This, however, he not only omitted to do, but on the contrary gave them warning, so that they might effect their escape, "thinking it more necessary to obey God than man." William of Orange, at the departure of the King for Spain, was in his twenty-seventh year.

He was a widower; his first wife, Anne of Egmont, having died in 1558, after seven years of wedlock.

This lady, to whom he had been united when they were both eighteen years of age, was the daughter of the celebrated general, Count de Buren, and the greatest heiress in the Netherlands.

William had thus been faithful to the family traditions, and had increased his possessions by a wealthy alliance.

He had two children, Philip and Mary.