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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 38
History of The United Netherlands, 1584-1585
Policy of England—Schemes of the Pretender of Portugal—Hesitation
of the French Court—Secret Wishes of France—Contradictory Views as
to the Opinions of Netherlanders—Their Love for England and
Elizabeth—Prominent Statesmen of the Provinces—Roger Williams the
Welshman Views of Walsingham, Burghley, and the Queen—An Embassy to
Holland decided upon—Davison at the Hague—Cautious and Secret
Measures of Burghley—Consequent Dissatisfaction of Walsingham—
English and Dutch Suspicion of France—Increasing Affection of
Holland for England.
The policy of England towards the Provinces had been somewhat hesitating,but it had not been disloyal. It was almost inevitable that there shouldbe timidity in the councils of Elizabeth, when so grave a question asthat of confronting the vast power of Spain was forcing itself day byday more distinctly upon the consideration of herself and her statesmen.It was very clear, now that Orange was dead, that some new and decidedstep would be taken. Elizabeth was in favour of combined action by theFrench and English governments, in behalf of the Netherlands—a jointprotectorate of the Provinces, until such time as adequate concessions onthe religious question could be obtained from Spain. She was unwillingto plunge into the peril and expense of a war with the strongest power inthe world. She disliked the necessity under which she should be placedof making repeated applications to her parliament, and of thus fosteringthe political importance of the Commons; she was reluctant to encouragerebellious subjects in another land, however just the cause of theirrevolt. She felt herself vulnerable in Ireland and on the Scottishborder. Nevertheless, the Spanish power was becoming so preponderant,that if the Netherlands were conquered, she could never feel a moment'ssecurity within her own territory. If the Provinces were annexed toFrance, on the other hand, she could not contemplate with complacencythe increased power thus placed in the hands of the treacherous andjesuitical house of Valois.
The path of the Queen was thickly strewed with peril: her advisers wereshrewd, far-seeing, patriotic, but some of them were perhaps overcautious. The time had, however, arrived when the danger was to befaced, if the whole balance of power in Europe were not to come to anend, and weak states, like England and the Netherlands, to submit to thetyranny of an overwhelming absolutism. The instinct of the Englishsovereign, of English statesmen, of the English nation, taught them thatthe cause of the Netherlands was their own. Nevertheless, they wereinclined to look on yet a little longer, although the part of spectatorhad become an impossible one. The policy of the English government wasnot treacherous, although it was timid. That of the French court wasboth the one and the other, and it would have been better both forEngland and the Provinces, had they more justly appreciated the characterof Catharine de' Medici and her son.
The first cover