lliam.

[Sidenote: GROUNDS OF COMPLAINT.]

CHAPTER VI.

OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT.

Grounds of Complaint.--The Spanish Troops.--The New
Bishoprics.--Influence on Granvelle.--Opposed by the Nobles.--His
Unpopularity.

1559-1562.

The first cause of trouble, after Philip's departure from the
Netherlands, arose from the detention of the Spanish troops there. The
king had pledged his word, it will be remembered, that they should leave
the country by the end of four months, at farthest. Yet that period had
long since passed, and no preparations were made for their departure.
The indignation of the people rose higher and higher at the insult thus
offered by the presence of these detested foreigners. It was a season of
peace. No invasion was threatened from abroad; no insurrection existed
at home. There was nothing to require the maintenance of an
extraordinary force, much less of one composed of foreign troops. It
could only be that the king, distrusting his Flemish subjects, designed
to overawe them by his mercenaries, in sufficient strength to enforce
his arbitrary acts. The free spirit of the Netherlanders was roused by
these suggestions, and they boldly demanded the removal of the
Spaniards.

Granvelle himself, who would willingly have pleased his master by
retaining a force in the country on which he could rely, admitted that
the project was impracticable. "The troops must be withdrawn," he wrote,
"and that speedily, or the consequence will be an insurrection."[514]
The states would not consent, he said, to furnish the necessary
subsidies while they remained. The prince of Orange and Count Egmont
threw up the commands intrusted to them by the king. They dared no
longer hold them, as the minister added, it was so unpopular.[515]

The troops had much increased the difficulty by their own misconduct.
They were drawn from the great mass, often the dregs, of the people; and
their morals, such as they were, had not been improved in the life of
the camp. However strict their discipline in time of active service, it
was greatly relaxed in their present state of inaction; and they had
full license, as well as leisure, to indulge their mischievous
appetites, at the expense of the unfortunate districts in which they
were quartered.

Yet Philip was slow in returning an answer to the importunate letters of
the regent and the minister; and when he did reply, it was to evade
their request, lamenting his want of