of the Burgundian dynasty, it was his purpose to restore.  The attitude which he now assumed was a peculiar one in history.  This defender of a people’s cause set up no revolutionary standard.  In all his documents he paid apparent reverence to the authority of the King.  By a fiction, which was not unphilosophical, he assumed that the monarch was incapable of the crimes which he charged upon the Viceroy.  Thus he did not assume the character of a rebel in arms against his prince, but in his own capacity of sovereign he levied troops and waged war against a satrap whom he chose to consider false to his master’s orders.  In the interest of Philip, assumed to be identical with the welfare of his people, he took up arms against the tyrant who was sacrificing both.  This mask of loyalty would never save his head from the block, as he well knew, but some spirits lofty as his own, might perhaps be influenced by a noble sophistry, which sought to strengthen the cause of the people by attributing virtue to the King.

And thus did the sovereign of an insignificant little principality stand boldly forth to do battle with the most powerful monarch in the world.  At his own expense, and by almost superhuman exertions, he had assembled nearly thirty thousand men.  He now boldly proclaimed to the world, and especially to the inhabitants of the provinces, his motives, his purposes, and his hopes.

“We, by God’s grace Prince of Orange,” said his declaration of 31st August, 1568, “salute all faithful subjects of his Majesty.  To few people is it unknown that the Spaniards have for a long time sought to govern the land according to their pleasure.  Abusing his Majesty’s goodness, they have persuaded him to decree the introduction of the inquisition into the Netherlands.  They well understood, that in case the Netherlanders could be made to tolerate its exercise, they would lose all protection to their liberty; that if they opposed its introduction, they would open those rich provinces as a vast field of plunder.  We had hoped that his Majesty, taking the matter to heart, would have spared his hereditary provinces from such utter ruin.  We have found our hopes futile.  We are unable, by reason of our loyal service due to his Majesty, and of our true compassion for the faithful lieges, to look with tranquillity any longer at such murders, robberies, outrages, and agony.  We are, moreover, certain that his Majesty has been badly informed upon Netherland matters.  We take up arms, therefore, to oppose the violent tyranny of the Spaniards, by the help of the merciful God, who is the enemy of all bloodthirstiness.  Cheerfully inclined to wager our life and all our worldly wealth on the cause, we have now, God be thanked, an excellent army of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, raised all at our own expense.  We summon all loyal subjects of the Netherlands to come and help us.  Let them take to heart the uttermost need of the country, the danger of perpetual slavery