Willem Adriaan Van Der Stel, and Other Historical Sketches

by George McCall Theal

Philippe’s views were now directed more to France than to the Netherlands. After the assassination of Henry III the two parties in that kingdom appealed to arms, and Parma was directed to assist the duke of Mayenne, who was at the head of the Catholic league, against Henry of Navarre, then a Huguenot, the legitimate heir to the throne. Accordingly, in March 1590 he began to send troops to Mayenne, and in August he followed in person with twelve thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, but after breaking the blockade of Paris, then besieged by Navarre, he returned to the Netherlands, leaving a strong division of his forces in France. His soldiers were dying rapidly from disease, they were unpaid and half mutinous, and neither money nor sufficient provisions could be obtained in the exhausted Spanish provinces. Under these circumstances Parma, notwithstanding the large number of men nominally at his disposal, was really almost helpless.

Maurits was not slow to take advantage of this condition of things. He had a regular army of only ten thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, but his troops were properly paid and well disciplined, and he was rapidly advancing in military knowledge and skill. He had also the assistance of a small English contingent. On the 4th of March 1590 he got possession of the important town of Breda in Brabant. During the night of the 3rd seventy Hollanders concealed in a turf boat gained entrance to the castle, and attacked the garrison of Italian soldiers six times their number, who were seized with a panic and fled into the town. Before dawn of the 4th a body of patriot troops, with Maurits at their head, arrived, and Breda was gained. Within a few months eight other towns in Brabant, though all of less importance than Breda, were wrested from the Spaniards.

Death of the Duke of Parma.

During 1591 some great successes were gained by Maurits. On the 23rd of May the great fort at Zutphen was taken, and on the 30th the town capitulated. On the 10th of June Deventer was surrendered, and thus the important cities lost by the treachery of Stanley and York were recovered. On the 2nd of July Delfzyl, far north in Groningen, capitulated, and on the 24th of September Hulst, in the north of Flanders, was obliged to do the same. On the 21st of October Nymegen was taken, so that the year was a most fortunate one for the patriot cause. The Spanish garrisons of all these towns had made a stout resistance, and some had held out for a long time, but none of those scenes of massacre that characterised Spanish victories obscured the successes of Maurits. The soldiers were permitted to march away unharmed, and the result was that afterwards they did not fight so desperately as they would have done if they had believed that to submit would be followed by their butchery. As to religion, the same system was introduced in the recovered towns as was observed in South Africa during the greater part of the rule of the East India Company: only the Reformed worship could be practised publicly, but there was no inquisition in matters of conscience, and in their own houses men could worship as they pleased.

During 1592 less was accomplished. From January to June Parma was in France, and when he left that country his ill health prevented him from making much exertion. Philippe, without the slightest cause, had become suspicious of his fidelity, and had resolved to disgrace him. From this indignity he was spared by his death at Arras on the 3rd of December 1592. The old count Pieter Ernest Mansfeld then acted as governor-general of the submissive Netherlands until January 1594, when the archduke Ernest, brother of the emperor of Germany and nephew of King Philippe, arrived at Brussels and assumed the duty. He was a man of no account, and played a very unimportant part until his death on the 20th of February 1595. The count of Fuentes then acted as head of affairs until the 29th of January 1596, when the cardinal archduke Albert, youngest brother of the late Ernest, took over the charge.

Historical Sketches.

At this time the war against Spain was chiefly confined to France, where both the English and the Dutch were aiding the king of Navarre against Philippe and the Catholic league. In July 1593 the king of Navarre was reconciled to the Catholic church, and on the 26th of February 1594 was crowned at Chartres as Henry IV, king of France. Still the English and Dutch continued to help him against Spain, and the Spanish forces, except the garrisons of the towns, were withdrawn from the Netherlands to oppose him, so that Maurits was able with his little army and a few English auxiliaries to do something. He laid siege to Steenwyk, in the north of Overyssel, which surrendered on the 4th of July 1592, and to Koevorden, in Drenthe, which capitulated on the 12th of September of the same year. Next he laid siege to Geertruidenberg, which capitulated on the 22nd of June 1593, and to Groningen, which fell into his hands on the 22nd of July 1594. The remainder of the district, then termed the Ommelanden, was already a party to the union of Utrecht, and the city now at once gave in its adhesion, so that the province of Groningen thereafter took rank as a sister state of Holland and the others.

In 1595 nothing of much note occurred, and in 1596 the most important military event was the recovery of Hulst by the archduke on the 18th of August. But in this year an act of the king of Spain had very serious consequences for the Netherlands. This was the repudiation by Philippe of the public debt of his empire, which at this time was actually so great that nearly the whole of his revenue was needed to pay the interest alone. So reckless was the expenditure of the lord of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the obedient Netherlands, America, and India! Twice before, in 1557 and 1575, he had suspended payment to the national creditors, and now, on the 20th of November 1596, he freed himself of the whole burden by simply disowning it. The ruin of his creditors was not more complete than the ruin of his credit thereafter. The obedient provinces were so exhausted that the cardinal archduke could not raise sufficient revenue from them to meet the cost of administration, much less maintain the army, and the soldiers at once lost all heart.

Successes of Prince Maurits.

On the 31st of October of this year 1596 a treaty of alliance between Henry IV of France, Elizabeth of England, and the States-General of the seven United Provinces—Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, Friesland, and Groningen with Drenthe—was entered into at the Hague, to defend themselves against Spain.[28] The oligarchal republic was thus formally admitted into the sisterhood of nations.