The proceedings were opened at Breda upon the 3rd of March,

This eBook was produced by David Widger

[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the

file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an

entire meal of them. D.W.]

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 24

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-1576

By John Lothrop Motley

1855

1574-1576 [CHAPTER III.]

Latter days of the Blood Council--Informal and insincere

negotiations for peace--Characteristics of the negotiators and of

their diplomatic correspondence--Dr. Junius--Secret conferences

between Dr. Leoninus and Orange--Steadfastness of the Prince--

Changes in the internal government of the northern provinces--

Generosity and increasing power of the municipalities--Incipient

jealousy in regard to Orange rebuked--His offer of resignation

refused by the Estates--His elevation to almost unlimited power--

Renewed mediation of Maximilian--Views and positions of the parties

--Advice of Orange--Opening of negotiations at Breda--Propositions

and counter-propositions--Adroitness of the plenipotentiaries on

both sides--Insincere diplomacy and unsatisfactory results--Union of

Holland and Zealand under the Prince of Orange--Act defining his

powers--Charlotte de Bourbon--Character, fortunes, and fate of Anna

of Saxony--Marriage of Orange with Mademoiselle de Bourbon--

Indignation thereby excited--Horrible tortures inflicted upon

Papists by Sonoy in North Holland--Oudewater and Schoonoven taken by

Hierges--The isles of Zealand--A submarine expedition projected--

Details of the adventure--Its entire success--Death of Chiappin

Vitelli--Deliberations in Holland and Zealand concerning the

renunciation of Philip's authority--Declaration at Delft--Doubts as

to which of the Great Powers the sovereignty should be offered--

Secret international relations--Mission to England--Unsatisfactory

negotiations with Elizabeth--Position of the Grand Commander--Siege

of Zieriekzee--Generosity of Count John--Desperate project of the

Prince--Death and character of Requesens.

The Council of Troubles, or, as it will be for ever denominated

in history, the Council of Blood, still existed, although the Grand

Commander, upon his arrival in the Netherlands, had advised his sovereign

to consent to the immediate abolition of so odious an institution.

Philip accepting the advice of his governor and his cabinet, had

accordingly authorized him by a letter of the 10th of March, 1574,

to take that step if he continued to believe it advisable.

Requesens had made use of this permission to extort money from the

obedient portion of the provinces. An assembly of deputies was held at

Brussels on the 7th of June, 1574, and there was a tedious interchange of

protocols, reports, and remonstrances. The estates, not satisfied with

the extinction of a tribunal which had at last worn itself out by its own

violence, and had become inactive through lack of victims, insisted on

greater concessions. They demanded the departure of the Spanish troops,

the establishment of a council of Netherlanders in Spain for Netherland

affairs, the restoration to offices in the provinces of natives and

natives only; for these drawers of documents thought it possible, at that

epoch, to recover by pedantry what their brethren of Holland and Zealand

were maintaining with the sword. It was not the moment for historical

disquisition, citations from Solomon, nor chopping of logic; yet with

such lucubrations were reams of paper filled, and days and weeks

occupied. The result was what might have been expected. The Grand

Commander obtained but little money; the estates obtained none of their

demands; and the Blood Council remained, as it were, suspended in mid-

air. It continued to transact business at intervals during the

administration of Requesens, and at last, after nine years of existence,

was destroyed by the violent imprisonment of the Council of State at

Brussels. This event, however, belongs to a subsequent page of this

history.

Noircarmes had argued, from the tenor of Saint Aldegonde's letters, that

the Prince would be ready to accept his pardon upon almost any terms.

Noircarmes was now dead, but Saint Aldegonde still remained in prison,

very anxious for his release, and as well disposed as ever to render

services in any secret negotiation. It will be recollected that, at the

capitulation of Middelburg, it had been distinctly stipulated by the

Prince that Colonel Mondragon should at once effect the liberation of

Saint Aldegonde, with certain other prisoners, or himself return into

confinement. He had done neither the one nor the other. The patriots

still languished in prison, some of them being subjected to exceedingly

harsh treatment, but Mondragon, although repeatedly summoned as an

officer and a gentleman, by the Prince, to return to captivity,

had been forbidden by the Grand Commander to redeem his pledge.

Saint Aldegonde was now released from prison upon parole, and despatched

on a secret mission to the Prince and estates. As before, he was

instructed that two points were to be left untouched--the authority

of the King and the question of religion. Nothing could be more

preposterous than to commence a negotiation from which the two important

points were thus carefully eliminated. The King's authority and the

question of religion covered the whole ground upon which the Spaniards

and the Hollanders had been battling for six years, and were destined to

battle for three-quarters of a century longer. Yet, although other

affairs might be discussed, those two points were to be reserved for the

more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder. The result of negotiations

upon such a basis was easily to be foreseen. Breath, time, and paper

were profusely wasted and nothing gained. The Prince assured his friend,

as he had done secret agents previously sent to him, that he was himself

ready to leave the land, if by so doing he could confer upon it the

blessing of peace; but that all hopes of reaching a reasonable

conclusion from the premises established was futile. The envoy treated

also with the estates, and received from them in return an elaborate

report, which was addressed immediately to the King. The style of this

paper was bold and blunt, its substance bitter and indigestible. It

informed Philip what he had heard often enough before, that the Spaniards

must go and the exiles come back, the inquisition be abolished and the

ancient privileges restored, the Roman Catholic religion renounce its

supremacy, and the Reformed religion receive permission to exist

unmolested, before he could call himself master of that little hook

of sand in the North Sea. With this paper, which was entrusted to Saint

Aldegonde, by him to be delivered to the Grand Commander, who was, after

reading it, to forward it to its destination, the negotiator returned to

his prison. Thence he did not emerge again till the course of events

released him, upon the 15th of October, 1574.

This report was far from agreeable to the Governor, and it became the

object of a fresh correspondence between his confidential agent,

Champagny, and the learned and astute Junius de Jonge, representative of

the Prince of Orange and Governor of Yeere. The communication of De

Jonge consisted of a brief note and a long discourse. The note was sharp

and stinging, the discourse elaborate and somewhat pedantic.

Unnecessarily historical and unmercifully extended, it was yet bold,

bitter, and eloquent: The presence of foreigners was proved to have been,

from the beginning of Philip's reign, the curse of the country. Doctor

Sonnius, with his batch of bishops, had sowed the seed of the first

disorder. A prince, ruling in the Netherlands, had no right to turn a

deaf ear to the petitions of his subjects. If he did so, the Hollanders

would tell him, as the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian, that the

potentate who had no time to attend to the interests of his subjects,

had not leisure enough to be a sovereign. While Holland refused to bow

its neck to the Inquisition, the King of Spain dreaded the thunder and

lightning of the Pope. The Hollanders would, with pleasure, emancipate

Philip from his own thraldom, but it was absurd that he, who was himself

a slave to another potentate, should affect unlimited control over a free

people. It was Philip's councillors, not the Hollanders, who were his

real enemies; for it was they who held him in the subjection by which his

power was neutralized and his crown degraded.

It may be supposed that many long pages, conceived in this spirit and

expressed with great vigor, would hardly smooth the way for the more

official negotiations which were soon to take place, yet Doctor Junius

fairly and faithfully represented the sentiment of his nation.

Towards the close of the year, Doctor Elbertus Leoninus, professor of

Louvain, together with Hugo Bonte, ex-pensionary of Middelburg, was

commissioned by the Grand Commander to treat secretly with the Prince.

He was, however, not found very tractable when the commissioners opened

the subject of his own pardon and reconciliation with the King, and he

absolutely refused to treat at all except with the cooperation of the

estates. He, moreover, objected to the use of the word "pardon" on

the ground that he had never done anything requiring his Majesty's

forgiveness. If adversity should visit him, he cared but little for it;

he had lived long enough, he said, and should die with some glory,

regretting the disorders and oppressions which had taken place, but

conscious that it had not been in his power to remedy them. When

reminded by the commissioners of the King's power, he replied that he

knew his Majesty to be very mighty, but that there was a King more

powerful still--even God the Creator, who, as he humbly hoped, was upon

his Side.

At a subsequent interview with Hugo Bonte, the Prince declared it almost

impossible for himself or the estates to hold any formal communication

with the Spanish government, as such communications were not safe. No

trust could be reposed either in safe conducts or hostages. Faith had

been too often broken by the administration. The promise made by the

Duchess of Parma to the nobles, and afterwards violated, the recent

treachery of Mondragon, the return of three exchanged prisoners from the

Hague, who died next day of poison administered before their release, the

frequent attempts upon his own life--all such constantly recurring crimes

made it doubtful, in the opinion of the Prince, whether it would be

possible to find commissioners to treat with his Majesty's government.

All would fear assassination, afterwards to be disavowed by the King and

pardoned by the Pope. After much conversation in this vein, the Prince

gave the Spanish agents warning that he might eventually be obliged to

seek the protection of some foreign power for the provinces. In this

connection he made use of the memorable metaphor, so often repeated

afterwards, that "the country was a beautiful damsel, who certainly did

not lack suitors able and willing to accept her and defend her against

the world." As to the matter of religion, he said he was willing to

leave it to be settled by the estates-general; but doubted whether

anything short of entire liberty of worship would ever satisfy the

people.

Subsequently there were held other conferences, between the Prince and

Doctor Leoninus, with a similar result, all attempts proving fruitless

to induce him to abandon his position upon the subject of religion,

or to accept a pardon on any terms save the departure of the foreign

troops, the assembling of the estates-general, and entire freedom of

religion. Even if he were willing to concede the religious question

himself, he observed that it was idle to hope either from the estates

or people a hand's-breadth of concession upon that point. Leoninus was

subsequently admitted to a secret conferenc with the estates of Holland,

where his representations were firmly met by the same arguments as those

already used by the Prince.

These proceedings on the part of Saint Aldegonde, Champagny, Junius, and

Elbertus Leoninus extended through the whole summer and autumn of 1574,

and were not terminated until January of the following year.

Changes fast becoming necessary in the internal government of the

provinces, were also undertaken during this year. Hitherto the Prince

had exercised his power under the convenient fiction of the King's

authority, systematically conducting the rebellion in the name of his

Majesty, and as his Majesty's stadholder. By this process an immense

power was lodged in his hands; nothing less, indeed, than the supreme

executive and legislative functions of the land; while since the revolt

had become, as it were, perpetual, ample but anomalous functions had been

additionally thrust upon him by the estates and by the general voice of

the people.

The two provinces, even while deprived of Harlem and Amsterdam, now

raised two hundred and ten thousand florins monthly, whereas Alva had

never been able to extract from Holland more than two hundred and

seventy-one thousand florins yearly. They paid all rather than pay a

tenth. In consequence of this liberality, the cities insensibly acquired

a greater influence in the government. The coming contest between the

centrifugal aristocratic principle, represented by these corporations,

and the central popular authority of the stadholder, was already

foreshadowed, but at first the estates were in perfect harmony with the

Prince. They even urged upon him more power than he desired, and

declined functions which he wished them to exercise. On the 7th of

September, 1573, it had been formally proposed by the general council to

confer a regular and unlimited dictatorship upon him, but in the course

of a year from that time, the cities had begun to feel their increasing

importance. Moreover, while growing more ambitious, they became less

liberal.

The Prince, dissatisfied with the conduct of the cities, brought the

whole subject before an assembly of the estates of Holland on the 20th

October, 1574. He stated the inconveniences produced by the anomalous

condition of the government. He complained that the common people had

often fallen into the error that the money raised for public purposes had

been levied for his benefit only, and that they had, therefore, been less

willing to contribute to the taxes. As the only remedy for these evils,

he tendered his resignation of all the powers with which he was clothed,

so that the estates might then take the government, which they could

exercise without conflict or control. For himself, he had never desired

power, except as a means of being useful to his country, and he did not

offer his resignation from unwillingness to stand by the cause, but from

a hearty desire to save it from disputes among its friends. He was

ready, now as ever, to shed the last drop of his blood to maintain the

freedom of the land.

This straightforward language produced an instantaneous effect. The

estates knew that they were dealing with a man whose life was governed

by lofty principles, and they felt that they were in danger of losing him

through their own selfishness and low ambition. They were embarrassed,

for they did not like to, relinquish the authority which they had begun

to relish, nor to accept the resignation of a man who was indispensable.

They felt that to give up William of Orange at that time was to accept

the Spanish yoke for ever. At an assembly held at Delft on the 12th

of November, 1574, they accordingly requested him "to continue in his

blessed government, with the council established near him," and for

this end, they formally offered to him, "under the name of Governor

or Regent, "absolute power, authority, and sovereign command.

In particular, they conferred on him the entire control of all the

ships of war, hitherto reserved to the different cities, together with

the right to dispose of all prizes and all monies raised for the support

of fleets. They gave him also unlimited power over the domains; they

agreed that all magistracies, militia bands, guilds, and communities,

should make solemn oath to contribute taxes and to receive garrisons,

exactly as the Prince, with his council, should ordain; but they made

it a condition that the estates should be convened and consulted upon

requests, impositions, and upon all changes in the governing body.

It was also stipulated that the judges of the supreme court and of the

exchequer, with other high officers, should be appointed by and with the

consent of the estates.

The Prince expressed himself willing to accept the government upon these

terms. He, however, demanded an allowance of forty-five thousand florins

monthly for the army expenses and other current outlays. Here, however,

the estates refused their consent. In a mercantile spirit, unworthy the

occasion and the man with whom they were dealing, they endeavoured to

chaffer where they should have been only too willing to comply, and they

attempted to reduce the reasonable demand of the Prince to thirty

thousand florins. The Prince, who had poured out his own wealth so

lavishly in the cause--who, together with his brothers, particularly the

generous John of Nassau, had contributed all which they could raise by

mortgage, sales of jewellery and furniture, and by extensive loans,

subjecting themselves to constant embarrassment, and almost to penury,

felt himself outraged by the paltriness of this conduct. He expressed

his indignation, and denounced the niggardliness of the estates in the

strongest language, and declared that he would rather leave the country

for ever, with the maintenance of his own honor, than accept the

government upon such disgraceful terms. The estates, disturbed by his

vehemence, and struck with its justice, instantly, and without further

deliberation, consented to his demand. They granted the forty-five

thousand florins monthly, and the Prince assumed the government, thus

remodelled.

During the autumn and early winter of the year 1574, the Emperor

Maximilian had been actively exerting himself to bring about a

pacification of the Netherlands. He was certainly sincere, for an

excellent reason. "The Emperor maintains," said Saint Goard, French

ambassador at Madrid, "that if peace is not made with the Beggars, the

Empire will depart from the house of Austria, and that such is the

determination of the electors." On the other hand, if Philip were not

weary of the war, at any rate his means for carrying it on were

diminishing daily. Requesens could raise no money in the Netherlands;

his secretary wrote to Spain, that the exchequer was at its last gasp,

and the cabinet of Madrid was at its wits' end, and almost incapable of

raising ways and means. The peace party was obtaining the upper hand;

the fierce policy of Alva regarded with increasing disfavor. "The people

here," wrote Saint Goard from Madrid, "are completely desperate, whatever

pains they take to put a good face on the matter. They desire most

earnestly to treat, without losing their character." It seemed,

nevertheless, impossible for Philip to bend his neck. The hope of

wearing the Imperial crown had alone made his bigotry feasible. To less

potent influences it was adamant; and even now, with an impoverished

exchequer, and, after seven years of unsuccessful warfare, his purpose

was not less rigid than at first. "The Hollanders demand liberty of

conscience," said Saint Goard, "to which the King will never consent, or

I am much mistaken."

As for Orange, he was sincerely in favor of peace--but not a dishonorable

peace, in which should be renounced all the objects of the war. He was

far from sanguine on the subject, for he read the signs of the times and

the character of Philip too accurately to believe much more in the

success of the present than in that of the past efforts of Maximilian.

He was pleased that his brother-in-law, Count Schwartzburg, had been

selected as the Emperor's agent in the affair, but expressed his doubts

whether much good would come of the proposed negotiations. Remembering

the many traps which in times past had been set by Philip and his father,

he feared that the present transaction might likewise prove a snare.

"We have not forgotten the words I 'ewig' and 'einig' in the treaty with

Landgrave Philip," he wrote; "at the same time we beg to assure his

Imperial Majesty that we desire nothing more than a good peace, tending

to the glory of God, the service of the King of Spain, and the prosperity

of his subjects."

This was his language to his brother, in a letter which was meant to be

shown to the Emperor. In another, written on the same day, he explained

himself with more clearness, and stated his distrust with more energy.

There were no papists left, except a few ecclesiastics, he said; so much

had the number of the Reformers been augmented, through the singular

grace of God. It was out of the question to suppose, therefore, that a

measure, dooming all who were not Catholics to exile, could be

entertained. None would change their religion, and none would consent,

voluntarily, to abandon for ever their homes, friends, and property.

"Such a peace," he said, "would be poor and pitiable indeed."

These, then, were the sentiments of the party now about to negotiate.

The mediator was anxious for a settlement, because the interests of the

Imperial house required it. The King of Spain was desirous of peace, but

was unwilling to concede a hair. The Prince of Orange was equally

anxious to terminate the war, but was determined not to abandon the

objects for which it had been undertaken. A favorable result, therefore,

seemed hardly possible. A whole people claimed the liberty to stay at

home and practice the Protestant religion, while their King asserted the

right to banish them for ever, or to burn them if they remained. The

parties seemed too far apart to be brought together by the most elastic

compromise. The Prince addressed an earnest appeal to the assembly of

Holland, then in session at Dort, reminding them that, although peace was

desirable, it might be more dangerous than war, and entreating them,

therefore, to conclude no treaty which should be inconsistent with the

privileges of the country and their duty to God.

It was now resolved that all the votes of the assembly should consist of

five: one for the nobles and large cities of Holland, one for the estates

of Zealand, one for the small cities of Holland, one for the cities

Bommel and Buren, and the fifth for William of Orange. The Prince thus

effectually held in his hands three votes: his own, that of the small

cities, which through his means only had been admitted to the assembly,

and thirdly, that of Buren, the capital of his son's earldom.

He thus exercised a controlling influence over the coming deliberations.

The ten commissioners, who were appointed by the estates for the peace

negotiations, were all his friends. Among them were Saint Aldegonde,

Paul Buis, Charles Boisot, and Doctor Junius. The plenipotentiaries of

the Spanish government were Leoninus, the Seigneur de Rassinghem,

Cornelius Suis, and Arnold Sasbout.

The proceedings were opened at Breda upon the 3rd of March, 1575. The

royal commissioners took the initiative, requesting to be informed what

complaints the estates had to make, and offering to remove, if possible,

all grievances which they might be suffering. The states' commissioners

replied that they desired nothing, in the first place, but an answer to

the petition which they had already presented to the King. This was

the paper placed in the hands of Saint Aldegonde during the informal

negotiations of the preceding year. An answer was accordingly given,

but couched in such vague and general language as to be quite without

meaning. The estates then demanded a categorical reply to the two

principal demands in the petition, namely, the departure of the foreign

troops and the assembling of the states-general. They, were asked what

they understood by foreigners and by the assembly of states-general.

They replied that by foreigners they meant those who were not natives,

and particularly the Spaniards. By the estates-general they meant the

same body before which, in 1555, Charles had resigned his sovereignty to

Philip. The royal commissioners made an extremely unsatisfactory answer,

concluding with a request that all cities, fortresses, and castles, then

in the power of the estates, together with all their artillery and

vessels of war, should be delivered to the King. The Roman Catholic

worship, it was also distinctly stated, was to be re-established at once

exclusively throughout the Netherlands; those of the Reformed religion

receiving permission, for that time only, to convert their property into

cash within a certain time, and to depart the country.

Orange and the estates made answer on the 21st March. It could not be

called hard, they said, to require the withdrawal of the Spanish troops,

for this had been granted in 1559, for less imperious reasons.

The estates had, indeed, themselves made use of foreigners, but those

foreigners had never been allowed to participate in the government.

With regard to the assembly of the states-general, that body had always

enjoyed the right of advising with the Sovereign on the condition of the

country, and on general measures of government. Now it was only thought

necessary to summon them, in order that they might give their consent to

the King's "requests." Touching the delivery of cities and citadels,

artillery and ships, the proposition was, pronounced to resemble that

made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable--that the dogs should be

delivered up, as a preliminary to a lasting peace. It was unreasonable

to request the Hollanders to abandon their religion or their country.

The reproach of heresy was unjust, for they still held to the Catholic

Apostolic Church, wishing only to purify, it of its abuses. Moreover,

it was certainly more cruel to expel a whole population than to dismiss

three or four thousand Spaniards who for seven long years had been eating

their fill at the expense of the provinces. It would be impossible for

the exiles to dispose of their property, for all would, by the proposed

measure, be sellers, while there would be no purchasers.

The royal plenipotentiaries, making answer to this communication upon the

1st of April, signified a willingness that the Spanish soldiers should

depart, if the states would consent to disband their own foreign troops.

They were likewise in favor of assembling the states-general, but could

not permit any change in the religion of the country. His Majesty had

sworn to maintain the true worship at the moment of assuming the

sovereignty. The dissenters might, however, be allowed a period of six

months in which to leave the land, and eight or ten years for the sale of

their property. After the heretics had all departed, his Majesty did not

doubt that trade and manufactures would flourish again, along with the

old religion. As for the Spanish inquisition, there was not, and there

never had been, any intention of establishing it in the Netherlands.

No doubt there was something specious in this paper. It appeared to

contain considerable concessions. The Prince and estates had claimed

the departure of the Spaniards. It was now promised that they should

depart. They had demanded the assembling of the states-general.

It was now promised that they should assemble. They had denounced

the inquisition. It was now averred that the Spanish inquisition

was not to be established.

Nevertheless, the commissioners of the Prince were not deceived by such

artifices. There was no parity between the cases of the Spanish soldiery

and of the troops in service of the estates. To assemble the estates-

general was idle, if they were to be forbidden the settlement of the

great question at issue. With regard to the Spanish inquisition, it

mattered little whether the slaughter-house were called Spanish or

Flemish, or simply the Blood-Council. It was, however, necessary for

the states' commissioners to consider their reply very carefully; for

the royal plenipotentiaries had placed themselves upon specious grounds.

It was not enough to feel that the King's government was paltering with

them; it was likewise necessary for the states' agents to impress this

fact upon the people.

There was a pause in the deliberations. Meantime, Count Schwartzburg,

reluctantly accepting the conviction that the religious question was an

insurmountable obstacle to a peace, left the provinces for Germany. The

last propositions of the government plenipotentiaries had been discussed

in the councils of the various cities, so that the reply of the Prince,

and estates was delayed until the 1st of June. They admitted, in this

communication, that the offer to restore ancient privileges had an

agreeable sound; but regretted that if the whole population were to be

banished, there would be but few to derive advantage from the

restoration. If the King would put an end to religious persecution, he

would find as much loyalty in the provinces as his forefathers had found.

It was out of the question, they said, for the states to disarm and to

deliver up their strong places, before the Spanish soldiery had retired,

and before peace had been established. It was their wish to leave the

question of religion, together with all other disputed matters, to the

decision of the assembly. Were it possible, in the meantime, to devise

any effectual method for restraining hostilities, it would gladly be

embraced.

On the 8th of July, the royal commissioners inquired what guarantee the

states would be willing to give, that the decision of the general

assembly, whatever it might be, should be obeyed. The demand was

answered by another, in which the King's agents were questioned as to

their own guarantees. Hereupon it was stated that his Majesty would give

his word and sign manual, together with the word and signature of the

Emperor into the bargain. In exchange for these promises, the Prince and

estates were expected to give their own oaths and seals, together with a

number of hostages. Over and above this, they were requested to deliver

up the cities of Brill and Enkhuizen, Flushing and Arnemuyde. The

disparity of such guarantees was ridiculous. The royal word, even when

strengthened by the imperial promise, and confirmed by the autographs of

Philip and Maximilian, was not so solid a security, in the opinion of

Netherlanders, as to outweigh four cities in Holland and Zealand, with

all their population and wealth. To give collateral pledges and hostages

upon one side, while the King offered none, was to assign a superiority

to the royal word, over that of the Prince and the estates which there

was no disposition to recognize. Moreover, it was very cogently urged

that to give up the cities was to give as security for the contract,

some of the principal contracting parties.

This closed the negotiations. The provincial plenipotentiaries took

their leave by a paper dated 13th July, 1575, which recapitulated the

main incidents of the conference. They expressed their deep regret that

his Majesty should insist so firmly on the banishment of the Reformers,

for it was unjust to reserve the provinces to the sole use of a small

number of Catholics. They lamented that the proposition which had been

made, to refer the religious question to the estates, had neither been

loyally accepted, nor candidly refused. They inferred, therefore,

that the object of the royal government had, been to amuse the states,

while tine was thus gained for reducing the country into a slavery more

abject than any which had yet existed. On the other hand, the royal

commissioners as solemnly averred that the whole responsibility for the

failure of the negotiations belonged to the, estates.

It was the general opinion in the insurgent provinces that the government

had been insincere from the beginning, and had neither expected nor

desired to conclude a peace. It is probable, however, that Philip was

sincere; so far as it could be called sincerity to be willing to conclude

a peace, if the provinces would abandon the main objects of the war.

With his impoverished exchequer, and ruin threatening his whole empire,

if this mortal combat should be continued many years longer, he could

have no motive for further bloodshed, provided all heretics should

consent to abandon the country. As usual, however, he left his agents in

the dark as to his real intentions. Even Requesens was as much in doubt

as to the King's secret purposes as Margaret of Parma had ever been in

former times.

[Compare the remarks of Groen v. Prinst., Archives, etc., v 259-

262; Bor, viii. 606, 615; Meteren, v. 100; Hoofd, g. 410.--Count

John of Nassau was distrustful and disdainful from the beginning.

Against his brother's loyalty and the straightforward intentions of

the estates, he felt that the whole force of the Macchiavelli system

of policy would be brought to bear with great effect. He felt that

the object of the King's party was to temporize, to confuse, and to

deceive. He did not believe them capable of conceding the real

object in dispute, but he feared lest they might obscure the

judgment of the plain and well meaning people with whom they had to

deal. Alluding to the constant attempts made to poison himself and

his brother, he likens the pretended negotiations to Venetian drugs,

by which eyesight, hearing, feeling, and intellect were destroyed.

Under this pernicious influence, the luckless people would not

perceive the fire burning around them, but would shrink at a

rustling leaf. Not comprehending then the tendency of their own

acts, they would "lay bare their own backs to the rod, and bring

faggots for their own funeral pile."-Archives, etc., v. 131-137.]

Moreover, the Grand Commander and the government had, after all, made

a great mistake in their diplomacy. The estates of Brabant, although

strongly desirous that the Spanish troops should be withdrawn, were

equally stanch for the maintenance of the Catholic religion, and many

of the southern provinces entertained the same sentiments. Had the

Governor, therefore, taken the states' commissioners at their word,

and left the decision of the religious question to the general assembly,

he might perhaps have found the vote in his favor. In this case, it is

certain that the Prince of Orange and his party would have been placed in

a very awkward position.

The internal government of the insurgent provinces had remained upon the

footing which we have seen established in the autumn of 1574, but in the

course of this summer (1575), however, the foundation was laid for the

union of Holland and Zealand, under the authority of Orange. The selfish

principle of municipal aristocracy, which had tended to keep asunder

these various groups of cities, was now repressed by the energy of the

Prince and the strong determination of the people.

In April, 1575, certain articles of union between Holland and Zealand

were proposed, and six commissioners appointed to draw up an ordinance

for the government of the two provinces. This ordinance was accepted in

general assembly of both. It was in twenty articles. It declared that,

during the war the Prince as sovereign, should have absolute power in all

matters concerning the defence of the country. He was to appoint

military officers, high and low, establish and remove garrisons, punish

offenders against the laws of war. He was to regulate the expenditure of

all money voted by the estates. He was to maintain the law, in the

King's name, as Count of Holland, and to appoint all judicial officers

upon nominations by the estates. He was, at the usual times, to appoint

and renew the magistracies of the cities, according to their

constitutions. He was to protect the exercise of the Evangelical

Reformed religion, and to suppress the exercise of the Roman religion,

without permitting, however, that search should be made into the creed of

any person. A deliberative and executive council, by which the jealousy

of the corporations had intended to hamper his government, did not come

into more than nominal existence.

The articles of union having been agreed upon, the Prince, desiring an

unfettered expression of the national will, wished the ordinance to be

laid before the people in their primary assemblies. The estates,

however, were opposed to this democratic proceeding. They represented

that it had been customary to consult; after the city magistracies,

only the captains of companies and the deans of guilds on matters of

government. The Prince, yielding the point, the captains of companies

and deans of guilds accordingly alone united with the aristocratic boards

in ratifying the instrument by which his authority over the two united

provinces was established. On the 4th of June this first union was

solemnized.

Upon the 11th of July, the Prince formally accepted the government.

He, however, made an essential change in a very important clause of the

ordinance. In place of the words, the "Roman religion," he insisted that

the words, "religion at variance with the Gospel," should be substituted

in the article by which he was enjoined to prohibit the exercise of such

religion. This alteration rebuked the bigotry which had already grown

out of the successful resistance to bigotry, and left the door open for a

general religious toleration.

Early in this year the Prince had despatched Saint Aldegonde on a private

mission to the Elector Palatine. During some of his visits to that

potentate he had seen at Heidelberg the Princess Charlotte of Bourbon.

That lady was daughter of the Due de Montpensier, the most ardent of the

Catholic Princes of France, and the one who at the conferences of Bayonne

had been most indignant at the Queen Dowager's hesitation to unite

heartily with the, schemes of Alva and Philip for the extermination of

the Huguenots. His daughter, a woman of beauty, intelligence, and

virtue, forced before the canonical age to take the religious vows, had

been placed in the convent of Joliarrs, of which she had become Abbess.

Always secretly inclined to the Reformed religion, she had fled secretly

from her cloister, in the year of horrors 1572, and had found refuge at

the court of the Elector Palatine, after which step her father refused to

receive her letters, to contribute a farthing to her support, or even to

acknowledge her claims upon him by a single line or message of affection.

Under these circumstances the outcast princess, who had arrived at the

years of maturity, might be considered her own mistress, and she was

neither morally nor legally bound, when her hand was sought in marriage

by the great champion of the Reformation, to ask the consent of a parent

who loathed her religion and denied her existence. The legality of the

divorce from Anne of Saxony had been settled by a full expression of the

ecclesiastical authority which she most respected;

[Acte de, cinq Ministres du St. Evangile par lequel ils declarent le

mariage du Prince d'Orange etre legitime.--Archives, etc., v. 216-

226.]

the facts upon which the divorce had been founded having been proved

beyond peradventure.

Nothing, in truth, could well be more unfortunate in its results than the

famous Saxon marriage, the arrangements for which had occasioned so much

pondering to Philip, and so much diplomatic correspondence on the part of

high personages in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Certainly, it

was of but little consequence to what church the unhappy Princess

belonged, and they must be lightly versed in history or in human nature

who can imagine these nuptials to have exercised any effect upon the

religious or political sentiments of Orange. The Princess was of a

stormy, ill-regulated nature; almost a lunatic from the beginning. The

dislike which succeeded to her fantastic fondness for the Prince, as well

as her general eccentricity, had soon become the talk of all the court at

Brussels. She would pass week after week without emerging from her

chamber, keeping the shutters closed and candles burning, day and night.

She quarrelled violently, with Countess Egmont for precedence, so that

the ludicrous contentions of the two ladies in antechambers and doorways

were the theme and the amusement of society. Her insolence, not only in

private but in public, towards her husband became intolerable: "I could

not do otherwise than bear it with sadness and patience," said the

Prince, with great magnanimity, "hoping that with age would come

improvement." Nevertheless, upon one occasion, at a supper party,

she had used such language in the presence of Count Horn and many other

nobles, "that all wondered that he could endure the abusive terms which

she applied to him."

When the clouds gathered about him, when he had become an exile and a

wanderer, her reproaches and her violence increased. The sacrifice of

their wealth, the mortgages and sales which he effected of his estates,

plate, jewels, and furniture, to raise money for the struggling country,

excited her bitter resentment. She separated herself from him by

degrees, and at last abandoned him altogether. Her temper became violent

to ferocity. She beat her servants with her hands and with clubs; she

threatened the lives of herself, of her attendants, of Count John of

Nassau, with knives and daggers, and indulged in habitual profanity and

blasphemy, uttering frightful curses upon all around. Her original

tendency to intemperance had so much increased, that she was often unable

to stand on her feet. A bottle of wine, holding more than a quart, in

the morning, and another in the evening, together with a pound of sugar,

was her usual allowance. She addressed letters to Alva complaining that

her husband had impoverished himself "in his good-for-nothing Beggar

war," and begging the Duke to furnish her with a little ready money

and with the means of arriving at the possession of her dower.

An illicit connexion with a certain John Rubens, an exiled magistrate of

Antwerp, and father of the celebrated painter, completed the list of her

delinquencies, and justified the marriage of the Prince with Charlotte de

Bourbon. It was therefore determined by the Elector of Saxony and the

Landgrave William to remove her from the custody of the Nassaus. This

took place with infinite difficulty, at the close of the year 1575.

Already, in 1572; Augustus had proposed to the Landgrave that she should

be kept in solitary confinement, and that a minister should preach to her

daily through the grated aperture by which her, food was to be admitted.

The Landgrave remonstrated at so inhuman a proposition, which was,

however, carried into effect. The wretched Princess, now completely a

lunatic, was imprisoned in the electoral palace, in a chamber where the

windows were walled up and a small grating let into the upper part of the

door. Through this wicket came her food, as well as the words of the

holy man appointed to preach daily for her edification.

Two years long, she endured this terrible punishment, and died mad, on

the 18th of December, 1577. On the following day, she was buried in the

electoral tomb at Meissen; a pompous procession of "school children,

clergy, magistrates, nobility, and citizens" conducting her to that rest

of which she could no longer be deprived by the cruelty of man nor her

own violent temperament.

[It can certainly be considered no violation of the sanctity of

archives to make these slender allusions to a tale, the main

features of which have already been published, not only by MM. Groan

v. Prinsterer and Bakhuyzen, in Holland, but by the Saxon Professor

Bottiger, in Germany. It is impossible to understand the character

and career of Orange, and his relations with Germany, without a

complete view of the Saxon marriage. The extracts from the

"geomantic letters" of Elector Augustus, however, given in Bottiger

(Hist. Taschenb. 1836, p. 169-173), with their furious attacks upon

the Prince and upon Charlotte of Bourbon, seem to us too obscene to

be admitted, even in a note to these pages, and in a foreign

language.]

So far, therefore, as the character of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and the

legitimacy of her future offspring were concerned, she received ample

guarantees. For the rest, the Prince, in a simple letter, informed her

that he was already past his prime, having reached his forty-second year,

and that his fortune was encumbered not only with settlements for his,

children by previous marriages, but by debts contracted in the cause of

his oppressed country. A convention of doctors and bishops of France;

summoned by the Duc de Montpensier, afterwards confirmed the opinion that

the conventual vows of the Princess Charlotte had been conformable

neither to the laws of France nor to the canons of the Trent Council. She

was conducted to Brill by Saint Aldegonde, where she was received by her

bridegroom, to whom she was united on the 12th of June. The wedding

festival was held at Dort with much revelry and holiday making, "but

without dancing."

In this connexion, no doubt the Prince consulted his inclination only.

Eminently domestic in his habits, he required the relief of companionship

at home to the exhausting affairs which made up his life abroad. For

years he had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals,

with man or woman; it was natural, therefore, that he should contract

this marriage. It was equally natural that he should make many enemies

by so impolitic a match. The Elector Palatine, who was in place of

guardian to the bride, decidedly disapproved, although he was suspected

of favoring the alliance. The Landgrave of Hesse for a time was furious;

the Elector of Saxony absolutely delirious with rage. The Diet of the

Empire was to be held within a few weeks at Frankfort, where it was very

certain that the outraged and influential Elector would make his

appearance, overflowing with anger, and determined to revenge upon the

cause of the Netherland Reformation the injury which he had personally

received. Even the wise, considerate, affectionate brother, John of

Nassau, considered the marriage an act of madness. He did what he could,

by argument and entreaty, to dissuade the Prince from its completion;

although he afterwards voluntarily confessed that the Princess Charlotte

had been deeply calumniated, and was an inestimable treasure to his

brother. The French government made use of the circumstance to justify

itself in a still further alienation from the cause of the Prince than it

had hitherto manifested, but this was rather pretence than reality.