5 - The description of the events which happened in the matter of religion in the Netherlands, 1569

Summary

The author of the Description is Jacob van Wesenbeke, former pensionary of Antwerp, who emigrated to Germany in April 1567. He was very well-informed as to the events of the year 1566, described here. This work appeared in a French and a Dutch edition in 1569. The Dutch historian Robert Fruin called it ‘one of the most accurate and credible accounts we have of the religious movement of the year 1566’.

All people were made to hope that the States General of the country would be called to draft a definitive and good ordinance concerning religion. Such an ordinance, intended to be really binding, to restore calm, to bring no harm to the country and give satisfaction to the inhabitants had been awaited, longed for and yearned for by every one. Shortly afterwards the hope and the satisfaction of the population turned to sadness, hatred and suspicion, because it was discovered that at court men had secretly devised a moderation or new edict which was sent to His Majesty in Spain. And although it had been hoped that the States General would be convoked thereupon, as had been asked in the petition of the nobles and had moreover been promised them, some persons schemed so ingeniously and successfully that it was resolved to present this moderation, not to the States General convoked for that purpose but to the provincial States of every province one after the other and, in the same order, to the provincial councils.