CHAP. IX.] ASSASSINATION OF PRINCE WILLIAM. 317 assassination in his art of war. Farnese had, indeed, been long on the look-out for a murderer, and had hired several, who after pocketing his money shirked the act. Assuming the name of Francis Guion, and the aspect of a devout Calvinist, Gérard proceeded to Delft with letters of recommendation to the Prince, and by passing himself off as a spy, obtained entrance into his apartments. It was not, however, till the second interview that Gérard was prepared to perpetrate the diabolical act. On the 10th of July 1584, exactly a month after the death of Anjou, as Orange was proceeding up stairs after dinner to an upper apartment, Gérard shot him with a pistol loaded with three balls, and William almost instantly expired. The murderer was arrested in attempting to escape, and before his execution was subjected to the most exquisite tortures, which he endured with an almost superhuman fortitude. The promised reward was paid to his parents, who received three lordships in Franche Comté, the property of the murdered Prince, and took their place among the landed aristocracy. Philip, however, was not the only monarch of that age who rewarded assassination with public honours. Charles IX. had sent Maurevert the collar of the Order of St. Michael for assassinating a Protestant leader named Moy.13 William the Silent, Prince of Orange, was fifty-one years of age at the time of his death. He left twelve children, viz.: by his first wife, Anne of Egmont, a son, Philip Count Buren, a prisoner in Spain, and a daughter, Mary, afterwards married to Count Hohenlohe; by his second wife, Anne of Saxony, a son, Prince Maurice of Nassau and two daughters; by his third wife, Charlotte of Bourbon, six daughters; and by his fourth wife, Louisa, daughter of Admiral Coligni, and widow of Teligni, whom he had married in April 1583, a son, Frederick Henry, afterwards the celebrated Stadholder. William's place in history is among those benefactors of mankind, the deliverers of their country. His untimely death indeed prevented him from fully accomplishing the great work of emancipation, but he had put it in such a train as ensured a successful result. Stedfastness, constancy of purpose, denial of self in the service of his country, for which he rendered himself almost a beggar, are the great traits in his character. As a commander he was outshone by other generals of the age; yet he possessed considerable military genius, and the relief of Leyden is a striking instance both of vastness of design and boldness of execution. As a statesman he was unquestionably the first in Europe. With 1 Charles IX.'s Letter to the Duke of Alençon, Oct. 10th 1569, ap. Martin, Hist. de France, t. ix. p. 260. 318 MAURICE ELECTED STADHOLDER. [Воок ІІІ. great sagacity and power to penetrate the designs of others, he had the art so necessary to a politician of concealing his own. He was possessed of a singular eloquence, and his speeches and state papers are models of their kind. In public he exhibited an exemplary piety, though probably his religious convictions did not lie very deep; but his enlightened and liberal toleration forms an agreeable contrast with the harsh and narrow bigotry then displayed not only in the Roman Catholic but too often also in the Protestant communions. A modern historian has well characterised him as "the head of the party of humanity," 14 at that time a new party in the annals of Europe, but which has since gone on increasing. His personal habits were of the simplest kind. Fulke Greville, Lord Brook, who had seen him at Delft some months before his death, describes him as wearing a gown such as in England a meanborn student of the Inns of Court would be ashamed to be seen in; his waistcoat was of knit woollen, like that worn by English watermen. His company consisted of the burgesses of Delft, and there was no external sign to distinguish him from that multitude.15 The States testified their respect for William's memory by naming his son Maurice, although then only eighteen years of age, Stadholder of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht, and High Admiral of the Union; but as Maurice had not of course yet displayed that military talent by which he was afterwards distinguished, Count Hohenlohe was appointed his general, to direct him in his enterprises as deputy of the States. After the fall of Ghent, Farnese applied himself earnestly to the siege of Antwerp, one of the most memorable recorded in history. The citizens were animated in their defence by the valour and talent of Ste Aldegonde. It would be impossible to detail with minuteness in this general history the various contrivances resorted to on either side for the attack and the defence16; and we must therefore content ourselves with briefly adverting to that stupendous monument of Farnese's military genius, the bridge which he carried across the Scheldt, below Antwerp, in order to cut off the communication of the city with the sea and the maritime provinces. From the depth and wideness of the river, the difficulty of finding the requisite materials, and of transporting them to the place selected in the face of an enemy that was superior on the water, the project was loudly denounced by Farnese's 14 Michelet, Ligue, 131. 15 Brook's Life of Sidney, ch. ii. 16 The best account of the siege is in Meteren, who was intimately acquainted with the affairs of Antwerp. It is also particularly described by Strada and Le Petit. The English reader will find an ample account of it in Mr. Motley's United Netherlands, vol. i. ch. v. CHAP. IX.] SIEGE OF ANTWERP. 319 officers as visionary and impracticable; yet in spite of all these discouragements and difficulties, as the place seemed unapproachable in the usual way, he steadily persevered, and at last succeeded in an undertaking which, had he failed, would have covered him with perpetual ridicule. The spot fixed upon for the bridge was between Ordam and Kalloo, where the river is both shallower and narrower than at other parts. The bridge consisted of piles driven into the water to such a distance as its depth would allow; which was 200 feet on the Flanders side and 900 feet on that of Brabant. The interval between the piles, which was 12 feet broad, was covered with planking; but at the extremities towards the centre of the river the breadth was extended to 40 feet, thus forming two forts, or platforms, mounted with cannon. There was still, however, an interstice in the middle of between 1000 and 1100 feet, through which the ships of the enemy, favoured by the wind and tide, or by the night, could manage to pass without any considerable loss, and which it therefore became necessary to fill up. This was accomplished by mooring across it the hulls of thirty-two vessels, at intervals of about 20 feet apart, and connecting them together with planks. Each vessel was planted with artillery and garrisoned by about thirty men; while the bridge was protected by a flota of vessels moored on each side, above and below, at a distance of about 200 feet. During the construction of the bridge, which lasted half a year, the citizens of Antwerp viewed with dismay the progress of a work that was not only to deprive them of their maritime commerce, but also of the supplies necessary for their subsistence and defence. At length they adopted a plan suggested by Gianbelli, an Italian engineer, and resolved to destroy the bridge by means of fire-ships, which seem to have been first used on this occasion. Several such vessels were sent down the river with a favourable tide and wind, of which two were charged with 6000 or 7000 lbs. of gunpowder each, packed in solid masonry, with various destructive missiles. One of these vessels went ashore before reaching its destination; the other arrived at the bridge and exploded with terrible effect. Curiosity to behold so novel a spectacle had attracted vast numbers of the Spaniards, who lined the shores as well as the bridge. Of these 800 were killed by the explosion, and by the implements of destruction discharged with the powder; a still greater number were maimed and wounded, and the bridge itself was considerably damaged. Farnese himself was thrown to the earth and lay for a time insensible. The besieged, however, did not follow up their plan with vigour. They allowed Farnese time to repair the damage, 320 ELIZABETH ASSISTS THE HOLLANDERS. [Book III. and the Spaniards, being now on the alert, either diverted the course of the fire-ships that were subsequently sent against them, or suffered them to pass the bridge through openings made for the purpose. In spite of the bridge, however, the beleaguered citizens might still have secured a transit down the river by breaking through the dykes between Antwerp and Lillo, and sailing over the plains thus laid under water, for which purpose it was necessary to obtain possession of the counter-dyke of Kowenstyn; but after a partial success, too quickly abandoned by Hohenlohe and Ste Aldegonde, they were defeated in a bloody battle which they fought upon the dyke. Antwerp was now obliged to capitulate; and as Farnese was anxious to put an end to so long a siege, it obtained more favourable terms than could have been anticipated (August 17th 1585). The prosperity of this great commercial city received, however, a severe blow from its capture by the Spaniards. A great number of the citizens, as well as of the inhabitants of Brabant and Flanders, removed to Amsterdam and Middelburg, and so much augmented the population, as well as the trade, of those cities, that it became necessary to enlarge their walls. Ste Aldegonde was vehemently suspected of having sold himself to the Spaniards; and though he lived down this calumny, his public career was now brought to a termination. The Netherlands seemed at this time in imminent danger of being again reduced under the dominion of Philip II.; a fate, however, from which they were rescue by the succours afforded to them by Queen Elizabeth, and by the impolicy of the Spanish King in diverting his resources in order to attack England and to assist the League in France. After the assassination of the Prince of Orange, Queen Elizabeth resolved no longer to afford the Hollanders a merely clandestine assistance, but to support them by a public alliance. She declined indeed the sovereignty that was again proffered to her, and which, as related in the preceding chapter, had been previously offered to Henry III. of France with a like result; but she agreed to send 6000 troops into the Netherlands, in return for which, Flushing and Briel, the chief towns and fortresses in Walcheren and Voorne, were to be placed in her hands; and she published her motives for this step in a declaration dated at Richmond, October 10th 1585. They were chiefly grounded on the schemes of Philip II., who, incited by the Pope, was contemplating an invasion of her kingdom, to the crown of which he laid claim by virtue of his descent from John of Gaunt. The Queen's reasons for declining the sovereignty of the United Provinces seem to have been the CHAP. IX.] LEICESTER CHOSEN GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 321 expenditure it would require and the perpetual war that it would probably entail. She was anxious that her refusal should not be ascribed to fear, and at the conclusion of her address to the Dutch envoys, among whom was John of Olden Barneveld, she said: "Finally, gentlemen, I beg you to assure the States that I do not decline the sovereignty of your country from any dread of the King of Spain. For I take God to witness that I fear him not; and I hope with the blessing of God to make such demonstrations against him, that men shall say the Queen of England does not fear the Spaniards." ." 17 But Elizabeth in a great measure marred the benefits which the Netherlanders would otherwise have derived from her assistance by making her favourite, the Earl of Leicester, commander of the expedition; a man entirely unfitted for it by his want of military talent, his selfish and intriguing disposition, and his haughty and overbearing temper. Sir Philip Sidney was appointed governor of Flushing, and on the 10th of December the Earl of Leicester, accompanied by his son-in-law the Earl of Essex and a brilliant staff, landed at that port to assume the command. After Leicester's arrival, the States conferred upon him the dignity of governor-general of the United Provinces, which he accepted without consulting the Queen, and he was solemnly inaugurated at the Hague, January 24th 1586. As Elizabeth had refused the sovereignty herself, she was highly offended by this step; less perhaps from the affair itself than from the contempt of her authority manifested by Leicester. She threatened to recall him; she signified her will that the dignity conferred upon him should be revoked, and that he should exercise no more power than he had originally been invested with as commander-in-chief in the Netherlands with a seat in the council. She sent a special envoy to communicate her displeasure to the States publicly and in the presence of Leicester himself; an impolitic step, by which she not only placed her lieutenant in a painful and humiliating position, and damaged his authority with the Hollanders, but even cast a suspicion upon her own sincerity. Philip II. naturally regarded Elizabeth's manifesto as a declaration of war, and ordered the seizure of all English vessels, as well as English subjects, in his dominions. The campaign of 1586 was tolerably active. Farnese, now Duke of Parma through the death of his father, successively laid siege to and captured Grave and Venlo on the Meuse. Norris would have succeeded in relieving the former place had not the commandant prematurely surren "Hague Archives, ap. Motley, United Netherlands, vol. i. p. VOL. II. 331. |