Compromise of Nobles

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Compromise of Nobles
(whenever she needed money) she convened the StatesGeneral of the Netherlands in which the several estates of
the provinces were represented, such as the lesser nobility and the cities, but most of the time the States-General
was not in session and the Regent ruled alone, together
with her Council.
Like his father Charles V, Philip was very much opposed to the Protestant teachings of Martin Luther, John
Calvin and the Anabaptists, which had gained many adherents in the Netherlands by the early 1560s. To suppress Protestantism he had promulgated extraordinary ordinances, called placards, that outlawed them and made
them capital offenses. Because of their severity these
placards caused growing opposition among the population, both Catholic and Protestant. Opposition, even
among Catholics, was generated because the placards
were seen as breaches of the constitutional privileges of
the local authorities and the civil liberties of the people, like the Jus de non evocando, as enshrined in the
"Joyous Entry", the constitution of the Duchy of Brabant, to mention a prominent example. For that reason
local authorities regularly protested against the placards
and the way they were implemented in 1564 and later
years. That these protests were systematically ignored
and the placards stringently enforced only helped intensify the opposition.[2]
Eedverbond der Edelen, from Hendrik Conscience Geschiedenis
van België, 1859

2 Compromise
The Compromise[1] of Nobles (Dutch: Eedverbond
der Edelen; French:
Compromis des Nobles) was
a covenant of members of the lesser nobility in the
Habsburg Netherlands who came together to submit a
petition to the Regent Margaret of Parma on 5 April
1566, with the objective of obtaining a moderation of the
placards against heresy in the Netherlands. This petition
played a crucial role in the events leading up to the Dutch
Revolt and the Eighty Years’ War.

1

This unrest motivated the Brussels government to send
Lamoral, Count of Egmont, to Spain to plead for relaxation of the ordinances. Philip replied negatively in his
Letters from the Segovia Woods of October 1565. That
led to a gathering of some members of the lesser nobility
at the house of Floris, Count of Culemborg, in December
1565. There, they drew up a petition containing a protest
against the enforcement of the placards. It was probably
drafted by Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde,
and it was initially signed by Henry, Count of Bréderode,
Louis of Nassau and Count Charles of Mansfeld.[3]

Background

The draft was widely circulated and gathered a large number of signatures. The magnates of the nobility at first
kept aloof (though Orange must have been in the know
through his brother Louis). On 24 January 1566, however, Orange addressed a letter to the Regent, as a member of the Council, in which he offered his unsolicited
opinion that a moderation of the placards would be desirable, in view of the toleration now practiced in neighbor-

The ruler of the Habsburg Netherlands, a conglomerate
of duchies and counties and lesser fiefs, was Philip II
of Spain. He had appointed his half-sister Margaret of
Parma as his Regent. She ruled with the assistance of a
Council of State which included a number of the high nobility of the country, like the Prince of Orange, Egmont,
Horne, Aerschot and Noircarmes. From time to time
1

2

5 SOURCES

3 Aftermath

Compromise of nobles by Edouard de Bièfve, 1841

ing lands, like France. He also pointed to the social unrest caused by the famine that scourged the country in that
year and remarked that the placards were bound to cause
trouble in this context. For good measure he threatened
to resign if something along these lines was not done.[4]
The leaders of the association that supported the draft petition met in Breda at the house of Antoine II de Lalaing,
Count of Hoogstraten (another member of the Council
of State) to work out a way that was acceptable to the
government to present the petition. Finally, on 5 April
1566, a long procession of 300 signers of the petition
walked through Brussels to the Regent’s court. There
Brederode read the petition aloud to the Regent, who became very agitated. Afterwards, when the Regent met
with the Council of State, Orange tried to calm her, and
another member, Charles de Berlaymont, allegedly remarked “N'ayez pas peur Madame, ce ne sont que des
gueux” (fear not madam, they are nothing but beggars).[5]
In the petition the nobles, who presented themselves as
loyal subjects of the king, asked him to suspend the
Inquisition and the enforcement of the placards against
heresy. They also urged the convening of the StatesGeneral so that “better legislation” could be devised to
address the matter.[6]
On the advice of the moderates in the Council, like Orange, the Regent replied to the petitioners that she would
forward it to the king and that she would support its requests. Brederode handed over a supplementary petition
on 8 April, in which the petitioners promised to keep
the peace while the petition was being sent to Spain, a
journey that could take weeks. He assumed that meanwhile the requested suspension of enforcement would be
in effect. That evening the petitioners held a banquet
at which they toasted the king and themselves as “beggars”. Henceforth the Geuzen would be the name of their
party.[7]

The king took a long time to react to the petition, and
when he finally did, he rejected its requests. Meanwhile a large number of Protestants had returned from
exile, and other Protestants now dared come out into the
open. Large numbers of Protestants, especially Calvinists, started holding prayer meetings outside the walls of
many cities. These open-air sermons by Calvinist preachers, though initially peaceful, caused much anxiety for
the local and central authorities. In August 1566, in
the depressed industrial area around Steenvoorde a rash
of attacks on Catholic church property started, in which
religious statuary was destroyed by irate Calvinists, for
whom those statues contravened the Second Commandment against graven images. Soon this Beeldenstorm or
Iconoclastic Fury engulfed the entire country. Though
the central authorities eventually suppressed this insurrection, it led to the severe repression by the Duke of Alba
that would precipitate the Dutch Revolt and Eighty Years’
War.

4 Notes
[1] The word “compromise” appears to be an overly-literal
translation of the French word compromis by the 19thcentury English-language historians who introduced the
concept into anglophone historiography. A better translation might have been used, like “covenant”. However,
the phrase “Compromise of nobles” gained currency and
has by now achieved the status of a proper name in English. For that reason many modern historians of the
Dutch Revolt use the term, like Jonathan Israel, Martin
van Gelderen and H. G. Koenigsberger. For that reason
the term is retained here.
[2] Van Gelderen, pp. 111–115.
[3] Putnam, p. 161.
[4] Putnam, pp. 162–164.
[5] Putnam, pp. 165–166.
[6] Van Gelderen, p. 111.
[7] Putnam, pp. 166–167.

5 Sources
• Gelderen, M. van (1992) The Political Thought of
the Dutch Revolt 1555-1590 Cambridge U.P., ISBN
0-521-89163-9 paperback.
• Putnam, R. (1911) William the Silent, Prince of Orange (1533-1584) and the Revolt of the Netherlands,
pp. 161ff.

3

6

External links
• (Dutch) Text of the Petition

4

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

7

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

• Compromise of Nobles Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_Nobles?oldid=713632016 Contributors: Wetman,
Rjwilmsi, Joel7687, Afasmit, Filiep, Richard Keatinge, Oreo Priest, DuncanHill, R'n'B, Johnbod, Anietor, Omegastar, TXiKiBoT, UESPArules, Ereunetes, MystBot, Addbot, DrJos, Luckas-bot, Rubinbot, Wikiain, HandsomeFella, Marcocapelle, Sermadison, Esszet, Doewiets and Anonymous: 6

7.2

Images

• File:De_Biefve_Compromise_of_Dutch_nobles_1849.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/De_
Biefve_Compromise_of_Dutch_nobles_1849.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.kunst-fuer-alle.de/english/art/
artist/image/edouard-de-biefve/16109/1/111377/the-compromise-of-the-dutch-nobles/index.htm# Original artist: Édouard de Biefve
(1808-1882)
• File:Eedverbond.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Eedverbond.gif License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/cons001gesc01_01/cons001gesc01_01_0026.htm Original artist: Hendrik Conscience

7.3

Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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