View source for Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde

{{Short description|16th century mayor of Antwerp, probable author of Dutch national anthem}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    =
| name                = Philips of Marnix, <br />Lord of Saint-Aldegonde
| honorific-suffix    =
| image               = Portret van Filips van Marnix, heer van Sint-Aldegonde, op 59-jarige leeftijd, RP-P-OB-9957.jpg
| imagesize           = 200px
| caption             = Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, portrait by [[Jacques de Gheyn II]]
| order1              = [[List of mayors of Antwerp|Lord Mayor of Antwerp]]
| term_start1         = 1583
| term_end1           = 1584
| monarch1            =
| primeminister1      =
| predecessor1        =
| successor1          =
| office2             = Lord of Saint-Aldegonde
| predecessor2        = Jacob of Marnix
| successor2          =
| term_start2         = 1558
| term_end2           = 1598
| birth_date          = 1540
| birth_place         = [[Brussels]], [[Landgraviate of Brabant|Brabant]], [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age |1598|12|15|1540|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Leiden]], [[County of Holland|Holland]], [[Dutch Republic|The Netherlands]]
| nationality         =
| party               =
| alma_mater          =
| spouse              = Philippotte, Lady of Belle de Bailleul
}}
'''Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, Lord of West-Souburg''' (Dutch: Filips van Marnix, heer van Sint-Aldegonde, heer van West-Souburg, French: Philippe de Marnix, seigneur de Sainte-Aldegonde; 7 March/20 July 1540 – 15 December 1598) was a [[Southern Netherlands|Flemish]] and [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] writer and statesman, and the probable author of the text of the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[national anthem]], the ''[[Wilhelmus]]''.
==Biography - career==
[[File:Armoiries Philippe de Marnix.svg|right|201px]]
Marnix of St. Aldegonde was born in [[Brussels]], the son of Jacob of Marnix. He studied [[theology]] under [[John Calvin]] and [[Theodore Beza]] at [[Geneva]]. Returning to the [[Habsburg Netherlands]] in 1560, he threw himself into the cause of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], taking an active part in the compromise of the nobles in 1565 and the assembly of [[Sint-Truiden]]. He issued a pamphlet in justification of the iconoclastic movement [[Beeldenstorm]] which devastated many churches in [[Flanders]] in 1566, and on [[Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba|the Duke of Alba]]'s arrival next year had to flee the country.
After spending some time in [[Friesland]] and in the [[Electorate of the Palatinate]] he was in 1570 taken into the service of [[William I of Orange|William, prince of Orange]], and in 1572 was sent as his representative to the first meeting of the [[Netherlands States-General|States-General]] assembled at [[Dordrecht]]. In 1573 he was taken prisoner by the [[Spain|Spaniards]] at [[Maaslandsluys]], but was exchanged in the following year. He was sent as the representative of the insurgent provinces to [[Paris]] and [[London]], where he attempted in vain to secure the effective assistance of Queen, [[Elizabeth I of England]].
In 1578 he was at the [[Diet of Worms]], where he made an eloquent, but fruitless, appeal for aid to the [[Germany|German]] princes. Equally vain were his efforts in the same year to persuade the magistrates of [[Ghent]] to cease persecuting the [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholics]] in the city. He took a conspicuous part in arranging the [[Union of Utrecht]]. In 1583 was chosen [[burgomaster]] of [[Antwerp]]. In 1585 he surrendered the city, after the months' [[Siege of Antwerp (1584-1585)|Siege of Antwerp]], to the Spaniards. Attacked by the English and by his own countrymen for this act, he retired from public affairs and, save for a mission to Paris in 1590, lived henceforth in [[Leiden]] or on his estate in [[Zeeland]], where he worked at a translation of the [[Bible]].
His daughter Elizabeth married [[Charles Morgan (military governor)|Sir Charles Morgan]], a Welsh mercenary serving with the [[Dutch States Army]] who ended his career as Governor of [[Bergen op Zoom]].  He died in [[Leiden]] on 15 December 1598.
==Literary work==
St. Aldegonde, or Marnix (by which name he is very commonly known), is celebrated for his share in the great development of Dutch literature which followed the classical period represented by such writers as the poet and historian [[Pieter Hooft]]. Of his works, the best known is the ''Roman Bee-hive'' (''De roomsche byen-korf''), published in 1569 during his exile in Friesland, a bitter satire on the faith and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. This was translated, or adapted, in French, German and English (by [[George Gilpin]]).<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Gilpin, George}}</ref> He also wrote an educational treatise dedicated to John, Count of Nassau. As a poet, St. Aldegonde is mainly known through his metrical translation of the [[Psalms]] (1580/1591); and, the Dutch national anthem ''[[Wilhelmus|Wilhelmus van Nassouwe]]'' is also ascribed to him. His complete works, edited by [[Paul Lacroix|Lacroix]] and [[Edgar Quinet|Quinet]], were published at Brussels in 7 volumes (1855–1859), and his religious and theological writings, edited by Van Toorenenbergen, at The Hague, in 4 volumes (1871–1891).
Marnix wrote one of the earliest Bible translations into Dutch.
Less known to the general public is his work as a cryptographer. St. Aldegonde is considered to be the first Dutch [[cryptographer]] (cfr. ''[[The Codebreakers]]''). For [[Stadholder]] [[William the Silent]], he deciphered secret messages that were intercepted from the [[Spain|Spaniards]]. His interest in cryptography possibly shows in the ''[[Wilhelmus]]'', where the first letters of the couplets form the name [[William the Silent|''Willem van Nassov'']], i.e. William 'the Silent' of [[House of Orange-Nassau|Nassau]], the Prince of Orange, but such [[acrostic]]s - and far more intricate poetic devices - were a common feature of the [[Rederijker]] school in the Lowlands.
There is a marble sculpture of him by [[Paul de Vigne]] in Brussels.
Marnix could speak Spanish, and this influenced his writing style.<ref>«Sans doute l'Espagne ne fut représentée dans notre pays que par un petit nombre de fonctionnaires groupés dans le grand centre administratif qu'était Bruxelles et les organismes centraux indigènes, comme les organismes provinciaux et locaux, continuèrent-ils ainsi que par le passé à être gérés par des nationaux et à employer les langues nationales; cependant, à partir du gouvernement de Marguerite de Parme et surtout à l'arrivée du duc d'Albe, l'espagnol fut mis à l'honneur à la Cour et devint plus familier aux grands seigneurs et aux hauts fonctionnaires. Quel effet ce bilinguisme plus ou moins parfait pouvait-il exercer sur le français, il est permis d'en juger par l'apparition de mots espagnols dans le correspondances comme celle de Granvelle, et mieux encore par la prose de Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde. Contrairement à la plupart des écrivains français de la Renaissance, celui-ci était un excellent connaisseur de l'espagnol, et notamment dans le Tableau des différends de la Religion, des mots et des expressions espagnoles viennent souvent émailler de façon pittoresque ou narquoise le contexte français; pareils traits seraient inexplicables s'ils n'étaient pas destinés à des lecteurs ayant au moins la connaissance de quelques rudiments d'espagnol. A la Cour, des troupes de comédiens espagnols venaient donner des représentations» —Herbillon, Jules. Éléments espagnols en wallon et dans le français des anciens Pays-Bas, 23–24. Mémoires de la Commission royale de toponymie et de dialectologie. Section wallonne 10. Liège: Michiels, 1961.
</ref>
==See also==
* [[House of Coloma]]
* [[Marnixstraat]]
* [[Bornem Castle]]
* [[Saint Aldegonde]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources and references==
{{EB1911|wstitle=St Aldegonde, Philips van Marnix, Heer van|volume=23|page=1013}}
* {{commons category-inline|Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde}}
* [[Edgar Quinet]], [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007710140 ''Marnix de St Aldegonde''] (Paris, 1854)
* [[Théodore Juste]], [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100567192 ''Vie de Marnix''] (The Hague, 1858); Frédéricq, ''Marnix en zijnenederlandsche geschriften'' (Ghent, 1882)
* Tjalma, ''Philips van Marnix, heer van Sint-Aldegonde'' (Amsterdam, 1896)
* 'On the Education of Youth', trans. Robert de Rycke in 'History of Education Quarterly', Summer 1970)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marnix Van St. Aldegonde, Philips Van}}
[[Category:1540 births]]
[[Category:1598 deaths]]
[[Category:Poets from the Habsburg Netherlands]]
[[Category:Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War (United Provinces)]]
[[Category:16th-century cryptographers]]
[[Category:Dutch nobility]]
[[Category:Belgian nobility]]
[[Category:Diplomats from Brussels]]
[[Category:Burials at Pieterskerk, Leiden]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:Mayors of Antwerp, Belgium]]
[[Category:Writers from Brussels]]