Most of the petitioners were undoubtedly good Catholics, but suddenly there now occurred the outbreak by extreme Calvinists, known as the Breaking of the Images, which brought about a violent reaction. While the nobles lately in opposition ranged themselves behind Margaret of Parma to restore order, Philip pre pared to send to the Netherlands an army under the duke of Alva to chastise them and to introduce absolutism. In the interval be fore the arrival of the terrible duke there was much talk of organ izing resistance. The prince of Orange was in doubt as to the regime to be expected, yet he shrank from co-operating with the only party ready to throw themselves into the fight, the Calvin ists. As viscount of Antwerp he prevented the Antwerp Calvinists from going to the assistance of a little army of their co-religionists that was cut to pieces by Margaret of Parma's troops under the walls of the town (March 1567).
The first period of Orange's career ended in failure. After the encouragement he had given to the national opposition movement his conduct at the moment of crisis is disconcerting. To under stand it one has to remember that the Calvinists still were a tiny minority, suspected and hated as a menace to society no less than to the Church. A movement in which they took the lead had, at that moment, little chance of becoming truly national, and Wil liam of Orange, who was not yet personally in sympathy with Calvinism, was then and always concerned before everything else with preserving national unity.
From Germany, where he had retired, the prince kept in touch with adherents in the Netherlands, and with money collected from them and raised in his Nassau lands, he brought together an army with which he attempted to deliver the Netherlands from Alva's tyranny (1568). The attempt failed miserably. The Netherlands, cowed, did not rise, and the army had, for lack of money, soon to be disbanded. Help, as Orange realized, could only come from outside, and nothing was to be expected from German Lutheran ism. He now entered into close relations with the French Hugue not leaders, for some years taking part in their campaigns against the French Government. At La Rochelle Louis of Nassau organ ized the forces of the Sea Beggars, whose booty went to swell the prince's war chest. New hope was born when after the peace of St. Germain (Aug. 157o) they seemed to win influence at the court of France. Louis of Nassau and Coligny inspired Charles IX. with plans of war and conquest against Spain, and it was in the expectation of French help that Orange in 1572 repeated the attempt of 1568 and invaded the Netherlands with an army col lected in Germany. The St. Bartholomew's massacre, which
overthrew Huguenot influence at court dashed his hopes. Again he had to disband his army and to leave Alva in possession.
But this time there had been a response to his invasion. Not the central province of Brabant, kept quiet by the presence of Alva's army, but a number of towns in the outlying northern prov inces had risen against the Spaniards. The surprise capture of the Brill by a fleet of Sea Beggars had started the movement. Now that his great plans in conjunction with France had come to nothing, the prince decided to join the Holland and Zeeland rebels, who had proclaimed him as their Stadtholder again. It seemed a forlorn hope. Compared with Flanders and Brabant, Holland and Zeeland at that time seemed poor and distant regions.
The decision was one of the great moments of his career. For four heroic years he shared the anxieties and distress of the two maritime provinces, stubbornly holding out against the Spanish army sent to subdue them. The States assemblies of Holland and Zeeland, which were almost entirely composed of burghers and of Calvinists, placed complete confidence in the great nobleman who had lost his fortune and his position for the national cause. In 1573 the prince himself joined the Reformed Church. Meanwhile he led the desperate resistance against the Spaniards. The relief of Leyden in 1574 was to a large extent due to his untiring efforts. Yet in 1576, with the Spaniards at Haarlem and Amsterdam as well as at Middelburg and Zieriksee, the two provinces were near succumbing, when the situation underwent a dramatic change.
The Spanish governor, who had succeeded Alva in Requesens, unexpectedly died. The Spanish soldiery, long unpaid, mutinied. They evacuated their hard-won posts in Holland and Zeeland and came south to live on the riches of Brabant. The Spanish Government in the Netherlands practically broke down. The States of Brabant summoned a meeting of the States-General to Brussels, and negotiations between this nominally loyal body and the two rebel provinces were started at Ghent for the purpose of combining against the Spanish soldiers. The conclusion of the Pacification of Ghent (Nov. 8, 1576) seemed to restore the unity of the Netherlands, threatened since the separate rebellion of Holland and Zeeland.