1585 - Holland and Belgium
At this period the warlike operations between what may be called Holland and Belgium had been suspended, because in the latter country no resources were left to the government, and no aid was sent by King Philip, who was hindered from doing so by his treasures being required to secure the acquisition he had lately made of the kingdom of Portugal, and by the expenditure he applied to the equipment of that force destined for the conquest of England which had been pompously styled the invincible armada.
Some contemporary authors have assigned another cause of Philip’s withholding supplies to the Netherlands, namely, a jealousy of the Duke of Parma, which led that suspicious monarch to apprehend that, seeing Belgium to be of far greater value than his dominions in Italy, feeling his own great popularity, and observing the general hatred of the Spaniards, he might be induced to assume for himself the sovereignty.
The capture of Antwerp on 17 August 1585, though celebrated with most extraordinary demonstrations of joy in all parts of the ten provinces, was to them only the consummation of that misery and depression under which they had so long suffered. That city had been the focal point to which the commerce which enriched the country had been attracted. In the hands of the Spaniards, it was closed from the sea by the Dutch being in possession of the mouth of the river on both sides. The disputes about religion, which had distracted the two opposing parties, were quieted by the absence of the Protestant portion of the merchants and manufacturers, who carried with them what could be obtained for their fixed capital, and directed their fluctuating and scattered funds to be transmitted to the places to which they had removed. Amsterdam rose, with a rapidity hitherto unknown, to be a vast commercial place; the other towns in Holland shared in the advantage; and much of it was imported into London, Hamburg, and other foreign cities.'
According to Schiller, the reconciled provinces in the interior exhibited the most deplorable spectacle. The inhabitants of the great towns had in a great measure fallen victims to the united calamities of war, pestilence, and famine. Large villages, which once contained from two to three thousand inhabitants, were absolutely abandoned to the wolves, who had become so numerous and fierce that they attacked not merely decrepit persons and children, but strong and full-grown men ; the dogs, driven about by hunger, had become as ferocious as other beasts of prey, and joined in large packs in hunting down cattle and men; neither fields, nor woods, nor roads were to be distinguished by any visible boundaries; all was an entangled mass of trees, weeds, and grass; so that many who returned to take possession of their property could not find out the places where their dwellings and fields had been. The prices of the necessaries of life were so high, that persons to buy bread, and were often so reduced as to have recourse to open beggary in the streets; whilst the poorer classes could only sustain life by food of the worst and most unhealthy description. Few marriages were contracted, few children born, and of these a great proportion were early carried of by death.
There was a great contrast between Holland and Belgium at this particular conjuncture. There the pecuniary contributions were extorted to a greater extent, and with equal severity. There, by the increase of their shipping, no scarcity nor any great enhancement of the prices of corn had been felt, as their supply was copiously obtained from the shores of the Baltic; and the extension of the fisheries supplied them amply with that kind of food, whilst within the dikes the rich meadows yielded abundance of butter, cheese, and pork, with some other kinds of meal. The heavy contributions for defense, as well as the means of subsistence, were almost exclusively met by the rapid increase of a profitable commerce. Their vessels sailed freely to the British kingdoms, to the Baltic ports, to Italy, and even to the harbors of their enemy, King Philip, both in Spain and in Portugal.
The trade between the last-mentioned countries and their settlements in Asia and America was rather in the hands of foreigners than of natives, the Spanish houses of commerce scarcely giving more than their names to the transactions. The Hollanders partook largely of this trade; their manufactures and their cured herrings were much sought after, and gave them an enormous profit; and though the trade was pronounced contraband by the Spanish king, it could not be prevented; for, in spite of his ordinances, it was so profitable to both parties, that Dutch ships under Hambur or Lubeck colors were to be seen in all the ports of the Peninsula. By these and by other means the linens of Holland were to be seen in all the shops of Mexico, Brazil, and Peru, the payment for which, besides the tropical productions, brought gold and silver, coined or uncoined.
The religious dissensions of the period gave rise to that formation of national character which has since distinguished the two countries. The Belgians, in their severe sufferings, attributed them all to the part which the Protestants had taken in the first opposition to their Spanish king. This begat hatred to the reformed religion, and as their priests did not fail to impress that feeling, it was natural that augmented suffering should give it a more intense bitterness. It is not therefore wonderful that the hatred of the Belgians should have naturally grown, as it manifestly has done, to a degree of bigotry in religious matters, which could not be much lessened by the attempt made two centuries later to form the two parts into one kingdom under a Protestant prince.
The Hollanders, on the other hand, gradually became as rigidly attached to the religion which they had embraced. It was naturally associated in their minds with all the privations which they had at first endured, with the victories they had afterwards gained, with the independence they had accomplished, and with the flourishing state of the commerce they had acquired. The emigrants, too, who joined them at Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, and the other places which had capitulated under the condition that the Protestants should have time and permission to remove with their property, felt themselves to be suffering banishment for their religion, and as martyrs became more zealous in their adherence to the cause for which they had suffered. The Dutch did not, like the Belgians, proscribe the adherents of the opposite religion, but granted them permission to indulge in their own faith and ceremonies.
On these subjects, and their views of the political and commercial benefits of toleration, than to the absence of bigotry amongst the Dutch people and their clergy. Very soon after their independence was universally acknowledged, the states showed quite as much bigotry towards the professors of the Protestant religion who differed on incomprehensible subjects with each other, as had ever been exhibited by any Catholics in behalf of the rites, ceremonies, and dogmas of their more magnificent church.
Besides the difference of character between the people of these two portions of the Netherlands, there was a great dissimilarity in their manners and domestic habits, which may be the more properly noticed here, because its operation has been continually active during the attempt made in the present day to consolidate into one body politic the two nations, and because the attempt has altogether failed.
The southern or the ten provinces had grown up to be a great commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural community. Each of these branches, acting upon the other, had created that general prosperity which naturally leads to the indulgence of hospitality, of jovial intercourse, and the enjoyment of luxuries of various kinds, according to the relative state of the parties composing the community. The fat burghers of Ghent and of Bruges, and the farmers of Flanders with their ornamented strong horses, and their bedizened spouses, with their ear-rings of silver or gold, were sometimes objects of ridicule and sometimes of envy to the other people of Europe. Though not very ready to pay taxes to their princes, they were always prepared to spend with cheerfulness on their own gratifications, and in hospitality to their friends. Even the peasantry were merry and cheerful in their village dances and their rural festivals, which some of the best artists have painted, and made visible to subsequent ages by their un-perishing works.
In short, if the people of Flanders were not profuse, they were not rigidly economical. Some of the profits of the different branches of industry were undoubtedly saved and added to the capital; but a considerable portion was expended in gratifying the tastes for show, conveniences, a cheering table, and good strong beer. The Northern Netherlands, at the period when the troubles began, were generally in a state of great poverty. Their trade was inconsiderable, and their rural industry chiefly confined to the dairy.
The nature of the country recovered from the water, and protected by strong embankments from being again flooded, required all the labor and all the revenue that could be collected. The only way in which the population could subsist was by the practice of the most severe parsimony in their dwellings, their food, and their clothing. When the war commenced, they began to bestir themselves in the fisheries and the foreign trade. The profits of this were slow in arriving, and thus the habit of frugality was strengthened; and, when the profit did arrive, so large a portion was required for the general defense that none could prudently be devoted to purposes of luxury or splendor.
While extravagance was wisely forbidden, it is generally thought that hospitality disappeared. The domestic enjoyments were unsocial, and, except the practice of extreme cleanliness, little engaged the attention of the families but the saving of money. This representation of the national character of the Dutch has been generally dwelt upon with more severity than it deserves; but it was necessary in the circumstances, in which a tone was given to manners and morals, which has been more or less strictly adhered to till the present time. The emigrants who came to them from the southern division were at first compelled, by the losses they had suffered, to practice the same parsimony as the former residents. They too, therefore, at first from necessity, and at length from principle or habit, became, equally with the others, habitually parsimonious and economical. It has been deemed proper to notice the growth and difference of national character between the Dutch and the Belgians, because it will tend to throw some light on the most recent transactions which have taken place relative to those countries.
