William the Silent

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Contents

I. Boyhood and Youth .

II. The Early History of the Netherlands

III. The Reign of Charles V

CHAPTER I: Boyhood and Youth

NEARLY four hundred years ago, when King Henry VIII sat on the English throne, there stood a strong castle on a hill-side in the German province of Nassau, From the little river Dill, which flowed down the valley on one side of it, and from the sleepy village or "burg" clustered under its sheltering heights, this ancient stronghold, with its frowning towers, battlements and gateways, took its name of Dillenburg. The green and fertile country around belonged to the lord of the castle, and he had the rights of a ruler, under the Emperor of Germany, over the village.

Into this quiet old country castle on its rounded hill-top there came, one April day in the year 1533, a baby boy — quite an ordinary mite in every way. No one guessed then all that the helpless little one would do when he came to manhood, or that centuries after his death his name would be held in loving reverence by a nation living far from quiet Dillenburg.

Little William, as his parents christened him after his father, was the eldest child of Count William of Nassau (called "the Elder" and "the Rich") and of his second wife, Juliana of Stolberg. Twelve years before the child was born, in 1521, Martin Luther had gone to the Diet or Council of Worms and earned for himself and his followers the name of "protestants" by protesting against the abuses of the Church of Rome. Count William the Elder, who was present at the Diet, heard Luther's speech and was much impressed by it. It was a very long time, notwithstanding, before he could bring himself to renounce the Catholic faith, and it was only in the year of his son's birth that he finally cast in his lot with Luther's party. Curiously enough, in spite of his change of religion, the baby William was christened with Roman Catholic and not with Protestant rites.

For the first few years of his life the little boy led a very quiet and happy existence at Dillenburg. He soon had no lack of playmates, for the Nassau circle gradually increased until Count William had a large family of five sons and six daughters (another daughter, the eldest, died in infancy) . Besides these eleven children there were several step-sisters and brothers, for both William's parents had been married before.

Juliana of Stolberg, the mistress of the castle and mother of these children, was a very good and noble woman, and it is certain that William owed to her influence and example many of the fine qualities that made him what he was in after life. For a sixteenth-century lady the Countess was unusually learned and cultured, for it was a time when much attention was generally paid to the education of women. So highly were Juliana's learning and wisdom esteemed by all who knew her, that many neighbouring families of noble birth sent their sons and daughters to receive a few years' training under her care. So Dillenburg Castle was always crowded with young people, and the old walls re-echoed to the sound of children's voices.

William was eleven years old when an event

Boyhood and Youth

happened which changed his quiet home life entirely. This was the death of his cousin, Rene of Nassau, titular Prince of Orange, who was wounded in battle in July, 1544, and died shortly afterwards. Rene had no son to succeed him as ruler of the small French principality of Orange, which had come to him through his mother, Claudia of Orange-Ch41ons. Therefore he thought it wise to make his will before leaving home for the battle-field under the banner of his master, the Emperor Charles V.

Rene's nearest relative was his father's brother, Count William the Elder, but the Count was a Protestant, while Ren^was staunchly loyal to the old faith; so the Prince passed over his uncle's claim, and, by special permission of the Emperor, he made, in soldier-fashion, a short will, leaving Orange and his vast Dutch estates around Breda to the Count's eldest son, William the younger.

It was on June 20th that he thus disposed of his property. Just a month later he died of a wound received during a skirmish at St Dizier, in France, which country the Emperor had invaded to quell the power of its king, Francis I.

Thus, at eleven years old, young William of Nassau, living his sheltered life in a remote German castle, became Prince of Orange and one of the richest noblemen in Flanders. His French estate had been confiscated by Francis I, and he never lived there, but his property in the Netherlands was very extensive and brought him in huge sums of money.

In spite of his title of "the Rich," his father was often hard pressed for money with so large a family to feed and educate, so the news of the eldest son's good fortune was received at Dillenburg with great joy. But to the dismay of this Protestant household it was soon made clear that by the terms of Rent's will the young Prince was made a ward of the Empire, which meant that he was to be educated how and where the Emperor directed, and as aRoman Catholic.

Rene had laid down these conditions in order to ensure that no Protestant should succeed him, and they explained his reason for cutting his uncle, the Count, out of the succession. The Nassaus quickly found that however much they might dislike this regulation, there was no escape from it, and in the end they were forced to accept it as philosophically as they could.

A few months later the little Prince left Dillenburg for Breda, near which place his large Flemish estates were situated. There was a house belonging to the Orange family in the sleepy little Dutch town, and William made his new home there under the superintendence of three guardians appointed by the Emperor. They were all devout Catholics, and henceforth the boy was bred in the faith of Rome.

Separated though he was from his family, the next three or four years passed very pleasantly to the young ward of the Empire. A great deal of his time was taken up by his lessons, at which he and two other boys of high rank — the Counts of Westerburg and Isenburg — worked diligently under the guidance of a tutor.

For the time in which he lived William received an unusually good education, especially in languages, for he learnt to speak and write five different tongues — German, French, Flemish, Spanish and Latin.

Boyhood and Youth

His life was not all lessons, by any means. He passed much of his time at Brussels, where the court lived, and where he was petted by the kind old Regent, Queen Maria, and made much of by the Emperor himself, when that great man was in the Netherlands, and neither fighting nor travelling. William soon became one of Charles V's pages, and was even permitted to be present at solemn State meetings of the cabinet, saying nothing and sitting forgotten in a corner, while he drank in with eager ears the discussions of the experienced men about him. It is easy to imagine how in after years he recalled portions of what he then heard, and turned the knowledge to good account in his country's service.

When next the boy saw his father he was a tall stripling of fifteen, and a long way on the road to manhood, for in those days children grew up earlier than they do now. Count William and the Prince of Orange met at the Diet of Augsburg, whither the father had journeyed in the interests of a family lawsuit, and the son had come in the train of the Emperor. William was now thought old enough to bear his part in the Nassau family councils, and his admittance to them on that visit to Augsburg marked the beginning of the long period during which he was friend, counsellor and second father to his younger brothers and sisters.

Two more uneventful years passed, and the Prince grew to manhood. A brilliant and fortunate life seemed opening before him, for he had every advantage in his favour — birth, friends, favour in high places, wealth, independence and talent. His ex-

i7 ceptional prospects and high character attracted the attention of Maximilian, Count of Buren, and in 1550 this nobleman proposed that Orange should wed his only child and heiress, Anne of Egmont. The two young people were about the same age, and the match was a very suitable one in every way. The wedding was celebrated with great pomp on July 6th, 1551.

In view of the Prince's marriage it was considered proper that he should have a household of his own, but as both bridegroom and bride were very young, a governor, in the person of Jerome de Perrenot, Seignior of Champagny, was appointed to have a general supervision over the youthful establishment.

There was some strife over this post, certain people interested in the Prince's affairs urging that the Seignior was not sufficiently elderly and dignified for the position, but in the end the appointment was secured to him by the influence of his brother, Anthony Perrenot, then Bishop of Arras. Jerome proved to be of no importance in the Prince's life; Anthony, who is better known by his later title of Cardinal Granvelle, began by being William's good friend and counsellor, but ended by becoming one of his bitterest foes.

The Prince spent the next four years almost entirely in camp or on the battle-field. The Emperor was continually at war with France, and Orange, although so young, was one of his most trusted officers. William saw very little of his young wife, but wrote to her often. In frequent letters, penned in French, and always opening "My Wife," and ending "Your very good husband, William of Nassau," he told her

'HE WAS APPOINTED GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE EM- PEROR'S FORCES"— Page 16

Boyhood and Youth

of his fervent wish that he could be at her side and grumbled boyishly over the hardships of camp life. Though he was not a born soldier, and disliked his military work rather than otherwise, he showed so much ability that his promotion was rapid, and in 1554, before he was twenty-one, he was appointed general-in-chief of the Emperor's forces — a very high position for one so young.

I beheld proud Maximilian, kneeling humbly on the ground;

I beheld the gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound.

CHAPTER II: The Early History of the Netherlands

TO gain a clear understanding of the influences and forces that were at work in the Netherlands during almost the whole lifetime of William, Prince of Orange, and for many years after his death, it is needful to go back to very early days and, beginning there, to take a short survey of the history of the Low Countries. By doing so we shall be able to understand many things that would only perplex us if we met with them for the first time in William's life story.

At the dawn of history the portion of north-west Europe known in later centuries as Flanders, and in our own day forming the two kingdoms of Belgium and Holland, was a flat, marshy triangle of country. To a large extent it was below the level of the sea at high tide, and was frequently flooded by the ocean beating on its western shore, and by the rivers which flowed through it.

In the time of the Romans, Batavia, as this territory was then called, was occupied by two distinct tribes, of different race, character, and habits. To the south the Belgse, often mentioned by Caesar in his Commentaries, were Celts or Gauls, like the inhabitants of the part of Europe we now call France; but the northern Nervii were of Teutonic origin and had come to Batavia from the German country beyond the Rhine.

The two races had very little in common, and never became bound into one nation, for in character, religion, and life they were the opposites of one another. It is very important to remember this great difference between them, for we shall see as we read more of the history of the Netherlands that this strong race contrast and disunion were at the root of all the troublous times in which William of Nassau lived.

The Romans conquered the inhabitants of Batavia, as they conquered almost all the then known world, but it cost them harder fighting than any of their other triumphs; for these Northmen, who had always to struggle for bare existence in their savage, water-logged land, had grown hardier and more warlike than any other tribe in Europe. Caesar himself wrote with admiration of their boldness and daring. They were never required to pay tribute to Rome, like all other conquered nations, and some of their bravest fighters were formed into the Batavian cavalry, which won great glory fighting for Rome, and became the Emperor's personal bodyguard.

Many Batavians of noble birth were sent to the city of the conquerors to be educated, and among them was a youth whose real name is lost to us, for he took the Roman one of Claudius Civilis. After serving twenty-five years in the Roman armies he and his brother were falsely accused of conspiracy against the Empire, and his brother was executed. Civilis escaped, burning with hatred for the Romans, and went back to his native land resolved to free Batavia. He was brave, talented, and eloquent, and for a little while the revolt was within an ace of success. Then the conquerors gathered a strong force, and Batavia was crushed anew.

The Early History

After the gradual weakening and final fall of the vast Roman Empire, the Batavians came under the dominion of the great and powerful race called the Franks. Originally a horde of barbarians who had been forced out of the Rhine country by the incursion of other tribes from the east, the Franks made their way westward, and settled in Gaul (which then became Frankland or France) and the southern parts of Batavia. Northern Batavia was occupied by the Frisians, a very bold, liberty-loving race, dwelling to the north-east, and the old Batavian nation disappeared, having been partly exterminated in fighting for Rome, and partly merged into the Frank and Frisian tribes.

The latter people, the "free Frisians/ 5 as they were called, fought for centuries to liberate themselves from the sway of the Franks. But in the end they were conquered, in spite of the words in their statute book, "The Frisians shall be free, as long as the wind blows out of the clouds and the world stands/ 5 They were even forced to accept Christianity by one of the Frankish sovereigns, whose hard fighting had won for him the name of Charles the Hammer. There is a story which tells how Radbod, the Frisian king, was lost to Christianity because of a bishop's imprudent reply.

Radbod had consented to be baptized, and when he had already put one leg into the font (for in those days a convert went bodily into the water) a sudden thought occurred to him.

"Tell me where my forefathers are at this moment/ 5 he demanded of Bishop Wolfran, who was waiting to perform the rite.

"With all other unbelievers in hell/' replied the Christian sternly.

Radbod's eyes grew dark, and he withdrew his leg from the font in much anger.

"Then will I rather feast with my ancestors in the halls of Woden" (chief of the heathen gods) "than dwell with your little starveling band of Christians in heaven/' he said; and nothing would shake his resolution, though after his death his subjects accepted Christianity.

As time went on the once powerful Frankish kings grew weaker and less capable of ruling their extensive possessions, and bit by bit the great Frankish empire went to pieces, just as Rome had done. In the tenth century the Netherlands passed from France to Germany, but their actual ruler was a certain Dirk I, whom the French king had a few years before created hereditary Count of Holland.

Holland (originally "hollowland," because of its swamps and bogs), was only a portion of the Netherlands. There were also the provinces of Lorraine, Flanders, Luxemburg, and others, each governed by its own count or duke, and each having its own unimportant history. The different rulers perpetually quarrelled among themselves, and war with one another was their chief occupation. Meanwhile the towns developed two important industries, the fisheries and the wool trade, and grew more flourishing every year.

During the thirteenth century a natural event occurred which set a permanent gap between the Frisians of the north and the rest of the Netherlands. During a terrific storm the waters of the North Sea

The Early History

rolled in for miles over Holland, and formed the wide Zuyder Zee, where previously there had been thousands of acres of meadows and quiet Dutch villages.

At last the descendants of Dirk I died out, and the government of Holland, which now included the neighbouring province of Zeeland, passed to the Count of Hainault. Fifty years later, in 1355, William IV of Hainault died childless; he was succeeded by his nephew Duke William of Bavaria, and he by his son Albert. On the death of Albert the sovereignty descended to his son William, who had married Margaret of Burgundy.

William's only child and heiress was his daughter Jacqueline, who was seventeen years old at the time of her father's death in 1417. Her cousin Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who desired the sovereignty for himself, set up civil war in the dukedom, defeated Jacqueline's followers, and made her lady forester of the provinces over which she should have ruled. The unlucky princess died in 1437 of a broken heart, and there was no one left to dispute the usurper's rights to the lands he had wrested from his own kinswoman.

The House of Burgundy, to which Philip belonged, was a very powerful one, accustomed always to have its own way, and brooking no interference from its subjects. The province of Burgundy is now part of France, but in those d?ys it was a separate kingdom, over which the head of the Burgundian house reigned supreme, without considering either his subjects' rights or those of the King of France, with whom he was often at war.

It is not surprising that Philip, reared with these notions, turned out to be very far from deserving his title of "the Good." He bought the county of Namur from its ruler and usurped the duchy of Brabant. In a few years, by purchase, inheritance, or conquest, he was master of all the seventeen provinces that made up the Netherlands.

Over this wide area he ruled tyrannically, refusing the towns their rights, breaking his solemn promises, embarking on a disastrous war with England, and breeding universal discontent among his subjects. Revolts against his authority were unsuccessful, and the country breathed a deep sigh of relief when, in 1467, death relieved it of the "good" and wellhated duke.

Philip was succeeded by his son, Charles the Headstrong, who proved an even worse sovereign than his father. Charles was not content with his position as duke, ruling the Netherlands under his two overlords, the Emperor of Germany and the King of France. His ambition was to have absolute control over his dominions and to be styled king instead of duke; and all his life he schemed and worked towards this end. He fought incessantly with France, and cared nothing that to gain the means to do so he had to tax, rob, and oppress his people.

Many another country might have resisted this tyranny successfully, but unfortunately for the Netherlands each of its cities was independent of all the others and very jealous of them. The towns were too distrustful of one another to unite against their Duke, and each was too weak]to fight him alone.

The Early History

We shall see presently how in the days of William of Orange the jealousy between the different cities again prevented their combining against a foe even worse than violent and wicked Charles the Headstrong.

In 1474, the bad Duke quarrelled with the Swiss, and led an army against them. To his intense rage they defeated him in two battles, and shortly afterwards he was killed while besieging the town of Nancy. For a man who had hoped and dared so much his end was a pitiful one. His body was found some days later among a heap of corpses, frozen into a dirty stream by the cold of two January nights,

Charles left one daughter, Mary, who, like the unhappy Jacqueline her own grandfather had despoiled, was not allowed to enjoy her inheritance in peace. In this case it was her father's old enemy, the King of France, who seized her lands.

The Netherlanders had hated Charles the Headstrong, but they detested and feared the French King even more, and for once they banded together to support Mary, provided she would rule them reasonably. Mary's reply was to grant to the Netherlands the Great Privilege, a constitution which corresponded to our English Magna Charta.

Its chief provisions were, that only Netherlanders should hold offices in the Low Countries, that taxes should not be imposed nor war undertaken without the consent of the Estates (Parliament), that no person might be imprisoned without just cause, and that the Great Council and Supreme Court of Holland, which had been abolished by ducal tyranny, should be re-established.

At the time, Mary may have meant to abide by the Great Privilege, or she may only have promised to do so in order to secure her subjects' support against France. Certain it is that when she was safely on her throne and married to Maximilian of Hapsburg, she no longer troubled about the solemn undertaking she had given to the people.

Her husband's one object in life was money, and he cared very little how or whence he obtained it, so it is not surprising that when Mary died and her four-year-old son Philip succeeded her, the people refused to permit Maximilian to act as his guardian and regent. The latter borrowed an army from his father, the Emperor of Germany, conquered one city after another, fined and slew the burghers, and ended by revoking the Great Privilege.

Then he appointed himself regent to his son, and spent the years while the boy was growing up in extracting large sums from the unfortunate Netherlanders.

When Philip (surnamed the "Handsome") came of age in 1494, the condition of things was very little improved, for the young sovereign refused to reestablish the Great Privilege. I need not describe his reign fully, but may pass on at once to his vastly more important son, with whom the history of William of Orange's period really begins.

Nest of Lutheran misbelievers!

Haunt of traitors and deceivers, Stronghold of insurgent weavers, Let it to the ground be razed!

CHAPTER III: The Reign of Charles V

PHILIP the Handsome had married Joanna, the eldest daughter and heiress of the King and Queen of Spain, and sister of Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII's six wives. Their son Charles was born in Ghent, one of the Netherland cities, and was all his life more Flemish than Spanish.

Probably no monarch ever inherited wider possessions than did Charles V. From his father he gained the Netherlands in 1506, through his mother he came to the throne of Spain ten years later. Nor were the Spaniards and the Flemings his only subjects, for in 1519 he was elected Emperor of Germany, largely through the influence of Henry of Nassau, brother of Count William the Elder. Besides this, by a Papal bull he became lord of the whole new American world that had recently been discovered by Spanish enterprise.

Charles V was no more of a friend to the Netherlands than his father and grandfather had been, though he was far wiser and more powerful than either. In 1521 came the beginning of the Reformation and the dawn of Protestantism. Luther was the pioneer in Germany, and the men who followed his teaching transferred their obedience from the Pope to their own particular count or duke — an arrangement which suited these petty rulers remarkably well.

In France and the Netherlands Protestantism took a different form. John Calvin became the leader of the "heretics/' as the Catholics called those who adopted the new faith, and Calvin, far from adding to the authority of the ruling class, the rich, taught that the power which was no longer permitted to the Pope should be placed in the hands of the people.

Charles V did not care greatly about religion, but he was quite clever enough to see that the Calvinists who had cast off the authority of the Pope, their spiritual ruler, would soon be tempted to do the same with their temporal sovereign — himself. To avoid this danger to his power he established the Inquisition, which had already proved very successful in stamping out heresy by fire and sword in Spain.

Now began a terrible time for the Netherlanders. The Spanish inquisitors or "seekers out" were strict and bigoted Catholics — hard men without a grain of mercy. The Protestants, and all who were suspected of being Protestants, were relentlessly persecuted, harried from place to place, imprisoned, hanged, and burned at the stake. It is said that in no part of the world did so many people suffer for their religion as in the Low Countries.

Nor was persecution the only wrong which Charles V inflicted on his Flemish subjects. There was great jealousy between him and the King of France, Francis I, who was about his own age, and the two monarchs were constantly at war. It was the Flemings who supplied the necessary money, and, though the cities were prospering greatly, they were very indignant at the injustice which forced them

The Reign of Charles V

to pay for a war which they did not desire and which could never benefit them.

At last, in 1539, Charles, who was even harder pressed for money than usual, demanded a grant of 1,200,000 florins, of which one-third was to be provided by the city of Ghent. This huge sum was needed for the expenses of wars in France, Sicily, and Milan, and the citizens of Ghent, in order to avoid payment, pleaded that according to Netherland law a grant could only be made if all the ^Estates agreed to it. When Charles still insisted they broke out into rebellion, and offered their allegiance to Francis I.

Unluckily for them, the French King decided that he had more to gain by revealing their proposal to the Emperor than by accepting their offer. When Charles heard of the action they had taken he was furious, and resolved to teach Ghent a lesson she would never forget.

He entered the city without resistance, remained inactive for a month till the citizens' fears were lulled to rest, and then deprived Ghent of all her charters and privileges. At the same time he insisted on payment of a much larger grant than he had at first demanded, executed several of the chief citizens, and imposed a perpetual yearly fine on the burghers. After all this tyranny he remembered that he had been born in Ghent, and on that account forgave the rebellious city, and refrained from further punishment!

In his younger days, Charles V was an exceptionally fortunate man, but as time went on his luck deserted him, and he was defeated by all the foes whom he had begun by crushing. In addition his hard work and his extreme greed at table gradually ruined his health, and by the time he was fifty-five he realized that he must retire from his many thrones in favour of a younger and healthier man — his son, Prince Philip of Spain.

Charles determined to make his abdication as impressive as possible, and arranged a grand ceremonial, which took place at Brussels on October 25th, 1555.

Among those present were the new King, Philip, his aunt, the Dowager Queen of Hungary, who had been Regent of the Netherlands for many years, and a vast concourse of nobles and statesmen. The Emperor spared no effort to make this parting ceremony live in the memories of those who witnessed it, and the Prince of Orange was specially summoned from camp in order that he might be present. When Charles entered the hall of the palace at Brussels, in which the abdication took place, it was William's shoulder on which he leaned.

Many other notable men of the day had been summoned for the occasion; the Bishop of Arras, the Counts of Egmont and Horn, Baron Montigny, Brederode the boisterous, the crafty Frisian minister Viglius, and many another of rank or importance in the Netherlands.

Several long speeches were made, and Charles V, in spite of all his tyrannies, represented himself so artfully as having been all that the best of emperors could be, that some of the audience were moved to tears. He contrived to make his hearers forget his demands for money, his treatment of Ghent, his

The Reign of Charles V

persecutions, and his disastrous warfare, and made them feel that they were losing a father as well as a ruler. Then Philip was solemnly presented to the assembled multitude as their future sovereign, and Orange supported his retiring master out of the hall.

Whatever his faults — and they were many — there was more of a popular hero in Charles than in his son and successor. The father at least was bold, energetic, and very clever, and in his younger days had been a fine and successful general.