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diff --git a/4831.txt b/4831.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efc6584 --- /dev/null +++ b/4831.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1909 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1578 +#31 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1578 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4831] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 26, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1578 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 31 + +THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1578 + +By John Lothrop Motley + +1855 + + + + +PART VI. + +ALEXANDER OF PARMA + +1578-1584. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Birth, education, marriage, and youthful character of Alexander + Farnese--His private adventures--Exploits at Lepanto and at + Gemblours--He succeeds to the government--Personal appearance and + characteristics--Aspect of affairs--Internal dissensions--Anjou at + Mons--John Casimir's intrigues at Ghent--Anjou disbands his + soldiers--The Netherlands ravaged by various foreign troops--Anarchy + and confusion in Ghent--Imbize and Ryhove--Fate of Hessels and + Visch--New Pacification drawn up by Orange--Representations of Queen + Elizabeth--Remonstrance of Brussels Riots and image-breaking in + Ghent--Displeasure of Orange--His presence implored at Ghent, where + he establishes a Religious Peace--Painful situation of John Casimir + --Sharp rebukes of Elizabeth--He takes his departure--His troops + apply to Farnese, who allows them to leave the country--Anjou's + departure and manifesto--Elizabeth's letters to the states-general + with regard to him--Complimentary addresses by the Estates to the + Duke--Death of Bossu--Calumnies against Orange--Venality of the + malcontent grandees--La Motte's treason--Intrigues of the Prior of + Renty--Saint Aldegonde at Arras--The Prior of St. Vaast's exertions + --Opposition of the clergy in the Walloon provinces to the taxation + of the general government--Triangular contest--Municipal revolution + in Arras led by Gosson and others--Counter-revolution--Rapid trials + and executions--"Reconciliation" of the malcontent chieftains-- + Secret treaty of Mount St. Eloi: Mischief made by the Prior of + Renty--His accusations against the reconciled lords--Vengeance taken + upon him--Counter movement by the liberal party--Union of Utrecht-- + The Act analyzed and characterized. + +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 +confided the reins of that most difficult and dangerous administration, +the man who was now to rule was by far the ablest and the best fitted for +his post. If there were living charioteer skilful enough to guide the +wheels of state, whirling now more dizzily than ever through "confusum +chaos," Alexander Farnese was the charioteer to guide--his hand the only +one which could control. + +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 Regent of the Netherlands after the departure of +Philip from the provinces. He was one of the twins by which the reunion +of Margaret and her youthful husband had been blessed, and the only one +that survived. His great-grandfather, Paul, whose secular name of +Alexander he had received, had placed his hand upon the new-born infant's +head, and prophesied that he would grow up to become a mighty warrior. +The boy, from his earliest years, seemed destined to verify the +prediction. Though apt enough at his studies, he turned with impatience +from his literary tutors to military exercises and the hardiest sports. +The din of arms surrounded his cradle. The trophies of Ottavio, +returning victorious from beyond the Alps, had dazzled the eyes of his +infancy, and when but six years of age he had witnessed the siege of his +native Parma, and its vigorous defence by his martial father. When +Philip was in the Netherlands--in the years immediately succeeding the +abdication of the Emperor--he had received the boy from his parents as a +hostage for their friendship. Although but eleven years of age, +Alexander had begged earnestly to be allowed to serve as a volunteer on +the memorable day of Saint Quentin, and had wept bitterly when the amazed +monarch refused his request.--His education had been, completed at +Alcala, and at Madrid, under the immediate supervision of his royal +uncle, and in the companionship of the Infante Carlos and the brilliant +Don John. The imperial bastard was alone able to surpass, or even to +equal the Italian prince in all martial and manly pursuits. Both were +equally devoted to the chase and to the tournay; both longed impatiently +for the period when the irksome routine of monkish pedantry, and the +fictitious combats which formed their main recreation, should be +exchanged for the substantial delights of war. At the age of twenty he +had been affianced to Maria of Portugal; daughter of Prince Edward, +granddaughter of King Emanuel, and his nuptials with that peerless +princess were; as we have seen, celebrated soon afterwards with much pomp +in Brussels. Sons and daughters were born to him in due time, during his +subsequent residence in Parma. Here, however, the fiery and impatient +spirit of the future illustrious commander was doomed for a time to fret +under restraint, and to corrode in distasteful repose. His father, still +in the vigor of his years, governing the family duchies of Parma and +Piacenza, Alexander had no occupation in the brief period of peace which +then existed. The martial spirit, pining for a wide and lofty sphere of +action, in which alone its energies could be fitly exercised, now sought +delight in the pursuits of the duellist and gladiator. Nightly did the +hereditary prince of the land perambulate the streets of his capital, +disguised, well armed, alone, or with a single confidential attendant. +Every chance passenger of martial aspect whom he encountered in the +midnight streets was forced to stand and measure swords with an unknown, +almost unseen but most redoubtable foe, and many were the single combats +which he thus enjoyed, so long as his incognito was preserved. +Especially, it was his wont to seek and defy every gentleman whose skill +or bravery had ever been commended in his hearing: At last, upon one +occasion it was his fortune to encounter a certain Count Torelli, whose +reputation as a swordsman and duellist was well established in Parma. +The blades were joined, and the fierce combat had already been engaged in +the darkness, when the torch of an accidental passenger gashed full in +the face of Alexander. Torelli, recognising thus suddenly his +antagonist, dropped his sword and implored forgiveness, for the wily +Italian was too keen not to perceive that even if the death of neither +combatant should be the result of the fray, his own position was, in +every event, a false one. Victory would ensure him the hatred, defeat +the contempt of his future sovereign. The unsatisfactory issue and +subsequent notoriety of this encounter put a termination to these +midnight joys of Alexander, and for a season he felt obliged to assume +more pacific habits, and to solace himself with the society of that +"phoenix of Portugal," who had so long sat brooding on his domestic +hearth. + +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 Venice. He 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. Don +John received him with open arms, just before the famous action of +Lepanto, and gave him an, excellent position in the very front of the +battle, with the command of several Genoese galleys. Alexander's +exploits on that eventful day seemed those of a fabulous hero of romance. +He laid his galley alongside of the treasure-ship of the Turkish fleet, a +vessel, on account of its importance, doubly manned and armed. Impatient +that the Crescent was not lowered, after a few broadsides, he sprang on +board the enemy alone, waving an immense two-handed sword--his usual +weapon--and mowing a passage right and left through the hostile ranks for +the warriors who tardily followed the footsteps of their vehement chief. +Mustapha Bey, the treasurer and commander of the ship, fell before his +sword, besides many others, whom he hardly saw or counted. The galley +was soon his own, as well as another, which came to the rescue of the +treasure-ship only to share its defeat. The booty which Alexander's crew +secured was prodigious, individual soldiers obtaining two and three +thousand ducats each. Don John received his nephew after the battle with +commendations, not, however, unmingled with censure. The successful +result alone had justified such insane and desperate conduct, for had he +been slain or overcome, said the commander-in-chief, there would have +been few to applaud his temerity. Alexander gaily replied by assuring +his uncle that he had felt sustained by a more than mortal confidence, +the prayers which his saintly wife was incessantly offering in his behalf +since he went to the wars being a sufficient support and shield in even +greater danger than he had yet confronted. + +This was Alexander's first campaign, nor was he permitted to reap any +more glory for a few succeeding years. At last, Philip was disposed to +send both his mother and himself to the Netherlands; removing Don John +from the rack where he had been enduring such slow torture. Granvelle's +intercession proved fruitless with the Duchess, but Alexander was all +eagerness to go where blows were passing current, and he gladly led the +reinforcements which were sent to Don John at the close of the year 1577. +He had reached Luxemburg, on the 18th of December of that year, in time, +as we have seen, to participate, and, in fact, to take the lead in the +signal victory of Gemblours. He had been struck with the fatal change +which disappointment and anxiety had wrought upon the beautiful and +haughty features of his illustrious kinsman. He had since 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 character. 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 and professional fighter. +The lower part of the face was 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 +soldiers with his own impetuous and chivalrous courage. He ever led the +way upon the most dangerous and desperate 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 riband, a jewel, taken +with his own hands from his own attire. + +His military, abilities--now for the first time to be largely called into +employment--were unquestionably superior to those of Don John; whose name +had been surrounded 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. Decorous and self-poised, he was only +passionate before the enemy, but he rarely permitted a disrespectful look +or word to escape condign and deliberate chastisement. He was no schemer +or dreamer. He was no knight errant. He would not have crossed seas and +mountains to rescue a captive queen, nor have sought to place her crown +on his own head as a reward for his heroism. He had a single and +concentrated kind of character. He knew precisely the work which Philip +required, 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 baked 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. To circumvent at once both their negotiators +and their men-at-arms was his appointed task. Had it not been for the +courage, the vigilance, and the superior intellect of a single +antagonist, the whole of the Netherlands would have shared the fate which +was reserved for the more southern portion. Had the life of William of +Orange been prolonged, perhaps the evil genius of the Netherlands might +have still been exorcised throughout the whole extent of the country. +As for religion, Alexander Farnese was, of course, strictly Catholic, +regarding all seceders from Romanism 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 shoulders. She had now flown to +higher spheres, but Alexander was, perhaps, willing to rely upon her +continued intercessions in his behalf. The life of a bravo in time of +peace--the deliberate project in war to exterminate whole cities full of +innocent people, who had different notions on the subject of image- +worship and ecclesiastical ceremonies from those entertained at Rome, did +not seem to him at all incompatible with the precepts of Jesus. Hanging, +drowning, burning and butchering heretics were the legitimate deductions +of his theology. He was no casuist nor pretender to holiness: but in +those days every man was devout, and Alexander looked with honest horror +upon the impiety of the heretics, whom he persecuted and massacred. He +attended mass regularly--in the winter mornings by torch-light--and would +as soon have foregone his daily tennis as his religious exercises. +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. + +His previous connections in the Netherlands were of use to him, and he +knew how to turn them to immediate account. The great nobles, who had +been uniformly actuated 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 +Havres, foiled and doubly foiled in all their small intrigues 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 Malcontents ravaging the land of Hainault and threatening Ghent, the +"Paternoster 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 he first succeeded to power. On the whole, there seemed +a bright prospect of success. It seemed quite possible that it would be +in Parma's power to reduce, at last, this chronic rebellion, and to +reestablish the absolute supremacy of Church and King. The pledges of +the Ghent treaty had been broken, while in the unions of Brussels which +had succeeded, the fatal religious cause had turned the instrument of +peace into a sword. The "religion-peace" which had been proclaimed at +Antwerp had hardly found favor anywhere. As the provinces, for an +instant, had seemingly got the better of their foe, they turned madly +upon each other, and the fires of religious discord, which had been +extinguished by the common exertions of a whole race trembling for the +destruction of their fatherland, were now re-lighted with a thousand +brands plucked from the sacred domestic hearth. Fathers and children, +brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, were beginning to wrangle, and +were prepared to persecute. Catholic and Protestant, during the +momentary relief from pressure, forgot their voluntary and most blessed +Pacification, to renew their internecine feuds. The banished Reformers, +who had swarmed back in droves at the tidings of peace and good-will to +all men, found themselves bitterly disappointed. They were exposed in +the Walloon provinces to the persecutions of the Malcontents, in the +Frisian regions to the still powerful coercion of the royal stadholders. + +Persecution begat counter-persecution. The city of Ghent became the +centre of a system of insurrection, by which all the laws of God and man +were outraged under the pretence of establishing a larger liberty in +civil and religious matters. 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 +intelligence to comprehend. There was a talk of making him Count of +Flanders,--and his paltry ambition was dazzled by the glittering prize. +Anjou, who meant to be Count of Flanders himself, as well as Duke or +Count of all the other Netherlands, was highly indignant at this report, +which he chose to consider true. He wrote to the estates to express his +indignation. He wrote to Ghent to offer his mediation between the +burghers and the Malcontents. Casimir wanted money for his troops. He +obtained a liberal supply, but he wanted more. Meantime, the mercenaries +were expatiating on their own account throughout the southern provinces; +eating up every green leaf, robbing and pillaging, where robbery and +pillage had gone so often that hardly anything was left for rapine. Thus +dealt the soldiers in the open country, while their master at Ghent was +plunging into the complicated intrigues spread over that unfortunate city +by the most mischievous demagogues that ever polluted a sacred cause. +Well had Cardinal Granvelle, his enemy, William of Hesse, his friend and +kinsman, understood the character of John Casimir. Robbery and pillage +were his achievements, to make chaos more confounded was his destiny. +Anjou--disgusted with the temporary favor accorded to 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 Malcontents 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 left to make a demonstration in the field, +or properly to garrison the more important towns. The unhappy provinces, +torn by civil and religious dissensions, were overrun 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 domestic tragedies, in which the actors are always the insolent +foreign soldiery and their desperate victims. + +Ghent energetic, opulent, powerful, passionate, unruly Ghent--was now the +focus of discord, the centre from whence radiated not the light and +warmth of reasonable and intelligent liberty, but the bale-fires of +murderous licence 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 devotion to freedom, so often to incur +ignominious chastisement from power which its own excesses had made more +powerful, that its name was already becoming a bye-word. It now, most +fatally and for ever, was to misunderstand its true position. The Prince +of Orange, the great architect 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, 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 for ever, and the great work of Orange +remained a fragment from its commencement. The acts of demagogues, the +conservative disgust at licence, the jealousy of rival nobles, the +venality of military leaders, threw daily fresh stumbling-blocks in his +heroic path. It was not six months after the advent of Farnese to power, +before that bold and subtle chieftain had seized the double-edged sword +of religious dissension as firmly as he had grasped his celebrated brand +when he boarded the galley of Muatapha Bey, and the Netherlands were cut +in twain, to be re-united nevermore. The separate treaty of the Walloon +provinces was soon destined to separate the Celtic and Romanesque +elements from the Batavian and Frisian portion of a nationality, which; +thoroughly fused in all its parts, would have formed as admirable a +compound of fire and endurance as history has ever seen. + +Meantime, 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 disaffected nobles. The city, +considering itself the natural head of all the southern country, was +indignant that the Walloon provinces should dare to reassert that +supremacy of Romanism which had been so effectually suppressed, and to +admit the possibility of friendly relations with a sovereign 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 opposed to Orange, disliking his moderation, and trembling at his +firmness. Ryhove considered himself the friend of the Prince. We have +seen that he had consulted him previously to his memorable attack upon +Aerschot, in the autumn of the preceding year, and we know the result of +that conference. + +The Prince, with the slight dissimulation which belonged 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 thoroughly base as Ryhove subsequently proved. The violence of that +personage on the occasion of the arrest of Aerschot and his colleagues +was mildness compared with the deed with which he now disgraced the cause +of freedom. He had been ordered out from Ghent to oppose a force of +Malcontents which was gathering in the neighbourhood 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 twenty-eighth of the previous October, and +who yet remained in captivity, were still alive. These two prisoners +were ex-procurator Visch and Blood-Councillor Hessels. Hessels, it +seemed, had avowed undying hostility to Ryhove for the injury sustained +at his hands, and he had sworn, "by his grey beard," that the ruffian +should yet hang for the outrage. Ryhove, not feeling very safe in the +position of affairs which then existed, and knowing that he could neither +trust Imbize, who had formerly been his friend, nor the imprisoned +nobles, who had ever been his implacable enemies, was resolved to make +himself safe in one quarter at least, before he set forth against the +Malcontents. Accordingly, Hessels and Visch, as they sat together in +their prison, at chess, upon the 4th of October, 1578, were suddenly +summoned to leave the house, and to enter a carriage which stood at the +door. A force of armed men brought the order, and were sufficiently +strong to enforce it. The prisoners obeyed, and the coach soon rolled +slowly through the streets, left the Courtray gate, and proceeded a short +distance along the road towards that city. + +After a few minutes a halt was made. Ryhove then made his appearance at +the carriage-window, and announced to the astonished prisoners that, they +were forthwith to be hanged upon a tree which stood by the road-side. He +proceeded to taunt the aged Hessels with his threat against himself, and +with his vow "by his grey beard." "Such grey beard shalt thou never live +thyself to wear, ruffian," cried Hessels, stoutly-furious rather than +terrified at the suddenness of his doom. "There thou liest, false +traitor!" roared Ryhove in reply; and to prove the falsehood, he +straightway tore out a handful of the old man's beard, and fastened it +upon his own cap like a plume. His action was imitated by several of his +companions, who cut for themselves locks from the same grey beard, and +decorated themselves as their leader had done. This preliminary ceremony +having been concluded, the two aged prisoners were forthwith hanged on a +tree, without-the least pretence of trial or even sentence. + +Such was the end of 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 freedom 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 intense between the +Walloons and 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 indispensable to any arrangement--firstly, +that the Catholic clergy should be allowed the free use of their +property; secondly, that they should not be disturbed in the exercise of +their religion; thirdly, that the gentlemen kept in prison since the +memorable twenty-eighth of October should be released. If these points +should be granted, the Archduke Matthias, the states-general, and the +Prince of Orange would agree to drive off the Walloon soldiery, and to +defend Ghent against all injury. The two first points were granted, upon +condition that sufficient guarantees should be established for the safety +of the Reformed religion. The third was rejected, but it was agreed that +the prisoners, Champagny, Sweveghem, and the rest--who, after the horrid +fate of Hessels and Visch, might be supposed to be sufficiently anxious +as to their own doom--should have legal trial, and be defended in the +meantime from outrage. + +On the 3rd of November, 1578, a formal act of acceptance of these terms +was signed at Antwerp. At the same time, there was murmuring at Ghent, +the extravagant portion of the liberal party averring that they had no +intention of establishing the "religious peace" when they agreed not to +molest the Catholics. On the 11th of November, the Prince of Orange sent +messengers to Ghent in the name of the Archduke and the states-general, +summoning the authorities to a faithful execution of the act of +acceptance. Upon the same day the English envoy, Davidson, made an +energetic representation to the same magistrates, declaring that the +conduct of the Ghenters was exciting regret throughout the world, and +affording a proof that it was their object to protract, not suppress, the +civil war which had so long been raging. Such proceedings, he observed, +created doubts whether they were willing to obey any law or any +magistracy. As, however, it might be supposed that the presence of John +Casimir in Ghent at that juncture was authorized by Queen Elizabeth-- +inasmuch as it was known that he had received a subsidy from her--the +envoy took occasion to declare that her Majesty entirely disavowed his +proceedings. He observed further that, in the opinion of her Majesty, +it was still possible to maintain peace by conforming to the counsels +of the Prince of Orange and of the states-general. This, however, could +be done only by establishing the three points which he had laid down. +Her Majesty likewise warned the Ghenters that their conduct would soon +compel her to abandon the country's cause altogether, and, in conclusion, +she requested, with characteristic thriftiness, to be immediately +furnished with a city bond for forty-five thousand pounds sterling. + +Two days afterwards, envoys arrived from Brussels to remonstrate, in +their turn, with the sister city, and to save her, if possible, from the +madness which had seized upon her. They recalled to the memory of the +magistrates the frequent and wise counsels of the Prince of Orange. He +had declared that he knew of no means to avert the impending desolation +of the fatherland save union of all the provinces and obedience to the +general government. His own reputation, and the honor of his house, he +felt now to be at stake; for, by reason of the offices which he now held, +he had been ceaselessly calumniated as the author of all the crimes which +had been committed at Ghent. Against these calumnies he had avowed his +intention of publishing his defence. After thus citing the opinion of +the Prince, the envoys implored the magistrates to accept the religious +peace which he had proposed, and to liberate the prisoners as he had +demanded. For their own part, they declared that the inhabitants of +Brussels would never desert him; for, next to God, there was no one who +understood their cause so entirely, or who could point out the remedy so +intelligently. + +Thus reasoned the envoys from the states-general and from Brussels, but +even while they were reasoning, a fresh tumult occurred at Ghent. The +people had been inflamed by demagogues, and by the insane howlings of +Peter Dathenus, the unfrocked monk of Poperingen, who had been the +servant 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 Catholics, smote all their images into fragments, +destroyed all their altar pictures, robbed them of much valuable +property, 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. He was of Luther's opinion, +that idol-worship was to be eradicated from the heart, and that then the +idols in the churches would fall of themselves. He felt too with +Landgrave William, that "the destruction of such worthless idols was ever +avenged by torrents of good human blood." Therefore it may be well +supposed that this fresh act of senseless violence, in the very teeth of +his remonstrances, in the very presence of his envoys, met with his stern +disapprobation. He was on the point of publishing his defence against +the calumnies 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 comprehending his high purposes, or seconding his virtuous efforts. +From both projects he was dissuaded; and although 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. "I admire his wisdom, daily more and more," cried Hubert +Languet; "I see those who profess themselves his friends causing him more +annoyance than his foes; while, nevertheless, he ever remains true to +himself, is driven by no tempests from his equanimity, nor provoked by +repeated injuries to immoderate action." + +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 inhabitants, 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 presence, 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; although this was a +consideration which never influenced him, from the commencement of his +career to its close. Imbize and his crew were capable of resorting to +any extremity or any ambush; to destroy the man whom they feared and +hated. The presence of John Casimir was an additional complication; for +Orange, while he despised the man, was unwilling to offend his friends. +Moreover, Casimir had professed a willingness to assist the cause, and +to, defer to the better judgment of the Prince: He had brought an army +into the field, with which, however, he had accomplished nothing except a +thorough pillaging of the peasantry, while, at the same time, he was loud +in his demands upon the states to pay his soldiers' wages. The soldiers +of the different armies who now overran the country, indeed, vied with +each other in extravagant insolence. "Their outrages are most +execrable," wrote Marquis Havre; "they demand the most exquisite food, +and drink Champagne and Burgundy by the bucketfull." Nevertheless, on +the 4th of December, the Prince came to Ghent. He held constant and +anxious conferences with the magistrates. He was closeted daily with +John Casimir, whose vanity and extravagance of temper he managed with +his usual skill. He even dined with Imbue, and thus, by smoothing +difficulties and reconciling angry passions, he succeeded at last in +obtaining the consent of all to a religious peace, which was published on +the 27th 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 could be obtained in favor of the +imprisoned gentlemen. + +The Walloons and Malcontents were now summoned to lay down their arms; +but, as might be supposed, they expressed dissatisfaction with the +religious peace, proclaiming 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 extermination of Romanism. A strong +man might well seem powerless in the midst of such obstinate and +worthless fanatics. + +The arrival of the Prince in Ghent was, on the whole, a relief to John +Casimir. As usual, this addle-brained individual had plunged headlong +into difficulties, out of which he was unable to extricate himself. He +knew not what to do, or which way to turn. He had tampered with Imbue +and his crew, but he had found that they were not the men for a person of +his quality to deal with. He had brought a large army into the field, +and had not a stiver in his coffers. He felt bitterly the truth of the +Landgrave's warning--"that 'twas better to have thirty thousand devils at +one's back than thirty thousand German troopers, with no money to give +them;" it being possible to pay the devils with the sign of the cross, +while the soldiers could be discharged only with money or hard knocks. +Queen Elizabeth, too, under whose patronage he had made this most +inglorious campaign, was incessant in her reproofs, and importunate in +her demands for reimbursement. She wrote to him personally, upbraiding +him with his high pretensions and his shortcomings. His visit to Ghent, +so entirely unjustified and mischievous; his failure to effect that +junction of his army with the states' force under Bossu, by which the +royal army was to have been surprised and annihilated; his having given +reason to the common people to suspect her Majesty and the Prince of +Orange of collusion with his designs, and of a disposition to seek their +private advantage and not the general good of the whole Netherlands; the +imminent danger, which he had aggravated, that the Walloon provinces, +actuated by such suspicions, would fall away from the "generality" and +seek a private accord with Parma; these and similar sins of omission and +commission were sharply and shrewishly set forth in the Queen's epistle. +'Twas not for such marauding and intriguing work that she had appointed +him her lieutenant, and furnished him with troops and subsidies. She +begged him forthwith to amend his ways, for the sake of his name and +fame, which were sufficiently soiled in the places where his soldiers had +been plundering the country which they came to protect. + +The Queen sent Daniel Rogers with instructions of similar import to the +states-general, repeatedly and expressly disavowing Casimir's proceedings +and censuring his character. She also warmly insisted on her bonds. +In short, never was unlucky prince more soundly berated by his superiors, +more thoroughly disgraced by his followers. In this contemptible +situation had Casimir placed himself by his rash ambition to prove before +the world that German princes could bite and scratch like griffins and +tigers as well as carry them in their shields. From this position Orange +partly rescued him. He made his peace with the states-general. He +smoothed matters with the extravagant Reformers, and he even extorted +from the authorities of Ghent the forty-five thousand pounds bond, on +which Elizabeth had insisted with such obduracy. Casimir repaid these +favors of the Prince in the coin with which narrow minds and jealous +tempers are apt to discharge such obligations--ingratitude. The +friendship which he openly manifested at first grew almost immediately +cool. Soon afterwards he left Ghent and departed for Germany, leaving +behind him a long and tedious remonstrance, addressed to the states- +general, in which document he narrated the history of his exploits, and +endeavored to vindicate the purity of his character. He concluded this +very tedious and superfluous manifesto by observing that--for reasons +which he thought proper to give at considerable length--he felt himself +"neither too useful nor too agreeable to the provinces." As he had been +informed, he said, that the states-general had requested the Queen of +England to procure his departure, he had resolved, in order to spare her +and them inconvenience, to return of his own accord, "leaving the issue +of the war in the high and mighty hand of God." + +The estates answered this remonstrance with words of unlimited courtesy; +expressing themselves "obliged to all eternity" for his services, and +holding out vague hopes that the monies which he demanded on behalf of +his troops should ere long be forthcoming. + +Casimir having already answered Queen Elizabeth's reproachful letter by +throwing the blame of his apparent misconduct upon the states-general, +and having promised soon to appear before her Majesty in person, tarried +accordingly but a brief season in Germany, and then repaired to England. +Here he was feasted, flattered, caressed, and invested with the order of +the Garter. Pleased with royal blandishments, and highly enjoying the +splendid hospitalities of England he quite forgot the "thirty thousand +devils" whom he had left running loose in the Netherlands, while these +wild soldiers, on their part, being absolutely in a starving condition +--for there was little left for booty in a land which had been so often +plundered--now had the effrontery to apply to the Prince of Parma for +payment of their wages. Alexander Farnese laughed heartily at the +proposition, which he considered an excellent jest. It seemed in truth, +a jest, although but a sorry one. Parma replied to the messenger of +Maurice of Saxony who had made the proposition, that the Germans must be +mad to ask him for money, instead of offering to pay him, a heavy sum for +permission to leave the country. Nevertheless, he was willing to be so +far indulgent as to furnish them with passports, provided they departed +from the Netherlands instantly. Should they interpose the least delay, +he would set upon them without further preface, and he gave them notice, +with the arrogance becoming a Spanish general; that the courier was +already waiting to report to Spain the number of them left alive after +the encounter. Thus deserted by their chief, and hectored by the enemy, +the mercenaries, who had little stomach for fight without wages, accepted +the passports proffered by Parma. They revenged themselves for the harsh +treatment which they had received from Casimir and from the states- +general, by singing, everywhere as they retreated, a doggerel ballad +--half Flemish, half German--in which their wrongs were expressed with +uncouth vigor. + +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. Here he conversed +freely at his lodgings in the "German House" on the subject of his +vagabond troops, whose final adventures and departure seemed to afford +him considerable amusement; and he, moreover, diverted his company by +singing, after supper, a few verses of the ballad already mentioned. + + O, have you been in Brabant, fighting for the states? + O, have you brought back anything except your broken pates? + O, I have been in Brabant, myself and all my mates. + We'll go no more to Brabant, unless our brains were addle, + We're coming home on foot, we went there in the saddle; + For there's neither gold nor glory got, in fighting for the states. + +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 attendance. He furthermore most +hypocritically expressed a desire for a speedy reconciliation of the +provinces with 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 infinite 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 +already, and it seemed obvious at that moment, to all persons most +observant of the course of affairs, that a matrimonial 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 unfortunately its foundation was the shifting +sandbank of female and royal coquetry. Those who judge only by the +result, will be quick to censure a policy which might have had very +different issue. They who place themselves in the period anterior to +Anjou's visit to England, will admit that it was hardly human not to be +deceived by the apolitical aspects of that moment. The Queen, moreover, +took pains to upbraid the states-general, by letter, with their +disrespect and ingratitude towards the Duke of Anjou--behaviour with +which he had been "justly scandalized." For her own part, she assured +them of her extreme displeasure at learning that such a course of conduct +had been held with a view to her especial contentment--"as if the person +of Monsieur, son of France, brother of the King, were disagreeable to +her, or as if she wished him ill;" whereas, on the contrary, they would +best satisfy her wishes by showing him all the courtesy to which his high +degree and his eminent services entitled him. + +The estates, even before receiving this letter, had, however, acted in +its spirit. They had addressed elaborate apologies and unlimited +professions to the Duke. They thanked him heartily for his achievements, +expressed unbounded regret at his departure, with sincere hopes for his +speedy return, and promised "eternal remembrance" of his heroic virtues. +They assured him, moreover, that should the first of the following March +arrive without bringing with it an honorable 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, +according to the contract already existing. + +These assurances were ample, but the states, knowing the vanity of the +man, offered 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 admiration 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 to achieve both immortality and power by continuing his +friendly relations with the states, and he answered accordingly in the +most courteous terms. The result of this interchange of civilities it +will be soon our duty to narrate. + +At the close of the year the Count of Bossu died, much to the regret of +the Prince of Orange, whose party--since his release from prison by +virtue of the Ghent treaty--he had warmly espoused. "We are in the +deepest distress in the world," wrote the Prince to his brother, three +days before the Count's death, "for the dangerous malady of M. de Bossu. +Certainly, the country has much to lose in his death, but I hope that God +will not so much afflict us." Yet the calumniators of the day did not +scruple to circulate, nor the royalist chroniclers to perpetuate, the +most senseless and infamous fables on the subject of this nobleman's +death. He died of poison, they said, administered to him "in oysters," +by command of the Prince of Orange, who had likewise made a point of +standing over him on his death-bed, for the express purpose of sneering +at the Catholic ceremonies by which his dying agonies were solaced. Such +were the tales which grave historians have recorded concerning the death +of Maximilian of Bossu, who owed so much to the Prince. The command of +the states' army, a yearly pension of five thousand florins, granted at +the especial request of Orange but a few months before, and the profound +words of regret in the private letter jest cited, are a sufficient answer +to such slanders. + +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 practised it more skillfully. He bought a politician, or a general, +or a grandee, or a regiment of infantry, usually at the cheapest price +at which those articles could be purchased, and always with the utmost +delicacy with which such traffic could be conducted. Men conveyed +themselves to government for a definite price--fixed accurately 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. Behind their ancient shields, ostentatiously +emblazoned with fidelity to church and king, they thrust forth their +itching palms with the mendicity which would be hardly credible, were it +not attested by the monuments more perennial than brass, of their own +letters and recorded conversations. + +Already, before the accession of Parma to power, the true way to dissever +the provinces had been indicated by the famous treason of the Seigneur de +la Motte. This nobleman commanded a regiment in the service of the +states-general, and was Governor of Gravelines. On promise of +forgiveness for all past disloyalty, of being continued in the same +military posts under Philip which he then held for the patriots, and of a +"merced" large enough to satisfy his most avaricious dreams, he went over +to the royal government. The negotiation was conducted by Alonzo Curiel, +financial agent of the King, and was not very nicely handled. The +paymaster, looking at the affair purely as a money transaction--which in +truth it was--had been disposed to drive rather too hard a bargain. He +offered only fifty thousand crowns for La Motte and his friend Baron +Montigny, and assured his government that those gentlemen, with the +soldiers under their command, were very dear at the price. La Motte +higgled very hard for more, and talked pathetically of his services and +his wounds--for he had been a most distinguished and courageous +campaigner--but Alonzo was implacable. Moreover, one Robert Bien-Aime, +Prior of Renty, was present at all the conferences. This ecclesiastic +was a busy intriguer, but not very adroit. He was disposed to make +himself useful to government, for he had set his heart upon putting the +mitre of Saint Omer upon his head, and he had accordingly composed a very +ingenious libel upon the Prince of Orange, in which production, "although +the Prior did not pretend to be Apelles or Lysippus," he hoped that the +Governor-General would recognize a portrait colored to the life. This +accomplished artist was, however, not so successful as he was picturesque +and industrious. He was inordinately vain of his services, thinking +himself, said Alonzo, splenetically, worthy to be carried in a procession +like a little saint, and as he had a busy brain, but an unruly tongue, +it will be seen that he possessed a remarkable faculty of making himself +unpleasant. This was not the way to earn his bishopric. La Motte, +through the candid communications of the Prior, found himself the subject +of mockery in Parma's camp and cabinet, where treachery to one's country +and party was not, it seemed, regarded as one of the loftier virtues, +however convenient it might be at the moment to the royal cause. The +Prior intimated especially that Ottavio Gonzaga had indulged in many +sarcastic remarks at La Motte's expense. The brave but venal warrior, +highly incensed at thus learning the manner in which his conduct was +estimated by men of such high rank in the royal service, was near +breaking off the bargain. He was eventually secured, however, by still +larger offers--Don John allowing him three hundred florins a month, +presenting him with the two best horses in his stable, and sending him an +open form, which he was to fill out in the most stringent language which +he could devise, binding the government to the payment of an ample and +entirely satisfactory "merced." Thus La Motte's bargain was completed +a crime which, if it had only entailed the loss of the troops under his +command, and the possession of Gravelines, would have been of no great +historic importance. It was, however, the first blow of a vast and +carefully sharpened treason, by which the country was soon to be cut in +twain for ever--the first in a series of bargains by which the noblest +names of the Netherlands were to be contaminated with bribery and fraud. + +While the negotiations with La Notte were in progress, the government of +the states-general at Brussels had sent Saint Aldegonde to Arras. The +states of Artois, then assembled in that city, had made much difficulty +in acceding to an assessment of seven thousand florins laid upon them by +the central authority. The occasion was skillfully made use of by the +agents of the royal party to weaken the allegiance of the province, and +of its sister Walloon provinces, to the patriot cause. Saint Aldegonde +made his speech before the assembly, taking the ground boldly, that the +war was made for liberty of conscience and of fatherland, and that all +were bound, whether Catholic or Protestant, to contribute to the sacred +fund. The vote passed, but it was provided that a moiety of the +assessment should be paid by the ecclesiastical branch, and the +stipulation excited a tremendous uproar. The clerical bench regarded +the tax as both a robbery and an affront. "We came nearly to knife- +playing," said the most distinguished priest in the assembly, "and if we +had done so, the ecclesiastics would not have been the first to cry +enough." They all withdrew in a rage, and held a private consultation +upon "these exorbitant and more than Turkish demands." John Sarrasin, +Prior of Saint Yaast, the keenest, boldest, and most indefatigable of the +royal partisans of that epoch, made them an artful harangue. This man +--a better politician than the other prior--was playing for a mitre too, +and could use his cards better. He was soon to become the most +invaluable agent in the great treason preparing. No one could, be more +delicate, noiseless, or unscrupulous, and he was soon recognized both by +Governor-General and King as the individual above all others to whom the +re-establishment of the royal authority over the Walloon provinces was +owing. With the shoes of swiftness on his feet, the coat of darkness on +his back, and the wishing purse in his hand, he sped silently and +invisibly from one great Malcontent chieftain to another, buying up +centurions, and captains, and common soldiers; circumventing Orangists, +Ghent democrats, Anjou partisans; weaving a thousand intrigues, +ventilating a hundred hostile mines, and passing unharmed through the +most serious dangers and the most formidable obstacles. Eloquent, too, +at a pinch, he always understood his audience, and upon this occasion +unsheathed the most incisive, if not the most brilliant weapon which +could be used in the debate. It was most expensive to be patriotic, he +said, while silver was to be saved, and gold to be earned by being loyal. +They ought to keep their money to defend themselves, not give it to the +Prince of Orange, who would only put it into his private pocket on +pretence of public necessities. The Ruward would soon be slinking back +to his lair, he observed, and leave them all in the fangs of their +enemies. Meantime, it was better to rush into the embrace of a bountiful +king, who was still holding forth his arms to them. They were +approaching a precipice, said the Prior; they were entering a labyrinth; +and not only was the "sempiternal loss of body and soul impending over +them, but their property was to be taken also, and the cat to be thrown +against their legs." By this sudden descent into a very common +proverbial expression, Sarrasin meant to intimate that they were getting +themselves into a difficult position, in which they were sure to reap +both danger and responsibility. + +The harangue had much effect upon his hearers, who were now more than +ever determined to rebel against the government which they had so +recently accepted, preferring, in the words of the Prior, "to be +maltreated by their prince, rather than to be barbarously tyrannized +over by a heretic." So much anger had been excited in celestial minds +by a demand of thirty-five hundred florins. + +Saint Aldegonde was entertained in the evening at a great banquet, +followed by a theological controversy, in which John Sarrasin complained +that "he had been attacked upon his own dunghill." Next day the +distinguished patriot departed on a canvassing tour among the principal +cities; the indefatigable monk employing the interval of his absence in +aggravating the hostility of the Artesian orders to the pecuniary demands +of the general government. He was assisted in his task by a peremptory +order which came down from Brussels, ordering, in the name of Matthias, a +levy upon the ecclesiastical property, "rings, jewels, and reliquaries," +unless the clerical contribution should be forthcoming. The rage of the +bench was now intense, and by the time of Saint Aldegonde's return a +general opposition had been organized. The envoy met with a chilling +reception; there were no banquets anymore--no discussions of any kind. +To his demands for money, "he got a fine nihil," said Saint Vaast; and +as for polemics, the only conclusive argument for the country would be, +as he was informed on the same authority, the "finishing of Orange and of +his minister along with him." More than once had the Prior intimated to +government--as so many had done before him--that to "despatch Orange, +author of all the troubles," was the best preliminary to any political +arrangement. From Philip and his Governor-General, down to the humblest +partisan, this conviction had been daily strengthening. The knife or +bullet of an assassin was the one thing needful to put an end to this +incarnated rebellion. + +Thus matters grew worse and worse in Artois. The Prior, busier than ever +in his schemes, was one day arrested along with other royal emissaries, +kept fifteen days "in a stinking cellar, where the scullion washed the +dishes," and then sent to Antwerp to be examined by the states-general. +He behaved with great firmness, although he had good reason to tremble +for his neck. Interrogated by Leoninus on the part of the central +government, he boldly avowed that these pecuniary demands upon the +Walloon estates, and particularly upon their ecclesiastical branches, +would never be tolerated. "In Alva's time," said Sarrasin, "men were +flayed, but not shorn." Those who were more attached to their skin than +their fleece might have thought the practice in the good old times of the +Duke still more objectionable. Such was not the opinion of the Prior and +the rest of his order. After an unsatisfactory examination and a brief +duresse, the busy ecclesiastic was released; and as his secret labors had +not been detected, he resumed them after his return more ardently than +ever. + +A triangular intrigue was now fairly established in the Walloon country. +The Duke of Alencon's head-quarters were at Mons; the rallying-point of +the royalist faction was with La Motte at Gravelines; while the +ostensible leader of the states' party, Viscount Ghent, was governor of +Artois, and supposed to be supreme in Arras. La Motte was provided by +government with a large fund of secret-service money, and was instructed +to be very liberal in his bribes to men of distinction; having a tender +regard, however, to the excessive demands of this nature now daily made +upon the royal purse. The "little Count," as the Prior called Lalain, +together with his brother, Baron Montigny, were considered highly +desirable acquisitions for government, if they could be gained. It was +thought, however, that they had the "fleur-de-lys imprinted too deeply +upon their hearts," for the effect produced upon Lalain, governor of +Hainault, by Margaret of Valois, had not yet been effaced. His brother +also had been disposed to favor the French prince, but his mind was more +open to conviction. A few private conferences with La Motte, and a +course of ecclesiastical tuition from the Prior--whose golden opinions +had irresistible resonance--soon wrought a change in the Malcontent +chieftain's mind. Other leading seigniors were secretly dealt with in +the same manner. Lalain, Heze, Havre, Capres, Egmont, and even the +Viscount of Ghent, all seriously inclined their ears to the charmer, and +looked longingly and lovingly as the wily Prior rolled in his tangles +before them--"to mischief swift." Few had yet declared themselves; but +of the grandees who commanded large bodies of troops, and whose influence +with their order was paramount, none were safe for the patriot cause +throughout the Walloon country. + +The nobles and ecclesiastics were ready to join hands in support of +church and king, but in the city of Arras, the capital of the whole +country, there was a strong Orange and liberal party. Gosson, a man of +great wealth, one of the most distinguished advocates in the Netherlands, +and possessing the gift of popular eloquence to a remarkable degree, was +the leader of this burgess faction. In the earlier days of Parma's +administration, just as a thorough union of the Walloon provinces in +favor of the royal government had nearly been formed, these Orangists of +Arras risked a daring stroke. Inflamed by the harangues of Gosson, and +supported by five hundred foot soldiers and fifty troopers under one +Captain Ambrose, they rose against the city magistracy, whose sentiments +were unequivocally for Parma, and thrust them all into prison. They then +constituted a new board of fifteen, some Catholics and some Protestants, +but all patriots, of whom Gosson was chief. The stroke took the town by +surprise; and was for a moment successful. Meantime, they depended upon +assistance from Brussels. The royal and ecclesiastical party was, +however, not so easily defeated, and an old soldier, named Bourgeois, +loudly denounced Captain Ambrose, the general of the revolutionary +movement, as a vile coward, and affirmed that with thirty good men-at- +arms he would undertake to pound the whole rebel army to powder--" a pack +of scarecrows," he said, "who were not worth as many owls for military +purposes." + +Three days after the imprisonment of the magistracy, a strong Catholic +rally was made in their behalf in the Fishmarket, the ubiquitous Prior +of Saint Vaast flitting about among the Malcontents, blithe and busy as +usual when storms were brewing. Matthew Doucet, of the revolutionary +faction--a man both martial and pacific in his pursuits, being eminent +both as a gingerbread baker and a swordplayer--swore he would have the +little monk's life if he had to take him from the very horns of the +altar; but the Prior had braved sharper threats than these. Moreover, +the grand altar would have been the last place to look fox him on that +occasion. While Gosson was making a tremendous speech in favor of +conscience and fatherland at the Hotel de Ville, practical John Sarrasin, +purse in hand, had challenged the rebel general, Ambrose to private +combat. In half an hour, that warrior was routed, and fled from the +field at the head of his scarecrows, for there was no resisting the power +before which the Montignys and the La Mottes had succumbed. Eloquent +Gosson was left to his fate. Having the Catholic magistracy in durance, +and with nobody to guard them, he felt, as was well observed by an ill- +natured contemporary, like a man holding a wolf by the ears, equally +afraid to let go or to retain his grasp. + +His dilemma was soon terminated. While he was deliberating with his +colleagues--Mordacq, an old campaigner, Crugeot, Bertoul, and others-- +whether to stand or, fly, the drums and trumpets of the advancing +royalists were heard. In another instant the Hotel de Ville was swarming +with men-at-arms, headed by Bourgeois, the veteran who had expressed so +alighting an opinion as to the prowess of Captain Ambrose. The tables +were turned, the miniature revolution was at an end, the counter- +revolution effected. Gosson and his confederates escaped out of a back +door, but were soon afterwards arrested. Next morning, Baron Capres, the +great Malcontent seignior, who was stationed with his regiment in the +neighbourhood, and who had long been secretly coquetting with the Prior +and Parma, marched into the city at the head of a strong detachment, and +straightway proceeded to erect a very tall gibbet in front of the Hotel +de Ville. This looked practical in the eyes of the liberated and +reinstated magistrates, and Gosson, Crugeot, and the rest were summoned +at once before them. The advocate thought, perhaps, with a sigh, that +his judges, so recently his prisoners, might have been the fruit for +another gallowstree, had he planted it when the ground was his own; but +taking heart of grace, he encouraged his colleagues--now his fellow- +culprits. Crugeot, undismayed, made his appearance before the tribunal, +arrayed in a corslet of proof, with a golden hilted sword, a scarf +embroidered with pearls and gold, and a hat bravely plumaged with white, +blue, and, orange feathers--the colors of William the Silent--of all +which finery he was stripped, however, as soon as he entered the court. + +The process was rapid. A summons from Brussels was expected every hour +from the general government, ordering the cases to be brought before the +federal tribunal; and as the Walloon provinces were not yet ready for +open revolt, the order would be an inconvenient one. Hence the necessity +for haste. The superior court of Artois, to which an appeal from the +magistrates lay, immediately held a session in another chamber of the +Hotel de Ville while the lower court was trying the prisoners, and +Bertoul, Crugeot, Mordacq, with several others, were condemned in a few +hours to the gibbet. They were invited to appeal, if they chose, to the +council of Artois, but hearing that the court was sitting next door, so +that there was no chance of a rescue in the streets, they declared +themselves satisfied with the sentence. Gosson had not been tried, his +case being reserved for the morrow. + +Meantime, the short autumnal day had drawn to a close. A wild, stormy, +rainy night then set in, but still the royalist party--citizens and +soldiers intermingled--all armed to the teeth, and uttering fierce cries, +while the whole scene was fitfully illuminated with the glare of +flambeaux and blazing tar-barrels, kept watch in the open square around +the city hall. A series of terrible Rembrandt-like nightpieces +succeeded--grim, fantastic, and gory. Bertoul, an old man, who for years +had so surely felt himself predestined to his present doom that he had +kept a gibbet in his own house to accustom himself to the sight of the +machine, was led forth the first, and hanged at ten in the evening. He +was a good man, of perfectly blameless life, a sincere Catholic, but a +warm partisan of Orange. + +Valentine de Mordacq, an old soldier, came from the Hotel de Ville to +the gallows at midnight. As he stood on the ladder, amid the flaming +torches, he broke forth into furious execrations, wagging his long white +beard to and fro, making hideous grimaces, and cursing the hard fate +which, after many dangers on the battle-field and in beleaguered cities, +had left him to such a death. The cord strangled his curses. Crugeot +was executed at three in the morning, having obtained a few hours' +respite in order to make his preparations, which he accordingly occupied +himself in doing as tranquilly as if he had been setting forth upon an +agreeable journey. He looked like a phantom, according to eye-witnesses, +as he stood under the gibbet, making a most pious and, Catholic address +to the crowd. + +The whole of the following day was devoted to the trial of Gosson. He +was condemned at nightfall, and heard by appeal before the superior court +directly afterwards. At midnight, of the 25th of October, 1578, he was +condemned to lose his head, the execution to take place without delay. +The city guards and the infantry under Capres still bivouacked upon the +square; the howling storm still continued, but the glare of fagots and +torches made the place as light as day. The ancient advocate, with +haggard eyes and features distorted by wrath, walking between the sheriff +and a Franciscan monk, advanced through the long lane of halberdiers, in +the grand hall of the Town House, and thence emerged upon the scaffold +erected before the door. He shook his fists with rage at the released +magistrates, so lately his prisoners, exclaiming that to his misplaced +mercy it was owing that his head, instead of their own, was to be placed +upon the block. He bitterly reproached the citizens for their cowardice +in shrinking from dealing a blow for their fatherland, and in behalf of +one who had so faithfully served them. The clerk of the court then read +the sentence amid a silence so profound that every syllable he uttered, +and, every sigh and ejaculation of the victim were distinctly heard in +the most remote corner of the square. Gosson then, exclaiming that he +was murdered without cause, knelt upon the scaffold. His head fell while +an angry imprecation was still upon his lips. + +Several other persons of lesser note were hanged daring the week-among +others, Matthew Doucet, the truculent man of gingerbread, whose rage had +been so judiciously but so unsuccessfully directed against the Prior of +Saint Vaast. Captain Ambrose, too, did not live long to enjoy the price +of his treachery. He was arrested very soon afterwards by the states' +government in Antwerp, put to the torture, hanged and quartered. In +troublous times like those, when honest men found it difficult to keep +their heads upon their shoulders, rogues were apt to meet their deserts, +unless they had the advantage of lofty lineage and elevated position. + + "Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema." + +This municipal revolution and counter-revolution, obscure though they +seem, were in reality of very grave importance. This was the last blow +struck for freedom in the Walloon country. The failure of the movement +made that scission 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. Before the end of the year (1578) Montigny +had signified to the Duke of Alencon that a prince who avowed himself too +poor to pay for soldiers was no master for him. The Baron, therefore, +came, to an understanding with La Motte and Sarrasin, acting for +Alexander Farnese, and received the command of the infantry in the +Walloon provinces, a merced of four thousand crowns a year, together with +as large a slice of La Motte's hundred thousand florins for himself and +soldiers, as that officer could be induced to part with. + +Baron Capres, whom Sarrasin--being especially enjoined to purchase him-- +had, in his own language, "sweated blood and water" to secure, at last +agreed to reconcile himself with the King's party upon condition of +receiving the government-general of Artois, together with the particular +government of Hesdin--very lucrative offices, which the Viscount of Ghent +then held by commission of the states-general. That politic personage, +however, whose disinclination to desert the liberty party which had +clothed him with such high functions, was apparently so marked that the +Prior had caused an ambush to be laid both for him and the Marquis Havre, +in-order to obtain bodily possession of two such powerful enemies, now, +at the last moment, displayed his true colors. He consented to reconcile +himself also, on condition of receiving the royal appointment to the same +government which he then held from the patriot authorities, together with +the title of Marquis de Richebourg, the command of all the cavalry in the +royalist provinces, and certain rewards in money besides. By holding +himself at a high mark, and keeping at a distance, he had obtained his +price. Capres, for whom Philip, at Parma's suggestion, had sent the +commission as governor of Artois and of Hesdin, was obliged to renounce +those offices, notwithstanding his earlier "reconciliation," and the +"blood and water" of John Sarrasin. Ghent was not even contented with +these guerdons, but insisted upon the command of all the cavalry, +including the band of ordnance which, with handsome salary, had been +assigned to Lalain as a part of the wages for his treason, while the +"little Count"--fiery as his small and belligerent cousin whose exploits +have been recorded in the earlier pages of this history--boldly taxed +Parma and the King with cheating him out of his promised reward, in order +to please a noble whose services had been less valuable than those of the +Lalain family. Having thus obtained the lion's share, due, as he +thought, to his well known courage and military talents, as well as to +the powerful family influence, which he wielded--his brother, the Prince +of Espinoy, hereditary seneschal of Hainault, having likewise rallied to +the King's party--Ghent jocosely intimated to Parma his intention of +helping himself to the two best horses in the Prince's stables in +exchange for those lost at Gemblours, in which disastrous action he +had commanded the cavalry for the states. He also sent two terriers +to Farnese, hoping that they would "prove more useful than beautiful." +The Prince might have thought, perhaps, as much of the Viscount's +treason. + +John Sarrasin, the all-accomplished Prior, as the reward of his +exertions, received from Philip the abbey of Saint Vaast, the richest +and most powerful ecclesiastical establishment in the Netherlands. +At a subsequent period his grateful Sovereign created him Archbishop +of Cambray. + +Thus the "troubles of Arras"--as they were called--terminated. Gosson +the respected, wealthy, eloquent, and virtuous advocate; together with +his colleagues--all Catholics, but at the same time patriots and +liberals--died the death of felons for their unfortunate attempt to save +their fatherland from an ecclesiastical and venal conspiracy; while the +actors in the plot, having all performed well their parts, received their +full meed of prizes and applause. + +The private treaty by which the Walloon provinces of Artois, Hainault, +Lille, Douay, 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 April 6th, upon which day a secret paper was signed at +Mount Saint Eloi. + +The secret current of the intrigue had not, however, flowed on with +perfect smoothness until this placid termination. On the contrary, +here had been much bickering, heart-burning, and mutual suspicions and +recriminations. There had been violent wranglings among the claimants +of the royal rewards. Lalain and Capres were not the only Malcontents +who had cause to complain of being cheated of the promised largess. +Montigny, in whose favor Parma had distinctly commanded La Motte to be +liberal of the King's secret-service money, furiously charged the +Governor of Gravelines with having received a large supply of gold from +Spain, and of "locking the rascal counters from his friends," so that +Parma was obliged to quiet the Baron, and many other barons in the same +predicament, out of his own purse. All complained bitterly, too, that +the King, whose promises had been so profuse to the nobles while the +reconciliation was pending, turned a deaf ear to their petitions and left +their letters unanswered; after the deed was accomplished. + +The unlucky Prior of Renty, whose disclosures to La Motte concerning the +Spanish sarcasms upon his venality, had so nearly caused the preliminary +negotiation with that seignior to fail, was the cause of still further +mischief through the interception of Alonzo Curiel's private letters. +Such revelations of corruption, and of contempt on the part of the +corrupters, were eagerly turned to account by the states' government. +A special messenger was despatched to Montigny with the intercepted +correspondence, accompanied by an earnest prayer that he would not +contaminate his sword and his noble name by subserviency to men who +despised even while they purchased traitors. That noble, both confounded +and exasperated, was for a moment inclined to listen to the voice of +honor and patriotism, but reflection and solitude induced him to pocket +up his wrongs and his "merced" together. The states-general also sent +the correspondence to the Walloon provincial authorities, with an +eloquent address, begging them to study well the pitiful part which La +Motte had enacted in the private comedy then performing, and to +behold as in a mirror their own position, if they did not recede ere it +was too late. + +The only important effect produced by the discovery was upon the Prior of +Renty himself. Ottavio Gonzaga, the intimate friend of Don John, and now +high in the confidence of Parma, wrote to La Motte, indignantly denying +the truth of Bien Aime's tattle, and affirming that not a word had ever +been uttered by himself or by any gentleman in his presence to the +disparagement of the Governor of Gravelines. He added that if the Prior +had worn another coat, and were of quality equal to his own, he would +have made him eat his words or a few inches of steel. In the same +vehement terms he addressed a letter to Bien Aime himself. Very soon +afterwards, notwithstanding his coat and his quality, that unfortunate +ecclesiastic found himself beset one dark night by two soldiers, who left +him, severely wounded and bleeding nearly to death upon the high road, +but escaping with life, he wrote to Parma, recounting his wrongs and the +"sword-thrust in his left thigh," and made a demand for a merced. + +The Prior recovered from this difficulty only to fall into another, +by publishing what he called an apologue, in which he charged that the +reconciled nobles were equally false to the royal and to the rebel +government, and that, although "the fatted calf had been killed for them, +after they had so long been feeding with perverse heretical pigs," they +were, in truth, as mutinous as ever, being bent upon establishing an +oligarchy in the Netherlands, and dividing the territory among +themselves, to the exclusion of the sovereign. This naturally excited +the wrath of the Viscount and others. The Seigneur d'Auberlieu, in a +letter written in what the writer himself called the "gross style of a +gendarme," charged the Prior with maligning honorable lords and--in the +favorite colloquial phrase of the day--with attempting "to throw the cat +against their legs." The real crime of the meddling priest, however, was +to have let that troublesome animal out of the bag. He was accordingly +waylaid again, and thrown into prison by Count Lalain. While in durance +he published an abject apology for his apologue, explaining that his +allusions to "returned prodigals," "heretic swine," and to "Sodom and +Gomorrah," had been entirely misconstrued. He was, however, retained in +custody until Parma ordered his release on the ground that the punishment +had been already sufficient for the offence. He then requested to be +appointed Bishop of Saint Omer, that see being vacant. Parma advised the +King by no means to grant the request--the Prior being neither endowed +with the proper age nor discretion for such a dignity--but to bestow some +lesser reward, in money or otherwise, upon the discomfited ecclesiastic, +who had rendered so many services and incurred so many dangers. + +The states-general and the whole national party regarded, with prophetic +dismay, the approaching dismemberment of their common country. They sent +deputation on 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 enclose 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 defences 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 correspondence had been +carried on by the Prince and his brother John with various agents in +Gelderland, Friesland, and Groningen, as well as with influential +personages in the more central provinces and cities. Gelderland, the +natural bulwark to Holland and Zealand, commanding the four great rivers +of the country, had been fortunately placed under the government of the +trusty John of Nassau, 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 language. + +Already, in December (1578), Count John, in behalf of his brother, had +laid before the states of Holland and Zealand, 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 Pacification, 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. January, the deputies of Gelderland and Zutfelt, +with Count John, stadholder of these provinces, at their head, met with +the deputies of Holland, Zealand, and the provinces between the Ems and +the Lauwers, early in January, 1579, and on the 23rd of that month, +without waiting 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 the foundation of the +Netherland Republic--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, Zutfen, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and the Frisian provinces, +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 privileges, 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 each other "with life, +goods, and blood," against all force brought against them in the King's +name or behalf. They were also to defend each other against all foreign +or domestic potentates, provinces, or cities, provided such defence were +controlled by the "generality" of the union. For the expense occasioned +by the protection of the provinces, certain 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 +"generality," but by unanimous advice and consent of the provinces. +Upon other matters the majority was to decide; the votes being taken in +the manner then customary in the assembly of states-general. In case of +difficulty in coming to a unanimous vote when required, the matter was +to be referred to the stadholders then in office. In case cf their +inability to agree, they were to appoint arbitrators, by whose decision +the parties were to be governed. None of the united provinces, or of +their cities or corporations, were to make treaties with other potentates +or states, without consent of their confederates. If neighbouring +princes, provinces, or cities, wished to enter into this confederacy, +they were to be received by the unanimous consent of the united +provinces. A common currency was to be established for the confederacy. +In the matter of divine worship, Holland and Zealand 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 Archduke Matthias and his council, or to make such other +arrangements as each province should for itself consider appropriate 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 certain dispute +arose concerning the meaning of this important 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 contrary, 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 service. 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 +members of the confederacy, who might, however, send written 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 Commonwealth of the United Netherlands. On +the day when it was concluded, there were present deputies from five +provinces only. Count John of Nassau signed first, as stadholder of +Gelderland and Zutfen. His signature was followed by those of four +deputies from that double province; and the envoys of Holland, Zealand, +Utrecht and the Frisian provinces, then signed the document. + +The Prince himself, although in reality the principal director of the +movement, delayed appending his signature until May the 3rd, 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 accused 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 +denounce 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 authority, 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 Republic; +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 intention to forswear +him. Certainly the act of union contained 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 corporations 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 +foreseen with certainty. + +The simple act of union was not regarded as the constitution of a +commonwealth. Its object was a single one--defence against a foreign +oppressor. The contracting parties bound themselves together to spend +all their treasure and all their blood in expelling the foreign soldiery +from their soil. To accomplish this purpose, they carefully abstained +from intermeddling with internal politics and with religion. Every man +was to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Every +combination of citizens, from the provincial states down to the humblest +rhetoric club, was to retain its ancient constitution. The establishment +of a Republic, which lasted two centuries, 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 permitting 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 an evanescent +purpose. 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 Achaian league, in the far inferior amount of power which +it permitted to its general assembly, and in the consequently greater +proportion of sovereign attributes which were retained by the individual +states. It was, on the other hand, to furnish 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 commonwealth in the great +feature that it was to be merely a confederacy of sovereignties, +not a representative Republic. Its foundation was a compact, not a +constitution. The contracting parties were states and corporations, +who considered themselves as representing small nationalities 'dejure et +de facto', and as succeeding to the supreme power at the very instant in +which allegiance to the Spanish 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 centuries 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 liberty. + +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 rancour of religious differences, +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 +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 Republic 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 provinces on the other, the work of +decomposition and of construction went Land in hand. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude +Like a man holding a wolf by the ears +Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty +No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly +Not so successful as he was picturesque +Plundering the country which they came to protect +Presumption in entitling themselves Christian +Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life +Republic, which lasted two centuries +Throw the cat against their legs +Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1578 *** + +****** This file should be named 4831.txt or 4831.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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