For Jelle Haemers, the conflicts were not between the autocratic prince and his subjects but between two factions that supported different ideologies of statescraft (a more polyarchical one and a more autocratical one), and both sides had their point. Many rebels were not barbarians but conscious citizens who believed that they had reasons to correct incompetent government, and Maximilian's side also showed some leniency but was forced to intervene more harsherly than it had anticipated.
