1. The failure of Requesens
Alva's successor as governor of the Netherlands (1573-1576) was Don Luis de Requesens y Zuñiga (1528-1576), who did not at all want this post, but he had to bow to the will of the king. He was a sickly man, of a milder nature than his predecessor. While in Madrid plans were discussed to liquidate the Prince, Requesens had no other choice but to continue the military operations. In November 1573, soon after the new governor's arrival in Brussels, the Spanish forces began to invest Leiden. Israel call the ensuing siege the `most decisive, as well as the most epic, of the great sieges of the Revolt'.[i] And indeed, everything was at stake now, the fate of the Revolt, but also the future of the Netherlands and that of the Reformed Church. Leiden's fall would have meant the end.
The defence did not dispose of many professionals; the walls were manned by militiamen. Meanwhile count Louis was still active in Germany, where he assembled an army of ten thousand men. In March 1574 he entered the Meuse valley near Maastricht, but because not one city let him in, he followed the course of the river downstream, until he was near Mook, in North Limburg; here he hoped to cross the Meuse and penetrate into the heart of the country. With troops withdrawn from the siege of Leiden, the Spaniards crossed the river before Louis could do it and defeated his army on the heath of Mook on April 14, 1574. Louis and his younger brother Henry fell in battle.[ii] No further attempts to invade the Netherlands were made.
The returning Spaniards resumed the siege of Leiden. From day to day the food supplies dwindled. Voices were heard in favour of surrender, but the leadership of the city remained steadfast. The Prince, who had established his headquarters in Delft, simply did not have the troops to relieve the city. At last, a measure of despair was taken: it was decided to cut the dykes and open the locks. The Spanish ramparts would thus become islands in the flood. However, the inundation, which caused intolerable hardship to the agrarian population, was not so successful as was hoped; the Spanish camp, the entrenchments, and the roads around Leiden remained dry.
The Spaniards offered to negotiate, and even some of the most steadfast in the famished city pleaded for accepting this offer. In the beginning of September a letter from the Prince, promising relief, arrived, which restored the will to resistance somewhat, but relief did not come. Then, on September 29, a heavy storm arose; there was also a double flood. The steadily rising waters reached the city; soon the Spanish camp was flooded, so that the soldiers had to seek a refuge on the ramparts. In the night from 2 to 3 October they abandoned their positions and departed. In the first light of the morning of October 3, 1574, the astonished citizens saw that their ordeal was over. It could not have lasted only one day longer; it was a city of chancelling skeletons.
That same day boats loaded with herring and whitebread came into the town. Annually, during the `three October festival', the citizens feast on herring and whitebread. The next day the prince visited the city. Out of gratitude for the almost incredibale courage of the citizens, he promised to give the town a university. This opened its doors already on February 8, 1575, as the first in the northern Netherlands.
The southern half of the county of Holland never saw a Spaniard again, but Haarlem, Amsterdam, and farther east Utrecht, were still in Spanish hands. In February 1577 the Spaniards were forced to evacuate Haarlem, soon followed by the capitulation of the castle of Utrecht. Only Amsterdam remained faithful to the king. What happened there was symptomatic for what happened in almost all liberated cities.
2. The Calvinistic triumph in Amsterdam
During the first months of 1578 the staunchly Roman Catholic magistrates of Amsterdam were still keeping firm. The miracle procession, as was the annual custom since 1345, wound its way through the whole town in March; the city fathers, the priests and the friars, the militiamen, the guilds and the schoolchildren all took part, as a common manifestation of the Catholicity of Amsterdam. It was, however, the very last time. The city was isolated; all around the cities of Holland had gone over to the side of Orange. There was no Spanish garrison in the town; the burgomasters had to rely on the militia, but its members were far from reliable. The Reformed opposition was strong.
In attempt to bring Amsterdam to its knees, the States of Holland ordered an economic blockade of the city, which caused much deprivation. In February 1578 the city bowed its head; a treaty was concluded that was called the `Satisfaction', although it satisfied neither party. The blockade was lifted, and all the ancient privileges, which had been temporarily suspended, were restored. The Protestants would no longer be persecuted, but Art. 1 expressly stipulated that only the Roman Catholic religion might be publicly executed. No church for the Reformed! The exiles were allowed to return. This concession in fact sealed the fate of Amsterdam, because the returning Calvinists, in collaboration with the dissident elements in the three militias, were perfectly able to topple the city government. Which was exactly what happened.
The unavoidable revolution occurred in May 26, 1578; it is called the `Alteration'. Commissars of the States were in town and negotiated with the burgomasters, with the aim of acquiring more freedom for the Calvinists, but the magistrates were stiffnecked and did not yield an inch. The change came as quick as lighthing. In the morning of May 26 the militiamen, together with armed citizens, occupied the Dam, the central square in front of the town hall. Then officers of the militia penetrated into the building, arrested the burgomasters and the members of the city council, and led them through a double row of militiamen to the Damrak, then still the inner harbour. Here they were, twenty-four men in all, put in a boat and rowed out of the town; at some distance from the walls they were allowed to go ashore and were left free to go where they wanted, if only not to Amsterdam. Meanwhile the militiamen assembled the parish clergy and the Minorites, put these too in boats and conducted them out of the town. Nobody was harmed; not a drop of blood was spilled.[iii]
Soon new burgomasters and new members of the council were elected, almost all Reformed men; many were returned exiles who had spent eleven years elsewhere. The two parish churches, the Old and the New Church, and the miracle chapel in the Kalverstraat, were assigned to the Calvinists; in the Old Church the first Reformed service took place already on May 29. All the twenty monasteries of the city got other destinations. They were all demolished in the course of time; not one of them remains (with the exception of the Beguinage, which was not really a monastery). Soon after the Alteration the public exercize of the Roman Catholic religion was forbidden; it would remain forbidden until 1798.[iv]
3. The Spanish debacle
We must now retrace our steps to 1576. The Revolt was going from strength to strength; soon the moment would come, when there was not a Spaniard left in the whole county of Holland. Requesens, who had been a complete failure, died in March 1576. The war had taken such a heavy toll on the royal finances that the king was no longer able to pay his soldiers. What happened at Zierikzee, in the island of Duiveland, was symptomatic. After a long siege the Spaniards captured it on July 2, 1576, but as soon as they were in, the unpaid troops mutinied and abandoned the city that they had conquered with their sweat and blood.
The mutiny spread. Aalst, near Brussels, was sacked on July 23; on October 20 it was the turn of Maastricht. Then, on Sunday, November 4, 1576, four thousand Spanish and German soldiers threw themselves on Antwerp, the fattest prey imaginable. After having defeated in street fighting the detatchments of the States of Brabant that tried to stop them, they embarked on what is called the `Spanish Fury'. For days on end the wild soldatesca raged through the city. Nobody and nothing was spared; churches, monasteries, public buildings and private houses were sacked; whole streets went up in flames and countless women and girls were raped. The tallest horror stories began to circulate through Europe: eighteen thousand citizens would have been killed. Actually, says Israel, `only' a few hundred persons were murdered.[v] It took this great commercial city a very long time to recover from this ordeal.
4. A common front against the king
The Spanish Fury was a knock-out blow to the king's cause in the Netherlands; even the loyalists now admitted that only armed resistance would save the situation. At how low an ebb the king's prestige stood is proved by the fact that the States General convened in September without royal consent, which had not happened in a hundred years' time. There were two parties now: on one side the rebellious provinces of Holland and Zeeland, on the other all the other provinces, nominally still loyal to the king. On October 30 an accord was signed in which the two parties decided to collaborate in order to drive the Spaniards out of the Netherlands. Yet nothing was decided on the delicate subject of religion.
Haste must be made, for a new Spanish governor was coming, Don Juan of Austria (1547-1578), an illegimate son of Charles V and Barbara Blomberg, famous as the man who had crushed a Turkish fleet near Lepanto in 1571. It was deemed necessary to confront him with a fait accompli. On November 8, 1576, the `Pacification of Ghent' was signed (Don Juan had already arrived in Luxemburg). It was in fact a treaty between, on the one hand, the Prince, Holland and Zeeland, and, on the other, the southern provinces plus Utrecht. Once again it was decided to make the Spanish troops depart as soon as possible. The States General, residing in Brussels, would act as a provisional government; the king's authority would remain recognized. For the time being the exercize of the Protestant religion would be allowed only in Holland and Zeeland; in all the other provinces it would remain forbidden. Namur and Luxemburg opted out and remained loyal to the king.
5. The Protestantization continued
It will have struck the reader that no mention was made of the eastern and northern provinces. They followed suit in 1578. The situation there was roughly the same as, for instance, that in Amsterdam. The loyalists were the burgomasters and the other magistrates, whereas a large part of the population and the militiamen were either pro-Orange or Reformed or both. In February 1578 Friesland was revolutionized in a very short time. Everyhere the loyalists were removed and replaced by dissidents. This spelled the end of the public exercize of the Roman Catholic religion in this province.
The same happened in Gelderland. Driven into a corner, the Catholic faction, hoping to keep Orange out, appointed the Prince's brother Jan van Nassau (1535-1606) as their Stadtholder. He had been a Lutheran, but later became a Calvinist. Once having become Stadtholder, he began to promote the Calvinist cause in the province. As Israel writes, there were "relatively few committed Calvinists, but there were fewer still committed Catholics."[vi] During 1578 and 1579 everywhere in the province the churches were taken over by the Reformed, after having been thoroughly cleansed. The last city to change sides was Zutphen. Exactly the same procedure was followed in Utrecht; the churches were sacked and the magistrates had to flee.
6. The Netherlands splitting into two
These developments split the Netherlands into two, just as the Reformation had split Europe into two parts. In the northern Netherlands, that is, the region north of the great rivers, plus Zeeland, the Reformed Church had become firmly established in 1578; almost everywhere the public exercize of the ancient religion was forbidden. The situation in the southern provinces was entirely different. Nowhere the nobles, the patricians, and the clergy were prepared to take to their heels as soon as the Reformed stirred themselves. Yet they were making gains also in the south. In October 1577 they made themselves master of Ghent. Oudenaarde followed in February 1578 and in March Kortrijk (Courtrai), Ieper, Atrecht (Arras), and Bruges. In all these cities the churches were sacked, the clergy expelled, and the Catholic religion forbidden.
Orange viewed these events with dismay. The arrogance and overbearing behaviour of the Flemish Calvinists, especially in Ghent, threatened to upset his plans for a harmonious society in which people of all denominations would live peacefully together. He feared that the Catholics, still everywhere the majority, albeit almost silent, would be alienated from the cause of the Revolt.
The new governor, a half-brother of Philip II, only twenty-nine years old, was a fine man to see, tall and amiable, but given to bouts of temper; he was a convinced Catholic. And first and foremost he was a general, a very able one, it is true, but what the Netherlands needed was not a fire-eater. A skilful negotiator would be better, one who could moderate between the several parties, between Orange and the rebellious provinces on one side and the States General on the other, while carefully sustaining the king's authority.
7. Negotiations
There were problems galore. The Prince, who conceived of himself as the Protector of the Netherlands, did not need a Don Juan or any other royal governor. Then there were the States General who wanted the departure of the foreign troops. And the governor himself did not have the money to pay his soldiers, always ready to mutiny. He was realistic enough to conclude that he, without money and troops, was powerless opposite the whole population that, although divided on the religious question, unanimously wanted the departure of the hated Spanish army.
The States General were ready to accept Don Juan as governor on the condition that he would 1. acquiesce in the departure of the Spanish troops; 2. accept the Pacification of Ghent; and 3. cooperate with the States General in the government of the Netherlands. Seeing no way out, Don Juan signed an agreement to this effect in February 1577, but Holland and Zeeland opted out. In April 1577 the last Spanish soldier crossed the border.
Negotiations were begun between Don Juan, the States General, and Holland and Zeeland. Because these provinces feared for the position of the Reformed Church there, they were unwilling to recognize Don Juan as governor. To solve the impasse more diplomatic skill was required than Don Juan displayed. In July he shed the dust of Brussels off his boots and went to Namur. Here he set up his headquarters and recalled the Spanish troops, which meanwhile had reached Italy. They were, however, slow in coming.
8. The Prince's finest hour
If there ever was a chance to bring all the provinces on a common denominator, it was then. The Prince fully realized it, and also that he was the man to achieve it. The States General realized this too. On September 6, 1577, an invitation was sent to the Prince "to come to Brussels as soon as possible to advise them on the policy to be followed for the good of the country."[vii] Already eleven days later the Prince left for Brussels. Antwerp welcomed him enthusiastically, `as an angel come down from heaven to redeem them from their misery'. Protected by three hundred arquebusiers - for an attempt on his life was feared -, he proceeded to Brussels, where he arrived on September 23 at four o'clock. It became his finest hour. The complete militia of the city, four thousand men strong, stood ready to welcome him. The houses were decked with tapestry and foliage. Great nobles accompanied him on his way through the triumphal arches, loudly acclaimed by the rapturous population. On the Great Market he was offered the wine of honour. Will he have thought back to that day in 1568, when Egmond and Horn were beheaded there? Finally, he took up his abode in the Nassau palace, that he had not visited since 1565.[viii]
The first result of Orange's arrival was that the States General notified Don Juan that they no longer recognized him and asked him to withdraw to Luxemburg. Rather grandiloquently, they threatened him to invoke the help of all the kings and nations on earth against the Spaniards. Orange's position, however, was not so secure as it seemed. A faction in the States General was scheming against him, because he was found too powerful and too sympathetic to the Protestants; it was led by the greatest nobles, Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot (1526-1595), Philippe, count of Egmond (1559-1590), son of the beheaded count, and Bossu, who had been ousted as Stadtholder of Holland.
This trio invited the Austrian Archduke Matthias of Habsburg (1527-1619) to come and act as governor-general of the Netherlands. Eager to play a role, he came indeed. He was a bad choice, for this young man of twenty was totally inexperienced. The question was whose puppet he would be: that of Aerschot or that of Orange. The wily Prince managed to convince him that he should rule in accordance with the States General, that is, with the Prince's policy. On December 8, 1577, Don Juan was declared to be the national enemy, and Matthias was made governor-general in his place.
The populace perfectly understood that the great were intriguing against their hero; a violent popular movement broke out, led by Calvinistic foremen, who saw their chance. The rebellion began on October 28; the rebels succeeded in capturing Aerschot, some members of the Council of State, and several bishops, who were imprisoned in Ghent. This city had a Reformed government, as related above. During the last days of 1577 the Prince was there, loudly acclaimed wherever he went. He did nothing to free the prisoners. The populace of Brussels put heavy pressure on the States General to make Orange Matthias's lieutenant-general, that is, his mentor. Now that the anti-Orange coup had failed, Aerschot and the other prisoners were set free.
9. The last period of unity
Actually the Netherlands were living through their last period of unity - a unity that was neither very stable nor convincing. It was threatened both from the inside and from the outside. Calvinistic aggression in Flanders "strengthened the aversion of the ruling élites in the south for a Holland-style Protestant revolution."[ix] If these élites had to choose between either return under Spanish rule or see the Catholic religion forbidden in their cities, they began increasingly to feel that the first option might be the lesser of the two evils.
In the beginning of 1578 sufficient Spanish troops had returned to enable Don Juan to go on the offensive. On January 31, 1578, he defeated the army of the States General near Gembloux - the first serious setback for the Revolt. Soon a large part of southern Brabant was in his hands. Even Brussels was threatened, so that the States General, Matthias and Orange abandoned it for Antwerp. However, Don Juan was unable to achieve more, because the king distrusted him and because he did not have enough money. Orange's policy of achieving an Erasmian harmony became evermore jeopardized. If he thought he could impose his will on Antwerp, the provisional capital, he was wrong. Catholics and Protestants were at each others' throats there. In May 1579 the Calvinists attempted, under Orange's nose, to turn Antwerp into a thoroughly Reformed city; with great difficulty the Prince saved one hundred and eighty clergy from the hands of the mob. Hearing this, armed Catholics of Mechelen (Malines) marched on Antwerp, where, with the flight of six hundred Calvinists, the situation was restored.
It was evident that the Netherlands were beginning to split ever further. Not only the core provinces of Holland and Zeeland, but also large parts of Flanders and Brabant remained true to the Revolt; almost everywhere the Calvinists were the dominant party. Farther to the south-east, however, many cities were seeking a compromise with Don Juan, cities that were ruled by Catholics, called the `Malcontents'. Soon the Walloon provinces - Hainault, Namur, Artois - were in open rebellion against the States General.
The deeply frustrated Don Juan, who felt that he lost the king's confidence, fell ill and died on October 1, 1578. He was succeeded by Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma (1543-1592), the fifth governor-general in ten year's time. With him the House of Parma returned to the Netherlands, for he was the son of the former governor-general Margaretha of Parma. He possessed a quality that Don Juan missed entirely: he was not only a brilliant general, but also an accomplished statesman.
10. The two Unions
a. The Union of Atrecht
The division of the Netherlands, already existing in practice, now began to become institutionally established. On Junary 6, 1579, Artois, Hainault, and Douai (Dowaai) concluded the Union of Atrecht (Arras). The aim of this Union was the preservation of the Catholic religion in their provinces. What had happened in Flanders, they told the States General, convinced them that the Calvinists were out to everywhere bring down the Catholic Church. They gave the States General a month to guarantee them that the Catholic Church would not further be undermined. If they did not get satisfaction, they would return to the king. Since, according to the members of the Union, the desired satisfaction did not come, they, and also Rijssel (Lille) and Orchies, concluded a `treaty of reconciliation' with Parma as Philip's representative. For them the Revolt was over. The king's authority was recognized; the Catholic religion would be maintained. A number of cities in Brabant and Flanders followed this example later in 1579, afraid as they were of the gouffre de désordre, that they saw opened in Flanders.[x] The Netherlands had fallen apart in fact.
b. The Union of Utrecht
But we have run a few months ahead. The Prince and his adherents intended to do their utmost to keep the rebellious provinces together. They too planned to frame a union. The initiative came from Jan van Nassau, the Stadtholder of Gelderland, and from Floris Thin, the advocate of the States of Utrecht (+ 1590). A first version was drafted by the States of Holland in the summer of 1578; they obviously already accepted the division of the Netherlands as a fact, because the prospective union would be one of the northern provinces only. It was hard to get everyone's consent, for many cities feared that adherence to the union would mean the rule of the Calvinists and the end of the Catholic religion.
On January 10, 1579, delegates convened in Utrecht; after fourteen days of bargaining they signed the famous Union of Utrecht on January 23. 1579 - famous, because whatever may be said of it, it was the first step on the road to a sovereign Dutch state. The first signatories were Gelderland, Holland, Zeeland, and Groningen. With regard to religion, it was stipulated that the situation in Holland and Zeeland would remain in the statu quo, which meant that in these provinces the religion would be the Reformed one and the Catholic religion forbidden. All the other members could decide what they saw fit.
The basic article was that all the provinces would act as one province and fight the common enemy together. The costs of the war would be paid out of a common impost (that was never introduced). All the male inhabitants in the ages between eighteen and sixty would registered for military service (yet the war was mainly fought by mercenaries; there never was a national army). The treaty did not provide in the erection of a national government.
In January 1579 the Union was far from general. Many cities and provinces hesitated to sign because of the religious question, but also because many feared the preponderance of Holland. Even in the provinces the delegates of which had already signed, many a city was recalcitrant, signing only after much heart-searching. Overijssel and Drente adhered only in 1580; the city of Groningen never signed. In the south only a few cities joined the Union, in Brabant Antwerp, Lier and Breda, in Flanders Ghent, Ieper, and Bruges.
The Prince was not really happy with the Unions; he understood that the fear of Calvinism with its iconoclasm was very real. He still hoped against hope that there would originate a general union on the basis of a religious peace. He himself did not join the Union of Utrecht, because he was negotiating with the Walloons. When he realized that his efforts had no chance of success, he signed on May 3, 1579. He had not yet come out openly as a Calvinist, but he had his daughter, with the symbolic name of Catharina Belgica, baptized in a Reformed church in Antwerp in July 1578.
11. Parma's triumphs
We need not follow Parma on his road of reconquest; from 1579 to 1585 he went from triumph to triumph. The territory of the Revolt steadily shrank. All the land south of the great rivers fell into his hands and the larger part of the east and north. What remained for the Revolt were Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, the western half of Gelderland, and the north-western Part of Overijssel. After 1585 the Spanish offensive slowed down, and after 1590 it stopped, because Philip II needed Parma's army in France.
12. Three major events
a. Philip II renounced
Three major events occurring in the years 1579-1585 must be mentioned. On July 26, 1580, the States assembled at The Hague, renounced their allegiance to Philip II, not as king (for he was not the king of the Netherlands), but as count of Holland and Zeeland. Their attempts to find a new sovereign need not occupy us.
b. William of Orange murdered
The second major event was the murder of Prince William of Orange on July 10, 1584, in the Prinsenhof in Delft by Balthasar Gérard (1557-1584), a citizen of Franche-Comté.[xi] This fanatic Catholic, acting in connivance with Parma, had "come to see Orange as the greatest evil-doer in the world".[xii]
This deed frustrated plans to make him count of Holland and Zeeland. His son Maurits (1567-1625), being only eighteen years old, was deemed too young for this function, but he succeeded his father as Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, and later also in the provinces that were reconquered by the States General. Yet William the Silent became something that was historically more valuable than being count. To the Dutch population, and also to me, he is the `Father of the Fatherland'; according to the majority he is the greatest Netherlander of all times.
Philip II was not replaced by another sovereign. The very complicated government of the state and the provinces will not be described here, but in view of later events this much must be said. In the decade 1580-1590 the Republic of the United Netherlands became firmly established; its provinces were seven in number. Their connection with the Holy Roman Empire was definitely severed in 1648. In all the provinces the place of the sovereign was taken by the provincial States. Their Stadtholders, although being Princes of the House of Orange and Counts of the House of Nassau, were not sovereigns, but `servants' of the States. The place of Philip II as Lord of the Netherlands was taken by the States General. The Republic was in fact a confederation of seven provinces, each enjoying a very large measure of autonomy, each with its own army and navy (under the command of the Stadtholder).
c. The exodus of the Calvinists
The third event to be mentioned is the exodus of Calvinists from Flanders and Brabant; they fled en masse to the liberated provinces. The exodus reached its peak, when Parma had captured Antwerp on August 17, 1585, after a sensational siege. The Protestants were invited to convert to Catholicism. Those who were not ready to do so must sell their houses and possessions and leave the city; of the eighty thousand inhabitants of the large commercial city thirty-eight thousand departed during the years 1585-1589. They found new home in Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. Since by far the larger part of the émigrés were convinced Calvinists (there were also Catholics among them), their arrival strengthened the position of the Reformed Church enormously.
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LITERATURE
COLLECTIONS
BRUGMANS, H.
1. Geschiedenis van Amsterdam. 2. Amsterdam, 1930.
2. Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche volk. II. Leiden, 1913² (18961).
Geschiedenis van Amsterdam I. Een stad uit het niets, tot 1578. Ed. Marijke Carasso-Kok. Amsterdam, 2004.
MONOGRAPHS
ISRAEL, Jonathan, The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806. Oxford, 1995.
NIEROP, Henk van, Pacificatie, Satisfactie en Alteratie 1576-1578. In: Geschiedenis van Amsterdam I.
SWART, Koen, William of Orange and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1572-1584. Eds. R.P.Fagel, M.E.Mout, and H.F.K. van Nierop. Tranlated from the Dutch edition 1994 by J.C. Grayson. Aldershot, Hants/Burlington VT. 2002.
NOTES
[i].. Israel, Dutch Republic 181.
[ii].. There is a Dutch saying: Loop naar de Mookerhei = go to the heath of Mook, which means that failure is certain. On the heath itself Louis' ramparts can still be seen.
[iii].. It is possible that the parish priest of the Old Church had already left the town before the Alteration. The inmates of the monasteries, who probably were not very numerous, had to leave the town, but were allowed to remain in the city, if only they would not longer manifest themselves as friars.
[iv].. Van Nierop, Pacificatie, Satisfactie en Alteratie 1576-1578; extensively in Brugmans, Geschiedenis van Amsterdam, vol. 2, ch. 11 De Alteratie.
[v].. Israel, Dutch Republic 185.
[vi].. Israel, Dutch Republic 192.
[vii].. Swart, William of Orange 126. Koen Swart, the successor of such renowned Dutch historians as Pieter Geyl and Ernst Kossmann on the chair for Dutch history in University College, London, planned to write the great modern biography of William the Silent for which he assembled much material during a quarter of a century. His untimely death in 1992 prevented him from writing it. Only the second half was more or less ready for publication of which the aforementioned book is the English translation.
[viii].. Swart, William of Orange 126/127; Blok, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche volk II, 136/137.
[ix].. Israel, Dutch Republic 194.
[x].. Blok, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche volk II, 160.
[xi].. The holes his bullets made - he fired them at point-blanc - in the wall of the staircase along which the prince came descending, can still be seen.
[xii].. Swart, William of Orange 252.