<P> William I of Orange was stadtholder of the provinces Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, and Burgrave of Antwerp, and he was the most influential noble in the States General who had signed the petition . After the arrival of Alba, to avoid arrest as had happened to Egmont and Horne, he fled to the lands ruled by his wife's father--the Count - Elector of Saxony . All his lands and titles in the Netherlands were forfeited to the Spanish King . </P> <P> In 1568, William returned to try to drive the highly unpopular Duke of Alba from Brussels . William's nominal purpose was to remove misguided ministers like Alba, end rebellion, and thus restore the proper authority of King Phillip . This view is reflected in today's Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, in which the last lines of the first stanza read: den koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd (I have always honoured the King of Spain). In pamphlets and in his letters to allies in the Netherlands William also called attention to the right of subjects to renounce their oaths of obedience if the sovereign would not respect their privileges . William's forces moved into the Netherlands from four directions . Armies led by his brothers invaded from Germany while French Huguenots invaded from the south . The Spanish had won the Battle of Rheindalen near Roermond on 23 April 1568, but the Battle of Heiligerlee, fought on 23 May 1568, is commonly regarded as the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, and it was a victory for the rebel army . But the campaign ended in failure as William ran out of money and his own army disintegrated, while those of his allies were destroyed by the Duke of Alba . William remained at large and, as the only grandee still able to offer resistance, was from then on seen as the leader of the rebellion . </P> <P> When the revolt broke out once more in 1572, William moved his court back to the Netherlands, to Delft in Holland, as the ancestral lands of Orange in Breda remained occupied by the Spanish . Delft remained William's base of operations until his assassination by Balthasar Gérard in 1584 . </P> <P> Spain was hampered because it was waging war on multiple fronts simultaneously . Its struggle against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Sea put serious limits on the military power it could deploy against the rebels in the Netherlands . France too was opposing Spain at every juncture . Furthermore, England, particularly English privateers, were harassing Spanish shipping and its colonies in the Atlantic . </P>

Who did the dutch fight that led to their decline