The Story of Nations - Holland/Chapter 11

While Philip was engaged in selecting his viceroy, trouble befel his government in the Netherlands. Immediately after the fall of Zierikzee the Spanish troops mutinied. They had been unpaid for years, and no money was forthcoming from Spain. The Netherlands had been nearly drained, and it is probable that neither Philip nor his lieutenants desired to utterly impoverish the obedient provinces. The practice of these mutineers was to depose their own officers, or, at least, to disobey them, and to elect a temporary chief, to whom they gave, under the name of Eletto, full powers as long as they pleased to continue them. It was a dangerous pre-eminence, for a deposed or distrusted Eletto was pretty sure to forfeit his life with his office.

The mutineers demanded a city, and succeeded in capturing Alost. Thence they threatened Brussels. They could make no impression on it; so, having exhausted Alost, they resolved on attacking Antwerp. The mutineers had been outlawed by the Government, but were in communication with the governor of the citadel of Antwerp. The Spaniards burst into the city, overpowered its defences, and the Spanish fury took place on November 4th. It surpassed in horror and atrocity anything which happened during the war. The soldiers paid themselves handsomely, for it is said that they divided among themselves five millions of crowns.

The sack of Antwerp hastened the pacification of Ghent, which William had been negotiating. It provided, though unfortunately it was short lived, for the union of all the provinces of the Netherlands, for complete amity among them, and for the restoration of all the old liberties. It was signed on November 8, 1576, by the deputies of Holland and Zeland, on the one hand, and by those of thirteen other states or cities, on the other. The Spanish soldiery was to be expelled, and the Inquisition was to be abolished. At the same time, Zierikzee and the island of Schouwen were abandoned and recovered. Four days before the pacification of Ghent was signed, a cavalier, attended by a Moorish slave, rode into Luxembourg. The slave was in reality Don John of Austria, the new governor, who entered on his office in this strange disguise.

Don John of Austria was an illegitimate son of Charles V. His mother is said to have been a washerwoman of Ratisbon, who lived, during Alva's administration and to his exceeding discomfort, at Ghent. She lived there till her son arrived as governor, when she was persuaded or forced to retire into Spain. When an infant John was put under the care of a Spanish grandee and carefully educated. When he was fourteen years of age, the secret of his birth was made known to him by Philip. He was educated in the company of his two nephews, Don Carlos, the heir-apparent of Spain, and Alexander of Parma. It appears that Philip designed him for the Church, but Don John was nothing but a soldier, and, after a struggle, he had his way.

The battle of Lepanto, in which John defeated the Turks, was fought in October, 1571, and the fame of the commander was on every one's tongue. But the victory was barren. The allies might have taken Constantinople, but they began to quarrel with each other. John strove to create for himself a kingdom in Tunis. But Philip interfered. Then Don John, with the goodwill of the Pope, determined to invade England, to dethrone Elizabeth, to liberate and marry the imprisoned Mary Stewart, and make himself king of England and Scotland. As he was gaining the Pope's assent, news came to him that he had been appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands. It seemed as though his dream was almost accomplished. There were ten thousand Spanish troops there, the bravest veterans in the world. He would soon, he imagined, quiet the discontents of the Flemings, and then win his kingdom. It was true that the news from the provinces was daily more unsatisfactory, as he was waiting for the last instructions of the dilatory Philip. Freed at last, he hurried, as I have said, in disguise through France.

Against this knight-errant, William was to exert all his energies and all his abilities. He implored the States not to treat with John, but to resist him, unless he immediately sent away the Spanish and other foreign troops. For a time the States-General were firm, for they insisted on the Ghent Pacification. Don John affected to listen to them, and agreed to send away his troops, only stipulating that they should go by sea. He intended to make a descent on England. The States began to suspect his determination in the manner of their removal. The Ghent treaty was followed by the Brussels Union, the main point of which was the expulsion of the Spaniards. Meanwhile Friesland and Groningen had been gained by the Dutch. At last Don John, after much fencing, agreed to accept virtually the Pacification of Ghent. He held firmly however to his demand that the troops should leave the Netherlands by sea. In a short time this was conceded also by Don John, and on February 17, 1577, the treaty between Philip and the Netherlands was signed at Brussels. By this treaty Don John and subsequently Philip agreed that all foreign troops should be withdrawn, never to return except in case of foreign war, that all prisoners should be released, except the eldest son of Orange, who had been kidnapped nearly twenty years before, though he should be set free as soon as his father came into the treaty. It promised to maintain all the privileges, charters, and free institutions of the Netherlands and confirmed the peace of Ghent.

It now seemed that the Netherlands had gained all they asked for, and that everything for which they had contended had been conceded. The Blood Council of Alva had almost extirpated the Reformers, and an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of the Low Countries with the exception of the Hollanders and Zelanders, belonged to the old Church, provided the Inquisition was done away with, and a religious peace was accorded.

But Don John had to reckon with the Prince of Orange. In him William had no confidence. He could not forget the past. He believed that the signatures and concessions of the governor and Philip were only expedients to gain time, and that they would be revoked or set aside as soon as it was convenient or possible to do so. Apart from his knowledge of the men with whom he had to deal, he had intercepted letters from the leading Spaniards in Don John's employment, in which, when the treaty was in course of signature, designs were disclosed of keeping possession of all the strong places in the country, with the object of reducing, the patriots in detail. He saw that the citadels which had been built were still to be in the hands of the King of Spain, and he well knew what this meant.

Above all, William distrusted the Flemish nobles. He knew them to be greedy, fickle, treacherous, ready to betray their country for personal advantage, and to ally themselves blindly with their natural enemies. The Perpetual Edict, the name given to the new treaty, was not, he saw, the same as the Pacification of Ghent, though it purported to recognize that accord. The very fact that the Flemish nobles trusted the concessions of Philip, made him the more distrust it and them. And as events proved, Orange was in the right.

Hence he refused to recognize the treaty in his own states of Holland and Zeland. As soon as it was published and sent to him, William after conference with these states, published a severe criticism on its provisions. He knew perfectly well that Philip and his deputy would do all in their power to win him over, even to a seeming consent. They on their part, as their discovered correspondence shows, knew that the success or failure of their machinations depended on their success in hoodwinking Orange. “The name of your Majesty,” says Don John, “is as much abhorred and despised in the Netherlands, as that of the Prince of Orange is loved and feared.” But the governor did not and could not conceive that there was one thing which William valued above all offers and all bribes, and that was the security and freedom of the country whose affairs he was administering.

In all seeming however Don John was prepared to carry out his engagements. He got together with difficulty the funds for paying the. arrears due to the troops, and sent them off by the end of April. He caressed the people and he bribed the nobles. He handed over the. citadels to Flemish governors, and entered Brussels on May 1st. Everything pointed to success and mutual good will. But we have Don John's letters, in which he speaks most unreservedly and most unflatteringly of his new friends, and of his designs on the liberties of the Netherlands. And all the while that Philip was soothing and flattering his brother, he had determined on ruining him, and on murdering the man whom that brother loved and trusted. About this time, too, we find that Philip and his deputy were casting about for the means by which they might assassinate the Prince of Orange, “who had bewitched the whole people!” Meanwhile they continued to negotiate with him.

An attempt of Don John to get possession of the citadel of Antwerp for himself failed, and the patriots gained it. The merchants of Antwerp agreed to find the pay still owing to the soldiers, on condition of their quitting the city. But while they were discussing the terms, a fleet of Zeland vessels came sailing up the Scheldt. Immediately a cry was raised, “The Beggars are coming,” and the soldiers fled in dismay. Then the Antwerpers demolished the citadel, and turned the statue of Alva again into cannon.

After these events, William of Orange put an end to negotiations with Don John. Prince William was in the ascendant. But the Catholic nobles conspired against him, and induced the Archduke Matthias, brother of the German Emperor Rodolph, to accept the place of governor of the Netherlands in lieu of Don John. He came, but Orange was made the Ruwaard of Brabant, with full military power. It was the highest office which could be bestowed on him. The “Union of Brussels” followed and was a confederation of all the Netherlands. But the battle of Gemblours was fought in February, 1573, and the patriots were defeated. Many small towns were captured, and it seemed that in course of time the governor would recover at least a part of his lost authority. But in the month of September, Don John was seized with a burning fever, and died on October 1st. His heart was buried at Namur, but his body was carried to Spain.