The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1577-78 | Page 8

government had been elicited from
the most important ally of the Netherlands-England. It soon rested with
himself only to assume the government of Flanders, having been
elected stadholder, not once only, but many times, by the four estates of
that important province, and having as constantly refused the dignity.
With Holland and Zealand devoted to him, Brabant and Flanders
formally under his government, the Netherland capital lavishing

testimonials of affection upon him, and the mass of the people almost
worshipping him, it would not have been difficult for the Prince to play
a game as selfish as it had hitherto been close and skilful. He might
have proved to the grand seigniors that their suspicions were just, by
assuming a crown which they had been intriguing to push from his
brows. Certainly the nobles deserved their defeat. They had done their
best to circumvent Orange, in all ways and at all times. They had paid
their court to power when it was most powerful, and had sought to
swim on the popular tide when it was rising. He avenged himself upon
their perfidy only by serving his country more faithfully than ever, but
it was natural that he should be indignant at the conduct of these
gentlemen, "children of good houses," (in his own words,) "issue of
worthy, sires," whose fathers, at least, he had ever loved and honored.
"They serve the Duke of Alva and the Grand Commander like varlets,"
he cried; "they make war upon me to the knife. Afterwards they treat
with me, they reconcile themselves with me, they are sworn foes of the
Spaniard. Don John arrives, and they follow him; they intrigue for my
ruin. Don John fails in his enterprise upon Antwerp citadel; they quit
him incontinently and call upon me. No sooner do I come than, against
their oath and without previous communication with the states or
myself, they call upon the Archduke Matthias. Are the waves of the sea
more inconstant--is Euripus more uncertain than the counsels of such
men?"
While these events were occurring at Brussels and Antwerp, a scene of
a different nature was enacting at Ghent. The Duke of Aerschot had
recently been appointed to the government of Flanders by the State
Council, but the choice was exceedingly distasteful to a large number
of the inhabitants. Although, since the defeat of Don John's party in
Antwerp, Aerschot had again become "the affectionate brother" of
Orange, yet he was known to be the head of the cabal which had
brought Matthias from Vienna. Flanders, moreover, swarmed with
converts to the Reformed religion, and the Duke's strict Romanism was
well known. The people, therefore, who hated the Pope and adored the
Prince, were furious at the appointment of the new governor, but by
dint of profuse promises regarding the instant restoration of privileges
and charters which had long lain dormant, the friends of Aerschot
succeeded in preparing the way for his installation.

On the 20th of October, attended by twenty-three companies of infantry
and three hundred horse, he came to Ghent. That famous place was still
one of the most powerful and turbulent towns in Europe. Although
diminished in importance since the commercial decline which had been
the inevitable result of Philip's bloody government, it, was still
swarming with a vigorous and dangerous population and it had not
forgotten the days when the iron tongue of Roland could call eighty
thousand fighting men to the city banner. Even now, twenty thousand
were secretly pledged to rise at the bidding of certain chieftains resident
among them; noble by birth, warmly attached to the Reformed religion,
and devoted to Orange. These gentlemen were perfectly conscious that
a reaction was to be attempted in favor of Don John and of Catholicism,
through the agency of the newly-appointed governor of Flanders.
Aerschot was trusted or respected by neither party. The only difference
in the estimates formed of him was, that some considered him a deep
and dangerous traitor; others that he was rather foolish than malicious,
and more likely to ruin a good cause than to advance the interests of a
bad one. The leaders of the popular party at Ghent believed him
dangerous. They felt certain that it was the deeply laid design of the
Catholic nobles foiled as they had been in the objects with which they
had brought Matthias from Vienna, and enraged as they were that the
only result of that movement had been to establish the power of Orange
upon a firmer basis--to set up an opposing influence in Ghent. Flanders,
in the possession of the Catholics, was to weigh up Brabant, with its
recent tendencies to toleration. Aerschot was to counteract the schemes
of Orange. Matthias was to be withdrawn from the influence of the
great heretic, and be yet compelled