Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands

20 A kind admonition to the States of Brabant, Flanders etc. on their supplication handed to Don Luis de Requesens, 1574 ¹

This is a reaction from the States of Holland and Zeeland to a remonstrance that the States General at Brussels addressed to

1 Vriendelicke vermaninghe aen de Staten van Brabandt, Vlaenderen, etc. op de supplicatie by hen aen Don Loys de Requesens onlangs overghegheven (Knuttel, no. 220).

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Governor Requesens in June 1574. Requesens had brought his financial demands to the notice of the States General, whereupon the latter formulated a series of political desires.

If you do not help Don Louis to obtain 6 or 7,000,000 pounds of gold,² you will fall out of favour with him. But what troubles will he be able to cause you? Who is he? Would he be able to mention his grandfather? Where does he come from? Is he not a foreigner, who has not a foot of ground and neither friends nor relations in these provinces? It is not in keeping with our laws and ancient traditions that he should want to be regarded as stadholder, governor and captain-general of these provinces. For though he can show His Majesty's authorisation to prove this, yet he has not been legally accepted as such in these provinces. And besides, what power has he? Are not the soldiers, upon whom he chiefly relies, wandering foreign scoundrels, who would serve the devil for money? What will they do, if they don't get any money from him? Undoubtedly every one will go his own way. There would be no way of preventing them sacking towns or the country. On the other hand, who are Your Honours? Are you not lords of this country as well as honest powerful people? And are not the provinces full of your friends, relations and other well-wishers? And are you not the States, the supporters and protectors of this country? Is it not true that because of this all provinces and towns adhere to you? And would not the soldiers born in these provinces be on your side in time of need? Even the foreign soldiers, the Germans as well as the Swiss, would go over to you, if only you offered them money. The Spaniards and Italians could send Don Louis back to his convent to don his cowl once again,³ if he escaped his deserved punishment with them.

And if you think it would be too dangerous to do this alone, would the inhabitants of Holland and Zeeland and their associates not be willing to help you to carry it into effect? They would surely not fail you. They have eagerly taken up arms against the common enemy when he was having his will in everything and was at the height of his power and triumph, and are they not still eagerly waging this protracted war against him? It is to be expected that they will eagerly defeat and exterminate him with your help

2 In his proposition to the States General of 7 June 1574 Requesens demanded a yearly sum of 2,000,000 guilders instead of the tenth penny, in conformity with the arrangement proposed by Alva in 1569 for six years. According to his calculation there remained 6 or 7,000,000 out of the 12,000,000 guilders to be paid.

3 Don Luis de Requesens y Zuniga was Grand Commander of Castile and knight of the Order of Santiago.

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or your connivance. They cannot forget the old friendship they have had with you and hope the same from you. And it would be wretched if two neighbours should become hostile to each other because of a foreign power which, having crushed the one with the help of the other, would also destroy the other in due time.

And do you wish a nobler, more powerful, better known and more willing leader than the one who is offering his service to you of his own accord through deep affection to the dear fatherland? This is His most Serene Highness the prince of Orange. Is he not of imperial descent⁴ and has he not so many fine estates in these provinces that simply because of this he is the most powerful man next to the king in these provinces? Who does not know of his estates in Germany, in the two Burgundies⁵ and his principality of Orange? Is he not burggrave of Antwerp?⁶ And is he not the principal and first member of the Council of State which with the legitimate governors is charged with the government of all these provinces together?⁷ And is he not stadholder and captain of Holland, Zeeland, West Friesland and Utrecht? And was he not brought up mainly at the Court of Brussels? And has he not rendered the provinces many a service under the emperor, Charles, and the king? And has he not, with two enormous armies from Germany, defied the common enemies in their own lair,⁸ when those to whom the highest government had been entrusted by His Majesty, who was absent in Spain, would no longer listen to any advice and treated the provinces villainously and tyrannically? And has he not jeopardised all his possessions and his life to free these provinces from the most villainous Spanish slavery? Have not all his brothers done the same? And does he not belong to those who have shaken off the Spanish yoke to live and die for the dear fatherland and to keep it prosperous and united?

But Your Honours do not want to do anything against the king. But can it be that such an honest hero and prince is then plotting against the king? Far be it from such noble blood. Are the people of Holland and Zeeland and their associates plotting against the king? Far be it from such brave and excellent souls. But this is interpreted differently. By whom? By the Spaniards, the papists, the monks and their adherents. But all these are sworn enemies of the king. Do the Spaniards know the king

4 Adolph of Nassau had been elected king of the Romans in 1292.

5 The duchy of Burgundy and the Franche Comté.

6 See Document 14.

7 See Document 14, note 5 and Document 15, note 2.

8 The campaigns of 1568 and 1572 against Alva.

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otherwise than as one dominated by the inquisitors? Do the papists and monks know the king otherwise than as a vassal and slave of the pope? How do the inquisitors treat the king? Do they leave anything more to him than the mere title? Don't they usurp the entire government? Is the king allowed to do anything but what pleases them? If this were otherwise, undoubtedly he would have visited these fine provinces of his a long time ago to stave off the present misery.⁹ Has the duke of Alva done anything that has been to the honour or credit of His Majesty? Behold the triumphant statue in the castle at Antwerp.¹⁰ Remember the triumphant pomp with which he had the pardon proclaimed at Antwerp in 1570.¹¹ Remember the words: everything is mine and I am king. It would take too long to demonstrate in detail that the duke of Alva has not been the king's friend. You say that the case of Don Louis is different? What is different about a hypocritical and dissimulating monk? There seems to be this difference, that Don Louis conducts his affairs with more adroitness and deceit. The inquisitors, perceiving these arts in him, have thought him a fitting replacement for Alva. Moreover, he is an inquisitor himself and more inclined to promote the grandeur, power and profit of the college of the inquisition than was Alva.

But is it necessary to dwell upon this any longer? It is clear to all the world that what has been done in these provinces these eight years on behalf of the king, and is still being done, is not the work of the king, but of the inquisitors and the pope. Those who protect the dear fatherland from the despotism and tyranny of foreign lords, cannot be the enemies of their legitimate and true lord and of their dear fatherland. But those who aid and adhere to the foreign lords are indeed enemies and traitors of both. The inquisitors have the king with them in person, and we have the king with us by his oath. The oath remains the same and does not change and is not subject to accident; quite the contrary is the case with the person of the king. And as the person of the king is all but imprisoned by the inquisition and as he cannot act according to his own will, it is his oath that gives us the right to use the name of the king in our struggle for the protection of his honour and of the dear fatherland. It is certainly wrong for the common enemies to use the king's name so boastfully, because they

9 In their supplication the States General also demanded that the king visit the Netherlands.

10 The statue was cast from the guns seized in the battle of Jemmingen in 1568 and bore the inscription regis optimi fidelissimo ministro.

11 After much delay he promulgated this pardon with many exceptions in July 1570.

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do so neither with the king's unqualified consent nor by virtue of his promises and his oath.

But if we suppose that this present government exists with the king's full consent, or even that he himself governs us in this way, is it then true that the provinces have accepted him as their sovereign on such conditions that he should govern without laws and rules at his own pleasure? Our ancestors were too experienced and wise to accept sovereigns in this way. And in the opinion of the Spaniards Your Honours yourselves committed crimen laesae majestatis in the year 1549¹² because you refused their request to change the old way of inauguration. Our ancestors have left us laws of investiture which specify that if the king, being here in person, perseveres in the present sort of government, he would no longer rightly be sovereign, and the subjects would be absolved from their duties and their oath, until he would give up this method of government as unreasonable and wholly contrary to his promises, and be willing to reign reasonably and in accordance with his promises. And our ancestors displayed exceptional prudence when as a condition for his solemn recognition they made the sovereign agree to being refused service and submission in the event of bad government. It was also very prudent of them to insert in the conditions for recognition a clause obliging all officers entering upon their duties, to swear to maintain the laws and not to oppose or break them in any way, by word or deed. As Your Honours swore this oath too, in the present case you should act not so much prudently as bravely to avoid being accused of perjury.

12 When Philip was recognised as their future lord by the States of the Netherlands, cf. Document 12, note 4.