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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4852.txt b/4852.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b416e16 --- /dev/null +++ b/4852.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2538 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1587 +#52 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, 1587 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4852] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1587 *** + + + +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, Vol. 52 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1587 + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Leicester in England--Trial of the Queen of Scots--Fearful + Perplexity at the English Court--Infatuation and Obstinacy of the + Queen--Netherland Envoys in England--Queen's bitter Invective + against them--Amazement of the Envoys--They consult with her chief + Councillors--Remarks of Burghley and Davison--Fourth of February + Letter from the States--Its severe Language towards Leicester-- + Painful Position of the Envoys at Court--Queen's Parsimony towards + Leicester. + +The scene shifts, for a brief interval, to England. Leicester had +reached the court late in November. Those "blessed beams," under whose +shade he was wont to find so much "refreshment and nutrition," had again +fallen with full radiance upon him. "Never since I was born," said he, +"did I receive a more gracious welcome."--[Leicester to 'Wilkes, 4 Dec. +1587. (S. P. Office MS)]--Alas, there was not so much benignity for the +starving English soldiers, nor for the Provinces, which were fast growing +desperate; but although their cause was so intimately connected with the +"great cause," which then occupied Elizabeth, almost to the exclusion of +other matter, it was, perhaps, not wonderful, although unfortunate, that +for a time the Netherlands should be neglected. + +The "daughter of debate" had at last brought herself, it was supposed, +within the letter of the law, and now began those odious scenes of +hypocrisy on the part of Elizabeth, that frightful comedy--more +melancholy even than the solemn tragedy which it preceded and followed-- +which must ever remain the darkest passage in the history of the Queen. + +It is unnecessary, in these pages, to make more than a passing allusion +to the condemnation and death of the Queen of Scots. Who doubts her +participation in the Babington conspiracy? Who doubts that she was the +centre of one endless conspiracy by Spain and Rome against the throne and +life of Elizabeth? Who doubts that her long imprisonment in England was +a violation of all law, all justice, all humanity? Who doubts that the +fineing, whipping, torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and +children, guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith, +had assisted the Pope and Philip, and their band of English, Scotch, and +Irish conspirators, to shake Elizabeth's throne and endanger her life? +Who doubts that; had the English sovereign been capable of conceiving the +great thought of religious toleration, her reign would have been more +glorious than, it was, the cause of Protestantism and freedom more +triumphant, the name of Elizabeth Tudor dearer to human hearts? Who +doubts that there were many enlightened and noble spirits among her +Protestant subjects who lifted up their voices, over and over again, in +parliament and out of it, to denounce that wicked persecution exercised +upon their innocent Catholic brethren, which was fast converting loyal +Englishmen, against their will, into traitors and conspirators? Yet who +doubts that it would have required, at exactly that moment, and in the +midst of that crisis; more elevation of soul than could fairly be +predicated of any individual, for Elizabeth in 1587 to pardon Mary, +or to relax in the severity of her legislation towards English Papists? + +Yet, although a display of sublime virtue, such as the world has rarely +seen, was not to be expected, it was reasonable to look for honest and +royal dealing, from a great sovereign, brought at last face to face with +a great event. The "great cause" demanded, a great, straightforward +blow. It was obvious, however, that it would be difficult, in the midst +of the tragedy and the comedy, for the Netherland business to come fairly +before her Majesty. "Touching the Low Country causes," said Leicester; +"very little is done yet, by reason of the continued business we have had +about the Queen of Scots' matters. All the speech I have had with her +Majesty hitherto touching those causes hath been but private."-- +[Leicester to Wilkes, 4 Des 1586. (S. P. Office MS.)]--Walsingham, +longing for retirement, not only on account of his infinite grief for the +death of Sir Philip Sidney, "which hath been the cause;" he said, "that I +have ever since betaken myself into solitariness, and withdrawn; from +public affairs," but also by reason of the perverseness an difficulty +manifested in the gravest affairs by the sovereign he so faithfully +served, sent information, that, notwithstanding the arrival of some of +the States' deputies, Leicester was persuading her Majesty to proceed +first in the great cause. "Certain principal persons, chosen as +committees," he said, "of both Houses are sent as humble suitors, to her +Majesty to desire that she would be pleased to give order for the +execution of the Scottish Queen. Her Majesty made answer that she was +loath to proceed in so violent a course against the said Queen; as the +taking away of her life, and therefore prayed them to think of some other +way which might be for her own and their safety. They replied, no other +way but her execution. Her Majesty, though she yielded no answer to this +their latter reply, is contented to give order that the proclamation be +published, and so also it is hoped that she, will be moved by this, their +earnest instance to proceed to the thorough ending of the cause." + +And so the cause went slowly on to its thorough ending. And when +"no other way" could be thought of but to take Mary's life, and when +"no other way of taking that life could be devised," at Elizabeth's +suggestion, except by public execution, when none of the gentlemen +"of the association," nor Paulet, nor Drury--how skilfully soever their +"pulses had been felt" by Elizabeth's command--would commit assassination +to serve a Queen who was capable of punishing them afterwards for the +murder, the great cause came to its inevitable conclusion, and Mary +Stuart was executed by command of Elizabeth Tudor. The world may +continue to differ as to the necessity of the execution but it has long +since pronounced a unanimous verdict as to the respective display of +royal dignity by the two Queens upon that great occasion. + +During this interval the Netherland matter, almost as vital to England as +the execution of Mary, was comparatively neglected. It was not +absolutely in abeyance, but the condition of the Queen's mind coloured +every state-affair with its tragic hues. Elizabeth, harassed, anxious, +dreaming dreams, and enacting a horrible masquerade, was in the worst +possible temper to be approached by the envoys. She was furious with the +Netherlanders for having maltreated her favourite. She was still more +furious because their war was costing so much money. Her disposition +became so uncertain, her temper so ungovernable, as to drive her +counsellors to their wit's ends. Burghley confessed himself "weary of +his miserable life," and protested "that the only desire he had in the +world was to be delivered from the ungrateful burthen of service, which +her Majesty laid upon him so very heavily." Walsingham wished himself +"well established in Basle." The Queen set them all together by the +ears. She wrangled spitefully over the sum-totals from the Netherlands; +she worried Leicester, she scolded Burghley for defending Leicester, and +Leicester abused Burghley for taking part against him. + +The Lord-Treasurer, overcome with "grief which pierced both his body and +his heart," battled his way--as best he could--through the throng of +dangers which beset the path of England in that great crisis. It was +most obvious to every statesman in the realm that this was not the time-- +when the gauntlet had been thrown full in the face of Philip and Sixtus +and all Catholicism, by the condemnation of Mary--to leave the Netherland +cause "at random," and these outer bulwarks of her own kingdom +insufficiently protected. + +"Your Majesty will hear," wrote Parma to Philip, "of the disastrous, +lamentable, and pitiful end of the, poor Queen of Scots. Although for +her it will be immortal glory, and she will be placed among the number of +the many martyrs whose blood has been shed in the kingdom of England, and +be crowned in Heaven with a diadem more precious than the one she wore on +earth, nevertheless one cannot repress one's natural emotions. I believe +firmly that this cruel deed will be the concluding crime of the many +which that Englishwoman has committed, and that our Lord will be pleased +that she shall at last receive the chastisement which she has these many +long years deserved, and which has been reserved till now, for her +greater ruin and confusion."--[Parma to Philip IL, 22 March. 1587. +(Arch. de Simancas, MS.)]--And with this, the Duke proceeded to discuss +the all important and rapidly-preparing invasion of England. Farnese was +not the man to be deceived by the affected reluctance of Elizabeth before +Mary's scaffold, although he was soon to show that he was himself a +master in the science of grimace. For Elizabeth--more than ever disposed +to be friends with Spain and Rome, now that war to the knife was made +inevitable--was wistfully regarding that trap of negotiation, against +which all her best friends were endeavouring to warn her. She was more +ill-natured than ever to the Provinces, she turned her back upon the +Warnese, she affronted Henry III. by affecting to believe in the fable of +his envoy's complicity in the Stafford conspiracy against her life. + +"I pray God to open her eyes," said Walsingham, "to see the evident peril +of the course she now holdeth . . . . If it had pleased her to have +followed the advice given her touching the French ambassador, our ships +had been released . . . . but she has taken a very strange course by +writing a very sharp letter unto the French King, which I fear will cause +him to give ear to those of the League, and make himself a party with +them, seeing so little regard had to him here. Your Lordship may see +that our courage doth greatly increase, for that we make no difficulty to +fall out with all the world . . . . . I never saw her worse affected +to the poor King of Navarre, and yet doth she seek in no sort to yield +contentment to the French King. If to offend all the world;" repeated +the Secretary bitterly, "be it good cause of government, then can we not +do amiss . . . . . I never found her less disposed to take a course +of prevention of the approaching mischiefs toward this realm than at this +present. And to be plain with you, there is none here that hath either +credit or courage to deal effectually with her in any of her great +causes." + +Thus distracted by doubts and dangers, at war with her best friends, with +herself, and with all-the world, was Elizabeth during the dark days and +months which, preceded and followed the execution of the Scottish Queen. +If the great fight was at last to be fought triumphantly through, it was +obvious that England was to depend upon Englishmen of all ranks and +classes, upon her prudent and far-seeing statesmen, upon her nobles and +her adventurers, on her Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman blood ever mounting +against, oppression, on Howard and Essex, Drake and Williams, Norris, and +Willoughby, upon high-born magnates, plebeian captains, London merchants, +upon yeomen whose limbs were made in England, and upon Hollanders and +Zeelanders whose fearless mariners were to swarm to the protection of her +coasts, quite as much in that year of anxious expectation as upon the +great Queen herself. Unquestionable as were her mental capacity and her +more than woman's courage, when fairly, brought face, to face with the +danger, it was fortunately not on one man or woman's brain and arm that +England's salvation depended in that crisis of her fate. + +As to the Provinces, no one ventured to speak very boldly in their +defence. "When I lay before her the peril," said Walsingham, "she +scorneth at it. The hope of a peace with Spain has put her into a most +dangerous security." Nor would any man now assume responsibility. The +fate of Davison--of the man who had already in so detestable a manner +been made the scape-goat for Leicester's sins in the Netherlands, and +who had now been so barbarously sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully +obeying her orders in regard to the death-warrant, had sickened all +courtiers and counsellors for the time. "The late severe, dealing +used by her Highness towards Mr. Secretary Davison," said Walsingham +to Wilkes, "maketh us very circumspect and careful not to proceed in +anything but wherein we receive direction from herself, and therefore +you must not find it strange if we now be more sparing than heretofore +hath been accustomed." + +Such being the portentous state of the political atmosphere, and such +the stormy condition of the royal mind, it may be supposed that the +interviews of the Netherland envoys with her Majesty during this period +were not likely to be genial. Exactly at the most gloomy moment-- +thirteen days before the execution of Mary--they came first into +Elizabeth's presence at Greenwich. + +The envoys were five in number, all of them experienced and able +statesmen--Zuylen van Nyvelt, Joos de Menyn, Nicasius de Silla, Jacob +Valck, and Vitus van Kammings. The Queen was in the privy council- +chamber, attended by the admiral of England, Lord Thomas Howard, Lord +Hunsdon, great-chamberlain, Sir Christopher Hatton, vice-chamberlain, +Secretary Davison, and many other persons of distinction. + +The letters of credence were duly presented, but it was obvious from the +beginning of the interview that the Queen was ill-disposed toward the +deputies, and had not only been misinformed as to matters of fact, but as +to the state of feeling of the Netherlanders and of the States-General +towards herself. + +Menyu, however, who was an orator by profession--being pensionary of +Dort--made, in the name of his colleagues, a brief but pregnant speech, +to which the Queen listened attentively, although, with frequent +indications of anger and impatience. He commenced by observing that +the United Provinces still entertained the hope that her Majesty would +conclude, upon further thoughts, to accept the sovereignty over them, +with reasonable conditions; but the most important passages of his +address were those relating to the cost of the war. "Besides our +stipulated contributions," said the pensionary, "of 200,000 florins the +month, we have furnished 500,000 as an extraordinary grant; making for +the year 2,900,000 florins, and this over and above the particular and +special expenditures of the Provinces, and other sums for military +purposes. We confess, Madam, that the succour of your Majesty is a truly +royal one, and that there have been few princes in history who have given +such assistance to their neighbours unjustly oppressed. It is certain +that by means of that help, joined with the forces of the United +Provinces, the Earl of Leicester has been able to arrest the course +of the Duke of Parma's victories and to counteract his designs. +Nevertheless, it appears, Madam, that these forces have not been +sufficient to drive the enemy out of the country. We are obliged, for +regular garrison work and defence of cities, to keep; up an army of at +least 27,000 foot and 3500 horse. Of this number your Majesty pays 5000 +foot and 1000 horse, and we are now commissioned, Madam, humbly to +request an increase of your regular succour during the war to 10,000 foot +and 2000 horse. We also implore the loan of L60,000 sterling, in order +to assist us in maintaining for the coming season a sufficient force in +the field." + +Such, in brief, was the oration of pensionary Menyn, delivered in the +French language. He had scarcely concluded, when the Queen--evidently in +a great passion--rose to her feet, and without any hesitation, replied in +a strain of vehement eloquence in the same tongue. + +"Now I am not deceived, gentlemen," she said, "and that which I have been +fearing has occurred. Our common adage, which we have in England, is a +very good one. When one fears that an evil is coming, the sooner it +arrives the better. Here is a quarter of a year that I have been +expecting you, and certainly for the great benefit I have conferred on +you, you have exhibited a great ingratitude, and I consider myself very +ill treated by you. 'Tis very strange that you should begin by +soliciting still greater succour without rendering me any satisfaction +for your past actions, which have been so extraordinary, that I swear by +the living God I think it impossible to find peoples or states more +ungrateful or ill-advised than yourselves. + +"I have sent you this year fifteen, sixteen, aye seventeen or eighteen +thousand men. You have left them without payment, you have let some of +them die of hunger, driven others to such desperation that they have +deserted to the enemy. Is it not mortifying for the English nation and +a great shame for you that Englishmen should say that they have found +more courtesy from Spaniards than from Netherlanders? Truly, I tell you +frankly that I will never endure such indignities. Rather will I act +according to my will, and you may do exactly, as you think best. + +"If I chose, I could do something very good without you, although some +persons are so fond of saying that it was quite necessary for the Queen +of England to do what she does for her own protection. No, no! Disabuse +yourselves of that impression. These are but false persuasions. Believe +boldly that I can play an excellent game without your assistance, and a +better one than I ever did with it! Nevertheless, I do not choose to do +that, nor do I wish you so much harm. But likewise do I not choose that +you should hold such language to me. It is true that I should not wish +the Spaniard so near me if he should be my enemy. But why should I +not live in peace, if we were to be friends to each other? At the +commencement of my reign we lived honourably together, the King of Spain +and I, and he even asked me to, marry him, and, after that, we lived a +long time very peacefully, without any attempt having been made against +my life. If we both choose, we can continue so to do. + +"On the other hand, I sent you the Earl of Leicester, as lieutenant of +my forces, and my intention was that he should have exact knowledge of +your finances and contributions. But, on the contrary, he has never +known anything about them, and you have handled them in your own manner +and amongst yourselves. You have given him the title of governor, in +order, under this name, to cast all your evils on his head. That title +he accepted against my will, by doing which he ran the risk of losing his +life, and his estates, and the grace and favour of his Princess, which +was more important to him than all. But he did it in order to maintain +your tottering state. And what authority, I pray you, have you given +him? A shadowy authority, a purely imaginary one. This is but mockery. +He is, at any rate, a gentleman, a man of honour and of counsel. You had +no right to treat him thus. If I had accepted the title which you wished +to give me, by the living God, I would not have suffered you so to treat +me. + +"But you are so badly advised that when there is a man of worth who +discovers your tricks you wish him ill, and make an outcry against him; +and yet some of you, in order to save your money, and others in the hope +of bribes, have been favouring the Spaniard, and doing very wicked work. +No, believe me that God will punish those who for so great a benefit wish +to return me so much evil. Believe, boldly too, that the King of Spain +will never trust men who have abandoned the party to which they belonged, +and from which they have received so many benefits, and will never +believe a word of what they promise him. Yet, in order to cover up their +filth, they spread the story that the Queen of England is thinking of +treating for peace without their knowledge. No, I would rather be dead +than that any one should have occasion to say that I had not kept my +promise. But princes must listen to both sides, and that can be done +without breach of faith. For they transact business in a certain way, +and with a princely intelligence, such as private persons cannot imitate. + +"You are States, to be sure, but private individuals in regard to +princes. Certainly, I would never choose to do anything without your +knowledge, and I would never allow the authority which you have among +yourselves, nor your privileges, nor your statutes, to be infringed. +Nor will I allow you to be perturbed in your consciences. What then +would you more of me? You have issued a proclamation in your country +that no one is to talk of peace. Very well, very good. But permit +princes likewise to do as they shall think best for the security of their +state, provided it does you no injury. Among us princes we are not wont +to make such long orations as you do, but you ought to be content with +the few words that we bestow upon you, and make yourself quiet thereby. + +"If I ever do anything for you again, I choose to be treated more +honourably. I shall therefore appoint some personages of my council to +communicate with you. And in the first place I choose to hear and see +for myself what has taken place already, and have satisfaction about +that, before I make any reply to what you have said to me as to greater +assistance. And so I will leave you to-day, without troubling you +further." + +With this her Majesty swept from the apartment, leaving the deputies +somewhat astounded at the fierce but adroit manner in which the tables +had for a moment been turned upon them. + +It was certainly a most unexpected blow, this charge of the States having +left the English soldiers--whose numbers the Queen had so suddenly +multiplied by three--unpaid and unfed. Those Englishmen who, as +individuals, had entered the States' service, had been--like all the +other troops regularly paid. This distinctly appeared from the +statements of her own counsellors and generals. On the other hand, +the Queen's contingent, now dwindled to about half their original +number, had been notoriously unpaid for nearly six months. + +This has already been made sufficiently clear from the private letters +of most responsible persons. That these soldiers were starving, +deserting; and pillaging, was, alas! too true; but the envoys of the +States hardly expected to be censured by her Majesty, because she had +neglected to pay her own troops. It was one of the points concerning +which they had been especially enjoined to complain, that the English +cavalry, converted into highwaymen by want of pay, had been plundering +the peasantry, and we have seen that Thomas Wilkes had "pawned his +carcase" to provide for their temporary relief. + +With regard to the insinuation that prominent personages in the country +had been tampered with by the enemy, the envoys were equally astonished +by such an attack. The great Deventer treason had not yet been heard of +in England for it had occurred only a week before this first interview-- +but something of the kind was already feared; for the slippery dealings +of York and Stanley with Tassis and Parma, had long been causing painful +anxiety, and had formed the subject of repeated remonstrances on the part +of the 'States' to Leicester and to the Queen. The deputies were hardly, +prepared therefore to defend their own people against dealing privately +with the King of Spain. The only man suspected of such practices was +Leicester's own favourite and financier, Jacques Ringault, whom the Earl +had persisted in employing against the angry remonstrances of the States, +who believed him to be a Spanish spy; and the man was now in prison, and +threatened with capital punishment. + +To suppose that Buys or Barneveld, Roorda, Meetkerk, or any other leading +statesman in the Netherlands, was contemplating a private arrangement +with Philip II., was as ludicrous a conception as to imagine Walsingham +a pensioner of the Pope, or Cecil in league with the Duke of Guise. The +end and aim of the States' party was war. In war they not only saw the +safety of the reformed religion, but the only means of maintaining the +commercial prosperity of the commonwealth. The whole correspondence of +the times shows that no politician in the country dreamed of peace, +either by public or secret negotiation. On the other hand--as will be +made still clearer than ever--the Queen was longing for peace, and was +treating for peace at that moment through private agents, quite without +the knowledge of the States, and in spite of her indignant disavowals in +her speech to the envoys. + +Yet if Elizabeth could have had the privilege of entering--as we are +about to do--into the private cabinet of that excellent King of Spain, +with whom, she had once been such good friends, who had even sought her +hand in marriage, and with whom she saw no reason whatever why she should +not live at peace, she might have modified her expressions an this +subject. Certainly, if she could have looked through the piles of +papers--as we intend to do--which lay upon that library-table, far beyond +the seas and mountains, she would have perceived some objections to the +scheme of living at peace with that diligent letter-writer. + +Perhaps, had she known how the subtle Farnese was about to express +himself concerning the fast-approaching execution of Mary, and the as +inevitably impending destruction of "that Englishwoman" through the +schemes of his master and himself, she would have paid less heed to the +sentiments couched in most exquisite Italian which Alexander was at the +same time whispering in her ear, and would have taken less offence at the +blunt language of the States-General. + +Nevertheless, for the present, Elizabeth would give no better answer than +the hot-tempered one which had already somewhat discomfited the deputies. + +Two days afterwards, the five envoys had an interview with several +members of her Majesty's council, in the private apartment of the Lord- +Treasurer in Greenwich Palace. Burghley, being indisposed, was lying +upon his bed. Leicester, Admiral Lord Howard, Lord Hunsden, Sir +Christopher Hatton, Lord Buckhurst, and Secretary Davison, were present, +and the Lord-Treasurer proposed that the conversation should be in Latin, +that being the common language most familiar to them all. Then, turning +over the leaves of the report, a copy of which lay on his bed, he asked +the envoys, whether, in case her Majesty had not sent over the assistance +which she had done under the Earl of Leicester, their country would not +have been utterly ruined. + +"To all appearance, yes," replied Menyn. + +"But," continued Burghley, still running through the pages of the +document, and here and there demanding an explanation of an obscure +passage or two, "you are now proposing to her Majesty to send 10,000 foot +and 2000 horse, and to lend L60,000. This is altogether monstrous and +excessive. Nobody will ever dare even to speak to her Majesty on the +subject. When you first came in 1585, you asked for 12,000 men, but you +were fully authorized to accept 6000. No doubt that is the case now." + +"On that occasion," answered Menyn, "our main purpose was to induce her +Majesty to accept the sovereignty, or at least the perpetual protection +of our country. Failing in that we broached the third point, and not +being able to get 12,000 soldiers we compounded for 5000, the agreement +being subject to ratification by our principals. We gave ample security +in shape of the mortgaged cities. But experience has shown us that these +forces and this succour are insufficient. We have therefore been sent to +beg her Majesty to make up the contingent to the amount originally +requested." + +"But we are obliged to increase the garrisons in the cautionary towns," +said one of the English councillors, "as 800 men in a city like Flushing +are very little." + +"Pardon me," replied Valck, "the burghers are not enemies but friends to +her Majesty and to the English nation. They are her dutiful subjects +like all the inhabitants of the Netherlands." + +"It is quite true," said Burghley, after having made some critical +remarks upon the military system of the Provinces, "and a very common +adage, 'quod tunc tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet,' but, +nevertheless, this war principally concerns you. Therefore you are bound +to do your utmost to meet its expenses in your own country, quite as much +as a man who means to build a house is expected to provide the stone and +timber himself. But the States have not done their best. They have not +at the appointed time come forward with their extraordinary contributions +for the last campaign. "How many men," he asked, "are required for +garrisons in all the fortresses and cities, and for the field?" + +"But," interposed Lord Hunsden, "not half so many men are needed in the +garrisons; for the burghers ought to be able to defend their own cities. +Moreover it is probable that your ordinary contributions might be +continued and doubled and even tripled." + +"And on the whole," observed the Lord Admiral, "don't you think that the +putting an army in the field might be dispensed with for this year? Her +Majesty at present must get together and equip a fleet of war vessels +against the King of Spain, which will be an excessively large pennyworth, +besides the assistance which she gives her neighbours." + +"Yes, indeed," said Secretary Davison, "it would be difficult to +exaggerate the enormous expense which her Majesty must encounter this +year for defending and liberating her own kingdoms against the King of +Spain. That monarch is making great naval preparations, and is treating +all Englishmen in the most hostile manner. We are on the brink of +declared war with Spain, with the French King, who is arresting all +English persons and property within his kingdom, and with Scotland, all +which countries are understood to have made a league together on account +of the Queen of Scotland, whom it will be absolutely necessary to put to +death in order to preserve the life of her Majesty, and are about to make +war upon England. This matter then will cost us, the current year, at +least eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. Nevertheless her Majesty +is sure to assist you so far as her means allow; and I, for my part, will +do my best to keep her Majesty well disposed to your cause, even as I +have ever done, as you well know." + +Thus spoke poor Davison, but a few days before the fatal 8th of February, +little dreaming that the day for his influencing the disposition of her +Majesty would soon be gone, and that he was himself to be crushed for +ever by the blow which was about to destroy the captive Queen. The +political combinations resulting from the tragedy were not to be exactly +as he foretold, but there is little doubt that in him the Netherlands, +and Leicester, and the Queen of England, were to lose an honest, +diligent, and faithful friend. + +"Well, gentlemen," said the Lord-Treasurer, after a few more questions +concerning the financial abilities of the States had been asked and +answered, "it is getting late into the evening, and time for you all to +get back to London. Let me request you, as soon as may be, to draw up +some articles in writing, to which we will respond immediately." + +Menyn then, in the name of the deputies, expressed thanks for the +urbanity shown them in the conference, and spoke of the deep regret with +which they had perceived, by her Majesty's answer two days before, that +she was so highly offended with them and with the States-General. He +then, notwithstanding Burghley's previous hint as to the lateness of the +hour, took up the Queen's answer, point by point, contradicted all its +statements, appealing frequently to Lord Leicester for confirmation of +what he advanced, and concluded by begging the councillors to defend the +cause of the Netherlands to her Majesty, Burghley requested them to make +an excuse or reply to the Queen in writing, and send it to him to +present. Thus the conference terminated, and the envoys returned to +London. They were fully convinced by the result of, these interviews, +as they told their constituents, that her Majesty, by false statements +and reports of persons either grossly ignorant or not having the good of +the commonwealth before their eyes, had been very incorrectly informed as +to the condition of the Provinces, and of the great efforts made by the +States-General to defend their country against the enemy: It was obvious, +they said, that their measures had been exaggerated in order to deceive +the Queen and her council. + +And thus statements and counter-statements, protocols and apostilles, +were glibly exchanged; the heap of diplomatic rubbish was rising higher +and higher, and the councillors and envoys, pleased with their work, were +growing more and more amicable, when the court was suddenly startled by +the news of the Deventer and Zutphen treason. The intelligence was +accompanied by the famous 4th of February letter, which descended, like a +bombshell, in the midst of the, decorous council-chamber. Such language +had rarely been addressed to the Earl of Leicester, and; through him; to +the imperious sovereign herself, as the homely truths with which +Barneveld, speaking with the voice of the States-General, now smote the +delinquent governor. + +"My Lord," said he, "it is notorious; and needs no illustration whatever, +with what true confidence and unfeigned affection we received your +Excellency in our land; the States-General, the States-Provincial, +the magistrates, and the communities of the chief cities in the United +Provinces, all uniting to do honour to her serene Majesty of England +and to yourself, and to confer upon you the government-general over us. +And although we should willingly have placed some limitations upon the +authority thus bestowed on you; in, order that by such a course your own +honour and the good and constitutional condition of the country might be +alike preserved, yet finding your Excellency not satisfied with those +limitations, we postponed every objection, and conformed ourselves +to your pleasure. Yet; before coming to that decision, we had well +considered that by doing so we might be opening a door to many ambitious, +avaricious, and pernicious persons, both of these countries and from +other nations, who might seize the occasion to advance their own private +profits, to the detriment of the country and the dishonour of your +Excellency. + +"And, in truth, such persons have done their work so efficiently as to +inspire you with distrust against the most faithful and capable men in +the Provinces, against the Estates General and Provincial, magistrates, +and private persons, knowing very well that they could never arrive +at their own ends so long as you were guided by the constitutional +authorities of the country. And precisely upon the distrust; thus +created as a foundation, they raised a back-stairs council, by means +of which they were able to further their ambitious, avaricious, and +seditious practices, notwithstanding the good advice and remonstrances +of the council of state, and the States General and Provincial." + +He proceeded to handle the subjects of the English rose-noble; put in +circulation by Leicester's finance or back-stairs council at two florins +above its value, to the manifest detriment of the Provinces, to the +detestable embargo which had prevented them from using the means bestowed +upon them by God himself to defend their country, to the squandering. +and embezzlement of the large sums contributed by the Province; and +entrusted to the Earl's administration; to the starving condition of the +soldiers; maltreated by government, and thus compelled to prey upon the +inhabitants--so that troops in the States' service had never been so +abused during the whole war, although the States had never before voted +such large contributions nor paid them so promptly--to the placing in +posts of high honour and trust men of notoriously bad character and even +Spanish spies; to the taking away the public authority from those to whom +it legitimately belonged, and conferring it on incompetent and +unqualified persons; to the illegal banishment of respectable citizens, +to the violation of time-honoured laws and privileges, to the shameful +attempts to repudiate the ancient authority of the States, and to usurp a +control over the communities and nobles by them represented, and to the +perpetual efforts to foster dissension, disunion, and rebellion among the +inhabitants. Having thus drawn up a heavy bill of indictment, nominally +against the Earl's illegal counsellors, but in reality against the Earl +himself, he proceeded to deal with the most important matter of all. + +"The principal cities and fortresses in the country have been placed in +hands of men suspected by the States on legitimate grounds, men who had +been convicted of treason against these Provinces, and who continued to +be suspected, notwithstanding that your Excellency had pledged your own +honour for their fidelity. Finally, by means of these scoundrels, it was +brought to pass, that the council of state having been invested by your +Excellency with supreme authority during your absence--a secret document, +was brought to light after your departure, by which the most substantial +matters, and those most vital to the defence of the country, were +withdrawn from the disposition of that council. And now, alas, we see +the effects of these practices! + +"Sir William Stanley, by you appointed governor of Deventer, and Rowland +York, governor of Fort Zutphen, have refused, by virtue of that secret +document, to acknowledge any authority in this country. And +notwithstanding that since your departure they and their soldiers have +been supported at our expense, and had just received a full month's pay +from the States, they have traitorously and villainously delivered the +city and the fortress to the enemy, with a declaration made by Stanley +that he did the deed to ease his conscience, and to render to the King of +Spain the city which of right was belonging to him. And this is a crime +so dishonourable, scandalous, ruinous, and treasonable, as that, during +this, whole war, we have never seen the like. And we are now, in daily +fear lest the English commanders in Bergen-op-Zoom, Ostend, and other +cities, should commit the same crime. And although we fully suspected +the designs of Stanley and York, yet your Excellency's secret document +had deprived us of the power to act. + +"We doubt not that her Majesty and your Excellency will think this +strange language. But we can assure you, that we too think it strange +and grievous that those places should have been confided to such men, +against our repeated remonstrances, and that, moreover, this very Stanley +should have been recommended by your Excellency for general of all the +forces. And although we had many just and grave reasons for opposing +your administration--even as our ancestors were often wont to rise +against the sovereigns of the country--we have, nevertheless, patiently +suffered for a long time, in order not to diminish your authority, which +we deemed so important to our welfare, and in the hope that you would at +last be moved by the perilous condition of the commonwealth, and awake to +the artifices of your advisers. + +"But at last-feeling that the existence of the state can no longer be +preserved without proper authority, and that the whole community is full +of emotion and distrust, on account of these great treasons--we, the +States-General, as well as the States-Provincial, have felt constrained +to establish such a government as we deem meet for the emergency. And of +this we think proper to apprize your Excellency." + +He then expressed the conviction that all these evil deeds had been +accomplished against the intentions of the Earl and the English +government, and requested his Excellency so to deal with her Majesty that +the contingent of horse and foot hitherto accorded by her "might be +maintained in good order, and in better pay." + +Here, then, was substantial choleric phraseology, as good plain speaking +as her Majesty had just been employing, and with quite as sufficient +cause. Here was no pleasant diplomatic fencing, but straightforward +vigorous thrusts. It was no wonder that poor Wilkes should have thought +the letter "too sharp," when he heard it read in the assembly, and that +he should have done his best to prevent it from being despatched. He +would have thought it sharper could he have seen how the pride of her +Majesty and of Leicester was wounded by it to the quick. Her list of +grievances against the States seem to vanish into air. Who had been +tampering with the Spaniards now? Had that "shadowy and imaginary +authority" granted to Leicester not proved substantial enough? Was it +the States-General, the state-council, or was it the "absolute governor" +--who had carried off the supreme control of the commonwealth in his +pocket--that was responsible for the ruin effected by Englishmen who had +scorned all "authority" but his own? + +The States, in another blunt letter to the Queen herself, declared the +loss of Deventer to be more disastrous to them than even the fall of +Antwerp had been; for the republic had now been split asunder, and its +most ancient and vital portions almost cut away. Nevertheless they were +not "dazzled nor despairing," they said, but more determined than ever to +maintain their liberties, and bid defiance to the Spanish tyrant. And +again they demanded of, rather than implored; her Majesty to be true to +her engagements with them. + +The interviews which followed were more tempestuous than ever. "I had +intended that my Lord of Leicester should return to you," she said to the +envoys. "But that shall never be. He has been treated with gross +ingratitude, he has served the Provinces with ability, he has consumed +his own property there, he has risked his life, he has lost his near +kinsman, Sir Philip Sidney, whose life I should be glad to purchase with +many millions, and, in place of all reward, he receives these venomous +letters, of which a copy has been sent to his sovereign to blacken him +with her." She had been advising him to return, she added, but she was +now resolved that he should "never set foot in the Provinces again." + +Here the Earl, who, was present, exclaimed--beating himself on the +breast--"a tali officio libera nos, Domine!" + +But the States, undaunted by these explosions of wrath, replied that it +had ever been their custom, when their laws and liberties were invaded, +to speak their mind boldly to kings and governors, and to procure redress +of their grievances, as became free men. + +During that whole spring the Queen was at daggers drawn with all her +leading counsellors, mainly in regard to that great question of +questions--the relations of England with the Netherlands and Spain. +Walsingham--who felt it madness to dream of peace, and who believed it +the soundest policy to deal with Parma and his veterans upon the soil of +Flanders, with the forces of the republic for allies, rather than to +await his arrival in London--was driven almost to frenzy by what he +deemed the Queen's perverseness. + +"Our sharp words continue," said the Secretary, "which doth greatly +disquiet her Majesty, and discomfort her poor servants that attend her. +The Lord-Treasurer remaineth still in disgrace, and, behind my back, +her Majesty giveth out very hard speeches of myself, which I the rather +credit, for that I find, in dealing with her, I am nothing gracious; +and if her Majesty could be otherwise served, I know I should not be used +. . . . . Her Majesty doth wholly lend herself to devise some +further means to disgrace her poor council, in respect whereof she +neglecteth all other causes . . . . . The discord between her +Majesty and her council hindereth the necessary consultations that were +to be destined for the preventing of the manifold perils that hang over +this realm . . . . . . Sir Christopher Hatton hath dealt very +plainly and dutifully with her, which hath been accepted in so evil part +as he is resolved to retire for a time. I assure you I find every man +weary of attendance here . . . . . . I would to God I could find +as good resolution in her Majesty to proceed in a princely course in +relieving the United Provinces, as I find an honorable disposition in +your Lordship to employ yourself in their service." + +The Lord-Treasurer was much puzzled, very wretched, but philosophically +resigned. "Why her Majesty useth me thus strangely, I know not," he +observed. "To some she saith that she meant not I should have gone from +the court; to some she saith, she may not admit me, nor give me +contentment. I shall dispose myself to enjoy God's favour, and shall do +nothing to deserve her disfavour. And if I be suffered to be a stranger +to her affairs, I shall have a quieter life." + +Leicester, after the first burst of his anger was over, was willing to +return to the Provinces. He protested that he had a greater affection +for the Netherland people--not for the governing powers--even than he +felt for the people of England.--"There is nothing sticks in my +stomach," he said, "but the good-will of that poor afflicted people, for +whom, I take God to record, I could be content to lose any limb I have to +do them good." But he was crippled with debt, and the Queen resolutely +refused to lend him a few thousand pounds, without which he could not +stir. Walsingham in vain did battle with her parsimony, representing how +urgently and vividly the necessity of his return had been depicted by all +her ministers in both countries, and how much it imported to her own +safety and service. But she was obdurate. "She would rather," he said +bitterly to Leicester, "hazard the increase of confusion there--which may +put the whole country in peril--than supply your want. The like course +she holdeth in the rest of her causes, which maketh me to wish myself +from the helm." At last she agreed to advance him ten thousand pounds, +but on so severe conditions, that the Earl declared himself heart-broken +again, and protested that he would neither accept the money, nor ever set +foot in the Netherlands. "Let Norris stay there," he said in a fury; +"he will do admirably, no doubt. Only let it not be supposed that I can +be there also. Not for one hundred thousand pounds would I be in that +country with him." + +Meantime it was agreed that Lord Buckhurst should be sent forth on what +Wilkes termed a mission of expostulation, and a very ill-timed one. This +new envoy was to inquire into the causes of the discontent, and to do his +best to remove them: as if any man in England or in Holland doubted as to +the causes, or as to the best means of removing them; or as if it were +not absolutely certain that delay was the very worst specific that could +be adopted--delay--which the Netherland statesmen, as well as the Queen's +wisest counsellors, most deprecated, which Alexander and Philip most +desired, and by indulging in which her Majesty was most directly playing +into her adversary's hand. Elizabeth was preparing to put cards upon the +table against an antagonist whose game was close, whose honesty was +always to be suspected, and who was a consummate master in what was then +considered diplomatic sleight of hand. So Lord Buckhurst was to go forth +to expostulate at the Hague, while transports were loading in Cadiz and +Lisbon, reiters levying in Germany, pikemen and musketeers in Spain and +Italy, for a purpose concerning which Walsingham and Barneveld had for a +long time felt little doubt. + +Meantime Lord Leicester went to Bath to drink the waters, and after +he had drunk the waters, the Queen, ever anxious for his health, was +resolved that he should not lose the benefit of those salubrious draughts +by travelling too soon, or by plunging anew into the fountains of +bitterness which flowed perennially in the Netherlands. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Buckhurst sent to the Netherlands--Alarming State of Affairs on his + Arrival--His Efforts to conciliate--Democratic Theories of Wilkes-- + Sophistry of the Argument--Dispute between Wilkes and Barneveld-- + Religious Tolerance by the States--Their Constitutional Theory-- + Deventer's bad Counsels to Leicester--Their pernicious Effect--Real + and supposed Plots against Hohenlo--Mutual Suspicion and Distrust-- + Buckhurst seeks to restore good Feeling--The Queen angry and + vindictive--She censures Buckhurst's Course--Leicester's wrath at + Hohenlo's Charges of a Plot by the Earl to murder him--Buckhurst's + eloquent Appeals to the Queen--Her perplexing and contradictory + Orders--Despair of Wilkes--Leicester announces his Return--His + Instructions--Letter to Junius--Barneveld denounces him in the + States. + +We return to the Netherlands. If ever proof were afforded of the +influence of individual character on the destiny of nations and of the +world, it certainly was seen in the year 1587. We have lifted the +curtain of the secret council-chamber at Greenwich. We have seen all +Elizabeth's advisers anxious to arouse her from her fatal credulity, +from her almost as fatal parsimony. We have seen Leicester anxious to +return, despite all fancied indignities, Walsingham eager to expedite the +enterprise, and the Queen remaining obdurate, while month after month of +precious time was melting away. + +In the Netherlands, meantime, discord and confusion had been increasing +every day; and the first great cause of such a dangerous condition of +affairs was the absence of the governor. To this all parties agreed. +The Leicestrians, the anti-Leicestriana, the Holland party, the Utrecht +party, the English counsellors, the English generals, in private letter, +in solemn act, all warned the Queen against the lamentable effects +resulting from Leicester's inopportune departure and prolonged absence. + +On the first outbreak of indignation after the Deventer Affair, Prince +Maurice was placed at the head of the general government, with the +violent Hohenlo as his lieutenant. The greatest exertions were made by +these two nobles and by Barneveld, who guided the whole policy of the +party, to secure as many cities as possible to their cause. Magistrates +and commandants of garrisons in many towns willingly gave in their +adhesion to the new government; others refused; especially Diedrich +Sonoy, an officer of distinction, who was governor of Enkhuyzen, and +influential throughout North Holland, and who remained a stanch partisan +of Leicester. Utrecht, the stronghold of the Leicestrians, was wavering +and much torn by faction; Hohenlo and Moeurs had "banquetted and feasted" +to such good purpose that they had gained over half the captains of the +burgher-guard, and, aided by the branch of nobles, were making a good +fight against the Leicester magistracy and the clerical force, enriched +by the plunder of the old Catholic livings, who denounced as Papistical +and Hispaniolized all who favoured the party of Maurice and Barneveld. + +By the end of March the envoys returned from London, and in their company +came Lord Buckhurst, as special ambassador from the Queen. + +Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst--afterwards Earl of Dorset and lord- +treasurer--was then fifty-one years of age. A man of large culture-poet, +dramatist, diplomatist-bred to the bar; afterwards elevated to the +peerage; endowed with high character and strong intellect; ready with +tongue and pen; handsome of person, and with a fascinating address, he +was as fit a person to send on a mission of expostulation as any man to +be found in England. But the author of the 'Induction to the Mirror for +Magistrates' and of 'Gorboduc,' had come to the Netherlands on a forlorn +hope. To expostulate in favour of peace with a people who knew that +their existence depended on war, to reconcile those to delay who felt +that delay was death, and to, heal animosities between men who were +enemies from their cradles to their graves, was a difficult mission. +But the chief ostensible object of Buckhurst was to smooth the way for +Leicester, and, if possible, to persuade the Netherlanders as to the good +inclinations of the English government. This was no easy task, for they +knew that their envoys had been dismissed, without even a promise of +subsidy. They had asked for twelve thousand soldiers and sixty thousand +pounds, and had received a volley of abuse. Over and over again, through +many months, the Queen fell into a paroxysm of rage when even an allusion +was made to the loan of fifty or sixty thousand pounds; and even had she +promised the money, it would have given but little satisfaction. As +Count Moeurs observed, he would rather see one English rose-noble than a +hundred royal promises. So the Hollanders and Zeelanders--not fearing +Leicester's influence within their little morsel of a territory--were +concentrating their means of resistance upon their own soil, intending to +resist Spain, and, if necessary, England, in their last ditch, and with +the last drop of their blood. + +While such was the condition of affairs, Lord Buckhurst landed at +Flushing--four months after the departure of Leicester--on the 24th +March, having been tossing three days and nights at sea in a great storm, +"miserably sick and in great danger of drowning." Sir William Russell, +governor of Flushing, informed him of the progress making by Prince +Maurice in virtue of his new authority. He told him that the Zeeland +regiment, vacant by Sidney's death, and which the Queen wished bestowed +upon Russell himself, had been given to Count Solms; a circumstance which +was very sure to exite her Majesty's ire; but that the greater number, +and those of the better sort; disliked the alteration of government, and +relied entirely upon the Queen. Sainte Aldegonde visited him at +Middelburgh, and in a "long discourse" expressed the most friendly +sentiments towards England, with free offers of personal service. +"Nevertheless," said Buckhurst, cautiously, "I mean to trust the effect, +not his words, and so I hope he will not much deceive me. His opinion is +that the Earl of Leicester's absence hath chiefly caused this change, and +that without his return it will hardly be restored again, but that upon +his arrival all these clouds will prove but a summershower." + +As a matter of course the new ambassador lifted up his voice, immediately +after setting foot on shore, in favour of the starving soldiers of his +Queen. "'Tis a most lamentable thing," said he, "to hear the complaints +of soldiers and captains for want of pay." . . . . Whole companies +made their way into his presence, literally crying aloud for bread. "For +Jesus' sake," wrote Buckhurst, "hasten to send relief with all speed, and +let such victuallers be appointed as have a conscience not to make +themselves rich with the famine of poor soldiers. If her Majesty send +not money, and that with speed, for their payment, I am afraid to think +what mischief and miseries are like to follow." + +Then the ambassador proceeded to the Hague, holding interviews with +influential personages in private, and with the States-General in public. +Such was the charm of his manner, and so firm the conviction of sincerity +and good-will which he inspired, that in the course of a fortnight there +was already a sensible change in the aspect of affairs. The enemy, who, +at the time of their arrival, had been making bonfires and holding +triumphal processions for joy of the great breach between Holland and +England, and had been "hoping to swallow them all up, while there were so +few left who knew how to act," were already manifesting disappointment. + +In a solemn meeting of the States-General with the State-council, +Buckhurst addressed the assembly upon the general subject of her +Majesty's goodness to the Netherlands. He spoke of the gracious +assistance rendered by her, notwithstanding her many special charges for +the common cause, and of the mighty enmities which she had incurred for +their sake. He sharply censured the Hollanders for their cruelty to men +who had shed their blood in their cause, but who were now driven forth +from their towns; and left to starve on the highways, and hated for their +nation's sake; as if the whole English name deserved to be soiled "for +the treachery of two miscreants." He spoke strongly of their demeanour +towards the Earl of Leicester, and of the wrongs they had done him, and +told them, that, if they were not ready to atone to her Majesty for such +injuries, they were not to wonder if their deputies received no better +answer at her hands. "She who embraced your cause," he said, "when other +mighty princes forsook you, will still stand fast unto you, yea, and +increase her goodness, if her present state may suffer it." + +After being addressed in this manner the council of state made what +Counsellor Clerk called a "very honest, modest, and wise answer;" but the +States-General, not being able "so easily to discharge that which had so +long boiled within them," deferred their reply until the following day. +They then brought forward a deliberate rejoinder, in which they expressed +themselves devoted to her Majesty, and, on the whole, well disposed to +the Earl. As to the 4th February letter, it had been written "in +amaritudine cordis," upon hearing the treasons of York and Stanley, and +in accordance with "their custom and liberty used towards all princes, +whereby they had long preserved their estate," and in the conviction that +the real culprits for all the sins of his Excellency's government were +certain "lewd persons who sought to seduce his Lordship, and to cause him +to hate the States." + +Buckhurst did not think it well to reply, at that moment, on the ground +that there had been already crimination and recrimination more than +enough, and that "a little bitterness more had rather caused them to +determine dangerously than solve for the best." + +They then held council together--the envoys and the State-General, as to +the amount of troops absolutely necessary--casting up the matter "as +pinchingly as possibly might be." And the result was, that 20,000 foot +and 2000 horse for garrison work, and an army of 13,000 foot, 5000 horse, +and pioneers, for a campaign of five or six months, were pronounced +indispensable. This would require all their L240,000 sterling a-year, +regular contribution, her Majesty's contingent of L140,000, and an extra +sum of L150,000 sterling. Of this sum the States requested her Majesty +should furnish two-thirds, while they agreed to furnish the other third, +which would make in all L240,000 for the Queen, and L290,000 for the +States. As it was understood that the English subsidies were only a +loan, secured by mortgage of the cautionary towns, this did not seem very +unreasonable, when the intimate blending of England's welfare with that +of the Provinces was considered. + +Thus it will be observed that Lord Buckhurst--while doing his best to +conciliate personal feuds and heart-burnings--had done full justice to +the merits of Leicester, and had placed in strongest light the favours +conferred by her Majesty. + +He then proceeded to Utrecht, where he was received with many +demonstrations of respect, "with solemn speeches" from magistrates and +burgher-captains, with military processions, and with great banquets, +which were, however, conducted with decorum, and at which even Count +Moeurs excited universal astonishment by his sobriety. It was difficult, +however, for matters to go very smoothly, except upon the surface. What +could be more disastrous than for a little commonwealth--a mere handful +of people, like these Netherlanders, engaged in mortal combat with the +most powerful monarch in the world, and with the first general of the +age, within a league of their borders--thus to be deprived of all +organized government at a most critical moment, and to be left to wrangle +with their allies and among themselves, as to the form of polity to be +adopted, while waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman? + +And the very foundation of the authority by which the Spanish yoke had +been abjured, the sovereignty offered to Elizabeth, and the government- +general conferred on Leicester, was fiercely assailed by the confidential +agents of Elizabeth herself. The dispute went into the very depths of +the social contract. Already Wilkes, standing up stoutly for the +democratic views of the governor, who was so foully to requite him, had +assured the English government that the "people were ready to cut the +throats" of the Staten-General at any convenient moment. The sovereign +people, not the deputies, were alone to be heeded, he said, and although +he never informed the world by what process he had learned the deliberate +opinion of that sovereign, as there had been no assembly excepting those +of the States-General and States-Provincial--he was none the less fully +satisfied that the people were all with Leicester, and bitterly opposed +to the States. + +"For the sovereignty, or supreme authority," said he, through failure of +a legitimate prince, belongs to the people, and not to you, gentlemen, +who are only servants, ministers, and deputies of the people. You have +your commissions or instructions surrounded by limitations--which +conditions are so widely different from the power of sovereignty, as the +might of the subject is in regard to his prince, or of a servant in, +respect to his master. For sovereignty is not limited either as to power +or as to time. Still less do you represent the sovereignty; for the +people, in giving the general and absolute government to the Earl of +Leicester, have conferred upon him at once the exercise of justice, the +administration of polity, of naval affairs, of war, and of all the other +points of sovereignty. Of these a governor-general is however only the +depositary or guardian, until such time as it may please the prince or +people to revoke the trust; there being no other in this state who can do +this; seeing that it was the people, through the instrumentality of your +offices--through you as its servants--conferred on his Excellency, this +power, authority, and government. According to the common rule law, +therefore, 'quo jure quid statuitur, eodem jure tolli debet.' You having +been fully empowered by the provinces and cities, or, to speak more +correctly, by your masters and superiors, to confer the government on +his Excellency, it follows that you require a like power in order to take +it away either in whole or in part. If then you had no commission to +curtail his authority, or even that of the state-council, and thus to +tread upon and usurp his power as governor general and absolute, there +follows of two things one: either you did not well understand what you +were doing, nor duly consider how far that power reached, or--much more +probably--you have fallen into the sin of disobedience, considering how +solemnly you swore allegiance to him. + +Thus subtly and ably did Wilkes defend the authority of the man who had +deserted his post at a most critical moment, and had compelled the +States, by his dereliction, to take the government into their own hands. + +For, after all, the whole argument of the English counsellor rested upon +a quibble. The people were absolutely sovereign, he said, and had lent +that sovereignty to Leicester. How had they made that loan? Through the +machinery of the States-General. So long then as the Earl retained the +absolute sovereignty, the States were not even representatives of the +sovereign people. The sovereign people was merged into one English Earl. +The English Earl had retired--indefinitely--to England. Was the +sovereign people to wait for months, or years, before it regained its +existence? And if not, how was it to reassert its vitality? How but +through the agency of the States-General, who--according to Wilkes +himself--had been fully empowered by the Provinces and Cities to confer +the government on the Earl? The people then, after all, were the +provinces and cities. And the States-General were at that moment as much +qualified to represent those provinces and cities as they ever had been, +and they claimed no more. Wilkes, nor any other of the Leicester party, +ever hinted at a general assembly of the people. Universal suffrage was +not dreamed of at that day. By the people, he meant, if he meant +anything, only that very small fraction of the inhabitants of a country, +who, according to the English system, in the reign of Elizabeth, +constituted its Commons. He chose, rather from personal and political +motives than philosophical ones, to draw a distinction between the people +and the States, but it is quite obvious, from the tone of his private +communications, that by the 'States' he meant the individuals who +happened, for the time-being, to be the deputies of the States of each +Province. But it was almost an affectation to accuse those individuals +of calling or considering themselves 'sovereigns;' for it was very well +known that they sat as envoys, rather than as members of a congress, and +were perpetually obliged to recur to their constituents, the States of +each Province, for instructions. It was idle, because Buys and +Barneveld, and Roorda, and other leaders, exercised the influence due to +their talents, patriotism, and experience, to stigmatize them as usurpers +of sovereignty, and to hound the rabble upon them as tyrants and +mischief-makers. Yet to take this course pleased the Earl of Leicester, +who saw no hope for the liberty of the people, unless absolute and +unconditional authority over the people, in war, naval affairs, justice, +and policy, were placed in his hands. This was the view sustained by the +clergy of the Reformed Church, because they found it convenient, through +such a theory, and by Leicester's power, to banish Papists, exercise +intolerance in matters of religion, sequestrate for their own private +uses the property of the Catholic Church, and obtain for their own a +political power which was repugnant to the more liberal ideas of the +Barneveld party. + +The States of Holland--inspired as it were by the memory of that great +martyr to religious and political liberty, William the Silent--maintained +freedom of conscience. + +The Leicester party advocated a different theory on the religious +question. They were also determined to omit no effort to make the States +odious. + +"Seeing their violent courses," said Wilkes to Leicester, "I have not +been negligent, as well by solicitations to the ministers, as by my +letters to such as have continued constant in affection to your Lordship, +to have the people informed of the ungrateful and dangerous proceedings +of the States. They have therein travailed with so good effect, as the +people are now wonderfully well disposed, and have delivered everywhere +in speeches, that if, by the overthwart dealings of the States, her +Majesty shall be drawn to stay her succours and goodness to them, and +that thereby your Lordship be also discouraged to return, they will cut +their throats." + +Who the "people" exactly were, that had been so wonderfully well disposed +to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel, did not distinctly +appear. It was certain, however, that they were the special friends of +Leicester, great orators, very pious, and the sovereigns of the country. +So much could not be gainsaid. + +"Your Lordship would wonder," continued the councillor, "to see the +people--who so lately, by the practice of the said States and the +accident of Deventer, were notably alienated--so returned to their former +devotion towards her Majesty, your Lordship, and our nation." + +Wilkes was able moreover to gratify the absent governor-general with the +intelligence--of somewhat questionable authenticity however--that the +States were very "much terrified with these threats of the people." But +Barneveld came down to the council to inquire what member of that body it +was who had accused the States of violating the Earl's authority. +"Whoever he is," said the Advocate, "let him deliver his mind frankly, +and he shall be answered." The man did not seem much terrified by the +throat-cutting orations. "It is true," replied Wilkes, perceiving +himself to be the person intended, "that you have very injuriously, in +many of your proceedings, derogated from and trodden the authority of his +Lordship and of this council under your feet." + +And then he went into particulars, and discussed, 'more suo,' the +constitutional question, in which various Leicestrian counsellors +seconded him. + +But Barneveld grimly maintained that the States were the sovereigns, +and that it was therefore unfit that the governor, who drew his authority +from them, should call them to account for their doings. "It was as if +the governors in the time of Charles V.," said the Advocate, "should have +taxed that Emperor for any action of his done in the government." + +In brief, the rugged Barneveld, with threatening voice, and lion port, +seemed to impersonate the Staten, and to hold reclaimed sovereignty in +his grasp. It seemed difficult to tear it from him again. + +"I did what I could," said Wilkes, "to beat them from this humour of +their sovereignty, showing that upon that error they had grounded the +rest of their wilful absurdities." + +Next night, he drew up sixteen articles, showing the disorders of the +States, their breach of oaths, and violations of the Earl's authority; +and with that commenced a series of papers interchanged by the two +parties, in which the topics of the origin of government and the +principles of religious freedom were handled with much ability on both +sides, but at unmerciful length. + +On the religious question, the States-General, led by Barneveld and by +Francis Franck, expressed themselves manfully, on various occasions, +during the mission of Buckhurst. + +"The nobles and cities constituting the States," they said, "have been +denounced to Lord Leicester as enemies of religion, by the self-seeking +mischief-makers who surround him. Why? Because they had refused the +demand of certain preachers to call a general synod, in defiance of the +States-General, and to introduce a set of ordinances, with a system of +discipline, according to their arbitrary will. This the late Prince of +Orange and the States-General had always thought detrimental both to +religion and polity. They respected the difference in religious +opinions, and leaving all churches in their freedom, they chose to compel +no man's conscience--a course which all statesmen, knowing the diversity +of human opinions, had considered necessary in order to maintain +fraternal harmony." + +Such words shine through the prevailing darkness of the religious +atmosphere at that epoch, like characters of light. They are beacons in +the upward path of mankind. Never before, had so bold and wise a tribute +to the genius of the reformation been paid by an organized community. +Individuals walking in advance of their age had enunciated such truths, +and their voices had seemed to die away, but, at last, a little, +struggling, half-developed commonwealth had proclaimed the rights of +conscience for all mankind--for Papists and Calvinists, Jews and +Anabaptists--because "having a respect for differences in religious +opinions, and leaving all churches in their freedom, they chose to compel +no man's conscience." + +On the constitutional question, the States commenced by an astounding +absurdity. "These mischief-makers, moreover," said they, "have not been +ashamed to dispute, and to cause the Earl of Leicester to dispute, the +lawful constitution of the Provinces; a matter which has not been +disputed for eight hundred years." + +This was indeed to claim a respectable age for their republic. Eight +hundred years took them back to the days of Charlemagne, in whose time it +would have been somewhat difficult to detect a germ of their States- +General and States-Provincial. That the constitutional government-- +consisting of nobles and of the vroedschaps of chartered cities--should +have been in existence four hundred and seventeen years before the first +charter had ever been granted to a city, was a very loose style of +argument. Thomas Wilkes, in reply; might as well have traced the English +parliament to Hengist and Horsa. "For eight hundred years;" they said, +"Holland had been governed by Counts and Countesses, on whom the nobles +and cities, as representing the States, had legally conferred +sovereignty." + +Now the first incorporated city of Holland and Zeeland that ever existed +was Middelburg, which received its charter from Count William I. of +Holland and Countess Joan of Flanders; in the year 1217. The first Count +that had any legal recognized authority was Dirk the First to whom +Charles the Simple presented the territory of Holland, by letters-patent, +in 922. Yet the States-General, in a solemn and eloquent document, +gravely dated their own existence from the year 787, and claimed the +regular possession and habitual delegation of sovereignty from that epoch +down! + +After this fabulous preamble, they proceeded to handle the matter of fact +with logical precision. It was absurd, they said, that Mr. Wilkes and +Lord Leicester should affect to confound the persons who appeared in the +assembly with the States themselves; as if those individuals claimed or +exercised sovereignty. Any man who had observed what had been passing +during the last fifteen years, knew very well that the supreme authority +did not belong to the thirty or forty individuals who came to the +meetings . . . . . The nobles, by reason of their ancient dignity +and splendid possessions, took counsel together over state matters, and +then, appearing at the assembly, deliberated with the deputies of the +cities. The cities had mainly one form of government--a college of +counsellors; or wise men, 40, 32, 28, or 24 in number, of the most +respectable out of the whole community. They were chosen for life, and +vacancies were supplied by the colleges themselves out of the mass of +citizens. These colleges alone governed the city, and that which had +been ordained by them was to be obeyed by all the inhabitants--a system +against which there had never been any rebellion. The colleges again, +united with those of the nobles, represented the whole state, the whole +body of the population; and no form of government could be imagined, +they said, that could resolve, with a more thorough knowledge of the +necessities of the country, or that could execute its resolves with more +unity of purpose and decisive authority. To bring the colleges into an +assembly could only be done by means of deputies. These deputies, chosen +by their colleges, and properly instructed, were sent to the place of +meeting. During the war they had always been commissioned to resolve in +common on matters regarding the liberty of the land. These deputies, +thus assembled, represented, by commission, the States; but they are not, +in their own persons, the States; and no one of them had any such +pretension. "The people of this country," said the States, "have an +aversion to all ambition; and in these disastrous times, wherein nothing +but trouble and odium is to be gathered by public employment, these +commissions are accounted 'munera necessaria' . . . . . This form of +government has, by God's favour, protected Holland and Zeeland, during +this war, against a powerful foe, without lose of territory, without any +popular outbreak, without military mutiny, because all business has been +transacted with open doors; and because the very smallest towns are all +represented, and vote in the assembly." + +In brief, the constitution of the United Provinces was a matter of fact. +It was there in good working order, and had, for a generation of mankind, +and throughout a tremendous war, done good service. Judged by the +principles of reason and justice, it was in the main a wholesome +constitution, securing the independence and welfare of the state, and +the liberty and property of the individual, as well certainly as did any +polity then existing in the world. It seemed more hopeful to abide by it +yet a little longer than to adopt the throat-cutting system by the +people, recommended by Wilkes and Leicester as an improvement on the old +constitution. This was the view of Lord Buckhurst. He felt that threats +of throat-cutting were not the best means of smoothing and conciliating, +and he had come over to smooth and conciliate. + +"To spend the time," said he, "in private brabbles and piques between the +States and Lord Leicester, when we ought to prepare an army against the +enemy, and to repair the shaken and torn state, is not a good course for +her Majesty's service." Letters were continually circulating from hand +to hand among the antagonists of the Holland party, written out of +England by Leicester, exciting the ill-will of the populace against the +organized government. "By such means to bring the States into hatred," +said Buckhurst, "and to stir up the people against them; tends to great +damage and miserable end. This his Lordship doth full little consider, +being the very way to dissolve all government, and so to bring all into +confusion, and open the door for the enemy. But oh, how lamentable a +thing it is, and how doth my Lord of Leicester abuse her Majesty, making +her authority the means to uphold and justify, and under her name to +defend and maintain, all his intolerable errors. I thank God that +neither his might nor his malice shall deter me from laying open all +those things which my conscience knoweth, and which appertaineth to be +done for the good of this cause and of her Majesty's service. Herein, +though I were sure to lose my life, yet will I not offend neither the +one nor the other, knowing very well that I must die; and to die in her +Majesty's faithful service, and with a good conscience, is far more happy +than the miserable life that I am in. If Leicester do in this sort stir +up the people against the States to follow his revenge against them, and +if the Queen do yield no better aid, and the minds of Count Maurice and +Hohenlo remain thus in fear and hatred of him, what good end or service +can be hoped for here?"--[Buckhurst to Walsingham, 13th June, 1587. +(Brit. Mus. Galba, D. I. p. 95, MS.)] + +Buckhurst was a man of unimpeached integrity and gentle manners. He had +come over with the best intentions towards the governor-general, and it +has been seen that he boldly defended him in, his first interviews with +the States. But as the intrigues and underhand plottings of the Earl's +agents were revealed to him, he felt more and more convinced that there +was a deep laid scheme to destroy the government, and to constitute a +virtual and absolute sovereignty for Leicester. It was not wonderful +that the States were standing vigorously on the defensive. + +The subtle Deventer, Leicester's evil genius, did not cease to poison the +mind of the governor, during his protracted absence, against all persons +who offered impediments to the cherished schemes of his master and +himself. "Your Excellency knows very well," he said, "that the state of +this country is democratic, since, by failure of a prince, the sovereign +disposition of affairs has returned to the people. That same people is +everywhere so incredibly affectionate towards you that the delay in your +return drives them to extreme despair. Any one who would know the real +truth has but to remember the fine fear the States-General were in when +the news of your displeasure about the 4th February letter became known." + +Had it not been for the efforts of Lord Buckhurst in calming the popular +rage, Deventer assured the Earl that the writers of the letter would +"have scarcely saved their skins;" and that they had always continued in +great danger. + +He vehemently urged upon Leicester, the necessity of his immediate +return--not so much for reasons drawn from the distracted state of the +country, thus left to a provisional government and torn by faction--but +because of the facility with which he might at once seize upon arbitrary +power. He gratified his master by depicting in lively colours the abject +condition into which Barneveld, Maurice, Hohenlo, and similar cowards, +would be thrown by his sudden return. + +"If," said he, "the States' members and the counts, every one of them, +are so desperately afraid of the people, even while your Excellency is +afar off, in what trepidation will they be when you are here! God, +reason, the affection of the sovereign people, are on your side. There +needs, in a little commonwealth like ours, but a wink of the eye, the +slightest indication of dissatisfaction on your part, to take away all +their valour from men who are only brave where swords are too short. +A magnanimous prince like yourself should seek at once the place where +such plots are hatching, and you would see the fury of the rebels change +at once to cowardice. There is more than one man here in the Netherlands +that brags of what he will do against the greatest and most highly +endowed prince in England, because he thinks he shall never see him +again, who, at the very first news of your return, my Lord, would think +only of packing his portmanteau, greasing his boots, or, at the very +least, of sneaking back into his hole." + +But the sturdy democrat was quite sure that his Excellency, that most +magnanimous prince of England would not desert his faithful followers-- +thereby giving those "filthy rascals," his opponents, a triumph, and +"doing so great an injury to the sovereign people, who were ready to get +rid of them all at a single blow, if his Excellency would but say the +word." + +He then implored the magnanimous prince to imitate the example of Moses, +Joshua, David, and that of all great emperors and captains, Hebrew, +Greek, and Roman, to come at once to the scene of action, and to smite +his enemies hip and thigh. He also informed his Excellency, that if the +delay should last much longer, he would lose all chance of regaining +power, because the sovereign people had quite made up their mind to +return to the dominion of Spain within three months, if they could not +induce his Excellency to rule over them. In that way at least, if in +no other, they could circumvent those filthy rascals whom they so much +abhorred, and frustrate the designs of Maurice, Hohenlo, and Sir John +Norris, who were represented as occupying the position of the triumvirs +after the death of Julius Caesar. + +To place its neck under the yoke of Philip II. and the Inquisition, +after having so handsomely got rid of both, did not seem a sublime +manifestation of sovereignty on the part of the people, and even Deventer +had some misgivings as to the propriety of such a result. "What then +will become of our beautiful churches?" he cried, "What will princes +say, what will the world in general say, what will historians say, about +the honour of the English nation?" + +As to the first question, it is probable that the prospect of the +reformed churches would not have been cheerful, had the inquisition been +re-established in Holland and Utrecht, three months after that date. As +to the second, the world and history were likely to reply, that the +honour of the English nation was fortunately not entirely, entrusted at +that epoch to the "magnanimous prince" of Leicester, and his democratic, +counsellor-in-chief, burgomaster Deventer. + +These are but samples of the ravings which sounded incessantly in the +ears of the governor-general. Was it strange that a man, so thirsty for +power, so gluttonous of flattery, should be influenced by such passionate +appeals? Addressed in strains of fulsome adulation, convinced that +arbitrary power was within his reach, and assured that he had but to wink +his eye to see his enemies scattered before him, he became impatient of +all restraint; and determined, on his return, to crush the States into +insignificance. + +Thus, while Buckhurst had been doing his best as a mediator to prepare +the path for his return, Leicester himself end his partisans had been +secretly exerting themselves to make his arrival the signal for discord; +perhaps of civil war. The calm, then, immediately succeeding the mission +of Buckhurst was a deceitful one, but it seemed very promising. The best +feelings were avowed and perhaps entertained. The States professed great +devotion to her Majesty and friendly regard for the governor. They +distinctly declared that the arrangements by which Maurice and Hohenlo +had been placed in their new positions were purely provisional ones, +subject to modifications on the arrival of the Earl. "All things are +reduced to a quiet calm," said Buckhurst, "ready to receive my Lord of +Leicester and his authority, whenever he cometh." + +The quarrel of Hohenlo with Sir Edward Norris had been, by the exertions +of Buckhurst, amicably arranged: the Count became an intimate friend of +Sir John, "to the gladding of all such as wished well to, the country;" +but he nourished a deadly hatred to the Earl. He ran up and down like a +madman whenever his return was mentioned. "If the Queen be willing to +take the sovereignty," he cried out at his own dinner-table to a large +company, "and is ready to proceed roundly in this action, I will serve +her to the last drop of my blood; but if she embrace it in no other sort +than hitherto she hath done, and if Leicester is to return, then am I as +good a man as Leicester, and will never be commanded by him. I mean to +continue on my frontier, where all who love me can come and find me." + +He declared to several persons that he had detected a plot on the +part of Leicester to have him assassinated; and the assertion seemed so +important, that Villiers came to Councillor Clerk to confer with him on +the subject. The worthy Bartholomew, who had again, most reluctantly, +left his quiet chambers in the Temple to come again among the guns and +drums, which his soul abhorred, was appalled by such a charge. It was +best to keep it a secret, he said, at least till the matter could be +thoroughly investigated. Villiers was of the same opinion, and +accordingly the councillor, in the excess of his caution, confided the +secret only--to whom? To Mr. Atye, Leicester's private secretary. Atye, +of course, instantly told his master--his master in a frenzy of rage, +told the Queen, and her Majesty, in a paroxysm of royal indignation at +this new insult to her favourite, sent furious letters to her envoys, +to the States-General, to everybody in the Netherlands--so that the +assertion of Hohenlo became the subject of endless recrimination. +Leicester became very violent, and denounced the statement as an impudent +falsehood, devised wilfully in order to cast odium upon him and to +prevent his return. Unquestionably there was nothing in the story but +table-talk; but the Count would have been still more ferocious towards +Leicester than he was, had he known what was actually happening at that +very moment. + +While Buckhurst was at Utrecht, listening to the "solemn-speeches" of the +militia-captains and exchanging friendly expressions at stately banquets +with Moeurs, he suddenly received a letter in cipher from her Majesty. +Not having the key, he sent to Wilkes at the Hague. Wilkes was very ill; +but the despatch was marked pressing and immediate, so he got out of bed +and made the journey to Utrecht. The letter, on being deciphered, proved +to be an order from the Queen to decoy Hohenlo into some safe town, on +pretence of consultation and then to throw him into prison, on the ground +that he had been tampering with the enemy, and was about to betray the +republic to Philip. + +The commotion which would have been excited by any attempt to enforce +this order, could be easily imagined by those familiar with Hohenlo and +with the powerful party in the Netherlands of which he was one of the +chiefs. Wilkes stood aghast as he deciphered the letter. Buckhurst felt +the impossibility of obeying the royal will. Both knew the cause, and +both foresaw the consequences of the proposed step. Wilkes had heard +some rumours of intrigues between Parma's agents at Deventer and Hohenlo, +and had confided them to Walsingham, hoping that the Secretary would keep +the matter in his own breast, at least till further advice. He was +appalled at the sudden action proposed on a mere rumour, which both +Buckhurst and himself had begun to consider an idle one. He protested, +therefore, to Walsingham that to comply with her Majesty's command would +not only be nearly impossible, but would, if successful, hazard the ruin +of the republic. Wilkes was also very anxious lest the Earl of Leicester +should hear of the matter. He was already the object of hatred to that +powerful personage, and thought him capable of accomplishing his +destruction in any mode. But if Leicester could wreak his vengeance +upon his enemy Wilkes by the hand of his other deadly enemy Hohenlo, +the councillor felt that this kind of revenge would have a double +sweetness for him. The Queen knows what I have been saying, thought +Wilkes, and therefore Leicester knows it; and if Leicester knows it, he +will take care that Hohenlo shall hear of it too, and then wo be unto me. +"Your honour knoweth," he said to Walsingham, "that her Majesty can hold +no secrets, and if she do impart it to Leicester, then am I sped." + +Nothing came of it however, and the relations of Wilkes and Buckhurst +with Hohenlo continued to be friendly. It was a lesson to Wilkes to +be more cautious even with the cautious Walsingham. "We had but bare +suspicions," said Buckhurst, "nothing fit, God knoweth, to come to such a +reckoning. Wilkes saith he meant it but for a premonition to you there; +but I think it will henceforth be a premonition to himself--there being +but bare presumptions, and yet shrewd presumptions." + +Here then were Deventer and Leicester plotting to overthrow the +government of the States; the States and Hohenlo arming against +Leicester; the extreme democratic party threatening to go over to the +Spaniards within three months; the Earl accused of attempting the life of +Hohenlo; Hohenlo offering to shed the last drop of his blood for Queen +Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth giving orders to throw Hohenlo into prison as +a traitor; Councillor Wilkes trembling for his life at the hands both of +Leicester and Hohenlo; and Buckhurst doing his best to conciliate all +parties, and imploring her Majesty in vain to send over money to help on +the war, and to save her soldiers from starving. + +For the Queen continued to refuse the loan of fifty thousand pounds which +the provinces solicited, and in hope of which the States had just agreed +to an extra contribution of a million florins (L100,000), a larger sum +than had been levied by a single vote since the commencement of the war. +It must be remembered, too, that the whole expense of the war fell upon +Holland and Zeeland. The Province of Utrecht, where there was so strong +a disposition to confer absolute authority upon Leicester, and to destroy +the power of the States-General contributed absolutely nothing. Since +the Loss of Deventer, nothing could be raised in the Provinces of +Utrecht, Gelderland or Overyssel; the Spaniards levying black mail upon +the whole territory, and impoverishing the inhabitants till they became +almost a nullity. Was it strange then that the States of Holland and +Zeeland, thus bearing nearly the whole; burden of the war, should be +dissatisfied with the hatred felt toward them by their sister Provinces +so generously protected by them? Was it unnatural that Barneveld, and +Maurice, and Hohenlo, should be disposed to bridle the despotic +inclinations of Leicester, thus fostered by those who existed, as it +were, at their expense? + +But the Queen refused the L50,000, although Holland and Zeeland had voted +the L100,000. "No reason that breedeth charges," sighed Walsingham, "can +in any sort be digested." + +It was not for want of vehement entreaty on the part of the Secretary of +State and of Buckhurst that the loan was denied. At least she was +entreated to send over money for her troops, who for six months past were +unpaid. "Keeping the money in your coffers," said Buckhurst, "doth yield +no interest to you, and--which is above all earthly, respects--it shall +be the means of preserving the lives of many of your faithful subjects +which otherwise must needs, daily perish. Their miseries, through want +of meat and money, I do protest to God so much moves, my soul with +commiseration of that which is past, and makes my heart tremble to think +of the like to come again, that I humbly beseech your Majesty, for Jesus +Christ sake, to have compassion on their lamentable estate past, and send +some money to prevent the like hereafter." + +These were moving words,--but the money did not come--charges could not +be digested. + +"The eternal God," cried Buckhurst, "incline your heart to grant the +petition of the States for the loan of the L50,000, and that speedily, +for the dangerous terms of the State here and the mighty and forward +preparation of the enemy admit no minute of delay; so that even to grant +it slowly is to deny it utterly." + +He then drew a vivid picture of the capacity of the Netherlands to assist +the endangered realm of England, if delay were not suffered to destroy +both commonwealths, by placing the Provinces in an enemy's hand. + +"Their many and notable good havens," he said, "the great number of ships +and mariners, their impregnable towns, if they were in the hands of a +potent prince that would defend them, and, lastly, the state of this +shore; so near and opposite unto the land and coast of England--lo, the +sight of all this, daily in mine eye, conjoined with the deep, enrooted +malice of that your so mighty enemy who seeketh to regain them; these +things entering continually into the, meditations of my heart--so much do +they import the safety of yourself and your estate--do enforce me, in the +abundance of my love and duty to your Majesty, most earnestly to speak, +write, and weep unto you, lest when the occasion yet offered shall be +gone by, this blessed means of your defence, by God's provident goodness +thus put into your hand, will then be utterly lost, lo; never, never more +to be recovered again." + +It was a noble, wise, and eloquent appeal, but it was muttered in vain. +Was not Leicester--his soul filled with petty schemes of reigning in +Utrecht, and destroying the constitutional government of the Provinces +--in full possession of the royal ear? And was not the same ear lent, +at most critical moment, to the insidious Alexander Farnese, with his +whispers of peace, which were potent enough to drown all the preparations +for the invincible Armada? + +Six months had rolled away since Leicester had left the Netherlands; six +months long, the Provinces, left in a condition which might have become +anarchy, had been saved by the wise government of the States-General; six +months long the English soldiers had remained unpaid by their sovereign; +and now for six weeks the honest, eloquent, intrepid, but gentle +Buckhurst had done his best to conciliate all parties, and to mould the +Netherlanders into an impregnable bulwark for the realm of England. But +his efforts were treated with scorn by the Queen. She was still maddened +by a sense of the injuries done by the States to Leicester. She was +indignant that her envoy should have accepted such lame apologies for the +4th of February letter; that he should have received no better atonement +for their insolent infringements of the Earl's orders during his absence; +that he should have excused their contemptuous proceedings and that, in +short, he should have been willing to conciliate and forgive when he +should have stormed and railed. "You conceived, it seemeth," said her +Majesty, "that a more sharper manner of proceeding would have exasperated +matters to the prejudice of the service, and therefore you did think it +more fit to wash the wounds rather with water than vinegar, wherein we +would rather have wished, on the other side, that you had better +considered that festering wounds had more need of corrosives than +lenitives. Your own judgment ought to have taught that such a alight and +mild kind of dealing with a people so ingrate and void of consideration +as the said Estates have showed themselves toward us, is the ready way to +increase their contempt." + +The envoy might be forgiven for believing that at any rate there would be +no lack of corrosives or vinegar, so long as the royal tongue or pen +could do their office, as the unfortunate deputies had found to their +cost in their late interviews at Greenwich, and as her own envoys in the +Netherlands were perpetually finding now. The Queen was especially +indignant that the Estates should defend the tone of their letters to the +Earl on the ground that he had written a piquant epistle to them. "But +you can manifestly see their untruths in naming it a piquant letter," +said Elizabeth, "for it has no sour or sharp word therein, nor any clause +or reprehension, but is full of gravity and gentle admonition. It +deserved a thankful answer, and so you may maintain it to them to their +reproof." + +The States doubtless thought that the loss of Deventer and, with it, the +almost ruinous condition of three out of the seven Provinces, might +excuse on their part a little piquancy of phraseology, nor was it easy +for them to express gratitude to the governor for his grave and gentle +admonitions, after he had, by his secret document of 24th November, +rendered himself fully responsible for the disaster they deplored. + +She expressed unbounded indignation with Hohenlo, who, as she was well +aware, continued to cherish a deadly hatred for Leicester. Especially +she was exasperated, and with reason, by the assertion the Count had made +concerning the governor's murderous designs upon him. "'Tis a matter," +said the Queen, "so foul and dishonourable that doth not only touch +greatly the credit of the Earl, but also our own honour, to have one who +hath been nourished and brought up by us, and of whom we have made show +to the world to have extraordinarily favoured above any other of our own +subjects, and used his service in those countries in a place of that +reputation he held there, stand charged with so horrible and unworthy a +crime. And therefore our pleasure is, even as you tender the continuance +of our favour towards you, that you seek, by all the means you may, +examining the Count Hollock, or any other party in this matter, to +discover and to sift out how this malicious imputation hath been wrought; +for we have reason to think that it hath grown out of some cunning device +to stay the Earl's coming, and to discourage him from the continuance of +his service in those countries." + +And there the Queen was undoubtedly in the right. Hohenlo was resolved, +if possible, to make the Earl's government of the Netherlands impossible. +There was nothing in the story however; and all that by the most diligent +"sifting" could ever be discovered, and all that the Count could be +prevailed upon to confess, was an opinion expressed by him that if he had +gone with Leicester to England, it might perhaps have fared ill with him. +But men were given to loose talk in those countries. There was great +freedom of tongue and pen; and as the Earl, whether with justice or not, +had always been suspected of strong tendencies to assassination, it was +not very wonderful that so reckless an individual as Hohenlo should +promulgate opinions on such subjects, without much reserve. "The number +of crimes that have been imputed to me," said Leicester, "would be +incomplete, had this calumny not been added to all preceding ones." +It is possible that assassination, especially poisoning, may have been +a more common-place affair in those days than our own. At any rate, it +is certain that accusations of such crimes were of ordinary occurrence. +Men were apt to die suddenly if they had mortal enemies, and people would +gossip. At the very same moment, Leicester was deliberately accused not +only of murderous intentions towards Hohenlo, but towards Thomas Wilkes +and Count Lewis William of Nassau likewise. A trumpeter, arrested in +Friesland, had just confessed that he had been employed by the Spanish +governor of that Province, Colonel Verdugo, to murder Count Lewis, and +that four other persons had been entrusted with the same commission. +The Count wrote to Verdugo, and received in reply an indignant denial +of the charge. "Had I heard of such a project," said the Spaniard, +"I would, on the contrary, have given you warning. And I give you one +now." He then stated, as a fact known to him on unquestionable +authority, that the Earl of Leicester had assassins at that moment in his +employ to take the life of Count Lewis, adding that as for the trumpeter, +who had just been hanged for the crime suborned by the writer, he was a +most notorious lunatic. In reply, Lewis, while he ridiculed this plea of +insanity set up for a culprit who had confessed his crime succinctly and +voluntarily, expressed great contempt for the counter-charge against +Leicester. "His Excellency," said the sturdy little Count," is a +virtuous gentleman, the most pious and God-fearing I have ever known. I +am very sure that he could never treat his enemies in the manner stated, +much less his friends. As for yourself, may God give me grace, in +requital of your knavish trick, to make such a war upon you as becomes an +upright soldier and a man of honour." + +Thus there was at least one man--and a most important, one--in the +opposition--party who thoroughly believed in the honour of the governor- +general. + +The Queen then proceeded to lecture Lord Buckhurst very severely for +having tolerated an instant the States' proposition to her for a loan of +L50,000. "The enemy," she observed, "is quite unable to attempt the +siege of any town." + +Buckhurst was, however, instructed, in case the States' million should +prove insufficient to enable the army to make head against the enemy, and +in the event of "any alteration of the good-will of the people towards +her, caused by her not yielding, in this their necessity, some convenient +support," to let them then understand, "as of himself, that if they would +be satisfied with a loan of ten or fifteen thousand pounds, he, would do +his best endeavour to draw her Majesty to yield unto the furnishing of +such a sum, with assured hope to obtaining the same at her hands." + +Truly Walsingham was right in saying that charges of any kind were +difficult of digestion: Yet, even at that moment, Elizabeth had no more +attached subjects in England than sere the burghers of the Netherlands; +who were as anxious ever to annex their territory to her realms. + +'Thus, having expressed an affection for Leicester which no one doubted, +having once more thoroughly brow-beaten the states, and having soundly +lectured Buckhurst--as a requital for his successful efforts to bring +about a more wholesome condition of affairs--she gave the envoy a parting +stab, with this postscript;--"There is small disproportion," she said +"twist a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not, and him that useth +it not when it should avail him." Leicester, too, was very violent in +his attacks upon Buckhurst. The envoy had succeeded in reconciling +Hohenlo with the brothers Norris, and had persuaded Sir John to offer the +hand of friendship to Leicester, provided it were sure of being accepted. +Yet in this desire to conciliate, the Earl found renewed cause for +violence. "I would have had more regard of my Lord of Buckhurst," he +said, "if the case had been between him and Norris, but I must regard my +own reputation the more that I see others would impair it. You have +deserved little thanks of me, if I must deal plainly, who do equal me +after this sort with him, whose best place is colonel under me, and once +my servant, and preferred by me to all honourable place he had." And +thus were enterprises of great moment, intimately affecting the, safety +of Holland, of England, of all Protestantism, to be suspended between +triumph and ruin, in order that the spleen of one individual--one Queen's +favourite--might be indulged. The contempt of an insolent grandee for a +distinguished commander--himself the son, of a Baron, with a mother the +dear friend of her sovereign--was to endanger the existence of great +commonwealths. Can the influence of the individual, for good or bad, +upon the destinies of the race be doubted, when the characters and +conduct of Elizabeth and Leicester, Burghley and Walsingham, Philip and +Parma, are closely scrutinized and broadly traced throughout the wide +range of their effects? + +"And I must now, in your Lordship's sight," continued Leicester, "be made +a counsellor with this companion, who never yet to this day hath done so +much as take knowledge of my mislike of him; no, not to say this much, +which I think would well become his better, that he was sorry, to hear I +had mislike to him, that he desired my suspension till he might either +speak with me, or be charged from me, and if then he were not able to +satisfy me, he would acknowledge his fault, and make me any honest +satisfaction. This manner of dealing would have been no disparagement to +his better. And even so I must think that your Lordship doth me wrong, +knowing what you do, to make so little difference between John Norris, my +man not long since, and now but my colonel under me, as though we were +equals. And I cannot but more than marvel at this your proceeding, when +I remember your promises of friendship, and your opinions resolutely set +down . . . . You were so determined before you went hence, but must +have become wonderfully enamoured of those men's unknown virtues in a few +days of acquaintance, from the alteration that is grown by their own +commendations of themselves. You know very well that all the world +should not make me serve with John Norris. Your sudden change from +mislike to liking has, by consequence, presently cast disgrace upon me. +But all is not gold that glitters, nor every shadow a perfect +representation . . . . You knew he should not serve with me, but +either you thought me a very inconstant man, or else a very simple soul, +resolving with you as I did, for you to take the course you have done." +He felt, however, quite strong in her Majesty's favour. He knew himself +her favourite, beyond all chance or change, and was sure, so long as +either lived, to thrust his enemies, by her aid, into outer darkness. +Woe to Buckhurst, and Norris, and Wilkes, and all others who consorted +with his enemies. Let them flee from the wrath to come! And truly they +were only too anxious to do so, for they knew that Leicester's hatred was +poisonous. "He is not so facile to forget as ready to revenge," said +poor Wilkes, with neat alliteration. "My very heavy and mighty adversary +will disgrace and undo me. + +"It sufficeth," continued Leicester, "that her Majesty both find my +dealings well enough, and so, I trust will graciously use me. As for the +reconciliations and love-days you have made there, truly I have liked +well of it; for you did sow me your disposition therein before, and I +allowed of it, and I had received letters both from Count Maurice and +Hohenlo of their humility and kindness, but now in your last letters you +say they have uttered the cause of their mislike towards me, which you +forbear to write of, looking so speedily for my return." + +But the Earl knew well enough what the secret was, for had it not been +specially confided by the judicious Bartholomew to Atye, who had +incontinently told his master? "This pretense that I should kill +Hohenlo," cried Leicester, "is a matter properly foisted in to bring me +to choler. I will not suffer it to rest, thus. Its authors shall be +duly and severely punished. And albeit I see well enough the plot of +this wicked device, yet shall it not work the effect the devisers have +done it for. No, my Lord, he is a villain and a false lying knave +whosoever he be, and of what, nation soever that hath forged this device. +Count Hohenlo doth know I never gave him cause to fear me so much. There +were ways and means offered me to have quitted him of the country if I +had so liked. This new monstrous villany which is now found out I do +hate and detest, as I would look for the right judgment of God to fall +upon myself, if I had but once imagined it. All this makes good proof of +Wilkes's good dealing with me, that hath heard of so vile and villainous +a reproach of me, and never gave me knowledge. But I trust your Lordship +shall receive her Majesty's order for this, as for a matter that toucheth +herself in honour, and me her poor servant and minister, as dearly as any +matter can do; and I will so take it and use it to the uttermost." + +We have seen how anxiously Buckhurst had striven to do his duty upon a +most difficult mission. Was it unnatural that so fine a nature as his +should be disheartened, at reaping nothing but sneers and contumely from +the haughty sovereign he served, and from the insolent favourite who +controlled her councils? "I beseech your Lordship," he said to Burghley, +"keep one ear for me, and do not hastily condemn me before you hear mine +answer. For if I ever did or shall do any acceptable service to her +Majesty, it was in, the stay and appeasing of these countries, ever ready +at my coming to have cast off all good respect towards us, and to have +entered even into some desperate cause. In the meantime I am hardly +thought of by her Majesty, and in her opinion condemned before mine +answer be understood. Therefore I beseech you to help me to return, and +not thus to lose her Majesty's favour for my good desert, wasting here my +mind, body, my wits, wealth, and all; with continual toils, taxes, and +troubles, more than I am able to endure." + +But besides his instructions to smooth and expostulate, in which he had +succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill; Buckhurst had received a +still more difficult commission. He had been ordered to broach the +subject of peace, as delicately as possible, but without delay; first +sounding the leading politicians, inducing them to listen to the Queen's +suggestions on the subject, persuading them that they ought to be +satisfied with the principles of the pacification of Ghent, and that it +was hopeless for the Provinces to continue the war with their mighty +adversary any longer. + +Most reluctantly had Buckhurst fulfilled his sovereign's commands in this +disastrous course. To talk to the Hollanders of the Ghent pacification +seemed puerile. That memorable treaty, ten years before, had been one of +the great landmarks of progress, one of the great achievements of William +the Silent. By its provisions, public exercise of the reformed religion +had been secured for the two Provinces of Holland and Zeeland, and it had +been agreed that the secret practice of those rites should be elsewhere +winked at, until such time as the States-General, under the auspices of +Philip II., should otherwise ordain. But was it conceivable that now, +after Philip's authority had been solemnly abjured, and the reformed +worship had become the, public, dominant religion, throughout all the +Provinces,--the whole republic should return to the Spanish dominion, +and to such toleration as might be sanctioned by an assembly professing +loyalty to the most Catholic King? + +Buckhurst had repeatedly warned the Queen, in fervid and eloquent +language, as to the intentions of Spain. "There was never peace well +made," he observed, "without a mighty war preceding, and always, the +sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace." + +"If ever prince had cause," he continued, "to think himself beset with +doubt and danger, you, sacred Queen, have most just cause not only to +think it, but even certainly to believe it. The Pope doth daily plot +nothing else but how he may bring to pass your utter overthrow; the +French King hath already sent you threatenings of revenge, and though for +that pretended cause I think little will ensue, yet he is blind that +seeth not the mortal dislike that boileth deep in his heart for other +respects against you. The Scottish King, not only in regard of his +future hope, but also by reason of some over conceit in his heart, may +be thought a dangerous neighbour to you. The King of Spain armeth and +extendeth all his power to ruin both you and your estate. And if the +Indian gold have corrupted also the King of Denmark, and made him +likewise Spanish, as I marvellously fear; why will not your Majesty, +beholding the flames of your enemies on every side kindling around, +unlock all your coffers and convert your treasure for the advancing of +worthy men, and for the arming of ships and men-of-war that may defend +you, since princes' treasures serve only to that end, and, lie they never +so fast or so full in their chests, can no ways so defend them? + +"The eternal God, in whose hands the hearts of kings do rest, dispose and +guide your sacred Majesty to do that which may be most according to His +blessed will, and best for you, as I trust He will, even for His mercy's +sake, both toward your Majesty and the whole realm of England, whose +desolation is thus sought and compassed." + +Was this the language of a mischievous intriguer, who was sacrificing the +true interest of his country, and whose proceedings were justly earning +for him rebuke and disgrace at the hands of his sovereign? Or was it +rather the noble advice of an upright statesman, a lover of his country, +a faithful servant of his Queen, who had looked through the atmosphere of +falsehood in which he was doing his work, and who had detected, with rare +sagacity, the secret purposes of those who were then misruling the world? + +Buckhurst had no choice, however, but to obey. His private efforts were +of course fruitless, but he announced to her Majesty that it was his +intention very shortly to bring the matter--according to her wish--before +the assembly. + +But Elizabeth, seeing that her counsel had been unwise and her action +premature, turned upon her envoy, as she was apt to do, and rebuked him +for his obedience, so soon as obedience had proved inconvenient to +herself. + +"Having perused your letters," she said, "by which you at large debate +unto us what you have done in the matter of peace . . . . . we find +it strange that you should proceed further. And although we had given +you full and ample direction to proceed to a public dealing in that +cause, yet our own discretion, seeing the difficulties and dangers that +you yourself saw in the propounding of the matter, ought to have led you +to delay till further command from us." + +Her Majesty then instructed her envoy, in case he had not yet "propounded +the matter in the state-house to the general assembly," to pause entirely +until he heard her further pleasure. She concluded, as usual, with a +characteristic postcript in her own hand. + +"Oh weigh deeplier this matter," she said, "than, with so shallow a +judgment, to spill the cause, impair my honour, and shame yourself, with +all your wit, that once was supposed better than to lose a bargain for +the handling." + +Certainly the sphinx could have propounded no more puzzling riddles than +those which Elizabeth thus suggested to Buckhurst. To make war without +an army, to support an army without pay, to frame the hearts of a whole +people to peace who were unanimous for war, and this without saying a +word either in private or public; to dispose the Netherlanders favourably +to herself and to Leicester, by refusing them men and money, brow-beating +them for asking for it, and subjecting them to a course of perpetual +insults, which she called "corrosives," to do all this and more seemed +difficult. If not to do it, were to spill the cause and to lose the +bargain, it was more than probable that they would be spilt and lost. + +But the ambassador was no OEdipus--although a man of delicate perceptions +and brilliant intellect--and he turned imploringly to a wise counsellor +for aid against the tormentor who chose to be so stony-faced and +enigmatical. + +"Touching the matter of peace," said he to Walsingham, "I have written +somewhat to her Majesty in cipher, so as I am sure you will be called for +to decipher it. If you did know how infinitely her Majesty did at my +departure and before--for in this matter of peace she hath specially used +me this good while--command me, pray me, and persuade me to further and +hasten the same with all the speed possible that might be, and how, on +the other side, I have continually been the man and the mean that have +most plainly dehorted her from such post-haste, and that she should never +make good peace without a puissant army in the field, you would then say +that I had now cause to fear her displeasure for being too slow, and not +too forward. And as for all the reasons which in my last letters are set +down, her Majesty hath debated them with me many times." + +And thus midsummer was fast approaching, the commonwealth was without a +regular government, Leicester remained in England nursing his wrath and +preparing his schemes, the Queen was at Greenwich, corresponding with +Alexander Farnese, and sending riddles to Buckhurst, when the enemy--who, +according to her Majesty, was "quite unable to attempt the, siege of any +town" suddenly appeared in force in Flanders, and invested Sluy's. This +most important seaport, both for the destiny of the republic and of +England at that critical moment, was insufficiently defended. It was +quite time to put an army in the field, with a governor-general to +command it. + +On the 5th June there was a meeting of the state-council at the Hague. +Count Maurice, Hohenlo, and Moeurs were present, besides several members +of the States-General. Two propositions were before the council. The +first was that it was absolutely necessary to the safety of the republic, +now that the enemy had taken the field, and the important city of Sluy's +was besieged, for Prince Maurice to be appointed captain-general, until +such time as the Earl of Leicester or some other should be sent by her +Majesty. The second was to confer upon the state-council the supreme +government in civil affairs, for the same period, and to repeal all +limitations and restrictions upon the powers of the council made secretly +by the Earl. + +Chancellor Leoninus, "that grave, wise old man," moved the propositions. +The deputies of the States were requested to withdraw. The vote of each +councillor was demanded. Buckhurst, who, as the Queen's representative-- +together with Wilkes and John Norris--had a seat in the council, refused +to vote. "It was a matter," he discreetly observed with which "he had not +been instructed by her Majesty to intermeddle." Norris and Wilkes also +begged to be excused from voting, and, although earnestly urged to do so +by the whole council, persisted in their refusal. Both measures were +then carried. + +No sooner was the vote taken, than an English courier entered the +council-chamber, with pressing despatches from Lord Leicester. The +letters were at once read. The Earl announced his speedy arrival, and +summoned both the States-General and the council to meet him at Dort, +where his lodgings were already taken. All were surprised, but none more +than Buckhurst, Wilkes, and Norris; for no intimation of this sudden +resolution had been received by them, nor any answer given to various +propositions, considered by her Majesty as indispensable preliminaries to +the governor's visit. + +The council adjourned till after dinner, and Buckhurst held conference +meantime with various counsellors and deputies. On the reassembling of +the board, it was urged by Barneveld, in the name of the States, that the +election of Prince Maurice should still hold good. "Although by these +letters," said he, "it would seem that her Majesty had resolved upon the +speedy return of his Excellency, yet, inasmuch as the counsels and +resolutions of princes are often subject to change upon new occasion, it +does not seem fit that our late purpose concerning Prince Maurice should +receive any interruption." + +Accordingly, after brief debate, both resolutions, voted in the morning, +were confirmed in the afternoon. + +"So now," said Wilkes, "Maurice is general of all the forces, 'et quid +sequetur nescimus.'" + +But whatever else was to follow, it was very certain that Wilkes would +not stay. His great enemy had sworn his destruction, and would now take +his choice, whether to do him to death himself, or to throw him into the +clutch of the ferocious Hohenlo. "As for my own particular," said the +counsellor, "the word is go, whosoever cometh or cometh not," and he +announced to Walsingham his intention of departing without permission, +should he not immediately receive it from England. "I shall stay to be +dandled with no love-days nor leave-takings," he observed. + +But Leicester had delayed his coming too long. The country felt that it- +had been trifled with by his: absence--at so critical a period--of seven +months. It was known too that the Queen was secretly treating with the +enemy, and that Buckhurst had been privately sounding leading personages +upon that subject, by her orders. This had caused a deep, suppressed +indignation. Over and over again had the English government been warned +as to the danger of delay. "Your length in resolving;" Wilkes had said, +"whatsoever your secret purposes may be--will put us to new plunges +before long." The mission of Buckhurst was believed to be "but a stale, +having some other intent than was expressed." And at last, the new +plunge had been fairly taken. It seemed now impossible for Leicester to +regain the absolute authority, which he coveted; and which he had for a +brief season possessed. The States-General, under able leaders, had +become used to a government which had been forced upon them, and which +they had wielded with success. Holland and Zeeland, paying the whole +expense of the war, were not likely to endure again the absolute +sovereignty of a foreigner, guided by a back stairs council of reckless +politicians--most of whom were unprincipled, and some of whom had been +proved to be felons--and established, at Utrecht, which contributed +nothing to the general purse. If Leicester were really-coming, it seemed +certain that he would be held to acknowledge the ancient constitution, +and to respect the sovereignty of the States-General. It was resolved +that he should be well bridled. The sensations of Barneveld and his +party may therefore be imagined, when a private letter of Leicester, to +his secretary "the fellow named Junius," as Hohenlo called him--having +been intercepted at this moment, gave them an opportunity of studying +the Earl's secret thoughts. + +The Earl informed his correspondent that he was on the point of starting +for the Netherlands. He ordered him therefore to proceed at once to +reassure those whom he knew well disposed as to the good intentions of +her Majesty and of the governor-general. And if, on the part of Lord +Buckhurst or others, it should be intimated that the Queen was resolved +to treat for peace with the King of Spain; and wished to have the opinion +of the Netherlanders on that subject, he was to say boldly that Lord +Buckhurst never had any such charge, and that her Majesty had not been +treating at all. She had only been attempting to sound the King's +intentions towards the Netherlands, in case of any accord. Having +received no satisfactory assurance on the subject, her Majesty was +determined to proceed with the defence of these countries. This appeared +by the expedition of Drake against Spain, and by the return of the Earl, +with a good cumber of soldiers paid by her Majesty, over and above her +ordinary subsidy. + +"You are also;" said the Earl, "to tell those who have the care of the +people" (the ministers of the reformed church and others), "that I am +returning, in the confidence that they will, in future, cause all past +difficulties to cease, and that they will yield to me a legitimate +authority, such as befits for administering the sovereignty of the +Provinces, without my being obliged to endure all the oppositions and +counterminmgs of the States, as in times past. The States must content +themselves with retaining the power which they claim to have exercised +under the governors of the Emperor and the King--without attempting +anything farther during my government--since I desire to do nothing of +importance without the advice of the council, which will be composed +legitimately of persons of the country. You will also tell them that her +Majesty commands me to return unless I can obtain from the States the +authority which is necessary, in order not to be governor in appearance +only and on paper. And I wish that those who are good may be apprized of +all this, in order that nothing may happen to their prejudice and ruin, +and contrary to their wishes." + +There were two very obvious comments to be made upon this document. +Firstly, the States--de jure, as they claimed, and de facto most +unquestionably--were in the position of the Emperor and King. They were +the sovereigns. The Earl wished them to content themselves with the +power which they exercised under the Emperor's governors. This was like +requesting the Emperor, when in the Netherlands, to consider himself +subject to his own governor. The second obvious reflection was that the +Earl, in limiting his authority by a state-council, expected, no doubt, +to appoint that body himself--as he had done before--and to allow the +members only the right of talking, and of voting,--without the power of +enforcing their decisions. In short, it was very plain that Leicester +meant to be more absolute than ever. + +As to the flat contradiction given to Buckhurst's proceedings in the +matter of peace, that statement could scarcely deceive any one who had +seen her Majesty's letters and instructions to her envoy. + +It was also a singularly deceitful course to be adopted by Leicester +towards Buckhurst and towards the Netherlands, because his own private +instructions, drawn up at the same moment, expressly enjoined him to do +exactly what Buckhurst had been doing. He was most strictly and +earnestly commanded to deal privately with all such persons as bad +influence with the "common sort of people," in order that they should use +their influence with those common people in favour of peace, bringing +vividly before them the excessive burthens of the war, their inability to +cope with so potent a prince as Philip, and the necessity the Queen was +under of discontinuing her contributions to their support. He was to +make the same representations to the States, and he was further most +explicitly to inform all concerned, that, in case they were unmoved by +these suggestions, her Majesty had quite made up her mind to accept the +handsome offers of peace held out by the King of Spain, and to leave them +to their fate. + +It seemed scarcely possible that the letter to Junius and the +instructions for the Earl should have been dated the same week, and +should have emanated from the same mind; but such was the fact. + +He was likewise privately to assure Maurice and Hohenlo--in order to +remove their anticipated opposition to the peace--that such care should +be taken in providing for them, as that "they should have no just cause +to dislike thereof, but to rest satisfied withal." + +With regard to the nature of his authority, he was instructed to claim a +kind of dictatorship in everything regarding the command of the forces, +and the distribution of the public treasure. All offices were to be at +his disposal. Every florin contributed by the States was to be placed in +his hands, and spent according to his single will. He was also to have +plenary power to prevent the trade in victuals with the enemy by death +and confiscation. + +If opposition to any of these proposals were made by the States-General, +he was to appeal to the States of each Province; to the towns and +communities, and in case it should prove impossible for him "to be +furnished with the desired authority," he was then instructed to say that +it was "her Majesty's meaning to leave them to their own counsel and +defence, and to withdraw the support that she had yielded to them: seeing +plainly that the continuance of the confused government now reigning +among them could not but work their ruin." + +Both these papers came into Barneveld's hands, through the agency of +Ortel, the States' envoy in England, before the arrival of the Earl in +the Netherlands. + +Of course they soon became the topics of excited conversation and of +alarm in every part of the country. Buckhurst, touched to the quick by +the reflection upon those--proceedings of his which had been so +explicitly enjoined upon him, and so reluctantly undertaken--appealed +earnestly to her Majesty. He reminded her, as delicately as possible, +that her honour, as well as his own, was at stake by Leicester's insolent +disavowals of her authorized ambassador. He besought her to remember +"what even her own royal hand had written to the Duke of Parma;" and how +much his honour was interested "by the disavowing of his dealings about +the peace begun by her Majesty's commandment." He adjured her with much +eloquence to think upon the consequences of stirring up the common and +unstable multitude against their rulers; upon the pernicious effects of +allowing the clergy to inflame the passions of the people against the +government. "Under the name of such as have charge over the people," +said Buckhurst, "are understood the ministers and chaplains of the +churches in every town, by the means of whom it, seems that his Lordship +tendeth his whole purpose to attain to his desire of the administration +of the sovereignty." He assured the Queen that this scheme of Leicester +to seize virtually upon that sovereignty, would be a disastrous one. +"The States are resolved," said he, "since your Majesty doth refuse the +sovereignty, to lay it upon no creature else, as a thing contrary to +their oath and allegiance to their country." He reminded her also that +the States had been dissatisfied with the Earl's former administration, +believing that he had exceeded his commission, and that they were +determined therefore to limit his authority at his return. "Your sacred +Majesty may consider," he said, "what effect all this may work among the +common and ignorant people, by intimating that, unless they shall procure +him the administration of such a sovereignty as he requireth, their ruin +may ensue." Buckhurst also informed her that he had despatched +Councillor Wilkes to England, in order that he might give more ample +information on all these affairs by word of mouth than could well be +written. + +It need hardly be stated that Barneveld came down to the states'-house +with these papers in his hand, and thundered against the delinquent and +intriguing governor till the general indignation rose to an alarming +height. False statements of course were made to Leicester as to the +substance of the Advocate's discourse. He was said to have charged upon +the English government an intention to seize forcibly upon their cities, +and to transfer them to Spain on payment of the sums due to the Queen +from the States, and to have declared that he had found all this treason +in the secret instructions of the Earl. But Barneveld had read the +instructions, to which the attention of the reader has just been called, +and had strictly stated the truth which was damaging enough, without need +of exaggeration. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +All business has been transacted with open doors +Beacons in the upward path of mankind +Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough +Casting up the matter "as pinchingly as possibly might be" +Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel +During this, whole war, we have never seen the like +Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly +Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better +Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not +Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith +Individuals walking in advance of their age +Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war +Rebuked him for his obedience +Respect for differences in religious opinions +Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders +Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill +Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace +Their existence depended on war +They chose to compel no man's conscience +Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children +Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day +Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman +Who the "people" exactly were + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1587 *** + +********** This file should be named 4852.txt or 4852.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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