Public and fiscal concerns of moment fell under the cognizance of the sovereign. The people enjoyed numerous and considerable privileges: the most important of them was the Droit de Joyeuse entrée, the right of not being taxed without the consent of the three estates. Commerce, agriculture, and the arts, particularly music and painting, flourished among them. The people were honest, frugal, regular and just in their general habits; more steady than active; not easily roused; but, when once roused, not easily appeased.
Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.
Charles V. made over his hereditary territories in Germany to his brother Ferdinand; but retained the Netherlands, and annexed them to the crown of Spain.
With that crown, they descended to Philip the Second, the only son of Charles.
Unwise and unjust measures of that monarch drove the inhabitants into rebellion.
On the 5th of April 1566, a deputation of 400 gentlemen, with Lewis of Nassau, a brother of the prince of Orange, at their head, presented a petition to Margaret of Austria, the Governor of the Netherlands. From the coarseness of their dress, they acquired the name of gueux or beggars, and retained it throughout the whole of the troubles which followed.
Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.
Calvinism had, before this time, made great progress in these countries, and gained over to it numbers of the discontented party. Philip proceeded to the most violent measures, and sent the Duke of Alva, with an army of 20,000 men, into the Netherlands. William, Prince of Orange, placed himself at the head of the malcontents, and raised an army. At an assembly of the States of Holland and Zealand in 1559, he was declared Stadtholder, or Governor of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht: Calvinism was declared to be the religion of the States. In 1579, the three provinces were joined by those of Gueldres, Zutphen, Overyssell, and Gröningen. All signed, by their deputies, the TREATY OF UNION; it became the basis of their constitution: still, however, they acknowledged Philip for their sovereign. But in 1581, the deputies of the United States assembled at Amsterdam, subscribed a solemn act, by which they formally renounced allegiance to Philip and his successors, and asserted their independence. They declared in their manifesto, that "the prince is made for the people, not the people for the prince;" that "the prince, who treats his subjects as slaves, is a tyrant, whom his subjects have a right to dethrone, when they have no other means of preserving their liberty;" that "this right particularly belongs to the Netherlands; their sovereign, being bound by his coronation oath to observe the laws, under pain of forfeiting his sovereignty."
In 1584, the Prince of Orange was assassinated by Balthazar Gerard, a Catholic fanatic: the war was continued till 1609, when it was suspended by a truce of twelve years. At the expiration of it, the war burst forth with fresh fury: it was finally terminated by the peace of Munster, or Westphalia, in 1648, when the King of Spain acknowledged, in the fullest manner, the INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES, and of all their possessions in Asia, Africa, and America.