IN presenting a memoir to the reader, of the person whose name is prefixed to this volume, the writer cannot resist the inclination he feels to notice some of the most remarkable events in the history of the Netherlands, prior to the birth of this distinguished man. These were so deeply interesting, as to excite the attention of all Europe. They originated with the dark and suspicious spirit of Philip the Second, the bigoted monarch of Spain. This prince was prompted to direct a large portion of the forces of his empire against his Belgic subjects, for the purpose of destroying their liberties, and arresting the progress of the Reformation, which had found its way among them. They had previously been visited with the displeasure of Charles the Fifth, the father of Philip, for having dared to adopt a religious creed differing from that he wished to impose upon them. The early part of this monarch's reign was distinguished by the most tremendous forms of persecution, so that in the space of a few years, not less than fifty thousand* of his Flemish subjects were destroyed, either by the fire, the gibbet, or other modes of torture equally cruel and sanguinary. But instead of the spirit of inquiry being allayed by these cruelties, it seemed to be excited to greater activity, and the principles he thus endeavoured to extirpate, spread more widely in spite of these severities. "This fact being witnessed by Mary queen of Hungary, sister to the emperor, and governante of the Low Countries, she endeavoured to soften the emperor, and invited him into the Low Countries, to behold with his own eyes how persecution begat heresy. Charles wisely listened to her advice, and prudently gave up his severities." But Philip, his son and successor, was incapable of being softened by any such circumstance, and * Brandt says eighty thousand.
+ Modern Universal History, vol. lii. p. 21. Grimesthorpe and Brandt. For this she was suspected by the pope of heresy.— Brandt, vol. i. p. 90.