William the Silent

Prince of Orange (r. 1544-1584) and count of Nassau (r. 1559-1584)

• Born: April 24, 1533
• Birthplace: Dillenburg Castle, Nassau (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: July 10, 1584
• Place of death: Delft, Holland (now in the Netherlands)

William led the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain despite overwhelming difficulties. His leadership proved decisive to the Dutch independence movement at its crucial beginnings in the late sixteenth century.

Early Life

William the Silent, the eldest son of Count William of Nassau-Dillenburg and his second wife, Juliana von Stolberg, was born at Dillenburg Castle. The family was large, and the young heir’s prospects were particularly remarkable until 1544, when, at the age of eleven, he inherited the titles and possessions of an elder cousin, René of Orange, who was killed during the Siege of Saint Dizier. Because of the wealth and importance of his new estates, and because William’s parents had become Lutherans, the Habsburg emperor Charles V determined that the boy should be brought up at his court and educated in the Roman Catholic faith.

William’s pleasant manners and appearance and his genial personality soon made him a general favorite at court. The aging emperor became very fond of the young man and arranged an advantageous marriage for him with a pretty heiress, Anne of Egmond-Buren; this union would produce a son, Philip William, and a daughter. Anne died in 1558.

William had fulfilled a number of social and military duties at the court before the abdication of Charles V in 1555 in favor of his son Philip II. It was perhaps ironic that the emperor chose to lean on the shoulder of the young prince of Orange as he passed the sovereignty of Spain and his Burgundian territories to the man who would become Orange’s most bitter enemy. Yet for a while the relationship between William and Philip was amicable, if not warm. Philip was godfather to Philip William, and William would be given new responsibilities. Now in his middle twenties, William’s career as a loyal servant of the new monarch seemed assured.

Life’s Work

There is a traditional story that Philip and William disliked each other on sight; if that were so, their mutual antagonism took time to mature. William was named a councillor of state and a Knight of the Golden Fleece by the new king. In 1559, William was chosen to be one of three chief negotiators concluding the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis between France and Spain. His associates, Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, bishop of Arras, and Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, duke of Alva, would also play crucial roles in the revolt of the Netherlands. It was during this stay in France that William began to acquire his reputation for being discreet, but “taciturn” or even “sly” are better descriptive terms than the misleading nickname “silent.” William was a career diplomat, fond of company and never at a loss for words.

With the conclusion of this diplomatic mission, William was appointed stadtholder (governor and military commander) in Zeeland, Utrecht, Holland, and, later (1561), Franche-Comté. On the eve of Philip’s departure for Spain in August, 1559, however, the nobility and people of the Netherlands were beginning to complain. Spanish troops had not been withdrawn despite the peace, Spanish courtiers were being made councillors of state, and sterner measures were being authorized against Protestants. William and other important nobles protested, and Philip seemed willing to make concessions regarding Spanish troops and politicians but not heretics. He appointed his half sister Margaret, duchess of Parma, as regent, with Granvelle (now a cardinal) as her adviser.

William was eager to marry again, but his choice of wives was not a fortunate one. Anne of Saxony, a well-born heiress, was erratic and quarrelsome, her family had traditionally opposed the Habsburgs, and, worse, she was a Lutheran. William made vague promises about his wife’s conformity when they were married in 1561, but Philip was not pleased.

As Granvelle’s influence increased (he created more than a dozen new bishoprics), the nobility of the Netherlands felt their traditional leadership threatened. Snobbery also played a role in the nobility’s dislike for Granvelle, who was said to be the grandson of a blacksmith. Toleration of Calvinists was initially less important than the replacement of the hated minister with one more to their liking. In letters to Philip, however, the nobles, led by William and the counts of Egmond and Hoorne, were careful to avoid direct criticism of royal policies.

In the spring of 1564, it seemed that the anti-Granvelle faction had won; Margaret had also decided that Granvelle was a political liability, and he was withdrawn. Yet Philip, however preoccupied with the Turks and the administration of his vast empire, was unyielding in matters of faith. Catholicism was to be imposed on the Netherlands and Protestant heresy rooted out.

William and his associates tried to support Margaret while attempting to promote a policy that would allow liberty of conscience, if not public worship, for Protestants. Efforts at a reasonable compromise were doomed to failure by both sides. A number of the lower nobility and their supporters advocated violence to intimidate the regent and the Catholics. These men became known as Les Gueux (the Beggars), from a slighting reference made about them by one of Margaret’s advisers. Riots erupted in the summer of 1566. Calvinist mobs sacked churches, even turning some of them into Protestant meetinghouses. By the end of the year, an angry Philip appointed the duke of Alva as his general to pacify the Netherlands at any cost.

William hesitated; he refused to command the rebels, protested his loyalty to the king, and then declined to take the oath of unconditional obedience that Margaret demanded. In April, 1567, he retired to his family estates at Dillenburg. Other prudent men fled the country, but Hoorne and Egmond remained, only to be betrayed, arrested, and executed. The duke of Alva’s methods for maintaining order were so brutal that eventually Margaret resigned. A reign of terror instituted by a special commission, the Council of Troubles soon nicknamed the Council of Blood filled the land with fear, as thousands of victims were arrested and executed. When William refused to return, he was declared a rebel, his property in the Netherlands was sequestered, and his son, a student at the University of Louvain, was carried off to Spain, never again to see his father.

With few choices remaining save armed rebellion, William and his brothers raised an army to expel the duke of Alva. Two invasions were launched in April, 1568, but the people did not rise; both attempts were badly defeated. William and his few supporters took refuge in France. William was entering the most difficult period of his life. Impoverished, outlawed, and peripatetic, he was made miserable by Anne of Saxony’s irrational behavior. She was flagrantly unfaithful, and at last he divorced her in 1571.

Meanwhile, William continued to look for allies. Elizabeth I of England was not encouraging. The German Protestant princes had provided little support. His best hopes seemed to lie with the Calvinists, whose faith he would adopt in 1573. Another area of resistance lay with the Sea Beggars, an irregular band of nobles, merchants, patriots, and pirates. In April, 1572, they seized the town of Brielle, which triggered a popular uprising, and soon most of Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland declared William their stadtholder.

To strengthen William’s advantage, William’s brother Louis of Nassau launched an attack from France but was eventually blockaded at Mons. As William moved to aid him, his support among the French Huguenots was undercut by the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre on August 24, 1572. Again William’s forces were obliged to disband, and he retreated to Holland to lead the resistance there for four more frustrating years between 1572 and 1576.

In June, 1575, William married his third wife, Charlotte de Bourbon, a former nun who had fled her convent, escaped to Germany, and converted to Calvinism. Catholics were outraged at this union, but it proved to be both happy and successful, as Charlotte won the trust and affection of her husband’s countryfolk by her devotion to their cause.

By 1576, even Philip was becoming aware of the costs of this seemingly endless war. The rebellion was not crushed, and his own troops began to mutiny for lack of pay. William’s status rose with the Pacification of Ghent (November 8, 1576), in which the seventeen provinces agreed to a common cause against Spain. This was followed in January, 1577, by the short-lived Union of Brussels, in which both Catholics and Protestants joined in demanding the withdrawal of Spanish troops, the southerners reserving the right to remain Catholics. At this point, William was at the height of his power and influence, but he was unable to maintain this fragile alliance, despite his natural toleration and his talents as a diplomat.

Believing that he must have the support of another ruling dynasty against Spain, William again turned to France and proposed the unlikely candidacy of the feckless duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III of France, as sovereign of the Netherlands. Philip riposted in March, 1581, with a ban proclaiming William a traitor and offering a considerable reward for his assassination. The first attempt on his life a year later failed, but his wife died of a fever and the strain of nursing her husband.

The duke of Anjou’s double-dealing and ambitions made him unacceptable to his new subjects, few of whom would mourn his death in June, 1583. Two months before, William had married Louise de Coligny, a daughter of the famous Huguenot leader Gaspard II de Coligny, killed on St. Bartholomew’s Day. Of his twelve children, it would be her son Frederick Henry who would leave heirs to carry on the Nassau name. With Louise, William lived simply and quietly in Delft, a father figure beloved by the people, until July 10, 1584, when he was fatally shot by a Catholic fanatic. William’s dying words were a prayer for his poor country. He was given a state funeral by the city and buried in the New Church at Delft.

Significance

The sequence of events following the murder of William the Silent was a study in vengeance and intolerance by all parties. William’s friends and supporters relieved their outraged feelings by torturing and slowly executing the young assassin Balthazar Gérard. When the murder became known, William’s enemies, who included Philip and Granvelle, expressed triumphant satisfaction at what they considered to be divine justice. The reconquest of the entire Netherlands appeared a certainty, but such was not to be.

Philip’s dream of a Catholic Netherlands as the obedient handmaiden of Spain faded before the realities of Dutch determination, his own financial mismanagement, and the defeat of his grand armada by England in 1588. Yet William’s dream of a united Netherlands would not become a reality. The depths of distrust between Protestants and Catholics, middle-class merchants and the nobility, and north and south were too great to be bridged. William invested his fortune, his family (three of his brothers would die on campaigns), and finally his own life for the cause in which he so strongly believed. Yet not even his personal popularity and his diplomatic skills could hold the provinces together for long. William’s cause failed, but he had dared greatly and became the heart and symbol of the Dutch independence movement.

Bibliography

Darby, Graham, ed. The Origins and Development of the Dutch Revolt. New York: Routledge, 2001. Anthology of scholarship on the causes and consequences of the sixteenth century Dutch rebellion against Spanish rule. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Geyl, Pieter. The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609. Reprint. London: Cassell, 1988. This is the first in a series of three books by Geyl that deals with the Netherlands from 1555 to 1715. As a Dutch historian, Geyl has a special perspective on the revolt. This book places William in his historical context. Includes maps, an extensive index, and a short bibliography.

Harrison, Frederic. William the Silent. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970. The style and interpretation of this biography are of necessity somewhat dated, but the lack of a standard biography of William in English makes it useful. Contains a bibliography and useful information on William’s family and descendants.

Koenigsberger, H. G. Monarchies, States, Generals, and Parliaments: The Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. History of the States-General of the Netherlands, the region’s internal and external strife, and the Netherland’s division into the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.

Kossman, E. H., and A. F. Mellink, eds. Texts Concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974. This book introduces the reader to letters and documents related to the revolt. Several letters by William are included. Contains a short bibliography and an index.

Parker, Geoffrey. The Dutch Revolt. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977. Parker makes the valid point that there was not one Dutch revolt but several. This study attempts to balance the majority of treatments, which are pro-Dutch, with attention to the Spanish viewpoint. Contains maps, diagrams, tables, and an extensive bibliography.

Putnam, Ruth. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584, and the Revolt of the Netherlands. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911. The character of William the Silent is at times overly idealized, but this book is a useful beginning to a study of William and his times. Pictures, maps, and facsimiles of letters make it interesting to the general reader. Includes a detailed bibliography and an index.

Swart, K. W. William of Orange and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1572-84. Translated by J. C. Grayson. Edited by R. P. Fagel, M. E. H. N. Mout, and H. F. K. van Nierop. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2003. A major and authoritative biography, published posthumously, with introductory essays and commentary by other noted scholars of William’s reign. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Wedgwood, C. V. William the Silent, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1944. Reprint. New York: Norton, 1968. Well written and detailed but continues the trend of older studies in idealizing William’s motives and character. For the general reader.

Wilson, Charles. Queen Elizabeth and the Revolt of the Netherlands. London: Macmillan, 1970. The English view of the Netherlands as well as the role played by Elizabeth I is the focus of this useful study, but it also includes good background material on William. Contains detailed notes on sources.