the Provinces of Flanders were under the Government thereof Nor was this a bare Union between Prince and Prince but it extended from Nation to Nation and almost from private man to private man so great were the considerations both of neighbourhood Traffick and the conformity of Government and of all other Interests to make both peoples as it were but one and the same Every concern being then so united between the Flemish and the English how could I abandon those and not abandon these Nothing is more just then to defend the oppressed nothing more becoming a regal condition then to take such into protection And if the most remote people may merit such a favour how much more may our neighbours desrve it and those between whom and us there is so near a conjunction Nor ought the Flemish to be ere a whit less assisted by me out of justice then out of conveniency You see whether the vastness of the Spanish Empire is arrived And how much more this Kingdom in particular is now indangered by the addition of the Crown of Portugal thereunto The designe of oppressing Flanders is apparently seen to the end that such Forces both by land and by sea may be planted there as may serve to make Spain impose what Laws it shall please both upon the North and West In this case England and Ireland being incompassed therewith why may we not fear that they may suffer the like evils as Flanders should have done So as by my succouring of those Provinces I pretend to have at the same time secured my own Dominions Here it is that the King of Spains shoe wrings him and hence it is that he accounts that an injury which I have done in mine own necessary defence And could I appear more moderate then in refusing the Soveraignty which the United Provinces did so freely and unanimously offer me And yet how justly may I complain of so many injuries done to me by him What hath he not endeavoured to make Ireland rebel against me What are his continual machinations to the same purpose with the Catholicks in England and what doth he not in all other parts in hatred to my Kingdoms and to my person It may then be safely concluded that he now makes open war up on me not out of any true reason but out of a false pretence and that his true end is to in vade this my Kingdom and to endeavour by all the power he hath to get the Dominion of it I therefore summon and exhort you my faithfull Subjects to the defence thereof to the defence I say of a Kingdom which is more yours then mine I being more yours then mine own The marriage from whence I derive was established by Parliament by the Authority of Parliament was I brought to the succession of the Crown which I wear The Religion which I follow is imbraced by the Parliament I have acknowledged the Parliament to be my Father and as I may say have taken the Parliament for my Husband For I have forborn marriage to avoid bringing of a foreign Prince hither who by new Customs and imperious demeanours might trouble not so much my own quiet as the common happiness of the Kingdom By the miseries of Flanders it may be comprehended what those of England would be if the Spaniards should enter here We should soon see new Tribunals of Inquisition new yokes of Citadels new Laws new burthens new Customs horror cruelty and violence every where I know you would not willingly fall into this condition and that to keep from doing so you will of your selves do all that lies in your power This consists chiefly in providing such subsidies as so great an occurrency requires Wherefore I beseech you to give them so as that the preparations on our side may justly counterpoise those which the enemy doth by so many ways order on his behalf For what remains every one knows what advantage the assaulted hath over those that do assail We shall particularly have the advantage very much by defending a Kingdom to which the sea serves for a Bulwark on all sides With our Forces those of our Confederates in Flanders will joyn and all the Northern parts will unite themselves with us when they shall see this new designe of the Spaniards to invade England after having endeavoured so cruelly to oppress Flanders I the mean while who may term my self no less your servant then your Queen will perform what it becomes me to do and though a woman rest confident you shall find a manly spirit in me And that I will cheerfully incounter death if it shall be requisite so to end my life upon so worthy an occasion The Queen was indued with a very great wit and with almost all sorts of learning which she had particularly studied in her younger years And by reason of her then great age and the opinion which was had of her singular gift of Government she was generally no less reverenced then beloved by her Subjects Wherefore it is not to be exprest what affection her Parliament shewed towards her and what indignation against the King of Spain in their answer She was assured by both the Houses that in her service and the service of the Kingdom they would spend both their fortunes and their lives and that they would be as ready to give Subsidies as she had been in desiring them To this their disposition of will the universal diligence of effects did soon correspond Exact Guards were forthwith put into all the Ports of the Kingdom Many men were raised for the Fleet by sea and to make two Armies also on land The one under the Earl of Leicester who was sent for back into England by the Queen and the other under the Lord Hunsdon who was likewise very much esteemed of in the Military profession Leicester was chiefly to defend the banks of the Thames which runs through London and to keep the Spanish Fleet from entring thereinto And Hunsdon with his Army which was the greater was to keep more within land and to guard the City of London and the person of the Queen All this while the aforesaid Treaty of agreement in Flanders was continued by their Commissioners between the King and Queen But this Treaty suddenly vanisht For the Spanish Fleet being ready to put to Sea and such preparations as were needfull being likewise made in Flanders the King would no longer defer the execution of his design The Fleet consisted as it was generally reported of 160 Sail of Ships most of them Men of War the rest were for Carriage They were almost all of them Galleouns except some Galleasses and Gallies which were to be rowed upon any occasion The Galleouns were like so many Castles in the Sea they had high Towers in their Fore and Hinder-Deck their Masts were of an unmeasureable greatness their bodies were of a vast bulk and the very least of them bore no less then 50 great Guns 22000 Foot and
will of their own Forces In the continuace thereof you all know what their losses have been what their sufferings and how oft they have been at the point of being rather besieged then besieging to such great straits have they been brought by snow frost rain want of victuals want of men and chiefly by our so many and so valiant excurtions wherewith we have somtime more indamaged them in their quarters then they us within our walls But at last their rage hath prevailed more over us in overcoming all difficulties so to finish their siege then the rage of earth and heaven as it may be said hath prevailed over them Behold them therefore thirsting after our bloud and already panting at our gates and ready to enter our City thirsting after our goods And shall we expect any mercy at their hands any favourable dealing from them I say whose rape as it is every day seen is not to be satisfied by women their firings by houses their plunder by goods nor their bloud-thirstiness by all the people We must then believe that as soon as they shall be entred they will put us all to the sword or to some more ignominious death without respect of age sex or condition The welfare of the miserable consist in the despairing of welfare Why shall not we therefore endeavour placing the weakest sex and weakest age amidst us to make our way through our enemies with our swords in our hands whether we yield or whether we be overcome we must die But if we must perish as there is little hopes of doing otherwise death will come the more welcome when sought by our selves with undauntless valour then when with scorn and disdain received from the pride our enemies of These words were of such force and found their minds so ready to entertain any whatsoever desperate resolution as they already spake of following Ripardo's councel which came to Fredericks car Who better considering the danger what despair might make so many valiant men do and that by overcoming them he should find the whole City consumed he forthwith sent a Trumpet to the Town to let the Harlemists know that they might hope for better then they deserved In particular he promised to secure them from Plunder and from all other licentious Military violence That there were so many amongst them who knew there was no saveguard for them as between their despair and the others hope it was often doubted whether the more fiercer or more mild resolution should prevail amongst them at last the last prevailed and thus the City about the beginning of July was surrendred to the mercy of the enemy A Brigade of the Spanish foot forthwith entred the Town and unarmed every one therein They then fell to inflicting punishment Captain Rypart as chief head of the sedition had his head immediately struck off and Lancelot Brederode not long after received the like punishment All the rest of the Harlemists who were thought most guilty either of Heresie or Rebellion ended their lives either by the rope or sword And the like was without remission done to all those foreign souldiers who had been in Mons or in any other place which the Spaniards had taken and who had promised never to bear arms any more against the Kings party Above 2000 were put to death and the very executioners were either so weary or so glutted or so affrighted with the work as for speedier dispatch they drowned a great many of them in the River which ran through the City The Inhabitants freed themselves from plunder by the payment of 24000 pound sterling the Kings men raging and storming to see their hopes so far deluded This was the end of the siege of Harlem Noble for being so valiantly and so long both sustained and prosecuted Remarkable for the variety of successes both by land and sea but at last so horrid by the severe punishments inflicted by the vanquishers upon the vanquished as it was doubted whether the faults committed by the one or the punishments inflicted by the other were the greater THE HISTORY OF THE WARS OF FLANDERS Written by CARDINAL BENTIVOGLIO BOOK VIII The Contents The Commendador-Major resolves to succour Midleburg to this purpose he disposes of two Fleets in several parts but had ill success therein the one being routed by the enemy whilst he himself looked on and the others indeavours proving vain Midleburg is therefore surrendred Count Lodovick in Germany moves to enter with an Army again into Flanders Orange makes great preparations and conspires with him to that purpose Incitements used by him to this end The Commendadors perplexities and dangers Lodovick comes into Flanders Draws near Mastrick and hopes to win it but the Royalists secure the Town Their forces oppose the enemy various successes and incounters between the two Armies A battel insues The Royalists get the victory The Spaniards presently mutiny Things best worth knowledg in matter of mutinies The mutiners go to Antwerp The City is in great dread of them They are at last pacified and joyn with the rest of the Camp-Royal A great loss of many of the Kings ships Orange his proceedings against whom Vitelli is sent by the Commendador A new general pardon publisht in Antwerp in the Kings name An indeavour of accommodation with the Rebels but in vain The siege and description of Leyden Divers difficulties in the prosecution and in the maintaining thereof Actions which succeed thereupon Those of Leyden are in a desperate condition More desperate resolutions taken by the Rebels to relieve the Town Which is at last succoured with great slaughter and prejudice of the Spaniards WHen the Government was in the Commendador he applyed himself with all his might to relieve Midleburg Mandragone was as hath been said at the defence of that City and had continually prest very much for speedy succour and turning his desires into protestations he declared that unless he were reliev'd within very few days he should be constrained to put the City into the Rebels hands He wanted all sort of victuals not only of the better sort but even of the most vile The Commendador gave order then that two Fleets should with all diligence be prepared the easilyer to relieve the Town by two wayes upon the Scheld The one Fleet were of lesser Barks to be sent by that narrower and lower branch which parts not far from Berghen ap Zome and which as we have said retains the name of the River The other consisted of greater Vessels which were to pass through the Honte the Scheld being so called in her other larger and deeper branch The Commendador added his own diligence to that of others Going therefore himself in person to Antwerp he did so hasten the preparation of both the Fleets as about the end of January both of them put to Sea to effect the intended succour Bevoir the Admiral of Zealand was then fallen sick who was to have had the chief charge thereof So as
60 Forts built round about it whereby almost all possibility of relieving it was taken away The Leydenists this mean while were not wanting on their parts in preparing for defence And judging that the Reyalists intended rather to take the Town by Famine then by the sword they thought it not convenient to receive many foregin Souldiers into the City as well the longer to preserve their victuais as for that they hoped they had men enough of their own to maintain and defend it There hapned therefore but few skirmishes on either side though those within fallied out sometimes to keep the Kings men as far off the City as they might and especially on those sides where they found greater disturbance or danger by the Assailants approach who amongst the rest had raised one Fort which they called Lamsfort and which was nearest Leyden The Ley denists sound themselves much incommodiated by this Fort for it troubled divers of their pasture grounds wherein they fed much Cattel and put the City into other great straits Provoked therefore by anger and inforced by necessity they fallied out one day against those that kept it and assaulted it with such resolution as it was long doubtful which side had the better But at last the Royalists prevailed and the Fort continued still in their possession which they fortified better then before that they might not any more fear the loss thereof nor those within hope to get it The Leydenists cooled not notwithstanding in their making resistance But fearing by reason of the Royalists still nearer approach unto the City that they would hasten the end of the Siege also by an Assault they omitted not to provide for all things necessary upon such an occasion They wrought upon the walls night and day the women wrought as well as the men every one lessened their own victuals to furnish the publike longer therewithall And they encouraged each other on all sides to maintain the defence concluding that it was better to suffer any how hard conditions soever and even death it self then to undergoe such punishments as they had not long before seen inflicted upon the Harlemists John Douza a famous Latine Poet in those dayes very nobly born and of other high deserts had the chief government of the affairs of the City He failed not in acting his part well he still encouraged the Leydenists and fed them with hopes that the other Cities would speedily joyn with them and relieve them In confirmation of this sometimes Letters sometimes Messages came from without and some News was cunningly raised within the Town it self Though it were very true that Orange and the rest of the Rebels in that Province labour'd nothing more then how to keep a place of such consequence still at their devotion 'T was now the month of August and the Leydenists began already to suffer want of victuals Therefore the States of the Country met to treat of so weighty a business and to find out some way whereby the City might be relieved And this affair began to be mightily canvest The Deputies differ'd in their opinions Some thought that the Town might be easeliest got into by making a gallant assault by Land others held it might better be relieved by some River or Channel but the greatest part concluded that there was small hopes of doing it either one way or other the Kings men having so strongly fortified themselves every where Lewis Boisot Admiral of Holland chanced to be at this meeting A man very expert in maritime affairs of a manlike spirit and good at execution and one who was very well esteemed of over all the Province He whilst they were hottest in the variety of their opinions stept forth to propound his and began to speak thus I wish that our own misfortunes did not too deplorably teach us how perverse the fury of the Sea proves sometimes to our Countries Who sees not how we are daily inforst to oppose our industry to the threats thereof Nor hath our mountainous banks been sufficient so to curb the tempest of her waves but that some time sâ—e hath swallowed up whole Islands on some sides and caused miserable and unbeard of ruines in other parts Wee are now to seeke for remedy in this our present necessitie from these evills which doe so often afflict us Let Nature worke the some effect to day for our good which she useth upon so many other occasions to doe for our hurt And by those weapons wherewith she makes war against us let us by her example make war upon our enemies Every one knows that at the two Equinoxials of the year the Ocean swels extraordinary high upon our Coasts and by the season of the year we are shortly to expect the effects thereof My Councel shall therefore be that we may immediately at the high tides begin to let the waters loose into the neighbouring grounds of Leyden greater tides will hereafter follow And thus turning the siege upon the Besiegers we may hope to destroy our enemies within their own works and at the same time to free the City from all danger It may be thought impossible to relieve it by land or by the ordinary way of channels and rivers whereas by the way which I have prescribed we may believe that our enterprise will be smiled on by success It will be in our power to let in the Inundation where we please We shall see the enemy strangely astonished and confused between the shame of abandoning the siege and the horror of continuing it But being forced at last to fly we shall see our own weapons and those of nature conspire together in slaughtering them on all sides and shall see that punishment justly transfer'd on them which they with open violence prepared for the innocent The Country which shall be drowned will doubtlesly be some what indamaged thereby but who would not bear with such an inconvenience whereby their Country shall receive so great a benefit On the contrary whose hair will not stand on end to think that after the loss of Harlem and of Leyden all the whole Province will shortly remain at the cruel will of the Spaniards we must sometimes be wicked to be good How oft do we cut off some one member for the welfare and safeguard of the rest of the body yet this evil will not prove finally so great but that it will in time be paid with great usury Some worldly actions prove so memorable as they strike envy dumb and add new tongues to fame This of ours will certainly be such and will be every where highly celebrated I who so boldly give the advice do as confidently pronounce the augury and hope that the event will crown both of them with fortunate success At the hearing of so strange a proposition the Deputies were much confused whether they should accept of it or reject it But it is oft times seen that need passing into necessity necessity passeth luckily into desparation And
and maturely ordered all things he sent a Legat into France which was Alexander de Medici Cardinal of Florence who was judged the fittest for such a Negotiation for his candor of life grave behaviour and dexterity in handling of business And these vertues together with some other raised him though but for a very short while to succeed the said Clement in the Apostolick See He then parting from Paris in the beginning of the year and going to Vervin an op portune place upon the Confines of Henault and Picardy and the Deputies of both Kings joyning there with him he laboured by all possible means to overcome those difficulties which interposed themselves to the effecting of the Peace The King of Spain did very much incline thereunto though he were thereby to restore so many Places which his Forces had taken in Picardy But the agreement could not be made without full restitution For what remained he knew he was near death by reason of his great age opprest by continual indispositions of health That he had only one son and he very young That it would be very advantagious for that his son not to inherit so bitter a War and with so powerfull an adversary That he would find his Kingdoms exhausted by such excessive expences and finally that it would redound much to the advantage of the new Princes to whom he intended to give Flanders if they should find France and him first at peace These were the chief reasons which made the King of Spain incline so much to peace But the King of France had altogether as many motives to make him willingly imbrace it He considered that the greatest impediments which kept him from succeeding to that Crown proceeded from the Spaniards That his Kingdom was rent in pieces by so many discords and wasted by so many vast expences That it was now time to enjoy it in secure obedience and if it were possible under one and the same Religion That this could not beeffected but by his reconciliation to the Apostolick See and by making a good peace with the King of Spain That the one having already had happy success he should desire the like in the other So as France after having suffered so many calamities horrible Factions and troubles might once enjoy those accommadations which by a happy change might turn her troubles into quiet Out of these efficacious reasons the King of France was well inclined to desire peace Wherefore after a long Treaty the knots which gave most disturbance to the happy ending of the business being untyed by the Legats abilities and authority about the beginning of May the peace was fully agreed upon and concluded between the two Kings To the so much glory in particular of Pope Clement as he was mightily applauded for it every where it not being easie to be judged by which of those two actions he merited most either by his late reuniting so powerfull a King as the King of France to the See of Rome or in making universal peace throughout Christendom by according these two Crowns This may suffice to be said here touching this affair as a success which doth not properly belong to the thred of this our History Wherefore passing now to the Treaty of Marriage we will with all brevity first relate the consultations which were had thereupon and the Kings resolution The Negotiation of separating the Provinces of Flanders in perpetuity from the Crown of Spain was doubtlesly one of the weightiest affairs that hath of a long time been resolved on by that Court The King was then past threescore and ten years old But though as well by reason of his years as of his so long and weighty affairs he was a Prince of infinite wisdom and who could of himself put on any resolution how difficult soever yet was he very doubtfull what to do in this point He was assailed on one side by his love to the Infanta and on the other by his duty to his Crown The King desired nothing more then to Marry the Infanta to any whatsoever highest degree as well for that she was his eldest daughter and one upon whom if his only son should chance to die the succession of so great a Monarchy was likely to fall as out of the tender affection which he always bore her and had still bred her up with great contentation in his own company And truly it was commonly famed and thought that there had not been any Princess of a long time in Europe in whom so many rare indowments both of body and mind had met as now in her Great was the affection likewise which the King bore to the Cardinal Archduke for passing into Spain whilst he was a young man as we have already touched upon and having purchased great praise in those Kingdoms sometimes in the Court at Madrid and sometimes in the Government of Portugal he had so particularly conformed himself to the Kings ways and humour as he made him his example after a proportionable measure in all his actions For which the King so loved and favoured him that he treated him not as a German but as a Spaniard nor with demonstrations only belonging to an Unkle but with a true Fatherly affection These considerations made the King very much incline to the aforesaid Marriage and to give the Provinces of Flanders in dowry to the Infanta But on the other side to devide so noble a member from the body of that Empire which he had inherited from his fore-fathers pleaded hard for the contrary The truth is he was of opinion that the best course he could take to keep the yet obedient Provinces in their allegiance and to reduce those that had rebell'd would be to give them a Prince of their own who might become a Fleming and from whom a Flemish discent might be expected And he feared that if this were not done the whole Country might one day be lost Yet he thought he was not to give way so soon to this danger nor so easily lose the advantage which for other considerations the Crown of Spain received by possessing even the yet remainder of those Provinces The King was therefore much agitated amidst the several difficulties which arose in this affair Nor was his Councel less uncertain Where by his appointment the business was with all attention discust Count Fuentes being returned with great reputation from Flanders was at this time in the Court of Spain After the Duke of Parma's death he had supplyed the chiefest place as we then told you under Count Mansfield and likewise under the Archduke Ernestus both which were Governours of Flanders And in the time of his own Government had won great renown in the battel of Dorlan in the recovery of Cambray and by his other prosperous successes gotten by the Arms of Spain in the Frontier of Picardy against the French The King had already designed him to be Governor of Milan and of all the Spanish Forces in Italy
together with some other of our writings concerning the Affairs of Flanders and that even since then we had a thought of composing this intire present History of the War which happened in those Provinces till by the Truce Arms were laid down we will therefore here insert the same Relation though it were formerly printed it being a member which ought also to be joyned to this body in this place and which will now fully compleat it The Command of the Catholick Army being past into Marquis Spinola's hands great were those designes as you have heard which he brought with him from Spain to Flanders to make the chief seat of the War on the other side the Rhine and to straiten the enemy the most they could in those parts To this purpose were the extraordinary Forces in the two last fields raised But though great advantages were gotten thereby yet fell they far short of the conceived hopes It was seen that Spain could not continue to maintain so excessive an expence That for want of money a new Mutiny had again happened That another might insue and that one of these disorders did much confound and distort the whole body of the Army Spinola was so troubled with these and some other reflections of importance as he at last fell upon those very considerations which already divers of the gravest and best experienced State-Ministers both of Spain and Flanders had faln upon touching the difficulties and dangers which the Warre of Flanders and the going about to weaken or subdue the Enemy by force of Arms brought with it They discoursed thus amogst themselves That all the good they had reaped by forty years War was their having made the Enemy the more strong more resolute to defend their usurpt liberty more firm in the union which they had established amongst themselves and better united to the forein Princes whho sided with them That Nature's self might be said to have fought always for them by their Bulwarks of Sea and Rivers and their strong scituations in all other parts and that where nature was wanting there industry together wih their so many well munited places did make amends That their power by land was verygreat in all things else and their power as sea so great as that the Crown of Spain had been much indamaged thereby even in the East-Indies and was in danger of being a greater sufferer by them in the West-Indies also What amass of strength on the other side and money must it cost the King to maintain the War of Flanders That doubtlesly his Empire was very large but much discunited Flanders the most disunited member of the whole body of his Dominions both by sea and land That the sea was blocked up by the Enemies ships That their passage by land did depend upon many Princes which alwaies caused great difficulties in their sending of aid and destroyed their men more by their marches then by their bickerings Then how many corruptions and disorders had been rooted in their Army and how could they be remedied during the War they being the effects which so long a War had inevitably produced That instead of obedience strife reigned amongst the Nations That there were now more wives then souldiers more mutinies then years that their own Forces were almost as dangerous to them as those of their Enemies And mutinies growing so familiar now of one now of another Nation and ofttimes of many Nations at once what a sad day would that be when the whole Army should mutiny together a day which would bring the Kings affairs in Flanders to their utmost danger as also the Cause of the Catholick Religion for the defence whereof the War at first was chiefly made and hath been so long maintained by the Spanish side If then by so many reasons and so long experience War against the Enemy were to be esteemed so fruitless is it not better said they to come to some fair agreement with them is it not better to order our Army anew and in the mean time to get strength and laying down Arms except what with time would make most to the Spanish advantage Arms being laid down the King of France already grown old might in this interim die and with him that assistance might chance to cease which was subministred to the Enemy by a Prince of such power and repute That after his death the affairs of France might peradventure change face their King being so young the like might be expected in the affairs of England their King being a new King and a Scotchman but ill looked on by that Kingdom the Enemy having likewise received considerable succours from Scotland And in case any of these things should happen how much would the affairs of Spain be bettered But above all it was to be hoped that even peace it self might turn to a secret war against the Enemy That the fear of the Spanish forces was the bond which fastened their union closest so as this fear ceasing through the enjoyment of quiet some domestick evil might arise amongst them which might break the union and some opportunity in favour of the King and Arch-dukes of regaining some of the Rebelious Provinces by underhand-dealing and of subjugating the others afterwards by force These reasons were doubtlesly very weighty and of great consideration and had been oft-times argued in Spain whereupon the King had at last resolved that if he could not effect his ends by arms all possible means should be used to come by some convenient Treaty of agreement with the Enemy in Flanders and the affairs of Flanders may be said totally to depend upon the King For the marriage between the Arch-duke and the Kings sister proving barren and the Provinces of Flanders being consequently to return unto the King again he had therefore chiefly maintained the War with his Forces and consequently all Treaties ' of agreement were chiefly to depend upon his Authority The Arch-duke inclined also very much to bring things to some accommodation he being a Prince naturally given to love his quiet and full of years and experience might comprehend better then any other the dangerous consequences which the War of Flanders brought with it but it was very hard to find out a way how to treat of accommodation A while since the enemy seemed to be quite averse unto any such Treaty and still swelling with prosperity and success they resolved never to listen to any whatsoever Treaty till such time as the King and Archdukes should first publickly declare that they treated with them as with Free Provinces and States unto the which the King nor Arch-dukes made no claim nor pretence whatsoever wherein the Arch-duke found great repugnancy in himself and foresaw the like in the King He thought that to declare those now to be a free people against whom they had fought as against rebels would be to confess that their former war had been unjust and that to seem now so willing to put an end