History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

number of Spanish soldiers at that moment in
Flanders was not great: they amounted to only
4,000: but they were excellently disciplined: the
citizens saw in them the sharp end of the wedge
that was destined to introduce a Spanish army, and
reduce their country under a despotism; and in
truth such was Philip's design. Besides, these
troops were insolent and rapacious to a degree. The
inhabitants of Zealand refused to work on their
dykes, saying they would rather that the ocean
should swallow them up at once, than that they
should be devoured piece-meal by the avarice and
cruelty of the Spanish soldiers.[1]
The measures adopted by Philip caused the
citizens the more irritation and discontent, from the
fact that they were subversive of the fundamental
laws of the Provinces. At his accession Philip had
taken an oath to uphold all the chartered rights of
the Netherlanders; but the new edicts traversed
every one of these rights. He had sworn not to raise
the clergy in the Provinces above the state in which
he found them. In disregard of his solemn pledge,
he had increased the ecclesiastical dioceses from
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