TO THE RENUNCIATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SPAIN AND THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE
A.D. 1576--1580
On the very day of the sack of Antwerp, Don John of Austria arrived
at Luxemburg. This ominous commencement of his viceregal reign
was not belied by the events which followed; and the hero of
Lepanto, the victor of the Turks, the idol of Christendom, was
destined to have his reputation and well-won laurels tarnished in
the service of the insidious despotism to which he now became an
instrument. Don John was a natural son of Charles V., and to fine
talents and a good disposition united the advantages of hereditary
courage and a liberal education. He was born at Ratisbon on the
24th of February, 1543. His reputed mother was a young lady of
that place named Barbara Blomberg; but one historian states that
the real parent was of a condition too elevated to have her rank
betrayed; and that, to conceal the mystery, Barbara Blomberg had
voluntarily assumed the distinction, or the dishonor, according
to the different constructions put upon the case. The prince,
having passed through France, disguised, for greater secrecy or
in a youthful frolic, as a negro valet to Prince Octavo Gonzaga,
entered on the limits of his new government, and immediately
wrote to the council of state in the most condescending terms to
announce his arrival.
Nothing could present a less promising aspect to the prince than
the country at the head of which he was now placed. He found all
its provinces, with the sole exception of Luxemburg, in the anarchy
attendant on a ten years' civil war, and apparently resolved on
a total breach of their allegiance to Spain. He found his best,
indeed his only, course to be that of moderation and management;
and it is most probable that at the outset his intentions were
really honorable and candid.
The states-general were not less embarrassed than the prince.
His sudden arrival threw them into great perplexity, which was
increased by the conciliatory tone of his letter. They had now
removed from Ghent to Brussels; and first sending deputies to
pay the honors of a ceremonious welcome to Don John, they wrote
to the Prince of Orange, then in Holland, for his advice in this
difficult conjuncture. The prince replied by a memorial of
considerable length, dated Middleburg, the 30th of November, in
which he gave them the most wise and prudent advice; the substance
of which was to receive any propositions coming from the wily
and perfidious Philip with the utmost suspicion, and to refuse
all negotiation with his deputy, if the immediate withdrawal of
the foreign troops was not at once conceded, and the acceptance
of the Pacification guaranteed in its most ample extent.
This advice was implicitly followed; the states in the meantime
taking the precaution of assembling a large body of troops at
Wavre, between Brussels and Namur, the command of which was given
to the count of Lalain. A still more important measure was the
despatch of an envoy to England, to implore the assistance of
Elizabeth. She acted on this occasion with frankness and intrepidity;
giving a distinguished reception to the envoy, De Sweveghem, and
advancing a loan of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, on
condition that the states made no treaty without her knowledge
or participation.
To secure still more closely the federal union that now bound the
different provinces, a new compact was concluded by the deputies
on the 9th of January, 1577, known by the title of The Union of
Brussels, and signed by the prelates, ecclesiastics, lords,
gentlemen, magistrates, and others, representing the estates of
the Netherlands. A copy of this act of union was transmitted to
Don John, to enable him thoroughly to understand the present state
of feeling among those with whom he was now about to negotiate.
He maintained a general tone of great moderation throughout the
conference which immediately took place; and after some months
of cautious parleying, in the latter part of which the candor
of the prince seemed doubtful, and which the native historians
do not hesitate to stigmatize as merely assumed, a treaty was
signed at Marche-en-Famenne, a place between Namur and Luxemburg,
in which every point insisted on by the states was, to the surprise
and delight of the nation, fully consented to and guaranteed.
This important document is called The Perpetual Edict, bears
date the 12th of February, 1577, and contains nineteen articles.
They were all based on the acceptance of the Pacification; but
one expressly stipulated that the count of Beuren should be set
at liberty as soon as the Prince of Orange, his father, had on
his part ratified the treaty.
Don John made his solemn entry into Brussels on the 1st of May,
and assumed the functions of his limited authority. The conditions
of the treaty were promptly and regularly fulfilled. The citadels
occupied by the Spanish soldiers were given up to the Flemish and
Walloon troops; and the departure of these ferocious foreigners
took place at once. The large sums required to facilitate this
measure made it necessary to submit for a while to the presence
of the German mercenaries. But Don John's conduct soon destroyed
the temporary delusion which had deceived the country. Whether
his projects were hitherto only concealed, or that they were
now for the first time excited by the disappointment of those
hopes of authority held out to him by Philip, and which his
predecessors had shared, it is certain that he very early displayed
his ambition, and very imprudently attempted to put it in force.
He at once demanded from the council of state the command of
the troops and the disposal of the revenues. The answer was a
simple reference to the Pacification of Ghent; and the prince's
rejoinder was an apparent submission, and the immediate despatch
of letters in cipher to the king, demanding a supply of troops
sufficient to restore his ruined authority. These letters were
intercepted by the king of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. of France,
who immediately transmitted them to the Prince of Orange, his
old friend and fellow-soldier.
Public opinion, to the suspicions of which Don John had been
from the first obnoxious, was now unanimous in attributing to
design all that was unconstitutional and unfair. His impetuous
character could no longer submit to the restraint of dissimulation,
and he resolved to take some bold and decided measure. A very
favorable opportunity was presented in the arrival of the queen
of Navarre, Marguerite of Valois, at Namur, on her way to Spa.
The prince, numerously attended, hastened to the former town
under pretence of paying his respects to the queen. As soon as
she left the place, he repaired to the glacis of the town, as if
for the mere enjoyment of a walk, admired the external appearance
of the citadel, and expressed a desire to be admitted inside.
The young count of Berlaimont, in the absence of his father,
the governor of the place, and an accomplice in the plot with
Don John, freely admitted him. The prince immediately drew forth
a pistol, and exclaimed that "that was the first moment of his
government"; took possession of the place with his immediate
guard, and instantly formed them into a devoted garrison.
The Prince of Orange immediately made public the intercepted
letters; and, at the solicitation of the states-general, repaired
to Brussels; into which city he made a truly triumphant entry on
the 23d of September, and was immediately nominated governor,
protector or _ruward_ of Brabant--a dignity which had fallen
into disuse, but was revived on this occasion, and which was
little inferior in power to that of the dictators of Rome. His
authority, now almost unlimited, extended over every province
of the Netherlands, except Namur and Luxemburg, both of which
acknowledged Don John.
The first care of the liberated nation was to demolish the various
citadels rendered celebrated and odious by the excesses of the
Spaniards. This was done with an enthusiastic industry in which
every age and sex bore a part, and which promised well for liberty.
Among the ruins of that of Antwerp the statue of the duke of
Alva was discovered; dragged through the filthiest streets of
the town; and, with all the indignity so well merited by the
original, it was finally broken into a thousand pieces.
The country, in conferring such extensive powers on the Prince
of Orange, had certainly gone too far, not for his desert, but
for its own tranquillity. It was impossible that such an elevation
should not excite the discontent and awaken the enmity of the
haughty aristocracy of Flanders and Brabant; and particularly
of the House of Croi, the ancient rivals of that of Nassau. The
then representative of that family seemed the person most suited
to counterbalance William's excessive power. The duke of Arschot
was therefore named governor of Flanders; and he immediately put
himself at the head of a confederacy of the Catholic party, which
quickly decided to offer the chief government of the country,
still in the name of Philip, to the archduke Mathias, brother of
the emperor Rodolf II., and cousin-german to Philip of Spain, a
youth but nineteen years of age. A Flemish gentleman named Maelsted
was intrusted with the proposal. Mathias joyously consented;
and, quitting Vienna with the greatest secrecy, he arrived at
Maestricht, without any previous announcement, and expected only
by the party that had invited him, at the end of October, 1577.
The Prince of Orange, instead of showing the least symptom of
dissatisfaction at this underhand proceeding aimed at his personal
authority, announced his perfect approval of the nomination, and
was the foremost in recommending measures for the honor of the
archduke and the security of the country. He drew up the basis of
a treaty for Mathias's acceptance, on terms which guaranteed to the
council of state and the states-general the virtual sovereignty,
and left to the young prince little beyond the fine title which
had dazzled his boyish vanity. The Prince of Orange was appointed
his lieutenant, in all the branches of the administration, civil,
military, or financial; and the duke of Arschot, who had hoped
to obtain an entire domination over the puppet he had brought
upon the stage, saw himself totally foiled in his project, and
left without a chance or a pretext for the least increase to
his influence.
But a still greater disappointment attended this ambitious nobleman
in the very stronghold of his power. The Flemings, driven by
persecution to a state of fury almost unnatural, had, in their
antipathy to Spain, adopted a hatred against Catholicism, which had
its source only in political frenzy, while the converts imagined it
to arise from reason and conviction. Two men had taken advantage
of this state of the public mind and gained over it an unbounded
ascendency. They were Francis de Kethulle, lord of Ryhove, and
John Hembyse, who each seemed formed to realize the beau-ideal
of a factious demagogue. They had acquired supreme power over
the people of Ghent, and had at their command a body of twenty
thousand resolute and well-armed supporters. The duke of Arschot
vainly attempted to oppose his authority to that of these men;
and he on one occasion imprudently exclaimed that "he would have
them hanged, even though they were protected by the Prince of
Orange himself." The same night Ryhove summoned the leaders of
his bands; and quickly assembling a considerable force, they
repaired to the duke's hotel, made him prisoner, and, without
allowing him time to dress, carried him away in triumph. At the
same time the bishops of Bruges and Ypres, the high bailiffs of
Ghent and Courtrai, the governor of Oudenarde, and other important
magistrates, were arrested--accused of complicity with the duke,
but of what particular offence the lawless demagogues did not
deign to specify. The two tribunes immediately divided the whole
honors and authority of administration; Ryhove as military, and
Hembyse as civil, chief.
The latter of these legislators completely changed the forms
of the government; he revived the ancient privileges destroyed
by Charles V., and took all preliminary measures for forcing the
various provinces to join with the city of Ghent in forming a
federative republic. The states-general and the Prince of Orange
were alarmed, lest these troubles might lead to a renewal of
the anarchy from the effects of which the country had but just
obtained breathing-time. Ryhove consented, at the remonstrance
of the Prince of Orange, to release the duke of Arschot; but
William was obliged to repair to Ghent in person, in the hope
of establishing order. He arrived on the 29th of December, and
entered on a strict inquiry with his usual calmness and decision.
He could not succeed in obtaining the liberty of the other prisoners,
though he pleaded for them strongly. Having severely reprimanded
the factious leaders, and pointed out the dangers of their illegal
course, he returned to Brussels, leaving the factious city in a
temporary tranquillity which his firmness and discretion could
alone have obtained.
The archduke Mathias, having visited Antwerp, and acceded to
all the conditions required of him, made his public entry into
Brussels on the 18th of January, 1578, and was installed in his
dignity of governor-general amid the usual fetes and rejoicings.
Don John of Austria was at the same time declared an enemy to
the country, with a public order to quit it without delay; and
a prohibition was issued against any inhabitant acknowledging
his forfeited authority.
War was now once more openly declared; some fruitless negotiations
having afforded a fair pretext for hostilities. The rapid appearance
of a numerous army under the orders of Don John gave strength to
the suspicions of his former dissimulation. It was currently
believed that large bodies of the Spanish troops had remained
concealed in the forests of Luxemburg and Lorraine; while several
regiments, which had remained in France in the service of the
League, immediately re-entered the Netherlands. Alexander Farnese,
prince of Parma, son of the former stadtholderess, came to the aid
of his uncle, Don John, at the head of a large force of Italians;
and these several reinforcements, with the German auxiliaries
still in the country, composed an army of twenty thousand men.
The army of the states-general was still larger; but far inferior
in point of discipline. It was commanded by Antoine de Goignies,
a gentleman of Hainault, and an old soldier of the school of
Charles V.
After a sharp affair at the village of Riminants, in which the
royalists had the worst, the two armies met at Gemblours, on the
31st of January, 1578; and the prince of Parma gained a complete
victory, almost with his cavalry only, taking De Goignies prisoner,
with the whole of his artillery and baggage. The account of his
victory is almost miraculous. The royalists, if we are to credit
their most minute but not impartial historian, had only one thousand
two hundred men engaged; by whom six thousand were put to the
sword, with the loss of but twelve men and little more than an
hour's labor.
The news of this battle threw the states into the utmost
consternation. Brussels being considered insecure, the archduke
Mathias and his council retired to Antwerp; but the victors did
not feel their forces sufficient to justify an attack upon the
capital. They, however, took Louvain, Tirlemont, and several other
towns; but these conquests were of little import in comparison with
the loss of Amsterdam, which declared openly and unanimously for
the patriot cause. The states-general recovered their courage, and
prepared for a new contest. They sent deputies to the diet of Worms,
to ask succor from the princes of the empire. The count palatine
John Casimir repaired to their assistance with a considerable
force of Germans and English, all equipped and paid by Queen
Elizabeth. The duke of Alençon, brother of Henry III. of France,
hovered on the frontiers of Hainault with a respectable army;
and the cause of liberty seemed not quite desperate.
But all the various chiefs had separate interests and opposite
views; while the fanatic violence of the people of Ghent sapped
the foundations of the pacification to which the town had given
its name. The Walloon provinces, deep-rooted in their attachment
to religious bigotry, which they loved still better than political
freedom, gradually withdrew from the common cause; and without yet
openly becoming reconciled with Spain, they adopted a neutrality
which was tantamount to it. Don John was, however, deprived of
all chance of reaping any advantage from these unfortunate
dissensions. He was suddenly taken ill in his camp at Bougy;
and died, after a fortnight's suffering, on the 1st of October,
1578, in the thirty-third year of his age.
This unlooked-for close to a career which had been so brilliant,
and to a life from which so much was yet to be expected, makes
us pause to consider for a moment the different opinions of his
times and of history on the fate of a personage so remarkable.
The contemporary Flemish memoirs say that he died of the plague;
those of Spain call his disorder the purple fever. The examination
of his corpse caused an almost general belief that he was poisoned.
"He lost his life," says one author, "with great suspicion of
poison." "Acabo su vida, con gran sospecho de veneno."--Herrera.
Another speaks of the suspicious state of his intestines, but
without any direct opinion. An English historian states the fact
of his being poisoned, without any reserve. Flemish writers do
not hesitate to attribute his murder to the jealousy of Philip
II., who, they assert, had discovered a secret treaty of marriage
about to be concluded between Don John and Elizabeth of England,
securing them the joint sovereignty of the Netherlands. An Italian
historian of credit asserts that this ambitious design was attributed
to the prince; and admits that his death was not considered as
having arisen from natural causes. "E quindi nacque l'opinione
dispersa allora, ch'egli mancasse di morte aiutata più tosto
che naturale."--Bentivoglio. It was also believed that Escovedo,
his confidential secretary, being immediately called back to
Spain, was secretly assassinated by Antonio Perez, Philip's
celebrated minister, and by the special orders of the king. Time
has, however, covered the affair with impenetrable mystery; and
the death of Don John was of little importance to the affairs
of the country he governed so briefly and so ingloriously, if
it be not that it added another motive to the natural hatred
for his assumed murderer.
The prince of Parma, who now succeeded, by virtue of Don John's
testament, to the post of governor-general in the name of the
king, remained intrenched in his camp. He expected much from
the disunion of his various opponents; and what he foresaw very
quickly happened. The duke of Alençon disbanded his troops and
retired to France; and the prince Palatine, following his example,
withdrew to Germany, having first made an unsuccessful attempt to
engage the queen of England as a principal in the confederacy. In
this perplexity, the Prince of Orange saw that the real hope for
safety was in uniting still more closely the northern provinces
of the union; for he discovered the fallacy of reckoning on the
cordial and persevering fidelity of the Walloons. He therefore
convoked a new assembly at Utrecht; and the deputies of Holland,
Guelders, Zealand, Utrecht, and Groningen, signed, on the 29th
of January, 1579, the famous act called the Union of Utrecht,
the real basis or fundamental pact of the republic of the United
Provinces. It makes no formal renunciation of allegiance to Spain,
but this is virtually done by the omission of the king's name.
The twenty-six articles of this act consolidate the indissoluble
connection of the United Provinces; each preserving its separate
franchises, and following its own good pleasure on the subject
of religion. The towns of Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, and Ypres,
soon after acceded to and joined the union.
The prince of Parma now assumed the offensive, and marched against
Maestricht with his whole army. He took the place in the month
of June, 1579, after a gallant resistance, and delivered it to
sack and massacre for three entire days. About the same time
Mechlin and Bois-le-duc returned to their obedience to the king.
Hembyse having renewed his attempts against the public peace at
Ghent, the Prince of Orange repaired to that place, re-established
order, frightened the inveterate demagogue into secret flight,
and Flanders was once more restored to tranquillity.
An attempt was made this year at a reconciliation between the
king and the states. The emperor Rodolf II. and Pope Gregory XIII.
offered their mediation; and on the 5th of April a congress assembled
at Cologne, where a number of the most celebrated diplomatists in
Europe were collected. But it was early seen that no settlement
would result from the apparently reciprocal wish for peace. One
point--that of religion, the main, and indeed the only one in
debate--was now maintained by Philip's ambassador in the same
unchristian spirit as if torrents of blood and millions of treasure
had never been sacrificed in the cause. Philip was inflexible in
his resolution never to concede the exercise of the reformed
worship; and after nearly a year of fruitless consultation, and
the expenditure of immense sums of money, the congress separated
on the 17th of November, without having effected anything. There
were several other articles intended for discussion, had the
main one been adjusted, on which Philip was fully as determined
to make no concession; but his obstinacy was not put to these
new tests.
The time had now arrived for the execution of the great and decisive
step for independence, the means of effecting which had been so
long the object of exertion and calculation on the part of the
Prince of Orange. He now resolved to assemble the states of the
United Provinces, solemnly abjure the dominion of Spain, and depose
King Philip from the sovereignty he had so justly forfeited. Much
has been written both for and against this measure, which involved
every argument of natural rights and municipal privilege. The
natural rights of man may seem to comprise only those which he
enjoys in a state of nature; but he carries several of those
with him into society, which is based upon the very principle of
their preservation. The great precedent which so many subsequent
revolutions have acknowledged and confirmed is that which we now
record. The states-general assembled at Antwerp early in the
year 1580; and, in spite of all the opposition of the Catholic
deputies, the authority of Spain was revoked forever, and the
United Provinces declared a free and independent state. At the
same time was debated the important question as to whether the
protection of the new state should be offered to England or to
France. Opinions were divided on this point; but that of the Prince
of Orange being in favor of the latter country, from many motives
of sound policy, it was decided to offer the sovereignty to the
duke of Alençon. The archduke Mathias, who was present at the
deliberations, was treated with little ceremony; but he obtained
the promise of a pension when the finances were in a situation to
afford it. The definite proposal to be made to the duke of Alençon
was not agreed upon for some months afterward; and it was in the
month of August following that St. Aldegonde and other deputies
waited on the duke at the chateau of Plessis-le-Tours, when he
accepted the offered sovereignty on the proposed conditions,
which set narrow bounds to his authority, and gave ample security
to the United Provinces. The articles were formally signed on the
29th day of September; and the duke not only promised quickly
to lead a numerous army to the Netherlands, but he obtained a
letter from his brother, Henry III., dated December 26th, by
which the king pledged himself to give further aid, as soon as
he might succeed in quieting his own disturbed and unfortunate
country. The states-general, assembled at Delft, ratified the
treaty on the 30th of December; and the year which was about to
open seemed to promise the consolidation of freedom and internal
peace.