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MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 18.

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

By John Lothrop Motley

1855

1570 [CHAPTER VI.]

Orange and Count Louis in France--Peace with the Huguenots--
Coligny's memoir, presented by request to Charles IX., on the
subject of invading the Netherlands--Secret correspondence of Orange
organized by Paul Buys--Privateering commissions issued by the
Prince--Regulations prescribed by him for the fleets thus created--
Impoverished condition of the Prince--His fortitude--His personal
sacrifices and privations--His generosity--Renewed contest between
the Duke and the Estates on the subject of the tenth and twentieth
pence--Violent disputes in the council--Firm opposition of Viglius--
Edict commanding the immediate collection of the tax--Popular
tumults--Viglius denounced by Alva--The Duke's fierce complaints to
the King--Secret schemes of Philip against Queen Elizabeth of
England--The Ridolphi plot to murder Elizabeth countenanced by
Philip and Pius V.--The King's orders to Alva to further the plan--
The Duke's remonstrances--Explosion of the plot--Obstinacy of
Philip--Renewed complaints of Alva as to the imprudent service
required of him--Other attempts of Philip to murder Elizabeth--Don
John of Austria in the Levant----Battle of Lepanto--Slothfulness of
Selim--Appointment of Medina Celi--Incessant wrangling in Brussels
upon the tax--Persevering efforts of Orange--Contempt of Alva for
the Prince--Proposed sentence of ignominy against his name--Sonoy's
mission to Germany--Remarkable papers issued by the Prince--The
"harangue"--Intense hatred for Alva entertained by the highest as
well as lower orders--Visit of Francis de Alva to Brussels--His
unfavourable report to the King--Querulous language of the Duke--
Deputation to Spain--Universal revolt against the tax--Ferocity of
Alva--Execution of eighteen tradesmen secretly ordered--Interrupted
by the capture of Brill--Beggars of the sea--The younger Wild Boar
of Ardennes--Reconciliation between the English government and that
of Alva--The Netherland privateersmen ordered out of English ports--
De la Marck's fleet before Brill--The town summoned to surrender--
Commissioners sent out to the fleet--Flight of the magistrates and
townspeople--Capture of the place--Indignation of Alva--Popular
exultation in Brussels--Puns and Caricatures--Bossu ordered to
recover the town of Brill--His defeat--His perfidious entrance into
Rotterdam--Massacre in that city--Flushing revolutionized--
Unsuccessful attempt of Governor de Bourgogne to recal the citizens
to their obedience--Expedition under Treslong from Brill to assist
the town of Flushing--Murder of Paccheco by the Patriots--Zeraerts
appointed Governor of Walcheren by Orange.

While such had been the domestic events of the Netherlands during the
years 1569 and 1570, the Prince of Orange, although again a wanderer, had
never allowed himself to despair. During this whole period, the darkest
hour for himself and for his country, he was ever watchful. After
disbanding his troops at Strasburg, and after making the best
arrangements possible under the circumstances for the eventual payment of
their wages, he had joined the army which the Duke of Deux Ponts had been
raising in Germany to assist the cause of the Huguenots in France. The
Prince having been forced to acknowledge that, for the moment, all open
efforts in the Netherlands were likely to be fruitless, instinctively
turned his eyes towards the more favorable aspect of the Reformation in
France. It was inevitable that, while he was thus thrown for the time
out of his legitimate employment, he should be led to the battles of
freedom in a neighbouring land. The Duke of Deux Ponts, who felt his own
military skill hardly adequate to the task which he had assumed, was
glad, as it were, to put himself and his army under the orders of Orange.

Meantime the battle of Jamac had been fought; the Prince of Condo,
covered with wounds, and exclaiming that it was sweet to die for Christ
and country, had fallen from his saddle; the whole Huguenot army had been
routed by the royal forces under the nominal command of Anjou, and the
body of Conde, tied to the back of a she ass, had been paraded through
the streets of Jarnap in derision.

Affairs had already grown almost as black for the cause of freedom in
France as in the provinces. Shortly afterwards William of Orange, with a
band of twelve hundred horsemen, joined the banners of Coligny. His two
brothers accompanied him. Henry, the stripling, had left the university
to follow the fortunes of the Prince. The indomitable Louis, after seven
thousand of his army had been slain, had swum naked across the Ems,
exclaiming "that his courage, thank God, was as fresh and lively as
ever," and had lost not a moment in renewing his hostile schemes against
the Spanish government. In the meantime he had joined the Huguenots in
France. The battle of Moncontour had succeeded, Count Peter Mansfeld,
with five thousand troops sent by Alva, fighting on the side of the
royalists, and Louis Nassau on that of the Huguenots, atoning by the
steadiness and skill with which he covered the retreat, for his
intemperate courage, which had precipitated the action, and perhaps been
the main cause of Coligny's overthrow. The Prince of Orange, who had
been peremptorily called to the Netherlands in the beginning of the
autumn, was not present at the battle. Disguised as a peasant, with but
five attendants, and at great peril, he had crossed the enemy's lines,
traversed France, and arrived in Germany before the winter. Count Louis
remained with the Huguenots. So necessary did he seem to their cause,
and so dear had he become to their armies, that during the severe illness
of Coligny in the course of the following summer all eyes were turned
upon him as the inevitable successor of that great man, the only
remaining pillar of freedom in France.

Coligny recovered. The deadly peace between the Huguenots and the Court
succeeded. The Admiral, despite his sagacity and his suspicions,
embarked with his whole party upon that smooth and treacherous current
which led to the horrible catastrophe of Saint Bartholomew. To occupy
his attention, a formal engagement was made by the government to send
succor to the Netherlands. The Admiral was to lead the auxiliaries which
were to be despatched across the frontier to overthrow the tyrannical
government of Alva. Long and anxious were the colloquies held between
Coligny and the Royalists. The monarch requested a detailed opinion, in
writing, from the Admiral, on the most advisable plan for invading the
Netherlands. The result was the preparation of the celebrated memoir,
under Coligny's directions, by young De Mornay, Seigneur de Plessis.
The document was certainly not a paper of the highest order. It did not
appeal to the loftier instincts which kings or common mortals might be
supposed to possess. It summoned the monarch to the contest in the
Netherlands that the ancient injuries committed by Spain might be
avenged. It invoked the ghost of Isabella of France, foully murdered, as
it was thought, by Philip. It held out the prospect of re-annexing the
fair provinces, wrested from the King's ancestors by former Spanish
sovereigns. It painted the hazardous position of Philip; with the
Moorish revolt gnawing at the entrails of his kingdom, with the Turkish
war consuming its extremities, with the canker of rebellion corroding
the very heart of the Netherlands. It recalled, with exultation, the
melancholy fact that the only natural and healthy existence of the
French was in a state of war--that France, if not occupied with foreign
campaigns, could not be prevented from plunging its sword into its own
vitals.

It indulged in refreshing reminiscences of those halcyon days, not long
gone by, when France, enjoying perfect tranquillity within its own
borders, was calmly and regularly carrying on its long wars beyond the
frontier.

In spite of this savage spirit, which modern documents, if they did not
scorn, would, at least have shrouded, the paper was nevertheless a
sagacious one; but the request for the memoir, and the many interviews on
the subject of the invasion, were only intended to deceive. They were
but the curtain which concealed the preparations for the dark tragedy
which was about to be enacted. Equally deceived, and more sanguine than
ever, Louis Nassau during this period was indefatigable in his attempts
to gain friends for his cause. He had repeated audiences of the King,
to whose court he had come in disguise. He made a strong and warm
impression upon Elizabeth's envoy at the French Court, Walsingham. It is
probable that in the Count's impetuosity to carry his point, he allowed
more plausibility to be given to certain projects for subdividing the
Netherlands than his brother would ever have sanctioned. The Prince was
a total stranger to these inchoate schemes. His work was to set his
country free, and to destroy the tyranny which had grown colossal. That
employment was sufficient for a lifetime, and there is no proof to be
found that a paltry and personal self-interest had even the lowest place
among his motives.

Meantime, in the autumn of 1569, Orange had again reached Germany.
Paul Buys, Pensionary of Leyden, had kept him constantly informed of
the state of affairs in the provinces. Through his means an extensive
correspondence was organized and maintained with leading persons in every
part of the Netherlands. The conventional terms by which different
matters and persons of importance were designated in these letters were
familiarly known to all friends of the cause, not only in the provinces,
but in France, England, Germany, and particularly in the great commercial
cities. The Prince, for example, was always designated as Martin
Willemzoon, the Duke of Alva as Master Powels van Alblas, the Queen of
England as Henry Philipzoon, the King of Denmark as Peter Peterson. The
twelve signs of the zodiac were used instead of the twelve months, and a
great variety of similar substitutions were adopted. Before his visit to
France, Orange had, moreover, issued commissions, in his capacity of
sovereign, to various seafaring persons, who were empowered to cruise
against Spanish commerce.

The "beggars of the sea," as these privateersmen designated themselves,
soon acquired as terrible a name as the wild beggars, or the forest
beggars; but the Prince, having had many conversations with Admiral
Coligny on the important benefits to be derived from the system, had
faithfully set himself to effect a reformation of its abuses after his
return from France. The Seigneur de Dolhain, who, like many other
refugee nobles, had acquired much distinction in this roving corsair
life, had for a season acted as Admiral for the Prince. He had, however,
resolutely declined to render any accounts of his various expeditions,
and was now deprived of his command in consequence. Gillain de Fiennes,
Seigneur de Lumbres, was appointed to succeed him. At the same time
strict orders were issued by Orange, forbidding all hostile measures
against the Emperor or any of the princes of the empire, against Sweden,
Denmark, England, or against any potentates who were protectors of the
true Christian religion. The Duke of Alva and his adherents were
designated as the only lawful antagonists. The Prince, moreover, gave
minute instructions as to the discipline to be observed in his fleet.
The articles of war were to be strictly enforced. Each commander was to
maintain a minister on board his ship, who was to preach God's word, and
to preserve Christian piety among the crew. No one was to exercise any
command in the fleet save native Netherlanders, unless thereto expressly
commissioned by the Prince of Orange. All prizes were to be divided and
distributed by a prescribed rule. No persons were to be received on
board, either as sailors or soldiers, save "folk of goad name and fame."
No man who had ever been punished of justice was to be admitted. Such
were the principal features in the organization of that infant navy
which, in course of this and the following centuries, was to achieve so
many triumphs, and to which a powerful and adventurous mercantile marine
had already led the way. "Of their ships," said Cardinal Bentivoglio,
"the Hollanders make houses, of their houses schools. Here they are
born, here educated, here they learn their profession. Their sailors,
flying from one pale to the other, practising their art wherever the sun
displays itself to mortals, become so skilful that they can scarcely be
equalled, certainly not surpassed; by any nation in the civilized world."

The Prince, however, on his return from France, had never been in so
forlorn a condition. "Orange is plainly perishing," said one of the
friends of the cause. Not only had he no funds to organize new levies,
but he was daily exposed to the most clamorously-urged claims, growing
out of the army which be had been recently obliged to disband. It had
been originally reported in the Netherlands that he had fallen in the
battle of Moncontour. "If he have really been taken off," wrote Viglius,
hardly daring to credit the great news, "we shall all of us have less
cause to tremble." After his actual return, however, lean and beggared,
with neither money nor credit, a mere threatening shadow without
substance or power, he seemed to justify the sarcasm of Granvelle.
"Vana sine viribus ira," quoted the Cardinal, and of a verity it seemed
that not a man was likely to stir in Germany in his behalf, now that so
deep a gloom had descended upon his cause. The obscure and the oppressed
throughout the provinces and Germany still freely contributed out of
their weakness and their poverty, and taxed themselves beyond their means
to assist enterprizes for the relief of the Netherlands. The great ones
of the earth, however, those on whom the Prince had relied; those to whom
he had given his heart; dukes, princes, and electors, in this fatal
change of his fortunes fell away like water.

Still his spirit was unbroken. His letters showed a perfect appreciation
of his situation, and of that to which his country was reduced; but they
never exhibited a trace of weakness or despair. A modest, but lofty
courage; a pious, but unaffected resignation, breathed through--every
document, public or private, which fell from his pen during this epoch.
He wrote to his brother John that he was quite willing to go, to
Frankfort, in order to give himself up as a hostage to his troops for the
payment of their arrears. At the same time he begged his brother to move
heaven and earth to raise at least one hundred thousand thalers. If he
could only furnish them with a month's pay, the soldiers would perhaps be
for a time contented. He gave directions also concerning the disposition
of what remained of his plate and furniture, the greater part of it
having been already sold and expended in the cause. He thought it would,
on the whole, be better to have the remainder sold, piece by piece, at
the fair. More money would be raised by that course than by a more
wholesale arrangement.

He was now obliged to attend personally to the most minute matters of
domestic economy. The man who been the mate of emperors, who was himself
a sovereign, had lived his life long in pomp and luxury, surrounded by
countless nobles, pages, men-at-arms, and menials, now calmly accepted
the position of an outlaw and an exile. He cheerfully fulfilled tasks
which had formerly devolved upon his grooms and valets. There was an
almost pathetic simplicity in the homely details of an existence which,
for the moment, had become so obscure and so desperate. "Send by the
bearer," he wrote, "the little hackney given me by the Admiral; send also
my two pair of trunk hose; one pair is at the tailor's to be mended, the
other, pair you will please order to be taken from the things which I
wore lately at Dillenburg. They lie on the table with my accoutrements.
If the little hackney be not in condition, please send the grey horse
with the cropped ears and tail."

He was always mindful, however, not only of the great cause to which he
had devoted himself, but of the wants experienced by individuals who had
done him service. He never forgot his friends. In the depth of his own
misery he remembered favors received from humble persons. "Send a little
cup, worth at least a hundred florins, to Hartmann Wolf," he wrote to his
brother; "you can take as much silver out of the coffer, in which there
is still some of my chapel service remaining."--"You will observe that
Affenstein is wanting a horse," he wrote on another occasion; "please
look him out one, and send it to me with the price. I will send you the
money. Since he has shown himself so willing in the cause, one ought to
do something for him."

The contest between the Duke and the estates, on the subject of the tenth
and twentieth penny had been for a season adjusted. The two years' term,
however, during which it had been arranged that the tax should be
commuted, was to expire in the autumn of 1571. Early therefore in this
year the disputes were renewed with greater acrimony than ever. The
estates felt satisfied that the King was less eager than the Viceroy.
Viglius was satisfied that the power of Alva was upon the wane. While
the King was not likely openly to rebuke his recent measures, it seemed
not improbable that the Governor's reiterated requests to be recalled
might be granted. Fortified by these considerations, the President,
who had so long been the supple tool of the tyrant, suddenly assumed
the character of a popular tribune. The wranglings, the contradictions,
the vituperations, the threatenings, now became incessant in the council.
The Duke found that he had exulted prematurely, when he announced to the
King the triumphant establishment, in perpetuity, of the lucrative tax.
So far from all the estates having given their consent, as he had
maintained, and as he had written to Philip, it now appeared that not
one of those bodies considered itself bound beyond its quota for the two
years. This was formally stated in the council by Berlaymont and other
members. The wrath of the Duke blazed forth at this announcement. He
berated Berlaymont for maintaining, or for allowing it to be maintained,
that the consent of the orders had ever been doubtful. He protested that
they had as unequivocally agreed to the perpetual imposition of the tag
as he to its commutation during two years. He declared, however, that he
was sick of quotas. The tax should now be collected forthwith, and
Treasurer Schetz was ordered to take his measures accordingly.

At a conference on the 29th May, the Duke asked Viglius for his opinion.
The President made a long reply, taking the ground that the consent of
the orders had been only conditional, and appealing to such members of
the finance council as were present to confirm his assertion. It was
confirmed by all. The Duke, in a passion, swore that those who dared
maintain such a statement should be chastised. Viglius replied that it
had always been the custom for councillors to declare their opinion,
and that they had never before been threatened with such consequences.
If such, however, were his Excellency's sentiments, councillors had
better stay at home, hold their tongues, and so avoid chastisement.
The Duke, controlling himself a little, apologized for this allusion to
chastisement, a menace which he disclaimed having intended with reference
to councillors whom he had always commended to the King, and of whom his
Majesty had so high an opinion. At a subsequent meeting the Duke took
Viglius aside, and assured him that he was quite of his own way of
thinking. For certain reasons, however, he expressed himself as
unwilling that the rest of the council should be aware of the change
in his views. He wished, he said, to dissemble. The astute President,
for a moment, could not imagine the Governor's drift. He afterwards
perceived that the object of this little piece of deception had been to
close his mouth. The Duke obviously conjectured that the President,
lulled into security, by this secret assurance, would be silent; that the
other councillors, believing the President to have adopted the Governor's
views, would alter their opinions; and that the opposition of the
estates, thus losing its support in the council, would likewise very soon
be abandoned. The President, however, was not to be entrapped by this
falsehood. He resolutely maintained his hostility to the tax, depending
for his security on the royal opinion, the popular feeling, and the
judgment of his colleagues.

The daily meetings of the board were almost entirely occupied by this
single subject. Although since the arrival of Alva the Council of Blood
had usurped nearly all the functions of the state and finance-councils,
yet there now seemed a disposition on the part of Alva to seek the
countenance, even while he spurned the authority, of other functionaries.
He found, however, neither sympathy nor obedience. The President stoutly
told him that he was endeavouring to swim against the stream, that the
tax was offensive to the people, and that the voice of the people was the
voice of God. On the last day of July, however, the Duke issued an
edict, by which summary collection of the tenth and twentieth pence was
ordered. The whole country was immediately in uproar. The estates of
every province, the assemblies of every city, met and remonstrated. The
merchants suspended all business, the petty dealers shut up their shops.
The people congregated together in masses, vowing resistance to the
illegal and cruel impost. Not a farthing was collected. The "seven
stiver people", spies of government, who for that paltry daily stipend
were employed to listen for treason in every tavern, in every huckster's
booth, in every alley of every city, were now quite unable to report all
the curses which were hourly heard uttered against the tyranny of the
Viceroy. Evidently, his power was declining. The councillors resisted
him, the common people almost defied him. A mercer to whom he was
indebted for thirty thousand florins' worth of goods, refused to open
his shop, lest the tax should be collected on his merchandize. The Duke
confiscated his debt, as the mercer had foreseen, but this being a
pecuniary sacrifice, seemed preferable to acquiescence in a measure so
vague and so boundless that it might easily absorb the whole property of
the country.

No man saluted the governor as he passed through the streets. Hardly an
attempt was made by the people to disguise their abhorrence of his
person: Alva, on his side, gave daily exhibitions of ungovernable fury.
At a council held on 25th September, 1571, he stated that the King had
ordered the immediate enforcement of the edict. Viglius observed that
there were many objections to its form. He also stoutly denied that the
estates had ever given their consent. Alva fiercely asked the President
if he had not himself once maintained that the consent had been granted!
Viglius replied that he had never made such an assertion. He had
mentioned the conditions and the implied promises on the part of
government, by which a partial consent had been extorted. He never could
have said that the consent had been accorded, for he had never believed
that it could be obtained. He had not proceeded far in his argument when
he was interrupted by the Duke--"But you said so, you said so, you said
so," cried the exasperated Governor, in a towering passion, repeating
many times this flat contradiction to the President's statements.
Viglius firmly stood his ground. Alva loudly denounced him for the
little respect he had manifested for his authority. He had hitherto done
the President good offices, he said, with his Majesty, but certainly
should not feel justified in concealing his recent and very unhandsome
conduct.

Viglius replied that he had always reverently cherished the Governor,
and had endeavoured to merit his favor by diligent obsequiousness.
He was bound by his oath, however; to utter in council that which
comported with his own sentiments and his Majesty's interests. He had
done this heretofore in presence of Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Regents,
and they had not taken offence. He did not, at this hour, tremble for
his grey head, and hoped his Majesty would grant him a hearing before
condemnation. The firm attitude of the President increased the
irritation of the Viceroy. Observing that he knew the proper means
of enforcing his authority he dismissed the meeting.

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