Guillaume Ier d'Orange-Nassau citations

Guillaume de Nassau, prince d'Orange , comte de Nassau, dit également Guillaume le Taciturne est né le 24 avril 1533 à Dillenburg et mort au Prinsenhof de Delft le 10 juillet 1584, assassiné par Balthazar Gérard. Sa dépouille repose dans la Nieuwe Kerk de Delft. Il fut prince d'Orange, comte de Nassau à partir de 1544, puis de Katzenelbogen, de Vianden, burgrave d'Anvers, stathouder de Hollande, de Voorne, de Zélande, de Frise occidentale et d'Utrecht à partir de 1559, gouvernant un territoire partagé actuellement entre la Belgique et les Pays-Bas.

À l'origine membre de l'entourage de Charles Quint et fidèle partisan des Habsbourg, Guillaume d'Orange est surtout connu pour avoir été l'initiateur et le chef de la révolte des Pays-Bas espagnols contre le roi d'Espagne Philippe II, fils de Charles Quint. Cette révolte entraîna une volonté d'émancipation des États généraux qui conduisit à l'indépendance des Pays-Bas du Nord, Provinces-Unies, alors que les Pays-Bas du Sud, la Belgica Regia, retombaient sous la domination espagnole après la guerre de Quatre-Vingts Ans.

Les avis sur le prince sont partagés, mais, considéré par l'historien Jan Romein comme le « fondateur de la civilisation néerlandaise », honoré du titre de « vader des vaderlands » , et inscrit au canon historique des Pays-Bas, c'est l'un des personnages clefs de la fondation de la nation néerlandaise, bien qu'il ait en fait espéré libérer la totalité des Pays-Bas, Belgique comprise, du joug de l'Espagne. À l'époque, on appelle parfois ces territoires Belgica Foederata pour le nord et Belgica Regia pour le sud, ou encore la Généralité que l'empereur germanique et roi d'Espagne Charles Quint, héritier des ducs de Bourgogne, avait constituée en un tout indissociable par la Pragmatique Sanction de 1549.

L'hymne national hollandais « Het Wilhelmus » est écrit en l'honneur du prince d'Orange par le baron de Sainte-Aldegonde, gentilhomme de famille savoyarde, mais né à Bruxelles, qui soutint le prince et la révolte depuis ses origines. Élevé à Bruxelles, le prince d'Orange parlait l'allemand, langue de sa famille de Nassau, le français, langue de la cour de Bruxelles depuis les ducs de Bourgogne et sous Charles Quint, et le néerlandais. Sa devise, « Je maintiendrai », est celle des Pays-Bas au XXIe siècle. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. avril 1533 – 10. juillet 1584
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Guillaume Ier d'Orange-Nassau: 34   citations 0   J'aime

Guillaume Ier d'Orange-Nassau Citations

Guillaume Ier d'Orange-Nassau: Citations en anglais

“One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere.”

As quoted in O Canada: An American's Notes on Canadian Culture (1963) by Edmund Wilson

“I am in the hands of God, my worldly goods and my life have long since been dedicated to his service.”

Response after hearing he had been declared an outlaw by Philip II, as quoted in The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1859) by John Lothrop Motley
Contexte: I am in the hands of God, my worldly goods and my life have long since been dedicated to his service. He will dispose of them as seems best for his glory and my salvation. … Would to God that my perpetual banishment or even my death could bring you a true deliverance from so many calamities. Oh, how consoling would be such banishment — how sweet such a death! For why have I exposed my property? Was it that I might enrich myself? Why have I lost my brothers? Was it that I might find new ones? Why have I left my son so long a prisoner? Can you give me another? Why have I put my life so often in danger? What reward can I hope after my long services, and the almost total wreck of my earthly fortunes, if not the prize of having acquired, perhaps at the expense of my life, your liberty? If then, my masters, you judge that my absence or my death can serve you, behold me ready to obey. Command me — send me to the ends of the earth — I will obey. Here is my head, over which no prince, no monarch, has power but yourselves. Dispose of it for your good, for the preservation of your republic, but if you judge that the moderate amount of experience and industry which is in me, if you judge that the remainder of my property and of my life can yet be of service to you, I dedicate them afresh to you and to the country.

“I have heard that tomorrow they are to execute the two prisoners, the accomplices of him who shot me. For my part, I most willingly pardon them.”

Asking that two assassins who had tried to kill him be spared torture, as quoted in William the Silent, Frederic Harrison p. 109
Contexte: I have heard that tomorrow they are to execute the two prisoners, the accomplices of him who shot me. For my part, I most willingly pardon them. If they are thought deserving of a signal and severe penalty, I beg the magistrates not to put them to torture, but to give them a speedy death, if they have merited this. Good-night!

“It is not possible for me to bear alone such labours and the burden of such weighty cares as press on me from hour to hour, without one man at my side to help me.”

As quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 75
Contexte: It is not possible for me to bear alone such labours and the burden of such weighty cares as press on me from hour to hour, without one man at my side to help me. I have not a soul to aid me in all my anxieties and toils.

“We must have patience and not lose heart, submitting to the will of God, and striving incessantly, as I have resolved to do, come what may.”

Letter to his brother, Louis of Nassau, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 93
Contexte: We must have patience and not lose heart, submitting to the will of God, and striving incessantly, as I have resolved to do, come what may. With God’s help, I am determined to push onward, and by next month I trust to be at our appointed rendezvous. Watch Alva closely, and contrive to join me as arranged.

“I have come to make my grave in this land.”

William as he led his army into the Netherlands (1572) as quoted in William the Silent, William of Nausau, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584 (1944)

“Our friends and allies are all turned cold.”

Letter to his brother, Louis of Nassau, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 93

“I will say no more, than that I will act as I shall answer hereafter to God and to man.”

After his wedding ceremony, on marrying his second wife, who was a Lutheran, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 32

“This mercy will be your ruin; you will be at the bridge across which the Spaniards will enter this land.”

Statement to his friend, the Count of Egmont, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison p. 76

“Sire, have pity on the Spanish infantry, which, for lack of pay and out of sheer starvation, is scouring the low country round, plundering the peasantry in mere need of food. These disorders I cannot repress, much less can I punish them, for necessity has no law.”

William to Philip II while William was in command of the forces round Philippeville (5 January 5 1556), as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, Ch. II, p. 20

“The end will show the whole truth.”

To his brother Louis, commenting on The Count of Egmont's visit to Philip II about the problems in the Netherlands (1565), as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 22

“Do not kill him! I forgive him my death.”

After an assassin had tried to kill him, he ordered his soldiers not to kill the assassin, 1581., as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 223

“I am resolved, to go and plant myself in Holland or in Zeeland, and there await the issue which it shall please Him to ordain.”

Writing to his brother John after an unsuccessful campaign, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 64

“In all things there must be order, but it must of such a kind as is possible to observe … to see a man burnt for doing as he thought right, harms the people, for this is a matter of conscience.”

William at a meeting about Philips actions (1566), as quoted in William the Silent, William of Nausau, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584 (1944), p. 78

“”Farewell count without a head”

Williams last words to his friend Lamoral of Egmont after he said to him; „Farewell prince without a land”, as written in ‚Uilenspiegel’ by Charles de Coster

“They stormed Oudewater, and delivered it over to all imaginable cruelties, sparing neither sex nor age.”

On the actions of the Spanish at Oudewater, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 87

“My God, my God, have mercy on me, and on my poor people!”

Last words, as quoted in De Vader des Vaderlands (1941) by W. Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, p. 29
Variants:
O my God, have mercy on this poor people.
My God, have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people.
My God, have mercy on my soul and on these poor people.
My God, have pity on my soul; I am badly wounded. My God, have pity on my soul and on this poor people!

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