This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[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, PG EDITION, VOLUME 8.
THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
1855
1563-1564 [CHAPTER IV.]
Joint letter to Philip, from Orange, Egmont, and Horn--Egmont's
quarrel with Aerschot and with Aremberg--Philip's answer to the
three nobles--His instructions to the Duchess--Egmont declines the
King's invitation to visit Spain--Second letter of the three
seigniors--Mission of Armenteros--Letter of Alva--Secret letters of
Granvelle to Philip--The Cardinal's insinuations and instructions--
His complaints as to the lukewarmness of Berghen and Montigny in the
cause of the inquisition--Anecdotes to their discredit privately
chronicled by Granvelle--Supposed necessity for the King's presence
in the provinces--Correspondence of Lazarus Schwendi--Approaching
crisis--Anxiety of Granvelle to retire--Banquet of Caspar Schetz--
Invention of the foolscap livery--Correspondence of the Duchess and
of the Cardinal with Philip upon the subject--Entire withdrawal of
the three seigniors from the state council--the King advises with
Alva concerning the recall of Granvelle--Elaborate duplicity of
Philip's arrangements--His secret note to the Cardinal--His
dissembling letters to others--Departure of Granvelle from the
Netherlands--Various opinions as to its cause--Ludicrous conduct of
Brederode and Hoogstraaten--Fabulous statements in Granvelle's
correspondence concerning his recall--Universal mystification--The
Cardinal deceived by the King--Granvelle in retirement--His
epicureanism--Fears in the provinces as to his return--Universal joy
at his departure--Representations to his discredit made by the
Duchess to Philip--Her hypocritical letters to the Cardinal--
Masquerade at Count Mansfeld's--Chantonnay's advice to his brother--
Review of Granvelle's administration and estimate of his character.
On the 11th March, 1563, Orange, Horn, and Egmont united in a remarkable
letter to the King. They said that as their longer "taciturnity" might
cause the ruin of his Majesty's affairs, they were at last compelled to
break silence. They hoped that the King would receive with benignity a
communication which was pure, frank, and free from all passion. The
leading personages of the province, they continued, having thoroughly
examined the nature and extent of Cardinal Granvelle's authority, had
arrived at the conclusion that every thing was in his hands. This
persuasion, they said, was rooted in the hearts of all his Majesty's
subjects, and particularly in their own, so deeply, that it could not be
eradicated as long as the Cardinal remained. The King was therefore
implored to consider the necessity of remedying the evil. The royal
affairs, it was affirmed, would never be successfully conducted so long
as they were entrusted to Granvelle, because he was so odious to so many
people. If the danger were not imminent, they should not feel obliged to
write to his Majesty with so much vehemence. It was, however, an affair
which allowed neither delay nor dissimulation. They therefore prayed the
King, if they had ever deserved credence in things of weight, to believe
them now. By so doing, his Majesty would avoid great mischief. Many
grand seigniors, governors, and others, had thought it necessary to give
this notice, in order that the King might prevent the ruin of the
country. If, however, his Majesty were willing, as they hoped, to avoid
discontenting all for the sake of satisfying one, it was possible that
affairs might yet prosper. That they might not be thought influenced by
ambition or by hope of private profit, the writers asked leave to retire
from the state council. Neither their reputation, they said, nor the
interests of the royal service would permit them to act with the
Cardinal. They professed themselves dutiful subjects and Catholic
vassals. Had it not been for the zeal of the leading seigniors, the
nobility, and other well-disposed persons, affairs would not at that
moment be so tranquil; the common people having been so much injured, and
the manner of life pursued by the Cardinal not being calculated to give
more satisfaction than was afforded by his unlimited authority. In
conclusion, the writers begged his Majesty not to throw the blame upon
them, if mischance should follow the neglect of this warning. This
memorable letter was signed by Guillaume, de Nassau, Lamoral d'Egmont,
and Philippes de Montmorency (Count Horn). It was despatched undercover
to Charles de Tisnacq, a Belgian, and procurator for the affairs of the
Netherlands at Madrid, a man whose relations with Count Egmont were of a
friendly character. It was impossible, however, to keep the matter a
secret from the person most interested. The Cardinal wrote to the King
the day before the letter was written, and many weeks before it was sent,
to apprize him that it was coming, and to instruct him as to the answer
he was to make. Nearly all the leading nobles and governors had adhered
to the substance of the letter, save the Duke of Aerschot, Count
Aremberg, and Baron Berlaymont. The Duke and Count had refused to join
the league; violent scenes having occurred upon the subject between them
and the leaders of the opposition party. Egmont, being with a large
shooting party at Aerschot's country place, Beaumont, had taken occasion
to urge the Duke to join in the general demonstration against the
Cardinal, arguing the matter in the rough, off-hand, reckless manner
which was habitual with him. His arguments offended the nobleman thus
addressed, who was vain and irascible. He replied by affirming that he
was a friend to Egmont, but would not have him for his master. He would
have nothing to do, he said, with their league against the Cardinal, who
had never given him cause of enmity. He had no disposition to dictate to
the King as to his choice of ministers, and his Majesty was quite right
to select his servants at his own pleasure. The Duke added that if the
seigniors did not wish him for a friend, it was a matter of indifference
to him. Not one of them was his superior; he had as large a band of
noble followers and friends as the best of them, and he had no
disposition to accept the supremacy of any nobleman in the land.
The conversation carried on in this key soon became a quarrel, and from
words the two gentlemen would soon have come to blows, but for the
interposition of Aremberg and Robles, who were present at the scene. The
Duchess of Parma, narrating the occurrence to the King, added that a duel
had been the expected result of the affair, but that the two nobles had
eventually been reconciled. It was characteristic of Aerschot that he
continued afterward to associate with the nobles upon friendly terms,
while maintaining an increased intimacy with the Cardinal.
The gentlemen who sent the letter were annoyed at the premature publicity
which it seemed to have attained. Orange had in vain solicited Count
Aremberg to join the league, and had quarrelled with him in consequence.
Egmont, in the presence of Madame de Parma, openly charged Aremberg with
having divulged the secret which had been confided to him. The Count
fiercely denied that he had uttered a syllable on the subject to a human
being; but added that any communication on his part would have been quite
superfluous, while Egmont and his friends were daily boasting of what
they were to accomplish. Egmont reiterated the charge of a breach of
faith by Aremberg. That nobleman replied by laying his hand upon his
sword, denouncing as liars all persons who should dare to charge him
again with such an offence, and offering to fight out the quarrel upon
the instant. Here, again, personal combat was, with much difficulty,
averted.
Egmont, rude, reckless, and indiscreet, was already making manifest that
he was more at home on a battle-field than in a political controversy
where prudence and knowledge of human nature were as requisite as
courage. He was at this period more liberal in his sentiments than at
any moment of his life. Inflamed by his hatred of Granvelle, and
determined to compass the overthrow of that minister, he conversed freely
with all kinds of people, sought popularity among the burghers, and
descanted to every one with much imprudence upon the necessity of union
for the sake of liberty and the national good. The Regent, while
faithfully recording in her despatches every thing of this nature which
reached her ears, expressed her astonishment at Egmont's course, because,
as she had often taken occasion to inform the King, she had always
considered the Count most sincerely attached to his Majesty's service.
Berlaymont, the only other noble of prominence who did not approve the
11th of March letter, was at this period attempting to "swim in two
waters," and, as usual in such cases, found it very difficult to keep
himself afloat. He had refused to join the league, but he stood aloof
from Granvelle. On a hope held out by the seigniors that his son should
be made Bishop of Liege, he had ceased during a whole year from visiting
the Cardinal, and had never spoken to him at the council-board.
Granvelle, in narrating these circumstances to the King, expressed the
opinion that Berlaymont, by thus attempting to please both parties, had
thoroughly discredited himself with both.
The famous epistle, although a most reasonable and manly statement of an
incontrovertible fact, was nevertheless a document which it required much
boldness to sign. The minister at that moment seemed omnipotent, and it
was obvious that the King was determined upon a course of political and
religious absolutism. It is, therefore, not surprising that, although
many sustained its principles, few were willing to affix their names to a
paper which might prove a death-warrant to the signers. Even Montigny
and Berghen, although they had been active in conducting the whole cabal,
if cabal it could be called, refused to subscribe the letter. Egmont and
Horn were men of reckless daring, but they were not keen-sighted enough
to perceive fully the consequences of their acts.
Orange was often accused by his enemies of timidity, but no man ever
doubted his profound capacity to look quite through the deeds of men.
His political foresight enabled him to measure the dangerous precipice
which they were deliberately approaching, while the abyss might perhaps
be shrouded to the vision of his companions. He was too tranquil of
nature to be hurried, by passions into a grave political step, which in
cooler moments he might regret. He resolutely, therefore, and with his
eyes open, placed himself in open and recorded enmity with the most
powerful and dangerous man in the whole Spanish realm, and incurred the
resentment of a King who never forgave. It may be safely averred that as
much courage was requisite thus to confront a cold and malignant
despotism, and to maintain afterwards, without flinching, during a whole
lifetime, the cause of national rights and liberty of conscience, as to
head the most brilliant charge of cavalry that ever made hero famous.
Philip answered the letter of the three nobles on the 6th June following.
In this reply, which was brief, he acknowledged the zeal and affection by
which the writers had been actuated. He suggested, nevertheless, that,
as they had mentioned no particular cause for adopting the advice
contained in their letter, it would be better that one of them should
come to Madrid to confer with him. Such matters, he said, could be
better treated by word of mouth. He might thus receive sufficient
information to enable him to form a decision, for, said he in conclusion,
it was not his custom to aggrieve any of his ministers without cause.
This was a fine phrase, but under the circumstances of its application,
quite ridiculous. There was no question of aggrieving the minister.
The letter of the three nobles was very simple. It consisted of a fact
and a deduction. The fact stated was, that the Cardinal was odious to
all classes of the nation. The deduction drawn was, that the government
could no longer be carried on by him without imminent danger of ruinous
convulsions. The fact was indisputable. The person most interested
confirmed it in his private letters. "'Tis said," wrote Granvelle to
Philip, "that grandees, nobles, and people, all abhor me, nor am I
surprised to find that grandees, nobles, and people are all openly
against me, since each and all have been invited to join in the league."
The Cardinal's reasons for the existence of the unpopularity, which he
admitted to the full, have no bearing upon the point in the letter. The
fact was relied upon to sustain a simple, although a momentous inference.
It was for Philip to decide upon the propriety of the deduction, and to
abide by the consequences of his resolution when taken. As usual,
however, the monarch was not capable of making up his mind. He knew
very well that the Cardinal was odious and infamous, because he was the
willing impersonation of the royal policy. Philip was, therefore,
logically called upon to abandon the policy or to sustain the minister.
He could make up his mind to do neither the one nor the other. In the
mean time a well-turned period of mock magnanimity had been furnished
him. This he accordingly transmitted as his first answer to a most
important communication upon a subject which, in the words of the
writers, "admitted neither of dissimulation nor delay." To deprive
Philip of dissimulation and delay, however, was to take away his all.
They were the two weapons with which he fought his long life's battle.
They summed up the whole of his intellectual resources. It was
inevitable, therefore, that he should at once have recourse to both
on such an emergency as the present one.
At the same time that he sent his answer to the nobles, he wrote an
explanatory letter to the Regent. He informed her that he had received
the communication of the three seigniors, but instructed her that she was
to appear to know nothing of the matter until Egmont should speak to her
upon the subject. He added that, although he had signified his wish to
the three nobles, that one of them, without specifying which, should come
to Madrid, he in reality desired that Egmont, who seemed the most
tractable of the three, should be the one deputed. The King added, that
his object was to divide the nobles, and to gain time.
It was certainly superfluous upon Philip's part to inform his sister that
his object was to gain time. Procrastination was always his first
refuge, as if the march of the world's events would pause indefinitely
while he sat in his cabinet and pondered. It was, however, sufficiently
puerile to recommend to his sister an affectation of ignorance on a
subject concerning which nobles had wrangled, and almost drawn their
swords in her presence. This, however, was the King's statesmanship when
left to his unaided exertions. Granvelle, who was both Philip and
Margaret when either had to address or to respond to the world at large,
did not always find it necessary to regulate the correspondence of his
puppets between themselves. In order more fully to divide the nobles,
the King also transmitted to Egmont a private note, in his own
handwriting, expressing his desire that he should visit Spain in
person, that they might confer together upon the whole subject.
These letters, as might be supposed, produced any thing but a
satisfactory effect. The discontent and rage of the gentlemen who had
written or sustained the 11th of March communication, was much increased.
The answer was, in truth, no answer at all. "'Tis a cold and bad reply,"
wrote Louis of Nassau, "to send after so long a delay. 'Tis easy to see
that the letter came from the Cardinal's smithy. In summa it is a vile
business, if the gentlemen are all to be governed by one person. I hope
to God his power will come soon to an end. Nevertheless," added Louis,
"the gentlemen are all wide awake, for they trust the red fellow not a
bit more than he deserves."
The reader has already seen that the letter was indeed "from the
Cardinal's smithy," Granvelle having instructed his master how to reply
to the seigniors before the communication had been despatched.
The Duchess wrote immediately to inform her brother that Egmont had
expressed himself willing enough to go to Spain, but had added that he
must first consult Orange and Horn. As soon as that step had been taken,
she had been informed that it was necessary for them to advise with all
the gentlemen who had sanctioned their letter. The Duchess had then
tried in vain to prevent such an assembly, but finding that, even if
forbidden, it would still take place, she had permitted the meeting in
Brussels, as she could better penetrate into their proceedings there,
than if it should be held at a distance. She added, that she should soon
send her secretary Armenteros to Spain, that the King might be thoroughly
acquainted with what was occurring.
Egmont soon afterwards wrote to Philip, declining to visit Spain
expressly on account of the Cardinal. He added, that he was ready to
undertake the journey, should the King command his presence for any other
object. The same decision was formally communicated to the Regent by
those Chevaliers of the Fleece who had approved the 11th of March letter
--Montigny; Berghen, Meghem, Mansfeld, Ligne, Hoogstraaten, Orange,
Egmont, and Horn. The Prince of Orange, speaking in the name of all,
informed her that they did not consider it consistent with their
reputation, nor with the interest of his Majesty, that any one of them
should make so long and troublesome a journey, in order to accuse the
Cardinal. For any other purpose, they all held themselves ready to go to
Spain at once. The Duchess expressed her regret at this resolution. The
Prince replied by affirming that, in all their proceedings, they had been
governed, not by hatred of Granvelle but by a sense of duty to his
Majesty. It was now, he added, for the King to pursue what course it
pleased him.
Four days after this interview with the Regent, Orange, Egmont, and Horn
addressed a second letter to the King. In this communication they stated
that they had consulted with all the gentlemen with whose approbation
their first letter had been written. As to the journey of one of them to
Spain,--as suggested, they pronounced it very dangerous for any seignior
to absent himself, in the condition of affairs which then existed.
It was not a sufficient cause to go thither on account of Granvelle.
They disclaimed any intention of making themselves parties to a process
against the Cardinal. They had thought that their simple, brief
announcement would have sufficed to induce his Majesty to employ that
personage in other places, where his talents would be more fruitful.
As to "aggrieving the Cardinal without cause," there was no question of
aggrieving him at all, but of relieving him of an office which could not
remain in his hands without disaster. As to "no particular cause having
been mentioned," they said the omission was from no lack of many such.
They had charged none, however, because, from their past services and
their fidelity to his Majesty, they expected to be believed on their
honor, without further witnesses or evidence. They had no intention of
making themselves accusers. They had purposely abstained from
specifications. If his Majesty should proceed to ampler information,
causes enough would be found. It was better, however, that they should
be furnished by others than by themselves. His Majesty would then find
that the public and general complaint was not without adequate motives.
They renewed their prayer to be excused from serving in the council of
state, in order that they might not be afterwards inculpated for the
faults of others. Feeling that the controversy between themselves and
the Cardinal de Granvelle in the state council produced no fruit for his
Majesty's affairs, they preferred to yield to him. In conclusion, they
begged the King to excuse the simplicity of their letters, the rather
that they were not by nature great orators, but more accustomed to do
well than to speak well, which was also more becoming to persons of their
quality.
On the 4th of August, Count Horn also addressed a private letter to the
King, written in the same spirit as that which characterized the joint
letter just cited. He assured his Majesty that the Cardinal could render
no valuable service to the crown on account of the hatred which the whole
nation bore him, but that, as far as regarded the maintenance of the
ancient religion, all the nobles were willing to do their duty.
The Regent now despatched, according to promise, her private secretary,
Thomas de Armenteros, to Spain. His instructions, which were very
elaborate, showed that Granvelle was not mistaken when he charged her
with being entirely changed in regard to him, and when he addressed her
a reproachful letter, protesting his astonishment that his conduct had
become auspicious, and his inability to divine the cause of the weariness
and dissatisfaction which she manifested in regard to him.
Armenteros, a man of low, mercenary, and deceitful character, but a
favorite of the Regent, and already beginning to acquire that influence
over her mind which was soon to become so predominant, was no friend of
the Cardinal. It was not probable that he would diminish the effect of
that vague censure mingled with faint commendation, which characterized
Margaret's instructions by any laudatory suggestions of his own. He was
directed to speak in general terms of the advance of heresy, and the
increasing penury of the exchequer. He was to request two hundred
thousand crowns toward the lottery, which the Regent proposed to set up
as a financial scheme. He was to represent that the Duchess had tried,
unsuccessfully, every conceivable means of accommodating the quarrel
between the Cardinal and the seigniors. She recognized Granvelle's great
capacity, experience, zeal, and devotion--for all which qualities she
made much of him--while on the other hand she felt that it would be a
great inconvenience, and might cause a revolt of the country, were she to
retain him in the Netherlands against the will of the seigniors. These
motives had compelled her, the messenger was to add, to place both views
of the subject before the eyes of the King. Armenteros was, furthermore,
to narrate the circumstances of the interviews which had recently taken
place between herself and the leaders of the opposition party.
From the tenor of these instructions, it was sufficiently obvious that
Margaret of Parma was not anxious to retain the Cardinal, but that, on
the contrary, she was beginning already to feel alarm at the dangerous
position in which she found herself. A few days after the three nobles
had despatched their last letter to the King, they had handed her a
formal remonstrance. In this document they stated their conviction that
the country was on the high road to ruin, both as regarded his Majesty's
service and the common weal. The bare, the popular discontent daily
increasing, the fortresses on the frontier in a dilapidated condition.
It was to be apprehended daily that merchants and other inhabitants of
the provinces would be arrested in foreign countries, to satisfy the
debts owed by his Majesty. To provide against all these evils, but one
course, it was suggested, remained to the government--to summon the
states-general, and to rely upon their counsel and support. The nobles,
however, forbore to press this point, by reason of the prohibition which
the Regent had received from the King. They suggested, however, that
such an interdiction could have been dictated only by a distrust created
between his Majesty and the estates by persons having no love for either,
and who were determined to leave no resource by which the distress of the
country could be prevented. The nobles, therefore, begged her highness
not to take it amiss if, so long as the King was indisposed to make other
arrangements for the administration of the provinces, they should abstain
from appearing at the state council. They preferred to cause the shadow
at last to disappear, which they had so long personated. In conclusion,
however, they expressed their determination to do their duty in their
several governments, and to serve the Regent to the best of their
abilities.
After this remonstrance had been delivered, the Prince of Orange, Count
Horn, and Count Egmont abstained entirely from the sessions of the state
council. She was left alone with the Cardinal, whom she already hated,
and with his two shadows, Viglius and Berlaymont.
Armenteros, after a month spent on his journey, arrived in Spain, and was
soon admitted to an audience by Philip. In his first interview, which
lasted four hours, he read to the King all the statements and documents
with which he had come provided, and humbly requested a prompt decision.
Such a result was of course out of the question. Moreover, the Cortes of
Tarragon, which happened then to be in session, and which required the
royal attention, supplied the monarch with a fresh excuse for indulging
in his habitual vacillation. Meantime, by way of obtaining additional
counsel in so grave an emergency, he transmitted the letters of the
nobles, together with the other papers, to the Duke of Alva, and
requested his opinion on the subject. Alva replied with the roar of a
wild beast, "Every time," he wrote, "that I see the despatches of those
three Flemish seigniors my rage is so much excited that if I did not use
all possible efforts to restrain it, my sentiments would seem those of a
madman." After this splenitive exordium he proceeded to express the
opinion that all the hatred and complaints against the Cardinal had
arisen from his opposition to the convocation of the states-general.
With regard to persons who had so richly deserved such chastisement, he
recommended "that their heads should be taken off; but, until this could
be done, that the King should dissemble with them." He advised Philip
not to reply to their letters, but merely to intimate, through the
Regent, that their reasons for the course proposed by them did not seem
satisfactory. He did not prescribe this treatment of the case as "a true
remedy, but only as a palliative; because for the moment only weak
medicines could be employed, from which, however, but small effect could
be anticipated." As to recalling the Cardinal, "as they had the
impudence to propose to his Majesty," the Duke most decidedly advised
against the step. In the mean time, and before it should be practicable
to proceed "to that vigorous chastisement already indicated," he advised
separating the nobles as much as possible by administering flattery and
deceitful caresses to Egmont, who might be entrapped more easily than the
others.
Here, at least, was a man who knew his own mind. Here was a servant who
could be relied upon to do his master's bidding whenever this master
should require his help. The vigorous explosion of wrath with which the
Duke thus responded to the first symptoms of what he regarded as
rebellion, gave a feeble intimation of the tone which he would assume
when that movement should have reached a more advanced stage. It might
be guessed what kind of remedies he would one day prescribe in place of
the "mild medicines" in which he so reluctantly acquiesced for the
present.
While this had been the course pursued by the seigniors, the Regent and
the King, in regard to that all-absorbing subject of Netherland politics
--the straggle against Granvelle--the Cardinal, in his letters to Philip,
had been painting the situation by minute daily touches, in a manner of
which his pencil alone possessed the secret.
Still maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian,
he spoke of the nobles in a tone of gentle sorrow. He deprecated any
rising of the royal wrath in his behalf; he would continue to serve
the gentlemen, whether they would or no; he was most anxious lest any
considerations on his account should interfere with the King's decision
in regard to the course to be pursued in the Netherlands. At the same
time, notwithstanding these general professions of benevolence towards
the nobles, he represented them as broken spendthrifts, wishing to create
general confusion in order to escape from personal liabilities; as
conspirators who had placed themselves within the reach of the attorney-
general; as ambitious malcontents who were disposed to overthrow the
royal authority, and to substitute an aristocratic republic upon its
ruins. He would say nothing to prejudice the King's mind against these
gentlemen, but he took care to omit nothing which could possibly
accomplish that result. He described them as systematically opposed to
the policy which he knew lay nearest the King's heart, and as determined
to assassinate the faithful minister who was so resolutely carrying it
out, if his removal could be effected in no other way. He spoke of the
state of religion as becoming more and more unsatisfactory, and bewailed
the difficulty with which he could procure the burning of heretics;
difficulties originating in the reluctance of men from whose elevated
rank better things might have been expected.
As Granvelle is an important personage, as his character has been
alternately the subject of much censure and of more applause, and as the
epoch now described was the one in which the causes of the great
convulsion were rapidly germinating, it is absolutely necessary that the
reader should be placed in a position to study the main character, as
painted by his own hand; the hand in which were placed, at that moment,
the destinies of a mighty empire. It is the historian's duty, therefore,
to hang the picture of his administration fully in the light. At the
moment when the 11th of March letter was despatched, the Cardinal
represented Orange and Egmont as endeavoring by every method of menace
or blandishment to induce all the grand seigniors and petty nobles to
join in the league against himself. They had quarrelled with Aerschot
and Aremberg, they had more than half seduced Berlaymont, and they
stigmatized all who refused to enter into their league as cardinalists
and familiars of the inquisition. He protested that he should regard
their ill-will with indifference, were he not convinced that he was
himself only a pretext, and that their designs were really much deeper.
Since the return of Montigny, the seigniors had established a league
which that gentleman and his brother, Count Horn, had both joined. He
would say nothing concerning the defamatory letters and pamphlets of
which he was the constant object, for he wished no heed taken of matters
which concerned exclusively himself, Notwithstanding this disclaimer,
however, he rarely omitted to note the appearance of all such productions
for his Majesty's especial information. "It was better to calm men's
spirits," he said, "than to excite them." As to fostering quarrels among
the seigniors, as the King had recommended, that was hardly necessary,
for discord was fast sowing its own seeds. "It gave him much pain," he
said, with a Christian sigh, "to observe that such dissensions had
already arisen, and unfortunately on his account." He then proceeded
circumstantially to describe the quarrel between Aerschot and Egmont,
already narrated by the Regent, omitting in his statement no particular
which could make Egmont reprehensible in the royal eyes. He likewise
painted the quarrel between the same noble and Aremberg, to which he had
already alluded in previous letters to the King, adding that many
gentlemen, and even the more prudent part of the people, were
dissatisfied with the course of the grandees, and that he was taking
underhand but dexterous means to confirm them in such sentiments.
He instructed Philip how to reply to the letter addressed to him,
but begged his Majesty not to hesitate to sacrifice him if the
interests of his crown should seem to require it.
With regard to religious matters, he repeatedly deplored that,
notwithstanding his own exertions and those of Madame de Parma,
things were not going on as he desired, but, on the contrary,
very badly" For the-love of God and the service of the holy religion,"
he cried out fervently, "put your royal hand valiantly to the work,
otherwise we have only to exclaim, Help, Lord, for we perish!"
Having uttered this pious exhortation in the ear of a man who needed no
stimulant in the path of persecution, he proceeded to express his regrets
that the judges and other officers were not taking in hand the
chastisement of heresy with becoming vigor.
Yet, at that very moment Peter Titelmann was raging through Flanders,
tearing whole families out of bed and burning them to ashes, with such
utter disregard to all laws or forms as to provoke in the very next year
a solemn protest from the four estates of Flanders; and Titelmann was but
one of a dozen inquisitors.
Granvelle, however, could find little satisfaction in the exertions of
subordinates so long as men in high station were remiss in their duties.
The Marquis Berghen, he informed Philip, showed but little disposition
to put down heresy, in Valenciennes, while Montigny was equally remiss
at Tournay. They were often heard to say, to any who chose to listen,
that it was not right to inflict the punishment of death for matters of
religion. This sentiment, uttered in that age of blood and fire,
and crowning the memory of those unfortunate nobles with eternal honor,
was denounced by the churchman as criminal, and deserving of castigation.
He intimated, moreover, that these pretences of clemency were mere
hypocrisy, and that self-interest was at the bottom of their compassion.
"'Tis very black," said he, "when interest governs; but these men are a
in debt, so deeply that they owe their very souls. They are seeking
every means of escaping from their obligations, and are most desirous of
creating general confusion." As to the Prince of Orange, the Cardinal
asserted that he owed nine hundred thousand florins, and had hardly
twenty-five thousand a-year clear income, while he spent ninety thousand,
having counts; barons, and gentlemen in great numbers, in his household.
At this point, he suggested that it might be well to find employment for
some of these grandees in Spain and other dominions of his Majesty,
adding that perhaps Orange might accept the vice-royalty of Sicily.
Resuming the religious matter, a few weeks later, he expressed himself a
little more cheerfully, "We have made so much outcry," said he, "that at
last Marquis Berghen has been forced to burn a couple of heretics at
Valenciennes. Thus, it is obvious," moralized the Cardinal, "that if he
were really willing to apply the remedy in that place, much progress
might be made; but that we can do but little so long as he remains in the
government of the provinces and refuses to assist us." In a subsequent
letter, he again uttered com plaints against the Marquis and Montigny,
who were evermore his scapegoats and bugbears. Berghen will give us no
aid, he wrote, despite of all the letters we send him. He absents
himself for private and political reasons. Montigny has eaten meat in
Lent, as the Bishop of Tournay informs me. Both he and the Marquis say
openly that it is not right to shed blood for matters of faith, so that
the King can judge how much can be effected with such coadjutors.
Berghen avoids the persecution of heretics, wrote the Cardinal again,
a month later, to Secretary Perez. He has gone to Spa for his health,
although those who saw him last say he is fat and hearty.
Granvelle added, however, that they had at last "burned one more preacher
alive." The heretic, he stated, had feigned repentance to save his life,
but finding that, at any rate, his head would be cut off as a dogmatizer,
he retracted his recantation. "So," concluded the Cardinal,
complacently, "they burned him."
He chronicled the sayings and doings of the principal personages in the
Netherlands, for the instruction of the King, with great regularity,
insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence, and adding
charitable apologies, which he knew would have but small effect upon the
mind of his correspondent. Thus he sent an account of a "very secret
meeting" held by Orange, Egmont, Horn, Montigny and Berghen, at the abbey
of La Forest, near Brussels, adding, that he did not know what they had
been doing there, and was at loss what to suspect. He would be most
happy, he said, to put the best interpretation upon their actions, but he
could not help remembering with great sorrow the observation so recently
made by Orange to Montigny, that one day they should be stronger. Later
in the year, the Cardinal informed the King that the same nobles were
holding a conference at Weerdt, that he had not learned what had been
transacted there, but thought the affair very suspicious. Philip
immediately communicated the intelligence to Alva, together with an
expression of Granvelle's fears and of his own, that a popular outbreak
would be the consequence of the continued presence of the minister in the
Netherlands.
The Cardinal omitted nothing in the way of anecdote or inuendo, which
could injure the character of the leading nobles, with the exception,
perhaps, of Count Egmont. With this important personage, whose character
he well understood, he seemed determined, if possible, to maintain
friendly relations. There was a deep policy in this desire, to which we
shall advert hereafter. The other seigniors were described in general
terms as disposed to overthrow the royal authority. They were bent upon
Granvelle's downfall as the first step, because, that being accomplished,
the rest would follow as a matter of course. "They intend," said he,
"to reduce the state into the form of a republic, in which the King shall
have no power except to do their bidding." He added, that he saw with
regret so many German troops gathering on the borders; for he believed
them to be in the control of the disaffected nobles of the Netherlands.
Having made this grave insinuation, he proceeded in the same breath to
express his anger at a statement said to have been made by Orange and
Egmont, to the effect that he had charged them with intending to excite
a civil commotion, an idea, he added, which had never entered his head.
In the same paragraph, he poured into the most suspicious ear that ever
listened to a tale of treason, his conviction that the nobles were
planning a republic by the aid of foreign troops, and uttered a complaint
that these nobles had accused him of suspecting them. As for the Prince
of Orange, he was described as eternally boasting of his influence in
Germany, and the great things which he could effect by means of his
connexions there, "so that," added the Cardinal, "we hear no other song."
He had much to say concerning the projects of these grandees to abolish
all the councils, but that of state, of which body they intended to
obtain the entire control. Marquis Berghen was represented as being at
the bottom of all these intrigues. The general and evident intention was
to make a thorough change in the form of government. The Marquis meant
to command in every thing, and the Duchess would soon have nothing to do
in the provinces as regent for the King. In fact, Philip himself would
be equally powerless, "for," said the Cardinal, "they will have succeeded
in putting your Majesty completely under guardianship." He added,
moreover, that the seigniors, in order to gain favor with the people and
with the estates, had allowed them to acquire so much power, that they
would respond to any request for subsidies by a general popular revolt.
"This is the simple truth," said Granvelle, "and moreover, by the same
process, in a very few days there will likewise be no religion left in
the land." When the deputies of some of the states, a few weeks later,
had been irregularly convened in Brussels, for financial purposes,
the Cardinal informed the monarch that the nobles were endeavoring
to conciliate their good-will, by offering them a splendid series
of festivities and banquets.
He related various anecdotes which came to his ears from time to time,
all tending to excite suspicions as to the loyalty and orthodoxy of the
principal nobles. A gentleman coming from Burgundy had lately, as he
informed the King, been dining with the Prince of Orange, with whom Horn
and Montigny were then lodging. At table, Montigny called out in a very
loud voice to the strange cavalier, who was seated at a great distance
from him, to ask if there were many Huguenots in Burgundy. No, replied
the gentleman nor would they be permitted to exist there. "Then there can
be very few people of intelligence in that province," returned Montigny,
"for those who have any wit are mostly all Huguenots." The Prince of
Orange here endeavored to put a stop to the conversation, saying that the
Burgundians were very right to remain as they were; upon which Montigny
affirmed that he had heard masses enough lately to last him for three
months. These things may be jests, commented Granvelle, but they are
very bad ones; and 'tis evident that such a man is an improper instrument
to remedy the state of religious affairs in Tournay.
At another large party, the King was faithfully informed by the same
chronicler, that Marquis Berghen had been teasing the Duke of Aerschot
very maliciously, because he would not join the league. The Duke had
responded as he had formerly done to Egmont, that his Majesty was not to
receive laws from his vassals; adding that, for himself, he meant to
follow in the loyal track of his ancestors, fearing God and honoring the
king. In short, said Granvelle, he answered them with so much wisdom,
that although they had never a high opinion of his capacity, they were
silenced. This conversation had been going on before all the servants,
the Marquis being especially vociferous, although the room was quite full
of them. As soon as the cloth was removed, and while some of the lackies
still remained, Berghen had resumed the conversation. He said he was of
the same mind as his ancestor, John of Berghen, had been, who had once
told the King's grandfather, Philip the Fair, that if his Majesty was
bent on his own perdition, he had no disposition to ruin himself. If the
present monarch means to lose these provinces by governing them as he did
govern them, the Marquis affirmed that he had no wish to lose the little
property that he himself possessed in the country. "But if," argued the
Duke of Aerschot, "the King absolutely refuse to do what you demand of
him; what then?"--"Par la cordieu!" responded Berghen, in a rage, "we
will let him see!" whereupon all became silent.
Granvelle implored the King to keep these things entirely to himself;
adding that it was quite necessary for his Majesty to learn in this
manner what were the real dispositions of the gentlemen of the provinces.
It was also stated in the same letter, that a ruffian Genoese, who had
been ordered out of the Netherlands by the Regent, because of a homicide
he had committed, was kept at Weert, by Count Horn, for the purpose of
murdering the Cardinal.
He affirmed that he was not allowed to request the expulsion of the
assassin from the Count's house; but that he would take care,
nevertheless, that neither this ruffian nor any other, should accomplish
his purpose. A few weeks afterwards, expressing his joy at the
contradiction of a report that Philip had himself been assassinated,
Granvelle added; "I too, who am but a worm in comparison, am threatened
on so many sides, that many must consider me already dead. Nevertheless,
I will endeavor, with God's help, to live as long as I can, and if they
kill me, I hope they will not gain every thing." Yet, with
characteristic Jesuitism, the Cardinal could not refrain, even in the
very letter in which he detailed the rebellious demonstrations of
Berghen, and the murderous schemes of Horn, to protest that he did not
say these things "to prejudice his Majesty against any one, but only that
it might be known to what a height the impudence was rising." Certainly
the King and the ecclesiastic, like the Roman soothsayers, would have
laughed in each other's face, could they have met, over the hollowness of
such demonstrations. Granvelle's letters were filled, for the greater
part, with pictures of treason, stratagem, and bloody intentions,
fabricated mostly out of reports, table-talk, disjointed chat in the
careless freedom of domestic intercourse, while at the same time a margin
was always left to express his own wounded sense of the injurious
suspicions uttered against him by the various subjects of his letters.
"God knows," said he to Perez, "that I always speak of them with respect,
which is more than they do of me. But God forgive them all. In times
like these, one must hold one's tongue. One must keep still, in order
not to stir up a hornet's nest."