He succeeded in effectually disgusting La Cerda, who almost immediately demanded and obtained his own recal to Spain. Alva, left once more in undisputed possession of his power, turned it with increased vigour into new channels of oppression. He was soon again employed in efforts to effect the levying of his favourite taxes; and such was the resolution of the tradesmen of Brussels, that, sooner than submit, they almost universally closed their shops altogether. Alva, furious at this measure, caused sixty of the citizens to be seized, and ordered them to be hanged opposite their own doors. The gibbets were actually erected, when, on the very morning of the day fixed for the executions, he received despatches that wholly disconcerted him, and stopped their completion.* To avoid an open rupture with Spain, the queen of England had just at this time interdicted the Dutch and Flemish privateers from taking shelter in her ports. William de la Marck count of Lunoy had now the chief command of this adventurous force. He was distinguished by an inveterate hatred against the Spaniards, and had made a wild and romantic vow never to cut his hair or beard till he had avenged the murders of Egmont and Horn. He was impetuous and terrible in all his actions, and bore the surname of "the wild boar of the Ardennes." Driven cut of the harbours of England, he resolved on some desperate enterprise ; and on the 1st of April he succeeded in surprising the little town of Brille, in the island of Voorn, situate between Zealand and Holland. This insignificant place acquired great celebrity from this event, which may be considered the first successful step towards the establishment of liberty and the republic. + Alva was confounded by the news of this exploit, but with his usual activity he immediately turned his whole attention towards the point of greatest danger. His embarrassment, however, became every day more considerable. Lunoy's success was the signal of a general revolt * Vandervynct. + Idem. 1572. GENERAL INSURRECTION. 137 In a few days every town in Holland and Zealand declared for liberty, with the exception of Amsterdam and Middleburg, where the Spanish garrisons were too strong for the people to attempt their expulsion. The prince of Orange, who had been on the watch for a favourable moment, now entered Brabant at the head of 20,000 men, composed of French, German, and English, and made himself master of several important places; while his indefatigable brother Louis, with a minor force, suddenly appeared in Hainault, and, joined by a large body of French Huguenots under De Genlis, he seized on Mons, the capital of the province, on the 25th of May. Alva turned first towards the recovery of this important place, and gave the command of the siege to his son Frederic of Toledo, who was assisted by the counsels of Noircarmes and Vitelli; but Louis of Nassau held out for upwards of three months, and only surrendered on an honourable capitulation in the month of September; his French allies having been first entirely defeated, and their brave leader De Genlis taken prisoner. The prince of Orange had in the mean time secured possession of Louvain, Ruremonde, Mechlin, and other towns, carried Termonde and Oudenarde by assault, and made demonstrations which seemed to court Alva once more to try the fortune of the campaign in a pitched battle. But such were not William's real intentions*, nor did the cautious tactics of his able opponent allow him to provoke such a risk. He, however, ordered his son Frederic to march with all his force into Holland, and he soon undertook the siege of Haerlem. By the time that Mons fell again into the power of the Spaniards, sixty-five towns and their territories, chiefly in the northern provinces, had thrown off the yoke. The single port of Flessingue contained 150 patriot vessels, well armed and equipped+; and from that epoch may be dated the rapid growth of the first naval power in Europe, with the single exception of Great Britain. * Vandervynct, + Cerisier. It is here worthy of remark, that all the horrors of which the people of Flanders were the victims, and in their full proportion, had not the effect of exciting them to revolt; but they rose up with fury against the payment of the new taxes. They sacrificed every thing sooner than pay these unjust exactions - Omnia dabant, ne decimam darant. * The next important event in these wars was the siege of Haerlem, before which place the Spaniards were arrested in their progress for seven months, and which they at length succeeded in taking with a loss of 10,000 men. -- The details of this memorable siege are calculated to arouse every feeling of pity for the heroic defenders, and of execration against the cruel assailants. A widow, named Kenau Hasselaer, gained a niche in history by her remarkable valour at the head of a battalion of 300 of her townswomen, who bore a part in all the labours and perils of the siege.† After the surrender, and in pursuance of Alva's common system, his ferocious son caused the governor and the other chief officers to be beheaded; and upwards of 2000 of the worn-out garrison and burghers were either put to the sword, or tied two and two, and drowned in the lake which gives its name to the town. Tergoes in South Beveland, Mechlin, Naerden, and other towns, were about the same period the scenes of gallant actions, and of subsequent cruelties of the most revolting nature as soon as they fell into the power of the Spaniards. § Horrors like these were sure to force reprisals on the part of the maddened patriots. De la Marck carried on his daring exploits with a cruelty which excited the indignation of the prince of Orange, by whom he was removed from his command. The contest was for a while prosecuted, with a decrease of vigour proportioned to the serious losses on both sides; money and the munitions of war began to fail; and though the Spaniards succeeded in taking the Hague, * Grotius. + Bentivoglio. Strada, with all his bigotry to the Spanish cause, admits that these excesses were atrocious crimes rather than just punishments: non pœna, seď flagitium. + Strada. 1573. ATROCITIES OF ALVA-HIS RECALL. 139 they were repulsed before Alkmaer with great loss, and their fleet was almost entirely destroyed in a naval combat on the Zuyder Zee. The count Bossu, their admiral, was taken in this fight, with about 300 of his best sailors. Holland was now from one end to the other the theatre of the most shocking events. While the people performed deeds of the greatest heroism, the perfidy and cruelty of the Spaniards had no bounds. The patriots saw more danger in submission than in resistance; each town, which was in succession subdued, endured the last extremities of suffering before it yielded, and victory was frequently the consequence of despair.* This unlookedfor turn in affairs decided the king to remove Alva, whose barbarous and rapacious conduct was now objected to even by Philip, when it produced results disastrous to his cause. Don Luis Zanega y Requesens, commander of the order of Malta, was named to the government of the Netherlands. He arrived at Brussels on the 17th of November, 1573; and on the 18th of the following month the monster whom he succeeded set out for Spain, loaded with the booty to which he had waded through oceans of blood, and with the curses of the country, which, however, owed its subsequent freedom to the impulse given by his intolerable cruelty. He repaired to Spain; and after various fluctuations of favour and disgrace at the hands of his congenial master, he died in his bed, at Lisbon, in 1582, at the advanced age of seventy-four years. CHAP. X. 1573-1576. TO THE PACIFICATION OF GHENT. THE character of Requesens was not more opposed to that of his predecessor, than were the instructions given to him for his government. He was an honest, well * Grotius. Strada. Bentivoglio. * meaning, and moderate man ; and the king of Spain hoped, that by his influence and a total change of measures, he might succeed in recalling the Netherlands to obedience. But, happily for the country, this change was adopted too late for success; and the weakness of the new government completed the glorious results which the ferocity of the former had prepared. Requesens performed all that depended on him, to gain the confidence of the people. He caused Alva's statue to be removed; and hoped to efface the memory of the tyrant, by dissolving the council of blood, and abandoning the obnoxious taxes which their inventor had suspended rather than abolished. A general amnesty was also promulgated against the revolted provinces they received it with contempt and defiance. Nothing then was left to Requesens but to renew the war; and this he found to be a matter of no easy execution. The finances were in a state of the greatest confusion; and the Spanish troops were in many places seditious, in some openly mutinous, Alva having left large arrears of pay due to almost all, notwithstanding the immense amount of his pillage and extortion. † Middleburg, which had long sustained a siege against all the efforts of the patriots, was now nearly reduced by famine, notwithstanding the gallant efforts of its governor Mondragon. Requesens turned his immediate attention to the relief of this important place; and he soon assembled, at Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, a fleet of sixty vessels for that purpose. But Louis Boisot, admiral of Zealand, promptly repaired to attack this force; and after a severe action he totally defeated it, and killed De Glimes, one of its admirals, under the eyes of Requesens himself, who, accompanied by his suite, stood during the whole affair on the dyke of Schakerloo. This action took place the 29th of January, 1574; and, on the 19th of February following, Middleburg surrendered, after a resistance of two years. The prince of Orange granted such conditions as were + Vandervynct. + Idem. * De Thou. |