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; Brussels, 7 March/20 July 1540 – Leiden, 15 December 1598) was a Flemish and Dutch writer and statesman, and the probable author of the text of the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus.
Marnix of St. Aldegonde was born at Brussels, the son of Jacob of Marnix, baron of Pottes. He studied theology under John Calvin and Theodore Beza at Geneva. Returning to the Netherlands in 1560, he threw himself into the cause of the 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 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, prince of Orange, and in 1572 was sent as his representative to the first meeting of the States-General assembled at Dordrecht. In 1573 he was taken prisoner by the 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 German princes. Equally vain were his efforts in the same year to persuade the magistrates of Ghent to cease persecuting the 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, 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. He died at Leiden on the 15th of December 1598.
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Description of the statue
The stone statue, life-size, on a sandstone base approximately 70 cm high, a figure holding an open book in his hands, he has short pants and short jacket over his shoulders.