The advocate now took a bold step. He proposed that the States of Holland should, on their own authority, as a sovereign province, raise a local force of 4,00o men (waardgelders) to keep the peace. The states-general meanwhile by a bare majority (4 provinces to 3) agreed to the summoning of a national church synod. The States of Holland, also by a narrow majority, refused their assent to this, and passed (Aug. 4, 1617) a strong resolution (Scherpe Resolutie) by which all magistrates, officials and sol diers in the pay of the province were required to take an oath of obedience to the states on pain of dismissal, and were to be held accountable not to the ordinary tribunals, but to the States of Holland. It was a declaration of sovereign independence on the part of Holland, and the states-general took up the challenge and determined on decisive action. A commission was appointed with Maurice at its head to compel the disbanding of the waard gelders. On July 31, 1618 the stadtholder appeared at Utrecht, which had thrown in its lot with Holland, at the head of a body of troops, and at his command the local levies at once laid down their arms. His progress through the towns of Holland met with no opposition. The states party was crushed without a blow being struck. On Aug. 23, by order of the states-general, the advocate and his chief supporters, de Groot and Hoogerbeets, were arrested.
Oldenbarneveldt was with his friends kept in the strictest con finement until November, and then brought for examination be fore a commission appointed by the states-general. He appeared more than 6o times before the commissioners, and was, most unjustly, allowed neither to consult papers not to put his defence in writing. On Feb. 20, 1619 he was arraigned before a special court of twenty-four members, only half of whom were Hol landers, and nearly all of them his personal enemies. It was in no sense a legal court, nor had it any jurisdiction over the pris oner, but the protest of the advocate, who claimed his right to be tried by the sovereign province of Holland, whose servant he was, was disregarded. He was allowed no advocates, nor the use of
documents, pen or paper. It was in fact not a trial at all, and the packed bench of judges on Sunday, May 12, pronounced sentence of death. On the following day the old statesman, at the age of seventy-one, was beheaded in the Binnenhof at The Hague.
Not a shred of evidence has ever been produced to throw sus picion upon the patriot statesman's conduct. All his private papers fell into the hands of his foes, but not even the bitterest and ablest of his personal enemies, Francis Aarssens (q.v.), could extract from them anything to show that Oldenbarneveldt at any time betrayed his country's interests. His high-handed course of action in defence of what he conceived to be the sovereign rights of his own province of Holland to decide upon religious ques tions within its borders may be challenged on the ground of inex pediency, but not of illegality. The harshness of the treatment meted out by Maurice to his father's old friend, the faithful counsellor and protector of his own early years, leaves a stain upon the stadtholder's memory. That the prince should have felt compelled in the last resort to take up arms for the Union against the attempt of the province of Holland to defy the authority of the Generality may be justified by the plea reipublicae salus su prema lex. To eject the advocate from power was one thing, to execute him as a traitor quite another. The condemnation of Oldenbarneveldt was carried out with Maurice's consent and approval, and he cannot be acquitted of a prominent share in what posterity has pronounced to be a judicial murder.
Oldenbarneveldt was married in 1575 to Maria van Utrecht.
He left two sons, the lords of Groeneveld and Stoutenburg, and two daughters. A conspiracy against the life of Maurice, in which the sons of Oldenbarneveldt took part, was discovered in 1623. Stoutenburg, who was the chief accomplice, made his escape and entered the service of Spain ; Groeneveld was executed.