In order to a clearer understanding of the revolt in the Netherlands, a brief sketch of William, prince of Orange, will be necessary. He was descended from ancestors who had given an emperor to Germany; William’s parents were both Lutherans, and he was educated in that faith. But Charles V. obtained the consent of his parents to remove him to Brussels, when in his twelfth year, and he was brought up in the family of the Emperor’s sister. In this household, the young prince was instructed in the Catholic faith. When fifteen years of age, William became the page of Charles V. On the abdication of that monarch, he commended William to Philip II., who at first received the prince of Orange with much favor. William married for his second wife, Anne, the daughter of Maurice, the great Lutheran champion; and though he did not openly espouse the cause, but continued in the service of Philip, a writer of the times says of him: “The prince of Orange passed for a Catholic among Catholics, and a Lutheran among Lutherans.” But this portrait of him was by an unfriendly hand, and a truer declaration is that of Prescott, “that he possessed a spirit of toleration, the more honorable that in that day it was so rare. He condemned the Calvinists as restless and seditious, and the Catholics for their bigoted attachment to a dogma. Persecution, in matters of faith, he totally condemned, for freedom of judgment in such matters he regarded as the inalienable right of man. These conclusions, at which the world, after an incalculable amount of human suffering, has been three centuries in arriving, must be allowed to reflect great credit on the character of William, prince of Orange.” There was now formed in the Netherlands a league called “The Gueux.” Some of this party of confederates demanded entire liberty of conscience; others would not have stopped short of a revolution, that would enable the country to shake off the Spanish yoke. Though this party was a political rather than a religious organization, they joined hands with the Lutherans and Calvinists, and became, for a time, a great aid to the Reformation. The origin of their name, which became the fanatical war-cry of the insurgents, happened thus: Two or three hundred of these confederates went to Brussels, to petition Margaret, the regent, to mediate with Philip in their behalf, that they should have more political liberty, and be freed from the edicts and the Inquisition. During the week spent by the league in Brussels, a banquet was given, where three hundred of the confederates were present. During the repast, Brederode, one of their number, described the manner in which their petition had been received by the regent. “She seemed at first disconcerted,” he said, “by the number of the confederates, but was reassured by Barlaimont, who told her that ‘they were nothing but a crowd of beggars.’”