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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6776.txt b/6776.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..296e449 --- /dev/null +++ b/6776.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3199 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Revolt of Netherlands, by Schiller, Book I. + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Revolt of The Netherlands, Book I. + +Author: Frederich Schiller + +Release Date: Oct, 2004 [EBook #6776] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 14, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVOLT OF NETHERLANDS, BOOK I. *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + + THE WORKS + + OF + + FREDERICK SCHILLER + + + + Translated from the German + + + + Illustrated + + + + + +PREFACE TO THE EDITION. + + + +The present is the best collected edition of the important works of +Schiller which is accessible to readers in the English language. +Detached poems or dramas have been translated at various times since +the first publication of the original works; and in several instances +these versions have been incorporated into this collection. Schiller +was not less efficiently qualified by nature for an historian than for +a dramatist. He was formed to excel in all departments of literature, +and the admirable lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality of +judgment displayed in his historical writings will not easily be +surpassed, and will always recommend them as popular expositions of the +periods of which they treat. + +Since the publication of the first English edition many corrections and +improvements have been made, with a view to rendering it as acceptable +as possible to English readers; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages +of a translation, the publishers feel sure that Schiller will be +heartily acceptable to English readers, and that the influence of his +writings will continue to increase. + +THE HISTORY OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS was translated by Lieut. +E. B. Eastwick, and originally published abroad for students' use. But +this translation was too strictly literal for general readers. It has +been carefully revised, and some portions have been entirely rewritten +by the Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, who also has so ably translated the +HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. + +THE CAMP OF WALLENSTEIN was translated by Mr. James Churchill, and first +appeared in "Frazer's Magazine." It is an exceedingly happy version of +what has always been deemed the most untranslatable of Schiller's works. + +THE PICCOLOMINI and DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN are the admirable version of +S. T. Coleridge, completed by the addition of all those passages which +he has omitted, and by a restoration of Schiller's own arrangement of +the acts and scenes. It is said, in defence of the variations which +exist between the German original and the version given by Coleridge, +that he translated from a prompter's copy in manuscript, before the +drama had been printed, and that Schiller himself subsequently altered +it, by omitting some passages, adding others, and even engrafting +several of Coleridge's adaptations. + +WILHELM TELL is translated by Theodore Martin, Esq., whose well-known +position as a writer, and whose special acquaintance with German +literature make any recommendation superfluous. + +DON CARLOS is translated by R. D. Boylan, Esq., and, in the opinion of +competent judges, the version is eminently successful. Mr. Theodore +Martin kindly gave some assistance, and, it is but justice to state, +has enhanced the value of the work by his judicious suggestions. + +The translation of MARY STUART is that by the late Joseph Mellish, +who appears to have been on terms of intimate friendship with Schiller. +His version was made from the prompter's copy, before the play was +published, and, like Coleridge's Wallenstein, contains many passages not +found in the printed edition. These are distinguished by brackets. On +the other hand, Mr. Mellish omitted many passages which now form part of +the printed drama, all of which are now added. The translation, as a +whole, stands out from similar works of the time (1800) in almost as +marked a degree as Coleridge's Wallenstein, and some passages exhibit +powers of a high order; a few, however, especially in the earlier +scenes, seemed capable of improvement, and these have been revised, +but, in deference to the translator, with a sparing hand. + +THE MAID OF ORLEANS is contributed by Miss Anna Swanwick, whose +translation of Faust has since become well known. It has been. +carefully revised, and is now, for the first time, published complete. + +THE BRIDE OF MESSINA, which has been regarded as the poetical +masterpiece of Schiller, and, perhaps of all his works, presents the +greatest difficulties to the translator, is rendered by A. Lodge, Esq., +M. A. This version, on its first publication in England, a few years +ago, was received with deserved eulogy by distinguished critics. To the +present edition has been prefixed Schiller's Essay on the Use of the +Chorus in Tragedy, in which the author's favorite theory of the "Ideal +of Art" is enforced with great ingenuity and eloquence. + + + + + + THE HISTORY + + OF THE + + REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. + + + +CONTENTS. + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + +INTRODUCTION + +BOOK I.----Earlier History of The Netherlands up to the Sixteenth Century + +BOOK II.---Cardinal Granvella + +BOOK III.--Conspiracy of the Nobles + +BOOK IV.---The Iconoclasts + Trial and Execution of Counts Egmont and Horn + Siege of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma, in the Years 1584 and 1585 + + + + +THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + +Many years ago, when I read the History of the Belgian Revolution in +Watson's excellent work, I was seized with an enthusiasm which political +events but rarely excite. On further reflection I felt that this +enthusiastic feeling had arisen less from the book itself than from the +ardent workings of my own imagination, which had imparted to the +recorded materials the particular form that so fascinated me. These +imaginations, therefore, I felt a wish to fix, to multiply, and to +strengthen; these exalted sentiments I was anxious to extend by +communicating them to others. This was my principal motive for +commencing the present history, my only vocation to write it. The +execution of this design carried me farther than in the beginning I had +expected. A closer acquaintance with my materials enabled me to +discover defects previously unnoticed, long waste tracts to be filled +up, apparent contradictions to be reconciled, and isolated facts to be +brought into connection with the rest of the subject. Not so much with +the view of enriching my history with new facts as of seeking a key to +old ones, I betook myself to the original sources, and thus what was +originally intended to be only a general outline expanded under my hands +into an elaborate history. The first part, which concludes with the +Duchess of Parma's departure from the Netherlands, must be looked upon +only as the introduction to the history of the Revolution itself, which +did not come to an open outbreak till the government of her successor. +I have bestowed the more care and attention upon this introductory +period the more the generality of writers who had previously treated of +it seemed to me deficient in these very qualities. Moreover, it is in +my opinion the more important as being the root and source of all the +subsequent events. If, then, the first volume should appear to any as +barren in important incident, dwelling prolixly on trifles, or, rather, +should seem at first sight profuse of reflections, and in general +tediously minute, it must be remembered that it was precisely out of +small beginnings that the Revolution was gradually developed; and that +all the great results which follow sprang out of a countless number of +trifling and little circumstances. + +A nation like the one before us invariably takes its first steps with +doubts and uncertainty, to move afterwards only the more rapidly for its +previous hesitation. I proposed, therefore, to follow the same method +in describing this rebellion. The longer the reader delays on the +introduction the more familiar he becomes with the actors in this +history, and the scene in which they took a part, so much the more +rapidly and unerringly shall I be able to lead him through the +subsequent periods, where the accumulation of materials will forbid +a slowness of step or minuteness of attention. + +As for the authorities of our history there is not so much cause to +complain of their paucity as of their extreme abundance, since it is +indispensable to read them all to obtain that clear view of the whole +subject to which the perusal of a part, however large, is always +prejudicial. From the unequal, partial, and often contradictory +narratives of the same occurrences it is often extremely difficult to +seize the truth, which in all is alike partly concealed and to be found +complete in none. In this first volume, besides de Thou, Strada, Reyd, +Grotius, Meteren, Burgundius, Meursius, Bentivoglio, and some moderns, +the Memoirs of Counsellor Hopper, the life and correspondence of his +friend Viglius, the records of the trials of the Counts of Hoorne and +Egmont, the defence of the Prince of Orange, and some few others have +been my guides. I must here acknowledge my obligations to a work +compiled with much industry and critical acumen, and written with +singular truthfulness and impartiality. I allude to the general history +of the United Netherlands which was published in Holland during the +present century. Besides many original documents which I could not +otherwise have had access to, it has abstracted all that is valuable in +the excellent works of Bos, Hooft, Brandt, Le Clerc, which either were +impossible for me to procure or were not available to my use, as being +written in Dutch, which I do not understand. An otherwise ordinary +writer, Richard Dinoth, has also been of service to me by the many +extracts he gives from the pamphlets of the day, which have been long +lost. I have in vain endeavored to procure the correspondence of +Cardinal Granvella, which also would no doubt have thrown much light +upon the history of these times. The lately published work on the +Spanish Inquisition by my excellent countryman, Professor Spittler of +Gottingen, reached me too late for its sagacious and important contents +to be available for my purpose. + +The more I am convinced of the importance of the French history, the +more I lament that it was not in my power to study, as I could have +wished, its copious annals in the original sources and contemporary +documents, and to reproduce it abstracted of the form in which it was +transmitted to me by the more intelligent of my predecessors, and +thereby emancipate myself from the influence which every talented author +exercises more or less upon his readers. But to effect this the work of +a few years must have become the labor of a life. My aim in making this +attempt will be more than attained if it should convince a portion of +the reading public of the possibility of writing a history with historic +truth without making a trial of patience to the reader; and if it should +extort from another portion the confession that history can borrow from +a cognate art without thereby, of necessity, becoming a romance. + +WEIMAR, Michaelmas Fair, 1788. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Of those important political events which make the sixteenth century to +take rank among the brightest of the world's epochs, the foundation of +the freedom of the Netherlands appears to me one of the most remarkable. +If the glittering exploits of ambition and the pernicious lust of power +claim our admiration, how much more so should an event in which +oppressed humanity struggled for its noblest rights, where with the good +cause unwonted powers were united, and the resources of resolute despair +triumphed in unequal contest over the terrible arts of tyranny. + +Great and encouraging is the reflection that there is a resource left +us against the arrogant usurpations of despotic power; that its best- +contrived plans against the liberty of mankind may be frustrated; that +resolute opposition can weaken even the outstretched arm of tyranny; and +that heroic perseverance can eventually exhaust its fearful resources. +Never did this truth affect me so sensibly as in tracing the history of +that memorable rebellion which forever severed the United Netherlands +from the Spanish Crown. Therefore I thought it not unworth the while to +attempt to exhibit to the world this grand memorial of social union, in +the hope that it may awaken in the breast of my reader a spirit-stirring +consciousness of his own powers, and give a new and irrefragible example +of what in a good cause men may both dare and venture, and what by union +they may accomplish. It is not the extraordinary or heroic features of +this event that induce me to describe it. The annals of the world +record perhaps many similar enterprises, which may have been even bolder +in the conception and more brilliant in the execution. Some states have +fallen after a nobler struggle; others have risen with more exalted +strides. Nor are we here to look for eminent heroes, colossal talents, +or those marvellous exploits which the history of past times presents in +such rich abundance. Those times are gone; such men are no more. In +the soft lap of refinement we have suffered the energetic powers to +become enervate which those ages called into action and rendered +indispensable. With admiring awe we wonder at these gigantic images +of the past as a feeble old man gazes on the athletic sports of youth. + +Not so, however, in the history before us. The people here presented to +our notice were the most peaceful in our quarter of the globe, and less +capable than their neighbors of that heroic spirit which stamps a lofty +character even on the most insignificant actions. The pressure of +circumstances with its peculiar influence surprised them and forced a +transitory greatness upon them, which they never could have possessed +and perhaps will never possess again. It is, indeed, exactly this want +of heroic grandeur which renders this event peculiarly instructive; and +while others aim at showing the superiority of genius over chance, I +shall here paint a scene where necessity creates genius and accident +makes heroes. + +If in any case it be allowable to recognize the intervention of +Providence in human affairs it is certainly so in the present history, +its course appears so contradictory to reason and experience. Philip +II., the most powerful sovereign of his line--whose dreaded supremacy +menaced the independence of Europe--whose treasures surpassed the +collective wealth of all the monarchs of Christendom besides--whose +ambitious projects were backed by numerous and well-disciplined armies +--whose troops, hardened by long and bloody wars, and confident in past +victories and in the irresistible prowess of this nation, were eager for +any enterprise that promised glory and spoil, and ready to second with +prompt obedience the daring genius of their leaders--this dreaded +potentate here appears before us obstinately pursuing one favorite +project, devoting to it the untiring efforts of a long reign, and +bringing all these terrible resources to bear upon it; but forced, in +the evening of his reign, to abandon it--here we see the mighty Philip +II. engaging in combat with a few weak and powerless adversaries, and +retiring from it at last with disgrace. + +And with what adversaries? Here, a peaceful tribe of fishermen and +shepherds, in an almost-forgotten corner of Europe, which with +difficulty they had rescued from the ocean; the sea their profession, +and at once their wealth and their plague; poverty with freedom their +highest blessing, their glory, their virtue. There, a harmless, moral, +commercial people, revelling in the abundant fruits of thriving +industry, and jealous of the maintenance of laws which had proved their +benefactors. In the happy leisure of affluence they forsake the narrow +circle of immediate wants and learn to thirst after higher and nobler +gratifications. The new views of truth, whose benignant dawn now broke +over Europe, cast a fertilizing beam on this favored clime, and the free +burgher admitted with joy the light which oppressed and miserable slaves +shut out. A spirit of independence, which is the ordinary companion of +prosperity and freedom, lured this people on to examine the authority of +antiquated opinions and to break an ignominious chain. But the stern +rod of despotism was held suspended over them; arbitrary power +threatened to tear away the foundation of their happiness; the guardian +of their laws became their tyrant. Simple in their statecraft no less +than in their manners, they dared to appeal to ancient treaties and to +remind the lord of both Indies of the rights of nature. A name decides +the whole issue of things. In Madrid that was called rebellion which in +Brussels was simply styled a lawful remonstrance. The complaints of +Brabant required a prudent mediator; Philip II. sent an executioner. +The signal for war was given. An unparalleled tyranny assailed both +property and life. The despairing citizens, to whom the choice of +deaths was all that was left, chose the nobler one on the battle-field. +A wealthy and luxurious nation loves peace, but becomes warlike as soon +as it becomes poor. Then it ceases to tremble for a life which is +deprived of everything that had made it desirable. In an instant the +contagion of rebellion seizes at once the most distant provinces; trade +and commerce are at a standstill, the ships disappear from the harbors, +the artisan abandons his workshop, the rustic his uncultivated fields. +Thousands fled to distant lands, a thousand victims fell on the bloody +field, and fresh thousands pressed on. Divine, indeed, must that +doctrine be for which men could die so joyfully. All that was wanting +was the last finishing hand, the enlightened, enterprising spirit, to +seize on this great political crisis and to mould the offspring of +chance into the ripe creation of wisdom. William the Silent, like a +second Brutus, devoted himself to the great cause of liberty. Superior +to all selfishness, he resigned honorable offices which entailed on him +obectionable duties, and, magnanimously divesting himself of all his +princely dignities, he descended to a state of voluntary poverty, and +became but a citizen of the world. The cause of justice was staked upon +the hazardous game of battle; but the newly-raised levies of mercenaries +and peaceful husbandmen were unable to withstand the terrible onset of +an experienced force. Twice did the brave William lead his dispirited +troops against the tyrant. Twice was he abandoned by them, but not by +his courage. + +Philip II. sent as many reinforcements as the dreadful importunity of +his viceroy demanded. Fugitives, whom their country rejected, sought a +new home on the ocean, and turned to the ships of their enemy to satisfy +the cravings both of vengeance and of want. Naval heroes were now +formed out of corsairs, and a marine collected out of piratical vessels; +out of morasses arose a republic. Seven provinces threw off the yoke at +the same time, to form a new, youthful state, powerful by its waters and +its union and despair. A solemn decree of the whole nation deposed the +tyrant, and the Spanish name was erased from all its laws. + +For such acts no forgiveness remained; the republic became formidable +only because it was impossible for her to retrace her steps. But +factions distracted her within; without, her terrible element, the sea +itself, leaguing with her oppressors, threatened her very infancy with a +premature grave. She felt herself succumb to the superior force of the +enemy, and cast herself a suppliant before the most powerful thrones of +Europe, begging them to accept a dominion which she herself could no +longer protect. At last, but with difficulty--so despised at first was +this state that even the rapacity of foreign monarchs spurned her +opening bloom--a stranger deigned to accept their importunate offer of a +dangerous crown. New hopes began to revive her sinking courage; but in +this new father of his country destiny gave her a traitor, and in the +critical emergency, when the foe was in full force before her very +gates, Charles of Anjou invaded the liberties which he had been called +to protect. In the midst of the tempest, too, the assassin's hand tore +the steersman from the helm, and with William of Orange the career of +the infant republic was seemingly at an end, and all her guardian angels +fled. But the ship continued to scud along before the storm, and the +swelling canvas carried her safe without the pilot's help. + +Philip II. missed the fruits of a deed which cost him his royal honor, +and perhaps, also, his self-respect. Liberty struggled on still with +despotism in obstinate and dubious contest; sanguinary battles were +fought; a brilliant array of heroes succeeded each other on the field of +glory, and Flanders and Brabant were the schools which educated generals +for the coming century. A long, devastating war laid waste the open +country; victor and vanquished alike waded through blood; while the +rising republic of the waters gave a welcome to fugitive industry, and +out of the ruins of despotism erected the noble edifice of its own +greatness. For forty years lasted the war whose happy termination was +not to bless the dying eye of Philip; which destroyed one paradise in +Europe to form a new one out of its shattered fragments; which destroyed +the choicest flower of military youth, and while it enriched more than a +quarter of the globe impoverished the possessor of the golden Peru. +This monarch, who could expend nine hundred tons of gold without +oppressing his subjects, and by tyrannical measures extorted far more, +heaped, moreover, on his exhausted people a debt of one hundred and +forty millions of ducats. An implacable hatred of liberty swallowed up +all these treasures, and consumed on the fruitless task the labor of a +royal life. But the Reformation throve amidst the devastations of the +sword, and over the blood of her citizens the banner of the new republic +floated victorious. + +This improbable turn of affairs seems to border on a miracle; many +circumstances, however, combined to break the power of Philip, and to +favor the progress of the infant state. Had the whole weight of his +power fallen on the United Provinces there had been no hope for their +religion or their liberty. His own ambition, by tempting him to divide +his strength, came to the aid of their weakness. The expensive policy +of maintaining traitors in every cabinet of Europe; the support of the +League in France; the revolt of the Moors in Granada; the conquest of +Portugal, and the magnificent fabric of the Escurial, drained at last +his apparently inexhaustible treasury, and prevented his acting in the +field with spirit and energy. The German and Italian troops, whom the +hope of gain alone allured to his banner, mutinied when he could no +longer pay them, and faithlessly abandoned their leaders in the decisive +moment of action. These terrible instruments of oppression now turned +their dangerous power against their employer, and wreaked their +vindictive rage on the provinces which remained faithful to him. +The unfortunate armament against England, on which, like a desperate +gamester, he had staked the whole strength of his kingdom, completed his +ruin; with the armada sank the wealth of the two Indies, and the flower +of Spanish chivalry. + +But in the very same proportion that the Spanish power declined the +republic rose in fresh vigor. The ravages which the fanaticism of the +new religion, the tyranny of the Inquisition, the furious rapacity of +the soldiery, and the miseries of a long war unbroken by any interval of +peace, made in the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault, at once +the arsenals and the magazines of this expensive contest, naturally +rendered it every year more difficult to support and recruit the royal +armies. The Catholic Netherlands had already lost a million of +citizens, and the trodden fields maintained their husbandmen no longer. +Spain itself had but few more men to spare. That country, surprised by +a sudden affluence which brought idleness with it, had lost much of its +population, and could not long support the continual drafts of men which +were required both for the New World and the Netherlands. Of these +conscripts few ever saw their country again; and these few having left +it as youths returned to it infirm and old. Gold, which had become more +common, made soldiers proportionately dearer; the growing charm of +effeminacy enhanced the price of the opposite virtues. Wholly different +was the posture of affairs with the rebels. The thousands whom the +cruelty of the viceroy expelled from the southern Netherlands, the +Huguenots whom the wars of persecution drove from France, as well as +every one whom constraint of conscience exiled from the other parts of +Europe, all alike flocked to unite themselves with the Belgian +insurgents. The whole Christian world was their recruiting ground. +The fanaticism both of the persecutor and the persecuted worked in their +behalf. The enthusiasm of a doctrine newly embraced, revenge, want, and +hopeless misery drew to their standard adventurers from every part of +Europe. All whom the new doctrine had won, all who had suffered, or had +still cause of fear from despotism, linked their own fortunes with those +of the new republic. Every injury inflicted by a tyrant gave a right of +citizenship in Holland. Men pressed towards a country where liberty +raised her spirit-stirring banner, where respect and security were +insured to a fugitive religion, and even revenge on the oppressor. If +we consider the conflux in the present day of people to Holland, seeking +by their entrance upon her territory to be reinvested in their rights as +men, what must it have been at a time when the rest of Europe groaned +under a heavy bondage, when Amsterdam was nearly the only free port for +all opinions? Many hundred families sought a refuge for their wealth in +a land which the ocean and domestic concord powerfully combined to +protect. The republican army maintained its full complement without the +plough being stripped of hands to work it. Amid the clash of arms trade +and industry flourished, and the peaceful citizen enjoyed in +anticipation the fruits of liberty which foreign blood was to purchase +for them. At the very time when the republic of Holland was struggling +for existence she extended her dominions beyond the ocean, and was +quietly occupied in erecting her East Indian Empire. + +Moreover, Spain maintained this expensive war with dead, unfructifying +gold, that never returned into the hand which gave it away, while it +raised to her the price of every necessary. The treasuries of the +republic were industry and commerce. Time lessened the one whilst it +multiplied the other, and exactly in the same proportion that the +resources of the Spanish government became exhausted by the long +continuance of the war the republic began to reap a richer harvest. Its +field was sown sparingly with the choice seed which bore fruit, though +late, yet a hundredfold; but the tree from which Philip gathered fruit +was a fallen trunk which never again became verdant. + +Philip's adverse destiny decreed that all the treasures which he +lavished for the oppression of the Provinces should contribute to enrich +them. The continual outlay of Spanish gold had diffused riches and +luxury throughout Europe; but the increasing wants of Europe were +supplied chiefly by the Netherlanders, who were masters of the commerce +of the known world, and who by their dealings fixed the price of all +merchandise. Even during the war Philip could not prohibit his own +subjects from trading with the republic; nay, he could not even desire +it. He himself furnished the rebels with the means of defraying the +expenses of their own defence; for the very war which was to ruin them +increased the sale of their goods. The enormous suns expended on his +fleets and armies flowed for the most part into the exchequer of the +republic, which was more or less connected with the commercial places of +Flanders and Brabant. Whatever Philip attempted against the rebels +operated indirectly to their advantage. + +The sluggish progress of this war did the king as much injury as it +benefited the rebels. His army was composed for the most part of the +remains of those victorious troops which had gathered their laurels +under Charles V. Old and long services entitled them to repose; many of +them, whom the war had enriched, impatiently longed for their homes, +where they might end in ease a life of hardship. Their former zeal, +their heroic spirit, and their discipline relaxed in the same proportion +as they thought they had fully satisfied their honor and their duty, and +as they began to reap at last the reward of so many battles. Besides, +the troops which had been accustomed by their irresistible impetuosity +to vanquish all opponents were necessarily wearied out by a war which +was carried on not so much against men as against the elements; which +exercised their patience more than it gratified their love of glory; and +where there was less of danger than of difficulty and want to contend +with. Neither personal courage nor long military experience was of +avail in a country whose peculiar features gave the most dastardly the +advantage. Lastly, a single discomfiture on foreign ground did them +more injury than any victories gained over an enemy at home could profit +them. With the rebels the case was exactly the reverse. In so +protracted a war, in which no decisive battle took place, the weaker +party must naturally learn at last the art of defence from the stronger; +slight defeats accustomed him to danger; slight victories animated his +confidence. + +At the beginning of the war the republican army scarcely dared to show +itself in the field; the long continuance of the struggle practised and +hardened it. As the royal armies grew wearied of victory, the +confidence of the rebels rose with their improved discipline and +experience. At last, at the end of half a century, master and pupil +separated, unsubdued, and equal in the fight. + +Again, throughout the war the rebels acted with more concord and +unanimity than the royalists. Before the former had lost their first +leader the government of the Netherlands had passed through as many as +five hands. The Duchess of Parma's indecision soon imparted itself to +the cabinet of Madrid, which in a short time tried in succession almost +every system of policy. Duke Alva's inflexible sternness, the mildness +of his successor Requescens, Don John of Austria's insidious cunning, +and the active and imperious mind of the Prince of Parma gave as many +opposite directions to the war, while the plan of rebellion remained the +same in a single head, who, as he saw it clearly, pursued it with vigor. +The king's greatest misfortune was that right principles of action +generally missed the right moment of application. In the commencement +of the troubles, when the advantage was as yet clearly on the king's +side, when prompt resolution and manly firmness might have crushed the +rebellion in the cradle, the reigns of government were allowed to hang +loose in the hands of a woman. After the outbreak had come to an open +revolt, and when the strength of the factious and the power of the king +stood more equally balanced, and when a skilful flexible prudence could +alone have averted the impending civil war, the government devolved on a +man who was eminently deficient in this necessary qualification. So +watchful an observer as William the Silent failed not to improve every +advantage which the faulty policy of his adversary presented, and with +quiet silent industry he slowly but surely pushed on the great +enterprise to its accomplishment. + +But why did not Philip II. himself appear in the Netherlands? Why did +he prefer to employ every other means, however improbable, rather than +make trial of the only remedy which could insure success? To curb the +overgrown power and insolence of the nobility there was no expedient +more natural than the presence of their master. Before royalty itself +all secondary dignities must necessarily have sunk in the shade, all +other splendor be dimmed. Instead of the truth being left to flow +slowly and obscurely through impure channels to the distant throne, so +that procrastinated measures of redress gave time to ripen ebullitions +of the moment into acts of deliberation, his own penetrating glance +would at once have been able to separate truth from error; and cold +policy alone, not to speak of his humanity, would have saved the land a +million citizens. The nearer to their source the more weighty would his +edicts have been; the thicker they fell on their objects the weaker and +the more dispirited would have become the efforts of the rebels. It +costs infinitely more to do an evil to an enemy in his presence than in +his absence. At first the rebellion appeared to tremble at its own +name, and long sheltered itself under the ingenious pretext of defending +the cause of its sovereign against the arbitrary assumptions of his own +viceroy. Philip's appearance in Brussels would have put an end at once +to this juggling. In that case, the rebels would have been compelled to +act up to their pretence, or to cast aside the mask, and so, by +appearing in their true shape, condemn themselves. And what a relief +for the Netherlands if the king's presence had only spared them those +evils which were inflicted upon them without his knowledge, and contrary +to his will. [1] What gain, too, even if it had only enabled him to +watch over the expenditure of the vast sums which, illegally raised on +the plea of meeting the exigencies of the war, disappeared in the +plundering hands of his deputies. + +What the latter were compelled to extort by the unnatural expedient of +terror, the nation would have been disposed to grant to the sovereign +majesty. That which made his ministers detested would have rendered the +monarch feared; for the abuse of hereditary power is less painfully +oppressive than the abuse of delegated authority. His presence would +have saved his exchequer thousands had he been nothing more than an +economical despot; and even had he been less, the awe of his person +would have preserved a territory which was lost through hatred and +contempt for his instruments. + +In the same manner, as the oppression of the people of the Netherlands +excited the sympathy of all who valued their own rights, it might have +been expected that their disobedience and defection would have been a +call to all princes to maintain their own prerogatives in the case of +their neighbors. But jealousy of Spain got the better of political +sympathies, and the first powers of Europe arranged themselves more or +less openly on the side of freedom. + +Although bound to the house of Spain by the ties of relationship, the +Emperor Maximilian II. gave it just cause for its charge against him +of secretly favoring the rebels. By the offer of his mediation he +implicitly acknowledged the partial justice of their complaints, and +thereby encouraged them to a resolute perseverance in their demands. +Under an emperor sincerely devoted to the interests of the Spanish +house, William of Orange could scarcely have drawn so many troops and so +much money from Germany. France, without openly and formally breaking +the peace, placed a prince of the blood at the head of the Netherlandish +rebels; and it was with French gold and French troops that the +operations of the latter were chiefly conducted. [2] Elizabeth of +England, too, did but exercise a just retaliation and revenge in +protecting the rebels against their legitimate sovereign; and although +her meagre and sparing aid availed no farther than to ward off utter +ruin from the republic, still even this was infinitely valuable at a +moment when nothing but hope could have supported their exhausted +courage. With both these powers Philip at the time was at peace, but +both betrayed him. Between the weak and the strong honesty often ceases +to appear a virtue; the delicate ties which bind equals are seldom +observed towards him whom all men fear. Philip had banished truth from +political intercourse; he himself had dissolved all morality between +kings, and had made artifice the divinity of cabinets. Without once +enjoying the advantages of his preponderating greatness, he had, +throughout life, to contend with the jealousy which it awakened in +others. Europe made him atone for the possible abuses of a power of +which in fact he never had the full possession. + +If against the disparity between the two combatants, which, at first +sight, is so astounding, we weigh all the incidental circumstances which +were adverse to Spain, but favorable to the Netherlands, that which is +supernatural in this event will disappear, while that which is +extraordinary will still remain--and a just standard will be furnished +by which to estimate the real merit of these republicans in working out +their freedom. It must not, however, be thought that so accurate a +calculation of the opposing forces could have preceded the undertaking +itself, or that, on entering this unknown sea, they already knew the +shore on which they would ultimately be landed. The work did not +present itself to the mind of its originator in the exact form which it +assumed when completed, any more than the mind of Luther foresaw the +eternal separation of creeds when he began to oppose the sale of +indulgences. What a difference between the modest procession of those +suitors in Brussels, who prayed for a more humane treatment as a favor, +and the dreaded majesty of a free state, which treated with kings as +equals, and in less than a century disposed of the throne of its former +tyrant. The unseen hand of fate gave to the discharged arrow a higher +flight, and quite a different direction from that which it first +received from the bowstring. In the womb of happy Brabant that liberty +had its birth which, torn from its mother in its earliest infancy, was +to gladden the so despised Holland. But the enterprise must not be less +thought of because its issue differed from the first design. Man works +up, smooths, and fashions the rough stone which the times bring to him; +the moment and the instant may belong to him, but accident develops the +history of the world. If the passions which co-operated actively in +bringing about this event were only not unworthy of the great work to +which they were unconsciously subservient--if only the powers which +aided in its accomplishment were intrinsically noble, if only the single +actions out of whose great concatenation it wonderfully arose were +beautiful then is the event grand, interesting, and fruitful for us, and +we are at liberty to wonder at the bold offspring of chance, or rather +offer up our admiration to a higher intelligence. + +The history of the world, like the laws of nature, is consistent with +itself, and simple as the soul of man. Like conditions produce like +phenomena. On the same soil where now the Netherlanders were to resist +their Spanish tyrants, their forefathers, the Batavi and Belgee, fifteen +centuries before, combated against their Roman oppressors. Like the +former, submitting reluctantly to a haughty master, and misgoverned by +rapacious satraps, they broke off their chain with like resolution, and +tried their fortune in a similar unequal combat. The same pride of +conquest, the same national grandeur, marked the Spaniard of the +sixteenth century and the Roman of the first; the same valor and +discipline distinguished the armies of both, their battle array inspired +the same terror. There as here we see stratagem in combat with superior +force, and firmness, strengthened by unanimity, wearying out a mighty +power weakened by division; then as now private hatred armed a whole +nation; a single man, born for his times, revealed to his fellow-slaves +the dangerous Secret of their power, and brought their mute grief to a +bloody announcement. "Confess, Batavians," cries Claudius Civilis to +his countrymen in the sacred grove, "we are no longer treated, as +formerly, by these Romans as allies, but rather as slaves. We are +handed over to their prefects and centurions, who, when satiated with +our plunder and with our blood, make way for others, who, under +different names, renew the same outrages. If even at last Rome deigns +to send us a legate, he oppresses us with an ostentatious and costly +retinue, and with still more intolerable pride. The levies are again at +hand which tear forever children from their parents, brothers from +brothers. Now, Batavians, is our time. Never did Rome lie so prostrate +as now. Let not their names of legions terrify you. There is nothing +in their camps but old men and plunder. Our infantry and horsemen are +strong; Germany is allied to us by blood, and Gaul is ready to throw off +its yoke. Let Syria serve them, and Asia and the East, who are used to +bow before kings; many still live who were born among us before tribute +was paid to the Romans. The gods are ever with the brave." Solemn +religious rites hallowed this conspiracy, like the League of the Gueux; +like that, it craftily wrapped itself in the veil of submissiveness, in +the majesty of a great name. The cohorts of Civilis swear allegiance on +the Rhine to Vespasian in Syria, as the League did to Philip II. The +same arena furnished the same plan of defence, the same refuge to +despair. Both confided their wavering fortunes to a friendly element; +in the same distress Civilis preserves his island, as fifteen centuries +after him William of Orange did the town of Leyden--through an +artificial inundation. The valor of the Batavi disclosed the impotency +of the world's ruler, as the noble courage of their descendants revealed +to the whole of Europe the decay of Spanish greatness. The same +fecundity of genius in the generals of both times gave to the war a +similarly obstinate continuance, and nearly as doubtful an issue; one +difference, nevertheless, distinguishes them: the Romans and Batavians +fought humanely, for they did not fight for religion. + +[1] More modern historians, with access to the records of the Spanish +Inquisition and the private communications between Phillip II. and his +various appointees to power in the Netherlands, rebut Shiller's kind but +naive thought. To the contrary, Phillip II. was most critical of his +envoys lack of severity. See in particular the "Rise of the Dutch +Republic" and the other works of John Motley on the history of the +Netherlands all of which are available at Project Gutenberg.--D.W. + +[2] A few French generals who were by and large ineffective; and many +promises of gold which were undelivered.--D.W. + + + + + + + BOOK I. + + EARLIER HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS UP TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. + +Before we consider the immediate history of this great revolution, it +will be advisable to go a few steps back into the ancient records of the +country, and to trace the origin of that constitution which we find it +possessed of at the time of this remarkable change. + +The first appearance of this people in the history of the world is the +moment of its fall; their conquerors first gave them a political +existence. The extensive region which is bounded by Germany on the +east, on the south by France, on the north and northwest by the North +Sea, and which we comprehend under the general name of the Netherlands, +was, at the time when the Romans invaded Gaul, divided amongst three +principal nations, all originally of German descent, German +institutions, and German spirit. The Rhine formed its boundaries. On +the left of the river dwelt the Belgae, on its right the Frisii, and the +Batavi on the island which its two arms then formed with the ocean. All +these several nations were sooner or later reduced into subjection by +the Romans, but the conquerors themselves give us the most glorious +testimony to their valor. The Belgae, writes Caesar, were the only +people amongst the Gauls who repulsed the invasion of the Teutones and +Cimbri. The Batavi, Tacitus tells us, surpassed all the tribes on the +Rhine in bravery. This fierce nation paid its tribute in soldiers, and +was reserved by its conquerors, like arrow and sword, only for battle. +The Romans themselves acknowledged the Batavian horsemen to be their +best cavalry. Like the Swiss at this day, they formed for a long time +the body-guard of the Roman Emperor; their wild courage terrified the +Dacians, as they saw them, in full armor, swimming across the Danube. +The Batavi accompanied Agricola in his expedition against Britain, and +helped him to conquer that island. The Frieses were, of all, the last +subdued, and the first to regain their liberty. The morasses among +which they dwelt attracted the conquerors later, and enhanced the price +of conquest. The Roman Drusus, who made war in these regions, had a +canal cut from the Rhine into the Flevo, the present Zuyder Zee, through +which the Roman fleet penetrated into the North Sea, and from thence, +entering the mouths of the Ems and the Weser, found an easy passage into +the interior of Germany. + +Through four centuries we find Batavian troops in the Roman armies, but +after the time of Honorius their name disappears from history. +Presently we discover their island overrun by the Franks, who again lost +themselves in the adjoining country of Belgium. The Frieses threw off +the yoke of their distant and powerless rulers, and again appearad as a +free, and even a conquering people, who governed themselves by their own +customs and a remnant of Roman laws, and extended their limits beyond +the left bank of the Rhine. Of all the provinces of the Netherlands, +Friesland especially had suffered the least from the irruptions of +strange tribes and foreign customs, and for centuries retained traces of +its original institutions, of its national spirit and manners, which +have not, even at the present day, entirely disappeared. + +The epoch of the immigration of nations destroyed the original form of +most of these tribes; other mixed races arose in their place, with other +constitutions. In the general irruption the towns and encampments of +the Romans disappeared, and with them the memorials of their wise +government, which they had employed the natives to execute. The +neglected dikes once more yielded to the violence of the streams and to +the encroachments of the ocean. Those wonders of labor, and creations +of human skill, the canals, dried up, the rivers changed their course, +the continent and the sea confounded their olden limits, and the nature +of the soil changed with its inhabitants. So, too, the connection of +the two eras seems effaced, and with a new race a new history commences. + +The monarchy of the Franks, which arose out of the ruins of Roman Gaul, +had, in the sixth and seventh centuries, seized all the provinces of the +Netherlands, and planted there the Christian faith. After an obstinate +war Charles Martel subdued to the French crown Friesland, the last of +all the free provinces, and by his victories paved a way for the gospel. +Charlemagne united all these countries, and formed of them one division +of the mighty empire which he had constructed out of Germany, France, +and Lombardy. As under his descendants this vast dominion was again +torn into fragments, so the Netherlands became at times German, at +others French, or then again Lotheringian Provinces; and at last we find +them under both the names of Friesland and Lower Lotheringia. + +With the Franks the feudal system, the offspring of the North, also came +into these lands, and here, too, as in all other countries, it +degenerated. The more powerful vassals gradually made themselves +independent of the crown, and the royal governors usurped the countries +they were appointed to govern. But the rebellions vassals could not +maintain their usurpations without the aid of their own dependants, +whose assistance they were compelled to purchase by new concessions. +At the same time the church became powerful through pious usurpations +and donations, and its abbey lands and episcopal sees acquired an +independent existence. Thus were the Netherlands in the tenth, +eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries split up into several small +sovereignties, whose possessors did homage at one time to the German +Emperor, at another to the kings of France. By purchase, marriages, +legacies, and also by conquest, several of these provinces were often +united under one suzerain, and thus in the fifteenth century we see the +house of Burgundy in possession of the chief part of the Netherlands. +With more or less right Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had united +as many as eleven provinces under his authority, and to these his son, +Charles the Bold, added two others, acquired by force of arms. Thus +imperceptibly a new state arose in Europe, which wanted nothing but the +name to be the most flourishing kingdom in this quarter of the globe. +These extensive possessions made the Dukes of Burgundy formidable +neighbors to France, and tempted the restless spirit of Charles the Bold +to devise a scheme of conquest, embracing the whole line of country from +the Zuyder Zee and the mouth of the Rhine down to Alsace. The almost +inexhaustible resources of this prince justify in some measure this bold +project. A formidable army threatened to carry it into execution. +Already Switzerland trembled for her liberty; but deceitful fortune +abandoned him in three terrible battles, and the infatuated hero was +lost in the melee of the living and the dead. + + [A page who had seen him fall a few days after the battle conducted + the victors to the spot, and saved his remains from an ignominious + oblivion. His body was dragged from out of a pool, in which it was + fast frozen, naked, and so disfigured with wounds that with great + difficulty he was recognized, by the well-known deficiency of some + of his teeth, and by remarkably long finger-nails. But that, + notwithstanding the marks, there were still incredulous people who + doubted his death, and looked for his reappearance, is proved by + the missive in which Louis XI. called upon the Burgundian States to + return to their allegiance to the Crown of France. "If," the + passage runs, "Duke Charles should still be living, you shall be + released from your oath to me." Comines, t. iii., Preuves des + Memoires, 495, 497.] + +The sole heiress of Charles the Bold, Maria, at once the richest +princess and the unhappy Helen of that time, whose wooing brought misery +on her inheritance, was now the centre of attraction to the whole known +world. Among her suitors appeared two great princes, King Louis XI. of +France, for his son, the young Dauphin, and Maximilian of Austria, son +of the Emperor Frederic III. The successful suitor was to become the +most powerful prince in Europe; and now, for the first time, this +quarter of the globe began to fear for its balance of power. Louis, the +more powerful of the two, was ready to back his suit by force of arms; +but the people of the Netherlands, who disposed of the hand of their +princess, passed by this dreaded neighbor, and decided in favor of +Maximilian, whose more remote territories and more limited power seemed +less to threaten the liberty of their country. A deceitful, unfortunate +policy, which, through a strange dispensation of heaven, only +accelerated the melancholy fate which it was intended to prevent. + +To Philip the Fair, the son of Maria and Maximilian, a Spanish bride +brought as her portion that extensive kingmdom which Ferdinand and +Isabella had recently founded; and Charles of Austria, his son, was born +lord of the kingdoms of Spain, of the two Sicilies, of the New World, +and of the Netherlands. In the latter country the commonalty +emancipated themselves much earlier than in other; feudal states, and +quickly attained to an independent political existence. The favorable +situation of the country on the North Sea and on great navigable rivers +early awakened the spirit of commerce, which rapidly peopled the towns, +encouraged industry and the arts, attracted foreigners, and diffused +prosperity and affluence among them. However contemptuously the warlike +policy of those times looked down upon every peaceful and useful +occupation, the rulers of the country could not fail altogether to +perceive the essential advantages they derived from such pursuits. The +increasing population of their territories, the different imposts which +they extorted from natives and foreigners under the various titles of +tolls, customs, highway rates, escort money, bridge tolls, market fees, +escheats, and so forth, were too valuable considerations to allow them +to remain indifferent to the sources from which they were derived.. +Their own rapacity made them promoters of trade, and, as often happens, +barbarism itself rudely nursed it, until at last a healthier policy +assumed its place. In the course of time they invited the Lombard +merchants to settle among them, and accorded to the towns some valuable +privileges and an independent jurisdiction, by which the latter acquired +uncommon extraordinary credit and influence. The numerous wars which +the counts and dukes carried on with one another, or with their +neighbors, made them in some measure dependent on the good-will of the +towns, who by their wealth obtained weight and consideration, and for +the subsidies which they afforded failed not to extort important +privileges in return. These privileges of the commonalties increased as +the crusades with their expensive equipment augumented the necessities +of the nobles; as a new road to Europe was opened for the productions of +the East, and as wide-spreading luxury created new wants to their +princes. Thus as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries we find in +these lands a mixed form of governmeut, in which the prerogative of the +sovereign is greatly limited by the privileges of the estates; that is +to say, of the nobility, the clergy, and the municipalities. + +These, under the name of States, assembled as often as the wants of the +province required it. Without their consent no new laws were valid, no +war could be carried on, and no taxes levied, no change made in the +coinage, and no foreigner admitted to any office of government. All the +provinces enjoyed these privileges in common; others were peculiar to +the various districts. The supreme government was hereditary, but the +son did not enter on the rights of his father before he had solemnly +sworn to maintain the existing constitution. + +Necessity is the first lawgiver; all the wants which had to be met by +this constitution were originally of a commercial nature. Thus the +whole constitution was founded on commerce, and the laws of the nation +were adapted to its pursuits. The last clause, which excluded +foreigners from all offices of trust, was a natural consequence of the +preceding articles. So complicated and artificial a relation between +the sovereign and his people, which in many provinces was further +modified according to the peculiar wants of each, and frequently of some +single city, required for its maintenance the liveliest zeal for the +liberties of the country, combined with an intimate acquaintance with +them. From a foreigner neither could well be expected. This law, +besides, was enforced reciprocally in each particular province; so that +in Brabant no Fleming, in Zealand no Hollander, could hold office; and +it continued in force even after all these provinces were united under +one government. + +Above all others, Brabant enjoyed the highest degree of freedom. Its +privileges were esteemed so valuable that many mothers from the adjacent +provinces removed thither about the time of their accouchment, in order +to entitle their children to participate, by birth, in all the +immunities of that favored country; just as, says Strada, one improves +the plants of a rude climate by removing them to the soil of a milder. + +After the House of Burgundy had united several provinces under its +dominion, the separate provincial assemblies which, up to that time, had +been independent tribunals, were made subject to a supreme court at +Malines, which incorporated the various judicatures into one body, and +decided in the last resort all civil and criminal appeals. The separate +independence of the provinces was thus abolished, and the supreme power +vested in the senate at Malines. + +After the death of Charles the Bold the states did not neglect to avail +themselves of the embarassment of their duchess, who, threatened by +France, was consequently in their power. Holland and Zealand compelled +her to sign a great charter, which secured to them the most important +sovereign rights. The people of Ghent carried their insolence to such a +pitch that they arbitrarily dragged the favorites of Maria, who had the +misfortune to displease them, before their own tribunals, and beheaded +them before the eyes of that princess. During the short government of +the Duchess Maria, from her father's death to her marriage, the commons +obtained powers which few free states enjoyed. After her death her +husband, Maximilian, illegally assumed the government as guardian of his +son. Offended by this invasion of their rights, the estates refused to +acknowledge his authority, and could only be brought to receive him as a +viceroy for a stated period, and under conditions ratified by oath. + +Maximilian, after he became Roman Emperor, fancied that he might safely +venture to violate the constitution. He imposed extraordinary taxes on +the provinces, gave official appointments to Burgundians and Germans, +and introduced foreign troops into the provinces. But the jealousy of +these republicans kept pace with the power of their regent. As he +entered Bruges with a large retinue of foreigners, the people flew to +arms, made themselves masters of his person, and placed him in +confinement in the castle. In spite of the intercession of the Imperial +and Roman courts, he did not again obtain his freedom until security had +been given to the people on all the disputed points. + +The security of life and property arising from mild laws, and, an equal +administration of justice, had encouraged activity and industry. In +continual contest with the ocean and rapid rivers, which poured their +violence on the neighboring lowlands, and whose force it was requisite +to break by embankments and canals, this people had early learned to +observe the natural objects around them; by industry and perseverance to +defy an element of superior power; and like the Egyptian, instructed by +his Nile, to exercise their inventive genius and acuteness in self- +defence. The natural fertility of their soil, which favored agriculture +and the breeding of cattle, tended at the same time to increase the +population. Their happy position on the sea and the great navigable +rivers of Germany and France, many of which debouched on their coasts; +the numerous artificial canals which intersected the land in all +directions, imparted life to navigation; and the facility of internal +communication between the provinces, soon created and fostered a +commercial spirit among these people. + +The neighboring coasts, Denmark and Britain, were the first visited by +their vessels. The English wool which they brought back employed +thousands of industrious hands in Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp; and as +early as the middle of the twelfth century cloths of Flanders were +extensively worn in France and Germany. In the eleventh century we find +ships of Friesland in the Belt, and even in the Levant. This +enterprising people ventured, without a compass, to steer under the +North Pole round to the most northerly point of Russia. From the +Wendish towns the Netherlands received a share in the Levant trade, +which, at that time, still passed from the Black Sea through the Russian +territories to the Baltic. When, in the thirteenth century, this trade +began to decline, the Crusades having opened a new road through the +Mediterranean for Indian merchandise, and after the Italian towns had +usurped this lucrative branch of commerce, and the great Hanseatic +League had been formed in Germany, the Netherlands became the most +important emporium between the north and south. As yet the use of +the compass was not general, and the merchantmen sailed slowly and +laboriously along the coasts. The ports on the Baltic were, during the +winter months, for the most part frozen and inaccessible. Ships, +therefore, which could not well accomplish within the year the long +voyage from the Mediterranean to the Belt, gladly availed theniselves of +harbors which lay half-way between the two, + +With an immense continent behind them with which navigable streams kept +up their communication, and towards the west and north open to the ocean +by commodious harbors, this country appeared to be expressly formed for +a place of resort for different nations, and for a centre of commerce. +The principal towns of the Netherlands were established marts. +Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, French, Britons, Germans, Danes, and +Swedes thronged to them with the produce of every country in the world. +Competition insured cheapness; industry was stimulated as it found a +ready market for its productions. With the necessary exchange of money +arose the commerce in bills, which opened a new and fruitful source of +wealth. The princes of the country, acquainted at last with their true +interest, encouraged the merchant by important immunities, and neglected +not to protect their commerce by advantageous treaties with foreign +powers. When, in the fifteenth century, several provinces were united +under one rule, they discontinued their private wars, which had proved +so injurious, and their separate interests were now more intimately +connected by a common government. Their commerce and affluence +prospered in the lap of a long peace, which the formidable power of +their princes extorted from the neighboring monarchs. The Burgundian +flag was feared in every sea, the dignity of their sovereign gave +support to their undertakings, and the enterprise of a private +individual became the affair of a powerful state. Such vigorous +protection soon placed them in a position even to renounce the Hanseatic +League, and to pursue this daring enemy through every sea. The +Hanseatic merchants, against whom the coasts of Spain were closed, +were compelled at last, however reluctantly, to visit the Flemish fairs, +and purchase their Spanish goods in the markets of the Netherlands. + +Bruges, in Flanders, was, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the +central point of the whole commerce of Europe, and the great market of +all nations. In the year 1468 a hundred and fifty merchant vessels were +counted entering the harbor of Sluys it one time. Besides the rich +factories of the Hanseatic League, there were here fifteen trading +companies, with their countinghouses, and many factories and merchants' +families from every European country. Here was established the market +of all northern products for the south, and of all southern and +Levantine products for the north. These passed through the Sound, and +up the Rhine, in Hanseatic vessels to Upper Germany, or were transported +by landcarriage to Brunswick and Luneburg. + +As in the common course of human affairs, so here also a licentious +luxury followed prosperity. The seductive example of Philip the Good +could not but accelerate its approach. The court of the Burgundian +dukes was the most voluptuous and magnificent in Europe, Italy itself +not excepted. The costly dress of the higher classes, which afterwards +served as patterns to the Spaniards, and eventually, with other +Burgundian customs, passed over to the court of Austria, soon descended +to the lower orders, and the meanest citizen nursed his person in velvet +and silk. + + [Philip the Good was too profuse a prince to amass treasures; + nevertheless Charles the Bold found accumulated among his effects, + a greater store of table services, jewels, carpets, and linen than + three rich princedoms of that time together possessed, and over and + above all a treasure of three hundred thousand dollars in ready + money. The riches of this prince, and of the Burgundian people, + lay exposed on the battle-fields of Granson, Murten and Nancy. + Here a Swiss soldier drew from the finger of Charles the Bold, that + celebrated diamond which was long esteemed the largest in Europe, + which even now sparkles in the crown of France as the second in + size, but which the unwitting finder sold for a florin. The Swiss + exchanged the silver they found for tin, and the gold for copper, + and tore into pieces the costly tents of cloth of gold. The value + of the spoil of silver, gold, and jewels which was taken has been + estimated at three millions. Charles and his army had advanced to + the combat, not like foes who purpose battle, but like conquerors + who adorn themselves after victory.] + +Comines, an author who travelled through the Netherlands about the +middle of the fifteenth century, tells us that pride had already +attended their prosperity. The pomp and vanity of dress was carried by +both sexes to extravagance. The luxury of the table had never reached +so great a height among any other people. The immoral assemblage of +both sexes at bathing-places, and such other places of reunion for +pleasure and enjoyment, had banished all shame--and we are not here +speaking of the usual luxuriousness of the higher ranks; the females of +the common class abandoned themselves to such extravagances without +limit or measure. + +But how much more cheering to the philanthropist is this extravagance +than the miserable frugality of want, and the barbarous virtues of +ignorance, which at that time oppressed nearly the whole of Europe! +The Burgundian era shines pleasingly forth from those dark ages, like +a lovely spring day amid the showers of February. But this flourishing +condition tempted the Flemish towns at last to their ruin; Ghent and +Bruges, giddy with liberty and success, declared war against Philip the +Good, the ruler of eleven provinces, which ended as unfortunately as it +was presumptuously commenced. Ghent alone lost many thousand men in an +engagement near Havre, and was compelled to appease the wrath of the +victor by a contribution of four hundred thousand gold florins. All the +municipal functionaries, and two thousand of the principal citizens, +went, stripped to their shirts, barefooted, and with heads uncovered, a +mile out of the town to meet the duke, and on their knees supplicated +for pardon. On this occasion they were deprived of several valuable +privileges, all irreparable loss for their future commerce. In the year +1482 they engaged in a war, with no better success, against Maximilian +of Austria, with a view to, deprive him of the guardianship of his son, +which, in contravention of his charter, he had unjustly assumed. In +1487 the town of Bruges placed the archduke himself in confinement, and +put some of his most eminent ministers to death. To avenge his son the +Emperor Frederic III. entered their territory with an army, and, +blockading for ten years the harbor of Sluys, put a stop to their entire +trade. On this occasion Amsterdam and Antwerp, whose jealousy had long +been roused by the flourishing condition of the Flemish towns, lent him +the most important assistance. The Italians began to bring their own +silk-stuffs to Antwerp for sale, and the Flemish cloth-workers likewise, +who had settled in England, sent their goods thither; and thus the town +of Bruges lost two important branches of trade. The Hanseatic League +had long been offended at their overweening pride; and it now left them +and removed its factory to Antwerp. In the year 1516 all the foreign +merchants left the town except only a few Spaniards; but its prosperity +faded as slowly as it had bloomed. + +Antwerp received, in the sixteenth century, the trade which the +luxuriousness of the Flemish towns had banished; and under the +government of Charles V. Antwerp was the most stirring and splendid +city in the Christian world. A stream like the Scheldt, whose broad +mouth, in the immediate vicinity, shared with the North Sea the ebb and +flow of the tide, and could carry vessels of the largest tonnage under +the walls of Antwerp, made it the natural resort for all vessels which +visited that coast. Its free fairs attracted men of business from all +countries. + + [Two such fairs lasted forty days, and all the goods sold there + were duty free.] + +The industry of the nation had, in the beginning of this century, +reached its greatest height. The culture of grain, flax, the breeding +of cattle, the chase, and fisheries, enriched the peasant; arts, +manufactures, and trade gave wealth to the burghers. Flemish and +Brabantine manufactures were long to be seen in Arabia, Persia, and +India. Their ships covered the ocean, and in the Black Sea contended +with the Genoese for supremacy. It was the distinctive characteristic +of the seaman of the Netherlands that he made sail at all seasons of the +year, and never laid up for the winter. + +When the new route by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, and the East +India trade of Portugal undermined that of the Levant, the Netherlands +did not feel the blow which was inflicted on the Italian republics. The +Portuguese established their mart in Brabant, and the spices of Calicut +were displayed for sale in the markets of Antwerp. Hither poured the +West Indian merchandise, with which the indolent pride of Spain repaid +the industry of the Netherlands. The East Indian market attracted the +most celebrated commercial houses from Florence, Lucca, and Genoa; and +the Fuggers and Welsers from Augsburg. Here the Hanse towns brought the +wares of the north, and here the English company had a factory. Here +art and nature seemed to expose to view all their riches; it was a +splendid exhibition of the works of the Creator and of the creature. + +Their renown soon diffused itself through the world. Even a company of +Turkish merchants, towards the end of this century, solicited permission +to settle here, and to supply the products of the East by way of Greece. +With the trade in goods they held also the exchange of money. Their +bills passed current in the farthest parts of the globe. Antwerp, it is +asserted, then transacted more extensive and more important business in +a single month than Venice, at its most flourishing period, in two whole +years. + +In the year 1491 the Hanseatic League held its solemn meetings in this +town, which had formerly assembled in Lubeck alone. In 1531 the +exchange was erected, at that time the most splendid in all Europe, and +which fulfilled its proud inscription. The town now reckoned one +hundred thousand inhabitants. The tide of human beings, which +incessantly poured into it, exceeds all belief. Between two hundred and +two hundred and fifty ships were often seen loading at one time in its +harbor; no day passed on which the boats entering inwards and outwards +did not amount to more than five hundred; on market days the number +amounted to eight or nine hundred. Daily more than two hundred +carriages drove through its gates; above two thousand loaded wagons +arrived every week from Germany, France, and Lorraine, without reckoning +the farmers' carts and corn-vans, which were seldom less than ten +thousand in number. Thirty thousand hands were employed by the English +company alone. The market dues, tolls, and excise brought millions to +the government annually. We can form some idea of the resources of the +nation from the fact that the extraordinary taxes which they were +obliged to pay to Charles V. towards his numerous wars were computed at +forty millions of gold ducats. + +For this affluence the Netherlands were as much indebted to their +liberty as to the natural advantages of their country. Uncertain laws +and the despotic sway of a rapacious prince would quickly have blighted +all the blessings which propitious nature had so abundantly lavished on +them. The inviolable sanctity of the laws can alone secure to the +citizen the fruits of his industry, and inspire him with that happy +confidence which is the soul of all activity. + +The genius of this people, developed by the spirit of commerce, and by +the intercourse with so many nations, shone in useful inventions; in the +lap of abundance and liberty all the noble arts were carefully +cultivated and carried to perfection. From Italy, to which Cosmo de +Medici had lately restored its golden age, painting, architecture, and +the arts of carving and of engraving on copper, were transplanted into +the Netherlands, where, in a new soil, they flourished with fresh vigor. +The Flemish school, a daughter of the Italian, soon vied with its mother +for the prize; and, in common with it, gave laws to the whole of Europe +in the fine arts. The manufactures and arts, on which the Netherlanders +principally founded their prosperity, and still partly base it, require +no particular enumeration. The weaving of tapestry, oil painting, the +art of painting on glass, even pocketwatches and sun-dials were, as +Guicciardini asserts, originally invented in the Netherlands. To them +we are indebted for the improvement of the compass, the points of which +are still known by Flemish names. About the year 1430 the invention of +typography is ascribed to Laurence Koster, of Haarlem; and whether or +not he is entitled to this honorable distinction, certain it is that the +Dutch were among the first to engraft this useful art among them; and +fate ordained that a century later it should reward its country with +liberty. The people of the Netherlands united with the most fertile +genius for inventions a happy talent for improving the discoveries of +others; there are probably few mechanical arts and manufactures which +they did not either produce or at least carry to a higher degree of +perfection. + +Up to this time these provinces had formed the most enviable state in +Europe. Not one of the Burgundian dukes had ventured to indulge a +thought of overturning the constitution; it had remained sacred even to +the daring spirit of Charles the Bold, while he was preparing fetters +for foreign liberty. All these princes grew up with no higher hope than +to be the heads of a republic, and none of their territories afforded +them experience of a higher authority. Besides, these princes possessed +nothing but what the Netherlands gave them; no armies but those which +the nation sent into the field; no riches but what the estates granted +to them. Now all was changed. The Netherlands had fallen to a master +who had at his command other instruments and other resources, who could +arm against them a foreign power. + + [The unnatural union of two such different nations as the Belgians + and Spaniards could not possibly be prosperous. I cannot here + refrain from quoting the comparison which Grotius, in energetic + language, has drawn between the two. "With the neighboring + nations," says he, "the people of the Netherlands could easily + maintain a good understanding, for they were of a similar origin + with themselves, and had grown up in the same manner. But the + people of Spain and of the Netherlands differed in almost every + respect from one another, and therefore, when they were brought + together clashed the more violently. Both had for many centuries + been distinguished in war, only the latter had, in luxurious + repose, become disused to arms, while the former had been inured to + war in the Italian and African campaigns; the desire of gain made + the Belgians more inclined to peace, but not less sensitive of + offence. No people were more free from the lust of conquest, but + none defended its own more zealously. Hence the numerous towns, + closely pressed together in a confined tract of country; densely + crowded with a foreign and native population; fortified near the + sea and the great rivers. Hence for eight centuries after the + northern immigration foreign arms could not prevail against them. + Spain, on the contrary, often changed its masters; and when at last + it fell into the hands of the Goths, its character and its manners + had suffered more or less from each new conqueror. The people thus + formed at last out of these several admixtures is described as + patient in labor, imperturbable in danger, equally eager for riches + and honor, proud of itself even to contempt of others, devout and + grateful to strangers for any act of kindness, but also revengeful, + and of such ungovernable passions in victory as so regard neither + conscience nor honor in the case of an enemy. All this is foreign + to the character of the Belgian, who is astute but not insidious, + who, placed midway between France and Germany, combines in + moderation the faults and good qualities of both. He is not easily + to be imposed upon, nor is he to be insulted with impunity. In + veneration for the Deity, too, he does not yield to the Spaniard; + the arms of the Northmen could not make him apostatize from + Christianity when he had once professed it. No opinion which the + church condemns had, up to this time, empoisoned the purity of his + faith. Nay, his pious extravagance went so far that it became + requisite to curb by laws the rapacity of his clergy. In both + people loyalty to their rulers is equally innate, with this + difference, that the Belgian places the law above kings. Of all + the Spaniards the Castilians require to be, governed with the most + caution; but the liberties which they arrogate for themselves they + do not willingly accord to others. Hence the difficult task to + their common ruler, so to distribute his attention, and care + between the two nations that neither the preference shown to the + Castilian should offend the Belgian, nor the equal treatment of the + Belgian affront the haughty spirit of the Castilian."--Grotii + Annal. Belg. L. 1. 4. 5. seq.] + +Charles V. was an absolute monarch in his Spanish dominions; in the +Netherlands he was no more than the first citizen. In the southern +portion of his empire he might have learned contempt for the rights of +individuals; here he was taught to respect them. The more he there +tasted the pleasures of unlimited power, and the higher he raised his +opinion of his own greatness, the more reluctant he must have felt to +descend elsewhere to the ordinary level of humanity, and to tolerate any +check upon his arbitrary authority. It requires, indeed, no ordinary +degree of virtue to abstain from warring against the power which imposes +a curb on our most cherished wishes. + +The superior power of Charles awakened at the same time in the +Netherlands that distrust which always accompanies inferiority. Never +were they so alive to their constitutional rights, never so jealous of +the royal prerogative, or more observant in their proceedings. Under, +his reign we see the most violent outbreaks of republican spirit, and +the pretensions of the people carried to an excess which nothing but the +increasing encroachments of the royal power could in the least justify. +A Sovereign will always regard the freedom of the citizen as an +alienated fief, which he is bound to recover. To the citizen the +authority of a sovereign is a torrent, which, by its inundation, +threatens to sweep away his rights. The Belgians sought to protect +themselves against the ocean by embankments, and against their princes +by constitutional enactments. The whole history of the world is a +perpetually recurring struggle between liberty and the lust of power and +possession; as the history of nature is nothing but the contest of the +elements and organic bodies for space. The Netherlands soon found to +their cost that they had become but a province of a great monarchy. So +long as their former masters had no higher aim than to promote their +prosperity, their condition resembled the tranquil happiness of a +secluded family, whose head is its ruler. Charles V. introduced them +upon the arena of the political world. They now formed a member of that +gigantic body which the ambition of an individual employed as his +instrument. They ceased to have their own good for their aim; the +centre of their existence was transported to the soul of their ruler. +As his whole government was but one tissue of plans and manoeuvres to +advance his power, so it was, above all things, necessary that he should +be completely master of the various limbs of his mighty empire in order +to move them effectually and suddenly. It was impossible, therefore, +for him to embarrass himself with the tiresome mechanism of their +interior political organization, or to extend to their peculiar +privileges the conscientious respect which their republican jealousy +demanded. It was expedient for him to facilitate the exercise of their +powers by concentration and unity. The tribunal at Malines had been +under his predecessor an independent court of judicature; he subjected +its decrees to the revision of a royal council, which he established in +Brussels, and which was the mere organ of his will. He introduced +foreigners into the most vital functions of their constitution, and +confided to them the most important offices. These men, whose only +support was the royal favor, would be but bad guardians of privileges +which, moreover, were little known to them. The ever-increasing +expenses of his warlike government compelled him as steadily to augment +his resources. In disregard of their most sacred privileges he imposed +new and strange taxes on the provinces. To preserve their olden +consideration the estates were forced to grant what he had been so +modest as not to extort; the whole history of the government of this +monarch in the Netherlands is almost one continued list of imposts +demanded, refused, and finally accorded. Contrary to the constitution, +he introduced foreign troops into their territories, directed the +recruiting of his armies in the provinces, and involved them in wars, +which could not advance even if they did not injure their interest, and +to which they had not given their consent. He punished the offences of +a free state as a monarch; and the terrible chastisement of Ghent +announced to the other provinces the great change which their +constitution had already undergone. + +The welfare of the country was so far secured as was necessary to the +political schemes of its master; the intelligent policy of Charles would +certainly not violate the salutary regiment of the body whose energies +he found himself necessitated to exert. Fortunately, the opposite +pursuits of selfish ambition, and of disinterested philanthropy, often +bring about the same end; and the well-being of a state, which a Marcus +Aurelius might propose to himself as a rational object of pursuit, is +occasionally promoted by an Augustus or a Louis. + +Charles V. was perfectly aware that commerce was the strength of the +nation, and that the foundation of their commerce was liberty. He +spared its liberty because he needed its strength. Of greater political +wisdom, though not more just than his son, he adapted his principles to +the exigencies of time and place, and recalled an ordinance in Antwerp +and in Madrid which he would under other circumstances have enforced +with all the terrors of his power. That which makes the reign of +Charles V. particularly remarkable in regard to the Netherlands is the +great religious revolution which occurred under it; and which, as the +principal cause of the subsequent rebellion, demands a somewhat +circumstantial notice. This it was that first brought arbitrary power +into the innermost sanctuary of the constitution; taught it to give a +dreadful specimen of its might; and, in a measure, legalized it, while +it placed republican spirit on a dangerous eminence. And as the latter +sank into anarchy and rebellion monarchical power rose to the height of +despotism. + +Nothing is more natural than the transition from civil liberty to +religious freedom. Individuals, as well as communities, who, favored by +a happy political constitution, have become acquainted with the rights +of man, and accustomed to examine, if not also to create, the law which +is to govern them; whose minds have been enlightened by activity, and +feelings expanded by the enjoyments of life; whose natural courage has +been exalted by internal security and prosperity; such men will not +easily surrender themselves to the blind domination of a dull arbitrary +creed, and will be the first to emancipate themselves from its yoke. +Another circumstance, however, must have greatly tended to diffuse the +new religion in these countries. Italy, it might be objected, the seat +of the greatest intellectual culture, formerly the scene of the most +violent political factions, where a burning climate kindles the blood +with the wildest passions--Italy, among all the European countries, +remained the freest from this change. But to a romantic people, whom a +warm and lovely sky, a luxurious, ever young and ever smiling nature, +and the multifarious witcheries of art, rendered keenly susceptible of +sensuous enjoyment, that form of religion must naturally have been +better adapted, which by its splendid pomp captivates the senses, by its +mysterious enigmas opens an unbounded range to the fancy; and which, +through the most picturesque forms, labors to insinuate important +doctrines into the soul. On the contrary, to a people whom the ordinary +employments of civil life have drawn down to an unpoetical reality, who +live more in plain notions than in images, and who cultivate their +common sense at the expense of their imagination--to such a people that +creed will best recommend itself which dreads not investigation, which +lays less stress on mysticism than on morals, and which is rather to be +understood then to be dwelt upon in meditation. In few words, the Roman +Catholic religion will, on the whole, be found more adapted to a nation +of artists, the Protestant more fitted to a nation of merchants. + +On this supposition the new doctrines which Luther diffused in Germany, +and Calvin in Switzerland, must have found a congenial soil in the +Netherlands. The first seeds of it were sown in the Netherlands by the +Protestant merchants, who assembled at Amsterdam and Antwerp. The +German and Swiss troops, which Charles introduced into these countries, +and the crowd of French, German, and English fugitives who, under the +protection of the liberties of Flanders, sought to escape the sword of +persecution which threatened them at home, promoted their diffusion. A +great portion of the Belgian nobility studied at that time at Geneva, as +the University of Louvain was not yet in repute, and that of Douai not +yet founded. The new tenets publicly taught there were transplanted by +the students to their various countries. In an isolated people these +first germs might easily have been crushed; but in the market-towns of +Holland and Brabant, the resort of so many different nations, their +first growth would escape the notice of government, and be accelerated +under the veil of obscurity. A difference in opinion might easily +spring up and gain ground amongst those who already were divided in +national character, in manners, customs, and laws. Moreover, in a +country where industry was the most lauded virtue, mendicity the most +abhorred vice, a slothful body of men, like that of the monks, must have +been an object of long and deep aversion. Hence, the new religion, +which opposed these orders, derived an immense advantage from having the +popular opinion on its side. Occasional pamphlets, full of bitterness +and satire, to which the newly-discovered art of printing secured a +rapid circulation, and several bands of strolling orators, called +Rederiker, who at that time made the circuit of the provinces, +ridiculing in theatrical representations or songs the abuses of their +times, contributed not a little to diminish respect for the Romish +Church, and to prepare the people for the reception of the new dogmas. + +The first conquests of this doctrine were astonishingly rapid. The +number of those who in a short time avowed themselves its adherents, +especially in the northern provinces, was prodigious; but among these +the foreigners far outnumbered the natives. Charles V., who, in this +hostile array of religious tenets, had taken the side which a despot +could not fail to take, opposed to the increasing torrent of innovation +the most effectual remedies. Unhappily for the reformed religion +political justice was on the side of its persecutor. The dam which, for +so many centuries, had repelled human understanding from truth was too +suddenly torn away for the outbreaking torrent not to overflow its +appointed channel. The reviving spirit of liberty and of inquiry, which +ought to have remained within the limits of religious questions, began +also to examine into the rights of kings. While in the commencement +iron fetters were justly broken off, a desire was eventually shown to +rend asunder the most legitimate and most indispensable of ties. Even +the Holy Scriptures, which were now circulated everywhere, while they +imparted light and nurture to the sincere inquirer after truth, were the +source also whence an eccentric fanaticism contrived to extort the +virulent poison. The good cause had been compelled to choose the evil +road of rebellion, and the result was what in such cases it ever will be +so long as men remain men. The bad cause, too, which had nothing in +common with the good but the employment of illegal means, emboldened by +this slight point of connection, appeared in the same company, and was +mistaken for it. Luther had written against the invocation of saints; +every audacious varlet who broke into the churches and cloisters, and +plundered the altars, called himself Lutheran. Faction, rapine, +fanaticism, licentiousness robed themselves in his colors; the most +enormous offenders, when brought before the judges, avowed themselves +his followers. The Reformation had drawn down the Roman prelate to a +level with fallible humanity; an insane band, stimulated by hunger and +want, sought to annihilate all distinction of ranks. It was natural +that a doctrine, which to the state showed itself only in its most +unfavorable aspect, should not have been able to reconcile a monarch who +had already so many reasons to extirpate it; and it is no wonder, +therefore, that be employed against it the arms it had itself forced +upon him. + +Charles must already have looked upon himself as absolute in the +Netherlands since he did not think it necessary to extend to these +countries the religious liberty which be had accorded to Germany. +While, compelled by the effectual resistance of the German princes, he +assured to the former country a free exercise of the new religion, in +the latter he published the most cruel edicts for its repression. By +these the reading of the Evangelists and Apostles; all open or secret +meetings to which religion gave its name in ever so slight a degree; all +conversations on the subject, at home or at the table, were forbidden +under severe penalties. In every province special courts of judicature +were established to watch over the execution of the edicts. Whoever +held these erroneous opinions was to forfeit his office without regard +to his rank. Whoever should be convicted of diffusing heretical +doctrines, or even of simply attending the secret meetings of the +Reformers, was to be condemned to death, and if a male, to be executed +by the sword, if a female, buried alive. Backsliding heretics were to +be committed to the flames. Not even the recantation of the offender +could annul these appalling sentences. Whoever abjured his errors +gained nothing by his apostacy but at farthest a milder kind of death. + +The fiefs of the condemned were also confiscated, contrary to the +privileges of the nation, which permitted the heir to redeem them for a +trifling fine; and in defiance of an express and valuable privilege of +the citizens of Holland, by which they were not to be tried out of their +province, culprits were conveyed beyond the limits of the native +judicature, and condemned by foreign tribunals. Thus did religion guide +the hand of despotism to attack with its sacred weapon, and without +danger or opposition, the liberties which were inviolable to the secular +arm. + +Charles V., emboldened by the fortunate progress of his arms in Germany, +thought that he might now venture on everything, and seriously meditated +the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands. But the +terror of its very name alone reduced commerce in Antwerp to a +standstill. The principal foreign merchants prepared to quit the city. +All buying and selling ceased, the value of houses fell, the employment +of artisans stopped. Money disappeared from the hands of the citizen. +The ruin of that flourishing commercial city was inevitable had not +Charles V. listened to the representations of the Duchess of Parma, and +abandoned this perilous resolve. The tribunal, therefore, was ordered +not to interfere with the foreign merchants, and the title of Inquisitor +was changed unto the milder appellation of Spiritual Judge. But in the +other provinces that tribunal proceeded to rage with the inhuman +despotism which has ever been peculiar to it. It has been computed that +during the reign of Charles V. fifty thousand persons perished by the +hand of the executioner for religion alone. + +When we glance at the violent proceedings of this monarch we are quite +at a loss to comprehend what it was that kept the rebellion within +bounds during his reign, which broke out with so much violence under his +successor. A closer investigation will clear up this seeming anomaly. +Charles's dreaded supremacy in Europe had raised the commerce of the +Netherlands to a height which it had never before attained. The majesty +of his name opened all harbors, cleared all seas for their vessels, and +obtained for them the most favorable cornmercial treaties with foreign +powers. Through him, in particular, they destroyed the dominion of the +Hanse towns in the Baltic. Through him, also, the New World, Spain, +Italy, Germany, which now shared with them a common ruler, were, in a +measure, to be considered as provinces of their own country, and opened +new channels for their commerce. He had, moreover, united the remaining +six provinces with the hereditary states of Burgundy, and thus given to +them an extent and political importance which placed them by the side of +the first kingdoms of Europe. + + [He had, too, at one time the intention of raising it to a kingdom; + but the essential points of difference between the provinces, which + extended from constitution and manners to measures and weights, + soon made him abandon this design. More important was the service + which he designed them in the Burgundian treaty, which settled its + relation to the German empire. According to this treaty the + seventeen provinces were to contribute to the common wants of the + German empire twice as much as an electoral prince; in case of a + Turkish war three times as much; in return for which, however, they + were to enjoy the powerful protection of this empire, and not to be + injured in any of their various privileges. The revolution, which + under Charles' son altered the political constitution of the + provinces, again annulled this compact, which, on account of the + trifling advantage that it conferred, deserves no further notice.] + +By all this he flattered the national pride of this people. Moreover, +by the incorporation of Gueldres, Utrecht, Friesland, and Groningen with +these provinces, he put an end to the private wars which had so long +disturbed their commerce; an unbroken internal peace now allowed them to +enjoy the full fruits of their industry. Charles was therefore a +benefactor of this people. At the same time, the splendor of his +victories dazzled their eyes; the glory of their sovereign, which was +reflected upon them also, had bribed their republican vigilance; while +the awe-inspiring halo of invincibility which encircled the conqueror of +Germany, France, Italy, and Africa terrified the factious. And then, +who knows not on how much may venture the man, be he a private +individual or a prince, who has succeeded in enchaining the admiration +of his fellow-creatures! His repeated personal visits to these lands, +which he, according to his own confession, visited as often as ten +different times, kept the disaffected within bounds; the constant +exercise of severe and prompt justice maintained the awe of the royal +power. Finally, Charles was born in the Netherlands, and loved the +nation in whose lap he had grown up. Their manners pleased him, the +simplicity of their character and social intercourse formed for him a +pleasing recreation from the severe Spanish gravity. He spoke their +language, and followed their customs in his private life. The +burdensome ceremonies which form the unnatural barriers between king and +people were banished from Brussels. No jealous foreigner debarred +natives from access to their prince; their way to him was through their +own countrymen, to whom he entrusted his person. He spoke much and +courteously with them; his deportment was engaging, his discourse +obliging. These simple artifices won for him their love, and while +his armies trod down their cornfields, while his rapacious imposts +diminished their property, while his governors oppressed, his +executioners slaughtered, he secured their hearts by a friendly +demeanor. + +Gladly would Charles have seen this affection of the nation for himself +descend upon his son. On this account he sent for him in his youth from +Spain, and showed him in Brussels to his future subjects. On the solemn +day of his abdication he recommended to him these lands as the richest +jewel in his crown, and earnestly exhorted him to respect their laws and +privileges. + +Philip II. was in all the direct opposite of his father. As ambitious +as Charles, but with less knowledge of men and of the rights of man, he +had formed to himself a notion of royal authority which regarded men as +simply the servile instruments of despotic will, and was outraged by +every symptom of liberty. Born in Spain, and educated under the iron +discipline of the monks, he demanded of others the same gloomy formality +and reserve as marked his own character. The cheerful merriment of his +Flemish subjects was as uncongenial to his disposition and temper as +their privileges were offensive to his imperious will. He spoke no +other language but the Spanish, endured none but Spaniards about his +person, and obstinately adhered to all their customs. In vain did the +loyal ingenuity of the Flemish towns through which he passed vie with +each other in solemnizing his arrival with costly festivities. + + [The town of Antwerp alone expended on an occasion of this kind two + hundred and sixty thousand gold florins.] + +Philip's eye remained dark; all the profusion of magnificence, all the +loud and hearty effusions of the sincerest joy could not win from him +one approving smile. + +Charles entirely missed his aim by presenting his son to the Flemings. +They might eventually have endured his yoke with less impatience if he +had never set his foot in their land. But his look forewarned them what +they had to expect; his entry into Brussels lost him all hearts. The +Emperor's gracious affability with his people only served to throw a +darker shade on the haughty gravity of his son. They read in his +countenance the destructive purpose against their liberties which, even +then, he already revolved in his breast. Forewarned to find in him a +tyrant they were forearmed to resist him. + +The throne of the Netherlands was the first which Charles V. abdicated. +Before a solemn convention in Brussels he absolved the States-General of +their oath, and transferred their allegiance to King Philip, his son. +"If my death," addressing the latter, as he concluded, "had placed you +in possession of these countries, even in that case so valuable a +bequest would have given me great claims on your gratitude. But now +that of my free will I transfer them to you, now that I die in order to +hasten your enjoyment of them, I only require of you to pay to the +people the increased obligation which the voluntary surrender of my +dignity lays upon you. Other princes esteem it a peculiar felicity to +bequeath to their children the crown which death is already ravishing +from then. This happiness I am anxious to enjoy during my life. I wish +to be a spectator of your reign. Few will follow my example, as few +have preceded me in it. But this my deed will be praised if your future +life should justify my expectations, if you continue to be guided by +that wisdom which you have hitherto evinced, if you remain inviolably +attached to the pure faith which is the main pillar of your throne. One +thing more I have to add: may Heaven grant you also a son, to whom you +may transmit your power by choice, and not by necessity." + +After the Emperor had concluded his address Philip kneeled down before +him, kissed his hand, and received his paternal blessing. His eyes for +the last time were moistened with a tear. All present wept. It was an +hour never to be forgotten. + +This affecting farce was soon followed by another. Philip received the +homage of the assembled states. He took the oath administered in the +following words: "I, Philip, by the grace of God, Prince of Spain, of +the two Sicilies, etc., do vow and swear that I will be a good and just +lord in these countries, counties, and duchies, etc.; that I will well +and truly hold, and cause to be held, the privileges and liberties of +all the nobles, towns, commons, and subjects which have been conferred +upon them by my predecessors, and also the customs, usages and rights +which they now have and enjoy, jointly and severally, and, moreover, +that I will do all that by law and right pertains to a good and just +prince and lord, so help me God and all His Saints." + +The alarm which the arbitrary government of the Emperor had inspired, +and the distrust of his son, are already visible in the formula of this +oath, which was drawn up in far more guarded and explicit terms than +that which had been administered to Charles V. himself and all the Dukes +in Burgundy. Philip, for instance, was compelled to swear to the +maintenance of their customs and usages, what before his time had never +been required. In the oath which the states took to him no other +obedience was promised than such as should be consistent with the +privileges of the country. His officers then were only to reckon on +submission and support so long as they legally discharged the duties +entrusted to them. Lastly, in this oath of allegiance, Philip is simply +styled the natural, the hereditary prince, and not, as the Emperor had +desired, sovereign or lord; proof enough how little confidence was +placed in the justice and liberality of the new sovereign. + + + + + PHILIP II., RULER OF THE NETHERLANDS. + +Philip II. received the lordship of the Netherlands in the brightest +period of their prosperity. He was the first of their princes who +united them all under his authority. They now consisted of seventeen +provinces; the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg, and Gueldres, +the seven counties of Artois, Hainault, Flanders, Namur, Zutphen, +Holland, and Zealand, the margravate of Antwerp, and the five lordships +of Friesland, Mechlin (Malines), Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen, +which, collectively, formed a great and powerful state able to contend +with monarchies. Higher than it then stood their commerce could not +rise. The sources of their wealth were above the earth's surface, but +they were more valuable and inexhaustible and richer than all the mines +in America. These seventeen provinces which, taken together, scarcely +comprised the fifth part of Italy, and do not extend beyond three +hundred Flemish miles, yielded an annual revenue to their lord, not much +inferior to that which Britain formerly paid to its kings before the +latter had annexed so many of the ecclesiastical domains to their crown. +Three hundred and fifty cities, alive with industry and pleasure, many +of them fortified by their natural position and secure without bulwarks +or walls; six thousand three hundred market towns of a larger size; +smaller villages, farms, and castles innumerable, imparted to this +territory the aspect of one unbroken flourishing landscape. The nation +had now reached the meridian of its splendor; industry and abundance had +exalted the genius of the citizen, enlightened his ideas, ennobled his +affections; every flower of the intellect had opened with the +flourishing condition of the country. A happy temperament under a +severe climate cooled the ardor of their blood, and moderated the rage +of their passions; equanimity, moderation, and enduring patience, the +gifts of a northern clime; integrity, justice, and faith, the necessary +virtues of their profession; and the delightful fruits of liberty, +truth, benevolence, and a patriotic pride were blended in their +character, with a slight admixture of human frailties. No people on +earth was more easily governed by a prudent prince, and none with more +difficulty by a charlatan or a tyrant. Nowhere was the popular voice so +infallible a test of good government as here. True statesmanship could +be tried in no nobler school, and a sickly artificial policy had none +worse to fear. + +A state constituted like this could act and endure with gigantic energy +whenever pressing emergencies called forth its powers and a skilful and +provident administration elicited its resources. Charles V. bequeathed +to his successor an authority in these provinces little inferior to that +of a limited monarchy. The prerogative of the crown had gained a +visible ascendancy over the republican spirit, and that complicated +machine could now be set in motion, almost as certainly and rapidly as +the most absolutely governed nation. The numerous nobility, formerly so +powerful, cheerfully accompanied their sovereign in his wars, or, on the +civil changes of the state, courted the approving smile of royality. +The crafty policy of the crown had created a new and imaginary good, of +which it was the exclusive dispenser. New passions and new ideas of +happiness supplanted at last the rude simplicity of republican virtue. +Pride gave place to vanity, true liberty to titles of Honor, a needy +independence to a luxurious servitude. To oppress or to plunder their +native land as the absolute satraps of an absolute lord was a more +powerful allurement for the avarice and ambition of the great, than in +the general assembly of the state to share with the monarch a hundredth +part of the supreme power. A large portion, moreover, of the nobility +were deeply sunk in poverty and debt. Charles V. had crippled all the +most dangerous vassals of the crown by expensive embassies to foreign +courts, under the specious pretext of honorary distinctions. Thus, +William of Orange was despatched to Germany with the imperial crown, and +Count Egmont to conclude the marriage contract between Philip and Queen +Mary. Both also afterwards accompanied the Duke of Alva to France to +negotiate the peace between the two crowns, and the new alliance of +their sovereign with Madame Elizabeth. The expenses of these journeys +amounted to three hundred thousand florins, towards which the king did +not contribute a single penny. When the Prince of Orange was appointed +generalissimo in the place of the Duke of Savoy he was obliged to defray +all the necessary expenses of his office. When foreign ambassadors or +princes came to Brussels it was made incumbent on the nobles to maintain +the honor of their king, who himself always dined alone, and never kept +open table. Spanish policy had devised a still more ingenious +contrivance gradually to impoverish the richest families of the land. +Every year one of the Castilian nobles made his appearance in Brussels, +where he displayed a lavish magnificence. In Brussels it was accounted +an indelible disgrace to be distanced by a stranger in such munificence. +All vied to surpass him, and exhausted their fortunes in this costly +emulation, while the Spaniard made a timely retreat to his native +country, and by the frugality of four years repaired the extravagance of +one year. It was the foible of the Netherlandish nobility to contest +with every stranger the credit of superior wealth, and of this weakness +the government studiously availed itself. Certainly these arts did not +in the sequel produce the exact result that had been calculated on; for +these pecuniary burdens only made the nobility the more disposed for +innovation, since he who has lost all can only be a gainer in the +general ruin. + +The Roman Church had ever been a main support of the royal power, and it +was only natural that it should be so. Its golden time was the bondage +of the human intellect, and, like royalty, it had gained by the +ignorance and weakness of men. Civil oppression made religion more +necessary and more dear; submission to tyrannical power prepares the +mind for a blind, convenient faith, and the hierarchy repaid with usury +the services of despotism. In the provinces the bishops and prelates +were zealous supporters of royalty, and ever ready to sacrifice the +welfare of the citizen to the temporal advancement of the church and the +political interests of the sovereign. + +Numerous and brave garrisons also held the cities in awe, which were +at the same time divided by religious squabbles and factions, and +consequently deprived of their strongest support--union among +themselves. How little, therefore, did it require to insure this +preponderance of Philip's power, and how fatal must have been the folly +by which it was lost. + +But Philip's authority in these provinces, however great, did not +surpass the influence which the Spanish monarchy at that time enjoyed +throughout Europe. No state ventured to enter the arena of contest with +it. France, its most dangerous neighbor, weakened by a destructive war, +and still more by internal factions, which boldly raised their heads +during the feeble government of a child, was advancing rapidly to that +unhappy condition which, for nearly half a century, made it a theatre of +the most enormous crimes and the most fearful calamities. In England +Elizabeth could with difficulty protect her still tottering throne +against the furious storms of faction, and her new church establishment +against the insidious arts of the Romanists. That country still awaited +her mighty call before it could emerge from a humble obscurity, and had +not yet been awakened by the faulty policy of her rival to that vigor +and energy with which it finally overthrew him. The imperial family of +Germany was united with that of Spain by the double ties of blood and +political interest; and the victorious progress of Soliman drew its +attention more to the east than to the west of Europe. Gratitude and +fear secured to Philip the Italian princes, and his creatures ruled the +Conclave. The monarchies of the North still lay in barbarous darkness +and obscurity, or only just began to acquire form and strength, and were +as yet unrecognized in the political system of Europe. The most skilful +generals, numerous armies accustomed to victory, a formidable marine, +and the golden tribute from the West Indies, which now first began to +come in regularly and certainly--what terrible instruments were these in +the firm and steady hand of a talented prince Under such auspicious +stars did King Philip commence his reign. + +Before we see him act we must first look hastily into the deep recesses +of his soul, and we shall there find a key to his political life. Joy +and benevolence were wholly wanting in the composition of his character. +His temperament, and the gloomy years of his early childhood, denied him +the former; the latter could not be imparted to him by men who had +renounced the sweetest and most powerful of the social ties. Two ideas, +his own self and what was above that self, engrossed his narrow and +contracted mind. Egotism and religion were the contents and the title- +page of the history of his whole life. He was a king and a Christian, +and was bad in both characters; he never was a man among men, because he +never condescended but only ascended. His belief was dark and cruel; +for his divinity was a being of terror, from whom he had nothing to hope +but everything to fear. To the ordinary man the divinity appears as a +comforter, as a Saviour; before his mind it was set up as an image of +fear, a painful, humiliating check to his human omnipotence. His +veneration for this being was so much the more profound and deeply +rooted the less it extended to other objects. He trembled servilely +before God because God was the only being before whom he had to tremble. +Charles V. was zealous for religion because religion promoted his +objects. Philip was so because he had real faith in it. The former let +loose the fire and the sword upon thousands for the sake of a dogma, +while be himself, in the person of the pope, his captive, derided the +very doctrine for which he had sacrificed so much human blood. It was +only with repugnance and scruples of conscience that Philip resolved on +the most just war against the pope, and resigned all the fruits of his +victory as a penitent malefactor surrenders his booty. The Emperor was +cruel from calculation, his son from impulse. The first possessed a +strong and enlightened spirit, and was, perhaps, so much the worse as a +man; the second was narrow-minded and weak, but the more upright. + +Both, however, as it appears to me, might have been better men than they +actually were, and still, on the whole, have acted on the very same +principles. What we lay to the charge of personal character of an +individual is very often the infirmity, the necessary imperfection of +universal human nature. A monarchy so great and so powerful was too +great a trial for human pride, and too mighty a charge for human power. +To combine universal happiness with the highest liberty of the +individual is the sole prerogative of infinite intelligence, which +diffuses itself omnipresently over all. But what resource has man +when placed in the position of omnipotence? Man can only aid his +circumscribed powers by classification; like the naturalist, he +establishes certain marks and rules by which to facilitate his own +feeble survey of the whole, to which all individualities must conform. +All this is accomplished for him by religion. She finds hope and fear +planted in every human breast; by making herself mistress of these +emotions, and directing their affections to a single object, she +virtually transforms millions of independent beings into one uniform +abstract. The endless diversity of the human will no longer embarrasses +its ruler--now there exists one universal good, one universal evil, +which he can bring forward or withdraw at pleasure, and which works in +unison with himself even when absent. Now a boundary is established +before which liberty must halt; a venerable, hallowed line, towards +which all the various conflicting inclinations of the will must finally +converge. The common aim of despotism and of priestcraft is uniformity, +and uniformity is a necessary expedient of human poverty and +imperfection. Philip became a greater despot than his father because +his mind was more contracted, or, in other words, he was forced to +adhere the more scrupulously to general rules the less capable he was of +descending to special and individual exceptions. What conclusion could +we draw from these principles but that Philip II. could not possibly +have any higher object of his solicitude than uniformity, both in +religion and in laws, because without these he could not reign? + +And yet he would have shown more mildness and forbearance in his +government if he had entered upon it earlier. In the judgment which is +usually formed of this prince one circumstance does not appear to be +sufficiently considered in the history of his mind and heart, which, +however, in all fairness, ought to be duly weighed. Philip counted +nearly thirty years when he ascended the Spanish throne, and the early +maturity of his understanding had anticipated the period of his +majority. A mind like his, conscious of its powers, and only too early +acquainted with his high expectations, could not brook the yoke of +childish subjection in which he stood; the superior genius of the +father, and the absolute authority of the autocrat, must have weighed +heavily on the self-satisfied pride of such a son. The share which the +former allowed him in the government of the empire was just important +enough to disengage his mind from petty passions and to confirm the +austere gravity of his character, but also meagre enough to kindle a +fiercer longing for unlimited power. When he actually became possessed +of uncontrolled authority it had lost the charm of novelty. The sweet +intoxication of a young monarch in the sudden and early possession of +supreme power; that joyous tumult of emotions which opens the soul to +every softer sentiment, and to which humanity has owed so many of the +most valuable and the most prized of its institutions; this pleasing +moment had for him long passed by, or had never existed. His character +was already hardened when fortune put him to this severe test, and his +settled principles withstood the collision of occasonal emotion. He had +had time, during fifteen years, to prepare himself for the change; and +instead of youthful dallying with the external symbols of his new +station, or of losing the morning of his government in the intoxication +of an idle vanity, he remained composed and serious enough to enter at +once on the full possession of his power so as to revenge himself +through the most extensive employment of it for its having been so long +withheld from him. + + + + + THE TRIBUNAL OF THE INQUISITION + +Philip II. no sooner saw himself, through the peace of Chateau-Cambray, +in undisturbed enjoyment of his immense territory than he turned his +whole attention to the great work of purifying religion, and verified +the fears of his Netherlandish subjects. The ordinances which his +father had caused to be promulgated against heretics were renewed in all +their rigor, and terrible tribunals, to whom nothing but the name of +inquisition was wanting, were appointed to watch over their execution. +But his plan appeared to him scarcely more than half-fulfilled so long +as he could not transplant into these countries the Spanish Inquisition +in its perfect form--a design in which the Emperor had already suffered +shipwreck. + +The Spanish Inquisition is an institution of a new and peculiar kind, +which finds no prototype in the whole course of time, and admits of +comparison with no ecclesiastical or civil tribunal. Inquisition had +existed from the time when reason meddled with what is holy, and from +the very commencement of scepticism and innovation; but it was in the +middle of the thirteenth century, after some examples of apostasy had +alarmed the hierarchy, that Innocent III. first erected for it a +peculiar tribunal, and separated, in an unnatural manner, ecclesiastical +superintendence and instruction from its judicial and retributive +office. In order to be the more sure that no human sensibilities or +natural tenderness should thwart the stern severity of its statutes, he +took it out of the hands of the bishops and secular clergy, who, by the +ties of civil life, were still too much attached to humanity for his +purpose, and consigned it to those of the monks, a half-denaturalized +race of beings who had abjured the sacred feelings, of nature, and were +the servile tools of the Roman See. The Inquisition was received in +Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France; a Franciscan monk sat as +judge in the terrible court, which passed sentence on the Templars. A +few states succeeded either in totally excluding or else in subjecting +it to civil authority. The Netherlands had remained free from it until +the government of Charles V.; their bishops exercised the spiritual +censorship, and in extraordinary cases reference was made to foreign +courts of inquisition; by the French provinces to that of Paris, by the +Germans to that of Cologne. + +But the Inquisition which we are here speaking of came from the west of +Europe, and was of a different origin and form. The last Moorish throne +in Granada had fallen in the fifteenth century, and the false faith of +the Saracens had finally succumbed before the fortunes of Christianity. +But the gospel was still new, and but imperfectly established in this +youngest of Christian kingdoms, and in the confused mixture of +heterogeneous laws and manners the religions had become mixed. It is +true the sword of persecution had driven many thousand families to +Africa, but a far larger portion, detained by the love of climate and +home, purchased remission from this dreadful necessity by a show of +conversion, and continued at Christian altars to serve Mohammed and +Moses. So long as prayers were offered towards Mecca, Granada was not +subdued; so long as the new Christian, in the retirement of his house, +became again a Jew or a Moslem, he was as little secured to the throne +as to the Romish See. It was no longer deemed sufficient to compel a +perverse people to adopt the exterior forms of a new faith, or to wed it +to the victorious church by the weak bands of ceremonials; the object +now was to extirpate the roots of an old religion, and to subdue an +obstinate bias which, by the slow operation of centuries, had been +implanted in their manners, their language, and their laws, and by the +enduring influence of a paternal soil and sky was still maintained in +its full extent and vigor. + +If the church wished to triumph completely over the opposing worship, +and to secure her new conquest beyond all chance of relapse, it was +indispensable that she should undermine the foundation itself on which +the old religion was built. It was necessary to break to pieces the +entire form of moral character to which it was so closely and intimately +attached. It was requisite to loosen its secret roots from the hold +they had taken in. the innermost depths of the soul; to extinguish all +traces of it, both in domestic life and in the civil world; to cause all +recollection of it to perish; and, if possible, to destroy the very +susceptibility for its impressions. Country and family, conscience and +honor, the sacred feelings of society and of nature, are ever the first +and immediate ties to which religion attaches itself; from these it +derives while it imparts strength. This connection was now to be +dissolved; the old religion was violently to be dissevered from the holy +feelings of nature, even at the expense of the sanctity itself of these +emotions. Thus arose that Inquisition which, to distinguish it from the +more humane tribunals of the same name, we usually call the Spanish. +Its founder was Cardinal Ximenes, a Dominican monk. Torquemada was the +first who ascended its bloody throne, who established its statutes, and +forever cursed his order with this bequest. Sworn to the degradation of +the understanding and the murder of intellect, the instruments it +employed were terror and infamy. Every evil passion was in its pay; its +snare was set in every joy of life. Solitude itself was not safe from +it; the fear of its omnipresence fettered the freedom of the soul in its +inmost and deepest recesses. It prostrated all the instincts of human +nature before it yielded all the ties which otherwise man held most +sacred. A heretic forfeited all claims upon his race; the most trivial +infidelity to his mother church divested him of the rights of his +nature. A modest doubt in the infallibility of the pope met with the +punishment of parricide and the infamy of sodomy; its sentences +resembled the frightful corruption of the plague, which turns the most +healthy body into rapid putrefaction. Even the inanimate things +belonging to a heretic were accursed. No destiny could snatch the +victim of the Inquisition from its sentence. Its decrees were carried +in force on corpses and on pictures, and the grave itself was no asylum +from its tremendous arm. The presumptuous arrogance of its decrees +could only be surpassed by the inhumanity which executed them. By +coupling the ludicrous with the terrible, and by amusing the eye with +the strangeness of its processions, it weakened compassion by the +gratification of another feeling; it drowned sympathy in derision and +contempt. The delinquent was conducted with solemn pomp to the place of +execution, a blood-red flag was displayed before him, the universal +clang of all the bells accompanied the procession. First came the +priests, in the robes of the Mass and singing a sacred hymn; next +followed the condemned sinner, clothed in a yellow vest, covered with +figures of black devils. On his head he wore a paper cap, surmounted by +a human figure, around which played lambent flames of fire, and ghastly +demons flitted. The image of the crucified Saviour was carried before, +but turned away from the eternally condemned sinner, for whom salvation +was no longer available. His mortal body belonged to the material fire, +his immortal soul to the flames of bell. A gag closed his mouth, and +prevented him from alleviating his pain by lamentations, from awakening +compassion by his affecting tale, and from divulging the secrets of the +holy tribunal. He was followed by the clergy in festive robes, by the +magistrates, and the nobility; the fathers who had been his judges +closed the awful procession. It seemed like a solemn funeral +procession, but on looking for the corpse on its way to the grave, +behold! it was a living body whose groans are now to afford such +shuddering entertainment to the people. The executions were generally +held on the high festivals, for which a number of such unfortunate +sufferers were reserved in the prisons of the holy house, in order to +enhance the rejoicing by the multitude of the victims, and on these +occasions the king himself was usually present. He sat with uncovered +head, on a lower chair than that of the Grand Inquisitor, to whom, on +such occasions, he yielded precedence; who, then, would not tremble +before a tribunal at which majesty must humble itself? + +The great revolution in the church accomplished by Luther and Calvin +renewed the causes to which this tribunal owed its first origin; and +that which, at its commencement, was invented to clear the petty kingdom +of Granada from the feeble remnant of Saracens and Jews was now required +for the whole of Christendom. All the Inquisitions in Portugal, Italy, +Germany, and France adopted the form of the Spanish; it followed +Europeans to the Indies, and established in Goa a fearful tribunal, +whose inhuman proceedings make us shudder even at the bare recital. +Wherever it planted its foot devastation followed; but in no part of the +world did it rage so violently as in Spain. The victims are forgotten +whom it immolated; the human race renews itself, and the lands, too, +flourish again which it has devastated and depopulated by its fury; but +centuries will elapse before its traces disappear from the Spanish +character. A generous and enlightened nation has been stopped by it on +its road to perfection; it has banished genius from a region where it +was indigenous, and a stillness like that which hangs over the grave has +been left in the mind of a people who, beyond most others of our world, +were framed for happiness and enjoyment. + +The first Inquisitor in Brabant was appointed by Charles V. in the year +1522. Some priests were associated with him as coadjutors; but he +himself was a layman. After the death of Adrian VI., his successor, +Clement VII., appointed three Inquisitors for all the Netherlands; and +Paul III. again reduced them to two, which number continued until the +commencement of the troubles. In the year 1530, with the aid and +approbation of the states, the edicts against heretics were promulgated, +which formed the foundation of all that followed, and in which, also, +express mention is made of the Inquisition. In the year 1550, in +consequence of the rapid increase of sects, Charles V. was under the +necessity of reviving and enforcing these edicts, and it was on this +occasion that the town of Antwerp opposed the establishment of the +Inquisition, and obtained an exemption from its jurisdiction. But the +spirit of the Inquisition in the Netherlands, in accordance with the +genius of the country, was more humane than in Spain, and as yet had +never been administered by a foreigner, much less by a Dominican. The +edicts which were known to everybody served it as the rule of its +decisions. On this very account it was less obnoxious; because, however +severe its sentence, it did not appear a tool of arbitrary power, and it +did not, like the Spanish Inquisition, veil itself in secrecy. + +Philip, however, was desirous of introducing the latter tribunal into +the Netherlands, since it appeared to him the instrument best adapted to +destroy the spirit of this people, and to prepare them for a despotic +government. He began, therefore, by increasing the rigor of the +religious ordinances of his father; by gradually extending the power of +the inquisitors; by making the proceedings more arbitrary, and more +independent of the civil jurisdiction. The tribunal soon wanted little +more than the name and the Dominicans to resemble in every point the +Spanish Inquisition. Bare suspicion was enough to snatch a citizen from +the bosom of public tranquillity, and from his domestic circle; and the +weakest evidence was a sufficient justification for the use of the rack. +Whoever fell into its abyss returned no more to the world. All the +benefits of the laws ceased for him; the maternal care of justice no +longer noticed him; beyond the pale of his former world malice and +stupidity judged him according to laws which were never intended for +man. The delinquent never knew his accuser, and very seldom his crime, +--a flagitious, devilish artifice which constrained the unhappy victim +to guess at his error, and in the delirium of the rack, or in the +weariness of a long living interment, to acknowledge transgressions +which, perhaps, had never been committed, or at least had never come +to the knowledge of his judges. The goods of the condemned were +confiscated, and the informer encouraged by letters of grace and +rewards. No privilege, no civil jurisdiction was valid against the holy +power; the secular arm lost forever all whom that power had once +touched. Its only share in the judicial duties of the latter was to +execute its sentences with humble submissiveness. The consequences of +such an institution were, of necessity, unnatural and horrible; the +whole temporal happiness, the life itself, of an innocent man was at +the mercy of any worthless fellow. Every secret enemy, every envious +person, had now the perilous temptation of an unseen and unfailing +revenge. The security of property, the sincerity of intercourse were +gone; all the ties of interest were dissolved; all of blood and of +affection were irreparably broken. An infectious distrust envenomed +social life; the dreaded presence of a spy terrified the eye from +seeing, and choked the voice in the midst of utterance. No one believed +in the existence of an honest man, or passed for one himself. Good +name, the ties of country, brotherhood, even oaths, and all that man +holds sacred, were fallen in estimation. Such was the destiny to which +a great and flourishing commercial town was subjected, where one hundred +thousand industrious men had been brought together by the single tie of +mutual confidence,--every one indispensable to his neighbor, yet every +one distrusted and distrustful,--all attracted by the spirit of gain, +and repelled from each other by fear,--all the props of society torn +away, where social union was the basis of all life and all existence. + + + + + OTHER ENCROACHMENTS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE NETHERLANDS. + +No wonder if so unnatural a tribunal, which had proved intolerable even +to the more submissive spirit of the Spaniard, drove a free state to +rebellion. But the terror which it inspired was increased by the +Spanish troops, which, even after the restoration of peace, were kept in +the country, and, in violation of the constitution, garrisoned border +towns. Charles V. had been forgiven for this introduction of foreign +troops so long as the necessity of it was evident, and his good +intentions were less distrusted. But now men saw in these troops only +the alarming preparations of oppression and the instruments of a +detested hierarchy. Moreover, a considerable body of cavalry, composed +of natives, and fully adequate for the protection of the country, made +these foreigners superfluous. The licentiousness and rapacity, too, +of the Spaniards, whose pay was long in arrear, and who indemnified +themselves at the expense of the citizens, completed the exasperation of +the people, and drove the lower orders to despair. Subsequently, when +the general murmur induced the government to move them from the +frontiers and transport them into the islands of Zealand, where ships +were prepared for their deportation, their excesses were carried to such +a pitch that the inhabitants left off working at the embankments, and +preferred to abandon their native country to the fury of the sea rather +than to submit any longer to the wanton brutality of these lawless +bands. + +Philip, indeed, would have wished to retain these Spaniards in the +country, in order by their presence to give weight to his edicts, +and to support the innovations which he had resolved to make in the +constitution of the Netherlands. He regarded them as a guarantee for +the submission of the nation and as a chain by which he held it captive. +Accordingly, he left no expedient untried to evade the persevering +importunity of the states, who demanded the withdrawal of these troops; +and for this end he exhausted all the resources of chicanery and +persuasion. At one time he pretended to dread a sudden invasion by +France, although, torn by furious factions, that country could scarce +support itself against a domestic enemy; at another time they were, he +said, to receive his son, Don Carlos, on the frontiers; whom, however, +he never intended should leave Castile. Their maintenance should not be +a burden to the nation; he himself would disburse all their expenses +from his private purse. In order to detain them with the more +appearance of reason he purposely kept back from them their arrears of +pay; for otherwise he would assuredly have preferred them to the troops +of the country, whose demands he fully satisfied. To lull the fears of +the nation, and to appease the general discontent, he offered the chief +command of these troops to the two favorites of the people, the Prince +of Orange and Count Egmont. Both, however, declined his offer, with the +noble-minded declaration that they could never make up their minds to +serve contrary to the laws of the country. The more desire the king +showed to have his Spaniards in the country the more obstinately the +states insisted on their removal. In the following Diet at Ghent he was +compelled, in the very midst of his courtiers, to listen to republican +truth. "Why are foreign hands needed for our defence?" demanded the +Syndic of Ghent. "Is it that the rest of the world should consider us +too stupid, or too cowardly, to protect ourselves? Why have we made +peace if the burdens of war are still to oppress us? In war necessity +enforced endurance; in peace our patience is exhausted by its burdens. +Or shall we be able to keep in order these licentious bands which thine +own presence could not restrain? Here, Cambray and Antwerp cry for +redress; there, Thionville and Marienburg lie waste; and, surely, thou +hast not bestowed upon us peace that our cities should become deserts, +as they necessarily must if thou freest them not from these destroyers? +Perhaps then art anxious to guard against surprise from our neighbors? +This precaution is wise; but the report of their preparations will long +outrun their hostilities. Why incur a heavy expense to engage +foreigners who will not care for a country which they must leave +to-morrow? Hast thou not still at thy command the same brave +Netherlanders to whom thy father entrusted the republic in far more +troubled times? Why shouldest thou now doubt their loyalty, which, to +thy ancestors, they have preserved for so many centuries inviolate? +Will not they be sufficient to sustain the war long enough to give time +to thy confederates to join their banners, or to thyself to send succor +from the neighboring country?" This language was too new to the king, +and its truth too obvious for him to be able at once to reply to it. +"I, also, am a foreigner," he at length exclaimed, "and they would like, +I suppose, to expel me from the country!" At the same time he descended +from the throne, and left the assembly; but the speaker was pardoned for +his boldness. Two days afterwards he sent a message to the states that +if he had been apprised earlier that these troops were a burden to them +he would have immediately made preparation to remove them with himself +to Spain. Now it was too late, for they would not depart unpaid; but he +pledged them his most sacred promise that they should not be oppressed +with this burden more than four months. Nevertheless, the troops +remained in this country eighteen months instead of four; and would not, +perhaps, even then have left it so soon if the exigencies of the state +had not made their presence indispensable in another part of the world. + +The illegal appointment of foreigners to the most important offices of +the country afforded further occasion of complaint against the +government. Of all the privileges of the provinces none was so +obnoxious to the Spaniards as that which excluded strangers from office, +and none they had so zealously sought to abrogate. Italy, the two +Indies, and all the provinces of this vast Empire, were indeed open to +their rapacity and ambition; but from the richest of them all an +inexorable fundamental law excluded them. They artfully persuaded their +sovereign that his power in these countries would never be firmly +established so long as he could not employ foreigners as his +instruments. The Bishop of Arras, a Burgundian by birth, had already +been illegally forced upon the Flemings; and now the Count of Feria, a +Castilian, was to receive a seat and voice in the council of state. But +this attempt met with a bolder resistance than the king's flatterers had +led him to expect, and his despotic omnipotence was this time wrecked by +the politic measures of William of Orange and the firmness of the +states. + + + + + WILLIAM OF ORANGE AND COUNT EGMONT. + +By such measures, did Philip usher in his government of the Netherlands, +and such were the grievances of the nation when he was preparing to +leave them. He had long been impatient to quit a country where he was a +stranger, where there was so much that opposed his secret wishes, and +where his despotic mind found such undaunted monitors to remind him of +the laws of freedom. The peace with France at last rendered a longer +stay unnecessary; the armaments of Soliman required his presence in the +south, and the Spaniards also began to miss their long-absent king. The +choice of a supreme Stadtholder for the Netherlands was the principal +matter which still detained him. Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, had +filled this place since the resignation of Mary, Queen of Hungary, +which, however, so long as the king himself was present, conferred more +honor than real influence. His absence would make it the most important +office in the monarchy, and the most splendid aim for the ambition of a +subject. It had now become vacant through the departure of the duke, +whom the peace of Chateau-Cambray had restored to his dominions. The +almost unlimited power with which the supreme Statholder would be +entrusted, the capacity and experience which so extensive and delicate +an appointment required, but, especially, the daring designs which the +government had in contemplation against the freedom of the country, the +execution of which would devolve on him, necessarily embarrassed the +choice. The law, which excluded all foreigners from office, made an +exception in the case of the supreme Stadtholder. As he could not be at +the same time a native of all the provinces, it was allowable for him +not to belong to any one of them; for the jealousy of the man of Brabant +would concede no greater right to a Fleming, whose home was half a mile +from his frontier, than to a Sicilian, who lived in another soil and +under a different sky. But here the interests of the crown itself +seemed to favor the appointment of a native. A Brabanter, for instance, +who enjoyed the full confidence of his countrymen if he were a traitor +would have half accomplished his treason before a foreign governor could +have overcome the mistrust with which his most insignificant measures +would be watched. If the government should succeed in carrying through +its designs in one province, the opposition of the rest would then be a +temerity, which it would be justified in punishing in the severest +manner. In the common whole which the provinces now formed their +individual constitutions were, in a measure, destroyed; the obedience of +one would be a law for all, and the privilege, which one knew not how to +preserve, was lost for the rest. + +Among the Flemish nobles who could lay claim to the Chief +Stadtholdership, the expectations and wishes of the nation were divided +between Count Egmont and the Prince of Orange, who were alike qualified +for this high dignity by illustrious birth and personal merits, and by +an equal share in the affections of the people. Their high rank placed +them both near to the throne, and if the choice of the monarch was to +rest on the worthiest it must necessarily fall upon one of these two. +As, in the course of our history, we shall often have occasion to +mention both names, the reader cannot be too early made acquainted with +their characters. + +William I., Prince of Orange, was descended from the princely German +house of Nassau, which had already flourished eight centuries, had long +disputed the preeminence with Austria, and had given one Emperor to +Germany. Besides several extensive domains in the Netherlands, which +made him a citizen of this republic and a vassal of the Spanish +monarchy, he possessed also in France the independent princedom of +Orange. William was born in the year 1533, at Dillenburg, in the +country of Nassau, of a Countess Stolberg. His father, the Count of +Nassau, of the same name, had embraced the Protestant religion, and +caused his son also to be educated in it; but Charles V., who early +formed an attachment for the boy, took him when quite young to his +court, and had him brought up in the Romish church. This monarch, who +already in the child discovered the future greatness of the man, kept +him nine years about his person, thought him worthy of his personal +instruction in the affairs of government, and honored him with a +confidence beyond his years. He alone was permitted to remain in the +Emperor's presence when he gave audience to foreign ambassadors--a proof +that, even as a boy, he had already begun to merit the surname of the +Silent. The Emperor was not ashamed even to confess openly, on one +occasion, that this young man had often made suggestions which would +have escaped his own sagacity. What expectations might not be formed of +the intellect of a man who was disciplined in such a school. + +William was twenty-three years old when Charles abdicated the +government, and had already received from the latter two public marks of +the highest esteem. The Emperor had entrusted to him, in preference to +all the nobles of his court, the honorable office of conveying to his +brother Ferdinand the imperial crown. When the Duke of Savoy, who +commanded the imperial army in the Netherlands, was called away to Italy +by the exigency of his domestic affairs, the Emperor appointed him +commander-in-chief against the united representations of his military +council, who declared it altogether hazardous to oppose so young a tyro +in arms to the experienced generals of France. Absent, and +unrecommended by any, he was preferred by the monarch to the laurel- +crowned band of his heroes, and the result gave him no cause to repent +of his choice. + +The marked favor which the prince had enjoyed with the father was in +itself a sufficient ground for his exclusion from the confidence of the +son. Philip, it appears, had laid it down for himself as a rule to +avenge the wrongs of the Spanish nobility for the preference which +Charles V. had on all important occasions shown to his Flemish nobles. +Still stronger, however, were the secret motives which alienated him +from the prince. William of Orange was one of those lean and pale men +who, according to Caesar's words, "sleep not at night, and think too +much," and before whom the most fearless spirits quail. + +The calm tranquillity of a never-varying countenance concealed a busy, +ardent soul, which never ruffled even the veil behind which it worked, +and was alike inaccessible to artifice and love; a versatile, +formidable, indefatigable mind, soft, and ductile enough to be +instantaneously moulded into all forms; guarded enough to lose itself in +none; and strong enough to endure every vicissitude of fortune. A +greater master in reading and in winning men's hearts never existed than +William. Not that, after the fashion of courts, his lips avowed a +servility to which his proud heart gave the lie; but because he was +neither too sparing nor too lavish of the marks of his esteem, and +through a skilful economy of the favors which mostly bind men, he +increased his real stock in them. The fruits of his meditation were as +perfect as they were slowly formed; his resolves were as steadily and +indomitably accomplished as they were long in maturing. No obstacles +could defeat the plan which he had once adopted as the best; no +accidents frustrated it, for they all had been foreseen before they +actually occurred. High as his feelings were raised above terror and +joy, they were, nevertheless, subject in the same degree to fear; but +his fear was earlier than the danger, and he was calm in tumult because +he had trembled in repose. William lavished his gold with a profuse +hand, but he was a niggard of his movements. The hours of repast were +the sole hours of relaxation, but these were exclusively devoted to his +heart, his family, and his friends; this the modest deduction he allowed +himself from the cares of his country. Here his brow was cleared with +wine, seasoned by temperance and a cheerful disposition; and no serious +cares were permitted to enter this recess of enjoyment. His household +was magnificent; the splendor of a numerous retinue, the number and +respectability of those who surrounded his person, made his habitation +resemble the court of a sovereign prince. A sumptuous hospitality, that +master-spell of demagogues, was the goddess of his palace. Foreign +princes and ambassadors found here a fitting reception and +entertainment, which surpassed all that luxurious Belgium could +elsewhere offer. A humble submissiveness to the government bought off +the blame and suspicion which this munificence might have thrown on his +intentions. But this liberality secured for him the affections of the +people, whom nothing gratified so much as to see the riches of their +country displayed before admiring foreigners, and the high pinnacle of +fortune on which he stood enhanced the value of the courtesy to which he +condescended. No one, probably, was better fitted by nature for the +leader of a conspiracy than William the Silent. A comprehensive and +intuitive glance into the past, the present, and the future; the talent +for improving every favorable opportunity; a commanding influence over +the minds of men, vast schemes which only when viewed from a distance +show form and symmetry; and bold calculations which were wound up in the +long chain of futurity; all these faculties he possessed, and kept, +moreover, under the control of that free and enlightened virtue which +moves with firm step even on the very edge of the abyss. + +A man like this might at other times have remained unfathomed by his +whole generation; but not so by the distrustful spirit of the age in +which he lived. Philip II. saw quickly and deeply into a character +which, among good ones, most resembled his own. If he had not seen +through him so clearly his distrust of a man, in whom were united nearly +all the qualities which he prized highest and could best appreciate, +would be quite inexplicable. But William had another and still more +important point of contact with Philip II. He had learned his policy +from the same master, and had become, it was to be feared, a more apt +scholar. Not by making Machiavelli's 'Prince' his study, but by having +enjoyed the living instruction of a monarch who reduced the book to +practice, had he become versed in the perilous arts by which thrones +rise and fall. In him Philip had to deal with an antagonist who was +armed against his policy, and who in a good cause could also command the +resources of a bad one. And it was exactly this last circumstance which +accounts for his having hated this man so implacably above all others of +his day, and his having had so supernatural a dread of him. + +The suspicion which already attached to the prince was increased by the +doubts which were entertained of his religious bias. So long as the +Emperor, his benefactor, lived, William believed in the pope; but it was +feared, with good ground, that the predilection for the reformed +religion, which had been imparted into his young heart, had never +entirely left it. Whatever church he may at certain periods of his life +have preferred each might console itself with the reflection that none +other possessed him more entirely. In later years he went over to +Calvinism with almost as little scruple as in his early childhood he +deserted the Lutheran profession for the Romish. He defended the rights +of the Protestants rather than their opinions against Spanish +oppression; not their faith, but their wrongs, had made him their +brother. + +These general grounds for suspicion appeared to be justified by a +discovery of his real intentions which accident had made. William had +remained in France as hostage for the peace of Chateau-Cambray, in +concluding which he had borne a part; and here, through the imprudence +of Henry II., who imagined he spoke with a confidant of the King of +Spain, he became acquainted with a secret plot which the French and +Spanish courts had formed against Protestants of both kingdoms. The +prince hastened to communicate this important discovery to his friends +in Brussels, whom it so nearly concerned, and the letters which he +exchanged on the subject fell, unfortunately, into the hands of the King +of Spain. Philip was less surprised at this decisive disclosure of +William's sentiments than incensed at the disappointment of his scheme; +and the Spanish nobles, who had never forgiven the prince that moment, +when in the last act of his life the greatest of Emperors leaned upon +his shoulders, did not neglect this favorable opportunity of finally +ruining, in the good opinion of their king, the betrayer of a state +secret. + +Of a lineage no less noble than that of William was Lamoral, Count +Egmont and Prince of Gavre, a descendant of the Dukes of Gueldres, whose +martial courage had wearied out the arms of Austria. His family was +highly distinguished in the annals of the country; one of his ancestors, +had, under Maximilian, already filled the office of Stadtholder over +Holland. Egmont's marriage with the Duchess Sabina of Bavaria reflected +additional lustre on the splendor of his birth, and made him powerful +through the greatness of this alliance. Charles V. had, in the year +1516, conferred on him at Utrecht the order of the Golden Fleece; the +wars of this Emperor were the school of his military genius, and the +battle of St. Quentin and Gravelines made him the hero of his age. +Every blessing of peace, for which a commercial people feel most +grateful, brought to mind the remembrance of the victory by which it was +accelerated, and Flemish pride, like a fond mother, exulted over the +illustrious son of their country, who had filled all Europe with +admiration. Nine children who grew up under the eyes of their fellow- +citizens, multiplied and drew closer the ties between him and his +fatherland, and the people's grateful affection for the father was kept +alive by the sight of those who were dearest to him. Every appearance +of Egmont in public was a triumphal procession; every eye which was +fastened upon him recounted his history; his deeds lived in the plaudits +of his companions-in-arms; at the games of chivalry mothers pointed him +out to their children. Affability, a noble and courteous demeanor, the +amiable virtues of chivalry, adorned and graced his merits. His liberal +soul shone forth on his open brow; his frank-heartedness managed his +secrets no better than his benevolence did his estate, and a thought was +no sooner his than it was the property of all. His religion was gentle +and humane, but not very enlightened, because it derived its light from +the heart and not from, his understanding. Egmont possessed more of +conscience than of fixed principles; his head had not given him a code +of its own, but had merely learnt it by rote; the mere name of any +action, therefore, was often with him sufficient for its condemnation. +In his judgment men were wholly bad or wholly good, and had not +something bad or something good; in this system of morals there was no +middle term between vice and virtue; and consequently a single good +trait often decided his opinion of men. Egmont united all the eminent +qualities which form the hero; he was a better soldier than the Prince +of Orange, but far inferior to him as a statesman; the latter saw the +world as it really was; Egmont viewed it in the magic mirror of an +imagination that embellished all that it reflected. Men, whom fortune +has surprised with a reward for which they can find no adequate ground +in their actions, are, for the most part, very apt to forget the +necessary connection between cause and effect, and to insert in the +natural consequences of things a higher miraculous power to which, as +Caesar to his fortune, they at last insanely trust. Such a character +was Egmont. Intoxicated with the idea of his own merits, which the love +and gratitude of his fellow-citizens had exaggerated, he staggered on in +this sweet reverie as in a delightful world of dreams. He feared not, +because he trusted to the deceitful pledge which destiny had given him +of her favor, in the general love of the people; and he believed in its +justice because he himself was prosperous. Even the most terrible +experience of Spanish perfidy could not afterwards eradicate this +confidence from his soul, and on the scaffold itself his latest feeling +was hope. A tender fear for his family kept his patriotic courage +fettered by lower duties. Because he trembled for property and life he +could not venture much for the republic. William of Orange broke with +the throne because its arbitrary power was offensive to his pride; +Egmont was vain, and therefore valued the favors of the monarch. The +former was a citizen of the world; Egmont had never been more than a +Fleming. + +Philip II. still stood indebted to the hero of St. Quentin, and the +supreme stadtholdership of the Netherlands appeared the only appropriate +reward for such great services. Birth and high station, the voice of +the nation and personal abilities, spoke as loudly for Egmont as for +Orange; and if the latter was to be passed by it seemed that the former +alone could supplant him. + +Two such competitors, so equal in merit, might have embarrassed Philip +in his choice if he had ever seriously thought of selecting either of +them for the appointment. But the pre-eminent qualities by which they +supported their claim to this office were the very cause of their +rejection; and it was precisely the ardent desire of the nation for +their election to it that irrevocably annulled their title to the +appointment. Philip's purpose would not be answered by a stadtholder in +the Netherlands who could command the good-will and the energies of the +people. Egmont's descent from the Duke of Gueldres made him an +hereditary foe of the house of Spain, and it seemed impolitic to place +the supreme power in the hands of a man to whom the idea might occur of +revenging on the son of the oppressor the oppression of his ancestor. +The slight put on their favorites could give no just offence either to +the nation or to themselves, for it might be pretended that the king +passed over both because he would not show a preference to either. + +The disappointment of his hopes of gaining the regency did not deprive +the Prince of Orange of all expectation of establishing more firmly his +influence in the Netherlands. Among the other candidates for this +office was also Christina, Duchess of Lorraine, and aunt of the king, +who, as mediatrix of the peace of Chateau-Cambray, had rendered +important service to the crown. William aimed at the hand of her +daughter, and he hoped to promote his suit by actively interposing his +good offices for the mother; but he did not reflect that through this +very intercession he ruined her cause. The Duchess Christina was +rejected, not so much for the reason alleged, namely, the dependence of +her territories on France made her an object of suspicion to the Spanish +court, as because she was acceptable to the people of the Netherlands +and the Prince of Orange. + + + + + MARGARET OF PARMA REGENT OF THE NETHERLANDS. + +While the general expectation was on the stretch as to whom the fature +destines of the provinces would be committed, there appeared on the +frontiers of the country the Duchess Margaret of Parma, having been +summoned by the king from Italy to assume the government. + +Margaret was a natural daughter of Charles V. and of a noble Flemish +lady named Vangeest, and born in 1522. + +Out of regard for the honor of her mother's house she was at first +educated in obscurity; but her mother, who possessed more vanity than +honor, was not very anxious to preserve the secret of her origin, and a +princely education betrayed the daughter of the Emperor. While yet a +child she was entrusted to the Regent Margaret, her great-aunt, to be +brought up at Brussels under her eye. This guardian she lost in her +eighth year, and the care of her education devolved on Queen Mary of +Hungary, the successor of Margaret in the regency. Her father had +already affianced her, while yet in her fourth year, to a Prince of +Ferrara; but this alliance being subsequently dissolved, she was +betrothed to Alexander de Medicis, the new Duke of Florence, which +marriage was, after the victorious return of the Emperor from Africa, +actually consummated in Naples. In the first year of this unfortunate +union, a violent death removed from her a husband who could not love +her, and for the third time her hand was disposed of to serve the policy +of her father. Octavius Farnese, a prince of thirteen years of age and +nephew of Paul III., obtained, with her person, the Duchies of Parma and +Piacenza as her portion. Thus, by a strange destiny, Margaret at the +age of maturity was contracted to a boy, as in the years of infancy she +had been sold to a nman. Her disposition, which was anything but +feminine, made this last alliance still more unnatural, for her taste +and inclinations were masculine, and the whole tenor of her life belied +her sex. After the example of her instructress, the Queen of Hungary, +and her great-aunt, the Duchess Mary of Burgundy, who met her death in +this favorite sport, she was passionately fond of hunting, and had +acquired in this pursuit such bodily vigor that few men were better able +to undergo its hardships and fatigues. + +Her gait itself was so devoid of grace that one was far more tempted to +take her for a disguised man than for a masculine woman; and Nature, +whom she had derided by thus transgressing the limits of her sex, +revenged itself finally upon her by a disease peculiar to men--the gout. + +These unusual qualities were crowned by a monkish superstition which was +infused into her mind by Ignatius Loyola, her confessor and teacher. +Among the charitable works and penances with which she mortified her +vanity, one of the most remarkable was that, during Passion-Week she +yearly washed, with her own hands, the feet of a number of poor men (who +were most strictly forbidden to cleanse themselves beforehand), waited +on them at table like a servant, and sent them away with rich presents. + +Nothing more is requisite than this last feature in her character to +account for the preference which the king gave her over all her rivals; +but his choice was at the same time justified by excellent reasons of +state. Margaret was born and also educated in the Netherlands. She had +spent her early youth among the people, and had acquired much of their +national manners. Two regents (Duchess Margaret and Queen Mary of +Hungary), under whose eyes she had grown up, had gradually initiated her +into the maxims by which this peculiar people might be most easily +governed; and they would also serve her as models. She did not want +either in talents; and possessed, moreover, a particular turn for +business, which she had acquired from her instructors, and had +afterwards carried to greater perfection in the Italian school. The +Netherlands had been for a number of years accustomed to female +government; and Philip hoped, perhaps, that the sharp iron of tyranny +which he was about to use against them would cut more gently if wielded +by the hands of a woman. Some regard for his father, who at the time +was still living, and was much attached to Margaret, may have in a +measure, as it is asserted, influenced this choice; as it is also +probable that the king wished to oblige the Duke of Parma, through this +mark of attention to his wife, and thus to compensate for denying a +request which he was just then compelled to refuse him. As the +territories of the duchess were surrounded by Philip's Italian states, +and at all times exposed to his arms, he could, with the less danger, +entrust the supreme power into her hands. For his full security her +son, Alexander Farnese, was to remain at his court as a pledge for her +loyalty. All these reasons were alone sufficiently weighty to turn the +king's decision in her favor; but they became irresistible when +supported by the Bishop of Arras and the Duke of Alva. The latter, as +it appears, because he hated or envied all the other competitors, the +former, because even then, in all probability, he anticipated from the +wavering disposition of this princess abundant gratification for his +ambition. + +Philip received the new regent on the frontiers with a splendid cortege, +and conducted her with magnificent pomp to Ghent, where the States +General had been convoked. As he did not intend to return soon to the +Netherlands, he desired, before he left them, to gratify the nation for +once by holding a solemn Diet, and thus giving a solemn sanction and the +force of law to his previous regulations. For the last time he showed +himself to his Netherlandish people, whose destinies were from +henceforth to be dispensed from a mysterious distance. To enhance the +splendor of this solemn day, Philip invested eleven knights with the +Order of the Golden Fleece, his sister being seated on a chair near +himself, while he showed her to the nation as their future ruler. All +the grievances of the people, touching the edicts, the Inquisition, the +detention of the Spanish troops, the taxes, and the illegal introduction +of foreigners into the offices and administration of the country were +brought forward in this Diet, and were hotly discussed by both parties; +some of them were skilfully evaded, or apparently removed, others +arbitrarily repelled. As the king was unacquainted with the language of +the country, he addressed the nation through the mouth of the Bishop of +Arras, recounted to them with vain-glorious ostentation all the benefits +of his government, assured them of his favor for the future, and once +more recommended to the estates in the most earnest manner the +preservation of the Catholic faith and the extirpation of heresy. +The Spanish troops, he promised, should in a few months evacuate the +Netherlands, if only they would allow him time to recover from the +numerous burdens of the last war, in order that he might be enabled to +collect the means for paying the arrears of these troops; the +fundamental laws of the nation should remain inviolate, the imposts +should not be grievously burdensome, and the Inquisition should +administer its duties with justice and moderation. In the choice of a +supreme Stadtholder, he added, he had especially consulted the wishes of +the nation, and had decided for a native of the country, who had been +brought up in their manners and customs, and was attached to them by a +love to her native land. He exhorted them, therefore, to show their +gratitude by honoring his choice, and obeying his sister, the duchess, +as himself. Should, he concluded, unexpected obstacles oppose his +return, he would send in his place his son, Prince Charles, who should +reside in Brussels. + +A few members of this assembly, more courageous than the rest, once more +ventured on a final effort for liberty of conscience. Every people, +they argued, ought to be treated according to their natural character, +as every individual must in accordance to his bodily constitution. +Thus, for example, the south may be considered happy under a certain +degree of constraint which would press intolerably on the north. Never, +they added, would the Flemings consent to a yoke under which, perhaps, +the Spaniards bowed with patience, and rather than submit to it would +they undergo any extremity if it was sought to force such a yoke upon +them. This remonstrance was supported by some of the king's +counsellors, who strongly urged the policy of mitigating the rigor of +religious edicts. But Philip remained inexorable. Better not reign at +all, was his answer, than reign over heretics! + +According to an arrangement already made by Charles V., three councils +or chambers were added to the regent, to assist her in the +administration of state affairs. As long as Philip was himself present +in the Netherlands these courts had lost much of their power, and the +functions of the first of them, the state council, were almost entirely +suspended. Now that he quitted the reins of government, they recovered +their former importance. In the state council, which was to deliberate +upon war and peace, and security against external foes, sat the Bishop +of Arras, the Prince of Orange, Count Egmont, the President of the Privy +Council, Viglius Van Zuichem Van Aytta, and the Count of Barlaimont, +President of the Chamber of Finance. All knights of the Golden Fleece, +all privy counsellors and counsellors of finance, as also the members of +the great senate at Malines, which had been subjected by Charles V. to +the Privy Council in Brussels, had a seat and vote in the Council of +State, if expressly invited by the regent. The management of the royal +revenues and crown lands was vested in the Chamber of Finance, and the +Privy Council was occupied with the administration of justice, and the +civil regulation of the country, and issued all letters of grace and +pardon. The governments of the provinces which had fallen vacant were +either filled up afresh or the former governors were confirmed. Count +Egmont received Flanders and Artois; the Prince of Orange, Holland, +Zealand, Utrecht, and West Friesland; the Count of Aremberg, East +Friesland, Overyssel, and Groningen; the Count of Mansfeld, Luxemburg; +Barlaimont, Namur; the Marquis of Bergen, Hainault, Chateau-Cambray, and +Valenciennes; the Baron of Montigny, Tournay and its dependencies. +Other provinces were given to some who have less claim to our attention. +Philip of Montmorency, Count of Hoorn, who had been succeeded by the +Count of Megen in the government of Gueldres and Ziitphen, was confirmed +as admiral of the Belgian navy. Every governor of a province was at the +same time a knight of the Golden Fleece and member of the Council of +State. Each had, in the province over which he presided, the command of +the military force which protected it, the superintendence of the civil +administration and the judicature; the governor of Flanders alone +excepted, who was not allowed to interfere with the administration of +justice. Brabant alone was placed under the immediate jurisdiction of +the regent, who, according to custom, chose Brussels for her constant +residence. The induction of the Prince of Orange into his governments +was, properly speaking, an infraction of the constitution, since he was +a foreigner; but several estates which he either himself possessed in +the provinces, or managed as guardian of his son, his long residence in +the country, and above all the unlimited confidence the nation reposed +in him, gave him substantial claims in default of a real title of +citizenship. + +The military force of the Low Countries consisted, in its full +complement, of three thousand horse. At present it did not much exceed +two thousand, and was divided into fourteen squadrons, over which, +besides the governors of the provinces, the Duke of Arschot, the Counts +of Hoogstraten, Bossu, Roeux, and Brederode held the chief command. +This cavalry, which was scattered through all the seventeen provinces, +was only to be called out on sudden emergencies. Insufficient as it was +for any great undertaking, it was, nevertheless, fully adequate for the +maintenance of internal order. Its courage had been approved in former +wars, and the fame of its valor was diffused through the whole of +Europe. In addition to this cavalry it was also proposed to levy a body +of infantry, but hitherto the states had refused their consent to it. +Of foreign troops there were still some German regiments in the service, +which were waiting for their pay. The four thousand Spaniards, +respecting whom so many complaints had been made, were under two Spanish +generals, Mendoza and Romero, and were in garrison in the frontier +towns. + +Among the Belgian nobles whom the king especially distinguished in these +new appointments, the names of Count Egmont and William of Orange stand +conspicuous. However inveterate his hatred was of both, and +particularly of the latter, Philip nevertheless gave them these public +marks of his favor, because his scheme of vengeance was not yet fully +ripe, and the people were enthusiastic in their devotion to them. The +estates of both were declared exempt from taxes, the most lucrative +governments were entrusted to them, and by offering them the command of +the Spaniards whom he left behind in the country the king flattered them +with a confidence which he was very far from really reposing in them. +But at the very time when he obliged the prince with these public marks +of his esteem he privately inflicted the most cruel injury on him. +Apprehensive lest an alliance with the powerful house of Lorraine might +encourage this suspected vassal to bolder measures, he thwarted the +negotiation for a marriage between him and a princess of that family, +and crushed his hopes on the very eve of their accomplishment,--an +injury which the prince never forgave. Nay, his hatred to the prince on +one occasion even got completely the better of his natural +dissimulation, and seduced him into a step in which we entirely lose +sight of Philip II. When he was about to embark at Flushing, and the +nobles of the country attended him to the shore, he so far forgot +himself as roughly to accost the prince, and openly to accuse him of +being the author of the Flemish troubles. The prince answered +temperately that what had happened had been done by the provinces of +their own suggestion and on legitimate grounds. No, said Philip, +seizing his hated, and shaking it violently, not the provinces, but You! +You! You! The prince stood mute with astonishment, and without waiting +for the king's embarkation, wished him a safe journey, and went back to +the town. + +Thus the enmity which William had long harbored in his breast against +the oppressor of a free people was now rendered irreconcilable by +private hatred; and this double incentive accelerated the great +enterprise which tore from the Spanish crown seven of its brightest +jewels. + +Philip had greatly deviated from his true character in taking so +gracious a leave of the Netherlands. The legal form of a diet, his +promise to remove the Spaniards from the frontiers, the consideration of +the popular wishes, which had led him to fill the most important offices +of the country with the favorites of the people, and, finally, the +sacrifice which he made to the constitution in withdrawing the Count of +Feria from the council of state, were marks of condescension of which +his magnanimity was never again guilty. But in fact he never stood in +greater need of the good-will of the states, that with their aid he +might, if possible, clear off the great burden of debt which was still +attached to the Netherlands from the former war. He hoped, therefore, +by propitiating them through smaller sacrifices to win approval of more +important usurpations. He marked his departure with grace, for he knew +in what hands he left them. The frightful scenes of death which he +intended for this unhappy people were not to stain the splendor of +majesty which, like the Godhead, marks its course only with beneficence; +that terrible distinction was reserved for his representatives. The +establishment of the council of state was, however, intended rather to +flatter the vanity of the Belgian nobility than to impart to them any +real influence. The historian Strada (who drew his information with +regard to the regent from her own papers) has preserved a few articles +of the secret instructions which the Spanish ministry gave her. Amongst +other things it is there stated if she observed that the councils were +divided by factions, or, what would be far worse, prepared by private +conferences before the session, and in league with one another, then she +was to prorogue all the chambers and dispose arbitrarily of the disputed +articles in a more select council or committee. In this select +committee, which was called the Consulta, sat the Archbishop of Arras, +the President Viglius, and the Count of Barlaimont. She was to act in +the same manner if emergent cases required a prompt decision. Had this +arrangement not been the work of an arbitrary despotism it would perhaps +have been justified by sound policy, and republican liberty itself might +have tolerated it. In great assemblies where many private interests and +passions co-operate, where a numerous audience presents so great a +temptation to the vanity of the orator, and parties often assail one +another with unmannerly warmth, a decree can seldom be passed with that +sobriety and mature deliberation which, if the members are properly +selected, a smaller body readily admits of. In a numerous body of men, +too, there is, we must suppose, a greater number of limited than of +enlightened intellects, who through their equal right of vote frequently +turn the majority on the side of ignorance. A second maxim which the +regent was especially to observe, was to select the very members of +council who had voted against any decree to carry it into execution. +By this means not only would the people be kept in ignorance of the +originators of such a law, but the private quarrels also of the members +would be restrained, and a greater freedom insured in voting in +compliance with the wishes of the court. + +In spite of all these precautions Philip would never have been able to +leave the Netherlands with a quiet mind so long as he knew that the +chief power in the council of state, and the obedience of the provinces, +were in the hands of the suspected nobles. In order, therefore, to +appease his fears from this quarter, and also at the same time to assure +himself of the fidelity of the regent, be subjected her, and through her +all the affairs of the judicature, to the higher control of the Bishop +of Arras. In this single individual he possessed an adequate +counterpoise to the most dreaded cabal. To him, as to an infallible +oracle of majesty, the duchess was referred, and in him there watched a +stern supervisor of her administration. Among all his contemporaries +Granvella was the only one whom Philip II. appears to have excepted from +his universal distrust; as long as he knew that this man was in Brussels +he could sleep calmly in Segovia. He left the Netherlands in September, +1559, was saved from a storm which sank his fleet, and landed at Laredo +in Biscay, and in his gloomy joy thanked the Deity who had preserved him +by a detestable vow. In the hands of a priest and of a woman was placed +the dangerous helm of the Netherlands; and the dastardly tyrant escaped +in his oratory at Madrid the supplications, the complaints, and the +curses of the people. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVOLT OF NETHERLANDS, BOOK I. *** + +********** This file should be named 6776.txt or 6776.zip ********* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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