History of the United Netherlands, 1586a | Page 3

terrible Martin
Schenk was preeminent; and he was now ravaging the Cologne

territory, having recently passed again to the service of the States.
Immediately connected with the chief military events of the period
which now occupies us, he was also the very archetype of the
marauders whose existence was characteristic of the epoch. Born in
1549 of an ancient and noble family of Gelderland, Martin Schenk had
inherited no property but a sword. Serving for a brief term as page to
the Seigneur of Ysselstein, he joined, while yet a youth, the banner of
William of Orange, at the head of two men-at-arms. The humble
knight-errant, with his brace of squires, was received with courtesy by
the Prince and the Estates, but he soon quarrelled with his patrons.
There was a castle of Blyenbeek, belonging to his cousin, which he
chose to consider his rightful property, because he was of the same race,
and because it was a convenient and productive estate and residence,
The courts had different views of public law, and supported the ousted
cousin. Martin shut himself up in the castle, and having recently
committed a rather discreditable homicide, which still further increased
his unpopularity with the patriots, he made overtures to Parma.
Alexander was glad to enlist so bold a soldier on his side, and assisted
Schenk in his besieged stronghold. For years afterwards, his services
under the King's banner were most brilliant, and he rose to the highest
military command, while his coffers, meantime, were rapidly filling
with the results of his robberies and 'brandschatzungs.' "'Tis a most
courageous fellow," said Parma, "but rather a desperate highwayman
than a valiant soldier." Martin's couple of lances had expanded into a
corps of free companions, the most truculent, the most obedient, the
most rapacious in Christendom. Never were freebooters more
formidable to the world at large, or more docile to their chief, than were
the followers of General Schenk. Never was a more finished captain of
highwaymen. He was a man who was never sober, yet who never
smiled. His habitual intoxication seemed only to increase both his
audacity and his taciturnity, without disturbing his reason. He was
incapable of fear, of fatigue, of remorse. He could remain for days and
nights without dismounting-eating, drinking, and sleeping in the saddle;
so that to this terrible centaur his horse seemed actually a part of
himself. His soldiers followed him about like hounds, and were treated
by him like hounds. He habitually scourged them, often took with his
own hand the lives of such as displeased him, and had been known to

cause individuals of them to jump from the top of church steeples at his
command; yet the pack were ever stanch to his orders, for they knew
that he always led them where the game was plenty. While serving
under Parma he had twice most brilliantly defeated Hohenlo. At the
battle of Hardenberg Heath he had completely outgeneralled that
distinguished chieftain, slaying fifteen hundred of his soldiers at the
expense of only fifty or sixty of his own. By this triumph he had
preserved the important city of Groningen for Philip, during an
additional quarter of a century, and had been received in that city with
rapture. Several startling years of victory and rapine he had thus run
through as a royalist partisan. He became the terror and the scourge of
his native Gelderland, and he was covered with wounds received in the
King's service. He had been twice captured and held for ransom. Twice
he had effected his escape. He had recently gained the city of Nymegen.
He was the most formidable, the most unscrupulous, the most
audacious Netherlander that wore Philip's colours; but he had received
small public reward for his services, and the wealth which he earned on
the high-road did not suffice for his ambition. He had been deeply
disgusted, when, at the death of Count Renneberg, Verdugo, a former
stable-boy of Mansfeld, a Spaniard who had risen from the humblest
rank to be a colonel and general, had been made governor of Friesland.
He had smothered his resentment for a time however, but had sworn
within himself to desert at the most favourable opportunity. At last,
after he had brilliantly saved the city of Breda from falling into the
hands of the patriots, he was more enraged than he had ever been
before, when Haultepenne, of the house of Berlapmont, was made
governor of that place in his stead.
On the 25th of May, 1585, at an hour after midnight, he had a secret
interview with Count Meurs, stadholder for the States of Gelderland,
and agreed to transfer his mercenary allegiance to the republic. He
made good terms. He was to be lieutenant-governor of Gelderland, and
he was to have rank as marshal of