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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4833.txt b/4833.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ec50fc --- /dev/null +++ b/4833.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2497 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1580-82 +#33 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, 1580-82 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4833] +[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, 1580-82 *** + + + +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. 33 + +THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1580-1582 + +By John Lothrop Motley + +1855 + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Captivity of La Noue--Cruel propositions of Philip--Siege of + Groningen--Death of Barthold Enter--His character--Hohenlo commands + in the north--His incompetence--He is defeated on Hardenberg Heath-- + Petty operations--Isolation of Orange--Dissatisfaction and departure + of Count John--Remonstrance of Archduke Matthias--Embassy to Anjou-- + Holland and Zealand offer the sovereignty to Orange--Conquest of + Portugal--Granvelle proposes the Ban against the Prince--It is + published--The document analyzed--The Apology of Orange analyzed and + characterized--Siege of Steenwyk by Renneberg--Forgeries--Siege + relieved--Death of Renneberg--Institution of the "land-Council"-- + Duchess of Parma sent to the Netherlands--Anger of Alexander-- + Prohibition of Catholic worship in Antwerp, Utrecht, and elsewhere-- + Declaration of Independence by the United Provinces--Negotiations + with Anjou--The sovereignty of Holland and Zealand provisionally + accepted by Orange--Tripartition of the Netherlands--Power of the + Prince described--Act of Abjuration analyzed--Philosophy of + Netherland politics.--Views of the government compact--Acquiescence + by the people in the action of the estates--Departure of Archduke + Matthias. + +The war continued in a languid and desultory manner in different parts of +the country. At an action near Ingelmunster, the brave and accomplished +De la Noue was made prisoner. This was a severe loss to the states, a +cruel blow to Orange, for he was not only one of the most experienced +soldiers, but one of the most accomplished writers of his age. His pen +was as celebrated as his sword. In exchange for the illustrious +Frenchman the states in vain offered Count Egmont, who had been made +prisoner a few weeks before, and De Belles, who was captured shortly +afterwards. Parma answered contemptuously, that he would not give a lion +for two sheep. Even Champagny was offered in addition, but without +success. Parma had written to Philip, immediately upon the capture, +that, were it not for Egmont, Seller, and others, then in the power of +Oranges he should order the execution of La Noue. Under the +circumstances, however, he had begged to be in formed as to his Majesty's +pleasure, and in the meantime had placed the prisoner in the castle of +Limburg, under charge of De Billy. + + [Strada, d. 2, iii. 155, 156. Parma is said to have hinted to + Philip that De Billy would willingly undertake, the private + assassination of La Noue.--Popeliniere, Hist. des Pays Bas; 1556- + 1584.] + +His Majesty, of course, never signified his pleasure, and the illustrious +soldier remained for five years in a loathsome dungeon more befitting a +condemned malefactor than a prisoner of war. It was in the donjon keep +of the castle, lighted only by an aperture in the roof, and was therefore +exposed to the rain and all inclemencies of the sky, while rats, toads, +and other vermin housed in the miry floor. Here this distinguished +personage, Francis with the Iron Arm, whom all Frenchmen, Catholic or +Huguenot, admired far his genius, bravery, and purity of character, +passed five years of close confinement. The government was most anxious +to take his life, but the captivity of Egmont and others prevented the +accomplishment of their wishes. During this long period, the wife and +numerous friends of La Noue were unwearied in, their efforts to effect +his ransom or exchange, but none of the prisoners in the hands of the +patriots were considered a fair equivalent. The hideous proposition was +even made by Philip the Second to La Noue, that he should receive his +liberty if he would permit his eyes to be put out, as a preliminary +condition. The fact is attested by several letters written by La Noue to +his wife. The prisoner, wearied, shattered in health, and sighing for +air and liberty, was disposed and even anxious to accept the infamous +offer, and discussed the matter philosophically in his letters. That +lady, however, horror-struck at the suggestion, implored him to reject +the condition, which he accordingly consented to do. At last, in June, +1585, he was exchanged, on extremely rigorous terms, for Egmont. During +his captivity in this vile dungeon, he composed not only his famous +political and military discourses, but several other works, among the +rest; Annotations upon Plutarch and upon the Histories of Guicciardini. + +The siege of Groningen proceeded, and Parma ordered some forces under +Martin Schenck to advance to its relief. On the other hand, the meagre +states' forces under Sonoy, Hohenlo, Entes, and Count John of Nassau's +young son, William Louis, had not yet made much impression upon the city. +There was little military skill to atone for the feebleness of the +assailing army, although there was plenty of rude valor. Barthold Entes, +a man of desperate character, was impatient at the dilatoriness of the +proceedings. After having been in disgrace with the states, since the +downfall of his friend and patron, the Count De la Marck, he had recently +succeeded to a regiment in place of Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a +homicide or two." On the 17th of May, he had been dining at Rolda, in +company with Hohenlo and the young Count of Nassau. Returning to the +trenches in a state of wild intoxication, he accosted a knot of superior +officers, informing them that they were but boys, and that he would show +them how to carry the faubourg of Groningen on the instant. He was +answered that the faubourg, being walled and moated, could be taken only +by escalade or battery. Laughing loudly, he rushed forward toward the +counterscarp, waving his sword, and brandishing on his left arm the cover +of a butter firkin, which he had taken instead of his buckler. He had +advanced, however, but a step, when a bullet from the faubourg pierced +his brain, and he fell dead without a word. + +So perished one of the wild founders of the Netherland commonwealth--one +of the little band of reckless adventurers who had captured the town of +Brill in 1572, and thus laid the foundation stone of a great republic, +which was to dictate its laws to the empire of Charles the Fifth. He was +in some sort a type. His character was emblematical of the worst side of +the liberating movement. Desperate, lawless, ferocious--a robber on +land, a pirate by sea--he had rendered great service in the cause of his +fatherland, and had done it much disgrace. By the evil deeds of men like +himself, the fair face of liberty had been profaned at its first +appearance. Born of a respectable family, he had been noted, when a +student in this very Groningen where he had now found his grave, for the +youthful profligacy of his character. After dissipating his partrimony, +he had taken to the sea, the legalized piracy of the mortal struggle with +Spain offering a welcome refuge to spendthrifts like himself. In common +with many a banished noble of ancient birth and broken fortunes, the +riotous student became a successful corsair, and it is probable that his +prizes were made as well among the friends as the enemies of his country. +He amassed in a short time one hundred thousand crowns--no contemptible +fortune in those days. He assisted La Marck in the memorable attack upon +Brill, but behaved badly and took to flight when Mondragon made his +memorable expedition to relieve Tergoes. He had subsequently been +imprisoned, with La Marck for insubordination, and during his confinement +had dissipated a large part of his fortune. In 1574, after the violation +of the Ghent treaty, he had returned to, his piratical pursuits, and +having prospered again as rapidly as he had done during his former +cruises, had been glad to exchange the ocean for more honorable service +on shore. The result was the tragic yet almost ludicrous termination +which we have narrated. He left a handsome property, the result of his +various piracies, or, according to the usual euphemism, prizes. He often +expressed regret at the number of traders whom he had cast into the sea, +complaining, in particular, of one victim whom he had thrown overboard, +who would never sink, but who for years long ever floated in his wake, +and stared him in the face whenever he looked over his vessel's side. A +gambler, a profligate, a pirate, he had yet rendered service to the cause +of freedom, and his name--sullying the purer and nobler ones of other +founders of the commonwealth--"is enrolled in the capitol." + +Count Philip Hohenlo, upon whom now, devolved the, entire responsibility +of the Groningen siege and of the Friesland operations, was only a few +degrees superior to this northern corsair. A noble of high degree, +nearly connected with the Nassau family, sprung of the best blood in +Germany, handsome and dignified in appearance, he was, in reality only a +debauchee and a drunkard. Personal bravery was his main qualification +for a general; a virtue which he shared with many of his meanest +soldiers. He had never learned the art of war, nor had he the least +ambition to acquire it. Devoted to his pleasures, he depraved those +under his command, and injured the cause for which he was contending. +Nothing but defeat and disgrace were expected by the purer patriots from +such guidance. "The benediction of God," wrote Albada, "cannot be hoped +for under this chieftain, who by life and manners is fitter to drive +swine than to govern pious and honorable men." + +The event justified the prophecy. After a few trifling operations before +Groningen, Hohenlo was summoned to the neighbourhood of Coewerden, by the +reported arrival of Martin Schenck, at the head of a considerable force. +On the 15th of June, the Count marched all night and a part of the follow +morning, in search of the enemy. He came up with them upon Hardenberg +Heath, in a broiling summer forenoon. His men were jaded by the forced +march, overcame with the heat, tormented with thirst, and unable to +procure even a drop of water. The royalists were fresh so that the +result of the contest was easily to be foreseen. Hohenlo's army was +annihilated in an hour's time, the whole population fled out of +Coewerden, the siege of Groningen was raised; Renneberg was set free to +resume his operations on a larger scale, and the fate of all the north- +eastern provinces was once more swinging in the wind. The boors of +Drenthe and Friesland rose again. They had already mustered in the field +at an earlier season of the year, in considerable force. Calling +themselves "the desperates," and bearing on their standard an eggshell +with the yolk running out--to indicate that, having lost the meat they +were yet ready to fight for the shell--they had swept through the open +country, pillaging and burning. Hohenlo had defeated them in two +enchanters, slain a large number of their forces, and reduced them for +a time to tranquillity. His late overthrow once more set them loose. +Renneberg, always apt to be over-elated in prosperity, as he was unduly +dejected in adversity, now assumed all the airs of a conqueror. He had +hardly eight thousand men under his orders, but his strength lay in the +weakness of his adversaries. A small war now succeeded, with small +generals, small armies, small campaigns, small sieges. For the time, the +Prince of Orange was even obliged to content himself with such a general +as Hohenlo. As usual, he was almost alone. "Donec eris felix," said he, +emphatically-- + + "multos numerabis amicos, + Tempera cum erunt nubila, nullus erit," + +and he was this summer doomed to a still harder deprivation by the final +departure of his brother John from the Netherlands. + +The Count had been wearied out by petty miseries. His stadholderate of +Gelderland had overwhelmed him with annoyance, for throughout the north- +eastern provinces there was neither system nor subordination. The +magistrates could exercise no authority over an army which they did not +pay, or a people whom they did not protect. There were endless quarrels +between the various boards of municipal and provincial government-- +particularly concerning contributions and expenditures. + + [When the extraordinary generosity of the Count himself; and the + altogether unexampled sacrifices of the Prince are taken into + account, it may well be supposed that the patience of the brothers + would be sorely tried by the parsimony of the states. It appears by + a document laid before the states-general in the winter of 1580- + 1581, that the Count had himself advanced to Orange 570,000 florins + in the cause. The total of money spent by the Prince himself for + the sake of Netherland liberty was 2,200,000. These vast sums had + been raised in various ways and from various personages. His + estates were deeply hypothecated, and his creditors so troublesome, + that, in his own language, he was unable to attend properly to + public affairs, so frequent and so threatening were the applications + made upon him for payment. Day by day he felt the necessity + advancing more closely upon him of placing himself personally in the + hands of his creditors and making over his estates to their mercy + until the uttermost farthing should be paid. In his two campaigns + against Alva (1568 and 1572) he had spent 1,050,000 florins. He + owed the Elector Palatine 150,000 florins, the Landgrave 60,000, + Count John 670,000, and other sums to other individuals.] + +During this wrangling, the country was exposed to the forces of Parma, to +the private efforts of the Malcontents, to the unpaid soldiery of the +states, to the armed and rebellious peasantry. Little heed was paid to +the admonitions of Count John, who was of a hotter temper than was the +tranquil Prince. The stadholder gave way to fits of passion at the +meanness and the insolence to which he was constantly exposed. He +readily recognized his infirmity, and confessed himself unable to +accommodate his irascibility to the "humores" of the inhabitants. There +was often sufficient cause for his petulance. Never had praetor of a +province a more penurious civil list. "The baker has given notice," +wrote Count John, in November, "that he will supply no more bread after +to-morrow, unless he is paid." The states would furnish no money to pay +the, bill. It was no better with the butcher. "The cook has often no +meat to roast," said the Count, in the same letter, "so that we are often +obliged to go supperless to bed." His lodgings were a half-roofed, half- +finished, unfurnished barrack, where the stadholder passed his winter +days and evenings in a small, dark, freezing-cold chamber, often without +fire-wood. Such circumstances were certainly not calculated to excite +envy. When in addition to such wretched parsimony, it is remembered that +the Count was perpetually worried by the quarrels of the provincial +authorities with each other and with himself, he may be forgiven for +becoming thoroughly exhausted at last. He was growing "grey and +grizzled" with perpetual perplexity. He had been fed with annoyance, +as if--to use his own homely expression--"he had eaten it with a spoon." +Having already loaded himself with a debt of six hundred thousand +florins, which he had spent in the states' service, and having struggled +manfully against the petty tortures of his situation, he cannot be +severely censured for relinquishing his post. The affairs of his own +Countship were in great confusion. His children--boys and girls--were +many, and needed their fathers' guidance, while the eldest, William +Louis, was already in arms for the-Netherlands, following the instincts +of his race. Distinguished for a rash valor, which had already gained +the rebuke of his father and the applause of his comrades, he had +commenced his long and glorious career by receiving a severe wound at +Coewerden, which caused him to halt for life. Leaving so worthy a +representative, the Count was more justified in his departure. + +His wife, too, had died in his absence, and household affairs required +his attention. It must be confessed, however, that if the memory of his +deceased spouse had its claims, the selection of her successor was still +more prominent among his anxieties. The worthy gentleman had been +supernaturally directed as to his second choice, ere that choice seemed +necessary, for before the news of his wife's death had reached him, the +Count dreamed that he was already united in second nuptials to the fair +Cunigunda, daughter of the deceased Elector Palatine--a vision which was +repeated many times. On the morrow he learned, to his amazement, that +he was a widower, and entertained no doubt that he had been specially +directed towards the princess seen in his slumbers, whom he had never +seen in life. His friends were in favor of his marrying the Electress +Dowager, rather than her daughter, whose years numbered less than half +his own. The honest Count, however, "after ripe consideration," +decidedly preferred the maid to the widow. "I confess," he said, with +much gravity, "that the marriage with the old Electress, in respect of +her God-fearing disposition, her piety, her virtue, and the like, would +be much more advisable. Moreover, as she hath borne her cross, and knows +how to deal with gentlemen, so much the better would it be for me. +Nevertheless, inasmuch as she has already had two husbands, is of a +tolerable age, and is taller of stature than myself, my inclination is +less towards her than towards her daughter." + +For these various considerations, Count John, notwithstanding the +remonstrances of his brother, definitely laid down his government of +Gelderland, and quitted the Netherlands about midsummer. Enough had not +been done, in the opinion of the Prince, so long as aught remained to do, +and he could not bear that his brother should desert the country in the +hour of its darkness, or doubt the Almighty when his hand was veiled in +clouds. "One must do one's best," said he, "and believe that when such +misfortunes happen, God desires to prove us. If He sees that we do not +lose our courage, He will assuredly help us. Had we thought otherwise, +we should never have pierced the dykes on a memorable occasion, for it +was an uncertain thing and a great sorrow for the poor people; yet did +God bless the undertaking. He will bless us still, for his arm hath not +been shortened." + +On the 22nd of July, 1580, the Archduke Matthias, being fully aware of +the general tendency of affairs, summoned a meeting of the generality in +Antwerp. He did not make his appearance before the assembly, but +requested that a deputation might wait upon him at his lodgings, and to +this committee he unfolded his griefs. He expressed his hope that the +states were not--in violation of the laws of God and man--about to throw +themselves into the arms of a foreign prince. He reminded them of their +duty to the holy Catholic religion to the illustrious house of Austria, +while he also pathetically called their attention to the necessities of +his own household, and hoped that they would, at least, provide for the +arrears due to his domestics. + +The states-general replied with courtesy as to the personal claims of the +Archduke. For the rest, they took higher grounds, and the coming +declaration of independence already pierced through the studied decorum +of their language. They defended their negotiation with Anjou on the +ground of necessity, averring that the King of Spain had proved +inexorable to all intercession, while, through the intrigues of their +bitterest enemies, they had been entirely forsaken by the Empire. + +Soon afterwards, a special legation, with Saint Aldegonde at its head, +was despatched to France to consult with the Duke of Anjou, and settled +terms of agreement with him by the treaty of Plessis les Tours (on the +29th of September, 1580), afterwards definitely ratified by the +convention of Bordeaux, signed on the 23rd of the following January. + +The states of Holland and Zealand, however, kept entirely aloof from this +transaction, being from the beginning opposed to the choice of Anjou. +From the first to the last, they would have no master but Orange, and to +him, therefore, this year they formally offered the sovereignty of their +provinces; but they offered it in vain. + +The conquest of Portugal had effected a diversion in the affairs of the +Netherlands. It was but a transitory one. The provinces found the hopes +which they had built upon the necessity of Spain for large supplies in +the peninsula--to their own consequent relief--soon changed into fears, +for the rapid success of Alva in Portugal gave his master additional +power to oppress the heretics of the north. Henry, the Cardinal King, +had died in 1580, after succeeding to the youthful adventurer, Don +Sebastian, slain during his chivalrous African campaign (4th of August, +1578). The contest for the succession which opened upon the death of the +aged monarch was brief, and in fifty-eight days, the bastard Antonio, +Philip's only formidable competitor, had been utterly defeated and driven +forth to lurk, like 'a hunted wild beast, among rugged mountain caverns, +with a price of a hundred thousand crowns upon his head. In the course +of the succeeding year, Philip received homage at Lisbon as King of +Portugal. From the moment of this conquest, he was more disposed, and +more at leisure than ever, to vent his wrath against the Netherlands, and +against the man whom he considered the incarnation of their revolt. + +Cardinal Granvelle had ever whispered in the King's ear the expediency +of taking off the Prince by assassination. It has been seen how subtly +distilled, and how patiently hoarded, was this priest's venom against +individuals, until the time arrived when he could administer the poison +with effect. His hatred of Orange was intense and of ancient date. He +was of opinion, too, that the Prince might be scared from the post of +duty, even if the assassin's hand were not able to reach his heart. He +was in favor of publicly setting a price upon his head-thinking that if +the attention of all the murderers in the world were thus directed +towards the illustrious victim, the Prince would tremble at the dangers +which surrounded him. "A sum of money would be well employed in this +way," said the Cardinal, "and, as the Prince of Orange is a vile coward, +fear alone will throw him into confusion." Again, a few months later, +renewing the subject, he observed, "'twould be well to offer a reward of +thirty or forty thousand crowns to any one who will deliver the Prince, +dead or alive; since from very fear of it--as he is pusillanimous--it +would not be unlikely that he should die of his own accord." + +It was insulting even to Philip's intelligence to insinuate that the +Prince would shrink before danger, or die of fear. Had Orange ever been +inclined to bombast, he might have answered the churchman's calumny, as +Caesar the soothsayer's warning:-- + + "-----------------Danger knows full well + That Caesar is more dangerous than he--" + +and in truth, Philip had long trembled on his throne before the genius of +the man who had foiled Spain's boldest generals and wiliest statesmen. +The King, accepting the priest's advice, resolved to fulminate a ban +against the Prince, and to set a price upon his head. "It will be well," +wrote Philip to Parma, "to offer thirty thousand crowns or so to any one +who will deliver him dead or alive. Thus the country may be rid of a man +so pernicious; or at any rate he will be held in perpetual fear, and +therefore prevented from executing leisurely his designs." + +In accordance with these suggestions and these hopes, the famous ban was +accordingly drawn up, and dated on the 15th of March, 1580. It was, +however, not formally published in the Netherlands until the month of +June of the same year. + +This edict will remain the most lasting monument to the memory of +Cardinal Granvelle. It will be read when all his other state-papers +and epistles--able as they incontestably are--shall have passed into +oblivion. No panegyric of friend, no palliating magnanimity of foe, +can roll away this rock of infamy from his tomb. It was by Cardinal +Granvelle and by Philip that a price was set upon the head of the +foremost man of his age, as if he had been a savage beast, and that +admission into the ranks of Spain's haughty nobility was made the +additional bribe to tempt the assassin. + +The ban consisted of a preliminary narrative to justify the penalty with +which it was concluded. It referred to the favors conferred by Philip +and his father upon the Prince; to his-signal ingratitude and +dissimulation. It accused him of originating the Request, the image- +breaking, and the public preaching. It censured his marriage with an +abbess--even during the lifetime of his wife; alluded to his campaigns +against Alva, to his rebellion in Holland, and to the horrible massacres +committed by Spaniards in that province--the necessary consequences of +his treason. It accused him of introducing liberty of conscience, of +procuring his own appointment as Ruward, of violating the Ghent treaty, +of foiling the, efforts of Don John, and of frustrating the counsels of +the Cologne commissioners by his perpetual distrust. It charged him with +a newly-organized conspiracy, in the erection of the Utrecht Union; and +for these and similar crimes--set forth, with involutions, slow, spiral, +and cautious as the head and front of the indictment was direct and +deadly--it denounced the chastisement due to the "wretched hypocrite" +who had committed such offences. + +"For these causes," concluded the ban, "we declare him traitor and +miscreant, enemy of ourselves and of the country. As such we banish him +perpetually from all our realms, forbidding all our subjects, of whatever +quality, to communicate with him openly or privately--to administer to +him victuals, drink, fire, or other necessaries. We allow all to injure +him in property or life. We expose the, said William Nassau, as an enemy +of the human-race--giving his property to all who may; seize it. And if +anyone of our subjects or any stranger should be found sufficiently +generous of heart to rid us of this pest, delivering him to us, alive or +dead, or taking his life, we will cause to be furnished to him +immediately after the deed shall have been done, the sum of twenty-five +thousand crowns; in gold. If he have committed any crime, however +heinous, we promise to pardon him; and if he be not already noble, we +will ennoble him for his valor." + +Such was the celebrated ban against the Prince of Orange. It was +answered before the end of the year by the memorable "Apology of the +Prince of Orange" one of the moat startling documents in history. No +defiance was ever thundered forth in the face of a despot in more +terrible tones. It had become sufficiently manifest to the royal party +that the Prince was not to be purchased by "millions of money," or by +unlimited family advancement--not to be cajoled by flattery or offers of +illustrious friendship. It had been decided, therefore, to terrify him +into retreat, or to remove him by murder. The Government had been +thoroughly convinced that the only way to finish the revolt, was to +"finish Orange," according to the ancient advice of Antonio Perez. The +mask was thrown off. It had been decided to forbid the Prince bread, +water, fire, and shelter; to give his wealth to the fisc, his heart to +the assassin, his soul, as it was hoped, to the Father of Evil. The +rupture being thus complete, it was right that the "wretched hypocrite" +should answer ban with ban, royal denunciation with sublime scorn. He +had ill-deserved, however, the title of hypocrite, he said. When the +friend of government, he had warned them that by their complicated and +perpetual persecutions they were twisting the rope of their own ruin. +Was that hypocrisy? Since becoming their enemy, there had likewise been +little hypocrisy found in him--unless it were hypocrisy to make open war +upon government, to take their cities, to expel their armies from the +country. + +The proscribed rebel, towering to a moral and even social superiority +over the man who affected to be his master by right divine, swept down +upon his antagonist with crushing effect. He repudiated the idea of a +king in the Netherlands. The word might be legitimate in Castillo, or +Naples, or the Indies, but the provinces knew no such title. Philip had +inherited in those countries only the power of Duke or Count--a power +closely limited by constitutions more ancient than his birthright. +Orange was no rebel then--Philip no legitimate monarch. Even were the +Prince rebellious, it was no more than Philip's ancestor, Albert of +Austria, had been towards his anointed sovereign, Emperor Adolphus of +Nassau, ancestor of William. The ties of allegiance and conventional +authority being, severed, it had become idle for the King to affect +superiority of lineage to the man whose family had occupied illustrious +stations when the Habsburgs were obscure squires in Switzerland, and had +ruled as sovereign in the Netherlands before that overshadowing house had +ever been named. + +But whatever the hereditary claims of Philip in the country, he had +forfeited them by the violation of his oaths, by his tyrannical +suppression of the charters of the land; while by his personal crimes he +had lost all pretension to sit in judgment upon his fellow man. Was a +people not justified in rising against authority when all their laws had +been trodden under foot, "not once only, but a million of times?"--and +was William of Orange, lawful husband of the virtuous Charlotte de +Bourbon, to be denounced for moral delinquency by a lascivious, +incestuous, adulterous, and murderous king? With horrible distinctness +he laid before the monarch all the crimes of which he believed him +guilty, and having thus told Philip to his beard, "thus diddest thou," +he had a withering word for the priest who stood at his back. "Tell me," +he cried, "by whose command Cardinal Granvelle administered poison to the +Emperor Maximilian? I know what the Emperor told me, and how much fear +he felt afterwards for the King and for all Spaniards." + +He ridiculed the effrontery of men like Philip and Granvelle; in charging +"distrust" upon others, when it was the very atmosphere of their own +existence. He proclaimed that sentiment to be the only salvation for the +country. He reminded Philip of the words which his namesake of Macedon-- +a schoolboy in tyranny, compared to himself--had heard from the lips of +Demosthenes--that the strongest fortress of a free people against a +tyrant was distrust. That sentiment, worthy of eternal memory, the +Prince declared that he had taken from the "divine philippic," to engrave +upon the heart, of the nation, and he prayed God that he might be more +readily believed than the great orator had been by his people. + +He treated with scorn the price set upon his head, ridiculing this +project to terrify him, for its want of novelty, and asking the monarch +if he supposed the rebel ignorant of the various bargains which had +frequently been made before with cutthroats and poisoners to take away +his life. "I am in the hand of God," said William of Orange; "my worldly +goods and my life have been long since dedicated to His service. He will +dispose of them as seems best for His glory and my salvation." + +On the contrary, however, if it could be demonstrated, or even hoped, +that his absence would benefit the cause of the country, he proclaimed +himself ready to go into exile. + +Would to God," said he, in conclusion, that my perpetual banishment, or +even my death, could bring you a true deliverance from so many +calamities. Oh, how consoling would be such banishment--how sweet such a +death! For why have I exposed my property? Was it that I might enrich +myself? Why have I lost my brothers? Was it that I might find new; +ones? Why have I left my son so long a prisoner? Can you give me +another? Why have I put my life so often in, danger? What reward, can +I hope after my long services, and the almost total wreck, of my earthly +fortunes, if not the prize, of having acquired, perhaps at the expense +of my life, your liberty?--If then, my masters, if you judge that my +absence or my death can serve you, behold me ready to obey. Command me +--send me to the ends of the earth--I will obey. Here is my head, over +which no prince, no monarch, has power but yourselves. Dispose of it for +your good, for the preservation of your Republic, but if you judge that +the moderate amount of experience and industry which is in me, if you +judge that the remainder of my property and of my life can yet be of +service to you, I dedicate them afresh to you and to the country." + +His motto--most appropriate to his life and character--"Je maintiendrai," +was the concluding phrase of the document. His arms and signature were +also formally appended, and the Apology, translated into most modern +languages, was sent, to nearly every potentate in Christendom. It had +been previously, on the 13th of December, 1580, read before the assembly +of the united states at Delft, and approved as cordially as the ban was +indignantly denounced. + +During the remainder of the year 1580, and the half of the following +year, the seat of hostilities was mainly in the northeast-Parma, while +waiting the arrival of fresh troops, being inactive. The operations, +like the armies and the generals, were petty. Hohenlo was opposed to +Renneberg. After a few insignificant victories, the latter laid siege to +Steenwyk, a city in itself of no great importance, but the key to the +province of Drenthe. The garrison consisted of six hundred soldiers, and +half as many trained burghers. Renneberg, having six thousand foot and +twelve hundred horse, summoned the place to surrender, but was answered +with defiance. Captain Cornput, who had escaped from Groningen, after +unsuccessfully warning the citizens of Renneberg's meditated treason, +commanded in Steenwyk, and his courage and cheerfulness sustained the +population of the city during a close winter siege. Tumultuous mobs in +the streets demanding that the place should be given over ere it was too +late, he denounced to their faces as "flocks of gabbling geese," unworthy +the attention of brave men. To a butcher who, with the instinct of his +craft, begged to be informed what the population were to eat when the +meat was all gone, he coolly observed, "We will eat you, villain, first +of all, when the time comes; so go home and rest assured that you, at +least, are not to die of starvation." + +With such rough but cheerful admonitions did the honest soldier, at the +head of his little handful, sustain the courage of the beleaguered city. +Meantime Renneberg pressed it hard. He bombarded it with red-hot balls, +a new invention introduced five years before by Stephen Bathor, King of +Poland, at the siege of Dantzig. Many houses were consumed, but still +Cornput and the citizens held firm. As the winter advanced, and the +succor which had been promised still remained in the distance, Renneberg +began to pelt the city with sarcasms, which, it was hoped, might prove +more effective than the red-hot balls. He sent a herald to know if the +citizens had eaten all their horses yet; a question which was answered by +an ostentatious display of sixty starving hacks--all that could be +mustered-upon the heights. He sent them on another occasion, a short +letter, which ran as follows: + +"MOST HONORABLE, MOST STEADFAST,--As, during the present frost, you have +but little exercise in the trenches--as you cannot pass your time in +twirling your finger-rings, seeing that they have all been sold to pay +your soldiers' wages--as you have nothing to rub your teeth upon, nor to +scour your stomachs withal, and as, nevertheless, you require something +if only to occupy your minds, I send you the enclosed letter, in hope it +may yield amusement.--January 15, 1581." + +The enclosure was a letter from the Prince of Orange to the Duke of +Anjou, which, as it was pretended, had been intercepted. It was a clumsy +forgery, but it answered the purpose of more skilful counterfeiting, at a +period when political and religious enmity obscured men's judgment. "As +to the point of religion," the Prince was made to observe, for example, +to his illustrious correspondent, "that is all plain and clear. No +sovereign who hopes to come to any great advancement ought to consider +religion, or hold it in regard. Your Highness, by means of the +garrisons, and fortresses, will be easily master of the principal cities +in Flanders and Brabant, even if the citizens were opposed to you. +Afterwards you will compel them without difficulty to any religion +which may seem most conducive to the interests of your Highness." + +Odious and cynical as was the whole tone of the letter, it was +extensively circulated. There were always natures base and brutal enough +to accept the calumny and to make it current among kindred souls. It may +be doubted whether Renneberg attached faith to the document; but it was +natural that he should take a malicious satisfaction in spreading this +libel against the man whose perpetual scorn he had so recently earned. +Nothing was more common than such forgeries, and at that very moment a +letter, executed with equal grossness, was passing from hand to hand, +which purported to be from the Count himself to Parma. History has less +interest in contradicting the calumnies against a man like Renneberg. +The fictitious epistle of Orange, however, was so often republished, +and the copies so carefully distributed, that the Prince had thought +it important to add an express repudiation of its authorship, by way of +appendix to his famous Apology. He took the occasion to say, that if a +particle of proof could be brought that he had written the letter, or any +letter resembling it, he would forthwith leave the Netherlands, never to +show his face there again. + +Notwithstanding this well known denial, however, Renneberg thought it +facetious to send the letter into Steenvayk, where it produced but small +effect upon the minds' of the burghers. Meantime, they had received +intimation that succor was on its way. Hollow balls containing letters +were shot into the town, bringing the welcome intelligence that the +English colonel, John Norris, with six thousand states' troops, would +soon make his appearance for their relief, and the brave Cornput added +his cheerful exhortations to heighten the satisfaction thus produced. +A day or two afterwards, three quails were caught in the public square, +and the commandant improved the circumstance by many quaint homilies. +The number three, he observed, was typical of the Holy Trinity, which had +thus come symbolically to their relief. The Lord had sustained the +fainting Israelites with quails. The number three indicated three weeks, +within which time the promised succor was sure to arrive. Accordingly, +upon the 22nd of February, 1581, at the expiration of the third week, +Norris succeeded in victualling the town, the merry and steadfast Cornput +was established as a true prophet, and Count Renneberg abandoned the +siege in despair. + +The subsequent career of that unhappy nobleman was brief. On the 19th of +July his troops were signally defeated by Sonny--and Norris, the fugitive +royalists retreating into Groningen at the very moment when their +general, who had been prevented by illness from commanding them, was +receiving the last sacraments. Remorse, shame, and disappointment had +literally brought Renneberg to his grave. + +"His treason," says a contemporary, "was a nail in his coffin, and on +his deathbed he bitterly bemoaned his crime. 'Groningen! Groningen!' +would that I had never seen thy walls!" he cried repeatedly in his last +hours. He refused to see his sister, whose insidious counsels had +combined with his own evil passions to make him a traitor; and he died on +the 23rd of July, 1581, repentant and submissive. His heart, after his +decease, was found "shrivelled to the dimensions of a walnut," a +circumstance attributed to poison by some, to remorse by others. His +regrets; his early death, and his many attractive qualities, combined to: +save his character from universal denunciation, and his name, although +indelibly stained by treason, was ever mentioned with pity rather than +with rancor. + +Great changes, destined to be perpetual, were steadily preparing in the +internal condition of the provinces. A preliminary measure of an +important character had been taken early this year by the assembly of the +united provinces held in the month of January at Delft. This was the +establishment of a general executive council. The constitution of the +board was arranged on the 13th of the month, and was embraced in eighteen +articles. The number of councillors was fixed at thirty, all to be +native Netherlanders; a certain proportion to be appointed from each +province by its estates. The advice and consent of this body as to +treaties with foreign powers were to be indispensable, but they were not +to interfere with the rights and duties of the states-general, nor to +interpose any obstacle to the arrangements with the Duke of Anjou. + +While this additional machine for the self-government of the provinces +was in the course of creation; the Spanish monarch, on the other hand, +had made another effort to recover the authority which he felt slipping +from his grasp. Philip was in Portugal, preparing for his coronation in, +that, new kingdom--an event to be nearly contemporaneous with his +deposition from the Netherland sovereignty, so solemnly conferred upon +him a quarter of a century before in Brussels; but although thus distant, +he was confident that he could more wisely govern the Netherlands than +the inhabitants could do, and unwilling as ever to confide in the +abilities of those to whom he had delegated his authority. Provided; +as he unquestionably was at that moment, with a more energetic +representative than any who had before exercised the functions of royal +governor in the provinces, he was still disposed to harass, to doubt, and +to interfere. With the additional cares of the Portuguese Conquest upon +his hands, he felt as irresistibly impelled as ever to superintend the +minute details of provincial administration. To do this was impossible. +It was, however, not impossible, by attempting to do it, to produce much +mischief. "It gives me pain," wrote Granvelle, "to see his Majesty +working as before--choosing to understand everything and to do +everything. By this course, as I have often said before, he really +accomplishes much less." The King had, moreover, recently committed +the profound error of sending the Duchess Margaret of Parma to the +Netherlands again. He had the fatuity to believe her memory so tenderly +cherished in the provinces as to ensure a burst of loyalty at her +reappearance, while the irritation which he thus created in the breast +of her son he affected to disregard. The event was what might have been +foreseen. The Netherlanders were very moderately excited by the arrival +of their former regent, but the Prince of Parma was furious. His mother +actually arrived at Namur in the month of August, 1580, to assume the +civil administration of the provinces,--and he was himself, according to +the King's request, to continue in the command of the army. Any one who +had known human nature at all, would have recognized that Alexander +Farnese was not the man to be put into leading strings. A sovereign who +was possessed of any administrative sagacity, would have seen the +absurdity of taking the reins of government at that crisis from the hands +of a most determined and energetic man, to confide them to the keeping of +a woman. A king who was willing to reflect upon the consequences of his +own acts, must have foreseen the scandal likely to result from an open +quarrel for precedence between such a mother and son. Margaret of Parma +was instantly informed, however, by Alexander, that a divided authority +like that proposed was entirely out of the question. Both offered to +resign; but Alexander was unflinching in his determination to retain all +the power or none. The Duchess, as docile to her son after her arrival +as she had been to the King on undertaking the journey, and feeling +herself unequal to the task imposed upon her, implored Philip's +permission to withdraw, almost as soon as she had reached her +destination. Granvelle's opinion was likewise opposed to this +interference with the administration of Alexander, and the King at last +suffered himself to be overruled. By the end of the year 1581, letters +arrived confirming the Prince of Parma in his government, but requesting +the Duchess of Parma to remain, privately in the Netherlands. She +accordingly continued to reside there under an assumed name until the +autumn of 1583, when she was at last permitted to return to Italy. + +During the summer of 1581, the same spirit of persecution which had +inspired the Catholics to inflict such infinite misery upon those of the +Reformed faith in the Netherlands, began to manifest itself in overt acts +against the Papists by those who had at last obtained political. +ascendency over them. Edicts were published in Antwerp, in Utrecht, and +in different cities of Holland, suspending the exercise of the Roman +worship. These statutes were certainly a long way removed in horror from +those memorable placards which sentenced the Reformers by thousands to +the axe; the cord, and the stake, but it was still melancholy to see the +persecuted becoming persecutors in their turn. They were excited to +these stringent measures by the noisy zeal of certain Dominican monks in +Brussels, whose extravagant discourses were daily inflaming the passions +of the Catholics to a dangerous degree. The authorities of the city +accordingly thought it necessary to suspend, by proclamation, the public +exercise of the ancient religion, assigning, as their principal reason +for this prohibition, the shocking jugglery by which simple-minded +persons were constantly deceived. They alluded particularly to the +practice of working miracles by means of relics, pieces of the holy +cross, bones of saints, and the perspiration of statues. They charged +that bits of lath were daily exhibited as fragments of the cross; that +the bones of dogs and monkeys were held up for adoration as those of +saints; and that oil was poured habitually into holes drilled in the +heads of statues, that the populace might believe in their miraculous +sweating. For these reasons, and to avoid the tumult and possible +bloodshed to which the disgust excited by such charlatanry might give +rise, the Roman Catholic worship was suspended until the country should +be restored to greater tranquillity. Similar causes led to similar +proclamations in other cities. The Prince of Orange lamented the +intolerant spirit thus showing itself among those who had been its +martyrs, but it was not possible at that moment to keep it absolutely +under control. + +A most important change was now to take place in his condition, a most +vital measure was to be consummated by the provinces. The step, which +could never be retraced was, after long hesitation, finally taken upon +the 26th of July, 1581, upon which day the united provinces, assembled at +the Hague, solemnly declared their independence of Philip, and renounced +their allegiance for ever. + +This act was accomplished with the deliberation due to its gravity. At +the same time it left the country in a very divided condition. This was +inevitable. The Prince had done all that one man could do to hold the +Netherlands together and unite them perpetually into one body politic, +and perhaps, if he had been inspired by a keener personal ambition, this +task might have been accomplished.--The seventeen provinces might have +accepted his dominion, but they would agree to that of no other +sovereign. Providence had not decreed that the country, after its long +agony, should give birth to a single and perfect commonwealth. The +Walloon provinces had already fallen off from the cause, notwithstanding +the entreaties of the Prince. The other Netherlands, after long and +tedious negotiation with Anjou, had at last consented to his supremacy, +but from this arrangement Holland and Zealand held themselves aloof. +By a somewhat anomalous proceeding, they sent deputies along with those +of the other provinces, to the conferences with the Duke, but it was +expressly understood that they would never accept him as sovereign. +They were willing to contract with him and with their sister provinces-- +over which he was soon to exercise authority--a firm and perpetual +league, but as to their own chief, their hearts were fixed. The Prince +of Orange should be their lord and master, and none other. It lay only +in his self-denying character that he had not been clothed with this +dignity long before. He had, however, persisted in the hope that all +the provinces might be brought to acknowledge the Duke of Anjou as their +sovereign, under conditions which constituted a free commonwealth with an +hereditary chief, and in this hope he had constantly refused concession +to the wishes of the northern provinces. He in reality exercised +sovereign power over nearly the whole population, of the Netherlands. +Already in 1580, at the assembly held in April, the states of Holland had +formally requested him to assume the full sovereignty over them, with the +title of Count of Holland and Zealand forfeited by Philip. He had not +consented, and the proceedings had been kept comparatively secret. As +the negotiations with Anjou advanced, and as the corresponding abjuration +of Philip was more decisively indicated, the consent of the Prince to +this request was more warmly urged. As it was evident that the provinces +thus bent upon placing him at their head, could by no possibility be +induced to accept the sovereignty of Anjou--as, moreover; the act of +renunciation of Philip could no longer be deferred, the Prince of Orange +reluctantly and provisionally accepted the supreme power over Holland and +Zealand. This arrangement was finally accomplished upon the 24th of +July, 1581, and the act of abjuration took place two days afterwards. +The offer of the sovereignty over the other united provinces had been +accepted by Anjou six months before. + +Thus, the Netherlands were divided into three portions--the reconciled +provinces, the united provinces under Anjou, and the northern provinces +under Orange; the last division forming the germ, already nearly +developed, of the coming republic. The constitution, or catalogue of +conditions, by which the sovereignty accorded to Anjou was reduced to +such narrow limits as to be little more than a nominal authority, while +the power remained in the hands of the representative body of the +provinces, will be described, somewhat later, together with the +inauguration of the Duke. For the present it is necessary that the +reader should fully understand the relative position of the Prince and of +the northern provinces. The memorable act of renunciation--the +Netherland declaration of independence--will then be briefly explained. + +On the 29th of March, 1580, a resolution passed the assembly of Holland +and Zealand never to make peace or enter into any negotiations with the +King of Spain on the basis of his sovereignty. The same resolution +provided that his name--hitherto used in all public acts--should be for +ever discarded, that his seal should be broken, and that the name and +seal of the Prince of Orange should be substituted in all commissions and +public documents. At almost the same time the states of Utrecht passed a +similar resolution. These offers were, however, not accepted, and the +affair was preserved profoundly secret. On the 5th of July, 1581, "the +knights, nobles, and cities of Holland and Zealand," again, in an urgent +and solemn manner, requested the Prince to accept the "entire authority +as sovereign and chief of the land, as long as the war should continue." +This limitation as to time was inserted most reluctantly by the states, +and because it was perfectly well understood that without it the Prince +would not accept the sovereignty at all. The act by which this dignity +was offered, conferred full power to command all forces by land and sea, +to appoint all military officers, and to conduct all warlike operations, +without the control or advice of any person whatsoever. It authorized +him, with consent of the states, to appoint all financial and judicial +officers, created him the supreme executive chief, and fountain of +justice and pardon, and directed him "to maintain the exercise only of +the Reformed evangelical religion, without, however, permitting that +inquiries should be made into any man's belief or conscience, or that any +injury or hindrance should be offered to any man on account of his +religion." + +The sovereignty thus pressingly offered, and thus limited as to time, was +finally accepted by William of Orange, according to a formal act dated at +the Hague, 5th of July, 1581, but it will be perceived that no powers +were conferred by this new instrument beyond those already exercised by +the Prince. It was, as it were, a formal continuance of the functions +which he had exercised since 1576 as the King's stadholder, according to +his old commission of 1555, although a vast, difference existed in +reality. The King's name was now discarded and his sovereignty disowned, +while the proscribed rebel stood in his place, exercising supreme +functions, not vicariously, but in his own name. The limitation as to +time was, moreover, soon afterwards secretly, and without the knowledge +of Orange, cancelled by the states. They were determined that the Prince +should be their sovereign--if they could make him so--for the term of his +life. + +The offer having thus been made and accepted upon the 5th of July, oaths +of allegiance and fidelity were exchanged between the Prince and the +estates upon the 24th of the same month. In these solemnities, the +states, as representing the provinces, declared that because the King of +Spain, contrary to his oath as Count of Holland and Zealand, had not only +not protected these provinces, but had sought with all his might to +reduce them to eternal slavery, it had been found necessary to forsake +him. They therefore proclaimed every inhabitant absolved from +allegiance, while at the same time, in the name of the population, they +swore fidelity to the Prince of Orange, as representing the supreme +authority. + +Two days afterwards, upon the 26th of July, 1581, the memorable +declaration of independence was issued by the deputies of the united +provinces, then solemnly assembled at the Hague. It was called the Act +of Abjuration. It deposed Philip from his sovereignty, but was not the +proclamation of a new form of government, for the united provinces were +not ready to dispense with an hereditary chief. Unluckily, they had +already provided themselves with a very bad one to succeed Philip in the +dominion over most of their territory, while the northern provinces were +fortunate enough and wise enough to take the Father of the country for +their supreme magistrate. + +The document by which the provinces renounced their allegiance was not +the most felicitous of their state papers. It was too prolix and +technical. Its style had more of the formal phraseology of legal +documents than befitted this great appeal to the whole world and to all +time. Nevertheless, this is but matter of taste. The Netherlanders were +so eminently a law-abiding people, that, like the American patriots of +the eighteenth century, they on most occasions preferred punctilious +precision to florid declamation. They chose to conduct their revolt +according to law. At the same time, while thus decently wrapping herself +in conventional garments, the spirit of Liberty revealed none the less +her majestic proportions. + +At the very outset of the Abjuration, these fathers of the Republic laid +down wholesome truths, which at that time seemed startling blasphemies in +the ears of Christendom. "All mankind know," said the preamble, "that a +prince is appointed by God to cherish his subjects, even as a shepherd to +guard his sheep. When, therefore, the prince--does not fulfil his duty +as protector; when he oppresses his subjects, destroys their ancient +liberties, and treats them as slaves, he is to be considered, not a +prince, but a tyrant. As such, the estates of the land may lawfully and +reasonably depose him, and elect another in his room." + +Having enunciated these maxims, the estates proceeded to apply them to +their own case, and certainly never was an ampler justification for +renouncing a prince since princes were first instituted. The states ran +through the history of the past quarter of a century, patiently +accumulating a load of charges against the monarch, a tithe of which +would have furnished cause for his dethronement. Without passion or +exaggeration, they told the world their wrongs. The picture was not +highly colored. On the contrary, it was rather a feeble than a striking +portrait of the monstrous iniquity which had so long been established +over them. Nevertheless, they went through the narrative conscientiously +and earnestly. They spoke of the King's early determination to govern +the Netherlands, not by natives but by Spaniards; to treat them not as +constitutional countries, but as conquered provinces; to regard the +inhabitants not as liege subjects, but as enemies; above all, to +supersede their ancient liberty by the Spanish Inquisition, and they +alluded to the first great step in this scheme--the creation of the new +bishoprics, each with its staff of inquisitors. + +They noticed the memorable Petition, the mission of Berghen and Montigny, +their imprisonment and taking off, in violation of all national law, even +that which had ever been held sacred by the most cruel and tyrannical +princes. They sketched the history of Alva's administration; his +entrapping the most eminent nobles by false promises, and delivering them +to the executioner; his countless sentences of death, outlawry, and +confiscation; his erection of citadels to curb, his imposition of the +tenth and twentieth penny to exhaust the land; his Blood Council and its +achievements; and the immeasurable, woe produced by hanging, burning, +banishing, and plundering, during his seven years of residence. They +adverted to the Grand Commander, as having been sent, not to improve the +condition of the country, but to pursue the same course of tyranny by +more concealed ways. They spoke of the horrible mutiny which broke forth +at his death; of the Antwerp Fury; of the express approbation rendered to +that great outrage by the King, who had not only praised the crime, but +promised to recompense the criminals. They alluded to Don John of +Austria and his duplicity; to his pretended confirmation of the Ghent +treaty; to his attempts to divide the country against itself; to the +Escovedo policy; to the intrigues with the German regiments. They +touched upon the Cologne negotiations, and the fruitless attempt of the +patriots upon that occasion to procure freedom of religion, while the +object of the royalists was only to distract and divide the nation. +Finally, they commented with sorrow and despair upon that last and +crowning measure of tyranny--the ban against the Prince of Orange. + +They calmly observed, after this recital, that they were sufficiently +justified in forsaking a sovereign who for more than twenty years had +forsaken them. Obeying the law of nature--desirous of maintaining the +rights, charters, and liberties of their fatherland--determined to escape +from slavery to Spaniards--and making known their decision to the world, +they declared the King of Spain deposed from his sovereignty, and +proclaimed that they should recognize thenceforth neither his title nor +jurisdiction. Three days afterwards, on the 29th of July, the assembly +adopted a formula, by which all persons were to be required to signify +their abjuration. + +Such were the forms by which the united provinces threw off their +allegiance to Spain, and ipso facto established a republic, which was to +flourish for two centuries. This result, however, was not exactly +foreseen by the congress which deposed Philip. The fathers of the +commonwealth did not baptize it by the name of Republic. They did not +contemplate a change in their form of government. They had neither an +aristocracy nor a democracy in their thoughts. Like the actors in our +own great national drama, these Netherland patriots were struggling to +sustain, not to overthrow; unlike them, they claimed no theoretical +freedom for humanity--promulgated no doctrine of popular sovereignty: +they insisted merely on the fulfilment of actual contracts, signed +sealed, and sworn to by many successive sovereigns. Acting, upon the +principle that government should be for the benefit of the governed, and +in conformity to the dictates of reason and justice, they examined the +facts by those divine lights, and discovered cause to discard their +ruler. They did not object to being ruled. They were satisfied with +their historical institutions, and preferred the mixture of hereditary +sovereignty with popular representation, to which they were accustomed. +They did not devise an a priori constitution. Philip having violated the +law of reason and the statutes of the land, was deposed, and a new chief +magistrate was to be elected in his stead. This was popular sovereignty +in fact, but not in words. The deposition and election could be legally +justified only by the inherent right of the people to depose and to +elect; yet the provinces, in their Declaration of Independence, spoke of +the divine right of kings, even while dethroning, by popular right, their +own King! + +So also, in the instructions given by the states to their envoys charged +to justify the abjuration before the Imperial diet held at Augsburg, +twelve months later, the highest ground was claimed for the popular right +to elect or depose the sovereign, while at the same time, kings were +spoken of as "appointed by God." It is true that they were described, in +the same clause, as "chosen by the people"--which was, perhaps, as exact +a concurrence in the maxim of Vox populi, vox Dei, as the boldest +democrat of the day could demand. In truth, a more democratic course +would have defeated its own ends. The murderous and mischievous pranks +of Imbize, Ryhove, and such demagogues, at Ghent and elsewhere, with +their wild theories of what they called Grecian, Roman, and Helvetian +republicanism, had inflicted damage enough on the cause of freedom, and +had paved the road for the return of royal despotism. The senators +assembled at the Hague gave more moderate instructions to their delegates +at Augsburg. They were to place the King's tenure upon contract--not an +implied one, but a contract as literal as the lease of a farm. The house +of Austria, they were to maintain, had come into the possession of the +seventeen Netherlands upon certain express conditions, and with the +understanding that its possession was to cease with the first condition +broken. It was a question of law and fact, not of royal or popular +right. They were to take the ground, not only that the contract had been +violated, but that the foundation of perpetual justice upon which it +rested; had likewise been undermined. It was time to vindicate both +written charters and general principles. "God has given absolute power +to no mortal man," said Saint Aldegonde, "to do his own will against all +laws and all reason." "The contracts which the King has broken are no +pedantic fantasies," said the estates, "but laws planted by nature in the +universal heart of mankind, and expressly acquiesced in by prince and +people." All men, at least, who speak the English tongue, will accept +the conclusion of the provinces, that when laws which protected the +citizen against arbitrary imprisonment and guaranteed him a trial in his +own province--which forbade the appointment of foreigners to high office +--which secured the property of the citizen from taxation, except by the +representative body--which forbade intermeddling on the part of the +sovereign with the conscience of the subject in religious matters--when +such laws had been subverted by blood tribunals, where drowsy judges +sentenced thousands to stake and scaffold without a hearing by +excommunication, confiscation, banishment-by hanging, beheading, burning, +to such enormous extent and with such terrible monotony that the +executioner's sword came to be looked upon as the only symbol of justice +--then surely it might be said, without exaggeration, that the complaints +of the Netherlanders were "no pedantic fantasies," and that the King had +ceased to perform his functions as dispenser of God's justice. + +The Netherlanders dealt with facts. They possessed a body of laws, +monuments of their national progress, by which as good a share of +individual liberty was secured to the citizen as was then enjoyed in any +country of the world. Their institutions admitted of great improvement, +no doubt; but it was natural that a people so circumstanced should be +unwilling to exchange their condition for the vassalage of "Moors or +Indians." + +At the same time it may be doubted whether the instinct for political +freedom only would have sustained them in the long contest, and whether +the bonds which united them to the Spanish Crown would have been broken, +had it not been for the stronger passion for religious liberty, by which +so large a portion of the people was animated. Boldly as the united +states of the Netherlands laid down their political maxima, the quarrel +might perhaps have been healed if the religious question had admitted of +a peaceable solution. Philip's bigotry amounting to frenzy, and the +Netherlanders of "the religion" being willing, in their own words, "to +die the death" rather than abandon the Reformed faith, there was upon +this point no longer room for hope. In the act of abjuration, however, +it was thought necessary to give offence to no class of the inhabitants, +but to lay down such principles only as enlightened Catholics would not +oppose. All parties abhorred the Inquisition, and hatred to that +institution is ever prominent among the causes assigned for the +deposition of the monarch. "Under pretence of maintaining the Roman +religion," said the estates, "the King has sought by evil means to bring +into operation the whole strength of the placards and of the Inquisition +--the first and true cause of all our miseries." + +Without making any assault upon the Roman Catholic faith, the authors of +the great act by which Philip was for ever expelled from the Netherlands +showed plainly enough that religious persecution had driven them at last +to extremity. At the same time, they were willing--for the sake of +conciliating all classes of their countrymen--to bring the political +causes of discontent into the foreground, and to use discreet language +upon the religious question. + +Such, then, being the spirit which prompted the provinces upon this great +occasion, it may be asked who were the men who signed a document of such +importance? In whose-name and by what authority did they act against the +sovereign? The signers of the declaration of independence acted in the +name and by the authority of the Netherlands people. The estates were +the constitutional representatives of that people. The statesmen of that +day discovering, upon cold analysis of facts, that Philip's sovereignty +was, legally forfeited; formally proclaimed that forfeiture. Then +inquiring what had become of the sovereignty, they found it not in the +mass of the people, but in the representative body, which actually +personated the people. The estates of the different provinces-- +consisting of the knights, nobles, and burgesses of each--sent, +accordingly, their deputies to the general assembly at the Hague; and by +this congress the decree of abjuration was issued. It did, not occur to +any one to summon the people in their primary assemblies, nor would the +people of that day, have comprehended the objects of such a summons. +They were accustomed to the action of the estates, and those bodies +represented as large a number of political capacities as could be +expected of assemblies chosen then upon general principles. The hour had +not arrived for more profound analysis of the social compact. Philip was +accordingly deposed justly, legally formally justly, because it had +become necessary to abjur a monarch who was determined not only to +oppress; but to exterminate his people; legally, because he had +habitually violated the constitutions which he had sworn to support; +formally, because the act was done in the name of the people, by the body +historically representing the people. + +What, then, was the condition of the nation, after this great step had +been taken? It stood, as it were, with its sovereignty in its hand, +dividing it into two portions, and offering it, thus separated, to two +distinct individuals. The sovereignty of Holland and Zealand had been +reluctantly accepted by Orange. The sovereignty of the united provinces +had been offered to Anjou, but the terms of agreement with that Duke had +not yet been ratified. The movement was therefore triple, consisting of +an abjuration and of two separate elections of hereditary chiefs; these +two elections being accomplished in the same manner, by the +representative bodies respectively of the united provinces, and of +Holland and Zealand. Neither the abjuration nor the elections were acted +upon beforehand by the communities, the train-bands, or the guilds of the +cities--all represented, in fact, by the magistrates and councils of +each; nor by the peasantry of the open country--all supposed to be +represented by the knights and nobles. All classes of individuals, +however; arranged in various political or military combinations, gave +their acquiescence afterwards, together with their oaths of allegiance. +The people approved the important steps taken by their representatives. + +Without a direct intention on the part of the people or its leaders to +establish a republic, the Republic established itself. Providence did +not permit the whole country, so full of wealth intelligence, healthy +political action--so stocked with powerful cities and an energetic +population, to be combined into one free and prosperous commonwealth. +The factious ambition of a few grandees, the cynical venality of many +nobles, the frenzy of the Ghent democracy, the spirit of religious +intolerance, the consummate military and political genius of Alexander +Farnese, the exaggerated self-abnegation and the tragic fate of Orange, +all united to dissever this group of flourishing and kindred provinces. + +The want of personal ambition on the part of William the Silent inflicted +perhaps a serious damage upon his country. He believed a single chief +requisite for the united states; he might have been, but always refused +to become that chief; and yet he has been held up for centuries by many +writers as a conspirator and a self-seeking intriguer. "It seems to me," +said he, with equal pathos and truth, upon one occasion, "that I was born +in this bad planet that all which I do might be misinterpreted." The +people worshipped him, and there was many an occasion when his election +would have been carried with enthusiasm. "These provinces," said John of +Nassau, "are coming very unwillingly into the arrangement with the Duke +of Alencon, The majority feel much more inclined to elect the Prince, who +is daily, and without intermission, implored to give his consent. His +Grace, however, will in no wise agree to this; not because he fears the +consequences, such as loss of property or increased danger, for therein +he is plunged as deeply as he ever could be;--on the contrary, if he +considered only the interests of his race and the grandeur of his house, +he could expect nothing but increase of honor, gold, and gear, with all +other prosperity. He refuses only on this account that it may not be +thought that, instead of religious freedom for the country, he has been +seeking a kingdom for himself and his own private advancement. Moreover, +he believes that the connexion with France will be of more benefit to the +country and to Christianity than if a peace should be made with Spain, or +than if he should himself accept the sovereignty, as he is desired to +do." + +The unfortunate negotiations with Anjou, to which no man was more opposed +than Count John, proceeded therefore. In the meantime, the sovereignty +over the united provinces was provisionally held by the national council, +and, at the urgent solicitation of the states-general, by the Prince. +The Archduke Matthias, whose functions were most unceremoniously brought +to an end by the transactions which we have been recording, took his +leave of the states, and departed in the month of October. Brought to +the country a beardless boy, by the intrigues of a faction who wished to +use him as a tool against William of Orange, he had quietly submitted, on +the contrary, to serve as the instrument of that great statesman. His +personality during his residence was null, and he had to expiate, by many +a petty mortification, by many a bitter tear, the boyish ambition which +brought him to the Netherlands. He had certainly had ample leisure to +repent the haste with which he had got out of his warm bed in Vienna to +take his bootless journey to Brussels. Nevertheless, in a country where +so much baseness, cruelty, and treachery was habitually practised by men +of high position, as was the case in the Netherlands; it is something in +favor of Matthias that he had not been base, or cruel, or treacherous. +The states voted him, on his departure, a pension of fifty thousand +guldens annually, which was probably not paid with exemplary regularity. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Policy of electing Anjou as sovereign--Commode et incommode--Views + of Orange--Opinions at the French Court,--Anjou relieves Cambray-- + Parma besieges Tourney--Brave defence by the Princess of Espinoy-- + Honorable capitulation--Anjou's courtship in England--The Duke's + arrival in the Netherlands--Portrait of Anjou--Festivities in + Flushing--Inauguration at Antwerp--The conditions or articles + subscribed to by the Duke--Attempt upon the life of Orange--The + assassin's papers--Confession of Venero--Gaspar Anastro--His escape + --Execution of Venero and Zimmermann--Precarious condition of the + Prince--His recovery--Death of the Princess--Premature letters of + Parma--Further negotiations with Orange as to the sovereignty of + Holland and Zealand--Character of the revised Constitution-- + Comparison of the positions of the Prince before and after his + acceptance of the countship. + +Thus it was arranged that, for the--present, at least, the Prince should +exercise sovereignty over Holland and Zealand; although he had himself +used his utmost exertions to induce those provinces to join the rest of +the United Netherlands in the proposed election of Anjou. This, however, +they sternly refused to do. There was also a great disinclination felt +by many in the other states to this hazardous offer of their allegiance, +and it was the personal influence of Orange that eventually carried the +measure through. Looking at the position of affairs and at the character +of Anjou, as they appear to us now, it seems difficult to account for the +Prince's policy. It is so natural to judge only by the result, that we +are ready to censure statesmen for consequences which beforehand might +seem utterly incredible, and for reading falsely human characters whose +entire development only a late posterity has had full opportunity to +appreciate. Still, one would think that Anjou had been sufficiently +known to inspire distrust. + +There was but little, too, in the aspect of the French court to encourage +hopes of valuable assistance from that quarter. It was urged, not +without reason, that the French were as likely to become as dangerous as +the Spaniards; that they would prove nearer and more troublesome masters; +that France intended the incorporation of the Netherlands into her own +kingdom; that the provinces would therefore be dispersed for ever from +the German Empire; and that it was as well to hold to the tyrant under +whom they had been born, as to give themselves voluntarily to another of +their own making. In short, it was maintained, in homely language, that +"France and Spain were both under one coverlid." It might have been +added that only extreme misery could make the provinces take either +bedfellow. Moreover, it was asserted, with reason, that Anjou would be +a very expensive master, for his luxurious and extravagant habits were +notorious--that he was a man in whom no confidence could be placed, and +one who would grasp at arbitrary power by any means which might present +themselves. Above all, it was urged that he was not of the true +religion, that he hated the professors of that faith in his heart, and +that it was extremely unwise for men whose dearest interests were their +religious ones, to elect a sovereign of opposite creed to their own. To +these plausible views the Prince of Orange and those who acted with him, +had, however; sufficient answers. The Netherlands had waited long enough +for assistance from other quarters. Germany would not lift a finger in +the cause; on the contrary, the whole of Germany, whether Protestant or +Catholic, was either openly or covertly hostile. It was madness to wait +till assistance came to them from unseen sources. It was time for them +to assist themselves, and to take the best they could get; for when men +were starving they could not afford to be dainty. They might be bound, +hand and foot, they might be overwhelmed a thousand times before they +would receive succor from Germany, or from any land but France. Under +the circumstances in which they found themselves, hope delayed was but a +cold and meagre consolation. + +"To speak plainly," said Orange, "asking us to wait is very much as if +you should keep a man three days without any food in the expectation of a +magnificent banquet, should persuade him to refuse bread, and at the end +of three days should tell him that the banquet was not ready, but that a +still better one was in preparation. Would it not be better, then, that +the poor man, to avoid starvation, should wait no longer, but accept +bread wherever he might find it? Such is our case at present." + +It was in this vein that he ever wrote and spoke: The Netherlands were to +rely upon their own exertions, and to procure the best alliance, together +with the most efficient protection possible. They were not strong enough +to cope singlehanded with their powerful tyrant, but they were strong +enough if they used the instruments which Heaven offered. It was not +trusting but tempting Providence to wait supinely, instead of grasping +boldly at the means of rescue within reach. It became the character of +brave men to act, not to expect. "Otherwise," said the Prince, "we may +climb to the top of trees, like the Anabaptists of Munster, and expect +God's assistance to drop from the clouds." It is only by listening to +these arguments so often repeated, that we can comprehend the policy of +Orange at thin period. "God has said that he would furnish the ravens +with food, and the lions with their prey," said he; "but the birds and +the lions do not, therefore, sit in their nests and their lairs waiting +for their food to descend from heaven, but they seek it where it is to be +found." So also, at a later day, when events seemed to have justified +the distrust so, generally felt in Anjou, the Prince; nevertheless, held +similar language. "I do not," said he, calumniate those who tell us to +put our trust in God. That is my opinion also. But it is trusting God +to use the means which he places in our hands, and to ask that his +blessings may come upon them. + +There was a feeling entertained by the more sanguine that the French King +would heartily assist the Netherlands, after his brother should be fairly +installed. He had expressly written to that effect, assuring Anjou that +he would help him with all his strength, and would enter into close +alliance with those Netherlands which should accept him as prince and +sovereign. In another and more private letter to the Duke, the King +promised to assist his brother, "even to his last shirt." There is no +doubt that it was the policy of the statesmen of France to assist the +Netherlands, while the "mignons" of the worthless King were of a contrary +opinion. Many of them were secret partizans of Spain; and found it more +agreeable to receive the secret pay of Philip than to assist his revolted +provinces. They found it easy to excite the jealousy of the monarch +against his brother--a passion which proved more effective than the more +lofty ambition of annexing the Low Countries, according to the secret +promptings of many French politicians. As for the Queen Mother, she was +fierce in her determination to see fulfilled in this way the famous +prediction of Nostradamus. Three of her sons had successively worn the +crown of France. That she might be "the mother of four kings," without +laying a third child in the tomb, she was greedy for this proffered +sovereignty to her youngest and favorite son. This well-known desire of +Catherine de Medici was duly insisted upon by the advocates of the +election; for her influence, it was urged, would bring the whole power of +France to support the Netherlands. + +At any rate, France could not be worse--could hardly be so bad--as their +present tyranny. "Better the government of the Gaul, though suspect and +dangerous," said Everard Reyd, "than the truculent dominion of the +Spaniard. Even thus will the partridge fly to the hand of man, to escape +the talons of the hawk." As for the individual character of Anjou, +proper means would be taken, urged the advocates of his sovereignty, to +keep him in check, for it was intended so closely to limit the power +conferred upon him, that it would be only supreme in name. The +Netherlands were to be, in reality, a republic, of which Anjou was to be +a kind of Italian or Frisian podesta. "The Duke is not to act according +to his pleasure," said one of the negotiators, in a private letter to +Count John; "we shall take care to provide a good muzzle for him." How +conscientiously the "muzzle" was prepared, will appear from the articles +by which the states soon afterwards accepted the new sovereign. How +basely he contrived to slip the muzzle--in what cruel and cowardly +fashion he bathed his fangs in the blood of the flock committed to him, +will also but too soon appear. + +As for the religious objection to Anjou, on which more stress was laid +than upon any other, the answer was equally ready. Orange professed +himself "not theologian enough" to go into the subtleties brought +forward. As it was intended to establish most firmly a religious peace, +with entire tolerance for all creeds, he did not think it absolutely +essential to require a prince of the Reformed faith. It was bigotry to +dictate to the sovereign, when full liberty in religious matters was +claimed for the subject. Orange was known to be a zealous professor of +the Reformed worship himself; but he did not therefore reject political +assistance, even though offered by a not very enthusiastic member of the +ancient Church. + +"If the priest and the Levite pass us by when we are fallen among +thieves," said he, with much aptness and some bitterness, "shall we reject +the aid proffered by the Samaritan, because he is of a different faith +from the worthy fathers who have left us to perish?" In short, it was +observed with perfect truth that Philip had been removed, not because he +was a Catholic, but because he was a tyrant; not because his faith was +different from that of his subjects, but because he was resolved to +exterminate all men whose religion differed from his own. It was not, +therefore, inconsistent to choose another Catholic for a sovereign, if +proper guarantees could be obtained that he would protect and not oppress +the Reformed churches. "If the Duke have the same designs as the King," +said Saint Aldegonde, "it would be a great piece of folly to change one +tyrant and persecutor for another. If, on the contrary, instead of +oppressing our liberties, he will maintain them, and in place of +extirpating the disciples of the true religion, he will protect them, +then are all the reasons of our opponents without vigor." + +By midsummer the Duke of Anjou made his appearance in the western part of +the Netherlands. The Prince of Parma had recently come before Cambray +with the intention of reducing that important city. On the arrival of +Anjou, however, at the head of five thousand cavalry--nearly all of them +gentlemen of high degree, serving as volunteers--and of twelve thousand +infantry, Alexander raised the siege precipitately, and retired towards +Tournay. Anjou victualled the city, strengthened the garrison, and then, +as his cavalry had only enlisted for a summer's amusement, and could no +longer be held together, he disbanded his forces. The bulk of the +infantry took service for the states under the Prince of Espinoy, +governor of Tournay. The Duke himself, finding that, notwithstanding the +treaty of Plessis les Tours and the present showy demonstration upon his +part, the states were not yet prepared to render him formal allegiance, +and being, moreover, in the heyday of what was universally considered his +prosperous courtship of Queen Elizabeth, soon afterwards took his +departure for England. + +Parma; being thus relieved of his interference, soon afterwards laid +siege to the important city of Tournay. The Prince of Espinoy was absent +with the army in the north, but the Princess commanded in his absence. +She fulfilled her duty in a manner worthy of the house from which she +sprang, for the blood of Count Horn was in her veins. The daughter of +Mary, de Montmorency, the admiral's sister, answered the summons of Parma +to surrender at discretion with defiance. The garrison was encouraged by +her steadfastness. The Princess appeared daily among her troops, +superintending the defences, and personally directing the officers. +During one of the assaults, she is said, but perhaps erroneously; to have +been wounded in the arm, notwithstanding which she refused to retire. + +The siege lasted two months. Meantime, it became impossible for Orange +and the estates, notwithstanding their efforts, to raise a sufficient +force to drive Parma from his entrenchments. The city was becoming +gradually and surely undermined from without, while at the same time the +insidious art of a Dominican friar, Father Gery by name, had been as +surely sapping the fidelity of the garrison from within. An open revolt +of the Catholic population being on the point of taking place, it became +impossible any longer to hold the city. Those of the Reformed faith +insisted that the place should be surrendered; and the Princess, being +thus deserted by all parties, made an honorable capitulation with Parma. +She herself, with all her garrison, was allowed to retire with personal +property, and with all the honors of war, while the sack of the city was +commuted for one hundred thousand crowns, levied upon the inhabitants: +The Princess, on leaving the gates, was received with such a shout of +applause from the royal army that she seemed less like a defeated +commander than a conqueror. Upon the 30th November, Parma accordingly +entered the place which he had been besieging since the 1st of October. + +By the end of the autumn, the Prince of Orange, more than ever +dissatisfied with the anarchical condition of affairs, and with the +obstinate jealousy and parsimony of the different provinces, again +summoned the country in the most earnest language to provide for the +general defence, and to take measures for the inauguration of Anjou. He +painted in sombre colors the prospect which lay before them, if nothing +was done to arrest the progress of the internal disorders and of the +external foe, whose forces were steadily augmenting: Had the provinces +followed his advice, instead of quarreling among themselves, they would +have had a powerful army on foot to second the efforts of Anjou, and +subsequently to save Tournay. They had remained supine and stolid, even +while the cannonading against these beautiful cities was in their very +ears. No man seemed to think himself interested in public affair, save +when his own province or village was directly attacked. The general +interests of the commonwealth were forgotten, in local jealousy. Had it +been otherwise, the enemy would have long since been driven over the +Meuse. "When money," continued the Prince, "is asked for to carry on the +war, men answer as if they were talking with the dead Emperor. To say, +however, that they will pay no more, is as much as to declare that they +will give up their land and their religion both. I say this, not because +I have any desire to put my hands into the common purse. You well know +that I have never touched the public money, but it is important that you +should feel that there is no war in the country except the one which +concerns you all." + +The states, thus shamed and stimulated, set themselves in earnest to obey +the mandates of the Prince, and sent a special mission to England, to +arrange with the Duke of Anjou for his formal installation as sovereign. +Saint Aldegonde and other commissioners were already there. It was the +memorable epoch in the Anjou wooing, when the rings were exchanged +between Elizabeth and the Duke, and when the world thought that the +nuptials were on the point of being celebrated. Saint Aldegonde wrote to +the Prince of Orange on the 22nd of November, that the marriage had been +finally settled upon that day. Throughout the Netherlands, the +auspicious tidings were greeted with bonfires, illuminations, and +cannonading, and the measures for hailing the Prince, thus highly favored +by so great a Queen, as sovereign master of the provinces, were pushed +forward with great energy. + +Nevertheless, the marriage ended in smoke. There were plenty of +tournays, pageants, and banquets; a profusion of nuptial festivities, +in short, where nothing was omitted but the nuptials. By the end of +January, 1582, the Duke was no nearer the goal than upon his arrival +three months before. Acceding, therefore, to the wishes of the +Netherland envoys, he prepared for a visit to their country, where the +ceremony of his joyful entrance as Duke of Brabant and sovereign of the +other provinces was to take place. No open rupture with Elizabeth +occurred. On the contrary, the Queen accompanied the Duke, with a +numerous and stately retinue, as far as Canterbury, and sent a most +brilliant train of her greatest nobles and gentlemen to escort him to +the Netherlands, communicating at the same time, by special letter, her +wishes to the estates-general, that he should be treated with as much +honor "as if he were her second self." + +On the 10th of February, fifteen large vessels cast anchor at Flushing. +The Duke of Anjou, attended by the Earl of Leicester, the Lords Hunsdon, +Willoughby, Sheffield, Howard, Sir Philip Sidney, and many other +personages of high rank and reputation, landed from this fleet. He was +greeted on his arrival by the Prince of Orange, who, with the Prince of +Espinoy and a large deputation of the states-general, had been for some +days waiting to welcome him. The man whom the Netherlands had chosen for +their new master stood on the shores of Zealand. Francis Hercules, Son +of France, Duke of Alencon and Anjou, was at that time just twenty-eight +years of age; yet not even his flatterers, or his "minions," of whom he +had as regular a train as his royal brother, could claim for him the +external graces of youth or of princely dignity. He was below the middle +height, puny and ill-shaped. His hair and eyes were brown, his face was +seamed with the small-pox, his skin covered with blotches, his nose so +swollen and distorted that it seemed to be double. This prominent +feature did not escape the sarcasms of his countrymen, who, among other +gibes, were wont to observe that the man who always wore two faces, might +be expected to have two noses also. It was thought that his revolting +appearance was the principal reason for the rupture of the English +marriage, and it was in vain that his supporters maintained that if he +could forgive her age, she might, in return, excuse his ugliness. It +seemed that there was a point of hideousness beyond which even royal +princes could not descend with impunity, and the only wonder seemed that +Elizabeth, with the handsome Robert Dudley ever at her feet, could even +tolerate the addresses of Francis Valois. + +His intellect was by no means contemptible. He was not without a certain +quickness of apprehension and vivacity of expression which passed +current, among his admirers for wit and wisdom. Even the experienced. +Saint Aldegonde was deceived in his character, and described him after +an hour and half's interview, as a Prince overflowing with bounty, +intelligence, and sincerity. That such men as Saint Aldegonde and the +Prince of Orange should be at fault in their judgment, is evidence not +so much of their want of discernment, as of the difference between the +general reputation of the Duke at that period, and that which has been +eventually established for him in history. Moreover, subsequent events +were to exhibit the utter baseness of his character more signally than it +had been displayed during his previous career, however vacillating. No +more ignoble yet more dangerous creature had yet been loosed upon the +devoted soil of the Netherlands. Not one of the personages who had +hitherto figured in the long drama of the revolt had enacted so sorry a +part. Ambitious but trivial, enterprising but cowardly, an intriguer and +a dupe, without religious convictions or political principles, save that +he was willing to accept any creed or any system which might advance his +own schemes, he was the most unfit protector for a people who, whether +wrong or right; were at least in earnest, and who were accustomed to +regard truth as one of the virtues. He was certainly not deficient in +self-esteem. With a figure which was insignificant, and a countenance +which was repulsive, he had hoped to efface the impression made upon +Elizabeth's imagination by the handsomest man in Europe. With a +commonplace capacity, and with a narrow political education, he intended +to circumvent the most profound statesman of his age. And there, upon +the pier at Flushing, he stood between them both; between the magnificent +Leicester, whom he had thought to outshine, and the silent Prince of +Orange, whom he was determined to outwit. Posterity has long been aware +how far he succeeded in the one and the other attempt. + +The Duke's arrival was greeted with the roar of artillery, the ringing of +bells, and the acclamations of a large concourse of the inhabitants; +suitable speeches were made by the magistrates of the town, the deputies +of Zealand, and other functionaries, and a stately banquet was provided, +so remarkable "for its sugar-work and other delicacies, as to entirely +astonish the French and English lords who partook thereof." The Duke +visited Middelburg, where he was received with great state, and to the +authorities of which he expressed his gratification at finding two such +stately cities situate so close to each other on one little island. + +On the 17th of February, he set sail for Antwerp. A fleet of fifty-four +vessels, covered with flags and streamers, conveyed him and his retinue, +together with the large deputation which had welcomed him at Flushing, to +the great commercial metropolis. He stepped on shore at Kiel within a +bowshot of the city--for, like other Dukes of Brabant, he was not to +enter Antwerp until he had taken the oaths to respect the constitution-- +and the ceremony of inauguration was to take place outside the walls. +A large platform had been erected for this purpose, commanding a view +of the stately city, with its bristling fortifications and shady groves. +A throne, covered with velvet and gold, was prepared, and here the Duke +took his seat, surrounded by a brilliant throng, including many of the +most distinguished personages in Europe. + +It was a bright winter's morning. The gaily bannered fleet lay +conspicuous in the river, while an enormous concourse of people were +thronging from all sides to greet the new sovereign. Twenty thousand +burgher troops, in bright uniforms, surrounded the platform, upon the +tapestried floor of which stood the magistrates of Antwerp, the leading +members of the Brabant estates, with the Prince of Orange at their head, +together with many other great functionaries. The magnificence +everywhere displayed, and especially the splendid costumes of the +military companies, excited the profound astonishment of the French, +who exclaimed that every soldier seemed a captain, and who regarded +with vexation their own inferior equipments. + +Andrew Hesaels, 'doctor utriusque juris', delivered a salutatory oration, +in which, among other flights of eloquence, he expressed the hope of the +provinces that the Duke, with the beams of his greatness, wisdom, and +magnanimity, would disipate all the mists, fogs, and other exhalations +which were pernicious to their national prosperity, and that he would +bring back the sunlight of their ancient glory. + +Anjou answered these compliments with equal courtesy, and had much to say +of his willingness to shed every drop of his blood in defence of the +Brabant liberties; but it might have damped the enthusiasm of the moment +could the curtain of the not very distant future have been lifted. The +audience, listening to these promises, might have seen that it was not so +much his blood as theirs which he was disposed to shed, and less, too, in +defence than in violation of those same liberties which he was swearing +to protect. + +Orator Hessels then read aloud the articles of the Joyous Entry, in the +Flemish language, and the Duke was asked if he required any explanations +of that celebrated constitution. He replied that he had thoroughly +studied its provisions, with the assistance of the Prince of Orange, +during his voyage from Flushing, and was quite prepared to swear to +maintain them. The oaths, according to the antique custom, were then +administered. Afterwards, the ducal hat and the velvet mantle, lined +with ermine, were brought, the Prince of Orange assisting his Highness to +assume this historical costume of the Brabant dukes, and saying to him, +as he fastened the button at the throat, "I must secure this robe so +firmly, my lord, that no man may ever tear it from your shoulders." + +Thus arrayed in his garment of sovereignty, Anjou was compelled to listen +to another oration from, the pensionary of Antwerp, John Van der Werken. +He then exchanged oaths with the magistrates of the city, and received +the keys, which he returned for safe-keeping to the burgomaster. +Meanwhile the trumpets sounded, largess of gold and silver coins was +scattered among the people, and the heralds cried aloud, "Long live the +Duke of Brabant." + +A procession was then formed to escort the new Duke to his commercial +capital. A stately and striking procession it was. The Hanseatic +merchants in ancient German attires the English merchants in long velvet +cassocks, the heralds is their quaint costume, the long train of civic +militia with full, bands of music, the chief functionaries of city and +province in their black mantles and gold chains, all marching under +emblematical standards or time-honored blazons, followed each other in +dignified order. Then came the Duke himself on a white Barbary horse, +caparisoned with cloth of gold. He was surrounded with English, French, +and Netherland grandees, many of them of world-wide reputation. There +was the stately Leicester; Sir Philip Sidney, the mirror of chivalry; the +gaunt and imposing form of William the Silent; his son; Count Maurice of +Nassau, destined to be the first captain of his age, then a handsome, +dark-eyed lad of fifteen; the Dauphin of Auvergne; the Marechal de Biron +and his sons; the Prince of Espinoy; the Lords Sheffield; Willoughby, +Howard; Hunsdon, and many others of high degree and distinguished +reputation. The ancient guilds of the crossbow-men; and archers of +Brabant, splendidly accoutred; formed the bodyguard of the Duke, while +his French cavaliers, the life-guardsmen of the Prince of Orange, and the +troops of they line; followed in great numbers, their glittering uniforms +all, gaily intermingled, "like the flowers de luce upon a royal mantle!" +The procession, thus gorgeous and gay, was terminated by, a dismal group +of three hundred malefactors, marching in fetters, and imploring pardon +of the Duke, a boon which was to be granted at evening. Great torches, +although it was high noon were burning along the road, at intervals of +four or five feet, in a continuous line reaching from the platform at +Kiel to the portal of Saint Joris, through which the entrance to the city +was to be made. + +Inside the gate a stupendous allegory was awaiting the approach of the +new sovereign. A huge gilded car, crowded with those emblematical and +highly bedizened personages so dear to the Netherlanders, obstructed the +advance of the procession. All the virtues seemed to have come out for +an airing in one chariot, and were now waiting to offer their homage to +Francis Hercules Valois. Religion in "red satin," holding the gospel in +her hand, was supported by Justice, "in orange velvet," armed with blade +and beam. Prudence and Fortitude embraced each other near a column +enwreathed by serpents "with their tails in their ears to typify deafness +to flattery," while Patriotism as a pelican, and Patience as a brooding +hen, looked benignantly upon the scene. This greeting duly acknowledged, +the procession advanced into the city. The streets were lined with +troops and with citizens; the balconies were filled with fair women; "the +very gables," says an enthusiastic contemporary, "seemed to laugh with +ladies' eyes." The market-place was filled with waxen torches and with +blazing tar barrels, while in its centre stood the giant Antigonus-- +founder of the city thirteen hundred years before the Christian era--the +fabulous personage who was accustomed to throw the right hands of all +smuggling merchants into the Scheld. This colossal individual, attired +in a "surcoat of sky-blue," and holding a banner emblazoned with the arms +of Spain, turned its head as the Duke entered the square, saluted the new +sovereign, and then dropping the Spanish scutcheon upon the ground, +raised aloft another bearing the arms of Anjou. + +And thus, amid exuberant outpouring of confidence, another lord and +master had made his triumphal entrance into the Netherlands. Alas how +often had this sanguine people greeted with similar acclamations the +advent of their betrayers and their tyrants! How soon were they to +discover that the man whom they were thus receiving with the warmest +enthusiasm was the most treacherous tyrant of all. + +It was nightfall before the procession at last reached the palace of +Saint Michael, which had been fitted up for the temporary reception of +the Duke. The next day was devoted to speech-making; various deputations +waiting upon the new Duke of Brabant with congratulatory addresses. The +Grand Pensionary delivered a pompous oration upon a platform hung with +sky-blue silk, and carpeted with cloth of gold. A committee of the +German and French Reformed Churches made a long harangue, in which they +expressed the hope that the Lord would make the Duke "as valiant as +David, as wise as Solomon, and as pious as Hezekiah." A Roman Catholic +deputation informed his Highness that for eight months the members of the +Ancient Church had been forbidden all religious exercises, saving +baptism, marriage, visitation of the sick, and burials. A promise was +therefore made that this prohibition, which had been the result of the +disturbances recorded in a preceding chapter, should be immediately +modified, and on the 15th of March, accordingly, it was arranged, by +command of the magistrates, that all Catholics should have permission to +attend public worship, according to the ancient ceremonial, in the church +of Saint Michael, which had been originally designated for the use of the +new Duke of Brabant. It was, however, stipulated that all who desired to +partake of this privilege should take the oath of abjuration beforehand, +and go to the church without arms. + +Here then had been oaths enough, orations enough, compliments enough, to +make any agreement steadfast, so far as windy suspirations could furnish +a solid foundation for the social compact. Bells, trumpets, and the +brazen throats of men and of cannons had made a sufficient din, torches +and tar-barrels had made a sufficient glare, to confirm--so far as noise +and blazing pitch could confirm--the decorous proceedings of church and +town-house, but time was soon to show the value of such demonstrations. +Meantime, the "muzzle" had been fastened with solemnity and accepted with +docility. The terms of the treaty concluded at Plessis lea Tours and +Bordeaux were made public. The Duke had subscribed to twenty-seven +articles; which made as stringent and sensible a constitutional compact +as could be desired by any Netherland patriot. These articles, taken in +connection with the ancient charters which they expressly upheld, left to +the new sovereign no vestige of arbitrary power. He was merely the +hereditary president of a representative republic. He was to be Duke, +Count, Margrave, or Seignior of the different provinces on the same terms +which his predecessors had accepted. He was to transmit the dignities to +his children. If there were more than one child, the provinces were to +select one of the number for their sovereign. He was to maintain all the +ancient privileges, charters, statutes, and customs, and to forfeit his +sovereignty at the first violation. He was to assemble the states- +general at least once a year. He was always to reside in the +Netherlands. He was to permit none but natives to hold office. His +right of appointment to all important posts was limited to a selection +from three candidates, to be proposed by the estates of the province +concerned, at each vacancy. He was to maintain "the Religion" and the +religious peace in the same state in which they then were, or as should +afterwards be ordained by the estates of each province, without making +any innovation on his own part. Holland and Zealand were to remain as +they were, both in the matter of religion and otherwise. His Highness +was not to permit that any one should be examined or molested in his +house, or otherwise, in the matter or under pretext of religion. He was +to procure the assistance of the King of France for the Netherlands. +He was to maintain a perfect and a perpetual league, offensive and +defensive, between that kingdom and the provinces; without; however, +permitting any incorporation of territory. He was to carry on the war +against Spain with his own means and those furnished by his royal +brother, in addition to a yearly, contribution by the estates of two +million four hundred thousand guldens. He was to dismiss all troops at +command of the states-general. He was to make no treaty with Spain +without their consent. + +It would be superfluous to point out the great difference between the +notions entertained upon international law in the sixteenth century and +in our own. A state of nominal peace existed between Spain, France and +England; yet here was the brother of the French monarch, at the head of +French troops, and attended by the grandees of England solemnly accepting +the sovereignty over the revolted provinces of Spain. It is also curious +to observe that the constitutional compact, by which the new sovereign +of the Netherlands was admitted to the government, would have been +repudiated as revolutionary and republican by the monarchs of France or +England, if an attempt had been made to apply it to their own realms, for +the ancient charters--which in reality constituted a republican form of +government--had all been re-established by the agreement with Anjou. The +first-fruits of the ban now began to display themselves. Sunday, 18th of +March, 1582, was the birthday of the Duke of Anjou, and a great festival +had been arranged, accordingly, for the evening, at the palace of Saint +Michael, the Prince of Orange as well as all the great French lords being +of course invited. The Prince dined, as usual, at his house in the +neighbourhood of the citadel, in company with the Counts Hohenlo and +Laval, and the two distinguished French commissioners, Bonnivet and Des +Pruneaux. Young Maurice of Nassau, and two nephews of the Prince, sons +of his brother John, were also present at table. During dinner the +conversation was animated, many stories being related of the cruelties +which had been practised by the Spaniards in the provinces. On rising +from the table, Orange led the way from the dining room to his own +apartments, showing the noblemen in his company as he passed along, +a piece of tapestry upon which some Spanish soldiers were represented. +At this moment, as he stood upon the threshold of the ante-chamber, a +youth of small stature, vulgar mien, and pale dark complexion, appeared +from among the servants and offered him a petition. He took the paper, +and as he did so, the stranger suddenly drew a pistol and discharged it +at the head of the Prince. The ball entered the neck under the right +ear, passed through the roof of the mouth, and came out under the left +jaw-bone, carrying with it two teeth. The pistol had been held so near, +that the hair and beard of the Prince were set on fire by the discharge. +He remained standing, but blinded, stunned, and for a moment entirely +ignorant of what had occurred. As he afterwards observed, he thought +perhaps that a part of the house had suddenly fallen. Finding very soon +that his hair and beard were burning, he comprehended what had occurred; +and called out quickly, "Do not kill him--I forgive him my death!" and +turning to the French noblemen present, he added, "Alas! what a faithful +servant does his Highness lose in me!" + +These were his first words, spoken when, as all believed, he had been +mortally wounded. The, message of mercy came, however, too late; for two +of the gentlemen present, by an irresistible impulse, had run the +assassin through with their rapiers. The halberdiers rushed upon him +immediately after wards, so that he fell pierced in thirty-two vital +places. The Prince, supported by his friends, walked to his chamber, +where he was put to bed, while the surgeons examined and bandaged the +wound. It was most dangerous in appearance, but a very strange +circumstance gave more hope than could otherwise have been entertained. +The flame from the pistol had been so close that it had actually +cauterized the wound inflicted by the ball. But for this, it was +supposed that the flow of blood from the veins which had been shot +through would have proved fatal before the wound could be dressed. The +Prince, after the first shock, had recovered full possession of his +senses, and believing himself to be dying, he expressed the most +unaffected sympathy for the condition in which the Duke of Anjou would be +placed by his death. "Alas, poor Prince!" he cried frequently; "alas, +what troubles will now beset thee!" The surgeons enjoined and implored +his silence, as speaking might cause the wound to prove immediately +fatal. He complied, but wrote incessantly. As long as his heart could +beat, it was impossible for him not to be occupied with his country. + +Lion Petit, a trusty Captain of the city guard, forced his way to the +chamber, it being, absolutely necessary, said the honest burgher, for him +to see with his own eyes that the Prince was living, and report the fact +to the townspeople otherwise, so great was the excitement, it was +impossible to say what might be the result. It was in fact believed that +the Prince was already dead, and it was whispered that he had been +assassinated by the order of Anjou. This horrible suspicion was flying +through the city, and producing a fierce exasperation, as men talked of +the murder of Coligny, of Saint Bartholomew, of the murderous +propensities of the Valois race. Had the attempt taken place in the +evening, at the birth-night banquet of Anjou, a horrible massacre would +have been the inevitable issue. As it happened, however, circumstances +soon, occurred to remove, the suspicion from the French, and to indicate +the origin of the crime. Meantime, Captain Petit was urged by the +Prince, in writing, to go forth instantly with the news that he yet +survived, but to implore the people, in case God should call him to +Himself, to hold him in kind remembrance, to make no tumult, and to serve +the Duke obediently and faithfully. + +Meantime, the youthful Maurice of Nassau was giving proof of that cool +determination which already marked his character. It was natural that a +boy of fifteen should be somewhat agitated at seeing such a father shot +through the head before his eyes. His situation was rendered doubly +grave by the suspicions which were instantly engendered as to the +probable origin of the attempt. It was already whispered in the hall +that the gentlemen who had been so officious in slaying the assassin, +were his accomplices, who--upon the principle that dead men would tell no +tales--were disposed, now that the deed was done, to preclude +inconvenient revelations as to their own share in the crime. Maurice, +notwithstanding these causes for perturbation, and despite his grief at +his father's probable death, remained steadily by the body of the +murderer. He was determined, if possible, to unravel the plot, and he +waited to possess himself of all papers and other articles which might +be found upon the person of the deceased. + +A scrupulous search was at once made by the attendants, and everything +placed in the young Count's own hands. This done, Maurice expressed a +doubt lest some of the villain's accomplices might attempt to take the +articles from him, whereupon a faithful old servant of his father came +forward, who with an emphatic expression of the importance of securing +such important documents, took his young master under his cloak, and led +him to a retired apartment of the house. Here, after a rapid +examination, it was found that the papers were all in Spanish, written +by Spaniards to Spaniards, so that it was obvious that the conspiracy, +if one there were, was not a French conspiracy. The servant, therefore, +advised Maurice to go to his father, while he would himself instantly +descend to the hall with this important intelligence. Count Hohenlo had, +from the instant of the murder, ordered the doors to be fastened, and had +permitted no one to enter or to leave the apartment without his +permission. The information now brought by the servant as to the +character of the papers caused great relief to the minds of all; for, +till that moment, suspicion had even lighted upon men who were the firm +friends of the Prince. + +Saint Aldegonde, who had meantime arrived, now proceeded, in company of +the other gentlemen, to examine the papers and other articles taken from +the assassin. The pistol with which he had done the deed was lying upon +the floor; a naked poniard, which he would probably have used also, had +his thumb not been blown off by the discharge of the pistol, was found in +his trunk hose. In his pockets were an Agnus Dei, a taper of green wax, +two bits of hareskin, two dried toads--which were supposed to be +sorcerer's charms--a, crucifix, a Jesuit catechism, a prayer-book, +a pocket-book containing two Spanish bills of exchange--one for two +thousand, and one for eight hundred and seventy-seven crowns--and a +set of writing tablets. These last were covered with vows and pious +invocations, in reference to the murderous affair which the writer had in +hand. He had addressed fervent prayers to the Virgin Mary, to the Angel +Gabriel, to the Saviour, and to the Saviour's Son" as if, "says the +Antwerp chronicler, with simplicity, "the Lord Jesus had a son"--that +they might all use their intercession with the Almighty towards the +certain and safe accomplishment of the contemplated deed. Should he come +off successful and unharmed, he solemnly vowed to fast a week on bread +and water. Furthermore, he promised to Christ a "new coat of costly +pattern;" to the Mother of God, at Guadalupe, a new gown; to Our Lady of +Montserrat, a crown, a gown, and a lamp; and so on through along list of +similar presents thus contemplated for various Shrines. The poor +fanatical fool had been taught by deeper villains than himself that his +pistol was to rid the world of a tyrant, and to open his own pathway to +Heaven, if his career should be cut short on earth. To prevent so +undesirable a catastrophe to himself, however, his most natural +conception had been to bribe the whole heavenly host, from the Virgin +Mary downwards, for he had been taught that absolution for murder was to +be bought and sold like other merchandise. He had also been persuaded +that, after accomplishing the deed, he would become invisible. + +Saint Aldegonde hastened to lay the result of this examination before +the Duke of Anjou. Information was likewise instantly conveyed to the +magistrates at the Town House, and these measures were successful in +restoring confidence throughout the city as to the intentions of the new +government. Anjou immediately convened the State Council, issued a +summons for an early meeting of the states-general, and published a +proclamation that all persons having information to give concerning the +crime which had just been committed, should come instantly forward, upon +pain of death. The body of the assassin was forthwith exposed upon the +public square, and was soon recognized as that of one Juan Jaureguy, a +servant in the employ of Gaspar d'Anastro, a Spanish merchant of Antwerp. +The letters and bills of exchange had also, on nearer examination at the +Town House, implicated Anastro in the affair. His house was immediately +searched, but the merchant had taken his departure, upon the previous +Tuesday, under pretext of pressing affairs at Calais. His cashier, +Venero, and a Dominican friar, named Antony Zimmermann, both inmates of +his family, were, however, arrested upon suspicion. On the following day +the watch stationed at the gate carried the foreign post-bags, as soon as +they arrived, to the magistracy, when letters were found from Anastro to +Venero, which made the affair quite plain. After they had been +thoroughly studied, they were shown to Venero, who, seeing himself thus +completely ruined, asked for pen and ink, and wrote a full confession. + +It appeared that the crime was purely a commercial speculation on the +part of Anastro. That merchant, being on the verge of bankruptcy, had +entered with Philip into a mutual contract, which the King had signed +with his hand and sealed with his seal, and according to which Anastro, +within a certain period, was to take the life of William of Orange, and +for so doing was to receive eighty thousand ducats, and the cross of +Santiago. To be a knight companion of Spain's proudest order of chivalry +was the guerdon, over and above the eighty thousand pieces of silver, +which Spain's monarch promised the murderer, if he should succeed. As +for Anastro himself, he was too frugal and too wary to risk his own life, +or to lose much of the premium. With, tears streaming down his cheeks, +he painted to his faithful cashier the picture which his master would +present, when men should point at him and say, "Behold yon bankrupt!" +protesting, therefore, that he would murder Orange and secure the reward, +or perish in the attempt. Saying this, he again shed many tears. +Venero, seeing his master thus disconsolate, wept bitterly likewise; and +begged him not to risk his own precious life. After this pathetic +commingling of their grief, the merchant and his book-keeper became more +composed, and it was at last concerted between them that John Jaureguy +should be entrusted with the job. Anastro had intended--as he said in a +letter afterwards intercepted--"to accomplish the deed with his own hand; +but, as God had probably reserved him for other things, and particularly +to be of service to his very affectionate friends, he had thought best to +entrust the execution of the design to his servant." The price paid by +the master to the man, for the work, seems to have been but two thousand +eight hundred and seventy-seven crowns. The cowardly and crafty +principal escaped. He had gone post haste to Dunkirk, pretending that +the sudden death of his agent in Calais required his immediate presence +in that city. Governor Sweveseel, of Dunkirk, sent an orderly to get a +passport for him from La Motte, commanding at Gravelingen. Anastro being +on tenter-hooks lest the news should arrive that the projected murder had +been consummated before he had crossed the border, testified extravagant +joy on the arrival of the passport, and gave the messenger who brought it +thirty pistoles. Such conduct naturally excited a vague suspicion in the +mind of the governor, but the merchant's character was good, and he had +brought pressing letters from Admiral Treslong. Sweveseel did not dare +to arrest him without cause, and he neither knew that any crime had been +committed; nor that the man before him was the criminal. Two hours after +the traveller's departure, the news arrived of the deed, together with +orders to arrest Anastro, but it was too late. The merchant had found +refuge within the lines of Parma. + +Meanwhile, the Prince lay in a most critical condition. Believing that +his end was fast approaching; he dictated letters to the states-general, +entreating them to continue in their obedience to the Duke, than whom he +affirmed that he knew no better prince for the government of the +provinces. These letters were despatched by Saint Aldegonde to the +assembly, from which body a deputation, in obedience to the wishes of +Orange, was sent to Anjou, with expressions of condolence and fidelity. + +On Wednesday a solemn fast was held, according to proclamation, in +Antwerp, all work and all amusements being prohibited, and special +prayers commanded in all the churches for the recovery of the Prince. +"Never, within men's memory," says an account published at the moment, +in Antwerp, "had such crowds been seen in the churches, nor so many tears +been shed." + +The process against Venero and Zimmermann was rapidly carried through, +for both had made a full confession of their share in the crime. The +Prince had enjoined from his sick bed, however, that the case should be +conducted with strict regard to justice, and, when the execution could no +longer be deferred, he had sent a written request, by the hands of Saint +Aldegonde, that they should be put to death in the least painful manner. +The request was complied with, but there can be no doubt that the +criminals, had it not been made, would have expiated their offence by the +most lingering tortures. Owing to the intercession of the man who was to +have been their victim, they were strangled, before being quartered, upon +a scaffold erected in the market-place, opposite the Town House. This +execution took place on Wednesday, the 28th of March. + +The Prince, meanwhile, was thought to be mending, and thanksgivings began +to be mingled with the prayers offered almost every hour in the churches; +but for eighteen days he lay in a most precarious state. His wife hardly +left his bedside, and his sister, Catharine Countess of Schwartzburg, was +indefatigable in her attentions. The Duke of Anjou visited him daily, +and expressed the most filial anxiety for his recovery, but the hopes, +which had been gradually growing stronger, were on the 5th of April +exchanged for the deepest apprehensions. Upon that day the cicatrix by +which the flow of blood from the neck had been prevented, almost from the +first infliction of the wound, fell off. The veins poured forth a vast +quantity of blood; it seemed impossible to check the haemorrhage, and all +hope appeared to vanish. The Prince resigned himself to his fate, and +bade his children "good night for ever," saying calmly, "it is now all +over with me." + +It was difficult, without suffocating the patient, to fasten a bandage +tightly enough to staunch the wound, but Leonardo Botalli, of Asti, body +physician of Anjou, was nevertheless fortunate enough to devise a simple +mechanical expedient, which proved successful. By his advice; a +succession of attendants, relieving each other day and night, prevented +the flow of blood by keeping the orifice of the wound slightly but firmly +compressed with the thumb. After a period of anxious expectation, +the wound again closed; and by the end of the month the Prince was +convalescent. On the 2nd of May he went to offer thanksgiving in the +Great Cathedral, amid the joyful sobs of a vast and most earnest throng. + +The Prince, was saved, but unhappily the murderer had yet found an +illustrious victim. The Princess of Orange; Charlotte de Bourbon--the +devoted wife who for seven years, had so faithfully shared his joys and +sorrows--lay already on her death-bed. Exhausted by anxiety, long +watching; and the alternations of hope and fear during the first eighteen +days, she had been prostrated by despair at the renewed haemorrhage. A +violent fever seized her, under which she sank on the 5th of May, three +days after the solemn thanksgiving for her husband's recovery. The +Prince, who loved her tenderly, was in great danger of relapse upon the +sad event, which, although not sudden, had not been anticipated. She was +laid in her grave on the 9th of May, amid the lamentations of the whole +country, for her virtues were universally known and cherished. She +was a woman of rare intelligence, accomplishment, and gentleness of +disposition; whose only offence had been to break, by her marriage, the +Church vows to which she had been forced in her childhood, but which had +been pronounced illegal by competent authority, both ecclesiastical and +lay. For this, and for the contrast which her virtues afforded to the +vices of her predecessor, she was the mark of calumny and insult. These +attacks, however, had cast no shadow upon the serenity of her married +life, and so long as she lived she was the trusted companion and consoler +of her husband. "His Highness," wrote Count John in 1580, "is in +excellent health, and, in spite of adversity, incredible labor, +perplexity, and dangers, is in such good spirits that, it makes me happy +to witness it. No doubt a chief reason is the consolation he derives +from the pious and highly-intelligent wife whom, the Lord has given him +--a woman who ever conforms to his wishes, and is inexpressibly dear to +him." + +The Princess left six daughters--Louisa Juliana, Elizabeth, Catharina +Belgica, Flandrina, Charlotta Brabantica, and Emilia Secunda. + +Parma received the first intelligence of the attempt from the mouth of +Anastro himself, who assured him that the deed had been entirely +successful, and claimed the promised reward. + +Alexander, in consequence, addressed circular letters to the authorities +of Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, and other cities, calling upon them, now +that they had been relieved of their tyrant and their betrayer, to return +again to the path of their duty and to the ever open arms of their lawful +monarch. These letters were premature. On the other hand, the states of +Holland and Zealand remained in permanent session, awaiting with extreme +anxiety the result of the Prince's wound. "With the death of his +Excellency, if God should please to take him to himself," said the +magistracy of Leyden, "in the death of the Prince we all foresee our own +death." It was, in truth, an anxious moment, and the revulsion of +feeling consequent on his recovery was proportionately intense. + +In consequence of the excitement produced by this event, it was no longer +possible for the Prince to decline accepting the countship of Holland and +Zealand, which he had refused absolutely two years before, and which he +had again rejected, except for a limited period, in the year 1581. It +was well understood, as appears by the treaty with Anjou, and afterwards +formally arranged, "that the Duke was never, to claim sovereignty over +Holland and Zealand," and the offer of the sovereign countship of Holland +was again made to the Prince of Orange in most urgent terms. It will be +recollected that he had accepted the sovereignty on the 5th of July, +1581, only for the term of the war. In a letter, dated Bruges, 14th of +August, 1582, he accepted the dignity without limitation. This offer and +acceptance, however, constituted but the preliminaries, for it was +further necessary that the letters of "Renversal" should be drawn up, +that they should be formally delivered, and that a new constitution +should be laid down, and confirmed by mutual oaths. After these steps +had been taken, the ceremonious inauguration or rendering of homage was +to be celebrated. + +All these measures were duly arranged, except the last. The installation +of the new Count of Holland was prevented by his death, and the northern +provinces remained a Republic, not only in fact but in name. + +In political matters; the basis of the new constitution was the "Great +Privilege" of the Lady Mary, the Magna Charta of the country. That +memorable monument in the history of the Netherlands and of municipal +progress had, been overthrown by Mary's son, with the forced acquiescence +of the states, and it was therefore stipulated by the new article, that +even such laws and privileges as had fallen into disuse should be +revived. It was furthermore provided that the little state should be a +free Countship, and should thus silently sever its connexion with the +Empire. + +With regard to the position of the Prince, as hereditary chief of the +little commonwealth, his actual power was rather diminished than +increased by his new dignity. What was his position at the moment? +He was sovereign during the war, on the general basis of the authority +originally bestowed upon him by the King's commission of stadholder. +In 1581, his Majesty had been abjured and the stadholder had become +sovereign. He held in his hands the supreme power, legislative, +judicial, executive. The Counts of Holland--and Philip as their +successor--were the great fountains of that triple stream. Concessions +and exceptions had become so extensive; no doubt, that the provincial +charters constituted a vast body of "liberties" by which the whole +country was reasonably well supplied. At the same time, all the power +not expressly granted away remained in the breast of the Count. If +ambition, then, had been William's ruling principle, he had exchanged +substance for shadow, for the new state now constituted was a free +commonwealth--a republic in all but name. + +By the new constitution he ceased to be the source of governmental life, +or to derive his own authority from above by right divine. The sacred +oil which had flowed from Charles the Simple's beard was dried up. +Orange's sovereignty was from the estates; as legal representatives of +the people; and, instead of exercising all the powers not otherwise +granted away, he was content with those especially conferred upon him. +He could neither declare war nor conclude peace without the co-operation +of the representative body. The appointing power was scrupulously +limited. Judges, magistrates, governors, sheriffs, provincial and +municipal officers, were to be nominated by the local authorities or by +the estates, on the triple principle. From these triple nominations he +had only the right of selection by advice and consent of his council. +He was expressly enjoined to see that the law was carried to every man's +door, without any distinction of persons; to submit himself to its +behests, to watch against all impedimenta to the even flow of justice, to +prevent false imprisonments, and to secure trials for every accused +person by the local tribunals. This was certainly little in accordance +with the arbitrary practice of the past quarter of a century. + +With respect to the great principle of taxation, stricter bonds even were +provided than those which already existed. Not only the right of +taxation remained with the states, but the Count was to see that, except +for war purposes, every impost was levied by a unanimous vote. He was +expressly forbidden to tamper with the currency. As executive head, save +in his capacity as Commander-in-chief by land or sea, the new sovereign +was, in short, strictly limited by self-imposed laws. It had rested with +him to dictate or to accept a constitution. He had in his memorable +letter of August, 1582, from Bruges, laid down generally the articles +prepared at Plessia and Bourdeaux, for Anjou-together with all applicable +provisions of the Joyous Entry of Brabant--as the outlines of the +constitution for the little commonwealth then forming in the north. To +these provisions he was willing to add any others which, after ripe +deliberation, might be thought beneficial to the country. + +Thus limited were his executive functions. As to his judicial authority +it had ceased to exist. The Count of Holland was now the guardian of the +laws, but the judges were to administer them. He held the sword of +justice to protect and to execute, while the scales were left in the +hands which had learned to weigh and to measure. + +As to the Count's legislative authority, it had become coordinate with, +if not subordinate to, that of the representative body. He was strictly +prohibited from interfering with the right of the separate or the general +states to assemble as often as they should think proper; and he was also +forbidden to summon them outside their own territory. This was one +immense step in the progress of representative liberty, and the next was +equally important. It was now formally stipulated that the estates were +to deliberate upon all measures which "concerned justice and polity," and +that no change was to be made--that is to say, no new law was to pass +without their consent as well as that of the council. Thus, the +principle was established of two legislative chambers, with the right, +but not the exclusive right, of initiation on the part of government, and +in the sixteenth century one would hardly look for broader views of civil +liberty and representative government. The foundation of a free +commonwealth was thus securely laid, which had William lived, would have +been a representative monarchy, but which his death converted into a +federal republic. It was necessary for the sake of unity to give a +connected outline of these proceedings with regard to the sovereignty of +Orange. The formal inauguration, only remained, and this, as will be +seen, was for ever interrupted. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Character of brave men to act, not to expect +Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two" +God has given absolute power to no mortal man +Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation +Natural to judge only by the result +No authority over an army which they did not pay +Unduly dejected in adversity + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1580-82 *** + +******** This file should be named 4833.txt or 4833.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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