History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 81

[1183] "J'entendz d'aucuns que son Exc. at jecte des larmes aussi grosses que poix en temps que l'on estoit sur ces executions." Ibid., ubi supra.

They must have been as big as crocodiles'tears.

[1184] Ante, Book II.

[1185] "Je suis occupe a reunir mes troupes, Espagnoles, Italiennes, et Allemandes; quand je serai pret, vous recevrez ma reponse." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. xx.

[1186] "Il lui rend compte de ce qu'il a fait pour l'execution des ordres que le Roi lui donna a son depart, et qui consistaient a arreter et a chatier exemplairement les princ.i.p.aux du pays qui s'etaient rendus coupables durant les troubles." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II.

p. 29.

[1187] "C'a ete une chose de grand effet en ce pays, que l'execution d'Egmont; et plus grand a ete l'effet, plus l'exemple qu'on a voulu faire sera fructueux." Ibid., p. 28.

[1188] Ossorio, Albae Vita, p. 278.

[1189] "V. M. peult considerer le regret que ca m'a este de voir ces pauvres seigneurs venus a tels termes, et qu'il ayt fallut que moy en fusse l'executeur." Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 252.

[1190] "Madame d'Egmont me faict grand pitie et compa.s.sion, pour la voir chargee de unze enfans et nuls addressez, et elle, dame sy princ.i.p.ale, comme elle est, sur du comte palatin, et de si bonne, vertueuse, catholicque et exemplaire vie, qu'il n'y a homme qui ne la regrette."

Ibid., ubi supra.

[1191] The duke wrote no less than three letters to the king, of this same date, June 9. The _precis_ of two is given by Gachard, and the third is published entire by Reiffenberg. The countess and her misfortunes form the burden of two of them.

[1192] "Il ne croit pas qu'il y ait aujourd'hui sur la terre une maison aussi malheureuse; il ne sait meme si la contesse aura de quoi souper ce soir." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 28.

[1193] "Je treuve ce debvoir de justice estre faict comme il convient et vostre consideration tres-bonne." Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 255.

[1194] "Mais personne ne peult delaisser de se acquitter en ce en quoy il est oblige." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1195] "Quant a la dame d'Egmont et ses unze enfans, et ce que me y representez, en me les recommandant, je y auray tout bon regard." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1196] Arend, (Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl.

66,) who gets the story, to which he attaches no credit himself, from a contemporary, Hooft.

[1197] Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 252.

[1198] "Laquelle, ainsi qu'elle estoit en sa chambre et sur ces propos, on luy vint annoncer qu'on alloit trancher la teste a son mary."

Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 368.

Under all the circ.u.mstances, one cannot insist strongly on the probability of the anecdote.

[1199] One of her daughters, in a fit of derangement brought on by excessive grief for her father's fate, attempted to make away with herself by throwing herself from a window. Relacion de la Justicia, MS.

[1200] This was the duplicate, no doubt, of the letter given to the bishop of Ypres, to whom Egmont may have intrusted a copy, with the idea that it would be more certain to reach the hands of the king than the one sent to his wife.

[1201] "La misere ou elle se trouve, etant devenue veuve avec onze enfans, abandonnee de tous, hors de son pays et loin de ses parents, l'a empechee d'envoyer plus tot au Roi la derniere et tres-humble requete de son defunt mari." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 31.

[1202] "De la benignite et pitie du Roi." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1203] "Ce que m'obligerat, le reste de mes tristes jours, et toute ma posterite, a prier Dieu pour la longue et heureuse vie de V. M." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1204] "S'il ne leur avait pas donne quelque argent, ils mourraient de faim." Ibid., p. 38.

[1205] It seems strange that Gothe, in his tragedy of "Egmont," should have endeavored to excite what may be truly called a meretricious interest in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of his audience, by bringing an imaginary mistress, named Clara, on the stage, instead of the n.o.ble-hearted wife, so much better qualified to share the fortunes of her husband and give dignity to his sufferings. Independently of other considerations, this departure from historic truth cannot be defended on any true principle of dramatic effect.

[1206] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 183.

[1207] After an annual grant, which rose from eight to twelve thousand livres, the duke settled on her a pension of two thousand gulden, which continued to the year of his death, in 1578. (Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl. 66.) The gulden, or guilder, at the present day, is equivalent to about one s.h.i.+lling and ninepence sterling, or thirty-nine cents.

[1208] Philip, Count Egmont, lived to enjoy his ancestral honors till 1590, when he was slain at Ivry, fighting against Henry the Fourth and the Protestants of France. He died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother Lamoral, a careless prodigal, who with the name seems to have inherited few of the virtues of his ill.u.s.trious father. Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl. 66.

[1209] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 259.

[1210] "La mort des comtes d'Egmont et de Hornes, et ce qui s'est pa.s.se avec l'electeur de Treves, servent merveilleus.e.m.e.nt ses desseins."

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 37.

[1211] "Les executions faites ont imprime dans les esprits une terreur si grande, qu'on croit qu'il s'agit de gouverner par le sang a perpetuite'." Ibid., p. 29.

[1212] "Il n'y a plus de confiance du frere au frere, et du pere au fils." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1213] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1214] "Funestum Egmontii finem doluere Belgae odio majore, quam luctu."

Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 394.

[1215] The Flemish councillor, Hessels, who, it may be remembered, had particular charge of the provincial prosecutions, incurred still greater odium by the report of his being employed to draft the sentences of the two lords. He subsequently withdrew from the b.l.o.o.d.y tribunal, and returned to his native province, where he became vice-president of the council of Flanders. This new accession of dignity only made him a more conspicuous mark for the public hatred. In 1577, in a popular insurrection which overturned the government of Ghent, Hessels was dragged from his house, and thrown into prison. After lying there a year, a party of ruffians broke into the place, forced him into a carriage, and, taking him a short distance from town, executed the summary justice of _Lynch law_ on their victim by hanging him to a tree.

Some of the party, after the murder, were audacious enough to return to Ghent, with locks of the gray hair of the wretched man displayed in triumph on their bonnets.

Some years later, when the former authorities were reestablished, the bones of Hessels were removed from their unhallowed burial-place, and laid with great solemnity and funeral pomp in the church of St. Michael.

Prose and verse were exhausted in his praise. His memory was revered as that of a martyr. Miracles were performed at his tomb; and the popular credulity went so far, that it was currently reported in Ghent that Philip had solicited the pope for his canonization! See the curious particulars in Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp.

451-456.

[1216] "Este es un pueblo tan facil, que espero que con ver la clemencia de V. M., haciendose el pardon general, se ganaran los animos a que de buena gana lleven la obediencia que digo, que ahora sufren de malo."

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 29.

[1217] "Le bruit public qui subsiste encore, divulgue qu'il est mort empoisonne." Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 285.--The author himself does not indorse the vulgar rumor.

[1218] Meteren tells us that Montigny was killed by poison, which his page, who afterwards confessed the crime, put in his broth. (Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 60.) Vandervynckt, after noticing various rumors, dismisses them with the remark, "On n'a pu savoir au juste ce qu'il etait devenu." Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 237.

[1219] His revenues seem to have been larger than those of any other Flemish lord, except Egmont and Orange, amounting to something more than fifty thousand florins annually. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.

II. p. 115.

[1220] Ibid., Rapport, p. x.x.xvii.

It was reported to Philip's secretary, Era.s.so, by that mischievous bigot, Fray Lorenzo Villavicencio; not, as may be supposed, to do honor to the author of it, but to ruin him.

[1221] Correspondance de Philippe II. tom. I. p. 439.

[1222] See the letters of the royal _contador_, Alonzo del Canto, from Brussels. (Ibid., tom. I. pp. 411, 425.) Granvelle, in a letter from Rome, chimes in with the same tune,--though, as usual with the prelate, in a more covert manner. "Le choix de Berghes et Montigny n'est pas mauvais, si le but de leur mission est d'informer le Roi de l'etat des choses: car ils sont ceux qui en ont le mieux connaissance, et qui peut-etre y ont pris le plus de part." Ibid., p. 417.