HISTORIC SKETCHES. 



341 



Emporor of Germany, King of Spain and tho Indies, Duke of 

 Burgundy and tho Low Countries), they had lived contented 

 i. Have that occasionally they complained of tho number 

 ight of tho taxes, and resented grumbling! y any attack 

 that was made upon their old commercial and muni<-i|.iil privi- 

 leges. They adored tho memory of Charles tho Fifth, tlm 

 'ii <>f tin ir own Mary of Burgundy. Charles hod dwelt 

 among them, known them as it wore intimately, preferred to 

 thi-ir country rather than in any other spot in his 

 dominions, and ever got back to it again as soon as he could 

 when tho exigencies of public business took him out of it. His 

 rule was kindly, though it did not brook rebellion, but then no 

 one wanted to rebel against Charles Quint. Under his rule tho 

 Netherlands were happy and flourishing, more BO than they 

 had boon at any previous period of their history. When he 

 abdicated in favour of his son, Philip II. (in 1556), and it was 

 found that tho new king intended to live in Spain, the Nether- 

 landers thought themselves fortunate in having so Charles 

 Quint-like a resident rulor as Charles's daughter, the Duchess 

 of Parma. 



Notwithstanding that she was obliged, in order to carry out 

 Philip's policy, which was muoh less liberal than his father's, 

 to govern the people somewhat more sternly than they had been 

 wont to bo governed, the duchess was popular enough ; and as 

 she had many ties of sympathy with the people, she was a 

 guarantee to the Netherlander that so long as she ruled they 

 would not bo oppressed. 



But the Duke of Alva ! That was a very different matter. 

 Although his name was not so famous, or infamous, as it be- 

 came after he retired from the Low Countries, it was known 

 to the people as that of a bigoted Spanish soldier, who had 

 narrow ideas of his duty, but a tremendous energy in carrying 

 out those ideas as the name of one who made no secret that 

 he considered his highest duty to God and man was to root out 

 ieresy wherever he had the chance, not stopping to criticise the 

 means adopted, so the end were attained. Well might the 

 Lowlanders fear when such a man was coming, with a numerous 

 and well-appointed army at his back, to supersede the duchess- 

 regent. They knew not what instructions he carried, what 

 power his commission gave him, but they/ could read the signs 

 of the times as well as any statesman in Europe, and they saw 

 in Alva and the Spanish army nothing but oppression, and most 

 likely bloodshed, to come. The political and municipal insti- 

 tutions of the country were far too free to be to the liking of 

 an absolutist like the King of Spain or his lieutenant, and the 

 people feared lest assaults should be made upon those institu- 

 tions accordingly. But still more they feared for what the 

 mew governor might bring against that freedom to worship 

 God according to the dictates of their consciences, which they 

 had hitherto virtually enjoyed. 



With very many of the Netherlander the doctrines of the 

 Reformation had found a cordial welcome, so that it is not 

 perhaps exceeding to say that one-third of their number were 

 Protestants. Charles the Fifth, himself a rigid Catholic, half 

 allowed, while he disapproved, the spread of the Eeformation 

 among his people. No persecuting measures had been taken 

 t secure uniformity during his reign ; and though the Catholics 

 complained of toleration, and did what they could to stir up war 

 against it, tho Protestants were allowed to meet in their own 

 places of worship. But now it was felt and there had beep 

 several straws showing which way the wind was likely to blow 

 that all tliis was about to be changed. What had been 

 attempted in France was to be attempted in the Netherlands, 

 and, as it seemed, with much better chances of success. The 

 Inquisition was to be imported as part of the baggage of the 

 Spanish army, and the Protestants of the Low Countries were 

 to bo brought into slavery by it. In France, where the 

 Huguenots numbered over two millions, and included among 

 their ranks some of tho most influential of Frenchmen, the 

 attempts of the League with its Guises, its Lorraincs, and its 

 Maycnnes to thrust tho Inquisition upon tho land, were met by 

 a stubborn organisation of singularly brave men, who had 

 moreover the countenance, and could procure tho material 

 support, of several foreign powers, enemies to their enemies. 



In the Netherlands there was not any such organisation, 

 at least not then, nor was there, as it seemed, the slightest 

 prospect of one being formed. It seemed at first sight that 

 the provinces were utterly at the mercy of tho Spaniards, men 



in whose com portion tho quality of mercy was left oat bigots, 

 sincere in t. ,, and cruel by their nature against 



everything that thwarted it. Only those whose trust wa not 

 in the arm of fle*h only, who believed indeed that there was a 

 God who judgeth the earth, One who could " mock the counsel 

 of the wise and valour of the brave" only such men did 

 not despair. Long and bitter was the straggle, dark and 

 frightful was tho night, but with the morning came joy, albeit 

 a subdued one, and tho result of the straggle was to show 

 the world once again that the victory is not always to the 

 strong. 



Alva came, the Duchess of Parma was superseded, and the 

 worst fears of the Netherlander were justified. Both in politics 

 and religion their liberty was to be taken away, and that by 

 means which showed an almost brutal indifference to all their 

 tenderest susceptibilities. The system of local self-government 

 was changed for government by soldiers, troops were quartered 

 in all the large towns, and tho smaller places followed of 

 necessity tho example of submission into which their larger 

 brethren were surprised. The Netherlands were occupied as 

 a hostile country ; tho irresponsible prerogative of martial 

 law was substituted for the known laws of the land ; and the 

 harshness and insolence of military commanders usurped 

 on tho judgment-seat the place of magisterial calmness and 

 equity. 



This was meant only as a foundation on which to build the 

 hateful Inquisition. When the people were bound hand and 

 foot by an army, it was supposed they might be made to 

 accept this darling project of Philip. But there was a limit 

 to the patience even of the Dutchmen and Belgians.* There 

 was a line over which they could not be pushed without re- 

 sistance ; and when the people found that the Inquisition was 

 among them, they rose in spite of the presence of the Spanish 

 soldiery, so that throughout the provinces there was nothing 

 but tumult. It was a state of things well pleasing to Alva, 

 whose cruel disposition took delight in the prospect of dragoon- 

 ing the people into submission, of getting rid, by the way, of 

 sundry inconvenient nobles, and at the same time of doing 

 what his bigotry told him was a service acceptable to God, 

 viz., the punishment and eradication of heresy. 



Alva' s powers wore of the fullest. There was no need to 

 send to Madrid for instructions, though reinforcements were 

 demanded and sent. The risings which took place in most of 

 the large towns were put down with Spanish cruelty ; men were 

 hanged summarily over their own doors ; the prisons were not 

 crowded, for tho Spanish system was too "thorough" to be 

 hampered with prisoners, its judicial procedure too simple to 

 be fettered with a sliding scale of punishments according to 

 offences, and so Death got his due, and more ; and there waa 

 mourning of widows and orphans wherever the Spanish officers 

 set up their courts. These first risings were the expression of 

 spontaneous, natural resistance to tyranny, not the result of 

 organised rebellion. The Netherlanders formerly, under their 

 counts and dukes, had been so tetchy and independent as to 

 have acquired a notoriety in Europe as the most rebellious and 

 unmanageable of subjects, and had dared on several occasions 

 to provoke and resist tho wrath of so hard and haughty a 

 lord as Charles the Bold, of Burgundy. But under more 

 judicious and larger-hearted government, especially that of their 

 now persecutor's father, they had forgotten the art of factious- 

 ness, and scarcely knew what it meant to rebel. Now they 

 had to learn hurriedly, and in tho face of cruel necessity, the 

 long disused science, and to unite heart and hand in a com- 

 mon cause, which was not only the cause of patriotism, but of 

 humanity. It was seen very clearly that unless a stop were 

 put, or at least a protest raised, against the policy of which 

 the Duke of Alva was the exponent, both the name and form 

 of political independence were gone, and the hitherto free 

 Netherlanders must become the slaves of Spain. This fact 

 brought over to tho ranks of the malcontents even those who, 

 being Catholics, might not have been disposed to stir against 

 tho Inquisition. The attempt to subvert civil liberty struck a 

 chord in all hearts which vibrated right through tho land. But 

 most of the Catholics resented the Inquisition with nearly as 

 much anger as tho Protestants, the result being that every 



* The existing kingdoms of Holland and Belgium were at this timo 

 included in the Netherlands, of which there were seventeen provinces. 



