Part 69 (1/2)
A burnt cat fears the fire A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity Act of Uniformity required Papists to a.s.sist All business has been transacted with open doors And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope Arminianism As lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic inquisition As logical as men in their cups are p.r.o.ne to be Baiting his hook a little to his appet.i.te Beacons in the upward path of mankind Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough Bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards Canker of a long peace Casting up the matter ”as pinchingly as possibly might be”
Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel During this, whole war, we have never seen the like Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect Fitter to obey than to command Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all Full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces G.o.d, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give good weather Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning Heretics to the English Church were persecuted High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers I did never see any man behave himself as he did I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but G.o.d I will never live, to see the end of my poverty Individuals walking in advance of their age Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada Invincible Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated Look for a sharp war, or a miserable peace Loving only the persons who flattered him Mendacity may always obtain over innocence and credulity Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war Never did statesmen know better how not to do Not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed Nothing could equal Alexander's fidelity, but his perfidy One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions Only citadel against a tyrant and a conqueror was distrust Pray here for satiety, (said Cecil) than ever think of variety Rebuked him for his obedience Religion was not to be changed like a s.h.i.+rt Respect for differences in religious opinions Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders Security is dangerous She relieth on a hope that will deceive her Simple truth was highest skill Sixteen of their best s.h.i.+ps had been sacrificed Sparing and war have no affinity together Stake or gallows (for) heretics to transubstantiation States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust Strength does a falsehood acquire in determined and skilful hand Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill Sure bind, sure find Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace Tension now gave place to exhaustion That crowned criminal, Philip the Second The worst were encouraged with their good success The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels The sapling was to become the tree Their existence depended on war There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself They chose to compel no man's conscience Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children Trust her sword, not her enemy's word Undue anxiety for impartiality Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us Wealthy Papists could obtain immunity by an enormous fine Who the ”people” exactly were
HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
By John Lothrop Motley
Volume III.
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 72
History of the United Netherlands, 1590-1599, Complete
CHAPTER XXI.
Effect of the a.s.sa.s.sination of Henry III.--Concentration of forces for the invasion of France--The Netherlands determine on striking a blow for freedom--Organization of a Dutch army--Stratagem to surprise the castle of Breda--Intrepidity and success of the enterprise.
The dagger of Jacques Clement had done much, and was likely to do more, to change the face of Europe. Another proof was afforded that a.s.sa.s.sination had become a regular and recognised factor in the political problems of the sixteenth century. Another ill.u.s.tration was exhibited of the importance of the individual--even although that individual was in himself utterly despicable--to the working out of great historical results. It seemed that the murder of Henry III.--that forlorn caricature of kings.h.i.+p and of manhood--was likely to prove eminently beneficial to the cause of the Netherland commonwealth. Five years earlier, the murder of William the Silent had seemed to threaten its very existence.
For Philip the Prudent, now that France was deprived of a head, conceived that the time had arrived when he might himself a.s.sume the sovereignty of that kingdom. While a thing of straw, under the name of Charles X. and shape of a Cardinal Bourbon, was set up to do battle with that living sovereign and soldier, the heretic Bearnese, the Duke of Parma was privately ordered to bend all his energies towards the conquest of the realm in dispute, under pretence of a.s.sisting the Holy League.
Accordingly, early in the year 1590, Alexander concentrated a considerable force on the French frontier in Artois and Hainault, apparently threatening Bergen-op-Zoom and other cities in South Holland, but in reality preparing to invade France. The Duke of Mayenne, who had a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of lieutenant-general of that kingdom, had already visited him at Brussels in order to arrange the plan of the campaign.
While these measures were in preparation, an opportunity was likely to be afforded to the Netherlanders of striking a blow or two for liberty and independence; now that all the force that possibly could be spared was to be withdrawn by their oppressors and to be used for the subjugation of their neighbours. The question was whether there would be a statesman and a soldier ready to make use of this golden opportunity.
There was a statesman ripe and able who, since the death of the Taciturn, had been growing steadily in the estimation of his countrymen and who already was paramount in the councils of the States-General. There was a soldier, still very young, who was possessed of the strongest hereditary claims to the confidence and affection of the United Provinces and who had been pa.s.sing a studious youth in making himself worthy of his father and his country. Fortunately, too, the statesman and the soldier were working most harmoniously together. John of Olden-Barneveld, with his great experience and vast and steady intellect, stood side by side with young Maurice of Na.s.sau at this important crisis in the history of the new commonwealth.
At length the twig was becoming the tree--'tandem fit surculus arbor'--according to the device a.s.sumed by the son of William the Silent after his father's death.
The Netherlands had sore need of a practical soldier to contend with the scientific and professional tyrants against whom they had so long been struggling, and Maurice, although so young, was pre-eminently a practical man. He was no enthusiast; he was no poet. He was at that period certainly no politician. Not often at the age of twenty has a man devoted himself for years to pure mathematics for the purpose of saving his country. Yet this was Maurice's scheme. Four years long and more, when most other youths in his position and at that epoch would have been alternating between frivolous pleasures and brilliant exploits in the field, the young prince had spent laborious days and nights with the learned Simon Stevinus of Bruges. The scientific work which they composed in common, the credit of which the master a.s.signed to the pupil, might have been more justly attributed perhaps to the professor than to the prince, but it is certain that Maurice was an apt scholar.
In that country, ever held in existence by main human force against the elements, the arts of engineering, hydrostatics and kindred branches were of necessity much cultivated. It was reserved for the young mathematician to make them as potent against a human foe.
Moreover, there were symptoms that the military discipline, learning and practical skill, which had almost made Spain the mistress of the world, were sinking into decay. Farnese, although still in the prime of life, was broken in health, and there seemed no one fit to take the place of himself and his lieutenants when they should be removed from the scene where they had played their parts so consummately. The army of the Netherlands was still to be created. Thus far the contest had been mainly carried on by domestic militia and foreign volunteers or hirelings. The train-bands of the cities were aided in their struggles against Spanish pikemen and artillerists, Italian and Albanian cavalry by the German riders, whom every little potentate was anxious to sell to either combatant according to the highest bid, and by English mercenaries, whom the love of adventure or the hope of plunder sent forth under such well-seasoned captains as Williams and Morgan, Vere and the Norrises, Baskerville and Willoughby.
But a Dutch army there was none and Maurice had determined that at last a national force should be created. In this enterprise he was aided and guided by his cousin Lewis William, Stadtholder of Friesland--the quaint, rugged little hero, young in years but almost a veteran in the wars of freedom, who was as genial and intellectual in council as he was reckless and impulsive in the field.
Lewis William had felt that the old military art was dying out and that--there was nothing to take its place. He was a diligent student of antiquity. He had revived in the swamps of Friesland the old manoeuvres, the quickness of wheeling, the strengthening, without breaking ranks or columns, by which the ancient Romans had performed so much excellent work in their day, and which seemed to have pa.s.sed entirely into oblivion. Old colonels and rittmasters, who had never heard of Leo the Thracian nor the Macedonian phalanx, smiled and shrugged their shoulders, as they listened to the questions of the young count, or gazed with profound astonishment at the eccentric evolutions to which he was accustoming his troops. From the heights of superior wisdom they looked down with pity upon these innovations on the good old battle order. They were accustomed to great solid squares of troops wheeling in one way, steadily, deliberately, all together, by one impulse and as one man. It was true that in narrow fields, and when the enemy was pressing, such stately evolutions often became impossible or ensured defeat; but when the little Stadtholder drilled his soldiers in small bodies of various shapes, teaching them to turn, advance; retreat; wheel in a variety of ways, sometimes in considerable ma.s.ses, sometimes man by man, sending the foremost suddenly to the rear, or bringing the hindmost ranks to the front, and began to attempt all this in narrow fields as well as in wide ones, and when the enemy was in sight, men stood aghast at his want of reverence, or laughed at him as a pedant. But there came a day when they did not laugh, neither friends nor enemies. Meantime the two cousins, who directed all the military operations in the provinces, understood each other thoroughly and proceeded to perfect their new system, to be adopted at a later period by all civilized nations.
The regular army of the Netherlands was small in number at that moment--not more than twenty thousand foot with two thousand horse--but it was well disciplined, well equipped, and, what was of great importance, regularly paid. Old campaigners complained that in the halcyon days of paper enrolments, a captain could earn more out of his company than a colonel now received for his whole regiment. The days when a thousand men were paid for, with a couple of hundred in the field, were pa.s.sing away for the United Provinces and existed only for Italians and Spaniards. While, therefore, mutiny on an organised and extensive scale seemed almost the normal condition of the unpaid legions of Philip, the little army of Maurice was becoming the model for Europe to imitate.
The United Provinces were as yet very far from being masters of their own territory. Many of their most important cities still held for the king.
In Brabant, such towns as Breda with its many dependencies and Gertruydenberg; on the Waal, the strong and wealthy Nymegen which Martin Schenk had perished in attempting to surprise; on the Yssel, the thriving city of Zutphen, whose fort had been surrendered by the traitor York, and the stately Deventer, which had been placed in Philip's possession by the treachery of Sir William Stanley; on the borders of Drenthe, the almost impregnable Koevorden, key to the whole Zwollian country; and in the very heart of ancient Netherland, Groningen, capital of the province of the same name, which the treason of Renneberg had sold to the Spanish tyrant; all these flouris.h.i.+ng cities and indispensable strongholds were garrisoned by foreign troops, making the idea of Dutch independence a delusion.
While Alexander of Parma, sorely against his will and in obedience to what, he deemed the insane suggestions of his master, was turning his back on the Netherlands in order to relieve Paris, now hard pressed by the Bearnese, an opportunity offered itself of making at least a beginning in the great enterprise of recovering these most valuable possessions.
The fair and pleasant city of Breda lies on the Merk, a slender stream, navigable for small vessels, which finds its way to the sea through the great ca.n.a.l of the Dintel. It had been the property of the Princes of Orange, Barons of Breda, and had pa.s.sed with the other possessions of the family to the house of Chalons-Na.s.sau. Henry of Na.s.sau had, half a century before, adorned and strengthened it by a splendid palace-fortress which, surrounded by a deep and double moat, thoroughly commanded the town. A garrison of five companies of Italian infantry and one of cavalry lay in this castle, which was under the command of Edward Lanzavecchia, governor both of Breda and of the neighbouring Gertruydenberg.