("They're just beggars"). Three days later, during a banquet at the palace of the earl of Culemborg, the pejorative geus was chosen as a badge of honour for their group. They decided to adopt a costume incorporating mendicant symbols, such as beggars' bowls and flagons. This was less an eccentricity of the low nobility than the popular tradition in reversing roles, as at carnival time. A dress code, with beggars' bowls and flagons and a silver (or gilt) token on a ribbon around the neck indicated their independence and dominance; mockery of the church may also have been a factor. The lower 16th-century Flemish nobility could be described as successful criminals. When Charles V first visited Spain in 1517 and did not land at the pre-selected spot because of stormy weather, disappointed Flemish nobles marauded and murdered innocent people (according to Alonso de Santa Cruz) and officials withheld the news from Charles. In 1572 William de la Marck, Lord of Lumey (also lower Flemish nobility) took Den Briel for William the Silent; nineteen Catholic clerics were brought to him in Den Briel. After they were tortured, they were hanged; William of Orange had requested leniency toward Catholic clergy. During the 16th century, beggars frequently required permission from a local municipality or lordship. Permission was sometimes granted only if they wore a small tin (or copper) token, the possible origin of the Geuzen medals. Probable first political medal Letters between Granvelle (in Madrid) and his secretary, Morillon (in Brussels) indicate that Jacques Jonghelincka master medal maker with a workshop in a buildings in the palace complex in Brusselsmade a mould for a small medal in the spring of 1566. Jonghelinck cast medals in lead, tin, copper, silver and gold; tin and copper specimens are now lost, and only a few questionable lead specimens exist). On June 15 Morillon sent a lead specimen to Granvelle, saying that more medals were cast in lead then in the other metals; a medal for poor people "affin peult-estre gue les Geutz demeurent en leur qualité" ("perhaps the quality [of the medals] is in line with the standing of the Geuzen"). The medal is described in part I of Gerard van Loon's book, Beschrijving der Nederlandse Historipenningen ... (1713–1731), and has the collectors reference vL.I 85/84.5. It is classified as rare to very rare. The medal is small, only (not counting the eyelet). It shows the