Vindicae Contra Tyrannos
At the meeting of the Estates-General in Delft in December 1580, William vindicated his honor in the face of Philip’s personal attack by publicly renouncing the overlordship of the Spanish king. It was the first practical application of the argument of the Huguenot tract Vindicae contra tyrannos (1579) that people have the moral right and obligation to remove a sovereign derelict in his royal duties.
Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations, 2nd Edition (Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 290