alliance. It was war, not peace, that Philip intended. It was war, not
peace, that Elizabeth's most trusty counsellors knew to be inevitable.
There was also, as we have shown, no doubt whatever as to the good
disposition, and the great power of the republic to bear its share in the
common cause. The enthusiasm of the Hollanders was excessive. "There
was such a noise, both in Delft, Rotterdam, and Dort," said Leicester,
"in crying 'God save the Queen!' as if she had been in Cheapside." Her
own subjects could not be more loyal than were the citizens and yeomen of
Holland. "The members of the States dare not but be Queen Elizabeth's,"
continued the Earl, "for by the living God! if there should fall but the
least unkindness through their default, the people would kill them. All
sorts of people, from highest to lowest, assure themselves, now that they
have her Majesty's good countenance, to beat all the Spaniards out of
their country. Never was there people in such jollity as these be. I
could be content to lose a limb, could her Majesty see these countries
and towns as I have done." He was in truth excessively elated, and had
already, in imagination, vanquished Alexander Farnese, and eclipsed the
fame of William the Silent. "They will serve under me," he observed,
"with a better will than ever they served under the Prince of Orange.
Yet they loved him well, but they never hoped of the liberty of this
country till now."
Thus the English government had every reason to be satisfied with the
aspect of its affairs in the Netherlands. But the nature of the Earl's
authority was indefinite. The Queen had refused the sovereignty and the
protectorate. She had also distinctly and peremptorily forbidden
Leicester to assume any office or title that might seem at variance with
such a refusal on her part. Yet it is certain that, from the very first,
he had contemplated some slight disobedience to these prohibitions.
"What government is requisite"--wrote he in a secret memorandum of
"things most necessary to understand"--"to be appointed to him that shall
be their governor? First, that he have as much authority as the Prince
of Orange, or any other governor or captain-general, hath had
heretofore." Now the Prince of Orange hath been stadholder of each of
the United Provinces, governor-general, commander-in-chief, count of
Holland in prospect, and sovereign, if he had so willed it. It would
doubtless have been most desirable for the country, in its confused
condition, had there been a person competent to wield, and willing to
accept, the authority once exercised by William I. But it was also
certain that this was exactly the authority which Elizabeth had forbidden
Leicester to assume. Yet it is diffcult to understand what position the
Queen intended that her favourite should maintain, nor how he was to
carry out her instructions, while submitting to her prohibitions.
He was directed to cause the confused government of the Provinces to
be redressed, and a better form of polity to be established. He was
ordered, in particular, to procure a radical change in the constitution,
by causing the deputies to the General Assembly to be empowered to decide
upon important matters, without, as had always been the custom, making
direct reference to the assemblies of the separate Provinces. He was
instructed to bring about, in some indefinite way, a complete reform in
financial matters, by compelling the States-General to raise money by
liberal taxation, according to the "advice of her Majesty, delivered unto
them by her lieutenant."
And how was this radical change in the institutions of the Provinces to
be made by an English earl, whose only authority was that of commander-
in-chief over five thousand half-starved, unpaid, utterly-forlorn English
troops?
The Netherland envoys in England, in their parting advice, most
distinctly urged him "to hale authority with the first, to declare
himself chief head and governor-general" of the whole country,--for it
was a political head that was wanted in order to restore unity of action
--not an additional general, where there were already generals in plenty.
Sir John Norris, valiant, courageous, experienced--even if not, as
Walsingham observed, a "religious soldier," nor learned in anything "but
a kind of licentious and corrupt government"--was not likely to require
the assistance of the new lieutenant-general in field operations nor
could the army be brought into a state of thorough discipline and
efficiency by the magic of Leicester's name. The rank and file of the
English army--not the commanders-needed strengthening. The soldiers
required shoes and stockings, bread and meat, and for these articles
there were not the necessary funds, nor would the title of Lieutenant-
General supply the deficiency. The little auxiliary force was, in truth,
in a condition most pitiable to behold: it was difficult to say whether
the soldiers who had been already for a considerable period in the
Netherlands, or those who had been recently levied in the purlieus of
London, were in the most unpromising plight. The beggarly state in which
Elizabeth had been willing that her troops should go forth to the wars
was a sin and a disgrace. Well might her Lieutenant-General say that her
"poor subjects were no better than abjects." There were few effective
companies remaining of the old force. "There is but a small number of
the first bands left," said Sir John Conway, "and those so pitiful and
unable ever to serve again, as I leave to speak further of theirs, to
avoid grief to your heart. A monstrous fault there hath been somewhere."
Leicester took a manful and sagacious course at starting. Those who had
no stomach for the fight were ordered to depart. The chaplain gave them
sermons; the Lieutenant-General, on St. Stephen's day, made them a "pithy
and honourable" oration, and those who had the wish or the means to buy
themselves out of the adventure, were allowed to do so: for the Earl was
much disgusted with the raw material out of which he was expected to
manufacture serviceable troops. Swaggering ruffians from the
disreputable haunts of London, cockney apprentices, brokendown tapsters,
discarded serving men; the Bardolphs and Pistols, Mouldys, Warts, and the
like--more at home in tavern-brawls or in dark lanes than on the battle-
field--were not the men to be entrusted with the honour of England at a
momentous crisis. He spoke with grief and shame of the worthless
character and condition of the English youths sent over to the
Netherlands. "Believe me," said he, "you will all repent the cockney
kind of bringing up at this day of young men. They be gone hence with
shame enough, and too many, that I will warrant, will make as many frays
with bludgeons and bucklers as any in London shall do; but such shall
never have credit with me again. Our simplest men in show have been our
best men, and your gallant blood and ruffian men the worst of all
others."
Much winnowed, as it was, the small force might in time become more
effective; and the Earl spent freely of his own substance to supply the
wants of his followers, and to atone for the avarice of his sovereign.
The picture painted however by muster-master Digger of the plumed troops
that had thus come forth to maintain the honour of England and the cause
of liberty, was anything but imposing. None knew better than Digges
their squalid and slovenly condition, or was more anxious to effect a
reformation therein. "A very wise, stout fellow he is," said the Earl,
"and very careful to serve thoroughly her Majesty." Leicester relied
much upon his efforts. "There is good hope," said the muster-master,
"that his excellency will shortly establish such good order for the
government and training of our nation, that these weak, bad-furnished,
ill-armed, and worse-trained bands, thus rawly left unto him, shall
within a few months prove as well armed, trained, complete, gallant
companies as shall be found elsewhere in Europe." The damage they were
likely to inflict upon the enemy seemed very problematical, until they
should have been improved by some wholesome ball-practice. "They are so
unskilful," said Digger, "that if they should be carried to the field no
better trained than yet they are, they would prove much more dangerous to
their own leaders and companies than any ways serviceable on their
enemies. The hard and miserable estate of the soldiers generally,
excepting officers, hath been such, as by the confessions of the captains
themselves, they have been offered by many of their soldiers thirty and
forty pounds a piece to be dismissed and sent away; whereby I doubt not
the flower of the pressed English bands are gone, and the remnant
supplied with such paddy persons as commonly, in voluntary procurements,
men are glad to accept."
Even after the expiration of four months the condition of the paddy
persons continued most destitute. The English soldiers became mere
barefoot starving beggars in the streets, as had never been the case in
the worst of times, when the States were their paymasters. The little
money brought from the treasury by the Earl, and the large sums which he
had contributed out of his own pocket, had been spent in settling, and
not fully settling, old scores. "Let me entreat you," wrote Leicester to
Walsingham, "to be a mean to her Majesty, that the poor soldiers be not
beaten for my sake. There came no penny of treasure over since my coming
hither. That which then came was most part due before it came. There is
much still due. They cannot get a penny, their credit is spent, they
perish for want of victuals and clothing in great numbers. The whole are
ready to mutiny. They cannot be gotten out to service, because they
cannot discharge the debts they owe in the places where they are. I have
let of my own more than I may spare."--"There was no soldier yet able to
buy himself a pair of hose," said the Earl again, "and it is too, too
great shame to see how they go, and it kills their hearts to show
themselves among men."
There was no one to dispute the Earl's claims. The Nassau family was
desperately poor, and its chief, young Maurice, although he had been
elected stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, had every disposition--as Sir
Philip upon his arrival in Flushing immediately informed his uncle--to
submit to the authority of the new governor. Louisa de Coligny, widow of
William the Silent, was most anxious for the English alliance, through
which alone she believed that the fallen fortunes of the family could be
raised. It was thus only, she thought, that the vengeance for which she
thirsted upon the murderers of her father and her husband could be
obtained. "We see now," she wrote to Walsingham, in a fiercer strain
than would seem to comport with so gentle a nature--deeply wronged as the
daughter of Coligny and the wife of Orange had been by Papists--"we see
now the effects of our God's promises. He knows when it pleases Him to
avenge the blood of His own; and I confess that I feel most keenly the
joy which is shared in by the whole Church of God. There is none that
has received more wrong from these murderers than I have done, and I
esteem myself happy in the midst of my miseries that God has permitted me
to see some vengeance. These beginings make me hope that I shall see yet
more, which will be not less useful to the good, both in your country and
in these isles."
There was no disguise as to the impoverished condition to which the
Nassau family had been reduced by the self-devotion of its chief. They
were obliged to ask alms of England, until the "sapling should become a
tree."--"Since it is the will of God," wrote the Princess to Davison, "I
am not ashamed to declare the necessity of our house, for it is in His
cause that it has fallen. I pray you, Sir, therefore to do me and these
children the favour to employ your thoughts in this regard." If there
had been any strong French proclivities on their part--as had been so
warmly asserted--they were likely to disappear. Villiers, who had been a
confidential friend of William the Silent, and a strong favourer of
France, in vain endeavoured to keep alive the ancient sentiments towards
that country, although he was thought to be really endeavouring to bring
about a submission of the Nassaus to Spain. "This Villiers," said
Leicester, "is a most vile traitorous knave, and doth abuse a young
nobleman here extremely, the Count Maurice. For all his religion, he is
a more earnest persuader secretly to have him yield to a reconciliation
than Sainte Aldegonde was. He shall not tarry ten days neither in
Holland nor Zeeland. He is greatly hated here of all sorts, and it shall
go hard but I will win the young Count."
As for Hohenlo, whatever his opinions might once have been regarding the
comparative merits of Frenchmen and Englishmen, he was now warmly in
favour of England, and expressed an intention of putting an end to the
Villiers' influence by simply drowning Villiers. The announcement of
this summary process towards the counsellor was not untinged with
rudeness towards the pupil. "The young Count," said Leicester, "by
Villiers' means, was not willing to have Flushing rendered, which the
Count Hollock perceiving, told the Count Maurice, in a great rage, that
if he took any course than that of the Queen of England, and swore by no
beggars, he would drown his priest in the haven before his face, and turn
himself and his mother-in-law out of their house there, and thereupon
went with Mr. Davison to the delivery of it." Certainly, if Hohenlo
permitted himself such startling demonstrations towards the son and widow
of William the Silent, it must have been after his habitual potations had
been of the deepest. Nevertheless it was satisfactory for the new
chieftain to know that the influence of so vehement a partisan was
secured for England. The Count's zeal deserved gratitude upon
Leicester's part, and Leicester was grateful. "This man must be
cherished," said the Earl; "he is sound and faithful, and hath indeed all
the chief holds in his hands, and at his commandment. Ye shall do well
to procure him a letter of thanks, taking knowledge in general of his
good-will to her Majesty. He is a right Almayn in manner and fashion,
free of his purse and of his drink, yet do I wish him her Majesty's
pensioner before any prince in Germany, for he loves her and is able to
serve her, and doth desire to be known her servant. He hath been
laboured by his nearest kinsfolk and friends in Germany to have left the
States and to have the King of Spain's pension and very great reward; but
he would not. I trust her Majesty will accept of his offer to be her
servant during his life, being indeed a very noble soldier." The Earl
was indeed inclined to take so cheerful view of matters as to believe
that he should even effect a reform in the noble soldier's most
unpleasant characteristic. "Hollock is a wise gallant gentleman," he
said, "and very well esteemed. He hath only one fault, which is
drinking; but good hope that he will amend it. Some make me believe that
I shall be able to do much with him, and I mean to do my best, for I see
no man that knows all these countries, and the people of all sorts, like
him, and this fault overthrows all."
Accordingly, so long as Maurice continued under the tutelage of this
uproarious cavalier--who, at a later day, was to become his brother-in-
law-he was not likely to interfere with Leicester's authority. The
character of the young Count was developing slowly. More than his father
had ever done, he deserved the character of the taciturn. A quiet keen
observer of men and things, not demonstrative nor talkative, nor much
given to writing--a modest, calm, deeply-reflecting student of military
and mathematical science--he was not at that moment deeply inspired by
political ambition. He was perhaps more desirous of raising the fallen
fortunes of his house than of securing the independence of his country.
Even at that early age, however, his mind was not easy to read, and his
character was somewhat of a puzzle to those who studied it. "I see him
much discontented with the States," said Leicester; "he hath a sullen
deep wit. The young gentleman is yet to be won only to her Majesty, I
perceive, of his own inclination. The house is marvellous poor and
little regarded by the States, and if they get anything it is like to be
by her Majesty, which should be altogether, and she may easily, do for
him to win him sure. I will undertake it." Yet the Earl was ever
anxious about some of the influences which surrounded Maurice, for he
thought him more easily guided than he wished him to be by any others but
himself. "He stands upon making and marring," he said, "as he meets with
good counsel." And at another time he observed, "The young gentleman
hath a solemn sly wit; but, in troth, if any be to be doubted toward the
King of Spain, it is he and his counsellors, for they have been
altogether, so far, French, and so far in mislike with England as they
cannot almost hide it."
And there was still another member of the house of Nassau who was already
an honour to his illustrious race. Count William Lewis, hardly more than
a boy in years, had already served many campaigns, and had been
desperately wounded in the cause for which so much of the heroic blood of
his race had been shed. Of the five Nassau brethren, his father Count
John was the sole survivor, and as devoted as ever to the cause of
Netherland liberty. The other four had already laid down their lives in
its defence. And William Lewis, was worthy to be the nephew of William
and Lewis, Henry and Adolphus, and the son of John. Not at all a
beautiful or romantic hero in appearance, but an odd-looking little man,
with a round bullet-head, close-clipped hair, a small, twinkling,
sagacious eye, rugged, somewhat puffy features screwed whimsically awry,
with several prominent warts dotting, without ornamenting, all that was
visible of a face which was buried up to the ears in a furzy thicket of
yellow-brown beard, the tough young stadholder of Friesland, in his iron
corslet, and halting upon his maimed leg, had come forth with other
notable personages to the Hague.
He wished to do honour heartily and freely to Queen Elizabeth and her
representative. And Leicester was favourably impressed with his new
acquaintance. "Here is another little fellow," he said, "as little as
may be, but one of the gravest and wisest young men that ever I spake
withal; it is the Count Guilliam of Nassau. He governs Friesland; I
would every Province had such another."
Thus, upon the great question which presented itself upon the very
threshold--the nature and extent of the authority to be exercised by
Leicester--the most influential Netherlanders were in favour of a large
and liberal interpretation of his powers. The envoys in England, the
Nassau family Hohenlo, the prominent members of the States, such as the
shrewd, plausible Menin, the "honest and painful" Falk, and the
chancellor of Gelderland--"that very great, wise, old man Leoninus,"
as Leicester called him,--were all desirous that he should assume an
absolute governor-generalship over the whole country. This was a grave
and a delicate matter, and needed to be severely scanned, without delay.
But besides the natives, there were two Englishmen--together with
ambassador Davison--who were his official advisers. Bartholomew Clerk,
LL.D., and Sir Henry Killigrew had been appointed by the Queen to be
members of the council of the United States, according to the provisions
of the August treaty. The learned Bartholomew hardly seemed equal to his
responsible position among those long-headed Dutch politicians. Philip
Sidney--the only blemish in whose character was an intolerable tendency
to puns--observed that "Doctor Clerk was of those clerks that are not
always the wisest, and so my lord too late was finding him." The Earl
himself, who never undervalued the intellect of the Netherlanders whom
he came to govern, anticipated but small assistance from the English
civilian. "I find no great stuff in my little colleague," he said,
"nothing that I looked for. It is a pity you have no more of his
profession, able men to serve. This man hath good will, and a pretty
scholar's wit; but he is too little for these big fellows, as heavy as
her Majesty thinks them to be. I would she had but one or two, such as
the worst of half a score be here." The other English statecounsellor
seemed more promising. "I have one here," said the Earl, "in whom I take
no small comfort; that is little Hal Killigrew. I assure you, my lord,
he is a notable servant, and more in him than ever I heretofore thought
of him, though I always knew him to be an honest man and an able."
But of all the men that stood by Leicester's side, the most faithful,
devoted, sagacious, experienced, and sincere of his counsellors, English
or Flemish, was envoy Davison. It is important to note exactly the
opinion that had been formed of him by those most competent to judge,
before events in which he was called on to play a prominent and
responsible though secondary part, had placed him in a somewhat
false position.
"Mr. Davison," wrote Sidney, "is here very careful in her Majesty's
causes, and in your Lordship's. He takes great pains and goes to great
charges for it." The Earl himself was always vehement in his praise.
"Mr. Davison," said he at another time, "has dealt most painfully and
chargeably in her Majesty's service here, and you shall find him as
sufficiently able to deliver the whole state of this country as any man
that ever was in it, acquainted with all sorts here that are men of
dealing. Surely, my Lord, you shall do a good deed that he may be
remembered with her Majesty's gracious consideration, for his being here
has been very chargeable, having kept a very good countenance, and a very
good table, all his abode here, and of such credit with all the chief
sort, as I know no stranger in any place hath the like. As I am a suitor
to you to be his good friend to her Majesty, so I must heartily pray you,
good my Lord, to procure his coming hither shortly to me again, for I
know not almost how to do without him. I confess it is a wrong to the
gentleman, and I protest before God, if it were for mine own particular
respect, I would not require it for L5000. But your Lordship doth little
think how greatly I have to do, as also how needful for her Majesty's
service his being here will, be. Wherefore, good my Lord, if it may not
offend her Majesty, be a mean for this my request, for her own service'
sake wholly."
Such were the personages who surrounded the Earl on his arrival in the
Netherlands, and such their sentiments respecting the position that it
was desirable for him to assume. But there was one very important fact.
He had studiously concealed from Davison that the Queen had peremptorily
and distinctly forbidden his accepting the office of governor-general.
It seemed reasonable, if he came thither at all, that he should come in
that elevated capacity. The Staten wished it. The Earl ardently longed
for it. The ambassador, who knew more of Netherland politics and
Netherland humours than any man did, approved of it. The interests of
both England and Holland seemed to require it. No one but Leicester knew
that her Majesty had forbidden it.
Accordingly, no sooner had the bell-ringing, cannon-explosions, bonfires,
and charades, come to an end, and the Earl got fairly housed in the
Hague, than the States took the affair of government seriously in hand.
On the 9th January, Chancellor Leoninus and Paul Buys waited upon
Davison, and requested a copy of the commission granted by the Queen to
the Earl. The copy was refused, but the commission was read; by which it
appeared that he had received absolute command over her Majesty's forces
in the Netherlands by land and sea, together with authority to send for
all gentlemen and other personages out of England that he might think
useful to him. On the 10th the States passed a resolution to offer him
the governor-generalship over all the Provinces. On the same day another
committee waited upon his "Excellency"--as the States chose to denominate
the Earl, much to the subsequent wrath of the Queen--and made an
appointment for the whole body to wait upon him the following morning.