new magistrates, and was informed that he had been selected as commissioner along with Count Aremberg, to see that the appointments were carried into effect.  The indignation of the Prince was extreme.  He had already taken offence at some insolent expressions upon this topic, which the Cardinal had permitted himself.  He now sent back the commission to the Duchess, adding, it was said, that he was not her lackey, and that she might send some one else with her errands.  The words were repeated in the state council.  There was a violent altercation—­Orange vehemently resenting his appointment merely to carry out decisions in which he claimed an original voice.  His ancestors, he said, had often changed the whole of the Antwerp magistracy by their own authority.  It was a little too much that this matter, as well as every other state affair, should be controlled by the secret committee of which the Cardinal was the chief.  Granvelle, on his side, was also in a rage.  He flung from the council-chamber, summoned the Chancellor of Brabant, and demanded, amid bitter execrations against Orange, what common and obscure gentleman there might be, whom he could appoint to execute the commission thus refused by the Prince and by Aremberg.  He vowed that in all important matters he would, on future occasions, make use of nobles less inflated by pride, and more tractable than such grand seignors.  The chancellor tried in vain to appease the churchman’s wrath, representing that the city of Antwerp would be highly offended at the turn things were taking, and offering his services to induce the withdrawal, on the part of the Prince, of the language which had given so much offence.  The Cardinal was inexorable and peremptory.  “I will have nothing to do with the Prince, Master Chancellor,” said he, “and these are matters which concern you not.”  Thus the conversation ended, and thus began the open state of hostilities between the great nobles and the Cardinal, which had been brooding so long.

On the 23rd July, 1561, a few weeks after the scenes lately described, the Count of Egmont and the Prince of Orange addressed a joint letter to the King.  They reminded him in this despatch that, they had originally been reluctant to take office in the state council, on account of their previous experience of the manner in which business had been conducted during the administration of the Duke of Savoy.  They had feared that important matters of state might be transacted without their concurrence.  The King had, however, assured them, when in Zeland, that all affairs would be uniformly treated in full council.  If the contrary should ever prove the case, he had desired them to give him information to that effect, that he might instantly apply the remedy.  They accordingly now gave him that information.  They were consulted upon small matters:  momentous affairs were decided upon in their absence.  Still they would not even now have complained had not Cardinal Granvelle declared that all the members of the state council were to be held responsible for its measures, whether they were present at its decisions or not.  Not liking such responsibility, they requested the King either to accept their resignation or to give orders that all affairs should be communicated to the whole board and deliberated upon by all the councillors.