II.

First Voyages of the French and English to the Eastern Seas. And a Sketch of the Early History of the Netherlands and of the Establishment of the Dutch in India.

SKETCH II.

I.

First Voyages of the French and English to India. Early History of the Netherlands.

The debt which the world owes to the Portuguese for weakening the Mohamedan power and thus preventing the subjugation of a larger portion of Eastern Europe than was actually overrun by the Turks should not be forgotten, but long before the close of the sixteenth century they had ceased to be participants in the great progressive movement of the Caucasian race. Upon a conquering nation rests an enormous responsibility: no less than that of benefiting the world at large. Was Portugal doing this in her eastern possessions to such an extent as to make her displacement there a matter deserving universal regret? Probably her own people would reply that she was, for every nation regards its own acts as better than those of others; but beyond her borders the answer unquestionably would be that she was not. Rapacity, cruelty, corruption, have all been laid to her charge at this period, and not without sufficient reason. But apart from these vices, her weakness under the Castilian kings was such that she was incapable of doing any good. When an individual is too infirm and decrepit to manage his affairs, a robust man takes his place, and so it is with States. The weak one may cry out that might is not right, but such a cry finds a very feeble echo. India was not held by the Portuguese under the only indefeasible tenure: that of making the best use of it; and thus it could be seized by a stronger power without Christian nations feeling that a wrong was being done.

Historical Sketches.

Before recounting in brief the rise of the Northern Netherlands to a proud position among European states, and the commencement of the Dutch conquests in the eastern seas, a glance may be given to the earliest acts of other nations, and especially to those of our own countrymen, in those distant regions.

The French were the first to follow the Portuguese round the Cape of Good Hope to India. As early as 1507 a corsair of that nation, named Mondragon, made his appearance in the Mozambique channel[14] with two armed vessels, and plundered a ship commanded by Job Queimado. He also captured and robbed another Indiaman nearer home. On the 18th of January 1509 a fleet commanded by Duarte Pacheco Pereira fell in with him off Cape Finisterre, and after a warm engagement sank one of his ships and captured the other. Mondragon was taken a prisoner to Lisbon, where he found means of making his peace with the king, and he was then permitted to return to France.

Twenty years later three ships, fitted out by a merchant named Jean Ango, sailed from Dieppe for India. The accounts of this expedition are so conflicting that it is impossible to relate the occurrences attending it with absolute accuracy. It is certain, however, that one of the ships never reached her destination. Another was wrecked on the coast of Sumatra, where her crew were all murdered. The third reached Diu in July 1527. She had a crew of forty Frenchmen, but was commanded by a Portuguese named Estevão Dias, nicknamed Brigas, who had fled from his native country on account of misdeeds committed there, and had taken service with the strangers. The ruler of Diu regarded this ship with great hostility, and as he was unable to seize her openly, he practised deceit to get her crew within his power. Professing friendship, he gave Dias permission to trade in his territory, but took advantage of the first opportunity to arrest him and his crew. They were handed over as captives to the paramount Mohamedan ruler, and were obliged to embrace his creed to preserve their lives. They were then taken into his service and remained in India.

Early Voyages of the French.

Early in 1529 two ships commanded by Jean and Raoul Parmentier, fitted out partly by Jean Ango, partly by merchants of Rouen, sailed from Dieppe. In October of the same year they reached Sumatra, but on account of great loss of life from sickness, on the 22nd of January 1530 they turned homeward. As they avoided the Portuguese settlements, nothing was known at Goa of their proceedings except what was told by a sailor who was left behind at Madagascar and was afterwards found there. This expedition was almost as unsuccessful as the preceding one. On their return passage the ships were greatly damaged in violent storms, and they reached Europe with difficulty.

From that time until 1601 there is no trace of a French vessel having passed the Cape of Good Hope. In May of this year the Corbin and Croissant, two ships fitted out by some merchants of Laval and Vitré, sailed from St. Malo. They reached the Maldives safely, but there the Corbin was lost in July 1602, and her commander was unable to return to France until ten years had gone by. The Croissant was lost on the Spanish coast on her homeward passage.

On the 1st of June 1604 a French East India Company was established on paper, but it did not get further. In 1615 it was reorganised, and in 1617 the first successful expedition to India under the French flag sailed from a port in Normandy. From that date onward ships of this nation were frequently seen in the eastern seas. But the French made no attempt to form a settlement in South Africa, and their only connection with this country was that towards the middle of the seventeenth century a vessel was sent occasionally from Rochelle to collect a cargo of sealskins and oil at the islands in and near the present Saldanha Bay.

Historical Sketches.

The English were the next to appear in Indian waters. A few individuals of this nation may have served in Portuguese ships, and among the missionaries, especially of the Company of Jesus, who went out to convert the heathen, it is not unlikely that there were several. One at least, Thomas Stephens by name, was rector of the Jesuit college at Salsette. A letter written by him from Goa in 1579, and printed in the second volume of Hakluyt’s work, is the earliest account extant of an English voyager to that part of the world.[15] It contains no information of importance.

The famous sea captain Francis Drake, of Tavistock in Devon, sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December 1577, with the intention of exploring the Pacific ocean. His fleet consisted of five vessels, carrying in all one hundred and sixty-four men. His own ship, named the Pelican, was of one hundred and twenty tons burden. The others were the Elizabeth, eighty tons, the Marigold, thirty tons, a pinnace of twelve tons, and a storeship of fifty tons burden. The last named was set on fire as soon as her cargo was transferred to the others, the pinnace was abandoned, the Marigold was lost in a storm, the Elizabeth, after reaching the Pacific, turned back through the straits of Magellan, and the Pelican alone continued the voyage. She was the first English ship that sailed round the world. Captain Drake reached England again on the 3rd of November 1580, and soon afterwards was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship. The Pelican did not touch at any part of the South African coast, but there is the following paragraph in the account of the voyage:—

First Englishmen in the East.

“We ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portuguese to be most false, who affirm that it is the most dangerous cape of the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers who come near the same. This cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth, and we passed by it on the 18th of June.”

In 1583 four English traders in precious stones, acting partly on their own account and partly as agents for merchants in London, made their way by the Tigris and the Persian gulf to Ormuz, where at that time people of various nationalities were engaged in commerce. John Newbery, the leader of the party, had been there before. The others were named Ralph Fitch, William Leades, and James Story. Shortly after their arrival at Ormuz they were arrested by the Portuguese authorities on the double charge of being heretics and spies of the prior Dom Antonio, who was a claimant to the throne of Portugal, and under these pretences they were sent prisoners to Goa. There they managed to clear themselves of the first of the charges, Story entered a convent, and the others, on finding bail not to leave the city, were set at liberty in December 1584, mainly through the instrumentality of the Jesuit father Stephens and Jan Huyghen van Linscheten, of whom more will be related in the following pages. Four months afterwards, being in fear of ill-treatment, they managed to make their escape from Goa. After a time they separated, and Fitch went on a tour through India, visiting many places before his return to England in 1591. An account of his travels is extant in Hakluyt’s collection, but there is not much information in it, and it had no effect upon subsequent events.

Historical Sketches.

Thomas Candish sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July 1586, with three ships—the Desire, of one hundred and twenty tons, the Content, of sixty tons, and the Hugh Gallant, of forty tons—carrying in all one hundred and twenty-three souls. After sailing round the globe, he arrived again in Plymouth on the 9th of September 1588, having passed the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May.

The first English ships that put into a harbour on the South African coast were the Penelope, Merchant Royal, and Edward Bonaventure, which sailed from Plymouth for India on the 10th of April 1591, under command of Admiral George Raymond. This fleet put into the watering place of Saldanha, now called Table Bay, at the end of July. The crews, who were suffering from scurvy, were at once sent on shore, where they obtained fresh food by shooting wild fowl and gathering mussels and other shell-fish along the rocky beach. Some inhabitants had been seen when the ships sailed in, but they appeared terrified, and at once moved inland. Admiral Raymond visited Robben Island, where he found seals and penguins in great numbers. One day some hunters caught a Hottentot, whom they treated kindly, making him many presents and endeavouring to show him by signs that they were in want of cattle. They then let him go, and eight days afterwards he returned with thirty or forty others, bringing forty oxen and as many sheep. Trade was at once commenced, the price of an ox being two knives, that of a sheep one knife. So many men had died of scurvy that it was considered advisable to send the Merchant Royal back to England weak handed. The Penelope, with one hundred and one men, and the Edward Bonaventure, with ninety-seven men, sailed for India on the 8th of September. On the 12th a gale was encountered, and that night those in the Edward Bonaventure, whereof was master James Lancaster—who was afterwards famous as an advocate of Arctic exploration, and whose name was given by Bylot and Baffin to the sound which terminated their discoveries in 1616—saw a great sea break over the admiral’s ship, which put out her lights. After that she was never seen or heard of again.

The Beginning of Dutch History.

The appearance of these rivals in the Indian seas caused much concern in Spain and Portugal. There was as yet no apprehension of the loss of the sources of the spice trade, but it was regarded as probable that English ships would lie in wait at St. Helena for richly laden vessels homeward bound, so in 1591 and again in 1593 the king directed the viceroy to instruct the captains not to touch at that island.

At this time a new state, the republic of the United Netherlands, had recently come into existence in Europe. It was a state full of life and vigour, though its territory was even smaller than that of Portugal. Constantly battling with the ocean that threatened to submerge the land, breathing an invigorating air, coming from an energetic and self-respecting stock, its people were the hardiest and most industrious of Europeans. They were also attached to freedom, and ready to part with property and life itself rather than submit to tyranny or misrule. A brief outline of their history will show how they came to contend with Portugal at the close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth for the commerce of the Indian seas.[16]

The territory that now forms the kingdom of the Netherlands was the last part of the continent of Europe to be occupied by human beings. For untold ages the Rhine, the Maas, and the Schelde had been carrying down earth and the ocean had been casting up sand, until at last a tract of swampy but habitable ground appeared where previously waves had rolled. That was not many centuries before the commencement of the Christian era, and so no traces of palæolithic man are found there such as are found in all other parts of Europe, and in great abundance in some parts of modern Belgium close by. The most ancient relics of man discovered in the northern Netherlands are comparatively recent flint implements, tumuli containing funeral urns, and the so-called hunebedden, sepulchres of men of note, roughly built of stone taken from boulders carried from the Scandinavian peninsula by ice in glacial times, and deposited on the banks not yet risen to the surface of the sea. These hunebedden are found chiefly in the present province of Drenthe, and may not date much further back than Roman times.

Historical Sketches.

The Batavi, a Nether Teuton tribe, driven westward by war, about a century before the birth of Christ found their way into the island enclosed by the North sea and the extreme forks of the Rhine, which was then a waste of morasses, lakelets, and forests. It had previously been occupied by a Celtic population, that had abandoned it not long before on account of disasters from floods. The position of the forks of the Rhine was probably different from what it is to-day, for the whole face of the country has undergone a great change since the Batavians first saw it. Large tracts of land have been reclaimed, and still larger tracts have been lost by the sea washing over them. Thus in the thirteenth century of our era the very heart of the country was torn out by the ocean, and villages and towns and wide pastures were buried for ever under the deep waters since termed the Zuider Zee. In 1277 the Dollart was formed between Groningen and Hanover, and in 1421 the Biesbosch between Brabant and Holland took the place of habitable land.

Different Races in the Netherlands.

Farther north than the Batavians, the Frisians, also a Nether Teuton people, occupied a great extent of country, but it is impossible to say when they first took possession of it. These Batavians and Frisians were the nearest blood relations of the Angles and Saxons who at a later date conquered England and part of Scotland, and their language was so nearly the same that our great Alfred could with little difficulty have understood it.

The southern part of what is now the kingdom of Belgium and the adjoining districts of France were inhabited at this time by a Celtic people, who had long before replaced the early palæolithic savages. Between them and the Batavians and Frisians was a broad tract occupied by Teutons and Celts mixed together, who do not appear, however, to have blended their blood to any great extent. This was the condition of the country at the beginning of the Christian era, and it was its condition more than fifteen centuries later, when Philippe II was king of Spain and Elizabeth Tudor was queen of England.

Cæsar conquered the Celts and compelled the Frisians to pay tribute, but he admitted the Batavians to an alliance, and thereafter for hundreds of years they voluntarily supplied the Roman army with its bravest soldiers. They gave their blood for Rome, and in return received civilisation. During this period they learned to construct dykes to prevent the ocean and the rivers from overflowing the land, to dig canals, to make highways, and to build bridges.

Historical Sketches.

Then came the outpouring of the northern nations upon the western empire, and when it ceased the power that had overshadowed the earth had gone. In its stead the Franks were masters of the Celtic portion of the Netherlands, where the Latin tongue was spoken, and tribes akin to the Frisian had mixed with the occupants of the north. The Batavians remained, but their distinctive name had disappeared, and so the racial division of the land was as it had been before.

Some of the Frisians had been converted to Christianity by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and in A.D. 750 the whole of them, after a crushing defeat by Charles Martel, accepted that religion. In A.D. 785 their conquest was completed by Charlemagne, and the whole region then became a section of the dominions of that able and powerful ruler. The bishopric of Utrecht was founded at this time. Extensive domains were attached to the see, and the bishop, besides the ecclesiastical authority which he exercised over the whole of the Frisians, was temporal ruler of a territory constantly varying in size, sometimes covering several of the modern provinces.

Charlemagne left the local customs of the people of the Netherlands undisturbed, and sent officials to govern them according to their own laws, though in his name. Under his feeble successors the country was broken up into a number of practically petty sovereignties by the descendants of his officials, who now claimed hereditary authority and ruled as despots. They called themselves dukes, counts, marquises, or lords, and often quarrelled with each other. Most of them nominally admitted the precedence in rank of the head of the Holy Roman Empire, as the counts of Flanders and Artois did that of the kings of France, but this was the full extent of their submission.

The Scandinavian pirates sailed up the rivers and made frequent attacks upon the towns and villages on their banks, they plundered and murdered many of the people, but they did not form permanent settlements as they did in the more attractive lands of Normandy and Sicily.

Growth of the Towns.

The country not being capable of supporting its inhabitants by agriculture and cattle breeding alone, manufactures and commerce were necessary, and in addition the fisheries became a means of living for many. They traded with England, buying wool, with the coast of the Baltic, selling woollen and linen cloths, and with all north-western Europe, selling Indian products, of which Bruges was the emporium for the Italian merchants. So towns grew and prospered, and in course of time obtained municipal charters from their sovereigns. In A.D. 1217 the first of these in the present kingdom of the Netherlands was granted by Count William the First of Holland and Countess Joanna of Flanders to the town of Middelburg in Zeeland. It did not indeed confer great privileges, but it was the beginning of a system which had most important effects upon the country. The crusades tended to hasten this movement. The petty sovereigns who took part in them were very willing to sell privileges for ready money, which they needed for their equipment, and their subjects were quite as willing to buy.

So the towns grew in number and in size, and succeeded in obtaining, usually by purchase, a large amount of self-government and the right of sending deputies to the estates or parliaments, who sat with the nobles to confer upon general affairs. Just as the various kings of the Saxon states in England, the petty sovereigns were continually quarrelling with each other, and their number varied from time to time, as one or other got the mastery over his neighbours. Not the least prominent or quarrelsome among them was the bishop of Utrecht, whose dominions contracted or expanded with the fortunes of diplomacy or war. The estates of his province consisted of deputies from the towns, the nobles, and abbots, over whom he presided as a sovereign. In some of the little dominions the privileges of the towns were much greater than in others, in several indeed the cities were practically little short of being independent republics. Unfortunately they were so jealous of each other that they could not unite in carrying out any policy that would have benefited the whole province, and there was no tie whatever that bound the different provinces together. Each city with a little domain around it stood alone, and though it might enjoy self-government, its position was precarious, for it could not depend upon anything outside of itself to assist it if necessary to maintain its rights against an aggressor.

Historical Sketches.

This was the condition of affairs political when, owing partly to the extinction of some of the ruling families, partly to purchase, and partly to fraud and force, in 1437 a majority of the provinces—among them Holland and Zeeland—came under the dominion of Philippe, the powerful duke of Burgundy. They continued, however, to be independent of each other, and were governed by him as distinct states, of one of which he was termed duke, of another count, and so on, though he established a council at Mechlin, which acted as a court of appeal for them all. He was married to the youngest daughter of João I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, Isabella by name, whose nephew, Affonso V, in 1466 made her a present of the Azores or Western Islands. A considerable number of families from the Netherlands, whose descendants can still be distinguished there, then migrated to the Flemish islands, as they were long thereafter termed. These dependencies shared the fate of the other dominions of the house of Burgundy until 1640, when they reverted to Portugal.

Philippe suppressed much of the freedom that had been gained, but he encouraged and protected commerce and manufactures, and under his rule the provinces increased greatly in material wealth. He died in 1467, and was succeeded by his son Charles the Headstrong, a perfectly reckless and unprincipled ruler, who endeavoured to crush out all the acquired freedom of the people, and nearly succeeded in establishing himself as an absolute despot. His first wife was Catherine of Valois, by whom he had only one daughter. After her death he married, on the 3rd of July 1468, Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England, but had no children by her. Like his father, he governed the Netherlands by means of officials termed stadholders, who acted as his representatives and carried out his instructions. The first standing army in the country was stationed there by him. Charles was killed in battle with the Swiss in 1477, and as he left no son, his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, claimed the right of succeeding him as sovereign of all the provinces he had ruled over.

Privileges of the Towns.

Louis XI of France, however, on the ground that the Salic law was applicable in this case, took possession of Burgundy, and cast longing eyes on the Netherlands as well. In this hour of danger, the estates of all the provinces came together at Ghent, when the lady Mary voluntarily restored all the privileges and rights that her father and grandfather had annulled. She even went further, and granted the “Groot Privilegie,” which conferred such extensive authority upon the estates that under its clauses despotism or even misgovernment would be impossible, for no taxes could be imposed and no war undertaken without their consent, and edicts of the sovereign were to be invalid if they conflicted with the privileges of the towns. Only natives of the particular province could be appointed to offices in any of them, thus a native of Brabant or Namur could not fill an office in Flanders or Holland. Persons charged with crime were to be brought to trial speedily, and no citizen could be arbitrarily imprisoned by the ruler. A more liberal constitution could hardly have been imagined at that time nor indeed even at present.

The estates were then ready to support the lady Mary, they acknowledged her as their sovereign, and with their approval she married Maximilian of Hapsburg, son of the German emperor. Five years later she was killed by a fall from her horse, leaving a son, Philippe by name, then four years of age, as heir to her sovereignty of the Netherlands. Maximilian claimed to act as regent and guardian of his son, and was accepted as such by all of the provinces subject to Burgundy except Flanders, which he got possession of by force. He disowned the “Great Privilege,” as did his son Philippe, when in 1494 at seventeen years of age he assumed the government.

Historical Sketches.

In 1496 Philippe married Joanna, eldest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Her sister Catherine was destined at a later date to play an important part in English history as the spouse of King Henry the Eighth. From the union of Philippe and Joanna was born in the year 1500 a son, who as the emperor Charles V was the most powerful monarch in Europe. From his mother he inherited the sovereignty of Spain, of portions of Italy, and of the greater part of the New World, with the title of king, from his father he inherited the sovereignty of all the Netherlands except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, and Liege, with the titles of count and duke, and by election of the German princes he became the head of the Holy Roman Empire, with the title of emperor. His father Philippe died in 1506, and the Netherlands became the first portion of his vast inheritance that fell to him. To those provinces that had been dependencies of Burgundy, he was able to add Friesland in 1524, Utrecht and Overyssel in 1528, and Groningen and Drenthe in 1536, all obtained by cession after long civil war, when the bishop of Utrecht, who was unable to protect himself from the duke of Gelderland, resigned his temporal authority. In 1543 he conquered Gelderland, and in the following year he compelled the king of France, to whom his father Philippe had done homage for Flanders and Artois, to renounce the suzerainty of those provinces, so that the entire country, Liege only excepted, came under his undisputed sovereignty. In this manner the provinces became united with Spain under one ruler, though their governments remained distinct.

Rule of Charles V.

Under Charles just as much or as little freedom as he pleased was left to the people of the Netherlands, for he regarded his edicts as superior in authority to all charters or customs, and he inflicted terrible vengeance upon the city of Ghent, his own birthplace, for daring to resist the payment of an amount of money that he arbitrarily demanded. He professed to regard the provinces with favour, but he drew largely upon their resources to enable him to carry on wars in which they had no interest whatever.

And now another factor came into play, which tended very greatly to increase the bitterness of the people at the diminution of freedom. The reformation had commenced, and its principles were spreading in the Netherlands. Charles, who regarded schism as even more criminal than rebellion, attempted to stamp out the new teaching, and for this purpose introduced the inquisition. His sister Mary, dowager queen of Hungary, acted as regent of the country for twenty-five years, and carried out his instructions in letter and in spirit. Many thousands of people perished by various forms of death, but wretched as the condition of the unhappy Netherlanders was, a still darker day was about to dawn upon them.

It is generally affirmed that there were seventeen distinct provinces at this time, but in fact the number seventeen was derived from the titles of the sovereign and the accidental circumstance that there were seventeen separate estates present at the abdication of Charles V,[17] though these did not correspond exactly with the titles. For instance, one of the titles was count of Zutphen, but Zutphen had for centuries been part of Gelderland; another of the titles was marquis of Anvers or Antwerp, but Antwerp was a city of Brabant. On the other hand Lille with Douai and Orchies, though cities of Flanders, had separate estates, but did not furnish a title, the same was the case with Valenciennes, a city of Hainaut, while Mechlin, in the very heart of Brabant, had separate estates and furnished the title lord of Malines or Mechlin.

Historical Sketches.

What would be termed provinces to-day were the duchies of Gelderland, Brabant, Limburg, and Luxemburg, the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Namur or Namen, Hainaut or Henegouwen, and Artois, and the lordships of Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen with Drenthe, Overyssel, and Mechlin or Malines.[18] To make seventeen, the county of Zutphen and the marquisate of Antwerp must be added if titles alone are considered, or if states present at the abdication of Charles V be taken as a guide, Lille with Douai and Orchies and Tournai with the Tournaisis[19] must be included. Only five of these—Holland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, and Overyssel—remain on the map to-day as they were in the middle of the sixteenth century. Of them all, Brabant was the most important at that time, Flanders came next, and Holland, soon to take the leading place, was regarded as only the third.[20]

Accession of Philippe II.

On the 25th of October 1555 in presence of the estates of seventeen provinces assembled at Brussels, the emperor Charles the Fifth, worn out with disease and infirmity, abdicated the sovereignty, and his son Philippe became ruler in his stead. The change was all for the worse. Charles had been a despot, it is true, but he was by birth a Netherlander, he spoke the language of the people, and took an interest in their commerce and their manufactures; Philippe was a Spaniard, ignorant of Flemish (i.e. Dutch) and of French, and without a particle of sympathy with them in any particular.

For the first four years of his reign Philippe resided in the Netherlands, though he appointed the duke of Savoy regent of the country. They were years of war between Spain and France, and the Netherlands were obliged to aid their sovereign very largely with money and with men. Under the count of Egmont as their general, the combined Spanish and Flemish forces won the great battles of Saint Quentin and Gravelines, but the French were compensated by taking Calais from the English, for Queen Mary Tudor had provoked attack by giving assistance in the war to her husband King Philippe.

Peace having been concluded, in 1559 the king prepared to return to Spain, where his surroundings would be much more congenial. He appointed Margaret of Parma, a natural daughter of the emperor Charles the Fifth and consequently his own half sister, regent of the Netherlands, but all real authority was confided to the bishop of Arras, afterwards widely known as Cardinal Granvelle. This man was a staunch absolutist in politics, and could be depended upon to carry out the king’s wishes to the utmost of his ability. And the dearest wish of the king was to extirpate the new doctrines in religion, which he clearly saw would tend to produce a far more liberal system of government than he approved of. Among the appointments made before he left was that of William prince of Orange to be stadholder of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, but subject to the authority of the duchess of Parma, who was to be guided by the bishop of Arras.

Historical Sketches.

Against the entreaties and protests of the estates, Philippe left in the Netherlands four thousand Spanish soldiers, the most highly disciplined troops in Europe at that time.

Previous to this date, excepting the sovereign bishop of Liege,[21] whose territory was independent and therefore not then included in the provinces, there had only been four bishops in the whole of the Netherlands: one in Utrecht in what is now the kingdom of Holland, one at Tournai in the present kingdom of Belgium, and two at Arras and Cambrai in territory since annexed to France. Philippe obtained from the pope a bull increasing the number to three archbishops and fifteen bishops, of whom one archbishop at Utrecht and six bishops at Haarlem, Middelburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen, Deventer, and ’s Hertogenbosch, were to be stationed in the northern provinces, now the kingdom of Holland. Each was to have inquisitors serving under him.

Dissatisfaction of the People.

These measures gave intense dissatisfaction to the whole body of the people, nobles, burghers, and artisans alike. There was not a single Protestant noble in the country at the time, and the great majority of the people were still adherents of the Roman church, but Catholics and Calvinists alike were opposed to persecution in matters of faith and to the erection of ecclesiastical power upon the ruins of civil liberty. Still the king[22] would not yield, and the people were as yet indisposed to resist in arms. Perhaps they did not know their own strength, and over-estimated that opposed to them. There was no such thing either as political union among them. Seventeen states jealous of each other, and each important state containing rival towns, presented to a despot a field that could be easily worked. Still greater suffering was needed before the people could unite against the murderous hand that was raised to crush them.

After a time the Spanish soldiers, who were needed elsewhere, were withdrawn, but matters went on no better afterwards. The whole hatred of the country was turned against Cardinal Granvelle, who was believed to be the instigator of all the evil, and at length the duchess Margaret grew to detest him also, so that Philippe was obliged to recall him. He left the Netherlands in March 1564, and after a short period of retirement, was employed by the king in still higher offices.

The government of the duchess Margaret was corrupt, though perhaps not more so than that of some other administrations of the time. Offices were sold to the highest bidder by her secretary, and she as well as he profited by such transactions. Under such circumstances the courts of law were venal, and judgment in civil cases was usually in favour of him who had the longest purse. A man who had to pay a large sum of money for his office was obliged to try to recover his capital by some means, and as that could not be done honestly, he was open to receive bribes. In the great agony caused by the inquisition, however, this evil was hardly considered as one of importance, and is only casually referred to by the chroniclers of the time.

Historical Sketches.

The great number of persons burnt, buried alive, and strangled by the inquisitors had the opposite effect to that which King Philippe intended. Instead of stamping out the reformation, its doctrines were spreading more rapidly month after month, until mass meetings of thousands of people were openly held in the fields outside the towns to listen to the preaching of some earnest and eloquent reformer. The men on such occasions usually went armed and determined to defend their pastors and themselves, but if need should be, they were ready to face death in its most appalling forms for the sake of what they believed to be truth.

Another effect of the inquisition was to destroy the material prosperity of the country. Flanders had long been the leading cloth manufactory of Europe, it was there that wool, imported chiefly from England, was converted by spinning wheels and handlooms into the choicest cloths. Nowhere else were spinning, weaving, dyeing, and pressing so well understood or so skilfully practised as in the Flemish towns. But now persecution drove those industrious artisans out of the country. They fled to England, where Queen Elizabeth permitted them to settle, and it was they who in East Anglia gave to the country that adopted and protected them the preëminence in woollen manufactures which she retains to this day. A very few years later, instead of exporting raw wool and importing cloth, England was sending to Flanders the products of Anglo-Flemish looms. This was not the only industry that persecution drove from the provinces to other lands, but it was the most important.

Destruction of Church Property.

All parties in politics and in religion find it necessary to adopt an expressive name, under which their adherents can rally, and it was at this time that the opponents of despotic government took to themselves the renowned title of Beggars, that was to be heard as a war cry on land and sea long years afterwards. On the 8th of April 1566 three hundred gentlemen presented a petition to the duchess Margaret, when a member of her council spoke of them as beggars. That evening at a banquet Count Brederode proposed that the title should be adopted, which was enthusiastically agreed to by those present, and quickly spread over the provinces. At first it had no religious signification, for both Catholics and Protestants who favoured the preservation of constitutional rights termed themselves Gueux, but in course of time it was applied almost exclusively to the adherents of the reformed or Calvinistic faith.

In such circumstances as those in which the Netherlands were then placed, excesses are usually committed by the most fanatical section of the suffering party, and it was so in this instance. In August 1566 a disorderly mob took possession of the great cathedral of Antwerp, one of the most beautiful and stately buildings in Europe, threw down all the statues in it, broke the stained glass windows, demolished the ornaments of every kind, and generally wrecked the interior of the edifice. Only a few hundred men were actually engaged in the work of destruction, but many thousands looked on with indifference, and many more with satisfaction, accounting the decorations of the cathedral as symbols of the terrible inquisition. This example was followed throughout the southern provinces, and a great number of churches were treated in the same manner as Antwerp cathedral had been. Yet there was not a single instance of violence offered to any individual, or of plunder of any article whatever. The gold and silver implements of the churches were battered and made useless, but were then thrown on the floors and left.

Historical Sketches.

The fury of Philippe was now thoroughly aroused, and means were forwarded to the regent Margaret to raise a body of troops and suppress disorder. The most powerful of the southern nobles ranged themselves on the side of despotism. On the 13th of March 1567 a body of three thousand Beggars who were posted near Antwerp was utterly annihilated, and on the 23rd of the same month the ancient city of Valenciennes, which had defied the government, was taken and reduced to submission. The factions in Antwerp were ready to spring at each other’s throats, but were induced by the prince of Orange to keep the peace. The regent Margaret agreed to conditions which gave the Protestants some protection, but her word was not to be depended upon, and much less was that of King Philippe, who was the very incarnation of deceit and treachery. For a few weeks now there was an appearance of calm, but it was only the prelude to the most terrible storm that ever swept over any portion of modern Europe.

Ten thousand veteran Spanish troops, the most highly disciplined and best armed soldiers in the world, were sent by Philippe as the nucleus of a powerful army to subjugate the Netherlands. At their head was the bloodthirsty duke of Alva, then sixty years of age, whose life had been spent in war, and who was the most skilful strategist of his day. Alva! what a curse rests upon his name in all countries where men set a value upon justice and freedom! As pitiless as Tshaka in South Africa, as treacherous as Dingan, he stands out in the history of the Netherlands as a cold-blooded murderer, a malignant fiend in human form. His commission as the king’s captain-general was issued on the 31st of January 1567, and his instructions were in keeping with his disposition and character.

The nucleus or advance guard of the army was assembled in Italy, and marched by way of Mont Cenis and through Savoy, Burgundy, and Lorraine to Thionville, then a town of the Netherlands, now included in France. In August 1567 it crossed the border, and continued its march to Brussels, meeting with no opposition on the way. Alva at once placed garrisons in the principal towns, and commenced the erection of fortresses to overawe them, the principal of which was the famous citadel of Antwerp. He sent letters to the different cities, signed by the king, commanding them to render absolute obedience to him. The next step was the arrest and close confinement of as many of the nobles as he could get hold of who had at any time opposed any arbitrary act of the sovereign. The counts Egmont and Hoorn were entrapped by letters to them from the king, praising their conduct and declaring his confidence in them. Conscious of having done no wrong, and lulled into a feeling of security by these assurances from Philippe, they placed themselves in the power of Alva, and found themselves his prisoners.

Proceedings of the Duke of Alva.

Then was established that murderous mockery of a tribunal, known as the Council of Blood. It was composed of a number of creatures of Alva, some of whom were Flemish nobles of the worst type ready to pour out the blood of their countrymen at his bidding, others Spaniards of the same character. It dispensed with legal formalities, and made nought of charters and privileges. The whole population of the Netherlands was at its mercy. Its agents sent in lists of names, and with hardly a pretence of examination, men, scores of men at a time, were sentenced to confiscation of all their property and death on the scaffold. This infamous Council of Blood met for the first time on the 20th of September 1567 in an apartment of Alva’s residence in Brussels. His intention was to crush out all opposition to absolutism, to exterminate all adherents of the reformed religion, and to raise a large revenue by confiscation of property.

Everyone who valued freedom and could flee from the provinces did so now without delay. The neighbouring German states were crowded with refugees, and in many Flemish and Dutch towns industry entirely ceased, for artisans and mechanics had abandoned them in despair. It is highly probable that the larger number of those so-called Germans who settled in South Africa in later years were really descendants of Netherlanders who left their fatherland at this time.

Historical Sketches.

Margaret of Parma was nominally regent still, but on the 9th of December 1567 she resigned, and the monster Alva became governor-general of the provinces.

The prince of Orange, his brothers Louis and Adolf of Nassau, Count Hoogstraaten, and several other nobles of less note had retired into Germany before the arrival of the Spanish troops. Alva confiscated their property in the Netherlands, but they had possessions beyond the border which he could not reach. They had been faithful subjects of Philippe to this time, though they had striven by peaceful means to preserve the constitutions of the provinces, but now they could not look calmly on while the very life was being trampled out of their country. In April 1568 Orange engaged troops in Germany, and sent three small armies into the Netherlands in hope that the people would rise in a body and assist to drive the Spaniards out. But he was disappointed. The people were for the moment completely cowed. Two of his armies were utterly annihilated by the disciplined Spanish troops, and though the third, commanded by his brother Louis, gained a victory at Heiligerlee, near Winschoten, in the province of Groningen, it led to no substantial result. Count Adolf of Nassau fell in this battle. So the war for freedom began, a war that was carried on without intermission for forty-one years.

Alva with an overpowering force marched against Count Louis, and on the 21st of July 1568 attacked him at Jemmingen, a village on the left bank of the Ems near its entrance into the Dollart, within the German border. It was not so much a battle as a slaughter that followed. Of ten thousand men under his command, the count lost seven thousand slain, and with difficulty made his escape from the disastrous field while the remainder were scattering in every direction. Alva then proceeded to Utrecht, where he reviewed an army of thirty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, a force that he believed sufficient to overawe the whole of the northern provinces.

Successes of Alva.

Early in October the prince of Orange invaded Brabant from Germany with thirty thousand men, of whom nine thousand were cavalry. Many of these were undisciplined refugees, but some were trained German soldiers. Several smaller bands joined the prince subsequently, though not a city opened its gates to him, so great was the terror that Alva inspired. The difficulty of providing food for such a number of men for any length of time was insurmountable, and the Spanish general therefore did not choose to risk an engagement, but watched his opponent closely. On one occasion, on the 20th of October, he was able to cut off a rearguard of three thousand men under Count Hoogstraaten, and nearly exterminated them. Hoogstraaten himself escaped, but died of a wound a few days afterwards. The prince of Orange, disappointed in his expectation of a general rising, and without a single stronghold as a base of operations, was obliged to retreat to Germany and disband his troops. He had spent all the money he could raise, and was heavily in debt. Nothing could have been gloomier than the prospect then before him, but he still cherished hope and trusted in God. He had passed through different stages of religious belief, but did not openly join the Calvinist church until October 1573.

The first campaign in the war of freedom had thus terminated entirely in favour of the Spaniards.

On the 5th of June of this year 1568 an event took place which more than all the blood of humble citizens that had been shed drew the attention of civilised Europe to what was transpiring in the Netherlands. This was the death on the scaffold in the great square of Brussels of the counts Egmont and Hoorn, who had been condemned by the Council of Blood for having been somewhat dilatory in upholding despotism. They were both earnest Catholics, and Egmont in particular had rendered great services to the king. He was the general who had won the victories of Saint Quentin and Gravelines. But the death of these prominent noblemen was resolved upon by Philippe, because it would strike terror into all classes, and would prove that the least hesitation to carry out any of his wishes would meet with the most terrible punishment. All their possessions were confiscated. Their death had no effect upon the patriotic cause, except for the horror which it created abroad, as they were not the men to throw in their lot with William of Orange in resistance to tyranny.

Historical Sketches.

The baron Montigny, brother of Count Hoorn, had been sent with the marquis Berghen to Madrid in May 1566 by the regent Margaret of Parma to represent to Philippe the ruin which the inquisition was bringing upon the Netherlands and the difficulty caused by it to her administration. They were instructed to suggest its abolition and the modification of the king’s edicts. Both of these noblemen were devout Catholics, and were most faithful subjects of their sovereign. They might have reasoned that if his sister and representative was compelled by force of circumstances to pause in the deadly work, they could not be blamed for acting under her instructions. The king received them apparently in a friendly manner. But they were not permitted to return, and after a time were placed in confinement. Berghen died, it was reported of home sickness, but many believed by violent means. Montigny was kept a prisoner more than four years, was then in his absence condemned to death by the Council of Blood for favouring heresy, and on the 16th of October 1570 was strangled privately by order of the king.

An awful calamity, but not by the hand of man, overtook the Northern Netherlands in the year 1570. In a gale of tremendous violence on the first and second of November of this year the sea was driven high upon the coast, the dykes burst in many places, and the waters poured over the land. Fully a hundred thousand persons were drowned, and property to an immense amount was destroyed.

Imposition of Heavy Taxes.

And now came another trouble. Alva had been disappointed in his expectations of an abundant revenue from the confiscation of property, for much as he gathered by that means, the cost of maintenance of his army and the charges of his administration were so enormous that his treasury was always empty, and creditors had become clamorous. To remedy this defect, he imposed taxes of one per cent of the value of all property in the country, to be paid only once, of five per cent transfer duty on all land and houses sold thereafter, and of ten per cent on every movable article that should be sold. This last tax was regarded by the people as equivalent to a prohibition to carry on trade of any kind, it affected every one, and in many of the towns the shops as well as the wholesale stores, even the breweries, the butcheries, and the bakeries were closed. The streets swarmed with mendicants, and riots were only suppressed by military force. If he had tried to compel the people to take part with William of Orange, the governor-general could not have devised a more efficient plan.

II. The War in the Netherlands to the Union of Utrecht.

Historical Sketches.

Many of the men who had been obliged to leave their homes had turned to the sea for refuge. Legitimate commerce could not absorb them all, even if it had been flourishing as formerly, and so in their desperate condition they became buccaneers. The prince of Orange took advantage of this, and issued a commission to a reckless fugitive noble named William de la Marck to act as his admiral and attack Spanish ships wherever he could find them. De la Marck was a distant relative of Egmont, and had sworn not to clip his hair or beard till he had avenged the count’s death. In March 1572 he was lying at anchor at Dover with a fleet of twenty-four vessels, when by order of Queen Elizabeth all supplies of provisions were refused to him. He was then compelled to do something desperate at once, or starve, so he resolved to sail to Enkhuizen, and try to get possession of that port. The wind failed him, however, so on the 1st of April he put into the Maas and anchored in front of Brill (Brielle), a walled and fortified town on the island of Voorne. The Spanish garrison had just been sent to Utrecht. The Sea Beggars were only a few hundred in number, but Pieter Koppelstok, who was sent by De la Marck to demand the surrender of the town, when questioned as to their strength replied about five thousand. The authorities and adherents of the government fled in fear, and the half-famished rovers battered in the gates and took possession of the place. This was the beginning of the second campaign against the Spaniards.

It could not be expected that the Sea Beggars, after their wrongs and their sufferings, would act very gently with their opponents, but the ferocity which they displayed on this occasion cannot be excused or passed lightly over. They broke all the altars, statues, and ornaments in the churches, dressed themselves in clerical robes, and barbarously put to death thirteen priests and monks who had not been able to make their escape. A Spanish force was sent from Utrecht to recover Brill, but was beaten off with considerable loss. De la Marck was then of opinion that the place should be abandoned, but Captain Treslong, whose father had once been governor of the town, induced him to continue to hold it and to rally the patriots around him there, who quickly came in and joined him.

Successes of the Sea Beggars.

As soon as intelligence of the repulse of the Spaniards from Brill reached Flushing (Vlissingen), that important town declared for the prince of Orange, and sent to De la Marck to beg for assistance. Two hundred Sea Beggars, all in clerical garments, were thereupon forwarded in three vessels, and quickly reached their destination. Here also an act of inexcusable barbarity took place. The engineer who had constructed the citadel of Antwerp, Pacheco by name, had just arrived in Flushing to erect a fortress there. He was seized and at once hanged with two other Spanish officers. With the town half the island of Walcheren went over to the patriot cause, and very shortly a strong force of Beggars, aided by some French soldiers and English volunteers, assembled there to protect it.

The example thus set was speedily followed by most of the towns that were not overawed by powerful Spanish garrisons in the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, and Friesland. Amsterdam, Middelburg, Goes, Arnemuide, Utrecht, and a few others were too strongly garrisoned to be able to rise. In some of the towns the change was made without bloodshed, in others the most barbarous cruelties were practised on both sides, for passion had taken the place of reason and charity. The revolted towns declared that they remained faithful to King Philippe as count of Holland, etc., that the ancient charters conferring rights and privileges were restored, that there was perfect freedom for both the Roman Catholic and Reformed religions, that they accepted the prince of Orange as stadholder for the sovereign of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland, and that they repudiated the duke of Alva, the inquisition, and the tax on commerce.

Historical Sketches.

Other successes awaited the patriot cause. On the 24th of May 1572 Count Louis of Nassau with a small band obtained possession of the important town of Mons in Hainaut. And on the 10th of June a richly laden Spanish fleet from Lisbon arrived at Flushing and cast anchor, being unaware of what had occurred there. Most of the ships were captured, a thousand Spanish soldiers on board were made prisoners, five hundred thousand crowns of gold sent by Philippe for his army chest and a large quantity of ammunition became prize to the Beggars, and much spice and other valuable merchandise was secured.

On the 15th of July the estates of Holland, consisting of the nobles and deputies from eight cities, met at Dordrecht. The prince of Orange was in Germany, where he had engaged an army of fifteen thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, besides three thousand refugee Walloons. The estates adopted measures for raising all the money that they could to pay these troops for three months, and Orange then entered the southern provinces. His first object was to relieve Mons, which was besieged by a strong Spanish army, and to effect a junction with Admiral Coligny, who with the approval of the king of France was to aid him with ten thousand Huguenots. After crossing the border, town after town opened its gates to him, and received the garrisons he placed in them. Everything looked bright before him, when suddenly, without the slightest warning, a thunderbolt fell which utterly destroyed his hopes and those of the patriot party.

A contingent of Huguenots was cut to pieces when attempting to enter Mons, but the main body under Coligny was believed to be ready to advance, when tidings were received of the fearful Massacre of Saint Bartholomew on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of August 1572. The treacherous Charles IX of France, by an act of savage cruelty without parallel in a Christian state, had betrayed the cause it was his interest to favour, and had murdered a hundred thousand of his Protestant subjects. Admiral Coligny was among the victims. Orange realised at once that his cause was shattered, his German troops had not been fully paid, and were almost mutinous, so he was obliged to retire and disband them. The towns that had welcomed him now hastened to disown him, and returned to their obedience to Alva. On the 20th of September Mons capitulated on honourable terms, which were not, however, faithfully observed by the conquerors, and all the southern provinces were again under the Spanish yoke.

Sack of Mechlin.

Alva had reinforced his army very largely with German mercenaries, the same class of men that Orange had raised his forces from, and he had enlisted a great many Walloons. He was without money to pay either them or his Spanish veterans. He gave them instead the city of Mechlin to plunder for three days, the Spaniards to have it for the first day, the Germans for the second, and the Walloons for the third. Mechlin was almost entirely a Catholic city, but it had welcomed the prince of Orange, and had received a garrison from him. This was to be its punishment by Alva. The horrors of the sack of the doomed city cannot be fully told, but they can be imagined. The Spaniards knew that the richest spoil would be found in the churches, and they resolved not to leave it for others. In their lust for spoil the churches, the monasteries, and the convents of Mechlin were treated by these Catholics as the cathedral of Antwerp had been by the fanatic Protestants. Then the citizens were tortured and murdered, and nameless horrors were perpetrated upon females, until the first day ended. On the second day the Germans, and on the third the debased Walloons, followed in the sack of Mechlin, leaving it desolate, plundered, and utterly forlorn. Such was Alva’s punishment of a disobedient city.

Historical Sketches.

The tide of fortune was now setting as strong against the patriot cause as it had been in its favour during the earlier months of the year. On the 26th of August the Beggars laid siege to Goes in Zeeland, which was defended by a Spanish garrison, but must have fallen if it had not been relieved on the 21st of October by an army that had made a wonderful march through shallow water. The besiegers were then obliged to flee, but they were pursued, and their rearguard was completely destroyed.

Alva now sent a strong army under his son Don Frederic de Toledo to reduce the northern provinces to subjection. Don Frederic directed his march to Gelderland, where the town of Zutphen attempted to resist him. It was easily taken, however, when all its adult male inhabitants were put to the sword, and most of its buildings were destroyed by fire. The whole of the provinces east and south of the Zuider Zee now submitted to Alva, only Holland and Zeeland still holding out, and even of these the largest towns—Amsterdam and Middelburg—were occupied by Spanish garrisons. There was no national army in existence, and each town was politically isolated from all the others, a condition of things which made defence extremely difficult.

Don Frederic now marched towards North Holland, meeting no opposition until he reached the little town of Naarden, on the shore of the Zuider Zee, south-east of Amsterdam. Naarden offered a feeble resistance, but on a verbal promise from General Julian Romero that life and property would be spared, it surrendered. Every man in the place and nearly every woman was put to death, and the little town was set on fire and razed to the ground.

A more memorable siege than any which had yet taken place was that of 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Immediately after the fall of Zierikzee the Spanish and Walloon troops who had so long been investing that town broke out in open mutiny. They demanded their arrear pay, and when this was not forthcoming they deposed their officers, elected others, and levied contributions upon the country just as a band of avowed robbers would do. From Zeeland they marched into Brabant, where they took possession of the little town of Herenthals, and after consuming everything there, directed their devastating course southward to the environs of Brussels. The inhabitants of the capital were in great alarm, but they prepared for defence with such spirit that the mutineers did not attack them. They seized instead the little town of Assche close by, and next the larger town of Alost. Here they committed frightful atrocities, murdering every one who resisted them.

On the 26th of July the mutineers were declared outlaws by the Council of State, but this had no effect upon them, and now the garrisons of other towns began to join hands with them. Like robber bands, which indeed they were, they marched about, levying contributions wherever they chose, and murdering all who opposed them. Their discipline was so perfect that in every encounter with parties of citizens, however large, they came off victorious.

Historical Sketches.

The city of Antwerp, with a population of two hundred thousand souls, was the commercial metropolis of Europe. It was adorned with beautiful buildings, among which the cathedral and the townhouse were considered as rivalling the most stately structures in Christendom. The citadel built by Alva was an impregnable fortress, and at this time the renowned Sancho d’Avila was in command of it. He sided with the mutineers, and became their head, but his troops, who were partly German mercenaries, were divided in opinion, and one strong regiment remained faithful. Upon this wealthy and beautiful city the mutineers now cast their eyes. The Council of State collected as many soldiers as could be obtained, and five thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, mostly Walloons, were sent to aid in the defence.

In the morning of Sunday the 4th of November 1576 the Spanish troops from various quarters arrived at Antwerp, and stormed a barricade which the citizens had hastily thrown up. The Walloons, who had been sent to aid in the defence, fled almost without attempting to resist, and upon the citizens and the faithful German regiment devolved the almost impossible task of protecting the city. They fought splendidly, but could not hold their ground. Driven from the streets they took refuge in houses, which were at once set on fire by the Spaniards, and presently a vast conflagration raged in the fairest part of the city. The magnificent town house was reduced to bare and blackened walls. When night fell resistance had ceased, and the Spanish fiends were in possession of Antwerp. Throughout Monday and Tuesday the work of pillage was carried on, when those who were suspected of having concealed money or valuables were tortured till they died or produced the treasure, all kinds of horrors were perpetrated, Catholic priest and Protestant maid were treated alike with brutal ferocity, and every restraint was set aside. In those three days of horrors eight thousand people perished, property to the value of half a million pounds sterling was destroyed by fire, and at least as much more was taken possession of by the Spanish demons. The event was ever afterwards known as the Spanish Fury of Antwerp. The soldiers of Philippe had obtained their arrears, and thereafter returned to obedience.

The Pacification of Ghent.

The conduct of the mutinous Spanish troops had the effect of drawing the different provinces together more closely than ever before. By advice of the prince of Orange, deputies were appointed by a number of the estates and cities, who met with the representatives of Holland and Zeeland, and debated upon what had best be done. They soon arrived at a decision, and on the 8th of November 1576 the important arrangement thereafter known as the Pacification of Ghent was signed by Holland and Zeeland on one side, and by the representatives of the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, and eight cities, of which Utrecht was one, on the other. It provided for a close and faithful friendship between them all, for the expulsion of the Spanish forces from the Netherlands, for an assemblage of the estates-general of all the provinces as soon as the foreigners were out of the country, for the suppression of persecution for religion and the suspension of all edicts relating to this subject, and for the abstention by Holland and Zeeland of interference with the Roman Catholic religion in the other fifteen provinces. Throughout the whole country this arrangement was received with acclamation, and the seventeen provinces, without in any degree becoming amalgamated into one, were yet united for the purpose of expelling the foreign troops, and to that extent were all in rebellion against the king of Spain. The prince of Orange was the soul of this movement, though he remained only stadholder of Holland and Zeeland.

Another actor appeared at this time on the scene. This was Don John of Austria, a natural son of the emperor Charles V, who had been appointed by Philippe governor-general of the Netherlands. Don John, though still a young man, had acquired great renown as a commander in war, having crushed the revolt of the Moors in Granada and destroyed the Turkish fleet in the famous battle of Lepanto. He arrived at Luxemburg unattended by troops on the 3rd of November 1576, and learning there what was taking place in the provinces, he sent to Brussels to demand hostages for his personal safety before he proceeded farther. He had been instructed by the king to conciliate the Netherlands, and was at liberty to make any concessions, provided the absolute authority of the crown and the exclusive practice of the Roman Catholic worship should be strictly conformed to.

Historical Sketches.

By advice of the prince of Orange, the representatives then at Brussels resolved to demand conditions from Don John before they should acknowledge him as governor. These were the immediate departure of all foreign troops from the country, an oath to maintain all the rights and privileges of the provinces and towns, the appointment of a new council of state by the estates-general, the right of the estates-general to meet whenever they chose, and to regulate all affairs, the demolition of the citadels that had been built to overawe the towns, and the maintenance of the Pacification of Ghent. A deputation was sent to Luxemburg with these demands, which were presented to Don John on the 6th of December. No decision was arrived at then, and negotiations were continued for months thereafter, though the conditions laid down by the king and those of the estates seemed to be irreconcilable.

Early in January 1577 another document, termed the Union of Brussels, came into existence. It was a compact to expel the Spaniards immediately and to uphold the Pacification of Ghent, to maintain the Catholic as the state religion in the fifteen provinces not under the government of Orange, to acknowledge the king’s authority as a constitutional sovereign, and to defend the various charters. This document was generally signed by people of every class throughout all the provinces except Luxemburg. It marks another stage in the struggle between despotism and liberty.

The Perpetual Edict.

Towards the close of this month Don John removed from Luxemburg to the little town of Huy, on the right bank of the Maas, in the province of Liege, hoping that by placing himself thus chivalrously in the power of the people he would command their respect. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there was a party of considerable strength in the southern provinces, consisting of the nobles and their adherents, who were as much opposed to popular liberty as Philippe himself was, and that Don John could rely upon them to support him.

The negotiations were now so far successful that on the 12th of February 1577 an agreement was signed by Don John, and on the 17th of the same month received the signatures also of the authorities in Brussels. It ratified the Pacification of Ghent, it required all foreign troops to be sent out of the country without delay, but the estates-general were to pay the German soldiers before leaving. All the privileges, charters, and constitutions of the Netherlands were to be maintained, as was also the Catholic religion. The estates were to disband the troops in their service, and Don John was to be received as governor-general immediately after the departure of the Spanish and Italian soldiers. This agreement was confirmed by Philippe, and took the name of the Perpetual Edict. It was not, however, approved by the estates of Holland and Zeeland, nor by the prince of Orange, who put no confidence in the promises, written or verbal, of either the king or his representatives.