Holland - Thomas Colley Grattan
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The cities of Ypres, Lille, and other places of importance, were
soon subject to similar visitations; and the whole of Flanders
was in a few days ravaged by furious multitudes, whose frantic
energy spread terror and destruction on their route. Antwerp was
protected for a while by the presence of the Prince of Orange;
but an order from the stadtholderess having obliged him to repair
to Brussels, a few nights after his departure the celebrated
cathedral shared the fate of many a minor temple, and was utterly
pillaged. The blind fury of the spoilers was not confined to
the mere effigies which they considered the types of idolatry,
nor even to the pictures, the vases, the sixty-six altars, and
their richly wrought accessories; but it was equally fatal to the
splendid organ, which was considered the finest at that time in
existence. The rapidity and the order with which this torch-light
scene was acted, without a single accident among the numerous
doers, has excited the wonder of almost all its early historians.
One of them does not hesitate to ascribe the "miracle" to the
absolute agency of demons. For three days and nights these revolting
scenes were acted, and every church in the city shared the fate
of the cathedral, which next to St. Peter's at Rome was the most
magnificent in Christendom.
Ghent, Tournay, Valenciennes, Mechlin, and other cities, were next
the theatres of similar excesses; and in an incredibly short space
of time above four hundred churches were pillaged in Flanders and
Brabant. Zealand, Utrecht, and others of the northern provinces,
suffered more or less; Friesland, Guelders, and Holland alone
escaped, and even the latter but in partial instances.
These terrible scenes extinguished every hope of reconciliation
with the king. An inveterate and interminable hatred was now
established between him and the people; for the whole nation
was identified with deeds which were in reality only shared by
the most base, and were loathsome to all who were enlightened.
It was in vain that the patriot nobles might hope or strive to
exclupate themselves; they were sure to be held criminal either
in fact or by implication. No show of loyalty, no efforts to
restore order, no personal sacrifice, could save them from the
hatred or screen them from the vengeance of Philip.
The affright of the stadtholderess during the short reign of
anarchy and terror was without bounds. She strove to make her
escape from Brussels, and was restrained from so doing only by
the joint solicitations of Viglius and the various knights of
the order of the golden Fleece, consisting of the first among
the nobles of all parties. But, in fact, a species of violence
was used to restrain her from this most fatal step; for Viglius
gave orders that the gates of the city should be shut, and egress
refused to anyone belonging to the court. The somewhat less terrified
duchess now named Count Mansfield governor of the town, reinforced
the garrison, ordered arms to be distributed to all her adherents,
and then called a council to deliberate on the measures to be
adopted. A compromise with the confederates and the reformers
was unanimously agreed to. The Prince of Orange and Counts Egmont
and Horn were once more appointed to this arduous arbitration
between the court and the people. Necessity now extorted almost
every concession which had been so long denied to justice and
prudence. The confederates were declared absolved from all
responsibility relative to their proceedings. The suppression of
the Inquisition, the abolition of the edicts against heresy, and
a permission for the preachings, were simultaneously published.
The confederates on their side undertook to remain faithful to
the service of the king, to do their best for the establishment
of order, and to punish the iconoclasts. A regular treaty to
this effect was drawn up and executed by the respective
plenipotentiaries, and formally approved by the stadtholderess,
who affixed her sign-manual to the instrument. She only consented
to this measure after a long struggle, and with tears in her
eyes; and it was with a trembling hand that she wrote an account
of these transactions to the king.
Soon after this the several governors repaired to their respective
provinces, and their efforts for the re-establishment of tranquillity
were attended with various degrees of success. Several of the
ringleaders in the late excesses were executed; and this severity
was not confined to the partisans of the Catholic Church. The
Prince of Orange and Count Egmont, with others of the patriot
lords, set the example of this just severity. John Casambrot,
lord of Beckerzeel, Egmont's secretary, and a leading member
of the confederation, put himself at the head of some others
of the associated gentlemen, fell upon a refractory band of
iconoclasts near Gramont, in Flanders, and took thirty prisoners,
of whom he ordered twenty-eight to be hanged on the spot.
CHAPTER IX
TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF REQUESENS
A.D. 1566--1573
All the services just related in the common cause of the country
and the king produced no effect on the vindictive spirit of the
latter. Neither the lapse of time, the proofs of repentance, nor
the fulfilment of their duty, could efface the hatred excited
by a conscientious opposition to even one design of despotism.
Philip was ill at Segovia when he received accounts of the excesses
of the image-breakers, and of the convention concluded with the
heretics. Despatches from the stadtholderess, with private advice
from Viglius, Egmont, Mansfield, Meghem, De Berlaimont, and others,
gave him ample information as to the real state of things, and they
thus strove to palliate their having acceded to the convention. The
emperor even wrote to his royal nephew, imploring him to treat his
wayward subjects with moderation, and offered his mediation between
them. Philip, though severely suffering, gave great attention to
the details of this correspondence, which he minutely examined,
and laid before his council of state, with notes and observations
taken by himself. But he took special care to send to them only
such parts as he chose them to be well informed upon; his natural
distrust not suffering him to have any confidential communication
with men.
Again the Spanish council appears to have interfered between
the people of the Netherlands and the enmity of the monarch;
and the offered mediation of the emperor was recommended to his
acceptance, to avoid the appearance of a forced concession to
the popular will. Philip was also strongly urged to repair to
the scene of the disturbances; and a main question of debate was,
whether he should march at the head of an army or confide himself
to the loyalty and good faith of his Belgian subjects. But the
indolence or the pride of Philip was too strong to admit of his
taking so vigorous a measure; and all these consultations ended
in two letters to the stadtholderess. In the first he declared
his firm intention to visit the Netherlands in person; refused
to convoke the states-general; passed in silence the treaties
concluded with the Protestants and the confederates; and finished
by a declaration that he would throw himself wholly on the fidelity
of the country. In his second letter, meant for the stadtholderess
alone, he authorized her to assemble the states-general if public
opinion became too powerful for resistance, but on no account
to let it transpire that he had under any circumstances given
his consent.
During these deliberations in Spain, the Protestants in the
Netherlands amply availed themselves of the privileges they had
gained. They erected numerous wooden churches with incredible
activity. Young and old, noble and plebeian, of these energetic
men, assisted in the manual labors of these occupations; and the
women freely applied the produce of their ornaments and jewels
to forward the pious work. But the furious outrages of the
iconoclasts had done infinite mischief to both political and
religious freedom; many of the Catholics, and particularly the
priests, gradually withdrew themselves from the confederacy,
which thus lost some of its most firm supporters. And, on the
other hand, the severity with which some of its members pursued
the guilty offended and alarmed the body of the people, who could
not distinguish the shades of difference between the love of
liberty and the practice of licentiousness.
The stadtholderess and her satellites adroitly took advantage of
this state of things to sow dissension among the patriots. Autograph
letters from Philip to the principal lords were distributed among
them with such artful and mysterious precautions as to throw the
rest into perplexity, and give each suspicions of the other's
fidelity. The report of the immediate arrival of Philip had also
considerable effect over the less resolute or more selfish; and
the confederation was dissolving rapidly under the operations
of intrigue, self-interest, and fear. Even the Count of Egmont
was not proof against the subtle seductions of the wily monarch,
whose severe yet flattering letters half frightened and half
soothed him into a relapse of royalism. But with the Prince of
Orange Philip had no chance of success. It is unquestionable
that, be his means of acquiring information what they might,
he did succeed in procuring minute intelligence of all that was
going on in the king's most secret council. He had from time to
time procured copies of the stadtholderess's despatches; but
the document which threw the most important light upon the real
intentions of Philip was a confidential epistle to the stadtholderess
from D'Alava, the Spanish minister at Paris, in which he spoke in
terms too clear to admit any doubt as to the terrible example
which the king was resolved to make among the patriot lords.
Bergen and Montigny confirmed this by the accounts they sent
home from Madrid of the alteration in the manner with which they
were treated by Philip and his courtiers; and the Prince of Orange
was more firmly decided in his opinions of the coming vengeance
of the tyrant.
William summoned his brother Louis, the Counts Egmont, Horn,
and Hoogstraeten, to a secret conference at Termonde; and he
there submitted to them this letter of Alava's, with others which
he had received from Spain, confirmatory of his worst fears.
Louis of Nassau voted for open and instant rebellion; William
recommended a cautious observance of the projects of government,
not doubting but a fair pretext would be soon given to justify the
most vigorous overt acts of revolt; but Egmont at once struck a
death-blow to the energetic project of one brother, and the cautious
amendment of the other, by declaring his present resolution to
devote himself wholly to the service of the king, and on no
inducement whatever to risk the perils of rebellion. He expressed
his perfect reliance on the justice and the goodness of Philip
when once he should see the determined loyalty of those whom he
had hitherto had so much reason to suspect; and he extorted the
others to follow his example. The two brothers and Count Horn
implored him in their turn to abandon this blind reliance on
the tyrant; but in vain. His new and unlooked-for profession of
faith completely paralyzed their plans. He possessed too largely
the confidence of both the soldiery and the people to make it
possible to attempt any serious measure of resistance in which
he would not take a part. The meeting broke up without coming to
any decision. All those who bore a part in it were expected at
Brussels to attend the council of state; Egmont alone repaired
thither. The stadtholderess questioned him on the object of the
conference at Termonde: he only replied by an indignant glance,
at the same time presenting a copy of Alava's letter.
The stadtholderess now applied her whole efforts to destroy the
union among the patriot lords. She, in the meantime, ordered
levies of troops to the amount of some thousands, the command
of which was given to the nobles on whose attachment she could
reckon. The most vigorous measures were adopted. Noircarmes,
governor of Hainault, appeared before Valenciennes, which, being
in the power of the Calvinists, had assumed a most determined
attitude of resistance. He vainly summoned the place to submission,
and to admit a royalist garrison; and on receiving an obstinate
refusal, he commenced the siege in form. An undisciplined rabble
of between three thousand and four thousand Gueux, under the
direction of John de Soreas, gathered together in the neighborhood
of Lille and Tournay, with a show of attacking these places. But
the governor of the former town dispersed one party of them; and
Noircarmes surprised and almost destroyed the main body--their
leader falling in the action. These were the first encounters
of the civil war, which raged without cessation for upward of
forty years in these devoted countries, and which is universally
allowed to be the most remarkable that ever desolated any isolated
portion of Europe. The space which we have already given to the
causes which produced this memorable revolution, now actually
commenced, will not allow us to do more than rapidly sketch the
fierce events that succeeded each other with frightful rapidity.
While Valenciennes prepared for a vigorous resistance, a general
synod of the Protestants was held at Antwerp, and De Brederode
undertook an attempt to see the stadtholderess, and lay before
her the complaints of this body; but she refused to admit him into
the capital. He then addressed to her a remonstrance in writing,
in which he reproached her with her violation of the treaties;
on the faith of which the confederates had dispersed, and the
majority of the Protestants laid down their arms. He implored
her to revoke the new proclamations, by which she prohibited them
from the free exercise of their religion; and, above all things,
he insisted on the abandonment of the siege of Valenciennes, and
the disbanding of the new levies. The stadtholderess's reply
was one of haughty reproach and defiance. The gauntlet was now
thrown down; no possible hope of reconciliation remained; and the
whole country flew to arms. A sudden attempt on the part of the
royalists, under Count Meghem, against Bois-le-duc, was repulsed
by eight hundred men, commanded by an officer named Bomberg, in
the immediate service of De Brederode, who had fortified himself
in his garrison town of Vienen.
The Prince of Orange maintained at Antwerp an attitude of extreme
firmness and caution. His time for action had not yet arrived;
but his advice and protection were of infinite importance on
many occasions. John de Marnix, lord of Toulouse, brother of
Philip de St. Aldegonde, took possession of Osterweel on the
Scheldt, a quarter of a league from Antwerp, and fortified himself
in a strong position. But he was impetuously attacked by the
Count de Lannoy with a considerable force, and perished, after
a desperate defence, with full one thousand of his followers.
Three hundred who laid down their arms were immediately after
the action butchered in cold blood. Antwerp was on this occasion
saved from the excesses of its divided and furious citizens,
and preserved from the horrors of pillage, by the calmness and
intrepidity of the Prince of Orange. Valenciennes at length
capitulated to the royalists, disheartened by the defeat and
death of De Marnix, and terrified by a bombardment of thirty-six
hours. The governor, two preachers, and about forty of the citizens
were hanged by the victors, and the reformed religion prohibited.
Noircarmes promptly followed up his success. Maestricht, Turnhout,
and Bois-le-duc submitted at his approach; and the insurgents
were soon driven from all the provinces, Holland alone excepted.
Brederode fled to Germany, where he died the following year.
The stadtholderess showed, in her success, no small proofs of
decision. She and her counsellors, acting under orders from the
king, were resolved on embarrassing to the utmost the patriot lords;
and a new oath of allegiance, to be proposed to every functionary
of the state, was considered as a certain means for attaining
this object without the violence of an unmerited dismissal. The
terms of this oath were strongly opposed to every principle of
patriotism and toleration. Count Mansfield was the first of the
nobles who took it. The duke of Arschot, Counts Meghem, Berlaimont,
and Egmont followed his example. The counts of Horn, Hoogstraeten,
De Brederode, and others, refused on various pretexts. Every
artifice and persuasion was tried to induce the Prince of Orange
to subscribe to this new test; but his resolution had been for
some time formed. He saw that every chance of constitutional
resistance to tyranny was for the present at an end. The time
for petitioning was gone by. The confederation was dissolved. A
royalist army was in the field; the Duke of Alva was notoriously
approaching at the head of another, more numerous. It was worse than
useless to conclude a hollow convention with the stadtholderess
of mock loyalty on his part and mock confidence on hers. Many
other important considerations convinced William that his only
honorable, safe, and wise course was to exile himself from the
Netherlands altogether, until more propitious circumstances allowed
of his acting openly, boldly, and with effect.
Before he put this plan of voluntary banishment into execution,
he and Egmont had a parting interview at the village of Willebroek,
between Antwerp and Brussels. Count Mansfield, and Berti, secretary
to the stadtholderess, were present at this memorable meeting.
The details of what passed were reported to the confederates
by one of their party, who contrived to conceal himself in the
chimney of the chamber. Nothing could exceed the energetic warmth
with which the two illustrious friends reciprocally endeavored
to turn each other from their respective line of conduct; but
in vain. Egmont's fatal confidence in the king was not to be
shaken; nor was Nassau's penetrating mind to be deceived by the
romantic delusion which led away his friend. They separated with
most affectionate expressions; and Nassau was even moved to tears.
His parting words were to the following effect: "Confide, then,
since it must be so, in the gratitude of the king; but a painful
presentiment (God grant it may prove a false one!) tells me that
you will serve the Spaniards as the bridge by which they will
enter the country, and which they will destroy as soon as they
have passed over it!"
On the 11th of April, a few days after this conference, the Prince
of Orange set out for Germany, with his three brothers and his
whole family, with the exception of his eldest son Philip William,
count de Beuren, whom he left behind a student in the University
of Louvain. He believed that the privileges of the college and
the franchises of Brabant would prove a sufficient protection to
the youth; and this appears the only instance in which William's
vigilant prudence was deceived. The departure of the prince seemed
to remove all hope of protection or support from the unfortunate
Protestants, now left the prey of their implacable tyrant. The
confederation of the nobles was completely broken up. The counts
of Hoogstraeten, Bergen, and Culembourg followed the example of
the Prince of Orange, and escaped to Germany; and, the greater
number of those who remained behind took the new oath of allegiance,
and became reconciled to the government.
This total dispersion of the confederacy brought all the towns
of Holland into obedience to the king. But the emigration which
immediately commenced threatened the country with ruin. England
and Germany swarmed with Dutch and Belgian refugees; and all the
efforts of the stadtholderess could not restrain the thousands
that took to flight. She was not more successful in her attempts to
influence the measures of the king. She implored him, in repeated
letters, to abandon his design of sending a foreign army into
the country, which she represented as being now quite reduced
to submission and tranquillity. She added that the mere report
of this royal invasion (so to call it) had already deprived the
Netherlands of many thousands of its best inhabitants; and that
the appearance of the troops would change it into a desert. These
arguments, meant to dissuade, were the very means of encouraging
Philip in his design. He conceived his project to be now ripe
for the complete suppression of freedom; and Alva soon began
his march.
On the 5th of May, 1567, this celebrated captain, whose reputation
was so quickly destined to sink into the notoriety of an executioner,
began his memorable march; and on the 22d of August he, with
his two natural sons, and his veteran army consisting of about
fifteen thousand men, arrived at the walls of Brussels. The
discipline observed on this march was a terrible forewarning to
the people of the Netherlands of the influence of the general and
the obedience of the troops. They had little chance of resistance
against such soldiers so commanded.
Several of the Belgian nobility went forward to meet Alva, to
render him the accustomed honors, and endeavor thus early to
gain his good graces. Among them was the infatuated Egmont, who
made a present to Alva of two superb horses, which the latter
received with a disdainful air of condescension. Alva's first
care was the distribution of his troops--several thousands of
whom were placed in Antwerp, Ghent, and other important towns,
and the remainder reserved under his own immediate orders at
Brussels. His approach was celebrated by universal terror; and
his arrival was thoroughly humiliating to the duchess of Parma.
He immediately produced his commission as commander-in-chief
of the royal armies in the Netherlands; but he next showed her
another, which confided to him powers infinitely more extended
than any Marguerite herself had enjoyed, and which proved to her
that the almost sovereign power over the country was virtually
vested in him.
Alva first turned his attention to the seizure of those patriot
lords whose pertinacious infatuation left them within his reach.
He summoned a meeting of all the members of the council of state
and the knights of the order of the Golden Fleece, to deliberate
on matters of great importance. Counts Egmont and Horn attended,
among many others; and at the conclusion of the council they
were both arrested (some historians assert by the hands of Alva
and his eldest son), as was also Van Straeten, burgomaster of
Antwerp, and Casambrot, Egmont's secretary. The young count of
Mansfield appeared for a moment at this meeting; but, warned by
his father of the fate intended him, as an original member of
the confederation, he had time to fly. The count of Hoogstraeten
was happily detained by illness, and thus escaped the fate of
his friends. Egmont and Horn were transferred to the citadel
of Ghent, under an escort of three thousand Spanish soldiers.
Several other persons of the first families were arrested; and
those who had originally been taken in arms were executed without
delay.
[Illustration: STORMING THE BARRICADES AT BRUSSELS DURING THE
REVOLUTION OF 1848.]
The next measures of the new governor were the reestablishment of
the Inquisition, the promulgation of the decrees of the Council
of Trent, the revocation of the duchess of Parma's edicts, and
the royal refusal to recognize the terms of her treaties with
the Protestants. He immediately established a special tribunal,
composed of twelve members, with full powers to inquire into
and pronounce judgment on every circumstance connected with the
late troubles. He named himself president of this council, and
appointed a Spaniard, named Vargas, as vice-president--a wretch
of the most diabolical cruelty. Several others of the judges
were also Spaniards, in direct infraction of the fundamental
laws of the country. This council, immortalized by its infamy,
was named by the new governor (for so Alva was in fact, though
not yet in name), the Council of Troubles. By the people it was
soon designed the Council of Blood. In its atrocious proceedings
no respect was paid to titles, contracts, or privileges, however
sacred. Its judgments were without appeal. Every subject of the
state was amenable to its summons; clergy and laity, the first
individuals of the country, as well as the most wretched outcasts
of society. Its decrees were passed with disgusting rapidity
and contempt of form. Contumacy was punished with exile and
confiscation. Those who, strong in innocence, dared to brave
a trial were lost without resource. The accused were forced to
its bar without previous warning. Many a wealthy citizen was
dragged to trial four leagues' distance, tied to a horse's tail.
The number of victims was appalling. On one occasion, the town
of Valenciennes alone saw fifty-five of its citizens fall by
the hands of the executioner. Hanging, beheading, quartering and
burning were the every-day spectacles. The enormous confiscations
only added to the thirst for gold and blood by which Alva and his
satellites were parched. History offers no example of parallel
horrors; for while party vengeance on other occasions has led to
scenes of fury and terror, they arose, in this instance, from
the vilest cupidity and the most cold-blooded cruelty.