power in Holland might be inconsistency in lesser mortals; but what was
the use of his infallibility if he was expected to be consistent?
But one thing was certain. The Advocate saw through him as if he had
been made of glass, and James knew that he did. This fatal fact
outweighed all the decorous and respectful phraseology under which
Barneveld veiled his remorseless refutations. It was a dangerous thing
to incur the wrath of this despot-theologian.
Prince Maurice, who had originally joined in the invitation given by the
overseers of Leyden to Vorstius, and had directed one of the deputies and
his own "court trumpeter," Uytenbogaert, to press him earnestly to grant
his services to the University, now finding the coldness of Barneveld to
the fiery remonstrances of the King, withdrew his protection of the
Professor.
"The Count Maurice, who is a wise and understanding prince," said
Winwood, "and withal most affectionate to his Majesty's service, doth
foresee the miseries into which these countries are likely to fall, and
with grief doth pine away."
It is probable that the great stadholder had never been more robust, or
indeed inclining to obesity, than precisely at this epoch; but Sir Ralph
was of an imaginative turn. He had discovered, too, that the Advocate's
design was "of no other nature than so to stem the course of the State
that insensibly the Provinces shall fall by relapse into the hands of
Spain."
A more despicable idea never entered a human brain. Every action, word,
and thought, of Barneveld's life was a refutation of it. But he was
unwilling, at the bidding of a king, to treat a professor with contumely
who had just been solemnly and unanimously invited by the great
university, by the States of Holland, and by the Stadholder to an
important chair; and that was enough for the diplomatist and courtier.
"He, and only he," said Winwood passionately, "hath opposed his Majesty's
purposes with might and main." Formerly the Ambassador had been full of
complaints of "the craving humour of Count Maurice," and had censured him
bitterly in his correspondence for having almost by his inordinate
pretensions for money and other property brought the Treaty of Truce to a
standstill. And in these charges he was as unjust and as reckless as he
was now in regard to Barneveld.
The course of James and his agents seemed cunningly devised to sow
discord in the Provinces, to inflame the growing animosity of the
Stadholder to the Advocate, and to paralyse the action of the Republic in
the duchies. If the King had received direct instructions from the
Spanish cabinet how to play the Spanish game, he could hardly have done
it with more docility. But was not Gondemar ever at his elbow, and the
Infanta always in the perspective?
And it is strange enough that, at the same moment, Spanish marriages were
in France as well as England the turning-point of policy.
Henry had been willing enough that the Dauphin should espouse a Spanish
infanta, and that one of the Spanish princes should be affianced to one
of his daughters. But the proposition from Spain had been coupled with a
condition that the friendship between France and the Netherlands should
be at once broken off, and the rebellious heretics left to their fate.
And this condition had been placed before him with such arrogance that
he had rejected the whole scheme. Henry was not the man to do anything
dishonourable at the dictation of another sovereign. He was also not the
man to be ignorant that the friendship of the Provinces was necessary to
him, that cordial friendship between France and Spain was impossible, and
that to allow Spain to reoccupy that splendid possession between his own
realms and Germany, from which she had been driven by the Hollanders in
close alliance with himself, would be unworthy of the veriest schoolboy
in politics. But Henry was dead, and a Medici reigned in his place,
whose whole thought was to make herself agreeable to Spain.
Aerssens, adroit, prying, experienced, unscrupulous, knew very well
that these double Spanish marriages were resolved upon, and that the
inevitable condition refused by the King would be imposed upon his widow.
He so informed the States-General, and it was known to the French
government that he had informed them. His position soon became almost
untenable, not because he had given this information, but because the
information and the inference made from it were correct.
It will be observed that the policy of the Advocate was to preserve
friendly relations between France and England, and between both and the
United Provinces. It was for this reason that he submitted to the
exhortations and denunciations of the English ambassadors. It was for
this that he kept steadily in view the necessity of dealing with and
supporting corporate France, the French government, when there were many
reasons for feeling sympathy with the internal rebellion against that
government. Maurice felt differently. He was connected by blood or
alliance with more than one of the princes now perpetually in revolt.
Bouillon was his brother-in-law, the sister of Conde was his brother's
wife. Another cousin, the Elector-Palatine, was already encouraging
distant and extravagant hopes of the Imperial crown. It was not
unnatural that he should feel promptings of ambition and sympathy
difficult to avow even to himself, and that he should feel resentment
against the man by whom this secret policy was traversed in the well-
considered interest of the Republican government.
Aerssens, who, with the keen instinct of self-advancement was already
attaching himself to Maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going
steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man
through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now
perhaps on the decline. Moreover, events had now caused him to hate the
French government with much fervour. With Henry IV. he had been all-
powerful. His position had been altogether exceptional, and he had
wielded an influence at Paris more than that exerted by any foreign
ambassador. The change naturally did not please him, although he well
knew the reasons. It was impossible for the Dutch ambassador to be
popular at a court where Spain ruled supreme. Had he been willing to eat
humiliation as with a spoon, it would not have sufficed. They knew him,
they feared him, and they could not doubt that his sympathies would ever
be with the malcontent princes. At the same time he did not like to lose
his hold upon the place, nor to have it known, as yet, to the world that
his power was diminished.
"The Queen commands me to tell you," said the French ambassador de Russy
to the States-General, "that the language of the Sieur Aerssens has not
only astonished her, but scandalized her to that degree that she could
not refrain from demanding if it came from My Lords the States or from
himself. He having, however, affirmed to her Majesty that he had express
charge to justify it by reasons so remote from the hope and the belief
that she had conceived of your gratitude to the Most Christian King and
herself, she is constrained to complain of it, and with great frankness."
Some months later than this Aerssens communicated to the States-General
the project of the Spanish marriage, "which," said he, "they have
declared to me with so many oaths to be false." He informed them that
M. de Refuge was to go on special mission to the Hague, "having been
designated to that duty before Aerssens' discovery of the marriage
project." He was to persuade their Mightinesses that the marriages were
by no means concluded, and that, even if they were, their Mightinesses
were not interested therein, their Majesties intending to remain by the
old maxims and alliances of the late king. Marriages, he would be
instructed to say, were mere personal conventions, which remained
of no consideration when the interests of the crown were touched.
"Nevertheless, I know very well," said Aerssens, "that in England
these negotiations are otherwise understood, and that the King has
uttered great complaints about them, saying that such a negotiation as
this ought not to have been concealed from him. He is pressing more than
ever for reimbursement of the debt to him, and especially for the moneys
pretended to have been furnished to your Mightinesses in his Majesty's
name."
Thus it will be seen how closely the Spanish marriages were connected
with the immediate financial arrangements of France, England, and the
States, without reference to the wider political consequences
anticipated.
"The princes and most gentlemen," here continued the Ambassador, "believe
that these reciprocal and double marriages will bring about great changes
in Christendom if they take the course which the authors of them intend,
however much they may affect to believe that no novelties are impending.
The marriages were proposed to the late king, and approved by him, during
the negotiations for the truce, and had Don Pedro do Toledo been able to
govern himself, as Jeannin has just been telling me, the United Provinces
would have drawn from it their assured security. What he means by that,
I certainly cannot conceive, for Don Pedro proposed the marriage of the
Dauphin (now Louis XIII.) with the Infanta on the condition that Henry
should renounce all friendship with your Mightinesses, and neither openly
nor secretly give you any assistance. You were to be entirely abandoned,
as an example for all who throw off the authority of their lawful prince.
But his Majesty answered very generously that he would take no
conditions; that he considered your Mightinesses as his best friends,
whom he could not and would not forsake. Upon this Don Pedro broke off
the negotiation. What should now induce the King of Spain to resume the
marriage negotiations but to give up the conditions, I am sure I don't
know, unless, through the truce, his designs and his ambition have grown
flaccid. This I don't dare to hope, but fear, on the contrary, that he
will so manage the irresolution, weakness, and faintheartedness of this
kingdom as through the aid of his pensioned friends here to arrive at all
his former aims."
Certainly the Ambassador painted the condition of France in striking and
veracious colours, and he was quite right in sending the information
which he was first to discover, and which it was so important for the
States to know. It was none the less certain in Barneveld's mind that
the best, not the worst, must be made of the state of affairs, and that
France should not be assisted in throwing herself irrecoverably into the
arms of Spain.
"Refuge will tell you," said Aerssens, a little later, "that these
marriages will not interfere with the friendship of France for you nor
with her subsidies, and that no advantage will be given to Spain in the
treaty to your detriment or that of her other allies. But whatever fine
declarations they may make, it is sure to be detrimental. And all the
princes, gentlemen, and officers here have the same conviction. Those of
the Reformed religion believe that the transaction is directed solely
against the religion which your Mightinesses profess, and that the next
step will be to effect a total separation between the two religions and
the two countries."
Refuge arrived soon afterwards, and made the communication to the States-
General of the approaching nuptials between the King of France and the
Infanta of Spain; and of the Prince of Spain with Madame, eldest daughter
of France, exactly as Aerssens had predicted four months before. There
was a great flourish of compliments, much friendly phrase-making, and
their Mightinesses were informed that the communication of the marriages
was made to them before any other power had been notified, in proof of
the extraordinary affection entertained for them by France. "You are
so much interested in the happiness of France," said Refuge, "that this
treaty by which it is secured will be for your happiness also. He did
not indicate, however, the precise nature of the bliss beyond the
indulgence of a sentimental sympathy, not very refreshing in the
circumstances, which was to result to the Confederacy from this close
alliance between their firmest friend and their ancient and deadly enemy.
He would have found it difficult to do so.
"Don Rodrigo de Calderon, secretary of state, is daily expected from
Spain," wrote, Aerssens once more. "He brings probably the articles of
the marriages, which have hitherto been kept secret, so they say. 'Tis a
shrewd negotiator; and in this alliance the King's chief design is to
injure your Mightinesses, as M. de Villeroy now confesses, although he
says that this will not be consented to on this side. It behoves your
Mightinesses to use all your ears and eyes. It is certain these are much
more than private conventions. Yes, there is nothing private about them,
save the conjunction of the persons whom they concern. In short, all
the conditions regard directly the state, and directly likewise, or by
necessary consequence, the state of your Mightinesses' Provinces.
I reserve explanations until it shall please your Mightinesses to
hear me by word of mouth."
For it was now taken into consideration by the States' government whether
Aerssens was to remain at his post or to return. Whether it was his wish
to be relieved of his embassy or not was a question. But there was no
question that the States at this juncture, and in spite of the dangers
impending from the Spanish marriages, must have an ambassador ready to do
his best to keep France from prematurely sliding into positive hostility
to them. Aerssens was enigmatical in his language, and Barneveld was
somewhat puzzled.
"I have according to your reiterated requests," wrote the Advocate to the
Ambassador, "sounded the assembly of My Lords the States as to your
recall; but I find among some gentlemen the opinion that if earnestly
pressed to continue you would be willing to listen to the proposal. This
I cannot make out from your letters. Please to advise me frankly as to
your wishes, and assure yourself in everything of my friendship."
Nothing could be more straightforward than this language, but the Envoy
was less frank than Barneveld, as will subsequently appear. The subject
was a most important one, not only in its relation to the great affairs
of state, but to momentous events touching the fate of illustrious
personages.
Meantime a resolution was passed by the States of Holland "in regard to
the question whether Ambassador Aerssens should retain his office, yes
or no?" And it was decided by a majority of votes "to leave it to his
candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the
public cause there any longer. If yes, he may keep his office one year
more. If no, he may take leave and come home. In no case is his salary
to be increased."
Surely the States, under the guidance of the Advocate, had thus acted
with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position from no
apparent fault of his own but by the force of circumstances--and rather
to his credit than otherwise--was gravely compromised.
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