. Many fair churches of God, in
Anjou's power, were trembling on the issue, and religious
and political liberty was more at stake than ever. In
conclusion, the Prince again expressed his determination,
whatever might be their decision, to devote the rest of
his days to the service of his country.
The result of these representations by the Prince, of
frequent letters from Queen Elizabeth urging a reconcil-
iation, and of the professions made by the Duke and the
French envoys, was a provisional arrangement, signed on
the 26th and 28th of March. According to the terms of
this accord the Duke was to receive thirty thousand
florins for his troops, and to surrender the cities still in
his power. The French prisoners were to be liberated,
670 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
the Duke's property at Antwerp was to be restored, and
the Duke himself was to await at Dunkirk the arrival of
plenipotentiaries to treat with him as to a new and per-
petual arrangement.
The negotiations, however, were languid. The quarrel
was healed on the surface, but confidence so recently and
violently uprooted was slow to revive. On the 28th of
June the Duke of Anjou left Dunkirk for Paris, never
to return to the Netherlands, but he exchanged on his
departure affectionate letters with the Prince and the es-
tates. M. des Pruneaux remained as his representative,
and it was understood that the arrangements for rein-
stalling him as soon as possible in the sovereignty which
he had so basely forfeited were to be pushed forward
with earnestness.
In the spring of the same year Gerard Truchses, Arch-
bishop of Cologne, who had lost his see for the love of
Agnes Mansfeld, whom he had espoused in defiance of
the Pope, took refuge with the Prince of Orange at Delft.
A civil war in Germany broke forth, the Protestant princes
undertaking to support the Archbishop, in opposition to
Ernest of Bavaria, who had been appointed in his place.
The Palatine, John Casimir, thought it necessary to
mount and ride as usual. Making his appearance at the
head of a hastily collected force, and prepared for another
plunge into chaos, he suddenly heard, however, of his
elder brother's death at Heidelberg. Leaving his men,
as was his habit, to shift for themselves, and Baron
Truchses, the Archbishop's brother, to fall into the hands
of the enemy, he disappeared from the scene with great
rapidity, in order that his own interests in the palatinate
and in the guardianship of the young palatines might not
suffer by his absence.
At this time, too, on the 12th of April, the Prince of
Orange was married, for the fourth time, to Louisa, widow
of the Seigneur de Teligny, and daughter of the illustri-
ous Coligny.
In the course of the summer, the states of Holland and
Zeeland, always bitterly opposed to the connection with
Anjou, and more than ever dissatisfied with the resump-
1583] SOVEREIGNTY REFUSED BY ORANGE 671
tion of negotiations since the Antwerp catastrophe, sent a
committee to the Prince in order to persuade him to set
his face against the whole proceedings. They delivered
at the same time a formal remonstrance, in writing (25th
of August, 1583), in which they explained how odious
the arrangement with the Duke had ever been to them.
They expressed the opinion that even the wisest might be
sometimes mistaken, and that the Prince had been bitter-
ly deceived by Anjou and by the French court. They
besought him to rely upon the assistance of the Almighty
and upon the exertions of the nation, and they again
hinted at the propriety of his accepting that supreme
sovereignty over all the united provinces which would be
so gladly conferred, while, for their own parts, they vol-
untarily offered largely to increase the sums annually con-
tributed to the common defence.
Very soon afterwards, in August, 1583, the states of
the united provinces assembled at Middelburg formally
offered the general government — which under the cir-
cumstances was the general sovereignty — to the Prince,
warmly urging his acceptance of the dignity. He mani-
fested, however, the same reluctance which he had always
expressed, demanding that the project should beforehand
be laid before the councils of all the large cities, and be-
fore the estates of certain provinces which had not been
represented at the Middelburg diet.
Like all other attempts to induce the acceptance by the
Prince of supreme authority this effort proved ineffec-
tual, from the obstinate unwillingness of his hand to re-
ceive the proffered sceptre.
In connection with this movement and at about the
same epoch, Jacob Swerius, member of the Brabant Coun-
cil, with other deputies, waited upon Orange and for-
mally tendered him the sovereign dukedom of Brabant,
forfeited and vacant by the late crime of Anjou. The
Prince, however, resolutely refused to accept the dignity,
assuring the committee that he had not the means to
: afford the country as much protection as they had a right
1 to expect from their sovereign.
Accordingly, firmly refusing to heed the overtures of
672 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1583
the united states, and of Holland in particular, he con-
tinued to further the re-establishment of Anjou — a meas-
ure in which, as he deliberately believed, lay the only
chance of union and independence.
The Prince of Parma, meantime, had not been idle.
He had been unable to induce the provinces to listen to
his wiles and to rush to the embrace of the monarch
whose arms he described as ever open to the repentant.
He had, however, been busily occupied in the course of
the summer in taking up many of the towns which the
treason of Anjou had laid open to his attacks. Eindho-
ven, Diest, Dunkirk, Nieuwpoort, and other places were
successively surrendered to royalist generals. On the 22d
of September, 1583, the city of Zutphen, too, was sur-
prised by Colonel Tassis, on the fall of which most imp
tant place the treason of Orange's brother-in-law, Coun
Van den Berg, governor of Gueldres, was revealed.
Not much better could have been expected of Van den
Berg. His pusillanimous retreat from his post in Alva's
time will be recollected ; and it is certain that the Prince
had never placed implicit confidence in his character.
Nevertheless, it was the fate of this great man to be often
deceived by the friends whom he trusted, although never
to be outwitted by his enemies. Van den Berg was ar-
rested on the 15th of November, carried to The Hague,
examined, and imprisoned for a time in Delf shaven.
After a time he was, however, liberated, Avhen he in-
stantly, with all his sons, took service under the King.
While treason was thus favoring the royal arms in the
north, the same powerful element, to which so much of
the Netherland misfortunes had always been owing, was
busy in Flanders. Towards the end of the year 1583 the
Prince of Chimay, eldest son of the Duke of Aerschot,
had been elected governor of that province. This noble
was as unstable in character, as vain, as unscrupulous,
and as ambitious as his father and his uncle. Imbize, after
having been allowed to depart, infamous and contemp-
tible, from the city which he had endangered, now ven-
tured after five years to return and to engage in fresh
schemes which were even more criminal than his previous
1583] INTRIGUES AT GHENT 673
enterprises. The uncompromising foe to Komanism, the
advocate of Grecian and Genevan democracy, now allied
himself with Champagny and with Chimay to effect a
surrender of Flanders to Philip and to the inquisition.
He succeeded in getting himself elected chief senator in
Ghent, and forthwith began to use all his influence to
further the secret plot. The joint efforts and intrigues
of Parma, Champagny, Chimay, and Imbize were near
being successful. The friends of the union and of liberty
used all their eloquence to arrest the city of Ghent in its
course and to save the province of Flanders from accept-
ing the proposed arrangement with Parma. The people
of Ghent were reminded that the chief promoter of this
new negotiation was Champagny, a man vrho owed a deep
debt of hatred to their city for the long and, as he be-
lieved, the unjust confinement which he had endured
within its walls. Moreover, he was the brother of Gran-
velle, source of all their woes. To take counsel with
Champagny was to come within reach of a deadly foe, for
"he who confesses himself to a wolf," said the burgomas-
ters of Antwerp, "will get wolfs absolution."
The Prince of Orange, too, was indefatigable in public
and private efforts to counteract the machinations of Par-
ma and the Spanish party in Ghent. He saw with horror
the progress which the political decomposition of that
most important commonwealth was making, for he con-
sidered the city the key-stone to the union of the prov-
inces, and he felt with a prophetic instinct that its loss
would entail that of all the southern provinces, and make
a united and independent Netherland state impossible.
Already, in the summer of 1583, he addressed a letter
full of wisdom and of warning to the authorities of Ghent
— a letter in which he set fully before them the iniquity
and stupidity of their proceedings, while at the same time
he expressed himself with so much dexterity and caution
as to avoid giving offence, by accusations which he made,
as it were, hypothetically, when, in truth, they were real
ones.
These remonstrances were not fruitless, and the author-
ities and citizens of Ghent once more paused ere they
43
G74 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
stepped from the precipice. While they were thus wa-
vering, the whole negotiation with Parma was abruptly
brought to a close by a new incident, the demagogue Im-
bize having been discovered in a secret attempt to obtain
possession of the city of Dendermonde and deliver it to
Parma. The old acquaintance, ally, and enemy of Im-
bize, the Seigneur de Ryhove, was commandant of the
city, and information was privately conveyed to him of
the design before there had been time for its accomplish-
ment. Ryhove, being thoroughly on his guard, arrested
his old comrade, who was shortly afterwards brought to
trial, and executed at Ghent. John van Imbize had re-
turned to the city from which the contemptuous mercy
of Orange had permitted him formerly to depart, only to
expiate fresh turbulence and fresh treason by a felon's
death. Meanwhile the citizens of Ghent, thus warned
by word and deed, passed an earnest resolution to have
no more intercourse with Parma, but to abide faithfully
by the union. Their example was followed by the other
Flemish cities, excepting, unfortunately, Bruges, for tha
important town, being entirely in the power of Chimay,
was now surrendered by him to the royal government.
On the 20th of May, 1584, Baron Montigny, on the par
of Parma, signed an accord with the Prince of Chimay,
by which the city was restored to his Majesty, and by
which all inhabitants not willing to abide by the Roman
Catholic religion were permitted to leave the land. The
Prince was received with favor by Parma, on conclusion
of the transaction, and subsequently met with advance-
ment from the King, while the Princess, who had embraced
the Reformed religion, retired to Holland.
The only other city of importance gained on this occa-
sion by the government was Ypres, which had been long
besieged, and was soon afterwards forced to yield. The
new Bishop, on taking possession, resorted to instant
measures for cleansing a place which had been so long in
the hands of the infidels, and as the first step in this pu-
rification, the bodies of many heretics who had been
buried for years were taken from their graves and pub-
licly hanged in their coffins. All living adherents to
1584]
DEATH OF ANJOU
675
the Keformed religion were instantly expelled from the
place.
Ghent and the rest of Flanders were, for the time, saved
from the power of Spain, the inhabitants being confirmed
in their resolution of sustaining their union with the other
provinces by the news from France. Early in the spring
the negotiations between Anjou and the states-general had
been earnestly renewed, and Junius, Mouillerie, and As-
seliers had been despatched on a special mission to
France for the purpose of arranging a treaty with the
Duke. On the 19th of April, 1584, they arrived at Delft
on their return, bringing warm letters from the French
court, full of promises to assist the Netherlands ; and it
was understood that a constitution, upon the basis of the
original arrangement of Bordeaux, would be accepted by
the Duke. These arrangements were, however, forever
terminated by the death of Anjou, who had been ill
during the whole course of the negotiations. On the
10th of June, 1584, he expired at Chateau - Thierry, in
great torture, sweating blood from every pore, and under
circumstances which, as usual, suggested strong
cions of poison.
CHAPTER VII
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY ASSASSINATED
IT has been seen that the Ban against the Prince of
Orange had not been hitherto without fruits, for, although
unsuccessful, the efforts to take his life and earn the prom-
ised guerdon had been incessant. Within two years there
had been five distinct attempts to assassinate the Prince,
all of them with the privity of the Spanish government.
A sixth was soon to follow.
In the summer of 1584 "William of Orange was resid
ing at Delft, where his wife, Louisa de Coligny, had given
birth, in the preceding winter, to a son, afterwards the
celebrated stadholder, Frederic Henry. The child had re-
ceived these names from his two godfathers, the Kings
of Denmark and of Navarre, and his baptism had bee
celebrated with much rejoicing on the 12th of June, in
the place of his birth. The house of the Prince stood on
the old Delft Street, directly opposite the " old church,"
being separated by a spacious court-yard from the street,
while the stables and other offices in the rear extended to
the city wall. A narrow lane, opening out of Delft
Street, ran along the side of the house and court, in the
direction of the ramparts. The house was a plain, two-
storied edifice of brick, with red-tiled roof, and had for-
merly been a cloister dedicated to Saint Agatha, the last
prior of which had been hanged by the furious Lumey de
la Marck.
The news of Anjou's death had been brought to Delft
by a special messenger from the French court. On Sun-
day morning, the 8th of July, 1584, the Prince of Orange,
having read the despatches before leaving his bed, caused
1684] GUION ALIAS GERARD 677
the man who had brought them to be summoned, that he
might give some particular details by word of mouth con-
cerning the last illness of the Duke. The courier was ac-
cordingly admitted to the Prince's bed-chamber, and
proved to be one Francis Guion, as he called himself.
This man had, early in the spring, claimed and received
the protection of Orange on the ground of being the son
of a Protestant at Besanqon who had suffered death for
his religion, and of his own ardent attachment to the Re-
formed faith. A pious, psalm - singing, thoroughly Cal-
vinistic youth he seemed to be, having a Bible or a hymn-
book under his arm whenever he walked the street, and
most exemplary in his attendance at sermon and lecture.
For the rest, a singularly unobtrusive personage, twenty-
seven years of age, low of stature, meagre, mean-visaged,
muddy complexioned, and altogether a man of no account —
quite insignificant in the eyes of all who looked upon him.
If there were one opinion in which the few who had taken
the trouble to think of the puny, somewhat shambling
stranger from Burgundy at all coincided, it was that he
was inoffensive, but quite incapable of any important
business. He seemed well educated, claimed to be of
respectable parentage, and had considerable facility of
speech, when any person could be found who thought it
worth while to listen to him ; but on the whole he at-
tracted little attention.
This Francis Guion, the Calvinist son of a martyred
Calvinist, was in reality Balthazar Gerard, a fanatical
Catholic, whose father and mother were still living at
| Villefans, in Burgundy. Before reaching man's estate he
I had formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange,
j " who, so long as he lived, seemed likely to remain a rebel
against the Catholic King, and to make every effort to
: disturb the repose of the Eoman Catholic Apostolic re-
ligion."
Parma had long been looking for a good man to murder
I Orange, feeling — as Philip, Granvelle, and all former gov-
: ernors of the Netherlands had felt — that this was the only
! means of saving the royal authority in any part of the
1 provinces. Many unsatisfactory assassins had presented
678 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
themselves from time to time, and Alexander had paid
money in hand to various individuals — Italians, Span-
iards, Lorrainers, Scotchmen, Englishmen — who had gen-
erally spent the sums received without attempting the
job. Others were supposed to be still engaged in the en-
terprise, and at that moment there were four persons —
each unknown to the others, and of different nations — in
the city of Delft, seeking to compass the death of William
the Silent. Shag -eared, military, hirsute ruffians — ex-
captains of free companies and such marauders — were
daily offering their services ; there was no lack of them,
and they had done but little. The representations of
Haultepenne and others induced him so far to modify hia
views as to send his confidential councillor, d'Assonleville,
to the stranger, in order to learn the details of the scheme.
Assonleville had, accordingly, an interview with Gerard, in
which he requested the young man to draw up a state-
ment of his plan in writing, and this was done upon the
llth of April, 1584. Neither Parma nor his councillor
would advance Gerard any money, but promised to see
that he was richly rewarded if successful.
The "inveterate deliberation" thus thoroughly ms
tnred Gerard now proceeded to carry into effect. H«
came to Delft, obtained a hearing of Villers, the clergy-
man and intimate friend of Orange, and was, through thf
Prince's recommendation, received into the suite of Noel
de Caron, Seigneur de Schoneval, then setting forth on
special mission to the Duke of Anjou. While in France
Gerard could rest neither by day nor night, so tormentec
was he by the desire of accomplishing his project, and at
length he obtained permission, upon the death of the
Duke, to carry this important intelligence to the Prince
of Orange. The despatches having been entrusted to him,
he travelled post-haste to Delft, and, to his astonishment,
the letters had hardly been delivered before he was sum-
moned in person to the chamber of the Prince. Here was
an opportunity such as he had never dared to hope for.
The arch-enemy to the Church and to the human race,
whose death would confer upon his destroyer wealth and
nobility in this world, besides a crown of glory in the
1584] SUNDAY MORNING 679
next, lay unarmed, alone, in bed, before the man who had
thirsted seven long years for his blood.
Balthazar conld scarcely control his emotions sufficient-
ly to answer the questions which the Prince addressed to
him concerning the death of Anjou, but Orange, deeply
engaged with the despatches, and with the reflections
which their deeply important contents suggested, did not
observe the countenance of the humble Calvinist exile,
who had been recently recommended to his patronage by
Villers.. Gerard had, moreover, made no preparation for
an interview so entirely unexpected, had. come unarmed,
and had formed no plan for escape. He was obliged to
forego his prey when most within his reach, and after
commnnicating all the information which the Prince re-
quired, he was dismissed from the chamber.
It was Sunday morning, and the bells were tolling for
church. Upon leaving the house he loitered about the
court-yard, furtively examining the premises, so that a ser-
geant of halberdiers asked him why he was waiting there.
Balthazar meekly replied that he was desirous of attend-
ing divine worship in the church opposite, but added,
pointing to his shabby and travel-stained attire, that, with-
out at least a new pair of shoes and stockings, he was un-
fit to join the congregation. Insignificant as ever, the
small, pious, dusty stranger excited no suspicion in the
mind of the good-natured sergeant. He forthwith spoke
of the wants of Gerard to an officer, by whom they were
communicated to Orange himself, and the Prince instant-
ly ordered a sum of money to be given him. Thus Bal-
thazar obtained from William's charity what Parma's
thrift had denied — a fund for carrying out his purpose !
Next morning, with the money thus procured, he pur-
chased a pair of pistols, or small carabines, from a soldier,
chaffering long about the price because the vender could
not supply a particular kind of chopped bullets or slugs
which he desired. Before the sunset of the following day
that soldier had stabbed himself to the heart, and died
despairing, on hearing for what purpose the pistols had
been bought.
On Tuesday, the 10th of July, 1584, at about half-past
680 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
twelve, the Prince, with his wife ou his arm, and followed
by the ladies and gentlemen of his family, was going to
the dining-room. William the Silent was dressed upon
that day, according to his usual custom, in very plain
fashion. He wore a wide-leaved, loosely-shaped hat of
dark felt, with a silken cord round the crown — such as
had been worn by the Beggars in the early days of the re-
volt. A high ruff encircled his neck, from which also de-
pended one of the Beggar's medals, with the motto, " Fi-
deles au roy jusqu'd la besace," while a loose surcoat of
gray frieze-cloth, over a tawny leather doublet, with wide,
slashed underclothes, completed his costume. Gerard pre-
sented himself at the doorway and demanded a passport.
The Princess, struck with the pale and agitated counte-
nance of the man, anxiously questioned her husband con-
cerning the stranger. The Prince carelessly observed that
"it was merely a person who came for a passport," order-
ing, at the same time, a secretary forthwith to prepare
one. The Princess, still not relieved, observed in an un-
dertone that " she had never seen so villanous a counte-
nance." Orange, however, not at all impressed with the
appearance of Gerard, conducted himself at table with his
usual cheerfulness, conversing much with the burgomaster
of Leeuwarden, the only guest present at the family din-
ner, concerning the political and religious aspects of
Friesland. At two o'clock the company rose from table.
The Prince led the way, intending to pass to his private
apartments above. The dining-room, which was on the
ground floor, opened into a little square vestibule, which
communicated, through an arched passage-way, with the
main entrance into the court-yard. This vestibule wa
also directly at the foot of the wooden staircase leading tc
the next floor, and was scarcely six feet in width. Upon
its left side, as one approached the stairway, was an ob-
scure arch, sunk deep in the wall, and completely in the
shadow of the door. Behind this arch a portal opened to
the narrow lane at the side of the house. The stairs
themselves were completely lighted by a large window,
half way up the flight. The Prince came from the dining-
room and began leisurely to ascend. He had only reached
1584]
THE DEED ACCOMPLISHED
681
the second stair when a man emerged from the sunken
arch and, standing within a foot or two of him, dis-
charged a pistol full at his heart. Three balls entered his
body, one of which, passing quite through him, struck
with violence against the wall beyond. The Prince ex-
claimed in French, as he felt the wound, " 0 my God,
have mercy upon my soul ! 0 my God, have mercy upon
this poor people I"
These were the last words he ever spoke, save that when
his sister, Catherine of Schwartzburg, immediately after-
wards asked him if he commended his soul to Jesus Christ,
he faintly answered, " Yes." His master of the horse,
Jacob van Maldere, had caught him in his arms as the
fatal shot was fired. The Prince was then placed on the
stairs for an instant, when he immediately began to swoon.
He was afterwards laid upon a couch in the dining-room,
where, in a few minutes, he breathed his last in the arms
of his wife and sister.
The murderer succeeded in making his escape through
the side-door, and sped swiftly up the narrow lane. He
had almost reached the ramparts, from which he intended
to spring into the moat, when he stumbled over a heap of
rubbish. As he rose he was seized by several pages and
halberdiers, who had pursued him from the house. He
had dropped his pistols upon the spot where he had com-
mitted the crime, and upon his person was found a couple
of bladders, provided with a piece of pipe with which he
had intended to assist himself across the moat, beyond
which a horse was waiting for him. He made no effort to
deny his identity, but boldly avowed himself and his deed.
He was brought back to the house, where he immediately
underwent a preliminary examination before the city mag-
istrates. He was afterwards subjected to excruciating
tortures ; for the fury against the wretch who had de-
stroyed the Father of the country was uncontrollable, and
William the Silent was no longer alive to intercede — as he
had often done before — in behalf of those who assailed his
life.
The organization of Balthazar Gerard would furnish a
subject of profound study, both for the physiologist and
682 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
the metaphysician. Neither wholly a fanatic nor entirely
a ruffian, he combined the most dangerous elements of
both characters. In his puny body and mean exterior
were enclosed considerable mental powers and accomplish-
ments, a daring ambition, and a courage almost super-
human. Yet those qualities led him only to form upon
the threshold of life a deliberate determination to achieve
greatness by the assassin's trade. The rewards held out
by the Ban, combining with his religious bigotry and his
passion for distinction, fixed all his energies with patient
concentration upon the one great purpose for which he
seemed to have been born, and after seven years' prepara-
tion he had at last fulfilled his design.
Upon being interrogated by the magistrates he mani-
fested neither despair nor contrition, but rather a quiet
exultation. "Like David," he said, "I have slain Go-
liath of Gath." When falsely informed that his victim
was not dead, he showed no credulity or disappointment.
He had discharged three poisoned balls into the Prince's
stomach, and he knew that death must have already en-
sued. He expressed regret, however, that the resistance
of the halberdiers had prevented him from using his second
pistol, and avowed that if he were a thousand leagues
away he would return in order to do the deed again, il
possible. He deliberately wrote a detailed confession of
his crime, and of the motives and manner of its commis-
sion, taking care, however, not to implicate Parma in the
transaction. After sustaining day after day the most hor-
rible tortures, he subsequently related his interviews with
Assonleville and with the president of the Jesuit college
at Treves, adding that he had been influenced in his work
by the assurance of obtaining the rewards promised by the
Ban. During the intervals of repose from the rack he
conversed with ease, and even eloquence, answering all
questions addressed to him with apparent sincerity.
The sentence pronounced against the assassin was ex-
ecrable— a crime against the memory of the great man
whom it professed to avenge. Not even his horrible crime,
with its endless consequences, nor the natural frenzy of
indignation which it had excited, could justify this sav-
1584] THE REWARD 683
age decree, to rebuke which the murdered hero might
have almost risen from the sleep of death. The sentence
was literally executed on the 14th of July, the criminal
supporting its horrors with the same astonishing fortitude.
The reward promised by Philip to the man who should
murder Orange was paid to the heirs of Gerard. Parma
informed his sovereign that the ' ( poor man " had been ex-
ecuted, but that his father and mother were still living, to
whom he recommended the payment of that "merced"
which "the laudable and generous deed had so well de-
served." This was accordingly done, and the excellent
parents, ennobled and enriched by the crime of their son,
received, instead of the twenty-five thousand crowns prom-
ised in the Ban, the three seignories of Lievremont, Hostal,
and Dampmartin, in the Franche Comte, and took their
place at once among the landed aristocracy. Thus the
bounty of the Prince had furnished the weapon by which
his life was destroyed, and his estates supplied the fund
out of which the assassin's family received the price of
blood. At a later day, when the unfortunate eldest son
of Orange returned from Spain after twenty-seven years'
absence, a changeling and a Spaniard, the restoration of
those very estates was offered to him by Philip the Second,
provided he would continue to pay a fixed proportion of
their rents to the family of his father's murderer. The
education which Philip William had received, under the
King's auspices, had, however, not entirely destroyed all
his human feelings, and he rejected the proposal with
scorn. The estates remained with the Gerard family, and
the patents of nobility which they had received were used
to justify their exemption from certain taxes until the
union of Franche Comte with France.
William of Orange, at the period of his death, was aged
fifty-one years and sixteen days. He left twelve children.
By his first wife, Anne of Egmont, he had one son, Philip,
and one daughter, Mary, afterwards married to Count
Hohenlo. By his second wife, Anna of Saxony, he had one
son, the celebrated Maurice of Nassau, and' two daugh-
ters, Anna, married afterwards to her cousin, Count Will-
iam Louis, and Emilie, who espoused the Pretender of
684 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
Portugal, Prince Emanuel. By Charlotte of Bourbon,
his third wife, he had six daughters ; and by his fourth,
Louisa de Coligny, one son, Frederic Henry, afterwards
stadholder of the republic in her most palmy days. The
Prince was entombed on the 3d of August, at Delft, amid
the tears of a whole nation. Never was a more extensive,
unaffected, and legitimate sorrow felt at the death of any
human being.
The life and labors of Orange had established the eman-
cipated commonwealth upon a secure foundation, but his
death rendered the union of all the Netherlands into one
republic hopeless. The efforts of the Malcontent nobles,
the religious discord, the consummate ability, both polit-
ical and military, of Parma, all combined with the lamen-
table loss of William the Silent to separate forever the
southern and Catholic provinces from the northern con-
federacy. So long as the Prince remained alive he was
the Father of the whole country ; the Netherlands — sav-
ing only the two Walloon provinces — constituting a whole.
Notwithstanding the spirit of faction and the blight of
the long civil war, there was at least one country, or the
hope of a country, one strong heart, one guiding head, for
the patriotic party throughout the land. Philip and Gran-
velle were right in their estimate of the advantage to be
derived from the Prince's death, in believing that an
assassin's hand could achieve more than all the wiles
which Spanish or Italian statesmanship could teach, or
all the armies which Spain or Italy could muster. The
pistol of the insignificant Gerard destroyed the possibility
of a united Netherland state, while during the life of
William there was union in the policy, unity in the his-
tory of the country.
In person Orange was above the middle height, perfect-
ly well made and sinewy, but rather spare than stout.
His eyes, hair, beard, and complexion were brown. His
head was small, symmetrically - shaped, combining the
alertness and compactness characteristic of the soldier,
with the capacious brow, furrowed prematurely with the
horizontal lines of thought, denoting the statesman and
the sage. His physical appearance was therefore in har-
1684] ORANGE'S CHARACTERISTICS 685
mony with his organization, which was of antique model.
Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety.
He was more than anything else a religious man. From
his trust in God he ever derived support and consolation
in the darkest hours. Implicitly relying upon Almighty
wisdom and goodness, he looked danger in the face with
a constant smile, and endured incessant labors and trials
with a serenity which seemed more than human. While,
however, his soul was full of piety, it was tolerant of
error. Sincerely and deliberately himself a convert to
the Keformed Church, he was ready to extend freedom
of worship to Catholics on the one hand and to Ana-
baptists on the other, for no man ever felt more keenly
than he that the reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot
is doubly odious.
His firmness was allied to his piety. His constancy in
bearing the whole weight of struggle, as unequal as men
have ever undertaken, was the theme of admiration even
to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, " tranquil amid
raging billows," was the favorite emblem by which his
friends expressed their sense of his firmness. From the
time when, as a hostage in France, he first discovered the
plan of Philip to plant the inquisition in the Netherlands,
up to the last moment of his life, he never faltered in his
determination to resist that iniquitous scheme. This re-
sistance was the labor of his life. To exclude the inquisi-
tion, to maintain the ancient liberties of his country, was
the task which he appointed to himself when a youth of
three-and-twenty. Never speaking a word concerning a
heavenly mission, never deluding himself or others with
the usual phraseology of enthusiasts, he accomplished the
task, through danger, amid toils, and with sacrifices such
as few men have ever been able to make on their coun-
try's altar ; for the disinterested benevolence of the man
was as prominent as his fortitude. A prince of high rank
and with royal revenues, he stripped himself of station,
wealth, almost at times of the common necessaries of life,
and became, in his country's cause, nearly a beggar as well
as an outlaw. Nor was he forced into his career by an
accidental impulse from which there was no recovery.
686 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
Ketreat was ever open to him. Not only pardon, but ad-
vancement, was urged upon him again and again. He
lived and died, not for himself, but for his country :
" 0 my God, have mercy upon my soul ! 0 my God, have
mercy upon this poor people !" were his dying words.
His intellectual faculties were various and of the high-
est order. He had the exact, practical, and combining
qualities which make the great commander, and his
friends claimed that in military genius he was second to
no captain in Europe. This was, no doubt, an exagger-
ation of partial attachment, but it is certain that the Em-
peror Charles had an exalted opinion of his capacity for
the field. His fortification of Philippeville and Charle-
mont, in the face of the enemy — his passage of the Meuse
in Alva's sight — his unfortunate but well-ordered cam-
paign against that general — his sublime plan of relief,
projected and successfully directed at last from his sick
bed, for the besieged city of Leyden — will always remain
monuments of his practical military skill.
Of the soldier's great virtues — constancy in disaster,
devotion to duty, hopefulness in defeat — no man ever
possessed a larger share. He arrived, through a series of
reverses, at a perfect victory. He planted a free common-
wealth under the very battery of the inquisition, in defiance
of the most powerful empire existing. He was therefore
a conqueror in the loftiest sense, for he conquered liberty
and a national existence for a whole people. The contest
was long, and he fell in the struggle ; but the victory was
to the dead hero, not to the living monarch.
The supremacy of his political genius was entirely be-
yond question. He was the first statesman of the age.
The quickness of his perception was only equalled by the
caution which enabled him to mature the results of his
observations. His knowledge of human nature was pro-
found. He governed the passions and sentiments of a
great nation as if they had been but the keys and chords
of one vast instrument ; and his hand rarely failed to
evoke harmony even out of the wildest storms. The tur-
bulent city of Ghent, which could obey no other master,
which even the haughty Emperor could only crush with-
1584] ADROITNESS 687
out controlling, was ever responsive to the master-hand
of Orange. His presence scared away Imbize and his bat-
like crew, confounded the schemes of John Casimir, frus-
trated the wiles of Prince Chimay, and while he lived
Ghent was what it ought always to have remained, the
bulwark, as it had been the cradle, of popular liberty.
After his death it became its tomb.
If the capacity for unremitted intellectual labor in an
honorable cause be the measure of human greatness, few
minds could be compared to the "large composition " of
this man. The efforts made to destroy the Netherlands by
the most laborious and painstaking of tyrants were counter-
acted by the industry of the most indefatigable of patriots.
His eloquence, oral or written, gave him almost bound-
less power over his countrymen. He possessed, also, a
rare perception of human character, together with an iron
memory which never lost a face, a place, or an event, once
seen or known. He read the minds, even the faces of
men, like printed books. No man could overreach him,
excepting only those to whom he gave his heart. He
might be mistaken where he had confided: never where
he had been distrustful or indifferent. He was deceived
by Renneberg, by his brother-in-law Van den Berg, by
the Duke of Anjou. Had it been possible for his brother
Louis or his brother John to have proved false, he might
have been deceived by them. He was never outwitted by
Philip, or Grranvelle, or Don John, or Alexander of Parma.
Anna of Saxony was false to him, and entered into corre-
spondence with the royal governors and with the King of
Spain ; Charlotte of Bourbon or Louisa de Coligny might
have done the same had it been possible for their natures
also to descend to such depths of guile.
As for the Aerschots, the Havre's, the Chimay s, he was
never influenced either by their blandishments or their
plots. He was willing to use them when their interest
made them friendly, or to crush them when their intrigues
against his policy rendered them dangerous. The adroit-
ness with which he converted their schemes in behalf of
Matthias, of Don John, of Anjou, into so many additional
weapons for his own cause, can never be too often studied.
688 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
It is instructive to observe the wiles of the Macchiavelian
school employed by a master of the craft to frustrate, not
to advance, a knavish purpose. This character, in a great
measure, marked his whole policy. He was profoundly
skilled in the subtleties of Italian statesmanship, which
he had learned as a youth at the Imperial court, and which
he employed in his manhood in the service, not of tyranny,
but of liberty. He fought the inquisition with its own
weapons. He dealt with Philip on his own ground. He
excavated the earth beneath the King's feet by a more
subtle process than that practised by the most fraudulent
monarch that ever governed the Spanish empire, and
Philip, chain-mailed as he was in complicated wiles, was
pierced to the quick by a keener policy than his own.
This history is not the eulogy of Orange, although, in
discussing his character, it is difficult to avoid the monot-
ony of panegyric. Judged by a severe moral standard, it
cannot be called virtuous or honorable to suborn treach-
ery or any other crime even to accomplish a lofty pur-
pose ; yet the universal practice of mankind in ail ages
has tolerated the artifices of war, and no people has ever
engaged in a holier or more mortal contest than did the
Netherlands in their great struggle with Spain. Orange
possessed the rare quality of caution, a characteristic by
which he was distinguished from his youth. At fifteen he
was the confidential counsellor, as at twenty-one he be-
came the general-in-chief, to the most politic as well as
the most warlike potentate of his age, and if he at times
indulged in wiles which modern statesmanship, even whil
it practises, condemns, he ever held in his hand the clew
of an honorable purpose to guide him through the tortu-
ous labyrinth.
Whether originally of a timid temperament or not, he
was certainly possessed of perfect courage at last. In
siege and battle — in the deadly air of pestilential cities —
in the long exhaustion of mind and body which comes
from unduly protracted labor and anxiety — amid the
countless conspiracies of assassins — he was daily exposed
to death in every shape. Within two years five different
attempts against his life had been discovered. Bank and
1584] CONCLUSION 689
fortune were offered to any malefactor who would com-
pass the murder. He had already been shot through the
head and almost mortally wounded. Under such circum-
stances even a brave man might have seen a pitfall at
every step, a dagger in every hand, and poison in every
cup. On the contrary, he was ever cheerful, and hardly
took more precaution than usual. "• God in his mercy,"
said he, with unaffected simplicity, "-will maintain my in-
nocence and my honor during my life and in future ages.
As to my fortune and my life, I have dedicated both, long
since, to His service. He will do therewith what pleases
Him for His glory and my salvation."
He possessed, too, that which to the heathen philoso-
pher seemed the greatest good — the sound mind in the
sound body. His physical frame was after death found so
perfect that a long life might have been in store for him,
notwithstanding all which he had endured. The desper-
ate illness of 1574, the frightful gunshot wound inflicted
by Jaureguy in 1582, had left no traces. The physicians
pronounced that his body presented an aspect of perfect
health. His temperament was cheerful. At table, the
pleasures of which, in moderation, were his only relaxa-
tion, he was always animated and merry, and this jocose-
ness was partly natural, partly intentional. In the dark-
est hours of his country's trial he affected a serenity
which he was far from feeling, so that his apparent gayety
at momentous epochs was even censured by dullards, who
could not comprehend its philosophy, nor applaud the
flippancy of William the Silent.
He went through life bearing the load of a people's sor-
rows upon his shoulders with a smiling face. Their name
was the last word upon his lips, save the simple affirma-
tive with which the soldier who had been battling for the
right all his lifetime commended his soul in dying " to his
great captain, Christ." The people were grateful and af-
fectionate, for they trusted the character of their " Father
William," and not all the clouds which calumny could
collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that
lofty mind to which they were accustomed, in their dark-
est calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived he
44
690
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1584
was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he
died the little children cried in the streets.
The history of the rise of the Netherland Republic has
been at the same time the biography of William the Silent.
This, while it gives unity to the narrative, renders an
elaborate description of his character superfluous. That
life was a noble Christian epic ; inspired with one great
purpose from its commencement to its close ; the stream
flowing ever from one fountain with expanding fulness,
bat retaining all its original purity.
part 1)111
HISTORY OF THE DUTCH NATION
1584-1907
CHAPTER I
THE ORPHAN REPUBLIC
THE republic was still in its swaddling-clothes when it
was left an orphan by the bullet of the fanatic and assassin.
It seemed the darkest hour of their lives when the mem-
bers of the states of Holland assembled at Delft on the
day of the nation's bereavement, but there was no thought
of yielding for a moment in the struggle with Spain.
Liberty had become dearer than life. Even though they
knew that the northern provinces — the united states —
must now continue the fight single-handed, they resolved
to maintain their cause. They realized also that the brunt
would fall upon the two provinces, Holland and Zeeland.
The one state of Holland in those days was not, as since
1840 it has been, politically divided into two portions,
North and South. Holland was then large enough to give
its name to the entire republic, even as it yet does among
English-speaking people to the whole kingdom. It ex-
tended from Zeeland and Brabant, on the south, to the
North Sea, and included the three islands of Texel, Vlie-
land, and Terschelling, and those of Wieringen, Urk, and
Marken in the Zuyder Zee. It was bounded on the east
by the states of Utrecht and Gelderland. Through its
territory flowed the Maas and the various branches of the
Rhine — the water-ways into the heart of Europe. Though
there still remained much unproductive and swamp land,
yet the soil of Holland consisted for the most part of that
amazingly fertile sea-clay of which there is comparatively
little in the other provinces, and the presence of which
means inexhaustible wealth and permanent sustenance to
man. The Hollanders felt that with faith in God and
their good right arms, and having the control of the sea,
694 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1584
it was possible to withstand Spain. Both Holland and
Zeeland were each wonderfully like that Hebrew lad who,
with sling and stone, faced armor and experience in war.
Lightly armed, but knowing well the power of his familiar
weapons, full alike of faith and genius, he sallied forth to
meet in open field the giant clad and armed in the most
approved style. Philip, like Goliath, cherishing ideas
long prevalent, could not understand that the institutions
he represented had waxed old and were ready to pass
away. He did not see that the young republic, based on
freedom of conscience, was pioneer of the coming ages.
Who would be the young David to lead the hosts of
" Dapper Hollandje" ? They had not far to look for one
who should lead what in the eyes of Dutchmen were the
armies of the living God. He was at hand. Maurice, the
son of William the Silent, although but seventeen years of
age at the time of his father's death, was a lad of exceed-
ing promise. He had been and was still a student of the
art of war, having critically examined and exhausted un-
der the best masters whatever antiquity could teach him
of the theories of sieges, battles, and campaigns. He was
even quicker than his instructors to perceive that the
time had come for new methods in warfare, and that the
spade and the heavy cannon would be mightier than the
spear, arquebus, and sword in winning the freedom of the
fatherland. The days of the pikeman were already num-
bered, for in the open field one could better trust to the
powder and lead of the shotman. The cavalrymen were
to be not only wielders of the sabre in the charge and at
close combat, but must be equipped with fire-arms, and be
the eyes and ears of the army when in the trenches. It
is owing, most probably, to Maurice's tastes and example,
harmonizing so subtly with the national temperament and
physical environment, that the seventeenth-century Dutch-
men led the world as engineers, inventors, discoverers,
and appliers of the mechanical arts.
The States-General quickly established a council of state,
and placed Maurice at its head. No son was ever more
devoutly determined to carry on a father's work, or more
strikingly expressed the spirit of his life-purpose on his
MAURICE OF NASSAU
1585] MAURICE SUCCEEDS WILLIAM 695
escutcheon. William the Silent, as the younger son and
branch of the House of Nassau, on entering into his in-
heritance had adopted the emblem of a halcyon floating
on the stormy sea, with the motto — "Saevis tranquillus in
undis" (Always calm amid waves). Maurice inheriting
the motto, which was and still is the proud and significant
one of the House of Orange — (( Je maintendrai " (I will
maintain), adopted also a device which showed the stump
of an oak tree from which a vigorous shoot is growing up,
with the motto ''Tandem fit surculus arbor" (The sprout
will by-and-by become a tree). In the same year, 1584,
his cousin Count "VVillem Lodewijk, or William Louis, was
made stadholder of Friesland. Still another son of Will-
iam of Orange, by Louisa de Coligny, named Frederick
Henry, a baby six months old, was destined in time to be-
come stadholder and captain-general of the republic. Of
the six daughters of William, the care of the three elder
was solicited by Queen Elizabeth, and that of the three
younger by relatives of the House of Orange in France and
Germany. The Estates settled a liberal allowance upon
the widowed princess and begged her to remain in Holland.
She accepted and made her home in Leyden, where Mau-
rice was still a student.
While the orphaned republic was seeking succor from
England, Germany, and France, Parma was taking advan-
tage of a situation so depressing to the patroits. He
strained every resource to seize the cities on the Scheldt,
while tempting the people with many lures to surrender
to Philip. Flanders and Brabant, now so hard pressed by
the Spaniards, overcame in the States-General the opposi-
tion of Holland and Zeeland against a French alliance, and
thereupon, January 3, 1585, a fleet of forty vessels of war,
with sixteen dignitaries of the republic, sailed to France
to offer the sovereignty to Henry the Third. The coward
King, however, like the brave but vacillating Elizabeth,
had no desire to be the head of a Protestant league. Af-
ter eight months of uncertainty, in alternate hope and de-
| spair, the envoys went home, each having a gold chain
;upon his neck, but with nothing in his hand, and only
apologies and explanations upon his tongue.
696 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1585
Nevertheless, the failure of these Dutch envoys was at
once interpreted by Elizabeth to mean that Spanish gold
and intrigue had won the day in France, and that the re-
sult would be an alliance of French and Spanish Catholics
for the purpose of crushing, first the Netherlands, and
then England.
Truly Holland and Zeeland were the sea-dikes of Albion,
and well did the Protestants of the island-kingdom realize
it, for their eyes were turned in sympathy towards the
struggling provinces. Already English volunteers by
thousands had streamed over the sea to fight in the cause
of freedom. Long before Elizabeth could perceive it, her
subjects had discerned the true meaning of the conflict
between Spain and the Netherlands, and they felt that the
Dutch cause was their own. From the very beginning of
the conflict there were English and Scottish individual
soldiers in the Dutch army, but it was in April, 1572, that
the first muster of three hundred men took place before
the Queen at Greenwich. The expense of arming and
equipping them had been provided by the refugee Nether-
landers then dwelling in England. They were led by the
bold Thomas Morgan, with whom was the fiery Koger Will-
iams, quixotic in valor, yet an accomplished soldier and
student. During the summer they were received into
Vlissingen, or, as the English call it, Flushing, forming
the first distinctively English band that served in the Dutch
war of Independence. They had not long to wait for an
opportunity to prove their prowess ; for soon some Span-
iards from Middelburg mounted cannon on an artificial
hill, and began to bombard Flushing. The English pike-
men, led by their fiery Welch captain, charged on the bat-
tery and took it, though they lost fifty men. These Eng-
lishmen were very popular. Instead of seeking plunder
they were satisfied with bare victuals and lodging, and were
eager to do their best in fight. They asked for reinforce-
ments from home, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the half
brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, came over as colonel, bring-
ing fifteen hundred recruits.
In this manner began the training on Dutch soil of those
Englishmen who were to be the military advisers, leaders,
1585] "HELP-TROOPS" 697
and founders of American colonies, and who, catching
from the Dutch their inextinguishable love of freedom,
were thus prepared to lay the foundations of new com-
monwealths beyond the Atlantic. With the names of Sir
Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh must be linked
those of Captain John Smith, Samuel Argall, Edward
M. Wingfield, Miles Standish, Lyon Gardner, Governor
Thomas Dudley, Major John Mason, Jacob Leisler, and all
of the early American colonial military officers, without
exception. In the low countries, and during the Dutch
war of freedom, the history of the modern British army
began. The English, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish men in
the first levies had courage and the other noble qualities
of the British soldier, but they were without experience of
the art of war, and were, therefore, in the beginning, no
match for the Spaniards, at that time the most accom-
plished warriors in the world. The ' ' help-troops " had to
learn from the Spaniards the military art, the drill, the
use of weapons, and, in fact, the very names of the newer
formations. Most of the traditional military terms used
in England to this day are of Spanish or Dutch origin,
and the early history of the modern British army is that
of its seventy years' training in the Netherlands. When
their own civil war broke out in 1642, the leaders, officers,
and drill-masters on both sides, royal and parliamentary,
had been in the Dutch service, though the majority of
officers and veterans were against the King and for the
commonwealth, whose model army, in which were no
longer "common" soldiers but "privates," was formed
closely after that of the republic.
The sufferings and losses of the lads of Queen Bess were
very severe during the first few years of service, and many
disgraceful defeats had to be borne ; but with that splendid
patience and tenacity for which the British soldiers are
noted, they persevered, and their enthusiasm never cooled.
By the time that Maurice was able to take the field, many
of the Englishmen had already faced the Spaniard, and,
breaking the iron discipline of vandera and tercio, had
seen the backs of their enemies, and had even sent home
Spanish trophies.
698 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1585
Early in December, 1584, Queen Elizabeth despatched
her commissioner, William Davison, whose page was AYill-
iam Brewster, of Scrooby, to The Hague to confer witli the
Dutch rulers concerning an alliance of friendship and aid,
and the tender to her of the sovereignty of the United
Provinces. On the 29th of June, 1585, envoys of the Neth-
erlands received in London an audience of the Queen.
It was not until November that all the details were set-
tled to her satisfaction. She declined the sovereignty,
lest it might entangle her in new difficulties, but she
signed a treaty, agreeing to send six hundred men and, dur-
ing the war, to furnish the money for their maintenance,
which the states were to repay within five years after
peace should be declared. Meanwhile, as security, they
were to deliver tip to English occupation the towns of
Flushing and Brill and the fort of Kammekens. The
Queen's proclamation, setting forth her reasons for aiding
her "next neighbors . . . placed the English nation in a
most honorable position before the world." *
It was the tardy decision of the long vacillating and co-
quettish Elizabeth, and the positive advice of her states-
men, who believed that a war with Spain was simply a
question of time, that finally led the English government
to help, with men and money, the little republic that was
fighting for freedom and mankind. Nevertheless, the en-
thusiasm and example of the inexperienced English volun-
teers on Dutch soil had a powerful influence in determin-
ing the question. The army equipped and despatched
by Queen Elizabeth was the first English force organized
on the Spanish model. The grades of command, the
drill, tactics, evolutions, and most of the military nomen-
clature were borrowed from the Spaniards, whose infan-
try had reached a degree of perfection in military disci-
pline which had not been seen in Europe since the fall of
the Roman Empire.
Meanwhile the Duke of Parma had already begun the
siege of Antwerp, in order to separate permanently the
southern from the northern Netherlands, and to make
The Fighting Veres, p. 69.
1585] THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 699
sure of securing the former as a base of supplies before ad-
vancing from Netherlandish to English soil. His first
plan was to isolate the great city and cut off its supplies.
He trusted to the wolf as his ally even more than he de-
pended upon the sword. He relied upon the engineer
rather than upon the fighter, and so he began building
forts on the canals and rivers to stop the transportation of
food, intending then to bridge the Scheldt in order to
make the isolation complete and thus force famine.
The Silent, who had foreseen Parma's plans, showed how
they might be baffled. Believing that the bridge would
be built, he pointed out that by piercing the Blawgaren
dike below the city the Zeeland sailors could both vict-
ual and reinforce Antwerp by taking their light draft boats
up to the very walls. He prevailed upon Philip de Mar-
nix, lord of Sainte-Aldegonde, to be burgomaster of the
city. The Prince of Orange was, in the best sense of the
word, a consummate politician. Besides, being the hered-
itary Burgrave and the Euward of Brabant, he was able to
control the municipal election. So Marnix was chosen,
and endeavored faithfully to fill an office better suited to
an iron-willed general than to a scholar and diplomatist.
When, after the death of William, Marnix tried to car-
ry out that Prince's plan of piercing the dike, the butch-
ers, who formed a powerful trades-union, opposed the pro-
ceeding, and won over the colonels of militia to support
them in keeping their cattle - pastures intact. They
laughed at the idea of a bridge that could stand either the
winter ice and floods or an attack of the Zeeland vessels.
Meanwhile the Spaniards went steadily on, though the
bold Zeelanders broke the blockade, and brought grain to
the city so long as prices were high. When, however, the
magistrates foolishly destroyed the profits of the blockade-
runners by checking the importation of grain except at a
set price, famine was within sight. Smaller dikes had
been pierced, but the Spaniards were neither driven out
nor were the- Zeelanders furnished a passage, while the
water overlying the drowned fields enabled Parma to move
his heavy artillery on scows and get them into effective
position. At last the butchers yielded and agreed to let
y
•
a
700 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1585
in the waters over the cow pastures, but it was too late.
In spite of the prophecies of failure, even in his own coun-
cil, Parma, starting from opposite points on the river,
drove lines of piles which were guarded by forts, intend-
ing to join the ends of the palisades in the middle of the
current with a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile within Antwerp there was turbulence, amount-
ing almost to civil war, because some of the rich citizens
urged a surrender. Outside, the Dutch fleets failed to
injure the bridge, or to relieve the city. The trouble was
caused by the lack of union among the patriot command-
ers. Count Hohenlohe, who led the land forces of the re-
public, had taken the city of Hertogenbosch, some fifty
miles distant, but lost his prize through carelessness whil
a portion of his troops was pillaging the town.
By the 25th of February, 1585, Parma had completed
his gigantic task of bridging a swift river, a half a mile
wide. Both diplomacy and the weather had favored him.
During the mild winter very little ice formed in the river,
while negotiations with France had nearly paralyzed the
operations of the patriots on land and water. The bridge,
consisting of two long moles and a chain of thirty-two
great barges, made a structure twenty-four hundred feet
long, defended by two forts mounting the heaviest guns,
and garrisoned with the bravest troops, while forty heavily
armed vessels were anchored in the current. The barges
were twenty-two feet apart, and each one was a floating for-
tress defended by a garrison of thirty-two soldiers, having
at either end a heavy gun, mounted between gabions and
served by four sailors. In addition, there were piers, heavy
rafts, and booms above and below the main structure.
With these defences Parma believed he could defy any
force sent against the bridge, which was to force Antwerp
into starvation. A spy was caught examining his works,
but instead of hanging him Parma, with true statesman-
ship, allowed him to inspect everything, and then sent him
back to report that the bridge would be the Spaniard's
path of entrance or his grave. Although the messenger
delivered his message, there was as yet no thought of sur-
render.
1685] THE PATRIOTS DEFEATED 701
In those days the "fire-ship" occupied much the same
place in marine warfare as does the torpedo-boat in our
age. While waiting for succor from without, the Ant-
werpers summoned the flames to their aid. On the 5th
of April they sent down the river a fleet of "hell-burn-
ers," with which they expected that the rafts protecting
the bridge would be broken through or set on fire. At the
same time a floating volcano called " The Hope," which
had been designed and furnished with clockwork by the
Italian Gianibelli, was to explode and spout out old iron
castings, broken tools and timbers, blocks of stone, and
other things of weight that would serve as missiles or
projectiles. Owing to mismanagement and miscalcula-
tion on the one hand, and to Spanish discipline, vigil-
ance, and valor on the other, only a portion of the bridge
was destroyed, and the damage was repaired even before
the result was known in the city, which was not until
after three days of awful suspense.
Although Parma lost many of his best soldiers, the Zee-
; land sailors feared to come near the scene of devastation.
Finally, a messenger sent out by Hohenlohe swam under
the bridge and brought back to Antwerp an exact report.
Contrary winds prevented the further use of the Zeeland
fleet, and when other fire-ships came drifting down the
river, Parma opened the bridge of boats and let them pass
through harmlessly.
The patriots now again attempted relief from Zeeland,
and towards the end of May they despatched two hun-
dred vessels, which, co-operating with a fleet from Ant-
werp and meeting -off the Cowenstein dike, began a des-
perate attack on the forts, and then broke the barrier and
let in the flood. Although the Spaniards at first were
driven back, they were quickly rallied by Parma in person,
and drove back the patriots, killing or drowning two thou-
sand of them. One vessel had forced its way through and
i entered the city over the breach in the dike, which had
flooded the country and compelled the Spaniards to march
breast-high through the water. The premature joy in
Antwerp over supposed victory was quickly chilled by
news of the subsequent reverse.
702 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1585
By the beginning of summer the situation in the city
was critical, and in July the mobs demanded either bread
or peace. Hope of aid from France and England was in
vain, for it was too late when Elizabeth made the treaty
guaranteeing military aid. Negotiations with Parma were
opened, and Marnix vainly endeavored to get religious
toleration as one of the conditions of surrender. He was
able, however, to conceal from Parma the starving con-
dition of the capital, and the Duke, fearing more fire-ships
and the coming of help from beyond sea, made reason-
able terms. The treaty looking to the surrender was
dated August 17, 1585, and Parma entered Antwerp on
the 30th of the same month. The traitorous nobles —
deserters from the cause of freedom — basked in the sun-
light of their conqueror's countenance and hoped for
fresh spoils of office. The Jesuits were at once restored
to power, and the intellect of the young handed over to
fetters which were not broken for nearly two centuries.
The wealth and intelligence of the city had already left
it. One-third of the Antwerp merchants, manufacturers
and artisans had gone to swell the prosperity of Londoi
while from that day forth Amsterdam rose steadily to
the chief city of northern Europe.
Parma hung the keys of the city around his neck,
three days of revelry were indulged in by the victors.
The great bridge was transformed into a bower of delight,
in which the grim soldiers of southern Europe sported
like dryads of classic mythology. Then the structure was
broken up and the river left unvexed ; but Antwerp's
prosperity was destined never to come back while the
Belgic provinces should remain the private property of
Spanish and Austrian families. Its two hands, commerce
and manufactures, had been cut off and flung into the
flood by the giant of despotism; nor was any Brabo to arise
until within our century. The fall of Antwerp was a final
blow to the hopes of those who had looked for a union
of the seventeen provinces. Henceforth the stream of
Netherlandish history was to divide, and the seven north-
ern provinces alone, united as a free republic, were to occu-
py for a century or more the van in the career of freedom.
1585] CHARACTERISTICS OF SAINTE-ALDEGONDE 703
Philip de Marnix, Lord of Sainte-Aldegonde, the zealous
Protestant, high-souled statesman, and scholar of varied
talents and accomplishments, retired into comparative se-
clusion. No history of the Netherlands would be com-
plete without a sketch of this friend of and co-worker
with the Prince of Orange. Descended from a noble
Savoyan family, he was born at Brussels in 1538. A stu-
dent at Geneva, he came under the influence of Calvin,
that master-spirit of the Reformation, and the greatest of
all the fathers of modern God-fearing and law-loving
democracy. With his varied gifts as warrior, poet, prose-
writer, translator, and statesman, Philip de Marnix became
the right hand of "William of Orange and the friend of
Netherland's independence. He was a champion of mu-
nicipal rights, and, hating the inquisition, devoted him-
self with all his powers to win freedom from Spain.
He was the chief author of the famous Compromise of
1566. He served as military commander of Delft, Eot-
terdam, and Schiedam ; but at the seizure of the fort of
Maaslandsluis by the Spaniards he was made prisoner and
so kept for several years. His military and civil services
were crowned by his noble defence during thirteen months
of Antwerp, and by his consummate diplomacy in its sur-
render. Though endowed with a greater variety of tal-
j ents, he had not the genius and will of Orange, who in-
i trusted him with many important and delicate missions.
jHe never reached, with William the Silent, that height
of Christianity which shows itself in toleration of other
worshippers of the same God and followers of the same
(Christ, while he encouraged and restrained the Calvinists
and protected the Catholics. In hope of the union of all
the Netherlands, he opposed religious persecution. After
leaving Antwerp he had to face an adverse public opin-
ion, which regarded him as a traitor because he had
praised Parma's moderation and had intrigued against
'English influence. He went into retirement, solacing
limself with philosophic and religious studies ; but in
1590 was sent as envoy to the Court of France, and in
.594 to the German states. In 1596 he was intrusted by
he States-General with the work of translating the books
704
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1585
of the Hebrew Scriptures into Dutch, but he died at Ley-
den on the loth of December, 1598, after having accom-
plished only a version of the book of Genesis.
William Davison, long resident in Antwerp and Eliza-
beth's envoy in the republic in 1584 and 1585, had been
accompanied by his page, William Brewster. In a land
where conscience and the printing-press were free, this lad
saw and learned much that helped him afterwards to be a
good Puritan, a Separatist, a builder of a church with-
out a bishop, and a state without a king. The future
dweller at Scrooby, Leyden, and Plymouth, by command
of his master, Davison, wore the chain of gold presented
to the Queen's envoy by the States-General, and slept with
the keys of the " three cautionary towns " under his pil-
low. Brewster's visit to Holland in 1584 was one link in
the chain of causes which resulted in making a new
United States beyond the Atlantic.
CHAPTER II
THE ENGLISH ALLIES
THE meeting of the great English and Dutch fleets at
Flushing, December 19, 1585, formed a pageant of ex-
traordinary brilliancy — a theme for painters and poets.
iThe Dutch genius for costume-processions, tremendous
banquets, and quaint spectacles, borrowed from mythology
:or biblical history, garnished with fireworks and Latin
oratory, ran its usual course. History, fiction, and art have
made the English commander, Robert Dudley, Earl of Lei-
3ester, popularly known; but historical science declares that
f,he character of this aspirant for the hand of Elizabeth is a
)uzzle. Whether his name be linked with that of Amy
'riobsart or of England's sovereign, with Mary Queen of
; Scots or with the States-General of the Netherlands, there
-|s little trace of a straightforward, honest man in any of
jiis dealings. Tall, handsome, and having ingratiating
.nanners, but vain, presuming, and without ability corre-
; ponding to his ambition, he was the sport of the wits
nd the target of military critics in his own day, and now
? the enigma of history. For success in the Netherlands,
jeicester, being himself without military experience, re-
led upon Count Philip of Hohenlohe, and upon his vet-
ran lord-marshal, William Pelham. He brought to Hol-
ind an unseasoned body of brave troops, not a few of
horn were wild Irishmen still in a state of semi-civiliza-
on, such as Dutchmen of that generation had never
'en. Among his captains and officers were Englishmen
! the noblest blood and purest character ; while mingled
ith them, like Satan among the sons of God, were de-
stable traitors and sordid wretches, ready to sell their
vords at the first opportunity.
45 705
706 HISTORY OP THE NETHERLANDS [1586
Leicester arrived at the Hague when the headless re-
public was in great straits for a leader ; when, in the
words of the Oriental proverb, there was danger of " even
a sardine's head becoming an object of worship." Yield-
ing to a majority in the States-General, against the strong
protest of Friesland and in the face of his sovereign's ex-
press order, Leicester was made governor-general, and in-
stalled with great pomp on the 4th of February, 1586.
Two Englishmen now had seats in the council of state.
In place of Paul Buys, John van Olden-Barueveldt be-
came the advocate of Holland, and was soon the master
spirit in the legislature of the chief of the seven confedei
ated states and in the national congress.
When Elizabeth heard of Leicester's assumption she
was furious, for she still hoped to make a treaty witl
Spain by which she could save herself and her kingdoi
from war, even though the republic should be left in tl
lurch. A lover-like letter from her favorite to his suscej
tible sovereign enabled Leicester to retain the governor-
ship ; but meanwhile, occupied with negotiations for peac
with Spain, she neglected to send reinforcements to h<
army, and this at a time when the overwhelming of Pa
ma's enfeebled force by the Dutch and English allic
army was possible. During this year, 1586, the Englie
dragon, Francis Drake (two of whose ships were nani€
Mayflower), was on the distant seas ravaging the King
Spain's treasure-house in America, while Martin Scheucl
having deserted Parma, built a tremendous fort on
island in the river Rhine, by means of which he coi
manded the surrounding country and was able to lay it
under tribute. "With such a situation — Spain proud anc'
powerful but her army unpaid and unable to move, Lei-
cester showing his incompetency, the English army lack-
ing money and supplies, the Dutch unable to make head-
way in arms or diplomacy, and Schenck all the while liveb
and free-handed — the wits had plenty to do. Pen am
pencil were busy.
Caricatures, still worthy of study, were made numer
ously and sold freely, especially after Leicester's prema
ture rejoicings over the relief, in April, 1586, of the cit
1686]
LEICESTER CAPTURES DOESBURG
707
of Grave, on the Maas, which the Spaniards had invested.
After merry and imposing celebrations, in various places,
of this triumph, Leicester was humiliated by Parma's
capture of Grave on June 7th. The Earl was so enraged
that he hanged the young Dutch commandant of the
city, Count van Hemert. Meanwhile he pawned his per-
sonal property to pay his ragged and starving troops. The
English pay-masters outdid even the Spanish keepers of
the military chest by pocketing as many as possible of
the Queen's pounds, shillings, and pence. The thrifty
sovereign had guarded her own interests by taking in
pawn from the Dutch, as " cautionary towns," Flushing,
Brill, and Rarnmekens, which were garrisoned by her
troops and put under English martial law. One friend
of the " common " soldier (who had not yet become the
"private" of the later Commonwealth), who was rather
too honest to be the Queen's favorite, Sir Philip Sidney,
exposed the peculations of pay-masters and made direct
complaint to his sovereign.
The prospects were very gloomy, for the Netherlander
distrusted and suspected both the Queen and her favorite,
when Sidney, with young Maurice, struck the first blow
that shed lustre on the English arms by capturing the
important city of Axel, in Zeeland.
Parma having moved eastward towards Cologne, the the-
atre of operations was transferred to the great river region
of eastern Netherlands. Leicester captured Doesburg,
the burg or city which has condensed in its name that of
the Eoman general Drusus, who first joined the waters of
the Rhine to those of the Zuyder Zee by enlarging and
digging a canal to the Ijssel river, on which is situated
the city of Zutphen. This latter place was so important
that Parma sent forward provisions for a three months'
siege, placing the wagon-train under a convoy of three
i thousand infantry and cavalry commanded by his best
sfficers. Leicester planned to cut off this train by ar-
iging an ambuscade at Warnsfeld, near the city. With,
lat insular conceit which, from the days of Leicester to
those of Braddock and the South African reverses, has
iso often brought disaster to English arms, ho imagined
708 HISTORY OF THE XETHERLAXDS [1586
that one of his men was a good match for two or three
Spaniards. His force lying in wait consisted of but live
hundred men under Sir John Norris. Early in the morn-
ing of October 2, 1586, while a dense fog lay over the
meadows, the sound of wheels was heard. Soon the sun
rose, revealing to view an overwhelming force of cavalry,
followed by musketeers and pikemeu — a superb body of
the best disciplined soldiers in Europe. Nevertheless the
English knights dashed at once upon the Spaniards. For
a few moments the valor of these horsemen amazed Par-
ma's veterans. No more, however, than a wave against
the rock or the charge of Balaklava did this magnificent
but unscientific onset avail. The convoy and train oi
provisions got safely into the city. Beside many Englisl
slain, Sir Philip Sidney was among the wounded. He
was put on board a boat and floated down the Ijssel anc
the Rhine to Arnhem, where he lingered until the 17tl
of October, when he passed cheerfully away. His elegant
Latin has furnished the commonwealth of Massachusett
with her motto, and his name is immortal in literatui
and in philanthropy.
With stubborn determination the British troops be
sieged Zutphen, and finally captured the city in a niannc
quite unique and as surprising to themselves as to their
foes. The cannon having breached the wall, Lieutenant
Edward Stanley, whose career both in bravery and treacl
ery recalls that of Benedict Arnold, rushed into the bread
Thrust at by a Spanish pikeman, he seized the long pole
with both hands and was actually lifted up from the
ground. Leaping through the breach, he drew his sword
and laid about most vigorously, to the astonishment of the
garrison, while his men, climbing on one another's shoul-
ders, leaped to his rescue. The allied troops poured in!
and captured the city.
Leicester did not win the confidence of the Dutchmen.
The reasons for his failure are plain. He appointed tc
high and responsible offices in the republic three mer
from the Spanish Netherlands, though the constitutior
did not permit that privilege to any who had not been iij
the country ten years. Paul Buys refused to take offict
1686J TREACHERY OF YORKE 709
under the obnoxious foreigner, Reingault, who had served
successively Granvelle, Alva, and Eequesens. When Leices-
ter had Buys imprisoned, because the latter had proposed
that the sovereignty be offered to the King of Denmark,
the final blow to the prestige of the Earl was dealt.
In disappointment he now resolved to return to England,
both to checkmate the intrigues of the envoys of the
states in London and to secure the decapitation of Mary
Stuart of Scotland.
Although his sovereign had warned him not to interfere
in religious affairs, Leicester had curried favor with the
clergy and politicians of the state church, relying upon
them chiefly for support and personal advancement. In
his unwarrantable zeal and meddlesomeness he suppressed
as far as possible all sects except the Calvinistic, includ-
ing the Komish, Lutheran, and Anabaptist, and banished
some seventy or more persons from Utrecht. Barneveldt
was able to foil most of Leicester's schemes and to reduce
the influence of the "English party" ; but Leicester was
allowed to make two appointments dangerous to the re-
public. Before he embarked, Sir William Stanley was
made governor of Deventer and occupied it with his five
: hundred wild Irishmen. These " help-troops " were eaters
of raw flesh and users of bows and arrows. They were as
1 thoroughly at home on their stilts among the Dutch mo-
rasses as in the bogs of Ireland. Their vernacular was
something which neither Dutch nor English could under-
1 stand. They were a terror to the polished citizens of this
old home of learning and culture.
Rowland Yorke, another brave but utterly unscrupulous
•military adventurer, to whom all causes were alike, and
Iwho, like Stanley, seems to have had no such scruples as
trouble honest men when tempted, was put in command
of Zutphen. The Dutch statesmen objected strenuously
'to the appointment of these Roman Catholics to such im-
portant positions, especially when they were made inde-
pendent of Hohenlohe and of Norris, two officers whom
Leicester seems to have bitterly hated. Pretty soon the
people of Zutphen found themselves treated roughly,
vhile the Spaniards seemed to be winning the favor of
710
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1587
Kowland Yorke. On the morning of January 29, 1587,
after a grand dinner given to the city magistrates, Zutphen
was basely surrendered to the Spaniards.
All at once there seemed to burst out an epidemic of
treason. Yorke handed over the forts at Zutphen. The
castle of Wauvv, between Rosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom,
then under the command of Le Marchand, a French of-
ficer, was traded off to Parma for sixteen thousand florins.
The Scotch colonel, Aristotle Patton, in command of Gel •
derland, who was greedy of money, who loved a certain
widow and hated both Martin Schenck and Leicester, was
able to gratify at one stroke his greed, his love, and his
hate by selling out to the Duke of Parma. For this jol
he received thirty-six thousand florins. It was the widoT
of that Seigneur de Bours who had once sold the city of
Antwerp whom the Scotsman married — both her husbands
thus being traitors. To the Dutch patriots, treasoi
seemed to be wafted from the four winds of heaven.
Leicester's deserted soldiers, now in desperate strait
for lack of wages, either lived off the country by robbing
the farmers, or became deserters to the Spaniards. Thos
having consciences begged their way home in rags, anc
appeared in pitiable plight before the royal palace in Lon-
don. The Dutch indignation against all the islanders
was great, and it was months before an honest English-
man could look a Dutchman in the face. Maurice was
made temporary governor-general, and Hohenlohe com-
mander-in-chief, their energies being as much directed
against English perfidy as against Spanish gold and steel.
Elizabeth, who had been so angry at her neighbors, lowered
her tone when she found how terribly the fair name of
England had been disgraced by traitors. She sent Sir
Thomas Sackville, who at first berated the States- General
soundly, but soon saw the real situation though he could
not make Elizabeth do so. He was further hampered by
his sovereign's order to have Hohenlohe seized and im-
prisoned, on a charge of treasonable intrigues with Spain.
Sackville, however, was too sensible to attempt such
unwarrantable intermeddling, especially after Leicester's
ridiculous experience with Paul Buys in a similar situa-
1587] SURRENDER OF SLUIS 711
tion. On the contrary, Sackville urged Elizabeth to aid
the republic with more money, pointing out the danger
from Spain if Holland and Zeeland, the two faithful states
which had to bear the burden of the war, should be com-
pelled to yield.
Parma had moved eastward, and for some months had
been operating in the German Electorate of Cologne
against Gebhard Truchsess, whose love for Agnes Mans-
feld had driven him to defy the Pope. Parma's appear-
ance early in June, 1587, before Sluis, a town very im-
portant for the safety of England as well as the republic,
alarmed Elizabeth and the Dutch Council of State. The
latter assumed supreme authority in civil affairs and ap-
pointed Maurice temporary captain-general, while Eliza-
beth sent back her favorite Leicester.
The harbor and town of Sluis were held by Elizabeth,
who, in her thriftiness and hope of peace with Spain, had
neglected to fortify it. Its garrison of a thousand men
was commanded by Arnold van Groenevelt, the English
auxiliaries being under Sir Koger Williams and Sir Fran-
cis Vere. Although unity in council was vital to ultimate
success, the republic was cursed by distraction. Already
hostile party spirit was giving a partial revelation of what
calamities were yet to befall the country because of mut-
ual jealousy and enmity. The nominal head of the ultra-
Calvinists, or nationalists, was Leicester. The aristocratic
or municipal party was led by Barneveldt. While Parma
was pushing his trenches and wheeling his siege -guns
nearer the walls of Sluis, where even the women fought
side-by-side with the men as defenders, the municipal
party, through jealousy of Leicester and the democratic Cal:
vinists, prevented by delay any relief being sent to the city.
Even when Leicester again arrived, in July, 1587, with men
j and money, he was met with indifference. Defended with
i heroic valor and consummate skill, but unrelieved, Sluis
. surrendered on the 5th of August.
Parma had burned his powder freely in the hope of
.making Sluis his point of departure for the invasion of
; England, but as yet he had no fleet; and the Zeelanders
: determined he should never get any to transport his vet-
712 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1581
erans beyond sea. While Sir Francis Drake devastated
the Spanish waters and ship-yards, giving the Dutch hints
and suggestions which they took quickly and soon fol-
lowed, Elizabeth disgraced her faithful servants, Wilkes,
Norris, and Sackville, entered into coquettish diplomacy
with Parma, and scolded the States-General. Calculating
to avoid war with Philip and compel the republic to make
peace whenever it suited her, she hoped also to get Parma
to become the Duke of Burgundy by inducing him to play
false to his own master. Meanwhile the Spanish Armada
was being built. Leicester seconded her crafty policy,
and resorted to desperate measures to regain his power in
the states, which he blamed for the fall of Sluis.
A key to the complex politics in the Netherlands is to
be found in the fact that whereas, on the one hand, Barne-
veldt and his supporters claimed that in the absence of a
prince or sovereign all power remained with the States-
General, the ultra-Calvinists and the partisans of Leicester
held that sovereignty belonged to the people. The men
of precedents, the lawyers and the Dutch statesmen led
by Barneveldt, had the best of the constitutional argu-
ment ; but the people, although they had no recognition
on legislative parchment or in legal documents, having
few rights which the law-making assemblies were bound
to respect, were yet every day gaining power and mani-
festing it. The day was soon to come when they should
declare themselves a nation in a manner as yet unknown
to the men of charters and law books — namely, through
the church — and when the issues of politics should be
settled under the guise of theology.
Leicester, outgeneraled in the field by Parma, foiled in
council by Barneveldt, and duped by adventurers who had
everything to gain and nothing to lose, left the Nether-
lands in disgust, at the end of 1587. However, his mis-
rule and incompeteucy proved a blessing in disguise, both
to the united states of the Netherlands and to the cause
of republican freedom. The disgusted Dutch abandoned
the idea of a national sovereignty lodged in a person, or
of placing any mere figure-head above the prow of the ship
of state. Only England, by orderly evolution of law, has
1587] DEPARTURE OF LEICESTER 713
been able to disguise a republic under the fiction of roy-
alty.
Unfortunately, and perhaps purposely, Leicester left the
country without having resigned his authority. His de-
parture was the signal for outbreaks between his partisans
and those of Maurice, who was at this time in accord with
Barneveldt. It seemed for a while as though the Nether-
lands, which had already suffered many times from Span-
ish mutinies, and once from a French attempt to seize
Antwerp, might now have a British " fury." The English,
Scotch, and Irish soldiers revolted, and the prospects for
order seemed for a time black indeed. Meanwhile the
commissioners sent by Elizabeth were negotiating with
Parma. He received them with promises of peace, and
profited by their invitation to send his envoys to Ostend,
having his engineers, disguised as servants, examine its
fortifications. In fact, Parma turned himself into an an-
cient Caninifates, or rabbit - catcher, and in person lei-
surely inspected the defences of the city. Philip directed
his general to keep up the negotiations until the armada
should appear, and then execute his purpose of replant-
ing the Catholic religion on the shores of England. Philip
already in vision beheld upon his own head the crown
of England, which Pope Sixtus V. had so generously pre-
sented to the Spanish monarch.
It took a good while for the adjustment of these troubles
between the English and Dutch leaders. Even after Eliz-
abeth had deposed Leicester, and had commanded both
the English and Dutch adherents of the Earl to submit to
the States -General, irritation was prolonged by Herbert,
the English envoy, who held back the Queen's order for
two months, meanwhile leaving Lord Willoughby, the
English officer in command, to feed his suspicions that
the Dutch were intriguing with Spain. Yet even after
the English soldiers had returned to duty, in loyal obedi-
ence to their Dutch superiors, the ultra - Calvinists sent
envoys to Elizabeth begging her acceptance of sovereignty
over the provinces.
Meanwhile, although Philip supposed that Parma and
his army were in England awaiting the armada, they were
714 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1587
really shut npin Dunkirk, having no ships and only barges
with which to adventure upon the seas. Parma anxiously
awaited the approach of the armada, for he expected that
with their united forces the Spaniards would make Great
Britain and Ireland provinces of Spain. While the Eng-
lish warships were shattering and sinking the clumsy
Spanish vessels, the sailors of Holland and Zeeland were
doing an equally effective work in blockading the coast,
so that Parma was helpless. The Spanish commander had
the mortification of seeing his splendid army of thirty
thousand men reduced to one -half that number, while
probably one-third of the armada was destroyed or capt-
ured in battle and another third was lost in the tempests
of the North Sea.
Many a gallant ship, bedecked with flags embroidered or
painted with saints, apostles, and the Prince of Peace, was
dashed to pieces on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, or
captured by the Dutch privateers and ships of war. Some
of the captured Spanish trophies long adorned the homes
and castle halls within 'the dikes of Holland. In the
Leyden Museum one splendid silken pennon, upon which
is painted the face of the Crucified, after centuries of faded
and vanished color, has yielded up its halo of glory to the
photograph. In our time the storms have disturbed the
long-buried hulks, and cast out the dead ships upon the
shores of the land whose people gray-haired Philip hoped
to reduce to mental slavery. Dutch divers and engineers
gladly undertook to fish up the treasure-ships lost off the
Irish coast. Winning a new wealth out of the seas, they
devoted the money to draining their lakes and morasses,
thus adding fertile soil to their own domain. To help
them in their work, a Dutchman invented "the ship's
camel," that forerunner of the drydock — the same con-
trivance which, in 1813, enabled Oliver Hazard Perry to
float his gun -boats, built on the edge of the forest, over
the bar and into Lake Erie.
Philip reproached Parma for not breaking the Dutch
blockade and going out to meet the armada ; but to attempt
this would have been madness. Parma was enraged at
such a requital by his sovereign of long and faithful ser-
1588] BERGEN- OP- ZOOM INVESTED 715
vices. In England, Howard, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher,
and Ealeigh — names associated with American discovery
and exploration — had on sea and land drilled and organ-
ized the forces gathered under Leicester, who died in Sep-
tember, 1588. His English militia were brave, but poorly
equipped, badly organized, and shamefully neglected by
their government. There was as yet no true English
army, save that which was being slowly developed in the
Dutch republic.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Parma had laid siege
to Bergen-op-Zoom, which had a garrison of Dutch and
English troops under Maurice and Lord Willoughby. Af-
ter a brave defence and the loss at one time of a thousand
Spaniards, owing to a double treachery, Parma raised the
siege, and retired in November, 1588. Maurice now moved
his troops to Gertruydenberg, the garrison of which, after
remaining in rebellion since Leicester's departure, had
sold out to the Spaniards in April, 1589. The commander,
Sir John Wingfield, afterwards of Virginia, had been com-
pelled to surrender by his mutinous and unpaid soldiers,
who in turn were threatened by Barneveldt. By this
fresh act of English treason the Dutch were infuriated ;
but when the states set a price on Wingfi eld's head, Queen
Elizabeth retaliated, and again division took place in the
councils of the republic and the kingdom, when hearty
union was most needed. With Philip bankrupt and Parma
ill at Spa, the enemy failed to profit by this alienation of
friends.
The united provinces, being thus so occupied with home
troubles, could not attend to anything beyond their bor-
ders. The daring partisan, Martin Schenck, from his big
schans or fort on the Rhine island, occupied himself by
robbing the farmers of the surrounding country and
plundering wagon-trains of the Spaniards containing grain
and money. He now laid his plans for the capture of
Nymegen. Making ready a flotilla of twenty-five boats
filled with his partisans, he dropped silently down the
river on a dark night, and made the gate of St. Anthony
his first point of attack. Having broken through, he
rushed with a few picked men to the market-place. By
716 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1588
this time garrison and citizens had armed themselves and
a great fight began, with repeated charges and counter-
charges. Unfortunately for the bold buccaneer, most of
his men had been swept down the river beyond the land-
ing-place, and could not make headway back against the
current to assist their chief. Obliged to retreat through
the streets towards the river, his men leaped pell-mell
into the boats, several of which were sunk, and Martin
Schenck himself was drowned. His body was fished out
and cut up for trophies, his head and four quarters soon
adorning the battlements of the city. Thus ended the
career of one of the last of the robber barons, of whose
exploits his numerous descendants in America still tell.
It is only a thin line of division, however, that morally
separates Martin Schenck from the other robbers con-
temporary with him, who sat on thrones or in church
chairs, held sceptres or croziers, or wore crowns or mi-
tres.
These eveats in the south had left the Dutch in the
north comparatively free, especially in Friesland, to carry
out their deliberately formed design of protecting their
country not only from the murderous Spaniards, but also
from equally dangerous popular ignorance. To freedom,
priestcraft is as inimical as kingcraft. The Dutch safe-
guarded their liberties by erecting walls of popular educa-
tion, surmounted by university towers. In 1586 the
states of Friesland founded a university at Franeker, a
city lying between Leeuwarden and Harlingen, though the
determination to do so was made on the very day that
allegiance to Spain was forsworn. This was the second of
the five universities for which the Dutch Eepublic was
to become famous. Previous to their declaration of inde-
pendence from Spain, the people of the provinces north
of the Maas and Scheldt had to depend on the university
of Louvain. As they were slowly educated into national-
ity and freedom they founded, one after the other, the
universities of Leyden, Franeker, Groningen, Harder-
wijk, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. Franeker had a long and
glorious history, being always progressive in tone and dem-
ocratic in sentiment. In its faculties were men whose
1588] DRENTHE 717
names are illustrious, such as Coccejus, Venema, Vitringa,
Schultens, Hemsterhuis, and Valckenaer. From the be-
ginning, Scottish professors and undergraduates were ad-
mitted here. The Puritans of England furnished not a
few men in the faculties and student body, among whom
Dr. William Ames, or Amesius, is best known in Nether-
land, where his theological writings in various editions
are still read and enjoyed.*
Drenthe, in 1595, chose the able and powerful Count
William Louis for stadholder ; and in this same year the
States-General occupied Embden with a garrison that was
maintained henceforth for nearly a century and a half.
This city in East Friesland, on German soil, is the alma
mater of the Eeformed Church. It is more Dutch than
German, in population as well as in architecture. Here
the English refugees during Bloody Mary's reign gath-
ered, and here was lived the pre-natal life of the English
Puritan party. Here the Netherlander driven before
Alva found a home, and here, in 1571, "the churches of
the Netherlands, sitting under the cross " and scattered
throughout Germany and East Friesland, held their synod.
The people have ever been more democratic and tolerant
than in most German cities. When Edward the Second,
the German Count of East Friesland, tried to force Lu-
theranism upon Embden, the people appealed to the
States-General, which at once sent troops to Embden and
Leevoord to maintain freedom of religion, f
* He was for forty-five years a professor in Franeker, and was appointed
by the States-General a deputy to the great national synod in Dordrecht in
1618. Fourteen years later, while on his way to Massachusetts, he died in
Rotterdam, his family and his library going to help in beginning educated
America. It was out of this Franeker " High School," as it is called in the
vernacular, that the sentiment came forth which, in 1781, prompted the
Dutch to recognize the American republic. Franeker University was too
full of "free Frisian" sentiments to suit Napoleon, who suppressed it in
1811. Ever lovers of learning as well as of liberty, the Dutch showed that
they could protect from license the freedom which they won with their
swords.
f The curious conflicts of jurisdiction which arose from the multitude of
time-honored anomalies in the Dutch and German political systems are
cleverly exposed in Jacob van Lennep's novel translated in English, The
Story of an Abduction in the Seventeenth Century.
718 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1589
Like a counter-charge in a great battle, and to affront
and humiliate the King of Spam for sending the armada
into English waters, the allies despatched an expedition
against Spain. The whole fleet consisted of one hundred
and sixty vessels of all sorts, with fourteen thousand men,
of which the Dutch furnished forty ships and fifteen
hundred men. The fleet sailed from Plymouth, April 18,
1589. The same dauntless seamen that had repulsed the
armada and blockaded Parma were largely in evidence as
leaders, and both Dutch and English believed that they
were drawing the sword and lighting the torch for the
good of Christendom. The Spaniards were taken entirely
by surprise when the English fleet anchored off San Se-
bastian. There was some gallant fighting and much de-
struction of Spanish property by fire, amounting to over
twenty million ducats; but the allies, who remained two
weeks at Cadiz, accomplished little in their marching,
fighting, and manoeuvring. Some money was gained by
ransoms and several towns were burned, but little booty
was obtained. One-half of the men died by disease, and
the survivors came home disappointed. Nevertheless, this
blow crippled the resources of Spain and clouded the last
years of the tyrant with mortification and shame, while it
cheered the islanders and the Dutch patriots as they felt
that slowly but surely their oppressor was being weakened.
In France the dagger of a fanatic monk set a Protestant
king, Henry the Fourth, upon the throne. Elizabeth made
haste to recognize and reward the new sovereign, the States
doing the same, making him a handsome gift of gold, and
thus the power of Spain to injure the republic was further
weakened. "While the naval power of Spain had been
nearly annihilated, her army was, indeed, drawing rations
and eating up millions of dollars' worth of food and sup-
plies, but otherwise was doing nothing.
CHAPTER HI
THE MODEL ARMY
THE time had now come in the republic for the forma-
tion of a new army on a new model, composed of true pa-
triots. Of this army, John of Barneveldt and Maurice of
Nassau were the creators. Barneveldt, who incarnated
the spirit of the burghers and the city governments, be-
lieved that the first thing necessary for a prolonged war
was sound finance. He perceived how the valor of the
mercenaries of Philip had been neutralized, and the results
of their fighting and splendid discipline had been lost, by
non-payment of soldiers' wages. A victory had been often
succeeded by a mutiny. For, although fanatical as Turks,
superb in physique, matchless in discipline, and fertile in
resources, the Spanish soldiers nevertheless became anar-
chists when unpaid or ill fed. Therefore it was that the
arms of Philip could make no steady progress.
On the other hand, the Dutch people, having been for
centuries immersed in trade and commerce, were not only
averse to war but had no natural qualifications for it, ex-
cept courage, tenacity, patience, and like virtues, which
furnish the raw material out of which good soldiers are
made. When hostilities began, because of that murderous
church discipline called "The Holy Inquisition," in which
organized Christianity seemed to have reverted to the sys-
tems of Moloch and Woden, the Dutch were ready to
plead and protest, but were not prepared for organized re-
sistance. When Alva marched his invincible infantry into
their country and camped upon their soil, these trading
and farming folks had no idea that they could withstand
the dreaded veterans, who seemed to have almost super-
720 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1589
natural power in the field or at a siege. It seemed to the
Dutch government that only mercenaries from warlike
countries were worth anything as soldiers. Hence the
curious spectacle of hosts of foreigners led by sons of the
House of Orange, and of an army which, though organized
and paid by native Dutchmen, was, as to rank and file,
almost wholly alien. Furthermore, the Dutch knew next
to nothing of military science, which had been developed
by the wars in the southern countries against the Moors
and Turks, and in Germany and France, which were then
the great magazines of hireling soldiery. It was not until
Maurice had created a new science of war, and Barneveldt
had made the statecraft of Holland equal to its necessities,
that the Dutch secured a standing army of patriots who
were able, without quailing, to look the Spaniard in the
face.
The national army consisted chiefly of natives, though
it was handsomely reinforced by the British auxiliaries,
and at first numbered but twelve thousand men. Under
Maurice and his successors, the men who fought beneath
the orange, white, and blue flag were superbly drilled and
kept in the highest state of discipline. It was a genuine
republican army, in which men were not given positions on
account of birth. Three years* service on foot with pike
or gun were required before a man could become a lieu-
tenant, and four years' service in arms were necessary be-
fore he could be made a captain. High discipline was ac-
companied by high wages. Both the pay and the rewards
were unusual for those times, and, what was equally im-
portant, the soldier was paid every week. Notwithstand-
ing this tremendous strain upon the treasury, the republi-
can government found it to be very advantageous to pay
its troops promptly, for thereby a discipline was secured
that surprised the Spaniards. Mutinies were thereafter
unknown, as well as that shameful swindling and pecula-
tion which so often marked the English and Spanish
methods of military administration. Furthermore, the
soldiers, instead of being a terror to the people whom
they defended, were everywhere welcomed. The pres-
ence of a camp meant a thriving market for the peasants
1589] THE NATIONAL ARMY AND NAVY 721
and prosperity to the farming population of the neigh-
borhood.
The cavalrymen were remarkably well equipped, dis-
ciplined, and paid. Maurice made his troopers discard
the long boots of Cordovan leather, which took a large
fraction of an hour to get on and take off. Stout and
comfortable foot-gear, as quickly put off and on as a
sailor's, was provided. He armed his riders with carbines
instead of pistols. In time of siege, as well as in an or-
dinary campaign, the soldier on horseback did harder
work than the other soldiers in any arm of the service.
From this time forth, also, the artillery trains under
Maurice were larger and heavier than any known in Eu-
rope. The power, and accuracy of his siege-guns aston-
ished students, who came from all parts of Europe to
study in this university of war. Maurice, whose influence
steadily increased as he received new honors, becoming
in 1590 the stadholder of Gelderland and Over-Ijssel, as
he had been of Zeeland and Holland since 1585, was most
diligent in labor and unique in genius. While in the
trenches, or actively engaged in sieges, he wore a plain
suit of clothes. The only mark of rank was upon his hat,
around which, probably in imitation or defiance of the
Duke of Alva's jewelled hat given by the Pope, he strung
a cord of diamonds. His cousin, Count William Louis,
stadholder of Friesland, aided him powerfully in build-
ing up a truly national army.
From the first the Dutch had possessed the sea as an
ally and friend. They were perfectly at home among the
shoals, the narrows, and the intricate water passages of
their half -submerged land. They knew the bottom of
their coasts, their inland and outer sea with its deeps and
its wads, its zands, its gats and vliets, nearly as well as
they knew the land's surface. To men living in a coun-
try whose farms were alternately above and below the
flood, there were no difficulties or peculiarities of the
watery element which could appall them or furnish per-
manent obstacles. They felt at home also when out on
the deep sea, and in all their long career the Spaniards
could make no headway against them. Gradually a na-
46
722 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1590
tional navy was formed. Instead of armed fishing smacks
and traders' vessels, warships with heavy oaken bulwarks,
swiftly sailing, quickly turning, and embodying the best
results of naval science, were built and manned, and able
officers, graduated from the school of the merchant navi-
gators and the fisheries, were set in command. These
fleets, which became the scourge of Spain, suffered no
check until the British disputed their power upon the
sea and by superior resources carried off the prize.
A series of military triumphs, for which Maurice de-
serves the credit, was begun in 1590 at Breda. Having
selected seventy picked men, the hardiest, healthiest, most
valorous and intelligent of his Dutch lads, he loaded a
peat-boat with this human freight, stowing it in the hold,
while the decks, as usual on a Dutch fuel-boat, were piled
high with bricks of dried soil. It was on the night of the
26th of February, 1590, when the canal being full of ice
and progress difficult, the Spanish soldiers of the garrison
themselves came out of the town and actually assisted to
draw the boat inside the walls. The wily captain, who
was in the secret, prevented the load of peat from being
set on land too fast. By clever tricks he lulled all sus-
picions, and the job of unloading was left to be finished ,
in the morning. The boat discharged its living cargo
about midnight. The citadel was first assailed, and the
English and Dutch troops from without being promptly
on hand, they marched into Breda playing the national
hymn. "William of Nassau," composed by Philip de
Marnix Sainte-Aldegonde. In his wrath Parma hanged
three of his captains and degraded a fourth, because of
the surrender, which, on the other hand, gave joy all over
the republic.
With his model army increased to twenty-five thousand
men,and having practically the supreme authority, through
the all-powerful influence of Barneveldt, Maurice pro-
ceeded with the war as if he were playing a game of chess.
Indeed, at this time, the Netherlands with their numerous
walled cities seemed wonderfully like a chess-board. He
gave new and surprising efficiency to his artillery, which,
whether in the field or in the trenches, was served by a
1590] MAURICE CAPTURES ZUTPHEN 723
special corps of men assisted by nimble sailors. While
keeping his cavalry well employed on vidette and scouting
duty, he habitually made his defences in the rear so sure
from successful attack that he could not be diverted from
his purpose by any feints of his enemies. On the other
hand, he was so skilful and rapid in his movements that
Parma was puzzled and unable to check him. By his
making a demonstration on Gertruydenburg and Herto-
genbosch, Parma was compelled to march to the relief of
Zutphen. This city, however, Maurice was able to capt-
ure within a week, having first lured out beyond their
walls the Spanish garrison of one of the great forts by a
grim joke, which, in some respects, paralleled that which
resulted in the capture of Breda.
Some of the cleverest of Vere's Englishmen dressed
themselves as farmers and women coming from the coun-
try with eggs and chickens to sell, and seemed to the
Spanish garrison to be only a party of boers with their
wives and daughters. All these, with plenty of short
swords and pistols inside their clothes, sat down by the
ferry on the river's side opposite the city, and near the
forts, waiting to be taken across. While they were talking
together Vere sent some cavalry, who appeared as if ap-
proaching. Pretending to be terrified, these country-folks,
as the Spaniards supposed them to be, ran towards the
fort, the gates of which were at once thrown open to re-
ceive them ; but no sooner were they inside than egg-bas-
kets were dropped and the farmers, fat women, and young
girls turned into muscular soldiers armed to the teeth,
who in a few minutes were in possession of the fort. A
short time afterwards Maurice crossed the river on a
bridge of boats, and, putting thirty-two great guns in posi-
tion, in five days compelled the city to surrender ; but
his trusted commander, Count Overstein, was killed by a
shot from the walls.
That same night of the occupation, without stopping,
the young general sent down his siege-guns in boats and
began a movement against Deventer, a few miles further
down the river. Sir Francis Vere and the Englishmen
were especially eager to recapture this city, which had
724 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1591
been betrayed by the infamous Stanley. Eight days were
spent in trenching and making approaches. Then, after
an all -day cannonade, a breach was made in the brick
walls, and late in the afternoon Vere led his English
troops to the attack. Unfortunately, the bridge was too
short and at first there were heavy losses, but the next
day, after another heavy cannonade, the city surrendered.
The council of war, which was a committee of the
States-General representing not the states, but the nation,
now determined that the northern provinces, Drenthe,
Groningen, and Friesland, should be completely liberated
from the Spaniards ; but, before advancing northward too
far, Maurice turned his army suddenly towards the south
to Nymegen, and, having entrapped a whole regiment of
the enemy's soldiers, drove Parma's army in rapid though
skilful retreat across the Waal. Having safely placed his
army inside this old city of Charlemagne, Parma, a worn-out
warrior, sought again the waters of Spa. Maurice moved
quickly to the southwest, captured the town of Hulst, nea
Antwerp, after five days' siege, and then returned to the
fort of Knodsenburg, on the side of the river opposite
from Nymegen. At this fort he had left his heavy guns to
be mounted, and, going himself enthusiastically to work
among his men in the trenches, he soon had sixty-eight
cannon belching fire and flame against the picturesque
city. This he captured within twenty-four hours from
the time when its citizens answered with defiance his first
summons to surrender. This city and the magnificent
campaign of 1591 gave the patriots control of the splendid
region of Gelderland. With his fondness for a grim joke,
Maurice, having ordered the five portions of the corpse of
Martin Schenck to be taken out of the brine -tub into
which they had been put when taken down from the
battlements, had the remains buried with great state
alongside of the Dukes of Gelderland, in their mausoleum
in Nymegen.
When the young Prince Maurice entered The Hague to
receive the grateful welcome of the nation, the people
were enraptured with his martial bearing and strong re-
semblance to his father. All felt that the sprout had at
1592] NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 725
length become the tree. Elizabeth wrote him a long let-
ter, congratulating him on his victories. Hugo cle Groot,
afterwards known as Grotius, the father of written inter-
national law, then a boy eight years old, wrote a Latin
poem in praise of the young general.
In the old school of war, it was the prevalent theory
that the great pentagon fortresses should be carried by as-
sault. When the assailant was unable to breach the heavy
walls of brick and earth, it was usual to assemble the army
in mass, quickly bridge the moat or fill it up with rubbish
of various sorts. After the pioneers had done this work
and fixed scaling ladders against the walls, the pikernen
and the swordsmen mounted and cleared the walls, the
gunners meanwhile plying their craft as they were able.
In case of an assault through the breach, the cavalry were
also introduced as quickly as possible, though usually they
rode through the open gates, which were opened by the
victorious troops. In any event, the storming of a walled
city or fortress was a scene of awful confusion.
Maurice of Nassau changed this wasteful system by
honoring the spade. In a country made largely by this
old implement, and containing hundreds of place-names,
which, like Delft, Grave, or those ending in dijk or dam,
tell but one story — that of the earth delved, graven, dug
or dammed — what could be more appropriate ? It was
Maurice who made the spade a great weapon of war. He
taught the soldier to fortify and intrench, to mine and to
countermine. Under his administration the engineer be-
came not merely a map-maker, builder, and director of
masons and delvers, but the commander of large bodies of
intelligent troops trained to use the spade, the hatchet,
and the fuse, as well as the pike and the sword.
Taking advantage of the absence of Parma in France,
Maurice transported his great guns to Steenwijk during
May, 1592. The soil around this place, as its name im-
plies, is rich in the pebbles brought down by Scandinavian
glaciers. The town lies on high ground, surrounded by
low meadows, from which heavy artillery could do little
harm and make but slight impression on the lofty walls
of brick and turf. Seeing this, Maurice at once set his
726 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1592
men to use the shovel. Mines were made under the two
great bastions which, on being fired, sent up far into the
air great columns of earth, stone, plaster, and timber, and,
on the 4th of July, compelled the surrender of the city.
The medals struck at this time show how efficient and
well-appreciated were the mattock and spade that had
done more damage than cannon-balls. The soldiers
hailed the engineer as the lightener and sharer of their
labors.
From Steenwijk Maurice moved his men and trains
eastward to Coevorden, which, like Oxford and Bosphorus,
tells the meaning of its name in its spelling. Situated in
the southern part of Drenthe, surrounded on all sides
swamps, and built on a ridge of hard land, which, on eithei
side has heath and swamp extending in every direction,
this ancient place of the cows' ford is the gateway iutc
Germany. Anciently a Roman fortress, and possibly the
city of Cruptoricis, referred to by Tacitus, it was the me-
diaeval capital of the Counts of Drenthe. The sluggish
streams that meet and flow together, forming the Kleine
Vecht, enabled the city to have excellent fortifications
skirted with wide moats. The massive walls of earth and
brick were mirrored in deep water not easily bridged.
When Maurice had mounted his cannon he sent a trum-
peter to summon the commander, his renegade cousin,
Count Frederick Van den Berg, to surrender. The an-
swer was, (< Tell Prince Maurice first to level my walls to
the ditch, and then make five or six assaults. Six months
after that I will think about a surrender."
The siege of Coevorden tested handsomely the quali-
ties of this young engineer and soldier. Here he proved
that in both tactics and strategy he was a master. Just
at a critical moment, when their presence was most need-
ed, Elizabeth ordered away three British regiments to the
relief of her ally, the French King. Nevertheless, the
Prince went on with his spade-work. Soon Count Philip
of Nassau entered his camp, with troops from France
equal in number to the English who had marched away.
The civilian deputies of the States - General advised
Maurice to order out his German cavalry against the re-
1592] THE CAMICIATA 727
inforcements which were marching to assist the garrison.
As Lee, by sending Early to menace Washington, failed
to draw Grant out of his intrenchments, so the Spaniard
Verdugo, though he tried to lure Maurice out of his
works, made no impression upon the young general.
Maurice refused to risk weakening his army, and a fort-
unate interception of a letter enabled him to neutralize
the magic of the Spaniards' night-shirts. For years it
had been their favorite game to wear these white gar-
ments over their armor, attack by night, terrify and con-
fuse their enemies, and thus to win many a bloody vic-
tory. Coming suddenly in the darkness, driving in the
sentinels, and alarming their foes, who woke up suddenly
at night to confront what seemed to be a host of white
demons or a band of murderous ghosts, they were thus
able to demoralize the best troops and put them to flight.
The Spaniards could easily distinguish each other, but
the attacked knew neither friend nor foe in the darkness.
Before Coevorden the Dutchmen were forewarned and
forearmed. The white shirts of the on-coming Spaniards
only served to make them splendid targets for the Dutch
musketeers. Verdugo's men fought bravely, and, since
they would not easily give up the struggle, the battle
lasted while the darkness continued. Maurice, by his
splendid courage, everywhere inspired his men, and the
enemy was driven off with heavy loss. After this, the
time - honored camiciata, or shirt-attack, lost its charm.
On the 17th of September, five days after the night-bat-
tle, Coevorden surrendered. Fresh laurels were added
to the brow of Maurice, and a spade entwined with flow-
ers became the symbol of victory.
The States-General had been much irritated by Eliza-
beth's withdrawal of her troops from Coevorden at a crit-
ical moment, while, at the same time, the rough treat-
ment of Dutch ships and sailors on the ocean by English
cruisers, because trade with Spanish ports was still kept
up, was a constant source of dissatisfaction. To these
difficulties there was a third, which went deeper than the
surface. The Dutch rulers were plain burghers, who de-
tested aristocratic airs and pretensions of superiority, be-
728 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1592
cause of birth or of precedence at court. The repub-
licans were blunt and independent, and did not like the
dictatorial manners of Englishmen. There was also a
difference in the way of looking at things. International
law and morality were not as clearly established then as
now. In Italy, even the great Michel Angelo fought
against the Medici while in their pay as a sculptor. Both
Elizabeth and her subjects traded secretly with the Span-
iards, and, accordingly, as it suited her whim, she owned
or disowned the buccaneers and traders who fought,
robbed, and traded in her name. On the contrary, the
Dutch openly trafficked with the Spaniards and, growing
rich thereby, were enabled to provide the very means with
which they kept up the war against their enemies. The
English, however, claimed the right of search. Under
the plea of seeking Spanish property they burned or
plundered Dutch ships, and often brutally treated the
captains and crews. The case was somewhat analogous
to that of the American revolutionary war, when the
Dutchmen at the island of St. Eustatius supplied the
American Continental army with cannon, powder, and
supplies, most of which had been made in England and
directly provided by English merchants. Before the end
of the century the King of Spain, perceiving the vastly
greater benefit which inured to the Dutchmen through
their commerce with his subjects, seized all Dutch ships,
forbade further traffic with the enemy, and sent the
Dutchmen to the inquisition or drove them out of the
country.
The situation took on a new phase when, September 3,
1592, Parma died, amid his preparations for a new cam-
paign. Distrusted by his sovereign, he yet gave his fort-
une and his life to the service of the monarch and to the
great ecclesiastical corporation of which he was so fanat-
ical a servant. Both as a general and a diplomatist, be-
longing to the school of that day which believed both
in massacre and in assassination, he attained the highest
rank. He conquered as many cities by his tongue as by
his sword and cannon. The failure of the invasion of
England was due to no fault of his. Among his compeers
1593] GERTRUYDENBURG CAPTURED 729
he was a man of moderation. He died while on his way
to meet his sovereign, who had recalled him. After a
grand funeral in Brussels his body was taken for 'burial
to the Italian city of Parma, and to-day in Piacenza he
is remembered in a bronze statue. He was the most cele-
brated member of the princely house of Farnese, whose
members, whether women or men, popes or cardinals,
dukes or counts, knew so well how to use the influence
and revenue of their positions for the advancement of the
family. The male line of the Farnese house became ex-
tinct in 1731.
Old Count Mansfeld, now white with the snows of four-
score years upon his head, was made Philip's lieutenant,
though Count Fuentes took command of active operations
in the field, and reversed by his unscrupulous cruelty the
comparatively mild policy of Parma. Maurice began the
siege of Gertruydenburg, and, as usual, made his own
position safe before attacking the enemy. This city was
then well garrisoned, and considered to be impregnable
because so easily opened to relief by water. Availing
himself of all the resources of the military engineer's art,
Maurice began a line of intrenchments twelve miles in
length, inside of which farmers tilled their fields and the
peasants sold their poultry and eggs, while from many
parts of Europe came distinguished visitors to behold the
wonderful novelties in war. In vain did old Count Mans-
feld attempt to lure young Maurice out of the intrench-
ments into the open field, though part of the Spanish
infantry was attacked and routed by a body of a thousand
Frieslanders and six hundred Englishmen under Sir
Francis Vere. By the time Maurice had his galleries
run under the ramparts in three places and as many
governors of the city had been killed, one of them by a
stone bullet, the three months' siege terminated June 24,
1593. Frederick Henry, then ten years of age, being heir
to the place by his father's will — Gertruydenburg being
the family property of the Nassaus — was made honorary
governor of the city. To-day the quiet little place is in-
teresting to literary men as containing the only authentic
portrait of the immortal author of the Imitation of Christ —
730 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1594
Thomas a Kempis. On the corner of the canvas is the
famous motto, "In a little nook with a little book."
The English auxiliaries had done so handsomely that
the treachery of Stanley and Yorke was forgotten by the
Dutch, who were, however, not yet certain that Elizabeth
had given up her hopes of alliance with Spain, and so were
still anxious lest, through British treachery, Flushing or
Ostend might get into Spanish hands. Happily disap-
pointing the Hollanders, Elizabeth changed her attitude.
She warned her officers in command at these places, and
wavered no more. Colonel Verdugo, still smarting over
his defeat in the shirt-attack before Coevorden, now at-
tempted to recapture that place, but the rapid and brill-
iant movements of his opponent foiled him, and he re-
treated towards his base of supplies, while Maurice marched
northward to Groningen. Sending his heavy artillery for-
ward by water, Maurice was soon able to concentrate a
resistless fire from four batteries upon as many different
points of the city, while the Englishmen took their places
eagerly in the trenches. Scientific engineering went on
underground, while the iron shot pounded the walls.
After the strong ravelin in front of the Ooster Poort had
been blown up, the city surrendered on the 23d of July,
1594, after a siege of sixty-five days, in which it had lost
half its garrison. Maurice made a triumphal entrance,
with great pomp and display. The Catholics were treated
with especial liberality, in order to reconcile them to en-
trance into the Union. Henceforth Groningen was one
arrow in the sheaf, which, in the symbolism beloved of
Dutchmen, is ever held in the one fore-paw of the lion,
while with the other it wields the sword, its head wearing
the hat of liberty.
Deliverance from the Spaniards was also celebrated by
preparations to found a university, which, however, were
not carried out until 1614. This Dutch habit of commem-
orating a victory by establishing a new school, or erecting
some fresh defence against ignorance, is noteworthy. Not
only Leyden and Groningen, but the other universities
are monuments of gratitude for deliverence from peril
and safeguards against the dangers of ignorance. At
1595] DEATH OF ARCHDUKE ERNEST 731
every centennial celebration of these mighty events in
the fatherland, the Dutch have shown their true spirit by
enlargement of the means of education.
The obedient provinces in the southern or Spanish
Netherlands were now, except for the periodical mutinies
of the Spanish troops, in comparative peace. The soldiers
of Philip when unpaid, as they often were, ravaged the
country, while their sovereign was busy in attempting to
secure the crown of France for his daughter. His hopes
were frustrated and utterly destroyed when Henry the
Fourth of Navarre, on the 24th of July, 1593, became a
member of the Roman communion. Yet, though a Catho-
lic, Henry was a friend to the Dutch, and the States-General
stood ready to aid him with men and money for the inva-
sion of the Spanish Netherlands. These, in January, 1594,
received their new governor - general, the Archduke Er-
nest of Austria, who was welcomed as a harbinger of peace.
His genial manners won all hearts, especially as he had
come without soldiers. After the usual ceremonies of
welcome, which included the extravagance of custom and
of rhetoric, the representations of history in procession
and of mythology in masquerade, for which the Nether-
landers are famous, he addressed himself to the tasks of
government. The politicians of noble blood and rank
were hungry for the spoils of office, and the mutinous sol-
diers made his first year one of anxiety. Even the assas-
sins who through their agents were plotting the death of
the sons of William of Orange managed to have the odium
of their failure loaded upon the Archduke. Besides, being
unable to win over the republican patriots to the yoke of
the Spaniard, Ernest, who was a man of humane and ten-
der feelings, had the sorrow of seeing the retaliatory laws
against Roman Catholics more rigorously enforced in the
Protestant republic. Harassed with troubles on every
side and with disease, the result of dissipation, the Arch-
duke died in Brussels on the 20th of February, 1595, hav-
ing spent but thirteen months of the forty-two years of
his life in the low countries.
While this nobleman, who was more fond of pleasure
than of work, lay dying, the allies were more busy in de-
732 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1595
voting themselves to the pretty women and rosy-cheeked
daughters of the Netherlander than to their enemies. An
epidemic of matrimony seemed to have burst out, moving
in rapid undulations from the chief commanders to the
privates. Both the German Count Hohenlohe and the
French Duke of Bouillon, in command of the troops of
Henry the Fourth, in Luxemburg, wedded daughters of
William the Silent, while Count Solms, who commanded
the Zeelanders, led to the altar a daughter of Count Eg-
mont. As for the British auxiliaries, whether English,
Scotch, Welsh, or Irish, the marriages and consequent wed-
ding celebrations, festivities, and furloughs were so fre-
quent as to be less epidemic than chronic — a state of af-
fairs which at times seriously interfered with discipline.
The Dutch maidens, because of their fair faces, house-
wifely qualities, and practical abilities, were largely re-
sponsible in the matter.
Count Fuentes succeeded as temporary governor-gen-
eral. This but added fuel to the rage of the Netherland
nobles, who were loth to submit to the rule of a foreigner
of any rank lower than that of prince. The Duke of Aer-
schot, angry and disappointed, left his native country and
went to Italy, where he died at Venice. Against his own
will Fuentes was obliged to express the desire of the obe-
dient provinces for peace with the republic, but Maurice
refused to treat unless they declared themselves indepen-
dent of Spain. Fuentes in the summer of 1595 marched
into France.
To old Colonel Mondragon was committed the respon-
sibility of watching Maurice. He exercised it in so clever
a manner that the Spanish prestige was raised. Nineteen
miles southeast of Zutphen lies Groenlo, near the frontier
of Germany, and to this place Mondragon, et*rly in Septem-
ber, marched a force of picked men from Antwerp. Mau-
rice at once arranged to ambush the old colonel, but, al-
though supported by Philip of Nassau and the splendid
cavalry commanders, Cutler and Bax, he was outwitted
and beaten by the Spaniard. Mondragon having received
accurate information from his scouts, learned the exact
position of his opponents. He was thus enabled to draw
1595] PHILIP OF NASSAU KILLED 733
the fiery and impatient Philip of Nassau into a lane where
the Dutch lancers could not use their weapons. As they
slowly emerged, a few at a time, into the field, they had to
fight at a disadvantage, both as to numbers and because of
their inability to make formations, and so fell an easy prey
to their enemies. Maurice lost one hundred men and
several of his best officers, among whom was Philip of Nas-
sau.
On his death-bed, in the Spanish camp at Rheinberg,
Philip was courteously visited by Mondragon and his fel-
low officers. In their presence he concealed his agony
and responded with equal courtesy. When, however,
his ignoble and traitorous cousin Van den Berg — the Ar-
nold of the Dutch war of independence — taunted him
with serving the cause of the Beggars, the dying man
turned away as the expiring lion might from the kicking
ass. Philip died at midnight. Thus again the generous
blood of the Nassaus enriched the soil of freedom. Will-
iam and his three brethren, and now the oldest son of
John, had given up their lives to the patriot cause. Ten
others of the same illustrious house and many of their re-
lations were bearing arms for their adopted country, Hol-
land. Old Mondragon, ninety-two years old, triumphing
over the difficulties of age, and in the very teeth of the
hostile criticism of his younger officers, had planned this
expedition from Antwerp and won the victory over a rival
less than one-third his own age. Thus did the field of
I Groenlo illustrate phases of humanity more interesting
even than those of war.
Eleven years afterwards, in this same region, the war of
nearly forty years " dribbled out of existence/' For some
reason best known to himself, Maurice, who, however,
could not afford to make a misstep, though having a fresh
army in front of Spinola's wearied troops, who were
fatigued after forced marches, refused battle. Here, long
afterwards, it could be written, " The long struggle for
independence had come, almost unperceived, to an end."
The new governor-general, a new tool of Philip, who,
after Margaret, Alva, Don John, Matthias, Alexander Far-
nese, and Archduke Ernest, to say nothing of regents and
734 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1596
temporary governor-generals, had failed to crush Dutch
liberty, was the Archduke Cardinal Albert of Austria,
Archbishop of Toledo. He came with an army of three
thousand men, and had plenty of money with which to
pay the mutineers and an enormous amount of personal
baggage. Having been a mild governor of Portugal, great
hopes were expected of him as a bringer of peace. The
throned assassin in Madrid also sent with him a middle-
aged gentleman of forty-two, who was none other than
the kidnapped son of William the Silent, and who was
exactly the kind of person likely to emerge from a long
training under Jesuits. After the usual extravagances of
Flemish and Walloon rhetoric, costume parades, and torch-
light processions, the new soldier and diplomatist bega
his sapping and mining operations under the fortress of la
and freedom by attempting to bribe Count Hohenlohe and
the officer who had captured Breda. He failed in this foul )
work, but he won Calais from the French and then took
the town of Hulst.
These victories were more than counterbalanced in the
sack of Cadiz by the combined English and Dutch flee
which sailed from Plymouth January 13, 1596. Of th
six thousand soldiers engaged in this foray, a large numb
consisted of English regiments in the states' service, while
of the ships and sailors one-half were Dutch. Sir Walter
Ealeigh led the attack on the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, an
Essex and Louis Gunther of Nassau stormed Pun
The flags of St. George, of the House of Orange, and
the republic floated on the walls. Cadiz was looted an
burned, signal revenge being taken, not particularly o:
the people but on the edifices of a cult that required the
infernal inquisition.
England and France having formed a league agai
Spain, the united states of the Netherlands joined in,
signing the compact on the 31st of October, 1596. One
of the results of this action was that the national troops
were kept busy on various foreign expeditions. This
proved to be not only a source of great expense, requiring
the levy of new taxes and the imposition of heavier burdens
upon the people, but it necessitated an increase of the
1696] TAXES MANIFOLD AND HEAVY 735
home guard for the defence of the frontier and towns.
The States-General seemed, therefore, obliged to raise a
small army of at least six thousand men, who were ex-
pected to serve anywhere within the country. They
were the minute -men of that time, and were called
Waartgelders — that is, they were hired for gold in order
to keep ward and watch. These were the originals of the
famous waartgelders employed by the state-rights party
under Barneveldt to maintain the local as against the
national cause, or of secession against union. Although
foreign war threatened the nation, these burgher guards
did not add very much to the power of the cities.
To maintain the burdens of war, taxes were manifold
and heavy; but the Dutch paid them cheerfully, finding
fault, strange to say, only when the imposts seemed dispro-
portionately directed against luxury in dress and personal
ornament, in which they so delighted. One who looks to-
day upon the corporation pictures of the great painters
may see how fond the Hollanders were of display in cos-
tume. The enormous collars and cuffs of the Dutch
Puritans, the ruffs on the necks of both male and female,
adults and children, the voluminous petticoats, stomach-
ers, and lace of the women, make one wonder how so small
a country could have produced the grain to yield starch
sufficient for such snowy costume. Put into one mass,
the white pulp made in one generation for the stiffening
of linen and lace would have formed a glacier of Alpine
proportions. The tax on starch yielded a handsome rev-
enue for carrying on the government and equipping the
army and navy.
Introduced from the Netherlands by Mrs. Dinghen van
den Plass, the process of clear starching was, at a high
price, taught to Queen Elizabeth's ladies as a great secret.
The knowledge and fashion spreading from the Court in
London to the people, all classes were, within a genera-
tion, able to afford the luxury of a texture imported from
the Netherlands. Snowy linen stiffened and made glossy
became all the rage. In England, however, starch took
on a new phase of usefulness. It became the means of
expressing one's opinion — a badge of religion and politics
736 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1597
according as it was tinted, white, yellow, and blue. The
use or abstinence of this extract of corn became the
evidence of moderate or of ultra Puritanism. William
Bradford tells us how a godly but blind old dame was
highly edified by the presence and conversation of him-
self and his young companions, until her hands touched
their starched collars, whereat she was hurt and offended
at their vain conformity to fashion. Their savor to her
changed at once from that of holiness to that of worldli-
ness.
In revenge for the assaults upon Cadiz, Philip of Spain,
at the end of the same year, 'sent a fresh armada into the I
British seas ; but it was also destroyed by storms.
Early in the next year, January 24, 1597, the Dutch re-
publicans won a brilliant victory over the Spaniards in
their first battle on the open field. The cavalry of Mau-
rice was now splendidly mounted, equipped with carbines,
and trained to new and effective evolutions. It was his
brilliant subordinate, Marcellus Bax, who suggested the
enterprise of moving on Turnhout. Maurice, instead of
being attacked, as he expected to be after his long march,
by the Archduke's forces under Count Varax, found the
enemy moving back into the southwest, apparently retreat-
ing to the fortress of Herenthals. The next day he came
up with the Spaniards on the heath of Tiel, and having only
eight hundred horsemen, but with none of his infantry at
hand, he sent Hohenlohe and his Brabanters ahead, while
Vere and Bax struck the rear of the enemy. The heavily
armed Netherlanders seemed nerved by the remembrance
of fifty years of outrage and oppression. They set the
Spanish cavalry flying in a panic, and then rode with fire
and sword over the demoralized infantry. Over two
thousand of the enemy were slain and five hundred were
taken prisoners, the republican army losing but a half
score of men. The cheer which this first victory in the
field inspired in the Dutch armies exceeded that caused
by the loss inflicted on the enemy, although the castle of
Turnhout surrendered next morning. The whole story
seemed like romance. In London the battle was drama-
tized and represented on the stage. It was purely the
1597J FINANCIAL PANIC 737
triumph of cavalry, the infantry not taking part because of
not arriving in time. Thirty-five battle standards which
Maurice had taken at Turnhout were shown to the Polish
envoy who had declared that the attempt against Philip
was hopeless. After another splendid reception at the
Hague, these standards, with others captured from Alva
and Parma, were hung up in the old Hall of the Knights
in which the congress of the republic held its sessions.
Philip, now nearly bankrupt, and unable to borrow
any more money, seized the pledges which he had given
for his loans. This created a financial panic in Europe,
and compelled the Archduke to sell his personal valua-
bles in order to pay his household expenses. When the
merchants and bankers protested against this new sort of
"the final argument of kings," and demanded both secu-
rity and interest for the fresh loans asked for, the repudi-
ator at Madrid upbraided them with checking the progress
of the Gospel. No one could talk more piously than this
Spanish repudiator.
The great battle of freedom was to be one of finance as
well as of valor. While Spain was steadily losing, even
though she had America to draw upon, the Dutch united
states were steadily organizing victory out of defeat,
maintaining their financial credit, and building up a solid
defence by their thorough system of taxation and scrupu-
lously honest administration. So respectable a place had
the republic won in the eyes of Europe that, during the
summer of 1597, when the Turks were threatening Vienna
and the Emperor of Germany and the Kings of Denmark
and Poland were endeavoring to unite all Europe, they
urged the Dutch to make peace with Spain, and proposed
that Maurice of Nassau should be general and chief of
the combined armies of Christian Europe. They hoped
thus, and then to drive the crescent and followers of the
prophet back into Asia. The proposal was declined.
Maurice now continued his chess-game of war, moving
five castles and nine walled cities, including Rheinberg,
Enschade, Groenlo, Ootmarsum, Oldenzaal, and Lingen,
upon his side of the board. His captures of Spanish sol-
diers numbered five thousand, but, instead of attempting
47
738 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1598
to hold and feed them, he liberated them to join their
mutinous brethren, who kept the obedient provinces in
terror for nearly a year. Having seized the citadel of
Antwerp, they invited, and not in vain, the citizens to
support them, offering bombardment in case of refusal.
In France the outlook at the close of the century was
dark. Henry the Fourth, confronted by distraction with-
in his own realm and poorly aided by England, yielded to
Philip's diplomacy, and, on May 2, 1598, signed a treaty
which was highly favorable to him, so much so that the
peace of Vervins was felt by Philip to be a fearful humilia-
tion, and doubtless hastened his death. The States sent
an embassy of remonstrance, headed by Barneveldt and
Justine of Nassau ; but, accomplishing nothing in France,
they went to England, and were there scolded by Queen
Elizabeth, who demanded repayment of her loans, hold-
ing over them the threat of making peace with Spain. To
appease her wrath and to further secure England's aid,
the envoys signed a fresh treaty, August 10, 1598, modi-
fying her claims by reducing them nearly one-half, but
also relinquishing the annual loan heretofore given. The
Dutch stipulated to furnish thirty ships of war and fifty-
five hundred soldiers in case of the invasion of England
and Spain. As collateral security for payment, the " three
cautionary towns," Flushing, Brill, and the fort of Ram-
mekins, remained in English custody, and the English
ambassador was given a seat in the Council of State.
Philip the Second died on the 12th of September, 1598.
His forty years' reign made for Spain an awful chapter of
decay, while the countries under his sceptre sank into deg-
radation or rose in rebellion. This man, four times mar-
ried, might, as a private citizen, have been a useful and
perhaps harmless member of society. As a king, an ig-
norant bigot, and a crafty politician, he was able to do
vast harm in the world, and to entail misery upon thou-
sands of thousands, because of his position in that very
artificial form of society wherein despotic monarchs are
thought to be necessary. He died after long sufferings, in
which perhaps his personal agony was quite equal to that
of anv one of the thousands whom he had made unnatu-
1598]
PHILIP THE SECOND DEAD
739
rally to suffer. He seemed to have no more remorse for
the murders which he had committed than that Italian
brigand who, having slaughtered over nine hundred human
beings during his active lifetime, regretted on his death-
bed that he had not made the number exactly one thou-
sand. Like the pagans, whom one sees in Japan rubbing
their sores and infirm parts with the relics of saints and
the images in the temples, so in the great gridiron palace
of the Escorial of Madrid, Philip had his limbs rubbed
with the bones of the saints. The white-haired old king,
whose memory the Spaniards still revere, though he curbed
their spirit and prostrated their country, was in his seventy-
second year when he died. Trained from childhood in
the system of education and government which he inher-
ited, he was at once its passive victim as well as its active
instrument. Like those children of Christian parents who
are taken in infancy by the Turks, and trained in the at-
mosphere of Mahometan fatalism so that they outgrow
the Turks in bigotry and cruelty, so Philip the Second
was a Mameluke in a system wherein polity and culture
were one. He was one of those many so-called vicars of
God on earth who, whether in Kioto, Peking, Teheran,
Dahomey, Constantinople, or Rome, crush intellect, and
make man's mind as well as his body the passive instru-
ment of a united state and church.
CHAPTER IV
NIEUPORT AND OSTEND
THE successor of Philip the Second on the throne of
Spain hastened to strike a terrible blow at the prosperity
of the Netherlands, though by so doing he defeated his
own ends and opened to them new gateways of enterprise
in the Far East. Suddenly, and without warning, he seized
all the Dutch vessels in Spanish ports, and condemned
their crews to the inquisition, to the prison, or to the
galleys. By this act the Spanish government hoped to
paralyze the republic, which had long drawn its supplies
from the ports of Spain. An entirely opposite result was
produced. Even as persecution first scattered the Chris-
tian church over the world, so now necessity drove the
Dutch into all the seas of the globe, thus beginning in
Holland those enterprises that were to make the Nether-
landers, during the whole seventeenth century, leaders in
discovery and exploration.
Portugal had been the pioneer, and Africa, with its out-
lying islands, had really been discovered under the navi-
gator Prince Henry, who created that spirit of which
Columbus was only the pupil. Fifty years of adventure
had brought the Portuguese to the Cape of Good Hope,
whence they had sailed to India, to the Golden Cherson-
ese, to the Spice Islands, China, and Japan. Vasca da
Gama had circumnavigated the globe ; and in the East
and in Brazil the Portuguese had become powerful colon-
izers. Italy, whose sailors, merchants, and caravans for
centuries had maintained trade with Egypt, Arabia, Per-
sia, and the great gold and spice lands beyond, furnished
to Portugal, and especially to Spain, most of their great
1598] DUTCH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATION 741
navigators, geographers, and admirals, including the dis-
coverer of America. These Italians added half the earth
to the crown of Spain, but owned not one foot of land in
the new world for Italy, and thus their sons were left free
to serve as mercenaries in aiding the lord of the Indies to
crush the little Protestant republic. The Pope had di-
vided the world between the Spaniards and Portuguese,
who owned the charts and maps which were the sailor's
keys to the American and Oriental treasure-houses. When,
in 1580, the two crowns of Spain and Portugal became
one, the two treasure-houses became one also, and the
owner was Philip ; but with many doors of entrance, it
was more difficult to keep out all who sought entrance.
The keys were stolen when Jan Hugo van Linschoten,
the Dutchman, after having lived some years in Portugal,
travelled in India and the Spice Islands, returned with a
marvellous store of maps and charts, withal having ob-
tained profound theoretical and practical geographical
knowledge. He reached home at the right time. There
were men in Holland already studying the problem of
how to reach India by a shorter northern route through
Arctic seas, unvexed by human enemies, instead of mak-
ing the long and expensive journey around Africa in a
pathway along which Spanish vessels swarmed. In their
carrying and fishing trade the Dutch had educated a
host of brave navigators, who were now ready to strike
out into new fields and to win the alluring prizes. Lin-
schoten accompanied Barentz, when this explorer began
that glorious career of Arctic discovery which has been
crowned in our day by Nordenskold and Nansen. Besides
discovering and naming Nova Zembla and Spitsbergen,
they made a thrilling record of enterprise and endurance,
whereon a commentary may now be read in those relics
and journals so eloquent and appealing to the imagina-
tion which were discovered in 1871 and 1875, and are
now in the National Museum at Amsterdam. Linschoten,
baffled by ice and storm, returned home to serve as a
magistrate in Enkhuizen, where he wrote his famous
Itinerary. This book was quickly translated into Latin
and the modern languages, and, having been circulated
742 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1598
all over Europe, revolutionized the geography and the
navigation of the age.
Furthermore, the world had no school of geographers
more brilliant than that made up of his countrymen who
seconded Linschoten's efforts. There was the Christian
pastor, Domine Plancius, who, in books and discourses,
preached the reasonable probability of Dutch discoveries
and of finding profitable trade-routes east and west.
There was Gerard Kramer, called also Mercator, whose
ideas of map-making marked a new era in geographical
science. Born at Kupelmonde, in Flanders, March, 1512,
but living for a time in Bruges, where he made two superb
globes for Charles the Fifth, he spent the prime of his
life at Doesburg. He invented the style of projection
now called after his name, and emancipated the students
of geography from the yoke of Ptolemy.
After the brave but ineffectual attempts of Barentz and
Heemskerk to find China and India, through the icy path-
way of the north, the brothers Cornelius and Frederik
Houtman, of Gouda, who had lived at Lisbon, started from
Texel Island, April 2, 1595, with four armed ships and '
two hundred and fifty men, bound for the Spice Islands
at the ends of the earth. They doubled the Cape of
Good Hope, and thence sailed to Bantam, Java, and Bali.
After fighting Portuguese and Malays, treachery, disease,
and storms, they purchased cheap cargoes of pepper, nut-
megs, cloves, and mace, and reached Amsterdam with
three ships and ninety men, having opened the way for
whole fleets to follow. Their return was joyfully cele-
brated as an event of national importance.
Other adventurers carried the flag of the republic and
planted it on the shores of America. This was done with
the idea, not only of rifling the king of Spain's treasure-
house, but of making the shores of the western continent
bases of supplies, whence the resources of war could be ob-
tained for fighting tyranny at home. After the Dutch
came the English ; but no one studying a modern map of
the world would get any proper idea of the great extent
of Dutch explorations and discoveries all over the world.
Through the East Indies, and even to Formosa and Japan
1599] STATES ON THE DEFENSIVE 743
the flag of the republic floated over merchants and mis-
sionaries, over forts, school - houses, and churches, where
the tongue of "Het Nederland" was spoken and the
school-master and minister of religion were belov-ed. The
first Protestant foreign missionary enterprise was begun
by the Dutch in Formosa, to which place they sent no
fewer than twenty-six ordained ministers, who translated
the scriptures and introduced Christian civilization. The
good work was continued until it was swept away by the
ferocious Chino-Japanese pirate, Koxinga. Over all these
settlements, on the five continents, the Classis of Amster-
dam exercised during three centuries not only ecclesias-
tical supervision but a practical benevolence, in assisting
emigrants and immigrants, the poor, the sick, and the
unfortunate that forms one of the brightest pages in
Christian history.*
Time was needed, however, for the republic to recover
from the blow dealt by the sudden loss, in 1598, of its
Spanish trade. Meanwhile, having no help from France
or Germany, and with very little aid from England, the
States were compelled to stand on the defensive. Mau-
rice, whose little army was reduced to seventy-five hun-
dred men, remained along the line of the rivers so as to
be ready to succor Schenck's fort, Nymegen, Doesburg,
or any other point that might be attacked. Mendoza,
with twenty-five thousand men, crossed the Maas on the
4th of May, 1599, and invaded the Island of Bommelwaart,
but the splendid engineering and heavy artillery of Mau-
rice compelled the admiral to retreat. The Spaniard
then took revenge by devastating the neutral German
territory. He also built the fort of St. Andres. In this
most critical hour Elizabeth, fearing a new invasion from
Spain, ordered away many more of her best troops from
the Low Countries to Ireland, despite the earnest remon-
strance of Barneveldt. Nevertheless, the Spaniards lost
all the benefit of Mendoza's half-triumph by another mu-
* From personal knowledge of the original minutes of the Classis of
Amsterdam, obtained in 1892 from their custodian and translator into
modern Dutch.
744 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1600
tiny, while the obedient but oppressed provinces were
disgusted by the extravagance of their new rulers. Tak-
ing advantage of the disorder in the enemy's camp, Mau-
rice ushered in the new century by capturing two forts,
whose ragged and hungry Walloon garrisons he persuaded
to join his forces. They were put under the honorary
command of Frederick Henry, the future stadholder.
The Dutch, as they looked westward, now became all
the more suspicious and watchful, for Elizabeth had re-
opened diplomatic relations with Spain, and sent an envoy
to Madrid. The truth was that the Dutch and English
were mutually distrustful, each thinking that the other
might make peace with Spain, though, in reality, both
these Protestant powers hated tyranny and were deter-
mined to fight freedom's battle to the end.
There was a feeling of good cheer and great exultation
in the hearts of the Dutch statesmen at the beginning of
the seventeenth century, even though they were confronted
with an empty treasury and a discouraged people, while
in some parts of the country the Catholics absolutely re-
fused to pay any taxes. In addition to the loss of Spanish
trade, the resources of the country had been greatly
strained in 1599 in fitting out a fleet against the West
Indies, which, after burning and pillaging some Spanish
settlements, was wasted by disease which swept off hun-
dreds of the men, including the admiral and his succes-
sor. Keturning to the Netherlands empty and forlorn,
the expedition left the admiralty greatly in debt, and af-
forded the discontented a pretext for pernicious activity.
The Union itself had been threatened by the attempted
secession of one of the discontented states. Had this
movement been successful, it would have imperilled, not
only the federal government, but the very existence of the
nation. But while lawyers still talked the language of
parchment and law-books, the Dutch common people had
seen a nation born and living, and they were determined
that the Union must and should be preserved. Gronin-
gen had, in 1581, seceded from the rest of the northern
provinces, when these had issued their Declaration of
Independence from Spain. To reward them, King Philip
1600] OPPOSITION TO WAR TAXES 745
had granted certain privileges, to which the majority of
the inhabitants, who were Roman Catholics, clung most
tenaciously. When, therefore, after the recovery of the
province from the Spaniards by Maurice and the union
army, the States - General levied its contingent of civil
expenses and assessed war taxes, the Groningeners refused
to pay the money or send the troops. For three years
they were able to withhold their quotas of men, money,
and supplies ; but in 1600, when its finances were most
necessitous, and fearing that such a precedent of nullifi-
cation and secession might infect other provinces, the
national congress resolved on coercion. The States-Gen-
eral sent commissioners, backed by a thousand picked men
of the union army, who disarmed the local militia and
made collections of the arrears of taxes due, not only
from the capital city, but the towns and villages. A
citadel was built in Groningen. A body of the leading
citizens went to appear before the National Congress at
the Hague, where they were forced to contribute to the
treasury of the republic four hundred thousand guilders
as a fine before they could obtain an audience, and thus
the province was restored to the Union. After six years
of wise reconstructive measures, and when magistrates
loyal to the Union had been chosen to fill the local offices,
the citadel was dismantled. In this manner, the federa-
tion of Dutch states passed its first great internal dan-
ger, and also made a mighty precedent for national unity
against the extreme form of the doctrine of state-sover-
eignty, which, later, was presented in the threatened se-
cession of Holland, the most powerful state in the con-
federacy, incarnated in Barneveldt, and backed by the
armed force of his Leyden "teeth" and the Utrecht
Waartgelders.
We have now reached that period in Dutch history
where the friendship between the wise civilian statesman
and the brilliant young military captain began to weaken.
The disagreement of stadholder and legislator led first to
suspicion, then to personal dislike, and finally to the slow
embodiment, on the one side, of the centripetal forces of
union and nationality and of conservatism and piety and,
746 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1600
on the other side, of the centrifugal forces of state-right
in its most extreme form, of aristocracy, municipal power,
agnosticism, and severe state-churchism under the guise
of freedom of religion.
Barneveldt, seeing the dangers within thellnion, believed
that the situation could be improved by offensive warfare,
and especially by invading the disobedient provinces and
cleaning out the nest of pirates at Dunkirk. The Span-
ish mercenaries being in mutiny, it was thought by Barne-
veldt to be a golden opportunity for the conquest of
Flanders. The gradual but sure recovery of the rest of
the southern Netherlands he imagined would follow, and
then would be consummated a union of the whole seven-
teen provinces, making one great commercial nation, rich
in civic privileges and governed by burghers able to dic-
tate to the world. A noble dream.
The States - General constituted but one chamber, and
had both legislative and executive functions. They had
usurped, or at least assumed, the sovereignty which in the
absence of a feudal lord really belonged to the whole
people. Nevertheless, by means of the Council of State,
which represented not the various states but the nation
at large, the Dutch people had what was practically a bi-
cameral government. The Council of State had execu-
tive functions corresponding somewhat to those of the
later American Senate, which, in confirming nominations
and making treaties, shares executive power with the
President. This permanent committee or council was
composed of eighteen or twenty eminent men chosen from
the various states of the republic, who represented not
their particular states, but the whole country. Indeed,
they were obliged to forswear allegiance to their states in
order to be true to the whole commonwealth. This body
represented the principle of nationality, as against that
of state-sovereignty embodied in the States-General. This
council, or committee on the conduct of the war, had
high executive powers, especially in military matters.
They in reality were the true commander-in-chief of the
nation's army and navy, for neither William of Orange
nor Maurice — each of whom was " the first servant of the
1600] INVESTMENT OF XIEUPORT 747
States-General" — ever held any commission from this na-
tional legislature. As agent of the Union, Maurice must
obey the order to march into Flanders even though it was
against his judgment.
The military men were all against the plan, which
seemed to them rash almost to madness. Slowly and
painfully the united states had built up a fine army and
a scientific military system. An invasion of the Belgic
Netherlands seemed like risking all on a single venture.
But Barneveldt was then the virtual sovereign of the re-
public. He controlled not only the states of Holland,
which contributed half the national taxes, but the States-
General also, and he insisted on this scheme. So after
what the Dutch call " woordenwisseling," and the Eng-
lish "a few words," young Maurice yielded. Gathering
together the whole regular army, which consisted of
twelve thousand infantry, sixteen hundred cavalry, and
ten pieces of artillery, he divided these forces into three
divisions. Sir Francis Vere led the van, Count Everhard
the centre, and Count Ernest of Nassau the rear, while
Count Louis Gunther of Nassau was general of cavalry.
The troops embarked on board a mighty fleet from Flush-
ing, their objective point being the well-fortified city of
Nieuport. The wind was not favorable, and the troops
had to be landed forty miles distant from the place of
disembarkation as planned. Only after a thirteen days'
march was the republican army able to begin the in-
vestment of water-girdled Nieuport, July 1, 1600. Much
to his surprise and utterly against the calculations of
Barneveldt, Maurice heard that the mutinous Spanish
soldiers had responded to the appeals of the Archduke
and the Infanta, and under skilful leaders were marching
against the invaders, capturing the forts and murdering
the garrisons on the way. Maurice had to arrange for
his own defence and prepare for a desperate battle within
twenty-four hours. His army was divided, part having
been left in garrison and the larger half of the remainder
being still beyond the haven. Whatever could be done
must be done quickly.
The Spaniards were coming along the road that passes
748 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1600
through Leffingen. Maurice sent his cousin, Ernest Casi-
mir, to hold the bridge, until all the troops could be
brought from the other side of the haven to rejoin the
main body of his army. Ernest moved gallantly towards
the bridge, but found it already within the enemies' hands.
With his two thousand men he faced the twelve thousand
advancing veterans, not expecting to do more than hold
the enemy in check. But when the Spaniards made a ter-
rific charge his troops became panic stricken, and, break-
ing ranks, fled, only to be pursued and slaughtered.
Had the Archduke immediately moved forward and
struck Maurice's force while it was divided, the republic
might have been crushed then and there. Most fortunate-
ly for the little republican army shut up in the dunes,
with a certainty that a reverse would be little less than
annihilation, the Archduke moved slowly and with long
halts, although he was leading ten thousand exultant in-
fantry, with sixteen hundred horsemen and six guns.
Sending word to his wife that he had won a victory and
would soon capture Maurice, he still proceeded leisurely
along the hardened portion of the sea shore between the
soft dry sand and the edge of the waves. It was high
tide, and there was barely a space of thirty yards between
the sea and the steep sand-hills. The Spanish infantry
marched into the dunes, while the cavalry crossed over to
the Greenway, a road lying inland between the dunes and
the cultivated fields. Maurice's effective force, after his
losses at the bridge, numbered but seven thousand five
hundred men. The heaviest part of the battle was to be
borne by the vanguard, of about four thousand five hun-
dred men, under Sir Francis Vere. The artillery, which
very wisely had been put in charge of the Zeelaud sailors,
was planted on top of the sand-hills. Maurice had ordered
planks to be laid under the wheel-tires, so that the guns
could be fired rapidly and accurately, and yet would not be
driven by the concussion into the sand so as to become
stalled and immovable.
The Spanish Archduke had taken off his helmet so as
to be easily recognized. Mounted on a snow-white stall-
ion, he rode along the lines near the front and cheered
1600J
749
his troops. Maurice, wearing a bright orange scarf across
his breast, and having his helmet decked with orange-
tinted feathers, rode through his lines, sword in hand,
calling on his troops to fight for the fatherland and make
their choice between death and victory. Then, at the ur-
gent request of his officers, he retired to one of the two
prominent sand-hills, whence he could see the battle and
be ready to take advantage of any emergencies or mistakes
of the enemy.
On that Sunday afternoon of the 3d of July, 1600, be-
gan the pitched battle between the troops of the republic
and the mercenaries of despotism, in a place and on a
footing where scientific evolutions were impossible. The
battle opened with a rather premature fire from the Dutch
artillery on the Spanish cavalry. The soldiers were soon
knee-deep in the hot sand, charging, counter -charging,
and fighting hand to hand. At last, Vere's division of Brit-
ish and Frisians, though stubbornly contesting its ground,
was driven back towards the battery on the sands. Then
Count Lewis Gunther's fresh horsemen, supported by three
hundred foot-men, charged, and for a moment stemmed
the tide of defeat, only to find themselves unable to break
the front of the enemy's horsemen or to withstand the fire
of his infantry. After faltering, they broke and fled in
disorder. Seeing this, the Archduke ordered forward all
his reserves against Vere's Frisians and Englishmen. Hav-
ing carried the East Hill, the Spaniards formed in the
valley beyond, and the Frisian musketmen were driven
from the south ridge, while the Archduke's arquebnsiers
advanced along the Greenway. This was the crisis of the
battle. For a few moments it looked as if the whole re-
publican army would be overwhelmed.
Maurice, sitting unmoved upon his horse on the West
Hill, took in the whole scene. His commanders had been
beaten back and his troops were in panic. Nevertheless,
he had kept in reserve three squadrons of cavalry, and the
Spaniards were showing signs of weariness. The Arch-
duke, thinking he saw victory at hand, had paused amid
the awful heat. That moment revealed the key of the
situation, and instantly Maurice made decision. First
750 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1600
checking the flight of the infantry, and entreating them to
rally to his support, for love of him and to show that they
were men of honor, he ordered his horsemen to charge on
the tired and halting Spaniards near the battery. The
cavalry, wasting no breath or time, made every pound of
weight in horse, man, and sword tell. The Frisian pike-
men, fresh and eager for the fray, also rallied to the sup-
port of the cavalry, while the Zeeland artillerymen opened
with wonderful vigor and effectiveness. This concentrat-
ed attack by cavalry, infantry, and artillery rolled back
the tide of battle and decided it for victory. The Span-
iards broke in every direction, and the victors began a
pursuit in which even those who had retreated joined.
The Admiral of Aragon was captured and the Archduke
barely escaped.
This was the first pitched battle in which the whole of
the republican army had been engaged. The Spanish loss
was three thousand men, all their artillery, thirty flags,
and six hundred prisoners. The patriots lost two thou-
sand. Maurice knelt upon the sand and thanked God for
the great victory. In this battle, English blood had
flowed liberally in freedom's cause. Sir Francis Vere re-
ceived four wounds. The Spaniards had fought as far as
possible according to their old system of tercios, or large
battalions ; and the Archduke had sent his whole force
into the fight. On the contrary, Maurice, fully develop-
ing to his system of small battalions, had kept back his
reserves, knowing well the limits of human endurance,
and had communicated his own indomitable spirit to his
troops. Indeed, he had ordered off his ships so as to
compel his army to fight well. Maurice's tactics resulted
in victory, because the noble English brothers, Sir Fran-
cis and Horace Vere, with their British and Frisian troops,
and Louis Gunther and Count Ernest of Nassau had
fought so bravely.
Nevertheless, not only had the battle been gained at
an awful risk, but Nieuport still remained in the hands
of the enemy, while Barneveldt's self-conceit and com-
placency were dangerously strengthened by the letters of
Queen Elizabeth, who gave the credit of the victory to
1601]
BOMBARDMENT OF OSTEND
751
the civilians and the States-General. Furthermore, the
pirates of Dunkirk continued to prey upon the Dutch
fishing-vessels, which were manned, for the most part,
hy those peaceable people, formerly nicknamed Anabap-
tists, but now called Mennonites, after the name of their
saintly teacher, Menno Simons. The cruelties of these
Dunkirkers were so frequent and savage that when sev-
eral of their craft had been captured the States-General,
in retaliation, ordered the men on board to be hanged.
A daring crew of Hollanders in the Black Galley of Dort
made a bold venture into the Scheldt, and, under the
walls of Antwerp, captured a man-of-war and other
prizes, towing them out" of the harbor, while the trum-
peters played the Dutch national hymn, " William of
Nassau."
To offset the triumph of the republic at Nieuport, the
Archduke now laid siege to Ostend, the last of the pos-
sessions held by the republic in the provinces which had
become obedient to Philip. The states of Flanders had
prayed to the Archduke Albert to take Ostend, offering
to do their share in conducting the siege. The town
was powerfully fortified with walls and moats, and had
strong outworks. An army of twenty thousand men be-
gan operations, July 5, 1601. The garrison consisted of
seven or eight thousand troops under command of Sir
Francis Vere. Meanwhile Maurice was busy in captur-
ing Rheinberg and Meurs, on the Rhine, besides investing
Hertogenbosch, or Bois-le-Duc.
The Archduke placed fifty siege guns in position, and
the roar of artillery began, which lasted all summer and
winter. Easily provisioned by Dutch vessels running by
two water-ways into Ostend, the garrison kept up good
spirits, not only repairing the breaches but building new
defences within, repelling the storming parties and mak-
ing sorties. At night great fires were kindled, so that
the shotmen could enjoy good target practice at the
besiegers, and in case of assault the pikemen could do
battle at an advantage. Often detachments of Spaniards
were swept away by the floods from the open sluices.
Nevertheless, they persevered and got steadily nearer. In
752 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1602
March, 1602, a new garrison was thrown into the town,
and Vere exchanged the trenches for the open field, where
Maurice was so active that the Archduke was obliged to
send off a large force to keep watch of the boy-general,
and at the same time his army was weakened by a fresh
mutiny of unpaid troops. Nevertheless, the siege con-
tinued, and all resources of the art of attack and defence
known to that age were employed.
While the brave English and Dutch comrades in lib-
erty's cause were defending Ostend, the lion-hearted Queen
Elizabeth died. This caused great grief to the Nether-
landers, who honored her despite her vacillating policy
and parsimonious spirit. She seems to have utterly fail-
ed to understand the character of William of Orange,
whose toleration and self-sacrifice were unintelligible to
her, whose idea of morals and religion seemed to be sim-
ply that of self-interest and national utility. She had
neither sympathy with nor appreciation of zeal like that
of Philip of Spain, nor with pure conscientiousness like
that of the Silent. She was a great sovereign because
of her courage and her determination to make Eng-
land great. She died, it may be, of overwork for her
country.
Meanwhile the time and tide of war waited for none,
royal or plebeian. The siege of Ostend went on. The
Dutch provision-ships dashed past the Spanish batteries,
and the garrison kept fat and hearty. Fire-ships were
employed against the wooden dikes. Mining and counter-
mining were resorted to. Sentinels stood knee-deep ii
the icy salt-water watching for an attack that might be
made at any time except at high-tide. In a fierce night
assault, 13th of April, 1603, the Spaniards threw rope-lad-
ders, hooked at the ends, upon the walls. Then, with their
swords in their teeth, they swarmed over the outworks,
which, though repeatedly assaulted, could not be recapt-
ured by the garrison.
At length the Italian, Frederik Spinola, appeared upon
the scene. He had fitted out some galleys at Sluis, on
which the Dutch sailors and traders seized in Spain had
been compelled to work as slaves. Enlarging his fleet,
1603] A THREE YEARS' SIEGE 753
he became bold enough to encounter a squadron under
the Dutch Vice-Admiral Cant, in October, 1602, and lost
six of his galleys, which were sunk by the Dutchmen.
Nevertheless, Spinola was undaunted, and equipped eight
more new galleys, each with two hundred and fifty pris-
oners chained to the oars. With a force of thirteen hun-
dred marines on board he attacked four Dutch ships un-
der Admiral Joost de Moor. Again the winds of Heaven
and the skill of the Zeeland sailors won victory. The
Spanish galleys, having lost hundreds of men, were com-
pelled to make their way back to Sluis, their commander
being among the slain. Spinola's elder brother, the Mar-
quis Ambrose, now came forward. The Marquis was a
thorough student of military affairs, but as yet had no ex-
perience. He had enriched himself by commerce with
the spice-lands. For the honor of the appointment given
him he aided the Spanish cause with gifts which greatly
replenished Philip's war chest.
Though without previous military training, Ambrose
Spinola was destined to become a great warrior. He was
given command of the siege operations before Ostend, in
October, 1603, and at once begau to make use of newer
and more scientific methods, at the same time encouraging
his men by the example of his personal skill and bravery.
His underground galleries were run first under the out-
works, and then under the very bulwarks of the town, so
that the besieged themselves had to blow up many parts
of the fortifications which had not already yielded to min-
ing and assault. It is no wonder that to contemporary
writers the investment of Ostend seemed another and
greater siege of Troy, for, one after another, four govern-
ors of the town were killed, or desperately wounded.
Yet Ostend kept the orange, white, and blue flag flying
defiantly. Though provisioned from without, even the
yery material of fortification failed. Scarcely a house
was left, and the bricks, stone, and timber had been used
to fill up breaches or make new works. Even the prod-
ucts of graveyards above-soil, and the bodies of the fresh-
ly slain, as well as earth, stone, and timber brought in on
ships, were utilized. On the other hand, the cannonade
48
754 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1604
of Spinola seemed to grow more furious, the total number
of shots running into hundreds of thousands.
To divert the Spanish army, Maurice, by order of the
war committee of the Union, invaded Flanders with the
idea of raising the siege of Sluis. Though the Archduke
was able to rally his mutinous troops by granting full
pardon and arranging for the payment of their wages, so
that they could be sent against the stadholder, the latter
was, however, able to beat them off. The wretched in-
habitants of Sluis having suffered the horrors of famine,
surrendered on August 18, 1604. The war committee
now ordered the union commanders to raise the siege of
Ostend, notwithstanding its lessened importance, but
after making cautious preparations to advance, and hav-
ing been greatly hindered by the bad condition of the
roads, which the autumn rains had turned into quag-
mires, Maurice learned of the surrender of Ostend Sep-
tember 20, 1604, after a siege of eleven hundred and
seventy-three days. "The Sand Hill," the key of the
whole position, had fallen into the hands of the Spaniard
September 13. When the Archduke received his prize,
he found only a mass of smouldering ruins. Four mill-
ion dollars and a hundred thousand lives had been de-
voted to the capture of this wretched little sand-bank,
which to-day is a smiling watering-place where thousands
enjoy themselves with summer mirth. For over thre<
years Ostend had occupied the entire Spanish army
the Netherlands, exhausting utterly the resources of Spain3
while leaving the Dutch free to increase their wealth and
power by trade and commerce, and to concentrate their
military forces in one place. It had paid to defend Os-
tend. The humiliation of Spain was now assured, and
the recognition of the Dutch republic became simply a
question of time.
CHAPTER V
LOOKING TO THE GREAT TRUCE
DUTCH diplomacy and commerce had not been idle dur-
ing the long siege of this Belgian Troy. Barneveldt and
Prince Frederick Henry went promptly to England on the
accession of James the First to enlist royal sympathy in aid
of the republic, but the prospect was not very promising.
This conceited monarch, whose temperament was doubt-
less moulded by pre-natal influences — his beautiful mother,
Mary Queen of Scots, having in her own palace seen her
favorite Eizzio murdered and left in his own blood — was
excessively timid. He was also narrow-minded, vulgar in
manners, and a lover of peace without honor. Being a
hearty hater of republicanism, he turned a deaf ear to
the entreaties of the Dutch envoys, though he was after-
wards to be outwitted and humiliated by the diplomatic
talents of Barneveldt, who knew his man to perfection.
The Dutchmen thereupon made overtures to the Marquis
of Eosny, afterwards Duke of Sully, who was the French
ambassador then in England. They pictured the poverty
of their fellow countrymen, their great distress through
loss of life, their galling taxes, and their general suffer-
ings. Nor is it likely that these leaders of an almost for-
lorn hope were, as the French ambassador imagined, ex-
aggerating the actual condition of their fellow-country-
men. As matter of fact, the disunion sentiment was very
strong, many of the people were tired of the war, and their
needs were undeniably great, so that the foreign diplo-
matists at the Hague were surprised because the republic
had, when apparently bankrupt, held out so long. It was
the policy of Henry the Fourth of France to keep Eng-
756 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1604
land and Spain at variance, so that the united provinces
wonld not be sacrificed. Barneveldt urged that a French
army should be sent to save Ostend, and De Kosny, after
liberal promises and gifts to the English nobility, pre-
vailed upon King James to make an alliance with France,
which was dated June 25, 1603 ; but wherein, however,
James kept the way open for peace with Spain, promising
only indirect aid to the Dutch. Contemptible as such
conditional help was, it enabled the pedantic King to in-
terfere in Dutch politics and religion, to meddle even
with their universities and professors, to pose as the
guardian of religion, and, generally, to cause his name to
be everywhere spoken of in the Netherlands with con-
tempt and disgust.
In urging their cause, the Dutch envoys used arguments
which then seemed to the authorities in London as but
iridescent bubbles or empty dreams. They told of their
oriental commerce, which had already begun and which
in time was to bring them untold wealth. Already the
ships of the republic, which had sailed in 1598 by way of
the straits of Magellan and Peru, had reached Japan.
Dutch captains had also informed the natives of the
Chinese world and the Malay archipelago that Portuguese
and Spaniards were not the only white men in Europe,
and that they themselves were not pirates, as their rivals
in politics and religion had represented them to be to the
yellow and brown men at the ends of the earth.
Early in 1602 the Dutch Captain Wolfert Hermann,
with five little armed vessels, beat off the fleet of the
Portuguese Admiral Mendoza, consisting of twenty -five,
ships, and opened trade with the King of Bantam. Jacob
Heemskerk, with two small ships, captured a great carack
on its way to Lisbon, loaded with spices and jewels, and
carrying seventeen guns and seventeen hundred men. The
King of Atcheen, one of the several petty sovereigns with
whom the Dutch had made treaties, sent to Europe two
envoys, who were received with great ceremony by Maurice
of Nassau, in his camp before the city of Grave. Eeturn-
ing home, the Malay ambassador gave glowing accounts
of the rich cities of Holland, the splendid army, and the
1605] ENGLISH TREATY WITH SPAIN 757
great naval power of the republic. Soon the various
Dutch trading companies were merged into the general
East India Company, which, on the 20th of March, 1002,
received a charter conferring a monopoly of oriental trade
for twenty-one years. With a capital of over three million
dollars, this great corporation was empowered to make
treaties, raise armies, build forts, and exercise immense
power, subordinate only to the government of the Dutch
United States, which it was destined vastly to enrich.
What Barneveldt had foreseen came to pass on the 18th
of August, 1604, one month before the surrender of Os-
tend. King James of England made a treaty with Spain,
in which it was stipulated that neither party should as-
sist the other's rebels or enemies, and that Englishmen
should have nothing to do with the trade which the Dutch
carried on with Spaniards or the Belgic Netherlands.
Fearing that James would now develop into an active
enemy, the Dutch statesmen plead for help from France,
but in vain. The real object of the King of Great Britain
was to become a more despotic monarch and to get rid of
his parliament. This was a dark hour for the republic.
While Spinola seemed to be constantly gaming in skill,
Maurice had apparently lost for a time his cunning.
Nevertheless, as the tide of fortune ebbed at home, Dutch
wealth and power grew in Asia. In 1605 the East India
Company captured the island of Amboyna from the Port-
uguese, gained new allies among the Malay Kajahs, and
secured control of the Moluccas, the centre of the spice
world, thereby also kindling English jealousy.
In 1605 there was indecisive fighting at Bergen-op-
Zoom and Sluis. Spinola, expecting to enter Holland
through Utrecht, was foiled by Maurice, who guarded the
approaches and prevented his proud enemy from pro-
ceeding further than Groenlo and Lochem, in eastern Gel-
derland. Spinola, however, compelled the surrender of
Rheinberg, after a siege of six weeks. Again the patriot
cause looked so dark that prominent men openly proposed
an accommodation with the Archduke, and once again
Barneveldt and Aerssens used all their power to obtain
aid from France, Henry the Fourth did not dare to enter
758 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1605
into war with either England or Spain by directly assist-
ing the States. The Dutch people seemed to be at the
midnight of hope, but they would not listen to the sug-
gestion of offering the sovereignty to the French King,
although they had once begged his predecessor to accept
it. Despite their poverty and internal dissensions, they
were more sternly republican than ever, and were deter-
mined to be their own masters. Fortunately, since the
strength of the growing republic consisted largely in the
weakness of its enemies, the situation was greatly relieved
when another tremendous mutiny among Philip's merce-
naries broke out.
Maurice began the siege of Groenlo, but Spinola com-
pelled him to abandon it. The year ended with the young
stadholder's military reputation eclipsed by that of the
brilliant Italian. But neither party was able to resume
•hostile operations, and on the slippery heath, at the east-
ern end of Gelderland, the war of half a century was
ended because of mutual exhaustion.
While on land military events had been indecisive, the
Dutch were strengthening their power on the sea, and
this not only in the Indian Ocean among the Portuguese
possessions, but also on the Atlantic. The Dutch men-
of-war began to search for the Spanish plate fleets coming
from America, and, nearer home, to intercept Avar supplies
for the obedient provinces. On one occasion, Reynier
Claaszoon, the Zeelander, sent out to overhaul a Portu-
guese fleet on its return from the East, met the eight
great galleons of the enemy off Cape Vincent. He was
deserted by his chief, with the other ships of the repub-
lic, who feared to give battle against overwhelming odds ;
but he began the fight. Admiral Hautain with five
vessels came to his aid, but soon afterwards drew of
again under cover of the night. Claaszoon, after his ship
had been dismasted, nailed his colors to the stump, and
for two days and nights kept up a fight with the eighteen
vessels of the enemy, refusing all offers of surrender or
mercy. As the hulk was sinking he knelt with his sixtj
fellow survivors in prayer to God, and then fired the pow-
der magazine. Two mangled sailors, fished up out of the
1607]
MICHAEL DE RUYTER
759
sea by the Spaniards, told the story, and defied their foes
until death made them silent.
The next year, on the 25th of April, 1607, the war was
carried into Africa. When, in 805 A.D., Tarik the Sara-
cen crossed from the Dark Continent to plant the cres-
cent flag in Europe, he named that great rock, which in
the ancient world of thought formed one of the pillars
of Hercules, after himself, Gib-al-Tarik, or Gibraltar, and
here the orange, white, and blue flag was destined to win
fresh glory. Jacob Heemskerk, the Arctic explorer, with
his fleet of twenty-six vessels, encountered the much
heavier force of Juan d'Avila, consisting of twenty-one
ships, sheltered under the fortresses on the frowning cliff.
But so splendid was the seamanship of the Dutch, and so
terrific was their cannonade, that all the Spanish galleons
were soon burned or sunk, except the flag-ship St. Augus-
tine, which was captured. A Dutch trumpeter climbed
up the rigging, and having hauled down the admiral's
pennon set the hulk adrift. The Dutchmen mercilessly
slaughtered their enemies whether on deck or in the
water. Rage became fury when they discovered their
countrymen chained on board the Spanish vessels and
also found among the Spanish Admiral's papers from
Madrid, one signed "I, the King," which commanded
the infliction of all possible cruelties upon captives. In
this battle the gallant Heemskerk was slain. His funeral
at Amsterdam was made a gorgeous pageant at the ex-
pense of the state — a unique honor.
Michael de Ruyter, the boy in whom Dutch sea-power
was to find its supreme incarnation, was born March 24,
1607, one month before this battle of Gibraltar. In a
cradle at Flushing was being rocked a new treasure for
the nation, while there rose at Amsterdam the Oude Kerk,
a gorgeous monument to the memory of that brave sailor
who, having twice borne the republic's flag through icy
seas as pathfinder to the Orient, at last annihilated the
sea-power of the owner of the Indies. This naval victory
: made Philip and the Spanish cabinet quite ready to open
I negotiations for peace with the " men of butter," who fed
: their cows on the ocean's bottom, lived on top of forests
760 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1607
planted downward, who had turned a mudhole into a
garden, and who had proved themselves men of iron.
Active war operations had now continued nearly forty
years, and both sides desired peace. With an empty
treasury Spain could no longer continue the fight ; and
neither France nor England would help in strangling the
republic. On the other hand, among the Dutch it was
uncertain how long the Catholic provinces would pay
their war taxes, while there was also a steadily growing
alienation between Maurice and Barneveldt and the ten-
dencies which each represented. Barneveldt imperson-
ated the municipal spirit, with its jealousy of centralized
power. He and his supporters were aristocratic in their
tastes and feelings, and cared comparatively little, per-
sonally or politically, for the common people. They mag-
nified state and local pride, loved trade with its accom-
panying wealth and luxury, and disliked war with its
great expense and risk. This party feared that the Dutch
people, led by Maurice, would be dazzled by military suc-
cess and more and more would yearn for glory in arms.
This would not only jeopard federal government, but
might, in case of defeat, make the republic a mere de-
pendency of France.
On the other hand, the Dutch common people had im-
bibed the idea that they were something more than mer
groups of human beings associated as municipal and stat
units. They felt that they were no longer Hollanders,
Frisians, Zeelanders, and Groningeners, but that they were
Dutchmen. They believed in absolute independence at
wanted nothing more to do with kings or emperors, ui
less these accepted office as a sacred trust and became
not merely the rulers but also the servants of the Dutct
people. They believed in a strong war policy, becaus
they thought that nothing else would give them natioi
ality and freedom. They supported every measure cal-
culated to injure Spain, and hence were heartily in favor
of naval prowess, of colonization, of exploration and dis-
covery. It was not only the office-holders and the sailors
and soldiers, but also the East India Company, that made
up the war party, which was powerfully reinforced and
m-
•re
ue
1608] HOSTILITIES TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED 761
kept alive by the pastors of that stronghold of democracy,
the Eeformed Church.
Calvinism is always democratic, always in favor of pop-
ular education and popular rights. It teaches that every
true Christian is a prophet, priest, and king unto God ;
that the poorest and humblest soul is a man, by nature
a sinner before God, but by divine grace a son ; and
a king is nothing more. Logically and as a matter-of-
course, the Dutch Calvinists, both clerical and lay, were
hearty adherents of the war policy. They wanted peace,
but only with honor and liberty, and they were ready to
sacrifice their last stiver to win. Maurice was at the head
of this powerful party, not merely because he was ambi-
tious and his abilities and tastes were those of a soldier,
but also because he was a Calvinist and in sympathy with
the hopes and ambitions of the people — especially when
these coincided with his own.
The weak King of Spain, Philip the Third, absorbed in
the delights of spectacular worship and the effeminate
pleasures of the court, was only too ready to listen to the
appeals for peace of his poorly supported general, Spinola.
Early in April, 1607, envoys from the two countries agreed
to suspend hostilities for eight months, beginning with
the 4th of May. Both the British and the French min-
isters at the Hague assisted in the peace negotiations,
which, however, were hardly made before fresh intrigues
for and against their continuation were begun in the re-
public ; on the one hand by Barneveldt, who wished for
a long truce ; and on the other by Maurice, who hoped
for a speedy renewal of hostilities. The breach widened
between the old statesman, who was freely accused of sell-
ing out to Spain, and the young general, who was charged
with aspiring to the sovereignty.
Barneveldt's superior craft in controlling the town and
city governments won the day. The peace negotiations
were renewed. On the last day of January, 1608, when
the canals of Holland were frozen over, so that men were
compelled to travel 011 sledges, the Spanish envoys, among
whom was the brilliant Spinola, arrived in the Hague, led
by Richardot. Maurice, William Louis, and other Dutch
762 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1608
dignitaries went out to meet them. Spinola and Maurice,
like brothers, rode in a coach together. As soon as the
peace - congress was opened inside the legislative cham-
bers overlooking the Binnenhof and the Vijver, a war of
pamphlets, placards, and caricatures began between the
partisans of the war-lord and the civilian. Barne veldt
was called a tool of Spain, and charged with having re-
ceived bribes from Spinola. In his indignation, Barne-
veldt resigned, but was prevailed upon to resume office
again. Their naval victories and a fresh alliance which
they succeeded in making with England emboldened the
Dutch, but the Spanish envoys stubbornly refused to
yield the freedom of the seas and of trade with the Indies,
or to recognize the rights of the Dutch government to
regulate the public exercise of the Roman form of Chris-
tianity within the united provinces.
The negotiations were broken off by the Dutch, August
20, 1608, when they discovered that the King of Spain,
in order to alienate France from the republic, had offered
the Crown Prince of Spain in marriage to King Henry's
oldest daughter. In the marriage market of Europe,
princes and princesses were simply the pawns which
crowned politicians used in playing the game of statecraft.
War again seemed imminent.
The English and French ambassadors now made pro-
posals of a truce for several years, but Zeeland, Amster-
dam, and Delft so strongly opposed the proposition that
threats were even made of secession from the Union, but
the skilful envoys carried the day. The religious ques-
tion was settled in favor of the Dutch, who reserved the
right to regulate the public processions and demonstra-
tions 6f the Roman Catholics, while in the treaty docu-
ments they modified the title of the States-General from
Noble and Mighty Lords to that of High Mightinesses.
Actually the Dutch won all for which they contended—
the regulation of popular religious demonstrations, trade
in the eastern seas, and national independence. After the
Chinese fashion of "saving the face" of a thing, Spanish
pride was humored by having no direct mention made
in the treaty of several of the most important points
1608] THE GREAT TRUCE SIGNED 763
gained. The guarantors of the truce were England and
France.
Thus after twenty-eight months of tedious negotiation
and the consumption of an enormous amount of ink, pa-
per, parchment, and wax, the great truce was signed. The
stadholder had been won over by the brilliant diplomatist
Jeannin, the accomplished envoy of Henry the Fourth.
The States-General agreed to reward Maurice for his past
services and for his loss of command in war, by paying
him the princely salary of one hundred and fifty thousand
guilders a year, while all the illustrious members of the
House of Orange were richly pensioned or rewarded. The
envoy Jeannin was acting for his master, who hoped to
control the republic through the House of Orange. Bar-
neveldt, who was thought by his enemies to have looked
with jealousy upon this action of the States-General, op-
posed with all his might a further proposal of Jeannin to
have a council of state created in which the British and
French ambassadors should sit as members. Barneveldt,
who was first of all opposed to any increase of the stad-
holder's power, and was withal the determined foe of
foreign influence in the national councils, defeated the
project.
A little over one year after the signing of the truce the
dagger of Ravaillac had removed from earth the noble
soul of King Henry the Fourth of France. During the
truce neither Spinola nor Maurice attacked each other,
though there were hostilities in the German territory in
1610 and 1614, in which both Spinola and Maurice seized
a number of cities.
CHAPTER VI
CALVINIST AND AEMINIAN"
PHILIP THE THIRD OF SPAIN had been led to grant the
truce, because his spiritual advisers assured him that no
sooner would the Dutch heretics be freed from the pres-
ence of Spanish armies than they would tear each other
to pieces in their controversies. All too soon, the Spanish
papists were able to gloat over the fierce dissensions which
they saw breaking out in the Protestant Netherlands.
In the obedient provinces, religious bigotry and op-
pression were to continue. Foreign dominion paralyzed
the national spirit, but progress in industry and increase
in agricultural wealth made ordinary life comfortable.
Though there was scarcely a Belgian ship upon the sea,
the natural fertility of the soil and the genius of the peo-
ple for patient toil and their love of the picturesque as-
serted itself. A brilliant line of painters and architects
made the southern Low Countries the home of art and lit-
erature. The land of Rubens became the delight of tour-
ists and travellers.
In the Dutch United States the great and ever vi
principles of harmony between the centrifugal and cen-
tripetal principles of government, between state rights and
national supremacy, between secession and federal union,
were to be discussed and come to issue without costly
civil war or much bloodshed, though not without some
victims to popular frenzy. The problems and dangers of
federal government are not those of monarchies ; but
whereas, in the same case of the American republic in
18G1 the pretext for secession was African slavery, in the
Dutch union of states it was theology, though the real
questions at issue in both were the right of secession from
1608] DIVERSITY OF OPINION 765
the Union which had made a nation, and whether there
should be a real federal republic, or only the shadow of
one with a stadholder as autocrat.
On the one side were the men of law, of parchment, of
precedents, who claimed to have the constitutional argu-
ment all on their own side. These demanded a literal
and close construction of the Union of Utrecht and vindi-
cation of local rights, of the cities and the provinces, as
guaranteed by charter and interpreted not by new light or
fresh experiences, but by old precedents. These men, the
lawyers, burghers, and city magistrates, formed the aristo-
cratic party, caring little either for the peasantry, the sail-
ors, or the common people generally. In the eyes of the
men who held to state sovereignty — the Barneveldians —
the common people had few rights which the magistrates
and burghers were bound to respect. They believed in
peace, commerce, and the right of each particular prov-
ince to control religion. In a word, to the unprejudiced
student their opinions present a curious compound of
ultra-conservatism and liberalism. Their idea of govern-
ment seemed to be little better than that of a monarchy
comminuted and distributed — a multitude of petty sover-
eigns ruling by their wealth and aristocratic power the
mass of the people.
On the other hand were the people at large and their
religious and military teachers, powerfully reinforced by
other educated men whose minds were ruled less by prec-
edent than by the teachings of experience. They be-
lieved that in the absence of the land's lord, or master, of
old feudal days, sovereignty belonged to the people of the
land, and that authority resided in the people who had
become a nation by standing shoulder to shoulder against
the inquisition, the Pope, and the armies of the King of
Spain. The Dutch people believed that revolution had
1 been forced on them from without. New life gave new
power, and so they fiercely opposed the idea that a local
body of magistrates, or a provincial government, should
regulate conscience or religion. They had not yet reached
that point of view from which it may be seen that, in the
divorce of statecraft and priestcraft, of ecclesiasticism and
766 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1608
politics, there is ever the best guarantee of pure religion,
sound progress, and good government. Nor had they yet
clearly discriminated between the form and the spirit of
true religion — between the life which is more than the
meat and the body which is more than the raiment. To
them, religion was the Reformed body of doctrine and or-
der, and the Reformed religion was Calvinism, and only
that.
All churches, except those of the Independents and
Anabaptists — spiritual ancestors of the majority of Eng-
lish-speaking Christians — were then national, and the
majority of the Dutch people believed that the religion
of a nation should be decided in national council with na-
tional authority. The old formula of mediaeval Euro
ejus regio cujus religio, was still observed, but in the Cal-
vinist's eye the sovereign was now the people — the nation ;
while the men in the state-right party held that each state,
representing the cities, was sovereign, and not the people.
The Dutch people believed, further, that freedom, both
political and religious, could be obtained only by victory
over Spain and complete defiance of her power. Hence,
though they had no special liking for war and found its
burdens almost intolerable, they were in favor of renew-
ing the struggle when the truce was over. They looked
towards Maurice, the stadholder, as the incarnation of the
idea of nationality, of religion, and of democracy.
In studying the history of the Netherlands, religion and
politics, or rather ecclesiasticism and state-craft, cannot
be separated. So, having considered the political forma-
tion of the country, let us now glance at the religion of
the Dutchmen and the origin and formation of religious
parties, and discover how was begun that sectarian strife
which, joined with politics, so powerfully influenced pub-
lic opinion in favor of a renewal of the war.
Christianity when entering the Netherlands did not ob-
literate, but, while modifying, only intensified the race-
traits of the Teutonic portions of the people. Their sturd}
independence and their intellectual freedom were bnl
slightly restrained. The native of the morass and heath,
of town and city, never yielded the right of private judg
1608]
BROTHERS OF THE COMMON LIFE
767
inent, except partially or temporarily. The missionaries
who brought the knowledge of Christ did not come di-
rectly from Rome, but from Britain and Ireland. When,
later, the British bishop Winfrid or Boniface became one
of the political and ecclesiastical partisans of the Bishop of
Rome, and returning to Friesland attempted to bring the
Christian churches into thorough-going obedience to the
Latin prelate, there were prompt reaction and determined
resistance. Historians who believe that the church founded
by Him whose kingdom is not of this world ought to be a
great political corporation, with graded offices and a des-
potic head like an Oriental potentate, have been only too
ready to characterize this reaction as " pagan." In reality,
the uprising in which Boniface was slain at Dokkum, in
Friesland, was a patriotic or national movement, which as-
serted native rights against foreign priestcraft. All through
the Middle Ages there was intense and active protest
against the continuing usurpations of the bishop, who had
his seat by the banks of the Tiber, and of his servants.
The northern Netherlander in being Christianized re-
fused to become hopelessly Romanized.
The southern Netherlander, having more of Celtic
blood and Celtic traits of character, were earlier Chris-
tianized, and also earlier Romanized. There was a Frank-
ish church in Utrecht, in A.D..720, though Christian wor-
ship had been celebrated there before that time. Utrecht
became what it may still be called, the ecclesiastical capi-
tal of the Northern Netherlands. Yet, down to the time
of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, there was but
one bishopric north of the Scheldt, while there were three
in the Southern Netherlands. It was in the north on the
banks of the Ijssel river, in the town of Deventer, where,
under Gerhard Groote, began that fraternity of the Broth-
ers of the Common Life, from which proceeded the im-
pulse to popular education and the free instruction of the
poor. Their work and influence resulted in the establish-
ment of schools throughout the Low Countries and in
[the formation of that public opinion which in the towns
I called for and created public schools sustained by taxation.
! These public schools were free to the little ones of those
768 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1608
unable to pay, and open for nominal tuition fees to the
children and youth of the burghers.* Out of these
schools came those harbingers of the Eeformation, Thom-
as a Kempis, whose world - influencing book, The Imita-
tion of Christ, tends to the cultivation of the soul with-
out priest, or altar, or hierarchy ; Zerbolt who labored to
have the Bible and devotional books expressed in the
common people's Dutch speech ; Wessel Clansvort, fore-
runner in thought of Zwingli and Luther, who believed
with the Church but not in her ; Erasmus, the father of
modern biblical criticism and the pioneer of Bible socie-
ties; and a host of lesser stars. The Netherlands, soon
becoming the printing-office of Europe, began to supply
the demand already created by the intellectual movements
abroad, while also leading all other countries in the number
of editions of the New Testament and of the Holy Bible
printed in the language of the people. When, therefore,
those sacred writings, having ceased to be merely a na-
tional literature in possession of the Rabbins, or the mys-
tery in a dead language of a mediaeval learned caste, got
into the hands of the people, they became a tremendous
engine for the overthrow of privilege, monopoly, and
hereditary power, both ecclesiastical and critical. The
old face of society must needs be changed.
Earlier than the Zwinglian, Lutheran, or Calvinistic
movements was that of the Bible-readers or Brethren,
nicknamed Anabaptists. These not only protested against
pope and king, but against all monopoly of power in the
hands of a few. The democratic movement coming into
contact with the churches having political force, whether
of Rome or of the Reformation, overflowed Switzerland,
and flowed through Germany into the Netherlands. The
seed sown found a most congenial soil in Frisia and other
provinces. The first wave of the Dutch Reformation
was wrought by putting the Bible into the hands of the
people. It was these plain peasants, mechanics, traders,
and common folks, upon whom knights and soldiers and
* Verhandeling over de Broederschap von G. Groole en over den Infloed
der Fraterhuizen. E. H. M. Delprat, Arnhem, 1856.
ERASMUS
1608] THE MENNONITES 769
the rich merchants looked with profound contempt, that
first made the Netherlands Protestant. On the foun-
dations laid by them, the Lutherans and Calvinists were
able to build. The idea that religion should be a thing
between the individual man and God, and need not be
associated with a great corporation that included thrones
and governments, with their sources of wealth and chan-
nels of power through the sword and the treasury, seemed
to the men of privilege to be sheer insanity. It is not
difficult to see why the Anabaptists, or Mennonites, as
they were called in the Netherlands when organized by
Menno Simons — without the mention of whose name and
influence no true history of the Dutch Eepublic can be
written — were hated by all average men of the sixteenth
century, but were beloved and honored by great souls like
William of Orange. Menno Simons's fundamental teach-
ing was based on a holy life, as taught in primitive Chris-
tianity, before the church had any union with secular
powers, or had built great edifices of dogma. The Men-
nonites' spiritual reformation was mistaken for anarchy.
Historic science shows that, first of all, the Dutch peo-
ple were converted to the Eeformed faith through the
so-called Anabaptists.* It was these despised congrega-
tions of believers who furnished the first martyr in the
Netherlands, Willem Dirks ; and of those slain in the sev-
enteen provinces for conscience' sake the majority were
of these churches of Christ in which Menno is the shin-
ing name, f
The second movement in the Dutch Reformation came
through the gate of Augsburg. The Lutheran writings
and doctrines were read and studied by monks and priests,
* Geschiedenis der Kerkhervorming in Nederland van haar ontstaan tot
1531, door Dr. J. G. de Hoop Scheffer, Amsterdam, 1873.
f The ground - thought from which Menno proceeded was not, as with
Luther, justification by faith ; or, as with the Swiss reformers, the absolute
dependence of the sinner upon God in the work of salvation. The holy
Christian life, in opposition to worldliness, was the point whence Menno
proceeded, and to which he always returned. In the Romish church we
see the ruling spirit of Peter; in the Reformed Evangelical, of Paul; in
Menno we see rise again that of James the Just, the brother of the Lord.
49
770 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1608
by merchants and the well-to-do classes ; and a strong
party, not numerically great but very influential, made
the Netherlands Protestant in Luther's way.
Third, and greatest of all, was the reformatory wave
w.hich came in through the Geneva gate. The men
trained under Calvin entered into the southern provinces,
while those taught by A'Lasco came in from the north-
east. Especially in the south, singing Marot's psalms as
they met in the open fields by the thousands, and listen-
ing to the fiery and uplifting sermons of men who knew
their Bible, the Calvinists found in the system of truth
presented by their preachers, and as elaborated by Calvin
and Beza, a message from God that seemed to satisfy the
deepest yearnings of their nature, while it made them
fear no mortal man. It was as though one born with all
longings for the enjoyment of the richest music were sud-
denly ushered into a great cathedral filled with the har-
monies of organs touched by master-hands.
Calvinism means reality in religion. Whatever it may
be now, mummied in cases of words, that hold death in-
stead of life ; whatever it may be now, lacking the genius,
fervor, and power of men unable to make verbal state-
ments that shall fit science, which now is more determi-
nistic and has more of the spirit and method of the great
realist and investigator than even the church dogmas;
whatever it may be in the hands of despots and self-seek-
ers, whether in church or state, Calvinism so-called was
a world-moving system of thought.
Whether in the hands of Paul, of Augustine, or of Cal-
vin, the theologian, republican, and popular educator in
Geneva, a system which supremely honors God and at
once exalts and abases the humblest man is sure to turn
upsidedown any world built by priest and king. This is
true democracy, that in its ken kings, popes, bishops, and
men of all classes are but sinful creatures on an equal
level, while the peasant and the boer may be the very
elect of God, and priests and kings unto Him — all man-
kind in sin, God alone sovereign and merciful. Of neces-
sity, such a system requires and compels intelligence,
thought, self-sacrifice, courage, tenacity, and perseverance,
1608] RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES 771
and therefore becomes the mother of popular rights and
education, of schools and colleges, of beautiful family and
civic life. Militant Calvinism creates brave warriors and
superb armies.
The Dutch are very different in temperament, tastes,
and character from the Germans, and never in all their
history did they show these differences more than in re-
jecting Lutheranism and accepting Calvinism.
But, like all other engines of power, Calvinism may be-
come the means of oppression, bigotry, and iniquity. Paul-
i-nism, when carried to an extreme and expressed in forms
of human authority, without regard to other truths and
opinions, bred heresy - hunters, inquisitors, and bigots.
Augustinism, when continuing and exaggerating Paulin-
ism, nursed the usurpation of the Bishop of Eome, and
formed the great ecclesiastical machine with its inquisi-
tion, producing such servants as the mediaeval popes and
cardinals, Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second. In
Protestant countries, Calvinism — which is Paulinism and
Augustinism put into a new engine — shows that, like some
other good and great things in the world, it is not proof
against perversion. Its professors have at times demand-
ed that human sacrifices be offered on the Moloch of their
private and corporate opinions. From the burning of
Anabaptists by the thousands, Eomish monks and nuns
by the score, and the Socinian individual at Geneva, down
to our anachronistic heresy -trials and condemnations,
Calvinism has upon it, despite its otherwise noble and
clear record, stains of cruelty and intolerance which, not
greatly different in kind from those of Islam or Angli-
canism, arise from human passions cloaking themselves
under the plea of service to God. On the other hand,
among all races and on all continents, arbitrary force in
religion is followed by various protestantisms.
What actually happened in the Dutch republic during
the Great Truce had been clearly foreseen by the theolo-
gians of the Roman church. They sincerely hoped that
the aeon-old controversies over dogma and church-govern-
ment would break out in fresh forms and tear the Prot-
estant republic to pieces, so that Philip and the Pope
772 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1608
could step in and rule again. And this great rent in the
Eeformed faith, as many a Spaniard delighted to notice,
began in the University of Leyden, of which William the
Silent, the arch-heretic and rebel, was the father.
Jacob Harmensen, whose name in Latin is Arminius,
and who was born at Oudewater in 1560, became a de-
clared enemy of the Aristotelian philosophy while he was
yet a student. After studying in Geneva under Beza, he
returned to his native country less a Calvinist than a
Christian. He saw the danger of perverting vital truths
into stiff dogmatism and partisan tendencies. Appointed
preacher in Amsterdam, where D. V. Coornheert, the man
of letters, had attacked the doctrine of predestination,
Harmensen was invited to refute the writings of this lay-
man. Urged on by Lydius of Franeker, he took up the
task even while the controversy was raging between the
supra - lapsarians and infra - lapsarians. While pondering
the questions he became convinced that the Calvinistic
doctrines of predestination and grace, as then taught,
were the extreme statements of one form of truth, and
not the expression of reality. Nevertheless, he was ap-
pointed Professor of Theology in the University of Ley-
den. Soon he and those who thought with him were
called Remonstrants, because they remonstrated against
the extreme Calvinistic view, while those who maintained
the extreme Calvinistic views were called Contra-Remon-
strants.
In one sense this was the breaking -out afresh of the
conflict between the opinions held by Calvin himself and
those maintained by Zwingli, whose views have devel-
oped into what are thought to be more liberal forms. It
was but the Dutch phase of that problem of the ages in
the discussion of which the Pelagians and Jansenists in
the Roman Catholic church, the strict Lutherans, and the
followers of Melancthon in German)', have demonstrated
the limits of the human intellect. By the year 1603, when
Harmensen was made professor in Leyden, the Dutch
Protestants were mostly Calvinists, as that word was then
generally used, though different shades of opinion prevailed
among them. By this time, also, many of the Lutherans,
1609]
CHANGES AND GROWTH OF ARMINIANISM
773
Anabaptists, and followers of Zwingli had entered the na-
tional Reformed church. Their belief was formulated in
the mild, sweet, and scriptural, but, in the eyes of extrem-
ists, rather vague Heidelberg Catechism, which, unlike
some of the other and even later Protestant creeds, was
based upon proof-texts drawn, for the most part, from
the New Testament instead of from the Old.
On the other hand, Francis Gomaer, who Latinized
his name as Gomarus, born at Bruges in 1563, and made
Professor of Divinity in Leyden in 1594, was the leader
of the severe Calvinistic party. He opposed the Eemon-
strants with virulence and intolerance. His followers
found their expression of divine truth in the acute, but
rigid and intense, Belgic Confession, which had been writ-
ten by Guido de Bres, whom the Spaniards beheaded after
the siege of Valenciennes. In 1604 Gomarus and Armin-
ius fell into disagreement, and, the controversy having
taken on large proportions, a general synod was talked
of as early as 1606 ; but no form of public disputation
was held until 1608. On the 19th of October, 1609, six
months after the signing of the Great Truce, Arminius
died. His was a meek Christian spirit, and Grotius, who
thought with him, says of Arminius, "Condemned by
others, he condemned none."
The decease of a man is not the death of his thought.
Arminius had been simply the exponent of a school repre-
senting the opposite extreme of equally good truth held
by those who were unable to see, as Augustine and John
Calvin saw, into those questions which perhaps will never
be settled on earth ; for the problem of the divine sover-
eignty and the freedom of the human will, if not in-
soluble, has certainly yet shown no solution in hurnau
thought.
Yet, as certainly as Calvin's system of dogma under.
went modifications and internal development, so Armin-
ianism, when discussed by the nation at large, experi-
enced changes and growth. Instead of being a mere
philosophic discussion, it became an assertion in the
realm of theology of universal grace and conditional elec-
tion. Then began a great liberalizing of religion and of
774 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1610
morals, and the shaping of new political forces. The
Anabaptists had been so reorganized by Menno Simons
that the pietistic, peaceable, and unworldly features of
their discipline had almost excluded all liberalizing phases
and reforming tendencies, which, however, under the in-
fluence of the new system called Armmianism reasserted
themselves.
The movement begun in Leyden soon extended far
beyond the learned classes, and took powerful hold of
the people, and when, in 1610, the followers of Arminius
presented their "Remonstrance" to the legislatures of Hol-
land and West Friesland, the term " Remonstrants" came
into common use. Their Remonstrance contained the
Five Articles which, afterwards controverted, offset, and
condemned at the National Synod in Dordrecht by five
responsive canons — stated in a form so extreme that it is
not at all certain that Calvin himself would have approved
of them — became the celebrated " Five Points of Calvin-
ism." When the Gomarists presented their Contra-Re-
monstrance, in which the expressions were very much
less moderate, the controversy already began to disclose
elements of bitterness. The new party -name, "Con-
tra-Remonstrants," was soon current. When, as was soon
noticed and as was almost inevitable in the hastily forced
and not yet matured constitution of the Republic, these
two sets of theological disputants were also becoming two
political parties, and were looking in final appeal to the
might of the law, or even perchance to the sword, the
enemies of republican government all over Europe ex-
ulted. Those who had long hoped for the triumph of self-
government grieved.
As the controversy deepened and began to take on pro-
portions that showed that not only the province of Hol-
land but the whole Republic would be involved, it was
evident that the question which touched man on all sides
of his nature was not only a theological and political one,
but was also a social one as well. The burghers, the rich
merchants, the magistrates, and the noble families forming
the aristocratic republican party were for the most part
Arminians. They formed the majority of the middle
1610]
THE CONTRA REMONSTRANTS
775
class, and had almost wholly the monopoly of wealth and
civil office. For the most part they were men of com-
merce and of affairs, having knowledge of the world in
general. They did not want a king who might be a des-
pot ; neither did they want the people to rule. They
loved power, wealth, and splendor, and what seemed to
them liberality of thought and freedom of opinion. They
believed in government by aristocracy — that is, by the
best — and they wanted an aristocratic republic in which
the people should be ruled by the best families, and where
questions of Church should be settled by the State and
by the magistrates.
On the other hand, the soldiers and sailors, the peas-
antry and people of handicraft and small trade, and the
clergy of the Keformed church forming the stadholderal
and democratic party, were almost wholly Contra-Remon-
strants or Calvinists. Theologically, they were intensely
in earnest, believing that the Institutes of Calvin were
the best expression of Divine truth. Their dogmatics
were a composite of Greek philosophy, Roman logic and
forms of order, cemented by scripture phraseology, with
great emphasis laid on the Old Testament as a rule of
conduct — all infused with not a little of the general spirit
of the old church out of which they had come. Their
belief in the divine sovereignty and in unconditional pre-
destination was quick and powerful. Religion and poli-
tics in their eyes were one and indistinguishable. They
believed that as Christian men were elect of God from
all eternity, being kings and priests unto Him, and there-
fore all alike in His sight, the government should be that
of the people — a majority of the nation. They argued that
the Dutch people were not merely certain groups of po-
litical units, but that their calling of God and their ex-
perience had made them a nation, who should have but
one religion, and that religion founded, as they believed,
on the word of God — the Bible ; and that the visible ex-
pression of this religion should be in the form of a church
which, while allowing toleration to other Christians and
forms of belief, should give or permit no state aid to any
other church or denomination. These Contra -Remon-
776 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1610
strants believed that their country was the child of the
Reformation and their government the product of the
Eeformed church, and, therefore, that politics should be
subordinate to religion, the State to the Church. To the
Calvinists, the idea of matters of faith being ordered by
the State instead of by the Church seemed to be but
the restoration of Caesarism or the papacy in the Father-
land, which, by God's help, and through faith, courage,
and their own good swords, they had won from the
Spaniards.
CHAPTER VII
IN the great conflict of opinion during the Great Truce,
each of the opposing parties was led by a man who was
the very incarnation of those tendencies of the age which
he represented.
On the one hand was Joan van Olden Barneveldt, who
was born at Amersfoort, September 14, 1547, and had
been educated in the best schools of the Southern Nether-
lands as well as in those of Germany and Italy. His train-
ing in political life had been obtained in the various offices
of municipal magistrate, pensionary of Rotterdam, advo-
cate of Holland, and member of the states of Holland, of
the States-General, and of the Union War Committee. He
was a life-long opponent of Spain, and as an envoy had
been repeatedly sent to foreign lands in behalf of the Re-
public. He was indeed a true patriot, and as a states-
man he had no peer among his contemporaries in Europe.
He understood manifold human nature, whether it were
of the variety found on thrones and inside of lace and
velvet, or of the kind that toils in the bogs, the furrows,
and the workshops. He had no particular love or regard
for the common people, but rather held in contempt the
plain folks who constituted the majority of the nation,
yet he never fawned on royalty, and he made use of mon-
archs only to advance the interests of his state and coun-
try. He was a man of amazing industry, penetration, and
po\ver. He concerned himself with every kind of public
business. He was the embodiment of the traditions and
ideas of the burgher. He believed in an aristocratic re-
public made great and strong by industry and commerce,
778 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1610
with a rich and varied life made beautiful by mutual tol-
eration. He was already alarmed at tendencies which
seemed likely to result in monarchy. Despite the charges
of his enemies, Barneveldt's political life, like his private
career, appears to have been spotless.
Barneveldt probably held no religious opinions that
could be formulated into a system. His creed was but
another form of agnosticism. His motto, which can as
surely be and has been made the engine of despotism and
oppression as the stiff est dogmatism can become, was Xil
scire tutissima fides (Not to know anything is the safest
faith). Like the great William and his son Maurice, he
counselled and demanded toleration even for the Anabap-
tists. Up to a certain point, also, he seems not to have
been willing to give his personal religions opinions, or
rather lack of them, a political form. On the contrary,
perhaps, we may say, his long experience as a statesman
trained him to look at the political side of a question as
being the supreme one, arid this prevented him from see-
ing in the disputes then raging among the Gomarists and
Arminians any other than political issues. It seems cer-
tain that he did not at first encourage the Arminians or
take any side with them ; but when the disputants came
before the states of Holland he counselled peace and
patience, and then secured an order forbidding all discus-
sions. When, however, the Gomarists in Holland seemed
to set themselves in opposition to the government, Bar-
neveldt began steadily to exert his influence, which was
tremendous, in favor of the Remonstrant party, who there-
upon were delighted because they were so powerfully rein-
forced.
On the other hand was Maurice, the stadholder, who
incarnated the idea of union and nationality. A consum-
mate soldier, he was no theologian, nor was he versed in
the mysteries of statecraft. His admirers believe that he
was devout, and that his faith was real. His patriotism
was beyond cavil. He inherited from his mother, Anna
of Saxony, certain sinister physical propensities which he
indulged freely. He was not a man of shining morals,
and his example of impurity outraged the laws of God
1615]
MAURICE A NATIONALIST
779
and man. His mental organization was sluggish in its
movement and he made np his mind to action very slowly.
Outside of the theatre of war, it was only after having
carefully weighed the reasons for and against, and having
surveyed the whole situation, that he could be induced
to .advance. In the earlier part of his career, when the
friendship between the statesman and the warrior was
close and warm, he was almost wholly dependent upon
Barneveldt for political advice and direction. From the
time, however, when Barneveldt, influencing the States
of Holland and the national War Committee, had ordered
Maurice, against his judgment as a soldier, to advance
into Flanders, there had begun to grow up an alienation
between the two, which had greatly increased by the time
the negotiations looking to the Great Truce had begun.
When the theological controversy broke out, the ques-
tions involved were too subtle to be mastered by this
young soldier, who was more at home on horseback and in
the trenches than among texts and manuscripts. His
friend and pastor, Domine Uytenbogaert, was an Arminian
scholar and preacher.
As soon as the controversy assumed a political phase,
Maurice saw the real issues at stake more clearly. His
sympathies, however, were not with states or sections,
but with the people at large. He was a nationalist of the
first order. He believed that the Dutch had become a
nation, and that they wanted the question of indepen-
dence settled once and forever by again fighting Spain at
home and by assaulting her power on the sea, by plant-
ing colonies in America and elsewhere, and by doing
whatever else would humble their giant enemy and make
the nation glorious. When he found that he must, prob-
ably against his will or desire, take action even to the
drawing of his sword, his closest political adviser was his
cousin, William Louis, the stadholder of Friesland, of
whom he took frequent counsel.
The union of interests between Great Britain and the
Republic being so close, and the question disturbing the
Dutch being precisely one that appealed to the conceited
and pedantic nature of the Scottish King in London, this
780 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1616
royal intermeddler now began to make his power felt.
He did this in such a way that, while it disgusted the
Hollanders, it gave Barneveldt the opportunity which he
coveted and of which he was not slow as a patriot to make
use. The Holland burgher soon had King James made
the laughing-stock of Europe, first, by drawing forth from
him those famous letters which seemed to give the royal
approval of the Remonstrant dogma and policy, and, sec-
condly, by outwitting him in a sharp bargain. Sharing
the fear of his countrymen that the English King would
sell out to Spain, and deliver up the three cautionary
towns, Flushing, Brill, and Rammekens, held as security
for loans made by Queen Elizabeth — since James was
trying to arrange a marriage between his oldest son and
the Infanta — Barneveldt determined to take advantage
of the situation. Now that Cecil was dead, and James
Stuart was trying to get along without the nation's par-
liament, and therefore wanted money, Barneveldt cajoled
him into a bargain, over which all Europe laughed.
By this treaty of 1615 the Dutch regained, June 11,
1616, their three towns held in pawn, got the King's am-
bassador put out of their Council of State, greatly cur-
tailed British influence, consolidated the power of the
Republic, and cancelled the whole debt of nearly four
millions of dollars, or ten million gilders, by paying only
one-third of this sum. Nevertheless, this act of a great
patriot, as viewed by his enemies at the time, seemed to
be a proof that Barneveldt was being bribed by Spain, or
at least made a tool of ; while at the same time against
himself and the Republic King James became angry and
bitter, especially as he had ceased to be of prime impor-
tance to the Dutchmen, who, as they now had little need
of him, feared him less and less. The angry monarch
recalled Win wood, his ambassador, and in 1616 appointed
in his place Sir Dudley Carleton, who, like Winwood, by
his master's orders, at once espoused the cause of the
Contra - Remonstrants and became a bitter opponent of
Barneveldt. Further, the royal intermeddler had Pro-
fessor Conrad Vorstius, who in 1611 had been appointed
the successor of Arminius in the University of Leyden,
BARNRVELDT
1617] THE CALVINISTS DEMAND CHURCHES 781
condemned as a heretic and expelled. Professors Simon
Bischop (or Episcopius) and John Polyander succeeded
to the chairs of Arminius and Gomarus.
Meanwhile the excitement over the questions at issue
continued to increase. Maurice, under the exhortations
of his cousin, William Louis, the stadholder of Friesland,
of his brother-in-law, the Duke of Bouillon, and of Fran-
cis Aerssens, became openly the head of the Contra-Re-
monstrants. The popular cry, "Spanje — Oranje" (Orange
or Spain), was being everywhere raised. Daily the cur-
rents of politics and theology flowed more closely and
indistinguishably together. The popular party had the
tremendous advantage of a great battle-cry. Soon Mau-
rice gave indications of his future course by writing,
" There are two factions in the land, that of Orange and
that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the Spanish faction
are those political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert
and Oldenbarneveldt." The Contra - Kemonstrants had
been treated roughly by the Remonstrants, and in some
of the towns were obliged to hold services outside of the
churches controlled by them. Now, instead of meeting
in barns and private houses, the Calvinists clamored for
their rights and demanded churches. At the capital, the
Contra-Rernonstrants worshipped in the house of Enoch
Much, and afterwards in the Gasthuis church. The young
and strong among the Hague people, in order to hear
sound doctrine preached, had to walk out to Rijswijk, and
so they were called "Mud Beggars/'
Maurice determined that they should have a church
edifice. The stadholder had all along worshipped at the
Great Church, which had now become too small to con-
tain the collegiate pastors, Rosaeus and Uytenbogaert, of
whom the first, being a Calvinist, advocated a national
synod, and the other, being an Arminian, opposed it, to
the offence of Maurice. The Cloister Church, which had
formerly been an ancient convent, and, later, a cannon
foundry, was, with the approval of Maurice, requested for
worship in March, 1617. It was the duty of the magis-
trates to put in order and furnish the interior, for at
this time a building or room fitted up and free of rent
782 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1617
was everywhere in the Kepnblic allowed to any congrega-
tion of the Keformed religion requesting one for such a
purpose. Everywhere the privilege was availed of except
in Leyden, where the English Separatists would accept
no political favors nor favor any union of religion with
the state.
Delays, which the Contra-Remonstrauts believed were
intentional, hindered the fitting-up of the Cloister Church,
and it was well into July before any real work had been
done towards getting it in order. Tired of what they
believed to be a course of insult and provocation, the
Calvinists suddenly gathered together and took posses-
sion of the building on the evening of Sunday, July 9,
1617. Hastily putting up a pulpit, the zealous preacher
Rosaeus delivered a sermon that was received with tre-
mendous enthusiasm, and three children baptized received
the names of Princes of Orange, William, Maurice, and
Henry. The next day a great crowd assisted skilled
artisans in emptying out the debris of the cannon foun-
dry and turning it into a house of worship. Two Sun-
days later, on July 23d, Maurice, accompanied by his
cousin and adviser, the stadholder of Friesland, and all
his household officers and military staff, rode out from
the Binnenhof, under the trees of the great avenue, fol-
lowed by an immense crowd of people. Instead of going
to worship, as formerly, in the Great Church, the parade
moved past Barneveldt's house to the Cloister Church,
which held four thousand people, and a vastly larger
number were unable to gain admittance. This manner
of attending public worship was as truly a political demon-
stration as would be the massing of an army on the fron-
tier of a jealous state or the evolutions of a fleet before
a strategic seaport. Henceforward this church was called
the Prince's Church. This demonstration of July 23d
foreshadowed the national synod with the double con-
demnation, immediately of Arminianism and mediately
of state sovereignty. In a word, there was evidently vast-
ly more of politics than of religion in the display and
course of Prince Maurice on the critical day of July 23,
1617. By the Remonstrants this demonstration was stig-
1617] BARNEVELDT AROUSED 783
matized as a mutiny against the authority of the state
of Holland.
The action of Maurice in thus proceeding to the Clois-
ter Church, as if he were leading an army, must be fur-
ther interpreted in the light of an event which had
happened in the early part of the same year. When, in
presence of the leading men of Holland, who were dis-
cussing the crisis, Maurice was called upon to give his
opinion, he asked to have read the oath which he had
taken as stadholder, and which he had exchanged with the
States. This bound them mutually to defend the Reformed
religion even to the last drop of their blood. After a mo-
ment of intense waiting and of painful silence, Maurice
slowly answered : " That oath I mean to keep as long as
I live." Again he said, knowing that the Calvinists had
raised his father to power : " For this religion my father
lost his life, and this religion will I defend."
Barneveldt picked up the gauntlet thus thrown at his
door and accepted the gage of battle. First of all, as
four Dutch historians say (though Mr. Motley denies it,
and calls the report "gibberish"), he determined to have
the four ringleaders of the " mutiny," Enoch Much and
three other Remonstrants, seized, beheaded, and their
corpses exposed, as an example of danger to those who
could revolt against civil authority. By a majority of
one his attempt was defeated at the vote taken in the
chief court. Nevertheless, he determined on instant re-
taliation. He believed he had the constitutional argument
entirely on his side. The civilian expected that the sol-
dier would use force, and he determined not only to be
ready for this, but to forearm and meet it both by law
and force. Barneveldt evidently believed that the sov-
ereign rights of the one state of Holland were legally
equal to the collective sovereign rights of all the other
states of the Union. It is more than probable, also, that
he believed that materially, intellectually, and morally
Holland was superior to any or to all of the other prov-
inces. Being himself the soul of the States of Holland,
he proposed to them and procured the passage of the
famous Sharp Resolve, on the 4th of August, 1617, which
784 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1617
was nothing else than the baldest assertion of state sov-
ereignty as against the Union. It was the poising of the
lance in rest before a charge against the knight who had
sent forth a challenge by the blast of the trumpet and
the casting down of the glove.
At this time the majority in Utrecht and Holland were
in favor of the Remonstrants or Arminians, who now rep-
resented not merely a religious tenet, but had become a
political party ; and, as events showed, they were even
ready to arm and fight. In Holland, however, the cities
of Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Enkhuizen, Edam, and Pur-
merend were opposed to Barneveldt and the Arminians,
and held with the Prince.
This Sharp Resolve declared that after what had hap-
pened in the Hague, the legislature had at last resolved
to refuse the national synod, because it would conflict
with the sovereignty and laws of Holland ; and in order
to carry out and enforce Holland's sovereignty the re-
gents of the cities were authorized to enroll soldiers for
their security and to prevent violence. If any one had
complaints to make of this enrolment of militia or con-
cerning the acts done by local authorities, they were to
appeal only to the local states of Holland, for anything
attempted or done by other tribunals would be null and
void.
It seemed more like a grim joke than serious statesman-
ship to add a further resolve to send a deputation to the
stadholder, Maurice, and to the widow and youngest son
of William the Silent, asking their aid in carrying out
this resolution, which was aimed directly at them.
Forthwith began the open struggle between the ten-
dencies towards union and towards secession, tendencies
which soon hardened into a cause. Each cause had its
armed men to back it. On the one side was the national
army that had fought against Spain, not for the liberties
of one province, but of all. In that national army were
men from all parts of the common country, who formed
one host with one heart, and who were led by Maurice,
the first soldier of Europe and the son of the Father of
his Country. Besides patriotism, the followers of Mau-
1617] THE WAARTGELDERS 785
rice were animated by stern convictions and religious
zeal.
On the other side were the waartgelders or state militia,
mercenary or burgher guards, raised and maintained for
the purpose of defending the cities against violence from
within and invasion from without. As a home guard,
there was nothing new about the men or their organiza-
tion. Some years before, when Maurice, reluctantly obey-
ing the orders of civilians led by Barneveldt, had invaded
the Spanish Netherlands, waartgelders had been raised
to the number of six thousand or more. Even before the
Sharp Resolve of August 4, 1617, Haarlem, Rotterdam, and
Schoouhoven had raised local militia, or waartgelders,
to maintain order ; but now, for the first time, state and
municipal troops in the Republic were arrayed against the
national army. In vain Amsterdam and four other cities
of Holland protested against this suicidal measure of the
States of Holland.
The waartgelders were enrolled and occupied the chief
inland towns of Holland. Maurice, with the better in-
stinct of a soldier, quartered the national troops at the
seaports. When the States of Holland sent to the Brill
magistrates proposing a new oath of allegiance, Maurice,
before the States-General, or Congress of the Union, called
for the repeal of the Sharp Resolve and asked that no new
oaths be required of the national soldiers. When Barne-
veldt replied that the States of Holland were independent
of the States-General or the National Congress, Maurice
insisted that the Reformed religion which he had taken
oath to maintain was represented by the Calvinists or
Contra-Remonstrants. While the Arminians were occu-
pying Leyden, Gouda, Rotterdam, Schoonhoven, Hoorn,
and other cities, especially in Utrecht and Holland, Mau-
rice, on the night of the 29th of September, went quietly
down the Maas and introduced two companies of national
troops into Brill. Barneveldt, not yet ready to act, went
to Utrecht. The troubles which he felt so deeply at
threescore and ten years of age were preying upon his
health. Deputies of the States - General went also to
Utrecht. The High Council decided by a majority vote
50
786 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1617
that the Sharp Resolve was unconstitutional, ought to
be rescinded, and was of no avail ; whereupon Hooger-
beets, of the High Council, resigned his seat on the bench,
declining to sit with men who disputed the sovereignty
of the States of Holland. He then resumed his post as
chief magistrate of Leyden. The five Holland cities, led
by Amsterdam, seconded the vote of the High Council by
remaining inactive and enrolling no militia.
The whole number of waartgelders raised in the prov-
inces, before the supremacy of the Union was demon-
strated, was probably less than three thousand, of which
eighteen hundred were in Holland and six hundred in
Utrecht. Leyden, Oudewater, Heusden, and Hoorn had
each a garrison of two or three hundred. Maurice, know-
ing thai he had a majority of the nation at his back, even
though the argument from precedent and vested right,
according to such great constitutional lawyers as Barne-
veldt, Hoogerbeets, and Grotius, was against him, and
believing in the sovereignty of the nation over a single
state, and being, moreover, slow in action, made no haste
to quell what he considered to be the rebellion of a few
politicians against the national will and power. Of Bar-
neveldt's movements, Sir Dudley Carleton wrote that "the
head was at Leyden and the chief streams at Utrecht."
Certainly any one at that time visiting Leyden, where
the Pilgrim Fathers, founders of Massachusetts, were
then dwelling, would have seen, as they saw, sufficient
proof that Carleton was correct. The "Royal Pope of
Great Britain " had harried out of his realm this company
of English Calvinists. Gathering their wives and their
little ones, with their portable household effects and other
personal property, this band of a hundred or two had fled
towards the land where they knew that there was freedom
of conscience for all men. After undergoing seizure,
search, robbery, imprisonment, and fines in their native
land, they took ship to cross the sea. Half starved, with
hardly more than the clothes on their backs, after storm
at sea, stranding and penury at Kampen and Naarden,
arrest on malicious and false information at Middelburg,
the various squads reached Amsterdam. There they re
1617] THE PILGRIMS IX LEYDEN 787
formed their congregation. "When controversies broke
out among their fellow-believers in the English churches
of that great city over questions of women's dress, sleeves,
and shoes, over whalebones and starch, then their high-
souled leader made application for residence in Leyden,
which was cheerfully granted. He believed that soul-
liberty was too precious to be lost in a mass of impertinent
details and in questions that had nothing to do with pure
religion. No diamond of imperial proportions that ever
came for polishing to the lapidaries on the Amstel was
purer than the Pilgrim's ideal. Crystallizing out of a
mother-liquid of persecution, exile, poverty, controversy,
and homesickness, the gem expelled all base elements to
become the first brilliant in freedom's diadem.
Coming by canal from Amsterdam and settling for the
most part in the newer quarter of the fifth section of the
city, as enlarged after the siege, these English folks in a
few years had amassed enough money to buy an ample
lot in the very heart of Leyden. It lay directly across
from St. Peter's Church, in Bell Alley, adjoining the edi-
fice wherein worshipped the other English, or rather the
Scotch Presbyterian, church, which was composed of the
families of British folk then numerous in Leyden. Be-
sides English -speaking mechanics, laborers, and military
men speaking English, there were scores of students, the
advance-guard of that army of five thousand who, within
three centuries, were to call Leyden University their alma
mater.* The vital difference, however, between the two
churches was that one received state aid and got its meet-
ing-house rent free, being thus an almoner upon political
bounty ; while the future founders of distinctive Amer-
ica would accept no favors from the state or municipality,
and paid their own rent. On the lot which they bought
they erected twenty-three little dwellings for their fam-
ilies. The house of their pastor, John Robinson, had a
large room in which they were enabled to worship. At
the nearest end of the alley, across the canal from the
* Index to English - speaking Students who have Graduated at Leyden
University, by Edward Peacock. London, 1883.
788 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1617
university, and a few feet from Robinson's house, were
the military headquarters, the commandery of Leyden, to
which, no doubt, Miles Standish often came on business.
These Englishmen were Calvinists of the strongest and
also the sweetest sort. Believing that light, truth, and
progress were on the side of the Contra -Remonstrants,
and that Arminianism was the expression of aristocracy
and the easiest way back to Rome and that thraldom from
which they had escaped, their sympathies were with the
Calvinistic Nationalists. They had come to the Republic
in the first year of the Great Truce, having arrived but
a few days after it had been signed. By 1618 many of the
adults had learned the Dutch language, while all their
children — the older, who had come from England and
were now in their teens, as well as those born in the
Netherlands — were able to speak it. The whole company
had become thoroughly familiar with at least the popu-
lar phases of the great controversy between union and
disunion, between state and national sovereignty, be-
tween the claims of Calvinism and Arminianism. At leas
three men in the company — Bradford, Allerton, am
Priest — had, by payment of extra taxes, become citizens
of Leyden, thereby enjoying certain municipal privileges,
while three or four of the educated men — Robinson,
Brewster, Brewer, and Bastwick — were already members
of the university, and several more were property-owners.
Among them were several printers, of whom Brewer and
Brewster were busily engaged in publishing not onlj
works acceptable to all lovers of learning and literature
but in issuing controversial pamphlets in the interest
soul-freedom, as they saw it. The publications of thi
Pilgrim Press in Choir Alley, Leyden, between October
1616, and June, 1619, were as red-pepper in the eyes
King James, whose wrath was so roused by two anonymoi
pamphlets that he would have had the whole nest of Sej
aratists exterminated had it been possible. As a matter
of fact, he did try to lay his hands upon Elder Brewster,
to seize whom Sir Dudley Carleton set in motion the
whole force and machinery of English influence in the
Netherlands, though he succeeded only in getting the
1617] KING JAMES'S UNHAPPY STATE 789
Puritan elder's types. Carleton, after much trouble, was
able to send to England Brewer, the wrong man, but
over him, however, the aegis of the Leyden University
law was thrown, so that he came back in triumph ; while,
to the disgust of the King, the hunted Brewster reached
America, where he lived long and honorably.
King James bore a double grudge against Barneveldt,
who, with statesman's cunning, and well knowing the
pride and pedantry of this the wisest fool in Christen-
dom, had, as we have seen, made use of his rival's con-
ceit to humble him. The Dutch Calvinists, whose doc-
trines King James so heartily indorsed, were Puritans of
the Puritans. Nevertheless, they did not talk through
their noses, wear a sectarian form of dress, eschew luxury,
or observe any ancient Jewish sort of Sabbath. Hence
it was necessary in Sir Dudley Carleton to show that,
though in England under King James's rule Puritans
might be hanged, imprisoned, or hunted down like wolves,
yet in Holland, where they had authority, wealth, culture,
and power, the case was entirely different. Though
Carleton succeeded with King James, his arguments with
Barneveldt were considered by that statesman to be very
vapory. Indeed, while James was killing off the Puri-
tans in his own country, he was approving them in Hol-
land, and was even endeavoring to have Vorstius removed
from his professorship in Leyden as a heretic, because
lie was an Arminian. So King James was not happy over
Holland and these Dutchmen, who had made him ridicu-
lous in the eyes of the world. Yet, unable to vent his wrath
against the powerful Republic, he showed his spite against
the little English colony of Separatists in Leyden. Bar-
neveldt and the States of Holland, not daring to utter-
ly alienate their only friend and the sole Protestant power
in Europe which was able or willing to help them, hu-
mored James by restraining somewhat their own tolera-
tion and freedom of printing — things in which Holland
was generations ahead of England. Carleton was allowed
to swoop upon the Pilgrim Press, and to begin what
proved a very humiliating and unsuccessful hunt after
William Brewster, who was keeping quiet, probably in
790 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1617
England. The " liberty of unlicensed printing," for which
Milton was soon to plead, and in defence of which he was
to pen one of the noblest discourses in English literature,
had long existed in the Republic. Manuscripts written
in the Clink and other English prisons by martyrs for
conscience' sake during the previous century — possibly
even the Martin Mar-prelate tracts — had been carried to
Middelburg. There, with other "Brownist" tracts, they
were printed, and then reimported to England. The Pil-
grim Press in Choir Alley, Leyden, was the successor of
that in the Fish Market of Middelburg.
Meanwhile, in Leyden, the future founders of New Eng-
land had an object-lesson before their eyes. On the Breede
Straat, or Broadway, the ancient Roman road leading
down to the sea, stood the beautiful Town-hall, up the
steps of which so many English couples, ancestors of
Americans, had climbed with beating hearts and blushing
faces to declare their intentions of matrimony, and after-
wards, according to "the laudable custom of the Low
Countries " — as William Bradford, founder of American
historical literature, wrote — to be married by civic author
ity. In 1618 they saw erected in front of and encirclii
this' Stad Huis a wooden fort, occupying the whole widtl
of the street front. It was made by driving into tl
ground solid oak planks, which were bolted together and
strengthened by bars of iron, with barbed prongs — popu-
larly called " Barneveldt's teeth." Besides port-holes for
the gunners there were mounted cannon. Within it and
inside the Town-hall, on guard and ready to march forth,
stood the waartgelders in armor and having snaphances,
or snap-cock guns, to uphold states' right against national
supremacy. This fort was Barneveldt's challenge to Mai
rice. Nor was the powder left entirely unburned, for,
sides blood drawn and blows exchanged, lives both of cit
zens and soldiers were lost.
Leyden, like the other Dutch cities, was flooded wit
caricatures and pictures, setting forth the chief men, the
varying phases, and the moving incidents in the great
struggle which seemed likely to break into a storm of
civil war and plunge the nation into the great " blc
1617] STATES-GENERAL VOTES FOR A NATIONAL SYNOD 791
bath " about which so many talked. There were no news-
papers in those days, but printing in Holland was cheap
and free. Over ten thousand pamphlets, and probably as
many prints, from the sixteenth century alone, survive in
Dutch libraries. Placards and caricatures were abundant,
and were plastered or fastened on walls, posts, curbs, and
bridges. The future Americans, many of whose sons and
brothers were in the national Dutch army, fighting for
freedom and union under the orange, white, and blue flag,
took their first lessons in the municipal, state, and national
politics of the federal republic while in Leyden. It is
more than probable that some of .these saw what took
place but a few yards from their own headquarters — the
military occupation of Leyden by the stadholder's body-
guard and picked troops on October 22, 1618, the dis-
mission the next day of the forty officers in the city mag-
istracy, and the reorganization of a new board favorable
to Maurice and the Union. Most of the Leydeners were
Calvinists, and the people made merry with many a boister-
ous jest over the victory of arms over arms. They first,
in derision, hung wreaths of straw over the timbers of the
empty fort and then broke it up. They dragged the tim-
bers and iron into the public square, and sold " Barne-
veldt's teeth" at auction. They finished their fun by
plucking the feathers off some fowls, and then chased the
naked creatures around the town, yelling " arrne haenen "
(poor hens) — a pun on the word Arminians and the
favorite joke of this period.
When the States-General assembled on the llth of No-
vember, 1617, there were no absent members. The mat-
ter between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants
had been for years in suspense. Now the sword of Mau-
rice, having been thrown in the scale, had already prac-
tically decided the questions, which were, whether a na-
tional synod could be held, and whether one state or the
confederacy should rule. The pretext, however, was that
of theology. It was voted in full assembly that the Na-
tional Synod should be convened next year. In the Dutch
Congress each, state had one vote, and there were four in
favor and three against the measure. The four states
792 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1618
were Zeeland, Friesland, Groningen, and Gelderland, while
Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel protested against the
vote as an invasion of the states' rights and an act of tyr-
anny and usurpation. Nevertheless, though Holland voted
against the synod, the cities of Amsterdam, Dordrecht,
Enkhuizen, Edam, and Purmerend approved this expression
of the national will, and made protest against the three
provinces who seemed to resist it. This was one of many
votes in the Dutch National Congress which illustrated the
defects of the constitution. Uytenbogaert urged Barne-
veldt to accept the result. Barneveldt's answer was that
he was not willing to give away the rights of the land.
Carleton now came before the States-General, not for the
first time, to lecture the members upon the necessity of
the National Synod and upon the theological points in
dispute.
About this time the Dutch wits sent out an anonymous
pamphlet entitled "The Balance/' in which both the
English King and his minister were held up to ridicule.
King James, on seeing the satire, was goaded almost to
frenzy. With his own hand he wrote in complaint to the
States-General, which, urged by Carleton, voted a reward
of a thousand florins for the discovery of the author of
the pamphlet and six hundred for that of its printer.
Carleton suspected Grotius, whom he called " a young
petulant brain"; but Dutch historians believe that Gillis
van Ledenberg produced this clever screed.
The epoch of the Great Truce, including more espe-
cially the years 1618 and 1619, was prolific above all others
in the multiplication of pamphlets, placards, caricatures,
and other matters of print and illustration. In these the
Arminiaus were loaded with execration and Barnevelclt
was made the butt of scorn and outrageous calumny.
Late in November Maurice made a tour through the prov-
inces, and succeeded in winning over many who had been
leaning towards the other side. To the outrageous at-
tacks upon his motives and character Barneveldt an-
swered with dignity and frankness, making denial of the
suspicions and charges against him, and setting forth his
course of life as a patriot. While the war of the pam-
1618] STATES- GENERAL CONVENES AT UTRECHT 793
phlets and printers went on, the vilest epithets were freely
bandied to and fro, Barnevelclt figuring in the popular
mind as the great traitor, partisan of Spain, and enemy
of God and the church ; while, on the other hand, Maurice
was held up as an aspirer to sovereignty who would soon
overturn the freedom of the States and make himself
king.
Events now moved rapidly, and the question between
national and state sovereignty became more clearly defined.
The States -General had sent commissioners to Utrecht
demanding the disbanding of the waartgelders, but the
Hollanders persuaded the city magistrates to maintain
them. The States of Holland passed resolutions explain-
ing their course in raising local militia to maintain the
laws against turbulence. They offered to disband the
waartgelders if the stadholder would remove the garrisons
of foreign mercenaries and supply native troops in their
place. The civilian statesman and the field-marshal had
another interview. On the 25th of July Grotius, Hooger-
beets, and two colleagues from the States of Holland ar-
rived in Utrecht. A few days later came the deputies
of the States-General to this city of the compact of Union
in 1579, which was called by the Dutch "the old cradle
of liberty." It being the time of the Kermiss, or annual
fair, Utrecht was crowded with visitors from outside,
who, in addition to the ordinary attractions of the old
games and sports, confections and refreshments,, dances,
songs, and night revels, had a novel entertainment. They
amused themselves in looking at the shop-windows filled
with pictures, caricatures, and lampoons, all showing the
approaching collapse of the Arminian party, and the tri-
umph of the stadholder. The placards of the national
congress, or States -General, were also numerously posted
up, while alongside of these were often the counter-
placards of the States of Utrecht. Most of these pas-
quinades intimated that Barneveldt was being bribed by
Spanish and papal gold, while the Arminians were hasten-
ing to enter the old church so long associated in the minds
of those who had left it with slavery, torture, foreign
oppression, and the inquisition. In a word, the common
794. HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1618
people believed that the whole Arminian movement, in-
stead of being what most of the modern encyclopaedias
and books of reference make it — a movement in the inter-
est of charity, humanity, and a more spiritual interpreta-
tion of Christianity — was, in reality, one in the interests of
tyrants for mental and political degradation, a reaction
in the wrong direction.
Barneveldt had the year before suggested that double
guards should be set at the gates of Utrecht, both above
and below the city, to prevent the national troops from
being introduced secretly into the city ; but Sir John
Ogle, recognizing the stadholder and States-General as his
superiors, refused to take any measures of the sort. Mau-
rice, ordering up a thousand men of the Union army from
Arnhem and Vianen, with detachments from the regular
Utrecht garrison, had bade them assemble noiselessly at
3.30 A.M. in the market-place, and plant their cannon so
as to command the thoroughfares leading into the great
open square. Without blast of trumpet or beat of drum
the order was executed. At daylight the stadholder rode
into the square on horseback, surrounded by his sta:
Then, advancing towards a company of the waartgelde
stationed near by, he ordered them to lay down their arm
They obeyed at once. Before the majority of the Utrech
people were out of their beds the waartgelders had bee
disbanded and the supremacy of the nation maintaine
The " blood bath," so long talked of, failed to appea
The deputies from Holland and those of Utrecht mad
themselves invisible, except six of the latter who thanked
the prince for his action. Maurice changed the city mag-
istracy so as to secure power to the Unionists, and the
Calvinists were once more given possession of the Great
Church.
Barneveldt, though warned of his danger, maintained
his post, and with dignity awaited the issue. On the
29th of August the lieutenant of the stadholder's body-
guard made the old pensionary prisoner, and soon after-
wards Grotius and Hoogerbeets were also arrested, accord-
ing to an order of the States-General denouncing these
three men as being responsible for the troubles which
1618] THE QUESTION OF BARNE VELDT'S TRIAL 795
afflicted the church, and which had nearly plunged the
country into civil war.
When it came to the question of trial, the States of
Holland insisted that Barneveldt should be tried before
all the provinces and the ambassadors of France and
England ; but the States-General insisted that full au-
thority to try Barneveldt was vested in them, and that
foreigners should have no seat upon the tribunal. In
order to overcome the opposition of the protesting city
magistrates, Maurice, although only after extreme press-
ure put upon him by the Calvinist clergy and magistrates,
purged the city councils in Holland, as he already had
done in other provinces. This was done in the same gen-
eral manner as we have noted in Leyden. This he was
able to accomplish with comparative ease. Under the
plea of necessity, he made the triumph of the Union com-
plete. When the new members from the town govern-
ments which he had reconstructed had given the Union
cause a majority, even in the States of Holland, Maurice
declared he had done everything for the public good, and
asked that his declaration be recorded.
The public worship of the Remonstrants was now pro-
hibited, and the state churches occupied by them were
vacated, though inside their own private houses they
could, like the Catholics, hold their meetings. No one
now opposed the National Synod except certain nobles ;
and the power of these was relatively reduced by the ad-
dition to their body of two new members. These were
Francis Aerssens, the discredited envoy of the Republic
to France and the bitter enemy of Barneveldt, and Daniel
de Hartaing, neither of whom were natives of Holland.
CHAPTER VIII
STATE RIGHT AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
THE great synod opened at Dordrecht on the 13th o
November, 1618. It stands in history as the only Protes-
tant ecumenical council ever held. It was composed of
thirty-nine ministers, eighteen ruling elders, five profess-
ors, and commissioners from all the states of the Eepublic,
besides several from the Southern Netherlands, togethe
with twenty-four foreign deputies, representing the R
formed churches of England, Germany, France, and Switz-
erland. It was one of the most dignified bodies of men
that ever assembled on the European continent. Th
place of meeting was in the two-storied edifice of the Klo-
veniers Doelen, the armory of the artillerists or burgher
guards. At the end of the great hall was a stately orna-
mental fireplace of generous proportions, occupying nearly
one-third of the space and projecting several feet into the
room. At the other end, the whole breadth for several
feet was given up to the numerous auditors and spectators
who attended continuously, among whom, probably, was
John Robinson, the Pilgrim pastor of Leyden, who after-
wards eloquently defended the verdict of the synod against
Episcopius, of Leyden University. The president, assess-
ors, and scribes sat at the table some distance in front of
the fireplace ; beyond which, in the centre of the hall, was
a long table and chairs provided for the Remonstrant pro-
fessors and ministers who had been cited to appear before
the synod. The political deputies and their secretary oc-
cupied another table nearer the door. At long tables
ranged along the walls, which were pierced on either side
with three high and wide windows, sat the German, Swiss,
1618] OPENING OF GREAT SYNOD AT DORDRECHT 797
and Walloon representatives, and the various delegations
from each of the seven states of the Republic. France
was not represented, although the French National Synod
had elected four delegates, Louis the Thirteenth having
forbidden any of his subjects to attend. The English
deputies, among the first to arrive, sat at three small ta-
bles to the left of the fireplace. Under the centre of the
high ceiling hung a huge pear-shaped cluster of lamps.
Each member was provided with writing materials.*
In all there were eighty-four members and eighteen
secular commissioners, of whom fifty-eight were Dutch, all
"orthodox." Three Remonstrant delegates from Utrecht
were not allowed seats, their places being taken by Contra-
Remonstrants. Thus the conclusions of the synod were al-
ready foregone before it opened. Thus was given an ob-
ject-lesson in predestination and election, of the common
human sort, of power without justice.
Prayer and worship were first enjoyed in the Great
Church. Then the Dutch delegates proceeded to the
lodgings of the foreign deputies to conduct them in pro-
cession to the Doelen Hall, where, after addresses of wel-
come in the name of the States-General and by the mayor of
Dordrecht, they were ushered to their assigned places on
the second floor. After greetings on behalf of the sepa-
rate states, the synod was organized. The scholarly John
Bogerman, minister at Leeuwarden, a man of command-
ing personal presence and having a full, rich voice, was
chosen president, probably through the influence of
Count William Louis of Nassau, stadholder of Friesland,
who had all along been the political adviser of Maurice.
Bogerman was a supra-lapsarian in theology. There was
general unanimity in doctrinal views, with abundant free-
dom of discussion, which continued through many months.
' The Remonstrants, in the persons of Episcopius and thir-
teen others, were present during the first fifty-seven ses-
* The best account iu English of the origin and work of this synod is
contained in Rev. Dr. M. G. Hansen's scholarly volume, The Reformed
i Church in the Netherlands, from A.D. 1340 to A.D. 1840. See also Schaff s
Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., pp. 508-524.
798 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1619
sions. Then, after offering a written statement subscribed
by each of them, to the effect that their consciences would
not permit them to yield their position, they were angrily
dismissed, and thereafter attended no more sessions, but
were judged by their written and printed publications.
The States-General reproved the Remonstrants, and a sol-
emn sentence of condemnation was uttered by the Xa-
tional Synod against the Arminian tenets. On the Gth
of May the judgment of the synod was published in the I ;
Great Church at Dordrecht, before an expectant multitude
which overflowed the edifice. The canons of the Synod
of Dort, under five heads of doctrine in answer to the five
contentions of the Arminians, were read, and also the
sentence passed against the Eemonstrants. Though long
ago nullified in the National Church of the Fatherland,
these canons are still the doctrinal basis of the Christian
Reformed Church in the Netherlands and of the Re- 1
formed Church in America and in South Africa. Two
months later, the finding of the synod was confirmed by
the States-General. By its enforcement two hundred Ar-
minian ministers were deposed, but their salaries were
paid, and the Republic undertook to provide for their sup-
port whether at home or abroad. Seventy of them signed
the act of deposition, and eighty, who declined to do so,
were escorted beyond the frontier. Meetings of the Re-
monstrants in any but private houses were forbidden.
Having concluded the chief task assigned them, the
members of the synod sat down to a splendid banquet
given by the city of Dordrecht in honor of the foreign
deputies, each of whom received from the National Con-
gress a gold medal and a gold chain worth two hundred
florins. On the medal were the figure of Mount Zion,
with a temple on its summit assailed by the four winds of
heaven, and a Latin legend reading " Erunt sicut mon?
Zion." They were then dismissed with thanks. Before
leaving the country, the foreign delegates were invited to
visit the Hague, where some of them beheld the awfnl
tragedy, soon to be described, which shows the logical re-
sults of the intermeddling of ecclesiasticism with politics.
This national and international Synod of Dort is world-
1619] WHAT THE SYNOD OF DORT EXPRESSED 799
famous in the annals of ecclesiology for its contribution
to theological science, and to that kind of government
which, in an imperfect stage of evolution, conjoins the
pastor's staff with the magistrate's axe and staves. The
synod and its work are variously judged according to
men's inherited opinions, prejudices, and traditions, being
caricatured by the followers of Arminius and glorified by
those of Calvin. Its decisions, though at first accepted in
England and Germany, were afterwards rejected or an-
nulled throughout all Europe, where they are to-day but
relics of the past and the synod is a vanished landmark of
history. The canons of the Synod of Dort are still held
with tenacity in South Africa and in the United States of
America, and are made the test of orthodoxy.
More interesting to the student and more permanently
potent in the Kepublic were the post-acta, or after -acts,
of the synod, looking to the improvement of religion, the
order and peace of the church, the increase of education
and intelligence, and to the general moral prosperity of
the nation. Among other things ordered was the trans-
lation of the Bible, in which Bogerman took an honorable
part. This " States-General version," in accuracy, scholar-
ship, and intellectual honesty, is the peer of any in Eu-
rope, while in literal rendering of the original Hebrew
text and Greek it probably excels all.
To those who can view the whole twenty years' intel-
lectual movement from all sides, without being prejudiced
by their religious feelings or opinions, the Synod of Dort
was not merely an expression of the faith and feelings of
the overwhelming majority of the Dutch people, but it
also voiced their intense, deep-seated, and passionate de-
termination to oppose themselves as a nation against the
inquisition and against any tendency, whether political or
ecclesiastical, calculated to rend asunder their unity of
purpose, their resolve to be a nation.
Seen through colorless lenses, this synod was in its crea-
tion a political affair — the work of the States-General. By
it — not by the Church — the calls to the great council were
issued and the business to be transacted regulated. To it —
not to the church — the credentials of the foreign delegates
01
:
gOO HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1619
were directed. The government ordered that the sessions
should be held at Dordrecht, at the Artillery Armory, and
at the government expense, by which also the hall was fitted
up and all expenses of the delegates paid; and this hall
remained the property of the government, and not of the
Church. "When the members of the synod arrived in the
Doelen, they were received in a room up-stairs by a com- ,
mittee of the States-General— not of the Church — two
ministers introducing them by name to this purely politi-
cal committee. This ceremony over, the members were
conducted into the hall of meeting, where in the name of
their High Mightinesses — not of the Church — they we
welcomed by Martinus Gregorius and Hugo Muis. In
word, this synod was the work of the government. Th
building was afterwards used as a dance-hall and prison.
Meanwhile the three prisoners — who because Grotius
was incarcerated in the fortress of Loevenstein gave ri
to the name "the Loevenstein party," ever afterwari
so common in heated politics — were first subjected to
preliminary examination by thirteen commissioners a
pointed by the National Congress. Then an extraordi
nary tribunal of twenty-four judges from the other sta
of the Kepublic and twelve from Holland was created fo:
the trial. The wife of Barneveldt complained that three
of the judges were the advocate's bitter personal enemi
Certainly the court was not one that would be reckone
legal in the nineteenth century; but then this was th
seventeenth century, when law itself was struggling f
existence. The tribunal was composed of worthy me
several of whom were of noble birth, others of eminen
respectability and talents, and most of whom were mem-
bers of the States-General.
Many of the papers which have come to light since the
decease of Mr. Motley — from whom and the Dutch and
foreign sympathizers with Barneveldt the popular en-
cyclopaedias and books of reference have copied — put an
entirely different face upon the affair, and show that this
trial was something totally different from that indicated
by the caricatures of the ultra- Arminians and of Dutch
pamphleteers, artists, and lampoonists opposed to the
^619] BARNEVELDT IRRITATES THE PEOPLE 801
House of Orange. It was a time of intensest excitement,
of heated feeling, of religious fanaticism, and, above all, of
awful danger to the people of a little republic, with less
than one million people living on a bank of sand and clay
not one-half as large as South Carolina. With the Span-
ish sword and the curse of the Pope over their heads, the
Dutch were awaiting the shock of the reinforced Spanish
legions that in a few months were to charge upon them.
At such a time an extraordinary tribunal like this would
naturally have more regard to the tendencies and conse-
quences of the acts of Barneveldt and his politico-relig-
ious adherents than to the question of their lawfulness.
In the eyes of a majority of the Dutch republicans it
was not only their church that was in danger, but their
very existence as a nation. Unity in state and church
was the absolute requirement. Probably Maurice saw
much the same problem in 1617 which Abraham Lincoln
saw in 1861 — the necessity of preserving the Union at all
hazards.
Barneveldt's answers irritated the people even more
than they did the judges who tried him. In their eyes
this aristocratic statesman did not seem to know that
there was a Dutch people. He appeared only to under-
stand that there were kings and nobles, stadholders and
states, magistrates and burghers, with parchments, char-
ters, seals, and various legal merchandise, but not any peo-
ple. His courage seemed impudence and his boldness trea-
son. He appeared throughout to be making indictment of
the common people who controlled the state, and who were
made to appear as if they were enemies of law and order.
Throughout his trial, with immovable honesty, he made
no denial of his acts, his purpose, or his politics. These,
summed up in a few words, were unshaken, almost holy
faith in federal government and also in state sovereignty,
in religion and also in agnosticism, in state -churchism,
and the right of the State to control the Church and of
the politician to regulate religion.
The Intendit,* or summary of charges, against Barne-
* Intendit tegen Mr. Johan van Oldenbarneveldt. Hague, 1876.
51
$02 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1619
veldt, contained two hundred and fifteen counts. The
sessions of the court lasted several months. On most of
the charges the accused was found guilty, though that of
treason with Spain was dropped. He was charged with
having made King James father Arminian opinions upon
the States-General, with influencing the King of France
against the National Synod, with rejecting the offer of an
important alliance without knowledge of the National
Congress, and of being bribed by foreign potentates. In
the delivery of this judgment, one can detect the malice
of Aerssens, the personal enemy of Barneveldt ; the im-
placable hostility of the West India Company against
their powerful and unsleeping opponent ; and the bitter
hatred of the English politicians, urged on by King
James of England. There are those who still believe,
and on good grounds, that Barneveldt was the victim of
a judicial murder ; that he was condemned to death by
an illegal tribunal, the members of which were forced to
serve and were bound to bring in a verdict of guilty, and
that on flimsy and false charges ; and that the great states-
man, who, like the immortal William the Silent, stands
unique in Dutch history, died a martyr and not a traitor.
The question of punishment now came before the gov-
ernment. Maurice was inclined to mercy, and even the
stadholder of Friesland made appeal that the old and
faithful servant of the nation should be left with his life.
On the other hand, the popular clamor was for the head
of Barneveldt, and that his blood should be poured out as
that of a traitor. While the matter was in dispute, a
trifling incident occurred which, we may almost say,
turned the scale against Barneveldt. The advocate's
family had set up, in front of his house on the Voorhout
in the Hague, according to ancient usage, the Meiboom
or maypole on the first day of the flowery month, and
had adorned the house and walls with blossoms. They
were celebrating the day, in the expectation that the
father and husband would be pardoned, or at least
have his life. This act of premature joy seemed to the
stadholder highly improper, considering the gravity of
the charges against him. Nevertheless, if Barueveldt's
1619]
EXECUTION OF BARNEVELDT
803
family had asked pardon for him, his life would doubtless
have been spared ; but this they would not do, because
such a request would appear to be an admission of the
advocate's guilt, since already Barneveldt's defence was
popularly regarded as a confession of crime. Even when
the Princess Coligny, widow of the Silent, urged Barne-
veldt's wife to make the appeal, she would not consent.
In vain also did the French ambassador, Du Maurier, make
request to the States-General for the prisoner's life. Sir
Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador, showed the
temper of his master by refusing to join in the French
envoy's request. Meanwhile, insurrections of the Armin-
ians at Hoorn, Alkmaar, and Ley den, and suspicions of a
plot against Maurice's life, completely turned the scale.
Believing that an example was needed, the judges became
unanimous in their vote to inflict the death penalty, which
was read to the prisoner when he was brought before the
tribunal on the morning of May 13, 1619.
On that same day, in the great court of Binnenhof,
thousands of Dutch people gathered to witness the execu-
tion of one whom many believed to be the second founder
of the Republic. A platform was built in front of the old
Hall of the Knights, in which the National Congress of
the little republic met, and whose embowed roof-timbers
were hung with the captured battle-flags of the Spaniards,
of Alva, of Requesens, and of Parma. Fronting the
death-stage were the body-guard of the stadholder of the
republic and two English companies of auxiliaries, mak-
ing a military force of twelve hundred men. The aged
statesman, with uncovered head and wearing that long
robe of yellowish brown damask fringed at the edges
which had figured so prominently in the caricatures of
his zealous enemies, walked with dignity to the scaffold
to die amid the scenes of his former almost sovereign
power. He who had in reality for years ruled the repub-
lic knelt on the hard plank, while the chaplain prayed
long. Then rising and facing those within hearing, he
said, "Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the
country. I have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a
good patriot, and as such I shall die." Taking a cap
804 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1619
from his body-servant, John Franken, he drew it over his
eyes and knelt with his face towards his own house. Then,
with a prayer to God, he bade the executioner be quick.
In all Dutch history and tradition there has been un
instinctive horror of scaffold-shed or judicially ponred-
out blood falling upon dry earth or timber. In the cases
of pagans caught ravishing the shrines, of Norsemen,
pirates, or criminals, the custom had been to go to the
seashore or put wet sand where the blood was to fall.
Barneveldt knelt upon the bed of sand laid upon the
scaffold. The swordsman's stroke, heavy and clever, took
off the head at one blow, and the spent blade cut even the
fingers clasped in prayer. * The scaffold was left stand-
ing, and other effective means were taken to prevent the
execution from seeming to be that of a martyr rather than
of a traitor.
So perished, with invincible spirit, in the fulness of his
mental abilities, and but a short time after the culmi-
nation of his power in the history of the Republic, the
greatest statesman in all the history of the Netherlands, a
man of marvellous and varied gifts, of amazing industry,
and of unsullied private character, who was the victim of
a false political theory and the fanaticism of an excited
people. In his knowledge of men and of affairs, Barne-
veldt had no superior in any of the countries of Europe.
His unwearied exertions were undoubtedly in the inter-
ests of pure patriotism. He loved his country and labored
for her welfare, but his adherence to theories which, both
in politics and religion, were essentially false and danger-
ous showed that he is not to be held up as a model either
for the believer in pure Christianity or the patriot who
* Among the voluminous Barneveldia brought to light by the tremendous
stimulus to research, compelled by Mr. Motley's John of Barneveld^ is The
Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden-Bameveldt, printed (500 copies) at the
Hague in 1884, with an introduction by Prof. R. Fruin. This English
play, probably by Massinger and his associates, or by one or more of them,
was at first prohibited by King James, but later played in London, where
it had many spectators and received applause. la the finale of his play,
the inspector-lord on the scaffold answers the executioner's question, " Is
it well done, mine Heeres " ? with the words, " Somewhat too much ; you
have strooke his fingers, too."
16191
VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES
805
can trust the people to govern themselves. Between the
agnosticism of those who think that " to know nothing is
the safest faith " and the fanaticism of state-churchmen,
whether Calvinists, Arminians, Anglicans, Turks, Teu-
tons, Chinese, or Koreans, there is sure ground. The man
who seeks an open vision of God will continue to believe
in that religion and in that kingdom not of this world,
•which neither seeks nor will permit the intermeddling of
politicians. Between the admirers of despotism, whether
of the monarchical, aristocratic, commercial, or democratic
type, the believer in the harmony of state and national
rights, as shown in the American republic, will walk the
even tenor of his way.
Barneveldt, as an individual, doubtless believed in free-
dom of conscience, and would have no oppression in re-
ligion, and, like William the Silent, he demanded mut-
ual toleration and respect. But it is evident that, as a
politician, he did not consistently carry out this noble
view, and in the popular mind his theories meant Caesar-
ism and papacy.
It seems certain that the condemnation to death of so
noble a statesman, so sincere a patriot, and so faithful a
servant was an outrageous error, a cruel mistake, and
that one of the best things the Dutch people could do
rould be to erect a commanding and impressive monu-
lent to the second founder of their Republic. The ad-
rocate of Holland needs neither the transfiguration of
[otley nor does he deserve the shameful defamation
of the heated partisans of John Calvin and of the House
of Orange. To the one set of the unjust he is a martyr ;
to the other, a traitor. Historical science gives its calm
verdict that Barneveldt was a victim to the faults and
circumstances of the times in which he lived. There yet
remains to be written the biography of Barneveldt which
shall do justice to himself as well as to his judges. It
behooves critical scholarship to utilize aright the historic
material brought to light since the pen of Motley was laid
aside.
The caricatures, prints, and records of the time show
how intensely venomous was the spirit which raged against
806 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1619
the associates of Barneveldt. Even to-day, since all lead-
ers of forces in Dutch politics and religion look back to
the days of Maurice and Barneveldt as their time of for-
mation and also of divergence, it is amazing to the un-
prejudiced critic to note what fierce and bitter feelings
continue even after nearly three centuries.
To this day, Barneveldt has no monument of honor in
all the realm, excepting on a little inconspicuous blue
marble tablet on the north wall of the Binnenhof. The
question, " Martyr or traitor ?" is still fiercely discussed.
As if in counterbalance, no grand memorial has yet been
reared to Maurice, who, though illustrious as a soldier,
is not honored as a man.
Secretary Gilles van Ledenberg committed suicide, but
the coffin containing his remains was hung in chains on
a gibbet. After a year's imprisonment in the castle of
Loevenstein, Grotius, the future father of international
law, made his escape through a clever stratagem of his
wife, who put him in a chest used to convey Arminian
books for his reading. He reached Antwerp safely, and
then went to Paris, where his wife was allowed to join
him. He spent nine years in France writing that book
concerning the laws of war and peace which has had
such a world- wide influence in softening the rigors of war,
in promoting harmony among the nations, and in intro-
ducing Christianity into international law. He also wrote
a defence of the Christian religion, which has been many
times translated and reprinted in various countries. He
is the author of the governmental theory of the atone-
ment, which lies at the basis of that New England theol-
ogy which has sustained so noble a part in the ameliora-
tion of dogmatism and in introducing those new forms of
truth which destroy not, but fulfil the old spirit. Gro-
tius visited his native country without harm, but was not
allowed to reside in it. He died at the age of sixty-two,
at Rostock, Germany, August 28, 1645. A simple mon-
ument was erected to his memory in the New Church in
his native city of Delft. On the three hundredth anni-
versary of his birth, the Dutch honored themselves and
their greatest political philosopher by holding a celebra-
GROTIUS
1619]
HUDSON RIVER DISCOVERED
807
tion April 10, 1883, which, three years later, resulted in
the erection of the bronze statue by Strackee, before
which, in letters of enduring stone, set in the pavement,
one reads, "Elck wandel in Godts" (Let each walk in God's
ways). Hoogerbeets remained in the Loevenstein , prison
until 1625, when he was released by the stadholder, Fred-
erick Henry, only to die five weeks afterwards, on the 7th
of September.
During the time of the Great Truce, which was to ex-
pire in 1621, the mercantile part of the Dutch commu-
nity had been agitating the subject of colonization. They
had attempted, as early as 1594, in the Arctic seas to find
a northern and shorter road to Japan and the Indies.
Turned back by ice, the Dutch navigators tried success-
fully the southern and longer path. Still, the nation and
government longed to open the northeastern and shorter
route. The States - General made a standing offer of
twenty - five thousand guilders to the discoverer who
should go through the northern seas to the spice-lands
and return to give an account of his voyage. Henry
Hudson, an Englishman in Dutch employ, attempted, in
1609, to win this prize. On the little ship Half-Moon,
having reached Spitsbergen and been forced back by ice,
he turned his prow westward and discovered the Hudson
River. Although he failed to reach China by this water-
way, as he had hoped, he continued until he got in sight
of the Mohawk Eiver and the Adirondacks, and then
returned to Europe, stopping at Plymouth ; he was de-
tained by the British government, but his ship and men
proceeded to Amsterdam. The new country was called
New Netherland almost on the same day that New Eng-
land received its name.
Forthwith schemes of trade were planned. The red
men of New Netherland, instead of wanting gold and sil-
ver in exchange for their rich furs, were content with
beads, toys, hardware, and fire-water. While the Dutch
merchants thought of commerce, the French Protestants
or Walloon refugees, who had found a home in the repub-
lic, where religion was free, began to dream of coloniza-
tion. Already, in 1615, Jesse DeForest, of Leyden, talked
808 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1621
of planting a colony on Manhattan Island where Dutch
traders had already built huts; but during the time of the
Great Truce, when it would have been a violation of faith
with Spain to send emigrants to occupy part of a continent
which that Power still claimed, nothing could be done by
the Dutch government ; nor was there any great trading
corporation yet organized. Nevertheless the matter was
already entering into politics.
Barneveldt, believing that the project of a West India
Company meant more naval and military expansion, and
was but another method of war against Spain, which would
tend to divide the forces of the republic, implacably op-
posed the formation of the corporation, even as he and
his partisans opposed colonization. On the contrary,
Maurice and his adherents, believing that a "West India
Company would be a powerful weapon with which to in-
jure the King of Spain and increase the resources of the
republic, warmly favored the ideas of the colonizers. And
so it came to pass that the Arminians would have nothing
to do with the settlement of America, which was an en-
terprise strenuously urged and ultimately carried out en-
tirely by Calvinists or Unionists. Not until June, 1621,
when Barneveldt was out of the way, was the West India
Company formed, but even then there was no absolute
pledge required of this corporation to colonize any foreign
lands.*
The English Separatist Church at Leyden numbered
about three hundred persons. Seeing that war was soon
to break out again, the leaders looked to this New Neth-
erland as a possible new home. Longing for opportunity
to propagate their ideas of church government and of
Christianity, knowing also that they were likely to lose
their English speech and name, since the local schools
were Dutch and their children quite numerously inter-
married with the natives and their sons enlisted in the
Union army and navy, desiring withal to keep the Sabbath
with more strictness than those around them, they began
* See William Usselinx, Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India
Companies, by J. Franklin Jamieson. New York, 1887.
1621] THE EARLY SETTLERS 809
as early as 1617 to agitate the question of crossing the sea.
They considered Venezuela, Virginia, and New Nether-
land. Robinson and his company made application to the
directors of the New Netherland Company at Amsterdam
for permission to settle in the region of the Hudson river.
The company was pleased at the idea, and offered them
free passage and the gift of cattle. On the 20th of Feb-
ruary, 1620, the directors petitioned the stadholder Mau-
rice, and through him the States-General, for two men-of
war to convoy the colony and guard it against danger from
the Spaniards.
From the purely mercantile or philanthropic point of
view in Amsterdam, this seemed all right and perfectly
reasonable. When, however, the matter came up before
the States-General it had to be looked at by diplomatists
and statesmen. Then, what had seemed so feasible in
Amsterdam was seen to be impossible in the legislative
chambers at the Hague. With the truce soon to expire
and war to be renewed, every ship and cannon, pike and
gun, man and guilder, would be required, and no armed
ships could be spared. Still more serious was the danger
of irritating King James, and appearing to insult him di-
rectly and purposely. The little radical Protestant Re-
public had but one friend in Europe, and that was Great
Britain, the only first-class Protestant power. To patronize
a nest of English heretics, who were printing books that
angered King James beyond all measure, and whom he
would gladly have exterminated root and branch ; to trans-
port such a company, convoyed by Dutch war-vessels into
a territory beyond sea which England herself claimed as
part of Virginia, would have looked like a slap in the royal
face, a studied insult to the British government. Of ne-
cessity the petition was rejected.
The English Separatists, however, had, even before offi-
cial rejection of the petition, and while their Elder Brew-
ster was hiding in England from the wrath of the King
and the search of Sir Dudley Oarleton, arranged with Eng-
lish merchant adventurers, though on very hard terms.
Having chartered the Speedwell, which was anchored in
the Maas river, just below Rotterdam, the company, con-
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1621
sisting of the young and strong in the church who had
come by canal from Leyden, bade farewell to their friends
at Delfshaven. The scene of their embarkation has been
glorified in later art, and a contemporaneous Dutch artist,
in all probability an eye-witness and one of the Cuyps,
father or son, has painted in realistic simplicity the pict-
ure of their departure.* Contemporary auditors and wit-
nesses have left their record of Robinson's parting words,
which stand as a beacon-light of pure faith and sound prog-
ress in religion. Both Bradford and Winslow have given
us the written narratives.
That company of English fathers, mothers, and children
left with regret the brave little republic which had given
them an asylum for eleven years, and which, though young,
had already experienced its trials of union and secession,
of social and religious conflicts, but without civil war and
with very little bloodshed.
Other portions of this Congregational Church, which
had its abiding place in three countries and on the ocean,
followed in later ships ; but by 1655 all trace of the Sep-
aratists in Leyden had faded out. Theirs was but one of
the twenty - six churches of English - speaking people,
organized in the Netherlands, many of whose people re-
mained among the natives, and, intermarrying and speak-
ing the vernacular, were finally merged into the Dutch
nation. Typical of the Dutch republic, of the composite
English people, and of the American nation, each made
up of many nationalities, the Pilgrim Company had in it-
self the blood of the four nations in the British isles as
well as of France and the Netherlands.
The West India Company, to which was given a mo-
nopoly of trade for twenty-four years, was organized and
began its long and honorable career June 3, 1621. It had
five chambers and twenty-four directors. Amsterdam
had four -ninths, Zeeland two-ninths, and Rotterdam,
North Holland, Friesland, and Groningen, each one-ninth
* See The Earliest Puritan Voyage, by George H. Boughton, discoverer
of the painting, in Harper's Weekly of March 9, 1895, with reproduction
of this illustrative document.
1621]
THE WEST INDIA COMPANY
811
share in the capital and profits. It sent a great fleet to
Brazil in 1624, and took Bahia and then Pernambuco. It
founded and cared for New Amsterdam and the settle-
ments on the Hudson, Mohawk, and Delaware rivers. It
secured a foothold in Guiana and the West Indies. For
half a century its fleets ravaged the shores of Portuguese
and Spanish America, winning vast treasures and spoils.
In 1674 the company was dissolved, but it was reformed
in 1675 and was finally dissolved in 1791. Only a few
fragments of its many conquests now remain under the
Dutch flag.
i I
CHAPTER IX
THE BLOOM OF THE EEPUBLIC
war broke out in 1621 there was a new king on
the throne of Spain, for Philip the Third was dead. Phil-
ip the Fourth, aged seventeen, inherited the abominable
policy of his father and grandfather. The Archduke Al-
bert, who had ruled the obedient provinces for twenty-five
years and who had, in March, 1621, vainly sent the chan-
cellor of Brabant to urge the submission of the Dutch
provinces, died July 13, of the same year. Since the year
1600 the States-General of the Spanish Netherlands had
not assembled. The governors of the country and the
advisers of the Archduke were monks and priests, who
busied themselves with rooting out religion founded on
the private interpretation of the Bible, while the Arch-
duke generously tried, by developing the resources of the
country, to do his duty. Under such a vicious system of
government, however, no matter how pure the motives or
character of the governor, neither substantial progress nor
national happiness was possible. Besides the loss of their
local liberties and of their representation in the States-
General, the Southern Netherlands saw Brussels occupied
by a Spanish army under Spinola in 1619. On the death
of the Archduke Albert, in July, 1621, the provinces came
under the direct rule of the King of Spain. In the history
of the Spanish Netherlands Albert holds an honored place.
The widow of the Archduke, Isabella, became simply the
royal deputy, controlled in all her acts by her female favor-
ites. She died November 30, 1633, at the age of sixty-
two.
This period, from 1596 to 1621, was that of the splendid
1622] HOSTILITIES RESUMED 813
Flemish school of art and learning. The University of
Louvain, re-endowed and enriched, was adorned with such
eminent names in the world of letters as Justus, Valerius,
Andreas, and Vernuloeus in its faculties. In painting,
there were Rubens, Teniers, Grayer, Vandyke, Jordaens,
and a galaxy of intellect and skill, whose works are as
unfading stars in the heaven of art.
The Truce over, the Republic drew sword and stood
unaided, for the long struggle in diplomacy and war of
England with Spain was ended, and an alliance had been
made between these nations. James had beheaded Sir
Walter Raleigh to please his Spanish friends, and France
was angered by the execution of Barneveldt. In Germany
the devastating Thirty Years' war — not on account of real
religion, but because of political theories associated with
religion — had broken out. The Republic had aided
Frederick, the elector- palatine, with money, but he was
defeated by Spinola at Gulick in 1622, and took refuge in
Holland. He had married the daughter of King James,
and both the Dutch and English had fought in his aid.
In the Republic, death also was changing the leaders
and bringing new men to the front. The political adviser
of Maurice, his cousin Count William Louis, stadholder
of Friesland, died, and Ernest Casimir succeeded him.
Adrian Duyck, a man of only ordinary abilities, took the
place of Barneveldt as Advocate of Holland. Maurice,
instead of winning new laurels, as he had expected at the
opening of the war, failed in his attempt to seize Antwerp.
He won a slight victory, however, in raising the siege of
Bergeii-op-Zoom, from which he compelled Spinola to re-
treat. He then entered the city in triumph.
The stadholder who had overcome the civilian now fell
on evil days, and the sons of Barneveldt plotted against
his life. The States of Holland, yielding to popular press-
ure, had not only confiscated the estate of the Advocate
of Holland, but had also deprived the oldest son, Reinier,
Lord of Groeneveld, of his office of Forester and Dike-
inspector, and the second son, Stoutenberg, of the gov-
ernment of Bergen -op -Zoom. Maurice, who doubtless
would have been glad to protect the sons of the man who
814 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1622
had always provided men and money with which to fight
the battles of the Republic, yielded to popular clamor.
In revenge, the younger son determined to have Maurice
put to death, and for this purpose hired two Catholics
and several Arminians under the lead of a deposed Ar-
minian preacher, Henry Slatius. To secure the necessary
funds, the dissipated and impecunious younger brother
applied to the older, who, under threat, furnished it;
but some of the sailors in the pay of Slatius showed their
gold to the stadholder, and Maurice had the meeting-
place of the conspirators searched. Though Stoutenberg
escaped, Slatius and three others principally concerned
in the plot were imprisoned. Slatius broke jail and en-
tered the service of Spain. Groeneveld was seized on the
seashore while preparing to leave the country. Then the
widow and mother, who had refused to ask for her hus-
band's life and thus incriminate him, now pleaded for her
offspring. She answered the inquiry of the stadholder
by saying, "because my son is guilty and my husband
was not." Groeneveldt and certain other conspirators,
fifteen in all, were decapitated May 29th.
The discovery and exposure of this plot tremendously
increased the prestige of the victorious Calvinists and
shed fresh odium upon the Arminians. The most awful
and bitter caricatures flooded the land. Thousands of the
Remonstrant party joined the Contra-Remonstrants ; and
from this time forth, Arminianism ceased to be a political
factor, and became, as it had been at first before Barne-
veldt gave it his powerful support, only a tendency in
theology, a philosophy, a noble attempt to solve a great
mystery. In England, Arminianism rose to be the dom-
inant school of thought in the state church and a power
in ecclesiastical intrigues. Revolutionized in its form
and with the emphasis laid upon divine grace, the system
of Arminia.nism thus transformed became, outside of the
Establishment, a mighty power in the hands of the Wes-
leys and their successors in Methodism for the building
up of that popular form of Christianity which has done
so much in the moulding of modern society and of the
nineteenth century world of thought.
1625] DEATH OF MAURICE OF NASSAU 815
During the first years after the expiration of the Truce,
the military operations were neither very brilliant nor
satisfactory on either side. The Kepublic won more glory
at sea through her navy and the Dutch adventurers and
discoverers than by means of her army. In August,
1624, Spinola invested Breda which was part of the estate
of the princes of Orange, and Maurice was unable to re-
lieve the city. In foreign politics the Dutch made some
progress by obtaining a loan of French money, the idea
of Cardinal Richelieu, then virtual ruler of France, in ap-
proving of this being to checkmate the power of Austria ;
but when the Republic sent its fleet to be used against the
Huguenots of Rochelle, the act was so severely condemned
by the Calvinistic clergy that the fleet was recalled. This
angered Richelieu, and he was somewhat slow to fulfil
his promises of aid to the Republic. King James, who
had lowered his own dignity and that of the nation by
seeking a marriage between his son and the daughter of
the King of Spain, offered to supply six thousand men
to aid the Dutch, but they had no means of guaranteeing
payment of the expense, for Barneveldt, the master-mind
of the Republic, was no more. He had been for thirty
years the wise provider of the sinews of war, and his loss
was now keenly felt, while Maurice's popularity waned.
In the midst of these uncertainties concerning the na-
tion's future, the great general fell ill. Worn out by
anxiety and disappointment he saw that his end was at
hand. Having never married, Maurice left his property
and paternal inheritance to his brother Frederick Henry,
who, early in April, 1625, wedded the beautiful and ac-
complished Amalia van Solms, who was destined to exert
a powerful and beneficent influence upon her husband for
the good of the Republic. Between the brothers there
had been some coldness, for Frederick Henry had not ap-
proved of the severe measures against the Arminians, but
had inclined more to his great father's toleration and co-
operation with all devout men.
Maurice of Nassau died at the age of fifty-eight on the
23d of April, 1625. He was undoubtedly the greatest
soldier of the age. Though he always had only a small
316 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1625
army, he invariably handled it with consummate skill.
One serious mistake might have resulted in the loss of
his force and perhaps in the destruction of his country.
Maurice was not only a great fighter in the field, but also an
engineer without an equal. Most of his triumphs were
due to his original and daring use of the spade, the gabion,
and the heavy siege gun ; but, when it seemed necessary,
he hesitated not to dash out boldly and take risks. In
his personal character Maurice had not his father's power
to make up his mind quickly, but was very slow in com-
ing to a decision. In civic matters he was extremely de-
liberate in determining upon his course. He depended,
perhaps too much, upon statesmen like Count Louis of
Friesland and for many years upon Barneveldt, until he
became suspicious of and alienated from that great states-
man by his course in dictating military as well as civil
affairs. The historical evidence does not demonstrate
that Maurice had any ambition to grasp sovereignty and
make himself a king, though his desire for military activ-
ity and glory was almost overpowering. As far as he had
any religious convictions, he was a determined Calvinist.
His ruling motive, as an intense patriot and a theoretical
Christian according to his light, was a desire to serve his
country, to make her entirely independent of Spain, and
to battle for the truth as God gave him to see the truth.
In private morals there is little to imitate in this man,
who lived mostly in camps, had no wife or home, and who
inherited tendencies, though not from his father, which
promised little and wrought less for purity of life. There
is, however, much to admire in his devotion to duty. If
he made mistakes, it is probably because he mistrusted
himself, and believed that the truest expression of the
will of the nation came from those who desired the per-
petuity of the Union instead of state-sovereignty, and who
saw in Calvinism the entire substance of the Reformed re-
ligion.
In the same year that the nation lost Maurice, Paul
Potter, the painter of one of the four great world's pict-
ures, was born at Enkhuizen and Cornelius DeWitt at
Dordrecht.
1627] THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 817
Frederick Henry, the youngest and last son of William
of Orange, was at once made Commander-in-chief of the
land and naval forces of the Kepublic and elected stad-
holder of five provinces, Friesland and Groningen being
under the government of Ernest Casimir. The new ruler
of the Dutch had at Nieuport refused to board ship, but
had donned his armor and had fought in the battle. He
had been to England as envoy of the Republic. He had
nearly lost his life when alone 011 the field of Eoer, in
Limburg, having been deserted by the panic-struck cavalry.
He had also remained under Uytenbogaert's Arminian
preaching, when Maurice left for the Cloister Church in
the Hague. Now in his forty-second year, brave, pacific,
and resourceful, he had both the will and the abilities for
civil and military leadership which the country needed.
He united all parties in resistance to Spain, and calmed
those rancors which had risen less from religion than the
lack of it. Under him the golden age of Dutch literature
and art was ushered in.
He at once attempted the relief of Breda, to accomplish
which Maurice had collected an army of forty thousand
men, but he was unsuccessful ; and the enemy occupied
this; important city after a ten-months' siege, though soon
afterwards the Spanish cabinet neutralized the effects of
the victory when they recalled Spinola in disgrace. This
general's fault was that he had exposed the weaknesses
of the politicians at Madrid. The Spanish troops were
put under control of that traitor, Count Henry van den
Berg. Frederick Henry captured Groenlo in 1627, by
which time he had persuaded Charles the First, the new
King of England, to furnish aid and comfort to his coun-
try, notwithstanding that at Amboyna Island, in the Ma-
luccas, the Dutch and English had come to blows, which
resulted in bloodshed.
To add to the rising hopes of the Dutch, their treasury
was now handsomely filled by a gallant exploit at sea.
Every Dutch boy sings the praise of Piet Heyn : " Zijn
naam is klein"; for, though little of name, this gallant
commander has made a long, bright mark in Dutch history.
Born in 1578 at Delfshaven, he began his career as a cabin -
62
818 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1627
boy and rose to be a merchant navigator. He crossed
the ocean and captured several Spanish vessels, and on
account of his victories in South- American waters was
made an admiral. Put in command of twenty-four ships,
he sailed out on the Atlantic to capture the Spanish plate
fleet. Every year this long line of treasure galleons, load-
ed with ingots of refined silver dug by Indian slaves out
of the mines of Peru and Mexico, crossed the Atlantic.
This wealth, obtained through the blood and misery of
thousands of natives of America, was to be used in the
interests of bigotry to crush the little Protestant Eepub-
lic. Piet Heyn chased the fleet into Matanzas harbor,
fifty - two miles east of Havana, where the Spaniards
thought they would be safe under the guns of the forts,
but they got aground, and the Dutchmen saw their plight.
Piet Heyn, having ordered the boats to be manned, at-
tacked the Spaniards, captured the ships, and secured the
treasure. He brought the whole fleet, excepting two ships,
safely home. The cargo of 138,600 pounds weight of
pure silver, with gold and pearls and other booty, was
worth twelve millions of florins, or, in the value of to-day,
near five millons of dollars. Publicly thanked in the
States-General, he was made lieutenant-admiral, in place
of William of Nassau, who had been killed at Groeulo,
and was awarded a many-linked gold chain, with a medal.
He bought a house hi Delft, where he expected to spend
his last years quietly, but, while the Dunkirk pirates kept
defying the civilized world, Piet Heyn showed that his
love of country was greater than his love of ease, and he
resolved to attempt that in which no one as yet had suc-
ceeded.
Dunkirk, or the church in the dunes, so named because
Saint Eloi, in the seventh century, had built a church
amid the sandy wastes of Flanders, had become, under
Parma's invitation, a sea-robbers' cave, whence fast-sail-
ing vessels daily issued, making the commerce of all na-
tions their prey. The desperadoes nailed the captured
sailors to the decks or spars, chained them to the rigging,
or tossed them overboard, as suited their whim, but they
held the officers for ransom. To escape the gallows, when
1630] BOIS-LEDUC AND WESEL CAPTURED 819
likely to bo captured, the Dunkirkers habitually blew up
their ships. For sixty years these men were the terror
of the seas. In 1625 they appeared off the island of Texel
and destroyed over one hundred herring smacks belong-
ing to Enkhuizen. This was too much for Piet Heyn.
He sailed in May with a squadron to clean out the foul
nest. Finding the port empty of the corsairs, he left a
blockading force, and in person went in chase of three
privateers. Running between two of them, he opened the
battle. Struck by a ball in the shoulder, he died the
hero's death, June 20, 1629. His men, in their fury,
gladly obeyed the standing orders of the Congress and
left none of the enemy alive. Piet Heyn's monument at
Delfshaven and a tomb near that of Den Zwijger (the
Silent), in the church at Delft, keep fresh in glorious
memory this typical Dutch sailor, who was honest, sim-
ple, and brave.
With the war chest refilled, the stadholder Frederick
Henry began the siege of Hertogenbosch, or Bois-le-Duc,
which, after four months, surrendered despite all attempts
of Van den Berg to relieve the city. When Wesel in
Cleves, the main depot of Spanish supplies, had been also
captured, there was intense alarm throughout the Spanish
Netherlands, lest the army of the Republic should again
invade them. By the opening of the sluices at Muyden,
which laid the country from the Zuyder Zee to Utrecht
under water, Van den Berg was driven out of Utrecht,
which he had invaded.
When the obedient provinces, stung to nobler effort by
the example of the triumphant Republic, appealed to the
King of Spain for the assembling together of their States-
General and for their ancient rights and local freedom,
Philip the Fourth permitted them also to send commis-
sioners to the Hague to propose a truce of twenty-four
years. The Dutch were in no mood for such a motion,
and, making a convention with France in 1630, they re-
jected the proposals for a truce, and agreed to make no
peace with Spain without the advice of the King of
France. The painter, Rubens, who always "had one foot
in the stirrup/' was sent by the Spanish cabinet to Eng-
820 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1631
land, and persuaded Charles the First to give a secret
promise of alliance with Spain against the Dutch. In
this same year the Remonstrants built a church in Am-
sterdam and began a divinity school, in which Episcopius,
formerly of Leyden, became the chief professor.
The War of Independence, which continued until 1646,
has henceforth little interest for the general reader. The
stadholder Frederick Henry proved himself an able gen-
eral. By direction of the War Committee, he marched,
in 1631, into Flanders to besiege Dunkirk and to finish
what was left of the pirates ; but when Spinola's successor
approached with a small but choice army of twelve thou-
sand men, the wet-houders or law-holders in the camp
ordered a retreat. The stadholder returned with his
pride humbled, as Maurice's had formerly been by the
interference of civilians with military plans. Stouten-
berg, the sou of Barneveldt, having given valuable infor-
mation to the Spaniards, the latter sent a fleet to cut off
communication between Holland and Zeeland, but near
Tholen it was captured, and five thousand men were made
prisoners.
Thereupon, the States-General went so far in their ex-
pression of gratitude to the stadholder, then in the height
of his popularity, as to settle the right of succession upon
his infant son William, who was born in 1626. Frederick
Henry marched into Gelderland, at the invitation of Bel-
gian nobles, with the idea of exciting the obedient prov-
inces to revolt. He laid siege to Maastricht, which, after
three desperate attempts of the enemy to relieve it, was
captured. One of these attempts to relieve Maastricht
was made by imperial troops under Count Papenheim,
and in the defence of the city Aubrey De Vere, the Earl
of Oxford, and his brother Colonel Vere were killed, while
of the Nassau family, Count Ernest Casimir, stadholder
of Friesland, was slain before Eoermond.
These successes of the republican army compelled Isa-
bella to convoke the States-General of the Belgian prov-
inces. When, however, negotiations of peace were opened
with the Republic, the deputies of Brussels could not rise
*o the idea of tolerating their fellow - Christians or of
1633]
INTERNAL DISSENSIONS
821
wholly renouncing Spanish authority. Furthermore, Am-
sterdam, having grown mightily at the expense of Ant-
werp and the Dutch having by this time won the carrying
trade on the seas of nearly all Europe, demanded the
closing of the Scheldt. And so it came to pass that,
through the liberal use of Spanish gold and promises on
the one hand, and because of jealousy and fear of the
Dutch on the other, this last attempt to unite the seven-
teen provinces in either alliance or union failed. When,
furthermore, the Archduchess Elizabeth died in Novem-
ber, 1633, even the hope of peace passed. While the Re-
public was left to enter upon a brilliant and triumphant
career in the arts of war and peace, in literature, fine arts,
discovery, exploration, and colonization, the Belgic prov-
inces sunk to be a mere annex and house of slavery of
Spain, governed entirely by two juntas composed of Span-
iards or wholly directed by them, and finally became the
battle-ground of many nations — the cock-pit of Europe.
Already the country was so poor that the Court of Brus-
sels dared not vote to pay for those funeral honors which
the Duchess had requested before her death.
In the Eepublic there was no perfect unanimity in car-
rying on the war. The stadholder besieged Rheinberg,
which surrendered in June, 1633. In addition to having
the provincial jealousy of Holland to contend against, he
also had a determined antagonist in Adrian Pauw, the
grand pensionary of Holland, who believed in making
peace with the obedient provinces. The West India Com-
pany, now invincible on the seas and in home politics, had
eight hundred ships afloat, manned by a force of sixty-
seven thousand men, and were powerful in the West Indies
and in Brazil, of which John Maurice was governor from
1636 to 1640. In order to neutralize the influence of
Pauw, he was practically kept out of the country by be-
ing sent on various foreign missions, while his post was
filled by Jacob Cats, whose poems, proverbs, and stories
are known by heart by thousands of the Dutch people.
From 1634, a new treaty of mutual hostility to Spain hav-
ing been made between the Republic and France, the
Dutch were left once more without restriction, though
822 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1635
they no longer received the two or three million guilders
a year for not making peace or a truce without consulta-
tion with their ally. The treaty was designed to weaken
the truce party in Holland, and it was the work of the
stadholder and of Aerssens, that old enemy of Barneveldt.
When the Spanish government heard of this alliance, it at
once dissolved the States-General of the Spanish Nether-
lands. The. next move was the treaty of Paris, signed
February 5, 1635, which provided for the invasion of the
obedient provinces by an allied French and Dutch army
of forty thousand men. The new governor sent by Philip
the Fourth had arrived at Brussels November 4, 1634,
fresh from his victory over the Swedes at Nordlingen, but
on the 20th of May next year his army was defeated at
Areine by the French, who were supported by the Dutch
fleet.
The campaign which thus opened favorably for the al-
lies ended disastrously for them. Again the Southern
Netherlands were horribly devastated, the allies behaving
almost as barbarously as the Spaniards had done. Tirla-
mont was stormed, but Louvain was bravely defended.
While the allies suffered from divided counsels, the Span-
iards were united and superb in discipline, and won con-
tinuous victory, invading both the Eepublic and France.
Disease made the allied camp seem like a pest-house.
One-half of the French troops never lived to see their
homes. In addition to the humiliation of returning with-
out having accomplished anything, the stadholder was
obliged to use the power of the central government in 01
der to compel the state of Friesland to pay its war taxes,
so that the general government might be carried on.
The feeling in the Republic in regard to resuming hostil-
ities against the Spanish Netherlands was now so languid
that Cardinal Rjchelieu, besides other stimulating argu-
ments, addressed the stadholder, Frederick Henry, wit!
the title of Highness, instead of Excellency, an innovs
tion from republican simplicity which the States-Genei
followed, but this only caused the Dutch people to regarc
France with increased distrust. However, the stadholder
persevered in military operations, and after a four months'
1637] THE "TULIPOMANIA" 823
siege retook Breda, October 7, 1637. He now thought
himself strong enough to attempt the recapture of Ant-
werp, not merely to increase the prestige of the nation,
but so that this city might be used to decrease the influ-
ence of Amsterdam, which was the centre of the provin-
cial and municipal jealousy which continually hampered
the operations of the central government. Such jealousy
and opposition were but a natural and justifiable counter-
poise to the steadily growing power of the stadholder,
whose patronage of office enabled him to control the depu-
ties in the States -General. In modern language, Fred-
erick Henry was a powerful boss, who presided over a per-
manent caucus and literally distributed spoils in order to
forward his policy. His attempt on Antwerp, however,
failed ignominiously.
As if to drown their cares of war and diplomacy, the
Dutch rushed into the frenzy of flowers and financial
speculation, intoxicating themselves with tulips. In 1559
Conrad Gesner had brought this oriental flower from Tur-
key to Augsburg. Within a few years the congenial soil
of Haarlem was ablaze with the colors of this transplanted
exotic. In 1637 the desire of Dutch people to possess
tulips suddenly became a mania. At Alkmaar, six score
tulips sold for the benefit of the orphan asylum brought
ninety thousand guilders. At Enkhuizen, one bulb was
sold for over four and another for over five thousand guild-
ers. Like stocks and bonds, the tulip bulbs were negotia-
ted at the Exchange in hopes of a rise in prices, and in
Amsterdam the actual transactions of the purchase and
sale of bulbs during the craze amounted to over ten mill-
ions of guilders. By the time this mild attack of insan-
ity was over many families were financially ruined. The
" Tulipomania " has left its mark in Dutch history. In
fiction Dumas has pictured the scenes of the epoch in
" The Black Tulip."
At sea the Spaniards, who had been for years trying to
regain their power, had built a new armada of sixty-seven
ships, and putting it under command of Admiral Don
Antonio d'Oquendo, sent it into the English channel with
! seventeen hundred cannon and twenty -.four thousand
824 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
men. Of these ships, thirty -seven were three -decked
galleons having bulwarks four feet thick, and carrying
heavy guns. They were strong but clumsy, and were no
match for the quickly moving Dutch ships. Reinforce-
ments of men and provisions were obtained at Dunkirk.
The Dutch Admiral, Marten Tromp — to whose name Eng-
lish writers unwarrantably add the prefix "Van" — with
thirteen ships met a portion of the armada in the Straits
of Dover, consisting of twenty-four of the Spanish vessels,
capturing two of them September 18, 1639. After sev-
eral damaging blows, he drove the Spanish ships to the
English coast, where eighteen British vessels were wait-
ing to receive and help them. Tromp, with thirty ves-
sels, kept the whole armada blockaded. Meanwhile, all
Holland was roused. Within a fortnight, reinforcements
increasing Tromp's force to ninety-five war vessels and
eleven "branders," or fire-ships, arrived off the Downs.
Oquendo tried to avoid a fight, claiming that he lacked
masts, spars, and powder, whereupon Tromp sent him
masts and spars from Dover, and put many thousands of
pounds of powder at his disposal. The great naval battle
of the Downs was fought October 21, 1639, the English
not interfering except to effect the escape of the Spanish
soldiers. Thirteen war -ships of the armada were capt-
ured by Tromp, and of the remainder, most were sunk,
or driven off the coasts of the Spanish Netherlands, and
only eighteen in all returned to Spain.*
This affair created much irritation at the British court,
of which Charles Stuart was now at the head, and matters
between England and the Eepublic became very much
mixed and their relations strained. Disputes about the
fisheries and possessions in the Far East, commercial
jealousies, and Dutch assistance secretly rendered the
Scottish rebels promised a host of future troubles. Nev-
ertheless, the Dutch government sent over an embassy
headed by Aerssens to ask for the hand of the Princess
Mary, of England, for the stadholder's son, Prince Will-
* A handsome monument with statue was erected to the memory of Don
Oquendo, at San Sebastian, in 1895.
TROMP
1642] PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ASSUME STRENGTH 825
iam. While there were growing differences in England
between the sovereign and parliament, in the Republic the
alienation between the stadholder and the party opposed
to him was increasing. The proposed alliance with the
royal house was very displeasing to the patriot or munici-
pal party, and when Queen Henrietta Maria, who came
to Holland as the chaperon of the young Princess Mary,
began to make her Romanism ostentatious — even to the
extent of trying to raise money in Holland to buy muni-
tions of war for the King against the parliamentarians —
the popular feeling rose to hatred. The stadholder, after
trying to reconcile the English parties, agreed to help the
Stuarts, but the legislature of Holland would allow no
warlike supplies to leave the country, and King Charles
in vain attempted to get another of his daughters mar-
ried into the house of Orange.
Spain was by this time greatly enfeebled by the loss of
her fleets, by the new victories of the French in the Neth-
erlands, especially at Rocroi, May 19, 1643, and by the
conquests of the Dutch in various parts of the world.
Richelieu, after governing France for eighteen years with
absolute power, died December 4, 1642, and was suc-
ceeded by Jules Mazarin, regent of the kingdom during
the minority of Louis the Fourteenth, whose intrigues
increased the Dutch suspicion of his good faith and led
them to favor peace with Spain, and so negotiations
looking towards the peace of 1648 were begun.
There were those who foresaw the troubles which,
having already for a generation or more disturbed the
Republic, were to afflict it for a century and a half. These
arose out of the intense jealousy of the cities against the
national government and the provincial polity of Hol-
land, which was the one rich and disproportionately great
province in the confederacy. The negotiations of peace
assumed proportions of unexpected strength when the
ablest woman in the Netherlands, Amalia Van Solms,
moved by her husband's ill-health and not uninfluenced
by Spanish promises, lent her aid to the counsels of peace,
which were again reinforced when, on the 14th of March,
1647, at the age of sixty-three, Frederick Henry, the last
g26 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1645
son of William of Orange, died. A man of wise modera-
tion like his father, he not only mollified the rigors of
sectarian rancor, but also maintained the Union when
unity was vital to the nation. He succeeded, also, in
identifying the interests of the nation with the fortunes
of the house of Orange, so that henceforth they seemed
inseparable. While his intrigues with foreign royal houses
for the purpose of securing matrimonial alliances, which
he hoped would benefit the nation as well as his family,
are open to censure, yet in the main Frederick Henry
may be called the blameless Prince. He increased his
powers as stadholder, doubtless with the good motive of
overcoming that municipal jealousy which was the bane
of the republic, although perhaps a necessary evil.
The burgher aristocracy of the nation, especially of
Holland, has ever seemed determined to allow authority
to reside neither in the people nor in the chief executive
of the Kepublic, and the final solution of the long contest
between stadholder and burgher seemed logically to be
only found in a monarchy. The States-General, by a vote
of five out of the seven states, conferred upon the young
Prince of Orange the offices of his father and grandfather,
though Holland and Zeeland delayed choosing him stad-
holder until peace was made certain. Holland, above all
the states, was anxious for peace. Negotiations were now
pressed, and the Congress of Munster opened in April,
1645. The issues were happily concluded on the 30th of
January, 1648. Spain yielded everything for which the
Dutch United States had so long contended. The signa-
tories of the treaties took oath to keep tho compact invi-
olable, those of the Roman cult kissing the crucifix and
those of the Reformed faith lifting their hands to Heaven.
Thus after sixty-eight years of war and twelve of truce,
the Eighty Years' War was ended. Starting with a popu-
lation of seven or eight hundred thousand people, with
but an area of ten thousand miles, of which scarcely more
than a third was fertile land, with but little knowledge of
the ocean or of trade beyond the coast-line of Western
Europe, unused to war, and having but slight experience
of international negotiations, the statesmen of the seven
1645] CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DUTCH 82?
Dutch provinces, led by William the Silent, had organized
resistance to the most powerful sovereign and empire in
the world, backed by the wealth of America and the pres-
tige of the Pope of Rome. The Dutch had won victory,
having a central government, a union of federated states,
a splendid army, and a navy that had no superiors ; while
in art, literature, science, inventions, finance, political
and social economy, and in general popular comfort, they
led the world. Their merchants, explorers, and advent-
urers were to be found everywhere. With a system of
sound finance, unity in religion, with toleration superior
to anything known in Christendom or paganism, with free-
dom of the press, with enterprise, marvels of engineering,
splendid universities, a system of national education, the
glories of art and literature, and with names that not only
the Dutch but the whole world will not willingly let die,
they had become one of the great Powers.
The long battle had been fought for the rights of con-
science and the freedom of the human spirit, for the priv-
ilege of men to tax themselves and to depose a prince
when he should cease to be a servant of the people. The
victory was first of all a victory of faith. It was won
through those moral qualities of the Dutch, honesty,
faithfulness, firmness, the absence of selfishness and per-
sonal vanity, and the presence of a high civic spirit that
led them not only to gain but to hold and to safeguard
liberty. It was these qualities that brought to the Dutch
republicans maritime power and a rapid increase of popu-
lation by the influx of intelligent foreigners from many
nations. Diverse in manners, customs, opinions, geograph-
ical situations, and employments, the people of the Dutch
states were indissolubly united in a bond of mutual fidel-
ity which defied the assaults of the enemy from without
and the traitor within.
To the probity, firmness, courage, and wisdom of the
Dutch must be added an intelligence second to none in
Europe. Out of this garden bloomed their literature,
jurisprudence, art, and those other products of thought
which have surprised and delighted succeeding genera-
tions. " The Golden Age of Frederick Henry," or that of
g28 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1645
the "Hollandish Renaissance," was the time of the bloom
of the Republic. Despite the waste of war, the drainage
of water-covered land went on. The great polders, Zype,
Beemster, Purmer, and Wermer, hi North Holland, were
won to pasture and grain, and, having been made the home
of men and cattle, became dotted with towns and villages.
The Water-State — that is, the nation organized to keep
itself from being drowned — was brought to the highest
state of efficiency. The University of Utrecht was found-
ed in 1636, and having quickly won a renowned name in
theology, letters, and the physical sciences, educated, be-
sides the sons of Dutchmen, hundreds of English-speak-
ing ministers of the free churches of Great Britain and
America. Architecture flourished, and among the nota-
ble structures were the City Halls of Amsterdam, Bols-
ward, Haarlem, Nymegen. In literature, art, and other
lines of intellectual achievement, we mention but a few
of the shining names. In poetry, Vischer, Bredero, Hooft,
Vondel, Cats, Huygens, Jan Starter, and Van der Goes
appealed to refined tastes or delighted the people with
their lyrics, odes, dramas, narrative poems, wit, mirth,
and wisdom. In history, Bor, Reijd, Van Meteren, P. C.
Hooft, and Hugo de Groot (Grotius) told the political
story of the Fatherland. Ubbo Emmius, with critical ac-
curacy, pictured local government and the town system
in democratic Friesland. Brandt narrated the sufferings
and persecutions, the growth and organization of the
churches. In philology the Dutch led the van in Europe,
issuing critical editions of the ancient classics and open-
ing the wonderful world of Oriental thought. Kilian had
already led the way in the study of the Teutonic philol-
ogy and the Dutch tongue. Lipsius, Scaliger, Heinsius,
and Gravius are but a few names of great teachers in the
universities. In medicine and anatomy we need but men-
tion Helmont, Beverwijck, and Tulp — who, as Rem-
brandt's friend, has been immortalized in that great ar-
tist's painting of the dissecting-table. In natural history
Swammerdam told of the wonders of the human body;
and Leeuwenhoek, with his glass -beads set in bits of
brass, became the father of microscopy ; another Dutch-
1645] THE ROLL OF HONOR 829
man, Drebbel, being the inventor of the instrument which
has revealed to mankind large portions of the realm of
the infinitely little. In astronomy, Stevin and Hnygens
explored the heavens and narrated their discoveries. In
mechanics and inventions Leeghwater not only wrote his
book on the Haarlem Lake, showing how it conld be
pumped out and made into gardens, but he made his
other vast and daring schemes of drainage actual realities
of dryness, fertility, and wealth. Cornelisz invented the
saw-mill ; Jansen, the telescope ; Huygens, the pendulum,
and Van der Heyden the fire-hose branch -pipe, which
made life and property in the cities vastly safer. In man-
ifold other inventions and applications of thought to
material — the breathing of a soul into dead matter — the
Dutch genius and procreative power were made known to
the world, and the men of other nations were not slow
to avail themselves of it, and, in too many instances, even
to take the credit of invention as well. In sculpture, De
Keyser and Quellinus made a name ; Jacob van Campen
won fame as an architect.
Not the grandest of all expressions of the Dutch intel-
lect and skill, but those which have permanently received
widest recognition and have most charmed and instruct-
ed the people of all countries, were made in a universal
language upon canvas. Whereas the English mind, at its
most creative period and in the epoch of heroic national
life, manifested itself in literature during the Elizabethan
age, that of the Dutch in the triumph era of the Repub-
lic expressed itself in art. Rembrandt was one of a galaxy
of artists who glorified the home and the civic life of the
Republic, the living creatures, the actual landscapes and
marine views which confronted and environed human life
in the Northern Netherlands. Van der Heist, Franz Hals,
Bol, Flinck, Van Mieris, and Mierevelt studied and re-
produced the human form and face. Bakhuysen learned
to know the sea in all its moods. Jan Steen, Teniers,
Metsu, Terburch, Netscher, Brouwer, and Ostade delight-
ed to study human life in all its phases and to picture
its joys and sorrows, its glory and its ahame. Ruysdael,
Hobbema, and the Cuyps painted landscapes and the
830 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1645
phenomena of the skies. Paul Potter, Wouwermans, and
Hondecoeter painted the friends of men — the ox, horse,
and bird — as none others have done. Nor did the masters
wait for the world's recognition. It was a matter of na-
tional rejoicing when Catherine the Second, Empress of
Russia, bought one of Gerard Dou's masterpieces for four-
teen thousand guilders. While Rembrandt and his breth--
ren of maul and palette laid their tints and shadows on the
woven texture, to face the manifold risks to which canvas
is liable, the Crabeth brothers wrought in stained-glass,
which sheathed light and color in mineral hardness, im-
perishable, except by fire or fracture.
Dutch art is a mirror of the country, of the people, and
of the characteristics of both. It is intensely realistic.
It shows things as they are. The intellect is at work for
itself, taking no authority or tradition as guide, but fol-
lowing only reason, reverence, and the facts. Rembrandt's
pictures of Biblical scenes ignore the doctors and fathers,
all monkish and papal lore, and the traditions of courl
and councils. They show knowledge of originals am
reveal just how the Dutchman read his Bible. luste*
of painting things celestial and angelic and striving t<
embody the mysterious in religion, or portraying courts,
kings, queens, and titled potentates in government, creat-
ures famous in mythology, and scenes renowned in pom-
pously written history, the Dutch artists, without negled
ing the nobler themes and persons, cared more for reality.
They brought theology and the gospel down to earth, evei
into the boer's hut. They painted the civilian dipli
matists and burghers who had beaten Philip's veteram
They pictured the faces of women able to build and mi
age the best orphanages and hospitals in Europe. The]
transfigured holy wedlock and honored the home, tin
wife, the mother, and the cradle. They dignified lal
and industry, and displayed the happy life of the vil
lagers. They revealed the beauties of dumb animals, am
showed the flat fields and water-courses of the land in
which safe-guarded freedom dwelt. Proud of their cou]
try, in which conscience was free, which the ocean an«
the tyrants obeyed, their artists delighted in the evei
1645] LITERARY TRAITS 831
varying sky and air, with sun-glow and shade and splen-
dor of cloud and rainbow, which seemed to them the con-
stant messages of the Father in Heaven.
The national literature shows the same traits. The
"accepted version," or States-General Bible, which, after
nearly a century of indirect and twenty years of direct
preparation, appeared in 1637, was welcomed with popu-
lar and ecclesiastical approval. In one generation it had
almost wholly displaced all previous versions. Perhaps
of all European translations of the Hebrew scriptures, the
Dutch is the most literally faithful, and in many passages
the most exquisitely felicitious, while no rendering of the
Greek of the New Testament is more thoroughly honest.
There is a faithfulness to the original text, a raciness of
expression, and a freedom from tradition that are charac-
teristic of the men to whom this version was vernacular.
When the luxury and ease following the great peace set
in, the brilliant period of Dutch literature declined for
nearly a century, and no revival of letters is noted until
the closing years of the eighteenth century. The impor-
tations from the Orient of beneficent and noxious seeds,
of intoxicating liquors, and of destructive vermin that
drilled and destroyed the dikes, while doubling the de-
lights also multiplied the plagues of the Dutchmen. Life
was enriched with many comforts, but, after a long period
of heroic endeavor, a reaction set in, and, despite the mul-
tiplication of things brilliant and joy-giving, during the
latter part of the seventeenth and the whole of the un-
heroic eighteenth century there was decline in the Dutch
character. The national art galleries and portraitures
distinctly show a change in the type of face from that
of the hero to that of the bargain - maker and ordinary
citizen.
CHAPTER X
NAVAL WARS WITH ENGLAND
THE dawn of peace found the prosperous young repub-
lic enjoying the benefits and imperilled by the dangers of
party government ; the stadholder and the people at large
forming the Orange or Unionist party, and the burghers
and aristocratic element making up the patriot or anti-
Orange party. The relations between Holland and Eng-
land became very close through the marriage of the stad-
holder with the daughter of Charles Stuart. The execu-
tion of that monarch in England had been protested I
against by the Dutch envoy in London, and when it had
been consummated, it aroused deep popular sympathy
with " King Charles the Martyr " — as he is called in the
Book of Common Prayer — and with his two young sons
who were refugees in the Netherlands. The States-Gen- j
eral refused a public audience to Walter Strickland, the
English ambassador. An alliance between the two repub-
lics was now proposed by the English Parliament, which
sent over Isaac Dorislaus — the advocate-general of the
tribunal that had condemned Charles Stuart to death.
Dorislaus, the son of a Dutch domiue in Enkhuizen, had
lectured on history at Gresham College in the University
of Cambridge, and had there been silenced because of his
free opinions, which were not palatable to a Stuart King, j I
To appoint such an envoy, for the noble purpose of cement-
ing in alliance the English Commonwealth and the Dutch
United States, when the Hague swarmed with runaway ad-
herents to the fallen royal cause, seems now to have been
a strangely unwise act. On the second day after his
arrival, while Dorislaus was at his lodging in the Hotel
1650] A COMPLICATED SITUATION 833
de Zwaan, four masked assassins, followers of the Earl of
Montrose, entered, and having first mortally wounded by
mistake a Dutch gentleman, killed Dorislaus.
Holland offered a reward for the discovery of the vil-
lains, put Strickland under its protection, and sent an
agent to London ; but the national legislature was languid
about punishment, and still gave no audience to Strick-
land. The rulers of the English Commonwealth were
greatly irritated and offended by this act, which seemed
an unfriendly one. It was wrongly suspected in England
that the murderers had escaped by connivance of the
Dutch. The States-General refused to recognize the new
English government, and thereupon Albert Joachim, the
Dutch minister at London, was ordered to leave the coun-
try, and thus his long and honorable career in England
was terminated. On the Dutch side, the causes of this
lack of harmony between the National Congress and the
legislature of the greatest of the Dutch states, and be-
tween the Republic of the United Netherlands and the
Commonwealth of England, are easily discovered. They
had their roots in the jealousy of Friesland and Zeeland
because of Holland's preponderance in the Eepublic, and
in the fear of Holland lest these two maritime, national-
istic and ultra-Calvinistic, provinces should increase in
power. The situation was complicated by the apparent
determination of the stadholder, William the Second, who
had succeeded to his father's office in 1647, to destroy
the liberties of the country and to introduce virtual
monarchy. In many ways — civil, military, and political —
the struggle between " the first servant of the States-Gen-
eral," now striving for despotic mastery, and Holland,
the sturdy maintainer of state-right, went on.
Of the various lands, colonies, and possessions of the
Dutch nation, the seven states constituted the Union,
all outside being the Generality. The exact limitations
of authority in the Generality, whether in Europe, in the
countries touching the seven states, or in America, Africa,
or Asia, had not been settled, as there had been but few
occasions for conflict of jurisdiction, despite the vast
colonial expansion of the Dutch. However, in April,
53
834 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1650
1650, Captain Witte C. de Witte, of the West India Com-
pany, returned home without consent of his local superiors
in Pernambuco, and he was arrested by the stadholder as
admiral-general of the Union. This immediately precipi-
tated the question whether he should be tried before a
commission appointed by the States-General, or, as Hol-
land demanded, by the ordinary courts. The matter
ended in the defeat of the Prince of Orange. Holland
also attempted to obtain a reduction of the national army,
and the irritated stadholder opposed the act as a blow
directed at his authority. In the ensuing complications,
William the Second, evidently aping the act of Charles
Stuart of England in dealing with refractory members of
Parliament, had six members of the Holland legislature ar-
rested and confined in the Castle of Loevenstein. He
carried out his high-handed usurpations of power by con-
centrating the army to inflict chastisement upon Amster-
dam, and actually commenced to besiege that city, thus
virtually beginning civil war. The municipal magistrates,
however, gave the stadholder a taste of their determined
spirit by cutting some of the dikes and flooding the
land. This foiled the usurper, who, to the gain of con-
stitutional liberty and to the loss of a party rather than
the nation, fell a victim to his own intemperance. He
died of over-eating after the heat and fatigue of hunting,
on November 6, 1650. Eight days afterwards, William
the Third, destined to be of "ever blessed memory," was
born. For twenty years the Dutch United States were to
exist and flourish without a stadholder, as a parliamen-
tary republic.
In foreign politics, France now seemed to be more dan-
gerous than Spain, for the latter was becoming weak and
the former was gaining strength. Both the plan of Car-
dinal Mazarin for peace and the prospective marriage be-
tween Louis the Fourteenth, the young king, and the
daughter of the king of Spain, contemplated granting the
Spanish Netherlands as a dowry, and there were fears lest
in this dowry would be included the Kepublic itself.
The great State of Holland now took advantage of the
situation to introduce a radical change in politics. It
1650] CHANGING THE NATIONAL FLAG 835
attempted to settle the troubles over the military by pre-
venting the election of a captain-general of the Union,
and of a stadholder in most of the provinces. During
this era of the stadholderless republic, the two political
forces, state-sovereignty and opposition to the House of
Orange, received their strongest expression.
A change was made even in the national flag, by sub-
stituting red for the orange in the three horizontal stripes,
so that it became permanently and officially red, white,
and blue. Hitherto, the first stripe in the flag had been
either orange or red. Theories as to the origin of the
Dutch flag take their form according to the political
prepossessions of the writers or disputants. Those con-
tending for its "princely origin" declare that orange
was the original primary band, while those urging a popu-
lar genesis say that red was always the first stripe. One
theory states that in the fifth century, at Paris, when
the emblem of revolution was raised against the oppres-
sive Roman authority, it was of red, white, and blue, in
perpendicular lines. In the sixteenth century these same
colors, set horizontally, seem quite certainly to have been
adopted as the symbol of union among the various Dutch
provinces revolting against Spain, though the color of
orange often took the place of the red to show emphatic
loyalty to the House of Orange. The banners under which
the first battles of the Dutch Revolution were fought were
various, with inscriptions, such as Pro rege, pro lege, pro
grege (for the king, for the law, for the commonwealth) ;
or with emblems, as of the mother - pelican feeding its
young with her bosom -blood. The Prinsenvlag, or flag
of the Prince of Orange — the English word flag being de-
rived directly from the Dutch vlag — was that of his house,
containing his arms, which show the colors orange and
gold, as well as red, white, and blue. Often, indeed, in
the first years of the Eighty Years' War, the orange color
alone was used, as a sufficient symbol of defiance, but in
the early pictures and relics we see the tri-color — orange,
white, and blue — in stripes parallel with the trumpet on
which the colors hang, or at right angles with the flag-
staff on which they fly. From about the time of the
336 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1652
Declaration of Independence, in 1581, down to the tri-
umph of the anti-stadholderal party in 1650, the national
flag was orange, white, and blue (oranje, blanche, bleu).
Sometimes the tri-color was repeated on the same battle
standard seven times, making a flag of twent}r-one stripes,
and flags of various sets of tri-colors, having from four to
seventy stripes, are also known. So also, in its tints, was
the flag of the East India Company, or "Jan Companie"
(John Company), as the great trading corporation was
popularly termed. In 1652 the flag of the Dutch United
States, of which the colors were red, white, and blue, was
officially flown. This change was significant of the fact
that the House of Orange, while honored in many ways
and bound to the nation by a thousand ties of popular
gratitude, was of far less importance than the nation
itself. In the Dutch navy, the flag had always been one
of seven red and white stripes, one for each state in toke:
of the Union.*
Unfortunately, the two republics, Dutch and English,
which ought to have been friends and mutual helpers in
the cause of freedom, were alienated because of commer-
cial jealousies of long growth. The occasion of direct
quarrel was the insult to the English ambassador at the
Hague who was refused audience, as we have seen. The
proposal of an alliance between the republics failed. The
English had long desired to win from the Dutch the car-
rying-trade of the seas. Furthermore, " England, from the
days of the Plantagenets, had claimed the sovereignty of
what she was pleased to call the British seas, and had
compelled the shipping of other nations to acknowledge
her supremacy by dipping flag and sail in the presence
of an English man-of-war/'f After a mutual restrictive
treaty between Denmark and the Republic, the English
government passed the Navigation Act, which struck a
* See the three pamphlets, " De Oorsprung der Nederlandsche Vlag,"
door D. G. Muller, Amsterdam, 1862 ; same title, door T. Ter Gouw, Am-
sterdam, 1863; and "De Prinselijke Afkomst der Nederlandsche Vlag Ge-
handhaafd," door T. Ter Gouw, Amsterdam, 1864 ; and Brave Little Holland,
pp. 216-219.
f S. W. Gardiner's Cromwell's Place in History, p. 72.
DK RUYTER
1652] FIERCE FIGHTING AT SEA 837
direct blow at the carrying-trade of the Netherlands, for
it prohibited a foreign vessel from importing into Eng-
land the products of any country but its own. "The
Dutch had made themselves the champions of a liberal
amendment of the law of the sea ... vindicating the
principle that the flag should cover the goods."* At
this time probably nine out of every ten foreign vessels
entering English ports were Dutch, and floated the flag
of the Republic. Insult and rapine were quickly added
to this unfriendly act. The Dutch ships were seized, and
war followed. The hostile fleets, commanded by Admirals
Tromp and Blake, met in the Downs on May 29, 1652,
and a terrific battle of five hours followed, in which the
Dutch were worsted. Admiral Blake having destroyed
the Dutch fishing vessels, Admiral Marten Tromp was
again sent to attack him, but he was driven back by a
storm, and a still greater tempest awaited him in the fury
of the populace stirred up by the Orangists. He was
succeeded by Admiral de Ruyter, who met an English fleet
under Sir George Ayskue off Plymouth in August, 1652,
; and won a brilliant victory. In the Mediterranean, near
the island of Elba, the Dutch naval heroes, Van Galien
; and young Tromp, again made the flag of the Republic
i triumph. Blake was defeated by Admiral Witte de With.
At length, Tromp was once more restored to favor, and
with a fleet of one hundred and six ships he routed
Blake's inferior force off Dungeness, November 29, 1652.
According to tradition, Tromp then fastened a broom to
I his masthead, intimating that he had swept the enemy
from the sea.
This useless war was mutually injurious. Cromwell
had consented to it under the impression that Tromp had
deliberately insulted the English flag. Holland suffered
the more by losing her carrying-trade, in return for which
the captures of British ships by Dutch privateers made but
slight compensation.
The Orange party wanted further war, but the Holland
| party clamored for peace. There being no stadholder at
* S. W. Gardiner's Cromwell's Place in History, p. 71.
838 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1653
this time, John DeWitt, who, when but twenty-five years
of age, had been made pensionary of Holland, became in
February, 1653, the nominal chief executive of the Re-
public. Like Switzerland, a republic which has no per-
manent executive head, the Republic of the United Neth-
erlands was to be under DeWitt's guidance for twenty
years, stadholderless and governed by the States-General.
As their servant, DeWitt met the insulting demands of
England with a firm hand.
In the naval war which continued, the manifest superi-
ority of the English ships was demonstrated, the Dutch
vessels being smaller and lighter, and not so well equipped.
As in the naval campaign of 1812, when the English were
defeated by the Americans with their heavier ships and
guns and superior seamanship, so, in 1653, the Dutch, after
a long succession of victories at sea, were very much in
the same situation as were the English after Nelson's vic-
tories. Accustomed to success in old grooves of routine,
they failed to keep up with naval progress or with the
necessities of maritime war, and wherever valor on both
sides is equal, science will win the day.
The combined squadrons of Tromp, DeRuyter, Evert-
sen, and Floriszoon were pitted against Blake, Deane, and
Monk, in the channel, between Portland and the Isle of
Wight, February 28 and 29, 1653, and again in a two days'
battle off Nieuport and Dunkirk on the 12th and 13th of
the following June, both of which engagements resulted
indecisively. The Dutch admirals gave notice that they
would leave the service unless their warnings were heeded
by building ships and casting guns that could compete
with the English, who had made great strides in naval
science. The English now began to blockade the Dutch
coast at the mouths of the Zuyder Zee, the Texel, and the
Vlie, but when Tromp sallied out with his fleet of over a
hundred ships the blockade was broken. A desperate
battle was fought on the 10th of August, 1653, off the
coast of Holland, between Scheveningen and the mouth ;
of the Maas, in which Admiral Tromp was slain. Both
sides lost heavily and claimed the victory. It was now
the turn of the British to nail a broom at the masthead.
JOHN DE WITT
1654] THE PEACE OF WESTMINSTER 830
To Tromp was built at public expense a superb monu-
ment at Delft.
Both English and Dutch, being now heartily tired of
the war, sought mutual accommodation. Cromwell was
at the time Protector. He took part in the negotiations
preliminary to the Peace of Westminster, intimating that
no peace with the Republic was possible while the Prince
of Orange, so closely allied to the Stuarts, was likely to
get into power as stadholder. The Dutch agreed, April
23, 1854, to pay a half -million dollars for having seized
English vessels in the waters of Denmark, and eighteen
thousand dollars indemnity for the Amboyna outrages,
and to form a defensive alliance with the English Com-
monwealth. They further arranged matters of dispute
in the East Indies. Their humiliation was shown by their
agreeing to strike the Dutch flag in presence of English
men-of-war. Cromwell was determined that the House
of Orange should be excluded from all power in the Re-
public. This outrageous interference with Dutch politics
by a foreigner was only made possible by the deceit of
DeWitt, who concealed the matter from the States-Gen-
eral and had the measure passed secretly in the legislature
of Holland, which state was bound to prevent any member
of the House of Orange from becoming stadholder or com-
mander-in-chief of the Union. The measure was passed
May 4, 1054, and was the seed of many troubles, though
it gave DeWitt and the state-rights party a long lease of
power.
In the Northern War, or short naval campaign against
Sweden, owing to the blockade of the Sound, which in-
jured both Dutch and Danish commercial interests, Jacob
van Wassenaar Obdain, lieutenant-admiral of Holland, won
a victory, and the famous Admiral Witte de With was
killed. DeRuyter, who succeeded, negotiated a peace Avith
the Swedes, and this opened a new era of commerce for
the Dutch in the Baltic Sea. In the modern rebirth of
patriotism, the streets and avenues of the newer and fair-
er portions of Dutch cities are named after the heroes,
artists, poets, and other eminent sons and daughters of
the Fatherland. A typical instance, though but one of
g40 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1665
hundreds, is seen in the fact that Admiral Witte de With
is honored in having his name given to one of the finest
avenues in the great commercial city of Rotterdam, where
he was buried.
The radical change which occurred in the politics of
England, when Charles Stuart came to the throne in 1GGO,
caused fresh troubles for the Dutch United States. Al-
though Holland had repealed the act against the House
of Orange, which had a direct and personal significance
against his nephew, the new King had a great hatred of
the republican Dutch. Furthermore, the Duke of York,
his brother, coveting distinction as a conqueror, soon
found a pretext for a quarrel in the squabbles of the rival
Dutch and English traders on the coast of Africa. There
the future James the Second of England, destined to be the
last of the Stuart kings, seized a number of Dutch ships.
In time of peace, and with deliberate treachery, a British
squadron entered the Hudson river and compelled Stuy-
vesant to surrender the fort and city. New Amsterdam
became New York. About one-half of the Dutch inhabi-
tants of New Netherland, not caring to live under English
rule, crossed the sea to their Fatherland. Charles Stuart,
pursuing his further insolence and intermeddling in Dutch
politics, forced the question of lowering the Dutch flag to
his war ships, and demanded pledges that the young
Prince of Orange should be installed in his father's digni-
ties and powers as stadholder, captain, and admiral-gen-
eral.
John DeWitt, now expecting to strengthen the Republic
by making an alliance with Louis the Fourteenth, sent Ob-
dam with his fleet to meet that of the Duke of York. AVar
between the Republic and England was not declared until
March 4, 1665. In the decisive naval battle, which began
the " second English sea-war," fought off Lowestoft, the
most easterly town of England, on June 13, 1065, the
Dutch Vice-Admiral Kortnaar was slain. Admiral Van
Wassenaar Obdam's flag-ship, with commander and crew,
was blown up, and the Dutch lost nineteen ships, but the
Duke of York made no pursuit, and the fleet of the Repub-
lic was soon able to repair its loss,
1666] "THE DUTCH NELSON" 841
A mutiny broke out on the Dutch ships when the par-
tisans of Orange and the states failed to co-operate with each
other, and DeWitt was even charged with continuing the
war for his own selfish interest. The Orange sailors called
for the Prince of Orange to be made stadholder. DeWitt
was a lawyer. He lived in those days when commanders of
fleets were often army officers. Leaving the land and going
on deck,, he not only suppressed the mutiny but became a
first-class pilot., winning an astonishing success. The very
word "pilot"' (pijl-lood or pole-lead) pictures in its etymol-
ogy the leadsman of primitive days finding a path for the
ship by means of a pole, which afterwards by evolution be-
came the leaden sinker heaved or dropped by the man in
the boat or shrouds. At one time DeWitt actually travelled
to the Texel, went out in a boat, and with lead and line
found that with the aid of a southwesterly wind the " Span-
iard's gat," or hole, which even the pilots had believed
impassable, could be used as a channel. This water-way
has ever since been called " DeWitt's Deep." Through it
the pensionary took the great fleet, which was soon to win
a superb victory under " The Dutch Nelson," Michael De-
Ruyter, who, with his eighty-five men-of-war and sixteen
fire-ships, met General Monk's fleet of sixty large vessels
under the chalk cliffs of the North Foreland, in Kent.
The battle lasted four days, from June 11 to June 15,
1666. The English fleet, when on the point of destruc-
tion, was reinforced by Prince Rupert, who came up with
twenty-five vessels. Both DeRuyter and Cornelius Tromp,
son of the dead hero, fought with amazing courage. In this,
the heaviest sea-fight known in British waters, chain shot,
said to have been invented by John DeWitt, was intro-
duced into naval warfare and made terrible devastation in-
the British fleet, which finally escaped in a fog. Again,
on the 25th of July, DeRuyter and Tromp, with eighty-
eight ships, met Monk and Rupert, who had the same force
as before. This time, however, bitter political quarrels in
the Dutch fleet, and the recklessness of Tromp, who quar-
relled with DeRuyter, gave the British such tremendous
advantage that they won the victory. Nevertheless, De-
Ruyter soon got his fleet of seventy vessels to sea again,
842 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1666
and in June, 1666, under the orders of DeWitt, who was
determined to compel a peace, he went up the Thames
river as far as Chatham, destroying much shipping, spread-
ing consternation throughout London, and terrorizing the
whole coast. This triumph, together with his troubles at
home, brought the English King to his senses, and the
corrupt and extravagant monarch, renouncing the ridic-
ulous claims which had been the cause of the war, in-
structed his commissioners to sign the Peace of Breda,
July 1, 1666, and to enter into a defensive alliance with
the Republic.
At this time, just one century after the Dutch had
raised the flag of revolt against Spain, and Alva's veterans
had marched into the Netherlands to devastate them even
as the Turk had devastated Asia Minor, the triumphant
Republic, having a population of between two and three
millions, was one of the great powers of Europe. Spain,
however, had become more like a poor and miserable
dotard. With its population reduced from twenty to six
millions, it was unable any longer to send out bands of
conquerors to America or powerful armies over Europe.
At this time of Spanish weakness, when France was rising
in its golden age of strength, Louis the Fourteenth invaded
the Belgic Netherlands. • John DeWitt and his party, uncer-
tain of the stability of either King Charles's promises or of
his hold upon his throne, proposed the famous Triple Al-
liance between Great Britain, the United Netherlands, and
Sweden, in order to curb the power of Louis the Fourteenth
and compel him to peace. England was especially desir-
ous of accomplishing this as soon as possible, and Sir Will-
iam Temple urged it with his powerful abilities. DeWitt
violated the constitution by securing the signatures of the
States-General before the states particular had been con- ,
suited, and thus committed the very sin for which Mau-
rice, Frederick Henry, and the stadholder William had
been so violently condemned. Again the defects of the
Dutch constitution became glaring alike to friend and en-
emy. When the question arose concerning the command
of the Dutch army to be levied for the proposed campaign
in the Spanish Netherlands, DeWitt desired to have the
1672] ANOTHER INVASION 843
offices of stadholder and Captain-General of the Union
separated, and thereupon Holland passed the Perpetual
Edict which abolished the stadholderate and disqualified
all captains and admirals from accepting any such office,
even if solicited to do so. This action of Holland pro-
voked intense indignation among the Orange party, and,
as the course of events proved, accomplished the destruc-
tion of the State-Rights party.
The tripartite treaty, however, was short-lived, for
Charles Stuart sold himself to the King of France, and
Sweden withdrew from the alliance. John DeWitt now
prepared to meet the attack, which he knew could not
be long delayed ; for the two monarchies were leagued to
crush the parliamentary republic. Louis the Fourteenth
moved quickly, and with probably the finest regularly
equipped army which Europe had seen since that of Alva.
Directed by Conde and Turenne, he crossed the Rhine
with great spectacular display. This performance, though
there was none to oppose it, seemed so magnificent to the
numerous French orators, poets, and historians who ac-
companied the host, that they celebrated it in a bulky liter-
ature.
In the distracted political situation of the Republic,
this army of one hundred thousand men quickly over-
ran the three states of Gelderland, Utrecht, and Over-
yssel. When within three leagues of Amsterdam the
invaders were obliged to pause, because the Dutch threat-
ened once more to open the dikes and put their country
under water, rather than be crushed by a tyrant. More-
over, DeRuyter met the combined fleets of the allies in
Solebay, May 28, 1672, and scattered them, whereupon
the Netherlander took fresh hope. The States- General,
however, against the appeals of Amsterdam, proposed
humiliating terms of submission, which the pride-swollen
French King rejected.
From the east, the fighting Bishop of Munster, an ally
of Louis the Fourteenth, invaded Drenthe, occupied Coe-
vorden and besieged Groningen. The people at large now
rose in wrath, and determined to die in the last ditch
rather than submit to the dictation of the two monarchies.
344 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1672
Holland repealed the Perpetual Edict and, acting with
Zeeland, elected William, the yonng Prince of Orange, to
be stadholder and military commander-in-chief of the
Union, and Utrecht, Overyssel, and Gelderland followed
their example ; while Henry Casimir, who was destined
to become the ancestor of the dynasty now reigning in
the Netherlands, became stadholder of Friesland, Gron-
ingen, and Drenthe.
In this dark hour of invasion, the DeWitt brothers,
John and Cornelius, were accused of selling the country
to France, and were murdered, August 20, 1672, during
a popular outburst in the interests of the House of Orange,
at the Gevangepoort, in the Hague. The new stadholder,
William the Third, disgracefully failed to have the ring-
leaders of this riot brought to justice. After twenty
years of parliamentary rule, of federal government with-
out a president, and according to the clumsy model
adopted nearly a century before, the State-Rights party, in
presence of the dangers that threatened the very life of
the Eepublic, ceased to exist.
La Fevre Pontalis, who has written the life of John
DeWitt and the history of these " twenty years a parlia-
mentary republic," fitly says:
" In making the Grand Pensionary DeWitt a scapegoat
for her disasters, the republic of the United Provinces
deprived themselves of a great minister who, instead of
making her dependent, only desired to serve her. Re-
duced to the last extremity, she found in William the
Third a liberator, but also a master, who, by imposing upon
her the authority of a sovereign, made her, in a measure,
pay a ransom for her freedom. Freed from foreign do-
minion by William the Third, who followed the glorious
example of his ancestors, they were preserved by John De-
Witt from internal subjection. He contributed also to
insure them the enjoyment of a free government, perpetu-
ated after him in a race of patriotic and popular princes.
His work did not, therefore, altogether perish with him,
but, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, has sur-
vived him."
Between the spirit of William the Third and that of .the
1673] MORE NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS 845
Dutch people there was now perfect harmony. Once more
letting in the waves of the sea over their homes, they gave
the French invader an object-lesson and proof that to
them liberty was more than life. Like the illustrious
William of Orange, his grandson now began to organize
victory out of defeat, as he opened his lifelong war for
representative government against despotism. William
believed heartily in that ancient Dutch freedom which
had had its existence before the Kings of Spain emerged
from their obscurity as noblemen in Castile; in that Eng-
lish liberty which had existed under law when the Stuarts
were only Norman barons living near Oswestry, in Shrop-
shire, and before they went to Scotland to seek their fort-
unes ; and even in the rights of Frenchmen which were
known when the Bourbons were only the owners of a
castle in Bourbonnais.
Again the Dutch kept their red, white, and blue flag
floating on the ocean, despite the alliance of the two great
monarchies to crush the Eepublic. In the summer of
1673 DeRuyter and Tromp, having become reconciled,
fought two battles against the allies, one on June 7th and
another June 14th, off the coast of Zeeland, the result of
which was that the coast of that province was saved from
French invasion. A third and last battle, which ended
the long struggle for the supremacy of the English and
Dutch upon the seas, was fought off Kykduin, near Den
Helder in North Holland, August 21, 1673. DeEuyter
had but seventy-five ships, and the allies twice that num-
ber. The British, however, did all the fighting while the
French looked on. During this engagement the English
Admiral Spragne left the hnndred-gun flag -ship Royal
Prince, and in an open boat attempted to reach another
vessel ; but the boat was demolished by a cannon-ball,
and he was drowned. In the former naval campaign, the
Orange and DeWitt partisans had divided the counsels
and weakened the power of the Republic, but now the
tables were turned and the Dutch profited by the divisions
and jealousies which existed among the allies, and even in
the English fleet itself. Indeed, the war was very unpop-
ular with the English sailors, who fought only half-heart-
846 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1676
edly. A Dutch admiral, Cornelius Evertsen, on August
9, 1673, recaptured ~N"ew York City, which was thereupon
called New Orange. During the war the Dutch privateers
took over twenty-eight hundred prizes from their enemies.
Peace, however, stopped all further victories by the
Dutch, and both the British and the Netherlander agreed
to restore the places captured by them during the war.
King Charles had been brought to terms by the Parlia-
ment's refusal to vote supplies for the war. In the Re-
public the King of France yielded up the three provinces
of Gelderland, Overyssel, and Utrecht, but in a way that
seemed more like the transference of a personal estate
from one owner to another rather than an international
transaction, while, in an extreme reaction from the poli-
tics of DeWitt, Holland and Zeeland made the office of
stadholder and military-commander hereditary in the House
of William the Third. Gelderland went still further, and
offered to make him a sovereign duke. This proposal so
excited the burghers of Amsterdam that a financial panic
was produced. In spite of his secret vexation, William
was obliged to decline the tempting prize. That both the
Dutch Republic and William the Third had profited by the
lessons taught by John DeWitt was now evident. " Po-
litical freedom had taken such firm root during the va-
cancy of the stadholdership that it maintained its hold
even upon those who would have wished to put it down."
As admiral - general of the Union, William neglected
the navy — a mistaken policy which led to the loss of De-
Ruyter, that greatest of Dutch naval commanders, in
whom the sea-power of the Republic seemed to have been
incarnated. He had protested against being sent to the
Mediterranean with a poorly equipped fleet of only eigh-
teen vessels, but was overruled. Subsequently, having
encountered a superior force of twenty French men-of-
war under the shadow of Stromboli, near Sicily, April 22,
1676, he gallantly attacked them, and after a three days'
fight the French were driven off ; but De Ruyter received
a mortal wound. He was sixty-six years of age at the
time of his death. Admiral DuQuesne, whom none but
the French ever believed was victorious in this fight, be-
1678] THE WAR ENDED 847
came the theme of extravagant praise, and, after him his
countrymen in America named a fort which they had built
on the present site of Pittsburg. A magnificent marble
memorial of DeEuyter was erected in the New Church in
Amsterdam, and many avenues in the modern enlarge-
ments and elegant new quarters of Dutch cities take their
names from this hero, whose character was as noble as his
deeds were illustrious. He was one of the greatest naval
heroes of all time. The Peace of Nymegen, signed August
10, 1678, ended the war.
While these great movements in war and politics were
going on, the Dutch were also active in many seas dis-
covering, trading, fighting, and exploring. They ex-
tended their East-Indian Empire and commerce, and laid
the foundations of republics in South Africa upon which
the British were afterwards to build a mighty superstruc-
ture. Amsterdam was the chief commercial city of the
world, having the first bank in northern Europe, and that
eighth wonder of the world, its City-hall, now the Palace,
built on 13,659 piles. Flushing, Middelburg, Dordrecht,
Ley den, Delft, Vlaardingen, and Enkhuizen were also
great centres of trade. The village of Smeerenburg was
built on Spitzbergen, on account of the whale fisheries in
the Arctic seas. Seventeen hundred fishing smacks were
employed in the herring fisheries. The great ship-yards
of Zaandam, the vast bleacheries of Haarlem, the cloth
factories of Leyden, the Delft blue earthenware, the dia-
mond cutters and polishers of Amsterdam, the type foun-
dries, printing and book - making in many towns, the
Hollandish and Frisian cattle, butter, and cheese, the im-
proved wind-mills, the Gouda pipes, tiles, and bricks, the
abundance of cheap books, the variety and richness of
ordinary food and dress, the newspapers, the good roads,
the swift water traffic — all these were the wonder of
Europe.
CHAPTER XI
MOVEMENTS OF THOUGHT
MEANWHILE the intellect of the people was intensely
active. The Universities of Leyden, Franeker, Groningen,
Utrecht, Amsterdam, and of Harderwijk (which was found-
ed in 1648 in celebration of the great peace), were filled with
students, and their brilliant faculties were rich in names
which are now known in every land.
The stndy of theology was particularly active. The
futility of attempting to check the growth of the human
mind by the clamps of logical formulae was soon made
manifest. The theology of the Protestant Netherlands,
which has so powerfully influenced Great Britain and
America, has defects which are but common to that of a
political church, but it was and it is especially vitiated in
its divine quality when made the engine of party politics.
Thus employed, theology is frightfully productive of viru-
lence, envy, hatred, malice, and all nncharitableness. After
the one signal interference of the Reformed Dutch Church
in governmental affairs, through the National Synod of
1618, by which Calvinism became triumphant through
political craft and was declared to be the substance of the
Reformed religion and the creed of the nation, Nemesis
came in the form of Rene Descartes.
This thinker, born in France, March 31, 1596, had,
when a college student, resolved to efface from his mind
all scholastic dogmas and the prejudices due to his edu-
cation, to reject the authority of books, and to admit only
that which was confirmed by reason and experience. He
went to the Protestant Netherlands and entered the
Dutch army under Maurice in 1631. He was for five
1678] JOHANNES KOCH 849
years a soldier and for eight more a traveller, or in retire-
ment. In 1629 he made his home in Holland, which had
the most intellectual atmosphere then known to Europe.
His important discoveries in algebra and geometry length-
ened the lives of mathematical inquirers. By his book
published in 1641 he gave a wonderful impulse to philo-
sophical inquiry and wrought changes in metaphysical
thought greater than were ever produced by any other
modern philosopher. Through his innovations and para-
doxes he startled the theologians and the Aristotelians,
and greatly alarmed not only the Cardinals at Kome but
also the inheritors of scholasticism in the Netherlands.
The new philosophy of doubt refreshed the mind of
Johannes Koch, born in Bremen in 1603, whose name in
Latin form is Coccejus. He studied Hebrew with a Eabbi,
and Greek with a native Grecian. He was called, when
twenty-seven years old, to a professorship at Franeker. He
subsequently filled the chair of oriental languages in the
same Frisian University, and was afterwards appointed to
the chair of theology in Ley den, where he remained until
1669, dying in his sixty-seventh year. After Erasmus,
Coccejus may be called the father of modern biblical criti-
cism. He believed in setting forth Christian theology with-
out reference to Aristotle, or the pagans, or mediaeval or
modern philosophers, but based upon the Scriptures only.
Almost as a matter of course, he was bitterly denounced
by the scholastic theologians, who, out of a mixture of
Greek philosophy, Roman logic and polity, and with texts
taken largely from the Old Testament, had built up sys-
tems of what they called "Christian" theology — systems
which were enforced by the military, by the inquisition,
or by what was called church discipline. Coccejus framed
a system of theology on the idea of "covenants" between
God and man, of works, and of grace, which are set forth
in the Old and the New Testaments. Though his " fed-
eral system " has many vagaries and fancies, both personal
and belonging to his age, Coccejus gave a tremendous im-
pulse to biblical study and to Christian theology.
The chief opponents of Coccejus were those who main-
tained that theological type of instruction created by the
M
g50 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1678
schoolmen Lombard, Aquinas, and Dun Scotus, in which
abstruseness, logic, and the amazing lengthening out of
conclusions were delighted in. These saw in the theories
of Descartes, and in what they imagined to be their appli-
cation by Coccejus, great peril to the Church and the souls
of men. The stern maintainer of the traditional forms of
the faith was Gysbart Voet, born at Heusden in 1588,
whose Latinized name was Voetius. He was made profess-
or of theology at Utrecht in 1634. He identified the
teachings of Calvin and Beza with the substance of Chris-
tianity and the Bible, though he drew his explanations of
holy scriptures from the writings of the schoolmen. He
began his battle against the Cartesian system in 1639.
"With tremendous zeal, and having great practical power in
the Eeformed Church, he fought a life-long battle not
only against Coccejus but also against all whom he deemed
sectarians, whether Romanists, Remonstrants, Arians, So-
cinians, Baptists, Lutherans, Schismatics or Freethink-
ers, and died in 1676, at the age of eighty-eight.
From the universities the controversy passed into poli-
tics and into social life, and assumed curious forms with
comical phases, the women becoming as much interested
as were the men. The lines of division showed them-
selves even in the fashions of clothes and caps, in the
matter of personal and household adornment, and in a
grave or a gay style of keeping Sunday. The Coccejans
were to be found mostly among the burghers and aristo-
cratic classes, who in politics were opposers of the s tad-
holder and the Orangists.
On the other hand, the common people considered Pro-
fessor Voet to be the champion of orthodoxy. William
the Third took the side of the Voetians, and often made
magistrates and ministers feel both his lawful power and
his abuse of it as well. All through their history as a re-
public, and even as a kingdom, the Dutch, with the best
record of all the European nations for toleration and free-
dom in religion, have sullied their reputation, again and
again, by allowing their politicians to meddle with the
conscience, and by permitting their religious teachers to
dishonor the Master who declared that His kingdom was
1678] RELIGIOUS DISAGREEMENTS 851
not of this world. Like all disturbances and scandals in
the Fatherland, the oscillations of these controversies
were felt at the ends of the earth, where the Dutch had set-
tled. The first ordination on American soil of a clergyman
occurred in 1679, in the Dutch Reformed Church at New
Amstel on the Delaware river. The four Dutch pastors who
formed a classis for the purpose of ordination were Cocce-
jans, while the candidate, Rev. Petrus Tassemacher, was a
Voetian, who, however, was acceptable, although he was
bitterly criticised by the two Labadists who came from
the Netherlands to settle a colony of their coreligionists
in the Hudson river region. Tassemacher was toma-
hawked by the Indians at the massacre of Schenectady,
February 8, 1690, during the war between France and
England and Holland, when that frontier village in the
" Far "West " was the theme of grave debate between Ver-
sailles, London, and the Hague.
In the senate-room at the University of Utrecht one
may see a portrait of Voet, painted by Rembrandt, and in
St. Peter's Church, at Leyden, there is a marble bust of
Coccejus. Contemporaneous with Descartes and the pro-
gressive and reactionary theology which he stimulated
were the Labadists, who had no hope that Christianity
could ever reach its ideal in a church torn asunder by
party strife, and who thirsted for more spirituality in re-
ligion. Driven out of France by Cardinal Mazarin, Joan
Maldee Labadie, who was born February 13, 1610, in the
Roman communion, first joined the Jansenists of Port
Royal, then went to Orange, the capital of Orange-Nassau,
and afterwards to London and Geneva. In the Swiss city
he met the brother of the most learned woman then in the
Netherlands, Anna Maria Schurman, famous for her
knowledge of languages and philosophy. Before her
house to-day in Utrecht is a tablet in honor of her fame.
After five years' correspondence between this lady and the
great mystic, Labadie came to Utrecht, preaching on the
way at Middelburg to vast crowds, but he was expelled by
the magistrates. He gathered an independent congrega-
tion at Veere, an ancient town of the Scotch " staple " or
trade-monopoly, and there he preached to increasing mul-
852 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1678
titudes, and soon became a cause of trouble between the
two cities. When the people of Veere and Middelburg
were almost ready for war, he retired peaceably and came
to Amsterdam, where Maria Schurman joined him — "a,
second Paula, bound in a platonic friendship to this second
Jerome." Anna Maria Schurman left the Reformed
Church and joined the Labadists. The Amsterdam mag-
istrates, at the instigation of the Reformed pastors, now
interfered, with prohibitions against joining the sect.
From that time forth its prosperity waned ; but the fire
kindled by the Labadian mystics was used to light other
lamps, and many of the Labadists became members of the
Society of Friends.
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, after writ-
ing his celebrated defence of toleration, entitled The Great
Cause of Liberty of Conscience, made his second journey
through his mother's native country, the Dutch United
States, where he met Anna Maria Schurman. Penn spoke
Dutch as well as English — for he was the son of a Dutch
mother, Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam — and, preaching to
the Labadists and the Mennonites, was able to persuade
some of the best families of the Republic to join him in his
experiment of a godly commonwealth in Pennsylvania. In
Friesland he not only imbibed many ideas from the Dutch
social and political system, which he embodied in the con-
stitution of Pennsylvania, but he also gathered many new
recruits of the best sort suited to aid him in founding a
noble state eminently free from mediaeval dogmas. Penn
drew from the auspicious example of the Dutch federal
republic the idea and ground-work for his Plan for the
Peace of JZurope,"* or treatise on the federation of Chris-
tendom, or the United States of Europe, in which he ad-
vocated the settlement of international questions without
war. He thus definitely anticipated that tribunal of arbi-
tration between civilized nations which the twentieth cen-
tury may yet realize as a fact and a fulfilment of common
Christianity.
Free intellect, having been driven out of Spain and the
* Reprinted in Old South Leaflets, No. 75 : Boston, 1896.
1678] PROSPERITY AT AMSTERDAM 853
Spanish Netherlands, found refuge in the tolerant Dutch
Eepublic. Cornelius Jansen, born near Leerdam, in South
Holland, October 28, 1585, was educated at the Univer-
sity of Utrecht, and studied theology at Louvain, where,
in 1630, he held the chair of scriptural interpretation.
From this year he formulated the system of doctrines as-
sociated with his name, and which were afterwards ex-
panded and defended by the Port Koyalists. His scheme
is one of many attempts to interpret Jesus through Augus-
tine, and to apply the enginery devised and initiated by
the Bishop of Hippo to the Church of Christ. Jansen-
ism, which Ultramontane writers view as a mitigated form
of Calvinism ; which Jesuits regard as " the most sub-
tile reptile that ever attached itself to the side of Belgian
Catholicism," and which others consider to be a sort of
Catholic Puritanism,* having first attracted the anathe-
mas of the Jesuits and drawn the lightning of the Vati-
can, was expelled from France by Louis the Fourteenth,
who enforced the papal decisions in the Unigenitus bull
of 1713. It afterwards found a home in Utrecht, where
its Archbishop resides, ruling over twenty-seven con-
gregations. Their theological school is at Amersfoort,
and they call themselves Old Catholics.
Refugees from England, southern and western Europe,
Germany, and Russia also found a home and welcome in
the land of William the Silent. Many of them were like
harmless doves flying before the hawks of persecution.
The Israelites from Portugal flocked in large numbers to
Amsterdam, after expulsion from their native country,
during the first half of the seventeenth century. With
the German Jews they found a second Jerusalem on the
banks of the Amstel, where, by means of trade, and es-
pecially in the cutting and polishing of diamonds, they
gained vast wealth. They made this northern Venice
the centre of the diamond industry of the world, erected
their own charitable and devotional institutions, and built
imposing temples. In the political struggles between the
* See The Church in the Netherlands (p. 297), by R. H. Ditchfield : Lon-
don, 1893.
854 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1678
stadholders and the anti-Orange party, they almost always
took the part of the former. While Descartes, Coccejus,
and Voetins were in their prime, though before the
great controversy associated with the names of these men
had broken out, there was born in the house of a Portu-
guese Jew, in Amsterdam, a child named Baruch de Spin-
oza, or, as Latinized, Benedict Spinoza, whose spirit even
to this day lives pre-eminent in the world of pure thought,
while his statue adorns the capital of the nation that is
proud to own him as her child. He was a bright boy,
and was given by his father an education which led him
through the cycle of rabbinic and mediaeval Hebrew liter-
ature to the Old Testament, the commentaries, and the
writings of the scholastics, and thence to the school of
Descartes. He was an honest Hebrew thinker, and be-
came a skeptic, even as the honest scholar of the Jesuits
had become a skeptic. Unable to retain the idea of God
as the cause and creator of the universe, and equally un-
able, with his Jewish mind, to accept the Christian con-
ception of God, he doubted all things and fell back upon
the pantheism of Substantiality. The nucleus of his sys-
tem of thought is found in his Ethics, around which his
other writings group themselves. According as he is ad-
mired or hated, he is looked upon as a thorough-going
monotheist or a pantheistic fatalist. Spinoza taught in
his Ethics, " Everything is in God ; nothing is outside of
God. Everything that exists is in God — the only possi-
ble subsistence. Nothing can be without or outside of
Him."
Spinoza was excommunicated August 6, 1666, with the
usual dramatic accessories which ecclesiastics supposed
necessary for the deterrence of error and the preservation
of faith and truth. The synagogue was lighted by thou-
sands of burning candles, painted black, which threw a
lurid glare into a cavity filled with blood. A mournful
voice was heard in a sort of chant, intoning the decree
of excommunication, and then the trumpet sounded in
loud blasts. As these ceased, anathemas were hurled at
the honest thinker, the candles were cast into the blood
and extinguished, and a loud amen confirmed the awful
1678] WITCHCRAFT DOOMED 855
curses heard by the deeply impressed multitude.* Spin-
oza died in 1677. In his lifetime a flood of books and
pamphlets was called fortli in answer to his writings, and
the leaven of his thought is still working, f
The Dutch United States was in this century the labo-
ratory of critical thought. While England closed her
universities to all except those able to wear the loose
ethical yoke of conformity, the Dutch Kepubfic made
conscience free and welcomed all law-abiding students
and inquirers. At Leyden, Utrecht, Franeker, and Har-
derwijk most of the clergy, physicians, and lawyers in the
free churches of England and America were educated.
The Dutch furnished scores of thinkers who, whether
crowned with the orthodox laurel or blasted by the anath-
emas of the Church, helped to enlarge the mind of the
race and to strike down great evils, thus becoming the
world's true benefactors. Scores of the best books written
in the English tongue were composed in the atmosphere
of the free Eepublic. Comenius, the educator, and at one
time president - elect of Harvard College ; Linnaeus, the
botanist ; John Locke, with his epistle on Toleration ; and
Daniel Neal, the historian, are but a few of the names,
shining with increasing lustre, of those who helped to
make that noble British republic, which lives disguised
under the fiction of monarchy.
The belief in witchcraft, one of the most awful mental
diseases and scourges of mankind, received its death-blow
in Holland. Whether among the pagan Semites, the an-
cient Hebrews or other Asians, in the timeless continent
of Africa from pre-historic aeons to our own era, or among
our own ancestors of Teutonic race, witchcraft has ex-
isted, since times long before organized religion, as a
destroyer of human peace, a darkener of social joys, the
paralysis of science arid progress. Witchcraft has been
epidemic among mankind in every age and clime. More
cruel than Moloch, it has sent millions of human beings
* Hansen's Reformed Church in the Netherlands, p. 230.
f To-day, the Library of the Cornell University contains the fullest set of
writings of, and concerning, the great philosopher.
856 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1678
to terror, torture, and death. The early Christian Church,
born into an atmosphere of belief and magic, seems never
to have questioned its reality. Her monotheism and her
identification of religion with ethics led her to look on
the gods of the heathen as devils and on their worship
as witchcraft. Her conversion of the Germanic peoples
brought' in a fresh host of demons. The nobler rational-
ism of Agobard of Lyons, who, in the ninth century, dared
to question the popular superstition, was superseded in
the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas gave its
ripest form to the mediaeval theology.
The system of Aquinas, which became the popular one
in the Netherlands, was transferred bodily from the Cath-
olic to the Reformed theology. The symmetry of his
scheme seemed to demand for the Devil an earthly follow-
ing not less numerous or loyal than God's faithful Church,
and bound to their Master by similar ties of worship and
service. After two centuries of inquisitorial sermons and
treatises, aided by the law and the judges, the Christian
Church began the persecution of witches, and the bulls
of the Pope sanctioned the worst charges of the witch-
hunters. Thousands were put to death on the charge of
witchcraft by Christian men who believed that thereby
they were doing God's service.* Spain and Scotland were,
perhaps, next to Germany, the lands which suffered most
from the delusion of witchcraft, though in England there
lacked neither witch-hunters, like James the Second, nor
witch-burners ; while in New England, among the Puri-
tans, though not among the Pilgrims, witch-hangers were
sufficiently numerous. Among the Pilgrims, who had
dwelt eleven years in the Netherlands, no such procedure
as the pursuit of witches was known. If the persecution
knew fiercer epidemics in Catholic communities, it was
more chronic in Protestant lands, and in the purely Eng-
lish colony at Salem, Massachusetts, it became a panic.
Though scepticism was never wanting, the first open
* My friend, Professor George Burr, of Cornell University and geograph-
er of the Venezuela Boundary Commission of 1896-97, has made this whole
subject his special study, and to his writings I am much indebted.
1678J CLERICAL SUPERSTITION 857
protest oame from Dr. Wierius, a physician at Grave, in
North Brabant, who published in 1563 his brave and no-
ble book, De Prcestigiis Dcemomim, exposing the absurd-
ity of belief in the supposed tricks of demons, and in
incantations and sorcery. Thus, out of the Netherlands
was raised the first voice to rebuke the hideous delusions
of the age and call a halt to that judicial murder of
multitudes which was then going on all over Europe. The
Dutch Republic was also the place of refuge for the hunt-
ed victims of this delusion — a hunt which often cloaked
malice and villany. A still higher honor was reserved
for the Dutch pastor, Balthazar Bekker, who struck, in
1691, the deadliest of all blows at this paganism lurking
under the shelter of Christianity, by his famous book,
Betooverde Wereld (the witch-haunted world), in which he
undermined the whole theory of human intercourse with
the Devil. Bekker was born in 1634 at Metslawier, in
Friesland, and served as domiue at Loenen, at Weesp,
and then in Amsterdam. In interpreting the Bible, he
refused to adopt the rules of either Coccejus or Voetius.
While his fellow-ministers in the Eeformed Church, dur-
ing the presence of a brilliant comet in the heavens, were
teaching the people that such an occasional visitor must
be regarded as a harbinger of great calamities, and were
quoting Scripture to sustain their views, Bekker published
at Leeuwarden an elaborate work on comets, protesting
against the popular and clerical superstition. Twelve
years later, after visiting many repulsive places in order
to hunt down to their source various ghost stories sup-
posed to be well authenticated, withal greatly helped and
encouraged by his wife, he published his famous work on
the "bewitched world," with the purpose of freeing his
fellow - Christians from that thraldom of unchristianlike
fear which they shared with Jews, Mohammedans, and pa-
gans. Exploring the whole ground, he showed great learn-
ing and familiarity with the Scriptures, but unfortunate-
ly called in the philosophy of Descartes to sustain his
views. Deposed from the ministry, the magistrates nev-
ertheless continued him to the last in the enjoyment of
his salary. This has ever been the glory of the Repub-
g58 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1678
lie, that, despite numerous private attempts to change
the noble record, intelligent laymen have ever been ready
to restrain the clergy, to rebuke bigotry, and make toler-
ation the public law of the land. " Bekkerism," as it was
called, disturbed those pagan traditions which had root-
ed themselves like tenacious parasites upon the Christian
Church, but civilization and purer Christianity now every-
where rejoice because Balthazar Bekker lived and taught.
Other theological developments in the Dutch churches
were manifested when rationalism was applied to the doc-
trine of the person of Christ, especially by Herman Alex-
ander Koell, born in 1653, who taught as minister at
Deventer, and was a professor at Franeker and Utrecht.
His opponent was the famous Vitringa. It may be said
that during the last quarter of the seventeenth century
and the first of the eighteenth philosophy, rather than
pure Christian theology, ruled in the pulpits of the Re-
formed Church; yet both have so influenced municipal
and state politics, and colored all Dutch history, that he
who tries to understand the Dutch people, whether in
Europe, America, or South Africa, without knowing the
intensity of their convictions, will fail to comprehend
either their motives or actions. This we shall see as we
proceed further. Nevertheless, despite individual excep-
tions and partisan extremes in both church and state,
critical science shows the Dutch Republic to have been
the original home of modern toleration and of that re-
ligions liberty which under God is the grandest proof of
the progress of the race.
The young Prince William of Orange married, on the
4th of November, 1677, Princess Mary, daughter of the
Duke of York, who was heir to the British throne. This
marriage was purely a state affair. William chose his
consort with the idea of securing the powerful alliance of
Great Britain, in order to carry out his life-long purpose
of foiling Louis the Fourteenth, who incarnated the war-
like policy and expectation of France to be paramount
in European politics. The hopes of France, since the
days of Henry the Fourth, have centred in the idea of
possessing the Netherlands and making the Rhine her
1686] THE LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG 859
frontier. None saw this more clearly than William. The
States - General, however, accepted the terms offered by
Louis, and so the stadholder consented to the peace of
Nymegen in July, 1678, which, through the bargain made
by Louis with Charles the Second, exposed the Spanish
Netherlands to the grasp of French ambition. At Nyme-
gen England was for the first time represented in a con-
tinental congress.
France was now the most formidable Power in Europe.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes caused thousands
of the best Protestant French families to find a home in
other lands. The Dutch Eepublic was notably enriched
with the blood and talents of these Huguenots, who in
many instances changed their names as well as their
speech to Dutch, while keeping their excellent character
and religion.
The invasion of the Spanish Netherlands by Louis the
Fourteenth was accompanied by frightful excesses, and
William, distrusting the "Roi Soliel," formed, in 1686, a
new coalition, called the League of Augsburg, by which
the German Empire, the Dutch Republic, Savoy, and Eng-
land formed a grand alliance, headed by William the
.Third, against France. The stadholder of the Dutch Re-
public was thus brought into direct personal contact with
British politics, and became the head of the interests of
Protestant freedom.
The Duke of York, on becoming King James the Sec-
ond, surpassed all the Stuarts in his vices, and a storm of
wrath, charged with the lightnings which the Parliament
of England held in its grasp, was gathering over him.
The English people have always been able to stand royal-
ty, so long as royalty behaves itself, as a good servant; but
James was playing the master and despot. William, after
trying to make peace between the King and his people,
determined to maintain the rights of his wife, especially
when he saw that his father-in-law was linking his fort-
unes to those of Louis the Fourteenth, the common ene-
my of England and Holland, and was leaning upon him for
support. He sent his trusted councillor, Dijkvelt, who,
with excellent address, won the confidence of the bishops
860 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1688
and statesmen, and also pleased and encouraged the peo-
ple. King James's continued infatuation with Eoman
ideas of government increased the popular discontent of
the English and warmed their general willingness to look
for a Dutch deliverer. When James Francis Edward
Stuart, the Prince of Wales, was born the end of forbear-
ance had come, for the English people decided to exter-
minate Stuart royalty, root and branch.
It now began to look in England as though politics,
which always makes strange bedfellows, had gone even
further into the realm of allegory. Those who had been
as different in opinions as are the appetites of the lion and
the calf in nature now began to act in accord with each
other. Those who had kept apart as wolves and sheep dwelt
in harmony before a common danger. The British nobles
and dignitaries of all parties united in a Macedonian in-
vitation to the Dutchmen to come over and help them.
Both Whigs and Tories were one in beckoning to the Prince
of Orange. Having the consent of Amsterdam and the
other cities which had previously opposed him, and ac-
companied by a splendid army of fifteen thousand men,
possibly half of whom were Huguenots, together with a
great fleet of five hundred ships, William the Third passed
out of the mouth of the Maas, and sailed past the Hook
of Holland, through the straits of Dover and into the Chan-
nel. While the royalist army was in the north of Eng-
land, in expectation of encountering the Dutch there,
William, having conducted his operations with great se-
crecy and skill, landed with his host at Torbay, in Devon-
shire, November 5, 1688. Unopposed he marched to Lon-
don, and entering that city, December 18th, in triumph,
he was hailed as a national deliverer and the greatest of
England's Christmas presents. Lord Somers, one of the
keenest students of Dutch history, and by whom, or under
whose supervision, the Dutch Declaration of Independence
of 1581 had been translated, was chairman of the parlia-
mentary committee which drew up the Declaration of
Eights. By this action of Parliament, which followed
the Dutch precedent, the worthless Prince was deposed
and the government was reorganized. William and his
1690] AN UNPOPULAR KING 861
wife, Mary, were made King and Queen, and were crowned
in Westminster Abbey, February 13, 1688. The Jacobins,
or adherents of James and of Spain, held out for some
time in Scotland and Ireland ; but the struggle ended in
Scotland when the Earl of Dundee died, and in Ireland
after the battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690 — a victory at
which William commanded in person.
Under the tolerant Dutch King, " the sour Calvinist "
of the London cockney and disappointed spoil-seekers, the
free churchmen of England were awarded something like
their rights. DeFoe's writings, which moulded English
public opinion, while powerfully aiding the throne on
which sat a Dutch ruler, pricked the bubbles of insular
conceit. His satire, A True-born Englishman, showing
the very much mixed blood in the composite English na-
tion, sold more largely than anything previously printed
in the language, and made King William more popular.
The issues of the Puritan revolution and the ideas of the
Commonwealth were practically incorporated into the
British constitution, and, under William's untiring indus-
try and practical genius, modern England began her superb
career of freedom and prosperity at home, and of blessing
to the nations of the earth.
Yet, notwithstanding the sterling qualities of their
Dutch King, the debt which they owed to him and the
undoubted gratitude which they felt, the British people
never really liked him. Indeed, he was personally disa-
greeable to them, largely because of his stern repression
of all manifestations of any kindly or genial feeling and
his negligence of those arts which "double the value of a
favor and take away the sting of a refusal." Civil service
reform had not yet become the splendid reality of our
time, and the place-hunters kept up a continual growl be-
cause Dutchmen held so many fat offices. Moreover, it
soon became manifest that William had crossed the seas
less with the idea of freeing the nation from the tyranny
of James than for the purpose of enlisting English power
against the King of France.
In the Fatherland there was not a little hard feeling
because of the stadholder's neglect of the national interests
ggg HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1697
and his apparent delight in humbling the pride of Am-
sterdam and in maintaining the interests of his party at
all hazards. William, being the representative of Eng-
land as well as of the Republic, evidently rejoiced in the
alliances which curbed the pride of Louis the Fourteenth.
In the field William's success was by no means uniform.
He was repeatedly outgeneralled and defeated in the
Belgic Netherlands, while these wretched provinces suf-
fered all the horrors of war without much apparent ad-
vantage. His recapture of Namur, in 1695, was his great-
est triumph, after the battle of the Boyne. But althongh
the Dutch, as well as the English, gained comparatively
little renown on land, they maintained, despite occasional
reverses, their prestige at sea.
Several severe naval battles were fought, one of which
was at Beachy Head in the English Channel, June 29,
1690, where Admiral Cornelius Evertsen, poorly support-
ed, and in fact nearly deserted by his English allies under
Torrington, maintained the fight alone and lost greatly
in men and ships. The allied fleet took refuge in the
Thames, while the French privateer Jean Bart ravaged
the Dutch herring -fleet the same year that Cornelis
Tromp died. But when the allied fleet of eighty vessels,
between La Hogue and Barfleur, encountered the French
fleet which had been assembled for the purpose of trans-
porting an army of King James's partisans to invade Ire-
land, a battle ensued which lasted two days, and resulted
in the defeat of the French and the consequent reasser-
tion of Dutch and English power on the sea. This vic-
tory so far disturbed the plans of Louis the Fourteenth
that he offered terms of peace ; and public opinion, both of
the Dutch and the English, compelled William, although
greatly against his desire, to agree to a cessation of hos-
tilities. In 1697, at Ryswyk, near the Hague, commis-
sioners met together, ended the nine years' war and gave
peace to Europe. At this assembly, England was for the
second time represented in an European continental con-
gress, the first being at Nymegen, in 1678, and both on
Dutch soil. The ambition of France had but compelled
a "balance of power," and the Republic was a powerful
WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND
1699J THE CZAR-MECHANIC 863
factor in regulating the equilibrium. This convention of
Ryswyk, between France and the allies — Germany, Neth-
erlands, England, and Spain — besides being commercially
beneficial to the Dutch, and allowing them to garrison the
barrier towns on their southern frontier, had a profound
influence upon the future of America, more especially in
deciding that its future should be according to the ideas
of Teutonic instead of Roman civilization.
It was in this same year that Peter the Great, Czar of
Russia, impersonating those yearnings for progress and a
nobler national life which the Russian people had felt
even before his day, came to Zaandam, in North Holland,
and worked as a ship carpenter. He occupied the ordi-
nary cottage of a mechanic, with its bunk or bed in a
closet, its great fire-place, and its humble but comfortable
surroundings. The hut at Zaandam, with the lot of
ground on which it is situated, has been presented by the
Dutch government to Russia, and has been enclosed by
the Russians within a neat wooden edifice. Its old walls
are embellished with tablets, pictures, and other souvenirs
left by visiting Russian sovereigns, noblemen, and people,
so that it has become an interesting place for the visiting
tourist. The Czar-mechanic, after a short time at Zaan-
dam, went to Amsterdam, and thence to England, where,
among other makers of civilization and teachers of man-
kind, he met William Penn. Dutchmen have been fre-
quently called to enter the service of the Autocrat of all
the Russias, and, to this day, many words used on board
a Russian ship, and not a few terms relating to naval life,
are of Dutch origin.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the ques-
tion as to who should inherit Spain and the Spanish pos-
sessions was like that concerning Turkey, which disturbs
the European nations at the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury. The problem of " The Spanish Succession" had not
been settled by the war. The partition treaty, made
October 11, 1698, assigned the Spanish Netherlands to
the Electoral Prince of Bavaria ; but his sudden death,
February 6, 1699, compelled a second 'division, by which
the Spanish Netherlands fell to the Archduke Charles of
864 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1702
Austria. Louis the Fourteenth treacherously claimed the
Spanish crown for his grandson, the Duke of Anjou, and,
declaring that " the Pyrenees have ceased to exist/' began
offensive operations. A new grand alliance was formed
at the Hague between Great Britain, the Dutch Republic,
and the German Empire to prevent the union of France
and Spain. In 1701 the troops of Louis the Fourteenth
were admitted into the Belgic provinces by the governor-
general, who recognized the Duke of Anjou as Philip the
Fifth of Spain, and thus William saw the defences s\vep\
away by which he had hoped to keep the French out
of the Netherlands. Although he was compelled by the
peace party in England to recognize Philip the Fifth, as
the Dutch Republic had done, yet the stadholder-king
found the British nation united in support of a new war,
because Louis the Fourteenth had, in fulfilment of his
promise to King James on his death-bed, acknowledged
his son, afterwards the Pretender, King of Great Britain
and Ireland.
By this time, however, William's health, which had
never been strong, and had been undermined by applica-
tion to the cares of state and weakened by loss of exer-
cise and recreation, broke down under overwork. In the
midst of his preparations to lead both the diplomacy and
the arms of the Republic, England, and the German Em-
pire, he was vanquished by death, March 8, 1702. He was
the fourth member of the House of Orange to reflect un-
dying lustre upon the family name. As upon many other
occasions, when the blood of the English people had been
enriched with that of the men and women of industry
and character from the Netherlands, so under William
the already very much mixed people of England received
a new infusion of blood and of ideas, which have helped
to increase their grandeur and confirm the high moral
character of the nation. William Beutinck, Earl of Port-
land, the noble ancestor of noble statesmen, who had
nursed William in his sickness, was but one example of
the Dutch founders of those English families which, to-
gether with those who have intermarried in Holland, have
helped to make indissoluble links and nerves of friend-
1715] A MANIA FOR DIPLOMACY 865
ship between the two countries — both of which have be-
come leaders in freedom, science, religion, and law.
In the Kepublic the death of William was the signal
for the municipal party and the adherents of State rights
to regain and reassert their power. Without a stadholder,
the grand pensionary Heinsius carried on the government.
The Kepublic, however, stood by the Grand Alliance and
furnished a Dutch army which ably co-operated with the
Duke of Marlborough. This famous warrior, to whom
all causes and kings were the same, provided he could
keep office and emolument, won at Blenheim, Eamilies,
and Malplaquet those great victories forever memorable
in English annals. They exhausted the power of Louis
the Fourteenth, and prepared the way for the treaty of
peace, which was signed in Utrecht April 11, 1713. In
addition to the triumphs of the allies in the Belgic Neth-
erlands, the combined English and Dutch squadrons, un-
der Sir George Eooke and Gerard Callenburgh — who had
been one of DeRuyter's captains — took Gibraltar. Al-
though nominally under control of Spain, yet Sir George
Rooke hoisted the English flag over the rock of Tarik,
and, as usual, the government at London sanctioned his
proceedings and kept the fortress, despite all protests.
On account of this victory the Dutch were allowed once
more to garrison the towns on their southern frontier and
to keep the navigation of the Scheldt closed. Belgium
passed to the ownership of the Emperor Charles the Sixth
of Germany, and ceasing henceforth to be the Spanish,
became the Austrian, Netherlands, while Artois, Flanders,
and Hainault became part of France.
A mania for diplomacy seemed to seize the other gov-
ernments of Europe during the first quarter of the eigh-
teenth century ; but from this time forth the Dutch, find-
ing that the great Powers around them would use their
resources for war and abandon them when they wanted
peace, withdrew from the active foreign politics of Europe,
and resolved to be drawn no more into wars except for
national defence. Nevertheless when, Queen Anne of
England having died, the succession passed to the House
of Hanover, and the Stuart Pretender in 1715 entered
55
866 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1715
Scotland, the States-General, in aid of the British govern-
ment, promptly sent an army of six thousand troops, which
enabled the Duke of Argyle to suppress the rebellion.
Their action in quickly recognizing George the First, be-
cause they believed that thereby freedom in religion and
the liberties of Europe would be made secure, was a prec-
edent of which George the Third was not slow to avail
himself in 1775.
CHAPTER XII
THE SHADOW OF A REPUBLIC
THE Dutch people, by retiring from continental politics,
were all the better enabled to expend their financial re-
sources upon a new enemy and to rear fresh defences
against their ever -threatening danger, the ocean. The
dikes had been first built on a large scale in the twelfth
century — for no Dutch town with a name ending in dam
is older than that period — with such skill and facilities as
were then known in Europe. The material was of turf
faced with wood or wattle, and sometimes of brick. As the
Netherlands did not grow enough timber for its own needs,
the product of the forest was imported from other lands
for the construction of the facings of the dikes, canal
walls, sluice-gates, and other parts of the land-defences
fronting the water, which were made almost entirely of
wood. Stone had not been much used, for of this sub-
stance the land produced almost nothing except in the
form of pebbles and bowlders brought down in geologic
ages by the glaciers from Scandinavia. In Drenthe the
oldest human structures were rudely put together in the
form of cromlechs or tombs, which were popularly called
" Hunnebedden," or the Huns' graves, though, most
probably, these were the work of the prehistoric Kelts.
They were of granite and, on account of their size, were
great curiosities, most of which match in proportions the
bowlder of Plymouth Rock-^so vast in rhetoric, so modest
in size.
As oriental commerce increased, the people began to
notice with alarm that the wooden facings of the great
dikes on the island of Walcheren and in northern Hoi-
868 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1715
land were rapidly falling to pieces. The solid beams and
piles, bolted together with iron, were found to be eaten
through and through by a marine creature, which, though
but a worm in size, had an apparatus in its head by which
it bored through the stoutest timber. The teredo, or
ship-worm, is now found in all European harbors, having
been originally brought over from the Indies. Before
many years another mysterious vital engine, no bigger
than a horse-bean, and looking like a rock-slater, made
its appearance. Whoever has seen the cliffs of Japan
bored into and tunnelled until they fall, undermined by
the co-operation of the sea and the little creatures that
do their drilling with the aid of the sea-water, has seen
at least one of the homes of the pholas. When this tiny
visitor was discovered, the coast people were more fright-
ened than when Louis the Fourteenth and his hosts were
at their doors. After fasting with prayer, humbling
themselves before God and acknowledging His myste-
rious power, the Dutch set themselves to make a new
suit of national armor, by replacing the face of their
wooden walls with basalt and granite. Thus began the
more scientific extension and erection of the dikes. Whole
fleetloads of Norway stone were imported for the sea-
front, towards which the engineers learned to so slope
the dikes as to break the force of the waves and make
the ocean beat itself. For the interior defences against
water, timber, although still suffering decay in fresh
water, was only gradually replaced with stone from the
German highlands.
Meanwhile, the Dutch added to their national domain
at home, not by war or conquest, but by their mastery
over nature, in pumping out lakes and ponds, in recov-
ering soil from the ocean, by building dikes, and in re-
claiming swamp -lands and morasses by draining and
filling. They studied the secrets of engineering, and ap-
plied them to the drainage and drying of their spongy
lands. The windmill, as well as the spade, is one of the
makers of this land rescued from the waters. In the
draining of lakes, and in their transformation into past-
ure, garden, and grain lands, the windmill, first men-
1715] THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 869
tioned in Bohemia in the eighth century, and common
in the Netherlands in the thirteenth century, was origi-
nally in very crude form. Its sails could be made to turn
hourly or daily in the favoring winds only by floating it
upon a raft on water and towing it, by means of boats, to
face the desired quarter. The Dutchman fitted the wind-
mill with a revolving cap, easily turned by hand with a
windlass. When built of brick, it became a house as well
as a mill. Of tiny proportions in the field, or of colossal
dignity along the canals, the modern windmill pumps
water, saws timber, grinds grain, breaks stone, lifts the
hammer, hoists and lowers burdens. Arranged in lines,
like the platoons of a great army, the perfected windmill,
with the power of uncounted horses, does the work of great
manufacturing towns and cities, pumps out lakes, and
makes malarious lands healthy. Most wonderful is the
story of Nederland als Polderland, or the rescue from
the water of the places of human habitation, of the fertile
grain fields and pastures of cow and sheep.
In defences against human invasion, Baron Menno Coe-
horn, who has given his name to the portable bomb-mor-
tar, enlarged and perfected the fortifications, according
to the best principles of the defensive art, with wall and
ravelin, counterscarp and moat. The Dutchmen com-
peted in this regard with Vauban, the French engineer,
determining to keep their little Republic alive amid its
colossal enemies — those mighty monarchies which sur-
rounded it on every side. The enterprise and thrift of
the people made this land, whose mines are all above
ground, one of the richest in Europe. The Republic
also gave the world a picture of splendid brick -paved
roads, superior to anything in Europe.
During the period from the foundation of the Bank of
Amsterdam, in 1609, until the ruin of the Republic by
stadholderal usurpation in the middle of the eighteenth
century, the city on the Amstel was the centre of Eu-
ropean trade and exchange, occupying a position in the
world of finance that London holds now. Nevertheless,
thousands of the Dutch people, as well as the English and
French, fell victims to the wild-cat projects of the un-
870 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1740
scrupulous Scotchman, John Law. His schemes were
exposed in good season by Dutch writers, who stigmatized
his business as "wind -trade/' His swindling was mer-
cilessly unmasked in an illustrated satire, entitled " The
Great Spectacle of Folly of the Year 1720," published
anonymously in Amsterdam. When the " Mississippi
Bubble" burst, thousands of respectable Dutch families
were financially ruined.
As "William the Third had died childless, the succession
of the House of Orange passed over into the collateral
Frisian branch, to John William Friso, who was at that
time stadholder or governor of Friesland, Groningen, and
Drenthe. He enjoyed the honors of headship of the
House of Orange but a few years. He was drowned in
1711, and was succeeded by his posthumous son, William
Charles Henry Friso, who, in 1732, ceded the principality of
Orange, from which the house took its name, to the King
of France. In 1734 he married into the House of Han-
over, which had become also the royal house of Great
Britain. He was possessed of so many other titles and
lands in the Eepublic that his influence seemed danger-
ously powerful to the States-General, while his partisans
were so eager in his behalf that fears were entertained
lest he might overthrow the government.
Meanwhile, war broke out between Spain and Great
Britain, and Dutch vessels Were seized by the belliger-
ents ; but though the Republic escaped being drawn into
this war, they were soon led into another. The Ostend
East India Company, which had become very prosperous,
made the Dutch so jealous of their Belgian neighbors that
they demanded the discontinuance and dissolution of this
company. This was agreed to on condition that the Re-
public should become a party to the treaty known as the
Pragmatic Sanction, which gave the succession of the
Austrian Netherlands to the Emperor Charles the Sixth
of Germany, and specified that in case there should be
no male heirs the succession should go to his daughters.
The Emperor died in 1740, and the Archduchess Maria
Theresa found her dominions attacked by the King of
Prussia, while various other princes of Europe were in
1747] CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT 871
arms against her. When, according to treaty, Great
Britain and the Republic hastened to fulfil their obliga-
tions and assist her, the question as to the form in which
this aid should be given was violently agitated by the two
parties, the "aristocratic" and the "prinsgezinden " — that
is, the municipal, or regents, on the one hand, and the
prince-partisans, or national-democrats, on the other. A
subsidy of twenty thousand men was finally voted, and,
although the measure was bitterly opposed by several
cities and by the State of Utrecht, the influence of Hol-
land prevailed, although by means of a violation of the
constitution ; for, contrary to custom, the vote was carried
by a majority in the States-General, and the nation was
thus plunged in a foreign war which did not directly con-
cern the Dutch people.
The fears of those who expected the enmity and ven-
geance of France were justified, for Louis the Fourteenth
of France overran the Belgic Netherlands, and so alarmed
the Zeelanders that they overturned their government
and made the Prince of Orange, " the man of the people,"
stadholder. The State-rights principle was now in turn
overthrown, after several years' exercise, and another of
those oscillations in the measure of the contrasted cen-
tralization and localization of authority between the cen-
tripetal and centrifugal principles — between the stad-
holder or republican party and the municipal or burgher
party — which so often characterized the history of Dutch
federal government, took place. The example of Zeeland
was quickly followed by the other states, and, on the loth
of May, 1747, William Charles Henry Friso, under the
title of William the Fourth, was made Stadholder of the
Eepublic and commander-in-chief of the union army and
navy. In the presence of a foreign invasion, and of
serious internal dissensions owing, most probably, to the
decay of national character through luxury and over-
prosperity, and in the reaction which followed long -sus-
tained heroism, the Dutch people took another dangerous
step towards centralization, which was to reduce their
liberty to but a name and a shadow. This step was taken
when the offices of stadholder, captain, and admiral-gen-
372 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1751
eral of the Union were made hereditary in the family of the
Prince. Even females were eligible, though should they
marry without approval of the States-General, the right
of their children to succession was to be regulated by
agreement of the States. By this act the death of the
Republic was hastened, an event which, perhaps, had al-
ready been foreseen by the most thoughtful patriots.
From this time forth, although the Dutch lived under
the form of a Republic, its spirit had fled. AVith a presi-
dency non-elective, hereditary, and unimpeachable, the
original defects of the constitution were intensified. More
than once before the end of the century the nation was
on the brink of civil war. The stadholders, who married
into the royal family of England, assumed the airs and
insignia of sovereignty in proportion as Dutch public
spirit decayed.
The useless and exhausting war of the Austrian succes-
sion, in which the French were victorious by land but
unsuccessful at sea, and which strained the resources of
the Dutch, French, and British alike, was ended by the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in October, 1748. The distress
caused by the loss of Dutch commerce was increased by
popular discontent, especially in the northern provinces,
which served only to throw more power into the hands of
the stadholder, who was elected governor of both the East
and the West India Companies, and who had the pension-
ary of the richest and largest state of Holland attached
to his cause. The stadholder, however, finding the coun-
try at peace, devoted himself to noble schemes for the
benefit of the people and the development of the country,
and at his sudden death in 1751, when but forty years of
age, the nation mourned over him as over a dear friend.
He left a son only three years old, who was destined to
be the last stadholder of the Republic. The child was
put under the care of his mother, Anna, daughter of
George the Second of England, who at once became
regent with full power.
At this time, and for a quarter of a century later, Hol-
land was little more than an annex of Great Britain, and
the whole Republic, having small influence in the conn-
1766] DUTCH COMMERCE IN DANGER 873
cils of Europe, was inclined to follow the beck and nod
of King George and his British partisans in Holland.
With a woman, who was a stranger to the Dutch and a
relative of the King of England, in charge of the govern-
ment, the prospect for peace and comfort at home was
not very promising. Anna, the virtual ruler of the Re-
public, worked unceasingly to increase centralization of
power in the hands of the stadholder and to entangle the
Eepublic in the Seven Years' War with France, during
which, besides naval battles, the invasion of Hanover by
the French, their defeat at Crefeld on the Rhine, and
their attempt to invade Ireland, the struggle was carried
into Africa and America. Plassey was the place of that
triumph of British arms in Asia which resulted in the
establishment of a great empire. In America, however,
Braddock's army was decimated by invisible savages among
the thickets of Pennsylvania ; Washington and Sir William
Johnson arose to prominence ; Fort Du Quesne wa.s taken,
together with Niagara, Crown Point, Ticonderoga ; and on
the plains of Abraham, in Canada, the decisive battle be-
tween Wolfe and Montcalm was fought, which settled the
destiny of North America to remain under, not the Latin,
but the Germanic ideas of civilization.
Although the British King George's daughter was un-
able to drag the Republic into this war between Great
Britain and France, Dutch commerce suffered untold
damage from British privateers and warships, under those
arbitrary rules of contraband and blockade which Great
Britain had not yet submitted to international law. Prin-
cess Anna died in 1759, and though some relief to Dutch
commerce followed, the acrimonious disputes and the
commercial jealousies between the English and Dutch
East India Companies, which had come to open hostilities
in the Indies, nearly brought on war. The protests of the
Dutch ambassador in London were answered as Great
Britain has so often answered the protests of weaker na-
tions— might making right.
Some relief was felt when, in 1766, instead of a matri-
monial alliance with the Hanoverian royal family of Eng-
land, the Prince of Orange, at the age of eighteen, was
874 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1766
betrothed to the Princess Frederika Sophia Wilhelmina,
niece of Frederick the Great of Prussia. This, however,
also proved a seed of trouble to the Eepublic. Three chil-
dren were born of this union, one of whom, a daughter,
married the crown-prince of Brunswick. The people had
expected much relief from their troubles when their stad-
holder should come to full manhood ; but they were keenly
disappointed. Though given to literary dalliance, and
fond of the arts and sciences, he was a weak political ruler,
who usually showed firmness only in matters prejudicial
to the best interests of the nation. The chief councillors
who influenced him continually were his German tutor,
Prince Louis of Brunswick, then commander of the Dutch
army, and his Prussian wife Wilhelmina. During his long
lease of power, from 1766 to 1795, things went from bad
to worse, and patriotism seemed lost in party-spirit. The
"Patriots" or "Keezen" — a nickname contracted from
Cornelius de Gijselaar, pensionary of Dordrecht, who was
the determined opponent of the stadholder — upheld par-
liamentary and municipal liberty against the encroach-
ments of a ruler who was king in all but name. The
Orangemen, " Oranje klanten/' or Orange chappies, up-
held the prince in all his acts, whether they were wise or
foolish, just or unjust.
British influence over the State of Holland and the
whole Republic had been greatly increased and strength-
ened by the appointment to the Hague of that able and
unscrupulous ambassador Sir Joseph Yorke, who now up-
held it with renewed insolence. He had formerly been a
colonel in the British army, and he carried into diplomacy
the methods of the camp rather than the manners of the
cabinet. The first notable act which brought him into
prominence occurred in 1756, when, on the breaking out
of the Seven Years' "War between the giant powers of France
and England, the States were compelled to adopt the
cause of one side or the other. Sir Joseph demanded a
subsidy with six thousand men, which he claimed had been
stipulated by the treaties of 1678 and 1716. However, in
this he was balked, and the Dutch, despite his personal
influence with the Princess Anna, adhered to their neu-
1766] CLOSE RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND 875
trality, insisting that in this case England was the aggress-
or, and that their contract was to furnish troops only in
her defence. Stung by his failure, Yorke made himself a
past-master in knowledge of the intricacies of Dutch poli-
tics, and bent all his efforts to the forming of a British
party, which should control especially the finances as well
as the votes of the deputies of cities and states, and which
should always be found on Great Britain's side in every
controversy. It was during Yorke's period of office, when
the Dutch term for the admirers of things English, Anglo-
manen (Anglo-maniacs), came into use, that the great Eng-
lish banking-houses in Amsterdam were established, "and
the relations between England and Holland, especially in
the matter of economics, became so close.
This state of affairs increased the practical acquaintance
of the Dutch people in general — not only of the bankers,
lawyers, and merchants, but even of the peasantry — with
those events which led to the American Revolution. They
saw clearly into the causes of the war. They sympathized
with the unjustly taxed colonists on the other side of the At-
lantic, and were able easily to understand why the flag of
American Revolution — in the same colors and in the same
form as their own — had been raised, as their own had been
two centuries before. As in the Dutch, so in the American
case, the real revolution was from without. In the one
case the Spanish King and Cabinet, and in the other the
young German King and a corrupt British Parliament, in-
vaded ancient guaranteed rights. The irritations created
by an unpopular political church, by hostile sumptuary
laws and commercial greed, by sordid, restrictive, and hos-
tile legislation, had been borne and patiently suffered; but
when unjust taxation without the right of representation
— an iniquity which touched every man's pocket — was
attempted, then revolt was certain and bloodshed sure.
To the Dutch the American assertion of ancestral rights
and chartered liberties was all the more intelligible, since
the nation between the dikes and the sand-hills consisted
also of many provinces, with varying interests, dialects,
and modes of local government, which had nevertheless
come to the Union of Utrecht and formed the United
876 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1766
States, with a written compact and a declaration of inde-
pendence, and having also a tricolored flag. Indeed, they
saw from the first what John Adams perceived so clearly
years afterwards, when he wrote that "the originals of
the two republics are so much alike that the history of
one seems but a transcript from that of the other."
When, therefore, the infatuated king and parliament,
under the goading of a corrupt ring of English poli-
ticians, forced a war upon the American colonists — of
whom, probably, not a majority were English born or of
English descent — the public spirit of the Dutch nation
was quickened by the example of those other United States
beyond the Atlantic. "When the Eev. Dr. Price, a Unita-
rian clergyman of London, wrote his two pamphlets — one
exposing the iniquitous schemes of the " moneyed friends
of the British government/' and the other entitled "Ob-
servations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles
of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War
with America" — they were promptly translated into Dutch
by Baron Joan Derek van der Capellen, who always re-
mained a firm friend of America. Like all other Dutch
friends of the American cause, he was politically opposed
to the stadholder, who, at this time, was little more than
a puppet of the court party, which was managed by the
British minister, Sir Joseph Yorke.
Van der Capellen,* born in Overyssel, and a member
of its state legislature, was strongly democratic in his
sympathies. He had successfully endeavored to have the
farmers and peasantry of his state released from certain
odious and oppressive burdens, which were old relics of
feudalism. This so enraged the more aristocratic mem-
bers, that they secured his expulsion from the state legis-
lature, in which he was unable to regain his seat for four
years, when, at the demand of the people of the whole
province, he was reinstated with honors. Van der Capel-
len believed that the Teutonic race, by crossing the At-
* Joan Derek van der Capellen (1741-1784), door J. A. Sillem, uit De
Gids 1882, No. 11. Brieven van en aan Joan Derek van der Capellen,
door W. H. de Beaufort. Utrecht, 1879.
1766] VAN DER CAPELLEN AND AMERICA 8??
lantic, obtained an unspeakable potency for progress, and
that the hopes of the future lay in the American Kepub-
lic, which he believed would do a great deal in regener-
ating Europe. His affection for the American United
States, and his faith in their future, was warm, sincere,
and unselfish. At the same time, when the Archbishop
of York, Dr. Markham, and the Eev. John "Wesley were
abusing Dr. Price in England, Van der Capellen was also
made a target of abuse from the British party in Holland.
Compelled by political rancor to fly from his estates in
Overyssel, where even the burial-grounds of his family
were not safe from desecration, he went to Amsterdam.
There he kept himself well informed, and receiving the
freshest news from America, he answered promptly, with
true statements of the facts, the false and exaggerated
reports made by British agents and sympathizers who
were in the pay of the parliamentary stock- jobbers. He
opened a correspondence with Dr. Franklin in Paris ; with
Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, who in Eng-
land was called "the only rebel governor"; with Govern-
or William Livingston of New Jersey, with John Adams,
and with other of the Continental fathers whose names
are now sacred in America. His influence and example
were reflected and imitated by fellow-countrymen of wit
and ability. Soon a host of Dutch pamphleteers, drama-
tists, song-writers, composers of street-ballads, and mak-
ers of lampoons and caricatures, as well as learned law-
yers and jurists, became keenly interested in a war that,
meaning something more than mere commercial exten-
sion, dynastic prestige, or pride of arms, involved the pro-
foundest questions of law and human progress, and were
in lively competition with each other, informing their
countrymen and stirring up public opinion.
CHAPTER XIII
STADHOLDER AND PATRIOTS
ANXIOUS to preserve neutrality, the States-General, in
accordance with international proprieties and even before
the battle of Lexington, issued a proclamation, dated
March 20, 1775. This declaration of neutrality, which,
as they said, was the "customary compliment of courts
not at war with each other," ran as follows : " Their High
Mightinesses do absolutely prohibit all exportation of
munition, gunpowder, guns and shot by ships belonging
to the dominion of Great Britain, provisionally for the
term of six months, upon pain of confiscation, with a fine
of a thousand guilders, to be paid by the offending ship-
master." The cause of this apparently premature decla-
ration of neutrality is easily discerned. Great Britain's
preparations for war were in 1775 even more manifest to
the Dutch than to most Americans.
For nearly a century the Scotch Brigade had served in
the army of the Eepublic, being the honorable historic
link of connection with the days when Briton and Dutch-
man stood shoulder to shoulder in the common danger
against the pope, the inquisition, and Philip the Second.
King George the Third, a young man somewhat given to
over-governing, wrote an autograph letter demanding the
return of the Scotch Brigade, to be sent to America for
use in the war about to break out. Van der Capellen and
other friends of America showed that, according to the
treaties, men serving as soldiers under the Dutch flag and
in Dutch pay were to be sent only to protect Protestant
interests or to assist Great Britain in defensive war only.
The stadholder, the court, Prince Louis of Brunswick, and
1775] CLASH OF SECTIONAL INTERESTS 879
Fagel, Secretary of the States - General, as well as the
"Orange klanten" were all partisans in the British cause,
or " Anglomaniacs." In Amsterdam the money power
was on the side of Great Britain, but Van Berckel, the pen-
sionary of the city, was hostile to the stadholder and fa-
vored, first the French and then the American cause.
Cornelius de Gijzelaar, pensionary of Dordrecht ; Dr. Cal-
koens, the famous lawyer ; Luzac, the Leyden editor ; the
University of Franeker, and nearly all Friesland were also
in hearty sympathy with America.
The domestic situation was further complicated by the
clashing of sectional interests. The States of Utrecht,
Overyssel, and Gelderland, being inland provinces, were
in favor of an increase of the land forces because of their
exposure to French invasion. On the other hand, the
powerful states of Holland and Friesland, whose interests
were in the line of commerce and ship-building, demand-
ed that the navy be enlarged, trusting for the safety of
their possessions to increase of sea-power. With divided
councils the Republic was in real peril.
In other parts of trie world Dutchmen were not slow
in showing their warm personal sympathy with their fel-
low-men in America, who were fighting a battle of the
same kind that their ancestors had fought against Spain.
The very first foreign supplies came from Dutch seaports,
especially the West Indies. St. Eustatius was, from the
first declaration of hostilities, the favorite resort of Amer-
ican privateers and war vessels. The governor of this
island, port, and fortress was Johannes de Graaff, and
Abraham Ravene was the commander of the militia. The
settlement consisted of the "upper" and "lower" town,
a fort, a large Reformed church, the usual typical wind-
mill, and several hundred houses. On the ample beach
the merchandise imported and exported could be easily
handled. Here American tobacco and other raw materials
were exchanged for munitions of war which, almost wholly
of British manufacture, were sold by English merchants,
despite proclamations of neutrality. Cannon and ammu-
nition figured in the invoices as "hardware " and "grain."
Here the first foreign salute ever fired in honor of the
830 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1776
flag of the United States of America was given on the
16th of November, 1776. The Andrea Dorea, a brig of
fourteen guns, commanded by Captain Josiah Robinson, of
Philadelphia, bearing a copy of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and having a commission from the Continental
Congress signed by John Hancock, together with copies
in blank for the equipment of privateers, dropped anchor
in the harbor. The starless flag of thirteen stripes, in al-
ternate red and white, exactly like that of the Dutch
navy, was flying at her mast-head, and the red, white, and
blue flag on Fort Orange was lowered in welcome to and
in recognition of the American ship. In response to the
Andrea Dorea' s salute of thirteen guns, Ravene, the com-
mander of the fort, by order of Governor De Graaff,* re-
sponded with eleven guns. By this purposed tally of
eleven " honor shots," two less than to an ordinary man-
of-war, he kept within the technicalities and letter of the
law, at .the same time firing the number of guns equal to
the provinces of the Dutch Republic and generality.
Captain Josiah Robinson and his officers were invited to
dine with the governor, who read with pleasure and profit
the Declaration of Independence of the United States of
America.
From this time forth St. Eustatius became the head-
quarters of supplies for the American army, and hundreds
of vessels sailed thence loaded with blankets, powder, can-
non, and other munitions of war, which in due time
reached American ports and the Continental army. In-
deed, the very paper on which Thomas Paine wrote some
of his spirit-stirring tracts came from St. Eustatius.
So important did the British Government consider the
destruction of this place, and so tempting was the pros-
pect of prize-money, that Admiral Rodney, leaving Corn-
wallis to shift for himself, sailed for the West Indies, and
on February 3, 1781, demanded the immediate surrender
of the whole island. At that time, there lay at anchor
in the harbor two American men-of-war, the De Graaff, of
* Missive, Deductie en Bylagen van den Commandeur De Graaff of St.
Eustatius, 1 April, 1779, pp. 344.
1776] SALUTING THE AMERICAN FLAG 881
twenty-six guns, and the Lady de Graaff, of eighteen, while
fifty American vessels were also there loading or unload-
ing, together with their crews, consisting of at least two
thousand men. These were all captured by Eodney, who
also seized the Dutch man-of-war Mars, of thirty-eight
guns, and an old sixty-gun ship. On the American ves-
sels, pretty much everything, except the wood of hull and
spars, the rigging, sails, canvas, powder, ammunition, and
stores, had been bought at St. Eustatius.
The act of De Graaff in saluting the American flag had
been soon followed by the capture, just outside the harbor,
of an English brigantine by a privateer, The Baltimore
Hero, commanded by Isaac van Bibber who was an Ameri-
can citizen born in Maryland, and a descendant of that
Dutch admiral once employed by Lord Baltimore to
bring over his colonists. De Graaff's behavior roused the
wrath of the British Government, which made instant
application, through Sir Joseph Yorke, for an explana-
tion and apology. The English president of the council
on the neighboring island of St. Christopher had already
accused the Dutch governor of saluting the flag of rebels
against his Britannic majesty, but De Graaff refused to
make any explanations except to his masters, the States-
General. The grievance, however, was made a national
affair, and Yorke required a disavowal of the salute, and
threatened immediate hostilities in case the States-Gen-
eral refused to comply with his demand. The Dutch
Congress, although resenting the harsh tone of the British
envoy, nevertheless summoned De Graaff to return and
make explanations, and also enjoined the governors of
their other West India colonies to prevent the export of
ammunition to the Americans. The British now went
further in browbeating the Dutchmen, by orders in coun-
cil which forbade Dutch ships from carrying timber or
naval stores to France or Spain, and this when no war
had been declared against either country. Yorke, after
twenty-seven years of residence in the Netherlands, felt
that he had control of a powerful party, and could dic-
tate at the will of his master and even of himself. The
Dutch soon found, however, that compliance was but the
382 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1778
Btepping-stone to subservience. The British fleet block-
aded the rivers Essequibo and Demarara, and captured
over one hundred vessels belonging to the one province
of Holland. Yorke insolently stated that his master had
resolved to do himself justice, without regard to rights or
treaties, and to revenge himself upon such as gave sup-
port to the Americans. He also claimed that it was bet-
ter to have a number of open enemies than to have allies
who, under the cover of neutrality, supplied all the wants
of the King's rebel subjects. So tremendous was the in-
fluence of Yorke that, in 1799, finding the orders in coun-
cil disregarded, he secured the passage by the States-Gen-
eral of a resolution prohibiting any convoy to ships laden
with materials for ship-building. This ordinance, which
was voted in defiance of every principle of law and jus-
tice, annihilated the timber industry of Friesland in which
hitherto above two thousand ships had been engaged ; but
it determined not a few leading men in Holland to help
the Americans at all hazards. Among others, an import-
ing and trading firm of Zaandam, of which Claas Taan
was the head, occupied their fleet of eighteen ships in
carrying goods to the American market. They ran the
British blockade at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and
brought grain into Baltimore when bread-stuffs were
greatly needed.
Popular opinion was almost wholly on the side of the
Americans, as the abundant literature of this period shows.
Professor Jean Luzac's International Gazette, of Ley den,
which had a circulation in all the courts of Europe, ad-
vocated the cause of the Continental Congress, and fur-
nished an abundance of thoroughly trustworthy news.
Dutch officers crossed the sea to enlist in the American
army. Gosuinus Erkelens of Amsterdam, in Connecticut
and Pennsylvania, by his correspondence kept up the in-
terest between eminent men of the two Republics. Amer-
ican colonial commissioners obtained money and built
ships in Amsterdam which eluded the vigilance and grasp
of the stadholder. Late in September, 1779, John Paul
Jones, "Scotchman and pirate," in common English
phrase, though a regularly commissioned officer in the
1778] NEUTRALITY OF THE REPUBLIC 883
United States Navy, brought his prize, the Serapis, into
the Zuyder Zee, and the stars, as well as the stripes, as
authorized by Congress, were mirrored in Dutch waters.
Jones visited Amsterdam and the Hague, and was every-
where honored and welcomed by the patriots, the streets
of the cities of Holland and Friesland resounding with
ballads which celebrated the Yankee victory.
Nevertheless, the States - General still preserved the
neutrality of the Kepublic by declining, in April, 1778,
the offer of the United States commissioners, Franklin,
Lee, and Adams, for a treaty of friendship and commerce.
At this time, when the Dutch flag was being insulted,
their commerce depleted, and even the passage on the
high seas denied them, the country was still rent on the
question as to whether its army or its navy should be in-
creased. Jealousy was rife between the maritime and
inland provinces, and party virulence was at its height.
The envoy of the Bourbon King at the Hague now
sought to foil the schemes of the English. Under press-
ure of France, the legislature of Holland passed a resolu-
tion which, however, was rejected by the States-General,
in favor of a convoy by the national war-ships for Dutch
vessels bound to French ports. This rejection still further
encouraged the British government, which now went a
step further, and ordered its ships-of-war to search Dutch
vessels — a proceeding which nearly brought on a naval
battle between the Dutch Admiral Bylandt, and the Brit-
ish Admiral Fielding. Sir Joseph Yorke renewed his de-
mand for a military subsidy, on a three weeks' notice, and
threatened that if a negative answer was given it would
be regarded as an abandonment of all alliance with Eng-
land ; moreover, he asserted that, the old treaties being
abrogated, the Republic would stand as an indifferent and
unprivileged power. Indeed, the British statesman actu-
ally thought that he was able to so dictate to the Dutch
as to compel them to abandon the usual referendum of the
States-General to the states particular, and thus to violate
their constitution. He refused the slightest delay. When,
however, the States had debated the question, they unani-
mously refused to furnish any soldiers to Great Britain.
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1778
Utrecht and Overyssel were especially strong in their con-
demnation of the course of George the Third and his Parlia-
ment. The menace of the British was immediately carried
out and all treaties were annulled. Forthwith letters of
marque and reprisal were issued which authorized British
captains to seize Dutch ships carrying anything which
English captains chose to call contraband. Thus ruth-
lessly Great Britain estranged the affections of her oldest
and most constant ally.
It now became necessary for the Dutch Eepublic, and
also for other countries of Europe as well, to oppose the
aggressions of Great Britain, which seemed determined to
limit the freedom and security of the seas so as to suit her
own convenience. According to the plan suggested, Rus-
sia, the Eepublic, and France formed the "armed neutral-
ity," guaranteeing freedom of trade to neutral ships,
settling what was contraband, defining blockade and in-
culcating the spirit of international law. In vain the Brit-
ish agents in St. Petersburg, with abundance of money at
their command, endeavored to exclude the Dutch from
the union. Having previously declined to hire out twenty
thousand Muscovite soldiers for British use in North
America, Catherine would not now yield, even to the
golden pressure from London. Failing in this, since the
Russian Queen neither vacillated nor lacked generosity,
even though war should follow her refusal, the British en-
voys endeavored in the States-General to defeat the al-
liance ; but four States out of the seven secured its pas-
sage.
In the mean time, after France had recognized the
United States of America as an independent nation, and
agreed to send an army to their assistance, the Continental
Congress, in 1778, had authorized their commissioner,
William Lee, to open negotiations for a similar treaty with
the Republic. Though not officially received, Lee suc-
ceeded in influencing such leading men in Amsterdam as
Jan de Neufville, then at Aken, and especially Mr. E. F.
Van Berckel, the powerful pensionary of the city, to for-
mulate a treaty, to be negotiated as soon as Great Britain
should recognize the independence of the United States,
1780] HOSTILITY TOWARDS GREAT BRITAIN 885
which, as Burgoyne had surrendered, it was confidently
expected would occur very soon. Van Berckel pressed
the matter, having in mind the purpose of opening direct
trade with the American ports. However, his action was
unofficial, and even Lee had not full authority to make a
treaty ; yet this Amsterdam incident had a powerful effect
in intensifying the hostility felt in the Republic towards
Great Britain and in increasing the friendship towards the
United States.
The ex-president of congress, Henry Laurens, having a
sketch of the proposed treaty, together with various let-
ters and papers showing the friendship of Holland, and
containing the proposition of Dutch bankers to loan money
to the Americans, started across the ocean in the packet
Mercury which, unfortunately, on September 10, 1780,
was captured off the coast of Newfoundland by the Brit-
ish frigate Vestal. Laurens threw his papers overboard,
but the package of this landsman, not having been heavily
weighted with lead, as would have been the case with an
old sailor's signal-book, was recovered and furnished full
proof of the purpose of his mission. Having been exam-
ined before the Privy Council in London, Laurens was
'gent to the Tower, where he was imprisoned for fifteen
months. Sir Joseph Yorke subsequently put Laurens'
papers, or copies of them, into the hands of the Prince
of Orange, who laid them before the legislature of Holland
and the National Congress. Yorke demanded the instant
punishment of Van Berckel and his coadjutors, and an ex-
pressed disavowal of their proceedings by the various
states. Both the separate legislators and the congress ex-
plicitly disavowed the act of Van Berckel ; but not satis-
fied with this, the British minister read a lecture to both
the legislature of Holland and that of the Republic, de-
claring that they had committed a crime which was an in-
fraction of the public faith, an attack upon the dignity of
the English crown, and a violation of the constitution of
the United Netherlands, of which, he declared, the Brit-
ish king was the guarantor.
Herein the British minister not only showed his igno-
rance of the Dutch constitution, though he had lived in
886 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS ['1780
the country thirty years, but his bullying behavior took
away every particle of respect which the Dutch statesmen
might have had towards him. Summing up all the ac-
counts in his indictment against the Republic — the salute
to the American flag at St. Eustatius, the hospitable re-
ception given to John Paul Jones, the trade with Amer-
ican privateers — Yorke kept up his menace of war. In-
deed, so eager was the government at London to prey
upon the Dutch possessions that war had already been
resolved on in the Privy Council of England, even before
the resolution of the States-General, to inquire into the
matter and enforce the law, had been voted. In order
to precipitate hostilities and place the Republic in the
position of a belligerent, before its envoys bearing formal
notification of accession to the armed neutrality could
reach the court of St. Petersburg, the British government
abruptly recalled Sir Joseph Yorke from the Hague. The
declaration of war, promulgated in London on December
28, 1780, but not known in Holland until a week after-
wards, omitted any allusion to the true cause of quarrel,
and laid stress upon the matters connected with the United
States of America.
The real motive for Great Britain's going to war with
Holland was apparent. It was neither to avenge slighted
honor, nor to heal irritated pride, but it was to recoup
herself, by means of the rich prizes to be taken from
the Dutch, for the losses which she had sustained in the
American war. Even before the declaration of war could
have reached the enemy's country and before the Dutch
knew anything about it, the operations had begun. With-
in thirty-four days two hundred Dutch ships, with their
cargoes, valued at fifteen million guilders, were seized
in British ports, and a wholesale confiscation of islands,
ports, lands, and vessels continued for years, which en-
abled Great Britain to replenish her treasury and make
up for her losses in America.
While Great Britain, urged on by the hope of abundant
plunder, entered eagerly and instantly upon war, the Dutch
were supine and languid. Torn with political dissensions,
they had very little real devotion for their country.
1780] GREAT NAVAL VICTORY 887
Their politicians were filled with the rancor of partisan-
ship, which was mistaken for patriotism. Their country
and their colonial possessions were vulnerable at every
point, and soon most of the Dutch settlements in three
continents had changed owners. In European waters
there were many gallant naval duels between single Dutch
privateers and British vessels, in which, though usually
beaten on account of the inferior size and armament of
their ships, the Dutch showed the spirit of their naval
ancestors. One great combat of fleets was fought off the
Doggerbank, on the North Sea. Rear- Admiral Zoutman,
with fifteen warships, while convoying seventy-two mer-
chantmen from the mouth of the Zuyder Zee to the Bal-
tic, encountered thirteen heavier British ships which were
convoying a hundred English vessels. A battle ensued
which lasted for hours. The English finally withdrew
from the fight, but Zoutman kept his place, though losing
one of his ships. While the Dutch people at large rejoiced
over this victory, the stadholder and his partisans kept
Sullen silence. At length, roused from their wretched
apathy, the States - General passed a vote ordering the
building of nineteen heavy ships-of-war. Nevertheless,
the president of the Republic, being believed to have a
secret and corrupt understanding with England, and pa-
triotism having, in the main, sunk to the level of mere
partisanship, little was accomplished. Indeed, with such
divisions of authority in a federal republic, so that the
executive was enabled to thwart the will of the nation,
nothing of importance could be done.
These disasters, incident to such an unsatisfactory form
of government, as well as the frequent outbursts of popu-
lar turbulence, were not lost upon Americans. With the
noble example of a tolerant federal republic before their
eyes as a living organism, the American constitutional
fathers failed not to take warnings from its defects and
Weaknesses, as well as inspiration from its noble feat-
ures, when in Philadelphia, in 1787, they resolved that
the stadholder of the people of the United States of
America should be elective and impeachable ; that the
several departments of the government should check and
ggg HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1780
balance each other, and that the people should be protect-
ed even from themselves, by rendering impossible any
dangerous oscillations in the extremes of centralization
and decentralization of power.
The Prince of Orange and his party were unanimously
opposed to any recognition of the United States of Amer-
ica, even while the Dutch popular sentiment was surely
ripening in favor of the movement, the centre of which
was commercially in Amsterdam, but sentimentally and
politically in Friesland.
Even before John Adams left Paris for the Low Coun-
tries, July 27, 1780, to present a memorial to the Dutch
Congress, public opinion was ripe for action. The Amer-
ican envoy wore the buff and blue uniform, and made him-
self as conspicuous as possible. He called upon the noble-
men, prominent merchants, and influential persons, and,
taking Van der Capellen's advice, began the composition
of a pamphlet, treating of the history, resources, and pros-
pects of the American colonies. This Adams did when
at Leyden, the city of Eobinson, Brewster, Bradford, and
the Pilgrim Fathers, and of the university in which he
had placed his two sons. His little book was translated
into Dutch and circulated throughout the country. It
reinforced what the Dutch pamphlets and writings had
already made plain, that " The Originals of the two repub-
lics are so much alike that the history of one seems but a
transcript of that of the other, so that every Dutchman in-
structed in the subject must pronounce the American
revolution just and necessary or pass a censure upon the
greatest action of his immortal ancestors."
Mass meetings were now held in some of the Dutch
cities, and petitions were sent to the States-General pray-
ing them to recognize the United States of America.
Naturally, the democratic state of Friesland was the first
to act through its legislature. Only seven weeks after
the issue of Adams's memorial, the Frisian delegates in the
States-General were instructed to send a legation to the
United States. City after city in the Dutch provinces
declared their sentiments. Zeeland and Overyssel, Van
der Capellen's state, followed. In April, Groningen,
1782] RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC 889
Utrecht, and Gelderland joined. On Friday, April 19,
1782, the seventh anniversary of the battle of Lexington,
- and exactly one year after the presentation of Mr. Adams's
memorial, the referendum to the various states had been
accomplished, and the national legislature passed a vote
declaring that "Mr. Adams is agreeable, and audience
will be granted or commissions assigned when he shall
demand it." Three days afterwards, John Adams was
introduced to the stadholder as the accredited minister
of the United States of America.
The most enthusiastic and brilliant of the many cele-
brations of this recognition of the American by the Dutch
Republic was that inaugurated and superbly carried out
by the faculty and students of Franeker University. In
different parts of the Republic three silver medals were
struck, commemorating the friendly union of the two
republics whose histories were so much alike. Even be-
fore the negotiation of the treaty, money had flowed in
freely from Dutch bankers to replenish the exhausted
treasury of the United States of America. When the
principal and interest was repaid in 1829, these loans
amounted to fourteen millions of dollars. The States-
General appointed as envoy to the American Congress
Peter van Berckel, brother to that pensionary of Amster-
dam who had excited the wrath of England by proposing
just such a treaty with America.
It is to be noted that while the policy of the French in
assisting Americans with men and money had been part
of their European scheme of politics to weaken England
and to regain Canada, if possible, the sympathy of the
Dutch with America was real and sincere. Their only
hope of advantage lay in opening new markets for Dutch
products, especially fish. In this, however, they were
bitterly disappointed. They not only gained little or no
trade, but they soon found a powerful competitor in the
new nation itself. The domain of their commerce in
China and the Far East, where they had long a monopoly,
was entered into by Americans, who, as soon as the peace
with Great Britain had been declared, loaded their own
ships with furs and ginseng, hitherto transshipped through
£90 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1782
Holland,, and carrying the American flag around the
world deprived the Dutch of their former gain.
With the accession of a new ministry in England, there
was manifested a desire for peace at the court of London ;
and had the Netherlands been united in sentiment, a
peace could have been made that would have been both
honorable and advantageous ; but party spirit was so bit-
ter that it was impossible to secure either honor or satis-
faction. Negotiations between France and England were
opened in Paris for a general peace on the basis of the
independence of the United States, but without so much
as consulting the Netherlands. Fearing lest they should
be entirely excluded, the States-General sent two pleni-
potentiaries who, when they asked for the restoration of
conquests made from them during the war and compen-
sation for the losses which they had sustained, received an
unqualified refusal, and the two Dutch plenipotentiaries
found that Count Vergennes was but a broken reed to
lean upon. Soon, to their great amazement, they learned
that preliminaries of peace had been signed by all the
other Powers without any regard having been paid to the
Dutch, other than including them in the armistice with-
out their knowledge or consent. Great Britain now press-
ed the matter upon the Republic, refusing to renew the
old treaties or give the Dutch a single advantage, while
she demanded honors to her flag, cession of territory, free-
dom of trade with the Dutch colonies, and no compensa-
tion for injuries inflicted by her own privateers.
Disgraceful and humiliating as this treaty was, it had
to be accepted on account of the horrible state of politics
then existing in the Republic. Each party began to crim-
inate and recriminate the other ; nevertheless, so keenly
did the Dutch feel their degradation in the eyes of Europe,
that they now began to inquire seriously into the causes
of their decay. The feeling that it was all owing to their
hereditary stadholderate deepened, and forthwith there
began discussion and debates concerning a fundamental
restoration of the constitution. The towns initiated re-
form by exercising their right of nominating their magis-
trates, by restoring their militia, and by the formation of
1783] FREDERICK THE GREAT INTERFERES 891
the free bodies of militia. Once more the old Doelen, or
target yards, became the scene of numerous and brilliant
assemblages for instruction in tactical evolutions and the
use of arms.
However, the disease of the nation was too deeply seated
to be healed by mere talk or display. Feeble, isolated,
and wealthy, Holland was in reality- like a fat sheep, ready
to be devoured by such wolves as might wish to gratify
their rapacity. So long as patriotism had been pure and
the people had been animated by the spirit of their ances-
tors, the little Republic had been able to defy even the
great monarchies around it. Now, however, in 1783,
when the States-General had passed a resolution limiting
the powers and prerogatives of courts-martial, except in
purely military cases, the King of Prussia, uncle to the
wife of the stadholder, interfered in the domestic affairs of
the Republic. Frederick the Great, then a dotard and in-
firm with gout, commanded his ambassadors to lecture
the States-General for their treatment of the Prince of
Orange, and also demanded that they should restrict the
freedom of the press in the Netherlands. Most of the del-
egates of the States-General were subservient ; but those
of Zierikzee intimated that the German King had better
mind his own business and not further embarrass himself
with the affairs of the Republic, of whose constitution it
was impossible for him to form a correct idea.
The next danger threatening the Republic arose along
its southern border. The Austrian Netherlands had, un-
der Maria Theresa, gained considerable prosperity. Edu-
cation, commerce, and agriculture had revived, and many
of the scars of that devastation which had been wrought
during the Spanish troubles had been covered under the
bloom of literature, art, and the comfort which continu-
ous industry brings. Flanders and Brabant were espe-
cially the seats of popular welfare. The suppression of the
Jesuits was also a great blessing to the country. Prince
Charles of Lorraine and Maria Theresa, the former after
a rule of thirty-six and the latter of forty-one years, died
in 1780. The new ruler was the Emperor Joseph the
Second of Germany, who, with good intentions, began to
892 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1783
interfere with ancient institutions and customs. Hither-
to the Dutch had honestly kept their treaties, and almost
all their offensive wars had been with the idea of main-
taining the integrity of the Southern Netherlands against
the inroads and covetousness of the great Powers. Joseph
the Second, now seeing the weakness of the Dutch Re-
public, began to demolish or possess himself of its for-
tresses on the Belgian frontier. Then, in defiance of the
treaties, he demanded the opening of the Scheldt to navi-
gation from Doel to Antwerp. His arrogant demands were
met by the Dutch States-General with meekness, they re-
questing the King of France to act as umpire. Louis the
Sixteenth mediated, hostilities were postponed, and the
Scheldt was kept closed, though two forts were ceded to
the Emperor, and a half a million dollars were awarded to
him in satisfaction of his claims upon Maastricht. The
German Emperor now proceeded with a high hand to
carry out his own ideas. The Belgians, being divided
among themselves, could do nothing against their foreign
oppressor, though they succeeded in driving out the Aus-
trians ; and England, Russia, and the Republic, on De-
cember 10, 1790, guaranteed for a time the Belgian con-
stitution. It was now possible for Protestants to enjoy
freedom of worship and to hold public office.
In the Republic the bitterness between the stadholder
and the patriots increased daily. Besides being deprived
of his command of the garrison at the Hague, and being
limited in his authority by the States-General, which had
become tired of his despotism, there were 'other signs
which portended civil war. Even on Christmas Day,
1780, John Adams, after only four months' residence in
the country, had written that he saw " every symptom of
an agony that precedes a great revolution." When the
stadholder sent infantry, cavalry, and artillery in a dem-
onstration against the patriot party at Hattem and El-
berg, the people deserted their habitations as if this mili-
tary force were an alien foe. The dissatisfaction of the
patriot party was so great that the stadholder was sus-
pended from his office of Captain-General of the Union,
and thus was virtually deposed from authority.
1783] ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR 893
England, France, and Prussia now mediated to restore
the Prince of Orange to full power, and the patriot party
being divided among themselves gave the Orange parti-
sans opportunity to reform and revive their strength.
The Prince of Orange resolved to begin war. On the
other hand, societies called "For Country and Liberty"
were formed in the cities, and bands of Patriots were
drilling to be in readiness to defy him. Hostilities broke
out near Utrecht, in which about eighty men were killed
,-and wounded, and other skirmishes soon followed. In
this critical condition of affairs, when the nation was on
the brink of civil war, the King of Prussia, who had been
watching for some pretext for military interference on
behalf of his brother-in-law, now, to his delight, discov-
ered one. Such an excuse, and how to put it in effect,
had been debated at Nymegen, where the Princess of
Orange and the ambassadors of Prussia and England
were in council, while the stadholder and his armed par-
tisans were at Zeist. It was agreed that the Princess of
Orange should ride in her carriage from Nymegen to the
Hague, in order to take advantage of the growing discon-
tent against the government in Holland. If she arrived
safely, she might, by inciting the people to rise in favor
of her husband, get up a revolt, and then prevail upon the
States-General to invite the King of Prussia to assist in
putting it down. On the other hand, if her journey were
interrupted, she might call this an insult to the sister of
the King of Prussia, and thus justify foreign interference
and the commencement of hostilities. It was thus de-
liberately planned that a woman should apply the torch
;to the fuel already collected for civil war. Setting out,
accordingly, she was stopped, and, though treated with
all deference, was ordered back to Nymegen.
Throughout the struggle between the powerful state
of Holland and the States-General, and between the pa-
triot and the stadholderal party, there was an earnest at-
tempt made by the more democratic of the Dutch politi-
cians to lodge the Government in the hands of the people,
or, at least, to give them some direct share in it. A pow-
erful anonymous pamphlet, entitled Aan liet Volk van
894 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1785
Nederland (To the people of Netherland), was published
October 17, 1781. It was an open and stirring plea against
both the Prince and the municipal Regency, and in favor
of a democracy. It was widely circulated, and became
the theme of general debate. The author maintained
that the people should have a direct voice in the Govern-
ment, which he contended should be a mixture and com-
bination of the powers of the one, the few, and the many,
each checking and controlling the other. The direct in-
fluence of the American revolution in stimulating the
pride and rising spirit of the people was at once confessed
by both the Orange Klants and the Keezen ; but so wrath-
ful was the Prince of Orange that, under his dictation,
the States of Utrecht and the States-General offered a
reward of fourteen hundred guilders for knowledge of the
author, who, however, was not known until after the seals
of the secrecy of nearly a century had been removed.
He was no other than Baron van der Capellen, the friend
of Adrian van der Kemp, the founder of the town of
Barneveldt, now Trenton, N. Y., and the true father of
the practical plan for the Erie Canal.
The patriot party also hoped that France would come
to their aid ; but Vergemies had died, the finances of
France were disturbed, and the treasury nearly empty.
The new royal minister, the Archbishop of Sens, shrank
from any active support of the Dutch patriots. This
encouraged the King of Prussia to further insolence.
He ordered his ambassador to write, under his instruc-
tions, a letter to the Princess, inviting her to come to the
Hague, and requiring the Patriots to implore her pardon
for their errors, to revoke all previous resolutions against
her, and agreed to punish all who had any share in hu-
miliating her. All this was to be done at four days' no-
tice. The patriots Van Berckel and Gyzelaar demanded
that no notice be taken of this insulting document, but
resolution was passed that ambassadors should be sent
Berlin.
Meanwhile the Prussian troops, twenty thousand in
number, were in motion, while Great Britain, besides
reinforcing her navy, had made a treaty, agreeing to pay
1788] PRUSSIANS INVADE GELDERLAND 895
twelve thousand Hessians to invade the Netherlands,
should France offer any aid. The Prussians entered Gel-
derland, September 13th, one division camping near Arn-
hem, while the second, crossing the Waal at Nymegen,
appeared before Gorkum on the 17th. This fortified
town, tinder the command of Alexander van der Capel-
len, was compelled to surrender, and the people welcomed
the Dnke of Brunswick with cries of, "Oranje boven."
One body of Prussians marched towards Naarden and
another proceeded along the Lek, while Utrecht, Which
,the Patriots had fortified at great expense, was basely
surrendered by the Eheingraf van Salm, its treacherous
commander. The States of Holland now violently swayed
towards the cause of the stadholder, and the edicts
against Orange badges and party songs — a form of ani-
mosity and colorphobia which had extended even to car-
rots— were suspended, and the commission of defence
ordered that no further resistance should be made to the
invaders. Thus, inside of a week, the Patriots fell from
the heights of hope to the depths of despair. Deserted
by France, they could offer no more resistance.
The stadholder once more entered the Hague, welcomed
as a beloved sovereign, while the streets, houses, and
churches were decorated with bands and masses of orange.
Only Amsterdam held out. The people of this city
pierced the dikes and laid the country under water, but
neglected to guard the Haarlem water-way. The Duke
of Brunswick was thus enabled to send a force in boats,
and by so doing compelled the surrender of the city, thus
completing an almost bloodless revolution in a fortnight.
For the first time in her history Amsterdam became the
encampment of a victorious enemy. England and Prussia
now joined hands to guarantee the hereditary stadholder-
ate. All over the country the Patriots were forced to
Wear orange badges, and this shameless interference by
foreign governments with the domestic concerns of an
adjoining state was defended even by the Whigs as well
as by the Tories in the English Parliament. Never be-
fore had the Dutch fallen so low. Rewards were show-
ered upon the Duke of Brunswick, who was called by the
896 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1788
Orangists the defender of their ancient liberty. When
he retired from the country, this German deliverer took
away as his lawful booty the arms and ammunition be-
longing to Holland, and left behind him four thousand
Prussian soldiers to garrison the different towns.
Meanwhile the personally feeble stadholder, aided by
his able and brilliant wife, strengthened his power in
every way. An entirely new set of deputies in the Orange
interests were sent to the States of Holland ; and, since
most of the patriot leaders were either refugees or living
in private, there were very few anti-Orangists to be found
in the assembly. Van Berckel and Zeebergen were de-
clared incapable of serving as legislators, and Bleiswyk
was succeeded by Van de Spiegel. The Princess of Orange
busied herself in forming a party at court and throughout
the country wholly favorable to her own interests. Fort-
unately, however, through Van de Spiegel, the tutor of
the hereditary Prince of Orange, political matters were
greatly improved.
The Republic was now little more than a province,
jointly administered by Prussia and England, the Dutch
being indifferent and supine towards the politics of Eu-
rope. Their commerce was almost ruined and the public
spirit was at its lowest ebb. Of the patriot leaders, 1
eighteen, including Van Berckel and De Gijselaar, had )
been outlawed. Hundreds more were refugees in France,
ready to take advantage of any new turn of fortune.
Others, like Adrian van der Kemp, had fled to the United
States of America to find a new home in the land of
promise.
Though that effective example of resistance of revolu- I
tion from without, usually called the American Revolu-
tion, did not avail to give the Netherlands government
by the people, it was influential in bringing on the French
revolution, which had an immediate and lasting influence
upon the Dutch Republic. The French armies overran
the Belgic Netherlands, and then demanded the free nav-
igation of the Scheldt. The national convention of France,
finding that the stadholder William the Fifth was the
ally and obedient servant of England, declared war against
1794] THE ADVENT OF FREEDOM 897
him, and also proclaimed that the inhabitants of the Re-
public were released from the oath which they had been
forced to take in 1788, and that all who still felt bound
by such oath were enemies of the French people. Both
the stadholder and the States-General, his willing servant,
answered with a manifesto, prepared for defence, and be-
gan to guard their frontiers. Soon afterwards, the French
general, Dumouriez, having but fourteen thousand men,
among whom were two thousand Dutch refugees, and
only a slight train of artillery, invaded the Republic. The
invaders were almost everywhere successful, despite some
assistance sent by the British government, and the pa-
triotic party favoring them formed revolutionary com-
mittees and gave a welcome to their French allies. The
severe winter of 1794-95, which threw natural bridges
over the rivers and canals, assisted the invaders. Gen-
eral Pichegru captured Amsterdam and, by means of his
hussars, the Dutch fleet, which had been frozen in the ice
at the Texel. In all the towns and cities where the pa-
triot party was in the ascendant, the people erected lib-
erty poles, on the top of which they put hats made out of
tin, often of great size, and painted with the tricolor, red,
white, and blue. Around these they danced in mirth and
joy, hailing the advent of freedom and the abolition of
the oppressive monopolies and privileges, the relics of
feudalism, all of which centred in the hereditary stad-
holderate. The French crossed the Waal, and with su-
perior force scattered the English detachments opposing
them.
The stadholder, William the Fifth, now bade farewell to
the States-General at the Hague, went down to Schevenin-
gen and left the country, getting off in a fishing-smack
to England. This departure took place in accordance
with an ultimatum of the French national convention,
and as an indispensable preliminary to the conclusion of
a treaty with the States-General. The next day the am-
bassadors of Great Britain, Prussia, Spain, Italy, and
Hanover returned to their respective governments.
Into the details of the French occupation of the North-
ern Netherlands we need not enter, but give merely an
57
898
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
[1794
outline of the events between "the eighteen unhappy
years" from 1795 to 1813. Whether under the name of
the " Batavian Republic," the kingdom of Holland, or
the provinces of the French empire, the French occupa-
tion was virtually a French conquest that had little per^
manent influence on Dutch history or character.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FRENCH OCCUPATION
THE revolutionary committees now prepared the peo-
ple to greet the French as friends and brethren. In
Amsterdam the liberty - tree was planted on the Dam.
Throughout most of the towns and cities the revolution-
ary committees, which had already been organized, ad-
ministered affairs when the old governments abdicated.
On the 22d of January, 1796, the French army entered the
Hague, where, as in the other cities, the people frater-
nized with their invaders, hailing them as friends. The
revolution being completed, the central committee sent
out their invitations. Deputies came up from all the
states to the Hague in March, 1796, where a national con-
vention met, which acknowledged the sovereignty of the
people and the rights of man. Even the villages had rep-
resentatives of their own, and the Batavian Republic, first
proclaimed May 16, 1795, became a fact.
Although the ancient privileges and monopolies, which
so long had rested heavily upon the Dutch people, were,
with the guilds and the titles of nobility, abolished, and
the constitution of 1798 and that of 1801 promised sta-
bility and prosperity, yet the Dutch had to pay dearly for
their freedom. They soon learned the difference between
an American and a French "revolution." Instead of
their deliverers reforming the constitution in the manner
thought best by the revolutionary committees and pa-
triots, the Dutch people found they could do nothing
except 'at the bidding of their French masters, who com-
pelled them to lay an embargo on British vessels then in
their ports. This, of course, once more brought on a war
900 HISTORY OF TI1E NETHERLANDS [1807
with Great Britain, which pursued her usual policy of
seizing the possessions of the Republic in various parts
of the world. So it happened that soon Dutch commerce
and fisheries were nearly paralyzed and the colonies lost.
The towns and magazines of the Batavian Republic were
held by foreigners, and, besides, its people were required
to take an oath that nothing should be done against the
French Republic. The demands of the French army for
forage and fuel were insatiable, while in payment the
people were compelled to receive that worthless paper-
money called the "assignats." In October, 1797, after
blockading the Texel so as to utterly ruin Holland's com-
merce, the British admiral, Duncan, won a victory over
the Dutch fleet, under Admiral de Winter, at Kamperduin.
The Batavian Republic became virtually a province of
France.
Various changes in government followed — the Dutch,
meanwhile, losing the flower of their young men in fight-
ing the battles of Napoleon, who had become First Con-
sul of the French Republic, and who changed the consti-
tution to suit his whim. In 1799 an army of 10,000
English and 13,000 Russian troops landed in North Hol-
land, at Kijkduin, but were defeated at Bergen and Cas-
tricum, the Dutch failing to welcome their professed de-
liverers. Bonaparte visited the country in 1805, the year
in which the constitution was again revised. He invested
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, the Dutch ambassador
at his court, with the sole government of the Batavian
Republic. Although a council of nineteen members,
styled their "High Mightinesses," formed the law-mak-
ing body, yet Schimmelpenninck possessed almost mo-
narchical power, under the title of Pensionary, and
was addressed as " His Excellency." Under this pen-
sionary the Dutch politicians were divided into three par-
ties— the Unitaries and the Federalists, with a small body
of Democrats.
In 1807 Napoleon declared the country a kingdom, and,
calling it ' ' Holland," made his brother, Louis, king. Louis
at once began earnestly to relieve the distresses of the
people, to develop the resources of the country, and to
1808] THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 901
give unity to the nation. The world-famous City-hall,
in Amsterdam, became the palace. King Louis bought
of the Amsterdam banker, Hope, the beautiful country-
seat, a " Pavilion," near Haarlem, and often sojourned
at Loo, afterwards the summer residence of Dutch princes
and sovereigns. One of his best appointments, made in
the year that his son, the future Napoleon the Third, was
born, was that of Herman Daendels to be governor-gen-
eral of the East Indies, where he planted forty-five mill-
ion coffee - trees, and improved the administration of
affairs in many ways. In 1808 the Koyal Institute of
science, letters, and fine arts was established. In 1810
Louis Napoleon, who had won great popularity with the
Dutch, was obliged to resign, because he refused to be
a mere tool in the hands of his brother, the French
Emperor.
Then the Kingdom of Holland, as it had been called,
was divided into seven departments, and made an integral
part of tlje French empire. Napoleon declared that the
Netherlands were nothing more than a deposit of earth
brought down by the rivers from the interior of France
and central Europe, and so he insisted that by nature
they were a part of France. The departments created in
all the Netherlands were those of the Zuyder Zee, the
Mouths of the Maas, the Mouths of the Rhine, the TJpper-
Ijssel, the Mouths of the Ijssel, the "Western Eems, Frisia,
the Two Nethes, the Mouths of the Scheldt, the Scheldt,
and the Doer, the three last being combined with portions
of Belgium and Germany. Thus there were formed eleven
departments in all, and these were subdivided into cantons
and communes.
Everything was now done that could be accomplished
to make the Dutch as French as possible. The customs,
manners, tastes, and ideas of France-were sedulously culti-
vated, the Dutch laws were translated into French, Dutch
youth were sent to French schools, while tens of thousands
of Dutchmen served in Napoleon's composite army, no
fewer than fifteen thousand of them being in the disas-
trous invasion of and retreat from Russia. Meanwhile
the people were ground down under the burdens of taxa-
902 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1809
tion and conscription, and were harrassed with a political
and legal system which was wholly unsuited to them. On
the other hand, some benefits, notably the improvements
of public roads, unity in legislation, and a simplification in
public business, were undeniably manifest. On Den Held-
er, opposite the Texel Island, Napoleon began the con-
struction of great dikes, fortifications, and dock-yards, and
employed his Spanish prisoners at the work, thus laying
the foundations of that naval station of which the Dutch
are to-day so proud.
In building large arsenals and dock-yards at Antwerp,
Napoleon excited the fears and jealousies of Great Britain.
It was determined in London to send out a great expedi-
tion to aid the continental allies of Great Britain by pre-
venting the concentration of Napoleon's strength, so that
he should be unable to overwhelm any one of his adversa-
ries. This scheme was planned in 1807, when Prussia,
Eussia, and Austria were powerful ; but it was not put in
execution by the slow-minded British ministry until early
in the summer of 1809. By this time Napoleon had over-
whelmed Prussia, reduced Kussia to neutrality, and was
gradually forcing Austria to succumb. There were at
this time but ten thousand French soldiers in the Nether-
lands, and the fortifications of Antwerp were not only
greatly dilapidated, but had only two thousand invalids
and coast guards for their garrison. The belated expedi-
tion, consisting of sixty war vessels and one hundred and
fifteen gunboats, troop-ships, and transports, carrying
forty-one thousand soldiers, sailed July 28, 1809. Lord
Castlereagh had given orders to the commander, Lord
Chatham, the elder brother of Pitt, to advance immediate-
ly in full force against Antwerp. Instead of going at once
np the Scheldt, Chatham foolishly stopped to bombard
Flushing — a most useless and wasteful performance. In
the meantime the army was landed and quartered amid the
swamps of Walcheren, where, in the malaria of midsum-
mer, the British troops died by tho thousands, while the
garrison at Antwerp was reinforced to the number of fifteen
thousand men. Flushing did not fall until August 16th,
and when a little later Chatham was ready to march, there
1809] THE CODE NAPOLEON 903
were thirty thousand soldiers ready to defend Antwerp,
while the British army was decimated with marsh fever.
It would then have been madness for him to have at-
tempted the reduction of the great fortresses on the Scheldt,
so the expedition returned to England, leaving fifteen
thousand men in Walcheren so as to compel the French
to keep a strong force in Belgium. Even then malaria
killed more men than would have perished in a campaign.
One half died and the other half were permanently disabled
by disease. This expedition cost the British tax-payers
£20,000,000. Its failure led to furious onslaughts on the
ministry in the House of Commons and in the newspapers,
and, besides, a duel was fought between Lord Castlereagh
and George Canning, the father of the so-called " Monroe
Doctrine." Around the Dutch churches in Domburg and
other villages in Walcheren are the silent memorials of
one of the greatest disasters known in British military
history.
Amsterdam was reckoned the third city of the French
empire, the Code Napoleon was made the law of the land,
and the conscription was rigidly enforced. All males
above twenty years of age — being the flower of the young
men of the Netherlands — were ranged under the French
colors, so that one-fifth of the whole population became
soldiers and were sent to Napoleon's various slaughter-
pens. English goods being prohibited from entering the
Dutch ports, a great rise in the price of necessaries of
life took place. The Dutchman dearly loves his coffee,
which all classes drink, the poor especially finding com-
fort in this decoction of the oriental bean. The price of
it now rose from twelve to sixty -three stuyvers ($1.25)
a pound, while sugar, which formerly sold at ten stuy-
vers (twenty cents), advanced to sixty stuyvers ($1.20) a
pound. Necessity and industry combined to create sub-
stitutes, so chickory and beet-root sugar were sedulously
cultivated in Netherlandish soil. Other measures equally
odious and obnoxious sowed the seeds of bitter discontent
against French rule and prepared the Dutchmen for re-
volt. Education was deformed rather than reformed.
The universities of Harderwijk and Franeker were sup-
904 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1811
pressed, and those of Utrecht and Amsterdam were re-
duced to the grade of secondary schools.
In the Far East the English captured Java in 1811, and
occupied other Dutch colonies ; but in Japan, after the
French occupation of Holland, the Dutch factor at De-
shima received his annual vessel from Batavia, and re-
turned it under the United States flag and in command
of the American Captain Stewart. In 1811 the heroic
Hendrik Doef once more raised the Netherland flag at
Deshima, the island in front of Nagasaki.
Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow, on account
of which many Dutch families mourned the loss of their
sons, starved, frozen, or killed, was succeeded by the bat-
tle of Leipsic. Soon afterwards the allies entered Paris,
and Napoleon abdicated and retired to Elba.
By this time the Dutch were all ready to "take Hol-
land." Gijsbert Karel, Count of Hogendorp, called "the
father of the Dutch constitution," whose statue now
stands in his native city of Rotterdam, was the man for
the hour. Born October 27, 1762, he was educated at Ber-
lin, and having served for a while in the German army,
he went to America in 1782 with the first Dutch minister,
Van Berckel, and was six months in the new world, where
he met Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson, with whom
on his return home he kept up a correspondence. He
travelled also in Great Britain and became a profound
student of political affairs. In 1795, he founded at Am-
sterdam a famous business house, and being full of public
spirit he wrote treatises upon sociology and economics.
Since 1801 he had occupied himself with a plan for the
constitution of his country, after the French should be
gotten out of it. With Count van Limburg Stirum,
Baron van der Duyn van Maasdam, and three others, he
held conferences, and awaited the opportunity, which the
Patriots now believed to be not very far off, of throwing
off the French yoke. Accordingly, they bound themselves
with Kemper, the celebrated professor of law at Leyden,
and with Falk, the captain of the national guard, to keep
peace and order after the battle of Leipsic, October 16,1812,
when it was generally believed that Napoleon was dead.
1813] REVOLT AGAINST FRENCH RULE 9Q5
Gradually the signs of revolt against French rule mul-
tiplied. The French functionaries frequently found the
statues, emblems, and governmental insignia of Napoleon's
empire smeared over with orange. Such outbursts of the
paint-pots which covered up everything with orange tints
seemed sudden, but were not mysterious to the initiated.
The league of gentlemen in the Hague, under Hogendorp,
soon numbered four hundred members. In Amsterdam
the signs of changa became so manifest that the French
evacuated the city and retired to Utrecht, November 14,
and the governor-general and other French functionaries
followed. The people of Amsterdam rose up and made
themselves possessors of the custom-house and guard-
houses, and a committee of citizens took possession of the
government. Two days later Count van Limburg Stirum
and the sons of Hogendorp showed themselves in public
wearing the orange cockade. .Van Limburg Stirum was
made governor of the Hague. Hogendorp issued a call
for the gathering of the old regents, or city councils, and
on the 21st of November Hogendorp and Van Maasdam
proclaimed to the nation the beginning of the provisional
government. The cities of Eotterdam and Haarlem
quickly followed the example of the Hague and Amster-
dam. Baron Jacob Fagel and Henry George Perponcher,
went over to England on the 19th of November. They
returned bringing an autograph letter from the Prince of
Orange, William Frederick, the son of William the Fifth,
born at the Hague in 1772, saying that he would return
to Holland, as his father had left it, at Scheveningen, on
a fishing-smack. This he did, setting foot on his native
soil November 30th. He was warmly welcomed.
On the 2d of December, 1813, the French having evac-
uated Utrecht, the Prince of Orange took oath as sover-
eign-prince to respect the constitution. The English
drove the last remnants of French out at Zeeland. Von
Bulow and his Cossacks overran Gelderland, Overyssel,
Groningen, and Friesland, ejecting the French garrisons,
while the Dutch or their allies gained possession, one after
the other, of Arnhem, Coevorden, Naarden, and smaller
places. The military system was now reformed, the re-
906 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1813
served forces, consisting of men from seventeen to fifty
years of age, to be enrolled by inscription. An active
army, partly of volunteers and partly of conscripts, was
quickly formed, consisting of twenty-five thousand men.
In addition to the regular taxes, the nation made a free-
will offering of one hundred thousand guilders for the de-
fence of the country. Everywhere in Europe and Amer-
ica people were amused to hear the strange news — " The
Dutch have taken Holland."
CHAPTER XV
THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHEBLANDS
HOGENDOBP was made president of the commission of
fifteen persons whom the Prince of Orange had nominated
for the preparation of a national "ground-law." This
statesman's elaborate sketch became the basis of the con-
stitution which was presented before a convocation of six
hundred notable men of the land, who met together in the
New Church at Amsterdam, March 29, 1814. After grave
consideration, four hundred and forty-eight of them voted
in favor of the instrument, called the "fifth constitution,"
which consisted of nine chapters and one hundred and
forty-six articles. It guaranteed a national legislature of
one hundred and ten members in two chambers, freedom
of religion, equality of all before the law, and independence
of the judiciary. It fixed the boundaries of the nine prov-
inces and awarded to each one on the sea -coast the ad-
jacent islands, fixed the annual income of the sovereign
prince, whose title was " Royal Highness/' at one million
five hundred thousand guilders, and settled various other
details of the government. On the next day the Prince
of Orange was solemnly inaugurated king, Domine Petrns
Haack preaching the sermon.
The first meeting of the new States-General was on the
3d of May, 1814. By the Congress of Europe, at the first
Peace of Paris, Nederland and Belgium were made into
one kingdom under the sovereignty of the House of Orange-
Nassau. William Frederick, the new king, took the sov-
ereignty over Belgium in July. Nederland received back
from Great Britain her colonies which she had possessed
previously to January 1, 1803, with the exception of Cey-
908 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1815
Ion, the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara, Essequibo in
Venezuela, and Berbice in Guiana. In compensation for
his hereditary possessions, which were taken partly by
Prussia and partly by Nassau, King William was given the
Duchy of Luxemburg, of which he became the Duke, as
well as King of all the Netherlands. The Congress of
Vienna, which put Napoleon under ban, made Luxem-
burg a part of the Germanic confederation, with seven-
teen votes. Louis the Eighteenth, as head of the House
of Bourbon, being made king of France, reigned but a
hundred days. Napoleon landed at Cannes on the first of
March, 1815, and soon had one hundred thousand men in
arms under his eagles.
The call to deliver Europe from one who oppressed it in
the name of democracy was most heartily heeded in the
Netherlands, and an army of twenty-five thousand enthu-
siastic soldiers, led by the Prince of Orange, eldest son of
the king, marched with Wellington and Blucher, who
gathered a host of two hundred and thirty thousand men.
At Quatre Bras the Prince of Orange and his Dutch troops
performed prodigies of valor and drove back Marshal Ney.
On the field of Waterloo, also, June 18, 1815, the Prince
led the Netherlands troops, who fought with steady brav-
ery, winning from Wellington a splendid tribute of praise.
The Prince was wounded and left the field, but only
when in the hands of the surgeon. William Frederick of
Orange was crowned King of all the Netherlands, in Brus-
sels, September 27, 1815, and in October Napoleon was an
exile at St. Helena.
It was a hazardous experiment in statecraft to attempt
thus to cement into one two peoples so diverse in religion,
language, character, and interests, as the Dutch and the
Belgians. Moreover, the personality of King William, who
was rather a brave military officer than a wise and patient
statesman, did not promise a brilliant future for this ill-
assorted union. He gave himself vigorously to the de-
velopment of his domain, and great enterprises were un-
dertaken. These promised to change "the cockpit of
Europe " into a peaceful garden, in which the scars of war
should be healed "in the sweet oblivion of flowers." He
1815] THE NEW CONSTITUTION 909
had named a commission of twenty-one members to pre-
pare and revise a constitution for all the Netherland prov-
inces. The commission held its sessions in Holland, fin-
ishing this, the l ' sixth constitution," in July, 1815. One
hundred and ten members of the two chambers of the
States-General of the Netherlands unanimously accepted
the instrument. The King now called together in the
Belgic or Southern Netherlands a convention of sixteen
hundred and three notables, one for every two thousand
inhabitants, to consider and ratify the new constitution.
The famous Bishop of Ghent, Maurice Jean Magdaleine
de Broglie, who had been driven from his see during the
French regime, had returned and been reinstated. With
tremendous vigor and constant activity he threw his
great influence against the new constitution, which was
not very democratic in its general provisions. When the
notables assembled, only thirteen hundred and twenty-
three were present. Of these, seven hundred and ninety-
six voted in favor of, and five hundred and twenty-seven
voted against, the new constitution, while two hundred and
eighty withheld their votes. This augured ill for the suc-
cess of the union of the two kingdoms, and the outlook
was even less promising when the ecclesiastical powers in
Belgium issued their manifesto, entitled " The Doctrinal
Judgment of the Bishops." In the North, Bilderdijk and
Tollens sang the praises of the King, and the Dutchmen
rejoiced. In the Belgian provinces a party was formed to
put in practice English constitutional and French repub-
lican ideas, yet the mass of the people, being under the
immediate influence and control of their spiritual advisers,
were not satisfied with the new order of things. The
despotic character and bigotry of the king only made mat-
ters worse. He intermeddled unnecessarily and continually
with the Catholics, both in matters of religion and of educa-
tion, and appointed Dutchmen as office-holders in numbers,
beyond all proportions of justice to those born south of
the Scheldt. In 1830 there was but one Belgic Nether-
lander among seven ministers in the royal cabinet. Of
two hundred and nineteen functionaries in the depart-
ments of the ministry of home affairs, all were Dutch ex-
910 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1828
cept fourteen, while of fifteen hundred and seventy-three
infantry officers, only two hundred and seventy-four were
Belgians. The majority of the people in the Southern
Netherlands, being Walloons, spoke French, hut the King,
intending to make the Southern Netherlander thoroughly
Dutch, required a knowledge of that language as a req-
uisite for office. The Belgians also complained that they
were unjustly taxed, that they were unfairly represented
in the States-General, and that unconstitutional restric-
tions were laid upon the press. In 1827 King William
was obliged to submit to a concordat with the pope, plac-
ing the seventeen provinces under an archbishop and
seven bishops, but the execution of the concordat was ob-
structed and not carried out. The next year William sent
a message to the States - General, taking a high hand in
limiting the freedom of the press.
As matters went on from bad to worse, both the cleri-
cals and the liberals of Belgium united together, in 1828,
to obtain their rights. They demanded freedom of re-
ligion, of instruction, and of the press. The second
chamber of the States-General was now divided into two
hostile camps. Attempts to coerce or intimidate the Op-
position, by persecuting the Democratic or Liberal lead-
ers, only made the Belgians more fiercely discontented.
The tension between the Northern and Southern Neth-
erlands was now becoming dangerous. The fight was at
first conducted in the press and on the platform, the Hol-
landers talking of " Father William," and the Belgians of
"Father Despot/' The tone of the Belgian press grew
seditious. The adjective "infamous" was openly ap-
plied to oppressions of the royal ministers and against
their restrictions of the liberty of the press. Everywhere
the Belgians lifted up a threatening cry against " the
Hollandish dominion."
All was ripe for a revolution when the French political
volcano, with its almost periodical outbursts, began a
new eruption in 1830, driving out Charles the Tenth,
and bringing in the Bourgeois King Louis Philippe.
The tidal -wave upraised in France reached Brussels.
On the night of the 24th of August, the King's birthday,
1831] ANTWERP BOMBARDED BY THE DUTCH 9H
the opera, La Muette de Portici, which has for its subject
the revolt cf the Neapolitans under Aniello in 1647 against
the Spaniards, was being performed. During this opera
the French Marseillaise was sung. Aroused by the sen-
timents and music, a crowd assembled and began to de-
stroy and plunder the houses of the minister, Van Maanen,
and the printer of the government newspaper. Two days
later the armed citizens' guard put on the old Brabant
colors, black, yellow, and red, which now form the Bel-
gian flag, and the insurrection became general all over
the country.
After various conferences on the subject, the Prince of
Orange entered Brussels on the 31st of August. Both
he and the Dutch troops were driven out. At Antwerp,
the Dutch garrison bombarded the city, but unable to
make their position secure, marched out and joined the
main body of the army at Vilvoorde. A second mission
of the Prince of Orange to Brussels was fruitless, and he
was called back. The provisional government called a
convention, and, meeting on the 4th of October, pro-
claimed the independence of Belgium. The European
Congress of London met in November, wherein sat Lord
Palmerston and Talleyrand, Netherland being represent-
ed by Anton R. Falck. The separation of the two coun-
tries was decreed 011 December 20, 1830. A truce was
ordered, and the Dutch army retired within the fron-
tiers of the Northern Netherlands. Leopold, who had
declined the crown of Greece, was made King of the Bel-
gians. After what is termed " The Ten Days' Campaign,"
from the 2d to the 12th of August, 1831, the treaty called
"the four - and - twenty articles" was settled upon, by
which the province of Limburg remained as part of the
Dutch Kingdom. In the various skirmishes, probably
less than a thousand lives were lost. At Antwerp, the
Dutch Lieutenant Van Speijk blew up his ship with all
on board rather than surrender to the Belgians. In Brus-
sels the " Martyr's Memorial," in Amsterdam the Metal-
Cross monument in front of the palace, and at Egmond-
aan-Zee a bronze lion for Van Speijk commemorate those
killed in this war.
912 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1840
Not until nine years afterwards did the Dutch King,
who remained Grand Duke of Luxemburg, agree to this
severance between the two countries. His acts during
this period were not remarkable for wisdom or dignity,
and they made him unpopular with the Dutch and hated
by the Belgians. Resigning his throne and abdicating
in favor of his eldest son, October 7, 1840, he retired with
his enormous fortune to Berlin, and died there, December
12, 1843. When, by the treaty of London, April 19, 1839,
Belgium obtained a guarantee of its integrity, and the
free passage of the Scheldt was secured, Antwerp began
its modern expansion and growth, entering upon an era
of prosperity which made it one of the greatest of modern
seaports, while the bright and gay city of Brussels rapidly
became a second Paris.
In the Kingdom of Nederland, in 1840, the great prov-
ince of Holland, which by its size and wealth had always
been so dangerous to the stability of the Republic, was
divided into the provinces of North and South Holland,
with capitals at Haarlem and the Hague. The Dutch
kingdom thereafter consisted of eleven provinces, the
Duchy of Luxemburg being separate. In the same year
some unimportant alterations were made in the constitu-
tion, and the Crown Prince was inaugurated as King Will-
iam the Second in the New Church at Amsterdam, No-
vember 28th.
The new ruler, who was a very different man from his
father — more benign and gracious — soon became very pop-
ular. Born in the Hague, December 6, 1792, he accom-
panied his grandfather, the last of the stadholders, to Eng-
land, was educated at Berlin and Oxford, and served in
the Spanish and British armies against the French, making
a splendid record of valor at Quatre Bras and Waterloo,
as we have seen. On February 21, 1816, in St. Petersburg,
he married the Russian Princess, Anna Paulownia, the sis-
ter of Alexander the First, Emperor of Russia. After her
many pretty flowers, including the blossoms of Japan's
noblest tree, and the great polder in North Holland, have
been named. King William the Second loved and en-
couraged art, and, being of a military and romantic turn
1845J AN ERA OF PROSPERITY 913
of mind, he was less inclined to interfere in matters of
state. He restored order to the finances, and the national
energies being stimulated to a genuine renovation of trade
and commerce, the government of the Netherlands became
more and more harmonized with modern forms and spirit.
A motion to revise the constitution was made in 1845 by
nine liberal members of the States-General, but at that
time without effect. Since then, however, two parties
have carried on the government and directed politics in
the kingdom — the Liberals and the Conservatives.
When France, the centre of revolutionary disturbance
in Europe, again sent out those political vibrations which
seem like seismic throes propagating their force under the
ocean to distant lands, Nederland again showed its stabil-
ity and the proof of its stronger life. Like its silent lead-
er, it stood " tranquil amid the waves." In Belgium there
was a financial panic, but in the Netherlands King Will-
iam the Second, yielding gracefully to the demand for a
new revision of the constitution, appointed a commission
consisting of D. Donker Curtius, L. Z. Luzac, J. K. Thor-
becke, J. M. de Kempenaar, and L. D. Storm. The re-
sult of their labors was thoroughly discussed and finally
adopted by the States-General, approved by the King, and
the revised constitution became the law of the land on the
3d of November, 1848.
According to this, the succession of the crown is in both
the male and female line. The King, sharing his power
with the States-General, is commander of the land forces
and chief director of the colonies. The ministers are re-
sponsible to the nation and not to the sovereign. The mem-
bers of the first chamber, numbering thirty-nine, sit for
nine years. The members of the second chamber, chosen
by the citizens having the right to vote, sit for four years,
each member representing forty-five thousand people, and
the total number being seventy-five.
An era of prosperity was ushered in under the adminis-
tration of John Kudolf Thorbecke, the brilliant and able
Liberal statesman, whose writings had done so much to
mould public opinion in favor of the Constitution of 1848,
which gave fruition to the hopes of republican days.
58
914 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1849
Thorbecke continued, enlarged, and consolidated the work
of Hogendorp, "the father of the Dutch constitution."
From the year 1848 until 1872, Thorbecke, as a tireless
patriot, served his country with eminent ability and wis-
dom. He was three times at the head of the cabinet. Af-
ter his death, an annuity of twenty thousand guilders to
his two daughters bears witness of the gratitude of King
and people. To-day, his statue stands not in the aristo-
cratic and conservative city of the Hague, but in liberal'
and appreciative Amsterdam.
When William the Second died at Tilburg on the 17th
of March, 1849, his oldest son became King William the
Third, who ruled until his death at Het Loo, in Gelder-
land, November 23, 1890. Born in the Hague, February
19, 1817, he married, June 18, 1839, Sophia, a daughter
of the King of Wurtemburg. Under his long and pros-
perous reign Nederland enjoyed a great revival of material
prosperity, intellectual expansion, a new bloom of art, and
splendor of literature, a sound military and naval admin-
istration, and a marked revival of the national spirit which
has already lifted the nation into a position of strength
and dignity.
Though his little kingdom was but as a pigmy in size
among the great armed giants of Europe, the King came
to his throne and the revival of patriotism occurred in the
age of steam and electricity, and of the marvellous devel-
opments of science.
When steam came to do a work that waited not for the
uncertain winds of Heaven, the enterprise of drainage re-
ceived a still greater impulse, and the days of the wind-
mill were numbered. Though thousands still wave their
arms and cast their shadows over the landscape, yet few
new ones are now built ; for, by means of the steam dredge
and steam pump, new water-ways are opened for the
immense inland commerce of the nation, old canals and
grachts are, through forced motion of the water, kept sa-
lubrious, while large low or flooded tracts, which formerly
bred malaria and prevented profitable farming, are made
to smile with growing food for men and his dumb helpers,
so that health abides where disease was wont to tarry. Be-
1852] REVIVAL OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT 915
sides pumping out ninety lakes, including Haarlem Meer
(1839-1852), diking the sea coast and river-banks, and re-
claiming to fertility many thousands of acres from swamp
and morass, " new rivers" and channels are cut to order
as necessity requires. The North Holland Canal, and the
North Sea Canal, the first connecting Amsterdam with
Alkmaar, Den Helder, and the Texel, and the second with
the North Sea direct, the new Water Way of Rotterdam
from the Maas to the sea, are noble examples of modern
engineering science and proofs of the revival of the na-
tional spirit.
The railway syste.ni, already inaugurated before the cor-
onation of King William the Third, furnishes transporta-
tion to all classes and is graded to suit every purse, some
of the roads being owned by the State, others by private
companies. Great lines traverse the two Hollands and
Zeeland from Den Helder and Enkhuizen to the Hook of
Holland and Flushing, and from Leeuwarden and Gron-
ingen to Maastricht, while through the inland provinces a
network extends east and west, linking together all the
important cities from the Hague to Winterswijk, Enschede,
Oldenzaal, and Nieuweschans. In addition to the heavy
railways are steam tramways, which also link together
towns and cities in an easy chain of communication, the
tram lines in North Brabant, Utrecht, and Friesland be-
ing of considerable length. These easy modes of travel
and transportation, with other modern factors of change
and progress, while destroying provincial peculiarities,
picturesque costumes, and customs, and relegating many
an old local legend and tradition to the realm of the
fabulous, add greatly to the sum of human comfort. They
also give the people an added sense of nationality, while
keeping them in more vital touch with mankind at large.
The men on the trains and at the stations, with their red
caps, diagonal breast-belts, uniforms and head-plates, and
the signal-women, with their low black enamelled hats and
blue coats lined with red, form the personnel of a modern
method of transportation which requires for complete suc-
cess all the ancient virtues. The thorough equipment and
speed of the trains and the trim, comfortable stations, re-
916 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1852
inf orced by the magnificent triumphs and wonderful science
of engineering, make the Dutch railway system one of the
best fitted for its purpose in Europe. The Central Station at
Amsterdam was built by P. J. H. Kuypers, the architect
also of the Rijks or National Museum, who was so pro-
foundly influenced in his tastes by his literary friend, J. A.
A. Thijm, the father of modern Hollandish Catholic liter-
ature. Both edifices in their facades are in the early
Dutch Renaissance style.
Population steadily increases in Nederland, notwith-
standing great losses by emigration. The old hive has
continually swarmed off new generations of busy workers
that have winged their way over the seas. The Dutch
emigrants build up new commonwealths or reinforce old
ones with the sturdy virtues and rich blood of the Father-
land. Besides educating the Pilgrims and many of the
Puritan founders of New England in their free Republic,
the Dutch stamped their genius ineffaceably upon the em-
pire region of America — the four middle states, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — from
which have come forth so many of those great construc-
tive measures which have helped first to make and then
to preserve the American Union. These States, origi-
nally settled by the Netherlanders, were moulded by the va-
rious peoples coming from the cosmopolitan Republic and
from the four countries in the United Kingdom, who took
many of their precedents and progressive ideas directly
from Zeeland, Friesland, and Holland. South Africa was
colonized by the Dutch and Walloons who, in the seven-
teenth century, came to the Cape and thence " trekked "
their way with oxen and wagons into the interior. Besides
laying the foundations of order in most of the South Afri-
can lands now owned by Great Britain, these Africanders
founded the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free
State. In the East Indies, from the first discoveries of
the Brothers Houtman to the days of the founder of Ba-
tavia, Jan P. Koen, and until our own times, there has
been a steady growth of Dutch colonies. The prevalence
of law and order in this region of the Malay world is so
general, and the government is so just, that anything like
1852] PIONEERS OF COMMERCE 917
an exception to the rule, in an outbreak of any sort, is a
god-send to journalist and novelist.
The Dutch were the pioneers in attempting to solve
that problem — which is perhaps the greatest in our age
and the coming centuries — of reconciling the Oriental
and the Occidental civilizations, and of the twain making
one new and better standard of life. The Dutch formed
the first Asiatic Society for the exploration of the mines of
Oriental speech, thought, and institutions. They brought
back from the East, both near and far — from Arabia and
India, from the Malay and the Chinese worlds, and from
Japan — a little world by itself — the first manuscripts and
material for literary study. From the seventeenth cen-
tury to the present moment Dutch scholars have never
been surpassed, whether in relative number or in quality.
Nor are the names of the first masters, Erasmus, Lipsius,
Scaliger, Heinsius, G-raevius, and Kilian, greater than
those of our century, which, in Arabic knows De Goeje ;
in Sanskrit, Kern ; in critical knowledge of the Semitic
languages, Kuenen ; in Talmudic Hebrew, Wildeboer ; in
comparative religion, De la Saussaye and Tiele ; and in
the cultus of China, Schlegel and Groot. In the opening
of trade with the spice-lands of the Far East, and with
China, Formosa, Cho-sen, and Nippon, the men of the
Republic were pioneers. Throughout the northern Pa-
cific and in all the Archipelago, stretching from the Phil-
lippines to the Kuriles, the number of familiar Dutch
names on capes, water-ways, and islands are as numerous
as in the extreme south, where New Zealand, Van Diemen's
Land, and New Holland (Australia) tell of their restless
enterprise.
In our days the opening of Japan to the commerce of
the world, its flowering as a nation, with a bloom of art
that surprises the world, with a national spirit supposed
to have been unknown to modern Asia, and, in the last
decade of this century, its appearance as a first-class arm-
ed Power, able to humble China, with an army and navy,
and a position in the Pacific Ocean that makes her some-
thing with which even Russia, Germany, Great Britain,
and the United States must reckon, is one of the strik-
918 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1861
ing phenomena of history. Yet, he who would study
modern Japan, and leave out the Dutch influence and
leaven, finds a puzzle rather than natural law. Knowing
of Deshima and the Hollanders, the secret is open. While
nominally shut up from all the world, Japan was con-
stantly receiving, during her two centuries and a quarter
of profound peace, incessant fertilization and reinforce-
ment from Holland. The ships that came every year from
Amsterdam, by way of Batavia, were like bees alighting
in the clover field. They brought the vitalizing ideas
and inventions of Holland and Europe. At Nagasaki the
Hollanders, in turn, having probed the blossoms of the
Japanese genius, brought their honey to Europe. The
Dutch taught the Japanese their own language, one of
the strongest and richest in Europe, to hundreds of stu-
dents, besides furnishing books and information to scores
of inquiring spirits. Long before Dai Nippon gave any
sign to the world outside of desire to enter the fraternity
of nations, there were several thousand Japanese who had
learned the Dutch language and made it their vehicle of
knowledge. They had studied medicine and surgery of
the Dutch physicians. They had perused Dutch books
on subjects illustrating nearly every line of human inves-
tigation. The first Japanese students in Europe went to
school in Holland.
Those were red-letter days on the illuminated scroll of
Japan's intellectual history, when, in 1861, Dr. Pompe van
Meerdervoort, surrounded by Japanese physicians and
medical students, made the first scientific dissection of a
human cadaver, and later erected a hospital at Nagasaki.
It was another type of the English reaper, who has ever
gathered where the Dutch sower first cast in seed, when
Fukuzawa, Japan's "grand old man," who began his
culture in the language of Vondel, continued in that of
Shakespeare. On July 4, 1869, instead of taking sword
and rushing to the battle of Uyeno, he sat down on the
same day of conflict with three fellow-students to study
Wayland's Moral Science.
Even when the trade with Japan ceased to be of any
profit, the Dutch kept it up for sentiment's sake and the
1861] DUTCH INFLUENCE IN JAPAN 919
honor of their flag. In 1844, King William the Second
sent out two Dutch men-of-war on a friendly mission to
Japan, carrying his letter of February 15, in which he
warned the Shogun in Yedo to be prepared for defence
after the Opium War in China ; or, preferably, to open
their country to foreign trade. When the young Repub-
lic in the West was moving towards the Pacific ; when,
through Marcus Whitman, Oregon and the northern Pa-
cific Slope came under control of the government of Wash-
ington, and when, after the war with Mexico, our gold-
seekers and merchants flocked to California, while our
whaling ships were passing by the score along Japanese
coasts, then the Dutch, having long before prepaced the
Japanese to consider the idea of abandoning their life as
a hermit nation, went still further. In 1852, after hav-
ing furnished charts and interpreters, and the knowl-
edge which equipped Commander Perry for his task,
they notified the Japanese of the American expedition,
and in 1853 earnestly advised them to give friendly wel-
come.*
Commodore Matthew C. Perry, whose son-in-law, the
Honorable August Belmont, was at the same time minis-
ter at the Hague, was able to win from the Shogun a
treaty of amity and protection to American seamen, the
standard text of which was in the Dutch language. A
Dutch secretary, Henry Heusken, after ably assisting the
American minister, Townsend Harris, in securing the open-
ing of the country to foreign trade and residence, and the
British, German, and French envoys in their treaty-mak-
ing, became the first victim to the Japanese assassin's
sword. f The Dutch language had been the basis of
Japan's European culture for a century, and the band of
students and educated men who began the first movements
of medical, literary, social, political, and religious reform,
who furnished both the war-leaders that overthrew feu-
dalism, and the statesmen that created the government of
the Meiji period (1868-1894) were, all of them, men who
* See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, a Typical American Naval Officer.
\ See Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan.
920 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1863
had sat at the feet of the Dutchmen of Nagasaki as their
teachers.
It is true that the hermit among the nations, that had
so long made himself outcast, did not come to himself
and advance to the world's house of brotherhood without
reaction and war, nor has the present civilized and par-
tially Christianized Japan reached the high-water mark
of 1897 without the undertow of Chauvinism. Twice did
the Dutch ally themselves with the British, French, and
Americans to humble those ultra-patriotic clansmen of
Choshiu who first insulted foreigners and then profited
by chastisement from them to bring forth the peaceable
fruits which we behold in constitutional Japan. Obeying
the Mikado and disobeying their Shogun, this clan, so
signally rich in men of civic ability, erected batteries
commanding the straits of Van der Capellen at Shimono-
seki. They began at once both civil and foreign war, by
opening their artillery first on the American steamer
Pembroke, June 25, and then July 9, 1863, on the Neth-
erland's corvette, Medusa. To fire on the old red, white,
and blue flag, familiar in Japanese waters long before ever
a Pilgrim Father left Holland for America, seemed to the
Dutch captain, afterwards Admiral F. F. de Casembroot,
a more heinous offence even than to insult the newer flag
having the same colors. As the wooden frigate received
the concentrated fire of eight batteries and two armed
vessels, both Casembroot and his men showed that "Dutch
courage" vas one thing in British satire and another
thing in reality. The coolness and valor of the sailors
were the same as of yore. Though the Japanese heavy
eight-inch guns were many and well served by native stu-
dents of Dutch treatises on artillery, yet the Medusa,
moving slowly up the narrow ocean stream, which is here
but nine hundred yards wide and runs like a mill-race,
kept up a constant fire against the two warships and the
six batteries, silencing one of the latter mounting eight
heavy guns. For an hour and a half the Medusa was the
target for a thousand artillerists, and was struck by thirty-
one shots, seventeen of which pierced her hull. Three
eight-inch shells burst on board. Yet, while splinters and
1864] "CHURCH UNDER THE CROSS" 921
bolts flew around the ship in a manner such as no Dutch
vessel had known since Kamperduin, and the sailors had
never before been under fire, they served their guns cool-
ly and with rapidity. Four men were killed and five
wounded.
When, on September 5 and 6, 1804, the allied fleet of
nine British, three French, four Dutch vessels, with one
tug flying the American flag, making seventeen ships with
7590 men and 208 guns, first cleaned out the forts and
then landed and destroyed them, Casembroot again com-
manded the Dutch men-of-war. His ships were the Met-
alen Kruis, a screw steamer of sixteen guns, named after
the metal cross awarded to the Dutch heroes in the war
with Belgium in 1830 ; the Djambi, a screw steamer of
sixteen guns, bearing the name of a Dutch possession in
Sumatra ; the Amsterdam, a paddle-wheel frigate of six-
teen guns, and the Medusa. The Metalen Kruis and the
Djambi were in the advanced squadron. The Medusa
was in the light squadron which took the batteries in
flank. The Amsterdam was at first kept in reserve to
render assistance to any ship disabled or grounded, but
afterwards took an active part in the bombardment and
landing of the troops. The Dutch marines also had a
fair share in those land operations which, with the terrific
ship fire, taught the Japanese a lesson from which they
were not slow to profit. In the National Museum at Am-
sterdam hang the battle flags of the Dutch squadron, not
far away from the noble monument erected to the mem-
ory of the soldiers slain in the Dutch East Indian wars.
The modernizing of Dutch politics showed that, while
the country had for its government a kingdom in form,
it was a republic in reality. In a word, the constitutional
monarchy fulfilled the hopes of the Kepublic. Neverthe-
less, the liberality of tone and sentiment, going by a nat-
ural reaction perhaps too far, created within the national
church a new commotion, or series of commotions, which
issued in the formation of the Christian Eeformed Church,
or the new "Church Under the Cross." This, besides
building up many congregations and edifices in a new de-
nomination in Nederland, was the direct cause "of a large
922 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1874
emigration to America, in the years 1846 and 1847, the
first of importance since the earlier half of the seventeenth
century. The story of these "new Pilgrim Fathers "is
one of romantic interest, and their semi-centennial or
jubilee was, in September, 1897, remembered in Wisconsin
and Nebraska, and celebrated with great enthusiasm in
Pella, Iowa, and Holland, Michigan.
While the National Reformed Church (de Nederlandsche
Hervormde Kerk) is still the means of spiritual culture
to perhaps a majority of the nation, the Christian Re-
formed Church has, in proportion to numbers, far ex-
ceeded the National Church in missionary activity and
zeal for practical Christianity. The old standards of
faith, as expressed in logical formulas, such as the Belgic
Confession and the Canons of the Synod of Dordrecht,
are no longer binding upon the consciences of church
members, though the Heidelberg Catechism is still the
basis of instruction and of those catechetical exercises
which are carefully carried on in all branches of the
Christian Church in Nederland. Most of the city churches
of the Establishment are collegiate, that is, grouped un-
der the control of one consistory, the ministers preach-
ing in different edifices on successive Sundays. Various
schools of thought are represented in the National Church,
from the most evangelical to the most rationalistic. Each
of the great congregations is composed mainly of the ad-
mirers of the clergyman who succeeds in attracting them
by power of his eloquence, industry, and character, or by
the type of thought most desired. The historic brick
edifices built in the Middle Ages, and long ago purged
of the accretions which gathered in the times when the
Bible was a book practically unknown to the people, are
in the hands of the Reformed congregations, though they
are very poorly adapted for the modern, simple, and un-
liturgical services in which the sermon forms so promi-
nent a feature. With uncomfortable seats and unheated
in winter, it is not wonderful that so many of the men
desert the hallowed places of worship, or sit with their
hats on. The women, who are ever in the majority, are
allowed foot-stoves, and show in their costumes all tastes
1880J GROWTH OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM 923
and grades of social life, the peculiar dress of the local
peasantry and the last new fashion from Paris being ex-
hibited side by side.
The practical abandonment by the consistories and
classes of the old creed-symbols of the early Keformation
and of the seventeenth century, as a test for membership
or participation at the communion-table, created dissatis-'
faction which, in 1886, led to the protest and, on refusal
to take action, to the withdrawal of Rev. Dr. Abraham
Kuyper and a number of his followers, who took the name
of " Doleerende Kerken (the suffering churches) or Con-
tra-Remonstrants — the same name used in opposition to
the Arminians before the great Synod of Dordrecht. Dr.
Kuyper's movement culminated in the formation of a
considerable number of churches, which had a separate
existence as a denomination until their union with the
Christian Reformed Church in 1895.
In the three government universities, the state teach-
ing of theology, except the history and philosophy of
religion, has been abandoned since October, 1877, though
at each of these universities the General Synod of the
National Church has appointed two professors to teach
dogmatic theology. As the Dutch were the first in mod-
ern times to begin the study of the oriental languages, so
they were the first also to establish professorships of com-
parative religion, and in no country has critical science
been more sedulously cultivated. The names of Kuenen,
Tiele, De la Soussaye, Kern, De G-oeje, Scholten, Van
Oosterzee, are known all over the world. The Christian
Reformed Church supports a theological seminary at Kam-
pen, which trains young clergymen in the home land and
from South Africa, the East Indies, and America, while
there is also a free university at Amsterdam, originated
by Dr. A. Kuyper, on the Christian Reformed basis, and
opened October 20, 1880. There are also about fifty Free
Congregations of Christian worshippers in the kingdom.
Within a generation or two there has been a notable re-
newal of Roman Catholic zeal, with a great increase of
membership in that communion. Their new church edi-
fices are among the handsomest in the modern architect-
924 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1880
nre of the country. With the poet-priest Schaepman,
their parliamentary champions Van Vlijmen and others
in the States-General, and their knight of the pen, poet,
historian, novelist, and art-critic, the late J. A. Alber-
dinghe Thijm (1820-1889), who showed that "De God
van Nederland " was not merely the Deity of Protestants
only, they have powerfully influenced public opinion in
politics and education. Thijm's pen, like a torch, lighted
up the past, and recalled the nearly forgotten fact that
the Netherlanders were democratic in faith and act long
before the Reformation, and that the eighty years' strug-
gle against Spain had been one for freedom of conscience,
alike for pagan, Hebrew, Catholic, and Reformed — in a
word, for humanity.
When the German Union was dissolved in 1866, King
William the Third succeeded in separating Limburg and
Luxemburg from all connection with Germany, the former
becoming an integral part of Nederlaud. Impotently
jealous of the new Power, though imagining himself able
to do almost anything, "the splendid villain in the Tuile-
ries" put pressure upon Bismarck to aid him in his proj-
ect of purchasing Luxemburg and invading Belgium.
Bismarck, on the contrary, was able to persuade the King
of Netherlands, William the Third, not to sell Luxemburg.
A congress was called, in which the signatories of the
congress of 1839 were the Powers. Meeting at London,
it was decided, May 11, 1867, to guarantee the existence
of Luxemburg as a neutral state to remain in possession
of the male line of the House of Orange-Nassau, while
Prussia renounced the right of garrisoning the great for-
tress, which was soon after demolished. The annexation
of Limburg to the Dutch Kingdom was confirmed.
Thwarted in his plans, Napoleon the Third persevered in
that offensive diplomacy which caused the whole German
people to rise up as one man and to march into France to
avenge the robberies and devastation of Louis the Four-
teenth and the insults of nearly two centuries. In the
great German army, directed by a committee of four
gentlemen — Wilhelm, Bismarck, Von Moltke,. and Prince
Frederick William — were thousands of descendants of the
1880] NAVAL AND MILITARY FORCES 925
exiled Huguenots driven out under Louis the Fourteenth,
including no fewer than six hundred officers whose fathers
had been hunted out of France. Then came the war and
the great " debacle," the end of the Napoleonic dynasty,
the humiliation of France, and the proclamation at Ver-
sailles of the unity of the German Empire.
The Dutch had learned to their cost, by the experience
of the past, that, amid the mighty and aggressive nations
surrounding them, they could not safely allow their army
and navy to sink into decay. Hence, though not accord-
ing to the national tastes or desires, they are obliged to
keep up such a force as will enable them to maintain their
neutrality when the great military nations enter upon
war. This policy now bore good fruit in the war between
France and Germany.
During this tremendous conflict, while Belgium was
able to call for and obtain the guarantee of Great Britain,
which by treaties with both France and Germany secured
her neutrality and independence, Nederland was obliged
to depend upon herself. With her navy and army in the
highest state of efficiency, she was able, like Switzerland,
to compel Germans and Frenchmen to respect her neu-
trality. Meantime the uniquely accurate maps of France
made on her own soil supplied scholars and editors with
sources of geographical knowledge concerning obscure
places at the seat of war.
When peace was declared, the friends of the little coun-
try feared lest the victors in their swollen pride would de-
mand that "the watch on the Rhine" should include also
its mouths, near Rotterdam, Leyden, and Amsterdam.
The spirit of the Dutch remained firm. When a Berlin
newspaper intimated that the Uhlans, unless Netherlaud
did so and so, might be seen riding through the streets of
the Hague, a Dutch cartoon was issued the following week,
without one word of text or explanation. It showed a
picture of opened dikes and of floods four inches higher
than the top of the helmet-spike on the tallest Uhlan.
This was a sufficient answer.
The reign of William the Third was marked by many
events which caused national rejoicing. Several sons
926 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1894
were born to him, and the court of the Hague was a brilliant
one, because of the imposing number and interesting per-
sonality in the royal family. The sovereign himself was
very fond — too much so, perhaps — of music and singers, of
art and artists, and of convivial gayeties. Queen Sophia,
a lady of great intellect, learning, and character, as well
as strong domestic tastes, was greatly beloved by the peo-
ple. In the House in the Woods, between the capital and
the watering-place of Scheveningen, she welcomed many a
foreign guest of distinction, including among Americans
the historian of the Dutch Eepublic, John Lothrop Motley,
and the great master of international law, David Dudley
Field.*
Prince Frederick, the uncle of the King, one of the best
and noblest men that ever adorned the annals of Nether-
lands, the wise adviser of the King, was loved and honored
by all the people. The quay, named after Prince Hendrik,
and his bronze bust at Amsterdam tell also a noble story
of deserved popularity. Queen Sophia died in 1877, and
one after another the children of William and Sophia fol-
lowed her. The king married, January 7, 1879, as his
second wife, the Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont, of
whom the present queen, Wilhelmina Helena Paulina
Maria, was born August 31, 1880. When but ten years
old, she was left an orphan and the last survivor of the
illustrious House of Orange by the death of her father,
King William the Third, who, after a gorgeous funeral,
was buried as the last of the princes of Orange amid the
tombs of his illustrious ancestors in the great church in
Delft. Adolphus, Duke of Nassau, and one of the wealthi-
est princes in Europe, became Grand Duke of Luxemburg,
and had no further connection with Nederland.
The Atcheen war, the causes of which lie mainly in the
eagerness of European traders to sell their fire-arms and
war material, began in 1873, and has cost the lives of many
of Nederland's bravest and best sons. In 189-4 the Balinese
* In her questions to this great juris-consultist, as he once told me, the
Queen showed her mother heart by inquiring, first of all, not of codes or
courts, but whether Charles Ross, the kidnapped child, had been found.
1893] THE FUTURE SOVEREIGN 927
on the island of Lombok, who had long oppressed the Sas-
saks and reduced them to virtual slavery, were taken in
hand. A force of about two thousand natives and Euro-
pean troops under Generals Vetter and Van Ham was
landed to redress wrongs and enforce the obedience of a
vassal. Lured by Malay treachery into night ambuscades,
the unwelcome guests were so entrapped by their traitor-
ous hosts that only consummate discipline and cool valor
availed to save them. In due time vengeance was taken
and order restored. The heroes, decorated at the Hague
in July, 1895, at the hands of the little maiden-queen,
made a scene of impressive power well calculated to en-
courage patriotism.*
The last revision of the Constitution of the Kingdom of
the Netherlands took place in 1887-t By the act of the
national congress of September 14, 1888, a Council of
Guardianship was instituted for Queen Wilhelmina, who
was, on her eighteenth birthday, August 30, 1898, to be
enthroned sovereign of the Netherlands.
The four political parties now represented in the Dutch
Congress, or States-General, are Liberals (Old and New),
Kadicals, Social-Democrats, and Clericals. The latter call
themselves Anti-Kevolutionists, and consist of the Ultra-
Calvinists, led by Dr. Abraham Kuyper, and of the Ultra-
Montane Koman Catholics, led by the priest, Schaepman.
The motto and war-cry of this " monster-league," as Van
Lennep calls it, is " The State subservient to the Church."
Their first alliance at the polls was in 1881, in order to
defeat the Liberals in the Second Chamber. Since that
day, suffrage has been extended to all male inhabitants
not under twenty-three years of age, and the success of
the Anti-Revolutionist or Clerical party was repeated in
the elections of June, 1897. The result gave a majority
of delegates in the Second Chamber favorable to the obedi-
ence of the State to the Church, and compelled the resig-
nation of the Cabinet.
* With the Dutch in the East, by Captain W. Cool. London, 1897.
f Orondwet voor het Koninkryk der Nederlanden. Groningen, 1897.
CHAPTER XVI
THE REIGN OF QUEEN WILHELMINA
ON the 17th of September, 1907, Queen Wilhelmina,
having entered upon the tenth year of her reign, opened
the States-General with a speech from the throne. She
expressed a keen desire for the success of the International
Peace Conference, then in session, and announced the early
introduction of bills providing for the amendment of the
constitution, reform of the electoral law, strengthening
of the coast defence, the partial draining of the Zuyder
Zee, workmen's insurance, and a system of meat inspection.
Thus, at The Hague, the second parliament of man, met
to discuss the welfare of the world, and the national legis-
lature, convoked to attend to the needs of a modern nation,
small, but in the van of progress, were in concurrent
session.
The realm in which, in 1898, as chief servant of the
Dutch commonwealth, Queen Wilhelmina began her active
rule, though geographically much the same as the Dutch
republic of 1581, is in area of solid land about twice the
size. In population it is fivefold greater. Not by increase
of territory from other countries, or by enlargement of
numbers through immigration, has the greater glory of
the Netherlands come, but rather through man's intel-
ligence and his persistent labor. In no other country
is human lordship over nature more signally illustrated.
Up from the waves, by wresting new soil from the domain
of the fishes, the green acres have been steadily won by toil.
The spade, the dike, the pump, the sunken mattress, the
windmill, and the steam-engine have been the Dutchman's
1877] THE MAKING OF THE LAND 929
tools in the making of his land ; the God whom he devoutly
worships having, according to his proverb, made the sea.
With tenfold greater industry, in reclamation of soil than
in former ages, the Netherlander continue their fathers'
tasks, aided in later centuries by wind and steam.
William of Nassau (who was, in all probability, not
called "the Silent " by his contemporaries) unsheathed
the sword to foil the wiles of a lawless sovereign, and to
resist revolution from without. In his day the seven
states of the Northern Netherlands, out of which rose
the Dutch republic, contained eight hundred thousand
souls on five thousand square miles of territory. Besides
fighting the Spaniard and other enemies, the Dutchman
kept up unceasing defence against the ocean, and made
aggressive war on the watery domain. In spite of oc-
casional defeat and frequent repulse, notwithstanding
broken dikes and disastrous inundations, progress has been
ever onward.
Though no one is able at a single moment to state ex-
actly the shifting and uncertain area of the Netherlands,
yet officially the realm of Queen Wilhelmina, with its
eleven provinces, contains 12,368 square miles, or about
one-fourth the size of New York State. Until the era
of the steam-engine, beginning about 1833, the national
area was 8768 square miles. On October 20, 1877, when
the grand survey of the kingdom was completed, the realm
of King William III. included 12,731 square miles of
more or less dry land. In roughly stated proportions, the
surface consisted of: pasture, 1444; arable land, 859;
uncultivated land, 712; forest, 226; water and morass,
146 ; gardens and orchards, 54 ; dikes and roads, 44 ; build-
ings and houses, 38 ; untaxed land, 92. The relatively large
area of forest shows that Holland — that is, Holt or Wood
land, is still worthy of its name. In the noble competition
of the sea-fronting provinces, Zeeland, typified by the
struggling but emerging lion, leads the van, having en-
larged her islands and won over 230,000 acres.
The dikes, or earthen ramparts, upreared at first for
930 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1898
defence, were later turned into aggressive engines for the
recovery of more soil from the ocean's grasp and made
to add to the national domain. With the enlarged food
area and other conditions favorable for the increase of
life, the growth of population has been marked until, in-
stead of the numbers known to "the Silent/' there are
now in the home land over five million, and in the colonial
possessions thirty-six million souls in a total area of 783,-
000 square miles.
In political reality Netherlands is still a federal re-
public disguised under the form of a constitutional mon-
archy, the people being bound by indissoluble ties of love
and gratitude to the native princes of the House of Orange-
Nassau. The constitution is the real symbol of power.
The Dutch do not crown their chief executive, and their
fundamental law was known to their own first-chosen
King, William Frederick (p. 905), the son of the stad-
holder William V. before he accepted service as ruler.
Him they invited over from exile in England to be their
" sovereign prince/' and to continue the inspiring memories
of the Orange-Nassau servants of the nation. He re-
sponded promptly, making happy union of an illustrious
princely house with a free people. Immediately upon
his arrival upon Dutch soil, he took oath to respect the
constitution, and was duly inaugurated in the New Church
in Amsterdam, the metropolis and virtual capital of the
nation — The Hague being the residence of the court.
He was never crowned. On the same regal chair have sat
his successors, William II., William III., and Queen Wil-
helmina, none of them wearing the crown — which is a
national, and not private or family, possession. The golden
crown, set beneath the constitution at the inauguration, is
the symbol of law and order, and not of hereditary or
reserved power.
The doctrine has ever prevailed in the Netherlands, as
in modern England, that the prince is the servant of the
nation. As long as royalty means highest service, it is
cherished by the Dutch people, which had no kings until
1898] INAUGURATION OF QUEEN WILHELMINA 931
Napoleon forced on them his brother Louis, who so imbibed
the spirit of the Dutch people that he was never an arbi-
trary monarch and quickly resigned his office. Led by
William of Orange, the Dutch first founded a state with-
out a throne, and then made the throne the symbol of
service. In modern Netherlands, "the throne" is the
representative of law, order, and national unity, but it
is also the expression of a people's love.
The inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina, who attained
her majority August 31, 1898, took place in the New
Church, in Amsterdam, on September 6th. As witnessed
by the writer, the festivities and national rejoicings, lasting
during a fortnight, were, in epitome, a mirror of Dutch
history and a true reflection of the national law and spirit.
The joyous entry of the mother, Queen-regent Emma,
and her daughter, the Queen-elect, into Amsterdam, was
made in the early afternoon of September 5th. The avenues
of the city on the Y, gay with artistic device and brilliant
colors, were crowned with two millions of happy spectators.
On the great open space, the Dam, the spike-shaped granite
monument, which commemorated the dead of 1830, was
hidden in living flowers and flowing' water, showing in
allegory the Amstel River and the prosperity of the king-
dom. The old City Hall, built to commemorate the Peace
of 1648, and grandly suggestive of republican ideas and
use, but now incongruously named "the Palace," and
but poorly adapted to royalty, was the centre of interest.
Here gathered first the military and naval forces, in-
cluding a body of arquebusiers in the seventeenth-century
costume of Prince Maurice's soldiery. After the de-
fenders of the nation had made salute and recessional, the
populace, in a mighty host, gathered for the queen's greet-
ing.
The royal maiden, who, as the embodiment of the memo-
ries and the hopes of Nederland, had won all hearts by
her winsome presence, stood beside a matron — older in
years, but still young. The superb woman, Emma, over-
shadowed both her title and her record, noble as these
932 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1898
were, in her wise, motherly devotion. As Queen-regent
and executive head of the nation, since the decease of
King William III. in 1890, her works praise her in the
gates. As parent of the future sovereign, her aim was to
make Wilhelmina not only a strong woman, but a true
queen.
Such, indeed, in every inch, the tiaraed maiden in royal
robes seemed, when standing in the New Church, before
the elite of the kingdom, she first swore obedience to the
constitution, and then enunciated those words which moved
hearts as cosmic forces stir the waves of the sea : " I in-
tend to make the words of my beloved father my own, when
he said that the House of Orange can never, no, never,
do enough for the Netherlands." As if by Heaven's
ordinance and approval, the clouds of a gray day broke
at that moment of utterance. The sunlight, streaming
through the stained-glass of a newly set window, whereon
the figures and tints commemorated the story of the
Dutch nation from the time of William of Orange, clothed
the young queen in a glory of sunny radiance. The
glistening tears, in the eyes of her senators and fellow-
servants of the state; showed how deeply the young queen
had stirred their souls by her speech. There on the table,
between her and them, lay the symbols of government — the
crown, flanked by the sphere and sceptre, but set under
the documents of the constitution. Facing the now en-
throned queen sat the members of the First and Second
Chambers, who took their oath of loyalty to her as their
sovereign; the notable men, representing law, learning,
science, letters, and affairs; the invited foreign guests and
representatives of the press of many countries, and the
heads of the legations and the patrician families. Behind,
and on either side, were the court dignitaries, the cabinet
ministers, and the two vassal rajahs of Java with other
Oriental chiefs and subjects from Insulinde, all arrayed
in their native garb. In the audience on the right could
be seen the queen's crowned or coroneted relatives.
Facing the royal maiden, throughout the ceremonies,
1898] CONGRESS OF DIPLOMATIC HISTORY 933
were four human figures capped and mute. These bore
the banners of the Netherlands, of South Holland, of
Amsterdam, and of the House of Orange. Until the oaths
were mutually taken, but not until the heralds had pro-
claimed Wilhelmina, by the grace of God, Queen of the
Netherlands, these silent figures stood immovable and with
covered heads. When, by the nation's free-will and act,
safeguarded by law, the heir to the House of Orange had
been intrusted with the liberties of a liberty-loving peo-
ple, these four bearers of the symbols of nation, province,
city, and household, uncovered their heads and laid their
silken banners at the queen's feet in token of fealty. The
singing of the " Wilhelmus Lied," in the noble words of
Aldegonde, and in its twelfth-century musical setting,
closed the impressive ceremonies of inauguration.
The next day, in the Eeformed Church at The Hague,
the queen attended divine worship and religious exercises.
Among the fortnight's diurnal and nocturnal festivities,
spectacular, marine, naval, illuminative, athletic, or gas-
tronomic, were the sessions of the International Congress
of Diplomatic History, held in the First Chamber of the
States-General; grand exhibitions of native costumes and
of Kembrandt's canvases; the flight from Amsterdam of
half a myriad homing - pigeons ; and the reception to
twelve thousand children, boys and girls, on the green
grass in the park at The Hague. Among the schools
represented was that named after Groen van Prinsterer,
Motley's severest critic, and one of Netherland's clearest
historians.
Since 1829 the population has more than doubled. This
has been almost wholly by natural increase, neither emigra-
tion nor immigration being of importance in the national
economy. The birth-rate, since 1901, exceeds twice over
the death-rate, the ratio of increase in 1880 being 0.6 and
in 1005, 1.49. Capital punishment was abolished in
1870, to the lessening of the crime of murder. Beggary
and vagabondage are treated as crimes, and private and
public charity is very general. The stability and the con-
934 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1898
servatism of the Dutch are illustrated by the fact that
in 1899 of 3,296,243 persons born in the 1123 communes,
1,009,102 lived in their native province, and 617,273
dwelt in some other portion of the home realm. The same
census in 1899 showed 5,104,137, and in 1905 5,591,701
souls, of whom 4,395,345 live in the provinces in which
they were born. Among the most striking phenomena
has been the growth of cities. Netherlands possesses a
proportionately larger town population than any country
. in Europe, Amsterdam having over six hundred, Rotterdam
over four hundred, and The Hague nearly three hundred
thousand souls. This process of municipal growth means
not only a movement of population from the rural to the
urban life, with increase of manufactures and commerce,
but also the absorption of small historic communities into
the large municipal aggregations ; as, for example, that of
historic Delfshaven, whence the Pilgrim Fathers sailed
on the Speedwell, into Eotterdam.
To secure national prosperity, the Dutch people sub-
mit cheerfully to a high rate of taxation. So far from
Holland's greatness being all in the past, there is probably
no nation on earth more alert to measures for the common
weal, or one possessing the elements of healthy growth
and permanency. As of old, to increase their area the
Dutch must win land from the waves, while to enlarge
their harbors they dig into the earth. Rotterdam, which
is only a river port, is, nevertheless, the seventh largest for
shipping in the world.
The young queen had scarcely taken hold of the reins of
government before the British and Boer war in South
Africa broke out. Gold having been discovered in the
Transvaal republic and Orange Free State, a large number
of immigrants from various parts of the world flocked in
to win wealth. The little hermit states at once became as
Naboth's vineyard, while very cosmopolitan in their popu-
lation. The rulers of South Africa, as intractable as Na-
both before Ahab, were confronted with the old principle
of "no taxation without representation." With churlish-
1899] THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 935
ness on one side and avarice on the other, the situation
soon became ominous. Negotiations failing, President
Paul Kruger declared his ultimatum. This being declined,
war was begun by the Boers invading Natal and Cape
Colony.
The sympathy of the Dutch at home was intense toward
their brethren and friends in South Africa, while, at the
same time, the government was placed in a delicate situa-
tion between their ancient English allies and the Afri-
kanders. The British were obliged to use in war nearly
half a million men, of whom nearly fifty thousand were
killed or injured, the Boers having under arms during the
war probably 70,000 men. The Boers, at first successful,
succumbed ultimately, to the overwhelming resources of
Great Britain and the military genius of Lord Koberts
and Kitchener, and their armies were scattered. President
Kruger took flight into Portuguese territory, and Queen
Wilhelmina sent the cruiser Gelderland to bring him to
Holland. Hostilities degenerated to the guerilla stage, but
terms of peace between Kitchener and Botha were opened,
and military operations were suspended in the spring of
1902, the war being ended by June. Generous terms were
made by Great Britain, and since the war all human
beings in South Africa have profited mightily. The real
victory has been with the Boers, General Botha being
premier of the region temporarily given over to slaughter
and devastation.
The chief national event in 1901 was the marriage,
on February 7, of Queen Wilhelmina to Henry Frederick,
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in the palace church at
The Hague. The ritual words in the service of the Ee-
formed Church, which requires a wife to live where her
husband does, were omitted in the vow taken by the queen.
In case of absolute failure of issue, it is within the power
of the States-General to annul the marriage bond. Duke
Hendrik, or Henry, was made Prince of the Netherlands,
besides being given rank as Admiral in the Dutch navy
and a seat in the Kaad van State, or Council of State,
936 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1901
which is the regulative feature of the Dutch govern-
ment.
The four vital subjects in politics are education, the
colonies, the army, and the franchise. Parties form on
these issues. During fifty years the Liberal party grew,
and for a quarter of a century, previous to 1901, held office
and power. In 1857 it was made a law that the communes
should sustain non-sectarian schools. This measure re-
moved popular education from ecclesiastical control. The
training of the young was carried on apart from the teach-
ing of dogma manipulated by men in whom was lust of
power as well as conviction of truth. This Liberalism in
education was opposed both by the Eoman Catholics and
the ultra-Calvinists, who established sectarian schools and
who, in coalition, term themselves Anti-Revolutionaries.
Other groups in the Second Chamber are composed of the
Independents, the Historical Christians, and the Socialists.
The latter are few in numbers, socialism not being as strong
in the Netherlands as in Belgium — the economic conditions
being very different. In 1901, after long agitation, the
Liberal party was defeated, and " the clerical government "
came into power under the premiership of Dr. Abraham
Kuyper, long known as scholar, educator, and statesman.
Education is now universal, the school-age being from the
age of six to thirteen, and attendance made compulsory.
One of the first emergencies to confront the new min-
istry was a well-planned labor strike on the railways. The
problem opened many delicate and interesting questions
on account of the ownership by the government of 969
miles, in the total of 1700 miles of railroads in the king-
dom, as part of the national property. At daylight of the
morning set for the outbreak, every station, warehouse,
terminal, switch, and important point was found to be
guarded by soldiers. The strike was broken and quickly
came to an end.
In this, as in every other vital national question or event,
whether in religion, politics, economics, or succession to
the throne, the Dutch wise men are governed by motives
1902] GERMANY AND HOLLAND 937
arising from their environment, the presence of their
powerful neighbor on the east being the disturbing and in-
fluencing factor. Any serious interruption of the high-
ways of continental travel might give Germany the pretext
for marching an army corps into Dutch territory. Besides
needing more sea-front, Holland's powerful neighbor re-
quires quick and easy access by water and rail to the
Atlantic and the markets of the world. To German am-
bitions for expansion, both the Netherlands and Belgium
are both political and economic obstacles, for the inland
empire, especially on the Ehine and other waterways, pays
continual toll to the people of the Low countries who thus
grow rich on German commerce.
The succession to the headship of the House of Orange
and thus potentially to the throne of the Netherlands is
essentially a German question, unless the Dutch govern-
ment should revert to the form of a federal republic.
There is also a strong tendency, not on the surface, but as
powerful as the undercurrents of the ocean, to the ab-
sorption of surrounding nations. The Pan - Germanic
movement and propaganda are realities. In the vital
European doctrine of the balance of power, to which the
absolute independence of the Netherlands is a necessity,
all the governments of Europe are interested. However,
in her speech, which opened the Chambers September 16,
1902, the queen showed no desire of foreign alliance. In
the Algeciras Conference of Powers, held in 1906, the gov-
ernment of the Netherlands, which had hitherto in-
trusted its affairs in Morocco to the German legation, took
pains to clear itself from the charge of subservience to
Germany, being guided during the deliberations solely
by Dutch interests. The nation keeps ever in mind the
old fable of the floating pots, metal and earthen.
The repeated disappointment of hopes that an heir to the
House of Orange might be born in Holland has more than
once made the question of the succession acute. Although
headship of the House of Orange does not necessarily
mean succession to the sovereignty of the Netherlands, as
938 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1906
the constitution and the marriage contract between Prince
Hendrik and Queen Wilhelmina show, yet the decision of
the family question may rest with the German Emperor.
Hence the anxiety of the Dutch people. The present heir-
presumptive to the Orange succession is the Grand-Duke
of Saxe- Weimar, and the next is Prince- Albert of Prussia.
The opening of the twentieth century enabled the Dutch
nation to survey its past, and to take confidence for the
future. The occasion was marked by a notable output of
literature in which the events of the fatherland and Europe
were brought under critical survey. The gratifying result
was seen in an increase of patriotic appreciation. The
tercentenary of Rembrandt and of De Euyter received
national attention with pageants and popular rejoicing,
and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth-
day of Bilderdijk was celebrated at The Hague. The
Netherlands is the land of Rembrandt, as Belgium is the
land of Rubens. The one expresses in his genius and
work the spirit of realism, inquiry, truth, and freedom.
The other reveals his subjection to tradition, mythology,
and authority as vested in kings and state churches. Criti-
cism and research have not only enlarged the known num-
ber of Rembrandt's canvases, but they have set his name
still higher among the small number of the world's great
geniuses. The elite of the kingdom, with foreign guests,
assembled on July 16, 1906, in the Rijks Museum at
Amsterdam to celebrate the painter's fame. The gathering
was held in the old hall dedicated in golden letters to
Rembrandt and Saskia his Avife. On this occasion Prince
Hendrik delivered a superb panegyric. The German Prince-
consort had mastered the difficulties of the Dutch tongue
— so formidable to an adult German — and his later heroic
conduct in the rescue of passengers wrecked on the Brit-
ish steamer Berlin at the Hook of Holland, in February,
1907, won the popular heart. A reaction set in which put
an end to slanderous gossip, as short-lived as it was abomi-
nably false, and lifted him into highest popularity. In
the new annex to the National Museum, one room in
1906] THE DUTCH EAST INDIES 939
seventeenth-century style, is given up to the exhibition of
Kcmbrandt's greatest work, " The Night Watch."
The war between Russia and Japan was a colonial af-
fair with the Muscovites, and a national struggle for life
and food with the people of Nippon. The Dutch people
had more than a general interest in the struggle because
of their vast interests in the East Indies. The victory of
Japan, and her rise as a world power, created some fear
for Holland's distant and indefensible colonies in the
South Pacific. The original purpose of the Dutch ex-
plorers and merchants in the sixteenth century was not
conquest, but trade. Yet, while Dutch rule in the tropical
islands has made for the increase of order and comfort,
and the general welfare of the native peoples, perhaps no
government has known better how to get revenues from a
colonial dependency for its own aggrandizement than that
of the Netherlands. The wealth flowing from Insnlinde
so enriched Holland that, in the eighteenth century, her
credit was the best of any country in Europe. The war
for independence between the United States and Great
Britain, the rise of the American Commonwealth, and the
power of Napoleon greatly changed the situation ; for with
enormous private wealth the nation became publicly poor.
A war indemnity of over $40,000,000 was paid to France
in 1795, and the total national debt rose in Louis Napo-
leon's time to half a billion dollars. When King William
I. came into power, his one idea seemed to be to make
the colonies enrich the Netherlands and pay its debts.
The " culture system " in Java, profitable but oppressive,
was put more completely and rigorously into operation,
and the royal plan became reality. In 1836 the colonies
were declared to be a legal mortgage for the state debt.
The war with Belgium in 1830 greatly disarranged the
public finances, and colonial revenues dwindled, being in
1832 less than $320,000. In 1841 this revenue had risen
to $5,000,000. Thenceforward to 1854 the annual en-
richment of the Netherlands from the East was from
$3,000,000 to $8,000,000. After this the amount gradually
940 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1870
lessened until in 1877 it was but little over $4,000,000.
The " culture system " in Java was abandoned in 1870,
and opportunity was given to private enterprise to reclaim
waste land, to the great increase of agriculture and re-
sources.
At the present time the colonies are rather a financial
burden on the mother-country than otherwise, but this
change in the status and relations is not wholly an af-
fair of economics. It has come largely through an
awakened national conscience, and the increase of prac-
tical ethics. Long has been the struggle, and many were
the debates in the national legislature, but the reformers
won the day. The doctrine is preached by the better
element of the nation that the country which grinds its
colonies must go the way of dying empires, while those
that believe in motherly treatment, and in educational and
moral uplift, will themselves be enriched above the power
of money. Hence the vast altruistic benefits conferred
upon the colonists in East India, with substantial moral
benefit at home. The real cause of the deficits may be
found in the Acheen wars, which wiped out the surplus.
The strain of this war led to a protectionist movement,
which thus far has not attained great success, the Nether-
lands sentiment being apparently wedded to free trade.
In the history of the Peace Movement for the creation
of a parliament of nations, the Dutch have borne a lead-
ing part. Erasmus spent his life in condemnation of
legalized slaughter, and of those who, with high name and
office, "get nothing by peace and a great deal by war."
At Brussels in 1504, in his panegyric to Philip of Bur-
gundy, he exposed the crime and injustice in the political
machinery of Christendom, which required so much hu-
man blood for its lubrication. In 1519, in his Praise of
Folly, he continued the severe impeachment, especially
against the papal war, which he regarded as a scandal
to Christianity, declaring that a fighting pope was a
monster of iniquity. In 1517, in his Complaint of Peace,
he attempted, with others, " to prevent the final cessation
1898] THE PEACE MOVEMENT 941
of war/' in a letter that foreshadowed the " Great Do-
sign " of Henry of Navarre. A century later the Dutch-
man, Hugo de Groot, known to the world as Grotius,
through his great book, began the creation of an inter-
national conscience, which manifests itself with world-
wide energy in the newer ideals of civilization. After the
failure of Cruce's plan, in 1623, for an International
Court of Arbitration, at Venice, and the later German
proposals of an International Court of Sovereigns, at
Luzerne, we find William Penn, besides urging upon Czar
Peter the Great his schemes for organizing the world in
the interest of tranquillity, writing his Essay Towards the
Peace of Europe. Penn, trained by his mother, Margaret
Jasper of Rotterdam — "Dutch Peg" in Pepys's Diary —
pointed to the League of Seven States, or the Dutch Re-
public, as a living example of a peaceful federation —
e pluribus unum — of governments, whose precedents and
methods of co-operation and arbitration ought to become
international. Penn had to cross the seas to carry out
his "holy experiment," and the classic Complaint of
Peace, by Erasmus, was published in America about the
time that the New York Peace Society was formed.
It was but following historic precedent and doing poetic
justice to the memory of Erasmus and Grotius that, in
the capital of their country, should assemble the Parlia-
ment of Man and be built the Temple of Peace and the
Palace of the World's Court.
On the initiative of Czar Nicholas II. of Russia, in
August, 1898, the chief Powers of the world sent their
delegates to The Hague, in May, 1899, to consider "the
maintenance of general peace and a possible reduction of
armaments." They met in the House in the Wood, built
by Amalia van Solms in memory of Prince Frederick
Henry. The results, after nearly three months' session,
were seen in three "conventions," the most important
of which was the establishment of a permanent court of
arbitration, and in three " declarations " against unneces-
sary cruelty in the methods of conducting war. The cases
942 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS [1907
tried, and the work subsequently done by the court thus
created, have tended powerfully to bring about the new
climate of the world's opinion in favor of reason, instead
of force for the settlement of disputes between nations.
The Second International Peace Conference, called to-
gether under the initiative of Russia and the United States,
met, like the first one at The Hague, but this time in the
old castle of the Counts of Holland or, "Hall of the
Knights," which fronts on the Binnenhof. The oldest
part of this edifice was begun by Count Willem II. in
1248, but the structure was enlarged by Floris V. in 1285.
Here were seen many of the most brilliant of the mediaeval
pageants, and within these walls — knighthood, statecraft,
religion, the ceremonies of marriage and burial — drew to-
gether the great ones of the land; while outside, in the
Binnenhof, events that were decisive for the nation and
that influenced the world took place. Here Philip II.
held his court, and here the Knights of the Golden Fleece
met in conclave. Long used by the States-General, it
fell, later, into base use as the Government Lottery Office.
Waking from their shame in 1896, the Dutch restored the
edifice to its ancient simplicity and grandeur, and, for
the world's parliament, filled it with modern furniture
and comforts. Hither the various governments sent their
ablest men, who faced their task with greater seriousness.
For the first time the South-American states were repre-
sented.
The conference, which was opened in June, 1907, with
gracious welcome from Queen Wilhelmina, sat until
October 18th. Disappointing to those impatient for quick
ideal solutions of world-old problems and eager for the
phenomenal and sensational, the results, as summed up
by a British writer, show " the steady gain of man," more
especially in making the beginnings of war more difficult,
and in mitigating its horrors. More than was expected
by practised statesmen was accomplished :
" The insuring of periodical meetings of the conference ;
the conversion of Germany to the principle of arbitration ;
1908] THE SECOND HAGUE CONFERENCE 943
the recognition of the rights of neutrals; the institution
of an international prize court; the discovery by Europe
of South America's influence in international affairs, and,
through South America's initiative, the abolishment of
the forcible collection of debts; the declaration of the na-
tions in favor of obligatory arbitration, and the humanizing
of war in many directions." The air was cleared on other
points, and the points of danger made most clearly visible.
The International Peace Conference adjourned on the
day that aerograms of congratulation and friendship were
flashing across the Atlantic. It was in 1678 that Christian
Huygens, born at The Hague in 1629, the inventor of the
pendulum, worked out his theory that light is conveyed
by those ether waves on which, in October, 1907, the
Italian Marconi and his correspondents transmitted wire-
less telegraphic messages from continent to continent.
The international situation in Europe is maintained so
far as the Netherlands and Belgium affect it, all proposals
for a union of the two countries being limited to the dis-
cussion of an economic, but not of a political or a military,
union.
The close of the year 1907 was marked by two events
of national interest. The resignation of the cabinet, on
Christmas day, Avas due to a defeat of the army estimates
in the Second Chamber, the Opposition contending that
efficiency was not proportionate to the cost. The visit of
the German emperor to the Dutch queen, late in De-
cember, added another omen of strength to the peace bond
between the two nations whose rulers thus met again in
social friendship.
INDEX
AA, North, 420, 423.
Abjuration, Act of, 624, 625, 62*7,
628.
Accord, 579, 594, 674.
Adams, John, 877, 883, 888, 889, 892.
Adolphus of Nassau, 228, 409, 926.
Aerschot, Duke of, 7, 124, 466, 490,
494, 500, 504, 506, 535, 577,
603, 732.
Aerssens, Francis, 757, 781, 795, 802,
822, 824.
Africa, 840, 916.
Agnosticism, 778, 801, 805.
Agobard of Lyons, 856.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 871.
A'Lasco, 770.
Albert, Archduke of Austria, 734,
812.
Aldegonde, St. Philip de Marnix,
159-161, 352, 391, 432, 435,
438, 446, 475, 500, 514, 538,
639, 645, 699, 702, 703, 722.
Alen9on and Anjou, Duke of, see
Anjou.
Alexander of Parma, 571-739
Alkmaar, Siege of, 381-385, 803,
823.
Allerton, 788.
Alost, 458, 467, 470.
Alva, Ferdinando Alvarez de Toledo,
Duke of, 251, 254, 264, 270,
295, 297, 312, 313, 314, 322,
334, 335, 365, 377, 392, 398,
616, 719.
Alva, Statue of, 313, 522.
Amboyna, 757, 817, 839.
Ambrose, Marquis, 753.
American Colonies, 697, 779.
American Constitution, 887.
American Declaration of Indepen-
dence, 624.
59
American Dutch, 916, 922.
American Revolution, 875, 899.
American Senate, 716, 746.
Americans, 12-16, 715, 805, 810,
827, 847, 863, 873.
Amersfoort, 777, 853.
Ames, Dr. William, 717.
Amnesty, 323, 325, 415.
Amsterdam, 372, 450, 501, 550, 551,
762, 785, 792, 820, 821, 828,
847-860.
Amsterdam, Bank of, 869.
Amsterdam, National Museum at,
741, 916.
Amsterdam, New, 840.
Anabaptists, 53, 54, 69, 79, 307, 500,
556, 751, 768, 769, 778.
Anastro, Gaspard d', 646, 647.
Andrea Dorea, 255, 880.
Andreas, 813.
Anglo-maniacs, 875, 879.
Anjou, Duke of, 401, 404, 507, 543,
558, 574, 581, 615, 633, 636,
638, 645, 654, 655, 659, 665,
670, 675, 864.
Anna, Paulownia, 912.
Anne of England, Queen, 865, 873.
Antigonus, 641.
Antwerp, 19, 25, 143, 188, 201, 230,
231, 271, 470, 526, 591, 640,
698, 738, 902, 912.
Apology of Prince of Orange, 616.
Aquinas, 856.
Archduke Charles, 863.
Architecture of Netherlands, 187,
194, 828.
Areine, 822.
Aremburg, 124, 286, 290.
Armada, Spanish, 712, 714, 718,
824.
" Armed Neutrality," 884.
946
IXDEX
" Arme haenen," 791.
Armenteros, Secretary, 128, 142.
Arminiaus, 778, 784-788, 792, 808,
814.
Arminius, 772, 799.
Army, The Model, 719, 747, 816.
Arnheim, 794.
Arras, 583.
Art, 830, 831.
Art, Dutch, 830.
Artillery, 721, 748.
Artillery Armory, 800.
Artois, Estates of, 49, 865.
Asiatic Society, 916.
Assassins, 642, 655.
Assignats, 900.
Atcheen, King of, 756.
Atcheen War, 926.
Atonement, Theory of, 806.
Augsburg, 823, 859.
Augustine, 770, 853.
Augustiuism, 771.
Austria, Don John of, 477, 481, 486,
494, 496, 508, 541, 545, 556,
564, 565, 566.
Austria, House of, Introduction, xvi.
Austria, Mathias, Archduke of, 529,
531, 545, 632.
Austruweel, or Ostraweel, 227, 229.
Auto-da-fe, 56, 58, 105, 107.
Avila, Don Sancho d', 260, 403, 405,
470.
Axel, 707.
Ayskue, 837.
BAHIA, 810.
Baker at Antwerp, 662.
Bakhuysen, 829.
Bakkerzeel, 203, 261, 301.
Ban against Orange, 616, 617, 642,
676, 683.
Bandes d'Ordonnance, 47, 112.
Bantam, 742.
Bardes, William, 553, 554, 555.
Barentz, William, 741, 742.
Barfleur, 862.
Barneveldt, Joan van Olden, 376, 706,
709, 711, 712, 718, 735, 738,
745, 747, 757, 760, 761, 765,
777-780, 789, 792, 794, 800,
801, 804, 813, 815, 816.
Barneveldt, N. Y., 894.
" Barneveldt's Teeth," 790.
Barneveldt, Trial of, 795.
Bart, Jean, 862.
Bartholomew, Massacre of, 356, 386,
388.
Bastwick, 788.
Batavian Republic, 899, 900.
Batenburg, 375, 376.
Bavaria, 863.
Bavaria, House of, Introduction, xvi.
Bax, Marcellus, 736.
Bax, Paul, 732, 736.
Beachy Head, 862.
Beaufort, W. H. de, 876.
Beauvoir, Philip de Lannoy, Seigneur
de, 231.
Bede, 27.
Beemster, 828.
"Beggars," 172, 176, 276, 680.
Beggars of the Sea, 331, 402, 419,
516.
Bekker, Balthazar, 857, 858.
" Bekkerism," 858.
Belgians, 908-912.
Belgic Confession, 220.
Belgic Netherlands, 747, 862, 908-
912.
Belgic Provinces, 702, 731, 864.
Belgium, 865, 908, 912.
Bell Alley, Leyden, 787.
Belmont, William Bentinck, Earl of
Portland, 864.
Bergen-op-Zoom, 757, 813.
Bergh, Count van den, 362, 672.
Berghen, Marquis, 263.
Beverwijck, 828.
Berlaymont, Baron, 7, 466, 510.
Beza, 770.
Bible, 703, 704, 799, 812, 830, 831.
Bicameral Government, 746, 907,
927, 928.
Bilderdijk, 909.
Billy, Seigneur de, 488.
Binnenhof, 762, 782, 803.
Bischof, Simon, 781.
Bishop of Miinster, 843.
Bishop of Rome, 771.
Bishoprics, 767.
Bishops, 64, 86.
Bismarck, 924.
Blake, Admiral, 837.
Blok, Dr. P. J., quoted, 78, 368, 409.
Blomberg, Barbara, 481, 520.
" Blood bath," 790, 794.
Blood, Horror of, 804.
Bogermau, John, 797, 799.
Bois-le-Duc, see Hertogenbosch.
Boisot, Admiral, 412, 419, 427, 456.
INDEX
947
Boisot, Charles vau, 435, 443, 456.
Bol, 829.
Bolsward, 828.
Bommenede, 443.
Bonaparte, see Napoleon.
Boniface, 767.
Bor, 828.
Bordeaux, 641.
Borgia, Colonel, 426.
Bossi, Count, 342, 344, 365, 390, 475,
516, 553.
Bossu, Admiral, 391.
Boughton, George H., 810.
Bouillon, Duke of, 781.
Bourbon, Charlotte of, 437, 515, 684.
Bourbonnais, 845.
Bours, De, 606.
Boyne, Battle of, 861.
Brabant, 85, 86, 911.
Brabant, Duke of, 656.
Brabant, Ruward of, 533.
Braddock, 873.
Bradford, William, 736, 788, 790.
Brandt, 828.
Breda, 436, 722, 817, 823.
Brederode, 7, 169, 174, 223, 226, 246.
Breders, 828.
Breed Straat, 790.
Brewer, William, 788, 789.
Brewster, William, 578, 704, 788,
789, 809.
Brill, 339, 343, 438, 581, 698, 738,
780-785.
Broadway, 790.
Broglie, De, Bishop, 909.
Broom at the masthead, 837, 838.
Brothers of the Common Life, 767.
Brouwershaven, 443.
Bruges, 575.
Brugman, Hajo, 578.
Brussels, 3-13, 289, 313, 389, 458,
496, 524, 542, 549, 563, 812.
Buren, Count de, 274, 336.
Burg at Leyden, 414.
Burgerhout, 660.
Burgundy, House of,Introduction,xvi.
Bussem, 362.
Buys, Paul, 331, 352, 417, 435, 446,
708, 708.
Bylandt, Admiral, 883.
CABRERA, 105.
Cadiz, 718, 734.
Csesarism, 776, 805.
Calais, 38.
Calberg, Thomas, 108.
Calkoens, Dr., 879.
Callenburgh, Gerard, 865.
Calloo, 412.
Calvin, John, 770, 799, 805.
Calvinism, 79, 181, 390, 662, 575,
761, 766, 770, 771, 788, 808,
816.
Cambrai, Archbishop of, 148, 636.
"Camel," the Ship's, 714.
Campbell's "Puritan in Holland,
England, and America," 248.
Canals, 915.
Canons of the Synod of Dort, 922.
Cant, Vice-Admiral, 753.
Caraffa, Cardinal, 28.
Caricatures, 706, 762, 790, 791, 792,
793, 798-800, 803, 805, 814.
Carleton, Sir Dudley, 780-786, 789-
792, 803, 809.
Carrying-trade, 837.
Casembroot, De, Admiral, 920, 921.
Casimir, Ernest, of Nassau, 748, 813,
817, 820.
Casimir, Henry, 844.
Casimir, John, 557, 574, 579, 580.
Casimir, Prince - Palatine, 337, 574,
580.
Cateau-Cambr6sis, Treaty of, 44.
Catherine II., Empress of Russia,
830, 884.
Catholics, Roman, 110, 923, 924, 927.
Cats, Jacob, 821, 828.
Cavalry, 694, 721.
Celtic element, 461.
Chain shot, 841.
Champagny, 553, 563.
Charles I., of England, 820, 824, 832.
Charles V., Emperor, Introduction,
xiv., 3-13, 14, 24, 26, 46, 481.
Charles IX., of France, 311,388.
Charlotte of Bourbon, 648, 649.
Charters, 107.
Chatham, 842.
Chester, Edward, Colonel, 414.
Chimay, Prince of, 511, 672.
Christmas, 655.
Christopher, St., Island of, 881.
Church, Christian Reformed, 921
922, 923.
Church Cloister, The Hague, 781, 782.
Church edifices, 187, 766.
Church, English Separatist, 808.
Church, Nederland Reformed, 921,
922.
948
INDEX
Church, Prince's, 782.
Church, Scotch Presbyterian, 787.
Church, St. Peter's, Leyden, 787.
"Church Under the Cross," 921.
Claas, Zaan, 882.
Claaszoon, Reynier, 758.
Cleves, 819.
Clink Prison, 790.
Cobham, 560.
Coccejans, 851.
Coccejus, 717, 849, 850, 851.
" Cock-pit of Europe," 821, 908.
Coehorn, Menno, 869.
Coeli, Medina, 381.
Coevorden, 285, 613, 726, 727.
Coffee, 901, 903.
Coligny, Admiral, 28, 32, 37, 330,
354.
Coligny, Louisa de, 670, 676, 680,
684, 803.
Collegiate Churches, 922.
Cologne, Congress of, 303, 306.
Cologne, German Electorate of, 603,
670, 711.
Colonies, 833.
Colonization, 807.
Columbus, 399.
Comenius, 855.
Comets, 857.
Commerce, Oriental, 756, 867.
Commonwealth, English, 833.
" Companie Jan," 836.
"Compromise" of the Nobles, 159,
177.
Concordat, 910.
Conde, 843.
Constitutional Argument, 783.
Constitutions, 651, 907, 909, 913, 927.
Coornheert, 722.
Cornell University, 855.
Cornelisz, 829.
Cornellisen, Gisbert, 426.
Corruption in Office, 140-141.
Costume-processions, 705.
Council, General Executive, 621.
Council of Blood, 432, 439.
Council of Guardianship, 827.
Council of State, 738, 746.
Council of Troubles, 264, 268.
Council, Protestant Ecumenical, 796.
Counts of Holland, 618, 627, 651.
Crabeth Brothers, 830.
Cradle of Liberty, 793.
Crayer, 813.
Crefeld, 873.
Cromwell, Oliver, 836, 837, 839.
Cruptoricis, 726.
Culemberg, 272.
Cutler, 732.
Cuyps, Artists, 810, 829.
DAENDELS, HERMAN, 901.
Dam, 867.
Dathenus, Peter, 180, 578, 600, 601.
Daughters of William of Orange, 649.
D'Avila, Juan, 759.
Davison, William, 530, 532, 578, 698,
704.
De Billy, 258, 327, 488, 619.
De Bours, 606.
De Brey, Guido, or Guy de Bres, 180,
220, 240.
Declaration of Independence, 624,
627.
Declaration of Rights, 624, 860.
De Foe, 861.
De Forest, Jesse, 807.
De la Noue, 612.
Delaware, 810.
Delf shaven, 810, 817, 819.
Delft, 762, 806, 818, 819, 839, 847,
926.
Demarara, 882.
Democracy, 894.
Dendermonde, 214.
Denmark, 836, 839.
Departments, 101.
Deposition of Arminian Clergy, 798.
Deposition of King of Spain, 627,
631, 827.
De Ruyter, Admiral, 759, 838, 839,
841, 845, 846.
De Ruyter, Herman, 328, 329.
Descartes, Rene, 848, 850, 854.
Deventer, City of, 723, 767.
De Vere, Aubrey, 820.
Devonshire, 860.
De With, Witte, Admiral, 837, 838,
840.
De Witt, Cornelius, 816, 844.
De Witt, John, 839, 841, 842, 843,
844.
De Witte, Captain Witte C., 834.
"De Witt's Deep," 841.
Diamonds, 853.
Diet, 417, 427, 621, 676, 725, 892.
Dijkvelt, 859.
Dikes, 326, 327, 417, 512, 867, 868,
895, 925.
Dirks, Willem, 769.
INDEX
949
Dirkzoon, 390.
Ditchfield, 853.
Doel, 892.
Doelen, 800, 891.
Doelen, Kloveniers, Hall, 796, 797.
Doesburg, Capture of, 707, 742, 743.
Dogs, 355.
Dokkum, 767.
Dominican Monks, 623.
Dordrecht, see Dort.
Dorislaus, Isaac, 832.
Dort, Black Galley of, 751.
Dort, Canons of the Synod of, 798,
799.
Dort, Congress of, 390, 561.
Dort, Synod of, 796, 800, 816.
Downs, Admiral, 824, 837.
Drainage, 829, 868.
Drebbel, 829.
Drenthe, 717, 726, 843, 867.
Drunkenness, 75.
Drusus, 707.
Dudley, Robert, 639, 705, 706, 711,
713.
Duiveland and Scliouwen, 441, 457.
D'Uloa, Don Osorio, 441, 442.
Dumas, 823.
Du Maurier, Louis, 803.
Dumouriez, General, 897.
Dunes, 748.
Dungeness, 837.
Dunkirk, 658, 714, 824, 838.
Dunkirk, Pirates of, 746, 751, 818.
Du Plessis, 657.
Du Quesne, 846, 873.
Dutch and Germans, 75.
" Dutch Courage," 920, 921.
Dutch Declaration of Independence,
860.
Dutch Freedom, 845.
Dutch in Japan, 917-921.
Dutch Language, 919.
Dutch National Hymn, 751.
Dutch People, 109, 760, 771.
Duyck, Adrian, 813.
EAST HILL, 749.
East India Company, 757, 836, 873.
East India Company, Ostend, 870.
Edam, 792.
Edict of Nantes, Revocation of, 859.
Edict of 1550, 49, 81, 82, 623.
Edict, Perpetual, 489, 491, 492, 493,
501, 844.
Education, 716,717, 903.
Egmont, 428, 612.
Egmont, Anne of, 71.
Egmont, Countess of, 277.
Egmont, Lamoral, Count of, 7, 35,
123, 124, 132, 146, 148, 149, 151,
203, 215, 245, 289, 293, 553, 655,
732.
Egmont, Lamoral, the Younger, 653,
655.
Egmont, Philip, Count, 470.
Elector-palatine, 813.
Electors of Germany, 313.
Eletto, 411.
Elizabeth, Archduchess, 821.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 446,
482, 557, 608, 637, 669, 698, 743,
750, 752.
Embden, 717.
Emblems, see Symbolism.
Emigration, 166, 248, 916, 922.
Emma, Queen, 926.
Encamisada, 354, 355, 405, 727.
English Armies in the Netherlands,
29, 30, 38, 697, 698, 803.
English Troops, 543.
Englishmen, 727.
Enkhuizen, 347, 391, 741, 792, 816,
819, 823, 832.
Episcopius, 796, 797.
Epistle, 389.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, 768.
Erkelens, Gosuinus, 882.
Ernest of Austria, Archduke, 731.
Escoria.1, Palace of the, 36.
Escovedo, 495, 501, 512.
Essequibo, 882.
Estates, or States-General, 52, 522,
545, 592.
Everhard, Count, 747.
Evertsen, Admiral, 838, 846, 862.
Excommunication, 854.
FABRICIUS, 144.
Fagel, Henry, Secretary, 879, 905.
Faveau and Malhart, 111, 454.
Federal Government, 801.
Federalists, 900.
Fictions of Law, 281, 306, 348, 351,
428, 429.
Fielding, Admiral, 883.
"Fire Ship," The, 701.
Flag, 720, 791, 803, 835-840, 911.
Flanders, Revolt of, 538, 865.
Fleece, Golden, Order of, 116, 277.
Flinck, 829.
950
INDEX
Floods, 326, 327, 345.
Floriszoon, 838.
Flushing, 342, 580, 698, 738, 747,
759, 780.
Foreland, 841.
Formosa, 742, 743.
Forts, 412.
France, 859.
Franeker. University of, 716, 879,
889/903.
Franken, John, 804, 883.
Franklin, Dr., 877.
Franz, Hals, 829.
Frederic, Don, 385.
Frederick, Henry, Stadholder, 815,
817, 820, 827-831.
Frederick the Great, 891.
Freedom of Printing, 789.
Freedom of the Press, 910.
French Occupation, 896-898, 899-
906.
French Policy, 889.
Friends, The, 852.
Friesland, 767, 822.
Friso, John William, 870.
Friso, William Charles Henry, 870,
871.
Fruin, Professor, 409, 804.
Fuentes, Count, 729, 732.
" Fury," the Spanish, 470.
GABRIEL, Peter, 80.
Gansvort, Wessel, 768.
Gardner, S. W., 836, 837.
Gemhloux, or Gemblours, Battle of,
547, 551, 572.
Generality, 583.
Genlis, 53.
George I., 866.
George HI., 866, 878.
Gerard, Balthazar, 677, 678, 679,
684.
German and Dutch, 608, 634, 770.
Germany, 75, 80, 634.
Gertruydenberg, 525, 715, 723, 729.
Gesner, Conrad, 823.
Gevangepoort, or Prison Gate, 844.
Ghent, City of, 48, 462, 464, 473,
522, 535, 574, 575, 655.
Gianibelli, 701.
Gibraltar, 418, 865.
Gijselaar, Cornelius de, 874, 879.
Goes, 359.
Gomarists, 778.
Gonzaga, Ferdinand, 38.
Gorcuru, 584.
Gouda, 785, 847.
Graaf, Johannes de, 879, 880.
Grange, Peregrine de la, 220, 241.
Granvelle, Cardinal, 38, 39, 49, 60,
72, 73, 87, 91, 92, 113, 115,
118, 120, 132, 137, 616, 677,
684.
Grave, City of, 707, 725.
Gravelines, Battle of, 40.
Gravius, 828.
Great Privilege, 650.
Great Truce, 792, 807.
Gregorius, Martinus, 800.
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 235.
Griffier, 544.
Groeneveld, Lord of, 813.
Groenevelt, Arnold van, 711, 814.
Groenlo, 732, 757, 758, 817, 818.
Groningen, 730, 744, 745, 842.
Groningen, University of, 716, 730.
" Groot Priviligie," 650.
Groote, Gerard, 767.
Grotius, 725, 786, 792, 793, 794, 806,
828, 928.
" Gueux," see Beggars.
Guiana, 810.
Guise, Duke of, 269, 483.
Gulick, 813.
HAARLEM, City of, 180, 181, 366, 378,
785, 823," 828, 847.
Haarlem, Lake of, 367, 374, 829,
914.
Haemstede, 412.
Hague, The, 798.
Hainault, 865.
Hainault, House of, Introduction,
xvi.
Half-Moon, 807.
Hall of the Knights, 737, 803.
Hancock, John, 880.
Hand vests, 85.
Hanover, House of, 870, 871.
Hansen, M. G., 797.
Harderwijk, 716, 848, 903.
Harlingen, 716.
JIarmensen, Jacob, 772.
Hartaing, Daniel de, 795.
Harvard College, 855.
Hasselaer, Kenau, 368.
Hautain, Admiral, 758.
Havre, Marquis of, 458, 530, 543.
Heemskerk, Jacob, 742, 756, 759.
Heidelberg Catechism, 922.
INDEX
951
Heiliger Lee, 285, 288, 294, 409.
Heinsius, Daniel, 828, 865.
Helder, 845, 902.
Helling, Colonel, 551.
Helmont, 828.
Henegouwen, Introduction, xvi.
Hengist, 414.
Henry, Frederick, 6*76, 684, 729, 755,
807, 815, 817, 820, 823, 825,
826, 827, 842.
Henry IV., 738, 763.
Herenthals, 736.
Hermann, Wolfert, Captain, 756.
Hertogenbosch, or Bois le Due, 700,
723, 751, 819.
Hessels, 266, 536, 577.
Hessians, 895.
Heusden, 786.
Heusken, Henry, 919.
Heyn, Piet, 817, 818, 819.
Heze, Seigneur de, 466.
Hierges, 440.
Hobbema, 829.
Hogendorp, G. K., 904, 914.
Hohenlohe, Philip, Count of, 477,
613, 700, 732, 734, 736.
Holland, 692, 783, 825, 833, 834.
Holland and England, 832, 864.
Holland, Counts of, Introduction, xv.
Holland, Kingdom of, 900, 901.
Holland, North and South, 912.
Holland taken by the Dutch, 904, 906.
Hondecoeter, 830.
Hooft, 828.
Hoogerbeets, 786, 793, 794, 807.
Hoogstraaten, Count, 262, 310, 610.
Hook, of Holland, 860.
Hooks and Cods, Introduction, xii.
Hoorn, 391, 785, 786, 803.
Hopper, Joachim, 148, 455.
Horn, Count of, 7, 93, 94, 206, 209,
216, 259, 289, 293.
House of Orange, 836.
Houtmann Brothers, 742, 916.
Hudson, Henry, 807, 810.
Huguenots, 269, 281, 282, 330, 353,
859, 860, 925.
" Hunnebedden," 867.
Huygens, Christian, 828, 829.
Huygens, Constantine, 829.
IMAGE-BREAKING, 188, 190.
Imbize, 535, 540, 576, 600, 601, 674.
Indies, 807.
Infanta, 747.
Inquisition, 78, 103, 107, 454, 719.
Inscription, 419, 835.
In tend it, 801.
Irishmen, 705, 709, 713.
Isabella of France, 812.
Italians, 741.
Italy, Campaign in, 740.
JACQUELINE OF BAVARIA, 279, 299.
James I. of England, 755.
James II. of England, 856, 859.
James, King, 780, 788, 792, 802,
804, 809.
Jamieson, Franklin, 808.
Jansen, Cornelius, 853.
Jansenism, 853.
Jansenists, 772, 851.
Japan, 740, 742, 756, 807, 858, 904,
917-921.
Jasper, Margaret, 852.
Jaureguz, Joan, 646.
Java, 742.
Jeannin, Pierre, 763.
Jemmingen, 296, 299, 313.
Jesuits, 702, 734.
Jews, 853.
Joachim, Albert, 833.
John of Austria, Don, 481, 567.
John of Nassau, Count, 584.
Jones, John Paul, 882, 886.
Joost de Moor, 753.
Jordaens, 813.
Joseph it, Emperor, 891.
Joyous Entry, 85, 86, 317.
Judges, 434.
Juliana of Stolberg, 66.
Junius, Francis, 159, 160.
Justus, 813.
KAMPEN, 786, 923.
Kamperduin, 900.
Keezen, 874.
Kelts, 867.
Kempis, Thomas a, 730, 768.
Kenniss, 793.
Keyser, De, 829.
Kijkduin, 900.
Kilian, 828.
"King" in the Netherlands, 618.
Koen, Jan P., 916.
Koppelstok, Peter, 340.
Kortnaar, Vice-Admiral, 840.
Koxinga, 743.
Kramer, Gerard, 742.
Kuyper, Abraham, 923, 927.
952
INDEX
LABADIE, JEAN, 851.
Labadists, 851, 852.
La Grange, Peregrine, 240.
La Hogue, 862.
Lalain, Count, Governor of Hainault,
553.
Lammen, 424, 425.
Land-scheiding, 418, 420.
Language, Dutch, 828, 919.
Laurens, Henry, 885.
Law, John, 870.
Lee, William, 883, 884, 885.
Leeghwater, 829.
Leerdam, 853.
Leeuwarden, 680, 716, 797.
Leewenhoek, 828.
Leffingen, 748.
Leicester, Earl of, see Dudley, Robert.
Leoninus, Dr. Elbertus, 435, 494, 500,
525.
Leopold I. of Belgium, 911.
Lepanto, Battle of, 481, 572.
Leyden, City of, 782, 786, 787, 790,
791, 803, 847.
Leyden, Siege of, 413, 427.
Leyden, University of, 716, 772,787.
Leyderdorp, 425, 426.
Leyton, 545.
Liberty Trees and Poles, 897, 899.
Lillo, Fort, 412.
Linen, 735.
Linnaeus, 855.
Lipsius, 828.
Literature, 831.
Lochem, 654, 757.
Locke, John, 855.
Loevenstein, 328, 329, 800, 806, 807,
834.
Lombok, 927.
London, 860.
Louis, Count William, 721, 761, 779,
781, 797, 816.
Louis XIV., of France, 834, 840, 841,
843, 858, 859, 862, 864, 871.
Louvain, City of, 494, 822.
Louvain, University of, 716, 813.
Lowestoft, 840.
Lutherans, 79, 181, 390.
Luxemburg, 485, 486, 488, 546, 908,
912, 924.
Luzac of Leyden, 879, 882.
Lydius of Franeker, 772.
MAALZON, 446.
Maas, or Meuse, River, 308, 692, 809.
Maasdam, Baron van, 904, 905.
Maaslandsluis, 414.
Maastricht, 404, 408, 468, 591, 697,
820, 892.
Magna Charta, 650.
Malays, 756, 927.
Malcontents, 674, 576, 577, 684.
Mansfield, Agnes, 670, 711.
Mansfield, Count, 449, 466, 729.
Marck, William van der, 339, 343,
367.
Margaret, Duchess, 397.
Margaret of Parma, 656.
Maria, Queen Henrietta, 825.
Marlborough, Duke of, 865.
Marot's Hymns, 111, 181, 194.
Martin Mar-Prelate Tracts, 790.
Martyrs, 78, 110, 623, 769, 802, 804,
806, 832, 911.
Mary, Princess, 825, 858.
Mary Queen of Scots, 38.
Mary Tudor, 19.
Massacres, 356, 357, 362, 364, 377,
599.
Massinger, 804.
Matanzas, 818.
Maurice, John, 821.
Maurice of Nassau, Stadholder, 643,
644, 694, 710, 715, 719, 721,
722, 729, 732, 733, 747, 749,
750, 754, 757, 760, 761, 766,
801, 802.
Maximilian II., 435.
Maypole, 802.
Mazarin, Cardinal, 825, 834.
Mechlin, City of, 358, 502, 506, 564,
606, 664.
Medici, Catharine de, 404, 635, 666.
Medina, Coeli, Duke of, 380.
Melancthon, 772.
Memorial, 409.
Mendoza, Bernardino de, 405, 743,
756.
Menno Simons, 769.
Mennonites, 751, 769, 852.
Mercator, 742.
Methodism, 814.
Metsu, 829.
Meurs, 751.
Mexico, 818.
Middleburg, 400, 461, 500, 556, 671,
790, 852.
Middleburg, Fish-market of, 790.
Mierevelt, 829.
Milton, 790.
INDEX
953
Miracles, 623.
Mirambeau, 668.
Mississippi Bubble, 870.
Moderation, 177, 178.
Modet, 180, 205.
Mohawk, 810.
Moluccas, 757.
Moncontour, 408.
Mondragon, 360, 361, 400, 403, 444,
456, 467, 732, 733.
Monk, General, 838, 841.
Mons, 349.
Mons, Capital of Hainault, 559.
Montigny, Baron, 121, 178, 263.
Montmorency, 32, 35, 36, 43.
Montpensier, Due de, 437, 438.
Montrose, 833.
Monuments, 575, 806.
Mook, 405, 409.
Mookerheyde, 406, 409, 417.
Motley, John Lothrop, 783, 800, 804,
805, 926.
Mottoes. 284, 304, 307, 316, 607, 680,
695, 778.
Much, Enoch, 781, 783.
"Mud Beggars," 781.
Muis, Hugo, 800.
Muller, 836.
Minister, Congress of, 826.
Museum, National, 741, 916.
Mutiny, 356, 382, 405, 458, 459, 476,
719, 720, 746.
Muyden, 819.
NAARDEN, 362, 364, 378, 786.
Namur, 507, 508, 529, 548, 862.
Napoleon, 900-908.
Napoleon III., 901, 924, 925.
Napoleon, King Louis, 900, 901.
Nassau, Count John of, 404, 409, 434,
446, 498, 583, 614.
Nassau, Ernest of, 747, 750.
Nassau, Justine of, 738.
Nassau, Louis Gunther of, 734, 747,
749, 750.
Nassau, Louis of, 160, 162, 284, 330,
353, 356, 357, 386, 387, 388,
389, 401, 404, 405, 409.
Nassau, Philip of, 733.
Nation, Idea of, 712.
National Hymn, 722.
National Synod, 791,798.
Nationality, 746, 766, 779.
Naval Battles, 832, 840.
Naval Expeditions, 718.
Navarre, Henry of, 507.
Navy, 722, 836, 846.
Neal, Daniel, 855.
Netherlands in England, 166, 248,
315, 702.
Netscher, 829.
Neutrality, 925.
Neutrality, Proclamation of, 878.
New Netherland, 807, 809.
Nieuport, 747,750, 817, 838.
Ninove, 654.
Nobles, 494, 504, 524, 525, 529, 553,
557, 574, 575, 593, 715, 724,
743.
Noircarmes, 221, 239, 357, 432.
Nordlingen, 822.
Nordvvijck, 414.
Norris, Sir John, 621, 708.
Norsemen, 804.
Nymegen, 828, 859, 893.
OBDAM, Admiral, 839, 840.
Obedient Provinces, 731.
Ogle, Sir John, 794.
Old South Historical Leaflets, 624.
Oquendo, Admiral, 823, 824.
Orange, 595, 599, 749, 835.
Orange badges, 895, 905.
Orange, Principality of, 870.
Orange Succession, 870.
Orange, William of Nassau, Prince
of, his personal appearance, 11 ;
ancestry, training, and early
manhood, 64 - 72 ; discovers
scheme of Henry II. and
Philip II. for extirpating Prot-
estantism, and earns the sur-
name of " The Silent," 68-72 ;
stadholder of Holland, Fries-
land, and Utrecht, 69 ; marriage
with Anne of Egmont, 69-70 ;
his opposition to institution of
new bishops, 88 ; his marriage
with Anna of Saxony, 96-101 ;
writes joint letter, with Egmont
and Horn, to Philip on neces-
sity of withdrawing power of
Granvelle, 123, 124; attempts
to stem tide of corruption after
departure of Granvelle, 141 ; his
speech on occasion of Egmont's
mission to Spain, and Viglius's
instructions, 146-148; inclines
to Lutheranism, 181 ; repairs to
Antwerp at solicitation of citi-
954
INDEX
zens to restore public tranquilli-
ty, 182; remonstrates at Duffel
with deputation from members
of Compromise assembled at
Saint Trond, 184, 185 ; his moder-
ate proceedings at Antwerp rela-
tive to image-breaking, 204 ; in-
terviews at Dendermonde be-
tween Orange, Horn, Egmont,
Hoogstraaten, and Count Louis
of Nassau, 214 ; his dauntless
conduct at Antwerp during tu-
mult caused by defeat of Austru-
weel,230; succeeds in re-establish-
ing order, 236 ; cited before the
Council of Blood, 272 ; charges
against them, 272 ; his son seined
as a hostage, 274 ; publishes a
reply to act of condemnation,
279 ; grants commission to Count
Louis to levy troops and wage
war on Philip, 281 ; enrolls him-
self for life as a soldier of the
Reformation, 303 ; sincerity of
his piety, 304 ; his formal decla-
ration of war against Alva, 305 ;
proclamation to the people of
the Netherlands, 306; baffling
plan of his adversary, 309 ; is
forced to lead back and disband
his army, 312; power conferred
on him by Congress of Dort,
351, 352 ; crosses the Rhine at
Duisburg with a considerable
army and takes Roermonde, 353 ;
his reception in province of
Holland after breaking up his
army, 365 ; endeavors to succor
Haarlem, 370-375 ; firm in faith
and hope in spite of repeated
disasters, 379 ; reasons for con-
quering his repugnance to King
of France, 386; solitary and
anxious position during the mis-
fortunes of Haarlem and Alk-
maar, 389 ; appeal to the Gen-
eral Assembly of the Nether-
lands, exhorting the country to
union against the oppressor,
389; confidence in God the
mainspring of his energy, 390;
liberty of conscience for the
people his main object, 390 ; pub-
licly joins the Calvinist Church
at Dort, 390; preparations for
relief of Leyden, 419; accepts
the government of Holland and
Zeeland, 436 ; marries the Prin-
cess Charlotte of Bourbon, 438 ;
resolution to throw off alle-
giance to King of Spain, 444 ; su-
preme authority in Holland and
Zeeland conferred on him, 453 ;
prepares to take advantage of
mutiny of Spanish troops to
bring about a general union and
organization, 463 ; difficulties
suggested by the arrival of Don
John of Austria, 486 ; his dis-
trust of Don John and reasons
for it, 491 ; financial embar-
rassments of his family caused
by their sacrifices to the cause of
the Netherlands, 498 ; advances
made to him by Don John of
Austria, 499 ; his struggles to
establish a system of toleration,
500; is invited by Estates-Gen-
eral to come to Brussels to aid
them with his counsels, 524 ;
enthusiastic reception at Ant-
werp, 527 ; entry into Brussels,
527 ; his wise conduct with re-
gard to Archduke Matthias, 532 ;
is elected Ruward of Brabant,
533 ; significance of this office,
534 ; his new dignity confirmed
by Estates - General, the crown
within his grasp, 534 ; indigna-
tion at treacherous conduct of
nobles, 535 ; outbreak of revolu-
tion in Ghent, 638 ; proceedings
relative to outbreak, 540 ; re-
pairs to Ghent on invitation of
four estates of Flanders, 541 ;
brings about a new act of union,
securing the religious rights of
Catholics and Protestants, 642 ;
succeeds in negotiating treaty of
alliance and subsidy with Eng-
land, 643 ; rebukes his own
church for its intolerance, 555 ;
at Ghent, 675-576 ; effects the
Union of Utrecht, the founda-
tion of the Netherland republic,
584 ; false accusations against,
relative to Union of Utrecht,
587 ; unceasing efforts to coun-
teract the dismembering policy
of Parma, 593 ; repairs a second
INDEX
955
time to Ghent, and again his
presence restores order, 602 ;
his arguments in favor of choice
of Duke of Anjou as future ruler
of the Netherlands, 607 ; con-
tents of ban against him, 617 ;
replies by his famous Apology,
619 ; reluctantly accepts provis-
ional sovereignty over Holland
and Zeeland, 625 ; attempt to
assassinate him at Antwerp,
643 ; position assigned to him
by the new constitution, 651 ;
married for the fourth time to
Louisa, widow of Teligny and
daughter of Coligny, 670 ; re-
fuses the sovereignty of United
Provinces offered to him by the
Estates, 671 ; various new at-
tempts against his life, 676 ; last
and successful attempt, 681 ;
children by his four marriages,
683 ; deep sorrow of the people
at his death, 684.
" Oranje boven," 895.
" Oranje klanten," 874, 879.
Ostade, 829.
Ostend, Siege of, 751, 754.
Ostrawell, nee Austruweel.
Oswestry, 845.
Oudenarde, 653.
Oudewater, 440, 772, 786.
Overstein, Count, 723.
PACHECO, 345.
Pacification of Ghent, 439, 475, 476,
489, 491, 576.
Pageant, 5, 6, 18, 430, 496, 637, 638,
641, 653, 683, 713, 728, 729.
Paine, Thomas, 880.
Pamphlets, 529, 762, 787, 791.
Panis, 503, 506.
Papenheim, Count, 806, 820.
Parisian Wedding, 386.
Parma, Alexander of, 520, 546.
Parma, Margaret of, 41, 61, 63, 156,
166, 168, 171, 197, 198, 210, 212,
242, 243, 256, 269, 622.
Parties, 870, 900, 909, 913, 927-928.
" Paternoster Jacks," 562.
Patriots, 874.
Patton, Aristotle, 710.
Paul IV., 770.
Paulinism, 770.
Pauw, Adrian, 821.
Peace Negotiations, 761.
Peace of Westminster, 839.
Peacock, Edward, 787.
Pelagians, 772.
Pelhain, William, 705.
Penn, William, 852, 863.
Pennsylvania, 852.
Pensionary of Holland, 838.
People, Introduction, xv., 76, 79, 109,
765, 801, 826.
Pernambuco, 810, 834.
Perponcher, 905.
Perry, M. C., 919.
Peru, 818.
Peter the Great, 863.
Philip, 616.
Philip, Count of Egmont, 596.
Philip II. of Spain, 9, 16, 17, 19, 20,
22, 25, 26, 49, 52, 55, 56, 93,
145, 202, 244, 738.
Philip III. of Spain, 761, 764, 812.
Philip IV. of Spain, 822.
Pholas, 868.
Piehegru, General, 897.
Pikeman, 694.
Pilgrim Fathers, 787, 856.
Pilgrim Press in Choir Alley, 788,
790.
Pilot, 841.
Pittsburg, 847.
Placards, 762, 793.
Plancius, Domine, 742.
Plassey, 873.
Polders, 828, 912. See Drainage.
Polyander, John, 781.
Pontalis, La Fevre, 844.
Popular Government, 453.
Port Royalists, 853.
Portland, 838.
Portraitures, 831.
Portugal, 616, 622, 740.
Post Acta, 799.
Potter, Paul, 816, 830.
Pragmatic Sanction, 870.
Preaching in the Fields, 179, 182.
Pretender, 864, 865.
Price, Rev. Dr., 876.
Priest, 787.
Prince, 601.
Prince of Wales, 860.
Prinsenvlag, 835.
" Prinsgezinden," 871.
Prussia, Interference of, 893.
Prussia, King of, 870.
Puritan, 717, 736, 789.
956
INDEX
Farmer, 828.
Purmerend, 792.
QCELLINUS, 829.
RAILWAYS, 915.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 734, 813.
Rammekens, 698, 738, 780.
Rassinghem, 222, 435, 540.
Ratisbon, 841.
Ravene, Abraham, 879, 880.
Realism, 830.
Reformation, 78, 80.
Reformed Church in America, 220,
717.
Reijd, 828.
Rembrandt, 828, 829, 830, 851.
Remonstrants and Contra - Remon-
strants, 772, 784, 795, 797, 798,
814, 820.
Renaissance, Hollandish, 828.
Renaissance, Introduction, xiii.
Renier, 813.
Renneberg, Count, Stadholder of
Friesland and Drenthe, 488,
606, 610, 621.
Representative Government, 453.
Republic, 871.
Requesens, Don Luis de, 393, 397,
399, 410, 411, 431, 448.
Request, 167.
Respect, 805.
Revaillac, 763.
Revival of Letters, 831.
Revolt, Causes of, 75, 76, 103.
Rheinberg, 751, 757, 821.
Rhine, 843.
Richardot, Juan, 761.
Richelieu, Cardinal, 815, 822.
Roads, 869.
Robinson, John, 787, 788, 796.
Robinson, Josiah, Captain, 880.
Robsart, Amy, 705.
Roehelle, 815.
Rocroi, 825.
Rodney, English Admiral, 880.
Roell, 858.
Roer, 817.
Roermonde, 283, 290, 349, 363, 369,
820.
Romero, Julian, 401, 470, 473.
Rooke, Sir George, 865.
Rosaens, 781.
Rosny, Marquis of, 755.
Rostock, 806.
Rotterdam, 343, 417, 785, 809.
Rubens, 764, 813, 819.
Rudolph II., 489, 529.
Rupert, Prince, 841.
Russian Ships, 863.
Ruy Gomez, 7, 29.
Ryhove, 535, 540, 576, 601, 674.
Ryswijk, 781, 862.
SABBATH, 789.
Sackville, Thomas, 710.
Saint Quentin, City of, 33, 37.
Salem, 856.
Salute to United States Flag, 879.
Sasbout, Arnold, 436.
Satisfaction, 551.
Savoy, -Emanuel Philibert, Duke of,
30, 44.
Saxony, Anna of, 438, 683, 778.
Scaliger, 828.
Schaff, 797.
Scheffer, Dr. J. G. de H., 769.
Scheldt, the, 641, 699, 751, 821, 892,
901, 902, 912.
Schenck, Martin, 613, 706, 715, 716,
724.
Schenectady, 851.
Schetz, Caspar, 500, 528, 603.
Scheveningen, 897, 905, 926.
Schiedam, 417.
Schimmelpeninck, R. J., 900.
Schoepman, 927, 928.
Schomberg, 388.
Schoonoven, 440, 785.
Schouwen, 440, 441, 444, 447.
Schurmann, Anna Maria, 851.
Scotch, 713.
Scotch Brigade, 878.
Scots, Mary Queen of, 483, 785.
Scriptures, 831.
Scrooby, 698, 704.
Sebasti'an, San, 718, 824.
Separatists, 782, 810.
" Sharp Resolve," The, 783, 786.
Sliimonoseki, 920, 921.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 638, 707, 708.
Sillem, J. A., 876.
Skates, 366.
Slatius, Henry, 813.
Sluis, 711, 754, 757.
Smeerenburg, 847.
Solms, Amalia van, 815, 825.
Solms, G. E., Count, 735.
Somers, Lord, 860.
Sonnius, Dr. Francis, 83.
INDEX
957
Sonoy. Diedrich, 348, 384, 439, 551,
554, 621.
Sophia, Queen, 914, 926.
Sovereignty, 626, 651, 746, 766.
Spa, 501.
Spaarndam, 367.
Spade, 816, 868.
Spanish Netherlands, 834.
Spanish Plate Fleets, 758, 817.
Spanish Ports, Vessels in, 740.
Spanish Soldiers, 48, 719.
Spanish Succession, 863.
Spanish Troops, Returning, 519.
" Spanje-Oranje," 781.
Speedwell, 809.
Spice Islands, 740.
Spinola, Ambrose, Marquis, 733.
Spinola, Frederick, 752, 757, 758,
761, 813, 815.
Spinoza, Benedict, 854.
Spitsbergen, 807, 847.
Sprague, Admiral, 845.
Stadholders of Provinces, 47, 626.
Standish, Miles, 697, 788.
Stanley, Lieutenant Edward, 708.
Stanley, Sir William, 709.
Starch, 735.
Starter, Jan, 828.
State-rights Party, 839.
State-sovereignty, 746, 784.
States-General, 746, 762.
Steen, Jan, 472, 829.
Steenwyk, 621, 654, 725.
St. Eustatius, 879, 880, 886.
Stevin, 829.
Stirum, Count van Limburg, 904, 905.
Stolberg, Juliana of, 497.
Stoutenberg, 813, 814.
St. Pancras, Church of, 422.
Strackee, Statue of, 807.
Strickland, Walter, 832, 833.
Stuart, Charles, 824, 832, 840.
Stuarts, 839, 845.
Stuyvesant, 840.
Suffrage, 928.
Suis, Cornelius, 436.
Swammerdam, 828.
Swedes, 839.
Switzerland, 838.
Symbolism, Antwerp, 641 ; Beggars,
176; Foolscap and Bells, 133;
Pelican, 308, 429, 430, 835 ;
Rock and Waves, 485, 725, 727,
730, 798.
Synagogue, 854.
TARIK THE SARACEN, 759.
Tassemacher, 851.
Tassis, John Baptist, 501.
Taxation, 317, 318, 735.
Temple, Sir William, 842.
Teniers, 813, 829.
Tenth Penny, 318, 320, 333, 338,
370.
Terburch, 829.
Teredo, 868.
Ter Gouw, 836.
Texel, The, 692, 819, 838, 841.
The Imitation of Christ, 768.
" The Sand Hill'," 754.
Theology, 806, 830, 848.
Theresa, Maria, 870, 891.
Thijm, J. A. A., 916, 924.
Thirty Years' War, The, 813.
Tholen, 440, 441, 477, 820.
Thorbecke, 913, 914.
Three Parties, 504.
Tiel, 736.
Tirelemont, 822.
Tisnacq, Engagement at, 465.
Titelmann, Peter, 108, 129, 154.
Toledo, Don Frederick of, 358, 362,
364, 367, 369, 468.
Toleration, 205, 215, 805, 858.
Toleration in Religion, 385, 500.
Tollins, 909.
Tournai, or Tournay, 215.
Town-hall, 790.
Treslong, Admiral, 340, 343, 345.
Tribunal, 800.
Triple Alliance, 842.
Tromp, Admiral, 824, 837, 838, 845.
Tromp, Cornelius, 841, 862.
Truce, 809, 815.
Truchses, Gerard, 670, 711.
Trumbull, Jonathan, 877.
Tseraerts, Jerome, 346, 359.
Tulipomania, 823.
Tulips, 823.
Tulp, 828.
Turenne, Marshall, 843.
Turks, 737.
Turnhout, 736.
UNION, 437, 464-542, 584, 702, 744.
Union of Holland and Zeeland, 436,
451, 454.
Union of the Seventeen Provinces,
575-667, 684, 702, 821.
Union of Utrecht, 583, 584, 590,
617, 765, 875.
958
INDEX
Union, the Brussels, 487, 490.
United States 'of America, 589.
Universities, 428, 430, 716, 717, 730,
855, 923.
Usselinx, William, 808.
Utrecht, 501, 514, 716, 767, 793,
794, 819, 853.
Utrecht, University of, 828.
Uytenbogaert, 779, 781, 792, 817.
VALDEZ, 413, 414, 422, 426.
Valenciennes, 111, 219, 223, 238,
241.
Valerius, 813.
Valois, Margaret of, 483, 507.
Van Artevelde, 575.
Van Berckel, 879, 884, 885, 889.
Van Bibber, Isaac, 881.
Van Buren, Count, 490, 492, 493,
498, 528.
Van Campen, 829.
Van den Berg, Frederic, Count, 362,
672, 726, 733, 817, 819.
Van den Plass, 735.
Van der Capellen, Baron Joan Derek,
876, 878, 888.
Van der Does, John, 414.
Van der Goes, 828.
Van der Heist, 829.
Van der Heyden, 829.
Van der Kemp, Adrian, 894, 896.
Van der Marck, 385, 440.
Van der Tympel, Colonel, 597, 606.
Van der Werf, 418, 422.
Van Galen, Admiral, 837.
Van Geest, Margaret, 653.
Van Ledenburg, Gilles, 805.
Van Linschoten, Jan Hugo, 741.
Van Meteren, 828.
Van Mieris, 829.
Van Speijk, 911.
Vandyke, 813.
Varax, Count, 736.
Vasca da Gama, 740.
Vauban, 869.
Veere, 851, 852.
Venezuela, 809.
Verdugo, 727, 730.
Vere, Sir Francis, 711, 723, 729, 736,
747, 748, 750, 751.
Vere, Sir Horace, Governor of Brill,
750, 820.
Vergennes, Count, 890, 894.
Vernuloeus, 813.
Vianen, 223, 246, 794.
Vienna, 737.
Viglius van Aytta, 7, 46, 63, 114,
147, 177, 265.
Vijver, 762.
Villiers, De, 678.
Virginia, 809.
Visch, 577.
Vischer, 828.
Vitelli, Chiapin, 444.
Vitringa, 858.
Vlaardingen, 414, 417.
Vlie, 838.
Voetius, 850, 851, 854.
Vondel, 828.
Voorhout, 802.
Vorstius, 780, 789.
WAARTGELDERS, 735, 745, 785, 794.
Walcheren, 400, 867, 903.
Walloons, 79, 347, 411, 557, 592.
Walloon Provinces, 590, 594, 624.
Walsinghara, Sir Francis, 331, 532,
560.
War, Naval, 838.
Washington, 873.
Waterloo, 908, 912.
Water-State, 828.
Weddings, 100.
Wesel, 819.
Wesleys, 814.
West India Company, 802, 808, 810.
West Indies, 744, 810.
Wierius, 857.
Wilhelmina, Princess Frederika So-
phia, 874.
Wilhelmina, Queen of the Nether-
lands, 926-928.
Willebroek, 243.
William, "Father," 513, 527.
William I., see William of Orange.
William I., King of the Netherlands,
905-912.
William II., King of the Dutch
Netherlands, 912-914.
William II., Stadholder, 834.
William III., 914, 915, 924, 926.
William III., Stadholder, 834, 844,
850.
William V., Stadholder, 874, 896-
898.
Williams, Sir Roger, 711.
Willoughby, Lord, 713, 715.
Windmills, 868, 869, 914.
" Wind-trade," 870.
Winfrid, 767.
INDEX
959
Wingfield, Sir John, 715.
Winwood, Sir Ralph, 780.
Witchcraft, 855-858.
Witches, 856.
Witte de With, 837.
Women, 830.
Women in Sieges, 368, 460, 598,
711.
Wouvermans, 830.
Wyk, 468.
YORK, Duke of, 840.
•York, New, 840, 846.
Yorke, Rowland, 709.
Yorke, Sir Joseph, 874, 886.
Ypres, 674.
ZAANDAM, 847, 863.
Zeeland Sailors, 748, 753.
Zeist, 893.
Zerbolt, 768.
Zierickzee, City of, 402, 440, 443,
444, 446, 447, 457, 476, 891.
Zouterwoude, 424.
Zoutman, Admiral, 887.
Zutphen, 362, 707, 710, 723.
Zuyder Zee, 390, 707, 838.
Zype, 828.
INDEX TO FINAL CHAPTER
ALGECIRAS Conference, 937.
Amsterdam, 930-934.
Area of Netherlands, 928,
930.
Army estimates, 943.
BELGIUM, 936, 937, 938, 943.
Bilderdijk, 938.
Boers, 934.
CAPITAL Punishment, 933.
Colonies, 934, 940.
Congress of History, 933.
Constitution, 930, 932.
Crown, 930, 932.
DELFSHAVEN, 934.
De Ruyter, 938.
Doctrine of royalty, 930, 931.
EAST INDIES, 932, 939, 940.
Education, 936.
Emma, Queen, 931, 932.
Erasmus, 940.
GERMAN EMPEROR, 937, 938, 943.
Germany, 937, 942.
Great Britain, 935, 939.
Groen van Prinsterer, 903.
Grotius, 941.
Hague Conference of 1899, 941.
Hague Conference of 1907, 928, 942,
929, 943.
Hall of the Knights, 932.
Heirship to Throne, 937.
Hendrik. See Prince Hendrik.
House in the Wood, 941.
Huygens, 943.
JAVA, 932, 939, 940.
KINGS, 930, 931.
Kruger, 935.
LIBERAL Party, 936.
NETHERLANDS, 929-930.
PAN-GERMANIC movement, 937.
Peace movement, 928, 940.
Penn, William, 941.
Population, 928, 983, 934.
Prince Hendrik, 935, 938.
Protectionism, 940.
QUEEN WILHELMINA, 928, 931-933,
934, 935, 942, 943.
RAILWAYS, 936, 937.
Rembrandt, 938.
Rotterdam, 934.
HAGUE, 928, 930, 933, 934, 935, 941. Rulers, 938.
942. Russo-Japanese War, 939.
960
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, 934, 935.
States-General, 928, 942.
Strikes, 936.
Succession to Throne, 937.
TAXATION, 934.
UNITED STATES, 939.
INDEX
WILHELMINA. See Queen Wilhel-
inina.
William of Orange, 928, 931.
William I., 930.
William II., 930.
William III, 929, 932.
ZCYDER ZEE, 928.
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186 Motley's Dutch nation,
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1908
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