History of the United Netherlands, 1588c

History of the United
Netherlands, 1588c

The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands,
1588
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Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1588
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4857] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 5,
2002]

Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY
UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1588 ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger

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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, Vol. 57
History of the United Netherlands, 1588

CHAPTER XIX
. Part 1.
Philip Second in his Cabinet--His System of Work and Deception--His
vast but vague Schemes of Conquest--The Armada sails--Description
of the Fleet--The Junction with Parma unprovided for--The Gale off
Finisterre--Exploits of David Gwynn--First Engagements in the English
Channel--Considerable Losses of the Spaniards--General Engagement
near Portland--Superior Seamanship of the English
It is now time to look in upon the elderly letter-writer in the Escorial,
and see how he was playing his part in the drama.
His counsellors were very few. His chief advisers were rather like

private secretaries than cabinet ministers; for Philip had been
withdrawing more and more into seclusion and mystery as the
webwork of his schemes multiplied and widened. He liked to do his
work, assisted by a very few confidential servants. The Prince of Eboli,
the famous Ruy Gomez, was dead. So was Cardinal Granvelle. So were
Erasso and Delgado. His midnight council--junta de noche--for thus,
from its original hour of assembling, and the all of secrecy in which it
was enwrapped, it was habitually called--was a triumvirate. Don Juan
de Idiaquez was chief secretary of state and of war; the Count de
Chinchon was minister for the household, for Italian affairs, and for the
kingdom of Aragon; Don Cristoval de Moura, the monarch's chief
favourite, was at the head of the finance department, and administered
the affairs of Portugal and Castile!
The president of the council of Italy, after Granvelle's death, was
Quiroga, cardinal of Toledo, and inquisitor-general. Enormously long
letters, in the King's: name, were prepared chiefly by the two
secretaries, Idiaquez and Moura. In their hands was the vast
correspondence with Mendoza and Parma, and Olivarez at Rome, and
with Mucio; in which all the stratagems for the subjugation of
Protestant Europe were slowly and artistically contrived. Of the great
conspiracy against human liberty, of which the Pope and Philip were
the double head, this midnight triumvirate was the chief executive
committee.
These innumerable despatches, signed by Philip, were not the
emanations of his own mind. The King had a fixed purpose to subdue
Protestantism and to conquer the world; but the plans for carrying the
purpose into effect were developed by subtler and more comprehensive
minds than his own. It was enough for him to ponder wearily over
schemes which he was supposed to dictate, and to give himself the
appearance of supervising what he scarcely comprehended. And his
work of supervision was often confined to pettiest details. The
handwriting of Spain and Italy at that day was beautiful, and in our
modern eyes seems neither antiquated nor ungraceful. But Philip's
scrawl was like that of 'a' clown just admitted to a writing-school, and
the whole margin of a fairly penned despatch perhaps fifty pages long;
laid before him for comment and signature by Idiaquez or Moura,
would be sometimes covered with a few awkward sentences, which it

was almost impossible to read, and which, when deciphered, were apt
to reveal suggestions of