History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 79

In addition to the above authorities, I regret it is not in my power to cite a volume published by M. Gachard since the present chapter was written. It contains the correspondence of Alva relating to the invasion by Louis.

[1104] Viglii, Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 481.--The sentence of the prince of Orange may be found in the Sententien van Alba, p. 70.

[1105] Ibid.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 373.--Vera y Figueroa, Vida de Alva, p. 101.

The Hotel de Culemborg, so memorable for its connection with the early meetings of the Gueux, had not been long in possession of Count Culemborg, who purchased it as late as 1556. It stood on the Place du Pet.i.t Sablon. See Reiffenberg, Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 363.

[1106] "His tamen Alba.n.u.s facile contemptis, quippe a diuterna rerum experientia suspicax, et suopte ingenio ab aliorum consiliis, si ultr praesertim offerrentur aversus." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p.

386.

[1107] Ibid., ubi supra.--Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p. 171.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 57.

The third volume of the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau contains a report of this execution from an eye-witness, a courier of Alva, who left Brussels the day after the event, and was intercepted on his route by the patriots. One may imagine the interest with which William and his friends listened to the recital of the tragedy; and how deep must have been their anxiety for the fate of their other friends,--Hoorne and Egmont in particular,--over whom the sword of the executioner hung by a thread. We may well credit the account of the consternation that reigned throughout Brussels. "Il affirme que c'estoit une chose de l'autre monde, le crys, lamentation et juste compa.s.sion qu'aviont tous ceux de la ville du dit Bruxelles, n.o.bles et ign.o.bles, pour ceste barbare tyrannie, mais que non.o.bstant, ce cestuy Nero d'Alve se vante en ferat le semblable de tous ceulx quy potra avoir en mains." P. 241.

[1108] If we are to believe Bentivoglio, Backerzele was torn asunder by horses. "Da quattro cavalli fu smembrato vivo in Brusselles il Casembrot gia segretario dell'Agamonte." (Guerra di Fiandra, p. 200.) But Alva's character, hard and unscrupulous as he may have been in carrying out his designs, does not warrant the imputation of an act of such wanton cruelty as this. Happily it is not justified by historic testimony; no notice of the fact being found in Strada, or Meteren, or the author of the Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, not to add other writers of the time, who cannot certainly be charged with undue partiality to the Spaniards.

If so atrocious a deed had been perpetrated, it would be pa.s.sing strange that it should not have found a place in the catalogue of crimes imputed to Alva by the prince of Orange. See, in particular, his letter to Schwendi, written in an agony of grief and indignation, soon after he had learned the execution of his friends. Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 244.

[1109] Bor, the old Dutch historian, contemporary with these events, says that, "if it had not been for the countess-dowager, Hoorne's step-mother, that n.o.ble would actually have starved in prison from want of money to procure himself food!" Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl. 37.

[1110] "Ce dernier fait chaque jour des aveux, et on peut s'attendre qu'il dira des merveilles, lorsqu'il sera mis a la torture."

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 589.

[1111] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 247.

[1112] The _Interrogatoires_, filling nearly fifty octavo pages, were given to the public by the late Baron Reiffenberg, at the end of his valuable compilation of the correspondence of Margaret. Both the questions and answers, strange as it may seem, were originally drawn up in Castilian. A French version was immediately made by the secretary Pratz,--probably for the benefit of the Flemish councillors of the b.l.o.o.d.y tribunal. Both the Castilian and French MSS. were preserved in the archives of the house of Egmont until the middle of the last century, when an unworthy heir of this ancient line suffered them to pa.s.s into other hands. They were afterwards purchased by the crown, and are now in a fitting place of deposit,--the Archives of the Kingdom of Holland. The MS. printed by Reiffenberg is in French.

[1113] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 14.

[1114] Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 244.

[1115] Ibid., p. 219.--Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 588.

[1116] "La suppliant de prendre en cette affaire la determination que la raison et l'equite reclament." Ibid., p. 607.

[1117] Ibid., p. 614.

[1118] Ibid., p. 599.

[1119] "Le Comte d'Egmont," said Granvelle, in a letter so recent as August 17, 1567, "disait au prince que leurs menees etaient decouvertes; que le Roi faisait des armements; qu'ils ne sauraient lui resister; qu'ainsi il leur fallait dissimuler, et s'accommoder le mieux possible, en attendant d'autres circonstances, pour realiser leurs desseins."

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 56

[1120] "Tout ce qui s'est pa.s.se doit etre tire au clair, pour qu'il soit bien constant que dans une affaire sur laquelle le monde entier a les yeux fixes, le Roi et lui ont procede avec justice." Ibid., p. 669.

[1121] This tedious instrument is given _in extenso_ by Foppens, Supplement a Strada, tom. I. pp. 44-63.

[1122] Indeed, this seems to have been the opinion of the friends of the government. Councillor Belin writes to Granvelle, December 14, 1567: "They have arrested Hoorne and Egmont, but in their accusations have not confined themselves to individual charges, but have acc.u.mulated a confused ma.s.s of things." Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 182.

[1123] For example, see the thirty-eighth article, in which the attorney-general accuses Egmont of admitting, on his examination, that he had parted with one of his followers, suspected of heretical opinions, for a short time only, when, on the contrary, he had expressly stated that the dismissal was final, and that he had never seen the man since. Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 40.

[1124] Egmont's defence, of which extracts, wretchedly garbled, are given by Foppens, has been printed _in extenso_ by M. de Bavay, in his useful compilation, Proces du Comte d'Egmont, (Bruxelles, 1854,) pp.

121-153.

[1125] "Suppliant a tous ceux qui la verront, croire qu'il a respondu a tous les articles sincerement et en toute verite, comme un Gentilhomme bien ne est tenu et oblige de faire." Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p.

209.

[1126] Foppens has devoted nearly all the first volume of his "_Supplement_" to pieces ill.u.s.trative of the proceedings against Egmont and Hoorne. The articles of accusation are given at length. His countrymen are under obligations to this compiler, who thus early brought before them so many doc.u.ments of great importance to the national history. The obligations would have been greater, if the editor had done his work in a scholar-like way,--instead of heaping together a confused ma.s.s of materials, without method, often without dates, and with so little care, that the t.i.tles of the doc.u.ments are not seldom at variance with the contents.

[1127] At least such is the account which Foppens gives of the "Justification," as it is termed, of Hoorne, of which the Flemish editor has printed only the preamble and the conclusion, without so much as favoring us with the date of the instrument. (Supplement a Strada, tom.

I. pp. 241-243.) M. de Bavay, on the other hand, has given the defence set up by Egmont's counsel _in extenso_. It covers seventy printed pages, being double the quant.i.ty occupied by Egmont's defence of himself. By comparing the two together, it is easy to see how closely the former, though with greater amplification, is fas.h.i.+oned on the latter. Proces du Comte d'Egmont, pp. 153-223.

[1128] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 582.

[1129] "Quoique, avant le depart du duc, il ait ete reconnu, dans les deliberations qui ont eu lieu a Madrid en sa presence, que cette pretention n'etait pas fondee, le Roi, vu la gravite de l'affaire, a ordonne que quelques personnes d'autorite et de lettres se reunissent de nouveau, pour examiner la question.--Il communique au duc les considerations qui ont ete approuvees dans cette junte, et qui confirment l'opinion precedemment emise." Ibid., p. 612.

[1130] The letters patent were antedated, as far back as April 15, 1567, probably that they might not appear to have been got up for the nonce.

Conf. Ibid., p. 528.

[1131] "J'espere en la bonte, clemence et justice de Votre Majeste qu'icelle ne voudra souffrir que je sorte vos pays, avec mes onze enfants, pour aller hors d'iceux chercher moyen de vivre, ayant ete amenee par feu de bonne memoire l'Empereur, votre pere." Ibid., tom. II.

p. 5.

[1132] "Haud facile sine commiseratione legi a quoquam potest." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 387.

According to Alva's biographer, Ossorio, the appeal of the countess would _probably_ have softened the heart of Philip, and inclined him to an "ill-timed clemency," had it not been for the remonstrance of Cardinal Espinosa, then predominant in the cabinet, who reminded the king that "clemency was a sin when the outrage was against religion."

(Albae Vita, p. 282.) To one acquainted with the character of Philip the "probability" of the historian may seem somewhat less than probable.

[1133] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 18.

[1134] Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 90.

[1135] Ibid., p. 252.--By a decree pa.s.sed on the eighteenth of May, Egmont had been already excluded from any further right to bring evidence in his defence. The doc.u.ments connected with this matter are given by Foppens, Ibid., tom. I. pp. 90-103.

[1136] Among the doc.u.ments a.n.a.lyzed by Gachard is one exhibiting the revenues of the great lords of the Low Countries, whose estates were confiscated. No one except the prince of Orange had an income nearly so great as that of Egmont, amounting to 63,000 florins. He had a palace at Brussels, and other residences at Mechlin, Ghent, Bruges, Arras, and the Hague.

The revenues of Count Hoorne amounted to about 8,500 florins. Count Culemborg, whose hotel was the place of rendezvous for the Gueux, had a yearly income exceeding 31,000 florins. William's revenues, far greater than either, rose above 152,000. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.

II. p. 116.

[1137] Supplement a Strada, tom. I. pp. 252-257.

[1138] In a letter dated January 6, 1568, Alva tells the king that Viglius, after examining into the affair, finds the evidence so clear on the point, that nothing more could be desired. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 4.

[1139] For the facts connected with the const.i.tution of the _Toison d'Or_, I am indebted to a Dutch work, now in course of publication in Amsterdam (Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, van de vroegste tijden tot op heden, door Dr. J. P. Arend). This work, which is designed to cover the whole history of the Netherlands, may claim the merits of a thoroughness rare in this age of rapid bookmaking, and of a candor rare in any age. In my own ignorance of the Dutch, I must acknowledge my obligations to a friend for enabling me to read it. I must further add, that for the loan of the work I am indebted to the courtesy of B. Homer Dixon, Esq., Consul for the Netherlands in Boston.

[1140] M. de Bavay has devoted seventy pages or more of his publication to affidavits of witnesses in behalf of the prosecution. (Proces du Comte d'Egmont, pp. 267-322.) But their testimony bears almost exclusively on the subject of Egmont's dealings with the sectaries,--scarcely warranting the Flemish editor's a.s.sertion in his preface, that he has been able to furnish "all the elements of the conviction of the accused by the duke of Alva."

M. de Bavay's work is one of the good fruits of that patriotic zeal which animates the Belgian scholars of our time for the ill.u.s.tration of their national history. It was given to the public only the last year, after the present chapter had been written. In addition to what is contained in former publications, it furnishes us with complete copies of the defence of Egmont, as prepared both by himself and his counsel, and with the affidavits above noticed of witnesses on the part of the government. It has supplied me, therefore, with valuable materials, whether for the correction or the corroboration of my previous conclusions.

[1141] The resistance, to which those who signed the Compromise were pledged, was to the Inquisition, in case of its attempt to arrest any member of their body. Ante, Book II.

[1142] By the famous statute, in particular, of Edward the Third, the basis of all subsequent legislation on the subject. Some reflections, both on this law and the laws which subsequently modified it, made with the usual acuteness of their author, may be found in the fifteenth chapter of Hallam's Const.i.tutional History of England.