Prince and Heretic

This William of Orange is a less famous predecessor, distinguished by his sobriquet 'The Silent', oldest brother of five from the House of Nassau, the first generation to defy Spain and the Inquisition. Bowen expertly paints a picture of a Protestant people in revolt against Catholic oppressors - pasquils pasted on church doors, rhetoric players staging satirical theatre in the streets, the Stadtholders resisting the Inquisition and appealing to the regent not to enforce the edicts of the Council of Trent. Phillip holds back the Duke of Alva and his unmatchable army in reserve, until he eventually loses patience and decrees that 'the ancient religion was to be re-established by sword and fire and faggot, by fine, by banishment, by ruin; if need be, by the extermination of a whole people.'