If he declared against Philip, what could he do?
What possible chance had the Reformers against Spain?
Valenciennes, which had dared to rebel, had been reduced to misery and desolation; Noircames had put to death some thousands of the inhabitants; a garrison had been sent to Tournay; Egmont was forcing troops on all the towns of Artois and Flanders; the famous confederacy of the beggars was broken; Brederode was making a burlesque of resistance.
De Hammes was breaking images and feeding his parrot with holy wafers—a rope of sand, indeed, there!
And would the German Princes move in the cause of their fellow Protestants?
This was doubtful, as they were bitterly divided among themselves—some being Lutherans, some Calvinists.
Then the Emperor, though inclined to acknowledge the Reformation, was bitter against the Calvinists, and this sect was in the majority among the Reformers of the Netherlands.
Nor was it likely that he would embroil himself with Spain for the sake of the oppressed provinces.
There was the Huguenot party in France, but they had their own battles to fight, their own ground to maintain; there was a Protestant Queen in England, but she was cautious, and ardent for peace, and not likely to go to war for the sake of religion.
It seemed to William that Philip had the Netherlands under his heel to crush as he pleased.