Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands

22 Brief and true account of what happened at the peace negotiation of Breda, 20 March 1575 ¹

This pamphlet contains documents about the Breda peace negotiation, begun in February 1575 between delegates from governor Requesens and from the States of Holland and Zeeland. The following extract is taken from a declaration by the prince of Orange and the States of 20 March.

His princely Highness and the States are considered rebels and open enemies of His Majesty. Yet it should be understood that they have not offended His Majesty nor deprived him of his authority. On the contrary, it was for the benefit of His Majesty that they defended the provinces and towns, their lives and their possessions, their houses, wives and children against the tyranny of the duke of Alva and his adherents which was inevitably leading to the eternal destruction of the provinces; and it was to help the king that they used all possible means and exerted themselves to the utmost to drive their adversaries out of their country. His princely Highness and the States have always declared openly that their intention was by no means to arm themselves against His Majesty or to desert him or to be alienated or separated from him, but to keep themselves united

1 Cort ende warachtich verhael van het gene dat op de handelinge van den vrede... tot Breda gheschiet is (Knuttel, no. 239).

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with other countries under His Majesty. Nor was it ever their intention to take or withhold or seize goods from spiritual or temporal persons who did not assist their adversaries. Thus His Highness and the States cannot think that any good will come from what is now being proposed. They are particularly distressed by a number of conditions put by the other party which stipulate that the Roman Catholic religion should be observed, that people should live according to the Roman Catholic rules or depart from the country etc.² These suggest that the present religion is a heresy and those who observe it heretics. In reality, however, no other religion is being observed here than the catholic and apostolic religion, corresponding to the Holy Gospel and God's teaching, in which every one finds comfort and security. It is only the grave glaring abuses especially disagreeable to God Almighty that have been eliminated in order to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's.

With all respect and frankness His princely Highness and the said States with their associates,³ do not think it in any way advisable to accept the aforementioned proposals under these conditions and restrictions. They cannot forget the horrible fate that befell the counts of Egmont and Hoorne, the lord of Montigny,⁴ and many others, nobles as well as other persons of high rank, and they are impressed by the numerous accounts of cases of contracts and promises being broken.

Indeed it is not at all feasible to expel from these countries and their dear fatherland so many people rich and poor, young and old, who have embraced the reformed evangelical religion thanks to the enlightenment and renewal of the Holy Ghost and the grace of God. And indeed, to force so many good faithful subjects of His Majesty to wander in foreign countries and look for new dwelling-places with great loss of and damage to their possessions which they could only sell at low prices (if there were enough buyers, which does not seem very probable), is a much stranger and more cruel act than to dismiss from these countries 3 or 4,000 Spaniards, who have eaten their fill, and to send them back to their own fatherland or to their usual garrison-town, where they might render service to His Majesty. The departure of the former from the provinces of

2 The conditions made by the delegates from Requesens.

3 The Guelders town of Bommel and the county of Buren had by 1574 already entered into an alliance with Holland.

4 Montigny, who was sent to Spain on an official mission in 1566 (see Document 6, note 2) was imprisoned and finally executed in secret at Simancas in October 1570.

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Holland and Zeeland would cause great depopulation and loss of trade and craft, industry and navigation, on which the whole prosperity of the Netherlands depends. These would all be transferred to other countries to the indescribable harm and reduction of His Majesty's revenues. This has happened to a certain degree, as is generally known, during the last few years because of the rigorous edicts and horrible executions and the introduction of the Spanish inquisition.