As the result of the confiscations, owing to the drains upon them above alluded to, proved less than he expected, the duke, somewhat later, proposed a tax of one per cent. on all property, personal and real. But to this some of the council had the courage to object, as a thing not likely to be relished by the states. "That depends," said Alva, "on the way in which they are approached." He had as little love for the states-general as his master, and looked on applications to them for money as something derogatory to the crown. "I would take care to ask for it," he said, "as I did when I wanted money to build the citadel of Antwerp,—in such a way that they should not care to refuse it."[1024]
The most perfect harmony seems to have subsisted between the king and Alva in their operations for destroying the liberties of the nation,—so perfect, indeed, that it could have been the result only of some previous plan, concerted probably while the duke was in Castile. The details of the execution were doubtless left, as they arose, to Alva's discretion. But they so entirely received the royal sanction,—as is abundantly shown by the correspondence,—that Philip may be said to have made every act of his general his own. And not unfrequently we find the monarch improving on the hints of his correspondent by some additional suggestion.[1025] Whatever evils grew out of the male-administration of the duke of Alva, the responsibility for the measures rests ultimately on the head of Philip.
One of the early acts of the new council was to issue a summons to the prince of Orange, and to each of the noble exiles in his company, to present themselves at Brussels, and answer the charges against them. In the summons addressed to William, he was accused of having early encouraged a spirit of disaffection in the nation; of bringing the Inquisition into contempt; of promoting the confederacy of the nobles, and opening his own palace of Breda for their discussions; of authorizing the exercise of the reformed religion in Antwerp; in fine, of being at the bottom of the troubles, civil and religious, which had so long distracted the land. He was required, therefore, under pain of confiscation of his property and perpetual exile, to present himself before the council at Brussels within the space of six weeks, and answer[{334}] the charges against him. This summons was proclaimed by the public crier, both in Brussels and in William's own city of Breda; and a placard containing it was affixed to the door of the principal church in each of those places.[1026]
Alva followed up this act by another, which excited general indignation through the country. He caused the count of Buren, William's eldest son, then a lad pursuing his studies at Louvain, to be removed from the university, and sent to Spain. His tutor and several of his domestics were allowed to accompany him. But the duke advised the king to get rid of these attendants as speedily as possible, and fill their places with Spaniards.[1027] This unwarrantable act appears to have originated with Granvelle, who recommends it in one of his letters from Rome.[1028] The object, no doubt, was to secure some guaranty for the father's obedience, as well as to insure the loyalty of the heir of the house of Nassau, and to retain him in the Catholic faith. In the last object the plan succeeded. The youth was kindly treated by Philip; and his long residence in Spain nourished in him so strong an attachment to both Church and crown, that he was ever after divorced from the great cause in which his father and his countrymen were embarked.
The prince of Orange published to the world his sense of the injury done to him by this high-handed proceeding of the duke of Alva; and the university of Louvain boldly sent a committee to the council to remonstrate on the violation of their privileges. Vargas listened to them with a smile of contempt, and, as he dismissed the deputation, exclaimed, "Non curamus vestros privilegios,"—an exclamation long remembered for its bad Latin as well as for its insolence.[1029]
It may well be believed that neither William nor his friends obeyed the summons of the Council of Blood. The prince, in a reply which was printed and circulated abroad, denied the authority of Alva to try him. As a knight of the Golden Fleece, he had a right to be tried by his peers; as a citizen of Brabant, by his countrymen. He was not bound to present himself before an incompetent tribunal,—one, moreover, which had his avowed personal enemy at its head.[1030]
The prince, during his residence in Germany, experienced all those alleviations of his misfortunes which the sympathy and support of powerful friends could afford. Among these the most deserving of notice was William the Wise, a worthy son of the famous old landgrave of Hesse who so stoutly maintained the Protestant cause against Charles the Fifth. He and the elector of Saxony, both kinsmen of William's wife, offered to provide an establishment for the prince, while he remained in Germany, which, if it was not on the magnificent scale to which he had been used in the Netherlands, was still not unsuited to the dignity of his rank.[1031]
CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE.
The little court of William received every day fresh accessions from those who fled from persecution in the Netherlands. They brought with them appeals to him from his countrymen to interpose in their behalf. The hour[{335}] had not yet come. But still he was not idle. He was earnestly endeavoring to interest the German princes in the cause, was strengthening his own resources, and steadily, though silently, making preparation for the great struggle with the oppressors of his country.
While these events were passing in the Netherlands, the neighboring monarchy of France was torn by those religious dissensions, which, at this period, agitated, in a greater or less degree, most of the states of Christendom. One half of the French nation was in arms against the other half. At the time of our history, the Huguenots had gained a temporary advantage; their combined forces were beleaguering the capital, in which the king and Catherine de Medicis, his mother, were then held prisoners. In this extremity, Catherine appealed to Margaret to send a body of troops to her assistance. The regent hesitated as to what course to take, and referred the matter to Alva. He did not hesitate. He knew Philip's disposition in regard to France, and had himself, probably, come to an understanding on the subject with the queen-mother in the famous interview at Bayonne. He proposed to send a body of three thousand horse to her relief. At the same time he wrote to Catherine, offering to leave the Low Countries, and march himself to her support with his whole strength, five thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot, all his Spanish veterans included, provided she would bring matters to an issue, and finish at once with the enemies of their religion. The duke felt how powerfully such a result would react on the Catholic cause in the Netherlands.