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diff --git a/4886.txt b/4886.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1295d18 --- /dev/null +++ b/4886.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3957 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Life of John of Barneveld, 1609 +#86 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1609 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4886] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1609 *** + + + +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.] + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 86 + +The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v1, 1609 + + + +PREFACE: + +These volumes make a separate work in themselves. They form also the +natural sequel to the other histories already published by the Author, +as well as the necessary introduction to that concluding portion of his +labours which he has always desired to lay before the public; a History +of the Thirty Years' War. + +For the two great wars which successively established the independence +of Holland and the disintegration of Germany are in reality but one; +a prolonged Tragedy of Eighty Years. The brief pause, which in the +Netherlands was known as the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain, was +precisely the epoch in which the elements were slowly and certainly +gathering for the renewal over nearly the whole surface of civilized +Europe of that immense conflict which for more than forty years had been +raging within the narrow precincts of the Netherlands. + +The causes and character of the two wars were essentially the same. +There were many changes of persons and of scenery during a struggle which +lasted for nearly three generations of mankind; yet a natural succession +both of actors, motives, and events will be observed from the beginning +to the close. + +The designs of Charles V. to establish universal monarchy, which he had +passionately followed for a lifetime through a series of colossal crimes +against humanity and of private misdeeds against individuals, such as it +has rarely been permitted to a single despot to perpetrate, had been +baffled at last. Disappointed, broken, but even to our own generation +never completely unveiled, the tyrant had withdrawn from the stage of +human affairs, leaving his son to carry on the great conspiracy against +Human Right, independence of nations, liberty of thought, and equality of +religions, with the additional vigour which sprang from intensity of +conviction. + +For Philip possessed at least that superiority over his father that he +was a sincere bigot. In the narrow and gloomy depths of his soul he had +doubtless persuaded himself that it was necessary for the redemption of +the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his +hands, that Protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a +malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury +alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the Holy Church +was the highest virtue by which he could merit Heaven. + +The father would have permitted Protestantism if Protestantism would have +submitted to universal monarchy. There would have been small difficulty +in the early part of his reign in effecting a compromise between Rome and +Augsburg, had the gigantic secular ambition of Charles not preferred to +weaken the Church and to convert conscientious religious reform into +political mutiny; a crime against him who claimed the sovereignty of +Christendom. + +The materials for the true history of that reign lie in the Archives of +Spain, Austria, Rome, Venice, and the Netherlands, and in many other +places. When out of them one day a complete and authentic narrative +shall have been constructed, it will be seen how completely the policy of +Charles foreshadowed and necessitated that of Philip, how logically, +under the successors of Philip, the Austrian dream of universal empire +ended in the shattering, in the minute subdivision, and the reduction to +a long impotence of that Germanic Empire which had really belonged to +Charles. + +Unfortunately the great Republic which, notwithstanding the aid of +England on the one side and of France on the other, had withstood almost +single-handed the onslaughts of Spain, now allowed the demon of religious +hatred to enter into its body at the first epoch of peace, although it +had successfully exorcised the evil spirit during the long and terrible +war. + +There can be no doubt whatever that the discords within the interior of +the Dutch Republic during the period of the Truce, and their tragic +catastrophe, had weakened her purpose and partially paralysed her arm. +When the noble Commonwealth went forward to the renewed and general +conflict which succeeded the concentrated one in which it had been the +chief actor, the effect of those misspent twelve years became apparent. + +Indeed the real continuity of the war was scarcely broken by the fitful, +armistice. The death of John of Cleve, an event almost simultaneous with +the conclusion of the Truce, seemed to those gifted with political vision +the necessary precursor of a new and more general war. + +The secret correspondence of Barneveld shows the almost prophetic +accuracy with which he indicated the course of events and the approach of +an almost universal conflict, while that tragedy was still in the future, +and was to be enacted after he had been laid in his bloody grave. No man +then living was so accustomed as he was to sweep the political horizon, +and to estimate the signs and portents of the times. No statesman was +left in Europe during the epoch of the Twelve Years' Truce to compare +with him in experience, breadth of vision, political tact, or +administrative sagacity. + +Imbued with the grand traditions and familiar with the great personages +of a most heroic epoch; the trusted friend or respected counsellor of +William the Silent, Henry IV., Elizabeth, and the sages and soldiers on +whom they leaned; having been employed during an already long lifetime in +the administration of greatest affairs, he stood alone after the deaths +of Henry of France and the second Cecil, and the retirement of Sully, +among the natural leaders of mankind. + +To the England of Elizabeth, of Walsingham, Raleigh, and the Cecils, had +succeeded the Great Britain of James, with his Carrs and Carletons, +Nauntons, Lakes, and Winwoods. France, widowed of Henry and waiting for +Richelieu, lay in the clutches of Concini's, Epernons, and Bouillons, +bound hand and foot to Spain. Germany, falling from Rudolph to Matthias, +saw Styrian Ferdinand in the background ready to shatter the fabric of a +hundred years of attempted Reformation. In the Republic of the +Netherlands were the great soldier and the only remaining statesman of +the age. At a moment when the breathing space had been agreed upon +before the conflict should be renewed; on a wider field than ever, +between Spanish-Austrian world-empire and independence of the nations; +between the ancient and only Church and the spirit of religious Equality; +between popular Right and royal and sacerdotal Despotism; it would have +been desirable that the soldier and the statesman should stand side by +side, and that the fortunate Confederacy, gifted with two such champions +and placed by its own achievements at the very head of the great party of +resistance, should be true to herself. + +These volumes contain a slight and rapid sketch of Barneveld's career up +to the point at which the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain was signed in +the year 1609. In previous works the Author has attempted to assign the +great Advocate's place as part and parcel of history during the +continuance of the War for Independence. During the period of the Truce +he will be found the central figure. The history of Europe, especially +of the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Germany, cannot be thoroughly +appreciated without a knowledge of the designs, the labours, and the fate +of Barneveld. + +The materials for estimating his character and judging his judges lie in +the national archives of the land of which he was so long the foremost +citizen. But they have not long been accessible. The letters, state +papers, and other documents remain unprinted, and have rarely been read. +M. van Deventer has published three most interesting volumes of the +Advocate's correspondence, but they reach only to the beginning of 1609. +He has suspended his labours exactly at the moment when these volumes +begin. I have carefully studied however nearly the whole of that +correspondence, besides a mass of other papers. The labour is not light, +for the handwriting of the great Advocate is perhaps the worst that ever +existed, and the papers, although kept in the admirable order which +distinguishes the Archives of the Hague, have passed through many hands +at former epochs before reaching their natural destination in the +treasure-house of the nation. Especially the documents connected with +the famous trial were for a long time hidden from mortal view, for +Barneveld's judges had bound themselves by oath to bury the proceedings +out of sight. And the concealment lasted for centuries. Very recently +a small portion of those papers has been published by the Historical +Society of Utrecht. The "Verhooren," or Interrogatories of the Judges, +and the replies of Barneveld, have thus been laid before the reading +public of Holland, while within the last two years the distinguished and +learned historian, Professor Fruin, has edited the "Verhooren" of Hugo +Grotius. + +But papers like these, important as they are, make but a slender portion +of the material out of which a judgment concerning these grave events can +be constructed. I do not therefore offer an apology for the somewhat +copious extracts which I have translated and given in these volumes from +the correspondence of Barneveld and from other manuscripts of great +value--most of them in the Royal Archives of Holland and Belgium--which +are unknown to the public. + +I have avoided as much as possible any dealings with the theological +controversies so closely connected with the events which I have attempted +to describe. This work aims at being a political study. The subject is +full of lessons, examples, and warnings for the inhabitants of all free +states. Especially now that the republican system of government is +undergoing a series of experiments with more or less success in one +hemisphere--while in our own land it is consolidated, powerful, and +unchallenged--will the conflicts between the spirits of national +centralization and of provincial sovereignty, and the struggle between +the church, the sword, and the magistracy for supremacy in a free +commonwealth, as revealed in the first considerable republic of modern +history, be found suggestive of deep reflection. + +Those who look in this work for a history of the Synod of Dordtrecht will +look in vain. The Author has neither wish nor power to grapple with the +mysteries and passions which at that epoch possessed so many souls. The +Assembly marks a political period. Its political aspects have been +anxiously examined, but beyond the ecclesiastical threshold there has +been no attempt to penetrate. + +It was necessary for my purpose to describe in some detail the relations +of Henry IV. with the Dutch Republic during the last and most pregnant +year of his life, which makes the first of the present history. These +relations are of European importance, and the materials for appreciating +them are of unexpected richness, in the Dutch and Belgian Archives. + +Especially the secret correspondence, now at the Hague, of that very able +diplomatist Francis Aerssens with Barneveld during the years 1609, 1610, +and 1611, together with many papers at Brussels, are full of vital +importance. + +They throw much light both on the vast designs which filled the brain of +Henry at this fatal epoch and on his extraordinary infatuation for the +young Princess of Conde by which they were traversed, and which was +productive of such widespread political anal tragical results. This +episode forms a necessary portion of my theme, and has therefore been set +forth from original sources. + +I am under renewed obligations to my friend M. Gachard, the eminent +publicist and archivist of Belgium, for his constant and friendly offices +to me (which I have so often experienced before), while studying the +documents under his charge relating to this epoch; especially the secret +correspondence of Archduke Albert with Philip III, and his ministers, and +with Pecquius, the Archduke's agent at Paris. + +It is also a great pleasure to acknowledge the unceasing courtesy and +zealous aid rendered me during my renewed studies in the Archives at the +Hague--lasting through nearly two years--by the Chief Archivist, M. van +den Berg, and the gentlemen connected with that institution, especially +M. de Jonghe and M. Hingman, without whose aid it would have been +difficult for me to decipher and to procure copies of the almost +illegible holographs of Barneveld. + +I must also thank M. van Deventer for communicating copies of some +curious manuscripts relating to my subject, some from private archives in +Holland, and others from those of Simancas. + +A single word only remains to be said in regard to the name of the +statesman whose career I have undertaken to describe. + +His proper appellation and that by which he has always been known in his +own country is Oldenbarneveld, but in his lifetime and always in history +from that time to this he has been called Barneveld in English as well as +French, and this transformation, as it were, of the name has become so +settled a matter that after some hesitation it has been adopted in the +present work. + +The Author would take this opportunity of expressing his gratitude for +the indulgence with which his former attempts to illustrate an important +period of European history have been received by the public, and his +anxious hope that the present volumes may be thought worthy of attention. +They are the result at least of severe and conscientious labour at the +original sources of history, but the subject is so complicated and +difficult that it may well be feared that the ability to depict and +unravel is unequal to the earnestness with which the attempt has been +made. + +LONDON, 1873. + + + +The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v1, 1609 + + +CHAPTER I. + + John of Barneveld the Founder of the Commonwealth of the United + Provinces--Maurice of Orange Stadholder, but Servant to the States- + General--The Union of Utrecht maintained--Barneveld makes a + Compromise between Civil Functionaries and Church Officials-- + Embassies to France, England, and to Venice--the Appointment of + Arminius to be Professor of Theology at Leyden creates Dissension-- + The Catholic League opposed by the Great Protestant Union--Death of + the Duke of Cleve and Struggle for his Succession--The Elector of + Brandenburg and Palatine of Neuburg hold the Duchies at Barneveld's + Advice against the Emperor, though having Rival Claims themselves-- + Negotiations with the King of France--He becomes the Ally of the + States-General to Protect the Possessory Princes, and prepares for + war. + +I propose to retrace the history of a great statesman's career. That +statesman's name, but for the dark and tragic scenes with which it was +ultimately associated, might after the lapse of two centuries and a half +have faded into comparative oblivion, so impersonal and shadowy his +presence would have seemed upon the great European theatre where he was +so long a chief actor, and where his efforts and his achievements were +foremost among those productive of long enduring and widespread results. + +There is no doubt whatever that John of Barneveld, Advocate and Seal +Keeper of the little province of Holland during forty years of as +troubled and fertile an epoch as any in human history, was second to none +of his contemporary statesmen. Yet the singular constitution and +historical position of the republic whose destinies he guided and the +peculiar and abnormal office which he held combined to cast a veil over +his individuality. The ever-teeming brain, the restless almost +omnipresent hand, the fertile pen, the eloquent and ready tongue, were +seen, heard, and obeyed by the great European public, by the monarchs, +statesmen, and warriors of the time, at many critical moments of history, +but it was not John of Barneveld that spoke to the world. Those "high +and puissant Lords my masters the States-General" personified the young +but already majestic republic. Dignified, draped, and concealed by that +overshadowing title the informing and master spirit performed its never +ending task. + +Those who study the enormous masses of original papers in the archives of +the country will be amazed to find how the penmanship, most difficult to +decipher, of the Advocate meets them at every turn. Letters to monarchs, +generals, ambassadors, resolutions of councils, of sovereign assemblies, +of trading corporations, of great Indian companies, legal and historical +disquisitions of great depth and length on questions agitating Europe, +constitutional arguments, drafts of treaties among the leading powers of +the world, instructions to great commissions, plans for European +campaigns, vast combinations covering the world, alliances of empire, +scientific expeditions and discoveries--papers such as these covered now +with the satirical dust of centuries, written in the small, crabbed, +exasperating characters which make Barneveld's handwriting almost +cryptographic, were once, when fairly engrossed and sealed with the great +seal of the haughty burgher-aristocracy, the documents which occupied the +close attention of the cabinets of Christendom. + +It is not unfrequent to find four or five important despatches compressed +almost in miniature upon one sheet of gigantic foolscap. It is also +curious to find each one of these rough drafts conscientiously beginning +in the statesman's own hand with the elaborate phrases of compliment +belonging to the epoch such as "Noble, strenuous, severe, highly +honourable, very learned, very discreet, and very wise masters," and +ending with "May the Lord God Almighty eternally preserve you and hold +you in His holy keeping in this world and for ever"--decorations which +one might have thought it safe to leave to be filled in by the secretary +or copying clerk. + +Thus there have been few men at any period whose lives have been more +closely identical than his with a national history. There have been few +great men in any history whose names have become less familiar to the +world, and lived less in the mouths of posterity. Yet there can be no +doubt that if William the Silent was the founder of the independence of +the United Provinces Barneveld was the founder of the Commonwealth +itself. He had never the opportunity, perhaps he might have never had +the capacity, to make such prodigious sacrifices in the cause of country +as the great prince had done. But he had served his country strenuously +from youth to old age with an abiding sense of duty, a steadiness of +purpose, a broad vision, a firm grasp, and an opulence of resource such +as not one of his compatriots could even pretend to rival. + +Had that country of which he was so long the first citizen maintained +until our own day the same proportionate position among the empires of +Christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, the name of John of +Barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to all men as it is at this +moment to nearly every inhabitant of the Netherlands. Even now political +passion is almost as ready to flame forth either in ardent affection or +enthusiastic hatred as if two centuries and a half had not elapsed since +his death. His name is so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so +indelibly associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it +difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the +patriotic of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute +impartiality. + +A foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in the +history of that famous republic and can have no hereditary bias as to its +ecclesiastical or political theories may at least attempt the task with +comparative coldness, although conscious of inability to do thorough +justice to a most complex subject. + +In former publications devoted to Netherland history I have endeavoured +to trace the course of events of which the life and works of the Advocate +were a vital ingredient down to the period when Spain after more than +forty years of hard fighting virtually acknowledged the independence of +the Republic and concluded with her a truce of twelve years. + +That convention was signed in the spring of 1609. The ten ensuing years +in Europe were comparatively tranquil, but they were scarcely to be +numbered among the full and fruitful sheaves of a pacific epoch. It was +a pause, a breathing spell during which the sulphurous clouds which had +made the atmosphere of Christendom poisonous for nearly half a century +had sullenly rolled away, while at every point of the horizon they were +seen massing themselves anew in portentous and ever accumulating +strength. At any moment the faint and sickly sunshine in which poor +exhausted Humanity was essaying a feeble twitter of hope as it plumed +itself for a peaceful flight might be again obscured. To us of a remote +posterity the momentary division of epochs seems hardly discernible. So +rapidly did that fight of Demons which we call the Thirty Years' War +tread on the heels of the forty years' struggle for Dutch Independence +which had just been suspended that we are accustomed to think and speak +of the Eighty Years' War as one pure, perfect, sanguinary whole. + +And indeed the Tragedy which was soon to sweep solemnly across Europe was +foreshadowed in the first fitful years of peace. The throb of the +elementary forces already shook the soil of Christendom. The fantastic +but most significant conflict in the territories of the dead Duke of +Clove reflected the distant and gigantic war as in a mirage. It will be +necessary to direct the reader's attention at the proper moment to that +episode, for it was one in which the beneficent sagacity of Barneveld was +conspicuously exerted in the cause of peace and conservation. Meantime +it is not agreeable to reflect that this brief period of nominal and +armed peace which the Republic had conquered after nearly two generations +of warfare was employed by her in tearing her own flesh. The heroic +sword which had achieved such triumphs in the cause of freedom could have +been bitter employed than in an attempt at political suicide. + +In a picture of the last decade of Barneveld's eventful life his +personality may come more distinctly forward perhaps than in previous +epochs. It will however be difficult to disentangle a single thread from +the great historical tapestry of the Republic and of Europe in which his +life and achievements are interwoven. He was a public man in the fullest +sense of the word, and without his presence and influence the record of +Holland, France, Spain, Britain, and Germany might have been essentially +modified. + +The Republic was so integral a part of that system which divided Europe +into two great hostile camps according to creeds rather than frontiers +that the history of its foremost citizen touches at every point the +general history of Christendom. + +The great peculiarity of the Dutch constitution at this epoch was that no +principle was absolutely settled. In throwing off a foreign tyranny and +successfully vindicating national independence the burghers and nobles +had not had leisure to lay down any organic law. Nor had the day for +profound investigation of the political or social contract arrived. +Men dealt almost exclusively with facts, and when the facts arranged +themselves illogically and incoherently the mischief was grave and +difficult to remedy. It is not a trifling inconvenience for an organized +commonwealth to be in doubt as to where, in whom, and of what nature is +its sovereignty. Yet this was precisely the condition of the United +Netherlands. To the eternal world so dazzling were the reputation and +the achievements of their great captain that he was looked upon by many +as the legitimate chief of the state and doubtless friendly monarchs +would have cordially welcomed him into their brotherhood. + +During the war he had been surrounded by almost royal state. Two hundred +officers lived daily at his table. Great nobles and scions of sovereign +houses were his pupils or satellites. The splendour of military +despotism and the awe inspired by his unquestioned supremacy in what was +deemed the greatest of all sciences invested the person of Maurice of +Nassau with a grandeur which many a crowned potentate might envy. His +ample appointments united with the spoils of war provided him with almost +royal revenues, even before the death of his elder brother Philip William +had placed in his hands the principality and wealthy possessions of +Orange. Hating contradiction, arbitrary by instinct and by military +habit, impatient of criticism, and having long acknowledged no master in +the chief business of state, he found himself at the conclusion of the +truce with his great occupation gone, and, although generously provided +for by the treasury of the Republic, yet with an income proportionately +limited. + +Politics and theology were fields in which he had hardly served an +apprenticeship, and it was possible that when he should step forward as +a master in those complicated and difficult pursuits, soon to absorb the +attention of the Commonwealth and the world, it might appear that war +was not the only science that required serious preliminary studies. + +Meantime he found himself not a king, not the master of a nominal +republic, but the servant of the States-General, and the limited +stadholder of five out of seven separate provinces. + +And the States-General were virtually John of Barneveld. Could +antagonism be more sharply defined? Jealousy, that potent principle +which controls the regular movements and accounts for the aberrations of +humanity in widest spheres as well as narrowest circles far more +generally and conclusively than philosophers or historians have been +willing to admit, began forthwith to manifest its subtle and irresistible +influence. + +And there were not to be wanting acute and dangerous schemers who saw +their profit in augmenting its intensity. + +The Seven Provinces, when the truce of twelve years had been signed, were +neither exhausted nor impoverished. Yet they had just emerged from a +forty years' conflict such as no people in human history had ever waged +against a foreign tyranny. They had need to repose and recruit, but they +stood among the foremost great powers of the day. It is not easy in +imagination to thrust back the present leading empires of the earth into +the contracted spheres of their not remote past. But to feel how a +little confederacy of seven provinces loosely tied together by an ill- +defined treaty could hold so prominent and often so controlling a place +in the European system of the seventeenth century, we must remember that +there was then no Germany, no Russia, no Italy, no United States of +America, scarcely even a Great Britain in the sense which belongs to that +mighty empire now. + +France, Spain, England, the Pope, and the Emperor were the leading powers +with which the Netherlands were daily called on to solve great problems +and try conclusions; the study of political international equilibrium, +now rapidly and perhaps fortunately becoming one of the lost arts, being +then the most indispensable duty of kings and statesmen. + +Spain and France, which had long since achieved for themselves the +political union of many independent kingdoms and states into which they +had been divided were the most considerable powers and of necessity +rivals. Spain, or rather the House of Austria divided into its two great +branches, still pursued its persistent and by no means fantastic dream of +universal monarchy. Both Spain and France could dispose of somewhat +larger resources absolutely, although not relatively, than the Seven +Provinces, while at least trebling them in population. The yearly +revenue of Spain after deduction of its pledged resources was perhaps +equal to a million sterling, and that of France with the same reservation +was about as much. England had hardly been able to levy and make up a +yearly income of more than L600,000 or L700,000 at the end of Elizabeth's +reign or in the first years of James, while the Netherlands had often +proved themselves capable of furnishing annually ten or twelve millions +of florins, which would be the equivalent of nearly a million sterling. + +The yearly revenues of the whole monarchy of the Imperial house of +Habsburg can scarcely be stated at a higher figure than L350,000. + +Thus the political game--for it was a game--was by no means a desperate +one for the Netherlands, nor the resources of the various players so +unequally distributed as at first sight it might appear. + +The emancipation of the Provinces from the grasp of Spain and the +establishment by them of a commonwealth, for that epoch a very free one, +and which contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty, +religious, political, and commercial, than had yet been known, was +already one of the most considerable results of the Reformation. The +probability of its continued and independent existence was hardly +believed in by potentate or statesman outside its own borders, and had +not been very long a decided article of faith even within them. The +knotty problem of an acknowledgment of that existence, the admission of +the new-born state into the family of nations, and a temporary peace +guaranteed by two great powers, had at last been solved mainly by the +genius of Barneveld working amid many disadvantages and against great +obstructions. The truce had been made, and it now needed all the skill, +coolness, and courage of a practical and original statesman to conduct +the affairs of the Confederacy. The troubled epoch of peace was even now +heaving with warlike emotions, and was hardly less stormy than the war +which had just been suspended. + +The Republic was like a raft loosely strung together, floating almost on +a level of the ocean, and often half submerged, but freighted with +inestimable treasures for itself and the world. It needed an unsleeping +eye and a powerful brain to conduct her over the quicksands and through +the whirlpools of an unmapped and intricate course. + +The sovereignty of the country so far as its nature could be +satisfactorily analysed seemed to be scattered through, and inherent in +each one of, the multitudinous boards of magistracy--close corporations, +self-elected--by which every city was governed. Nothing could be more +preposterous. Practically, however, these boards were represented by +deputies in each of the seven provincial assemblies, and these again sent +councillors from among their number to the general assembly which was +that of their High Mightinesses the Lords States-General. + +The Province of Holland, being richer and more powerful than all its six +sisters combined, was not unwilling to impose a supremacy which on the +whole was practically conceded by the rest. Thus the Union of Utrecht +established in 1579 was maintained for want of anything better as the +foundation of the Commonwealth. + +The Advocate and Keeper of the Great Seal of that province was therefore +virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, +and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. This was +Barneveld's position. He took the lead in the deliberations both of the +States of Holland and the States-General, moved resolutions, advocated +great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, collected the +votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed +ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides +directing and holding in his hands the various threads of the home +policy and the rapidly growing colonial system of the Republic. + +All this work Barneveld had been doing for thirty years. + +The Reformation was by no mans assured even in the lands where it had +at first made the most essential progress. But the existence of the new +commonwealth depended on the success of that great movement which had +called it into being. Losing ground in France, fluctuating in England, +Protestantism was apparently more triumphant in vast territories where +the ancient Church was one day to recover its mastery. Of the population +of Bohemia, there were perhaps ten Protestants to one Papist, while in +the United Netherlands at least one-third of the people were still +attached to the Catholic faith. + +The great religious struggle in Bohemia and other dominions of the +Habsburg family was fast leading to a war of which no man could even +imagine the horrors or foresee the vast extent. The Catholic League and +the Protestant Union were slowly arranging Europe into two mighty +confederacies. + +They were to give employment year after year to millions of mercenary +freebooters who were to practise murder, pillage, and every imaginable +and unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry that could +occupy mankind. The Holy Empire which so ingeniously combined the worst +characteristics of despotism and republicanism kept all Germany and half +Europe in the turmoil of a perpetual presidential election. A theatre +where trivial personages and graceless actors performed a tragi-comedy of +mingled folly, intrigue, and crime, and where earnestness and vigour were +destined to be constantly baffled, now offered the principal stage for +the entertainment and excitement of Christendom. + +There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese. The men who sat on +the thrones in Madrid, Vienna, London, would have lived and died unknown +but for the crowns they wore, and while there were plenty of bustling +politicians here and there in Christendom, there were not many statesmen. + +Among them there was no stronger man than John of Barneveld, and no man +had harder or more complicated work to do. + +Born in Amersfoort in 1547, of the ancient and knightly house of +Oldenbarneveldt, of patrician blood through all his ancestors both male +and female, he was not the heir to large possessions, and was a diligent +student and hardworking man from youth upward. He was not wont to boast +of his pedigree until in later life, being assailed by vilest slander, +all his kindred nearest or most remote being charged with every possible +and unmentionable crime, and himself stigmatized as sprung from the +lowest kennels of humanity--as if thereby his private character and +public services could be more legitimately blackened--he was stung into +exhibiting to the world the purity and antiquity of his escutcheon, and a +roll of respectably placed, well estated, and authentically noble, if not +at all illustrious, forefathers in his country's records of the previous +centuries. + +Without an ancestor at his back he might have valued himself still more +highly on the commanding place he held in the world by right divine of +intellect, but as the father of lies seemed to have kept his creatures so +busy with the Barneveld genealogy, it was not amiss for the statesman +once for all to make the truth known. + +His studies in the universities of Holland, France, Italy, and Germany +had been profound. At an early age he was one of the first civilians of +the time. His manhood being almost contemporary with the great war of +freedom, he had served as a volunteer and at his own expense through +several campaigns, having nearly lost his life in the disastrous attempt +to relieve the siege of Haarlem, and having been so disabled by sickness +and exposure at the heroic leaguer of Leyden as to have been deprived of +the joy of witnessing its triumphant conclusion. + +Successfully practising his profession afterwards before the tribunals of +Holland, he had been called at the comparatively early age of twenty-nine +to the important post of Chief Pensionary of Rotterdam. So long as +William the Silent lived, that great prince was all in all to his +country, and Barneveld was proud and happy to be among the most +trusted and assiduous of his counsellors. + +When the assassination of William seemed for an instant to strike the +Republic with paralysis, Barneveld was foremost among the statesmen of +Holland to spring forward and help to inspire it with renewed energy. + +The almost completed negotiations for conferring the sovereignty, not of +the Confederacy, but of the Province of Holland, upon the Prince had been +abruptly brought to an end by his death. To confer that sovereign +countship on his son Maurice, then a lad of eighteen and a student at +Leyden, would have seemed to many at so terrible a crisis an act of +madness, although Barneveld had been willing to suggest and promote the +scheme. The confederates under his guidance soon hastened however to lay +the sovereignty, and if not the sovereignty, the protectorship, of all +the provinces at the feet first of England and then of France. + +Barneveld was at the head of the embassy, and indeed was the +indispensable head of all important, embassies to each of those two +countries throughout all this portion of his career. Both monarchs +refused, almost spurned, the offered crown in which was involved a war +with the greatest power in the world, with no compensating dignity or +benefit, as it was thought, beside. + +Then Elizabeth, although declining the sovereignty, promised assistance +and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general at the head of a +contingent of English troops. Precisely to prevent the consolidation +thus threatened of the Provinces into one union, a measure which had been +attempted more than once in the Burgundian epoch, and always successfully +resisted by the spirit of provincial separatism, Barneveld now proposed +and carried the appointment of Maurice of Nassau to the stadholdership of +Holland. This was done against great opposition and amid fierce debate. +Soon afterwards Barneveld was vehemently urged by the nobles and regents +of the cities of Holland to accept the post of Advocate of that province. +After repeatedly declining the arduous and most responsible office, he +was at last induced to accept it. He did it under the remarkable +condition that in case any negotiation should be undertaken for the +purpose of bringing back the Province of Holland under the dominion of +the King of Spain, he should be considered as from that moment relieved +from the service. + +His brother Elias Barneveld succeeded him as Pensionary of Rotterdam, and +thenceforth the career of the Advocate is identical with the history of +the Netherlands. Although a native of Utrecht, he was competent to +exercise such functions in Holland, a special and ancient convention +between those two provinces allowing the citizens of either to enjoy +legal and civic rights in both. Gradually, without intrigue or +inordinate ambition, but from force of circumstances and the commanding +power of the man, the native authority stamped upon his forehead, he +became the political head of the Confederacy. He created and maintained +a system of public credit absolutely marvellous in the circumstances, by +means of which an otherwise impossible struggle was carried to a +victorious end. + +When the stadholderate of the provinces of Gelderland, Utrecht, and +Overyssel became vacant, it was again Barneveld's potent influence and +sincere attachment to the House of Nassau that procured the election of +Maurice to those posts. Thus within six years after his father's death +the youthful soldier who had already given proof of his surpassing +military genius had become governor, commander-in-chief, and high +admiral, of five of the seven provinces constituting the Confederacy. + +At about the same period the great question of Church and State, which +Barneveld had always felt to be among the vital problems of the age, and +on which his opinions were most decided, came up for partial solution. +It would have been too much to expect the opinion of any statesman to +be so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality. +Toleration of various creeds, including the Roman Catholic, so far as +abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlours could +be called toleration, was secured, and that was a considerable step in +advance of the practice of the sixteenth century. Burning, hanging, and +burying alive of culprits guilty of another creed than the dominant one +had become obsolete. But there was an established creed--the Reformed +religion, founded on the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg +Catechism. And there was one established principle then considered +throughout Europe the grand result of the Reformation; "Cujus regio ejus +religio;" which was in reality as impudent an invasion of human right as +any heaven-born dogma of Infallibility. The sovereign of a country, +having appropriated the revenues of the ancient church, prescribed his +own creed to his subjects. In the royal conscience were included the +million consciences of his subjects. The inevitable result in a country +like the Netherlands, without a personal sovereign, was a struggle +between the new church and the civil government for mastery. And at this +period, and always in Barneveld's opinion, the question of dogma was +subordinate to that of church government. That there should be no +authority over the King had been settled in England. + +Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and afterwards James, having become popes in +their own realm, had no great hostility to, but rather an affection for, +ancient dogma and splendid ceremonial. But in the Seven Provinces, even +as in France, Germany, and Switzerland, the reform where it had been +effected at all had been more thorough, and there was little left of +Popish pomp or aristocratic hierarchy. Nothing could be severer than the +simplicity of the Reformed Church, nothing more imperious than its dogma, +nothing more infallible than its creed. It was the true religion, and +there was none other. But to whom belonged the ecclesiastical edifices, +the splendid old minsters in the cities--raised by the people's confiding +piety and the purchased remission of their sins in a bygone age--and the +humbler but beautiful parish churches in every town and village? To the +State; said Barneveld, speaking for government; to the community +represented by the states of the provinces, the magistracies of the +cities and municipalities. To the Church itself, the one true church +represented by its elders, and deacons, and preachers, was the reply. + +And to whom belonged the right of prescribing laws and ordinances of +public worship, of appointing preachers, church servants, schoolmasters, +sextons? To the Holy Ghost inspiring the Class and the Synod, said the +Church. + +To the civil authority, said the magistrates, by which the churches are +maintained, and the salaries of the ecclesiastics paid. The states of +Holland are as sovereign as the kings of England or Denmark, the electors +of Saxony or Brandenburg, the magistrates of Zurich or Basel or other +Swiss cantons. "Cujus regio ejus religio." + +In 1590 there was a compromise under the guidance of Barneveld. It was +agreed that an appointing board should be established composed of civil +functionaries and church officials in equal numbers. Thus should the +interests of religion and of education be maintained. + +The compromise was successful enough during the war. External pressure +kept down theological passion, and there were as yet few symptoms of +schism in the dominant church. But there was to come a time when the +struggle between church and government was to break forth with an +intensity and to rage to an extent which no man at that moment could +imagine. + +Towards the end of the century Henry IV. made peace with Spain. It was a +trying moment for the Provinces. Barneveld was again sent forth on an +embassy to the King. The cardinal point in his policy, as it had ever +been in that of William the Silent, was to maintain close friendship with +France, whoever might be its ruler. An alliance between that kingdom +and Spain would be instantaneous ruin to the Republic. With the French +and English sovereigns united with the Provinces, the cause of the +Reformation might triumph, the Spanish world-empire be annihilated, +national independence secured. + +Henry assured the Ambassador that the treaty of Vervins was +indispensable, but that he would never desert his old allies. +In proof of this, although he had just bound himself to Spain to give no +assistance to the Provinces, open or secret, he would furnish them with +thirteen hundred thousand crowns, payable at intervals during four years. +He was under great obligations to his good friends the States, he said, +and nothing in the treaty forbade him to pay his debts. + +It was at this period too that Barneveld was employed by the King to +attend to certain legal and other private business for which he professed +himself too poor at the moment to compensate him. There seems to +have been nothing in the usages of the time or country to make the +transaction, innocent in itself, in any degree disreputable. The King +promised at some future clay, when he should be more in funds, to pay him +a liberal fee. Barneveld, who a dozen years afterwards received 20,000 +florins for his labour, professed that he would much rather have had one +thousand at the time. + +Thence the Advocate, accompanied by his colleague, Justinus de Nassau, +proceeded to England, where they had many stormy interviews with +Elizabeth. The Queen swore with many an oath that she too would make +peace with Philip, recommended the Provinces to do the same thing with +submission to their ancient tyrant, and claimed from the States immediate +payment of one million sterling in satisfaction of their old debts to +her. It would have been as easy for them at that moment to pay a +thousand million. It was at last agreed that the sum of the debt should +be fixed at L800,000, and that the cautionary towns should be held in +Elizabeth's hands by English troops until all the debt should be +discharged. Thus England for a long time afterwards continued to regard +itself, as in a measure the sovereign and proprietor of the Confederacy, +and Barneveld then and there formed the resolve to relieve the country of +the incubus, and to recover those cautionary towns and fortresses at the +earliest possible moment. So long as foreign soldiers commanded by +military governors existed on the soil of the Netherlands, they could +hardly account themselves independent. Besides, there was the perpetual +and horrid nightmare, that by a sudden pacification between Spain and +England those important cities, keys to the country's defence, might be +handed over to their ancient tyrant. + +Elizabeth had been pacified at last, however, by the eloquence of the +Ambassador. "I will assist you even if you were up to the neck in +water," she said. "Jusque la," she added, pointing to her chin. + +Five years later Barneveld, for the fifth time at the head of a great +embassy, was sent to England to congratulate James on his accession. +It was then and there that he took measure of the monarch with whom he +was destined to have many dealings, and who was to exert so baleful an +influence on his career. At last came the time when it was felt that +peace between Spain and her revolted provinces might be made. The +conservation of their ancient laws, privileges, and charters, the +independence of the States, and included therein the freedom to establish +the Reformed religion, had been secured by forty years of fighting. + +The honour of Spain was saved by a conjunction. She agreed to treat +with her old dependencies "as" with states over which she had no +pretensions. Through virtue of an "as," a truce after two years' +negotiation, perpetually traversed and secretly countermined by the +military party under the influence of Maurice, was carried by the +determination of Barneveld. The great objects of the war had been +secured. The country was weary of nearly half a century of bloodshed. +It was time to remember that there could be such a condition as Peace. + +The treaty was signed, ratifications exchanged, and the usual presents of +considerable sums of money to the negotiators made. Barneveld earnestly +protested against carrying out the custom on this occasion, and urged +that those presents should be given for the public use. He was overruled +by those who were more desirous of receiving their reward than he was, +and he accordingly, in common with the other diplomatists, accepted the +gifts. + +The various details of these negotiations have been related by the author +in other volumes, to which the present one is intended as a sequel. It +has been thought necessary merely to recall very briefly a few salient +passages in the career of the Advocate up to the period when the present +history really opens. + +Their bearing upon subsequent events will easily be observed. The truce +was the work of Barneveld. It was detested by Maurice and by Maurice's +partisans. + +"I fear that our enemies and evil reports are the cause of many of our +difficulties," said the Advocate to the States' envoy in Paris, in 1606. +"You are to pay no heed to private advices. Believe and make others +believe that more than one half the inhabitants of the cities and in the +open country are inclined to peace. And I believe, in case of continuing +adversities, that the other half will not remain constant, principally +because the Provinces are robbed of all traffic, prosperity, and +navigation, through the actions of France and England. I have always +thought it for the advantage of his Majesty to sustain us in such wise as +would make us useful in his service. As to his remaining permanently at +peace with Spain, that would seem quite out of the question." + +The King had long kept, according to treaty, a couple of French regiments +in the States' service, and furnished, or was bound to furnish, a certain +yearly sum for their support. But the expenses of the campaigning had +been rapidly increasing and the results as swiftly dwindling. The +Advocate now explained that, "without loss both of important places and +of reputation," the States could not help spending every month that they +took the field 200,000 florins over and above the regular contributions, +and some months a great deal more. This sum, he said, in nine months, +would more than eat up the whole subsidy of the King. If they were to be +in the field by March or beginning of April, they would require from him +an extraordinary sum of 200,000 crowns, and as much more in June or July. + +Eighteen months later, when the magnificent naval victory of Heemskerk +in the Bay of Gibraltar had just made a startling interlude to the +languishing negotiations for peace, the Advocate again warned the French +King of the difficulty in which the Republic still laboured of carrying +on the mighty struggle alone. Spain was the common enemy of all. No +peace or hope was possible for the leading powers as long as Spain was +perpetually encamped in the very heart of Western Europe. The +Netherlands were not fighting their own battle merely, but that of +freedom and independence against the all-encroaching world-power. And +their means to carry on the conflict were dwindling, while at the same +time there was a favourable opportunity for cropping some fruit from +their previous labours and sacrifices. + +"We are led to doubt," he wrote once more to the envoy in France, +"whether the King's full powers will come from Spain. This defeat is +hard for the Spaniards to digest. Meantime our burdens are quite above +our capacity, as you will understand by the enclosed statement, which is +made out with much exactness to show what is absolutely necessary for a +vigorous defence on land and a respectable position at sea to keep things +from entire confusion. The Provinces could raise means for the half of +this estimate. But, it is a great difference when the means differ one +half from the expenses. The sovereignst and most assured remedy would be +the one so often demanded, often projected, and sometimes almost prepared +for execution, namely that our neighbour kings, princes, and republics +should earnestly take the matter in hand and drive the Spaniards and +their adherents out of the Netherlands and over the mountains. Their own +dignity and security ought not to permit such great bodies of troops of +both belligerents permanently massed in the Netherlands. Still less +ought they to allow these Provinces to fall into the hands of the +Spaniards, whence they could with so much more power and convenience make +war upon all kings, princes, and republics. This must be prevented by +one means or another. It ought to be enough for every one that we have +been between thirty and forty years a firm bulwark against Spanish +ambition. Our constancy and patience ought to be strengthened by counsel +and by deed in order that we may exist; a Christian sympathy and a small +assistance not being sufficient. Believe and cause to be believed that +the present condition of our affairs requires more aid in counsel and +money than ever before, and that nothing could be better bestowed than to +further this end. + +"Messieurs Jeannin, Buzenval, and de Russy have been all here these +twelve days. We have firm hopes that other kings, princes, and republics +will not stay upon formalities, but will also visit the patients here in +order to administer sovereign remedies. + +"Lend no ear to any flying reports. We say with the wise men over there, +'Metuo Danaos et dons ferentes.' We know our antagonists well, and trust +their hearts no more than before, 'sed ultra posse non est esse.' To +accept more burthens than we can pay for will breed military mutiny; +to tax the community above its strength will cause popular tumults, +especially in 'rebus adversis,' of which the beginnings were seen last +year, and without a powerful army the enemy is not to be withstood. I +have received your letters to the 17th May. My advice is to trust to his +upright proceedings and with patience to overcome all things. Thus shall +the detractors and calumniators best be confounded. Assure his Majesty +and his ministers that I will do my utmost to avert our ruin and his +Majesty's disservice." + +The treaty was made, and from that time forth the antagonism between the +eminent statesman and the great military chieftain became inevitable. +The importance of the one seemed likely to increase day by day. The +occupation of the other for a time was over. + +During the war Maurice had been, with exception of Henry IV., the most +considerable personage in Europe. He was surrounded with that visible +atmosphere of power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist, and +through the golden haze of which a mortal seems to dilate for the vulgar +eye into the supernatural. The attention of Christendom was perpetually +fixed upon him. Nothing like his sieges, his encampments, his military +discipline, his scientific campaigning had been seen before in modern +Europe. The youthful aristocracy from all countries thronged to his camp +to learn the game of war, for he had restored by diligent study of the +ancients much that was noble in that pursuit, and had elevated into an +art that which had long since degenerated into a system of butchery, +marauding, and rapine. And he had fought with signal success and +unquestionable heroism the most important and most brilliant pitched +battle of the age. He was a central figure of the current history of +Europe. Pagan nations looked up to him as one of the leading sovereigns +of Christendom. The Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother +monarch, assured him that his subjects trading to that distant empire +should be welcomed and protected, and expressed himself ashamed that so +great a prince, whose name and fame had spread through the world, should +send his subjects to visit a country so distant and unknown, and offer +its emperor a friendship which he was unconscious of deserving. + +He had been a commander of armies and a chief among men since he came to +man's estate, and he was now in the very vigour of life, in his forty- +second year. Of Imperial descent and closely connected by blood or +alliance with many of the most illustrious of reigning houses, the +acknowledged master of the most royal and noble of all sciences, he was +of the stuff of which kings were made, and belonged by what was then +accounted right divine to the family of kings. His father's death had +alone prevented his elevation to the throne of Holland, and such +possession of half the sovereignty of the United Netherlands would +probably have expanded into dominion over all the seven with a not +fantastic possibility of uniting the ten still obedient provinces into a +single realm. Such a kingdom would have been more populous and far +wealthier than contemporary Great Britain and Ireland. Maurice, then a +student at Leyden, was too young at that crisis, and his powers too +undeveloped to justify any serious attempt to place him in his father's +place. + +The Netherlands drifted into a confederacy of aristocratic republics, not +because they had planned a republic, but because they could not get a +king, foreign or native. The documents regarding the offer of the +sovereign countship to William remained in the possession of Maurice, and +a few years before the peace there had been a private meeting of leading +personages, of which Barneveld was the promoter and chief spokesman, to +take into consideration the propriety and possibility of conferring that +sovereignty upon the son which had virtually belonged to the father. The +obstacles were deemed so numerous, and especially the scheme seemed so +fraught with danger to Maurice, that it was reluctantly abandoned by his +best friends, among whom unquestionably was the Advocate. + +There was no reason whatever why the now successful and mature soldier, +to whom the country was under such vast obligations, should not aspire +to the sovereignty. The Provinces had not pledged themselves to +republicanism, but rather to monarchy, and the crown, although secretly +coveted by Henry IV., could by no possibility now be conferred on any +other man than Maurice. It was no impeachment on his character that he +should nourish thoughts in which there was nothing criminal. + +But the peace negotiations had opened a chasm. It was obvious enough +that Barneveld having now so long exercised great powers, and become as +it were the chief magistrate of an important commonwealth, would not be +so friendly as formerly to its conversion into a monarchy and to the +elevation of the great soldier to its throne. The Advocate had even been +sounded, cautiously and secretly, so men believed, by the Princess- +Dowager, Louise de Coligny, widow of William the silent, as to the +feasibility of procuring the sovereignty for Maurice. She had done this +at the instigation of Maurice, who had expressed his belief that the +favourable influence of the Advocate would make success certain and who +had represented to her that, as he was himself resolved never to marry, +the inheritance after his death would fall to her son Frederick Henry. +The Princess, who was of a most amiable disposition, adored her son. +Devoted to the House of Nassau and a great admirer of its chief, she had +a long interview with Barneveld, in which she urged the scheme upon his +attention without in any probability revealing that she had come to him +at the solicitation of Maurice. + +The Advocate spoke to her with frankness and out of the depths of his +heart. He professed an ardent attachment to her family, a profound +reverence for the virtues, sacrifices, and achievements of her lamented +husband, and a warm desire to do everything to further the interests of +the son who had proved himself so worthy of his parentage. + +But he proved to her that Maurice, in seeking the sovereignty, was +seeking his ruin. The Hollanders, he said, liked to be persuaded and not +forced. Having triumphantly shaken off the yoke of a powerful king, they +would scarcely consent now to accept the rule of any personal sovereign. +The desire to save themselves from the claws of Spain had led them +formerly to offer the dominion over them to various potentates. Now that +they had achieved peace and independence and were delivered from the +fears of Spanish ferocity and French intrigue, they shuddered at the +dangers from royal hands out of which they had at last escaped. He +believed that they would be capable of tearing in pieces any one who +might make the desired proposition. After all, he urged, Maurice was a +hundred times more fortunate as he was than if he should succeed in +desires so opposed to his own good. This splendour of sovereignty was a +false glare which would lead him to a precipice. He had now the power of +a sovereign without the envy which ever followed it. Having essentially +such power, he ought, like his father, to despise an empty name, which +would only make him hated. For it was well known that William the Silent +had only yielded to much solicitation, agreeing to accept that which then +seemed desirable for the country's good but to him was more than +indifferent. + +Maurice was captain-general and admiral-general of five provinces. He +appointed to governments and to all military office. He had a share of +appointment to the magistracies. He had the same advantages and the same +authority as had been enjoyed in the Netherlands by the ancient sovereign +counts, by the dukes of Burgundy, by Emperor Charles V. himself. + +Every one now was in favour of increasing his pensions, his salaries, his +material splendour. Should he succeed in seizing the sovereignty, men +would envy him even to the ribbands of his pages' and his lackeys' shoes. +He turned to the annals of Holland and showed the Princess that there had +hardly been a sovereign count against whom his subjects had not revolted, +marching generally into the very courtyard of the palace at the Hague in +order to take his life. + +Convinced by this reasoning, Louise de Coligny had at once changed her +mind, and subsequently besought her stepson to give up a project sure to +be fatal to his welfare, his peace of mind, and the good of the country. +Maurice listened to her coldly, gave little heed to the Advocate's logic, +and hated him in his heart from that day forth. + +The Princess remained loyal to Barneveld to the last. + +Thus the foundation was laid of that terrible enmity which, inflamed by +theological passion, was to convert the period of peace into a hell, to +rend the Provinces asunder when they had most need of repose, and to lead +to tragical results for ever to be deplored. Already in 1607 Francis +Aerssens had said that the two had become so embroiled and things had +gone so far that one or the other would have to leave the country. He +permitted also the ridiculous statement to be made in his house at Paris, +that Henry IV. believed the Advocate to have become Spanish, and had +declared that Prince Maurice would do well to have him put into a sack +and thrown into the sea. + +His life had been regularly divided into two halves, the campaigning +season and the period of winter quarters. In the one his business, and +his talk was of camps, marches, sieges, and battles only. In the other +he was devoted to his stud, to tennis, to mathematical and mechanical +inventions, and to chess, of which he was passionately fond, and which he +did not play at all well. A Gascon captain serving in the States' army +was his habitual antagonist in that game, and, although the stakes were +but a crown a game, derived a steady income out of his gains, which were +more than equal to his pay. The Prince was sulky when he lost, sitting, +when the candles were burned out and bed-time had arrived, with his hat +pulled over his brows, without bidding his guest good night, and leaving +him to find his way out as he best could; and, on the contrary, radiant +with delight when successful, calling for valets to light the departing +captain through the corridor, and accompanying him to the door of the +apartment himself. That warrior was accordingly too shrewd not to allow +his great adversary as fair a share of triumph as was consistent with +maintaining the frugal income on which he reckoned. + +He had small love for the pleasures of the table, but was promiscuous +and unlicensed in his amours. He was methodical in his household +arrangements, and rather stingy than liberal in money matters. He +personally read all his letters, accounts, despatches, and other +documents trivial or important, but wrote few letters with his own hand, +so that, unlike his illustrious father's correspondence, there is little +that is characteristic to be found in his own. He was plain but not +shabby in attire, and was always dressed in exactly the same style, +wearing doublet and hose of brown woollen, a silk under vest, a short +cloak lined with velvet, a little plaited ruff on his neck, and very +loose boots. He ridiculed the smart French officers who, to show their +fine legs, were wont to wear such tight boots as made them perspire to +get into them, and maintained, in precept and practice, that a man should +be able to jump into his boots and mount and ride at a moment's notice. +The only ornaments he indulged in, except, of course, on state occasions, +were a golden hilt to his famous sword, and a rope of diamonds tied +around his felt hat. + +He was now in the full flower of his strength and his fame, in his forty- +second year, and of a noble and martial presence. The face, although +unquestionably handsome, offered a sharp contrast within itself; the +upper half all intellect, the lower quite sensual. Fair hair growing +thin, but hardly tinged with grey, a bright, cheerful, and thoughtful +forehead, large hazel eyes within a singularly large orbit of brow; a +straight, thin, slightly aquiline, well-cut nose--such features were at +open variance with the broad, thick-lipped, sensual mouth, the heavy +pendant jowl, the sparse beard on the glistening cheek, and the moleskin- +like moustachio and chin tuft. Still, upon the whole, it was a face and +figure which gave the world assurance of a man and a commander of men. +Power and intelligence were stamped upon him from his birth. + +Barneveld was tall and majestic of presence, with large quadrangular +face, austere, blue eyes looking authority and command, a vast forehead, +and a grizzled beard. Of fluent and convincing eloquence with tongue and +pen, having the power of saying much in few words, he cared much more for +the substance than the graces of speech or composition. This tendency +was not ill exemplified in a note of his written on a sheet of questions +addressed to him by a States' ambassador about to start on an important +mission, but a novice in his business, the answers to which questions +were to serve for his diplomatic instructions. + +"Item and principally," wrote the Envoy, "to request of M. de Barneveld +a formulary or copy of the best, soundest, wisest, and best couched +despatches done by several preceding ambassadors in order to regulate +myself accordingly for the greater service of the Province and for my +uttermost reputation." + +The Advocate's answer, scrawled in his nearly illegible hand, was-- + +"Unnecessary. The truth in shortest about matters of importance shall be +taken for good style." + +With great love of power, which he was conscious of exerting with ease to +himself and for the good of the public, he had little personal vanity, +and not the smallest ambition of authorship. Many volumes might be +collected out of the vast accumulation of his writings now mouldering and +forgotten in archives. Had the language in which they are written become +a world's language, they would be worthy of attentive study, as +containing noble illustrations of the history and politics of his age, +with theories and sentiments often far in advance of his age. But he +cared not for style. "The truth in shortest about matters of importance" +was enough for him; but the world in general, and especially the world of +posterity, cares much for style. The vehicle is often prized more than +the freight. The name of Barneveld is fast fading out of men's memory. +The fame of his pupil and companion in fortune and misfortune, Hugo +Grotius, is ever green. But Grotius was essentially an author rather +than a statesman: he wrote for the world and posterity with all the love, +pride, and charm of the devotee of literature, and he composed his +noblest works in a language which is ever living because it is dead. +Some of his writings, epochmaking when they first appeared, are text- +books still familiar in every cultivated household on earth. Yet +Barneveld was vastly his superior in practical statesmanship, in law, in +the science of government, and above all in force of character, while +certainly not his equal in theology, nor making any pretensions to +poetry. Although a ripe scholar, he rarely wrote in Latin, and not often +in French. His ambition was to do his work thoroughly according to his +view of duty, and to ask God's blessing upon it without craving overmuch +the applause of men. + +Such were the two men, the soldier and the statesman. Would the +Republic, fortunate enough to possess two such magnificent and widely +contrasted capacities, be wise enough to keep them in its service, each +supplementing the other, and the two combining in a perfect whole? + +Or was the great law of the Discords of the World, as potent as that +other principle of Universal Harmony and planetary motion which an +illustrious contemporary--that Wurtemberg astronomer, once a soldier of +the fierce Alva, now the half-starved astrologer of the brain-sick +Rudolph--was at that moment discovering, after "God had waited six +thousand years for him to do it," to prevail for the misery of the +Republic and shame of Europe? Time was to show. + +The new state had forced itself into the family of sovereignties somewhat +to the displeasure of most of the Lord's anointed. Rebellious and +republican, it necessarily excited the jealousy of long-established and +hereditary governments. + +The King of Spain had not formally acknowledged the independence of the +United Provinces. He had treated with them as free, and there was +supposed to be much virtue in the conjunction. But their sovereign +independence was virtually recognized by the world. Great nations had +entered into public and diplomatic relations and conventions with them, +and their agents at foreign courts were now dignified with the rank and +title of ambassadors. + +The Spanish king had likewise refused to them the concession of the right +of navigation and commerce in the East Indies, but it was a matter of +notoriety that the absence of the word India, suppressed as it was in the +treaty, implied an immense triumph on the part of the States, and that +their flourishing and daily increasing commerce in the farthest East and +the imperial establishments already rising there were cause of envy and +jealousy not to Spain alone, but to friendly powers. + +Yet the government of Great Britain affected to regard them as +something less than a sovereign state. Although Elizabeth had refused +the sovereignty once proffered to her, although James had united with +Henry IV. in guaranteeing the treaty just concluded between the States +and Spain, that monarch had the wonderful conception that the Republic +was in some sort a province of his own, because he still held the +cautionary towns in pledge for the loans granted by his predecessor. +His agents at Constantinople were instructed to represent the new state +as unworthy to accredit its envoys as those of an independent power. +The Provinces were represented as a collection of audacious rebels, +a piratical scum of the sea. But the Sultan knew his interests better +than to incur the enmity of this rising maritime power. The Dutch envoy +declaring that he would sooner throw himself into the Bosphorus than +remain to be treated with less consideration than that accorded to the +ministers of all great powers, the remonstrances of envious colleagues +were hushed, and Haga was received with all due honours. + +Even at the court of the best friend of the Republic, the French king, +men looked coldly at the upstart commonwealth. Francis Aerssens, the +keen and accomplished minister of the States, resident in Paris for many +years, was received as ambassador after the truce with all the ceremonial +befitting the highest rank in the diplomatic service; yet Henry could not +yet persuade himself to look upon the power accrediting him as a +thoroughly organized commonwealth. + +The English ambassador asked the King if he meant to continue his aid and +assistance to the States during the truce. "Yes," answered Henry. + +"And a few years beyond it?" + +"No. I do not wish to offend the King of Spain from mere gaiety of +heart." + +"But they are free," replied the Ambassador; "the King of Spain could +have no cause for offence." + +"They are free," said the King, "but not sovereign."--"Judge then," wrote +Aerssens to Barneveld, "how we shall be with the King of Spain at the end +of our term when our best friends make this distinction among themselves +to our disadvantage. They insist on making a difference between liberty +and sovereignty; considering liberty as a mean term between servitude and +sovereignty." + +"You would do well," continued the Dutch ambassador, "to use the word +'sovereignty' on all occasions instead of 'liberty.'" The hint was +significant and the advice sound. + +The haughty republic of Venice, too, with its "golden Book" and its +pedigree of a thousand years, looked askance at the republic of yesterday +rising like herself out of lagunes and sand banks, and affecting to place +herself side by side with emperors, kings, and the lion of St. Mark. But +the all-accomplished council of that most serene commonwealth had far too +much insight and too wide experience in political combinations to make +the blunder of yielding to this aristocratic sentiment. + +The natural enemy of the Pope, of Spain, of Austria, must of necessity +be the friend of Venice, and it was soon thought highly desirable to +intimate half officially that a legation from the States-General to the +Queen of the Adriatic, announcing the conclusion of the Twelve Years' +Truce, would be extremely well received. + +The hint was given by the Venetian ambassador at Paris to Francis +Aerssens, who instantly recommended van der Myle, son-in-law of +Barneveld, as a proper personage to be entrusted with this important +mission. At this moment an open breach had almost occurred between Spain +and Venice, and the Spanish ambassador at Paris, Don Pedro de Toledo, +naturally very irate with Holland, Venice, and even with France, was +vehement in his demonstrations. The arrogant Spaniard had for some time +been employed in an attempt to negotiate a double marriage between the +Dauphin and the eldest daughter of Philip III., and between the eldest +son of that king and the Princess Elizabeth of France. An indispensable +but secret condition of this negotiation was the absolute renunciation by +France of its alliance and friendly relations with the United Provinces. +The project was in truth a hostile measure aimed directly at the life of +the Republic. Henry held firm however, and Don Pedro was about to depart +malcontent, his mission having totally failed. He chanced, when going to +his audience of leave-taking, after the arrival of his successor, Don +Inigo de Cardenas, to meet the Venetian ambassador, Antonio Foscarini. +An altercation took place between them, during which the Spaniard poured +out his wrath so vehemently, calling his colleague with neat alliteration +"a poltroon, a pantaloon, and a pig," that Henry heard him. + +What Signor Antonio replied has not been preserved, but it is stated that +he was first to seek a reconciliation, not liking, he said, Spanish +assassinations. + +Meantime the double marriage project was for a season at least suspended, +and the alliance between the two republics went forwards. Van der Myle, +appointed ambassador to Venice, soon afterwards arrived in Paris, where +he made a very favourable impression, and was highly lauded by Aerssens +in his daily correspondence with Barneveld. No portentous shadow of +future and fatal discord between those statesmen fell upon the cheerful +scene. Before the year closed, he arrived at his post, and was received +with great distinction, despite the obstacles thrown in his way by Spain +and other powers; the ambassador of France itself, de Champigny, having +privately urged that he ought to be placed on the same footing with the +envoys of Savoy and of Florence. + +Van der Myle at starting committed the trifling fault of styling the +States-General "most illustrious" (illustrissimi) instead of "most +serene," the title by which Venice designated herself. + +The fault was at once remedied, however, Priuli the Doge seating the +Dutch ambassador on his right hand at his solemn reception, and giving +directions that van der Myle should be addressed as Excellency, his post +being assigned him directly after his seniors, the ambassadors of Pope, +Emperor, and kings. The same precedence was settled in Paris, while +Aerssens, who did not consider himself placed in a position of greater +usefulness by his formal installation as ambassador, received private +intimation from Henry, with whom he was on terms of great confidence and +intimacy, that he should have private access to the King as frequently +and as in formally as before. The theory that the ambassador, +representing the personality of his sovereign, may visit the monarch +to whom he is accredited, without ceremony and at his own convenience, +was as rarely carried into practice in the sixteenth century as in the +nineteenth, while on the other hand Aerssens, as the private and +confidential agent of a friendly but not publicly recognized +commonwealth, had been for many years in almost daily personal +communication with the King. + +It is also important to note that the modern fallacy according to which +republics being impersonal should not be represented by ambassadors had +not appeared in that important epoch in diplomatic history. On the +contrary, the two great republics of the age, Holland and Venice, +vindicated for themselves, with as much dignity and reason as success, +their right to the highest diplomatic honours. + +The distinction was substantial not shadowy; those haughty commonwealths +not considering it advantageous or decorous that their representatives +should for want of proper official designations be ranked on great +ceremonial occasions with the ministers of petty Italian principalities +or of the three hundred infinitesimal sovereignties of Germany. + +It was the advice of the French king especially, who knew politics and +the world as well as any man, that the envoys of the Republic which he +befriended and which stood now on the threshold of its official and +national existence, should assert themselves at every court with the +self-reliance and courtesy becoming the functionaries of a great power. +That those ministers were second to the representatives of no other +European state in capacity and accomplishment was a fact well known to +all who had dealings with them, for the States required in their +diplomatic representatives knowledge of history and international law, +modern languages, and the classics, as well as familiarity with political +customs and social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen in short, and +the accomplishments of scholars. It is both a literary enjoyment and a +means of historical and political instruction to read after the lapse of +centuries their reports and despatches. They worthily compare as works +of art with those diplomatic masterpieces the letters and 'Relazioni' of +the Venetian ambassadors; and it is well known that the earlier and some +of the most important treatises on public and international law ever +written are from the pens of Hollanders, who indeed may be said to have +invented that science.' + +The Republic having thus steadily shouldered its way into the family of +nations was soon called upon to perform a prominent part in the world's +affairs. More than in our own epoch there was a close political +commingling of such independent states as held sympathetic views on the +great questions agitating Europe. The policy of isolation so wisely and +successfully carried out by our own trans-Atlantic commonwealth was +impossible for the Dutch republic, born as it was of a great religious +schism, and with its narrow territory wedged between the chief political +organizations of Christendom. Moreover the same jealousy on the part of +established powers which threw so many obstacles in its path to +recognized sovereignty existed in the highest degree between its two +sponsors and allies, France and England, in regard to their respective +relations to the new state. + +"If ever there was an obliged people," said Henry's secretary of state, +Villeroy, to Aerssens, "then it is you Netherlanders to his Majesty. He +has converted your war into peace, and has never abandoned you. It is +for you now to show your affection and gratitude." + +In the time of Elizabeth, and now in that of her successor, there was +scarcely a day in which the envoys of the States were not reminded of the +immense load of favour from England under which they tottered, and of the +greater sincerity and value of English friendship over that of France. + +Sully often spoke to Aerssens on the subject in even stronger language, +deeming himself the chief protector and guardian angel of the Republic, +to whom they were bound by ties of eternal gratitude. "But if the +States," he said, "should think of caressing the King of England more +than him, or even of treating him on an equality with his Majesty, Henry +would be very much affronted. He did not mean that they should neglect +the friendship of the King of Britain, but that they should cultivate it +after and in subordination to his own, for they might be sure that James +held all things indifferent, their ruin or their conservation, while his +Majesty had always manifested the contrary both by his counsels and by +the constant furnishing of supplies." + +Henry of France and Navarre--soldier, statesman, wit, above all a man +and every inch a king--brimful of human vices, foibles, and humours, and +endowed with those high qualities of genius which enabled him to mould +events and men by his unscrupulous and audacious determination to conform +to the spirit of his times which no man better understood than himself, +had ever been in such close relations with the Netherlands as to seem in +some sort their sovereign. + +James Stuart, emerging from the school of Buchanan and the atmosphere of +Calvinism in which he had been bred, now reigned in those more sunny and +liberal regions where Elizabeth so long had ruled. Finding himself at +once, after years of theological study, face to face with a foreign +commonwealth and a momentous epoch, in which politics were so commingled +with divinity as to offer daily the most puzzling problems, the royal +pedant hugged himself at beholding so conspicuous a field for his +talents. + +To turn a throne into a pulpit, and amaze mankind with his learning, +was an ambition most sweet to gratify. The Calvinist of Scotland now +proclaimed his deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland, and +denounced the Netherlanders as a pack of rebels whom it always pleased +him to irritate, and over whom he too claimed, through the possession of +the cautionary towns, a kind of sovereignty. Instinctively feeling that +in the rough and unlovely husk of Puritanism was enclosed the germ of a +wider human liberty than then existed, he was determined to give battle +to it with his tongue, his pen, with everything but his sword. + +Doubtless the States had received most invaluable assistance from both +France and England, but the sovereigns of those countries were too apt to +forget that it was their own battles, as well as those of the Hollanders, +that had been fought in Flanders and Brabant. But for the alliance and +subsidies of the faithful States, Henry would not so soon have ascended +the throne of his ancestors, while it was matter of history that the +Spanish government had for years been steadily endeavouring to subjugate +England not so much for the value of the conquest in itself as for a +stepping-stone to the recovery of the revolted Netherlands. + +For the dividing line of nations or at least of national alliances was a +frontier not of language but of faith. Germany was but a geographical +expression. The union of Protestantism, subscribed by a large proportion +of its three hundred and seven sovereigns, ran zigzag through the +country, a majority probably of the people at that moment being opposed +to the Roman Church. + +It has often been considered amazing that Protestantism having +accomplished so much should have fallen backwards so soon, and yielded +almost undisputed sway in vast regions to the long dominant church. But +in truth there is nothing surprising about it. Catholicism was and +remained a unit, while its opponents were eventually broken up into +hundreds of warring and politically impotent organizations. Religious +faith became distorted into a weapon for selfish and greedy territorial +aggrandizement in the hands of Protestant princes. "Cujus regio ejus +religio" was the taunt hurled in the face of the imploring Calvinists of +France and the Low Countries by the arrogant Lutherans of Germany. Such +a sword smote the principle of religious freedom and mutual toleration +into the dust, and rendered them comparatively weak in the conflict with +the ancient and splendidly organized church. + +The Huguenots of France, notwithstanding the protection grudgingly +afforded them by their former chieftain, were dejected and discomfited +by his apostasy, and Henry, placed in a fearfully false position, was an +object of suspicion to both friends and foes. In England it is difficult +to say whether a Jesuit or a Puritan was accounted the more noxious +animal by the dominant party. + +In the United Provinces perhaps one half the population was either openly +or secretly attached to the ancient church, while among the Protestant +portion a dire and tragic convulsion was about to break forth, which for +a time at least was to render Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants more +fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists. + +The doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense had +long been the prevailing one in the Reformed Church of the revolted +Netherlands, as in those of Scotland, France, Geneva, and the Palatinate. +No doubt up to the period of the truce a majority had acquiesced in that +dogma and its results, although there had always been many preachers to +advocate publicly a milder creed. It was not until the appointment of +Jacob Arminius to the professorship of theology at Leyden, in the place +of Francis Junius, in the year 1603, that a danger of schism in the +Church, seemed impending. Then rose the great Gomarus in his wrath, +and with all the powers of splendid eloquence, profound learning, +and the intense bigotry of conviction, denounced the horrible heresy. +Conferences between the two before the Court of Holland, theological +tournaments between six champions on a side, gallantly led by their +respective chieftains, followed, with the usual result of confirming +both parties in the conviction that to each alone belonged exclusively +the truth. + +The original influence of Arminius had however been so great that when +the preachers of Holland had been severally called on by a synod to sign +the Heidelberg Catechism, many of them refused. Here was open heresy and +revolt. It was time for the true church to vindicate its authority. +The great war with Spain had been made, so it was urged and honestly +believed, not against the Inquisition, not to prevent Netherlanders from +being burned and buried alive by the old true church, not in defence of +ancient charters, constitutions, and privileges--the precious result of +centuries of popular resistance to despotic force--not to maintain an +amount of civil liberty and local self-government larger in extent than +any then existing in the world, not to assert equality of religion for +all men, but simply to establish the true religion, the one church, the +only possible creed; the creed and church of Calvin. + +It is perfectly certain that the living fire which glowed in the veins of +those hot gospellers had added intense enthusiasm to the war spirit +throughout that immense struggle. It is quite possible that without that +enthusiasm the war might not have been carried on to its successful end. +But it is equally certain that Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, and +devotees of many other creeds, had taken part in the conflict in defence +both of hearth and altar, and that without that aid the independence of +the Provinces would never have been secured. + +Yet before the war was ended the arrogance of the Reformed priesthood had +begun to dig a chasm. Men who with William the Silent and Barneveld had +indulged in the vision of religious equality as a possible result of so +much fighting against the Holy Inquisition were perhaps to be +disappointed. + +Preachers under the influence of the gentle Arminius having dared to +refuse signing the Creed were to be dealt with. It was time to pass from +censure to action. + +Heresy must be trampled down. The churches called for a national synod, +and they did this as by divine right. "My Lords the States-General must +observe," they said, "that this assembly now demanded is not a human +institution but an ordinance of the Holy Ghost in its community, not +depending upon any man's authority, but proceeding from God to the +community." They complained that the true church was allowed to act only +through the civil government, and was thus placed at a disadvantage +compared even with Catholics and other sects, whose proceedings were +winked at. "Thus the true church suffered from its apparent and public +freedom, and hostile sects gained by secret connivance." + +A crisis was fast approaching. The one church claimed infallibility and +superiority to the civil power. The Holy Ghost was placed in direct, +ostentatious opposition to My Lords the States-General. It was for +Netherlanders to decide whether, after having shaken off the Holy +Inquisition, and subjected the old true church to the public authority, +they were now to submit to the imperious claims of the new true church. + +There were hundreds of links connecting the Church with the State. In +that day a divorce between the two was hardly possible or conceivable. +The system of Congregationalism so successfully put into practice soon +afterwards in the wilderness of New England, and to which so much of +American freedom political as well as religious is due, was not easy +to adopt in an old country like the Netherlands. Splendid churches and +cathedrals, the legal possession of which would be contended for by rival +sects, could scarcely be replaced by temporary structures of lath and +plaster, or by humble back parlours of mechanics' shops. There were +questions of property of complicated nature. Not only the states and the +communities claimed in rivalry the ownership of church property, but many +private families could show ancient advowsons and other claims to present +or to patronize, derived from imperial or ducal charters. + +So long as there could be liberty of opinion within the Church upon +points not necessarily vital, open schism could be avoided, by which the +cause of Protestantism throughout Europe must be weakened, while at the +same time subordination of the priesthood to the civil authority would be +maintained. But if the Holy Ghost, through the assembled clergy, were +to dictate an iron formulary to which all must conform, to make laws for +church government which every citizen must obey, and to appoint preachers +and school-masters from whom alone old and young could receive +illumination and instruction religious or lay, a theocracy would be +established which no enlightened statesman could tolerate. + +The States-General agreed to the synod, but imposed a condition that +there should be a revision of Creed and Catechism. This was thundered +down with one blast. The condition implied a possibility that the vile +heresy of Arminius might be correct. An unconditional synod was +demanded. The Heidelberg Creed and Netherland Catechism were sacred, +infallible, not to be touched. The answer of the government, through +the mouth of Barneveld, was that "to My Lords the States-General as the +foster-fathers and protectors of the churches every right belonged." + +Thus far the States-General under the leadership of the Advocate were +unanimous. The victory remained with State against Church. But very +soon after the truce had been established, and men had liberty to devote +themselves to peaceful pursuits, the ecclesiastical trumpet again sounded +far and wide, and contending priests and laymen rushed madly to the fray. +The Remonstrance and Contra-Remonstrance, and the appointment of Conrad +Vorstius, a more abominable heretic than Arminius, to the vacant chair +of Arminius--a step which drove Gomarus and the Gomarites to frenzy, +although Gomarus and Vorstius remained private and intimate friends +to the last--are matters briefly to be mentioned on a later page. + +Thus to the four chief actors in the politico-religious drama, soon to be +enacted as an interlude to an eighty years' war, were assigned parts at +first sight inconsistent with their private convictions. The King of +France, who had often abjured his religion, and was now the best of +Catholics, was denounced ferociously in every Catholic pulpit in +Christendom as secretly an apostate again, and the open protector of +heretics and rebels. But the cheerful Henry troubled himself less than +he perhaps had cause to do with these thunderblasts. Besides, as we +shall soon see, he had other objects political and personal to sway his +opinions. + +James the ex-Calvinist, crypto-Arminian, pseudo-Papist, and avowed +Puritan hater, was girding on his armour to annihilate Arminians and to +defend and protect Puritans in Holland, while swearing that in England he +would pepper them and harry them and hang them and that he would even +like to bury them alive. + +Barneveld, who turned his eyes, as much as in such an inflammatory age it +was possible, from subtle points of theology, and relied on his great- +grandfather's motto of humility, "Nil scire tutissima fides" was perhaps +nearer to the dogma of the dominant Reformed Church than he knew, +although always the consistent and strenuous champion of the civil +authority over Church as well as State. + +Maurice was no theologian. He was a steady churchgoer, and his +favorite divine, the preacher at his court chapel, was none other than +Uytenbogaert. The very man who was instantly to be the champion of the +Arminians, the author of the Remonstrance, the counsellor and comrade of +Barneveld and Grotius, was now sneered at by the Gomarites as the "Court +Trumpeter." The preacher was not destined to change his opinions. +Perhaps the Prince might alter. But Maurice then paid no heed to the +great point at issue, about which all the Netherlanders were to take each +other by the throat--absolute predestination. He knew that the Advocate +had refused to listen to his stepmother's suggestion as to his obtaining +the sovereignty. "He knew nothing of predestination," he was wont to +say, "whether it was green or whether it was blue. He only knew that his +pipe and the Advocate's were not likely to make music together." This +much of predestination he did know, that if the Advocate and his friends +were to come to open conflict with the Prince of Orange-Nassau, the +conqueror of Nieuwpoort, it was predestined to go hard with the Advocate +and his friends. + +The theological quibble did not interest him much, and he was apt to +blunder about it. + +"Well, preacher," said he one day to Albert Huttenus, who had come to him +to intercede for a deserter condemned to be hanged, "are you one of those +Arminians who believe that one child is born to salvation and another to +damnation?" + +Huttenus, amazed to the utmost at the extraordinary question, replied, +"Your Excellency will be graciously pleased to observe that this is not +the opinion of those whom one calls by the hateful name of Arminians, but +the opinion of their adversaries." + +"Well, preacher," rejoined Maurice, "don't you think I know better?" And +turning to Count Lewis William, Stadholder of Friesland, who was present, +standing by the hearth with his hand on a copper ring of the +chimneypiece, he cried, + +"Which is right, cousin, the preacher or I?" + +"No, cousin," answered Count Lewis, "you are in the wrong." + +Thus to the Catholic League organized throughout Europe in solid and +consistent phalanx was opposed the Great Protestant Union, ardent and +enthusiastic in detail, but undisciplined, disobedient, and inharmonious +as a whole. + +The great principle, not of religious toleration, which is a phrase of +insult, but of religious equality, which is the natural right of mankind, +was to be evolved after a lapse of, additional centuries out of the +elemental conflict which had already lasted so long. Still later was +the total divorce of State and Church to be achieved as the final +consummation of the great revolution. Meantime it was almost inevitable +that the privileged and richly endowed church, with ecclesiastical armies +and arsenals vastly superior to anything which its antagonist could +improvise, should more than hold its own. + +At the outset of the epoch which now occupies our attention, Europe was +in a state of exhaustion and longing for repose. Spain had submitted to +the humiliation of a treaty of truce with its rebellious subjects which +was substantially a recognition of their independence. Nothing could be +more deplorable than the internal condition of the country which claimed +to be mistress of the world and still aspired to universal monarchy. + +It had made peace because it could no longer furnish funds for the war. +The French ambassador, Barante, returning from Madrid, informed his +sovereign that he had often seen officers in the army prostrating +themselves on their knees in the streets before their sovereign as he +went to mass, and imploring him for payment of their salaries, or at +least an alms to keep them from starving, and always imploring in vain. + +The King, who was less than a cipher, had neither capacity to feel +emotion, nor intelligence to comprehend the most insignificant affair of +state. Moreover the means were wanting to him even had he been disposed +to grant assistance. The terrible Duke of Lerma was still his inexorably +lord and master, and the secretary of that powerful personage, who kept +an open shop for the sale of offices of state both high and low, took +care that all the proceeds should flow into the coffers of the Duke and +his own lap instead of the royal exchequer. + +In France both king and people declared themselves disgusted with war. +Sully disapproved of the treaty just concluded between Spain and the +Netherlands, feeling sure that the captious and equivocal clauses +contained in it would be interpreted to the disadvantage of the Republic +and of the Reformed religion whenever Spain felt herself strong enough to +make the attempt. He was especially anxious that the States should make +no concessions in regard to the exercise of the Catholic worship within +their territory, believing that by so doing they would compromise their +political independence besides endangering the cause of Protestantism +everywhere. A great pressure was put upon Sully that moment by the King +to change his religion. + +"You will all be inevitably ruined if you make concessions in this +regard," said he to Aerssens. "Take example by me. I should be utterly +undone if I had listened to any overture on this subject." + +Nevertheless it was the opinion of the astute and caustic envoy that the +Duke would be forced to yield at last. The Pope was making great efforts +to gain him, and thus to bring about the extirpation of Protestantism in +France. And the King, at that time much under the influence of the +Jesuits, had almost set his heart on the conversion. Aerssens insinuated +that Sully was dreading a minute examination into the affairs of his +administration of the finances--a groundless calumny--and would be thus +forced to comply. Other enemies suggested that nothing would effect this +much desired apostasy but the office of Constable of France, which it was +certain would never be bestowed on him. + +At any rate it was very certain that Henry at this period was bent on +peace. + +"Make your account," said Aerssens to Barneveld, as the time for signing +the truce drew nigh, "on this indubitable foundation that the King is +determined against war, whatever pretences he may make. His bellicose +demeanour has been assumed only to help forward our treaty, which he +would never have favoured, and ought never to have favoured, if he had +not been too much in love with peace. This is a very important secret if +we manage it discreetly, and a very dangerous one if our enemies discover +it." + +Sully would have much preferred that the States should stand out for a +peace rather than for a truce, and believed it might have been obtained +if the King had not begun the matter so feebly, and if he had let it be +understood that he would join his arms to those of the Provinces in case +of rupture. + +He warned the States very strenuously that the Pope, and the King of +Spain, and a host of enemies open and covert, were doing their host to +injure them at the French court. They would find little hindrance in +this course if the Republic did not show its teeth, and especially if it +did not stiffly oppose all encroachments of the Roman religion, without +even showing any deference to the King in this regard, who was much +importuned on the subject. + +He advised the States to improve the interval of truce by restoring order +to their finances and so arranging their affairs that on the resumption +of hostilities, if come they must, their friends might be encouraged to +help them, by the exhibition of thorough vigour on their part. + +France then, although utterly indisposed for war at that moment, was +thoroughly to be relied on as a friend and in case of need an ally, so +long as it was governed by its present policy. There was but one king +left in Europe since the death of Elizabeth of England. + +But Henry was now on the abhorred threshold of old age which he +obstinately refused to cross. + +There is something almost pathetic, in spite of the censure which much of +his private life at this period provokes, in the isolation which now +seemed his lot. + +Deceived and hated by his wife and his mistresses, who were conspiring +with each other and with his ministers, not only against his policy but +against his life; with a vile Italian adventurer, dishonouring his +household, entirely dominating the queen, counteracting the royal +measures, secretly corresponding, by assumed authority, with Spain, in +direct violation of the King's instructions to his ambassadors, and +gorging himself with wealth and offices at the expense of everything +respectable in France; surrounded by a pack of malignant and greedy +nobles, who begrudged him his fame, his authority, his independence; +without a home, and almost without a friend, the Most Christian King in +these latter days led hardly as merry a life as when fighting years long +for his crown, at the head of his Gascon chivalry, the beloved chieftain +of Huguenots. + +Of the triumvirate then constituting his council, Villeroy, Sillery, and +Sully, the two first were ancient Leaguers, and more devoted at heart to +Philip of Spain than to Henry of France and Navarre. + +Both silent, laborious, plodding, plotting functionaries, thriftily +gathering riches; skilled in routine and adepts at intrigue; steady self- +seekers, and faithful to office in which their lives had passed, they +might be relied on at any emergency to take part against their master, +if to ruin would prove more profitable than to serve him. + +There was one man who was truer to Henry than Henry had been to himself. +The haughty, defiant, austere grandee, brave soldier, sagacious +statesman, thrifty financier, against whom the poisoned arrows of +religious hatred, envious ambition, and petty court intrigue were daily +directed, who watched grimly over the exchequer confided to him, which +was daily growing fuller in despite of the cormorants who trembled at his +frown; hard worker, good hater, conscientious politician, who filled his +own coffers without dishonesty, and those of the state without tyranny; +unsociable, arrogant; pious, very avaricious, and inordinately vain, +Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, loved and respected Henry as no man +or woman loved and respected him. In truth, there was but one living +being for whom the Duke had greater reverence and affection than for the +King, and that was the Duke of Sully himself. + +At this moment he considered himself, as indeed he was, in full +possession of his sovereign's confidence. But he was alone in this +conviction. Those about the court, men like Epernon and his creatures, +believed the great financier on the brink of perdition. Henry, always +the loosest of talkers even in regard to his best friends, had declared, +on some temporary vexation in regard to the affair between Aiguillon and +Balagny, that he would deal with the Duke as with the late Marshal de +Biron, and make him smaller than he had ever made him great: goading him +on this occasion with importunities, almost amounting to commands, that +both he and his son should forthwith change their religion or expect +instant ruin. The blow was so severe that Sully shut himself up, refused +to see anyone, and talked of retiring for good to his estates. But he +knew, and Henry knew, how indispensable he was, and the anger of the +master was as shortlived as the despair of the minister. + +There was no living statesman for whom Henry had a more sincere respect +than for the Advocate of Holland. "His Majesty admires and greatly +extols your wisdom, which he judges necessary for the preservation of +our State; deeming you one of the rare and sage counsellors of the age." +It is true that this admiration was in part attributed to the singular +coincidence of Barneveld's views of policy with the King's own. Sully, +on his part, was a severe critic of that policy. He believed that better +terms might have been exacted from Spain in the late negotiations, and +strongly objected to the cavilling and equivocal language of the treaty. +Rude in pen as in speech, he expressed his mind very freely in his +conversation and correspondence with Henry in regard to leading +personages and great affairs, and made no secret of his opinions +to the States' ambassador. + +He showed his letters in which he had informed the King that he ought +never to have sanctioned the truce without better securities than +existed, and that the States would never have moved in any matter without +him. It would have been better to throw himself into a severe war than +to see the Republic perish. He further expressed the conviction that +Henry ought to have such authority over the Netherlands that they would +embrace blindly whatever counsel he chose to give them, even if they saw +in it their inevitable ruin; and this not so much from remembrance of +assistance rendered by him, but from the necessity in which they should +always feel of depending totally upon him. + +"You may judge, therefore," concluded Aerssens, "as to how much we can +build on such foundations as these. I have been amazed at these frank +communications, for in those letters he spares neither My Lords the +States, nor his Excellency Prince Maurice, nor yourself; giving his +judgment of each of you with far too much freedom and without sufficient +knowledge." + +Thus the alliance between the Netherlands and France, notwithstanding +occasional traces of caprice and flaws of personal jealousy, was on +the whole sincere, for it was founded on the surest foundation of +international friendship, the self-interest of each. Henry, although +boasting of having bought Paris with a mass, knew as well as his worst +enemy that in that bargain he had never purchased the confidence of the +ancient church, on whose bosom he had flung himself with so much dramatic +pomp. His noble position, as champion of religious toleration, was not +only unappreciated in an age in which each church and every sect +arrogated to itself a monopoly of the truth, but it was one in which +he did not himself sincerely believe. + +After all, he was still the chieftain of the Protestant Union, and, +although Eldest Son of the Church, was the bitter antagonist of the +League and the sworn foe to the House of Austria. He was walking through +pitfalls with a crowd of invisible but relentless foes dogging his every +footstep. In his household or without were daily visions of dagger and +bowl, and he felt himself marching to his doom. How could the man on +whom the heretic and rebellious Hollanders and the Protestant princes of +Germany relied as on their saviour escape the unutterable wrath and the +patient vengeance of a power that never forgave? + +In England the jealousy of the Republic and of France as co-guardian and +protector of the Republic was even greater than in France. Though placed +by circumstances in the position of ally to the Netherlands and enemy to +Spain, James hated the Netherlands and adored Spain. His first thought +on escaping the general destruction to which the Gunpowder Plot was to +have involved himself and family and all the principal personages of the +realm seems to have been to exculpate Spain from participation in the +crime. His next was to deliver a sermon to Parliament, exonerating the +Catholics and going out of his way to stigmatize the Puritans as +entertaining doctrines which should be punished with fire. As the +Puritans had certainly not been accused of complicity with Guy Fawkes +or Garnet, this portion of the discourse was at least superfluous. But +James loathed nothing so much as a Puritan. A Catholic at heart, be +would have been the warmest ally of the League had he only been permitted +to be Pope of Great Britain. He hated and feared a Jesuit, not for his +religious doctrines, for with these he sympathized, but for his political +creed. He liked not that either Roman Pontiff or British Presbyterian +should abridge his heaven-born prerogative. The doctrine of Papal +superiority to temporal sovereigns was as odious to him as Puritan +rebellion to the hierarchy of which he was the chief. Moreover, +in his hostility to both Papists and Presbyterians, there was much of +professional rivalry. Having been deprived by the accident of birth of +his true position as theological professor, he lost no opportunity of +turning his throne into a pulpit and his sceptre into a controversial +pen. + +Henry of France, who rarely concealed his contempt for Master Jacques, as +he called him, said to the English ambassador, on receiving from him one +of the King's books, and being asked what he thought of it--"It is not +the business of us kings to write, but to fight. Everybody should mind +his own business, but it is the vice of most men to wish to appear +learned in matters of which they are ignorant." + +The flatterers of James found their account in pandering to his +sacerdotal and royal vanity. "I have always believed," said the Lord +Chancellor, after hearing the King argue with and browbeat a Presbyterian +deputation, "that the high-priesthood and royalty ought to be united, but +I never witnessed the actual junction till now, after hearing the learned +discourse of your Majesty." Archbishop Whitgift, grovelling still lower, +declared his conviction that James, in the observations he had deigned to +make, had been directly inspired by the Holy Ghost. + +Nothing could be more illogical and incoherent with each other than his +theological and political opinions. He imagined himself a defender of +the Protestant faith, while hating Holland and fawning on the House of +Austria. + +In England he favoured Arminianism, because the Anglican Church +recognized for its head the temporal chief of the State. In Holland +he vehemently denounced the Arminians, indecently persecuting their +preachers and statesmen, who were contending for exactly the same +principle--the supremacy of State over Church. He sentenced Bartholomew +Legate to be burned alive in Smithfield as a blasphemous heretic, and did +his best to compel the States of Holland to take the life of Professor +Vorstius of Leyden. He persecuted the Presbyterians in England as +furiously as he defended them in Holland. He drove Bradford and Carver +into the New England wilderness, and applauded Gomarus and Walaeus and +the other famous leaders of the Presbyterian party in the Netherlands +with all his soul and strength. + +He united with the French king in negotiations for Netherland +independence, while denouncing the Provinces as guilty of criminal +rebellion against their lawful sovereign. + +"He pretends," said Jeannin, "to assist in bringing about the peace, and +nevertheless does his best openly to prevent it." + +Richardot declared that the firmness of the King of Spain proceeded +entirely from reliance on the promise of James that there should be no +acknowledgment in the treaty of the liberty of the States. Henry wrote +to Jeannin that he knew very well "what that was capable of, but that he +should not be kept awake by anything he could do." + +As a king he spent his reign--so much of it as could be spared from +gourmandizing, drunkenness, dalliance with handsome minions of his own +sex, and theological pursuits--in rescuing the Crown from dependence on +Parliament; in straining to the utmost the royal prerogative; in +substituting proclamations for statutes; in doing everything in his +power, in short, to smooth the path for his successor to the scaffold. +As father of a family he consecrated many years of his life to the +wondrous delusion of the Spanish marriages. + +The Gunpowder Plot seemed to have inspired him with an insane desire +for that alliance, and few things in history are more amazing than the +persistency with which he pursued the scheme, until the pursuit became +not only ridiculous, but impossible. + +With such a man, frivolous, pedantic, conceited, and licentious, the +earnest statesmen of Holland were forced into close alliance. It is +pathetic to see men like Barneveld and Hugo Grotius obliged, on great +occasions of state, to use the language of respect and affection to one +by whom they were hated, and whom they thoroughly despised. + +But turning away from France, it was in vain for them to look for kings +or men either among friends or foes. In Germany religious dissensions +were gradually ripening into open war, and it would be difficult to +imagine a more hopelessly incompetent ruler than the man who was +nominally chief of the Holy Roman Realm. Yet the distracted Rudolph was +quite as much an emperor as the chaos over which he was supposed to +preside was an empire. Perhaps the very worst polity ever devised by +human perverseness was the system under which the great German race was +then writhing and groaning. A mad world with a lunatic to govern it; +a democracy of many princes, little and big, fighting amongst each +other, and falling into daily changing combinations as some masterly or +mischievous hand whirled the kaleidoscope; drinking Rhenish by hogsheads, +and beer by the tun; robbing churches, dictating creeds to their +subjects, and breaking all the commandments themselves; a people at the +bottom dimly striving towards religious freedom and political life out of +abject social, ecclesiastical, and political serfdom, and perhaps even +then dumbly feeling within its veins, with that prophetic instinct which +never abandons great races, a far distant and magnificent Future of +national unity and Imperial splendour, the very reverse of the confusion +which was then the hideous Present; an Imperial family at top with many +heads and slender brains; a band of brothers and cousins wrangling, +intriguing, tripping up each others' heels, and unlucky Rudolph, in his +Hradschin, looking out of window over the peerless Prague, spread out in +its beauteous landscape of hill and dale, darkling forest, dizzy cliffs, +and rushing river, at his feet, feebly cursing the unhappy city for its +ingratitude to an invisible and impotent sovereign; his excellent brother +Matthias meanwhile marauding through the realms and taking one crown +after another from his poor bald head. + +It would be difficult to depict anything more precisely what an emperor +in those portentous times should not be. He collected works of art of +many kinds--pictures, statues, gems. He passed his days in his galleries +contemplating in solitary grandeur these treasures, or in his stables, +admiring a numerous stud of horses which he never drove or rode. +Ambassadors and ministers of state disguised themselves as grooms and +stable-boys to obtain accidental glimpses of a sovereign who rarely +granted audiences. His nights were passed in star-gazing with Tycho de +Brake, or with that illustrious Suabian whose name is one of the great +lights and treasures of the world. But it was not to study the laws of +planetary motion nor to fathom mysteries of divine harmony that the +monarch stood with Kepler in the observatory. The influence of countless +worlds upon the destiny of one who, by capricious accident, if accident +ever exists in history, had been entrusted with the destiny of so large a +portion of one little world; the horoscope, not of the Universe, but of +himself; such were the limited purposes with which the Kaiser looked upon +the constellations. + +For the Catholic Rudolph had received the Protestant Kepler, driven from +Tubingen because Lutheran doctors, knowing from Holy Writ that the sun +had stood still in Ajalon, had denounced his theory of planetary motion. +His mother had just escaped being burned as a witch, and the world owes +a debt of gratitude to the Emperor for protecting the astrologer, when +enlightened theologians might, perhaps, have hanged the astronomer. + +A red-faced, heavy fowled, bald-headed, somewhat goggle-eyed old +gentleman, Rudolph did his best to lead the life of a hermit, and escape +the cares of royalty. Timid by temperament, yet liable to fits of +uncontrollable anger, he broke his furniture to pieces when irritated, +and threw dishes that displeased him in his butler's face, but left +affairs of state mainly to his valet, who earned many a penny by selling +the Imperial signature. + +He had just signed the famous "Majestatsbrief," by which he granted vast +privileges to the Protestants of Bohemia, and had bitten the pen to +pieces in a paroxysm of anger, after dimly comprehending the extent of +the concessions which he had made. + +There were hundreds of sovereign states over all of which floated the +shadowy and impalpable authority of an Imperial crown scarcely fixed +on the head of any one of the rival brethren and cousins; there was a +confederation of Protestants, with the keen-sighted and ambitious +Christian of Anhalt acting as its chief, and dreaming of the Bohemian +crown; there was the just-born Catholic League, with the calm, far- +seeing, and egotistical rather than self-seeking Maximilian at its head; +each combination extending over the whole country, stamped with +imbecility of action from its birth, and perverted and hampered by +inevitable jealousies. In addition to all these furrows ploughed by +the very genius of discord throughout the unhappy land was the wild and +secret intrigue with which Leopold, Archduke and Bishop, dreaming also +of the crown of Wenzel, was about to tear its surface as deeply as he +dared. + +Thus constituted were the leading powers of Europe in the earlier part of +1609--the year in which a peaceful period seemed to have begun. To those +who saw the entangled interests of individuals, and the conflict of +theological dogmas and religious and political intrigue which furnished +so much material out of which wide-reaching schemes of personal ambition +could be spun, it must have been obvious that the interval of truce was +necessarily but a brief interlude between two tragedies. + +It seemed the very mockery of Fate that, almost at the very instant when +after two years' painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal +for universal discord should be sounded. One day in the early summer of +1609, Henry IV. came to the Royal Arsenal, the residence of Sully, +accompanied by Zamet and another of his intimate companions. He asked +for the Duke and was told that he was busy in his study. "Of course," +said the King, turning to his followers, "I dare say you expected to be +told that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber's. +But who works like Sully? Tell him," he said, "to come to the balcony +in his garden, where he and I are not accustomed to be silent." + +As soon as Sully appeared, the King observed: "Well; here the Duke of +Cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir." + +It was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the +world. + +It was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps +into which Christendom was divided. The Duchies of Cleve, Berg, and +Julich, and the Counties and Lordships of Mark, Ravensberg, and +Ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged +between Catholicism and Protestantism, and between France, the United +Provinces, Belgium, and Germany. Should it fall into Catholic hands, the +Netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all +sides, with the House of Austria governing the Rhine, the Meuse, and the +Scheldt. It was vital to them to exclude the Empire from the great +historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of +jealous powers and rival creeds. + +Should it fall into heretic hands, the States were vastly strengthened, +the Archduke Albert isolated and cut off from the protection of Spain and +of the Empire. France, although Catholic, was the ally of Holland and +the secret but well known enemy of the House of Austria. It was +inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that +wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find +himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of Europe. + +In this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides, +Maximilian de Bethune and John of Barneveld. The conference between the +King and Sully and between both and Francis Aerssens, ambassador of the +States, were of almost daily occurrence. The minute details given in the +adroit diplomatist's correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme +deference paid by Henry to the opinion of Holland's Advocate and the +confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the +Republic. + +All the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies. + +It was only strange that an event which could not be long deferred and +the consequences of which were soon to be so grave, the death of the Duke +of Cleve, should at last burst like a bomb-shell on the council tables of +the sovereigns and statesmen of Europe. That mischievous madman John +William died childless in the spring of 1609. His sister Sibylla, an +ancient and malignant spinster, had governed him and his possessions +except in his lucid intervals. The mass of the population over which he +ruled being Protestant, while the reigning family and the chief nobles +were of the ancient faith, it was natural that the Catholic party under, +the lead of Maximilian of Bavaria should deem it all-important that there +should be direct issue to that family. Otherwise the inheritance on his +death would probably pass to Protestant princes. + +The first wife provided for him was a beautiful princess; Jacobea of +Baden. The Pope blessed the nuptials, and sent the bride a golden rose, +but the union was sterile and unhappy. The Duke, who was in the habit +of careering through his palace in full armour, slashing at and wounding +anyone that came in his way, was at last locked up. The hapless Jacobea, +accused by Sibylla of witchcraft and other crimes possible and +impossible, was thrown into prison. Two years long the devilish +malignity of the sister-in-law was exercised upon her victim, who, as it +is related, was not allowed natural sleep during all that period, being +at every hour awakened by command of Sibylla. At last the Duchess was +strangled in prison. A new wife was at once provided for the lunatic, +Antonia of Lorraine. The two remained childless, and Sibylla at the age +of forty-nine took to herself a husband, the Margrave of Burgau, of the +House of Austria, the humble birth of whose mother, however, did not +allow him the rank of Archduke. Her efforts thus to provide Catholic +heirs to the rich domains of Clove proved as fruitless as her previous +attempts. + +And now Duke John William had died, and the representatives of his three +dead sisters, and the living Sibylla were left to fight for the duchies. + +It would be both cruel and superfluous to inflict on the reader a +historical statement of the manner in which these six small provinces +were to be united into a single state. It would be an equally sterile +task to retrace the legal arguments by which the various parties prepared +themselves to vindicate their claims, each pretender more triumphantly +than the other. The naked facts alone retain vital interest, and of +these facts the prominent one was the assertion of the Emperor that the +duchies, constituting a fief masculine, could descend to none of the +pretenders, but were at his disposal as sovereign of Germany. + +On the other hand nearly all the important princes of that country sent +their agents into the duchies to look after the interests real or +imaginary which they claimed, + +There were but four candidates who in reality could be considered serious +ones. + +Mary Eleanor, eldest sister of the Duke, had been married in the lifetime +of their father to Albert Frederic of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia. To +the children of this marriage was reserved the succession of the whole +property in case of the masculine line becoming extinct. Two years +afterwards the second sister, Anne, was married to Duke Philip Lewis, +Count-Palatine of Neuburg; the children of which marriage stood next +in succession to those of the eldest sister, should that become +extinguished. Four years later the third sister, Magdalen, espoused +the Duke John, Count-Palatine of Deux-Ponts; who, like Neuburg, made +resignation of rights of succession in favour of the descendants of the +Brandenburg marriage. The marriage of the youngest sister, Sibylla, with +the Margrave of Burgau has been already mentioned. It does not appear +that her brother, whose lunatic condition hardly permitted him to assure +her the dowry which had been the price of renunciation in the case of her +three elder sisters, had obtained that renunciation from her. + +The claims of the childless Sibylla as well as those of the Deux-Ponts +branch were not destined to be taken into serious consideration. + +The real competitors were the Emperor on the one side and the Elector of +Brandenburg and the Count-Palatine of Neuburg on the other. + +It is not necessary to my purpose to say a single word as to the legal +and historical rights of the controversy. Volumes upon volumes of +forgotten lore might be consulted, and they would afford exactly as much +refreshing nutriment as would the heaps of erudition hardly ten years +old, and yet as antiquated as the title-deeds of the Pharaohs, concerning +the claims to the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. The fortunate house of +Brandenburg may have been right or wrong in both disputes. It is certain +that it did not lack a more potent factor in settling the political +problems of the world in the one case any more than in the other. + +But on the occasion with which we are occupied it was not on the might of +his own right hand that the Elector of Brandenburg relied. Moreover, he +was dilatory in appealing to the two great powers on whose friendship he +must depend for the establishment of his claims: the United Republic and +the King of France. James of England was on the whole inclined to +believe in the rights of Brandenburg. His ambassador, however, with more +prophetic vision than perhaps the King ever dreamt--of, expressed a fear +lest Brandenburg should grow too great and one day come to the Imperial +crown. + +The States openly favoured the Elector. Henry as at first disposed +towards Neuburg, but at his request Barneveld furnished a paper on the +subject, by which the King seems to have been entirely converted to the +pretensions of Brandenburg. + +But the solution of the question had but little to do with the legal +claim of any man. It was instinctively felt throughout Christendom that +the great duel between the ancient church and the spirit of the +Reformation was now to be renewed upon that narrow, debateable spot. + +The Emperor at once proclaimed his right to arbitrate on the succession +and to hold the territory until decision should be made; that is to say, +till the Greek Kalends. His familiar and most tricksy spirit, Bishop- +Archduke Leopold, played at once on his fears and his resentments, +against the ever encroaching, ever menacing, Protestantism of Germany, +with which he had just sealed a compact so bitterly detested. + +That bold and bustling prelate, brother of the Queen of Spain and of +Ferdinand of Styria, took post from Prague in the middle of July. +Accompanied by a certain canon of the Church and disguised as his +servant, he arrived after a rapid journey before the gates of Julich, +chief city and fortress of the duchies. The governor of the place, +Nestelraed, inclined like most of the functionaries throughout the +duchies to the Catholic cause, was delighted to recognize under the +livery of the lackey the cousin and representative of the Emperor. +Leopold, who had brought but five men with him, had conquered his capital +at a blow. For while thus comfortably established as temporary governor +of the duchies he designed through the fears or folly of Rudolph to +become their sovereign lord. Strengthened by such an acquisition and +reckoning on continued assistance in men and money from Spain and the +Catholic League, he meant to sweep back to the rescue of the perishing +Rudolph, smite the Protestants of Bohemia, and achieve his appointment to +the crown of that kingdom. + +The Spanish ambassador at Prague had furnished him with a handsome sum +of money for the expenses of his journey and preliminary enterprise. It +should go hard but funds should be forthcoming to support him throughout +this audacious scheme. The champion of the Church, the sovereign prince +of important provinces, the possession of which ensured conclusive +triumph to the House of Austria and to Rome--who should oppose him in +his path to Empire? Certainly not the moody Rudolph, the slippery and +unstable Matthias, the fanatic and Jesuit-ridden Ferdinand. + +"Leopold in Julich," said Henry's agent in Germany, "is a ferret in a +rabbit warren." + +But early in the spring and before the arrival of Leopold, the two +pretenders, John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and Philip Lewis, +Palatine of Neuburg, had made an arrangement. By the earnest advice +of Barneveld in the name of the States-General and as the result of a +general council of many Protestant princes of Germany, it had been +settled that those two should together provisionally hold and administer +the duchies until the principal affair could be amicably settled. + +The possessory princes were accordingly established in Dusseldorf with +the consent of the provincial estates, in which place those bodies were +wont to assemble. + +Here then was Spain in the person of Leopold quietly perched in the chief +citadel of the country, while Protestantism in the shape of the +possessory princes stood menacingly in the capital. + +Hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years +the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications +been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile +forces were once more face to face. + +Leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to +the States-General, expressing the hope that they would submit to his +arrangements until the Imperial decision should be made. + +The States, through the pen and brain of Barneveld, replied that they +had already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were +surprised that the Bishop-Archduke should oppose them. They expressed +the hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the +Treaty of Dortmund. "My Lords the States-General," said the Advocate, +"will protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and +are assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same. +They trust that his Imperial Highness will not allow matters, to proceed +to extremities." + +This was language not to be mistaken. It was plain that the Republic did +not intend the Emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself, +nor to permit Spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating +triumph by a petty intrigue. + +While in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a +labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in +the hand of Barneveld, it was not to him nor to My Lords the States- +General that the various parties to the impending conflict applied in the +first resort. + +Mankind were not yet sufficiently used to this young republic, intruding +herself among the family of kings, to defer at once to an authority which +they could not but feel. + +Moreover, Henry of France was universally looked to both by friends and +foes as the probable arbiter or chief champion in the great debate. He +had originally been inclined to favour Neuberg, chiefly, so Aerssens +thought, on account of his political weakness. The States-General on the +other hand were firmly disposed for Brandenburg from the first, not only +as a strenuous supporter of the Reformation and an ancient ally of their +own always interested in their safety, but because the establishment of +the Elector on the Rhine would roll back the Empire beyond that river. +As Aerssens expressed it, they would have the Empire for a frontier, and +have no longer reason to fear the Rhine. + +The King, after the representations of the States, saw good ground to +change his opinion and; becoming convinced that the Palatine had long +been coquetting with the Austrian party, soon made no secret of his +preference for Brandenburg. Subsequently Neuburg and Brandenburg fell +into a violent quarrel notwithstanding an arrangement that the Palatine +should marry the daughter of the Elector. In the heat of discussion +Brandenburg on one occasion is said to have given his intended son-in-law +a box on the ear! an argument 'ad hominem' which seems to have had the +effect of sending the Palatine into the bosom of the ancient church and +causing him to rely thenceforth upon the assistance of the League. +Meantime, however, the Condominium settled by the Treaty of Dortmund +continued in force; the third brother of Brandenburg and the eldest son +of Neuburg sharing possession and authority at Dusseldorf until a final +decision could be made. + +A flock of diplomatists, professional or volunteers, openly accredited or +secret, were now flying busily about through the troubled atmosphere, +indicating the coming storm in which they revelled. The keen-sighted, +subtle, but dangerously intriguing ambassador of the Republic, Francis +Aerssens, had his hundred eyes at all the keyholes in Paris, that centre +of ceaseless combination and conspiracy, and was besides in almost daily +confidential intercourse with the King. Most patiently and minutely he +kept the Advocate informed, almost from hour to hour, of every web that +was spun, every conversation public or whispered in which important +affairs were treated anywhere and by anybody. He was all-sufficient as a +spy and intelligencer, although not entirely trustworthy as a counsellor. +Still no man on the whole could scan the present or forecast the future +more accurately than he was able to do from his advantageous position and +his long experience of affairs. + +There was much general jealousy between the States and the despotic king, +who loved to be called the father of the Republic and to treat the +Hollanders as his deeply obliged and very ungrateful and miserly little +children. The India trade was a sore subject, Henry having throughout +the negotiations sought to force or wheedle the States into renouncing +that commerce at the command of Spain, because he wished to help himself +to it afterwards, and being now in the habit of secretly receiving Isaac +Le Maire and other Dutch leaders in that lucrative monopoly, who lay +disguised in Paris and in the house of Zamet--but not concealed from +Aerssens, who pledged himself to break, the neck of their enterprise--and +were planning with the King a French East India Company in opposition to +that of the Netherlands. + +On the whole, however, despite these commercial intrigues which Barneveld +through the aid of Aerssens was enabled to baffle, there was much +cordiality and honest friendship between the two countries. Henry, far +from concealing his political affection for the Republic, was desirous of +receiving a special embassy of congratulation and gratitude from the +States on conclusion of the truce; not being satisfied with the warm +expressions of respect and attachment conveyed through the ordinary +diplomatic channel. + +"He wishes," wrote Aerssens to the Advocate, "a public demonstration--in +order to show on a theatre to all Christendom the regard and deference of +My Lords the States for his Majesty." The Ambassador suggested that +Cornelis van der Myle, son-in-law of Barneveld, soon to be named first +envoy for Holland to the Venetian republic, might be selected as chief of +such special embassy. + +"Without the instructions you gave me," wrote Aerssens, "Neuburg might +have gained his cause in this court. Brandenburg is doing himself much +injury by not soliciting the King." + +"Much deference will be paid to your judgment," added the envoy, "if you +see fit to send it to his Majesty." + +Meantime, although the agent of Neuburg was busily dinning in Henry's +ears the claims of the Palatine, and even urging old promises which, as +he pretended, had been made, thanks to Barneveld, he took little by his +importunity, notwithstanding that in the opinion both of Barneveld and +Villeroy his claim 'stricti-juris' was the best. But it was policy and +religious interests, not the strict letter of the law, that were likely +to prevail. Henry, while loudly asserting that he would oppose any +usurpation on the part of the Emperor or any one else against the +Condominium, privately renewed to the States assurances of his intention +to support ultimately the claims of Brandenburg, and notified them to +hold the two regiments of French infantry, which by convention they still +kept at his expense in their service, to be ready at a moment's warning +for the great enterprise which he was already planning. "You would do +well perhaps," wrote Aerssens to Barneveld, "to set forth the various +interests in regard to this succession, and of the different relations of +the claimants towards our commonwealth; but in such sort nevertheless and +so dexterously that the King may be able to understand your desires, and +on the other hand may see the respect you bear him in appearing to defer +to his choice." + +Neuburg, having always neglected the States and made advances to Archduke +Albert, and being openly preferred over Brandenburg by the Austrians, who +had however no intention of eventually tolerating either, could make but +small headway at court, notwithstanding Henry's indignation that +Brandenburg had not yet made the slightest demand upon him for +assistance. + +The Elector had keenly solicited the aid of the states, who were bound to +him by ancient contract on this subject, but had manifested wonderful +indifference or suspicion in regard to France. "These nonchalant +Germans," said Henry on more than one occasion, "do nothing but sleep +or drink." + +It was supposed that the memory of Metz might haunt the imagination of +the Elector. That priceless citadel, fraudulently extorted by Henry II. +as a forfeit for assistance to the Elector of Saxony three quarters of a +century before, gave solemn warning to Brandenburg of what might be +exacted by a greater Henry, should success be due to his protection. +It was also thought that he had too many dangers about him at home, the +Poles especially, much stirred up by emissaries from Rome, making many +troublesome demonstrations against the Duchy of Prussia. + +It was nearly midsummer before a certain Baron Donals arrived as emissary +of the Elector. He brought with him, many documents in support of the +Brandenburg claims, and was charged with excuses for the dilatoriness of +his master. Much stress was laid of course on the renunciation made by +Neuburg at the tithe of his marriage, and Henry was urged to grant his +protection to the Elector in his good rights. But thus far there were +few signs of any vigorous resolution for active measures in an affair +which could scarcely fail to lead to war. + +"I believe," said Henry to the States ambassador, "that the right of +Brandenburg is indubitable, and it is better for you and for me that he +should be the man rather than Neuburg, who has always sought assistance +from the House of Austria. But he is too lazy in demanding possession. +It is the fault of the doctors by whom he is guided. This delay works +in favour of the Emperor, whose course however is less governed by any +determination of his own than by the irresolution of the princes." + +Then changing the conversation, Henry asked the Ambassador whether the +daughter of de Maldere, a leading statesman of Zealand, was married or +of age to be married, and if she was rich; adding that they must make a +match between her and Barneveld's second son, then a young gentleman in +the King's service, and very much liked by him. + +Two months later a regularly accredited envoy, Belin by name, arrived +from the Elector. His instructions were general. He was to thank the +King for his declarations in favour of the possessory princes, and +against all usurpation on the part of the Spanish party. Should the +religious cord be touched, he was to give assurances that no change would +be made in this regard. He was charged with loads of fine presents in +yellow amber, such as ewers, basins, tables, cups, chessboards, for the +King and Queen, the Dauphin, the Chancellor, Villeroy, Sully, Bouillon, +and other eminent personages. Beyond the distribution of these works of +art and the exchange of a few diplomatic commonplaces, nothing serious in +the way of warlike business was transacted, and Henry was a few weeks +later much amused by receiving a letter from the possessory princes +coolly thrown into the post-office, and addressed like an ordinary letter +to a private person, in which he was requested to advance them a loan +of 400,000 crowns. There was a great laugh at court at a demand made +like a bill of exchange at sight upon his Majesty as if he had been a +banker, especially as there happened to be no funds of the drawers in his +hands. It was thought that a proper regard for the King's quality and +the amount of the sum demanded required that the letter should be brought +at least by an express messenger, and Henry was both diverted and +indignant at these proceedings, at the months long delay before the +princes had thought proper to make application for his protection, and +then for this cool demand for alms on a large scale as a proper beginning +of their enterprise. + +Such was the languid and extremely nonchalant manner in which the early +preparations for a conflict which seemed likely to set Europe in a blaze, +and of which possibly few living men might witness the termination, were +set on foot by those most interested in the immediate question. + +Chessboards in yellow amber and a post-office order for 400,000 crowns +could not go far in settling the question of the duchies in which the +great problem dividing Christendom as by an abyss was involved. + +Meantime, while such were the diplomatic beginnings of the possessory +princes, the League was leaving no stone unturned to awaken Henry to a +sense of his true duty to the Church of which he was Eldest Son. + +Don Pedro de Toledo's mission in regard to the Spanish marriages had +failed because Henry had spurned the condition which was unequivocally +attached to them on the part of Spain, the king's renunciation of his +alliance with the Dutch Republic, which then seemed an equivalent to its +ruin. But the treaty of truce and half-independence had been signed at +last by the States and their ancient master, and the English and French +negotiators had taken their departure, each receiving as a present for +concluding the convention 20,000 livres from the Archdukes, and 30,000 +from the States-General. Henry, returning one summer's morning from the +chase and holding the Count of Soissons by one hand and Ambassador +Aerssens by the other, told them he had just received letters from Spain +by which he learned that people were marvellously rejoiced at the +conclusion of the truce. Many had regretted that its conditions were so +disadvantageous and so little honourable to the grandeur and dignity of +Spain, but to these it was replied that there were strong reasons why +Spain should consent to peace on these terms rather than not have it at +all. During the twelve years to come the King could repair his disasters +and accumulate mountains of money in order to finish the war by the +subjugation of the Provinces by force of gold. + +Soissons here interrupted the King by saying that the States on their +part would finish it by force of iron. + +Aerssens, like an accomplished courtier, replied they would finish it by +means of his Majesty's friendship. + +The King continued by observing that the clear-sighted in Spain laughed +at these rodomontades, knowing well that it was pure exhaustion that had +compelled the King to such extremities. "I leave you to judge," said +Henry, "whether he is likely to have any courage at forty-five years of +age, having none now at thirty-two. Princes show what they have in them +of generosity and valour at the age of twenty-five or never." He said +that orders had been sent from Spain to disband all troops in the +obedient Netherlands except Spaniards and Italians, telling the Archdukes +that they must raise the money out of the country to content them. They +must pay for a war made for their benefit, said Philip. As for him he +would not furnish one maravedi. + +Aerssens asked if the Archdukes would disband their troops so long as the +affair of Cleve remained unsettled. "You are very lucky," replied the +King, "that Europe is governed by such princes as you wot of. The King +of Spain thinks of nothing but tranquillity. The Archdukes will never +move except on compulsion. The Emperor, whom every one is so much afraid +of in this matter, is in such plight that one of these days, and before +long, he will be stripped of all his possessions. I have news that the +Bohemians are ready to expel him." + +It was true enough that Rudolph hardly seemed a formidable personage. +The Utraquists and Bohemian Brothers, making up nearly the whole +population of the country, were just extorting religious liberty from +their unlucky master in his very palace and at the point of the knife. +The envoy of Matthias was in Paris demanding recognition of his master +as King of Hungary, and Henry did not suspect the wonderful schemes of +Leopold, the ferret in the rabbit warren of the duchies, to come to the +succour of his cousin and to get himself appointed his successor and +guardian. + +Nevertheless, the Emperor's name had been used to protest solemnly +against the entrance into Dusseldorf of the Margrave Ernest of +Brandenburg and Palatine Wolfgang William of Neuburg, representatives +respectively of their brother and father. + +The induction was nevertheless solemnly made by the Elector-Palatine +and the Landgrave of Hesse, and joint possession solemnly taken by +Brandenburg and Neuburg in the teeth of the protest, and expressly in +order to cut short the dilatory schemes and the artifices of the Imperial +court. + +Henry at once sent a corps of observation consisting of 1500 cavalry to +the Luxemburg frontier by way of Toul, Mezieres, Verdun, and Metz, to +guard against movements by the disbanded troops of the Archdukes, and +against any active demonstration against the possessory princes on the +part of the Emperor. + +The 'Condominium' was formally established, and Henry stood before the +world as its protector threatening any power that should attempt +usurpation. He sent his agent Vidomacq to the Landgrave of Hesse with +instructions to do his utmost to confirm the princes of the Union in +organized resistance to the schemes of Spain, and to prevent any +interference with the Condominium. + +He wrote letters to the Archdukes and to the Elector of Cologne, +sternly notifying them that he would permit no assault upon the princes, +and meant to protect them in their rights. He sent one of his most +experienced diplomatists, de Boississe, formerly ambassador in England, +to reside for a year or more in the duchies as special representative of +France, and directed him on his way thither to consult especially with +Barneveld and the States-General as to the proper means of carrying out +their joint policy either by diplomacy or, if need should be, by their +united arms. + +Troops began at once to move towards the frontier to counteract the plans +of the Emperor's council and the secret levies made by Duchess Sibylla's +husband, the Margrave of Burgau. The King himself was perpetually at +Monceaux watching the movements of his cavalry towards the Luxemburg +frontier, and determined to protect the princes in their possession until +some definite decision as to the sovereignty of the duchies should be +made. + +Meantime great pressure was put upon him by the opposite party. The Pope +did his best through the Nuncius at Paris directly, and through agents at +Prague, Brussels, and Madrid indirectly, to awaken the King to a sense of +the enormity of his conduct. + +Being a Catholic prince, it was urged, he had no right to assist +heretics. It was an action entirely contrary to his duty as a Christian +and of his reputation as Eldest Son of the Church. Even if the right +were on the side of the princes, his Majesty would do better to strip +them of it and to clothe himself with it than to suffer the Catholic +faith and religion to receive such notable detriment in an affair likely +to have such important consequences. + +Such was some of the advice given by the Pontiff. The suggestions were +subtle, for they were directed to Henry's self-interest both as champion +of the ancient church and as a possible sovereign of the very territories +in dispute. They were also likely, and were artfully so intended, to +excite suspicion of Henry's designs in the breasts of the Protestants +generally and of the possessory princes especially. Allusions indeed to +the rectification of the French border in Henry II.'s time at the expense +of Lorraine were very frequent. They probably accounted for much of the +apparent supineness and want of respect for the King of which he +complained every day and with so much bitterness. + +The Pope's insinuations, however, failed to alarm him, for he had made up +his mind as to the great business of what might remain to him of life; to +humble the House of Austria and in doing so to uphold the Dutch Republic +on which he relied for his most efficient support. The situation was a +false one viewed from the traditional maxims which governed Europe. How +could the Eldest Son of the Church and the chief of an unlimited monarchy +make common cause with heretics and republicans against Spain and Rome? +That the position was as dangerous as it was illogical, there could be +but little doubt. But there was a similarity of opinion between the King +and the political chief of the Republic on the great principle which was +to illume the distant future but which had hardly then dawned upon the +present; the principle of religious equality. As he protected +Protestants in France so he meant to protect Catholics in the duchies. +Apostate as he was from the Reformed Church as he had already been from +the Catholic, he had at least risen above the paltry and insolent maxim +of the princely Protestantism of Germany: "Cujus regio ejus religio." + +While refusing to tremble before the wrath of Rome or to incline his ear +to its honeyed suggestions, he sent Cardinal Joyeuse with a special +mission to explain to the Pope that while the interests of France would +not permit him to allow the Spaniard's obtaining possession of provinces +so near to her, he should take care that the Church received no detriment +and that he should insist as a price of the succour he intended for the +possessory princes that they should give ample guarantees for the liberty +of Catholic worship. + +There was no doubt in the mind either of Henry or of Barneveld that the +secret blows attempted by Spain at the princes were in reality aimed at +the Republic and at himself as her ally. + +While the Nuncius was making these exhortations in Paris, his colleague +from Spain was authorized to propound a scheme of settlement which did +not seem deficient in humour. At any rate Henry was much diverted with +the suggestion, which was nothing less than that the decision as to the +succession to the duchies should be left to a board of arbitration +consisting of the King of Spain, the Emperor, and the King of France. +As Henry would thus be painfully placed by himself in a hopeless +minority, the only result of the scheme would be to compel him to +sanction a decision sure to be directly the reverse of his own resolve. +He was hardly such a schoolboy in politics as to listen to the proposal +except to laugh at it. + +Meantime arrived from Julich, without much parade, a quiet but somewhat +pompous gentleman named Teynagel. He had formerly belonged to the +Reformed religion, but finding it more to his taste or advantage to +become privy councillor of the Emperor, he had returned to the ancient +church. He was one of the five who had accompanied the Archduke Leopold +to Julich. + +That prompt undertaking having thus far succeeded so well, the warlike +bishop had now despatched Teynagel on a roving diplomatic mission. +Ostensibly he came to persuade Henry that, by the usages and laws of the +Empire, fiefs left vacant for want of heirs male were at the disposal of +the Emperor. He expressed the hope therefore of obtaining the King's +approval of Leopold's position in Julich as temporary vicegerent of his +sovereign and cousin. The real motive of his mission, however, was +privately to ascertain whether Henry was really ready to go to war for +the protection of the possessory princes, and then, to proceed to Spain. +It required an astute politician, however, to sound all the shoals, +quicksands, and miseries through which the French government was then +steering, and to comprehend with accuracy the somewhat varying humours +of the monarch and the secret schemes of the ministers who immediately +surrounded him. + +People at court laughed at Teynagel and his mission, and Henry treated +him as a crackbrained adventurer. He announced himself as envoy of the +Emperor, although he had instructions from Leopold only. He had +interviews with the Chancellor and with Villeroy, and told them that +Rudolf claimed the right of judge between the various pretenders to the +duchies. The King would not be pleased, he observed, if the King of +Great Britain should constitute himself arbiter among claimants that +might make their appearance for the crown of France; but Henry had set +himself up as umpire without being asked by any one to act in that +capacity among the princes of Germany. The Emperor, on the contrary, +had been appealed to by the Duke of Nevers, the Elector of Saxony, the +Margrave of Burgau, and other liege subjects of the Imperial crown as a +matter of course and of right. This policy of the King, if persisted in, +said Teynagel, must lead to war. Henry might begin such a war, but he +would be obliged to bequeath it to the Dauphin. He should remember that +France had always been unlucky when waging war with the Empire and with +the house of Austria.' + +The Chancellor and Villeroy, although in their hearts not much in love +with Henry's course, answered the emissary with arrogance equal to his +own that their king could finish the war as well as begin it, that he +confided in his strength and the justice of his cause, and that he knew +very well and esteemed very little the combined forces of Spain and the +Empire. They added that France was bound by the treaty of Vervins to +protect the princes, but they offered no proof of that rather startling +proposition. + +Meantime Teynagel was busy in demonstrating that the princes of Germany +were in reality much more afraid of Henry than of the Emperor. His +military movements and deep designs excited more suspicion throughout +that country and all Europe than the quiet journey of Leopold and five +friends by post to Julich. + +He had come provided with copies of the King's private letters to the +princes, and seemed fully instructed as to his most secret thoughts. +For this convenient information he was supposed to be indebted to the +revelations of Father Cotton, who was then in disgrace; having been +detected in transmitting to the General of Jesuits Henry's most sacred +confidences and confessions as to his political designs. + +Fortified with this private intelligence, and having been advised by +Father Cotton to carry matters with a high hand in order to inspire the +French court with a wholesome awe, he talked boldly about the legitimate +functions of the Emperor. To interfere with them, he assured the +ministers, would lead to a long and bloody war, as neither the King nor +the Archduke Albert would permit the Emperor to be trampled upon. + +Peter Pecquius, the crafty and experienced agent of the Archduke at +Paris, gave the bouncing envoy more judicious advice, however, than that +of the Jesuit, assuring him that he would spoil his whole case should he +attempt to hold such language to the King. + +He was admitted to an audience of Henry at Monceaux, but found him +prepared to show his teeth as Aerssens had predicted. He treated +Teynagel as a mere madcap and, adventurer who had no right to be received +as a public minister at all, and cut short his rodomontades by assuring +him that his mind was fully made up to protect the possessory princes. +Jeannin was present at the interview, although, as Aerssens well +observed, the King required no pedagogue on such an occasion? Teynagel +soon afterwards departed malcontent to Spain, having taken little by his +abnormal legation to Henry, and being destined to find at the court of +Philip as urgent demands on that monarch for assistance to the League +as he was to make for Leopold and the House of Austria. + +For the League, hardly yet thoroughly organized under the leadership of +Maximilian of Bavaria, was rather a Catholic corrival than cordial ally +of the Imperial house. It was universally suspected that Henry meant to +destroy and discrown the Habsburgs, and it lay not in the schemes of +Maximilian to suffer the whole Catholic policy to be bound to the +fortunes of that one family. + +Whether or not Henry meant to commit the anachronism and blunder of +reproducing the part of Charlemagne might be doubtful. The supposed +design of Maximilian to renew the glories of the House of Wittelsbach was +equally vague. It is certain, however, that a belief in such ambitious +schemes on the part of both had been insinuated into the ears of Rudolf, +and had sunk deeply into his unsettled mind. + +Scarcely had Teynagel departed than the ancient President Richardot +appeared upon the scene. "The mischievous old monkey," as he had +irreverently been characterized during the Truce negotiations, "who +showed his tail the higher he climbed," was now trembling at the thought +that all the good work he had been so laboriously accomplishing during +the past two years should be annihilated. The Archdukes, his masters, +being sincerely bent on peace, had deputed him to Henry, who, as they +believed, was determined to rekindle war. As frequently happens in such +cases, they were prepared to smooth over the rough and almost impassable +path to a cordial understanding by comfortable and cheap commonplaces +concerning the blessings of peace, and to offer friendly compromises by +which they might secure the prizes of war without the troubles and +dangers of making it. + +They had been solemnly notified by Henry that he would go to war +rather than permit the House of Austria to acquire the succession to the +duchies. They now sent Richardot to say that neither the Archdukes nor +the King of Spain would interfere in the matter, and that they hoped the +King of France would not prevent the Emperor from exercising his rightful +functions of judge. + +Henry, who knew that Don Baltasar de Cuniga, Spanish ambassador at the +Imperial court, had furnished Leopold, the Emperor's cousin, with 50,000 +crowns to defray his first expenses in the Julich expedition, considered +that the veteran politician had come to perform a school boy's task. +He was more than ever convinced by this mission of Richardot that the +Spaniards had organized the whole scheme, and he was likely only to smile +at any propositions the President might make. + +At the beginning of his interview, in which the King was quite alone, +Richardot asked if he would agree to maintain neutrality like the King of +Spain and the Archdukes, and allow the princes to settle their business +with the Emperor. + +"No," said the King. + +He then asked if Henry would assist them in their wrong. + +"No," said the King. + +He then asked if the King thought that the princes had justice on their +side, and whether, if the contrary were shown, he would change his +policy? + +Henry replied that the Emperor could not be both judge and party in the +suit and that the King of Spain was plotting to usurp the provinces +through the instrumentality of his brother-in-law Leopold and under the +name of the Emperor. He would not suffer it, he said. + +"Then there will be a general war," replied Richardot, since you are +determined to assist these princes." + +"Be it so," said the King. + +"You are right," said the President, "for you are a great and puissant +monarch, having all the advantages that could be desired, and in case of +rupture I fear that all this immense power will be poured out over us who +are but little princes." + +"Cause Leopold to retire then and leave the princes in their right," was +the reply. "You will then have nothing to fear. Are you not very +unhappy to live under those poor weak archdukes? Don't you foresee that +as soon as they die you will lose all the little you have acquired in the +obedient Netherlands during the last fifty years?" + +The President had nothing to reply to this save that he had never +approved of Leopold's expedition, and that when Spaniards make mistakes +they always had recourse to their servants to repair their faults. He +had accepted this mission inconsiderately, he said, inspired by a hope to +conjure the rising storms mingled with fears as to the result which were +now justified. He regretted having come, he said. + +The King shrugged his shoulders. + +Richardot then suggested that Leopold might be recognized in Julich, and +the princes at Dusseldorf, or that all parties might retire until the +Emperor should give his decision. + +All these combinations were flatly refused by the King, who swore that no +one of the House of Austria should ever perch in any part of those +provinces. If Leopold did not withdraw at once, war was inevitable. + +He declared that he would break up everything and dare everything, +whether the possessory princes formally applied to him or not. He would +not see his friends oppressed nor allow the Spaniard by this usurpation +to put his foot on the throat of the States-General, for it was against +them that this whole scheme was directed. + +To the President's complaints that the States-General had been moving +troops in Gelderland, Henry replied at once that it was done by his +command, and that they were his troops. + +With this answer Richardot was fain to retire crestfallen, mortified, and +unhappy. He expressed repentance and astonishment at the result, and +protested that those peoples were happy whose princes understood affairs. +His princes were good, he said, but did not give themselves the trouble +to learn their business. + +Richardot then took his departure from Paris, and very soon afterwards +from the world. He died at Arras early in September, as many thought of +chagrin at the ill success of his mission, while others ascribed it to a +surfeit of melons and peaches. + +"Senectus edam maorbus est," said Aerssens with Seneca. + +Henry said he could not sufficiently wonder at these last proceedings +at his court, of a man he had deemed capable and sagacious, but who had +been committing an irreparable blunder. He had never known two such +impertinent ambassadors as Don Pedro de Toledo and Richardot on this +occasion. The one had been entirely ignorant of the object of his +mission; the other had shown a vain presumption in thinking he could +drive him from his fixed purpose by a flood of words. He had accordingly +answered him on the spot without consulting his council, at which poor +Richardot had been much amazed. + +And now another envoy appeared upon the scene, an ambassador coming +directly from the Emperor. Count Hohenzollern, a young man, wild, +fierce, and arrogant, scarcely twenty-three years of age, arrived in +Paris on the 7th of September, with a train of forty horsemen. + +De Colly, agent of the Elector-Palatine, had received an outline of +his instructions, which the Prince of Anhalt had obtained at Prague. +He informed Henry that Hohenzollern would address him thus: "You are a +king. You would not like that the Emperor should aid your subjects in +rebellion. He did not do this in the time of the League, although often +solicited to do so. You should not now sustain the princes in disobeying +the Imperial decree. Kings should unite in maintaining the authority and +majesty of each other." He would then in the Emperor's name urge the +claims of the House of Saxony to the duchies. + +Henry was much pleased with this opportune communication by de Colly of +the private instructions to the Emperor's envoy, by which he was enabled +to meet the wild and fierce young man with an arrogance at least equal to +his own. + +The interview was a stormy one. The King was alone in the gallery of the +Louvre, not choosing that his words and gestures should be observed. The +Envoy spoke much in the sense which de Colly had indicated; making a long +argument in favour of the Emperor's exclusive right of arbitration, and +assuring the King that the Emperor was resolved on war if interference +between himself and his subjects was persisted in. He loudly pronounced +the proceedings of the possessory princes to be utterly illegal, and +contrary to all precedent. The Emperor would maintain his authority at +all hazards, and one spark of war would set everything in a blaze within +the Empire and without. + +Henry replied sternly but in general terms, and referred him for a final +answer to his council. + +"What will you do," asked the Envoy, categorically, at a subsequent +interview about a month later, "to protect the princes in case the +Emperor constrains them to leave the provinces which they have unjustly +occupied?" + +"There is none but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say," +replied the King. "It is enough for you to know that I will never +abandon my friends in a just cause. The Emperor can do much for the +general peace. He is not to lend his name to cover this usurpation." + +And so the concluding interview terminated in an exchange of threats +rather than with any hope of accommodation. + +Hohenzollern used as high language to the ministers as to the monarch, +and received payment in the same coin. He rebuked their course not very +adroitly as being contrary to the interests of Catholicism. They were +placing the provinces in the hands of Protestants, he urged. It required +no envoy from Prague to communicate this startling fact. Friends and +foes, Villeroy and Jeannin, as well as Sully and Duplessis, knew well +enough that Henry was not taking up arms for Rome. "Sir! do you look at +the matter in that way?" cried Sully, indignantly. "The Huguenots are as +good as the Catholics. They fight like the devil!" + +"The Emperor will never permit the, princes to remain nor Leopold to +withdraw," said the Envoy to Jeannin. + +Jeannin replied that the King was always ready to listen to reason, but +there was no use in holding language of authority to him. It was money +he would not accept. + +"Fiat justitia pereat mundus," said the haggard Hohenzollern. + +"Your world may perish," replied Jeannin, "but not ours. It is much +better put together." + +A formal letter was then written by the King to the Emperor, in which +Henry expressed his desire to maintain peace and fraternal relations, but +notified him that if, under any pretext whatever, he should trouble the +princes in their possession, he would sustain them with all his power, +being bound thereto by treaties and by reasons of state. + +This letter was committed to the care of Hohenzollern, who forthwith +departed, having received a present of 4000 crowns. His fierce, haggard +face thus vanishes for the present from our history. + +The King had taken his ground, from which there was no receding. Envoys +or agents of Emperor, Pope, King of Spain, Archduke at Brussels, and +Archduke at Julich, had failed to shake his settled purpose. Yet the +road was far from smooth. He had thus far no ally but the States- +General. He could not trust James of Great Britain. Boderie came back +late in the summer from his mission to that monarch, reporting him as +being favourably inclined to Brandenburg, but hoping for an amicable +settlement in the duchies. No suggestion being made even by the +sagacious James as to the manner in which the ferret and rabbits were +to come to a compromise, Henry inferred, if it came to fighting, that the +English government would refuse assistance. James had asked Boderie in +fact whether his sovereign and the States, being the parties chiefly +interested, would be willing to fight it out without allies. He had also +sent Sir Ralph Winwood on a special mission to the Hague, to Dusseldorf, +and with letters to the Emperor, in which he expressed confidence that +Rudolph would approve the proceedings of the possessory princes. As he +could scarcely do that while loudly claiming through his official envoy +in Paris that the princes should instantly withdraw on pain of instant +war, the value of the English suggestion of an amicable compromise might +easily be deduced. + +Great was the jealousy in France of this mission from England. That the +princes should ask the interference of James while neglecting, despising, +or fearing Henry, excited Henry's wrath. He was ready, and avowed his +readiness, to put on armour at once in behalf of the princes, and to +arbitrate on the destiny of Germany, but no one seemed ready to follow +his standard. No one asked him to arbitrate. The Spanish faction +wheedled and threatened by turns, in order to divert him from his +purpose, while the Protestant party held aloof, and babbled of +Charlemagne and of Henry II. + +He said he did not mean to assist the princes by halves, but as became a +King of France, and the princes expressed suspicion of him, talked of the +example of Metz, and called the Emperor their very clement lord. + +It was not strange that Henry was indignant and jealous. He was holding +the wolf by the ears, as he himself observed more than once. The war +could not long be delayed; yet they in whose behalf it was to be waged +treated him with a disrespect and flippancy almost amounting to scorn. + +They tried to borrow money of him through the post, and neglected to send +him an ambassador. This was most decidedly putting the cart before the +oxen, so Henry said, and so thought all his friends. When they had +blockaded the road to Julich, in order to cut off Leopold's supplies, +they sent to request that the two French regiments in the States' service +might be ordered to their assistance, Archduke Albert having threatened +to open the passage by force of arms. "This is a fine stratagem," said +Aerssens, "to fling the States-General headlong into the war, and, as it +were, without knowing it." + +But the States-General, under the guidance of Barneveld, were not likely +to be driven headlong by Brandenburg and Neuburg. They managed with +caution, but with perfect courage, to move side by side with Henry, and +to leave the initiative to him, while showing an unfaltering front to the +enemy. That the princes were lost, Spain and the Emperor triumphant, +unless Henry and the States should protect them with all their strength, +was as plain as a mathematical demonstration. + +Yet firm as were the attitude and the language of Henry, he was thought +to be hoping to accomplish much by bluster. It was certain that the bold +and unexpected stroke of Leopold had produced much effect upon his mind, +and for a time those admitted to his intimacy saw, or thought they saw, +a decided change in his demeanour. To the world at large his language +and his demonstrations were even more vehement than they had been at the +outset of the controversy; but it was believed that there was now a +disposition to substitute threats for action. The military movements set +on foot were thought to be like the ringing of bells and firing of cannon +to dissipate a thunderstorm. Yet it was treason at court to doubt the +certainty of war. The King ordered new suits of armour, bought splendid +chargers, and gave himself all the airs of a champion rushing to a +tournament as gaily as in the earliest days of his king-errantry. +He spoke of his eager desire to break a lance with Spinola, and give a +lesson to the young volunteer who had sprung into so splendid a military +reputation, while he had been rusting, as he thought, in pacific +indolence, and envying the laurels of the comparatively youthful Maurice. +Yet those most likely to be well informed believed that nothing would +come of all this fire and fury. + +The critics were wrong. There was really no doubt of Henry's sincerity, +but his isolation was terrible. There was none true to him at home but +Sully. Abroad, the States-General alone were really friendly, so far as +positive agreements existed. Above all, the intolerable tergiversations +and suspicions of those most interested, the princes in possession, and +their bickerings among themselves, hampered his movements. + +Treason and malice in his cabinet and household, jealousy and fear +abroad, were working upon and undermining him like a slow fever. His +position was most pathetic, but his purpose was fixed. + +James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry, was wont to +moralize on his character and his general unpopularity, while engaged in +negotiations with him. He complained that in the whole affair of the +truce he had sought only his particular advantage. "This is not to be +wondered at in one of his nature," said the King, "who only careth to +provide for the felicities of his present life, without any respect for +his life to come. Indeed, the consideration of his own age and the youth +of his children, the doubt of their legitimation, the strength of +competitioners, and the universal hatred borne unto him, makes him seek +all means of security for preventing of all dangers." + +There were changes from day to day; hot and cold fits necessarily +resulting from the situation. As a rule, no eminent general who has had +much experience wishes to go into a new war inconsiderately and for the +mere love of war. The impatience is often on the part of the non- +combatants. Henry was no exception to the rule. He felt that the +complications then existing, the religious, political, and dynastic +elements arrayed against each other, were almost certain to be brought to +a crisis and explosion by the incident of the duchies. He felt that the +impending struggle was probably to be a desperate and a general one, but +there was no inconsistency in hoping that the show of a vigorous and +menacing attitude might suspend, defer, or entirely dissipate the +impending storm. + +The appearance of vacillation on his part from day to day was hardly +deserving of the grave censure which it received, and was certainly in +the interests of humanity. + +His conferences with Sully were almost daily and marked by intense +anxiety. He longed for Barneveld, and repeatedly urged that the +Advocate, laying aside all other business, would come to Paris, that they +might advise together thoroughly and face to face. It was most important +that the combination of alliances should be correctly arranged before +hostilities began, and herein lay the precise difficulty. The princes +applied formally and freely to the States-General for assistance. They +applied to the King of Great Britain. The agents of the opposite party +besieged Henry with entreaties, and, failing in those, with threats; +going off afterwards to Spain, to the Archdukes, and to other Catholic +powers in search of assistance. + +The States-General professed their readiness to put an army of 15,000 +foot and 3000 horse in the field for the spring campaign, so soon as they +were assured of Henry's determination for a rupture. + +"I am fresh enough still," said he to their ambassador, "to lead an army +into Cleve. I shall have a cheap bargain enough of the provinces. But +these Germans do nothing but eat and sleep. They will get the profit +and assign to me the trouble. No matter, I will never suffer the +aggrandizement of the House of Austria. The States-General must disband +no troops, but hold themselves in readiness." + +Secretary of State Villeroy held the same language, but it was easy to +trace beneath his plausible exterior a secret determination to traverse +the plans of his sovereign. "The Cleve affair must lead to war," he +said. "The Spaniard, considering how necessary it is for him to have a +prince there at his devotion, can never quietly suffer Brandenburg and +Neuburg to establish themselves in those territories. The support thus +gained by the States-General would cause the loss of the Spanish +Netherlands." + +This was the view of Henry, too, but the Secretary of State, secretly +devoted to the cause of Spain, looked upon the impending war with much +aversion. + +"All that can come to his Majesty from war," he said, "is the glory of +having protected the right. Counterbalance this with the fatigue, the +expense, and the peril of a great conflict, after our long repose, and +you will find this to be buying glory too dearly." + +When a Frenchman talked of buying glory too dearly, it seemed probable +that the particular kind of glory was not to his taste. + +Henry had already ordered the officers, then in France, of the 4000 +French infantry kept in the States' service at his expense to depart at +once to Holland, and he privately announced his intention of moving to +the frontier at the head of 30,000 men. + +'Yet not only Villeroy, but the Chancellor and the Constable, while +professing opposition to the designs of Austria and friendliness to those +of Brandenburg and Neuburg, deprecated this precipitate plunge into war. +"Those most interested," they said, "refuse to move; fearing Austria, +distrusting France. They leave us the burden and danger, and hope for +the spoils themselves. We cannot play cat to their monkey. The King +must hold himself in readiness to join in the game when the real players +have shuffled and dealt the cards. It is no matter to us whether the +Spaniard or Brandenburg or anyone else gets the duchies. The States- +General require a friendly sovereign there, and ought to say how much +they will do for that result." + +The Constable laughed at the whole business. Coming straight from the +Louvre, he said "there would be no serious military movement, and that +all those fine freaks would evaporate in air." + +But Sully never laughed. He was quietly preparing the ways and means for +the war, and he did not intend, so far as he had influence, that France +should content herself with freaks and let Spain win the game. Alone in +the council he maintained that "France had gone too far to recede without +sacrifice of reputation."--"The King's word is engaged both within and +without," he said. "Not to follow it with deeds would be dangerous to +the kingdom. The Spaniard will think France afraid of war. We must +strike a sudden blow, either to drive the enemy away or to crush him at +once. There is no time for delay. The Netherlands must prevent the +aggrandizement of Austria or consent to their own ruin." + +Thus stood the game therefore. The brother of Brandenburg and son of +Neuburg had taken possession of Dusseldorf. + +The Emperor, informed of this, ordered them forthwith to decamp. He +further summoned all pretenders to the duchies to appear before him, in +person or by proxy, to make good their claims. They refused and appealed +for advice and assistance to the States-General. Barneveld, aware of the +intrigues of Spain, who disguised herself in the drapery of the Emperor, +recommended that the Estates of Cleve, Julich, Berg, Mark, Ravensberg, +and Ravenstein, should be summoned in Dusseldorf. This was done and a +resolution taken to resist any usurpation. + +The King of France wrote to the Elector of Cologne, who, by directions +of Rome and by means of the Jesuits, had been active in the intrigue, +that he would not permit the princes to be disturbed. + +The Archduke Leopold suddenly jumped into the chief citadel of the +country and published an edict of the Emperor. All the proceedings were +thereby nullified as illegal and against the dignity of the realm and the +princes proclaimed under ban. + +A herald brought the edict and ban to the princes in full assembly. +The princes tore it to pieces on the spot. Nevertheless they were much +frightened, and many members of the Estates took themselves off; others +showing an inclination to follow. + +The princes sent forth with a deputation to the Hague to consult My Lords +the States-General. The States-General sent an express messenger to +Paris. Their ambassador there sent him back a week later, with notice of +the King's determination to risk everything against everything to +preserve the rights of the princes. It was added that Henry required to +be solicited by them, in order not by volunteer succour to give cause for +distrust as to his intentions. The States-General were further apprised +by the King that his interests and theirs were so considerable in the +matter that they would probably be obliged to go into a brisk and open +war, in order to prevent the Spaniard from establishing himself in the +duchies. He advised them to notify the Archdukes in Brussels that they +would regard the truce as broken if, under pretext of maintaining the +Emperor's rights, they should molest the princes. He desired them +further to send their forces at once to the frontier of Gelderland under +Prince Maurice, without committing any overt act of hostility, but in +order to show that both the King and the States were thoroughly in +earnest. + +The King then sent to Archduke Albert, as well as to the Elector of +Cologne, and despatched a special envoy to the King of Great Britain. + +Immediately afterwards came communications from Barneveld to Henry, with +complete adhesion to the King's plans. The States would move in exact +harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely +what he wished. He complained bitterly to Aerssens, when he communicated +the Advocate's despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the +princes. He ascribed it to the arts of Leopold, who had written and +inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in +league and correspondence with the Emperor; that he was going to the +duchies simply in the interest of the Catholics; that he was like Henry +II. only seeking to extend the French frontier; and Leopold, by these +intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with +distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry. + +Henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition. He meant +to prevent the aggrandizement of Austria, and was impatient at the +dilatoriness and distrust of the princes. + +"All their enemies are rushing to the King of Spain. Let them address +themselves to the King of France," he said, "for it is we two that must +play this game." + +And when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post +letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would +rather have his money than his presence! + +Was it surprising that the King's course should seem occasionally +wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters +into honourable action? Was it strange that the rude and stern Sully +should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more +of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of +conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily +and hourly spinning? + +"We do nothing and you do nothing," he said one day to Aerssens. "You +are too soft, and we are too cowardly. I believe that we shall spoil +everything, after all. I always suspect these sudden determinations of +ours. They are of bad augury. We usually founder at last when we set +off so fiercely at first. There are words enough an every side, but +there will be few deeds. There is nothing to be got out of the King of +Great Britain, and the King of Spain will end by securing these provinces +for himself by a treaty." Sully knew better than this, but he did not +care to let even the Dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations +he had been making for the coming campaign. + +The envoys of the possessory princes, the Counts Solms, Colonel Pallandt, +and Dr. Steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that +final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the German +Protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at Hall, in Suabia. + +At that convention de Boississe would make himself heard on the part of +France, and the representatives of the States-General, of Venice, and +Savoy, would also be present. + +Meantime the secret conferences between Henry and his superintendent of +finances and virtual prime minister were held almost every day. Scarcely +an afternoon passed that the King did not make his appearance at the +Arsenal, Sully's residence, and walk up and down the garden with him for +hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. This +great project was to crush for ever the power of the Austrian house; to +drive Spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for +universal monarchy; and taking the Imperial crown from the House of +Habsburg. By thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid +of Rome, overshadowed Germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing +the greater part of both the Indies, he meant to bring France into the +preponderant position over Christendom which he believed to be her due. + +It was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the Dutch +commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that +a glorious captain commanded its armies and a statesman unrivalled for +experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its +diplomacy, to drive the Spaniard out of the Netherlands. + +The Cleve question, properly and vigorously handled, presented exactly +the long desired opportunity for carrying out these vast designs. + +The plan of assault upon Spanish power was to be threefold. The King +himself at the head of 35,000 men, supported by Prince Maurice and the +States' forces amounting to at least 14,000, would move to the Rhine and +seize the duchies. The Duke de la Force would command the army of the +Pyrenees and act in concert with the Moors of Spain, who roused to frenzy +by their expulsion from the kingdom could be relied on for a revolt or at +least a most vigorous diversion. Thirdly, a treaty with the Duke of +Savoy by which Henry accorded his daughter to the Duke's eldest son, the +Prince of Piedmont, a gift of 100,000 crowns, and a monthly pension +during the war of 50,000 crowns a month, was secretly concluded. + +Early in the spring the Duke was to take the field with at least 10,000 +foot and 1200 horse, supported by a French army of 12,000 to 15,000 men +under the experienced Marshal de Lesdiguieres. These forces were to +operate against the Duchy of Milan with the intention of driving the +Spaniards out of that rich possession, which the Duke of Savoy claimed +for himself, and of assuring to Henry the dictatorship of Italy. With +the cordial alliance of Venice, and by playing off the mutual jealousies +of the petty Italian princes, like Florence, Mantua, Montserrat, and +others, against each other and against the Pope, it did not seem doubtful +to Sully that the result would be easily accomplished. He distinctly +urged the wish that the King should content himself with political +influence, with the splendid position of holding all Italy dependent upon +his will and guidance, but without annexing a particle of territory to +his own crown. + +It was Henry's intention, however, to help himself to the Duchy of Savoy, +and to the magnificent city and port of Genoa as a reward to himself for +the assistance, matrimonial alliance, and aggrandizement which he was +about to bestow upon Charles Emmanuel. Sully strenuously opposed these +self-seeking views on the part of his sovereign, however, constantly +placing before him the far nobler aim of controlling the destinies of +Christendom, of curbing what tended to become omnipotent, of raising up +and protecting that which had been abased, of holding the balance of +empire with just and steady hand in preference to the more vulgar and +commonplace ambition of annexing a province or two to the realms of +France. + +It is true that these virtuous homilies, so often preached by him against +territorial aggrandizement in one direction, did not prevent him from +indulging in very extensive visions of it in another. But the dreams +pointed to the east rather than to the south. It was Sully's policy to +swallow a portion not of Italy but of Germany. He persuaded his master +that the possessory princes, if placed by the help of France in the +heritage which they claimed, would hardly be able to maintain themselves +against the dangers which surrounded them except by a direct dependence +upon France. In the end the position would become an impossible one, +and it would be easy after the war was over to indemnify Brandenburg with +money and with private property in the heart of France for example, and +obtain the cession of those most coveted provinces between the Meuse and +the Weser to the King. "What an advantage for France," whispered Sully, +"to unite to its power so important a part of Germany. For it cannot be +denied that by accepting the succour given by the King now those princes +oblige themselves to ask for help in the future in order to preserve +their new acquisition. Thus your Majesty will make them pay for it very +dearly." + +Thus the very virtuous self-denial in regard to the Duke of Savoy did not +prevent a secret but well developed ambition at the expense of the +Elector of Brandenburg. For after all it was well enough known that the +Elector was the really important and serious candidate. Henry knew full +well that Neuburg was depending on the Austrians and the Catholics, and +that the claims of Saxony were only put forward by the Emperor in order +to confuse the princes and excite mutual distrust. + +The King's conferences with the great financier were most confidential, +and Sully was as secret as the grave. But Henry never could keep a +secret even when it concerned his most important interests, and nothing +would serve him but he must often babble of his great projects even to +their minutest details in presence of courtiers and counsellors whom in +his heart he knew to be devoted to Spain and in receipt of pensions from +her king. He would boast to them of the blows by which he meant to +demolish Spain and the whole house of Austria, so that there should be +no longer danger to be feared from that source to the tranquillity and +happiness of Europe, and he would do this so openly and in presence of +those who, as he knew, were perpetually setting traps for him and +endeavouring to discover his deepest secrets as to make Sully's hair +stand on end. The faithful minister would pluck his master by the cloak +at times, and the King, with the adroitness which never forsook him when +he chose to employ it, would contrive to extricate himself from a dilemma +and pause at the brink of tremendous disclosures.--[Memoires de Sully, +t. vii. p. 324.]--But Sully could not be always at his side, nor were +the Nuncius or Don Inigo de Cardenas or their confidential agents and +spies always absent. Enough was known of the general plan, while as to +the probability of its coming into immediate execution, perhaps the +enemies of the King were often not more puzzled than his friends. + +But what the Spanish ambassador did not know, nor the Nuncius, nor even +the friendly Aerssens, was the vast amount of supplies which had been +prepared for the coming conflict by the finance minister. Henry did not +know it himself. "The war will turn on France as on a pivot," said +Sully; "it remains to be seen if we have supplies and money enough. +I will engage if the war is not to last more than three years and you +require no more than 40,000 men at a time that I will show you munitions +and ammunition and artillery and the like to such an extent that you will +say, 'It is enough.' + +"As to money--" + +"How much money have I got?" asked the King; "a dozen millions?" + +"A little more than that," answered the Minister. + +"Fourteen millions?" + +"More still." + +"Sixteen?" continued the King. + +"More yet," said Sully. + +And so the King went on adding two millions at each question until thirty +millions were reached, and when the question as to this sum was likewise +answered in the affirmative, he jumped from his chair, hugged his +minister around the neck, and kissed him on both cheeks. + +"I want no more than that," he cried. + +Sully answered by assuring him that he had prepared a report showing a +reserve of forty millions on which he might draw for his war expenses, +without in the least degree infringing on the regular budget for ordinary +expenses. + +The King was in a transport of delight, and would have been capable of +telling the story on the spot to the Nuncius had he met him that +afternoon, which fortunately did not occur. + +But of all men in Europe after the faithful Sully, Henry most desired to +see and confer daily and secretly with Barneveld. He insisted vehemently +that, neglecting all other business, he should come forthwith to Paris at +the head of the special embassy which it had been agreed that the States +should send. No living statesman, he said, could compare to Holland's +Advocate in sagacity, insight, breadth of view, knowledge of mankind and +of great affairs, and none he knew was more sincerely attached to his +person or felt more keenly the value of the French alliance. + +With him he indeed communicated almost daily through the medium of +Aerssens, who was in constant receipt of most elaborate instructions +from Barneveld, but he wished to confer with him face to face, so that +there would be no necessity of delay in sending back for instructions, +limitations, and explanation. No man knew better than the King did that +so far as foreign affairs were concerned the States-General were simply +Barneveld. + +On the 22nd January the States' ambassador had a long and secret +interview with the King.' He informed him that the Prince of Anhalt had +been assured by Barneveld that the possessory princes would be fully +supported in their position by the States, and that the special deputies +of Archduke Albert, whose presence at the Hague made Henry uneasy, as he +regarded them as perpetual spies, had been dismissed. Henry expressed +his gratification. They are there, he said, entirely in the interest of +Leopold, who has just received 500,000 crowns from the King of Spain, and +is to have that sum annually, and they are only sent to watch all your +proceedings in regard to Cleve. + +The King then fervently pressed the Ambassador to urge Barneveld's coming +to Paris with the least possible delay. He signified his delight with +Barneveld's answer to Anhalt, who thus fortified would be able to do good +service at the assembly at Hall. He had expected nothing else from +Barneveld's sagacity, from his appreciation of the needs of Christendom, +and from his affection for himself. He told the Ambassador that he was +anxiously waiting for the Advocate in order to consult with him as to all +the details of the war. The affair of Cleve, he said, was too special a +cause. A more universal one was wanted. The King preferred to begin +with Luxemburg, attacking Charlemont or Namur, while the States ought at +the same time to besiege Venlo, with the intention afterwards of uniting +with the King in laying siege to Maestricht. + +He was strong enough, he said, against all the world, but he still +preferred to invite all princes interested to join him in putting down +the ambitious and growing power of Spain. Cleve was a plausible pretext, +but the true cause, he said, should be found in the general safety of +Christendom. + +Boississe had been sent to the German princes to ascertain whether and to +what extent they would assist the King. He supposed that once they found +him engaged in actual warfare in Luxemburg, they would get rid of their +jealousy and panic fears of him and his designs. He expected them to +furnish at least as large a force as he would supply as a contingent. + +For it was understood that Anhalt as generalissimo of the German forces +would command a certain contingent of French troops, while the main army +of the King would be led by himself in person. + +Henry expressed the conviction that the King of Spain would be taken by +surprise finding himself attacked in three places and by three armies at +once, he believing that the King of France was entirely devoted to his +pleasures and altogether too old for warlike pursuits, while the States, +just emerging from the misery of their long and cruel conflict, would be +surely unwilling to plunge headlong into a great and bloody war. + +Henry inferred this, he said, from observing the rude and brutal manner +in which the soldiers in the Spanish Netherlands were now treated. It +seemed, he said, as if the Archdukes thought they had no further need of +them, or as if a stamp of the foot could raise new armies out of the +earth. "My design," continued the King, "is the more likely to succeed +as the King of Spain, being a mere gosling and a valet of the Duke of +Lerma, will find himself stripped of all his resources and at his wits' +end; unexpectedly embarrassed as he will be on the Italian side, where we +shall be threatening to cut the jugular vein of his pretended universal +monarchy." + +He intimated that there was no great cause for anxiety in regard to the +Catholic League just formed at Wurzburg. He doubted whether the King of +Spain would join it, and he had learned that the Elector of Cologne was +making very little progress in obtaining the Emperor's adhesion. As to +this point the King had probably not yet thoroughly understood that the +Bavarian League was intended to keep clear of the House of Habsburg, +Maximilian not being willing to identify the success of German +Catholicism with the fortunes of that family. + +Henry expressed the opinion that the King of Spain, that is to say, his +counsellors, meant to make use of the Emperor's name while securing all +the profit, and that Rudolph quite understood their game, while Matthias +was sure to make use of this opportunity, supported by the Protestants of +Bohemia, Austria, and Moravia, to strip the Emperor of the last shred of +Empire. + +The King was anxious that the States should send a special embassy at +once to the King of Great Britain. His ambassador, de la Boderie, gave +little encouragement of assistance from that quarter, but it was at least +desirable to secure his neutrality. "'Tis a prince too much devoted to +repose," said Henry, "to be likely to help in this war, but at least he +must not be allowed to traverse our great designs. He will probably +refuse the league offensive and defensive which I have proposed to him, +but he must be got, if possible, to pledge himself to the defensive. I +mean to assemble my army on the frontier, as if to move upon Julich, and +then suddenly sweep down on the Meuse, where, sustained by the States' +army and that of the princes, I will strike my blows and finish my +enterprise before our adversary has got wind of what is coming. We must +embark James in the enterprise if we can, but at any rate we must take +measures to prevent his spoiling it." + +Henry assured the Envoy that no one would know anything of the great +undertaking but by its effect; that no one could possibly talk about it +with any knowledge except himself, Sully, Villeroy, Barneveld, and +Aerssens. With them alone he conferred confidentially, and he doubted +not that the States would embrace this opportunity to have done for ever +with the Spaniards. He should take the field in person, he said, and +with several powerful armies would sweep the enemy away from the Meuse, +and after obtaining control of that river would quietly take possession +of the sea-coast of Flanders, shut up Archduke Albert between the States +and the French, who would thus join hands and unite their frontiers. + +Again the King expressed his anxiety for Barneveld's coming, and directed +the Ambassador to urge it, and to communicate to him the conversation +which had just taken place. He much preferred, he said, a general war. +He expressed doubts as to the Prince of Anhalt's capacity as chief in the +Cleve expedition, and confessed that being jealous of his own reputation +he did not like to commit his contingent of troops to the care of a +stranger and one so new to his trade. The shame would fall on himself, +not on Anhalt in case of any disaster. Therefore, to avoid all petty +jealousies and inconveniences of that nature by which the enterprise +might be ruined, it was best to make out of this small affair a great +one, and the King signified his hope that the Advocate would take this +view of the case and give him his support. He had plenty of grounds of +war himself, and the States had as good cause of hostilities in the +rupture of the truce by the usurpation attempted by Leopold with the +assistance of Spain and in the name of the Emperor. He hoped, he said, +that the States would receive no more deputations from Archduke Albert, +but decide to settle everything at the point of the sword. The moment +was propitious, and, if neglected, might never return. Marquis Spinola +was about to make a journey to Spain on various matters of business. On +his return, Henry said, he meant to make him prisoner as a hostage for +the Prince of Conde, whom the Archdukes were harbouring and detaining. +This would be the pretext, he said, but the object would be to deprive +the Archdukes of any military chief, and thus to throw them into utter +confusion. Count van den Berg would never submit to the authority of Don +Luis de Velasco, nor Velasco to his, and not a man could come from Spain +or Italy, for the passages would all be controlled by France. + +Fortunately for the King's reputation, Spinola's journey was deferred, +so that this notable plan for disposing of the great captain fell to the +ground. + +Henry agreed to leave the two French regiments and the two companies of +cavalry in the States' service as usual, but stipulated in certain +contingencies for their use. + +Passing to another matter concerning which there had been so much +jealousy on the part of the States, the formation of the French East +India Company--to organize which undertaking Le Roy and Isaac Le Maire +of Amsterdam had been living disguised in the house of Henry's famous +companion, the financier Zamet at Paris--the King said that Barneveld +ought not to envy him a participation in the great profits of this +business. + +Nothing would be done without consulting him after his arrival in Paris. +He would discuss the matter privately with him, he said, knowing that +Barneveld was a great personage, but however obstinate he might be, he +felt sure that he would always yield to reason. On the other hand the +King expressed his willingness to submit to the Advocate's opinions if +they should seem the more just. + +On leaving the King the Ambassador had an interview with Sully, who again +expressed his great anxiety for the arrival of Barneveld, and his hopes +that he might come with unlimited powers, so that the great secret might +not leak out through constant referring of matters back to the Provinces. + +After rendering to the Advocate a detailed account of this remarkable +conversation, Aerssens concluded with an intimation that perhaps his own +opinion might be desired as to the meaning of all those movements +developing themselves so suddenly and on so many sides. + +"I will say," he observed, "exactly what the poet sings of the army of +ants-- + + 'Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta + Pulveris exigui jactu contacts quiescunt.' + +If the Prince of Conde comes back, we shall be more plausible than ever. +If he does not come back, perhaps the consideration of the future will +sweep us onwards. All have their special views, and M. de Villeroy more +warmly than all the rest." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour +Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body +Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics +Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient +Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty +Could not be both judge and party in the suit +Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries +Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland +Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense +Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch +Estimating his character and judging his judges +Everybody should mind his own business +He was a sincere bigot +Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants +Intense bigotry of conviction +International friendship, the self-interest of each +It was the true religion, and there was none other +James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry +Jealousy, that potent principle +Language which is ever living because it is dead +More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists +None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say +Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist +Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made +Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never +Putting the cart before the oxen +Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult +Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers +Senectus edam maorbus est +So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality +The Catholic League and the Protestant Union +The truth in shortest about matters of importance +The vehicle is often prized more than the freight +There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese +There was no use in holding language of authority to him +Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years +Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry +Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1609 *** + +********** This file should be named 4886.txt or 4886.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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