Antwerp on the one side of the Suburb called Kiel along the River compassed in with five mighty Bulwarks and every one defended by a Cavalier or Mount and all things were setled so well that there was a Monument set up for the Duke with this Inscription Ferdinando Alvarez de Toledo Albae Duci Philippi â—di Hispan regis apud Belgas Praefecto quod extinctâ seditione rebellibus pulsis Religione procuratâ justitiâ cultâ Provincias pace firmavit Regis optimi fidelissimo ministro politum Iongelingi opus ex aere Captivo That the Duke spared half his Forces under the Earl of Aremberge for the Guises assistance against the Reformers that â—e seized the Prince of Orange his eldest son the Earl of Herren at LoLovain whence he was sent to Spain till 1575. He cited the Prince himself who answered his Citation at large He sentenced the Netherlands in the Inquisition for seditious Heresies 1568 and had his Sentence confirmed in Spain the same year he razed the place of Culenberge where the Council of State used to meet setting up a Pillar in the middest of the Ruine with this Inscription Regnante Philippo 2do Cath. Hisp Rege in his suis inferioribus Germaniae regionibus Gubernanti Vero Ferdinando Alvar. de Toledo Albae Duce c. Florenti de Palant quondam domum solo aequaris sancitum est ob execrandam memoriam repetitae in eâ conjurationis adversus Religionem Eccl Cath. Rom. regiam Majestatem ipsas regiones Anno 1568. 5. Cal. Junii He proceeded in the Process against the Prince of Orange in the midst of which great actions some fugitive Gentlemen that had taken refuge in Cloysters designed with some Horse and Foot they corresponded with to surprize the Duke at his devotion between Brussels and the Cloyster of Groenendale in Somen wood The Prince of Orange Prints his Justification against Slanderers The Earl of Hoochstraten produced Five Articles drawn out of the Priviledges of Brabant either belonging to the Golden-fleece or contained in the Joyous entry to impeach the proceedings against him and the Prince of Orange The Elector Palatine of the Rhine stops the Duke of Alvarez's money under pretence that the Merchants that conveyed it payed not the accustomed duties The Emperour and the Princes interpose in the behalf of Orange a Prince of the Empire That Prince and his Brother Lodowick of Nassau arm with this Motto Recuperari aut mori resolving to distract the Duke de Alva with several attempts upon many places at once but unsuccesfully the Lord of Villers with his 3000 French Protestants being defeated in their design upon Ruremond in Gelderland upon the Mase as Seigneour Coquevil with his 1100 Fugitives was at St Valiers in the mouth of the River Some onely Count Lodowick vanquished Count Aremberge with the overthrow of 3000 men May 24 1568 whom the Governour revenged on the best Gentlemen of the Revolt that came to his hands not sparing the Earls of Horn and Egmont who after a due Process against them were beheaded June 5th 1568. The Barons Montigni and Berghen who died in Spain attainted for their lives and goods in the Netherlands a severity imparallel'd yet not able to repress the Insolencies of the Factious Dutch who now pretend themselves desparate and cry No man was safe and so madly joyn with Count Lodowick of Nassau's Germans till they were becalmed with the Imperial Interdict to besiege Groningen whence De Alva quickly forced them with their shattered Colours in some of whom they carried Pelicanes in others the Roses of England from whose Queen they looked for all their succour In others this device Pro Lege Rege Grege along the Mase about which they took in some small Garisons and might have taken more yea and overthrown Don Fred. the Dukes sons 4000 Harquebuâ—iers had not the Landtskneghts as before when they should fight cried Ghelt Ghelt till the Duke himself who was strongly intrenched every night pursued them by day into France where the French King promises failing and the Rebels mutyning among themselves now they were already weary of the war they resolve for Germany now out of order too the discontented French Nobility joyning with them and the Prince of Orange declaring That such undutiful persons as set on any Designs save the Liberty of the Countrey and their Consciences of what perswasion soever they were should be enrolled among his mortal Enemies In Germany they lodge themselves till the Queen of England being disobliged by the Duke of Alva about money she had taken of some Merchants though the Duke pretended it his for her private use upon Interest interdicted all trade with Holland making Hamburgh the Staple for Cloth when the Prince of Orange with his unquiet followers assisted the French Protestants as De Alva with his well disciplined Regiments did the French King both Parties so translating the Wars out of their own Countrey The Garison at Valencianes mutiny against the Earl of Lodron an Italian but being drawn out by fair words and pay are cut off by two Regiments of Spanish Horse that surrounded them at their Muster in Bourgethout near Antwerp Such as could not escape out of the Netherlands drew together in the Woods by Land and those that did took to Pyracies at Sea Both these took Briel a convenient Harbour on the Hollanders side and agreed for Dover as fit a place on the English and improved themselves incredibly upon the discontents in the Countrey at the New-floud on All Saints day 1570 that swept away their Towns And the new Taxes the 10th 20th and 100th peny levyed by Soldiers upon the very Clergy themselves that carried away their Estates especially at Vtrecht where many Orders Answers Replies Duplies and Writings passed but all decided by a Garison of Veteranes sent thither that made a shift to perswade the troublesome Town that they had forfeited all their Estates by their connivance at the Image-breakers with other Incendiaries and their Adherents and at Brussels where neither Bakers nor Brewers would either bake or brew upon the new Impost insomuch that all Hollanders turning Pyrates under Will Earl vander Alarch and forbidden Harbour on the English Coast with 40 Sail most Fly-boats sailed from Dover towards North-Holland In their way whither they took 2 rich Ships the one of Antwerp the other of Biscay and spoiled other men of War before Amsterd Enchuesen and in the Mase drowning Boslules Forces before the Briel who came to encouÌ„ter them they deal underhand with the Flushingers inhabiting the next Sea Town to Briel notwithstanding the Dukes Agents cunning who made a Breach in their Wall under pretence of fortifying it cloyed their Cannon opened their Sluices and counterfeited their Keys to keep out the Spaniards as they did with the Villages of Coukirke the Inhabitants of Daventer and that not unsuccesfully since Zealand prospered in its Pyracies so well that their Captain Worst with seven ships had beaten the Spaniards
and that the Conscience should be free 2. That Religion consisted not in outward Ceremony but in the inward Perswasion 3. That the King should hear every mans perswasion and endeavour to convince them 4. That the Scripture should decide Controversies 5. That every peaceable man should be allowed free exercise of Religion whatsoever might be his perswasion because all the World could not hinder a Religion that is of God 6. That several abuses in the Church whereat the people were offended should be reformed 7. That the King should think none could be true to him that was not faithful to God 8. That the Masters of the most useful Trades and most large Stocks in the Nation would desert it upon the first settlement of the Ecclesiastical Government to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences and go to Embden France and England with whom likewise â—the best Souldiers and Gentlemen would take this occasion to withdraw 9. That the strength of Kings is the love of their Subjects whereof the most considerable are they of the Religion for Birth Interest Parts Estates Prudence and Learning 10. That it is no new thing to tolerate divers Religions the danger of a Countrey proceeding not from private Opinions but from secret Passions and Interests which together with the noise made of trouble and War which they pretended most to fear who most promoted them put the discontented Nobility assembled at the Prince of Parmai's marriage at Brussels And afterward at St. Tradon after a Declaration how much pity it was that so populous a Countrey should be ruined by evil Counsellors upon a resolution to Petition his Majesty in the name of the people for their ancient Rights and Liberties and for the further prosecution of the affairs to enter to mutual Oaths to stand by one another that what wrong was done to any one should be done unto all a Confederacy that gratified the Hopes of many improved the Fears of more and disturbed the Minds of all men altering the very Face of the Government the King and Church being awaked to a resolution and Rigour on the one hand and the People to a Fury and Madness on the other it being among other matters bruited abroad that the Duke of Brunswich should Levy 10000 German Horse to reduce them to subjection which together with the French suggestion of their approaching desolation and the German Princes aggravation of their Slavery when all their neighbour Countreys were free and they were themselves Members of the Empire and so should enjoy the priviledges of the Pacification at Passau adding that their Kingdom was Elective and that upon six such Articles as their King had broken That by the Feodau Law that King their Lord had forfeited his Right to his Fee by fellonious actings on their goods and lives and many more unseemly allegations in Private discourse and Publick Pasquils encouraged the Contrivers of this disturbance to Commissionate Agents to remonstrate the case of the Provinces in the Imperial Diet then at Ausburch before Maximilian the Emperour and when the Governess had offered so much reasonable moderation as prevailed with the more modest part of the Knights of the Order and other Noblemen interceding likewise very zealously with his Majesty of Spain for the confirmation of it the People are taught to protest against their Governours proceedings as to compliance with the Governess and his Majesty in their four seditious Petitions to the King and State which were no more than so many sawcy Menaces what would follow if they were not gratified in their Propositions that were not so much vouchsafed the honour of a perusal as were not the other unmannerly Remonstrances of Gaunt Bruges Ypre Hondschoon about the decay of Trades and Handicrafts and those of Flanders about Liberty of Religion carried on in a most Tumultuous and Riotous manner by a Rabble of Geux or Beggars as my Lord Barlement called them upon which appellation they coyned Meddals with the Kings Picture on the one hand a Wallet and a Dish on the other with this Inscription Faithful to God and the King even to bear the Wallet and presented a rebellious Petition by the Lord of Brederode to which the unquiet people would take no answer but an allowance for all their factious Assemblies for the time past and a full Liberty to their Consciences for the time to come with â—ecurity that all matters should be hereafter transâ—cted with the consent of the Estates Yea and notwithstanding as can did and satisfactory a return as could be expected the Gentlemen of the Confederacy as they were called fearful of the consequences of their Seditions and Mutinies exasperated the people with strange Letters bearing Date An. 1615 which they discovered threatning them and their Adherents with extremities intimating the mighty Sea and Land preparations which enflamed the Countrey into a general sedition and combustion that provoked the Government to Rigour on the one hand and incensed the Populacy to Tumults on the other The chief Conspirators judge the humour so high that they might work upon it and to that purpose order an Assembly amongst themselves for the Government An Assembly I know not whether more rediculous as wherein some were attired in Fryars Gray others carried Foxes-tailes in their Hats others carried Dishes and goods like Beggars their servants crying God save the Beggars Or more dreadful all being rude and unruly which yet the Princess invited civilly to Arschor and Duffel the one 6 Leagues the other 3 from Antwerp where a daring Petition is delivered to the Earl of Egmont and other Grandees who under pretence of acting for the Governess betrayed her insisting on the very same things in their Hâ—rangâ—es that the Rabble did in their Petitions yea and enrolling underhand formidable Levies under pretence of their securities about Villevoord while Antwerp was in a Combustion by the Faction of Brederode who raised Forces for the Liberty of the Subject on the one hand as the Earls of Megen and Arembergh drew up Forces for the Kings Prerogative on the other The Prince of Orange taking this opportunity to seize the Government of the Place as Seditious Preachers did to usurp the Pulpits of it the Magistrates being jealous and distrustful of the Populacy and the Populacy of the Magistracy and all afraid of the 1200 newly levyed there Which general distemper being not a little improved by the approaches of the Duke of Brunswick's Army to the Borders they rescue some Prisoners in a Mutiny and create such fears and jealousies touching the Confederate Gentlemen as they were termed that they insist upon Assurance and Security The Ministers dissenâ—ions and disputes come to Tumults the Sectaries under which name all discontents were shrowded preach and hear in Armes upon pretence of Letters intercepted that the Droissard had 3000 men inrolled with Cartloads of Arms to Massacre all those of the Reformation upon the Ringing of a Bell A suggestion that enraged the Multitude to cast off the
with 30 and being assisted from England and France entred Lavere chased 7 Spanish ships thence to Tergoes and with one ship kept 6 Middleburgh Boyers or little ships in their Harbour Count Lodowick of Oraney prospering no less with his French Malecontents by Land surprizing many in Henault in this manner Twelve of his men as Merchants lodging in Town and finding that the Porter would open the Gates for money at any time of Night went out at 1. a Clock in the Morning killed the Porter seized the Keys let the Prince who attended without into Town crying out Liberty liberty is given you by the P. of Orange to free you from the 10th peny and from all the D of Alva's exactions shutting up Middleburgh taking 30 Boats at Broome-Creek forcing the Island Zuytbeacland attempting most of the great Towns of Flanders seizing all ships whatever Especially the Duke of Medina Celie's great Navy wherein he came to assist and succeed the Duke De Alva working upon the humours of the Sea-faring men of Enchuese a well-peopled and a conveniently scituated Town belonging to West-Friezland upon the South Sea to withstand the Spaniards and defend their Town by their own Burgers where Johnson and Peterson were so stubborn and troublesom that they said it should cost them their black heads before any Spaniard there become a hated name should enter there with his Ten peny Order and one Bieriche a Brewer did the feat beating a Drum so long in the King of Spain's name that they had got strength enough to exclude him the pretence of opposing Spanish Garrisons took in the Towns of Alâ—mor Horne Edam and Medembly and in a manner all Holland possessed by the Earl of March Dotkom Dousburgh and all Zuphten by the Earl of Sheerenbergh with Hardâ—rwicke Elbruch and Hattem in Gelders Goot Oldeel and Campen in Overysel Speuke Bolswort and Franeker in Friezland and the jealouses raised between De Alva and the Duke of Medina Coeli weakned all undertakings onely the Government had this advantage that the Seditious were raw and undisciplined the Multitude fickle and unsettled the French succours heady and in controllable Mons and other places were untenable wherefore notwithstanding the Prince of Orange his plausible Declaration for the natural necessity of self-defence in the preservation of their Religion and Liberty His Army mouldereth away in discontent 1200 Landtskneghts 500 Reisters 2500 Burgers onely resolving to stand by him in the defence of Mechlin the Prince being afraid every minute of being delivered up by his Followers Mons yeelds upon Articles Maklyn is sacked and ransomed as was Zuphten Nairden Parendam and Harlem all deserted by the Confederates now amazed and retyring to Germany and other places upon the Duke D' Alvae's success at Mons and his severity in other places onely at Sea they did great mischief burning ships in Middleburgh and most other Havens and blocking up the Spanish Power within their Land his Sea-Forces being so battered that he was forced to lie at Anchor before Antwerp most part of the year 1573 and look on his undutiful Subjects Lording no less at Sea than he himself at Land spoiling many passages with sunk Boats full of Stones building strong Holds upon the Mear of Harlem whereabout sailed an 100 sail of ships borrowed by the Prince of Orange from England France Sweden and Holland to three and thirty men of War and three Galliasses the Amsterdam men had equipped for the King of Spain Which going to strengthen Middleburgh were sorely battered between the Ramkins and Flushing at the same time that the Zealanders made 1300 men to surprize and burn the Castle of Sâ—abergh between Flushing and Middleburgh with the Island and Town of Tolon by the intelligence conveyed by two â—ame Pigeons A success that lasâ—ed not long the Princes mixed Fleet being defeated the 28th of May with the loss of one and twenty ships and the Sluce Mase Harlem Meer and all the Coast being so entirely subject to the Spanish Navy that it gave Law to all English French and Dutch ships on that Coast Till free Trade being Proclaimed by the Prince of Orange for French English Scottish Germanes and Easterling Merchants and the Flushingers being told that they must fetch their pay out of the Spanish Prizes in the Road of Armuyden several Biscay ships and Convoys between Amsterdam and Vtrech were seized the Artillery on the Dike of Ramekins was surprized and the Dike it self between Flushing and Ramekins being of great conveniency was fortified while alass Ramekins likewise being taken in the 〈◊〉 time the Prince his long-promised 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 and the Harloâ—â— after 31 weeks hardship yeeld to the mercy of their Besiegers against whom these Watermen were most fortunate at Sea being better acquainted with those untoward Coasts than their Enemies and likewise more vigilant active and industrious and much assisted from Germany France and England and the Merchants of Holland whence the Proverb That the Duke of Alva during his Government had made the Merchants and Mariners of Holland Soldiers The Neat-heards of Spain Hidalgos i. e. Gentlemen The German Soldiers Bribers The Walloons Theeves who were wont to be good men Gentlewomen and honest Virgins Strumpets and Whores and Bawds Ladies and Gentlewomen Insomuch that refusing the Emperours mediation for peace they surprized Geertruydenbergh Rally the ships of West-Friezland Enchuysen Monykindam and the Waterlands to defeat the thirty ships of Amsterdam and lodge some French and English between Delph â—otterdam the Hague and Leyden to succour those places and the Maseland sluice to countenance the erection of a Fort at the Head of the Chanel of Middleburgh and take in Komerswael Which Particulars with the Mutinies begot by the Hollanders the best at it in the World in his Army forced the D. Alva and his Son to Spain Doâ— Lewis de Requiescens succeeding in his charge and misfortunes and seeing Middleburgh and the great Fleet appointed to relieve it vanquished before his eyes being then upon the great Dike of Berghen by the miscarriage of his Letters and directions which yet was recompenced with the overthrow of Count Lodowick of Nassau and his motley Troops of English French and German male-contents among whom was Christopher the Elector Palatine's Son at Monkerbeyd after they had raised the Siege of Leyden Which was no sooner over than Champigni with some other Dutchmen raised a muteny among the Spaniards which neither Priests nor Jesuites could pacifie they crying as the Landtskneghts used to do That they would have Ghelt Ghelt and no Preachment upon the Electors Interest and Todo Todo Dineros y non Pulabras That is Money they meant their Arrears for the dead and living and no words And Dineros Todo i. e. Money and at a Mutiny that cost Antwerp 400000 Gilders while the Zealanders took 15 men of War before their very faces while the Spaniards were intent upon the two Forts they designed upon either Bank of the River Mase beneath
Army was so likely to moulder away for want of pay that she thought fit to intercede for the distressed States with his Majesty of Spain and Don John by the Lord Cobham and Sir Fracis Walsingham and when that failed a Religious Peace as they called it which the States-General consented to was settled which bred great jealousies in the Provinces where many were still stiff for Popery especially at Gaunt till the Queen of England declared against them and promised notwithstanding that Duke Casimer and the D. of Anjou retired in discontent to stand by the Protestant States to the utmost as she did effectually having brought the Estates first to stricter Union and Alliance at Vtrech 1579 than that before at Gaunt and afterwards to erect a Council of State for the management of affairs whose very first debate was a Consultation about the alteration of Government to shorten the War and engage some Person in their defence The next was the taking and demolishing of several strong Holds that had been too serviceable to the King of Spain But their affairs not prospering they resolve upon the Duke of Anjou as their Soveraign upon 27 Articles signed on both sides with Medals coyned whereon were these devices Leonem loris mus li erat Liber revinciri Leo pernegat Pro Christo grege lege Religione justitià reduce vocato ex Gulliâ pacatâ duce Andegariensi â—elgiae Libertatis vindice vos terrâ â—go excubo ponto 1580 Si non nobis saltem posteris And that being dispatched they agree upon Martial Discipline and relieve Steenwich under the conduct of Sir John Norris who victualled it and raised the Siege having given notice of it in Letters which he shot in his Bullets The States-General in the mean time answering the King of Spain's Proscription against the Prince of Orange and providing against the insolences of the Papists by a restraint upon the exercise of their Religion at Brussels and Antwerp declare thus The States General of the United Provinces Guelders Holland Zealand Zuphten Friezland Overysel and â—roeninghen having declared Prince Philip of Austria second of that name King of Spain fallen from the Sigâ—ioâ—y of the said Provinces by reason of his extraordinary and too violent Government against their Freedom and Priviledges solemnly sworn by him having by the way of Right and Armes taken upon us the Government of the publick State and of the Religion in the said Provinces An 1581 having by an Edict renounced the Government of the K. of Spain breaking his Seals Counter-seals Privy-signets for new ones made by them in their stead and entertaining the Duke of Anjou nobly attended from England by the Lord Willoughby Sheffield Windsor Sir Philip Sidney Shirley Parrat Drury and the Lord Howard's son and recommended by the Queen who avowed That what service was done him she esteemed as done to her self and commended to him this one good Rule to be sure of the hearts of the People who invested him Duke of Brabant and Earl of Flanders wherein Dunkirke did import him much to keep a Passage open from Flanders into France as the refusal his Brother made of succour and his entertainment of French Nobility to the discouragement of the Netherlands did him much harm especially since most of his Followers were either men of Spoil or secret Pensioners to the King of Spain and he by their advice lost himself in his Enterprize upon Antwerp so far that had not her Majesties Authority reconciled them the States and he had broken irrecoverably though indeed they never after peiced For the Duke thereupon delivers all the Towns he had taken to the States retyring himself to Dunkirke while the Ganthoes and other troublesom men of the Innovation declared against him and for Duke Casimir And all the Estates humbly beseeched the Queen of England by General Norris to have mercy upon them in this woful juncture especially when the wise Prince of Orange was murthered by a fellow recommended to him by Count Mansfield and serving him three years to await this opportunity having time to say no more but Lord have mercy upon my soul and this poor People And the Spaniards during the States differences and the youth of Grave Maurice of Nassau who succeeded his Father carrying all before them insomuch that the King of France was so afraid to take the Netherlands into his Protection that he sent Embassadors to the Duke of Parma to remove the very suspition of it Especially when the Guisian League brake out upon him and the poor States had now none to trust to but the Queen of England who during their Treaty with France had made them gracious promises by Secretary Davison by whom by the Respective Deputies of their Provinces June 9. 1585 they absolutely resigned the Government to her Majesty who upon sundry great considerations of State refused that yet graciously sent them 4000 men under General Norris 184600 Guilders upon the security of either Ostend or Sluce and promised 5000 Foot and 4000 Horse under a General and other Officers of her own with pay For which the States stood bound giving Flushing Ramekins Briel and the two Sconces thereunto belonging into her hand for security and taking in her Commander in chief with two persons of Quality more of her Subjects by her appointment into their Council of State According to which Contract Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester is made Governour of the Low-Countreys for the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Queen of England to whom the whole Countrey did Homage receiving him as their absolute Governour though the Queen disavowed that as being likely to engage her too farr in the Quarrel and the States humbly submitted to her pleâ—sure in which capacity he set out Edicts for Discipline for the Treaty and Traffique which these troublesom people upon pretence of Liberty and Priviledg mutinied against to the great hinderance of the Earls proceedings insomuch that after he had born up their Interest as his entrance into the Government just ready to sink and taken Daventer Zuphten and other places he resigned his Government to the Council of State leaving a Meddal behind him on the one side whereof was engraven his Picture with these words Robertus â—omes Leicestriae in Belgia Gubernator 1587. And on the other side a flock of sheep scattered and before them an English Dogg with these words Non gregem sed Ingratos invitus desero Whereupon Deputies of Estates attended him with a Present a Cup as big as a Man and an humble supplication to the Queens most Excellent Majesty not to forsake them now in their low Estate so low that the King of Denmark thought fit to intercede for them to their own Leige the King of Spain while they in extremity devolve their affairs upon young Grave Maurice and declaring against the Earl of Leicesser's proceedings incensed the Queen so far that she called home General Norr is though yet Sluce had ben lost
popular prejucice against its Schepenen or Judges and their Raet-Pensionarous or Advocate 4. The Factions in their Gecomitteerde Raeden or the Commissioners at the Hague 5. The great difficulties in settling the De vergaederinge van de Staeten van Hollandt ende West-Friezland and the respective Delegates of it 6. The vast charge that is laid upon the Kamer van Reekeninge or the two Chambers of Accounts that overlook their Estates and Tributes 7. The vast loss upon the stoppage of free Trade and Herring-fishing and the Blocking up of their Navigable Rivers 8. The inclinations of the persons that command their strong Holds of Sluce Berghen op Zoom Breda Gertrudenâ—ergh I say when I put these particulars together with the invidious Aspect cast upon this growing Province by the rest of its Neighbours I expect not it should be able to perform now what it did under a happier Government in a more useful League and Consederacy in Guicciardine's time 2. First so much given to Tumults are the fierce and rough Inhabtants of Zealand 12. So full of awls and Contentions are their Hoosden or the merry monthly meetings designed to promote friendship and good Neighbourhood 3. So Lawless and Pyratically given are their Seamen and Mariners 4. So deceitful and apt to betray their confederates for an Interest 5. So sottish whorish and licentious 6. So Impatient of Order I awes Rules or Government 7. Such the clashing between their Admiral and the Admiral of the States-General 8. So little account can their Treasurers at Middleburgh give of their antient Revenue by French Wines Salt Oyles or Eastern Trades 9. So weak are their Banks and Rampires though painfully made and chargably maintained being at best but 7. Ells in heighth and 17. in breadth at bottom made of the hardest Clay that can be gotten in the inside stuffed with Wood and Stone on the outside covered with Matts a weak defence God knoweth against a stroug Enemy and a stronger Stream 10. So visible is the decay of the trade of Middleburgh upon the opening of that of Antwerp 11. So obnoxious is that Flushing the Ramekins the chargable Islands Romerswal Schowen and Doveland to any Adversaries that the Zealanders now they cannot Fish upon which imployment depends their chief trade are more likely to perplex the State General than to assist them 3. Considering 1. That but half Gelderland is under the States-General lying open in the other half to none of their best friends 2. That their Governour and Chancellour are of late so much disobliged 3. That the proceedings of their Province are so dilatory as depending so much on its particular Cities as Zuphten c. which could never since the Revolt grow towards a settlement so many irregular hands heads being concerned in each Vote 4. That it hath so ill a Neighbour as Brabant Cleveland and Bradenburgh that Province at this juncture in my Opinion only makes up a number Notwithstanding it was once so fruitful that a Gelderland Bull was sold at Antwerp 1570 that weighed 3000 pound weight and pretendedly so strong that it boasts of 16 walled Towns though those upon the Eure and Mase lie very open to the Lord of the Sea 4. Zuphten is so ill befriended by Westphalia and the Bishop of Munster on the East of it and by Cleveland on the South so suspicious is the present Governour of Zuphten so hardly came the Vote for Subsities out of their 12 Senators that I may neglect it as much as Duke Alva did 1573. 5. The maritine Friezlanders have 1. so little use of their Nets The Inland Countreymen or Husbandmen judge themselves 2. So little concern'd in the Quarrel 3. So intent they are upon the peaceful arts of Pasturage and Tillage 4. So much do they please themselves with their very fancy of Liberty and Priviledges 5. So hardly will they part with their Money 6. So Modest Meek and Quiet they are and given to hunting and Hawking 7. So jealous are the Protestants of West-Friezland who are under the States of the Catholicks of West-Friezland who are under an Earl of their own that the Frizons are neither very able nor willing to dance after the East and West-India Companies Pipes in Holland and the rather because though surrounded with water yet not so liable to an Invasion as the States insinuate who would make use of their fears to begin a War which onely their Valour can prosecute because of the many and cross Dykes that forbid any marching throughout the Coast by either Horse or Foot 6. The Inhabitants of Groning are so delicate lazie and proud its Councill of 12 called Naetsluyden and 24 called Geswoeren Raden their Wacht Meesters are so stubborn refusing at this present affair boâ—h a consederacy with contribution to or commands from the United Provinces being so safe in their rich and strong Groning and so contented with their own Domestick-trade prohibiting all Forreigners upon pain of Confiscation of Goods and Vessels that they neither know nor fear any Enemy 7. Neither is Groynland so secure as Overyssel that low Marsh is fearful Daventer and Swoll it s two chief Towns having still impressions of the English Valour since the fierce assaults made upon them 1576 under the Earl of Leicester then Governour of the Low-countreys as likewise hath the troublesome Bishoprick of Vtrecht which hath been so inured to seditions at home that it understands not what means a War abroad Besides some modern disgusts taken by the President Senators and the Treasurer at the proceedings upon some appeals at the Hague make them unwilling to hazard the Rhine to any ordinary undertaker Gent. It seems then reâ—lly that the whole affair of this present War is against the Interest of this Countrey Trav. I leave thâ—â— to you when you have reflected on these Particulars which the Duke of Rhoan writing of the Interest of the States of Europe makes the peculiar concerns of the United Provinces viz 1. A firm League with England for trade and a Confederacy against Spain the antient Soveraign 2. A good correspondence with such Princes as are potent in the Mediterranian or the Baltick Sea 3. A quiet and easie Government free from Tumults and Seditions or the occasions of them want of Trade and Impositions 4. Free trade 5. A care that no one City or Province groweth either so Rich or Potent that the rest should envy or suspect it 6. A quickness to observe and readiness to buy off all pretensions or allegations of Neighbour-Princes as soon as they are made Gent. 〈◊〉 remember very well that there were 5 things for which Cardinal Bentâ—voglio presaged the downfall of this Republick and they are 1. That Liberty would come to Licentiousness 2. That there would such inequality arise from their pretended equality as would bring them as it did the Romans from many Masters under one Soveraign 3. That they must in time trust too much to general Officers especially their Admiral and General 4.