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diff --git a/4837.txt b/4837.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d24eb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/4837.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2511 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of the United Netherlands, 1584 +#37 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: History of the United Netherlands, 1584 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4837] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1584 *** + + + +This eBook 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.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 37 + +History of The United Netherlands, 1584 + +PREFACE. + +The indulgence with which the History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic +was received has encouraged me to prosecute my task with renewed +industry. + +A single word seems necessary to explain the somewhat increased +proportions which the present work has assumed over the original design. +The intimate connection which was formed between the Kingdom of England +and the Republic of Holland, immediately after the death of William the +Silent, rendered the history and the fate of the two commonwealths for a +season almost identical. The years of anxiety and suspense during which +the great Spanish project for subjugating England and reconquering the +Netherlands, by the same invasion, was slowly matured, were of deepest +import for the future destiny of those two countries, and for the cause +of national liberty. The deep-laid conspiracy of Spain and Rome against +human rights deserves to be patiently examined, for it is one of the +great lessons of history. The crisis was long and doubtful, and the +health--perhaps the existence--of England and Holland, and, with them, of +a great part of Christendom, was on the issue. + +History has few so fruitful examples of the dangers which come from +superstition and despotism, and the blessings which flow from the +maintenance of religious and political freedom, as those afforded by the +struggle between England and Holland on the one side, and Spain and Rome +on the other, during the epoch which I have attempted to describe. It is +for this reason that I have thought it necessary to reveal, as minutely +as possible, the secret details of this conspiracy of king and priest +against the people, and to show how it was baffled at last by the strong +self-helping energy of two free nations combined. + +The period occupied by these two volumes is therefore a short one, when +counted by years, for it begins in 1584 and ends with the commencement of +1590. When estimated by the significance of events and their results for +future ages, it will perhaps be deemed worthy of the close examination +which it has received. With the year 1588 the crisis was past; England +was safe, and the new Dutch commonwealth was thoroughly organized. It is +my design, in two additional volumes, which, with the two now published, +will complete the present work, to carry the history of the Republic down +to the Synod of Dort. After this epoch the Thirty Years' War broke out +in Germany; and it is my wish, at a future day, to retrace the history of +that eventful struggle, and to combine with it the civil and military +events in Holland, down to the epoch when the Thirty Years' War and the +Eighty Years' War of the Netherlands were both brought to a close by the +Peace of Westphalia. + +The materials for the volumes now offered to the public were so abundant +that it was almost impossible to condense them into smaller compass +without doing injustice to the subject. It was desirable to throw full +light on these prominent points of the history, while the law of +historical perspective will allow long stretches of shadow in the +succeeding portions, in which less important objects may be more slightly +indicated. That I may not be thought capable of abusing the reader's +confidence by inventing conversations, speeches, or letters, I would take +this opportunity of stating--although I have repeated the remark in the +foot-notes--that no personage in these pages is made to write or speak +any words save those which, on the best historical evidence, he is known +to have written or spoken. + +A brief allusion to my sources of information will not seem superfluous: +I have carefully studied all the leading contemporary chronicles and +pamphlets of Holland, Flanders, Spain, France, Germany, and England; but, +as the authorities are always indicated in the notes, it is unnecessary +to give a list of them here. But by far my most valuable materials are +entirely unpublished ones. + +The archives of England are especially rich for the history of the +sixteenth century; and it will be seen, in the course of the narrative, +how largely I have drawn from those mines of historical wealth, the State +Paper Office and the MS. department of the British Museum. Although both +these great national depositories are in admirable order, it is to be +regretted that they are not all embraced in one collection, as much +trouble might then be spared to the historical student, who is now +obliged to pass frequently from the one place to the other, in order to, +find different portions of the same correspondence. + +From the royal archives of Holland I have obtained many most important, +entirely unpublished documents, by the aid of which I have endeavoured to +verify, to illustrate, or sometimes to correct, the recitals of the elder +national chroniclers; and I have derived the greatest profit from the +invaluable series of Archives and Correspondence of the Orange-Nassau +Family, given to the world by M. Groen van Prinsterer. I desire to renew +to that distinguished gentleman, and to that eminent scholar M. Bakhuyzen +van den Brink, the expression of my gratitude for their constant kindness +and advice during my residence at the Hague. Nothing can exceed the +courtesy which has been extended to me in Holland, and I am deeply +grateful for the indulgence with which my efforts to illustrate the +history of the country have been received where that history is best +known. + +I have also been much aided by the study of a portion of the Archives of +Simancas, the originals of which are in the Archives de l'Empire in +Paris, and which were most liberally laid before me through the kindness +of M. le Comte de La Borde. + +I have, further; enjoyed an inestimable advantage in the perusal of the +whole correspondence between Philip II., his ministers, and governors, +relating to the affairs of the Netherlands, from the epoch at which this +work commences down to that monarch's death. Copies of this +correspondence have been carefully made from the originals at Simancas by +order of the Belgian Government, under the superintendence of the eminent +archivist M. Gachard, who has already published a synopsis or abridgment +of a portion of it in a French translation. The translation and +abridgment of so large a mass of papers, however, must necessarily occupy +many years, and it may be long, therefore, before the whole of the +correspondence--and particularly that portion of it relating to the epoch +occupied by these volumes sees the light. It was, therefore, of the +greatest importance for me to see the documents themselves unabridged and +untranslated. This privilege has been accorded me, and I desire to +express my thanks to his Excellency M. van de Weyer, the distinguished +representative of Belgium at the English Court, to whose friendly offices +I am mainly indebted for the satisfaction of my wishes in this respect. +A letter from him to his Excellency M. Rogier, Minister of the Interior +in Belgium--who likewise took the most courteous interest in promoting my +views--obtained for me the permission thoroughly to study this +correspondence; and I passed several months in Brussels, occupied with +reading the whole of it from the year 1584 to the end of the reign of +Philip II. + +I was thus saved a long visit to the Archives of Simancas, for it would +be impossible conscientiously to write the history of the epoch without a +thorough examination of the correspondence of the King and his ministers. +I venture to hope, therefore--whatever judgment may be passed upon my own +labours--that this work may be thought to possess an intrinsic value; for +the various materials of which it is composed are original, and--so far +as I am aware--have not been made use of by any historical writer. + +I would take this opportunity to repeat my thanks to M. Gachard, +Archivist of the kingdom of Belgium, for the uniform courtesy and +kindness which I have received at his-hands, and to bear my testimony to +the skill and critical accuracy with which he has illustrated so many +passages of Belgian and Spanish history. + +31, HERTFORD-STREET, MAY-FAIR, +November llth 1860. + + + + +THE UNITED NETHERLANDS. + +CHAPTER I. + + Murder of Orange--Extension of Protestantism--Vast Power of Spain-- + Religious Origin of the Revolt--Disposal of the Sovereignty--Courage + of the Estates of Holland--Children of William the Silent-- + Provisional Council of State--Firm attitude of Holland and Zeeland-- + Weakness of Flanders--Fall of Ghent--Adroitness of Alexander + Farnese. + +WILLIAM THE SILENT, Prince of Orange, had been murdered on the 10th of +July, 1534. It is difficult to imagine a more universal disaster than +the one thus brought about by the hand of a single obscure fanatic. For +nearly twenty years the character of the Prince had been expanding +steadily as the difficulties of his situation increased. Habit, +necessity, and the natural gifts of the man, had combined to invest him +at last with an authority which seemed more than human. There was such +general confidence in his sagacity, courage, and purity, that the nation +had come to think with his brain and to act with his hand. It was +natural that, for an instant, there should be a feeling as of absolute +and helpless paralysis. + +Whatever his technical attributes in the polity of the Netherlands--and +it would be difficult to define them with perfect accuracy--there is no +doubt that he stood there, the head of a commonwealth, in an attitude +such as had been maintained by but few of the kings, or chiefs, or high +priests of history. Assassination, a regular and almost indispensable +portion of the working machinery of Philip's government, had produced, in +this instance, after repeated disappointments, the result at last which +had been so anxiously desired. The ban of the Pope and the offered gold +of the King had accomplished a victory greater than any yet achieved by +the armies of Spain, brilliant as had been their triumphs on the blood- +stained soil of the Netherlands. + +Had that "exceeding proud, neat, and spruce" Doctor of Laws, William +Parry, who had been busying himself at about the same time with his +memorable project against the Queen of England, proved as successful as +Balthazar Gerard, the fate of Christendom would have been still darker. +Fortunately, that member of Parliament had made the discovery in time-- +not for himself, but for Elizabeth--that the "Lord was better pleased +with adverbs than nouns;" the well-known result being that the traitor +was hanged and the Sovereign saved. + +Yet such was the condition of Europe at that day. A small, dull, +elderly, imperfectly-educated, patient, plodding invalid, with white hair +and protruding under jaw, and dreary visage, was sitting day after day; +seldom speaking, never smiling, seven or eight hours out of every twenty- +four, at a writing table covered with heaps of interminable despatches, +in a cabinet far away beyond the seas and mountains, in the very heart of +Spain. A clerk or two, noiselessly opening and shutting the door, from +time to time, fetching fresh bundles of letters and taking away others-- +all written and composed by secretaries or high functionaries--and all +to be scrawled over in the margin by the diligent old man in a big +schoolboy's hand and style--if ever schoolboy, even in the sixteenth +century, could write so illegibly or express himself so awkwardly; +couriers in the court-yard arriving from or departing for the uttermost +parts of earth-Asia, Africa America, Europe-to fetch and carry these +interminable epistles which contained the irresponsible commands of this +one individual, and were freighted with the doom and destiny of countless +millions of the world's inhabitants--such was the system of government +against which the Netherlands had protested and revolted. It was a +system under which their fields had been made desolate, their cities +burned and pillaged, their men hanged, burned, drowned, or hacked to +pieces; their women subjected to every outrage; and to put an end to +which they had been devoting their treasure and their blood for nearly +the length of one generation. It was a system, too, which, among other +results, had just brought about the death of the foremost statesman of +Europe, and had nearly effected simultaneously the murder of the most +eminent sovereign in the world. The industrious Philip, safe and +tranquil in the depths of the Escorial, saying his prayers three times +a day with exemplary regularity, had just sent three bullets through the +body of William the Silent at his dining-room door in Delft. "Had it +only been done two years earlier," observed the patient old man, "much +trouble might have been spared me; but 'tis better late than never." Sir +Edward Stafford, English envoy in Paris, wrote to his government--so soon +as the news of the murder reached him--that, according to his information +out of the Spanish minister's own house, "the same practice that had been +executed upon the Prince of Orange, there were practisers more than two +or three about to execute upon her Majesty, and that within two months." +Without vouching for the absolute accuracy of this intelligence, he +implored the Queen to be more upon her guard than ever. "For there is no +doubt," said the envoy, "that she is a chief mark to shoot at; and seeing +that there were men cunning enough to inchant a man and to encourage him +to kill the Prince of Orange, in the midst of Holland, and that there was +a knave found desperate enough to do it, we must think hereafter that +anything may be done. Therefore God preserve her Majesty." + +Invisible as the Grand Lama of Thibet, clothed with power as extensive +and absolute as had ever been wielded by the most imperial Caesar, Philip +the Prudent, as he grew older and feebler in mind and body seemed to +become more gluttonous of work, more ambitious to extend his sceptre over +lands which he had never seen or dreamed of seeing, more fixed in his +determination to annihilate that monster Protestantism, which it had been +the business of his life to combat, more eager to put to death every +human creature, whether anointed monarch or humble artizan, that defended +heresy or opposed his progress to universal empire. + +If this enormous power, this fabulous labour, had, been wielded or +performed with a beneficent intention; if the man who seriously regarded +himself as the owner of a third of the globe, with the inhabitants +thereof, had attempted to deal with these extensive estates inherited +from his ancestors with the honest intention of a thrifty landlord, an +intelligent slave-owner, it would have yet been possible for a little +longer to smile at the delusion, and endure the practice. + +But there was another old man, who lived in another palace in another +remote land, who, in his capacity of representative of Saint Peter, +claimed to dispose of all the kingdoms of the earth--and had been willing +to bestow them upon the man who would go down and worship him. Philip +stood enfeoffed, by divine decree, of all America, the East Indies, the +whole Spanish Peninsula, the better portion of Italy, the seventeen +Netherlands, and many other possessions far and near; and he contemplated +annexing to this extensive property the kingdoms of France, of England, +and Ireland. The Holy League, maintained by the sword of Guise, the +pope's ban, Spanish ducats, Italian condottieri, and German mercenaries, +was to exterminate heresy and establish the Spanish dominion in France. +The same machinery, aided by the pistol or poniard of the assassin, was +to substitute for English protestantism and England's queen the Roman +Catholic religion and a foreign sovereign. "The holy league," said +Duplessis-Mornay, one of the noblest characters of the age, "has destined +us all to the name sacrifice. The ambition of the Spaniard, which has +overleaped so many lands and seas, thinks nothing inaccessible." + +The Netherland revolt had therefore assumed world-wide proportions. +Had it been merely the rebellion of provinces against a sovereign, the +importance of the struggle would have been more local and temporary. But +the period was one in which the geographical land-marks of countries were +almost removed. The dividing-line ran through every state, city, and +almost every family. There was a country which believed in the absolute +power of the church to dictate the relations between man and his Maker, +and to utterly exterminate all who disputed that position. There was +another country which protested against that doctrine, and claimed, +theoretically or practically, a liberty of conscience. The territory of +these countries was mapped out by no visible lines, but the inhabitants +of each, whether resident in France, Germany, England, or Flanders, +recognised a relationship which took its root in deeper differences than +those of race or language. It was not entirely a question of doctrine or +dogma. A large portion of the world had become tired of the antiquated +delusion of a papal supremacy over every land, and had recorded its +determination, once for all, to have done with it. The transition to +freedom of conscience became a necessary step, sooner or later to be +taken. To establish the principle of toleration for all religions was +an inevitable consequence of the Dutch revolt; although thus far, perhaps +only one conspicuous man in advance of his age had boldly announced that +doctrine and had died in its defence. But a great true thought never +dies--though long buried in the earth--and the day was to come, after +long years, when the seed was to ripen into a harvest of civil and +religious emancipation, and when the very word toleration was to sound +like an insult and an absurdity. + +A vast responsibility rested upon the head of a monarch, placed as Philip +II. found himself, at this great dividing point in modern history. To +judge him, or any man in such a position, simply from his own point of +view, is weak and illogical. History judges the man according to its +point of view. It condemns or applauds the point of view itself. The +point of view of a malefactor is not to excuse robbery and murder. Nor +is the spirit of the age to be pleaded in defence of the evil-doer at a +time when mortals were divided into almost equal troops. The age of +Philip II. was also the age of William of Orange and his four brethren, +of Sainte Aldegonde, of Olden-Barneveldt, of Duplessis-Mornay, La Noue, +Coligny, of Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, Walsingham, Sidney, Raleigh, +Queen Elizabeth, of Michael Montaigne, and William Shakspeare. It was +not an age of blindness, but of glorious light. If the man whom the +Maker of the Universe had permitted to be born to such boundless +functions, chose to put out his own eyes that he might grope along his +great pathway of duty in perpetual darkness, by his deeds he must be +judged. The King perhaps firmly believed that the heretics of the +Netherlands, of France, or of England, could escape eternal perdition +only by being extirpated from the earth by fire and sword, and therefore; +perhaps, felt it his duty to devote his life to their extermination. +But he believed, still more firmly, that his own political authority, +throughout his dominions, and his road to almost universal empire, lay +over the bodies of those heretics. Three centuries have nearly past +since this memorable epoch; and the world knows the fate of the states +which accepted the dogma which it was Philip's life-work to enforce, and +of those who protested against the system. The Spanish and Italian +Peninsulas have had a different history from that which records the +career of France, Prussia, the Dutch Commonwealth, the British Empire, +the Transatlantic Republic. + +Yet the contest between those Seven meagre Provinces upon the sand-banks +of the North Sea, and--the great Spanish Empire, seemed at the moment +with which we are now occupied a sufficiently desperate one. Throw a +glance upon the map of Europe. Look at the broad magnificent Spanish +Peninsula, stretching across eight degrees of latitude and ten of +longitude, commanding the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial +climate, warmed in winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected +from the scorching heats of summer by shady mountain and forest, and +temperate breezes from either ocean. A generous southern territory, +flowing with wine and oil, and all the richest gifts of a bountiful +nature-splendid cities--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in the +trophies of the most artistic period of the modern world--Cadiz, as +populous at that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient +and modern systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two +oceans--Granada, the ancient wealthy seat of the fallen Moors--Toledo, +Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently-conquered kingdom of +Portugal, counting, with its suburbs, a larger population than any city, +excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and the +capital of the rapidly-developing traffic with both the Indies--these +were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she possessed Sicily +also, the better portion of Italy, and important dependencies in Africa, +while the famous maritime discoveries of the age had all enured to her +aggrandizement. The world seemed suddenly to have expanded its wings +from East to West, only to bear the fortunate Spanish Empire to the most +dizzy heights of wealth and power. The most accomplished generals, the +most disciplined and daring infantry the world has ever known, the best- +equipped and most extensive navy, royal and mercantile, of the age, were +at the absolute command of the sovereign. Such was Spain. + +Turn now to the north-western corner of Europe. A morsel of territory, +attached by a slight sand-hook to the continent, and half-submerged by +the stormy waters of the German Ocean--this was Holland. A rude climate, +with long, dark, rigorous, winters, and brief summers, a territory, the +mere wash of three great rivers, which had fertilized happier portions of +Europe only to desolate and overwhelm this less-favoured land, a soil so +ungrateful, that if the whole of its four hundred thousand acres of +arable land had been sowed with grain, it could not feed the labourers +alone, and a population largely estimated at one million of souls--these +were the characteristics of the Province which already had begun to give +its name to the new commonwealth. The isles of Zeeland--entangled in the +coils of deep slow-moving rivers, or combating the ocean without--and the +ancient episcopate of Utrecht, formed the only other Provinces that had +quite shaken off the foreign yoke. In Friesland, the important city of +Groningen was still held for the King, while Bois-le-Duc, Zutphen, +besides other places in Gelderland and North Brabant, also in possession +of the royalists, made the position of those provinces precarious. + +The limit of the Spanish or "obedient" Provinces, on the one hand, and of +the United Provinces on the other, cannot, therefore, be briefly and +distinctly stated. The memorable treason--or, as it was called, the +"reconciliation" of the Walloon Provinces in the year 1583-4--had placed +the Provinces of Hainault, Arthois, Douay, with the flourishing cities +Arran, Valenciennes, Lille, Tournay, and others--all Celtic Flanders, in +short-in the grasp of Spain. Cambray was still held by the French +governor, Seigneur de Balagny, who had taken advantage of the Duke of +Anjou's treachery to the States, to establish himself in an unrecognized +but practical petty sovereignty, in defiance both of France and Spain; +while East Flanders and South Brabant still remained a disputed +territory, and the immediate field of contest. With these limitations, +it may be assumed, for general purposes, that the territory of the United +States was that of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, while the +obedient Provinces occupied what is now the territory of Belgium. + +Such, then, were the combatants in the great eighty years' war for civil +and religious liberty; sixteen of which had now passed away. On the one +side, one of the most powerful and, populous world-empires of history, +then in the zenith of its prosperity; on the other hand, a slender group +of cities, governed by merchants and artisans, and planted precariously +upon a meagre, unstable soil. A million and a half of souls against the +autocrat of a third part of the known world. The contest seemed as +desperate as the cause was certainly sacred; but it had ceased to be a +local contest. For the history which is to occupy us in these volumes is +not exclusively the history of Holland. It is the story of the great +combat between despotism, sacerdotal and regal, and the spirit of +rational human liberty. The tragedy opened in the Netherlands, and its +main scenes were long enacted there; but as the ambition of Spain +expanded, and as the resistance to the principle which she represented +became more general, other nations were, of necessity, involved in the +struggle. There came to be one country, the citizens of which were the +Leaguers; and another country, whose inhabitants were Protestants. And +in this lay the distinction between freedom and absolutism. The religious +question swallowed all the others. There was never a period in the early +history of the Dutch revolt when the Provinces would not have returned to +their obedience, could they have been assured of enjoying liberty of +conscience or religious peace; nor was there ever a single moment in +Philip II.'s life in which he wavered in his fixed determination never to +listen to such a claim. The quarrel was in its nature irreconcilable and +eternal as the warfare between wrong and right; and the establishment of +a comparative civil liberty in Europe and America was the result of the +religious war of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The struggle +lasted eighty years, but the prize was worth the contest. + +The object of the war between the Netherlands and Spain was not, +therefore, primarily, a rebellion against established authority for the +maintenance of civil rights. To preserve these rights was secondary. +The first cause was religion. The Provinces had been fighting for years +against the Inquisition. Had they not taken arms, the Inquisition would +have been established in the Netherlands, and very probably in England, +and England might have become in its turn a Province of the Spanish +Empire. + +The death of William the Silent produced a sudden change in the political +arrangements of the liberated Netherlands. During the year 1583, the +United Provinces had elected Francis, Duke of Anjou, to be Duke of +Brabant and sovereign of the whole country, under certain constitutional +provisions enumerated in articles of solemn compact. That compact had +been grossly violated. The Duke had made a treacherous attempt to +possess himself of absolute power and to seize several important cities. +He had been signally defeated in Antwerp, and obliged to leave the +country, covered with ignominy. The States had then consulted William of +Orange as to the course to be taken in the emergency. The Prince had +told them that their choice was triple. They might reconcile themselves +with Spain, and abandon the contest for religious liberty which they had +so long been waging; they might reconcile themselves with Anjou, +notwithstanding that he had so utterly forfeited all claims to their +consideration; or they might fight the matter out with Spain single- +handed. The last course was, in his opinion, the most eligible one, and +he was ready to sacrifice his life to its furtherance. It was, however, +indispensable, should that policy be adopted, that much larger supplies +should be voted than had hitherto been raised, and, in general, that a +much more extensive and elevated spirit of patriotism should manifest +itself than had hitherto been displayed. + +It was, on the whole, decided to make a second arrangement with the Duke +of Anjou, Queen Elizabeth warmly urging that course. At the same time, +however, that articles of agreement were drawn up for the installation of +Anjou as sovereign of the United Provinces, the Prince had himself +consented to accept the title of Count of Holland, under an ample +constitutional charter, dictated by his own lips. Neither Anjou nor +Orange lived to be inaugurated into the offices thus bestowed upon them. +The Duke died at Chateau-Thierry on the 10th June, and the Prince was +assassinated a month later at Delft. + +What now was the political position of the United Provinces at this +juncture? The sovereignty which had been held by the Estates, ready to +be conferred respectively upon Anjou and Orange, remained in the hands of +the Estates. There was no opposition to this theory. No more enlarged +view of the social compact had yet been taken. The people, as such, +claimed no sovereignty. Had any champion claimed it for them they would +hardly have understood him. The nation dealt with facts. After abjuring +Philip in 1581--an act which had been accomplished by the Estates--the +same Estates in general assembly had exercised sovereign power, and had +twice disposed of that sovereign power by electing a hereditary ruler. +Their right and their power to do this had been disputed by none, save by +the deposed monarch in Spain. Having the sovereignty to dispose of, it +seemed logical that the Estates might keep it, if so inclined. They did +keep it, but only in trust. While Orange lived, he might often have been +elected sovereign of all the Provinces, could he have been induced to +consent. After his death, the Estates retained, ex necessitate, the +sovereignty; and it will soon be related what they intended to do with +it. One thing is very certain, that neither Orange, while he lived, nor +the Estates, after his death, were actuated in their policy by personal +ambition. It will be seen that the first object of the Estates was to +dispossess themselves of the sovereignty which had again fallen into +their hands. + +What were the Estates? Without, at the present moment, any farther +inquiries into that constitutional system which had been long +consolidating itself, and was destined to exist upon a firmer basis for +centuries longer, it will be sufficient to observe, that the great +characteristic of the Netherland government was the municipality. + +Each Province contained a large number of cities, which were governed by +a board of magistrates, varying in number from twenty to forty. This +college, called the Vroedschap (Assembly of Sages), consisted of the most +notable citizens, and was a self-electing body--a close corporation--the +members being appointed for life, from the citizens at large. Whenever +vacancies occurred from death or loss of citizenship, the college chose +new members--sometimes immediately, sometimes by means of a double or +triple selection of names, the choice of one from among which was offered +to the stadtholder of the province. This functionary was appointed by +the Count, as he was called, whether Duke of Bavaria or of Burgundy, +Emperor, or King. After the abjuration of Philip, the governors were +appointed by the Estates of each Province. + +The Sage-Men chose annually a board of senators, or schepens, whose +functions were mainly judicial; and there were generally two, and +sometimes three, burgomasters, appointed in the same way. This was +the popular branch of the Estates. But, besides this body of +representatives, were the nobles, men of ancient lineage and large +possessions, who had exercised, according to the general feudal law of +Europe, high, low, and intermediate jurisdiction upon their estates, and +had long been recognized as an integral part of the body politic, having +the right to appear, through delegates of their order, in the provincial +and in the general assemblies. + +Regarded as a machine for bringing the most decided political capacities +into the administration of public affairs, and for organising the most +practical opposition to the system of religious tyranny, the Netherland +constitution was a healthy, and, for the age, an enlightened one. The +officeholders, it is obvious, were not greedy for the spoils of office; +for it was, unfortunately, often the case that their necessary expenses +in the service of the state were not defrayed. The people raised +enormous contributions for carrying on the war; but they could not afford +to be extremely generous to their faithful servants. + +Thus constituted was the commonwealth upon the death of William the +Silent. The gloom produced by that event was tragical. Never in human +history was a more poignant and universal sorrow for the death of any +individual. The despair was, for a brief season, absolute; but it was +soon succeeded by more lofty sentiments. It seemed, after they had laid +their hero in the tomb, as though his spirit still hovered above the +nation which he had loved so well, and was inspiring it with a portion of +his own energy and wisdom. + +Even on the very day of the murder, the Estates of Holland, then sitting +at Delft, passed a resolution "to maintain the good cause, with God's +help, to the uttermost, without sparing gold or blood." This decree was +communicated to Admiral de Warmont, to Count Hohenlo, to William Lewis of +Nassau, and to other commanders by land and sea. At the same time, the +sixteen members--for no greater number happened to be present at the +session--addressed letters to their absent colleagues, informing them +of the calamity which had befallen them, summoning them at once to +conference, and urging an immediate convocation of the Estates of all +the Provinces in General Assembly. They also addressed strong letters of +encouragement, mingled with manly condolence, upon the common affliction, +to prominent military and naval commanders and civil functionaries, +begging them to "bear themselves manfully and valiantly, without +faltering in the least on account of the great misfortune which had +occurred, or allowing themselves to be seduced by any one from the union +of the States." Among these sixteen were Van Zuylen, Van Nyvelt, the +Seigneur de Warmont, the Advocate of Holland, Paul Buys, Joost de Menin, +and John van Olden-Barneveldt. A noble example was thus set at once to +their fellow citizens by these their representatives--a manful step taken +forward in the path where Orange had so long been leading. + +The next movement, after the last solemn obsequies had been rendered to +the Prince was to provide for the immediate wants of his family. For the +man who had gone into the revolt with almost royal revenues, left his +estate so embarrassed that his carpets, tapestries, household linen-- +nay, even his silver spoons, and the very clothes of his wardrobe were +disposed of at auction for the benefit of his creditors. He left eleven +children--a son and daughter by the first wife, a son and daughter by +Anna of Saxony, six daughters by Charlotte of Bourbon, and an infant, +Frederic Henry, born six months before his death. The eldest son, Philip +William, had been a captive in Spain for seventeen years, having been +kidnapped from school, in Leyden, in the year 1567. He had already +become so thoroughly Hispaniolized under the masterly treatment of the +King and the Jesuits, that even his face had lost all resemblance to the +type of his heroic family, and had acquired a sinister, gloomy, +forbidding expression, most painful to contemplate. All of good that +he had retained was a reverence for his father's name--a sentiment which +he had manifested to an extravagant extent on a memorable occasion in +Madrid, by throwing out of window, and killing on the spot a Spanish +officer who had dared to mention the great Prince with insult. + +The next son was Maurice, then seventeen years of age, a handsome youth, +with dark blue eyes, well-chiselled features, and full red lips, who had +already manifested a courage and concentration of character beyond his +years. The son of William the Silent, the grandson of Maurice of Saxony, +whom he resembled in visage and character, he was summoned by every drop +of blood in his veins to do life-long battle with the spirit of Spanish +absolutism, and he was already girding himself for his life's work. He +assumed at once for his device a fallen oak, with a young sapling +springing from its root. His motto, "Tandem fit surculus arbor," "the +twig shall yet become a tree"--was to be nobly justified by his career. + +The remaining son, then a six months' child, was also destined to high +fortunes, and to win an enduring name in his country's history. For the +present he remained with his mother, the noble Louisa de Coligny, who had +thus seen, at long intervals, her father and two husbands fall victims to +the Spanish policy; for it is as certain that Philip knew beforehand, and +testified his approbation of, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, as that he +was the murderer of Orange. + +The Estates of Holland implored the widowed Princess to remain in their +territority, settling a liberal allowance upon herself and her child, and +she fixed her residence at Leyden. + +But her position was most melancholy. Married in youth to the Seigneur +de Teligny, a young noble of distinguished qualities, she had soon become +both a widow and an orphan in the dread night of St. Bartholomew. She +had made her own escape to Switzerland; and ten years afterwards she had +united herself in marriage with the Prince of Orange. At the age of +thirty-two, she now found herself desolate and wretched in a foreign +land, where she had never felt thoroughly at home. The widow and +children of William the Silent were almost without the necessaries of +life. "I hardly know," wrote the Princess to her brother-in-law, Count +John, "how the children and I are to maintain ourselves according to the +honour of the house. May God provide for us in his bounty, and certainly +we have much need of it." Accustomed to the more luxurious civilisation +of France, she had been amused rather than annoyed, when, on her first +arrival in Holland for her nuptials, she found herself making the journey +from Rotterdam to Delft in an open cart without springs, instead of the +well-balanced coaches to which she had been used, arriving, as might have +been expected, "much bruised and shaken." Such had become the primitive +simplicity of William the Silent's household. But on his death, in +embarrassed circumstances, it was still more straightened. She had no +cause either to love Leyden, for, after the assassination of her husband, +a brutal preacher, Hakkius by name, had seized that opportunity for +denouncing the French marriage, and the sumptuous christening of the +infant in January, as the deeds which had provoked the wrath of God and +righteous chastisement. To remain there in her widowhood, with that six +months' child, "sole pledge of her dead lord, her consolation and only +pleasure," as she pathetically expressed herself, was sufficiently +painful, and she had been inclined to fix her residence in Flushing, in +the edifice which had belonged to her husband, as Marquis of Vere. She +had been persuaded, however, to remain in Holland, although "complaining, +at first, somewhat of the unkindness of the people." + +A small well-formed woman, with delicate features, exquisite complexion, +and very beautiful dark eyes, that seemed in after-years, as they looked +from beneath her coif, to be dim with unshed tears; with remarkable +powers of mind, angelic sweetness of disposition, a winning manner, and a +gentle voice, Louisa de Coligny became soon dear to the rough Hollanders, +and was ever a disinterested and valuable monitress both to her own child +and to his elder brother Maurice. + +Very soon afterwards the States General established a State Council, +as a provisional executive board, for the term of three months, for the +Provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, and such parts of +Flanders and Brabant as still remained in the Union. At the head of this +body was placed young Maurice, who accepted the responsible position, +after three days' deliberation. The young man had been completing his +education, with a liberal allowance from Holland and Zeeland, at the +University of Leyden; and such had been their tender care for the child +of so many hopes, that the Estates had given particular and solemn +warning, by resolution, to his governor during the previous summer, +on no account to allow him to approach the sea-shore, lest he should be +kidnapped by the Prince of Parma, who had then some war-vessels cruising +on the coast. + +The salary of Maurice was now fixed at thirty thousand florins a year, +while each of the councillors was allowed fifteen hundred annually, out +of which stipend he was to support at least one servant; without making +any claim for travelling or other incidental expenses. + +The Council consisted of three members from Brabant, two from Flanders, +four from Holland, three from Zeeland, two from Utrecht, one from +Mechlin, and three from Friesland--eighteen in all. They were empowered +and enjoined to levy troops by land and sea, and to appoint naval and +military officers; to establish courts of admiralty, to expend the moneys +voted by the States, to maintain the ancient privileges of the country, +and to see that all troops in service of the Provinces made oath of +fidelity to the Union. Diplomatic relations, questions of peace and war, +the treaty-making power, were not entrusted to the Council, without the +knowledge and consent of the States General, which body was to be +convoked twice a year by the State Council. + +Thus the Provinces in the hour of danger and darkness were true to +themselves, and were far from giving way to a despondency which under +the circumstances would not have been unnatural. + +For the waves of bitterness were rolling far and wide around them. A +medal, struck in Holland at this period, represented a dismasted hulk +reeling through the tempest. The motto, "incertum quo fate ferent" (who +knows whither fate is sweeping her?) expressed most vividly the ship +wrecked condition of the country. Alexander of Parma, the most +accomplished general and one of the most adroit statesmen of the age, +was swift to take advantage of the calamity which had now befallen the +rebellious Provinces. Had he been better provided with men and money, +the cause of the States might have seemed hopeless. He addressed many +letters to the States General, to the magistracies of various cities, and +to individuals, affecting to consider that with the death of Orange had +died all authority, as well as all motive for continuing the contest with +Spain. He offered easy terms of reconciliation with the discarded +monarch--always reserving, however, as a matter of course, the religious +question--for it was as well known to the States as to Parma that there +was no hope of Philip making concessions upon that important point. + +In Holland and Zeeland the Prince's blandishments were of no avail. His +letters received in various towns of those Provinces, offered, said one +who saw them, "almost every thing they would have or demand, even till +they should repent." But the bait was not taken. Individuals and +municipalities were alike stanch, remembering well that faith was not to +be kept with heretics. The example was followed by the Estates of other +Provinces, and all sent in to the General Assembly, soon in session at +Delft, "their absolute and irrevocable authority to their deputies to +stand to that which they, the said States General, should dispose of as +to their persons, goods and country; a resolution and agreement which +never concurred before among them, to this day, in what age or government +soever." + +It was decreed that no motion of agreement "with the tyrant of Spain" +should be entertained either publicly or privately, "under pain to be +reputed ill patriots." It was also enacted in the city of Dort that any +man that brought letter or message from the enemy to any private person +"should be forthwith hanged." This was expeditious and business-like. +The same city likewise took the lead in recording its determination by +public act, and proclaiming it by sound of trumpet, "to live and die in +the cause now undertaken." + +In Flanders and Brabant the spirit was less noble. Those Provinces were +nearly lost already. Bruges seconded Parma's efforts to induce its +sister-city Ghent to imitate its own baseness in surrendering without +a struggle; and that powerful, turbulent, but most anarchical little +commonwealth was but too ready to listen to the voice of the tempter. +"The ducats of Spain, Madam, are trotting about in such fashion," wrote +envoy Des Pruneaux to Catherine de Medici, "that they have vanquished a +great quantity of courages. Your Majesties, too, must employ money if +you wish to advance one step." No man knew better than Parma how to +employ such golden rhetoric to win back a wavering rebel to his loyalty, +but he was not always provided with a sufficient store of those practical +arguments. + +He was, moreover, not strong in the field, although he was far superior +to the States at this contingency. He had, besides his garrisons, +something above 18,000 men. The Provinces had hardly 3000 foot and 2500 +horse, and these were mostly lying in the neighbourhood of Zutphen. +Alexander was threatening at the same time Ghent, Dendermonde, Mechlin, +Brussels, and Antwerp. These five powerful cities lie in a narrow +circle, at distances varying from six miles to thirty, and are, as it +were, strung together upon the Scheldt, by which river, or its tributary, +the Senne, they are all threaded. It would have been impossible for +Parma, with 100,000 men at his back, to undertake a regular and +simultaneous siege of these important places. His purpose was to isolate +them from each other and from the rest of the country, by obtaining the +control of the great river, and so to reduce them by famine. The scheme +was a masterly one, but even the consummate ability of Farnese would have +proved inadequate to the undertaking, had not the preliminary +assassination of Orange made the task comparatively easy. Treason, +faint-heartedness, jealousy, were the fatal allies that the Governor- +General had reckoned upon, and with reason, in the council-rooms of these +cities. The terms he offered were liberal. Pardon, permission for +soldiers to retreat with technical honour, liberty to choose between +apostacy to the reformed religion or exile, with a period of two years +granted to the conscientious for the winding up of their affairs; these +were the conditions, which seemed flattering, now that the well-known +voice which had so often silenced the Flemish palterers and intriguers +was for ever hushed. + +Upon the 17th August (1584) Dendermonde surrendered, and no lives were +taken save those of two preachers, one of whom was hanged, while the +other was drowned. Upon the 7th September Vilvoorde capitulated, by +which event the water-communication between Brussels and Antwerp was cut +off. Ghent, now thoroughly disheartened, treated with Parma likewise; +and upon the 17th September made its reconciliation with the King. The +surrender of so strong and important a place was as disastrous to the +cause of the patriots as it was disgraceful to the citizens themselves. +It was, however, the result of an intrigue which had been long spinning, +although the thread had been abruptly, and, as it was hoped, +conclusively, severed several months before. During the early part of +the year, after the reconciliation of Bruges with the King--an event +brought about by the duplicity and adroitness of Prince Chimay--the same +machinery had been diligently and almost successfully employed to produce +a like result in Ghent. Champagny, brother of the famous Cardinal +Granvelle, had been under arrest for six years in that city. His +imprisonment was not a strict one however; and he avenged himself for +what he considered very unjust treatment at the hands of the patriots, +by completely abandoning a cause which he had once begun to favour. +A man of singular ability, courage, and energy, distinguished both for +military and diplomatic services, he was a formidable enemy to the party +from which he was now for ever estranged. As early as April of this +year, secret emissaries of Parma, dealing with Champagny in his nominal +prison, and with the disaffected burghers at large, had been on the point +of effecting an arrangement with the royal governor. The negotiation had +been suddenly brought to a close by the discovery of a flagrant attempt +by Imbue, one of the secret adherents of the King, to sell the city of +Dendermonde, of which he was governor, to Parma. For this crime he had +been brought to Ghent for trial, and then publicly beheaded. The +incident came in aid of the eloquence of Orange, who, up to the latest +moment of his life, had been most urgent in his appeals to the patriotic +hearts of Ghent, not to abandon the great cause of the union and of +liberty. William the Silent knew full well, that after the withdrawal of +the great keystone-city of Ghent, the chasm between the Celtic-Catholic +and the Flemish-Calvinist Netherlands could hardly be bridged again. +Orange was now dead. The negotiations with France, too, on which those +of the Ghenters who still held true to the national cause had fastened +their hopes, had previously been brought to a stand-still by the death of +Anjou; and Champagny, notwithstanding the disaster to Imbize, became more +active than ever. A private agent, whom the municipal government had +despatched to the French court for assistance, was not more successful +than his character and course of conduct would have seemed to warrant; +for during his residence in Paris, he had been always drunk, and +generally abusive. This was not good diplomacy, particularly on the part +of an agent from a weak municipality to a haughty and most undecided +government. + +"They found at this court," wrote Stafford to Walsingham, "great fault +with his manner of dealing that was sent from Gaunt. He was scarce sober +from one end of the week to the other, and stood so much on his tiptoes +to have present answer within three days, or else that they of Gaunt +could tell where to bestow themselves. They sent him away after keeping +him three weeks, and he went off in great dudgeon, swearing by yea and +nay that he will make report thereafter." + +Accordingly, they of Ghent did bestow themselves very soon thereafter +upon the King of Spain. The terms were considered liberal, but there +was, of course, no thought of conceding the great object for which the +patriots were contending--religious liberty. The municipal privileges-- +such as they might prove to be worth under the interpretation of a royal +governor and beneath the guns of a citadel filled with Spanish troops-- +were to be guaranteed; those of the inhabitants who did not choose to go +to mass were allowed two years to wind up their affairs before going into +perpetual exile, provided they behaved themselves "without scandal;" +while on the other hand, the King's authority as Count of Flanders was to +be fully recognised, and all the dispossessed monks and abbots to be +restored to their property. + +Accordingly, Champagny was rewarded for his exertions by being released +from prison and receiving the appointment of governor of the city: and, +after a very brief interval, about one-half of the population, the most +enterprising of its merchants and manufacturers, the most industrious of +its artizans, emigrated to Holland and Zeeland. The noble city of Ghent +--then as large as Paris, thoroughly surrounded with moats, and fortified +with bulwarks, ravelins, and counterscarps, constructed of earth, during +the previous two years, at great expense, and provided with bread and +meat, powder and shot, enough to last a year--was ignominiously +surrendered. The population, already a very reduced and slender one +for the great extent of the place and its former importance, had been +estimated at 70,000. The number of houses was 35,000, so that as the +inhabitants were soon farther reduced to one-half, there remained but one +individual to each house. On the other hand, the twenty-five monasteries +and convents in the town were repeopled--with how much advantage as a +set-off to the thousands of spinners and weavers who had wandered away, +and who in the flourishing days of Ghent had sent gangs of workmen +through the streets "whose tramp was like that of an army"--may be +sufficiently estimated by the result. + +The fall of Brussels was deferred till March, and that of Mechlin (19th +July, 1585) and of Antwerp (19th August, 1585), till Midsummer of the +following year; but, the surrender of Ghent (10th March 1585) +foreshadowed the fate of Flanders and Brabant. Ostend and Sluys, +however, were still in the hands of the patriots, and with them the +control of the whole Flemish coast. The command of the sea was destined +to remain for centuries with the new republic. + +The Prince of Parma, thus encouraged by the great success of his +intrigues, was determined to achieve still greater triumphs with his +arms, and steadily proceeded with his large design of closing the +Scheldt--and bringing about the fall of Antwerp. The details of that +siege-one of the most brilliant military operations of the age and one of +the most memorable in its results--will be given, as a connected whole, +in a subsequent series of chapters. For the present, it will be better +for the reader who wishes a clear view of European politics at this +epoch, and of the position of the Netherlands, to give his attention to +the web of diplomatic negotiation and court-intrigue which had been +slowly spreading over the leading states of Christendom, and in which the +fate of the world was involved. If diplomatic adroitness consists mainly +in the power to deceive, never were more adroit diplomatists than those +of the sixteenth century. It would, however, be absurd to deny them a +various range of abilities; and the history of no other age can show more +subtle, comprehensive, indefatigable--but, it must also be added, often +unscrupulous--intellects engaged in the great game of politics in which +the highest interests of millions were the stakes, than were those of +several leading minds in England, France, Germany, and Spain. With such +statesmen the burgher-diplomatists of the new-born commonwealth had to +measure themselves; and the result was to show whether or not they could +hold their own in the cabinet as on the field, + +For the present, however, the new state was unconscious of its latent +importance, The new-risen republic remained for a season nebulous, and +ready to unsphere itself so soon as the relative attraction of other +great powers should determine its absorption. By the death of Anjou and +of Orange the United Netherlands had became a sovereign state, an +independent republic; but they stood with that sovereignty in their +hands, offering it alternately, not to the highest bidder, but to the +power that would be willing to accept their allegiance, on the sole +condition of assisting them in the maintenance of their religious +freedom. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Relations of the Republic to France--Queen's Severity towards + Catholics and Calvinists--Relative Positions of England and France-- + Timidity of Germany--Apathy of Protestant Germany--Indignation of + the Netherlanders--Henry III. of France--The King and his Minions-- + Henry of Guise--Henry of Navarre--Power of France--Embassy of the + States to France--Ignominious position of the Envoys--Views of the + French Huguenots--Efforts to procure Annexation--Success of Des + Pruneaux. + +The Prince of Orange had always favoured a French policy. He had ever +felt a stronger reliance upon the support of France than upon that of any +other power. This was not unreasonable, and so long as he lived, the +tendency of the Netherlands had been in that direction. It had never +been the wish of England to acquire the sovereignty of the Provinces. In +France on the contrary, the Queen Dowager, Catharine de' Medici had +always coveted that sovereignty for her darling Francis of Alencon; and +the design had been favoured, so far as any policy could be favoured, by +the impotent monarch who occupied the French throne. + +The religion of the United Netherlands was Calvinistic. There were also +many Anabaptists in the country. The Queen of England hated Anabaptists, +Calvinists, and other sectarians, and banished them from her realms on +pain of imprisonment and confiscation of property. As firmly opposed as +was her father to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, she felt much of +the paternal reluctance to accept the spirit of the Reformation. Henry +Tudor hanged the men who believed in the Pope, and burnt alive those who +disbelieved in transubstantiation, auricular confession, and the other +'Six Articles.' His daughter, whatever her secret religious convictions, +was stanch in her resistance to Rome, and too enlightened a monarch not +to see wherein the greatness and glory of England were to be found; but +she had no thought of tolerating liberty of conscience. All opposed to +the Church of England, whether Papists or Puritans, were denounced as +heretics, and as such imprisoned or banished. "To allow churches with +contrary rites and ceremonies," said Elizabeth, "were nothing else but to +sow religion out of religion, to distract good men's minds, to cherish +factious men's humours, to disturb religion and commonwealth, and mingle +divine and human things; which were a thing in deed evil, in example +worst of all; to our own subjects hurtful, and to themselves--to whom it +is granted, neither greatly commodious, nor yet at all safe."--[Camden] +The words were addressed, it is true, to Papists, but there is very +little doubt that Anabaptists or any other heretics would have received a +similar reply, had they, too, ventured to demand the right of public +worship. It may even be said that the Romanists in the earlier days of +Elizabeth's reign fared better than the Calvinists. The Queen neither +banished nor imprisoned the Catholics. She did not enter their houses to +disturb their private religious ceremonies, or to inquire into their +consciences. This was milder treatment than the burning alive, burying +alive, hanging, and drowning, which had been dealt out to the English and +the Netherland heretics by Philip and by Mary, but it was not the spirit +which William the Silent had been wont to manifest in his measures +towards Anabaptists and Papists alike. Moreover, the Prince could hardly +forget that of the nine thousand four hundred Catholic ecclesiastics who +held benefices at the death of Queen Mary, all had renounced the Pope on +the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and acknowledged her as the head of the +church, saving only one hundred and eighty-nine individuals. In the +hearts of the nine thousand two hundred and eleven others, it might be +thought perhaps that some tenderness for the religion from which they had +so suddenly been converted, might linger, while it could hardly be hoped +that they would seek to inculcate in the minds of their flocks or of +their sovereign any connivance with the doctrines of Geneva. + +When, at a later period, the plotting of Catholics, suborned by the Pope +and Philip, against the throne and person of the Queen, made more +rigorous measures necessary; when it was thought indispensable to execute +as traitors those Roman seedlings--seminary priests and their disciples-- +who went about preaching to the Queen's subjects the duty of carrying out +the bull by which the Bishop of Rome had deposed and excommunicated their +sovereign, and that "it was a meritorious act to kill such princes as +were excommunicate," even then, the men who preached and practised +treason and murder experienced no severer treatment than that which other +"heretics" had met with at the Queen's hands. Jesuits and Popish priests +were, by Act of Parliament, ordered to depart the realm within forty +days. Those who should afterwards return to the kingdom were to be held +guilty of high treason. Students in the foreign seminaries were +commanded to return within six months and recant, or be held guilty of +high treason. Parents and guardians supplying money to such students +abroad were to incur the penalty of a preamunire--perpetual exile, +namely, with loss of all their goods. + +Many seminary priests and others were annually executed in England under +these laws, throughout the Queen's reign, but nominally at least they +were hanged not as Papists, but as traitors; not because they taught +transubstantiation, ecclesiastical celibacy, auricular confession, or +even Papal supremacy, but because they taught treason and murder--because +they preached the necessity of killing the Queen. It was not so easy, +however, to defend or even comprehend the banishment and imprisonment of +those who without conspiring against the Queen's life or throne, desired +to see the Church of England reformed according to the Church of Geneva. +Yet there is no doubt that many sectaries experienced much inhuman +treatment for such delinquency, both in the early and the later years of +Elizabeth's reign. + +There was another consideration, which had its due weight in this +balance, and that was the respective succession to the throne in the two +kingdoms of France and England. Mary Stuart, the Catholic, the niece of +the Guises, emblem and exponent of all that was most Roman in Europe, the +sworn friend of Philip, the mortal foe to all heresy, was the legitimate +successor to Elizabeth. Although that sovereign had ever refused to +recognize that claim; holding that to confirm Mary in the succession was +to "lay her own winding sheet before her eyes, yea, to make her, own +grave, while she liveth and looketh on;" and although the unfortunate +claimant of two thrones was a prisoner in her enemy's hands, yet, so long +as she lived, there was little security for Protestantism, even in +Elizabeth's lifetime, and less still in case of her sudden death. On the +other hand, not only were the various politico-religious forces of France +kept in equilibrium by their action upon each other--so that it was +reasonable to believe that the House of Valois, however Catholic itself, +would be always compelled by the fast-expanding strength of French +Calvinism, to observe faithfully a compact to tolerate the Netherland +churches--but, upon the death of Henry III. the crown would be +legitimately placed upon the head of the great champion and chief of the +Huguenots, Henry of Navarre. + +It was not unnatural, therefore, that the Prince of Orange, a Calvinist +himself, should expect more sympathy with the Netherland reformers in +France than in England. A large proportion of the population of that +kingdom, including an influential part of the nobility, was of the +Huguenot persuasion, and the religious peace, established by royal edict, +had endured so long, that the reformers of France and the Netherlands had +begun to believe in the royal clemency, and to confide in the royal word. +Orange did not live to see the actual formation of the Holy League, and +could only guess at its secrets. + +Moreover, it should be remembered that France at that day was a more +formidable state than England, a more dangerous enemy, and, as it was +believed, a more efficient protector. The England of the period, +glorious as it was for its own and all future ages, was, not the great +British Empire of to-day. On the contrary, it was what would now be +considered, statistically speaking, a rather petty power. The England of +Elizabeth, Walsingham, Burghley, Drake, and Raleigh, of Spenser and +Shakspeare, hardly numbered a larger population than now dwells in its +capital and immediate suburbs. It had neither standing army nor +considerable royal navy. It was full of conspirators, daring and +unscrupulous, loyal to none save to Mary of Scotland, Philip of Spain, +and the Pope of Rome, and untiring in their efforts to bring about a +general rebellion. With Ireland at its side, nominally a subject +province, but in a state of chronic insurrection--a perpetual hot-bed for +Spanish conspiracy and stratagem; with Scotland at its back, a foreign +country, with half its population exasperated enemies of England, and the +rest but doubtful friends, and with the legitimate sovereign of that +country, "the daughter of debate, who discord still did sow,"--[Sonnet by +Queen Elizabeth.]--a prisoner in Elizabeth's hands, the central point +around which treason was constantly crystallizing itself, it was not +strange that with the known views of the Queen on the subject of the +reformed Dutch religion, England should seem less desirable as a +protector for the Netherlands than the neighbouring kingdom of France. + +Elizabeth was a great sovereign, whose genius Orange always appreciated, +in a comparatively feeble realm. Henry of Valois was the contemptible +monarch of a powerful state, and might be led by others to produce +incalculable mischief or considerable good. Notwithstanding the massacre +of St. Bartholomew, therefore, and the more recent "French fury" of +Antwerp, Orange had been willing to countenance fresh negociations with +France. + +Elizabeth, too, it should never be forgotten, was, if not over generous, +at least consistent and loyal in her policy towards the Provinces. She +was not precisely jealous of France, as has been unjustly intimated on +distinguished authority, for she strongly advocated the renewed offer of +the sovereignty to Anjou, after his memorable expulsion from the +Provinces. At that period, moreover, not only her own love-coquetries +with Anjou were over, but he was endeavouring with all his might, though +in secret, to make a match with the younger Infanta of Spain. Elizabeth +furthered the negociation with France, both publicly and privately. It +will soon be narrated how those negociations prospered. + +If then England were out of the, question, where, except in France, +should the Netherlanders, not deeming themselves capable of standing +alone, seek for protection and support? + +We have seen the extensive and almost ubiquitous power of Spain. Where +she did not command as sovereign, she was almost equally formidable as an +ally. The Emperor of Germany was the nephew and the brother-in-law of +Philip, and a strict Catholic besides. Little aid was to be expected +from him or the lands under his control for the cause of the Netherland +revolt. Rudolph hated his brother-in-law, but lived in mortal fear of +him. He was also in perpetual dread of the Grand Turk. That formidable +potentate, not then the "sick man" whose precarious condition and +territorial inheritance cause so much anxiety in modern days, was, it is +true, sufficiently occupied for the moment in Persia, and had been +sustaining there a series of sanguinary defeats. He was all the more +anxious to remain upon good terms with Philip, and had recently sent him +a complimentary embassy, together with some rather choice presents, among +which were "four lions, twelve unicorns, and two horses coloured white, +black, and blue." Notwithstanding these pacific manifestations towards +the West, however, and in spite of the truce with the German Empire which +the Turk had just renewed for nine years,--Rudolph and his servants still +trembled at every report from the East. + +"He is much deceived," wrote Busbecq, Rudolph's ambassador in Paris, "who +doubts that the Turk has sought any thing by this long Persian war, but +to protect his back, and prepare the way, after subduing that enemy, to +the extermination of all Christendom, and that he will then, with all his +might, wage an unequal warfare with us, in which the existence of the +Empire will be at stake." + +The envoy expressed, at the same period, however, still greater awe of +Spain. "It is to no one," he wrote, "endowed with good judgment, in the +least obscure, that the Spanish nation, greedy of empire, will never be +quiet, even with their great power, but will seek for the dominion of the +rest of Christendom. How much remains beyond what they have already +acquired? Afterwards, there will soon be no liberty, no dignity, for +other princes and republics. That single nation will be arbiter of all +things, than which nothing can be more miserable, nothing more degrading. +It cannot be doubted that all kings, princes, and states, whose safety or +dignity is dear to them, would willingly associate in arms to extinguish +the common conflagration. The death of the Catholic king would seem the +great opportunity 'miscendis rebus'." + +Unfortunately neither Busbecq's master nor any other king or prince +manifested any of this commendable alacrity to "take up arms against the +conflagration." Germany was in a shiver at every breeze from East or +West-trembling alike before Philip and Amurath. The Papists were making +rapid progress, the land being undermined by the steady and stealthy +encroachments of the Jesuits. Lord Burghley sent many copies of his +pamphlet, in Latin, French, and Italian, against the Seminaries, to +Gebhard Truchsess; and the deposed archbishop made himself busy in +translating that wholesome production into German, and in dispersing it +"all Germany over." The work, setting duly forth "that the executions of +priests in England were not for religion but for treason," was +"marvellously liked" in the Netherlands. "In uttering the truth," said +Herle, "'tis likely to do great good;" and he added, that Duke Augustus +of Saxony "did now see so far into the sect of Jesuits, and to their +inward mischiefs, as to become their open enemy, and to make friends +against them in the Empire." + +The love of Truchsess for Agnes Mansfeld had created disaster not only +for himself but for Germany. The whole electorate of Cologne had become +the constant seat of partisan warfare, and the resort of organised bands +of brigands. Villages were burned and rifled, highways infested, cities +threatened, and the whole country subjected to perpetual black mail +(brandschatzung)--fire-insurance levied by the incendiaries in person--by +the supporters of the rival bishops. Truchsess had fled to Delft, where +he had been countenanced and supported by Orange. Two cities still held +for him, Rheinberg and Neuss. On the other hand, his rival, Ernest of +Bavaria; supported by Philip II., and the occasional guest of Alexander +of Parma, had not yet succeeded in establishing a strong foothold in the +territory. Two pauper archbishops, without men or means of their own, +were thus pushed forward and back, like puppets, by the contending +highwaymen on either side; while robbery and murder, under the name of +Protestantism or Catholicism, were for a time the only motive or result +of the contest. + +Thus along the Rhine, as well as the Maas and the Scheldt, the fires of +civil war were ever burning. Deeper within the heart of Germany, there +was more tranquillity; but it was the tranquillity rather of paralysis +than of health. A fearful account was slowly accumulating, which was +evidently to be settled only by one of the most horrible wars which +history has ever recorded. Meantime there was apathy where there should +have been enthusiasm; parsimony and cowardice where generous and combined +effort were more necessary than ever; sloth without security. The +Protestant princes, growing fat and contented on the spoils of the +church, lent but a deaf ear to the moans of Truchsess, forgetting that +their neighbour's blazing roof was likely soon to fire their own. "They +understand better, 'proximus sum egomet mild'," wrote Lord Willoughby +from Kronenburg, "than they have learned, 'humani nihid a me alienum +puto'. These German princes continue still in their lethargy, careless +of the state of others, and dreaming of their ubiquity, and some of them, +it is thought, inclining to be Spanish or Popish more of late than +heretofore." + +The beggared archbishop, more forlorn than ever since the death of his +great patron, cried woe from his resting-place in Delft, upon Protestant +Germany. His tones seemed almost prophetic of the thirty years' wrath to +blaze forth in the next generation. "Courage is wanting to the people +throughout Germany," he wrote to William Lewis of Nassau. "We are +becoming the laughing-stock of the nations. Make sheep of yourselves, +and the wolf will eat you. We shall find our destruction in our +immoderate desire for peace. Spain is making a Papistical league in +Germany. Therefore is Assonleville despatched thither, and that's the +reason why our trash of priests are so insolent in the empire. 'Tis +astonishing how they are triumphing on all sides. God will smite them. +Thou dear God! What are our evangelists about in Germany? Asleep on +both ears. 'Dormiunt in utramque aurem'. I doubt they will be suddenly +enough awakened one day, and the cry will be, 'Who'd have thought it?' +Then they will be for getting oil for the lamp, for shutting the stable- +door when the steed is stolen," and so on, with a string of homely +proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza, or landgrave William of Hesse. + +In truth, one of the most painful features is the general aspect of +affairs was the coldness of the German Protestants towards the +Netherlands. The enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists was almost as +fatal as that between Protestants and Papists. There was even a talk, at +a little later period, of excluding those of the "reformed" church from +the benefits of the peace of Passau. The princes had got the Augsburg +confession and the abbey-lands into the bargain; the peasants had got the +Augsburg confession without the abbey-lands, and were to believe exactly +what their masters believed. This was the German-Lutheran sixteenth- +century idea of religious freedom. Neither prince nor peasant stirred in +behalf of the struggling Christians in the United Provinces, battling, +year after year, knee-deep in blood, amid blazing cities and inundated +fields, breast to breast with the yellow jerkined pikemen of Spain and +Italy, with the axe and the faggot and the rack of the Holy Inquisition +distinctly visible behind them. Such were the realities which occupied +the Netherlanders in those days, not watery beams of theological +moonshine, fantastical catechism-making, intermingled with scenes of riot +and wantonness, which drove old John of Nassau half frantic; with +banquetting and guzzling, drinking and devouring, with unchristian +flaunting and wastefulness of apparel, with extravagant and wanton +dancing, and other lewd abominations; all which, the firm old reformer +prophesied, would lead to the destruction of Germany. + +For the mass, slow moving but apparently irresistible, of Spanish and +papistical absolutism was gradually closing over Christendom. The +Netherlands were the wedge by which alone the solid bulk could be riven +asunder. It was the cause of German, of French, of English liberty, for +which the Provinces were contending. It was not surprising that they +were bitter, getting nothing in their hour of distress from the land of +Luther but dogmas and Augsburg catechisms instead of money and gunpowder, +and seeing German reiters galloping daily to reinforce the army of Parma +in exchange for Spanish ducats. + +Brave old La Noue, with the iron arm, noblest of Frenchmen and Huguenots +--who had just spent five years in Spanish bondage, writing military +discourses in a reeking dungeon, filled with toads and vermin, after +fighting the battle of liberty for a life-time, and with his brave son +already in the Netherlands emulating his father's valour on the same +field--denounced at a little later day, the lukewarmness of Protestant +Germany with whimsical vehemence:--"I am astounded," he cried, "that +these princes are not ashamed of themselves; doing nothing while they see +the oppressed cut to pieces at their gates. When will God grant me grace +to place me among those who are doing their duty, and afar from those who +do nothing, and who ought to know that the cause is a common one. If I +am ever caught dancing the German cotillon, or playing the German flute, +or eating pike with German sauce, I hope it may be flung in my teeth." + +The great league of the Pope and Philip was steadily consolidating +itself, and there were but gloomy prospects for the counter-league in +Germany. There was no hope but in England and France. For the reasons +already indicated, the Prince of Orange, taking counsel with the Estates, +had resolved to try the French policy once more. The balance of power in +Europe, which no man in Christendom so well understood as he, was to be +established by maintaining (he thought) the equilibrium between France +and Spain. In the antagonism of those two great realms lay the only hope +for Dutch or European liberty. Notwithstanding the treason of Anjou, +therefore, it had been decided to renew negociations with that Prince. +On the death of the Duke, the envoys of the States were accordingly +instructed to make the offer to King Henry III. which had been intended +for his brother. That proposition was the sovereignty of all the +Netherlands, save Holland and Zeeland, under a constitution maintaining +the reformed religion and the ancient laws and privileges of the +respective provinces. + +But the death of Francis of Anjou had brought about a considerable change +in French policy. It was now more sharply defined than ever, a right- +angled triangle of almost mathematical precision. The three Henrys and +their partizans divided the realm into three hostile camps--threatening +each other in simulated peace since the treaty of Fleig (1580), which had +put an end to the "lover's war" of the preceding year,--Henry of Valois, +Henry of Guise, and Henry of Navarre. + +Henry III., last of the Valois line, was now thirty-three years of age. +Less than king, less even than man, he was one of those unfortunate +personages who seem as if born to make the idea of royalty ridiculous, +and to test the capacity of mankind to eat and drink humiliation as if it +were wholesome food. It proved how deeply engraved in men's minds of +that century was the necessity of kingship, when the hardy Netherlanders, +who had abjured one tyrant, and had been fighting a generation long +rather than return to him, were now willing to accept the sovereignty of +a thing like Henry of Valois. + +He had not been born without natural gifts, such as Heaven rarely denies +to prince or peasant; but the courage which he once possessed had been +exhausted on the field of Moncontour, his manhood had been left behind +him at Venice, and such wit as Heaven had endowed him withal was now +expended in darting viperous epigrams at court-ladies whom he was only +capable of dishonouring by calumny, and whose charms he burned to +outrival in the estimation of his minions. For the monarch of France was +not unfrequently pleased to attire himself like a woman and a harlot. +With silken flounces, jewelled stomacher, and painted face, with pearls +of great price adorning his bared neck and breast, and satin-slippered +feet, of whose delicate shape and size he was justly vain, it was his +delight to pass his days and nights in a ceaseless round of gorgeous +festivals, tourneys, processions; masquerades, banquets, and balls, the +cost of which glittering frivolities caused the popular burthen and the +popular execration to grow, from day to day, more intolerable and more +audible. Surrounded by a gang of "minions," the most debauched and the +most desperate of France, whose bedizened dresses exhaled perfumes +throughout Paris, and whose sanguinary encounters dyed every street in +blood, Henry lived a life of what he called pleasure, careless of what +might come after, for he was the last of his race. The fortunes of his +minions rose higher and higher, as their crimes rendered them more and +more estimable in the eyes of a King who took a woman's pride in the +valour of such champions to his weakness, and more odious to a people +whose miserable homes were made even more miserable, that the coffers of +a few court-favourites might be filled: Now sauntering, full-dressed, in +the public promenades, with ghastly little death's heads strung upon his +sumptuous garments, and fragments of human bones dangling among his +orders of knighthood--playing at cup and ball as he walked, and followed +by a few select courtiers who gravely pursued the same exciting +occupation--now presiding like a queen of beauty at a tournament to +assign the prize of valour, and now, by the advice of his mother, going +about the streets in robes of penitence, telling his beads as he went, +that the populace might be edified by his piety, and solemnly offering up +prayers in the churches that the blessing of an heir might be vouchsafed +to him,--Henry of Valois seemed straining every nerve in order to bring +himself and his great office into contempt. + +As orthodox as he was profligate, he hated the Huguenots, who sought his +protection and who could have saved his throne, as cordially as he loved +the Jesuits, who passed their lives in secret plottings against his +authority and his person, or in fierce denunciations from the Paris +pulpits against his manifold crimes. Next to an exquisite and sanguinary +fop, he dearly loved a monk. The presence of a friar, he said, exerted +as agreeable an effect upon his mind as the most delicate and gentle +tickling could produce upon his body; and he was destined to have a +fuller dose of that charming presence than he coveted. + +His party--for he was but the nominal chief of a faction, 'tanquam unus +ex nobis'--was the party in possession--the office-holders' party; the +spoilsmen, whose purpose was to rob the exchequer and to enrich +themselves. His minions--for the favourites were called by no other +name--were even more hated, because less despised than the King. Attired +in cloth of gold--for silk and satin were grown too coarse a material for +them--with their little velvet porringer-caps stuck on the sides of their +heads, with their long hair stiff with pomatum, and their heads set +inside a well-starched ruff a foot wide, "like St. John's head in a +charger," as a splenetic contemporary observed, with a nimbus of musk and +violet-powder enveloping them as they passed before vulgar mortals, these +rapacious and insolent courtiers were the impersonation of extortion and +oppression to the Parisian populace. They were supposed, not unjustly, +to pass their lives in dancing, blasphemy, dueling, dicing, and intrigue, +in following the King about like hounds, fawning at his feet, and showing +their teeth to all besides; and for virtues such as these they were +rewarded by the highest offices in church, camp, and state, while new +taxes and imposts were invented almost daily to feed their avarice and +supply their extravagance. France, doomed to feel the beak and talons of +these harpies in its entrails, impoverished by a government that robbed +her at home while it humiliated her abroad, struggled vainly in its +misery, and was now on the verge of another series of internecine +combats--civil war seeming the only alternative to a voluptuous and +licentious peace. + +"We all stood here at gaze," wrote ambassador Stafford to Walsingham, +"looking for some great matter to come of this sudden journey to Lyons; +but, as far as men can find, 'parturient montes', for there hath been +nothing but dancing and banquetting from one house to another, bravery in +apparel, glittering like the sun." He, mentioned that the Duke of +Epernon's horse, taking fright at a red cloak, had backed over a +precipice, breaking his own neck, while his master's shoulder merely was +put out of joint. At the same time the Duke of Joyeuse, coming over +Mount Cenis, on his return from Savoy, had broken his wrist. The people, +he said, would rather they had both broken their necks "than any other +joint, the King having racked the nation for their sakes, as he hath- +done." Stafford expressed much compassion for the French in the plight +in which they found themselves. "Unhappy people!" he cried, "to have +such a King, who seeketh nothing but to impoverish them to enrich a +couple, and who careth not what cometh after his death, so that he may +rove on while he liveth, and careth neither for doing his own estate good +nor his neighbour's state harm." Sir Edward added, however, in a +philosophizing vein, worthy of Corporal Nym, that, "seeing we cannot be +so happy as to have a King to concur with us to do us any good, yet we +are happy to have one that his humour serveth him not to concur with +others to do us harm; and 'tis a wisdom for us to follow these humours, +that we may keep him still in that humour, and from hearkening to others +that may egg him on to worse." + +It was a dark hour for France, and rarely has a great nation been reduced +to a lower level by a feeble and abandoned government than she was at +that moment under the distaff of Henry III. Society was corrupted to its +core. "There is no more truth, no more justice, no more mercy," moaned +President L'Etoile. "To slander, to lie, to rob, to wench, to steal; all +things are permitted save to do right and to speak the truth." Impiety +the most cynical, debauchery the most unveiled, public and unpunished +homicides, private murders by what was called magic, by poison, by hired +assassins, crimes natural, unnatural, and preternatural, were the common +characteristics of the time. All posts and charges were venal. Great +offices of justice were sold to the highest bidder, and that which was +thus purchased by wholesale was retailed in the same fashion. Unhappy +the pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law. The great +ecclesiastical benefices were equally matter of merchandise, and married +men, women, unborn children, enjoyed revenues as dignitaries of the +church. Infants came into the world, it was said, like the mitre-fish, +stamped with the emblems of place. + +"'Twas impossible," said L'Etoile, "to find a crab so tortuous and +backsliding as the government." + +This was the aspect of the first of the three factions in France. Such +was the Henry at its head, the representative of royalty. + +Henry with the Scar, Duke of Guise, the well-known chief of the house of +Lorraine, was the chief of the extreme papistical party. He was now +thirty-four years of age, tall, stately, with a dark, martial face and +dangerous eyes, which Antonio Moro loved to paint; a physiognomy made +still more expressive by the arquebus-shot which had damaged his left +cheek at the fight near Chateau-Thierry and gained him his name of +Balafre. Although one of the most turbulent and restless plotters of +that plotting age, he was yet thought more slow and heavy in character +than subtle, Teutonic rather than Italian. He was the idol of the +Parisian burghers. The grocers, the market-men, the members of the +arquebus and crossbow clubs, all doated on him. The fishwomen worshipped +him as a god. He was the defender of the good old religion under which +Paris and the other cities of France had thriven, the uncompromising +opponent of the new-fangled doctrines which western clothiers, and dyers, +and tapestry-workers, had adopted, and which the nobles of the mountain- +country, the penniless chevaliers of Bearn and Gascony and Guienne, were +ceaselessly taking the field and plunging France into misery and +bloodshed to support. But for the Balafre and Madam League--as the great +Spanish Catholic conspiracy against the liberties of France, and of +England, and of all Europe, was affectionately termed by the Paris +populace--honest Catholics would fare no better in France than they did +in England, where, as it was well known, they were every day subjected to +fearful tortures: The shopwindows were filled with coloured engravings, +representing, in exaggerated fashion, the sufferings of the English +Catholics under bloody Elizabeth, or Jezebel, as she was called; and as +the gaping burghers stopped to ponder over these works of art, there were +ever present, as if by accident, some persons of superior information who +would condescendingly explain the various pictures, pointing out with a +long stick the phenomena most worthy of notice. These caricatures +proving highly successful, and being suppressed by order of government, +they were repeated upon canvas on a larger scale, in still more +conspicuous situations, as if in contempt of the royal authority, which +sullied itself by compromise with Calvinism! The pulpits, meanwhile, +thundered denunciations on the one hand against the weak and wicked King, +who worshipped idols, and who sacrificed the dearly-earned pittance of +his subjects to feed the insolent pomp of his pampered favourites; and on +the other, upon the arch-heretic, the arch-apostate, the Bearnese +Huguenot, who, after the death of the reigning monarch, would have the +effrontery to claim his throne, and to introduce into France the +persecutions and the horrors under which unhappy England was already +groaning. + +The scarce-concealed instigator of these assaults upon the royal and upon +the Huguenot faction was, of course, the Duke of Guise,--the man whose +most signal achievement had been the Massacre of St. Bartholomew--all the +preliminary details of that transaction having been arranged by his +skill. So long as Charles IX. was living, the Balafre had created the +confusion which was his element, by entertaining and fomenting the +perpetual intrigues of Anjou and Alencon against their brother; while the +altercations between them and the Queen Mother and the furious madman who +then sat upon the throne, had been the cause of sufficient disorder and +calamity for France. On the death of Charles IX. Guise had sought the +intimacy of Henry of Navarre, that by his means he might frustrate the +hopes of Alencon for the succession. During the early period of the +Bearnese's residence at the French court the two had been inseparable, +living together, going to the same festivals, tournaments, and +masquerades, and even sleeping in the same bed. "My master," was ever +Guise's address to Henry; "my gossip," the young King of Navarre's reply. +But the crafty Bearnese had made use of the intimacy only to read the +secrets of the Balafre's heart; and on Navarre's flight from the court, +and his return to Huguenotism, Guise knew that he had been played upon by +a subtler spirit than his own. The simulated affection was now changed +into undisguised hatred. Moreover, by the death of Alencon, Navarre now +stood next the throne, and Guise's plots became still more extensive and +more open as his own ambition to usurp the crown on the death of the +childless Henry III. became more fervid. + +Thus, by artfully inflaming the populace of Paris, and through his +organized bands of confederates--that of all the large towns of France, +against the Huguenots and their chief, by appeals to the religious +sentiment; and at the same time by stimulating the disgust and +indignation of the tax-payers everywhere at the imposts and heavy +burthens which the boundless extravagance of the court engendered, Guise +paved the way for the advancement of the great League which he +represented. The other two political divisions were ingeniously +represented as mere insolent factions, while his own was the true +national and patriotic party, by which alone the ancient religion and the +cherished institutions of France could be preserved. + +And the great chief of this national patriotic party was not Henry of +Guise, but the industrious old man who sat writing despatches in the +depths of the Escorial. Spanish counsels, Spanish promises, Spanish +ducats--these were the real machinery by which the plots of Guise against +the peace of France and of Europe were supported. Madam League was +simply Philip II. Nothing was written, officially or unofficially, to +the French government by the Spanish court that was not at the same time +communicated to "Mucio"--as the Duke of Guise was denominated in the +secret correspondence of Philip, and Mucio was in Philip's pay, his +confidential agent, spy, and confederate, long before the actual +existence of the League was generally suspected. + +The Queen-Mother, Catharine de' Medici, played into the Duke's hands. +Throughout the whole period of her widowhood, having been accustomed to +govern her sons, she had, in a certain sense, been used to govern the +kingdom. By sowing dissensions among her own children, by inflaming +party against party, by watching with care the oscillations of France +--so than none of the great divisions should obtain preponderance--by +alternately caressing and massacring the Huguenots, by cajoling or +confronting Philip, by keeping, as she boasted, a spy in every family +that possessed the annual income of two thousand livres, by making +herself the head of an organized system of harlotry, by which the +soldiers and politicians of France were inveigled, their secrets +faithfully revealed to her by her well-disciplined maids of honour, by +surrounding her unfortunate sons with temptation from earliest youth, and +plunging them by cold calculation into deepest debauchery, that their +enervated faculties might be ever forced to rely in political affairs on +the maternal counsel, and to abandon the administration to the maternal +will; such were the arts by which Catharine had maintained her influence, +and a great country been governed for a generation--Machiavellian state- +craft blended with the more simple wiles of a procuress. + +Now that Alencon was dead, and Henry III. hopeless of issue, it was her +determination that the children of her daughter, the Duchess of Lorraine, +should succeed to the throne. The matter was discussed as if the throne +were already vacant, and Guise and the Queen-Mother, if they agreed in +nothing else, were both cordial in their detestation of Henry of Navarre. +The Duke affected to support the schemes in favour of his relatives, the +Princes of Lorraine, while he secretly informed the Spanish court that +this policy was only a pretence. He was not likely, he said, to advance +the interests of the younger branch of a house of which he was himself +the chief, nor were their backs equal to the burthen. It was necessary +to amuse the old queen, but he was profoundly of opinion that the only +sovereign for France, upon the death of Henry, was Philip II. himself. +This was the Duke's plan of arriving, by means of Spanish assistance, +at the throne of France; and such was Henry le Balafre, chief of the +League. + +And the other Henry, the Huguenot, the Bearnese, Henry of Bourbon, Henry +of Navarre, the chieftain of the Gascon chivalry, the king errant, the +hope and the darling of the oppressed Protestants in every land--of him +it is scarce needful to say a single word. At his very name a figure +seems to leap forth from the mist of three centuries, instinct with ruddy +vigorous life. Such was the intense vitality of the Bearnese prince, +that even now he seems more thoroughly alive and recognizable than half +the actual personages who are fretting their hour upon the stage. + +We see, at once, a man of moderate stature, light, sinewy, and strong; a +face browned with continual exposure; small, mirthful, yet commanding +blue eyes, glittering from beneath an arching brow, and prominent +cheekbones; a long hawk's nose, almost resting upon a salient chin, a +pendent moustache, and a thick, brown, curly beard, prematurely grizzled; +we see the mien of frank authority and magnificent good humour, we hear +the ready sallies of the shrewd Gascon mother-wit, we feel the +electricity which flashes out of him, and sets all hearts around him on +fire, when the trumpet sounds to battle. The headlong desperate charge, +the snow-white plume waving where the fire is hottest, the large capacity +for enjoyment of the man, rioting without affectation in the 'certaminis +gaudia', the insane gallop, after the combat, to lay its trophies at the +feet of the Cynthia of the minute, and thus to forfeit its fruits; all +are as familiar to us as if the seven distinct wars, the hundred pitched +battles, the two hundred sieges; in which the Bearnese was personally +present, had been occurrences of our own day. + +He at least was both king and man, if the monarch who occupied the throne +was neither. He was the man to prove, too, for the instruction of the +patient letter-writer of the Escorial, that the crown of France was to be +won with foot in stirrup and carbine in hand, rather than to be caught by +the weaving and casting of the most intricate nets of diplomatic +intrigue, though thoroughly weighted with Mexican gold. + +The King of Navarre was now thirty-one years old; for the three Henrys +were nearly of the same age. The first indications of his existence had +been recognized amid the cannon and trumpets of a camp in Picardy, and +his mother had sung a gay Bearnese song as he was coming into the world +at Pau. Thus, said his grandfather, Henry of Navarre, thou shalt not +bear to us a morose and sulky child. The good king, without a kingdom, +taking the child, as soon as born, in the lappel of his dressing-gown, +had brushed his infant lips with a clove of garlic, and moistened them +with a drop of generous Gascon wine. Thus, said the grandfather again, +shall the boy be both merry and bold. There was something mythologically +prophetic in the incidents of his birth. + +The best part of Navarre had been long since appropriated by Ferdinand of +Aragon. In France there reigned a young and warlike sovereign with four +healthy boys. But the new-born infant had inherited the lilies of France +from St. Louis, and a later ancestor had added to the escutcheon the +motto "Espoir." His grandfather believed that the boy was born to +revenge upon Spain the wrongs of the House of Albret, and Henry's nature +seemed ever. pervaded with Robert of Clermont's device. + +The same sensible grandfather, having different views on the subject of +education from those manifested by Catherine de Medici towards her +children, had the boy taught to run about bare-headed and bare-footed, +like a peasant, among the mountains and rocks of Bearn, till he became as +rugged as a young bear, and as nimble as a kid. Black bread, and beef, +and garlic, were his simple fare; and he was taught by his mother and his +grandfather to hate lies and liars, and to read the Bible. + +When he was fifteen, the third religious war broke out. Both his father +and grandfather were dead. His mother, who had openly professed the +reformed faith, since the death of her husband, who hated it, brought her +boy to the camp at Rochelle, where he was received as the chief of the +Huguenots. His culture was not extensive. He had learned to speak the +truth, to ride, to shoot, to do with little sleep and less food. He +could also construe a little Latin, and had read a few military +treatises; but the mighty hours of an eventful life were now to take him +by the hand, and to teach him much good and much evil, as they bore him +onward. He now saw military treatises expounded practically by +professors, like his uncle Condo, and Admiral Coligny, and Lewis Nassau, +in such lecture-rooms as Laudun, and Jarnac, and Montcontour, and never +was apter scholar. + +The peace of Arnay-le-Duc succeeded, and then the fatal Bartholomew +marriage with the Messalina of Valois. The faith taught in the mountains +of Bearn was no buckler against the demand of "the mass or death," +thundered at his breast by the lunatic Charles, as he pointed to +thousands of massacred Huguenots. Henry yielded to such conclusive +arguments, and became a Catholic. Four years of court imprisonment +succeeded, and the young King of Navarre, though proof to the artifices +of his gossip Guise, was not adamant to the temptations spread for him by +Catherine de' Medici. In the harem entertained for him in the Louvre +many pitfalls entrapped him; and he became a stock-performer in the state +comedies and tragedies of that plotting age. + +A silken web of palace-politics, palace-diplomacy, palace revolutions, +enveloped him. Schemes and counter-schemes, stratagems and conspiracies, +assassinations and poisonings; all the state-machinery which worked so +exquisitely in fair ladies' chambers, to spread havoc and desolation over +a kingdom, were displayed before his eyes. Now campaigning with one +royal brother against Huguenots, now fighting with another on their side, +now solicited by the Queen-Mother to attempt the life of her son, now +implored by Henry III. to assassinate his brother, the Bearnese, as fresh +antagonisms, affinities; combinations, were developed, detected, +neutralized almost daily, became rapidly an adept in Medicean state- +chemistry. Charles IX. in his grave, Henry III. on the throne, Alencon +in the Huguenot camp--Henry at last made his escape. The brief war and +peace of Monsieur succeeded, and the King of Navarre formally abjured the +Catholic creed. The parties were now sharply defined. Guise mounted +upon the League, Henry astride upon the Reformation, were prepared to do +battle to the death. The temporary "war of the amorous" was followed by +the peace of Fleix. + +Four years of peace again; four fat years of wantonness and riot +preceding fourteen hungry famine-stricken years of bloodiest civil war. +The voluptuousness and infamy of the Louvre were almost paralleled in +vice, if not in splendour, by the miniature court at Pau. Henry's +Spartan grandfather would scarce have approved the courses of the youth, +whose education he had commenced on so simple a scale. For Margaret +of Valois, hating her husband, and living in most undisguised and +promiscuous infidelity to him, had profited by her mother's lessons. +A seraglio of maids of honour ministered to Henry's pleasures, and were +carefully instructed that the peace and war of the kingdom were +playthings in their hands. While at Paris royalty was hopelessly sinking +in a poisonous marsh, there was danger that even the hardy nature of the +Bearnese would be mortally enervated by the atmosphere in which he lived. + +The unhappy Henry III., baited by the Guises, worried by Alencon and his +mother, implored the King of Navarre to return to Paris and the Catholic +faith. M. de Segur, chief of Navarre's council, who had been won over +during a visit to the capital, where he had made the discovery that +"Henry III. was an angel, and his ministers devils," came back to Pau, +urging his master's acceptance of the royal invitation. Henry wavered. +Bold D'Aubigne, stanchest of Huguenots, and of his friends, next day +privately showed Segur a palace-window opening on a very steep precipice +over the Bayae, and cheerfully assured him that he should be flung from +it did he not instantly reverse his proceedings, and give his master +different advice. If I am not able to do the deed myself, said +D'Aubigne, here are a dozen more to help me. The chief of the council +cast a glance behind him, saw a number of grim Puritan soldiers, with +their hats plucked down upon their brows, looking very serious; so made +his bow, and quite changed his line of conduct. + +At about the same time, Philip II. confidentially offered Henry of +Navarre four hundred thousand crowns in hand, and twelve hundred thousand +yearly, if he would consent to make war upon Henry III. Mucio, or the +Duke of Guise, being still in Philip's pay, the combination of Leaguers +and Huguenots against the unfortunate Valois would, it was thought, be a +good triangular contest. + +But Henry--no longer the unsophisticated youth who had been used to run +barefoot among the cliffs of Coarasse--was grown too crafty a politician +to be entangled by Spanish or Medicean wiles. The Duke of Anjou was now +dead. Of all the princes who had stood between him and the throne, there +was none remaining save the helpless, childless, superannuated youth, who +was its present occupant. The King of Navarre was legitimate heir to the +crown of France. "Espoir" was now in letters of light upon his shield, +but he knew that his path to greatness led through manifold dangers, and +that it was only at the head of his Huguenot chivalry that he could cut +his way. He was the leader of the nobles of Gascony, and Dauphins, and +Guienne, in their mountain fastnesses, of the weavers, cutlers, and +artizans, in their thriving manufacturing and trading towns. It was not +Spanish gold, but carbines and cutlasses, bows and bills, which could +bring him to the throne of his ancestors. + +And thus he stood the chieftain of that great austere party of Huguenots, +the men who went on, their knees before the battle, beating their breasts +with their iron gauntlets, and singing in full chorus a psalm of David, +before smiting the Philistines hip and thigh. + +Their chieftain, scarcely their representative--fit to lead his Puritans +on the battle-field, was hardly a model for them elsewhere. Yet, though +profligate in one respect, he was temperate in every other. In food, +wine, and sleep, he was always moderate. Subtle and crafty in self- +defence, he retained something of his old love of truth, of his hatred +for liars. Hardly generous perhaps, he was a friend of justice, while +economy in a wandering King, like himself, was a necessary virtue, of +which France one day was to feel the beneficent action. Reckless and +headlong in appearance, he was in truth the most careful of men. On the +religious question, most cautious of all, he always left the door open +behind him, disclaimed all bigotry of opinion, and earnestly implored the +Papists to seek, not his destruction, but his instruction. Yet prudent +as he was by nature in every other regard, he was all his life the slave +of one woman or another, and it was by good luck rather than by sagacity +that he did not repeatedly forfeit the fruits of his courage and conduct, +in obedience to his master-passion. + +Always open to conviction on the subject of his faith, he repudiated the +appellation of heretic. A creed, he said, was not to be changed like a +shirt, but only on due deliberation, and under special advice. In his +secret heart he probably regarded the two religions as his chargers, and +was ready to mount alternately the one or the other, as each seemed the +more likely to bear him safely in the battle. The Bearnese was no +Puritan, but he was most true to himself and to his own advancement. His +highest principle of action was to reach his goal, and to that principle +he was ever loyal. Feeling, too, that it was the interest of France that +he should succeed, he was even inspired--compared with others on the +stage--by an almost lofty patriotism. + +Amiable by nature and by habit, he had preserved the most unimpaired +good-humour throughout the horrible years which succeeded St. +Bartholomew, during which he carried his life in his hand, and learned +not to wear his heart upon his sleeve. Without gratitude, without +resentment, without fear, without remorse, entirely arbitrary, yet with +the capacity to use all men's judgments; without convictions, save in +regard to his dynastic interests, he possessed all the qualities, +necessary to success. He knew how to use his enemies. He knew how to +use his friends, to abuse them, and to throw them away. He refused to +assassinate Francis Alencon at the bidding of Henry III., but he +attempted to procure the murder of the truest of his own friends, one of +the noblest characters of the age--whose breast showed twelve scars +received in his services--Agrippa D'Aubigne, because the honest soldier +had refused to become his pimp--a service the King had implored upon his +knees. + +Beneath the mask of perpetual careless good-humour, lurked the keenest +eye, a subtle, restless, widely combining brain, and an iron will. +Native sagacity had been tempered into consummate elasticity by the fiery +atmosphere in which feebler natures had been dissolved. His wit was as +flashing and as quickly unsheathed as his sword. Desperate, apparently +reckless temerity on the battle-field was deliberately indulged in, that +the world might be brought to recognise a hero and chieftain in a King. +The do-nothings of the Merovingian line had been succeeded by the Pepins; +to the effete Carlovingians had come a Capet; to the impotent Valois +should come a worthier descendant of St. Louis. This was shrewd Gascon +calculation, aided by constitutional fearlessness. When despatch- +writing, invisible Philips, stargazing Rudolphs, and petticoated Henrys, +sat upon the thrones of Europe, it was wholesome to show the world that +there was a King left who could move about in the bustle and business of +the age, and could charge as well as most soldiers at the head of his +cavalry; that there was one more sovereign fit to reign over men, besides +the glorious Virgin who governed England. + +Thus courageous, crafty, far-seeing, consistent, untiring, imperturbable, +he was born to command, and had a right to reign. He had need of the +throne, and the throne had still more need of him. + +This then was the third Henry, representative of the third side of the +triangle, the reformers of the kingdom. + +And before this bubbling cauldron of France, where intrigues, foreign and +domestic, conflicting ambitions, stratagems, and hopes, were whirling in +never-ceasing tumult, was it strange if the plain Netherland envoys +should stand somewhat aghast? + +Yet it was necessary that they should ponder well the aspect of affairs; +for all their hopes, the very existence of themselves and of their +religion, depended upon the organization which should come of this chaos. + +It must be remembered, however, that those statesmen--even the wisest or +the best-informed of them--could not take so correct a view of France and +its politics as it is possible for us, after the lapse of three +centuries, to do. The interior leagues, subterranean schemes, +conflicting factions, could only be guessed at; nor could the immediate +future be predicted, even by such far-seeing politicians as William of +Orange; at a distance, or Henry of Navarre, upon the spot. + +It was obvious to the Netherlanders that France, although torn by +faction, was a great and powerful realm. There had now been, with the +brief exception of the lovers' war in 1580, a religious peace of eight +years' duration. The Huguenots had enjoyed tranquil exercise of their +worship during that period, and they expressed perfect confidence in the +good faith of the King. That the cities were inordinately taxed to +supply the luxury of the court could hardly be unknown to the +Netherlanders. Nevertheless they knew that the kingdom was the richest +and most populous of Christendom, after that of Spain. Its capital, +already called by contemporaries the "compendium of the world," was +described by travellers as "stupendous in extent and miraculous for its +numbers." It was even said to contain eight hundred thousand souls; and +although, its actual population did not probably exceed three hundred and +twenty thousand, yet this was more than double the number of London's +inhabitants, and thrice as many as Antwerp could then boast, now that a +great proportion of its foreign denizens had been scared away. Paris was +at least by one hundred thousand more populous than any city of Europe, +except perhaps the remote and barbarous Moscow, while the secondary +cities of France, Rouen in the north, Lyons in the centre, and Marseilles +in the south, almost equalled in size, business, wealth, and numbers, the +capitals of other countries. In the whole kingdom were probably ten or +twelve millions of inhabitants, nearly as many as in Spain, without her +colonies, and perhaps three times the number that dwelt in England. + +In a military point of view, too, the alliance of France was most +valuable to the contiguous Netherlands. A few regiments of French +troops, under the command of one of their experienced Marshals, could +block up the Spaniards in the Walloon Provinces, effectually stop their +operations against Ghent, Antwerp, and the other great cities of Flanders +and Brabant, and, with the combined action of the United Provinces on the +north, so surround and cripple the forces of Parma, as to reduce the +power of Philip, after a few vigorous and well-concerted blows, to an +absolute nullity in, the Low Countries. As this result was of as vital +importance to the real interests of France and of Europe, whether +Protestant or Catholic, as it was to the Provinces, and as the French +government had privately manifested a strong desire to oppose the +progress of Spain towards universal empire, it was not surprising that +the States General, not feeling capable of standing alone, should make +their application to France. This they had done with the knowledge and +concurrence of the English government. What lay upon the surface the +Netherland statesmen saw and pondered well. What lurked beneath, they +surmised as shrewdly as they could, but it was impossible, with plummet +and fathom-line ever in hand, to sound the way with perfect accuracy, +where the quicksands were ever shifting, and the depth or shallowness of +the course perpetually varying. It was not easy to discover the +intentions of a government which did not know its own intentions, and +whose changing policy was controlled by so many hidden currents. + +Moreover, as already indicated, the envoys and those whom they +represented had not the same means of arriving at a result as are granted +to us. Thanks to the liberality of many modern governments of Europe, +the archives where the state-secrets of the buried centuries have so +long mouldered, are now open to the student of history. To him who +has patience and industry many mysteries are thus revealed, which no +political sagacity or critical acumen could have divined. He leans over +the shoulder of Philip the Second at his writing-table, as the King +spells patiently out, with cipher-key in hand, the most concealed +hieroglyphics of Parma or Guise or Mendoza. He reads the secret thoughts +of "Fabius,"--[The name usually assigned to Philip himself in the Paris- +Simancas Correspondence.]--as that cunctative Roman scrawls his marginal +apostilles on each despatch; he pries into all the stratagems of +Camillus, Hortensius, Mucius, Julius, Tullius, and the rest of those +ancient heroes who lent their names to the diplomatic masqueraders of +the 16th century; he enters the cabinet of the deeply-pondering Burghley, +and takes from the most private drawer the memoranda which record that +minister's unutterable doubtings; he pulls from the dressing-gown folds +of the stealthy, softly-gliding Walsingham the last secret which he has +picked from the Emperor's pigeon-holes, or the Pope's pocket, and which, +not Hatton, nor Buckhurst, nor Leicester, nor the Lord Treasurer, is to +see; nobody but Elizabeth herself; he sits invisible at the most secret +councils of the Nassaus and Barneveldt and Buys, or pores with Farnese +over coming victories, and vast schemes of universal conquest; he reads +the latest bit of scandal, the minutest characteristic of king or +minister, chronicled by the gossiping Venetians for the edification of +the Forty; and, after all this prying and eavesdropping, having seen the +cross-purposes, the bribings, the windings, the fencings in the dark, he +is not surprised, if those who were systematically deceived did not +always arrive at correct conclusions. + +Noel de Caron, Seigneur de Schoneval, had been agent of the States at the +French court at the time of the death of the Duke of Anjou. Upon the +occurrence of that event, La Mouillerie and Asseliers were deputed by the +Provinces to King Henry III., in order to offer him the sovereignty, +which they had intended to confer upon his brother. Meantime that +brother, just before his death, and with the privity of Henry, had been +negotiating for a marriage with the younger daughter of Philip II.--an +arrangement somewhat incompatible with his contemporaneous scheme to +assume the sovereignty of Philip's revolted Provinces. An attempt had +been made at the same time to conciliate the Duke of Savoy, and invite +him to the French court; but the Duc de Joyeuse, then on his return from +Turin, was bringing the news, not only that the match with Anjou was not +favored--which, as Anjou was dead, was of no great consequence--but that +the Duke of Savoy was himself to espouse the Infanta, and was therefore +compelled to decline the invitation to Paris, for fear of offending his +father-in-law. Other matters were in progress, to be afterwards +indicated, very much interfering with the negotiations of the Netherland +envoys. + +When La Mouillerie and Asseliers arrived at Rouen, on their road from +Dieppe to Paris, they received a peremptory order from the Queen-Mother +to proceed no farther. This prohibition was brought by an unofficial +personage, and was delivered, not to them, but to Des Pruneaux, French +envoy to the States General, who had accompanied the envoys to France. + +After three weeks' time, during which they "kept themselves continually +concealed in Rouen," there arrived in that city a young nephew of +Secretary Brulart, who brought letters empowering him to hear what they +had in charge for the King. The envoys, not much flattered by such +cavalier treatment on the part of him to, whom they were offering a +crown, determined to digest the affront as they best might, and, to save +time, opened the whole business to this subordinate stripling. He +received from them accordingly an ample memoir to be laid before his +Majesty, and departed by the post the same night. Then they waited ten +days longer, concealed as if they had been thieves or spies, rather than +the representatives of a friendly power, on a more than friendly errand. + +At last, on the 24th July 1854, after the deputies had been thus shut up +a whole month, Secretary Brulart himself arrived from Fontainebleau. + +He stated that the King sent his royal thanks to the States for the offer +which they had made him, and to the deputies in particular for taking the +trouble of so long a journey; but that he did not find his realm in +condition to undertake a foreign war so inopportunely. In every other +regard, his Majesty offered the States "all possible favours and +pleasures." + +Certainly, after having been thus kept in prison for a month, the +ambassadors had small cause to be contented with this very cold +communication. To be forbidden the royal presence, and to be turned out +of the country without even an official and accredited answer to a +communication in which they had offered the sovereignty of their +fatherland, was not flattering to their dignity. "We little thought," +said they to Brulart, after a brief consultation among themselves, "to +receive such a reply as this. It displeases us infinitely that his +Majesty will not do us the honour to grant us an audience. We must take +the liberty of saying, that 'tis treating the States, our masters, with +too much contempt. Who ever heard before of refusing audience to public +personages? Kings often grant audience to mere letter-carriers. Even +the King of Spain never refused a hearing to the deputies from the +Netherlands when they came to Spain to complain of his own government. +The States General have sent envoys to many other kinds and princes, and +they have instantly granted audience in every case. His Majesty, too, +has been very ill-informed of the contracts which we formerly made with +the Duke of Anjou, and therefore a personal interview is the more +necessary." As the envoys were obstinate on the point of Paris, Brulart +said "that the King, although he should himself be at Lyons, would not +prevent any one from going to the capital on his own private affairs; but +would unquestionably take it very ill if, they should visit that city in +a public manner, and as deputies." + +Des Pruneaux professed himself "very grievous at this result, and +desirous of a hundred deaths in consequence." + +They stated that they should be ready within a month to bring an army of +3,000 horse and 13,000 foot into the field for the relief of Ghent, +besides their military operations against Zutphen; and that the enemy had +recently been ignominiously defeated in his attack upon Fort Lille, and +had lost 2,000 of his best soldiers. + +Here were encouraging facts; and it certainly was worth the while of the +French sovereign to pause a moment before rejecting without a hearing, +the offer of such powerful and conveniently-situated provinces. + +Des Pruneaux, a man of probity and earnestness, but perhaps of +insufficient ability to deal with such grave matters as now fell almost +entirely upon his shoulders, soon afterwards obtained audience of the +King. Being most sincerely in favour of the annexation of the +Netherlands to France, and feeling that now or never was the opportunity +of bringing it about, he persuaded the King to send him back to the +Provinces, in order to continue the negotiation directly with the States +General. The timidity and procrastination of the court could be overcome +no further. + +The two Dutch envoys, who had stolen secretly to Paris, were indulged in +a most barren and unmeaning interview with the Queen-Mother. Before +their departure from France, however, they had the advantage of much +conversation with leading members of the royal council, of the +parliaments of Paris and Rouen, and also with various persons professing +the reformed religion. They endeavoured thus to inform themselves, as +well as they could, why the King made so much difficulty in accepting +their propositions, and whether, and by what means, his Majesty could be +induced to make war in their behalf upon the King of Spain. + +They were informed that, should Holland and Zeeland unite with the rest +of the Netherlands, the King "without any doubt would undertake the cause +most earnestly." His councillors, also--even those who had been most +active in dissuading his Majesty from such a policy--would then be +unanimous in supporting the annexation of the Provinces and the war with +Spain. In such a contingency, with the potent assistance of Holland and +Zeeland, the King would have little difficulty, within a very short time, +in chasing every single Spaniard out of the Netherlands. To further this +end, many leading personages in France avowed to the envoys their +determination "to venture their lives and their fortunes, and to use all +the influence which they possessed at court." + +The same persons expressed their conviction that the King, once satisfied +by the Provinces as to conditions and reasons, would cheerfully go into +the war, without being deterred by any apprehension as to the power of +Spain. It was, however, fitting that each Province should chaffer as +little as possible about details, but should give his Majesty every +reasonable advantage. They should remember that they were dealing with +"a great, powerful monarch, who was putting his realm in jeopardy, and +not with a Duke of Anjou, who had every thing to gain and nothing to +lose." + +All the Huguenots, with whom the envoys conversed, were excessively +sanguine. Could the King be once brought they said, to promise the +Netherlands his protection, there was not the least fear but that he +would keep his word. He would use all the means within his power; "yea, +he would take the crown from his head," rather than turn back. Although +reluctant to commence a war with so powerful a sovereign, having once +promised his help, he would keep his pledge to the utmost, "for he was a +King of his word," and had never broken and would never break his faith +with those of the reformed religion. + +Thus spoke the leading Huguenots of France, in confidential communication +with the Netherland envoys, not many months before the famous edict of +extermination, published at Nemours. + +At that moment the reformers were full of confidence; not foreseeing the +long procession of battles and sieges which was soon to sweep through the +land. Notwithstanding the urgency of the Papists for their extirpation, +they extolled loudly the liberty of religious worship which Calvinists, +as well as Catholics, were enjoying in France, and pointed to the fact +that the adherents of both religions were well received at court, and +that they shared equally in offices of trust and dignity throughout the +kingdom. + +The Netherland envoys themselves bore testimony to the undisturbed +tranquillity and harmony in which the professors of both religions were +living and worshipping side by side "without reproach or quarrel" in all +the great cities which they had visited. They expressed the conviction +that the same toleration would be extended to all the Provinces when +under French dominion; and, so far as their ancient constitutions and +privileges were concerned, they were assured that the King of France +would respect and maintain them with as much fidelity as the States could +possibly desire. + +Des Pruneaux, accompanied by the two States' envoys, departed forthwith +for the Netherlands. On the 24th August, 1584 he delivered a discourse +before the States General, in which he disclosed, in very general terms, +the expectations of Henry III., and intimated very clearly that the +different Provinces were to lose no time in making an unconditional offer +to that monarch. With regard to Holland and Zeeland he observed that he +was provided with a special commission to those Estates. It was not long +before one Province after the other came to the conclusion to offer the +sovereignty to the King without written conditions, but with a general +understanding that their religious freedom and their ancient +constitutions were to be sacredly respected. Meantime, Des Pruneaux made +his appearance in Holland and Zeeland, and declared the King's intentions +of espousing the cause of the States, and of accepting the sovereignty of +all the Provinces. He distinctly observed, however, that it was as +sovereign, not as protector, that his Majesty must be recognised in +Holland and Zeeland, as well as in the rest of the country. + +Upon this grave question there was much debate and much difference of +opinion. Holland and Zeeland had never contemplated the possibility of +accepting any foreign sovereignty, and the opponents of the present +scheme were loud and angry, but very reasonable in their remarks. + +The French, they said, were no respecters of privileges nor of persons. +The Duke of Anjou had deceived William of Orange and betrayed the +Provinces. Could they hope to see farther than that wisest and most +experienced prince? Had not the stout hearts of the Antwerp burghers +proved a stronger defence to Brabant liberties than the "joyous entry" on +the dread day of the "French fury," it would have fared ill then and for +ever with the cause of freedom and religion in the Netherlands. The King +of France was a Papist, a Jesuit. He was incapable of keeping his +pledges. Should they make the arrangement now proposed and confer the +sovereignty upon him, he would forthwith make peace with Spain, and +transfer the Provinces back to that crown in exchange for the duchy of +Milan, which France had ever coveted. The Netherlands, after a quarter +of a century of fighting in defence of their hearths and altars, would +find themselves handed over again, bound and fettered, to the tender +mercies of the Spanish Inquisition. + +The Kings of France and of Spain always acted in concert, for religion +was the most potent of bonds. Witness the sacrifice of thousands of +French soldiers to Alva by their own sovereign at Mons, witness the fate +of Genlis, witness the bloody night of St. Bartholomew, witness the +Antwerp fury. Men cited and relied upon the advice of William of Orange +as to this negotiation with France. But Orange never dreamed of going so +far as now proposed. He was ever careful to keep the Provinces of +Holland and Zeeland safe from every foreign master. That spot was to be +holy ground. Not out of personal ambition. God forbid that they, should +accuse his memory of any such impurity, but because he wished one safe +refuge for the spirit of freedom. + +Many years long they had held out by land and sea against the Spaniards, +and should they now, because this Des Pruneaux shrugged his shoulders, be +so alarmed as to open the door to the same Spaniard wearing the disguise +of a Frenchman? + +Prince Maurice also made a brief representation to the States' Assembly +of Holland, in which, without distinctly opposing the negotiation with +France, he warned them not to proceed too hastily with so grave a matter. +He reminded them how far they had gone in the presentation of the +sovereignty to his late father, and requested them, in their dealings +with France, not to forget his interests and those of his family. He +reminded them of the position of that family, overladen with debt +contracted in their service alone. He concluded by offering most +affectionately his service in any way in which he, young and +inexperienced as he knew himself to be, might be thought useful; as he +was long since resolved to devote his life to the welfare of his country. + +These passionate appeals were answered with equal vehemence by those who +had made up their minds to try the chances of the French sovereignty. +Des Pruneaux, meanwhile, was travelling from province to province, and +from city to city, using the arguments which have already been +sufficiently indicated, and urging a speedy compliance with the French +King's propositions. At the same time, in accordance with his +instructions, he was very cautious to confine himself to generalities, +and to avoid hampering his royal master with the restrictions which had +proved so irksome to the Duke of Anjou. + +"The States General demanded a copy of my speech," he wrote the day after +that harangue had been delivered, "but I only gave them a brief outline; +extending myself [25th August, 1584] as little as I possibly could, +according to the intention and command of your Majesty. When I got here, +I found them without hope of our assistance, and terribly agitated by the +partizans of Spain. There was some danger of their going over in a panic +to the enemy. They are now much changed again, and the Spanish partizans +are beginning to lose their tongues. I invite them, if they intend to +address your Majesty, to proceed as they ought towards a veritably grand +monarch, without hunting up any of their old quibbles, or reservations of +provinces, or any thing else which could inspire suspicion. I have sent +into Gelderland and Friesland, for I find I must stay here in Holland and +Zeeland myself. These two provinces are the gates and ramparts through +which we must enter. 'Tis, in my opinion, what could be called superb, +to command all the sea, thus subject to the crown of France. And France, +too, with assistance of this country, will command the land as well. +They are much astonished here, however, that I communicate nothing of the +intention of your Majesty. They say that if your Majesty does not accept +this offer of their country, your Majesty puts the rope around their +necks." + +The French envoy was more and more struck with the brilliancy of the +prize offered to his master. "If the King gets these Provinces," said he +to Catharine, "'t will be the most splendid inheritance which Prince has +ever conquered." + +In a very few weeks the assiduity of the envoy and of the French party +was successful. All the other provinces had very soon repeated the offer +which they had previously made through Asseliers and La Mouillerie. By +the beginning of October the opposition of Holland was vanquished. The +estates of that Province--three cities excepted, however--determined "to +request England and France to assume a joint protectorate over the +Netherlands. In case the King of France should refuse this proposition, +they were then ready to receive him as prince and master, with knowledge +and consent of the Queen of England, and on such conditions as the United +States should approve." + +Immediately afterwards, the General Assembly of all the States determined +to offer the sovereignty to King Henry "on conditions to be afterwards +settled." + +Des Pruneaux, thus triumphant, received a gold chain of the value of two +thousand florins, and departed before the end of October for France. + +The departure of the solemn embassy to that country, for the purpose of +offering the sovereignty to the King, was delayed till the beginning of +January. Meantime it is necessary to cast a glance at the position of +England in relation to these important transactions. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Diplomatic adroitness consists mainly in the power to deceive +Enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists +Find our destruction in our immoderate desire for peace +German-Lutheran sixteenth-century idea of religious freedom +Intentions of a government which did not know its own intentions +Lord was better pleased with adverbs than nouns +Make sheep of yourselves, and the wolf will eat you +Necessity of kingship +Neighbour's blazing roof was likely soon to fire their own +Nor is the spirit of the age to be pleaded in defence +Pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law +Seem as if born to make the idea of royalty ridiculous +Shutting the stable-door when the steed is stolen +String of homely proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza +The very word toleration was to sound like an insult +There was apathy where there should have been enthusiasm +Tranquillity rather of paralysis than of health +Write so illegibly or express himself so awkwardly + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1584 *** + +************ This file should be named 4837.txt or 4837.zip ************ + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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