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Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1560-61
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4806]
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Edition: 10
Language: English
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MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 6.
THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
1855
1560-1561 [CHAPTER II.]
Agitation in the Netherlands--The ancient charters resorted to as
barriers against the measures of government--"Joyous entrance" of
Brabant--Constitution of Holland--Growing unpopularity of Antony
Perrenot, Archbishop of Mechlin--Opposition to the new bishoprics,
by Orange, Egmont, and other influential nobles--Fury of the people
at the continued presence of the foreign soldiery--Orange resigns
the command of the legion--The troops recalled--Philip's personal
attention to the details of persecution--Perrenot becomes Cardinal
de Granvelle--All the power of government in his hands--His
increasing unpopularity--Animosity and violence of Egmont towards
the Cardinal--Relations between Orange and Granvelle--Ancient
friendship gradually changing to enmity--Renewal of the magistracy
at Antwerp--Quarrel between the Prince and Cardinal--Joint letter of
Orange and Egmont to the King--Answer of the King--Indignation of
Philip against Count Horn--Secret correspondence between the King
and Cardinal--Remonstrances against the new bishoprics--Philip's
private financial statements--Penury of the exchequer in Spain and
in the provinces--Plan for debasing the coin--Marriage of William
the Silent with the Princess of Lorraine circumvented--Negotiations
for his matrimonial alliance with Princess Anna of Saxony--
Correspondence between Granvelle and Philip upon the subject--
Opposition of Landgrave Philip and of Philip the Second--Character
and conduct of Elector Augustus--Mission of Count Schwartzburg--
Communications of Orange to the King and to Duchess Margaret--
Characteristic letter of Philip--Artful conduct of Granvelle and of
the Regent--Visit of Orange to Dresden--Proposed "note" of Elector
Augustus--Refusal of the Prince--Protest of the Landgrave against
the marriage--Preparations for the wedding at Leipzig--Notarial
instrument drawn up on the marriage day--Wedding ceremonies and
festivities--Entrance of Granvelle into Mechlin as Archbishop--
Compromise in Brabant between the abbeys and bishops.
The years 1560 and 1561 were mainly occupied with the agitation and
dismay produced by the causes set forth in the preceding chapter.
Against the arbitrary policy embodied in the edicts, the new bishoprics
and the foreign soldiery, the Netherlanders appealed to their ancient
constitutions. These charters were called "handvests" in the vernacular
Dutch and Flemish, because the sovereign made them fast with his hand.
As already stated, Philip had made them faster than any of the princes of
his house had ever done, so far as oath and signature could accomplish
that purpose, both as hereditary prince in 1549, and as monarch in 1555.
The reasons for the extensive and unconditional manner in which he swore
to support the provincial charters, have been already indicated.
Of these constitutions, that of Brabant, known by the title of the
'joyeuse entree, blyde inkomst', or blithe entrance, furnished the most
decisive barrier against the present wholesale tyranny. First and
foremost, the "joyous entry" provided "that the prince of the land should
not elevate the clerical state higher than of old has been customary and
by former princes settled; unless by consent of the other two estates,
the nobility and the cities."
Again; "the prince can prosecute no one of his subjects nor any foreign
resident, civilly or criminally, except in the ordinary and open courts
of justice in the province, where the accused may answer and defend
himself with the help of advocates."
Further; "the prince shall appoint no foreigners to office in Brabant."
Lastly; "should the prince, by force or otherwise, violate any of these
privileges, the inhabitants of Brabant, after regular protest entered,
are discharged of their oaths of allegiance, and as free, independent and
unbound people, may conduct themselves exactly as seems to them best."
Such were the leading features, so far as they regarded the points now at
issue, of that famous constitution which was so highly esteemed in the
Netherlands, that mothers came to the province in order to give birth to
their children, who might thus enjoy, as a birthright, the privileges of
Brabant. Yet the charters of the other provinces ought to have been as
effective against the arbitrary course of the government. "No foreigner,"
said the constitution of Holland, "is eligible as, councillor, financier,
magistrate, or member of a court. Justice can be administered only by
the ordinary tribunals and magistrates. The ancient laws and customs
shall remain inviolable. Should the prince infringe any of these
provisions, no one is bound to obey him."
These provisions, from the Brabant and Holland charters, are only cited
as illustrative of the general spirit of the provincial constitutions.
Nearly all the provinces possessed privileges equally ample, duly signed
and sealed. So far as ink and sealing wax could defend a land against
sword and fire, the Netherlands were impregnable against the edicts and
the renewed episcopal inquisition. Unfortunately, all history shows how
feeble are barriers of paper or lambskin, even when hallowed with a
monarch's oath, against the torrent of regal and ecclesiastical
absolutism. It was on the reception in the provinces of the new and
confirmatory Bull concerning the bishoprics, issued in January, 1560,
that the measure became known, and the dissatisfaction manifest.
The discontent was inevitable and universal. The ecclesiastical
establishment which was not to be enlarged or elevated but by consent
of the estates, was suddenly expanded into three archiepiscopates and
fifteen bishoprics. The administration of justice, which was only
allowed in free and local courts, distinct for each province, was to be
placed, so far as regarded the most important of human interests, in the,
hands of bishops and their creatures, many of them foreigners and most of
them monks. The lives and property of the whole population were to be at
the mercy of these utterly irresponsible conclaves. All classes were
outraged. The nobles were offended because ecclesiastics, perhaps
foreign ecclesiastics, were to be empowered to sit in the provincial
estates and to control their proceedings in place of easy, indolent,
ignorant abbots and friars, who had generally accepted the influence of
the great seignors. The priests were enraged because the religious
houses were thus taken out of their control and confiscated to a bench of
bishops, usurping the places of those superiors who had formally been
elected by and among themselves. The people were alarmed because the
monasteries, although not respected nor popular, were at least charitable
and without ambition to exercise ecclesiastical cruelty; while, on the
other hand, by the new episcopal arrangements, a force of thirty new
inquisitors was added to the apparatus for enforcing orthodoxy already
established. The odium of the measure was placed upon the head of that
churchman, already appointed Archbishop of Mechlin, and soon to be known
as Cardinal Granvelle. From this time forth, this prelate began to be
regarded with a daily increasing aversion. He was looked upon as the
incarnation of all the odious measures which had been devised; as the
source of that policy of absolutism which revealed itself more and more
rapidly after the King's departure from the country. It was for this
reason that so much stress was laid by popular clamor upon the clause
prohibiting foreigners from office. Granvelle was a Burgundian; his
father had passed most of his active life in Spain, while both he and his
more distinguished son were identified in the general mind with Spanish
politics. To this prelate, then, were ascribed the edicts, the new
bishoprics, and the continued presence of the foreign troops. The people
were right as regarded the first accusation. They were mistaken as to
the other charges.
The King had not consulted Anthony Perrenot with regard to the creation
of the new bishoprics. The measure, which had been successively
contemplated by Philip "the Good," by Charles the Bold, and by the
Emperor Charles, had now been carried out by Philip the Second, without
the knowledge of the new Archbishop of Mechlin. The King had for once
been able to deceive the astuteness of the prelate, and had concealed
from him the intended arrangement, until the arrival of Sonnius with the
Bulls. Granvelle gave the reasons for this mystery with much simplicity.
"His Majesty knew," he said, "that I should oppose it, as it was more
honorable and lucrative to be one of four than one of eighteen." In
fact, according to his own statement, he lost money by becoming
archbishop of Mechlin, and ceasing to be Bishop of Arras. For these
reasons he declined, more than once, the proffered dignity, and at last
only accepted it from fear of giving offence to the King, and after
having secured compensation for his alleged losses. In the same letter
(of 29th May, 1560) in which he thanked Philip for conferring upon him
the rich abbey of Saint Armand, which he had solicited, in addition to
the "merced" in ready money, concerning the safe investment of which
he had already sent directions, he observed that he was now willing to
accept the archbishopric of Mechlin; notwithstanding the odium attached
to the measure, notwithstanding his feeble powers, and notwithstanding
that, during the life of the Bishop of Tournay, who was then in rude
health, he could only receive three thousand ducats of the revenue,
giving up Arras and gaining nothing in Mechlin; notwithstanding all this,
and a thousand other things besides, he assured his Majesty that, "since
the royal desire was so strong that he should accept, he would consider
nothing so difficult that he would not at least attempt it." Having made
up his mind to take the see and support the new arrangements, he was
resolved that his profits should be as large as possible. We have seen
how he had already been enabled to indemnify himself. We shall find him
soon afterwards importuning the King for the Abbey of Afflighem, the
enormous revenue of which the prelate thought would make another handsome
addition to the rewards of his sacrifices. At the same time, he was most
anxious that the people, and particularly the great nobles, should not
ascribe the new establishment to him, as they persisted in doing. "They
say that the episcopates were devised to gratify my ambition," he wrote
to Philip two years later; "whereas your Majesty knows how steadily I
refused the see of Mechlin, and that I only accepted it in order not to
live in idleness, doing nothing for God and your Majesty." He therefore
instructed Philip, on several occasions, to make it known to the
government of the Regent, to the seignors, and to the country generally,
that the measure had been arranged without his knowledge; that the
Marquis Berghen had known of it first, and that the prelate had, in
truth, been kept in the dark on the subject until the arrival of Sonnius
with the Bulls. The King, always docile to his minister, accordingly
wrote to the Duchess the statements required, in almost the exact
phraseology suggested; taking pains to repeat the declarations on several
occasions, both by letter and by word of mouth, to many influential
persons.
The people, however, persisted in identifying the Bishop with the scheme.
They saw that he was the head of the new institutions; that he was to
receive the lion's share of the confiscated abbeys, and that he was
foremost in defending and carrying through the measure, in spite of all
opposition. That opposition waxed daily more bitter, till the Cardinal,
notwithstanding that he characterised the arrangement to the King as "a
holy work," and warmly assured Secretary Perez that he would contribute
his fortune, his blood, and his life, to its success, was yet obliged to
exclaim in the bitterness of his spirit, "Would to God that the erection
of these new sees had never been thought of. Amen! Amen!"
Foremost in resistance was the Prince of Orange. Although a Catholic,
he had no relish for the horrible persecution which had been determined
upon. The new bishoprics he characterized afterwards as parts "of one
grand scheme for establishing the cruel inquisition of Spain; the said
bishops to serve as inquisitors, burners of bodies; and tyrants of
conscience: two prebendaries in each see being actually constituted
inquisitors." For this reason he omitted no remonstrance on the subject
to the Duchess, to Granvelle, and by direct letters to the King. His
efforts were seconded by Egmont, Berghen, and other influential nobles.
Even Berlaymont was at first disposed to side with the opposition, but
upon the argument used by the Duchess, that the bishoprics and prebends
would furnish excellent places for his sons and other members of the
aristocracy, he began warmly to support the measure. Most of the labor,
however, and all the odium, of the business fell upon the Bishop's
shoulders. There was still a large fund of loyalty left in the popular
mind, which not even forty years of the Emperor's dominion had consumed,
and which Philip was destined to draw upon as prodigally as if the
treasure had been inexhaustible. For these reasons it still seemed most
decorous to load all the hatred upon the minister's back, and to retain
the consolatory formula, that Philip was a prince, "clement, benign, and
debonair."
The Bishop, true to his habitual conviction, that words, with the people,
are much more important than things, was disposed to have the word
"inquisitor" taken out of the text of the new decree. He was anxious
at this juncture to make things pleasant, and he saw no reason why men
should be unnecessarily startled. If the inquisition could be practised,
and the heretics burned, he was in favor of its being done comfortably.
The word "inquisitor" was unpopular, almost indecent. It was better to
suppress the term and retain the thing. "People are afraid to speak of
the new bishoprics," he wrote to Perez, "on account of the clause
providing that of nine canons one shall be inquisitor. Hence people fear
the Spanish inquisition."--He, therefore, had written to the King to
suggest instead, that the canons or graduates should be obliged to assist
the Bishop, according as he might command. Those terms would suffice,
because, although not expressly stated, it was clear that the Bishop was
an ordinary inquisitor; but it was necessary to expunge words that gave
offence.
It was difficult, however, with all the Bishop's eloquence and dexterity,
to construct an agreeable inquisition. The people did not like it, in
any shape, and there were indications, not to be mistaken, that one day
there would be a storm which it would be beyond human power to assuage.
At present the people directed their indignation only upon a part of the
machinery devised for their oppression. The Spanish troops were
considered as a portion of the apparatus by which the new bishoprics and
the edicts were to be forced into execution. Moreover, men were, weary
of the insolence and the pillage which these mercenaries had so long
exercised in the land. When the King had been first requested to
withdraw them, we have seen that he had burst into a violent passion.
He had afterward dissembled. Promising, at last, that they should all
be sent from the country within three or four months after his departure,
he had determined to use every artifice to detain them in the provinces.
He had succeeded, by various subterfuges, in keeping them there fourteen
months; but it was at last evident that their presence would no longer be
tolerated. Towards the close of 1560 they were quartered in Walcheren
and Brill. The Zelanders, however, had become so exasperated by their
presence that they resolutely refused to lay a single hand upon the
dykes, which, as usual at that season, required great repairs. Rather
than see their native soil profaned any longer by these hated foreign
mercenaries, they would see it sunk forever in the ocean. They swore to
perish-men, women, and children together-in the waves, rather than endure
longer the outrages which the soldiery daily inflicted. Such was the
temper of the Zelanders that it was not thought wise to trifle with their
irritation. The Bishop felt that it was no longer practicable to detain
the troops, and that all the pretext devised by Philip and his government
had become ineffectual. In a session of the State Council, held on the
25th October, 1560, he represented in the strongest terms to the Regent
the necessity for the final departure of the troops. Viglius, who knew
the character of his countrymen, strenuously seconded the proposal.
Orange briefly but firmly expressed the same opinion, declining any
longer to serve as commander of the legion, an office which, in
conjunction with Egmont, he had accepted provisionally, with the best
of motives, and on the pledge of Philip that the soldiers should be
withdrawn. The Duchess urged that the order should at least be deferred
until the arrival of Count Egmont, then in Spain, but the proposition was
unanimously negatived.
Letters were accordingly written, in the name of the Regent, to the King.
It was stated that the measure could no longer be delayed, that the
provinces all agreed in this point, that so long as the foreigners
remained not a stiver should be paid into the treasury; that if they had
once set sail, the necessary amount for their arrears would be furnished
to the government; but that if they should return it was probable that
they would be resisted by the inhabitants with main force, and that they
would only be allowed to enter the cities through a breach in their wall.
It was urged, moreover, that three or four thousand Spaniards would not
be sufficient to coerce all the provinces, and that there was not money
enough in the royal exchequer to pay the wages of a single company of the
troops. "It cuts me to the heart," wrote the Bishop to Philip, "to see
the Spanish infantry leave us; but go they must. Would to God that we
could devise any pretext, as your Majesty desires, under which to keep
them here! We have tried all means humanly possible for retaining them,
but I see no way to do it without putting the provinces in manifest
danger of sudden revolt."
Fortunately for the dignity of the government, or for the repose of the
country, a respectable motive was found for employing the legion
elsewhere. The important loss which Spain had recently met with in the
capture of Zerby made a reinforcement necessary in the army engaged in
the Southern service. Thus, the disaster in Barbary at last relieved the
Netherlands of the pest which had afflicted them so long. For a brief
breathing space the country was cleared of foreign mercenaries.
The growing unpopularity of the royal government, still typified,
however, in the increasing hatred entertained for the Bishop, was not
materially diminished by the departure of the Spaniards. The edicts and
the bishoprics were still there, even if the soldiers were gone. The
churchman worked faithfully to accomplish his master's business. Philip,
on his side, was industrious to bring about the consummation of his
measures. Ever occupied with details, the monarch, from his palace in
Spain, sent frequent informations against the humblest individuals in
the Netherlands. It is curious to observe the minute reticulations of
tyranny which he had begun already to spin about a whole, people, while
cold, venomous, and patient he watched his victims from the centre of his
web. He forwarded particular details to the Duchess and Cardinal
concerning a variety of men and women, sending their names, ages,
personal appearance, occupations, and residence, together with directions
for their immediate immolation. Even the inquisitors of Seville were set
to work to increase, by means of their branches or agencies in the
provinces, the royal information on this all-important subject. "There
are but few of us left in the world," he moralized in a letter to the
Bishop, "who care for religion. 'Tis necessary, therefore, for us to
take the greater heed for Christianity. We must lose our all, if need
be, in order to do our duty; in fine," added he, with his usual
tautology, "it is right that a man should do his duty."
Granvelle--as he must now be called, for his elevation to the
cardinalship will be immediately alluded to--wrote to assure the King
that every pains would be taken to ferret out and execute the individuals
complained of. He bewailed, however, the want of heartiness on the part
of the Netherland inquisitors and judges. "I find," said he, "that all
judicial officers go into the matter of executing the edicts with
reluctance, which I believe is caused by their fear of displeasing the
populace. When they do act they do it but languidly, and when these
matters are not taken in hand with the necessary liveliness, the fruit
desired is not gathered. We do not fail to exhort and to command them to
do their work." He added that Viglius and Berlaymont displayed laudable
zeal, but that he could not say as much for the Council of Brabant.
Those councillors "were forever prating," said he, "of the
constitutional rights of their province, and deserved much less
commendation."
The popularity of the churchman, not increased by these desperate
exertions to force an inhuman policy upon an unfortunate nation, received
likewise no addition from his new elevation in rank. During the latter
part of the year 1560, Margaret of Parma, who still entertained a
profound admiration of the prelate, and had not yet begun to chafe under
his smooth but imperious dominion, had been busy in preparing for him a
delightful surprise. Without either his knowledge or that of the King,
she had corresponded with the Pope, and succeeded in obtaining, as a
personal favor to herself, the Cardinal's hat for Anthony Perrenot.
In February, 1561, Cardinal Borromeo wrote to announce that the coveted
dignity had been bestowed. The Duchess hastened, with joyous alacrity,
to communicate the intelligence to the Bishop, but was extremely hurt to
find that he steadily refused to assume his new dignity, until he had
written to the King to announce the appointment, and to ask his
permission to accept the honor. The Duchess, justly wounded at his
refusal to accept from her hands the favor which she, and she only,
had obtained for him, endeavored in vain to overcome his pertinacity.
She represented that although Philip was not aware of the application or
the appointment, he was certain to regard it as an agreeable surprise.
She urged, moreover, that his temporary refusal would be misconstrued at
Rome, where it would certainly excite ridicule, and very possibly give
offence in the highest quarter. The Bishop was inexorable. He feared,
says his panegyrist, that he might one day be on worse terms than at
present with the Duchess, and that then she might reproach him with her
former benefits. He feared also that the King might, in consequence of
the step, not look with satisfaction upon him at some future period, when
he might stand in need of his favors. He wrote, accordingly, a most
characteristic letter to Philip, in which he informed him that he had
been honored with the Cardinal's hat. He observed that many persons were
already congratulating him, but that before he made any demonstration of
accepting or refusing, he waited for his Majesty's orders: upon his will
he wished ever to depend. He also had the coolness, under the
circumstances, to express his conviction that "it was his Majesty who had
secretly procured this favor from his Holiness."
The King received the information very graciously, observing in reply,
that although he had never made any suggestion of the kind, he had "often
thought upon the subject." The royal command was of course at once
transmitted, that the dignity should be accepted. By special favor,
moreover, the Pope dispensed the new Cardinal from the duty of going to
Rome in person, and despatched his chamberlain, Theophilus Friso, to
Brussels, with the red hat and tabbard.
The prelate, having thus reached the dignity to which he had long
aspired, did not grow more humble in his deportment, or less zealous in
the work through which he had already gained so much wealth and
preferment. His conduct with regard to the edicts and bishoprics had
already brought him into relations which were far from amicable with his
colleagues in the council. More and more he began to take the control of
affairs into his own hand. The consulta, or secret committee of the
state council, constituted the real government of the country. Here the
most important affairs were decided upon without the concurrence of the
other seignors, Orange, Egmont, and Glayon, who, at the same time, were
held responsible for the action of government. The Cardinal was smooth
in manner, plausible of speech, generally even-tempered, but he was
overbearing and blandly insolent. Accustomed to control royal
personages, under the garb of extreme obsequiousness, he began, in his
intercourse with those of less exalted rank, to omit a portion of the
subserviency while claiming a still more undisguised authority. To
nobles like Egmont and Orange, who looked down upon the son of Nicolas
Perrenot and Nicola Bonvalot as a person immeasurably beneath themselves
in the social hierarchy, this conduct was sufficiently irritating. The
Cardinal, placed as far above Philip, and even Margaret, in mental power
as he was beneath them in worldly station, found it comparatively easy to
deal with them amicably. With such a man as Egmont, it was impossible
for the churchman to maintain friendly relations. The Count, who
notwithstanding his romantic appearance, his brilliant exploits, and his
interesting destiny, was but a commonplace character, soon conceived a
mortal aversion to Granvelle. A rude soldier, entertaining no respect
for science or letters, ignorant and overbearing, he was not the man to
submit to the airs of superiority which pierced daily more and more
decidedly through the conventional exterior of the Cardinal. Granvelle,
on the other hand, entertained a gentle contempt for Egmont, which
manifested itself in all his private letters to the King, and was
sufficiently obvious in his deportment. There had also been distinct
causes of animosity between them. The governorship of Hesdin having
become vacant, Egmont, backed by Orange and other nobles, had demanded
it for the Count de Roeulx, a gentleman of the Croy family, who, as well
as his father, had rendered many important services to the crown. The
appointment was, however, bestowed, through Granvelle's influence, upon
the Seigneur d'Helfault, a gentleman of mediocre station and character,
who was thought to possess no claims whatever to the office. Egmont,
moreover, desired the abbey of Trulle for a poor relation of his own; but
the Cardinal, to whom nothing in this way ever came amiss, had already
obtained the King's permission to, appropriate the abbey to himself
Egmont was now furious against the prelate, and omitted no opportunity
of expressing his aversion, both in his presence and behind his back.
On one occasion, at least, his wrath exploded in something more than
words. Exasperated by Granvelle's polished insolence in reply to his
own violent language, he drew his dagger upon him in the presence of the
Regent herself, "and," says a contemporary, "would certainly have sent
the Cardinal into the next world had he not been forcibly restrained by
the Prince of Orange and other persons present, who warmly represented
to him that such griefs were to be settled by deliberate advice, not by
choler." At the same time, while scenes like these were occurring in the
very bosom of the state council, Granvelle, in his confidential letters
to secretary Perez, asserted warmly that all reports of a want of harmony
between himself and the other seignors and councillors were false, and
that the best relations existed among them all. It was not his
intention, before it should be necessary, to let the King doubt his
ability to govern the counsel according to the secret commission with
which he had been invested.
His relations with Orange were longer in changing from friendship to open
hostility. In the Prince the Cardinal met his match. He found himself
confronted by an intellect as subtle, an experience as fertile in
expedients, a temper as even, and a disposition sometimes as haughty as
his own. He never affected to undervalue the mind of Orange. "'Tis a
man of profound genius, vast ambition--dangerous, acute, politic," he
wrote to the King at a very early period. The original relations between
himself and the Prince bad been very amicable. It hardly needed the
prelate's great penetration to be aware that the friendship of so exalted
a personage as the youthful heir to the principality of Orange, and to
the vast possessions of the Chalons-Nassau house in Burgundy and the
Netherlands, would be advantageous to the ambitious son of the Burgundian
Councillor Granvelle. The young man was the favorite of the Emperor from
boyhood; his high rank, and his remarkable talents marked him
indisputably for one of the foremost men of the coming reign. Therefore
it was politic in Perrenot to seize every opportunity of making himself
useful to the Prince. He busied himself with securing, so far as it
might be necessary to secure, the succession of William to his cousin's
principality. It seems somewhat ludicrous for a merit to be made not
only for Granvelle but for the Emperor, that the Prince should have been
allowed to take an inheritance which the will of Rene de Nassau most
unequivocally conferred, and which no living creature disputed. Yet,
because some of the crown lawyers had propounded the dogma that "the son
Of a heretic ought not to succeed," it was gravely stated as an immense
act of clemency upon the part of Charles the Fifth that he had not
confiscated the whole of the young Prince's heritage. In return
Granvelle's brother Jerome had obtained the governorship of the youth,
upon whose majority he had received an honorable military appointment
from his attached pupil. The prelate had afterwards recommended the
marriage with the Count de Buren's heiress, and had used his influence
with the Emperor to overcome certain objections entertained by Charles,
that the Prince, by this great accession of wealth, might be growing too
powerful. On the other hand, there were always many poor relations and
dependents of Granvelle, eager to be benefitted by Orange's patronage,
who lived in the Prince's household, or received handsome appointments
from his generosity. Thus, there had been great intimacy, founded upon
various benefits mutually conferred; for it could hardly be asserted that
the debt of friendship was wholly upon one side.
When Orange arrived in Brussels from a journey, he would go to the
bishop's before alighting at his own house. When the churchman visited
the Prince, he entered his bed-chamber without ceremony before he had
risen; for it was William's custom, through life, to receive intimate
acquaintances, and even to attend to important negotiations of state,
while still in bed.
The show of this intimacy had lasted longer than its substance.
Granvelle was the most politic of men, and the Prince had not served
his apprenticeship at the court of Charles the Fifth to lay himself bare
prematurely to the criticism or the animosity of the Cardinal with the
recklessness of Horn and Egmont. An explosion came at last, however, and
very soon after an exceedingly amicable correspondence between the two
upon the subject of an edict of religious amnesty which Orange was
preparing for his principality, and which Granvelle had recommended him
not to make too lenient. A few weeks after this, the Antwerp magistracy
was to be renewed. The Prince, as hereditary burgrave of that city,
was entitled to a large share of the appointing power in these political
arrangements, which at the moment were of great importance. The citizens
of Antwerp were in a state of excitement on the subject of the new
bishops. They openly, and in the event, successfully resisted the
installation of the new prelate for whom their city had been constituted
a diocese. The Prince was known to be opposed to the measure, and to the
whole system of ecclesiastical persecution. When the nominations for the
new magistracy came before the Regent, she disposed of the whole matter
in the secret consulta, without the knowledge, and in a manner opposed to
the views of Orange. He was then furnished with a list of the new
magistrates, and was informed that he had been selected as commissioner
along with Count Aremberg, to see that the appointments were carried into
effect. The indignation of the Prince was extreme. He had already taken
offence at some insolent expressions upon this topic, which the Cardinal
had permitted himself. He now sent back the commission to the Duchess,
adding, it was said, that he was not her lackey, and that she might send
some one else with her errands. The words were repeated in the state
council. There was a violent altercation--Orange vehemently resenting
his appointment merely to carry out decisions in which he claimed an
original voice. His ancestors, he said, had often changed the whole of
the Antwerp magistracy by their own authority. It was a little too much
that this matter, as well as every other state affair, should be
controlled by the secret committee of which the Cardinal was the chief.
Granvelle, on his side, was also in a rage. He flung from the council-
chamber, summoned the Chancellor of Brabant, and demanded, amid bitter
execrations against Orange, what common and obscure gentleman there might
be, whom he could appoint to execute the commission thus refused by the
Prince and by Aremberg. He vowed that in all important matters he would,
on future occasions, make use of nobles less inflated by pride, and more
tractable than such grand seignors. The chancellor tried in vain to
appease the churchman's wrath, representing that the city of Antwerp
would be highly offended at the turn things were taking, and offering his
services to induce the withdrawal, on the part of the Prince, of the
language which had given so much offence. The Cardinal was inexorable
and peremptory. "I will have nothing to do with the Prince, Master
Chancellor," said he, "and these are matters which concern you not."
Thus the conversation ended, and thus began the open state of hostilities
between the great nobles and the Cardinal, which had been brooding so
long.
On the 23rd July, 1561, a few weeks after the scenes lately described,
the Count of Egmont and the Prince of Orange addressed a joint letter to
the King. They reminded him in this despatch that, they had originally
been reluctant to take office in the state council, on account of their
previous experience of the manner in which business had been conducted
during the administration of the Duke of Savoy. They had feared that
important matters of state might be transacted without their concurrence.
The King had, however, assured them, when in Zeland, that all affairs
would be uniformly treated in full council. If the contrary should ever
prove the case, he had desired them to give him information to that
effect, that he might instantly apply the remedy. They accordingly now
gave him that information. They were consulted upon small matters:
momentous affairs were decided upon in their absence. Still they would
not even now have complained had not Cardinal Granvelle declared that all
the members of the state council were to be held responsible for its
measures, whether they were present at its decisions or not. Not liking
such responsibility, they requested the King either to accept their
resignation or to give orders that all affairs should be communicated
to the whole board and deliberated upon by all the councillors.
In a private letter, written some weeks later (August 15), Egmont begged
secretary Erasso to assure the King that their joint letter had not been
dictated by passion, but by zeal for his service. It was impossible,
he said, to imagine the insolence of the Cardinal, nor to form an idea
of the absolute authority which he arrogated.
In truth, Granvelle, with all his keenness, could not see that Orange,
Egmont, Berghen, Montigny and the rest, were no longer pages and young
captains of cavalry, while he was the politician and the statesman.
By six or seven years the senior of Egmont, and by sixteen years of
Orange, he did not divest himself of the superciliousness of superior
wisdom, not unjust nor so irritating when they had all been boys.
In his deportment towards them, and in the whole tone of his private
correspondence with Philip, there was revealed, almost in spite of
himself, an affectation of authority, against which Egmont rebelled and
which the Prince was not the man to acknowledge. Philip answered the
letter of the two nobles in his usual procrastinating manner. The Count
of Horn, who was about leaving Spain (whither he had accompanied the
King) for the Netherlands, would be entrusted with the resolution which
he should think proper to take upon the subject suggested. In the mean
time, he assured them that he did not doubt their zeal in his service.
As to Count Horn, Granvelle had already prejudiced the King against him.
Horn and the Cardinal had never been friends. A brother of the prelate
had been an aspirant for the hand of the Admiral's sister, and had been
somewhat contemptuously rejected. Horn, a bold, vehement, and not very
good-tempered personage, had long kept no terms with Granvelle, and did
not pretend a friendship which he had never felt. Granvelle had just
written to instruct the King that Horn was opposed bitterly to that
measure which was nearest the King's heart--the new bishoprics. He had
been using strong language, according to the Cardinal, in opposition to
the scheme, while still in Spain. He therefore advised that his Majesty,
concealing, of course, the source of the information, and speaking as it
were out of the royal mind itself, should expostulate with the Admiral
upon the subject. Thus prompted, Philip was in no gracious humor when
he received Count Horn, then about to leave Madrid for the Netherlands,
and to take with him the King's promised answer to the communication of
Orange and Egmont. His Majesty had rarely been known to exhibit so much
anger towards any person as he manifested upon that occasion. After a
few words from the Admiral, in which he expressed his sympathy with the
other Netherland nobles, and his aversion to Granvelle, in general terms,
and in reply to Philip's interrogatories, the King fiercely interrupted
him: "What! miserable man!" he vociferated, "you all complain of this
Cardinal, and always in vague language. Not one of you, in spite of all
my questions, can give me a single reason for your dissatisfaction."
With this the royal wrath boiled over in such unequivocal terms that
the Admiral changed color, and was so confused with indignation and
astonishment, that he was scarcely able to find his way out of the room.
This was the commencement of Granvelle's long mortal combat with Egmont,
Horn, and Orange. This was the first answer which the seignors were to
receive to their remonstrances against the churchman's arrogance. Philip
was enraged that any opposition should be made to his coercive measures,
particularly to the new bishoprics, the "holy work" which the Cardinal
was ready, to "consecrate his fortune and his blood" to advance.
Granvelle fed his master's anger by constant communications as to the
efforts made by distinguished individuals to delay the execution of the
scheme. Assonville had informed him, he wrote, that much complaint had
been made on the subject by several gentlemen, at a supper of Count
Egmont's. It was said that the King ought to have consulted them all,
and the state councillors especially. The present nominees to the new
episcopates were good enough, but it would be found, they said, that very
improper personages would be afterwards appointed. The estates ought not
to permit the execution of the scheme. In short, continued Granvelle,
"there is the same kind of talk which brought about the recall of the
Spanish troops." A few months later, he wrote to inform Philip that a
petition against the new bishoprics was about to be drawn up by "the two
lords.". They had two motives; according to the Cardinal, for this step
--first, to let the King know that he could do nothing without their
permission; secondly, because in the states' assembly they were then the
cocks of the walk. They did not choose, therefore, that in the clerical
branch of the estates any body should be above the abbots, whom they
could frighten into doing whatever they chose. At the end, of the year,
Granvelle again wrote to instruct his sovereign how to reply to the
letter which was about to be addressed to him by the Prince of Orange and
the Marquis Berghen on the subject of the bishoprics. They would tell
him, he said, that the incorporation of the Brabant abbeys into the new
bishoprics was contrary to the constitution of the "joyful entrance."
Philip was, however, to make answer that he had consulted the
universities, and those learned in the laws, and had satisfied himself
that it was entirely constitutional. He was therefore advised to send
his command that the Prince and Marquis should use all their influence to
promote the success of the measure. Thus fortified, the King was enabled
not only to deal with the petition of the nobles, but also with the
deputies from the estates of Brabant, who arrived about this time at
Madrid. To these envoys, who asked for the appointment of royal
commissioners, with whom they might treat on the subject of the
bishoprics, the abbeys, and the "joyful entrance," the King answered
proudly, "that in matters which concerned the service of God, he was his
own commissioner." He afterwards, accordingly, recited to them, with
great accuracy, the lesson which he had privately received from the
ubiquitous Cardinal. Philip was determined that no remonstrance from
great nobles or from private citizens should interfere with the thorough
execution of the grand scheme on which he was resolved, and of which the
new bishoprics formed an important part. Opposition irritated him more
and more, till his hatred of the opponents became deadly; but it, at the
same time, confirmed him in his purpose. "'Tis no time to temporize," he
wrote to Granvelle; "we must inflict chastisement with full rigor and
severity. These rascals can only be made to do right through fear, and
not always even by that means."
At the same time, the royal finances did not admit of any very active
measures, at the moment, to enforce obedience to a policy which was
already so bitterly opposed. A rough estimate, made in the King's own
handwriting, of the resources and obligations of his exchequer, a kind of
balance sheet for the, years 1560 and 1561, drawn up much in the same
manner as that in which a simple individual would make a note of his
income and expenditure, gave but a dismal picture of his pecuniary,
condition. It served to show how intelligent a financier is despotism,
and how little available are the resources of a mighty empire when
regarded merely as private property, particularly when the owner chances
to have the vanity of attending to all details himself: "Twenty millions
of ducats," began the memorandum, "will be required to disengage my
revenues. But of this," added the King, with whimsical pathos for an
account-book, "we will not speak at present, as the matter is so entirely
impossible." He then proceeded to enter the various items of expense
which were to be met during the two years; such as so many millions due
to the Fuggers (the Rothschilds of the sixteenth century), so many to
merchants in Flanders, Seville, and other places, so much for Prince
Doria's galleys, so much for three years' pay due to his guards, so much
for his household expenditure, so much for the, tuition of Don Carlos,
and Don Juan d'Austria, so much for salaries of ambassadors and
councillors--mixing personal and state expenses, petty items and great
loans, in one singular jumble, but arriving at a total demand upon his
purse of ten million nine hundred and ninety thousand ducats.
To meet this expenditure he painfully enumerated the funds upon which he
could reckon for the two years. His ordinary rents and taxes being all
deeply pledged, he could only calculate from that source upon two hundred
thousand ducats. The Indian revenue, so called, was nearly spent; still
it might yield him four hundred and twenty thousand ducats. The
quicksilver mines would produce something, but so little as hardly to
require mentioning. As to the other mines, they were equally unworthy of
notice, being so very uncertain, and not doing as well as they were wont.
The licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America were put
down at fifty thousand ducats for the two years. The product of the
"crozada" and "cuarta," or money paid to him in small sums by
individuals, with the permission of his Holiness, for the liberty of
abstaining from the Church fasts, was estimated at five hundred thousand
ducats. These and a few more meagre items only sufficed to stretch his
income to a total of one million three hundred and thirty thousand far
the two years, against an expenditure calculated at near eleven millions.
"Thus, there are nine millions, less three thousand ducats, deficient,"
he concluded ruefully (and making a mistake in his figures in his own
favor of six hundred and sixty-three thousand besides), "which I may look
for in the sky, or try to raise by inventions already exhausted."
Thus, the man who owned all America and half of Europe could only raise a
million ducats a year from his estates. The possessor of all Peru and
Mexico could reckon on "nothing worth mentioning" from his mines, and
derived a precarious income mainly from permissions granted his subjects
to carry on the slave-trade and to eat meat on Fridays. This was
certainly a gloomy condition of affairs for a monarch on the threshold of
a war which was to outlast his own life and that of his children; a war
in which the mere army expenses were to be half a million florins
monthly, in which about seventy per cent. of the annual disbursements was
to be regularly embezzled or appropriated by the hands through which it
passed, and in which for every four men on paper, enrolled and paid for,
only one, according to the average, was brought into the field.
Granvelle, on the other hand, gave his master but little consolation from
the aspect of financial affairs in the provinces. He assured him that
"the government was often in such embarrassment as not to know where to
look for ten ducats." He complained bitterly that the states would
meddle with the administration of money matters, and were slow in the
granting of subsidies. The Cardinal felt especially outraged by the
interference of these bodies with the disbursement of the sums which
they voted. It has been seen that the states had already compelled the
government to withdraw the troops, much to the regret of Granvelle.
They continued, however, to be intractable on the subject of supplies.
"These are very vile things," he wrote to Philip, "this authority which
they assume, this audacity with which they say whatever they think
proper; and these impudent conditions which they affix to every
proposition for subsidies." The Cardinal protested that he had in vain
attempted to convince them of their error, but that they remained
perverse.
It was probably at this time that the plan for debasing the coin,
suggested to Philip some time before by a skilful chemist named Malen,
and always much approved of both by himself and Ruy Gomez, recurred to
his mind. "Another and an extraordinary source of revenue, although
perhaps not a very honorable one," wrote Suriano, "has hitherto been kept
secret; and on account of differences of opinion between the King and his
confessor, has been discontinued." This source of revenue, it seemed,
was found in "a certain powder, of which one ounce mixed with six ounces
of quicksilver would make six ounces of silver." The composition was
said to stand the test of the hammer, but not of the fire. Partly in
consequence of theological scruples and partly on account of opposition
from the states, a project formed by the King to pay his army with this
kind of silver was reluctantly abandoned. The invention, however, was so
very agreeable to the King, and the inventor had received such liberal
rewards, that it was supposed, according to the envoy, that in time of
scarcity his Majesty would make use of such coin without reluctance.
It is necessary, before concluding this chapter, which relates the
events of the years 1560 and 1561, to allude to an important affair
which occupied much attention during the whole of this period. This
is the celebrated marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Princess
Anna of Saxony. By many superficial writers; a moving cause of the great
Netherland revolt was found in the connexion of the great chieftain with
this distinguished Lutheran house. One must have studied the characters
and the times to very little purpose, however, to believe it possible
that much influence could be exerted on the mind of William of Orange by
such natures as those of Anna of Saxony, or of her uncle the Elector
Augustus, surnamed "the Pious."
The Prince had become a widower in 1558, at the age of twenty-five.
Granvelle, who was said to have been influential in arranging his first
marriage, now proposed to him, after the year of mourning had expired,
an alliance with Mademoiselle Renee, daughter of the Duchess de Lorraine,
and granddaughter of Christiern the Third of Denmark, and his wife
Isabella, sister of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Such a connexion,
not only with the royal house of Spain but with that of France--for,
the young Duke of Lorraine, brother of the lady, had espoused the
daughter of Henry the considered highly desirable by the Prince. Philip
and the Duchess Margaret of Parma both approved, or pretended to approve,
the match. At the same time the Dowager Duchess of Lorraine, mother of
the intended bride, was a candidate, and a very urgent one, for the
Regency of the Netherlands. Being a woman of restless ambition, and
intriguing character, she naturally saw in a man of William's station
and talents a most desirable ally in her present and future schemes.
On the other hand, Philip--who had made open protestation of his desire
to connect the Prince thus closely with his own blood, and had warmly
recommended the match to the young lady's mother--soon afterwards, while
walking one day with the Prince in the park at Brussels, announced to him
that the Duchess of Lorraine had declined his proposals. Such a result
astonished the Prince, who was on the best of terms with the mother, and
had been urging her appointment to the Regency with all his-influence,
having entirely withdrawn his own claims to that office. No satisfactory
explanation was ever given of this singular conclusion to a courtship,
begun with the apparent consent of all parties. It was hinted that the
young lady did not fancy the Prince; but, as it was not known that a word
had ever been exchanged between them, as the Prince, in appearance and
reputation, was one of the most brilliant cavaliers of the age, and as
the approval of the bride was not usually a matter of primary consequence
in such marriages of state, the mystery seemed to require a further
solution. The Prince suspected Granvelle and the King, who were believed
to have held mature and secret deliberation together, of insincerity.
The Bishop was said to have expressed the opinion, that although the
friendship he bore the Prince would induce him to urge the marriage,
yet his duty to his master made him think it questionable whether it
were right to advance a personage already placed so high by birth,
wealth, and popularity, still higher by so near an alliance with his
Majesty's family. The King, in consequence, secretly instructed the
Duchess of Lorraine to decline the proposal, while at the same time he
continued openly to advocate the connexion. The Prince is said to have
discovered this double dealing, and to have found in it the only
reasonable explanation of the whole transaction. Moreover, the Duchess
of Lorraine, finding herself equally duped, and her own ambitious scheme
equally foiled by her unscrupulous cousin--who now, to the surprise of
every one, appointed Margaret of Parma to be Regent, with the Bishop for
her prime minister--had as little reason to be satisfied with the
combinations of royal and ecclesiastical intrigue as the Prince of Orange
himself. Soon after this unsatisfactory mystification, William turned
his attentions to Germany. Anna of Saxony, daughter of the celebrated
Elector Maurice, lived at the court of her uncle, the Elector Augustus.
A musket-ball, perhaps a traitorous one, in an obscure action with Albert
of Brandenbourg, had closed the adventurous career of her father seven
years before. The young lady, who was thought to have inherited much of
his restless, stormy character, was sixteen years of age. She was far
from handsome, was somewhat deformed, and limped. Her marriage-portion
was deemed, for the times, an ample one; she had seventy thousand rix
dollars in hand, and the reversion of thirty thousand on the death of
John Frederic the Second, who had married her mother after the death of
Maurice. Her rank was accounted far higher in Germany than that of
William of Nassau, and in this respect, rather than for pecuniary
considerations, the marriage seemed a desirable one for him. The man
who held the great Nassau-Chalons property, together with the heritage
of Count Maximilian de Buren, could hardly have been tempted by 100,000
thalers. His own provision for the children who might spring from the
proposed marriage was to be a settlement of seventy thousand florins
annually. The fortune which permitted of such liberality was not one to
be very materially increased by a dowry which might seem enormous to
many of the pauper princes of Germany. "The bride's portion," says a
contemporary, "after all, scarcely paid for the banquets and magnificent
festivals which celebrated the marriage. When the wedding was paid for,
there was not a thaler remaining of the whole sum." Nothing, then, could
be more puerile than to accuse the Prince of mercenary motives in seeking
this alliance; an accusation, however, which did not fail to be brought.
There were difficulties on both sides to be arranged before this marriage
could take place. The bride was a Lutheran, the Prince was a Catholic.
With regard to the religion of Orange not the slightest doubt existed,
nor was any deception attempted. Granvelle himself gave the most entire
attestation of the Prince's orthodoxy. "This proposed marriage gives me
great pain," he wrote to Philip, "but I have never had reason to suspect
his principles." In another letter he observed that he wished the
marriage could be broken off; but that he hoped so much from the virtue
of the Prince that nothing could suffice to separate him from the true
religion. On the other side there was as little doubt as to his creed.
Old Landgrave Philip of Hesse, grandfather of the young lady, was
bitterly opposed to the match. "'Tis a papist," said he, "who goes to
mass, and eats no meat on fast days." He had no great objection to his
character, but insurmountable ones to his religion. "Old Count William,"
said he, "was an evangelical lord to his dying day. This man is a
papist!" The marriage, then, was to be a mixed marriage. It is
necessary, however, to beware of anachronisms upon the subject.
Lutherans were not yet formally denounced as heretics. On the contrary,
it was exactly at this epoch that the Pope was inviting the Protestant
princes of Germany to the Trent Council, where the schism was to be
closed, and all the erring lambs to be received again into the bosom of
the fold. So far from manifesting an outward hostility, the papal
demeanor was conciliating. The letters of invitation from the Pope to
the princes were sent by a legate, each commencing with the exordium,"
To my beloved son," and were all sent back to his Holiness,
contemptuously, with the coarse jest for answer, "We believe our mothers
to have been honest women, and hope that we had better fathers." The
great council had not yet given its decisions. Marriages were of
continual occurrence, especially among princes and potentates, between
the adherents of Rome and of the new religion. Even Philip had been most
anxious to marry the Protestant Elizabeth, whom, had she been a peasant,
he would unquestionably have burned, if in his power. Throughout
Germany, also, especially in high places, there was a disposition to
cover up the religious controversy; to abstain from disturbing the ashes
where devastation still glowed, and was one day to rekindle itself. It
was exceedingly difficult for any man, from the Archduke Maximilian down,
to define his creed. A marriage, therefore; between a man and woman of
discordant views upon this topic was not startling, although in general
not considered desirable.
There were, however, especial reasons why this alliance should be
distasteful, both to Philip of Spain upon one side, and to the Landgrave
Philip of Hesse on the other. The bride was the daughter of the elector
Maurice. In that one name were concentrated nearly all the disasters,
disgrace, and disappointment of the Emperor's reign. It was Maurice who
had hunted the Emperor through the Tyrolean mountains; it was Maurice who
had compelled the peace of Passau; it was Maurice who had overthrown the
Catholic Church in Germany, it was Maurice who had frustrated Philip's
election as king of the Romans. If William of Orange must seek a wife
among the pagans, could no other bride be found for him than the daughter
of such a man?
Anna's grandfather, on the other hand, Landgrave Philip, was the
celebrated victim to the force and fraud of Charles the Fifth. He saw
in the proposed bridegroom, a youth who had been from childhood, the
petted page and confidant of the hated Emperor, to whom he owed his long
imprisonment. He saw in him too, the intimate friend and ally--for the
brooding quarrels of the state council were not yet patent to the world
--of the still more deeply detested Granvelle; the crafty priest whose
substitution of "einig" for "ewig" had inveigled him into that terrible
captivity. These considerations alone would have made him unfriendly to
the Prince, even had he not been a Catholic.
The Elector Augustus, however, uncle and guardian to the bride, was not
only well-disposed but eager for the marriage, and determined to overcome
all obstacles, including the opposition of the Landgrave, without whose
consent he was long pledged not to bestow the hand of Anna. For this
there were more than one reason. Augustus, who, in the words of one of
the most acute historical critics of our day, was "a Byzantine Emperor of
the lowest class, re-appearing in electoral hat and mantle," was not firm
in his rights to the dignity he held. He had inherited from his brother,
but his brother had dispossessed John Frederic. Maurice, when turning
against the Emperor, who had placed him in his cousin's seat, had not
thought it expedient to restore to the rightful owner the rank which he
himself owed to the violence of Charles. Those claims might be
revindicated, and Augustus be degraded in his turn, by a possible
marriage of the Princess Anna, with some turbulent or intriguing German
potentate. Out of the land she was less likely to give trouble. The
alliance, if not particularly desirable on the score of rank, was, in
other worldly respects, a most brilliant one for his niece. As for the
religious point, if he could overcome or circumvent the scruples of the
Landgrave, he foresaw little difficulty in conquering his own conscience.
The Prince of Orange, it is evident, was placed in such a position, that
it would be difficult for him to satisfy all parties. He intended that
the marriage, like all marriages among persons in high places at that
day, should be upon the "uti possidetis" principle, which was the
foundation of the religious peace of Germany. His wife, after marriage
and removal to the Netherlands, would "live Catholically;" she would be
considered as belonging to the same Church with her husband, was to give
no offence to the government, and bring no suspicion upon himself, by
violating any of the religious decencies. Further than this, William,
who at that day was an easy, indifferent Catholic, averse to papal
persecutions, but almost equally averse to long, puritanical prayers and
faces, taking far more pleasure in worldly matters than in ecclesiastical
controversies, was not disposed to advance in this thorny path. Having a
stern bigot to deal with, in Madrid, and another in Cassel, he soon
convinced himself that he was not likely entirely to satisfy either, and
thought it wiser simply to satisfy himself.
Early in 1560, Count Gunther de Schwartzburg, betrothed to the Prince's
sister Catharine, together with Colonel George Von Holl, were despatched
to Germany to open the marriage negotiations. They found the Elector
Augustus already ripe and anxious for the connexion. It was easy for the
envoys to satisfy all his requirements on the religious question. If, as
the Elector afterwards stated to the Landgrave, they really promised that
the young lady should be allowed to have an evangelical preacher in her
own apartments, together with the befitting sacraments, it is very
certain that they travelled a good way out of their instructions, for
such concessions were steadily refused by William in person. It is,
however, more probable that Augustus, whose slippery feet were disposed
to slide smoothly and swiftly over this dangerous ground, had represented
the Prince's communications under a favorable gloss of his own. At any
rate, nothing in the subsequent proceedings justified the conclusions
thus hastily formed.
The Landgrave Philip, from the beginning, manifested his repugnance to
the match. As soon as the proposition had been received by Augustus,
that potentate despatched Hans yon Carlowitz to the grandfather at
Cassel. The Prince of Orange, it was represented, was young, handsome,
wealthy, a favorite of the Spanish monarch; the Princess Anna, on the
other hand, said her uncle was not likely to grow straighter or better
proportioned in body, nor was her crooked and perverse character likely
to improve with years. It was therefore desirable to find a settlement
for her as soon as possible. The Elector, however, would decide upon
nothing without the Landgrave's consent.
To this frank, and not very flattering statement, so far as the
young lady was concerned, the Landgrave answered stoutly and
characteristically. The Prince was a Spanish subject, he said, and would
not be able to protect Anna in her belief, who would sooner or later
become a fugitive: he was but a Count in Germany, and no fitting match
for an Elector's daughter; moreover, the lady herself ought to be
consulted, who had not even seen the Prince. If she were crooked in
body, as the Elector stated, it was a shame to expose her; to conceal it,
however, was questionable, as the Prince might complain afterwards that a
straight princess had been promised, and a crooked one fraudulently
substituted,--and so on, though a good deal more of such quaint
casuistry, in which the Landgrave was accomplished. The amount of his
answer, however, to the marriage proposal was an unequivocal negative,
from which he never wavered.
In consequence of this opposition, the negotiations were for a time
suspended. Augustus implored the Prince not to abandon the project,
promising that every effort should be made to gain over the Landgrave,
hinting that the old man might "go to his long rest soon," and even
suggesting that if the worst came to the worst, he had bound himself to
do nothing without the knowledge of the Landgrave, but was not obliged to
wait for his consent.
On the other hand, the Prince had communicated to the King of Spain the
fact of the proposed marriage. He had also held many long conversations
with the Regent and with Granvelle. In all these interviews he had
uniformly used one language: his future wife was to "live as a Catholic,"
and if that point were not conceded, he would break off the negotiations.
He did not pretend that she was to abjure her Protestant faith. The
Duchess, in describing to Philip the conditions, as sketched to her by
the Prince, stated expressly that Augustus of Saxony was to consent that
his niece "should live Catholically after the marriage," but that it was
quite improbable that "before the nuptials she would be permitted to
abjure her errors, and receive necessary absolution, according to the
rules of the Church." The Duchess, while stating her full confidence in
the orthodoxy of the Prince, expressed at the same time her fears that
attempts might be made in the future by his new connexions "to pervert
him to their depraved opinions."
A silence of many months ensued on the part of the sovereign, during
which he was going through the laborious process of making up his mind,
or rather of having it made up for him by people a thousand miles off.
In the autumn Granvelle wrote to say that the Prince was very much
surprised to have been kept so long waiting for a definite reply to his
communications, made at the beginning of the year concerning his intended
marriage, and to learn at last that his Majesty had sent no answer, upon
the ground that the match had been broken off; the fact being, that the
negotiations were proceeding more earnestly than ever.
Nothing could be more helpless and more characteristic than the letter
which Philip sent, thus pushed for a decision. "You wrote me," said he,
"that you had hopes that this matter of the Prince's marriage would go
no further, and seeing that you did not write oftener on the subject,
I thought certainly that it had been terminated. This pleased me not a
little, because it was the best thing that could be done. Likewise,"
continued the most tautological of monarchs, "I was much pleased that it
should be done. Nevertheless;" he added, "if the marriage is to be
proceeded with, I really don't know what to say about it, except to refer
it to my sister, inasmuch as a person being upon the spot can see better
what can be done with regard to it; whether it be possible to prevent it,
or whether it be best, if there be no remedy, to give permission. But if
there be a remedy, it would be better to take it, because," concluded the
King, pathetically, "I don't see how the Prince could think of marrying
with the daughter of the man who did to his majesty, now in glory, that
which Duke Maurice did."
Armed with this luminous epistle, which, if it meant any thing, meant a
reluctant affirmation to the demand of the Prince for the royal consent,
the Regent and Granvelle proceeded to summon William of Orange, and to
catechise him in a manner most galling to the pride, and with a latitude
not at all justified by any reasonable interpretation of the royal
instructions. They even informed him that his Majesty had assembled
"certain persons learned in cases of conscience, and versed in theology,"
according to whose advice a final decision, not yet possible, would be
given at some future period. This assembly of learned conscience-keepers
and theologians had no existence save in the imaginations of Granvelle
and Margaret. The King's letter, blind and blundering as it was, gave
the Duchess the right to decide in the affirmative on her own
responsibility; yet fictions like these formed a part of the
"dissimulation," which was accounted profound statesmanship by the
disciples of Machiavelli. The Prince, however irritated, maintained his
steadiness; assured the Regent that the negotiation had advanced too far
to be abandoned, and repeated his assurance that the future Princess of
Orange was to "live as a Catholic."
In December, 1560, William made a visit to Dresden, where he was received
by the Elector with great cordiality. This visit was conclusive as to
the marriage. The appearance and accomplishments of the distinguished
suitor made a profound impression upon the lady. Her heart was carried
by storm. Finding, or fancying herself very desperately enamored of the
proposed bridegroom, she soon manifested as much eagerness for the
marriage as did her uncle, and expressed herself frequently with the
violence which belonged to her character. "What God had decreed," she
said, "the Devil should not hinder."
The Prince was said to have exhibited much diligence in his attention
to the services of the Protestant Church during his visit at Dreaden.
As that visit lasted, however, but ten or eleven days, there was no great
opportunity for shewing much zeal.
At the same period one William Knuttel was despatched by Orange on the
forlorn hope of gaining the old Landgrave's consent, without making any
vital concessions. "Will the Prince," asked the Landgrave, "permit my
granddaughter to have an evangelical preacher in the house?"--"No,"
answered Knuttel. "May she at least receive the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper in her own chamber, according to the Lutheran form?"--" No,"
answered Knuttel, "neither in Breda, nor any where else in the
Netherlands. If she imperatively requires such sacraments, she must
go over the border for them, to the nearest Protestant sovereign."
Upon the 14th April, 1561, the Elector, returning to the charge, caused a
little note to be drawn up on the religious point, which he forwarded, in
the hope that the Prince would copy and sign it. He added a promise that
the memorandum should never be made public to the signer's disadvantage.
At the same time he observed to Count Louis, verbally, "that he had been
satisfied with the declarations made by the Prince when in Dresden, upon
all points, except that concerning religion. He therefore felt obliged
to beg for a little agreement in writing. "By no means! by no means!"
interrupted Louis promptly, at the very first word, "the Prince can give
your electoral highness no such assurance. 'T would be risking life,
honor, and fortune to do so, as your grace is well aware. The Elector
protested that the declaration, if signed, should never come into the
Spanish monarch's hands, and insisted upon sending it to the Prince.
Louis, in a letter to his brother, characterized the document as
"singular, prolix and artful," and strongly advised the Prince to have
nothing to do with it.
This note, which the Prince was thus requested to sign, and which his
brother Louis thus strenuously advised him not to sign, the Prince never
did sign. Its tenor was to the following effect:--The Princess, after
marriage, was, neither by menace nor persuasion; to be turned from the
true and pure Word of God, or the use of the sacrament according to the
doctrines of the Augsburg Confession. The Prince was to allow her to
read books written in accordance with the Augsburg Confession. The
prince was to permit her, as often, annually, as she required it, to go
out of the Netherlands to some place where she could receive the
sacrament according to the Augsburg Confession. In case she were in
sickness or perils of childbirth, the Prince, if necessary, would call
to her an evangelical preacher, who might administer to her the holy
sacrament in her chamber. The children who might spring from the
marriage were to be instructed as to the doctrines of the Augsburg
Confession.
Even if executed, this celebrated memorandum would hardly have been
at variance with the declarations made by the Prince to the Spanish
government. He had never pretended that his bride was to become a
Catholic, but only to live as a Catholic. All that he had promised,
or was expected to promise, was that his wife should conform to the law
in the Netherlands. The paper, in a general way, recognized that law.
In case of absolute necessity, however, it was stipulated that the
Princess should have the advantage of private sacraments. This certainly
would have been a mortal offence in a Calvinist or Anabaptist, but for
Lutherans the practise had never been so strict. Moreover, the Prince
already repudiated the doctrines of the edicts, and rebelled against the
command to administer them within his government. A general promise,
therefore, made by him privately, in the sense of the memorandum drawn up
by the Elector, would have been neither hypocritical nor deceitful, but
worthy the man who looked over such grovelling heads as Granvelle and
Philip on the one side, or Augustus of Saxony on the other, and estimated
their religious pretences at exactly what they were worth. A formal
document, however, technically according all these demands made by the
Elector, would certainly be regarded by the Spanish government as a very
culpable instrument. The Prince never signed the note, but, as we shall
have occasion to state in its proper place, he gave a verbal declaration,
favorable to its tenor, but in very vague and brief terms, before a
notary, on the day of the marriage.
If the reader be of opinion that too much time has been expended upon the
elucidation of this point, he should remember that the character of a
great and good man is too precious a possession of history to be lightly
abandoned. It is of no great consequence to ascertain the precise creed
of Augustus of Saxony, or of his niece; it is of comparatively little
moment to fix the point at which William of Orange ceased to be an
honest, but liberal Catholic, and opened his heart to the light of the
Reformation; but it is of very grave interest that his name should be
cleared of the charge of deliberate fraud and hypocrisy. It has
therefore been thought necessary to prove conclusively that the Prince
never gave, in Dresden or Cassel, any assurance inconsistent with his
assertions to King and Cardinal. The whole tone of his language and
demeanor on the religious subject was exhibited in his reply to the
Electress, who, immediately after the marriage, entreated that he would
not pervert her niece from the paths of the true religion. "She shall
not be troubled," said the Prince, "with such melancholy things. Instead
of holy writ she shall read 'Amadis de Gaule,' and such books of pastime
which discourse de amore; and instead of knitting and sewing she shall
learn to dance a galdiarde, and such courtoisies as are the mode of our
country and suitable to her rank."
The reply was careless, flippant, almost contemptuous. It is very
certain that William of Orange was not yet the "father William" he was
destined to become--grave, self-sacrificing, deeply religious, heroic;
but it was equally evident from this language that he had small sympathy,
either in public or private, with Lutheranism or theological controversy.
Landgrave William was not far from right when he added, in his quaint
style, after recalling this well-known reply, "Your grace will observe,
therefore, that when the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will
play."
So great was the excitement at the little court of Cassel, that many
Protestant princes and nobles declared that "they would sooner give their
daughters to a boor or a swineherd than to a Papist: The Landgrave was
equally vigorous in his protest, drawn up in due form on the 26th April,
1561. He was not used, he said, "to flatter or to tickle with a
foxtail." He was sorry if his language gave offense, nevertheless "the
marriage was odious, and that was enough." He had no especial objection
to the Prince, "who before the world was a brave and honorable man:' He
conceded that his estates were large, although he hinted that his debts
also were ample; allowed that he lived in magnificent style, had even
heard "of one of his banquets, where all the table-cloths, plates, and
every thing else, were made of sugar," but thought he might be even a
little too extravagant; concluding, after a good deal of skimble-skamble
of this nature, with "protesting before God, the world, and all pious
Christians, that he was not responsible for the marriage, but only the
Elector Augustus and others, who therefore would one day have to render
account thereof to the Lord."
Meantime the wedding had been fixed to take place on Sunday, the 24th
August, 1561. This was St. Bartholomew's, a nuptial day which was not
destined to be a happy one in the sixteenth century. The Landgrave and
his family declined to be present at the wedding, but a large and
brilliant company were invited. The King of Spain sent a bill of
exchange to the Regent, that she might purchase a ring worth three
thousand crowns, as a present on his part to the bride. Beside this
liberal evidence that his opposition to the marriage was withdrawn, he
authorized his sister to appoint envoys from among the most distinguished
nobles to represent him on the occasion. The Baron de Montigny,
accordingly, with a brilliant company of gentlemen, was deputed by
the Duchess, although she declined sending all the governors of the
provinces, according to the request of the Prince. The marriage was
to take place at Leipsic. A slight picture of the wedding festivities,
derived entirely from unpublished sources, may give some insight into the
manners and customs of high life in Germany and the Netherlands at this
epoch.
The Kings of Spain and Denmark were invited, and were represented by
special ambassadors. The Dukes of Brunswick, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg, the
Elector and Margraves of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Cologne, the Duke
of Cleves, the Bishops of Naumburg, Meneburg, Meissen, with many other
potentates, accepted the invitations, and came generally in person, a few
only being represented by envoys. The town councils of Erfurt, Leipsic,
Magdeburg, and other cities, were also bidden. The bridegroom was
personally accompanied by his brothers John, Adolphus, and Louis; by the
Burens, the Leuchtenbergs, and various other distinguished personages.
As the electoral residence at Leipsic was not completely finished,
separate dwellings were arranged for each of the sovereign families
invited, in private houses, mostly on the market-place. Here they were
to be furnished with provisions by the Elector's officials, but they were
to cook for themselves. For this purpose all the princes had been
requested to bring their own cooks and butlers, together with their plate
and kitchen utensils. The sovereigns themselves were to dine daily with
the Elector at the town-house, but the attendants and suite were to take
their meals in their own lodgings. A brilliant collection of gentlemen
and pages, appointed by the Elector to wait at his table, were ordered to
assemble at Leipsic on the 22d, the guests having been all invited for
the 23d. Many regulations were given to these noble youths, that they
might discharge their duties with befitting decorum. Among other orders,
they received particular injunctions that they were to abstain from all
drinking among themselves, and from all riotous conduct whatever, while
the sovereigns and potentates should be at dinner. "It would be a
shameful indecency," it was urged, "if the great people sitting at table
should be unable to hear themselves talk on account of the screaming of
the attendants." This provision did not seem unreasonable. They were
also instructed that if invited to drink by any personage at the great
tables they were respectfully to decline the challenge, and to explain
the cause after the repast.
Particular arrangements were also made for the safety of the city.
Besides the regular guard of Leipsic, two hundred and twenty
arquebuseers, spearsmen, and halberdmen, were ordered from the
neighboring towns. These were to be all dressed in uniform; one arm,
side and leg in black, and the other in yellow, according to a painting
distributed beforehand to the various authorities. As a mounted patrole,
Leipsic had a regular force of two men. These were now increased to ten,
and received orders to ride with their lanterns up and down all the
streets and lanes, to accost all persons whom they might find abroad
without lights in their hands, to ask them their business in courteous
language, and at the same time to see generally to the peace and safety
of the town.
Fifty arquebuseers were appointed to protect the town-house, and a
burgher watch of six hundred was distributed in different quarters,
especially to guard against fire.
On Saturday, the day before the wedding, the guests had all arrived at
Leipsic, and the Prince of Orange, with his friends, at Meneburg.
On Sunday, the 24th August, the Elector at the head of his guests and
attendants, in splendid array, rode forth to receive the bridegroom.
His cavalcade numbered four thousand. William of Orange had arrived,
accompanied by one thousand mounted men. The whole troop now entered the
city together, escorting the Prince to the town-house. Here he
dismounted, and was received on the staircase by the Princess Anna,
attended by her ladies. She immediately afterwards withdrew to her
apartments.
It was at this point, between 4 and 5 P.M., that the Elector and
Electress, with the bride and bridegroom, accompanied also by the Dame
Sophia von Miltitz and the Councillors Hans von Ponika and Ubrich
Woltersdorff upon one side, and by Count John of Nassau and Heinrich von
Wiltberg upon the other, as witnesses, appeared before Wolf Seidel,
notary, in a corner room of the upper story of the town-house.
One of the councillors, on the part of the Elector, then addressed
the bridegroom. He observed that his highness would remember, no doubt,
the contents of a memorandum or billet, sent by the Elector on the 14th
April of that year, by the terms of which the Prince was to agree that he
would, neither by threat nor persuasion, prevent his future wife from
continuing in the Augsburg Confession; that he would allow her to go to
places where she might receive the Augsburg sacraments; that in case of
extreme need she should receive them in her chamber; and that the
children who might spring from the marriage should be instructed as to
the Augsburg doctrines. As, however, continued the councillor, his
highness the Prince of Orange has, for various reasons, declined giving
any such agreement in writing, as therefore it had been arranged that
before the marriage ceremony the Prince should, in the presence of the
bride and of the other witnesses, make a verbal promise on the subject,
and as the parties were now to be immediately united in marriage,
therefore the Elector had no doubt that the Prince would make no
objection in presence of those witnesses to give his consent to maintain
the agreements comprised in the memorandum or note. The note was then
read. Thereupon, the Prince answered verbally. "Gracious Elector;
I remember the writing which you sent me on the 14th April. All the
point: just narrated by the Doctor were contained in it. I now state to
your highness that I will keep it all as becomes a prince, and conform to
it." Thereupon he gave the Elector his hand.--
What now was the amount and meaning of this promise on the part of the
Prince? Almost nothing. He would conform to the demands of the Elector,
exactly as he had hitherto said he would conform to them. Taken in
connexion with his steady objections to sign and seal any instrument on
the subject--with his distinct refusal to the Landgrave (through Knuttel)
to allow the Princess an evangelical preacher or to receive the
sacraments in the Netherlands--with the vehement, formal, and public
protest, on the part of the Landgrave, against the marriage--with the
Prince's declarations to the Elector at Dresden, which were satisfactory
on all points save the religious point,--what meaning could this verbal
promise have, save that the Prince would do exactly as much with regard
to the religious question as he had always promised, and no more? This
was precisely what did happen. There was no pretence on the part of the
Elector, afterwards, that any other arrangement had been contemplated.
The Princess lived catholically from the moment of her marriage, exactly
as Orange had stated to the Duchess Margaret, and as the Elector knew
would be the case. The first and the following children born of the
marriage were baptized by Catholic priests, with very elaborate Catholic
ceremonies, and this with the full consent of the Elector, who sent
deputies and officiated as sponsor on one remarkable occasion.
Who, of all those guileless lambs then, Philip of Spain, the Elector of
Saxony, or Cardinal Granvelle, had been deceived by the language or
actions of the Prince? Not one. It may be boldly asserted that the
Prince, placed in a transition epoch, both of the age and of his own
character, surrounded by the most artful and intriguing personages known
to history, and involved in a network of most intricate and difficult
circumstances, acquitted himself in a manner as honorable as it was
prudent. It is difficult to regard the notarial instrument otherwise
than as a memorandum, filed rather by Augustus than by wise William, in
order to put upon record for his own justification, his repeated though
unsuccessful efforts to procure from the Prince a regularly signed,
sealed, and holographic act, upon the points stated in the famous note.
After the delay occasioned by these private formalities, the bridal
procession, headed by the court musicians, followed by the court
marshals, councillors, great officers of state, and the electoral family,
entered the grand hall of the town-house. The nuptial ceremony was
then performed by "the Superintendent Doctor Pfeffinger." Immediately
afterwards, and in the same hall, the bride and bridegroom were placed
publicly upon a splendid, gilded bed, with gold-embroidered curtains,
the Princess being conducted thither by the Elector and Electress.
Confects and spiced drinks were then served to them and to the assembled
company. After this ceremony they were conducted to their separate
chambers, to dress for dinner. Before they left the hall, however,
Margrave Hans of Brandenburg, on part of the Elector of Saxony, solemnly
recommended the bride to her husband, exhorting him to cherish her with
faith and affection, and "to leave her undisturbed in the recognized
truth of the holy gospel and the right use of the sacraments."
Five round tables were laid in the same hall immediately afterwards--
each accommodating ten guests. As soon as the first course of twenty-
five dishes had been put upon the chief table, the bride and bridegroom,
the Elector and Electress, the Spanish and Danish envoys and others, were
escorted to it, and the banquet began. During the repast, the Elector's
choir and all the other bands discoursed the "merriest and most ingenious
music." The noble vassals handed the water, the napkins, and the wine,
and every thing was conducted decorously and appropriately. As soon as
the dinner was brought to a close, the tables were cleared away, and the
ball began in the same apartment. Dances, previously arranged, were
performed, after which "confects and drinks" were again distributed, and
the bridal pair were then conducted to the nuptial chamber.
The wedding, according to the Lutheran custom of the epoch, had thus
taken place not in a church, but in a private dwelling; the hall of the
town-house, representing, on this occasion, the Elector's own saloons.
On the following morning, however, a procession was formed at seven
o'clock to conduct the newly-married couple to the church of St.
Nicholas, there to receive an additional exhortation and benediction.
Two separate companies of gentlemen, attended by a great number of
"fifers, drummers, and trumpeters," escorted the bride and the
bridegroom," twelve counts wearing each a scarf of the Princess Anna's
colors, with golden garlands on their heads and lighted torches in their
hands," preceding her to the choir, where seats had been provided for the
more illustrious portion of the company. The church had been
magnificently decked in tapestry, and, as the company entered, a full
orchestra performed several fine motettos. After listening to a long
address from Dr. Pfeffinger, and receiving a blessing before the altar,
the Prince and Princess of Orange returned, with their attendant
processions, to the town-house.
After dinner, upon the same and the three following days, a tournament
was held. The lists were on the market-place, on the side nearest the
town-house; the Electress and the other ladies looking down from balcony
and window to "rain influence and adjudge the prize." The chief hero of
these jousts, according to the accounts in the Archives, was the Elector
of Saxony. He "comported himself with such especial chivalry" that his
far-famed namesake and remote successor, Augustus the Strong, could
hardly have evinced more knightly prowess. On the first day he
encountered George Von Wiedebach, and unhorsed him so handsomely that the
discomfited cavalier's shoulder was dislocated. On the following day he
tilted with Michael von Denstedt, and was again victorious, hitting his
adversary full in the target, and "bearing him off over his horse's tail
so neatly, that the knight came down, heels over head, upon the earth."
On Wednesday, there was what was called the palliatourney. The Prince of
Orange, at the head of six bands, amounting in all to twenty-nine men;
the Margrave George of Brandenburg, with seven bands, comprising thirty-
four men, and the Elector Augustus, with one band of four men, besides
himself, all entered the lists. Lots were drawn for the "gate of honor,"
and gained by the Margrave, who accordingly defended it with his band.
Twenty courses were then run between these champions and the Prince of
Orange, with his men. The Brandenburgs broke seven lances, the Prince's
party only six, so that Orange was obliged to leave the lists
discomfited. The ever-victorious Augustus then took the field, and ran
twenty courses against the defenders, breaking fourteen spears to the
Brandenburg's ten. The Margrave, thus defeated, surrendered the "gate of
honor" to the Elector, who maintained, it the rest of the day against all
comers. It is fair to suppose, although the fact is not recorded, that
the Elector's original band had received some reinforcement. Otherwise,
it would be difficult to account for these constant victories, except by
ascribing more than mortal strength, as well as valor, to Augustus and
his four champions. His party broke one hundred and fifty-six lances, of
which number the Elector himself broke thirty-eight and a half. He
received the first prize, but declined other guerdons adjudged to him.
The reward for the hardest hitting was conferred on Wolf Von Schonberg,
"who thrust Kurt Von Arnim clean out of the saddle, so that he fell
against the barriers."
On Thursday was the riding at the ring. The knights who partook of this
sport wore various strange garbs over their armor. Some were disguised
as hussars, some as miners, come as lansquenettes; others as Tartans,
pilgrims, fools, bird-catchers, hunters, monks; peasants, or Netherland
cuirassiers. Each party was attended by a party of musicians, attired in
similar costume. Moreover, Count Gunter Yon Schwartzburg made, his
appearance in the lists, accompanied "by five remarkable giants of
wonderful proportions and appearance, very ludicrous to behold, who
performed all kind of odd antics on horseback."
The next day there was a foot tourney, followed in the evening by
"mummeries," or masquerades. These masques were repeated on the
following evening, and afforded great entertainment. The costumes were
magnificent, "with golden and pearl embroidery," the dances were very
merry and artistic, and the musicians, who formed a part of the company,
exhibited remarkable talent. These "mummeries" had been brought by
William of Orange from the Netherlands, at the express request of the
Elector, on the ground that such matters were much better understood in
the provinces than in Germany.
Such is a slight sketch of the revels by which this ill-fated Bartholomew
marriage was celebrated. While William of Orange was thus employed in
Germany, Granvelle seized the opportunity to make his entry into the city
of Mechlin, as archbishop; believing that such a step would be better
accomplished in the absence of the Prince from the country. The Cardinal
found no one in the city to welcome him. None of the great nobles were
there. "The people looked upon the procession with silent hatred. No
man cried, God bless him." He wrote to the King that he should push
forward the whole matter of the bishoprics as fast as possible, adding
the ridiculous assertion that the opposition came entirely from the
nobility, and that "if the seigniors did not talk so much, not a man of
the people would open his mouth on the subject."
The remonstrance offered by the three estates of Brabant against the
scheme had not influenced Philip. He had replied in a peremptory tone.
He had assured them that he had no intention of receding, and that the
province of Brabant ought to feel itself indebted to him for having given
them prelates instead of abbots to take care of their eternal interests,
and for having erected their religious houses into episcopates. The
abbeys made what resistance they could, but were soon fain to come to a
compromise with the bishops, who, according to the arrangement thus made,
were to receive a certain portion of the abbey revenues, while the
remainder was to belong to the institutions, together with a continuance
of their right to elect their own chiefs, subordinate, however, to the
approbation of the respective prelates of the diocese. Thus was the
episcopal matter settled in Brabant. In many of the other bishoprics the
new dignitaries were treated with disrespect, as they made their entrance
into their cities, while they experienced endless opposition and
annoyance on attempting to take possession of the revenue assigned to
them.
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