That no one should be allowed to injure or insult, by word or deed, the exercise of the Catholic religion, on pain of being treated as a disturber of the public peace.

That the edicts against heresy and the proclamations of the duke of Alva should be suspended.

That all confiscations, sentences, and judgments rendered since 1566 should be annulled.

That the inscriptions, monuments, and trophies erected by the duke of Alva should be demolished.

Such were the general conditions of the treaty; the remaining articles chiefly concerned individual interests.  The promulgation of this great charter of union, which was considered as the fundamental law of the country, was hailed in all parts of the Netherlands with extravagant demonstrations of joy.

CHAPTER XI

TO THE RENUNCIATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SPAIN AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

A.D. 1576—­1580

On the very day of the sack of Antwerp, Don John of Austria arrived at Luxemburg.  This ominous commencement of his viceregal reign was not belied by the events which followed; and the hero of Lepanto, the victor of the Turks, the idol of Christendom, was destined to have his reputation and well-won laurels tarnished in the service of the insidious despotism to which he now became an instrument.  Don John was a natural son of Charles V., and to fine talents and a good disposition united the advantages of hereditary courage and a liberal education.  He was born at Ratisbon on the 24th of February, 1543.  His reputed mother was a young lady of that place named Barbara Blomberg; but one historian states that the real parent was of a condition too elevated to have her rank betrayed; and that, to conceal the mystery, Barbara Blomberg had voluntarily assumed the distinction, or the dishonor, according to the different constructions put upon the case.  The prince, having passed through France, disguised, for greater secrecy or in a youthful frolic, as a negro valet to Prince Octavo Gonzaga, entered on the limits of his new government, and immediately wrote to the council of state in the most condescending terms to announce his arrival.

Nothing could present a less promising aspect to the prince than the country at the head of which he was now placed.  He found all its provinces, with the sole exception of Luxemburg, in the anarchy attendant on a ten years’ civil war, and apparently resolved on a total breach of their allegiance to Spain.  He found his best, indeed his only, course to be that of moderation and management; and it is most probable that at the outset his intentions were really honorable and candid.