[382] Histoire des Provinces-Unies des Païs-Bas, (La Haye, 1704,) tom. I. p. 88
[383] Guicciardini, Belgicæ Descriptio, p. 225 et seq.
[384] "Ut in multis terræ Provinciis, Hollandia nominatim atque Zelandia, viri omnium fere rerum suarum curam uxoribus sæpe relinquant." Ibid., p. 58.
[385] "Majori gentis parti nota Grammaticæ rudimenta, et vel ipsi etiam rustici legendi scribendique periti sunt." Ibid., p. 53.
Guicciardini, who states this remarkable fact, had ample opportunity for ascertaining the truth of it, since, though an Italian by birth, he resided in the Netherlands for forty years or more.
[386] Schiller, Abfall der Niederlande, p. 53.—Vandervynckt, Histoire des Troubles des Pays-Bas, (Bruxelles, 1822,) tom. II. p. 6.—Groen Van Prinsterer, Archives ou Correspondance Inédite de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, (Leide, 1841,) tom. I. p. 164*
[387] The whole number of "placards" issued by Charles the Fifth amounted to eleven. See the dates in Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II. sur les Affaires des Pays-Bas, (Bruxelles, 1848,) tom. I. pp. 105, 106.
[388] "Le fer, la fosse, et le feu." Ibid., ubi supra.
[389] Meteren, Histoire des Pays-Bas, ou Recueil des Guerres et Choses memorables, depuis l'An 1315, jusques à l'An 1612, traduit de Flamend, (La Haye, 1618,) fol. 10.—Brandt, History of the Reformation in the Low Countries, translated from the Dutch, (London, 1720,) vol. I. p. 88.
[390] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 108.—Grotius, Annales et Historiæ de Rebus Belgicis, (Amstelædami, 1657,) p. 11.—Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 88.