Should Elizabeth accept the Sovereignty?--The Effects of her Anger--
Quarrels between the Earl and the Staten--The Earl's three
Counsellors--Leicester's Finance--Chamber--Discontent of the
Mercantile Classes--Paul Buys and the Opposition--Been Insight of
Paul Buys--Truchsess becomes a Spy upon him--Intrigues of Buys with
Denmark--His Imprisonment--The Earl's Unpopularity--His Quarrels
with the States--And with the Norrises--His Counsellors Wilkes and
Clerke--Letter from the Queen to Leicester--A Supper Party at
Hohenlo's--A drunken Quarrel--Hohenlo's Assault upon Edward Norris--
Ill Effects of the Riot.
The brief period of sunshine had been swiftly followed by storms. The
Governor Absolute had, from the outset, been placed in a false position.
Before he came to the Netherlands the Queen had refused the sovereignty.
Perhaps it was wise in her to decline so magnificent an offer; yet
certainly her acceptance would have been perfectly honourable. The
constituted authorities of the Provinces formally made the proposition.
There is no doubt whatever that the whole population ardently desired to
become her subjects. So far as the Netherlands were concerned, then, she
would have been fully justified in extending her sceptre over a free
people, who, under no compulsion and without any, diplomatic chicane, had
selected her for their hereditary chief. So far as regarded England, the
annexation to that country of a continental cluster of states, inhabited
by a race closely allied to it by blood, religion, and the instinct for
political freedom, seemed, on the whole, desirable.
In a financial point of view, England would certainly lose nothing by the
union. The resources of the Provinces were at leant equal to her own. We
have seen the astonishment which the wealth and strength of the
Netherlands excited in their English visitors. They were amazed by the
evidences of commercial and manufacturing prosperity, by the spectacle of
luxury and advanced culture, which met them on every side. Had the
Queen--as it had been generally supposed--desired to learn whether the
Provinces were able and willing to pay the expenses of their own defence
before she should definitely decide on, their offer of sovereignty, she
was soon thoroughly enlightened upon the subject. Her confidential agents
all--held one language. If she would only, accept the sovereignty, the
amount which the Provinces would pay was in a manner boundless. She was
assured that the revenue of her own hereditary realm was much inferior to
that of the possessions thus offered to her sway.
In regard to constitutional polity, the condition of the Netherlands was
at least, as satisfactory as that of England. The great amount of civil
freedom enjoyed by those countries--although perhaps an objection--in the
eyes of Elizabeth Tudor--should certainly have been a recommendation to
her liberty-loving subjects. The question of defence had been
satisfactorily answered. The Provinces, if an integral part of the
English empire, could protect themselves, and would become an additional
element of strength--not a troublesome encumbrance.
The difference of language was far, less than that which already existed
between the English and their Irish fellow-subjects, while it was
counterbalanced by sympathy, instead of being aggravated by mutual
hostility in the matter of religion.
With regard to the great question of abstract sovereignty, it was
certainly impolitic for an absolute monarch to recognize the right of a
nation to repudiate its natural allegiance. But Elizabeth had already
countenanced that step by assisting the rebellion against Philip. To
allow the rebels to transfer their obedience from the King of Spain to
herself was only another step in the same direction. The Queen, should
she annex the Provinces, would certainly be accused by the world of
ambition; but the ambition was a noble one, if, by thus consenting to the
urgent solicitations of a free people, she extended the region of civil
and religious liberty, and raised up a permanent bulwark against
sacerdotal and royal absolutism.
A war between herself and Spain was inevitable if she accepted the
sovereignty, but peace had been already rendered impossible by the treaty
of alliance. It is true that the Queen imagined the possibility of
combining her engagements towards the States with a conciliatory attitude
towards their ancient master, but it was here that she committed the
gravest error. The negotiations of Parma and his sovereign with the
English court were a masterpiece of deceit on the part of Spain. We have
shown, by the secret correspondence, and we shall in the sequel make it
still clearer, that Philip only intended to amuse his antagonists; that
he had already prepared his plan for the conquest of England, down to the
minutest details; that the idea of tolerating religious liberty had never
entered his mind; and that his fixed purpose was not only thoroughly to
chastise the Dutch rebels, but to deprive the heretic Queen who had
fostered their rebellion both of throne and life. So far as regarded the
Spanish King, then, the quarrel between him and Elizabeth was already
mortal; while in a religious, moral, political, and financial point of
view, it would be difficult to show that it was wrong, or imprudent for
England to accept the sovereignty over his ancient subjects. The cause of
human, freedom seemed likely to gain by the step, for the States did not
consider themselves strong enough to maintain the independent republic
which had already risen.
It might be a question whether, on the whole, Elizabeth made a mistake in
declining the sovereignty. She was certainly wrong, however, in wishing
the lieutenant-general of her six thousand auxiliary troops to be
clothed, as such, with vice-regal powers. The States-General, in a moment
of enthusiasm, appointed him governor absolute, and placed in his hands,
not only the command of the forces, but the entire control of their
revenues, imposts, and customs, together with the appointment of civil
and military officers. Such an amount of power could only be delegated by
the sovereign. Elizabeth had refused the sovereignty: it then rested with
the States. They only, therefore, were competent to confer the power
which Elizabeth wished her favourite to exercise simply as her
lieutenant-general.
Her wrathful and vituperative language damaged her cause and that of the
Netherlands more severely than can now be accurately estimated. The Earl
was placed at once in a false, a humiliating, almost a ridiculous
position. The authority which the States had thus a second time offered
to England was a second time and most scornfully thrust back upon them.
Elizabeth was indignant that "her own man" should clothe himself in the
supreme attributes which she had refused. The States were forced by the
violence of the Queen to take the authority into their own hands again,
and Leicester was looked upon as a disgraced man.
Then came the neglect with which the Earl was treated by her Majesty and
her ill-timed parsimony towards the cause. No letters to him in four
months, no remittances for the English troops, not a penny of salary for
him. The whole expense of the war was thrown for the time upon their
hands, and the English soldiers seemed only a few thousand starving,
naked, dying vagrants, an incumbrance instead of an aid.
The States, in their turn, drew the purse-strings. The two hundred
thousand florins monthly were paid. The four hundred thousand florins
which had been voted as an additional supply were for a time held back,
as Leicester expressly stated, because of the discredit which had been
thrown upon him from home.
[Strangely enough, Elizabeth was under the impression that the extra
grant of 400,000 florins (L40,000) for four months was four hundred
thousand pounds sterling. "The rest that was granted by the States,
as extraordinary to levy an army, which was 400,000 florins, not
pounds, as I hear your Majesty taketh it. It is forty thousand
pounds, and to be paid In March, April, May, and June last," &c.
Leicester to the Queen, 11 Oct. 1586. (S. P. Office MS.)]
The military operations were crippled for want of funds, but more fatal
than everything else were the secret negotiations for peace. Subordinate
individuals, like Grafigni and De Loo, went up and down, bringing
presents out of England for Alexander Farnese, and bragging that Parma
and themselves could have peace whenever they liked to make it, and
affirming that Leicester's opinions were of no account whatever.
Elizabeth's coldness to the Earl and to the Netherlands was affirmed to
be the Prince of Parma's sheet-anchor; while meantime a house was
ostentatiously prepared in Brussels by their direction for the reception
of an English ambassador, who was every moment expected to arrive. Under
such circumstances it was in, vain for the governor-general to protest
that the accounts of secret negotiations were false, and quite natural
that the States should lose their confidence in the Queen. An unfriendly
and suspicious attitude towards her representative was a necessary
result, and the demonstrations against the common enemy became still more
languid. But for these underhand dealings, Grave, Venlo, and Neusz, might
have been saved, and the current 'of the Meuse and Rhine have remained in
the hands of the patriots.
The Earl was industrious, generous, and desirous of playing well his
part. His personal courage was undoubted, and, in the opinion of his
admirers--themselves, some of them, men of large military experience--his
ability as a commander was of a high order. The valour displayed by the
English nobles and gentlemen who accompanied him was magnificent, worthy
the descendants of the victors at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt; and the
good behaviour of their followers--with a few rare exceptions--had been
equally signal. But now the army was dwindling to a ghastly array of
scarecrows, and the recruits, as they came from England, were appalled by
the spectacle presented by their predecessors. "Our old ragged rogues
here have so discouraged our new men," said Leicester; "as I protest to
you they look like dead men." Out of eleven hundred freshly-arrived
Englishmen, five hundred ran away in two days. Some were caught and
hanged, and all seemed to prefer hanging to remaining in the service,
while the Earl declared that he would be hanged as well rather than again
undertake such a charge without being assured payment for his troops
beforehand!
The valour of Sidney and Essex, Willoughby and Pelham, Roger Williams and
Martin Schenk, was set at nought by such untoward circumstances. Had not
Philip also left his army to starve and Alexander Farnese to work
miracles, it would have fared still worse with Holland and England, and
with the cause of civil and religious liberty in the year 1586.
The States having resumed, as much as possible; their former authority,
were on very unsatisfactory terms with the governor-general. Before long,
it was impossible for the twenty or thirty individuals called the States
to be in the same town with the man whom, at the commencement of the
year, they had greeted so warmly. The hatred between the Leicester
faction and the municipalities became intense, for the foundation of the
two great parties which were long to divide the Netherland commonwealth
was already laid. The mercantile patrician interest, embodied in the
states of Holland and Zeeland and inclined to a large toleration in the
matter of religion, which afterwards took the form of Arminianism, was
opposed by a strict Calvinist party, which desired to subject the
political commonwealth to the reformed church; which nevertheless
indulged in very democratic views of the social compact; and which was
controlled by a few refugees from Flanders and Brabant, who had succeeded
in obtaining the confidence of Leicester.
Thus the Earl was the nominal head of the Calvinist democratic party;
while young Maurice of Nassau; stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, and
guided by Barneveld, Buys, and other leading statesmen of these
Provinces; was in an attitude precisely the reverse of the one which he
was destined at a later and equally memorable epoch to assume. The chiefs
of the faction which had now succeeded in gaining the confidence of
Leicester were Reingault, Burgrave, and Deventer, all refugees.
The laws of Holland and of the other United States were very strict on
the subject of citizenship, and no one but a native was competent to hold
office in each Province. Doubtless, such regulations were
narrow-spirited; but to fly in the face of them was the act of a despot,
and this is what Leicester did. Reingault was a Fleming. He was a
bankrupt merchant, who had been taken into the protection of Lamoral
Egmont, and by that nobleman recommended to Granvelle for an office under
the Cardinal's government. The refusal of this favour was one of the
original causes of Egmont's hostility to Granvelle. Reingault
subsequently entered the service of the Cardinal, however, and rewarded
the kindness of his former benefactor by great exertions in finding, or
inventing, evidence to justify the execution of that unfortunate
nobleman. He was afterwards much employed by the Duke of Alva and by the
Grand Commander Requesens; but after the pacification of Ghent he had
been completely thrown out of service. He had recently, in a subordinate
capacity, accompanied the legations of the States to France and to
England, and had now contrived to ingratiate himself with the Earl of
Leicester. He affected great zeal for the Calvinistic religion--an
exhibition which, in the old servant of Granvelle and Alva, was far from
edifying--and would employ no man or maid-servant in his household until
their religious principles had been thoroughly examined by one or two
clergymen. In brief, he was one of those, who, according to a homely
Flemish proverb, are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope; but, with
the exception of this brief interlude in his career, he lived and died a
Papist.
Gerard Proninck, called Deventer, was a respectable inhabitant of
Bois-le-Duc, who had left that city after it had again become subject to
the authority of Spain. He was of decent life and conversation, but a
restless and ambitious demagogue. As a Brabantine, he was unfit for
office; and yet, through Leicester's influence and the intrigues of the
democratic party, he obtained the appointment of burgomaster in the city
of Utrecht. The States-General, however, always refused to allow him to
appear at their sessions as representative of that city.
Daniel de Burgrave was a Flemish mechanic, who, by the exertion of much
energy and talent, had risen to the poet of procureur-general of
Flanders. After the conquest of the principal portion of that Province by
Parma, he had made himself useful to the English governor-general in
various ways, and particularly as a linguist. He spoke English--a tongue
with which few Netherlanders of that day were familiar--and as the Earl
knew no other, except (very imperfectly) Italian, he found his services
in speaking and writing a variety of languages very convenient. He was
the governor's private secretary, and, of course, had no entrance to the
council of state, but he was accused of frequently thrusting himself into
their hall of sessions, where, under pretence of arranging the Earl's
table, or portfolio, or papers, he was much addicted to whispering into
his master's ear, listening to conversation,--to eaves-dropping; in
short, and general intrusiveness.
"A most faithful, honest servant is Burgrave," said Leicester; "a
substantial, wise man. 'Tis as sufficient a man as ever I met withal of
any nation; very well learned, exceeding wise, and sincere in religion. I
cannot commend the man too much. He is the only comfort I have had of any
of this nation."
These three personages were the leaders of the Leicester faction. They
had much, influence with all the refugees from Flanders, Brabant, and the
Walloon Provinces. In Utrecht, especially, where the Earl mainly resided,
their intrigues were very successful. Deventer was appointed, as already
stated, to the important post of burgomaster; many, of the influential
citizens were banished, without cause or, trial; the upper branch of the
municipal government, consisting of the clerical delegates of the
colleges, was in an arbitrary manner abolished; and, finally, the
absolute sovereignty of, the Province, without condition, was offered to
the Queen, of England.
Leicester was now determined to carry out one of the great objects which
the Queen had in view when she sent him to the Netherlands. She desired
thoroughly to ascertain the financial resources of the Provinces, and
their capacity to defend themselves. It was supposed by the States, and
hoped by the Earl and by a majority of the Netherland people, that she
would, in case the results were satisfactory, accept, after all, the
sovereignty. She certainly was not to be blamed that she wished to make
this most important investigation, but it was her own fault that any new
machinery had been rendered necessary. The whole control of the finances
had, in the beginning of the year, been placed in the Earl's hands, and
it was only by her violently depriving him of his credit and of the
confidence of the country that he had not retained it. He now established
a finance-chamber, under the chief control of Reingault, who promised him
mountains of money, and who was to be chief treasurer. Paul Buys was
appointed by Leicester to fill a subordinate position in the new council.
He spurned the offer with great indignation, saying that Reingault was
not fit to be his clerk, and that he was not likely himself, therefore,
to accept a humble post under the administration of such an individual.
This scornful refusal filled to the full the hatred of Leicester against
the ex-Advocate of Holland.
The mercantile interest at once took the alarm, because it was supposed
that the finance-chamber, was intended to crush the merchants. Early in
April an Act had been passed by the state-council, prohibiting commerce
with the Spanish possessions. The embargo was intended to injure the
obedient Provinces and their sovereign, but it was shown that its effect
would be to blast the commerce of Holland. It forbade the exportation
from the republic not only of all provisions and munitions of war, but of
all goods and merchandize whatever, to Spain, Portugal, the Spanish
Netherlands, or any other of Philip's territories, either in Dutch or
neutral vessel. It would certainly seem, at first sight, that such an act
was reasonable, although the result would really be, not to deprive the
enemy of supplies, but to throw the whole Baltic trade into the hands of
the Bremen, Hamburg, and "Osterling" merchants. Leicester expected to
derive a considerable revenue by granting passports and licenses to such
neutral traders, but the edict became so unpopular that it was never
thoroughly enforced, and was before long rescinded.
The odium of the measure was thrown upon the governor-general, yet he had
in truth opposed it in the state-council, and was influential in
procuring its repeal.
Another important Act had been directed against the mercantile interest,
and excited much general discontent. The Netherlands wished the staple of
the English cloth manufacture to be removed from Emden--the petty,
sovereign of which place was the humble servant of Spain--to Amsterdam or
Delft. The desire was certainly, natural, and the Dutch merchants sent a
committee to confer with Leicester. He was much impressed with their
views, and with the sagacity of their chairman, one Mylward, "a wise
fellow and well languaged, an ancient man and very, religious," as the
Earl pronounced him to be.
Notwithstanding the wisdom however, of this well-languaged fellow, the
Queen, for some strange reason, could not be induced to change the staple
from Emden, although it was shown that the public revenue of the
Netherlands would gain twenty thousand pounds a year by the measure. "All
Holland will cry out for it," said Leicester; "but I had rather they
cried than that England should weep."
Thus the mercantile community, and especially the patrician families of
Holland and Zeeland, all engaged in trade, became more and more hostile
to the governor-general and to his financial trio, who were soon almost
as unpopular as the famous Consults of Cardinal Granvelle had been. It
was the custom of the States to consider the men who surrounded the Earl
as needy and unprincipled renegades and adventurers. It was the policy of
his advisers to represent the merchants and the States--which mainly
consisted of, or were controlled by merchants--as a body of corrupt,
selfish, greedy money-getters.
The calumnies put in circulation against the States by Reingault and his
associates grew at last so outrageous, and the prejudice created in the
mind of Leicester and his immediate English adherents so intense, that it
was rendered necessary for the States, of Holland and Zeeland to write to
their agent Ortell in London, that he might forestall the effect of these
perpetual misrepresentations on her Majesty's government. Leicester, on
the other hand, under the inspiration; of his artful advisers, was
vehement in his entreaties that Ortell should be sent away from England.
The ablest and busiest of the opposition-party, the "nimblest head" in
the States-General was the ex-Advocate of Holland; Paul Buys. This man
was then the foremost statesman in, the Netherlands. He had been the
firmest friend to the English alliance; he had resigned his office when
the States were-offering the sovereignty to France, and had been on the
point of taking service in Denmark. He had afterwards been prominent in
the legation which offered the sovereignty to Elizabeth, and, for a long
time, had been the most firm, earnest, and eloquent advocate of the
English policy. Leicester had originally courted him, caressed him,
especially recommended him to the Queen's favour, given him money--as he
said, "two hundred pounds sterling thick at a time"--and openly
pronounced him to be "in ability above all men." "No man hath ever sought
a man," he said, "as I have sought P. B."
The period of their friendship was, however, very brief. Before many
weeks had passed there was no vituperative epithet that Leicester was not
in the daily habit of bestowing upon Paul. The Earl's vocabulary of abuse
was not a limited one, but he exhausted it on the head of the Advocate.
He lacked at last words and breath to utter what was like him. He
pronounced his former friend "a very dangerous man, altogether hated of
the people and the States;"--"a lewd sinner, nursled in revolutions; a
most covetous, bribing fellow, caring for nothing but to bear the sway
and grow rich;"--"a man who had played many parts, both lewd and
audacious;"--"a very knave, a traitor to his country;"--"the most
ungrateful wretch alive, a hater of the Queen and of all the English; a
most unthankful man to her Majesty; a practiser to make himself rich and
great, and nobody else;"--"among all villains the greatest;"--"a
bolsterer of all papists and ill men, a dissembler, a devil, an atheist,"
a "most naughty man, and a most notorious drunkard in the worst degree."
Where the Earl hated, his hatred was apt to be deadly, and he was
determined, if possible, to have the life of the detested Paul. "You
shall see I will do well enough with him, and that shortly," he said. "I
will course him as he was not so this twenty year. I will warrant him
hanged and one or two of his fellows, but you must not tell your shirt of
this yet;" and when he was congratulating the government on his having at
length procured the execution of Captain Hemart, the surrenderer of
Grave, he added, pithily, "and you shall hear that Mr. P. B. shall
follow."
Yet the Earl's real griefs against Buys may be easily summed up. The lewd
sinner, nursled in revolutions, had detected the secret policy of the
Queen's government, and was therefore perpetually denouncing the
intrigues going on with Spain. He complained that her Majesty was tired
of having engaged in the Netherland enterprise; he declared that she
would be glad to get fairly out of it; that her reluctance to spend a
farthing more in the cause than she was obliged to do was hourly
increasing upon her; that she was deceiving and misleading the
States-General; and that she was hankering after a peace. He said that
the Earl had a secret intention to possess himself of certain towns in
Holland, in which case the whole question of peace and war would be in
the hands of the Queen, who would also have it thus in her power to
reimburse herself at once for all expenses that she had incurred.
It would be difficult to show that there was anything very calumnious in
these charges, which, no doubt, Paul was in the habit of making. As to
the economical tendencies of her Majesty, sufficient evidence has been
given already from Leicester's private letters. "Rather than spend one
hundred pounds," said Walsingham, "she can be content to be deceived of
five thousand." That she had been concealing from the Staten, from
Walsingham, from Leicester, during the whole summer, her secret
negotiations with Spain, has also been made apparent. That she was
disgusted with the enterprise in which she had embarked, Walsingham,
Burghley, Hatton, and all the other statesmen of England, most abundantly
testified. Whether Leicester had really an intention to possess himself
of certain cities in Holland--a charge made by Paul Buys, and denounced
as especially slanderous by the Earl--may better appear from his own
private statements.
"This I will do," he wrote to the Queen, "and I hope not to fail of it,
to get into my hands three or four most principal places in North
Holland; which will be such a strength and assurance for your Majesty, as
you shall see you shall both rule these men and make war or peace as you
list, always provided--whatsoever you hear, or is--part not with the
Brill; and having these places in your hands, whatsoever should chance to
these countries, your Majesty, I will warrant sure enough to make what
peace you will in an hour, and to have your debts and charges readily
answered." At a somewhat later moment it will be seen what came of these
secret designs. For the present, Leicester was very angry with Paul for
daring to suspect him of such treachery.
The Earl complained, too, that the influence of Buys with Hohenlo and
young Maurice of Nassau was most pernicious. Hohenlo had formerly stood
high in Leicester's opinion. He was a "plain, faithful soldier, a most
valiant gentleman," and he was still more important, because about to
marry Mary of Nassau; eldest slaughter, of William the Silent, and
coheiress with Philip William, to the Buren property. But he had been
tampered with by the intriguing Paul Buys, and had then wished to resign
his office under Leicester. Being pressed for reasons, he had "grown
solemn," and withdrawn himself almost entirely.
Maurice; with his "solemn, sly wit," also gave the Earl much trouble,
saying little; but thinking much, and listening to the insidious Paul. He
"stood much on making or marring," so Leicester thought, "as he met with
good counsel." He had formerly been on intimate terms with the
governor-general, who affected to call him his son; but he had
subsequently kept aloof, and in three months had not come near him. The
Earl thought that money might do much, and was anxious for Sir Francis
Drake to come home from the Indies with millions of gold, that the Queen
might make both Hohenlo and Maurice a handsome present before it should
be too late.
Meantime he did what he could with Elector Truchsess to lure them back
again. That forlorn little prelate was now poorer and more wretched than
ever. He was becoming paralytic, though young, and his heart was broken
through want. Leicester, always generous as the sun, gave him money, four
thousand florins at a time, and was most earnest that the Queen should
put him on her pension list. "His wisdom, his behaviour, his languages,
his person," said the Earl, "all would like her well. He is in great
melancholy for his town of Neusz, and for his poverty, having a very
noble mind. If, he be lost, her Majesty had better lose a hundred
thousand pounds."
The melancholy Truchsess now became a spy and a go-between. He insinuated
himself into the confidence of Paul Buys, wormed his secrets from him,
and then communicated them to Hohenlo and to Leicester; "but he did it
very wisely," said the Earl, "so that he was not mistrusted." The
governor always affected, in order to screen the elector from suspicion,
to obtain his information from persons in Utrecht; and he had indeed many
spies in that city; who diligently reported Paul's table-talk.
Nevertheless, that "noble gentleman, the elector," said Leicester, "hath
dealt most deeply with him, to seek out the bottom." As the ex-Advocate
of Holland was very communicative in his cups, and very bitter against
the governor-general, there was soon such a fund of information collected
on the subject by various eaves-droppers, that Leicester was in hopes of
very soon hanging Mr. Paul Buys, as we have already seen.
The burthen of the charges against the culprit was his statement that the
Provinces would be gone if her Majesty did not declare herself,
vigorously and generously, in their favour; but, as this was the
perpetual cry of Leicester himself, there seemed hardly hanging matter in
that. That noble gentleman, the elector, however, had nearly saved the
hangman his trouble, having so dealt with Hohenlo as to "bring him into
as good a mind as ever he was;" and the first fruits of this good mind
were, that the honest Count--a man of prompt dealings--walked straight to
Paul's house in order to kill him on the spot. Something fortunately
prevented the execution of this plan; but for a time at least the
energetic Count continued to be "governed greatly" by the ex-archbishop,
and "did impart wholly unto him his most secret heart."
Thus the "deep wise Truxy," as Leicester called him, continued to earn
golden opinions, and followed up his conversion of Hohenlo by undertaking
to "bring Maurice into tune again also," and the young Prince was soon on
better terms with his "affectionate father" than he had ever been before.
Paul Buys was not so easily put down, however, nor the two magnates so
thoroughly gained over. Before the end of the season Maurice stood in his
old position, the nominal head of the Holland or patrician party, chief
of the opposition to Leicester, while Hohenlo had become more bitter than
ever against the Earl. The quarrel between himself and Edward Norris, to
which allusion will soon be made, tended to increase the dissatisfaction,
although he singularly misunderstood Leicester's sentiments throughout
the whole affair. Hohenlo recovered of his wound before Zutphen; but, on
his recovery, was more malcontent than ever. The Earl was obliged at last
to confess that "he was a very dangerous man, inconstant, envious; and
hateful to all our nation, and a very traitor to the cause. There is no
dealing to win him," he added, "I have sought it to my cost. His best
friends tell me he is not to be trusted."
Meantime that lewd sinner, the indefatigable Paul, was plotting
desperately--so Leicester said and believed--to transfer the sovereignty
of the Provinces to the King of Denmark. Buys, who was privately of
opinion that the States required an absolute head, "though it were but an
onion's head," and that they would thankfully continue under Leicester as
governor absolute if Elizabeth would accept the sovereignty, had made up
his mind that the Queen would never take that step. He was therefore
disposed to offer the crown to the King of Denmark, and was believed to
have brought Maurice--who was to espouse that King's daughter--to the
same way of thinking. Young Count Rantzan, son of a distinguished Danish
statesman, made a visit to the Netherlands in order to confer with Buys.
Paul was also anxious to be appointed envoy to Denmark, ostensibly to
arrange for the two thousand cavalry, which the King had long before
promised for the assistance of the Provinces, but in reality, to examine
the details of this new project; and Leicester represented to the Queen
very earnestly how powerful the Danish monarch would become, thus
rendered master of the narrow seas, and how formidable to England.
In the midst of these plottings, real or supposed, a party of armed men,
one fine summer's morning, suddenly entered Paul's bedroom as he lay
asleep at the house of the burgomaster, seized his papers, and threw him:
into prison in the wine-cellar of the town-house. "Oh my papers, oh my
papers!" cried the unfortunate politician, according to Leicester's
statement, "the Queen of England will for ever hate me." The Earl
disavowed all, participation in the arrest; but he was not believed. He
declared himself not sorry that the measure had been taken, and promised
that he would not "be hasty to release him," not doubting that "he would
be found faulty enough." Leicester maintained that there was stuff enough
discovered to cost Paul his head; but he never lost his head, nor was
anything treasonable or criminal ever found against him. The intrigue
with Denmark--never proved--and commenced, if undertaken at all, in utter
despair of Elizabeth's accepting the sovereignty, was the gravest charge.
He remained, however, six months in prison, and at the beginning of 1587
was released, without trial or accusation, at the request of the English
Queen.
The States could hardly be blamed for their opposition to the Earl's
administration, for he had thrown himself completely into the arms of a
faction, whose object was to vilipend and traduce them, and it was now
difficult for him to recover the functions of which the Queen had
deprived him. "The government they had given from themselves to me stuck
in their stomachs always," he said. Thus on the one side, the States
were, "growing more stately than ever," and were-always "jumbling
underhand," while the aristocratic Earl, on, his part, was resolute not
to be put down by "churls and tinkers." He was sure that the people were
with him, and that, "having always been governed by some prince, they,
never did nor could consent to be ruled by bakers, brewers, and hired
advocates. I know they hate them," said this high-born tribune of the
people. He was much disgusted with the many-headed chimaera, the
monstrous republic, with which he found himself in such unceasing
conflict, and was disposed to take a manful stand. "I have been fain of
late," he said, "to set the better leg foremost, to handle some of my
masters somewhat plainly; for they thought I would droop; and whatsoever
becomes of me, you shall hear I will keep my reputation, or die for it."
But one great accusation, made against the churls and tinkers, and bakers
and hired advocates, and Mr. Paul Buys at their head, was that they were
liberal towards the Papists. They were willing that Catholics should
remain in the country and exercise the rights of citizens, provided they,
conducted themselves like good citizens. For this toleration--a lesson
which statesmen like Buys and Barneveld had learned in the school of
William the Silent--the opposition-party were denounced as bolsterers of
Papists, and Papists themselves at heart, and "worshippers of idolatrous
idols."
From words, too, the government of Leicester passed to acts. Seventy
papists were banished from the city of Utrecht at the time of the arrest
of Buys. The Queen had constantly enforced upon Leicester the importance
of dealing justly with the Catholics in the Netherlands, on the ground
that they might be as good patriots and were as much interested in the
welfare of their country as were the Protestants; and he was especially
enjoined "not to meddle in matters of religion." This wholesome advice it
would have been quite impossible for the Earl, under the guidance of
Reingault, Burgrave, and Stephen Perret, to carry out. He protested that
he should have liked to treat Papists and Calvinists "with indifference,"
but that it had proved impossible; that the Catholics were perpetually
plotting with the Spanish faction, and that no towns were safe except
those in which Papists had been excluded from office. "They love the Pope
above all," he said, "and the Prince of Parma hath continual intelligence
with them." Nor was it Catholics alone who gave the governor trouble. He
was likewise very busy in putting down other denominations that differed
from the Calvinists. "Your Majesty will not believe," he said, "the
number of sects that are in most towns; especially Anabaptists, Families
of Love, Georgians; and I know not what. The godly and good ministers
were molested by them in many places, and ready to give over; and even
such diversities grew among magistrates in towns, being caused by some
sedition-sowers here." It is however, satisfactory to reflect that the
anabaptists and families of love, although discouraged and frowned upon,
were not burned alive, buried alive, drowned in dungeons, and roasted at
slow fires, as had been the case with them and with every other species
of Protestants, by thousands and tens of thousands, so long as Charles V.
and Philip II. had ruled the territory of that commonwealth. Humanity had
acquired something by the war which the Netherlanders had been waging for
twenty years, and no man or woman was ever put to death for religious
causes after the establishment of the republic.
With his hands thus full of business, it was difficult for the Earl to
obey the Queen's command not to meddle in religious matters; for he was
not of the stature of William the Silent, and could not comprehend that
the great lesson taught by the sixteenth century was that men were not to
meddle with men in matters of religion.
But besides his especial nightmare--Mr. Paul Buys--the governor-general
had a whole set of incubi in the Norris family. Probably no two persons
ever detested each other more cordially than did Leicester and Sir John
Norris. Sir John had been commander of the forces in the Netherlands
before Leicester's arrival, and was unquestionably a man of larger
experience than the Earl. He had, however, as Walsingham complained,
acquired by his services in "countries where neither discipline military
nor religion carried any sway," a very rude and licentious kind of
government. "Would to God," said the secretary, "that, with his value and
courage, he carried the mind and reputation of a religious soldier." But
that was past praying for. Sir John was proud, untractable, turbulent,
very difficult to manage. He hated Leicester, and was furious with Sir
William Pelham, whom Leicester had made marshal of the camp. He
complained, not unjustly, that from the first place in the army, which he
had occupied in the Netherlands, he had been reduced to the fifth. The
governor-general--who chose to call Sir John the son of his ancient
enemy, the Earl of Sussex--often denounced him in good set terms. "His
brother Edward is as ill as he," he said, "but John is right the late
Earl of Sussex' son; he will so dissemble and crouch, and so cunningly
carry his doings, as no man living would imagine that there were half the
malice or vindictive mind that plainly his words prove to be." Leicester
accused him of constant insubordination, insolence, and malice,
complained of being traduced by him everywhere in the Netherlands and in
England, and declared that he was followed about by "a pack of lewd
audacious fellows," whom the Earl vowed he would hang, one and all,
before he had done with them. He swore openly, in presence of all his
camp, that he would hang Sir John likewise; so that both the brothers,
who had never been afraid of anything since they had been born into the
world, affected to be in danger of their lives.
The Norrises were on bad terms with many officers--with Sir William
Pelham of course, with "old Reade," Lord North, Roger Williams, Hohenlo,
Essex, and other nobles--but with Sir Philip Sidney, the gentle and
chivalrous, they were friends. Sir John had quarrelled in former
times--according to Leicester--with Hohenlo and even with the "good and
brave" La None, of the iron arm; "for his pride," said the Earl, "was the
spirit of the devil." The governor complained every day of his malignity,
and vowed that he "neither regarded the cause of God, nor of his prince,
nor country."
He consorted chiefly with Sir Thomas Cecil, governor of Brill, son of
Lord Burghley, and therefore no friend to Leicester; but the Earl
protested that "Master Thomas should bear small rule," so long as he was
himself governor-general. "Now I have Pelham and Stanley, we shall do
well enough," he said, "though my young master would countenance him. I
will be master while I remain here, will they, nill they."
Edward Norris, brother of Sir John, gave the governor almost as much
trouble as he; but the treasurer Norris, uncle to them both, was, if
possible, more odious to him than all. He was--if half Leicester's
accusations are to be believed--a most infamous peculator. One-third of
the money sent by the Queen for the soldiers stuck in his fingers. He
paid them their wretched four-pence a-day in depreciated coin, so that
for their "naughty money they could get but naughty ware." Never was such
"fleecing of poor soldiers," said Leicester.
On the other hand, Sir John maintained that his uncle's accounts were
always ready for examination, and earnestly begged the home-government
not to condemn that functionary without a hearing. For himself, he
complained that he was uniformly kept in the background, left in
ignorance of important enterprises, and sent on difficult duty with
inadequate forces. It was believed that Leicester's course was inspired
by envy, lest any military triumph that might be gained should redound to
the glory of Sir John, one of the first commanders of the age, rather
than to that of the governor-general. He was perpetually thwarted,
crossed, calumniated, subjected to coarse and indecent insults, even from
such brave men as Lord North and Roger Williams, and in the very presence
of the commander-in-chief, so that his talents were of no avail, and he
was most anxious to be gone from the country.
Thus with the tremendous opposition formed to his government in the
States-General, the incessant bickerings with the Norrises, the
peculations of the treasurer, the secret negotiations with Spain, and the
impossibility of obtaining money from home for himself or for his
starving little army, the Earl was in anything but a comfortable
position. He was severely censured in England; but he doubted, with much
reason, whether there were many who would take his office, and spend
twenty thousand pounds sterling out of their own pockets, as he had done.
The Earl was generous and brave as man could be, full of wit, quick of
apprehension; but inordinately vain, arrogant, and withal easily led by
designing persons. He stood up manfully for the cause in which he was
embarked, and was most strenuous in his demands for money. "Personally he
cared," he said, "not sixpence for his post; but would give five thousand
sixpences, and six thousand shillings beside, to be rid of it;" but it
was contrary to his dignity to "stand bucking with the States" for his
salary. "Is it reason," he asked, "that I, being sent from so great a
prince as our sovereign is, must come to strangers to beg my
entertainment: If they are to pay me, why is there no remembrance made of
it by her Majesty's letters, or some of the lords?"
The Earl and those around him perpetually and vehemently urged upon the
Queen to reconsider her decision, and accept the sovereignty of the
Provinces at once. There was no other remedy for the distracted state of
the country--no other safeguard for England. The Netherland people
anxiously, eagerly desired it. Her Majesty was adored by all the
inhabitants, who would gladly hang the fellows called the States. Lord
North was of this opinion--so was Cavendish. Leicester had always held
it. "Sure I am," he said, "there is but one way for our safety, and that
is, that her Majesty may take that upon her which I fear she will not."
Thomas Wilkes, who now made his appearance on the scene, held the same
language. This distinguished civilian had been sent by the Queen, early
in August, to look into the state of Netherland affairs. Leicester having
expressly urged the importance of selecting as wise a politician as could
be found--because the best man in England would hardly be found a match
for the dullards and drunkards, as it was the fashion there to call the
Dutch statesmen--had selected Wilkes. After fulfilling this important
special mission, he was immediately afterwards to return to the
Netherlands as English member of the state-council, at forty shillings
a-day, in the place of "little Hal Killigrew," whom Leicester pronounced
a "quicker and stouter fellow" than he had at first taken him for,
although he had always thought well of him. The other English counsellor,
Dr. Bartholomew Clerk, was to remain, and the Earl declared that he too,
whom he had formerly undervalued, and thought to have "little stuff in
him," was now "increasing greatly in understanding." But notwithstanding
this intellectual progress, poor Bartholomew, who was no beginner, was
most anxious to retire. He was a man of peace, a professor, a doctor of
laws, fonder of the learned leisure and the trim gardens of England than
of the scenes which now surrounded him. "I beseech your good Lordship to
consider," he dismally observed to Burghley, "what a hard case it is for
a man that these fifteen years hath had vitam sedentariam, unworthily in
a place judicial, always in his long robe, and who, twenty-four years
since, was a public reader in the University (and therefore cannot be
young), to come now among guns and drums, tumbling up and down, day and
night, over waters and banks, dykes and ditches, upon every occasion that
falleth out; hearing many insolences with silence, bearing many hard
measures with patience--a course most different from my nature, and most
unmeet for him that hath ever professed learning."
Wilkes was of sterner stuff. Always ready to follow the camp and to face
the guns and drums with equanimity, and endowed beside with keen
political insight, he was more competent than most men to unravel the
confused skein of Netherland politics. He soon found that the Queen's
secret negotiations with Spain, and the general distrust of her
intentions in regard to the Provinces, were like to have fatal
consequences. Both he and Leicester painted the anxiety of the Netherland
people as to the intention of her Majesty in vivid colours.
The Queen could not make up her mind--in the very midst of the Greenwich
secret conferences, already described--to accept the Netherland
sovereignty. "She gathereth from your letter," wrote Walsingham, "that
the only salve for this sore is to make herself proprietary of the
country, and to put in such an army as may be able to make head to the
enemy. These two things being so contrary to her Majesty's
disposition--the one, for that it breedeth a doubt of a perpetual war,
the other, for that it requireth an increase of charges--do marvellously
distract her, and make her repent that ever she entered into the action."
Upon the great subject of the sovereignty, therefore, she was unable to
adopt the resolution so much desired by Leicester and by the people of
the Provinces; but she answered the Earl's communications concerning
Maurice and Hohenlo, Sir John Norris and the treasurer, in characteristic
but affectionate language. And thus she wrote:
"Rob, I am afraid you will suppose, by my wandering writings, that a
midsummer's moon hath taken large possession of my brains this month; but
you must needs take things as they come in my head, though order be left
behind me. When I remember your request to have a discreet and honest man
that may carry my mind, and see how all goes there, I have chosen this
bearer (Thomas Wilkes), whom you know and have made good trial of. I have
fraught him full of my conceipts of those country matters, and imparted
what way I mind to take and what is fit for you to use. I am sure you can
credit him, and so I will be short with these few notes. First, that
Count Maurice and Count Hollock (Hohenlo) find themselves trusted of you,
esteemed of me, and to be carefully regarded, if ever peace should
happen, and of that assure them on my word, that yet never deceived any.
And for Norris and other captains that voluntarily, without commandment,
have many years ventured their lives and won our nation honour and
themselves fame, let them not be discouraged by any means, neither by
new-come men nor by old trained soldiers elsewhere. If there be fault in
using of soldiers, or making of profit by them, let them hear of it
without open shame, and doubt not I will well chasten them therefore. It
frets me not a little that the poor soldiers that hourly venture life
should want their due, that well deserve rather reward; and look, in whom
the fault may truly be proved, let them smart therefore. And if the
treasurer be found untrue or negligent, according to desert he shall be
used. But you know my old wont, that love not to discharge from office
without desert. God forbid! I pray you let this bearer know what may be
learned herein, and for the treasure I have joined Sir Thomas Shirley to
see all this money discharged in due sort, where it needeth and behoveth.
"Now will I end, that do imagine I talk still with you, and therefore
loathly say farewell one hundred thousand times; though ever I pray God
bless you from all harm, and save you from all foes. With my million and
legion of thanks for all your pains and cares,
"As you know ever the same,
"E. R.
"P. S. Let Wilkes see that he is acceptable to you. If anything there be
that W. shall desire answer of be such as you would have but me to know,
write it to myself. You know I can keep both others' counsel and mine
own. Mistrust not that anything you would have kept shall be disclosed by
me, for although this bearer ask many things, yet you may answer him such
as you shall think meet, and write to me the rest."
Thus, not even her favourite Leicester's misrepresentations could make
the Queen forget her ancient friendship for "her own crow;" but meantime
the relations between that "bunch of brethren," black Norris and the
rest, and Pelham, Hollock, and other high officers in Leicester's army,
had grown worse than ever.
One August evening there was a supper-party at Count Hollock's quarters
in Gertruydenberg. A military foray into Brabant had just taken place,
under the lead of the Count, and of the Lord Marshal, Sir William Pelham.
The marshal had requested Lord Willoughby, with his troop of horse and
five hundred foot, to join in the enterprise, but, as usual, particular
pains had been taken that Sir John Norris should know nothing of the
affair. Pelham and Hollock--who was "greatly in love with Mr.
Pelham"--had invited several other gentlemen high in Leicester's
confidence to accompany the expedition; and, among the rest, Sir Philip
Sidney, telling him that he "should see some good service." Sidney came
accordingly, in great haste, from Flushing, bringing along with him
Edward Norris--that hot-headed young man, who, according to Leicester,
"greatly governed his elder brother"--but they arrived at Gertruydenberg
too late. The foray was over, and the party--"having burned a village,
and killed some boors"--were on their return. Sidney, not perhaps much
regretting the loss of his share in this rather inglorious shooting
party, went down to the water-side, accompanied by Captain Norris, to
meet Hollock and the other commanders.
As the Count stepped on shore he scowled ominously, and looked very much
out of temper.
"What has come to Hollock?" whispered Captain Patton, a Scotchman, to
Sidney. "Has he a quarrel with any of the party? Look at his face! He
means mischief to somebody."
But Sidney was equally amazed at the sudden change in the German
general's countenance, and as unable to explain it.
Soon afterwards, the whole party, Hollock, Lewis William of Nassau, Lord
Carew, Lord Essex, Lord Willoughby, both the Sidneys, Roger Williams,
Pelham, Edward Norris, and the rest, went to the Count's lodgings, where
they supped, and afterwards set themselves seriously to drinking.
Norris soon perceived that he was no welcome guest; for he was not--like
Sidney--a stranger to the deep animosity which had long existed between
Sir John Norris and Sir William Pelham and his friends. The carouse was a
tremendous one, as usually was the case where Hollock was the Amphitryon,
and, as the potations grew deeper, an intention became evident on the
part of some of the company to behave unhandsomely to Norris.
For a time the young Captain ostentatiously restrained himself, very much
after the fashion of those meek individuals who lay their swords on the
tavern-table, with "God grant I may have no need of thee!" The custom was
then prevalent at banquets for the revellers to pledge each other in
rotation, each draining a great cup, and exacting the same feat from his
neighbour, who then emptied his goblet as a challenge to his next
comrade.
The Lord Marshal took a beaker, and called out to Edward Norris. "I drink
to the health of my Lord Norris, and of my lady; your mother." So saying,
he emptied his glass.
The young man did not accept the pledge.
"Your Lordship knows," he said somewhat sullenly, "that I am not wont to
drink deep. Mr. Sidney there can tell you that, for my health's sake, I
have drank no wine these eight days. If your Lordship desires the
pleasure of seeing me drunk, I am not of the same mind. I pray you at
least to take a smaller glass."
Sir William insisted on the pledge. Norris then, in no very good humour,
emptied his cup to the Earl of Essex.
Essex responded by draining a goblet to Count Hollock.
"A Norris's father," said the young Earl; as he pledged the Count, who
was already very drunk, and looking blacker than ever.
"An 'orse's father--an 'orse's father!" growled' Hollock; "I never drink
to horses, nor to their fathers either:" and with this wonderful
witticism he declined the pledge.
Essex explained that the toast was Lord Norris, father of the Captain;
but the Count refused to understand, and held fiercely, and with damnable
iteration, to his jest.
The Earl repeated his explanation several times with no better success.
Norris meanwhile sat swelling with wrath, but said nothing.
Again the Lord Marshal took the same great glass, and emptied it to the
young Captain.
Norris, not knowing exactly what course to take, placed the glass at the
side of his plate, and glared grimly at Sir William.
Pelham was furious. Reaching over the table, he shoved the glass towards
Norris with an angry gesture.
"Take your glass, Captain Norris," he cried; "and if you have a mind to
jest, seek other companions. I am not to be trifled with; therefore, I
say, pledge me at once."
"Your Lordship shall not force me to drink more wine than I list,"
returned the other. "It is your pleasure to take advantage of your
military rank. Were we both at home, you would be glad to be my
companion."
Norris was hard beset, and although his language was studiously moderate,
it was not surprising that his manner should be somewhat insolent. The
veteran Lord Marshal, on the other hand, had distinguished himself on
many battle-fields, but his deportment at this banqueting-table was not
much to his credit. He paused a moment, and Norris, too, held his peace,
thinking that his enemy would desist.
It was but for a moment.
"Captain Norris," cried Pelham, "I bid you pledge me without more ado.
Neither you nor your best friends shall use me as you list. I am better
born than you and your brother, the colonel-general, and the whole of
you."
"I warn you to say nothing disrespectful against my brother," replied the
Captain. "As for yourself, I know how to respect your age and superior
rank."
"Drink, drink, drink!" roared the old Marshal. "I tell you I am better
born than the best of you. I have advanced you all too, and you know it;
therefore drink to me."
Sir William was as logical as men in their cups are prone to be.
"Indeed, you have behaved well to my brother Thomas," answered Norris,
suddenly becoming very courteous, "and for this I have ever loved your
Lordship, and would, do you any service."
"Well, then," said the Marshal, becoming tender in his turn, "forget what
hath past this night, and do as you would have done before."
"Very well said, indeed!" cried Sir Philip Sidney, trying to help the
natter into the smoother channel towards which it was tending.
Norris, seeing that the eyes of the whole company were upon them; took
the glass accordingly, and rose to his feet.
"My Lord Marshal," he said, "you have done me more wrong this night than
you can easily make satisfaction for. But I am unwilling that any trouble
or offence should grow through me. Therefore once more I pledge you."
He raised the cup to his lips. At that instant Hollock, to whom nothing
had been said, and who had spoken no word since his happy remark about
the horse's father, suddenly indulged in a more practical jest; and
seizing the heavy gilt cover of a silver vase, hurled it at the head of
Norris. It struck him full on the forehead, cutting him to the bone. The
Captain, stunned for a moment, fell back in his chair, with the blood
running down his eyes and face. The Count, always a man of few words, but
prompt in action, now drew his dagger, and strode forward, with the
intention of despatching him upon the spot. Sir Philip Sidney threw his
arms around Hollock, however, and, with the assistance of others in the
company, succeeded in dragging him from the room. The affair was over in
a few seconds.
Norris, coming back to consciousness, sat for a moment as one amazed,
rubbing the blood out of his eyes; then rose from the table to seek his
adversary; but he was gone.
Soon afterwards he went to his lodgings. The next morning he was advised
to leave the town as speedily as possible; for as it was under the
government of Hollock, and filled with his soldiers, he was warned that
his life would not be safe there an hour. Accordingly he went to his
boat, accompanied only by his man and his page, and so departed with his
broken head, breathing vengeance against Hollock, Pelham, Leicester, and
the whole crew, by whom he had been thus abused.
The next evening there was another tremendous carouse at the Count's,
and, says the reporter of the preceding scene, "they were all on such
good terms, that not one of the company had falling band or ruff left
about his neck. All were clean torn away, and yet there was no blood
drawn."
Edward Norris--so soon as might be afterwards--sent a cartel to the
Count, demanding mortal combat with sword and dagger. Sir Philip Sidney
bore the message. Sir John Norris, of course warmly and violently
espoused the cause of his brother, and was naturally more incensed
against the Lord Marshal than ever, for Sir William Pelham was considered
the cause of the whole affray. "Even if the quarrel is to be excused by
drink," said an eye-witness, "'tis but a slender defence for my Lord to
excuse himself by his cups; and often drink doth bewray men's humours and
unmask their malice. Certainly the Count Hollock thought to have done a
pleasure to the company in killing him."
Nothing could be more ill-timed than this quarrel, or more vexatious to
Leicester. The Count--although considering himself excessively injured at
being challenged by a simple captain and an untitled gentleman, whom he
had attempted to murder--consented to waive his privilege, and grant the
meeting.
Leicester interposed, however, to delay, and, if possible, to patch up
the affair. They were on the eve of active military operations, and it
was most vexatious for the commander-in-chief to see, as he said, "the
quarrel with the enemy changed to private revenge among ourselves." The
intended duel did not take place; for various influential personages
succeeded in deferring the meeting. Then came the battle of Zutphen.
Sidney fell, and Hollock was dangerously wounded in the attack which was
soon afterwards made upon the fort. He was still pressed to afford the
promised satisfaction, however, and agreed to do so whenever he should
rise from his bed.
Strange to say, the Count considered Leicester, throughout the whole
business, to have taken part against him.
Yet there is no doubt whatever that the Earl--who detested the Norrises,
and was fonder of Pelham than of any man living--uniformly narrated the
story most unjustly, to the discredit of the young Captain. He considered
him extremely troublesome, represented him as always quarrelling with
some one--with Colonel Morgan, Roger Williams, old Reade, and all the
rest--while the Lord Marshal, on the contrary, was depicted as the
mildest of men. "This I must say," he observed, "that all present, except
my two nephews (the Sidneys), who are not here yet, declare the greatest
fault to be in Edward Norris, and that he did most arrogantly use the
Marshal."
It is plain, however, that the old Marshal, under the influence of wine,
was at least quite as much to blame as the young Captain; and Sir Philip
Sidney sufficiently showed his sense of the matter by being the bearer of
Edward Norris's cartel. After Sidney's death, Sir John Norris, in his
letter of condolence to Walsingham for the death of his illustrious
son-in-law, expressed the deeper regret at his loss because Sir Philip's
opinion had been that the Norrises were wronged. Hollock had conducted
himself like a lunatic, but this he was apt to do whether in his cups or
not. He was always for killing some one or another on the slightest
provocation, and, while the dog-star of 1586 was raging, it was not his
fault if he had not already despatched both Edward Norris and the
objectionable "Mr. P. B."
For these energetic demonstrations against Leicester's enemies he
considered himself entitled to the Earl's eternal gratitude, and was
deeply disgusted at his apparent coldness. The governor was driven almost
to despair by these quarrels.
His colonel-general, his lord marshal, his lieutenant-general, were all
at daggers drawn. "Would God I were rid of this place!" he exclaimed.
"What man living would go to the field and have his officers divided
almost into mortal quarrel? One blow but by any of their lackeys brings
us altogether by the ears."
It was clear that there was not room enough on the Netherland soil for
the Earl of Leicester and the brothers Norris. The queen, while
apparently siding with the Earl, intimated to Sir John that she did not
disapprove his conduct, that she should probably recall him to England,
and that she should send him back to the Provinces after the Earl had
left that country.
Such had been the position of the governor-general towards the Queen,
towards the States-General, and towards his own countrymen, during the
year 1586.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope
Arminianism
As logical as men in their cups are prone to be
Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind
HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
By John Lothrop Motley
History United Netherlands, Volume 50, 1586