It was indeed a perilous enterprise in which they were engaged. A small community of fishers and herds men, hitherto unknown among nations, had come down into the lists agai .st a monarch, befJre whom the most powerful kingdoms of the wor.d had lately trembled for their liberties. With no resources but their own acti vity-, no tactics but their own despair, the Dutch had ventured to defy the commander of the veterans of Charles V. and the possessor of the American mines. The contest at first view might appear hopeless, and preferable to submission, only, as dying nobly on the field of battle is preferable to dying unjustly on the scaf fold. A closer inspection, hol% ever, showed the pros pect in less gloomy colours. The Hollanders were poor ; but the enemy's wealth lay widely scattered, and bold adventure might snatch a pa-t of it. The Flemish ex iles, driven from thc peaceful occupations of the land, had betaken themselves in great numbers to another element ; and the rich fleets of Spain were often cap tured by them. By degrees, too, the trade which was thus obstructed, sought out other channels ; and Hol land, the asylum of the persecuted from every nation -(who were naturally the most inquisitive and enterpris ing of each nation), soon abounded in persons fitted for all kinds of commerce, and ready to grasp at exery branch of it within their reach. As their maritime spe culations prospered, greater numbers, and more capital, became engaged in them : they at length acquired a navy, which could venture to thc Indies, and strike at the root of their oppressor's prosperity Philip had unpoverished and ruined that part of thc Netherlands which still adhered to him ; the Indian trade of his Por tuguese subjects was snatched away before it could re ward the labour of conquering Portugal, and keeping it conquered ; and Spaio, at no time distinguished for com mute, had already begun to sink into that state of lan guor from which it has never sincc awoke. The gold ol Potosi, in spite of all his efforts, found its way to the markets of Amsterdam : his own subjects did not mann lacture ; and the very equipment of I.is armies gave vi gour and riches to the people they were sent to subdue. His forces seemed numerous, but his plans were still more so. The jealousy entertained against his father continued to subsist, though the power which had given rise to it was last ceasing. A kind of Catholic knight errantry made Philip take part in every religious quar rel which agitated Europe during that period : his ar mies and his treasures were repeatedly called from their most necessary functions, to lend assistance to the par tizans of the League in France. Ambition made him seize the crown of Portugal ; ambition combined with resel,tment and fanaticism to make him grasp at that of England. And each new undertaking, each new ac quirement, while it weakened his own strength, by ex tending it over a wider surface, procured for the Hol landers, openly or secretly, a new ally.
NVith Wi.ltam of Orange at its head, therefore, the new confederacy did not despair. Philip, who knew the Prince's importance, attempted to detach him by pro mises and gifts : when this was found to be impossible, he set a price upon his head. Superstitious fervour, so justified and rewarded, was likely in time to find some wicked maniac whoin it could convert into an assassin. A first attempt failed ; a second was successful. Bal thazar Gerard murdered the Prince of Orange at Delft, (1584), being impelled, as he stated at first, by the Di vinity ; but allured also, as he afterwards confessed, by the less elevated hope of Philip's earthly recompencc to do the deed. Philip's memory can suffer little by this imputation : the murderer of his own son could blacken his character no farther in the way of murder.
William's death was a heavy stroke to his feilow-ci tizens ; but in proportion as it excited grief for the fate and for the loss of their leader, it rendered more impla cable their hatred of his destroyer. Nor was their situa tion yet so low as Spain believed. The Duke of Anjou, their late governor, had left them, indeed, with feelings of irritation and disgust, which were repaid him with usury : but William's cxertions had kept the Prince of Parma busied in thc southern provinces, where much work still remained for him. By William's negocia tions, seconded by the suspicious measures of Philip, Elizabeth of England, though she rejected the sove reignty of the Netherlands repeatedly offered to her, had been induced to lend them secret assistance in troops and money; and she now openly espoused their quarrel. As security for payment, the Statcs delivered
up to her the towns of Bille and Flushing, with the cas tle of Itammekens ; and she sent them an army, with the earl of Leicester to be their governor. Leicester dissatisfied the people, and was recalled : hut the sol diers continued ; and being joined under Lord Wil loughby. with the forces of the republic, were placed at thc disposal of Maurice, the late Prince's son. a young man whom thc gratitude of his country had raised to the station of governor, and who soon showed talents that would have deserved it independently of gratitude.
His talents, however, were all required in this emer gency ; and but for other circumstances, they- would hardly have suffered to meet it. Parma had already se cured Ghent, Bruges, and lastly Antwerp, the hardest of his conquests, as well as the most serviceable. In the south, every thing. must soot) have been entirely at his disposal; and Holland might then have justly trembled before his accumulated force. But Philip's wars with England, his Invinctble Armada, daintier] the ranks of Parma, and dissipated the treasures which should have maintained him. In addition to this, that general was twice dispatched to France, to mingle in battles which had no baaring on his own success ; and the Dutch, now strongly supported by Elizabeth, frequently undid in his absence what it had cost him infinite pains to ef fect before his departure. Between 'Maurice and Phi lip. the task of Parma was like Penelope's web ; no skill or energy could avail him. Compelled to vibrate be tween France and Holland, he accomplished nothing permanent in either. During his second invasion of the former country, he had succeeded in thwarting the plans of Henry IV. both at Paris and Rotten. .These were the last of his triumphs: he died at Arras next year (1592), and the Spanish cause in Holland died along with him.
Mansfeld, Erncst, Fuentes, his successors, impeded in their efforts by the French war, disobeyed by ill-ap pointed and mutinous troops, performed nothing of im portance. The latter even lost Breda and Gcrtruyden burg to Prince Maurice. At length, in 1598, Philip closed his restless reign. The burden which had gall ed him near forty years, had long ago vanquished even his obstinacy; and Albert of Austria, husband of the In fanta Isabella, had, some time previously, been promis ed the sovereignty of the Netherlands, with merely a reversion in favour of Spain, should that princess die childless. Philip III. punctually obeyed the intentions of his father ; but the statcs of Holland listened in si lence to Albert's claim. At the head of a great army, he prepared to enforce it. Prince Maurice met him at Nieuport (1600 ;) and, with the aid of Sir Francis Vere, and the English auxiliaries lecl by him, gained a complete and splendid victory. Albert wasted his re maining forces in the trenches of Ostend : the town was gallantly maintained by Vere and his followers; and did no' yield even to the talents of Spinola, till aftt r it had stood a siege of three years, and cost him ahove 70,000 men. Under the same able general, Spain, to whom the reversion of the Netherlands was riow become se cure, Isabella having no child, en, made a last effort far beyond its diminished strength. But new efforts yield ed no adequate result : Philip was weary of the contest ; and, by the advice of Spinola, he agreed to treat of peace. After innumerable obstructions and delays on the part of the Dutch, who had now begun to reap pro fit from the war, and principally on the part of 1\Iaurice's faction, who hoped to make it serviceable to his ambi tion, a truce of twelve years was at last concluded, by the mediation of France and England, at the Ilague, in 1609, Spain acknowledging the United Provinces as a free republic, and granting them every privilege which a free country has a right to demand. The revolt in Bohemia, which was already breaking out, the appear ance of Gustavus Adolphus, and his victorious progress in Germany, soon gave full employment elsewhere to all the branches of the Hapsburg family. Combined with the vigorous administration of Richelieu, those events extinguished in Spain all desire of renewing its pretensions to Holland: no farther hostilities occurred, and a definitive treaty was signed in 1647, and ratified at the great peace of Westphalia next year, securing the rights of the United Provinces in the most ample manner, and finally stipulating the continuance of peace and free intercourse between two nations, whose strife had been so lengthened, so obstinate, and so bloody.