 |
| William II de la Marck |
Guerrilla
fighters, members of the Beggars’ bands, lived in the woods and harassed the
Spanish whenever they could. Their disorderly conduct on land had made them
unwelcome visitors wherever they landed, but their piratical conduct filled
William’s treasury anew.
The most
noteworthy of a series of unruly captains was William II de la Marck, a genial ruffian descended from a
line of robber barons. William regularly changed the leaders of the Sea Beggars
in the vain attempt of bringing them under control.
On 21st
February 1572 the Sea Beggars were expelled from English ports where they had
been allowed refuge. Being expelled from England had one unexpected and welcome
result for the Sea Beggars; on 1st April 1572 they captured Brielle, providing the first foothold on land
for the rebels.
Brielle harboured about 25 ships and 7-800 fighting men. The
Dutch punned on the Flemish meaning of the word brielle;
 |
| Vlissigen |
‘The Duke of Alva lost his
spectacles on All Fools Day.’[i]
Louis and
the rest of the fleet sailed up the Schedlt and went on to capture Vlissingen on 6th April. He followed this victory up by
taking Mons in May 1572. The capture of the
towns was the inspiration for uprisings throughout the provinces. Zealand
Friesland and part of Holland all declared for the Prince of Orange.
Seizing the Moment
 |
| Frankfurt |
William
seized the moment and ordered that all Spanish taxes be remitted, all
privileges restored, there was to be liberty of conscience for all[ii] and there was to be no
plundering (something the Sea Beggars did not think pertained to themselves) or
victimisation. The German princes gathered at Dillenburg, were unwilling to
commit themselves.
The Dutch
merchants sent one of their own with 100,000 florins[iii] as a loan for William’s
war expenses. Impressed by the Dutch fervour the princes granted William
recruitment rights in their lands. William spent June in Frankfurt raising money from
every banker who was prepared to, however little the loan.
On 28th
June William left Dillenburg with 1,000 horse. At Siegen a further 4,000 were
waiting; by the time he reached Essen he had 20,000 men. In July the deputies
of the cities involved in the revolt met at Dordrecht and William was chosen as
the commander in chief of the rebel armies. From Guelderland in August William wrote to his brother John;
‘I have come to make my
grave in this land.’
He was never
to leave the Netherlands again.
Blow and Counterblow
 |
| Council of Blood |
Alba had
filled the senior positions at his court with Spaniards, Spanish was the
language of the court and although Philip issued a pardon for those who were
marginally involved in the uprising, Alva did not publish it for six months.
Even then it was a very imprecise document and those owning up could very well
find themselves in further trouble. The preferment of all things Spanish caused
an intense hatred of the Spanish to start percolating through the Netherlands.
By 1572 the
Council of Blood had sent over 6,000 Dutch citizens to the execution block or
gallows. And bone fires burned with impressive regularity in Dutch towns for
those who would not abjure their Protestant faith. Regular caravans of
emigrants left for the Rhineland and by the shipload for England, from whence
arms and ammunition were imported.
Alba’s
attempt early in 1572 to introduce a new tax called the Tenth Penny was a
dismal failure. The tax was detested and when the burghers of Gouda called upon
the guard to defend the town against the rebels they were told;
‘No; for the Tenth Penny we
won’t lift a finger.’[iv]
In the spring
of 1572 Juan de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli, was sent to the Netherlands as governor; Philip had lost
faith in Alba’s blood bath. Medinaceli was not impressed by Alba’s methods,
reporting back to Madrid;
‘Excessive rigour, the
misconduct of some officers and soldiers, and the Tenth Penny, are the cause of
all the ills and not heresy or rebellion.’[v]
Medinaceli
believed in following the more conciliatory policies of Philip’s father Charles
V. He lobbied Philip for Alba to be replaced as military commander; his brutal
policies were clearly only turning the Dutch to support their hero the Prince
of Orange. Alba by this time was desperately weary of the fight and desperate
to return home to Spain.
William
determined to take the provinces one by one and made a fortress in the north
where the Sea Beggars could protect them from incursions by the Spanish. The
invasion had been predicated on a[vi] diversionary invasion
from the south by the Huguenots.
Spanish Revenge
 |
| St Bartholomew's Day Massacre |
On 24th
August, when William took Roermond[vii], the faction in France supporting
the Duc de Guise[viii] had Admiral Coligny assassinated;
the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of prominent Huguenots[ix] had begun[x]. The Huguenots were placed
on the back foot as most of their number were murdered in Paris. Now they were
in no position to follow up on their promises to support the Dutch in their
rebellion.
Philip was
jubilant at this strike at the heretics, while the Pope struck a medal in the
assassins’ honour. Alba alone was not heartened by the attack; William
reorganised his plans with an attempted assault on Jemappes, deep in Flanders. One of Alba’s lieutenants, Julian Romero[xi], led a raid on the rebel camp and
William was almost killed. He was woken from sleep by his dog Kuntze, who
barked at the attackers. Louis, who had barricaded himself in Mons, was allowed to march out
with the honours of war on 19th September.
 |
| Don Fadrique de Toledo |
Don Fadrique de Toledo, Alba’s son and heir, led the
Spanish counter-surge with orders to spare the rebels; men or women or cities.
They retook Zutphen, sacking the city and hanging the
soldiers of the garrison over the walls by their feet. Mechelen too was retaken and the townspeople massacred. By the time winter
arrived, to freeze the armies in position, William and his supporters held one
third of Holland, the coastline of Zealand and parts of Friesland.
Amsterdam
was not part of the general uprising; the merchants there felt that stability
was only to be found with the Spanish and invited them in. This killed off
their sea trade routes through the Zuider Zee[xii], controlled by the Sea Beggars. Don
Fadrique commanded the Spanish troops against the town of Haarlem, which under the leadership of Wigbolt van Ripperda withstood the Spanish siege for seven months. William hoped that Louis would be able to
create a diversion and draw off the besiegers, he wrote to his brother;
‘The whole country awaits
your coming like the Angel Gabriel.’[xiii]
 |
| Wigbolt van Ripperda |
But Louis
was in France trying to wheedle support out of Catherine de’ Medici; an embassy
too important to abandon. Haarlem surrendered on 12th July 1573,
after the relieving force had been annihilated on 7th. Wigbolt and
his associates were beheaded.
The Spanish
next turned their attention on Alkmaar, hoping to divide the provinces and seal off the rebels. The siege began on 21st August; the garrison included a
detachment of English and Scots soldiers and included a few survivors from the
Haarlem siege. By October the joint forces had seen off the Spanish and the
hated Don Fadrique
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 Spanish
Armada – Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker, Guild Publishing 1988
The Grand
Strategy of Philip II – Geoffrey Parker, Yale University Press 1998
Elizabeth –
Anne Somerset, Phoenix Giant 1999
William the
Silent – CV Wedgewood, Readers Union Ltd 1945
The
Hapsburgs – Andrew Wheatcroft, Folio Society 2004
[i]
William the Silent - Wedgewood
[ii]
This was revoked in the spring of 1573 in the interests of public order
[iii]
In 2014
the relative: historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is £29,510,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £1,049,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £11,170,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[iv]
The Revolt of the Netherlands - Geyl
[v]
Philip of Spain - Kamen
[vi]
Five days after the king’s sister had married King Henri III of
Navarre (the future Henry IV of France); believed to have been instigated
by the Queen Mother Catherine de’
Medici. The Huguenot nobility and upper classes had gathered for the
wedding
[viii]
Grandson of Anne of Brittany and Louis XII’s daughter Renée see Anne
of Brittany VI. Ironically Renée was a supporter of Protestantism and an
ally of John Calvin
[ix]
The massacre took place five days after the king’s sister had married King Henri III of
Navarre (the future Henry IV of France); it is believed to have been
instigated by the Queen Mother Catherine de’
Medici. The Huguenot nobility and upper classes had gathered for the
wedding
[x]
William had offered to stand proxy for the bridegroom but the incipient
invasion had led him to withdraw his offer
[xi]
One of the few Spanish senior military commanders not to emerge from the
aristocracy
[xiii]
William the Silent - Wedgewood
Finally I might be beginning to understand this war, thank you. I just bought a book in a charity shop, 'Europe Divided' by JH Elliot which I hope will also help with this very muddled and difficult period.
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