Don John of Austria, or Passages from the history of the sixteenth century, MDXLVIIMDLXXVII . sure to lead them ; the great nobles would not beled by him in any direction at all. It occurred to some of themthat they might transfer the government of the Provinces fromDon John, who had broken faith with them, to another Prince ofthe House of Austria, with whom a more binding covenant mightbe made, whose near relationship to the King of Spain wouldexonerate them from the imputation of desiring a change ofdynasty, and whose pre-eminent rank would at once extinguishthe pretensions both of Orange an
Don John of Austria, or Passages from the history of the sixteenth century, MDXLVIIMDLXXVII . sure to lead them ; the great nobles would not beled by him in any direction at all. It occurred to some of themthat they might transfer the government of the Provinces fromDon John, who had broken faith with them, to another Prince ofthe House of Austria, with whom a more binding covenant mightbe made, whose near relationship to the King of Spain wouldexonerate them from the imputation of desiring a change ofdynasty, and whose pre-eminent rank would at once extinguishthe pretensions both of Orange and of Anjou. The Archduke 1 Vera et simplex narratio eorum qttcB ab adventu D, Joannis Austriaci Supremi inBelgio . . gesta sunt . . Luxemburg, 1578. 268 DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. chap, viii Matthias, brother of the Emperor Rudolph, a youth who wassupposed to be at once amiable and ambitious, and who had justattained his twentieth year, was the Prince upon whom theirchoice fell. Amongst the leaders in the movement were Aerschot and hisbrother Havrech, who, after the trick which Don John had. attempted to play them in the matter of the citadel of Antwerp,had not unnaturally resented the indignity by passing over to theranks of his avowed opponents. Indeed, they found their positionat Namur, where they had been invited to appear as guests, to bemore like that of prisoners; their loyalty was greatly suspected be-cause they had sent off the Prince of Chimay soon after the seizureof the castle ; and they therefore went out one morning as if fora walk and never returned, their flight being so hastily determinedon that the stately and sumptuous Duke was glad to ride off on CHAP. VIII. AFFAIRS OF THE NETHERLANDS. 269 a horse without a saddle.^ Champagny and even Lalaing, inspite of their engagements v/ith Margaret of Navarre, De Heze,and some others, shared their counsels. A secret messenger, theBaron of Maalsteede, was despatched to Vienna at the end ofAugust to confer with the young Archdu
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