TO THE CAMPAIGN OF PRINCE MAURICE AND SPINOLA
A.D. 1599--1604
Previous to his departure for Spain, the archduke Albert had
placed the government of the provinces which acknowledged his
domination in the hands of his uncle, the cardinal Andrew of
Austria, leaving in command of the army Francisco Mendoza, admiral
of Aragon. The troops at his disposal amounted to twenty-two
thousand fighting men--a formidable force, and enough to justify
the serious apprehensions of the republic. Albert, whose finances
were exhausted by payments made to the numerous Spanish and Italian
mutineers, had left orders with Mendoza to secure some place on
the Rhine, which might open a passage for free quarters in the
enemy's country. But this unprincipled officer forced his way
into the neutral districts of Cleves and Westphalia; and with a
body of executioners ready to hang up all who might resist, and
of priests to prepare them for death, he carried such terror on
his march that no opposition was ventured. The atrocious cruelties
of Mendoza and his troops baffle all description: on one occasion
they murdered, in cold blood, the count of Walkenstein, who
surrendered his castle on the express condition of his freedom;
and they committed every possible excess that may be imagined
of ferocious soldiery encouraged by a base commander.
Prince Maurice soon put into motion, to oppose this army of brigands,
his small disposable force of about seven thousand men. With these,
however, and a succession of masterly manoeuvres, he contrived to
preserve the republic from invasion, and to paralyze and almost
destroy an army three times superior in numbers to his own. The
horrors committed by the Spaniards, in the midst of peace, and
without the slightest provocation, could not fail to excite the
utmost indignation in a nation so fond of liberty and so proud
as Germany. The duchy of Cleves felt particularly aggrieved; and
Sybilla, the sister of the duke, a real heroine in a glorious
cause, so worked on the excited passions of the people by her
eloquence and her tears that she persuaded all the orders of
the state to unite against the odious enemy. Some troops were
suddenly raised; and a league was formed between several princes
of the empire to revenge the common cause. The count de la Lippe
was chosen general of their united forces; and the choice could
not have fallen on one more certainly incapable or more probably
treacherous.
The German army, with their usual want of activity, did not open
the campaign till the month of June. It consisted of fourteen
thousand men; and never was an army so badly conducted. Without
money, artillery, provisions, or discipline, it was at any moment
ready to break up and abandon its incompetent general; and on
the very first encounter with the enemy, and after a loss of
a couple of hundred men, it became self-disbanded; and, flying
in every direction, not a single man could be rallied to clear
away this disgrace.
The states-general, cruelly disappointed at this result of measures
from which they had looked for so important a diversion in their
favor, now resolved on a vigorous exertion of their own energies,
and determined to undertake a naval expedition of a magnitude
greater than any they had hitherto attempted. The force of public
opinion was at this period more powerful than it had ever yet been
in the United Provinces; for a great number of the inhabitants,
who, during the life of Philip II., conscientiously believed that
they could not lawfully abjure the authority once recognized and
sworn to, became now liberated from those respectable, although
absurd, scruples; and the death of one unfeeling despot gave
thousands of new citizens to the state.
A fleet of seventy-three vessels, carrying eight thousand men,
was soon equipped, under the order of Admiral Vander Goes; and,
after a series of attempts on the coasts of Spain, Portugal,
Africa, and the Canary Isles, this expedition, from which the
most splendid results were expected, was shattered, dispersed,
and reduced to nothing by a succession of unheard-of mishaps.
To these disappointments were now added domestic dissensions in
the republic, in consequence of the new taxes absolutely necessary
for the exigencies of the state. The conduct of Queen Elizabeth
greatly added to the general embarrassment: she called for the
payment of her former loans; insisted on the recall of the English
troops, and declared her resolution to make peace with Spain.
Several German princes promised aid in men and money, but never
furnished either; and in this most critical juncture, Henry IV.
was the only foreign sovereign who did not abandon the republic.
He sent them one thousand Swiss troops, whom he had in his pay;
allowed them to levy three thousand more in France; and gave
them a loan of two hundred thousand crowns--a very convenient
supply in their exhausted state.
The archdukes Albert and Isabella arrived in the Netherlands in
September, and made their entrance into Brussels with unexampled
magnificence. They soon found themselves in a situation quite as
critical as was that of the United Provinces, and both parties
displayed immense energy to remedy their mutual embarrassments.
The winter was extremely rigorous; so much so as to allow of
military operations being undertaken on the ice. Prince Maurice soon
commenced a Christmas campaign by taking the town of Wachtendenck;
and he followed up his success by obtaining possession of the
important forts of Crevecoeur and St. Andrew, in the island of
Bommel. A most dangerous mutiny at the same time broke out in
the army of the archdukes; and Albert seemed left without troops
or money at the very beginning of his sovereignty.
But these successes of Prince Maurice were only the prelude to
an expedition of infinitely more moment, arranged with the utmost
secrecy, and executed with an energy scarcely to be looked for from
the situation of the states. This was nothing less than an invasion
poured into the very heart of Flanders, thus putting the archdukes
on the defence of their own most vital possessions, and changing
completely the whole character of the war. The whole disposable
troops of the republic, amounting to about seventeen thousand
men, were secretly assembled in the island of Walcheren, in the
month of June; and setting sail for Flanders, they disembarked
near Ghent, and arrived on the 20th of that month under the walls
of Bruges. Some previous negotiations with that town had led
the prince to expect that it would have opened its gates at his
approach. In this he was, however, disappointed; and after taking
possession of some forts in the neighborhood, he continued his
march to Nieuport, which place he invested on the 1st of July.
At the news of this invasion the archdukes, though taken by surprise,
displayed a promptness and decision that proved them worthy of
the sovereignty which seemed at stake. With incredible activity
they mustered, in a few days, an army of twelve thousand men,
which they passed in review near Ghent. On this occasion Isabella,
proving her title to a place among those heroic women with whom
the age abounded, rode through the royalist ranks, and harangued
them in a style of inspiring eloquence that inflamed their courage
and secured their fidelity. Albert, seizing the moment of this
excitement, put himself at their head, and marched to seek the
enemy, leaving his intrepid wife at Bruges, the nearest town to
the scene of the action he was resolved on. He gained possession
of all the forts taken and garrisoned by Maurice a few days before;
and pushing forward with his apparently irresistible troops, he
came up on the morning of the 2d of July with a large body of
those of the states, consisting of about three thousand men, sent
forward under the command of Count Ernest of Nassau to reconnoitre
and judge of the extent of this most unexpected movement: for
Prince Maurice was, in his turn, completely surprised; and not
merely by one of those manoeuvres of war by which the best generals
are sometimes deceived, but by an exertion of political vigor and
capacity of which history offers few more striking examples. Such
a circumstance, however, served only to draw forth a fresh display
of those uncommon talents which in so many various accidents of
war had placed Maurice on the highest rank for military talent.
The detachment under Count Ernest of Nassau was chiefly composed
of Scottish infantry; and this small force stood firmly opposed
to the impetuous attack of the whole royalist army--thus giving
time to the main body under the prince to take up a position, and
form in order of battle. Count Ernest was at length driven back,
with the loss of eight hundred men killed, almost all Scottish;
and being cut off from the rest of the army, was forced to take
refuge in Ostend, which town was in possession of the troops
of the states.
The army of Albert now marched on, flushed with this first success
and confident of final victory. Prince Maurice received them
with the courage of a gallant soldier and the precaution of a
consummate general. He had caused the fleet of ships of war and
transports, which had sailed along the coast from Zealand, and
landed supplies of ammunition and provisions, to retire far from
the share, so as to leave to his army no chance of escape but in
victory. The commissioners from the states, who always accompanied
the prince as a council of observation rather than of war, had
retired to Ostend in great consternation, to wait the issue of
the battle which now seemed inevitable. A scene of deep feeling
and heroism was the next episode of this memorable day, and throws
the charm of natural affection over those circumstances in which
glory too seldom leaves a place for the softer emotions of the
heart. When the patriot army was in its position, and firmly
waiting the advance of the foe, Prince Maurice turned to his
brother, Frederick Henry, then sixteen years of age, and several
young noblemen, English, French, and German, who like him attended
on the great captain to learn the art of war: he pointed out
in a few words the perilous situation in which he was placed;
declared his resolution to conquer or perish on the battlefield,
and recommended the boyish band to retire to Ostend, and wait
for some less desperate occasion to share his renown or revenge
his fall. Frederick Henry spurned the affectionate suggestion,
and swore to stand by his brother to the last; and all his young
companions adopted the same generous resolution.
The army of the states was placed in order of battle, about a
league in front of Nieuport, in the sand hills with which the
neighborhood abounds, its left wing resting on the seashore. Its
losses of the morning, and of the garrisons left in the forts
near Bruges, reduced it to an almost exact equality with that of
the archduke. Each of these armies was composed of that variety
of troops which made them respectively an epitome of the various
nations of Europe. The patriot force contained Dutch, English,
French, German, and Swiss, under the orders of Count Louis of
Nassau, Sir Francis and Sir Horace Vere, brothers and English
officers of great celebrity, with other distinguished captains.
The archduke mustered Spaniards, Italians, Walloons, and Irish in
his ranks, led on by Mendoza, La Berlotta, and their fellow-veterans.
Both armies were in the highest state of discipline, trained to
war by long service, and enthusiastic in the several causes which
they served; the two highest principles of enthusiasm urging them
on--religious fanaticism on the one hand, and the love of freedom
on the other. The rival generals rode along their respective
lines, addressed a few brief sentences of encouragement to their
men, and presently the bloody contest began.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when the archduke commenced
the attack. His advanced guard, commanded by Mendoza and composed
of those former mutineers who now resolved to atone for their
misconduct, marched across the sand-hills with desperate resolution.
They soon came into contact with the English contingent under Francis
Vere, who was desperately wounded in the shock. The assault was
almost irresistible. The English, borne down by numbers, were
forced to give way; but the main body pressed on to their support.
Horace Vere stepped forward to supply his brother's place. Not
an inch of ground more was gained or lost; the firing ceased,
and pikes and swords crossed each other in the resolute conflict
of man to man. The action became general along the whole line.
The two commanders-in-chief were at all points. Nothing could
exceed their mutual display of skill and courage. At length the
Spanish cavalry, broken by the well-directed fire of the patriot
artillery, fell back on their infantry and threw it into confusion.
The archduke at the same instant was wounded by a lance in the
cheek, unhorsed, and forced to quit the field. The report of
his death, and the sight of his war-steed galloping alone across
the field, spread alarm through the royalist ranks. Prince Maurice
saw and seized on the critical moment. He who had so patiently
maintained his position for three hours of desperate conflict
now knew the crisis for a prompt and general advance. He gave
the word and led on to the charge, and the victory was at once
his own.
The defeat of the royalist army was complete. The whole of the
artillery, baggage, standards, and ammunition, fell into the
possession of the conquerors. Night coming on saved those who
fled, and the nature of the ground prevented the cavalry from
consummating the destruction of the whole. As far as the conflicting
accounts of the various historians may be compared and calculated
on, the royalists had three thousand killed, and among them several
officers of rank; while the patriot army, including those who fell
in the morning action, lost something more than half the number.
The archduke, furnished with a fresh horse, gained Bruges in safety;
but he only waited there long enough to join his heroic wife,
with whom he proceeded rapidly to Ghent, and thence to Brussels.
Mendoza was wounded and taken prisoner, and with difficulty saved
by Prince Maurice from the fury of the German auxiliaries.
The moral effect produced by this victory on the vanquishers
and vanquished, and on the state of public opinion throughout
Europe, was immense; but its immediate consequences were incredibly
trifling. Not one result in a military point of view followed
an event which appeared almost decisive of the war. Nieuport
was again invested three days after the battle; but a strong
reinforcement entering the place saved it from all danger, and
Maurice found himself forced for want of supplies to abandon the
scene of his greatest exploit. He returned to Holland, welcomed
by the acclamations of his grateful country, and exciting the
jealousy and hatred of all who envied his glory or feared his
power. Among the sincere and conscientious republicans who saw
danger to the public liberty in the growing influence of a successful
soldier, placed at the head of affairs and endeared to the people
by every hereditary and personal claim, was Olden Barneveldt,
the pensionary; and from this period may be traced the growth
of the mutual antipathy which led to the sacrifice of the most
virtuous statesman of Holland, and the eternal disgrace of its
hitherto heroic chief.
The states of the Catholic provinces assembled at Brussels now
gave the archdukes to understand that nothing but peace could
satisfy their wishes or save the country from exhaustion and
ruin. Albert saw the reasonableness of their remonstrances, and
attempted to carry the great object into effect. The states-general
listened to his proposals. Commissioners were appointed on both
sides to treat of terms. They met at Berg-op-Zoom; but their
conferences were broken up almost as soon as commenced. The Spanish
deputies insisted on the submission of the republic to its ancient
masters. Such a proposal was worse than insulting; it proved the
inveterate insincerity of those with whom it originated, and
who knew it could not be entertained for a moment. Preparations
for hostilities were therefore commenced on both sides, and the
whole of the winter was thus employed.
Early in the spring Prince Maurice opened the campaign at the
head of sixteen thousand men, chiefly composed of English and
French, who seemed throughout the contest to forget their national
animosities, and to know no rivalry but that of emulation in the
cause of liberty. The town of Rhinberg soon fell into the hands
of the prince. His next attempt was against Bois-le-duc; and the
siege of this place was signalized by an event that flavored of the
chivalric contests now going out of fashion. A Norman gentleman of
the name of Breaute, in the service of Prince Maurice, challenged
the royalist garrison to meet him and twenty of his comrades
in arms under the walls of the place. The cartel was accepted
by a Fleming named Abramzoom, but better known by the epithet
Leckerbeetje (savory bit), who, with twenty more, met Breaute
and his friends. The combat was desperate. The Flemish champion
was killed at the first shock by his Norman challenger; but the
latter falling into the hands of the enemy, they treacherously
and cruelly put him to death, in violation of the strict conditions
of the fight. Prince Maurice was forced to raise the siege of
Bois-le-duc, and turn his attention in another direction.
The archduke Albert had now resolved to invest Ostend, a place
of great importance to the United Provinces, but little worth to
either party in comparison with the dreadful waste of treasure
and human life which was the consequence of its memorable siege.
Sir Francis Vere commanded in the place at the period of its final
investment; but governors, garrisons, and besieging forces, were
renewed and replaced with a rapidity which gives one of the most
frightful instances of the ravages of war. The siege of Ostend lasted
upward of three years. It became a school for the young nobility
of all Europe, who repaired to either one or the other party to
learn the principles and the practice of attack and defence.
Everything that the art of strategy could devise was resorted to on
either side. The slaughter in the various assaults, sorties, and
bombardments was enormous. Squadrons at sea gave a double interest
to the land operations; and the celebrated brothers Frederick
and Ambrose Spinola founded their reputation on these opposing
elements. Frederick was killed in one of the naval combats with
the Dutch galleys, and the fame of reducing Ostend was reserved
for Ambrose. This afterward celebrated general had undertaken
the command at the earnest entreaties of the archduke and the
king of Spain, and by the firmness and vigor of his measures
he revived the courage of the worn-out assailants of the place.
Redoubled attacks and multiplied mines at length reduced the town
to a mere mass of ruin, and scarcely left its still undaunted
garrison sufficient footing on which to prolong their desperate
defence. Ostend at length surrendered, on the 22d of September,
1604, and the victors marched in over its crumbled walls and
shattered batteries. Scarcely a vestige of the place remained
beyond those terrible evidences of destruction. Its ditches,
filled up with the rubbish of ramparts, bastions, and redoubts,
left no distinct line of separation between the operations of
its attack and its defence. It resembled rather a vast sepulchre
than a ruined town, a mountain of earth and rubbish, without a
single house in which the wretched remnant of the inhabitants
could hide their heads--a monument of desolation on which victory
might have sat and wept.
During the progress of this memorable siege Queen Elizabeth of
England had died, after a long and, it must be pronounced, a
glorious reign; though the glory belongs rather to the nation
than to the monarch, whose memory is marked with indelible stains
of private cruelty, as in the cases of Essex and Mary Queen of
Scots, and of public wrongs, as in that of her whole system of
tyranny in Ireland. With respect to the United Provinces she was
a harsh protectress and a capricious ally. She in turns advised
them to remain faithful to the old impurities of religion and to
their intolerable king; refused to incorporate them with her
own states; and then used her best efforts for subjecting them to
her sway. She seemed to take pleasure in the uncertainty to which
she reduced them, by constant demands for payment of her loans,
and threats of making peace with Spain. Thus the states-general
were not much affected by the news of her death; and so rejoiced
were they at the accession of James I. to the throne of England
that all the bells of Holland rang out merry peals; bonfires
were set blazing all over the country; a letter of congratulation
was despatched to the new monarch; and it was speedily followed
by a solemn embassy composed of Prince Frederick Henry, the grand
pensionary De Barneveldt, and others of the first dignitaries of
the republic. These ambassadors were grievously disappointed at
the reception given to them by James, who treated them as little
better than rebels to their lawful king. But this first disposition
to contempt and insult was soon overcome by the united talents
of Barneveldt and the great duke of Sully, who were at the same
period ambassadors from France at the English court. The result
of the negotiations was an agreement between those two powers to
take the republic under their protection, and use their best
efforts for obtaining the recognition of its independence by
Spain.
The states-general considered themselves amply recompensed for
the loss of Ostend by the taking of Ecluse, Rhinberg, and Grave,
all of which had in the interval surrendered to Prince Maurice;
but they were seriously alarmed on finding themselves abandoned
by King James, who concluded a separate peace with Philip III.
of Spain in the month of August this year.
This event gives rise to a question very important to the honor
of James, and consequently to England itself, as the acts of
the absolute monarchs of those days must be considered as those
of the nations which submitted to such a form of government.
Historians of great authority have asserted that it appeared
that, by a secret agreement, the king had expressly reserved the
power of sending assistance to Holland. Others deny the existence
of this secret article; and lean heavily on the reputation of
James for his conduct in the transaction. It must be considered
a very doubtful point, and is to be judged rather by subsequent
events than by any direct testimony.
The two monarchs stipulated in the treaty that "neither was to
give support of any kind to the revolted subjects of the other."
It is nevertheless true that James did not withdraw his troops
from the service of the states; but he authorized the Spaniards
to levy soldiers in England. The United Provinces were at once
afflicted and indignant at this equivocal conduct. Their first
impulse was to deprive the English of the liberty of navigating
the Scheldt. They even arrested the progress of several of their
merchant-ships. But soon after, gratified at finding that James
received their deputy with the title of ambassador, they resolved
to dissimulate their resentment.
Prince Maurice and Spinola now took the field with their respective
armies; and a rapid series of operations placing them in direct
contact, displayed their talents in the most striking points
of view. The first steps on the part of the prince were a new
invasion of Flanders, and an attempt on Antwerp, which he hoped
to carry before the Spanish army could arrive to its succor.
But the promptitude and sagacity of Spinola defeated this plan,
which Maurice was obliged to abandon after some loss; while the
royalist general resolved to signalize himself by some important
movement, and, ere his design was suspected, he had penetrated
into the province of Overyssel, and thus retorted his rival's
favorite measure of carrying the war into the enemy's country.
Several towns were rapidly reduced; but Maurice flew toward the
threatened provinces, and by his active measures forced Spinola
to fall back on the Rhine and take up a position near Roeroord,
where he was impetuously attacked by the Dutch army. But the
cavalry having followed up too slowly the orders of Maurice,
his hope of surprising the royalists was frustrated; and the
Spanish forces, gaining time by this hesitation, soon changed
the fortune of the day. The Dutch cavalry shamefully took to
flight, despite the gallant endeavors of both Maurice and his
brother Frederick Henry; and at this juncture a large reinforcement
of Spaniards arrived under the command of Velasco. Maurice now
brought forward some companies of English and French infantry
under Horatio Vere and D'Omerville, also a distinguished officer.
The battle was again fiercely renewed; and the Spaniards now
gave way, and had been completely defeated, had not Spinola put
in practice an old and generally successful stratagem. He caused
almost all the drums of his army to beat in one direction, so
as to give the impression that a still larger reinforcement was
approaching. Maurice, apprehensive that the former panic might
find a parallel in a fresh one, prudently ordered a retreat, which
he was able to effect in good order, in preference to risking the
total disorganization of his troops. The loss on each side was
nearly the same; but the glory of this hard-fought day remained
on the side of Spinola, who proved himself a worthy successor of
the great duke of Parma, and an antagonist with whom Maurice
might contend without dishonor.
The naval transactions of this year restored the balance which
Spinola's successes had begun to turn in favor of the royalist
cause. A squadron of ships, commanded by Hautain, admiral of
Zealand, attacked a superior force of Spanish vessels close to
Dover, and defeated them with considerable loss. But the victory
was sullied by an act of great barbarity. All the soldiers found
on board the captured ships were tied two and two and mercilessly
flung into the sea. Some contrived to extricate themselves, and
gained the shore by swimming; others were picked up by the English
boats, whose crews witnessed the scene and hastened to their
relief. The generous British seamen could not remain neuter in
such a moment, nor repress their indignation against those whom
they had hitherto so long considered as friends. The Dutch vessels
pursuing those of Spain which fled into Dover harbor, were fired
on by the cannon of the castle and forced to give up the chase.
The English loudly complained that the Dutch had on this occasion
violated their territory; and this transaction laid the foundation
of the quarrel which subsequently broke out between England and
the republic, and which the jealousies of rival merchants in
either state unceasingly fomented. In this year also the Dutch
succeeded in capturing the chief of the Dunkirk privateers, which
had so long annoyed their trade; and they cruelly ordered sixty
of the prisoners to be put to death. But the people, more humane
than the authorities, rescued them from the executioners and
set them free.
But these domestic instances of success and inhumanity were trifling
in comparison with the splendid train of distant events, accompanied
by a course of wholesale benevolence, that redeemed the traits
of petty guilt. The maritime enterprises of Holland, forced by
the imprudent policy of Spain to seek a wider career than in the
narrow seas of Europe, were day by day extended in the Indies.
To ruin if possible their increasing trade, Philip III. sent
out the admiral Hurtado, with a fleet of eight galleons and
thirty-two galleys. The Dutch squadron of five vessels, commanded
by Wolfert Hermanszoon, attacked them off the coast of Malabar,
and his temerity was crowned with great success. He took two
of their vessels, and completely drove the remainder from the
Indian seas. He then concluded a treaty with the natives of the
isle of Banda, by which he promised to support them against the
Spaniards and Portuguese, on condition that they were to give his
fellow-countrymen the exclusive privilege of purchasing the spices
of the island. This treaty was the foundation of the influence
which the Dutch so soon succeeded in forming in the East Indies;
and they established it by a candid, mild, and tolerant conduct,
strongly contrasted with the pride and bigotry which had signalized
every act of the Portuguese and Spaniards.
The prodigious success of the Indian trade occasioned numerous
societies to be formed all through the republic. But by their
great number they became at length injurious to each other. The
spirit of speculation was pushed too far; and the merchants, who
paid enormous prices for India goods, found themselves forced
to sell in Europe at a loss. Many of those societies were too
weak, in military force as well as in capital, to resist the
armed competition of the Spaniards, and to support themselves
in their disputes with the native princes. At length the
states-general resolved to unite the whole of these scattered
partnerships into one grand company, which was soon organized
on a solid basis that led ere long to incredible wealth at home
and a rapid succession of conquests in the East.