Spaniards marched to attack a fleet frozen up near Amsterdam. It was
defended by a body of Dutch musketeers on skates, who, by the superior
skill of their evolutions, drove the enemy back and killed great numbers
of them. In consequence of this extraordinary combat, Alva ordered seven
thousand pairs of skates, and directed his soldiers to be instructed in
their use. Siege was then laid to Haarlem, which town, warned by the
fate of Zutphen and Naarden, made a defence that astonished all Europe.
A corps of three hundred respectable women, armed with musket, sword,
and dagger, and led by Kenan Hasselaer, a widow lady of distinguished
family, about forty-seven years of age, enrolled themselves among its
defenders, and partook in some of the most fiercely contested actions.
Battles took place upon Haarlem Lake, on which the Prince of Orange had
more than a hundred sail of various kinds; till at length Bossu, whose
vessels were larger, though less numerous, entirely defeated the
Hollanders, and swept the lake in triumph (May 28, 1573). The siege had
lasted seven months, and Frederick de Toledo, who had lost a great part
of his army by hunger, cold, and pestilence, was inclined to abandon the
enterprise; but he was kept to it by the threats of his father, and on
the 12th of July Haarlem surrendered. Don Frederick had written a letter
solemnly assuring the besieged that no punishment should be inflicted
except on those who deserved it in the opinion of the citizens
themselves, yet he was in possession of strict orders from his father to
put to death the whole garrison, except the Germans, and also to execute
a large number of the inhabitants. Between two and three thousand were
slaughtered; three hundred were drowned in the lake tied by twos back to
back.
The resistance of Haarlem and other places determined Alva to try what
might be done by an affectation of clemency; and on the 26th of July he
issued a proclamation in which Philip was compared to a hen gathering
its chickens under the parental wing. But in the same breath his
subjects were admonished not to excite his rage, cruelty, and fury, and
they were threatened that if his gracious offers of mercy were
neglected, his majesty would strip bare and utterly depopulate the land,
and cause it to be again inhabited by strangers. So ludicrous a specimen
of paternal love was not calculated to excite much confidence in the
breasts of the Hollanders, and Alkmaar, the next town to which Don
Frederick laid siege, though defended only by eight hundred soldiers and
thirteen hundred citizens against sixteen thousand veterans, also
resolved to hold out to the last extremity. Enraged at this contempt of
what he called his clemency, at Haarlem, Alva resolved to make Alkmaar
an example of his cruelty, and he wrote to Philip that everyone in it
should be put to the sword. But the inhabitants made a heroic defence
and repulsed the besiegers in many a bloody assault; till at length the
superstitious Spaniards, believing that the place was defended by the
devil, whom they thought that the Protestants worshipped, refused to
mount to the attack, suffering themselves rather to be run through the
body by their officers; and Don Frederick, finding from an intercepted
letter that the Prince of Orange contemplated cutting the dikes and
flooding the country, in order to prevent the place from being
surrendered, raised the siege (October 8th) after it had lasted seven
weeks.
About this time William published his _Epistle in the form of
supplication to his Royal Majesty of Spain, from the Prince of Orange
and States of Holland and Zealand_, which produced a profound
impression. It demanded that the privileges of the country should be
restored, and insisted on the recall of the Duke of Alva, whose
atrocities were vigorously described and condemned. Orange, as
stadtholder, was now acting as the King's representative in Holland,
and gave all his orders in Philip's name. He had recently turned
Calvinist, and in October publicly joined the Church at Dort. It was
reserved for the two greatest princes of the age to alleviate by their
apostasy, which, however, approached more nearly than the orthodoxy of
their adversaries, the spirit of true Christianity, the evils inflicted
on society by a consistent but bloody-minded and intolerant bigotry.
The siege of Alkmaar was one of the last acts under Alva's auspices in
the Netherlands, and formed a fitting termination to his career. He had
himself solicited to be recalled, and in December, 1573, he was
superseded by Don Luis de Requesens, Grand Commander of St. Jago. In
fact, Philip had found this war of extermination too expensive for his
exhausted treasury. Alva boasted on his journey back that he had caused
eighteen thousand six hundred Netherlanders to be executed. He was well
received by Philip, but soon after his return was imprisoned along with
his son, Don Frederick; the latter for having seduced a maid of honor,
his father for recommending him not to marry his victim. Alva was,
however, subsequently released to undertake the conquest of Portugal.
Requesens, the new Governor, had been vice-admiral to Don John of
Austria, had distinguished himself at the battle of Lepanto, and had
subsequently governed the Milanese with reputation. He was mild and just
and more liberal than the generality of Spaniards, though inferior to
Alva in military talent. He attempted immediately after his arrival in
the Netherlands to bring about a peace through the mediation of St.
Aldegonde, but Orange was too suspicious to enter into it. Requesens put
down robbery and murder, but he was neither able to abrogate the Council
of Blood nor to alleviate the oppressive taxes. Philip had selected him
as governor of the Netherlands, as a pledge of the more conciliatory
policy which he had thought it prudent to adopt; yet Requesens' hands
were tied up with such injunctions as rendered all conciliation
hopeless, and he was instructed to bring forward no measures which had
not for their basis the maintenance of the King's absolute authority and
the prohibition of all worship except the Roman Catholic.
The Gueux de Mer were at this time most troublesome to the Spaniards, as
their small vessels enabled them to penetrate up the rivers and canals.
A naval action had been fought (October 11, 1573) on the Zuyder Zee
between Count Bossu, who had collected a considerable fleet at
Amsterdam, and the patriot admiral Dirkzoon, in which Bossu was
completely defeated and taken prisoner. One of the first acts of
Requesens was to send a fleet under Sancho Davila, Julian Romero, and
Admiral Glimes to the relief of Middelburg, which had been besieged by
the patriots upward of eighteen months and was now reduced to the last
extremity. Orange visited the Zealand fleet under the command of Louis
Boissot (January 20, 1574), and an action ensued a few days later, in
which the Spaniards were completely beaten. Requesens himself beheld the
action from the lofty dike of Schakerloo, where he stood all day in a
drenching rain; and Romero, who had escaped by jumping out of a
porthole, swam ashore and landed at the very feet of the Grand
Commander. The Hollanders and Zealanders were now masters of the coast,
but the Spaniards still held their ground in the interior of Holland.
After raising the siege of Alkmaar, they had invested Leyden and cut off
all communication between the Dutch cities.
The efforts of the patriots were less fortunate on land, where they were
no match for the Spanish generals and their veteran troops. It had been
arranged that Louis of Nassau should march out of Germany with an army
of newly levied recruits and form a junction with his brother William,
who was at Bommel on the Waal. Toward the end of February, 1574, Louis
encamped within four miles of Maestricht, with the design of taking that
town; but finding that he could not accomplish this object, and having
suffered some losses, he marched down the right bank of the Meuse to
join his brother. When, however, he arrived at Mook, a village on the
Meuse a few miles south of Nimwegen, he found himself intercepted by the
Spaniards under Davila, who, having outmarched him on the opposite bank,
had crossed the river at a lower point on a bridge of boats, and placed
himself directly in his path. There was now no alternative but to fight,
and battle was delivered on the following day on the heath of Mook, when
fortune declared against the patriots. The gallant Louis, seeing that
the day was lost, put himself at the head of a little band of troopers,
and, accompanied by his brother Henry, and Duke Christopher, son of the
Elector Palatine Frederick III, made a desperate charge in which they
all perished, and were never heard of more. The only effect of Louis'
invasion was to cause the Spaniards to raise the siege of Leyden; before
which place, however, they afterward again sat down (May 26th).
The defence of Leyden formed a worthy parallel to that of Haarlem and
Alkmaar, and acquired for the garrison and the inhabitants the respect
and admiration of all Europe. A modern historian has aptly observed that
this was the heroic age of Protestantism. Never have the virtues which
spring from true patriotism and sincere religious conviction been more
strikingly developed and displayed. Leyden was defended by John van der
Does, Lord of Nordwyck, a gentleman of distinguished family, but still
more distinguished by his learning and genius, and his Latin poetry
published under the name of Joannes Douza. The garrison of Leyden was
small, and it relied for its defence chiefly on the exertions of the
inhabitants. The revictualling of the city had been neglected after the
raising of the first siege, and at the end of June it became necessary
to put the inhabitants on short allowance; yet they held out more than
three months longer. Orange, whose head-quarters were at Delft and
Rotterdam, had no means of relieving Leyden except by breaking down the
dikes on the Meuse and the Yssel, and thus flooding the country, a step
which would involve the destruction of the growing crops, besides other
extraordinary expenses; yet he succeeded in obtaining the consent of the
Dutch States to this extreme and desperate measure. On the 3d of August
he superintended in person the rupture of the dikes on the Yssel; at the
same time the sluices of Rotterdam and Schiedam were opened; the flood
began to pour over the land, while the citizens of Leyden watched with
anxious eyes from the tower of Hengist the rising of the waters.
A flotilla of two hundred flat-bottomed vessels had been provided,
stored with provisions, and manned by two thousand five hundred veterans
under the command of Boissot. But unexpected obstacles arose. Fresh
dikes appeared above the water, and had to be cut through amid the
resistance of the Spaniards. Twice the waters receded under the
influence of the east wind, and left the fleet aground; twice it was
floated again, as if by a providential interposition, by violent gales
from the north and west, which accumulated on the coast the waters of
the ocean. Meanwhile the besieged were suffering all the extremities of
famine; the most disgusting garbage was used for food, and caused a
pestilence which carried off thousands. In this extremity a number of
the citizens surrounded the burgomaster, Adrian van der Werf, demanding
with loud threats and clamors that he should either provide them with
food or surrender the city to the enemy. To these menaces Adrian calmly
replied, "I have taken an oath that I will never put myself or my
fellow-citizens in the power of the cruel and perfidious Spaniards, and
I will rather die than violate it." Then drawing his sword he offered it
to the surrounding crowd and bade them plunge it in his bosom and devour
his flesh if such an action could relieve them from their direful
necessity. This extraordinary address filled the people with amazement
and admiration and inspired them with a new courage. Their constancy was
soon rewarded with deliverance. On the night of October 1st a fresh gale
set in from the northwest; the ocean rushed furiously through the ruined
dikes; the fleet had soon two feet of water, and sailed on their onward
course amid storm and darkness. They had still to contend with the
vessels of the enemy, and a naval battle was fought amid the boughs of
orchards and the chimney-stacks of houses. But this was the last attempt
at resistance on the part of the Spaniards. Appalled both by the
constancy of their adversaries and by the rising flood, which was
gradually driving them into a narrow circle, the Spaniards abandoned the
two remaining forts of Zoetermonde and Lammen, which still stood between
the fleet and the city. From the latter they fled in alarm at the noise
of the falling of a large portion of the town walls which had been
thrown down by the waters, and which in the darkness they luckily
mistook for some operation of their adversaries; otherwise they might
easily have entered and captured Leyden. The fleet of Boissot approached
the city on the morning of October 3d. After the pangs of hunger were
relieved the whole population repaired to church to return thanks to the
Almighty for their deliverance. On October 4th another providential gale
from the northeast assisted in clearing off the water from the land. In
commemoration of this remarkable defence, and as a reward for the
heroism of the citizens, was founded the University of Leyden, as well
as a ten days' annual fair, free from all tolls and taxes. During this
siege the Gueux had been again successful at sea. On May 30th Boissot
defeated between Lilloo and Kalloo a Spanish fleet, took the admiral and
three ships, and chased the rest into Antwerp.
The bankrupt state of Philip II's exchequer, and the reverses which his
arms had sustained, induced him to accept in the following year the
proffered mediation of the emperor Maximilian, which he had before
arrogantly rejected, and a congress was held at Breda from March till
June, 1575. But the insurgents were suspicious, and Philip was
inflexible; he could not be induced to dismiss his Spanish troops, to
allow the meeting of the States-General, or to admit the slightest
toleration in matters of religion; and the contest was therefore renewed
with more fury than ever. The situation of the patriots became very
critical when the enemy, by occupying the islands of Duyveland and
Schouwen, cut off the communication between Holland and Zealand,
especially as all hope of succor from England had expired. Toward the
close of the year envoys were despatched to solicit the aid of
Elizabeth, and to offer her, under certain conditions, the sovereignty
of Holland and Zealand. Requesens sent Champagny to counteract these
negotiations, which ended in nothing. The English Queen was afraid of
provoking the power of Spain, and could not even be induced to grant the
Hollanders a loan. The attitude assumed at that time by the Duke of
Alençon in France also prevented them from entering into any
negotiations with that Prince.
In these trying circumstances William the Silent displayed the greatest
firmness and courage. It was now that he is said to have contemplated
abandoning Holland and seeking with its inhabitants a home in the New
World, having first restored the country to its ancient state of a waste
of waters, a thought, however, which he probably never seriously
entertained, though he may have given utterance to it in a moment of
irritation or despondency. On June 12, 1575, William had married
Charlotte de Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Montpensier. The Prince's
second wife, Anne of Saxony, had turned out a drunken, violent
character, and at length an intrigue which she formed with John Rubens,
an exiled magistrate of Antwerp, and father of the celebrated painter,
justified William in divorcing her. She subsequently became insane.
Charlotte de Bourbon had been brought up a Calvinist, but at a later
period, her father having joined the party of the persecutors, she took
refuge with the Elector Palatine, and it was under these circumstances
that she received the addresses of the Prince of Orange.
The unexpected death of Requesens, who expired of a fever, March 5,
1576, after a few days' illness, threw the government into confusion.
Philip II had given Requesens a _carte blanche_ to name his successor,
but the nature of his illness had prevented him from filling it up. The
government, therefore, devolved to the council of state, the members of
which were at variance with one another; but Philip found himself
obliged to intrust it _ad interim_ with the administration till a
successor to Requesens could be appointed. Count Mansfeld was made
commander-in-chief, but was totally unable to restrain the licentious
soldiery. The Spaniards, whose pay was in arrear, had now lost all
discipline. After the raising of the siege of Leyden they had beset
Utrecht and pillaged and maltreated the inhabitants, till Valdez
contrived to furnish their pay. No sooner had Requesens expired than
they broke into open mutiny and acted as if they were entire masters of
the country. After wandering about some time and threatening Brussels,
they seized and plundered Alost, where they established themselves;
and they were soon after joined by the Walloon and German troops. To
repress their violence, the council of state restored to the Netherlands
the arms of which they had been deprived, and called upon them by a
proclamation to repress force by force, but these citizen-soldiers were
dispersed with great slaughter by the disciplined troops in various
rencounters. Ghent, Utrecht, Valenciennes, Maestricht were taken and
plundered by the mutineers; and at last the storm fell upon Antwerp,
which the Spaniards entered early in November, and sacked during three
days. More than a thousand houses were burnt, eight thousand citizens
are said to have been slain, and enormous sums in ready money were
plundered. The whole damage was estimated at twenty-four million
florins. The horrible excesses committed in this sack procured for it
the name of the "Spanish Fury."
The government was at this period conducted in the name of the State of
Brabant. On September 5th De Hèze, a young Brabant gentleman who was in
secret intelligence with the Prince of Orange, had, at the head of five
hundred soldiers, entered the palace where the council of state was
assembled, and seized and imprisoned the members. William, taking
advantage of the alarm created at Brussels by the sack of Antwerp,
persuaded the provisional government to summon the States-General,
although such a course was at direct variance with the commands of the
King. To this assembly all the provinces except Luxemburg sent deputies.
The nobles of the southern provinces, although they viewed the Prince of
Orange with suspicion, feeling that there was no security for them so
long as the Spanish troops remained in possession of Ghent, sought his
assistance in expelling them, which William consented to grant only on
condition that an alliance should be effected between the northern and
the southern, or Catholic, provinces of the Netherlands. This proposal
was agreed to, and toward the end of September Orange sent several
thousand men from Zealand to Ghent, at whose approach the Spaniards, who
had valorously defended themselves for two months under the conduct of
the wife of their absent general, Mondragon, surrendered and evacuated
the citadel. The proposed alliance was now converted into a formal
union, by the treaty called the Pacification of Ghent, signed November
8, 1576, by which it was agreed, without waiting for the sanction of
Philip, whose authority, however, was nominally recognized, to renew the
edict of banishment against the Spanish troops, to procure the
suspension of the decrees against the Protestant religion, to summon the
States-General of the northern and southern provinces, according to the
model of the assembly which had received the abdication of Charles V, to
provide for the toleration and practice of the Protestant religion in
Holland and Zealand, together with other provisions of a similar
character. About the same time with the Pacification of Ghent, all
Zealand, with the exception of the island of Tholen, was recovered from
the Spaniards.
SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE BY FROBISHER
A.D. 1576
GEORGE BEST
Martin Frobisher, the English navigator, was born in Yorkshire about
1535. When a lad he went to sea, and seems early to have dreamed of
a shorter route to China through the Arctic Ocean. He became the
pioneer in the long search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic
to the Pacific by the northern coasts of the American continent. He
even contemplated the planting of English colonies on the Pacific
shore of the New World.
Columbus had found the western way to China barred by the continent
of America. Magellan discovered a southwest passage around that
continent. Half a century later Frobisher entered upon the northern
quest.
Frobisher was poorly educated, and wrote with difficulty. The
narrative of his first voyage was written by George Best from an
account furnished by Frobisher himself, whom Best accompanied on his
second and third voyages. The present narrative has therefore all
the value of a first-hand record, and it is included in the
_Principal Navigations_ of Hakluyt.
Although over two hundred voyages have now been made in search of
this passage, which in 1850-1854 was achieved by Sir Robert McClure,
the long-cherished hopes of its advantages have not been realized.
The route, for commercial purposes, is thus far quite useless, owing
to arctic conditions. Great gains, however, through these
expeditions, have been made in scientific knowledge.
Which thing being well considered and familiarly known to our General,
Captain Frobisher, as well for that he is thoroughly furnished of the
knowledge of the sphere and all other skills appertaining to the art of
navigation, as also for the confirmation he hath of the same by many
years' experience both by sea and land; and being persuaded of a new and
nearer passage to Cataya[1] than by Cabo de Buona Sperança, which the
Portugals yearly use, he began first with himself to devise, and then
with his friends to confer, and laid a plain plot unto them that that
voyage was not only possible by the northwest, but also, he could prove,
easy to be performed. And further, he determined and resolved with
himself to go make full proof thereof, and to accomplish or bring true
certificate of the truth, or else never to return again; knowing this to
be the only thing of the world that was left yet undone, whereby a
notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.
[1] Cathay (China).
But although his will were great to perform this notable voyage,[2]
whereof he had conceived in his mind a great hope by sundry sure reasons
and secret intelligence, which here, for sundry causes, I leave
untouched; yet he wanted altogether means and ability to set forward and
perform the same. Long time he conferred with his private friends of
these secrets, and made also many offers for the performing of the same
in effect unto sundry merchants of our country, above fifteen years
before he attempted the same, as by good witness shall well appear,
albeit some evil-willers, which challenge to themselves the fruits of
other men's labors, have greatly injured him in the reports of the same,
saying that they have been the first authors of that action, and that
they have learned him the way, which themselves as yet have never gone.
But perceiving that hardly he was hearkened unto of the merchants, which
never regard virtue without sure, certain, and present gains, he
repaired to the court, from whence, as from the fountain of our common
wealth, all good causes have their chief increase and maintenance, and
there laid open to many great estates and learned men the plot and sum
of his device. And among many honorable minds which favored his honest
and commendable enterprise, he was specially bound and beholding to the
Right Honorable Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, whose favorable mind
and good disposition hath always been ready to countenance and advance
all honest actions, with the authors and executers of the same. And so
by means of my lord his honorable countenance he received some comfort
of his cause, and by little and little, with no small expense and pain,
brought his cause to some perfection, and had drawn together so many
adventurers and such sums of money as might well defray a reasonable
charge to furnish himself to sea withal.
[2] Further details of this voyage may be gathered from the log of
Christopher Hall, master of the Gabriel, printed in Hakluyt. The
present narrative, prefixed to Best's accounts of the second and
third voyages, was preceded by a treatise intended to prove all
parts of the earth, even the poles, equally habitable.