the town of Haarlem. On the 11th of December 1572 Haarlem was
beleaguered by an army of thirty thousand Spaniards, Germans, and
Walloons, commanded by Don Frederic de Toledo. The duke of Alva had his
headquarters in the neighbouring city of Amsterdam, whence supplies of
provisions, ammunition, and whatever else was needed could be forwarded
to the camps without delay. Within the walls of the town were only four
thousand fighting men, so that the Spanish commander could reasonably
hope that a few days would suffice for its reduction. But the people of
Haarlem were stouthearted as ever were Greeks in the olden time, they
hated the Spanish yoke as that of the foul fiend, and they had made up
their minds to resist to the very last. Assault after assault was made
upon their walls, and whenever a breach was effected the enemy came
storming upon it, but only to be beaten back. In the night the breaches
were repaired, the women and children assisting in the work. A band of
three hundred women, led by the widow Kenau Hasselaer, did as much and
as splendid service fighting in the breaches and on the walls as any men
could have done. The children too did what they could by carrying powder
and food from place to place.
[Sidenote: Siege of Haarlem.]
So month after month passed away, and heroic Haarlem still held out. The
prince of Orange from Delft used almost superhuman exertions to get men
together and to throw reinforcements and provisions into the beleaguered
town, but they all failed in getting through the encircling bands. At
last food, even of the most disgusting kind, entirely failed, and when
many had died of actual starvation, those who could no longer fight from
weakness submitted on a promise of lenient treatment. It was on the 12th
of July 1573, seven months and two days after the commencement of the
siege, that Haarlem fell. The promise of lenity was kept by the plunder
of the town being commuted for a sum of money to be paid in four
instalments, so that the horrors which Mechlin had witnessed were spared
to Haarlem, but two thousand three hundred of the inhabitants were put
to death after the surrender. The besiegers had paid dearly for the
town, for they had lost no fewer than twelve thousand men in combat or
by disease in those seven months of desperate fighting.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Alkmaar, a small though important town in North Holland, was then
summoned to submit, but declined to do so. The prince of Orange had
managed to obtain eight hundred soldiers, who were sent to assist the
burghers, thirteen hundred in number, to defend it. On the 21st of
August 1573 Don Frederic de Toledo invested the town with sixteen
thousand veteran troops, and immediately began to attempt to batter down
part of the wall. On three occasions breaches were made, and storming
parties tried to effect an entrance, but were driven back by boiling
oil, tarred and burning hoops, and other missiles of the kind being
thrown upon them. The soldiers then refused to storm again, and the only
course left was to wait for famine to do its work. But some letters of
the prince of Orange fell into Don Frederic’s hands, from which he
learned that the dykes were to be cut and the land flooded, when he
resolved to raise the siege rather than risk the loss of his whole army
by drowning. On the 8th of October the people of Alkmaar had the
happiness of seeing from their walls the Spanish army with all its
appurtenances in full retreat towards Amsterdam.
Another triumph for the patriot cause followed quickly, to Alva’s
intense discomfiture. He had purchased some ships and built others at
Amsterdam, until he had a fleet of thirty men-of-war, which he equipped
in the most efficient manner known in those days. The largest carried
thirty-two cannon, and was manned by one hundred and fifty seamen,
besides having on board over two hundred veteran Spanish soldiers under
the captains Alonzo de Conquera and Fernando Lopez. She was named the
_Inquisitie_, and carried the flag of Admiral Maximilian de Henniu,
count of Bossu. This fleet was intended by Alva to command the Zuider
Zee, and was regarded by him as an invincible armada.
The Sea Beggars, to oppose this formidable armament, collected together
twenty-four vessels of inferior size, which were placed under the
command of a valiant seaman named Cornelis the son of Dirk, who was
styled admiral of North Holland.
[Sidenote: First Victory at Sea.]
Bossu plundered and laid waste some villages along the coast, but at
length the son of Dirk resolved boldly to attack him. He tried to keep
the Sea Beggars at a distance and destroy them with his artillery, while
they, who were but ill supplied with cannon or powder, were determined
to grapple with his ships and fight him hand to hand. In the first and
second days’ manœuvring they succeeded in this manner in
overmastering one of his ships, when they made the officers prisoners,
and put to death all the others on board. Then for more than a week the
weather prevented anything further being done, and both parties remained
inactive.
On the 11th of October 1573 the great battle took place. The Sea Beggars
closed with their opponents, and after desperate fighting succeeded in
sinking one of Bossu’s ships and overmastering five others. They had
grappled with the _Inquisitie_ herself, when the remainder of the fleet
gave up the contest and set sail for Amsterdam, throwing their cannon
overboard to enable them to pass some shoals. Night was setting in, and
there were so many wounded in the patriot ships that it was considered
imprudent to follow the fugitives. Four small vessels were made fast to
Bossu’s ship. One was beaten off, but the other three clung to her like
leeches. She drifted on a sandbank off Hoorn, but so fierce was the
fighting that no one seemed to notice that they were no longer in
motion. Bossu in a coat of mail stood on her deck and directed the
soldiers, and the Sea Beggars scrambled up her sides and attacked like
demons. Boats put out from Hoorn bringing volunteers to aid in the
struggle, and taking the wounded ashore to be cared for. At short
intervals for twenty-eight hours the hand to hand contest lasted on the
deck of the _Inquisitie_, till only fourteen or fifteen men remained
unwounded to defend her. Bossu could hold out no longer. He surrendered
on condition that he and his officers should be honourably treated as
captives, and that the soldiers and sailors should either be exchanged
or pay only one month’s wages as ransom. The prisoners were taken to
Hoorn, and were kept as hostages, which prevented the putting to death
of many prominent patriots then in the power of the Spanish authorities.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Such was the first important battle on the sea won by the sturdy
Hollanders, and it was to be a beginning of a series of victories which
in later years shed deathless renown on them and the land they so
bravely fought for. Surnames had not then come into common use for
humble folk, and it is only as Cornelis the son of Dirk that the valiant
admiral of North Holland can be mentioned in history.
The sanguinary government of Alva in the Netherlands now drew to its
close. He had requested to be relieved, and the king was not unwilling
to try if some one else could not manage affairs better, or at least
without such constant demands upon the revenue of Spain. On the 17th of
November 1573 his successor Don Luis de Requesens y Cuniga, Grand
Commander of St. Iago, and recently governor of Milan, arrived in
Brussels, and on the 29th of the same month assumed duty as governor and
captain-general of the Netherlands.
The complete absence of honour or principle in Alva was illustrated by
the manner in which he left Amsterdam. He was heavily in debt in that
city both privately and for the government, so he called for all
accounts to be sent in on a certain day, and during the preceding night
departed stealthily. On the 18th of December he left the Netherlands,
taking with him the curses of the unhappy people. It was reported,
though perhaps incorrectly, that he boasted of having caused through his
infamous Council of Blood eighteen thousand six hundred people to lose
their lives at the stake or on the scaffold during the six years of his
administration.[23] No wonder that successive generations of
Netherlanders taught their children to regard him, not as a man, but as
an absolute devil in human form, the incarnation of all that was false,
and treacherous, and cruel.
[Sidenote: Philippe’s Conditions of Peace.]
The condition of affairs in the Netherlands when the Grand Commander
Requesens assumed the administration was about as bad as well could be.
Only parts of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland were in open revolt,
but everywhere the country was seething with discontent. There was a
standing army of sixty-two thousand men--Spaniards, German mercenaries,
and Walloons--engaged in suppressing the disposition to rise in arms,
£1,300,000 was due to them as arrears of pay, the cost of maintaining
them was £120,000 a month, and there was not a single sixpence in the
treasury. Already £8,000,000 had been received from Spain, and had been
spent to no purpose. So many soldiers were needed to garrison the towns
that only a sufficient number could be spared to besiege Leyden, none
were available to reduce any of the other revolted towns or even to
relieve Middelburg, which was beleaguered by the patriots. The mighty
Spanish empire, with the gold and silver of America at its disposal,
with some of the fairest provinces of Italy at its command, was held at
bay by parts of two little provinces, under the direction of William
prince of Orange.
Under these circumstances the king spoke of his willingness to bring
about a reconciliation of the people to his rule and to pardon them for
their past resistance, but he laid down two indispensable conditions;
that they should admit his absolute authority, and that they should
return to the Roman Catholic faith.
The patriots too were desirous of putting an end to the long and bitter
strife, but they also claimed conditions which they could not forego:
the recognition of constitutional rights, entire freedom of conscience,
and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country. The two
positions were irreconcilable, and so the war went on. Holland and
Zeeland now contained very few Catholics, for Alva had made the religion
that he professed almost as hateful as he was himself.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Middelburg, the principal city in the province of Zeeland, was besieged
by the patriots and such troops as the prince of Orange could engage in
his cause; but was defended with the utmost skill and bravery by the
Spanish garrison under Colonel Christopher Mondragon. Provisions,
however, were running short, and it became evident that if relief was
not speedily afforded, the place would be lost to the king. Requesens
therefore collected seventy-five ships of different sizes at Bergen op
Zoom and thirty more at Antwerp, which were laden with stores of food
and munitions of war, all the soldiers that he could engage or spare
with any degree of prudence were embarked in them, and they were
directed to drop down to Flushing, to unite there, and to succour
Middelburg. By the time they were ready the soldiers and townspeople
were in the utmost extremity of hunger.
While Requesens was thus engaged, the prince of Orange and the Sea
Beggars were not idle. A fleet was collected at Flushing, and was placed
under the command of Louis Boisot, a Zeelander of noble birth and a
brother of the governor of the town. He had the title of admiral of
Zeeland conferred upon him. Boisot did not wait to be attacked, but on
the 20th of January 1574 sailed up the Schelde to meet the larger of the
two squadrons, which was commanded by Julian Romero, and which had just
set sail when he met it. He at once grappled with his opponents, and a
desperate combat took place, which lasted two hours. One of Romero’s
vessels was sunk, another was blown up, and fifteen were captured.
Twelve hundred of his sailors and soldiers were killed fighting, or were
thrown overboard and drowned, and it would have gone hard with the
others if they had not put back to Bergen op Zoom. Requesens, standing
on a dyke at Bergen, was a spectator of the discomfiture of his fleet.
The patriots’ loss was much less than that of their enemy, but several
of the captains were killed and Boisot himself received a wound in the
face which deprived him of an eye.
[Sidenote: Great Disaster.]
The Antwerp squadron, commanded by Sancho d’Avila, had meantime arrived
off Flushing, but when intelligence of Romero’s defeat was received, it
at once put about and returned.
This event decided the fate of Middelburg. The last cat and dog in the
town had been eaten, when on the 18th of February 1574 Mondragon
capitulated on condition that his troops should be permitted to leave
with their arms and personal property, and the town gave in its adhesion
to the prince of Orange.
On both sides now great exertions were made to raise troops, the
difficulty in the way being the want of money. Men in any number could
always be had in Germany, provided the means of equipping and paying
them were forthcoming. The jealousy of Spain which pervaded the French
court enabled Louis of Nassau to obtain a considerable sum, with which
he enrolled an army of three thousand cavalry and six thousand infantry,
and entered the province of Limburg. His intention was to take
possession of Maastricht, and then to effect a junction with his brother
the prince of Orange, who had collected six thousand infantry at the
isle of Bommel.
But a terrible disaster overtook Count Louis. Requesens was able to
engage some Germans, and he drew every man that was available from the
Netherlands garrisons. Even the siege of Leyden was raised, and the
troops that had beleaguered that city since the 31st of October 1573
broke up their camps an the 21st of March 1574, and joined the main
army. The garrison of Maastricht was strengthened, and the way was
blocked by which the junction of the two forces in the service of
Orange could be effected. The cavalry of Count Louis began to desert,
and soon that arm of his force was reduced to two thousand men. On the
14th of April 1574 a battle was fought at a little village named
Mookerheyde, on the bank of the Maas, in which the army of Count Louis
was utterly defeated, and it was annihilated by a massacre after the
engagement was over. Both Count Louis and his younger brother Count
Hendrik perished, no one knew exactly when or how, for their bodies were
never seen again.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Requesens, however, was unable to gather the full harvest of the
victory, for the day after the battle the Spanish troops mutinied. Their
pay was three years in arrear. They marched to Antwerp, which city they
took possession of on the 26th of April, and quartered themselves on the
wealthiest inhabitants. There they remained until the municipal
authorities provided Requesens with money to pay them their arrears,
when he granted them a full amnesty, and they returned to obedience.
Just as this was effected Admiral Boisot made his appearance at Antwerp,
and burned or sank fourteen ships of Sancho d’Avila’s squadron that had
returned from Flushing three months before.
Requesens was now able to resume the siege of Leyden, and on the 26th of
May 1574 the second investment was commenced by General Francisco Valdez
with eight thousand German and Walloon soldiers. Spanish and Italian
troops afterwards arrived, and a chain of forts was completed right
round the walls, which prevented ingress or egress. The villages in the
neighbourhood were also occupied, and Leyden was completely isolated
from the rest of the country. The residents knew that if the city was
taken, the whole of Holland must fall, and they had resolved to die
rather than surrender. There was no possibility of raising an army to
relieve them.
The prince of Orange took up his headquarters at Delft, and bent all his
energy to save the devoted city in the only way in which it could be
done. He got together more than two hundred flat-bottomed vessels, the
largest drawing when laden not more than two feet of water, armed some
of them with such cannons as were then in use, and provided all of them
with oars for rowing. The relief of Leyden was to be entrusted to the
Sea Beggars, the men who knew no fear, who hated the Spaniards with such
a deadly loathing that they would neither ask nor give quarter. On the
1st of September Admiral Louis Boisot arrived from Flushing to take
command of the flotilla, and with him came forty officers and eight
hundred of the hardiest and roughest of the Zeeland Beggars, burning
with a desire to harpoon Spanish soldiers as if they were devil-fish.
Already two thousand four hundred men, mostly sailors or canal workers,
but a few French and German soldiers with even a sprinkling of
Englishmen and Scotchmen, were on board, and a large quantity of
provisions had been shipped. With Boisot’s arrival all was complete.
[Sidenote: Siege of Leyden.]
The outer dyke was now cut, and the sea rushed over the land, sweeping
away farmhouses and cultivated fields and rich meadows, but opening a
way towards Leyden. On went Boisot with the flotilla till the next of
the dykes which lay between him and Leyden was reached. He had expected
to find it defended, but the Spaniards had neglected it, and so it was
cut and he went farther on. The next dyke was held by the Spaniards, but
the fierce Zeelanders drove them from it and harpooned them to their
hearts’ content.
Meantime the heroic defenders of Leyden were in the very last stage of
distress. Everything that under ordinary circumstances would be
considered eatable had been consumed, and nothing remained but dried
hides, rats, mice, the leaves of the trees, and the weeds of the ground.
They were dying of hunger, and pestilence arising from want of food
carried off from six to seven thousand of them. But still they held out.
A few indeed in their despair upbraided the burgomaster Van der Werf
with consigning them to death, but when he replied that he would never
surrender Leyden, though they might cut him to pieces and eat him if
they chose, they desisted and even applauded him.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The flotilla was aground, and a strong easterly wind was blowing, which
drove the waters back and day after day caused Boisot and his gallant
followers almost to abandon hope of success. A great and apparently
impregnable fortress was in front of them, and it would have to be
passed before the starving city could be reached. Then in man’s deepest
extremity came God’s hand to aid the cause of freedom. During the night
of the 1st of October a violent gale set in from the north-west, which
drove gigantic waves along the coast of Holland, then the wind veered
round to the south-west and sent the heaped up water through the broken
dykes, and soon the flotilla was free again. Valdez was a brave soldier,
but he felt unequal to a contest with the rising flood and the Sea
Beggars on their own element. During the night of the 2nd of October he
abandoned his camps, withdrew the garrison from the great fort Lemmen,
and fled in the darkness. That same night part of the city wall fell
down with a crash, which would have given him an entrance had it
happened a few hours sooner.
In the early morning of the 3rd of October 1574 Boisot, finding all
impediments removed, swept with his flotilla into the canals of Leyden,
and the city after its great agony was saved. He had lost only forty men
in this marvellous feat, surely one of the most wonderful events
recorded in history, while of his enemy over a thousand were slain or
drowned. Property to the value of over a million gulden--£83,333--had
been destroyed by cutting the dykes, but what was that compared with the
rescue of Leyden from the Spaniards!
The relief of Leyden gave renewed hope to the patriot cause. On the 12th
of November 1574 the estates of Holland, assembled at Delft, conferred
almost dictatorial power upon the prince of Orange, and voted him as
large a sum of money as they could raise to carry on the war. That
amount was only £45,000 a year, but it was a very considerable sum for
one small province to contribute, especially when it is considered that
the cities of Amsterdam and Haarlem were in the hands of the Spaniards,
and Leyden, with the territory adjoining it, was too impoverished to
give any aid. On the 4th of June 1575 the province of Zeeland united
with Holland in a kind of loose confederation, the principal bond being
that the prince of Orange was the head of both.
[Sidenote: Siege of Zierikzee.]
An attempt to bring about a state of peace was made again, and
commissioners from both sides sat at Breda from the 3rd of March to the
13th of July 1575; but as Philippe would only allow those of the
reformed religion to sell their property and leave the country, the
negotiations came to nothing. Bigotry and intolerance were not confined
to one side, however. Some revolting cruelties practised by Diederik
Sonoy, governor of North Holland, upon Roman Catholics at Alkmaar,
equalled, if they did not surpass, the most fiendish tortures of the
inquisition. The prince of Orange did everything in his power to
suppress such barbarities, while Philippe countenanced them: otherwise
one party was as vindictive as the other.
On the 19th of July 1575 the little town of Oudewater in South Holland,
close to the border of Utrecht, was besieged by a Spanish force, and was
taken by assault on the 7th of August. The men were all butchered, the
women met with a worse fate, and the houses, after being pillaged, were
burned to the ground.
The memorable siege of Zierikzee, the principal town on the island of
Schouwen, in Zeeland, followed. The island of Tholen was the only part
of Zeeland held by the Spaniards, and there a force of three thousand
men was got together, who during the night of the 27th of September 1575
actually waded across the channel that separates Tholen from Duiveland.
There were some French, English, and Scotch troops in the service of
Orange at Duiveland, but they retreated at once, and threw themselves
into Zierikzee. The invaders, consisting of Spanish, German, and Walloon
soldiers, followed quickly, and laid siege to the town. The villages of
Brouwershaven and Bommenede on the same island of Schouwen were also
attacked, and for a time were wiped out of existence. Then the whole
force, under Colonel Mondragon, sat down and pressed the siege of
Zierikzee.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Requesens had no money with which to raise more troops, and Orange was
in the same position, so the siege dragged on month after month. On the
15th of June 1576 Admiral Louis Boisot with a few ships tried to force a
passage through a barrier into the harbour, but his own vessel, that was
leading the way, ran aground, and the others drew off. The ship was got
afloat again, but was sunk by a Spanish battery, when three hundred of
her crew went down.[24] The admiral and the remainder of the crew jumped
overboard, and tried to escape by swimming. Some of them succeeded in
doing so, but the gallant Boisot, to the great loss of the patriot
cause, was drowned. Zierikzee held out until the 21st of June 1576, when
it capitulated on honourable terms, and escaped being sacked and burned
by the payment of a ransom of £16,666. The Spaniards did not long remain
in possession of it.
To the prince of Orange it had now become apparent that the only chance
of securing constitutional government and freedom of conscience was the
renunciation of Philippe and the choice of some other sovereign able to
protect the country. The farce of fighting against the count of Holland
and at the same time of transacting all business in his name could no
longer be carried on. On the 1st of October 1575 the estates of Holland
and Zeeland met at Rotterdam, when the prince laid a proposal to this
effect before them. They adjourned for a few days in order to consult
the cities, and then assembled again at Delft and unanimously adopted
the prince’s proposal. Then commenced a long series of negotiations with
Elizabeth of England and a brother of the king of France, but all
failed, because it was generally believed that if either accepted, he or
she would at once have the other, combined with Spain, as an enemy. So
the struggle had to be carried on unaided, except with a little secret
assistance given now and then.
[Sidenote: Mutiny of the Spanish Troops.]
On the 5th of March 1576 the Grand Commander Requesens died after only
four days’ illness, and the Council of State, a weak and vacillating
body, assumed the administration until a successor should be appointed.
This Council was at the head of affairs when a fresh disaster fell upon
the country.