636 WILLIAM OF NASSAU edict3 in the provinces of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht, of which he was the stadtholder. He disapproved of the rash measures of tbe gueux or "beggars;" but when pacific resis- tance became evidently unavailing, he proposed to Egmont and Horn, though in vain, forcible measures against the threatened invasion of Spanish troops. In 1567 he pacified Antwerp, where the Oalvinists had risen in insurrection, and shortly afterward resigned all his offices and withdrew to Germany, four months before Alva's arrival at Brussels with a Spanish army. Horn and Egmont were seized as traitors ; the " blood council " was established, and as Wil- liam disregarded the summons (January, 1568) to appear before it, he was proscribed, his prop- erty was confiscated, and his son the count of Buren was sent to Spain as a hostage. William published an eloquent " Justification against the False Blame of his Calumniators," and be- gan to raise money and troops in concert with the Protestant princes of Germany. The first operations miscarried ; his brother Louis was driven back from Friesland, and William with 30,000 men in vain sought to engage Alva in battle in Brabant, and was forced to retire to French Flanders ; and in the spring of 1569 he and his brothers Louis and Henry and 1,200 of his soldiers joined the Huguenots under Co- ligni. Ho had been approaching the reformed worship step by step, but it was not until four years after this that he first publicly attended communion at a Calvinist meeting. In the autumn of 15t>9 he returned to Germany, where he issued letters of marque to privateers to prey upon Spanish ships. The capture of Briel in April, 1572, by these " beggars of the sea," was followed by an almost instantaneous rising throughout the produces. Flushing, Leyden, Haarlem, Dort, and many other cities, as well as the see of Utrecht, recognized William's authority. In July he crossed the Rhine with 24,000 troops, captured Roermond, and occu- pied other towns, while his brother Louis had in the mean time taken Mons. But the mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew cut him off from all hope of further assistance from France, and once more he was compelled to disband his army. Mons surrendered to the Spaniards, as well as other towns of Brabant and Flan- ders. In July, 1573, they sacked Haarlem, after a siege of seven months, in which they had lost upward of 10,000 men; but they failed to reduce Alkmaar, and the patriots achieved naval victories and took Middelburg. William in the mean time had collected 6,000 troops at Bommel, and early in 1574 sent or- ders to Louis to join him. On the way from France the latter was defeated by Avila, and erished, together with his brother Henry, he siege of Leyden, which had been inter- rupted by the Spaniards in order to intercept Louis, was now resumed ; but William inun- dated the country by cutting the dikes, and sent Admiral Boisot with a fleet to relieve the place, the Spaniards taking to flight on the approach of the ships. In October, 1574, the estates of Holland placed nearly all authority in the hands of the prince. A conference with the Spanish commissioners at Breda in March, 1575, led to no result. A mutiny among the Spanish soldiers engaged in pillage induced the five provinces which had adhered to Spain to join William and send delegates to the states general at Ghent (October, 1576), at which a league was formed (November) against the common enemy, and freedom of worship was granted to all denominations. In Febru- ary, 1577, the new Spanish governor, Don John of Austria, issued an edict pretending to grant nearly all the demands of the patriots ; but William repelled his attempts, which he had reason to believe were treacherous. His popularity now gave umbrage to a portion of the Roman Catholic nobility, who invited the young archduke Matthias to act as governor general ; but his administration was only nom- inal, while William as lieutenant general was the virtual ruler in conjunction with the states general. Hostilities broke out anew. Don John of Austria overwhelmed the Netherland- ers near Gembloux, Jan. 31, 1578, and occupied Louvain and other places. Amsterdam, how- ever, sided with William, and Queen Eliza- beth, jealous of the designs of the duke of Anjou, who at the instance of the Catholic nobles had arrived with troops from France, with the double purpose of repelling the Span- iards and supplanting William, subsidized an- other army of 12,000 men under the count palatine John Casimir; but both expeditions proved abortive. Alexander Farnese, succeed- ing as governor on the death of Don John, gained over the Walloon provinces, where Wil- liam had incurred hostility by quelling an outbreak among the Catholics, and in 1579- '80 took possession of Maestricht, Mechlin, and Groningen. Before this, however, the prince, through his brother John, had succeed- ed in uniting Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Fries- land, Groningen, Overyssel, and Gelderland in a league for mutual defence and assistance. This union, which is generally regarded as the foundation of the Dutch republic, was conclu- ded at Utrecht in January, 1579 ; and on July 26, 1581, the United Provinces, in an assembly at the Hague, solemnly proclaimed their inde- pendence. The sovereignty was offered to the duke of Anjou. Although " Father William," as he was popularly called, had the confidence of the whole people, he contented himself with the governorship of Holland and Zealand, in order not to give umbrage to France, and An- jon assumed the administration of the other provinces. Even after the expulsion of the latter in 1582, William refused the general gov- ernment. The duke died in France in June, 1584, and before measures could be taken to appoint his successor William of Orange was assassinated. Several attempts upon his life bad been made under the influence of the re- ward of 25,000 crowns and a patent of nobility
