TO THE TREATY OF MUNSTER
A.D. 1625--1648
Frederick Henry succeeded to almost all his brother's titles and
employments, and found his new dignities clogged with an accumulation
of difficulties sufficient to appall the most determined spirit.
Everything seemed to justify alarm and despondency. If the affairs
of the republic in India wore an aspect of prosperity, those in
Europe presented a picture of past disaster and approaching peril.
Disunion and discontent, an almost insupportable weight of taxation,
and the disputes of which it was the fruitful source, formed
the subjects of internal ill. Abroad was to be seen navigation
harassed and trammelled by the pirates of Dunkirk; and the almost
defenceless frontiers of the republic exposed to the irruptions
of the enemy. The king of Denmark, who endeavored to make head
against the imperialist and Spanish forces, was beaten by Tilly,
and made to tremble for the safety of his own States. England did
nothing toward the common cause of Protestantism, in consequence
of the weakness of the monarch; and civil dissensions for a while
disabled France from resuming the system of Henry IV. for humbling
the House of Austria.
Frederick Henry was at this period in his forty-second year.
His military reputation was well established; he soon proved his
political talents. He commenced his career by a total change in
the tone of government on the subject of sectarian differences.
He exercised several acts of clemency in favor of the imprisoned
and exiled Arminians, at the same time that he upheld the dominant
religion. By these measures he conciliated all parties; and by
degrees the fierce spirit of intolerance became subdued. The foreign
relations of the United Provinces now presented the anomalous
policy of a fleet furnished by the French king, manned by rigid
Calvinists, and commanded by a grandson of Admiral Coligny, for
the purpose of combating the remainder of the French Huguenots,
whom they considered as brothers in religion, though political
foes; and during the joint expedition which was undertaken by the
allied French and Dutch troops against Rochelle, the stronghold
of Protestantism, the preachers of Holland put up prayers for the
protection of those whom their army was marching to destroy. The
states-general, ashamed of this unpopular union, recalled their
fleet, after some severe fighting with that of the Huguenots.
Cardinal Richelieu and the king of France were for a time furious
in their displeasure; but interests of state overpowered individual
resentments, and no rupture took place.
Charles I. had now succeeded his father on the English throne.
He renewed the treaty with the republic, which furnished him
with twenty ships to assist his own formidable fleet in his war
against Spain. Frederick Henry had, soon after his succession
to the chief command, commenced an active course of martial
operations, and was successful in almost all his enterprises.
He took Groll and several other towns; and it was hoped that
his successes would have been pushed forward upon a wider field
of action against the imperial arms; but the States prudently
resolved to act on the defensive by land, choosing the sea for
the theatre of their more active operations. All the hopes of a
powerful confederation against the emperor and the king of Spain
seemed frustrated by the war which now broke out between France
and England. The states-general contrived by great prudence to
maintain a strict neutrality in this quarrel. They even succeeded
in mediating a peace between the rival powers, which was concluded
the following year; and in the meantime they obtained a more
astonishing and important series of triumphs against the Spanish
fleets than had yet been witnessed in naval conflicts.
The West India Company had confided the command of their fleet to
Peter Hein, a most intrepid and intelligent sailor, who proved his
own merits, and the sagacity of his employers on many occasions,
two of them of an extraordinary nature. In 1627, he defeated a
fleet of twenty-six vessels, with a much inferior force. In the
following year, he had the still more brilliant good fortune,
near Havana, in the island of Cuba, in an engagement with the
great Spanish armament, called the Money Fleet, to indicate the
immense wealth which it contained. The booty was safely carried
to Amsterdam, and the whole of the treasure, in money, precious
stones, indigo, etc., was estimated at the value of twelve million
florins. This was indeed a victory worth gaining, won almost
without bloodshed, and raising the republic far above the manifold
difficulties by which it had been embarrassed. Hein perished
in the following year, in a combat with some of the pirates of
Dunkirk--those terrible freebooters whose name was a watchword
of terror during the whole continuance of the war.
The year 1629 brought three formidable armies at once to the
frontiers of the republic, and caused a general dismay all through
the United Provinces; but the immense treasures taken from the
Spaniards enabled them to make preparations suitable to the danger;
and Frederick Henry, supported by his cousin William of Nassau, his
natural brother Justin, and other brave and experienced officers,
defeated every effort of the enemy. He took many towns in rapid
succession; and finally forced the Spaniards to abandon all notion
of invading the territories of the republic. Deprived of the
powerful talents of Spinola, who was called to command the Spanish
troops in Italy, the armies of the archduchess, under the count
of Berg, were not able to cope with the genius of the Prince of
Orange. The consequence was the renewal of negotiations for a
second truce. But these were received on the part of the republic
with a burst of opposition. All parties seemed decided on that
point; and every interest, however opposed on minor questions,
combined to give a positive negative on this.
The gratitude of the country for the services of Frederick Henry
induced the provinces of which he was stadtholder to grant the
reversion in this title to his son, a child of three years old;
and this dignity had every chance of becoming as absolute, as it
was now pronounced almost hereditary, by the means of an army
of one hundred and twenty thousand men devoted to their chief.
However, few military occurrences took place, the sea being still
chosen as the element best suited to the present enterprises
of the republic. In the widely-distant settlements of Brazil
and Batavia, the Dutch were equally successful; and the East
and West India companies acquired eminent power and increasing
solidity.
The year 1631 was signalized by an expedition into Flanders,
consisting of eighteen thousand men, intended against Dunkirk,
but hastily abandoned, in spite of every probability of success,
by the commissioners of the states-general, who accompanied the
army, and thwarted all the ardor and vigor of the Prince of Orange.
But another great naval victory in the narrow seas of Zealand
recompensed the disappointments of this inglorious affair.
The splendid victories of Augustus Adolphus against the imperial
arms in Germany changed the whole face of European affairs.
Protestantism began once more to raise its head; and the important
conquests by Frederick Henry of almost all the strong places
on the Meuse, including Maestricht, the strongest of all, gave
the United Provinces their ample share in the glories of the
war. The death of the archduchess Isabella, which took place at
Brussels in the year 1633, added considerably to the difficulties
of Spain in the Belgian provinces. The defection of the count
of Berg, the chief general of their armies, who was actuated
by resentment on the appointment of the marquis of St. Croix
over his head, threw everything into confusion, in exposing a
widespread confederacy among the nobility of these provinces
to erect themselves into an independent republic, strengthened
by a perpetual alliance with the United Provinces against the
power of Spain. But the plot failed, chiefly, it is said, by
the imprudence of the king of England, who let the secret slip,
from some motives vaguely hinted at, but never sufficiently
explained. After the death of Isabella, the prince of Brabancon
was arrested. The prince of Epinoi and the duke of Burnonville
made their escape; and the duke of Arschot, who was arrested in
Spain, was soon liberated, in consideration of some discoveries
into the nature of the plot. An armistice, published in 1634,
threw this whole affair into complete oblivion.
The king of Spain appointed his brother Ferdinand, a cardinal
and archbishop of Toledo, to the dignity of governor-general of
the Netherlands. He repaired to Germany at the head of seventeen
thousand men, and bore his share in the victory of Nordlingen;
after which he hastened to the Netherlands, and made his entry
into Brussels in 1634. Richelieu had hitherto only combated the
house of Austria in these countries by negotiation and intrigue;
but he now entered warmly into the proposals made by Holland for
a treaty offensive and defensive between Louis XIII. and the
republic. By a treaty soon after concluded (February 8, 1635)
the king of France engaged to invade the Belgian provinces with
an army of thirty thousand men, in concert with a Dutch force
of equal number. It was agreed that if Belgium would consent
to break from the Spanish yoke it was to be erected into a free
state; if, on the contrary, it would not co-operate for its own
freedom, France and Holland were to dismember, and to divide
it equally.
The plan of these combined measures was soon acted on. The French
army took the field under the command of the marshals De Chatillon
and De Breeze; and defeated the Spaniards in a bloody battle,
near Avein, in the province of Luxemburg, on the 20th of May,
1635, with the loss of four thousand men. The victors soon made
a junction with the Prince of Orange; and the towns of Tirlemont,
St. Trond, and some others, were quickly reduced. The former of
these places was taken by assault, and pillaged with circumstances
of cruelty that recall the horrors of the early transactions of
the war. The Prince of Orange was forced to punish severely the
authors of these offences. The consequences of this event were
highly injurious to the allies. A spirit of fierce resistance was
excited throughout the invaded provinces. Louvain set the first
example. The citizens and students took arms for its defence; and
the combined forces of France and Holland were repulsed, and forced
by want of supplies to abandon the siege, and rapidly retreat. The
prince-cardinal, as Ferdinand was called, took advantage of this
reverse to press the retiring French; recovered several towns;
and gained all the advantages as well as glory of the campaign.
The remains of the French army, reduced by continual combats,
and still more by sickness, finally embarked at Rotterdam, to
return to France in the ensuing spring, a sad contrast to its
brilliant appearance at the commencement of the campaign.
The military events for several ensuing years present nothing
of sufficient interest to induce us to record them in detail. A
perpetual succession of sieges and skirmishes afford a monotonous
picture of isolated courage and skill; but we see none of those
great conflicts which bring out the genius of opposing generals, and
show war in its grand results, as the decisive means of enslaving
or emancipating mankind. The prince-cardinal, one of the many who
on this bloody theatre displayed consummate military talents,
incessantly employed himself in incursions into the bordering
provinces of France, ravaged Picardy, and filled Paris with fear
and trembling. He, however, reaped no new laurels when he came
into contact with Frederick Henry, who, on almost every occasion,
particularly that of the siege of Breda, in 1637, carried his object
in spite of all opposition. The triumphs of war were balanced; but
Spain and the Belgian provinces, so long upheld by the talent
of the governor-general, were gradually become exhausted. The
revolution in Portugal, and the succession of the duke of Braganza,
under the title of John IV., to the throne of his ancestors,
struck a fatal blow to the power of Spain. A strict alliance
was concluded between the new monarch of France and Holland; and
hostilities against the common enemy were on all sides vigorously
continued.
The successes of the republic at sea and in their distant enterprises
were continual, and in some instances brilliant. Brazil was gradually
falling into the power of the West India Company. The East India
possessions were secure. The great victory of Van Tromp, known
by the name of the battle of the Downs, from being fought off
the coast of England, on the 21st of October, 1639, raised the
naval reputation of Holland as high as it could well be carried.
Fifty ships taken, burned, and sunk, were the proofs of their
admiral's triumph; and the Spanish navy never recovered the loss.
The victory was celebrated throughout Europe, and Van Tromp was
the hero of the day. The king of England was, however, highly
indignant at the hardihood with which the Dutch admiral broke
through the etiquette of territorial respect, and destroyed his
country's bitter foes under the very sanction of English neutrality.
But the subjects of Charles I. did not partake their monarch's
feelings. They had no sympathy with arbitrary and tyrannic
government; and their joy at the misfortune of their old enemies
the Spaniards gave a fair warning of the spirit which afterward
proved so fatal to the infatuated king, who on this occasion
would have protected and aided them.
In an unsuccessful enterprise in Flanders, Count Henry Casimir
of Nassau was mortally wounded, adding another to the list of
those of that illustrious family whose lives were lost in the
service of their country. His brother, Count William Frederick,
succeeded him in his office of stadtholder of Friesland; but the
same dignity in the provinces of Groningen and Drent devolved
on the Prince of Orange. The latter had conceived the desire of a
royal alliance for his son William. Charles I. readily assented
to the proposal of the states-general that this young prince
should receive the hand of his daughter Mary. Embassies were
exchanged; the conditions of the contract agreed on; but it was
not till two years later that Van Tromp, with an escort of twenty
ships, conducted the princess, then twelve years old, to the
country of her future husband. The republic did not view with an
eye quite favorable this advancing aggrandizement of the House
of Orange. Frederick Henry had shortly before been dignified by
the king of France, at the suggestion of Richelieu, with the
title of "highness," instead of the inferior one of "excellency";
and the states-general, jealous of this distinction granted to
their chief magistrate, adopted for themselves the sounding
appellation of "high and mighty lords." The Prince of Orange,
whatever might have been his private views of ambition, had however
the prudence to silence all suspicion, by the mild and moderate
use which he made of the power, which he might perhaps have wished
to increase, but never attempted to abuse.
On the 9th of November, 1641, the prince-cardinal Ferdinand died
at Brussels in his thirty-third year; another instance of those
who were cut off, in the very vigor of manhood, from worldly
dignities and the exercise of the painful and inauspicious duties
of governor-general of the Netherlands. Don Francisco de Mello, a
nobleman of highly reputed talents, was the next who obtained this
onerous situation. He commenced his governorship by a succession of
military operations, by which, like most of his predecessors, he
is alone distinguished. Acts of civil administration are scarcely
noticed by the historians of these men. Not one of them, with
the exception of the archduke Albert, seems to have valued the
internal interests of the government; and he alone, perhaps,
because they were declared and secured as his own. De Mello,
after taking some towns, and defeating the marshal De Guiche in
the battle of Hannecourt, tarnished all his fame by the great
faults which he committed in the famous battle of Rocroy. The
duke of Enghien, then twenty-one years of age, and subsequently
so celebrated as the great Condé, completely defeated De Mello,
and nearly annihilated the Spanish and Walloon infantry. The
military operations of the Dutch army were this year only remarkable
by the gallant conduct of Prince William, son of the Prince of
Orange, who, not yet seventeen years of age, defeated, near Hulst,
under the eyes of his father, a Spanish detachment in a very
warm skirmish.
Considerable changes were now insensibly operating in the policy
of Europe. Cardinal Richelieu had finished his dazzling but
tempestuous career of government, in which the hand of death
arrested him on the 4th of December, 1642. Louis XIII. soon followed
to the grave him who was rather his master than his minister. Anne
of Austria was declared regent during the minority of her son,
Louis XIV., then only five years of age; and Cardinal Mazarin
succeeded to the station from which death alone had power to
remove his predecessor.
The civil wars in England now broke out, and their terrible results
seemed to promise to the republic the undisturbed sovereignty of
the seas. The Prince of Orange received with great distinction
the mother-in-law of his son, when she came to Holland under
pretext of conducting her daughter; but her principal purpose was
to obtain, by the sale of the crown jewels and the assistance of
Frederick Henry, funds for the supply of her unfortunate husband's
cause.
The prince and several private individuals contributed largely
in money; and several experienced officers passed over to serve
in the royalist army of England. The provincial states of Holland,
however, sympathizing wholly with the parliament, remonstrated
with the stadtholder; and the Dutch colonists encouraged the
hostile efforts of their brethren, the Puritans of Scotland,
by all the absurd exhortations of fanatic zeal. Boswell, the
English resident in the name of the king, and Strickland, the
ambassador from the parliament, kept up a constant succession
of complaints and remonstrances on occasion of every incident
which seemed to balance the conduct of the republic in the great
question of English politics. Considerable differences existed:
the province of Holland, and some others, leaned toward the
parliament; the Prince of Orange favored the king; and the
states-general endeavored to maintain a neutrality.
The struggle was still furiously maintained in Germany. Generals
of the first order of military talent were continually appearing,
and successively eclipsing each other by their brilliant actions.
Gustavus Adolphus was killed in the midst of his glorious career,
at the battle of Lutzen; the duke of Weimar succeeded to his
command, and proved himself worthy of the place; Tilly and the
celebrated Wallenstein were no longer on the scene. The emperor
Ferdinand II. was dead, and his son Ferdinand III. saw his victorious
enemies threaten, at last, the existence of the empire. Everything
tended to make peace necessary to some of the contending powers,
as it was at length desirable for all. Sweden and Denmark were
engaged in a bloody and wasteful conflict. The United Provinces
sent an embassy, in the month of June, 1644, to each of those
powers; and by a vigorous demonstration of their resolution to
assist Sweden, if Denmark proved refractory, a peace was signed
the following year, which terminated the disputes of the rival
nations.
Negotiations were now opened at Munster between the several
belligerents. The republic was, however, the last to send its
plenipotentiaries there; having signed anew treaty with France,
by which they mutually stipulated to make no peace independent
of each other. It behooved the republic, however, to contribute
as much as possible toward the general object; for, among other
strong motives to that line of conduct, the finances of Holland
were in a state perfectly deplorable.
Every year brought the necessity of a new loan; and the public
debt of the provinces now amounted to one hundred and fifty million
florins, bearing interest at six and a quarter per cent. Considerable
alarm was excited at the progress of the French army in the Belgian
provinces; and escape from the tyranny of Spain seemed only to
lead to the danger of submission to a nation too powerful and
too close at hand not to be dangerous, either as a foe or an
ally. These fears were increased by the knowledge that Cardinal
Mazarin projected a marriage between Louis XIV. and the infanta
of Spain, with the Belgian provinces, or Spanish Netherlands as
they were now called, for her marriage portion. This project
was confided to the Prince of Orange, under the seal of secrecy,
and he was offered the marquisate of Antwerp as the price of
his influence toward effecting the plan. The prince revealed
the whole to the states-general. Great fermentation was excited;
the stadtholder himself was blamed, and suspected of complicity
with the designs of the cardinal. Frederick Henry was deeply
hurt at this want of confidence, and the injurious publications
which openly assailed his honor in a point where he felt himself
entitled to praise instead of suspicion.
The French labored to remove the impression which this affair
excited in the republic; but the states-general felt themselves
justified by the intriguing policy of Mazarin in entering into
a secret negotiation with the king of Spain, who offered very
favorable conditions. The negotiations were considerably advanced
by the marked disposition evinced by the Prince of Orange to
hasten the establishment of peace. Yet, at this very period, and
while anxiously wishing this great object, he could not resist
the desire for another campaign; one more exploit, to signalize
the epoch at which he finally placed his sword in the scabbard.
Frederick Henry was essentially a soldier, with all the spirit
of his race; and this evidence of the ruling passion, while he
touched the verge of the grave, is one of the most striking points
of his character. He accordingly took the field; but, with a
constitution broken by a lingering disease, he was little fitted
to accomplish any feat worthy of his splendid reputation. He failed
in an attempt on Venlo, and another on Antwerp, and retired to The
Hague, where for some months he rapidly declined. On the 14th of
March, 1647, he expired, in his sixty-third year; leaving behind
him a character of unblemished integrity, prudence, toleration,
and valor. He was not of that impetuous stamp which leads men
to heroic deeds, and brings danger to the states whose liberty
is compromised by their ambition. He was a striking contrast to
his brother Maurice, and more resembled his father in many of
those calmer qualities of the mind, which make men more beloved
without lessening their claims to admiration. Frederick Henry had
the honor of completing the glorious task which William began
and Maurice followed up. He saw the oppression they had combated
now humbled and overthrown; and he forms the third in a sequence
of family renown, the most surprising and the least checkered
afforded by the annals of Europe.
William II. succeeded his father in his dignities; and his ardent
spirit longed to rival him in war. He turned his endeavors to
thwart all the efforts for peace. But the interests of the nation
and the dying wishes of Frederick Henry were of too powerful
influence with the states, to be overcome by the martial yearnings
of an inexperienced youth. The negotiations were pressed forward;
and, despite the complaints, the murmurs, and the intrigues of
France, the treaty of Munster was finally signed by the respective
ambassadors of the United Provinces and Spain, on the 30th of
January, 1648. This celebrated treaty contains seventy-nine articles.
Three points were of main and vital importance to the republic:
the first acknowledges an ample and entire recognition of the
sovereignty of the states-general, and a renunciation forever of
all claims on the part of Spain; the second confirms the rights
of trade and navigation in the East and West Indies, with the
possession of the various countries and stations then actually
occupied by the contracting powers; the third guarantees a like
possession of all the provinces and towns of the Netherlands, as
they then stood in their respective occupation--a clause highly
favorable to the republic, which had conquered several considerable
places in Brabant and Flanders. The ratifications of the treaty
were exchanged at Munster with great solemnity on the 15th of
May following the signature; the peace was published in that
town and in Osnaburg on the 19th, and in all the different states
of the king of Spain and the United Provinces as soon as the
joyous intelligence could reach such various and widely separated
destinations. Thus after eighty years of unparalleled warfare,
only interrupted by the truce of 1609, during which hostilities
had not ceased in the Indies, the new republic rose from the
horrors of civil war and foreign tyranny to its uncontested rank
as a free and independent state among the most powerful nations
of Europe. No country had ever done more for glory; and the result
of its efforts was the irrevocable guarantee of civil and religious
liberty, the great aim and end of civilization.
The king of France alone had reason to complain of this treaty:
his resentment was strongly pronounced. But the United Provinces
flung back the reproaches of his ambassador on Cardinal Mazarin;
and the anger of the monarch was smothered by the policy of the
minister.
The internal tranquillity of the republic was secured from all
future alarm by the conclusion of the general peace of Westphalia,
definitively signed on the 24th of October, 1648. This treaty was
long considered not only as the fundamental law of the empire,
but as the basis of the political system of Europe. As numbers of
conflicting interests were reconciled, Germanic liberty secured,
and a just equilibrium established between the Catholics and
Protestants, France and Sweden obtained great advantages; and
the various princes of the empire saw their possessions regulated
and secured, at the same time that the powers of the emperor
were strictly defined.
This great epoch in European history naturally marks the conclusion
of another in that of the Netherlands; and this period of general
repose allows a brief consideration of the progress of arts,
sciences, and manners, during the half century just now completed.
The archdukes Albert and Isabella, during the whole course of
their sovereignty, labored to remedy the abuses which had crowded
the administration of justice. The Perpetual Edict, in 1611,
regulated the form of judicial proceedings; and several provinces
received new charters, by which the privileges of the people were
placed on a footing in harmony with their wants. Anarchy, in short,
gave place to regular government; and the archdukes, in swearing
to maintain the celebrated pact known by the name of the Joyeuse
Entree, did all in their power to satisfy their subjects, while
securing their own authority. The piety of the archdukes gave an
example to all classes. This, although degenerating in the vulgar
to superstition and bigotry, formed a severe check, which allowed
their rulers to restrain popular excesses, and enabled them in
the internal quiet of their despotism to soften the people by
the encouragement of the sciences and arts. Medicine, astronomy,
and mathematics, made prodigious progress during this epoch.
Several eminent men flourished in the Netherlands. But the glory
of others, in countries presenting a wider theatre for their
renown, in many instances eclipsed them; and the inventors of
new methods and systems in anatomy, optics and music were almost
forgotten in the splendid improvements of their followers.
In literature, Hugo de Groot, or Grotius (his Latinized name,
by which he is better known), was the most brilliant star of his
country or his age, as Erasmus was of that which preceded. He was
at once eminent as jurist, poet, theologian, and historian. His
erudition was immense; and he brought it to bear in his political
capacity, as ambassador from Sweden to the court of France, when
the violence of party and the injustice of power condemned him
to perpetual imprisonment in his native land. The religious
disputations in Holland had given a great impulse to talent.
They were not mere theological arguments; but with the wild and
furious abstractions of bigotry were often blended various
illustrations from history, art, and science, and a tone of keen
and delicate satire, which at once refined and made them readable.
It is remarkable that almost the whole of the Latin writings of
this period abound in good taste, while those written in the
vulgar tongue are chiefly coarse and trivial. Vondel and Hooft,
the great poets of the time, wrote with genius and energy, but
were deficient in judgment founded on good taste. The latter
of these writers was also distinguished for his prose works;
in honor of which Louis XIII. dignified him with letters patent
of nobility, and decorated him with the order of St. Michael.
But while Holland was more particularly distinguished by the
progress of the mechanical arts, to which Prince Maurice afforded
unbounded patronage, the Belgian provinces gave birth to that
galaxy of genius in the art of painting, which no equal period
of any other country has ever rivalled. A volume like this would
scarcely suffice to do justice to the merits of the eminent artists
who now flourished in Belgium; at once founding, perfecting, and
immortalizing the Flemish school of painting. Rubens, Vandyck,
Teniers, Crayer, Jordaens, Sneyders, and a host of other great
names, crowd on us with claims for notice that almost make the
mention of any an injustice to the rest. But Europe is familiar
with their fame; and the widespread taste for their delicious art
makes them independent of other record than the combination of
their own exquisite touch, undying tints, and unequalled knowledge
of nature. Engraving, carried at the same time to great perfection,
has multiplied some of the merits of the celebrated painters,
while stamping the reputation of its own professors. Sculpture,
also, had its votaries of considerable note. Among these, Des
Jardins and Quesnoy held the foremost station. Architecture also
produced some remarkable names.
The arts were, in short, never held in higher honor than at this
brilliant epoch. Otto Venire, the master of Rubens, held most
important employments. Rubens himself, appointed secretary to
the privy council of the archdukes, was subsequently sent to
England, where he negotiated the peace between that country and
Spain. The unfortunate King Charles so highly esteemed his merit
that he knighted him in full parliament, and presented him with the
diamond ring he wore on his own finger, and a chain enriched with
brilliants. David Teniers, the great pupil of this distinguished
master, met his due share of honor. He has left several portraits of
himself; one of which hands him down to posterity in the costume,
and with the decorations of the belt and key, which he wore in his
capacity of chamberlain to the archduke Leopold, governor-general
of the Spanish Netherlands.
The intestine disturbances of Holland during the twelve years'
truce, and the enterprises against Friesland and the duchy of
Cleves, had prevented that wise economy which was expected from
the republic. The annual ordinary cost of the military establishment
at that period amounted to thirteen million florins. To meet
the enormous expenses of the state, taxes were raised on every
material. They produced about thirty million florins a year,
independent of five million each for the East and West India
companies. The population in 1620, in Holland, was about six
hundred thousand, and the other provinces contained about the
same number.
It is singular to observe the fertile erections of monopoly in
a state founded on principles of commercial freedom. The East
and West India companies, the Greenland company, and others,
were successively formed. By the effect of their enterprise,
industry and wealth, conquests were made and colonies founded
with surprising rapidity. The town of Amsterdam, now New York,
was founded in 1624; and the East saw Batavia rise up from the
ruins of Jacatra, which was sacked and razed by the Dutch
adventurers.
The Dutch and English East India companies, repressing their
mutual jealousy, formed a species of partnership in 1619 for the
reciprocal enjoyment of the rights of commerce. But four years
later than this date an event took place so fatal to national
confidence that its impressions are scarcely yet effaced--this
was the torturing and execution of several Englishmen in the
island of Amboyna, on pretence of an unproved plot, of which every
probability leads to the belief that they were wholly innocent. This
circumstance was the strongest stimulant to the hatred so evident
in the bloody wars which not long afterward took place between
the two nations; and the lapse of two centuries has not entirely
effaced its effects. Much has been at various periods written
for and against the establishment of monopolizing companies,
by which individual wealth and skill are excluded from their
chances of reward. With reference to those of Holland at this
period of its history, it is sufficient to remark that the great
results of their formation could never have been brought about
by isolated enterprises; and the justice or wisdom of their
continuance are questions wholly dependent on the fluctuations
in trade, and the effects produced on that of any given country
by the progress and the rivalry of others.
With respect to the state of manners in the republic, it is clear
that the jealousies and emulation of commerce were not likely
to lessen the vice of avarice with which the natives have been
reproached. The following is a strong expression of one, who cannot,
however, be considered an unprejudiced observer, on occasion of
some disputed points between the Dutch and English maritime
tribunals--"The decisions of our courts cause much ill-will among
these people, whose hearts' blood is their purse."[5] While
drunkenness was a vice considered scarcely scandalous, the intrigues
of gallantry were concealed with the most scrupulous mystery--giving
evidence of at least good taste, if not of pure morality. Court
etiquette began to be of infinite importance. The wife of Count
Ernest Casimir of Nassau was so intent on the preservation of
her right of precedence that on occasion of Lady Carleton, the
British ambassadress, presuming to dispute the _pas_, she forgot
true dignity so far as to strike her. We may imagine the vehement
resentment of such a man as Carleton for such an outrage. The
lower orders of the people had the rude and brutal manners common
to half-civilized nations which fight their way to freedom. The
unfortunate king of Bohemia, when a refugee in Holland, was one
day hunting; and, in the heat of the chase, he followed his dogs,
which had pursued a hare, into a newly sown corn-field: he was
quickly interrupted by a couple of peasants armed with pitchforks.
He supposed his rank and person to be unknown to them; but he
was soon undeceived, and saluted with unceremonious reproaches.
"King of Bohemia! King of Bohemia!" shouted one of the boors,
"why do you trample on my wheat which I have so lately had the
trouble of sowing?" The king made many apologies, and retired,
throwing the whole blame on his dogs. But in the life of Marshal
Turenne we find a more marked trait of manners than this, which
might be paralleled in England at this day. This great general
served his apprenticeship in the art of war under his uncles, the
princes Maurice and Frederick Henry. He appeared one day on the
public walk at The Hague, dressed in his usual plain and modest
style. Some young French lords, covered with gold, embroidery, and
ribbons, met and accosted him: a mob gathered round; and while
treating Turenne, although unknown to them, with all possible
respect, they forced the others to retire, assailed with mockery
and the coarsest abuse.
[Footnote 5: Carleton.]
But one characteristic, more noble and worthy than any of those
thus briefly cited, was the full enjoyment of the liberty of
the press in the United Provinces. The thirst of gain, the fury
of faction, the federal independence of the minor towns, the
absolute power of Prince Maurice, all the combinations which
might carry weight against this grand principle, were totally
ineffectual to prevail over it. And the republic was, on this
point, proudly pre-eminent among surrounding nations.