342 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



man, woman, and child in the Low Countries, with a few 

 ignoble exceptions, was ready, from one motive or the other, to 

 rebel against Alvaism. Remonstrants were treated as mutineers, 

 deputations to Spain to beg the interference and protection of 

 Philip were insulted and maltreated, aud orders were given to 

 the Duke of Alva to " quiet " the provinces. 



The spirit of rebellion unguided, not concentrated but dif- 

 fused, could only expose those in whom it dwelt to revengeful 

 destruction, without in any way helping them to the goal they 

 aimed at. Organisation, and some definite object to be gained 

 through !< these were necessary to success; and for these the 

 people looked, naturally enough, to the nobles, their country- 

 men, who lived among them, knew their ways and thoughts, 

 and were thoroughly identified with themselves. At first the 

 nobles held back. They were shy of entering upon an enter- 

 prise wherein the alternative of success success against the 

 power and resources of the mightiest empire in the world were 

 death for themselves and their followers, and ruin, thorough 

 and complete, for their families. A few generous spirits, and a 

 few with little save their own heads to lose, entered precipitately 

 into the strife, and came promptly to an untimely end. But 

 the great nobles, the men of influence and fortune, hesitated 

 to guide the storm of their countrymen's indignation against 

 the oppressors, until they were satisfied that nothing was to 

 be got by other means, and until, when satisfied of that, 

 things were actually ready for the tremendous contest. There 

 was no lack of patriotism, of self-denial, self-sacrifice, or 

 personal courage in the Dutch, Flemish, and Brabant nobles, 

 but they felt themselves constrained to hope, almost against 

 hope, that so dreadful a sorrow as that which threatened, 

 would not be thrust upon their country. They felt it to be 

 their duty, in spite of what was daily going on through 

 Spanish instrumentality, to try as the Long Parliament did 

 in England before the Civil War every constitutional means 

 of easing the people's burdens before they committed them- 

 selves and the country to open war with the government. 

 They tried and failed. The crafty Spaniard who governed 

 pretended to lend an attentive ear to their remonstrances, and 

 made a show of asking their advice, but he simply wanted to 

 gain time, and to mature his plans for getting them into his 

 net. 



Greatest of all the noblemen in the provinces was -the Prince 

 of Orange, known in history as William the Silent. Of vast 

 estates and fortune, second to none in rank, of extraordinary 

 ability and indomitable will, he was eminently fitted to be the 

 leader of his country. He was of those who tried everything 

 rather than rebellion to bring the Spaniards to their senses. 

 He was the first to see that nothing but rebellion would do, the 

 first who set seriously to work to organise and draw to a head 

 that spirit of resistance which was rife throughout the country. 

 Being a man who kept his own counsel, and who never made 

 'a feint till he was ready to strike, he succeeded in keeping 

 clear of Alva's toils, though not of his suspicion. Convinced 

 when he saw the Inquisition actually established, its victims 

 of both sexes publicly burned by scores, whole townships ruth- 

 lessly butchered, in return for trivial signs of disaffection, and 

 a reign of terror begun, that there could be but one end of it 

 all, he kept out of the Spanish monster's way, and gave him- 

 self heart and soul to the cause which, but for him unless a 

 miracle had been wrought must have perished miserably. 



The spark which fired the train of every Netherlander' s fury 

 was the seizure, mock trial, and execution of Counts Egmont 

 and Horn at Brussels. These noblemen fell victims to their 

 own generous impetuosity, which led them, in the discharge of 

 what they deemed to be their duty, to place themselves at the 

 mercy save the mark ! of the Duke of Alva. They were 

 exceedingly popular, and in their blood was quenched the last 

 spark of allegiance towards the Spanish king. Many merchants 

 and skilled artisans left the country, and brought to England 

 the wealth and industry which helped so materially to enlarge 

 the commercial prosperity of that country during the time of 

 Elizabeth ; but there remained enough of willing hearts and 

 strong bodies to bear the cause of the Prince of Orange stiffly 

 up, and to resist even to death, and beyond the power of death, 

 the wicked attempts of the Spaniards to tread down their 

 brethren. 



In 1572 William the Silent put himself at the head of the 

 Beggars, as the insurgents were contemptuously called, and 



gave the Spanish soldiers something else than unarmed burghers 

 and defenceless women to practise on. Alva took the field, and 

 made preparations on an extensive scale for crushing the re- 

 bellion; but his wary opponent, possessing an intimate know- 

 ledge of the country, and having the sympathies of all non- 

 combatants all the fighting men were with him avoided any 

 decisive actions, and practised his troops in skirmishes and 

 small engagements with the enemy. Aware, however, of the 

 importance of securing the sea-coast, in order to keep up his 

 communications with England and to ensure supplies, he made 

 a dash at Brille, captured it, and having fortified the place, 

 immediately began fitting out cruisers to prey upon Spanish 

 commerce. 



The war went on with dreadful fury. The raw levies of the 

 insurgents were no match in the open field for the splendidly- 

 trained troops of Spain, and they had more courage than discre- 

 tion even in the defence of their besieged towns. The result was 

 that the Netherlanders experienced defeat after defeat, each 

 loss being followed up by barbarous executions of prisoners., 

 and the captured towns being exposed to all the brutality of a 

 licentious soldiery. But no disaster could daunt the spirit of 

 the Prince of Orange : bowed down though he was with the 

 weight of cares and responsibilities, grieved and shocked for the 

 sufferings which the rebellion had brought upon the people, ho 

 never gave way to despair. Quietly, doggedly, trustfully, he 

 applied himself to his work, convinced of the righteousness of 

 his cause, and willing to leave the issue in His hands with whom 

 are all things. Generally defeated, he set the example which 

 his descendant, William the Third of England, followed, of 

 immediately showing front again, and of snatching from the 

 enemy the fruits of victory. Alva fretted like a galled horse, 

 but he could not make any impression. All his crueity, all his 

 cunning, all his energy went for nothing; he had found his 

 master ; and after two years spent in incessantly trying, with 

 enormous means, to win back the revolted provinces, he was 

 obliged to give up in despair, and return to Spain with the (to 

 him) grim satisfaction that during his term of office he had 

 destroyed some 18,000 of the Netherlanders by public execu- 

 tions. 



Requesens succeeded him, and after carrying on a desolating 

 war for three years, during which the people of the provinces 

 suffered horribly, he was obliged to come to terms with some 

 of the states, eleven of which agreed for peace on condition of 

 Alva's laws being repealed, all foreigners being expelled, and 

 the power of the States- General being restored. Don John of 

 Austria, brother to Philip of Spain, succeeded Requesens, and 

 artfully wrought upon the southern provinces to desert the 

 northern by appealing to their anti- Protestant prejudices. The 

 Prince of Orange knew what he was doing, and anticipated the 

 result by forming, in 1579, the Confederacy of Utrecht, which 

 was the foundation of the Dutch Republic, known as the Re- 

 public of the United Provinces. 



The war continued, the Belgians joining with the Spaniards, 

 under the first generals of the ago, to crush the Hollanders. 

 The sufferings of the devoted people were horrible, but they 

 never talked of surrender ; they were often brimful of despair, 

 but they never allowed it to find vent. In 1581 they offered 

 the crown to the Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, 

 but he could not take it; then they offered it, in 1585, to 

 Queen Elizabeth, who also declined, but she helped them with 

 an army, in which Sir Philip Sidney fought and died, in which 

 Walter Raleigh served, and which the Earl of Leicester com- 

 manded. In 1584, when the murder of William of Orange 

 seemed to render the cause of the patriots utterly hopeless, the 

 Hollanders gave Maurice, the dead man's son, the supreme 

 command ; and he, emulating the wisdom and valour of his 

 father, strove so well, in conjunction with his English allies, 

 that he beat back the oppressors of his country, weary and 

 exhausted, and compelled Spain, in 1609, to acknowledge tho 

 independence of the Republic. 



The other provinces which made peace with Spain remained 

 to that power till 1714, when they were made over to the 

 Austrian Hapsburgs, who kept them till 1791. In that year 

 the French annexed them, and they formed part of the empire 

 till the .overthrow of Napoleon. On that occasion they were 

 added to the kingdom of Holland, with which they remained 

 till 1830, when the existing kingdoms of Holland and Belgium 

 were marked out and recognised. 



