the Regent Margaret resumed the execution of the edicts against heresies
and heretics which had been permitted to slacken during the French war.
As an additional security for the supremacy of the ancient religion,
Philip induced the Pope, Paul IV., to issue, in May, 1559, a Bull
whereby three new archbishoprics were appointed, with fifteen subsidiary
bishops and nine prebendaries, who were to act as inquisitors. To
sustain these two measures, through which Philip hoped once and for ever
to extinguish the Netherland heresy, the Spanish troops were to be kept
in the provinces indefinitely.
Violent agitation took place throughout the whole of the Netherlands
during the years 1560 and 1561 against the arbitrary policy embodied in
the edicts, and the ruthless manner in which they were enforced in the
new bishoprics, and against the continued presence of the foreign
soldiery. The people and their leaders appealed to their ancient
charters and constitutions. Foremost in resistance was the Prince of
Orange, and he, with Egmont, the soldier hero of St. Quentin, and
Admiral Horn, united in a remarkable letter to the king, in which they
said that the royal affairs would never be successfully conducted so
long as they were entrusted to Cardinal Granvelle. Finally, Granvelle
was recalled by Philip. But the Netherlands had now reached a condition
of anarchy, confusion, and corruption.
The four Estates of Flanders, in a solemn address to the king, described
in vigorous language the enormities committed by the inquisitors, and
called upon Philip to suppress these horrible practices so manifestly in
violation of the ancient charters which he had sworn to support. Philip,
so far from having the least disposition to yield in this matter,
dispatched orders in August, 1564, to the regent, ordering that the
decrees of the Council of Trent should be published and enforced without
delay throughout the Netherlands. By these decrees the heretic was
excluded, so far as ecclesiastical dogma could exclude him, from the
pale of humanity, from consecrated earth, and from eternal salvation.
The decrees conflicted with the privileges of the provinces, and at a
meeting of the council William of Orange made a long and vehement
discourse, in which he said that the king must be unequivocally informed
that this whole machinery of placards and scaffolds, of new bishops and
old hangmen, of decrees, inquisitors and informers, must once and for
ever be abolished. Their day was over; the Netherlands were free
provinces, and were determined to vindicate their ancient privileges.
The unique effect of these representations was stringent instructions
from Philip to Margaret to keep the whole machinery of persecution
constantly at work. Fifty thousand persons were put to death in
obedience to the edicts, 30,000 of the best of the citizens migrated to
England. Famine reigned in the land. Then followed the revolt of the
confederate nobles and the episode of the "wild beggars." Meantime,
during the summer of 1556, many thousands of burghers, merchants,
peasants, and gentlemen were seen mustering and marching through the
fields of every province, armed, but only to hear sermons and sing hymns
in the open air, as it was unlawful to profane the churches with such
rites. The duchess sent forth proclamations by hundreds, ordering the
instant suppression of these assemblies and the arrest of the preachers.
This brought the popular revolt to a head.
_III.--The Image-Breaking Campaign_
There were many hundreds of churches in the Netherlands profusely
adorned with chapels. Many of them were filled with paintings, all were
peopled with statues. Commencing on August 18, 1556, for the space of
only six or seven summer days and nights, there raged a storm by which
nearly every one of these temples was entirely rifled of its contents;
not for plunder, but for destruction.
It began at Antwerp, on the occasion of a great procession, the object
of which was to conduct around the city a colossal image of the Virgin.
The rabble sacked thirty churches within the city walls, entered the
monasteries burned their invaluable libraries, and invaded the
nunneries. The streets were filled with monks and nuns, running this way
and that, shrieking and fluttering, to escape the claws of fiendish
Calvinists. The terror was imaginary, for not the least remarkable
feature in these transactions was that neither insult nor injury was
offered to man or woman, and that not a farthing's value of the immense
amount of property was appropriated. Similar scenes were enacted in all
the other provinces, with the exception of Limburg, Luxemburg, and
Namur.
The ministers of the reformed religion, and the chiefs of the liberal
party, all denounced the image-breaking. The Prince of Orange deplored
the riots. The leading confederate nobles characterised the insurrection
as insensate, and many took severe measures against the ministers and
reformers. The regent was beside herself with indignation and terror.
Philip, when he heard the news, fell into a paroxysm of frenzy. "It
shall cost them dear!" he cried. "I swear it by the soul of my father!"
The religious war, before imminent, became inevitable. The duchess,
inspired by terror, proposed to fly to Mons, but was restrained by the
counsels of Orange, Horn, and Egmont. On August 25 came the crowning act
of what the reformers considered their most complete triumph, and the
regent her deepest degradation. It was found necessary, under the
alarming aspect of affairs, that liberty of worship, in places where it
had been already established, should be accorded to the new religion.
Articles of agreement to this effect were drawn up and exchanged between
the government and Louis of Nassau and fifteen others of the
confederacy.
A corresponding pledge was signed by them, that as long as the regent
was true to her engagement they would consider their previously existing
league annulled, and would cordially assist in maintaining tranquillity,
and supporting the authority of his majesty. The important "Accord" was
then duly signed by the duchess. It declared that the Inquisition was
abolished, that his majesty would soon issue a new general edict,
expressly and unequivocally protecting the nobles against all evil
consequences from past transactions, and that public preaching according
to the forms of the new religion was to be practised in places where it
had already taken place.
Thus, for a fleeting moment, there was a thrill of joy throughout the
Netherlands. But it was all a delusion. While the leaders of the people
were exerting themselves to suppress the insurrection, and to avert
ruin, the secret course pursued by the government, both at Brussels and
at Madrid, may be condensed into the formula--dissimulation,
procrastination, and, again, dissimulation.
The "Accord" was revoked by the duchess, and peremptory prohibition of
all preaching within or without city walls was proclaimed. Further, a
new oath of allegiance was demanded from all functionaries. The Prince
of Orange spurned the proposition and renounced all his offices,
desiring no longer to serve a government whose policy he did not
approve, and a king by whom he was suspected. Terrible massacres of
Protestant heretics took place in many cities.
_IV.--Alva the Terrible_
It was determined at last that the Netherland heresy should be conquered
by force of arms, and an army of 10,000 picked and veteran troops was
dispatched from Spain under the Duke of Alva. The Duchess Margaret made
no secret of her indignation at being superseded when Alva produced his
commission appointing him captain-general, and begging the duchess to
co-operate with him in ordering all the cities of the Netherlands to
receive the garrisons which he would send them. In September, 1567, the
Duke of Alva established a new court for the trial of crimes committed
"during the recent period of troubles." It was called the "Council of
Troubles," but will be for ever known in history as the "Blood Council."
It superseded all other courts and institutions. So well did this new
and terrible engine perform its work that in less than three months
1,800 of the highest, the noblest, and the most virtuous men in the
land, including Count Egmont and Admiral Horn, suffered death. Further
than that, the whole country became a charnal-house; columns and stakes
in every street, the doorposts of private houses, the fences in the
fields were laden with human carcases, strangled, burned, beheaded.
Within a few months after the arrival of Alva the spirit of the nation
seemed hopelessly broken.
The Duchess of Parma, who had demanded her release from the odious
position of a cipher in a land where she had so lately been sovereign,
at last obtained it, and took her departure in December for Parma, thus
finally closing her eventful career in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alva
took up his position as governor-general, and amongst his first works
was the erection of the celebrated citadel of Antwerp, not to protect,
but to control the commercial capital of the provinces.
Events marched swiftly. On February 16, 1568, a sentence of the
Inquisition condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as
heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially named,
were excepted; and a proclamation of the king, dated ten days later,
confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried
into instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This
is probably the most concise death-warrant ever framed. Three millions
of people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in
three lines.
The Prince of Orange at last threw down the gauntlet, and published a
reply to the active condemnation which had been pronounced against him
in default of appearance before the Blood Council. It would, he said, be
both death and degradation to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the
infamous "Council of Blood," and he scorned to plead before he knew not
what base knaves, not fit to be the valets of his companions and
himself.
Preparations were at once made to levy troops and wage war against
Philip's forces in the Netherlands. Then followed the long, ghastly
struggle between the armies raised by the Prince of Orange and his
brother, Count Louis of Nassau, who lost his life mysteriously at the
battle of Mons, and those of Alva and the other governors-general who
succeeded him--Don Louis de Requesens, the "Grand Commander," Don John
of Austria, the hero of Lepanto, and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma.
The records of butcheries and martyrdoms, including those during the
sack and burning of Antwerp by the mutinous Spanish soldiery, are only
relieved by the heroic exploits of the patriotic armies and burghers in
the memorable defences of Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmaar, and Mons. At one
time it seemed that the Prince of Orange and his forces were about to
secure a complete triumph; but the news of the massacre of St.
Bartholomew in Paris brought depression to the patriotic army and
corresponding spirit to the Spanish armies, and the gleam faded. The
most extraordinary feature of Alva's civil administration were his
fiscal decrees, which imposed taxes that utterly destroyed the trade and
manufactures of the country.
There were endless negotiations inspired by the States-General, the
German Emperor, and the governments of France and England to secure
peace and a settlement of the Netherlands affairs, but these, owing
mostly to insincere diplomacy, were ineffective.
_V.--The Union of the Provinces_
In the meantime, the union of Holland and Zealand had been accomplished,
with the Prince of Orange as sovereign. The representatives of various
provinces thereafter met with deputies from Holland and Zealand in
Utrecht in January, 1579, and agreed to a treaty of union which was ever
after regarded as the foundation of the Netherlands Republic. The
contracting provinces agreed to remain eternally united, while each was
to retain its particular privileges, liberties, customs, and laws. All
the provinces were to unite to defend each other with life, goods, and
blood against all forces brought against them in the king's name, and
against all foreign potentates. The treaty also provided for religious
peace and toleration. The Union of Utrecht was the foundation of the
Netherlands Republic, which lasted two centuries.
For two years there were a series of desultory military operations and
abortive negotiations for peace, including an attempt--which failed--to
purchase the Prince of Orange. The assembly of the united provinces met
at The Hague on July 26, 1581, and solemnly declared their independence
of Philip and renounced their allegiance for ever. This act, however,
left the country divided into three portions--the Walloon or reconciled
provinces; the united provinces under Anjou; and the northern provinces
under Orange.
Early in February, 1582, the Duke of Anjou arrived in the Netherlands
from England with a considerable train. The articles of the treaty under
which he was elected sovereign as Duke of Brabant made as stringent and
as sensible a constitutional compact as could be desired by any
Netherland patriot. Taken in connection with the ancient charters, which
they expressly upheld, they left to the new sovereign no vestige of
arbitrary power. He was the hereditary president of a representative
republic.
The Duke of Anjou, however, became discontented with his position. Many
nobles of high rank came from France to pay their homage to him, and in
the beginning of January, 1583, he entered into a conspiracy with them
to take possession, with his own troops, of the principal cities in
Flanders. He reserved to himself the capture of Antwerp, and
concentrated several thousands of French troops at Borgehout, a village
close to the walls of Antwerp. A night attack was treacherously made on
the city, but the burghers rapidly flew to arms, and in an hour the
whole of the force which Anjou had sent to accomplish his base design
was either dead or captured. The enterprise, which came to be known as
the "French Fury," was an absolute and disgraceful failure, and the duke
fled to Berghem, where he established a camp. Negotiations for
reconciliation were entered into with the Duke of Anjou, who, however,
left for Paris in June, never again to return to the Netherlands.
_VI.--The Assassination of William of Orange_
The Princess Charlotte having died on May 5, 1582, the Prince of Orange
was married for the fourth time on April 21, 1583, on this occasion to
Louisa, daughter of the illustrious Coligny. In the summer of 1584 the
prince and princess took up their residence at Delft, where Frederick
Henry, afterwards the celebrated stadtholder, was born to them. During
the previous two years no fewer than five distinct attempts to
assassinate the prince had been made, and all of them with the privity
of the Spanish government or at the direct instigation of King Philip or
the Duke of Parma.
A sixth and successful attempt was now to be made. On Sunday morning,
July 8, the Prince of Orange received news of the death of Anjou. The
courier who brought the despatches was admitted to the prince's bedroom.
He called himself Francis Guion, the son of a martyred Calvinist, but he
was in reality Balthazar Gérard, a fanatical Catholic who had for years
formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange. The interview was
so entirely unexpected that Gérard had come unarmed, and had formed no
plans for escape. He pleaded to the officer on duty in the prince's
house that he wanted to attend divine service in the church opposite,
but that his attire was too shabby and travel-stained, and that, without
new shoes and stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Having
heard this, the prince ordered instantly a sum of money to be given to
him. With this fund Gérard the following day bought a pair of pistols
and ammunition. On Tuesday, July 10, the prince, his wife, family, and
the burgomaster of Leewarden dined as usual, at mid-day. At two o'clock
the company rose from table, the prince leading the way, intending to
pass to his private apartments upstairs. He had reached the second stair
when Gérard, who had obtained admission to the house on the plea that he
wanted a passport, emerged from a sunken arch and, standing within a
foot or two of the prince, discharged a pistol at his heart. He was
carried to a couch in the dining-room, where in a few minutes he died in
the arms of his wife and sister.
The murderer succeeded in making his escape through a side door, and
sped swiftly towards the ramparts, where a horse was waiting for him at
the moat, but was followed and captured by several pages and
halberdiers. He made no effort to deny his identity, but boldly avowed
himself and his deed. Afterwards he was subjected to excruciating
tortures, and executed on July 14 with execrable barbarity. The reward
promised by Philip to the man who should murder Orange was paid to the
father and mother of Gérard. The excellent parents were ennobled and
enriched by the crime of their son, but, instead of receiving the 25,000
crowns promised in the ban issued by Philip in 1580 at the instigation
of Cardinal Granvelle, they were granted three seignories in the Franche
Comté, and took their place at once among the landed aristocracy.
The prince was entombed on August 3 at Delft amid the tears of a whole
nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffected and legitimate sorrow
felt at the death of any human being. William the Silent had gone
through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders
with a smiling face. The people were grateful and affectionate, for they
trusted the character of their "Father William," and not all the clouds
which calumny could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of
that lofty mind to which they were accustomed in their darkest
calamities to look for light.
The life and labours of Orange had established the emancipated
commonwealth upon a secure foundation, but his death rendered hopeless
the union of all the Netherlands at that time into one republic.
* * * * *
History of the United Netherlands
"The History of the United Netherlands, 1584-1609," published
between 1860 and 1867, is the continuation of the "Rise of the
Dutch republic"; the narrative of the stubborn struggle
carried on after the assassination of William the Silent until
the twelve years' truce of 1609 recognised in effect, though
not in form, that a new independent nation was established on
the northern shore of Western Europe--a nation which for a
century to come was to hold rank as first or second of the sea
powers. While the great Alexander of Parma lived to lead the
Spanish armies, even Philip II. could not quite destroy the
possibility of his ultimate victory. When Parma was gone, we
can see now that the issue of the struggle was no longer in
doubt, although in its closing years Maurice of Nassau found a
worthy antagonist in the Italian Spinola.
_I.--After the Death of William_
William the Silent, Prince of Orange, had been murdered on July 10,
1584. It was natural that for an instant there should be a feeling as of
absolute and helpless paralysis. The Estates had now to choose between
absolute submission to Spain, the chance of French or English support,
and fighting it out alone. They resolved at once to fight it out, but to
seek French support, in spite of the fact that Francis of Anjou, now
dead, had betrayed them. For the German Protestants were of no use, and
they did not expect vigorous aid from Elizabeth. But France herself was
on the verge of a division into three, between the incompetent Henry
III. on the throne, Henry of Guise of the Catholic League, and Henry of
Navarre, heir apparent and head of the Huguenots.
The Estates offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands to Henry; he
dallied with them, but finally rejected the offer. Meanwhile, there was
an increased tendency to a rapprochement with England; but Elizabeth had
excellent reasons for being quite resolved not to accept the sovereignty
of the Netherlands. In France, matters came to a head in March 1585,
when the offer of the Estates was rejected. Henry III. found himself
forced into the hands of the League, and Navarre was declared to be
barred from the succession as a heretic, in July.
While diplomacy was at work, and the Estates were gradually turning from
France to England, Alexander of Parma, the first general, and one of the
ablest statesmen of the age, was pushing on the Spanish cause in the
Netherlands. Flagrantly as he was stinted in men and money, a consummate
genius guided his operations. The capture of Antwerp was the crucial
point; and the condition of capturing Antwerp was to hold the Scheldt
below that city, and also to secure the dams, since, if the country were
flooded, the Dutch ships could not be controlled in the open waters.
The burghers scoffed at the idea that Parma could bridge the Scheldt, or
that his bridge, if built, could resist the ice-blocks that would come
down in the winter. But he built his bridge, and it resisted the
ice-blocks. An ingenious Italian in Antwerp devised the destruction of
the bridge, and the passage of relief-ships, by blowing up the bridge
with a sort of floating mines. The explosion was successfully carried
out with terrific effect; a thousand Spaniards were blown to pieces; but
by sheer blundering the opening was not at once utilised, and Parma was
able to rebuild the bridge.
Then, by a fine feat of arms, the patriots captured the Kowenstyn dyke,
and cut it; but the loss was brilliantly retrieved, the Kowenstyn was
recaptured, and the dyke repaired. After that, Antwerp's chance of
escape sank almost to nothing, and its final capitulation was a great
triumph for Parma.
The Estates had despaired of French help, and had opened negotiations
with England some time before the fall of Antwerp had practically
secured the southern half of the Netherlands to Spain. It was
unfortunate that the negotiations took the form of hard bargaining on
both sides. The Estates wished to give Elizabeth sovereignty, which she
did not want; they did not wish to give her hard cash for her
assistance, which she did want, as well as to have towns pawned to her
as security. Walsingham was anxious for England to give the Estates open
support; the queen, as usual, blew hot and cold.
Walsingham and Leicester, however, carried the day. Leicester was
appointed to be general, and Philip Sidney was sent to be governor of
Flushing, at about the time when Drake was preparing for what is known
as the Carthagena Expedition. The direct intervention of the English
government in the Netherlands, where hitherto there had been no state
action, though many Englishmen were fighting as volunteers, was
tantamount to a declaration of war with Spain. But the haggling over
terms had made it too late to save Antwerp.
Leicester had definite orders to do nothing contradictory to the queen's
explicit refusal of both sovereignty and protectorate. But he was
satisfied that a position of supreme authority was necessary; and he had
hardly reached his destination when he was formally offered, and
accepted, the title of Governor-General (January 1586). The proposal had
the full support of young Maurice of Nassau, second son of William the
Silent, and destined to succeed his father in the character of
Liberator.
Angry as Elizabeth was, she did not withdraw Leicester. In fact, Parma
was privately negotiating with her; negotiations in which Burghley and
Hatton took part, but which did not wholly escape Walsingham. Parma had
no intention of being bound by these negotiations; they were pure
dissimulation on his part; and, possibly, but not probably, on
Elizabeth's. Parma, in fact, was nervous as to possible French action.
But their practical effect was to paralyse Leicester, and their object
to facilitate the invasion of England.
_II.--Leicester and the Armada_