into Catholicism and total political obedience to the Spanish Crown. Spanish Furies By underpaid military under regular command Looting a conquered town was not uncommon, and Governor Alba took it a step further by intentionally setting horrifying examples against sympathy for the rebels. The Spanish Fury at Mechelen was the earliest event that became known by this term. After Orange's lieutenant Bernard of Merode had taken the city and controlled Mechelen for a month, he and his men left because a much stronger Spanish force was coming. Despite welcoming the latter by singing psalms of penitence in a gesture of surrender, from 2 October 1572, under command of Governor Alva's son Fadrique, three days long the city was sacked by his slaughtering, raping and pillaging troops. Alva reported to King Philip II (who later imprisoned him) that "no nail was left in the wall". The Army of Flanders that had sacked Mechelen reconquered Diest and Roermond, marched on to Guelders and in November easily regained Zutphen, which had been taken for Orange in June. Don Fadrique ordered his men to kill the garrison and allowed them to murder and plunder the city. After the Spanish Fury at Zutphen, the counties to its north capitulated. By December at Naarden in Holland, the inhabitants negotiated their surrender but the city was sacked and burnt down, and only 60 people survived the Massacre of Naarden.<ref name=SEE-BIBLIOGRAPHY_AR-sub3 /> The Spanish Fury at Haarlem, in 1573, following the half-year-long Siege of Haarlem By December 1573, high yet ineffective financial expenditures, and complaints about the sheer cruelty of the governor's expeditions, led Philip II to Requesens, where he replaced Alba, who returned to Spain. The notorious 'Council of Blood' ordered no more executions, and was already in June 1574 officially abolished by Requesens, but remained in session until the Summer of 1576. In October 1576, during the city of Maastricht's rebellion against its fortress because of continued heavy payments, German soldiers of the Spanish garrison followed city council orders and stood aside. While some Spanish troops held out at one of the gates, others fled with the garrison's commander Francisco de Montesdoca to his minor fortification at Wyck just across the River Maas bridge. Though Montesdoca was offered safety during negotiations, he was arrested in the heat of this dispute. He was liberated while soldiery arriving from Dalem and those of Wyck captured the city. As