1587 - Maurice / Mauritz
Fortunately for the Provinces, and for the world's liberties, the spirit of William of Orange survived in his second son Maurice / Mauritz, (b. 1567 - d. 1625) prins van Oranje, graaf van Nassau [1587 1625] who now, though he was only seventeen and a student at Leyden, and though he had an older brother living in Spain, was at once, chiefly through the influence of that great statesman John Olden Barueveldt, named governor of the United Provinces, with a council of state, and with Count Hohenlohe, his brother-in-law, as lieutenant-general.
Maurice was also, soon after, made stadtholder of Holland and Zealand, while Utrecht was placed under the lord of Villars as stadtholder, Guelderland and Overyssel under the count of Meurs, and Friesland under William of Nassau. Never was any one better fitted for his life's task than was this boy, thus early called to rule in troubled times. Maurice of Nassau had all the coldness and calculation of his family, all its ambition, all its firmness and tenacity of grasp.
Maurice added thereto a quality wanting in the others, a genius for war, and those gifts which go to make what is commonly called a lucky commander — gifts which may be best described by saying that the lucky captain is he who in war leaves least to luck. For over forty years Maurice was the champion of the Provinces; and, excepting his treatment of Barneveldt, he came next after his father as a founder of the Dutch republic.
At the outset his antagonist was that formidable captain, Alexander Farnese, who had by this time nearly subdued all the southern provinces, and whose arms proved successful at Ghent (1584) and at Antwerp (1585). The northern provinces, thinking it necessary to call in foreign aid, appealed to Henry III of France, but the outburst of the "War of the Three Henries" caused by the anxiety of the Guises lest Henry should draw too much towards the heretics, put a stop to all hope of help from that side.
Olden Barnoveldt, therefore, next crossed over to England with offers to Queen Elizabeth, who, though declining for herself the proffered sovereignty over the Provinces, undertook to appoint a governor-general, and to send over and pay 5,000 foot and 1,000 horse; in return for which she was to be put in possession of certain cautionary towns.
Accordingly, Sir John Norris was at once sent over with the English forces; Sir Philip Sidney was appointed governor of Flushing, and the Earl of Leicester was named governor general by the queen. At first Leicester was welcomed with all the joy that his Calvinistic opinions, and his position as favorite and representative of Elizabeth, could elicit from men who had now long been struggling for existence, and who, bereft of their great prince, were yearning for some strong hand to guido them.
But it did not last: his high pretensions, and his mistress' haughty tone, joined with his foolish interference with Dutch commerce and with the religious difficulties now beginning to show themselves, soon offended the States General, and neutralized whatever good the active help of England might have promised them.
In 1586 Sir Philip Sidney invaded Flanders, and the young stadtholder of Holland gladly served under him. In the same autumn Leicester himself took the field, and marched to meet Parma, who was threatening the provinces from the east. Under the walls of Zutphen Sir Philip Sidney fell; and Leicester, finding his efforts useless, soon raised the siege of that town, and withdrew to the Hague.
The rest of his time was spent in bitter quarrels with the estates; Olden Barneveldt and Maurice were united for a time by his marked ill-will towards them both; and so strong did the feeling against him grow, that in 1587 Queen Elizabeth was fain to order his recall. For a while there was great soreness between the countries; the general interest, however, was far stronger than any partial pique, and in the crisis of the Spanish Armada in 1588 the Dutch did very great service to England by resolutely blockading in their ports the transports and army with which Parma had meant to invade the English shores.
In the same year Maurice had the satisfaction of seeing the English and Dutch repulse the famous duke from the walls of Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1589, on the other hand, the English garrison of Geertruidenberg betrayed that important place, the doorway out of Brabant into Holland, into Parma's hands, and laid the United Provinces open to attack. In other places also the English forces, not yet withdrawn, were an anxiety and danger to the states.
Still, from this moment the fortunes of the Dutch began to rise. No contrast could be more striking than that between the Spanish' Netherlands and the United Provinces. In the fertile districts of Hainault and Brabant, where climate and soil were good and transit easy, utter ruin alone was seen: wolves and wild dogs swarmed; the land was overrun with weeds and briars; and even the wealthy cities of the past were almost deserted.
In the United Provinces, on the contrary, the wellbeing of the country was steadily increasing: every year its hardy seamen brought back fresh wealth; and thousands of ingenious workers, turning in despair from the hopelessness of their condition in the Spanish Netherlands, brought their skill and industry into the north, which soon became as famous for its manufacturing excellence as for its energy in commerce.
It was at this period that, just when the southern cities were languishing and losing ground, the northern burgher life made vigorous growth, and prepared the way for that supremacy of town aristocracy which characterized the story of Holland in the following century.
The year 1590 opened well for the United Provinces: Utrecht joined its fortunes with those of Holland and Zealand; Guelderland and Overyssel made William Louis of Nassau their stadtholder, so strengthening the power of the family; and Breda was recovered by a daring stratagem. The duke of Parma also, with failing health, was called away to oppose the victorious progress of Henry IV in northern France. In 1591 Prince Maurice still further strengthened himself by taking Zutphen, Deventer, Hulst, and eventually Nimeguen, which secured for him the complete submission of Guelderland. Parma was unable to oppose him effectually, for his troops were again mutinous; he was also once more called off into France.
The reputation of Prince Maurice rose now to its highest point: the greatest captain in Europe seemed unable to cope with him, and the vigorous help of Barneveldt still secured him firm support at home. In 1593 he took Geertruidenberg; and in 1694 Groningen, the only stronghold left to the Spaniards in all the Seven Provinces, was reduced.
The appointment of the cardinal archduke Albert as governor of the Spanish Netherlands did not much change the current of affairs; the Dutch now tried to open up a trade with the East Indies, and made some vigorous explorations in Arctic seas. In 1596 the archduke recovered Hulst, which commanded the northernmost parts of Flanders; the Dutch on the other hand, with the English, sacked Cadiz and destroyed the Spanish fleet; and in the next year Maurice inflicted a defeat on the Spaniards at Turnhout, transferred his sphere of action to the Rhine country, and took town after town, making the provinces secure on the side of Zutphen, Overyssel, and Friesland.
The year 1598 gave a new aspect to affairs by the conclusion of the Franco-Spanish war in the treaty of Vervins, and by the death of Philip II. The Dutch, assisted only by the English, and that chiefly by volunteers, were now to bear the whole brunt of the efforts of Spain. In the autumn of 1599 Prince Maurice endeavored to transfer the war into Germany and after taking Emmerich in the Cleves country, delivered Bommel from the siege which Mendoza, the Spanish general, was laying to it.
But dissatisfaction at home, and the unreadiness of his German allies, forced Maurice to turn his eyes towards Flanders, which he invaded in the summer of 1600. Surprised by the Spaniards in the neighborhood of Nieuport, Maurice was attacked by the archduke Albert in a most critical position, but, after a long and well-balanced battle, inflicted on him (July 2) a disastrous defeat.
