Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/278

 266 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY In the Netherlands also the question had two aspects. The north-eastern group of the states over which Philip of Spain 3. The ruled had embraced the Calvinistic Protestantism ; Netherlands, the south-western group were in the main strongly Catholic. Philip's resolution to stamp out heresy was a griev- ance only in the Protestant states. But Philip was no less determined to enforce his own system of a centralised govern- ment in the hands of Spanish officials, and this was an alien tyranny in the eyes of all Netherlander alike. The Catholic nobles themselves viewed with extreme disfavour, as an encroach- ment upon their own jurisdiction, the power of the ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition, which had been instituted here as elsewhere for the suppression of heresy. Fierce popular insurrections took place, and while the nobles were anxious to keep these in check they were equally anxious to preserve their own traditional liberties. Their leaders were the Catholic Count Egmont and the Calvinist Prince William of Orange and Nassau, whose best-known title is taken from a principality in the south of France. Philip entrusted the govern- ^ ment of the Netherlands to the Duke of Alva, who established a bloodthirsty military tyranny; and, besides carrying on a savage religious persecution, imposed intolerable financial burdens on Catholics as well as Protestants, and executed the popular Count Egmont. Even the Emperor Maximilian II., Ferdinand's successor, protested in vain. The Netherlands rose in revolt, but Alva was too strong, and instituted a reign of terror which seemed to crush out all resistance. But it also bade fair to crush out all prosperity. Again the Netherlands rose in revolt in 1572, and maintained the struggle until, nearly forty years later, the northern provinces achieved their independence. Meanwhile there had been in France two civil wars of religion and two pacifications. The first contest was terminated by the 4. France : Peace of Amboise, which granted a considerable Wars of degree of toleration to the Huguenots. But a meet- Religion. - ng b etween Catherine de Medici and Alva gave rise to a belief that the two were agreed upon a general destruc- tion of the reformed religion. Again war broke out, and again it was terminated by a treaty confirming the Peace of Amboise.