Title:  The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555

Author:  John Lothrop Motley

Release Date:  January, 2004 [EBook #4803] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 12, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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MOTLEY’S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 3.

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.

1855

PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS

1555 [Chapter I.]

Abdication of Charles resolved upon—­Brussels in the sixteenth century—­Hall of the palace described—­Portraits of prominent individuals present at the ceremony—­Formalities of the abdication—­ Universal emotion—­Remarks upon the character and career of Charles —­His retirement at Juste.

On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, the estates of the Netherlands were assembled in the great hall of the palace at Brussels.  They had been summoned to be the witnesses and the guarantees of the abdication which Charles V. had long before resolved upon, and which he was that day to execute.  The emperor, like many potentates before and since, was fond of great political spectacles.  He knew their influence upon the masses of mankind.  Although plain, even to shabbiness, in his own costume, and usually attired in black, no one ever understood better than he how to arrange such exhibitions in a striking and artistic style.  We have seen the theatrical and imposing manner in which he quelled the insurrection at Ghent, and nearly crushed the life forever out of that vigorous and turbulent little commonwealth.  The closing scene of his long and energetic reign he had now arranged with profound study, and with an accurate knowledge of the manner in which the requisite effects were to be produced.  The termination of his own career, the opening of his beloved Philip’s, were to be dramatized in a manner worthy the august character of the actors, and the importance of the great stage where they played their parts.  The eyes of the whole world were directed upon that day towards Brussels; for an imperial abdication was an event which had not, in the sixteenth century, been staled by custom.