Part 33

Events marched swiftly. On February 16, 1568, a sentence of the Inquisition condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially named, were excepted; and a proclamation of the king, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is probably the most concise death-warrant ever framed. Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three lines.

The Prince of Orange at last threw down the gauntlet, and published a reply to the active condemnation which had been pronounced against him in default of appearance before the Blood Council. It would, he said, be both death and degradation to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the infamous "Council of Blood," and he scorned to plead before he knew not what base knaves, not fit to be the valets of his companions and himself.

Preparations were at once made to levy troops and wage war against Philip's forces in the Netherlands. Then followed the long, ghastly struggle between the armies raised by the Prince of Orange and his brother, Count Louis of Nassau, who lost his life mysteriously at the battle of Mons, and those of Alva and the other governors-general who succeeded him--Don Louis de Requesens, the "Grand Commander," Don John of Austria, the hero of Lepanto, and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. The records of butcheries and martyrdoms, including those during the sack and burning of Antwerp by the mutinous Spanish soldiery, are only relieved by the heroic exploits of the patriotic armies and burghers in the memorable defences of Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmaar, and Mons. At one time it seemed that the Prince of Orange and his forces were about to secure a complete triumph; but the news of the massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris brought depression to the patriotic army and corresponding spirit to the Spanish armies, and the gleam faded. The most extraordinary feature of Alva's civil administration were his fiscal decrees, which imposed taxes that utterly destroyed the trade and manufactures of the country.

There were endless negotiations inspired by the States-General, the German Emperor, and the governments of France and England to secure peace and a settlement of the Netherlands affairs, but these, owing mostly to insincere diplomacy, were ineffective.

V.--The Union of the Provinces

In the meantime, the union of Holland and Zealand had been accomplished, with the Prince of Orange as sovereign. The representatives of various provinces thereafter met with deputies from Holland and Zealand in Utrecht in January, 1579, and agreed to a treaty of union which was ever after regarded as the foundation of the Netherlands Republic. The contracting provinces agreed to remain eternally united, while each was to retain its particular privileges, liberties, customs, and laws. All the provinces were to unite to defend each other with life, goods, and blood against all forces brought against them in the king's name, and against all foreign potentates. The treaty also provided for religious peace and toleration. The Union of Utrecht was the foundation of the Netherlands Republic, which lasted two centuries.

For two years there were a series of desultory military operations and abortive negotiations for peace, including an attempt--which failed--to purchase the Prince of Orange. The assembly of the united provinces met at The Hague on July 26, 1581, and solemnly declared their independence of Philip and renounced their allegiance for ever. This act, however, left the country divided into three portions--the Walloon or reconciled provinces; the united provinces under Anjou; and the northern provinces under Orange.

Early in February, 1582, the Duke of Anjou arrived in the Netherlands from England with a considerable train. The articles of the treaty under which he was elected sovereign as Duke of Brabant made as stringent and as sensible a constitutional compact as could be desired by any Netherland patriot. Taken in connection with the ancient charters, which they expressly upheld, they left to the new sovereign no vestige of arbitrary power. He was the hereditary president of a representative republic.

The Duke of Anjou, however, became discontented with his position. Many nobles of high rank came from France to pay their homage to him, and in the beginning of January, 1583, he entered into a conspiracy with them to take possession, with his own troops, of the principal cities in Flanders. He reserved to himself the capture of Antwerp, and concentrated several thousands of French troops at Borgehout, a village close to the walls of Antwerp. A night attack was treacherously made on the city, but the burghers rapidly flew to arms, and in an hour the whole of the force which Anjou had sent to accomplish his base design was either dead or captured. The enterprise, which came to be known as the "French Fury," was an absolute and disgraceful failure, and the duke fled to Berghem, where he established a camp. Negotiations for reconciliation were entered into with the Duke of Anjou, who, however, left for Paris in June, never again to return to the Netherlands.

VI.--The Assassination of William of Orange

The Princess Charlotte having died on May 5, 1582, the Prince of Orange was married for the fourth time on April 21, 1583, on this occasion to Louisa, daughter of the illustrious Coligny. In the summer of 1584 the prince and princess took up their residence at Delft, where Frederick Henry, afterwards the celebrated stadtholder, was born to them. During the previous two years no fewer than five distinct attempts to assassinate the prince had been made, and all of them with the privity of the Spanish government or at the direct instigation of King Philip or the Duke of Parma.

A sixth and successful attempt was now to be made. On Sunday morning, July 8, the Prince of Orange received news of the death of Anjou. The courier who brought the despatches was admitted to the prince's bedroom. He called himself Francis Guion, the son of a martyred Calvinist, but he was in reality Balthazar Gérard, a fanatical Catholic who had for years formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange. The interview was so entirely unexpected that Gérard had come unarmed, and had formed no plans for escape. He pleaded to the officer on duty in the prince's house that he wanted to attend divine service in the church opposite, but that his attire was too shabby and travel-stained, and that, without new shoes and stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Having heard this, the prince ordered instantly a sum of money to be given to him. With this fund Gérard the following day bought a pair of pistols and ammunition. On Tuesday, July 10, the prince, his wife, family, and the burgomaster of Leewarden dined as usual, at mid-day. At two o'clock the company rose from table, the prince leading the way, intending to pass to his private apartments upstairs. He had reached the second stair when Gérard, who had obtained admission to the house on the plea that he wanted a passport, emerged from a sunken arch and, standing within a foot or two of the prince, discharged a pistol at his heart. He was carried to a couch in the dining-room, where in a few minutes he died in the arms of his wife and sister.

The murderer succeeded in making his escape through a side door, and sped swiftly towards the ramparts, where a horse was waiting for him at the moat, but was followed and captured by several pages and halberdiers. He made no effort to deny his identity, but boldly avowed himself and his deed. Afterwards he was subjected to excruciating tortures, and executed on July 14 with execrable barbarity. The reward promised by Philip to the man who should murder Orange was paid to the father and mother of Gérard. The excellent parents were ennobled and enriched by the crime of their son, but, instead of receiving the 25,000 crowns promised in the ban issued by Philip in 1580 at the instigation of Cardinal Granvelle, they were granted three seignories in the Franche Comté, and took their place at once among the landed aristocracy.

The prince was entombed on August 3 at Delft amid the tears of a whole nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffected and legitimate sorrow felt at the death of any human being. William the Silent had gone through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling face. The people were grateful and affectionate, for they trusted the character of their "Father William," and not all the clouds which calumny could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that lofty mind to which they were accustomed in their darkest calamities to look for light.

The life and labours of Orange had established the emancipated commonwealth upon a secure foundation, but his death rendered hopeless the union of all the Netherlands at that time into one republic.

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History of the United Netherlands

"The History of the United Netherlands, 1584-1609," published between 1860 and 1867, is the continuation of the "Rise of the Dutch republic"; the narrative of the stubborn struggle carried on after the assassination of William the Silent until the twelve years' truce of 1609 recognised in effect, though not in form, that a new independent nation was established on the northern shore of Western Europe--a nation which for a century to come was to hold rank as first or second of the sea powers. While the great Alexander of Parma lived to lead the Spanish armies, even Philip II. could not quite destroy the possibility of his ultimate victory. When Parma was gone, we can see now that the issue of the struggle was no longer in doubt, although in its closing years Maurice of Nassau found a worthy antagonist in the Italian Spinola.

I.--After the Death of William

William the Silent, Prince of Orange, had been murdered on July 10, 1584. It was natural that for an instant there should be a feeling as of absolute and helpless paralysis. The Estates had now to choose between absolute submission to Spain, the chance of French or English support, and fighting it out alone. They resolved at once to fight it out, but to seek French support, in spite of the fact that Francis of Anjou, now dead, had betrayed them. For the German Protestants were of no use, and they did not expect vigorous aid from Elizabeth. But France herself was on the verge of a division into three, between the incompetent Henry III. on the throne, Henry of Guise of the Catholic League, and Henry of Navarre, heir apparent and head of the Huguenots.

The Estates offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands to Henry; he dallied with them, but finally rejected the offer. Meanwhile, there was an increased tendency to a rapprochement with England; but Elizabeth had excellent reasons for being quite resolved not to accept the sovereignty of the Netherlands. In France, matters came to a head in March 1585, when the offer of the Estates was rejected. Henry III. found himself forced into the hands of the League, and Navarre was declared to be barred from the succession as a heretic, in July.

While diplomacy was at work, and the Estates were gradually turning from France to England, Alexander of Parma, the first general, and one of the ablest statesmen of the age, was pushing on the Spanish cause in the Netherlands. Flagrantly as he was stinted in men and money, a consummate genius guided his operations. The capture of Antwerp was the crucial point; and the condition of capturing Antwerp was to hold the Scheldt below that city, and also to secure the dams, since, if the country were flooded, the Dutch ships could not be controlled in the open waters.

The burghers scoffed at the idea that Parma could bridge the Scheldt, or that his bridge, if built, could resist the ice-blocks that would come down in the winter. But he built his bridge, and it resisted the ice-blocks. An ingenious Italian in Antwerp devised the destruction of the bridge, and the passage of relief-ships, by blowing up the bridge with a sort of floating mines. The explosion was successfully carried out with terrific effect; a thousand Spaniards were blown to pieces; but by sheer blundering the opening was not at once utilised, and Parma was able to rebuild the bridge.

Then, by a fine feat of arms, the patriots captured the Kowenstyn dyke, and cut it; but the loss was brilliantly retrieved, the Kowenstyn was recaptured, and the dyke repaired. After that, Antwerp's chance of escape sank almost to nothing, and its final capitulation was a great triumph for Parma.

The Estates had despaired of French help, and had opened negotiations with England some time before the fall of Antwerp had practically secured the southern half of the Netherlands to Spain. It was unfortunate that the negotiations took the form of hard bargaining on both sides. The Estates wished to give Elizabeth sovereignty, which she did not want; they did not wish to give her hard cash for her assistance, which she did want, as well as to have towns pawned to her as security. Walsingham was anxious for England to give the Estates open support; the queen, as usual, blew hot and cold.

Walsingham and Leicester, however, carried the day. Leicester was appointed to be general, and Philip Sidney was sent to be governor of Flushing, at about the time when Drake was preparing for what is known as the Carthagena Expedition. The direct intervention of the English government in the Netherlands, where hitherto there had been no state action, though many Englishmen were fighting as volunteers, was tantamount to a declaration of war with Spain. But the haggling over terms had made it too late to save Antwerp.

Leicester had definite orders to do nothing contradictory to the queen's explicit refusal of both sovereignty and protectorate. But he was satisfied that a position of supreme authority was necessary; and he had hardly reached his destination when he was formally offered, and accepted, the title of Governor-General (January 1586). The proposal had the full support of young Maurice of Nassau, second son of William the Silent, and destined to succeed his father in the character of Liberator.

Angry as Elizabeth was, she did not withdraw Leicester. In fact, Parma was privately negotiating with her; negotiations in which Burghley and Hatton took part, but which did not wholly escape Walsingham. Parma had no intention of being bound by these negotiations; they were pure dissimulation on his part; and, possibly, but not probably, on Elizabeth's. Parma, in fact, was nervous as to possible French action. But their practical effect was to paralyse Leicester, and their object to facilitate the invasion of England.