It had been written in his destiny that he should go twice into the angry lion's den, and that he should come forth once, alive.
Thus it has been shown that there was an open, avowed hostility on the part of the grand seignors and most of the lesser nobility to the Cardinal and his measures.

The people fully and enthusiastically sustained the Prince of Orange in his course.

There was nothing underhand in the opposition made to the government.

The Netherlands did not constitute an absolute monarchy.

They did not even constitute a monarchy.
There was no king in the provinces.