to carry out his views with a high hand, though he was exceedingly
generous with his wealth and spent large sums of money of his own in the
service of the country. Two parties had arisen: one, that may be termed
oligarchal, favouring the existing form of town and provincial
governments and wide toleration in matters of religion; the other, that
called itself democratic, appealing to the sovereignty of the people at
large, but without explaining how that sovereignty was to be manifested,
and desiring to exclude rigidly all religious practices except those of
the Reformed church. The earl of Leicester was the head of the last
named of these parties. He left Sir John Norris in command of the
English troops in the Netherlands, and professedly delegated his own
authority to the state council, though secretly he issued commissions
that greatly impaired the power of that body and of the English general.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Soon after his departure a series of deplorable events occurred. Sir
William Stanley, who was in command of the garrison of Deventer,
betrayed that important city to Colonel Tassis, who held Zutphen for
Parma, and with an Irish regiment under his orders went over to the
service of Spain. On the same day, 29th of January 1587, Colonel Rowland
York betrayed to Tassis the great fortress close to Zutphen, of which he
was in command. The northern provinces were thus cut in two, and the
Spaniards were able to ravage large portions of Gelderland and
Overyssel. Then Wauw, a castle about four kilometres from Bergen op
Zoom, was sold to Parma by its commandant, and a little later the town
of Gelder was similarly sold by Commandant Aristotle Patton.
These acts of treachery created a strong feeling of distrust of the
whole of the English forces in the country, especially as it was known
that Queen Elizabeth was extremely desirous of concluding peace with
Spain, and was at this very time corresponding with the duke of Parma on
the subject. The states-general took advantage of this feeling and
attempted to recover the authority which they had ceded to the earl of
Leicester, but did not fully succeed in doing so.
[Sidenote: Action of Sir Francis Drake.]
The preparations of Philippe for the invasion of England were rapidly
advancing, and it had been arranged between him and Parma that a
powerful army was to be massed in Flanders and Brabant, which should be
embarked in small vessels and convoyed across the straits by a great
fleet to be sent from Spain. Until all was ready, the queen was to be
kept unsuspicious of danger by pretended negotiations for peace, which
were never to be more than a blind.
To carry out this scheme Parma needed a capacious and convenient
harbour. Those he possessed were useless for his purpose, because the
English held Flushing at the mouth of the Schelde and Dutch armed ships
were constantly cruising almost up to Antwerp, so at the beginning of
June 1587 he laid siege to Sluis in north-western Flanders with all the
forces he could muster. The town had a garrison of eight hundred English
and eight hundred Dutch soldiers, and not only the burghers but the
women aided heroically in its defence. The importance of preventing such
a harbour from falling into the hands of the Spaniards was realised at
once in England, and Leicester was directed to return to the Netherlands
without delay. On the 7th of July he reached Flushing with three
thousand raw recruits, but the bickering between him and the states was
so great that united action was impossible, and his attempt to relieve
Sluis was an utter failure. The garrison was so reduced in number that
it could resist no longer, and the burghers and women were quite worn
out, when at the beginning of August Sluis capitulated on honourable
terms, and Parma came into possession of an excellent base for the
invasion of England.
That invasion, however, was deferred for a time, and the pretence of
negotiating for peace was to be continued many months longer, owing to
the action of the daring sea captain Sir Francis Drake. Drake sailed
from Plymouth on the 2nd of April 1587 with four men-of-war and
twenty-four ships fitted out by private adventurers, and seventeen days
later entered the harbour of Cadiz and pillaged, burned, and destroyed
some hundred and fifty vessels that he found there. He then sailed to
Lisbon, and destroyed a hundred transports and provision ships that were
lying in the Tagus. At first sight this looks something like piracy, for
there had been no declaration of war between England and Spain. But what
were all those vessels lying off Cadiz and Lisbon destined for? For the
invasion of England, and this it was that justified Drake in destroying
them as he so bravely did.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Leicester remained nearly six months in the Netherlands on his second
visit, and then, finding it impossible to recover his former authority,
he returned to England. On the 27th of December 1587 he attached his
name to a document resigning his office, but it did not reach the
states-general until April 1588. In the interim a condition of affairs
that can almost be termed civil war prevailed. The officials and
commanders of garrisons who had taken an oath of fidelity to Leicester
refused to obey any other authority, and young Maurits of Nassau, who
had been appointed by the states captain-general, was obliged to coerce
them by force of arms. At last Leicester’s resignation was received, and
on the 12th of April 1588 the states-general issued a placaat[27]
absolving all persons from their oaths of fidelity to him, when
something like harmony was restored. The baron Willoughby now became the
commander of the English troops in the Netherlands.
Warlike operations in that country were, however, almost stayed for a
while, owing to Parma’s whole attention being occupied with preparations
for the invasion of England and deceiving the English commissioners who
were treating for peace. He was building great numbers of small
transports, collecting vast stores of provisions and munitions of war,
and providing for sixty thousand soldiers, some of whom were intended
to hold his conquests during his absence and others to go with him to
England when the invincible armada should arrive from Spain with
additional forces and convoy his vessels across the channel.
[Sidenote: The Invincible Armada.]
At last in July 1588 the armada, consisting of a hundred and thirty-four
ships of war, with twenty thousand soldiers on board, sailed from
Coruña, and on the 29th of that month came in sight of the English
coast. Never in the world’s history were more important issues in the
balance than those dependent on that mighty fleet. Absolutism or
political liberty, iron bound religious conformity or freedom of
conscience, these were the issues at stake, not only for England and
Holland, but for mighty nations still unborn. It is not necessary to
relate the history of the armada here, every schoolboy knows how it came
to anchor in Calais roads, how the Sea Beggars of Holland and Zeeland
prevented Parma from joining it, how the English fleet under Howard and
Drake and Hawkins and other ocean heroes followed and worried it, how
they sent fireships that frightened it in confusion from Calais roads,
how it fled into the North sea with the English grappling every galleon
that lagged behind, how God sent a great storm that dispersed it, and
how finally only fifty-three out of the hundred and thirty-four huge
fighting ships reached the Spanish coast again, and these little better
than disabled wrecks. The invincible armada was no more, and England and
Holland were saved.
Parma had a great army under his command, but sickness was wasting it
away, and he had not the means of maintaining it properly. So much had
been expended upon the armada that it was impossible for Philippe to
send him the money he needed. He was in chronic ill-health and seemed to
have lost heart too by the failure of the mighty effort that had been
made, and so for a time took no action commensurate with what might have
been expected of him. He indeed laid siege to Bergen op Zoom, which was
garrisoned by five thousand Dutch and English soldiers under Colonel
Morgan, but he did not press it with his old vigour, and during the
night of the 12th of November 1588 he abandoned it. Then for months he
did nothing, until on the 10th of April 1589 he obtained possession of
Geertruidenberg, a town on the Brabant side of the Maas.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Philippe’s views were now directed more to France than to the
Netherlands. After the assassination of Henry III the two parties in
that kingdom appealed to arms, and Parma was directed to assist the duke
of Mayenne, who was at the head of the Catholic league, against Henry of
Navarre, then a Huguenot, the legitimate heir to the throne.
Accordingly, in March 1590 he began to send troops to Mayenne, and in
August he followed in person with twelve thousand infantry and three
thousand cavalry, but after breaking the blockade of Paris, then
besieged by Navarre, he returned to the Netherlands, leaving a strong
division of his forces in France. His soldiers were dying rapidly from
disease, they were unpaid and half mutinous, and neither money nor
sufficient provisions could be obtained in the exhausted Spanish
provinces. Under these circumstances Parma, notwithstanding the large
number of men nominally at his disposal, was really almost helpless.
Maurits was not slow to take advantage of this condition of things. He
had a regular army of only ten thousand infantry and two thousand
cavalry, but his troops were properly paid and well disciplined, and he
was rapidly advancing in military knowledge and skill. He had also the
assistance of a small English contingent. On the 4th of March 1590 he
got possession of the important town of Breda in Brabant. During the
night of the 3rd seventy Hollanders concealed in a turf boat gained
entrance to the castle, and attacked the garrison of Italian soldiers
six times their number, who were seized with a panic and fled into the
town. Before dawn of the 4th a body of patriot troops, with Maurits at
their head, arrived, and Breda was gained. Within a few months eight
other towns in Brabant, though all of less importance than Breda, were
wrested from the Spaniards.
[Sidenote: Death of the Duke of Parma.]
During 1591 some great successes were gained by Maurits. On the 23rd of
May the great fort at Zutphen was taken, and on the 30th the town
capitulated. On the 10th of June Deventer was surrendered, and thus the
important cities lost by the treachery of Stanley and York were
recovered. On the 2nd of July Delfzyl, far north in Groningen,
capitulated, and on the 24th of September Hulst, in the north of
Flanders, was obliged to do the same. On the 21st of October Nymegen was
taken, so that the year was a most fortunate one for the patriot cause.
The Spanish garrisons of all these towns had made a stout resistance,
and some had held out for a long time, but none of those scenes of
massacre that characterised Spanish victories obscured the successes of
Maurits. The soldiers were permitted to march away unharmed, and the
result was that afterwards they did not fight so desperately as they
would have done if they had believed that to submit would be followed by
their butchery. As to religion, the same system was introduced in the
recovered towns as was observed in South Africa during the greater part
of the rule of the East India Company: only the Reformed worship could
be practised publicly, but there was no inquisition in matters of
conscience, and in their own houses men could worship as they pleased.
During 1592 less was accomplished. From January to June Parma was in
France, and when he left that country his ill health prevented him from
making much exertion. Philippe, without the slightest cause, had become
suspicious of his fidelity, and had resolved to disgrace him. From this
indignity he was spared by his death at Arras on the 3rd of December
1592. The old count Pieter Ernest Mansfeld then acted as
governor-general of the submissive Netherlands until January 1594, when
the archduke Ernest, brother of the emperor of Germany and nephew of
King Philippe, arrived at Brussels and assumed the duty. He was a man
of no account, and played a very unimportant part until his death on the
20th of February 1595. The count of Fuentes then acted as head of
affairs until the 29th of January 1596, when the cardinal archduke
Albert, youngest brother of the late Ernest, took over the charge.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
At this time the war against Spain was chiefly confined to France, where
both the English and the Dutch were aiding the king of Navarre against
Philippe and the Catholic league. In July 1593 the king of Navarre was
reconciled to the Catholic church, and on the 26th of February 1594 was
crowned at Chartres as Henry IV, king of France. Still the English and
Dutch continued to help him against Spain, and the Spanish forces,
except the garrisons of the towns, were withdrawn from the Netherlands
to oppose him, so that Maurits was able with his little army and a few
English auxiliaries to do something. He laid siege to Steenwyk, in the
north of Overyssel, which surrendered on the 4th of July 1592, and to
Koevorden, in Drenthe, which capitulated on the 12th of September of the
same year. Next he laid siege to Geertruidenberg, which capitulated on
the 22nd of June 1593, and to Groningen, which fell into his hands on
the 22nd of July 1594. The remainder of the district, then termed the
Ommelanden, was already a party to the union of Utrecht, and the city
now at once gave in its adhesion, so that the province of Groningen
thereafter took rank as a sister state of Holland and the others.
In 1595 nothing of much note occurred, and in 1596 the most important
military event was the recovery of Hulst by the archduke on the 18th of
August. But in this year an act of the king of Spain had very serious
consequences for the Netherlands. This was the repudiation by Philippe
of the public debt of his empire, which at this time was actually so
great that nearly the whole of his revenue was needed to pay the
interest alone. So reckless was the expenditure of the lord of Spain,
Portugal, Italy, the obedient Netherlands, America, and India! Twice
before, in 1557 and 1575, he had suspended payment to the national
creditors, and now, on the 20th of November 1596, he freed himself of
the whole burden by simply disowning it. The ruin of his creditors was
not more complete than the ruin of his credit thereafter. The obedient
provinces were so exhausted that the cardinal archduke could not raise
sufficient revenue from them to meet the cost of administration, much
less maintain the army, and the soldiers at once lost all heart.
[Sidenote: Successes of Prince Maurits.]
On the 31st of October of this year 1596 a treaty of alliance between
Henry IV of France, Elizabeth of England, and the States-General of the
seven United Provinces--Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland,
Overyssel, Friesland, and Groningen with Drenthe--was entered into at
the Hague, to defend themselves against Spain.[28] The oligarchal
republic was thus formally admitted into the sisterhood of nations.
There were four thousand of the very best of the Spanish infantry and
several squadrons of cavalry encamped at Turnhout in Brabant, where on
the 24th of January 1597 Maurits with a much inferior force attacked
them. They actually fled in a panic, and in the pursuit two thousand
were slain and five hundred were made prisoners. It was the most notable
victory ever won over Spanish veterans. Turnhout was occupied by the
patriots, and Maurits began to prepare for an extensive campaign.
In August 1597 he attacked the Spanish garrisons in the towns along the
Rhine on the eastern border of the United Provinces, and by the end of
October he had reduced nine of them. Five thousand Spanish soldiers
surrendered, who were allowed to march away unharmed, to add to the
troubles of the cardinal archduke, whose army was now and long
afterwards in a state of organised mutiny and a terror to the obedient
provinces. The patriot cause would have made great progress at this
time, but on the 2nd of May 1598 Henry IV seceded from the triple
alliance between England, France, and the United Provinces, and signed a
treaty of peace with Spain.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Four days after the conclusion of this treaty, on the 6th of May 1598,
Philippe II transferred the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his
favourite daughter Isabella, who was to marry the cardinal archduke
Albert. He was physically unable to carry on the government longer
himself, and on the 13th of September 1598 he died of a loathsome and
painful disease. On his deathbed he declared that he did not know of
ever having done anyone a wrong, so firmly convinced was he that all the
murders committed and all the blood that had been shed by his orders
tended to the glory of God and the promotion of true religion. Such a
man in his position is a greater enemy to mankind than an avowed infidel
could be, whether he gives others the choice of the koran or the sword,
adherence to any form of Christianity or death. He arrogates to himself
the power of defining the will of the Almighty God in matters of faith,
and of compelling others to profess to believe as he does, surely a
position that angels might shudder to take. The dead king was succeeded
by his son, Philippe III of Spain, who had none of his father’s patience
or industry, who was satisfied with his title, and left the
administration entirely to his favourite the duke of Lerma, the real
master of the Spanish realms.
The cession of the Netherlands to Isabella nominally severed the
provinces from Spain, but if she should leave no issue, it was provided
that they should return to their former condition. She was to have all
the assistance that Spain could afford to give, so that practically the
position was not greatly altered.
The republic was now left to defend itself almost unaided, for on the
16th of August 1598 a treaty of alliance with England was concluded at
Westminster, which provided for the payment of £800,000 to the queen for
the expenses incurred by her, and for her keeping eleven hundred and
fifty soldiers in the cautionary towns until the debt should be paid.
The second article of the treaty was: “The foresaid Lords the States,
confiding in the good Affection and Favour of her Majesty, for the
Preservation of the State of the foresaid _United Provinces_, shall be
contented with such aids as her Majesty shall please to give them, and
to continue the War, with the Assistance of God, the best they can.”[29]
[Sidenote: Battle of Nieuwpoort.]
Very little that was of permanent importance transpired in the
Netherlands for some time after the conclusion of this treaty. The
cardinal archduke was without money, and his soldiers were mutinous, so
that he could not undertake any military operations. He was preparing
too to become a layman and to wed the infanta Isabella, which event took
place in April 1599.
The Dutch, as henceforth the people of the republic of the United
Netherlands can be termed in contradistinction to the Belgians, or the
inhabitants of the obedient provinces, were superior to the Spaniards on
the sea, and were victorious in every naval engagement where the enemy
was not more than three to one against them, still privateers under the
Spanish flag frequently made sudden darts from Dunkirk and Nieuwpoort
and did much damage to Dutch trading vessels and fishing smacks. To
prevent this, the states-general resolved to send a strong expedition
against those places. Accordingly, in June 1600 Maurits with an army
thirteen thousand six hundred strong invaded Flanders and marched to
Nieuwpoort. The archduke Albert upon this appealed in stirring words to
his mutinous troops, and made such promises to them that twelve thousand
veterans agreed to return to duty. They reached the environs of
Nieuwpoort a few hours after Maurits, and there in the sand dunes on the
2nd of July 1600 was fought a pitched battle, which, though the Dutch
lost very heavily in a preliminary encounter, ended in a complete
victory in their favour. Three thousand Spaniards were killed, and six
hundred were made prisoners, among whom was the ferocious admiral of
Aragon. The Dutch lost two thousand men killed. Nieuwpoort, however, was
so strongly garrisoned that Maurits did not think it prudent to lay
siege to it, and so he returned to Zeeland.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Ostend was the only place on the coast of Flanders held by the Dutch,
and as soon as the archduke could get a sufficient force together he
laid siege to it. It was only a fishing village of three thousand
inhabitants, but as it formed a base from which expeditions could be
sent to any part of Flanders, it was an important position. Its siege
was one of the most memorable events of the long war, for it lasted over
three years, from the 5th of July 1601 to the 20th of September 1604.
Being open to Dutch shipping, reinforcements of men and supplies of
provisions were constantly thrown in, while on the other side every
soldier that the archduke Albert could engage was employed in the siege.
During those three years more than a hundred thousand men lost their
lives by pestilence or in the attack or defence of that village. The
struggle would have continued even longer, had it not been that a
Genoese volunteer of immense wealth and a perfect genius for war offered
his services and his money to Philippe III on condition of having the
supreme command of the army in Flanders, which offer had been accepted.
In October 1603 the marquis Ambrose Spinola took command at Ostend, and
he it was who brought the siege to a conclusion. He gained possession of
heaps of rubbish, but not a single building intact, and when the
garrison retired with the remnant of the fishing population, only one
man and one woman remained where Ostend had been.
In the meantime Maurits took advantage of the archduke’s whole attention
being occupied with Ostend to recover Grave, which surrendered to him
after a siege lasting from the 18th of July to the 18th of September
1602, and Sluis--a much more important place than Ostend--which fell
into his hands by capitulation on the 18th of August 1604.
[Sidenote: Action of James I of England.]
The death of Queen Elizabeth on the 24th of March 1603 was a great loss
to the republic. She had always realised that the Dutch cause against
Spain was England’s cause also, and though she had not given much
assistance of late, she had afforded some, and down to the fall of
Ostend a considerable number of Englishmen fought and fell side by side
with the sturdy republicans. Her successor, James I, was without her
ability. Soon after his accession he promised indeed to follow her
policy, but very shortly a project of alliance between the royal houses
of Spain and England took possession of his mind, and then he adopted
the opposite course. On the 30th of July 1603 at Hampton Court he signed
a treaty of alliance with Henry IV of France for the defence of the
United Provinces against Spain, and in the following year, 1604, he
entered into a treaty of perpetual peace and alliance with Philippe III
of Spain and the archduke and archduchess Albert and Isabella,[30] in
which he abandoned the Dutch cause. Thereafter his subjects were
strictly prohibited from aiding the enemies of Spain in any manner
whatever. He kept possession of the cautionary towns until June 1616,
when a compromise was made regarding the debt, and they were restored to
the republic.
No military event of any importance occurred after this until Spinola’s
sudden dash upon the eastern border, and the surrender to him of Grol or
Groenlo in Gelderland on the 14th of August 1606. Spinola’s funds were
now exhausted, and as means for carrying on the war could not be raised
either in the Belgic provinces or in Spain, hostilities on land
practically ceased.
IV.
THE WAR ON THE SEA BETWEEN SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]