Page "Beeldenstorm" Paragraph 20

On August 23, Margaret of Parma, the Habsburg Regent or Governor-general, whose capital of Brussels was unaffected by the movement, agreed to an " Accord " with the group of aristocratic Protestant leaders known as the " Compromise " or Geuzen (" Beggars "), by which freedom of religion was granted, in exchange for allowing Catholics to worship unmolested and an end to the violence.

Instead, " the outbreak of the iconoclastic fury began an almost uninterrupted series of skirmishes, campaigns, plunder, pirate-raids, and other acts of violence.

Not all areas suffered violence at the same time or to the same extent, but practically none remained unscathed.

" Many elite Protestants were now alarmed by the forces unleashed, and some of the nobility began to shift towards support of the government.

Implementing the somewhat vague terms of the agreement led to further tensions, and William of Orange, appointed by Margaret to resolve the situation in Antwerp, tried and failed to produce a wider settlement that all parties could live with.

Instead unrest continued and the episode fed into the causes of the Dutch Revolt which was to erupt two years later.

On August 29 Margaret wrote a somewhat panicked letter to Philip, " claiming that half the population were infected with heresy, and that over 200, 000 people were up in arms against her authority ".

Philip decided to send the Duke of Alba with an army ; he would have led them himself but was kept in Spain by other matters, especially the increasingly evident insanity of his heir, Carlos, Prince of Asturias.

When Alba arrived the following year, and soon replaced Margaret as Governor-general, his heavy-handed repression, which included the execution of many convicted of iconoclastic attacks the summer before, only made the situation worse.