The Netherlands Revolts Against Spain – 6

The league had its origin in banquets and a banquet gave it form and perfection.

Continuing The Netherlands Revolts Against Spain,
our selection from Friedrich Von Schiller. The selection is presented in seven easy 5 minute installments.

Previously in The Netherlands Revolts Against Spain.

Time: 1566
Place: The Netherlands

The following day the confederates, marching in the same order of procession but in still greater numbers — Counts Bergen and Kuilemberg having in the interim joined them with their adherents — appeared before the Regent in order to receive her answer. It was written on the margin of the petition and was to the effect “that entirely to suspend the Inquisition and the edicts, even temporarily, was beyond her powers; but in compliance with the wishes of the confederates, she was ready to dispatch one of the nobles to the King, in Spain and also to support their petition with all her influence. In the mean time she would recommend the inquisitors to administer their office with moderation; but in return, she should expect, on the part of the league, that they should abstain from all acts of violence and undertake nothing to the prejudice of the Catholic faith.” Little as these vague and general promises satisfied the confederates, they were, nevertheless, as much as they could have reasonably expected to gain at first.

The granting or refusing of the petition had nothing to do with the primary object of the league. Enough for them at present that it was once recognized; enough that it was now, as it were, an established body, which by its power and threats might, if necessary, overawe the Government. The confederates, therefore, acted quite consistently with their designs, in contenting themselves with this answer and referring the rest to the good pleasure of the King. As, indeed, the whole pantomime of petitioning had only been invented to cover the more daring plan of the league, until it should have strength enough to show itself in its true light; they felt that much more depended on their being able to continue this mask and on the favorable reception of their petition, than on its speedily being granted. In a new memorial, which they delivered three days after, they pressed for an express testimonial from the Regent, that they had done no more than their duty and been guided simply by their zeal for the service of the King. When the Duchess evaded a declaration, they even sent a person to repeat this request in a private interview. “Time alone and their future behavior,” she replied to this person, “would enable her to judge of their designs.”

The league had its origin in banquets and a banquet gave it form and perfection. On the very day that the second petition was presented, Brederode entertained the confederates in Kuilemberg house. About three hundred guests assembled; intoxication gave them courage and their audacity rose with their numbers. During the conversation one of their number happened to remark that he had overheard the Count of Barlaimont whisper in French to the Regent, who was seen to turn pale on the delivery of the petitions, that “she need not be afraid of a band of beggars (gueux);” in fact, the majority of them had by their bad management of their incomes only too well deserved this appellation. Now, as the very name of their fraternity was the very thing which had most perplexed them, an expression was eagerly caught up, which, while it cloaked the presumption of their enterprise in humility, was at the same time appropriate to them as petitioners. Immediately they drank to one another under this name and the cry “Long live the Gueux!” was accompanied with a general shout of applause. After the cloth had been removed, Brederode appeared with a wallet over his shoulder, similar to that which the vagrant pilgrims and mendicant monks of the time used to carry; and after returning thanks to all for their accession to the league and boldly assuring them that he was ready to venture life and limb for every individual present, he drank to the health of the whole company out of a wooden beaker. The cup went round and everyone uttered the same vow as he set it to his lips. Then one after the other they received the beggar’s purse and each hung it on a nail which he had appropriated to himself. The shouts and uproar attending this buffoonery attracted the Prince of Orange and Counts Egmont and Horn, who, by chance, were passing the spot at the very moment and on entering the house were boisterously pressed by Brederode, as host, to remain and drink a glass with them.

[“But,” Egmont asserted in his written defense, “we drank only one single small glass and thereupon they cried, ‘Long live the King and the Gueux!’ This was the first time that I heard that appellation and it certainly did not please me. But the times were so bad that one was often compelled to share in much that was against one’s inclination and I knew not but I was doing an innocent thing.”]

The entrance of three such influential personages renewed the mirth of the guests and their festivities soon passed the bounds of moderation. Many were intoxicated; guests and attendants mingled together without distinction, the serious and the ludicrous; drunken fancies and affairs of state were blended one with another in a burlesque medley; and the discussions on the general distress of the country ended in the wild uproar of a bacchanalian revel. But it did not stop here; what they had resolved on in the moment of intoxication, they attempted when sober to carry into execution. It was necessary to manifest to the people in some striking shape the existence of their protectors and likewise to fan the zeal of the faction by a visible emblem; for this end nothing could be better than to adopt publicly this name of Gueux and to borrow from it the tokens of the association.

Continued.

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