 |
| Anna of Saxony |
William did
not marry again until three years after Anna’s death. He considered marrying
the young Princess of Lorraine, but when her mother proclaimed herself the better
choice, William backed off. William married Anna of Saxony, the daughter and heiress of Maurice, the Elector of Saxony, on 25 August 1561.
William may
have married Anna with the aim of gaining more influence in Saxony, Hesse and the Palatinate. As far as Philip was concerned Anna
was a dangerous match as William would be drawn into the orbit of the German
militant Protestant tendency. William refused to insist on other than outward religious
conformity for his Protestant bride and Philip sent insincere congratulations
and a ring worth 3,000 eçus[i].
Anna was
described by contemporaries as
‘Self-absorbed, weak,
assertive, and cruel.’[ii]
 |
| Philip, Landgrave of Hesse |
The dowry of
100,000 thalers[iii]
was probably another attraction for the perennially cash strapped William. The
marriage, originally planned for 1560, was delayed for a year by the opposition
of Anna’s maternal grandfather Philip, Landgrave of Hesse who thought that William was not
sufficiently high ranking powerful for the daughter of an Elector of the Holy Roman
Empire. In 1561 William was appointed Stadtholder of Franche-Comté.
In 1562, just
a few months after the wedding, difficulties arose between Anna and William.
Anna received letters from her uncle meant for William stating he should work
more towards pleasing her. The couple’s first child Anna was born on 31 October
1562; she died the same day. Their second child Anna was born in Breda on 5 November 1563[iv]. Maurice August Philip
was born on 8 December 1564[v].
Opposition
 |
| Floris de Montmorency |
In 1562 the
nobles sent Floris de Montmorency[vi], Baron Montigny to Philip with their
grievances and Philip was aghast to be told that the Dutch resented Granvelle, Philip’s
plan to reform the bishoprics and to introduce the Inquisition into the Low
Countries. Philip assured Montigny;
‘Never in my imagination
have I thought of introducing into Flanders the Inquisition of Spain.’[vii]
Philip
mistrusted both of his most senior Dutch Stadtholders, both of whom he had put
into key positions. William was the stadtholder[viii] of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht and Egmont of Flanders and Artois.
The mistrust was a two-way thing; the Dutch were concerned about the inner
council of advisers around Margaret of Parma. Margaret had been ordered by
Philip that certain matters could only be discussed with this inner coterie.
In March
1563 William, Egmont and Hoorn sent Philip an ultimatum; Granvelle must resign
and they were leaving the Council of State until he did so. Margaret refused to
withdraw her support from Granvelle and Philip tried to influence matters from
far off Spain. Foremost among Philip’s supporters of the Dutch nobility were Philip,
Count Arenberg, and Philip, Duke of Aarschot; these men were political nonentities who had little
support from their fellow countrymen.
Religious Liberty
 |
| Cardinal Granvelle |
But William
kept pushing; he insinuated that Granvelle was considering political
assassination as a way out of the impasse that both sides found themselves in.
Eventually it was Philip who broke, suggesting to Granvelle that he find a
personal reason to leave the Low Countries. Margaret asked William to return to
the council on the understanding that Granvelle was going. William wrote to
Louis on 5th March 1564;
‘Certain it is that our man is
going; God send that he go so far as to never come back again.’[ix]
Granvelle
left on 12th March and six days later William, Hoorn and Egmont
resumed their places on the Council of State.
In December
1564 William made an impassioned speech in the council in favour of liberty of
conscience. The nobles decided that their grievances should be made known to
Philip personally by Egmont who journeyed to Spain in February 1565. Philip was
irritated by the demands of his Dutch nobles. His answer finally came in an instruction
for Margaret of 2nd April showing the depth of his opposition to the
reformed religion;
‘In the question of
religion, what most concerns and what I can least permit is any change, and I
should count it as nothing to lose 100,000 lives, if I had them, rather than
allow it.’[x]
Philip
forced through his reform of the bishoprics and ordered the execution of six Anabaptists whose fate had been referred to him; his subjects in the
Netherlands were up in arms. It was during this year that the Netherland’s
greatest sympathiser among Philip’s secretaries, Francisco de Eraso, was
disgraced. The hardliners amongst Philip’s advisers, Granvelle and the Duke
of Alba, were now in the ascendant.
A Downward Spiral
 |
| William Landgrave of h Hesse-Kessel |
By 1565, it
was well known in all the courts of Germany and the Netherlands that William
and Anna’s marriage was an unhappy one. Anna was spoken of as being William’s ‘domestic curse’. Anna was known to be
an unmanageable vixen who had a group of ‘lewd’
companions. She alternated between fits of drunken melancholy, when she would
stay in a darkened room, and rushing off to Spa with her friends and
claiming that William was trying to poison her if the question of her returning
home was made. Rumours were rife about the marriage in the Netherlands.
Anna was
unkind to her stepchildren and was unrestrained in public life; on one occasion
she screamed across the room at William during a public dinner at the Palais de
Nassau, claiming he was inadequate sexually. William wrote;
‘What happens secretly can
well be borne…..but verily I found it hard enough to hear her speak such things
in front of everyone.’[xi]
In 1565
William finally complained about the ‘contentious’
nature of his wife to her Saxon uncle Augustus Elector of Saxony and her Hessian uncle Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel. Anna immediately put on a show of
repentance, but William was not appeased, she had done this many times before.
In the
summer of 1565 William sent Philip William to study at the University of Leuven although he was only twelve years
old, and asked Margaret to take his ten year old daughter Maria as one of her
ladies-in-waiting. Maria’s youth made it quite clear that William did not want
his children in touch with their stepmother. It was now that William turned all
his endeavours to politics
The Gathering Storm
In the
autumn of 1565 Philip decided to return to the Netherlands; Granvelle, from his
retirement at Besançon, had suggested that Philip see how
the nobility were mismanaging affairs there. While for the rebels’ part
Philip’s failure to visit only showed his indifference to their country.
The harvest
was poor and the price of corn rose phenomenally during early winter[xii]; people were starving
and in response Philip sent one shipload of corn, which did not go far. Many
artisans and their families fled to England, while wealthy burghers too were
selling up in preparation to emigrate, even as Philip instructed his sister
that his religious edicts must be severely enforced. For William and his
colleagues the way forward was clear. William wrote;
‘It is folly to enforce the Placaten when corn is so dear.’[xiii]
 |
| Hendrik van Brederode |
Margaret of
Parma sought to break the bond between William and Egmont by showing preference
to Egmont. One observer wrote;
‘The Countess of Egmont sits
with Madame [Margaret] while the Princess of Orange is kept standing, the Prince
of Orange is dying of rage.’[xiv]
Anna had
promised William that she would henceforth behave but, now after Margaret’s
snub, all promises were forgotten. Her behaviour was the talk of Brussels.
At the end
of the year Louis and Hendrik van Brederode, along with a number of the other
Dutch-Flemish lesser nobility with Calvinist inclinations, made a secret
agreement to oppose the enforcement of Philip’s religious edicts.
On 24th
January 1566 William informed Margaret that he wished to retire from public
life. He attempted to negotiate a loan from the burghers of Antwerp; he owed one million florins[xv]. Unsurprisingly the
burghers were not prepared to loan monies on such a risky return. But William
did discover that the burghers and wealthy citizens on Antwerp were unhappy
with Philip’s policies. One of the leading citizens of Antwerp was henceforth
one of William’s most trusted advisers; the Pensionary of Antwerp, Jacob
Wesembeeck. William was persuaded to withdraw his resignation.
Bibliography
The Age of
Religious Wars – Richard S Dunn, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1971
The Revolt
of the Netherlands – Pieter Geyl, Cassell History 1988
The Holy
Roman Empire – Friedrich Heer, Phoenix 1995
The Spanish
Inquisition – Henry Kamen, Phoenix 1998
Philip of
Spain – Henry Kamen, Yale University Press 1998
The Grand
Strategy of Philip II – Geoffrey Parker, Yale University Press 1998
William the
Silent – CV Wedgewood, Readers Union Ltd 1945
The
Hapsburgs – Andrew Wheatcroft, Folio Society 2004
[i]
A standard gift for senior nobility - in 2014 the relative: real price of that commodity is £894,600.00 www.measuringworth.com
[iii]
Or £200,000.00 (see www.austriancoins.com)
- in 2014 the relative: historic standard of living value
of that income or wealth is £59,640,000.00 economic
status value of that income or wealth is £1,990,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or
wealth is £23,330,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[v]
He died on 3rd March 1566
[vi]
Count Hoorn’s younger brother
[vii]
Philip of Spain - Kamen
[viii]
Governor
[ix]
William the Silent - Wedgewood
[x]
Philip of Spain - Kamen
[xi]
William the Silent - Wedgewood
[xii]
Scandinavian countries had blocked trade in the summer in the midst of a
dispute and corn imports were severely affected
[xiii]
William the Silent - Wedgewood
[xiv]
Ibid
[xv]
In 2014
the relative: historic standard of living
value of that income or wealth is £310,300,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £8,934,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £100,200,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
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