the duchies should be held in common | power of the Austrian House; to drive Spain until the affair could be amicably settled. back into her own limits, putting an end to But meanwhile the Bishop Archduke her projects for universal monarchy, and Leopold, cousin of the Emperor, managed to instal himself in Jülich, and aimed at obtaining the sovereignty with the help of the Catholic League. The States, under the lead of Barneveldt and Henry IV., determined to support the rights of the possessory princes, the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg.

taking the imperial crown from the House of Hapsburg. By thus breaking up the mighty overshadowed Germany and the two peninsucousinship which, with the aid of Rome, las, besides governing the greater part of both the Indies, he meant to bring France into the preponderant position over Christendom which he believed to be her due. It was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the Dutch Commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that a glorious captain commanded its armies, and a statesman unrivalled for experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its diplomacy, to drive the Spaniard out of the Netherlands. (Vol. i. p. 98.)

The

No statesman of the present day, in the event of a general European war, would place much store by the alliance of Holland: far otherwise was it in the days of Henry IV. and Barneveldt. Seven Provinces of the Netherlands had then come out of a forty years' struggle with one of the great powers of Europe, a struggle which was one long combat with foreign tyranny such as no people in history had ever waged before; and they had come out of it with need of re

The great hero of the first volume of this work is Henry IV., on whose figure Mr. Motley with perhaps some violation of the principle of unity has in the opening chapters bestowed as much labour as on Barneveldt himself later on in the story. Few characters indeed in all history excite more interest and sympathy than the great king who was cut down in the plenitude of his strength and his power, on the very eve of entering actively upon the conduct of his great design for curbing the power of the House of Austria and establishing on a firm basis the peace of Europe. And we can imagine no better antidote to the doctrines of that modern school of history which would make the story of the world a mere resultant of the combined action of gen-pose indeed to recruit their strength, but eral social forces, uninfluenced by the workings of individual will and energy, than the study of this period. If Henry IV. and Barneveldt had not both of them been suddenly snatched away from the theatre of the world just as one of its most terri-leading empires of the earth into the ble dramas was about to commence, it may with certainty be predicated that its subsequent history would have been greatly altered.

Henry IV. at once saw that the question of the duchies of Cleves afforded him the long-desired opportunity for carrying out his "grand design," and entered at once into the execution of his project with all the eager 'impetuosity of an indefatigably youthful nature.

Scarcely an afternoon passed that the King

did not make his appearance at the Arsenal, the residence of Sully, and walk up and down the garden with him for hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. The great project was to crush forever the

with a mighty prestige attached to their name. They stood in the rank of the foremost nations of the world. It is, indeed, not easy, as Mr. Motley says, in imagination, to thrust back the present

contracted spheres of their not remote past. And it is only by recalling to mind what Germany, Russia, Italy, and even Great Britain were at that time, that we can comprehend how these small provinces, held together only by a loose and ill-defined treaty, contrived to play so leading a part among the powers of Europe. In point of wealth, indeed, alone, the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands could claim equality with the two great rival powers of Spain and France

each of which contained something like treble their population. As contrasted with England their revenue was even larger the yearly income of Queen Elizabeth having barely amounted to

600,000l. or 700,000l., while the Nether- as soon as both confronted each other as lands had shown themselves capable of the two great leaders of their country in raising year by year a revenue amounting time of peace. This antagonism did reto one million sterling. sult finally in a settled enmity on the part of the Prince, which had no small share in bringing the statesman to his tragic end. In the portrait of Prince Maurice we recognize Mr. Motley's wonted gift of graphic style for such sketches.

Unfortunately, however, the league which bound these provinces together was of so loose a character as not to deserve the name of a constitution. The ill-defined articles of the Union of Utrecht, established in 1579, still formed Maurice was now in the full flower of his the foundation of the Commonwealth. This Union was a league between seven and of a noble, martial presence. The face, strength and fame, in his forty-second year, ostensibly sovereign states, in each of although unquestionably handsome, offered a which states the sovereignty was dissem- sharp contrast with itself -the upper half all inated through multitudinous boards of intellect, the lower quite sensual. Fair hair magistracy: close corporations each growing thin, but hardly tinged with grey; a self-elected by which every city was bright, cheerful, and thoughtful forehead, governed. These boards sent deputies large hazel eyes within a singularly large orbit to each of the seven provincial assem- of brow; a straight, thin, slightly aquiline, Such features were at open blies, and it was of deputies elected by well-cut nose. these assemblies that their "High Mighti-variance with the broad, thick-lipped, sensual mouth, the heavy, pendent jowl, the sparse nesses the Lords States-General " were skin-like moustachio and chin tuft. beard on the glistening cheek, and the mole

Still,

composed. The province of Holland, by reason of its being richer and more pow-upon the whole, it was a face and figure which erful than its fellow provinces, took the gave the world assurance of a man, and a lead in this confederacy, and its lead was commander of men. Power and intelligence practically allowed by the rest. were stamped upon him from his birth. had small love for the pleasures of the table, but was promiscuous and unlicensed in his

amours.

in

He

He was methodical in his household arrangements, and rather stingy than liberal money matters. He personally read all his letters, accounts, despatches, and other documents, trivial or important, but wrote few letters with his own hand; so that, unlike his illustrious father's correspondence, there is little that is characteristic to be found in his own. He was plain, but not shabby, in attire, and was always dressed in exactly the same

The Advocate and Keeper of the Great Seal of that province was therefore virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. This was Barneveldt's position. He took the lead in the deliberations both of the states of Holland and the States-General, passed resolutions, advocated great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, collected the votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides directing and hold-style, wearing doublet and hose of brown ing in his hands the various threads of the home policy, and the rapidly growing colonial system of the republic. All this work Barneveldt had been doing for thirty years. (Vol. i. p. 10.)

But there was yet another great figure in the state of the Netherlands, Prince Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent, whose energetic life to the time of the conclusion of the truce, had been absorbed in the conduct of war in which he had gained imperishable renown, and between whom and the Advocate it was impossible but that occasion for jealousy and antagonism should arise

woollen, a silk under vest, a short cloak lined with velvet, a little plaited ruff, and very low boots. The only ornaments he indulged in, except of course on state occasions, were a gold hilt to his famous sword, and a rope of diamonds around his felt hat. (Vol. i. pp. 28, 29.)

Such was Maurice, who had, with the exception of Henry IV., been during the war the most considerable personage in Europe - who had surpassed all generals before him in his encampments, in his military discipline, and in his scientific campaigning, and to whose camp the young aristocracy of Europe flocked as

first civilians of his time. Having come to man's estate at the time at which the great war of freedom commenced, he served as a volunteer in several campaigns, and nearly lost his life at the disastrous attempt to relieve the siege of Haarlem. After practising the profession of the law before the tribunals of Holland, he became at twenty-nine Chief Pensionary of Rotterdam, and one of the most trusted counsellors of William the

to a university of war. Of Imperial descent, connected with the most illustrious reigning houses of Europe, he had only been prevented from mounting the throne of Holland by the death of his father, and he believed that later the sovereignty of his country had been again within his reach, but that he had been prevented from attaining it by the advice and by the envy of Barneveldt. When to this primary source of enmity to Barneveldt is added the considera-Silent as long as he lived. After the tion that at the peace Maurice found himself reduced from something like royal state, in which two hundred officers lived at his table, to one of little state at all, and in which he was constrained to play a passive part, while Barneveldt actively moulded the politics of the country it will be understood that his primary grudge against the Advocate would find abundant nourishment from his altered position; his only public function in time of peace being that of the limited stadtholder of five out of seven provinces, and a servant of the States-General.

The portrait of Maurice's great rival Mr. Motley draws in the following lines:

Barneveldt was tall and majestic of presence, with large quadrangular face, austere blue eyes looking authority and command, a vast forehead, and a grizzled beard. Of fluent and convincing eloquence with tongue and pen, having the power of saying much in few words, he cared much more for the substance than the graces of speech or composition. This tendency was not ill exemplified in a note of his written on a sheet of questions addressed to him by a States' ambassador about to start on an important mission.

"Item and principally (wrote the envoy) to request of M. de Barneveldt a formulary or copy of the soundest, wisest, and best couched despatches done by several preceding ambassadors, in order to regulate myself accordingly for the greater service of the Provinces, and for my uttermost reputation."

The Advocate's answer, scrawled in his nearly illegible hand, was—

06

Unnecessary. The truth in shortest about matters of importance shall be taken for good style."

At the time at which Mr. Motley's history opens Barneveldt was sixty-two years of age, having been born in 1567 of the ancient and knightly house of Oldenbarneveldt, and the proper appellation by which he was known to his country was Johann van Olden Barneveldt. He had studied much and well in the Universities of Holland, France, Italy, and Germany. He was at an early age one of the

assassination of William and the consequent failure of the negotiations for conferring on him the sovereignty, Barneveldt was at the head of both embassies which went to offer the sovereignty and protectorship of his country first to England and afterwards to France, and to both countries without success. Indeed he was the head of every embassy of importance to either country at this period of his career. As Advocate of the Province of Holland the story of his career becomes the history of the Netherlands.

It was not, however, the struggle for the succession of the Duke of Cleves which brought the chief statesman and the chief soldier of the Netherlands into an antagonism which only ended in the death of the former. The great point of division between them was the doctrine of Predestination as agitated in the Arminian and Gomarist controversy, and in this Maurice was entirely ignorant as to which of the sects was for Predestination and which against it. "He knew nothing of Predestination," he was wont to say, "whether it was green or whether it was blue. He only knew that his pipe and the Advocate's were not likely to make music together."

Mr. Motley is, however, justified in giving such prominence to the affair of the Duchy of Cleves in these volumes, and to the personality of Henry IV. For the politics of that great Prince were strangely mixed up with the foibles of his character, and nothing can be more amusing than the passion of the elderly sovereign for the youthful Princess de Condé, if indeed it was not (as some have supposed) in part assumed to mask his political designs. Sully, as we know, was his chief confidant and counsellor in these designs; but there was one person whom he desired to see almost as much as Sully, and that was Barneveldt. Again and again he pressed him to come to Paris with full powers to make arrangements; but it was impossible for Barneveldt, on whom rested the whole burden

of affairs in the Netherlands, to leave the | I am getting old, and my army costs me Hague; so as a sort of compromise a 400,000 crowns a month, which is enough to solemn embassy was despatched by exhaust all the treasures of France, Spain, Barneveldt to confer with the French Venice, and the States-General together." King on the mighty undertaking he had in hand. An account of this embassy forms an interesting episode in these volumes. The reports of the conferences of the embassy with the King were taken down by the commissioners at the time and sent by them to the States-General, and from such reports Mr. Motley has drawn his narrative. The account of the interviews of these ambassadors with the King of France and his ministers and the whole story of the negotiations are of great interest to show that however deeply Henry might be in love with the Princess of Condé, his passion for her was by no means the uppermost consideration in his mind at that moment.

ance

The

He added that if the present occasion were lament and never recover it. The Pope was neglected, the States would afterwards bitterly very much excited, and was sending out his ambassadors everywhere. Only the previous Saturday the new nuncios destined for France had left Rome. If my lords the States would send deputies to the camp with full powers, he stood there firm and unchangeable; but if they remained cool in the business, he warned them that they would enrage him. States must seize the occasion, he repeated. forelock. It was not enough to have begun It was bald behind, and must be seized by the well. - one must end well. Finis coronat opus. It was very easy to speak of a league, but a league was not to be made in order to sit with arms tied, but to do good work. The States ought not to suffer that the Germans should prove themselves more energetic, more courageous than themselves. And again the King vehemently urged the necessity of his Excel

could not doubt in that event of something to him with absolute power "to treat." He solid being accomplished.

"There are three things (he continued) which cause me to speak freely. I am talking with friends whom I hold dear; yes, dearer perhaps than they hold themselves. I am a great king, and say what I choose to say. I am old, and know by experience the ways of this world's affairs. I tell you, then, that it is most important that you should come to me resolved and firm on all points."

The narrative of their last interview with the King before their departure in May 6, 1610, is extracted from their own official report, and is the more re-lency and some deputies of the States coming markable, as it is the last political utteron record of Henry IV. previous to his assassination, which took place a few days afterwards. The King, indeed, had reason not to be entirely satisfied with the personnel of the embassy thus sent to him; and the Advocate had at length only sent his son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle, with two colleagues, whose powers were limited by stringent instructions from himself. Moreover, while He was silent for a few minutes, and then contemplating a general war, and intend- spoke again. "I shall not always be here," ing to draw upon the States for unlimited he said; "nor will you always have Prince supplies, the ambassadors haggled about Maurice, and a few others whose knowledge the money to be paid for a couple of of your Commonwealth is perfect. My Lords, regiments which, though French, were virtually their own troops, since they were employed in their service. Turning, however, towards the end of the interview, from the discussion of minor details, the King observed that the affair of Cleves had a much wider bearing than people thought. Therefore the States must consider well what was to be done to secure the whole work as soon as the Cleves business had been successfully accomplished.

"For how much good will it do," said the King, "if we drive off Archduke Leopold without establishing the princes in security for the future? Nothing is easier than to put the princes in possession. Every one will yield or run away before our forces, but two months after we have withdrawn the enemy will return and drive the princes out again. I cannot always be ready to spring out of my kingdom, nor to assemble such great armies.

the States must be up and doing while they still possess them. Next Tuesday I shall cause the Queen to be crowned at St. Denis. The following Thursday she will make her entry into Paris. Next day, Friday, I shall take my departure. At the end of this month

I shall cross the Meuse at Mezières, or in that neighbourhood." He added that he should write immediately to Holland to urge upon his Excellency and the States to be ready to make the junction of their army with his forces without delay. He charged the ambassadors to inform their High Mightinesses that he was and should remain their truest friend, their dearest neighbour. He then said a few generous and cordial words to each of them, warmly embraced each, and he bade them all farewell. (Vol. i. pp. 213-5.)

These remarkable words, which have never before been made public, were uttered by Henry in the course of this-interview, on Thursday,, the 6th of May.

On the 8th the ambassadors left Paris, | termined that the Queen should be and reached the Hague on the 16th.

Friday the King went to see the preparations, and was, as all the world knows, stabbed to the heart by Ravaillac, in a carriage with the Duke d'Epernon by his side in a narrow street, the Rue de la Ferronière, where the vehicle was stopped as though by accident.

crowned at St. Denis, on the 13th of May, Thus stood the King before the world two days before the King's departure. and before history, prepared to strike his Henry himself was beset with strange great blow for the abasement of the and dark presentiments respecting this House of Austria - the storm was all ceremony. He hated the very name of prepared the military arrangements it. Although he had despised the warnwere complete; regiments were every-ings of soothsayers and astrologers, he where hurrying hourly to the place of seems to have had some strange forerendezvous. Six thousand Swiss, 20,000 bodings of projects of treason and crime French infantry, and 6,000 horse, were among the vile Italian intriguers and uniting at Mezières. Twelve thousand their associates who surrounded the foot and 2,000 cavalry, including the Queen. The coronation took place on French and English contingent-a splen- the appointed day, a Thursday. On the did army led by Prince Maurice-were following Sunday the Queen was to make ready to march from Holland to Düssel-her triumphant entry into Paris. On the dorf. The army of the possessory princes under Prince Christian of Anhalt, numbered 10,000 men. The Duke of Savoy, with 25,000 men, under Marshal Lesdiguières, was ready to aid in the Milanese; and the Marshal de la Force, at the head of his forces in the Pyrenees, amounting to 12,000 foot and 2,000 horse, The history of Mr. Motley throws no was prepared to pass the Spanish fron-new light on the mysterious horror which tier. The portion of these military prep- surrounds this dark deed, yet he gives in arations to which Sully had especially de- the Appendix two letters of Pecquius, voted himself, and in which he took the envoy of the Archduke Albert, writespecial pride, was the artillery. ten from Paris, which contain evidence of Never," he said, was seen in France, the horrible suspicions then commonly and perhaps never will be seen again, whispered about Paris; and certain it is artillery more complete and better fur- that a woman named Escomans, who had nished." Sully's son, the Marquis de denounced Epernon as one of the chief Rosny, was placed at its head as Grand conspirators, was brought to trial and Master, while the father was to follow condemned to prison for life - while the soon as its chief, and as superintendent | evidence against her was carefully supof finance. As to finance, Sully had pre- pressed. The assassin himself, before pared unknown to his master such a sup-expiring on the Grève, made a declaration ply thirty millions that when the which was taken down by the Greffier of latter heard the sum mentioned he the court- and this declaration also was jumped from his chair and hugged and suppressed—although it is, according to kissed him with delight. To complete Mr. Motley, said still to exist, and to conthe account of the strength and position tain the names of the Queen and the of France, there remained to be taken Duke d'Epernon. But it is obvious that into consideration the alliance of Swe- the removal of the chief and prime den, Denmark, the Hanse Towns, Hol-mover of this grand political combinaland, Savoy, and the whole Protestant force of Germany.

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66

To oppose to this array the forces at the disposition of Austria and of the Papacy were comparatively insignificant, while they had but a bankrupt treasury to draw upon for supplies.

tion by the foulest means, was an object of primary importance to the party against which Henry was about to take up arms, and it is certain that the Queen took part against her husband with the Pope and with Spain.

Mr. Motley draws a very obvious comThe shadow, however, of a coming parison between the effects produced by catastrophe at the court of France dark-this assassination of Henry IV. and those ened as the crisis approached. The produced by the murder of William the Queen had been appointed regent in the Silent, committed just twenty-six years King's absence, and, partly to strengthen before by Balthasar Gérard, which failed her position and as a precaution against so completely in producing its aim, while the sinister designs which Condé and the blow of the knife of Ravaillac was others were suspected of entertaining followed in France by what was equivaagainst the proposed regency, it was de-lent to a political revolution.