As regards the first objective: four days before the execution of the Counts of Egmont and Horne there was the wholesale execution of eighteen lesser nobles (among whom the three brothers Bronckhorst van Batenburg) in Brussels. Many other nobles, especially from Holland, where a large part of the "ridderschap" had been implicated in the League of Nobles, fled abroad (still forfeiting their lands). Among those were Willem Bloys van Treslong (who in 1572 captured Den Briel), Gijsbrecht van Duivenvoorde (who would be a prominent defender in the siege of Haarlem in 1573), Jacob van Duivenvoorde (later a prominent defender of Leiden in 1574) and Willem van Zuylen van Nijevelt (a Utrecht iconoclast). But members of the urban patriciate were also persecuted. The Advocate of the States of Holland, Jacob van den Eynde was arrested, but died in captivity before his trial ended. In Haarlem Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert was arrested, but he managed to escape, Lenaert Jansz de Graeff from Amsterdam fled to Bruges and later became captain of the Sea Beggars in the Capture of Brielle. Others, including Jan van Casembroot (from Bruges) and Anthony van Stralen, Lord of Merksem (Mayor of Antwerp) were less fortunate.