The interests of his family, the security of his dynasty, these were his end and aim.

The happiness or the progress of his people never furnished even the indirect motives of his conduct, and the result was a baffled policy and a crippled and bankrupt empire at last.
He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses, and he knew how to turn them to account.

He knew how much they would bear, and that little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast and deliberate injustice.

Therefore he employed natives mainly in the subordinate offices of his various states, and he repeatedly warned his successor that the haughtiness of Spaniards and the incompatibility of their character with the Flemish, would be productive of great difficulties and dangers.

It was his opinion that men might be tyrannized more intelligently by their own kindred, and in this perhaps he was right.