and other misdeeds of which these provinces had been the theatre, were, with justice, to be imputed to him.  He had moreover, levied an army and invaded his Majesty’s territories.  Crimes so enormous had closed the gate to all clemency.  Notwithstanding his respect for the intercession made by the Emperor and the princes of the Empire, the King could not condescend to grant what was now asked of him in regard to the Prince of Orange.  As to a truce between him and the Duke of Alva, his Imperial Majesty ought to reflect upon the difference between a sovereign and his rebellious vassal, and consider how indecent and how prejudicial to the King’s honor such a treaty must be esteemed.

So far the public letter, of which the Archduke was furnished with a copy, both in Spanish and in Latin.  The private memorandum was intended for the Emperor’s eyes alone and those of his envoy.  In this paper the King expressed himself with more warmth and in more decided language.  He was astonished, he said, that the Prince of Orange, in levying an army for the purpose of invading the states of his natural sovereign, should have received so much aid and comfort in Germany.  It seemed incredible that this could not have been prevented by imperial authority.  He had been pained that commissioners had been sent to the Prince.  He regretted such a demonstration in his favor as had now been made by the mission of the Archduke to Madrid.  That which, however, had caused the King the deepest sorrow was, that his Imperial Majesty should wish to persuade him in religious matters to proceed with mildness.  The Emperor ought to be aware that no human consideration, no regard for his realms, nothing in the world which could be represented or risked, would cause him to swerve by a single hair’s breadth from his path in the matter of religion.  This path was the same throughout all his kingdoms.  He had ever trod in it faithfully, and he meant to keep in it perpetually.  He would admit neither counsel nor persuasion to the contrary, and should take it ill if counsel or persuasion should be offered.  He could not but consider the terms of the instructions given to the Archduke as exceeding the limits of amicable suggestion.  They in effect amounted to a menace, and he was astonished that a menace should be employed, because, with princes constituted like himself, such means could have but little success.

On the 23rd of January, 1569, the Archduke presented the King with a spirited reply to the public letter.  It was couched in the spirit of the instructions, and therefore need not be analysed at length.  He did not believe that his Imperial Majesty would admit any justification of the course pursued in the Netherlands.  The estates of the Empire would never allow Philip’s reasoning concerning the connexion of those countries with the Empire, nor that they were independent, except in the particular articles expressed in the treaty of Augsburg.  In 1555, when Charles the Fifth and King Ferdinand had settled