convince the young partisan that the Prince would neither openly
countenance his project, nor be extremely vexed should it prove
successful. In short, while, as in the case of the arrest of the State
Council, the subordinates were left to appear the principals in the
transactions, the persons most intimate with William of Orange were
allowed to form satisfactory opinions as to his wishes, and to serve as
instruments to his ends. "Vive qui vince!" cried Saint-Aldegonde,
encouragingly, to Ryhove, shaking hands with him at parting. The
conspirator immediately mounted, and rode off towards Ghent. During his
absence there had been much turbulence, but no decided outbreak, in that
city. Imbize had accosted the Duke of Aerschot in the street, and
demanded when and how he intended to proclaim the restoration of the
ancient charters. The haughty Duke had endeavoured to shake off his
importunate questioner, while Imbize persisted, with increasing audacity,
till Aerschot lost his temper at last: "Charters, charters!" he cried
in a rage; "you shall learn soon, ye that are thus howling for charters,
that we have still the old means of making you dumb, with a rope on your
throats. I tell you this--were you ever so much hounded on by the Prince
of Orange."
The violence of the new governor excited the wrath of Imbize. He broke
from him abruptly, and rushed to a rendezvous of his confederates, every
man of whom was ready for a desperate venture. Groups of excited people
were seen vociferating in different places. A drum was heard to rattle
from time to time. Nevertheless, the rising tumult seemed to subside
again after a season, owing partly to the exertions of the magistrates,
partly to the absence of Ryhove. At four in the afternoon that gentleman
entered the town, and riding directly to the head-quarters of the
conspiracy, was incensed to hear that the work, which had begun so
bravely, had been allowed to cool. "Tis a time," he cried, "for
vigilance. If we sleep now, we shall be dead in our beds before morning.
Better to fan the fire which has begun to blaze in the people's heart.
Better to gather the fruit while it is ripe. Let us go forward, each
with his followers, and I pledge myself to lead the way. Let us scuttle
the old ship of slavery; let us hunt the Spanish Inquisition, once for
all, to the hell from whence it came!"
"There spoke the voice of a man!" cried the Flemish captain, Mieghem, one
of the chief conspirators; "lead on, Ryhove, I swear to follow you as far
as our legs will carry us." Thus encouraged, Ryhove, rushed about the
city, calling upon the people everywhere to rise. They rose almost to a
man. Arming and mustering at different points, according to previous
arrangements, a vast number assembled by toll of bell, after nightfall,
on the public square, whence, under command of Ryhove, they swept to the
residence of Aerschot at Saint Bavon. The guards, seeing the fierce mob
approaching, brandishing spears and waving, torches, had scarce time to
close the gates; as the people loudly demanded entrance and the delivery
to them of the Governor. Both claims were refused. "Let us burn the
birds in their nests," cried Ryhove, without hesitation. Pitch, light
wood, and other combustibles, were brought at his command, and in a few
moments the palace would have been in flames, had not Aerschot, seeing
that the insurgents were in earnest, capitulated. As soon as the gates
were open, the foremost of the mob rushed upon him, and would have torn
him limb from limb, had not Ryhove resolutely interfered, and twice
protected the life of the governor, at the peril of his own. The Duke
was then made a prisoner, and, under a strong guard, was conveyed, still
in his night-gown, and bare-footed, to the mansion of Ryhove. All the
other leading members of the Catholic party were captured, the arrests
proceeding till a late hour in the night. Rassinghem, Sweveghem, Fisch,
De la Porta, and other prominent members of the Flemish estates or
council, were secured, but Champagny was allowed to make his escape.
The Bishops of Bruges and Ypres were less fortunate. Blood-councillor
Hessels, whose letter--genuine or counterfeited--had been so instrumental
in hastening this outbreak, was most carefully guarded, and to him and to
Senator Fisch the personal consequences of that night's work were to be
very tragic.
Thus audaciously, successfully, and hitherto without bloodshed, was the
anti-Catholic revolution commenced in Flanders. The event was the first
of a long and most signal series. The deed was done. The provisional
government was established, at the head of which was placed Ryhove, to
whom oaths of allegiance were rendered, subject to the future
arrangements of the states-general and Orange: On the 9th of November,
the nobles, notables, and community of Ghent published an address, in
which they elaborately defended the revolution which had been effected
and the arrests which had taken place; while the Catholic party, with
Aerschot at its head, was declared to be secretly in league with Don John
to bring back the Spanish troops, to overthrow the Prince of Orange, to
deprive him of the protectorate of Brabant, to set at nought the Ghent
treaty, and to suppress the Reformed religion.
The effect of this sudden rising of the popular party was prodigious
throughout the Netherlands. At the same time, the audacity of such
extreme proceedings could hardly be countenanced by any considerable
party in the states-general. Champagny wrote to the Prince of Orange
that, even if the letter of Hessels were genuine, it proved nothing
against Aerschot, and he urged the necessity of suppressing such scene of
licence immediately, through the influence of those who could command the
passions of the mob. Otherwise, he affirmed that all legitimate forms of
justice would disappear, and that it would be easy to set the bloodhounds
upon any game whatever. Saint Aldegonde wrote to the Prince, that it
would be a great point, but a very difficult one, to justify the Ghent
transaction; for there was little doubt that the Hessels letter was a
forgery. It was therefore as well, no doubt, that the Prince had not
decidedly committed himself to Ryhove's plot; and thus deprived himself
of the right to interfere afterwards, according to what seemed the claims
of justice and sound policy.
He now sent Arend Van Dorp to Ghent, to remonstrate with the leaders of
the insurrection upon the violence of their measures, and to demand the
liberation of the prisoners--a request which was only complied with in
the case of Aerschot. That nobleman was liberated on the 14th of
November, under the condition that he would solemnly pledge himself to
forget and forgive the treatment which he had received, but the other
prisoners were retained in custody for a much longer period. A few weeks
afterwards, the Prince of Orange visited Ghent, at the earnest request of
the four estates of Flanders, and it was hoped that his presence would
contribute to the restoration of tranquillity.
This visit was naturally honored by a brilliant display of "rhetorical"
spectacles and tableaux vivants; for nothing could exceed the passion of
the Netherlanders of that century for apologues and charades. In
allegory they found an ever-present comforter in their deepest
afflictions. The prince was escorted from the Town-gate to the Jacob's
church amid a blaze of tar-barrels and torches, although it was mid-day,
where a splendid exhibition had been arranged by that sovereign guild of
rhetoric, "Jesus with the Balsam Flower." The drama was called Judas
Maccabaeus, in compliment to the Prince. In the centre of the stage
stood the Hebrew patriot, in full armor, symbolizing the illustrious
guest doing battle for his country. He was attended by the three estates
of the country, ingeniously personified by a single individual, who wore
the velvet bonnet of a noble, the cassock of a priest, end the breeches
of a burgher. Groups of allegorical personages were drawn up on the
right and left;--Courage, Patriotism, Freedom, Mercy, Diligence, and
other estimable qualities upon one side, were balanced by Murder, Rapine,
Treason, and the rest of the sisterhood of Crime on the other. The
Inquisition was represented as a lean and hungry hag. The "Ghent
Pacification" was dressed in cramoisy satin, and wore a city on her head
for a turban; while; tied to her apron-strings were Catholicism and
Protestantism, bound in a loving embrace by a chain of seventeen links,
which she was forging upon an anvil. Under the anvil was an individual
in complete harness, engaged in eating his heart; this was Discord. In
front of the scene stood History and Rhetoric, attired as "triumphant
maidens, in white garments," each with a laurel crown and a burning
torch. These personages, after holding a rhymed dialogue between
themselves, filled with wonderful conceits and quibbles, addressed the
Prince of Orange and Maccabaeus, one after the other, in a great quantity
of very detestable verses.
After much changing of scenes and groups, and an enormous quantity of
Flemish-woven poetry, the "Ghent Peace" came forward, leading a lion in
one hand, and holding a heart of pure gold in the other. The heart, upon
which was inscribed Sinceritas, was then presented to the real Prince, as
he sat "reposing after the spectacle," and perhaps slightly yawning, the
gift being accompanied by another tremendous discharge of complimentary
verses. After this, William of Orange was permitted to proceed towards
the lodgings provided for him, but the magistrates and notables met him
upon the threshold, and the pensionary made him a long oration. Even
after the Prince was fairly housed, he had not escaped the fangs of
allegory; for, while he sat at supper refreshing his exhausted frame
after so much personification and metaphor, a symbolical personage,
attired to represent the town corporation made his appearance, and poured
upon him a long and particularly dull heroic poem. Fortunately, this
episode closed the labors of the day.
On the 7th of December, 1577, the states-general formally declared that
Don John was no longer Stadholder, Governor, nor Captain-General, but an
infractor of the peace which he had sworn to maintain, and an enemy of
the fatherland. All natives of the country who should show him favor or
assistance were declared rebels and traitors; and by a separate edict,
issued the same day, it was ordained that an inventory of the estates of
such persons should forthwith be taken.
Thus the war, which had for a brief period been suspended during the
angry, tortuous, and hopeless negotiations which succeeded the arrival
of Don John, was once more to be let loose. To this point had tended all
the policy of Orange-faithful as ever to the proverb with which he had
broken off the Breda conferences, "that war was preferable to a doubtful
peace." Even, however, as his policy had pointed to a war as the
necessary forerunner of a solid peace with Spain, so had his efforts
already advanced the cause of internal religious concord within the
provinces themselves. On the 10th of December, a new act of union was
signed at Brussels, by which those of the Roman Church and those who had
retired from that communion bound themselves to respect and to protect
each other with mutual guarantees against all enemies whatsoever.
Here was a step beyond the Ghent Pacification, and in the same direction.
The first treaty tacitly introduced toleration by suppressing the right
of persecution, but the new union placed the Reformed religion on a level
with the old. This was the result of the Prince's efforts; and, in
truth, there was no lack of eagerness among these professors of a faith
which had been so long under ban, to take advantage of his presence.
Out of dark alleys, remote thickets, subterranean conventicles, where the
dissenters had so long been trembling for their lives, the oppressed now
came forth into the light of day. They indulged openly in those forms of
worship which persecution had affected to regard with as much holy horror
as the Badahuennan or Hercynian mysteries of Celtic ages could inspire,
and they worshipped boldly the common God of Catholic and Puritan, in the
words most consonant to their tastes, without dreading the gibbet as an
inevitable result of their audacity.
In truth, the time had arrived for bringing the northern and southern,
the Celtic and German, the Protestant and Catholic, hearts together, or
else for acquiescing in their perpetual divorce. If the sentiment of
nationality, the cause of a common fatherland, could now overcome the
attachment to a particular form of worship--if a common danger and a
common destiny could now teach the great lesson of mutual toleration,
it might yet be possible to create a united Netherland, and defy for ever
the power of Spain. Since the Union of Brussels, of January, 1577, the
internal cancer of religious discord had again begun to corrode the body
politic. The Pacification of Ghent had found the door open to religious
toleration. It had not opened, but had left it open. The union of
Brussels had closed the door again. Contrary to the hopes of the Prince
of Orange and of the patriots who followed in his track, the sanction
given to the Roman religion had animated the Catholics to fresh arrogance
and fresh persecution. In the course of a few months, the only fruits of
the new union, from which so much had been hoped, were to be seen in
imprisonments, confiscations, banishments, executions. The Perpetual
Edict, by which the fifteen provinces had united in acknowledging Don
John while the Protestant stronghold of Holland and Zealand had been
placed in a state of isolation by the wise distrust of Orange, had
widened the breach between Catholics and Protestants. The subsequent
conduct of Don John had confirmed the suspicions and demonstrated the
sagacity of the Prince. The seizure of Namur and the open hostility
avowed by the Governor once more forced the provinces together. The
suppressed flames of nationality burst forth again. Catholic and
Protestant, Fleming and Hollander, instinctively approached each other,
and felt the necessity of standing once more shoulder to shoulder in
defence of their common rights. The Prince of Orange was called for by
the unanimous cry of the whole country. He came to Brussels. His first
step, as already narrated, was to break off negotiations which had been
already ratified by the votes of the states-general. The measure was
reconsidered, under pretence of adding certain amendments. Those
amendments were the unconditional articles of surrender proposed for
Don John's signature on the 25th of September--articles which could only
elicit words of defiance from his lips.
Thus far the Prince's object was accomplished. A treacherous peace,
which would have ensured destruction, was averted, but a new obstacle to
the development of his broad and energetic schemes arose in the intrigue
which brought the Archduke from Vienna. The cabals of Orange's secret
enemies were again thwarted with the same adroitness to which his avowed
antagonists were forced to succumb. Matthias was made the exponent of
the new policy, the standard-bearer of the new union which the Prince now
succeeded in establishing; for his next step was immediately to impress
upon the provinces which had thus united in casting down the gauntlet to
a common enemy the necessity of uniting in a permanent league. One
province was already lost by the fall of Namur. The bonds of a permanent
union for the other sixteen could be constructed of but one material--
religious toleration, and for a moment, the genius of Orange, always so
far beyond his age, succeeded in raising the mass of his countrymen to
the elevation upon which he had so long stood alone.
The "new or nearer Union of Brussels" was signed on the 10th of December,
eleven months after the formation of the first union. This was the third
and, unfortunately, the last confederation of all the Netherlands.
The original records have been lost, but it is known that the measure
was accepted unanimously in the estates-general as soon as presented.
The leading Catholic nobles were with the army, but a deputation, sent
to the camp, returned with their signatures and hearty approval; with
the signatures and approval of such determined Catholics as the Lalains,
Meluns, Egmont, and La Motte. If such men could unite for the sake of
the fatherland in an act of religious toleration, what lofty hopes for
the future was not the Prince justified in forming; for it was the
Prince alone who accomplished this victory of reason over passion.
As a monument, not only of his genius, but of the elevated aspirations
of a whole people in an age of intolerance, the "closer Union of
Brussels" deserves especial place in the history of human progress.
Unfortunately, it was destined to a brief existence. The battle of
Gemblours was its death-blow, and before the end of a month, the union
thus hopefully constructed was shattered for ever. The Netherland
people was never united again. By the Union of Utrecht, seven states
subsequently rescued their existence, and lived to construct a powerful
republic. The rest were destined to remain for centuries in the
condition of provinces to a distant metropolis, to be shifted about as
make-weights in political balances, and only in our own age to come into
the honorable rank of independent constitutional states.
The Prince had, moreover, strengthened himself for the coming struggle by
an alliance with England. The thrifty but politic Queen, fearing the
result of the secret practices of Alencon--whom Orange, as she suspected,
still kept in reserve to be played off, in case of need, against Matthias
and Don John--had at last consented to a treaty of alliance and subsidy.
On the 7th of January, 1578, the Marquis Havre, envoy from the estates,
concluded an arrangement in London, by which the Queen was to lend them
her credit--in other words, to endorse their obligations, to the amount
of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The money was to be raised
wherever the states might be able to negotiate the bills, and her
liability was to cease within a year. She was likewise to be
collaterally secured by pledges from certain cities in the Netherlands.
This amount was certainly not colossal, while the conditions were
sufficiently parsimonious. At the same time a beginning was made,
and the principle of subsidy was established. The Queen, furthermore,
agreed to send five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry to the
provinces, under the command of an officer of high rank, who was to have
a seat and vote in the Netherland Council of State. These troops were to
be paid by the provinces, but furnished by the Queen. The estates were
to form no treaty without her knowledge, nor undertake any movement of
importance without her consent. In case she should be herself attacked
by any foreign power, the provinces were to assist her to the same extent
as the amount of aid now afforded to themselves; and in case of a naval
war, with a fleet of at least forty ships. It had already been arranged
that the appointment of the Prince of Orange as Lieutenant-General for
Matthias was a 'sine qua non' in any treaty of assistance with England.
Soon after the conclusion of this convention, Sir Thomas Wilkes was
despatched on a special mission to Spain, and Mr. Leyton sent to confer
privately with Don John. It was not probable, however, that the
diplomatic skill of either would make this new arrangement palatable to
Philip or his Governor.
Within a few days after their signature of this important treaty, the
Prince had, at length, wholly succeeded in conquering the conflicting
passions in the states-general, and in reconciling them, to a certain
extent, with each other. The closer union had been accepted, and now
thirty articles, which had been prepared under his superintendence, and
had already on the 17th of December been accepted by Matthias, were
established as the fundamental terms, according to which the Archduke was
to be received as Governor-General. No power whatever was accorded to
the young man, who had come so far with eager and ambitious views. As
the Prince had neither solicited nor desired a visit which had, on the
contrary, been the result of hostile machinations, the Archduke could
hardly complain that the power accorded him was but shadowy, and that his
presence was rendered superfluous. It was not surprising that the common
people gave him the name of Greffier, or registering clerk to the Prince;
for his functions were almost limited to the signing of acts which were
countersigned by Orange. According to the stipulations of the Queen of
England, and the views of the whole popular party, the Prince remained
Ruward of Brabant, notwithstanding the appointment of a nominal Governor-
General, by whom his own duties were to be superseded.
The articles which were laid down as the basis upon which the Archduke
was to be accepted; composed an ample representative constitution, by
which all the legislative and many of the executive powers of government
were bestowed upon the states-general or upon the council by them to be
elected. To avoid remaining in the condition of a people thus left
without a head, the states declared themselves willing to accept Matthias
as Governor-General, on condition of the King's subsequent approbation,
and upon the general basis of the Ghent treaty. The Archduke, moreover,
was to take an oath of allegiance to the King and to the states-general
at the same time. He was to govern the land by the advice of a state
council, the members of which were to be appointed by the states-general,
and were "to be native Netherlanders, true patriots; and neither
ambitious nor greedy." In all matters discussed before the state
council, a majority of votes was to decide. The Governor-General, with
his Council of State, should conclude nothing concerning the common
affairs of the nation--such as requests, loans, treaties of peace or
declarations of war, alliances or confederacies with foreign nations--
without the consent of the states-general. He was to issue no edict or
ordinance, and introduce no law, without the consent of the same body
duly assembled, and representing each individual province. A majority of
the members was declared necessary to a quorum of the council. All acts
and despatches were to be drawn up by a member of the board. The states-
general were to assemble when, where, and as often as, and remain in
session as long as, they might think it expedient. At the request of any
individual province, concerning matters about which a convention of the
generality was customary, the other states should be bound to assemble
without waiting for directions from the Governor-General. The estates of
each particular province were to assemble at their pleasure. The
governor and council, with advice of the states-general, were to appoint
all the principal military officers. Troops were to be enrolled and
garrisons established by and with the consent of the states. Governors
of provinces were to be appointed by the Governor-General, with advice
of his council, and with the consent of the estates of the province
interested. All military affairs were to be conducted during war by
the governor, with advice of his council, while the estates were to have
absolute control over the levying and expenditure of the common funds of
the country.
It is sufficiently plain from this brief summary, that the powers thus
conferred upon Matthias alone, were absolutely null, while those which he
might exercise in conjunction with the state council, were not much more
extensive. The actual force of the government--legislative, executive,
and, administrative--was lodged in the general assembly, while no
authority was left to the King, except the nominal right to approve these
revolutionary proceedings, according to the statement in the preamble.
Such a reservation in favor of his Majesty seemed a superfluous sarcasm.
It was furthermore resolved that the Prince of Orange should be appointed
Lieutenant-General for Matthias, and be continued in his office of
Ruward. This constitution, drawn up under the superintendence of the
Prince, had been already accepted by Matthias, while still at Antwerp,
and upon the 18th of January, 1578, the ceremony of his inauguration took
place.