History of the United Netherlands, 1603-04

History of the United
Netherlands, 1603-04

The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands,
1603-04
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Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1603-04
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4876] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 15,
2002]

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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY
UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1603-04 ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger

[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]

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. 76
History of the United Netherlands, 1603-1604

CHAPTER XLI
.
Death of Queen Elizabeth--Condition of Spain--Legations to James I.
--Union of England and Scotland--Characteristics of the new monarch
--The English Court and Government--Piratical practices of the
English--Audience of the States' envoy with king James--Queen
Elizabeth's scheme far remodelling Europe--Ambassador extraordinary
from Henry IV. to James--De Rosny's strictures on the English
people--Private interview of De Rosny with the States' envoy--De
Rosny's audience of the king--Objects of his mission--Insinuations of
the Duke of Northumberland--Invitation of the embassy to

Greenwich--Promise of James to protect the Netherlands against
Spain--Misgivings of Barneveld--Conference at Arundel House--Its
unsatisfactory termination--Contempt of De Rosny for the English
counsellors--Political aspect of Europe--De Rosny's disclosure to the
king of the secret object of his mission--Agreement of James to the
proposals of De Rosny--Ratification of the treaty of alliance-- Return of
De Rosny and suite to France--Arrival of the Spanish ambassador.
On the 24th of March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died at Richmond,
having nearly completed her seventieth year. The two halves of the
little island of Britain were at last politically adjoined to each other by
the personal union of the two crowns.
A foreigner, son of the woman executed by Elizabeth, succeeded to
Elizabeth's throne. It was most natural that the Dutch republic and the
French king, the archdukes and his Catholic Majesty, should be filled
with anxiety as to the probable effect of this change of individuals upon
the fortunes of the war.
For this Dutch war of independence was the one absorbing and
controlling interest in Christendom. Upon that vast, central, and, as
men thought, baleful constellation the fates of humanity, were
dependent. Around it lesser political events were forced to gravitate,
and, in accordance to their relation to it, were bright or obscure. It was
inevitable that those whose vocation it was to ponder the aspects of the
political firmament, the sages and high-priests who assumed to direct
human action and to foretell human destiny, should now be more than
ever perplexed.
Spain, since the accession of Philip III. to his father's throne, although
rapidly declining in vital energy, had not yet disclosed its decrepitude
to the world. Its boundless ambition survived as a political tradition
rather than a real passion, while contemporaries still trembled at the
vision of universal monarchy in which the successor of Charlemagne
and of Charles V. was supposed to indulge.
Meantime, no feebler nor more insignificant mortal existed on earth
than this dreaded sovereign.
Scarcely a hairdresser or lemonade-dealer in all Spain was less
cognizant of the political affairs of the kingdom than was its monarch,
for Philip's first care upon assuming the crown was virtually to abdicate
in favour of the man soon afterwards known as the Duke of Lerma.

It is therefore only by courtesy and for convenience that history
recognizes his existence at all, as surely no human being in the reign of
Philip III. requires less mention than Philip III. himself.
I reserve for a subsequent chapter such rapid glances