Chapter V: Philip Ii., and the Bevolt of the Netherlands

CHARACTER OF PHILIP II.--In 1555 Charles V., enfeebled by his lifelong enemy, the gout, resigned his crowns, and devolved on his son, _Philip II._, the government of the _Netherlands_, together with the rest of his dominions in _Spain_, _Italy_, and _America_. The closing part of his life, the emperor passed in the secluded convent of _Yuste_, in Spain, where, notwithstanding the time spent by him in religious exercises, and in his favorite diversion of experimenting with clocks and watches, he remained an attentive observer of public affairs. Political and religious absolutism was the main article in _Philip's_ creed. He was more thoroughly a Spaniard in his tone and temper than his father, who was born in the Netherlands, and always loved the people there, as he was loved by them. _Philip_ was cold and forbidding in his manners. He was shy, as well as haughty, in his deportment to those who approached him. To re-establish everywhere the old religion by the unrelenting exercise of force, was his fixed purpose. Only one thing did he value more; and that was his own power, which he would not suffer Church or clergy to curb or invade. He had few ideas, but was an adept in concealment and treachery. A man of untiring industry, he was a plodder without insight. He lived to see the vast strength which fell to him as a legacy slip out of his hands, and to see Spain sink to a condition of comparative weakness. _Charles V_. had consolidated his dominion in that country by putting down democratic insurrections. This he had done by military force and the arm of the Inquisition. What _Charles_ had left undone in this line, Philip completed. He quelled the resistance of the _Aragonese_, and reduced them to submission. Spain swarmed with civil and ecclesiastical officials. The new religious doctrine, which assumed the same type as in Italy, was stifled. The monarch displayed his zeal by personal attendance at the _autos da fe_, the great public ceremonials for the execution of heretics, where the victims of his intolerance perished. A system of brutal military administration was adopted in the colonies.

STATE OF THE LOW COUNTRIES.--_Philip_ undertook to treat the _Netherlands_ as a Spanish province, and to break down the spirit of local independence. The people of the Low Countries were industrious, intelligent, prosperous, spirited. Each of the _seventeen provinces_ had its own constitution. In the North, it was more democratic; in _Flanders_ and _Brabant_, there was a landed aristocracy. In all parts of the country, there were local privileges and cherished rights. The population numbered three millions. _Antwerp_, with its hundred thousand inhabitants, had more trade than any other European city. The Reformation, first in the Lutheran but later in the Calvinistic form, had numerous adherents in the _Netherlands_, whom severe edicts of _Charles V_., under which large numbers were put to death, did not extirpate.

TYRANNY OF PHILIP.--Philip did not select for his regent in the _Netherlands_ one of the aristocracy of the country. Of this class was Count _Egmont_, a nobleman of brilliant courage and attractive manners. _William_, _Prince of Orange_, united with far more self-control the sagacity of a statesman. He was destined to be the formidable antagonist of Spanish tyranny, and the liberator of Holland. _Philip_ passed by the nobles, whom he distrusted and disliked, and appointed as regent the illegitimate daughter of _Charles V_., _Margaret_ of Parma (1559-1567); placing at her side, as her principal adviser, the astute _Granvelle_, the Bishop of Arras, one of his devoted servants, who was made cardinal in 1561. Three nobles, _William of Orange_, and the Counts _Egmont_ and _Horn_, were in the council. The power was in _Granvelle's_ hands. There was soon a breach between him and the nobles. Two measures of _Philip_ created disaffection. He was slow in withdrawing the hated Spanish soldiers; he increased the number of bishops, a cherished scheme of _Charles V_. Moreover, he renewed and proceeded to enforce edicts, embracing minute provisions of a most rigorous character, against the property and lives of the Protestants, although the Inquisition had lost public favor. The terror and indignation of the people found expression through the nobles. They left the council. At length _Granvelle_ had to be withdrawn from the country (1564). _Egmont_ went to Spain to procure a mitigation of the king's policy, but found on his return that he had been duped by false promises. The young nobility formed an agreement called _the Compromise_, to withstand the king's system, at first by legal means (1566). They were contemptuously called "beggars" by the regent, and themselves adopted the name. The king professed a willingness to make some concessions: he was only gaining time for measures of a different sort. In the same year a storm of iconoclasm burst out: the Calvinists made reprisals for what they had suffered; they vented their zeal against what they called "idolatry," by sacking the churches, and by destroying paintings and images, and other symbols and implements of worship. _Orange_ penetrated the designs of _Philip_, and retired to Nassau. _Egmont_, more credulous and confiding, remained.

ALVA'S RULE.--_Philip_ now sent into the Netherlands the _Duke of Alva_, an officer of considerable military capacity, cold, arrogant, and merciless in his temper. His force consisted of ten thousand men. A tribunal was erected by him, called the "Council of Blood." _Egmont_ and _Horn_ were executed at _Brussels_ (1568). Great numbers of executions of men and women, of all ranks, who were accused of some sort of insubordination, or some manifestation of heresy, followed. _William of Orange_ was active in devising means of deliverance. The first marked success was the capture of _Briel_ by the "sea-beggars," inhabitants of the coasts of _Holland_ and _Zealand_, under their admiral, _William de la Mark_. The barbarities and extortion of Alva by degrees aroused universal and intense hatred. _Holland_ and _Zealand_ threw off Alva's rule, and made _William_ their stadtholder. The nominal connection with Spain was still kept up. The massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572) cut off _William_ from the help which he expected from the French. It was felt, however, that _Alva_ had failed in his attempt to subjugate the people, and he was withdrawn from the country by _Philip_ (1573).

THE UTRECHT UNION.--From the capture of _Briel_ may be dated the beginning of the long and arduous struggle which resulted in the building-up of the Dutch Republic of the _United Provinces_, and the ultimate prostration of the power of _Spain_. The hero of the struggle was _William of Orange_. The successor of Alva, _Requesens_, was really more dangerous than _Alva_, because he was more magnanimous, and therefore excited less antagonism. In 1574 occurred the memorable siege of _Leyden_ by the Spanish forces. That city, when reduced to the last extremity, was saved by letting in the sea and by inundating the neighboring plains, which compelled the Spaniards to flee in dismay. As a memorial of the heroic defense of the place, the University of Leyden was founded. A new Protestant state was growing up in the North, under the guidance of _William_. In the South, where Catholicism prevailed, _Requesens_ was more successful. But when he died, in 1576, a frightful revolt of his soldiers, who were loosed from restraint, in the cities, moved all Netherlands to unite, in the _Pacification of Ghent_, against the Spanish dominion. _Don John_ of Austria, a brilliant and manly soldier, who had defeated the Turks at _Lepanto_, was the next regent (1576-1578). He made large concessions: these were welcome in the South, and weakened the Union. _Alexander of Parma_ (1578, 1579), his successor, was the ablest general of the time. The Catholic South was at variance with the Protestant North. In 1579, there was formed between the seven provinces in the North the _Utrecht Union_, the germ of the Dutch Republic. _Philip_ proclaimed _William_ an outlaw, and set a price on his head. After six ineffectual attempts at assassination, this heroic leader, the idol of his countrymen, was fatally shot, in his own house (1584). His work as a deliverer of his people was mainly accomplished. When the Utrecht Union was formed, the greater part of the Catholic provinces in the South entered into an arrangement with _Parma_. _Brabant_ and _Flanders_ were recovered to Spain. The attention of _Philip_ had to be mainly given to the affairs of _France_ and _England_ during the remainder of his life.