Low-Countreys The King therefore while he took care that Abbies should not be given in Commendum to Bishops which was the provisâ— of their Charter but annexed to their Bishopricks did not in truth violate their priviledges which he had sworn to maintain But what need more words when the case being put to the University of Lovain and studied by Doctors both of Divinity and of Civill Law it was definitively resolved that annexion of Livings and likewise the institution of new Bishopricks was neither repugnant to the Kings oath nor to the laws Again they ought to consider the difference that was then from other times and manners that while Religion was safe the King altered nothing but when it was endangered there can be no priviledges to tie the hands of Kings from supporting their dominions falling into ruine The number of pastours was the fittest remedy to defend the flock of Christ from wolves breaking in upon them and sure there is none so great an enemy to the King but must acknowledge and believe it Nor could their endowments be proportioned with less inconvenience then they were by prudent men to whom it was referred with the Kings approbation and the Popes command Nor was the Prince which some required bound to do it by the advice of his great Councel for he held himself obliged to it by no law and likewise his reason told him the States in a thing distastfull to many especially such as listened to hereticks their neighbours would easily dissent using the liberty which they took upon them in publick assemblies Whereby he should not onely expose his Prerogative and Majesty to the dispute but even to the contempt of his people and that he should vex their minds so much the more by following his design when they once declared their publick dislike and passed their votes against it But the King might have provided for the new Bishops or it upon a fuller survey he had found all other wayes more difficult yet he himself should have maintained them out of his own and not out of other mens estates without the trouble of his people without any mans prejudice As if it were not just that the Bishops which were to serve the Low-Countreys should be provided for out of the Low-Countreys Nor did the King spare his Exchequer allowing every Bishop yearly one thousand five hundred crowns in pension till sufficient maintenance should be raised elsewhere Albeit the King in giving them the Abbots goods did not directly bestow upon them other mens estates especially since he did it by authority of the Bishop of Rome who is the true Administratour of their goods To conclude this makes it plain that although the King had given perpetuall pensions to the Bishops it would not have satisfied these men that were not so much discontented with the translations or annexions of Church-livings as with the very number of the Bishops which there being no reason to condemn but indeed to welcome as a safe and ready help it plainly appears in case the Brabanters or other Low-Countreymen had took arms upon this ground to which side the beginning of those troubles was to be imputed Neither could this be the cause of rebellion The substituting of Bishops in place of Abbots when they should decease and annexing of their livings to the Bishopricks was but executed in very few Cities because of their continuall petitions which I shall in due place remember presented to the Pope and the King I am sure in Brabant which stood out the stiffest the King at last consenting there was nothing altered Yet I deny not but those agitations of diversly minded men lessened obedience and duty to the Prince which are the pillars of government and foreshewed in case they should be further moved the ruine of the whole For nothing is so pernicious to Monarchy as when the people are taught publickly to contest with their Prince and to dissent from him not onely with impunity but with advantage One thing most of all troubled and exasperated the Low-Countreymen at first a suspicion then an indeavour of setting up an inquisition against heresie to be confirmed by the Edict of the Emperour Charles the fifth Which in regard it is commonly thought to have opened a door of war in the Low-Countreys it will be worth my pains be what it may be to give you account of it Religion as it was ever highly reverenced by all as that which preserves the Worship of God and Concord of Men so the Christian Church hath been alwayes severe against the disturbers thereof This charge was first administred onely by the Bishops to whom it appeâ—tains by Law Afterwards perhaps because that sacred Office is ingaged in many cares or because they are sometimes inforced to be absent from their Diocese or lastly some of them may be negligent in the exercise of their authority and some happely ignorant it seemed the best course to delegate from the Apostolicall See Iudges extraordinary of approved learning and piety which should have commission to hear and determine against hereticks whereupon they were called the Apostolicall Inquisitours This I find begun by Pope Innocent the third who sent against the Albigenses the Founder of the preaching Fryars Saint Dominick that first executed the office of Inquisitour with much applause The custome was afterwards received almost in all that and the next Age in many Christian countreys there being created in every Province Censors of Faith that should legally take notice of the violation of religion Yet in all places were not the same Judicatories Some had temporary Inquisitours sent about heresie newly sprung up and when that was extinguished their commission ended In other parts a Tribunall was erected to which questions of faith were perpetually to be referred In other places the whole form of this judicature being rejected none but Bishops themselves were permitted to inquire of hereticks Nay at Rome the form was varied for sometimes all was done by the ordinary and Civill Magistrates no Inquisitour extraordinary sometimes many but then one or more of the Cardinals were of the Quorum Till Paul the fourth instituted a Colledge of Cardinals by whose suffrages these controversies were to be determined establishing this course for ever after in Rome by a more venerable and sacred Court of Justice And that it might more firmly continue fear the Beadle of the law terrified them from the beginning penalties and fines being imposed upon and exacted of the refractory more easie ones by the Cannon law and heavier by Imperiall Edicts For when the Emperours observed besides the worship of God that it concerns the publick Peace whose Guardian the Prince is that subjects should be limited by Religion and that they saw when Religion was endangered peace could not live upon the foul and rough waves of heresie they decreed that the punishment of traitours should be inflicted upon hereticks as enemies
to Religion and by consequence to Peace Provided notwithstanding that the law should not be executed till their triall and verdict were passed in the Ecclesiasticall Court to which the proper cognizance of heresie belongs Which though it was ever exercised in all orthodox Countreys and in some places according to sudden motions of new perverse opinions with greater diligence yet no where with more exactness and strictness then in Spain either out of the especiall inclination of those Catholick Princes or by reason of contagious forreiners that mingled themselves among those their subjects But this care of Religion was afterwards encreased almost through all Christendome by reason of the troubles raised by one man in many parts I mean Martin Luther the calamity of those and the following times This mischief that he had long studied to bring upon true believers he had oft begun to attempt and then changing his mind as if not resolved or rather waiting for an opportunity at last Maximilian the Emperour deceasing and Charles his Nephew succeeding in the Empire his wickedness broke forth well knowing that the beginning of a Princes reign is the best time for Innovation and likewise believing the Emperours young years to be ignorant of government and therefore despicable Howsoever he made sure account his Imperiall Majestie would rather bend his endeavours to settle the affairs of his Empire then to maintain the rites of the Church so courting the Provinces first to revolt from the Church and then which is the next step from their Princes and from the Emperour himself he thus broke in peices at once the Romane Empire and Religion Which gave occasion to the Bishop of Rome to be much more observant and intent to questions of faith and to Christian Princes as every one tendered his Religion and Dominions to be more vigilant therein Indeed Châ—â—les the fifth whom Religion in her afflictions looked upon as her onely refuge by the example of the Emperours his Predecessours thought it expedient to establish laws through all the Provinces of the Empire and Low-Countreys against the corrupters of the Catholick faith Therefore whilest he was conducted from Spain through the Netherlands and Germany to the Imperiall throne with extraordinary joy and gratulations of men and with all that noise of his then smiling fortune in the town of Worms at the Diet or Parliament of the Empire Martin Luther condemned by the Bishop of Rome was by vote of the Electors and the rest of the Princes and Estates of the Empire condemned and proscribed and the edict of his proscription the same year one thousand five hundred twenty one was published through all the dominions of his Empire and Patrimony Nevertheless Luther still persisted in his evil nay as wickedness prospers by sudden attempts within a few moneths that contagion infected at least breathed upon the most flourishing Cities of Germany The Emperour in some places punishing delinquents and renuing and enlarging his edict which he applyed seven times to that violent and volatile disease Moreover when he had desired and received Censors of faith from the Pope in reference to their authority and security he passed many Decrees which are inrolled in the Imperiall laws of the year one thousand five hundred and fifty But this new fate of Justice brought with it into the Low-Countreys more terrour then observance for though it were in some places received yet the Brabanters because they said their liberty was infringed taking the opportunity freed themselves of the burthen laid upon them about the end of the year fifty at which time partly the great meeting of Ausburg and the Councel of Trem partly war upon war rising in Africa Hungary Italy Germany and France drew Cesars cares another way And although King Philip when he took possession of the Low-Countreys instantly confirmed his Fathers laws and edicts by his own proclamation it little advanced the business he being forthwith engaged in a sharp warre with France which began the year he set forth that Proclamation and held three years after till in the year fifty nine as soon as ever he got a breathing from the war he re-applied himself to settle Religion And leaving the Netherlands he commanded his sister the Governess and Bishop Granvell to take speciall care that his Fathers laws and the cautions which he himself had confirmed in behalf of the Popes Inquisitors should be punctually observed This was the state of affairs these were the Edicts of Charles the fifth these the beginnings and proceedings of the Inquisitions against heresies When the Dutchess of Parma as she was enjoyned bending all her care that way treated about it with Governours of the Pronvinces but found by experience it was of much more difficulty to do things commanded then to command things fitting to be done The Magistrates seemed unwilling to take the business upon themselves some of the Nobility offered their services doubtfully others absolutely told her it was no good time to move that stone again at which they had so often stumbled The Brabanters that had slipt the bridle under Charles the fifth and would not suffer King Philip when he was there to put it on again should they now halter themselves called by a womans voice The people know no mean or moderate course at first they are in amazement then all confidence Sometimes they fear sometimes they terrifie according as they are inflamed with the breath of great persons and the bellows of hereticks Nay the common discourse concerning the King hinted to the people and uttered as their own was this Why he made so many new Bishops if they were not to protect Religion But indeed it was resolved by Councels that such Pastors as went slowly to work in purging the ill fruits of heresie should be put out of their Episcopall office Bishops should therefore look to their own business or else lay down their ill placed miters which it were better they had never put on nor vainly frighted the Low-countrey with their number That Religion had flourished many ages in the Netherlands onely by the care of the Civil Magistrate without that pomp of the Popes tyranny without any of the Emperours Edicts Why that new addition of Inquisitors That for the most part it sprung from the ambition of Bishop Granvell who that he might have suppliants sought to make delinquents That Religion ought to be perswaded not commanded That Charles the fifth had a most pions intention in making those Laws but experience demonstrated the cause of Religion and the common good and state of the Provinces was thereby nothing advanced but daily grew to be in a worse condition That commerce was already obstructed Merchants had a stop of trading to the great losse of the Low-countreymen especially those of Antwerp whose wealth consisted in merchandize Lastly that neither the Emperour Charles nor King Philip nor any other Prince that
had sworn to the priviledges of Brabant and promised not to impose upon the Low-countreymen new forms of Iudicature could have power if the Laws remained in force to compell them to suffer the severity of the Inquisition and those Edicts But these rumours moved not the Governess at all who continued to execute the Law upon offenders And the Councel of Trent then ended was by the Kings command proclaimed in the Low-countreys At which in some places the people openly stormed and rescued condemned persons half dead out of the hangmans hands stealing to conventicles in the City and in the fields Nay many of the Nobility entered into a kind of combination among themselves partly to scatter libels in the streets partly to present petitions to the Governess by great multitudes with such tumult and success that the Emperours Edicts had their edge abated delinquents were pardoned and no one afterwards endeavoured to bring in Censors of faith where they had not formerly been So that nothing was done to oppose the Preaching-men that had broke loose from their hereticall neighbours and in the very market place declaimed against the Catholick Faith To which a company of Boors and rogues presently joyning rushed into the Churches robbed them defaced the sacred Monuments and lastly fell into open rebellion without any Generall then declaring for them but with strange licentiousness force rapine and plunder To this point it was come at last And some affirmed that storm which with a sudden noise prodigiously fell upon the Low-countreyes was raised out of the peoples fury caused by the severity of the Prince who plotting at once to entangle them in so many incoveniences by the Imperiall Edicts Questions of faith and the Councel of Trent had provoked the patience of the Low-countreymen Yet others cleared the King of any fault as not being author of those edicts and questions but onely confirming his Fathers Decrees and those Pontificiâ—nâ—Censors of faith which Charles the fifth had called into the Netherlands And that the King or Emperour when he brought in the Inquisitors had not therefore broken the Low-countrey priviledges by inducing a new form of Judicature because their jurisdiction not being ordinary but onely delegated could not be called a new Judicatory And therefore they highly extolled the Kings religion that respected the authority of the Romane Bishop and the Councels far before the threatnings of his turbulent and seditious subjects nor held it imprudence to be the first that should oblige his dominions to that which had been decreed against heresie by the wisest Fathers of the Christian Common-wealth But farther to prosecute in this place diversitie of mens judgements would argue an ambitious wit especially since I perswade my self all I have hitherto set down did indeed contribute to the Belgick tumults but were not the principall causes of them It is now my purpose clearly to explain those causes to you that such as read my history may learn by the example of the Low-countrey men what it is that commonly imbroyls a State or Kingdome Anthony Perenott Cardinall Granvel Counsessour of Estate of Margaret of Parma William of Nassau Prince of Orange But the causes which hitherto I have numbered up severally and shewed them to proceed from the Lords and Commons did at last all meet in one point of concurrence in the Prince of Orange To demonstrate this I will give you an exact account of his descent his nature and by what arts he attained his power a necessary narration and I presume not unpleasing to the Reader that such as shall see him almost for sixteen years Generall of great armies fighting with various fortune may have his manners and as it were the Picture of his heart before their eyes The house of Nassau in Germany was ever Princely but when Adolphus of Nassau was elected Emperour he made it a Sovereign Family Count Otho brought them into the Low-countreys almost two hundred years ago where they were established by his nephew Engelbert the first and by the nephew to the first Engelbert the second That being great Grandfather this great Uncle to William Prince of Orange Which Princes left him the inheritance of many towns in the Low-countreys and other fair possessions that came to them by marriage which made him there a person of eminence afterwards encreased by the Principality of Orange that descended from the Chalons upon the family of Nassau For his fathers brother Henrick had a sonne named Renatus by Claudia Chalon siâ—ter to Filibert Chalon Prince of Orange Renatus after the death of his uncle Filibert succeeded him in the Principality upon condition that he should change his name from Nassau to Chalon But he likewise dying without issue the Principality of Orange and the rest of the great estate which he had in Burgundy came to his Cousen german William whom we now speak of by the favour of the Emperour Charles the fifth William was born in the year one thousand five hundred thirty three the eldest of five brothers and it is reported his father whose name was William desired to know his sonnes fortune of Philip Melanchthon that was by Chaldean rules rather as a Professour then an artist held to be skilfull in Calculating of Nativities Who having erected their Schems told him Williams fortune was not in all parts alike proportioned For at first his starres would shine down honour upon him him afterwards he should lay his design for greater honours but at last come to an unfortunate end What his judgement was of the other four brothers I have neither heard spoken nor seen written Perhaps because they wanted success they were passed over in silence lest it might discredit his art Charles the fifth took him away when he was very young from his father who had revolted to the Lutherans and delivered him to his own sister Mary Queen of Hungary As soon as his years permitted the Emperour made him a gentleman of his bed-chamber and was much delighted with the constant waiting and conditions of the youth because he was very modest and did not make vain ostentations of his service nor omit any oportunity to be serviceable and that in a grave and serious manner that he might be thought more capeable then ambitious of imployment From the bed-chamber where he kept his place for almost nine years the Emperour made him a souldier and Generall of his horse in the Low-countreys Nay when the Duke of Savoy left the army he substituted in his place William Nassau Lieutenant-generall though he wanted years for so great a command being not past twenty two and was brought in over the heads of many great Commanders among others which the Prince of Orange himself admired of Count Egmont who besides his experience in the warres was twelve years older Thenceforth as well in peace as war he was by the Emperour valued in the first file
of Nobility and imployed upon diverse noble Embassages Indeed in the Emperours great resignment of his dominions which was his last act as a Prince when he sent the Crown and Sceptre of the Empire as we have told you to his brother Ferdinand by the Prince of Orange he clearly shewed by that last honour he could do the greatness of the affection which he bare him And though some that suspected his nature from the first often wished the Emperour to look to him and not to be over confident of his disposition which under the pretence of virtue covered fraud and design and that he should take heed how he cockered up that fox in his bosome that one day would devour all his domestick Poultry But the Emperour frowned upon and contemned these aspersions knowing they are ordinarily cast upon such as Princes favour Nay these rather confirmed him in the Emperours good opinion Howsoever by making honourable mention of him and commending the modesty and fidelity of the youth the Emperour seemed to discharge that envy Perhaps he thought the Prince deserved it not perhaps it was the common fault of masters that apprehend themselves to be no less concerned in such invectives then their favourites and servants and without looking into the business make themselves patrons of the men whose cause they think their own Yet in the Prince of Orange at that very time were symptomes of a disease that should have been prevented or at least observed Which symptomes grew more and more apparent after the Emperours departure For though at his leaving the Low-countreys the Emperour commended the Prince of Orange to his sonne Philip and King Philip both of his own accord and for his fathers sake gave him many testimonies of his good liking for he made him one of the Order of the Golden fleece sent him tâ— conclude a peace with Henry the Frensh King and that done deliverec him for hostage And to those large Provinces of the Netherlands which the King trusted to his Government he added Burgundy though farre remote But what could all this work with him that gave out the King was obliged to bestow upon him the absolute Government of all the Low-countreys for his pains and expences to defend the greatness of the house of Austria And in his Apology against King Philip he took upon him the boldness after he had particularized the merits of his Ancestours towards the Emperours Maximilian and Charles to conclude That but for the Counts of Nassau and Princes of Orange the King of Spain could not have loaded the front of his proclamation wherein he proscribed him with the glorious titles of so many Kingdomes and Nations Frustrated therefore of his hopes to govern the Low-countreys and perceiving Granvell to be the great man in the Dutchesses new Court and fearing he should every day be less esteemed by her whom he would have prevented of her Government by professing himself to stand for Christiern Dutchess of Lorrain and endeavouring to bring her in he resolved to maintain his greatness by another way and provoked by new indignities to act what he had long since designed And though I have no certain ground to believe that at the very first he laid his plot to revolt from his allegiance to the King yet I dare boldly affirm he studied at that time some innovation whereby he might weaken the Kings Government overthrow the Spanish power incourage the hereticall party by right or wrong advance his own honour and authority and if fortune made him any other fair offer to lay hold upon it Indeed for altering of a Government I know not if any man ever lived fitter then the Prince of Orange He had a present wit not slow to catch at oportunities but subtill concealing himself not to be sounded even by those that were thought privy to his secrets Then he had a rare way to ingratiate himself with any that but came to speak with him so unaffectedly he conformed to strangers manners and served himself of others ends not that he stooped to the poor forms of complement and common professions of imaginary services wherewith at this day men do honourably mock one another But shewing himself neither sparing nor prodigall of his Courtship he so cunningly contrived his words that you could not but think that he reserved farre more for action Which begat a greater opinion of his discretion and gave more credit to his pretensions Besides though he was of a proud and infinitely ambitious spirit yet he so carried it to the outward shew that he seemed to command himself and not to be sensible of injuries But he was as subiect to fear as free from anger Insomuch as he doubted all things thought every thing unsafe but yet desisted not because on the one part his brain fruitfull in plots if the first took not presently made new supplies on the other part his vast and immoderate ambition strangled all doubts and delayes But in the splendour of his house-keeping and the multitude of his friends and followers he was equall to great Princes No man in all the Low-countreys more hospitable and that gave nobler entertainment to forrein Embassadours then the Prince of Orange which hugely pleased the people that delight to have the wealth and power of their Countrey showed to strangers nor was it distastfull to Princes with whom he redeemed all the opinion of his pride by his humble and familiar invitations of their servants But for his Religion that was very doubtfull or rather none at all When he was with the Emperour and the King he seemed to be Catholick When they left the Low-countreys he returned by little and little to his Fathers heresie which was bred in him of a child yet so as while the Dutchess of Parma continued Governess he rather appeared a Favourer of the hereticall party then an Heretick Lastly after the Dutchess was removed he declared himself for Calvin for from a Lutheran he was now turned to his opinion not onely as a private Sectary but as the great Defender of his Faith Afterwards he writ a Book wherein he testified to all the world That from his childhood he was ever much enclined to the Religion which he calls Reformed the seeds whereof his heart alwayes constantly retained which at length ripened with his years And that all he did at home or in the warrs related to this end To maintain Religion in her first Purity assailed and shot at with so many Laws and Edicts by the Emperour and the King Whether he wrote truth and was indeed a Calvinist in opinion or rather by that means sought to ingratiate himself with the men whose service he had use of some have made a doubt it is most probable his Religion was but pretended which he could put on like a Cloke to serve him for such a time and put it off again when it was
it were followed through the streets by the multitude to the number of an hundred at Valencena and six hundred at Tournay singing Davids Psalms in French At this Psalm-singing and these night-sermons tumults were raised in both Cities between such as favoured and such as hated them The cognizance whereof taken from the Magistrates was brought before the Governess who commanded the Governours of those Provinces Florence Momorancy Lord of Montiny and Iohn Glemè Marquesse of Bergen that were both at this time by accident in Breda to joy the Prince and Princess of Orange newly come out of Saxonie forthwith to return to their Governments and use their best endeavours in what concerned them nearest The Lord of Montiny posted to Tournay with Christopher Assonvill and Iohn Blaser whom the Dutchess had joyned with him to examine the business Where he apprehended the owner of the house the Conventicles were kept in and found and burned many hereticall books A moneth after hanging up Lanoy the night-preacher Tournay was quieted But at Valenciens things fell out far otherwise For though the Marquess of Bergen presently went thither and by the assistance of Filibert Bruxâ—ius and Autrux assigned him for Adjuncts by the Governess two preaching Calvinists Philip Maillard and Simon Favian were committed to prison deferring their punishment contrary to the Dutchess command Before the Citie was pacified the Marquess of Bergen went to Leige to visit his brother Bishop of that City For which being reprehended by the Dutchess and commanded back to his Government he boldly excused himself That it was neither agreeable to his place or nature to put Hereticks to death Which insolent answer she wrote to the King commending in the letter the industry of the Lord of Montiny and so comparing the ones deserts with the dis-service of the other made both appear the greater And indeed that Heresie like other contagious diseases is caught in an instant and must with expedition be prevented as may be instanced in the examples of Tournay and Valenciens There by the present punishment of a few all being put in fear here by delay and negligence the turbulent people having time given to encourage them For now that brace of Hereticks I spake of had been in prison seven moneths and the Magistrates were affraid to proceed to judgment because they saw the peoples affection daily increasing towards them and divers bills posted up that threatned mischief to the Judges if any harm came to the Prisoners And many passing by the Jayl in the night were heard to chear up the prisoners and bad them fear nothing for if they should be led to execution the people would rescue them But the Dutchess informed of all this taxed the Magistrates with the fear they had brought upon themselves by seven moneths delay and seriously fore-warned them not to make the disease incurable by further delaying Therefore according to the Emperours Edict sentence was pronounced and the delinquents condemned to be burned But because some tradesmen were suspected especially the Clothiers the execution was put off to a day when they alwayes used to be absent from Valenciens their custome being on Saturday night to walk abroad into the fields and not to come back to town till Monday morning Part going a feasting to the Villages near hand with their parents and their wives part getting out of the way lest they should be observed not to be at Church with the Catholicks On Monday therefore by day-break the condemned persons were brought into the market-place Yet it was not so privately carried but multitudes of people followed And Favean when he came near the faggots cried out as loud as ever he could gape O Eternall Father At which words the whole Market-place made a hideous noise and suddenly strove to fetch off the prisoners casting stones at the Officers withall breaking into the place of execution they seized upon all the instruments of death threw about the fagots and for very madnesse broke them into little pieces Till the officers too weak for the multitude were forced to carry the prisoners back to the Jayl and to run for it themselves the stones flew so fast about their ears Having freed their companions by degrees the peoples fury cooled or rather not knowing what to do for want of a Leader they met all in a peaceable manner that you would have rather thought them Petitioners then Mutineers singing Davids Psalmes by Calvin's Psalter then breaking out again into rage they blamed their own sloath and resolved to take their opportunity while the Citie was in fear and trembling Before I proceed because the singing of Psalmes hath casually been twice and must be oftner mentioned I conceive it will not be amisse for the Reader to understand the Originall thereof Among the Grooms of the bedchamber to Francis the first of France there was one Clement Marot born at Davean a man naturally eloquent of a voluble fluent tongue having a rare vein in French poetry wherewith the King was much taken and kept him as a choice instrument of his learned pleasures But as his wit was somewhat better then his conditions by his acquaintance with the Lutherans he was suspected to have changed his Religion and therefore fearing the King would be offended he fled to his Majesties sister at Bearn the old Sanctuary for Delinquents A while after the King was pacified and he returned to Paris Where he was advised by his friend Francis Vatable the Hebrew Lecturer to leave the trifling subjects he wrote upon and study divine Poesie Hereupon he began to translate the Psalmes of the Hebrew Prophet into French stanza's but so ignorantly and perversely as a man altogether unlearned that the King though he often sung his verses yet upon the just complaints of the Sorban Doctours and their severe censure passed against them commanded that nothing of Maro's in that kind should be from thenceforth published But being forbid by Proclamation as it often happens the longing of the Reader and fame of the Work was increased so that new tunes were set to Marot's thimes and they were sung like profane ballads He in the mean time growing bold by the peoples applauses and not able to forbear bragging for fear of punishment ran to Geneva And flying from thence for new crimes committed but first having been well whipped for them he died at Austune The successe of this Translation of Psalmes moved Theodor Beza a friend of Marot's that wrote an Elegie in French upon his death to joyn to the fifty which he had printed the other hundred in French meeter too so the whole book of Davids Psalmes was finished And to make it pleasing to the people they had severall tunes set to them by excellent Composers that chimed so sweetly as every one desired to have the new Psalter But many errours in it being detected against Religion and the
dishonour to a Prince to keep Laws in force which his Subjects will not obey then to apply them unto their natures and so keep his people in obedience But for the Inquisition it was apparent that none of any condition whatsoever would receive it insomuch that the meanest tradesman of Antwerp can shew either a Musket or a Pike which he threatens to use upon them that shall endeavour to bring in the Inquisition Nay it was no little iniury to the Bishops to have the cause of Religion which by Law appertains to their Iurisdiction transferred to this late Iudicature of Inquisitours But it is to no purpose any more to dispute this point when the Covenanters are at the gates before whose Requests be denied it must be considered in case the Hereticks joyning with them should offer to storm the Town whether we have sufficient forces to resist the people and their Confederates Lastly the opinion number and faction of these men carried it For though there wanted not some that easily refuted all that was pretended in behalf of the Bishops yet hardly any one of the Senate thought this kind of Judicature seasonable for the time therefore after many heats the business was thus composed Forasmuch as the Emperours and the Kings designe reached no farther in these Edicts and Questions of Faith but onely to preserve Religion in her ancient purity those remedies were onely so far to be made use of as might conduce to its preservation Besides there was a twofold Inquisition the one annexed to the function of Bishops the other granted by Commission from his Holiness to certain Judges Delegates Now the odium onely fell upon the Popes Inquisitours which though brought into the Low-countreys by Charles the fifth yet he was inforced thereto by reason of the small number and great negligence of the Bishops This being no longer a reason and men so much abhorring the name of this forrein Inquisition so violent and impolitick a Remedie ought not to obtruded upon refractory people Therefore without preiudice to Religion some part of the Covenanters petition might be granted But lest they should seem to be over-awed by the Hereticks or to passe any thing in favour of them this answer was to be returned That they had no cause to trouble themselves about the Inquisition which was out of date the Inquisitours themselves forbearing to exercise their authority having not renewed their Commission from the new Pope which they use to do for the better confirmation of their power Touching the penalties which by the Imperiall Edicts were to be inflicted upon Hereticks they should not be repealed but whereas most of them were capitall they should be hereafter qualified for the Bishops the greatest Divines and Lawyers and the Inquisitours themselves had so advised which Charles the fifth would have consented to if he were now living who himself upon the like difficulties in the year 1550 at the request of his Sister Mary Queen of Hungary thought it not unnecessary nor unbeseeming his Imperiall Maiesty to rectifie and moderate the Laws he had formerly decreed Thus for the present the Conspiratours being graciously received in a little while their meetings would be dissolved a work of great consequence and in the interim time might be gained to agitate the publick business without Tumults and therefore with more Authority The Governess though she wished better yet approved the Counsel given because she knew that in this juncture of time she must either grant something to the Conspiratours or else forcibly resist them But this she durst not attempt being unprovided of a Generall for she trusted not the Prince of Orange and putting the question to Count Egmont he denied to draw his sword against any man for the Inquisition or the Edicts For the rest of the Nobility they either had not much more loyaltie or had far less abilities Her Excellence therefore told them she would follow their advice and so answer Brederod and his Companions that she might at once both satisfie them and withall reserve the Judgement entire to the King without knowledge of whose pleasure nothing could be done in a matter of so great importance Every one of these particulars she wrote to his Maiestie by speedy messengers beseeching him presently to resolve her what she was to pitch upon The same day about evening the Covenanters came into Bruxels They were full two hundred horse apparrelled like forreiners every one a case of pistols at his saddle-bow Brederod their Generall rode in the head of them next him Lewis of Nassau for the Counts of Cuilemburg and Bergen arrived not till three dayes after Francis Verdugo a Gentleman that followed Count Mansfeld told the Governess that Brederod bragged at his entrance into the City in these words Some thought I durst not come to Bruxels behold I am come to see the Town and will shortly make another visit but upon a new occasion Then Brederod and Grave Lewis went to his Brother the Prince of Oranges house where the Counts of Mansfeld and Horn were come to wait upon them That night no body being present but Count Mansfeld Count Horn used many arguments to perswade the Prince of Orange to send back his Order of the Fleece into Spain and thereupon Verdugo was commanded to bring the Statute-book of the Order that they might see in what words they had obliged their faith to the King as supreme Master of their Society But Count Mansfeld interposing nothing was determined The same was moved another time as Anderlech informed the Governess The next day Brederod staying for the Counts of Cuilemburg and Bergen in Cuilemburg-House at Bruxells assembled his Confederates to encourage them in the enterprize they had undertaken First he shewed them a Letter writ in Spanish lately sent him as he said out of Spain unless the man who wanted no subtiltie had peradventure counterâ—eited it as he suspects that wrote all these passages in cypher to the Governess In which letter it was certified that one Moro a man known in the Low-countreys was with a soft fire burned alive in Spain which infinitely exasperated and enflamed the minds of his Associates against the cruelty of such sentences Then taking his hint to come to the matter as if he were to make a generall muster of his Army he produced the Roll signed by all the Conspiratours Which he and Lewis of Nassau reading unto the people they answered to their severall names professing constancy to their resolutions For those that were absent being to the number of two hundred they that were present being almost as many engaged themselves Then he required them in confirmation of the Covenant every one to joyn his heart and set to his hand again Which was accordingly done and they all now the second time took the Covenant their Oath being this in substance That if any of the
support their Architecture a while which if compleated and able to stand alone then they easily suffer their fictions to grow out of date to be pulled down and cast away like props and scaffolds when the building is brought unto perfection And the Governess knowing it was now no time for delayes sent for as many of the Order as could conveniently attend her for it was Passion week and the major part had retired themselves to make their Confessions in the Monasteries of their own Towns according to the custome of the Nobility and shewed them the Declaration upon sight whereof Count Egmont and Count Mansfeld who were the first that came protested that no part of it was either done or said by their Companions of the Order It was therefore resolved that expedition should be used whilst the multitude had onely a tast of the Errour but had not as yet swallowed down the Falsehood and that they should not expect till the wooll dipt in Ink were made uncapable of another die That the Governours of the Provinces and the Magistrate of every City and Town should be immediately informed of the truth and a copy sent them of the Petition presented by the Covenanters with the Governesses marginall Answer They were likewise to take notice that if any thing else were published by any whatsoever it was to be reputed as the Invention of some seditious persons endeavouring to beget domestick Tumults and accordingly by the Kings Laws and Authority to be punished These Letters though presently sent into the Provinces yet failed to undeceive the people which in many places had already heard and believed the untruth to the great prejudice as I shall presently shew you of the ancient Religion and the Publick peace Which forced the Governess to hasten the Embassie into Spain that was lately voted by the Senate Iohn Glimè Marquess of Bergen and Governour of Haynolt was named for the imployment But he whether his guilty conscience could not brook the Kings presence or whether the trouble of the voyage frighted him at first refused to undertake it then was willing so that another might be put in Commission with him Florence Momorancie Lord of Montiny was therefore joyned with the Marquesse Both of them because they doubted their business would not please the King were suiters to the Governess to dispatch away a Messenger into Spain that should prepare his Majestie with the knowledge of their coming in the interim they resolved so to order and spin out their journey that the Messenger should meet them upon the way with the Kings Letters wherein they might perceive if his Majestie approved of their imployment Notwithstanding all this caution which their ill-presaging minds rather used for their security then for their Honour they escaped not but this Embassage cost them both their lives They had yet other unlucky Omens for two dayes before they set forth the Marquess of Bergen as he walked in the open Court of the Governesse's Palace was hit upon the thigh with a Ball of wood by some playing at Pall Mall and being very grievously hurt kept his bed and was constrained to deferre his journey You would think this good office was done him by his Genius who not contented by other warnings to have pulled him by the ear now laid him by the heels and kept him lockt in fetters to â—inder his unfortunate voyage But what Fate hath ordained for every man is not so easily prevented as foreseen In the mean while the Governesse it concerning her to loose no time got the other Embassadour though against his will to go before the Marquesse of Bergen who should follow as soon as he recovered and to acquaint his Majestie with the state of affairs in the Low-countreys after the Gentlemens petition was delivered To this purpose besides letters instructions and other appendents to an Embassage her Excellence gave him a Book containing in eighteen chapters the principle actions of that year which she left to his Majesties consideration and concluded that onely his presence would with the least hazard settle the Low-countreys Yet before his departure the Governesse as she had promised her two Embassadours sent away Fabius Lembus a Neopolitan an old Courtier and faithfull with private commands and notes wherein she interpreted most of that which she had given in charge to Montiny She sent likewise a copy of Charles the fifth's Edicts somewhat qualifyed in the penalties against Hereticks by advice of the Senatours and Divines likewise signifying that she had shewed that qualification severally to the Estates of the Low-countreys and that by most of them it was approved of yet that she would not publish it nor propound it to the People without his Majesties consent but she earnestly beseeched him to command it and to deferre his intention of establishing the Popes Inquisitours So on the seventeenth of May she dispatched Fabius Lembus thus instructed In ten dayes after Montiny followed and the seventeenth of June was by the King gratiously received at Madrid and divers times had Audience Yet before he could get a determinate Answer he was commanded to exspect his fellow Commissioner the Marquesse of Bergen nor found he the King inclinable to or well pleased with his Embassage Indeed to divert his Majestie from consenting to the Low-countreymens desires though he was of himself sufficiently constant both to Religion and his opinions Pius the fifth interposed his authoritie by whose Nuncio Pedro Camaiono Bishop of Asculum who had an eye upon that Embassie from the Low-countreys his Majestie was continually solicited not to suffer the Catholick Religion to fall in the Low-countreys but that he would personally by force of arms punish the disloyaltie of that turbulent people And for this cause his Holinesse commanded Iulio Pavesio Archbishop of Surrentum whom he sent Legate to the Emperour Maximilian to take the Low-countreys in his way and in his name to set a high commendations upon the Dutchesse of Parma for her zeal to Religion manifested in her Government of the Low-countreys wherein he should incourage her by promising supplies of money from the Pope with his utmost assistance For now a Cause was controverted for which he would not fear to stake his triple Crown Moreover he was to advise with the Governesse about delivering the Popes letters to the Prince of Orange and Count Cuilemburg exhorting the Count to forsake the Hereticks unto whom it was said he adhered and to reconcile himself to the old Religion and admonishing the Prince not to suffer with impunity so many foul things as were committed by Hereticks in his Principality of Orange to the great dammage of all the neighbouring Cities especially Avignion But the Governesse whose counsell the Legate was commanded to follow did not approve of the delivery of the Popes letters to Cuilemburg least as he was a youth of a weak and fantasticall brain he
Magistrate but contrary to his command furiously ran out of the Citie to Vilvord to hear sermons The Governess having notice from all parts of these sacrilegious actions no lesse doubting the future then grieving and amazed at the present speedily called the Senate that being indeed the ordinary but many times a post-humous and ineffectuall remedy The Prefects of the Provinces and almost all the Lords were there but onely Philip Croi Duke of Areschot and Charles Brimè Count of Megen he excusing himself that he was not well and this that he feared his enemies had a plot upon him Her Excellence spake to them in these very words which she inserted in her Letters to the King Grief and her inbred Nobleness giving them vigour and authoritie To what condition the Low-countreys are brought by the wickedness of a few men we see the absent will hear and posterity admire to my great disparagement and yours For I know many things will be imputed to me Princes names being alwayes registred in the Kalender of publick calamities and you are famed for so many noble actions at home and abroad that your names cannot possibly be concealed Nor were the Netherlands so intrusted to me but that you had your parts in the Administration of the Government The particular Provinces committed to your trust the Order of the Golden-Fleece wherein your Oaths and Names are upon Record the Allegiance due to their Prince from his subjects amongst whom you are the chief multiplyes your Obligations to the maintaining and enlarging of his Royall Power And yet in these your Provinces while you stand Spectatours the Churches of God and his Saints founded by the ancient piety of your Princes which your Ancestours and your selves have adorned with victorious trophies by sacrilegious and impious traytours are burned down and profaned your Ancestours tembes violated the Statues of your Order and your Coats of Arms in many places impudently thrown to the ground trod upon and broken To omit their barbarity to Virgins consecrated to God robbing of their Nunneries and for addition to their contumelies cruelly turning out of their cities and holy mansions all the Priests and Religious But what kind of men are they that have raised this storm in the Low-countreys What dregs of the people what vile and abject fugitives and Apostates from Religion cruell but to those that fear them cowardly slaves if they themselves be terrified A few Secliners and Countreymen accidentally taking Arms destroyed a multitude of these Church robbers Did not one man yesterday catching up a spear when a great sort of these Traytours were gathered together fright them not onely from a Chapel which they threatned but from the Citie it self Will you suffer this pestilence to rage without opposition and to ruine the State and Peace of your Countrey and your Religion before your eyes and these troubles to open the way unto a forrein Conquest Nay it is commonly reported these villanies are committed some of you not onely not resisting but being also privie and assistant to the plot I am not ignorant that such Calumnies use to be spread abroad by wicked men to make good Subjects less active in doing Iustice upon the enemies to Religion And perhaps they hope to fright me with great names and so inforce my consent to their unjust Demands What is fit to be done by men of honour look you to that for what concerns my self I religiously profess that no mans menaces shall compell me to mix the new figments of these people with the ancient and Orthodox Religions established in these Provinces Nay if the King himself upon whose Grace and Pleasure I depend should dispense with the Low-countrey men to be of what Religion they list which how farre it is from his Maiesties intention none can be ignorant I would instantly depart the Low-countreys because I would not be an Agent in or Interpreter of such Indulgence But if I were stayed by force of Arms which I hear they threaten I call God to witness I would offer my self to the slaughter and be torn in pieces rather then suffer a Profession of Faith contrary to the Catholick Religion To prevent all this be it your care my Lords I do coniure you by your duty to God your Allegiance to the King and your Love unto your Countrey And because gentle remedies will not prevail with desperate people and that they trust to the protection of the confederate Gentlemen let us at last receive the Arms and Assistance which you have often promised and ought long since to have performed That when the King shall come who will be here very shortly he may find these Provinces quieted by your means and no less remunerate your fidelity with his royall Bounty then he will requite the perfidiousness of others with severe punishment This speech made by the Governess took according to every ones severall interest and inclination quickning the desires if found in their minds but not introducing any new Resolve Therefore the Counts of Mansfeld Aremberg and Barlamont all true to the Kings cause chearfully offered their services Egmont Orange Horn and divers others spake against levying war whose opinion carried a greater appearance of Reason because of the multitudes of Hereticks whereof there was above fifteen thousand in Bruxels it being unsafe for the present to provoke them by a warre But the Governess cut off that dispute and leaving the mention of Armes out of her Speech not out of her mind for she resolved the Warre should be her Great Councel she asked their opinions how those troubles might be otherwise composed The result of their two dayes consultation was That the Goveâ—ness should offer them an Act of oblivion for the time past and security for the future provided that the Confederates should first burn the instrument of their Association they called it the Covenant and afterwards take an oath to be true to the Catholick Religion and faithfull Subjects to the King for ever But the Governess delaying to set her hand to the Act as if she were yet doubtfull whether it should pass or no more of these turbulent people hourly gathering together and being themselves tossed upon the waves of sedition thrust others on that else would have sate still And they were heard to say prompted by Lewis brother to the Prince of Orange that unless the Governess would secure the Gentlemen Covenanters unless every one might have liberty to go to Sermons and no man be punished for Religion the Governess should with her own eyes see all the Churches in Bruxels fired the Priests murthered her self imprisoned And because this was said to be as well privately intended as publickly reported the Governess resolved to steal out of Bruxels and retire to Mons a city of Haynolt partly that she might not be an eye-witness of the destruction of holy Images in Bruxels partly that being in a safe place she might not
besides the distempers of his mind if he were not poisoned he dyed upon Saint Iames his Eue. Foure dayes before having for a long time equally slighted the cure of Body and Soule God turning his Minde he called for his Ghostly Father and confessing his Sinnes with great compunction sending one to his Father to begge pardon for his Disobedience holding a hallowed Candle in his hand gave up the ghost I know this Relation will not please some that greedily swallow downe the foulest Surmizes without any distinction or respect to Truth or False-hood for whose palates if I were minded to dresse my Discourse I might instance the Rebellion of the Moores at this very time and make Prince Charles their Incourager and say that he sollicited Selimus the Turkish Emperour by Michesius the Jew fled out of Spaine as I have formerly related I might like-wise move a jealousie that the Faction of the Low countrey Covenanters was assisted by Prince Charles and might interpret that to be the reason why they resolved to send into Spaine many thousands of Calvins Catechismes translated into Spanish whereof the Governesse as I told you sent Intelligence to King Philip Pope Pius the fifth wrote to his Majesty that some Chest fulls of them were found at Lyons and Tholouse Nor should I passe over the Death of Queene Isabella Wife to King Philip there being but a few moneths between the Prince his Death and her's as if their too much Familiarity for Isabella should have beene marryed to Prince Charles had been the cause of both their fates Lastly I might tell you how the Prince had a designe upon his Father's life either out of affection to the Crowne or hatred to the King grounding my conjecture upon common fame which spread to farre that to my knowledge this verse of Ovid was used to that purpose in the Low-countreys first applied as they say by Opmerus FILIVs ante DIeM patr Ios InqVIrIt In annos Wherein both the Prince's Fact and the yeare of his Death are expressed in numerall Letters But this kind of learning as darke and intricate I willingly leave to those Writers that by Interpretation of such Oracles are ambitious to be famed for acutenesse of wit and divination they seeming to me besides their uncertainty to have no colour of Truth For not to speake of the Love betwixt the Queene and Prince which if it had been true the King to breake that League would have hastned not put off the Princes Marriage with his Cosen-german if the Prince had plotted any thing against his Father he might every day have executed it by himselfe and with his owne hands as being young and coming resolved against an unprepared old man or if he would have raised Tumults and called in help no doubt but he had needed many hands and consequently when the Prince fell those of his Party I suppose could not have stood yet the Princes Death was the losse of no mans Life Nay the King to lessen the envy both of his Son's Imprisonment and Death knowing himselfe aspersed by diverse persons in particular by Mary the Empresse the Prince's Aunt and desirous to match her Daughter to the Heire of so many Kingdomes would he not have pretended the cause of such Severity to have been his Son 's impious Designes Notwithstanding in his Letter to the Empress he denyed that his Son was found guilty of any â—reasonable Intention but said it was fit he should be imprisoned for his own howsoever for the Kingdome 's Good And a few dayes after his Son's Commitment sending the President of his Councell of Castile to the Archbishop of Rossana the Popes nuncio he assured the Bishop from the King there was no other reason of that Change as the Bishop himselfe wrote to Cardinall Alexandrino in the President 's wrods then his Majesties Resolution to prefer Religion and the Safety of his Subjects before his owne bloud which compelled him in a manner to sacrifice his only Son lest he should have been more than ingratefull for the great benefits God had bestowed upon him Afterwards his Majesty inserted in his Letters to forreine Princes and to his owne Kingdomes that the Rumour spread abroad of a Plot which his Son had upon his life was idle false But this fortune proved peculiar to the two Charles'es the Grand-father Grand-childe that the one's Desire to resigne and the other 's to invest the Soveraignty very much busied the wits of Writers The Low-countrey-Lords and Commons affrighted with the King 's forrein and domesticall Severity every man as his conscience accused him shifted for himselfe few hoped for Pardon many thought of Armes and Revenge In so much as Alva himselfe hardly escaped at the Monastery of Greene-vaile to which he was going in devotion an Ambush being laid in the woods by Ressorius Nohott to surprize him by the way And when he came thither he was in danger to have been murthered in the very Monastery by Charles Ressorius his Brother who had taken the habit of a Monke pretending feare of the Duke Iohn Lignius Count Aremberg Governour of Frisland Generall at the Battaile of Hilligel The death of Count Aremberg incouraged not the mind of the Prince of Orange and the Confederates more then it exasperated the Duke of Alva and hastened his March into Friezland to prevent Lewis of Nassau from joyning forces with the Prince of Orange But the Duke fearing that in his absence some Tumult might be raised in favour of the Lords his Prisoners freed himselfe of that suspicion especially being inraged for the losse of Count Aremberg at the newes brought him that Grave Lewis had hanged many Spaniards in Revenge of his Brother Adolph's Death And though diverse of his Friends did not so well approve his Resolution but indeavoured to perswade him there was no danger of a Tumult in the Low-countryes so long as he had for his Security such Hostages as those Prisoners And that it was no more to be doubted that the Low-countrey-men would out of their affection forceably attempt any thing for the Liberty of the impeached Lords then it was to be hoped that the same affection would disswade them from stirring lest by a popular offence they might wrong those Noble-mens private cause Yet the Duke of Alva despising this Advise as one that long experience had made jealous and of his owne nature was averse to other mens counsells which he looked upon with the aspect of a retrograd Planet especially when they offered themselves on the first of Iune Nineteene noble Covenanters were condemned of High Treason by the Councell of twelve and by the Duke of Alva's Order beheaded in the Sand-market at Bruxells Eight whereof dyed religiously the other Eleven like Hereticks as they were obstinately and therefore the bodyes of those were buryed but the other all but
long since been in the Low-countreys and there served a Volunteer against the French at his return for Italy he was an earnest suiter to King Philip to whom he delivered his son Alexander that he would please to restore him the Castle of Piacenza kept as yet with a Spanish Garrison The King though he resolved not to grant his suit yet lest the Prince should return discontented whom by long experience he had found faithfull and serviceable to the Crown of Spain in his command against Herecules the French Generall in the War of Italy and the obedience of whose Cisalpine Countreys would greatâ—y advantage Spain conferred the Government of the Low-countreys and Burgundy upon his wife acquainting the Duke with it as if he did it for his sake assuring himself whilest those Provinces which he looked upon with so much love and care were in his absence committed to the Farnezes they would rest well contented with so high an argument of confidence and affection Nor did Octavio sleight the favour nay as it often happens that a present bounty is the step to a future rise he hoped by the tie of this Government every day more to endear his Majestie to his Sister and to the House of the Farnezes The King lessened not that hope which he knew would serve to make the Farnezes intentive to the Government of the Low-countreys for by how much the Governess might advance his interest in the Low-countreys as well because of her Religion as her Prudence so much the gladder he was to have such Pledges from them The King therefore not onely kept his son Alexander to aw the mother but he thought it concerned him to give the father hope of the Castle of Piacenza well knowing some mens natures are more obliged by receiving one then many benefits Margaret Dutchesse of Parma and Piacenza Daughter to Charles the 5th Governesse of the Lowcountreys His Majesty having thus instructed the Governess and assigned her an Annuall persion of thirty six thousand Crowns to encrease the publick joy in the assemblie of the Estates at Gant he created eleven Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece in their places that were deceased for so many wanted to make up fifty one the number to which Charles the fifth had multiplied the Order whereas Duke Philip the Founder at first onely instituted twenty five and after added six to make up the number one and thirty Lastly the King appointed a time to hear the Petitions of the Deputies to the Estates Where Granvel in the Kings name made a speech to them answered by Borlutius of Gant Speaker for the Estates Granvell gave reasons for the Kings going into Spain Declared Margaret Dutchess of Parma under the Kings Majestie Supreme Governess of the Low-countreys and Burgundy she then sitting by the King Disputed for the Old Religion against Hereticks that corrupted it And in the first place earnestly commended the protection and observance of Religion to the Governess till his Majestie should return to the Low-countreys Borlutius after he had presented the Estates humble thanks and promises of obedience to the King and Governess delivered the Heads of their desires That his Maiestie by the example of his Father the Emperour would please to call out of the Low-countreys all forrein forces and use none but their own Coâ—ntrey Garrisons nor admit of any Alien to sit in the Great Councel The King giving them fair hopes promised to with-draw the forrein souldiers that remained for he had already freed them of the maior part within foure moneths next ensuing So dissolving the Assembly all his business in the Low-countreys being now dispatched From Gant he passed to Zelanâ— and weighing anchors from the port of Ulâ—â—hen in the moneth of August made a happy voyage into Spain The Governess the Dutchess of Parma and the Duke of Savoy having waited on the King aboard the Duke with his Princely Bride tooke leave for Italy Her Excellence retired to Bruxels the ancient seat of the Belgick Princes and in September one thousand five hundred fiftie and nine began her Government over the Low-countreys The End of the first Book The Historie of the LOW-COVNTREY WARRES The second Book KIng Philips departure from the Low-Countreys fell out very inconvenient for that new condition of affairs For every change in Cities and Kingdomes like young trees when they are transplanted had need of present looking to till we be sure they have taken root Doubtless it had been farre better for the Netherlands if the King so the necessities of Spain would have permitted had stayed there for some time till he had seen at a nearer distance the course and motions of things which he had altered in those parts And not to have taken them upon trust from others uncertain relations For many times the water changes the tast by running long and severall wayes under ground nor can he that drinks it a farre off judge of it so well as he that sits at the spring head and hath it from the fountain Truly the King had with more certainty looked into the designes of men and consequently the misfortune had been less which after he left them involved the Low-Countreys in a difficult and tedious warre And as when his father Charles went into Germany to be crowned Emperour the Spaniards immediately took up arms against his Lieutenants so the Low-Countreymen when K. Philip went for Spain to take possession of his Kingdome after they had kept a foot a civill war between them and their governours at last the confederate Provinces fell off from their obedience to their Prince The causes of which evils I being now to represent I must confess I never read of any tumult or war whose originall was so variously and contradictorily reported by the People and written by Historians I believe that some when they found the reasons that went currant for causes of this war fat too weak for the raising of so great commotions they themselves guessed at others that rather agreed with the writers wit then the truth of history Some again have framed causes according to their factions and religions passing over all those in silence that made against their party Others not so much to cozen the Reader as being cozened themselves with the shew of pretended causes ignorant how much Causes and Beginnings differ have failed to clear the originals of these differences When an Historian is obliged first to inform himself of the beginnings of Peace and War or of Seditions and what their grounds and causes were and in the next place to inform his Readers lest they not understanding the difference of causes and beginnings should judge amiss of actions and events and so History the mistress of wisdome become the handmaid of errour Nor was it an idle dispute among the ancient Historians what was the ground of the warre wherein
apart But though I read the other almost in all writers yet what the words of the Charter should be whereby the King obliged himself so as that he could not augment the number of Bishops I find in no Historian For what some write that the King swears at his Coronation not to encrease the State Ecclesiasticall is not an ingenuous allegation because the Prince onely swears to that kind of encrease whereby he promises not to suffer the Clergy to receive the goods of Laymen which they call Mortmains but upon certain conditions This is far from the point in controversie therefore I held it fit to march further into their records where I found one Clause that seems to make against the increasing the number of Bishops Which condition of their priviledges unless I had resolved to be a faithful Historian I might safely have concealed because they themselvs do not mention it that have I am sure written many things in mere malice to the Spaniard For King Philip being created Duke of Brabant by his father Charles the fifth among divers Priviledges which in the Act of the Ioyfull Entry he bestowed upon that Province inserts this clause That hereafter he will not suffer any to entrench upon the Offices Lands or Goods of Abbots Bishops or other religious persons within the Dukedome of Brabant under the name of a Commendum But whilst by the Kings procurement Bishops were entituled to the reversions of Monasteries after the Abbots deceases the Brabanters seemed to have their Priviledges broken and the people had occasions offered that the proceedings which every one hated for his private benefit they might all in publick fairly declaim against by the name of Breach of Priviledge Some therefore wondered what was in the Kings mind or counsel to bring in new Bishops make a thing displeasing of it self far more distastfull and odious by taking their estates from the Monasteries And therefore they further said That if the King proceeded to violate the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject the Brahanters had cause to defend themselves and that the Prince ought to remember that when he made their Charter he articled They should pay him no subjection or obedience if he entirely performed not to them his Oath and Protestations Yet some there were of a contrary opinion and by how much they saw the King endeavour it with lesse benefit and greater danger to himself so much the more they commended his sincere religion who in this business looked upon nothing but the good of his people And indeed What was there apparent that men could justly blame the encrease of the number of the Bishops or of their maintenance As if the Bishop of Rome might not do that in the Low-countreys which he had done in Germany and in France between which two Nations in the middle lieth the Netherlands Did not Boniface Bishop of Mentz Legate for the See Apostolick in Germany when the multitude of Christians abounded in some places by the authority of the Popes Cregory the third and Zachary adde three new Bishops to the former The very like cause there was among other reasons for doing the same in the Low-countreys But what motive was in France the sacred jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tholouse was so large that one Pastor could not possible see the faces of all his Diocese and therefore it was divided into five Episcopall Sees by Iohn the 22 not onely no care taken of the Bishops of Narbon Bourges or Cahors out of whose estates both the Church of Tholouse and some of these new ones were endowed but the Bishop of Tholouse must of necessity loose much of his revenues by the division of his then rich Diocese That the neighbour Bishops ought not to have been called to Rome and heard in a business of this nature their reasons for it being onely their own profit and power is sufficiently apparent Nor were the grievances of the Lords built upon a much better ground that is they were discontented that they should be limited in their bold disputes about Religion and Monarchy by the unwelcome presence of the Prelates whom they ought to honour as Fathers and Princes of the Church and to fear them as Revengers of Sacriledge For when they alledged that they doubted the Bishops would be evil Counsellours and bandy against the King it was a pretence to cozen children with they doubted themselves that if they should appear against the King they should have these men for witnesses and adversaries that had received and hoped for more from his Majesty then ever the Abbors did Then the complaints of the Abbots and Monks were somewhat more then became them It was not without precedent that a Bishop should succeed in the place of an Abbot Let them look upon France they shall find that Iohn the xxii indowed the Bishops of Condom Vabrince and Lâ—mbere to name no more with Monastery lands And if there should want an example yet when it was granted to a Prince by the Pope that may command the Monks they might have been so modest as to teach others obedience to his Holiness They might have remembred most of their Mannors and Lordships were the bounty of the Belgick Princes which made it seem more just so as the King not making his own use or advantage of the profits thereof but onely employing them for the good and benefit of those Provinces the Abbots themselves ought to have been as willing as the Prince and contributed to the necessity of the people by so much more freely by how much that Care is more proper to a religious life and not with unseasonable exclamations have corrupted a good designe stirred up the people and alienated the Popes and the Kings mind from their patronage For the great grievance that the King had broke their Priviledges First they did not sufficiently understand the difference between a Commendum and the Annexion of Church-livings A Commendum being in the nature of a thing deposited the other given as to an absolute Lord. And therefore Commendums if the possessour die revert to the depositor as the Lord Paramount unless they be passed over to another by a new Commendum but such as are annexed do not revert but remain for ever to the Successour in that Office to which they are appendent For which reasons there is no more taken from Monasteries by annexing then was by giving them in Commendum because that which is annexed doth no more revert to Monasteries then that which was commended forasmuch as what was once commended is conferred again from one to another by the Pope to whom it reverts Nay whereas Church-livings may be commended to non-residents that cannot which is annexed to a Bishoprick For herein Religion requires the Bishops presence farre more then a Commendum so as what might have come by a Commendum to a forreiner by Annexion was retained in the
out of fashion Truly that Religion was not much to be regarded when Authority was to be acquired or established are the words of his own letter to Alençon Brother to the French King part whereof in its due place I shall insert This it was thought he learned in the villanous school of Machiavel whose Books he seriously studied as Granvel affirms in his Letter from Spain directed to Alexander Prince of Parma William of Nassau furnished with these Arts how he imployed them in exasperating the minds of the Low-countrey men I shall now briefly open He was hostage as I have formerly said to Henry the second of France Hunting with the King they fell into that discourse which he speaks of in his Defence against his Proscription published by King Philip wherein he glories in the discovery which he made of the plot betwixt him and King Henry who letting fall some words of the grand Designe but abruptly and obscurely lest perhaps he might reveal it to one that was not of counsel with them the Prince of Orange as he himself sayes to wyer-draw the whole business out of the King takes upon him to have been long privy to the plot which the King easily believes thinking the Prince in great esteem with his Master and seeing him his hostage there He therefore freely tells him that by the Spanish Embassadour the Duke of Alva King Philip agreed with him to destroy all the families of the new Religion which he was to see done in France and King Philip in the Low-countreys in which he likewise had erected a constant Tribunal where matters of Faith should be tried which would be as good as his Forts to keep his people in obedience The Prince of Orange finding the designe which he knew to be King Philips return'd into the Low-countreys There when he saw the Dutchess of Parma made Governess and Granvel joyned with her the number of Bishops increased and Inquisitors of Faith to be brought in he conceived this to be the designe which King Henry had discovered to him And when he perceived that these new Decrees had filled the Cities with fears and jealousies and that no part of the State looked cheerfull he resolved to make use of the opportunity supposing that if he should feed the beginnings of these discontents on his part as many already corrupted with heresie would do on theirs that he should undoubtedly elude the designes of the Spanish And now that he had some little glimmering of an exspectation and began to form great plots to bring all his aims to their desired ends thus he set them a work The King at Gant called a Chapter of the Knights of the Golden Fleece in whose Creation because all authority was not in the King as Master of the Order but in the joynt-votes of his Companions that some might be chosen which hated the King I suppose Monting and Hochstrat the Prince of Orange took a great deal of pains solicited and prevailed with his Colleagues to promise him their severall suffrages And both these Lords now obliged he meant hereafter as purchased by this favour to make use of Besides when the Cities mutinied as I have told you because Spanish Garrisons were left upon the frontiers he privately inflamed their fury and argued with his friends of the pride of those forrein souldiers that under colour of defending the Borders laboured to put a yoke upon free Cities Withall he commended the loyaltie of the Low-countreymen which notwithstanding suffered for that strangers were preferred before them And put it in their heads that the Estates who were then to be summoned should with great earnestness petition the King that his Spanish souldiers might be disbanded by his Fathers example who never had any Garrisons in the Low-countreys but of Low-countrey men which accordingly the States were suiters for with great noise and clamour And at that time the King promised to satisfie them by word of mouth which afterward he really performed the Prince of Orange much glorying in it who in his Letters professed himself to have been the authour of sending away the Spaniards and that by this act which he accounted an eternal honour to him and his Colleagues he brought two things about the one that he freed his Countrey from slavery the other that he opened they are his own words the way to Religion Onely to his and their Crown of glory this was wanting that as they had turned the Spaniards out of the Low-countreys so they had not shut the door upon them locked it fast guarded the Passe and kept them from all hope of ever coming back again Yet he doubted not but as he had purged a great part of the Netherlands of them so as they could call nothing there their own but the bones and ashes of their Countreymen in like manner he should quickly bring to effect or at least endeavour it that they should all be banished out of the seventeen Provinces and being compelled to return to their own Countrey should at last suffer the Low Dutch to enjoy the liberty of their fortunes bodies and souls Nor was he less active against the designe of introducing new Bishops which by the spirit of Calvin he used to call hangmen brought in to flea and burn mankind And to that end he applied himself to the Abbots some of which instructed at private conferences and emboldened against the fear of any Magistrate were for a great while his principall instruments of discord But he had not better success in any thing then in defeating the Emperours Edicts and the Kings proclamations For as nothing more amazed the people then the name of the Inquisition so the Prince of Orange in that fright aggravating their fears and jealousies telling them of the breach of Priviledge the tyranny of the Spaniards the slavery of the Low-countrey men most of them vain surmizes but yet working in minds inclined to suspicion It is hardly credible what an odium he brought upon the Inquisition how he turned the Peoples hearts from the King and made them hate the Spaniards So that many being perswaded the freedome of their Nation would be lost if this went on would assoon have let into their cities the Enemies of their Countrey as the Inquisitours of Faith The Prince of Orange glad of this successe and being as I have said inraged at Granvels power absolutely resolved to joyn with the People and the Hereticks who he knew hated Granvel and he was glad they did so At length new and far more implacable tumults rising every where in the Low-countreyes when the Duke of Alva was Governour the bolder the people grew who then refused their pardons offered by some Governours of Cities and publickly renounced their allegiance the more high-hearted grew the Prince of Orange His hopes which hitherto were uncertain and farr off now came near and courted him So
was in dispute if the Governess had conditioned That so long as their neighbours were in arms so long the borders should have their Cities besides their own train-bands kept with forrein Garrisons Certainly they had in generall such a longing to be rid of the Spaniards as they would have agreed to any terms whatsoever and afterwards the Governess might easily have suppressed the tumults with those forrein souldiers But being then ingaged in troubles the Dutchess endeavoured to compose them for the present Unless perhaps she were deterred from entertaining forrein souldiers by the emptiness of the Exchecquer fearing in that great want of money if their pay should fall short forreiners would mutiny more dangerously then the natives which from their Princes hand might divers wayes receive correction The publick joy of the Low-countreymen for the departure of the Spaniards was accompanied with private joy at Court for Granvels being created Cardinall and the solemnity of the Prince of Orange's marriage solemnized in Saxony whither many of the Lords were gone along For whilest he was present at the marriage of his sister he had there concluded a Match for himself his first wife Anne Egmont being dead with another Anne daughter to Maurice Duke of Saxony wherewith he preacquainted the Governess Who at first disliking his marrying into a Lutheran family assured him it could never be approved of either by his Majesty or her self that he should have a Lady born in a Lutheran Court not onely bred an heretick by her father long since deceased but whose zeal would be dayly inflamed by her fathers brother Augustus who succeeded Duke Maurice in the Electorate and by her mothers Grandfather Philip Lantgrave of Hessen But the Prince of Orange perswaded her Excellence he had taken order for that and by way of prevention had agreed with Augustus Guardian to the Lady Anne that he would not marry her unless she turned Catholick and that Augustus and she her self under their hands and seals had Articled as much though Philip her Grandfather was against it refusing the condition of altering her religion because he had a design when that marriage should be broke off under colour of Religion to match his own daughter to the Prince of Orange To this purpose he had treated with him by letters promising for his daughter that he would accept the condition of her renouncing the Lutheran faith So little account they make of abusing Religion whose profit is their God The plot being discovered and greivously complained of by Augustus Philip replyed said the Prince of Orange That he being but poor and the father of many children it was not unhandsome for him to receive conditions from another but it would be a dishonour for the Duke of Saxony a Prince Elector to have William of Nassau give the Law to him and therefore he had refused the condition for his Neice and accepted it for his Daughter but this answer was not satisfactory to Augustus therefore to prevent him he resumed the Treaty with the Prince of Orange And when the Prince of Orange had often professed That nothing was or could be so dear to him as his soul and honour and duty to his Prince the Governess at last consented But yet she gave no leave to the Governours of Provinces to accompany the Prince of Orange which he made his suit because she had use of their service at home the French being in arms upon the borders Notwithstanding lest he should depart discontented she permitted the rest of the Nobility to go with him And in the head of that gallant Troop he rode to Saxony followed by Florence Memorancy Lord of Montiny who in the name of the Dutchess of Parma visited the Bride and presented her a diamond ring The Prince of Orange at Liepswich a city in Saxony having celebrated his marriage in the beginning of August where the King of Denmark was present and divers other Princes of Germany immediately returned into the Low-countreys renuing his promise to the Governess touching his wives Religion Which Promise he as truly performed as she did the Faith she had sworn to him in marriage being thirteen years after taken in adultery and sent back into Germany by the Prince who married Charlotte Bourbâ—n daughter to the Duke of Mompensier But his new marriage feast was kept in Holland with more pomp then joy by the Prince of Orange offended at Granvels scarlet which he had long forborn to wear but now the Prince found him in his robes For Pius the fourth made him together with seventeen others Cardinall of the Sacred Romane Church this year upon the twenty sixth day of February and within twelve dayes after the messenger brought the news into the Low-countreys soon after came one to Machin that was to present Granvell letters from his Holiness and a Cardinals hat But Granvel put off the receiving of those honours till he knew the Kings pleasure He therefore dispatched a messenger into Spain I suppose because he was sensible that the Governess had used means to procure him this dignity without acquainting the King with the contents of her Letters to the Pope Indeed she had not onely concealed it from his Majesty who she knew would like well of it but from Granvel himself Though it had been long in agitation between her and the Pope as she afterwards wrote to the King Therefore fearing the King would conceive him to be obliged onely to the Dutchess Granvel would not accept that honour without his Majesties consent and as it were from his Royall hand Perhaps he had some little doubt that the Dutchess at one time or other would take occasion by reason of that Ecclesiasticall advancement to remove him from the Civill Government And therefore he thought it fit to wait for the Kings approbation who by a speciall and strict injunction had commended him to the Governess But whatsoever he thought the Dutchess liked not his demur upon it and therefore answered his letter to this purpose That she condemned not his resolution but her opinion was he should have done better to have put on his Cardinals Robes without delay nor did she doubt but he would find the King of Spain of the same mind and that he would receive with his Majesties Letters his Command to force him to it And though she was very glad the Popes Nuntio as Granvel wrote to her took it in the best sense Yet he must have a speciall care that neither the Nuntio nor any of his servants should write to Rome lest the Court there should take occasions to cavill at this kind of modesty or lest the Pope should take offence as if his gifts should have their estimation from another In the mean time she heartily joyed him of his honour which was joyned with so much good to Religion and the King to which ends she had endeavoured it
knowing how advantagious it would be to the State of the Low-countreys if things appertaining to Religion should be transacted by him in whom among other ornaments his scarlet would advance his Authority Yet notwithstanding these letters from the Dutchess Granvel assented not till he had answer out of Spain then he presently put on his Robes and so expressing his duty to the King without distast to the Governess he received honour from the one and favour from the other Besides his Pall the Popes Chamberlain brought him from Rome a Cardinalls hat which is seldome sent to any it being the custome to receive it onely in Rome Which benefit Granvel ascribed to the Dutchess with exquisite thanks not so much extolling the greatness of the bounty as the giver And he said he had cause to reverence it as the greatest of all honours because therein he adored the goodness of his Prince But in his private discourse he plainly told the Dutchess That considering the Changes of mans life he had accepted of that Dignity Especially for that if at any time he should leave the Low-countreys as he saw a storm over his head threatening him from the Lords he might have a place at Rome among the Cardinals to which he might make an honourable retreat A designe at this day hit upon by many who knowing That Power seldome grows old at Court and that Favour will as surely perish as Life are willing to be advanced into this Order not as ambitious but as provident persons that in their greatest misfortunes the Altar and the Church may be their Refuge In the year following 1562 the Civil War of France reviving the Kings commands came to the Governess enjoyning her with all possible care and speed to send assistance to King Charles against his Rebels An Account of the Management and Original of these troubles will not I suppose trespass upon your patience if I repeat briefly from the beginning not onely what before this time was agitated touching these succours but the whole Progress of those French tumults forasmuch as partly upon private discord at Court partly for that in publick which concerned Religion it was the Model of the Plot laid by the Low-countrey men with so like success of both Nations that sometimes unless you be rectified by the names of Places and Persons you would not think you read the actions of two Kingdoms but of one and the same People Moreover some part of the French Rebellion was carried by advice sent out of the Low-countreys whereof Cardinall Granvel gave intelligence to his brother Thomas Lord Cantonet Embassadour for the Catholick King in France This being therefore a business of no small importance and because I would not interrupt my Narration of the Low-countrey war with inserting that of France I shall here as the matter and place requires with no vain not tedious Digression comprehend the whole Heresie having long since poysoned France had distracted it into factions and many men contemning the old had taken up the name of the new Religion For although after Luthers pestilence reigned in Germany France had a great while kept it self free from the infection yet in the year 1533 it was attempted by some of Luthers Emissaries For Francis the first favouring learned men and learning as commonly they do whose actions are worthy of a learned pen resolved to erect an University at Paris sending proposals of great entertainment to the ablest scholars of Italy and Germany This opportunity Luther took hold of and sent Buâ—er and others of the boldest of his followers which by disputing in that confluence of prudent men might give an Essay to bring in the new Gospel Nor wanted there some that were taken with the Novelty Especially because such as were questioned for Religion had their recourse into Aquitain to Margaret of Valois the Kings sister who perhaps out of hatred to the Bishop of Rome which had been infused into her in the family of her husband Alibret whom his Holiness depreived of the Kingdome of Navarre might lie open to the cunning of the Lutherans perhaps out of ambition to be thought a Wit which she affected beyond the limits of her sex or indeed as she herself confessed some years before her death at which time she was a Catholick it was not out of the perversness of her nature but out of commiseration to the condemned persons that fled to her protection which made her so earnest with her Brother in the defence of their new opinions So that for ten years together she bolstered up Lutheranisme in France Though Francis the first was the more slow in eradicating it by reason of the Germanes and the Swisse that served him against Charles the fifth till being grievously offended with the contumacy of the men and their malice to Religion he published many Proclamations against them not onely threatning but executing his Laws untill at last he almost extinguished the name of Luther in his Kingdome But Calvins stratagem succeeded somewhat better Who immediately upon the death of Francis the first whilst King Henry was engaged in the Warrs attempted France by sending Libels from Geneva And as he found the minds and ears of many possessed with Luthers opinions so he himself set the common people agogge to understand his new doctrine and the vulgar was very proud for his Books were writ to their capacity in the French Tongue to be made Judges of Religion and as it were to passe their votes upon the abstrusest controversies of Faith Lastly as they that fall from the highest point are easily tossed from one breach of the precipice to another till they come to the very bottome having once departed from the old Religion they fell headlong from Luther to Calvin many of them not resting till having disclaimed all worship and not believing there was any God at all they finally stuck fast in the bottomless Abyss of evil And notwithstanding that Heresie first corrupted the minds of the People they being still the first that are swept away with a Plague yet in a short space it made way through the Commons seized upon some of the greatest Lords and came into the Court it self where it infected many persons of quality as that which was likely to be serviceable to the factious Nobility for winning the peoples hearts and drawing them to make head against their Competitours that grew still more powerfull with the King For Mary stuart Queen of Scots of the House of Guise by her Mother being married to Francis the second much advanced the greatness of the Guises For the King but fifteen years old had use of others service and these were fit to be employed Especially Francis Duke of Guise and his brother Charles Cardinal of Lorain he being an experienced fortunate Commander abroad and a prudent man at home this eminent for a generall Scholar deeply
learned but particularly of a subtil elocution and a Majestick kind of presence But the more these Princes by their own worth and the Queens favour were advanced the more must others necessarily be discontented that either had been or hoped to be the first in favour Principally the Bourbons and the Colligny not to name Momorancys that bore spleen to the Guises but with more civility Indeed Anthony of Bourbon besides his being the first Prince of the bloud took upon him in the right of his wife Ioan Alibret the title of King of Navarre He was a man equally tempered for the Arts of War and Peace but immoderate in his pleasures and therefore unfit to establish a Dominion Much more fierce and cunning was his brother Lewis Prince of Condè constantly engaged and exercised in the War yet with much more courage and confidence then either strength or knowledge Gaspar Colligny and his brother Andelot were of like nature but because he was Admiral of the French seas and this Lieutenant Genera◠of the Foot they were likewise in high esteem These which I have named with others of inferiour quality though there was no tie of friendship among them yet because they were all concerned in one common Interest easily conspired together And the Engine wherewith they meant to ruine the power of the Guises was by protecting the Hereticall Party who they knew hated the very name of Guise Especially some of them having now forsaken the old Religion desired to appear not onely Patrons of the Sectaries but likewise of the Sect. Among which none more boldly professed and maintained Heresie then Ioan Alibret wife to Bourbon and onely daughter to Margaret of Vallois and Henry King of Navarre This Lady because she saw her self deprived of her Kingdome of which Ferdinand the Catholick King had by arms dispossessed Iohn her grandfather excommunicated by the Bishop of Rome was transported with so implacable an hatred unto Rome and Spain and consequently to the Romane Religion which she knew the Spanish so much tendered that she spared no pains nor cost to bear down the Popes Authority and the Catholick Faith in France Heresie therefore supported by these eminent persons spread it self so far over the whole Kingdome that Henry King of France whose Armies were kept in action by the Spaniards in the Low-countreys concluding a Peace with King Philip withdrew his forces and cares to compose discords at home which threatned to break out into a Civil War But the death of King Henry hastened on the mischief For as I said his son Francis and the Queen and Queen-Mother the more they used the faithfull endeavours of the Guises against Hereticks the more they exasperated their enemies and put them on to use the proffered service of the Hereticks to suppresse their power Which moved the Queen-mother when her daughter Isabella was to go for Spain to desire assistance from her Son in Law King Philip against the Hereticks and troublers of the Kingdome To which request she received a very gracious answer with a magnificent promise of men and money Letters from the King to that effect being purposely read before some of the French Lords to strike them into a fear did rather encrease their envie to the Queen-Mother and unite them against Spain And now against the Guises and against the King himself were scattered Libels as fore-runners of the tumults which immediately followed And the Lady Alibret earnestly solicited the Cause who remembring her old quarrel and impatiently longing for a Crown rung in her husbands ears That he must not suffer this onely opportunity of recovering the Kingdome of Navarre to slip out of his hands That he may now make himself head of a mighty faction almost half the strength of France That upon these terms he may exspect assistance from the Germane Princes of the same Religion from the English the Low-countrey men besides such Catholicks as were enemies to the Guises and by a strong conjuncture of all these they may expell the Guises out of France advance the Hereticall party and no doubt but at length they may carry that army to the conquest of Navarre But this furious Tullia was married to a milder Tarquin so as the Duke of Bourbon being cold for all this fiery curtain-Lecture his brother the Prince of Condè a Tarquin that well-matched the Lady Alibret is said to have undertaken the Advance of the Conspiracie and that he engendred the tempest at Ambois which for that time was dispersed by the providence of the Duke of Guise But new clouds of discontentments gathering at last the storm fell more fatally in showers of bloud and civil war They say in that tumult the name of Hugonot was first brought up at Tours upon this occasion It is a custome at Tours to fright children by telling them of Hugh who they say rides about the Suburbs in the night pushing at all he meets And when the Hereticks that flocked to Tours had their nightly Conventicles in the Suburbs because they durst not come together in the day time they were accidentally pointed out to the children like midnight-goblins and from Hugh by way of jeer were called Hugonots Though some derive them from another kind of original But whencesoever they had that denomination it appears they thought it a scorn to them and therefore they called the Catholicks Papists But these are onely names I proceed to the matter as it is recorded by them that wrote the History of those times The first designe of the French tumults was laid at Geneva by Calvin and Beza holding in that town a shamefull and barbarous consultation upon a day appointed suddenly to massacre King Francis the Queen the Queen-mother the Kings brothers and all the Lords of the Court The King therefore to curb this insolence of the Hereticks maintained by some of the Nobility for their private ends and feuds raised an army in France called his forces out of Germany requested succours from the Duke of Lorain and the King of Spain And indeed King Philip presently sent him souldiers out of Spain which were to joyn with the French Army at Limosin intending to furnish him with more men but hearing of the death of King Francis he put off his other supplyes till the next year to which time the warre it self was deferred The death of King Francis was attended with a great alteration in the state For the Bourbons one of which was condemned to loose his head and hourly exspected the executioner and the other banished the Court and generally thought to be oppressed in his brothers ruine were presently made the disposers of the Kingdome the administration thereof being come into the hands of the Queen-mother of the house of Medices who was to govern for King Charles a child of ten years old The Prince of Condè was restored by Proclamation to his
libertie his offices and the Kings favour And the King of Navarre as nearer to the Crown by the prerogative of his bloud was declared Constable of France the Guises on the contrary falling as much from their authority The Hugonots increased in number and licentiousness and were by so much the more audacious by how much they conceived it would be more acceptable to the great Constable of France who by these troubles hoped to recover his wife's portion the Kingdome of Navar. But to case him of that care and the Hugonots of their confidence Advices were privately sent out of the Low-countreys by Cardinall Granvell to his brother Cantonet Prospero de sancta Cruce came Embassadour to France from Pope Pius the fourth and looking into the King of Navarres designs he was of opinion the man was not troubled so much about Religion as about the getting of a Kingdome and therefore might be drawn from favouring the Hugonots if he might have some hope given him of coming to the Kingdome by another means Wherein Sancta Cruz meant to sound the King of Navarre But first he acquainted Thomas Cantonet the Spanish Embassadour and he communicated it to his brother Cardinall Granvell Then Sancta Cruz proposes to the Constable what had formerly been agitated the restitution of Navarre and undertakes if he will but defend the Catholick cause that the Pope shall earnestly solicit King Philip either to resign to him the Kingdome of Navarre or to give him in lieu of it something of equall value and that he doubted not but King Philip whose inclination he had found at his being in Portugall as he came from Spain into France would comply with his Holinesse This often confirmed by Cantonet wonne the King of Navarre who resolved to treat with the Catholick King himself and sent one of his meniall servants Anthony Almeyda a Portugese whom he knew to be gratious with his Countreyman Rui Gomez Prince of Ebora then in greatest favour with the King But Granvell receiving intelligence of these proceedings from his brother Cantonet was very glad for the successe of his design but yet no lesse solicitous as he wrote to the Governess from Machlin what the King would answer to Almeyda because he conceived upon that answer depended the motions of the greatest French affairs He had pre-acquainted Rui Gomez and the Duke of Alva and let them know That it was a nice point and fall of danger in the managery whereof they might trespasse as much by forwardnesse and violence as by security and neglect And therefore he conceived it best to offer the Duke of Bourbon some such thing as if he deserted them might be taken away again After many overtures the Kingdome of Sardinia was proposed to him in King Philips name Whereto was added the Admiralty and a pension to maintain the office Which conditions though some commended as good for both parties because on the one side Sardinia is a greater and richer Kingdome then Navarre and on the other in the midst of King Philips Dominions which at his pleasure might command it Yet some were of another opinion and thought King Philip who was not prodigall of his Kingdomes onely baited him with the hope of Sardinia For to what purpose should the Bourbons be brought into that Island neighbouring upon Sicily and Naples where they might revive their ancient factions in those Kingdomes Neverthelesse the Pope did wisely in moving it whether he hoped to bring it about or understood it to be labour in vain because it would equally conduce to the good of Religion in France whether the King of Navarre was kept from protecting the hereticall party by a true hope or a false And truly by little and little he was so averted from them that he was not altogether so kind as formerly he had been to his wife Ioan Alibret which perhaps made some affirm in writing that the Spanish Embassadour indeavoured it and treated with the King of Navarre to divorce himself from his wife because she was fouly poysoned with heresie and gave him hope of a marriage with Mary Queen of Scots by the help of her Uncles the Guises and that he should have with her the Kingdome of Scotland and likewise all Great Brittain wherein he should be established by the Popes authority and the King of Spains assistance Queen Elisabeth being deposed for heresie But these were either vain rumours or contrived out of envy Nor is there any colour of truth that Granvel or Sancta Cruce could be ignorant that heresie is not a sufficient cause of Divorce or that King Philip would offer the Kingdome of Scotland to one he could not choose but fear because of former enmity in the businesse of the Low-countreys and his power to offend Spain for the future in case he should conquer that whole Island Indeed two years after when there were Treaties between the same Queen of Scots and the Arch-duke Charles sonne to the Emperour Ferdinand and Charles Prince of Spain King Philip writ to Granvel That he was well pleased The Archduke should in that be preferred before his sonne But if the King of France should think of a marriage with her whereof he had some intimation that troubled him not a little then he should willingly consent to a match betwixt his sonne and the Queen Out of which words it may easily be collected What Philips mind was touching the Kingdome of Scotland Nay that the Spanish Embassadour did not so much as pretend the Proposall of that Match to the King of Navarre this assure me because when he communicated all particulars to his brother Granvel as I observe in their letters and often mentioned the business of Sardinia there is not one word of this marriage But be what it may it is certain Alibret incensed against her husband who dayly grew more averse from the Hugonots and wold not hear her when she was a suiter for them in a rage left his Court and withdrew into some Towns of her own The King of Navarre did not so much neglect as his brother the Prince of Conde and the Collignies earnestly imbraced the patronage of the hereticks especially because the Guises were restored to grace and favour at Court. And now such was the face of things not onely at Court And now such was the face of things not onely at Court divided into factions but likewise all the Kingdome over that arms were taken up to maintain the different opinions in Religion and all things seemed to boad a Civill warre To the Prince of Conde and Generall Collignie the hereticks from all parts sent assistance Nor were the Guises and Comestabilis Memorancy lesse ayded by the Catholicks With whom the King of Navarre joyned himself but he was brother to the Prince of Conde the King a child and ignorant of deceit Mean time the Queen mother was
distracted between two factions wavering and fearing the successe of either Things being in this condition whilst King Charles made all the friends and means he could to help himself King Philip was extraordinarily carefull to dispatch away succours to his kinsman Perhaps moved by zeal to Religion perhaps solicited by his wife who trembled at her brother Charles his danger perhaps jealous of the Low-countreys lest the arms or example of the French should there prejudice his affairs Therefore having raised three thousand foot in Italy and made Iohn Anguisciola their Colonel to be commanded in chief by Imbertus Platerius Bordillon Lieutenant Generall for the King of Spain in Piemont and dispatching as many more from Spain by the way of Navarre he writes to his sister Margaret Governess of the Low-countreys presently to choose two thousand horse out of the Low-countrey Militia to march against the French Rebells and if the Queen or the Guises shall desire more men to furnish them The Governess reading the Kings letters at the Counsel board observed that all the Lords were against sending assistance to the French The Prince of Orange and Count Egmont argued that the horse was maintained by the Provinces for a guard to the Low-countreys and to that end they were at first ordained Therefore to carry them out of the Low-countreys the Provinces must give their consent but that would be a work of time and exposed to much danger now especially when the Low-countreys wanted additionall forces and ought not to have their own taken from them But they had perhaps a higher Consideration For it was believed at the instigation of the Prince of Conde some German Princes had threatned their neighbours the Low-countreymen if they assisted the Guises enemies to the new Religion they in defence of the Cause would bring an armie into the Low-countreys Nor do I think it unlikely that both the Prince of Conde attempted it and the Germans undertook it For on the one part the Prince of Condes faction was much troubled about the raising of those forces in the Low-countreys as appears by a book then published and sent by the Spanish Embassadour Cantonet with letters to his brother Granvel wherein they give the Hereticks many reasons why the King of Spain should not assist the Catholicks in France On the other part the Governess by an Express to his Majestie informs him That the Low-countrey men either terrified by the Germans or out of some other cowardly considerations would hardly nay could by no means be drawn to give order for the horse to march into France and threatned mischief if they went In which letter she seems to touch what I have here mentioned the cause of their dissent And she her self either despairing that the Provinces would let them go or believing they could not be well spared from the Low-countreys equally endangered by a war from Germany and an Insurrection at home pressed the business more remissely at the Councel Table When on the sudden came an Express from the King wherein the Governess was not a little chid for her delay and commanded without further consultation immediately to send away the Horse She anxious how she might obey his Majesty in that particular by the advice of Granvel changed the name not substance of the Kings desires demanding money instead of men Which being granted she presently returned it into France to the Queen-wother and signified to King Philip the reason of her so doing Not onely because she knew money would be far welcomer then men to the Queen according as she her self formerly intimated and after the receit confirmed but likewise for fear the Governess should loose both her endeavours and authority in pressing the Low-countrey men to that which she found by experience was not to be obtained or if it were obtained would be disadvantageous That she feared the Low-countreys now their hearts were down and that in Tournay and Valencena were begun no inconsiderable stirrs about Religion and no doubt but they would encrease if the seditious once saw the Low-countreys left naked without defence of their Horse Lastly for that some by their Place were to conduct the Horse whose faith she might very well suspect it seemed to be no less dangerous to trust them with Arms then to shew a diffidence in them by choosing other officers The King received rather then approved the condition of the money which the States had granted and sending fifteen hundred horse out of Spain to the Queen-mother which the Governess was to pay he strengthened the Catholicks in Francâ— But before these succours came the King of Navarre the Guise and Momorancy had taken Roan from the Prince of Condes men The King himself though dangerously shot lying upon his bed in a kind of Chariot was triumphantly brought into the Citie But a few dayes after his wounds bleeding afresh in the same sepulchre with himself he buried his hopes of the Kingdome of Sardinia which he had kept alive till his last gasp to the great good of the Catholicks Nor was the War prosecuted with lesse care Momorancy commanding in Chief both Armies exceedingly increasing For with the Kings forces were joyned 6000 foot sent from King Philip and the fifteen hundred Horse formerly mentioned And near to Dreux a Town in Normandy they fought a battel with great courage on both sides The Prince of Conde and Momorancy both the Generals were taken prisoners and above ten thousand men slain the Victory at last fell to the King but with more honour then joy Such fatall wars issued from the liberty given to the Hereticks and cherished by the ambition of the Lords But these miseries of the French which I have related for to that end I have related them brought the same mischief upon the Low-countreys as any man will easily perceive that hath leasure to compare the practises of Hereticks in both Nations and the differences of either Court the names of Hugonots and Gueses raised in their severall tumults The Cardinal of Lorain answering to Cardinal Granvel the Queen-mother of France to the Dutchess of Parma in the Low-countreys the like conspiracy of the Nobility the like Edicts of their Princes the plunder of Cities and Churches not to be distinguished all things in both Countreys almost the very same as springing from the self-same Causes save onely that the War was more suddenly begun by the French and more obstinately pursued by the Low-countrey men The first Low-countrey Towns that followed the example of the French were their next neighbours Tournay Lisle and Valencena which by their sudden motions plainly signified the subsequent ruine of the Netherlands For in October the year before two French Calvinist preachers in the same night the one at Valencena the other at Tournay openly before a great assembly in the Market-place delivered their new Gospel and when they had done
same contention held still in King Philips Belgick Court. But because in Dignity and the favour of his Prince and the Governess Granvell far out-stripped him he that was cast behind had the more envie in regard they had once been equals Regnard therefore finding a way open to mischief Granvell through the hatred born him by the Lords began every where to solicite and dispute the cause of the discontented Nobility and by aggravating the indignation of such as were his own friends plotted in the mean time his private revenge The Governess fearing the sting of this Viper would secretly poyson the State she to avoid shipwrack by a dry tempest perswaded the King to remove him out of the Low-countreys under colour of some advancement but it was deferred till five years after and when the storm was grown too boystrous Regnard was called into Spain almost to no purpose but onely to shew how strong a disease grows by the delay of remedy And although Count Egmont who was not of an ill nature when he had no advisers at the beginning of these troubles carried himself with obedience and fidelity to the Governess yet his private grudge to Cardinal Granvell interposing he inrolled his name among the Conspiratours and sided with the Prince of Orange who being at that time grievously injured by Granvell sought but to match his own indignation with some other alike offended Now the Prince of Orange to ingratiate himself with the Brabanters casting out words of these differences especially of the new Bishops said There was no other help for it but that the Brabanters who have no particular Governour but onely such as commanded the whole Low countreys should petition the Governess to appoint them one of the Lords that should look into their affairs and onely regard their interest And some to please the Prince of Orange moved this at the board But Granvell suspecting what was aimed at bitterly inveighed against that Counsel and at last What man soever said he undertakes their protection ought to consider with himself that he is created Prince of Brabant and divides the Sovereignty of the Low-countreys with the King Not contented thus he moved the Governess a while after when the Magistrates were to be chosen for Antwerp that the Prince of Orange should not be called to Councel lest he should boast himself the Authour of that benefit to the Town which neglect he deeply resented This caused the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont to write their complaints to his Majesty That they were seldome called to Councel and what concerned their particular Governments never communicated to them but all things privatley determined by the advice of one or two and then they were called in merely for a show to consult upon the reliques and refuse of Affairs being there contemned here mocked To say truth it is a great incentive to anger and disâ—â—â—tent and hath raised mighty troubles in many States when a Prince imployes onely one main in divers Offices For though a River swell by the accession of waters yet so long as it keeps it self in the Chanel it is injurious to none but when it flows over the banks into the adjoyning medows and intrencheth upon anothers harvest then it is accused by the just grief and complaints of the Husbandman And indeed Granvell was not limited to any certain employment The Governess both of her own accord and by the Kings command suffering him to do what he pleased The very Expresses that came to her Excellence from Spain or other parts were never brought to the Councel till she had privately either by conference or by letter acquainted Granvell with the contents who weighed every thing with himself and gave his judgement upon the particulars then returned them to the Governess or to Viglius President of the Consult or Cabinet-Councel and he omitting those heads which Granvell had marked with his pen read them to the Lords at the Councel-table and though it was privately carried for Viglius was true to Granvell yet because the Prâ—nce of Orange often received Duplicates of the Dutchese's letters they found some things were concealed from them and therefore suspected all complaining That business was malignantly communicated to them and the Low-countreys and the King defrauded of much good counsel But this moved not the Governess She onely gave the King an account of her proceedings putting him in mind of his letters dated June wherein he enjoyned her That whatsoever concerned England or the Councel of Trent or Religion in generall should be as the Pope had advised privately debated Yet I deny not said the Governess that in other things wherein the Provinces are interessed sometimes the Lords are not admitted to consult As lately in choosing the Magistrate of Antwerp the Prince of Orange was not called which I did on purpose lest he should aim to increase his present authority by that election Notwithstanding I cannot but acquaint your Majestie that it is not for our Honour to communicate all concernments freely to the Councel lest the dangers fears and necessities wherewith I am sometimes pressed be laid naked before their eyes and then if any of them be false they may abuse that knowledge by preventing our designis with contrary counsels and secretly hinder the successe of our affairs Howsoever as well in these as other things all shall be done according to your Majesties letters and commands But the King writing nothing to the contrary the Governess continued her former custome of privacy in her Councels Whereupon a rumour was spread by some of the Conspiratours that there was a necessitie to summon the Estates generall to raise subsidies for his Majestie and to put the Low-countreys into a posture of defence against their neighbours the French that were in arms Some perhaps really intended it but the most onely made use of that publick remedy to alter the present condition of the Court But the Governess who borrowed the ears of many faithfull persons was present at their Councels and conferences almost in their very thoughts and cut off that exspectation publickly professing that the King among his other commands left in charge with her not to call an Assembly of the Estates till he returned This harsh deniall of the Governess was mollified by permitting for this was another of their requests a Convention of the Order of the Golden-fleece But as soon as ever they were met at Bruxels presently it appeared that summons was not endeavoured for the publick but for their private Interests For besides the meeting in presence of the Governess where they consulted about the preservation of the Low-countreys against the French they had private discourse with the Prince of Orange and there it was resolved they would no longer suffer the power of Cardinall Granvel To this ingagement entered into by the great Commanders the Prince of Orange Count Egmont and the
Marquesse of Bergen endeavoured to get hands and severally sounded the Knights of the Order but some refusing to sign an ingagement against the Cardinall it was laid aside Especially because the Governess calling them more frequently to Councell and wearying them with fresh imployments took from them all opportunitie of meeting apart and in good time put an end to their publick consultations The result whereof was that some of the Lords should be sent into Spain by the Governess in her name to inform the King of the necessities of the Low countreys Florence Momorancy the Lord of Montiny was chosen to go with letters delivered him by the Goverâ—â—ss but penned by Granvel He likewise received instructions for his carriage and four thousand crowns to defray the expences of his journey which he began in June But before Momorancy set forth the Governess to make her vigilance appear and to prepare his Majestie sent him by a sure messenger an Expresse in cypher to this effect That she making it her business to look into the secret consultations of the Knights of the Order at last had got all out of Charles Count Barlamont one ever found Loyall that he assured her the indignation of the Nobility sprung chiefly out of these heads That they were perswaded his Majesty confided not in them and therefore the Governess called them not to her Cabinet-Councell for as much as Granvel jealous of his power had wrought the King to that suspicion and had boldly written to him that he should never be absolute Lord of the Netherlands unlesse he cut off six or seven Noblemens heads And that Granvel by his letters had further moved the King to invade the Low-countreys with a formidable Army and being so possessed of them he might then impose upon the Low-countreymen what Laws he pleased by the right of Conquest That the increase of Miters the first whereof Granvel wore tended to no other purpose but to bring the Spanish Inquisition into the Low-countreys To which words of Barlamont she had answered That the Lords were not kept from the knowledged of any secret fit to be communicated to them as Barlamont himself being one of the Councell very well knew Nor was Granvel whose transactions when he was but a young man were approved of by Charles the fifth and King Philip so ignorant a Statesman that now in his old age and experience the King might not imploy him or of so rash a malice that he would offer to perswade his Majesty to take away their lives which he knew were dear unto the King and might be sure she would oppose him in it Nor did that seem lesse improbable and ridiculous which was said of his advising his Majesty for would any man make war upon himself and with vast expence to purchase what already is his own Lastly for the Bishops Granvel indeed sought to bring them in as the King had injoyned him in pursuance of the Popes command not to make way for the Inquisition but to protect Religion in a troublesome time The charge whereof as of all things else which conduced to the maintenance of the Kings prerogative because Granvel fearlessely undertook despising all mens murmurs he was therefore hated ly many as they should ever be that stoutly defend the authority of their Prince With these discoveries the Governess pre-acquainted the King and desired him in a little note by it self that he would use the service of some one of speciall trust in the decyphering of her letter Though Barlamont himself as he was open hearted and thought that in this relation to the Governess he had both served his King and Countrey being asked by the Prince of Orange who took notice of his long stay with the Governess whether he had told her what private conference they had among themselves he ingeniously repeated his whole discourse with the Governess Nor did the Prince of Orange seem to take it amisse I suppose because he saw the grievances of his own framing were proposed in the name of a generality which therefore could not be imputed to him alone but would receive authority from the multitude In the interim the King adviseth the Governess by no meant to suffer private assemblies of the Nobilitie but to find out some expedient that the publick meeting of those men packt together to destroy the quiet of the State might be handsomely dissolved and that keeping Spies upon the Prince of Orange and his Counsells she should still have him at Court and in her eye And to set Count Egmont and the Prince of Orange at variance was not thought very difficult because they had formerly stood at a very great distance before their common hatred to Granvel united them Count Egmont was of a sweet disposition free of speech and confident the Prince of Orange of a sower nature not to be discovered therefore to be avoided In this you could not but commend his cunning but the other better kept his faith The one was an Ajax a better Commander then a Councellour the other an Ulysses that could fight better with his brain then with his sword This had a great forecast and alwayes fixed his mind upon the future so that he was still fit for any emergent occasion That seldome took care but for the present yet upon a sudden misfortune was rather unprepared then unready or unwilling to encounter it You might hope more from the one and fear more from the other You would rather chuse the friendship of Count Egmont and decline the enmity of the Prince of Orange And to demonstrate that there was not the least resemblance between them Egmont had a well-featured face a strong-timbered body a look full of honour the other was a thin-faced tawny-complexioned man and bald Yet they were exceeding popular both but the people loved the one and reverenced the other The Governess who exactly knew them wrote to the King what she thought would the soonest cause a division and pointed out the best means to effect it viz. that the Kings Pay and his Munificence about the sending whereof at that time to the Governours of the Provinces he had before consulted with her should not be distributed to all but come onely to the hands of the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont and the Count should have more then the Prince that the Prince of Orange might suspect him for his Rivall in his Majesties favour and the rest of the Lords because they were passed by somewhat resent it in them both This plot went on and their ill-pieced conspiracie began to crack a sunder the Governess still having her irons in the fire And to this purpose at the generall Dyet or convention of the Estates of Germany summoned by the Emperour Ferdinand at Franckford to create a King of the Romans some of the Low-countrey Lords being to go thither in the name of King
Philip whilst all the Nobility were in exspectation of the imployment the Dutchess made choice of Philip Croy Duke of Arescot not because he was bred up in Germany with Charles the fifth as she declared her self at the Consult and therefore was likely to be well received by his brother Ferdinand But because he was an enemie to the Prince of Orange his faction she honoured him with that Embassage that others might follow his example on like hopes of honour Yet the Prince of Orange resolved to be present at the Dyet as a private man pretending business with the Elector of Saxonie about his wifes portion and with the Emperour concerning his Estate And though the Governess would not without the Kings consent approve of his journey yet he departed in such hast as he would not tarry till his wife was brought a bed Who three dayes after was delivered of a daughter that was christened by her appointment with the ceremonies of the Church to the great satisfaction of the Governess Montiny having twice had audience of his Majestie prepared for his return and when he took leave the King whilst he commended to his care the state of the Low-countreys as it were upon occasion of discourse began to fift him and charged him by his faith and sinceritie virtues he had found in him to deal plainly what he thought was the cause of those Grievances and Heart-burnings of so many in the Low-countreys Montiny though he said he knew nothing whereof his Majesty had not been long since informed yet as farre as he could conjecture the reasons partly proceeded from the new Bishops put upon the Provinces without the consent or privity of their Governours therefore the people believed they intended to bring in the Spanish Inquisition partly out of the hatred conceived against Cardinall Granvel from the highest to the lowest so implacably that it was to be feared that at one time or other it would ingage the people in an insurrection The King replyed that all this was indeed known to him but that he admired the Low-countreymen could be moved with such vain rumours For seriously no other cause brought him to augment the number of the Bishops but onely the necessity of his people and the Councell of his father Charles the fifth And that was not concluded so secretly or suddenly as the Marquess of Bergen could tell him who had given his advice therein and commended his design when he waited on the King into England at his Marriage with Queen Mary And that for his own part it never entered into his mind by that adjunction of Bishops to impose the Spanish Inquisition upon the Low-countreys Nor had Cardinall Granvel ever perswaded him to do it or was so much as acquainted with that purpose of his Majesty till he sent Francis Sonnius his Embassadour to Rome He likewise assured him they were much deceived that hated the Cardinall as conceiving him by private information to asperse the Lords for he did never attempt it neither had his Majestie himself at any time discovered in Granvel any malicious inclinations which if he should hereafter find in him or any other of his ministers of State he never should indure them But howsoever he hoped shortly to be in the Low-countreys and then to satisfie both his own person and the Provinces desires Montiny thus dismissed by the King returned to Bruxels in December and reading to the Councel his letters which contained the Kings pleasure for settling the intricacies of the Exchecquer for assistance in future to be sent to Charles King of France and specially for defence of Religion he added of himself many arguments of the Kings affection towards the Low-countreys but to little purpose For in Montinies absence they had conceived still greater jealousies The Prince of Orange and some others reasoned against the promises made by the Embassadour for they rather trusted their own reall or to justifie their discontents pretended intelligence from their private friends in the Court of Spain then the professions made either by King Philip or his sister Their indignation was augmented because Montiny told them the French accounted them Patrons of the Hugonots About which scandall they passionately expostulated with the Governess affirming it was onely forged in the Cardinals work-house The Dutchess declared her self of a contrary opinion and shewed them it was rather invented by the French hereticks and rebells who to advance the authority of their faction would have the ignorant believe the Low-countrey Nobility were of the same sect To conclude they being more and more exasperated because the Governess would not displace their Competitour that feared not their plots or envie but proposing to himself onely the Kings favour respected this Iove alone despising the other petty Gods as if a man could be onely struck with a thunderbolt and could not be killed by the hand of a common souldier or that Ioves lightning were not fed by the baser elements the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont particularly agreed to write letters to the King against Granvel in the name of all though all were not consenting perhaps because the Governess had formerly scattered among them seeds of dissention perhaps some of the Lords therefore differed in opinion because they were not chief of the Conspiracy Indeed the Duke of Areschot pressed by Count Egmont as they were hunting to joyn with the rest denied to set his hand against the Cardinall or to prescribe the King how he ought to use his servants and it proceeded so farre that at last the Duke concluded he would receive the Law neither from Count Egmont nor the Prince of Orange to neither of which he thought himself or his family inferiour The Counts of Aremberg and Barlamont then present were much troubled at the accident and lest it might come to more then words turned the discourse to another subject Nor was there lesse heat between Count Aremberg and the Prince of Orange upon the same occasion Of both which passages the Governess certified the King But though by these Lords example and for private reasons many withdrew from the conspiracy Yet were letters directed to the King signed by Count Egmont the Prince of Orange and Count Horn a Copy whereof which the King afterwards sent to the Dutchess I give you verbatim out of the French Originall Sir We are infinitely sorry that we are at this present inforced to presse upon your Majesties great affairs but as well the account of our service which we ought to give as the mischief undoubtedly impending will not suffer us longer to be silent especially because we hope this our intimation as free from any passion will be received by your Majesty so graciously and with such remembrance of us as we your affectionate servants have indeavoured to deserve We likewise beseech your Majesties pardon if we write later then the exigence
requires When the greatest and wisest men consider the Government of the Low-countreys questionlesse they cannot but hink it absolutely managed by Cardinall Granvel which hath made so deep an impression in the hearts of the Low-countreymen that it cannot be hoped the opinion will be blotted out so long as he lives among them Therefore we humbly desire that for our fidelity which Sir you have ever acknowledged to speak nothing of our services you will not be displeased to take into consideration how much it concerns your Majesty to ease the common complaints and grievances of your people For again and again we beseech you to believe that the businesse of the Low-countreys will never have an happy end so long as it is ordered by the man they hate Nor should we presume to write thus much unlesse we had the mischief in our eyes to which if your Majesty apply not present remedy the whole state will certainly be indangered Wherein if ever your Majesty gave credence to our words or actions we beseech you now to credit our hands This indeed was the cause why so many of the Lords and Governours of these Provinces with a multitude of others desired to have it signified to your Majesty that our imminent destruction may be timously prevented and your Majesty will prevent it as we hope and the merits of so many Low-countrey men and their prayers for the safety of the publick will be more valued by your Majesty then that for one mans sake you will reject the petition of so many of your Majesties obedient subjects Especially since none of all this number but is so far from complaining of the Governess that we give your Majesty immortall thanks for so prudent a Princess And that your Maiesty may not think as some perhaps will suggest that we have plotted this out of an ambition that we our selves may govern we all of us earnestly intreat to be removed from the Councel-table and affairs of State it being neither consistent with your Maiesties interest nor our own reputation that we should come any more to Councel with the Cardinal But touching Religion which is now a thing of greatest Concernment we promise in our own names all that can be justly exspected from good Subjects and Catholicks such as we professe to be And truly if the Lords had not looked into it Religion had not been in that tolerable condition wherein now it is the minds of the Common people being infected with Heresie a disease hardly curable by the Cardinals authority or example Lastly that we may no longer trespass upon your Majesties weighty occasions we humbly beg you will please favourably to interpret what we have signified no less out of duty and alleagiance to your Majesty then out of fear that hereafter you might blame us if any misfortune should befall the Low-countreys Thus we humbly kiss your royall hands and pray God long to preserve and blesse your Majestie From your City of Bruxels the last of March 1563. LAMORALL EGMONT WILLIAM NASSAU PHILIP MOMORANCY These Letters thus signed by the Triumviri Count Egmont secretly sent into Spain to Charles Tisnac a Low-countrey man and the Kigns Procuratour in Spain for business of the Low-countreys But before the Dispatch was made the Governess understanding what they had writ pre-acquainted the King Nor was the intelligence she gave concealed from the Conspiratours Count Egmont charging the discovery upon Count Aremberg as if he were fallen off especially because there was difference between him and the Prince of Orange But he seriously denied that ever he had spoke of it to any man living nor needed their project a discoverer which they themselves in every place vain-gloriously divulged Yet Count Egmont insisting upon it replied That a friend of his had assured him it could not be revealed by any but himself Aremberg growing into a rage And I said he assure you he lyes who ere he be that fathers this upon me which I am ready to make good with my sword The Governess writing this passage to the King forgot not to complain of Count Egmont that he whom his Majesty had accounted faithfull above the rest could so far ingage against him as publickly to solicite and encourage others to joyn their minds and endeavours for their Countreys benefit and liberty And now after three moneths the Kings Letters came from Spain written by the hand of Charles Tisnac wherein his Majestie answered the demands of the Triumviri in this manner That he had received their Letters and doubted not but that they signified these things out of sincere affection to their Prince and Countrey For they had given many sufficient proofs of their fidelity and service But since they had not yet given particular reasons for Granvels removall and that it was not his custome to change any of his Ministers of State without proof against them He should therefore take it well if some one of them would come over to Spain and make him understand the matter for by how much they affirmed there needed the greater remedy by so much the lesse ought the business to be agitated by absent persons Besides these Letters the King wrote privately with his own hand to Count Egmont that he should be glad to hear from the Count himself the causes that were not inserted in their Letters His Majesty likewise acquainted the Governess what answer in common he makes to all three and what particularly to Egmont that he invites one of them to divide them and wishes it might be Egmont because he separated from the rest might be easily wrought upon new moulded and so brought again to himself and his right reason But neither Count Egmont nor any of the rest could be brought to go the journey perhaps thinking it below them to undertake so great a voyage to accuse Granvell perhaps their guilty consciences durst not trust themselves in Spain Yet in their answers to the King they laid the cause of their stay upon their neighbours the French who having souffled up a kind of Peace at home it concerned them to watch whether they would use their Arms abroad and while the people continued in that Jealousie and fear they held it impious to leave their Countrey to inform against any man Notwithstanding if the King pleased to send for them upon other terms they would immediately obey his Maiesties commands In the mean time they would forbear the Councel-board lest they should meet there to countenance Granvels Actions In all things else they would never be wanting to their Prince and Countrey The like auswer was made particularly by Count Egmont who likewise humbly thanked his Maiesty for his speciall grace and favour to him Whilst this was in agitation Granvell tottered at Court For 't is hard to stand long in a slippery place if a man be iustled by many specially when a Prince is made jealous as if his servants
derivative power detracted from his own ability to govern Nor have the old Court-Engineers many better inventions to crush the favour of their Rivals especially with such Princes as are ambitious to be famed for wit whether deserving or undeserving With this very stratagem a few years after Didacus Cardinall Spinosa no lesse endeared to the King in Spain then Cardinall Granvell to his Majesties sister in the Low-countreys was cast down they say from the highest point of favour by such as knew the King loved his Ministers of State so long as they carried themselves as servants and not as authours of his Counsells And now the Governess seemed to be altered in affection towards Granvell perhaps weary of the man as if he were her adjunct in the Government if not her superintendent perhaps seeing her self in danger of being infected with the peoples hatred which he was incurably sick of perhaps at length she had looked into him and found him ambitious and envious fomenting the divisions between the King and his people as she afterwards enformed his Majesty Which last reason being contrary to the commendations she had so often set upon Granvell in her letters to the King whether it were true and discovered by the Governess upon long acquaintance or that she knew it at first but then as she concealed it in favour of the man so now weary of him and fearfull of imminent mischief she revealed it or whether mis-informed and compelled by his enemies she wrote thus to the King I dare not absolutely affirm The Governess therefore as she had resolved sent Thomas Armentâ—rius an old Courtier and Counsellour into Spain with an exact account of business part whereof he was to read to the King and part to insert in his discourse if occasion were offered The heads were these To let the King know the State of the Netherlands and the Countreys adiacent and how to that day the Governess had ordered the Sacred and Civil Government And when they came to speak of the combination of the Lords against Granvell that he should punctually tell the King how the Prince of Orange the Marquess of Bergen the Counts Egmont Horn Mansfeld and Megen came to her in Iuly last and the Prince of Orange after many complaints made in the name of the Estates touching the present condition of affairs the appears so long due to the horse and foot the Kings Collectors undone with paying interest and the complaints of the Merchants thereupon concluded that since all this proceeded from the dominion of the Cardinall and his followers they were resolved henceforth to come no more to Councel not for any exceptions taken at the Governess whose wisdome and affection to the Low-countreys they would alwayes gratefully remember but lest they should contribute to those Acts passed with so much prejudice to the King and the Low-countreys Moreover which Egmont added lest by coming to the Councel-table and yet not providing for the necessities of their Countrey they should loose the Peoples affection together with their own reputation and consequently the Opportunity of doing his Majesty service Nor would this seem strange if the King pleased to remember that long since when Charles Count Lalin was President of the Councel Granvell being then Bishop of Arras refused to come to the Board offended at the Counts Potencie Then he should tell his Majesty that the Prince of Orange and the Marquess of Bergen bitterly inveighed against Granvell and the Arts he had used to make the King believe they juggled with Religion and their Prince Nay they very well knew that Telidan a Divine of Lovain as he himself boasted wrote to the King That the Low-countrey Lords were all tainted with Heresie and that the very same occasion of enmity which the French Hereticks took against the Cardinall of Lorain was now revived by the Nobilitie of the Low-countreys And that another day the Governess taking Egmont aside he confirmed the same grievances wondering the King would suffer the Low-countreys to be troubled for one man who was not so much as a Low-countrey man and therefore both his fortunes and affections were forreiners neither had he taken the Oath of Allegeance to the King but partly to the Emperour as born in an Imperiall Town and partly to the Pope from whom he had received his scarlet When Armenterius should have discoursed this to the King he was then to acquaint his Majesty what the Governess answered to the particulars according to his Notes containing the summary of his Embassage Lastly she charged him upon the same heads to be sure to remember That Egmont had lately told her it was by his onely means that Granvell lived to that day but that hereafter he would leave that care to the Governess whom he had now clearly informed that the Cardinalls life was every houre in danger and therefore when his Majestie should well consider what Insurrections such publick crimes draw along with them he would in his wisdome resolve how to dispose of Cardinall Granvell With these Commands after a moneths voyage Armenterius arrived in Spain and as he found the King very desirous to know the State of the Low-countreys accordingly at his first Audience he held him four hours together in the speech which he made out of his Notes At which as likewise at other not much shorter Addresses he exceedingly satisfied the King with the Governesses endeavours first suspending which seldome any man could do and finally altering his resolution to retain the Cardinall in the Low-countreys But whilst the King deferred his purpose busied in the assembly of the Estates of Castile then sitting and being likewise of himself a Prince naturally jealous and apt to demurre the Low-countrey Lords as if their suit were neglected in the beginning of the new year with-drew from Court all but Count Egmont who told the Governess the rest would not return till Granvell was departed with whom in compass of the same walls they would be no more confined The End of the third Book The Historie of the LOW-COVNTREY WARRES The fourth Book BEfore the end of this year a sad uncertain rumour was raised at Madrid and immediately dispersed through all the further Spain That King Philip was pistolled This report he was so farre from sleighting though otherwise subject to delays that he laid it before it could passe out of Spain sending Duplicates of letters post both by sea and land into the Low-countreys wherein under his own hand he certified his sister that in all probability this fame was forged by the hereticks upon some close design set afoot by that treacherous kind of people Withall he commanded her that if she did but hear the least intimation of such a report she should presently dispatch letters through the Low-countreys and so into France Britain and Germany to rectifie the errour not onely that his uncle the
Emperour and his cousen-germane the King of the Romans might be freed of their fears but likewise the insurrections prevented for encouraging whereof these reports whether true or false did equally prevail with men desirous of innovation But the Governess having certain intelligence that he news was no where divulged in those parts would not mention it at all lest she might ingraft the opinion she indeavoured to eradicate Especially when she had business at home of greater concernment the Nobility being discontented and notorious Libells read upon every post or passed from hand to hand the remedy whereof was ever difficult whether you take no notice of them and so invite them by impunity or punish them for neither way can extinguish the memory of what is done nor deterre abusive writers from the like boldnesse And King Philip grown now more severe since the tumult at Valenciens from whence that liberty chiefly took its rise injoyned the Governess not to suffer such ignominious verses that commonly ushered in rebellion But she quickly gave over her inquiry fearing to take knowledge of the Authours or to run the hazzard as she wrote to the King of struggling with so desperate a disease At this time besides those jeers against Religion and the Bishops especially Granvel boldlyer vented because pleasing to the Nobility there were added dark ridding Emblems and Cognizances of the Lords great symptomes as many thought of 〈…〉 The whole passage as the Governess related it to the King I shall briefly 〈◊〉 The last year in the beginning of December the Lords Egmont Bergen Montiny and the rest of the Order were feasted by Gasper Schert◠I 〈◊〉 of Grobendonch the Kings Receiver There in their cups they fell in a discourse of the moderating of expence in Liveries whether it 〈…〉 question by accident as the Dutchess affirms upon their own relations or out of premeditation I leave to others judgement They commended upon this occasion the Germane fashion where all the year long they are waited on by men in the same leathern breeches and black cloth-cloaks or coats with sleeves nor have about them any thing of gallantry but that the pinnions of their sleeves which they call wings are laid with silk fringe of divers colours spending their money much wiselier in their stables upon horses for service This example pleased the whole company and they resolved to leave off their sumptuous and silken Liveries with all the pomp of their gawdy trains and never after to be distinguished by the severall colours worn by their servants especially by their footmen but that they would all give one Livery and so it should not be thought the invention of any particular person that desired to save charges And by the uniformity of their apparell it would appear their minds were uniform Some therefore proposing what colour would do best they cast the dice who should chuse and the lot fell to Count Egmont who made choice of black cloth-coats with long sleeves such as I told you were called silken wings in which were imbroidered the heads of men and hoods of divers colours such as fools and jeasters wear upon their coats A pattern of these wings that nothing might be concealed from the King the Governess sent him And now imbroiderers and taylours shops were full of these Coats and Cognizances and the people looked and talked high upon the matter nor are they alwayes out in their conjectures For some said the hoods signified the Cardinall who according to the habit of his illustrious Order wore such an hood falling upon his shoulders and the heads they guessed to be the Cardinals and his adherents among whom they numbered the Duke of Areschot Count Barlamont and Viglius President of the Councell and they interpreted the fools coats to signifie that the Low-countrey Lords were not fools heads as Granvel once called them but that Granvel himself and his party might be pointed at for idiots Others rather thought those heads and fools-hoods were brought in fashion by the Lords as if they were contented to be called fools but yet they would have the Cardinall understand how 〈◊〉 the fools were and to beware least in that number there might be a Brutus But the Governess though she made a better construction of these Emblems yet feared that the people which she saw begin to grow discontented and mutinous should divide into factions and raise tumults he was therefore very earnest with Count Egmont and the other Lords to give off their design and lay aside the new incouragements to insurrection But because a great sort of the coats and above two thousand of the wings were already made her Excellence thought it would be well if she could get them to leave out the heads and hoods the principall matter of offence which with much ado they did and instead of the old Count Egmont devised another Embleme viz. a sheaf of arrows which he said was the arms of the Kingdome of Castile though it was not the arms of the Kingdome but of the Catholick Queen Isabella and afterwards given by the States of Holland when they were confederate and revolted from the King and gave out that it signified the concord of his brothers of the Order in their duty to his Majesty Yet this very change was censured by many that sung Granvels Dirge expounding it as if the conspiracy were made now not with hoods but arrows and those tied together in a bundle and therefore not easie to be broken Nor did the Governess take notice of the alteration hoping to cure the evil by contempt and having often found by experience That some mens proud natures are inraged if forbidden but if left to themselves will in time recover By which connivence the fashion of giving this kind of Livery was long followed by the Lords till the Kings command and other new accidents interposing it was quite left off In February Armenterius long looked for at length returned from Spain and changed the face of the Governesses Court For among other Mandates which he brought from his Majestie the first was the sending Cardinall Granvel out of the Low-countreys to which the King finally consented that the Low-countreymen might not have so much as this colour of Grievance For King Philip as he had no Courtier that governed him nor would have his favour to any one eclipse his own authority so he advanced and cherished divers persons but such as were very usefull to himself and his Kingdomes among whom Granvel may deservedly be numbred Yet because his Majesty knew that especially in the Low-countreys the power of forreiners would not be long indured and that he had an eye upon the example of the French Court and thought it best to do that while his authoritie was intire which perhaps necessity might unhandsomly inforce him to for quieting the Provinces he granted the Low-countreymens
Emperour Charles the fifth His corps a little while after was carried to Besanâ—on and buried in his fathers Monument The man is particularly remarkable to the favourites of Princes because without the help of flattery for about fourty years with unspotted fidelity he mannaged the principall affairs of a great Court and being once outed from his fall rebounded with ease and rose higher then before because he was gracious with a Prince that suffered him a happiness seldome known to enjoy both favour and freedom to the last But our present History bears older Date The Governess in the mean time bent her endeavours to maintain Religion which she heard went to decay in many places for the King by Armenterius enjoyned her that in the first place and since then wrote many effectuall letters to the same purpose Indeed that King Philip did more then pretend to be carefull of Religion the letters about a hundred of which I have written with his own hand or in cypher to the Governess do clearly testifie Wherein he never used dissimulation as in those that were read to the Councel by the Governess but discovered to his sister without reservation all his necessities fears and secret thoughts And in these private Letters he so earnestly commends and commits unto her the protection of Religion that he plainly declares it was to be her master-care and all other Interests whatsoever should give place to it Nay many times he instructs her how to hunt out Hereticks and trace them to their holes His Majesty likewise had Catalogues of their names which I have by me enclosed in his Letters so exactly taken as every ones condition neighbourhood age and stature is to the life described that truly it is wonderfull how a Prince distracted and diverted with such a multiplicity of State-affairs could have the leasure to inquire out for the most part obscure people which a private man could hardly get time to turn his thoughts and hand to And by this means as often as Catholicks fled out of England into the Low-countreys in whose behalf the Governess wrote to the King with incredible celeritie besides his Pensions bestowed upon Priests of that Island which for the cause of Religion lived as banished men in the Low-countreys he divided among them sometimes 2000 Ducats at once sometimes more sometimes less alwayes something Incouraged by this royall bounty some Colledges of that Nation were begun to be settled to the great good of Catholicks in Spain and the Low-countreys The Governess therefore of her own accord and by the Kings command laboured to preserve Religion and having the Nobility particularly obliged to her for her late favour she dispatched letters to this effect to the Bishops and Governours of Towns which exceedingly awaked their industry And now the Hereticks were carried to prison and put to death which terrified many and those that died were often reconciled to the Church At Rupelmond a Priest that was turned Heretick when he saw no hope to escape out of the Tower wherein he was imprisoned fell upon a desperate designe of firing the next room in which the Records and Monuments of the Provinces were kept supposing that while the guards were busied in preserving things that concernd the publick he might get away He acquainted his fellow-prisoners which were nine with the plot and now the Tower was in a flame which the souldiers presently extinguished and the Priest being taken was with the rest of his companions but a little more happily executed For openly renouncing his Heresie before the multitude that was assembled to see him die twice he cursed Calvin and all the contrivers of Heresie and bad the good people take warning how they came near that plague-sore which the Devil had sent from hell to infect mankind and so professing he died a Catholick his head was struck off The Governess left out none of these passages in her Letter to the King not doubting but they would be welcome to a Prince desirous of such news But at Antwer matters were carried somewhat more tumultuously Christopher Fabricius was to be executed who forsaking the Order of Carmelites married in England and had corrupted some citizens of Antwerp with hereticall opinions When the Executioner brought him to the stake to be burned suddenly as the faggots were kindling a showre of stones cast from what hands was not known fell upon the place the Hangman seeing his own danger if he stayed yet resolving not to leave the condemned man to the people whipped out his sword and when he was half burned killed him then leaping down among the souldiers saved himself in the crowd The mutineers thus defeated of their hopes gave over for the present either unable to master the souldiers or conceiving they should stir to no end the prisoner being dead Yet the next day some of them lighting upon a woman who they said first discovered Fabricius they made a ring about her railed and threw stones at her and had killed her but that she fled and hid her self in a neighbours house The same day Verses were posted up in the Market-place writ in bloud to this effect That there were in Antwerp some that vowed shortly to revenge Fabricius his death whereof vvhen the King had knovvledge perhaps vvith some addition to the truth and manner he severely commanded his sister not to let crimes of that nature escape long unpunished And her Excellence causing one of the stone-casters to be hanged for the rest as they vvere all of the basest sort of people vvere either fled the Tovvn or lay there concealed quieted the City for the present rather by Terrour then Punishment But at Bruges the very Senate offended at the same time far more contumaciously if vve credit a Spanish Monk vvho lay then privately in Brugeâ— and sent intelligence into Spain For the Inquisitour by his Deputy the Pretour of the Tovvn delaying to assist him for fear of the Senate had sent an Heretick to prison guarded by three Officers the Senate presently commanded those Officers to be seized and committed them close prisoners to be kept vvith bread and vvater till themselves had spoken vvith the Governess and this vvas proclaimed by the Crier in the Market place the Heretick in the mean time being released a grievous vvrong both to Religion and to the Inquisitour The Senate did not in very humterms acknovvledge their contempt but posting to the Governess complained to her of the tumult that undoubtedly vvould have been raised by the Inquisitour in a City that vvould not suffer the Breach of any of their Priviledges if they themselves peradventure by a sharp but yet by a safe remedy had not opportunely pacified the peoples minds What vvas done herein by the Governess or vvhat she ansvvered to the King after she received his letters by the Monk I find not These and the like
consulted liked it not and therefore made answer It was not his pleasure in propounding the Councel to his Subjects any thing should be excepted lest Rome a Citie apt to prejudicate should from thence have matter of censure and other Christian Princes that looked upon Spain occasion of imitation For that which is said in the Councel touching Sovereignty and Subjection was sufficiently considered when the publishing thereof was disputed in Spain where all those difficulties were discussed And as at that time no exception was taken but the Councel absolutely proposed onely with a little moderation to be used in the practice so it should be in the Law-countreys whither he had sent a copie of the Spanish Proclamation that his Subjects throughout all his Dominions might obey him by one rule The Governess according to his royall Mandate beginning to be active and indeavouring to put an end to what she had in the Netherlands begun how sad a commotion followed in the end of the next year when the people to the ruine of many broke out into Rebellion I shall in its due place commemorate In the mean time the Governess seeing the difficulties of the Exchecquer and Religion to increase and that she could get nothing of his Majestie by Letters resolved to send some great man her Embassadour to the King and looking upon Count Egmont as one that besides the Nobilitie of his birth and his experience in the affairs of the Low-countreys she did believe would have all things granted to his great and acknowledged merit her Excellence designed and in the beginning of the year one thousand five hundred sixty five with the advice of the Senate sent him into Spain And Count Egmont willingly undertook the imployment because as he said to the Governess and she informed the King by the opportunity of this publick Embassage he should dispatch hi own private businesse with his Majestie Having therefore received large instructions with the consent and hopefull exspectation of all many of the Nobilitie for honours sake bringing him on the way he set forward the same day that Francis Hallevine Lord of Zeveghem returned from Germany whither he was sent by the Governess in the name of King Philip to the Emperour Maximilian his Empresse and the Princes of Germany to condole the death of his father that religious Prince the Emperour Ferdinand which the Emperour Mazimilian took extreme kindly and made great promises of service to his uncle At this time the Prince of Orange had by Princesse Anne of Saxony another sonne called by the name of the Prince Electour her father Maurice This is the Prince Maurice whom we must often mention not without the commendations of a valiant and cautelous Generall who being chosen by the States Confederate in the place of his father lately killed after he had for two years commanded the Hollanders as a Prince though by another name which is commonly the end of long Governments dyed of grief conceived at the siege of Breda when he saw it must inevitably be taken The Governess wrote to the King that the child had all the Orthodox rites of Baptisme but that which most troubled her was on his Christening day they delivered him in tutelage to the Prince Electour Augustus Duke of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hessen both Lutheran Princes in whose names two Lords infected with the same heresie were his Godfathers For even in this likewise the Prince of Orange who alwayes acted two parts had something Catholick and something Hereticall to please both sides still attending their severall fortunes as a neuter In the letters the Dutchesse informed the King what jealousies and reports were raised by the message which she had communicated to the Senate touching the meeting that was to be upon the borders of Aquitaine between Katharine of Mediâ—es Queen-mother of France governing that nation joyntly with the King and her daughter Isabella Queen of Spain For King Philip by his letters had commanded his sister to assure the Low-countrey Lords that nothing more was intended by that interview then the satisfaction of King Charles and his mother being in their progresse come so near the confines of Spain To the same purpose he either wrote or sent Embassadours to most of the Princes of Europe not so much as any Lord of Italy or Spain or any one Minister of State but was by instructions from King Philip acquainted with the occasion of that conference Yet all this took not away the Low-countreymens fears and jealousies but rather increased them many especially Hereticks being apt to believe that the Queen mother did not this out of love to her daughter but to lay the foundation of some great design against the hereticall factions and the disturbances of both Kingdoms which they suspected the rather because it was rumoured King Philip would be there in person And indeed when Queen Isabella moved him to add to their contentment his presence I find by his letters to the Governess that he was pretty well inclined to the iourney though she diswaded him and said it was below the Majesty of so great a Prince to trust himself to the power of the French at that time when partly the French Kings minority partly the condition of a Quen-regent made the subjects so contumacious towards their Governours Yet his Majesty replyed that if he were sure his presence were necessary for the good of Religion he was resolved for Gods cause to decline no trouble or danger whatsoever Yet consenting to the going of his Queen and commanding Ferdinand Count of Toledo and Duke of Alva to wait upon her and present in his name to the King of France the Order of the Golden-fleece he himself went not either diverted by many cares having then as he wrote to the Governess received intelligence that the Turk besieged Malta or else to give his resolutions with greater authority at a distance which I suppose was the cause why he left it not in his wife's power to determine any thing before she had by her letters advised with him But at this enterview so highly celebrated in the writings of all Scholars even of the Poets themselves when in so great state and glory King Charles and the two Queens met at Baion the French sleighting the Spanish pride with greater pride all that was concluded the more secretly it passed onely in presence of the Duke of Alva with the more confidence do some writers as if they had a blank before them fill up the space with wit and deduce from hence strange secrets of State Omitting such divination out of the letters which I have written in King Philips own hand to his sister about that conference this I know The Queen of Spain for divers weighty reasons no doubt by the command of King Philip had desired her Brother and Mother whom it
nearly concerned to preserve Religion then greatly indangered in France and they very well affected to the cause had laid their designes the Queen Regent by the by propounded some Marriages wherein she would have ingaged her Daughter but the Queen of Spain and the Duke of Alva returned thereunto no absolute answer reserving the finall determination of all things to King Philip. Lastly upon occasion of an Embassadour sent from Soliman the Turkish Emperour to renew the league between King Charles and him the French spake of renouncing the said League and that their King should joyn with King Philip and the Emperour against the common enemie But this though it was opportune took no effect the Queen of Spain declining all overtures but onely concerning Religion which she at the Duke of Alva's earnest motion again commending to them after they had imbraced and kissed they took their leaves The Hereticks that guessed at their intentions exceedingly fearing lest by the meeting of these Princes as by the conjunction of malevolent Starres was portended some fearfull storm that would fall upon their heads And indeed that great massacre of the Hugonots which seven years after was acted at Paris was they say plotted at this meeting which I will neither denie nor affirm Though I am rather inclined to believe that the mutuall succours which since this time we see have been often sent by the French into the Low-countreys and from thence into France against the Rebells to Religion and their Prince together with the marriage five years after solemnized by King Charles and Elisabeth daughter to the Emperour Maximilian were concluded at this conference For King Philip in the fore-mentioned letter gives an intimation of mutuall assistance to be from thenceforth given to expell heresie out of their Kingdomes and plainly faith the Queen had not directly declared her self against the marriage but left a door open to a new consulation since in regard of their tender years the young Prince and Princesse he being but fifteen and Princesse Elisabeth eleven might very well stay a good while before they married In the beginning of March Count Egmont came to Madrid contrary to the exspectation and command of his Majestie who would have had his journey put off I suppose because the Governess had informed him that the Count was willing to go in hope of his private advantage Yet the King received him very graciously answerable to the quality of so noble a person and so great a Generall famous for many victories and often with good approbation heard him move for relief to the publick necessities of his Countrey Nay when he descended to his particular affairs the King granted his suit almost in every thing Finally his Majestie gave him large instructions in writing for answer to the Governess and that he might resolve upon more certain grounds he advised in that which concerned Religion with Divines which to that purpose waited on him In that Assembly of learned men I have heard one that was present say The pietie of the King was admirable For having summoned the greatest Schoolmen and Casuists and demanding their opinions touching the Libertie of Conscience which some Low-countrey Towns so earnestly petitioned for when many of them considering the present condition of the Low-countreys said That for the avoiding of a greater evil much to be feared in Cities ready to revolt and shake off Obedience to their Prince and to the Orthodox Faith his Majestie might without offending God allow his subjects the free exercise of their Religion He replied That he sent not for them to instruct him whether such a Permission were lawfull but whether it were necessary And when they told him they saw no necessity then the King in their presence kneeling before a Crucifix And I said he pray and beseech thy Divine Majestie thou King of all men O God that thou wilt please to keep me alwayes in this mind that I may never care that the men which deny thee for their Lord may either be or be called my Subjects and then he opened his determination concerning Religion in those Letters which I told you were delivered to Count Egmont But before he had his dispatch the King dealt plainly with him That he was not a little offended at the last conspiracie of the Lords when they gave the Coats and Cognizances wherein they aenigmatically threatned Cardinal Granvel that especially Egmont reputed the Authour of that invention might therein have shewn if not more fidelity at least more discretion But Count Egmont faithfully assured his Majesty that it was mere mirth and childish sport at table to make a jest to laugh at in their cups not to be feared by any man that done he omitted not to accuse the Cardinall as the principall cause thereof because he daily mustered those of his faction against the Nobility and therefore deserved to be requited with the like Assemblies Yet in these meetings and this he often confirmed by oath they did not so much as think of any thing contrary to their sincere Allegiance to his Majesty Nay if he had found any of their party an Enemy to the King he himself would have been first though he were his own brother that should have stabbed him to the heart This Discourse having passed between the King and Count Egmont of all which the King by a private Letter certified the Governess Instructions were given to the Count thus indorsed Instructions of those things which thou Prince of Gavera Count of Egmond our Cousen and Counsellour in affairs of the Empire art commanded in our Name to communicate to Our Sister the Dutchess of Parma The summe of his large Instructions was this At his arrivall in the Low-countreys after he had saluted the Governess from the King and returned her his royall thanks for her good Government of those Provinces and for sending into Spain the fittest man to negotiate for the Low-countreys he was to deliver her this answer from his Maiesty That in the first place he was struck with unutterable grief to hear of the growth of Heresie and that he was firmly resolved and would have the whole world know that he would not suffer it within his Dominions though he were to die for it a thousand times Therefore he desired the Governess to call a Senate extraordinary to which divers Bishops should be summoned particularly Rythovius Bishop of Ipres with the like number of Divines and such Counsellours as stood best affected to Religion and their Countrey The pretended occasion should be to examine the Councel of Trent but the reall meaning to find out an Expedient how the people might be kept in their ancient Religion how their children might be virtuously bred up at School how to proceed in punishing Hereticks by some other course that might take off the odium not that he meant to pardon them for that he neither resolved to
Lord of all to be their father And so the eleventh year after her marriage dyed Princesse Mary no lesse admirable in her death then in her life For as in this she was most nobly active so in the other she was most undauntedly passive the onely glory that remains for dying persons Her patience and the strong assaults of the Devil divers then present have set down in writing A little after her departure in a private box within her Cabinet was found a short Diary written by divine instinct with her own hand containing the heads of her actions every day and almost every houre of her life In which may be seen for it is printed and bound up with her life what her judgement was concerning Christian perfection and how she applyed her self to that progressive rule indeed so exactly as the Houses of Portugall and Farneze may glory in the beauty of her mind and the example of Princesse Mary may be set for a pattern to all princely maids and wives And now to proceed with the businesse of the Low-countreys The Governesse had begun with great industry to execute the Kings commands brought by Count Egmont out of Spain but receiving new letters from his Majesty at Validolid wherein he seemed to command the quite contrary to what he wrote by the Count the Governesse amazed was at a stand and Count Egmont excessively troubled in his mind complained That his authority esteem would be lost among his enemies by that change of the Kings Counsell as if he had delivered one thing and the King enjoyned another that it seemed the Kings Councellours were in a way if they held on to force the Low-countreys into the receiving any form of Government rather then the present though it were to put themselves in the power of the Germans the French or of the Devil himself For his own part he was resolved if the King would not make good his determinations to retire to his own house and leaving his Government of Flanders to testifie to the world by his absence that Egmont had no hand in the troubles of his Countrey When the Governesse had writ this to the King as she had it from the mouth of Count Egmont three moneths after she received an answer from his Majestie dated at Segovia â—n these words That it was a false allegation of those men who affirmed he had commanded any other thing in his dispatch of Count Egmont then in his late letters from Validolid therefore to expresse himself more fully In the first place he would have the Anabaptists and other Hereticks put to death of what families soever they were descended and their punishment neither remitted nor themselves reprieved Since experience had sufficiently demonstrated that a violent and volatile disease was but ill cured by indulgence or delay Then That he commanded the Inquisitours of faith a judicature neither new nor unnecessary for the Low-countreys to be every where with reverence retained and assisted with all the power of the Dutchesse her self and the Governours of the respective Provinces Lastly because the Councel of Treâ—t was now established in the Low-countreys it was their duty to they the Decrees of the said Councell and likewise the Imperiall and Royall Edicts Moreover he desired the Governesse that in the execution thereof she would use her greatest care and industry for asmuch as no one living could do any thing more acceptable to himself or more advantagious to the Provinces This was the summe of those letters which the Prince of Orange charged with all the calamities that befell the Netherland And though the Governesse thought it a work of danger to undertake so many things at once and therefore wrote many letters to beâ—eech the King to excuse her yet she attempted it and by her Proclamation commanded all the King had enjoyned her and advised the subordinate Governours in these words as appears by her Edict speedily sent to Ernest Count Mansfeldt Governour of Luxemberg the rest being onely transcripts of the same For asmuch as nothing is dearer to the King then the peace of these Privinces and that his Majesty desires to prevent the great evils wherewith we see many nations afflicted that change their Religion Therefore it is his Royall pleasure that the Edicts of his father Charles the fifth and his own with the Decrees of the Councel of Trent as likewise of Provinciall Synods be kept intirely That all Favour and Assistance be given to the holy Inquisitours and the Cognizance of Heresies left to them unto whom it appertains both by divine and humane Laws This is the Kings command who respecteth onely the Worship of God and the good of his people and hereof I give you notice that you may without exception imbrace it your self publish it to the Magistrates of your Province and take speciall care that no man upon any pretence whatsoever slight its due observation you terrifying the conâ—umacious with those punishments specified in our letters annexed to the Edict And that you do this with more facility you shall chuse some one out of the Senate to visit and superintend your Province whether the Edict be punctually and justly observed by the Magistrates and the People you your self together with the Magistrate you make choice of every quarter of a year giving us an axact account of the premises And it shall be our paâ—t to endeavour that your pains may receive due recompence and advancement In short partly the care of these Edicts partly of the late Marriage ended this yeare which was the last of peace and happinesse that ever the Netherlands enjoyed The End of the fourth Book The Historie of the LOW-COVNTREY WARRES The fifth Book NOw comes in a year memorable for the open conspiracy of the Gentry seconded by the mutiny of the people and the turbulent counsels of the Lords the furious incursion of Hereticks Sacriledge with ruine of Religion and no lesse ignominy to the Authours The Edict formed by the Governess was sent and published in the Kings name by the severall Governours of Provinces but some of them first complained to her Excellence protesting they were not able to govern the people with that severity enjoyned by the Edict Nay divers plainly told her they would not be guiltie of burning five or six thousand men in their Provinces whereof the Governess advertised the King warning him of the storm which she foresaw The first signe and terrour of the Tempest lightened out of Brabant For when the Chancellour of that Province had propounded the Kings Edict to the Brabanters who have no other Governour but his Majesties Lieutenant over all the Low-countreys immediately the chief Cities of the Netherlands that is Lovain Bruxels Antwerp and the Bus assembling the Senate and petitioning the Chancellour very violently and angerly desired that their Priviledges might not be violated to
fifth That the King had sent forty thousand Ducats to the Queen of Scots to pay her souldiers whilest the Low-countreys were greatly distressed for money which his Majestie never thought of That he taxed not the King for the unseasonablenesse of that assistance nor the unfortunate successe it had but he feared the English whose throats were to be cut if report were true for that summ of money would revenge it upon the Low-countrymen Especially since the money was come into the Q. of Englands hands driven upon that Island by a tempest The Governess to break off his speech intreated him to forbear his private expostulations whilst the publick business was in agitation that he would not wrong his discretion so far as to have such thoughts of the King who was the mercifullest of all Princes That she knew for certain what was reported of that money was the mere invention of some seditious persons intending by such lies to bring an odium upon his Majestie as well with his subjects of the Low-countreys as with forrein Princes For all this the Prince of Orange would not make an end though he was at other times a rare dissembler and had power over his passions But it may be he thought it concerned him to speak on lest it should be imagined he begun without a cause As if were an argument of just anger not to be friends upon the sudden Following his example neither Count Horn nor any of the rest were silent but every one made his complaint Nevertheless qualifying them with gentle and gracious language and putting them in hope of his Majesties royall favour the Governess called them into the Senate and by the major-vote it was resolved that the Covenanters should be admitted but without arms and upon promise of their good behaviour And the Governours of Provinces through which it was supposed they would pass to Bruxels were commanded by their Letters to acquaint the people with this resolution of the Senate Courts of guard were likewise appointed through the Citie Centrees to keep the gates and a Garrison put into the Tower lest there might be a tumult among the distracted people It being now almost night the Senate was adiourned till the next morning At which time the Lords and Senators meeting in the House the Governess fearing they would fall upon private differences and obstruct the business of the day prevented them with a speech which I give you as she wrote it to the King If the approaching Evils could be cured with quarrelling and complaining I should not have desired you to take the pains of coming again this day to Councel since we had complaints enough yesterday scarce any thing being spoke in publick by the most of you but what related to your private discontents But admit they were just yet they loose part of that Iustice if they be importune at least they avert the minds of the Councell and provoking their spirits hinder their discovery of the Truth Brederod intends to petition Vs in the name of his Confederates for abolishing the Inquisition and mitigating the Penalties inflicted by Edict for the cause of Religion I now desire Advice from you of whose fidelity and discretion I have had so good experience what Answer I should return them But before you declare your selves I think it will be neither troublesome to you nor improper for the business in debate to prepare you with a few words I hear there are many that presume openly to cavil at the Edicts of the Emperour my Father for to the Inquisition I will speak anon as if it were a barbarous tyrannie not to be endured by Subjects Truly whosoever sayes it not onely injures the memory of that wise Prince and most affectionate to his Countrey but wrongs your Order of the Fleece this Senate-house and the States Generall of the Low-countreys for by all your approbations and consents the Emperour passed these Laws as no doubt but some of you remember and all may read in the Edict published the year 1531 upon which all the rest of his Decrees are grounded Why then do they now accuse the severity of the Emperour Why do they condemn those Acts which they did once approve and which they know were established by the suffrages of all What because the disease is more violent must the remedie therefore be neglected and that which reason perswades When the Gangrene of Heresie daily creeps upon new parts of the Common-wealth should we remissely use fire and incision Nor was the Ecclesiasticall power of the Inquisition against Hereticks delegated for any other cause but that the impudence of wicked men might be abated by fear or extinguished by punishment I know there is a generall hatred against this Court of Iustice which for the present my meaning is not to contradict or confute yet you know this Tribunall is no innovation in the Low-countreys It is now sixteen years since my Father settled it in these Provinces But I pray what severitie is in this Censure of the Inquisitours that is not in my Fathers Edicts Nay if you will rightly consider it they were much more severe so that his Majestie in his Letters which three years since I read to many of you iustly admires how the Low-countrey men could be so terrified with the Spanish Inquisition they being for the same causes of Religion liable to farr more and greater penalties comprehended in the Edicts of Charles the fifth Which Edicts if they were wisely drawn up and passed by the Consent of the Estates I see no reason why men should so bitterly and violently inveigh against the Inquisition that relates to the same thing in a more gentle manner Nor have I spoken this to controll the freedome of Your votes they had and shall ever have their full libertie for me Be you carefull that neither discontent nor faction may deprive you of that Libertie So proceeding to suffrages many voted that nothing in the Emperours Edicts should be altered Lawes before they passe should be debated after they are passed obeyed Nor can a State be more indangered then by the altering of their Laws especially since it concerned them in point of honour at this meeting to make no concession to the Hereticks who if they prevailed in their first suit would never make an end of petitioning Divers others argued against it very passionately shewing That it plainly appeared those Imperiall Edicts neither provided sufficiently for Religion which every day was lesse observed nor for the security of the State which they saw was disturbed merely upon that occasion And yet the end and intention of Laws is to preserve Religion and Peace but neither was effected by these Edicts Why therefore should it be thought unlawfull that some penalties should be remitted some changed The Edicts by that means rendered more moderate and the Subjects more obedient to them Truly it was more
might not value or receive them with due reverence She said he might safelier treat with the Prince of Orange in regard the like admonition formerly sent from Paul the fourth had struck him with a fear of loosing his Principality neverthelesse she would prepare him for the Legate But for his liberall offer of assistance from his Holinesse she acknowledged her obligations to the great Bishop and desired Pavesio to represent her for that favour kneeling at his feet and humbly kissing them though she had not power to admit of his promised supplies unlesse the King would please to give her leave But she assured his Holinesse that the Cause of Religion should be alwayes to her as it had ever been dearer then her life Lastly touching the nature and industry of the Low-countrey Bishops for Pavesio intreated her to instruct him in that particular she very graphically discoursed their lives and manners and gave him their severall characters telling which deserved Rebuke which Praise or Pitie The Legate finding all she said to be true and the Prince of Orange the easier to be wrought upon belike her Excellence had prepared him as she promised admiring her industrie and pietie professed that he would publish in the Court of Rome how Religion standing now in the Low-countreys on a dangerous precipice was supported onely by her Highnesses vigilance and prudence But the Factions and Tumults ceased not for all this The Covenanters being returned as I have told you into their respective Provinces and giving it out that they had the publick Faith of the Knights of the Golden Fleece for their indemnitie all those that had been banished for heresie came back from the adjacent Countreys and such as had lyen concealed at home appeared again magnifying the name of the Gheuses calling them the Assertours and Champions of their libertie and putting themselves under their protection Thus the number of the Covenanters was much increased especially in Antwerp even the Merchants themselves began to wear the Habit aud Cognizante of the Gheuses Nay there sprung up a new-brotherhood of the Common People wearing in their hats besides the wallet stampt in silver a wreathed pilgrims staff the ends bowing acrosse signifying as I suppose that they were to go a pilgrimage out of their Countrey and seek libertie in another Climate This conspiracie was spawned out of the other it being the off-spring as the Governesse wrote to his Majestie of that two years before raised by the Lords against Cardinall Granvel where they first wore hoods and then Darts But that which at the beginning was onely private difference at Court and the ambition of a few afterwards turned into the publick mutiny of the Provinces Great men it seems never can offend alone and vices whilst they passe from hand to hand are soyled with being touched and grow still fouler Neither did the Governesses letters to the Magistrates concerning the counterfeit Declaration in the Lords names do any good nor the Kings letter to the Governesse and the Provinces about that time received wherein his Majestie promised That having now secured himself from the Turks and Moors he would presently make a voyage into the Low-countreys and in person moderate the severitie if any such were of his fathers Edicts In the mean time he rested confident that the troubles would be quieted by the Lords endeavours whereupon formerly relying both his father the Emperour and he himself never feared what their enemies could do and now he doubted not but their old loyalty would easily compose a sedition raised by a few private men Onely the pardons which the Governesse in her letters to the King desired for certain persons were by his Majestie more resolutely then seasonably put off till another time In the interim the evil increasing and the opportunitie of applying a fit remedie being past his Majestie lost the Grace and favour he intended And truly mischiefs sprung not up severally or by intervals but compleated and in a knot breaking forth all at once For in the bordering Countreys the Master-hereticks watching how discord prospered in the Low-countreys that they might take occasion to vent their outlandish wares and sell them the new Gospel flocking in crouds the Calvinists out of France and the Lutherans and Anabaptists out of Germany invaded and as it were attached their nearest neighbour-towns First they held their Conventicles in the fields by night then successe smiling upon them fearing likewise that if differences chanced to be composed they should fail of dispatching what they came for they thought it best by way of prevention to shew themselves in the light and before the people that ran to meet them out of towns and villages boldly to preach against the Spanish tirannie against Religion corrupted by the Bishops and for the pure and sincere light of the Gospel Emulation made them more impudent lest the Calvinists that had indeed fewer great persons of their faction but more Proselytes and applause should be lesse powerfull then the Lutherans And the Anabaptists being farre more in number then the Lutherans scorned to be worsted by the Calvinists or that the Lutherans should have more great Protectours then both the other Sects Therefore they made haste in zeal of spirit to feiz upon Cities and Towns as if they were to make new plantations every one being for himself and all against One. Miserable and calamitous at that time was the condition of the Low-countreys many of the noblest Provinces being suddenly hurried into factions and running upon the rocks of errour Whilst impure men Apostates both from divine and humane faith whilst the scumme of their own nations the Refuse of Germany and France promised themselves a kind of sovereignty in the Low-countreys and ran up and down as if hell had been broke loose filling all places with turbulent sermons infamous libells hopes fears and jealousies Whilst such a multitude first out of the next villages but at last out of great towns came with incredible desire to hear these trumpeters of the new Gospel that once in the fields of Tournay above eight thousand men were seen at a sermon Near Lisle they appeared in greater shoals At Antwerp in one day were gathered together thirteen thousand next day fourteen thousand a while after sixteen thousand men Lastly taking more freedome in many places especially at Valenciens and upon the borders of Flanders they married people in the fields and baptized infants after the Calvinisticall manner And that all this might be done with safety they meet at these Conventicles and Sermons armed with pikes and muskets I know the Reader will not a little wonder to hear what they say the Low-treymen themselves were amazed when they saw how the Peopleâ— zeal of hearing sermons came to such a height that neither the Magistrates by authoritie nor their Officers by force nor
with a great sort of Citizens of Antwerp who saluting one another with discharge of their pistols they joyned companies and went on such multitudes of men partly meeting them upon the rode partly standing to behold them upon rising ground and tops of houses that you would think Antwerp had emptied it self of all the inhabitants Yet the Prince of Orange seemed not to be elated in his looks perhaps conceiving it to be a point of magnanimity or rather fearing that immoderate popular applause might offend superiour Powers And therefore when that huge crowd began to sing Psalmes in French he commanded them presently to hold their peace Others in divers places crying Long live the Gheuses he often silenced them with his hand Nay those that were got upon the walls louder then before shouting out the same wishes for the Gheuses when he could not rule their tongues by signes he grew in choler and swore by God they were best consider what they did for if they proceeded some of them should repent it But the greatest presumption of the people was when he entred Antwerp and rode through the streets then in many places they clamoured in this manner Behold the man that brings us liberty Behold the man that brings us the Confession of Auspurg We have no more need of the Covenanters This is â—e whom hereafter we will follow this is he whom we will petition to But the Prince of Orange appeared much offended at these expressions especially in Brederods presence He lighted at the Palace and that night consulted with the Magistrate how to reduce the people to their former duty and obedience how to hinder the Merchants from leaving the Town which they resolved to do and how to break the meetings at seditious Sermons for these were his instructions from the Governess But whilest the remedies were referred to the Senate the disease abroad being fed with the same humour increased and it was thought seldome less then 4000 men met at one Sermon which exceedingly grieved the Governess who by many Letters sometimes remembred the Senate and People of the promise wherein they obliged themselves to the King when to avoid the imposing of a Bishop they undertook to be more tender of Religion then ever any Bishop was Sometimes she praised and encouraged the Prince of Orange for his industry in preventing mischiefs and withall remembred him of the Duty of his place his faith to the King and ingagement to her self in this present Office that many had ill thoughts of him and the occasion was now in his own hands either to enflame or extinguish them When behold upon the sudden new troubles call away the attention of the Governess to another quarter News was brought that the Confederate Gheuses had a new designe and were about two thousand to meet at Centron and in that Citie belonging to the Bishop of Liege to resolve whether they should take up arms whereunto in every place they had animated the people The report of the taking up arms was false but their determination to meet proved true And Brederod with the chief of the Covenanters wrote Letters to the Towns about them in the end of Iune summoning them to convene the 14 day of Iuly Lewis of Nassau undertook to make the Bishop sending unto him the Lord of Villers who in the name of Lewis and his companions of the League should work him to give way to their holding an Assembly at Centron The Bishop excusing himself as bound by the Imperiall Laws not to suffer any such meeting in an Imperiall Town wrote all that had passed in cypher to the Governess and commanded the Governour of the Town not to admit them if they came But the Townsmen fearing that if they did shut their gates against them they would spoil their Harvest and fire the houses and Villages round about without contest received Brederod and his men into the Town In this convention begun about the middle of Iuly and ended the last day of that moneth two things were put to the question The first How they should be secured in case the King were minded to revenge himself upon them and then Whether they should move for more then was expressed in their Petition delivered in April touching the Edicts and Inquisition The generall vote was that security should be demanded of the Governess but the other passed in the negative some affirming that upon the grant of those particulars for which they took the Covenant they ought to proceed no farther Others said That if they had success in their first Petition they would enlarge it and desire that no certain form of Religion might be prescribed the people but that every one might be left free to serve God his own way Many were extreamly offended with that abominable opinion and thereupon by degrees disengaged themselves from the Covenant among which was Charles Mansfeld sonne to Count Ernest so as nothing was determined in that point But whether the Hereticks among themselves unknown to their other complices resolved upon that which presently followed in the Netherlands that is the violation of holy Images I shall in its proper place deliver Whilst these things were in agitation the Governess sent Count Egmont and the Prince of Orange to fright the Covenanters and these Assemblies not that she was ignorant how farre either of them was to be trusted but that by such expressions of her confidence and by making them of Counsel with her she might oblige them and put it in their power to set things right and consequently to merit the Kings favour They appointed Brederod and the heads of the Covenanters to meet them at Duffle a village hard by Antwerp And among other things they admonished them in the Governesses name thaâ— they should forbear by those kind of Assemblies to make any Innovation till his Majestie sent his absolute determination concerning their demands but rather that by their authoritie with the Commons they should restrain them as they had promised growing dayly more and more stubborn and contumacious Brederod wrote the heads of this conference which were nine to his confederates at Centron who agreed among themselves to send Lewis of Nassau with twelve Gentlemen to present the Governesse a new Petition consisting likewise of nine heads wherein partly they stood upon their justification and that so absolutely as they refused the act of Oblivion promised them by the Governesse affirming what they had done was more worthy to be published then forgotten partly they desired that the Governesse by her own letters and under the hands of the Knights of the Golden-fleece would secure them from force of arms which as it was said were preparing against them Moreover that she would give Commission to the Prince of Orange Count Egmont and Count Horn to hear the Grievances of the Covenanters and to mediate betwixt his Majestie and them Lastly they
moved for a generall Convention of the Estates as the best expedient for restoring peace to their Countrey Otherwise though against their wills they must be necessitated to have recourse to forrein help These letters being read in Senate after every man had delivered his opinion the Governesse answered Lewis and his companions that were called by jeering people his twelve Apostles that upon the twenty sixth of August the Knighrs of the Golden-fleece were to meet at Bruxels and she would advise with them about it In the interim the Prince of Orange returning to Antwerp when no good could be done there certified the Governesse that the Citizens had been earnest with him to receive the Government of Antwerp and for his securitie to put a Garrison into the Town The Governesse consenting to it he not onely raised men but was so bold as to ask leave to have a Guard about his person which she likewise granted And so to his great contentment he was made Governour meaning shortly to make himself an absolute Prince by the too much indulgence of the Governesse who with these favours endeavoured to ingage the Prince of Orange or at least would have him believed to be of the Kings partie But the despair of succours long looked for out of Spain together with her fear increased her indulgence Now at length upon Montinyes sollicâ—tation the Kings letters came wherein those three particulars the Dutchesse had so often requested of his Majestie were all granted but upon certaâ—n conditions For his Majestie gave way to the remove of the Ecclesiasticall Inquisitours provided the Bishops were first placed in their stead for he was resolved and fixed not to leave Religion naked without a guard of those that should take cognizance of her cause and revenge her injuries It was his pleasure likewise that the Imperiall Edicts should be somewhat moderated by his Councell in the Low-countreys but it must be certified to and approved of by his Councel in Spain before it should be published in the Provinces In the last place his Majestie was contented that 〈◊〉 Covenanters and others should be pardoned but the other two heads were first to be dispatched But these remedies came from Spain too late when the face of things was altered in the Low-countreys When the fury of the Hereticks plundering the Churches and openly defacing all venerable and sacred monuments of Religion was to be incountered in another way And indeed that destruction which I think was one of the greatest that ever happened if we consider the sudden mischief to Religion the rage of the People their small number and mean qualitie from what parts or by whose Counsell it was brought upon the Low-countreys is no more certainly known then the causes and originall of a sudden plague I should think by many letters I have read that in all probability it came thither from the Geneva Calvinists their next French neighbours perhaps by accident perhaps upon design for so Peter Ernest Count Mansfeld informed the Governesse and she the King The very same intelligence she received from Pedro Ceballio an old Spanish Commander who assured her that the Prince of Condegrave and the three brothers of the Colygn the heads of the Hugonots to advance their own partie in France while Heresie reigned in the Low-countreys by their Emissaries dayly solicited the Hereticks in these Provinces to make some attempt wherein they promised sufficiently to furnish them with men and Arms. The like hope they had of the Queen of England This agrees with what was resolved upon at Centron by the confederated Gheuses in which number the Admirall of France and others of that nation being comprehended it was easie for them upon this occasion to trouble the Low-countreys Besides these mysteries of State other things were plain to be discerned For the people partly corrupted with Heresie partly dreading the Inquisition exceedingly favoured the Hereticks that sought to overthrow that judicature The confederated Gheuses willingly took upon them the protection of the Commons because many of the Covenanters were birds of the same feather and all of them ambitious to be Masters and Tribunes of the people The Knights of the Order and the Lords were divided among themselves Those that continued faithfull to their Religion and their Prince were the weaker party the stronger either declared themselves for the Conspiratours or at least were of their chamber-counsell And now the Governesse wrote to the King that she had certain knowledge of the Prince of Orange's design by those tumults to invade the Government of the Low-countreys and share it with his fellow-rebells Therefore upon Assumption-eve they began to rifle the Low-countrey Churches first rising in the lower Flanders which lies between the river Lys and the West Sea In these parts a few of the raskall sort of Hereticks met and joyned themselves with some companies of thieves upon the day appointed for proclaiming warre against heaven lead on by no Commander but Impietie their Arms were staves hatchets hammers and ropes fitter to pull down houses then to fight withall some few of them had swords and muskets Thus accoutered as if they had been furies vomited from Hell they broke into the towns and villages about St. Omer and if they found the doors of Churches or Monasteries shut forced them open frighting away their religious inhabitants and overturning the Altars they defaced the Monuments of Saints and broke to peices their sacred images Whatsoever they saw dedicated to God and to the Blessed they pulled it down and trod it under their feet to dirt whilst their Ringleaders clapt them on the backs and incouraged them with all their force to destroy the Idols The Hereticks glad of this successe to the first that ever they sent out upon a party left the place with speed and with unanimous consent shouted and cryed aloud Let us to IPRES that being a citie much frequented by the Calvinists And they were drawn thither as well out of hope of protection as out of hatred they bare to the Bishop of that City Martin Rithovius an eminently virtuous and learned man and therefore meriting the spleen of Hereticks Whereupon they ran violently thither gathering upon the way such vagabonds and beggars as joyned with them out of hope of plunder And as a snow ball rolling from the top of a hill grows still greater by the accesse of new snow through which it passes and wherein it is involved so these thievish vagabonds multiplying by the way the farther they go the more they rage and the more considerable their thievish strength appears And when they had pillaged a few small villages about Ipres upon the very day of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin the citizens of Ipres opening their gates unto them they entered the town and went directly to the Cathedrall Church where every one fell to work Some
set ladders to the walls with hammers and slaves battering the pictures Others broke a sunder the iron work seats and pulpit Others casting ropes about the great statues of our Saviour Christ and the Saints pulled them down to the ground Others stole the consecrated plate burnt the sacred Books and stript the Altars of their holy ornaments and that with so much securitie with so little regard of the Magistrate or Prelates as you would think they had been sent for by the common Councell and were in pay with the citie With the same fury they likewise burned the Bishop of Ipre's library and destroyed the rest of the Churches and Religious nouses of the town reacting their villanies and because the first prospered still presuming This sacrilegious robbery continued a whole day Part of the people being amazed to see them not taking them for men but devils in humane shapes and part rejoycing that now those things were done which they themselves had long ago designed Nor had the Magistrate and Senatours any greater care of Religion Perhaps this sudden inundation took away their sense and judgement perhaps being privy to the plot they idle and carelesse kept their houses Indeed the whole Citie frighted like passengers in a Shipwrack beheld the destruction never putting to their helping hands The next day another party of Church-robbers either kept for a reserve or taking example by what was done about St. Omer had orders to plunder Menin Commines Vervich and other Towns upon the Lys which they did with the like violence All things holy that were portable they carried away the rest they cut in pieces and burned Thence passing the River they came within the Liberties of Lisle many of the Townsmen joyning with them and having robbed a rich Monastery which they call Marquet mad and drunk some went to Doway some to Seclin But the Secliners and other neighbour Towns catching up any weapon that came to hand faced them upon their march and shewed themselves ready to punish the injury offered to Religion unless those thieves would take another way But they with the same impudence striving to go forward and to break through them the Countrey came in and falling upon them slew a great sort and routed the rest making them flie in great distraction forcing many into the boggs drowing some in the river and carrying others into the Town in triumph But this was a slight revenge when at the same time almost all Flanders did as furiously assault God himself and all his Saints no man resisting The news whereof much afflicted the Governess who in great grief of heart turning to Count Egmont that waited on her from the Sermon to her Privie-chamber said Do you hear Egmont what good news comes from your Province of Flanders Unhappy Woman that I am to see in the time of my Government such indignities offered to God and to the King And will you in whose worth and fidelity his Majestie hath alwayes put such confidence suffer these foul villanyes to passe unpunished in the Province committed to your charge and when he answered That in the first place the Kings Authority must be carefully maintained and then Religion would easily be restored the Governess not without indignation replied that his counsel was not just but rather before all humane things the honour and worship of God ought to be preferred the neglect whereof would be a farre greater misery then the losse of any power or fortune whatsoever This was her opinion and likewise the Kings who resolved to put nothing in ballance with Religion And when Egmont added That men were of another mind who had estates in these Provinces which they feared to loose she concluded with the same constancie that it was indeed to be wished and would be a more prudent course to preserve both Religion and temporall Power but if one of them must go to wrack the safetie of Religion ought principally to be respected which once lost would never be repaired with the addition either of Wealth or Empire To this purpose her Excellence spake in Senate also which she speedily summoned Wherein it was decreed that Maximil Rassinghem who succeeded Iohn Currier deceased in the Government of French Flanders should immediately enter Lisle with the horse commanded by the Lord Montiny who was then in Spain and not suffer the people that had been plundering consecrated Goods to return into the town before they had yeilded up their Arms and that he had carried them to the Magazine And notwithstanding Egmont did not well approve of this kind of proceeding but affirmed that if the Governess went by the way of Arms this Insurrection would not be quieted till 200000 men hast lost their lives yet she gave not off her resolution but answered It were better that Roat the dregs of mankind if they would not renounce their heresie should be banished or destroyed then they should be suffered to commit such execrable wickedness lest the good men of the Low-countreys should at length either be infected with their contagion or forced by them to flie their Countrey in case the multitude prevailed Whilst these preparations were made at Court the rage of the Low-countrey Hereticks was not laid but like a storm now violently carried into this now into that quarter terrified every Province especially Antwerp Where upon the day of the Assumption of our Lady for the Antwerpers have the Blessed Virgin for their Patroness whilst her Image in solemn Procession was carried upon mens shoulders from the great Church through the streets the symptomes of that disease appeared which brake forth soon after Some jeering rascals of the meaner sort of Artificers first laughed and hissed at the holy Solemnitie then impiously and impudently with mimick salutations and reprochfull words mockt the Effigies of the mother of God and had presumed to lay sacrilegious hands upon it but that by the care of those that ordered the Procession it was set down not as was usuall in the middle-Isle of the Church but speedily conveyed into the Quire And next day for base people grow bolder if they find themselves feared many came into the Church and some playing their gambols before our Ladies Chappel asked her in scorn why she had so early flown up to the roust Others ran about the great Church threatning the Altars and Images among whom an impudent Rogue a Sadler got up into the Pulpit and when this impious Mimick had counterfeited the tone and gesture of a Preacher desiring them to reach him a Bible he challenged any of the Catholick Priests to come and dispute with him and whilst they received him on the one side with applauses and on the other with casting faggot-sticks and rubbish at him which he threw at his audience again at length the scuffle increasing as if they had been in the streets a Catholick Spipper not able
be forced to accept of unjust conditions But whilst Orange and Egmont to whom she would needs bid Farwel disswaded her from the journey the news was all over the Town and some of the Citizens shutting up the Gates others went to the Governess humbly beseeching her that she would not by her flight adde to the impudence of wicked men and make the Kâ—ng condemn that faithfull Citie under the notion of Conspiratours against his Majestie Nor did she alter her resolution for all this though a great man informed her Excellence that the Prince of Orange speaking of her going away to some at Court told them among other discourse That if the Governess would leave the Town and consequently desert the State he himself was resolved his Towns and Fortunes should not become a prey to any That their French neighbours might easily possesse themselves of Flanders and that long since they pretended a title to Artois and Haynolt nor could the rest of the Provinces want new Lords But that which most of all troubled the Governess was a rumour dispersed in Bruxels that she was the onely cause why the Gheuses had not their Petition granted which she might do of her self having received plenipotentiary Authority from the King to signe any conditions for quieting the Low-countrey tumults And that if still she pretended to exspect answer from Spain putting them off with such flammes there were some in readiness that seizing upon her together with Viglius Keeper of the Seal and Egmont himself would extort by force what they could not obtain with modestie Such reports as these though at first the Governess accounted them vain threatnings of the Hereticks which had cunningly named Egmont to make her think the Conspiratours hated him Yet when she saw the same affirmed by many that seemed utterly to despair of any good once more attempting to get out of Town and being staid again Fear overcoming her she at last was induced to grant some of the Covenanters demands Which after other businesse she wrote to his Majestie in these words Now when I come to add what finally I granted to the Covenanters unworthy my Resolution unworthy your Majesties Religion truly the grief of it peirces my very soul and shame comes upon my face in blushes I call God to witnesse who knows the secrets of my heart that often and with my utmost power I resisted them many nights together I have not shut mine eyes being at that very time afflicted with sorrow and a fever At last besides the spoil of Churches which I heard of from other quarters when the storm hung over this Citie and that so many openly rung in mine ears that the destructive spight to holy things would never cease til I should grant two demands made by the Covenanters When my house was besieged my mind languishing and my body sick sending for Orange Egmont and Horn and protesting before them that my consent was extorted thereunto I made a concession of pardon and indemnity to the Covenanters and to the rest I gave libertie to hear their Ministers preach onely in places where they had been accustomed so to do provided they came unarmed and molested not the Catholicks With a speciall clause limiting these two Grants to such time as the King with consent of the Estates of the Low-countreys would be pleased to allow Yet to both these I consented not in your Majesties name but in mine own so as when you please you may avoid them without the least blemish to your Honour which you have not your self ingaged and being ill-ingaged by me you should not and I hope will not make it good Nay I beseech and conjure you Mighty Sir by that which is dearer to you then your life your care to defend the Catholick faith that immediately not exspecting the convenience of the Spring you will please to come in person and revenge the wrongs dâ—ne to afflicted Religion which now sadly and solely addressing her self to your Majestie exspects relief which otherwise she dispairs of from that right hand of yours renowned for faith and power indeed unlesse this one hope remained my life which lingers in a miserable manner would soon part from me though perhaps this hope it self will be hardly able to keep off death Thus her Excellence fainting under the burden of her grief wrote privately to the King but publickly shewed no womanish passion and still intent to affairs of State gave Count Mansfeld Commission to govern Bruxels as her Lieutenant put into the town a new Garrison of horse and foot fortified the Count left nothing undone that either concerned her own or the Cities preservation Indeed having made that agreement with the Covenanters they gave her jealousies a short breathing-space for upon the foresaid terms taking a new oath of obedience to the Governesse they so ordered the matter that upon the day appointed the Gheuses attempted nothing against the Church Nay the Prince of Orange returning to Antwerp hanged three of the sacrilegious villains and banished three more setting open the great Church commanding the Priests to exercise their function and boldly to instruct the people Which had not a little rejoyced the Governesse but that in the same letter which he about it he inclosed two petitions delivered him by the Germans that desired some Church in Antwerp where they might freely exercise the confession of Auspurg This took off much of the Governesses contentment especially because the day after she understood by other letters from the Prince of Orange that he and the Senate of Antwerp had permitted Hereticks to preach in the citie and to use all the other rites of Luther and Calvin assigning them three places for that purpose The reason whereof the Prince of Orange explaining affirmed to the Governesse who very hainously resented it in three letters sent immediately one after another that he was extreamly unwilling to make conditions with the Hereticks but some considerations inforced him First that he might by this means restore the Churches and Churchmen to securitie Then whereas no lesse then twenty thousand men used to go out of Town to sermons he greatly feared lest at their return some pragmaticall knaves gaping after pillage might joyn with them and the multitude prevailing plunder the rich Merchants houses Lastly because the Hereticks already had sermons in Antwerp therefore in pursuance of that agreement he had assigned them places in the citie Notwithstanding the Governesse liked not the proceedings of the Prince of Orange perhaps because she her self was guilty of too much indulgence and likewise in fear to be reproved for anothers fault perhaps because the Prince of Orange had indeed given further allowance to the Hereticks then they could challenge by their articles which licensed their Sermons within the walls but not their Baptisme Marriage or other Hereticall ceremonies But
of his Embassadour at Vienna intreating his Imperiall Majestie for the nearness of their love and bloud to assist with his authority those levies But the Emperour because he had heard that the Governess and the confederate Gentlemen were now agreed commending the wisdome of that policy diswaded the King from those Arms and Levies Perhaps because the Turk then threatning him he could not spare so many men perhaps because he thought it an honour to be the Arbiter and Composer of other Princes quarrels Therefore in his Letters to the Governess the Emperour promised her his endeavours if any thing was yet uncomposed And wrote likewise to the Covenanters to this effect That he was much troubled to hear of their difference with the Governess and of the stirres that daily followed thereupon which because they were in the confine of the Empire in the Dominion of the King his Uncle in Provinces so much by him esteemed it concerned the Majesty of the Empire that he should by his assistance and authority assert the obedience of the Subiectâ— to their Prince That he hoped these his endeavours would be acceptable to the Catholick King and he was sure they would be safe for the Confederates Therefore he advised them in the interim to attempt no Innovation but as Allegiance bound them to compell the tumultuous people to be quiet This Letter and divers more of the same subject written to the Lords the Emperour sent the Governess to read and as it should be needfull to deliver But the Governess sending copies of them to the King a good while exspected his Answer till the stirres daily encreasing her Excellence receiving new commands from his Majestie to levy forrein forces gave thanks to the Emperour Maximiilian letting him know that the present condition of affairs was such as no capitulation could be made with an armed Faction without arms Wherefore dispatching the Kings letters to the Electours of the Empire and others especially to those that were to raise the men she beseeched the Emperour that the Assistance which he had graciously offered in the Low-countreys he would please to perform among the Germane Princes and the Commanders there which would be now more opportune and a farre greater favour to the King And truly the Emperour did not onely this but likewise by Edict prohibited and made it death for any Germane to bear arms against the King of Spain Which among divers others how deeply it was resented by the Prince of Orange though otherwise subtil and close he expressed at table wine laying open the secrets of his heart For being invited by Gresser Agent for the Queen of England after he had drunk soundly the Prince began in great fury to inveigh against the Emperours Edict That the Emperour and the King and whosoever was of their opinion deceived themselves that not onely the Germans would take arms but a great sort of other Nations bordering upon the Empire That the Danes the Swedes and many others would not be wanting which both would and could help the confederate Low-countreymen Thus threatning in his rage after supper he was mollified with a song But the Letters which I have mentioned sent from the King and the Governess to the Princes of Germany were by them diversly answered The Electours of Trier and Mentz did much approve of the Kings designe against the Rebels and disturbers of the Catholick Religion promising their assistance as befitted good friends and neighbours both Princes of the Empire and allies unto his Majesty they would therefore give free passage through all their Towns and Jurisdictions to such forces as upon this occasion should with the Emperours consent be raised The like promises were made by the rest of the Catholick Bishops in Germanie The Duke of Bavaria added that all men were bound by force of Arms to oppose such tumults that as plagues laid cities desolate and he desired his Majestie would be very vigilant in it Farre different expressions were returned from the hereticall Princes for the Landtgrave of Hessen and the Duke of Wirtemberg excusing themselves in point of Religion which would not suffer them to prejudice those of their own Profession advised the Governess to seek redress without arms onely by allowing the Confession of Auspurg and Liberty of conscience But the Count Palatine Frederick the third who declared himself Defendour of the new Faith in Germany wrote the most confident and longest letter of them all For he not onely pleaded to the Governess the cause of the Low-countrey men and maintained their innocence but defying the Bishop of Rome the veneration of holy Images and the tyrannie of the Inquisitours concluded that Religion bound him not to oppose his brethren professing the Faith of Ausburg and the pure word of God The Landtgrave of Hessen and the Palsgrave not thus contented perswaded the Duke of Brunswick not to engage in a warre undertaken merely for Religion and not to accept the Command of horse offered to him Notwithstanding he took it nor did any other Commander invited by the King refuse his Commission but onely Iohn of Nassau brother to the Prince of Orange Nor did Charles the ninth of France requested by the Governess fail to declare himself enemy to these insurrections commanding by Proclamation that none of his subjects should presume to assist the Rebels of the Low-countreys with relation as I conceive to the mutuall promise of Assistance made at Baion and particularly fearing if the Hereticks should be masters of the Netherlands France would be overflowed with the same filthy sink I am certain King Philip sent him letters full of thanks and likewise signified to the Governess his Intention presently to begin his voyage for which all things being now in readiness he onely wanted health for his quartane Ague had not yet left him though he meant not to exspect a perfect Recovery but to go forthwith to Madrid that having setled his affairs he might from thence contemning any danger to his life pass over into the Low-countreys This which was likewise by Bergen and Montiny writ from Spain in cypher began to be believed The minds of many were exceedingly troubled at the news insomuch as the Prince of Orange his brother Lewis the Counts Egmont Hochstrat and Horn met at Dendermund betwixt Antwerp and Gant to communicate the intelligence which every one of them had received concerning the Kings coming and thereupon to advise what generall course was to be held Though this meeting was appointed and came together with all secresie yet the industrious Governess knew all their proceedings And as multitudes of spies alwayes attend a Jealous Prince there wanted not that kind of men Eves-droppers and Hocus-Pocuses the summe of whose life is to know and not to be known which pryed into all their secret consultations and resolutions And as farre as she could understand the
by reason of King Charles his Edict commanding that none should be raised in France All this the Governesse knew by private letters out of France Lastly at the very same time in the Consistorie of Antwerp letters were read dated at Constantinople from so many and so remote places were the Low-countreymen incouraged to rebell either out of malice to the Catholick faith or to the house of Austria sent from Iohn Michese a powerfull man and highly favoured by the Turkish Emperour Wherein he advised the Calvinists of Antwerp and inflamed their zeal To proceed as they had valiantly begun in rooting out the Catholicks that the Turk had great Designes a foot against the Christians and shortly Philip King of Spain would be so ingaged in a Turkish warre that he would not have leasure to think of the Low-countreymen And indeed Michese spake not this at randome He was born a Iew for it will not be amisse to speak somewhat of the man illustrious for mischief and often mentioned in the history of Cyprus and other destructive warres and when he was a youth fleâ— out of Spain for fear his ill-dissembled superstition might be discovered and living long in Antwerp he was much esteemed by many persons of honour particularly by Mary Queen of Hungary then Governesse of the Low-countreys from thence impudently stealing away a maid of noble parentage he went to Venice and there had the confidence to treat with the Senate about assigning a place for the Jews in some of the Islands belonging to that Signiorie his Suit being with scorn rejected first he made a voyage to Constantinople and there married a rich Jew then he passed into Cilicia to Selimus the sonne of Soliman and finding the Prince in a vacancie of affairs or not disposed to serious businesse being altogether inslaved to his pleasures Michese as he knew all the points in the compasse of Luxury feeding him every day according to the variation of humour to the height of appetite with exquisite and new delights became one of his Minions or Privadoes by how much he excelled in the art of flatterie or the artifice of pleasures by so much he preceded all others in the Princes favour Therefore Sultan Soliman was easily intreated by his sonne to grant what the Venetians had denied a Citie and Territorie for the Iews Nay Selimus after he came to the Crown made him of his Councell of Warre much about the time when the Moors in Spain resolving to take up arms implored the assistance of the Turkish Emperour to a people of the same Religion that in hope of aid from the Turk intended a warre against King Philip. Nor was the Emperour Selimus averse from sending an armie into Spain and whilst Michese advised him to it because he saw it pleased Selimus his sonne in law Achmet who had infinitely indeared himself to Selimus by his rare policie used in concealing his father Soliman's death at Zighet he doubted not but the design would shortly take and therefore by that which I have mentioned animated his friends at Antwerp putting them in hope of a rebellion of the Moors But Mustapha and others voting for a warre with Cyprus Michese came over to their opinion and when the Emperour was doubtfull which way to incline Michese alone turned the scales and carried it for Cyprus so great was his envie to the Venetians whose incivilities and scorn he often with much passion mentioned Besides he had a foolish hope to be created King of Cyprus vainly grounding upon some words spoken by Selimus at his table And that his endeavours might be answerable to his Counsell they that wrote the historie of that warre affirm it was he that laid the plot for blowing up of the Arcenall at Venice which not onely shook the foundation of the citie and beat down the buildings round about it with a huge destruction of men but even the neighbouring towns and cities were affraid they should be shattered with that Earthquake Those that gave fire to the powder being sent from the Turk by advice of Michese to the end that so great a losse might weaken the Venetians and render them in no capacitie for the warre And if a few dayes before the better part of their powder had not been shipped away for Corcyra that Citie the fairest in the world had been utterly ruined and one man had in a moment ended the warre of Cyprus So great a fire can spleen kindle in any mans bosome raised even in the midst of the water Among the Low-countreymen Michese his letters and incouragement did no little mischief For this news putting them in heart it was decreed by the Consistorie of Antwerp that whereas an opportunity was now offered to strengthen their partie they should make up among themselves as great a summe as possibly they could to be ready upon all Emergencies which was with great zeal immediately put in execution At which time Count Hochstrat Lieutenant Governour of Antwerp for the Prince of Orange sent a Petition to the Governesse delivered him by the Hereticks of that citie wherein they desired libertie of Conscience for themselves and their brethren for which they offered the King three hundred thousand Florens which was supposed to be the Artifice of some that they might with lesse suspicion go to and fro to gather money and in the mean time both deceive the Spaniard that would be easily tempted with so much gold and likewise their own partie that would more willingly open their purse for obtaining the free exercise of Religion then for the maintaining of a warre Unlesse perhaps that vast summe was offered to set forth the greatnesse of their faction And therefore many copies of the Petition were sent about the Provinces subscribed by the Gentlemen and Merchants that ingaged for payment of the money thereby to advance their reputation and to fright the Governesse with so great a power But her Excellence nothing moved with the vain noise of their wealth did not so much as vouchsafe an answer to Hochstrat The Petition it self she sent to the King to quicken him upon so many provocations In the interim she her self knowing all that passed in their Consistories and Assemblies when she saw that divers of the Conspiratours believing the news of the Kings coming grew very fearfull thought it best to make her advantage of that fear and therefore writing letters to them full of affection and confidence instructed the messengers to make them large promises to some which she knew were no enemies to Religion she wrote letters upon those blanks the King had sent her signed with his sign Manual wherein suiting her words to the times she exhorted them to defend the Cause of Religion to keep the people in their antient Duty and Obedience and these were to be so delivered that they should not be altogether concealed
from such as were not invited whereby jealousies and differences might arise among them And it happened very conveniently that at the same time the Governesse received some letters from the King writ with his own hand to the Prince of Orange and some other of the Low-countrey Lords expressing much affection to them which she presently sent to the presse and had them published the result of all this was That partly out of fear the Lords would desert them whose resolutions the Confederates perceived to waver partly out of hope which they were full of because they saw themselves courted and honoured by the King partly out of malice to others which as they thought suspected and hated them divers of the Covenanters leaving the publick meetings of the Conspiratours returned to their own houses to follow their private businesse or came over and submitted to the Governesse striving rather to merit the Kings favour then his indignation Which great defection elevating her spirits the Governesse resolved to use her utmost force and policy to scatter their seditious Congregations And to begin the right way by craving a blessing from God she wrote letters in the Kings name to all the Bishops and chiefest Prelates to appoint in all their Cities Fast-dayes and publick Prayers and to use all other means for appeasing the Divine wrath She likewise sent an Agent into France to Francis Alava the King of Spains Embassadour to inform him of the preparations made by the French Hugonots and another into Germany to the Emperour to pre-acquaint him with the Petition that was to be presented at the Diet and to give him intelligence how he was threatened by the Electours Augustus Duke of Saxony and Frederick Count Palatine And truly Count Mansfeld would have offered the Emperour that he himself would either convert the Duke of Saxonie to his Allegeance or take away the power of his disloyaltie by imploying the sonnes of Iohn Frederick that bore an inveterate malice to Duke Augustus for depriving their Father of the Electorate and if they should be incouraged to take arms no doubt but they would involve all Saxony in a War and Augustus would have enough to do to extinguish the fire in his own Dukedome without scattering it in anothers Dominions But the Governesse could not at that time spare Count Mansfeld she therefore held it sufficient to commend his design and to inform the King of it and his readinesse to serve his Majesty pretermitting no occasion to name him for the advance of the Counts former Suit and perhaps he himself had an eye upon it when he made this offer which undoubtedly would more advance his favour with the King then his trouble in Saxony Thus many proffer huge service to such as they know will not accept it especially if they think themselves able to do their businesse without the profferer's help Moreover it was Mansfelds plot the Counts of Aremberg and Megen being of the same opinion that the number of souldiers should be increased in the Low-countreys and the Governours attended with greater Guards and presently the Governesse directing her Letters to them advised them severally Not to suffer the Hereticks to have any more meetings That she knew besides their Sermons that were with limitation permitted they held I know not what Consistories and setting up Schools for Children bred them to impious Opinions That they married buryed and baptized in a new manner published filthy Books and posted up Pictures in mockery of God and the King and at their Calvinisticall Suppers the multitude then meeting solemnly professed that they had broke the League with Catholick Religion and were resolved never to make a Peace but constantly to endeavour the extirpation of it Root and Branch And yet was it possible men should so far forget all Modesty and Shame as to affirm that these abominations were licensed by the Governess when she permitted them Sermons That she was not so foolishly wicked as not to distinguish things so distant or to suffer so execrable impiety Therefore in the Kings name she commanded the Governours of the Provinces that as many as they should apprehend at any Hereticall meetings Sermons onely excepted they should proceed against them as Traytours to the King and disturbers of the publick Peace To these Letters she joyned an Edict which clearly explained every particular thereof and imposed penalties upon the contumacious somewhat more sharp and severe then well consisted with her nature I suppose Grief made a deep impression in her mind as if all that mischief came of Sermons which her too much fear and lenity had toleratrd Wherefore her Excellence sending the King a Transcript of the Edict said She was forced to use that rigour because the detestable carriage of the Hereticks contrary to agreement so required And she hoped if their other exercises were once suppressed that Sermons whensoever the King would declare the grant to be void and disallow them would be likewise banished the Low-countreys She added that when the Edict was penned all the Privie Councel consented but onely Egmont who said that Edict would be an Alarum to the Low-countreys and indeed either upon that occasion or because the Church-robbers and such as met at Sermons in prohibited places were punished they hastened the warre which they meant not should begin till a long while after To this end they met more frequently in their Consistories and Committees many Letters passing by the hands of Gyles Cleark to the confederate Gentlemen and from them to the Merchants and Consistorians By all which it was finally resolved that whensoever the Governess should use force they would be ready to take the field making their levies partly in Saxonie partly in the Palatinate but the Palsgraves offer should be first embraced Commission for Generall was given to Henry Brederod with a list of the names of Antwerp Merchants that engaged for money to raise men Brederod immediately named Collectours and made Philip Marnixius of S. Aldegund Treasurer of the Army Lewis of Nassau undertook to solicit Augustus Duke of Saxony For though Saxony was then embroyled in a Warre between Iohn Frederick sonne to the late Electour Iohn Frederick and his cosin-germane by the fathers side Augustus Duke of Saxony de facto yet Lewis liked the employment because he hoped by authority of the Germane Princes that were active in it the difference would be soon composed and he should from thence be furnished with stout and well armed souldiers for the Low-countreys But because the war continued Iohn Frederick despising the conditions of Peace and that the Governess knowing the Covenanters designe to trouble Lewis his negotiation kept some faithfull Agents in Augustus his Army which lay before the city of Goth therefore the Covenanters not relying upon this slow assistance met at the Prince of Oranges City Breda where these three things were decreed
as the Governess sent the King intelligence by Alphonso de Lapes a French man That they should frame a Letter to invite Count Egmont to joyn with them give an account of their proceedings to the Governess by a new Petition and in the mean time levie men even in the bosome of the Netherlands And a Letter was writ to Egmont by the Prince of Orange Hochstrat and Brederâ—d desiring him to give in his name to their Association for by this new conjuncture they promised to silence the preaching Ministers in the Low-countreys whereby they would either take away any pretence of the Kings coming with an Army or else if when all things were quieted his Majestie though intreated should come armed into the Provinces they might justly unite their endeavours and forces to stop the Kings passage and preserve their Countrey from Tyrannie which by the rigour of punishments building of Forts Spanish Garrisons and forcing of the Low-countreys was certainly intended Egmont imparted this to a friend either out of love or for advice or perhaps that he might acquaint the Governess with their letter and his answer for he likewise shewed him hâ—s absolute deniall to joyn with them Notwithstanding the Governess confided not in Egmont who as she now feared all things suspected this to be merely artifice and deceit But Brederod who was to present this Petition from the Covenanters desired a safe conduct from the Governess for himself and fourty horse which she long since offended at such Treaties absolutely denied and commanded that if he came to the gates they should give fire upon him Whereupon Brederod contented himself with sending the Petition and with it his particular complaint The Covenanters remembred the Dutchess that in August last they met by her command to disarm and quiet the people They complained that by letters directed to the Magistrates from her Highness they were prohibited to exercise the Ministery of the Gospel in those places where they were allowed to have Sermons when notwithstanding that under the notion of Sermons all other rites were comprehended For it is the solemn custome where Sermons are permitted there likewise to tolerate all appendences to the same Religion and they accordingly explained the toleration to the People and promised them the free use of Sermons and all their other Rites of which freedome the People being now debarred they claimed promise of the Covenanters every day implored their faith by new Expostulations and Letters some of which they had annexed to this Petition Lastly they were amazed and grieved to see the Low-countreys every day frighted with great forces themselves expelled the Cities watched in the fields and every where reputed for enemies to the State All which being inconsistent with their own Loyalty and Honour and the Tranquillity of the people they humbly prayed her Highness that according to her Princely word obliged under her hand and seal she would both secure the Covenanters and suffer the People to hear Sermons and those things which alwayes go along with Sermons For the better effecting whereof they humbly desired that her Excellence would please to disband the souldiers lately raised and call in her Edict contrary to the capitulation For which they should be so much bound to his Maiestie her Highness that both their Dignities should by them be ever valued far above their own lives or fortunes But otherwise in spirit they foresaw a great destruction of the people and the imminent ruine of the Nation the foretelling whereof and labouring to avert it as much as in them lay would hereafter free them if not from sorrow yet from any crime This Petition the Governess communicated to her Privie Counsellours and a few dayes after by their advice returned answer to Brederod withall commanding it should be printed and published the heads whereof I shall briefly give you She understood not she said who those Gentlemen were or those People of the Low-countreys in whose name this Petition was presented when many of those Gentlemen that petitioned in April last did not onely profess themselves to have received satisfaction but daily came to offer their services to the King That she onely tolerated Sermons and that so much against her will as may testifie how farre she is from giving them power to appoint Consistories create Magistrates to levy taxes to collect above twenty hundred thousand Florens to confound the marriages of Catholicks and Hereticks and consequently their Successions and Honours Besides the Calvinisticall Suppers which they had and Congregations in most part whereof since they detracted from the Authority of the Prince and his subordinate Officers and sought by degrees to introduce a new Commonwealth they might see how likely it was that these things which they call onely Ceremonies of Religion should be permitted by the Governess to the so great Dishonour of God and the King That indeed she had capitulated with them and that the capitulation was and shall be observed but not in things prejudiciall to Religion and the Royall Authority But why should they that complain of the breach of Articles passe over in silence That since their own agreement in the moneth of August so many faithlesse and sacrilegious Villanies have been done Churches destroyed Religious Persons turned out of their Monasteries Hereticall Gospellers from forrein parts by force of Arms brought to preach in places where their Sermons were never heard before Cities aâ—d Provinces by their Letters or Emissaries solicited to mutiny and rebell and diverse other foul things committed whereof the Petitioners themselves were Authours for under their Protection the people have presumed to seize upon his Majesties Magazines to expell his Officers at the ringing of a Bell to muster in the fields to destroy Monasteries and Gentlemens houses with fire and sword to possesse themselves of Towns and marking out all Catholicks for the slaughter the Governess her self not excepted they would have made a generall Massacre in the Low-countreys if the Traitours Letters to them of Valenciens had not been intercepted and so their horrid Designe by Gods goodness prevented That by the premisses they may perceive how unseasonably they petition for her Edict to be revoked and the Souldiers disbanded that is in other words for Iustice to be disarmed and exposed to the injuries of the wicked Let them not cozen themselves she would do neither of both but was resolved to guard the Commonwealth if need should be with new Laws and Souldiers and not to lay down especially at this time the sword that God puts into Princes hands She therefore advised them to forbear meddling with Publick Affairs and every one to mind his private business that they may not shortly force the King at his coming to forget his native Clemency That she her self will use her utmost endeavours to save the Low-countreys from the Ruine threatned by these popular Tumults which they have raised The End of
Kings immediate Commission can neither be taken away by the Governesse nor resigned by him without the King's Leave That therefore he should presently resume his Offices and consider it was no rash Determination of his Majesty in this common Disturbance of the Provinces to require that their Governours by a new Oath should testifie their Fidelity and Allegeance The Prince of Orange replyed in the presence of Count Hochstrat who came in by chance that for many and serious considerations which he had as yet communicated to no man he refused this Oath First because the like was never required of any former Governour then for as much as he had long agoe taken an Oath of Allegiance to the King as other Lords did that lived within his Majesty's Dominions it might be thought he had broke his first Oath in regard he was put to sweare againe Moreover because he had sworne to preserve the Priviledges of his Provinces if peradventure he should be commanded to the contrary he could not obey the Order being tyed by Oath not to doe it and yet he bound himselfe to obey it if he should now sweare to doe what he should be commanded in the King's name against any persons whatsoever Add to this that in the Forme of the Oath the Emperour was not excepted to whom as a feudatary he was obliged and would not beare Armes against him Nay more there was no exception of his Sons and Friends as the Duke of Cleve and diverse others against which he would not fight Another Reason was for that many Edicts were daily published making it capitall for all such as were not Catholiques which Edicts should never be executed by his Authority for his Heart would not suffer him to inflict such punishments as men were now liable to for their Religion Nay if he should take this Oath he might be compelled in the last place to put his Wife to death because she was a Lutheran Lastly it was to be considered that he who commanded in the King's name might be such as it would not be consistent with his quality and Honour to obey and here with Indignation he named the Duke of Alva and said no more For as it was reported the Duke of Alva's coming troubled him exceedingly his other Reasons only were pretended and because invalid therefore multiplyed Nor would the Prince of Orange have lost his Government for an Oath but he thought it unsafe to trust himselfe in the hands of that Spanish Duke by nature melancholick and cruell and out of an ancient Emulation betwixt them too likely to carry himselfe proudlier in his Command or if he should be civill yet the Prince of Orange could never brooke a man from whom he must receive Common Civility in the nature of a Pardon But Bertius sufficiently instructed as well by nature as by the Governesse answered him prudently to every particular He said it was no wonder in regard the Provinces were not troubled in the time of their former Governours that no such Oath was required of them That to take the same Oath againe was not by a new Profession to repaire the Violation of an old Vow but to raise greater Alacrity in new Dangers That to preserve the Priviledges of the Provinces the King had noe lesse obliged his Faith then the Prince of Orange his and therefore it concerned his Majesty to be careful that nothing should be commanded which was Breach of Priviledge Nor was the War in agitation against the Emperour or Empire or the Duke of Cleue all which he was assured the Governesse would very willingly let him except in his Oath That the Care of the Edicts and Penall Lawes against Hereticks should not be committed to him much lesse should he be inforced by any ones Command to Punish his wife Thus Bertius endeavoured to overthrow the Prince of Oranges Reasons without mentioning the Duke of Alva perhaps doubtfull how to answer that Point perhaps because vpon the naming of his Wife the Prince of Orange replyed not expecting till he came so farre as Alva that he knew the King when he arrived in the Lowcountryes would not suffer any mans Wife to be of another Religion therefore for his owne part he was resolved to remoue into Germany with his Family before the King 's Coming lest if he did it after it might be supposed he was rather banished then that he departed of his own accord neverthelesse in what place soever he remained he would live as became a Subject to his Majesty never omitting any thing that might conduce to the Kings Honour Bertius seeing him not to be wrought vpon at least not able to make a Peace desired a Truce praying him for this was part of his Instructions that before his Departure he would giue a meeting to Count Egmont aâ—d any other of the Lords that he himselfe would name whereunto he willingly condiscended and appointed Willebroc a Village betweene Bruxells and Antwerp for the Place of Conference Where on the one part the Prince of Orange on the other Egmont Mansfeldt and by Command from the Governesse Bertius also met and after they had treated diverse times of the same things they departed having concluded nothing They say the Prince of Orange before he went taking aside Count Egmont spake of the present Dangers and intreated him to withdraw and by no means to stand this bloudy Spanish Tempest that hung over the Low-countryes And when Egmont confident in his owne merits and scorning Danger disputed against his opinion and how the King's mercy would pardon all if he found the Low-countries quieted This Mercy of the King said Orange that you trust to will be your ruine My Soule presages I wish it may be false that you are to be the Bridge the Spaniards will tread upon in their coming over to the Low-countryes At which words as assured of his Prophesy and that he should never see Egmont againe he held him hard in his Armes and so both weeping tooke their last Farewell Next day he wrote a Letter to the Governesse Intreating her that she would please to remember the King and make a gracious Interpretation herselfe of the Paines he had taken now and long since both in Peace and Warre for his Majestyes Honour and Advantage And that he himselfe wheresoever he lived would alwayes be her Highnesses most faithfull Servant Immediately he removed with his wife and Children all but his eldest Son Philip whom he left a Student in Lovaine to his City of Breda many of the Nobility waiting on him Having staid there awhile he retired to Cleueland and about the end of Aprill to Dilemburg the antient Seat of the Nassau's And Egmont though he was troubled at the Parting of his Friend soone after grew cheerefuller then ever For now being quit of his old Rivall and therefore assuring himselfe of the first Place in the Governesses Favour he
but likewise from all the Calvinists of France as from a Plantation of Geneva especially from the Prince of Conde Head of the Faction Who gâ—ad of that Occasion to make Levies promised and sent Assistance to Geneva under the Command of Mombrune And the Prince himselfe with Gaspar Colligny began their publique Musters in France preteÌ„ding to King Charles a feare the Spaniards that accounted them as Enemies had a designe to take them unprepared Nay they would have perswaded the King to raise an Army and not let slip such an Opportunity as fairer could not be to revenge himselfe of a Nation that ever hated France It was true that the Spanish Army both for the Goodnesse of Souldiers and Noblenesse of Commanders was a most select and considerable one yet in their passage through the Straits and over the Mountaines on the one side by the French on the other by the Geneveses and Swisse they might easily be distressed and cut off And then all King Philip's Spanish and Italian Forces being overthrowne as it was not to be doubted but either a way might be opened to recover Millaine left naked of old Souldiers or it was but marching into the Lowcountreys and that people willingly would receiue the French to whose Armes they must acknowledge themselves obliged for their delivery from the Spanish But if neither of these Projects tooke effect yet certainely for many years a warre was not to be feared from those that having lost such an army could not in a long time recruite The Prince of Conde added that if it would please the King to raise forces for that warre he would bring his Maiesty 50000 men Thus under a specious colour for the publick safety they offered his Maiesty the Army which they had privately designed for their Rebellion like true Hugonots who call that the Kings Security which is indeed his Captivity But the French King knowing what they aymed at lest by provoking a Potent Prince he might at one time be ingaged in a Forreine and Civill Warre replyed it was neither agreable to the Honour nor Valour of the French to circumvent a King neare to him in Affinity and Freindship But to secure his Kingdome from the Spaniards in their March he would giue Order for the raising of a new Army Withall he signified to King Philip the Condition of his Civill Discords by reason whereof he could not promise Security to his Forces if they came And now the Duke of Alva transported in the Galleys of Andrea Doria and Cosmo Duke of Florence with his new Spanish Souldiers that were to supply the old Italian Garrisons arrived at Millaine where falling into a Feauer he was forced to remaine At which time upon notice of the Army which the Duke of Alva was to bring into the Lowcountryes and that the King himself would follow for so it was reported the Governesse endeavoured to disswade his Maiesty from coming in a Warlike manner which would be of no use but to imbroile the Provinces againe That the Lowcountreys were at present in a peaceable condition returned to their Religion and Obedience nor wanted they strength and Men by which as this Condition was acquired so it might be preserued and increased by the King's presence if he came alone but if he brought a new and mighty Army what would it import but great Expences to the King and noe lesse Poverty to the Lowcountryes Vpon the very Rumour of a forreine Army diverse Tradesmen and Merchants familyes were now departed and when they heard of the Armyes nearer Approcahes more would leave the Country because they knew there would be noe Trading in a time of Warre and yet they must pay Sessments and great Taxes for maintaining Souldiers Besides the Feare of the People that cannot but thinke these Forces to be their Executioners the indignation of the Nobility whose good Service in quieting the late Commotions would seeme to be slighted and the certaine Relapse of the Place into Heresy that would returne into the Lowcountreys with a Lutheran Army out of Germany and which out of the premisses she prophetically concluded it would cause by that inexpiable Hatred antipathy betweene the two Nations a bloudy Civill Warre for many Ages Wherefore she earnestly beseeched his Majesty that laying aside this unseasonable Designe of Armes he would come peaceably into the Provinces more like a father then a King and that by his presence and Wisdome he would add to these happy Beginnings what was only desirable Continuation This Letter the Governesse sent by an Extraordinary Gaspar Robley Lord of Bill and Governour of Philipvill that being presented by a person of Honour it might have more Authority with the King But it neuer moved him who replyed his Army should come into the Lowcountreys for no other End but to establish peace And this was writ to the Governesse in the King's name by Rui Gomez a Sylva Prince of Ebolo who likewise sent her Excellence Newes of the Marquesse of Bergen's Death which happened in the Kings Absence from Madrid Iohn Glimèe Marquesse of Bergen Op Zoom a City in the farthest part of Brabant was the last yeare sent from the Low-countreys into Spaine with Florence Momorancy Lord of Montin nor was his Embassy very well received the King being excessively inraged at the Violation of their Churches and Defection of their Cityes Therefore the Marquesse begging leave to returne very often but still in vaine because the Governesse had privately advised the King not let the Embassadours goe so long as the Troubles lasted when he had now sufficiently discovered the Plot upon him both by his Delayes at Court and his mock-hopes as if he should every day returne into the Low-countryes with the King weary of the Imployment and struck with the Duke of Alva's being chosen Generall he fell sick and despairing of his Recovery sent for the Prince of Ebolo his old Friend to whom they say he grievously complained of the King and prayed he would deliver to his Majesty these words from a dying man that should no more speake for himselfe That it much grieved him not only to have no value put upon the many painefull services hee had done but likewise to see himselfe suspected and looked upon as an Enemy yet he hoped that his Fidelity and the perfidiousnesse and calumnâ—es of his Maligners would once though too late appeare A while after having settled all worldly businesse on the one and twentieth of May he dyed some say poysoned as if no man frowned upon by his Prince could dye a naturall death For my part I meane not to affirme it otherwise then as a Conjecture He was equally beloved by Charles the fifth and his Son Philip from him he received the title of Marquesse this for his gallant Service at Saint Quintin chose him out of all the Low-countrey-Lords to go over with him into
England to his Marriage with Queene Mary at his returne he created him Knight of the Golden-Fleece and made him Grandvenâ—ur or Justice in Eyre and Governour of Haynolt In which Province because he seemed not according to his duty seriously to advance the Catholique cause though he himselfe was seriously a Catholique the Governesse was then much displeased with him and a few months after his Decease being for the same attainted of High Treason he was condemned by the Duke of Alva The Governesse receiving the newes of his Death speedily that is within eight dayes written as I said from the Prince of Ebolo immediatly before the Report could be divulged sent Mandevill with a select Company of Fire-locks framing a Letter to the Lady-Marquesse of Bergen That she heard the Hereticks of that Towne offended with the late Edict endeavoured some Innovation therefore she had in haste dispatched Souldiers to guard her and the City to make them the welcomer had chosen out of her Ladiship 's Vncle Beavor's Regiment Captaine Mandevill whom She had commanded to receive Orders from her Ladyship Her Husband 's Death she mentioned not lest it might lessen the Favour and move a suspition of the thing intended But when she sent away the Captaine being a man of approved Fidelity she discovered to him that hee was in the King's name to possesse himselfe of the Towne He should indeed serve the Lady-Marquesse in any thing that might be for her safety but if she refused his Souldiers or commanded them to depart the Towne he must tell her he could not doe it without acquainting the Governesse In the meane while by writting Letters and expecting Answers he should spinne out the time till his Majesty expressed his absolute pleasure For the Prince of Ebolo from the King and afterwards the King himselfe had writ to the Governesse that she was to bring the Marquesse's cause to a Triall and if he were found to have been privy to the Tumults and Rebellion his Estate should be confiscated otherwise it should descend to his Heires The King added in his own Hand That whereas the Marquesse had declared his Sister's Daughter his Heire who was said to have no good Catholique Education the Governesse should find meanes to get her out of her Father's hands and breed her till she were married to that Kinsman unto whom the Marquesse had by his will disposed her The City she forthwith seized but the young Lady her Mother was a great while fearefull to deliver And after the Governesse had been present at the Procession wherein the Body of our Lord and Saviour was carryed through Antwerp then solemnized with more exquisite preparations and Pompe then ever and followed with such multitudes and Reverence that one would thinke they had not so much as conversed with Hereticks her Excellence leaving Count Mansfeldt and 13. Companies in the Town with the rest and a great Traine of Lords returned to Bruxells there to expect the Duke of Alva whose coming every day more afflicted her and many that loved him not aggravated her distaste telling her that by his Pride all which she had with so much paines and wisdome reconciled and composed would be presently put into confusion and he would make Troubles which it might be thought he was come from Spaine to quiet whilst the Honour Settlement only due to the governesse would by his vaine-glory be numbred among his Triumphs The Governesse therefore not only expressed to the King her Resentment in her Letter by Gaspar Robley but likewise writing to the Duke of Alva to congratulate his Arrivall at Millaine she let him understand the State of the Low-countryes and wished him to advise whether it would not be a greater Act of prudence to disband part of his Army then by those unseasonable Forces and Expences to irritate the Low-countryes which were now reduced to Obedience such a Remedy in most mens Iudgements being too strong for the Disease But the Duke of Alva pretended the King's command And the Prince of Ebolo by Robley who was dispatched from Spaine about the end of Iune answered her That the King was carefull of his Sister's Estimation purchased of all the world for governing the Low-countryes with so singular wisdome in so dangerous times taking Cityes subduing Rebels and at length vigorously reducing all the Low-countryes to their Religion and Loyalty Nor was Alva sent to rob her of any part of that glory wholly appropriate to her Highnesse but that by serving her with his endeavours and counsells what was gained might be preserved with lesse troubles to the Governesse and no envy that could reflect upon her for punishing of Delinquents But nothing so much satisfied her as the King's-Letter sent by Lopius Gallus after Robley's departure wherein giving thanks to his Sister for so industrious and wise an Establishment of Peace he said he would shortly better expresse those thankes in person longing exceedingly to be an Eye-witnesse of her vertue And among other commands injoyned her to have in readinesse at least eight Sayle of Ships to meet him whensoever an Expresse came of his weighing Anchors And the Governesse in good earnest provided the Shipps the Senat decreeing that for the King 's happy Voiage publique Prayers should be made which neverthelesse his majesty meaning to stay at home needed not as some said comparing him to Tiberius Caesar who gave out from day to day that he would leaue Rome and suffered the Empire diverse times to make the like supplications for his good Journey and Returne long busying the Roman Provinces with that Expectation But the beliefe of the King's Expedition was to be maintained with such new Scenes or else the Play would have been spoyled Howsoever the Duke of Alva equally distastfull to the Nobility and the People would have been much worse received by the Low-country-men if they had not perswaded themselves by these appearing hopes that the King himselfe would shortly follow And now the Duke of Alva having perfectly recovered his Health when he came to Ast tooke the generall Musters of his Army which being greater in worth then number though feare among the timerous had multiplyed the very number he found to consist of 8700. Foote and but 1200. Horse For the Duke cared not for multitude which commonly is a hindrance to the March but desired to have stout men and valiant hands not many names meaning afterwards to increase them more opportunely in the Low-countreys where without danger he might adde to his old Army as to a body strong in nerves and bone as much young flesh that is untrained Souldiers as he pleased The Foot in a manner all Spanish he distributed into foure Legions in regard they were raised out of foure Provinces commanded by so many Spanish Colonels conspicuous for their abilities in warre Alphonso Vlloa
held by the Prince of Orange and they ioyed in his Safety as if thereby the Lowcountreys were not left altogether Destitute Nay Cardinall Granvell at Rome hearing of the doings in Bruxells asked the Messenger whether the Duke had taken Silence so he called the Prince of Orange when he answered no he was not taken Granvell they say replyed If that one fish hath scaped the net the Duke of Alva's Draught is nothing worth But because all this was done without acquainting the Governesse before it could be divulged the Duke sent the Counts Mansfeldt and Barlamont whom he knew she Favoured and were yet in his House to tell her Excellence what was past and to excuse his secresie for he had concealed it by the Kings command to the end that no part of the Odium might reflect upon her who was concerned to preserve the love of the people under her Governement But this gave no satisfaction to the Governesse and though whilst they were present shee smothered her indignation yet deepely resenting it shee began to doubt that many such actions might happen for the future and the power being transferred to Alva she her selfe should only retaine the title and formality of Governesse that the Governement might appeare to be in one of the House of Austria Therefore upon receipt of new Letters signifying the King had put off his voyage for Sixe moneths longer that is till the beginning of the Spring her hope then failing and being daily tormented with sore fits of the Colick she sent her servant Machiavell to the King and disputing the imprisonment of Egmont and Horne briefely without complaint lest she might seeme distasted at it she beseeched his Majesty in regard of her Infirmities which made her unfit for cares of State to license her departure from the Lowcountries rather then stay her there with such limited and almost no Authority Whether it were advantageous to the King or handsome for her whom the King vouchsafed to call Sister to be subordinate to another She humbly submitted to his Majesties Consideration For her part she resolved so long as she lived to be wholy Governed by his Majesties Pleasure as became his most humble Servant This notwithstanding the Governesse omitted nothing which appertained to Civill Affaires For by resolution of Senate which she summoned the Duke of Alva being present she endeavoured to stoppe the Lowcountry-mens Flight which daily and still in greater numbers slipt away and tenne of the richest Merchants of Tournay intending to go into England by her Command weere clapt up prisoners and their Goods in the Port of Vlushing imbargoed and confiscated A while after the French Embassadouâ— as she lay upon her bed coming to kisse her Hands and making a grievous Complaint that Multitudes of Lowcountrymen flocked to the Prince of Conde and others that intended a Warre against the King she published an Edict against all Lowcountrymen that should assist the French Rebells The Embassadour not thus contented by Command from King Charles who was now almost ruined by his rebellious Subiects moved the Governesse for some present Forces out of the Lowcountreys And indeed it was but a reasonable Request for though the Causes of this Warre which the French Historians call the second Civill Warre of France were not all different from those of the first yet the Prince of Conde and Colligny the heads of the Faction grounded their pretence upon the Passage of the Duke of Alva's Army who faining to march another way intended the Invasion of France to destroy those of the reformed Religion For in the Conference at Baion they said it was so articled betweene Charles the French King his Mother Katherine of Medices and his Sister Isabella Queene of Spaine where the Duke of Alva was in person In pursuance of which Agreement the Governesse formerly had persecuted and quelled the Hereticall Party in the Low-countryes and now Alva himselfe was come with a strong Spanish Army that at the same time King Charles might ruine the Hugonots in France and the Spaniard their Brethren in the Low-countreys Wherefore the French Hugonots raising great Forces as if they would revenge wrongs received or at least stand upon their guard for the future first they seized diverse Townes and Cityes then laid a Plot to take the King himselfe lying at Meaux who very hardly escaping in the night and received into Paris there they straitly besieged him and cut off all Supplyes by Armes or Victuall endeavouring to bring their Prince into their Power At last drawing out their Army they gave him battaile at the Towne of Saint Denis and though they left the Field and fled and the Catholiques by consequence had the victory yet it was a bloudy one the King's Generall Annas Momorancy being slaine Notwithstanding they made greater Levyes for Heresie dayly increased and receiving strong Recruits from Germany reviv'd the Warre Which moved the King of France besides the men raised through his whole Kingdome to desire ayde for the defence of Religion out of Italy Germany and as I said out of the Low-countreys But the Governesse not willing to grant Assistance without knowing the King's pleasure gladly referred it to the Duke of Alva who remembring the Agreement for mutuall Succours made at Baion and thinking the French Embassadours ' Motion both honourable to the Spaniard and opportune for kindling Enmity between the Low-countrey-men and the French Hereticks whose minds would be distracted to see an Army come against them from the same place whence formerly they had supplyes he answered the Embassadour that the Senate had decreed Auxiliaryes as he requested which should forthwith march away and acquainting the Governesse with it he gave the charge of 2000. Spanish Foot and 1200. Horse most of them Gentlemen of Haynolt and Artoys to Iohn Lignius Count of Aremberg Some write that the Duke offered himselfe to be their Generall but such Assistance as it was likely to do would have begot a jealousie in the French that he came not as a Friend but as a Spy therefore as not expedient for either Kingdome that he should be absent from the Low-countreys it was by the Embassadour modestly refused and then Alva substituted another in his place Howsoever it were about the end of November Aremberg departing from Cambray three dayes supplications being made before he went for his happy Expedition joyned his Forces with the Marquesse Villeirs at Amiens from thence marching up to the King's Army he did his Majesty great Service in many Battailes till the French Differences partly settled by a Treaty he was commanded back to the Low-countreys by the Duke of Alva who then especially needed such a Generall and such an Army About that time Machiavell returning from Spaine brought her Excellence the King's Letters wherein after he had signified that three dayes before his Queen was brought a bed of a
Daughter this is the Infanta Katherine married to Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy he consented to her Departure from the Low-countreys professing he allowed of it as his Sister's desire not for the benefit of the Provinces for the governing whereof wisely and undauntedly in times of the greatest difficulty hee gave thanks to her vertue in selected Words promising aboundantly to remunerate the Service Vpon the receipt of this Expresse her Excellence delivering to the Duke of Alva his Commission for the Government of the Low-countreys sent by the same Machiavell out of Spaine and giving notice to the Spanish Embassadours with the Emperour the French King and Queene of England that they might informe those Princes of her going she wrote to the Estates of the Low-countreys that some things which she could heartily have wish'd to have spoke in a publique convention before she departed from the imbraces of her people must be supplied since now she had no further Power from the King to summon them by her Letter wherein setting down briefly but not sparingly nor falsly all she had done in her nine yeares Government and by what meanes the Troubles continuing for two yeares past were before the end of April so composed that she had reduced all the Low-countreys by the Help and Advise of the good Subjects to the King's Obedience She prayed them unanimously to endeavour the preservation of the State in the same condition and to persist in the Religion of their Ancestours and their Allegeance to their Prince from whose merey it was to be hoped that even the Tratours themselves would be gently punished That she had in her Letter to the King delivered her Opinion concerning it and would write againe to the like effect before she departed from them nor would she heareafter faile to use her utmost power with her Brother for the Good and Peace of the Low-countrey-men whom she so intirely loved And accordingly a while after she wrote in this manner to his Majesty Sir The happy Delivery of my Lady the Queene for which good newes I humbly kisse your hand rejoyceth me beyond expression to see the propagation of that great Bloud worthy of immortality But that whilst you give me leave to depart you are pleased to increase your royall Favours by adding that for my Governing these Provinces to your mind you your selfe so much it pleases your Clemency to descend are greatly obliged to me I must confesse nothing could more content me since in all I have done I only proposed to my selfe your Majesties satisfaction that being the Rule to all my actions And if I have my End I must accompt my Labour gloriously bestowed I will not deny but in this almost nine yeares space I have gone through many and grievous Difficulties most of my Counsellours being either at variance among themselves out of their ambitions Emulation or their Fidelities by me suspected at least their Enmity to the Spaniard so that it was inconvenient for me not to heare their Advise and not safe to follow it Yet that amidst all this darkenesse and the subsequent Tempest of Rebellion the Common-wealth was steered and peaceably brought into the Harbour by a woman's hand but by no humane influence it is only which I I must acknowledge and reverence your Piety for whose sake the Divine Goodnesse hath assisted me in governing the Low-countreys for you But now since by Gods grace things are reduced to such a condition that nothing remaines but to punish the Authors of the Troubles I cannot omit to signifie to your Majesty what it is that may chiefly overthrow this present happy State Feare of punishment threatned by such an Army as it hath caused many despairing of Pardon to fly into other Countreys to the great prejudice of this so I doubt it will force the rest whilst their flight is stopped and they as it were besieged in the Low-countreys to breake out into more dangerous Factions and Insurrections Terrour is not the way to beget reverence in the Low-countrey-men They that advise this rigid Course I wish I may be deceived will purchase Spaine more Envy then Authority I am sure it will bring to the Low countreys first eivill Warre then forreiene Forces and finally Desolation Therefore I most humbly beseech your Majesty that in contemplation of God's Mercy and your own you will contract Revenge into a few Examples and rather desire the Repentance then the Punishment of your Subjects So God Almighty long preserve your Majesty and the Queene my Lords the Princes and your little Daughter In the meane time the newes flying about that the Governesse was to goe away there came dayly from all parts of the Lowcountreys men of the best quality in the name of the Provinces professing their own Griefe and the generall Losse and praying earnestly as the manner is for her happy Journey The neighbour Princes by their Letters and Embassadours did the like but they were all exceeded by Elizabeth Queene of England who should hereafter as she writ want the neighbour-hood of so good and deare a Sister perhaps out of love to the Governesse or it may be out of hatred to her Successour the Duke of Alva In February when she was ready to set forth the King having assigned her a Pension of fourteen thousand Duckets and the Duke waiting upon her to the Marches of Brabant the Low-countrey-Lords into Germany she arrived safe in Italy where in a mighty concourse of People her Husband the Duke of Parma in great State received her who left in the Low-countrey-mens hearts a deep Impression of her goodnesse which the following calamities so much augmented as they stuck not in the presence of Alva and Requesenes which Princes Successours seldome heare to make an honourable glorious and almost upbrayding mention of her Actions Nay at Doway when Margarett Dutchesse of Parma out of her love to Learning repaired the Franciscans Colledge and that her Armes as the Custome is were set over the Gates the People never passed by but they bowed and put off their Hats But their Longing then principally shewed it selfe when the Low-country-men writing to the King earnestly desired to have the Dutchesse of Parma for their Governesse againe as there only Stay and help in their Afflictions And soone after the Death of Don Iohn of Austira she with her Son Alexander joyned in Commission returned to governe the Low-countreys The Historie of the LOW-COVENTREY WARRES The seventh Book THUS farre I have writt of the Lowcountreys though not flourishing in Peace yet not imbroyled in continued Warre Howsoever their Troubles were composed at last and their antient Tranquillity restored Now I must open the prospect of a History where you will read the publique Rebellion of the Provinces great armies on both sides greater Hatred many Generalls Souldiers falling in the Quarrell Nor am I ignorant that the Cause of all
with this Inscription the head of Anthony Painter that betrayed the City of Mons to the French those of Harlem in requitall cutting off the heads of eleven Prisoners barrelled them up and in the night rolled the vessell into the Spanish Campe with this direction writ upon it The Citizens of Harlem to the Duke of Alva that he may have no farther pretence to make warre upon them for the tenth part have payed ten heads and for Interest because they have been long in his debt have sent him the eleventh Moreover with impious Scorne they set up Altars on the Bulwarks dressed them with Saints Pictures and putting on Copes and Vestments sung Hymnes before them as if they were offering their devotions and on the suddaine their sport turning into fury they tooke the Effigie of Priests and Religious men made of straw and first whipping then stabbing them cut of their heads and threw them into the Leaguer There were some that set up Saints Images and Christ's the Prince of Saints for markes to the Spaniards when they were ready to give fire and by such mockery frighted the pious Souldiers from shooting But their sacrilegious Pageantry escaped not unpunished For it was observed from that very time Harlem fell into a miserable condition which grew worse worse till in a most wretched manner consumed with famine they were by God's just judgment forced to yield to mercy For 't is evident that of 1600. Garrison-Souldiers to which number they were reduced when the City was rendred whereas at the begining of the Siege they were 4000. scarce 700. escaped with life The other 900. with almost 400. Townsmen most of them Incendiaries to Rebellion principall Instruments of Heresie being adjudged by Federico de Toledo to be put to the sword or hanged or drown'd which fatall Spectacle continued many dayes they dearely payed for their jeering God Almighty The Siege of Harlem was memorable for many Passages They revived the antient invention of Carrier-Pidgeons For a while before they were blocked up they sent to the Prince of Orange's Fleete and to the nearest Townes of their owne party some of these Pidgeons which afterwards being dispatcht away when necessity required with letters fastned under their wings remembring their severall Masters houses and their young ones they flew back to Harlem By these winged postes the Prince of Orange incouraged the Townsmen to hold out for the last three months till one of them tired with flying lighted upon a Tent and being shot by a Souldier ignorant of the Stratagem the Mystery of the Letters was discovered After that accident no Pidgeon could flie over the Leaguer though not of that kind but the Souldiers would strive who should kill her The Harlemers likewise had a gallant Regiment of Women that in repairing the breaches and defending of the Workes might compare with the industry of the men Their Colonel was onely Goody Kemava a woman of a manly spirit neare upon 50. yeares of age Under her command and conduct they were imboldened to doe Souldiers Duties at the Bulwarks and to salley out among the Firelocks to beat up the Spanish Quarters to the no lesse incouragement of their owne men then admiration of the Enemy Yet nothing was more admirable then the Townsmens obstinacy who notwithstanding they had lost three great Armies and had hardly any shelter within their Walls shot through as they say in ten thousand three hundred and sixty places yet would not heare of a Treaty or conditions And when the Garrison was brought to a small number both day and night upon the Walls they so well performed the dutyes of many that if at any time the King's men chanced to appeare never so little above their Trenches they were in a moment taken off with Musket-bullets and those shot as for a wager from many parts at once Nay I have heard that the Spanish Souldiers partly to mocke the enemy partly to make them spend their powder would many times put their Helmets upon faggot-sticks so as they might be seen but to cock above the Workes which in an instant were shot at and hit by the Besieged Lastly though they were inforced by famine for the two last months to eat Mice old Shooes and every nasty thing yet they lost not their fury resolving to sally out and rather die fighting then by yielding to mercy have their throats cut like beasts and they had done accordingly but that as they marched out of the Port their Wives and Children with pittifull Shriekes and imbraces stayed them To conclude the Siege of Harlem was rendred Illustrious by the resemblance it bare to the Siege of Sancerre In the same month Sancerre in Aquitaine was besieged and Harlem in Holland Both these Cityes were Rebells to their King and their Religion both because at first they were in vaine attempted by the Royall Party were no more assaulted but carefully close besieged The Women of both Townes with like courage tooke up Armes there was a kind of Kennava at Sancerre that perswaded gave example to the rest Both Towns shewed like obstinacy that holding out ten Months foolishly hoping for reliefe from the Rochellers this as long as idly relying on the Prince of Orange At last both Garrisons conquered by Famine in the same Month of August almost upon the same day rendred themselves Sancerre upon Articles Harlem to Mercy But in that more were hungersterved above fiue hundred perishing for want of food insomuch as a Girle of three yeares old newly dead and buryed was most horridly digged up and eaten by her owne Father and Mother In this more dyed by the Sword for it consumed no lesse then thirteene Thousand and diverse Persons of great quality For there was lost of the King's part the Governour of Graveling Cressonerius that noble Engineire Generall of the Artillery for this Expedition Bartholomeo Champio of Pisaura no lesse famous for his quick designe in fortification which appeared in many places but France had the best proofe of his Skill at the Siege of Roan Besides those that were carryed off the Field wounded and halfe-dead as Norcarmius Governour of Haynolt Valentine la Mott Successour to Cressonerius Iuliano Romero Gaspar Bill Roderick de Toledo all great Colonells and their Generall himselfe Duke Federico Son to Alva with about twelve Captaines more and Multitudes of Common Souldiers whereof the Spaniards confesse they lost no fewer then foure Thousand Of the Confederates were slaine Willam Bronchorst Baron of Battemburg Lievetenant Generall to the P. of Orange Vbaldo Riperda Governour of the Towne Garrison of Harlem Lancelot Brederod Derdeindius Gallus and Peter Iansen all exquisite in the art of Fortification Hadrian Iansen Martin Prutius Lambert Wirtzemburg and other principall Commanders Whereunto may be added the banishment of Willam A Marcha Count Lumè For he as no man will take a
they call the States till it should be otherwise ordered by the King who for some time doubted whether he should allow that form of Goverment or no. For Gregory the thirteenth who had mutually agreed with King Philip to assist the Queen of Scots then a Prisoner being to nominate a Generall for that expedition for it was undertaken in the Popes not the Kings name lest it might distast the Rivalls of the Spanish Greatnesse his Holinesse made choice of Don Iohn of Austria famous for Sea victories And therefore advised the King by Ormanetti who was trusted in the transaction of that businesse to send his Brother into the Low-countreys wanting at that time a Governour who would be in great esteem with the Low countrey men that honoured the memory of his Father Charles the fifth and might from thence passe with a Fleet into England where he if any man might exspect success He likewise articled with King Philip that the Queen of Scots if it pleased God they freed her from captivity should be married to Don Iohn with the Kingdome of England for her dowry which would be a fair title to the Island for the House of Austria to ground a Warre upon The King disliked it not though he more approved of the Expedition then of the Generall but instantly resolved and promised the Nuncio to send his brother into the Low-countreys But his Majestie thought it not amisse to protract his Brothers going for a while that he might see how the Low-countreymen would govern the Low-countreys moved hereunto by Ioachim Opper a Low-countrey man his Secretary for the Netherlands who delivered his opinion that the Low-countrey Lords would no doubt be infinitely carefull of the Common-wealth and would now themselves apply to the evill that remedie for which they had so often solicited the King Who by confiding in them would for ever oblige the hearts of the Low-countrey men Especially in that his Majestie well knew the Principall Senatours Duke Areschot the Counts Mansfeldt and Barlamont and the President of the Senate himself Viglius Zuichom were men of most undoubted Religion and Loyaltie But to govern by a Committee that I may not accuse the Kings prudence from the event was then unseasonable For in the most troubled State the most present remedy is for one man to rule Truly this indulgence of the Prince did more hurt to the Low-countreys then all his severity as appeared by the immediate ruine of the Provinces For the people freed from a Spanish Governour would not acknowledge a new one in the Senate or rather greatly feared not a power divided and diminished among many And the Lords despised the government of their Peers and easily deluded their discordant Votes and Orders Some enemies to the Spaniard desirous of revenge fomented this difference of the Lords especially the Burgesses for Brabant and Haynolt whom Requesenes had larely called to Bruxells For these as they were chosen under-hand by means of the Prince of Orange in regard of the Authority wherewith those Provinces intrusted them hugely distracted the Senate And though both parties pretended the Kings name and cause yet their Designes and Counsels were so different that some of them were vulgarly called Spaniards others Patriots or Protectours of their Countrey And as the word Countrey infinitely takes the People with a counterfeit and deceiving image of Libertie it was not to be doubted but in case of a Warre the major part of the Low-countrey-men would adhere unto this party Nor was occasion long wanting to mature the mischief For when they had taken Ziriczee after Requesenes his death the Germans and Spaniards clamouring for their pay for that Island had afforded very little money it was resolved on by the Senate for easing the Low-countreys of the burden of forrein Souldiers to pay and cashiere the regiment of Hannibal Count de Altempse because there having lately been a breach between him and the Governour of Antwerp Frederick Perenot Lord of Campin about the Garrison it was feared lest publick mischief might ensue In the mean time the Spaniards that took Ziriczee under Colonell Mondragonio when they saw themselves passed by and the many moneths pay which was promised them issued out to others interpreting not falsely as some said that it was done out of malice to their Nation and they thereby necessitated to an Insurrection First as if he looked not into their business they threatned Mondragonio then hearing of the complaints made in the Senate of Bruxels by Count Altempse who publickly affirmed that he was casheired not for any danger to the Town of Antwerp nor with relation to his fouldiers importunity for pay which he himself a fortnight longer was able to have satisfied but only by the subtilty spleen of the Lord Campin that excluded souldiers faithfull to the King and so weakning the Spanish partie intended to betray the citie to the Prince of Orange Whereupon the Spaniards troubled at the publick danger and the more exasperated by their private injury in regard they demanded but what was due to their extraordinary labours and unprendented courage in wading through the sea seized upon their Captains and chose themselves a Generall in Mondragonio's place Whereto they were animated by the example of the horse and recruited by the accession of Valdez his Regiment They sent letters therefore to the Senate at Bruxels threatningly petitioning for their money Nor did the Senate deny it the major part being Royallists But the Burgesfes of Hoynolt and Brabant long since bought as I said with the Prince of Oranges money interceded in the name of their Provinces pretending publick necessitie And whilst the Senate partly affrighted with their protestations partly intangled in crosse votes deferred their payment the Spaniards thinking their menaces contemned took up their Colours in furie crying Away for Brabant And having left Ziricze guarded with a few Wallons quitting Schelt and Duveland Islands they had conquered with so much glory to their Nation they ran up and down Brabant threatning but not resolved upon any determinate design the Cities generally trembling and in amazement exspecting where that storm would fall But having first rejected the conditions which Count Mansfeldt meeting them near Asc brought from the Senate then sending away Iuliano Romero who for the same cause came from the Spaniards without so much as hearing him speak afterward shaking their swords and presenting their muskets against Francisco Montesdocha they commanded him to come no nearer and lastly on a sudden possessed themselves of Aelst a town in Flanders not farre from Bruxels hanging the King Officer that opposed them before the Gates openly professing they meant to keep Aelst as a pledge till their Arrears were paid When this news came to Bruxels with addition but false that they had plundered the Town and put the People to the sword the minds
discharge of forreiners for the Obedience which they formerly shewed to the Dutchesse of Parma questionlesse they will not now deny to you and to the King himself But when the Spaniards shall be dismissed if there be danger the Low-countreymen solicited by the Prince of Orange may soon forget this Act of Grace shall we therefore conclude that we must necessarily be circumvented by their fraud and oppressed by their arms Are not the Loyall Provinces able to sustain the first charge of an insurrection till Forces can be sent for out of Burgundy had at hand and out of Germany not farre off And then we have so much more reason to look for good successe by how much we shall be assisted with a more powerfull armie sent from the King in defence of his own commands and we may with more justice punish the perfidious Rebels Wherefore in a word I deny not but the forrein souldiers whether retained or dismissed may somewhat indanger us but when I see on the one side a certain warre and the Kings certain displeasure no help and on the other that you are offered the possession of the Government hope of quieting the Low-countreys the Kings favour and assistance and consequently if a warre should break forth that which would much conduce to victorie I think in point of discretion this ought to be preferred before the contrarie Don Iohn though he was very unwilling to forgo his Spanish forces a greater secret then I have yet discovered won him to consent For if he by keeping them should have interrupted the peace of the Low-countreys which his Majestie had particularly recommended to him he might well suspect it would be whispered in the Kings ear open to such kind of jealousies that by laying the plot for a warre he was ambitious of new power and greater fortunes Besides he longed exceedingly for the voyage into England which if he were ingaged in the Low-countrey war he knew would slip out of his hands Withall he took it for granted that the Low-countreymens hearts alienated by the Warres and Taxes of former Governours might by contrary arts be reconciled Therefore according to mans nature thinking himself and his winning carriage would be more prevalent then any stratagem of the Enemie and coveting what others could not get in the Low-countreys the title of Peace-maker he resolved to allow the assembly at Gant and to sign their conditions Especially because he conceived that he should sufficiently provide for Religion and the Crown forasmuch as the league concluded in these words We the Delegates of the Estates whose names are under-written and by whose authority the Estates are now assembled have do promise for ever to maintain the League for the conservation of our most sacred faith and the Romane Catholick Religion for the perfecting of the pacification of Gant For the expulsion of the Spaniards and their Adherents due Obedience to the Kings Majestie being still and for ever rendered Notwithstanding he asked the opinions of the profoundest schollars whether by those heads which he gave them accurately to examine the orthodox faith or the Kings honour might receive any prejudice And when they resolved him no danger could accrue to either in case this clause were added That nothing in those Articles or any part thereof was established or decreed contrary to the Catholick Religion and the Kings Authority Don Iohn confirmed by their judgements sent their advice and the Bishops letters to the same effect unto his Majestie Who consenting and likewise the Emperour Rodolph Bishop of Liege and Duke of Cleveland by their Embassadours swearing to it a new Pacification called the perpetuall league was made at Marcha a Citie in the Province of Luxemburg Wherein by Don Iohns Agents the dismission of the Spaniards and the whole pacification of Gant was confirmed and by the Deputies of the Estates a caution for constancie to Religion and the Kings obedience which they had formerly sworn for ever to continue was again expressely inserted And now Don Iohn after he had caused the pacification to be proclaimed first at Bruxels then at Antwerp and in other Cities set forth from Luxemburg being met upon the way by the Low-countrey Lords with an infinite number of the Gentrie and at Lovain in the beginning of March he was saluted with a generall joy Governour of the Low-countreys There he thought fit to make some stay that he might from thence quicken the dull motion of the Spaniards departure For they held it a grievous injury to be upon a sudden at the pleasure of the Low-countreymen dispossessed of so many Forts and Garrison towns as they had in so long a time purchased with their bloud Moreover many of them having lived divers years in the Low-countreys being possessed of land and having married wives of that Nation by whom they had children were brought then by degrees to love the place like Natives Nor waâ— ted they some Mutineirs that cryed out Was that cashiering a just reward for their labours and so much bloud as they had spent in Service must their gaping Soars their losse of Limbs and their crackt Sinews in stead of Rest and Accommodation be recompensed with their Countreymens ingratefull oblivion or neglect however with the publick hate and execration of the Dutch what would the French the Italians and other Nations say but that the Spanish Souldiers could be suffered to live no where Sixteen years ago the Governesse Margaret of Austria had turned them out of the Low-countreys and now this Governour Don John of Austria had again expelled them with so much the greater dishonour by how much there was then a fairer pretence for the Kings sending them into Africa to recrueit his Armie But now plainly by publick Edict they who alone in the Low-countreys had maintained the Kings Right were now forsooth declared Enemies to the King and the Low-countreys and by a common confederation of the Provinces expelled as if Peace and a Spaniard could not inhabite there together Thus they discoursed though discontentedly not threatningly yet furie as the custome is by meeting others and communicating their Grievances increased the nearer the day of their departure came grief making them still more sensible of their condition the more obstinate they shewed themselves especially at Antwerp where their number and late victory had so elevated them as there was little hope they would easily deliver up the Fort. But the care of the vigilant Commanders and Reverence to the Royall bloud among the loyall Regiments trained in the old Discipline prevailed so much that by degrees the love of Obedience returned and Iuan Escovedo a very prudent man sent post to Antwerp by Don Iohn appeased the Mutiniers with an apposite Oration For after he had read the Kings letters wherein the Spaniards were commanded to depart the Low-countreys beginning with
suspected the Low-countrey men unanimously petitioning for the removall of the Spaniards For the Prince of Orange who had assured himself Don Iohn would never send away the Spanish and consequently never be admitted Governour over the Low-countreys when he heard the Spaniards were departed Don Iohn with a great and generall joy inaugurated at Bruxels whither Embassadours daily came to him from neighbour-Princes the Queen of England her self sending Edward Horsey Governour of the Isle of Wight and that he likewise saw the Prince and Senate by their Commissioners required him with the Provinces Holland Zeland which onely were not included in the League to subscribe the perpetual Edict the man that would upon no conditions part with the Dominion he had now got into his hands answered That the Provinces with him confederated were in conscience barred froÌ„ consenting with the rest to the maintenance of the Romish faith and being pressed by Duke Areschot for he was sent to the Prince of Orange to ratifie the common League he said he could not do it for which his reason was the Faith of Calvine presently putting off his hat and laughing he said to the Duke Do you see this bald crown let me tell you there is not more Calvisme on my head then there is Calvinism in my heart Then applying himself wholly to his business he sent Letters Messengers to the Senators the Delegates of the Estates and all his friends pitying withall reviling them What did they intend whither were their courages judgements fled that they had admitted Don John not onely not inlarging but not so much as swearing to preserve their priviledge Were they so much taken with empty forms of Courtship as not to observe the Bird-call that by sweetnesse of sound brings the free creatures of the air into the net They had now sufficient experience that new Men came out of Spain not new Manners for in that Shop they were all cast in the same would But above all the rest they should beware of this Gentleman puft up with his Imperiall bloud fortune in the wars which if he now dissembled stooping to the civility of a private person the more it goes against the hair with a haughty and tyrannicall nature the sooner would his hypocrisie be laid by and their slavery inhaunsed No proud man carried ever himself like a servant to any over whom he did not hope to be a master Why hath he got a Guard if he be so popular as wholly to confide in the affection of the Subject Can any one doubt whither all these excessive bounties and promises tend wherewith that princely Merchant loads men of merit and no merit Yet some there are who notwithstanding they see this general Munificence traffick for the liberty of the Low-countreys think that fre-men sell themselves into bondage at a considerable rate Wherefore let them look into the man they will find it impossible that he should love the Low-countreys who betrayed to King Philip the Patron of the Low-countrey Lords Charles Prince of Spain The Prince of Orange not thus contented by those he imployed abroad particularly by Teronius Vascho lately come over to his party made it be privately rumoured That the Spaniards and forrein soldiers whose departure had been so longed for by the Low-countreymen let them not deceive themselves lay part concealed in the Province of Luxemburg part stayed in Burgundie part fought against the Hugonots in France and from these places exspected Don Iohns Orders for their immediate return And it was held more credible because of Don Iohn's Escovedo's Letters intercepted in France and about that time published at Bruxels which they said contained complaints to the King against the Estates Reasons for the necessity of a war an humble suit for money to that end All which aggravated by a large printed Comment of the Prince of Orange took away of much of Don Iohns Authority and estimation that whether his Bountie ebbed or flowed when their minds were once possessed with jealousie they interpreted all in the worst sense Those very men to whom he had shewn extraordinary favour advancing them to honours and great pensions on a sudden alienated from him not only shunned his sight as if all his graces had been poured into colanders hearts with holes in them but openly railed at aspersed and now endeavoured to prove themselves disobliged to him by their hatred of him Thus are unsound mind like unsound bodies the more you feed the more you poyson them Nor did the Hereticks leave their knavery thus but represented his words and actions as things of meer design Nay to some that wondered at his unexampled condescentions they told it as a secret That the Low-countrey-men had no great reason to trust the Oath so willingly taken by his Highness for confirmation of the perpetuall Edict Because he had sworn before he came out of Spain not to consent unto any thing in the Low-countreys prejudicial to the King By which Oath he had preing aged himself and as his Religion taught him the later being contrary to the former would not oblige him as being of no validitie A Doctrine long since preached in many Courts and now practised by Princes So the Florentines were deceived by Charles the viii of France who having sworn to deliver Pisa to them when they claimed his promise answered that he had first sworn the contrary to the Pisons When the Prince of Orange found this to work according to his wishes thinking Don Iohn that had parted with his Spaniards and lost the hearts of the Low-countreymen might easily be oppressed he left it to be acted by Philip Mornixius de Saint Aldegund whom he sent to Bruxels for that purpose and by William Horn Lord of Hese both undertaking either by force or stratagem to seiz upon his Highnesse and carry him into Zâ—land Which attempt though it was consonant to the rest of Aldegunds life a man ignominiously wicked who when he was a boy was Calvins auditour and now he himself being an old man preached to others nor less agreeable to the manners of the Lord of Hese especially since the removall of Don Iohn from Bruxels would be much to his advantage that was for be Governour of the Town who being afterwards condemned to lose his head it was thought practised the like against Alexander Farneze Duke of Parma Yet whether they really plotted it as Don Iohn understood from many credible authours or rather by the Prince of Oranges direction were contented with the fear resulting from the report of such a plot I dare not positively affirm For to breed enmity between Don Iohn and the Low-countrey Lords which was the Prince of Oranges end the means would be all one whether they intended or onely gave out that he should be taken prisoner the former being an odious thing
to his Highnesse a supply the more wellcome because so seasonable to him then destitute both of Men and Money Nor did the Nuncio fail to visit the Deputies of the Estates and the Senatours but passed from Namure to Bruxels where delivering as she had in Command his Holinesses letters and fatherly exhortations to the resuming of their former Concord and Obedience which letters were received with more magnificence then dutie many of their minds being long since possessed with the spirit of heresie a refractorie and sullen disease that may with lesse difficultie be kept out then shook off In the mean time Don Iohn by letters from the King being injoyned if an accommodation could no way be made strenuously to maintain the Catholick Religion and the Royall Authority with assurance that he should not want an armie had notice that the Prince of Orange was sent for to Bruxels by the Estates and created Protectour of Brabant by the old name of Ruart of the Province an Office very like that of Dictator among the Romans or Manbure among the Leigeois This Officer the Brabanters said they were authorized to elect by the priviledges of the Ioyfull Entry though as farre as I observe in their Annals besides Anthony sonne to Philip Duke of Burgundie when Ioan the widow of Duke Wenceslaus governed Brabant chosen Ruart by the three Estates of that Province and besides Philip Count de Saint Paul whilst Duke Iohn and his wife Iaquenette were at difference whom the Brabanters rebelling against the Duke created Ruart that people never made use of such a Magistrate And because both those Ruarts came at last to the power and authority of Dukes the Prince of Orange might by their example hope that one day the titles of temporary modestie laid aside the House of Nassau might be Dukes of Brabant and he the first For this presumption Don Iohn failed not bitterly and speedily to reprove the Citie and the Estates by his Embassadour Gaspur Schetz Lord of Grobendonch Likewise a while after receiving other Letters post from the King by the hand of Philip Sega sent at that time Nuncio out of the Low-countreys into Spain in the place of Ormanetto wherein the King commanded the Deputies of the Estates to lay down Arms not to admit the Prince of Orange and to obey the perpetuall Edict Don Iohn sending them a copy of the Letter seriously wished them maturely to advise upon it whilst they had time and not to provoke their Prince his just displeasure to the ruine of their Countrey and themselves But when instead of Answer they would return nothing being wholly governed by the Prince of Orange but complaints and threatnings Don Iohn applyed himself to thoughts of violence and Warre as some conceived not unwillingly For having lost all hope of quieting these Provinces by indulgence and liberality an Honour forfeited by the former Governours of the Low-countreys which he laboured to recover when he found that his clemency prevailed not but the Magistrates authority waxed his waned and was rather a kind of entreaty then command his life exposed to the daily injuries and plots of wicked men He not able to suffer their affronts having been accustomed to command great Armies and finding his hands tied both at home and abroad weary of such a life was glad to lay hold of that occasion and rather chose an open Warre then a miserable and unsafe Peace Indeed it was an Argument of a mind highly offended and incensed that a Man of such experience in the Warrs would enter into hostilitie at a time when he was in strength so much inferiour For of all the seventeen Provinces onely two Luxemburg and Namure continued faithfull to him The Nobility Clergie and Magistrates a few excepted were all confederated with the Estates Not that they renounced their Religion or Loyaltie though there was then a world of such Apostates but some to ingratiate themselves with the People greedie of Libertie and still maligning their Governours part bought with promises by the Prince of Orange and being kinsmen to him many thinking Don Iohn quite disarmed and running away followed the partie of the Estates as safer A great sort held their cause to be likewise honester conceiving all Don Iohn of Austra's jealousies and fears to be onely pretences for the justice of a Warre Therefore by Letters to the King they accused him for endeavouring to ingage the Low-countreys upon vain suspicions It seems we must not beleive Treason to be plotted against any Prince that is not slain Nor could he then raise an Army able to contest with theirs For on the one side those few Germans he had retained in the Low-countreys some Companies of Spanish now called out of France where they fought for the Crown and divers Wallons and Burgundians hardly amounting to the number of four thousand When on the other side they had at that present no lesse then fifteen thousand which as it was proposed in their Councel of Warre and to which end they marched from Gemblours if they had presently advanced to Namure no doubt they had beat Don Iohn weaker in Men and Munition out of the Town and Fort. But as in consultation where many heads are laid together whilst they in the field disputed away their time they gave Don Iohn opportunity to strengthen himself with new succours For the Ruart the Prince of Orange after that Dignitie was conferred upon him would do nothing before Brabant was settled that their neighbours might be secure in Holland He therefore instituted at Bruxels and in the Towns adjacent Magistrates according to the Hollanders new model By his advice the Fort at Antwerp was dismantled as to that part which commanded the Town with so great a rejoycing of the People and such a crowd of voluntary Labourers that women of the best quality could not be kept within doors but they would come in the night to see the men at work till for abominable things committed in their drinking and dancing the night-work was prohibited by Edict But their Joy was never at the heighth till they came to the triumphall Brasse-statue of the Duke of Alva laid out of the way in a private corner of the Fort. They tumbled it into the Court hackt it with their swords hewed it asunder with axes and as if they had at every blow drawn bloud and put the brasse to pain pleased themselves with an imaginary Execution Some carried home fragments of the broken Basis and hung them up in their Halls as if they were the enemies spoyls and would signifie to Posteritie a kind of revenge taken upon the Duke The metall as before it was melted out of Cannon into Alva's statue so afterwards the Statue was again cast into Cannon and restored to its own nature Onely one thing displeased many as if Alva being wholly composed
and the Navarines sallying out but with losse beat back were thought to be upon the point of yielding When the Turks either by the connivence or ignorance of Prince Alexander's Souldiers put in men by night and relieved the Garrison Besides the Turkish horse and foot coming from al quarters Prince Alexander fearing they would block up his retreat and not hoping to take the Castle thought it enough in his enemies sight to retire with his Cannon to the Fleet. And Don Iohn since the Turkish Navy shunning a general Battell could by no affront be provoked to sea contented to have struct a terrour into the enemy and forced them to confesse themselves not able to appear upon the Main the mindes as well as the Fleet of the Christians being divided he went to Sicily the rest to other places Thus was Alexander Farneze initiated in war which as it begat an opinion both among those great Souldiers and Princes absent specially the successour to Pope Pius Gregory and King Philip of Spain that he would prove a gallant General so afterward it moved the King of his own accord to call him where the war was most dangerous into the Low-countreys For his Majesty pressed with the Low-countrey-mens daily complaints against Don Iohn of Austria and very desirous to quiet the Netherlands without Arms that weaken even the Conquerour himself he resolved to satisfie the desires of the Provinces and in his Brothers place to substitute his Sister Margaret of Austria with her Son Alexander Farneze Hoping either by her prudence and power with the Low-countrey-men to find out some expedient towards the concluding of a Peace or by his valour if there was use of Arms strongly to pursue the war Therefore he ordered it that Cardinall Granvell then at Rome should perswade his sister of Parma to return into the Low-countreys The Cardinall taking a journey to Aquila found there very opportunely the Dutchesse and Prince Alexander and read his letters containing the Kings desires to both together Though his Majesty had likewise commanded the Marquesse of Ayamont Governour of Millaine to treat with Prince Alexander apart The Dutchesse answered doubtfully she would advise upon it either fearing as she pretended to displease Don Iohn or by that delay and seeming refusal aym to put a higher value upon her journey But Alexander Farneze without the least demurring said he would obey the King with all his heart if it so pleased his mother He made yet a plainer answer to two letters delivered him by Raphael Manrique from Ayamont that was sick and kept his bed together with his Majesties letter wherein after expression of his grief for the death of Princesse Mary wife to Prince Alexander he signifies his resolution to imploy him in the Low-countreyes I am certain they are the Kings words now you know it with a ready and undaunted mind you will satisfie my exspectation of you and my love which highly esteems you and your virtue most illustrious Prince But when the King altered his determination of substituting the Dutchesse in his Brothers place by reason of Matthias the Arch-dukes coming into the Low-countreyes it was doubted at Parma whether it would be handsome for Prince Alexander to go and fight in the Low-countreyes commanded by another which consideration he out of duty to the King and desire of glory in the wars easily contemned especially incouraged by some dark words of Granvell promising great matters Besides Gregory the thirteenth interposed his Authority and exhortation who informed of the design by Cardinal Farneze highly praised it and bad the Cardinal write to the Prince of Parma in his name that the expedition would be pleasing to God and therefore under so mighty protection and upon encouragement from his Holiness he should willingly and speedily undertake it The Pope I suppose did not thus commend the warre onely for the King of Spain's sake and the common cause of Religion but for some peculiar benefit that might result to the Pontifician Empire For the Prince of Parma being a Feudatary and Homager to the See Apostolick his Holinesse thought himself concerned in sending the Prince to a Forein warre whence he might return an able General to defend the Church of Rome Wherefore Alexander Farneze having within a few dayes received three letters from Don Iohn of Austria which invited him with great entreaties and no lesse promises to the society of warre and glory making ready with all possible speed the twelvth day after he left Parma arrived at Luxemburg and there met Don Iohn who with expressions of incredible contentment received Prince Alexander that stood amazed to see his uncle no lesse impaired in his health then in the presence and Majestie of the most fortunate Generall So true it is that they are most sensible of adverse fortune which have been in most felicity It is therefore probable that Don Iohn not against his will or onely by the Kings command sent for the Prince of Parma nor did with dissembled joy welcome him from whose long approved fidelitie and valour he might promise safety to the publick and a particular preservation to himself whose life was sought by so many plots At their first meeting Don Iohn imparted the Kings commands that he should acquaint Prince Alexander with all businesse of Warre and Peace and reserve for his use 1000 Crownes a moneth Both which conditions pleased him very much especially the later usually given by the King to none but Viceroyes Governours of Provinces or Generalls of Armies For some dayes the Prince of Parma took the money till the Kings high estimation of his merit was thereby divulged among the people afterwards writing his humble thanks to his Majesty he as one more ambitious of honour then profit refused the pay adding that it was not fit he should be so remunerated who had yet done no service and he needed no encouragement But Alexander Farneze acting nothing without order from Don Iohn wholly applyed his minde and endeavours to inform himself of affaires at home and abroad which he found to be in a very bad condition For the King had but two Provinces that continued loyall in the rest the few Forts that held for his Majestie daily revolted to the States Nay even in Holland Amsterdam it self began to waver And in Brabant Bergen op Zoom where the Souldiers basely betraying their Colonell Charles Fugger yeilded to the States But the Garrison of Breda a while before deceived by a stratagem of the enemy carryed themselves yet more basely towards their Colonell For the Generalls of the Sates Arrmy Philip Count Holach and Frederick Perenot Lord of Campin that besieged Breda they were gallantly opposed by George Fronsberg Colonel of the Germans that served Don Iohn but the Garrison because they were some payes behind daily growing to mutiny Fronsberg by a man of know
kind of fate upon the place for ever since the year of our Lord 900 it is famous for many sackings burnings and plundrings at the earnest suit of Lambert Count and Abbot of Gemblac made to Alexander Farneze and by him unto Don Iohn was preserved both from the plunder and injurie of the souldier The Garrison being onely disarmed such as were Low-countrey men taking an oath never more to bear Arms against the King of Spain the rest not within a year were all let go save twelve of the principall detained in stead of hostages that were carried to the Castle of Namure with their Generall Goigny Who was before his departure brought to Don Iohn and they say desiring to kisse his victorious hand he gave it him with these words God thus breaks their contumacy that impiously rebell against Religion and their King The successe even of this battell wherein so great an Army was defeated by so few shews how much God Almighty favours his Majesties just cause But he onely answering That he never took up arms against Religion with the other prisoners was removed Then Don Iohn taking notice of his own Souldiers merits graciously calling to him every Commander and the stoutest of the Souldiers with great and glorious words magnificently commended their service Among them all he was not ignorant that Alexander Farneze best deserved yet the more he saw the Army look upon him and extoll his courage the more he thought it concerned his Love and Place to praise not without care and caution the virtue of that man whom he both feared and affected Therefore minding the Prince of his danger at the battell of Lepanto he remembred him of the Office of a Generall and said He was sent thither by the King his Uncle to advance the Warre not with his hand and the danger of a common souldier but with his counsel and conduct Prince Alexander replying that he could think no man fit to command in chief that had not first valiantly performed the duties of a common souldier especially under so great a Generall was received both with the Armies applause and the Generalls embraces But the Prince of Parma wrote Don Iohns praises not beyond their merit much more freely and without any exception to the King For together with the Generalls Letters giving an account of the battell to his Mejestie at Argenton Prince Alexander gratulated the Kings victory won first by Gods assistance and in the next place by the prudence and valour of Don Iohn And that as the enemy in the field found him a most valiant Generall so when they had laid down Arms he shewed himself a mercifull Conquerour by his Majesties example And therefore it was to be hoped that that victory in all mens account the greatest ever gained in the Low-countreys would shortly draw along with it the reducement of many Cities And writing a Complementall relation of the same victory to some Lords of Spain that were his antient friends and acquaintance at large to his Mother more briefly to his Father and his uncle-Cardinall he still inserted the like commendations of Don Iohn nothing at all of himself either out of the greatnesse of his spirit hoping to do yet more glorious things and therefore concealing this as of no moment or else assuring himself others would write to the same persons those very actions much more to his glory But at Bruxels where they yet heard not the mis-fortune of their men they consulted in the Archdukes presence whether Don Iohn should be assailed or exspected in the fields whether they should fight with all their forces or a part when suddenly the sad news ran through the whole city that they had fought unfortunately with Don Iohn and lost a day where the Spaniard had his fill of bloud Which being confirmed by many that at last had got by their fear and flight into the Town It being further said that Gemblac was taken by the enemie who had the Generall of their army prisoner and had put all their Foot to the sword some reporting as fear ever fancies danger near at hand that Don Iohn with his victorious army would presently be at the City-gates Bruxels was so terrified as the next day leaving some kind of Garrison in the Town the Prince of Orange with the Arch-duke carrying along the Courts of Justice and the Senate retired to Antwerp Nor was Don Iohn altogether averse from besieging Bruxels propounding it to his Councel of Warre But being hindered by the thinness of his army which could not be recruited unlesse the King sent money it was thought best before men recovered that fit of terrour to carrie into severall parts the Warre and Victory consisting in expedition rather then to dull the souldiers alacritie with lying before a Town Octavio Gonzaga was therefore commanded with five hundred chosen Horse and some regiments of Foot immediately to assault Lovain and Machlin Cities well affected to Don Iohn AEgidius Barlamont with Charles Mansfeldts French Regiment and four colours of Wallons marcht to Bovines And Lovain not exspecting a summons turning out the Scottish Garrison rendred themselves to Ganzaga of their own accord So did Iudoignia a Town of more account for the healthfulness of air then fruitfulnesse of soil in which respect the ancient Dukes of Brabant used to make it a Nursery for their children the like was done by Tienen and a while after not without force by Areschott To Machlin and Vilvord newly garrison'd by the States Gonzaga came too late But Bovines a Citie accustomed to assaults never attempted by the enemie in vain often slighted but ever by the peoples constancie fortified again received the Lord of Heirge but not before a great part of the walls was battered down upon conditions Don Iohn while things succeed as he could wish resolving to reduce the rest of Brabant ordered Alexander Farneze to attaque Diestem a Town belonging to the Prince of Orange He with part of his forces marching thither left he should leave Sichem on his back a neighbour Town to Diestem and a place at that time not to be neglected both for the Fort which afterwards was ruined with a great part of the Town and for the convenience of the River Demera sends thither with his German Regiment Lancelot Barlamont Count of Megen But they of Sichem confident both in the place which they had prettily well fortified and likewise in their number refusing to treat industriously prepared for their defence When Prince Alexander comming up after he had offer'd his Devotions upon a hill close by the Town where the Blessed Virgin works miracles out of an Oak planted against the old wall of the Suburbs standing in diameter to the Lovain-Port eight demi-Culverins and beginning at day-break to make a Battery no lesse violent then constant holding till noon
granted to him long agoe by the Arch-Duke's procurement and command now by occasion of hastning the Army against Don Iohn who had lost all his Commanders might bee speedily collected An ordinary artifice practised at this day by many that give out the quite contrary to what hath hapned partly to defraud the adverse party of the first Heate and Spring of Joy which afterward will come more languishing and perhaps intermixed as all things humane are with some improsperous Successe partly to use that short time wherein they are believed to have got the better for ordering their Affaires by a fruitfull Anticipation slighting the future shame of the lie ballanced with their present profit Yet this invention of the Prince of Orange and his Faction had some little Truth in it Newes and Money being never so adulterate but they must have a mixture of right-Mettall For the Day after the Rendition of Limburg-Castle the powder that was kept in one of the Towers fired by chance or upon designe blowing up the Walles the Stones which fell againe beate downe a great part of the Tower killed foure and those only Common Souldiers hurting six or seven One passage among the rest Prince Alexander writes to his Mother for a Miracle He had left Christophero Mondragonio with a Company of Spaniards Governour of the Castle and Towne He himselfe by God's Providence that night returned to the Campe. The Powder in the meane time tooke fire and blew up the Tower with the building round about Mondragonio's Chamber by the fall of the upper Lodgings being beaten to the ground The Souldiers in the morning when all feare of the Enemy was past ran to behold their fellowe 's fortune lamenting the fate of their valiant and Noble Commander Mondragonio that lay next the Tower A strange Story and Spectacle they finde the Seeling and Walls of the roome broken downe but so much of the floore yet left as bore up Mondragonio's bed with a Trunke standing besides it The Souldiers at once trembling and rejoycing fetcht off their Colonell safe and unhurt the Trunke which I suppose Mondragonio himselfe had drawne out of the fire and Ruines they beheld full of Reliques and consecrated Church-Plate believing that to be the Cause why the fire out of reverence proved so innocent and that the very Preservation of those holy things opportunely saved the Pious preserver This while at Namure dyed Charles Count Barlamont and Lancelot his Son Count of Megen this fell sick at the Siege of Philipvill he was old and had lived out his time whose Funeralls Don Iohn celebrated with the Sorrow of all good men Indeed Count Charles as valiantly and constantly as any Low-countreyman whatsoever both at home and abroad fought for religion and his Prince teaching the same Arts to his Children whereof the Lord of Heirg was Generall of the Traine of Artillery and Colonell of the Wallons Megen Commander of the Germans Floio Heirge's Lieutenant Colonel Altapen Captaine of a Troop of Horse in their Father's life time and after his death the first of these succeeded him in the Governement of the Province of Namure and in the Treasurership Hitherto all went prosperously with Don Iohn which struck no little feare into the Archduke and the States openly taxed the Prince of Orange as taken up with other Affaires But he was founding his Empire on the Sea-Coast of Holland whence he might extend it over Brabant To this Designe when he saw the only Rubbe was Amsterdam the richest Towne of all Holland equally faithfull to Religion and their King all his Indeavours were bent to get it either forcibly or by Stratagem and to use Force was vaine for in the end of the last yeare this City being surprized by the Orangians and they advanced as far the Market-Place the Citisens taking Armes expelled those victorious Gheuses with a great Slaughter of the Enemy not without the memorable Assistance of some Women that privately carryed a very great Gun which they mounted and discharged killing a huge sort of the Gheuses Afterwards the Town blockt up with new Forces by Sea and Land held out a long Siege till the Prince of Orange promising them free Exercise of the Catholique Religion they at last surrendred Yet he when they upon this Capitulation thought themselves secure contrary to their Articles introduced a stronge Garrison and Promoters of Heresie who causing all holy things to be defaced their Priestes to be turned out and Heresy by consequence brought in a surer Guard then any Garrison to keepe Cityes from the Spaniard he secured Amsterdam and revenged the men lost a month before at Gemblac with a long-continued Slaughter here Then designing to bring Forces out of Germany he perswaded the Archduke and the States to make a Truce for some Months with Don Iohn of Austria For Iuan Sellio was returned from Spaine sent in the Kings name to use his utmost Indeavours for a Peace and delivering Letters of this Tenure to Don Iohn passed to Antwerp where to the Deputyes of the Estates he imparted secret Commands from the King promising largely to satisfy their desires and if so be they would resume their old Religion and Loyalty to their Prince he would call Don Iohn out of the Low-countreys and substitute in his Place either Alexander Farneze Prince of Parma or the Arch-duke Ferdinand Vncle to the Emperour or else confirme the Arch-duke Matthias yet proposing like a King many other Conditions But the great Lords had their eares now luted against the sound of Peace both with the once tasted sweetnesse of the Soveraigne Authority and by many mens Perswasions That no Peace was to be hoped from the incensed Spaniard Besides their Censor the Prince of Orange was busy cavilling at the King's Promises amplifying the Spanish Tyranny the Lowcountreymens Patience and their neare approaching Liberty So as he made them answer Sellio they would presume upon the Kings proffered benignity and therefore desired till the Provinces had consulted about that Election a Cessation of Armes Sellio before he communicated the Deputy's Answer to Don Iohn discovered to Prince Alexander the King's Resolution to create him Governour of the Low-countreys and he himselfe being to treate with Don Iohn for a Cessation of Armes was earnest with the Prince of Parma to use his Power with his uncle in advancing the King's designe for Peace But Alexander Farneze refused to meddle in it professing that any Truce at present would be disadvantageous both to Religion and the King Nay in his Letter to his Father he said He should not like to be Governour of the Low-countreys upon such Conditions as Don Iohn of Austria came to it and gave the Duke these Reasons For that were said he even to be delivered into these mens hands a fettered Prisoner and prescribed a life hatefull to my selfe idle inglorious and my
Alencon and Prince Casimir should be comprehended in the Articles of peace That the province of Limburg and whatsoever Don Iohn had taken either by Force or Rendition in Brabant and Haynolt should before the end of August be restored to the States extreamely offended at these insolent demands Don Iohn as he used to do communicated his Resentment to the Prince of Parma He though he denied not the conditions to be indeed very unjust yet said It would be much worse if the States despairing of a peace with Spaine should put into the hands of the King of France the Frontier provinces which he had so oft attempted It was to be considered that even Charles the fifth and how great an Emperour was he could hardly cleare those Provinces of the French only What should the King's Forces do at the present commanded indeed by a Son to Charles the fifth but with a lesse number of men both against the French Nation and two other powerfull Armies His opinion was therefore that the Commissioners should be put in hope of peace till the King's pleasure was knowne as to those proposalls which if he accepted no doubt but in his wisdome he would provide another place worthy of his Brother but if looking upon their basenesse he rejected them then in case the Confederates were prosecuted with more severity hereafter his Majesty could not accuse his Brother and the Army as desirous to keepe the Warre afoote Don Iohn though he did not much feare the Confederates knowing them to be oppressed with their own multitude and understanding that Prince Casimir's Army marched in a body by themselves because they refused to obey Count Bolduc Generall for the States Yet constrained for want of men and money besides his Sicknesse both of body and mind which is able to breake the greatest Spirit and forcibly to cast it downe upon considerations at other times contemptible He resolved to follow Alexander Farneze's Counsell Though in his Letters to the King certifying their Propositions he with some bitternesse complained That the Rebells confidence received Incouragement out of Spaine and the Assistance promised to him by his Majesty was from time to time put off and when he intreated money only a returne was made of words wherewith a Warre cannot be managed unlesse they imagine that he is able out of Words to extract Gold He therefore humbly beseeched his Majesty either to subdue the Enemy or at least not to suffer the Generall of his Royall Army so unhandsomly to conclude a peace In the interim he commanded Serbellonio speedily to advance the Trenches which he had a while before designed not farre from Namure Don Iohn had chosen that ground upon the Hill of Buge close by the River Mose induced by convenience of the place and his Father's example who being pursued by Henry of France with three great Armies brought his Forces then very small to this ground and here intrenching secured them And now Serbellonio quick both at raising and defending workes had finished most of the Redoubts and drawne about a line by the directions of Scipio Campio of Pisaura an Engineer not inferiour to his Father Bartholomeo slaine at the Siege of Harlem where overtoiled with hasty labour or struck with a pestilentiall aire he fell dangerously sicke At the same time Don Iohn having now brought all his Army within the Trenches except the Horse which Octavio Gonzaga had 〈◊〉 upon the neighbouring Villages his owne sicknesse increasing would needs be carryed into the Campe. Both of them kept their beds and their Fitts tooke and left them in the same manner But the Physitians made farre different Iudgments of their two patients For they all and there was a whole Colledge of them either deceiving others or deceived themselves pronounced that Don Iohn would certainely recover but Sonbellonio could not possibly escape with life And what they said was credible enough this being aboue 73 yeares old he not yet 33 and yet when the young man dyed the old man was perfectly well againe Whereupon Hippolyto Pennonio grew into great Esteeme formerly commended by Duke Octavio for Physitian in Ordinary to his Son Prince Alexander who durst against the whole pack of those Doctours affirme that Serbellonio would live and Don Iohn die of that disease For which a long while being jeered and scorned he became thereby better knowne to the People and finally more honoured Vpon the day of Saint Matthew the Evangelist on which very day was twentie yeares dyed the Emperour Charles the fifth Don Iohn as if by remembring of his Fathers death he were minded of a time a like fatall to himselfe easting off all humane Cares transferred the whole Power of Peace and Warre upon Alexander Farneze Prince of Parma and in case he should dye declared him Governour of the Low-countreys and Generall of the Army till the King should otherwise determine And truly Prince Alexander doubted for a while whether he should undergo the Burthen not ignorant how miserable and broken a Province he must have and withall how much it would reflect upon his Honour if perhaps the King did not confirme upon him that Assignement It being more Disreputation to fall from a place of Eminence then never to have beene advanced Yet that he preserred his Faith to God and the King he writes to his Mother calling God to Witnesse that he should justly thinke himselfe a Traitour if when they had such an Increase of Enemyes and no Generall he should have deserted the Kings Army in that Conjuncture of time wherein undoubtedly all the remaining Catholique Religion and Allegeance to his Majesty would have beene indangered And forasmuch as the Duke of Parma did not very well like this Resolution of his Son 's nor gave Assent to his Acceptance of the Regency but reproved him for his overmuch confidence Prince Alexander at length answered his Father in these Words Sir Whereas in your Wisdome your Excellence thought fitt to admonish me as if I were gone too farre in accepting of that Government which by my endeavours should rather have beene transfer'd upon the Royall Senate of the Low-countreys it is no more then I my selfe imagined as when I wrote of Don Iohn of Austria's Sicknesse I signifyed to your Excellence But when I called to minde that after the death of the greate Comendador the Lowcountreys were undone by that very Trust of the Royall Power is the Senates hands which Ruine in all mens opinions had never hapned to the Provinces if his Successour had beene forthwith nominated And when I plainly saw the Losse of this Catholique Army without a Generall to be inevitable by reason of the feuds among the Lords and their discordant mindes some drawing one way some another and daily more slack in asserting the Kings Right and which is yet more considerable one or two of the greatest in his Army
Duke of Alva concerning the King of Navarre l. 3. p. 58. Of the Spanish Officers to the King l. 8. p. 22. Of Count Hochstrat in answer to Count Mansfeldt l. 6. p. 12. Of Count Horn to the King against Granvell l. 3. p. 72. Of Don Iohn to Alexander Farneze touching the Emperour Redolph and the Arch-Duke Matthias l. 9. p. 39. to the King his brother l. 10. p. 14. another counterfeited and sent for his to Fronsberg l. 9. p. 49. Of Iohn Michese the Jew incouraging the Calvinists at Antwerp to Rebel l. 5. p. 139. Of Margaret of Austria to Philip the second touching the dismission of the Spaniards l. 3. p. 51. and Cardinal Granvell l. 3. p. 68. Of Concessions made against Religion l. 5. p. 130. Of her Letters betrayed at the Kings Court l. 5. p. 137. Of the storming of Valenciens l. 6. p. 8. Of the Duke of Alva's Army l. 6. p. 27. Of the authority granted to the Duke of Alva that much troubled her l. 9. p. 48. Of her desire to be discharged from the Government l. 6 p. 34. before her departure l. 6. p. 36. to Granvell touching the acceptance of his Cardinals robes l. 3. p. 54. to the Provinces against the Valencenians l. 6. p. 6. to the Governours of Provinces to take away Heretical Exercises l. 5. p. 141. in answer to the Covenanters l. 5. p. 143. to the Lady Marquesse of Bergen when she sent a Garrison into the Town of Bergen l. 6. p. 28. to the Duke of Alva that he would lossen his Army l. 6. p. 29. Leva vide Alphonso Sancho Levia Rendered to Alexander Farneze l. 9. p. 35. Levinus Tâ—rentius l. 9. p. 36. Lewis of Granado a Dominican Fryer l. 7. p. 82. Lewis of Nassau brother to the Prince of Orange infected with heresie in his travels l. 9. p. 99. sets a foot a conspiracy in Low-Countries ibid. and in Germany l. 5. p. 100. commands the Conspirators in chief l. 5. p. 102. enters Bruxells with the Covenanters l. 5. p. 107. collects money for them assisted by Brederod ibid. at a feast with the Covenanters l. 5. p. 110. goes with his Companions to the Governesse l. 5. p. 111. asks leave of the Bishop of Lieg for the Gheuses to convene at Centron l. 5. p. 119. offers another Petition to the Governesse l. 5. p. 120. his Letter consenting to the Iconomachy l. 5. p. 127. the Principal Boutefeu ibid. 134. his threats against Bruxels and the Governesse l. 5. p. 129. he is present in the Convention at Dendermund l. 5. p. 134. the Kings displeasure against him ibid. he perswades the Antwerpers to conform unto the Confession of Ausburg l. 5. p. 138. is chosen General for the Covenanters to raise men and money l. 5. p. 141. followes the Prince of Orange out of the Low-Countries l. 6. p. 15. is impeached and condemned absent l. 7. p. 41. enters Frizland l. 7. p. 47. takes Damme ibid. Fights Count Aremberg and defeats him ibid. besiegeth the Groine l. 7. p. 54. the number of his Forces ibid. he encamps at Geâ—â—ng l. 7. p. 55. a mutiny in his Camp ibid. he fights with the Duke of Alva Ibid. 56. loseth his Army ibid. and Carriages abid his Armes and his Clothes are brought to the Duke of Alva ibid. he flyes ibid. his battel by the â—â—yer Emmes compared with the overthrow of Arminius by the River Visargis ibid. General of the Hugonots in France he is Routed by Count Mansfeldt l. 7. 64. he moves the French King to invade the Low-countries l. 7. p. 73. take Mons in Hayndt ibid. is besieged renders the Town l. 7. p. 76 78. goes to Dilemburg ibid. is defeated at Mooch his Death l. 8. p. 3. diverfly reported ibid. his Elogy Ibid. Lewis de Bourbon Prince of Conde Enemy to the Guises l. 3. p. 56. advanceth the Conspiracy at Ambois l. 3. p. 57. sentenced to lose his head l. 3. p. 58. restored to liberty and the Kings favour ibid. is a friend to the Heretical Cause l. 3. p. 60. his Activenesse to raise men in the Low-countries ibid. Taken at Dort l. 3. p. 6. Sollicites the Hereticks to plunder Churches in the Netherlands l. 5. p. 121. is accounted one of the Covenanting Gheuses ibid. Favours those of Geneva l. 6. p. 26. Perswades the King of France to fight the Spaniard ibid. the Low-countrey Fugitives have recourse to him l. 6. p. 34. he makes the Duke of Alva's March an occasion to raise Forces Ibid. he is routed at St Denis l. 6. p 35. renewes the war ibid. revives the third Civil War of France l. 7. p. 63. vide Lodwick Lodovico Libels in France against the King and the Guises l. 3. p. 57. in the Low-Countries against Religion the Bishops and Cardinal Granvel l. 4. p. 77. against the Inquisition l. 5. p. 100. one fathered upon the Knights of the Golden Fluce l. 5. p. 112. Of Hereticks at Autwerp for liberty of Conscience l. 5. p. 139. another with in blood l. 4. p. 84. one offered to the Arck-Duke for liberty of Conscience l. 9. p. 41. Liberty naturally defited by the Low-Countrey men l. 1. p. 23. l. 8. p. 21 l. 9. p. 37. Licherth a Fort l. 8. p. 19. Lieg a Monster born there l. 7. p. 40. Bishop of Lieg l. 1. p. 18. l. 5. p. 119. the Town joynes in the Association of Gant l. 9 p. 30. gratulates Alexander â—arneze l. 9. p. 52. the Mambure of the Legeois l. 9. p. 36. Life contemned l. 8. p. 12. Lignius vide Iohn Lily taken for a happy Omen l. 1. p. 8. Limburg a Province of the Low-Countries l. 1. p. 16. and l. 10. p. 14 its Governour l. 1. p. 16. recovery l. 10. p. 4. Situation l. 10. p. 1. Suburbs ibid. stormed ibid. p. 2. the Town taken by assault ibid. defended Ibid. the Fort burnt l. 10. p. 4. 〈◊〉 the Chief City of Flanders l. 6. p. 6. against it they of Tornay and Armenter conspire ibid. the Consistorial Merchants attempt to betray it ibid. the Plot discovered ibid. p. 7. the City freed ibid. the Townesmen of Lisle demolish the Fort l. 9. p. 38. the Governour of L'Isle l. 6. p. 7. Livia's advice to Aug. Caesar l. 9. p. 28. Low-Countries how all the Provinces were anciently consotlated under one Principality l. 1. p. 15. Charles the fifth thought to have made them into a Kingdom ibid. p. 16. They are transferred by Charles the fifth to his son Philip l. 1. p. 4. their division l. 1. p. 15. to whom the King assigned their Governments l. 1. p. 16. they Petition the King to take off the tenth part l. 7. p. 67. they waver at the newâ—s of the taking of Brill by the Covenanters l. 7. p. 72. they conspire against the Spanish l. 8. p. 20. they adhere to the Estates onely two continuing faithful to Don Iohn l. 8. p. 21. l. 9. p. 37 48. Low-Countrey Governour
Villagarcia l. 10. p. 17 21 23. Magistrate of Brabant not unlike to the Dictator of Rome l. 9. p. 36. Magistrate of Antwerp l. 5. p. 112. l. 6. p. 17 33. Of Bruxells l. 5. p. 127. Of Bolduc l. 6. p. 2. Of Ipre l. 5. p. 122. Of Namâ—â— l. 10. p. 22. Of Nivell l. 9. p. 56. Of Maâ—stricht l. 6. p. 15. Of Valenciens l. 6. p. 5. Malberg a Commander of Horse l. 6. p. 1. Malbuge rendred to Don Iohn l. 9. p. 57. Malbâ—â—g one of the Prince of Orange's Captains slain by his own men l 7. p. 61. Malta an Island besieged by the Turk l. 4. p. 88. l. 8. p. 14. Malvezzi vide Pyrrho Mambure l. 9. p. 36. Mandevill a Captain l. 6. p. 28. Marick de Lara l. 6. p. 23. Manriquez vide Iuan Raphael Mansfeldt vide Charles and Peter Ernest. Marbose vide Philip. Marcha a Town l. 9. p. 30 49. Marquisate of the Sacred Empire a Province of the Low-Countries l. 1. p. 16. Marc Antonio Columna Admiral of the Popes Fleet l. 9. p. 45 46. Margaret of Austria Dutchesse of Parma her birth Mother and Mothers Parents l. 1. p. 20. given to the Emperours Ant to breed her up ibid. 21. afterwards to the Emperours Sister ibid. delighted in hunting ibid. Promised in Marriage to the Prince of Ferrara ibid. designed for wife to Alexander Duke of Florence ibid. their Nuptialls Celebrated at Naples and Florence l. 1. p. 22. After Alex mutther she is married to Octâ—vio Farneze ibid. disagreement between her and her husband ibid. 23. her Masculine Spirit and Garbe ibid. her Wit Prudence and Religion especially towards the holy Eucharist ibid. 24. sent for out of Italy to govern the Low-Countries ibid. why the Netherlands were committed to her ibid. she comes into the Low-Countries where the King meets her ibid. instructed by his Majesty ibid. 25. and a Pension assigned her ibid. she Commands the Governours of Provinces to see the Emperours Edicts observed l. 2. p. 34. Labours to qualifie the Lords Envy against Granvel l. 2. p. 41. why she defers to send the Spaniards out of the Low-Countries l. 3. p. 50. she prevailes with the King to let them go l. 3. p. 52. Orders the Foot Militia ibid. Likes not the Prince of Orange his Marriage with P. Anne of Saxony l. 3. p. 53. presents her with a Diamond Ring ibid. Granvel by her means is created Cardinal by Pius the fourth l. 3. p. 54. She doubts of sending Auxiliary horse to the King of France l. 3. p. 60. instead of men she sends him money ibid. Quiets the Tumult raised by the Calvinists at Tornay l. 3. p. 62. at Valenciens l. 3. p. 64. by her Care the Designed Bishops are brought in every one to his Sea l. 3. p. 65. she anticipates the Agents of Brahant by sending of her own before to Rome and Spain l. 3. p. 66. she certifies the King by Letter of Count Egmont and the Prince of Orange's alienation l. 3. p. 67. She moves the King to remove Regnard from the Low-countries defends Granvell to the King l. 3. p. 68. and to the Low-Country Lords l. 3. p. 69. gives his Majesty an account why she communicates not all concernments with the Senate ibid. will not give way to a General Assembly of the Estates ibid. Grants a Convocation of the knights of the Golden Fleece ibid. what she writ to the King to sever the Interests of the Lords l. 3. p. 70. she complains of Count Egmont to the King l. 3. p. 73. her mind changes towards Granvell l. 3. p. 74. l. 4. p. 79. she is active to get him sent for out of the Low-Countries ibid. why she omitted her intended Inquiry after infamous Libels l. 4. p. 77. she advises the Lords to leave off the incitements to new factions l. 4. p. 78. troubled at the Report of Cardinall Granvels return into the Netherlands l. 4. p. 81. Religion taken into her Care l. 4. p. 83. she doubts in what way to proclaim the Councel of Trent l. 4. p. 86. Sends Count Egmont into Spain and Hallevin into Germany l. 4. p. 87. her joy at the coming of her son Alexander l. 4. p. 91. she sends her Fleâ—â— to Portugall for P. Mary Espoused to her Son Alexander l. 4. p. 92. writes the Complaints of Count Egmont to the King l. 4. p. 96. l. 7. p. 51. conceives and publisheth an Edict concerning Religion l. 4. p. 96. informes the King of his Governours Complaints upon the proposal of the Edict l. 5. p. 98. gives his Majesty Intelligence of the Covenanters Designes and of the state of the Low-Countries l. 5. p. 102 103. She calls a Senate Extraordinary ibid. her speech to the Senate l. 5. p. 104 105. her Answer to Brederod l. 5. p. 108. She returns the Covenanters their Petition with her Answer annexed l. 5. p. 109. signifies to his Majesty the Actings of the Gheu ses l. 5. p. 113. warnes the Provinces of the Gheuses Fraud ibid. resolves to send the Marquesse of Bergen and the Lord Montiny into Spain ibid. 117. sends before a secret Messenger l. 5. p. 114. takes not the money offered her by the Popes Nuncio l. 5. p. 115. Gives the Nuncio the Bishops several Characters ib. her piety and prudence admired by the Nuntio ibid. she intreats the King to pardon and Secure the Covenanters ib. She banisheth strangers from Antwerp by Proclamation l. 5. p. 117. renews Edicts the against Heretical Sermons ibid. sends Orange and Egmont to disturb the Convention at Centron l. 5. p. 119 120. her too great favour to the Prince of Orange ibid. she nominates him Governour of Antwerp ibid. her words to Count Egmont when she was struck with the News of the Churches being plundered l. 5. p. 123. her words in Senate when she heard the certainty of the Sacrilegious Spoyl l. 5. p. 128. the sum of her Consultation l. 5. p. 129. she thinks to steal out of Bruxells ibid. is stayed by Prayers and force ibid. what she grants to the Covenanters l 5. p. 130. she condemns her own concessions and beseeches the King not to ratifie them ibid. she provides in time for the Town and for her self ibid. reprehends Orange Hochstrat and Horne for allowing Churches to Hâ—reticks ibid. she gives the King an account of the Horeticks proceedings l. 5. p. 132. the King permits her to use Arms against them ibid. and sends her money ibid. 133. she gives his Majesty Intelligence of what the Lords had decreed l. 5. p. 134. commends to the King the fidelity of Count Mansfeldt l. 5. p. 136. complains to the King of the betraying of her letters in his Court ibid. 137. premonisheth the King of the Covenanters Designs ibid. and of Calvinistical books and Ministers that were to be dispersed thorow Spain ibid. Courts the Wavering Covenanters with Letters and promises l. 5. p. 140. begins her work against the Hereticks
Belgick Provinces against the Romans l. 7. p. 70. of the Moores against the King of Spain l. 6. p. 22. of the Hugonots against the King of France l. 6. p. 26. by the Prince of Orange in the Low-countries attempted and matured l. 7. p. 70. the Rebel Cities receive from him Governours Lawes and Imposititions l. 7. p. 72. from whence the Low-Countrey men and the Prince of Orange had their occasion of Rebeling l. 2. p. 48. l. 7. p. 70. first from the Cause of Religion l. 5. p. 133 134. l. 6. p. 1. 7. 11. then from Taxes layed upon them l. 7. p. 71 73. afterwards from the Mutinous Spaniards vide Gentlemen Covenanters l. 8. p. 20. Recovery of Cities Revolted from the King l. 7. p. 77. of Mons ibid. its description ibid. of the Province of Limburg l. 10. p. 2. its delineation l. 10. p. 1. Reformed vide Religion Reformed Regiment of Naples l. 6. p. 30. of Sardinia cashiered and punished l. 7. p. 58. a magnanimous one of the Royallists l. 8. p. 11. a Squadron of Walloones l. 9. p 50. vide Army Register of the Empire l. 1. p. 2. Regâ—ard vide Simon Religion holds forth Worship to God and Peace to men l. 2. p. 33. Preserver of peace and tranquility ibid. holds the People in due obedience l. 2. p. 46. the manner of advancing it in the Low-countries l. 1. p. 18. Penal Edicts against irreligion l. 2. p. 49. l. 4. p. 96. the Cognizance of the Cause of Religion to whom it appertains l. 2. p. 33. l. 4. p. 84 85. l. 5. p. 105. against the Violaters thereof what provision was made l. 2. p. 33. 'T is injured by Luther ibid. the League for Religion approved of by the Hereticks l. 5. p. 138. Religion commended by the Emperour to the Estates of the Low-Countries l. 1. p. 4. by the King to the Covernesse and Estates l. 1. p. 27. l. 4. p. 83 90 96. a Conspiracy against l. 5. p. 141. wrong offered to it l. 1. p. 9. l. 5. p. 113 116 121. Scandalous Libels against it l. 4. p. 77. l. 5. p. 112. hatred to it l. 3. p. 56. l. 8. p. 8. the Cause of the Low-countrey War l. 1. p. 3. l. 9. p. 1. 9 30. its Restitution by the Governesse l. 4. p. 83. l. 5. p. 130. l. 6. p. 18 20. by the Duke of Alva l. 7. p. 64. a new oath formed against it l. 5. p. 107. l. 9. p. 39. liberty of Religion sought for in the Low-countries l. 5. p. 99 102 119 129. extorted l. 9. p. 41. Consultations concerning it l 1 p. 18. l. 6. p. 15. Religion Reformed secured in the Low-Countries l. 5. p. 127. Councels held in France and the Low-countries to destroy it l. 2. p. 46. the Prince of Orange makes use thereof to keep Townes against the Spaniards l. 10. p. 5. vide Gheuses the Disturbers of the Catholick Religion l. 5. p. 134. Revolters from it l. 9. p. 37. Men of doubtful Religion l. 3. p. 75. the Religious turned out of the Low-Countrey Cities l. 5. p. 132. l 9 p. 40 41. their Monasteries l. 2. p. 30. plundered l. 3. p. 64. l. 5. p. 122 127 137. Reliques of Saints preserved from fire and ruine l. 10. p. 5. more valued then Jewels l. 4. p. 94. Remedies seasonably applyed l. 8. p. 19. sometimes bettered by Contempt l. 4. p. 79. and rash in precip tated misfortunes l. 10. p. 21. the best when one Man Governes l. 8. 16 17. the Remedy of imminet Mischief l. 5. p. 112 113. Rene daughter to Lewis King of France married to Hercules Duke of Ferrara l. 1. p. 21. her daughter designed for Wife to Alexander Farneze l. 4. p. 91. Renatus son to Henry of Nassau Clande Chalon l. 2. p. 43. Rendition of Low-countrey Cities and Provinces to the Spaniards l. 6. p. 11. l. 9. p. 52. of many places to the Prince of Orange l. 7. p. 73. of Oudenaerd l. 7. p. 75. of Brill l. 7. p. 70 72. of Mons l. 7. p. 73. of Dendermund l. 7. p. 75. of Centron ibid. of many Towns to the Royallists l. 7. p. 77 78 l. 8. p. 8. of Bommen l. 8. p. 13. of Bovines l. 9. p. 53. of Cimace l. 9. p. 57. of the Abbey d' Espine l. 7. p. 74. of Dallhem l. 10. p. 3. of Harlem li7 p. 78. of Limburg l. 10. p. 1. of Nardâ—us l. 7. p. 78. of Sichem l. 9. p. 54. of Maestricht l. 8. p. 21. of Valenciens l. 6. p. 10. of St. Valerey l. 7. p. 46. of Zeriezee l. 8. p. 13. of Zuitbeverland l. 7. p. 78. of â—utphen l. 7. p. 77. of Aloost l. 8. p. 18. Rentey a Castle of Artois l. 8. p. 4. Reputation l. 5. p. 110. Republick of the Hollanders how great and from how small beginning l. 1. p. 1. l. 7. p. 73. Of the Hereticks Instituted by the Covenanters l. 5. p. 138 142. advanced by Piracy l. 7. p. 73. their Fleet most commonly victorious ibid. Requesenes vide Berlingâ—erio Lodovico his son Galceâ—anâ— and Lodovico Commendador of the Knights of St Iago Restorer of lost liberty an attribute given to the General of the Covenanters l. 5. p. 109. Revolt of Cities and Provinces from the Spaniard l. 7. p. 72 73 l. 9. p. 37. Sollicitors of the Low-Countrey mens Revolt l. 7. p 71 73. Reux rendred to Don Iohn l. 9. p. 57. Ryne a River of Holland l. 8. p. 7. Roan taken by the French l. 3. p. 61. Rich mens unhappy fortune l. 8. p. 24. Rimenant a Village l. 10. p 9. the Battle ibid. Risorius Nohoc layes a plot against the Duke of Alva l. 7. p. 46. from Iuliers passes the Moes ibid. Robert Brederod enemy to Cardinal Granvell l. 2. p. 41. stands for the Archbishoprick of Cambray ibid. Robert Melodune Viscount Gant l. 9. p. 5. Robert Stuart Commander of the Scots at the Battle of Rimenant l. 10. p. 10. Roderick Gomez a Silva Prince of Ebolo one of the Lords of the Privy Councel to the King of Spain l. 2. p. 38. of great power with his Majesty l. 3. p. 8. l. 6. p. 22. his Contest with the Duke of Alva at the Councel Table and in Courr Ibid. his opinion touching the Kings Expedition into the Low-Countries l. 6. p. 23. He advertiseth the Governesse of the Marquis of Bergen's death l. 6. p. 27. and that she must bring his Cause to a Tryal ibid. writes to her in the Kings name of the Army that was to march into the Low-countries Ibid. and acquaints her with the Cause of the Duke of Alva's coming l. 6. p. 29. attends the King at the Commitment of Prince Charles l. 7. p. 44. jeeres his Rival the Duke of Alva for erecting to himself a Statue l. 7. p. 65. Roderick de Toledo a Colonel carried out of the field wounded into the Camp l. 7. p. 80. Rodolph the second Emperour by his Embassadour obligeth himself to
the association of Gant l. 9. p. 30. dislikes the Design of his brother Matthias going to take upon him the Government of the Low-countries l. 9. p. 38. is angry with Maximilian privy to the Plot ibid. many suspect that the Emperour was not angry in earnest ibid. p. 39. Rome a very Gossip for newes l. 4. p. 86. the Conclave l. 3. p. 65. l. 4. p. 81. the Sack l. 1. p. 9. Nobility l. 9. p. 43. Pope l. 1. p 7 9 22. l. 5. p. 134. Victory known by the Armes of the Sabines l. 7. p. 56. the Dictator l. 9. p. 36. Theaters l. 8. p. 7. their Veneration to the Crucifix l. 9. p. 43. the Kingdome of the Romans transferred to another l. 1. p. 5. a Vow made against the Romans l. 3. p. 51. the Belgick Conspiracy to eject them l. 1. p. 2. l. 8. p. 21. hatred to the Roman Religion l. 8. p. 8. Romero vide Iuliano Ronell a River l. 6. p. 10. Rotterdam l. 8. p. 7. Rumour that Charles the fifth was drowned l. 1. p. 23. and Octavio Farneze ibid. that Don Iohn was fled the Low-countries l. 10. p. 4. that he was to be married to Queen Elizabeth of England l. 10. p. 20. that he was poysoned ibid. that Alexander Farneze was killed l. 10. p. 4. that Count Megan was dead l. 7. p. 48. that Hierg was dead l. 10. p. 4. that Charles Prince of Spain was made away l. 7. p 45. that Mondragonio was dead l. 10. p. 4. that Philip the second was killed l. 4. p. 77. that he was to come into the Lowcountries l. 5. p. 140. that the Prince of Orange was slain l. 10. p. 9. that the Low-countrey Lords had conspired against the King l. 5. p. 99. that the Covenanters would come to Bruxells l. 5. p. 103. that Granvell was to return into the Low-countries l. 4. p. 81. l. 7. p. 68 69. that the Castle of Limburg was fired c. l. 10. p. 4. that Charles the ninth of France had concluded a Peace with the Hugonots l. 7. p. 73. that the King of Navarre was to be married to the Queen of Scots l. 3. p. 59. Rupelmund the attempt of an Heretical Priest there Prisoner l. 4. p. 83. Ruremund stormed by the Prince of Orange l. 7. p. 75. besieged by the Estates l. 9. p. 49. relieved Ibid. Ruart of Brabant a title conferred by the Estates upon the Prince of Orange l. 9. p. 36. what king of Magistracy it was ibid. what persons have been formerly elected ibid. Rythovius Bishop of Ipre vide Martin Sentences in R. RELIGION among Hereticks is not their own but accidental and translatitious l. 5. p. 138. RELIGION and Law are to be Patronized and upheld as the Pillars of a Kingdome l. 1. p. 4. Cities seldome change RELIGION onely l. 3. p. 36. As often as the Sacred Anchor of RELIGION is weighed so often the Ship of the Common-VVealth is tossed l. 2. p. 36. RELIGION once lost can never be repaired with addition either of VVealth or Empire l. 5. p. 123. In acute diseases sometimes desperate REMEDIES are not unskilfully applyed l. 10. p. 11. Never did any Army RETREAT without some losse l. 10. p. 8. S. SAbina Palatina â—avier married to Count Egmont l. 7. p. 53. her humble Petition for her husbands life sent into Spain l. 7. p. 49. Sabines fighting with the Romans by the Bank of Anio l. 7. p. 56. Sacrâ—moro Burago l. 9. p. 57. Salvator Bishop of Clusino l. 1. p. 18. Samaniego l. 10. p. 7. Samblemont a Colonel l. 9. p. 54. Sencerre in Aquitain its siege compared with the Siege of Harlem l. 7. p. 79 80. Sancho Avila Captain of the Duke of Alva's Life-Guard l. 6. p. 30. sets a Guard upon Culemburg house l. 6. p. 33. beats Hochstrat beyond the Moes l. 7. p. 46. is wounded l. 7. p. 63. commands a Fleet for the relief of Midleburg l. 8. p. 2. defeats Lewis of Nassau at Mooch l. 8. p. 3. the Mutiny of the Spaniards against him l. 8. p. 4. General of the Foot in the Zeland Expedition l. 8. p. 9. Sailes into Philipland ibid. from thence to Duveland l. 8. p. 13. his Complaints against the Royal Senate and Theirs against him l. 8. p. 18. he supplyes the Spaniards at Alooft ibid p. 22. being Governour of the Fort at Antwerp he receives the Spaniards marching thither ibid. with-holds the Souldiers at the Sack of Antwerp l. 8. p. 24. departs out of the Low-Countries with the Spaniards l. 9. p. 32. Sancho Leva son to Sancho Vice-Roy of Navarre l. 10. p. 6. Sancho Londognio a Colonel l. 6. p. 30. takes the Consul of Antwerp by Orders from the Duke of Alva l. 6. p. 33. Sanctaâ—ruâ— vide Prospero Saint 〈◊〉 the Church l. 9. p. 44. the Battle l. 1. p. 11. l. 7. p. 53. General of the Horse l. 1. p. 11. Sardinia offered in lieu of the Kingdome of Navarre l. 3. p. 59. Sardinian Regiment l. 6. p. 30. l. 7. p. 47. burnes many Villages l. 7. p. 57. punished by the Duke of Alva ibid. 58. how much was lost by that fire ibid. Sarra Mortinengo serves in France l. 9. p. 57. Savoy the Dukedome l. 5. p. 137. l. 6. p. 21. Savoy the Duke l 2. p. 44. l. 6. p. 30. marrieth Katherine daughter to the King of Spain l. 4. p. 82 83. l. 6. p. 35. vide Emanuel Philibert Saulio vide Antonio Saxony the Electorate l. 5. p. 116. Sâ—x the Duke l. 1. p. 8. vide Augustus Maurice Saying of the Duke of Alva touching the Punishment due to the Gaâ—tois l. 7. p. 39. touching the Princes confederate against his King l. 7. p. 59. touching the King recalling him from Exile l. 7. p. 82. Of the Courage of Vitelli l. 7. p. 62. of the Mutineers of Alooâ—t l. 8. p. 22. Of the Lowâ—countrey men concerning Alva l. 7. p. 9â— of Charles the fifth after the Abdication of this Empire l. 1. p. 5. touching the Nature of the Low-countrey men l. 6. p. 23. of the Magnitude of Gant l. 7. p. 39. of a Captain to Charles the fifth l. 1. p. 10. of Cardinal Granvell when he heard the Prince of Orange was not caught l. 6. p. 33 34. of the besieged Leideners l. 8. p. 6. of Octavi◠〈◊〉 touching the â—â—ity of Neighbour Princes l. 4. p. 91. of Philip the second relating to the Duke of Alva's Death l. 7. p. 82. of Vitelli to the Duke of Alva l. 7. p. 60. of the Common people on the General of an Army l. 7. p. 83. vide Words Scamaneler a River l. 1. p. 2. Scander Bashaw wounded taken by Alexander Faâ—neze l. 9. p. 46. Scaremberg sent to meet the German Embassadours l. 6. p. 18. answers them in Senate in the Governesse's name ibid. Scauwemburg a Colonel sent for from Germany to the siege of Valencians l. 6. p. 8. comes with his Regiment ibid. appointed with part thereof to
Voluntary inheritance l. 1. p. 4. Vorne an Isle of Holland l. 7. p. â—2 Votive Monument l. 7. p. 48. Urban VII P. M. l. 5. p. 132. Urban VIII P. M. l. 7. p. 60. Vrsel imployed from Antwerp into Spain l. 3. p. 66. Utricht honoured with the prerogative of an Archbishoprick l. 1. p. 18. the Townsmen out the Catholicks from their Churches l. 5. p. 131. threaten to revolt from the King l. 6. p. 1. Vulgar Apostles who l. 3. P. 61. Vulgar interpretation of the Hoods l. 4. p. 78. vâ—de peole Uzeda l. 7. p. 112. Sentences in V. VICES that passe from hand to hand are soiled with being touched and grow still fouler l. 5. p. 115. It is not easie to hold mens hands when VICTORY showes them at once revenge and booty l. 8. p. 24. What is VISIBLE is slighted l. 1. p. 8. UNSOUND minds like unsound bodies the more you feed the more you poyson them lib. 9. p. 34. The VOTE which nature extorts we think is given to the Cause when indeed we give it to our humour l. 6. p. 13. W. WAcken sent Admiral into Spain l. 6. p. 32. Walcheren an Island l. 6. p. 2. l. 8. p. 1. Waterland an Isle l. 6. p. 19. West a River l. 10. p. 1. Westphalia l. 2. p. 36. Wight an Isle of England and its Governour l. 8. p. 33. Willebroc a Village l. 6. p. 14. Wâ—rkâ—me l. 8. p. 9. Wallet an Emblem of the Gheuses l. 5. p. 110. Wallets stuck upon Spear-points l. 8. p. 10. Water-Gheuses l. 7. p. 71. William Count Bergen one of the four first Covenanters l. 5. p. 102. at Bruxells l. 5. p. 107 109. feasted with them ibid. goes with them to the Governesse l. 5. p. III. retires into Gelderland ibid. l. 6. p. 15. is impeached l. 7. p. 41. condemned in absence ibid. victorious in Zutphen l. 7. p. 73. defeated l. 7. p. 77. William Bâ—osius Treslong one of the first Water-Ghenâ—es l. 7. p. 71. turns Pirat ibid. beats the Spaniards and fires their Ships l. 7. p. 72. is the Cause of hanging Alvares Pacecho ibid. William Bronchorst dyes l. 7. p. 10. William Duke of Cleve l. 9. p. 101. l. 9. p. 30. William Horne Lord of Mese Governour of Bruxells l. 8. p. 20. by order from him the Royal Senators are Imprisoned ibid. the Prince of Orange's Emissary l. 9. p. 34. Commands a Regiment at the Battle of Gemblâ—â— l. 9. p. 50. Ingrateful to Don Iohn l. 9. p. 35. Adviseth the Jesuites to take the Oath l. 9. p. 40. his Enmity with the Prince of Orange l. 1â— p. 9. what â—is End was l. 9. p. 34. William Luâ—â— descended from the Counts e Marchâ— Commander of Horse among the Covenanters l. 6. p. 1. irreconcilable to the name of Catholick l. 7. p. 58. his Vow to revenge the Death of Count Egmont and Count Horn ibid. General of the Water-Gheuses l. 7. p. 71. his hatred to the Duke of Alva ibid. signified in his Colours ibid. he robs at Sea ibid. takes and fortifies Brill l. 7. p. 72. destroyes things Sacred ibid. is pictured putting a pair of Spectacles upon the Duke of Alva's Nose ibid. by his means the Rebel-Cities submit to the Prince of Orange ibid. his own Men offended with him l. 7. p. 80. Cassed by the Prince of Orange ibid imprisoned and banished ibid. overthrown at the battel of Gemblac he flyes to Lieg ibid. dyes miserably ibid. William of Nassau Prince of Orange l. 1. p. 5. his family birth presages Ancestors l. 2. p. 43 44. His Education with Mary sister to Charles the fifth ibid. Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to the Emperour ibid. his Services of War Civil imployments and favour with the Emperour ibid. Carries the Imperial Crown to Ferdinand King of the Romans l. 1. p. 5. l. 2. p. 44. is by Caesar commended to his son Philip ibid. Chosen Knight of the Golden Fleece ibid. the Instrument of making peace with and Hostage to Henry King of France ibid. p. 46. the Causes of his discontent and designes l. 2. p. 44. his Wit and Manners l. 2. p. 45. the splendor of his house-keeping Ibid. what his Religion was ibid. he Studies Machiavil l. 2. p. 46. his marriages l. 3. p. 53. his daughter born l. 3. p. â—1 and his son Maurice l. 4. p. 87. General of the Spanish Horse in the Low-countries l. 2. p. 28. Governour of Holland Zeland and ulricht l. 1. p. 16. and Burgundy l. 1. p. 17. designed by the people's wishes for Governour of all the 17. Provinces l. 1. p. 19. which he saith he ought to be of right l. 2. p. 45. what hindered him l. 1. p. 19. out of hope of the Government l. 2. p. 45. from whence sprung his indignation and complaints against the King l. 2. p. 38. and his alienation l. 3. p. 67. his Envy and Emulation against Granvell l. 2. p. 39 41 42. who did him mischief l. 3. p. 54 67 68. when he took the first occasion of raise troubles ibid. whence the beginning l. 2. p. 46. l. 5. p. 100. he favours the Seditious Citizens and Hereticks l. 2. p. 46. l. 3. p. 66. drawes in Count â—gmont l. 3. p. 68. with whom he is compared l. 3. p. 70. exasperates the Brabanters l. 3. p. 68. combines against Granvell l. 3. p. 69 71. writes against him to the King l. 3. p. 72. his Complaints at the Convention of the Golden Fleece l. 3. p. 69. and in Senate before the Governesse l. 3. p. 75. his dissention with Count Aremberg l. 3. p. 73. and with Duke Areschot l. 5. p. 103. resolves to come no more to Senate l. 3. p. 75. advertiseth the Governesse of the Lords Conspiracy l. 5. p. 99. whether he was one of the Conspirators ibid. at his City of Breda the Covenant was signed l. 5. p. 100 101. he complaines in Senate that he is reported to be a Covenanter Ibid. gives his vote for the Covenanters admission into Bruxells l. 5. p. 103. his Complaints against the King l. 5. p. 104. the Covenanters light at his house l. 5. p. 107. what was acted there ibid. he meets them at Culemburg-house l. 5. p. 110. Feast the Covenanters Hath a monitory letter sent him from Pius the fifth l. 5. p. 114. having been formerly admonished by Pius the fourth touching the same point ibid. the Governesse at the desire of the Citizens of Antwerp sends him to compose the tumult there l. 5. p. 118. the applauses shouts and acclamations of the Hereticks as he came in ibid. what he acted at Antwerp ibid. 120. sent by the Governesse to trouble the meeting at Centron ibid. he moves to be made Governour of Antwerp for settling of the Town ibid. he is Commissionated and suffered to have a Life-guard ibid. his design to invade the Principality of the Low-countries ibid. 129 130. l. 7. p. 40. and Holland in the first place l. 6. p. 1. he argues in Senate
his resolution But those Censurers were mistaken The Monastery of S. Justus Sex Aur. Vict. in Caius Czs. The Emperours new habitation Febr. 1557. His family and how accommodated His contempt of the world How be disposed his time His riding to take the air His gardening His making of clocks or watches Jannell Turrianus whose Mathematicall inventions be much delighted in His extraordinary care of his soul. Joseph Seguenza in the History of his Order l. 1. By the Bull of Julius 111. 1554. Marc. 19 He disciplined himself His whip reverenced by his son Aug. 30. 1558. Immediately he falls sick Barthol Miranda Soon after he died Sept. 21. 1558. His funerals ushered with Prodigies in heaven Observed by Ian. Turrionus present at the Emperours death And in earth How long he reigned Diverse reasons commonly given for his resignement The new Kings first care The Duke of Savoy made governour of the Low-countreys The Truce between France and Spain broken Febr. On what occasion Thuan. l. 22. Decemb. The French invade the Low-Countreys Ferdinand of Tolledo Duke of Alva Iune 1557. Aug. 1550. The Spaniard first was conquerour at S. Quintins Presently after the French recovered Caliâ—e Ian. 1558. The Spaniard hath another victorie at Graveling Fortune seconds valour Iuly 1558. The womens crueltie to the French A Treatie of peace between the Kings Concluded by mediation of the Dutchess of Lorain At Cambray the Peace-making city April 1556. To the generall contentment Charles the V. Francis the I. Aug. 1529. Alice the Kings mother and Margaret the Emperours aunt The Peace confirmed by marriage Of the King of Spain to the French Kings daughter The King of France his sister married at the same time to the Duke of Savoy A Tournament at the wedding Where the King is victor Gabriel Count de Mongomary but soon after wounded Dies July 2. 1549. His death foretold Luc. Gaur Thus. l. 22. Lod. Guicciard l. 3. The history of the Netherlands 1559. Anonym in that Hist. Thua l. 3. 22. Vidus Cavocius Francis Vivonus The judgement of prudent men upon the Kings fate A strange conjuncture this year of Princes funerals King of Rome Of Belgium or the Low-countreys It s Name 〈◊〉 Greatness Wealth Guicciardine in his description of the Low-countreys Cities Towns Villages Forts Militia Navigation Trade of clothing Inclination Adv. Jien in his Tract of Holland attributes it to the air they live in The Character of a Low-countrey man Belgium divided into 17 Provinces Which come to one Prince three wayes Philip the Good had them by affinity Meyer l. 17. Charles the Souldier by Purchase and the Sword Pont. Heut l. 1. But he lost some of them Paulus Aemil. l. 10. and Pont. Heut l. 2. Part Maximilian recovered by arms The same Authour in the same book and lib. 5. Part by Treaty Guic. lib. 1. 4. 8. Belcar l. 8. Charles the fifth possessed himself of all together Pont. Heut lib. 11. and 9. The same l. 11. and Meter Guic. lib. 16. and Pont. Heut lib. 11. And though to have made a Kingdom of them Guic. Meyer Why he did not The distribution of the Provinces 1546. 1556. The government whereof King Philip gave to the Lords Lucemburgh to Count Mansfield 1559. Namure to Count Barlamont Lymburgh to the Count of East-Frizeland Haynolt to John Lanoi Lord of Molembase But he shortly after dying it was bestowed on the Marquess of Berghen Flanders and Artois to Count Egmont French-Flanders to John Momorancy Tournay to his Brother Florence Holland and Zeland to the Prince of Orange 1559. Frizeland and Overysell to Count Arembergh Gelderland and Zutfen be as then assigned to no one But afterwards he sent from Spain a Patent to Count Megen to be Governour of both Marc. 25. 1560. And another to the Prince of Orange after the death of Vergius Jan. 16. 1559. to govern Burgundy Brabant reserved for the Supream Governour of the Low-countreys The ordering of the Militia Especially of the Horse Whose troops were famous througout Europe Their Commanders The Admirall Generall of the Ordinance The disposition of Bishopricks whereof there were onely four in all the 17 Provinces Many therefore had wished their number might be encreased Which Charles the fifth went about to do The reason why he desisted His son Philip attempts it Treats about it with the Pope Concludes with him Fourteen Bishopricks were to be added to the four former Whereof three Archbishopricks The men chosen for those Dioceses Of the Governour of the Low-countreys Various conjectures as is usuall with the people who should be the man The major part conceive Count Egmont will be elected a man of much same and merit Many think the Prince of Orange will carry it a man of greater power and wealth Not undeserving But he doubts a repulse Christierna of Lorain is also designed for the place With generall approbation But Margaret of Parma is preferred before them all What hindred Count Egmont What the Prince of Orange What Christiern of Lorain Cic. l. 2. de Oratore Of Margaret of Parma Her Mother Her mothers Parents Education Perfections The Emperour falls in love with her Delivered of Margaret Anno 1522. whom Cesar conceals for her mothers credit and his own But at last it was discovered The Infant is sent to be educated by the Emperours Aunt And afterwards by his sister 1530. Her disposition Her delight in hunting 1496. Cesar promises her in marriage to the Duke of Florence Breaking the match intended with the Prince of Ferrara 1516. 1529. Francisc. Maria Feltrio The Florentines labour to break the match But in vain The Nuptials celebrated at Naples Soon after at Florence With a strange Omen 1536. Her husband slain the same year 1537. His successour sues to Cesar for Margaret But he casts his eye on the house of Farneze And marries his daughter to Octavio Farneze Francisco Maria Feltrio With whom at first she corresponded not 1541. But afterwards He was indeared to her By means of his Absence and Hazzards 1545. Her love to him increased See the ninth Book Not without some instrvening jarres Her masculine spirit And manly exercises She was of a ready wit Wonderfull discreet And religious Especially at the Eucharist Her yearly Charity to the poor Which juncture of excellencies principally moved the King to make her Governess of the Low-countreys A second Cause thereof A third A fourth more secret perhaps more true The King after her instructions gives her a pension And in a Chapter of the Knights of the Golden Fleece 1516. 1433. 1429. He declares her Governess And commands to them Religion and Obedience Hears the Estates Requests And grants them Then his Majestie goes into Spain The Dukâ—â— of Savoy into Italy The Dutchess of Parma to Bruxells The Kings unseasonable departure out of the Low-Countreys before a perfect settlement was made The like inconvenience in Spain when Charles the fifth went from thence to Germany 1520. The Causes why writers differâ—
about the Beginnings of the Low-countrey tumâ—lts Ostentation of wit Faction Ignorance of the difference between Beginnings and Causes Which difference is principally to be observed and explained by an Historian So did the ancient and best writers Fab. Pict in his Annalls Tit. Liv. l. 21. Polyb. l. 3. To follow whose examples it is easie for a man acquainted with Princes secrets The Low-Countreymens Priviledges very great Lud. Guicciardin in Descrip. Belg. From whence this evil had its Originall because the King trencht upon them three wayes The retaining of the Spanish souldiers 〈◊〉 first Cause of their 〈…〉 The Low-Countreymen are aggrieved Instigated by the Prince of Orange And exasperated by the Spaniards the 〈◊〉 Hence grew their 〈…〉 the King 〈◊〉 Cause is 〈…〉 wholly to 〈…〉 to the Low-Countrey-men Not to the King Whether the Belgick tumults are to be derived from this fountain Multiplying the number of Bishops the second cause of Insurrection The complaints made thereupon By the old Bishops The Lords temporall The Abbots And almost all that stood for the Low-countrey priviledges In 2. Addit ad â—aetum introitum Principis Hispaniae Artic. 24. What those priviledges were Artic. â—6 And how violated by increase of Bishops For which many men rail at And threaten the King Artic. 5. Some argued for his Majestie From Precedents in other countreys Which makes against the complaints of the old Bishops Baronius ann 639. 741. Extrav Solvator de Praebend Dignit As likewise against the temporall Lords And against the Abbots Aubertus Miraeus in Notitia Episc. The literal sense of their priviledges Whence some infer that they were not broken June 4. 1561. apud Arnold Havens de novis Episc. l. 2. Jun. 4. 1561. Arnol. Haves de nov Episc. l. 2. and adde the decision of the Lovain Doctors and necessity the greatest of Priviledges And that the King was not obliged to summon the Estates Generall Nor out of his own purse to allow maintenance for the Bishops Especially when he gave them Pensions Whether the beginning of the tumults may be deduced from hence The Inquisition the third cause of Insurrections The first occasion of introducing it into the Government of the Church The different forms thereof Established in Rome Constit. 34. Licet Not without Penalties J Manich and l. Quicunque C. De haereticis C. ut inquisitionis de haereticis in 6. In Spain especially from the year 1383. Martin Luthers Heresie makes it every where strictly observed Emp. Max. 1. Gratian. Theod Arcad. Honor Martian c. Charles the fifth his Edict against Luther and hereticks Leoâ— Seven times the Emperour renued it The Brabanters refuse the Inquisition King Philip confirms his Fathers Edicts Commands the execution thereof to the Governess The Governess to the Magistrates The Magistrates let it cool The Brabanters still refuse The people differ in opinions The common discourse against the Inquisition and the Emperours Edicts In the Lateran Councel under Innocent iii. Tumults caused by fear of the Inquisition and punishment of Delinquents Some men censure the King Others excuse him C. Sane 2. de Off. Potest Jud. lib. 1. §. Quiâ—manda tam. 〈◊〉 de Off. ejus Of the Prince of Orange His Ancestours came out of Germany Into the Low-countreys Ann. 1292. The Prince of Orange in his Apol. 1581. Their power in the Netherlands Anno 1544. The birth of the Prince of Orange Henr. Ranzou in exemplis Astvol Michael Airzinger in Leone Belg. His Nativity calculated His civill And military education Called the ordinary Bands Emmanuel Fishberti Duke of Savoy His favour at Court Some suspect him The Emperour answers all Objections And commends him to the King The King makes great account of him The Causes of his Discontent His Designe His Wit and Manners Which relished not of Courtship or Levity The splendour of his Family His doubtfull Religion He declares himself a Calvinist Apology 1518. His Apology Anno 1518. Whether from his heart or no is uncertain Ann. 1581. He was Hostage for K. Philip to Henry K. of France Ann. 1581. He discovers both the Kings designes against the hereticks And from thence takes his hint for Commotion Ann. 1559. Beginning at the Convention of the Knights of the Golden Fleece out of the same Apology Hoventius Momorancy Lord Montany Anthony Lalin Count Hochstrat Starting matter for sedition out of the Spanish souldiers 1559. In the some Apology Out of the new Bishops In his said Apol and so Granvel writes Ann. 1582. Out of the Inquisition Out of Granvels power Out of the troubles arising in the Duke of Alva's government The mutinous Citizens and the Hereticks desire to have the Prince of Orange for their Generall Anne daughter to Maurice Duke of Saxonie He offers himself To the destruction of the Publick The Causes and Occasions of the Belgickâ—nmults â—nmults summed up 1559. The Spanish souldiers have Orders to depart 4. Octob. Their Departure countermanded by the King Whereat the Low-countreymen rage And grow desperate Tacitus in his Annals l. 13. Called the Consult 1560. The Consulters are of opinion the souldiers should not be stayed 1560. Of the same mind were all the Councell of State 1560. But onely Granvell Who at last consents The Governesses Express to the King Her private letter 12. Decemb. The King assents in these words The Spanish souldiers sail for Spain 1561. A new Modell of the Foot Touching forrein and domestick souldiers 1562. The Marriage between the Prince of Orange and Princesse Anne daughter to the Duke of Saxony Landgrave of Hessen Anno 1550 The Landgraves Plot to break the match Discovered to the Duke of Saxony 1561. The Nuptials with Princesse Anne celebrated Afterwards he sued out a Divorce Anno 1572 At Brill is Holland Granvel made a Cardinall A Cardinalls hat brought to him He delays his acceptance 25. Feb. 12. Iuly 1562. 27. March The Governess likes not his delay He at last owns the scarlet And hat sent him by speciall favour from his Holiness For which he gives the Governess his reasons as she wrote to the King 29. Novem. 1564. 1562. The Crown of France being endangered succours are sent from the Low-countreys Of the French Tumults The Lutheran Religion brought into France Upon what occasion The City of Paris Its Favourers Margaret of Valois sister to K. Francis T is almost extinguished â—y the King Calvinisme succeeds First among the Commons Afterwards among the Lords Out of their â—mulation and envie 1562. To the Guises Duke Francis and his brother the Cardinall Anthony of Bourbon King of Navarre The Prince of Condè brother to the King of Navarre Gaspar Colligny and his brother Andelot All these were infected with Heresie But the greatest Professour of them was Joan Alibret Queen of Navarre Julius II. The Lord joyn with the hereticall rabble 1559. Against whom assistance is requested of the King of Spain And promised Alibret exasperates her husband against the Catholicks Tit. Liv. l. 1. The conspiracy at
King consented Why the Governesse wished it Granvel presupposed as much by the change of faces at Court Noâ— is he at all dejected But seems to desire a discharge Yet rather wishes to be removed to Spain and to that end solicits the Duke of Alva Who deliberates upon it Octob. 1565 At last moves for him But prevails not For Granvel is commanded into Burgundy Thomas Perenot Lord of Cantoner Whether at length he goes giving out that he will return very shortly 10 of Marc. 6 of March. Which report spoiled the mirth of his adversaries And troubled the Governesse 29. of March Who certifies his danger and labours to keep him out of the Low-countreys The joy for Cardinal Granvels departure as well of the People as the Lords The Governess makes use of this alacritie in both But it was dâ—sht again by new fames of the Cardinals Return That they may have no more such frights the Governess moves the King Novem. 29. To send him away to Rome 1565. The rest of Cardinal Granvels life He goes 〈◊〉 Rome to the Conclave Solicites the Generall peace of Christendome Is created Viceroy of Naples Delivers the colours to Don John of Austria 1571. Labours and votes in the Conclave for the Papacy of Gregory XIII 1572. Into whose displeasure he shortly after falls for violating the rights of the Church In a suit with the Archbishop The Pope by his Nuncio justifies the Archbishop The Vice-roy at last submits 1575. He is made President of the Italian Councel in Spain His free carriage towards the Grandees And towards the King him self Q. Curt. lib. 8. 1580. He governs Spain in the Kings absence 1583. The honour done him by the King at his Return His death At Madrid His speciall Commendations The Governess provides for Religion Commended to her by the King Seriously With almost incredible care to root out Hereticks And with no little bounty to the banished English Hereticks put to death with various success A bold fact of an hereticall Minister But it saved him at last August 13. The punishment of Fabricius the Apostate out of her Excellencies letters 8. Octob. The Executioners dexterity The people mutiny 25 Novem. They are quieted The Senate of Bruges affront the Inquisitour Septemb. 10 Novem. 25. Of the Councel of Trent The diligâ—nce used by Pius iv to get is to be received Which was readily done by King Philip. 1536. Paulo iii. Pont. The difference between the Pope and King Onuph Pan. in Pio iv Adrian l. 8. Hist. Thuan. l. 35. Hist. About the Spanish Embassadours place Which began at the Councel of Trent And being there composed Was revived at Rome The Pope not willing to determine it Puts it off to the Cardinals At last he explains himself Whereupon the Spanish Embassadour in a fury leaves Rome This Accident troubled many Especially the Governesse The Hereticks rejoyce in hope the Councel of Trent will never be received in the Low-countreys But they were deceived August 6. A letter from the King offended with the Pope Yet carefull to establish the Councel of Trent The Governess doubts whether some Decreâ—s of the Councel are not to be excepted in the promulgation The Senate would have it so But the King will not Septemb. 30 Novem. 25 The Governesse finds it difficult 1565. Count Egmont sent into Spain Feb. 15. The Lord of Zeveghem sent to condole the death of the Emperour Maximilian The Princesse of Orange brought a bed of Prince Maurice Feb. 15. Christened with Catholick rites by hereticall Godfathers Of the conference of K. Charles of France and the two Queens at Baion Feb. 3. For which the King of Spain gave reasons to the Belgick Lords And to the Princes of Europe Yet many were jealous Especially the Hereticks Who were troubled the more fearing King Philip would be at the Conference Why the Governesse disswaded his coming March 3. Duke of Alva Why King Philip was not present Septemb. 17 Various reports touching the conference at Baion Septemb. 25 What they consulted of The Hereticks very much affraid Thuan. l. 36. Hist. An Herreâ—a l. 12. c. 1. in the Life of Philip 11. and others The massacre at Paris thought to be designed at this meeting C. Egmont arrives in Spain Feb. 15. The Kings Answer and Commands April 2. Having first consulted the Divines In this manner His Majesty checks C. Egmont for the Cognizances devised to affront Granvell Egmont excuses himself And accuses the Cardinall The Kings instructions delivered in writing to Count Egmont For preservation of Religion For destruction of Hereticks For regulation of the Councel April 2. For disposall of the moneys sent by his hand For signification of his Majesties intended journey thither Prince Alexander Farneze delivered by the King to Count Egmont who is to conduct him into the Low-countreys The Governesses joy upon the sight of her son And news of a Match intended him by the King April 30. Of Marriages treated for Prince Alexander Duke Octavio would match him to the Duke of Ferrarars sister His reasons The Governess is of the same mind Octob. 1. 1560. The King dissents 1565. and names another Decem. 9. 1560. His Majesties Letter 1565. The King upon further consideration proposes Mary Princess of Portugall The Offer is embraced Edward brother to Iohn the III. son to Emmanuel Her Nobility both by Father And Mother Princesse Maries peculiar commendations Her wit and learning Sanctity of life Childish exercises Modesty Care to preserve it The Low-countrey Fleet sent to transport the Bride 14 day Who left Portugal nobly attended Septemb. 21 Sebastian Morales afterwards Bishop of Japan She is overtaken with a storm at Sea She pitties and helps the poor creatures ready to be drowned Another tempest drives her upon the coast of England She refuses to send her service to Queen Elisabeth She invites an English Lady Begs her two sonnes of her But is denied 3565. One of her ships fired accidentally Her care greater for her Reliques then for her jewels For her soul then for her body She lands in the Low countreys 3. Day Is conducted to Bruxels The Marriage solemnized on the Anniversary of the Institution of the Order Octob. 8. 1430. Emmanuel K. of Portugall Paternall Grandfather to Princesse Mary Charles the fifth maternall Grandfather to Prince Alex. The particular joy of the Knights of the Golden-fleece The Bride and Bridegroom leave the Low-countreys She is welcomed into Italy with great magnificence 1565. Her example reforms Parma Her pious design to beg a Son of God She prayes for and obtains another Ranucio Duke of Parma and Piacenza Cardinall Odoardo Prince Alexanders confidence in her prayers The education of her children Which she dying commends to her Lord. Qu. Blanch with an excellent Prayer 1577. Her patience in the pangs of death The Form of her dayly exerâ—â—se penned by her self The Low-countreys in new trouble Iune 2. Count Egmonts complaints Iuly 22. Octob. 2. His Majesties Letter touching the punishment of Hereticks
The Inquisitours And the Councell of Trent Out of which Heads the Governesse conceives an Edict Novemb. 9. And sends it to the Governours of Provinces Decem. 18. A copie of the Edict 1565. What the Governours of Provinces conceived of the Edict proposed Ianuary 9. Brabant first refuses to obey the Edict Bolduc Some condescension made but it gives no satisfaction Intelligence of many persons of quality in Brabant that were to enter into a League against the Edict March 29. 1550. The Originall of the Low-countrey mens conspiracy some Noblemens sons bred up Hereticks abroad Which coming home wish for liberty of Conscience The Merchants are of the same mind They consult together When they first set afoot their Designe Falling just upon the point of time whilst the Prince of Orange endeavoured to expell the Spanish 1581. 3566. For a long while they are quiet Vpon accasion of the Councell of Trent they shew themselves 1564. And have râ—course to the Princes of Germany About the beginning of 1565. After Promulgation of the Edict they grow tumultuous Printing Libels April 3. And Books against the Inquisition to stir up the people They are troubled with fears and jealousies Brunswick K. Philip. They threatningly inveigh against the Kings Edict Which matures Rebellion The Governess to the King March 25 An Ingagement signed The summe of the Ingagement Which they called the Covenant It s Title or Inscription Many take it These first March 24. They bragge of more Some do it secretly or are but supposed to ingage Of which number was the Prince of Orange Count Horn. Count Hochstrat The Queen of England Onely 400. Gentlemen declare Which had four Protectours All these Conspiratours had not one aim March 15. The Governesses diligence to frustrate their designs She hath intelligence of their resolution to come to Bruxels which frights her very much She summons a great Councel April 3. The Governesse asks the Senatours advice Whether the Covenanters were to be admitted Duke Areschot and Count Barlamont answer negatively The Prince of Orange is far their admission Count Egmont concurs with him Count Mansfeldt is against their coming March 26. So are the Counts Aremberg and Megen How the rest voted Many of them complain of the King The Prince of Orange particularly In these words For the money was lost as we have told you Her Excellence endeavours to give him satisfaction At first in vain But at length he and all seem better contented and the Councell proceeding resolves to admit the Covenanters At the Senates next meeting The Governess speaks to them in this manner April 3. 1566. Of the Edicts Of the Inquisition Which she proves to be neither new nor more severe then former Edicts Then leaves them to the freedome of their Votes Some approve the Edict and would not have the Laws altered The major part dislike it and would have a temporary alteration Rayling at pleasure against the Inquisition as hatefull to all sorts Injurious to the Bishops And opposed by the Covenanters And they prevail The Resolution of the Councell upon both the points To put down the Inquisition So the Covenanters are to be answered Pius V. And to qualifie the Emperours Edicts Why the Governess rather receives then approves this Decree April 3. The Covenanters enter Bruxels Led by Henry Brederod Publickly vaunting They alight at the Prince of Orange's Where with oLords they fall upon turbulent Proposals Afterward Brederod assembles the Covenanters at Cuilemburg-house An additionall Oath taken The form of the Oath From thence they march to the Court. Brederod in the name of them all speaks thm to the Governess And presents her a Petition consisting of three Heads Subjoyning these Complaints out of his Papers To part she answers Part she takes no notice of Put to the question whether the Covenanters should be required to set their names to the Petition presented to the Governess 1556. Resolved that they should not be required to subscribe their names The Governess returns the petion with her Answer annexd Florence Pallantius C. Cuilenburg William C. Bergen Brederod treats the Conspiratours In their cups they would have a title of honour given to their Association and the like to their Generall What Gheuses signifies The Covenanters much taken with the name of Gheuses Ensignes fit for the faction 1566. Their mutuall devotement They take another touch And being foxâ—d Own the style of Gheuses proper for Low-countrey Hereticks 1568. The Gheuses walk the streets Accoutred like beggars But with gallant Medals Arnol. Haven de novis Epise Franc. Haraeus in An. Belg. Fideles au Roy Jusque a la beface An. Societ Jesu in Belg. and shaved like Turks The citie upon this occasion diversly affected Some good springs from this evil â— Lipsius in D. Virg. Haev de init lib. 2. Mich. ab Iffel in Hâ—st sui temp Duke Areschot having done his devotions to our Lady of Hall stamps hers and her sons figure in a Coâ—ne and weares it in his Hat Many imitate him The Governess commends him for it to the Pope J. Ant. Gabut in the life of Pope Pius lib 6. cap. 2. Who gives indulgences to all that weare those Medalls Thus came Medalls into the Church To the great honour of the house of Croi The Gheuses present a new Petition April 8. Angered at the Governesses delay She treates them with fair language And minding them of their duty dismisseth them Brederod goes to Antwerp April 10. May 14. Where the people come to him in multitudes He offers himself to be their Generall And is accepted The subtilty of the Gheuses slandering the Knights of the Golden Fleece with the patronage of their faction In a printed Declaration The Governesse is at first affraid of this kind of Artifice April 13. Which before it can come to be consuted leaves the impression of a wound To which end such things published And serve the turn like temporary scaffolds till the building be up Atlast the Lords denying that any of their Order was ingaged She gives notice of the deceit to the Provinces April 25. Whereupon she dispatches an Embassage for Spain nominating the Marq. of Bergen But not timely enough to all Places And the Lord Montiny 1. montiny sets forâ—ard A Messenger with private instructions goes before him The King gives no dispatch to the Embassadour The Pope moving him to revenge the Asfront offered to Religion Who likewise sends his Legate to the Goververnesse That should extoll her and promise assistance from his Holinesse Delivering his letters to Count Cuilemburg and the Prince of Orange She advises him not to give the letter to the Count But to let the Prince have his whom she undertakes to prepare Decem. 15. 1563. In the mean time excuses her self for not receiving the money offered by the Pope Her Excellence gives the Legate a true description of the Low-countrey Bishops Who is amazed at her Piety and Prudence The impudence of the Gheuses incouraged by
hope of impunity Their new Conspiracy And new fashion The Originall of these kind of confederacies May 17. Not cured either by the Governesses care 6. or 21. of May. Or by the Kings letter gracious indeed March 15. But unseasonably protracting the Grant of Generall Pardons to some great ones 1570. The Low-countreys over flowed with Hereticks 1566. Privately at first Then openly preaching Three â—orts or Classes of them Calvinists Lutherans Anabaptists Catholicks What they were that came in Infinite Resort to hear them And to the Sacraments after the hereticall way Why the people are so fond of sermons Some out of zeal to heresie Divers taken with the Rarity 1565. Many delighted with singing of Psalms But the most with hearing them rail and jeer in the Pulpit Their audience increased by severall Countreymen striving to have their heresie preferred Which necessitates the Governess to hasten away the Marq. of Bergen into Spain Who sickning by the way Sends the Steward of his house before with his Letters 1566. Her Excellence by Edict banishes Forreiners But cannot resolve what course to take with the new Preachers She revives the Edict against them Who were more followed because prohibited Especially at Antwerp The Governess is desired to come thither 1564. She sends count Megen before her But upon a mutiny of the people He is called away The Town petitions for the Prince of Orange Who is made Governour of Antwerp Multitudes of people meet him upon the way He silences their shouts and the Hereticks acclamations Consults about a remedie for the present mischief Sermons in the fields frequented as much as ever For which she justly reprooves the Senate of Antwerp and tries severall wayes to make the Prince of Orange A meeting of the Gheuses at Centron or San-Truden They desire the use and freedom of the Town from the Bishop of Liege Gerard Grosbech Which he denies But the Townsmen let them in They convene in the City Where they unanimously agree to petition for their Indemnity Touching Libertie of Religion they differ among themselves A few Pages lower The Governess sends Count Egmont and Count Horn to break off the Convention These Lords remember the Covenanters of their promise But they by a new message from S. Truden make high demands from the Governesse She puts them off for the present The Prince of Orange would be made Governour of Antwerp to enable him for ruling of the Town And is made Governour accordingly with power to chuse himself a Guard But this concession was a great weakning in her Excellence The Kings letters wherein he grants the Governesse her desires So limited as gave the people no satisfaction And so long a coming as rendered them unusefull to the King Of the plunder of Churches From whence that Mischief came into the Low-countreys August 28. What forreiners incouraged them Why the Low-countreymen joyned with them August 28. The day appointed for the Picture-scuffle The Place The quality of the Image-breakers Their Instruments First the Villages are plundered Then the Cities They are received at Ipres Deface and pillage the great Church Burn the Library Violate all things sacred The People and the Magistrate diversly affected A new Party of Image-breakers in other Towns S. Omer Menin Commines Vervich Encountred by the Secliners And defeated The Governess's words to Count Egmont His Answer Her reply His Rejoynder Her Conclusion The Senates resolution upon the Exigent A new Iconomachy at Antwerp Begun with scorn put upon the holy Pâ—ocession Mockerie And quarrelling in the Cathedrall Church Whereof the sacrilegious people shutting out the rest possest themselves And singing Psalmes fall to work Breaking all things consecrated And defacing the whole Cathedrall O Profane What a great stately Church was this How small a number defaced it In a few houres Some thought the Devil helpt his Children Because none of the Sacrilegious were so much as hurt in the doing it From the Church they fall upon the City And their number encreasing Plunder all the Churches And Religious Houses in the Town With incredible security Terrifying the Inhabitants The Merchants keep their own houses and there stand upon their guard Those that had the custodie of things sacred run away from their charge Religious men dare not appear All the Town in a fright The Nuns flie to their fathers Houses The Sacrilegious make but one nights work of it Both Catholicks and Hereticks conceal themselves out of mutuall distrust The Church-robbers plunder with more licentiousnesse then before The Pillage continues for three whole dayes together At last the drowsie Citizens awake And taking Arms Fright away the Sacrilegious The like mischief at the same time Shaked all the seventeen Provinces like an Earthquake Onely sour excepted Tac. l. 2. Annals To an infinite losse Especially in Flanders Some thought this Pillage a design to betray the Low-countreys Martin Delrio in Alter Belg. l. 1. Sen. Truden l. 4. Plotted between the French and Low-countrey Hereticks With consent of the Gheuses An instance whereof is Lewis of Nassau's letter And his Patronage of the Iconomachy Septemb. 8. The Governesse calls a Senate or Great Councell Aug. 27. Her Speech The divers senses of the Senatours upon this Speech some for others against a Warre Their heat ended The Senate made this Decree nemine contradicente â—he Gheuses threaten Bruxels and the Governess Who frighted resolves to leave Bruxels But is stayed by prayers force The Prince of Orange expresses verymuch trouble The Governess more and more threatned Ulricus Viglius Yet not suffered to depart the Town And very much terrified Makes some concessions to the covenanting Gheuses Giving the King this account by letter Of the Causes moving her to do it And of the particulars granted Blaming her own indulgent Act and beseeching his Majestie not to confirm it But rather to vindicate Religion She in the interim secures her self and the Town of Bruxels And gets time to breath upon the present alteration of affairs by the endeavours of the Gheuses at Bruxels And of the Prince of Orange at Antwerp Who afterwards offended the Governesse by his grant of Churches to the Hereticks Septemb. 3. For which he gives her reasons Septemb. 4. Septemb. 4. 5. 7. But not satisfactory The like done at Mechlen and Tournay by the Counts of Hochstrat and Horn who excuse themselves Septemb. 8. The very same at Utretcht And at Bolduc The Franciscans at Antwerp endangered by the Hereticks Septem 17. And turned out of doors at Amsterdam The pious Act of the Amsterdam women The impious act of the women of Delph Septem 27. Octob. 10. and 16. The Governesse beseeches the King to come with an Army Gant 1539. 14. and 24. And the King after he had communicated the joy of his Daughters birth August 12. Clara Isabella Eugenia Approves of her advice Directs her what numbers to raise And what Commanders to employ Sends Commissions And money to the Governess Giving reasons to the Princes of