WAR WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND. WILLIAM III, STADHOLDER. MURDER OF THE
BROTHERS DE WITT, 1672
The advance of the French armies and those of Münster and Cologne to
attack the eastern frontier of the United Provinces met with little
serious resistance. Fortress after fortress fell; the line of the Yssel
was abandoned. Soon the whole of Gelderland, Overyssel, Drente and
Utrecht were in the possession of the enemy. Even the castle of Muiden,
but ten miles from Amsterdam, was only saved from capture at the last
moment by Joan Maurice throwing himself with a small force within the
walls. The Prince of Orange had no alternative but to fall back behind
the famous waterline of Holland. He had at his disposal, after leaving
garrisons in the fortresses, barely 4000 men as a field-force. With some
difficulty the people were persuaded to allow the dykes to be cut, as in
the height of the struggle against Spain, and the country to be
submerged. Once more behind this expanse of flood, stretching like a
gigantic moat from Muiden on the Zuyder Zee to Gorkum on the Maas,
Holland alone remained as the last refuge of national resistance to an
overwhelming foe. True the islands of Zeeland and Friesland were yet
untouched by invasion, but had Holland succumbed to the French armies
their resistance would have availed little. At the end of June the
aspect of affairs looked very black, and despite the courageous attitude
of the young captain-general, and the ceaseless energy with which the
council-pensionary worked for the equipment of an adequate fleet, and
the provision of ways and means and stores, there seemed to be no ray of
hope. Men's hearts failed them for fear, and a panic of despair filled
the land.
Had the combined fleets of England and France been able at this moment
to obtain a victory at sea and to land an army on the coast, it is
indeed difficult to see how utter and complete disaster could have been
avoided. Fortunately, however, this was averted. It had been De Witt's
hope that De Ruyter might have been able to have struck a blow at the
English ships in the Thames and the Medway before they had time to put
to sea and effect a junction with the French. But the Zeeland contingent
was late and it was the middle of May before the famous admiral,
accompanied as in 1667 by Cornelis de Witt as the representative of the
States-General, sailed at the head of seventy-five ships in search of
the Anglo-French fleet. After delays through contrary winds the
encounter took place in Southwold Bay on June 7. The Duke of York was
the English admiral-in-chief, D'Estrées the French commander, and they
had a united force of ninety ships. The Dutch, who had the wind-gauge,
found the hostile squadrons separated from one another. De Ruyter at
once took advantage of this. He ordered Vice-Admiral Banckers with the
Zeeland squadron to contain the French, while he himself with the rest
of his force bore down upon the Duke of York. The battle was contested
with the utmost courage and obstinacy on both sides and the losses were
heavy. The advantage, however, remained with the Dutch. The English
flag-ship, the _Royal James_, was burnt; and the duke was afterwards
three times compelled to shift his flag. Both fleets returned to the
home ports to refit; and during the rest of the summer and early autumn
no further attack was made on De Ruyter, who with some sixty vessels
kept watch and ward along the coasts of Holland and Zeeland. The Dutch
admiral had gained his object and no landing was ever attempted.
But the battle of Southwold Bay, though it relieved the immediate naval
danger, could do nothing to stay the advancing tide of invasion on land.
The situation appeared absolutely desperate; trade was at a standstill;
and the rapid fall in the State securities and in the East India
Company's stock gave alarming evidence of the state of public opinion.
In these circumstances De Witt persuaded the States-General and the
Estates of Holland to consent to the sending of two special embassies to
Louis, who was now at Doesburg, and to London, to sue for peace. They
left the Hague on June 13, only to meet with a humiliating rebuff.
Charles II refused to discuss the question apart from France. Pieter de
Groot and his colleagues were received at Doesburg with scant courtesy
and sent back to the Hague to seek for fuller powers. When they arrived
they found the council-pensionary lying on a sick-bed. The country's
disasters had been attributed to the De Witts, and the strong feeling
against them led to a double attempt at assassination. John de Witt,
while walking home at the close of a busy day's work was (June 21)
attacked by four assailants and badly wounded. The leader, Jacob van der
Graeff, was seized and executed; the others were allowed to escape, it
was said by the prince's connivance. A few days later an attack upon
Cornells de Witt at Dordrecht likewise failed to attain its object. That
such dastardly acts could happen without an outburst of public
indignation was ominous of worse things to come. It was a sign that the
whole country had turned its back upon the States party and the whole
system of government of which for nineteen years John de Witt had been
the directing spirit, and had become Orangist. Revolutionary events
followed one another with almost bewildering rapidity. On July 2 the
Estates of Zeeland appointed William to the office of Stadholder. The
Estates of Holland repealed the Eternal Edict on July 3; and on the next
day it was resolved on the proposal of Amsterdam to revive the
stadholdership with all its former powers and prerogatives in favour of
the Prince of Orange. The other provinces followed the lead of Holland
and Zeeland; and on July 8 the States-General appointed the young
stadholder captain-and admiral-general of the Union. William thus found
himself invested with all the offices and even more than the authority
that had been possessed by his ancestors. Young and inexperienced as he
was, he commanded unbounded confidence, and it was not misplaced.
Meanwhile, despite the strong opposition of Amsterdam and some other
towns, the fuller powers asked for by De Groot were granted, and he
returned to the camp of Louis to endeavour to obtain more favourable
terms of peace. He was unsuccessful. The demands of the French king
included concessions of territory to Cologne, to Münster and to England,
and for himself the greater part of the Generality-lands with the great
fortresses of Hertogenbosch and Maestricht, a war indemnity of
16,000,000 francs, and complete freedom for Catholic worship. On July 1
De Groot returned to the Hague to make his report. The humiliating terms
were rejected unanimously, but it was still hoped that now that the
Prince of Orange was at the head of affairs negotiations might be
resumed through the mediation of England. William even went so far as to
send a special envoy to Charles II, offering large concessions to
England, if the king would withdraw from the French alliance. But it
was in vain. On the contrary at this very time (July 16) the treaty
between Louis and Charles was renewed; and the demands made on behalf of
England were scarcely less exorbitant than those put forward by Louis
himself--the cession of Sluis, Walcheren, Cadsand, Voorne and Goerce, an
indemnity of 25,000,000 francs, the payment of an annual subsidy for the
herring fishery, and the striking of the flag. If all the conditions
made by the two kings were agreed to, the sovereignty of the remnants of
the once powerful United Provinces, impoverished and despoiled, was
offered to the prince. He rejected it with scorn. When the Estates of
Holland on the return of De Groot asked his advice about the French
terms, the stadholder replied, "all that stands in the proposal is
unacceptable; rather let us be hacked in pieces, than accept such
conditions"; and when an English envoy, after expressing King Charles'
personal goodwill to his nephew, tried to persuade him to accept the
inevitable, he met with an indignant refusal. "But don't you see that
the Republic is lost," he is reported to have pleaded. "I know of one
sure means of not seeing her downfall," was William's proud reply, "to
die in defence of the last ditch."
The firm attitude of the prince gave courage to all; and, whatever
might be the case with the more exposed provinces on the eastern and
south-eastern frontiers, the Hollanders and Zeelanders were resolved to
sacrifice everything rather than yield without a desperate struggle. But
the fact that they were reduced to these dire straits roused the popular
resentment against the De Witts and the system of government which had
for more than two decades been in possession of power. Their wrath was
especially directed against the council-pensionary. Pamphlets were
distributed broadcast in which he was charged amongst other misdoings
with appropriating public funds for his private use. While yet suffering
from the effects of his wounds De Witt appeared (July 23) before the
Estates and vigorously defended himself. A unanimous vote declared him
free from blame.
Cornelis de Witt was, no less than his brother, an object of popular
hatred. In the town of Dordrecht where the De Witt influence had been so
long supreme his portrait in the Town-hall was torn to pieces by the mob
and the head hung on a gallows. On July 24 he was arrested and
imprisoned at the Hague on the charge brought against him by a barber
named Tichelaer, of being implicated in a plot to assassinate the
prince. Tichelaer was well known to be a bad and untrustworthy
character. On the unsupported testimony of this man, the Ruwaard, though
indignantly denying the accusation, was incarcerated in the
Gevangenpoort, to be tried by a commission appointed by the Estates.
Great efforts were made by his friends and by his brother to obtain his
release; but, as the prince would not interfere, the proceedings had to
take their course. John de Witt meanwhile, wishing to forestall a
dismissal which he felt to be inevitable, appeared before the Estates on
August 4, and in an impressive speech voluntarily tendered his
resignation of the post of council-pensionary, asking only for the
redemption of the promise made to him that at the close of his tenure of
office he should receive a judicial appointment. The resignation was
accepted, the request granted, but owing to opposition no vote of thanks
was given. Caspar Fagel was appointed council-pensionary in his place.
The enemies of John de Witt were not content with his fall from power. A
committee of six judges were empanelled to try his brother Cornelis for
his alleged crime. On August 17, to their eternal disgrace, they by a
majority vote ordered the prisoner, who was suffering from gout, to be
put to the torture. The illustrious victim of their malice endured the
rack without flinching, insisting on his absolute innocence of any plot
against the prince's life. Nevertheless, early on August 19, sentence
was pronounced upon him of banishment and loss of all his offices.
Later on the same day Cornelis sent a message to his brother that he
should like to see him. John, in spite of strong warnings, came to the
Gevangenpoort and was admitted to the room where the Ruwaard, as a
result of the cruel treatment he had received, was lying in bed; and the
two brothers had a long conversation. Meanwhile a great crowd had
gathered round the prison clamouring for vengeance upon the De Witts.
Three companies of soldiers were however drawn up under the command of
Count Tilly with orders from the Commissioned-Councillors to maintain
order. At the same time the _schutterij_--the civic guard--was called
out. These latter, however, were not to be trusted and were rather
inclined to fraternise with the mob. So long as Tilly's troops were at
hand, the rioters were held in restraint and no acts of violence were
attempted. It was at this critical moment that verbal orders came to
Tilly to march his troops to the gates to disperse some bands of
marauding peasants who were said to be approaching. Tilly refused to
move without a written order. It came, signed by Van Asperen, the
president of the Commissioned-Councillors, a strong Orange partisan. On
receiving it Tilly is said to have exclaimed, "I will obey, but the De
Witts are dead men." The soldiers were no sooner gone than the crowd,
under the leadership of Verhoef, a goldsmith, and Van Bankhem, a banker,
forced the door of the prison (the _schutterij_ either standing aloof,
or actually assisting in the attack), and rushing upstairs found John de
Witt sitting calmly at the foot of his brother's bed reading aloud to
him a passage of Scripture. Hands were laid upon both with brutal
violence; they were dragged into the street; and there with blows of
clubs and repeated stabs done to death. It was 4 p.m. when Tilly
departed, at 4.30 all was over, but the infuriated rabble were not
content with mere murder. The bodies were shamefully mis-handled and
were finally hung up by the feet to a lamppost, round which to a late
hour in the evening a crowd shouted, sang and danced. It is impossible
to conceive a fate more horrible or less deserved. The poor dishonoured
remains were taken down when night fell by faithful hands and were at
dawn in the presence of a few relatives and friends interred in the
Nieuwe Kerk.
That William III had any complicity in this _execrable faict_, as it
was well styled by the new council-pensionary Fagel, there is not the
slightest evidence. He was absent from the Hague at the time and wholly
preoccupied with the sore necessities of the military position; and it
is said that he was much affected at hearing the dreadful news. But his
naturally cold and self-contained nature had been hardened in the school
of adversity during the long years of humiliation which had been imposed
upon him by John de Witt and his party. He had endured in proud patience
awaiting the hour when he could throw off the yoke, and now that it had
come he could not forgive. Under the plea that the number of those
implicated in the deed was so large that it was impossible to punish
them and thus stir up party passions at a time when the whole energies
of the nation were needed for the war, he took no steps to bring the
offenders to justice. Unfortunately for his reputation he was not
content with a neutral attitude, but openly protected and rewarded the
three chief offenders Tichelaer, Verhoef and Van Bankhem, all of them
men of disreputable character.
Thus two of the greatest statesmen and patriots that Holland has
produced, John van Oldenbarneveldt and John de Witt, both perished
miserably, victims of the basest national ingratitude; and it will ever
remain a stain upon the national annals and upon the memory of two
illustrious Princes of Orange, Maurice and William III, that these
tragedies were not averted.
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