Born in Hainault; became attached to the Court of Charles V., by whom, for distinguished military and diplomatic services, he was appointed governor of Flanders; fell into disfavour for espousing the cause of the Protestants of the Netherlands, and was beheaded in Brussels by the Duke of Alva; his career and fate form the theme of Goethe's tragedy "Egmont," a play nothing as a drama, but charming as a picture of the two chief characters in the piece, Egmont and Clarchen.