TO THE DEATH OF PRINCE MAURICE
A.D. 1619--1625
The princess-dowager of Orange, and Du Maurier, the French
ambassador, had vainly implored mercy for the innocent victim at
the hands of the inexorable stadtholder. Maurice refused to see
his mother-in-law: he left the ambassador's appeal unanswered.
This is enough for the rigid justice of history that cannot be
blinded by partiality, but hands over to shame, at the close
of their career, even those whom she nursed in the very cradle
of heroism. But an accusation has become current, more fatal
to the fame of Prince Maurice, because it strikes at the root
of his claims to feeling, which could not be impugned by a mere
perseverance in severity that might have sprung from mistaken
views. It is asserted, but only as general belief, that he witnessed
the execution of Barneveldt. The little window of an octagonal
tower, overlooking the square of the Binnenhof at The Hague,
where the tragedy was acted, is still shown as the spot from
which the prince gazed on the scene. Almost concealed from view
among the clustering buildings of the place, it is well adapted
to give weight to the tradition; but it may not, perhaps, even
now be too late to raise a generous incredulity as to an assertion
of which no eye-witness attestation is recorded, and which might
have been the invention of malignity. There are many statements
of history which it is immaterial to substantiate or disprove.
Splendid fictions of public virtue have often produced their
good if once received as fact; but, when private character is
at stake, every conscientious writer or reader will cherish his
"historic doubts," when he reflects on the facility with which
calumny is sent abroad, the avidity with which it is received,
and the careless ease with which men credit what it costs little
to invent and propagate, but requires an age of trouble and an
almost impossible conjunction of opportunities effectually to
refute.
Grotius and Hoogerbeets were confined in the castle of Louvestein.
Moersbergen, a leading patriot of Utrecht, De Haan, pensionary
of Haarlem, and Uitenbogaard, the chosen confidant of Maurice,
but the friend of Barneveldt, were next accused and sentenced
to imprisonment or banishment. And thus Arminianism, deprived of
its chiefs, was for the time completely stifled. The Remonstrants,
thrown into utter despair, looked to emigration as their last
resource. Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and Frederick, duke
of Holstein, offered them shelter and protection in their respective
states. Several availed themselves of these offers; but the
states-general, alarmed at the progress of self-expatriation,
moderated their rigor, and thus checked the desolating evil.
Several of the imprisoned Arminians had the good fortune to elude
the vigilance of their jailers; but the escape of Grotius is
the most remarkable of all, both from his own celebrity as one
of the first writers of his age in the most varied walks of
literature, and from its peculiar circumstances, which only found
a parallel in European history after a lapse of two centuries.
We allude to the escape of Lavalette from the prison of the
Conciergerie in Paris in 1815, which so painfully excited the
interest of all Europe for the intended victim's wife, whose
reason was the forfeit of her exertion.
Grotius was freely allowed during his close imprisonment all the
relaxations of study. His friends supplied him with quantities of
books, which were usually brought into the fortress in a trunk two
feet two inches long, which the governor regularly and carefully
examined during the first year. But custom brought relaxation in
the strictness of the prison rules; and the wife of the illustrious
prisoner, his faithful and constant visitor, proposed the plan of
his escape, to which he gave a ready and, all hazards considered,
a courageous assent. Shut up in this trunk for two hours, and
with all the risk of suffocation, and of injury from the rude
handling of the soldiers who carried it out of the fort, Grotius
was brought clear off by the very agents of his persecutors,
and safely delivered to the care of his devoted and discreet
female servant, who knew the secret and kept it well. She attended
the important consignment in the barge to the town of Gorcum;
and after various risks of discovery, providentially escaped,
Grotius at length found himself safe beyond the limits of his
native land. His wife, whose torturing suspense may be imagined
the while, concealed the stratagem as long as it was possible
to impose on the jailer with the pardonable and praiseworthy
fiction of her husband's illness and confinement to his bed.
The government, outrageous at the result of the affair, at first
proposed to hold this interesting prisoner in place of the prey
they had lost, and to proceed criminally against her. But after
a fortnight's confinement she was restored to liberty, and the
country saved from the disgrace of so ungenerous and cowardly
a proceeding. Grotius repaired to Paris, where he was received
in the most flattering manner, and distinguished by a pension
of one thousand crowns allowed by the king. He soon published
his vindication--one of the most eloquent and unanswerable
productions of its kind, in which those times of unjust accusations
and illegal punishments were so fertile.
The expiration of the twelve years' truce was now at hand; and
the United Provinces, after that long period of intestine trouble
and disgrace, had once more to recommence a more congenial struggle
against foreign enemies; for a renewal of the war with Spain
might be fairly considered a return to the regimen best suited
to the constitution of the people. The republic saw, however,
with considerable anxiety, the approach of this new contest. It
was fully sensible of its own weakness. Exile had reduced its
population; patriotism had subsided; foreign friends were dead;
the troops were unused to warfare; the hatred against Spanish
cruelty had lost its excitement; the finances were in confusion;
Prince Maurice had no longer the activity of youth; and the still
more vigorous impulse of fighting for his country's liberty was
changed to the dishonoring task of upholding his own tyranny.
The archdukes, encouraged by these considerations, had hopes
of bringing back the United Provinces to their domination. They
accordingly sent an embassy to Holland with proposals to that
effect. It was received with indignation; and the ambassador,
Peckius, was obliged to be escorted back to the frontiers by
soldiers, to protect him from the insults of the people. Military
operations were, however, for a while refrained from on either
side, in consequence of the deaths of Philip III. of Spain and
the archduke Albert. Philip IV. succeeded his father at the age
of sixteen; and the archduchess Isabella found herself alone at
the head of the government in the Belgian provinces. Olivarez
became as sovereign a minister in Spain, as his predecessor the
duke of Lerma had been; but the archduchess, though now with
only the title of stadtholderess of the Netherlands, held the
reins of power with a firm and steady hand.
In the celebrated thirty years' war which had commenced between
the Protestants and Catholics of Germany, the former had met with
considerable assistance from the United Provinces. Barneveldt, who
foresaw the embarrassments which the country would have to contend
with on the expiration of that truce, had strongly opposed its
meddling in the quarrel; but his ruin and death left no restraint
on the policy which prompted the republic to aid the Protestant
cause. Fifty thousand florins a month to the revolted Protestants,
and a like sum to the princes of the union, were for some time
advanced. Frederick, the elector palatine, son-in-law of the
king of England, and nephew of the prince, was chosen by the
Bohemians for their king; but in spite of the enthusiastic wishes
of the English nation, James persisted in refusing to interfere
in Frederick's favor. France, governed by De Luynes, a favorite
whose influence was deeply pledged, and, it is said, dearly sold to
Spain, abandoned the system of Henry IV., and upheld the House of
Austria. Thus the new monarch, only aided by the United Provinces,
and that feebly, was soon driven from his temporary dignity;
his hereditary dominions in the palatinate were overrun by the
Spanish army under Spinola; and Frederick, utterly defeated at
the battle of Prague, was obliged to take refuge in Holland.
James's abandonment of his son-in-law has been universally blamed
by almost every historian. He certainly allowed a few generous
individuals to raise a regiment in England of two thousand four
hundred chosen soldiers, who, under the command of the gallant
Sir Horace Vere, could only vainly regret the impossibility of
opposition to ten times their number of veteran troops.
This contest was carried on at first with almost all the advantages
on the side of the House of Austria. Two men of extraordinary
character, which presented a savage parody of military talent,
and a courage chiefly remarkable for the ferocity into which it
degenerated, struggled for a while against the imperial arms.
These were the count of Mansfield and Christian of Brunswick. At
the head of two desperate bands, which, by dint of hard fighting,
acquired something of the consistency of regular armies, they
maintained a long resistance; but the duke of Bavaria, commanding
the troops of the emperor, and Count Tilly at the head of those
of Spain, completed in the year 1622 the defeat of their daring
and semi-barbarous opponents.
Spinola was resolved to commence the war against the republic by
some important exploit. He therefore laid siege to Berg-op-Zoom,
a place of great consequence, commanding the navigation of the
Meuse and the coasts of all the islands of Zealand. But Maurice,
roused from the lethargy of despotism which seemed to have wholly
changed his character, repaired to the scene of threatened danger;
and succeeded, after a series of desperate efforts on both sides,
to raise the siege, forcing Spinola to abandon his attempt with
a loss of upward of twelve thousand men. Frederick Henry in the
meantime had made an incursion into Brabant with a body of light
troops; and ravaging the country up to the very gates of Mechlin,
Louvain, and Brussels, levied contributions to the amount of
six hundred thousand florins. The states completed this series
of good fortune by obtaining the possession of West Friesland,
by means of Count Mansfield, whom they had despatched thither
at the head of his formidable army, and who had, in spite of the
opposition of Count Tilly, successfully performed his mission.
We must now turn from these brief records of military affairs,
the more pleasing theme for the historian of the Netherlands
in comparison with domestic events, which claim attention but
to create sensations of regret and censure. Prince Maurice had
enjoyed without restraint the fruits of his ambitious daring.
His power was uncontrolled and unopposed, but it was publicly
odious; and private resentments were only withheld by fear, and,
perhaps, in some measure by the moderation and patience which
distinguished the disciples of Arminianism. In the midst, however,
of the apparent calm, a deep conspiracy was formed against the
life of the prince. The motives, the conduct, and the termination
of this plot, excite feelings of many opposite kinds. We cannot,
as in former instances, wholly execrate the design and approve
the punishment. Commiseration is mingled with blame, when we
mark the sons of Barneveldt, urged on by the excess of filial
affection to avenge their venerable father's fate; and despite
our abhorrence for the object in view, we sympathize with the
conspirators rather than the intended victim. William von
Stoutenbourg and Renier de Groeneveld were the names of these
two sons of the late pensionary. The latter was the younger;
but, of more impetuous character than his brother, he was the
principal in the plot. Instead of any efforts to soften down
the hatred of this unfortunate family, these brothers had been
removed from their employments, their property was confiscated,
and despair soon urged them to desperation. In such a time of
general discontent it was easy to find accomplices. Seven or
eight determined men readily joined in the plot; of these, two
were Catholics, the rest Arminians; the chief of whom was Henry
Slatius, a preacher of considerable eloquence, talent, and energy.
It was first proposed to attack the prince at Rotterdam; but
the place was soon after changed for Ryswyk, a village near The
Hague, and afterward celebrated by the treaty of peace signed
there and which bears its name. Ten other associates were soon
engaged by the exertions of Slatius: these were Arminian artisans
and sailors, to whom the actual execution of the murder was to
be confided; and they were persuaded that it was planned with
the connivance of Prince Frederick Henry, who was considered
by the Arminians as the secret partisan of their sect. The 6th
of February was fixed on for the accomplishment of the deed.
The better to conceal the design, the conspirators agreed to go
unarmed to the place, where they were to find a box containing
pistols and poniards in a spot agreed upon. The death of the
Prince of Orange was not the only object intended. During the
confusion subsequent to the hoped-for success of that first blow,
the chief conspirators intended to excite simultaneous revolts
at Leyden, Gouda, and Rotterdam, in which towns the Arminians
were most numerous. A general revolution throughout Holland was
firmly reckoned on as the infallible result; and success was
enthusiastically looked for to their country's freedom and their
individual fame.
But the plot, however cautiously laid and resolutely persevered
in, was doomed to the fate of many another; and the horror of
a second murder (but with far different provocation from the
first) averted from the illustrious family to whom was still
destined the glory of consolidating the country it had formed.
Two brothers named Blansaart, and one Parthy, having procured a
considerable sum of money from the leading conspirators, repaired
to The Hague, as they asserted, for the purpose of betraying the
plot; but they were forestalled in this purpose: four of the
sailors had gone out to Ryswyk the preceding evening, and laid the
whole of the project, together with the wages of their intended
crime, before the prince; who, it would appear, then occupied the
ancient chateau, which no longer exists at Ryswyk. The box of arms
was found in the place pointed out by the informers, and measures
were instantly taken to arrest the various accomplices. Several
were seized. Groeneveld had escaped along the coast disguised as
a fisherman, and had nearly effected his passage to England,
when he was recognized and arrested in the island of Vlieland.
Slatius and others were also intercepted in their attempts at
escape.--Stoutenbourg, the most culpable of all, was the most
fortunate; probably from the energy of character which marks
the difference between a bold adventurer and a timid speculator.
He is believed to have passed from The Hague in the same manner
as Grotius quitted his prison; and, by the aid of a faithful
servant, he accomplished his escape through various perils, and
finally reached Brussels, where the archduchess Isabella took him
under her special protection. He for several years made efforts to
be allowed to return to Holland; but finding them hopeless, even
after the death of Maurice, he embraced the Catholic religion, and
obtained the command of a troop of Spanish cavalry, at the head
of which he made incursions into his native country, carrying
before him a black flag with the effigy of a death's head, to
announce the mournful vengeance which he came to execute.
Fifteen persons were executed for the conspiracy. If ever mercy
was becoming to a man, it would have been pre-eminently so to
Maurice on this occasion; but he was inflexible as adamant. The
mother, the wife, and the son of Groeneveld, threw themselves at
his feet, imploring pardon. Prayers, tears and sobs were alike
ineffectual. It is even said that Maurice asked the wretched
mother "why she begged mercy for her son, having refused to do
as much for her husband?" To which cruel question she is reported
to have made the sublime answer--"Because my son is guilty, and
my husband was not."
These bloody executions caused a deep sentiment of gloom. The
conspiracy excited more pity for the victims than horror for the
intended crime. Maurice, from being the idol of his countrymen, was
now become an object of their fear and dislike. When he moved from
town to town, the people no longer hailed him with acclamations; and
even the common tokens of outward respect were at times withheld. The
Spaniards, taking advantage of the internal weakness consequent on
this state of public feeling in the States, made repeated incursions
into the provinces, which were now united but in title, not in
spirit. Spinola was once more in the field, and had invested the
important town of Breda, which was the patrimonial inheritance
of the princes of Orange. Maurice was oppressed with anxiety
and regret; and, for the sake of his better feelings, it may be
hoped, with remorse. He could effect nothing against his rival;
and he saw his own laurels withering from his careworn brow. The
only hope left of obtaining the so much wanted supplies of money
was in the completion of a new treaty with France and England.
Cardinal Richelieu, desirous of setting bounds to the ambition
and the successes of the House of Austria, readily came into
the views of the States; and an obligation for a loan of one
million two hundred thousand livres during the year 1624, and one
million more for each of the two succeeding years, was granted
by the king of France, on condition that the republic made no
new truce with Spain without his mediation.
An alliance nearly similar was at the same time concluded with
England. Perpetual quarrels on commercial questions loosened
the ties which bound the States to their ancient allies. The
failure of his son's intended marriage with the infanta of Spain
had opened the eyes of King James to the way in which he was
despised by those who seemed so much to respect him. He was highly
indignant; and he undertook to revenge himself by aiding the
republic. He agreed to furnish six thousand men, and supply the
funds for their pay, with a provision for repayment by the States
at the conclusion of a peace with Spain.
Prince Maurice had no opportunity of reaping the expected advantages
from these treaties. Baffled in all his efforts for relieving
Breda, and being unsuccessful in a new attempt upon Antwerp,
he returned to The Hague, where a lingering illness, that had
for some time exhausted him, terminated in his death on the 23d
of April, 1625, in his fifty-ninth year. Most writers attribute
this event to agitation at being unable to relieve Breda from
the attack of Spinola. It is in any case absurd to suppose that
the loss of a single town could have produced so fatal an effect
on one whose life had been an almost continual game of the chances
of war. But cause enough for Maurice's death may be found in the
wearing effects of thirty years of active military service, and
the more wasting ravages of half as many of domestic despotism.