Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Complete (1555-84) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,010 pages of information about Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Complete (1555-84).

Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Complete (1555-84) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,010 pages of information about Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Complete (1555-84).
for themselves and their children, and of the entire overthrow of the Evangelical religion.  Only when Alva’s blood- thirstiness shall have been at last overpowered, can the provinces hope to recover their pure administration of justice, and a prosperous condition for their commonwealth.”

In the “warning” or proclamation to all the inhabitants of the Netherlands, the Prince expressed similar sentiments.  He announced his intention of expelling the Spaniards forever from the country.  To accomplish the mighty undertaking, money was necessary.  He accordingly called on his countrymen to contribute, the rich out of their abundance, the poor even out of their poverty, to the furtherance of the cause.  To do this, while it was yet time, he solemnly warned them “before God, the fatherland, and the world.”  After the title of this paper were cited the 28th, 29th, and 30th verses of the tenth chapter of Proverbs.  The favorite motto of the Prince, “pro lege, rege, grege,” was also affixed to the document.

These appeals had, however, but little effect.  Of three hundred thousand crowns, promised on behalf of leading nobles and merchants of the Netherlands by Marcus Perez, but ten or twelve thousand came to hand.  The appeals to the gentlemen who had signed the Compromise, and to many others who had, in times past, been favorable to the liberal party were powerless.  A poor Anabaptist preacher collected a small sum from a refugee congregation on the outskirts of Holland, and brought it, at the peril of his life, into the Prince’s camp.  It came from people, he said, whose will was better than the gift.  They never wished to be repaid, he said, except by kindness, when the cause of reform should be triumphant in the Netherlands.  The Prince signed a receipt for the money, expressing himself touched by this sympathy from these poor outcasts.  In the course of time, other contributions from similar sources, principally collected by dissenting preachers, starving and persecuted church communities, were received.  The poverty-stricken exiles contributed far more, in proportion, for the establishment of civil and religious liberty, than the wealthy merchants or the haughty nobles.

Late in September, the Prince mustered his army in the province of Treves, near the monastery of Romersdorf.  His force amounted to nearly thirty thousand men, of whom nine thousand were cavalry.  Lumey, Count de la Marek, now joined him at the head of a picked band of troopers; a bold, ferocious partisan, descended from the celebrated Wild Boar of Ardennes.  Like Civilis, the ancient Batavian hero, he had sworn to leave hair and beard unshorn till the liberation of the country was achieved, or at least till the death of Egmont, whose blood relation he was, had been avenged.  It is probable that the fierce conduct of this chieftain, and particularly the cruelties exercised upon monks and papists by his troops, dishonored the cause more than their valor could advance it.  But in those stormy times such rude but incisive instruments were scarcely to be neglected, and the name of Lumey was to be forever associated with important triumphs of the liberal cause.

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Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Complete (1555-84) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.