He assumed, in his letters to his master, that the absolutism already existed of right and in fact, which it was the intention of Philip to establish.

While he was depriving the nobles, the states and the nation of their privileges, and even of their natural rights (a slender heritage in those days), he assured the King that there was an evident determination to reduce his authority to a cipher.
The estates, he wrote, had usurped the whole administration of the finances, and had farmed it out to Antony Van Stralen and others, who were making enormous profits in the business.

"The seignors," he said, "declare at their dinner parties that I wish to make them subject to the absolute despotism of your Majesty.

In point of fact, however, they really exercise a great deal more power than the governors of particular provinces ever did before; and it lacks but little that Madame and your Majesty should become mere ciphers, while the grandees monopolize the whole power.

This," he continued, "is the principal motive of their opposition to the new bishoprics.