[494] Gerlache, Histoire du Royaume des Pays-Bas, (Bruxelles, 1842,) tom. I. p. 71.
[495] "Es menester ver como la nobleza se ha desde mucho tiempo desmandada y empeñada por usura y gastos superfluos, gastando casi mas que doble de lo que tenían en edificios, muebles, festines, danzas, mascaradas, fuegos de dados, naipes, vestidos, libreas, seguimiento de criados y generalmente en todas suertes de deleytes, luxuria, y superfluidad, lo que se avia comenzado antes de la yda de su magestad á España. Y desde entonces uvo un descontento casi general en el país y esperanza de esta gente asi alborotada de veer en poco tiempo una mudanza." Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.
[496] Apologie de Guillaume IX. Prince d'Orange contre la Proscription de Philippe II. Roi d'Espagne, presentée aux Etats Généraux des Pays-Bas, le 13 Decembre, 1580, ap. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. p. 384.
[497] M. Groen Van Prinsterer has taken some pains to explain the conduct of William's parents, on the ground, chiefly, that they had reason to think their son, after all, might he allowed to worship according to the way in which he had been educated (p. 195). But whatever concessions to the Protestants may have been wrung from Charles by considerations of public policy, we suspect few who have studied his character will believe that he would ever have consented to allow one of his own household, one to whom he stood in the relation of a guardian, to be nurtured in the faith of heretics.
[498] See particularly Margaret's letter to the king, of March 13, 1560, Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 260 et seq.
[499] M. Groen Van Prinsterer has industriously collated the correspondence of the several parties, which must be allowed to form an edifying chapter in the annals of matrimonial diplomacy. See Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. I. p. 202.
[500] Mémoires de Granvelle, tom. I. p. 251.
[501] Raumer, Hist. Tasch., p. 109, ap. Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. I. p. 115.
[502] Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 284.
[503] It may give some idea of the scale of William's domestic establishment to state, that, on reducing it to a more economical standard, twenty-eight head-cooks were dismissed. (Van der Haer, De Initiis Tumult., p. 182, ap. Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. I. p. 200*.) The same contemporary tells us that there were few princes in Germany who had not one cook, at least, that had served an apprenticeship in William's kitchen,—the best school in that day for the noble science of gastronomy.