This etext was produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
1855
Biographical sketch and portrait of Margaret of Parma—The state council—Berlaymont—Viglius—Sketch of William the Silent—Portrait of Antony Perrenot, afterwards Cardinal Granvelle—General view of the political, social and religious condition of the Netherlands— Habits of the aristocracy—Emulation in extravagance—Pecuniary embarrassments—Sympathy for the Reformation, steadily increasing among the people, the true cause of the impending revolt—Measures of the government.—Edict of 1550 described—Papal Bulls granted to Philip for increasing the number of Bishops in the Netherlands— Necessity for retaining the Spanish troops to enforce the policy of persecution.
Margaret of Parma, newly appointed Regent of the Netherlands, was thenatural daughter of Charles the Fifth, and his eldest born child. Hermother, of a respectable family called Van der Genst, in Oudenarde, hadbeen adopted and brought up by the distinguished house of Hoogstraaten.Peculiar circumstances, not necessary to relate at length, had palliatedthe fault to which Margaret owed her imperial origin, and gave the childalmost a legitimate claim upon its father's protection. The claim washonorably acknowledged. Margaret was in her infancy placed by theEmperor in the charge of his paternal aunt, Margaret of Savoy, thenRegent of the provinces. Upon the death of that princess, the child wasentrusted to the care of the Emperor's sister, Mary, Queen Dowager ofHungary, who had succeeded to the government, and who occupied it untilthe abdication. The huntress-queen communicated her tastes to heryouthful niece, and Margaret soon outrivalled her instructress. Theardor with which she pursued the stag, and the courageous horsemanshipwhich she always displayed, proved her, too, no degenerate descendant ofMary of Burgundy. Her education for the distinguished position in whichshe had somewhat surreptitiously been placed was at least not neglectedin this particular. When, soon after the memorable sack of Rome, thePope and the Emperor had been reconciled, and it had been decided thatthe Medici family should be elevated upon the ruins of Florentineliberty, Margaret's hand was conferred in marriage upon the pontiff'snephew Alexander. The wretched profligate who was thus selected to matewith the Emperor's eldest born child and to appropriate the fair demesnesof the Tuscan republic was nominally the offspring of Lorenzo de Mediciby a Moorish slave, although generally reputed a bastard of the Popehimself. The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at Naples, wherethe Emperor rode at the tournament in the guise of a Moorish warrior.At Florence splendid festivities had also been held, which were troubledwith omens believed to be highly unfavorable. It hardly needed, however,preternatural appearances in heaven or on earth to proclaim the marriageill-starred which united a child of twelve years with a worn-outdebauchee of twenty-seven. Fortunately for Margaret, the funerealportents proved true. Her husband, within the first year of their weddedlife, fell a victim to his own profligacy, and was assassinated by