because his
own religious views were not yet in sympathy with the Protestant
reformers, though he afterwards fully embraced their doctrines.

"The patriots of the Low Countries were, in the beginning of these
troubles, both Catholic and Protestant; but the sacrilegious conduct of
the mob detached the former from the cause, and as the Catholics were
more numerous in the southern than in the northern provinces, they
finally turned the scale in favor of Philip II. in their own section,
while the people of Holland established their independence.

"Philip then sent the savage and relentless Duke of Alva to suppress the
new religion in the Netherlands. Egmont and Horn were beheaded at
Brussels, and the Prince of Orange retired into Germany, appealing to
the Protestant princes for assistance. With an army he had raised in
Germany, and with money obtained there and of Queen Elizabeth of
England, he marched into the Netherlands, and called his people to arms.
A long and terrible war ensued, in which the Dutch suffered up to the
limit of human endurance, and displayed a heroism which is without
parallel in the history of the nations.

"The Prince of Orange was created Stadtholder; almost unlimited powers
were conferred upon him, and for years he struggled against the most
stupendous obstacles. The Dutch, being a maritime people, established a
navy, which inflicted many heavy blows upon the Spanish power. The
severity of Alva so goaded the Netherlanders that the whole country was
in arms against him. He failed to reduce them to subjection, and was
recalled. His next two eminent successors died of fever, and the Duke of
Parma was then sent as regent of Philip. In 1579 the northern provinces
declared their independence, and established the Dutch Republic, or the
Seven United Provinces, of which the Prince of Orange was stadtholder.

"Philip was so incensed at the success of the Prince of Orange that he
offered a large reward to any one who would take his life, and a
fanatical Burgundian shot him at Delft, in 1584. With this event Mr.
Motley closes his History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic.

"Belgium adhered to Spain, or, rather, the Duke of Parma succeeded in
reducing it to subjection after the murder of the stadtholder. In 1598
Philip gave the Flemish provinces to his daughter Isabella. But on her
death without children, the country again reverted to Spain. After more
than a century of strife, including the Thirty Years' Wa