第50节

,'' the Duke of Alba, to bring these hardened sinners to

terms. Alba began by decapitating those leaders who had not

wisely left the country before his arrival. In the year 1572

(the same year that the French Protestant leaders were all

killed during the terrible night of Saint Bartholomew), he

attacked a number of Dutch cities and massacred the inhabitants

as an example for the others. The next year he laid siege

to the town of Leyden, the manufacturing center of Holland.

Meanwhile, the seven small provinces of the northern

Netherlands had formed a defensive union, the so-called union

of Utrecht, and had recognised William of Orange, a German

prince who had been the private secretary of the Emperor

Charles V, as the leader of their army and as commander of

their freebooting sailors, who were known as the Beggars of

the Sea. William, to save Leyden, cut the dykes, created a

shallow inland sea, and delivered the town with the help of a

strangely equipped navy consisting of scows and flat-bottomed

barges which were rowed and pushed and pulled through the

mud until they reached the city walls.

It was the first time that an army of the invincible Spanish

king had suffered such a humiliating defeat. It surprised the

world just as the Japanese victory of Mukden, in the Russian-

Japanese war, surprised our own generation. The Protestant

powers took fresh courage and Philip devised new means for

the purpose of conquering his rebellious subjects. He hired

a poor half-witted fanatic to go and murder William of

Orange. But the sight of their dead leader did not bring the

Seven Provinces to their knees. On the contrary it made them

furiously angry. In the year 1581, the Estates General (the

meeting of the representatives of the Seven Provinces) came

together at the Hague and most solemnly abjured their

``wicked king Philip'' and themselves assumed the burden

of sovereignty which thus far had been invested in their

``King by the Grace of God.''

This is a very important event in the history of the great

struggle for political liberty. It was a step which reached

much further than the uprising of the nobles which ended with

the signing of the Magna Carta. These good burghers said

``Between a king and his subjects there is a silent understanding

that both sides shall perform certain services and shall

recognise certain definite duties. If either party fails to live

up to this contract, the other has the right to consider it ter-

minated.'' The American subjects of King George III in

the year 1776 came to a similar conclusion. But they had three

thousand miles of ocean between themselves and their ruler

and the Estates General took their decision (which meant a

slow death in case of defeat) within hearing of the Spanish

guns and although in constant fear of an avenging Spanish

fleet.

The stories about a mysterious Spanish fleet that was to conquer

both Holland and England, when Protestant Queen

Elizabeth had succeeded Catholic ``Bloody Mary'' was an old

one. For years the sailors of the waterfront had talked

about it. In the eighties of the sixteenth century, the

rumour took a definite shape. According to pilots who had

been in Lisbon, all the Spanish and Portuguese wharves were

building ships. And in the southern Netherlands (in Belgium)

the Duke of Parma was collecting a large expeditionary

force to be carried from Ostend to London and Amsterdam

as soon as the fleet should arrive.

In the year 1586 the Great Armada set sail for the north.

But the harbours of the Flemish coast were blockaded by a

Dutch fleet and the Channel was guarded by the English, and

the Spaniards, accustomed to the quieter seas of the south, did

not know how to navigate in this squally and bleak northern

climate. What happened to the Armada once it was attacked

by ships and by storms I need not tell you. A few ships, by

sailing around Ireland, escaped to tell the terrible story of

defeat. The others perished and lie at the bottom of the North

Sea.