CHAPTER 19

THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.

THE consequences of the assassination of William the Silent were not so momentous as his enemies had expected. The task undertaken by him had been so far accomplished, that his death in no way impaired the firm resolution of the revolted Provinces to maintain to the end their desperate struggle against the Spanish tyranny. On the very day of the murder (July 10, 1584), the States of Holland, sitting at Delft, passed a resolution "to uphold the good cause with God's help without sparing gold or blood"; and this resolution was at once forwarded to all officers in command on land and sea. The people, though stirred to indignation by the crime, everywhere preserved a calm and determined attitude. There was no panic, nor was submission thought of for a single instant.

William's death had left the government of the country in an amorphous condition. It would indeed be more correct to say that no government existed. When the authority of Philip II had been finally abjured, the sovereignty reverted to the several Provinces, and by their delegation was vested in the States General. But that body had only been anxious to find someone able and willing, under proper guarantees, to step into the place forfeited by the Spanish King. Failure and disappointment had attended their first efforts; and they had only been saved from ruin by putting trust in the leadership of the Prince of Orange, who, although he had steadily declined any offer of sovereignty, had guided them by his courage and sagacity through the long years of their desperate struggle. At length, in 1584, William had, though unwillingly, accepted for himself the Countship of Holland and Zeeland, and had secured for the Duke of Anjou, despite his misdeeds, the lordship over the other Provinces. By their almost simultaneous deaths the sovereignty reverted once more to the States General. It was an extraordinary state of affairs; for, when we speak of the sovereignty being vested in the States General, it must be remembered that the States General themselves were possessed of no real authority. They were composed of delegates from a number of Provincial States, each of them sovereign. These delegates were simply the mouthpieces of the particular States which they represented, and the opposition of a single Province was sufficient to paralyse the action of all the rest. These Provincial States again were practically representative of the municipal corporations (vroedschappen) of the great towns. But these vroedschappen were close, self-coopting burgher aristocracies, with immunities and privileges which made them almost independent; and they were very jealous of their rights. Moreover, instead of there being anything approaching an equality of real power among the sovereign Provinces represented in the States General, Holland and Zeeland had not only borne the brunt of the war, but were, especially the former, the richest, the most energetic, and the most prosperous among them. They contributed some four-fifths of the charges and furnished the formidable fleets which formed the chief defence of the country. These two, while content to work together, though with many bickerings, looked upon the inland Provinces rather as protected dependencies than as allies and equals. Gelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssel naturally resented such an assumption; but, now that the great Provinces of Brabant and Flanders could no longer be reckoned upon as a bulwark on the southern frontier against the military power of Spain, they found themselves compelled to choose between the bond uniting them to the overbearing Hollanders or submission to Parma. For, in the course of the year that followed William's death, resistance to the Spanish forces south of the Meuse had been practically extinguished by the military and diplomatic skill of their great leader. One after another all the chief towns of Brabant and Flanders, Bruges, Dendermonde, Vilvoorde, Ghent, Brussels, and lastly Antwerp, had fallen before the victorious general of King Philip. The seaports, Ostend and Sluys, alone remained in the hands of the patriots.

1685-6] Negotiations with France and England.

Thus it is not to be wondered at that the States General should have believed their only hope of safety to lie in securing some foreign potentate as their sovereign, who would be able to lend them armed assistance, and give unity of purpose to their councils. The only two Powers to whom they could turn were the same with whom they had already been in correspondence upon the subject, France and England. Elizabeth, however, had shown so strong a disinclination to embroil herself with Philip for the sake of the Netherlands, that, despite the deep offence which Anjou had given, negotiations were again on foot at the time of the Duke's death for his return to the country as sovereign with strictly limited powers. The States General therefore determined to adhere to William of Orange's policy on this head, and in the first instance to offer the protectorship of Holland and Zeeland and the sovereignty of the other Provinces conditionally to Henry III of France. An embassy was despatched accordingly. But the form of the offer displeased the King; and he was preoccupied with the serious discords in his own kingdom and the dangers which threatened his own throne. He refused to consider the proposal, unless the sovereignty of all the Provinces were laid at his feet. The negotiation therefore came to nothing (1585).

All this time an influential party in Holland, at whose head was the Advocate Paul Buys, was in favor of an English alliance. But Elizabeth was quite as coy as her brother of France. She received the Dutch envoys with fair words; but, partly on principle, partly from prudence, declined the proffered sovereignty. All she would undertake was to give a limited amount of military aid on characteristically commercial terms. The towns of Flushing, Brill, and Rammekens were to be handed over to her, as pledges for the repayment of her expenses. In the matter of bargaining the Dutch on this occasion certainly met their match in Queen Elizabeth, who after the treaty was agreed upon, August 10, 1585, still spent some months in haggling over petty details. But the fall of Antwerp, which she had not anticipated, hastened her decision. She agreed to despatch at once 5000 foot and 1000 horse, together with garrisons for the cautionary towns, under the command of her favorite, the Earl of Leicester. He landed at Flushing on December 19, and received everywhere an enthusiastic welcome, even the States of Holland, afterwards his foes, writing to the Queen, "that they looked upon him as sent from Heaven for their deliverance". There was an eager desire to confer sovereign powers on him; and he was nothing loth. Without consulting Elizabeth he allowed himself, February 4,1586, in the presence of the States General and of Maurice of Nassau, to be solemnly invested with almost absolute authority, under the title of Governor-General. Practically the only restrictions placed upon him were that the States General and Provincial States should have the right of assembling on their own initiative; that the existing Stadholders should be irremovable; and that appointments to offices in the several Provinces should be made from two or three names submitted to him by the States. A new Council of State was created in which two Englishmen had seats. But Leicester was disappointed. His correspondence clearly shows that he wanted to be, for a time at any rate, in the position of a Roman dictator, though not from mere vanity or for the purpose of robbing the Netherlander of their liberty, but as a means to an end. But with good intentions he had little sagacity or tact, and he speedily found that his ideas conflicted not merely with those of a people obstinately attached to their time-honored rights and liberties, but with those of his royal mistress herself. Elizabeth received the news of his inauguration to office as Governor-General with high indignation. Leicester was ordered to resign his dignity; and Lord Heneage was despatched to Holland to rate both him and the States General for their conduct. Not till July did the Queen's favorite succeed in appeasing her wrath, or obtain her consent to his being styled Governor-General, and being addressed as "Excellency."

Leicester as Governor-General. [1584-6

The new Governor, who could speak no Dutch and knew nothing of the people with whom he had to deal, speedily found himself in difficulties. On April 4, 1586, he issued a placard forbidding, on pain of death, all commercial intercourse with the enemy. The exportation of grain, provisions, or other commodities to all countries under the sway of Philip II was henceforth absolutely prohibited. The Spaniards were dependent upon the Dutch for the supply of the necessaries of life; and, if only these could be effectually cut off, the armies of Parma would be starved out. In this reasoning, however, Leicester left out of account the vital importance of this traffic to the merchants of Holland and Zeeland. The purse of Holland and Zeeland furnished the sinews of war, and equipped the fleets and paid for the armies; and it was their great carrying and distributing trade which filled the purse. The inland districts, which were constantly exposed to the destructive ravages of the enemy's troops within their borders, were jealous of the greater prosperity of the maritime Provinces. Already in 1584, under pressure from their representatives, the States General had attempted to stop the grain traffic with the enemy in the interests of the country at large; but Amsterdam, supported by the States of Holland, had refused to obey the edict, and had carried the day. The yet more stringent prohibition proposed by Leicester at the instigation of the democratic party at Utrecht, who had a special grudge against the Hollanders, brought upon him their lasting hostility. The course rashly adopted by him was, in fact, really impracticable.

Meanwhile, Parma continued to advance further northwards; in June Grave, and in July Venloo, fell into his hands. Leicester was too much engrossed with the difficulties of internal administration to conduct the operations of war with the necessary vigor. His efforts towards curbing what he regarded as the contumacious opposition of the Holland merchants and regents to his authority only made the breach wider. He surrounded himself with a circle of advisers from the southern Netherlands, the three most prominent members of the favored group being Jacques Reingoud and Gérard Prouninck surnamed Deventer, both Brabanters, and Daniel de Burchgrave, a Fleming. On June 26 Leicester surprised the Council of State by the sudden announcement that he had created a Chamber of Finance, to which he had handed over the control of the Treasury. One of the special duties of this Chamber was to see that the placards against trading with the enemy were stringently enforced; and to effect this it was proposed to arm it with inquisitorial powers, extending even to the inspection of the books of suspected merchants. At its head was placed the Count von Neuenaar, Stadholder of Gelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssel, with Reingoud as treasurer-general and de Burchgrave as auditor. Leicester's arbitrary act deprived the Council of State of one of the most important of its functions, while foreigners were appointed to offices of financial control. Paul Buys, to whom the post of Commissary had been offered, refused to serve under Reingoud, and notwithstanding his English sympathies became one of Leicester's most pronounced opponents. Oldenbarneveldt, his successor as Advocate of Holland, likewise exerted his great influence with the States of that Province to resist the invasion of their rights.

The Governor on his part leant more and more on the support of the democratic party of Utrecht, who with the help of Neuenaar had deprived the old burgher oligarchy of the reins of power. Leicester secured the election of his confidant Deventer as burgomaster of the town, though as a foreigner he was disqualified from holding such an office; and the burgher captains and Calvinist preachers were his staunch partisans and allies. It was highly impolitic for the Governor-General, whose special task was to give unity to the national opposition to Spain, thus to accentuate the differences which divided Province from Province. But he was resolved to try conclusions with his adversaries; and Paul Buys was arrested at Utrecht and imprisoned.

1586] Mistakes and difficulties of Leicester.

West Friesland had long been merged in the Province of Holland and was known as the North Quarter. Leicester now resolved to revive the semi-independency of former times by appointing Sonoy Stadholder of West Friesland, thus openly ignoring the fact that that office was already held by Maurice of Nassau, who, as Admiral-General, also had supreme control of the naval forces of Holland and Zeeland. The Governor, however, took upon himself to erect three independent Admiralty Colleges of Holland, Zeeland, and the North Quarter, thus, to the great detriment of the public service, creating a system destined to last as long as the Dutch Republic. He made himself still more unpopular by violently espousing the cause of the extreme Calvinist preachers and zealots, and allowing a so-called National Synod to meet at Dort (June, 1586), whose aim was the suppression of all rites and opinions but its own, including those of the large "Libertine" or moderate party, at the head of which stood Oldenbarneveldt, the inheritors of the principles of William of Orange. As the year 1586 drew to its close Leicester became more and more dissatisfied with his position. He had to draw largely on his private resources to meet his expenses; and his forces were so weak that Parma could have overrun Gelderland and Overyssel with ease, had his master but given him a free hand. Philip's attention, however, was absorbed in preparations for the invasion of England, an enterprise for which the cooperation of Parma's army by land was essential. So soon as England had been conquered, the Netherlands could speedily be coerced into submission.

Disgusted at the many rebuffs he had suffered, Leicester, towards the end of November, determined to return to England and represent his difficulties in person to the Queen. The exercise of authority during his absence was left in the hands of the Council of State. But this body was merely the executive of the States General, and therefore in reality depended upon the support of the States of the sovereign Provinces. Besides, distrust was felt at the presence in the Council of two Englishmen, and of Leicester's foreign nominees; and this distrust was speedily intensified by the traitorous surrender to the enemy of Deventer and Zutphen by their English Governors, Stanley and York. The defection of these two adventurers, both of them Catholics formerly in Spanish service, threw suspicion on all Englishmen. Neither the death of the chivalrous Sidney on the field of Warnsfeld, nor the proved gallantry of the Norrises, Cecils, Pelhams, and Russells were allowed to atone for these base and damning acts of treachery, which delivered the line of the Yssel into Parma's hand. At the instigation of Oldenbarneveldt the States of Holland and Zeeland determined to act independently both of the States General and the Council. A Provincial army was formed; a new oath to the States was imposed on the levies; and additional powers, with the title of "Prince", were given to Maurice, under whom the experienced Count Hohenlo was appointed Lieutenant-General. In West Friesland Sonoy was forced to acknowledge his subordination to the Stadholder of Holland. Such was the influence of Oldenbarneveldt, that he was able to obtain for his measures the concurrence of the States General, and of the Council, which was purged of objectionable members. A remonstrance drawn up by him was sent in the name of the States General to Leicester, in which the faults and mistakes of the absent Governor were relentlessly exposed.

The terms of this document gave great offence to Elizabeth; but it did not suit her policy to abandon the cause of the Netherlands, and an accommodation was patched up. In July, 1587, Leicester returned to his post, welcomed by his partisans, but coldly and suspiciously received by the Holland leaders. His success or failure depended now upon his attitude towards the States of Holland and the States General, in which Holland was dominant. He came back determined to master them, but his conduct had already raised a question, which for two centuries was to divide the Dutch people into opposing parties: the question of the sovereignty of the Provinces. Elaborate arguments were brought forward to show that the sovereign power, formerly exercised by Charles V and Philip II, had by the abjuration of his sovereignty become vested in the States of each several Province. Hence it would follow that Leicester, as Governor, was subordinate to the States as Margaret of Parma had been to King Philip. This assumption of the States of Holland was historically indefensible; but Oldenbarneveldt had offered to resign his post as Advocate in April rather than yield on this head. He thus founded a party with whom the question of Provincial sovereignty became a principle; and the unwise attempts of a foreigner to erect a democratic dictatorship at the expense of the burgher oligarchies intensified a particularism, which was for many years to prejudice the national action and the best interests of the country. Leicester's motives were probably good, and his supporters were numerous and active; but he had not in him the makings of a statesman. One of the first effects of his continuous struggle for supremacy with the States of Holland was the failure to relieve Sluys, which important seaport, on August 5, fell into the hands of Parma. Had Farnese not been occupied with other projects, it is indeed difficult to see how, in this time of division and cross-purposes amongst his opponents, his further advance could have been arrested. Leicester would have been powerless to offer an effective resistance. His political efforts, though backed by such skilful and influential partisans as Deventer at Utrecht, Sonoy in the North Quarter, and Aysma in Friesland, failed against the firm resolve of the States of Holland and their able leader. All his attempts to create a revolution by the overthrow of the supremacy of the regents in the principal towns miscarried. Dispirited at last by a fruitless struggle, and in broken health, he on August 6,1587, finally turned his back definitely on the country, which had, as he thought, treated him so badly. "Non gregem, sed ingratos irmitus desero" was the motto inscribed on a medal struck upon the occasion. He came back a poor man.

Oldenbarneveldt and the Province of Holland, [1576-88

The position of the States at the beginning of 1588 appeared all but desperate. Their army was weak in numbers and in discipline, and without leaders of repute. The Provinces themselves were split into contending parties and jealous of each other. They had no allies to whom they could turn for help. Opposed to them stood the first general of his time, at the head of a large and seasoned force, which he had led to repeated triumphs. Already the whole country to the east of the Yssel and to the south of the Meuse and the Waal was practically in his hands. His plans were laid for completing the work so well begun; and, had he been unhampered, Parma would have in all probability in a couple of campaigns crushed out the revolt in the northern Netherlands.

He was not, however, destined to have a free hand. King Philip had set his heart upon the conquest of England by the Invincible Armada. In vain Parma urged that the subjugation of the rebel States was now in the King's power, and that it was not only wise, but necessary, to finish the one task before embarking upon another. The Duke was ordered to collect an immense fleet of transports at Sluys and Dunkirk, and to hold his army in readiness for crossing the Channel, so soon as the Great Armada appeared in the offing to act as his convoy. The story of what ensued is told elsewhere. The weary months of waiting, and the failure of Parma to put to sea in the face of the swarms of Dutch privateers that kept watch and ward to oppose his egress, gave breathing time to the Provinces, and at the same time filled the mind of the suspicious Philip with distrust of his nephew.

Moreover, the scheming brain of the Spanish King, undeterred by the crushing disaster of his "invincible" fleet, was already busy with projects of aggrandizement in France; so that, instead of being able to devote his energies to the reconquest of the Netherlands, during the remainder of his life Parma was chiefly occupied with futile expeditions into French territory. Thus, just when it seemed that nothing could avert the complete subjugation of the United Provinces, the attention of their adversary was fixed on other costly enterprises; and the resources of Spain, already gravely crippled, were drained to exhaustion.

After the departure of Leicester it seemed as if the loose federation of the United Provinces must fall apart through its own inherent separatist tendencies, and the utter lack of any workable machinery of government. The executive power was nominally vested in the Council of State; but the presence upon it of the local English commander and of two other English members weakened its authority, and rendered it unacceptable to the Provinces, especially to Holland, whose representation upon it in no way corresponded to her position and influence. Gradually, therefore, the States General curtailed its powers, and consulted it less; until a few years later it complained that all the most important affairs of the Provinces were determined and carried out without its cognisance. The driving-wheel of the government was now to be found in the predominance of the Province of Holland, as personified in the person of her Advocate, Oldenbarneveldt. This great statesman, the real founder of the Dutch Republic, as it was known to history, with consummate ability took advantage of the interval of comparative repose which followed the withdrawal of the English Governor, in order to gather into his own hands the reins of administration.

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547– 1619)

Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was born at Amersfoort in 1547. After he had begun practice as an advocate at the Hague, he became a fiery adherent of Orange, and bore arms at the time of the sieges of Haarlem and Leyden. In 1576 he was appointed Pensionary of Rotterdam, and thus became a member of the States of Holland. His industry and powers of persuasion, and his practical grasp of affairs, soon won him his prominence; and, having in 1586 been chosen Land's Advocate in succession to Paul Buys, he filled that important post for the next thirty-two years, thus exercising a commanding influence on the affairs of his country, and upon general European politics. For though the Advocate was nominally only the paid servant of the Provincial States of Holland, yet the permanency of his office, and the multiplicity of his functions, gave to a man of great ability a controlling voice in all discussions, and almost unlimited authority in the details of administration. As practically "Minister of all affairs", Oldenbarneveldt became in a sense the political personification of the Province whose servant he was, and of which he was the mouthpiece in the Assembly of the States General. Thus it came to pass that a many-headed system of government, whose divided sovereignty and hopelessly complicated checks and counter-checks appeared to forbid united action or strong counsels, acquired motive power, which enabled it to work with a certain degree of smoothness and efficiency. The voice of Oldenbarneveldt was that of the Province of Holland; and the voice of Holland, which bore more than half of the entire charges of the Union, was dominant in the States General.

But the Dutch Republic, in these first years of its consolidation as a federal State, required the services of the soldier quite as much as those of the statesman. Fortunately in Maurice of Nassau a great commander arose, who possessed precisely the qualifications needed. Maurice was only seventeen years of age at the time of his father's murder, and was at once appointed in his place Stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, and also first Member of the Council of State. During the next few years he had busied himself in the study of mathematics, and in acquiring both technical and practical acquaintance with the art of war. He served in several campaigns under Hohenlo, and from the first devoted himself seriously to the task of gaining a thorough knowledge of military tactics. He was a born soldier; politics had no attraction for him. In August, 1588, he was created Captain-General and Admiral of the Union by the States General, and in succession to Neuenaar, who died in October, 1589, he was elected by the Provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overyssel to be their Stadholder. All the stadholderates, with the single exception of Friesland, of which his cousin, William Lewis of Nassau, was Stadholder, were thus united in the person of Maurice. As in addition to this he was charged with the supreme control in military and naval affairs, Oldenbarneveldt found ready to his hand an instrument capable of carrying out his plans, and of translating policy into action. Many years were to pass before there arose even the faintest suspicion of jealousy or opposition between these two men, both so capable and ambitious. Their spheres of interest were distinct ; and the younger man was content to leave in the hands of his father's trusted friend the entire management of the affairs of State; his own thoughts were centred on the training of armies and the conduct of campaigns.

The Stadholder of Friesland, William Lewis of Nassau, the son of John, was the cousin and life-long confidant and adviser of Maurice, who owed to him his first instruction in military knowledge, and who could always rely on his far-sighted prudence and discretion. Of blameless life, sincerely religious, a firm adherent of the Reformed faith, William Lewis was at the same time broad-minded and statesmanlike in his views of men and things, like the great uncle whose daughter he married. He was a reformer of military science on principles drawn from a study of Greek and Roman writers, a commander of far more than ordinary ability, yet modest withal, aiming always at the good of the common cause rather than at his own personal fame or advantage. It was by his counsel and persuasion that the States General at length consented in 1590 to alter their military policy. Hitherto it had been assumed as a kind of axiom that the troops of the States could not oppose the Spaniards in the field; and the efforts of the Netherlanders had been strictly confined to the defensive. But the army of the States had been transformed by the assiduous exertions of Maurice and William Lewis both in discipline, mobility, and armament, and, though composed of a medley of nationalities, English, Scotch, French, and Germans, as well as Netherlanders, had become, as a fighting machine, not inferior in quality to its adversaries. William Lewis had for some time been urging upon the States to take advantage of Parma's embarrassments by the adoption of offensive in the place of defensive tactics; and at last, in 1590, at the time of the first expedition of the Duke into France, the joint efforts of both Stadholders to this end at length overcame the timidity of the burgher deputies.

1592-5] Death of Parma.—Stadt en Landen.

The tide of the Spanish advance had already begun to turn in the spring of that year. On March 3, a body of 78 Netherlanders, concealed in a vessel laden with peat, had taken Breda by surprise. In the autumn Maurice, at the head of a small column, after failing to capture Nymegen by a coup de main, raided the whole of North Brabant and took some dozen small places from the enemy. The year 1591 was a year of surprising triumphs. Zutphen, unexpectedly attacked, fell into the hands of Maurice and William Lewis after a five days' siege, on May 20. Deventer was next beleaguered, and, though gallantly defended by Herman van den Bergh, a cousin of Maurice, surrendered on June 20. The army then moved upon Groningen; but, on hearing that Parma was besieging the fort of Knodsenburg, Maurice hastened to its relief, routed the enemy's cavalry, and compelled him to retire. A sudden movement southward to Zeeland brought the Stadholder before the town of Hulst in the land of Waas, which surrendered after three days' investment. Then returning upon his steps the indefatigable leader finished up an extraordinary campaign by the seizure of Nymegen, October 21. At the age of twenty-four years, Maurice now took his place among the first generals of his time.

The next year, 1592, saw Parma once more marching into France for the relief of Rouen; and the way lay open to the Stadholders for freeing Friesland and the Zuiderzee from the hold of the Spaniard. The Spanish forces in the north were under the command of their old chief Verdugo, who regarded the two fortresses of Steenwyk and Koevorden as quite impregnable. The English auxiliaries under Vere had been sent to France, and Maurice's army was thus weakened. But the Stad-holder's scientific skill in the art of beleaguering was able to accomplish what was regarded as impossible. Steenwyk fell on June 5, after a gallant defence; and, despite the utmost efforts of Verdugo to raise the siege of Koevorden, that place also surrendered on September 12.

Shortly afterwards, on December 3, the most redoubtable adversary of the States was removed by the death of Parma. Broken in spirit, and ill from the effects of a wound, he had retired to Spa. He had long forfeited the confidence of the King, and died while on his way to meet the Count of Fuentes, who had arrived at Brussels with a royal letter of recall Until the arrival of the new Governor, Archduke Ernest, his post was filled by the old Count of Mansfeld.

The great event of Maurice's campaign of 1593 was the siege and capture of Geertruidenburg, the only town of Holland in the possession of the Spaniards which closed important waterways. The conduct of this siege, sometimes called "the Roman leaguer" from the astonishing scientific skill with which the methods of the ancients were applied in the construction of the besieger's lines and approaches, put the crown upon Maurice's fame. Despite the neighborhood of Mansfeld with an army of 14,000 men, the town was taken, June 25, after a siege of three months' duration. In the following year the Stadholder's attention was once more turned to the north. After a two months' siege Groningen surrendered, under the so-called "treaty of reduction". This defined the terms on which the town, with the Ommelanden, became a Province of the Union known as Stadt en Landen. William Lewis was appointed its Stadholder. Maurice's four offensive campaigns had practically cleared the soil of the federated Provinces from the presence of the Spanish garrisons; and the authority of the States General was now established within the defensible limits of a well-rounded and compact territory.

Archdukes Ernest and Albert. [1595-6

In January, 1595, Henry IV of France had declared war upon Spain, and sought a close alliance with the United Provinces. Thus Archduke Ernest, as Viceroy of the Netherlands, found himself in a most difficult position. He had hostile armies on both sides of him; and the resources of Spain were already so exhausted, that no money was forthcoming for the payment of troops. In these circumstances Philip urged the Archduke to make an effort for peace with the States on equitable conditions upon the lines of the Pacification of Ghent. But the States were in no mood to accept any conditions which recognized in any shape the sovereignty of Philip; and the King was unwilling to recognize their independence. The negotiations came to nothing.

The arrival of Archduke Ernest in the southern Netherlands had been greeted with enthusiasm. Rumor pointed to his marriage with the Infanta, and to the establishment at Brussels of a national government under their rule. But these expectations were speedily doomed to disappointment by the sudden death of the Archduke (February 20,1595). His place was taken ad interim by the Count of Fuentes, a Spanish grandee of the school of Alva, but a very capable commander. His year's administration of affairs was attended by more success in the field than had attended the Spanish arms since 1587. The efforts of the allies in Luxemburg, and along the southern frontier at Cambray and Huy, ended in failure, all the advantages of the campaign rested with the Spaniards. A serious disaster had meanwhile occurred to a portion of the States' army under Maurice. The Stadholder had made an attempt to seize Groenloo by surprise, but the veteran Mondragon had hastened to its relief. For months the two armies lay watching one another, but without coming to a decisive action. In a chance encounter, on September 1, a small troop of cavalry, sent out by Maurice to intercept a body of Spanish foragers, was completely defeated; and its leaders, Philip of Nassau, brother of the Stadholder of Friesland, and a brilliant scion of his House, and his cousin Ernest of Solms, were killed. Ernest of Nassau, Philip's brother, was taken prisoner.

At the beginning of 1596 Fuentes was replaced as Governor by Cardinal Archduke Albert of Austria, the favourite nephew of Philip, a far more capable man than his brothers, both as statesman and soldier. He brought with him reinforcements and some money, and, finding the army well disciplined and ready for action, he resolved to emulate, if possible, the successes of the previous year. But Fuentes had departed; and both Verdugo and Mondragon had died immediately before his arrival. In the lack of Spanish generals of repute, Albert gave the command to a French refugee, the Seigneur de Rosne. At this time a considerable body of the States' troops were with Henry IV, who was besieging La Fère. His lines were so strong that it seemed hopeless to attempt to raise the siege by a direct attack. But, acting on the advice of Rosne, Albert's army suddenly advanced upon Calais, which was unprepared and quickly surrendered to the Spaniards. It was a heavy and humiliating loss to the French, for which the capture of La Fere offered scant compensation. The Archduke, by the recapture of Hulst, followed up this striking success. Maurice had been so weakened by the detachment of his troops serving in France, that he had been unable to attempt any offensive operations. Nor was he able to prevent the powerful Spanish army from effecting the capture of Hulst, dearly purchased by 5000 lives, including that of Rosne himself.

Albert, like his predecessor, had begun with futile peace overtures. The States General on the contrary were at this time engaged upon other negotiations, the issue of which marked a stage in the history of the United Provinces. Before the close of the year there was concluded between England, France, and the States, a triple alliance, which had to be purchased by hard conditions, but which proclaimed the recognition by England and France of the United Provinces as a free and independent State. The States General undertook to maintain an army of 8000 men in the Netherlands, to send an auxiliary force of 4000 men to France, and lastly to give up the privilege, so important to the mercantile classes in Holland, of free trade with the enemy. The consent of the States of Holland to this requirement was obtained only with the greatest difficulty; and after it had been conceded it was systematically evaded. The traffic with Spain and Portugal was still carried on clandestinely; and, as the alliance was but of short duration, the forbidden trade was soon almost as vigorous as ever. The States in fact quickly found that their allies had agreed upon a secret treaty behind their backs, and that it was necessary for them to look carefully to their own interests.

1596-8] The great campaign of 1597.

Meanwhile, it was not the fault of the Netherlanders that the results attained were not more considerable. At hardly any stage of his career did the brilliant military talents of Maurice shine more conspicuously than in the campaign of 1597. It began with the astonishing victory of Turnhout. Near that village lay a considerable force under the command of an officer named Varax, which ravaged the neighborhood far and near. In January, while the armies were still in their winter quarters, Maurice, at the head of a body of troops rapidly collected from various garrison towns, set out with such secrecy and despatch that he arrived quite unexpectedly within a few miles of Varax camp. The Spanish General determined to effect a retreat under cover of the night. Maurice set out in pursuit with his cavalry only, and a couple of hundred musketeers mounted behind the riders, less than 800 men in all. He came up with the enemy, just in time to prevent their making their escape behind a morass, and at once gave orders to charge. Varax did his utmost to draw up his wearied troops in order of battl; but no time was given him, and the rout was complete. In half-an-hour all was over. Out of a force of some 4500 men, 2000 were killed, among them Varax himself; 500 prisoners were taken and 28 standards. Maurice lost only eight or ten men, and was back at the Hague within a week, having freed North Brabant and Zeeland from the incursions of the enemy.

The summer campaign was one long succession of triumphs for the States. The Archduke had not enough money to maintain a large army on both his northern and his southern frontier, and had resolved to direct his chief attention to the French side. Henry IV was in even worse want of means; and the capture by the Spaniards of Amiens, with a quantity of stores, was a severe blow to him. But the way was now open to Maurice for prosecuting siege after siege without fear of interference. Rheinberg, Meurs, Groenloo, Breedevoort, Enschede, Oot-marsum, Oldenzaal, and Lingen all fell into his hands, and a very large district was added to the territory acknowledging the authority of the States General.

The advantages of the French alliance, however, had ceased before the opening of another campaign on May 2, 1598. Henry concluded peace with Philip at Vervins. In vain the States had done their utmost to prevent this result. They were more successful with Elizabeth, to whom they sent an embassy, in which Oldenbarneveldt personally took part. She consented to continue the war with Spain on condition that the States repaid by instalments her loan to them, and agreed to send a large force to England in case of a Spanish invasion. On the other hand she consented henceforth to have only one representative on the Council of State, and to allow the English troops in the service of the Netherlands, including among these the garrisons of the cautionary towns, to take the oath of allegiance to the States General.

Marriage of Albert and Isabel. [1598

It had been for some time the intention of Philip to marry his eldest daughter, Isabel Clara Eugenia, to her cousin, Archduke Albert, and to erect the Netherland Provinces into a sovereign State under their joint rule. Philip wished to conciliate the Netherlander by conceding to them the appearance of independence; but the contract, and a secret agreement which accompanied it, was intended not only to secure the reversion of the Provinces to the Crown of Spain in case the Archduke should be childless, but to keep them in many respects subordinate to Spain, and under Spanish suzerainty. Philip was undoubtedly prompted to take this step, in the first place by affection for a daughter to whom he was deeply attached; and in the second place by his sincere zeal for the Catholic faith. Both Albert and Isabel possessed many qualities which fitted them for the difficult task.

In May the instrument was signed which erected the old Burgundian Provinces into a separate State under the rule of a descendant of Charles the Bold. In September Philip II died. In November the Archduke Albert, who had resigned his ecclesiastical dignities, was married by proxy to the Infanta, who was still in Spain. The old régime had passed away.

The hopes of reunion and of peace placed upon the advent of the Archdukes were speedily dissipated. Even in the south the new sovereigns were received without enthusiasm and with suspicion. It was felt that a government was being set up, imbued with Spanish ideas, guided by Spanish councillors, and relying on Spanish garrisons. The war and the Inquisition had effectually crushed out all life and enterprise in the southern Provinces; and the mere presence of a resident Court and well-intentioned rulers at Brussels could do little to restore a ruined and desolate land. Very different was the state of things north of the Scheldt. Here the long struggle for existence had filled the people with a new spirit, and, so far from bringing in their train exhaustion and misery, the very burdens of the war had been productive of unexampled prosperity. Nothing in history is more remarkable than the condition of the United Provinces, and especially of the Provinces of Holland and Zeeland, at the end of thirty years of incessant warfare.

1587-1601] Prosperity of the United Provinces.

They had become the chief trading country of the world. The riveting of the Spanish yoke upon Brabant and Flanders by the arms of Parma had driven the wealthiest and most enterprising of the inhabitants of Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent to take refuge in Holland and Zeeland, whither they brought with them their energy, their commercial knowledge, and their experience of affairs. The Hollanders and Zeelanders were above all things sea-faring folk; and their industries had up to the time of the revolt been all connected with the sea. Their fisheries, and especially the herring fishery, employed many thousands of boats and fishermen, and were a great source of wealth. They were the carriers whose ships brought the corn and the timber from the Baltic, the wines from Spain and France, the salt from the Cape Verde Islands, to the wharves and warehouses of the Zuiderzee and the Meuse, and again distributed them to foreign markets. Had the Hollanders and Zeelanders not been able to keep the seas open to their ships, the revolt must have collapsed very speedily. As it was, their trade with each succeeding year grew and prospered. Even the Spaniards themselves were dependent upon their hated enemies for the very necessities of life; and the Dutchmen did not scruple to supply their foes when it was to their own profit. Thus trade thrived by the war, and the war was maintained by the wealth poured into the country, while the crushing burden of the taxes was lightened by the product of the charges for licenses and convoys, which were really paid by the foreigner. Commerce became a passion with the Hollanders and Zeelanders; and eagerness after gain by the expansion of trade possessed itself of all classes. The armies commanded by Maurice were mainly composed of foreigners; the Netherlanders themselves made the sea their element. In 1587 800 vessels passed through the Sound for corn and timber. In 1590 the Dutchmen, not content with carrying the corn as far as Spain southwards, penetrated into the Mediterranean and supplied Genoa, Naples, and other Italian towns with their commodities; and shortly afterwards they made their way to Constantinople and the Levant, under a permit from the Sultan obtained by the good offices of Henry IV. So greatly had this trade grown by the end of the century that in 1601 between 800 and 900 vessels sailed from Amsterdam for the Baltic to fetch corn within three days. Scarcely less remarkable was the expansion of the timber trade. In 1596 the first saw-mill was erected at Zaandam. During the decade that followed, the shores of the Zaan became the staple of the timber trade of Europe. At the neighbouring ports of Hoorn and Enkhuysen shipbuilding attained a perfection unknown in other lands. The cloth and the linen trades also flourished, introduced by the skilled Flemish weavers, who fled from persecution to Leyden and Haarlem. English cloth was imported to Holland to be dyed, and was sold as Dutch.

Nor was the enterprise of this nation of traders confined to the European seas. The Gold Coast of Africa, both the Indies, and even distant China, allured adventurers to seek in these distant regions, at the expense of the hated Spaniard, who claimed the monopoly of the Oceans East and West alike, fortunes surpassing those which were made in Europe. A certain Balthasar de Moucheron, a merchant of French extraction, who had been settled at Antwerp and fled from that city to Middelburg at the time of its capture by Parma, was the pioneer in these first efforts at a world-wide expansion of commerce. His earliest attempt was directed to the opening out of trade with Russia. In 1584 he established a factory at Archangel on the White Sea. This intercourse with the far North led to a scheme for reaching China and the East by the route of northern Asia, for which, after laying his plans before the Stadholder and the Advocate, Moucheron secured the support of the States of Holland. In 1594 two small vessels sailed from the Texel under Willem Barendsz; they succeeded in passing through the Waigaats in open water, but were quickly stopped by ice. Undeterred by the failure a larger fleet, under Heemskerk and Barendsz, in 1596 essayed the same venture. Amidst incredible sufferings the winter was passed on the inhospitable shores of Nova Zembla. Barendsz himself perished, but a remnant under Heemskerk made their escape home. The effort again was fruitless; but the story of these brave men's wintering in the frozen polar seas fascinated their contemporaries.

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563- 161) is credited with copying top-secret Portuguese nautical maps thus enabling the passage to the elusive East Indies to be opened to the English and the Dutch. This enabled the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company to break the 16th century monopoly enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the East Indies.

The first voyage to the Gold Coast of Guinea was undertaken by Barent Erikszen of Medemblik, in 1593; and from this time forward an ever increasing number of ships made their way to the various river mouths of the bight of Guinea, and established friendly relations and a lucrative trade with the natives of the country. The first actual conquest on this coast was made by a large expedition despatched in 1598 by Balthasar de Moucheron for the seizure of the island Del Principe. But, before this, the daring enterprise of the two brothers Houtman had carried the Netherlands flag to the shores of India and the Malay Archipelago. The way thither was no secret, for numerous Dutch sailors served on Portuguese ships, and had thus learned the route to Mozambique, Goa, and Molucca. The Itinerarium of the famous traveller, Jan Huyghen Linschoten, a native of Enkhuysen, who spent five years in the East Indies, aroused universal interest. Already during the period of the Leicester régime Linschoten found many of his countrymen occupying positions of trust in various parts of the far East. Linschoten, in 1594, went out as Commissary of the States of Holland on the first expedition sent by Moucheron to discover the North-West Passage; and at this very time another expedition was being prepared by certain Amsterdam merchants to sail direct for the Indies by the usual route round the Cape. The moving spirit of this voyage was Cornelis Houtman of Gouda (1565–1599), who, like Linschoten, had been in the Portuguese ships, and who, as upper commissary, was in command of the four vessels which set sail on April 2, 1595. They visited Madagascar, Java, Goa, and Molucca with varied fortunes, and after many dangers and hardships reached Amsterdam once more in July, 1597. Several small Companies were now formed for exploiting the rich regions which had for so long been the preserve of the Portuguese: three at Amsterdam, two at Rotterdam, two in Zeeland, one at Delft. In 1598 no less than eight large East India merchantmen were despatched by three of these Companies. A new source of national wealth had been discovered, and the only fear was that the trade would be ruined by the unlimited competition. Hitherto the principle of Dutch commerce had been that of absolute free trade.

1593-1601] Foundation of the East India Company.

Now for the first time a monopoly was created under the auspices of Oldenbarneveldt, and by the efforts of the States of Holland a Charter was, on March 20, 1601, granted to an East India Company for twenty-one years. This Company received, under certain restrictions, the exclusive right of trade to the East Indies under the protection of the States General, and was allowed to erect factories and forts, and to make alliances and treaties with the native princes and potentates, appoint governors, and employ troops. The Company was divided into Chambers, corresponding to the various small Companies, which had been amalgamated. The supreme government lay with a body, known as the Seventeen, on which Amsterdam had eight representatives, Zeeland four, the Meuse and North Quarter each two, the last three having the right of jointly electing a third member. This great Company thus came into existence a short time before its English rival, and has the distinction of being the first of all Chartered Companies, and the model imitated by its many successors.

Not content even with this extension of the sphere of their commercial enterprises and its vast possibilities, the eyes of the keen and eager traders were already turning westward as well as eastward. Netherlanders had first made acquaintance with the West Indies and Brazil in the Spanish or Portuguese service; and in 1593 Barent Erikszen, in his voyage to Guinea, had proceeded across the Atlantic to Brazil. It was, however, the fame of Ralegh's voyages, and his account of the Golden city of Manoa and the fabled riches of Guiana that spurred on the imagination of the adventurous Hollanders and Zeelanders with feverish dreams of untold wealth, and led them to follow in his steps. Moucheron was again among the pioneers; and Dutch trading ships laden with articles of barter were to be found entering the Amazon, coasting along the shores of Guiana, and returning with cargoes of salt from the mines of Punta del Rey beyond the Orinoco. A certain Willem Usselincx, also a Flemish refugee, first began to make his name known in the last decade of the sixteenth century as a strenuous advocate for the creation of a chartered West India Company. He did not succeed at this time; but for a quarter of a century he gave himself unceasingly to the task of urging upon the authorities the advantages and profits to be obtained by the establishment of colonies upon the American continent.

Thus, then, their war for life and death had stirred the sluggish blood of the Dutch people, and had aroused in them a most extraordinary spirit of energy and enterprise. Peace overtures, unless accompanied by the concession of all their demands, were unlikely to find acceptance among traders thriving at the expense of their enemies, and dreading lest the cessation of warfare should close to them their best markets.

The Archdukes in Brussels. [1599-1600

Albert and Isabel did not make their joyeuse entrée into Brussels until the close of 1599. During the absence of the Archduke the Spanish armies had been under the command of the Admiral of Aragon, Mendoza, who, making the duchy of Cleves his head-quarters, had mastered Wesel, Rheinberg and other strong places on the Rhine. The eastern Provinces were still mainly Catholic, and contained many Spanish sympathisers; but, in spite of disputes and discontents in Friesland, and still more in Groningen, Maurice at the head of a small army more than held his own. The difficulty of raising taxes in these Provinces, and also in Drenthe, Overyssel, and Gelderland, inclined the States General and the States of Holland during 1599 to content themselves with defensive warfare. In the following year, however, it was determined to raise a large force for offensive operations, and to undertake an invasion of Flanders with a view to the capture of Dunkirk. This seaport had for years been a nest of audacious pirates, who, by lying in wait for the Dutch merchantmen in the narrow seas, had become a constantly increasing menace and danger to navigation. All efforts to check the corsairs by armed force had proved in vain, though in the fierce fights which took place no quarter was given or taken. For the extirpation of the pirates by means of a land attack, an army of 12,000 men was embarked at Rammekens June 21, 1600, under the command of the Stadholder. The plan was to convey the troops by sea direct to Ostend, which had always throughout the war remained in the hands of the States, and was their sole possession in Flanders; hence to march straight along the sea-shore and, after capturing Nieuport, to use it as a base for the further advance on Dunkirk.

Curiously enough, this bold scheme of operations was proposed and carried out by the States General-in other words, by Oldenbarneveldt, who was supreme in that Assemblyn, in spite of the opposition of Maurice and William Lewis, both of whom, together with all the other experienced military leaders, were adverse to so extremely hazardous an enterprise. Oldenbarneveldt had persuaded their High Mightinesses that the moment was opportune for such a stroke, because a large part of the Archduke's troops were in open mutiny for lack of pay, and it was known that he had no funds for satisfying them. Maurice, on the other hand, believed it unsafe to denude the United Provinces of their entire field army, and expose it, when far away from its base in an enemy's country, to the risk of being cut off and possibly destroyed. The States General, however, persisted; and Maurice now set to work with his usual thoroughness. At his request, however, a deputation of the States General took up their residence in Ostend, to share the responsibility of the commander. Difficulties arose from the outset. Prevented from sailing by contrary winds, the army was forced to land in Flanders at Sas de Ghent, and to march by land to Nieuport. On June 27, the fort of Oudenburg was taken, and a garrison left in it; on July 1, Maurice reached Nieuport and proceeded to invest the town.

1600] Campaign against Dunkirk.

Meanwhile the Archdukes had not been idle. By lavish promises Albert and Isabel succeeded in winning back the mutineers; and with great rapidity 10,000 foot and 1500 cavalry were gathered together, all of them seasoned troops. With this army the Archduke quickly followed on the tracks of Maurice, seized Oudenburg by surprise on July 1, and thus cut off the communications of the Stadholder with Ostend and the United Provinces. The news of the rapid approach of the enemy was brought to Maurice by a fugitive. It found the States' army separated into two parts by the tidal creek which formed the harbour of Nieuport, and which could only be crossed at low water. A few miles to the north a small marshy stream over which on the previous morning Maurice had thrown a bridge at Leffingen, entered the sea. He now despatched his cousin Ernest Casimir with 2000 infantry, Scots and Zeelanders, and four squadrons of cavalry, to seize the bridge and hold it against the Archduke, until he was able to extricate the main body of the States' army from their dangerous position. When Ernest Casimir arrived at Leffingen, the bridge was already in Albert's hands; but he drew up his small force in battle order on the downs to check the further advance of the Spaniards. Then ensued one of those unaccountable panics which sometimes seize the bravest soldiers. The Dutch cavalry turned their backs at the first onset; and their example infected the infantry, who, throwing away their arms, rushed along the downs and on to the beach in headlong flight. Upwards of 800 were butchered or drowned, the chief loss falling upon the Scots. The sight of vessels putting out of the harbor of Nieuport, and the argument that never yet had Netherlanders withstood the Spanish veterans in the open field, determined Albert to give the order to advance. Meanwhile the ebb had enabled Maurice to march his troops across the haven and draw them up in line of battle on the downs. The ships that had been seen by the Spaniards were his transports, sent by him out of the harbor probably to save them from the risk of being set on fire by the garrison of Nieuport, while he and his army were fighting on the downs. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of July 2 the battle was formed. A brilliant charge of the States' cavalry under Lewis Günther of Nassau opened the proceedings, and then the solid mass of the Spanish and Italian foot, veterans who had conquered in many a hard-fought field, fell upon the vanguard of Maurice's army, consisting of 2600 English and 2800 Frisians under Sir Francis Vere. For more than three hours every hillock and hollow of the sandy dunes was contested on both sides hand to hand; backwards and forwards the conflict flowed, until at last the gallant Vere himself was carried from the field severely wounded. Then the Englishmen and Frisians slowly gave way, foot by foot, with their faces still to the foe.

Lewis Gunther's cavalry attempted to relieve them by a fierce charge; but it was driven back in confusion, and when the Archduke, who had been in the thick of the fight all day, ordered up his reserves, the States' army began to retire in disorder. All seemed lost. But Maurice, conspicuous by his orange plumes, threw himself into the ranks of the fugitives, and succeeded in rallying a portion of his troops. The effect was instantaneous, for their adversaries in their turn were thoroughly worn out by their two battles in the same day. A momentary pause in their advance enabled Maurice, with the keen eye of a great captain, to hurl upon their flank three squadrons of cavalry that he had kept as a last reserve. Scarcely offering any resistance the army of the Archduke fell into inextricable confusion, turned their backs and fled. Albert himself only just succeeded in making his escape to Bruges. Of his army 5000 were killed, above 700 were made prisoners, among them a number of distinguished officers, including Mendoza, and 105 standards were taken. Thus Maurice and his army were saved from the very jaws of destruction. But though the fame of the victory, which showed that even in the open field the dreaded Spanish infantry were not invincible, spread through Europe, it was in reality a barren triumph. In spite of the opposition of the States, Maurice resolved to run no more risks. He led back his army to Holland, and attempted no further active operations. At this time were sown the seeds of the unhappy dissension between the Stadholder and the Advocate.

During the next three years the siege of Ostend (July 15, 1601-September 20, 1604) occupied the energies of both combatants. The Archduke Albert had made up his mind to capture this seaport, which in the hands of the Dutch was a perpetual thorn in the side of Flanders. But the town was open to the sea, and was continually supplied from Zeeland with provisions, munitions, and reinforcements. Its first Governor, Sir Francis Vere, was followed by a succession of brave and capable men, the majority of whom died fighting. Never was a more valorous defence, never a more obstinate attack. It was a long story of mines and counter-mines, of desperate assaults and bloody repulses, of fort after fort captured, only to find fresh forts and new lines of defence constructed by the indefatigable garrison. The efforts of Maurice in 1601 were confined to the recapture of the Rhine fortresses, Rheinberg and Meurs. In 1602 the important stronghold of Grave on the Meuse surrendered to him after a two months' siege. In the autumn of 1603 Marquis Ambrosio de Spinola assumed command of the Spanish forces before Ostend. He was a rich Genoese banker, who, though without any experience of war, had offered his services and his money to the Archdukes, promising them that he would take Ostend. He kept his word. With a reckless expenditure of life, what was left of the town fell piece by piece into his hands. At length, in April, 1604, the Stadholder yielded somewhat sullenly to the pressing requests of the States General, and led an army of 11,000 men into Flanders, seeking to relieve the pressure upon Ostend, by laying siege to the equally important seaport of Sluys. It fell into his hands in August. Ostend was now at its last gasp, and the Stadholder was ordered to essay its relief by a direct march against Spinola's investing army. Maurice and William Lewis protested, but their protests were overruled. Before, however, they began to march southwards, Ostend had been surrendered, September 20. The town had already ceased to exist; and Spinola found himself after all the master of a heap of confused and hideous ruins. The siege had lasted three years and seventy-seven days, and had cost the Archdukes, according to some authorities, the lives of more than 70,000 soldiers. The gallant defenders had succeeded in draining away the main strength of the Belgian forces, and in exhausting the resources of the Brussels treasury; and before they had surrendered the poor little town on the sand dunes with its miserable harbor, the States had in Sluys possessed themselves of another Flemish seaport, far more commodiously situated, arid enabling them to command the southern entrance to the Scheldt. Sluys was strongly garrisoned; and Frederick Henry, Maurice's younger brother, now twenty years of age, was appointed its Governor.

The military events of the next two years require but the briefest notice. The States were now isolated. James I of England had concluded a treaty of friendship with the Archdukes. Henry IV of France was lukewarm. Maurice was now confronted by an active and exceedingly able young general, Spinola, whose army had confidence in its leader, and, being regularly paid at his cost, followed him cheerfully. The policy of the Stadholder, who since the Nieuport campaign had been on far from friendly relations with Oldenbarneveldt and the States General, was strictly defensive. Yet such was the skill and vigour of Spinola that even in this Maurice was scarcely successful. The two armies faced each other for some time in the neighborhood of Sluys, when, at the end of July, the Marquis made a sudden and rapid march northwards towards Friesland. Spinola captured Oldenzaal and Lingen before Maurice was able to relieve these towns; and, had he pressed on to Coewarden, it would probably have fallen into his hands, and the north-eastern Provinces would have lain at his mercy. But he paused in his march, perhaps from lack of supplies, and finally retreated towards the junction of the Rühr with the Rhine. While halting here, an attempt was made by Maurice on October 8,1605, to surprise an isolated body of Italian cavalry. But a sudden panic seized the States' troops, and despite the desperate exertions of Frederick, Henry, who, at the risk of his life, succeeded in rallying some of the flying troops, a sharp and humiliating reverse closed the campaign. The events of 1605 certainly damaged the Stadholder's reputation.

A severe illness kept Spinola from the front the whole of the next spring; but in June he set out with the intention of forcing the passage of the Waal or the Yssel, and making an inroad into the very heart of the United Provinces. He was thwarted partly by the skillful defensive positions taken up by Maurice, but still more by a season of continuous rain, which turned the whole country into a morass. Foiled in his main purpose Spinola laid siege in succession to Groll and Rheinberg, both of which were taken, without any attempt on the part of Maurice to relieve them. His conduct throughout these operations excited some censure both among friends and foes; but his Fabian tactics were undoubtedly advantageous to the interests of the States. For the Brussels treasury was empty, Spinola's personal credit exhausted, and mutiny rife among his troops. Moreover it was on sea, and not on land, that the most damaging blows could be struck at the unwieldy empire of Spain.

The operations of the East India Company had been on a large scale, and had been attended with much success. Not merely had the monopoly of Spain and Portugal in the Orient been invaded, but their dominion there had been seriously shaken. A great fleet of seventeen vessels under the command of Admiral Warwyck and Vice-Admiral de Weert sailed in 1602, and was absent for more than five years. All the principal islands of the Malay Archipelago, as well as Ceylon, Siam, and China, were visited. In 1604 another expedition of thirteen ships, under Steven van der Hagen, was sent to Malabar and the Moluccas. Factories were established and ports built at Amboina, Tidor, and other places ; and the fleet returned in 1606 with a very rich cargo of cloves and other spices. On his return voyage van der Hagen met at Mauritius a third outward-bound fleet of the Company, under Cornelis Matelief. This force consisted of eleven small armed ships, manned by 1400 sailors. In the summer of 1606 Matelief laid siege to the Portuguese fortress of Malacca, situate in a commanding position at the southernmost extremity of the Malay Peninsula. Here he was attacked on August 17 by Alphonso de Castro, the Spanish Viceroy of India, at the head of a vastly superior fleet, consisting of eighteen galleons and galleys, carrying 4000 to 5000 soldiers and sailors. A fierce but indecisive action resulted in the first instance in the raising of the siege of Malacca. On hearing, however, that de Castro had sailed away, leaving only ten ships in the roadstead of Malacca for the defence of the place, Matelief returned, and, on September 31, fell Upon the Spaniards. One of the most complete victories in naval records was the result. Every single vessel of the enemy was destroyed or burnt, while the Dutch scarcely lost a man. After visiting China, and establishing the authority of the Company at Amboina, Tidor, Ternate, Bantam, and other places, Matelief left the further conduct of affairs in Eastern waters to Paul van Kaarden, who met him at Bantam at the head of yet another fleet, while he himself returned home with five ships, laden with spices, bringing into the midst of peace negotiations the great tidings of his adventures and victories.

1606-7] Heemskerk's victory at Gibraltar. Peace negotiations.

Nor were the maritime triumphs of the Netherlander confined to distant oceans. As their fleets returned, laden with rich cargoes, along the West Coast of Africa, they had to run the gauntlet of Spanish and Portuguese squadrons, suddenly putting out from Lisbon or Cadiz or other Iberian ports. After voyages extending over two or more years the East Indiamen, by the time they passed the Straits, were no longer in good seaworthy condition or fighting trim, and thus ran a constant risk of falling an easy prey to their enemies. In 1607 news reached the States of the gathering of a large Spanish fleet at Gibraltar, supposed to be destined for the East Indies; and under pressure from the directors of the East India Company the States determined to equip a large expedition with the object of either intercepting this fleet or attacking it in the Spanish harbor. Early in April twenty-six vessels set sail under the command of Jacob van Heemskerk, the hero of the Nova Zembla wintering, and one of the bravest and most skillful of Dutch seamen. He was a man gentle and quiet in private life, but the joy of battle was as the very breath of his nostrils. He found anchored in Gibraltar Bay the entire Spanish fleet of twenty-one vessels, ten of them great galleons, beside which the Dutch ships seemed mere pigmies. The Spanish Admiral d'Avila was likewise an experienced veteran, who had fought at Lepanto. Heemskerk at once gave the order to attack, and directed that each of the great galleons should be assailed by two Dutch ships, one at each side. Heemskerk laid his own flagship alongside that of d'Avila, and so opened the fight. At the very beginning of the struggle both Admirals were killed. But Heemskerk's death was concealed, and his comrades carried out his instructions, and fought with desperate resolution in his own ship to avenge his loss, in the others as if the eye of their chief had been still upon them. The victory was complete, and the Spanish fleet was annihilated. Between two and three thousand of their crews perished. On the Dutch side no ship was destroyed, and only about a hundred sailors were killed. This crushing and humiliating disaster to the Spanish arms had a powerful effect in hastening forward the negotiations for peace, in which both parties, now thoroughly weary of war, were at the time seriously engaged.

The first step had been taken by the Archdukes, who secretly despatched Father Neyen, Albert's Franciscan confessor, to open relations with Oldenbarneveldt and the Stadholder. The States, however, refused to enter into negotiations of any sort, unless they were treated as a free and independent Power. The Archdukes therefore at length consented to negotiate with the United Provinces "in the quality and as considering them free Provinces and States, over which they had no pretensions", subject to the ratification of the King of Spain within three months. They offered to negotiate either on the basis of a peace, or for a truce for twelve, fifteen, or twenty years. Meanwhile, it was arranged that an armistice for eight months should be concluded, Heemskerk's fleet recalled, and no military operations of any kind carried on.

At the very beginning of the negotiations it was clear that in the United Provinces there was much division of opinion. On the side of peace stood Oldenbarneveldt, and with him a majority of the burgher regents, who believed that the land could no longer bear the burden of taxation, and that the prosperity which had attended commerce in war-time would be largely increased by peace, so long as sufficiently favorable terms as to liberty of trading could be secured. At the head of the war party was Prince Maurice, with William Lewis of Friesland, the military and naval leaders, and a considerable number of the leading merchants. Maurice had lived in camps from boyhood; his fame had been won, not in the Council Chamber, but at the head of armies. Peace for him meant enforced idleness and great loss of emoluments. Still, though not uninfluenced by personal motives, both he and William Lewis were far too good patriots not to put on one side any purely selfish reasons for opposing that which they believed to be to the advantage of the land. But they and those who thought with them did not trust the Spaniard. They did not believe that peace could be obtained without closing the Spanish Indies, East and West, to Dutch trade; and, with numbers of their countrymen, they dreaded lest the southern Netherlands should once more become formidable commercial rivals, and Antwerp again, as a seaport, vie with and perhaps surpass Amsterdam.

At last, in October, 1607, it was signified that the King agreed to treat with the States as independent parties, but on condition that religious liberty to Catholics should be conceded during the negotiations. The document was in many points far from pleasing to the States, but by the exertions of the French Ambassador, President Jeannin, and his English colleague, difficulties were smoothed away, and at last, on February 1, 1608, the envoys from Brussels arrived in Holland, with a brilliant retinue. At the head of the deputation were Spinola and Richardot, the president of the Archduke's Privy Council. The stately procession was met near Ryswyk by the Stadholders, Maurice and William Lewis of Nassau, attended by a splendid suite. The two famous Generals greeted one another with much ceremony and courtesy, and side by side made their entry into the Hague. The States General appointed as Special Commissioners to represent the United Provinces, Count William Lewis of Nassau and Walraven, Lord of Brederode, and with them were associated a deputy from each of the seven Provinces under the leadership of Oldenbarneveldt, as the representative of Holland. The envoys of France, England, Denmark, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg took an active part in the discussions; and it was largely owing to the skill and sagacity of Jeannin that in spite of almost insuperable difficulties an agreement was eventually arrived at.

1608] Conferences and discussions at the Hague.

The admission of the independence and sovereignty of the United Provinces met with less opposition on the part of the Archdukes than was expected. Their policy, though not openly avowed, was to conclude a truce, not a peace, and thus to leave the dispute as to the sovereignty over the Provinces to the arbitrament of a future war. It was a concession intended to be temporary, made with the object of gaining time for recruiting their ruined finances and gathering fresh resources, so as to renew hostilities at a favorable opportunity. Richardot raised no difficulties as to the declaration of independence; indeed, he said plainly, that he had full powers to treat with them "as free States," or as a kingdom, if they pleased so to name themselves. The objection raised by the Dutch against the use of the seal of the seventeen Provinces by the Archdukes caused more difficulty, but on this point also Richardot at length gave way. The avowed object was still to conclude a definite peace; for Maurice and his party had declared themselves absolutely opposed to a truce, and the Spanish-Belgian representatives were too clever diplomatists to show their hand at so early a stage of the discussions. The two thorny questions related to freedom of trade in the Indies, and to liberty of public worship to the Roman Catholics in the States.

At first the question as to religious liberty was allowed to fall into the background; and for week after week the right of trading in the Indies was acrimoniously discussed. Public opinion in the Provinces, and especially in Holland, was deeply stirred; a long series of pamphlets issued from the printing-press against the peace; the traders and the Calvinist preachers were all strongly on the side of Maurice; and Oldenbarneveldt was roundly accused of being a traitor in the pay of Spain. Even had he felt disposed to yield as to the Indian trade (and there is nothing to show that his determination to uphold freedom of commerce ever wavered) the Advocate, with all his self-will and firmness of purpose, dared not hold out against the public voice. The Spaniards, on the other hand, would not yield in a matter touching the traditional principles of their policy. A deadlock ensued. The time of the armistice expired and had to be renewed. Several of the foreign envoys left the Hague. President Jeannin went to Paris to consult the King, and Father Neyen journeyed to Madrid. On his return it was found that the King of Spain insisted on closing the Indies to foreign traders, and also on the reestablishment of public Roman Catholic worship. But on each of these points the deputies of the States were likewise steadfast; the negotiations appeared to be broken off; and both sides were preparing for a renewal of the war, when a proposal was made by the envoys of France and England to act as mediators on the basis of a twelve years' truce. The real author of the proposal was the resourceful President Jeannin. Peace was plainly impossible. But Jeannin hoped to induce the Dutch to agree to a truce on condition that, so long as it lasted, the trade to India should remain free, and the religious question untouched. He was probably aware that the Spaniards were eager for such a proposal and would make sacrifices to obtain the respite from war that was so necessary to them. The difficulty lay in the attitude of Maurice, who had from the first been utterly averse to a truce; but on the other hand Oldenbarneveldt was heart and soul with the President. The skillful arguments of the French envoy; and the powerful influence and persuasions of the Advocate gradually won over the assent of the Provinces, though Zeeland was long recalcitrant; and at last the Stadholder sullenly and doubtfully gave way. The final discussions took place at Antwerp; and on April 9, 1609, the long drawn out parleyings at length came to an end, and a truce for twelve years was signed and sealed. Jeannin was able to inform the French King that his labors had been crowned with success "to the general satisfaction of every one, and even of Prince Maurice."

The suspension of hostilities recognized the status quo as regarded territorial possessions; and all points on which the States had insisted were conceded. The treaty was concluded with them "in the quality of free States over which the Archdukes made no pretensions". No mention was made of granting liberty of worship to Roman Catholics; but, in a secret treaty consisting of a single clause, the King of Spain promised that during the truce he would cause no impediment to the traffic of the Dutch in whatever place it might be carried on. To save Spanish pride the word "Indies" was never mentioned, though it was implied. The concession of freedom of trade thus wrung from Philip III was one that nothing but dire necessity would ever have induced a King of Spain to grant.

The immediate effect of the truce was an increase of Oldenbarneveldt's influence over the policy and government of the new Republic, which now for the first time took its place in the European system "as a free and independent State". To the Advocate's statecraft had been very largely due the building up of the Commonwealth during the quarter of a century after the murder of William the Silent. He was now, during the opening period of the twelve years' truce, by his consummate skill in the conduct of foreign affairs, to secure for the United Provinces a weight and influence in the councils of Europe out of all proportion to the size or population of the new-born State.

1609-10] The Jülich and Cleves succession.

A critical question arose for settlement almost immediately after the signing of the truce. The death in March, 1609, of Duke John William of Jülich and Cleves without male heirs brought a number of claimants for the vacant succession into the field; and the principal competitors, the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg, came to an understanding to occupy the disputed territory jointly, whence they were known as "the Possessors". The Dutch, whose interest in the matter was clear, since the duchies lay upon their borders, and it was important for their security that this territory should not fall into the hands of a Spanish partisan, were willing to recognize "the Possessors" accordingly. But the Emperor had not acknowledged their claims, and had allowed Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau, to enter the duchies at the head of an armed force and seize the fortress of Jülich. Henry IV of France, who had long been meditating war against the House of Habsburg, and who was at the moment exceedingly irritated with the Archdukes because they had given refuge at Brussels to the fugitive Princess of Condé, seized the occasion offered by the Jülich succession to hurry on his armaments, and he did his utmost to induce the States to join him in overthrowing the power of their hereditary enemies. The French armies were already marching to the Rhine and the Pyrenees; and the States had agreed to support the invasion of Germany with an army of 18,000 men under Prince Maurice, when the knife of Ravaillac terminated the career and the schemes of Henry on May 14, 1610.

The new French government was well-disposed to Spain and Austria; and a complete change of policy took place. The States thus escaped being drawn into a large war; but it was felt that it was impossible for them to allow the duchies to fall into the hands of an Austrian prince. Maurice therefore in the early summer marched into the country and laid siege to Jülich. Though the place was strong, it capitulated on September 1; and the Archduke left the territory. Not till 1613 was the interference of the Dutch in the affairs of the duchies again called for. In that year, as was sooner or later to be expected, the "Possessors" fell out; and Neuburg called in Catholic aid for the maintenance of his rights. Hostilities ensued, and Maurice and Spinola once again found themselves face to face in the field. There was, however, no actual fighting; and the dispute was settled without serious consequences by the treaty of Xanten (November 12, 1614), by which a division of the duchies was made between the two rivals.

Fishery disputes with England. [1609-18

The relations of the Republic with England had meanwhile required delicate handling. The wide extension of Dutch commerce caused no small jealousy and envy to Englishmen. English trade had also been growing, though to a far less extent than that of their neighbours; and Dutch and English traders had met in rivalry on many distant seas. At the time of the signature of the truce, the burning question between the two nations was that of fishing rights. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the herring fishery employed more hands in the Provinces than any other occupation; and many thousands of households lived by it. The right to fish on the English coast had been conceded by ancient treaties, and had been unchallenged since its confirmation by the well-known Magnus Intercursus of 1496. But since, in the last years of Elizabeth, English fishery had grown, quarrels frequently arose between the fishermen; and the claims of England to the dominium maris in the seas which washed its shores began to be loudly disputed. The result was that in May, 1609, James I issued an edict imposing a tax on all foreigners fishing in English waters. The terms were general, but it was directed against the Dutch. An embassy was accordingly sent to England in the spring of 1610, whose chief object was to endeavor to obtain the withdrawal of the fishery edict, or at least a favourable modification of it. Friendly relations with the States were at that time of importance to James, as a counterpoise to the rapprochement between France and Spain after the death of Henry; and after no small wrangling and controversy over the juridical points raised in Grotius' treatise, Mare Liberum, published in the previous year, the King consented to a suspension of the offensive tax.

The wranglings over the legal aspects of the question went on, however, year by year; many pamphlets were written and public opinion was strongly roused on both sides of the North Sea. At last, in 1616, James then leaning towards a Spanish alliance, the tax was reimposed; whereupon serious collisions ensued, and actual fighting took place between the royal officers who tried to collect the tax and the Dutch fisherfolk, who sturdily refused to pay. Nor was this the only cause of dissension between the nations. Strife had arisen between the traders of the rival East India Companies in the Indian seas, and Englishmen had been killed by Dutchmen at Amboina.

In Russia, too, upon the shores of the White Sea, the same struggle for commercial privileges was in progress. Off the inhospitable coasts of Spitzbergen and Greenland the whalers of the two nationalities had hostile encounters, and had to be escorted by armed convoys. Such was the bitterness of feeling that, in 1618, another important embassy to King James found great difficulty in arriving at an understanding on most of the points in dispute. The skillful diplomacy of Oldenbarneveldt had for some years previously greatly improved the relations of the States with England. The retention of the cautionary towns by the English sovereign had always been a menace to the security of the Provinces of Holland and Zeeland, and had cast a kind of slur over the newly acquired independence of the Republic. In 1615 the Advocate took advantage of the financial needs of James, always in want of money, to offer him a sum of £250,000 for the restoration of the pledged towns (£100,000 in cash, and £50,000 in three instalments at six months' intervals). The amount was far less than the debt claimed by England, but James was tempted by the offer, and Oldenbarneveldt at once closed with the King. In June, 1616, the English garrisons were withdrawn.

The sphere of Oldenbarneveldt's diplomatic activity was by no means confined to the immediately neighboring States. An alliance was concluded with the Hanse towns; and in 1615 an army of 7000 men under Frederick Henry advanced into Germany and raised the siege of Brunswick, which was beleaguered by Christian IV of Denmark. The object of this alliance was to secure a still greater hold over the Baltic trade, and to compel the warlike King of Denmark to lower the dues charged by him for the passage of the Sound. With this object embassies were also sent to Sweden and Russia, and friendly relations established with those countries. In 1614 a Russian embassy appeared at the Hague. The Advocate's son-in-law, van der Myle, was in 1609 despatched upon a mission to Venice. The Venetians had been for some time friendly to the States; and in 1610 their first ambassador, Tommaso Contarini, arrived in Holland. The object was to free the Dutch trade in the Mediterranean; and a commercial treaty (1609) with Morocco and a mission to Constantinople (1612) gave proof of Oldenbarneveldt's vigilant and far-seeing foreign policy. Within a few years of the conclusion of the truce, he had secured for the United Provinces a recognized position among European Powers, and had established his claim to be consulted on all matters affecting international politics.

A sad reverse to this picture of advancing influence and prosperity is offered by the story, during the same period, of the internal affairs of the Republic. It must be remembered that in 1609 there existed no such thing as a Dutch nation, but, instead of it, only a congeries of provinces and town corporations, each of them with sovereign attributes, held together by the loosest political ties. Moreover, while this many-headed government knew no supreme controlling authority, the great mass of the people had no voice in the control of their own affairs. A large majority, possibly two-thirds, of the entire population adhered to the ancient Catholic faith, and submitted to exclusion by an intolerant Protestant minority from all political rights and from the exercise of public worship. Nor had even this Protestant population any real voice, as such, in the government of the country. There was no such thing as popular election. The town corporations, the ultimate depositaries of sovereign power, were close, self-coopting oligarchies, in no sense representative even of the Protestant inhabitants.

The situation was redeemed from impracticability, and the machinery of public administration made to work, partly because the Dutch people were by nature patient, plodding, and easily led, keen as to trade and material welfare rather than politics, partly because the administrative and executive power had during the years of stress and struggle, which followed the departure of Leicester, come into the hands of two men, Oldenbarneveldt and Maurice of Nassau. The cessation of the war in 1609 found them face to face, suspicious of each other's aims, and treating one another in their public relations with a cold aloofness that might quickly be changed into open enmity. But Maurice, slow and inert by nature, and averse from politics, was not the man to take the initiative in opposition to the Advocate. Some years before this he might have become sovereign of the Netherlands, with the help of Oldenbarneveldt himself and the universal assent of the people, had he cared to push himself forward; and now he had no wish to interfere with all those practical details of administration, which he knew that the burgher Statesman with his unrivalled experience was better able to discharge than any other living Netherlander. Probably no serious quarrel would ever have arisen between them on merely political grounds; but a religious crisis, which had long been threatening to reach an acute stage, arose; in the fanatical bitterness of sectarian strife civil war broke out, and the force of circumstances compelled the two leaders, though neither of them theologians or violent religious partisans, to take opposite sides.

Gomarus and Arminius. [1585-1609

The Protestantism of the northern Netherlands had always been Calvinistic, but not of one pattern. From the first there had been two schools of opinion-the rigidly orthodox Calvinists, who called themselves "Reformed" and were known by those of the opposite party as "precisians"; and the liberal or "evangelical" party, who were commonly spoken of as "Politicals" or "Libertines". To this moderate "Libertine" school William the Silent himself had belonged; and it counted among its sympathisers Oldenbarneveldt, and a considerable number of the "regents". The adherence of these two great leaders to the "Libertines" was due not so much to religious conviction, as to a statesmanlike desire for toleration in matters of faith, so far as was consistent with the national safety, in order to preserve the supremacy of the civil power over Church and State. In opposition to this party stood the large majority of the preachers and of the Reformed congregations throughout the Provinces who held predestinarian doctrines of the strictest type, and who, in the very spirit of absolute intolerance which they had so loudly condemned when exercised against themselves by the Church of Rome, would have persecuted and deprived of civic rights those who refused to subscribe to the theological dogmas and tenets set forth in the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. The desire of this party was that a National Synod should be summoned, which should decide authoritatively on all points of controversy and create a Reformed State Church, which would have supreme control of religion throughout the land. The "Libertines" on the other hand dreaded such a consummation, and, relying upon the provisions of Article 13 of the Union of Utrecht, insisted on the independence of the Provincial Churches, and even in this case preferred that the "classis" rather than the "synod" should be the unit, and that the bond between the separate congregations should be loosened rather than tightened.

From the days of Leicester the strife had gone on, until at last it was brought to a head by the rivalry of two professors of theology at Leyden, Gomarus and Arminius, the protagonists of the two Schools. Franciscus Gomarus (1563-1641), had held his chair already for eight years, when Prince Maurice through the influence of his chaplain, the eloquent and learned Johannes Uyttenbogaert, obtained from the Curators of the University in 1602 the nomination of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), for many years well-known as a preacher at Amsterdam, to fill the chair vacant through the death of Franciscus Junius. The Prince, who did not pretend to be a theologian or to feel interest in theological disputations, little foresaw the consequences which were to follow from this appointment. Round each of these leaders a band of disciples gathered; Gomarus in lecture-room and pulpit assailed the teaching of Arminius, who on his part was as ready in attack and as skillful in defence as his adversary. The chief subject of contention and argument between them was the abstruse doctrine of predestination; and as, with the course of years, the disputes became warmer, so did their divergences of opinion tend to accentuate themselves and become wider. Repeated demands were made for the convening of a Synod to settle the disputed points and, if necessary, to revise the Confession and the Catechism; but the States, in the midst of the long protracted peace negotiations, shrank from taking a step sure to give rise to embittered feeling. In 1609, shortly after the conclusion of the truce, Arminius died. Hereupon, however, under the leadership of Uyttenbogaert, and with the connivance of Oldenbarneveldt, the Arminians bound themselves together in a defensive league, and determined to appeal against the Gomarists to the States of Holland. At a convention held at Gouda, June, 1610, the famous petition known as the Remonstrantie was drawn up, which in five articles defined the Arminian position; and an appeal was made to the States to submit the questions raised to the judgment of a National Synod, summoned by and under the control of the civil authority. These Articles expressed the dissent of the Remonstrants (by which name the Arminians were henceforth known) from the cardinal tenets of the orthodox Calvinistic faith on the subject of predestination, election, and grace. The Gomarists replied in a Contra-Remonstrantie (from which they obtained the appellation of "Contra-Remonstrants"). They claimed that these matters could only be dealt with by a purely Church Synod, and in seven Articles restated in their most stringent and uncompromising form the stern dogmas of Calvin in regard to the points raised by their opponents, accusing them of holding the heresies of the Socinians and Pelagians, and of being allies of the Papists. These accusations, and especially the last, drew to the side of the Contra-Remonstrants a large majority of the Protestant portion of the population throughout the Provinces. But, although the Remonstrants were thus numerically weaker than their opponents, in nearly every part of the United Provinces they had many adherents among the privileged burgher oligarchies, and could command a majority in the States of Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel.

Oldenbarneveldt had been greatly perturbed by these Church quarrels. As to the particular points of dispute, he probably had formed no very definite conclusions. But all his sympathies, as statesman and politician, were with the Remonstrants, in the first place because theirs was the broader and more tolerant creed, and still more, because they did not, like their opponents, set up the authority of the Church against that of the State. He was inflexibly opposed to the claims of the ultra-Calvinists on this head, and was determined to uphold the supremacy of the secular power and its right to intervene in ecclesiastical disputes. Accordingly, in 1613, the proposals of the Contra-Remonstrants for the summoning of a National Church Synod were, through the influence of the Advocate, rejected; and in January, 1614, the States of Holland passed a resolution which forbade the preachers to treat of the disputed questions in the pulpits, and imposing upon them moderation and diffidence in dealing with such abstruse matters. The resolution was moved by the youthful Pensionary of Rotterdam, Hugo de Groot (Grotius), now rising into fame through the extraordinary brilliancy of his intellectual gifts and his many-sided learning; and it secured the votes of a majority of the States, despite the violent opposition of several important towns, including Amsterdam.

The passing of this resolution, though undoubtedly intended to be a measure of conciliation, acted as a declaration of war. Obedience was refused in Amsterdam and elsewhere by the Gomarists, supported by the Town Councils. A deputation was sent by the States to Amsterdam, with de Groot at its head, to secure obedience to the law in the commercial capital; but by a small majority the Town Council refused to cooperate. But, whatever the opposition, the Advocate was resolved to carry matters with a high hand, and, where it should be necessary, in accordance with the Church ordinance of 1591, to enforce obedience to the authority of the State. The beginning of 1617 thus saw the country on the verge of civil war. The Contra-Remonstrant Ministers were driven from Rotterdam and other places, where the Town Councils were Arminian; and in the Hague a well-known preacher, Rosaeus, being forbidden the use of his pulpit, established himself, accompanied by his congregation, close by at Ryswyk.

But now a difficulty confronted the Advocate. Popular riots broke out in many places. It became evident that his policy could not be carried out without the employment of military force, and military force could only be employed with the consent and aid of the Stadholder, who was Captain-General of the forces of the Union. But Maurice, after long hesitation, had made up his mind to join the enemies of Oldenbarneveldt. Despite the alienation which had been growing up between him and the Advocate for a considerable number of years, Maurice was very loth to stir up civil war and to take up the sword against the great statesman, who had been his father's friend, and whose weighty services to the national cause he fully recognised. He was long undecided and halting between two opinions; for his friend and Court Chaplain, Uyttenbogaert, was the leading spirit among the Remonstrants, and he himself is reported to have said on one occasion "that he was a soldier, and not a theologian", and on another "that he did not know whether predestination were blue or green". Moreover his step-mother, Louise de Coligny, whom he was accustomed to consult, and to whom he always showed the greatest respect and deference, favoured the Arminians, as did also her son Frederick Henry. But there were powerful influences drawing him the other way, which slowly gained complete supremacy over him. The first was that of his cousin, William Lewis, who was a zealous and convinced Calvinist. William Lewis urged Maurice to take up a decided attitude in defence of the cause of the Protestant religion, the destruction of which he honestly held to be threatened by the action of Oldenbarneveldt and the States of Holland. The arguments of William Lewis were reinforced and supported by those of Francis van Aerssens, who owed Oldenbarneveldt a grudge for the loss of his place as ambassador of the States at Paris, and of Sir Dudley Carleton, who had lately arrived as English ambassador at the Hague. Through the persuasive insinuations of Aerssens, whose early advancement had been entirely due to Oldenbarneveldt, and who had been his trusted friend for many years, Maurice learnt to distrust Oldenbarneveldt, and even to believe him to be in secret collusion with the French King to the detriment of his country, and his advocacy of the Truce to have been purchased with Spanish gold. Under these influences Maurice openly proclaimed himself in favor of the Contra-Remonstrants and of their resistance to the authority of the States of Holland. Oldenbarneveldt saw that instead of receiving the support of the Stadholder, and, therefore, of the army, he must count upon their active opposition; but he was too long accustomed to rule, and too proud, to go back from the course which he had marked out for himself. Perceiving civil war to be inevitable, he resolved on a bold step, and in December, 1616, proposed to the States of Holland that they should, in the exercise of their rights as a sovereign Province, raise a force of 4000 men, who should be in their own service, taking an oath of allegiance to them, and at the disposal of the magistrates for the enforcement of order. After some delay the Advocate prevailed. The mercenaries thus raised for special local purposes and not forming part of the regular army were known as waardgelders. The proposal was, however, not carried into effect until some months later, and then only partially. In truth both sides, though determined not to yield, were afraid of taking any decisive step which would entail a breach of the peace. Efforts were made at conciliation; conferences were from time to time held between Maurice and Oldenbarneveldt, still ostensibly friends; but, as the months went by, men's minds became more and more exasperated, and the country fell asunder into two hostile camps.

The situation was full of strange anomalies. The two Stadholders working together, who were determined that a National Synod should be summoned, commanded in the States General the votes of four out of the seven Provinces. In May, 1617, the States General agreed, by a bare majority, to hold the Synod; and the States of Holland, again by a narrow majority, refused to accede. A powerful minority, speaking in the name of six towns, chief among which was Amsterdam itself, was strongly Gomarist, and was supported by popular opinion throughout the Province.

The "Sharp Resolution." [1617

Maurice was at length provoked to declare himself openly the champion of the Contra-Remonstrants. On July 9 forcible possession was, by direction of the Prince, taken of the Cloister Church at the Hague, for the use of the proscribed sect; and a fortnight later, July 23, the Prince, accompanied by his cousin Count William Lewis and a large retinue, attended divine service there. This direct challenge to the States of Holland the Advocate did not hesitate to take up. On August 4 he proposed to the States a momentous resolution, known as the Scherpe Resolutie. It was passed on the following day, the Prince himself being present in the Assembly, and was a thorough-going assertion of the sovereignty of the Province of Holland. Assent was refused to the summoning of a Synod, whether national or provincial, as infringing the rights and supremacy of the States in matters of religion. The regents of the cities were admonished to maintain the peace, and to enrol men-at-arms, when required for their security. All officials, soldiers in the pay of the Province, deputed councillors, and magistrates, were to take an oath of obedience to the States "on pain of dismissal", and were to be accountable not to the ordinary tribunals, but to the States of Holland only. Maurice was very angry, for as Stadholder he was the servant of the Provincial States, and was bound to aid in carrying out their will. It was a reductio ad absurdum of the position that as Captain and Admiral-General of the Union he was the servant of the States General, and bound to execute the orders of their High Mightinesses. To complicate matters, the minority in the States of Holland, headed by Reinier Pauw speaking in the name of Amsterdam, uttered a strong protest against the action of the majority; and practically there was no power but the sword to compel these recalcitrant corporations to carry out the Resolution. Indeed, they openly announced their intention of disregarding it.

The "Sharp Resolution" passed, Oldenbarneveldt on the plea of ill-health betook himself to Utrecht, leaving de Groot and the deputed Councillors in charge of affairs at the Hague. There can be little doubt that his object was to strengthen by his presence and counsel the hands of his supporters in the States of the only Province which had continued firm on the side of Holland. He did not return to the Hague till November 6. Meanwhile levies of waardgelders had been raised in several cities. This led to action being taken by the States General. Urged by the two Stadholders, their High Mightinesses sent letters of warning both to the Provincial States and the several towns, in which they pointed out the dangerous consequences that might follow. Still the levies went on, although both sides hesitated to proceed to extremities. But the leaders were active; a deluge of pamphlets, lampoons and caricatures poured forth from the press; and the partisans of the Stadholder against the Advocate, of Contra-Remonstrant against Remonstrant principles, of Provincial sovereignty against the supremacy of the States General, were preparing themselves for a struggle that had become inevitable. The most strenuous supporters of Oldenbarneveldt were the Pensionaries of Rotterdam, Leyden, and Haarlem, de Groot, Hoogerbeets, and de Haan; his bitterest opponents were Francis van Aerssens and Reinier Pauw, burgomaster of Amsterdam. To these two last-named were due in a large measure the violent personal attacks persistently and publicly made upon the Advocate, who was accused of many crimes and misdemeanours in both his public and private life. To meet these calumnies Oldenbarneveldt published a lengthy defence of his life, character, and conduct, throughout the whole of his career. This Remonstrantie he presented to the States of Holland, sending a copy, accompanied by a conciliatory letter, to Maurice. Though this document has served to clear the memory of the Advocate from the aspersions of his contemporaries, it had practically no effect upon minds poisoned and prejudiced by venomous charges and scurrilous abuse.

At last the States General determined upon decisive action. Legally, they had no right to enforce their will upon a sovereign Province; but matters had come to a dead-lock; and on their side, in the ultimate resort, was the power of the sword, in the person of the Prince of Orange, whose honored name and high deeds secured for him the willing obedience of the soldiery. On July 9, 1618, the question of the waardgelders was discussed at the Assembly of the States General, and on July 23 it was resolved that a Commission, with Maurice at its head, should be sent to Utrecht to demand and, if necessary, to compel the disbanding of the levy. In reply to this challenge the States of Holland sent another Commission, headed by de Groot and Hoogerbeets, to support the Utrechters and urge them to maintain their rights. It arrived on July 24, followed on the next day by the Commissioners of the Generality, with the Prince and a body of officers. As neither party showed signs of yielding, Maurice, on the evening of July 81, entered the town at the head of a body of troops. Early next morning he summoned the waardgelders to lay down their arms. He was at once obeyed. There was no opposition. De Groot and his colleagues hurried away; the members of the Municipal Council fled; and the Provincial Estates gave in their submission. In his capacity as Stadholder the Prince at once proceeded to appoint a new Municipal Council of Contra-Remonstrants, and to effect changes in the constitution of the States, which gave the majority to the same party. The vote of Utrecht was henceforth in favor of the summoning of a National Synod. Holland was isolated and stood alone.

Trial of Oldenbarneveldt. [1618-9

This was the beginning of the end. Obstinate spirits in the Remonstrant towns of Holland were still for resistance. On August 20, however, a placard was issued on the authority of the States General calling for the dismissal of the waardgelders within twenty-four hours. The order was obeyed. The power of the opposition had collapsed. On August 25 the States of Holland gave a qualified assent to the summoning of the National Synod. Their spirit was broken. On August 29 a final blow was struck. By virtue of a secret resolution of the States General the Advocate, de Groot, and Hoogerbeets were arrested when on their way to attend a meeting of the States, and were confined in the Prince's apartments in the Binnenhof. The arrest of Ledenburg, secretary of the States of Utrecht, followed. Uyttenbogaert and other leaders of the Remonstrants fled. The prisoners were treated harshly and allowed no intercourse with each other or with their friends. The arrests had no sooner been made, than Maurice set out upon a tour through the towns of Holland, attended by a strong retinue, and proceeded to effect such changes in the magistracies as would secure Contra-Remonstrant majorities in the corporations and in the Provincial States. Schoonhaven, Brill, Schiedam, Gorinchem, Oudewater, Delft, Leyden, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam were visited in turn, and duly purged. When the States of Holland met in November a vote of thanks was passed to the Prince, and full powers were granted him for the completion of his work. Dissension had been crushed. The holding of the National Synod was unanimously approved throughout the seven Provinces. The Contra-Remonstrants were everywhere in the ascendant.

1618-9] Trial of Oldenbarneveldt.—Synod of Dort.

During the months that followed the arrests, the Advocate, de Groot, and Hoogerbeets (Ledenburg had committed suicide) were kept in the strictest confinement. The trial began in November. Each of the prisoners was examined separately before a Commission appointed by the States General on all the events, not only of the past few years, but of their whole public careers. The examination of Oldenbarneveldt was especially severe, and his treatment cruelly unjust. He appeared more than sixty times before the Commissioners, and was allowed neither to consult his papers nor to put his defence in writing. He had to trust to his memory for all the complicated details of the public affairs in which for upwards of forty years he had been the chief actor.

At last, on February 20,1619, the States General nominated a Court composed of twenty-four judges. Half of them were Hollanders. It was not in any sense a regular Court, and nearly all its members were personal enemies of the accused. The Advocate strongly protested against its composition, and claimed his right to be tried by the sovereign Province of Holland, whose servant he had been. It was in vain; nor could anything have exceeded the rigor of the proceedings which followed. The prisoners were allowed no advocates, nor the use of books, pen, or paper. The trial was merely a preliminary to condemnation. On Sunday, May 12, sentence of capital punishment was pronounced.

Simultaneously with the trial of the political prisoners the great National Synod, whose convention they had so long and resolutely opposed, had met at Dort. The Synod met for the first time on November 13, 1618, and held 154 sessions. It was an imposing assembly, consisting of more than 100 members Twenty-eight of these were foreign divines from England, Scotland, the Palatinate, Hesse, Switzerland, Geneva, Brandenburg, East Friesland, and Bremen. The rest were Netherlanders, fifty-eight preachers, professors, and elders, and eighteen commissioners of the States General. The President was Joannes Bogerman, preacher at Leeuwarden. One of their first steps was to summon before them representatives of the Remonstrants, to make their defence. On December 6 a deputation of twelve, with Simon Episcopius at their head, appeared; and a fierce and wordy contest took place between the champions of the five and the seven points, which occupied nine sessions. But the Remonstrants refused to acknowledge the authority of the Synod as a Court competent to pronounce judgment on such doctrinal matters, and after a long series of violent altercations they were ordered by the President to withdraw. They immediately held what was styled an "anti-synod" at Rotterdam, and protested both loudly and publicly against the opinions and the tyranny of their opponents. In their absence the work at Dort proceeded steadily; and on April 28,1619, the Canons that had been drawn up were signed by all the members. The Remonstrants were pronounced heretics and teachers of false doctrines, and unfit to fill any post in the churches, universities, or schools. On May 1 the Netherlands Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism were approved without change, as setting forth, shortly but completely, the principles of the orthodox Reformed faith. A week later (May 6) the results of the deliberations were proclaimed in the Great Church before a vast gathering of people; and amidst festivities and much speech-making the Synod was dissolved. There was indeed much ground for rejoicing on the part of the Contra-Remonstrant party. They had crushed their adversaries, and were henceforth dominant in the State. No less than 200 Remonstrant preachers were dismissed, and large numbers of them driven into exile. Like the Catholics, the Arminians were now placed under a ban, and were forbidden to hold meetings for public worship.

The condemnation of the Advocate followed immediately upon the close of the Synod's labors. In the then embittered state of party feeling probably most men expected that the sentence of the packed court would be a severe one; but few were prepared for a sentence of death. Many of the judges had hesitated long before pronouncing for capital punishment; but the unbending attitude of the Prince of Orange proved decisive. Louise de Coligny and the French Ambassador, du Maurier, did their utmost to induce him to intervene on behalf of Oldenbarneveldt. But Maurice's mind had been thoroughly poisoned against the aged statesman; and, when he found that neither the Advocate nor his children would admit the possibility of guilt by asking for pardon, he hardened his heart.

On the evening of Sunday, May 12, Oldenbarneveldt was informed that he was condemned to death, and that after a public reading of the sentence execution would follow on the following morning. The prisoner received the news with surprise and anger; but he soon recovered his calmness, and asked for pen, ink, and paper, that he might write a farewell letter to his wife and children. The greater part of the night he spent in earnest conversation with the preacher Walaeus, who had been sent from Dort to offer his ministrations. The Advocate remained firm in the unqualified assertion of his entire innocence of the charges brought against him, and protested in the strongest manner against the illegality of the Court and the injustice of its sentence. He requested Walaeus to see Maurice and to ask the Prince to forgive him for any injuries that he might have done to him, and to extend his protection to his children. For a moment this message from the man who had been so many years his friend and counsellor touched the Prince, and he asked whether the Advocate had said anything about pardon. Walaeus was obliged to confess that he had not, and the interview closed. At 8 o'clock on the Monday morning the prolix sentence recounting the grounds of condemnation was read to Oldenbarneveldt in the ancient hall of the Counts of Holland in the Binnenhof, in front of which a rough scaffold had been erected during the night. The outer court was densely crowded with people as the old man, leaning on a stick, appeared on the scaffold. His head was struck off at one blow. His last words: "Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have always acted uprightly as a good patriot, and as such I shall die", -express the verdict of posterity upon his character and conduct.

The papers of Oldenbarneveldt all fell into the hands of his deadly foes, and were by them closely scrutinized with a view to discovering some proof of his guilt. Not a single vestige of evidence has ever been produced to show that the Advocate at any time was in collusion with his country's enemies or betrayed its interests. On the contrary, later researches and investigations have proved conclusively that Oldenbarneveldt in his forty-three years of service played a part in the long struggle of the war of independence second only to that played by William the Silent, and that he was one of the ablest and most influential statesmen of his time. He had his faults. His enemies were not without grounds in ascribing to him haughtiness, avarice, intolerance of other people's opinions, greed of power. The force of circumstances drove him on to take up a position and to commit acts which, though defensible from the strictly legal point of view, undoubtedly tended to weaken the bond of national unity, and to endanger the permanence of the Union. But he met his fate, not because he so strenuously upheld the rights of provincial sovereignty, but because he was in advance of his times in his opposition to the efforts of the Contra-Remonstrant preachers to establish a religious tyranny in the State. His execution was in fact a judicial murder brought about by the machinations of his personal enemies, and will remain an indelible stain upon the memory of Maurice, and upon the annals of the country which thus requited the services of the man to whom in so large a measure she owed her very existence.

The sentence upon de Groot and Hoogerbeets was delayed for a few days, in the hope that they might be induced to plead guilty and sue for pardon. But though de Groot had in the earlier stages of his imprisonment shown signs of weakness, both now stood firm, and on May 18 were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Some two years later (March 21, 1621) de Groot by means of an audacious stratagem devised by his wife, succeeded in making his escape from the castle of Loevestein, and betook himself to France.

1619-22] Maurice supreme

The death of Oldenbarneveldt and the complete overthrow of his party left the Prince of Orange (he had succeeded to that title on the death of his brother Philip William in February, 1618) sovereign of the United Netherlands in all but name. He might have had the title as well as the power; but he was unmarried, and was indifferent about the matter. He had never cared for the details of politics, and he now left the management of affairs in the hands of those who had taken the leading part in the opposition to the Advocate, foremost among whom were Francis van Aerssens and Reinier Pauw. These men were determined to reap to the full the fruits of victory. All over the country the Remonstrants were driven from their pulpits, and prominent adherents of Oldenbarneveldt deprived of their offices; the post of Advocate was abolished and never revived, his place being filled by a functionary styled Raadpensionaris, whose term of office was to be for five years instead of for life, and whose powers were much restricted.

The year 1620 was marked by the death of two prominent members of the House of Nassau. The widow of William the Silent, who had been deeply afflicted by the tragic end of her old and faithful friend, died at Fontainebleau in March. William Lewis expired suddenly in October, to the deep grief of Maurice, who succeeded him in his dignities as Stadholder in Groningen and Drenthe; in Friesland his place was taken by his younger brother, Count Ernest Casimir of Nassau.

In August, 1621, the Twelve Years' Truce came to an end, and after certain overtures for peace had been made by the Archdukes, which contained quite unacceptable conditions, war once more broke out, and Maurice took the field against his old adversary Spinola. But owing to the deaths in this year of Philip III, King of Spain, and of Archduke Albert, operations dragged for some time sluggishly along. In 1622 Maurice gained the only success of his last years, by relieving Bergen-op-Zoom, which Spinola was besieging. He sorely missed at the head of affairs the vigorous hand and wise brain of Oldenbarneveldt, and himself confessed that nothing went right after the Advocate's death. In this year a conspiracy was discovered against the life of Maurice, in which two of Oldenbarneveldf's sons were implicated. The younger, William, Lord of Stoutenburg, resented deeply being deprived of his post as Governor of Bergen-op-Zoom and having his property confiscated; and he laid a plot for the assassination of the Stadholder, to which very unwillingly his elder brother, Régnier, Lord of Groeneveld, was persuaded to become a party. The plot was betrayed, and many arrests were made. Stoutenburg himself contrived to escape, but Groeneveld and a number of others were taken and executed. The health of the Prince of Orange was at this time seriously impaired; and he neither showed the same endurance as before in bearing the fatigues of campaigning, nor the same vigor and skill in his conduct of the war. Misfortune dogged his steps; and in 1624 the town of Breda, an ancestral possession of his family, was taken by Spinola under his eyes. Deeply mortified, Maurice now fell seriously ill ; and it was evident that his days were numbered. His last cares were to secure that his titles, dignities, and estates should pass to his younger brother Frederick Henry, to whom at his request the States General in the spring of 1625 had confided the command of the forces. The two brothers, despite a temporary estrangement, due to the leaning of the younger to the Remonstrant doctrines and the party of Oldenbarneveldt, had always been deeply attached to each other. Neither of them had shown any inclination for wedlock; but now Maurice on his bed of sickness used all his influence to bring about the marriage of Frederick Henry with the Countess Amalia of Solms. He was anxious to secure the prospect of the family succession, and is reported to have threatened even to disinherit his brother unless he complied with his wishes. The preliminaries were quickly arranged ; and the wedding took place at the Hague on April 4,1625. On the 23rd of April Maurice died, in the 58th year of his age, prematurely worn out by the hardships and privations of a life spent from his youth up in the camp and at the head of armies. He was perhaps the most accomplished soldier of his time, but as a politician weak, hesitating, and easily led, and he passed away under a cloud, for the splendour of his great achievements was overshadowed by the dark memory of the catastrophe of 1619.

Sea Battle between Dutch and Spanish Boats, by Aert ANTHONISZ

Hugo Grotius (also known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot; 1583 – 1645) Born in Delft during the Dutch Revolt, Hugo was the first child of Jan de Groot and Alida van Overschie. Hugo entered the University of Leiden when he was just eleven years old. There he studied with some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe, including Franciscus Junius, Joseph Justus Scaliger, and Rudolph Snellius. At age 14 he published his first book; a scholarly edition of the late antiquity writer Martianus Capellas work on the seven liberal arts.

The Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal when the loaded merchant ship, Santa Catarina a Portuguese carrack, was captured by captain Jacob van Heemskerk in 1603. Heemskerk was employed with the United Amsterdam Company (part of the Dutch East India Company), and though he did not have authorization from the company or the government to initiate the use of force, many shareholders were eager to accept the riches that he brought back to them. Not only was the legality of keeping the prize questionable under Dutch statute, but a faction of shareholders (mostly Mennonite) in the Company also objected to the forceful seizure on moral grounds, and of course, the Portuguese demanded the return of their cargo. The scandal led to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion. It was in this wider contest that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a polemical defence of the seizure.

The result of Grotius' efforts in 1604-1605 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled De Indis (On the Indies). Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand; his interest was in the source and ground of war's lawfulness in general. The treatise was never published in full during Grotius' lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support. The manuscript was not made public until it was uncovered from Grotius' estate in 1864 and published under the title, De Jure Praedae (On the Right of Capture). The principles that Grotius developed there, however, laid the basis for his mature work on international justice, De jure belli ac pacis, and in fact one chapter of the earlier work did make it to the press in the form of the influential pamphlet, Mare Liberum.

In The Free Sea (Mare Liberum, published 1609) Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade. Grotius, by claiming 'free seas', provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power (and then establishing its own monopoly).

England, competing fiercely with the Dutch for domination of world trade, opposed this idea and claimed That the Dominion of the British Sea, or That Which Incompasseth the Isle of Great Britain, is, and Ever Hath Been, a Part or Appendant of the Empire of that Island. William Welwod, a Scottish jurist who was the first to formulate the laws of the sea in the English language, argued against Grotius' Mare Liberum in An Abridgement of All Sea-Lawes (1613), eliciting a response from Grotius around 1615 under the title Defensio capitis quinti Maris Liberi oppugnati a Gulielmo Welwodo ("Defense of the five free oceans, opposed by William Welwod"). In Mare clausum (1635) John Selden endeavoured to prove that the sea was in practice virtually as capable of appropriation as terrestrial territory.

As conflicting claims grew out of the controversy, maritime states came to moderate their demands and base their maritime claims on the principle that it extended seawards from land. A workable formula was found by Cornelius Bynkershoek in his De dominio maris (1702), restricting maritime dominion to the actual distance within which cannon range could effectively protect it. This became universally adopted and developed into the three-mile limit.

The dispute would eventually have important economic implications. The Dutch Republic supported the idea of free trade (even though it imposed a special trade monopoly on nutmeg and cloves in the Moluccas). England adopted the Act of Navigation (1651), forbidding any goods from entering England except on English ships. The Act subsequently led to the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652 - 1654).

The Arminian controversy, arrest and exile

Aided by his continued association with van Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius made considerable advances in his political career, being retained as Oldenbarnevelt's resident advisor in 1605, Advocate General of the Fisc of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland in 1607, and then as Pensionary of Rotterdam (the equivalent of a mayoral office) in 1613. In 1608 he married Maria van Reigersbergen, with whom he would have eight children (four surviving beyond youth) and who would be invaluable in helping him and the family to weather the storm to come.

In these years a great theological controversy broke out between the followers of Jacobus Arminius, chair of theology at Leiden, and the strongly Calvinist theologian, Franciscus Gomarus. In 1610, several months after the death of their leader, those who dissented with Arminius issued a 'Remonstrance' declaring their doctrinal differences with the mainstream Reformed doctrines of salvation, most often associated with the Protestant Reformer John Calvin, but also held by most Reformed pastors and theologians throughout Europe. They had particular problems with the Belgic Confession, art. 16, on eternal election and reprobation. The Remonstrants did not reject the doctrines of election or predestination, as is often assumed, but rather redefined them so that the decisive factor in a person's salvation is not God's inscrutable decree, but the individual's faith, which God foresees from eternity. According to Arminius and the Remonstrants, God decrees to elect all who meet the condition of faith. Led by Oldenbarnevelt, the States of Holland took an official position of religious toleration towards the disputants, and Grotius was eventually asked to draft an edict to express this policy. The edict of 1613 put into practice a view that Grotius had been developing in his writings on church and state (see Erastianism): that only the basic tenets necessary for undergirding civil order (e.g., the existence of God and His providence) ought to be enforced while differences on obscure theological doctrines should be left to private conscience.

The edict did not have the intended effect, and hostilities flared throughout the republic. To maintain civil order, Oldenbarnevelt eventually proposed that local authorities be given the power to raise troops (the Sharp Resolution). Such a measure putatively undermined the authority of the stadtholder of the republic, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. Maurice seized the opportunity to solidify the preeminence of the Gomarists, whom he had supported, and to eliminate the nuisance he perceived in Oldenbarnevelt (the latter had previously brokered the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain in 1609 against Maurice's wishes). He had Oldenbarnevelt and Grotius arrested on 29 August 1618. Ultimately, Oldenbarnevelt was executed, and Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment in Loevestein castle.

In 1621, with the help of his wife and maidservant, Grotius managed to escape the castle in a book chest and fled to Paris. In the Netherlands today, he is mainly famous for this daring escape. Both the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft claim to have the original book chest in their collection.

Grotius was well received in Paris by his former acquaintances and was granted a royal pension under Louis XIII. It was here in France that Grotius completed his most famous philosophical works. Many exiled Remonstrants began to return to the Netherlands after the death of Prince Maurice in 1625, but Grotius, who refused to ask for pardon since it would imply an admission of guilt, was denied repatriation despite his repeated requests. Driven out once again after attempting to return to Rotterdam in October of 1631, Grotius fled to Hamburg. In 1634 he met the opportunity to serve as Sweden's ambassador to France. The recently deceased Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus had been an admirer of Grotius (he was said to have carried a copy of De jure belli ac pacis always in his saddle when leading his troops), and his successor's regent, Axel Oxenstierna, was keen to have Grotius in his employ. Grotius accepted the offer and took up diplomatic residence at Paris, which remained his home until he was released from his post in 1645. While departing from his last visit to Sweden, Grotius was shipwrecked on his voyage. He washed up on the shore of Rostock, ill and weather-beaten, and on August 28, 1645 he died; his body at last returned to the country of its youth, being laid to rest in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.

He reached Malacca in April 1606 and in May Matelief de Jonge formed a formal pact with the ruler of Johor, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Sha h III, to expel the Portuguese. In exchange, the Dutch would get Malacca for themselves and would be able to conduct trade with Johor. The Dutch and the Malay also agreed to tolerate each other's religion.

First battle of Malacca (August 1606)

Matelief laid siege to the Portuguese-held Malacca for several months, but was repulsed on land by Portuguese troops under André Furtado de Mendoza and their allies, a contingent of Japanese samurai from Red seal ships. A very large Portuguese fleet under Don Martin d'Alphonso de Castro, the Viceroy of Goa, arrived on the scene with almost twenty Portuguese ships on August 14, 1606.

The two fleets fought from August 17th. Nassau was boarded by Santa Cruz and the Nossa Senhora Conceição. Matelief, onboard Orange, went to the rescue but collided with another Dutch ship, Middelburg. These two ships were then attacked by the Sao Salvador and Don Duarte de Guerra's galleon. Orange broke free, but the two Portuguese ships and the Middelburg all caught fire and sank in the action. The Santa Cruz and Conceição eventually managed to set the Nassau on fire, leading to an explosion that sank her. Matelief decided to leave the action, with 150 dead on the Dutch side, and around 500 on the Portuguese side. On August 19, 1606, he obtained permission from the Johor Sultan to anchor his fleet for repairs in the Johor River.

Second battle of Malacca (Sept. 1606)

Matelief came back to the scene of the first battle about a month later. De Castro had sailed away, leaving only ten Portuguese ships before Malacca. Matelief attacked the ships and managed to sink or burn every single one of them, on September 21, 1606. At the end of his trip Matelieff had lost six ships.

Matelieff sailed in one ship from Ternate to Canton, and on June 4th 1607 he captured a Chinese junk, loaded with spices from Banda. When six Portuguese ships under Andre Pessoa showed up in front of the Chinese coast, he went back, without an agreement with China or reaching Japan. Matelieff arrived unsuccessfully on Bantam on November 24, 1607, and sent Willem Jansz with secret instructions to Banda to forestall the English ships. He left Bantam on January 28, 1608

Return to Europe with a Siamese embassy (1608)

Matelieff returned to Europe in 1608 with Cornelius Specx, a Dutchman who had established a factory in Ayutthaya in 1604, and with an embassy of 16 from the Kingdom of Siam sent by the Siamese ruler Ekathotsarot. The embassy was brought to Holland by Matelief onboard Orange and arrived in The Hague on September 10, 1608. The embassy met with Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orang. Following the embassy, a treaty was concluded between the Dutch Republic and Siam in 1617.

In 1618 Matelieff was appointed in the vroedschap of Rotterdam, later as a burgemeester of the city. In 1625 he lost his function as a deputy in the States-General when staying too long in Warsaw

Siege of Ostend

The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648). Ostend was fortified in 1583 and by the end of the sixteenth century was the only possession of the Republic in Flanders. From this strategically important position, the Dutch could inflict much damage on the surrounding Spanish territory. Even more crucially, control of Ostend meant control of the coast. Therefore, in 1601, Albert decided to besiege the town, stating that he would spend eighteen years doing so if need be. The siege began on 5 July 1601 and became infamous for the heroism, bloodshed and sheer endurance of both sides. As Simoni says, 'among the many battles, sieges, naval encounters and all manner of other military engagements of the Eighty Years' War, none was, and perhaps is, more famous than the long drawn-out siege of Ostend in which the Spaniards assailed the unassailable and the Dutch defended the indefensible'.

The west side was its most vulnerable, but the northern part was protected by a dyke while a new harbour (the Gullet) made the east side almost inaccessible. The town was surrounded by fortifications and protected by a series of strong ravelins. Towards the south west, eighteen fortresses were built by Albert, and in a few months he had fifty siege guns in place; his besieging army numbered about 20,00 men, drawn to the conflict by the offer of inflated pay per day. Within the town, meanwhile, there were about 8,000 fighting men to begin, under the command of Sir Francis Vere; they were a mix of nationalities including English, Scots, Dutch, Flemings, Frenchmen and Germans

Frederic van den Berg attacked on the east side of Ostend with the aim of gaining possession of the Gullet, or at least of rendering entrance to the harbour impossible and thereby cutting off supplies to the Dutch. This was almost impossible: the Gullet was a whirlpool at high tide and the Spanish were at the mercy of a Republican fortification called the 'Spanish half-moon' from which cannons and guns constantly shot at them. As Motley laments, 'it was a bloody business. Night and day the men were knee-deep in the trenches delving in mud and sand, falling every instant into the graves which they were thus digging for themselves, while ever and anon the sea would rise in its wrath and sweep them with their works away ... It was a piteous sight, even for the besieged, to see human life so profusely squandered'. Despite the exertions of the Spanish, the harbour remained free allowing Dutch skippers to bring in cargoes of supplies regularly. Although provisions were therefore plentiful, conditions in the besieged town were appalling. Many civilians, including women, had stayed on in the town. They faced incessant dangers: their houses burnt down, their belongings were plundered by mercenary defenders and many, of course, were killed or horribly maimed by the daily assaults, sorties, repulses and ambuscades.

Albert made some progress in attacking the western side of Ostend, incurring substantial damage to the town. By Christmas, the besieged had begun to lose men. On 23 December Vere abandoned the external forts; it was a desperate situation as a large assault could not be withstood without the forts. He turned to subterfuge and bought himself time by feigning interest in a truce with the Spanish. The illustration here depicts the doomed negotiations: Isabella and Albert are shown approaching the town, and the immense crowd surrounding them depicts sightseers who apparently came to mock the town while hostilities ceased. As soon as reinforcements arrived, of course, Vere dropped his pretence and abruptly ended negotiations. The siege began again. Vere, however, was recalled from his command because of this unorthodox procedure.

7 January 1602, the Spanish forces made their most vigorous and concerted attack yet in an attempt to take Ostend by storm. The Spanish made some early advances, but the Dutch - who had been alerted to the impending assault by spies - put up a determined defence. They opened a sluice which brought seawater rushing into the attackers' trenches, drowning many and sweeping others out to sea. Such was the slaughter that the following day was set aside by both sides to allow the recovery (and plunder) of the dead. The inset in the illustration here shows one intriguing detail from this day. The body of a woman dressed in man's clothing was discovered amongst the Spanish dead; she had evidently taken part in the assault 'as was obvious from certain of her wounds ... under her clothes she wore a gold chain studded with gemstones and also some other valuables and money'.

In the second year of the siege it is estimated that 4000 men died within Ostend and probably twice as many in the trenches of the besieging force. Two medical men, Mr Moerbeke from The Hague and a surgeon from Antwerp  called Alexander Courtmans, between them amputated more than 1700 arms and legs. It is not surprising that the nickname 'Krijgsuniversiteit' or 'University of war' was widely applied to Ostend: for soldiers, governors, engineers and surgeons, three or four months experience at Ostend was worth years of study at any academy.

In September 1603 Ambrosia Spinola assumed command of the Spanish troops. Having studied the situation closely, he decided to concentrate on progressing the western attacks, seeing that the probability of closing the Gullet on the eastern side was slim. Throughout 1604 his campaign slowly encroached on the Dutch defences, aided by ferocious storms in February and March that caused natural damage to the fortifications. Successive commanders in Ostend were killed in action and the Dutch were forced to retreat. The title-page of Part II shows their desperate situation by June 1604. The attackers occupy what had hitherto been the city's outer defensive works and mutual salvoes are being fired from a vast array of guns on either side. The space near the bottom of the picture is inscribed 'Nova Troia': the name of 'new' or 'little' Troy was bestowed on the last entrenchment of the Dutch since they announced that they would hold out there for as long as the ancient Trojans had defended Ilium. Lack of earth meant that dead bodies were used to shore up the ramparts of this final refuge.

By September 1604 the Dutch garrison could not hold out any longer. Since Prince Maurice of Orange's conquest of Sluis in August had made it less essential for the Republic to hold on to Ostend, the States General granted the permission to surrender. The Accord was signed on 20 September and the Dutch marched out without harm, flags flying and drums beating. The articles of capitulation granted the heroic defenders full military honours and Spinola entertained the officers at a magnificent banquet.

Albert and Isabella entered Ostend in triumph, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. The town was in ruins and Isabella wept at the desolation. Albert again opened negotiations with the United Provinces and succeeded in concluding a truce for twelve years (1609-21). During this reign of peace and reconstruction he ordered that Ostend should be rebuilt.

Willem Barentsz (c. 1550–1597) Dutch navigator, cartographer and explorer, a leader of early expeditions to the far north. The Barents Sea, Barentsburg and Barents Region were all named after him.

First voyage

On 5 June 1594 Barentsz left the island of Texel aboard the smallship Mercury, as part of a group of three ships sent out in separate directions to try and enter the Kara Sea, with the hopes of finding the Northeast passage above Siberia. On 9 July, the crew encountered a polar bear for the first time. After shooting it with a musket when it tried to climb aboard the ship, the seamen decided to capture it with the hope of bringing it back to Holland. Once leashed and brought aboard the ship however, the bear rampaged and had to be killed. This occurred in Bear Creek, Williams Island. Upon discovering the Orange Islands, the crew came across a herd of approximately 200 walruses and tried to kill them with hatchets and pikes. Finding the task more difficult than they imagined, they left with only a few ivory tusks. Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and followed it northward before being forced to turn back in the face of large icebergs. Although they did not reach their ultimate goal, the trip was considered a success.

Second voyage

The following year, Prince Maurice of Orange was filled with "the most exaggerated hopes" on hearing of Barentsz' previous voyage, and named him Chief Pilot and Conductor of a new expedition, which was accompanied by six ships loaded with merchant wares that the Dutch hoped to trade with China. Setting out on 2 June 1595, the voyage went between the Siberian coast and Vaygach Island. On 30 August, the party came across approximately 20 Samoyed "wild men" with whom they were able to speak, due to a crewmember speaking their language. 4 September saw a small crew sent to States Island to search for a type of crystal that had been noticed earlier. The party was attacked by a polar bear, and two sailors were killed. Eventually, the expedition turned back upon discovering that unexpected weather had left the Kara Sea frozen.This expedition was largely considered to be a failure.

Third voyage

In 1596, disappointed by the failure of previous expeditions, the States-General announced they would no longer subsidize similar voyages - but instead offered a high reward for anybody who successfully navigated the Northeast Passage. The Town Council of Amsterdam purchased and outfitted two small ships, captained by Jan Rijp and Jacob van Heemskerk, to search for the elusive channel under the command of Barents. They set off on 10 May or 15 May, and on 9 June discovered Bear Island. They discovered Spitsbergen on 17 June, sighting its northwest coast. On 20 June they saw the entrance of a large bay, later called Raudfjorden. On 21 June they anchored between Cloven Cliff and Vogelsang, where they "set up a post with the arms of the Dutch upon it." On 25 June they entered Magdalenefjorden, which they named Tusk Bay, in light of the walrus tusks they found there. The following day, 26 June, they sailed into the northern entrance of Forlandsundet, which they simply called Keerwyck, but were forced to turn back because of a shoal. On 28 June they rounded the northern point of Prins Karls Forland, which they named Vogelhoek, on account of the large number of birds they saw there. They sailed south, passing Isfjorden and Bellsund, which were labelled on Barentsz's chart as Grooten Inwyck and Inwyck. The ships once again found themselves at Bear Island on 1 July, which led to a disagreement between Barentsz and Van Heemskerk on one side and Rijp on the other. They agreed to part ways, with Barentsz continuing northeast, while Rijp headed due north. Barentsz reached Novaya Zemlya on 17 July. Anxious to avoid becoming entrapped in the surrounding ice, he intended to head for the Vaigatch Strait, but became stuck within the many icebergs and floes. Stranded, the 16-man crew was forced to spend the winter on the ice, along with their young cabin boy. After a failed attempt to melt the permafrost, the crew used lumber from their ship to build a 7.8x5.5 metre lodge they called Het Behouden Huys (The Kept House). Dealing with extreme cold, the crew realised that their socks would burn before their feet could even feel the warmth of a fire and took to sleeping with warmed stones and cannonballs. In addition, they used the merchant fabrics aboard the ship to make additional blankets and clothing. The ship bore salted beef, butter, cheese, bread, barley, peas, beans, groats, flour, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, beer, wine, brandy, hardtack, smoked bacon, ham and fish. Much of the beer froze, bursting the casks. By 8 November Gerrit de Veer, the ships carpenter who kept a diary, reported a shortage of beer and bread, with wine being rationed four days later. In January 1597, De Veer became the first person to witness and record the atmospheric anomaly known as the Novaya Zemlya effect. Proving successful at hunting, the group caught 26 arctic foxes in primitive traps, as well as killing a number of polar bears. When June arrived, and the ice had still not loosened its grip on the ship, the scurvy-ridden survivors took two small boats out into the sea on 13 June. Barentsz died at sea on 20 June 1597, while studying charts only seven days after starting out. It is not known whether Barentsz was buried on the northern island of Novaya Zemlya, or at sea. It took seven more weeks for the boats to reach Kola where they were rescued by a Russian merchant vessel, and by that time only 12 crewmen remained. Ultimately, they did not reach Amsterdam until 1 November. Sources differ on whether two men died on the ice floe and three in the boats, or three on the ice floe and two in the boats. The young cabin boy had died during the winter months in the shelter.

The Death of Willem Barentsz (1836) by Christiaan Julius Lodewyck Portman

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG, PC (24 June 1532[note 1] – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the Queen's hand for many years.

Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumberland, had failed to prevent the accession of Mary I. Robert Dudley was condemned to death but was released in 1554 and took part in the Battle of St. Quentin under Mary's husband and co-ruler, Philip, which led to his full rehabilitation. On Elizabeth I's accession in November 1558, Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse. In October 1562, he became a Privy Councillor and, in 1587, was appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household. In 1564, Dudley became Earl of Leicester and, from 1563, one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. Although he refused to be married to Mary, Queen of Scots, Dudley was for a long time relatively sympathetic to her until, from the mid-1580s, he strongly advocated for her execution. As patron of the Puritan movement, he supported non-conforming preachers but tried to mediate between them and the bishops of the Church of England. A champion also of the international Protestant cause, he led the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt (1585–87). His acceptance of the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces infuriated Queen Elizabeth. The expedition was a military and political failure, and it ruined the Earl financially. Leicester was engaged in many large-scale business ventures and was one of the main backers of Francis Drake and other explorers and privateers. During the Spanish Armada, the Earl was in overall command of the English land forces. In this function, he invited Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops at Tilbury. This was the last of many events he had organised over the years, the most spectacular being the festival at his seat Kenilworth Castle in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen. Dudley was a principal patron of the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theatre.

Robert Dudley's private life interfered with his court career and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, he was free to marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect. Popular rumours that he had arranged for his wife's death continued throughout his life, despite the coroner's jury's verdict of accident. For 18 years he did not remarry for Queen Elizabeth's sake and when he finally did, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, was permanently banished from court. This and the death of his only legitimate son and heir were heavy blows. Shortly after the child's death in 1584, a virulent libel known as Leicester's Commonwealth was circulated in England. It laid the foundation of a literary and historiographical tradition that often depicted the Earl as the Machiavellian "master courtier" and as a deplorable figure around Elizabeth I. More recent research has led to a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan government and society.