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MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 19.
THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
By John Lothrop Motley
1855
1572 [CHAPTER VII.]
Municipal revolution throughout Holland and Zealand--Characteristics
of the movement in various places--Sonoy commissioned by Orange as
governor of North Holland--Theory of the provisional government--
Instructions of the Prince to his officers--Oath prescribed--Clause
of toleration--Surprise of Mons by Count Louis--Exertions of Antony
Oliver--Details of the capture--Assembly of the citizens--Speeches
of Genlis and of Count Louis--Effect of the various movements upon
Alva--Don Frederic ordered to invest Mons--The Duke's impatience to
retire--Arrival of Medina Coeli--His narrow escape--Capture of the
Lisbon fleet--Affectation of cordiality between Alva and Medina--
Concessions by King and Viceroy on the subject of the tenth penny--
Estates of Holland assembled, by summons of Orange, at Dort--Appeals
from the Prince to this congress for funds to pay his newly levied
army--Theory of the provisional States' assembly--Source and nature
of its authority--Speech of St. Aldegonde--Liberality of the estates
and the provinces--Pledges exchanged between the Prince's
representative and the Congress--Commission to De la Marck ratified
--Virtual dictatorship of Orange--Limitation of his power by his own
act--Count Louis at Mons--Reinforcements led from France by Genlis--
Rashness of that officer--His total defeat--Orange again in the
field--Rocrmond taken--Excesses of the patriot army--Proclamation of
Orange, commanding respect to all personal and religious rights--His
reply to the Emperor's summons--His progress in the Netherlands--
Hopes entertained from France--Reinforcements under Coligny promised
to Orange by Charles IX.--The Massacre of St. Bartholomew--The
event characterized--Effect in England, in Rome, and in other parts
of Europe--Excessive hilarity of Philip--Extravagant encomium
bestowed by him upon Charles IX.--Order sent by Philip to put all
French prisoners in the Netherlands to Death--Secret correspondence
of Charles IX. with his envoy in the Netherlands--Exultation of the
Spaniards before Mons--Alva urged by the French envoy, according to
his master's commands, to put all the Frenchmen in Mons, and those
already captured, to death--Effect of the massacre upon the Prince
of Orange--Alva and Medina in the camp before Mons--Hopelessness of
the Prince's scheme to obtain battle from Alva--Romero's encamisada
--Narrow escape of the prince--Mutiny and dissolution of his army--
His return to Holland--His steadfastness--Desperate position of
Count Louis in Mons--Sentiments of Alva--Capitulation of Mons--
Courteous reception of Count Louis by the Spanish generals--
Hypocrisy of these demonstrations--Nature of the Mons capitulation--
Horrible violation of its terms--Noircarmes at Mons--Establishment
of a Blood Council in the city--Wholesale executions--Cruelty and
cupidity of Noircarmes--Late discovery of the archives of these
crimes--Return of the revolted cities of Brabant and Flanders to
obedience--Sack of Mechlin by the Spaniards--Details of that event.
The example thus set by Brill and Flushing was rapidly followed. The
first half of the year 1572 was distinguished by a series of triumphs
rendered still more remarkable by the reverses which followed at its
close. Of a sudden, almost as it were by accident, a small but important
sea-port, the object for which the Prince had so long been hoping, was
secured. Instantly afterward, half the island of Walcheren renounced the
yoke of Alva, Next, Enkbuizen, the key to the Zuyder Zee, the principal
arsenal, and one of the first commercial cities in the Netherlands, rose
against the Spanish Admiral, and hung out the banner of Orange on its
ramparts. The revolution effected here was purely the work of the
people--of the mariners and burghers of the city. Moreover, the
magistracy was set aside and the government of Alva repudiated without
shedding one drop of blood, without a single wrong to person or property.
By the same spontaneous movement, nearly all the important cities of
Holland and Zealand raised the standard of him in whom they recognized
their deliverer. The revolution was accomplished under nearly similar
circumstances everywhere. With one fierce bound of enthusiasm the nation
shook off its chain. Oudewater, Dort, Harlem, Leyden, Gorcum,
Loewenstein, Gouda, Medenblik, Horn, Alkmaar, Edam, Monnikendam,
Purmerende, as well as Flushing, Veer, and Enkbuizen, all ranged
themselves under the government of Orange, as lawful stadholder for the
King.
Nor was it in Holland and Zealand alone that the beacon fires of freedom
were lighted. City after city in Gelderland, Overyssel, and the See of
Utrecht; all the important towns of Friesland, some sooner, some later,
some without a struggle, some after a short siege, some with resistance
by the functionaries of government, some by amicable compromise, accepted
the garrisons of the Prince, and formally recognized his authority. Out
of the chaos which a long and preternatural tyranny had produced, the
first struggling elements of a new and a better world began to appear.
It were superfluous to narrate the details which marked the sudden
restoration of liberty in these various groups of cities. Traits of
generosity marked the change of government in some, circumstances of
ferocity, disfigured the revolution in others. The island of Walcheren,
equally divided as it was between the two parties, was the scene of much
truculent and diabolical warfare. It is difficult to say whether the
mutual hatred of race or the animosity of religious difference proved the
deadlier venom. The combats were perpetual and sanguinary, the prisoners
on both sides instantly executed. On more than one occasion; men were
seen assisting to hang with their own hands and in cold blood their own
brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks. When the
captives were too many to be hanged, they were tied back to back, two and
two, and thus hurled into the sea. The islanders found a fierce pleasure
in these acts of cruelty. A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their
eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish
prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow; and invited the townsmen to come
and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction.
In other parts of the country the revolution was, on the whole,
accomplished with comparative calmness. Even traits of generosity were
not uncommon. The burgomaster of Gonda, long the supple slave of Alva
and the Blood Council, fled for his life as the revolt broke forth in
that city. He took refuge in the house of a certain widow, and begged
for a place of concealment. The widow led him to a secret closet which
served as a pantry. "Shall I be secure there?" asked the fugitive
functionary. "O yes, sir Burgomaster," replied the widow, "'t was in
that very place that my husband lay concealed when you, accompanied by
the officers of justice, were searching the house, that you might bring
him to the scaffold for his religion. Enter the pantry, your worship; I
will be responsible for your safety." Thus faithfully did the humble
widow of a hunted and murdered Calvinist protect the life of the
magistrate who had brought desolation to her hearth.
Not all the conquests thus rapidly achieved in the cause of liberty were
destined to endure, nor were any to be, retained without a struggle. The
little northern cluster of republics which had now restored its honor to
the ancient Batavian name was destined, however, for a long and vigorous
life. From that bleak isthmus the light of freedom was to stream through
many years upon struggling humanity in Europe; a guiding pharos across a
stormy sea; and Harlem, Leyden, Alkmaar--names hallowed by deeds of
heroism such as have not often illustrated human annals, still breathe as
trumpet-tongued and perpetual a defiance to despotism as Marathon,
Thermopylae, or Salamis.
A new board of magistrates had been chosen in all the redeemed cities, by
popular election. They were required to take an oath of fidelity to the
King of Spain, and to the Prince of Orange as his stadholder; to promise
resistance to the Duke of Alva, the tenth penny, and the inquisition;
to support every man's freedom and the welfare of the country; to protect
widows, orphans, and miserable persons, and to maintain justice and
truth.
Diedrich Sonoy arrived on the 2nd June at Enkbuizen. He was provided by
the Prince with a commission, appointing him Lieutenant-Governor of North
Holland or Waterland. Thus, to combat the authority of Alva was set up
the authority of the King. The stadholderate over Holland and Zealand,
to which the Prince had been appointed in 1559, he now reassumed. Upon
this fiction reposed the whole provisional polity of the revolted
Netherlands. The government, as it gradually unfolded itself, from this
epoch forward until the declaration of independence and the absolute
renunciation of the Spanish sovereign power, will be sketched in a future
chapter. The people at first claimed not an iota more of freedom than
was secured by Philip's coronation oath. There was no pretence that
Philip was not sovereign, but there was a pretence and a determination to
worship God according to conscience, and to reclaim the ancient political
"liberties" of the land. So long as Alva reigned, the Blood Council, the
inquisition, and martial law, were the only codes or courts, and every
charter slept. To recover this practical liberty and these historical
rights, and to shake from their shoulders a most sanguinary government,
was the purpose of William and of the people. No revolutionary standard
was displayed.
The written instructions given by the Prince to his Lieutenant Sonoy were
to "see that the Word of God was preached, without, however, suffering
any hindrance to the Roman Church in the exercise of its religion; to
restore fugitives and the banished for conscience sake, and to require of
all magistrates and officers of guilds and brotherhoods an oath of
fidelity." The Prince likewise prescribed the form of that oath,
repeating therein, to his eternal honor, the same strict prohibition
of intolerance. "Likewise," said the formula, "shall those of 'the
religion' offer no let or hindrance to the Roman churches."
The Prince was still in Germany, engaged in raising troops and providing
funds. He directed; however, the affairs of the insurgent provinces in
their minutest details, by virtue of the dictatorship inevitably forced
upon him both by circumstances and by the people. In the meantime; Louis
of Nassau, the Bayard of the Netherlands, performed a most unexpected and
brilliant exploit. He had been long in France, negotiating with the
leaders of the Huguenots, and, more secretly, with the court. He was
supposed by all the world to be still in that kingdom, when the startling
intelligence arrived that he had surprised and captured the important
city of Mons. This town, the capital of Hainault, situate in a fertile,
undulating, and beautiful country, protected by lofty walls, a triple
moat, and a strong citadel, was one of the most flourishing and elegant
places in the Netherlands. It was, moreover, from its vicinity to the
frontiers of France; a most important acquisition to the insurgent party.
The capture was thus accomplished. A native of Mons, one Antony Oliver,
a geographical painter, had insinuated himself into the confidence of
Alva, for whom he had prepared at different times some remarkably well-
executed maps of the country. Having occasion to visit France, he was
employed by the Duke to keep a watch upon the movements of Louis of
Nassau, and to make a report as to the progress of his intrigues with the
court of France. The painter, however, was only a spy in disguise, being
in reality devoted to the cause of freedom, and a correspondent of Orange
and his family. His communications with Louis, in Paris, had therefore a
far different result from the one anticipated by Alva. A large number of
adherents within the city of Mons had already been secured, and a plan
was now arranged between Count Louis, Genlis, De la Noue, and other
distinguished Huguenot chiefs, to be carried out with the assistance of
the brave and energetic artist.
On the 23rd of May, Oliver appeared at the gates of Mons, accompanied by
three wagons, ostensibly containing merchandise, but in reality laden
with arquebusses. These were secretly distributed among his confederates
in the city. In the course of the day Count Louis arrived in the
neighbourhood, accompanied by five hundred horsemen and a thousand foot
soldiers. This force he stationed in close concealment within the thick
forests between Maubeuge and Mons. Towards evening he sent twelve of the
most trusty and daring of his followers, disguised as wine merchants,
into the city. These individuals proceeded boldly to a public house,
ordered their supper, and while conversing with the landlord, carelessly
inquired at what hour next morning the city gates would be opened. They
were informed that the usual hour was four in the morning, but that a
trifling present to the porter would ensure admission, if they desired
it, at an earlier hour. They explained their inquiries by a statement
that they had some casks of wine which they wished to introduce into the
city before sunrise. Having obtained all the information which they
needed, they soon afterwards left the tavern. The next day they
presented themselves very early at the gate, which the porter, on promise
of a handsome "drink-penny," agreed to unlock. No sooner were the bolts
withdrawn, however, than he was struck dead, while about fifty dragoons
rode through the gate. The Count and his followers now galloped over the
city in the morning twilight, shouting "France! liberty! the town is
ours!" "The Prince is coming!" "Down with the tenth penny; down with
the murderous Alva!" So soon as a burgher showed his wondering face at
the window, they shot at him with their carbines. They made as much
noise, and conducted themselves as boldly as if they had been at least a
thousand strong.
Meantime, however, the streets remained empty; not one of their secret
confederates showing himself. Fifty men could surprise, but were too few
to keep possession of the city. The Count began to suspect a trap. As
daylight approached the alarm spread; the position of the little band was
critical. In his impetuosity, Louis had far outstripped his army, but
they had been directed to follow hard upon his footsteps, and he was
astonished that their arrival was so long delayed. The suspense becoming
intolerable, he rode out of the city in quest of his adherents, and found
them wandering in the woods, where they had completely lost their way.
Ordering each horseman to take a foot soldier on the crupper behind him,
he led them rapidly back to Mons. On the way they were encountered by La
Noue, "with the iron arm," and Genlis, who, meantime, had made an
unsuccessful attack to recover Valenciennes, which within a few hours had
been won and lost again. As they reached the gates of Mons, they found
themselves within a hair's breadth of being too late; their adherents
had not come forth; the citizens had been aroused; the gates were all
fast but one--and there the porter was quarrelling with a French soldier
about an arquebuss. The drawbridge across the moat was at the moment
rising; the last entrance was closing, when Guitoy de Chaumont, a French
officer, mounted on a light Spanish barb, sprang upon the bridge as it
rose. His weight caused it to sink again, the gate was forced, and Louis
with all his men rode triumphantly into the town.
The citizens were forthwith assembled by sound of bell in the market-
place. The clergy, the magistracy, and the general council were all
present. Genlis made the first speech, in which he disclaimed all
intention of making conquests in the interest of France. This pledge
having been given, Louis of Nassau next addressed the assembly: "The
magistrates," said he, "have not understoood my intentions. I protest
that I am no rebel to the King; I prove it by asking no new oaths
from any man. Remain bound by your old oaths of allegiance; let the
magistrates continue to exercise their functions--to administer justice.
I imagine that no person will suspect a brother of the Prince of Orange
capable of any design against the liberties of the country. As to the
Catholic religion, I take it under my very particular protection. You
will ask why I am in Mons at the head of an armed force: are any of you
ignorant of Alva's cruelties? The overthrow of this tyrant is as much
the interest of the King as of the people, therefore there is nothing in
my present conduct inconsistent with fidelity to his Majesty. Against
Alva alone I have taken up arms; 'tis to protect you against his fury
that I am here. It is to prevent the continuance of a general rebellion
that I make war upon him. The only proposition which I have to make to
you is this--I demand that you declare Alva de Toledo a traitor to the
King, the executioner of the people, an enemy to the country, unworthy of
the government, and hereby deprived of his authority."
The magistracy did not dare to accept so bold a proposition; the general
council, composing the more popular branch of the municipal government,
were comparatively inclined to favor Nassau, and many of its members
voted for the downfall of the tyrant. Nevertheless the demands of Count
Louis were rejected. His position thus became critical. The civic
authorities refused to, pay for his troops, who were, moreover, too few,
in number to resist the inevitable siege. The patriotism of the citizens
was not to be repressed, however, by the authority, of the magistrates;
many rich proprietors of the great cloth and silk manufactories, for
which Mons was famous, raised, and armed companies at their own expense;
many volunteer troops were also speedily organized and drilled, and the
fortifications were put in order. No attempt was made to force the
reformed religion upon the inhabitants, and even Catholics who were
discovered in secret correspondence with the enemy were treated with such
extreme gentleness by Nassau as to bring upon him severe reproaches from
many of his own party.
A large collection of ecclesiastical plate, jewellery, money, and other
valuables, which had been sent to the city for safe keeping from the
churches and convents of the provinces, was seized, and thus, with little
bloodshed and no violence; was the important city secured for the
insurgents. Three days afterwards, two thousand infantry, chiefly
French, arrived in the place. In the early part of the following month
Louis was still further strengthened by the arrival of thirteen hundred
foot and twelve hundred horsemen, under command of Count Montgomery, the
celebrated officer, whose spear at the tournament had proved fatal to
Henry the Second. Thus the Duke of Alva suddenly found himself exposed
to a tempest of revolution. One thunderbolt after another seemed
descending around him in breathless succession. Brill and Flushing had
been already lost; Middelburg was so closely invested that its fall
seemed imminent, and with it would go the whole island of Walcheren, the
key to all the Netherlands. In one morning he had heard of the revolt of
Enkbuizen and of the whole Waterland; two hours later came the news of
the Valenciennes rebellion, and next day the astonishing capture of Mons.
One disaster followed hard upon another. He could have sworn that the
detested Louis of Nassau, who had dealt this last and most fatal stroke,
was at that moment in Paris, safely watched by government emissaries; and
now he had, as it were, suddenly started out of the earth, to deprive him
of this important city, and to lay bare the whole frontier to the
treacherous attacks of faithless France. He refused to believe the
intelligence when it was first announced to him, and swore that he had
certain information that Count Louis had been seen playing in the tennis-
court at Paris, within so short a period as to make his presence in
Hainault at that moment impossible. Forced, at last, to admit the truth
of the disastrous news, he dashed his hat upon the ground in a fury,
uttering imprecations upon the Queen Dowager of France, to whose
perfidious intrigues he ascribed the success of the enterprise, and
pledging himself to send her Spanish thistles, enough in return for the
Florentine lilies which she had thus bestowed upon him.
In the midst of the perplexities thus thickening around him, the Duke
preserved his courage, if not his temper. Blinded, for a brief season,
by the rapid attacks made upon him, he had been uncertain whither to
direct his vengeance. This last blow in so vital a quarter determined
him at once. He forthwith despatched Don Frederic to undertake the siege
of Mons, and earnestly set about raising large reinforcements to his
army. Don Frederic took possession, without much opposition, of the
Bethlehem cloister in the immediate vicinity of the city, and with four
thousand troops began the investment in due form.
Alva had, for a long time, been most impatient to retire from the
provinces. Even he was capable of human emotions. Through the sevenfold
panoply of his pride he had been pierced by the sharpness of a nation's
curse. He was wearied with the unceasing execrations which assailed his
ears. "The hatred which the people bear me," said he, in a letter to
Philip, "because of the chastisement which it has been necessary for me
to inflict, although with all the moderation in the world, make all my
efforts vain. A successor will meet more sympathy and prove more
useful." On the 10th June, the Duke of Medina Coeli; with a fleet of
more than forty sail, arrived off Blankenburg, intending to enter the
Scheld. Julian Romero, with two thousand Spaniards, was also on board
the fleet. Nothing, of course, was known to the new comers of the
altered condition of affairs in the Netherlands, nor of the unwelcome
reception which they were like to meet in Flushing. A few of the lighter
craft having been taken by the patriot cruisers, the alarm was spread
through all the fleet. Medina Coeli, with a few transports, was enabled
to effect his escape to Sluys, whence he hastened to Brussels in a much
less ceremonious manner than he had originally contemplated. Twelve
Biscayan ships stood out to sea, descried a large Lisbon fleet, by a
singular coincidence, suddenly heaving in sight, changed their course
again, and with a favoring breeze bore boldly up the Hond; passed
Flushing in spite of a severe cannonade from the forts, and eventually
made good their entrance into Rammekens, whence the soldiery, about one-
half of whom had thus been saved, were transferred at a very critical
moment to Middelburg.
The great Lisbon fleet followed in the wake of the Biscayans, with much
inferior success. Totally ignorant of the revolution which had occurred
in the Ise of Walclieren, it obeyed the summons of the rebel fort to come
to anchor, and, with the exception of three or four, the vessels were all
taken. It was the richest booty which the insurgents had yet acquired by
sea or land. The fleet was laden with spices, money, jewellery, and the
richest merchandize. Five hundred thousand crowns of gold were taken,
and it was calculated that the plunder altogether would suffice to
maintain the war for two years at least. One thousand Spanish soldiers,
and a good amount of ammunition, were also captured. The unexpected
condition of affairs made a pause natural and almost necessary, before
the government could be decorously transferred. Medina Coeli with
Spanish grandiloquence, avowed his willingness to serve as a soldier,
under a general whom he so much venerated, while Alva ordered that, in
all respects, the same outward marks of respect should be paid to his
appointed successor as to himself. Beneath all this external ceremony,
however, much mutual malice was concealed.
Meantime, the Duke, who was literally "without a single real," was forced
at last to smother his pride in the matter of the tenth penny. On the
24th June, he summoned the estates of Holland to assemble on the 15th of
the ensuing month. In the missive issued for this purpose, he formally
agreed to abolish the whole tax, on condition that the estates-general of
the Netherlands would furnish him with a yearly supply of two millions of
florins. Almost at the same moment the King had dismissed the deputies
of the estates from Madrid, with the public assurance that the tax was to
be suspended, and a private intimation that it was not abolished in
terms, only in order to save the dignity of the Duke.
These healing measures came entirely too late. The estates of Holland
met, indeed, on the appointed day of July; but they assembled not in
obedience to Alva, but in consequence of a summons from William of
Orange. They met, too, not at the Hague, but at Dort, to take formal
measures for renouncing the authority of the Duke. The first congress of
the Netherland commonwealth still professed loyalty to the Crown, but was
determined to accept the policy of Orange without a question.
The Prince had again assembled an army in Germany, consisting of
fifteen thousand foot and seven thousand horse, besides a number of
Netherlanders, mostly Walloons, amounting to nearly three thousand more.
Before taking the field, however, it was necessary that he should
guarantee at least three months' pay to his troops. This he could no
longer do, except by giving bonds endorsed by certain cities of Holland
as his securities. He had accordingly addressed letters in his own name
to all the principal cities, fervently adjuring them to remember, at
last, what was due to him, to the fatherland, and to their own character.
"Let not a sum of gold," said he in one of these letters, "be so dear to
you, that for its sake you will sacrifice your lives, your wives, your
children, and all your descendants, to the latest generations; that you
will bring sin and shame upon yourselves, and destruction upon us who
have so heartily striven to assist you. Think what scorn you will incur
from foreign nations, what a crime you will commit against the. Lord
God, what a bloody yoke ye will impose forever upon yourselves and your
children, if you now seek for subterfuges; if you now prevent us from
taking the field with the troops which we have enlisted. On the other
hand, what inexpressible benefits you will confer on your country, if you
now help us to rescue that fatherland from the power of Spanish vultures
and wolves."
This and similar missives, circulated throughout the province of Holland,
produced a deep impression. In accordance with his suggestions, the
deputies from the nobility and from twelve cities of that province
assembled on the 15th July, at Dort. Strictly speaking, the estates or
government of Holland, the body which represented the whole people,
consisted of the nobler and six great cities. On this occasion, however,
Amsterdam being still in the power of the King, could send no deputies,
while, on the other hand, all the small towns were invited to send up
their representatives to the Congress. Eight accepted the proposal; the
rest declined to appoint delegates, partly from motives of economy,
partly from timidity.'
These estates were the legitimate representatives of the people, but
they had no legislative powers. The people had never pretended to
sovereignty, nor did they claim it now. The source from which the
government of the Netherlands was supposed to proceed was still the
divine mandate. Even now the estates silently conceded, as they had ever
done, the supreme legislative and executive functions to the land's
master. Upon Philip of Spain, as representative of Count Dirk the First
of Holland, had descended, through many tortuous channels, the divine
effluence originally supplied by Charles the Simple of France. That
supernatural power was not contested, but it was now ingeniously turned
against the sovereign. The King's authority was invoked against himself
in the person of the Prince of Orange, to whom, thirteen years before,
a portion of that divine right had been delegated. The estates of
Holland met at Dort on the 15th July, as representatives of the people;
but they were summoned by Orange, royally commissioned in 1559 as
stadholder, and therefore the supreme legislative and executive officer
of certain provinces. This was the theory of the provisional government.
The Prince represented the royal authority, the nobles represented both
themselves and the people of the open country, while the twelve cities
represented the whole body of burghers. Together, they were supposed to
embody all authority, both divine and human, which a congress could
exercise. Thus the whole movement was directed against Alva and against
Count Bossu, appointed stadholder by Alva in the place of Orange.
Philip's name was destined to figure for a long time, at the head
of documents by which monies were raised, troops levied, and taxes
collected, all to be used in deadly war against himself.
The estates were convened on the 15th July, when Paul Buys, pensionary of
Leyden, the tried and confidential friend of Orange, was elected Advocate
of Holland. The convention was then adjourned till the 18th, when Saint
Aldegonde made his appearance, with full powers to act provisionally in
behalf of his Highness.
The distinguished plenipotentiary delivered before the congress a long
and very effective harangue. He recalled the sacrifices and efforts of
the Prince during previous years. He adverted to the disastrous campaign
of 1568, in which the Prince had appeared full of high hope, at the head
of a gallant army, but had been obliged, after a short period, to retire,
because not a city had opened its gates nor a Netherlander lifted his
finger in the cause. Nevertheless, he had not lost courage nor closed
his heart; and now that, through the blessing of God, the eyes of men had
been opened, and so many cities had declared against the tyrant, the
Prince had found himself exposed to a bitter struggle. Although his own
fortunes had been ruined in the cause, he had been unable to resist the
daily flood of petitions which called upon him to come forward once more.
He had again importuned his relations and powerful friends; he had at
last set on foot a new and well-appointed army. The day of payment had
arrived. Over his own head impended perpetual shame, over the fatherland
perpetual woe, if the congress should now refuse the necessary supplies.
"Arouse ye, then," cried the orator, with fervor, "awaken your own zeal
and that of your sister cities. Seize Opportunity by the locks, who
never appeared fairer than she does to-day."
The impassioned eloquence of St. Aldegonde produced a profound
impression. The men who had obstinately refused the demands of Alva,
now unanimously resolved to pour forth their gold and their blood at
the call of Orange. "Truly," wrote the Duke, a little later, "it almost
drives me mad to see the difficulty with which your Majesty's supplies
are furnished, and the liberality with which the people place their lives
and fortunes at the disposal of this rebel." It seemed strange to the
loyal governor that men should support their liberator with greater
alacrity than that with which they served their destroyer! It was
resolved that the requisite amount should be at once raised, partly
from the regular imposts and current "requests," partly by loans from
the rich, from the clergy, from the guilds and brotherhoods, partly from
superfluous church ornaments and other costly luxuries. It was directed
that subscriptions should be immediately opened throughout the land, that
gold and silver plate, furniture, jewellery, and other expensive articles
should be received by voluntary contributions, for which inventories and
receipts should be given by the magistrates of each city, and that upon
these money should be raised, either by loan or sale. An enthusiastic
and liberal spirit prevailed. All seemed determined rather than pay the
tenth to Alva to pay the whole to the Prince.
The estates, furthermore, by unanimous resolution, declared that they
recognized the Prince as the King's lawful stadholder over Holland,
Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht, and that they would use their influence
with the other provinces to procure his appointment as Protector of all
the Netherlands during the King's absence. His Highness was requested to
appoint an Admiral, on whom, with certain deputies from the Water-cities,
the conduct of the maritime war should devolve.
The conduct of the military operations by land was to be directed by
Dort, Leyden, and Enkbuizen, in conjunction with the Count de la Marck.
A pledge was likewise exchanged between the estates and the pleni-
potentiary, that neither party should enter into any treaty with the
King, except by full consent and co-operation of the other. With regard
to religion, it was firmly established, that the public exercises of
divine worship should be permitted not only to the Reformed Church, but
to the Roman Catholic--the clergy of both being protected from all
molestation.
After these proceedings, Count de la Marck made his appearance before the
assembly. His commission from Orange was read to the deputies, and by
them ratified. The Prince, in that document, authorized "his dear
cousin" to enlist troops, to accept the fealty of cities, to furnish them
with garrisons, to re-establish all the local laws, municipal rights, and
ancient privileges which had been suppressed. He was to maintain freedom
of religion, under penalty of death to those who infringed it; he was to
restore all confiscated property; he was, with advice of his council, to
continue in office such city magistrates as were favorable, and to remove
those adverse to the cause.
The Prince was, in reality, clothed with dictatorial and even regal
powers. This authority had been forced upon him by the prayers of the
people, but he manifested no eagerness as he partly accepted the onerous
station. He was provisionally the depositary of the whole sovereignty of
the northern provinces, but ho cared much less for theories of government
than for ways and means. It was his object to release the country from
the tyrant who, five years long, had been burning and butchering the
people. It was his determination to drive out the foreign soldiery. To
do this, he must meet his enemy in the field. So little was he disposed
to strengthen his own individual power, that he voluntarily imposed
limits on himself, by an act, supplemental to the proceedings of the
Congress of Dort. In this important ordinance made by the Prince of
Orange, as a provisional form of government, he publicly announced "that
he would do and ordain nothing except by the advice of the estates, by
reason that they were best acquainted with the circumstances and the
humours of the inhabitants." He directed the estates to appoint
receivers for all public taxes, and ordained that all military officers
should make oath of fidelity to him, as stadholder, and to the estates of
Holland, to be true and obedient, in order to liberate the land from the
Albanian and Spanish tyranny, for the service of his royal Majesty as
Count of Holland. The provisional constitution, thus made by a sovereign
prince and actual dictator, was certainly as disinterested as it was
sagacious.
Meanwhile the war had opened vigorously in Hainault. Louis of Nassau
had no sooner found himself in possession of Mons than he had despatched
Genlis to France, for those reinforcements which had been promised by
royal lips. On the other hand, Don Frederic held the city closely
beleaguered; sharp combats before the walls were of almost daily
occurrence, but it was obvious that Louis would be unable to maintain the
position into which he had so chivalrously thrown himself unless he
should soon receive important succor. The necessary reinforcements were
soon upon the way. Genlis had made good speed with his levy, and it was
soon announced that he was advancing into Hainault, with a force of
Huguenots, whose numbers report magnified to ten thousand veterans.
Louis despatched an earnest message to his confederate, to use extreme
caution in his approach. Above all things, he urged him, before
attempting to throw reinforcements into the city, to effect a junction
with the Prince of Orange, who had already crossed the Rhine with his new
army.
Genlis, full of overweening confidence, and desirous of acquiring singly
the whole glory of relieving the city, disregarded this advice. His
rashness proved his ruin, and the temporary prostration of the cause of
freedom. Pushing rapidly forward across the French frontier, he arrived,
towards the middle of July, within two leagues of Mons. The Spaniards
were aware of his approach, and well prepared to frustrate his project.
On the 19th, he found himself upon a circular plain of about a league's
extent, surrounded with coppices and forests, and dotted with farm-houses
and kitchen gardens. Here he paused to send out a reconnoitring party.
The little detachment was, however, soon driven in, with the information
that Don Frederic of Toledo, with ten thousand men, was coming instantly
upon them. The Spanish force, in reality, numbered four thousand
infantry, and fifteen hundred cavalry; but three thousand half-armed
boors had been engaged by Don Frederic, to swell his apparent force. The
demonstration produced its effect, and no sooner had the first panic of
the intelligence been spread, than Noircarmes came charging upon them at
the head of his cavalry. The infantry arrived directly afterwards, and
the Huguenots were routed almost as soon as seen. It was a meeting
rather than a battle. The slaughter of the French was very great, while
but an insignificant number of the Spaniards fell. Chiappin Vitelli was
the hero of the day. It was to his masterly arrangements before the
combat, and to his animated exertions upon the field, that the victory
was owing. Having been severely wounded in the thigh but a few days
previously, he caused himself to be carried upon a litter in a recumbent
position in front of his troops, and was everywhere seen, encouraging
their exertions, and exposing himself, crippled as he was, to the whole
brunt of the battle. To him the victory nearly proved fatal; to Don
Frederic it brought increased renown. Vitelli's exertions, in his
precarious condition, brought on severe inflammation, under which he
nearly succumbed, while the son of Alva reaped extensive fame from the
total overthrow of the veteran Huguenots, due rather to his lieutenant
and to Julian Romero.
The number of dead left by the French upon the plain amounted to at least
twelve hundred, but a much larger number was butchered in detail by the
peasantry, among whom they attempted to take refuge, and who had not yet
forgotten the barbarities inflicted by their countrymen in the previous
war. Many officers were taken prisoners, among whom was the Commander-
in-chief, Genlis.
That unfortunate gentleman was destined to atone for his rashness and
obstinacy with his life. He was carried to the castle of Antwerp, where,
sixteen months afterwards, he was secretly strangled by command of Alva,
who caused the report to be circulated that he had died a natural death.
About one hundred foot soldiers succeeded in making their entrance into
Mona, and this was all the succor which Count Louis was destined to
receive from France, upon which country he had built such lofty and such
reasonable hopes.
While this unfortunate event was occurring, the Prince had already put
his army in motion. On the 7th of July he had crossed the Rhine at
Duisburg, with fourteen thousand foot, seven thousand horse, enlisted in
Germany, besides a force of three thousand Walloons. On the 23rd of
July, he took the city of Roermond, after a sharp cannonade, at which
place his troops already began to disgrace the honorable cause in which
they were engaged, by imitating the cruelties and barbarities of their
antagonists. The persons and property of the burghers were, with a very
few exceptions, respected; but many priests and monks were put to death
by the soldiery under circumstances of great barbarity. The Prince,
incensed at such conduct, but being unable to exercise very stringent
authority over troops whose wages he was not yet able to pay in full,
issued a proclamation, denouncing such excesses, and commanding his
followers, upon pain of death, to respect the rights of all individuals,
whether Papist or Protestant, and to protect religious exercises both in
Catholic and Reformed churches.
It was hardly to be expected that the troops enlisted by the Prince in
the same great magazine of hireling soldiers, Germany, from whence the
Duke also derived his annual supplies, would be likely to differ very
much in their propensities from those enrolled under Spanish banners; yet
there was a vast contrast between the characters of the two commanders.
One leader inculcated the practice of robbery, rape, and murder, as a
duty, and issued distinct orders to butcher every mother's son in the
cities which he captured; the other restrained every excess to, the
utmost of his ability, protecting not only life and property, but even
the ancient religion.
The Emperor Maximilian had again issued his injunctions against the
military operations of Orange. Bound to the monarch of Spain by so many
family ties, being at once cousin, brother-in-law, and father-in-law of
Philip, it was difficult for him to maintain the attitude which became
him, as chief of that Empire to which the peace of Passau had assured
religious freedom. It had, however, been sufficiently proved that
remonstrances and intercessions addressed to Philip were but idle breath.
It had therefore become an insult to require pacific conduct from the
Prince on the ground of any past or future mediation. It was a still
grosser mockery to call upon him to discontinue hostilities because the
Netherlands were included in the Empire, and therefore protected by the
treaties of Passau and Augsburg. Well did the Prince reply to his
Imperial Majesty's summons in a temperate but cogent letter, in which he
addressed to him from his camp, that all intercessions had proved
fruitless, and that the only help for the Netherlands was the sword.
The Prince had been delayed for a month at Roermonde, because, as he
expressed it; "he had not a single sou," and because, in consequence,
the troops refused to advance into the Netherlands. Having at last been
furnished with the requisite guarantees from the Holland cities for three
months' pay, on the 27th of August, the day of the publication of his
letter to the Emperor, he crossed the Meuse and took his circuitous way
through Diest, Tirlemont, Sichem, Louvain, Mechlin, Termonde, Oudenarde,
Nivelles. Many cities and villages accepted his authority and admitted
his garrisons. Of these Mechlin was the most considerable, in which he
stationed a detachment of his troops. Its doom was sealed in that
moment. Alva could not forgive this act of patriotism on the part of a
town which had so recently excluded his own troops. "This is a direct
permission of God," he wrote, in the spirit of dire and revengeful
prophecy, "for us to punish her as she deserves, for the image-breaking
and other misdeeds done there in the time of Madame de Parma, which our
Lord was not willing to pass over without chastisement."
Meantime the Prince continued his advance. Louvain purchased its
neutrality for the time with sixteen thousand ducats; Brussels
obstinately refused to listen to him, and was too powerful to be forcibly
attacked at that juncture; other important cities, convinced by the
arguments and won by the eloquence of the various proclamations which he
scattered as he advanced, ranged themselves spontaneously and even
enthusiastically upon his side. How different world have been the result
of his campaign but for the unexpected earthquake which at that instant
was to appal Christendom, and to scatter all his well-matured plans and
legitimate hopes. His chief reliance, under Providence and his own
strong heart, had been upon French assistance. Although Genlis, by his
misconduct, had sacrificed his army and himself, yet the Prince as still
justly sanguine as to the policy of the French court. The papers which
had been found in the possession of Genlis by his conquerors all spoke
one language. "You would be struck with stupor," wrote Alva's secretary,
"could you see a letter which is now in my power, addressed by the King
of France to Louis of Nassau." In that letter the King had declared his
determination to employ all the forces which God had placed in his hands
to rescue the Netherlands from the oppression under which they were
groaning. In accordance with the whole spirit and language of the French
government, was the tone of Coligny in his correspondence with Orange.
The Admiral assured the Prince that there was no doubt as to the
earnestness of the royal intentions in behalf of the Netherlands, and
recommending extreme caution, announced his hope within a few days to
effect a junction with him at the head of twelve thousand French
arquebusiers, and at least three thousand cavalry. Well might the
Prince of Orange, strong, and soon to be strengthened, boast that the
Netherlands were free, and that Alva was in his power. He had a right
to be sanguine, for nothing less than a miracle could now destroy his
generous hopes--and, alas! the miracle took place; a miracle of perfidy
and bloodshed such as the world, familiar as it had ever been and was
still to be with massacre, had not yet witnessed. On the 11th of August,
Coligny had written thus hopefully of his movements towards the
Netherlands, sanctioned and aided by his King. A fortnight from that
day occurred the "Paris-wedding;" and the Admiral, with thousands of his
religious confederates, invited to confidence by superhuman treachery,
and lulled into security by the music of august marriage bells, was
suddenly butchered in the streets of Paris by royal and noble hands.
The Prince proceeded on his march, during which the heavy news had been
brought to him, but he felt convinced that, with the very arrival of the
awful tidings, the fate of that campaign was sealed, and the fall of Mons
inevitable. In his own language, he had been struck to the earth "with
the blow of a sledge-hammer,"--nor did the enemy draw a different augury
from the great event.