interceded personally with the Pope the sentence was cut in half. A few years later king Philip II himself intervened leading to the liberation of Willem. This illustrates the extent of the support by powerful figures which the artist enjoyed at that time. Even the Duke of Alva bestowed favors on him and his family when he granted Michiel and his son Raphael dispensation from the compulsory billeting of Spanish soldiers at their homes. His wife died in 1569. Two months after her death he married Jeanne van Schelle (or van Schellen or van Schallen), with whom he had two more children of whom Michiel the Younger became a painter. The painter's whereabouts from the 1570s are not entirely clear. In October 1572 Spanish troops plundered Mechelen for three days after retaking the city from an army under the command of William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch Revolt. The event known as the Spanish Fury caused many local painters to flee to Antwerp. Coxie was outside of the country, possibly in Spain, when the events happened. His house was plundered and some painters from Antwerp were able to buy back some tapestry designs which Spanish soldiers had looted from his home. Upon his return to Flanders, Coxie stayed in Mechelen and took on two pupils in his workshop. However, Mechelen had become a cultural wasteland while Antwerp offered attractive opportunities as many of the altarpieces which had been destroyed needed to be replaced and its leading history painters Frans Floris and Willem Key had just died. He completed an altarpiece in Antwerp in 1575 and was registered in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1578. He remained in Antwerp during the period from 1580 to 1585 when the city was governed by a Calvinist government. He was even able as a Catholic to obtain commissions from the local government, which was tolerant of Catholics. In 1585 he was registered as a tenant in the Kloosterstraat in Antwerp, while his house in Mechelen was rented out. After the Fall of Antwerp and the return of Spanish Catholic control over the city in 1585, Coxie immediately gained commissions from patrons in Mechelen, including the city government. The continued appreciation of the Spanish king for the elderly artist was demonstrated when in 1589, he granted him an annuity. Coxie continued painting even when he was over 90 years old..