The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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289 I One of these me the time of his assassination. H g a S The following is the description, translated by the irst ecre ary of the Society, Mr. Ge . W. V S' Loon's Nederlandsche Penwingenci an men, from Van The nobles assembled several times in different places t0 find methods to protect the liberties of their count . TY from the perils which Irlenaced them from all sides. Those who showed themselves most zealous and most ardent upon these occasions were Henry of Brederodeg Louis of Nassau, brother of the Prince of Orange, Florent of Pal- lant, Count of Culemburgg and William, Count of Bergen. They pushed the affair so far that meetings were held,. first at Breda, and afterward at Hoogstraten. ' At the latter place several discontented nobles pro- jected an alliance, which, going from hand to hand, was in a short time accepted and signed by more than four hun- dred persons, all of whom promised to be in Brussels on a certain day. To give greater aclat to this league, Henry of Brederode, as chief of the confederates, found it convenient to make his entry into that city on the 3d of April, A.D. 1566, accompanied by Count Louis of Nassau and many nobles, followed by a great number of servants. The fourth day of that month was employed in preparations and in awaiting the Counts of Bergen and of Culemburg. Al- though on the following day these lords had not yet arrived, the confederates did not delay in demanding an audience. lt was granted to them, and the Princess-Regent appointed the hour of noon to avoid the tumultuous concourse of the populace. . The time named being near, Brederode and Count Louis were seen to leave the residence of Culemburg and to walk with a decent gravity toward the court, preceded by more than three hundred gentlemen, of whom they thCI11SC1VCS formed the last rank. When theY amlfed before me Duchess, Brederode spoke for all, and, havn1g.1il11ShfiCl 1115 harangue, he presented to Her Highness a petition signed in the name of all that illustrious troop. In th1s.Pet1t1?nf after having represented their obedience and their fidelity to the King, they declared that, notwithstandmg the hatred that their procedure would very likely draw upon them' 19 dals was worn by William of Oran e t

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288 description of its origin is translated from that Work, with a few additions from the accounts given by Prof. I. W. Kitchin, of Oxford. In the year 1565, immediately after the decrees of the Council of Trent were promulgated, Philip II. determined to put them in force throughout his dominions. Accordingly, he now made a more vehement attack upon the reformers, and then it was, in 1566, that the Netherland nobles, led by Count Brederode, signed the famous 'Compromisef with which the open rebellion of the provinces begins. Margaret of Parma was Philip's regent in the Low Countries. Before her Brederode appeared with the Protest against the Inquisition and other innovations which the King proposed to introduce into Holland. He was accompanied by three hundred noblemen, who had bound themselves together for the preservation of the Liberties of the Provinces. The Duchess of Parma appeared to be much disturbed at the sight of such a multitude of noble remonstrants, but the Count of Barlemont, who stood beside her, begged her not to be alarmed, 'For,' said he, in French, 'they are only beggars' 1 The next day, the 6th of April, 1566, as the confeder- ates were sitting together at dinner, and talking of a name for their new Party, they remembered Barlemont's sneer, and cried out, 'Vfifvent les Gueux! '-' Hurrah for the Beg- gars! ' When dinner was over, Brederode, having hung a beggar's wallet around his neck, filled a wooden bowl with wine and drank the health of the company, declaring that, for his part, he was ready to sacriice life, property, every- thing, in defence of his country's freedom. The room rang with applause,--' Hurrah for the Beggarsl' The cup was passed from hand to hand. Every man drank the same toast and made the same pledge of devotion. And thus it was that the name of the Gueux, or Beggars, which has become famous throughout Europe, had its origin at a social feast, for it often happens that the most important and serious affairs begin amid jests and laughter. Soon afterward the men of the new Party appeared at Brussels, dressed in coarse gray cloth, with wooden cups at- tached to their belts, AND WITH THIS MEDAL HANGING ABOUT THEIR NECKS.H .

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290 e service of the King, showing to I-Ier they would risk, in th ' Highness the dangerous condition of affairs, and warning her, if the protection of the Inquisition were continued, of the terrible consequences which they foresaw would shake the State to its foundations. They demanded, secondly, that the edict of the King relating to the Inquisition, and relating to religion in general, be reformed by the Assembly of the States-General, and that, while awaiting this, the execution of this edict should be suspended, as a protection against the sad evils of which it was already, and of Which it would be more and more, the fertile source. The Regent, hiding as well as possible the uneasiness and indignation which this affair caused her, received the petition, and replied to the supplicants that she would ex- amine into their demands with the Lords of the Council, and that in a short time she would let them know her decision. With this response, the confederate lords re- turned to Culemburg's residence in the same order and with the same gravity with which they had left it. After the Regent had deliberated on the petition of the nobles, that Princess replied the following day in writing that she would represent to the King their first demand in the most favorable manner possible, but that she was obliged to refuse absolutely the second, because the matter was not in her power. While this affair was thus treated at the palace of the Princess, the populace insulted the confederate nobles by the opprobrious epithet of Gueux, which those who under- stood French badly changed into Geuzen, which afterward bCC-21116 very common as the name of a party or sect. Others say that the author of the sobriquet was the Baron of Barlemont, who, seeing the Regent surprised at the sight of so many nobles, tried to encourage her by saying, Ce ne sont que des gueuxf However that may be, this name was received by the nobles as a precious epithet, and soon became the most honorable title of that illustrious league. The 6th of April, Brederode, being at dinner with other lords of his Pa1'tY at CH1emburg's,e put around his neck a Wallet, and flllins with wine a Wooden cup, like that worn bl' the beggars, made all the guests follow his example.