[Sidenote: January 31] But this failed to clarify a situation that tended to become ever more complicated.

Help from England and France came in tiny dribblets just sufficient to keep Philip's energies occupied in the cruel civil war.
But the vacancy, so to speak, on the ducal throne of the Burgundian state, seemed to invite the candidacy of neighboring princes and a chance of seriously interesting France came when the ambition of Francis, Duke of Anjou, was stirred to become ruler of the Low Countries.

William attempted also to make {270} use of him.

In return for the promise to raise 12,000 troops, Anjou received from the States General the title of "Defender of the Freedom of the Netherlands against the tyranny of the Spaniards and their allies." The result was that the Catholic population was divided in its support between Matthew and Anjou, and that Orange retained the balance of influence.
[Sidenote: Protestant schism] The insuperable difficulty in the way of success for the policy of this great man was still the religious one.

Calvinism had been largely drawn off to Holland and Zeeland, and Catholicism remained the religion of the great majority of the population in the other provinces.