File:Execution of Egmond and Horn.gif

English: An illustration of Egmond and Horn, being executed by beheading. On June 5, 1568, both men, Lamoral, Count of Egmont, aged only 46 and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn, aged 44, were beheaded in the Grand Place in Brussels, Egmont's uncomplaining dignity on the occasion being widely noted. Both had been condemned to death by the Council of Troubles, led by the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba - even though they were Catholics. Their deaths led to public protests throughout the Netherlands, and contributed to the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the Dutch Republic in 1648.