These applications, however, to the Emperor, and through him to the King of Spain, had been, as we have seen, accompanied by perpetual advice to the Prince of Orange, that he should “sit still.”  The Emperor had espoused his cause with apparent frankness, so far as friendly mediation went, but in the meantime had peremptorily commanded him to refrain from levying war upon Alva, an injunction which the Prince had as peremptorily declined to obey.  The Emperor had even sent especial envoys to the Duke and to the Prince, to induce them to lay down their arms, but without effect.  Orange knew which course was the more generous to his oppressed country; to take up arms, now that hope had been converted into despair by the furious tyranny of Alva, or to “sit still” and await the result of the protocols about to be exchanged between king and kaiser.  His arms had been unsuccessful indeed, but had he attended the issue of this sluggish diplomacy, it would have been even worse for the cause of freedom.  The sympathy of his best friends, at first fervent then lukewarm, had, as disasters thickened around him, grown at last stone-cold.  From the grave, too, of Queen Isabella arose the most importunate phantom in his path.  The King of Spain was a widower again, and the Emperor among his sixteen children had more than one marriageable daughter.  To the titles of “beloved cousin and brother-in-law,” with which Philip had always been greeted in the Imperial proclamations, the nearer and dearer one of son-in-law was prospectively added.

The ties of wedlock were sacred in the traditions of the Habsburg house, but still the intervention was nominally made.  As early as August, 1568, the Emperor’s minister at Madrid had addressed a memorial to the King.  He had spoken in warm and strong language of the fate of Egmont and Horn, and had reminded Philip that the executions which were constantly taking place in the provinces were steadily advancing the Prince of Orange’s cause.  On the 22nd September, 1568, the six electors had addressed a formal memorial to the Emperor.  They thanked him for his previous interposition in favor of the Netherlands, painted in lively colors the cruelty of Alva, and denounced the unheard-of rigor with which he had massacred, not only many illustrious seigniors, but people of every degree.  Notwithstanding the repeated assurances given by the King to the contrary, they reminded the Emperor, that the inquisition, as well as the Council of Trent, had now been established in the Netherlands in full vigor.  They maintained that the provinces had been excluded from the Augsburg religious peace, to which their claim was perfect.  Nether Germany was entitled to the same privileges as Upper Germany.  They begged the Emperor to make manifest his sentiments and their own.  It was fitting that his Catholic Majesty should be aware that the princes of the Empire were united for the conservation of fatherland and of tranquillity.  To this end they placed in the Emperor’s hands their estates, their fortunes, and their lives.