choirs and set a tradition for polychoral music in St.
Mark’s. As a madrigalist Willaert paid great attention to
the text. His collection of motets and madrigals, Musica
nova (1559, though probably written much earlier), is ar-
guably his most important work.
William (I) the Silent (1533–1584) Prince of Orange
(1544–84) and Count of Nassau (1559–84)
The son of William of Nassau and Juliana of Stolberg,
William inherited Orange and substantial territories in
Brabant and Franche-Comté from a cousin in 1544. At
CHARLES V’s insistence William was educated in Orange as
a Catholic. He enjoyed the favor of Charles, who made
him commander of the army in the Netherlands and gov-
ernor of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht in 1555. William
also served PHILIP IIof Spain against France and negotiated
the preliminaries of the peace of CATEAU-CAMBRÉSIS(1559)
between Spain and France.
Despite his concern at the persecution of Dutch
Protestants in the early 1560s, William remained loyal to
Philip II until the duke of ALBAbegan his reign of terror in
the Netherlands. William then resigned his offices, refused
to take the oath of loyalty to Alba, and in 1568 openly de-
clared his Protestant faith. He then embarked on his long
struggle to drive the Spanish from the Netherlands. His ef-
forts enjoyed little success until the SEA-BEGGARSseized
Brill (1572) and flew the flag of Orange over its walls.
Other towns followed, and in 1579 the seven northern
states formed the Union of Utrecht. In 1581 they declared
their independence and settled the hereditary stadtholder-
ship on William, who was henceforth acclaimed as
founder of the Republic of the United Netherlands. His as-
sassination by a Catholic three years later gave the Dutch
a martyr and inspired them to continue their struggle for
full independence for the Netherlands.
Further reading: Koenraad W. Swart, William the
Silent and the Revolt of the Netherlands (London: Historical
Association, 1978).
William (IV) the Wise (1532–1592) Landgrave of
Hesse-Kassel (1567–92)
In 1552 William championed the Protestant cause against
Emperor CHARLES V, and helped secure the release of his
father, PHILIP OF HESSE, from five years’ captivity. William
succeeded his father as landgrave, but had to share the in-
heritance with his three brothers. He was an outstanding
administrator and organizer with a considerable talent for
economics. The survey, Ökonomische Staat, compiled for
him in 1585 is a model of administrative statistics.
William had a particular interest in astronomy; he con-
structed astronomical instruments, calculated stellar posi-
tions, and was a friend of Tycho BRAHEand patron of Jost
BÜRGI.
Wimpfeling, Jakob (1450–1528) German humanist and
educator
The son of a saddler at Schlettstadt (now Sélestat, Alsace),
Wimpfeling was educated at the universities of Fribourg,
Erfurt, and Heidelberg. He also taught at Heidelberg
(1471–84, 1498–1500), becoming rector there from 1481
until 1484. In Strasbourg (1501–15) he founded a literary
society with Sebastian BRANT and Johannes Geiler. Al-
though a critic of ecclesiastical abuses, as his satirical
Stylpho (performed in 1480—the first Latin comedy by a
German humanist) makes clear, he could never endorse
the Reformation. His ideas on education were expressed in
two books: Isidoneus germanicus (“Guide to the German
Youth”), in which he argued for moral teaching in educa-
tion and also recommended the reading of selected pagan
Latin authors (many educators totally rejected their use),
and the highly successful Adolescentia (“Youth”), a collec-
tion of ideas and advice from other authors. The patriotic
element of Wimpfeling’s humanism (in reaction to Italian
cultural domination) is seen in his polemical treatise Ger-
mania (1501), in which he claimed that Alsace was incon-
testably German, and in his Epitome rerum germanicarum
(1505; translated as A Short History of Germany), the first
attempt at a systematic history of Germany. He died in
Schlettstadt, where he had become involved in contro-
versy with younger humanists over their blanket endorse-
ment of the pagan poets.Winter King The sobriquet of Frederick V (1596–1632),
Elector Palatine (1610–23), on account of the brevity of
his reign as king of Bohemia (1619–20). He married
(1613) Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England; she be-
came known as the Winter Queen. As head of the Protes-
tant Union, Frederick accepted the Bohemian throne from
nobles in rebellion against the Catholic Hapsburgs, but at
the WHITE MOUNTAIN(1620) the imperial forces defeated
the Protestants and went on to drive Frederick out of both
Bohemia (1620) and the Palatinate (1623).witchcraft A set of practices believed to give its practi-
tioners extraordinary or supernatural power over events
and people, generally, but not always, to be used for ma-
lign purposes. In the Renaissance period witchcraft was
mainly associated with the poor and illiterate, who were
considered to be the willing dupes of the Devil and his co-
horts. It therefore differed from the scholarly and arcane
practice of MAGIC(though a magus could lay himself open
to charges of witchcraft and accusations of selling his soul
to the Devil—witness the stories of FAUSTand of Cor-
nelius AGRIPPAvon Nettesheim’s familiar spirit in the form
of a dog).
Although witchcraft had been attested from ancient
times, the text often singled out as sparking off the obses-
sion with it in the Renaissance period is the Malleus
Maleficarum (1486) of the Dominican inquisitors Jakobwwiittcchhccrraafftt 5 50033