Third Fragment:
The document relates that instead of listening to the Netherlands envoys, Philip II declared those who submitted the recent request were guilty of treason and as such liable to punishment by death. Next, the document recounts the Spanish reaction to the events of the 'Annus mirabilis', 1566 (which witnessed the ##Iconoclastic Fury) and starts >>the story of Alva's dreadful tyranny. The document goes on to recount various episodes of Alva's rule, in particular the development of a new system of taxes in the face of widespread opposition.
FRAGMENT 3
The duke of Alva would even have carried this plan into effect by force had not >the prince of Orange, several nobles and other distinguished inhabitants who after being exiled by the duke of Alva, had followed His princely Grace and were now mostly in his service, together with other good citizens who had remained in the Netherlands and who cared greatly for the liberty of >the fatherland, shortly afterwards caused the greater part of Holland and Zeeland to abandon the duke and to put themselves under the protection of the prince.