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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4844.txt b/4844.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c865c85 --- /dev/null +++ b/4844.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2621 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of the United Netherlands, 1585-86 +#44 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1585-86 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4844] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1585-86 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 44 + +History United Netherlands, Volume 44, 1585-1586 + +CHAPTER VII., Part 1. + + The Earl of Leicester--His Triumphal Entrance into Holland--English + Spies about him--Importance of Holland to England--Spanish Schemes + for invading England--Letter of the Grand Commander--Perilous + Position of England--True Nature of the Contest--wealth and Strength + of the Provinces--Power of the Dutch and English People--Affection + of the Hollanders for the Queen--Secret Purposes of Leicester-- + Wretched condition of English Troops--The Nassaus and Hohenlo--The + Earl's Opinion of them--Clerk and Killigrew--Interview with the + States Government General offered to the Earl--Discussions on the + Subject--The Earl accepts the Office--His Ambition and Mistakes--His + Installation at the Hague--Intimations of the Queen's Displeasure-- + Deprecatory Letters of Leicester--Davison's Mission to England-- + Queen's Anger and Jealousy--Her angry Letters to the Earl and the + States--Arrival of Davison--Stormy Interview with the Queen--The + second one is calmer--Queen's Wrath somewhat mitigated--Mission of + Heneago to the States--Shirley sent to England by the Earl--His + Interview with Elizabeth + + +At last the Earl of Leicester came. Embarking at Harwich, with a fleet +of fifty ships, and attended "by the flower and chief gallants of +England"--the Lords Sheffield, Willoughby, North, Burroughs, Sir Gervase +Clifton, Sir William Russell, Sir Robert Sidney, and others among the +number--the new lieutenant-general of the English forces in the +Netherlands arrived on the 19th December, 1585, at Flushing. + +His nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, and Count Maurice of Nassau, with a body +of troops and a great procession of civil functionaries; were in +readiness to receive him, and to escort him to the lodgings prepared for +him. + +Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was then fifty-four years of age. +There are few personages in English history whose adventures, real or +fictitious, have been made more familiar to the world than his have been, +or whose individuality has been presented in more picturesque fashion, by +chronicle, tragedy, or romance. Born in the same day of the month and +hour of the day with the Queen, but two years before her birth, the +supposed synastry of their destinies might partly account, in that age of +astrological superstition, for the influence which he perpetually +exerted. They had, moreover, been fellow-prisoners together, in the +commencement of the reign of Mary, and it is possible that he may have +been the medium through which the indulgent expressions of Philip II. +were conveyed to the Princess Elizabeth. + +His grandfather, John Dudley, that "caterpillar of the commonwealth," who +lost his head in the first year of Henry VIII. as a reward for the +grist which he brought to the mill of Henry VII.; his father, the mighty +Duke of Northumberland, who rose out of the wreck of an obscure and +ruined family to almost regal power, only to perish, like his +predecessor, upon the scaffold, had bequeathed him nothing save rapacity, +ambition, and the genius to succeed. But Elizabeth seemed to ascend the +throne only to bestow gifts upon her favourite. Baronies and earldoms, +stars and garters, manors and monopolies, castles and forests, church +livings and college chancellorships, advowsons and sinecures, emoluments +and dignities, the most copious and the most exalted, were conferred upon +him in breathless succession. Wine, oil, currants, velvets, +ecclesiastical benefices, university headships, licences to preach, to +teach, to ride, to sail, to pick and to steal, all brought "grist to his +mill." His grandfather, "the horse leach and shearer," never filled his +coffers more rapidly than did Lord Robert, the fortunate courtier. Of +his early wedlock with the ill-starred Amy Robsart, of his nuptial +projects with the Queen, of his subsequent marriages and mock-marriages +with Douglas Sheffield and Lettice of Essex, of his plottings, +poisonings, imaginary or otherwise, of his countless intrigues, amatory +and political--of that luxuriant, creeping, flaunting, all-pervading +existence which struck its fibres into the mould, and coiled itself +through the whole fabric, of Elizabeth's life and reign--of all this the +world has long known too much to render a repetition needful here. The +inmost nature and the secret deeds of a man placed so high by wealth and +station, can be seen but darkly through the glass of contemporary record. +There was no tribunal to sit upon his guilt. A grandee could be judged +only when no longer a favourite, and the infatuation of Elizabeth for +Leicester terminated only with his life. He stood now upon the soil of +the Netherlands in the character of a "Messiah," yet he has been charged +with crimes sufficient to send twenty humbler malefactors to the gibbet. +"I think," said a most malignant arraigner of the man, in a published +pamphlet, "that the Earl of Leicester hath more blood lying upon his head +at this day, crying for vengeance, than ever had private man before, were +he never so wicked." + +Certainly the mass of misdemeanours and infamies hurled at the head of +the favourite by that "green-coated Jesuit," father Parsons, under the +title of 'Leycester's Commonwealth,' were never accepted as literal +verities; yet the value of the precept, to calumniate boldly, with the +certainty that much of the calumny would last for ever, was never better +illustrated than in the case of Robert Dudley. Besides the lesser +delinquencies of filling his purse by the sale of honours and dignities, +by violent ejectments from land, fraudulent titles, rapacious enclosures +of commons, by taking bribes for matters of justice, grace, and +supplication to the royal authority, he was accused of forging various +letters to the Queen, often to ruin his political adversaries, and of +plottings to entrap them into conspiracies, playing first the comrade and +then the informer. The list of his murders and attempts to murder was +almost endless. "His lordship hath a special fortune," saith the Jesuit, +"that when he desireth any woman's favour, whatsoever person standeth in +his way hath the luck to die quickly." He was said to have poisoned +Alice Drayton, Lady Lennox, Lord Sussex, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Lord +Sheffield, whose widow he married and then poisoned, Lord Essex, whose +widow he also married, and intended to poison, but who was said to have +subsequently poisoned him--besides murders or schemes for murder of +various other individuals, both French and English. "He was a rare +artist in poison," said Sir Robert Naunton, and certainly not Caesar +Borgia, nor his father or sister, was more accomplished in that difficult +profession than was Dudley, if half the charges against him could be +believed. Fortunately for his fame, many of them were proved to be +false. Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland, at the time of the +death of Lord Essex, having caused a diligent inquiry to be made into +that dark affair, wrote to the council that it was usual for the Earl to +fall into a bloody flux when disturbed in his mind, and that his body +when opened showed no signs of poison. It is true that Sir Henry, +although an honourable man, was Leicester's brother-in-law, and that +perhaps an autopsy was not conducted at that day in Ireland on very +scientific principles. + +His participation in the strange death of his first wife was a matter of +current belief among his contemporaries. "He is infamed by the death of +his wife," said Burghley, and the tale has since become so interwoven +with classic and legendary fiction, as well as with more authentic +history, that the phantom of the murdered Amy Robsart is sure to arise at +every mention of the Earl's name. Yet a coroner's inquest--as appears +from his own secret correspondence with his relative and agent at Cumnor +--was immediately and persistently demanded by Dudley. A jury was +impannelled--every man of them a stranger to him, and some of them +enemies. Antony Forster, Appleyard, and Arthur Robsart, brother-in-law +and brother of the lady, were present, according to Dudley's special +request; "and if more of her friends could have been sent," said he, "I +would have sent them;" but with all their minuteness of inquiry, "they +could find," wrote Blount, "no presumptions of evil," although he +expressed a suspicion that "some of the jurymen were sorry that they +could not." That the unfortunate lady was killed by a fall down stairs +was all that could be made of it by a coroner's inquest, rather hostile +than otherwise, and urged to rigorous investigation by the supposed +culprit himself. Nevertheless, the calumny has endured for three +centuries, and is likely to survive as many more. + +Whatever crimes Dudley may have committed in the course of his career, +there is no doubt whatever that he was the most abused man in Europe. He +had been deeply wounded by the Jesuit's artful publication, in which all +the misdeeds with which he was falsely or justly charged were drawn up in +awful array, in a form half colloquial, half judicial. "You had better +give some contentment to my Lord Leicester," wrote the French envoy from +London to his government, "on account of the bitter feelings excited in +him by these villainous books lately written against him." + +The Earl himself ascribed these calumnies to the Jesuits, to the Guise +faction, and particularly to--the Queen of Scots. He was said, in +consequence, to have vowed an eternal hatred to that most unfortunate and +most intriguing Princess. "Leicester has lately told a friend," wrote +Charles Paget, "that he will persecute you to the uttermost, for that he +supposeth your Majesty to be privy to the setting forth of the book +against him." Nevertheless, calumniated or innocent he was at least +triumphant over calumny. Nothing could shake his hold upon Elizabeth's +affections. The Queen scorned but resented the malignant attacks upon +the reputation of her favourite. She declared "before God and in her +conscience, that she knew the libels against him to be most scandalous, +and such as none but an incarnate devil himself could dream to be true." +His power, founded not upon genius nor virtue, but upon woman's caprice, +shone serenely above the gulf where there had been so many shipwrecks. +"I am now passing into another world," said Sussex, upon his death-bed, +to his friends, "and I must leave you to your fortunes; but beware of the +gipsy, or he will be too hard for you. You know not the beast so well as +I do." + +The "gipsy," as he had been called from his dark complexion, had been +renowned in youth for the beauty of his person, being "tall and +singularly well-featured, of a sweet aspect, but high foreheaded, which +was of no discommendation," according to Naunton. The Queen, who had the +passion of her father for tall and proper men, was easier won by +externals, from her youth even to the days of her dotage, than befitted +so very sagacious a personage. Chamberlains, squires of the body, +carvers, cup-bearers, gentlemen-ushers, porters, could obtain neither +place nor favour at court, unless distinguished for stature, strength, or +extraordinary activity. To lose a tooth had been known to cause the loss +of a place, and the excellent constitution of leg which helped Sir +Christopher Hatton into the chancellorship, was not more remarkable +perhaps than the success of similar endowments in other contemporaries. +Leicester, although stately and imposing, had passed his summer solstice. +A big bulky man, with a long red face, a bald head, a defiant somewhat +sinister eye, a high nose, and a little torrent of foam-white curly +beard, he was still magnificent in costume. Rustling in satin and +feathers, with jewels in his ears, and his velvet toque stuck as airily +as ever upon the side of his head, he amazed the honest Hollanders, who +had been used to less gorgeous chieftains. + +"Every body is wondering at the great magnificence and splendour of his +clothes," said the plain chronicler of Utrecht. For, not much more than +a year before, Fulke Greville had met at Delft a man whose external +adornments were simpler; a somewhat slip-shod personage, whom he thus +pourtrayed: "His uppermost garment was a gown," said the euphuistic +Fulke, "yet such as, I confidently affirm, a mean-born student of our +Inns of Court would not have been well disposed to walk the streets in. +Unbuttoned his doublet was, and of like precious matter and form to the +other. His waistcoat, which showed itself under it, not unlike the best +sort of those woollen knit ones which our ordinary barge-watermen row us +in. His company about him, the burgesses of that beerbrewing town. No +external sign of degree could have discovered the inequality of his worth +or estate from that multitude. Nevertheless, upon conversing with him, +there was an outward passage of inward greatness." + +Of a certainty there must have been an outward passage of inward +greatness about him; for the individual in unbuttoned doublet and +bargeman's waistcoat, was no other than William the Silent. A different +kind of leader had now descended among those rebels, yet it would be a +great mistake to deny the capacity or vigorous intentions of the +magnificent Earl, who certainly was like to find himself in a more +difficult and responsible situation than any he had yet occupied. + +And now began a triumphal progress through the land, with a series of +mighty banquets and festivities, in which no man could play a better part +than Leicester. From Flushing he came to Middelburg, where, upon +Christmas eve (according to the new reckoning), there was an +entertainment, every dish of which has been duly chronicled. Pigs served +on their feet, pheasants in their feathers, and baked swans with their +necks thrust through gigantic pie-crust; crystal castles of confectionery +with silver streams flowing at their base, and fair virgins leaning from +the battlements, looking for their new English champion, "wine in +abundance, variety of all sorts, and wonderful welcomes "--such was the +bill of fare. The next day the Lieutenant-General returned the +compliment to the magistrates of Middelburg with a tremendous feast. +Then came an interlude of unexpected famine; for as the Earl sailed with +his suite in a fleet of two hundred vessels for Dort--a voyage of not +many hours' usual duration--there descended a mighty frozen fog upon the +waters, and they lay five whole days and nights in their ships, almost +starved with hunger and cold--offering in vain a "pound of silver for a +pound of bread." Emerging at last from this dismal predicament, he +landed at Dort, and so went to Rotterdam and Delft, everywhere making his +way through lines of musketeers and civic functionaries, amid roaring +cannon, pealing bells, burning cressets, blazing tar-barrels, fiery +winged dragons, wreaths of flowers, and Latin orations. + +The farther he went the braver seemed the country, and the better beloved +his. Lordship. Nothing was left undone, in the language of ancient +chronicle, to fill the bellies and the heads of the whole company. At +the close of the year he came to the Hague, where the festivities were +unusually magnificent. A fleet of barges was sent to escort him. Peter, +James, and John, met him upon the shore, while the Saviour appeared +walking upon the waves, and ordered his disciples to cast their nets, and +to present the fish to his Excellency. Farther on, he was confronted by +Mars and Bellona, who recited Latin odes in his honour. Seven beautiful +damsels upon a stage, representing the United States, offered him golden +keys; seven others equally beautiful, embodying the seven sciences, +presented him with garlands, while an enthusiastic barber adorned his +shop with seven score of copper basins, with a wag-light in each, +together with a rose, and a Latin posy in praise of Queen Elizabeth. +Then there were tiltings in the water between champions mounted upon +whales, and other monsters of the deep-representatives of siege, famine, +pestilence, and murder--the whole interspersed with fireworks, poetry, +charades, and Matthias, nor Anjou, nor King Philip, nor the Emperor +Charles, in their triumphal progresses, had been received with more +spontaneous or more magnificent demonstrations. Never had the living +pictures been more startling, the allegories more incomprehensible, the +banquets more elaborate, the orations more tedious. Beside himself with +rapture, Leicester almost assumed the God. In Delft, a city which he +described as "another London almost for beauty and fairness," he is said +so far to have forgotten himself as to declare that his family had--in +the person of Lady Jane Grey, his father, and brother--been unjustly +deprived of the crown of England; an indiscretion which caused a shudder +in all who heard him. It was also very dangerous for the Lieutenant- +General to exceed the bounds of becoming modesty at that momentous epoch. +His power, as we shall soon have occasion to observe, was anomalous, and +he was surrounded by enemies. He was not only to grapple with a rapidly +developing opposition in the States, but he was surrounded with masked +enemies, whom he had brought with him from England. Every act and word +of his were liable to closest scrutiny, and likely to be turned against +him. For it was most characteristic of that intriguing age, that even +the astute Walsingham, who had an eye and an ear at every key-hole in +Europe, was himself under closest domestic inspection. There was one +Poley, a trusted servant of Lady Sidney, then living in the house of her +father Walsingham, during Sir Philip's absence, who was in close +communication with Lord Montjoy's brother, Blount, then high in favour of +Queen Elizabeth--"whose grandmother she might be for his age and hers" +--and with another brother Christopher Blount, at that moment in +confidential attendance upon Lord Leicester in Holland. Now Poley, +and both the Blounts, were, in reality, Papists, and in intimate +correspondence with the agents of the Queen of Scots, both at home and +abroad, although "forced to fawn upon Leicester, to see if they might +thereby live quiet." They had a secret "alphabet," or cipher, among +them, and protested warmly, that they "honoured the ground whereon Queen +Mary trod better than Leicester with all his generation; and that they +felt bound to serve her who was the only saint living on the earth." + +It may be well understood then that the Earl's position was a slippery +one, and that great assumption might be unsafe. "He taketh the matter +upon him," wrote Morgan to the Queen of Scots, "as though he were an +absolute king; but he hath many personages about him of good place out of +England, the best number whereof desire nothing more than his confusion. +Some of them be gone with him to avoid the persecution for religion in +England. My poor advice and labour shall not be wanting to give +Leicester all dishonour, which will fall upon him in the end with shame +enough; though for the present he be very strong." Many of these +personages of good place, and enjoying "charge and credit" with the Earl +had very serious plans in their heads. Some of them meant "for the +service of God, and the advantage of the King of Spain, to further the +delivery of some notable towns in Holland and Zeeland to the said King +and his ministers," and we are like to hear of these individuals again. + +Meantime, the Earl of Leicester was at the Hague. Why was he there? +What was his work? Why had Elizabeth done such violence to her affection +as to part with her favourite-in-chief; and so far overcome her thrift, +as to furnish forth, rather meagrely to be sure, that little army of +Englishmen? Why had the flower of England's chivalry set foot upon that +dark and bloody ground where there seemed so much disaster to encounter, +and so little glory to reap? Why had England thrown herself so +heroically into the breach, just as the last bulwarks were falling +which protected Holland from the overwhelming onslaught of Spain? +It was because Holland was the threshold of England; because the two +countries were one by danger and by destiny; because the naval expedition +from Spain against England was already secretly preparing; because the +deposed tyrant of Spain intended the Provinces, when again subjugated, +as a steppingstone to the conquest of England; because the naval and +military forces of Holland--her numerous ships, her hardy mariners, her +vast wealth, her commodious sea-ports, close to the English coast--if +made Spanish property would render Philip invincible by sea and land; and +because the downfall of Holland and of Protestantism would be death to +Elizabeth, and annihilation to England. + +There was little doubt on the subject in the minds of those engaged in +this expedition. All felt most keenly the importance of the game, in +which the Queen was staking her crown, and England its national +existence. + +"I pray God," said Wilford, an officer much in Walsingham's confidence, +"that I live not to see this enterprise quail, and with it the utter +subversion of religion throughout all Christendom. It may be I may be +judged to be afraid of my own shadow. God grant it be so. But if her +Majesty had not taken the helm in hand, and my Lord of Leicester sent +over, this country had been gone ere this. . . . This war doth defend +England. Who is he that will refuse to spend his life and living in it? +If her Majesty consume twenty thousand men in the cause, the experimented +men that will remain will double that strength to the realm." + +This same Wilford commanded a company in Ostend, and was employed by +Leicester in examining the defences of that important place. He often +sent information to the Secretary, "troubling him with the rude stile of +a poor soldier, being driven to scribble in haste." He reiterated, in +more than one letter, the opinion, that twenty thousand men consumed in +the war would be a saving in the end, and his own determination--although +he had intended retiring from the military profession--to spend not only +his life in the cause, but also the poor living that God had given him. +"Her Highness hath now entered into it," he said; "the fire is kindled; +whosoever suffers it to go out, it will grow dangerous to that side. The +whole state of religion is in question, and the realm of England also, if +this action quail. God grant we never live to see that doleful day. Her +Majesty hath such footing now in these parts, as I judge it impossible +for the King to weary her out, if every man will put to the work his +helping hand, whereby it may be lustily followed, and the war not +suffered to cool. The freehold of England will be worth but little, if +this action quail, and therefore I wish no subject to spare his purse +towards it." + +Spain moved slowly. Philip the Prudent was not sudden or rash, but his +whole life had proved, and was to prove, him inflexible in his purposes, +and patient in his attempts to carry them into effect, even when the +purposes had become chimerical, and the execution impossible. Before the +fall of Antwerp he had matured his scheme for the invasion of England, in +most of its details--a necessary part of which was of course the +reduction of Holland and Zeeland. "Surely no danger nor fear of any +attempt can grow to England," wrote Wilford, "so long as we can hold this +country good." But never was honest soldier more mistaken than he, when +he added:--"The Papists will make her Highness afraid of a great fleet +now preparing in Spain. We hear it also, but it is only a scare-crow to +cool the enterprise here." + +It was no scare-crow. On the very day on which Wilford was thus writing +to Walsingham, Philip the Second was writing to Alexander Farnese. "The +English," he said, "with their troops having gained a footing in the +islands (Holland and Zeeland) give me much anxiety. The English +Catholics are imploring me with much importunity to relieve them from +the persecution they are suffering. When you sent me a plan, with the +coasts, soundings, quicksands, and ports of England, you said that the +enterprise of invading that country should be deferred till we had +reduced the isles; that, having them, we could much more conveniently +attack England; or that at least we should wait till we had got Antwerp. +As the city is now taken, I want your advice now about the invasion of +England. To cut the root of the evils constantly growing up there, both +for God's service and mine, is desirable. So many evils will thus be +remedied, which would not be by only warring with the islands. It would +be an uncertain and expensive war to go to sea for the purpose of +chastising the insolent English corsairs, however much they deserve +chastisement. I charge you to be secret, to give the matter your deepest +attention, and to let me have your opinions at once." Philip then added +a postscript, in his own hand, concerning the importance of acquiring a +sea-port in Holland, as a basis of operations against England. "Without +a port," he said, "we can do nothing whatever." + +A few weeks later, the Grand Commander of Castile, by Philip's orders, +and upon subsequent information received from the Prince of Parma, drew +up an elaborate scheme for the invasion of England, and for the +government of that country afterwards; a program according to which the +King was to shape his course for a long time to come. The plot was an +excellent plot. Nothing could be more artistic, more satisfactory to the +prudent monarch; but time was to show whether there might not be some +difficulty in the way of its satisfactory development. + +"The enterprise," said the Commander, "ought certainly to be undertaken +as serving the cause of the Lord. From the Pope we must endeavour to +extract a promise of the largest aid we can get for the time when the +enterprise can be undertaken. We must not declare that time however, in +order to keep the thing a secret, and because perhaps thus more will be +promised, under the impression that it will never take effect. He added +that the work could not well be attempted before August or September of +the following year; the only fear of such delay being that the French +could hardly be kept during all that time in a state of revolt." For +this was a uniform portion of the great scheme. France was to be kept, +at Philip's expense, in a state of perpetual civil war; its every city +and village to be the scene of unceasing conflict and bloodshed--subjects +in arms against king, and family against family; and the Netherlands were +to be ravaged with fire and sword; all this in order that the path might +be prepared for Spanish soldiers into the homes of England. So much of +misery to the whole human race was it in the power of one painstaking +elderly valetudinarian to inflict, by never for an instant neglecting the +business of his life. + +Troops and vessels for the English invasion ought, in the Commander's +opinion, to be collected in Flanders, under colour of an enterprise +against Holland and Zeeland, while the armada to be assembled in Spain, +of galleons, galeazas, and galleys, should be ostensibly for an +expedition to the Indies. + +Then, after the conquest, came arrangements for the government of +England. Should Philip administer his new kingdom by a viceroy, or +should he appoint a king out of his own family? On the whole the chances +for the Prince of Parma seemed the best of any. "We must liberate the +Queen of Scotland," said the Grand Commander, "and marry her to some one +or another, both in order to put her out of love with her son, and to +conciliate her devoted adherents. Of course the husband should be one of +your Majesty's nephews, and none could be so appropriate as the Prince of +Parma, that great captain, whom his talents, and the part he has to bear +in the business, especially indicate for that honour." + +Then there was a difficulty about the possible issue of such a marriage. +The Farneses claimed Portugal; so that children sprung from the +bloodroyal of England blended with that of Parma, might choose to make +those pretensions valid. But the objection was promptly solved by the +Commander:--"The Queen of Scotland is sure to have no children," he said. + +That matter being adjusted, Parma's probable attitude as King of England +was examined. It was true his ambition might cause occasional +uneasiness, but then he might make himself still more unpleasant in the +Netherlands. "If your Majesty suspects him," said the Commander, "which, +after all, is unfair, seeing the way, in which he has been conducting +himself--it is to be remembered that in Flanders are similar +circumstances and opportunities, and that he is well armed, much beloved +in the country, and that the natives are of various humours. The English +plan will furnish an honourable departure for him out of the Provinces; +and the principle of loyal obligation will have much influence over so +chivalrous a knight as he, when he is once placed on the English throne. +Moreover, as he will be new there, he will have need of your Majesty's +favour to maintain himself, and there will accordingly be good +correspondence with Holland and the Islands. Thus your Majesty can put +the Infanta and her husband into full possession of all the Netherlands; +having provided them with so excellent a neighbour in England, and one so +closely bound and allied to them. Then, as he is to have no English +children" (we have seen that the Commander had settled that point) "he +will be a very good mediator to arrange adoptions, especially if you make +good provision for his son Rainuccio in Italy. The reasons in favour of +this plan being so much stronger than those against it, it would be well +that your Majesty should write clearly to the Prince of Parma, directing +him to conduct the enterprise" (the English invasion), "and to give him +the first offer for this marriage (with Queen Mary) if he likes the +scheme. If not, he had better mention which of the Archdukes should be +substituted in his place." + +There happened to be no lack of archdukes at that period for anything +comfortable that might offer--such as a throne in England, Holland, or +France--and the Austrian House was not remarkable for refusing convenient +marriages; but the immediate future only could show whether Alexander I. +of the House of Farnese was to reign in England, or whether the next king +of that country was to be called Matthias, Maximilian, or Ernest of +Hapsburg. + +Meantime the Grand Commander was of opinion that the invasion-project was +to be pushed forward as rapidly and as secretly as possible; because, +before any one of Philip's nephews could place himself upon the English +throne, it was first necessary to remove Elizabeth from that position. +Before disposing of the kingdom, the preliminary step of conquering it +was necessary. Afterwards it would be desirable, without wasting more +time than was requisite, to return with a large portion of the invading +force out of England, in order to complete the conquest of Holland. For +after all, England was to be subjugated only as a portion of one general +scheme; the main features of which were the reannexation of Holland and +"the islands," and the acquisition of unlimited control upon the seas. + +Thus the invasion of England was no "scarecrow," as Wilford imagined, +but a scheme already thoroughly matured. If Holland and Zeeland should +meantime fall into the hands of Philip, it was no exaggeration on that +soldier's part to observe that the "freehold of England would be worth +but little." + +To oppose this formidable array against the liberties of Europe stood +Elizabeth Tudor and the Dutch Republic. For the Queen, however arbitrary +her nature, fitly embodied much of the nobler elements in the expanding +English national character. She felt instinctively that her reliance in +the impending death-grapple was upon the popular principle, the national +sentiment, both in her own country and in Holland. That principle and +that sentiment were symbolized in the Netherland revolt; and England, +although under a somewhat despotic rule, was already fully pervaded with +the instinct of self-government. The people held the purse and the +sword. + +No tyranny could be permanently established so long as the sovereign was +obliged to come every year before Parliament to ask for subsidies; so +long as all the citizens and yeomen of England had weapons in their +possession, and were carefully trained to use them; so long, in short, +as the militia was the only army, and private adventurers or trading +companies created and controlled the only navy. War, colonization, +conquest, traffic, formed a joint business and a private speculation. +If there were danger that England, yielding to purely mercantile habits +of thought and action, might degenerate from the more martial standard to +which she had been accustomed, there might be virtue in that Netherland +enterprise, which was now to call forth all her energies. The Provinces +would be a seminary for English soldiers. + +"There can be no doubt of our driving the enemy out of the country +through famine and excessive charges," said the plain-spoken English +soldier already quoted, who came out with Leicester, "if every one of us +will put our minds to go forward without making a miserable gain by the +wars. A man may see, by this little progress journey, what this long +peace hath wrought in us. We are weary of the war before we come where +it groweth, such a danger hath this long peace brought us into. This is, +and will be, in my opinion, a most fit school and nursery to nourish +soldiers to be able to keep and defend our country hereafter, if men will +follow it." + +Wilford was vehement in denouncing the mercantile tendencies of his +countrymen, and returned frequently to that point in his communications +with Walsingham and other statesmen. "God hath stirred up this action," +he repeated again, "to be a school to breed up soldiers to defend the +freedom of England, which through these long times of peace and quietness +is brought into a most dangerous estate, if it should be attempted. Our +delicacy is such that we are already weary, yet this journey is naught in +respect to the misery and hardship that soldiers must and do endure." + +He was right in his estimate of the effect likely to be produced by the +war upon the military habits of Englishmen; for there can be no doubt +that the organization and discipline of English troops was in anything +but a satisfactory state at that period. There was certainly vast room +for improvement. Nevertheless he was wrong in his views of the leading +tendencies of his age. Holland and England, self-helping, self-moving, +were already inaugurating a new era in the history of the world. The +spirit of commercial maritime enterprise--then expanding rapidly into +large proportions--was to be matched against the religious and knightly +enthusiasm which had accomplished such wonders in an age that was passing +away. Spain still personified, and had ever personified, chivalry, +loyalty, piety; but its chivalry, loyalty, and piety, were now in a +corrupted condition. The form was hollow, and the sacred spark had fled. +In Holland and England intelligent enterprise had not yet degenerated +into mere greed for material prosperity. The love of danger, the thirst +for adventure, the thrilling sense of personal responsibility and human +dignity--not the base love for land and lucre--were the governing +sentiments which led those bold Dutch and English rovers to +circumnavigate the world in cockle-shells, and to beard the most potent +monarch on the earth, both at home and abroad, with a handful of +volunteers. + +This then was the contest, and this the machinery by which it was to be +maintained. A struggle for national independence, liberty of conscience, +freedom of the seas, against sacerdotal and world-absorbing tyranny; +a mortal combat of the splendid infantry of Spain and Italy, the +professional reiters of Germany, the floating castles of a world-empire, +with the militiamen and mercantile-marine of England and Holland united. +Holland had been engaged twenty years long in the conflict. England had +thus far escaped it; but there was no doubt, and could be none, that her +time had come. She must fight the battle of Protestantism on sea and +shore, shoulder to shoulder, with the Netherlanders, or await the +conqueror's foot on her own soil. + +What now was the disposition and what the means of the Provinces to do +their part in the contest? If the twain as Holland wished, had become of +one flesh, would England have been the loser? Was it quite sure that +Elizabeth--had she even accepted the less compromising title which she +refused--would not have been quite as much the protected as the +"protectress?" + +It is very certain that the English, on their arrival in the Provinces, +were singularly impressed by the opulent and stately appearance of the +country and its inhabitants. Notwithstanding the tremendous war which +the Hollanders had been waging against Spain for twenty years, their +commerce had continued to thrive, and their resources to increase. +Leicester was in a state of constant rapture at the magnificence +which surrounded him, from his first entrance into the country. +Notwithstanding the admiration expressed by the Hollanders for the +individual sumptuousness of the Lieutenant-General; his followers, on +their part, were startled by the general luxury of their new allies. +"The realm is rich and full of men," said Wilford, "the sums men exceed +in apparel would bear the brunt of this war;" and again, "if the excess +used in sumptuous apparel were only abated, and that we could convert the +same to these wars, it would stop a great gap." + +The favourable view taken by the English as to the resources and +inclination of the Netherland commonwealth was universal. "The general +wish and desire of these countrymen," wrote Sir Thomas Shirley, "is that +the amity begun between England and this nation may be everlasting, and +there is not any of our company of judgment but wish the same. For all +they that see the goodliness and stateliness of these towns, strengthened +both with fortification and natural situation, all able to defend +themselves with their own abilities, must needs think it too fair a prey +to be let pass, and a thing most worthy to be embraced." + +Leicester, whose enthusiasm continued to increase as rapidly as the +Queen's zeal seemed to be cooling, was most anxious lest the short- +comings of his own Government should work irreparable evil. "I pray you, +my lord," he wrote to Burghley, "forget not us poor exiles; if you do, +God must and will forget you. And great pity it were that so noble +provinces and goodly havens, with such infinite ships and mariners, +should not be always as they may now easily be, at the assured devotion +of England. In my opinion he can neither love Queen nor country that +would not wish and further it should be so. And seeing her Majesty is +thus far entered into the cause, and that these people comfort themselves +in full hope of her favour, it were a sin and a shame it should not be +handled accordingly, both for honour and surety." + +Sir John Conway, who accompanied the Earl through the whole of his +"progress journey," was quite as much struck as he by the flourishing +aspect and English proclivities of the Provinces. "The countries which +we have passed," he said, "are fertile in their nature; the towns, +cities, buildings, of snore state and beauty, to such as have travelled +other countries, than any they have ever seen. The people the most +industrious by all means to live that be in the world, and, no doubt, +passing rich. They outwardly show themselves of good heart, zeal, +and loyalty, towards the Queen our mistress. There is no doubt that +the general number of them had rather come under her Majesty's regiment, +than to continue under the States and burgomasters of their country. +The impositions which they lay in defence of their State is wonderful. +If her Highness proceed in this beginning, she may retain these parts +hers, with their good love, and her great glory and gain. I would she +might as perfectly see the whole country, towns, profits, and pleasures +thereof, in a glass, as she may her own face; I do then assure myself she +would with careful consideration receive them, and not allow of any man's +reason to the contrary . . . . The country is worthy any prince in +the world, the people do reverence the Queen, and in love of her do so +believe that the Grace of Leicester is by God and her sent among them for +her good. And they believe in him for the redemption of their bodies, +as they do in God for their souls. I dare pawn my soul, that if her +Majesty will allow him the just and rightful mean to manage this cause, +that he will so handle the manner and matter as shall highly both please +and profit her Majesty, and increase her country, and his own honour." + +Lord North, who held a high command in the auxiliary force, spoke also +with great enthusiasm. "Had your Lordship seen," he wrote to Burghley, +"with what thankful hearts these countries receive all her Majesty's +subjects, what multitudes of people they be, what stately cities and +buildings they have, how notably fortified by art, how strong by nature, +flow fertile the whole country, and how wealthy it is, you would, I know, +praise the Lord that opened your lips to undertake this enterprise, the +continuance and good success whereof will eternise her Majesty, beautify +her crown, with the most shipping, with the most populous and wealthy +countries, that ever prince added to his kingdom, or that is or can be +found in Europe. I lack wit, good my Lord, to dilate this matter." + +Leicester, better informed than some of those in his employment, +entertained strong suspicions concerning Philip's intentions with regard +to England; but he felt sure that the only way to laugh at a Spanish +invasion was to make Holland and England as nearly one as it was possible +to do. + +"No doubt that the King of Spain's preparations by sea be great," he, +said; "but I know that all that he and his friends can make are not able +to match with her Majesty's forces, if it please her to use the means +that God hath given her. But besides her own, if she need; I will +undertake to furnish her from hence, upon two months' warning, a navy for +strong and tall ships, with their furniture and mariners, that the King +of Spain, and all that he can make, shall not be able to encounter with +them. I think the bruit of his preparations is made the greater to +terrify her Majesty and this country people. But, thanked be God, her +Majesty hath little cause to fear him. And in this country they esteem +no more of his power by sea than I do of six fisher-boats off Rye." + +Thus suggestive is it to peep occasionally behind the curtain. In the +calm cabinet of the Escorial, Philip and his comendador mayor are laying +their heads together, preparing the invasion of England; making +arrangements for King Alexander's coronation in that island, and--like +sensible, farsighted persons as they are--even settling the succession +to the throne after Alexander's death, instead of carelessly leaving such +distant details to chance, or subsequent consideration. On the other +hand, plain Dutch sea-captains, grim beggars of the sea, and the like, +denizens of a free commonwealth and of the boundless ocean-men who are +at home on blue water, and who have burned gunpowder against those +prodigious slave-rowed galleys of Spain--together with their new allies, +the dauntless mariners of England--who at this very moment are "singeing +the King of Spain's beard," as it had never been singed before--are not +so much awestruck with the famous preparations for invasion as was +perhaps to be expected. There may be a delay, after all, before Parma +can be got safely established in London, and Elizabeth in Orcus, and +before the blood-tribunal of the Inquisition can substitute its sway for +that of the "most noble, wise, and learned United States." Certainly, +Philip the Prudent would have been startled, difficult as he was to +astonish, could he have known that those rebel Hollanders of his made +no more account of his slowly-preparing invincible armada than of six +fisher-boats off Rye. Time alone could show where confidence had been +best placed. Meantime it was certain, that it well behoved Holland and +England to hold hard together, nor let "that enterprise quail." + +The famous expedition of Sir Francis Drake was the commencement of a +revelation. "That is the string," said Leicester, "that touches the King +indeed." It was soon to be made known to the world that the ocean was +not a Spanish Lake, nor both the Indies the private property of Philip. +"While the riches of the Indies continue," said Leicester, "he thinketh +he will be able to weary out all other princes; and I know, by good +means, that he more feareth this action of Sir Francis than he ever did +anything that has been attempted against him." With these continued +assaults upon the golden treasure-houses of Spain, and by a determined +effort to maintain the still more important stronghold which had been +wrested from her in the Netherlands, England might still be safe. "This +country is so full of ships and mariners," said Leicester, "so abundant +in wealth, and in the means to make money, that, had it but stood +neutral, what an aid had her Majesty been deprived of. But if it had +been the enemy's also, I leave it to your consideration what had been +likely to ensue. These people do now honour and love her Majesty in +marvellous sort." + +There was but one feeling on this most important subject among the +English who went to the Netherlands. All held the same language. The +question was plainly presented to England whether she would secure to +herself the great bulwark of her defence, or place it in the hands of her +mortal foe? How could there be doubt or supineness on such a momentous +subject? "Surely, my Lord," wrote Richard Cavendish to Burghley, "if you +saw the wealth, the strength, the shipping, and abundance of mariners, +whereof these countries stand furnished, your heart would quake to think +that so hateful an enemy as Spain should again be furnished with such +instruments; and the Spaniards themselves do nothing doubt upon the hope +of the consequence hereof, to assure themselves of the certain ruin of +her Majesty and the whole estate." + +And yet at the very outset of Leicester's administration, there was a +whisper of peace-overtures to Spain, secretly made by Elizabeth in her +own behalf, and in that of the Provinces. We shall have soon occasion to +examine into the truth of these rumours, which, whether originating in +truth or falsehood, were most pernicious in their effects. The +Hollanders were determined never to return to slavery again, so long as +they could fire a shot in their own defence. They earnestly wished +English cooperation, but it was the cooperation of English matchlocks and +English cutlasses, not English protecols and apostilles. It was +military, not diplomatic machinery that they required. If they could +make up their minds to submit to Philip and the Inquisition again, Philip +and the Holy office were but too ready to receive the erring penitents to +their embrace without a go-between. + +It was war, not peace, therefore, that Holland meant by the English +alliance. It was war, not peace, that Philip intended. It was war, not +peace, that Elizabeth's most trusty counsellors knew to be inevitable. +There was also, as we have shown, no doubt whatever as to the good +disposition, and the great power of the republic to bear its share in the +common cause. The enthusiasm of the Hollanders was excessive. "There +was such a noise, both in Delft, Rotterdam, and Dort," said Leicester, +"in crying 'God save the Queen!' as if she had been in Cheapside." Her +own subjects could not be more loyal than were the citizens and yeomen of +Holland. "The members of the States dare not but be Queen Elizabeth's," +continued the Earl, "for by the living God! if there should fall but the +least unkindness through their default, the people would kill them. All +sorts of people, from highest to lowest, assure themselves, now that they +have her Majesty's good countenance, to beat all the Spaniards out of +their country. Never was there people in such jollity as these be. I +could be content to lose a limb, could her Majesty see these countries +and towns as I have done." He was in truth excessively elated, and had +already, in imagination, vanquished Alexander Farnese, and eclipsed the +fame of William the Silent. "They will serve under me," he observed, +"with a better will than ever they served under the Prince of Orange. +Yet they loved him well, but they never hoped of the liberty of this +country till now." + +Thus the English government had every reason to be satisfied with the +aspect of its affairs in the Netherlands. But the nature of the Earl's +authority was indefinite. The Queen had refused the sovereignty and the +protectorate. She had also distinctly and peremptorily forbidden +Leicester to assume any office or title that might seem at variance with +such a refusal on her part. Yet it is certain that, from the very first, +he had contemplated some slight disobedience to these prohibitions. +"What government is requisite"--wrote he in a secret memorandum of +"things most necessary to understand"--"to be appointed to him that shall +be their governor? First, that he have as much authority as the Prince +of Orange, or any other governor or captain-general, hath had +heretofore." Now the Prince of Orange hath been stadholder of each of +the United Provinces, governor-general, commander-in-chief, count of +Holland in prospect, and sovereign, if he had so willed it. It would +doubtless have been most desirable for the country, in its confused +condition, had there been a person competent to wield, and willing to +accept, the authority once exercised by William I. But it was also +certain that this was exactly the authority which Elizabeth had forbidden +Leicester to assume. Yet it is diffcult to understand what position the +Queen intended that her favourite should maintain, nor how he was to +carry out her instructions, while submitting to her prohibitions. +He was directed to cause the confused government of the Provinces to +be redressed, and a better form of polity to be established. He was +ordered, in particular, to procure a radical change in the constitution, +by causing the deputies to the General Assembly to be empowered to decide +upon important matters, without, as had always been the custom, making +direct reference to the assemblies of the separate Provinces. He was +instructed to bring about, in some indefinite way, a complete reform in +financial matters, by compelling the States-General to raise money by +liberal taxation, according to the "advice of her Majesty, delivered unto +them by her lieutenant." + +And how was this radical change in the institutions of the Provinces to +be made by an English earl, whose only authority was that of commander- +in-chief over five thousand half-starved, unpaid, utterly-forlorn English +troops? + +The Netherland envoys in England, in their parting advice, most +distinctly urged him "to hale authority with the first, to declare +himself chief head and governor-general" of the whole country,--for it +was a political head that was wanted in order to restore unity of action +--not an additional general, where there were already generals in plenty. +Sir John Norris, valiant, courageous, experienced--even if not, as +Walsingham observed, a "religious soldier," nor learned in anything "but +a kind of licentious and corrupt government"--was not likely to require +the assistance of the new lieutenant-general in field operations nor +could the army be brought into a state of thorough discipline and +efficiency by the magic of Leicester's name. The rank and file of the +English army--not the commanders-needed strengthening. The soldiers +required shoes and stockings, bread and meat, and for these articles +there were not the necessary funds, nor would the title of Lieutenant- +General supply the deficiency. The little auxiliary force was, in truth, +in a condition most pitiable to behold: it was difficult to say whether +the soldiers who had been already for a considerable period in the +Netherlands, or those who had been recently levied in the purlieus of +London, were in the most unpromising plight. The beggarly state in which +Elizabeth had been willing that her troops should go forth to the wars +was a sin and a disgrace. Well might her Lieutenant-General say that her +"poor subjects were no better than abjects." There were few effective +companies remaining of the old force. "There is but a small number of +the first bands left," said Sir John Conway, "and those so pitiful and +unable ever to serve again, as I leave to speak further of theirs, to +avoid grief to your heart. A monstrous fault there hath been somewhere." + +Leicester took a manful and sagacious course at starting. Those who had +no stomach for the fight were ordered to depart. The chaplain gave them +sermons; the Lieutenant-General, on St. Stephen's day, made them a "pithy +and honourable" oration, and those who had the wish or the means to buy +themselves out of the adventure, were allowed to do so: for the Earl was +much disgusted with the raw material out of which he was expected to +manufacture serviceable troops. Swaggering ruffians from the +disreputable haunts of London, cockney apprentices, brokendown tapsters, +discarded serving men; the Bardolphs and Pistols, Mouldys, Warts, and the +like--more at home in tavern-brawls or in dark lanes than on the battle- +field--were not the men to be entrusted with the honour of England at a +momentous crisis. He spoke with grief and shame of the worthless +character and condition of the English youths sent over to the +Netherlands. "Believe me," said he, "you will all repent the cockney +kind of bringing up at this day of young men. They be gone hence with +shame enough, and too many, that I will warrant, will make as many frays +with bludgeons and bucklers as any in London shall do; but such shall +never have credit with me again. Our simplest men in show have been our +best men, and your gallant blood and ruffian men the worst of all +others." + +Much winnowed, as it was, the small force might in time become more +effective; and the Earl spent freely of his own substance to supply the +wants of his followers, and to atone for the avarice of his sovereign. +The picture painted however by muster-master Digger of the plumed troops +that had thus come forth to maintain the honour of England and the cause +of liberty, was anything but imposing. None knew better than Digges +their squalid and slovenly condition, or was more anxious to effect a +reformation therein. "A very wise, stout fellow he is," said the Earl, +"and very careful to serve thoroughly her Majesty." Leicester relied +much upon his efforts. "There is good hope," said the muster-master, +"that his excellency will shortly establish such good order for the +government and training of our nation, that these weak, bad-furnished, +ill-armed, and worse-trained bands, thus rawly left unto him, shall +within a few months prove as well armed, trained, complete, gallant +companies as shall be found elsewhere in Europe." The damage they were +likely to inflict upon the enemy seemed very problematical, until they +should have been improved by some wholesome ball-practice. "They are so +unskilful," said Digger, "that if they should be carried to the field no +better trained than yet they are, they would prove much more dangerous to +their own leaders and companies than any ways serviceable on their +enemies. The hard and miserable estate of the soldiers generally, +excepting officers, hath been such, as by the confessions of the captains +themselves, they have been offered by many of their soldiers thirty and +forty pounds a piece to be dismissed and sent away; whereby I doubt not +the flower of the pressed English bands are gone, and the remnant +supplied with such paddy persons as commonly, in voluntary procurements, +men are glad to accept." + +Even after the expiration of four months the condition of the paddy +persons continued most destitute. The English soldiers became mere +barefoot starving beggars in the streets, as had never been the case in +the worst of times, when the States were their paymasters. The little +money brought from the treasury by the Earl, and the large sums which he +had contributed out of his own pocket, had been spent in settling, and +not fully settling, old scores. "Let me entreat you," wrote Leicester to +Walsingham, "to be a mean to her Majesty, that the poor soldiers be not +beaten for my sake. There came no penny of treasure over since my coming +hither. That which then came was most part due before it came. There is +much still due. They cannot get a penny, their credit is spent, they +perish for want of victuals and clothing in great numbers. The whole are +ready to mutiny. They cannot be gotten out to service, because they +cannot discharge the debts they owe in the places where they are. I have +let of my own more than I may spare."--"There was no soldier yet able to +buy himself a pair of hose," said the Earl again, "and it is too, too +great shame to see how they go, and it kills their hearts to show +themselves among men." + +There was no one to dispute the Earl's claims. The Nassau family was +desperately poor, and its chief, young Maurice, although he had been +elected stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, had every disposition--as Sir +Philip upon his arrival in Flushing immediately informed his uncle--to +submit to the authority of the new governor. Louisa de Coligny, widow of +William the Silent, was most anxious for the English alliance, through +which alone she believed that the fallen fortunes of the family could be +raised. It was thus only, she thought, that the vengeance for which she +thirsted upon the murderers of her father and her husband could be +obtained. "We see now," she wrote to Walsingham, in a fiercer strain +than would seem to comport with so gentle a nature--deeply wronged as the +daughter of Coligny and the wife of Orange had been by Papists--"we see +now the effects of our God's promises. He knows when it pleases Him to +avenge the blood of His own; and I confess that I feel most keenly the +joy which is shared in by the whole Church of God. There is none that +has received more wrong from these murderers than I have done, and I +esteem myself happy in the midst of my miseries that God has permitted me +to see some vengeance. These beginings make me hope that I shall see yet +more, which will be not less useful to the good, both in your country and +in these isles." + +There was no disguise as to the impoverished condition to which the +Nassau family had been reduced by the self-devotion of its chief. They +were obliged to ask alms of England, until the "sapling should become a +tree."--"Since it is the will of God," wrote the Princess to Davison, "I +am not ashamed to declare the necessity of our house, for it is in His +cause that it has fallen. I pray you, Sir, therefore to do me and these +children the favour to employ your thoughts in this regard." If there +had been any strong French proclivities on their part--as had been so +warmly asserted--they were likely to disappear. Villiers, who had been a +confidential friend of William the Silent, and a strong favourer of +France, in vain endeavoured to keep alive the ancient sentiments towards +that country, although he was thought to be really endeavouring to bring +about a submission of the Nassaus to Spain. "This Villiers," said +Leicester, "is a most vile traitorous knave, and doth abuse a young +nobleman here extremely, the Count Maurice. For all his religion, he is +a more earnest persuader secretly to have him yield to a reconciliation +than Sainte Aldegonde was. He shall not tarry ten days neither in +Holland nor Zeeland. He is greatly hated here of all sorts, and it shall +go hard but I will win the young Count." + +As for Hohenlo, whatever his opinions might once have been regarding the +comparative merits of Frenchmen and Englishmen, he was now warmly in +favour of England, and expressed an intention of putting an end to the +Villiers' influence by simply drowning Villiers. The announcement of +this summary process towards the counsellor was not untinged with +rudeness towards the pupil. "The young Count," said Leicester, "by +Villiers' means, was not willing to have Flushing rendered, which the +Count Hollock perceiving, told the Count Maurice, in a great rage, that +if he took any course than that of the Queen of England, and swore by no +beggars, he would drown his priest in the haven before his face, and turn +himself and his mother-in-law out of their house there, and thereupon +went with Mr. Davison to the delivery of it." Certainly, if Hohenlo +permitted himself such startling demonstrations towards the son and widow +of William the Silent, it must have been after his habitual potations had +been of the deepest. Nevertheless it was satisfactory for the new +chieftain to know that the influence of so vehement a partisan was +secured for England. The Count's zeal deserved gratitude upon +Leicester's part, and Leicester was grateful. "This man must be +cherished," said the Earl; "he is sound and faithful, and hath indeed all +the chief holds in his hands, and at his commandment. Ye shall do well +to procure him a letter of thanks, taking knowledge in general of his +good-will to her Majesty. He is a right Almayn in manner and fashion, +free of his purse and of his drink, yet do I wish him her Majesty's +pensioner before any prince in Germany, for he loves her and is able to +serve her, and doth desire to be known her servant. He hath been +laboured by his nearest kinsfolk and friends in Germany to have left the +States and to have the King of Spain's pension and very great reward; but +he would not. I trust her Majesty will accept of his offer to be her +servant during his life, being indeed a very noble soldier." The Earl +was indeed inclined to take so cheerful view of matters as to believe +that he should even effect a reform in the noble soldier's most +unpleasant characteristic. "Hollock is a wise gallant gentleman," he +said, "and very well esteemed. He hath only one fault, which is +drinking; but good hope that he will amend it. Some make me believe that +I shall be able to do much with him, and I mean to do my best, for I see +no man that knows all these countries, and the people of all sorts, like +him, and this fault overthrows all." + +Accordingly, so long as Maurice continued under the tutelage of this +uproarious cavalier--who, at a later day, was to become his brother-in- +law-he was not likely to interfere with Leicester's authority. The +character of the young Count was developing slowly. More than his father +had ever done, he deserved the character of the taciturn. A quiet keen +observer of men and things, not demonstrative nor talkative, nor much +given to writing--a modest, calm, deeply-reflecting student of military +and mathematical science--he was not at that moment deeply inspired by +political ambition. He was perhaps more desirous of raising the fallen +fortunes of his house than of securing the independence of his country. +Even at that early age, however, his mind was not easy to read, and his +character was somewhat of a puzzle to those who studied it. "I see him +much discontented with the States," said Leicester; "he hath a sullen +deep wit. The young gentleman is yet to be won only to her Majesty, I +perceive, of his own inclination. The house is marvellous poor and +little regarded by the States, and if they get anything it is like to be +by her Majesty, which should be altogether, and she may easily, do for +him to win him sure. I will undertake it." Yet the Earl was ever +anxious about some of the influences which surrounded Maurice, for he +thought him more easily guided than he wished him to be by any others but +himself. "He stands upon making and marring," he said, "as he meets with +good counsel." And at another time he observed, "The young gentleman +hath a solemn sly wit; but, in troth, if any be to be doubted toward the +King of Spain, it is he and his counsellors, for they have been +altogether, so far, French, and so far in mislike with England as they +cannot almost hide it." + +And there was still another member of the house of Nassau who was already +an honour to his illustrious race. Count William Lewis, hardly more than +a boy in years, had already served many campaigns, and had been +desperately wounded in the cause for which so much of the heroic blood of +his race had been shed. Of the five Nassau brethren, his father Count +John was the sole survivor, and as devoted as ever to the cause of +Netherland liberty. The other four had already laid down their lives in +its defence. And William Lewis, was worthy to be the nephew of William +and Lewis, Henry and Adolphus, and the son of John. Not at all a +beautiful or romantic hero in appearance, but an odd-looking little man, +with a round bullet-head, close-clipped hair, a small, twinkling, +sagacious eye, rugged, somewhat puffy features screwed whimsically awry, +with several prominent warts dotting, without ornamenting, all that was +visible of a face which was buried up to the ears in a furzy thicket of +yellow-brown beard, the tough young stadholder of Friesland, in his iron +corslet, and halting upon his maimed leg, had come forth with other +notable personages to the Hague. + +He wished to do honour heartily and freely to Queen Elizabeth and her +representative. And Leicester was favourably impressed with his new +acquaintance. "Here is another little fellow," he said, "as little as +may be, but one of the gravest and wisest young men that ever I spake +withal; it is the Count Guilliam of Nassau. He governs Friesland; I +would every Province had such another." + +Thus, upon the great question which presented itself upon the very +threshold--the nature and extent of the authority to be exercised by +Leicester--the most influential Netherlanders were in favour of a large +and liberal interpretation of his powers. The envoys in England, the +Nassau family Hohenlo, the prominent members of the States, such as the +shrewd, plausible Menin, the "honest and painful" Falk, and the +chancellor of Gelderland--"that very great, wise, old man Leoninus," +as Leicester called him,--were all desirous that he should assume an +absolute governor-generalship over the whole country. This was a grave +and a delicate matter, and needed to be severely scanned, without delay. +But besides the natives, there were two Englishmen--together with +ambassador Davison--who were his official advisers. Bartholomew Clerk, +LL.D., and Sir Henry Killigrew had been appointed by the Queen to be +members of the council of the United States, according to the provisions +of the August treaty. The learned Bartholomew hardly seemed equal to his +responsible position among those long-headed Dutch politicians. Philip +Sidney--the only blemish in whose character was an intolerable tendency +to puns--observed that "Doctor Clerk was of those clerks that are not +always the wisest, and so my lord too late was finding him." The Earl +himself, who never undervalued the intellect of the Netherlanders whom +he came to govern, anticipated but small assistance from the English +civilian. "I find no great stuff in my little colleague," he said, +"nothing that I looked for. It is a pity you have no more of his +profession, able men to serve. This man hath good will, and a pretty +scholar's wit; but he is too little for these big fellows, as heavy as +her Majesty thinks them to be. I would she had but one or two, such as +the worst of half a score be here." The other English statecounsellor +seemed more promising. "I have one here," said the Earl, "in whom I take +no small comfort; that is little Hal Killigrew. I assure you, my lord, +he is a notable servant, and more in him than ever I heretofore thought +of him, though I always knew him to be an honest man and an able." + +But of all the men that stood by Leicester's side, the most faithful, +devoted, sagacious, experienced, and sincere of his counsellors, English +or Flemish, was envoy Davison. It is important to note exactly the +opinion that had been formed of him by those most competent to judge, +before events in which he was called on to play a prominent and +responsible though secondary part, had placed him in a somewhat +false position. + +"Mr. Davison," wrote Sidney, "is here very careful in her Majesty's +causes, and in your Lordship's. He takes great pains and goes to great +charges for it." The Earl himself was always vehement in his praise. +"Mr. Davison," said he at another time, "has dealt most painfully and +chargeably in her Majesty's service here, and you shall find him as +sufficiently able to deliver the whole state of this country as any man +that ever was in it, acquainted with all sorts here that are men of +dealing. Surely, my Lord, you shall do a good deed that he may be +remembered with her Majesty's gracious consideration, for his being here +has been very chargeable, having kept a very good countenance, and a very +good table, all his abode here, and of such credit with all the chief +sort, as I know no stranger in any place hath the like. As I am a suitor +to you to be his good friend to her Majesty, so I must heartily pray you, +good my Lord, to procure his coming hither shortly to me again, for I +know not almost how to do without him. I confess it is a wrong to the +gentleman, and I protest before God, if it were for mine own particular +respect, I would not require it for L5000. But your Lordship doth little +think how greatly I have to do, as also how needful for her Majesty's +service his being here will, be. Wherefore, good my Lord, if it may not +offend her Majesty, be a mean for this my request, for her own service' +sake wholly." + +Such were the personages who surrounded the Earl on his arrival in the +Netherlands, and such their sentiments respecting the position that it +was desirable for him to assume. But there was one very important fact. +He had studiously concealed from Davison that the Queen had peremptorily +and distinctly forbidden his accepting the office of governor-general. +It seemed reasonable, if he came thither at all, that he should come in +that elevated capacity. The Staten wished it. The Earl ardently longed +for it. The ambassador, who knew more of Netherland politics and +Netherland humours than any man did, approved of it. The interests of +both England and Holland seemed to require it. No one but Leicester knew +that her Majesty had forbidden it. + +Accordingly, no sooner had the bell-ringing, cannon-explosions, bonfires, +and charades, come to an end, and the Earl got fairly housed in the +Hague, than the States took the affair of government seriously in hand. + +On the 9th January, Chancellor Leoninus and Paul Buys waited upon +Davison, and requested a copy of the commission granted by the Queen to +the Earl. The copy was refused, but the commission was read; by which it +appeared that he had received absolute command over her Majesty's forces +in the Netherlands by land and sea, together with authority to send for +all gentlemen and other personages out of England that he might think +useful to him. On the 10th the States passed a resolution to offer him +the governor-generalship over all the Provinces. On the same day another +committee waited upon his "Excellency"--as the States chose to denominate +the Earl, much to the subsequent wrath of the Queen--and made an +appointment for the whole body to wait upon him the following morning. + +Upon that day accordingly--New Year's Day, by the English reckoning, 11th +January by the New Style--the deputies of all the States at an early hour +came to his lodgings, with much pomp, preceded by a herald and +trumpeters. Leicester, not expecting them quite so soon, was in his +dressing-room, getting ready for the solemn audience, when, somewhat to +his dismay, a flourish of trumpets announced the arrival of the whole +body in his principal hall of audience. Hastening his preparations as +much as possible, he descended to that apartment, and was instantly +saluted by a flourish of rhetoric still more formidable; for that "very +great, and wise old Leoninus," forthwith began an oration, which promised +to be of portentous length and serious meaning. The Earl was slightly +flustered, when, fortunately; some one whispered in his ear that they had +come to offer him the much-coveted prize of the stadholderate-general. +Thereupon he made bold to interrupt the flow of the chancellor's +eloquence in its first outpourings. "As this is a very private matter," +said he, "it will be better to treat of it in a more private place I pray +you therefore to come into my chamber, where these things may be more +conveniently discussed." + +"You hear what my Lord says," cried Leoninus, turning to his companions; +"we are to withdraw into his chamber." + +Accordingly they withdrew, accompanied by the Earl, and by five or six +select counsellors, among whom were Davison and Dr. Clerk. Then the +chancellor once more commenced his harangue, and went handsomely through +the usual forms of compliment, first to the Queen, and then to her +representative, concluding with an earnest request that the Earl-- +although her Majesty had declined the sovereignty "would take the name +and place of absolute governor and general of all their forces and +soldiers, with the disposition of their whole revenues and taxes." + +So soon as the oration was concluded, Leicester; who did not speak +French, directed Davison to reply in that language. + +The envoy accordingly, in name of the Earl, expressed the deepest +gratitude for this mark of the affection and confidence of the States- +General towards the Queen. He assured them that the step thus taken by +them would be the cause of still more favour and affection on the part of +her Majesty, who would unquestionably, from day to day, augment the +succour that she was extending to the Provinces in order to relieve men +from their misery. For himself, the Earl protested that he could never +sufficiently recompense the States for the honour which had thus been +conferred upon him, even if he should live one hundred lives. Although +he felt himself quite unable to sustain the weight of so great an office, +yet he declared that they might repose with full confidence on his +integrity and good intentions. Nevertheless, as the authority thus +offered to him was very arduous, and as the subject required deep +deliberation, he requested that the proposition should be reduced to +writing, and delivered into his hands. He might then come to a +conclusion thereupon, most conducive to the glory of God and the welfare +of the land. + +Three days afterwards, 14th January, the offer, drawn up formally in +writing, was presented to envoy Davison, according to the request of +Leicester. Three days latter, 17th January, his Excellency having +deliberated upon the proposition, requested a committee of conference. +The conference took place the same day, and there was some discussion +upon matters of detail, principally relating to the matter of +contributions. The Earl, according to the report of the committee, +manifested no repugnance to the acceptance of the office, provided these +points could be satisfactorily adjusted. He seemed, on the contrary, +impatient, rather than reluctant; for, on the day following the +conference, he sent his secretary Gilpin with a somewhat importunate +message. "His Excellency was surprised," said the secretary, "that the +States were so long in coming to a resolution on the matters suggested by +him in relation to the offer of the government-general; nor could his +Excellency imagine the cause of the delay." + +For, in truth, the delay was caused by an excessive, rather than a +deficient, appetite for power on the part of his Excellency. The States, +while conferring what they called the "absolute" government, by which it +afterwards appeared that they meant absolute, in regard to time, not to +function--were very properly desirous of retaining a wholesome control +over that government by means of the state-council. They wished not only +to establish such a council, as a check upon the authority of the new +governor, but to share with him at least in the appointment of the +members who were to compose the board. But the aristocratic Earl was +already restive under the thought of any restraint--most of all the +restraint of individuals belonging to what he considered the humbler +classes. + +"Cousin, my lord ambassador," said he to Davison, "among your sober +companions be it always remembered, I beseech you, that your cousin have +no other alliance but with gentle blood. By no means consent that he be +linked in faster bonds than their absolute grant may yield him a free and +honourable government, to be able to do such service as shall be meet for +an honest man to perform in such a calling, which of itself is very +noble. But yet it is not more to be embraced, if I were to be led in +alliance by such keepers as will sooner draw my nose from the right scent +of the chace, than to lead my feet in the true pace to pursue the game I +desire to reach. Consider, I pray you, therefore, what is to be done, +and how unfit it will be in respect of my poor self, and how unacceptable +to her Majesty, and how advantageous to enemies that will seek holes in +my coat, if I should take so great a name upon me, and so little power. +They challenge acceptation already, and I challenge their absolute grant +and offer to me, before they spoke of any instructions; for so it was +when Leoninus first spoke to me with them all on New Years Day, as you +heard--offering in his speech all manner of absolute authority. If it +please them to confirm this, without restraining instructions, I will +willingly serve the States, or else, with such advising instructions as +the Dowager of Hungary had." + +This was explicit enough, and Davison, who always acted for Leicester in +the negotiations with the States, could certainly have no doubt as to the +desires of the Earl, on the subject of "absolute" authority. He did +accordingly what he could to bring the States to his Excellency's way of +thinking; nor was he unsuccessful. + +On the 22nd January, a committee of conference was sent by the States to +Leyden, in which city Leicester was making a brief visit. They were +instructed to procure his consent, if possible, to the appointment, by +the States themselves, of a council consisting of members from each +Province. If they could not obtain this concession, they were directed +to insist as earnestly as possible upon their right to present a double. +list of candidates, from which he was to make nominations. And if the +one and the other proposition should be refused, the States were then to +agree that his Excellency should freely choose and appoint a council of +state, consisting of native residents from every Province, for the period +of one year. The committee was further authorised to arrange the +commission for the governor, in accordance with these points; and to draw +up a set of instructions for. the state-council, to the satisfaction of +his Excellency. The committee was also empowered to conclude the matter +at once, without further reference to the States. + +Certainly a committee thus instructed was likely to be sufficiently +pliant. It had need to be, in order to bend to the humour of his +Excellency, which was already becoming imperious. The adulation which he +had received; the triumphal marches, the Latin orations, the flowers +strewn in his path, had produced their effect, and the Earl was almost +inclined to assume the airs of royalty. The committee waited upon him at +Leyden. He affected a reluctance to accept the "absolute" government, +but his coyness could not deceive such experienced statesmen as the "wise +old Leoliinus," or Menin, Maalzoon, Florin Thin, or Aitzma, who composed +the deputation. It was obvious enough to them that it was not a King Log +that had descended among them, but it was not a moment for complaining. +The governor elect insisted, of course, that the two Englishmen, +according to the treaty with her Majesty, should be members of, the +council. He also, at once, nominated Leoninus, Meetkerk, Brederode, +Falck, and Paul Buys, to the same office; thinking, no doubt, that these +were five keepers--if keepers he must have--who would not draw his nose +off the scent, nor prevent his reaching the game he hunted, whatever that +game might be. It was reserved for the future, however, to show, +whether, the five were like to hunt in company with him as harmoniously +as he hoped. As to the other counsellors, he expressed a willingness +that candidates should be proposed for him, as to whose qualifications he +would make up his mind at leisure. + +This matter being satisfactorily adjusted-and certainly unless the game +pursued by the Earl was a crown royal, he ought to have been satisfied +with his success--the States received a letter from their committee at +Leyden, informing them that his Excellency, after some previous +protestations, had accepted the government (24th January, 1586). + +It was agreed that he should be inaugurated Governor-General of the +United Provinces of Gelderland and Zutphen, Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, +Utrecht, Friesland, and all others in confederacy with them. He was to +have supreme military command by land and sea. He was to exercise +supreme authority in matters civil and political, according to the +customs prevalent in the reign of the Emperor Charles V. All officers, +political, civil, legal, were to be appointed by him out of a double or +triple nomination made by the States of the Provinces in which vacancies +might occur. The States-General were to assemble whenever and wherever +he should summon them. They were also--as were the States of each +separate Province--competent to meet together by their own appointment. +The Governor-General was to receive an oath of fidelity from the States, +and himself to swear the maintenance of the ancient laws, customs, and +privileges of the country. + +The deed was done. In vain had an emissary of the French court been +exerting his utmost to prevent the consummation of this close alliance. +For the wretched government of Henry III., while abasing itself before +Philip II., and offering the fair cities and fertile plains of France as +a sacrifice to that insatiable ambition which wore the mask of religious +bigotry, was most anxious that Holland and England should not escape the +meshes by which it was itself enveloped. The agent at the Hague came +nominally upon some mercantile affairs, but in reality, according to +Leicester, "to impeach the States from binding themselves to her +Majesty." But he was informed that there was then no leisure for his +affairs; "for the States would attend to the service of the Queen of +England, before all princes in the world." The agent did not feel +complimented by the coolness of this reception; yet it was reasonable +enough, certainly, that the Hollanders should remember with bitterness +the contumely, which they had experienced the previous year in France. +The emissary was; however, much disgusted. "The fellow," said Leicester, +"took it in such snuff, that he came proudly to the States and offered +his letters, saying; 'Now I trust you have done all your sacrifices to +the Queen of England, and may yield me some leisure to read my masters +letters.'"--"But they so shook him, up," continued the Earl, "for naming +her Majesty in scorn--as they took it--that they hurled him his letters; +and bid him content himself;" and so on, much to the agent's +discomfiture, who retired in greater "snuff" than ever. + +So much for the French influence. And now Leicester had done exactly +what the most imperious woman in the world, whose favour was the breath +of his life, had expressly forbidden him to do. The step having been +taken, the prize so tempting to his ambition having been snatched, and +the policy which had governed the united action of the States and himself +seeming so sound, what ought he to have done in order to avert the +tempest which he must have foreseen? Surely a man who knew so much of +woman's nature and of Elizabeth's nature as he did, ought to have +attempted to conciliate her affections, after having so deeply wounded +her pride. He knew his power. Besides the graces of his person and +manner--which few women, once impressed by them, could ever forget--he +possessed the most insidious and flattering eloquence, and, in absence, +his pen was as wily as his tongue. For the Earl was imbued with the very +genius of courtship. None was better skilled than he in the phrases of +rapturous devotion, which were music to the ear both of the woman and the +Queen; and he knew his royal mistress too well not to be aware that the +language of passionate idolatry, however extravagant, had rarely fallen +unheeded upon her soul. It was strange therefore, that in this +emergency, he should not at once throw himself upon her compassion +without any mediator. Yet, on the contrary, he committed the monstrous +error of entrusting his defence to envoy Davison, whom he determined to +despatch at once with instructions to the Queen, and towards whom he +committed the grave offence of concealing from him her previous +prohibitions. But how could the Earl fail to perceive that it was the +woman, not the Queen, whom be should have implored for pardon; that it +was Robert Dudley, not William Davison, who ought to have sued upon his +knees. This whole matter of the Netherland sovereignty and the Leicester +stadholderate, forms a strange psychological study, which deserves and +requires some minuteness of attention; for it was by the characteristics +of these eminent personages that tho current history was deeply stamped. + +Certainly, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, the first letter +conveying intelligence so likely to pique the pride of Elizabeth, should +have been a letter from Leicester. On the contrary, it proved to be a +dull formal epistle from the States. + +And here again the assistance of the indispensable Davison was considered +necessary. On the 3rd February the ambassador--having announced his +intention of going to England, by command of his Excellency, so soon as +the Earl should have been inaugurated, for the purpose of explaining all +these important transactions to her Majesty--waited upon the States with +the request that they should prepare as speedily as might be their letter +to the Queen, with other necessary documents, to be entrusted to his +care. He also suggested that the draft or minute of their proposed +epistle should be submitted to him for advice--"because the humours of +her Majesty were best known to him." + +Now the humours of her Majesty were best known to Leicester of all men +in the whole world, and it is inconceivable that he should have allowed +so many days and weeks to pass without taking these humours properly into +account. But the Earl's head was slightly turned by his sudden and +unexpected success. The game that he had been pursuing had fallen into +his grasp, almost at the very start, and it is not astonishing that he +should have been somewhat absorbed in the enjoyment of his victory. + +Three days later (6th February) the minute of a letter to Elizabeth, +drawn up by Menin, was submitted to the ambassador; eight days after that +(14th February) Mr. Davison took leave of the States, and set forth for +the Brill on his way to England; and three or four days later yet, he was +still in that sea-port, waiting for a favourable wind. Thus from the +11th January, N.S., upon which day the first offer of the absolute +government had been made to Leicester, nearly forty days had elapsed, +during which long period the disobedient Earl had not sent one line, +private or official, to her Majesty on this most important subject. And +when at last the Queen was to receive information of her favourite's +delinquency, it was not to be in his well-known handwriting and +accompanied by his penitent tears and written caresses, but to be laid +before her with all the formality of parchment and sealingwax, in the +stilted diplomatic jargon of those "highly-mighty, very learned, wise, +and very foreseeing gentlemen, my lords the States-General." Nothing +could have been managed with less adroitness. + +Meantime, not heeding the storm gathering beyond the narrow seas, the new +governor was enjoying the full sunshine of power. On the 4th February +the ceremony of his inauguration took place, with great pomp and ceremony +at the Hague. + +The beautiful, placid, village-capital of Holland wore much the same +aspect at that day as now. Clean, quiet, spacious streets, shaded with +rows of whispering poplars and umbrageous limes, broad sleepy canals-- +those liquid highways alone; which glided in phantom silence the bustle, +and traffic, and countless cares of a stirring population--quaint +toppling houses, with tower and gable; ancient brick churches, with +slender spire and musical chimes; thatched cottages on the outskirts, +with stork-nests on the roofs--the whole without fortification save the +watery defences which enclosed it with long-drawn lines on every side; +such was the Count's park, or 's Graven Haage, in English called the +Hague. + +It was embowered and almost buried out of sight by vast groves of oaks +and beeches. Ancient Badahuennan forests of sanguinary Druids, the "wild +wood without mercy" of Saxon savages, where, at a later period, sovereign +Dirks and Florences, in long succession of centuries, had ridden abroad +with lance in rest, or hawk on fist; or under whose boughs, in still +nearer days, the gentle Jacqueline had pondered and wept over her +sorrows, stretched out in every direction between the city and the +neighbouring sea. In the heart of the place stood the ancient palace of +the counts, built in the thirteenth century by William II. of Holland, +King of the Romans, with massive brick walls, cylindrical turrets, +pointed gable and rose-shaped windows, and with spacious coup-yard, +enclosed by feudal moat, drawbridge, and portcullis. + +In the great banqueting-hall of the ancient palace, whose cedarn-roof of +magnificent timber-work, brought by crusading counts from the Holy Land, +had rung with the echoes of many a gigantic revel in the days of +chivalry--an apartment one hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet +high--there had been arranged an elevated platform, with a splendid chair +of state for the "absolute" governor, and with a great profusion of +gilding and velvet tapestry, hangings, gilt emblems, complimentary +devices, lions, unicorns, and other imposing appurtenances. Prince +Maurice, and all the members of his house, the States-General in full +costume, and all the great functionaries, civil and military, were +assembled. There was an elaborate harangue by orator Menin, in which it +was proved; by copious citations from Holy Writ and from ancient +chronicle, that the Lord never forsakes His own; so that now, when the +Provinces were at their last gasp by the death of Orange and the loss of +Antwerp, the Queen of England and the Earl of Leicester had suddenly +descended, as if from Heaven; to their rescue. Then the oaths of mutual +fidelity were exchanged between the governor and the States, and, in +conclusion, Dr. Bartholomew Clerk ventured to measure himself with the +"big fellows," by pronouncing an oration which seemed to command +universal approbation. And thus the Earl was duly installed Governor- +General of the United States of the Netherlands. + +But already the first mutterings of the storm were audible. A bird in +the air had whispered to the Queen that her favourite was inclined to +disobedience. "Some flying tale hath been told me here," wrote Leicester +to Walsingham, "that her Majesty should mislike my name of Excellency. +But if I had delighted, or would have received titles, I refused a title +higher than Excellency, as Mr. Davison, if you ask him, will tell you; +and that I, my own self, refused most earnestly that, and, if I might +have done it, this also." Certainly, if the Queen objected to this +common form of address, which had always been bestowed upon Leicester, as +he himself observed, ever since she had made him an earl, it might be +supposed that her wrath would mount high when she should hear of him as +absolute governor-general. It is also difficult to say what higher title +he had refused, for certainly the records show that he had refused +nothing, in the way of power and dignity, that it was possible for him to +obtain. + +But very soon afterwards arrived authentic intelligence that the Queen +had been informed of the proposition made on New Year's-Day (0.S.), and +that, although she could not imagine the possibility of his accepting, +she was indignant that he had not peremptorily rejected the offer. + +"As to the proposal made to you," wrote Burghley, "by the mouth of +Leoninus, her Majesty hath been informed that you had thanked them in her +name, and alledged that there was no such thing in the contract, and that +therefore you could not accept nor knew how to answer the same." + +Now this information was obviously far from correct, although it had been +furnished by the Earl himself to Burghley. We have seen that Leicester +had by no means rejected, but very gratefully entertained, the +proposition as soon as made. Nevertheless the Queen was dissatisfied, +even without suspecting that she had been directly disobeyed. "Her +Majesty," continued the Lord-Treasurer; "is much offended with this +proceeding. She allows not that you should give them thanks, but findeth +it very strange that you did not plainly declare to them that they did +well know how often her Majesty had refused to have any one for her take +any such government there, and that she had always so answered +peremptorily. Therefore there might be some suspicion conceived that by +offering on their part, and refusal on hers, some further mischief might +be secretly hidden by some odd person's device to the hurt of the cause. +But in that your Lordship did not flatly say to them that yourself did +know her Majesty's mind therein, that she never meant, in this sort, to +take the absolute government, she is offended considering, as she saith, +that none knew her determination therein better than yourself. For at +your going hence, she did peremptorily charge you not to accept any such +title and office; and therefore her straight commandment now is that you +shall not accept the same, for she will never assent thereto, nor avow +you with any such title." + +If Elizabeth was so wrathful, even while supposing that the offer had +been gratefully declined, what were likely to be her emotions when she +should be informed that it had been gratefully accepted. The Earl +already began to tremble at the probable consequences of his mal- +adroitness. Grave was the error he had committed in getting himself made +governor-general against orders; graver still, perhaps fatal, the blunder +of not being swift to confess his fault, and cry for pardon, before other +tongues should have time to aggravate his offence. Yet even now he +shrank from addressing the Queen in person, but hoped to conjure the +rising storm by means of the magic wand of the Lord-Treasurer. He +implored his friend's interposition to shield him in the emergency, and +begged that at least her Majesty and the lords of council would suspend +their judgment until Mr. Davison should deliver those messages and +explanations with which, fully freighted, he was about to set sail from +the Brill. + +"If my reasons seem to your wisdoms," said he, "other than such as might +well move a true and a faithful careful man to her Majesty to do as I +have done, I do desire, for my mistaking offence, to bear the burden of +it; to be disavowed with all displeasure and disgrace; a matter of as +great reproach and grief as ever can happen to any man." He begged that +another person might be sent as soon as possible in his place-protesting, +however, by his faith in Christ, that he had done only what he was bound +to do by his regard for her Majesty's service--and that when he set foot +in the country he had no more expected to be made Governor of the +Netherlands than to be made King of Spain. Certainly he had been paying +dear for the honour, if honour it was, and he had not intended on setting +forth for the Provinces to ruin himself, for the sake of an empty title. +His motives--and he was honest, when he so avowed them--were motives of +state at least as much as of self-advancement. "I have no cause," he +said, "to have played the fool thus far for myself; first, to have her +Majesty's displeasure, which no kingdom in the world could make me +willingly deserve; next, to undo myself in my later days; to consume all +that should have kept me all my life in one half year. But I must thank +God for all, and am most heartily grieved at her Majesty's heavy +displeasure. I neither desire to live, nor to see my country with it." + +And at this bitter thought, he began to sigh like furnace, and to shed +the big tears of penitence. + +"For if I have not done her Majesty good service at this time," he said, +"I shall never hope to do her any, but will withdraw me into some out- +corner of the world, where I will languish out the rest of my few-too +many-days, praying ever for her Majesty's long and prosperous life, and +with this only comfort to live an exile, that this disgrace hath happened +for no other cause but for my mere regard for her Majesty's estate." + +Having painted this dismal picture of the probable termination to his +career--not in the hope of melting Burghley but of touching the heart of +Elizabeth--he proceeded to argue the point in question with much logic +and sagacity. He had satisfied himself on his arrival in the Provinces, +that, if he did not take the governor-generalship some other person +would; and that it certainly was for the interest of her Majesty that her +devoted servant, rather than an indifferent person, should be placed in +that important position. He maintained that the Queen had intimated, +to him, in private, her willingness that he should accept the office in +question provided the proposition should come from the States and not +from her; he reasoned that the double nature of his functions--being +general and counsellor for her, as well as general and counsellor for the +Provinces--made his acceptance of the authority conferred on him almost +indispensable; that for him to be merely commander over five thousand +English troops, when an abler soldier than himself, Sir John Norris, was +at their head, was hardly worthy her Majesty's service or himself, and +that in reality the Queen had lost nothing, by his appointment, but had +gained much benefit and honour by thus having the whole command of the +Provinces, of their forces by land and sea, of their towns and treasures, +with knowledge of all their secrets of state. + +Then, relapsing into a vein of tender but reproachful melancholy, he +observed, that, if it had been any man but himself that had done as he +had done, he would have been thanked, not censured. "But such is now my +wretched case," he said, "as for my faithful, true, and loving heart to +her Majesty and my country, I have utterly undone myself. For favour, I +have disgrace; for reward, utter spoil and ruin. But if this taking upon +me the name of governor is so evil taken as it hath deserved dishonour, +discredit, disfavour, with all griefs that may be laid upon a man, I must +receive it as deserved of God and not of my Queen, whom I have reverenced +with all humility, and whom I have loved with all fidelity." + +This was the true way, no doubt, to reach the heart of Elizabeth, and +Leicester had always plenty of such shafts in his quiver. Unfortunately +he had delayed too long, and even now he dared not take a direct aim. He +feared to write to the Queen herself, thinking that his so doing, "while +she had such conceipts of him, would only trouble her," and he therefore +continued to employ the Lord-Treasurer and Mr. Secretary as his +mediators. Thus he committed error upon error. + +Meantime, as if there had not been procrastination enough, Davison was +loitering at the Brill, detained by wind and weather. Two days after the +letter, just cited, had been despatched to Walsingham, Leicester sent an +impatient message to the envoy. "I am heartily sorry, with all my +heart," he said, "to hear of your long stay at Brill, the wind serving so +fair as it hath done these two days. I would have laid any wager that +you had been in England ere this. I pray you make haste, lest our cause +take too great a prejudice there ere you come, although I cannot fear it, +because it is so good and honest. I pray you imagine in what care I +dwell till I shall hear from you, albeit some way very resolute." + +Thus it was obvious that he had no secret despair of his cause when it +should be thoroughly laid before the Queen. The wonder was that he had +added the offence of long silence to the sin of disobedience. Davison +had sailed, however, before the receipt of the Earl's letter. He had +been furnished with careful instructions upon the subject of his mission. +He was to show how eager the States had been to have Leicester for their +absolute governor--which was perfectly true--and how anxious the Earl +had been to decline the proffered honour--which was certainly false, +if contemporary record and the minutes of the States-General are to be +believed. He was to sketch the general confusion which had descended +upon the country, the quarrelling of politicians, and the discontent of +officers and soldiers, from out of all which chaos one of two results was +sure to arise: the erection of a single chieftain, or a reconciliation of +the Provinces with Spain. That it would be impossible for the Earl to +exercise the double functions with which he was charged--of general of +her Majesty's forces, and general and chief counsellor of the States-- +if any other man than himself should be appointed governor; was obvious. +It was equally plain that the Provinces could only be kept at her +Majesty's disposition by choosing the course which, at their own +suggestion, had been adopted. The offer of the government by the States, +and its acceptance by the Earl, were the logical consequence of the step +which the Queen had already taken. It was thus only that England could +retain her hold upon the country, and even upon the cautionary towns. As +to a reconciliation of the Provinces with Spain--which would have been +the probable result of Leicester's rejection of the proposition made +by the Stateait was unnecessary to do more than allude to such a +catastrophe. No one but a madman could doubt that, in such an event, +the subjugation of England was almost certain. + +But before the arrival of the ambassador, the Queen had been thoroughly +informed as to the whole extent of the Earl's delinquency. Dire was the +result. The wintry gales which had been lashing the North Sea, and +preventing the unfortunate Davison from setting forth on his disastrous +mission, were nothing to the tempest of royal wrath which had been +shaking the court-world to its centre. The Queen had been swearing most +fearfully ever since she read the news, which Leicester had not dared to +communicate directly, to herself. No one was allowed to speak a word in +extenuation of the favourite's offence. Burghley, who lifted up his +voice somewhat feebly to appease her wrath, was bid, with a curse, to +hold his peace. So he took to his bed-partly from prudence, partly from +gout--and thus sheltered himself for a season from the peltings of the +storm. Walsingham, more manful, stood to his post, but could not gain a +hearing. It was the culprit that should have spoken, and spoken in time. +"Why, why did you not write yourself?" was the plaintive cry of all the +Earl's friends, from highest to humblest. "But write to her now," they +exclaimed, "at any rate; and, above all, send her a present, a love- +gift." "Lay out two or three hundred crowns in some rare thing, for +a token to her Majesty," said Christopher Hatton. + +Strange that his colleagues and his rivals should have been obliged +to advise Leicester upon the proper course to pursue; that they--not +himself--should have been the first to perceive that it was the enraged +woman, even more than the offended sovereign, who was to be propitiated +and soothed. In truth, all the woman had been aroused in Elizabeth's +bosom. She was displeased that her favourite should derive power and +splendour from any source but her own bounty. She was furious that +his wife, whom she hated, was about to share in his honours. For the +mischievous tongues of court-ladies had been collecting or fabricating +many unpleasant rumours. A swarm of idle but piquant stories had been +buzzing about the Queen's ears, and stinging her into a frenzy of +jealousy. The Countess--it was said--was on the point of setting forth +for the Netherlands, to join the Earl, with a train of courtiers and +ladies, coaches and side-saddles, such as were never seen before--where +the two were about to establish themselves in conjugal felicity, as well +as almost royal state. What a prospect for the jealous and imperious +sovereign! "Coaches and side-saddles! She would show the upstarts that +there was one Queen, and that her name was Elizabeth, and that there +was no court but hers." And so she continued to storm and swear, and +threaten unutterable vengeance, till all her courtiers quaked in their +shoes. + +Thomas Dudley, however, warmly contradicted the report, declaring, of his +own knowledge, that the Countess had no wish to go to the Provinces, nor +the Earl any intention of receiving her there. This information was at +once conveyed to the Queen, "and," said Dudley, "it did greatly pacify +her stomach." His friends did what they could to maintain the governor's +cause; but Burghley, Walsingham, Hatton, and the rest of them, were all +"at their wits end," and were nearly distraught at the delay in Davison's +arrival. Meantime the Queen's stomach was not so much pacified but that +she was determined to humiliate the Earl with the least possible delay. +Having waited sufficiently long for his explanations, she now appointed +Sir Thomas Heneage as special commissioner to the States, without waiting +any longer. Her wrath vented itself at once in the preamble to the +instructions for this agent. + +"Whereas," she said, "we have been given to understand that the Earl of +Leicester hath in a very contemptuous sort--contrary to our express +commandment given unto him by ourself, accepted of an offer of a more +absolute government made by the States unto him, than was agreed on +between us and their commissioners--which kind of contemptible manner of +proceeding giveth the world just cause to think that there is not that +reverent respect carried towards us by our subjects as in duty +appertaineth; especially seeing so notorious a contempt committed by one +whom we have raised up and yielded in the eye of the world, even from the +beginning of our reign, as great portion of our favour as ever subject +enjoyed at any prince's hands; we therefore, holding nothing dearer than +our honour, and considering that no one thing could more touch our +reputation than to induce so open and public a faction of a prince, and +work a greater reproach than contempt at a subject's hand, without +reparation of our honour, have found it necessary to send you unto him, +as well to charge him with the said contempt, as also to execute such +other things as we think meet to be done, for the justifying of ourselves +to the world, as the repairing of the indignity cast upon us by his +undutiful manner of proceeding towards us . . . . . And for that we +find ourselves also not well dealt withal by the States, in that they +have pressed the said Earl, without our assent or privity, to accept of +a more absolute government than was agreed on between us and their +commissioners, we have also thought meet that you shall charge them +therewith, according to the directions hereafter ensuing. And to the end +there may be no delay used in the execution of that which we think meet +to be presently done, you shall charge the said States, even as they +tender the continuance of our good-will towards them, to proceed to the +speedy execution of our request." + +After this trumpet-like preamble it may be supposed that the blast which +followed would be piercing and shrill. The instructions, in truth, +consisted in wild, scornful flourishes upon one theme. The word contempt +had occurred five times in the brief preamble. It was repeated in almost +every line of the instructions. + +"You shall let the Earl" (our cousin no longer) "understand," said the +Queen, "how highly and justly we are offended with his acceptation of the +government, which we do repute to be a very great and strange contempt, +least looked for at our hands, being, as he is, a creature of our own." +His omission to acquaint her by letter with the causes moving him "so +contemptuously to break" her commandment, his delay in sending Davison +"to answer the said contempt," had much "aggravated the fault," although +the Queen protested herself unable to imagine any "excuse for so manifest +a contempt." The States were to be informed that she "held it strange" +that "this creature of her own" should have been pressed by them to +"commit so notorious a contempt" against her, both on account of this +very exhibition of contempt on Leicester's part, and because they thereby +"shewed themselves to have a very slender and weak conceit of her +judgment, by pressing a minister of hers to accept that which she had +refused, as: though her long experience in government had not taught her +to discover what was fit to do in matters of state." As the result of +such a proceeding would be to disgrace her in the eyes of mankind, by +inducing an opinion that her published solemn declaration on this great +subject had been intended to abuse the, world, he was directed--in order +to remove the hard conceit justly to be taken by the world, "in +consideration of the said contempt,"--to make a public and open +resignation of the government in the place where he had accepted the +same. + +Thus it had been made obvious to the unlucky "creature of her own," that +the Queen did not easily digest "contempt." Nevertheless these +instructions to Heneage were gentle, compared with the fierce billet +which she addressed directly to the Earl: It was brief, too, as the posy +of a ring; and thus it ran: "To my Lord of Leicester, from the Queen, by +Sir Thomas Heneage. How contemptuously we conceive ourself to have been +used by you, you shall by this bearer understand, whom we have expressly +sent unto you to charge you withal. We could never have imagined, had we +not seen it fall out in experience, that a man raised up by ourself, and +extraordinarily favoured by us above any other subject of this land, +would have, in so contemptible a sort, broken our commandment, in a cause +that so greatly toucheth us in honour; whereof, although you have showed +yourself to make but little account, in most undutiful a sort, you may +not therefore think that we have so little care of the reparation thereof +as we mind to pass so great a wrong in silence unredressed. And +therefore our express pleasure and commandment is, that--all delays and +excuses laid apart--you do presently, upon the duty of your allegiance, +obey and fulfil whatsoever the bearer hereof shall direct you to do in +our name. Whereof fail not, as you will answer the contrary at your +uttermost peril." + +Here was no billing and cooing, certainly, but a terse, biting +phraseology, about which there could be no misconception. + +By the same messenger the Queen also sent a formal letter to the States- +General; the epistle--'mutatis mutandis'--being also addressed to the +state-council. + +In this document her Majesty expressed her great surprise that Leicester +should have accepted their offer of the absolute government, "both for +police and war," when she had so expressly rejected it herself. "To tell +the truth," she observed, "you seem to have treated us with very little +respect, and put a too manifest insult upon us, in presenting anew to one +of, our subjects the same proposition which we had already declined, +without at least waiting for our answer whether we should like it or no; +as if we had not sense enough to be able to decide upon what we ought to +accept or refuse." She proceeded to express her dissatisfaction with the +course pursued, because so repugnant to her published declaration, in +which she had stated to the world her intention of aiding the Provinces, +without meddling in the least with the sovereignty of the country. +"The contrary would now be believed," she said, "at least by those who +take the liberty of censuring, according to their pleasure, the actions +of princes." Thus her honour was at stake. She signified her will, +therefore, that, in order to convince the world of her sincerity, the +authority conferred should be revoked, and that "the Earl," whom she had +decided to recall very soon, should, during his brief residence there, +only exercise the power agreed upon by the original contract. She warmly +reiterated her intention, however, of observing inviolably the promise of +assistance which she had given to the States. "And if," she said, "any +malicious or turbulent spirits should endeavour, perchance, to persuade +the people that this our refusal proceeds from lack of affection or +honest disposition to assist you--instead of being founded only on +respect for our honour, which is dearer to us than life--we beg you, by +every possible means, to shut their mouths, and prevent their pernicious +designs." + +Thus, heavily laden with the royal wrath, Heneage was on the point of +leaving London for the Netherlands, on the very day upon which Davison +arrived, charged with deprecatory missives from that country. After his +long detention he had a short passage, crossing from the Brill to Margate +in a single night. Coming immediately to London, he sent to Walsingham +to inquire which way the wind was blowing at court, but received a +somewhat discouraging reply. "Your long detention by his Lordship," +said the Secretary, "has wounded the whole cause;" adding, that he +thought her Majesty would not speak with him. On the other hand, it +seemed indispensable for him to go to the court, because if the Queen +should hear of his arrival before he had presented himself, she was +likely to be more angry than ever. + +So, the same afternoon, Davison waited upon Walsingham, and found him +in a state of despondency. "She takes his Lordship's acceptance of the, +government most haynously," said Sir Francis, "and has resolved to send +Sir Thomas Heneage at once, with orders for him to resign the office. +She has been threatening you and Sir Philip Sidney, whom she considers +the chief actors and persuaders in the matter, according to information +received from some persons about my Lord of Leicester." + +Davison protested himself amazed at the Secretary's discourse, and at +once took great pains to show the reasons by which all parties had been +influenced in the matter of the government. He declared roundly that if +the Queen should carry out her present intentions, the Earl would be most +unworthily disgraced, the cause utterly overthrown, the Queen's honour +perpetually stained, and that her kingdom would incur great disaster. + +Directly after this brief conversation, Walsingham went up stairs to the +Queen, while Davison proceeded to the apartments of Sir Christopher +Hatton. Thence he was soon summoned to the royal presence, and found +that he had not been misinformed as to the temper of her Majesty. The +Queen was indeed in a passion, and began swearing at Davison so soon as +he got into the chamber; abusing Leicester for having accepted the offer +of the States, against her many times repeated commandment, and the +ambassador for not having opposed his course. The thing had been done, +she said, in contempt of her, as if her consent had been of no +consequence, or as if the matter in no way concerned her. + +So soon as she paused to take breath, the envoy modestly, but firmly, +appealed to her reason, that she would at any rate lend him a patient and +favourable ear, in which case he doubted not that she would form a more +favourable opinion of the case than she had hitherto done: He then +entered into a long discourse upon the state of the Netherlands before +the arrival of Leicester, the inclination in many quarters for a peace, +the "despair that any sound and good fruit would grow of her Majesty's +cold beginning," the general unpopularity of the States' government, the +"corruption, partiality, and confusion," which were visible everywhere, +the perilous condition of the whole cause, and the absolute necessity of +some immediate reform. + +"It was necessary," said Davison, "that some one person of wisdom and +authority should take the helm. Among the Netherlanders none was +qualified for such a charge. Lord Maurice is a child, poor, and of but +little respect among them. Elector Truchsess, Count Hohenlo, Meurs, and +the rest, strangers and incapable of the burden. These considerations +influenced the States to the step which had been taken; without which all +the rest of her benevolence was to little purpose." Although the +contract between the commissioners and the Queen had not literally +provided for such an arrangement, yet it had always been contemplated by +the States, who had left themselves without a head until the arrival of +the Earl. + +"Under one pretext or another," continued the envoy, "my Lord of +Leicester had long delayed to satisfy them,"--(and in so stating he went +somewhat further in defence of his absent friend than the facts would +warrant), "for he neither flatly refused it, nor was willing to accept, +until your Majesty's pleasure should be known." Certainly the records +show no reservation of his acceptance until the Queen had been consulted; +but the defence by Davison of the offending Earl was so much the more +courageous. + +"At length, wearied by their importunity, moved with their reasons, and +compelled by necessity, he thought it better to take the course he did," +proceeded the diplomatist, "for otherwise he must have been an eye- +witness of the dismemberment of the whole country, which could not be +kept together but by a reposed hope in her Majesty's found favour, which +had been utterly despaired of by his refusal. He thought it better by +accepting to increase the honour, profit; and surety, of her Majesty, and +the good of the cause, than, by refusing, to utterly hazard the one, and +overthrow the other." + +To all this and more, well and warmly urged by Davison; the Queen +listened by fits and starts, often interrupting his discourse by violent +abuse of Leicester, accusing him of contempt for her, charging him with +thinking more of his own particular greatness than of her honour and +service, and then "digressing into old griefs," said the envoy, "too long +and tedious to write." She vehemently denounced Davison also for +dereliction of duty in not opposing the measure; but he manfully declared +that he never deemed so meanly of her Majesty or of his Lordship as to +suppose that she would send him, or that he would go to the Provinces, +merely," to take command of the relics of Mr. Norris's worn and decayed +troops." Such a change, protested Davison, was utterly unworthy a person +of the Earl's quality, and utterly unsuited to the necessity of the time +and state. + +But Davison went farther in defence of Leicester. He had been present at +many of the conferences with the Netherland envoys during the preceding +summer in England, and he now told the Queen stoutly to her face that she +herself, or at any rate one of her chief counsellors, in her hearing and +his, had expressed her royal determination not to prevent the acceptance +of whatever authority the states might choose to confer, by any one whom +she might choose to send. She had declined to accept it in person, but +she had been willing that it should be wielded by her deputy; and this +remembrance of his had been confirmed by that of one of the commissioners +since their return. She had never--Davison maintained--sent him one +single line having any bearing on the subject. Under such circumstances, +"I might have been accused of madness,", said he, "to have dissuaded an +action in my poor opinion so necessary and expedient for your Majesty's +honour, surety, and greatness." If it were to do over again, he avowed, +and "were his opinion demanded, he could give no other advice than that +which he had given, having received no contrary, commandment from her +Highness." + +And so ended the first evening's long and vehement debate, and Davison +departed, "leaving her," as he said, "much qualified, though in many +points unsatisfied." She had however, absolutely refused to receive a +letter from Leicester, with which he had been charged, but which, in her +opinion, had better have been written two months before. + +The next day, it seemed, after all, that Heneage was to be despatched, +"in great heat," upon his mission. Davison accordingly requested an +immediate audience. So soon as admitted to the presence he burst into +tears, and implored the Queen to pause before she should inflict the +contemplated disgrace on one whom she had hitherto so highly esteemed, +and, by so doing, dishonour herself and imperil both countries. But the +Queen was more furious than ever that morning, returning at every pause +in the envoy's discourse to harp upon the one string--"How dared he come +to such a decision without at least imparting it to me?"--and so on, as +so many times before. And again Davison, with all the eloquence and with +every soothing art he had at command; essayed to pour oil upon the waves. +Nor was he entirely unsuccessful; for presently the Queen became so calm +again that he ventured once more to present the rejected letter of the +Earl. She broke the seal, and at sight of the well-known handwriting she +became still more gentle; and so soon as she had read the first of her +favourite's honied phrases she thrust the precious document into her +pocket, in order to read it afterwards, as Davison observed, at her +leisure. + +The opening thus successfully made, and the envoy having thus, "by many +insinuations," prepared her to lend him a "more patient and willing ear +than she had vouchsafed before," he again entered into a skilful and +impassioned argument to show the entire wisdom of the course pursued by +the Earl. + +It is unnecessary to repeat the conversation. Since to say that no man +could have more eloquently and faithfully supported an absent friend +under difficulties than Davison now defended the Earl. The line of +argument is already familiar to the reader, and, in truth, the Queen had +nothing to reply, save to insist upon the governor's delinquency in +maintaining so long and inexplicable a silence. And--at this thought, +in spite of the envoy's eloquence, she went off again in a paroxysm of +anger, abusing the Earl, and deeply censuring Davison for his "peremptory +and partial dealing." + +"I had conceived a better opinion of you," she said, "and I had intended +more good to you than I now find you worthy of." + +"I humbly thank your Highness," replied the ambassador, "but I take +yourself to witness that I have never affected or sought any such grace +at your hands. And if your Majesty persists in the dangerous course on +which you are now entering, I only pray your leave, in recompense for all +my travails, to retire myself home, where I may spend the rest of my life +in praying for you, whom Salvation itself is not able to save, if these +purposes are continued. Henceforth, Madam, he is to be deemed happiest +who is least interested in the public service." + +And so ended the second day's debate. The next day the Lord-Treasurer, +who, according to Davison, employed himself diligently--as did also +Walsingham and Hatton--in dissuading the Queen from the violent measures +which she had resolved upon, effected so much of a change as to procure +the insertion of those qualifying clauses in Heneage's instructions which +had been previously disallowed. The open and public disgrace of the +Earl, which was to have been peremptorily demanded, was now to be +deferred, if such a measure seemed detrimental to the public service. +Her Majesty, however, protested herself as deeply offended as ever, +although she had consented to address a brief, somewhat mysterious, but +benignant letter of compliment to the States. + +Soon after this Davison retired for a few days from the court, having +previously written to the Earl that "the heat of her Majesty's offence to +his Lordship was abating every day somewhat, and that she was disposed +both to hear and to speak more temperately of him." + +He implored him accordingly to a "more diligent entertaining of her by +wise letters and messages, wherein his slackness hitherto appeared to +have bred a great part of this unkindness." He observed also that the +"traffic of peace was still going on underhand; but whether to use it as +a second string to our bow, if the first should fail, or of any settled +inclination thereunto, he could not affirm." + +Meantime Sir Thomas Heneage was despatched on his mission to the Staten, +despite all the arguments and expostulations of Walsingham, Burghley, +Hatton, and Davison. All the Queen's counsellors were unequivocally in +favour of sustaining Leicester; and Heneage was not a little embarrassed +as to the proper method of conducting the affair. Everything, in truth, +was in a most confused condition. He hardly understood to what power he +was accredited. "Heneage writes even now unto me," said Walsingham to +Davison, "that he cannot yet receive any information who be the States, +which he thinketh will be a great maimer unto him in his negotiation. I +have told him that it is an assembly much like that of our burgesses that +represent the State, and that my Lord of Leicester may cause some of them +to meet together, unto whom he may deliver his letters and messages." +Thus the new envoy was to request the culprit to summon the very assembly +by which his downfall and disgrace were to be solemnized, as formally as +had been so recently his elevation to the height of power. The prospect +was not an agreeable one, and the less so because of his general want of +familiarity with the constitutional forms of the country he was about to +visit. Davison accordingly, at the request of Sir Francis, furnished +Heneage with much valuable information and advice upon the subject. + +Thus provided with information, forewarned of danger, furnished with a +double set of letters from the Queen to the States--the first expressed +in language of extreme exasperation, the others couched in almost +affectionate terms--and laden with messages brimfull of wrathful +denunciation from her Majesty to one who was notoriously her Majesty's +dearly-beloved, Sir Thomas Heneage set forth on his mission. These were +perilous times for the Davisons and the Heneages, when even Leicesters +and Burghleys were scarcely secure. + +Meantime the fair weather at court could not be depended upon from one +day to another, and the clouds were perpetually returning after the rain. + +"Since my second and third day's audience," said Davison, "the storms I +met with at my arrival have overblown and abated daily. On Saturday +again she fell into some new heat, which lasted not long. This day I was +myself at the court, and found her in reasonable good terms, though she +will not yet seem satisfied to me either with the matter or manner of +your proceeding, notwithstanding all the labour I have taken in that +behalf. Yet I find not her Majesty altogether so sharp as some men look, +though her favour has outwardly cooled in respect both of this action and +of our plain proceeding with her here in defence thereof." + +The poor Countess--whose imaginary exodus, with the long procession of +coaches and side-saddles, had excited so much ire--found herself in a +most distressing position. "I have not seen my Lady these ten or twelve +days," said Davison. "To-morrow I hope to do my duty towards her. +I found her greatly troubled with tempestuous news she received from +court, but somewhat comforted when she understood how I had proceeded +with her Majesty . . . . But these passions overblown, I hope her +Majesty will have a gracious regard both towards myself and the cause." + +But the passions seemed not likely to blow over so soon as was desirable. +Leicester's brother the Earl of Warwick took a most gloomy view of the +whole transaction, and hoarser than the raven's was his boding tone. + +"Well, our mistress's extreme rage doth increase rather than diminish," +he wrote, "and she giveth out great threatening words against you. +Therefore make the best assurance you can for yourself, and trust not her +oath, for that her malice is great and unquenchable in the wisest of +their opinions here, and as for other friendships, as far as I can learn, +it is as doubtful as the other. Wherefore, my good brother, repose your +whole trust in God, and He will defend you in despite of all your +enemies. And let this be a great comfort to you, and so it is likewise +to myself and all your assured friends, and that is, that you were never +so honoured and loved in your life amongst all good people as you are at +this day, only for dealing so nobly and wisely in this action as you +have done; so that, whatsoever cometh of it, you have done your part. +I praise God from my heart for it. Once again, have great care of +yourself, I mean for your safety, and if she will needs revoke you, to +the overthrowing of the cause, if I were as you, if I could not be +assured there, I would go to the farthest part of Christendom rather than +ever come into England again. Take heed whom you trust, for that you +have some false boys about you." + +And the false boys were busy enough, and seemed likely to triumph in +the result of their schemes. For a glance into the secret correspondence +of Mary of Scotland has already revealed the Earl to us constantly +surrounded by men in masks. Many of those nearest his person, and of +highest credit out of England, were his deadly foes, sworn to compass +his dishonour, his confusion, and eventually his death, and in +correspondence with his most powerful adversaries at home and abroad. +Certainly his path was slippery and perilous along those icy summits of +power, and he had need to look well to his footsteps. + +Before Heneage had arrived in the Netherlands, Sir Thomas Shirley, +despatched by Leicester to England with a commission to procure supplies +for the famishing soldiers, and, if possible, to mitigate the Queen's +wrath, had, been admitted more than once to her Majesty's presence. He +had fought the Earl's battle as manfully as Davison had done, and, like +that envoy, had received nothing in exchange for his plausible arguments +but bitter words and big oaths. Eight days after his arrival he was +introduced by Hatton into the privy chamber, and at the moment of his +entrance was received with a volley of execrations. + +"I did expressly and peremptorily forbid his acceptance of the absolute +government, in the hearing of divers of my council," said the Queen. + +Shirley.--"The necessity of the case was imminent, your Highness. +It was his Lordship's intent to do all for your Majesty's service. +Those countries did expect him as a governor at his first landing, +and the States durst do no other than satisfy the people also with that +opinion. The people's mislike of their present government is such and so +great as that the name of States is grown odious amongst them. Therefore +the States, doubting the furious rage of the people, conferred the +authority upon his Lordship with incessant suit to him to receive it. +Notwithstanding this, however, he did deny it until he saw plainly both +confusion and ruin of that country if he should refuse. On the other +hand, when he had seen into their estates, his lordship found great +profit and commodity like to come unto your Majesty by your acceptance of +it. Your Highness may now have garrisons of English in as many towns as +pleaseth you, without any more charge than you are now at. Nor can any +peace be made with Spain at any time hereafter, but through you: and by +you. Your Majesty should remember, likewise, that if a man of another +nation had been chosen governor it might have wrought great danger. +Moreover it would have been an indignity that your lieutenant-general +should of necessity be under him that so should have been elected. +Finally, this is a stop to any other that may affect the place of +government there." + +Queen (who has manifested many signs of impatience during this +discourse).--"Your speech is all in vain. His Lordship's proceeding is +sufficient to make me infamous to all princes, having protested the +contrary, as I have done, in a book which is translated into divers and +sundry languages. His Lordship, being my servant, a creature of my own, +ought not, in duty towards me, have entered into this course without my +knowledge and good allowance." + +Shirley.--"But the world hath conceived a high judgment of your Majesty's +great wisdom and providence; shown by your assailing the King of Spain at +one time both in the Low Countries and also by Sir Francis Drake. I do +assure myself that the same judgment which did first cause you to take +this in hand must continue a certain knowledge in your Majesty that one +of these actions must needs stand much better by the other. If Sir +Frances do prosper, then all is well. And though he should not prosper, +yet this hold that his Lordship hath taken for you on the Low Countries +must always assure an honourable peace at your Highness's pleasure. I +beseech your Majesty to remember that to the King of Spain the government +of his Lordship is no greater matter than if he were but your lieutenant- +general there; but the voyage of Sir Francis is of much greater offence +than all." + +Queen (interrupting).--"I can very well answer for Sir Francis. +Moreover, if need be, the gentleman careth not if I should disavow him." + +Shirley.--"Even so standeth my Lord, if your disavowing of him may also +stand with your Highness's favour towards him. Nevertheless; should this +bruit of your mislike of his Lordship's authority there come unto the +ears of those people; being a nation both sudden and suspicious, and +having been heretofore used to stratagem--I fear it may work some strange +notion in them, considering that, at this time, there is an increase of +taxation raised upon them, the bestowing whereof perchance they know +not of. His Lordship's giving; up of the government may leave them +altogether without government, and in worse case than they were ever +in before. For now the authority of the States is dissolved, and his +Lordship's government is the only thing that holdeth them together. +I do beseech your Highness, then, to consider well of it, and if there +be any private cause for which you take grief against his Lordship, +nevertheless, to have regard unto the public cause, and to have a care +of your own safety, which in many wise men's opinions, standeth much +upon the good maintenance and upholding of this matter." + +Queen.--"I believe nothing of, what you say concerning the dissolving of +the authority of the States. I know well enough that the States do +remain states still. I mean not to do harm to the cause, but only to +reform that which his Lordship hath done beyond his warrant from me." + +And with this the Queen swept suddenly from the apartment. Sir Thomas, +at different stages of the conversation, had in vain besought her to +accept a letter from the Earl which had been entrusted to his care. +She obstinately refused to touch it. Shirley had even had recourse to +stratagem: affecting ignorance on many points concerning which the Queen +desired information, and suggesting that doubtless she would find those +matters fully explained in his Lordship's letter. The artifice was in +vain, and the discussion was, on the whole, unsatisfactory. Yet there is +no doubt that the Queen had had the worst of the argument, and she was +far too sagacious a politician not to feel the weight of that which had +been urged so often in defence of the course pursued. But it was with +her partly a matter of temper and offended pride, perhaps even of wounded +affection. + +On the following morning Shirley saw the Queen walking in the garden of +the palace, and made bold to accost her. Thinking, as he said, "to test +her affection to Lord Leicester by another means," the artful Sir Thomas +stepped up to her, and observed that his Lordship was seriously ill. +"It is feared," he said, "that the Earl is again attacked by the disease +of which Dr. Goodrowse did once cure him. Wherefore his Lordship is now +a humble suitor to your Highness that it would please you to spare +Goodrowse, and give him leave to go thither for some time." + +The Queen was instantly touched. + +"Certainly--with all my heart, with all my heart, he shall have him," she +replied, "and sorry I am that his Lordship hath that need of him." + +"And indeed," returned sly Sir Thomas, "your Highness is a very gracious +prince, who are pleased not to suffer his Lordship to perish in health, +though otherwise you remain deeply offended with him." + +"You know my mind," returned Elizabeth, now all the queen again, and +perhaps suspecting the trick; "I may not endure that any man should alter +my commission and the authority that I gave him, upon his own fancies and +without me." + +With this she instantly summoned one of her gentlemen, in order to break +off the interview, fearing that Shirley was about to enter again upon a +discussion of the whole subject, and again to attempt the delivery of the +Earl's letter. + +In all this there was much of superannuated coquetry, no doubt, and much +of Tudor despotism, but there was also a strong infusion of artifice. +For it will soon be necessary to direct attention to certain secret +transactions of an important nature in which the Queen was engaged, and +which were even hidden from the all-seeing eye of Walsingham--although +shrewdly suspected both by that statesman and by Leicester--but which +were most influential in modifying her policy at that moment towards the +Netherlands. + +There could be no doubt, however, of the stanch and strenuous manner in +which the delinquent Earl was supported by his confidential messengers +and by some of his fellow-councillors. His true friends were urgent that +the great cause in which he was engaged should be forwarded sincerely and +without delay. Shirley had been sent for money; but to draw money from +Elizabeth was like coining her life-blood, drachma by drachma. + +"Your Lordship is like to have but a poor supply of money at this time," +said Sir Thomas. "To be plain with you, I fear she groweth weary of the +charge, and will hardly be brought to deal thoroughly in the action." + +He was also more explicit than he might have been--had he been better +informed as to the disposition of the chief personages of the court, +concerning whose temper the absent Earl was naturally anxious. Hatton +was most in favour at the moment, and it was through Hatton that the +communications upon Netherland matters passed; "for," said Shirley, "she +will hardly endure Mr. Secretary (Walsingham) to speak unto her therein." + +"And truly, my Lord," he continued, "as Mr. Secretary is a noble, good, +and true friend unto you, so doth Mr. Vice-Chamberlain show himself an +honourable, true, and faithful gentleman, and doth carefully and most +like a good friend for your Lordship." + +And thus very succinctly and graphically had the envoy painted the +situation to his principal. "Your Lordship now sees things just as they +stand," he moralized. "Your Lordship is exceeding wise. You know the +Queen and her nature best of any man. You know all men here. Your +Lordship can judge the sequel by this that you see: only this I must tell +your Lordship, I perceive that fears and doubts from thence are like to +work better effects here than comforts and assurance. I think it my part +to send your Lordship this as it is, rather than to be silent." + +And with these rather ominous insinuations the envoy concluded for the +time his narrative. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Intolerable tendency to puns +New Years Day in England, 11th January by the New Style +Peace and quietness is brought into a most dangerous estate + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1585-86 *** + +*********** This file should be named 4844.txt or 4844.zip ************* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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