Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/87

75 STRUGGLE WITH SPAIN.] HOLLA N D 75 i ;ins. I.e duke &amp;lt; Alva. rrest of id orn. illiam Orange .tlawed. Capture )f Briel. and capture the chief men, and so to break up the con federacy. Hereon Orange withdrew into. Holland ; Horn, in moody opposition, conscious of his integrity, retired to his country house ; while Egmont still hovered, a bright flatterer, round the fatal taper of the court. The con federacy was in fact broken up ; and Margaret saw with satisfaction a considerable body of German mercenaries enter the provinces to inflict punishment, in all its ghastliest and most brutal forms, on the iconoclasts. In 1567 it came to blows : the undisciplined rabble of Calvinists, who tried to raise the siege of Valenciennes, were cut to pieces by the troops of Egmont and other loyal nobles. William of Ormge withdrew to Nassau, after vainly warning Egrnont of the imminent peril which he ran. In spite of Margaret, who assured Philip that the heretics were completely pat down, and their worship abolished, and that consequently there was no need of an army, and that on the contrary the time for mercy had come, the plan for the utter subjugation of the provinces was adhered to, and the duke of Alva, alreidy famous for his harshness and bigotry, was named commander of the forces, with almost unlimited powers. He set forth in May 1567, and all hopes of peace or mercy fled before him. There was a great and desperate exodus of the inhabitants ; thousands took refuge in England, Germany, and Denmark, carrying with them, it was thought, the last relics of their faith and party. The nobles confederacy had already been broken up ; now the popular movement was dispersed, despair and helplessness alone remained to greet the cold Spaniard and his train of orthodox executioners. He entered the Netherlands with about 20,000 men, all tried troops, ready for any cruelties. Their weakness lay in the fact that they were after all mere mercenaries, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, and as such ever ready for a mutiny, if pay fell short, or if there were none to plunder. Egmont and Horn were arrested at once ; the Council of Troubles the &quot;Blood-tribunal&quot; was established; Mar garet, thrust aside by the imperious general, resigned her weary office, and carried away with her the last hopes of the wretched people. Alva was now appointed governor- general, and the executions of his council filled the land with blood. Orange was outlawed on his non-appearance ; it was about this time that he declared his conversion to Calvinism, and so fitted himself in every respect to lead the people when the time came. The hostilities of 1508 leu to the execution of Egmont and Horn. Though the Gueux under Louis of Nassau won a considerable victory over the Spaniards at Heiligedee, the arrival of Alva com pelled him to raise the siege of Groningen, and to withdraw towards the Ems. At Jemmingen Louis was at last utterly defeated, and though the prince of Orange did his utmost to raise the country, and skilfully avoided a fatal battle, the campaign ended in his being obliged to withdraw out of the country. Alva was now at the highest point of his Success ; his statue, cast from cannon taken at Jemmingen, was set up at Antwerp ; the exodus of the inhabitants continued incessantly, especially to England. The advice of Admiral Coligny, that the provinces should wage war from the sea, was hardly listened to at the first. In 1570, however, Orange turned his attention that way, and his little navy under William de la Marck annoyed Spanish commerce and took rich prizes. In 1572, being unable to find refuge in any ports, for neither England, nor Den mark, nor Sweden, would allow them harbourage, and they were treated not merely as rebels but as pirates, William de la Marck, with his &quot; Water-Beggars,&quot; suddenly seized on Briel, at the mouth of the Meuse, and the face of the struggle began from that moment to change. Alva, partly from the general requirements of his position, partly from lack of funds and desire of his recently-imposed tenth penny, had at this moment driven the Netherlanders to desperation. He was engaged in a struggle with Bru-sels and Utrecht, in which city, to punish the inhabitants, he had collected his Spanish soldiery from all the neighbouring towns. The news of the capture of Briel woke him from his security. Flushing also fell into the hands of the &quot; Water-Beggars,&quot; who surprised under its walls a rich convoy from Spain. About the same time, Louis of Nassau, who had been at La Rochelle with the Huguenots, and had received help and encouragement from Charles IX. of France, suddenly seized Mons in Hainault, thus giving the French sympathizers with the revolt the means of entering safely into the Walloon provinces. Alva, now seriously alarmed, withdrew from Zealand the whole of the forces with which he had intended to check the movement of the &quot; Water-Beggars,&quot; in order that he might repair the great breach thus made in his southern system of defence, and so left the province free to develop its resistance. Holland followed quickly, Enkhuizen setting the example; so that, within three months of the capture of Briel, Amsterdam was the only town in Holland in the hands of the Spaniards. In Friesland also the revolt spread far and wide. The states of Holland met, and, acting under advice of Philip of Marnix, lord of St Aldegonde, the prince s deputy, declared that William of Orange was, by Philip s nomination, stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, and Friesland; they also declared their intention to raise money for the costs of war and the relief of Mon?, and affirmed again the liberties of the provinces ; finally they named the rough and ready William de la Marck captain-general a man whose prompt and practical daring would supply the qualities which ths caution and apparent irresolution and timidity of William of Orange seemed unlikely to provide for the emergency. Meanwhile Alva pressed the siege of Mons ; French help failed utterly to relieve Louis of Nassau, nor could William of Orar.ge either force his way through the Spanish lines or induce Alva to fight. At this moment came tidings of the massacre of St Bartholomew, and the prince, seeing that all hope of aid from France was utterly at an end, bade his brother make the best terms he could, and withdrew beyond the Rhine and thence into Holland. Mons at onte capitu lated, and Alva, passing on to Mechlin, pitilessly sacked that wealthy city. Thence he pressed forward to the north ; Zutphen was taken, the towns of Guelderland and Friesland submitted, and for a while nothing seemed to stay his career of conquest and revenge. The prince of Orange was power less ; but the despair caused by the cruel destruction of Naarden roused a spirit which even Alva could not tame, and the famous siege qf Haarlem, lasting through the winter of 1572 till July 1573, cost 12,000 Spanish troops, and gave the insurgent provinces time to breathe. A great mutiny among Alva s troops still more hindered the work of subjugation. The repulse of Don Frederick of Toledo, Alva s son, from Alkmaar, the capture of Geertruidenberg by the Dutch, and Admiral Dirkson s great victory over Alva s fleet, entirely changed the aspect of affairs, and saved the towns of North Holland. Alva, who had come as far as Amsterdam, returned to Brussels, and thence, obtaining his recall, bade farewell to his government. During the six years it had lasted, his executioners had put to death 18,000 persons, to say nothing of the victims in cities captured by his troops ; the Spaniards plundered where they could, arid considered the whole wealth of the Netherlands their lawful prey, forfeited by rebellion. But his pitiless severity only served to raise up a stubbornness of civic resistance, against which the tried discipline of tha Spanish soldiery, and the consummate skill of their com mander, reckoned to be the first general in Europe, were powerless. Revolt ( the pro Willian of Oran Alva s suc cessi