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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4801.txt b/4801.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1155eab --- /dev/null +++ b/4801.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1521 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dutch Republic, Introduction I, by Motley +#1 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Introduction I. + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4801] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 12, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, INTRO. I. *** + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 1. + +THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC + +A History + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D. +Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Etc. + +1855 + + +[Etext Editor's Note: JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, born in Dorchester, Mass. +1814, died 1877. Other works: Morton's Hopes and Merry Mount, novels. +Motley was the United States Minister to Austria, 1861-67, and the United +States Minister to England, 1869-70. Mark Twain mentions his respect +for John Motley. Oliver Wendell Holmes said in 'An Oration delivered +before the City Authorities of Boston' on the 4th of July, 1863: +"'It cannot be denied,'--says another observer, placed on one of our +national watch-towers in a foreign capital,--'it cannot be denied +that the tendency of European public opinion, as delivered from high +places, is more and more unfriendly to our cause; but the people,' +he adds, 'everywhere sympathize with us, for they know that our cause +is that of free institutions,--that our struggle is that of the +people against an oligarchy.' These are the words of the Minister to +Austria, whose generous sympathies with popular liberty no homage +paid to his genius by the class whose admiring welcome is most +seductive to scholars has ever spoiled; our fellow-citizen, the +historian of a great Republic which infused a portion of its life +into our own,--John Lothrop Motley." D.W.] + + + + +PREFACE + +The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the +leading events of modern times. Without the birth of this great +commonwealth, the various historical phenomena of: the sixteenth and +following centuries must have either not existed; or have presented +themselves under essential modifications.--Itself an organized protest +against ecclesiastical tyranny and universal empire, the Republic guarded +with sagacity, at many critical periods in the world's history; that +balance of power which, among civilized states; ought always to be +identical with the scales of divine justice. The splendid empire of +Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. It is a +consolation to those who have hope in humanity to watch, under the reign +of his successor, the gradual but triumphant resurrection of the spirit +over which the sepulchre had so long been sealed. From the handbreadth +of territory called the province of Holland rises a power which wages +eighty years' warfare with the most potent empire upon earth, and which, +during the progress of the struggle, becoming itself a mighty state, and +binding about its own slender form a zone of the richest possessions of +earth, from pole to tropic, finally dictates its decrees to the empire of +Charles. + +So much is each individual state but a member of one great international +commonwealth, and so close is the relationship between the whole human +family, that it is impossible for a nation, even while struggling for +itself, not to acquire something for all mankind. The maintenance of the +right by the little provinces of Holland and Zealand in the sixteenth, by +Holland and England united in the seventeenth, and by the United States +of America in the eighteenth centuries, forms but a single chapter in the +great volume of human fate; for the so-called revolutions of Holland, +England, and America, are all links of one chain. + +To the Dutch Republic, even more than to Florence at an earlier day, is +the world indebted for practical instruction in that great science of +political equilibrium which must always become more and more important as +the various states of the civilized world are pressed more closely +together, and as the struggle for pre-eminence becomes more feverish and +fatal. Courage and skill in political and military combinations enabled +William the Silent to overcome the most powerful and unscrupulous monarch +of his age. The same hereditary audacity and fertility of genius placed +the destiny of Europe in the hands of William's great-grandson, and +enabled him to mould into an impregnable barrier the various elements of +opposition to the overshadowing monarchy of Louis XIV. As the schemes of +the Inquisition and the unparalleled tyranny of Philip, in one century, +led to the establishment of the Republic of the United Provinces, so, in +the next, the revocation of the Nantes Edict and the invasion of Holland +are avenged by the elevation of the Dutch stadholder upon the throne of +the stipendiary Stuarts. + +To all who speak the English language; the history of the great agony +through which the Republic of Holland was ushered into life must have +peculiar interest, for it is a portion of the records of the Anglo-Saxon +race--essentially the same, whether in Friesland, England, or +Massachusetts. + +A great naval and commercial commonwealth, occupying a small portion of +Europe but conquering a wide empire by the private enterprise of trading +companies, girdling the world with its innumerable dependencies in Asia, +America, Africa, Australia--exercising sovereignty in Brazil, Guiana, the +West Indies, New York, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Hindostan, Ceylon, +Java, Sumatra, New Holland--having first laid together, as it were, many +of the Cyclopean blocks, out of which the British realm, at a late: +period, has been constructed--must always be looked upon with interest by +Englishmen, as in a great measure the precursor in their own scheme of +empire. + +For America the spectacle is one of still deeper import. The Dutch +Republic originated in the opposition of the rational elements of human +nature to sacerdotal dogmatism and persecution--in the courageous +resistance of historical and chartered liberty to foreign despotism. +Neither that liberty nor ours was born of the cloud-embraces of a false +Divinity with, a Humanity of impossible beauty, nor was the infant career +of either arrested in blood and tears by the madness of its worshippers. +"To maintain," not to overthrow, was the device of the Washington of the +sixteenth century, as it was the aim of our own hero and his great +contemporaries. + +The great Western Republic, therefore--in whose Anglo-Saxon veins flows +much of that ancient and kindred blood received from the nation once +ruling a noble portion of its territory, and tracking its own political +existence to the same parent spring of temperate human liberty--must look +with affectionate interest upon the trials of the elder commonwealth. +These volumes recite the achievement of Dutch independence, for its +recognition was delayed till the acknowledgment was superfluous and +ridiculous. The existence of the Republic is properly to be dated from +the Union of Utrecht in 1581, while the final separation of territory +into independent and obedient provinces, into the Commonwealth of the +United States and the Belgian provinces of Spain, was in reality effected +by William the Silent, with whose death three years subsequently, the +heroic period of the history may be said to terminate. At this point +these volumes close. Another series, with less attention to minute +details, and carrying the story through a longer range of years, will +paint the progress of the Republic in its palmy days, and narrate the +establishment of, its external system of dependencies and its interior +combinations for self-government and European counterpoise. The lessons +of history and the fate of free states can never be sufficiently pondered +by those upon whom so large and heavy a responsibility for the +maintenance of rational human freedom rests. + +I have only to add that this work is the result of conscientious +research, and of an earnest desire to arrive at the truth. I have +faithfully studied al1 the important contemporary chroniclers and later +historians--Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, or German. +Catholic and Protestant, Monarchist and Republican, have been consulted +with the same sincerity. The works of Bor (whose enormous but +indispensable folios form a complete magazine of contemporary state- +papers, letters, and pamphlets, blended together in mass, and connected +by a chain of artless but earnest narrative), of Meteren, De Thou, +Burgundius, Heuterus; Tassis, Viglius, Hoofd, Haraeus, Van der Haer, +Grotius-of Van der Vynckt, Wagenaer, Van Wyn, De Jonghe, Kluit, Van +Kampen, Dewez, Kappelle, Bakhuyzen, Groen van Prinsterer--of Ranke and +Raumer, have been as familiar to me as those of Mendoza, Carnero, +Cabrera, Herrera, Ulloa, Bentivoglio, Peres, Strada. The manuscript +relations of those Argus-eyed Venetian envoys who surprised so many +courts and cabinets in their most unguarded moments, and daguerreotyped +their character and policy for the instruction of the crafty Republic, +and whose reports remain such an inestimable source for the secret +history of the sixteenth century, have been carefully examined-- +especially the narratives of the caustic and accomplished Badovaro, of +Suriano, and Michele. It is unnecessary to add that all the publications +of M. Gachard--particularly the invaluable correspondence of Philip II. +and of William the Silent, as well as the "Archives et Correspondence" of +the Orange Nassau family, edited by the learned and distinguished Groen +van Prinsterer, have been my constant guides through the tortuous +labyrinth of Spanish and Netherland politics. The large and most +interesting series of pamphlets known as "The Duncan Collection," in the +Royal Library at the Hague, has also afforded a great variety of details +by which I have endeavoured to give color and interest to the narrative. +Besides these, and many other printed works, I have also had the +advantage of perusing many manuscript histories, among which may be +particularly mentioned the works of Pontua Payen, of Renom de France, and +of Pasquier de la Barre; while the vast collection of unpublished +documents in the Royal Archives of the Hague, of Brussels, and of +Dresden, has furnished me with much new matter of great importance. +I venture to hope that many years of labour, a portion of them in the +archives of those countries whose history forms the object of my study, +will not have been entirely in vain; and that the lovers of human +progress, the believers in the capacity of nations for self-government +and self-improvement, and the admirers of disinterested human genius and +virtue, may find encouragement for their views in the detailed history of +an heroic people in its most eventful period, and in the life and death +of the great man whose name and fame are identical with those of his +country. + +No apology is offered for this somewhat personal statement. When an +unknown writer asks the attention of the public upon an important theme, +he is not only authorized, but required, to show, that by industry and +earnestness he has entitled himself to a hearing. The author too keenly +feels that he has no further claims than these, and he therefore most +diffidently asks for his work the indulgence of his readers. + +I would take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Dr. Klemm, +Hofrath and Chief Librarian at Dresden, and to Mr. Von Weber, +Ministerial-rath and Head of the Royal Archives of Saxony, for the +courtesy and kindness extended to me so uniformly during the course of my +researches in that city. I would also speak a word of sincere thanks to +Mr. Campbell, Assistant Librarian at the Hague, for his numerous acts of +friendship during the absence of, his chief, M. Holtrop. To that most +distinguished critic and historian, M. Bakhuyzen van den Brinck, Chief +Archivist of the Netherlands, I am under deep obligations for advice, +instruction, and constant kindness, during my residence at the Hague; and +I would also signify my sense of the courtesy of Mr. Charter-Master de +Schwane, and of the accuracy with which copies of MSS. in the archives +were prepared for me by his care. Finally, I would allude in the +strongest language of gratitude and respect to M. Gachard, Archivist- +General of Belgium, for his unwearied courtesy and manifold acts of +kindness to me during my studies in the Royal Archives of Brussels. + + + + + + +THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC + +HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. + +Part 1. + +I. + +The north-western corner of the vast plain which extends from the German +ocean to the Ural mountains, is occupied by the countries called the +Netherlands. This small triangle, enclosed between France, Germany, and +the sea, is divided by the modern kingdoms of Belgium and Holland into +two nearly equal portions. Our earliest information concerning this +territory is derived from the Romans. The wars waged by that nation with +the northern barbarians have rescued the damp island of Batavia, with its +neighboring morasses, from the obscurity in which they might have +remained for ages, before any thing concerning land or people would have +been made known by the native inhabitants. Julius Caesar has saved from, +oblivion the heroic savages who fought against his legions in defence of +their dismal homes with ferocious but unfortunate patriotism; and the +great poet of England, learning from the conqueror's Commentaries the +name of the boldest tribe, has kept the Nervii, after almost twenty +centuries, still fresh and familiar in our ears. + +Tacitus, too, has described with singular minuteness the struggle between +the people of these regions and the power of Rome, overwhelming, although +tottering to its fall; and has moreover, devoted several chapters of his +work upon Germany to a description of the most remarkable Teutonic tribes +of the Netherlands. + +Geographically and ethnographically, the Low Countries belong both to +Gaul and to Germany. It is even doubtful to which of the two the +Batavian island, which is the core of the whole country, was reckoned by +the Romans. It is, however, most probable that all the land, with the +exception of Friesland, was considered a part of Gaul. + +Three great rivers--the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheld--had deposited +their slime for ages among the dunes and sand banks heaved up by the +ocean around their mouths. A delta was thus formed, habitable at last +for man. It was by nature a wide morass, in which oozy islands and +savage forests were interspersed among lagoons and shallows; a district +lying partly below the level of the ocean at its higher tides, subject to +constant overflow from the rivers, and to frequent and terrible +inundations by the sea. + +The Rhine, leaving at last the regions where its storied lapse, through +so many ages, has been consecrated alike by nature and art-by poetry and +eventful truth----flows reluctantly through the basalt portal of the +Seven Mountains into the open fields which extend to the German sea. +After entering this vast meadow, the stream divides itself into two +branches, becoming thus the two-horned Rhine of Virgil, and holds in +these two arms the island of Batavia. + +The Meuse, taking its rise in the Vosges, pours itself through the +Ardennes wood, pierces the rocky ridges upon the southeastern frontier of +the Low Countries, receives the Sambre in the midst of that picturesque +anthracite basin where now stands the city of Namur, and then moves +toward the north, through nearly the whole length of the country, till it +mingles its waters with the Rhine. + +The Scheld, almost exclusively a Belgian river, after leaving its +fountains in Picardy, flows through the present provinces of Flanders and +Hainault. In Caesar's time it was suffocated before reaching the sea in +quicksands and thickets, which long afforded protection to the savage +inhabitants against the Roman arms; and which the slow process of nature +and the untiring industry of man have since converted into the +archipelago of Zealand and South Holland. These islands were unknown +to the Romans. + +Such were the rivers, which, with their numerous tributaries, coursed +through the spongy land. Their frequent overflow, when forced back upon +their currents by the stormy sea, rendered the country almost +uninhabitable. Here, within a half-submerged territory, a race of +wretched ichthyophagi dwelt upon terpen, or mounds, which they had +raised, like beavers, above the almost fluid soil. Here, at a later day, +the same race chained the tyrant Ocean and his mighty streams into +subserviency, forcing them to fertilize, to render commodious, to cover +with a beneficent network of veins and arteries, and to bind by watery +highways with the furthest ends of the world, a country disinherited by +nature of its rights. A region, outcast of ocean and earth, wrested at +last from both domains their richest treasures. A race, engaged for +generations in stubborn conflict with the angry elements, was +unconsciously educating itself for its great struggle with the +still more savage despotism of man. + +The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests. An +extensive belt of woodland skirted the sea-coast; reaching beyond the +mouths of the Rhine. Along the outer edge of this carrier, the dunes +cast up by the sea were prevented by the close tangle of thickets from +drifting further inward; and thus formed a breastwork which time and art +were to strengthen. The, groves of Haarlem and the Hague are relics of +this ancient forest. The Badahuenna wood, horrid with Druidic +sacrifices, extended along the eastern line of the vanished lake of +Flevo. The vast Hercynian forest, nine days' journey in breadth, closed +in the country on the German side, stretching from the banks of the Rhine +to the remote regions of the Dacians, in such vague immensity (says the +conqueror of the whole country) that no German, after traveling sixty +days, had ever reached, or even heard of; its commencement. On the +south, the famous groves of Ardennes, haunted by faun and satyr, +embowered the country, and separated it from Celtic Gaul. + +Thus inundated by mighty rivers, quaking beneath the level of the ocean, +belted about by hirsute forests, this low land, nether land, hollow land, +or Holland, seemed hardly deserving the arms of the all-accomplished +Roman. Yet foreign tyranny, from the earliest ages, has coveted this +meagre territory as lustfully as it has sought to wrest from their native +possessors those lands with the fatal gift of beauty for their dower; +while the genius of liberty has inspired as noble a resistance to +oppression here as it ever aroused in Grecian or Italian breasts. + + + +II. + +It can never be satisfactorily ascertained who were the aboriginal +inhabitants. The record does not reach beyond Caesar's epoch, and he +found the territory on the left of the Rhine mainly tenanted by tribes of +the Celtic family. That large division of the Indo-European group which +had already overspread many portions of Asia Minor, Greece, Germany, the +British Islands, France, and Spain, had been long settled in Belgic Gaul, +and constituted the bulk of its population. Checked in its westward +movement by the Atlantic, its current began to flow backwards towards its +fountains, so that the Gallic portion of the Netherland population was +derived from the original race in its earlier wanderings and from the +later and refluent tide coming out of Celtic Gaul. The modern +appellation of the Walloons points to the affinity of their ancestors +with the Gallic, Welsh, and Gaelic family. The Belgae were in many +respects a superior race to most of their blood-allies. They were, +according to Caesar's testimony, the bravest of all the Celts. This may +be in part attributed to the presence of several German tribes, who, at +this period had already forced their way across the Rhine, mingled their +qualities with the Belgic material, and lent an additional mettle to the +Celtic blood. The heart of the country was thus inhabited by a Gallic +race, but the frontiers had been taken possession of by Teutonic tribes. + +When the Cimbri and their associates, about a century before our era, +made their memorable onslaught upon Rome, the early inhabitants of the +Rhine island of Batavia, who were probably Celts, joined in the +expedition. A recent and tremendous inundation had swept away their +miserable homes, and even the trees of the forests, and had thus rendered +them still more dissatisfied with their gloomy abodes. The island was +deserted of its population. At about the same period a civil dissension +among the Chatti--a powerful German race within the Hercynian forest-- +resulted in the expatriation of a portion of the people. The exiles +sought a new home in the empty Rhine island, called it "Bet-auw," or +"good-meadow," and were themselves called, thenceforward, Batavi, or +Batavians. + +These Batavians, according to Tacitus, were the bravest of all the +Germans. The Chatti, of whom they formed a portion, were a pre-eminently +warlike race. "Others go to battle," says the historian, "these go to +war." Their bodies were more hardy, their minds more vigorous, than +those of other tribes. Their young men cut neither hair nor beard till +they had slain an enemy. On the field of battle, in the midst of carnage +and plunder, they, for the first time, bared their faces. The cowardly +and sluggish, only, remained unshorn. They wore an iron ring, too, or +shackle upon their necks until they had performed the same achievement, +a symbol which they then threw away, as the emblem of sloth. The +Batavians were ever spoken of by the Romans with entire respect. They +conquered the Belgians, they forced the free Frisians to pay tribute, but +they called the Batavians their friends. The tax-gatherer never invaded +their island. Honorable alliance united them with the Romans. It was, +however, the alliance of the giant and the dwarf. The Roman gained glory +and empire, the Batavian gained nothing but the hardest blows. The +Batavian cavalry became famous throughout the Republic and the Empire. +They were the favorite troops of Caesar, and with reason, for it was +their valor which turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. From the death +of Julius down to the times of Vespasian, the Batavian legion was the +imperial body guard, the Batavian island the basis of operations in the +Roman wars with Gaul, Germany, and Britain. + +Beyond the Batavians, upon the north, dwelt the great Frisian family, +occupying the regions between the Rhine and Ems, The Zuyder Zee and the +Dollart, both caused by the terrific inundations of the thirteenth +century and not existing at this period, did not then interpose +boundaries between kindred tribes. All formed a homogeneous nation of +pure German origin. + +Thus, the population of the country was partly Celtic, partly German. +Of these two elements, dissimilar in their tendencies and always +difficult to blend, the Netherland people has ever been compounded. +A certain fatality of history has perpetually helped to separate still +more widely these constituents, instead of detecting and stimulating the +elective affinities which existed. Religion, too, upon all great +historical occasions, has acted as the most powerful of dissolvents. +Otherwise, had so many valuable and contrasted characteristics been early +fused into a whole, it would be difficult to show a race more richly +endowed by Nature for dominion and progress than the Belgo-Germanic +people. + +Physically the two races resembled each other. Both were of vast +stature. The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of +pigmies. The German excited astonishment by his huge body and muscular +limbs. Both were fair, with fierce blue eyes, but the Celt had yellow +hair floating over his shoulders, and the German long locks of fiery red, +which he even dyed with woad to heighten the favorite color, and wore +twisted into a war-knot upon the top of his head. Here the German's love +of finery ceased. A simple tunic fastened at his throat with a thorn, +while his other garments defined and gave full play to his limbs, +completed his costume. The Gaul, on the contrary, was so fond of dress +that the Romans divided his race respectively into long-haired, breeched, +and gowned Gaul; (Gallia comata, braccata, togata). He was fond of +brilliant and parti-colored clothes, a taste which survives in the +Highlander's costume. He covered his neck and arms with golden chains. +The simple and ferocious German wore no decoration save his iron ring, +from which his first homicide relieved him. The Gaul was irascible, +furious in his wrath, but less formidable in a sustained conflict with a +powerful foe. "All the Gauls are of very high stature," says a soldier +who fought under Julian. (Amm. Marcel. xv. 12. 1). "They are white, +golden-haired, terrible in the fierceness of their eyes, greedy of +quarrels, bragging and insolent. A band of strangers could not resist +one of them in a brawl, assisted by his strong blue-eyed wife, especially +when she begins, gnashing her teeth, her neck swollen, brandishing her +vast and snowy arms, and kicking with her heels at the same time, to +deliver her fisticuffs, like bolts from the twisted strings of a +catapult. The voices of many are threatening and formidable. They are +quick to anger, but quickly appeased. All are clean in their persons; +nor among them is ever seen any man or woman, as elsewhere, squalid in +ragged garments. At all ages they are apt for military service. The old +man goes forth to the fight with equal strength of breast, with limbs as +hardened by cold and assiduous labor, and as contemptuous of all dangers, +as the young. Not one of them, as in Italy is often the case, was ever +known to cut off his thumbs to avoid the service of Mars." + +The polity of each race differed widely from that of the other. The +government of both may be said to have been republican, but the Gallic +tribes were aristocracies, in which the influence of clanship was a +predominant feature; while the German system, although nominally regal, +was in reality democratic. In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the +priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves. The knights +or nobles were all trained to arms. Each went forth to battle, followed +by his dependents, while a chief of all the clans was appointed to take +command during the war. The prince or chief governor was elected +annually, but only by the nobles. The people had no rights at all, and +were glad to assign themselves as slaves to any noble who was strong +enough to protect them. In peace the Druids exercised the main functions +of government. They decided all controversies, civil and criminal. To +rebel against their decrees was punished by exclusion from the +sacrifices--a most terrible excommunication, through which the criminal +was cut off from all intercourse with his fellow-creatures. + +With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the +people. There were slaves, indeed, but in small number, consisting +either of prisoners of war or of those unfortunates who had gambled away +their liberty in games of chance. Their chieftains, although called by +the Romans princes and kings, were, in reality, generals, chosen by +universal suffrage. Elected in the great assembly to preside in war, +they were raised on the shoulders of martial freemen, amid wild battle +cries and the clash of spear and shield. The army consisted entirely of +volunteers, and the soldier was for life infamous who deserted the field +while his chief remained alive. The same great assembly elected the +village magistrates and decided upon all important matters both of peace +and war. At the full of the moon it was usually convoked. The nobles +and the popular delegates arrived at irregular intervals, for it was an +inconvenience arising from their liberty, that two or three days were +often lost in waiting for the delinquents. All state affairs were in the +hands of this fierce democracy. The elected chieftains had rather +authority to persuade than power to command. + +The Gauls were an agricultural people. They were not without many arts +of life. They had extensive flocks and herds; and they even exported +salted provisions as far as Rome. The truculent German, Ger-mane, +Heer-mann, War-man, considered carnage the only useful occupation, +and despised agriculture as enervating and ignoble. It was base, in his +opinion, to gain by sweat what was more easily acquired by blood. The +land was divided annually by the magistrates, certain farms being +assigned to certain families, who were forced to leave them at the +expiration of the year. They cultivated as a common property the lands +allotted by the magistrates, but it was easier to summon them to the +battle-field than to the plough. Thus they were more fitted for the +roaming and conquering life which Providence was to assign to them for +ages, than if they had become more prone to root themselves in the soil. +The Gauls built towns and villages. The German built his solitary hut +where inclination prompted. Close neighborhood was not to his taste. + +In their system of religion the two races were most widely contrasted. +The Gauls were a priest-ridden race. Their Druids were a dominant caste, +presiding even over civil affairs, while in religious matters their +authority was despotic. What were the principles of their wild Theology +will never be thoroughly ascertained, but we know too much of its +sanguinary rites. The imagination shudders to penetrate those shaggy +forests, ringing with the death-shrieks of ten thousand human victims, +and with the hideous hymns chanted by smoke-and-blood-stained priests to +the savage gods whom they served. + +The German, in his simplicity, had raised himself to a purer belief than +that of the sensuous Roman or the superstitious Gaul. He believed in a +single, supreme, almighty God, All-Vater or All-father. This Divinity +was too sublime to be incarnated or imaged, too infinite to be enclosed +in temples built with hands. Such is the Roman's testimony to the lofty +conception of the German. Certain forests were consecrated to the unseen +God whom the eye of reverent faith could alone behold. Thither, at +stated times, the people repaired to worship. They entered the sacred +grove with feet bound together, in token of submission. Those who fell +were forbidden to rise, but dragged themselves backwards on the ground. +Their rules were few and simple. They had no caste of priests, nor were +they, when first known to the Romans, accustomed to offer sacrifice. It +must be confessed that in a later age, a single victim, a criminal or a +prisoner, was occasionally immolated. The purity of their religion was +soon stained by their Celtic neighborhood. In the course of the Roman +dominion it became contaminated, and at last profoundly depraved. The +fantastic intermixture of Roman mythology with the gloomy but modified +superstition of Romanized Celts was not favorable to the simple character +of German theology. The entire extirpation, thus brought about, of any +conceivable system of religion, prepared the way for a true revelation. +Within that little river territory, amid those obscure morasses of the +Rhine and Scheld, three great forms of religion--the sanguinary +superstition of the Druid, the sensuous polytheism of the Roman, the +elevated but dimly groping creed of the German, stood for centuries, face +to face, until, having mutually debased and destroyed each other, they +all faded away in the pure light of Christianity. + +Thus contrasted were Gaul and German in religious and political systems. +The difference was no less remarkable in their social characteristics. +The Gaul was singularly unchaste. The marriage state was almost unknown. +Many tribes lived in most revolting and incestuous concubinage; brethren, +parents, and children, having wives in common. The German was loyal as +the Celt was dissolute. Alone among barbarians, he contented himself +with a single wife, save that a few dignitaries, from motives of policy, +were permitted a larger number. On the marriage day the German offered +presents to his bride--not the bracelets and golden necklaces with which +the Gaul adorned his fair-haired concubine, but oxen and a bridled horse, +a sword, a shield, and a spear-symbols that thenceforward she was to +share his labors and to become a portion of himself. + +They differed, too, in the honors paid to the dead. The funerals of the +Gauls were pompous. Both burned the corpse, but the Celt cast into the +flames the favorite animals, and even the most cherished slaves and +dependents of the master. Vast monuments of stone or piles of earth were +raised above the ashes of the dead. Scattered relics of the Celtic age +are yet visible throughout Europe, in these huge but unsightly memorials, + +The German was not ambitious at the grave. He threw neither garments nor +odors upon the funeral pyre, but the arms and the war-horse of the +departed were burned and buried with him. + +The turf was his only sepulchre, the memory of his valor his only +monument. Even tears were forbidden to the men. "It was esteemed +honorable," says the historian, "for women to lament, for men to +remember." + +The parallel need be pursued no further. Thus much it was necessary to +recall to the historical student concerning the prominent characteristics +by which the two great races of the land were distinguished: +characteristics which Time has rather hardened than effaced. In the +contrast and the separation lies the key to much of their history. Had +Providence permitted a fusion of the two races, it is, possible, from +their position, and from the geographical and historical link which they +would have afforded to the dominant tribes of Europe, that a world-empire +might have been the result, different in many respects from any which has +ever arisen. Speculations upon what might have been are idle. It is +well, however; to ponder the many misfortunes resulting from a mutual +repulsion, which, under other circumstances and in other spheres, has +been exchanged for mutual attraction and support. + +It is now necessary to sketch rapidly the political transformations +undergone by the country, from the early period down to the middle of the +sixteenth century; the epoch when the long agony commenced, out of which +the Batavian republic was born. + + + +III. + +The earliest chapter in the history of the Netherlands was written by +their conqueror. Celtic Gaul is already in the power of Rome; the Belgic +tribes, alarmed at the approaching danger, arm against the universal, +tyrant. Inflammable, quick to strike, but too fickle to prevail against +so powerful a foe, they hastily form a league of almost every clan. At +the first blow of Caesar's sword, the frail confederacy falls asunder +like a rope of sand. The tribes scatter in all directions. + +Nearly all are soon defeated, and sue for mercy. The Nervii, true to the +German blood in their, veins, swear to die rather than surrender. They, +at least, are worthy of their cause. Caesar advances against them at the +head of eight legions. Drawn up on the banks of the Sambre, they await +the Roman's approach. In three days' march Caesar comes up with them, +pitches his camp upon a steep hill sloping down to the river, and sends +some cavalry across. Hardly have the Roman horsemen crossed the stream, +than the Nervii rush from the wooded hill-top, overthrow horse and rider, +plunge in one great mass into the current, and, directly afterwards, are +seen charging up the hill into the midst of the enemy's force. "At the +same moment," says the conqueror, "they seemed in the wood, in the river, +and within our lines." There is a panic among the Romans, but it is +brief. Eight veteran Roman legions, with the world's victor at their +head, are too much for the brave but undisciplined Nervii. Snatching a +shield from a soldier, and otherwise unarmed, Caesar throws himself into +the hottest of the fight. The battle rages foot to foot and hand to hand +but the hero's skill, with the cool valor of his troops, proves +invincible as ever. The Nervii, true to their vow, die, but not a man +surrenders. They fought upon that day till the ground was heaped with +their dead, while, as the foremost fell thick and fast, their comrades, +says the Roman, sprang upon their piled-up bodies, and hurled their +javelins at the enemy as from a hill. They fought like men to whom life +without liberty was a curse. They were not defeated, but exterminated. +Of many thousand fighting men went home but five hundred. Upon reaching +the place of refuge where they had bestowed their women and children, +Caesar found, after the battle, that there were but three of their +senators left alive. So perished the Nervii. Caesar commanded his +legions to treat with respect the little remnant of the tribe which had +just fallen to swell the empty echo of his glory, and then, with hardly a +breathing pause, he proceeded to annihilate the Aduatici, the Menapii, +and the Morini. + +Gaul being thus pacified, as, with sublime irony, he expresses himself +concerning a country some of whose tribes had been annihilated, some sold +as slaves, and others hunted to their lairs like beasts of prey, the +conqueror departed for Italy. Legations for peace from many German races +to Rome were the consequence of these great achievements. Among others +the Batavians formed an alliance with the masters of the world. Their +position was always an honorable one. They were justly proud of paying +no tribute, but it was, perhaps, because they had nothing to pay. They +had few cattle, they could give no hides and horns like the Frisians, and +they were therefore allowed to furnish only their blood. From this time +forth their cavalry, which was the best of Germany, became renowned in +the Roman army upon every battle-field of Europe. + +It is melancholy, at a later moment, to find the brave Batavians +distinguished in the memorable expedition of Germanicus to crush the +liberties of their German kindred. They are forever associated with the +sublime but misty image of the great Hermann, the hero, educated in Rome, +and aware of the colossal power of the empire, who yet, by his genius, +valor, and political adroitness, preserved for Germany her nationality, +her purer religion, and perhaps even that noble language which her late- +flowering literature has rendered so illustrious--but they are associated +as enemies, not as friends. + +Galba, succeeding to the purple upon the suicide of Nero, dismissed the +Batavian life-guards to whom he owed his elevation. He is murdered, Otho +and Vitellius contend for the succession, while all eyes are turned upon +the eight Batavian regiments. In their hands the scales of empire seem +to rest. They declare for Vitellius, and the civil war begins. Otho is +defeated; Vitellius acknowledged by Senate and people. Fearing, like his +predecessors, the imperious turbulence of the Batavian legions, he, too, +sends them into Germany. It was the signal for a long and extensive +revolt, which had well nigh overturned the Roman power in Gaul and Lower +Germany. + + + +IV. + +Claudius Civilis was a Batavian of noble race, who had served twenty-five +years in the Roman armies. His Teutonic name has perished, for, like +most savages who become denizens of a civilized state, he had assumed an +appellation in the tongue of his superiors. He was a soldier of fortune, +and had fought wherever the Roman eagles flew. After a quarter of a +century's service he was sent in chains to Rome, and his brother +executed, both falsely charged with conspiracy. Such were the triumphs +adjudged to Batavian auxiliaries. He escaped with life, and was disposed +to consecrate what remained of it to a nobler cause. Civilis was no +barbarian. Like the German hero Arminius, he had received a Roman +education, and had learned the degraded condition of Rome. He knew the +infamous vices of her rulers; he retained an unconquerable love for +liberty and for his own race. Desire to avenge his own wrongs was +mingled with loftier motives in his breast. He knew that the sceptre was +in the gift of the Batavian soldiery. Galba had been murdered, Otho had +destroyed himself, and Vitellius, whose weekly gluttony cost the empire +more gold than would have fed the whole Batavian population and converted +their whole island-morass into fertile pastures, was contending for the +purple with Vespasian, once an obscure adventurer like Civilis himself, +and even his friend and companion in arms. It seemed a time to strike a +blow for freedom. + +By his courage, eloquence, and talent for political combinations, +Civilis effected a general confederation of all the Netherland tribes, +both Celtic and German. For a brief moment there was a united people, a +Batavian commonwealth. He found another source of strength in German +superstition. On the banks of the Lippe, near its confluence with the +Rhine, dwelt the Virgin Velleda, a Bructerian weird woman, who exercised +vast influence over the warriors of her nation. Dwelling alone in a +lofty tower, shrouded in a wild forest, she was revered as an oracle. +Her answers to the demands of her worshippers concerning future events +were delivered only to a chosen few. To Civilis, who had formed a close +friendship with her, she promised success, and the downfall of the Roman +world. Inspired by her prophecies, many tribes of Germany sent large +subsidies to the Batavian chief. + +The details of the revolt have been carefully preserved by Tacitus, and +form one of his grandest and most elaborate pictures. The spectacle of a +brave nation, inspired by the soul of one great man and rising against an +overwhelming despotism, will always speak to the heart, from generation +to generation. The battles, the sieges, the defeats, the indomitable +spirit of Civilis, still flaming most brightly when the clouds were +darkest around him, have been described by the great historian in his +most powerful manner. The high-born Roman has thought the noble +barbarian's portrait a subject worthy his genius. + +The struggle was an unsuccessful one. After many victories and many +overthrows, Civilis was left alone. The Gallic tribes fell off, and sued +for peace. Vespasian, victorious over Vitellius, proved too powerful for +his old comrade. Even the Batavians became weary of the hopeless +contest, while fortune, after much capricious hovering, settled at last +upon the Roman side. The imperial commander Cerialis seized the moment +when the cause of the Batavian hero was most desperate to send emissaries +among his tribe, and even to tamper with the mysterious woman whose +prophecies had so inflamed his imagination. These intrigues had their +effect. The fidelity of the people was sapped; the prophetess fell away +from her worshipper, and foretold ruin to his cause. The Batavians +murmured that their destruction was inevitable, that one nation could not +arrest the slavery which was destined for the whole world. How large a +part of the human race were the Batavians? What were they in a contest +with the whole Roman empire? Moreover, they were not oppressed with +tribute. They were only expected to furnish men and valor to their proud +allies. It was the next thing to liberty. If they were to have rulers, +it was better to serve a Roman emperor than a German witch. + +Thus murmured the people. Had Civilis been successful, he would have +been deified; but his misfortunes, at last, made him odious in spite of +his heroism. But the Batavian was not a man to be crushed, nor had he +lived so long in the Roman service to be outmatched in politics by the +barbarous Germans. He was not to be sacrificed as a peace-offering to +revengeful Rome. Watching from beyond the Rhine the progress of +defection and the decay of national enthusiasm, he determined to be +beforehand with those who were now his enemies. He accepted the offer of +negotiation from Cerialis. The Roman general was eager to grant a full +pardon, and to re-enlist so brave a soldier in the service of the empire. + +A colloquy was agreed upon. The bridge across the Nabalia was broken +asunder in the middle, and Cerialis and Civilis met upon the severed +sides. The placid stream by which Roman enterprise had connected the +waters of the Rhine with the lake of Flevo, flowed between the imperial +commander and the rebel chieftain. + + *********************************************** + +Here the story abruptly terminates. The remainder of the Roman's +narrative is lost, and upon that broken bridge the form of the Batavian +hero disappears forever. His name fades from history: not a syllable is +known of his subsequent career; every thing is buried in the profound +oblivion which now steals over the scene where he was the most imposing +actor. + +The soul of Civilis had proved insufficient to animate a whole people; +yet it was rather owing to position than to any personal inferiority, +that his name did not become as illustrious as that of Hermann. The +German patriot was neither braver nor wiser than the Batavian, but he +had the infinite forests of his fatherland to protect him. Every legion +which plunged into those unfathomable depths was forced to retreat +disastrously, or to perish miserably. Civilis was hemmed in by the +ocean; his country, long the basis of Roman military operations, was +accessible by river and canal, The patriotic spirit which he had for a +moment raised, had abandoned him; his allies had deserted him; he stood +alone and at bay, encompassed by the hunters, with death or surrender as +his only alternative. Under such circumstances, Hermann could not have +shown more courage or conduct, nor have terminated the impossible +struggle with greater dignity or adroitness. + +The contest of Civilis with Rome contains a remarkable foreshadowing of +the future conflict with Spain, through which the Batavian republic, +fifteen centuries later, was to be founded. The characters, the events, +the amphibious battles, desperate sieges, slippery alliances, the traits +of generosity, audacity and cruelty, the generous confidence, the broken +faith seem so closely to repeat themselves, that History appears to +present the self-same drama played over and over again, with but a change +of actors and of costume. There is more than a fanciful resemblance +between Civilis and William the Silent, two heroes of ancient German +stock, who had learned the arts of war and peace in the service of a +foreign and haughty world-empire. Determination, concentration of +purpose, constancy in calamity, elasticity almost preternatural, self- +denial, consummate craft in political combinations, personal fortitude, +and passionate patriotism, were the heroic elements in both. The +ambition of each was subordinate to the cause which he served. Both +refused the crown, although each, perhaps, contemplated, in the sequel, +a Batavian realm of which he would have been the inevitable chief. +Both offered the throne to a Gallic prince, for Classicus was but the +prototype of Anjou, as Brinno of Brederode, and neither was destined, +in this world, to see his sacrifices crowned with success. + +The characteristics of the two great races of the land portrayed +themselves in the Roman and the Spanish struggle with much the same +colors. The Southrons, inflammable, petulant, audacious, were the first +to assault and to defy the imperial power in both revolts, while the +inhabitants of the northern provinces, slower to be aroused, but of more +enduring wrath, were less ardent at the commencement, but; alone, +steadfast at the close of the contest. In both wars the southern Celts +fell away from the league, their courageous but corrupt chieftains having +been purchased with imperial gold to bring about the abject submission of +their followers; while the German Netherlands, although eventually +subjugated by Rome, after a desperate struggle, were successful in the +great conflict with Spain, and trampled out of existence every vestige +of her authority. The Batavian republic took its rank among the leading +powers of the earth; the Belgic provinces remained Roman, Spanish, +Austrian property. + + + +V. + +Obscure but important movements in the regions of eternal twilight, +revolutions, of which history has been silent, in the mysterious depths +of Asia, outpourings of human rivets along the sides of the Altai +mountains, convulsions up-heaving r mote realms and unknown dynasties, +shock after shock throb bing throughout the barbarian world and dying +upon the edge of civilization, vast throes which shake the earth as +precursory pangs to the birth of a new empire--as dying symptoms of the +proud but effete realm which called itself the world; scattered hordes of +sanguinary, grotesque savages pushed from their own homes, and hovering +with vague purposes upon the Roman frontier, constantly repelled and +perpetually reappearing in ever-increasing swarms, guided thither by a +fierce instinct, or by mysterious laws--such are the well known phenomena +which preceded the fall of western Rome. Stately, externally powerful, +although undermined and putrescent at the core, the death-stricken empire +still dashed back the assaults of its barbarous enemies. + +During the long struggle intervening between the age of Vespasian and +that of Odoacer, during all the preliminary ethnographical revolutions +which preceded the great people's wandering, the Netherlands remained +subject provinces. Their country was upon the high road which led the +Goths to Rome. Those low and barren tracts were the outlying marches of +the empire. Upon that desolate beach broke the first surf from the +rising ocean of German freedom which was soon to overwhelm Rome. Yet, +although the ancient landmarks were soon well nigh obliterated, the +Netherlands still remained faithful to the Empire, Batavian blood was +still poured out for its defence. + +By the middle of the fourth century, the Franks and Allemanians, alle- +mannez, all-men, a mass of united Germans are defeated by the Emperor +Julian at Strasburg, the Batavian cavalry, as upon many other great +occasions, saving the day for despotism. This achievement, one of the +last in which the name appears upon historic record, was therefore as +triumphant for the valor as it was humiliating to the true fame of the +nation. Their individuality soon afterwards disappears, the race having +been partly exhausted in the Roman service, partly merged in the Frank +and Frisian tribes who occupy the domains of their forefathers. + +For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the +swarming nations are now in full career. The Netherlands are +successively or simultaneously trampled by Franks, Vandals, Alani, Suevi, +Saxons, Frisians, and even Sclavonians, as the great march of Germany to +universal empire, which her prophets and bards had foretold, went +majestically forward. The fountains of the frozen North were opened, +the waters prevailed, but the ark of Christianity floated upon the flood. +As the deluge assuaged, the earth had returned to chaos, the last pagan +empire had been washed out of existence, but the dimly, groping, +faltering, ignorant infancy of Christian Europe had begun. + +After the wanderings had subsided, the Netherlands are found with much +the same ethnological character as before. The Frank dominion has +succeeded the Roman, the German stock preponderates over the Celtic, but +the national ingredients, although in somewhat altered proportions, +remain essentially the same. The old Belgae, having become Romanized in +tongue and customs, accept the new Empire of the Franks. That people, +however, pushed from their hold of the Rhine by thickly thronging hordes +of Gepidi, Quadi, Sarmati, Heruli, Saxons, Burgundians, move towards the +South and West. As the Empire falls before Odoacer, they occupy Celtic +Gaul with the Belgian portion of the Netherlands; while the Frisians, +into which ancient German tribe the old Batavian element has melted, not +to be extinguished, but to live a renovated existence, the "free +Frisians;" whose name is synonymous with liberty, nearest blood relations +of the Anglo-Saxon race, now occupy the northern portion, including the +whole future European territory of the Dutch republic. + +The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the +Netherlands. The Frisians struggle, for several centuries, against their +dominion, until eventually subjugated by Charlemagne. They even encroach +upon the Franks in Belgic Gaul, who are determined not to yield their +possessions. Moreover, the pious Merovingian faineans desire to plant +Christianity among the still pagan Frisians. Dagobert, son of the second +Clotaire, advances against them as far as the Weser, takes possession of +Utrecht, founds there the first Christian church in Friesland, and +establishes a nominal dominion over the whole country. + +Yet the feeble Merovingians would have been powerless against rugged +Friesland, had not their dynasty already merged in that puissant family +of Brabant, which long wielded their power before it assumed their crown. +It was Pepin of Heristal, grandson of the Netherlander, Pepin of Landen, +who conquered the Frisian Radbod (A.D. 692), and forced him to exchange +his royal for the ducal title. + +It was Pepin's bastard, Charles the Hammer, whose tremendous blows +completed his father's work. The new mayor of the palace soon drove the +Frisian chief into submission, and even into Christianity. A bishop's +indiscretion, however, neutralized the apostolic blows of the mayor. The +pagan Radbod had already immersed one of his royal legs in the baptismal +font, when a thought struck him. "Where are my dead forefathers at +present?" he said, turning suddenly upon Bishop Wolfran. "In Hell, with +all other unbelievers," was the imprudent answer. "Mighty well," replied +Radbod, removing his leg, "then will I rather feast with my ancestors in +the halls of Woden, than dwell with your little starveling hand of +Christians in Heaven." Entreaties and threats were unavailing. The +Frisian declined positively a rite which was to cause an eternal +separation from his buried kindred, and he died as he had lived, a +heathen. His son, Poppa, succeeding to the nominal sovereignty, did not +actively oppose the introduction of Christianity among his people, but +himself refused to be converted. Rebelling against the Frank dominion, +he was totally routed by Charles Martell in a great battle (A.D.750) and +perished with a vast number of Frisians. The Christian dispensation, +thus enforced, was now accepted by these northern pagans. The +commencement of their conversion had been mainly the work of their +brethren from Britain. The monk Wilfred was followed in a few years by +the Anglo-Saxon Willibrod. It was he who destroyed the images of Woden +in Walcheren, abolished his worship, and founded churches in North +Holland. Charles Martell rewarded him. with extensive domains about +Utrecht, together with many slaves and other chattels. Soon afterwards +he was consecrated Bishop of all the Frisians. Thus rose the famous +episcopate of Utrecht. Another Anglo-Saxon, Winfred, or Bonifacius, had +been equally active among his Frisian cousins. His crozier had gone hand +in hand with the battle-axe. Bonifacius followed close upon the track of +his orthodox coadjutor Charles. By the middle of the eighth century, +some hundred thousand Frisians had been slaughtered, and as many more +converted. The hammer which smote the Saracens at Tours was at last +successful in beating the Netherlanders into Christianity. The labors of +Bonifacius through Upper and Lower Germany were immense; but he, too, +received great material rewards. He was created Archbishop of Mayence, +and, upon the death of Willibrod, Bishop of Utrecht. Faithful to his +mission, however, he met, heroically, a martyr's death at the hands of +the refractory pagans at Dokkum. Thus was Christianity established in +the Netherlands. + +Under Charlemagne, the Frisians often rebelled, making common cause with +the Saxons. In 785, A.D., they were, however, completely subjugated, and +never rose again until the epoch of their entire separation from the +Frank empire. Charlemagne left them their name of free Frisians, and the +property in their own land. The feudal system never took root in their +soil. "The Frisians," says their statute book; "shall be free, as long +as the wind blows out of the clouds and the world stands." They agreed, +however, to obey the chiefs whom the Frank monarch should appoint to +govern them, according to their own laws. Those laws were collected, and +are still extant. The vernacular version of their Asega book contains +their ancient customs, together with the Frank additions. The general +statutes of Charlemagne were, of course, in vigor also; but that great +legislator knew too well the importance attached by all mankind to local +customs, to allow his imperial capitulara to interfere, unnecessarily, +with the Frisian laws. + +Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome, +were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united, +in their slavery to Rome. Eight centuries pass away, and they are again +united, in subjection to Charlemagne. Their union was but in forming a +single link in the chain of a new realm. The reign of Charlemagne had at +last accomplished the promise of the sorceress Velleda and other +soothsayers. A German race had re-established the empire of the world. +The Netherlands, like-the other provinces of the great monarch's +dominion, were governed by crown-appointed functionaries, military and +judicial. In the northeastern, or Frisian portion, however; the grants +of land were never in the form of revocable benefices or feuds. With +this important exception, the whole country shared the fate, and enjoyed +the general organization of the Empire. + +But Charlemagne came an age too soon. The chaos which had brooded over +Europe since the dissolution of the Roman world, was still too absolute. +It was not to be fashioned into permanent forms, even by his bold and +constructive genius. A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Pagan +empires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period. The discordant +elements out of which the Emperor had compounded his realm, did not +coalesce during his life-time. They were only held together by the +vigorous grasp of the hand which had combined them. When the great +statesman died, his Empire necessarily fell to pieces. Society had need +of farther disintegration before it could begin to reconstruct itself +locally. A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind. +When did one man ever civilize a people? In the eighth and ninth +centuries there was not even a people to be civilized. The construction +of Charles was, of necessity, temporary. His Empire was supported by +artificial columns, resting upon the earth, which fell prostrate almost +as soon as the hand of their architect was cold. His institutions had +not struck down into the soil. There were no extensive and vigorous +roots to nourish, from below, a flourishing Empire through time and +tempest. + +Moreover, the Carlovingian race had been exhausted by producing a race +of heroes like the Pepins and the Charleses. The family became, soon, +as contemptible as the ox-drawn, long-haired "do-nothings" whom it had +expelled; but it is not our task to describe the fortunes of the +Emperor's ignoble descendants. The realm was divided, sub-divided, at +times partially reunited, like a family farm, among monarchs incompetent +alike to hold, to delegate, or--to resign the inheritance of the great +warrior and lawgiver. The meek, bald, fat, stammering, simple Charles, +or Louis, who successively sat upon his throne--princes, whose only +historic individuality consists in these insipid appellations--had not +the sense to comprehend, far less to develop, the plans of their +ancestor. + +Charles the Simple was the last Carlovingian who governed Lotharingia, +in which were comprised most of the Netherlands and Friesland. The +German monarch, Henry the Fowler, at that period called King of the East +Franks, as Charles of the West Franks, acquired Lotharingia by the treaty +of Bonn, Charles reserving the sovereignty over the kingdom during his +lifetime. In 925, A.D., however, the Simpleton having been imprisoned +and deposed by his own subjects, the Fowler was recognized King, of +Lotharingia. Thus the Netherlands passed out of France into Germany, +remaining, still, provinces of a loose, disjointed Empire. + +This is the epoch in which the various dukedoms, earldoms, and other +petty sovereignties of the Netherlands became hereditary. It was in the +year 922 that Charles the Simple presented to Count Dirk the territory of +Holland, by letters patent. This narrow hook of land, destined, in +future ages, to be the cradle of a considerable empire, stretching +through both hemispheres, was, thenceforth, the inheritance of Dirk's +descendants. Historically, therefore, he is Dirk I., Count of Holland. + +Of this small sovereign and his successors, the most powerful foe for +centuries was ever the Bishop of Utrecht, the origin of whose greatness +has been already indicated. Of the other Netherland provinces, now or +before become hereditary, the first in rank was Lotharingia, once the +kingdom of Lothaire, now the dukedom of Lorraine. In 965 it was divided +into Upper and Lower Lorraine, of which the lower duchy alone belonged to +the Netherlands. Two centuries later, the Counts of Louvain, then +occupying most of Brabant, obtained a permanent hold of Lower Lorraine, +and began to call themselves Dukes of Brabant. The same principle of +local independence and isolation which created these dukes, established +the hereditary power of the counts and barons who formerly exercised +jurisdiction under them and others. Thus arose sovereign Counts of +Namur, Hainault, Limburg, Zutphen, Dukes of Luxemburg and Gueldres, +Barons of Mechlin, Marquesses of Antwerp, and others; all petty +autocrats. The most important of all, after the house of Lorraine, +were the Earls of Flanders; for the bold foresters of Charles the Great +had soon wrested the sovereignty of their little territory from his +feeble descendants as easily as Baldwin, with the iron arm, had deprived +the bald Charles of his daughter. Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overyssel, +Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland (all seven being portions of Friesland +in a general sense), were crowded together upon a little desolate corner +of Europe; an obscure fragment of Charlemagne's broken empire. They were +afterwards to constitute the United States of the Netherlands, one of the +most powerful republics of history. Meantime, for century after century, +the Counts of Holland and the Bishops of Utrecht were to exercise divided +sway over the territory. + +Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of +sovereignty. The separate history of such half-organized morsels is +tedious and petty. Trifling dynasties, where a family or two were every +thing, the people nothing, leave little worth recording. Even the most +devout of genealogists might shudder to chronicle the long succession of +so many illustrious obscure. + +A glance, however, at the general features of the governmental system now +established in the Netherlands, at this important epoch in the world's +history, will show the transformations which the country, in common with +other portions of the western world, had undergone. + +In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded +away. An entirely new polity has succeeded. No great popular assembly +asserts its sovereignty, as in the ancient German epoch; no generals and +temporary kings are chosen by the nation. The elective power had been +lost under the Romans, who, after conquest, had conferred the +administrative authority over their subject provinces upon officials +appointed by the metropolis. The Franks pursued the same course. +In Charlemagne's time, the revolution is complete. Popular assemblies +and popular election entirely vanish. Military, civil, and judicial +officers-dukes, earls, margraves, and others--are all king's creatures, +'knegton des konings, pueri regis', and so remain, till they abjure the +creative power, and set up their own. The principle of Charlemagne, +that his officers should govern according to local custom, helps them +to achieve their own independence, while it preserves all that is left +of national liberty and law. + +The counts, assisted by inferior judges, hold diets from time to time-- +thrice, perhaps, annually. They also summon assemblies in case of war. +Thither are called the great vassals, who, in turn, call their lesser +vassals; each armed with "a shield, a spear, a bow, twelve arrows, and a +cuirass." Such assemblies, convoked in the name of a distant sovereign, +whose face his subjects had never seen, whose language they could hardly +understand, were very different from those tumultuous mass-meetings, +where boisterous freemen, armed with the weapons they loved the best, +and arriving sooner or later, according to their pleasure, had been +accustomed to elect their generals and magistrates and to raise them upon +their shields. The people are now governed, their rulers appointed by an +invisible hand. Edicts, issued by a power, as it were, supernatural, +demand implicit obedience. The people, acquiescing in their own +annihilation, abdicate not only their political but their personal +rights. On the other hand, the great source of power diffuses less and +less of light and warmth. Losing its attractive and controlling +influence, it becomes gradually eclipsed, while its satellites fly from +their prescribed bounds and chaos and darkness return. The sceptre, +stretched over realms so wide, requires stronger hands than those of +degenerate Carlovingians. It breaks asunder. Functionaries become +sovereigns, with hereditary, not delegated, right to own the people, to +tax their roads and rivers, to take tithings of their blood and sweat, to +harass them in all the relations of life. There is no longer a +metropolis to protect them from official oppression. Power, the more +sub-divided, becomes the more tyrannical. The sword is the only symbol +of law, the cross is a weapon of offence, the bishop is a consecrated +pirate, every petty baron a burglar, while the people, alternately the +prey of duke, prelate, and seignor, shorn and butchered like sheep, +esteem it happiness to sell themselves into slavery, or to huddle beneath +the castle walls of some little potentate, for the sake of his wolfish +protection. Here they build hovels, which they surround from time to +time with palisades and muddy entrenchments; and here, in these squalid +abodes of ignorance and misery, the genius of Liberty, conducted by the +spirit of Commerce, descends at last to awaken mankind from its sloth and +cowardly stupor. A longer night was to intervene; however, before the +dawn of day. + +The crown-appointed functionaries had been, of course, financial +officers. They collected the revenue of the sovereign, one third of +which slipped through their fingers into their own coffers. Becoming +sovereigns themselves, they retain these funds for their private +emolument. Four principal sources yielded this revenue: royal domains, +tolls and imposts, direct levies and a pleasantry called voluntary +contributions or benevolences. In addition to these supplies were also +the proceeds of fines. Taxation upon sin was, in those rude ages, a +considerable branch of the revenue. The old Frisian laws consisted +almost entirely of a discriminating tariff upon crimes. Nearly all the +misdeeds which man is prone to commit, were punished by a money-bote +only. Murder, larceny, arson, rape--all offences against the person +were commuted for a definite price. There were a few exceptions, +such as parricide, which was followed by loss of inheritance; sacrilege +and the murder of a master by a slave, which were punished with death. +It is a natural inference that, as the royal treasury was enriched by +these imposts, the sovereign would hardly attempt to check the annual +harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased. Still, although +the moral sense is shocked by a system which makes the ruler's interest +identical with the wickedness of his people, and holds out a comparative +immunity in evil-doing for the rich, it was better that crime should be +punished by money rather than not be punished at all. A severe tax, +which the noble reluctantly paid and which the penniless culprit commuted +by personal slavery, was sufficiently unjust as well as absurd, yet it +served to mitigate the horrors with which tumult, rapine, and murder +enveloped those early days. Gradually, as the light of reason broke upon +the dark ages, the most noxious features of the system were removed, +while the general sentiment of reverence for law remained. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A country disinherited by nature of its rights +A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences +Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased +Batavian legion was the imperial body guard +Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity +Bishop is a consecrated pirate +Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common +For women to lament, for men to remember +Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies +Great science of political equilibrium +Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain +Long succession of so many illustrious obscure +Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war +Revocable benefices or feuds +Taxation upon sin +The Gaul was singularly unchaste + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, INTRO. 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