married Anne of Egmont, daughter
of the count of Bueren. The connection was a happy one, if we may trust
the loving tone of their correspondence. Unhappily, in a few years their
union was dissolved by the lady's death. The prince did not long remain
a widower, before he made proposals to the daughter of the duchess of
Lorraine. The prospect of such a match gave great dissatisfaction to
Philip, who had no mind to see his Flemish vassal allied with the family
of a great feudatory of France. Disappointed in this quarter, William
next paid his addresses to Anne of Saxony, an heiress, whose large
possessions made her one of the most brilliant matches in Germany.
William's passion and his interest, it was remarked, kept time well
together.

The course of love, however, was not destined to run smoothly on the
present occasion. Anne was the daughter of Maurice, the great Lutheran
champion, the implacable enemy of Charles the Fifth. Left early an
orphan, she had been reared in the family of her uncle, the elector of
Saxony, in the strictest tenets of the Lutheran faith. Such a connection
was, of course, every way distasteful to Philip, to whom William was
willing so far to defer as to solicit his approbation, though he did not
mean to be controlled by it.[498] The correspondence on the subject, in
which both the regent and Granvelle took an active part, occupies as
much space in collections of the period as more important negotiations.
The prince endeavored to silence the king's scruples, by declaring that
he was too much a Catholic at heart to marry any woman who was not of
the same persuasion as himself; and that he had received assurances from
the elector that his wife in this respect should entirely conform to his
wishes. The elector had scruples as to the match, no less than Philip,
though on precisely the opposite grounds; and, after the prince's
assurance to the king, one is surprised to find that an understanding
must have existed with the elector that Anne should be allowed the
undisturbed enjoyment of her own religion.[499] This double dealing
leaves a disagreeable impression in regard to William's character. Yet
it does not seem, to judge from his later life, to be altogether
inconsistent with it. Machiavelli is the author whom he is said to have
had most frequently in his hand;[500] and in the policy with which he
shaped his course, we may sometimes fancy that we can discern the
influence of the Italian statesman.