But neither Egmont nor Hoorn would consent; they would not be guilty of any act of disloyalty to their sovereign.
The result of the meeting was a great disappointment to Orange, and this date marked a turning-point in his life.

In concert with his brothers, John and Lewis, he began to enter into negotiations with several of the German Protestant princes for the formation of a league for the protection of the adherents of the reformed faith in the Netherlands.
Now for the first time he severed his nominal allegiance to the Roman Church, and in a letter to Philip of Hesse avowed himself a Lutheran.
During these same autumn months Philip furnished his sister with considerable sums of money for the levying of a strong mercenary force, German and Walloon.

Possessed now of a body of troops that she could trust, Margaret in the spring of 1567 took energetic steps to suppress all insurrectionary movements and disorders, and did not scruple to disregard the concessions which had been wrung from her on August 23.
The confederate nobles, satisfied with her promises, had somewhat prematurely dissolved their league; but one of the most fiery and zealous among them, John de Marnix, lord of Thoulouse, collected at Antwerp a body of some 2000 Calvinists and attempted to make himself master of that city.

At Austruweel he was encountered (March 13) by a Walloon force despatched by Margaret with orders to "exterminate the heretics." Thoulouse and almost the whole of his following perished in the fight.

In the south at the same time the conventicles were mercilessly suppressed and the preachers driven into exile.
Margaret now felt herself strong enough to demand that the stadholders and leading nobles should, on pain of dismissal from their posts, take an oath "to serve the king and to act for and against whomsoever His Majesty might order." Egmont took the oath; Hoorn, Hoogstraeten and Brederode declined to do so and resigned their offices.