Historical Sketches.
The treachery of Anjou was imitated by more than one of the Netherlands nobles. On the 22nd of September 1583 the town of Zutphen in Gelderland was betrayed to the Spaniards by Count Van den Berg, and on the 20th of May 1584 Bruges in Flanders was given up to Parma by the prince of Chimay, who was governor of that important city. Then Ypres in Flanders was besieged and forced to surrender, and as in Bruges all Protestants were expelled. Most of these took refuge in the northern provinces, so that the line of separation between the two opposing religions was constantly becoming more clearly defined.
At this critical time in the history of the provinces the great man whose name will ever be associated with all that is best and noblest in their struggle for liberty was taken from them by the pistol of an assassin. The ban of Philippe II had at last produced the effect for which it was designed. There had been many attempts to murder the prince of Orange and secure the king’s reward, but hitherto all had failed. The most serious of these took place on the 18th of March 1582, when he had been wounded, at first it was believed mortally, but he had recovered, though his wife died from the shock. And now, on the 10th of July 1584, in his own house at Delft he was shot by a fanatic Burgundian Catholic named Balthazar Gérard, who under pretence of being a Calvinist in distress had obtained admittance to his service. The Father of his Country, as he was deservedly called, expired almost immediately. The murderer was seized, and died under the most excruciating tortures that the ingenuity of man could devise, but he remained callous to the last. The sorrowing people laid the corpse of him they had such good reason to mourn for in the new church at Delft, and raised a stately tomb over it, where few Dutch speaking South Africans who visit Europe fail to pay their respects to the memory of the illustrious dead. Thus William of Orange passed away.
Murder of the Prince of Orange.
The real murderer, Philippe the Second of Spain, rewarded the parents of his tool with patents of nobility and with three seignories or rich estates in Franche Comté, taken from the confiscated property of his victim.
For a short time the country was paralysed by the death of its great leader, but soon in the northern provinces a general resolution was taken to prosecute the war more vigorously than ever. It now became almost purely a strife of religion. The prince of Orange had favoured toleration, but when he was removed the enmity between the Catholics and the Protestants showed itself so strong that a united country was no longer possible. It was not recognised at the time, but it can now be seen, that the position of the dividing line was the object striven for, and consequently the central provinces, Flanders, Brabant, Mechlin, Gelderland, and Limburg, where the Teutons and Celts were intermixed, were to be the principal scene of operations.
The states-general, exercising supreme power, appointed an executive council to raise forces and carry on the war until a sovereign should be chosen. This council consisted of eighteen members, four representing Holland, three Zeeland, three Friesland, three Brabant, two Utrecht, two Flanders, and one Mechlin. As its president the states-general appointed Maurits of Nassau, second son of the murdered prince of Orange, his eldest son Philip having long been a prisoner in Spain. It was a clumsy instrument for carrying on a war, with a president only seventeen years of age, and depending for funds upon the states-general, that it was required to convoke at least twice a year; but it was the only possible machinery that could be created at the time. The States’ movable army consisted of three thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry, the burghers being relied upon for the defence of the towns.
Historical Sketches.
On the other side was the astute and active Parma, with a field force of over eighteen thousand veterans, besides garrisons in all the towns he had taken. He was provided with gold to bribe the corrupt nobles, and he was skilful in using it. The disparity between the two parties was so great that it was not surprising that towns of mixed population should waver when plausible overtures were made to them, rather than risk being attacked and treated as Maastricht had been. Dendermonde was the first to give way. On the 17th of August 1584 it was reconciled to the Spanish king, and lost for ever to the patriot cause. The fatal example was followed by Vilvoorde on the 7th of September, and on the 17th of the same month by the all-important city of Ghent. The terms of reconciliation were that the municipal institutions were to be respected, and that the Protestants were to be allowed two years within which either to conform to the Catholic worship or to dispose of their property and go into exile. This was at least much better than to be burnt or buried alive. Emigration to Holland and Zeeland followed on a very large scale, and before the expiration of the two years Ghent in particular lost nearly half of its former inhabitants. Thus Protestantism gained in the north and Catholicism in the south of the country.
The eyes of the great powers of Europe were now more intently fixed upon the Netherlands than ever before, but it was difficult to assist them. Neither Germany, France, nor England was willing to enter openly into war with the powerful Spanish empire in order to preserve constitutional government and Calvinistic doctrine. The states actually offered the sovereignty of the provinces to the contemptible Henry III, who sat upon the throne of France, if he would pledge his word to maintain their charters and their religion, and he declined to accept the offer, though he had every reason to be hostile to Spain. Elizabeth of England favoured a joint protectorate of the Netherlands by France and herself, but was naturally unwilling to see them absorbed by her neighbour, and was not inclined to assist them alone. And so in their time of greatest need they had only themselves to depend upon.