History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Vols. 1 and 2

by William Hickling Prescott

"Thank God," writes the duke of Alva to his sovereign, on the twenty-fourth of October, "all is tranquil in the Low Countries."[997] It was the same sentiment he had uttered a few weeks before. All was indeed tranquil. Silence reigned throughout the land. Yet it might have spoken more eloquently to the heart than the murmurs of discontent, or the loudest tumult of insurrection. "They say many are leaving the country," he writes in another despatch. "It is hardly worth while to arrest them. The repose of the nation is not to be brought about by cutting off the heads of those who are led astray by others."[998][{328}]

Yet in less than a week after this, we find a royal ordinance, declaring that, "whereas his majesty is averse to use rigor towards those who have taken part in the late rebellion; and would rather deal with them in all gentleness and mercy,[999] it is forbidden to any one to leave the land, or to send off his effects, without obtaining a license from the authorities, under pain of being regarded as having taken part in the late troubles, and of being dealt with accordingly. All masters and owners of vessels, who shall aid such persons in their flight, shall incur the same penalties."[1000] The penalties denounced in this spirit of "gentleness and mercy," were death and confiscation of property.

That the law was not a dead letter was soon shown by the arrest of ten of the principal merchants of Tournay, as they were preparing to fly to foreign parts, and by the immediate confiscation of their estates.[1001] Yet Alva would have persuaded the world that he, as well as his master, was influenced only by sentiments of humanity. To the Spanish ambassador at Rome he wrote, soon after the seizure of the Flemish lords: "I might have arrested more; but the king is averse to shedding the blood of his people. I have the same disposition myself.[1002] I am pained to the bottom of my soul by the necessity of the measure."

But now that the great nobles had come into the snare, it was hardly necessary to keep up the affectation of lenity; and it was not long before he threw away the mask altogether. The arm of justice—of vengeance—was openly raised to strike down all who had offended by taking part in the late disturbances.

The existing tribunals were not considered as competent to this work. The regular forms of procedure were too dilatory, and the judges themselves would hardly be found subservient enough to the will of Alva. He created, therefore, a new tribunal, with extraordinary powers, for the sole purpose of investigating the causes of the late disorders, and for bringing the authors to punishment. It was called originally the "Council of his Excellency." The name was soon changed for that of the "Council of Tumults." But the tribunal is better known in history by the terrible name it received from the people, of the "Council of Blood."[1003]

THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD.

It was composed of twelve judges, "the most learned, upright men, and of the purest lives"—if we may take the duke's word for it—that were to be found in the country.[1004] Among them were Noircarmes and Barlaimont, both members of the council of state. The latter was a proud noble, of one of the most ancient families in the land, inflexible in his character, and stanch in his[{329}] devotion to the crown. Besides these there were the presidents of the councils of Artois and Flanders, the chancellor of Gueldres, and several jurists of repute in the country. But the persons of most consideration in the body were two lawyers who had come in the duke's train from Castile. One of these, the doctor Del Rio, though born in Bruges, was of Spanish extraction. His most prominent trait seems to have been unlimited subserviency to the will of his employer.[1005] The other, Juan de Vargas, was to play the most conspicuous part in the bloody drama that followed. He was a Spaniard, and had held a place in the council of the Indies. His character was infamous; and he was said to have defrauded an orphan ward of her patrimony.[1006] When he left Spain, two criminal prosecutions are reported to have been hanging over him. This only made him the more dependent on Alva's protection. He was a man of great energy of character, unwearied in application to business, unscrupulous in the service of his employer, ready at any price to sacrifice to his own interest, not only every generous impulse, but the common feelings of humanity. Such, at least, are the dark colors in which he is portrayed by the writers of a nation which held him in detestation. Yet his very vices made him so convenient to the duke, that the latter soon bestowed on him more of his confidence than on any other of his followers;[1007] and in his correspondence with Philip we perpetually find him commending Vargas to the monarch's favor, and contrasting his "activity, altogether juvenile," with the apathy of others of the council.[1008] As Vargas was unacquainted with Flemish, the proceedings of the court were conducted, for his benefit, in Latin.[1009] Yet he was such a bungler, even in this language, that his blunders furnished infinite merriment to the people of Flanders, who took some revenge for their wrongs in the ridicule of their oppressor.

As the new court had cognizance of all cases, civil as well as criminal, which grew out of the late disorders, the amount of business soon pressed on them so heavily, that it was found expedient to distribute it into several departments among the different members. Two of the body had especial charge of the processes of the prince of Orange, his brother Louis, Hoogstraten, Culemborg, and the rest of William's noble companions in exile. To Vargas and Del Rio was intrusted the trial of the Counts Egmont and Hoorne. And two others, Blasere and Hessels, had the most burdensome and important charge of all such causes as came from the provinces.[1010]

The latter of these two worthies was destined to occupy a place second only to that of Vargas on the bloody roll of persecution. He was a native of Ghent, of sufficient eminence in his profession to fill the office of attorney-general of his province under Charles the Fifth. In that capacity he enforced the edicts with so much rigor as to make himself odious to his countrymen. In the new career now opened to him, he found a still wider field for his mischievous talents, and he entered on the duties of his office with such hearty zeal as soon roused general indignation in the people, who at a later day took terrible vengeance on their oppressor.[1011][{330}]

As soon as the Council of Troubles was organized, commissioners were despatched into the provinces to hunt out the suspected parties. All who had officiated as preachers, or had harbored or aided them, who had joined the consistories, who had assisted in defacing or destroying the Catholic churches or in building the Protestant, who had subscribed the Compromise, or who, in short, had taken an active part in the late disorders, were to be arrested as guilty of treason. In the hunt after victims informations were invited from every source. Wives were encouraged to depose against husbands, children against parents. The prisons were soon full to overflowing, and the provincial and the local magistrates were busy in filing informations of the different cases, which were forwarded to the court at Brussels. When deemed of sufficient importance, the further examination of a case was reserved for the council itself. But for the most part the local authorities, or a commission sent expressly for the purpose, were authorized to try the cause, proceeding even to a definitive sentence, which, with the grounds of it, they were to lay before the Council of Troubles. The process was then revised by the committee for the provinces, who submitted the result of their examination to Vargas and Del Rio. The latter were alone empowered to vote in the matter; and their sentence, prepared in writing, was laid before the duke, who reserved to himself the right of a final decision. This he did, as he wrote to Philip, that he might not come too much under the direction of the council. "Your majesty well knows," he concludes, "that gentlemen of the law are unwilling to decide anything except upon evidence, while measures of state policy are not to be regulated by the laws."[1012]