Hollanders, whom his severities had only exasperated, to lay down their arms, and rely on the king's generosity; and he gave the strongest assurances, that the utmost lenity would be shown to those who did not obstinately persist in their rebellion. But the people were not disposed to confide in promises so often violated, or to throw themselves on the clemency of a prince and governor who was known to be equally perfidious and inhuman. Now reduced to despair, they expected the worst that could happen, and bade defiance to fortune. The duke, enraged at their firmness, laid siege to Alcmaer, where his men were repulsed; a great fleet which he had fitted out was defeated by the Zealanders: he petitioned to be recalled from his government, and boasted at his departure, that in the course of five years he had consigned eighteen thousand individuals to the hands of the public executioner'.

Alva was succeeded in the Low Countries by Requesens, commendator of Castile, who began his government with pulling down the insulting statue of his predecessor erected at Antwerp. But neither this popular act nor the mild disposition of the new governor could reconcile the Hollanders to the Spanish dominion. Their injuries were too recent and too grievous to be soon forgotten. The war was continued with obstinacy. The success was various. Middleburg was taken by the revolters in 1574, while Louis of Nassau, with a considerable body of troops, intended as a reinforcement to his brother, the prince of Orange, was surprised near a village called Noock, and his army defeated. He and one of his brothers were left dead on the field of battle. Leyden was invested by the Spaniards; and the most amazing examples of valour and constancy were displayed on both sides. during the siege. The Dutch opened the dykes and sluices, in order to drive the besiegers from that enterprise; and the Spaniards had the hardiness to continue their purpose, and to attempt to drain off the inundation. The besieged suffered every species of misery, and were at last so reduced by famine, as to be obliged to feed on the dead bodies of their fellowcitizens. But they did not suffer in vain. A violent southwest wind drove the inundation with fury against the works of the besiegers, when every human hope seemed to fail; and Valdez, the Spanish general, in danger of being swallowed up by the waves, was constrained to raise the siege, after having lost the flower of his army'.

1 Grot. Ann. lib. ii.

2 Meteren.-Bentivoglio.-Le Clerc.

The repulse at Leyden was followed, in 1575, by the conferences at Breda. There the emperor endeavoured to mediate a reconciliation between the king of Spain and the states of the Low Countries, originally subject to the empire, and over which its jurisdiction was still supreme. But these negotiations proving unsuccessful, hostilities were renewed, and pushed with vigour by the Spaniards. They met with a proportional resistance in many places; particularly at Woerden, the reduction of which they were obliged to abandon, after a siege of several months, and a great loss of men.

But the contest was unequal, between a great monarchy and two small provinces, however fortified by nature, or defended by the desperate valour of the inhabitants. The Spaniards made themselves masters of the island of Finart, east of Zealand; they entered Zealand itself, in spite of all opposition; they reduced Ziriczee, after an obstinate resistance; and, as a last blow, were projecting the reduction of Holland'.

Now it was that the revolted provinces saw the necessity of foreign assistance, in order to preserve them from final ruin; and they sent a solemn embassy to Elizabeth, their most natural ally, offering her the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand, if she would employ her power in their defence. But that princess, though inclined by many strong motives to accept so liberal an offer, prudently rejected it. Though magnanimous, she had never cherished the ambition of making conquests, or of acquiring, by any other means, an accession of territory. The sole purpose of her vigilant and active policy was to maintain, by the most frugal and cautious expedients, the tranquillity of her own dominions. An open war with the Spanish monarchy appeared the probable consequence of supporting the revolted provinces; and after taking the inhabitants under her protection, she could never in honour abandon them, how desperate soever their defence might become, but must embrace it even in opposition to her interest. The possession of Holland and Zealand, though highly inviting to a commercial nation, did not seem equivalent to such hazard. The queen, therefore, refused in positive terms the offered sovereignty; but informed the ambassadors, that, in return for the good-will which the prince of Orange and the states had shown her, she would endeavour to mediate an agreement for them, on the best terms possible. She accordingly dispatched sir Henry Cobham to Philip, who took her mediation

in good part; but no accommodation ensued'. The war was carried on in the Netherlands with the same rage and violence as before, when an accident saved the infant republic.

Requesens dying suddenly at a time when large arrears were due to the Spanish troops, they broke into a furious mutiny, in 1576; attacked and pillaged the wealthy city of Antwerp, executing terrible slaughter on the inhabitants, and threatened other towns with a like fate. This danger united all the provinces except Luxemburg, in a confederacy commonly called the Pacification of Ghent, which had for its object the expulsion of foreign troops, and the restoration of the ancient liberties of the states 2.

Don John of Austria, who had been appointed to succeed Requesens, found every thing in confusion on his arrival in the Low Countries. He saw the impossibility of resistance, and agreed to whatever was required of him ;-to confirm the pacification of Ghent, and dismiss the Spanish army. After these concessions he was acknowledged governor, and the king's lieutenant of the Netherlands. Peace and concord were restored, industry renewed, and religious disputes silenced; liberty had leisure to breathe, commerce began to lift her head, and the arts again to dispense their blessings.

But the ambition of Don John, who coveted this great theatre for the exercise of his military talents, lighted anew the torch of discord and the flames of civil war. As he found the states determined to impose very strict limitations on his authority, he broke all articles, seized Namur, and procured the recall of the Spanish army. Animated by the successes of his youth, he had opened his mind to vast undertakings; and, looking beyond the conquest of the revolted provinces, had projected a marriage with the queen of Scots, and (in her right) the acquisition of both the British kingdoms. Elizabeth was aware of his intentions, and no longer scrupled to embrace the protection of the inhabitants of the Netherlands, whose independence seemed now intimately connected with her own safety. She accordingly entered into an alliance with them; sent them a sum of A.D. money; and soon after a body of troops. Casimir, 1578. count palatine of the Rhine, also engaged to support them, and collected for that purpose an army of German Protestants.

But the people of the Netherlands, while they were strengthening themselves by foreign alliances, were weakened by dis

1 Camd. Ann.

2 Bentiv. lib. ix.-Thuan. lib. Ixii,

3 Camd. Ann.

sensions at home. The duke d'Arschot, governor of Flanders, and several other Catholic noblemen, jealous of the prince of Orange, who on the return of the Spanish forces, had been elected governor of Brabant, privately invited the archduke Matthias, brother of the emperor Rodolph II., to the government of the Low Countries. Matthias accepted the proposal; quitted Prague in the night; and suddenly arrived in the neighbourhood of Antwerp, to the astonishment of the states. Swayed by maxims of true policy and patriotism, the prince of Orange embraced the interest of the archduke; and, by that prudent measure, divided the German and Spanish branches of the house of Austria. Don John was deposed by a decree of the states: Matthias was appointed governor-general of the provinces, and the prince of Orange his lieutenant, to the great mortification of D'Arschot1.

Being joined by Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, with eighteen thousand veterans, Don John attacked the army of the states near Gemblours, and gained a considerable advantage over them. But the cause of liberty sustained a much greater misfortune in that jealousy which arose between the Protestant and Catholic provinces. The prince of Orange, by reason of his moderation, became suspected by both parties; Matthias, receiving no support from Germany, fell into contempt; and the duke of Anjou, through the prevalence of the Catholic interest, was declared Defender of the Liberties of the Netherlands 2.

Don John took advantage of these fluctuating counsels to push his military operations, and made himself master of several places. But he was so warmly received by the English auxiliaries at Rimenant, that he was obliged to give ground; and seeing little hopes of future success on account of the number of troops assembled against him, under Casimir (who was paid by Elizabeth) and the duke of Anjou, he is supposed to have died of chagrin; others say, of poison given him by order of Philip, who dreaded his ambition. He was succeeded by the prince of Parma, who was superior to him both in war and negotiation, and whose address and clemency gave a new turn to the affairs of Spain in the Netherlands.

The allies, in the mean while, spent their time in quarrelling, instead of acting. Neither the army of prince Casimir nor that of the duke of Anjou proved of any use to the states.

1 Le Clerc, lib. iii.

2 Grot. Ann. lib. iii.-Meteren, lib. x.

The

Catholics were jealous of the first, the Protestants of the last; and the two leaders were jealous of each other. Those evils induced the prince of Orange to form the scheme of more closely uniting the provinces of Holland and Zealand, and cementing them with such others as were most contiguous; Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overyssel, and Guelderland, in which the Protestant interest predominated. The deputies accord- Jan. 15. ingly met at Utrecht, and signed the famous Union, in 1579. appearance so slight, but in reality so solid, of seven provinces independent of each other, actuated by different interests, yet as closely connected by the great tie of liberty, as the bundle of arrows, the arms and emblem of their republic.

It was agreed that the Seven Provinces should unite themselves in interest as one province, reserving to each individual province and city all its own privileges, rights, customs, and statutes; that, in all disputes between particular provinces, the rest should interpose only as mediators; and that they should assist each other with life and fortune, against every foreign attempt upon any single province 1. The first coin struck after this alliance was strongly expressive of the perilous situation of the infant commonwealth. It represented a ship struggling amid the waves, unassisted by sails or oars, with this motto: Incertum quo fata ferant; "I know not what may be my fate."

The states had indeed great reason for doubt. They had to contend with the whole power of the Spanish monarchy; and Philip, instead of offering them any equitable conditions, laboured to detach the prince of Orange from the Union of Utrecht. But William was too patriotic to resign the interests of his country for any private advantage. He was determined to share the fate of the United Provinces; and they required all his support, The prince of Parma was making rapid progress both by his arts and arms. He had concluded a treaty with the Walloons, a name commonly given to the natives of the southern provinces of the Netherlands: he gained the confidence of the Catholic party in general, and took many towns from the revolters. The states, however, continued resolute, though sensible of their weakness. They again made an offer of their sovereignty to Elizabeth; and, as she still rejected it, they conferred it on the duke of A.D. Anjou, finally withdrawing their allegiance from Philip'. While Philip was losing the Seven United Provinces, fortune

1 Temple, chap. i.-Grot. lib. iii.

2 Grot. lib. iii.

1580.