Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands

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14 Remonstrance of William of Nassau, prince of Orange etc., redeemer of the freedom of the Netherlands, to the States and the people, 1572 ¹

This pamphlet in Latin, dated 16 June 1572, was of course intended by William of Orange as propaganda material during the early stages of the revolt in Holland and Zeeland. It was not drafted by Wesenbeke who was no longer in favour because without waiting for the prince's permission he had published a pamphlet in April 1572. Bor who printed the present document in a Dutch version wrongly identified it with Wesenbeke's pamphlet.

To prevent the venomous cuttle from hiding under its black ink, and contaminating and deceiving you in its flight, you must prove that we were wrong to accuse you of complicity in all the cruel deeds recently carried out. We are prepared to receive you back into favour but you must not take such risks again if you wish us to take you under our protection when to the common weal of the fatherland you surrender your towns to us and drive out the tyrant.² The finest towns, harbours, rivers and their mouths have, as you may see, set an example by throwing off their yoke with unprecedented courage and accepting my fleet and garrison,³ so that I am now in a position to defend their newly won liberty. I am ready with well equipped auxiliaries and bear no grudge at all for the ingratitude I received in the past and I assure you that up till the final battle I shall fulfil the duty of loyalty, which I owe to the fatherland, to the hereditary countries and especially to those, over whom the king has given me authority, from which I have never been dismissed up till now.⁴ These examples, I say, should remind you of your oath which places you under an obligation in particular to your burghers and - some of you - also to me. Indeed, the tyrant has never produced an official and written notice of

1 Pieter Bor, Oorsprongk, begin ende aenvang der Nederlantscher oorlogen, 1 (Amsterdam, 1679), Appendix, pp. 138ff.

2 The duke of Alva.

3 Brill, Flushing and Enkhuizen had declared for the Prince in April-May 1572 and opened their gates to the Sea Beggars.

4 The prince of Orange was stadholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht until April 1567 and was then, after his departure for Germany, replaced by Count Bossu.

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dismissal as is required in our law, nor has he so far proved the legitimacy of his power, as he should. Yet he has made and remade decrees to the disadvantage of the people of the Netherlands, making it appear that they were framed by the Spanish court although in reality they are the work of his personal agents there.

Consider, I pray you, whom you will more rightly follow, him who as you remember was solemnly entrusted with the care of all the king's provinces here about six years ago,⁵ and who possesses, as you know, many fine estates of his own and of his children in your country⁶ and whose hereditary right it is to protect the freedom of Brabant and the marquisate of Antwerp, or that barbarian upstart who leaves nothing to you, his enemies. It is therefore absolutely necessary that you renounce that effeminate Sardanapalus, that cruel Phalaris,⁷ that tyrant, hated by God and mankind alike, who long ago was unanimously condemned by the decrees of the imperial court⁸ so that you need have no fear. In fact he has never been able to impose his will except on people who were weakened by discord or who surrendered spontaneously. Soon he will undoubtedly succumb to his fate for he is obviously possessed by insane fury and madness. He even tortured his own servants, who carried out his measures (something which no tyrant in history has ever done before) and killed them as miserable examples. No one who knows the nature of tyrants can doubt that he has the same fate in store for you, unless, that is, you decide to save yourselves of your own free will through the blessed opportunity now offered rather than to be lost through your enormous stubbornness. You see how confident of victory he feels: he does not rely at all on military might, he has scattered some small groups of musketeers in a few towns,⁹ and wallows in sensuality and stupid pleasures, unwilling despite sound advice to mend his ways. He knew well enough of course how

5 In July 1566, in their second petition, the confederate nobles asked the regent Margaret of Parma, to entrust the government of the country to Orange, Egmont and Hoorne.

6 The barony of Breda was part of the Nassau family possessions in the Netherlands. Through his first marriage Orange had acquired the county of Buren to which his eldest son Philip William was entitled.

7 Sardanapalus, king of Assyria, ca. 650 b.c.; Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum on Sicily (sixth century b.c.).

8 The emperor, Maximilian II, as well as the German princes had shown their disapproval of Alva's activities in the Netherlands which were formally part of the empire.

9 In 1572 Alva concentrated the approximately 20,000 scattered soldiers he had at his disposal, entirely in the Southern Netherlands.

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people would react to his decision to enlist new troops and to his amassing such wealth through plunder and robbery over so many years. Everyone in Germany saw that he ignominiously dismissed Megen's army in its entirety, sent away part of Aremberg's without pay¹⁰ and decimated the German army, beheading, hanging and quartering many noble, aged, capable officers well versed in all kinds of military service who were in possession of official discharge-papers and had been called to new functions. From now on people will be more on their guard.

As to the new Spanish troops with which he often threatens you in such a ridiculous manner, I assure you that this upstart, this child of unbelieving Jews (whose hatred of us is secretly inspired by his not being of Christian origin) has left more enemies behind among the families of the true old Spanish nobility than he has found or made here.¹¹ And this was why no pious soldier was prepared to join the army which with lies, artifices and threats he persuaded the poor king to raise against the wishes of the royal prince.¹² As a result he was unable to enlist an army in Spain itself until he brought together the most despicable disciples of African slaves. To these he added some rather thin garrisons which he succeeded in raising in Sicily, Apulia and Lombardy by dangling before their eyes the hope of planting colonies in our fatherland. On its way to the Netherlands this miserable crowd was joined by the refuse of Savoy, by Walloons and by people from the Alps, who have often deceived you, marching under the same banners as you and telling you in their barbaric tongue that they were Netherlanders. Chase him away, then, take your revenge, attack that monster, hated by Spaniards, Italians and Germans alike, see that this rogue of rogues, swollen with pride at his triumphs in Lower and Upper Germany,¹³ does not escape you, this prototype of utter cruelty, who littered the gates, harbours, and streets of your fine towns with the corpses of your citizens, who spared neither sex, age nor rank, who slaughtered free-born men like cattle, who made children into orphans and accused innocent men, who plunged all your homes into mourning, who either laid out the slaughtered bodies on the wheel or would not allow them to be

10 Aremberg was killed at the battle of Heiligerlee against Louis of Nassau in 1568. Megen who succeeded him as stadholder in the northern provinces, died at the beginning of 1572.

11 The duke of Alva (Fernando Alvarez de Toledo) came of an old Spanish family. A dangerous enemy of his at the Spanish court was Ruy Gomez, prince of Eboli.

12 Don Carlos, Philip II's eldest son, who died in prison in 1568.

13 In 1547 at the battle of Mühlberg Alva defeated the princes of the Schmalkaldic league.

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fetched for burial or at least made it impossible for you to give them a decent funeral.¹⁴ I, on my part, will never desert you. He however is already so situated, as you can see, that if he tries ta escape by sea, he will find himself surrounded by my fleet. If he wants to go to France he cannot fail to come up against strongly garrisoned towns¹⁵ while if he goes back the way he came, he will find my army against him. Return at last to freedom, restore freedom to the state and return the state, restored in its old lustre and relieved from such sorrow, to the king, for if he had never gone away and, according to international law, had respected our deputies' safe conducts¹⁶ (he was unable to do this because of the perfidy of his counsellors) all our possessions would not have been destroyed. In order to regain your former happiness you must, arms in hand, counter violence with violence. That the reasons for my advice may be known to every one I call God Almighty, who is my guide in my righteous attempt to protect you, to witness that I have only the following objectives in this war:

That with full respect for the king's sovereign power, all decrees contrary to conscience and to the laws, shall be annulled and that every one who so wishes, shall be free to adopt the teaching of the prophets, of Christ and the apostles which the Churches have taught until now and that those who reject these doctrines may do so without any injury to their goods as long as they are willing to behave peacefully and can show that they did so in the past.¹⁷

That the name of the inquisition shall be erased for ever.

That the activities of the sophists, the begging-friars and their adherents shall be kept in check.

That those who have no right at all to be in this country and, of course, are not allowed to oppress the souls of our humble people by force of arms, shall be banished.

That people be given back their houses, possessions, hereditary estates, their good name, their freedoms, privileges and laws, by which liberty is maintained.¹⁸

That state affairs shall be discussed in the States of the provinces in accordance with the custom of our ancestors.

14 The so-called Council of Troubles, a special court established by Alva on his arrival in 1567, was the chief instrument of his reign of terror.

15 Mons in Hainault had been held by Louis of Nassau since 24 May 1572.

16 Montigny, Netherlands delegate to the king, was secretly put to death at Simancas in October 1570.

17 This passage very clearly advocates freedom of religion.

18 That is to say with annulment of the sentences of the Council of Troubles against the refugees.

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That political matters will be dealt with by the king himself and by the States which are chosen in every province and not be dispatched secretly by hired foreigners through whose faithlessness and greed the present troubles have come about.

That those people be turned out of the magistracy, the army and the provinces, who according to the laws of the provinces and the agreements which princes make at their investiture have no right to be there.¹⁹

That he who has robbed the Netherlands of their freedoms without the king's warrant, shall be put on trial and plead his cause within the borders of our country in accordance with the sworn laws and customs of the Netherlands, and may give account of his deeds and await the verdict of the court.

But as the tyrant will not deviate from his course as long as he is not certain of being able to keep in his possession, to your utter ruin, all those rights and privileges of yours which he holds now as if they were withdrawn and obsolete, I pray you once again, because of the loyalty which you and I owe to our dearest fatherland, that with my help you rescue, take back and protect what you don't want to lose for ever. If you do not so, then I assert most solemnly that it will not be my fault if severer measures are taken. But if you take my admonition to heart (and I sincerely hope you will do this for your own sake) then swear allegiance firstly to Christ the only God our Saviour, next to the king who takes delight in the sworn laws, finally to me as patron of the fatherland and champion of freedom. You must keep your promises and help me to make peace in religious, legislative and judicial affairs, without wronging any class. You must propitiate God, you must see to it that the king is given back his authority and that peace is restored to the state. Then alone may you expect to regain that trade with free transit through Germany, England, France and Poland, which the tyrant, that inhuman destroyer, impeded, causing without any justification enormous damage to you, and to conduct it without being hindered by taxes, pillage and servitude. So much must I tell you, who still remain in the power of the tyrant, so that in future no one can plead ignorance in defence of his stubbornness. Delivered on 16 June 1572.

19 The Joyeuse Entrée excluded foreigners from offices: Van Bragt, Blijde Inkomst, pp. 97, 105.