His enemies, as usual, attributed this patriotic delay to baser motives.

They accused him of a desire to assume the governor-generalship himself, to the exclusion of the Archduke--an insinuation which the states of Holland took occasion formally to denounce as a calumny.

For those who have studied the character and history of the man, a defence against such slander is superfluous.
Matthias was but the shadow, Orange the substance.

The Archduke had been accepted only to obviate the evil effects of a political intrigue, and with the express condition that the Prince should be his lieutenant-general in name, his master in fact.

Directly after his departure in the following year, the Prince's authority, which nominally departed also, was re-established in his own person, and by express act of the states-general.
The Union of Utrecht was the foundation-stone of the Netherland Republic; but the framers of the confederacy did not intend the establishment of a Republic, or of an independent commonwealth of any kind.