libertie his offices and the Kings favour And the King of Navarre as nearer to the Crown by the prerogative of his bloud was declared Constable of France the Guises on the contrary falling as much from their authority The Hugonots increased in number and licentiousness and were by so much the more audacious by how much they conceived it would be more acceptable to the great Constable of France who by these troubles hoped to recover his wife's portion the Kingdome of Navar. But to case him of that care and the Hugonots of their confidence Advices were privately sent out of the Low-countreys by Cardinall Granvell to his brother Cantonet Prospero de sancta Cruce came Embassadour to France from Pope Pius the fourth and looking into the King of Navarres designs he was of opinion the man was not troubled so much about Religion as about the getting of a Kingdome and therefore might be drawn from favouring the Hugonots if he might have some hope given him of coming to the Kingdome by another means Wherein Sancta Cruz meant to sound the King of Navarre But first he acquainted Thomas Cantonet the Spanish Embassadour and he communicated it to his brother Cardinall Granvell Then Sancta Cruz proposes to the Constable what had formerly been agitated the restitution of Navarre and undertakes if he will but defend the Catholick cause that the Pope shall earnestly solicit King Philip either to resign to him the Kingdome of Navarre or to give him in lieu of it something of equall value and that he doubted not but King Philip whose inclination he had found at his being in Portugall as he came from Spain into France would comply with his Holinesse This often confirmed by Cantonet wonne the King of Navarre who resolved to treat with the Catholick King himself and sent one of his meniall servants Anthony Almeyda a Portugese whom he knew to be gratious with his Countreyman Rui Gomez Prince of Ebora then in greatest favour with the King But Granvell receiving intelligence of these proceedings from his brother Cantonet was very glad for the successe of his design but yet no lesse solicitous as he wrote to the Governess from Machlin what the King would answer to Almeyda because he conceived upon that answer depended the motions of the greatest French affairs He had pre-acquainted Rui Gomez and the Duke of Alva and let them know That it was a nice point and fall of danger in the managery whereof they might trespasse as much by forwardnesse and violence as by security and neglect And therefore he conceived it best to offer the Duke of Bourbon some such thing as if he deserted them might be taken away again After many overtures the Kingdome of Sardinia was proposed to him in King Philips name Whereto was added the Admiralty and a pension to maintain the office Which conditions though some commended as good for both parties because on the one side Sardinia is a greater and richer Kingdome then Navarre and on the other in the midst of King Philips Dominions which at his pleasure might command it Yet some were of another opinion and thought King Philip who was not prodigall of his Kingdomes onely baited him with the hope of Sardinia For to what purpose should the Bourbons be brought into that Island neighbouring upon Sicily and Naples where they might revive their ancient factions in those Kingdomes Neverthelesse the Pope did wisely in moving it whether he hoped to bring it about or understood it to be labour in vain because it would equally conduce to the good of Religion in France whether the King of Navarre was kept from protecting the hereticall party by a true hope or a false And truly by little and little he was so averted from them that he was not altogether so kind as formerly he had been to his wife Ioan Alibret which perhaps made some affirm in writing that the Spanish Embassadour indeavoured it and treated with the King of Navarre to divorce himself from his wife because she was fouly poysoned with heresie and gave him hope of a marriage with Mary Queen of Scots by the help of her Uncles the Guises and that he should have with her the Kingdome of Scotland and likewise all Great Brittain wherein he should be established by the Popes authority and the King of Spains assistance Queen Elisabeth being deposed for heresie But these were either vain rumours or contrived out of envy Nor is there any colour of truth that Granvel or Sancta Cruce could be ignorant that heresie is not a sufficient cause of Divorce or that King Philip would offer the Kingdome of Scotland to one he could not choose but fear because of former enmity in the businesse of the Low-countreys and his power to offend Spain for the future in case he should conquer that whole Island Indeed two years after when there were Treaties between the same Queen of Scots and the Arch-duke Charles sonne to the Emperour Ferdinand and Charles Prince of Spain King Philip writ to Granvel That he was well pleased The Archduke should in that be preferred before his sonne But if the King of France should think of a marriage with her whereof he had some intimation that troubled him not a little then he should willingly consent to a match betwixt his sonne and the Queen Out of which words it may easily be collected What Philips mind was touching the Kingdome of Scotland Nay that the Spanish Embassadour did not so much as pretend the Proposall of that Match to the King of Navarre this assure me because when he communicated all particulars to his brother Granvel as I observe in their letters and often mentioned the business of Sardinia there is not one word of this marriage But be what it may it is certain Alibret incensed against her husband who dayly grew more averse from the Hugonots and wold not hear her when she was a suiter for them in a rage left his Court and withdrew into some Towns of her own The King of Navarre did not so much neglect as his brother the Prince of Conde and the Collignies earnestly imbraced the patronage of the hereticks especially because the Guises were restored to grace and favour at Court. And now such was the face of things not onely at Court And now such was the face of things not onely at Court divided into factions but likewise all the Kingdome over that arms were taken up to maintain the different opinions in Religion and all things seemed to boad a Civill warre To the Prince of Conde and Generall Collignie the hereticks from all parts sent assistance Nor were the Guises and Comestabilis Memorancy lesse ayded by the Catholicks With whom the King of Navarre joyned himself but he was brother to the Prince of Conde the King a child and ignorant of deceit Mean time the Queen mother was
consulted liked it not and therefore made answer It was not his pleasure in propounding the Councel to his Subjects any thing should be excepted lest Rome a Citie apt to prejudicate should from thence have matter of censure and other Christian Princes that looked upon Spain occasion of imitation For that which is said in the Councel touching Sovereignty and Subjection was sufficiently considered when the publishing thereof was disputed in Spain where all those difficulties were discussed And as at that time no exception was taken but the Councel absolutely proposed onely with a little moderation to be used in the practice so it should be in the Law-countreys whither he had sent a copie of the Spanish Proclamation that his Subjects throughout all his Dominions might obey him by one rule The Governess according to his royall Mandate beginning to be active and indeavouring to put an end to what she had in the Netherlands begun how sad a commotion followed in the end of the next year when the people to the ruine of many broke out into Rebellion I shall in its due place commemorate In the mean time the Governess seeing the difficulties of the Exchecquer and Religion to increase and that she could get nothing of his Majestie by Letters resolved to send some great man her Embassadour to the King and looking upon Count Egmont as one that besides the Nobilitie of his birth and his experience in the affairs of the Low-countreys she did believe would have all things granted to his great and acknowledged merit her Excellence designed and in the beginning of the year one thousand five hundred sixty five with the advice of the Senate sent him into Spain And Count Egmont willingly undertook the imployment because as he said to the Governess and she informed the King by the opportunity of this publick Embassage he should dispatch hi own private businesse with his Majestie Having therefore received large instructions with the consent and hopefull exspectation of all many of the Nobilitie for honours sake bringing him on the way he set forward the same day that Francis Hallevine Lord of Zeveghem returned from Germany whither he was sent by the Governess in the name of King Philip to the Emperour Maximilian his Empresse and the Princes of Germany to condole the death of his father that religious Prince the Emperour Ferdinand which the Emperour Mazimilian took extreme kindly and made great promises of service to his uncle At this time the Prince of Orange had by Princesse Anne of Saxony another sonne called by the name of the Prince Electour her father Maurice This is the Prince Maurice whom we must often mention not without the commendations of a valiant and cautelous Generall who being chosen by the States Confederate in the place of his father lately killed after he had for two years commanded the Hollanders as a Prince though by another name which is commonly the end of long Governments dyed of grief conceived at the siege of Breda when he saw it must inevitably be taken The Governess wrote to the King that the child had all the Orthodox rites of Baptisme but that which most troubled her was on his Christening day they delivered him in tutelage to the Prince Electour Augustus Duke of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hessen both Lutheran Princes in whose names two Lords infected with the same heresie were his Godfathers For even in this likewise the Prince of Orange who alwayes acted two parts had something Catholick and something Hereticall to please both sides still attending their severall fortunes as a neuter In the letters the Dutchesse informed the King what jealousies and reports were raised by the message which she had communicated to the Senate touching the meeting that was to be upon the borders of Aquitaine between Katharine of Mediâ—es Queen-mother of France governing that nation joyntly with the King and her daughter Isabella Queen of Spain For King Philip by his letters had commanded his sister to assure the Low-countrey Lords that nothing more was intended by that interview then the satisfaction of King Charles and his mother being in their progresse come so near the confines of Spain To the same purpose he either wrote or sent Embassadours to most of the Princes of Europe not so much as any Lord of Italy or Spain or any one Minister of State but was by instructions from King Philip acquainted with the occasion of that conference Yet all this took not away the Low-countreymens fears and jealousies but rather increased them many especially Hereticks being apt to believe that the Queen mother did not this out of love to her daughter but to lay the foundation of some great design against the hereticall factions and the disturbances of both Kingdoms which they suspected the rather because it was rumoured King Philip would be there in person And indeed when Queen Isabella moved him to add to their contentment his presence I find by his letters to the Governess that he was pretty well inclined to the iourney though she diswaded him and said it was below the Majesty of so great a Prince to trust himself to the power of the French at that time when partly the French Kings minority partly the condition of a Quen-regent made the subjects so contumacious towards their Governours Yet his Majesty replyed that if he were sure his presence were necessary for the good of Religion he was resolved for Gods cause to decline no trouble or danger whatsoever Yet consenting to the going of his Queen and commanding Ferdinand Count of Toledo and Duke of Alva to wait upon her and present in his name to the King of France the Order of the Golden-fleece he himself went not either diverted by many cares having then as he wrote to the Governess received intelligence that the Turk besieged Malta or else to give his resolutions with greater authority at a distance which I suppose was the cause why he left it not in his wife's power to determine any thing before she had by her letters advised with him But at this enterview so highly celebrated in the writings of all Scholars even of the Poets themselves when in so great state and glory King Charles and the two Queens met at Baion the French sleighting the Spanish pride with greater pride all that was concluded the more secretly it passed onely in presence of the Duke of Alva with the more confidence do some writers as if they had a blank before them fill up the space with wit and deduce from hence strange secrets of State Omitting such divination out of the letters which I have written in King Philips own hand to his sister about that conference this I know The Queen of Spain for divers weighty reasons no doubt by the command of King Philip had desired her Brother and Mother whom it
they call the States till it should be otherwise ordered by the King who for some time doubted whether he should allow that form of Goverment or no. For Gregory the thirteenth who had mutually agreed with King Philip to assist the Queen of Scots then a Prisoner being to nominate a Generall for that expedition for it was undertaken in the Popes not the Kings name lest it might distast the Rivalls of the Spanish Greatnesse his Holinesse made choice of Don Iohn of Austria famous for Sea victories And therefore advised the King by Ormanetti who was trusted in the transaction of that businesse to send his Brother into the Low-countreys wanting at that time a Governour who would be in great esteem with the Low countrey men that honoured the memory of his Father Charles the fifth and might from thence passe with a Fleet into England where he if any man might exspect success He likewise articled with King Philip that the Queen of Scots if it pleased God they freed her from captivity should be married to Don Iohn with the Kingdome of England for her dowry which would be a fair title to the Island for the House of Austria to ground a Warre upon The King disliked it not though he more approved of the Expedition then of the Generall but instantly resolved and promised the Nuncio to send his brother into the Low-countreys But his Majestie thought it not amisse to protract his Brothers going for a while that he might see how the Low-countreymen would govern the Low-countreys moved hereunto by Ioachim Opper a Low-countrey man his Secretary for the Netherlands who delivered his opinion that the Low-countrey Lords would no doubt be infinitely carefull of the Common-wealth and would now themselves apply to the evill that remedie for which they had so often solicited the King Who by confiding in them would for ever oblige the hearts of the Low-countrey men Especially in that his Majestie well knew the Principall Senatours Duke Areschot the Counts Mansfeldt and Barlamont and the President of the Senate himself Viglius Zuichom were men of most undoubted Religion and Loyaltie But to govern by a Committee that I may not accuse the Kings prudence from the event was then unseasonable For in the most troubled State the most present remedy is for one man to rule Truly this indulgence of the Prince did more hurt to the Low-countreys then all his severity as appeared by the immediate ruine of the Provinces For the people freed from a Spanish Governour would not acknowledge a new one in the Senate or rather greatly feared not a power divided and diminished among many And the Lords despised the government of their Peers and easily deluded their discordant Votes and Orders Some enemies to the Spaniard desirous of revenge fomented this difference of the Lords especially the Burgesses for Brabant and Haynolt whom Requesenes had larely called to Bruxells For these as they were chosen under-hand by means of the Prince of Orange in regard of the Authority wherewith those Provinces intrusted them hugely distracted the Senate And though both parties pretended the Kings name and cause yet their Designes and Counsels were so different that some of them were vulgarly called Spaniards others Patriots or Protectours of their Countrey And as the word Countrey infinitely takes the People with a counterfeit and deceiving image of Libertie it was not to be doubted but in case of a Warre the major part of the Low-countrey-men would adhere unto this party Nor was occasion long wanting to mature the mischief For when they had taken Ziriczee after Requesenes his death the Germans and Spaniards clamouring for their pay for that Island had afforded very little money it was resolved on by the Senate for easing the Low-countreys of the burden of forrein Souldiers to pay and cashiere the regiment of Hannibal Count de Altempse because there having lately been a breach between him and the Governour of Antwerp Frederick Perenot Lord of Campin about the Garrison it was feared lest publick mischief might ensue In the mean time the Spaniards that took Ziriczee under Colonell Mondragonio when they saw themselves passed by and the many moneths pay which was promised them issued out to others interpreting not falsely as some said that it was done out of malice to their Nation and they thereby necessitated to an Insurrection First as if he looked not into their business they threatned Mondragonio then hearing of the complaints made in the Senate of Bruxels by Count Altempse who publickly affirmed that he was casheired not for any danger to the Town of Antwerp nor with relation to his fouldiers importunity for pay which he himself a fortnight longer was able to have satisfied but only by the subtilty spleen of the Lord Campin that excluded souldiers faithfull to the King and so weakning the Spanish partie intended to betray the citie to the Prince of Orange Whereupon the Spaniards troubled at the publick danger and the more exasperated by their private injury in regard they demanded but what was due to their extraordinary labours and unprendented courage in wading through the sea seized upon their Captains and chose themselves a Generall in Mondragonio's place Whereto they were animated by the example of the horse and recruited by the accession of Valdez his Regiment They sent letters therefore to the Senate at Bruxels threatningly petitioning for their money Nor did the Senate deny it the major part being Royallists But the Burgesfes of Hoynolt and Brabant long since bought as I said with the Prince of Oranges money interceded in the name of their Provinces pretending publick necessitie And whilst the Senate partly affrighted with their protestations partly intangled in crosse votes deferred their payment the Spaniards thinking their menaces contemned took up their Colours in furie crying Away for Brabant And having left Ziricze guarded with a few Wallons quitting Schelt and Duveland Islands they had conquered with so much glory to their Nation they ran up and down Brabant threatning but not resolved upon any determinate design the Cities generally trembling and in amazement exspecting where that storm would fall But having first rejected the conditions which Count Mansfeldt meeting them near Asc brought from the Senate then sending away Iuliano Romero who for the same cause came from the Spaniards without so much as hearing him speak afterward shaking their swords and presenting their muskets against Francisco Montesdocha they commanded him to come no nearer and lastly on a sudden possessed themselves of Aelst a town in Flanders not farre from Bruxels hanging the King Officer that opposed them before the Gates openly professing they meant to keep Aelst as a pledge till their Arrears were paid When this news came to Bruxels with addition but false that they had plundered the Town and put the People to the sword the minds
joyned Gelderland and Zutfen both which he first bought of Duke Arnold who disinherited his sonne Adolph that kept him six years a Prisoner then after the death of Arnold and Adolph he fought for them with the sonne to Adolph and wonne them in the field But Duke Charles being slain at the battel of Nantes and the French King Lewis the Eleventh prosecuting the Warre against Mary Daughter and heir to Charles this Principality was lessened by the loss of Artois to the French and many other little Towns in Burgandy And though Maximilian by his victory at Guinigate a little after his marriage with Mary restored divers of them to the Low-countreys yet when a peace was made between him and the French and Margaret Daughter to Maximilian and Mary espoused to Charles the Dolphin the Counties of Arâ—ois and Burgundy were in the name of her Dowre cut off again from the Low-Countreys But Margaret being refused by Charles when he came to the Crown after that refusall had revived the Warre Charles posting into Italy to the Conquest of Naples made a Peace with Maximilian and his sonne Philip returning Margaret and the Provinces he had with her to the Low-Countreys onely he kept the Forts in his hands which his successour Lewis the twelfth wholly bent upon the design of Millain rendered of his own accord But those of Gelderland and Zutfen submitting to their Lords and troubling the Low-countreys with incursions especially the parts about Utrecht Charles the fifth having overthrown Charles Duke of Gelderland entered upon them again by the right of Conquest But in regard the Warres often renued upon his occasion had been exceeding chargeable the Emperour annexed the Provinces of Utrecht and Overysell to the Low-Countreys Henry Baviere Bishop and Lord Utrecht willingly resigning them and defending Groin against those of Gelderland adding Cambray and Cambresey to the Province of Artois enlarged the Belgick Dominion At length after his victory at Pavia by an agreement made between the Emperour and the King the Low-Countreys were freed from the jurisdiction of the French King who formerly was their Lord Paramount so that Charles the fifth of all the Belgick Princes had the greatest and most absolute command Now most of these Provinces as once they had severall Lords so after they were subjected to one almost each of them had their severall and respective Laws and a peculiar form of government Which they say was the Principall cause that Charles the fifth when he was exceedingly desirons to mould these Provinces into a Kingdome which had been attempted by his great Grand-father gave off the designe because they were so different in manners language customes and emulation incident to neighbours that he thought it hardly possible to reduce them to one kind of government whereof a Kingdome must consist none of the Provinces consenting to yield precedence to any of the rest or to submit to the Laws of others as their superiours From hence was derived the custome for the Low-countrey Princes besides Governours of towns to place a Governour in every Province that should minister justice according to their Laws and Customes And King Philip was well pleased to have in his power the disposall of the Provinces in most of which the Governours places were void That he might remunerate the valour and service of the Lords so often tried in the late Warres He therefore pickt out the flower of the Belgick Nobility choosing none but such as either Charles his Father or he himself had made companions of the order of the Golden-fleece Lâ—cemburgh a Province bordering upon France and Lorrain and therefore more famed for slaughter then riches he gave to Ernest Count Mansfield who had formerly been Governour thereof He was born in Saxony for his military experience and fidelity to Charles the fifth and King Philip equally beloved of both Namures and Lymburgh neighbours on either hand to Lucemburgh very small Countreys but fruitfull he bestowed the one upon Charles Count Barlamont that with his four sonnes spirited like their father had been alwayes passionately for the King the other he gave to Iohn Count of East-Frizeland But Haynolt the seminary of the Belgick Nobility was not at this time given to the Marquesse of Berghen op Zoome what ever others write but to Iohn Lanoi Lord of Molembase who the next year dying Margaret of Austria Dutches of Parma supreme Governess of the Netherlands by her special letters to the King obtained that Province for Iohn Climed son in Law to Molembase and Marquess of Berghen more gracious with Charles the fifth then with his son In Flanders which they say is one of the Noblest and most potent Provinces of Christendome and Artois bordering upon Flanders he constituted Lamoral Prince of Gaure Count Egmont a great Commander That part of Flanders which because they speak Wallom or broken French is called French-Flanders and the City of Tournay thereunto appendent had for their Governours the Momorancies Iohn and Florentius this Lord of Mountain that of Courir But over Holland and Zeland and the parts adjacent that is the Districht of Utrecht Provinces of great strength by Sea and Land the King placed William of Nassau Prince of Orange of great authority in the Low-Countreys yet no Low-Countreyman To the government of West-Frizeland and Overysell the King advanced Iohn Lignius Count Arembergh conspicuous for his loyalty to his Master and his experience in Warre Gelderland and Zutfen formerly annexed to Gelderland were at this time distributed like the other Provinces among the Low-Countrey Lords as all Writers affirm Yet by their leave the truth was otherwise for the King at his departure thence disposed of neither of these Gâ—vernments I suppose it was because Philip Memorancie Count of Horn stood in competition for them who had once been Governour of both to whose pretension it was conceived Anthony Granvell Bishop of Arras was an adversary the King who confided in this mans judgement but yet wouâ—d not be present when the other should receive offence went into Spain leaving these Provinces without a Governour that so he might spin out the exspectation of Count Horn and weary him with a tedious suit And now tired indeed and hopeless to get it for himself he altered the name and petitioned in behalf of his Brother the Lord Montin intreating the Dutchess of Parma the Governess that she would please to write to the King in favour of his Brother She did so putting in his name among divers others by her commended to his Majestie but at the same time in cypher she wished the King to approve of none for that Command but onely Charles Brimed Count of Megen who was immediately chosen In no less an errour are they that affirm the King in this distribution to have assigned to the Prince of Orange the Dutchy
apart But though I read the other almost in all writers yet what the words of the Charter should be whereby the King obliged himself so as that he could not augment the number of Bishops I find in no Historian For what some write that the King swears at his Coronation not to encrease the State Ecclesiasticall is not an ingenuous allegation because the Prince onely swears to that kind of encrease whereby he promises not to suffer the Clergy to receive the goods of Laymen which they call Mortmains but upon certain conditions This is far from the point in controversie therefore I held it fit to march further into their records where I found one Clause that seems to make against the increasing the number of Bishops Which condition of their priviledges unless I had resolved to be a faithful Historian I might safely have concealed because they themselvs do not mention it that have I am sure written many things in mere malice to the Spaniard For King Philip being created Duke of Brabant by his father Charles the fifth among divers Priviledges which in the Act of the Ioyfull Entry he bestowed upon that Province inserts this clause That hereafter he will not suffer any to entrench upon the Offices Lands or Goods of Abbots Bishops or other religious persons within the Dukedome of Brabant under the name of a Commendum But whilst by the Kings procurement Bishops were entituled to the reversions of Monasteries after the Abbots deceases the Brabanters seemed to have their Priviledges broken and the people had occasions offered that the proceedings which every one hated for his private benefit they might all in publick fairly declaim against by the name of Breach of Priviledge Some therefore wondered what was in the Kings mind or counsel to bring in new Bishops make a thing displeasing of it self far more distastfull and odious by taking their estates from the Monasteries And therefore they further said That if the King proceeded to violate the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject the Brahanters had cause to defend themselves and that the Prince ought to remember that when he made their Charter he articled They should pay him no subjection or obedience if he entirely performed not to them his Oath and Protestations Yet some there were of a contrary opinion and by how much they saw the King endeavour it with lesse benefit and greater danger to himself so much the more they commended his sincere religion who in this business looked upon nothing but the good of his people And indeed What was there apparent that men could justly blame the encrease of the number of the Bishops or of their maintenance As if the Bishop of Rome might not do that in the Low-countreys which he had done in Germany and in France between which two Nations in the middle lieth the Netherlands Did not Boniface Bishop of Mentz Legate for the See Apostolick in Germany when the multitude of Christians abounded in some places by the authority of the Popes Cregory the third and Zachary adde three new Bishops to the former The very like cause there was among other reasons for doing the same in the Low-countreys But what motive was in France the sacred jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tholouse was so large that one Pastor could not possible see the faces of all his Diocese and therefore it was divided into five Episcopall Sees by Iohn the 22 not onely no care taken of the Bishops of Narbon Bourges or Cahors out of whose estates both the Church of Tholouse and some of these new ones were endowed but the Bishop of Tholouse must of necessity loose much of his revenues by the division of his then rich Diocese That the neighbour Bishops ought not to have been called to Rome and heard in a business of this nature their reasons for it being onely their own profit and power is sufficiently apparent Nor were the grievances of the Lords built upon a much better ground that is they were discontented that they should be limited in their bold disputes about Religion and Monarchy by the unwelcome presence of the Prelates whom they ought to honour as Fathers and Princes of the Church and to fear them as Revengers of Sacriledge For when they alledged that they doubted the Bishops would be evil Counsellours and bandy against the King it was a pretence to cozen children with they doubted themselves that if they should appear against the King they should have these men for witnesses and adversaries that had received and hoped for more from his Majesty then ever the Abbors did Then the complaints of the Abbots and Monks were somewhat more then became them It was not without precedent that a Bishop should succeed in the place of an Abbot Let them look upon France they shall find that Iohn the xxii indowed the Bishops of Condom Vabrince and Lâ—mbere to name no more with Monastery lands And if there should want an example yet when it was granted to a Prince by the Pope that may command the Monks they might have been so modest as to teach others obedience to his Holiness They might have remembred most of their Mannors and Lordships were the bounty of the Belgick Princes which made it seem more just so as the King not making his own use or advantage of the profits thereof but onely employing them for the good and benefit of those Provinces the Abbots themselves ought to have been as willing as the Prince and contributed to the necessity of the people by so much more freely by how much that Care is more proper to a religious life and not with unseasonable exclamations have corrupted a good designe stirred up the people and alienated the Popes and the Kings mind from their patronage For the great grievance that the King had broke their Priviledges First they did not sufficiently understand the difference between a Commendum and the Annexion of Church-livings A Commendum being in the nature of a thing deposited the other given as to an absolute Lord. And therefore Commendums if the possessour die revert to the depositor as the Lord Paramount unless they be passed over to another by a new Commendum but such as are annexed do not revert but remain for ever to the Successour in that Office to which they are appendent For which reasons there is no more taken from Monasteries by annexing then was by giving them in Commendum because that which is annexed doth no more revert to Monasteries then that which was commended forasmuch as what was once commended is conferred again from one to another by the Pope to whom it reverts Nay whereas Church-livings may be commended to non-residents that cannot which is annexed to a Bishoprick For herein Religion requires the Bishops presence farre more then a Commendum so as what might have come by a Commendum to a forreiner by Annexion was retained in the
had sworn to the priviledges of Brabant and promised not to impose upon the Low-countreymen new forms of Iudicature could have power if the Laws remained in force to compell them to suffer the severity of the Inquisition and those Edicts But these rumours moved not the Governess at all who continued to execute the Law upon offenders And the Councel of Trent then ended was by the Kings command proclaimed in the Low-countreys At which in some places the people openly stormed and rescued condemned persons half dead out of the hangmans hands stealing to conventicles in the City and in the fields Nay many of the Nobility entered into a kind of combination among themselves partly to scatter libels in the streets partly to present petitions to the Governess by great multitudes with such tumult and success that the Emperours Edicts had their edge abated delinquents were pardoned and no one afterwards endeavoured to bring in Censors of faith where they had not formerly been So that nothing was done to oppose the Preaching-men that had broke loose from their hereticall neighbours and in the very market place declaimed against the Catholick Faith To which a company of Boors and rogues presently joyning rushed into the Churches robbed them defaced the sacred Monuments and lastly fell into open rebellion without any Generall then declaring for them but with strange licentiousness force rapine and plunder To this point it was come at last And some affirmed that storm which with a sudden noise prodigiously fell upon the Low-countreyes was raised out of the peoples fury caused by the severity of the Prince who plotting at once to entangle them in so many incoveniences by the Imperiall Edicts Questions of faith and the Councel of Trent had provoked the patience of the Low-countreymen Yet others cleared the King of any fault as not being author of those edicts and questions but onely confirming his Fathers Decrees and those Pontificiâ—nâ—Censors of faith which Charles the fifth had called into the Netherlands And that the King or Emperour when he brought in the Inquisitors had not therefore broken the Low-countrey priviledges by inducing a new form of Judicature because their jurisdiction not being ordinary but onely delegated could not be called a new Judicatory And therefore they highly extolled the Kings religion that respected the authority of the Romane Bishop and the Councels far before the threatnings of his turbulent and seditious subjects nor held it imprudence to be the first that should oblige his dominions to that which had been decreed against heresie by the wisest Fathers of the Christian Common-wealth But farther to prosecute in this place diversitie of mens judgements would argue an ambitious wit especially since I perswade my self all I have hitherto set down did indeed contribute to the Belgick tumults but were not the principall causes of them It is now my purpose clearly to explain those causes to you that such as read my history may learn by the example of the Low-countrey men what it is that commonly imbroyls a State or Kingdome Anthony Perenott Cardinall Granvel Counsessour of Estate of Margaret of Parma William of Nassau Prince of Orange But the causes which hitherto I have numbered up severally and shewed them to proceed from the Lords and Commons did at last all meet in one point of concurrence in the Prince of Orange To demonstrate this I will give you an exact account of his descent his nature and by what arts he attained his power a necessary narration and I presume not unpleasing to the Reader that such as shall see him almost for sixteen years Generall of great armies fighting with various fortune may have his manners and as it were the Picture of his heart before their eyes The house of Nassau in Germany was ever Princely but when Adolphus of Nassau was elected Emperour he made it a Sovereign Family Count Otho brought them into the Low-countreys almost two hundred years ago where they were established by his nephew Engelbert the first and by the nephew to the first Engelbert the second That being great Grandfather this great Uncle to William Prince of Orange Which Princes left him the inheritance of many towns in the Low-countreys and other fair possessions that came to them by marriage which made him there a person of eminence afterwards encreased by the Principality of Orange that descended from the Chalons upon the family of Nassau For his fathers brother Henrick had a sonne named Renatus by Claudia Chalon siâ—ter to Filibert Chalon Prince of Orange Renatus after the death of his uncle Filibert succeeded him in the Principality upon condition that he should change his name from Nassau to Chalon But he likewise dying without issue the Principality of Orange and the rest of the great estate which he had in Burgundy came to his Cousen german William whom we now speak of by the favour of the Emperour Charles the fifth William was born in the year one thousand five hundred thirty three the eldest of five brothers and it is reported his father whose name was William desired to know his sonnes fortune of Philip Melanchthon that was by Chaldean rules rather as a Professour then an artist held to be skilfull in Calculating of Nativities Who having erected their Schems told him Williams fortune was not in all parts alike proportioned For at first his starres would shine down honour upon him him afterwards he should lay his design for greater honours but at last come to an unfortunate end What his judgement was of the other four brothers I have neither heard spoken nor seen written Perhaps because they wanted success they were passed over in silence lest it might discredit his art Charles the fifth took him away when he was very young from his father who had revolted to the Lutherans and delivered him to his own sister Mary Queen of Hungary As soon as his years permitted the Emperour made him a gentleman of his bed-chamber and was much delighted with the constant waiting and conditions of the youth because he was very modest and did not make vain ostentations of his service nor omit any oportunity to be serviceable and that in a grave and serious manner that he might be thought more capeable then ambitious of imployment From the bed-chamber where he kept his place for almost nine years the Emperour made him a souldier and Generall of his horse in the Low-countreys Nay when the Duke of Savoy left the army he substituted in his place William Nassau Lieutenant-generall though he wanted years for so great a command being not past twenty two and was brought in over the heads of many great Commanders among others which the Prince of Orange himself admired of Count Egmont who besides his experience in the warres was twelve years older Thenceforth as well in peace as war he was by the Emperour valued in the first file
learned but particularly of a subtil elocution and a Majestick kind of presence But the more these Princes by their own worth and the Queens favour were advanced the more must others necessarily be discontented that either had been or hoped to be the first in favour Principally the Bourbons and the Colligny not to name Momorancys that bore spleen to the Guises but with more civility Indeed Anthony of Bourbon besides his being the first Prince of the bloud took upon him in the right of his wife Ioan Alibret the title of King of Navarre He was a man equally tempered for the Arts of War and Peace but immoderate in his pleasures and therefore unfit to establish a Dominion Much more fierce and cunning was his brother Lewis Prince of Condè constantly engaged and exercised in the War yet with much more courage and confidence then either strength or knowledge Gaspar Colligny and his brother Andelot were of like nature but because he was Admiral of the French seas and this Lieutenant Genera◠of the Foot they were likewise in high esteem These which I have named with others of inferiour quality though there was no tie of friendship among them yet because they were all concerned in one common Interest easily conspired together And the Engine wherewith they meant to ruine the power of the Guises was by protecting the Hereticall Party who they knew hated the very name of Guise Especially some of them having now forsaken the old Religion desired to appear not onely Patrons of the Sectaries but likewise of the Sect. Among which none more boldly professed and maintained Heresie then Ioan Alibret wife to Bourbon and onely daughter to Margaret of Vallois and Henry King of Navarre This Lady because she saw her self deprived of her Kingdome of which Ferdinand the Catholick King had by arms dispossessed Iohn her grandfather excommunicated by the Bishop of Rome was transported with so implacable an hatred unto Rome and Spain and consequently to the Romane Religion which she knew the Spanish so much tendered that she spared no pains nor cost to bear down the Popes Authority and the Catholick Faith in France Heresie therefore supported by these eminent persons spread it self so far over the whole Kingdome that Henry King of France whose Armies were kept in action by the Spaniards in the Low-countreys concluding a Peace with King Philip withdrew his forces and cares to compose discords at home which threatned to break out into a Civil War But the death of King Henry hastened on the mischief For as I said his son Francis and the Queen and Queen-Mother the more they used the faithfull endeavours of the Guises against Hereticks the more they exasperated their enemies and put them on to use the proffered service of the Hereticks to suppresse their power Which moved the Queen-mother when her daughter Isabella was to go for Spain to desire assistance from her Son in Law King Philip against the Hereticks and troublers of the Kingdome To which request she received a very gracious answer with a magnificent promise of men and money Letters from the King to that effect being purposely read before some of the French Lords to strike them into a fear did rather encrease their envie to the Queen-Mother and unite them against Spain And now against the Guises and against the King himself were scattered Libels as fore-runners of the tumults which immediately followed And the Lady Alibret earnestly solicited the Cause who remembring her old quarrel and impatiently longing for a Crown rung in her husbands ears That he must not suffer this onely opportunity of recovering the Kingdome of Navarre to slip out of his hands That he may now make himself head of a mighty faction almost half the strength of France That upon these terms he may exspect assistance from the Germane Princes of the same Religion from the English the Low-countrey men besides such Catholicks as were enemies to the Guises and by a strong conjuncture of all these they may expell the Guises out of France advance the Hereticall party and no doubt but at length they may carry that army to the conquest of Navarre But this furious Tullia was married to a milder Tarquin so as the Duke of Bourbon being cold for all this fiery curtain-Lecture his brother the Prince of Condè a Tarquin that well-matched the Lady Alibret is said to have undertaken the Advance of the Conspiracie and that he engendred the tempest at Ambois which for that time was dispersed by the providence of the Duke of Guise But new clouds of discontentments gathering at last the storm fell more fatally in showers of bloud and civil war They say in that tumult the name of Hugonot was first brought up at Tours upon this occasion It is a custome at Tours to fright children by telling them of Hugh who they say rides about the Suburbs in the night pushing at all he meets And when the Hereticks that flocked to Tours had their nightly Conventicles in the Suburbs because they durst not come together in the day time they were accidentally pointed out to the children like midnight-goblins and from Hugh by way of jeer were called Hugonots Though some derive them from another kind of original But whencesoever they had that denomination it appears they thought it a scorn to them and therefore they called the Catholicks Papists But these are onely names I proceed to the matter as it is recorded by them that wrote the History of those times The first designe of the French tumults was laid at Geneva by Calvin and Beza holding in that town a shamefull and barbarous consultation upon a day appointed suddenly to massacre King Francis the Queen the Queen-mother the Kings brothers and all the Lords of the Court The King therefore to curb this insolence of the Hereticks maintained by some of the Nobility for their private ends and feuds raised an army in France called his forces out of Germany requested succours from the Duke of Lorain and the King of Spain And indeed King Philip presently sent him souldiers out of Spain which were to joyn with the French Army at Limosin intending to furnish him with more men but hearing of the death of King Francis he put off his other supplyes till the next year to which time the warre it self was deferred The death of King Francis was attended with a great alteration in the state For the Bourbons one of which was condemned to loose his head and hourly exspected the executioner and the other banished the Court and generally thought to be oppressed in his brothers ruine were presently made the disposers of the Kingdome the administration thereof being come into the hands of the Queen-mother of the house of Medices who was to govern for King Charles a child of ten years old The Prince of Condè was restored by Proclamation to his
attemps as I conceive moved the Governess to consult how the Decrees of the Councell of Trent against Hereticks lately brought into the Low-countreys some of which were not yet clearly expounded might be there observed For the King having many times wrote letters to her wherein he shewed himself displeased with the Hereticks boldnesse and the connivence of the Bishops and having commanded his fathers Edict to be revived which had long lyen dormant the judgement being translated to Ecclesiasticall persons The Governess replyed that although it would be very seasonable in regard that many of the new judges and inquisitours had not been more ambitious of their places then timerous in them yet she said the Edict could not possibly be executed if the Councell of Trent were received by authority whereof the cognizance of these causes was transferred to the Ecclesiasticall Tribunall Besides that when Pope Pius had spent the most part of this year one thousand five hundred sixty four in proposing and bringing in the decrees of the Councel earnestly commending their use and patronage to Christian Princes it pleased the King of Spain to be the first that gave his assent not onely out of his Majesties native piety but likewise because that Councell was called at the request of his father Charles the fifth when he was at Rome and therefore he conceived the maintenance thereof descended upon him by inheritance But whilst his Majestie first took order to establish the Councel in Spain and then wrote to his sister to do the like in the Low-countreys something happened at Rome which it was thought would alienate the Kings mind from the Pope and consequently that no farther regard would be had of the Councel either in Spain or the Low-countreys For there was an accidentall Dispute in the Councel of Trent whether the French or Spanish Embassadour should take place this would not indure the other should precede him nor would he suffer this to his equall The controversie was for that present time composed the Spanish Embassadour being honourably seated apart from all the rest But when the Councel was ended upon the desire of Lodwick Requesenes King Philips Resident at Rome that the precedencie might be determined Pope Pius it being in re odiosa first began to put it off and then advised Requesenes to give over the contest finally he perswaded them severally and in private to referre the cause wholly to the sacred Colledge of Cardinals in the mean time they were to forbear the ceremonie of coming to the Popes Chappell his Holinesse supposing the contrary factions of the Cardinals would be a means to make the suit depend for a long time and free him of the necessitie and so of the envie of giving sentence For as he said very handsomely a Prince should imitate Iupiter who according to the old tradition of the Thuscan Soothsayers hath two kinds of thunder-bolts the prosperous he himself useth to shoot but for the unfortunate he calls a Councel of the Gods Notwithstanding when mens minds are inflamed they are like horses at full speed hard to be stopped and both the Embassadours took it ill that the Pope so delayed them especially Henry Ossellie King Charles his Resident who thought himself by this means in a manner equalized especially fearing least the contention might be ended now as formerly it had been in Ferdinand the Emperours Court where it was resolved the French and Spanish Embassadours should take place of each other by turns which caused the French Embassadour to leave the Emperours Court and this perhaps might be a president for the Court of Rome But the Pope that the ceremonies in his Chappel might not any more be intermitted at last upon the sacred day of Pentecost commanded that next the Imperiall the French Embassadour should take place Whereat Requesenes in a fury after he had in the Popes presence taken publick notice of the injury in his masters name by his Majesties command left Rome This businesse held many in suspence what king Philip would do particularly concerning the Councel of Trent which the Pope was so earnest with him to settle in his Dominions and it exceedingly troubled the Dutchess of Parma because she governed the Low-countreys which among all his Maâ—esties Dominions lay most open to the invasion of Hereticks and therefore the Pope most of all desired that the Councel should be first established there The Governesse therefore doubtfully exspected the Kings pleasure in his next letters and withall was somewhat more slack in punishing Hereticks and some were absolutely of opinion the Councel of Trent should be no more heard of in the Low-countreys This rejoyced the Hereticks who jeered the wisdome of the Pope that found so seasonable a time to provoke the Spaniard by whom if the Councel were refused what Kingdome would obey the Canons made at Trent Though some upon the same premises concluded otherwise and said the Popes justice was not shaken either by hope or fear nor did they doubt of the Kings piety and constancie or that a private offence could move him to put the Councell out of his Protection which if he should do the French would not fail to undertake it if it were but onely because the Spaniard had rejected it And behold Letters came from King Philip which acquainted the Governess that the Dispute was ended but farre otherwise then he conceived the equity of his cause or his observance to the Pope deserved That he had therefore called away his Embassadour from Rome where he might not appear with honour that being the last private businesse he was likely to have with his Holinesse but for the publick or his service and obedience to the Pope and the holy Apostolick See from which he would never depart he had commended those to Cardinall Paceco Patron of the Spanish at Rome with whom she should hereafter transact all businesse appertaining to the designation of Bishops and establishment of Religion for defence whereof as likewise for propounding and imposing the Councel of Trent upon the Low-countreys it was fit her care and endeavours should not be slacked upon any cause whatsoever And indeed the King having thus declared himself she would easily have brought it in if she had not stumbled at the threshold For desiring the advice of those that had the care of souls and of the greatest Casâ—ists in the Universities and likewise putting it to the suffrage of the Senate they voted against the Councel and advised her not to propound the Decrees containing certain heads repugnant to Monarchy and the Priviledges of the Subject unlesse the said heads were excepted And this they urged more freely and peremptorily because they imagined such confidence could not but be acceptable to the King which under the pretence of liberty served the Princes ends and yet excâ—sed the Prince from any fault But the King whom the Governess in every thing
the fifth Book The Historie of the LOW-COVNTREY WARRES The sixt Booke BUT whilst the pen was thus imployed Brederod raised some Forces at Antwerp and upon receipt of these Letters from the Governesse made hast to increase his number of which he carried with him above 1400 to Viana a Towne of his own in Holland fortified to that end a little while before Part of these men marched by land part was transported in seven Shipps followed with a Uessell laden with Armes and Ammunition It was said that William Count Lumè a Marcha Escanbechius Villers and Malberg were to bring thither 1500 horse from the Covenanteers and that Lewis of Nassau was likewise expected there with the German Forces under his Command that having mustered the Army at Viana they might send them into severall parts as occasion should require This rejoyced the Hereticks who now openly bragged that at length their cause was well followed and the Nobility revolting from the King had cut off all hope of pardon That it was not to be doubted but that besides the Counts Hochstrat and Horne Orange himselfe would declare for them nor durst Brederod presume as he had done but that he relyed on higher powers though it was conceived that amidst those troubles he aymed at the Principality of Holland whereunto he pretended a Title and to that private end used the Assistance of the Lords His Ambition was flatterâ—d by the Covenanteers but in the mean time every one had their particular Designe Wherefore a while after most of the principall Cities of the Low-countries Antwerp the Bus Vtrecht and Maestriecht Amsterdam Groeningen Tournay besides Valenciens and others by the increase of their Souldiers seemed to threaten a desertion from the King Anthony Bomberg of Antwerp fell upon the Bus a Towne of Brabant and tooke it by the helpe of the Hereticks that were the stronger party he was lately fled thither out of the storme of the French commotions wherin he served under the Prince of Conde from thence being rebandied to his Country as he was of an Vnquiet restlesse Spirit he bounded againe into the Belgick Tumults and increased the number of the Covenanteers But the Governesse having formerly sent Merodius Lord of Peter Semy and Scheiff Chancellour of Brabant to settle the Motions of that Towne when she heard they Could not do it her Excellence commanded the Count of Megen to draw towards the Town with some Troopes of Horse directing withall Her Letters at the same time both to the Citizens of the Bus and to her agents there Graciously conferring with the Citizens about receiving a Garrison into their City and restoring it to the antient Priviledges and giving Instructions to Her Agents for pressing it to the Magistrats The Letters were intercepted by Bomberg in place whereof he counterfeited two others as written from the Governesse proudly to the Citizens and deceiptfully to her Agents and when he read them to the Magistrate having given out among the people that the towne should have beene betrayed by Merodius and the Chancellour the furious Multitude flocked about their Houses railing vpon them for Traytours and besieged them a day and a night till Bomberg had ripened his Plot. Who taking the incensed Rabble before their fury cooled the rarest time for Mischeif perswaded them that Count Megen was the principall Traytour and that they should therefore come upon him whilst he expected but the word for entering of the Towne They easily believed that Count Megen would attempt it to revenge the private Iniuryes done to his Towne of Megen by those of the Bus which being their neighbours and the stronger had oppressed them Bomberg therefore takes vpon him the Command in cheife and instantly raising 800 men and planting some great Cannon on the walls when the Count march'd up he unexpectedly fired and beat him back with the losse onely of his Plot upon the Towne and an affront received which he deepely resented Count Megen not having then sufficient forces to lay seige to so strong a place marched to Vtrecht for this was in his Orders from the Governesse and the charge was stricter because she feared that Towne by reason of the neighbourhood of Viana which was the general Rendezvous of the Covenanteers And they of Vtrecht because their lands daily sâ—ffered by the incursions of Brederods Souldiers willingly received a Garrison from the Count and by his directions presently built a Fort upon the banke of the River Leck right against Viana Nor was Brederod lesse actiâ—e but in the interim having setled Viana and being called to Amsterdam by the Gheuses he came thither disguised and then in his owne opinion his hope stood faire for the Principality of Holland At the same time Iames Marnixius Lord of Tholouse one of the Covenanteers shipt 600 men at Antwerp in three bottoms and sent them downe the water into Zeland hoping whilst other parts were in combustion unobserved in the Tumult assisted by the Pretour of Middleburgh to possesse himself of Vlushing and the whole Island of Walcheren which is the Head of Zeland But the Governesse was before him for she had made Cattey a faithfull and valiant Gentleman Governour of Vlushing and commanded him to carry some Regiments from the Marches of Flanders and draw them out in order of battaile before Walcheren Therefore when the Tholousians came within sight of the Island they were easily beat back and vainely expecting Brederod who was kept in action by Megen tâ—at appeared with his horse sometimes before Amsterdam sometimes before Viana they fairely passed the River againe into Brabant but at Ostervell a village neare Antwerp they made a halt and ayming at things above their strength pitched their Tents upon the banks of Scheldt and there intrenched and daily increasing with multitudes of Exiles and Outlawes that fled unto them for protection they sent them out in partyes to the adjoyning Townes and Villages where they robbed and fired the Churches returning to the Army loaded with spoyle and frighting or incouraging Antwerp according to the severall factions within the City But the Governesse particularly fearing Antwerp lest Tholouse might bring in his Army and strengthen the Gheuses calling to her Philip Lanoy Lord of Beavor a noble and industrious commander she said I call God to witnesse I am unwilling and with much reluctation forced to a War the Fame of Uictory a glory that hath wrought with many Women and might with me out of the sense of my Fathers invincible and martiall Bloud I never aspired unto in my Province of the Low-countries But since with stubborne-natured and implacable wicked men neither by indulgence nor pardon I have beene able to effect any thing but onely the lessening of my Authority and their feare truly I should not lay to heart either the cause of Religion or of the King and Country if
besides the distempers of his mind if he were not poisoned he dyed upon Saint Iames his Eue. Foure dayes before having for a long time equally slighted the cure of Body and Soule God turning his Minde he called for his Ghostly Father and confessing his Sinnes with great compunction sending one to his Father to begge pardon for his Disobedience holding a hallowed Candle in his hand gave up the ghost I know this Relation will not please some that greedily swallow downe the foulest Surmizes without any distinction or respect to Truth or False-hood for whose palates if I were minded to dresse my Discourse I might instance the Rebellion of the Moores at this very time and make Prince Charles their Incourager and say that he sollicited Selimus the Turkish Emperour by Michesius the Jew fled out of Spaine as I have formerly related I might like-wise move a jealousie that the Faction of the Low countrey Covenanters was assisted by Prince Charles and might interpret that to be the reason why they resolved to send into Spaine many thousands of Calvins Catechismes translated into Spanish whereof the Governesse as I told you sent Intelligence to King Philip Pope Pius the fifth wrote to his Majesty that some Chest fulls of them were found at Lyons and Tholouse Nor should I passe over the Death of Queene Isabella Wife to King Philip there being but a few moneths between the Prince his Death and her's as if their too much Familiarity for Isabella should have beene marryed to Prince Charles had been the cause of both their fates Lastly I might tell you how the Prince had a designe upon his Father's life either out of affection to the Crowne or hatred to the King grounding my conjecture upon common fame which spread to farre that to my knowledge this verse of Ovid was used to that purpose in the Low-countreys first applied as they say by Opmerus FILIVs ante DIeM patr Ios InqVIrIt In annos Wherein both the Prince's Fact and the yeare of his Death are expressed in numerall Letters But this kind of learning as darke and intricate I willingly leave to those Writers that by Interpretation of such Oracles are ambitious to be famed for acutenesse of wit and divination they seeming to me besides their uncertainty to have no colour of Truth For not to speake of the Love betwixt the Queene and Prince which if it had been true the King to breake that League would have hastned not put off the Princes Marriage with his Cosen-german if the Prince had plotted any thing against his Father he might every day have executed it by himselfe and with his owne hands as being young and coming resolved against an unprepared old man or if he would have raised Tumults and called in help no doubt but he had needed many hands and consequently when the Prince fell those of his Party I suppose could not have stood yet the Princes Death was the losse of no mans Life Nay the King to lessen the envy both of his Son's Imprisonment and Death knowing himselfe aspersed by diverse persons in particular by Mary the Empresse the Prince's Aunt and desirous to match her Daughter to the Heire of so many Kingdomes would he not have pretended the cause of such Severity to have been his Son 's impious Designes Notwithstanding in his Letter to the Empress he denyed that his Son was found guilty of any â—reasonable Intention but said it was fit he should be imprisoned for his own howsoever for the Kingdome 's Good And a few dayes after his Son's Commitment sending the President of his Councell of Castile to the Archbishop of Rossana the Popes nuncio he assured the Bishop from the King there was no other reason of that Change as the Bishop himselfe wrote to Cardinall Alexandrino in the President 's wrods then his Majesties Resolution to prefer Religion and the Safety of his Subjects before his owne bloud which compelled him in a manner to sacrifice his only Son lest he should have been more than ingratefull for the great benefits God had bestowed upon him Afterwards his Majesty inserted in his Letters to forreine Princes and to his owne Kingdomes that the Rumour spread abroad of a Plot which his Son had upon his life was idle false But this fortune proved peculiar to the two Charles'es the Grand-father Grand-childe that the one's Desire to resigne and the other 's to invest the Soveraignty very much busied the wits of Writers The Low-countrey-Lords and Commons affrighted with the King 's forrein and domesticall Severity every man as his conscience accused him shifted for himselfe few hoped for Pardon many thought of Armes and Revenge In so much as Alva himselfe hardly escaped at the Monastery of Greene-vaile to which he was going in devotion an Ambush being laid in the woods by Ressorius Nohott to surprize him by the way And when he came thither he was in danger to have been murthered in the very Monastery by Charles Ressorius his Brother who had taken the habit of a Monke pretending feare of the Duke Iohn Lignius Count Aremberg Governour of Frisland Generall at the Battaile of Hilligel The death of Count Aremberg incouraged not the mind of the Prince of Orange and the Confederates more then it exasperated the Duke of Alva and hastened his March into Friezland to prevent Lewis of Nassau from joyning forces with the Prince of Orange But the Duke fearing that in his absence some Tumult might be raised in favour of the Lords his Prisoners freed himselfe of that suspicion especially being inraged for the losse of Count Aremberg at the newes brought him that Grave Lewis had hanged many Spaniards in Revenge of his Brother Adolph's Death And though diverse of his Friends did not so well approve his Resolution but indeavoured to perswade him there was no danger of a Tumult in the Low-countryes so long as he had for his Security such Hostages as those Prisoners And that it was no more to be doubted that the Low-countrey-men would out of their affection forceably attempt any thing for the Liberty of the impeached Lords then it was to be hoped that the same affection would disswade them from stirring lest by a popular offence they might wrong those Noble-mens private cause Yet the Duke of Alva despising this Advise as one that long experience had made jealous and of his owne nature was averse to other mens counsells which he looked upon with the aspect of a retrograd Planet especially when they offered themselves on the first of Iune Nineteene noble Covenanters were condemned of High Treason by the Councell of twelve and by the Duke of Alva's Order beheaded in the Sand-market at Bruxells Eight whereof dyed religiously the other Eleven like Hereticks as they were obstinately and therefore the bodyes of those were buryed but the other all but