CHAP. X.]:

ESTABLISHMENT OF TOLERATION.

367

made respecting legal suits in which Protestants were parties. On the other hand they were required to pay tithes, to respect the holidays of the Church and the prohibited degrees of affinity in marriage; to renounce all negociations and alliances with foreigners; to dissolve their provincial councils; and to raise no subsidies except for the maintenance of their ministers and worship, and with the consent of the King.27

Such were the chief provisions of this celebrated edict, which broke the exclusive power of the Roman Catholic Church, and founded a new era in France that of toleration.

27 The edict is in Dumont, t. v. pt. i. p. 545 sqq.

368

WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS.

[BOOK III.

CHAPTER XI.

THE Austrian Archduke Ernest, who had been appointed governor of the Netherlands by Philip II. after the death of the Duke of Parma, did not take possession of his office till the beginning of 1594; and in the interval the government was conducted by Count Peter Ernest of Mansfeld. Philip, however, allowed the count but little real power. He sent some Spaniards into Belgium to keep a watch over him; and as by the agreement with the Walloons no Spaniard could sit in the Council of Regency, Philip appointed a council of war, in which were several of that nation, and which had for its president Pedro Henriquez Count of Fuentés, who published some cruel decrees.

It has been seen in the preceding chapter that the King of Spain was at this period directing his whole attention to the affairs of France; an infatuated policy which, by diverting his money and resources from the Netherlands, fortunately enabled the republic of the Seven United Provinces to become an independent power.

We now revert to the war on the Belgian and French frontiers. In 1593 Count Mansfeld sent into France a small army under the command of his son Charles, which assisted the Duke of Mayenne to take Noyon and a few other places in Picardy, and then returned into the Netherlands. During this period Prince Maurice succeeded in taking the important town of Gertruydenberg. In the following year (1594) Philip ordered the Archduke Ernest to despatch Mansfeld with a considerable body of troops to assist Mayenne in relieving Laon; the ill success of which attempt has been already related.2 Maurice availed himself of Mansfeld's absence to reduce Groningen, a place not only important as a fortress, but also as an indispensable member of the Dutch republic (July 22nd 1594). Groningen now obtained its place among the Seven United Provinces, of which Maurice was elected Stadholder. Maurice also crippled the power of Spain by supporting the mutiny of the Spanish mutineers in Brabant whose pay was in arrear. The Archduke Ernest, the tameness of whose character made

CHAP. XI.] THE ARCHDUKE ALBERT GOVERNOR.

369

him almost useless in important affairs, having died in February 1595, Philip appointed Ernest's brother, the Archduke Albert, formerly viceroy of Portugal, governor of the Netherlands, and also substituted him for Ernest as the future husband of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. Although Albert had been made Archbishop of Toledo and a cardinal, he had not taken priest's orders, and a dispensation for his marriage might easily be procured.

It was in January of this year, as we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, that Henry IV. declared war against the King of Spain. Besides the expedition of Velasco in the south, Philip II. ordered the Spaniard Fuentés, who, till the arrival of Albert, conducted the government of the Netherlands, to invade the north of France; and Fuentés, having quelled the mutiny of the Spanish troops, and having left Mondragone with sufficient forces to keep Prince Maurice in check, set off with 15,000 men, with the design of recovering Cambrai. Catelet and Doullens yielded to his arms; Ham was betrayed to him by the treachery of the governor, and in August Fuentés sat down before Cambrai. It will be recollected that the Duke of Anjou had made over that place to his mother, Catherine de' Medici, who had appointed Balagni to be governor of it. During the civil wars of France Balagni had established himself there as a little independent sovereign, and called himself Prince of Cambrai; but after the discomfiture of the League he had been compelled to declare himself, and had acknowledged his allegiance to the King of France. His extortion and tyranny having rendered him detested by the inhabitants, they sent a message to Henry IV. requesting him to dismiss Balagni and receive them under his immediate authority. Unfortunately, however, Balagni and his wife had gained over Gabrielle d'Estrées; at her instance Henry declined the request of the citizens, who to avenge themselves delivered Cambrai to the Spaniards, October 2nd. Fuentés then returned into the Netherlands, where the campaign. had not been marked by any memorable event. Soon after its close the veteran Mondragone died at the great age of ninety-two, having served fifty years in the Low Countries.

The Cardinal Archduke Albert arrived at Brussels in February 1596, when Fuentés resigned his command, and returned to Spain. Albert also directed his principal attention to the war against France, and sent a peaceful message to Prince Maurice and the United Provinces, which, however, met with no attention. Henry IV. had been engaged since the winter in the siege of La Fère, a little town in a strong situation at the junction of the Serre and Oise.

370

ALLIANCE BETWEEN HENRY AND ELIZABETH.

[Book III. He had received reinforcements from England as well as from Germany and Holland; for Henry had endeavoured to excuse his apostasy to Queen Elizabeth, as a mere act of political necessity; and although she viewed it with alarm and indignation, her hatred and fear of Spain induced her still to assist the French monarch, though her succours were no longer bestowed so liberally and so cordially as before.

Albert marched to Valenciennes with about 20,000 men, with the avowed intention of relieving La Fère; but instead of attempting that enterprise, he despatched De Rosne, a French renegade who had entered the service of Spain, with the greater part of the forces, to surprise Calais; and that important place was taken by assault, April 17th, before Henry could arrive for its defence. La Fère surrendered May 22nd; and Henry then marched with his army towards the coast of Picardy, where he endeavoured, but in vain, to provoke the Spaniards to give him battle. After fortifying Calais and Ardres, Albert withdrew again into the Netherlands. In the negociations between Elizabeth and Henry in the preceding year, the English Queen had demanded to be put in possession of Calais or Boulogne, as a security for the charges of the war; a demand which Henry had scornfully rejected. During the investment of Calais by the Spaniards, Elizabeth had renewed her proposal, in case she should be the means of saving it, when Henry again indignantly refused, observing that he would rather receive a box of the ear from the King of Spain than a fillip from her.3 Nevertheless, Elizabeth, alarmed at the occupation by the Spaniards of a port which afforded such facilities for the invasion of England, soon afterwards concluded another offensive and defensive alliance with Henry IV. (May 24th), in which the contracting parties pledged themselves to make no separate peace or truce with Philip II.; and they invited all those states and princes, who had reason to dread the machinations of that ambitious monarch, to join the alliance. The treaty was acceded to by the Dutch; but the German Protestant princes, offended at Henry's apostasy, and alarmed by the war then raging between the Austrians and Turks, refused to enter into it. The treaty, however, had little effect. Elizabeth could not be induced to lend the French King more than 2000 men, and that on condition of his maintaining them ; nor would she allow the armament under Essex, which Henry had in vain solicited for the relief of Calais, to co-operate with him in the Netherlands, but despatched it to the coasts of Spain.

Du Vair, in Life of Lord Chancellor Egerton, p. 407.

The treaty is in Dumont, t. v. pt. i.

p. 525.

CHAP. XI.] CADIZ CAPTURED BY THE ENGLISH.

371

The hostile preparations in the Spanish ports had for some time back excited great alarm in England. Another attempt at invasion was apprehended, and a large armament was fitted out under Lord Howard of Effingham as admiral, and the Earl of Essex as commander of the land forces. The expedition was also accompanied by Sir Walter Raleigh, and other persons of naval and military renown. The fleet, which after the junction of twentytwo Dutch ships, consisted of 150 sail, with about 14,000 men on board, cast anchor in the Bay of Cadiz, June 20th. On the following morning the attack on the harbour began, and after an obstinate contest of some hours' duration, two or three of the largest Spanish men-of-war were taken; the rest escaped by flight, and thirty or forty merchantmen were burnt. Immediately aftér this victory, Essex having landed with 3000 soldiers, succeeded in penetrating into the town; and in the market-place he was joined by the admiral and another party, who had entered at a different quarter. The inhabitants now surrendered, purchasing their lives with 120,000 crowns, and abandoning the city with its goods and merchandise to the discretion of the conquerors.

The bold, but perhaps not impracticable, plans of Essex, to penetrate into the heart of Andalusia, or, at all events, to hold possession of the Isle of Cadiz with 3000 or 4000 men, having been rejected by a majority of the other commanders, the fleet set sail for England; and after making, during the homeward voyage, two descents of no great importance on the Spanish coast, arrived at Plymouth after an absence of about ten weeks. The loss suffered by the Spaniards was estimated at 20,000,000 ducats. Thus, while Philip II. was affecting the conqueror, a severe blow was struck in his own dominions. The secret of his weakness was revealed, and if the head of the colossus was of gold, its feet were shown to be of clay. The English, on the other hand, acquired, even from the Spaniards themselves, the praise not only of bravery, but also of humanity and moderation, for the manner in which they had used their victory. The coolness of Essex's reception by the Queen, and the intrigues which followed, are well known to the reader of English history. In the following year, however (1597), Essex, together with Lord Thomas Howard and Raleigh, was intrusted with another expedition against Spain. Infuriated by the insults received at Cadiz, Philip II. was preparing at Lisbon a new armada for the invasion of England, and was amusing himself with the dream of establishing his daughter, the Infanta, on

5 6360 soldiers, about 1000 gentlemen volunteers, and 6672 sailors.