"Well," quoth I, "if the Fury could not be stayed; yet the Ransoming might be forbidden; which is an act against the Law of all Nations." And therefore I required him, in the name of the Queen's Majesty, to command restitution to be made to the English Nation....
To conclude, he told me, That he would be glad to do what he might for restitution; but he thought it would be hard. For that which is to be paid with Bills, which for the Company amounteth to 5,000 crowns, at the month's end: the same [Bills], he saith, shall be discharged; and the bonds cancelled. Further he hath promised to grant a Safe Conduct for all English Merchants to go (with their goods remaining, ships, and merchandizes), without danger, withersoever they will: not aiding, or abetting, the King's enemies.
9. We next give the opinion of the Sieur de Champagney as to how the massacre came about.
In the following January, he was in England: and then presented a long Memorial in French, to our Privy Council; in which occurs the following reference to the Spanish Fury.
S. P. Foreign. Eliz. Vol. 142.
1,029. The Sieur de Champagney's Declaration.
At London, in January 1577.
That he undertook the Government of Antwerp most unwillingly, at the express desire and command of the King of Spain. That, during his Government, he did all in his power to restrain the excesses of the Spaniards in the Citadel; so far as to incur their odium and hatred. That he was unable to prevent the sack of the town, owing to the treachery of the Almain Colonels [Van Einden &c.] of the only troops under his command; who would not suffer the burghers to arm in their defence.
10. Edward Grimeston, in his General History of the Netherlands to 1608 (which is mainly based on J. F. Le Petit's Chronique, printed at Dordrecht in 1601) gives the following account of the destruction of Antwerp Castle, which had been built by the Duke of Alva.
The inhabitants of Antwerp being still in fear, by reason of their Castle, so long as the war was thus wavering, fearing they should be, at some time, again surprised (terming it a den of thieves, an invention of men full of cruelty, a nest of tyranny, a receptacle of all filthy villany abomination and wickedness) obtained leave of the States to dismantle it towards the town.
The which the burghers began the 28th of August [1577], with such spleen as there was neither great nor small (wives children, gentlewomen, and burghers; and all in general) but would pull down a piece of it; men, women, and servants going thither, with their Ensigns displayed, having many victuallers on the plain before the Castle [the Esplanade]; so as it seemed a camp. And although the masons' work was great, strong, and thick; yet were they not long in beating it down on that side.
Soon after, in imitation of that of Antwerp, followed the dismantling of the Castles of Ghent, Utrecht, Valenciennes, Bethune, Lille, Aire, and others; and the Citadel of Arras was laid open towards the town. p. 647.]
Footnotes
[2] ] The necessary corrections have been herein made.—E.A.
[3] ]This Plan of Antwerp at the time of the Spanish Fury, drawn up from the instructions of George Gascoigne, is wanting in every copy of this Narrative that we have met with. We have strenuously searched for it in every direction; but without success. Its disappearance is a great loss.—E.A.