The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1614-17 | Page 9

said Barneveld, "forbid the King of Great Britain from permitting the
Spaniard to give the law in Italy. He is about to extort obedience and
humiliation from the Duke of Savoy, or else with 40,000 men to
mortify and ruin him, while entirely assuring himself of France by the
double marriages. Then comes the attack on these Provinces, on
Protestant Germany, and all other states and realms of the religion."
With the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. The
League was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed
absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and
yet scarcely any government but that of the Netherlands paid heed to
the rising storm. James, fatuous as ever, listened to Gondemar, and
wrote admonitory letters to the Archduke. It was still gravely proposed
by the Catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the
duchies, with a guarantee from Marquis Spinola that there should be no
more invasion of those territories. But powers and pledges from the
King of Spain were what he needed.
To suppose that the Republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not
lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the Protestant
electors or cities of Germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness

on the part of statesmen who had the interests of Protestantism at heart.
What they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully
carried out. Then if the King of Spain and the Archdukes were willing
to contract with the States never to make an attempt against the Holy
German Empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to
the constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under
guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the United
Provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and
friends, to join in such an arrangement. Thus there might still be peace
in Germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the
"Majesty-Letter," and the "Compromise" between the two great
churches, Roman and Reformed, be maintained. To bring about this
result was the sincere endeavour of Barneveld, hoping against hope.
For he knew that all was hollowness and sham on the part of the great
enemy. Even as Walsingham almost alone had suspected and
denounced the delusive negotiations by which Spain continued to
deceive Elizabeth and her diplomatists until the Armada was upon her
coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls that
were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did Barneveld,
who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before,
now utter his cries of warning that Germany might escape in time from
her impending doom.
"Nothing but deceit is lurking in the Spanish proposals," he said.
"Every man here wonders that the English government does not
comprehend these malversations. Truly the affair is not to be made
straight by new propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his
Majesty. It is in the highest degree necessary to the salvation of
Christendom, to the conservation of his Majesty's dignity and greatness,
to the service of the princes and provinces, and of all Germany, nor can
this vigorous resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to
the common weal . . . . . I have the deepest affection for the cause of the
Duke of Savoy, but I cannot further it so long as I cannot tell what his
Majesty specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from
Venice, Germany, and other quarters. Our taxes are prodigious, the
ordinary and extraordinary, and we have a Spanish army at our front
door."
The armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last

month of the year. Vaudemont was at the head of a further force of
2000 cavalry and 8000 foot, paid for by Spain and the Pope; 24,000
additional soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by
Maximilian of Bavaria at the expense of the League. Even if the reports
were exaggerated, the Advocate thought it better to be too credulous
than as apathetic as the rest of the Protestants.
"We receive advices every day," he wrote to Caron, "that the Spaniards
and the Roman League are going forward with their design. They are
trying to amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to
deal the heavier blows. Do all possible duty to procure a timely and
vigorous resolution there. To wait again until we are anticipated will be
fatal to the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany
and especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg. We likewise
should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again
bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel,