TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER, PRINCE OF PARMA
A.D. 1584--1592
The death of William of Nassau not only closes the scene of his
individual career, but throws a deep gloom over the history of a
revolution that was sealed by so great a sacrifice. The animation
of the story seems suspended. Its events lose for a time their
excitement. The last act of the political drama is performed. The
great hero of the tragedy is no more. The other most memorable
actors have one by one passed away. A whole generation has fallen
in the contest; and it is with exhausted interest, and feelings
less intense, that we resume the details of war and blood, which
seem no longer sanctified by the grander movements of heroism.
The stirring impulse of slavery breaking its chains yields to
the colder inspiration of independence maintaining its rights.
The men we have now to depict were born free; and the deeds they
did were those of stern resolve rather than of frantic despair.
The present picture may be as instructive as the last, but it is
less thrilling. Passion gives place to reason; and that which
wore the air of fierce romance is superseded by what bears the
stamp of calm reality.
The consternation caused by the news of William's death soon
yielded to the firmness natural to a people inured to suffering
and calamity. The United Provinces rejected at once the overtures
made by the prince of Parma to induce them to obedience. They
seemed proud to show that their fate did not depend on that of
one man. He therefore turned his attention to the most effective
means of obtaining results by force which he found it impossible
to secure by persuasion. He proceeded vigorously to the reduction
of the chief towns of Flanders, the conquest of which would give
him possession of the entire province, no army now remaining
to oppose him in the field. He soon obliged Ypres and Termonde
to surrender; and Ghent, forced by famine, at length yielded on
reasonable terms. The most severe was the utter abolition of
the reformed religion; by which a large portion of the population
was driven to the alternative of exile; and they passed over
in crowds to Holland and Zealand, not half of the inhabitants
remaining behind. Mechlin, and finally Brussels, worn out by
a fruitless resistance, followed the example of the rest; and
thus, within a year after the death of William of Nassau, the
power of Spain was again established in the whole province of
Flanders, and the others which comprise what is in modern days
generally denominated Belgium.
But these domestic victories of the prince of Parma were barren
in any of those results which humanity would love to see in the
train of conquest. The reconciled provinces presented the most
deplorable spectacle. The chief towns were almost depopulated. The
inhabitants had in a great measure fallen victims to war, pestilence
and famine. Little inducement existed to replace by marriage the
ravages caused by death, for few men wished to propagate a race
which divine wrath seemed to have marked for persecution. The
thousands of villages which had covered the face of the country
were absolutely abandoned to the wolves, which had so rapidly
increased that they attacked not merely cattle and children,
but grown-up persons. The dogs, driven abroad by hunger, had
become as ferocious as other beasts of prey, and joined in large
packs to hunt down brutes and men. Neither fields, nor woods, nor
roads, were now to be distinguished by any visible limits. All
was an entangled mass of trees, weeds, and grass. The prices of
the necessaries of life were so high that people of rank, after
selling everything to buy bread, were obliged to have recourse
to open beggary in the streets of the great towns.
From this frightful picture, and the numerous details which
imagination may readily supply, we gladly turn to the contrast
afforded by the northern states. Those we have just described
have a feeble hold upon our sympathies; we cannot pronounce their
sufferings to be unmerited. The want of firmness or enlightenment,
which preferred such an existence to the risk of entire destruction,
only heightens the glory of the people whose unyielding energy
and courage gained them so proud a place among the independent
nations of Europe.
The murder of William seemed to carry to the United Provinces
conviction of the weakness as well as the atrocity of Spain;
and the indecent joy excited among the royalists added to their
courage. An immediate council was created, composed of eighteen
members, at the head of which was unanimously placed Prince Maurice
of Nassau (who even then gave striking indications of talent and
prudence); his elder brother, the count of Beuren, now Prince
of Orange, being still kept captive in Spain. Count Hohenloe
was appointed lieutenant-general; and several other measures
were promptly adopted to consolidate the power of the infant
republic. The whole of its forces amounted but to five thousand
five hundred men. The prince of Parma had eighty thousand at
his command. With such means of carrying on his conquests, he
sat down regularly before Antwerp, and commenced the operations
of one of the most celebrated among the many memorable sieges of
those times. He completely surrounded the city with troops; placing
a large portion of his army on the left bank of the Scheldt, the
other on the right; and causing to be attacked at the same time
the two strong forts of Liefkinshoek and Lillo. Repulsed on the
latter important point, his only hope of gaining the command of
the navigation of the river, on which the success of the siege
depended, was by throwing a bridge across the stream. Neither
its great rapidity, nor its immense width, nor the want of wood
and workmen, could deter him from this vast undertaking. He was
assisted, if not guided, in all his projects on the occasion, by
Barroccio, a celebrated Italian engineer sent to him by Philip;
and the merit of all that was done ought fairly to be, at least,
divided between the general and the engineer. If enterprise and
perseverance belonged to the first, science and skill were the
portion of the latter. They first caused two strong forts to
be erected at opposite sides of the river; and adding to their
resources by every possible means, they threw forward a pier
on each side of, and far into, the stream. The stakes, driven
firmly into the bed of the river and cemented with masses of
earth and stones, were at a proper height covered with planks
and defended by parapets. These estoccades, as they were called,
reduced the river to half its original breadth; and the cannon with
which they were mounted rendered the passage extremely dangerous
to hostile vessels. But to fill up this strait a considerable
number of boats were fastened together by chain-hooks and anchors;
and being manned and armed with cannon, they were moored in the
interval between the estoccades. During these operations, a canal
was cut between the Moer and Calloo; by which means a communication
was formed with Ghent, which insured a supply of ammunition and
provisions. The works of the bridge, which was two thousand four
hundred feet in length, were constructed with such strength and
solidity that they braved the winds, the floods, and the ice
of the whole winter.
The people of Antwerp at first laughed to scorn the whole of
these stupendous preparations; but when they found that the bridge
resisted the natural elements, by which they doubted not it would
have been destroyed, they began to tremble in the anticipation
of famine; yet they vigorously prepared for their defence, and
rejected the overtures made by the prince of Parma even at this
advanced stage of his proceedings. Ninety-seven pieces of cannon
now defended the bridge; besides which thirty large barges at
each side of the river guarded its extremities; and forty ships
of war formed a fleet of protection, constantly ready to meet any
attack from the besieged. They, seeing the Scheldt thus really
closed up, and all communication with Zealand impossible, felt
their whole safety to depend on the destruction of the bridge. The
states of Zealand now sent forward an expedition, which, joined
with some ships from Lillo, gave new courage to the besieged;
and everything was prepared for their great attempt. An Italian
engineer named Giambelli was at this time in Antwerp, and by
his talents had long protracted the defence. He has the chief
merit of being the inventor of those terrible fire-ships which
gained the title of "infernal machines"; and with some of these
formidable instruments and the Zealand fleet, the long-projected
attack was at length made.
Early on the night of the 4th of April, the prince of Parma and
his army were amazed by the spectacle of three huge masses of
flame floating down the river, accompanied by numerous lesser
appearances of a similar kind, and bearing directly against the
prodigious barrier, which had cost months of labor to him and
his troops, and immense sums of money to the state. The whole
surface of the Scheldt presented one sheet of fire; the country
all round was as visible as at noon; the flags, the arms of the
soldiers, and every object on the bridge, in the fleet, or the
forts, stood out clearly to view; and the pitchy darkness of
the sky gave increased effect to the marked distinctness of all.
Astonishment was soon succeeded by consternation, when one of the
three machines burst with a terrific noise before they reached
their intended mark, but time enough to offer a sample of their
nature. The prince of Parma, with numerous officers and soldiers
rushed to the bridge, to witness the effects of this explosion;
and just then a second and still larger fire-ship, having burst
through the flying bridge of boats, struck against one of the
estoccades. Alexander, unmindful of danger, used every exertion
of his authority to stimulate the sailors in their attempts to
clear away the monstrous machine which threatened destruction to
all within its reach. Happily for him, an ensign who was near,
forgetting in his general's peril all rules of discipline and
forms of ceremony, actually forced him from the estoccade. He had
not put his foot on the river bank when the machine blew up. The
effects were such as really baffle description. The bridge was burst
through; the estoccade was shattered almost to atoms, and, with all
that it supported--men, cannon, and the huge machinery employed
in the various works--dispersed in the air. The cruel marquis
of Roubais, many other officers, and eight hundred soldiers,
perished in all varieties of death--by flood, or flame, or the
horrid wounds from the missiles with which the terrible machine
was overcharged. Fragments of bodies and limbs were flung far
and wide; and many gallant soldiers were destroyed, without a
vestige of the human form being left to prove that they had ever
existed. The river, forced from its bed at either side, rushed
into the forts and drowned numbers of their garrisons; while
the ground far beyond shook as in an earthquake. The prince was
struck down by a beam, and lay for some time senseless, together
with two generals, Delvasto and Gajitani, both more seriously
wounded than he; and many of the soldiers were burned and mutilated
in the most frightful manner. Alexander soon recovered; and by
his presence of mind, humanity, and resolution, he endeavored
with incredible quickness to repair the mischief, and raised the
confidence of his army as high as ever. Had the Zealand fleet
come in time to the spot, the whole plan might have been crowned
with success; but by some want of concert, or accidental delay,
it did not appear; and consequently the beleaguered town received
no relief.
One last resource was left to the besieged; that which had formerly
been resorted to at Leyden, and by which the place was saved.
To enable them to inundate the immense plain which stretched
between Lillo and Strabrock up to the walls of Antwerp, it was
necessary to cut through the dike which defended it against the
irruptions of the eastern Scheldt. This plain was traversed by
a high and wide counter-dike, called the dike of Couvestien; and
Alexander, knowing its importance, had early taken possession
of and strongly defended it by several forts. Two attacks were
made by the garrison of Antwerp on this important construction;
the latter of which led to one of the most desperate encounters
of the war. The prince, seeing that on the results of this day
depended the whole consequences of his labors, fought with a
valor that even he had never before displayed, and he was finally
victorious. The confederates were forced to abandon the attack,
leaving three thousand dead upon the dike or at its base; and
the Spaniards lost full eight hundred men.
One more fruitless attempt was made to destroy the bridge and
raise the siege, by means of an enormous vessel bearing the
presumptuous title of The End of the War. But this floating citadel
ran aground, without producing any effect; and the gallant governor
of Antwerp, the celebrated Philip de Saint Aldegonde, was forced
to capitulate on the 16th of August, after a siege of fourteen
months. The reduction of Antwerp was considered a miracle of
perseverance and courage. The prince of Parma was elevated by
his success to the highest pinnacle of renown; and Philip, on
receiving the news, displayed a burst of joy such as rarely varied
his cold and gloomy reserve.
Even while the fate of Antwerp was undecided, the United Provinces,
seeing that they were still too weak to resist alone the undivided
force of the Spanish monarchy, had opened negotiations with France
and England at once, in the hope of gaining one or the other for
an ally and protector. Henry III. gave a most honorable reception
to the ambassadors sent to his court, and was evidently disposed
to accept their offers, had not the distracted state of his own
country, still torn by civil war, quite disabled him from any
effective co-operation. The deputies sent to England were also
well received. Elizabeth listened to the proposals of the states,
sent them an ambassador in return, and held out the most flattering
hopes of succor. But her cautious policy would not suffer her
to accept the sovereignty; and she declared that she would in
nowise interfere with the negotiations, which might end in its
being accepted by the king of France. She gave prompt evidence
of her sincerity by an advance of considerable sums of money,
and by sending to Holland a body of six thousand troops, under
the command of her favorite, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester; and
as security for the repayment of her loan, the towns of Flushing
and Brille, and the castle of Rammekins, were given up to her.
The earl of Leicester was accompanied by a splendid retinue of
noblemen, and a select troop of five hundred followers. He was
received at Flushing by the governor, Sir Philip Sidney, his
nephew, the model of manners and conduct for the young men of
his day. But Leicester possessed neither courage nor capacity
equal to the trust reposed in him; and his arbitrary and indolent
conduct soon disgusted the people whom he was sent to assist.
They had, in the first impulse of their gratitude, given him
the title of governor and captain-general of the provinces, in
the hope of flattering Elizabeth. But this had a far contrary
effect: she was equally displeased with the states and with
Leicester; and it was with difficulty that, after many humble
submissions, they were able to appease her.
To form a counterpoise to the power so lavishly conferred on
Leicester, Prince Maurice was, according to the wise advice of
Olden Barnevelt, raised to the dignity of stadtholder,
captain-general, and admiral of Holland and Zealand. This is
the first instance of these states taking on themselves the
nomination to the dignity of stadtholder, for even William has
held his commission from Philip, or in his name; but Friesland,
Groningen, and Guelders had already appointed their local governors,
under the same title, by the authority of the states-general,
the archduke Mathias, or even of the provincial states. Holland
had now also at the head of its civil government a citizen full
of talent and probity, who was thus able to contend with the
insidious designs of Leicester against the liberty he nominally
came to protect. This was Barnevelt, who was promoted from his
office of pensionary of Rotterdam to that of Holland, and who
accepted the dignity only on condition of being free to resign
it if any accommodation of differences should take place with
Spain.
Alexander of Parma had, by the death of his mother, in February,
1586, exchanged his title of prince for the superior one of duke
of Parma, and soon resumed his enterprises with his usual energy
and success; various operations took place, in which the English
on every opportunity distinguished themselves; particularly in
an action near the town of Grave, in Brabant; and in the taking
of Axel by escalade, under the orders of Sir Philip Sidney. A
more important affair occurred near Zutphen, at a place called
Warnsfeld, both of which towns have given names to the action. On
this occasion the veteran Spaniards, under the marquis of Guasto,
were warmly attacked and completely defeated by the English;
but the victory was dearly purchased by the death of Sir Philip
Sidney, who was mortally wounded in the thigh, and expired a
few days afterward, at the early age of thirty-two years. In
addition to the valor, talent, and conduct, which had united to
establish his fame, he displayed, on this last opportunity of
his short career, an instance of humanity that sheds a new lustre
on even a character like his. Stretched on the battlefield, in all
the agony of his wound, and parched with thirst, his afflicted
followers brought him some water, procured with difficulty at a
distance, and during the heat of the fight. But Sidney, seeing a
soldier lying near, mangled like himself, and apparently expiring,
refused the water, saying, "Give it to that poor man; his sufferings
are greater than mine."
Leicester's conduct was now become quite intolerable to the states.
His incapacity and presumption were every day more evident and
more revolting. He seemed to consider himself in a province wholly
reduced to English authority, and paid no sort of attention to the
very opposite character of the people. An eminent Dutch author
accounts for this, in terms which may make an Englishman of this age
not a little proud of the contrast which his character presents to
what it was then considered. "The Englishman," says Grotius, "obeys
like a slave, and governs like a tyrant; while the Belgian knows
how to serve and to command with equal moderation." The dislike
between Leicester and those he insulted and misgoverned soon became
mutual. He retired to the town of Utrecht; and pushed his injurious
conduct to such an extent that he became an object of utter hatred
to the provinces. All the friendly feelings toward England were
gradually changed into suspicion and dislike. Conferences took
place at The Hague between Leicester and the states, in which
Barnevelt overwhelmed his contemptible shuffling by the force of
irresistible eloquence and well-deserved reproaches; and after
new acts of treachery, still more odious than his former, this
unworthy favorite at last set out for England, to lay an account
of his government at the feet of the queen.
The growing hatred against England was fomented by the true patriots,
who aimed at the liberty of their country; and may be excused, from
the various instances of treachery displayed, not only by the
commander-in-chief, but by several of his inferiors in command. A
strong fort, near Zutphen, under the government of Roland York, the
town of Deventer, under that of William Starily, and subsequently
Guelders, under a Scotchman named Pallot, were delivered up to
the Spaniards by these men; and about the same time the English
cavalry committed some excesses in Guelders and Holland, which
added to the prevalent prejudice against the nation in general. This
enmity was no longer to be concealed. The partisans of Leicester
were, one by one, under plausible pretexts, removed from the
council of state; and Elizabeth having required from Holland
the exportation into England of a large quantity of rye, it was
firmly but respectfully refused, as inconsistent with the wants
of the provinces.
Prince Maurice, from the caprice and jealousy of Leicester, now
united in himself the whole power of command, and commenced that
brilliant course of conduct which consolidated the independence
of his country and elevated him to the first rank of military
glory. His early efforts were turned to the suppression of the
partiality which in some places existed for English domination;
and he never allowed himself to be deceived by the hopes of peace
held out by the emperor and the kings of Denmark and Poland. Without
refusing their mediation, he labored incessantly to organize
every possible means for maintaining the war. His efforts were
considerably favored by the measures of Philip for the support
of the league formed by the House of Guise against Henry III. and
Henry IV. of France; but still more by the formidable enterprise
which the Spanish monarch was now preparing against England.
Irritated and mortified by the assistance which Elizabeth had
given to the revolted provinces, Philip resolved to employ his
whole power in attempting the conquest of England itself; hoping
afterward to effect with ease the subjugation of the Netherlands.
He caused to be built, in almost every port of Spain and Portugal,
galleons, carricks, and other ships of war of the largest dimensions;
and at the same time gave orders to the duke of Parma to assemble
in the harbors of Flanders as many vessels as he could collect
together.
The Spanish fleet, consisting of more than one hundred and forty
ships of the line, and manned by twenty thousand sailors, assembled
at Lisbon under the orders of the duke of Medina Sidonia; while
the duke of Parma, uniting his forces, held himself ready on the
coast of Flanders, with an army of thirty thousand men and four
hundred transports. This prodigious force obtained, in Spain,
the ostentatious title of the Invincible Armada. Its destination
was for a while attempted to be concealed, under pretext that
it was meant for India, or for the annihilation of the United
Provinces; but the mystery was soon discovered. At the end of
May, the principal fleet sailed from the port of Lisbon; and
being reinforced off Corunna by a considerable squadron, the
whole armament steered its course, for the shores of England.
The details of the progress and the failure of this celebrated
attempt are so thoroughly the province of English history that they
would be in this place superfluous. But it must not be forgotten
that the glory of the proud result was amply shared by the new
republic, whose existence depended on it. While Howard and Drake
held the British fleet in readiness to oppose the Spanish Armada,
that of Holland, consisting of but twenty-five ships, under the
command of Justin of Nassau, prepared to take a part in the conflict.
This gallant though illegitimate scion of the illustrious house,
whose name he upheld on many occasions, proved himself on the
present worthy of such a father as William, and such a brother as
Maurice. While the duke of Medina Sidonia, ascending the Channel
as far as Dunkirk, there expected the junction of the duke of
Parma with his important reinforcement, Justin of Nassau, by a
constant activity, and a display of intrepid talent, contrived
to block up the whole expected force in the ports of Flanders
from Lillo to Dunkirk. The duke of Parma found it impossible
to force a passage on any one point; and was doomed to the
mortification of knowing that the attempt was frustrated, and the
whole force of Spain frittered away, discomfited, and disgraced,
from the want of a co-operation, which he could not, however,
reproach himself for having withheld. The issue of the memorable
expedition, which cost Spain years of preparation, thousands
of men, and millions or treasure, was received in the country
which sent it forth with consternation and rage. Philip alone
possessed or affected an apathy which he covered with a veil
of mock devotion that few were deceived by. At the news of the
disaster, he fell on his knees, and rendering thanks for that
gracious dispensation of Providence, expressed his joy that the
calamity was not greater.
The people, the priests, and the commanders of the expedition
were not so easily appeased, or so clever as their hypocritical
master in concealing their mortification. The priests accounted
for this triumph of heresy as a punishment on Spain for suffering
the existence of the infidel Moors in some parts of the country.
The defeated admirals threw the whole blame on the duke of Parma.
He, on his part, sent an ample remonstrance to the king; and
Philip declared that he was satisfied with the conduct of his
nephew. Leicester died four days after the final defeat and
dispersion of the Armada.
The war in the Netherlands had been necessarily suffered to languish,
while every eye was fixed on the progress of the Armada, from
formation to defeat. But new efforts were soon made by the duke
of Parma to repair the time he had lost, and soothe, by his
successes, the disappointed pride of Spain. Several officers now
came into notice, remarkable for deeds of great gallantry and
skill. None among those was so distinguished as Martin Schenck,
a soldier of fortune, a man of ferocious activity, who began
his career in the service of tyranny, and ended it by chance
in that of independence. He changed sides several times, but,
no matter who he fought for, he did his duty well, from that
unconquerable principle of pugnacity which seemed to make his
sword a part of himself.
Schenck had lately, for the last time, gone over to the side
of the states, and had caused a fort to be built in the isle
of Betewe--that possessed of old by the Batavians--which was
called by his name, and was considered the key to the passage
of the Rhine. From this stronghold he constantly harassed the
archbishop of Cologne, and had as his latest exploit surprised and
taken the strong town of Bonn. While the duke of Parma took prompt
measures for the relief of the prelate, making himself master in
the meantime of some places of strength, the indefatigable Schenck
resolved to make an attempt on the important town of Nimeguen. He
with great caution embarked a chosen body of troops on the Wahal,
and arrived under the walls of Nimeguen at sunrise on the morning
chosen for the attack. His enterprise seemed almost crowned with
success; when the inhabitants, recovering from their fright,
precipitated themselves from the town; forced the assailants to
retreat to their boats; and, carrying the combat into those
overcharged and fragile vessels, upset several, and among others
that which contained Schenck himself, who, covered with wounds,
and fighting to the last gasp, was drowned with the greater part
of his followers. His body, when recovered, was treated with
the utmost indignity, quartered, and hung in portions over the
different gates of the city.
The following year was distinguished by another daring attempt on
the part of the Hollanders, but followed by a different result.
A captain named Haranguer concerted with one Adrien Vandenberg
a plan for the surprise of Breda, on the possession of which
Prince Maurice had set a great value. The associates contrived
to conceal in a boat laden with turf (which formed the principal
fuel of the inhabitants of that part of the country), and of
which Vandenberg was master, eighty determined soldiers, and
succeeded in arriving close to the city without any suspicion
being excited. One of the soldiers, named Matthew Helt, being
suddenly afflicted with a violent cough, implored his comrades
to put him to death, to avoid the risk of a discovery. But a
corporal of the city guard having inspected the cargo with
unsuspecting carelessness, the immolation of the brave soldier
became unnecessary, and the boat was dragged into the basin by
the assistance of some of the very garrison who were so soon to
fall victims to the stratagem. At midnight the concealed soldiers
quitted their hiding-places, leaped on shore, killed the sentinels,
and easily became masters of the citadel. Prince Maurice, following
close with his army, soon forced the town to submit, and put it
into so good a state of defence that Count Mansfield, who was
sent to retake it, was obliged to retreat after useless efforts
to fulfil his mission.
The duke of Parma, whose constitution was severely injured by
the constant fatigues of war and the anxieties attending on the
late transactions, had snatched a short interval for the purpose
of recruiting his health at the waters of Spa. While at that place
he received urgent orders from Philip to abandon for a while all
his proceedings in the Netherlands, and to hasten into France
with his whole disposable force, to assist the army of the League.
The battle of Yvri (in which the son of the unfortunate Count
Egmont met his death while fighting in the service of his father's
royal murderer) had raised the prospects and hopes of Henry IV.
to a high pitch; and Paris, which he closely besieged, was on
the point of yielding to his arms. The duke of Parma received his
uncle's orders with great repugnance; and lamented the necessity
of leaving the field of his former exploits open to the enterprise
and talents of Prince Maurice. He nevertheless obeyed; and leaving
Count Mansfield at the head of the government, he conducted his
troops against the royal opponent, who alone seemed fully worthy
of coping with him.
The attention of all Europe was now fixed on the exciting spectacle
of a contest between these two greatest captains of the age. The
glory of success, the fruit of consummate skill, was gained by
Alexander; who, by an admirable manoeuvre, got possession of
the town of Lagny-sur-Seine, under the very eyes of Henry and
his whole army, and thus acquired the means of providing Paris
with everything requisite for its defence. The French monarch saw
all his projects baffled, and his hopes frustrated; while his
antagonist, having fully completed his object, drew off his army
through Champagne, and made a fine retreat through an enemy's
country, harassed at every step, but with scarcely any loss.
But while this expedition added greatly to the renown of the
general, it considerably injured the cause of Spain in the Low
Countries. Prince Maurice, taking prompt advantage of the absence
of his great rival, had made himself master of several fortresses;
and some Spanish regiments having mutinied against the commanders
left behind by the duke of Parma, others, encouraged by the impunity
they enjoyed, were ready on the slightest pretext to follow their
example. Maurice did not lose a single opportunity of profiting by
circumstances so favorable; and even after the return of Alexander
he seized on Zutphen, Deventer, and Nimeguen, despite all the
efforts of the Spanish army. The duke of Parma, daily breaking
down under the progress of disease, and agitated by these reverses,
repaired again to Spa, taking at once every possible means for
the recruitment of his army and the recovery of his health, on
which its discipline and the chances of success now so evidently
depended.
But all his plans were again frustrated by a renewal of Philip's
peremptory orders to march once more into France, to uphold the
failing cause of the League against the intrepidity and talent
of Henry IV. At this juncture the emperor Rodolf again offered
his mediation between Spain and the United Provinces. But it
was not likely that the confederated States, at the very moment
when their cause began to triumph, and their commerce was every
day becoming more and more flourishing, would consent to make
any compromise with the tyranny they were at length in a fair
way of crushing.
The duke of Parma again appeared in France in the beginning of
the year 1592; and, having formed his communications with the
army of the League, marched to the relief of the city of Rouen,
at that period pressed to the last extremity by the Huguenot
forces. After some sharp skirmishes--and one in particular, in
which Henry IV. suffered his valor to lead him into a too rash
exposure of his own and his army's safety--a series of manoeuvres
took place, which displayed the talents of the rival generals in
the most brilliant aspect. Alexander at length succeeded in raising
the siege of Rouen, and made himself master of Condebec, which
commanded the navigation of the Seine. Henry, taking advantage
of what appeared an irreparable fault on the part of the duke,
invested his army in the hazardous position he had chosen; but
while believing that he had the whole of his enemies in his power,
he found that Alexander had passed the Seine with his entire
force--raising his military renown to the utmost possible height
by a retreat which it was deemed utterly impossible to effect.
On his return to the Netherlands, the duke found himself again
under the necessity of repairing to Spa, in search of some relief
from the suffering which was considerably increased by the effects
of a wound received in this last campaign. In spite of his shattered
constitution, he maintained to the latest moment the most active
endeavors for the reorganization of his army; and he was preparing
for a new expedition into France, when, fortunately for the good
cause in both countries, he was surprised by death on the 3d
of December, 1592, at the abbey of St. Vaast, near Arras, at
the age of forty-seven years. As it was hard to imagine that
Philip would suffer anyone who had excited his jealousy to die
a natural death, that of the duke of Parma was attributed to
slow poison.
Alexander of Parma was certainly one of the most remarkable, and,
it may be added, one of the greatest, characters of his day. Most
historians have upheld him even higher perhaps than he should
be placed on the scale; asserting that he can be reproached with
very few of the vices of the age in which he lived. Others consider
this judgment too favorable, and accuse him of participation
in all the crimes of Philip, whom he served so zealously. His
having excited the jealousy of the tyrant, or even had he been
put to death by his orders, would little influence the question;
for Philip was quite capable of ingratitude or murder, to either
an accomplice or an opponent of his baseness. But even allowing
that Alexander's fine qualities were sullied by his complicity
in these odious measures, we must still in justice admit that
they were too much in the spirit of the times, and particularly
of the school in which he was trained; and while we lament that
his political or private faults place him on so low a level, we
must rank him as one of the very first masters in the art of
war in his own or any other age.