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diff --git a/4845.txt b/4845.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aefcc1b --- /dev/null +++ b/4845.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1784 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of the United Netherlands, 1586 +#45 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, 1586 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4845] +[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 UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1586 *** + + + +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 45 + +History United Netherlands, Volume 45, 1586 + + + +CHAPTER VII., Part 2. + + Leicester's Letters to his Friends--Paltry Conduct of the Earl to + Davison--He excuses himself at Davison's Expense--His Letter to + Burghley--Effect of the Queen's Letters to the States--Suspicion and + Discontent in Holland--States excuse their Conduct to the Queen-- + Leicester discredited in Holland--Evil Consequences to Holland and + England--Magic: Effect of a Letter from Leicester--The Queen + appeased--Her Letters to the States and the Earl--She permits the + granted Authority----Unhappy Results of the Queen's Course--Her + variable Moods--She attempts to deceive Walsingham--Her Injustice to + Heneage--His Perplexity and Distress--Humiliating Position of + Leicester--His melancholy Letters to the Queen--He receives a little + Consolation--And writes more cheerfully--The Queen is more + benignant--The States less contented than the Earl--His Quarrels + with them begin. + +While these storms were blowing and "overblowing" in England, Leicester +remained greatly embarrassed and anxious in Holland. He had sown the +wind more extensively than he had dreamed of when accepting the +government, and he was now awaiting, with much trepidation, the usual +harvest: And we have seen that it was rapidly ripening. Meantime, the +good which he had really effected in the Provinces by the course he had +taken was likely to be neutralized by the sinister rumours as to his +impending disgrace, while the enemy was proportionally encouraged. +"I understand credibly," he said, "that the Prince of Parma feels himself +in great jollity that her Majesty doth rather mislike than allow of our +doings here, which; if it be true, let her be sure her own sweet self +shall first smart." + +Moreover; the English troops were, as we have seen, mere shoeless, +shivering, starving vagabonds. The Earl had generously advanced very +large sums of money from his own pocket to relieve their necessity. The +States, on the other hand, had voluntarily increased the monthly +contribution of 200,000 florins, to which their contract with Elizabeth +obliged them, and were more disposed than ever they had been since the +death of Orange to proceed vigorously and harmoniously against the common +enemy of Christendom. Under such circumstances it may well be imagined +that there was cause on Leicester's part for deep mortification at the +tragical turn which the Queen's temper seemed to be taking. + +"I know not," he said, "how her Majesty doth mean to dispose of me. +It hath grieved me more than I can express that for faithful and good +service she should so deeply conceive against me. God knows with what +mind I have served her Highness, and perhaps some others might have +failed. Yet she is neither tied one jot by covenant or promise by me in +any way, nor at one groat the more charges, but myself two or three +thousand pounds sterling more than now is like to be well spent. I will +desire no partial speech in my favour. If my doings be ill for her +Majesty and the realm, let me feel the smart of it. The cause is now +well forward; let not her majesty suffer it to quail. If you will have +it proceed to good effect, send away Sir William Pelham with all the +haste you can. I mean not to complain, but with so weighty a cause as +this is, few men have been so weakly assisted. Her Majesty hath far +better choice for my place, and with any that may succeed me let Sir +William Pelham be first that may come. I speak from my soul for her +Majesty's service. I am for myself upon an hour's warning to obey her +good pleasure." + +Thus far the Earl had maintained his dignity. He had yielded to the +solicitations of the States, and had thereby exceeded his commission, and +gratified his ambition, but he had in no wise forfeited his self-respect. +But--so soon as the first unquestionable intelligence of the passion to +which the Queen had given way at his misdoings reached him--he began to +whimper, The straightforward tone which Davison had adopted in his +interviews with Elizabeth, and the firmness with which he had defended +the cause of his absent friend, at a moment when he had plunged himself +into disgrace, was worthy of applause. He deserved at least a word of +honest thanks. + +Ignoble however was the demeanor of the Earl towards the man--for whom +he had but recently been unable to invent eulogies sufficiently warm-- +so soon as he conceived the possibility of sacrificing his friend as the +scape-goat for his own fault. An honest schoolboy would have scorned to +leave thus in the lurch a comrade who had been fighting his battles so +honestly. + +"How earnest I was," he wrote to the lords of the council, 9th March, +1586, "not only to acquaint her Majesty, but immediately upon the first +motion made by the States, to send Mr. Davison over to her with letters, +I doubt not but he will truly affirm for me; yea, and how far against my +will it was, notwithstanding any reasons delivered me, that he and others +persisted in, to have me accept first of this place . . . . . The +extremity of the case, and my being persuaded that Mr. Davison might have +better satisfied her Majesty, than I perceive he can, caused, me-neither +arrogantly nor contemptuously, but even merely and faithfully--to do her +Majesty the best service." + +He acknowledged, certainly, that Davison had been influenced by honest +motives, although his importunities had been the real cause of the Earl's +neglect of his own obligations. But he protested that he had himself, +only erred through an excessive pliancy to the will of others. "My +yielding was my own fault," he admitted, "whatsoever his persuasions; +but far from a contemptuous heart, or else God pluck out both heart and +bowels with utter shame." + +So soon as Sir Thomas Heneage had presented himself, and revealed the +full extent of the Queen's wrath, the Earl's disposition to cast the +whole crime on the shoulders of Davison became quite undisguised. + +"I thank you for your letters," wrote Leicester to Walsingham, "though +you can send me no comfort. Her Majesty doth deal hardly to believe so +ill of me. It is true I faulted, but she doth not consider what +commodities she hath withal, and herself no way engaged for it, as Mr. +Davison might have better declared it, if it had pleased him. And I +must thank him only for my blame, and so he will confess to you, for, +I protest before God, no necessity here could have made me leave her +Majesty unacquainted with the cause before I would have accepted of it, +but only his so earnest pressing me with his faithfid assured promise to +discharge me, however her Majesty should take it. For you all see there +she had no other cause to be offended but this, and, by the Lord, he was +the only cause; albeit it is no sufficient allegation, being as I am . . +. . . He had, I think, saved all to have told her, as he promised me. +But now it is laid upon me, God send the cause to take no harm, my grief +must be the less. + +"How far Mr. Heneage's commission shall deface me I know not. He is wary +to observe his commission, and I consent withal. I know the time will be +her Majesty will be sorry for it. In the meantime I am too, too weary of +the high dignity. I would that any that could serve her Majesty were +placed in it, and I to sit down with all my losses." + +In more manful strain he then alluded to the sufferings of his army. +"Whatsoever become of me," he said, "give me leave to speak for the poor +soldiers. If they be not better maintained, being in this strange +country, there will be neither good service done, nor be without great +dishonour to her Majesty . . . . . Well, you see the wants, and it +is one cause that will glad me to be rid of this heavy high calling, and +wish me at my poor cottage again, if any I shall find. But let her +Majesty pay them well, and appoint such a man as Sir William Pelham to +govern them, and she never wan more honour than these men here will do, +I am persuaded." + +That the Earl was warmly urged by all most conversant with Netherland +politics to assume the government was a fact admitted by all. That he +manifested rather eagerness than reluctance on the subject, and that his +only hesitation arose from the proposed restraints upon the power, not +from scruples about accepting the power, are facts upon record. There +is nothing save his own assertion to show any backwardness on his part +to snatch the coveted prize; and that assertion was flatly denied by +Davison, and was indeed refuted by every circumstance in the case. It +is certain that he had concealed from Davison the previous prohibitions +of the Queen. He could anticipate much better than could Davison, +therefore, the probable indignation of the Queen. It is strange then +that he should have shut his eyes to it so wilfully, and stranger still +that he should have relied on the envoy's eloquence instead of his own to +mitigate that emotion. Had he placed his defence simply upon its true +basis, the necessity of the case, and the impossibility of carrying out +the Queen's intentions in any other way, it would be difficult to censure +him; but that he should seek to screen himself by laying the whole blame +on a subordinate, was enough to make any honest man who heard him hang +his head. "I meant not to do it, but Davison told me to do it, please +your Majesty, and if there was naughtiness in it, he said he would make +it all right with your Majesty." Such, reduced to its simplest +expression, was the defence of the magnificent Earl of Leicester. + +And as he had gone cringing and whining to his royal mistress, so it was +natural that he should be brutal and blustering to his friend. + +"By your means," said he, "I have fallen into her Majesty's deep +displeasure . . . . . If you had delivered to her the truth of my +dealing, her Highness never could have conceived, as I perceive she doth +. . . . . Nor doth her Majesty know how hardly I was drawn to accept +this place before I had acquainted her--as to which you promised you +would not only give her full satisfaction, but would, procure me great +thanks. . . . . You did chiefly persuade me to take this charge upon me +. . . . You can remember how many treaties you and others had with the +States, before I agreed; for all yours and their persuasion to take it +. . . . . You gave me assurance to satisfy her Majesty, but I see not +that you have done anything . . . . I did not hide from you the doubt +I had of her Majesty's ill taking it . . . . . You chiefly brought me +into it . . . . and it could no way have been heavy to you, though you +had told the uttermost of your own doing, as you faithfully promised you +would . . . . . I did very unwillingly come into the matter, doubting +that to fall out which is come to pass . . . . and it doth so fall out +by your negligent carelessness, whereof I many hundred times told you +that you would both mar the goodness of the matter, and breed me her +Majesty's displeasure . . . . . Thus fare you well, and except your +embassages have better success, I shall have no cause to commend them." + +And so was the unfortunate Davison ground into finest dust between the +upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency. + +Meantime the other special envoy had made his appearance in the +Netherlands; the other go-between between the incensed Queen and the +backsliding favourite. It has already been made sufficiently obvious, +by the sketch given of his instructions, that his mission was a delicate +one. In obedience to those instructions, Heneage accordingly made his +appearance before the council, and, in Leicester's presence, delivered to +them the severe and biting reprimand which Elizabeth had chosen to +inflict upon the States and upon the governor. The envoy performed his +ungracious task as daintily, as he could, and after preliminary +consultation with Leicester; but the proud Earl was deeply mortified." +The fourteenth day of this month of March," said he, "Sir Thomas Heneage +delivered a very sharp letter from her Majesty to the council of estate, +besides his message--myself being, present, for so was her Majesty's +pleasure, as he said, and I do think he did but as he was commanded. How +great a grief it must be to an honest heart and a true, faithful servant, +before his own face, to a company of very wise and grave counsellors, who +had conceived a marvellous opinion before of my credit with her Majesty, +to be charged now with a manifest and wilful contempt! Matter enough to +have broken any man's heart, that looked rather for thanks, as God doth +know I did when I first heard of Mr. Heneage's arrival--I must say to +your Lordship, for discharge of my duty, I can be no fit man to serve +here--my disgrace is too great--protesting to you that since that day I +cannot find it in my heart to come into that place, where, by my own +sufferings torn, I was made to be thought so lewd a person." + +He then comforted himself--as he had a right to do--with the reflection +that this disgrace inflicted was more than he deserved, and that such +would be the opinion of those by whom he was surrounded. + +"Albeit one thing," he said, "did greatly comfort me, that they all best +knew the wrong was great I had, and that her Majesty was very wrongfully +informed of the state of my cause. I doubt not but they can and will +discharge me, howsoever they shall satisfy her Majesty. And as I would +rather wish for death than justly to deserve her displeasure; so, good my +Lord, this disgrace not coming for any ill service to her, pray procure +me a speedy resolution, that I may go hide me and pray for her. My heart +is broken, though thus far I can quiet myself, that I know I have done +her Majesty as faithful and good service in these countries as ever she +had done her since she was Queen of England . . . . . Under +correction, my good Lord, I have had Halifax law--to be condemned first +and inquired upon after. I pray God that no man find this measure that I +have done, and deserved no worse." + +He defended himself--as Davison had already defended him--upon the +necessities of the case. + +"I, a poor gentleman," he said, "who have wholly depended upon herself +alone--and now, being commanded to a service of the greatest importance +that ever her Majesty employed any servant in, and finding the occasion +so serving me, and the necessity of time such as would not permit such +delays, flatly seeing that if that opportunity were lost, the like again +for her service and the good of the realm was never, to be looked for, +presuming upon the favour of my prince, as many servants have done, +exceeding somewhat thereupon, rather than breaking any part of my +commission, taking upon me a place whereby I found these whole countries +could be held at her best devotion, without binding her Majesty to any +such matter as she had forbidden to the States before finding, I say, +both the time and opportunity to serve, and no lack but to trust to her +gracious acceptation, I now feel that how good, how honourable, how +profitable soever it be, it is turned to a worse part than if I had +broken all her commissions and commandments, to the greatest harm, and +dishonour, and danger, that may be imagined against her person, state, +and dignity." + +He protested, not without a show of reason, that he was like to be worse +punished "for well-doing than any man that had committed a most heinous +or traitorous offence," and he maintained that if he had not accepted the +government, as he had done, "the whole State had been gone and wholly +lost." All this--as we have seen--had already been stoutly urged by +Davison, in the very face of the tempest, but with no result, except to +gain the, enmity of both parties to the quarrel. The ungrateful +Leicester now expressed confidence that the second go-between would be +more adroit than the first had proved. "The causes why," said he, "Mr. +Davison could have told--no man better--but Mr. Heneage can now tell, who +hath sought to the uttermost the bottom of all things. I will stand to +his report, whether glory or vain desire of title caused me to step one +foot forward in the matter. My place was great enough and high enough +before, with much less trouble than by this, besides the great +indignation of her Majesty . . . . . If I had overslipt the good +occasion then in danger, I had been worthy to be hanged, and to be taken +for a most lewd servant to her Majesty, and a dishonest wretch to my +country." + +But diligently as Heneage had sought to the bottom of all things, he had +not gained the approbation of Sidney. Sir Philip thought that the new +man had only ill botched a piece of work that had been most awkwardly +contrived from the beginning. "Sir Thomas Heneage," said he, "hath with +as much honesty, in my opinion done as much hurt as any man this twelve- +month hath done with naughtiness. But I hope in God, when her Majesty +finds the truth of things, her graciousness will not utterly, overthrow a +cause so behooveful and costly unto her." + +He briefly warned the government that most disastrous effects were likely +to ensue, if the Earl should be publicly disgraced, and the recent action +of the States reversed. The penny-wise economy, too, of the Queen, was +rapidly proving a most ruinous extravagance. "I only cry for Flushing;" +said Sidney, "but, unless the monies be sent over, there will some +terrible accident follow, particularly to the cautionary towns, if her +Majesty mean to have them cautions." + +The effect produced by the first explosion of the Queen's wrath was +indeed one of universal suspicion and distrust. The greatest care had +been taken, however, that the affair should be delicately handled, for +Heneage, while, doing as much hurt by honesty as, others by naughtiness, +had modified his course as much as he dared in deference to the opinions +of the Earl himself, and that of his English counsellors. The great +culprit himself, assisted by his two lawyers, Clerk and Killigrew--had +himself drawn the bill of his own indictment. The letters of the Queen +to the States, to the council, and to the Earl himself, were, of +necessity, delivered, but the reprimand which Heneage had been instructed +to fulminate was made as harmless as possible. It was arranged that he +should make a speech before the council; but abstain from a protocol. +The oration was duly pronounced, and it was, of necessity, stinging. +Otherwise the disobedience to the Queen, would have been flagrant. But +the pain inflicted was to disappear with the first castigation. The +humiliation was to be public and solemn, but it was not to be placed on +perpetual record. + +"We thought best," said Leicester, Heneage, Clerk, and Killigrew--"In +according to her Majesty's secret instructions--to take that course which +might least endanger the weak estate of the Provinces--that is to say, to +utter so much in words as we hoped might satisfy her excellent Majesty's +expectation, and yet leave them nothing in writing to confirm that which +was secretly spread in many places to the hindrance of the good course of +settling these affairs. Which speech, after Sir Thomas Heneage had +devised, and we both perused and allowed, he, by our consent and advice, +pronounced to the council of state. This we did think needful--especially +because every one of the council that was present at the reading of her +Majesty's first letters, was of the full mind, that if her Majesty should +again show the least mislike of the present government, or should not by +her next letters confirm it, they, were all undone--for that every man +would cast with himself which way to make his peace." + +Thus adroitly had the "poor gentleman, who could not find it in his heart +to come again into the place, where--by his own sufferings torn--he was +made to appear so lewd a person"--provided that there should remain no +trace of that lewdness and of his sovereign's displeasure, upon the +record of the States. It was not long, too, before the Earl was enabled +to surmount his mortification; but the end was not yet. + +The universal suspicion, consequent on these proceedings, grew most +painful. It pointed to one invariable quarter. It was believed by all +that the Queen was privately treating for peace, and that the transaction +was kept a secret not only from the States but from her own most trusted +counsellors also. It would be difficult to exaggerate the pernicious +effects of this suspicion. Whether it was a well-grounded one or not, +will be shown in a subsequent chapter, but there is no doubt that the +vigour of the enterprise was thus sapped at a most critical moment. The +Provinces had never been more heartily banded together since the fatal +10th of July, 1584, than they were in the early spring of 1586. They +were rapidly organizing their own army, and, if the Queen had manifested +more sympathy with her own starving troops, the united Englishmen and +Hollanders would have been invincible even by Alexander Farnese. + +Moreover, they had sent out nine war-vessels to cruise off the Cape Verd +Islands for the homeward-bound Spanish treasure fleet from America, with +orders, if they missed it, to proceed to the West Indies; so that, said +Leicester, "the King of Spain will have enough to do between these men +and Drake." All parties had united in conferring a generous amount of +power upon the Earl, who was, in truth, stadholder-general, under grant +from the States--and both Leicester and the Provinces themselves were +eager and earnest for the war. In war alone lay the salvation of England +and Holland. Peace was an impossibility. It seemed to the most +experienced statesmen of both countries even an absurdity. It may well +be imagined, therefore, that the idea of an underhand negotiation by +Elizabeth would cause a frenzy in the Netherlands. In Leicester's +opinion, nothing short of a general massacre of the English would be the +probable consequence. "No doubt," said he, "the very way it is to put us +all to the sword here. For mine own part it would be happiest for me, +though I wish and trust to lose my life in better sort." + +Champagny, however, was giving out mysterious hints that the King of +Spain could have peace with England when he wished for it. Sir Thomas +Cecil, son of Lord Burghley, on whose countenance the States especially +relied, was returning on sick-leave from his government of the Brill, +and this sudden departure of so eminent a personage, joined with the +public disavowal of the recent transaction between Leicester and the +Provinces, was producing a general and most sickening apprehension as to +the Queen's good faith. The Earl did not fail to urge these matters most +warmly on the consideration of the English council, setting forth that +the States were stanch for the war, but that they would be beforehand +with her if she attempted by underhand means to compass a peace. "If +these men once smell any such matter," wrote Leicester to Burghley, "be +you sure they will soon come before you, to the utter overthrow of her +Majesty and state for ever." + +The Earl was suspecting the "false boys," by whom he was surrounded, +although it was impossible for him to perceive, as we have been enabled +to do, the wide-spread and intricate meshes by which he was enveloped. +"Your Papists in England," said he, "have sent over word to some in this +company, that all that they ever hoped for is come to pass; that my Lord +of Leicester shall be called away in greatest indignation with her +Majesty, and to confirm this of Champagny, I have myself seen a letter +that her Majesty is in hand with a secret peace. God forbid! for if it +be so, her Majesty, her realm, and we, are all undone." + +The feeling in the Provinces was still sincerely loyal towards England. +"These men," said Leicester, "yet honour and most dearly love her +Majesty, and hardly, I know, will be brought to believe ill of her any +way." Nevertheless these rumours, to the discredit of her good faith, +were doing infinite harm; while the Earl, although keeping his eyes and +ears wide open, was anxious not to compromise himself any further with +his sovereign, by appearing himself to suspect her of duplicity. "Good, +my Lord," he besought Burghley, "do not let her Majesty know of this +concerning Champagny as coming from me, for she will think it is done +for my own cause, which, by the Lord God, it is not, but even on the +necessity of the case for her own safety, and the realm, and us all. +Good my Lord, as you will do any good in the matter, let not her Majesty +understand any piece of it to come from me." + +The States-General, on the 25th March, N.S., addressed a respectful +letter to the Queen, in reply to her vehement chidings. They expressed +their deep regret that her Majesty should be so offended with the +election of the Earl of Leicester as absolute governor. + +They confessed that she had just cause of displeasure, but hoped that +when she should be informed of the whole matter she would rest better +satisfied with their proceedings. They stated that the authority was the +same which had been previously bestowed upon governors-general; observing +that by the word "absolute," which had been used in designation of that +authority, nothing more had been intended than to give to the Earl full +power to execute his commission, while the sovereignty of the country was +reserved to the people. This commission, they said, could not be without +danger revoked. And therefore they most humbly besought her Majesty to +approve what had been done, and to remember its conformity with her own +advice to them, that a multitude of heads, whereby confusion in the +government is bred, should be avoided. + +Leicester, upon the same occasion, addressed a letter to Burghley and +Walsingham, expressing himself as became a crushed and contrite man, +never more to raise his drooping head again, but warmly and manfully +urging upon the attention of the English government--for the honour and +interest of the Queen herself--"the miserable state of the poor +soldiers." The necessity of immediate remittances in order to keep them +from starving, was most imperious. For himself, he was smothering his +wretchedness until he should learn her Majesty's final decision, as to +what was to become of him. "Meantime," said he, "I carry my grief +inward, and will proceed till her Majesty's full pleasure come with as +little discouragement to the cause as I can. I pray God her Majesty may +do that may be best for herself. For my own part my, heart is broken, +but not by the enemy." + +There is no doubt that the public disgrace thus inflicted upon the +broken-hearted governor, and the severe censure administered to the +States by the Queen were both ill-timed and undeserved. Whatever his +disingenuousness towards Davison, whatever his disobedience to Elizabeth, +however ambitious his own secret motives may, have been, there is no +doubt at all that thus far he had borne himself well in his great office. + +Richard Cavendish--than whom few had better opportunities of judging-- +spoke in strong language on the subject. "It is a thing almost +incredible," said he, "that the care and diligence of any, one man living +could, in so small time; have so much repaired so disjointed and loose an +estate as my Lord found this country, in. But lest he should swell in +pride of that his good success, your Lordship knoweth that God hath so +tempered the cause with the construction thereof, as may well hold him in +good consideration of human things." He alluded with bitterness--as did +all men in the Netherlands who were not open or disguised Papists--to the +fatal rumours concerning the peace-negotiation in connection with the +recall of Leicester. "There be here advertisements of most fearful +instance," he said, "namely, that Champagny doth not spare most liberally +to bruit abroad that he hath in his hands the conditions of peace offered +by her Majesty unto the King his master, and that it is in his power to +conclude at pleasure--which fearful and mischievous plot, if in time it +be not met withal by some notable encounter, it cannot but prove the root +of great ruin." + +The "false boys" about Leicester were indefatigable in spreading these +rumours, and in taking advantage--with the assistance of the Papists in +the obedient Provinces and in England--of the disgraced condition in +which the Queen had placed the favourite. Most galling to the haughty +Earl--most damaging to the cause of England, Holland, and, liberty--were +the tales to his discredit, which circulated on the Bourse at Antwerp, +Middelburg, Amsterdam, and in all the other commercial centres. The most +influential bankers and merchants, were assured--by a thousand chattering +--but as it were invisible--tongues, that the Queen had for a long time +disliked Leicester; that he was a man of no account among the statesmen +of England; that he was a beggar and a bankrupt; that, if he had waited +two months longer, he would have made his appearance in the Provinces +with one man and one boy for his followers; that the Queen had sent him +thither to be rid of him; that she never intended him to have more +authority than Sir John Norris had; that she could not abide the +bestowing the title of Excellency upon him, and that she had not +disguised her fury at his elevation to the post of governor-general. + +All who attempted a refutation of these statements were asked, with a +sneer, whether her Majesty had ever written a line to him, or in +commendation of him, since his arrival. Minute inquiries were made by +the Dutch merchants of their commercial correspondents, both in their own +country and in England, as to Leicester's real condition and character. +at home. What was his rank, they asked, what his ability, what: his +influence at court? Why, if he were really of so high quality as had +been reported, was he thus neglected, and at last disgraced? Had he any +landed property in England? Had he really ever held any other office but +that of master of the horse? "And then," asked one particular busy body, +who made himself very unpleasant on the Amsterdam Exchange, "why has her +Majesty forbidden all noblemen and gentlemen from coming hither, as was +the case at the beginning? Is it because she is hearkening to a peace? +And if it be so, quoth he, we are well handled; for if her Majesty +hath sent a disgraced man to amuse us, while she is secretly working +a peace for herself, when we--on the contrary--had broken off all our +negotiations, upon confidence of her Majesty's goodness; such conduct +will be remembered to the end of the world, and the Hollanders will +never abide the name of England again." + +On such a bed of nettles there was small chance of repose for the +governor. Some of the rumours were even more stinging. So +incomprehensible did it seem that the proud sovereign of England should +send over her subjects to starve or beg in the streets of Flushing and +Ostend, that it was darkly intimated that Leicester had embezzled the +funds, which, no doubt, had been remitted for the poor soldiers. This +was the most cruel blow of all. The Earl had been put to enormous +charges. His household at the Hague cost him a thousand pounds a month. +He had been paying and furnishing five hundred and fifty men out of his +own purse. He had also a choice regiment of cavalry, numbering seven +hundred and fifty horse; three hundred and fifty of which number were +over and above those allowed for by the Queen, and were entirely at his +expense. He was most liberal in making presents of money to every +gentleman in his employment. He had deeply mortgaged his estates in +order to provide for these heavy demands upon him, and professed his +willingness "to spend more, if he might have got any more money for his +land that was left;" and in the face of such unquestionable facts--much +to the credit certainly of his generosity--he was accused of swindling +a Queen whom neither Jew nor Gentile had ever yet been sharp enough to +swindle; while he was in reality plunging forward in a course of reckless +extravagance in order to obviate the fatal effects of her penuriousness. + +Yet these sinister reports were beginning to have a poisonous effect. +Already an alteration of mien was perceptible in the States-General. +"Some buzzing there is amongst them," said Leicester, "whatsoever it be. +They begin to deal very strangely within these few days." Moreover the +industry of the Poleys, Blunts, and Pagets, had turned these unfavourable +circumstances to such good account that a mutiny had been near breaking +out among the English troops. "And, before the Lord I speak it," said +the Earl, "I am sure some of these good towns had been gone ere this, but +for my money. As for the States, I warrant you, they see day at a little +hole. God doth know what a forward and a joyful country here was within +a month. God send her Majesty to recover it so again, and to take care +of it, on the condition she send me after Sir Francis Drake to the +Indies, my service here being no more acceptable." + +Such was the aspect of affairs in the Provinces after the first explosion +of the Queen's anger had become known. Meanwhile the court-weather was +very changeable in England, being sometimes serene, sometimes cloudy,-- +always treacherous. + +Mr. Vavasour, sent by the Earl with despatches to her Majesty and the +council, had met with a sufficiently benignant reception. She accepted +the letters, which, however, owing to a bad cold with a defluxion in the +eyes, she was unable at once to read; but she talked ambiguously with the +messenger. Yavasour took pains to show the immediate necessity of +sending supplies, so that the armies in the Netherlands might take the +field at the, earliest possible moment. "And what," said she, "if a +peace should come in the mean time?" + +"If your Majesty desireth a convenient peace," replied Vavasour, "to take +the field is the readiest way to obtain it; for as yet the King of Spain +hath had no reason to fear you. He is daily expecting that your own +slackness may give your Majesty an overthrow. Moreover, the Spaniards +are soldiers, and are not to be moved by-shadows." + +But the Queen had no ears for these remonstrances, and no disposition to +open her coffers. A warrant for twenty-four thousand pounds had been +signed by her at the end of the month of March, and was about to be sent, +when Vavasour arrived; but it was not possible for him, although assisted +by the eloquence of Walsingham and Burghley, to obtain an enlargement of +the pittance. "The storms are overblown," said Walsingham, "but I fear +your Lordship shall receive very scarce measure from hence. You will not +believe how the sparing humour doth increase upon us." + +Nor were the storms so thoroughly overblown but that there were not daily +indications of returning foul weather. Accordingly--after a conference +with Vavasour--Burghley, and Walsingham had an interview with the Queen, +in which the Lord Treasurer used bold and strong language. He protested +to her that he was bound, both by his duty to himself and his oath as her +councillor, to declare that the course she was holding to Lord Leicester +was most dangerous to her own honour, interest and safety. If she +intended to continue in this line of conduct, he begged to resign his +office of Lord Treasurer; wishing; before God and man, to wash his bands +of the shame and peril which he saw could not be avoided. The Queen, +astonished at the audacity of Burghley's attitude and language, hardly +knew whether to chide him for his presumption or to listen to his +arguments. She did both. She taxed him with insolence in daring to +address her so roundly, and then finding he was speaking even in +'amaritudine animae' and out of a clear conscience, she became calm +again, and intimated a disposition to qualify her anger against the +absent Earl. + +Next day, to their sorrow, the two councillors found that the Queen had +again changed her mind--"as one that had been by some adverse counsel +seduced." She expressed the opinion that affairs would do well enough in +the Netherlands, even though Leicester were displaced. A conference +followed between Walsingham, Hatton, and Burghley, and then the three +went again to her Majesty. They assured her that if she did not take +immediate steps to satisfy the States and the people of the Provinces, +she would lose those countries and her own honour at the same time; and +that then they would prove a source of danger to her instead of +protection and glory. At this she was greatly troubled, and agreed to do +anything they might advise consistently with her honour. It was then +agreed that Leicester should be continued in the government which he had +accepted until the matter should be further considered, and letters to +that effect were at once written. Then came messenger from Sir Thomas +Heneage, bringing despatchesfrom that envoy, and a second and most secret +one from the Earl himself. Burghley took the precious letter which the +favourite had addressed to his royal mistress, and had occasion to +observe its magical effect. Walsingham and the Lord Treasurer had been +right in so earnestly remonstrating with him on his previous silence. + +"She read your letter," said Burghley, "and, in very truth, I found her +princely heart touched with favourable interpretation of your actions; +affirming them to be only offensive to her, in that she was not made +privy to them; not now misliking that you had the authority." + +Such, at fifty-three, was Elizabeth Tudor. A gentle whisper of idolatry +from the lips of the man she loved, and she was wax in his hands. Where +now were the vehement protestations of horror that her public declaration +of principles and motives had been set at nought? Where now were her +vociferous denunciations of the States, her shrill invectives against +Leicester, her big oaths, and all the 'hysterica passio,' which had sent +poor Lord Burghley to bed with the gout, and inspired the soul of +Walsingham with dismal forebodings? Her anger had dissolved into a +shower of tenderness, and if her parsimony still remained it was because +that could only vanish when she too should cease to be. + +And thus, for a moment, the grave diplomatic difference between the +crown of England and their high mightinesses the United States--upon the +solution of which the fate of Christendom was hanging--seemed to shrink +to the dimensions of a lovers' quarrel. Was it not strange that the +letter had been so long delayed? + +Davison had exhausted argument in defence of the acceptance by the Earl +of the authority conferred by the States and had gained nothing by his +eloquence, save abuse from the Queen, and acrimonious censure from the +Earl. He had deeply offended both by pleading the cause of the erring +favourite, when the favourite should have spoken for himself. "Poor Mr. +Davison," said Walsingham, "doth take it very grievously that your +Lordship should conceive so hardly of him as you do. I find the conceit +of your Lordship's disfavour hath greatly dejected him. But at such time +as he arrived her Majesty was so incensed, as all the arguments and +orators in the world could not have wrought any satisfaction." + +But now a little billet-doux had done what all the orators in the world +could not do. The arguments remained the same, but the Queen no longer +"misliked that Leicester should have the authority." It was natural that +the Lord Treasurer should express his satisfaction at this auspicious +result. + +"I did commend her princely nature," he said, "in allowing your good +intention, and excusing you of any spot of evil meaning; and I thought +good to hasten her resolution, which you must now take to come from a +favourable good mistress. You must strive with your nature to throw over +your shoulder that which is past." + +Sir Walter Raleigh, too, who had been "falsely and pestilently" +represented to the Earl as an enemy, rather than what he really was, +a most ardent favourer of the Netherland cause, wrote at once to +congratulate him on the change in her Majesty's demeanour. "The Queen is +in very good terms with you now," he said, "and, thanks be to God, well +pacified, and you are again her 'sweet Robin.'" + +Sir Walter wished to be himself the bearer of the comforting despatches +to Leicester, on the ground that he had been represented as an "ill +instrument against him," and in order that he might justify himself +against the charge, with his own lips. The Queen, however, while +professing to make use of Shirley as the messenger, bade Walsingham +declare to the Earl, upon her honour, that Raleigh had done good offices +for him, and that, in the time of her anger, he had been as earnest in +his defence as the best friend could be. It would have been--singular, +indeed, had it been otherwise. "Your Lordship," said Sir Walter, "doth +well understand my affection toward Spain, and how I have consumed the +best part of my fortune, hating the tyrannous prosperity of that state. +It were strange and monstrous that I should now become an enemy to my +country and conscience. All that I have desired at your Lordship's +hands is that you will evermore deal directly with me in all matters +--of suspect doubleness, and so ever esteem me as you shall find me +deserving good or bad. In the mean time, let no poetical scribe work +your Lordship by any device to doubt that I am a hollow or cold servant +to the action." + +It was now agreed that letters should be drawn, up authorizing Leicester +to continue in the office which he held, until the state-council should +devise some modification in his commission. As it seemed, however, very +improbable that the board would devise anything of the kind, Burghley +expressed the belief that the country was like to continue in the Earl's +government without any change whatever. The Lord Treasurer was also of +opinion that the Queen's letters to Leicester would convey as much +comfort as he had received discomfort; although he admitted that there +was a great difference: The former letters he knew had deeply wounded his +heart, while the new ones could not suddenly sink so low as the wound. + +The despatch to the States-General was benignant, elaborate, slightly +diffuse. The Queen's letter to 'sweet Robin' was caressing, but +argumentative. + +"It is always thought," said she, "in the opinion of the world, a hard +bargain when both parties are losers, and so doth fall out in the case +between us two. You, as we hear, are greatly grieved in respect of the +great displeasure you find we have conceived against you. We are no less +grieved that a subject of ours of that quality that you are, a creature +of our own, and one that hath always received an extraordinary portion of +our favour above all our subjects, even from the beginning of our reign, +should deal so carelessly, not to say contemptuously, as to give the +world just cause to think that we are had in contempt by him that ought +most to respect and reverence us, which, we do assure you, hath wrought +as great grief in us as anyone thing that ever happened unto us. + +"We are persuaded that you, that have so long known us, cannot think that +ever we could have been drawn to have taken so hard a course therein had +we not been provoked by an extraordinary cause. But for that your +grieved and wounded mind hath more need of comfort than reproof, who, we +are persuaded, though the act of contempt can no ways be excused, had no +other meaning and intent than to advance our service, we think meet to +forbear to dwell upon a matter wherein we ourselves do find so little +comfort, assuring you that whosoever professeth to love you best taketh +not more comfort of your well doing, or discomfort of your evil doing +than ourself." + +After this affectionate preface she proceeded to intimate her desire that +the Earl should take the matter as nearly as possible into his own hands. +It was her wish that he should retain the authority of absolute governor, +but--if it could be so arranged--that he should dispense with the title, +retaining only that of her lieutenant-general. It was not her intention +however, to create any confusion or trouble in the Provinces, and she was +therefore willing that the government should remain upon precisely the +same footing as that on which it then stood, until circumstances should +permit the change of title which she suggested. And the whole matter was +referred to the wisdom of Leicester, who was to advise with Heneage and +such others as he liked to consult, although it was expressly stated that +the present arrangement was to be considered a provisional and not a +final one. + +Until this soothing intelligence could arrive in the Netherlands the +suspicions concerning the underhand negotiations with Spain grew daily +more rife, and the discredit cast upon the Earl more embarrassing. The +private letters which passed between the Earl's enemies in Holland and in +England contained matter more damaging to himself and to the cause which +he had at heart than the more public reports of modern days can +disseminate, which, being patent to all, can be more easily contradicted. +Leicester incessantly warned his colleagues of her Majesty's council +against the malignant manufacturers of intelligence. "I pray you, my +Lords, as you are wise," said he, "beware of them all. You shall find +them here to be shrewd pick-thinks, and hardly worth the hearkening +unto." + +He complained bitterly of the disgrace that was heaped upon him, both +publicly and privately, and of the evil consequences which were sure to +follow from the course pursued. "Never was man so villanously handled by +letters out of England as I have been," said he, "not only advertising +her Majesty's great dislike with me before this my coming over, but that +I was an odious man in England, and so long as I tarried here that no +help was to be looked for, that her Majesty would send no more men or +money, and that I was used here but for a time till a peace were +concluded between her Majesty and the Prince of Parma. What the +continuance of a man's discredit thus will turn out is to be thought of, +for better I were a thousand times displaced than that her Majesty's +great advantage of so notable Provinces should be hindered." + +As to the peace-negotiations--which, however cunningly managed, could not +remain entirely concealed--the Earl declared them to be as idle as they +were disingenuous. "I will boldly pronounce that all the peace you can +make in the world, leaving these countries," said he to Burghley, "will +never prove other than a fair spring for a few days, to be all over +blasted with a hard storm after." Two days later her Majesty's +comforting letters arrived, and the Earl began to raise his drooping +head. Heneage, too, was much relieved, but he was, at the same time, not +a little perplexed. It was not so easy to undo all the mischief created +by the Queen's petulance. The "scorpion's sting"--as her Majesty +expressed herself--might be balsamed, but the poison had spread far +beyond the original wound. + +"The letters just brought in," wrote Heneage to Burghley, "have well +relieved a most noble and sufficient servant, but I fear they will not +restore the much-repaired wrecks of these far-decayed noble countries +into the same state I found them in. A loose, disordered, and unknit +state needs no shaking, but propping. A subtle and fearful kind of +people--should not be made more distrustful, but assured." He then +expressed annoyance at the fault already found with him, and surely if +ever man had cause to complain of reproof administered him, in quick +succession; for not obeying contradictory directions following upon each +other as quickly, that man was Sir Thomas Heneage. He had been, as he +thought, over cautious in administering the rebuke to the Earl's +arrogance, which he had been expressly sent over to administer but +scarcely had he accomplished his task, with as much delicacy as he could +devise, when he found himself censured;--not for dilatoriness, but for +haste. "Fault I perceive," said he to Burghley, "is found in me, not by +your Lordship, but by some other, that I did not stay proceeding if I +found the public cause might take hurt. It is true I had good warrant +for the manner, the, place, and the persons, but, for the matter none, +for done it must be. Her Majesty's offence must be declared. Yet if I +did not all I possibly could to uphold the cause, and to keep the +tottering cause upon the wheels, I deserve no thanks, but reproof." + +Certainly, when the blasts of royal rage are remembered, by which the +envoy had been, as it were, blown out of England into Holland, it is +astonishing to find his actions censured for undue precipitancy. But +it was not the, first, nor was it likely to be the last time, for +comparatively subordinate agents in Elizabeth's government to be, +distressed by, contradictory commands, when the sovereign did not know +or did not chose to make known, her own mind on important occasions. +"Well, my Lord," said plaintive Sir Thomas, "wiser men may serve more +pleasingly and happily, but never shall any serve her Majesty more, +faithfully and heartily. And so I cannot be persuaded her Majesty +thinketh; for from herself I find nothing but most sweet and--gracious, +favour, though by others' censures I may gather otherwise of her +judgment; which I confess, doth cumber me." + +He was destined to be cumbered more than once before these negotiations +should be concluded; but meantime; there was a brief gleam of sunshine. +The English friends of Leicester in the Netherlands were enchanted with +the sudden change in the Queen's humour; and to Lord Burghley, who was +not, in reality, the most stanch of the absent Earl's defenders, they +poured themselves out in profuse and somewhat superfluous gratitude. + +Cavendish, in strains exultant, was sure that Burghley's children, grand- +children, and remotest posterity, would rejoice that their great +ancestor, in such a time of need had been "found and felt to be indeed a +'pater patria,' a good-father to a happy land." And, although unwilling +to "stir up the old Adam" in his Lordship's soul, he yet took the liberty +of comparing the Lord Treasurer, in his old and declining years with Mary +Magdalen; assuring him, that for ever after; when the tale of the +preservation of the Church of God, of her Majesty; and of the Netherland +cause; which were all one, should be told; his name and well-doing would +be held in memory also. + +And truly there was much of honest and generous enthusiasm, even if +couched in language somewhat startling to the ears of a colder and more +material age; in the hearts of these noble volunteers. They were +fighting the cause of England, of the Netherland republic, and of human +liberty; with a valour worthy the best days of English' chivalry, against +manifold obstacles, and they were certainly; not too often cheered by the +beams of royal favour. + +It was a pity that a dark cloud was so soon again to sweep over the +scene: For the temper of Elizabeth at this important juncture seemed as +capricious: as the: April weather in which the scenes were enacting. We +have seen the genial warmth of her letters and messages to Leicester, to +Heneage,--to the States-General; on the first of the month. Nevertheless +it was hardly three weeks after they had been despatched when Walsingham +and Burghley found, her Majesty one morning a towering passion, because, +the Earl had not already laid down the government. The Lord Treasurer +ventured to remonstrate, but was bid to bold his tongue. Ever variable +and mutable as woman, Elizabeth was perplexing and baffling to her +counsellors, at this epoch, beyond all divination. The "sparing humour" +was increasing fearfully, and she thought it would be easier for her to +slip out of the whole expensive enterprise, provided Leicester were +merely her lieutenant-general, and not stadholder for the Provinces. +Moreover the secret negotiations for peace were producing a deleterious +effect upon her mind. Upon this subject, the Queen and Burghley, +notwithstanding his resemblance to Mary Magdalen, were better informed +than the Secretary, whom, however, it had been impossible wholly to +deceive. The man who could read secrets so far removed as the Vatican, +was not to be blinded to intrigues going on before his face. The Queen, +without revealing more than she could help, had been obliged to admit +that informal transactions were pending, but had authorised the Secretary +to assure the United States that no treaty would be made without their +knowledge and full concurrence. "She doth think," wrote Walsingham to +Leicester," that you should, if you shall see no cause to the contrary, +acquaint the council of state there that certain overtures of peace are +daily made unto her, but that she meaneth not to proceed therein without +their good liking and privity, being persuaded that there can no peace be +made profitable or sure for her that shall not also stand with their +safety; and she doth acknowledge hers to be so linked with theirs as +nothing can fall out to their prejudice, but she must be partaker of +their harm." + +This communication was dated on the 21st April, exactly three weeks after +the Queen's letter to Heneage, in which she had spoken of the "malicious +bruits" concerning the pretended peace-negotiations; and the Secretary +was now confirming, by her order, what she had then stated under her own +hand, that she would "do nothing that might concern them without their +own knowledge and good liking." + +And surely nothing could be more reasonable. Even if the strict letter +of the August treaty between the Queen and the States did not provide +against any separate negotiations by the one party without the knowledge +of the other, there could be no doubt at all that its spirit absolutely +forbade the clandestine conclusion of a peace with Spain by England +alone, or by the Netherlands alone, and that such an arrangement would be +disingenuous, if not positively dishonourable. + +Nevertheless it would almost seem that Elizabeth had been taking +advantage of the day when she was writing her letter to Heneage on the +1st of April. Never was painstaking envoy more elaborately trifled with. +On the 26th of the month--and only five days after the communication by +Walsingham just noticed--the Queen was furious that any admission should +have been made to the States of their right to participate with her in +peace-negotiations. + +"We find that Sir Thomas Heneage," said she to Leicester, "hath gone +further--in assuring the States that we would make no peace without their +privity and assent--than he had commission; for that our direction was-- +if our meaning had been well set down, and not mistaken by our Secretary +--that they should have been only let understand that in any treaty that +might pass between us and Spain, they might be well assured we would have +no less care of their safety than of our own." Secretary Walsingham was +not likely to mistake her Majesty's directions in this or any other +important affair of state. Moreover, it so happened that the Queen had, +in her own letter to Heneage, made the same statement which she now +chose to disavow. She had often a convenient way of making herself +misunderstood, when she thought it desirable to shift responsibility from +her own shoulders upon those of others; but upon this occasion she had +been sufficiently explicit. Nevertheless, a scape-goat was necessary, +and unhappy the subordinate who happened to be within her Majesty's reach +when a vicarious sacrifice was to be made. Sir Francis Walsingham was +not a man to be brow-beaten or hood-winked, but Heneage was doomed to +absorb a fearful amount of royal wrath. + +"What phlegmatical reasons soever were made you," wrote the Queen, who +but three weeks before had been so gentle and affectionate to her, +ambassador, "how happeneth it that you will not remember, that when a man +hath faulted and committed by abettors thereto, neither the one nor the +other will willingly make their own retreat. Jesus! what availeth wit, +when it fails the owner at greatest need? Do that you are bidden, and +leave your considerations for your own affairs. For in some things you +had clear commandment, which you did not, and in others none, and did. +We princes be wary enough of our bargains. Think you I will be bound +by your own speech to make no peace for mine own matters without their +consent? It is enough that I injure not their country nor themselves +in making peace for them without their consent. I am assured of your +dutiful thoughts, but I am utterly at squares with this childish +dealing." + +Blasted by this thunderbolt falling upon his head out of serenest sky, +the sad. Sir. Thomas remained, for a time, in a state of political +annihilation. 'Sweet Robin' meanwhile, though stunned, was unscathed-- +thanks to the convenient conductor at his side. For, in Elizabeth's +court, mediocrity was not always golden, nor was it usually the loftiest +mountains that the lightnings smote. The Earl was deceived by his royal +mistress, kept in the dark as to important transactions, left to provide +for his famishing' soldiers as he best might; but the, Queen at that +moment, though angry, was not disposed, to trample upon him. Now that +his heart was known to be broken, and his sole object in life to be +retirement to remote regions--India or elsewhere--there to languish out +the brief remainder of his days in prayers for Elizabeth's happiness, +Elizabeth was not inclined very bitterly to upbraid him. She had too +recently been employing herself in binding up his broken heart, and +pouring balm into the "scorpion's sting," to be willing so soon to +deprive him of those alleviations. + +Her tone--was however no longer benignant, and her directions were +extremely peremptory. On the 1st of April she had congratulated +Leicester, Heneage, the States, and all the world, that her secret +commands had been staid, and that the ruin which would have followed, +had, those decrees been executed according to her first violent wish, was +fortunately averted. Heneage was even censured, not by herself, but by +courtiers in her confidence, and with her concurrence, for being over +hasty in going before the state-council, as he had done, with her +messages and commands. On the 26th of April she expressed astonishment +that Heneage had dared to be so dilatory, and that the title of governor +had not been laid down by Leicester "out of hand." She marvelled +greatly, and found it very strange that "ministers in matters of moment +should presume to do things of their own head without direction." She +accordingly gave orders that there should be no more dallying, but that +the Earl should immediately hold a conference with the state-council in +order to arrange a modification in his commission. It was her pleasure +that he should retain all the authority granted to him by the States, but +as already intimated by her, that he should abandon the title of +"absolute governor," and retain only that of her lieutenant-general. + +Was it strange that Heneage, placed in so responsible a situation, and +with the fate of England, of Holland, and perhaps of all Christendom, +hanging in great measure upon this delicate negotiation, should be amazed +at such contradictory orders, and grieved by such inconsistent censures? + +"To tell you my griefs and my lacks," said he to Walsingham, "would +little please you or help me. Therefore I will say nothing, but think +there was never man in so great a service received so little comfort and +so contrarious directions. But 'Dominus est adjutor in tribulationibus.' +If it be possible, let me receive some certain direction, in following +which I shall not offend her Majesty, what good or hurt soever I do +besides." + +This certainly seemed a loyal and reasonable request, yet it was not one +likely to be granted. Sir Thomas, perplexed, puzzled, blindfolded, and +brow-beaten, always endeavoring to obey orders, when he could comprehend +them, and always hectored and lectured whether he obeyed them or not-- +ruined in purse by the expenses, of a mission on which he had been sent +without adequate salary--appalled at the disaffection waging more +formidable every hour in Provinces which were recently so loyal to her +Majesty, but which were now pervaded by a suspicion that there was +double-dealing upon her part became quite sick of his life. He fell +seriously ill, and was disappointed, when, after a time, the physicians +declared him convalescent. For when when he rose from his sick-bed, it +was only to plunge once more, without a clue, into the labyrinth where he +seemed to be losing his reason. "It is not long," said he to Walsingham, +"since I looked to have written you no more letters, my extremity was so +great. . . But God's will is best, otherwise I could have liked better +to have cumbered the earth no longer, where I find myself contemned, and +which I find no reason to see will be the better in the wearing . . . +It were better for her Majesty's service that the directions which come +were not contrarious one to another, and that those you would have serve +might know what is meant, else they cannot but much deceive you, as well +as displease you." + +Public opinion concerning the political morality of the English court +was not gratifying, nor was it rendered more favourable by these recent +transactions. "I fear," said Heneage, "that the world will judge what +Champagny wrote in one of his letters out of England (which I have lately +seen) to be over true. His words be these, 'Et de vray, c'est le plus +fascheux et le plus incertain negocier de ceste court, que je pense soit +au monde.'" And so "basting," as he said, "with a weak body and a +willing mind; to do, he feared, no good work," he set forth from +Middelburgh to rejoin Leicester at Arnheim, in order to obey, as well as +he could, the Queen's latest directions. + +But before he could set to work there came more "contrarious" orders. +The last instructions, both to Leicester and himself, were that the Earl +should resign the post of governor absolute "out of hand," and the Queen +had been vehement in denouncing any delay on such an occasion. He was +now informed, that, after consulting with Leicester and with the +state-council, he was to return to England with the result of such +deliberations. It could afterwards be decided how the Earl could retain +all the authority of governor absolute, while bearing only the title of +the Queen's lieutenant general. "For her meaning is not," said +Walsingham, "that his Lord ship should presently give it over, for she +foreseeth in her princely judgment that his giving over the government +upon a sudden, and leaving those countries without a head or director, +cannot but breed a most dangerous alteration there." The secretary +therefore stated the royal wish at present to be that the "renunciation +of the title" should be delayed till Heneage could visit England, and +subsequently return to Holland with her Majesty's further directions. +Even the astute Walsingham was himself puzzled, however, while conveying +these ambiguous orders; and he confessed that he was doubtful whether he +had rightly comprehended the Queen's intentions. Burghley, however, was +better at guessing riddles than he was, and so Heneage was advised to +rely chiefly upon Burghley. + +But Heneage had now ceased to be interested in any enigmas that might be +propounded by the English court, nor could he find comfort, as Walsingham +had recommended he should do, in railing. "I wish I could follow your +counsel," he said, "but sure the uttering of my choler doth little ease +my grief or help my case." + +He rebuked, however, the inconsistency and the tergiversations of the +government with a good deal of dignity. "This certainly shall I tell her +Majesty," he said, "if I live to see her, that except a more constant +course be taken with this inconstant people, it is not the blaming of her +ministers will advance her Highness's service, or better the state of +things. And shall I tell you what they now say here of us--I fear not +without some cause--even as Lipsius wrote of the French, 'De Gallis +quidem enigmata veniunt, non veniunt, volunt, holunt, audent, timent, +omnia, ancipiti metu, suspensa et suspecta.' God grant better, and ever +keep you and help me." + +He announced to Burghley that he was about to attend a meeting of the +state-council the next day, for the purpose of a conference on these +matters at Arnheim, and that he would then set forth for England to +report proceedings to her Majesty. He supposed, on the whole, that this +was what was expected of him, but acknowledged it hopeless to fathom. +the royal intentions. Yet if he went wrong, he was always, sure to make +mischief, and though innocent, to be held accountable for others' +mistakes. "Every prick I make," said he, "is made a gash; and to follow +the words of my directions from England is not enough, except I likewise +see into your minds. And surely mine eyesight is not so good. But I +will pray to God for his help herein. With all the wit I have, I will +use all the care I can--first, to satisfy her Majesty, as God knoweth I +have ever most desired; then, not to hurt this cause, but that I despair +of." Leicester, as maybe supposed, had been much discomfited and +perplexed during the course of these contradictory and perverse +directions. There is no doubt whatever that his position bad been made +discreditable and almost ridiculous, while he was really doing his best, +and spending large sums out of his private fortune to advance the true +interests of the Queen. He had become a suspected man in the +Netherlands, having been, in the beginning of the year, almost adored +as a Messiah. He had submitted to the humiliation which had been imposed +upon him, of being himself the medium to convey to the council the severe +expressions of the Queen's displeasure at the joint action of the States- +General and himself. He had been comforted by the affectionate +expressions with which that explosion of feminine and royal wrath had +been succeeded. He was now again distressed by the peremptory command to +do what was a disgrace to him, and an irreparable detriment to the cause, +yet he was humble and submissive, and only begged to be allowed, as a +remedy for all his anguish, to return to the sunlight of Elizabeth's +presence. He felt that her course; if persisted in, would lead to the +destruction of the Netherland commonwealth, and eventually to the +downfall of England; and that the Provinces, believing themselves +deceived by the Queen; were ready to revolt against an authority to +which, but a short time before, they were so devotedly loyal +Nevertheless, he only wished to know what his sovereign's commands +distinctly were, in order to set himself to their fulfilment. He had +come from the camp before Nymegen in order to attend the conference with +the state-council at Arnheim, and he would then be ready and anxious to, +despatch Heneage to England, to learn her Majesty's final determination. + +He protested to the Queen that he had come upon this arduous and perilous +service only, because he, considered her throne in danger, and that this +was the only means of preserving it; that, in accepting the absolute +government, he had been free from all ambitious motives, but deeply +impressed with the idea that only by so doing could he conduct the +enterprise entrusted to him to the desired consummation; and he declared +with great fervour that no advancement to high office could compensate +him for this enforced absence from her. To be sent back even in disgrace +would still be a boon to him, for he should cease to be an exile from her +sight. He knew that his enemies had been busy in defaming him, while he +had been no longer there to defend himself, but his conscience acquitted +him of any thought which was not for her happiness and glory. "Yet +grievous it is to me," said he in, a tone of tender reproach, "that +having left all--yea, all that may be imagined--for you, you have left +me for very little, even to the uttermost of all hard fortune. For what +have I, unhappy man, to do here either with cause or country but for +you?" + +He stated boldly that his services had not been ineffective, that the +enemy had never been in worse plight than now, that he had lost at least +five thousand men in divers overthrows, and that, on the other hand, +the people and towns of the Seven Provinces had been safely preserved. +"Since my arrival," he said, "God hath blessed the action which you have +taken in hand, and committed to the charge of me your poor unhappy +servant. I have good cause to say somewhat for myself, for that I think +I have as few friends to speak for me as any man." + +Nevertheless--as he warmly protested--his only wish was to return; for +the country in which he had lost her favour, which was more precious than +life, had become odious to him. + +The most lowly office in her presence was more to be coveted than the +possession of unlimited power away from her. It was by these tender +and soft insinuations, as the Earl knew full well, that he was sure to +obtain what he really coveted--her sanction for retaining the absolute +government in the Provinces. And most artfully did he strike the key. + +"Most dear and gracious Lady," he cried, "my care and service here do +breed me nothing but grief and unhappiness. I have never had your +Majesty's good favour since I came into this charge--a matter that from +my first beholding your eyes hath been most dear unto me above all +earthly treasures. Never shall I love that place or like that soil which +shall cause the lack of it. Most gracious Lady, consider my long, true, +and faithful heart toward you. Let not this unfortunate place here +bereave me of that which, above all the world, I esteem there, which is +your favodr and your presence. I see my service is not acceptable, but +rather more and more disliketh you. Here I can do your Majesty no +service; there I can do you some, at the least rub your horse's heels-- +a service which shall be much more welcome to me than this, with all that +these men may give me. I do, humbly and from my heart, prostrate at your +feet, beg this grace at your sacred hands, that you will be pleased to +let me return to my home-service, with your favour, let the revocation be +used in what sort shall please and like you. But if ever spark of favour +was in your Majesty toward your old servant, let me obtain this my humble +suit; protesting before the Majesty of all Majesties, that there was no +cause under Heaven but his and yours, even for your own special and +particular cause, I say, could have made me take this absent journey from +you in hand. If your Majesty shall refuse me this, I shall think all +grace clean gone from me, and I know: my days will not be long." + +She must melt at this, thought 'sweet Robin' to himself; and meantime +accompanied by Heneage; he proceeded with the conferences in the state- +council-chamber touching the modification of the title and the +confirmation of his authority. This, so far as Walsingham could divine, +and Burghley fathom, was the present intention of the Queen. He averred +that he had ever sought most painfully to conform his conduct to her +instructions as fast as they were received, and that he should continue +so to do. On the whole it was decided by the conference to let matters +stand as, they were for a little longer, and until: after Heneage should +have time once more to go and come. "The same manner of proceeding that +was is now," said Leicester, "Your pleasure is declared to the council +here as you have willed it. How it will fall out again in your Majesty's +construction, the Lord knoweth." + +Leicester might be forgiven for referring to higher powers, for any +possible interpretation of her Majesty's changing humour; but meantime; +while Sir. Thomas was getting ready, for his expedition to England, the +Earl's heart was somewhat gladdened by more gracious messages from the +Queen. The alternation of emotions would however prove too much for him, +he feared, and he was reluctant to open his heart to so unwonted a tenant +as joy. + +"But that my fear is such, most dear and gracious Lady," he said, "as my +unfortunate destiny will hardly permit; whilst I remain here; any good- +acceptation of so simple a service as, mine, I should, greatly rejoice +and comfort myself with the hope of your Majesty's most prayed-for +favour. But of late, being by your own sacred hand lifted even up into +Heaven with joy of your favour, I was bye and bye without any new desert +or offence at all, cast down and down: again into the depth of all grief. +God doth know, my dear and dread Sovereign, that after I first received +your resolute pleasure by Sir Thomas Heneage, I made neither stop nor +stay nor any excuse to be rid of this place, and to satisfy your command. +. . . . . So much I mislike this place and fortune of mine; as I desire +nothing in the world so much, as to be delivered, with your favours from +all charge here, fearing still some new cross of your displeasure to fall +upon me, trembling continually with the fear thereof, in such sort as +till I may be fully confirmed in my new regeneration of your wonted +favour I cannot receive that true comfort which doth appertain to so +great a hope. Yet I will not only acknowledge with all humbleness and +dutiful thanks the exceeding joy these last blessed lines brought to my +long-wearied heart, but will, with all true loyal affection, attend that +further joy from your sweet self which may utterly, extinguish all +consuming fear away." + +Poor Heneage--who likewise received a kind word or two after having been +so capriciously and petulantly dealt with was less extravagant in his +expressions of gratitude. "The Queen hath sent me a paper-plaister which +must please for a time," he said. "God Almighty bless her Majesty ever, +and best direct her." He was on the point of starting for England, the +bearer of the States' urgent entreaties that Leicester might retain the, +government, and of despatches; announcing the recent success of the +allies before Grave. "God prospereth the action in these countries +beyond all expectation," he said, "which all amongst you will not be over +glad of, for somewhat I know." The intrigues of Grafigni, Champagny, and +Bodman, with Croft, Burghley, and the others were not so profound a +secret as they could wish. + +The tone adopted by Leicester has been made manifest in his letters +to the Queen. He had held the same language of weariness and +dissatisfaction in his communications to his friends. He would not keep +the office, he avowed, if they should give him "all Holland and Zeeland, +with all their appurtenances," and he was ready to resign at any moment. +He was not "ceremonious for reputation," he said, but he gave warning +that the Netherlanders would grow desperate if they found her Majesty +dealing weakly or carelessly with them. As for himself he had already +had enough of government. "I am weary, Mr. Secretary," he plaintively +exclaimed, "indeed I am weary; but neither of pains nor travail. My ill +hap that I can please her Majesty no better hath quite discouraged me." + +He had recently, however--as we have seen--received some comfort, and he +was still further encouraged, upon the eve of Heneage's departure, by +receiving another affectionate epistle from the Queen. Amends seemed at +last to be offered for her long and angry silence, and the Earl was +deeply grateful. + +"If it hath not been, my most dear and gracious Lady," said he in reply, +"no small comfort to your poor old servant to receive but one line of +your blessed hand-writing in many months, for the relief of a most +grieved, wounded heart, how far more exceeding joy must it be, in the +midst of all sorrow, to receive from the same sacred hand so many +comfortable lines as my good friend Mr. George hath at once brought me. +Pardon me, my sweet Lady, if they cause me to forget myself. Only this I +do say, with most humble dutiful thanks, that the scope of all my service +hath ever been to content and please you; and if I may do that, then is +all sacrifice, either of life or whatsoever, well offered for you." + +The matter of the government absolute having been so fully discussed +during the preceding four months, and the last opinions of the state- +council having been so lucidly expounded in the despatches to be carried +by Heneage to England, the matter might be considered as exhausted. +Leicester contented himself, therefore, with once more calling her +Majesty's attention to the fact that if he had not himself accepted the +office thus conferred upon him by the States, it would have been bestowed +upon some other personage. It would hardly have comported with her +dignity, if Count Maurice of Nassau, or Count William, or Count Moeurs, +had been appointed governor absolute, for in that case the Earl, as +general of the auxiliary English force, would have been subject to the +authority of the chieftain thus selected. It was impossible, as the +state-council had very plainly shown, for Leicester to exercise supreme +authority, while merely holding the military office of her Majesty's +lieutenant-general. The authority of governor or stadholder could only +be derived from the supreme power of the country. If her Majesty had +chosen to accept the sovereignty, as the States had ever desired, the +requisite authority could then have been derived from her, as from the +original fountain. As she had resolutely refused that offer however, his +authority was necessarily to be drawn from the States-General, or else +the Queen must content herself with seeing him serve as an English +military officer, only subject to the orders of the supreme power, +wherever that power might reside. In short, Elizabeth's wish that her +general might be clothed with the privileges of her viceroy, while she +declined herself to be the sovereign, was illogical, and could not be +complied with. + +Very soon after inditing these last epistles to the Provinces, the Queen +became more reasonable on the subject; and an elaborate communication was +soon received by the state-council, in which the royal acquiescence was +signified to the latest propositions of the States. The various topics, +suggested in previous despatches from Leicester and from the council, +were reviewed, and the whole subject was suddenly placed in a somewhat +different light from that in which it seemed to have been previously +regarded by her Majesty. She alluded to the excuse, offered by the +state-council, which had been drawn from the necessity of the case, and +from their "great liking for her cousin of Leicester," although in +violation of the original contract. "As you acknowledge, however," she +said, "that therein you were justly to be blamed, and do crave pardon for +the same, we cannot, upon this acknowledgment of your fault, but remove +our former dislike." + +Nevertheless it would now seem that her "mistake" had proceeded, not from +the excess, but from the insufficiency of the powers conferred upon the +Earl, and she complained, accordingly, that they had given him shadow +rather than substance. + +Simultaneously with this royal communication, came a joint letter to +Leicester, from Burghley, Walsingham; and Hatton, depicting the long and +strenuous conflict which they had maintained in his behalf with the +rapidly varying inclinations of the Queen. They expressed a warm +sympathy with the difficulties of his position, and spoke in strong terms +of the necessity that the Netherlands and England should work heartily +together. For otherwise, they said, "the cause will fall, the enemy will +rise, and we must stagger." Notwithstanding the secret negotiations with +the enemy, which Leicester and Walsingham suspected, and which will be +more fully examined in a subsequent chapter, they held a language on that +subject, which in the Secretary's mouth at least was sincere. +"Whatsoever speeches be blown abroad of parleys of peace," they said, +"all will be but smoke, yea fire will follow." + +They excused themselves for their previous and enforced silence by the +fact that they had been unable to communicate any tidings but messages of +distress, but they now congratulated the Earl that her Majesty, as he +would see by her letter to the council, was firmly resolved, not only to +countenance his governorship, but to sustain him in the most thorough +manner. It would be therefore quite out of the question for them to +listen to his earnest propositions to be recalled. + +Moreover, the Lord Treasurer had already apprized Leicester that Heneage +had safely arrived in England, that he, had made his report to the Queen, +and that her Majesty was "very well contented with him and his mission." +It may be easily believed that the Earl would feel a sensation of relief, +if not of triumph, at this termination to the embarrassments under which +he had been labouring ever since, he listened to the oration of the wise +Leoninus upon New Years' Day. At last the Queen had formally acquiesced +in the action of the States, and in his acceptance of their offer. He +now saw himself undisputed "governor absolute," having been six months +long a suspected, discredited, almost disgraced man. It was natural that +he should express himself cheerfully. + +"My great comfort received, oh my most gracious Lady," he said, "by your +most favourable lines written by your own sacred hand, I did most humbly +acknowledge by my former letter; albeit I can no way make testimony of +enough of the great joy I took thereby. And seeing my wounded heart is +by this means almost made whole, I do pray unto God that either I may +never feel the like again from you, or not be suffered to live, rather +than I should fall again into those torments of your displeasure. Most +gracious Queen, I beseech you, therefore, make perfect that which you +have begun. Let not the common danger, nor any ill, incident to the +place I serve you in, be accompanied with greater troubles and fears +indeed than all the horrors of death can bring me. My strong hope doth +now so assure me, as I have almost won the battle against despair, and I +do arm myself with as many of those wonted comfortable conceits as may +confirm my new revived spirits, reposing myself evermore under the shadow +of those blessed beams that must yield the only nourishment to this +disease." + +But however nourishing the shade of those blessed beams might prove to +Leicester's disease, it was not so easy to bring about a very sunny +condition in the Provinces. It was easier for Elizabeth to mend the +broken heart of the governor than to repair the damage which had been +caused to the commonwealth by her caprice and her deceit. The dispute +concerning the government absolute had died away, but the authority of +the Earl had got a "crack in it" which never could be handsomely made +whole. The States, during the long period of Leicester's discredit-- +feeling more and more doubtful as to the secret intentions of Elizabeth +--disappointed in the condition of the auxiliary troops and in the amount +of supplies furnished from England, and, above all, having had time to +regret their delegation of a power which they began to find agreeable to +exercise with their own hands, became indisposed to entrust the Earl with +the administration and full inspection of their resources. To the +enthusiasm which had greeted the first arrival of Elizabeth's +representative had succeeded a jealous, carping, suspicious sentiment. +The two hundred thousand florins monthly were paid, according to the +original agreement, but the four hundred thousand of extra service-money +subsequently voted were withheld, and withheld expressly on account of +Heneage's original mission to disgrace the governor." + +"The late return of Sir Thomas Heneage," said Lord North, "hath put such +busses in their heads, as they march forward with leaden heels and +doubtful hearts." + +In truth, through the discredit cast by the Queen upon the Earl in this +important affair, the supreme authority was forced back into the hands +of the States, at the very moment when they had most freely divested +themselves of power. After the Queen had become more reasonable, it was +too late to induce them to part, a second time, so freely with the +immediate control of their own affairs. Leicester had become, to a +certain extent, disgraced and disliked by the Estates. He thought +himself, by the necessity of the case, forced to appeal to the people +against their legal representatives, and thus the foundation of a +nominally democratic party, in opposition to the municipal one, was +already laid. Nothing could be more unfortunate at that juncture; for we +shall, in future, find the Earl in perpetual opposition to the most +distinguished statesmen in the Provinces; to the very men indeed who had +been most influential in offering the sovereignty to England, and in +placing him in the position which he had so much coveted. No sooner +therefore had he been confirmed by Elizabeth in that high office than his +arrogance broke forth, and the quarrels between himself and the +representative body became incessant. + +"I stand now in somewhat better terms than I did," said he; "I was not in +case till of late to deal roundly with them as I have now done. I have +established a chamber of finances, against some of their wills, whereby I +doubt not to procure great benefit to increase our ability for payments +hereafter. The people I find still best devoted to her Majesty, though +of late many lewd practices have been used to withdraw their good wills. +But it will not be; they still pray God that her Majesty may be their +sovereign. She should then see what a contribution they will all bring +forth. But to the States they will never return, which will breed some +great mischief, there is such mislike of the States universally. I would +your Lordship had seen the case I had lived in among them these four +months, especially after her Majesty's mislike was found. You would then +marvel to see how I have waded, as I have done, through no small +obstacles, without help, counsel, or assistance." + +Thus the part which he felt at last called upon to enact was that of an +aristocratic demagogue, in perpetual conflict with the burgher- +representative body. + +It is now necessary to lift a corner of the curtain, by which some +international--or rather interpalatial--intrigues were concealed, as much +as possible, even from the piercing eyes of Walsingham. The Secretary +was, however, quite aware--despite the pains taken to deceive him--of the +nature of the plots and of the somewhat ignoble character of the actors +concerned in them. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A hard bargain when both parties are losers +Condemned first and inquired upon after +Disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping +Upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency +Uttering of my choler doth little ease my grief or help my case + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1586 *** + +********** This file should be named 4845.txt or 4845.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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