An independent (Dutch) state where Catholics and Protestants were both welcome. That was the ideal of William of Orange. Before this became a reality, a deadly bullet hit him in the chest.
"I have always honored the king of Hispanje," said William of Orange in the Wilhelmus. And that was initially the case:because King Philip II himself lived in Spain, he appointed Van Oranje as deputy administrator ('stadhouder') in Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.
But after a while William of Orange began to get annoyed by Philip's policy. Together with other members of the high nobility, he opposed the Spanish power:they themselves wanted more influence over local government.
Another thorn in Willem's eye was that the (Catholic) Philip II had Protestants persecuted violently. Although Van Oranje was also Catholic, many of his loved ones were Protestant. He himself converted to Calvinism in 1573. When he then saw how Philip II and the Duke of Alba reacted to the Iconoclasm (1566), he definitely switched off.
From that moment he was no longer loyal to the Spanish king and fought him. He conquered Holland and Zeeland and tried to cooperate with the other provinces against Spain. At the same time, he strove for religious freedom. With the conclusion of the Union of Utrecht (1579) he succeeded reasonably well. Later, the provinces renounced Philip II as ruler of the Netherlands (Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, 1581).
Spain was finished, but who was suitable as lord of the land? A problem that Van Oranje could no longer solve. On July 10, 1584, the prince had just come from a work meeting, the fanatical Catholic Balthasar Gerards shot him without mercy.