Army was so likely to moulder away for want of pay that she thought fit to intercede for the distressed States with his Majesty of Spain and Don John by the Lord Cobham and Sir Fracis Walsingham and when that failed a Religious Peace as they called it which the States-General consented to was settled which bred great jealousies in the Provinces where many were still stiff for Popery especially at Gaunt till the Queen of England declared against them and promised notwithstanding that Duke Casimer and the D. of Anjou retired in discontent to stand by the Protestant States to the utmost as she did effectually having brought the Estates first to stricter Union and Alliance at Vtrech 1579 than that before at Gaunt and afterwards to erect a Council of State for the management of affairs whose very first debate was a Consultation about the alteration of Government to shorten the War and engage some Person in their defence The next was the taking and demolishing of several strong Holds that had been too serviceable to the King of Spain But their affairs not prospering they resolve upon the Duke of Anjou as their Soveraign upon 27 Articles signed on both sides with Medals coyned whereon were these devices Leonem loris mus li erat Liber revinciri Leo pernegat Pro Christo grege lege Religione justitià reduce vocato ex Gulliâ pacatâ duce Andegariensi â—elgiae Libertatis vindice vos terrâ â—go excubo ponto 1580 Si non nobis saltem posteris And that being dispatched they agree upon Martial Discipline and relieve Steenwich under the conduct of Sir John Norris who victualled it and raised the Siege having given notice of it in Letters which he shot in his Bullets The States-General in the mean time answering the King of Spain's Proscription against the Prince of Orange and providing against the insolences of the Papists by a restraint upon the exercise of their Religion at Brussels and Antwerp declare thus The States General of the United Provinces Guelders Holland Zealand Zuphten Friezland Overysel and â—roeninghen having declared Prince Philip of Austria second of that name King of Spain fallen from the Sigâ—ioâ—y of the said Provinces by reason of his extraordinary and too violent Government against their Freedom and Priviledges solemnly sworn by him having by the way of Right and Armes taken upon us the Government of the publick State and of the Religion in the said Provinces An 1581 having by an Edict renounced the Government of the K. of Spain breaking his Seals Counter-seals Privy-signets for new ones made by them in their stead and entertaining the Duke of Anjou nobly attended from England by the Lord Willoughby Sheffield Windsor Sir Philip Sidney Shirley Parrat Drury and the Lord Howard's son and recommended by the Queen who avowed That what service was done him she esteemed as done to her self and commended to him this one good Rule to be sure of the hearts of the People who invested him Duke of Brabant and Earl of Flanders wherein Dunkirke did import him much to keep a Passage open from Flanders into France as the refusal his Brother made of succour and his entertainment of French Nobility to the discouragement of the Netherlands did him much harm especially since most of his Followers were either men of Spoil or secret Pensioners to the King of Spain and he by their advice lost himself in his Enterprize upon Antwerp so far that had not her Majesties Authority reconciled them the States and he had broken irrecoverably though indeed they never after peiced For the Duke thereupon delivers all the Towns he had taken to the States retyring himself to Dunkirke while the Ganthoes and other troublesom men of the Innovation declared against him and for Duke Casimir And all the Estates humbly beseeched the Queen of England by General Norris to have mercy upon them in this woful juncture especially when the wise Prince of Orange was murthered by a fellow recommended to him by Count Mansfield and serving him three years to await this opportunity having time to say no more but Lord have mercy upon my soul and this poor People And the Spaniards during the States differences and the youth of Grave Maurice of Nassau who succeeded his Father carrying all before them insomuch that the King of France was so afraid to take the Netherlands into his Protection that he sent Embassadors to the Duke of Parma to remove the very suspition of it Especially when the Guisian League brake out upon him and the poor States had now none to trust to but the Queen of England who during their Treaty with France had made them gracious promises by Secretary Davison by whom by the Respective Deputies of their Provinces June 9. 1585 they absolutely resigned the Government to her Majesty who upon sundry great considerations of State refused that yet graciously sent them 4000 men under General Norris 184600 Guilders upon the security of either Ostend or Sluce and promised 5000 Foot and 4000 Horse under a General and other Officers of her own with pay For which the States stood bound giving Flushing Ramekins Briel and the two Sconces thereunto belonging into her hand for security and taking in her Commander in chief with two persons of Quality more of her Subjects by her appointment into their Council of State According to which Contract Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester is made Governour of the Low-Countreys for the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Queen of England to whom the whole Countrey did Homage receiving him as their absolute Governour though the Queen disavowed that as being likely to engage her too farr in the Quarrel and the States humbly submitted to her pleâ—sure in which capacity he set out Edicts for Discipline for the Treaty and Traffique which these troublesom people upon pretence of Liberty and Priviledg mutinied against to the great hinderance of the Earls proceedings insomuch that after he had born up their Interest as his entrance into the Government just ready to sink and taken Daventer Zuphten and other places he resigned his Government to the Council of State leaving a Meddal behind him on the one side whereof was engraven his Picture with these words Robertus â—omes Leicestriae in Belgia Gubernator 1587. And on the other side a flock of sheep scattered and before them an English Dogg with these words Non gregem sed Ingratos invitus desero Whereupon Deputies of Estates attended him with a Present a Cup as big as a Man and an humble supplication to the Queens most Excellent Majesty not to forsake them now in their low Estate so low that the King of Denmark thought fit to intercede for them to their own Leige the King of Spain while they in extremity devolve their affairs upon young Grave Maurice and declaring against the Earl of Leicesser's proceedings incensed the Queen so far that she called home General Norr is though yet Sluce had ben lost
Anger their â—loath their Neglect their Formality Vanity Caution Inclinations Profit or Pleasure to connive the pinch of Disputes to scruple nothing to divert or neglect the best Vote in nature What care to oblige the Rabble with Nods Smiles and what they most esteem a redress of Grievances which yet the very Patriots themselves it may be contrived themselves they being a people that will â—ontrive things a miss rather than want somthing that they may mend What generous entertainments to cashiered Officers broken Merchants discontented Counsellors and Advocates I What sullen Retirements from the State with untoward Looks Garb and Language How cunningly the Factious relieve the present necessities with lasting inconvenience How sliely they engross the Publick Treasure into Private Hoards What correspondents they keep in the Admiralties and Treasuries What Advocates and Dependants in the particular States and Councils What irregular and wiâ—d Resolves I say To reflect on these and other Particulars of that Government cannot chuse but convince a man how deplorable a thing it is to be governed by a Rabble that are more addicted to Appearances than capable of comprehending the Reasons of Things among whom in all cases determinable by Plurality of Voices the greater number of Fools weigheth down the more prudential Councils of fewer Wise-men Nay which is most ridiculous and miserable but that in popular suffrages it must be so his Vote many times casts a Kingdom that hath not brains enough to rule his private Family deciding the Question without understanding the Debate Gent. Indeed when I consider how slow their Debates must be when managed by so many divided Heads and how low their Treasure when passed through so many private hands when I reflect on the several obstructions in their many Admiralties and the indirect proceedings in their numerouâ— Councils for the Treasury I wonder much how they maintain a War more how they conduct it But Sir I observe Religion was their great friend in former Wars SECT 3. Their present state in point of Religion Trav. IT was so indeed when Queen Elizabeth pittied the French Protestants relieved and the German Princes assisted them upon the bare account of their being Professors of the Gospel besides that that Notion extraordinarily inspired their Populacy nothing rendring men more daring in this World than their Engagements for another when that which restrains and moderates Passions inflames them I. But 1. Since the Dutch have never been esteemed really devout and now think it not worth their while to pretend it and are only Jewes of the New-Testament that have changed only the Law for the Gospel since they are so much Christians as to tolerate Jewes and banish Catholiques and so much Protestants as to silence Arminians and indulge twelve sorts of Anabaptists the common saying being that A man may be what Devil he will there so he pusheth not against the States II. Since the Quarrel is not Religion so much as Trade so much their Faith as their Interest and they can clap a League with the Turk that they may invade an Ally and the best Protestant Prince in the World III. Since the veâ—y variety of their Religions endanger their Countreymen with seditions than any Enemy yet hath done by Invasions to instance no further than the Remonstrant and Anti-remonstrant controversie which if not seasonably allayed by the grave Councils and potent Engagement of King James of blessed memory 1617 1618 1619. had taken away their very Place and Nation Every ambitious or discontented Person having the opportunity of making himself the Head or at least of a dissenting Party into whose Consciences by the fundamental constitution of the Government no man dares look untill they grow so prevalent that none can controul their Practices Schism being established there by a Law and their Government made precarious and contemptible as exposed to the restless Importunity of every Sect and Opinion yea and of every single Person who shall presume to dissent from the Publick who finding that by being troublesom to the Government that they can arrive to an indulgence will as their numbers increase be more troublesom that so at length they may arrive to a general toleration and at last cry for an establishment besides that the variety of Religions when openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them opportunities to count their numbers which considering the animosities that out of a Religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance when there is no security that either the Doctrine or the Worship of the â—everal Parties who are all governed by a several Rule shall be consistent with the peace of the State whereof there are these four degrees Ministers Doctors Elders and Deacons IV. Since the Ministers cannot at all in this or any other case assist the Government being 1. Poor and stipendiary being allowed seldom above 50l a year 2. Chosen and settled with the consent of the people about which matter there are not there a few Blastings and Factions about 1. The Right of Presentation 2. The Examination of the person presented 3. The Contract between him and his Patron 4. The time of Presentation 5. The Orthodoxness and Piety of the man Presented 6. The Churches Right of refusing their Presented Minister or to turn him out c. 3. Unlearned there being no encouragement to be Excellent the Pedant and the Doctor sitting together at the Ordinary right at the rate of an Equall Common-wealth after they have performed their Sermon and Common-place and with Prayer and fasting are sent abroad with the laying on of the hands of the Presbitery and the lifting up of the hands of the people V. Since they have such clashings among their Ruling Elders and such ado with their 1. National Synod 2. Their Ecclesiastical Senate 3. Their Provincial Conventions twice a year And 4. Their Ecclesiastical Conventicles whereof 16. in a Province once a month VI. Since a man knoweth Sunday amongst them by no other Token than by their Playing and Mustring since God may be more safely offended there than the States-General their Republick being to them more than Heaven Liberty is their God War their Heaven Peace their Hell the Spaniard their Devill Custom their Law and their Wills their Reason Since when they must in Heathen Kingdoms part with their trade or Religion they will say they are no Christians but Hollanders VII Since its the Protestant States and Princes that they have most disobliged I mean Sweden Denmark and England VIII Since they have so little regard to Religion that when the Christian Ministers in Turkey were sent for to consult about Moses his Body the Dutch Merchants said they had none These Particulars being warily put together I may conclude that they have lost their Interest in point of Religion Gent. Nay when they pretend to no more Religion there than 1. To Pray 2. Read 3. Preach 4.
and that the Conscience should be free 2. That Religion consisted not in outward Ceremony but in the inward Perswasion 3. That the King should hear every mans perswasion and endeavour to convince them 4. That the Scripture should decide Controversies 5. That every peaceable man should be allowed free exercise of Religion whatsoever might be his perswasion because all the World could not hinder a Religion that is of God 6. That several abuses in the Church whereat the people were offended should be reformed 7. That the King should think none could be true to him that was not faithful to God 8. That the Masters of the most useful Trades and most large Stocks in the Nation would desert it upon the first settlement of the Ecclesiastical Government to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences and go to Embden France and England with whom likewise â—the best Souldiers and Gentlemen would take this occasion to withdraw 9. That the strength of Kings is the love of their Subjects whereof the most considerable are they of the Religion for Birth Interest Parts Estates Prudence and Learning 10. That it is no new thing to tolerate divers Religions the danger of a Countrey proceeding not from private Opinions but from secret Passions and Interests which together with the noise made of trouble and War which they pretended most to fear who most promoted them put the discontented Nobility assembled at the Prince of Parmai's marriage at Brussels And afterward at St. Tradon after a Declaration how much pity it was that so populous a Countrey should be ruined by evil Counsellors upon a resolution to Petition his Majesty in the name of the people for their ancient Rights and Liberties and for the further prosecution of the affairs to enter to mutual Oaths to stand by one another that what wrong was done to any one should be done unto all a Confederacy that gratified the Hopes of many improved the Fears of more and disturbed the Minds of all men altering the very Face of the Government the King and Church being awaked to a resolution and Rigour on the one hand and the People to a Fury and Madness on the other it being among other matters bruited abroad that the Duke of Brunswich should Levy 10000 German Horse to reduce them to subjection which together with the French suggestion of their approaching desolation and the German Princes aggravation of their Slavery when all their neighbour Countreys were free and they were themselves Members of the Empire and so should enjoy the priviledges of the Pacification at Passau adding that their Kingdom was Elective and that upon six such Articles as their King had broken That by the Feodau Law that King their Lord had forfeited his Right to his Fee by fellonious actings on their goods and lives and many more unseemly allegations in Private discourse and Publick Pasquils encouraged the Contrivers of this disturbance to Commissionate Agents to remonstrate the case of the Provinces in the Imperial Diet then at Ausburch before Maximilian the Emperour and when the Governess had offered so much reasonable moderation as prevailed with the more modest part of the Knights of the Order and other Noblemen interceding likewise very zealously with his Majesty of Spain for the confirmation of it the People are taught to protest against their Governours proceedings as to compliance with the Governess and his Majesty in their four seditious Petitions to the King and State which were no more than so many sawcy Menaces what would follow if they were not gratified in their Propositions that were not so much vouchsafed the honour of a perusal as were not the other unmannerly Remonstrances of Gaunt Bruges Ypre Hondschoon about the decay of Trades and Handicrafts and those of Flanders about Liberty of Religion carried on in a most Tumultuous and Riotous manner by a Rabble of Geux or Beggars as my Lord Barlement called them upon which appellation they coyned Meddals with the Kings Picture on the one hand a Wallet and a Dish on the other with this Inscription Faithful to God and the King even to bear the Wallet and presented a rebellious Petition by the Lord of Brederode to which the unquiet people would take no answer but an allowance for all their factious Assemblies for the time past and a full Liberty to their Consciences for the time to come with â—ecurity that all matters should be hereafter transâ—cted with the consent of the Estates Yea and notwithstanding as can did and satisfactory a return as could be expected the Gentlemen of the Confederacy as they were called fearful of the consequences of their Seditions and Mutinies exasperated the people with strange Letters bearing Date An. 1615 which they discovered threatning them and their Adherents with extremities intimating the mighty Sea and Land preparations which enflamed the Countrey into a general sedition and combustion that provoked the Government to Rigour on the one hand and incensed the Populacy to Tumults on the other The chief Conspirators judge the humour so high that they might work upon it and to that purpose order an Assembly amongst themselves for the Government An Assembly I know not whether more rediculous as wherein some were attired in Fryars Gray others carried Foxes-tailes in their Hats others carried Dishes and goods like Beggars their servants crying God save the Beggars Or more dreadful all being rude and unruly which yet the Princess invited civilly to Arschor and Duffel the one 6 Leagues the other 3 from Antwerp where a daring Petition is delivered to the Earl of Egmont and other Grandees who under pretence of acting for the Governess betrayed her insisting on the very same things in their Hâ—rangâ—es that the Rabble did in their Petitions yea and enrolling underhand formidable Levies under pretence of their securities about Villevoord while Antwerp was in a Combustion by the Faction of Brederode who raised Forces for the Liberty of the Subject on the one hand as the Earls of Megen and Arembergh drew up Forces for the Kings Prerogative on the other The Prince of Orange taking this opportunity to seize the Government of the Place as Seditious Preachers did to usurp the Pulpits of it the Magistrates being jealous and distrustful of the Populacy and the Populacy of the Magistracy and all afraid of the 1200 newly levyed there Which general distemper being not a little improved by the approaches of the Duke of Brunswick's Army to the Borders they rescue some Prisoners in a Mutiny and create such fears and jealousies touching the Confederate Gentlemen as they were termed that they insist upon Assurance and Security The Ministers dissenâ—ions and disputes come to Tumults the Sectaries under which name all discontents were shrowded preach and hear in Armes upon pretence of Letters intercepted that the Droissard had 3000 men inrolled with Cartloads of Arms to Massacre all those of the Reformation upon the Ringing of a Bell A suggestion that enraged the Multitude to cast off the
Gorrechom and lost in the Watry and Marsh-Countrey about After Delf Wormer Ryp Graft Purmerend and Vlpendam in West-Friezland and Waterland insomuch that the Spaniards seemed very inclinable to a peace as seemed by their overtures to the Prince of Orange Which yet the States refused as appears by their sawcy Petition becoming Subjects that submitted only with their swords in their hands and their cutting the Dike and raising all the Sluices saying that they had rather have a spoiled Countrey than have lost one to prevent the taking of Leyden after which many other Towns had followed with their resolution to live and die with the Prince of Orange With which resolution they kept Leyden in so great extremity as to coyn Paper-money upon which was inscribed Haec Libertatis ergo for 11 months defeating the Spaniards ships about Leydeâ— with stratagems and wiles and keeping the Passages open for Supplies till Octobâ— 3d. It was after a months famine strangely relieved and quitted by the Spanirds and the Prince coming thither himself to see it fortified charitably recruited it by the Neighbours collections as a place that had cost the Hollanders a Million of Gold the Prince of Orange's two Brothers and a Cosin all three Princes of the Empire Whereupon their Soveraign offered with the intercession of the Emperour Maximilian very gracious Propositions of peace which could not be accepted in regard as the Earl of Switzenburgh observed at Breda where they traded the Rebls could not trust their Soveraign as indeed no security can satisfie men guilty of Treason against their Prince and therefore he that draweth his sword against his Prince must throw away the scabbard and never be reconciled to him it being reasonable that a disloyal Person should not think his Soveraign would be true to him when he hath been so perâ—idious to his Soveraign But the Treaty at Breda 1575 was not a little reputation to the men of the Revolt who being hitherto esteemed but turbulent Boulfeus are now respected as just Enemies in which capacity to preserve their Lives Wives Children Goods and what was dearer than all these their Religion they are their own words they bethink themselves of a Protector and 1. They propound the Empire which they laid aside as too much divided in it self 2. France which yet they waved as perfidious to them of the Religion in the Massacre at Paris and exhausted by their own civil Wars In this extreamity the distressed States by five Commissioners humbly submit themselves unto the Q of Englands Protection Or if necessity so required to acknowledge her for their Princess and Soveraign issued from the Earls of Holland and Zealand by the Lady Philippa Daughter to William the third of that name Earl of Henault and Holland c. Which the wise Queen entertained not immediately to prevent the jealousies of Neighbour Princes but 1. Received their Exiles to her Harbour and Countrey 2. Mediated for peace with a Protestation that upon refusal she would succour them 3. Gave them leave to leavy men and buy Ammunition in England And 4. Supplyed them with money upon security while the Spaniards mutiny for want of it The King of Spain breaks in the Merchants debts 14 Millions of Duckets the Pope dispensing with and nulling all his Bonds and Obligations The chief Commander Don Lewis with his Marshal Vitells dye All the Countrey is up against the King of Spains intollerable Impositions surprizing the Council of State he erected upon his Governours death the hatred of the Spaniards being by the Dutch Artifices become universal and all places petitioning against strangers meaning Spaniards The Queen of England being somwhat cold and indifferent the Provinces invite the Duke of Anjou the King of France his only Brother to their Protection who dealing in the late mentioned Mutinies surprized the Cittadel of Cambray and upon Don John of Austria the next Governours unpleasing carriage made up of stâ—atagems and threats joyned Brabaâ—t in a strict League with Holland and Zealand against the Spaniards and their Tyranny joyning his Interest with the Prince of Orange for leavies in Germany and assistance from England From the last of which upon their promise to maintain their Religion and Allegiance they are assured of men and money by their Orator the Lord of Swevenghen and Captain Horsley it being her Interest rather to engage the Papists there than in her own Dominions with whom Secretary Wilson and Mr Wendebank went and payed the money receiving the States Obligation with the security of Brussels Gaunt Bruges Dunkirk Newport and Middleburgh where with free passages were made by raising the Sluices according to the Queens direction in several places of the Country for fear the Spaniards might prevail at Sea And the union was effected upon the Mutinies of Groninghen and Zuphten between the States for the expulsion of Spaniards with an acknowledgment of their Allegiance to the King of Spain By virtue of which Colonel Balâ—our and his Englâ—sh having brushed the Spaniards the States capitulated with Don of Austria whose vain conceits of Conquering England lost the Netherland and would have agreed with him could they have had any assurances for performance of Articles at the great conferences between his Deputies and the Prince of Orange at Gertrudenbergh May 22 1577 which failing his practises were discovered in setting the Provinces at variance among themselves that he might govern them all by his Letters to Spain intercepted and his vain attempt upon Antwerp Which made all the Provinces revolt from Don John some to the States-General at Brussels that declared onely for Liberty and Priviledges and others to the Prince of Orange with the States of Holland and Friezland that declared also for Religion CHAP. IV. How the English assisted the Hollanders and made them a Free State ESpecially when her Majesty the Queen of England the onely succour of the distressed States declared for them by Mr Wilkes whereupon Leeuwarden mutined and yeelded to them Antwerp is dismantled Germany sends in Aides â—reda is delivered up Groninghen is Tumultuous the Prince of Orange is invited to be Rovard or Governour of Flanders Don John of Austria is declared Enemy to the States notwithstanding his Army of 16000 Foot and 2000 Horse The Nobility revolt Amsterdam asserts its Liberty the pacification at Gaunt so much insisted on by the Queen is confirmed the Duke of Anjou offereth his assistance and marcheth to distresse Henault The case of the afflicted Netherlands is taken into consideration upon St. Aldegon's motion at the Imperial Assembly at Wormes whence the Duke of Anjou had 12000 men towards his relief of the Low-Countreys under the notion of the Defenders of the Liberty of the Provinces against the Spaniards and their Adherents Colonell Norris Stuart Captain Bingham and Candish saved the States whole Army by a brave Retreat they maintained for four miles with three Regiments in their shirts by Rymenant The Queen seasonably assisted them with 30000l when their