232

WILLIAM DECLARED STADHOLDER.

[BOOK III. assisted the patriots in the Netherlands with money, while Philip fomented sedition and conspiracy in England. The aggressions of the water Gueux, however, became at length so daring, and the remonstrances of the Spanish government so loud, that, in March 1572, Elizabeth found herself obliged to issue an order forbidding her subjects to supply the Dutch pirates with provisions. This event may be said incidentally to have occasioned the foundation of the Dutch Republic. De la Marck, one of the chief leaders of the water Gueux, finding himself obliged to leave England, sailed with twenty-four vessels to Voorne, the northernmost island of Zealand, and succeeded in seizing Briel, its capital, which, with its fortified harbour, now became the stronghold of these pirates. Hence the revolt gradually spread to other towns and provinces. The isle of Walcheren, and then Enkhuizen, the key of the Zuyder Zee, threw off the Spanish yoke; and their example was soon followed by Oudewater, Dort, Haarlem, Leyden, Gorcum, Gouda, Medenblik, Alkmaar, and other places, as well as by many towns in Utrecht, Guelderland, and Overyssel. The Prince of Orange summoned deputies from the nobles and twelve principal cities of Holland to meet at Dort, July 15th 1572. Amsterdam and Rotterdam, being still in possession of the Spaniards, could not comply with this requisition, but deputies from eight of the cities appeared, and the States thus constituted declared that they recognised William as Philip's lawful Stadholder in Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht, and that they would use their influence with the other provinces to procure his appointment as Protector of all the Netherlands during the King's absence. The revolt was assisted by the talents of Ste. Aldegonde, whose ode of Wilhelmus van Nassouwe, the Dutch Marseillaise, has remained the national air. At the same time he published his Byenkorf (Beehive), a satire on the Romish Church, in the manner of Ulrich von Hutten.

In these alarming circumstances, Philip thought it prudent to try a change of policy. The bow, drawn too tightly, had snapped in his hands, and he was therefore disposed for a while to relax his coercive policy. He was further embarrassed at this period by an empty exchequer and by the attitude assumed by the French Court, which, as we have related in the preceding chapter, seemed heartily to have embraced the cause of the Flemish Calvinists. The mere sojourn of Coligni at Paris, and the expectations which resulted from it, gave an immense moral force to the patriot party in Belgium. Louis of Nassau, with the aid of a body of French Hugonots headed by La Noue, had succeeded in seizing Valen

CHAP. VII.]

SURRENDER OF MONS.

253

ciennes and Mons (May 1572); a diversion which had disabled Alva from immediately attending to the revolt in Holland. While Alva was employed in besieging Louis in Mons, the Prince of Orange appeared on the Meuse with an army levied in Germany, captured Ruremonde and Louvain, obtained possession of Mechlin through the mediation of the Lord of Dorp, and advanced to the relief of Mons by Dendermonde and Oudenarde, which he took. Abandoned by his master, oppressed by the difficulties which surrounded him, Alva had completely lost his head and taken to consulting the necromancers.44 The capture of John Hengest, Lord of Genlis, and a body of Hugonots with whom he was marching to the relief of Mons (July 19th), who, as we have already related, were betrayed by the French Court, somewhat improved the prospects of Alva.

It was September ere Orange arrived before Mons, and his hopes of assistance from France had now been completely frustrated by the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the change of policy on the part of the French Court. While he lay encamped at Hermigny, near Mons, William was nearly seized in his tent on the night of September 11th by a camisade of the Spaniards. His guards had fallen asleep; but he was alarmed by a little spaniel which always passed the night on his bed. He had barely time to escape. His master of the horse, his two secretaries, and some of his servants were cut down, his tents burnt, and 600 of his men killed, while the Spaniards suffered a loss of only sixty. As William was ill provided with funds for the payment of his troops, who had already begun to murmur, his only resource was an immediate action, which, however, Alva carefully avoided; and the Prince was at length compelled to retreat 45 by Nivelles, Mechlin, and Orsoy. On crossing the Rhine he disbanded his troops, who had shown symptoms of open mutiny. After his departure, his brother Louis obtained an honourable capitulation from Alva (September 20th), who had begun to despair of reducing Mons, and agreed that all the soldiers and volunteers who had borne arms during the siege should be dismissed with the honours of war. La Noue and his band of Hugonots retired into France. La Noue was received with distinction by Charles IX., and afterwards employed by him in nego

Ce

44 "Le duc d'Albe est désespéré. On a mandé son fils. Son secrétaire n'ose pas rester seul avec lui; à chaque nouvelle on dirait qu'il va rendre l'âme. qui me déplait, c'est qu'il écoute les devins, la nécromancie."-Letter of Morillon, ap. Michelet, Guerres de Rel. p. 408.

45 He was followed by an assassin, one Heist, a German, hired by the Duke of Alva, who, however, found no opportunity to take his life. Letter of Mondoucet to Charles IX., ap. Motley, Dutch Rep. vol. ii. p. 399.

254

PERFIDY OF CHARLES IX.

[ВооK III.. ciating with the Hugonots in La Rochelle; but the soldiers who came with him appear to have been put to death.46 With a horrible perfidy, Charles IX., after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, had instructed Mondoucet, his envoy in the Netherlands, to urge upon Alva the necessity of putting to the sword, as rebels to the crown of France, all the French prisoners whom he had made, or might capture in Mons, although they had been despatched into the Netherlands with Charles's sanction. "If he tells you," said Charles, "that this is tacitly requiring him to put to death all the French prisoners now in hand (Genlis and his companions), as well as to cut to pieces every man in Mons, you will say to him that this is exactly what ought to be done, and that he will be guilty of a great wrong to Christianity if he does otherwise." 47 Yet at the same time he instructed Mondoucet to maintain the closest but most secret intelligence with the Prince of Orange, taking care that Alva should know nothing of it. To the slaughter of the French Philip of course cordially agreed, and in a letter to Alva added this postscript with his own hand: "I desire that if you have not already rid the world of them, you will do it immediately, and inform me thereof, for I see no reason why it should be deferred." 48 Genlis and his companions accordingly fell victims; though Alva, finding Mons a tougher morsel than he had thought, was obliged to dismiss the garrison. The commonly received opinion that Alva faithfully observed the capitulation, seems to be erroneous.49 Many of the volunteers who had lingered behind were put to death; a Commission of Tumults, like that at Brussels, was erected by Noircarmes, and for nearly a year executions went on by beheading, hanging, or burning alive. The fall of Mons involved that of the other towns of Brabant and Flanders, and put an end to the temporary revolution of the southern provinces. Alva determined to make an example of Mechlin, where neither man, woman, nor child was spared.

Orange ultimately retired into Holland, where the revolt had been completely successful. We have already adverted to some symptoms of a milder policy on the part of Philip. He contemplated superseding Alva by the Duke of Medina Celi, which nobleman had been despatched with a fleet to reduce the Beggars of the Sea on the coasts of Flanders. But the Duke's fleet, consisting of fifty large ships, was useless in those shallow waters; the rebels, who

46"To gratify the King of Spain, those 800 that came from Mons were put to the sword."-Walsingham, Oct. 8th, in Digges,

p. 269.

47 Letter to Mondoucet, discovered by Emile Gachet in the library at Rheims,

ap. Motley, Dutch Rep. vol. ii. p. 395.

48 Letter of Philip, 18th Sept. 1572, published by M. Gachard in Particu larités inédites sur la Saint-Barthélemi, Ibid. p. 391.

19 Ibid. 403.

CHAP. VII.]

CRUELTIES AT ZUTPHEN AND NAARDEN.

255

had three times the number of small vessels, completely worsted him, and he was glad to save a remnant of his fleet in Sluys. He saw how difficult under present circumstances would be the government of the Netherlands, and he declined to relieve Alva from the responsibilities which he had himself created, though he assisted that commander with his presence at Mons. During William's absence, the revolt in Holland had been conducted by his deputy Stadholder, Sonoy; while in Gelderland, Friesland, and Utrecht, it was organised by Count von Bay, who had married a sister of the Prince's. When Orange appeared in Holland he was formally recognised as Stadholder, and a council of state was assigned him to conduct the government. He soon afterwards obtained possession of Gertruydenberg.

Soon after the capture of Mons, Alva returned to Brussels and left the conduct of the war to his son, Frederick de Toledo. Zutphen and Naarden successively yielded to Frederick's arms, and became the scenes of the most detestable violence. Alva ordered his son not to leave a single man alive in Zutphen, and to burn down all the houses,― commands which were almost literally obeyed. The treatment of Naarden was still more revolting. The town had capitulated, and Don Julian Romero, an officer of Don Frederick's, had pledged his word that the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected. Romero then entered the town with some 500 musketeers, for whom the citizens provided a sumptuous feast; and he summoned the inhabitants to assemble in the Gast Huis church, then used as a town hall. More than 500 of them had entered the church when a priest suddenly rushing in, bade them prepare for death. Scarcely had the announcement been made when a band of Spanish soldiers entered, and, after discharging a volley into the defenceless crowd, attacked them sword in hand. The church was then fired, and the dead and dying consumed together. But these cruelties only steeled the Hollanders to a more obstinate resistance; nor must it be concealed that in these plusquam civilia bella, where civil hatred was still further embittered by sectarian malignancy, the Dutch sometimes displayed as much savageness as their adversaries. Thus, during the struggle in Zealand, a surgeon at Veer cut out the heart of a Spanish prisoner, and, fixing it on the prow of a vessel, invited his fellow-townsmen to fix their teeth in it, an invitation with which many complied.50

so Motley, Ibid. vol. ii. p. 366. This barbarous act is perhaps more than paralleled by one of Alva's; who, two or three years after the capture of Briel, caused a

nobleman named Uitenhove, who had assisted in the capture, to be roasted alive at a slow fire. Brandt, Hist. of Ref. B. x. (vol. i. p. 306, ed. 1720).

256

SIEGE OF HAARLEM.

[Book III.

In

The war was continued during the winter (1572-73). December the Spaniards marched to attack a fleet frozen up near Amsterdam. It was defended by a body of Dutch musketeers on skates, who, by the superior skill of their evolutions, drove the enemy back and killed great numbers of them. In consequence of this extraordinary combat, Alva ordered 7000 pairs of skates, and directed his soldiers to be instructed in their use. Siege was then laid to Haarlem, which town, warned by the fate of Zutphen and Naarden, made a defence that astonished all Europe. A corps of 300 respectable women, armed with musket, sword, and dagger, and led by Kenan Hasselaer, a widow lady of distinguished family, about forty-seven years of age, enrolled themselves among its defenders, and partook in some of the most fiercely contested actions. Battles took place upon Haarlem lake, on which the Prince of Orange had more than 100 sail of various kinds; till at length Bossu, whose vessels were larger, though less numerous, entirely defeated the Hollanders, and swept the lake in triumph (May 28th 1573). The siege had lasted seven months, and Frederick de Toledo, who had lost a great part of his army by hunger, cold, and pestilence, was inclined to abandon the enterprise; but he was kept to it by the threats of his father, and on the 12th of July Haarlem surrendered. Don Frederick had written a letter solemnly assuring the besieged that no punishment should be inflicted except on those who deserved it in the opinion of the citizens themselves; yet he was in possession of strict orders from his father to put to death the whole garrison, except the Germans, and also to execute a large number of the inhabitants. Between 2000 and 3000 were slaughtered; 300 were drowned in the lake tied by twos back to back.

The resistance of Haarlem and other places determined Alva to try what might be done by an affectation of clemency; and on the 26th of July he issued a proclamation in which Philip was compared to a hen gathering its chickens under the parental wing. But in the same breath his subjects were admonished not to excite his rage, cruelty, and fury; and they were threatened that if his gracious offers of mercy were neglected, his Majesty would strip bare and utterly depopulate the land, and cause it to be again inhabited by strangers. So ludicrous a specimen of paternal love was not calculated to excite much confidence in the breasts of the Hollanders; and Alkmaar, the next town to which Don Frederick laid siege, though defended only by 800 soldiers and 1300 citizens against 16,000 veterans, also resolved to hold out to the last ex

51

31 Motley, Dutch Rep. vol. ii. p. 460.