On the 5th of April 1566, a deputation of 400 gentlemen, with Lewis of
Nassau, a brother of the prince of Orange, at their head, presented a
petition to Margaret of Austria, the Governor of the Netherlands. From
the coarseness of their dress, they acquired the name of _gueux_ or
_beggars_, and retained it throughout the whole of the troubles which
followed.

[Sidenote: Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.]

Calvinism had, before this time, made great progress in these countries,
and gained over to it numbers of the discontented party. Philip
proceeded to the most violent measures, and sent the Duke of Alva, with
an army of 20,000 men, into the Netherlands. William, Prince of Orange,
placed himself at the head of the malcontents, and raised an army. At an
assembly of the States of Holland and Zealand in 1559, he was declared
Stadtholder, or Governor of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht: Calvinism
was declared to be the religion of the States. In 1579, the three
provinces were joined by those of Gueldres, Zutphen, Overyssell, and
Gröningen. All signed, by their deputies, the TREATY OF UNION; it became
the basis of their constitution: still, however, they acknowledged
Philip for their sovereign. But in 1581, the deputies of the United
States assembled at Amsterdam, subscribed a solemn act, by which they
formally renounced allegiance to Philip and his successors, and asserted
their independence. They declared in their manifesto, that "the prince
is made for the people, not the people for the prince;" that "the
prince, who treats his subjects as slaves, is a tyrant, whom his
subjects have a right to dethrone, when they have no other means of
preserving their liberty;" that "this right particularly belongs to the
Netherlands; their sovereign, being bound by his coronation oath to
observe the laws, under pain of forfeiting his sovereignty."