The repression in the Netherlands, instead of solving a crucial problem, elicited bitter criticism from every major European state. Alba was unrepentant about his tough policy convinced that the population must remain in a state of fear, so that every individual has the feeling that one fine night or morning the house will fall in on him. Of the leading dissidents who escaped from Alba's hands, only William of Orange remained. Tall, dark-haired, with a small moustache and a short peaked beard, the prince of Orange-Nassau was aged thirty-five at the moment that fortune left him in the unenviable role of defender of his country. A comrade-in-arms of Philip during the latter's years abroad in mid-century, he never made a secret of his concern for the privileges of his class or of his dislike for religious dogmatism. Widowed in 1558, in 1561 he married Anne, the Lutheran daughter of the late Maurice of Saxony. The marriage, celebrated in Leipzig, gave him a useful link with the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. When news came of Alba's departure from Spain, Orange opportunely took refuge in Germany. it became clear that the only way to regain the Netherlands was by the use of arms. In the course of 1568 Orange sponsored invasions by several small forces, which entered from France and from Germany. All were defeated. Captured prisoners gave details of Orange's links with Protestants in several countries. The invasions could not fail to affect the fate of the distinguished prisoners in Alba's hands. On 5 June 1568, in the public square of Brussels, the counts of Egmont and Homes were beheaded for high treason. The executions shocked opinion throughout Europe. The two nobles, as knights of the Golden Fleece, could be tried only by their peers. But Philip, grand master of the order, had cleared the way for the trial by a special patent which he had drawn up in April 1567 and sent to Alba in December. There is no doubt that Philip considered Egmont responsible for much of the trouble in Flanders, but the pressure for an exemplary punishment came rather from the members of his council, particularly [it seems] from cardinal Espinosa. Alba had always regretted the need to arrest the two counts, whom 'I have always loved and esteemed as my own brothers.' According to some, he was reluctant to proceed to execution. Philip wrote formally to Alba: 'I very deeply regret that the offenses of the counts were so serious that they called for the punishment that has been carried out.' The remorse, which came too late, was probably sincere. The counts were victims of a political crisis. Their names, interestingly enough, continued to be held in honour at the Spanish court. A book on the events of Flanders published in Castile a few years later, when all books had to be licensed by the royal council, referred to them as 'outstanding princes, well loved and of the highest and finest character.' 'Bitter criticism' is criticism that is ______.