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Water Line - 1672

John de Witt was practically the prime minister of a republic of prudent and wise counsellors, with no broad basis of popular sympathy to rest on. On March 1, 1653, he entered on the functions of Grand Pensionary of Holland. These he discharged till shortly after the Revolution of 1672, which restored the young William III to the authority of his ancestors, and which was almost immediately followed by the murder of John de Witt and his brother Cornelius.

After a declaraaton of war in March 1672, Louis XIV invaded Holland with an army of more than 100,000 men, and place after place quickly surrendered to him up to within a few miles of Amsterdam. An insurmountable barrier to the progress of the French army was offered by the inundations, and the republic was indebted for her safety to this last means of defence. John de Witt, so far from being guilty of the military weakness which led to the ruin of his country, had advised in vain the strengthening of the army, and had encouraged the men of Amsterdam to let loose those inundations by which the French invasion was ultimately baffled.

If a low land (as in Holland) is aided by inundations, the resistance may become absolute, and defy every attack. This was shown in Holland in the year 1672, when, after the conquest and occupation of all the fortresses outside the margin of the inundation, 50,000 French troops became available, who, - first under Conde and then under Luxemburg, - were unable to force the line of inundation, although it was only defended by about 20,000 men.

Spain was so fearful of exposing herself to the attacks of the King of France by siding with the republic, that she demanded from the States-General their armed protection on behalf of the Netherlands. They had therefore been obliged to place at her disposal on their frontiers five regiments, which they promised to increase to thirteen, and the command of which was given to Zuylestein, lieutenantgeneral of the infantry. Their fortresses in North Brabant were furnished with troops; Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and Bergen-opZoom were occupied by 2,500 men, reinforced by detachments of militia and citizens. Outside this line of fortified towns, covering the frontiers of the Netherlands, the republic had made Maestricht her arsenal. In spite of its isolated position and distance of fifty leagues from Bois-le-Duc, Maestricht was the key to the United Provinces on the south.

It was, therefore, on the territory of the United Provinces that the army was to await the enemy, while occupying the position of the Yssel. This line of defence was strongly supported at its two extremities. At one end it extended along the Ehine to the valley of the Wahal, which being defended by the fort of Schenck, supposed to be impregnable, and by the town of Nimeguen, occupied by a garrison of 2,500 men, would prevent any access to the United Provinces from the south. At the other extremity it covered the fortresses which defended Overyssel, and was connected with those of Friesland and Groningen in the north by means of a narrow causeway along the Zuyder Zee, which might easily be made inaccessible to the enemy by inundation.

The Grand Pensionary of Holland, John De Witt, convinced of the necessity for coming to some conclusion without further delay, tried to bring about an agreement by offering to rest satisfied with the execution of a scheme for inundating the neighboring country. The line of the Yssel, which extended from the Zuyder Zee to the Ehine, remained, therefore, the only one that could be relied on as a basis for resistance. The river not being sufficiently deep to form a barrier against invasion, it was necessary to throw up entrenchments at certain points, and to supplement these by inundations in other parts. The inundations did not at first produce the effect that might have been expected, in spite of the steps taken by the Prince of Orange for opening the sluices.

Holland, whose very name means a hollow or low country, can easily be inundated. She is intersected from the Meuse to the Zuyder Zee by a number of rivers, canals, lakes, and gulfs; and the level of the land, which in several places is lower than the rivers, and even below the level of the sea at high tide, obliges the inhabitants to multiply dykes in order to prevent the country being submerged. Eaised above the meadows and intersected by ditches, the dykes serve as causeways and take the place of roads. They communicate with one another at intervals by means of sluices, which enable the water to be let out on to the land, as it rises, and which, closing as it returns, leave the water confined in small basins. Where there are no sluices, or if it is necessary to hasten the inundation, more especially in dry seasons, it suffices to open cuttings in the dykes, in order to submerge the land at high tide, dams being constructed to prevent its being dried up at low tide. The sluices once opened, and the dykes cut, the only thoroughfares that remain accessible are the high causeways, a sort of bridges which are easily destroyed or defended.

From one frontier to the other, Holland can thus call the waters to her aid against invasion, and make use of them as a continuous circle of entrenchments. On the north, it is true, the tide of the Zuyder Zee did not rise high enough to produce an overflow, but an heroic measure might still be taken, that of cutting through the dykes, so as to be able without the help of the sluices to inundate completely, even at low tide, all the land on a lower level than the sea.

The steps necessary for making the various parts of Holland inaccessible to invasion had been studied beforehand. The French Government had inquired into the matter, and as early as the year 1670 had tried to obtain information by means of an envoy, whose mission was suspected by the States and who had to be precipitately recalled. The traditions were thus revived of the patriotism which, a century before, in the heroic War of Independence, had saved Leyden by returning to the ocean a part of the land conquered from the sea.

The necessity for having recourse to this plan of defence had not escaped the Grand Pensionary, and he had urged its execution, which the States of Utrecht opposed, as he complained afterwards to Beverningh. At his suggestion the States of Holland had at length, though tardily, sent instructions to all the inspectors of dykes, enjoining them to draw up a report speedily, in concert with the deputies of the towns whose consent was to be first obtained. Numerous debates set before us with the most precise details the mode in which the inundation was to be prepared in each district; they show that, by the end of the mouth of April, the most necessary works were everywhere begun, from North Holland as far as Brabant, and that they were being pushed forward with the greatest activity, in the direction of Brabant, along the Wahal and the Meuse, upon the entire line on which the States-General expected to be attacked.

On the news of the enemy's approach, the Grand Pensionary hastened to put into execution the final decisions which had hitherto remained in suspense. In the beginning of June the deputies of Haarlem, Leyden, Amsterdam, Gouda, Schoonhoven, Alkniaar, Hoorn, and Enckhuyzen, were commissioned to give an account to the Assembly of the States of the measures that were to be taken for flooding the country by raising the sluices or cutting the dykes. On their report the most minute and urgent instructions were given to the magistrates of the towns, at the request of the Grand Pensionary, and the former received orders, the day after the passage of the Ehine, to hasten on the inundations. A sum of 50,000 florins was placed at their disposal to provide the necessary means.

It was Amsterdam that responded with the greatest eagerness to this final appeal, and which was the first to give the signal for the patriotic measures without which the republic would have been lost. The magistrates of the town had at first hesitated; instead of submerging the country they let it be understood that in the event of the States proceeding to inundate the approaches to the town, they would oppose them by every means in their power.

The authentic report of the sitting of the Council sets forth the resistance which they persisted in maintaining. "The Council say that they cannot understand how the deputies of Amsterdam could allow the States of Holland to adopt the resolution of inundating the environs of the town. The waters can, as has already been done, be kept up and ready to overflow, if necessary ; but they have not yet arrived at the extremity of flooding the country, to the great prejudice of the inhabitants and of the fields, at the moment when the hay is still standing, and the corn cannot yet be cut. The cattle left without food will die; the people will be unable to pay their taxes, and the waters becoming stagnant during the heat will cause the plague and other diseases."

It was decided, as is set forth in the memorable report of the sitting of June 15, that the sluices should be opened and the dykes cut. Three days later the entry of the waters was suspended, the inundation having, according to the report of the sittings of the Council, produced what was to be expected of it. The great sacrifice was consummated. The waters poured over the meadows in all directions and drowned the crops ; the country houses which were the real homes of the rich burghers of Amsterdam, who usually had no residence in their town except their counting-houses and shops, were overwhelmed by the waters, or pulled down and converted into entrenchments. Everything disappeared : plants, hothouses, and exotic gardens, with the collections of all sorts which adorned them. The estates belonging to the magistrates of the town were submerged in order to induce the poorer inhabitants to support more easily the losses they were obliged to endure.

At the same time the magistrates shrank from no expense, and generously contributed 700,000 florins from the treasury of the town. Amsterdam was soon placed in a position which defied all attack, and might be considered as impregnable. It required nothing less than this powerful and generous example to overcome the resistance offered to the inundations by the inhabitants of the country districts, who preferred the preservation of their fields to the safety of their fatherland. The rising of the peasants, who, instead of labouring at the works for which they were requisitioned, opposed them by force of arms, with the more or less avowed complicity of the local governments and of some of the town councils, rendered useless the energetic intervention of the commissioners of the States. All obstacles were soon surmounted, and in every direction the open sluices and broken-down dykes transformed the plains into marshes. The inundation, commenced on June 15, was nearly completed by the 20th. Holland was to remain submerged for the next two years, assailable only in winter during the frosts, and at other times all but inaccessible, being, so to speak, buried beneath the waters. Such was the price she paid for her deliverance.