The total number put to death during the six years of Alva's administration has been variously estimated at from 6,000 to 18,000.

The lower number is probably nearer the truth, though not high enough.

Emigration on a hitherto unknown scale within the next thirty or forty years carried 400,000 persons from the Netherlands.

Thousands of others fled to the woods and became freebooters.

The people as a whole were prostrated with terror.