The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1563-64 | Page 7

a more
advanced stage. It might be guessed what kind of remedies he would
one day prescribe in place of the "mild medicines" in which he so
reluctantly acquiesced for the present.
While this had been the course pursued by the seigniors, the Regent
and the King, in regard to that all-absorbing subject of Netherland
politics --the straggle against Granvelle--the Cardinal, in his letters to
Philip, had been painting the situation by minute daily touches, in a
manner of which his pencil alone possessed the secret.
Still maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian, he
spoke of the nobles in a tone of gentle sorrow. He deprecated any rising
of the royal wrath in his behalf; he would continue to serve the
gentlemen, whether they would or no; he was most anxious lest any
considerations on his account should interfere with the King's decision
in regard to the course to be pursued in the Netherlands. At the same
time, notwithstanding these general professions of benevolence towards
the nobles, he represented them as broken spendthrifts, wishing to
create general confusion in order to escape from personal liabilities; as

conspirators who had placed themselves within the reach of the
attorney- general; as ambitious malcontents who were disposed to
overthrow the royal authority, and to substitute an aristocratic republic
upon its ruins. He would say nothing to prejudice the King's mind
against these gentlemen, but he took care to omit nothing which could
possibly accomplish that result. He described them as systematically
opposed to the policy which he knew lay nearest the King's heart, and
as determined to assassinate the faithful minister who was so resolutely
carrying it out, if his removal could be effected in no other way. He
spoke of the state of religion as becoming more and more
unsatisfactory, and bewailed the difficulty with which he could procure
the burning of heretics; difficulties originating in the reluctance of men
from whose elevated rank better things might have been expected.
As Granvelle is an important personage, as his character has been
alternately the subject of much censure and of more applause, and as
the epoch now described was the one in which the causes of the great
convulsion were rapidly germinating, it is absolutely necessary that the
reader should be placed in a position to study the main character, as
painted by his own hand; the hand in which were placed, at that
moment, the destinies of a mighty empire. It is the historian's duty,
therefore, to hang the picture of his administration fully in the light. At
the moment when the 11th of March letter was despatched, the
Cardinal represented Orange and Egmont as endeavoring by every
method of menace or blandishment to induce all the grand seigniors
and petty nobles to join in the league against himself. They had
quarrelled with Aerschot and Aremberg, they had more than half
seduced Berlaymont, and they stigmatized all who refused to enter into
their league as cardinalists and familiars of the inquisition. He protested
that he should regard their ill-will with indifference, were he not
convinced that he was himself only a pretext, and that their designs
were really much deeper. Since the return of Montigny, the seigniors
had established a league which that gentleman and his brother, Count
Horn, had both joined. He would say nothing concerning the
defamatory letters and pamphlets of which he was the constant object,
for he wished no heed taken of matters which concerned exclusively
himself, Notwithstanding this disclaimer, however, he rarely omitted to
note the appearance of all such productions for his Majesty's especial

information. "It was better to calm men's spirits," he said, "than to
excite them." As to fostering quarrels among the seigniors, as the King
had recommended, that was hardly necessary, for discord was fast
sowing its own seeds. "It gave him much pain," he said, with a
Christian sigh, "to observe that such dissensions had already arisen, and
unfortunately on his account." He then proceeded circumstantially to
describe the quarrel between Aerschot and Egmont, already narrated by
the Regent, omitting in his statement no particular which could make
Egmont reprehensible in the royal eyes. He likewise painted the quarrel
between the same noble and Aremberg, to which he had already
alluded in previous letters to the King, adding that many gentlemen,
and even the more prudent part of the people, were dissatisfied with the
course of the grandees, and that he was taking underhand but dexterous
means to confirm them in such sentiments. He instructed Philip how to
reply to the letter addressed to him, but begged his Majesty not to
hesitate to sacrifice him if the interests of his crown should seem to
require it.
With regard to religious matters, he repeatedly deplored that,
notwithstanding his own exertions and those