Holland - Thomas Colley Grattan
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The country, in conferring such extensive powers on the Prince
of Orange, had certainly gone too far, not for his desert, but
for its own tranquillity. It was impossible that such an elevation
should not excite the discontent and awaken the enmity of the
haughty aristocracy of Flanders and Brabant; and particularly
of the House of Croi, the ancient rivals of that of Nassau. The
then representative of that family seemed the person most suited
to counterbalance William's excessive power. The duke of Arschot
was therefore named governor of Flanders; and he immediately put
himself at the head of a confederacy of the Catholic party, which
quickly decided to offer the chief government of the country,
still in the name of Philip, to the archduke Mathias, brother of
the emperor Rodolf II., and cousin-german to Philip of Spain, a
youth but nineteen years of age. A Flemish gentleman named Maelsted
was intrusted with the proposal. Mathias joyously consented;
and, quitting Vienna with the greatest secrecy, he arrived at
Maestricht, without any previous announcement, and expected only
by the party that had invited him, at the end of October, 1577.
The Prince of Orange, instead of showing the least symptom of
dissatisfaction at this underhand proceeding aimed at his personal
authority, announced his perfect approval of the nomination, and
was the foremost in recommending measures for the honor of the
archduke and the security of the country. He drew up the basis of
a treaty for Mathias's acceptance, on terms which guaranteed to the
council of state and the states-general the virtual sovereignty,
and left to the young prince little beyond the fine title which
had dazzled his boyish vanity. The Prince of Orange was appointed
his lieutenant, in all the branches of the administration, civil,
military, or financial; and the duke of Arschot, who had hoped
to obtain an entire domination over the puppet he had brought
upon the stage, saw himself totally foiled in his project, and
left without a chance or a pretext for the least increase to
his influence.
But a still greater disappointment attended this ambitious nobleman
in the very stronghold of his power. The Flemings, driven by
persecution to a state of fury almost unnatural, had, in their
antipathy to Spain, adopted a hatred against Catholicism, which had
its source only in political frenzy, while the converts imagined it
to arise from reason and conviction. Two men had taken advantage
of this state of the public mind and gained over it an unbounded
ascendency. They were Francis de Kethulle, lord of Ryhove, and
John Hembyse, who each seemed formed to realize the beau-ideal
of a factious demagogue. They had acquired supreme power over
the people of Ghent, and had at their command a body of twenty
thousand resolute and well-armed supporters. The duke of Arschot
vainly attempted to oppose his authority to that of these men;
and he on one occasion imprudently exclaimed that "he would have
them hanged, even though they were protected by the Prince of
Orange himself." The same night Ryhove summoned the leaders of
his bands; and quickly assembling a considerable force, they
repaired to the duke's hotel, made him prisoner, and, without
allowing him time to dress, carried him away in triumph. At the
same time the bishops of Bruges and Ypres, the high bailiffs of
Ghent and Courtrai, the governor of Oudenarde, and other important
magistrates, were arrested--accused of complicity with the duke,
but of what particular offence the lawless demagogues did not
deign to specify. The two tribunes immediately divided the whole
honors and authority of administration; Ryhove as military, and
Hembyse as civil, chief.
The latter of these legislators completely changed the forms
of the government; he revived the ancient privileges destroyed
by Charles V., and took all preliminary measures for forcing the
various provinces to join with the city of Ghent in forming a
federative republic. The states-general and the Prince of Orange
were alarmed, lest these troubles might lead to a renewal of
the anarchy from the effects of which the country had but just
obtained breathing-time. Ryhove consented, at the remonstrance
of the Prince of Orange, to release the duke of Arschot; but
William was obliged to repair to Ghent in person, in the hope
of establishing order. He arrived on the 29th of December, and
entered on a strict inquiry with his usual calmness and decision.
He could not succeed in obtaining the liberty of the other prisoners,
though he pleaded for them strongly. Having severely reprimanded
the factious leaders, and pointed out the dangers of their illegal
course, he returned to Brussels, leaving the factious city in a
temporary tranquillity which his firmness and discretion could
alone have obtained.
The archduke Mathias, having visited Antwerp, and acceded to
all the conditions required of him, made his public entry into
Brussels on the 18th of January, 1578, and was installed in his
dignity of governor-general amid the usual fetes and rejoicings.
Don John of Austria was at the same time declared an enemy to
the country, with a public order to quit it without delay; and
a prohibition was issued against any inhabitant acknowledging
his forfeited authority.
War was now once more openly declared; some fruitless negotiations
having afforded a fair pretext for hostilities. The rapid appearance
of a numerous army under the orders of Don John gave strength to
the suspicions of his former dissimulation. It was currently
believed that large bodies of the Spanish troops had remained
concealed in the forests of Luxemburg and Lorraine; while several
regiments, which had remained in France in the service of the
League, immediately re-entered the Netherlands. Alexander Farnese,
prince of Parma, son of the former stadtholderess, came to the aid
of his uncle, Don John, at the head of a large force of Italians;
and these several reinforcements, with the German auxiliaries
still in the country, composed an army of twenty thousand men.
The army of the states-general was still larger; but far inferior
in point of discipline. It was commanded by Antoine de Goignies,
a gentleman of Hainault, and an old soldier of the school of
Charles V.
After a sharp affair at the village of Riminants, in which the
royalists had the worst, the two armies met at Gemblours, on the
31st of January, 1578; and the prince of Parma gained a complete
victory, almost with his cavalry only, taking De Goignies prisoner,
with the whole of his artillery and baggage. The account of his
victory is almost miraculous. The royalists, if we are to credit
their most minute but not impartial historian, had only one thousand
two hundred men engaged; by whom six thousand were put to the
sword, with the loss of but twelve men and little more than an
hour's labor.
The news of this battle threw the states into the utmost
consternation. Brussels being considered insecure, the archduke
Mathias and his council retired to Antwerp; but the victors did
not feel their forces sufficient to justify an attack upon the
capital. They, however, took Louvain, Tirlemont, and several other
towns; but these conquests were of little import in comparison with
the loss of Amsterdam, which declared openly and unanimously for
the patriot cause. The states-general recovered their courage, and
prepared for a new contest. They sent deputies to the diet of Worms,
to ask succor from the princes of the empire. The count palatine
John Casimir repaired to their assistance with a considerable
force of Germans and English, all equipped and paid by Queen
Elizabeth. The duke of Alencon, brother of Henry III. of France,
hovered on the frontiers of Hainault with a respectable army;
and the cause of liberty seemed not quite desperate.
But all the various chiefs had separate interests and opposite
views; while the fanatic violence of the people of Ghent sapped
the foundations of the pacification to which the town had given
its name. The Walloon provinces, deep-rooted in their attachment
to religious bigotry, which they loved still better than political
freedom, gradually withdrew from the common cause; and without yet
openly becoming reconciled with Spain, they adopted a neutrality
which was tantamount to it. Don John was, however, deprived of
all chance of reaping any advantage from these unfortunate
dissensions. He was suddenly taken ill in his camp at Bougy;
and died, after a fortnight's suffering, on the 1st of October,
1578, in the thirty-third year of his age.
This unlooked-for close to a career which had been so brilliant,
and to a life from which so much was yet to be expected, makes
us pause to consider for a moment the different opinions of his
times and of history on the fate of a personage so remarkable.
The contemporary Flemish memoirs say that he died of the plague;
those of Spain call his disorder the purple fever. The examination
of his corpse caused an almost general belief that he was poisoned.
"He lost his life," says one author, "with great suspicion of
poison." "Acabo su vida, con gran sospecho de veneno."--Herrera.
Another speaks of the suspicious state of his intestines, but
without any direct opinion. An English historian states the fact
of his being poisoned, without any reserve. Flemish writers do
not hesitate to attribute his murder to the jealousy of Philip
II., who, they assert, had discovered a secret treaty of marriage
about to be concluded between Don John and Elizabeth of England,
securing them the joint sovereignty of the Netherlands. An Italian
historian of credit asserts that this ambitious design was attributed
to the prince; and admits that his death was not considered as
having arisen from natural causes. "E quindi nacque l'opinione
dispersa allora, ch'egli mancasse di morte aiutata piu tosto
che naturale."--Bentivoglio. It was also believed that Escovedo,
his confidential secretary, being immediately called back to
Spain, was secretly assassinated by Antonio Perez, Philip's
celebrated minister, and by the special orders of the king. Time
has, however, covered the affair with impenetrable mystery; and
the death of Don John was of little importance to the affairs
of the country he governed so briefly and so ingloriously, if
it be not that it added another motive to the natural hatred
for his assumed murderer.
The prince of Parma, who now succeeded, by virtue of Don John's
testament, to the post of governor-general in the name of the
king, remained intrenched in his camp. He expected much from
the disunion of his various opponents; and what he foresaw very
quickly happened. The duke of Alencon disbanded his troops and
retired to France; and the prince Palatine, following his example,
withdrew to Germany, having first made an unsuccessful attempt to
engage the queen of England as a principal in the confederacy. In
this perplexity, the Prince of Orange saw that the real hope for
safety was in uniting still more closely the northern provinces
of the union; for he discovered the fallacy of reckoning on the
cordial and persevering fidelity of the Walloons. He therefore
convoked a new assembly at Utrecht; and the deputies of Holland,
Guelders, Zealand, Utrecht, and Groningen, signed, on the 29th
of January, 1579, the famous act called the Union of Utrecht,
the real basis or fundamental pact of the republic of the United
Provinces. It makes no formal renunciation of allegiance to Spain,
but this is virtually done by the omission of the king's name.
The twenty-six articles of this act consolidate the indissoluble
connection of the United Provinces; each preserving its separate
franchises, and following its own good pleasure on the subject
of religion. The towns of Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, and Ypres,
soon after acceded to and joined the union.
The prince of Parma now assumed the offensive, and marched against
Maestricht with his whole army. He took the place in the month
of June, 1579, after a gallant resistance, and delivered it to
sack and massacre for three entire days. About the same time
Mechlin and Bois-le-duc returned to their obedience to the king.
Hembyse having renewed his attempts against the public peace at
Ghent, the Prince of Orange repaired to that place, re-established
order, frightened the inveterate demagogue into secret flight,
and Flanders was once more restored to tranquillity.
An attempt was made this year at a reconciliation between the
king and the states. The emperor Rodolf II. and Pope Gregory XIII.
offered their mediation; and on the 5th of April a congress assembled
at Cologne, where a number of the most celebrated diplomatists in
Europe were collected. But it was early seen that no settlement
would result from the apparently reciprocal wish for peace. One
point--that of religion, the main, and indeed the only one in
debate--was now maintained by Philip's ambassador in the same
unchristian spirit as if torrents of blood and millions of treasure
had never been sacrificed in the cause. Philip was inflexible in
his resolution never to concede the exercise of the reformed
worship; and after nearly a year of fruitless consultation, and
the expenditure of immense sums of money, the congress separated
on the 17th of November, without having effected anything. There
were several other articles intended for discussion, had the
main one been adjusted, on which Philip was fully as determined
to make no concession; but his obstinacy was not put to these
new tests.
The time had now arrived for the execution of the great and decisive
step for independence, the means of effecting which had been so
long the object of exertion and calculation on the part of the
Prince of Orange. He now resolved to assemble the states of the
United Provinces, solemnly abjure the dominion of Spain, and depose
King Philip from the sovereignty he had so justly forfeited. Much
has been written both for and against this measure, which involved
every argument of natural rights and municipal privilege. The
natural rights of man may seem to comprise only those which he
enjoys in a state of nature; but he carries several of those
with him into society, which is based upon the very principle of
their preservation. The great precedent which so many subsequent
revolutions have acknowledged and confirmed is that which we now
record. The states-general assembled at Antwerp early in the
year 1580; and, in spite of all the opposition of the Catholic
deputies, the authority of Spain was revoked forever, and the
United Provinces declared a free and independent state. At the
same time was debated the important question as to whether the
protection of the new state should be offered to England or to
France. Opinions were divided on this point; but that of the Prince
of Orange being in favor of the latter country, from many motives
of sound policy, it was decided to offer the sovereignty to the
duke of Alencon. The archduke Mathias, who was present at the
deliberations, was treated with little ceremony; but he obtained
the promise of a pension when the finances were in a situation to
afford it. The definite proposal to be made to the duke of Alencon
was not agreed upon for some months afterward; and it was in the
month of August following that St. Aldegonde and other deputies
waited on the duke at the chateau of Plessis-le-Tours, when he
accepted the offered sovereignty on the proposed conditions,
which set narrow bounds to his authority, and gave ample security
to the United Provinces. The articles were formally signed on the
29th day of September; and the duke not only promised quickly
to lead a numerous army to the Netherlands, but he obtained a
letter from his brother, Henry III., dated December 26th, by
which the king pledged himself to give further aid, as soon as
he might succeed in quieting his own disturbed and unfortunate
country. The states-general, assembled at Delft, ratified the
treaty on the 30th of December; and the year which was about to
open seemed to promise the consolidation of freedom and internal
peace.
CHAPTER XII
TO THE MURDER OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE
A.D. 1580--1584
Philip might be well excused the utmost violence of resentment on
this occasion, had it been bounded by fair and honorable efforts
for the maintenance of his authority. But every general principle
seemed lost in the base inveteracy of private hatred. The ruin
of the Prince of Orange was his main object, and his industry
and ingenuity were taxed to the utmost to procure his murder.
Existing documents prove that he first wished to accomplish this
in such a way as that the responsibility and odium of the act
might rest on the prince of Parma; but the mind of the prince
was at that period too magnanimous to allow of a participation
in the crime. The correspondence on the subject is preserved
in the archives, and the date of Philip's first letter (30th
of November, 1579) proves that even before the final disavowal
of his authority by the United Provinces he had harbored his
diabolical design. The prince remonstrated, but with no effect.
It even appears that Philip's anxiety would not admit of the
delay necessary for the prince's reply. The infamous edict of
proscription against William bears date the 15th of March; and
the most pressing letters commanded the prince of Parma to make
it public. It was not, however, till the 15th of June that he
sent forth the fatal ban.
This edict, under Philip's own signature, is a tissue of invective
and virulence. The illustrious object of its abuse is accused of
having engaged the heretics to profane the churches and break the
images; of having persecuted and massacred the Catholic priests; of
hypocrisy, tyranny, and perjury; and, as the height of atrocity,
of having introduced liberty of conscience into his country! For
these causes, and many others, the king declares him "proscribed
and banished as a public pest"; and it is permitted to all persons
to assail him "in his fortune, person, and life, as an enemy
to human nature." Philip also, "for the recompense of virtue
and the punishment of crime," promises to whoever will deliver
up William of Nassau, dead or alive, "in lands or money, at his
choice, the sum of twenty-five thousand golden crowns; to grant
a free pardon to such person for all former offences of what kind
soever, and to invest him with letters patent of nobility."
In reply to this brutal document of human depravity, William
published all over Europe his famous "Apology," of which it is
enough to say that language could not produce a more splendid
refutation of every charge or a more terrible recrimination against
the guilty tyrant. It was attributed to the pen of Peter de Villiers,
a Protestant minister. It is universally pronounced one of the
noblest monuments of history. William, from the hour of his
proscription, became at once the equal in worldly station, as
he had ever been the superior in moral worth, of his royal
calumniator. He took his place as a prince of an imperial family,
not less ancient or illustrious than that of the House of Austria;
and he stood forward at the supreme tribunal of public feeling
and opinion as the accuser of a king who disgraced his lineage
and his throne.
By a separate article in the treaty with the states, the duke
of Alencon secured to William the sovereignty of Holland and
Zealand, as well as the lordship of Friesland, with his title
of stadtholder, retaining to the duke his claim on the prince's
faith and homage. The exact nature of William's authority was
finally ratified on the 24th of July, 1581; on which day he took
the prescribed oath, and entered on the exercise of his well-earned
rights.
Philip now formed the design of sending back the duchess of Parma
to resume her former situation as stadtholderess, and exercise
the authority conjointly with her son. But the latter positively
declined this proposal of divided power; and he, consequently,
was left alone to its entire exercise. Military affairs made
but slow progress this year. The most remarkable event was the
capture of La Noue, a native of Bretagne, one of the bravest, and
certainly the cleverest, officers in the service of the states,
into which he had passed after having given important aid to
the Huguenots of France. He was considered so important a prize
that Philip refused all proposals for his exchange, and detained
him in the castle of Limburg for five years.
The siege of Cambray was now undertaken by the prince of Parma
in person; while the duke of Alencon, at the head of a large army
and the flower of the French nobility, advanced to its relief, and
soon forced his rival to raise the siege. The new sovereign of the
Netherlands entered the town, and was received with tumultuous joy
by the half-starved citizens and garrison. The prince of Parma sought
an equivalent for this check in the attack of Tournay, which he
immediately afterward invested. The town was but feebly garrisoned;
but the Protestant inhabitants prepared for a desperate defence,
under the exciting example of the princess of Epinoi, wife of the
governor, who was himself absent. This remarkable woman furnishes
another proof of the female heroism which abounded in these wars.
Though wounded in the arm, she fought in the breach sword in hand,
braving peril and death. And when at length it was impossible to
hold out longer, she obtained an honorable capitulation, and
marched out, on the 29th of November, on horseback, at the head
of the garrison, with an air of triumph rather than of defeat.
The duke of Alencon, now created duke of Anjou, by which title
we shall hereafter distinguish him, had repaired to England,
in hopes of completing his project of marriage with Elizabeth.
After three months of almost confident expectation, the virgin
queen, at this time fifty years of age, with a caprice not quite
justifiable, broke all her former engagements; and, happily for
herself and her country, declined the marriage. Anjou burst out
into all the violence of his turbulent temper, and set sail for
the Netherlands. Elizabeth made all the reparation in her power,
by the honors paid him on his dismissal. She accompanied him as
far as Canterbury, and sent him away under the convoy of the earl
of Leicester, her chief favorite; and with a brilliant suite and a
fleet of fifteen sail. Anjou was received at Antwerp with equal
distinction; and was inaugurated there on the 19th of February
as duke of Brabant, Lothier, Limburg, and Guelders, with many
other titles, of which he soon proved himself unworthy. When
the Prince of Orange, at the ceremony, placed the ducal mantle
on his shoulders, Anjou said to him, "Fasten it so well, prince,
that they cannot take it off again!"
During the rejoicings which followed this inauspicious ceremony,
Philip's proscription against the Prince of Orange put forth its
first fruits. The latter gave a grand dinner in the chateau of
Antwerp, which he occupied, on the 18th of March, the birthday
of the duke of Anjou; and, as he was quitting the dining-room,
on his way to his private chamber, a young man stepped forward
and offered a pretended petition, William being at all times of
easy access for such an object. While he read the paper, the
treacherous suppliant discharged a pistol at his head: the ball
struck him under the left ear, and passed out at the right cheek.
As he tottered and fell, the assassin drew a poniard to add suicide
to the crime, but he was instantly put to death by the attendant
guards. The young Count Maurice, William's second son, examined
the murderer's body; and the papers found on him, and subsequent
inquiries, told fully who and what he was. His name was John
Jaureguay, his age twenty-three years; he was a native of Biscay,
and clerk to a Spanish merchant of Antwerp, called Gaspar Anastro.
This man had instigated him to the crime; having received a promise
signed by King Philip, engaging to give him twenty-eight thousand
ducats and other advantages, if he would undertake to assassinate
the Prince of Orange. The inducements held out by Anastro to his
simple dupe, were backed strongly by the persuasions of Antony
Timmerman, a Dominican monk; and by Venero, Anastro's cashier, who
had from fear declined becoming himself the murderer. Jaureguay
had duly heard mass, and received the sacrament, before executing
his attempt; and in his pockets were found a catechism of the
Jesuits, with tablets filled with prayers in the Spanish language;
one in particular being addressed to the Angel Gabriel, imploring
his intercession with God and the Virgin, to aid him in the
consummation of his object. Other accompanying absurdities seem
to pronounce this miserable wretch to be as much an instrument
in the hands of others as the weapon of his crime was in his own.
Timmerman and Venero made a full avowal of their criminality, and
suffered death in the usual barbarous manner of the times. The
Jesuits, some years afterward, solemnly gathered the remains of
these three pretended martyrs, and exposed them as holy relics
for public veneration. Anastro effected his escape.