Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A08071
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A description of the prosperitie, strength, and wise gouernment of the vnited Prouinces of the Netherlands Signified by the Batauian virgin, in her seat of vnitie. Wherein is related the whole state of those countries at this present time.
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1615
(1615)
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STC 18437; ESTC S113182
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16,122
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28
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A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPERITIE STRENGTH AND WISE GOVERNMENT of the vnited Prouinces of the Netherlands SIGNIFIED BY THE BATAVIAN VIRGIN in her seat of vnitie WHEREIN IS RELATED THE WHOLE state of those countries at this present time BY WISDOME PEACE BY PEACE PLENTY AT LONDON Imprinted by FELIX KYNGSTON for Edward Marchant 1615. A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPERITY STRENGTH AND WISE GOuernment of the vnited Prouinces of the Netherlands See how by wisedome Hollands house doth flourish And trust not Leopards craft that warre doth nourish A Friend to his natiue Countrey GOd saue you Batauian gentlewoman I am very glad to see you thus triumphantly set in your throne of freedome it seemes the world goes better with you now then it did in times past The Batauian gentlewoman In deede my good friend it is true that it is otherwise with me now then it was heretofore for now God bethanked I am in my first and pristinate state Friend Is it better with you now gentlewoman then it was and are you as you said in your former ancient state and how vnderstand you that I pray you tell me Batauia My good friend marke the particulars as I shall set them downe plainely vnto you and you shall easily vnderstand it I was long since in former time a free State but after that I fell into great slauerie and bondage and now at this present I am restored againe to my former liberty and free state For when my first founders came hither into this free countrey which as that time belonged not vnto any man in perticular but onely vnto those that first tooke possession thereof and inhabited the same according to the Law of nature in this free place they built me this house which was called the Batauian gouernment and at this time the Holland Common-wealth wherin I placed my seat or Throne called freedome or liberty Friend Had you at the first no soueraigne Gouernour that had the chiefe command ouer your house and houshold Batauia The gouernment of my house was committed vnto two States chosen and appointed out of mine owne people and inhabitants that is the noblest and honourablest men amongst them and the best and greatest Citizens and inhabitants of the same These were the principall Commanders of my house and houshold who for the better gouernment thereof made certaine customes and lawes for the strengthening of peace therein and had a great care ouer the same for the preseruation of the Common-wealth And in processe of time there was a principall person as a King chosen out of those two States who as the chiefest officer or high Steward had the principall command ouer it and the common-wealth Friend Then your forefathers in time past were gouerned after a princely manner by a chiefe Commander Batauia Yea Kings by name as Veromerus who was called the first Batauian King who notwithstanding was but the chiefe man amongst the principall persons of the Land and had the first command and chiefe authoritie thereof So were all the rest that succeeded him Kings ouer my Batauian Land but had more authority to giue their counsell and aduice for the gouernment thereof then power to command and rule ouer it For the other Rulers and States that were chosen out of the Nobilitie and Commons had as much power or superintendance ouer the King as the King had ouer them who with him together ruled the Land But the King had an vpper command or highest power permitted him but not by authority or power of or in himselfe onely in regard and respect of his princely name he was obeyed and his authority allowed with great reuerence and respect and yet he himselfe neuerthelesse subiect to the Lawes of the Land as is ordinary in electiue not hereditarie Kings Friend Hereby I perceiue that your house called the Batauian Gouernment from the very first originall thereof was a free Common-wealth and your commonaltie free people Batauia We were neuer subiect vnto any forraine Nations but onely to our elected Gouernour and States together with the lawfull and probable Lawes made for the good gouernment thereof whereunto euery man willingly submitted himselfe In this state we continued long time before the Romane Monarchie and were vnited vnto the same and by her liued in peace although the Romans had the sole command and gouernment of the greatest part of the world and yet they were content to account of my forefathers as their vnited friends acknowledging my house to be a free State and calling my houshold seruants the Batauian commonaltie and when they had any warres and were aided by vs therein they called vs their fellowes and companions as Iulius Caesar did and which is more esteemed vs as their brethren friends and vnited neighbours in regard of the great aide and strength they found at our hands to helpe them in their need against their enemies Friend Then the Romans had no imperiall command ouer the Batauian Countrey when they were Monarches of the world Batauia No. For my forefathers of Baetauia according to their ancient Lawes were still gouerned by their owne people which continued aboue an hundred yeeres during the Romane Monarchie vntill such time as their friendship turned into deceit and extreame oppression seeking to rob and spoyle mee and my Land with pretence to turne my freedome into slauery and bondage contemning our vnity and wholly forgetting the forepassed friendship and aide by vs formerly shewed and done vnto them For which cause my forefathers tooke armes in hand and began a lawfull warre for the defence and safegard of mine honour and freedome whereby the name of the Romans in short time was wholy driuen away cleane rooted out wherein personally they neuer had any absolute authority nor gouernment For the which my Batauian people were so much honoured and esteemed of that as then they were called and held to be the authors of the freedome and liberty of our neighbours and other Princes who likewise were vnder the subiection of the Romans but I obtained my freedome againe and after that continued long in my free state and was gouerned by my two states of the Land vntill the sauage Normans came and inuaded vs. Friend Was it then at that time that you began to be gouerned by Earles Batauia I but not as Soueraigne Gouernours but onely chosen as chiefe Commanders to serue in stead of Iudges wee subiecting our selues willingly vnder their command esteeming and holding them worthie to be our Protectors and to haue the superintendance ouer our Batauian gouernment but had no power by authority to alter the Lawes and customes nor to raise tolles nor impositions without the consent and good will of the two States but were bound by oath to defend and maintaine the Lawes and priuiledges of the Land and to subiect themselues thereunto Friend Whereby it appeareth that neuer any Prince nor Earle had Soueraignty or chiefe power alone ouer you and your house Batauia No for in the time of
the Earles there haue been some of them that by their bad gouernment and life became oppressors of the Lawes and customes of the Land and for that cause their authority was misliked and they put out of their command As it happened to the Ladie Iacobe Countesse of Holland from whom because of her disorders and wilfulnesse in her gouernment against the priuiledges of the Land The command ouer my house was taken away and transported vnto Philip Duke of Burgundie which Batauian gouernment in processe of time and by marriages was changed and fell into the house of Austria and after that to Charles the first Emperour of Rome who with the good will and voices of all the States of my house made ouer the Batauian Principality vnto his sonne Philip certifying him of my priuiledges and the nature of my subiects addicted vnto rest and freedome with an earnest charge and warning giuen him to haue a great regard and respect of the Batauian Common-wealth and to gouerne them with a mild and fatherly affection for that he esteemed the same to be the best branch of his Crowne which hee with Princely words and oathes promised to performe but the contract being made and he hauing the authority in his hands wee straight found a great alteration in our Batauian house for that he being a Spaniard both by birth and conditions a great Prince and very powerfull and had the Soueraigne command ouer many Kingdomes and Principalities did not respect our Batauian liberty nor once esteemed our priuiledges but contrary to his promise brake his Princely oath Friend By this meanes your free State was turned into a bondage Batauia That is true by this meanes my troubles began For in stead of naturall borne Princes to protect my house I got strange outlandish wasters and destroyers thereof who therein made a fearfull stur with most strange and great exactions cruelties and tyrannies ouer our liues and goods to the end he might procure the breaking of the ancient authority of my priuiledges the weakening of my lawes and the abolishing of my liberty But I seeing the beginning of my ouerthrow the weake condition of my house and the subuersion of my people was compelled to seeke meanes for the preseruation of my maidenly liberty against those that sought to spoyle and bereaue me thereof but finding my selfe in a manner very weak by reason that diuers of my principall houshold seruants fled from me and that I was almost cleane spoyled of my houshold stuffe yea and my seat very neere taken from vnder me which I had so long held and enioyed from my ancestors for that the feet thereof were almost drawne and broken each from the other whereby in a manner I sat so wagling that I could not deuise how I should sit faster by reason of my weake estate But taking courage I made meanes vnto my neighbours for aide but where I expected security and support ere I was aware I had like to haue been cleane spoyled for by the aide that was sent me my house Court and Throne was rather in worse case then it was before Whereupon my principall officers were by necessity compelled to seeke to marrie mee vnto some one that by his aide they might haue meanes to helpe me and themselues But not long before I had had a good example set before mine eyes of another maide one of my neighbours who by her welwillers was perswaded to Handt-werpe that is to betroth her selfe vnto him that sought to bring her to Val-loos that is to the destruction of her and all her people This made me I say to goe to my crosse neighbour who also was esteemed a maide to get some aide of her to helpe to fasten my Seate and thereby to hold a fit place to sit in for without that they pretended to haue broken downe my Batauian house and to haue made a bridge therof at their pleasure to haue gone ouer to my neighbours thereby to obtaine the like dominion and power ouer them and their meaning also was vpon the old foundations and ruines of my Batauian house to erect and build vp a new Spanish regiment and to take my seate from me and to turne it cleane ouer as if I had had no voyce nor command therein which made some of my fugitiue friends and welwillers to looke backe and to stirre vp my neighbours who as then vpheld and maintained me in my right against those that thought to haue thrust mee cleane out of it and by my ouerthrow to haue ouer-runne my neighbors which was done by the commandement of that Spanish Earle who as a fatherly protector was placed ouer me according to his oath and promise to defend my maidenlike honour but he sought by strange ruffians to violate mine honour to ruinate my house and Court which notwithstanding was one of his fairest palaces and also my houshold seruants esteeming all as nothing and which is more sought to make my people slaues without once respecting my Batauian state which is a Democraticke gouernment By this meanes I say hath hee by his vnspeakeable tyrannicall gouernment and vnlawfull vsurparion lost the rule and pretended right by my old customes and ancient priuiledges that he had by the aide and helpe of my neighbours and friends that stood in doubt of further mischiefe to come aided by the power of the principall and chiefe Iudge of Iudges who after 40. yeeres troubles hath redcuced and placed me in my former seate of ancient freedome Friend Gentlewoman you haue now shewed me the state of your old freedome and withal of your troubles forepassed whereof you say you are now freed From hence forth therefore shew your maidenlike wisedome by calling to remembrance things past wisely to consider of things present well to foresee that which is to come and which concerneth you neere Therefore let not your forepassed blowes by a deceitfull bright sunne-shining time so soone be forgotten For that many times after faire weather commeth a storme you doe well to sit at your doore to see whether it be cleere weather abroad for in truth for these 40. yeeres together you haue endured many and too many stormie winds mightie raines hailes thunders lightnings and fierie flames Batauia Erasmus saith very well and truly that industrious labour makes a man rich So haue I by Gods helpe and industrious labour with defensiue warre ouercome and withstood the great force and power of my tyrannous enemie and such as haue by him been ouercome and forced to flee their countrey and to liue like strangers in other countreyes I haue with their wiues children and goods receiued into my house and giuen them lodging therein Whereby I got both thankes and furtherance which to him was a weakening and enfeebling and to me a strengthening and fortification which happened most hereabouts But he fearing further mischiefe perceiuing my fortunate proceedings was forced to seeke to me who at the first he contemned and esteemed of no account