from being confined to Spain, embraces most
of the states of Europe with which Spain held intercourse. The
French government has done good service by the publication of a
work which contains so much for the illustration of the history of
the sixteenth century. M. Weiss, the editor, has conducted his
labors on the true principles by which an editor should be guided;
and, far from magnifying his office, and unseasonably obtruding
himself on the reader's attention, he has sought only to explain
what is obscure in the text, and to give such occasional notices of
the writers as may enable the reader to understand their
correspondence.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHANGES DEMANDED BY THE LORDS.

Policy of Philip.--Ascendancy of the Nobles.--The Regent's
Embarrassments.--Egmont sent to Spain.

1564, 1565.

We have now arrived at an epoch in the history of the revolution, when,
the spirit of the nation having been fully roused, the king had been
compelled to withdraw his unpopular minister, and to intrust the reins
of government to the hands of the nobles. Before proceeding further, it
will be well to take a brief survey of the ground, that we may the
better comprehend the relations in which the parties stood to each other
at the commencement of the contest.

[Sidenote: ASCENDANCY OF THE NOBLES.]

In a letter to his sister, the regent, written some two years after this
period, Philip says: "I have never had any other object in view than the
good of my subjects. In all that I have done, I have but trod in the
footsteps of my father, under whom the people of the Netherlands must
admit they lived contented and happy. As to the Inquisition, whatever
people may say of it, I have never attempted anything new. With regard
to the edicts, I have been always resolved to live and die in the
Catholic faith. I could not be content to have my subjects do otherwise.
Yet I see not how this can be compassed without punishing the
transgressors. God knows how willingly I would avoid shedding a drop of
Christian blood,--above all, that of my people in the Netherlands; and
I should esteem it one of the happiest circumstances of my reign to be
spared this necessity."[605]

Whatever we may think of the sensibility of Philip, or of his tenderness
for his Flemish subjects in particular, we cannot deny that the policy
he had hitherto pursued was substantially that of his father. Yet his
father live