Eighty Years' War (1566–1609)

Iconoclastic Fury of 1566 by Dirk van Delen

King Philip II of Spain, in his capacity as sovereign of Habsburg Netherlands, continued the anti-heresy policies of his father Charles V. This caused growing resistance among the moderate nobility and population (both Catholic and dissenting) of the Netherlands. This mood of resistance first led to peaceful protests (as from the Compromise of Nobles), but in the Summer of 1566 erupted in violent protests by Calvinists, known as the iconoclastic fury, or (Dutch: Beeldenstorm) across the Netherlands. The Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, as well as authorities at lower levels, feared insurrection and made further concessions to the Calvinists, such as designating certain churches for Calvinist worship.

Provincial stadtholders, foremost Philip of Noircarmes of Hainaut, who suppressed the revolt of the Calvinists led by Guido de Bres in Valenciennes, and William of Orange as stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, took decisive action to quell the disturbances.[1]

In March 1567 at the Battle of Oosterweel Calvinists under John of St. Aldegonde were defeated by a royalist army and all rebels summarily executed. In April 1567, Margaret reported to her brother Philip II that order had been restored.[2] However, by the time this news reached him in Madrid, the Duke of Alba had already been dispatched with an army to restore order.[3] Rather than working with Margaret, Alba took over command and Margaret resigned in protest.[4]

Alba established the Council of Troubles (soon to be nicknamed the Blood Council) on 5 September 1567, which conducted a campaign of repression of suspected heretics and people deemed guilty of the already extinguished insurrection. Many high-ranking officials were arrested on various pretexts, among them the Counts of Egmont and Horne who were executed for treason on 5 June 1568 while attesting to their Catholic orthodoxy on the scaffold. Of the 9,000 accused, about 1,000 were executed, and many fled into exile, including William of Orange.[5]

Orange went into exile in his ancestral castle in Dillenburg, which became the center for plans to invade the Netherlands.[Note 1] Louis of Nassau, Orange's brother, crossed into Groningen from East Friesland with a mercenary army of Landsknechten, and defeated a small royalist force at Heiligerlee on 23 May 1568. Two months later, Louis' mercenary forces were smashed at the Battle of Jemmingen. Shortly thereafter, a Sea Beggars naval squadron defeated a royalist fleet in a naval battle on the Ems. However, a Huguenot army invading Artois was pushed back into France and then annihilated by the forces of Charles IX of France in June. Orange marched into Brabant, but with money running out he could not maintain his mercenary army and had to retreat.[6]

Philip was suffering from the high cost of his war against the Ottoman Empire, and ordered Alba to fund his armies from taxes levied in the Netherlands.[Note 2] Alba went against the States General of the Netherlands by imposing sales taxes by decree on 31 July 1571. Alba commanded local governments to collect the unpopular taxes, which alienated even loyal lower governments from the central government.[7]

With the potential threat of invasions from France, Alba concentrated his force in the Southern Netherlands, in some cases removing troops from garrisons in the North.[8]

Capture of Brill in 1572 by Jan Luyken

This left the port of Brill almost undefended. Sea Beggars expelled from England captured the city on 1 April 1572. An attempt by Count Boussu, the royalist stadtholder of Holland, to recapture the city failed.[9] The news of the capture of Brill led the cities of Flushing and Veere to go over to the rebels on 3 May.[10] Orange quickly responded to this new development, by sending a number of emissaries to Holland and Zeeland with commissions to take over local government on his behalf, in his old capacity of stadtholder, which he now re-assumed.[11] Diederik Sonoy persuaded the cities of Enkhuizen, Hoorn, Medemblik, Edam, Haarlem, and Alkmaar to defect to Orange. The cities of Oudewater, Gouda, Gorinchem, and Dordrecht yielded to Lumey. Leiden declared itself for Orange in a spontaneous revolt. The States of Holland, with a rebel majority,[Note 3] convened in the rebel city of Dordrecht,[12] and by 18 July, only the important cities of Amsterdam and Schoonhoven openly remained loyalist. Rotterdam went to the rebels soon after the first meetings in Dordrecht. Delft remained neutral for the time being.[13] Count Willem IV van den Bergh, Orange's brother-in-law, captured the city of Zutphen, followed by other cities in Gelderland and neighbouring Overijssel. In Friesland rebels had seized several cities. The royalist stadtholder, Caspar de Robles sacked Dokkum in reprisal, killing many citizens[14] Louis of Nassau captured Mons by surprise on 24 May. Orange marched to Mons to support him, but was forced to withdraw through Mechelen, where he left a garrison. Alba had troops sack Mechelen, after which many cities hastened to pledge renewed loyalty to Alba.[15]

A map of Holland in 1606 by Gerardus Mercator. Note the many lakes, especially in the northern region of the province.[Note 4]

To understand the nature of Alba's subsequent campaign to reconquer the Rebel northern provinces a short digression on the military terrain in Holland is in order. It is well-known that Holland is one of the few inhabited areas in the world that are "below sea level." This does not mean that Holland would fill up like a bath tub if the sea gained entry. As a matter of fact, the sea is only a serious threat during severe hurricanes when the tides reach extraordinary heights.[Note 5] In normal times, the real danger comes from above: the low-lying areas have difficulty draining precipitation. In the 16th century, when the technology to efficiently drain those areas was still lacking, Holland was therefore covered with extensive shallow lakes, while the slightly-higher land in between consisted of waterlogged bogs. Difficult terrain for an army to maneuver in, in other words. In practice, a marching army had to use the elevated dike roads along water courses to get around in this country, and these narrow venues were easy to choke off by a determined enemy. Both the royalist and the rebel army therefore made extensive use of sconces, often apparently in the middle of nowhere, to deny their opponents freedom of movement.

On the other hand, though an obstacle to a land army, a watercourse may be a transport route for one equipped with (shallow-draft) vessels. Both sides therefore tried to use water craft to circumvent each other, often while at the same time blocking the other side with new water impediments. It is important to understand, that in this war at least the rebel side did not passively accept the terrain, but actively tried to change it dynamically by inundating large areas. This was possible, because of the fact that the area has many subdivisions of varying depth (so-called polders), surrounded by dikes that enabled the inhabitants to manage the water table. Breaching a dike would allow water from higher areas to fill up adjoining lower areas, in theory. In practice much depended on the time of year, as water was lacking in Summer, and also the direction of the prevailing wind often frustrated attempts to speedily inundate areas.[16]

Finally it is important to remember that even in the 16th century Holland was already highly urbanized with most of the approximately 500,000 inhabitants living in towns and cities. The cities were generally walled, but the fortifications were in 1572 still of the old-fashioned Medieval variety, with curtain walls that were vulnerable to siege artillery. The architecture of the trace italienne had not yet penetrated Holland as it would soon do. Cities had their civic militias, but these were mainly used to keep order, and were of dubious value in case of a military conflict, like a siege. However, the Dutch militias already used a relatively high number of fire-arms, more so than the Spanish infantry that still mainly relied on pike men. Dutch cities already heavily relied on foreign trade for their food supply, as the surrounding countryside was more suited to dairy farming (and hence cheese production) than wheat growing. The reliance on Baltic grain, however, again made the cities vulnerable to sieges and starvation tactics.[Note 6]

After dealing with Orange's threat in the South, Alba sent his son Fadrique to the two rebellious provinces Gelderland and Holland. Fadrique started his campaign by sacking the fortress city of Zutphen in Gelderland. Hundreds of citizens perished and many rebellious cities in Gelderland, Overijssel and Friesland yielded.[17] On his way to Amsterdam, Fadrique came across Naarden, which surrendered on 22 November 1572; and to set another example, Fadrique herded all of Naarden's citizens (reportedly including a Roman Catholic priest) into their church, which was subsequently set on fire. All 3,000 citizens perished. This time however, this strengthened rebellious cities in their resistance, as they realised surrender would not help them.[18]

Next, Fadrique approached the city of Haarlem by way of the dike road along the IJ river and the Haarlem lake, then still a large inland lake. The city had recently been reinforced with mercenary troops in the pay of the Rebel States of Holland. When Fadrique laid siege in early December, the city council secretly tried to capitulate, but the citizens, aware of the fate of Naarden, prevented this and the defenders put up a resistance. Several attempts of rebel mercenary forces, sent by Lumey and Orange to relieve the city, were repelled by the besiegers. Meanwhile, Fadrique's siege artillery repeatedly reduced sections of the city's curtain wall to rubble, and repeatedly the defenders filled these breaches with makeshift ramparts during the following nights. They made good use of their fire-arms in repelling two Spanish attempts to take the city by storm in December, and January, 1573.[18]

Starving the defenders therefore seemed the only way to success. During the Winter months, when the waterways were frozen over, the city was adequately supplied with sleds crossing the ice. However, when thaw set in Fadrique was the first to use the weapon of inundation. He had the IJ dike cut, which allowed Amsterdam war galleys to bring in men to build an important earthwork to neutralize a pesky Haarlem bastion, called theVijg, that was successfully defended by Walloon and Scottish mercenaries. To counter this move, Orange brought together a fleet of a hundred lake vessels manned with volunteers in April. This naval attempt was, however, beaten back and Haarlem was effectively cut off. An overland attempt with a large force of rebel volunteers was ambushed by the besiegers with large loss of life on the rebel side in July. Haarlem, near starvation, therefore surrendered on terms on 13 July, buying off a sack with a large Indemnity. The denial of their well-deserved sack of the city prompted Fadrique's soldiers to stage a month-long mutiny to protest their arrears in pay, during which they amused themselves with drowning hapless garrison members in the Spaarne river, though they left the citizens alone[19]

Oudewater was conquered by the Spanish on 7 August 1575, and most of its inhabitants were killed.

While the loss of Haarlem was a severe blow to the rebel cause, the siege had given the rebels time to improve their defenses. The Siege of Alkmaar resulted in a rebel victory after the sluice gates were opened and the area surrounding the city was flooded, making a further siege impossible.[20] The city of Geertruidenberg was captured in a night-time surprise attack by an English, French Huguenot and Fleming force on 28 August, and in October a Spanish attempt to take Delft and its environs failed, which further boosted the morale of the rebels.

The Battle of Rammekens between the Spanish and the Sea Beggar fleet in 1573

In the Battle on the Zuiderzee on 11 October, a Sea Beggar squadron defeated the royalist fleet, led by Count Boussu, thus placing the Zuiderzee under rebel control. A blockade against the royalist city of Amsterdam was established. The Battle of Borsele and the Battle of Reimerswaal established naval superiority for the rebels in Zeeland, and led to the fall of Middelburg in 1574, which had been besieged by the rebels since 1572.[21]

In November, Fadrique started the Siege of Leiden. The first stage of the siege ended in March 1574, when the Spanish troops had to deal with a mercenary force led by Orange's brothers Louis and Henry of Nassau-Dillenburg. They engaged the Spanish troops at Mookerheyde, which ended in a clear Spanish victory.[22] The second stage of the siege of Leiden started in May. The polders surrounding Leiden were flooded and a Sea Beggar fleet managed to lift the siege on 2 October.[23][Note 7] Gilles de Berlaymont, lord of Hierges, the last royalist stadtholder of Holland, captured and sacked Schoonhoven, and Oudewater in August 1575.[24] By this time, Alba had been replaced as Regent of the Netherlands by Requesens. In the summer of 1575, Requesens ordered Cristobal de Mondragon to attack the Zeeland city of Zierikzee,[24] which surrendered on 2 July 1576; however, the Spanish troops mutinied and left Zierikzee. Philip had not been able to pay his troops for two years, since he defaulted on all government debts in September 1575 and his creditors did not extend further credit.[Note 8]

The Spanish mutineers marched on Brussels, on the way sacking the city of Aalst. The loyal provinces had reluctantly backed the royal government against the Rebellion so far, but now a loyal city had been sacked. After the death of Requesens the States of Brabant raised their own troops to protect Brussels. Philipe de Croÿ, Duke of Aerschot, stadtholder of Flanders took over government and allowed the States-General to start peace negotiations with the States of Holland and Zeeland. All agreed that the Spanish troops should be withdrawn. There was also agreement on the suspension of the placards against heresy and freedom of conscience. The Pacification of Ghent was signed after the Spanish mutineers went on a murderous rampage in the city of Antwerp on 4 November.[25] The next regent, Juan de Austria arrived on 3 November, too late to influence events. The States-General induced Juan de Austria's agreement to the Pacification of Ghent in the Perpetual Edict on 12 February 1577. The Spanish troops were withdrawn. Juan broke with the States-General in July, and fled to the safety of the citadel of Namur.[26]

The Dutch Maiden in the Garden[Note 9] of Holland by Philip Galle

Philip's financial difficulties were straightened out by the end of 1577.[Note 10] This enabled him to send a new Spanish army from Italy, under the command of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. These troops arrived in January 1578, and were soon venturing into the territory of the States-General. Parma routed the States-General's troops in the Battle of Gembloux on 31 January, allowing royalist forces to advance to Leuven. New troops raised by the States General with support of Elizabeth I of England defeated the Spanish armies at the Rijmenam.[27] The States-General were not able to exploit their advantage. Parma became the new governor general after the death of Juan de Austria and laid siege to Maastricht in 1579. Parma's troops entered the city on 29 June. Parma and his deputies were unable to prevent a massacre of the garrison or Maastricht's civilians.[28]

Holland had started the construction of a ring defence of trace-italienne type fortresses to stop Spanish armies roaming around in their lands.[29] Among the new fortresses were Geertruidenberg, Zevenbergschen Hoek (both across the Hollands Diep in Brabant, as the north bank of that estuary was sparsely populated), Gorinchem, Loevestein castle and Woudrichem (at important confluences of rivers), Muiden and Naarden (on the eastern approaches of Amsterdam).[30]

The remaining royalist cities in Holland were won over to the rebel cause. Haarlem, Weesp and Muiden swore allegiance to Orange as stadtholder for the States-General on 22 January 1577.[31] Amsterdam was a harder nut to crack, as the regime in that city was more intransigently royalist. On the other hand, they had cause for complaint as the Sea-Beggar navy continued to informally blockade Amsterdam's trade in contravention of the Pacification. When help from Don Juan proved infeasible, Amsterdam sued for an arrangement in September. The States of Holland, however, preferred to subdue the city by force, instead of engaging in negotiations (despite Orange's imprecations). Dutch troops started to invest Amsterdam, but thanks to mediation by the States of Utrecht (a province that had been consistently on the royalist side during the Rebellion) a "Satisfaction" was agreed on February 8, 1578. Calvinist exiles were to be allowed to return, but they would not be free to worship according to their preference; only the Catholic religion would be practiced. This was the mirror image of conditions elsewhere in Holland. The old militias would be re-formed, and Amsterdam would not be liable for debts of the States contracted during the Rebellion. However, after the return of the exiles they staged a bloodless coup on May 24, ousting the city government and expelling its members from the city. This so-called "Alteration" brought Amsterdam again fully into the fold of the Dutch province, and eliminated the strategically dangerous chink it had formed in its armour.[32] Alliances between Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland were created to increase border defence.[33] This left many cities in Holland over-garrisoned, and these companies of mercenaries were given in the service of the States-General allowing the establishment of garrisons in the Southern provinces (e.g. in Mechelen, Antwerp, Brussels and Maastricht), and fighting Hierges from Utrecht and the Germans of Nicholas von Polweiler from around Roermond[34]

Though at first the interests of Holland and the States-General in this sense converged, they started to diverge the more gains Parma made in the South. For Orange and the States-General the theater of Brabant was pre-eminent in the war, but by 1579 Holland had a greater interest in using its troops to protect its friends in the eastern provinces. The same went for its money, which may have been even more important. With Holland being more and more reluctant to help finance the war for the States-General, the military situation got more and more dire for the latter, which allowed Parma to make threatening gains in the direction of areas of strategic interest for Holland in the east etc.; a vicious spiral in other words. If the Dutch Regenten had seen the strategic implications of Parma's advances, like Orange did, things might have turned out differently, but unfortunately they did not. Instead they preferred to formalize a defensive union with their by now generally friendly eastern and northern neighbors. The interest of the States of Holland became evermore focused on the interest of the Northern provinces, and in spite of warnings of Orange, Holland formalised the defensive Union of Utrecht with its eastern and northern neighbours, on 23 January.[35][Note 11]

Ironically, the conservative Walloon provinces had signed their own defensive Union of Arras on 6 January 1579. The treaty was initially signed by Hainault, Artois and Walloon Flanders and reconfirmed the Pacification and the Perpetual Edict, in addition to neutrality with Spain. In return, Spain was to refrain basing its troops in the provinces. Once Parma accepted these conditions the grievances of the conservative Catholics against Spain were satisfied and they could make a separate peace in the form of the Treaty of Arras in May, in which they renewed their allegiance to Philip.[36]

Meanwhile, Orange and the States-General in Antwerp were less than enthusiastic about the Union of Utrecht. They would far prefer a broader based union, still based on the Pacification and the "religious peace", which both the unions of Utrecht and Arras implicitly rejected. However, rapid developments in divergent directions in both north and south made the attempts at maintaining unity moot. In the north the adherents of the Union of Utrecht managed to consolidate their position in the provinces of Friesland and Gelderland by May, though not without a struggle with the conservatives. However, Overijssel remained divided and in Groningen the city and the stadtholder for the States-General, Count Rennenberg, kept their distance. By the time of the Treaty of Arras it was clear that the split had hardened, and Orange therefore finally conceded defeat and signed the Union of Utrecht on 3 May, while encouraging the Flemish and Brabant cities in Protestant hands to also join the Union.[37]

Allegory: a Spanish soldier menaces the Dutch maiden with a dagger against a background of executions and battle, print from Johannes Gysius: Oorspronck ende voortgang der Neder-landtscher beroerten ende ellendicheden, 1616

At this time, on the initiative of Emperor Rudolph II a final attempt was made to attain a general peace between Philip and the States-General in the German city of Cologne. As both sides insisted on mutually exclusive demands these peace talks only served to make the irreconcilability of both parties obvious; there appeared to be no more room for the people who favoured the middle ground, like Count Rennenberg. Rennenberg, a Catholic, now made up his mind to go over to Spain. In March 1580 he called for the provinces in his remit to rise against the "tyranny" of Holland and the Protestants. However, this only served to unleash an anti-Catholic backlash in Friesland and Overijssel. The States of Overijssel were finally convinced to adhere to the Union of Utrecht. Nevertheless, Rennenberg's "treason" posed a severe strategic threat for the Union, especially after Parma sent him reinforcements in June. He managed to capture most of Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel in the next months.[38]

The territory under nominal States-General control was steadily shrinking in other parts also. Parma made steady progress. After taking Maastricht in June 1579, he seized Kortrijk in February 1580, after a four-month siege. The States-General replied by recapturing Mechelen in April after which the victorious English mercenaries sacked the town in what has become known as the English Fury.[39] Orange by now was convinced that the only way to avert total defeat was to regain support of the moderates, alienated by Calvinist radicalism; reassure the still-loyal Catholics in the South; and retain the trust of the German Lutheran princes and the king of France. To attain these objectives he now persuaded the States-General to offer sovereignty over the Netherlands to the younger brother of king Henri of France, François, Duke of Anjou, who in 1578 had already intervened on behalf of the States-General. Anjou was an orthodox Catholic, but also a Politique, who in 1576 had brought about the Edict of Beaulieu, which for a while ensured religious peace in France. As such he was acceptable to moderates in both camps. He also would bring the military and financial support of his brother. Brabant and Flanders (but not Holland and Zeeland) supported this scheme and the States-General concluded the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours in September with Anjou. The latter arrived in Antwerp in January 1581, where he took an oath to in effect govern as a "constitutional monarch", and was acclaimed by the States-General as Protector of the Netherlands[Note 12]

Siege of Steenwijk in 1580–81 by Count Rennenberg

The secession of the States-General and the area under their nominal control from the Spanish Crown was formalised by the Act of Abjuration of 26 July 1581. The main effect of this Act was to force a number of "fence-sitting" magistrates in the rebellious provinces to finally declare their true allegiance. Many old-guard regents now resigned and were replaced with people whose loyalty to the anti-Spanish cause was not in doubt. The Act also intensified the propaganda war between both sides, as it took the form of a manifest, setting out the principles of the Revolt, just as Orange's Apologie in answer to Philip's ban of June, outlawing him, had done. Both documents are redolent of resistance theories that were also disseminated by the Huguenot Monarchomachs.[Note 13] As such they alienated yet another group of moderates.[40]

Unfortunately, Orange's attempt to paper over the disunity within the States-General by bringing in Anjou did not succeed. Holland and Zeeland acknowledged him perfunctorily, but mainly ignored him, and of the other members of the Union of Utrecht Overijssel, Gelderland and Utrecht never even recognised him. In Flanders his authority never amounted to much either, which meant that only Brabant fully supported him. Under Anjou's nominal direction the split between the north and south was further emphasised. He governed with a Council of State that, though nominally unitary, was in practice divided in two distinct bodies, each responsible for a different theatre of war. Anjou himself concentrated his French troops in the south, leaving Holland and its allies to fend for themselves against Rennenberg (which suited them fine). He proved signally unable to staunch Parma's inexorable advance, however.[41]

Spanish attack on a Flemish village by Peter Snayers

Ironically, Parma had long been hampered by the provision in the Treaty of Arras which prohibited stationing of Spanish mercenaries (the troops of the best quality) in the provinces that belonged to the Southern union. However, after his war with the Turks had finally ended, Philip's finances had significantly improved and he had been able to steadily increase the number of troops available to Parma. By October 1582, Parma had an army of 61,000 troops available, mostly of high quality. By that time the Walloon provinces also relented their opposition against taking in Spanish troops. These improvements were soon translated into military successes. In June 1581 Parma had already captured Orange's own town of Breda, thereby driving a wedge into the territory of the States-General in Brabant. In 1582 he made further advances into Gelderland and Overijssel[41] There the war had been going to and fro between the forces of the Union of Utrecht and the royalists. Rennenberg had died in the Summer of 1581, but was ably replaced by Francisco Verdugo, who defeated the English mercenaries of Sir John Norris (of Rijmenam fame) opposing him in Friesland at the Battle of Noordhorn. He was in turn defeated by Norreys in trying to capture the important fort at Niezijl. Verdugo then pushed south – capturing Lochem would topple Zutphen and Deventer. However he was forced to lift his siege of Lochem, but on his way back north captured the fortress city of Steenwijk, the key to the north-east of the Netherlands, which always had eluded Rennenberg.[42]

Orange was the victim of an assassination attempt by Juan de Jáuregui on 18 March 1582. He survived, but suffered severe injuries which put him out of the running for an appreciable time. Meanwhile, Anjou had become weary of the restraints placed on his authority by the civilians of the States-General and he attempted to seize power in Flanders and Brabant by way of a military coup. He seized Dunkirk and several other Flemish cities, but in Antwerp the citizens (remembering 1576) came to arms and massacred the French troops in the streets, an event known as the French Fury of 17 January 1583. The popularity of both Anjou and Orange (who was seen as his main promotor) now sank to new lows, especially in Antwerp. Nevertheless, Orange tried to arrange a reconciliation, but both Anjou and the people of Brabant had had enough and Anjou left for France in June.[43]

The battle of Steenbergen in 1583

Morale in the cities still held by the States-General in the South sagged. Dunkirk and Nieuwpoort fell without a shot to Parma, leaving only Oostende as a major rebel enclave along the coast. In despair, Orange now left Brabant for good. He again established his headquarters in the Dutch city of Delft in July 1583, followed by the States-General in August (the latter eventually settled in nearby The Hague). He was back where he started from in 1576. His prestige with the States of Holland and Zeeland had appreciably declined since those halcyon days, however. The States had since greatly increased their self-confidence as a budding government.[44]

Meanwhile, Parma's Army of Flanders made inexorable progress. It captured Ypres in April 1584, Bruges in May, and Ghent in September. In this desperate situation Orange started to entertain thoughts of finally accepting the vacant crown of the Count of Holland, which some of his ardent supporters, notably Paulus Buys, had first pressed upon him in 1581. However, since that time enthusiasm had waned, and Amsterdam (led by the regent Cornelis Hooft), Gouda and Middelburg now opposed the plan. In any case, the plan became moot when Orange was assassinated by Balthasar Gérard on 10 July 1584.[45]

The assassination for a while put the States of Holland in disarray, which left the initiative to the much diminished States of Flanders and Brabant in the States-General. The latter were by now getting desperate as they controlled only slivers of their provinces (Parma had by now put Antwerp under siege). They believed that their only succour could come from France. On their behest the States-General therefore started a debate on the merit of once more offering sovereignty to king Henri III of France in September, and over Hooft's and Amsterdam's objections a Dutch embassy was sent to France in February 1585. But the situation in France had deteriorated, the religious strife between Huguenots and Catholics flaring up again, and Henri did not feel strong enough to defy Philip, so he declined the honour.[46]

Hellburners against Farnese's pontoon bridge during the siege of Antwerp, 1584–1585. Print from Famiano Strada

Meanwhile, the "Calvinist republic" of Antwerp was being brought to heel by Parma. He had cut its supply-line from the north by placing a pontoon bridge across the Scheldt river downstream from the city. The usual starvation tactic now began to take hold on the city of 80,000. Morale declined, also because one of the last Brabant holdouts, Brussels, surrendered in March 1585. After a Dutch amphibious assault (during which an attempt was made to blow up the ship-bridge with the use of "Hellburners") failed in April, the city finally surrendered in August. Parma (who was well aware of the counter-productivity of Alba's terror tactics) treated the inhabitants leniently, but many Protestants nevertheless migrated to the northern provinces, swelling the stream of often wealthy merchants and skilled labourers with a Protestant background that sought refuge there in this period. A side effect of this wholesale migration was that the economic strength of the reconquered provinces steadily declined, while that of especially Holland and Zeeland mightily increased.[47]

The States-General in their extremity now turned to the English monarch Elizabeth I with an offer of sovereignty. Elizabeth had been approached as early as 1573 by the States of Holland with a similar offer for the province, but then she haughtily declined, as she generally disapproved of rebellion (and Dutchmen). Now, however, the English government reconsidered in view of the gains Parma was making, which also had the unwanted effect of strengthening Catholic anti-government sentiment in England. Elizabeth (though declining to take up the offer of sovereignty) therefore decided to extend an English protectorate over the Netherlands, be it under strict conditions to protect her interests. She offered to send an expeditionary force of 6,350-foot and 1,000 horse, the cost to be shared by the States-General, provided her nominee, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, would be put in both military and political charge of the country as governor-general. Furthermore, he should govern through a reconstituted Council of State, on which the English government would have two voting members (one of which was the Clerk of the Privy Council, Sir Thomas Wilkes), and she was to be given the fortresses of Flushing and Brill as surety for the loans she extended. The States-General agreed to this in the Treaty of Nonsuch of 20 August. This was the first instance in which the rebel state was diplomatically recognised by a foreign government (the treaty with Anjou having been "private").[48]

Leicester's intervention in the Netherlands proved to be a mixed blessing. He was to be a rallying point for the forces in the Netherlands that were opposed to the hegemony of the States of Holland. As a protector of the Puritans in England, he was seen as a natural ally by the "strict" faction of Calvinists in the Netherlands, who had opposed Orange's policy of "religious peace" and now were arrayed against the "lax" Dutch regents who favoured an Erastian Church order, a bone of contention for many years to come. Those Dutch regents, ably led by the Land's Advocate of Holland, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, opposed Leicester from the start because they rightly identified him as the focus of the opposition in the Netherlands to the power they had acquired during the course of the Revolt. Beside the hard-line Calvinists, that opposition consisted of the Dutch nobility, whose power had declined in favour of that of the despised merchant class that the regents represented, and the factions in the other provinces, such as Utrecht and Friesland, that heartily resented Holland's supremacy.[49]

The first conflict arose during the negotiations with Leicester in January 1586 over the exact contents of his commission as governor-general. The Treaty of Nonsuch provided that stadtholders for the individual provinces would henceforth be appointed by the Council of State, so as to give England a say in the matter. Nevertheless, in Friesland and Groningen William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (the son of Orange's brother Jan), and in Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel Adolf van Nieuwenaar had been appointed by the States-General in early 1585, before the treaty. In a show of bad faith the States of Holland and Zeeland had then appointed the second legitimate son of Orange, Maurice of Nassau,[Note 14] stadtholder in their provinces just before Leicester arrived. To add insult to injury, the States insisted that all stadtholders derived their authority from the sovereign States of the provinces that appointed them, so Leicester could claim no say in the matter (an argument that would play an important role in future constitutional conflicts). Confronted with this fait accompli he had no choice but to acquiesce.[50]

Leicester also clashed with Holland over matters of policy like the representation of the States of Brabant and Flanders, who by now no longer controlled any significant areas in their provinces, in the States-General. From 1586 on they were barred from taking part in the deliberations over Leicester's objection, though he managed to retain their seats in the Council of State for them. Once the States-General were thus deprived of the membership of the last Southern provinces, one may in effect start using the name Dutch Republic for the new state. Holland also opposed Leicester's embargo on "trade with the enemy." Superficially, this made sense from a strategic point of view, and the embargo proved quite effective after Leicester put it in force in April, causing much hardship in the Spanish-controlled territories in the next Winter. However, the embargo also hit the Dutch merchants very hard, as much of the grain trade on the Baltic was now diverted to England. The Dutch regents therefore preferred a system of control with licenses that had the added benefit of bringing in much-needed revenue. For the moment Leicester prevailed on this point, however.[51]

The political strains between Leicester and Holland intensified when the Calvinist hard-liners, in Utrecht, led by Gerard Prouninck, seized power in that province in August. This provided Leicester with an anti-Holland power base from which he could make difficulties for the Dutch regents in other provinces, especially Friesland, also. When Leicester temporarily returned to England in December, Holland immediately set to work to recover the lost ground. New regulations were put in force that required every officer in the pay of Holland to accept his commission from the stadtholder, Maurice, who also had to approve all troop movements. Leicester's trade embargo was emasculated. Meanwhile, much mutual irritation had arisen between the Dutch populace and the English troops garrisoned in many towns. In January 1587 the English garrisons at Deventer and Zutphen defected to Spain, followed by those in Zwolle, Arnhem and Ostend. This contributed to anti-English feeling under the populace, which helped undermine the pro-English Utrecht faction, that had been agitating for offering sovereignty to Elizabeth once again. When Leicester returned to the Netherlands he found his friends weakened so much that he concluded that he would have to seize power by force to get the situation under control. After preparations during the Summer, Leicester occupied Gouda, Schoonhoven and a few other cities in September. An attempt to arrest Maurice and Oldenbarnevelt in The Hague failed, however, as did an attempted insurrection of hardline Calvinists in Leiden. When a personal attempt by Leicester to get Amsterdam in his camp also failed, he gave up and returned to England in December. Thus ended the last attempt to keep the Netherlands a "mixed monarchy", under foreign government. The northern provinces now entered a period of more than two centuries of republican government.[52]

The strategic result of the Spanish gains of 1605–06 was that the Twenthe and Zutphen quarters were to remain a kind of No man's land until 1633, during which they were forced to pay tribute to the Spanish forces that often roamed there at will.[79] Nevertheless, in Spain the truce was seen as a major humiliation.[80] The Dutch had more gains than Spain which saw very little if any in return. There was the virtual recognition of Dutch independence but also the closure of the river Scheldt to traffic in and out of Antwerp, and the acceptance of Dutch commercial operations in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial maritime lanes.[81]

Both sides now embarked on an intensification of the fortress-building spree that had begun in the mid-1590s, enveloping the Republic in a double belt of fortresses on its outer borders (an outer Spanish and an inner Dutch belt). This belt ran from Emden in the northeast via Bourtange, Coevorden, Zwolle, the line of the IJssel, with Deventer and Zutphen; to Arnhem and Nijmegen, and then west, along the Meuse to Grave, Heusden and Geertruidenberg; and finally south along the line through Bergen op Zoom to Lillo, north of Antwerp, and west again to the coast at Cadzand via Sluys.[82] The Dutch fortresses, mostly outside the provinces of the Union of Utrecht proper, were garrisoned with mercenary troops that, though paid for the account of individual provinces, were under federal command since 1594. The Dutch Staatse leger (States Army) had therefore become a truly federal army, consisting mostly of Scottish, English, German and Swiss mercenaries, but commanded by a Dutch officer corps. This standing army almost trebled in size to 50,000 between 1588 and 1607.[83]