The Netherlanders claimed, mainly, the right to vote the money which was demanded in such enormous profusion from their painfully-acquired wealth; they were also unwilling to be burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation.

Granvelle was most distinctly of an opposite opinion upon both topics.

He strenuously deprecated the interference of the states with the subsidies, and it was by his advice that the remorseless edict of 1550, the Emperor's ordinance of blood and fire, was re-enacted, as the very first measure of Philip's reign.

Such were his sentiments as to national and popular rights by representation.

For the people itself--"that vile and mischievous animal called the people"-- as he expressed it, he entertained a cheerful contempt.
His aptitude for managing men was very great; his capacity for affairs incontestable; but it must be always understood as the capacity for the affairs of absolutism.