The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1563-64 | Page 6

and the leaders of the opposition party.
From the tenor of these instructions, it was sufficiently obvious that
Margaret of Parma was not anxious to retain the Cardinal, but that, on
the contrary, she was beginning already to feel alarm at the dangerous
position in which she found herself. A few days after the three nobles
had despatched their last letter to the King, they had handed her a
formal remonstrance. In this document they stated their conviction that
the country was on the high road to ruin, both as regarded his Majesty's
service and the common weal. The bare, the popular discontent daily
increasing, the fortresses on the frontier in a dilapidated condition. It
was to be apprehended daily that merchants and other inhabitants of the
provinces would be arrested in foreign countries, to satisfy the debts
owed by his Majesty. To provide against all these evils, but one course,

it was suggested, remained to the government--to summon the
states-general, and to rely upon their counsel and support. The nobles,
however, forbore to press this point, by reason of the prohibition which
the Regent had received from the King. They suggested, however, that
such an interdiction could have been dictated only by a distrust created
between his Majesty and the estates by persons having no love for
either, and who were determined to leave no resource by which the
distress of the country could be prevented. The nobles, therefore,
begged her highness not to take it amiss if, so long as the King was
indisposed to make other arrangements for the administration of the
provinces, they should abstain from appearing at the state council. They
preferred to cause the shadow at last to disappear, which they had so
long personated. In conclusion, however, they expressed their
determination to do their duty in their several governments, and to
serve the Regent to the best of their abilities.
After this remonstrance had been delivered, the Prince of Orange,
Count Horn, and Count Egmont abstained entirely from the sessions of
the state council. She was left alone with the Cardinal, whom she
already hated, and with his two shadows, Viglius and Berlaymont.
Armenteros, after a month spent on his journey, arrived in Spain, and
was soon admitted to an audience by Philip. In his first interview,
which lasted four hours, he read to the King all the statements and
documents with which he had come provided, and humbly requested a
prompt decision. Such a result was of course out of the question.
Moreover, the Cortes of Tarragon, which happened then to be in
session, and which required the royal attention, supplied the monarch
with a fresh excuse for indulging in his habitual vacillation. Meantime,
by way of obtaining additional counsel in so grave an emergency, he
transmitted the letters of the nobles, together with the other papers, to
the Duke of Alva, and requested his opinion on the subject. Alva
replied with the roar of a wild beast, "Every time," he wrote, "that I see
the despatches of those three Flemish seigniors my rage is so much
excited that if I did not use all possible efforts to restrain it, my
sentiments would seem those of a madman." After this splenitive
exordium he proceeded to express the opinion that all the hatred and
complaints against the Cardinal had arisen from his opposition to the
convocation of the states-general. With regard to persons who had so

richly deserved such chastisement, he recommended "that their heads
should be taken off; but, until this could be done, that the King should
dissemble with them." He advised Philip not to reply to their letters, but
merely to intimate, through the Regent, that their reasons for the course
proposed by them did not seem satisfactory. He did not prescribe this
treatment of the case as "a true remedy, but only as a palliative; because
for the moment only weak medicines could be employed, from which,
however, but small effect could be anticipated." As to recalling the
Cardinal, "as they had the impudence to propose to his Majesty," the
Duke most decidedly advised against the step. In the mean time, and
before it should be practicable to proceed "to that vigorous
chastisement already indicated," he advised separating the nobles as
much as possible by administering flattery and deceitful caresses to
Egmont, who might be entrapped more easily than the others.
Here, at least, was a man who knew his own mind. Here was a servant
who could be relied upon to do his master's bidding whenever this
master should require his help. The vigorous explosion of wrath with
which the Duke thus responded to the first symptoms of what he
regarded as rebellion, gave a feeble intimation of the tone which he
would assume when that movement should have reached