The Netherlands

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Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1833 - Netherlands - 422 pages

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Page 298 - ... very essence !of true heroism. William was the last of that illustrious line which for a century and a half had filled Europe ) with admiration. He never had a child; and being himself an only one, his title as prince of Orange passed into another branch of the family. He left his cousin prince Frison of Nassau, the stadtholder of Friesland, his sole and universal heir, and appointed the statesgeneral his executors.* William's death filled Holland with mourning and alarm. The meeting of the states-general...
Page 227 - Notwithstanding the time taken up in previous discussions, the treaty is one of the most vague and unspeciflc state papers that exist. The archdukes, in their own names and in that of the king of Spain, declared the United Provinces to be free and independent states, on which they renounced all claim whatever. By the third article each party was to hold respectively the places which they possessed at the commencement of the armistice.
Page 13 - Franks was fatal to those peoples who had become incorporated with the Romans ; for it was from them that the exiled wanderers, still fierce in their ruin, and with arms in their hands, demanded lands and herds; all, in short, which they themselves had lost. From the middle of the fourth century to the end of the fifth, there was a succession of invasions in this spirit, which always ended by the subjugation of a part of the country ; and which was completed about the year 490, by Clovis making himself...
Page 142 - This siege formed another of those numerous instances which became so memorable from the mixture of heroism and horror. Jean Vanderdoes, known in literature by the name of Dousa, and celebrated for his Latin poems, commanded the place. Valdez, who conducted the siege, urged Dousa to surrender; when the latter replied, in the name of the inhabitants, " that when provisions failed them they would devour their left hands, reserving the right to defend their liberty.
Page 232 - Persecutions of various kinds were indulged in against Papists, Anabaptists, Socinians, and all' the shades of doctrine into which Christianity had split. Every minister who, in the milder spirit of Lutheranism, strove to...
Page 107 - Gueux was instantly proposed, and adopted with acclamation. The reproach it was originally intended to convey became neutralized, as its general application to men of all ranks and fortunes concealed its effect as a stigma on many to whom it might be seriously applied. Neither were examples wanting of the most absurd and apparently dishonoring nicknames being elsewhere adopted by powerful political parties.
Page 320 - The Portuguese entered India with the sword in one hand and the crucifix in the other; finding much gold, they laid aside the crucifix to fill their pockets...
Page 176 - ... wished to propagate a race which divine wrath seemed to have marked for persecution. The thousands of villages which had covered the face of the country were absolutely abandoned to the wolves, which had so rapidly increased that they attacked not merely cattle and children, but grown-up persons. The dogs, driven abroad by hunger, had become as ferocious as other beasts of prey, and joined in large packs to hunt down brutes and men. Neither fields, nor woods, nor roads, were now to be distinguished...
Page 102 - ... terrified, by the nature of Philip's commands; and the patriot lords once more withdrew from all share in the government, leaving to the duchess of Parma and her ministers the whole responsibility of the new measures. They were at length put into actual and vigorous execution in the beginning of the year 1566. The inquisitors of the faith, with their familiars, stalked abroad boldly in the devoted provinces, carrying persecution and death in their train. Numerous but partial insurrections opposed...

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