tinued to profess Catholicism, he
entertained many Lutherans and emphasized as far as possible his
position as vassal of the Empire. Philip, indeed, believed that the
whole trouble came from the wounded vanity of a few nobles.

But Granvelle saw deeper. [Sidenote: 1561] When the Estates of
Brabant stopped the payment of the principal tax or "Bede," [2] and
when the people of Brussels took as a party uniform a costume derived
from the carnival, a black cloak covered with red fool's heads, the
cardinal, whose red hat was caricatured thereby, stated that nothing
less than a republic was aimed at. This was true, though in the
anticipation of the nobles, at least, the republic should have a
decidedly aristocratic character. But Granvelle had no policy to
propose but repression. In order to prevent condemned heretics from
preaching and singing on the scaffold a gag was put into their mouths.
How futile a measure! The Calvinists no longer disguised, but armed--a
new and significant fact--thronged to their conventicles. Emigration
continued on a large scale. By 1556 it was estimated that thirty
thousand Protestants from the Low Countries were settled in or near
London. Elizabeth encouraged them to come, assigning them {254}
Norwich as a place of refuge. [Sidenote: 1563] She also began to tax
imports from the Netherlands, a blow to which Philip replied by
forbidding all English imports.

[Sidenote: Revolt]

Hitherto the resistance to the government had been mostly passive and
constitutional. But from 1565 may be dated the beginning of the revolt
that did not cease until it had freed the northern provinces forever
from Spanish tyranny. The rise of the Dutch Republic is one of the
most inspiring pages in history. Superficially it has many points of
resemblance with the American War of Independence. In both there was
the absentee king, the national hero, the local jealousies of the
several provinces, the economic grievances, the rising national feeling
and even the religious issue, though this had become very small in
America. But the difference was in the ferocity of the tyranny and the
intensity of the struggle. The two pictures are like the same
landscape as it might be painted by Millet and by Turner: the one is
decent and familiar, the other lurid and ghastly. With true
Anglo-Saxon moderation the American war was fought like a game or an
election, with humanity and attention to rules; but in Holland and