Chapter 77
[1023] "Para que cada uno piense que a la noche, o a la manana, se le puede caer la casa encima." Ibid., tom. II. p. 4.
[1024] "Esto se ha de proponer en la forma que yo propuse a los de Anvers los cuatrocientos mill florines para la ciudadela, y que ellos entiendan que aunque se les propone y se les pide, es en tal manera que lo que se propusiere no se ha de dejar de hacer." Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 492.
[1025] Thus, for example, when Alva states that the council had declared all those who signed the Compromise guilty of treason, Philip notes, in his own handwriting, on the margin of the letter, "The same should he done with all who aided and abetted them, as in fact the more guilty party." (Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 590.) These private memoranda of Philip are of real value to the historian, letting him behind the curtain, where the king's own ministers could not always penetrate.
[1026] Cornejo, Disension de Flandes, fol. 63 et seq.--Hist. des Troubles et Guerres Civiles des Pays-Bas, pp. 133-136.--Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. pp. 428-439.--Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 119.
[1027] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 13.
[1028] "Non-seulement afin qu'il servit d'otage pour ce que son pere pourrait fairs en Allemagne, mais pour qu'il fut eleve catholiquement."
Ibid., tom. I. p. 596.
[1029] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 372.--Vandervynckt, Troubles de Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 261.
[1030] Strada, ubi supra.--Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II.
p. 243.--Auberi, Histoire de Hollande, p. 25.
[1031] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 159.
[1032] "Or, il vaut beaucoup mieux avoir un royaume ruine, en le conservant pour Dieu et le roi, au moyen de la guerre, que de l'avoir tout entier sans celle-ci, au profit du demon et des heretiques, ses sectateurs." Correspondance de Philippe II. tom. I. p. 609.
[1033] This appears not merely from the king's letters to the duke, but from a still more unequivocal testimony, the minutes in his own handwriting on the duke's letters to him. See, in particular, his summary approval of the reply which Alva tells him he has made to Catherine de Medicis. "Yo lo mismo, todo lo demas que dice en este capitulo, que todo ha sido muy a proposito." Ibid., p. 591.
[1034] Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, (Eng. trans.,) vol. I. p. 349.
[1035] The cardinal of Lorraine went so far as to offer, in a certain contingency, to put several strong frontier places into Alva's hands. In case the French king and his brothers should die without heirs the king of Spain might urge his own claim through his wife, as nearest of blood, to the crown of France. "The Salic law," adds the duke, "is but a jest.
All difficulties will be easily smoothed away with the help of an army."
Philip, in a marginal note to this letter, intimates his relish for the proposal. See Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 593.
[1036] The munic.i.p.ality of Brussels, alarmed at the interpretation which the duke, after Margaret's departure, might put on certain equivocal pa.s.sages in their recent history, obtained a letter from the regent, in which she warmly commends the good people of the capital as zealous Catholics, loyal to their king, and, on
Gachard, a.n.a.lectes Belgiques, p. 343 et seq.
[1037] Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 481 et seq.
[1038] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 583.
[1039] The king's acknowledgments to his sister are condensed into the sentence with which he concludes his letter, or, more properly, his billet. This is dated October 13, 1568, and is published by Gachard, in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix No. 119.
[1040] "Elle recut," says De Thou with some humor, "enfin d'Espagne une lettre pleine d'amitie et de tendresse, telle qu'on a coutume d'ecrire a une personne qu'on remercie apres l'avoir depouillee de sa dignite."
Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 439.
[1041] A copy of the original is to be found in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix No. 118.
[1042] The letter has been inserted by Gachard in the a.n.a.lectes Belgiques, pp. 295-300.
[1043] "Suplicar muy humilmente, y con toda afeccion, que V. M. use de clemencia y misericordia con ellos, conforme a la esperanza que tantas vezes les ha dado, y que tenga en memoria que cuanto mas grandes son los reyes, y se acercan mas a Dios, tanto mas deben ser imitadores de esta grande divina bondad, poder, y clemencia." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 603.
[1044] Ibid., loc. cit.
[1045] Ibid., tom. II. p. 6.
[1046] "Superavitque omnes Elizabetha Angliae Regina, tam bonae caraeque sororis, uci scribebat, vicinitate in posterum caritura;" "sive," adds the historian, with candid scepticism, "is amor fuit in Margaritam, sive sollicitudo ex Albano successore." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p.
365.
[1047] Historians vary considerably as to the date of Margaret's departure. She crossed the frontier of the Netherlands probably by the middle of January, 1568. At least, we find a letter from her to Philip when she had nearly reached the borders, dated at Luxembourg, on the twelfth of that month.
[1048] See, among others, Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 128; Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p. 128; De Thou, Hist. Gen., tom. V. p.
439; and Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS., who, in these words, concludes his notice of Margaret's departure: "Dejando gran reputacion de su virtud y un sentimiento de su partida en los corazones de los vasallos de por aca el qual crecio mucho despues ansi continuo quando se describio el gusto de los humores y andamientos de su succesor."
[1049] De Thou, Hist. Gen., tom. V. p. 437.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.--The latter historian cites the words of the original instrument.
[1050] "Voulans et ordonnans qu'ainsi en soit faict, afin que ceste serieuse sentence serve d'exemple, et donne crainte pour l'advenir, sans aucune esperance de grace." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.
[1051] Among contemporary writers whom I have consulted, I find no authorities for this remarkable statement except Meteren and De Thou.
This might seem strange to one who credited the story, but not so strange as that a proceeding so extraordinary should have escaped the vigilance of Llorente, the secretary of the Holy Office, who had all its papers at his command. I have met with no allusion whatever to it in his pages.
[1052] "Au moyen de la patente de gouverneur general que le duc aura recue, il pourra faire cesser les entraves que mettait le conseil des finances a ce qu'il disposat des deniers des confiscations."
Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 609.
[1053] Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p.
62.
[1054] Ibid., ubi supra.
[1055] Ibid., p. 63.
[1056] "Le magistrat s'est plaint de l'infraction de ses privileges, a cause de l'envoi dudit prevot; mais il faudra bien qu'il prenne patience." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 13.
[1057] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp. 243-247.
The author tells us he collected these particulars from the memoirs and diaries of eye-witnesses,--confirmed, moreover, by the acts and public registers of the time. The authenticity of the statement, he adds, is incontestable.
[1058] See the circular of Alva to the officers charged with these arrests, in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix, p.
660.
[1059] "Et, affin que ledict duc d'Alve face apparoir de plus son affection sanguinaire et tyrannicque, il a, pa.s.se peu de temps, faict apprehender, tout sur une nuict, [le 3 mars, 1568,] en toutes les villes des pays d'embas, ung grand nombre de ceulx qu'il a tenu suspect en leur foy, et les faict mectre hors leurs maisons et lictz en prison, pour en apres, a sa commodite, faire son plaisir et volunte avecque lesdicts prisonniers." Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. III. p. 9.
The extract is from a memorial addressed by William to the emperor, vindicating his own course, and exposing, with the indignant eloquence of a patriot, the wrongs and calamities of his country. This doc.u.ment, printed by Gachard, is a version from the German original by the hand of a contemporary. A modern translation--so ambitious in its style that one may distrust its fidelity--is also to be found in the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 91 et seq.
[1060] "Se prendieron cerca de quinientos.... He mandado justiciar todos," says Alva to the king, in a letter written in cipher, April, 13.
1568. (Doc.u.mentos ineditos, tom. IV. p. 488.) Not one escaped! It is told with an air of _nonchalance_ truly appalling.
[1061] "Que cada dia me quiebran la cabeza con dudas de que si el que delinquio desta manera meresce la muerte, o si el que delinquio desta otra meresce destierro, que no me dejan vivir, y no basta con ellos."
Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 488.
[1062] "En este castigo que agora se hace y en el que vendra despues, de Pascua tengo que pasara de ochocientas cabezas." Ibid., p. 489.
[1063] "Les Bourgeois qui estoyet riches de quarante, soixante, et cent mille florins, il les faysoit attacher a la queue d'un cheval, et ainsi les faysoit trainer, ayant les mains liees sur les dos, jusques au lieu ou on les debvoit pendre." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 55.