Louis of Nassau

Count Louis of Nassau (Dillenburg, January 10, 1538 – Mook, April 14, 1574) was a younger brother of William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch revolt against King Philip II of Spain. Louis served as a secretary and consultant to his brother and, as Lutheran Calvinist, assisted his brother in the struggle against the Roman Catholic Spaniards.

Biography
Louis was the sixth child of William the Rich and the fourth  of his mother Juliana of Stolberg-Werningerode, who was his father's second wife. He studied in Strasbourg and went to war against France from 1557 to 1559 in an army led by his brother William and the count of Egmont. From then on he acted as an traveling ambassador for his brother, making relations with German nobility as Marice of Saxony and other Electors. He underheld the contacts of his brother with French Huguenots as the prince de Condé (Louis of Bourbon) Gaspard de Coligny. He had a pivotal role in settling the marriage contract between his brother William and  [[Anna of Saxony, the daughter of Maurice.

After the start of the Dutch revolt in 1568 Louis stayed primarily in France, where he met Swiss Calvinists who supported financially the armies that would invade the The Netherlands in aid of the Dutch revolt (1568, 1572 and 1574). Under the influence of these followers of Johannes Calvin, Louis, who was born Lutheran, became (Lutheran) Calvinist. Together with Philips of Marnix, lord of Saint-Aldegonde, who was converted from Lutheran to Calvinist, he converted, after long theological discussions at Dillenburg Castle, the total Nassau family to the Calvinist doctrine.

Dutch revolt
On the eve of the revolt Louis was one of the instigators of the "Compromis des Nobles", an open letter to King Philip II of Spain begging him to stop the Inquisition in The Netherlands. On April 5, 1566 the "Compromise" was presented to the regent Margaretha of Parma. During this audience count Charles of Berlaymont, chairman of her financial council, tried to ease her mind with the words ce ne sont que des gueux (they are just beggars). From then on the revolutionaries carried the name Geuzen (Les Gueux) as a name of honor. In reaction to the petition, king Philips II sent troops  to quell the unrest with as commander  count Duke of Alba.

In 1568 Louis hired a mercenary army and invaded The Netherlands in the north of the country. He defeated a small Spanish army in the Battle of Heiligerlee (May 23), but withdrew into Germany when the Duke of Alba came north with a large army. Louis was beaten on July 20, at Jemmingen (now Jemgun in Germany). One of the Nassau brothers (Adolf) fell in the battle of Heiligerlee. After the Watergeuzen had had some success (they took the city of Brielle in 1572), Louis invaded the southern part of the Low Countries and captured Bergen (in French Mons) in Henegouwen (in French Hainaut) on May 23 1572. The Duke of Alba laid siege to Mons and since Gaspard de Coligny, who had promised to come to the rescue, was killed in the meantime (his murder started the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August – 3 October 1572), Louis had to surrender the city to the Duke of Alba on September 19.

(To be continued)