John of Austria - Governor Generalship of The Low Countries and Death

Governor Generalship of The Low Countries and Death

Don John and Santa Cruz had planned a larger campaign for 1576, when in May he received the long-dreaded orders to proceed directly to the Low Countries as Governor General, following the death of Requeséns. In Rome he once more received encouragement in his schemes to liberate the Queen of Scots, making the governor-generalship more attractive. In northern Italy he halted, and sent his secretary Juan de Escobedo to Spain, to secure more money and win Philip's consent for his plans for the Queen of Scots. When by late summer Escobedo had not returned, Don John sailed for Spain. His shocked brother met with him privately at the Escorial. Philip seems to have accepted Don Juan’s plans for the Queen of Scots, but only after he had secured peace in the Low Countries. Because he was short of money, Philip expected Don John to achieve peace through diplomacy and negotiation. Having received his instructions, Don Juan and a few companions made a dash for the Low Countries across France, rent by religious civil war. Fearing Protestant assassins, Don John reportedly wore the disguise of a Moorish slave.

While grievances in the Low Countries were many, at the heart of the revolt was religion, Calvinism on the rebel side, Roman Catholicism on Philip's. Don John was a convinced Catholic, had crusaded for the Cross against the Muslim Turks and regarded Protestants simply as heretics. But some, particularly in the Low Countries, argued that limited toleration might be the only feasible solution for the revolt. Of the historic seventeen provinces, Holland and Zeeland were largely in rebel control. The rebels made William, Prince of Orange their leader. After Requeséns's death, Philip's army of Flanders, its pay in arrears, mutinied and began to maraud for loot and stores in the provinces not under rebel control. The States General of the Low Countries assembled at Ghent while local authorities raised troops for self-defense. Delegates from the rebel provinces met with their fellows to find grounds for a common cause. In early November, mutineers sacked the city of Antwerp in what came to be called "the Spanish Fury". At Ghent the delegates signed a Pacification which granted limited tolerance and authorized the raising of an army to deal with Philip's mutinous troops, whom they demanded be removed.

Don John got the news of the sack in Luxembourg soon after his arrival, and learned that his acceptance as Governor General depended upon his acceding to the Pacification of Ghent. Don Juan negotiated from Luxembourg, separate and loyal. He knew that removing the army would deprive him of the means to invade England, so he suggested that if the troops must go, it would be best to send them by sea and asked the States General to provide shipping.

The States General demurred and insisted they depart overland. They eventually did, marching south loaded with their plunder. With the army departing, the matter of toleration became the chief sticking point, with rebel demands that the Calvinist faith be practiced openly in the rebel provinces and be tolerated in the others, according to local initiative. These were terms neither Philip nor he would accept, but as Don Juan had no means of using force, he could only temporize. He issued a Perpetual Edict accepting the Pacification, but, confident that Catholics still remained the majority in the Low Countries, stipulated that panels of theologians hammer out the matter of toleration, with all to abide by their decisions.

As most were tired of wrangling and bloodshed, the States General accepted Don John as Governor General. In May 1577, he made his Joyous Entry into Brussels, promising to respect its historic privileges, which by extension had become the privileges of the seventeen provinces. As he assumed his office, he had to deal with the problem of his widowed mother in Ghent who scandalized her neighbors by her conduct. She had had two sons by Kegel, of whom one drowned and the other served in the royal army. At times she disowned Don John, despite receiving a government pension on his behalf. He eventually persuaded her to journey to Italy and meet Margaret of Parma. Her ship took her instead to Spain, where she was eventually settled on Escobedo's property near Santander and lived till 1598.

Don John agreed to meet with the rebel leader, the Prince of Orange, but the meeting never took place. Reports came from reliable sources that militant Protestants aimed to assassinate him. He took them seriously and in July used the visit of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, to Spa as an excuse to meet her near Namur. There were stories that on his dash through France they had a secret tryst in Paris. After she resumed her journey, Don John and his selected companions seized the citadel of Namur in violation of the Perpetual Edict. He sent Escobedo to Spain to explain to Philip the impossibility of gaining an acceptable peace and calling for the return of the army. The States General declared war on Don John. Don John, Farnese and the army had routed the States General's army at Gembloux that January. On the news of Escobedo's murder Don Juan was perplexed, and knew not whom to believe. With the murder Don John did not see any future in his wishes to become a monarch in his own right. He is said to have lost motivation and trust in Philip his intentions.

Tired and increasingly ill, he campaigned through the summer with mixed success, but failed in his attempt to take Brussels, after receiving a setback in the Battle of Rijmenam on 2 August 1578. He did win more and more of the Catholic nobles and towns to the royal cause. As ever money was a problem, and he felt his life was being doled out in bits and pieces, and complained to friends of the endless rainy weather. In September he pulled the army into camp near Namur to regroup.