Holland - Thomas Colley Grattan
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To these manifold evils was now added one more terrible, in the
appearance of the plague, which broke out at Ghent in the month
of October, and devastated a great part of the Netherlands; not,
however, with that violence with which it rages in more southern
climates.
Requesens, overwhelmed by difficulties, yet exerted himself to
the utmost to put the best face on the affairs of government.
His chief care was to appease the mutinous soldiery: he even
caused his plate to be melted, and freely gave the produce toward
the payment of their arrears. The patriots, well informed of this
state of things, labored to turn it to their best advantage. They
opened the campaign in the province of Guelders, where Louis of
Nassau, with his younger brother Henry, and the prince Palatine,
son of the elector Frederick III., appeared at the head of eleven
thousand men; the Prince of Orange prepared to join him with an
equal number; but Requesens promptly despatched Sanchez d'Avila
to prevent this junction. The Spanish commander quickly passed
the Meuse near Nimeguen; and on the 14th of April he forced Count
Louis to a battle, on the great plain called Mookerheyde, close
to the village of Mook. The royalists attacked with their usual
valor; and, after two hours of hard fighting, the confederates
were totally defeated. The three gallant princes were among the
slain, and their bodies were never afterward discovered. It has
been stated, on doubtful authority, that Louis of Nassau, after
having lain some time among the heaps of dead, dragged himself
to the side of the river Meuse, and while washing his wounds
was inhumanly murdered by some straggling peasants, to whom he
was unknown. The unfortunate fate of this enterprising prince
was a severe blow to the patriot cause, and a cruel affliction
to the Prince of Orange. He had now already lost three brothers
in the war; and remained alone, to revenge their fate and sustain
the cause for which they had perished.
D'Avila soon found his victory to be as fruitless as it was
brilliant. The ruffian troops, by whom it was gained, became
immediately self-disbanded; threw off all authority; hastened
to possess themselves of Antwerp; and threatened to proceed to
the most horrible extremities if their pay was longer withheld.
The citizens succeeded with difficulty in appeasing them, by
the sacrifice of some money in part payment of their claims.
Requesens took advantage of their temporary calm, and despatched
them promptly to take part in the siege of Leyden.
This siege formed another of those numerous instances which became
so memorable from the mixture of heroism and horror. Jean Vanderdoes,
known in literature by the name of Dousa, and celebrated for his
Latin poems, commanded the place. Valdez, who conducted the siege,
urged Dousa to surrender; when the latter replied, in the name of
the inhabitants, "that when provisions failed them, they would
devour their left hands, reserving the right to defend their
liberty." A party of the inhabitants, driven to disobedience and
revolt by the excess of misery to which they were shortly reduced,
attempted to force the burgomaster, Vanderwerf, to supply them with
bread, or yield up the place. But he sternly made the celebrated
answer, which, cannot be remembered without shuddering--"Bread I
have none; but if my death can afford you relief, tear my body
in pieces, and let those who are most hungry devour it!"
But in this extremity relief at last was afforded by the decisive
measures of the Prince of Orange, who ordered all the neighboring
dikes to be opened and the sluices raised, thus sweeping away the
besiegers on the waves of the ocean: the inhabitants of Leyden
were apprised of this intention by means of letters intrusted
to the safe carriage of pigeons trained for the purpose. The
inundation was no sooner effected than hundreds of flat-bottomed
boats brought abundance of supplies to the half-famished town;
while a violent storm carried the sea across the country for
twenty leagues around, and destroyed the Spanish camp, with above
one thousand soldiers, who were overtaken by the flood. This
deliverance took place on the 3d of October, on which day it
is still annually celebrated by the descendants of the grateful
citizens.
It was now for the first time that Spain would consent to listen
to advice or mediation, which had for its object the termination
of this frightful war. The emperor Maximilian II. renewed at
this epoch his efforts with Philip; and under such favorable
auspices conferences commenced at Breda, where the counts
Swartzenberg and Hohenloe, brothers-in-law of the Prince of Orange,
met, on the part of the emperor, the deputies from the king of
Spain and the patriots; and hopes of a complete pacification
were generally entertained. But three months of deliberation
proved their fallacy. The patriots demanded toleration for the
reformed religion. The king's deputies obstinately refused it.
The congress was therefore broken up; and both oppressors and
oppressed resumed their arms with increased vigor and tenfold
desperation.
Requesens had long fixed his eyes on Zealand as the scene of an
expedition by which he hoped to repair the failure before Leyden;
and he caused an attempt to be made on the town of Zuriczee, in
the island of Scauwen, which merits record as one of the boldest
and most original enterprises of the war.
The little islands of Zealand are separated from each other by
narrow branches of the sea, which are fordable at low water;
and it was by such a passage, two leagues in breadth, and till
then untried, that the Spanish detachment of one thousand seven
hundred and fifty men, under Ulloa and other veteran captains,
advanced to their exploit in the midst of dangers greatly increased
by a night of total darkness. Each man carried round his neck
two pounds of gunpowder, with a sufficient supply of biscuit
for two days; and holding their swords and muskets high over
their heads, they boldly waded forward, three abreast, in some
places up to their shoulders in water. The alarm was soon given;
and a shower of balls was poured upon the gallant band, from
upward of forty boats which the Zealanders sent rapidly toward
the spot. The only light afforded to either party was from the
flashes of their guns; and while the adventurers advanced with
undaunted firmness, their equally daring assailants, jumping
from their boats into the water, attacked them with oars and
hooked handspikes, by which many of the Spaniards were destroyed.
The rearguard, in this extremity, cut off from their companions,
was obliged to retreat; but the rest, after a considerable loss,
at length reached the land, and thus gained possession of the
island, on the night of the 28th of September, 1575.
Requesens quickly afterward repaired to the scene of this gallant
exploit, and commenced the siege of Zuriczee, which he did not
live to see completed. After having passed the winter months
in preparation for the success of this object which he had so
much at heart, he was recalled to Brussels by accounts of new
mutinies in the Spanish cavalry; and the very evening before
he reached the city he was attacked by a violent fever, which
carried him off five days afterward, on the 5th of March, 1516.
The suddenness of Requesen's illness had not allowed time for
even the nomination of a successor, to which he was authorized by
letters patent from the king. It is believed that his intention
was to appoint Count Mansfield to the command of the army, and De
Berlaimont to the administration of civil affairs. The government,
however, now devolved entirely into the hands of the council of
state, which was at that period composed of nine members. The
principal of these was Philip de Croi, duke of Arschot; the other
leading members were Viglius, Counts Mansfield and Berlaimont; and
the council was degraded by numbering, among the rest, Debris
and De Roda, two of the notorious Spaniards who had formed part
of the Council of Blood.
The king resolved to leave the authority in the hands of this
incongruous mixture, until the arrival of Don John of Austria,
his natural brother, whom he had already named to the office of
governor-general. But in the interval the government assumed an
aspect of unprecedented disorder; and widespread anarchy embraced
the whole country. The royal troops openly revolted, and fought
against each other like deadly enemies. The nobles, divided in
their views, arrogated to themselves in different places the
titles and powers of command. Public faith and private probity
seemed alike destroyed. Pillage, violence and ferocity were the
commonplace characteristics of the times.
Circumstances like these may be well supposed to have revived
the hopes of the Prince of Orange, who quickly saw amid this
chaos the elements of order, strength, and liberty. Such had
been his previous affliction at the harrowing events which he
witnessed and despaired of being able to relieve, that he had
proposed to the patriots of Holland and Zealand to destroy the
dikes, submerge the whole country, and abandon to the waves the
soil which refused security to freedom. But Providence destined
him to be the savior, instead of the destroyer, of his country. The
chief motive of this excessive desperation had been the apparent
desertion by Queen Elizabeth of the cause which she had hitherto
so mainly assisted. Offended at the capture of some English ships
by the Dutch, who asserted that they carried supplies for the
Spaniards, she withdrew from them her protection; but by timely
submission they appeased her wrath; and it is thought by some
historians that even thus early the Prince of Orange proposed to
place the revolted provinces wholly under her protection. This,
however, she for the time refused; but she strongly solicited
Philip's mercy for these unfortunate countries, through the Spanish
ambassador at her court.
In the meantime the council of state at Brussels seemed disposed
to follow up as far as possible the plans of Requesens. The siege
of Zuriczee was continued; but speedy dissensions among the members
of the government rendered their authority contemptible, if not
utterly extinct, in the eyes of the people. The exhaustion of
the treasury deprived them of all power to put an end to the
mutinous excesses of the Spanish troops, and the latter carried
their licentiousness to the utmost bounds. Zuriczee, admitted to
a surrender, and saved from pillage by the payment of a large
sum, was lost to the royalists within three months, from the
want of discipline in its garrison; and the towns and burghs
of Brabant suffered as much from the excesses of their nominal
protectors as could have been inflicted by the enemy. The mutineers
at length, to the number of some thousands, attacked and carried
by force the town of Alost, at equal distances between Brussels,
Ghent, and Antwerp, imprisoned the chief citizens, and levied
contributions on all the country round. It was then that the
council of state found itself forced to proclaim them rebels,
traitors, and enemies to the king and the country, and called
on all loyal subjects to pursue and exterminate them wherever
they were found in arms.
This proscription of the Spanish mutineers was followed by the
convocation of the states-general, and the government thus hoped
to maintain some show of union and some chance of authority.
But a new scene of intestine violence completed the picture of
executive inefficiency. On the 4th of September, the grand bailiff
of Brabant, as lieutenant of the Baron de Hesse, governor of
Brussels, entered the council chamber by force, and arrested all
the members present, on suspicion of treacherously maintaining
intelligence with the Spaniards. Counts Mansfield and Berlaimont
were imprisoned, with some others. Viglius escaped this indignity
by being absent froth indisposition. This bold measure was hailed
by the people with unusual joy, as the signal for that total
change in the government which they reckoned on as the prelude
to complete freedom.
The states-general were all at this time assembled, with the
exception of those of Flanders, who joined the others with but
little delay. The general reprobation against the Spaniards procured
a second decree of proscription; and their desperate conduct
justified the utmost violence with which they might be pursued.
They still held the citadels of Ghent and Antwerp, as well as
Maestricht, which they had seized on, sacked, and pillaged with
all the fury which a barbarous enemy inflicts on a town carried
by assault. On the 3d of November, the other body of mutineers,
in possession of Alost, marched to the support of their fellow
brigands in the citadel of Antwerp; and both, simultaneously
attacking this magnificent city, became masters of it in all
points, in spite of a vigorous resistance on the part of the
citizens. They then began a scene of rapine and destruction
unequalled in the annals of these desperate wars. More than five
hundred private mansions and the splendid town-house were delivered
to the flames: seven thousand citizens perished by the sword or
in the waters of the Scheldt. For three days the carnage and
the pillage went on with unheard-of fury; and the most opulent
town in Europe was thus reduced to ruin and desolation by a few
thousand frantic ruffians. The loss was valued at above two million
golden crowns. Vargas and Romero were the principal leaders of
this infernal exploit; and De Roda gained a new title to his
immortality of shame by standing forth as its apologist.
The states-general, assembled at Ghent, were solemnly opened on
the 14th of September. Being apprehensive of a sudden attack from
the Spanish troops in the citadel, they proposed a negotiation,
and demanded a protecting force from the Prince of Orange, who
immediately entered into a treaty with their envoy, and sent to
their assistance eight companies of infantry and seventeen pieces
of cannon, under the command of the English colonel, Temple.
In the midst of this turmoil and apparent insecurity, the
states-general proceeded in their great work, and assumed the
reins of government in the name of the king. They allowed the
council of state still nominally to exist, but they restricted
its powers far within those it had hitherto exercised; and the
government, thus absolutely assuming the form of a republic,
issued manifestoes in justification of its conduct, and demanded
succor from all the foreign powers. To complete the union between
the various provinces, it was resolved to resume the negotiations
commenced the preceding year at Breda; and the 10th of October
was fixed for this new congress to be held in the town-house
of Ghent.
On the day appointed, the congress opened its sittings; and rapidly
arriving at the termination of its important object, the celebrated
treaty known by the title of "The Pacification of Ghent" was
published on the 8th of November, to the sound of bells and trumpets;
while the ceremony was rendered still more imposing by the thunder
of the artillery which battered the walls of the besieged citadel.
It was even intended to have delivered a general assault against the
place at the moment of the proclamation; but the mutineers demanded
a capitulation and finally surrendered three days afterward. It
was the wife of the famous Mondragon who commanded the place
in her husband's absence; and by her heroism gave a new proof
of the capability of the sex to surpass the limits which nature
seems to have fixed for their conduct.
The Pacification contained twenty-five articles. Among others,
it was agreed:
That a full amnesty should be passed for all offences whatsoever.
That the estates of Brabant, Flanders, Hainault, Artois, and
others, on the one part; the Prince of Orange, and the states of
Holland and Zealand and their associates, on the other; promised
to maintain good faith, peace, and friendship, firm and inviolable;
to mutually assist each other, at all times, in council and action;
and to employ life and fortune, above all things, to expel from
the country the Spanish soldiers and other foreigners.
That no one should be allowed to injure or insult, by word or
deed, the exercise of the Catholic religion, on pain of being
treated as a disturber of the public peace.
That the edicts against heresy and the proclamations of the duke
of Alva should be suspended.
That all confiscations, sentences, and judgments rendered since
1566 should be annulled.
That the inscriptions, monuments, and trophies erected by the
duke of Alva should be demolished.
Such were the general conditions of the treaty; the remaining
articles chiefly concerned individual interests. The promulgation
of this great charter of union, which was considered as the
fundamental law of the country, was hailed in all parts of the
Netherlands with extravagant demonstrations of joy.
CHAPTER XI
TO THE RENUNCIATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SPAIN AND THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE
A.D. 1576--1580
On the very day of the sack of Antwerp, Don John of Austria arrived
at Luxemburg. This ominous commencement of his viceregal reign
was not belied by the events which followed; and the hero of
Lepanto, the victor of the Turks, the idol of Christendom, was
destined to have his reputation and well-won laurels tarnished in
the service of the insidious despotism to which he now became an
instrument. Don John was a natural son of Charles V., and to fine
talents and a good disposition united the advantages of hereditary
courage and a liberal education. He was born at Ratisbon on the
24th of February, 1543. His reputed mother was a young lady of
that place named Barbara Blomberg; but one historian states that
the real parent was of a condition too elevated to have her rank
betrayed; and that, to conceal the mystery, Barbara Blomberg had
voluntarily assumed the distinction, or the dishonor, according
to the different constructions put upon the case. The prince,
having passed through France, disguised, for greater secrecy or
in a youthful frolic, as a negro valet to Prince Octavo Gonzaga,
entered on the limits of his new government, and immediately
wrote to the council of state in the most condescending terms to
announce his arrival.
Nothing could present a less promising aspect to the prince than
the country at the head of which he was now placed. He found all
its provinces, with the sole exception of Luxemburg, in the anarchy
attendant on a ten years' civil war, and apparently resolved on
a total breach of their allegiance to Spain. He found his best,
indeed his only, course to be that of moderation and management;
and it is most probable that at the outset his intentions were
really honorable and candid.
The states-general were not less embarrassed than the prince.
His sudden arrival threw them into great perplexity, which was
increased by the conciliatory tone of his letter. They had now
removed from Ghent to Brussels; and first sending deputies to
pay the honors of a ceremonious welcome to Don John, they wrote
to the Prince of Orange, then in Holland, for his advice in this
difficult conjuncture. The prince replied by a memorial of
considerable length, dated Middleburg, the 30th of November, in
which he gave them the most wise and prudent advice; the substance
of which was to receive any propositions coming from the wily
and perfidious Philip with the utmost suspicion, and to refuse
all negotiation with his deputy, if the immediate withdrawal of
the foreign troops was not at once conceded, and the acceptance
of the Pacification guaranteed in its most ample extent.
This advice was implicitly followed; the states in the meantime
taking the precaution of assembling a large body of troops at
Wavre, between Brussels and Namur, the command of which was given
to the count of Lalain. A still more important measure was the
despatch of an envoy to England, to implore the assistance of
Elizabeth. She acted on this occasion with frankness and intrepidity;
giving a distinguished reception to the envoy, De Sweveghem, and
advancing a loan of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, on
condition that the states made no treaty without her knowledge
or participation.
To secure still more closely the federal union that now bound the
different provinces, a new compact was concluded by the deputies
on the 9th of January, 1577, known by the title of The Union of
Brussels, and signed by the prelates, ecclesiastics, lords,
gentlemen, magistrates, and others, representing the estates of
the Netherlands. A copy of this act of union was transmitted to
Don John, to enable him thoroughly to understand the present state
of feeling among those with whom he was now about to negotiate.
He maintained a general tone of great moderation throughout the
conference which immediately took place; and after some months
of cautious parleying, in the latter part of which the candor
of the prince seemed doubtful, and which the native historians
do not hesitate to stigmatize as merely assumed, a treaty was
signed at Marche-en-Famenne, a place between Namur and Luxemburg,
in which every point insisted on by the states was, to the surprise
and delight of the nation, fully consented to and guaranteed.
This important document is called The Perpetual Edict, bears
date the 12th of February, 1577, and contains nineteen articles.
They were all based on the acceptance of the Pacification; but
one expressly stipulated that the count of Beuren should be set
at liberty as soon as the Prince of Orange, his father, had on
his part ratified the treaty.
Don John made his solemn entry into Brussels on the 1st of May,
and assumed the functions of his limited authority. The conditions
of the treaty were promptly and regularly fulfilled. The citadels
occupied by the Spanish soldiers were given up to the Flemish and
Walloon troops; and the departure of these ferocious foreigners
took place at once. The large sums required to facilitate this
measure made it necessary to submit for a while to the presence
of the German mercenaries. But Don John's conduct soon destroyed
the temporary delusion which had deceived the country. Whether
his projects were hitherto only concealed, or that they were
now for the first time excited by the disappointment of those
hopes of authority held out to him by Philip, and which his
predecessors had shared, it is certain that he very early displayed
his ambition, and very imprudently attempted to put it in force.
He at once demanded from the council of state the command of
the troops and the disposal of the revenues. The answer was a
simple reference to the Pacification of Ghent; and the prince's
rejoinder was an apparent submission, and the immediate despatch
of letters in cipher to the king, demanding a supply of troops
sufficient to restore his ruined authority. These letters were
intercepted by the king of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. of France,
who immediately transmitted them to the Prince of Orange, his
old friend and fellow-soldier.
Public opinion, to the suspicions of which Don John had been
from the first obnoxious, was now unanimous in attributing to
design all that was unconstitutional and unfair. His impetuous
character could no longer submit to the restraint of dissimulation,
and he resolved to take some bold and decided measure. A very
favorable opportunity was presented in the arrival of the queen
of Navarre, Marguerite of Valois, at Namur, on her way to Spa.
The prince, numerously attended, hastened to the former town
under pretence of paying his respects to the queen. As soon as
she left the place, he repaired to the glacis of the town, as if
for the mere enjoyment of a walk, admired the external appearance
of the citadel, and expressed a desire to be admitted inside.
The young count of Berlaimont, in the absence of his father,
the governor of the place, and an accomplice in the plot with
Don John, freely admitted him. The prince immediately drew forth
a pistol, and exclaimed that "that was the first moment of his
government"; took possession of the place with his immediate
guard, and instantly formed them into a devoted garrison.
The Prince of Orange immediately made public the intercepted
letters; and, at the solicitation of the states-general, repaired
to Brussels; into which city he made a truly triumphant entry on
the 23d of September, and was immediately nominated governor,
protector or _ruward_ of Brabant--a dignity which had fallen
into disuse, but was revived on this occasion, and which was
little inferior in power to that of the dictators of Rome. His
authority, now almost unlimited, extended over every province
of the Netherlands, except Namur and Luxemburg, both of which
acknowledged Don John.
The first care of the liberated nation was to demolish the various
citadels rendered celebrated and odious by the excesses of the
Spaniards. This was done with an enthusiastic industry in which
every age and sex bore a part, and which promised well for liberty.
Among the ruins of that of Antwerp the statue of the duke of
Alva was discovered; dragged through the filthiest streets of
the town; and, with all the indignity so well merited by the
original, it was finally broken into a thousand pieces.