Chapter 67
[612] "Viglius lui fait souffrir les peines de l'enfer, en traversant les mesures qu'exige le service du Roi." Ibid., p. 314.
[613] "Ils esperent alors pecher, comme on dit, en eau trouble, et atteindre le but qu'ils poursuivent depuis longtemps: celui de s'emparer de toutes les affaires. C'est pourquoi ils out ete et sont encore contraires a l'a.s.semblee des etats generaux.... Le cardinal, le president et leur sequelle craignent, si la tranquillite se retablit dans le pays, qu'on ne lise dans leurs livres, et qu'on ne decouvre leurs injustices, simonies, et rapines." Ibid., p. 311.
[614] Ibid., p. 320 et alibi.
[615] "Ce qu'elle se resent le plus contre v. i. S. et contre moy, est ce que l'avons si longuement garde d'en faire son prouffit, qu'elle fait maintenant des offices et benefices et aultres graces." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. 406.
[616] "Ipsam etiam Ducissam in suam pertraxere sententiam, honore etiam majore quam antea ipsam afficientes, quo muliebris s.e.xus facile capitur."--This remark, however, is taken, not from his correspondence with Granvelle, but from his autobiography. See Vita Viglii, p. 40.
[617] The extortions of Margaret's secretary, who was said to have ama.s.sed a fortune of seventy thousand ducats in her service, led the people, instead of Armenteros, punningly to call him _Argenterios_. This piece of scandal is communicated for the royal ear in a letter addressed to one of the king's secretaries by Fray Lorenzo de Villacancio, of whom I shall give a full account elsewhere. Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Rapport, p. xliii.
[618] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I., p. 273 et alibi.
[619] Granvelle regarded such a step as the only effectual remedy for the disorders in the Low Countries. In a remarkable letter to Philip, dated July 20, 1565, he presents such a view of the manner in which the government is conducted as might well alarm his master. Justice and religion are at the lowest ebb. Public offices are disposed of at private sale. The members of the council indulge in the greatest freedom in their discussions on matters of religion. It is plain that the Confession of Augsburg would be acceptable to some of them. The truth is never allowed to reach the king's ears; as the letters sent to Madrid are written to suit the majority of the council, and so as not to give an unfavorable view of the country. Viglius is afraid to write. There are spies at the court, he says, who would betray his correspondence, and it might cost him his life. Granvelle concludes by urging the king to come in person, and with money enough to subsidize a force to support him. Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. VIII. p. 620 et seq.
[620] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 317.
[621] Hopper, Recueil et Memorial, p. 39.--Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. 222.--Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.
I. p. 347 et alibi.
[622] The Spanish amba.s.sador to England, Guzman de Silva, in a letter dated from the Low Countries, refers this tendency among the younger n.o.bles to their lax education at home, and to their travels abroad. "La n.o.blesse du pays est generalement catholique: il n'y a que les jeunes gens dont, a cause de l'education relachee qu'ils out recue, et de leur frequentation dans les pays voisins, les principes soient un peu equivoques." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 383.
[623] "Se dice publico que ay medios para descargar todas las deudas del Rey sin cargo del pueblo tomando los bienes de la gente de yglesia o parte conforme al ejemplo que se ha hecho en ynglaterra y francia y tambien que ellos eran muy ricos y volberian mas templados y hombres de bien." Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.
[624] "Leur office est devenu odieux au peuple; ils rencontrent tant de resistances et de calomnies, qu'ils ne peuvent l'exercer sans danger pour leurs personnes." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 353.
[625] Brandt, Reformation
[626] Ibid., ubi supra.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, p.
174.--Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. pp. 321-327.
[627] Strada, De Bello Belgico, p. 172.--Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 327 et alibi.
[628] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, tom. I. pp. 146-149.
[629] "La depense excede annuellement les revenus, de 600,000 florins."
Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 328.
[630] "Quant a la moyenne n.o.blesse des Pays-Bas, les Seigneurs l'auront tantost a leur cordelle." Chantonnay to Granvelle, October 6, 1565, Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. 426.
[631] That Granvelle understood well these consequences of convening the states-general is evident from the manner in which he repeatedly speaks of this event in his correspondence with the king. See, in particular, a letter to Philip, dated as early as August 20, 1563, where he sums up his remarks on the matter by saying: "In fine, they would entirely change the form of government, so that there would be little remaining for the regent to do, as the representative of your majesty, or for your majesty yourself to do, since they would have completely put you under guardians.h.i.+p." Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. VII. p. 186.
[632] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 329.
[633] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 14, 16.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 176.
[634] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 179.
[635] "Si, apres avoir accepte le concile sans limitations dans tous ses autres royaumes et seigneuries, il allait y opposer des reserves aux Pays-Bas, cela produirait un facheux effet." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 328.
[636] Yet whatever slight Philip may have put upon the lords in this respect, he showed William, in particular, a singular proof of confidence. The prince's _cuisine_, as I have elsewhere stated, was renowned over the Continent; and Philip requested of him his _chef_, to take the place of his own, lately deceased. But the king seems to lay less stress on the skill of this functionary than on his trustworthiness,--a point of greater moment with a monarch. This was a compliment--in that suspicious age--to William, which, we imagine, he would have been slow to return by placing his life in the hands of a cook from the royal kitchens of Madrid. See Philip's letter in the Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. II p. 89.
[637] Margaret would fain have settled the dispute by giving the countess of Egmont precedence at table over her fair rival. (Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. 445.) But both Anne of Saxony and her household stoutly demurred to this decision,--perhaps to the right of the regent to make it. "Les femmes ne se cedent en rien et se tiegnent par le bras, _ingredientes pari pa.s.su_, et si l'on rencontre une porte trop estroicte, l'on se serre l'ung sur l'aultre pour pa.s.ser egalement par ensamble, affin que il n'y ayt du devant ou derriere."
Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 22.
[638] There is a curious epistle, in Groen's collection, from William to his wife's uncle, the elector of Saxony, containing sundry charges against his niece. The termagant lady was in the habit, it seems, of rating her husband roundly before company. William, with some _navete_, declares he could have borne her ill-humor to a reasonable extent in private, but in public it was intolerable. Unhappily, Anne gave more serious cause of disturbance to her lord than that which arose from her temper, and which afterwards led to their separation. On the present occasion, it may be added, the letter was not sent,--as the lady, who had learned the nature of it, promised amendment. Ibid., tom. II. p. 31.
[639] "Au cas que le Roi s'en excuse, il doit demander que S. M. donne a la d.u.c.h.esse des instructions precises sur la conduite qu'elle a a tenir." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 337.
The original instructions prepared by Viglius were subsequently modified by his friend Hopper, at the suggestion of the prince of Orange. See Vita Viglii, p. 41.
[640] Ibid., ubi supra.
[641] "Non posse ei placere, velle Principes animis hominum imperare, libertatemque Fidei et Religionis ipsis adimere." Ibid., p. 42.
[642] Burgundius puts into the mouth of William on this occasion a fine piece of declamation, in which he reviews the history of heresy from the time of Constantine the Great downwards. This display of schoolboy erudition, so unlike the masculine simplicity of the prince of Orange, may be set down among those fine things, the credit of which may be fairly given to the historian rather than to the hero.--Burgundius, Hist. Belgica, (Ingolst., 1633,) pp. 126-131.
[643] "Itaque mane de lecto surgens, inter vestiendum apoplexia attactus est, ut occurrentes domestici amicique in summo c.u.m discrimine versari judicarent." Vita Viglii, p. 42.
[644] "Elle conseille au Roi d'ordonner a Viglius de rendre ses comptes, et de rest.i.tuer les meubles des neuf maisons de sa prevote de Saint-Bavon, qu'il a depouillees." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.
I. p. 350.
[645] "Lui promettons, en foy de gentilhomme et chevalier d'honeur, si durant son aller et retour lui adviene quelque inconvenient, que nous en prendrons la vengeance sur le Cardinal de Granvelle ou ceux qui en seront partic.i.p.ans ou penseront de l'estre, et non sur autre." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. 345.
[646] This curions doc.u.ment, published by Arnoldi, (Hist. Denkw., p.
282,) has been transferred by Groen to the pages of his collection. See Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, ubi supra.
[647] "Ibi tum offensus conviva, arreptam argenteam pelvim (quae manibus abluendis mensam fuerat imposita) injicere Archiepiscopo in caput conatur: retinet pelvim Egmonda.n.u.s: quod dum facit, en alter conviva pugno in frontem Archiepiscopo eliso, pileum de capite deturbat." Vander Haer, De Initiis Tumult, p. 190.
[648] If we are to trust Morillon's report to Granvelle, Egmont denied, to some one who charged him with it, having recommended to Philip to soften the edicts. (Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 374.) But Morillon was too much of a gossip to be the best authority; and, as this was understood to be one of the objects of the count's mission, it will be but justice to him to take the common opinion that he executed it.
[649] "Negavit accitos a se illos fuisse, ut docerent an permittere id posset, sed an sibi necessari permittendum praescriberent." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 185.
[650] "Tum Rex in eorum conspectu, humi positus ante Christi Domini simulacrum, 'Ego ver, inquit, Divinam Majestatem tuam oro, quaesoque, Rex omnium Deus, hanc ut mihi mentem perpetuam velis, ne illorum, qui te Dominum respuerint, uspiam esse me aut dici Dominum acquiescam.'" Ibid., ubi supra.
[651] "Il retourne en Flandre, l'homme le plus satisfait du monde."
Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 349.
[652] "En ce qui touche la religion, il declare qu'il ne peut consentir a ce qu'il y soit fait quelque changement; qu'il aimerait mieux perdre cent mille vies, s'il les avait." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.
I. p. 347.
[653] Ibid., ubi supra.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 187.
[654] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 347.
[655] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 92.
[656] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 364.